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
By Ilyce R. Glink with Samuel J. Tamkin
Saturday, November 1, 2008; Page F05
Ten years ago, architect Sarah Susanka published a coffee table book called “The Not So Big House.” The premise of the book was that we should build smaller but nicer. It was a counterstatement to the McMansions sprouting up in developments all over the country, with their double-height ceilings, vast basements and $100,000 kitchens.
Back in 1998, it seemed like a quaint idea. But Susanka clearly touched a nerve, as her “Not So Big” idea has grown into a multimillion-dollar franchise, with several books and a successful Web site. Just in time for the 10-year anniversary, that first book has been expanded and re-released.
Today, as families are struggling to pay the heating and cleaning bills for those double-height ceilings, and as hundreds of thousands of McMansions are falling into foreclosure, building smaller and cheaper seems like a really smart idea. Too bad it’s so hard to sell your house these days, or you might just try it.
One of the problems with a big house is that so many other expenses rise along with the square footage. It’s very difficult to live cheaply in a huge house.
First, along with the bigger monthly mortgage payments, you have higher real estate taxes and insurance premiums. If you live in a flood plain (and that affects more and more people as maps are being revised to reflect global climate change), you also have to pay more for flood insurance. (Federal flood insurance is limited to $250,000; you have to buy private insurance to get more coverage.)
More square footage means bigger energy bills. Even if you turn the thermostat a few degrees up in summer and down in winter, you have that much more space to heat and cool. And while some houses are built with energy-efficient windows and other eco-friendly amenities, it’s still a lot of space to heat and cool.
You also have to furnish, clean and maintain the space. So there might be an extra 1,000 square feet of floor to polish or re-carpet. You have more walls to wallpaper or paint, more trim to touch up. More bathrooms to clean, more bathroom tile to grout. More light bulbs to replace.
If you have a large garden, you’ve got more yardwork. If you hire a gardener, you might be charged $50 a week to cut the grass rather than $25 for a smaller yard. A long driveway may cost $150 to clear after a snowstorm, whereas you might be charged $75 for a short driveway (or you could do it yourself).
And then there are extra charges for people who live in expensive homes in truly swanky neighborhoods.
If you live in a top neighborhood, it feels as if everyone charges more to perform basic services. Your housekeeper might tack on an extra $10 per week, and a contractor might add another 10 percent to the price of building out your kitchen. If you have doormen, you will tip them more each year if you live in a fancy building than if you lived in a less expensive building. Stores in fancy neighborhoods often sell more expensive goods, the restaurants are more expensive, and so on. Think about the holidays: If you live in a fancier neighborhood, you might feel pressured to do more elaborate holiday decorations.
But in times of economic stress, the idea of building smaller but nicer doesn’t seem good enough. The financial crisis seems to require an even bigger idea. How about this: Build for cash. That’s right — do without a mortgage entirely.
There have been stories in the media recently about people building extremely small homes, some just 65 to 100 square feet. That’s right. An entire house that is six feet wide by 10 feet long, or smaller than the average master bathroom. The good news is that these houses, which have toilets, showers and a kitchen, cost less than $15,000 to build. And many are portable, so they can be hitched up to a truck and driven to the next destination. (So you save on hotel costs as well.)
In a recent CNN story, one home builder showed the 65-square-foot house he built for himself, but it wasn’t big enough for his wife. So, he’s building her a 250-square foot house for herself.
In building a small house that costs less than $1,500 per year in which to live, the owner said he had found a new business: Already he has built 11 tiny homes for other people who want to live cheaply and mortgage-free.
Q: My 84-year-old father (who is not in great health) bought into a senior-living community several weeks ago, just before the market crash. He must pay the balance of what he owes, about $200,000, by the end of his first month, which is within the week.
He has all of his investments and his IRA in the stock market. They were worth about $1 million but are now worth 40 percent less. He also has a condominium in Florida on the market for $90,000 but will probably not sell anytime soon.
He is reluctant to draw from his portfolio now, at its lowest point ever, but needs to come up with this cash.
