For Best Fix, Shower Repair May Require a Pro

Question: What can I do to repair a small hole next to my hot-water handle in my fiberglass shower?

Answer: There are companies that will come to your home and make such a repair for as little as $50. It sounds expensive, but consider the cost of replacement as a comparison.

You can make a patch on your own with a fiberglass patching compound, but chances are the homemade repair will be pretty obvious and might become an eyesore.

Isn’t $50 worth an invisible repair?

Look in the Yellow Pages under plumbing fixtures, repairs.

Adjusting a Ceiling Fanto Suit the Season

Q: On ceiling fans, what direction should the blades be moving to push warm air down (for winter) and vice versa? Should they rotate clockwise (looking up at them) or counterclockwise?

A: When the leading edge of the fan blade is lower than the trailing edge, air moves up (winter position). When the leading edge of the blade is higher, the air moves down (summer position).

In the summer you want the fan to blow air directly down. This position has a cooling effect on those beneath.

During the winter you want air to rise up. This causes the hot air above to blow across the ceiling and down the walls. Warm air circulates throughout the room and absorbs condensation from windows and glass doors. This improves energy efficiency and reduces mildew at window sills.

Look at the Numbers When Planning a Deck

Q: I have a friend who wants to build a 16-by-16-foot deck off of the back of the house. She doesn’t want to attach it to the house because there is only 71/2 inches from ground level to the bottom of the door threshold.

Can she set green treated frame on the ground or does she need to put some kind of footing down or use concrete piers? I imagine for this size of deck, she would probably need about 16 blocks or piers.

A: A wood deck should clear the ground by at least 12 inches. Yes, treated lumber can be used in contact with dirt, but this would be planned obsolescence. In your friend’s case it would probably be wise to use concrete or stone instead. This would eliminate the high risk of rot and structural pest infestation associated with wood on grade.

Also, it is always wise for the top of the deck to be a few inches lower than the interior floor. This helps prevent water from flooding--and then damaging--interior floors, especially during heavy winter rains and at times when the deck is being washed down.

Seven-and-one-half inches minus a few inches of step-down leaves less than 41/2 inches of thickness for the wood deck. Not enough thickness for a sturdy platform--let alone concrete piers.

Dripping Water Could Create a Rotten Situation

Q: We added a garage to our house two years ago. The concrete floor of the garage is slanted slightly so that when we pull our cars in during the rainy season the water that drips off the car pools in one spot. Unfortunately, the place where it pools is right up against a horizontal piece of the wood framing for an inside wall. The framing board is sitting directly on the concrete, and it is sheet-rocked.

I am worried this board will rot and have to be replaced. I think if I deal with the problem now, I will minimize any future problems. Should I drill a channel for the water to run out? I don’t know how it would drain onto our new driveway effectively, without creating a whole new problem.

A: You are correct. Continued exposure to moisture and water eventually will rot the wood in the wall and the wallboard. The fix we suggest might do the trick. However, it should be noted that replacement of the portion of the floor that slopes improperly is the correct solution.

First, trim the wallboard an inch or so away from the floor so that it cannot get wet from the puddling.

Next, drill quarter-inch holes every few inches between the floor and the mudsill (the horizontal bottom piece of wood at the bottom of the wall), so that water can drain through it. Spray inside the holes with a product that contains copper napthanate. Such a product is a pesticide and a wood preservative.

It might also be a good idea to add ventilation to your garage. Air can help to evaporate the moisture in the summer. If the holes don’t clog with dirt you should be OK. Also, don’t drill the holes if the outside perimeter is not somewhat lower than the inside.

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