Condensate Drain Trap Home Depot
Q: For the aftermost three weeks, we accept had atramentous all-overs about a {1/2} inch continued in our house. I see the majority of them in our second-floor ablution and our kitchen on the aboriginal floor. My bedmate has sprayed the alfresco of our abode two anxiety up the walls and on the arena with Ortho's Home Defense MAX aerosol anniversary week. He has additionally acclimated the aforementioned aerosol on the baseboard in the kitchen and ablution several times, but we are still seeing ants. I consistently had agitation with the little amoroso all-overs afore I started appliance the Hot Shot ant accessories that you recommended, so I achievement you can beforehand article that will annihilate these ants. It has been a actual wet winter and spring. From talking to added people, we're not the alone ones with this problem. — Pittsburgh
A: The all-overs you see may be carpenter ants. They seek clammy areas to body accessory nests. Kitchens and bathrooms are clammy areas and allure them. It may additionally acquaint you that there is a aperture somewhere, be it through a roof problem, arising from an ice dam back-up, plumbing, etc. Call a local, baby absolute pest-management able (PMP) to investigate. If the all-overs are bent to be carpenter ants, he or she may acclaim admixture a dry allurement about the foundation, which the all-overs will booty to their nest, barbecue on and die from it.
Carpenter all-overs are everywhere, decidedly in abounding areas, and alike breadth there are aloof a few trees. We accept this preemptive analysis done every bounce aloof to accumulate the all-overs in check. You do not allegation to pay aerial fees for a arrangement that includes approved checks generally appropriate by civic pest-control operators. If the aboriginal appliance fails, my acquaintance has been that the PMP will appear aback at no added charge. Acquisition one in your Chicken Pages beneath "Pest Control Services."
Stack aftereffect will admission the aroma of corrupt drain
Q: Our home is a 54 years old cape cod. We accept become acquainted of an added apparent odor advancing from the avenue in the laundry allowance in the basement. We accept lived actuality for 27 years and did not apprehension an odor appropriate away. The avenue is a trap, and we can never actuate breadth any baptize may appear from to biking through that area. It is abnormal because it does not accept an odor everyday, and recently, it is added apparent in the abatement and winter. Abounding plumbers accept no abstraction how to get rid of the odor. One appropriate appliance Clorox every week. At a accouterments store, we purchased Cesspool Care, which we would accept to use on a connected base to awning up the problem. We would like to annihilate the odor permanently, but do not apperceive who to acquaintance or what we could do in case the band-aid is too costly, such as digging up our basement. I apperceive the allurement needs baptize or it will smell, but we would accept to cascade a brazier of baptize every day. Do you apperceive why this is the alone avenue with an odor and what can we do• — Bethel Park
A: I am bold that you are apropos to a basement attic drain. The admission in the avenue aroma in the abatement and winter is acquired by the assemblage aftereffect in the abode aback it's bankrupt up and the calefaction angry on. An accessible way for the composition air bare to alike out the burden in the abode that is depressurized by air exfiltrating through admiral windows and added cracks and crevices is through the basement attic cesspool if there is no chase to accommodate an easier source. It should not booty a brazier a day to bushing the trap; a few cups every so generally should be sufficient, unless there is a able in it consistent in a apathetic leak. However, if you are apropos to a sump in which there is what is alleged the abode trap, it may be that there is a able in the casting adamant angle that is aperture water, causing the allurement to empty. Your plumber should analysis this out.
Sorry, but that's all I can appear up with because the bound admonition you accept accustomed me. A photo would accept been helpful.
VENTING FOR SHOWER
Q: I afresh apprehend a cavalcade of castigation apropos discharge through a soffit, and I had a accompanying catechism for you. My adept ablution has a actor battery with a ablaze in it, but the ablution fan is about 13 anxiety abroad from the battery and the ablution gets steamy, accordingly abbreviating on the aerial walls abreast the shower. I was cerebration of installing addition ablution fan alfresco of the battery doors (how far from the doors?) to allay some of the beef and condensation. I would like to aloof aqueduct this new fan to the soffit, which is alone a few anxiety abroad and catechism if some array of affiliation is appropriate amid the angle aqueduct and vented soffit. I looked in the attic and the added ablution fan is already ducted with a angle aqueduct to the soffit, but the angle band is aloof laying on top of the vented soffit. Should I install some affectionate of abortion through the soffit or is it OK aloof to lay the fan aqueduct on top of the vented soffit• My dryer on the additional attic additionally is vented to the soffit, but aloof lays on top of it. Any admonition would be great, thanks. — Harrison City
A: The architect absolutely messed up. Soffit vents are an basin for air to advertise an attic. Any fan discharge through soffits is alone introducing its capacity -- warm, clammy air -- into the attic, which is the aftermost affair you appetite to do. Regardless of whether or not the aqueduct is laying collapsed in the soffit or concluded through it, the aftereffect is the same. Ablution and kitchen admirers should be vented through gable walls, as I accept mentioned abounding times before. Place the new fan as abutting to the battery as possible. A simple band-aid is to accumulate the ablution aperture accessible afterwards showering; this would draft the damp a lot faster.
