Boston.com / Your Life

Southshore 02:00PM	Peter- thanks for your help with all these questions! Do you know an easy, non-toxic way to discourage cats from coming into my yard? Its fenced in, but that doesn't deter them at all.
Peter Hotton (Moderator, Moderator) 02:05PM	Southeshore Hello, boys and girls, welcome to the peter hotton zoo. here we go again, thank goodness. and to Southshore, Yu might investigate an alectric fence designed to cats. One for larger animals I think would be lethal to cats. But it might be worth a try. Other than that, there are animal repellents that you can try, sold in plant shops and hardware stores. Or, sprinkle a whole bunch of red pepper flakes and cayenne powder around the perimeter of the yard or where you do not want the cats to go to. The cats do not like the heat. But be careful with cayenne powder; inhaling it can cause anaphaletic shock, very dangerous to one's health. .
rothhouse 02:05PM	My bathroom cieling won't hold any paint. Everything peels, in some cases it peeled AS I applied the paint. After I finally got paint to stick (using every type of primer humanly imaginable, scraping, skimming, etc.) It is now completely peeling again in huge chunks and crackling in spotty patches. Help!
Peter Hotton (Moderator, Moderator) 02:08PM	rothhouse: Your ceiling was calcimined a long time ago and no paint will adhere to it; the paint coming right off your roller indicates that it is calcimine underneath. Your only choice is to remvoe all traces of paint and calcimine from the cieling, You can use chemical paint remvoer or maybe simply washing with hot water might take much of the calcimine off. But every race must be remvoed before you repaint with latex ceiling paint.
debs 02:09PM	Hi Peter, I have an electric dryer outlet that's not being used and I want to convert it so I can put a refrigerator there. Do I need to run a whole new wire or can it be converted directly to a regular 3-prong plug?
Peter Hotton (Moderator, Moderator) 02:10PM	debs: If the dryer outlet is a huge three-hole device, you cannot convert it from 220 to 110. You need a separate cable leading to where you want to plug in the refrigerator.
melrosian 02:11PM	Hi Peter. Do you have any advice on getting new gutters. I have aluminum gutters with seams now that are a bit dented and need replacing, but the downspouts seem OK. Some contractors are saying I should replace them with more costly seamless gutters and the prices seem kind of high – more than $2K. Do you have any advice or suggestions?
Peter Hotton (Moderator, Moderator) 02:14PM	melrosian: How badly are the present gutters dented? If they are not that bad and are working, why bother? $2K does not seem out of line as gutters go these days, but it depends on how many feet of gutters you have. If yiu have 200 feet (a lot), that is only $10 a foot. Even $20 a foot is not exorbitant. The seamless gutters are OK, but they are lighter in weight that a high quality seamed gutter.
Kathleen 02:15PM	Peter - I have a ranch house that was built in 1952. There is a small crack from one of the cellar windows down to the ground - not straight, sort of off at an angle. The insurance company recently did an inspection and said it has to be fixed. Is this a DIY project or do I need to hire someone? Many thanks for sharing all your expertise!
Peter Hotton (Moderator, Moderator) 02:18PM	Kathleen: What was the insurance company doing inspecting your house and why in hell did the guy say it has to be fixed? If the crack is not leaking, it does not have to be fixed. If it is leaking, it must be fixed from the ouside, so you have to dig down to the footings on the outside, enlrae the crakc and fill it with hydraulic cement, then roofing cement, a layer of tarpaper and more roofing cement before backfilling.
smelly sink 02:18PM	Peter - I smell a foul odor - maybe it's mold? - in my bathroom sink when i run the water. How do I get rid of this?
Peter Hotton (Moderator, Moderator) 02:22PM	smelly sink: Your drain is full ofo grease, oil, hair and other goodies, plus mold, which stinks; the draining water releases the smell upward just where your nose is. The cure is to clean the drain: pour a cup of household bleach diown the drain and keep it in the trap overnight. Also, use an over-sized bottle brush to clean the drain phyically. and be sure the overflow drain is open; put a cup o0f water down that drain to see if it is open; if it is not, open it with a coat hanger wire, then add bleach to it. Do not mix anything with bleach except water. After the bleach treatment the next day, you can further clean the drian by putting a strong solution of baking soda and water down the drain.
tmcg 02:23PM	How difficult is it to install a kitchen laminate countertop? Could someone who isn't very handy do it?
