PAT MULLALY, Concord

A. You could drain the water into a small dry well on the garage floor, but that would allow water contaminated by grease and oil to go into ground water under the garage floor -- and may be illegal.

There are other ways:

- Build a small berm of concrete at the garage opening, and reset your door to close on this berm. The berm, just a few inches high, can be concrete set in a groove cut in the garage floor, or it could be a thick wood threshold, held down with steel reinforcing rods or bolts driven through the threshold into the concrete floor, and caulked. You might get a little bump when you drive your car into the garage, but that is a minor obstacle, and the berm or wood threshold can be sloped on each side to ease the bump.

- This might be the better solution because it could prevent water from getting to the garage in the first place: Dig a shallow trench, say 12 inches deep and 12 inches wide, just outside the garage opening, going the full width of the driveway. Water will then fill the trench and drain downward before it reaches the garage. Cover the trench with a steel grille.

If the berm or trench alone fails to solve the problem, try both together. A trench would be a good idea on the outside of the berm to prevent water from building up against it.

Incidentally, the airtight garage door will help keep the bedroom less cold but only to a small degree. Make sure the garage ceiling is insulated. There is little else you can do, unless you add a little heat to the garage, which can be quite wasteful.

Q. How can I get ink off a leather dashboard in a minivan? I don't know what kind of ink it is.

MICHELLE PARMENTER, Oxford

A. Without knowing what kind of ink it is, you will have to experiment. Try rubbing alcohol first. Or, rub lightly with toothpaste or mechanic's gel soap. Or, a solution of ammonia and water. As with all potential cleaners, try them in an obscure area to make sure they don't damage the rest of the dashboard. Some ink fighters have used hair spray successfully; it is the alcohol in the hair spray that does it.

Q. I've been in my house for 3 1/2 years, on town water. I am getting what looks like ground-up eggshells in my water, tiny chips brown on one side, white on the other. The chalky particles are clogging my pipes and filters. I can clean the filters but what can I do about the pipes? My neighbors, in similar houses, do not get these chips.

L.L., Southborough

A. All water has sediment, but yours sounds excesssive; other than that, the handyman is stumped, especially since your neighbors do not have it. Since your neighbors don't have it, it means that the source of the chips are in your house, possibly the water heater.

Check to see what faucets the minerals come out of. If only the hot water has the chips, drain the heater of a few gallons and check for sediment. If there is a lot of it, have a plumber check the anode rod in the water heater. This rod corrodes during its useful life, eventually disintegrating; it is a safety factor in the heater that helps prevent early deterioration of other metal parts in the heater itself. If that rod is overproducing minerals, replace it. And, it is possible that the water heater itself is deteriorating, causing the excessive sediment.

One possible cure is to install a heavy-duyty whole house filter. But before you do anything, check with your water department.

L.L.'s water bill
Here's a follow-up on L.L.'s water bill that is running to a whopping 240 gallons a day. L.L. said the meter runs even when he turns off all water sources. The handyman suggested changing the meter. But Anthony Molinaro of Franklin, who said he is an old water man, said that water meters do not run if there is no water running through them; since there is water running through L.L.'s meter, there must be a leak.

Toilets are a notorious waster of water, Molinaro said, and silently, too. So, check the toilets, he said. Shut off the intake valve under the tank; if the tank continues to empty and water flows into the bowl, there's your culprit. Or, put a bit of vegetable dye in the tank and see if it goes into the bowl. If the toilet does leak, get it fixed.

A slow leak may be silent, but still use a lot of gallons each day, Molinaro said.

Q. My water bill runs to 240 gallons a day, and the meter keeps running when no water at all is running. The meter reader said that the water is constantly being drawn, automatically, when water gets low.

L.L., Weymouth

A. Replenishing water will not make the meter run all day. I think your only choice is to have the meter replaced.

Q. When I had a leak in my water service, the town turned down the pressure and fixed the leak, but when the service was restored, the pressure came very high. What can I do about that excess pressure?

ANNE WHITE, Lexington

A. If the pressure is indeed too high, you could install a pressure-reducing valve.

Q. I collect rain water from my roof. Can I use it for plants?

ANTHONY GIRNIUS, Roslindale

A. You betcha. It's a great way to handle the water bans that are so common this summer, as in most summers. How about high acid content, if the water is from acid rain? Not a problem, since your plants are already thriving on regular rain, acid or not.

Q. When hydrants are flushed, the water is brown. I am told it is not hazardous to my health (even though I would not want to drink it anyway) but will it ruin my hot water heater or shorten its life?

SARAH MONTGOMERY, Wayland

A. The rusty water won't hurt the water heater, but if sediment is agitated and ends up in the tank, it could shorten its life. Actually, sediment can enter the heater even without hydrant flushing, and when it accumulates at the bottom of the tank, it acts as an insulator and can cause early burnout. Therefore, whether there is flushing or not, it's a good idea to drain a gallon or so of water (and sediment) from the tank once a month. This regular drainage will extend the life of the heater.

Q. I have well water that is so acid that it is making pinhole leaks in the copper pipe. I have replaced pipe six times and am getting tired of it. A plumber said the problem comes from a low current in the pipe, which causes enough corrosion to make the pinholes. A neighbor who has the same problem said he installed a calcite-bed filtering system to de-acidify the water. Would that work?

MIKE CONTRINO, Plymouth

A. I suppose it would, but I think it would be better to replace your copper pipes with the appropriate plastic, which I believe is within code in Massachusetts.

Q. My front stoop and steps are of one-piece concrete, which has tilted a bit so that the stoop slopes toward the house. Water collects, and it is an ice hazard in winter. How can I prevent water from collecting? There's a roof, but plenty of water still collects.

LISA JESSICK, Easton

A. The easiest way is to chip a little trench along the stoop where it butts into the foundation. Make the trench an inch wide and an inch or so deep, but make it slope to one side of the stoop. It may not be easy chipping out that concrete, but the trench will collect the water and drain it off the stoop.

Another way is to apply a thin layer of Top and Bond, a mortar that can be put on in thin layers, to change the slope, either to one side of the stoop or to the steps rather than into the foundation.