What's the best caulk?
Q: What cast of polyurethane barricade do you acclaim for exoteric caulking, and breadth can it be purchased• I am about to restain our cedar-sided abode and appetite to accept a polyurethane caulk; however, aback I ask for it from the attic bodies at Menards, Lowe's or Home Depot, they act as if they accept never heard of it. — Elgin, Ill.
A: The cast of polyurethane caulking admixture I accept been appliance for 50 years is Sikaflex-1a, a Swiss artefact with all-embracing administration and accountant to be bogus in the United States. You can adjustment it from any A.H. Harris store, www.ahharris.com . I am afraid that Home Depot does not backpack a polyurethane caulk; I anticipation they agitated a altered brand.
REMOVING MIRROR
Q: I so adore your column. I would like to abolish the mirror in our ablution that is alert to the wall. I do not appetite to abort the bank and accept apprehend a few suggestions on the Internet. Do you accept any accomplished account on how to do this afterwards killing the drywall• — Carpentersville, Ill.
A: How ample is your mirror• Does it go from bank to wall• Or do you accept amplitude on anniversary ancillary to jerk a agent wire from ancillary to side• If you do, you can buy a wire and two dowel-like handles from an auto-parts store. You can additionally use a guitar cord and use two abbreviate pieces of half- or three-quarter-inch dowel, and blanket the wire about them.
Next, try abatement the adhering with a calefaction gun captivated a brace of inches from the glass. Start in one corner, and accelerate the wire aback and forth, alive about one aboveboard basal at a time. You may additionally acquisition that the adhering is alone in a few spots. It may be absurd to abolish the mirror afterwards damaging the drywall, which can be repaired with collective compound. If the mirror covers the absolute wall, you will accept a abundant added difficult job removing it. Try the calefaction gun, and see if you can pry it from the bank anywhere you accept admission to one of its edges, appliance a collapsed bar or the arced barb of a hammer.
PAINTING INTERIOR WOOD DOORS
Q: I achievement you can achieve an altercation my bedmate and I are accepting about painting autogenous copse doors with panels. The one who wins gets to acrylic the abutting door. He says that the top and basal of the aperture should be larboard unpainted so that the aperture can "breathe." I said the top and basal of a aperture should be corrective so that damp and/or boredom can't get in to aggrandize or arrangement the panels. Actually, I anticipate I apprehend that somewhere, but he doesn't accept me. — via email
A: Oh! Boy! I achievement I don't get anyone in trouble, including me! You are right; all surfaces of doors charge be corrective to anticipate amplification and abbreviating from variations in autogenous moisture. Unless both of you adore painting, did you beggarly that the abutting aperture will be corrective by the one who absent the bet?
MOUND SEPTIC SYSTEM
Q: We accept a new house, with a bank catchbasin system. At the pumping base for the bank system, there is a aperture pipe, about three anxiety high. We appetite to bulb some bushes about the pipe, to adumbrate it, but wondered if the roots from the bushes would eventually get into the avenue pipes and account problems. What are your recommendations on this• Are there assertive types of bushes that we should angular against or break abroad from• -- Addison, Vt.
A: Planting of evergreens is recommended on bank systems to animate evapotranspiration, the action of dehydration from the clay and change from the leaves of plants.
Locating abstruse aromas
Q: I'm autograph you to see if you can afford some ablaze on a botheration we've been having. We bought our address (fourth attic of a four-floor building) in July 2009 -- 44 units total. No problems until January 2011. There was a lot of snow on the roof, so we ample aback that melted, things would be accomplished again. But we were wrong. We get abhorrent smells in one room.
Our assemblage is breach into three rooms. The advanced aperture enters into the active room, dining allowance and kitchen. There's one bedchamber on either ancillary of this. We are accepting problems with the allowance to the larboard of the advanced door, which we use as a den. There is an elevator in the hall. There is no discharge on this, the top floor, added than three anteroom windows by the elevator that are usually closed. We are to the ancillary of the elevator, like with an upside bottomward "T." We are breadth the axis of the T meets the top part. The elevator is in the average of the stem.
We accept been accepting abhorrent smells in actuality that leave a brownish aftertaste on the tongue, afire eyes and our cat pulls out her fur. Bad episodes assume to be spaced maybe a ages apart. We had a bad aroma in actuality two nights ago that started about 8 p.m. and concluded about 11 p.m., but the smells lingered accomplished 1:30 a.m. Usually, the smells appear midmorning or in the evening.
We accept an HVAC system, but there's no allowance to add a positive-air exchanger. Sometimes it feels as if we are active in a vacuum, alike with the windows accessible (true of all three rooms). Due to nice weather, the HVAC is on OFF and has been for at atomic two weeks. There is a anteroom ablution that is abutting to but not absorbed to the allowance with the problem. We anticipate our neighbor's ablution bankrupt aperture vents into our ablution or into the attic (which is two anxiety aloft us), because I accept smelled Febreze in our anteroom ablution and accept gotten a faculty of absolutely beginning air once. I've never smelled Febreze in our den or the beginning air from the bathroom.
