Is it possible to patch leaky gutters?
Q. The gutters on my slab ranch were installed in several sections, with the seams carefully glued. Now, when it rains, they are leaking, and leaking a lot. Should I get new gutters? Or can they be patched?
SUSAN TAYLOR, Natick
A. How about patching as a starter. And, since it is a ranch, the gutters are not very high, and you may be able to do this yourself. If the seams are leaking, you can apply a special tape of soft asphalt backed by heavy duty foil; just press it over the leaking seam. Do this when it is dry. An early tape of this type was called Flash Band, sold in hardware and building stores. I think there are other names of this tape. If you cannot find such a tape, you can make your own by slathering roofing cement (black tar stuff) on the seam, then embedding heavy foil (not the kitchen type) on the tar, then applying another slather of roofing cement. Or, spend a bundle and put up new gutters.
But hold everything! You said your house is a slab ranch which means it has no basement, so you may not need gutters, the main purpose of which is to keep water out of the basement. If you have a good drip edge at the edge of the roof, which does not dribble water down the face of the fascia boards, no gutters are a possible option. Two things to pay attention to if you take them down: Make sure the dripping water does not inundate any foundation plantings. And pay attention to the roof edge at the front door, where dripping water can flow right down your neck while waiting to go into the house. This is corrected by installing a Yankee gutter, a V-shaped 1-by-4 board installed on the roof above the entry, upside down. This will split the flow of water to each side of the entry. The Colonials were a lot smarter than we give them credit for. One reason for my enthusiasm for no gutters: I have none on my main house, and it has been wonderful.
Q. A company installed a new, beautiful mahogany deck, all the floorboards, plus a couple of stringers and joists. It all looks good, but the carpenter used some kind of nail, where the wood around the nail heads is turning gray, which spoils the looks of the deck. What can I - or more correctly he - do to correct this?
UPSET DECK DENIZEN
A. Many galvanized nails, screws, and other fasteners often cause graying of the wood, but this seems early to be happening. Also, it may be the quality of the galvanization. Hot zinc-dipped galvanized nails are the best to use. Have the man pull the nails (it won't be easy, because galvanized nails hold almost as well as screws) and put in stainless steel deck screws. Then he can sand off those gray stains. Untreated, the mahogany will eventually turn silvery gray because of weathering, but it will take a year or longer.
Q. My electrician encouraged me to write you with this question. We have an old two-family house. An old fan in the attic is no longer working (turned on I guess when it was really hot). Do we need to replace it? Is this a safety issue or more a comfort issue? The attic only goes over two bedrooms and a bathroom.
BETTY MUNSON, by e-mail
A. First we have to determine what kind of a fan it is. I think it is a fan designed to exhaust hot air from the attic, so you should have it fixed and run it constantly all year long. Or, if it cannot be fixed, you must find a ventilation man to create more vents in the attic so the attic will be ventilated without the use of the fan.
It is a matter of safety as well as comfort, because an unvented attic, with a nonworking fan, can build up excessive heat and humidity, and cause mold to grow, all of which is no good for the house and its occupants.
Q. Do you have an idea of what is the best way to get the old transfer station stickers off of my car? I bought a scraper but I am thinking there may be something I could put on before scraping to get them all off.
JUDY GILLIGAN, by e-mail
A. If the stickers are on glass, just scraping with a razorblade scraper will do it, but if you want to you can paint the stickers with oil to soften them and make the scraping easier. If the stickers are on the metal, use oil to soften them and scrape off carefully with a wood spatula. Dow's Bug & Tar Remover also will work.
Q. We had an addition to the back of our ranch house six years ago. A full basement was completed, but the problem we have is that the outside of the old foundation is now an interior wall of the new basement, but our contractor never cleaned off the remnants of oil from this wall. We want to use this space now but are concerned with the dirt and possible mold issues associated with this literally dirty wall. The dirt is very fine and aerosolizes when I try to scrub it off. I scrub and scrub and never really seem to get down to the cement surface. I am reluctant to use water to wash it. How can I clean it and what companies would do this? Once the wall is clean, would it be appropriate to use a coating such as that used on the foundation outside of the house above the ground to create a smoother wall surface?
RUSS FORMAN, Newton
A. I think a house washing company could do the job, although it might be a challenge. They could attack the dirt with a stream of air, or power wash, catching all the water in a container, because you don't want to add water to the basement if you can help it. If the basement is not going to be used for "formal" living, you can leave the clean concrete bare.
About that off-square door
The time has come, the Walrus said, to talk of many things: of shoes and ships and sealing wax, of cabbages and kings. Yes, and of Handyman mistakes. This time in his answer to Richard Schafer of Woburn, who has a storm door that turned from a rectangle to a parallelogram. The Handyman suggested putting a turnbuckle rod on the door, going diagonally from the bottom corner of the hinge side to the top corner of the latch side, then turn the buckle to bring the door square again.
Wrong, said no less than nine people by e-mail. The rod should go from the bottom latch side corner to the top hinge side corner. Yeah, yeah, I know that, but I do want to thank all these people who politely reminded me of my gaffe: Steve Hern of Walpole, Michael Buck (HNDY MN) of Cambridge, R.A. Handy of Belmont, John Cragin of Northborough, George Roebelen of Rockport, my old Globie pal Jerry Ackerman, and two who reported no town, Stamen Zlatev and Ray Harlan.
But the best message was from Bonnie Raymond, who ended her note with "You've got it backward."
At least I spelled parallelogram right.
Q. I am having trouble with my bathroom ceiling, which has a lot of moisture affecting it and the paint. Is there a paint available that will resist the growth of mold and other contaminants?
FED UP
A. The best way to prevent mold on the bathroom ceiling and elsewhere is to ventilate, reducing water vapor created by showering and other uses of water. An exhaust fan is good, and so is opening windows and doors. And yes, there is a paint that resists mold. It is an acrylic paint called Perma-White paint for bathrooms, claims to be mold proof. One reader found it to be so, after four years of mildew-free surface. Zinsser makes one called Perma-White Mildew Proof Bathroom paint. Another Perma-White paint is Perma-White Mildew-Proof exterior paint also by Zinsser. It is mold resistant partly because it is very hard and very shiny, two characteristics that make it difficult for mold to grow on.
Globe Handyman on Call Peter Hotton is also in the Styles Section on Thursdays. He is available 1-6 p.m. Tuesdays to answer questions on house repair. Call 617-929-2930. Hotton also chats online about house matters 2-3 p.m. Thursdays. To participate, go to Boston.com Hotton's e-mail is photton@globe.com.
