May 11, 2009

            Carmela has an older house:  I have a musty smell in the basement of my 1960's home.  There's also some moisture under the carpet down there.  Any ideas?

            I'll bet you have those tiny basement windows that were popular in those days.  That  means that you probably need more ventilation to get rid of the excess moisture.  Even if the walls and floors appear dry, there is always a little moisture escaping the damp soil behind the concrete and working its way into the basement as vapor.  That raises the relative humidity down there and produces that musty smell you complain of. 

            You could put in those big, modern "egress" windows required by the codes these days, but most folks find this prohibitively expensive.   Instead, why not try to get some air moving through the basement.  Find a location near one of the outside walls (the hallway is best), and attach an inexpensive bath fan to the ceiling.  Run its 3-inch duct outdoors, wire it into a timer and let it run 2 or 3 hours a day.  That will pull dryer, sweeter air from upstairs through the space and exhaust the damper air outside. 

            If you have some actual standing water under the carpet, take a look at the drainage elements above that area-like a too-close downspout or a low area that doesn't drain well.

            Finally, if there are folks sleeping in the basement, you need to take extra care to keep them safe.  They don't have the luxury of those big windows to escape through if there's a fire.  You can build in permanent ladders under the smaller windows, install an extinguisher in each room and add extra smoke detectors.

            Mike has a fruit problem:  I have an apple tree that hangs over the driveway, and the fruit makes a big mess each summer.   I hate to cut the branches off, but what else is there to do?

            You could climb up there and pinch off blossoms one-by-one, but if it's a large tree, that may get a little tedious.  There are growth inhibiting chemicals-Like Florel-- that will kill the blossoms if sprayed on at the right time.  It produces ethylene-a chemical that plants produce for themselves if they are under stress-and that gas will dry up the flowers that would ordinarily produce fruit.

            Check with your landscape company to see if they will apply it-otherwise you can find concentrates at garden centers or on the Web.

            Keith is a DIY electrician:  I put in one of those GFCI plugs in the bathroom, and now both outlets are dead.  What did I do wrong?

            You may have it worked backwards.  There are two sets of screws on these plugs labeled LINE and LOAD.  If you mix them up, either the plugs won't work at all or you won't have the ground fault protection you bargained for.  You MUST connect the live wires from the panel to the LINE screws, and, of course the remaining wires to the LOAD side (downstream).  It's not always obvious which is which;  if you can't figure it out, it's best to call an electrician.

            John has noisy plumbing:  There is a surging noise where the water line comes in from the street-like 2 pulses per second.  What do you think is happening?

            It sounds like a water meter issue.    The meter consists of two parts:  the actual water measuring part, with spinning blades plus the electronics that count the rotations, and then send the information outside to ultimately generate your bill.   I would suspect that the mechanical part of the meter may be wearing out-so the water supplier will probably want to replace it.  Ask the technician to check your water pressure settings while he's there.  This will undoubtedly be a no-charge visit.