Boston.com / Your Life

chillin 02:01PM	Hi Peter, I have a large air conditioner in my living room window that is too heavy to move. (It weighs about 100 pounds). So I plan to leave it in all winter. Obviously I can't lower the storm window very far. Any suggestions on how to insulate it and the window during the cold season? Thanks for any advice. I enjoy your column every week! Chillin
Peter Hotton (Moderator) 02:04PM	Chillin: welcome to the handyman's zoo. you can buy a plastic cover fdor the outside of the a/c. That will help some. for the inside, you can build an insulated cover . you can build a frame of 1 x 4 or larger lumber, lined with 1-inch styrofoam insulation, and attach this to the outside frame of the window so you are covering both the window and the a/c unit.
deck fever 02:06PM	Good Day, Sir! Maybe you can point me in the right direction. i'm finishing up the deck i've built and my wife wants something she saw put to use on our deck, namely, no balusters in between rail and shoe, but screening instead. i only saw it from a distance , but it looked like fairly fine mesh. Code says that the infill material on deck railing (plexiglass, screening) must withstand 200 lbs/sq ft. I'm not sure hardware cloth would do the trick and still look reasonable, or maybe plain old metal window screen can handle thiscan you suggest what material might fill the bill , and where i could try finding it? thanks in advance!!
Peter Hotton (Moderator) 02:11PM	deck fever: 1/2-inch hardware cloth will work nicely, and veing galvnized it will resist rust. but it has to be secured tgo felatgively small frameds of wood. you might be able to find solid brass mesh for the screen; one is in the rockler catalog.
carby 02:11PM	Peter, I want to paint a wood buffet black. What can I do to the top so it doesn't scratch?
Peter Hotton (Moderator) 02:20PM	Carby: Paint the buffet the color you liike. an opil-based enamel will be fairly hard and will resist scractching. just be careful. if you can't beo careful, put a piece of plaatge glass on the top; add litle rubber bumpers t keep the glass off the top.
ReplacementWindows 02:23PM	Our backyard is 90% dirt and our front yard has some patches of dirt. Is it too late in the season to fertilize and/or seed?
Peter Hotton (Moderator) 02:26PM	Repacement windows: I can't post your question, but here's the answer: well, the quesiton just appeared. you can fertilizer now. usually se4eding is done in late august and early september, but with the good weather we have had, go ahead and reseed. you cdan spreas seed on snow, so doing it now won'thurt, and if it germinagtes, you are home freek long before the spring.
NB 02:29PM	When we moved into our house in late July we found moth flies, also known as sewer flies, in our basement which were getting in through the hole in the foundation for the sewer line access. We covered it and haven’t seen any more flies in the basement but we now find a fly every day or two in our second story bathroom. Exterminators have said that it’s not worth having them do anything until the drain or sewer problem, which is causing the flies, is repaired. We had two plumbers in and neither could find any obvious problems. One suggested putting a camera down the drain for $700 but the other said that probably wouldn’t identify the problem and that we should just wait for the cold weather and hopefully the flies will die off. On the one hand I don’t want to waste a lot of money on expensive tests that won’t work but on the other I’d like to identify the problem and repair it as opposed to just hoping that the fly aspect of it will go away on its own. What would you suggest we do?
Peter Hotton (Moderator) 02:30PM	NB: no one seems to have a solution, so i suggest yu wait and see if the critters will die off in winter. if not, have another pllu,ber check out the system. other than that, i am as frustrated as you are.
Scott 02:33PM	Peter: Greetings! I recently moved into a new house. The basement is completely finished and quite dry. Strange thing. There is a cedar closet in the basement. I went to get a jacket the other morning and it has mold all over it! What to do about the closet (and the mold all over all my coats).
Peter Hotton (Moderator) 02:35PM	Scott: the basement is not dry, because moisture built up in the closet, and mold grew. have the clothes drycleaned, then no not store them in tfhe basement. Or, oif you want to use the closet put a vednt in the wall and make sure the closet is very wqell vented to reduce and eliminate all the water vapor. .
bob 02:36PM	Peter...getting ready for winter! LAst year I used some icemelt on newly installed steps and by the end of the winter the mortar was crumbling. Was it a bad mortar job or is there a differnet product to use for melting ice?
Peter Hotton (Moderator) 02:38PM	Bob: It was not bad mortar that made it crumble, but the use of salt. never use salt on concrete or mortar. you ocan buy a sodium -free ice melter, or use granular fertilizer or sand to treat the ice.
mmf84 02:38PM	Hi, Peter. The original lathe-and-plaster walls in our kitchen were covered in ugly green plastic tiles. When I removed them, I was left with a thick layer of pale brown glue. IS there any way to remove the glue and preserve the plaster walls?
Peter Hotton (Moderator) 02:39PM	mmf84: you should be able to take the brown glue off the walls with chemical paint remover. use lots of ventilaiton when working with paint remvoer.
southcoast 02:41PM	My split entry house has cathedral ceiling over the living room. In early cold mornings as I'm standing outside I can see that the half over the high ceiling is wet while the other half is dry. Do I have a problem? Is my insulation ok? Does it need fixing? What's involved? Thanks.
Peter Hotton (Moderator) 02:43PM	southcoast: if you are outside , how can yuou see the ceiling of that room. do you mean you can see the roof? if yu mean you can see half the roof is wet, it is simply dew, condensaiton of water vapor on the cool roof. that half of the roof is probably the north side that is shaded more often than the other side.
NEPatriots 02:44PM	I accidently slipped in my attic and punctured the ceiling in my daughters' room. There isn't a hole, just cracks in the ceiling, and a slight drop in the plaster. What can I do to fix this?