Peter Hotton (Moderator, Moderator) 02:26PM	tmcg: You will not know if you are handy or not until you try something. Putting laminate on a counter top is tricky, but possible, by an amateur. You have to cut the laminate to the right size, cut out the hole for the sink, etc., then apply contact cement to the back oif the laminate and the counter top; Yoiu also have to be precise in putting hte laminate on because once applied, the laminate will never come off in one piece. Then you have to put the edge pieces on. Or, in place of the edge pieces, apply an oak trim and varnish it.
Hedley 02:26PM	Yo, Peter. How often should you have your chimney cleaned if you burn about a half cord of wood each winter? Any idea how much it costs to clean a chimney?
Peter Hotton (Moderator, Moderator) 02:28PM	Yo, Hedley, yo, Yau, yo everyone, huh? Burning half a cord a year?: Clean the chimney every other year. A chimney cleaning used to cost $50. I imagine it is close to $100 or more now.
woody 02:28PM	Peter--I have hard wood stair leading to my upstairs and boy do they creak when you walk up (at least a couple of them do). Any quick, easy fixes?
Peter Hotton (Moderator, Moderator) 02:32PM	woody: Ah, you're just mad because you wake up your wife when you come home late, huh? There is n o quck nor easy fix. But here is how to stop the creaks: Have someone stand on the guilty step and drill small pilot holes through the tread and into the riser, and at 45 degree angle, about 4 to 6 inches in from each and of the tread. Drive a galvanized finish nail into the pilot hole. Then drill another hole nearby at the op0poste angle, so that the holes cross in the riser, forming an X. Drive all nails necessary. Give the guy on the tread a good book to read, because he will have to stand there for a while while you do the work.
EL 02:34PM	HI Peter, I have this drippy rust colored stuff ALL OVER my bathroom walls. It is somewhat sticky and very gross. The walls are a pale blue. We suspect it is b/c the paint we used is a few years old? We used primer before we painted. What do you think?
Peter Hotton (Moderator, Moderator) 02:35PM	EL: I think yu are right that the pant was old. The only solution in my opinion is to remvoe all paint and primer t the bare plaster before painting. If it is plasterbaord, y8ou may be in truoble because it is difficult to take paint off plasterboard without messing up the plasterboard.
urban dweller 02:36PM	Peter, somebody covered the brick foundation and cellar windows with smooth cement/concrete before we bought it. Now it is starting to chip off, big chunks in some places. How can we patch it? It looks like there is chicken wire? underneath some sections, but not all.
Peter Hotton (Moderator, Moderator) 02:41PM	urban dweller: It's undersandable, but just barely, to cover brick with mortar (what you call cement-concrete). But to cover windows?: God, what a mess. Temove that rubbish fro the dinwos and make sure the windows can be opened for good ventialtion. Put on screens or heavy hadare cloth to keep vermin including two-legged vermin from coming in. Then you can ventilate the basement in the summer. As for the crapola on the brick, you can scrape it all off and re-expose the bricks, or put on new mortar. Where here is no chicken wire, put on a bonding agent before parging (applying mortar). Where there is chicken wire, it should be half an inch or so away from the brick so the new mortar will hold.
Aaron 02:41PM	Hi Peter. I am installing a kitchen island and need to fasten the island cabinets to a tile floor. The trick is that the floor has radiant copper tubing. Any suggestions? Thanks!
Peter Hotton (Moderator, Moderator) 02:44PM	Aaron: If the coper tubing is under a olayer of p;lywood, you can use shorot screws to go through the tile and into, but not through, the plywood. If there is no plywood, yoiu could always glue the island to the floor. Use Pheno-Seal, an adhesive caulk that holds wonderfully well. Or, construction adhesive. The Pheno -Seal and construction adesive (Liquid Nails) come in caulking cartridges and are widely available in hardware stores.
scott 02:46PM	Greetings Peter! I am considering buying a freat house but the current homeowner is a smoker. She has lived in the house for 25 years. Ugh! How would one get rid of the some smell? The smell seems to have permeated the w/w carpet, walls, a/c systems. Help!