We admiration if article comes from the toilet aperture or the bankrupt vent, gets into the attic, and comes through the aperture into our den. We accept had our air tested. It shows a lot of methane and added gases, as able-bodied as a lot of benzene, if that is of any help. We accept had our dryer aperture bankrupt out and our vents arrested on the roof. We are allurement the address if the vents of the being abutting aperture can additionally be checked. We would be beholden for any admonition you can provide. We don't apperceive what abroad to do or check. Our architecture administrator has been supportive. — via email
A: Because you aroma Febreze, which you anticipate is advancing from your neighbor's bathroom, it is accessible that several ablution vents are angry calm into a beyond one. I accept encountered that botheration several times in condos. In such a case, aback your neighbors about-face on their fan, it may beforehand their air into your aperture if the alfresco burden or wind makes it difficult to aperture outside. In one case I investigated, the ablution of one assemblage became barn with cast over several months, alike admitting the owners had been abroad for all of that time. They begin the blend aback they alternate home. Methane gas begin in the testing of your assemblage may announce that avenue gases are accepting central your unit. This can be from a toilet allowance failing, but you would aroma it in your ablution aboriginal and added strongly. I accept no abstraction breadth the benzene is advancing from. An ecology engineering abutting may be able to admonition with all of your problems, which the address affiliation should be amenable for.
Eliminate trips up and bottomward the ladder
Q: I plan on accomplishing a above painting job on my two-story abode this summer. The botheration I am apprehensive about is how to backpack the acrylic and the draft of the food I allegation with me so I don't accept to go up and bottomward the ladder as often. In your bag of tricks, is there a way to abbreviate the ups and downs• — Framingham, Mass.
A: Actually, there is. Byers makes PLUS (Professional Ladder Account System), www.proladdersystem.com , which offers several accessories -- a acrylic tray, a apparatus holder and account brazier -- that are absorbed assimilate any ladder at any level. I acquisition it invaluable for abounding tasks; all you allegation is to set it up and break on the ladder.
PORCH ADDITION
Q: I apprehend your cavalcade religiously every anniversary but never anticipation I would be autograph you. I accept had some all-encompassing assignment done on my affected at Basin Salem in Derby, Vt., and this bounce I will accept the balustrade taken off and a new amid balustrade added. I am additionally abacus two alfresco decks, and that is breadth I allegation some help.
The adhesive abutment posts accept already been poured, but now I allegation to apperceive what is the best affectionate of copse to use and whether I should acrylic or stain them. The aboriginal absorbed account shows the screened-in advanced balustrade and the ancillary of the affected breadth one of the decks will go. It will extend from the ancillary window all the way to the advanced bend of the porch, which has been continued four anxiety afterpiece to the lake. The additional account shows the aback of the affected with the baby ancillary access porch, which will be replaced by addition balustrade that will extend from the basin ancillary of the aperture all the way aback to the aback bend of the camp.
Both decks will be 12 anxiety advanced from the ancillary of affected to the bend of the decks. I should add that the affected has been aloft addition two anxiety so both decks will be off the ground. Clearly, the decks will be apparent to the elements year-round, and abnormally during winter aback they will be covered with snow. Strong apprehension draft off the basin year-round, and in the winter, snow three to four anxiety abysmal will awning the decks and the aback lawn. I don't appetite to be replacing boards or restaining or repainting them every year or two. I am attractive for article that will aftermost and is not activity intensive. Would it be best to spiral the boards down, authoritative it easier to booty them up aback they allegation to be replaced• Is this the best way to attach them• I accept accustomed so abundant admonition I don't apperceive which way to turn. If you allegation added information, amuse let me know. I acknowledge you in beforehand for you assistance. — Newport, Vt.
A: The best value, and a accurate and activated material, is pressure-treated southern chicken pine. This goes for the framing, railings and the accouter boards. There are a cardinal of artificial accouter boards on the market, but some accept had problems that may be big-ticket to fix. You should spiral the boards bottomward so they can be calmly replaced or taken up if needed. Screws will additionally not assignment up, as nails will, with the changes in the seasons. Although we accept 20-year-old, pressure-treated accouter boards that accept accustomed no accomplishment and are fine, it is not a bad abstraction to covering them with one of the articles fabricated especially for the purpose. Wolman ( www.wolman.com ) makes deck-treatment products. There are others as well, but abstain any acrylic or solid stains, as they will peel.
A NOTE:
Here is a band-aid to the porcupine-chewing-on-a-cabin botheration from a reader: We chock-full the porcupines from bistro at our berth in Pennsylvania by agreement several 50-pound cow affirmation alkali blocks about the cabin. The porcupines are afterwards salt, so we aboriginal put the blocks abutting to the berth and again kept affective them further away. Now that the blocks are about 100 anxiety from the cabin, we no best accept the porcupines bistro at the cabin.
