Sink Can Be Tapped for Hot-Water Dispenser
Q: We bought a house in February that has a fairly new, good quality cast-iron sink in the kitchen. I’d like to install a super-hot-water dispenser, but not if I’ll need a new sink with a hole for the dispenser already cut. Is it possible to drill a hole in an existing sink without damaging it?
G.G.
Laguna Beach
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A: You can do it, but you’ll need patience and a steady hand, says plumber Andy Jenkins of Huntington Beach. You’ll need a diamond-tipped hole bit large enough for the dispenser to fit through. These diamond bits cost $40 to $50, but they cut very cleanly into the enamel-coated iron.
Use a variable speed drill so that you can start out slow then pick up speed as the cut gets deeper. After the hole’s cut, you may want to take a rattail file and smooth out the edges.
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Q: On our old refrigerator, I regularly pulled off the grate at the bottom and swept it out. In our new house that has a built-in refrigerator, there is no bottom grate. Does it have to be professionally serviced?
C.T.
Brea
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A: It isn’t difficult for the average homeowner to do some minor maintenance to refrigerators such as Sub-Zeros, says Ken Tessen of Appliance Parts Center in Laguna Niguel. There’s a grill on top of these refrigerators that can be pulled down. About every six months, take a refrigerator coil brush, which is available at most appliance parts stores, and brush the dust off the coils and vacuum it out.
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Q: I recently bought a computer, and I’m concerned about whether the electrical outlets in my house are grounded. I don’t want the computer plugged into an outlet that isn’t grounded. How can I tell?
J.U.
Costa Mesa
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A: Your best bet is to pick up a three-pronged tester, which is available at most hardware stores for under $10, says Mike McCoy of Current Supply in Westminster. A series of lights at the end of the tester tells you the status of the outlet. Green means it’s grounded, yellow shows if the polarity is switched, and red means the ground is missing.
If your house is old enough not to have the three-pronged outlets, then you know that it’s not grounded and new outlets will have to be installed. Make sure when using computers or other sensitive electronic equipment, that you’re also using a surge protection strip to guard against any spikes in the current that could damage your equipment.
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Q: We have an older asphalt driveway that has several cracks where weeds poke through. We can’t afford a new driveway, but we need to know how to fill the cracks with something that’s going to last. Any ideas on what will work?
N.R.
Anaheim
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A: The best solution is an asphalt patch, which is available at most building supply stores, says Steve Sink of Angelus Quarries in Santa Ana. Kill the weeds and clean the crack to get rid of any loose sections, then let the patch warm up by setting it in the sun. When it’s malleable, cut it to form in the crack and smooth it out.
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Q: We put a small curio cabinet up on our dining room wall a few months ago. We must have made a mistake installing one of the two screws into the drywall, because it didn’t hold. After taking it down, I patched the hole, let it dry, drilled a hole in the same place, fit an anchor, screwed it in, and both the screw and anchor became loose. What’s wrong?
G.H.
Buena Park
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A: The problem may not be the wall; it could be the cabinet, says carpenter Dave Pitts of Yorba Linda. It could be too heavy to hang on drywall. You might try to position the hooks so that you’re able to screw it into the studs. If weight’s not the problem, you could try a different spackling paste and letting it sit for at least a week until it’s fully cured.
