September 28, 2009
Dear Ken: I want to remove that popcorn ceiling in my home. But the drywallers disagree. One wants to remove it, the other wants to cover it with new drywall. What do you think? Carlos
It's a difficult choice. If you choose to scrape it off-an extremely messy proposition-you may end up with a surface too rough to live with. In the old days, the drywallers-knowing that popcorn was to follow-would skip a final joint coat application. So the seams may have to be touched up before retexturing anyway. And remember that homes built prior to about 1978 may have asbestos in the drywall taping compounds. That makes the process much more problematic, since you're really not supposed to discard suspected asbestos waste into the landfills.
New drywall, of course, would cover up everything. Either way, it sounds messy and expensive. That's why I usually recommend leaving the acoustic ceiling in place. Simply recoat it with some watered-down satin or semi-gloss latex paint.
Dear Ken: I have a large crawl space. Lately there's a musty odor in there that permeates into the living space. Do I need a dehumidifier or some other approach?
Robert
It's usually a simple matter of ventilation. That musty smell is stagnant air that needs to be exchanged regularly. First, make sure the dirt is fairly dry, then cover it with some 6-mil black plastic sheeting. And also, make sure that there are enough vents to the outside-a minimum of four is a good number. These need to be open all summer to get rid of extra moisture from lawn sprinkling and summer storms. In the winter, you should close up the most northerly facing vents to keep the wind and snow out. It's important to keep one or two of these vents open year round-especially if the furnace or water heater are in there.
For air exchanges, buy a cheap bath fan and run its duct outside thought a vent cap. Wire it into a timer so that it runs for a couple of hours each morning. Adjust the timer for longer periods until the crawl space sweetens up.
One side benefit you can check out: if there is radon in your part of the world, this air exchange setup may lower the level in the crawl space. A home inspector can help with this-or you can buy some radon canisters and do the before and after tests yourself.
Dear Ken: What product do you recommend for killing roots in my sewer pipe? Someone said copper sulfate. Is that good? CR
Copper sulfate crystals indeed will irritate and kill roots in the sewer line, but it lies in the lower third of the pipe after you flush it down the line. So the roots in the upper parts of the pipe-where most of them reside anyway-aren't touched. There's another solution here. Use a foaming root killer; you flush it down the toilet just before bedtime. It starts to foam when it gets wet and will therefore fill the sewer line with the chemical. The roots are killed on contact, plus, the chemicals coat the inside of the pipe to discourage re-growth for a year or two. Root-X is one brand you can find on the Web, or you can buy it from a plumber or sewer cleaning company.
There's less jeopardy with this "non-contact" approach. A sewer cleaning machine's rotating knives bang around inside an older clay tile or cast iron sewer line, and can cause incidental damage which can lead to big troubles down the road.