Peter Hotton (Moderator, Moderator) 02:49PM	scott: You can have the carept cleaned buyt yu are probably better off getting rid of it and putting in new; if the fooors re hardwood, put in area rugs. Wash thw alls and ceilingis with a strong solution of Spic and Span and water or your favorite detergent. Then paint walls and ceiling with BIN or similar sealer before painting them the color you want. Ventilation also will go a long way in eliminating the smoke. Yu dan spray the walls with Febreze or other odor reducer before washng and panting them.
Larry 02:50PM	Peter: I am trying to replacing a well worn symons shower control handle with a new one. The existing one seems stuck. I removed the end cap and small screw, wiggled the handle, tapped it lightly with a rubber mallet but still will not come off. Is there a special tool, or lubricant I can use or just hit the gym and use more effort. Any suggestions.
Peter Hotton (Moderator, Moderator) 02:51PM	Larry: Swallow your pride and have a plumber bail you out. He knows the tricks better than you or I, who has had exactly the same problem with your and had to call my favorite plumber (C. John Caruso of Braintree) to bail me out.
stairway to roofdeck 02:52PM	hi there peter - love the zoo! i live in the top floor of a brownstone, and have stairs inside my condo that lead up to my roofdeck. these stairs are only supported on one side (the external wall), and they are starting to slope. they're covered in carpeting, and i've noticed that one of the stairs has broken, too...any tips on how to get this all fixed? I'm worried a contractor will want to take all of the stairs off my wall!
Peter Hotton (Moderator, Moderator) 02:54PM	Stairway: If the stepsare aruppoeted on on the wall, with no poss or anying else supp0erting the other end of the steps, then smething has to be done because that sounds entirely inadequate and the steps were just waiting to collapse. Yu have to deermine how they are attached to the exterior wall and how they can be supported by posts at the other end. You could do this yourself but I get the feeling that you should have it done by a pro.
tmcg 02:56PM	Follow up question: I was going to buy a countertop that already has the laminate attached. They sell them at HomeDepot with the corners cut and everything. I was just wondering how hard they are to attach, cut the sink hole, etc?
Peter Hotton (Moderator, Moderator) 02:58PM	tmcg: The top can be attached by driving screws at an angle through the frame of the counter and into the plywood top. Not so far that it hits the laminate. As for cutting a hole in the top, this can be done by drilling a hole in two corners of the drawnb opening and cutting it with a saber saw. Yu hase to use a very fine hackswblade in yur saber saw to cut the laminate; anything coarser will shatter the laminate.
tbone 02:59PM	Peter-I have old concrete steps in front os a small wooden landing at the front of my house. the concrete steps are in terrible shape (crumbling). Is it possible to just build wooden steps over the concrete ones, or do i have to go throught the labor and exspense of demolishing the concrete stairs?
Peter Hotton (Moderator, Moderator) 03:01PM	tbone: You can build wood steps on to of the concrete ones, which can work pretty well. If you have to demolish the condrete, put pre-cast steps in its place.
Laurie 03:01PM	what is the best type of flooring for floors with radiant heating? We like the hardwood look but if tto expensive we would settle for Pergo. Thanks!
Peter Hotton (Moderator, Moderator) 03:02PM	Laurie: ceramic tile is best for a radiant heated floor. But hardwood is just as good and you can get prefinished hardwood for little more than the Pergo.
Blondie 03:03PM	Hi Peter, To cover cement floor in a finished basement,do I need a vapor barrier under any type of flooring, or does it matter what I am using? Also, do you have an opinion on mini-split air conditioers? I want to cool off 2 fasirly small bedrooms at one end of the house. Thanks!!
Ted 03:05PM	Hi Peter. I am in the rpocess of building a deck and wanted to know if pressure treated wood could be painted? I plan on leaving the floor & rails natural (treated with water protectant)but wanted to paint the stair kickers/risers. I heard it was OK after the wood dries for a couple of months.
Peter Hotton (Moderator, Moderator) 03:05PM	ted: Yes, you can paint pressure-treated wood; it will take latex primer and paint very well, as long as it is allowed to dry out for six months.
Peter Hotton (Moderator, Moderator) 03:07PM	OK, boys and girls, time to put a stop to this zoo. See you next thursday. And you can email me at photton@globe.com Toodle-oo.