November 21, 2020
Dear Ken: With the holidays coming up, we got to thinking about fire extinguishers. Do you have any recommendations? Dan
Sure do, and thanks for the reminder. Extinguishers are labeled so you’ll know what kind of fire they can handle. Type ‘A’ is for paper and wood, ‘B’ is oil and grease and ‘C’ is for electrical fires. You can find smaller, 10-pound versions with the ABC designation for about $20 online. It’s a good idea to hang one in the kitchen, since that’s where most residential fires start. Other priority locations include the garage and the basement, especially if there are bedrooms down there. Bottom line: Have an extinguisher available on each level of the house. One precaution though: Don’t let the presence of an extinguisher give you false comfort. It’s vital that you not lose time fiddling with it. You should call 911 FIRST! Then grab the extinguisher. That will give the neighborhood firefighters a head start.
This is a good time to remind you to design a fire escape plan at home, so the family will know just what to do in emergency. It should include 2 ways out of every bedroom and a logical congregation point—say at the mailbox. And, regretfully, no pet rescue allowed (many times, dogs and cats get out anyway). Your closest fire department will be glad to critique your scheme when they are not otherwise preoccupied.
Dear Ken: We have beautiful walnut floors, but here and there they pop. Everybody says this is normal. Do you agree? Sara
It depends. Popping and creaking of hardwood floors can be caused by the walnut boards rubbing together, an interaction of it and the sub-floor below, inadequately glued plywood, or a combination of all three. One way to isolate the trouble is to squirt a little powdered graphite—like we use for recalcitrant car locks—along the edges of the noisy boards. This stuff is so finely ground that it acts like a liquid lubricant. If the popping quits, you’ll know it’s the walnut flooring. Otherwise, it’s a sub-floor issue which can be handled from underneath with some deck screws.
Dear Ken: There is a pile of lint sitting underneath the dryer vent outside. I keep my dryer very clean, so how would this stuff get to the outside? Laura
That warm, moist, lint-laden air stream cools as it gets farther from the dryer, so eventually it has to dump its load of suspended particles. I’ll bet if you remove that exterior dryer vent cap, there will a lot more inside the pipe. Actually, you should do this about once a year. Take a shop vac, fishing pole, or a long skinny board with a nail driven into its end that will allow you to snag the lint—and pull it to the outside. The good news is that most of the accumulation is at either end of the vent system. So, pull apart the hose at the rear of the dryer to remove additional lint. Vertical dryer vents are now all the rage to comply with more stringent mechanical code rules. Because of gravity, these plug up more quickly than horizontal arrangements. So, they should be checked two or three times a year.
Dear Ken: I have a tri-level with north and south attic vents. Is it OK to cover them with a board in the winter? Doug
It’s an appropriate worry. Gable vents on opposite ends of the attic can allow wind to blow through, and if it’s also snowing outside, then you can end up with a pile of it on top of the insulation. As long as there are some other vents in that space–like along the soffit--and they stay open, it’s all right to cover up the gables. Start with the most north-facing one, which is usually where the incoming snow originates. One trick you might try is to use a cheap fiberglass furnace filters instead of a solid board. That will allow a little air movement in and out, but keep out the snow.
Blown-in snow is pretty tricky to predict. It takes just the right wind velocity, from a particular direction for a certain time period, accompanied by a big enough snow fall rate to pile up snow in the attic. So, it’s always a good idea, after a particularly severe storm, to take a strong flashlight up into the attic access opening to look around. If you remove snow piles before they start to melt (you’ve usually got a day or two) there’s no harm to your insulation and sheet rock.
Dear Ken: I have ¼ inch wide cracks all across the driveway. How should they be sealed and how often? Chris
You should seal all concrete cracks at least once a year. That will keep water from migrating underneath. Why is that a big deal? Many folks have soil with a clay component that swells when it gets wet, and that can cause concrete to shift and buckle. Also, if the ground were to freeze this winter that same wet soil will expand a little, creating the same effect.
Use an epoxy based concrete crack filer in a caulking tube for cracks that go all the way through. There are also pour-in versions of concrete crack sealers that are a little more expensive, but are much easier to apply. Surface, hairline cracks—caused by thermal expansion and contraction—can generally be ignored.
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