I have asked him if we should use my existing home-equity line to help bide some time to wait for the market to recover. I have a $100,000 line of credit from which I would probably draw about $50,000 for his purchase. He would then pay down my line of credit monthly. Is this a bad idea?
A: It’s a generous offer, but before you tap into your existing home-equity line of credit, I think your father should go back to the senior-living community and ask whether he can have more time to come up with what he owes. Surely, he is not the only retiree who has watched his net worth plummet 40 percent. Liquidating his investments this week probably wouldn’t be a great idea.
He should see if the community could be more flexible and create payment terms that work better for him. If the community cannot be flexible, then he should tap whatever resources he has. If you can draw down $50,000 or more on your home-equity line of credit, that would help.
It would put your credit in danger if your father doesn’t pay this bill on time each month and you can’t afford to make the payments. But as long as your father can afford the payments and is willing to make them, that would be fine.
He will need to adjust his will, however, so that if the debt is not repaid before he dies, his estate will pay off your credit line as part of the bills owed before funds are distributed to his heirs. Your father could also sign a promissory note agreeing to repay you the money you used from your credit line. You should talk to him about how to document this loan so it makes sense to his future executor and his other heirs.
Ilyce R. Glink is an author and nationally syndicated columnist. Her latest book is “100 Questions Every First-Time Home Buyer Should Ask.” Samuel J. Tamkin is a real estate lawyer in Chicago. If you have questions for them, write Real Estate Matters Syndicate, P.O. Box 366, Glencoe, Ill. 60022, or contact them through Glink’s Web sites, http://www.thinkglink.com and http://www.expertrealestatetips.net.
Copyright 2008 Ilyce R. Glink and Samuel J. Tamkin; Distributed by Tribune Media Services
Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/31/AR2008103101591.html
I’m kind of a neat freak. Okay, not kind of. Anyway, I just can’t seem to relax unless things are somewhat in order and the house is clean enough. I have found a way to satisfy this insanity, and it has worked for over six months now. It’s called the Home Cleaning Chart (very original, you know).
Instead of every week thinking, when was the last time I cleaned the…? or I can’t forget to vacuum the…, now I can keep chores in rotation and not rush through a cleaning spree when company decides to drop by.
Would you like to make a Home Cleaning Chart too? It’s simple! Here’s how:
* Make a list of EVERY SINGLE chore that needs done around the house. Go beyond the vacuum cleaner – think cleaning window treatments and scrubbing the bathroom tiles.
* Divide your list of chores into these sections: daily, weekly, monthly, seasonally and yearly. For instance, you would probably want to wash your dishes daily, vacuum weekly (and as needed if you have little ones!), change bed linens bi-weekly, clean your refrigerator monthly, etc. Do what works for you.
* Make a spreadsheet according to your list and print it out. That way you can check things off as you go.
* Go to it! Plan to stick to your cleaning goals. Once you start cleaning in easy-to-chew portions, cleaning won’t be so burdensome. Plus you’ll have more time to do things you enjoy…in your clean house!
By Rachel
Source: http://modernmommyhood.blogspot.com/2008/09/making-home-cleaning-chart.html
Although Martha Stewart says she truly enjoys cleaning house, I’m not sure there’s a lot of people who feel as enthusiastic as she. Good for her! For most of us, house cleaning isn’t on our short list of fun things to do. We do get a sense of satisfaction when our home is in good order and is clean. The trouble is, it doesn’t stay that way! Many of us aren’t nearly as organized as Martha, so sooner or later, the ‘junk drawer’ is a drawer used for items that seem to have no place. After many years, this drawer grows to humongous proportions, but never seems to get cleaned out. If you’re one of those that subscribes to the spring cleaning program, know that there’s a way to get around this backbreaking task altogether. Your solution? A rotating list of monthly housekeeping tasks keeps your house sparkling clean with very little extra effort.