Peter Hotton (Moderator) 02:45PM	NEPatriots: don't be embarrassed. i did the same thing but put a hole through the the living room ceiling. brilliant, wasn't it? if the ceiling is plasterboard, you should be able to nail it back into position, nailing through the pasterbaord and into joists. if it is lath and plaster, you can do the same thing, using ceiling buttonos to hold the plaster in place.
Curious George 02:46PM	Good Afternoon, Peter. I recently discovered that underneath a 10'X12' platform in my basement is sand and not cement, as I expected. Is this a concern for moisture or pests? I'd like to finish the basement at some point. Should this be corrected?
Peter Hotton (Moderator) 02:48PM	Curious: it's ok to put such a plastform over asand instead of concrete, but you should try to put polyethylene plastic on the sand, to helpo prevent water vapor from coming up throug the sand and into the baement. If yu can prop up that platform you can ut down plastic, then lower the platform on the plastic.
mzeppa2000 02:49PM	Hello Peter. I just bought a 3 family home, built in 1890. My tennants are complaining of poor water pressure. I live on the 1st floor, so I don't notice it that much, though I do notice it is weak most of the time. Obviously, the 3rd floor has the weakest water pressure. I had a plumber look at it, he said it would cost $1200 to repair, and that might not fix it. He said you can never be sure what causes water pressure to be poor. Any suggestions, thoughts or short term solutions? Thanks, Mike
Peter Hotton (Moderator) 02:53PM	mzeppa: oh for crying out loud. then the tenants should move. anyway, the low pressure may be due to a clogged sefvice lne, the pipe from the street to the meter. if that happ4ens, the town can remnvoate the service, which is repalcing the pipe. It might cost several hundred dollars, mayube even $1200, but it will help, if indeed the pipe needs replacing. If that is not the case, the inside piping might beed replacing, and that certainly would cost mroe than $1,200..
thatzall 02:54PM	We have an unfinneshed attic, with central air equiptment, and an attic fan. All of which was installed by the previous owners. We are starting to notice some mold accumulating on the plywood and wonder what the best treatment would be.
Peter Hotton (Moderator) 03:00PM	thatzall: there is excessive moisture in the attic which is condensing on he cool plywood, causing the mold to grow. clean the mold off with a solution of one part housoehold bleach and three aprtws water. then ventilate the attic properly, which means installinog a ridge vent and soffit vents (the soffit is the underpart of the roof overhang). using that fan regualrly will also helpt. in fact, such a fan should be on steadily, but that is expensive. the ridge vent and soffit vents cost nothingo to run.
southcoast 03:00PM	Peter: Here is a drawing of what I see. The dotted part is wet/ /..........------------------/\ /..........------------------/ \ /..........------------------/ \ /..........------------------/ \
Peter Hotton (Moderator) 03:01PM	southcoast. I sill don't get it . is the ceiling inside wet or is the rooof outside wet. you have t be clearer, and your dotted lines were not. email me at phottonb@Globe.com
Curious George 03:02PM	Hello. How can I remove paint drips, overbrushing on finished wood trim? The paint looks like it's been there for a while and I'm concerned about removing the varnish along with the paint, as I've done before.
Peter Hotton (Moderator) 03:04PM	curious: If the paint was latex , you can remvoe it with Goof-Off, sold in hardware and paint sztores. it will not hur the vanrish. or, coat the paint with any kind of oil, wait 15 minutes, then scrape off the soften ed paint with a wood scraper. or a ROUGH CLOTH.
buster 03:04PM	Peter, is it too late in hte season to stain or seal a deck/porch?
Peter Hotton (Moderator) 03:05PM	Buster: You can paint or sezl or stain through october. it is recommended not to paint or stain when the temp reaches 55 to 50, and stays that way for 2 days. irf you are not sure, wait till last spring.
seamus 03:06PM	Hi Peter, I had an addition put on my house about 1 1/2 yrs ago. Now when anyone including the dog walk across the floor it sound like someone is beating the big bass drum. Is the sub floor loose? Seamus
Peter Hotton (Moderator) 03:10PM	If the floor iis made up of 2 layers of plywood, it might be that one of hte floors is loose. you might have to renail the plywood to the joists, tright, so you don'pt get that double click when you walk. if everything is tight, with no other detectable problems, put a rug on the floor. and a pad.
Brian 03:11PM	Good afternoon Peter, I'd like your advice in removing paint drippings (oil) from a finished hardware floor. Is there a way to remove the drippings without sanding ?
Peter Hotton (Moderator) 03:11PM	brian: Apply any kind of oil on the paint drippings, wait 15 mintues, then scrape off the drips with a wood scraper; that is, a scraper made of wood.
jpc 03:13PM	I recently re-did my third floor in our circa 1870's house, putting in a dormer in order to meet the height code going up the stairs. I now have two 12X12 rooms with 8 inch wide pine floors. I can't sand and ureathane them because there is too much space between the boards. The boards run from the front to back of the house. I'd like to hardwood over them. My question is: can I lay the hardwood front to back over the pine or should I lay it perpendicular to the way the pine is laid? Thank you.
Peter Hotton (Moderator) 03:15PM	jpc: you will have to lay the hardwood floor 0parallel to the boards; nail through the hardwood and the baords aND INTO JOISTS. if you lay the hardwood perpendicular to the boards, you would have to nail into the boards ands not into the jhoists, and that will not work well.
Peter Hotton (Moderator) 03:16PM	OK< Boys and girls, time to go. i stayed a while because this stupid system didn't work half the time. anyone who missed mer can email me at photton@globe.com. see you next thursday, hoping the system will do better.