Sump should help with water in the basement
Q. My 1954 house has a concrete block foundation, and I get maybe a one-quarter inch of water on the basement’s concrete floor after every severe rainstorm.
I asked a professional what to do and he suggested regrading the ground to make sure it is sloping down and away from the house instead of toward the house, and other things that would cost $4,000. I am reluctant to pay that much, so what do you think I should do?
The inside walls need repointing, and the man says he would paint “something” on the inside walls of the foundation.
A. Regrading would help a lot, but that is iffy because there must be 8 inches of foundation exposed between the ground and the siding. But this is what I’d recommend, which can solve most of the problems.
During heavy rains, the underground water sneaks into the basement through joints between foundation and floor, in addition to seepage through the walls.
This is what you can do, or have done for fair money. Install a sump, a hole in the floor, which can collect that rainwater before it floods the floor, and a pump. Repoint the concrete block, which will help reduce seepage. Paint the inside walls with Drylock, a cement-based paint that will reduce seepage even more. Ventilate the basement all year long to reduce or eliminate condensation on the walls. The sump and pump will cost up to $1,000, but if it works, it’s money well spent.
If not much improves, you might install a French drain, an inside perimeter drain under the floor leading to the sump. It is very expensive, but the cost is reduced since you already paid for the sump and pump.
Q. I live in a house that had popcorn ceilings that might have contained asbestos. A previous owner had it removed, but my question is was all the asbestos removed?
A. If a professional remover did the work, all, I think, was removed, because the rules in removing asbestos are very strict. If an amateur did the work, I suggest you have it inspected by a professional asbestos abatement company.
Q. I read in your column about a cleaner for my aluminum sink. What is it and where can I find it?
A. An aluminum sink can be polished with fresh, unrusty Brillo pads. However, your sink likely is not aluminum but rather stainless steel. It can be polished with a stainless steel lotion, or Maas, any high quality brass polish – all sold in hardware and big box stores.
Q. We recently discovered black mold in our attic, appearing a few feet above the soffit area on the roofing plywood and extending toward the peak for 3 to 4 feet. Can you recommend a company that can assess (test the attic and house air quality) the extent of our problem and then recommend how we should approach fixing the problem – new roof with new plywood, mold removal in attic alone, other.
A. If the mold is not overwhelming, you can kill it and remove it by painting it with a mix of one part bleach and three parts water. Some may disagree with this treatment, but it has been effective in many cases.
And now for the cause. You mentioned the mold starts a few feet above the soffit area. It might be that there are no soffit vents on the underside of the roof overhang (the soffit), or they are inadequate.
The proper soffit vent should be a 2-inch screened strip going the length of each soffit, in addition to having proper high venting, which would include a ridge vent. If there are any soffit vents in place, they may be circles that are spaced, entirely inadequate.
Q.We decided to go with vinyl siding on the garage, which is clad in very old, deteriorating red cedar.Only thing is the contractor wants to put aluminum over the wood trim. Won’t that make it rot? He says “aluminum breathes.” We are highly skeptical.
I was hoping to cover the asbestos siding on the house with red cedar, but the contractor says that because it gets stapled and nailed, that it wouldn’t be an appropriate covering and we’d be better off with vinyl for the house as well. He could cover the present siding with a layer of insulation and nail the vinyl siding right to it. If we insist on cedar, he says, we’d have to remove the asbestos shingles first. Any comments?
A. I, too, am very skeptical when anyone says aluminum breathes. Vinyl siding can be put over asbestos cement siding as long as Styrofoam insulation is applied first.
Q. We have a fire pit built into the retaining wall surrounding our patio. The pit was created with three large granite blocks, and the one forming the back has developed several cracks (I assume) due to the extreme temperatures to which it is exposed. We now have one chunk held in place rather precariously, and we would like to repair it. But how?
A. Granite is sometimes repaired with mortar, but that won’t work in a high-heat situation. Take out the precarious stone and rebuild the wall with smaller blocks.