Regular weekly cleaning usually includes vacuuming, dusting, mopping floors and doing laundry. However, we don’t typically wash our windows, clean out closets and sort the junk drawer. These types of tasks do need to be done, but we usually let these things go until it becomes an eyesore. Then it becomes a big job which you may never find the time to fit in to your schedule. Everyone’s home has different types of tasks like this. You might need to clean out your fireplace, straighten up the garage or defrost a freezer.
Compile a list of cleaning tasks you don’t do weekly. Believe me, when you start thinking about it, the list will be long! Divide your monthly housekeeping tasks in such a way that they’re distributed throughout the year, keeping the weather in mind. For example, you’ll probably do the fireplace each month during winter and windows throughout spring and summer. Cleaning closets and straightening up the garage are good fall tasks. Organizing your monthly housekeeping this way, cleaning chores never get out of hand. You’ll save time too. Cleaning up closets isn’t an all day affair when you do it every three months.
Eleanor Roosevelt was known to be a very organized and efficient housekeeper. Someone once queried her on how she managed to accomplish so much. Mrs. Roosevelt replied that she never left a room without picking up items that belonged elsewhere and putting them in their place. This simple trick was her secret. This is certainly one to share with your kids!
Speaking of kids, they can get in on the act too. Delegate some of these tasks to children, appropriate to their age. Teens can wash windows, while younger kids can pick up toys and sort the mess in the closet.
A monthly housekeeping task list can have your home looking great, at least most of the time. This approach works!
Source: http://tirpitzman.wordpress.com/2008/09/19/for-an-immaculate-house-use-a-rotating-list-of-monthly-housekeeping-tasks/
How often you have used tools for your everyday living? The advantage for having power tools, automotive tools or garden tools in your house is really awesome. In an emergency condition, you might need tools to repair your things. It’s became better if you really know what should you do with it.
Why tools are so significant for you to have? Let’s check how tools started to be used. Based on Britannica Encyclopedia, the used of tools began perhaps a million years ago when man learned to walk erect. His hands were then free to grasp objects of wood and stone. He used these to kill animals for food, and they became the first tools. The story of the development of tools is the record of man’s slow, constant effort to help himself.
Great events in tool development took place when man became dissatisfied. Currently you can find so many tremendous tools which you never imagine before. All tools have vast advantage. It’s really amazing how those tools helping people to do their everyday life. You will be lured to own your set of tools too.
If so, here are some notes you may need to know:
• It’s important to do some research before you buy tools because the equipment under each general and sub category has many different applications and functions. You may find that certain tools and equipment have multiple functions, so better you buy one of them instead buying all. Thus, this will reduce the amount of equipment you will have to buy and also save your money.
• For garden tools, you have to be more prudent. You may know that gardening is a favorite pastime for many and this activity can be made more pleasurable through proper tools. . In the garden, the better a tool works the easier the job. Using the proper tool can cut down on time and effort. For gardeners, tools are a matter of style, fit, and function.
• For power tools, there are certain familiarities. Power tools can’t run without juice. For home improvement jobs in small quarters or remote parts of the yard this can be a problem. So, better you check on how to use power tools.
• The better a tool works, the less you’ll have to spend your energy and effort to do your work. Maintenance your tools are important. For your garden tools, tasks are easy to do and typically are required only once a year. If the tasks are done at end of the season, the tools are ready to use when the season starts, and they are better protected from corrosion during storage. Replace blades or sharpen tools that cut or dig, lubricate moving parts and oil materials that tend to dry out. When a repair is not a safe option, replace the broken parts. Don’t attempt, for example, to glue or tape a broken wooden handle; replace it.
Those notes above probably will help you a little bit before you buy tools. The problem now, how can you find cheap tools with high quality? As you may know, high quality tools are quite expensive, as they are designed to be long-term investments. Well, if you are facing that situation, better for you to wait for a clearance tools sale at a major wholesale distributor. Wholesalers typically have the best prices to begin with, so when you catch that rare sale, you can be assured that there is no better price out there.
Well, you need to do some searching though, but it’s worth it if you really want to have good tools collection. Start searching now, good luck!