Q. A few years ago I made a cupola with a copper roof. The copper has now turned brown. What can I use to make it a greenish color?
A. Use a lot of patience. As the copper oxidizes, it turns from bright copper color to brown and then black. Eventually, it will turn green, to making the copper look very attractive.
Q. I am writing to find out what I should use on my galvanized roof, which is starting to rust. The roof is about 20 years old and is in the back woods of Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom.
A. All loose rust particles must be removed with a wire brush or broom, and the entire roof needs to be cleaned by whatever means you choose. Pressure-washing is a good option. Then apply a metal paint, such as Rust-Oleum, which protects enamel or equivalent.
Q. Thank you very much for your response! I apologize for letting you think that I wanted to put a vapor barrier on the outside! I just realized that I erroneously used that term at the beginning of my first letter. I am aware of the fact that the vapor barrier has to be on the inside. The problem with my house is that the plastic under the Sheetrock is a bit sketchy from what I’ve seen in one wall. I’ve gotten cedar clapboards, primed both sides, painted one, and will install them per your recommendation. I’ll use one of the water-draining house wraps. How does the drained water exit at the bottom? Past the starter strip under the first clapboard? Or would it be better to install a trim board below the first course, with a drip edge on top that goes up behind the wrap, allowing for drainage between the bottom row of clapboards and the trim board?
A. To beef up the interior plastic vapor retarder, use a paintable caulk to seal all joints between different materials such as window and exterior-door trim and baseboard. If there is also a ceiling molding on exterior walls, caulk its joints with the wall finish as well. Paint the exterior walls with a quality alkyd-base paint or prime them with B-I-N and paint them with your choice of quality paint. Instead of using one of the many water-draining wraps, consider Home Slicker plus Typar. The drainage and ventilation it offers is superior to some of the water-draining house wraps I have encountered. Home Slicker comes with a 6-inch-wide fiberglass insect screen that is stapled at the top and bottom and folded over the Home Slicker. Once the Home Slicker is stapled onto the sheathing, you can either install a trim board at the bottom of the walls or start with the clapboards applied directly over the Home Slicker. Follow the instructions to provide a ventilation channel at the top.
Q. My question is about cleaning vinyl siding. I cleaned the siding last weekend, using Jomax House Cleaner and mildew killer. This product worked fine, but the siding still looks dull. My house was built in 1991, and the front of the house gets sun all day, while the back doesn’t get much at all, resulting in mold and mildew. What do you recommend for getting rid of the dull look?
A. If the vinyl siding looked dull before you cleaned it, age may be the reason. But if it became dull after cleaning, it is possible that you didn’t rinse it thoroughly immediately after you finished cleaning. Try rinsing or pressure washing, using the lowest pressure jet; keep a safe distance from the siding. Be sure that you direct the jet of water horizontally or slightly downward; do not aim the jet upward. If this does not improve the dull condition, you may be stuck, since your siding is 17 years old.
Q. My husband is 72, and I am 62. When we got our home reroofed in 2001 with white-colored shingles protected by a 25-year warranty. We expected them to wear and last pretty much until we were ready to sell our home. Instead, just seven years later, there appears to be algae making huge black streaks all over the front of our cute ranch-style home. There are no trees near the roof. My husband does not recall the local contractor, who bought and arranged for the shingles to be installed, telling him about the algae problems people were beginning to experience with the change in shingle composition. So you can imagine our shock when we heard that we were not covered under any warranty until after seven years! How do we know which products are safe and efficient to purchase so we can provide them to a roofer?
We would be grateful for any help you could give us on this cleaning issue. Or, if you know of any remedies that can be sought from the manufacturer, that would be even better.
A. Algae form on all types of roof coverings. It has nothing to do with the composition of the shingles. Algae needs moisture to grow, and the fact that there are no trees near your home is not enough to prevent algae from growing on your roof. Lingering rain, dew, high humidity. damp air are sufficient to foster the growth of algae. There is no recourse against the shingle manufacturer if the shingles were not algae-resistant. Here is a repeat of how to get rid of algae and prevent a recurrence:
To remove algae discolorations, spray the roof with a solution of three parts fresh Clorox bleach to one part water with a garden sprayer on a windless day. Work from a ladder and do not walk on the roof, as it can become slippery and it can damage the roof surface and void the warranty. Wear goggles, old clothes and rubber gloves. Spray only enough to wet the shingles, but avoid as much runoff as you can. One gallon of the mixture covers 50 square feet of roof surface. Before you start, thoroughly soak any vegetation below the roof and cover it with plastic. If you have metal gutters and downspouts, keep running water in them while spraying and until all runoff stops, as the solution is very corrosive. When you are finished spraying, wash the plastic thoroughly with your garden hose and spray the plantings again. It will take several weeks before you see results. This will not prevent future growth.
To prevent recurrence, install special copper or galvanized strips on each side of the roof directly below the ridge vent. An easy way to find and install these strips is to get Shingle Shield strips online: www.shingleshield.com. Or you can buy Shingle Shield by calling them toll free: (800) 942-3004; Fax: (800) 606-2028, 2710 North Ave., Bridgeport, CT, 06604. Shingle Shield strips are installed under the top course of shingles below the ridge, so the zinc leaching out runs down the roof, preventing the formation of the algae that discolors the roof covering. It will take several weeks for the results to show. These guidelines can be shown to anyone you hire to do the job, since you are not planning to do it yourselves.
Q. We are planning on replacing some double-hung windows and one awning window in our 30-year-old colonial. What are some good-quality, environmentally sound windows? Is fiberglass or aluminum a better choice? Or do you have another preference? The inside will be wood.
A. Fiberglass windows are relative newcomers on the scene but are a good choice. Marvin offers the Integrity Line of fiberglass windows, which are either all fiberglass or have a wood interior. Andersen windows come with all-vinyl Perma-Shield double-hung models or with a Perma-Shield exterior and wood interior.
Q. I have a basement with standard masonry walls. There’s a little “bump out” workshop that was put in sometime after the original house was completed. The owner cut through the original foundation to create a door and built an underground workshop there. An enclosed sun porch rests atop the workshop. The workshop is the dampest part of the basement. We keep finding puddles in one corner, sometimes up to one-half inch deep. This happens every few weeks regardless of the weather. We have to take out the shop vac and vacuum it up. That dries things out for a little while, but, inevitably, the water returns, and a portable dehumidifier doesn’t seem to help. There are no visible cracks or condensation on the walls, and the water appears to either be bubbling up through the floor or through microscopic cracks at the base of the wall. (The floor is covered in 50-year-old asphalt tile and mastic, so we can’t see whether there are any obvious cracks on the slab below.) The rest of the basement is bone dry, including the other side of the workshop. We spoke with a few different “basement waterproofing” companies, all of whom told us that the only solution was to put in a sump pump. But that seems like overkill if the problem is only in one corner of this little part of the basement. What would you recommend? Short of digging out the foundation and resealing it from the outside, or repouring the floor, we’re flummoxed!
A. If the puddles appear during any season, and you don’t see any wetness on the walls indicating condensation, it is likely that the water is coming through the walls. If it were coming through cracks in the floor, you would likely see white efflorescence in the joints between the old asphalt tiles. Check the grade around the entire foundation, as water can travel considerable distances before it finds a weak point. Make sure that the grade flows away from the foundation and correct any low or flat areas. It is also possible that, when the “bump out” was built, a dirt ball fell on the footings before the walls were erected and over time water pooling at the base of the foundation has found its way inside at that point; I have seen this before, where the top of the footings was not thoroughly cleaned before the wall forms were set up or the concrete blocks were laid. If the walls are made of poured concrete, you may want to try to waterproof them with one of the coatings available in hardware and building supply stores. However, if the walls are concrete or cinder blocks, do not waterproof them from inside, as their cores may fill with water and cause worse problems. If the condition is so small, as you say, you may just have to live with it.
• Henri de Marne’s column appears Sundays. He was a remodeling contractor in Washington, D.C., for many years, and is now a consultant. Write to him in care of the Daily Herald, P.O. Box 280, Arlington Heights, IL 60006, or via e-mail at henridemarne@gmavt.net.
Source: http://www.dailyherald.com/story/?id=245805&src=118
The awareness of the healthy foods has been spread in all over the world from long times ago. In United States, the first lady, Michelle Obama has given the excellent examples when she took her daughters to build their own little garden in the White House garden. She has decided to give some examples to her kids that gardening is one of our efforts to help the earth. Today, the gardening spirits have already entered anyone’s soul.
