Homeowner Forum / General / June 2004

The sales guy at Lowe's says it's not necessary to put a plastic sheeting
moisture barrier over an old vinyl sheet floor over which i intend to
lay laminate flooring.  This is for a kitchen.  The Armstrong web site
says to lay a moisture barrier over the existing vinyl sheeting.  ...

I'm attempting my first install of a laminate floor to replace a carpeted
area.  I just removed the baseboard and started to peel back the carpeting,
saw the pad and wondered if it would make any sense to also pull up the pad.
I know you can buy laminate with backing already on it ...

We used to have a gas water heater that heated the water as it was
required in the kitchen. It also heated the water as required when the
upstairs bath was used. Does anybody know of an electric multipoint
that would do the same job please.

Hey guys,
I recently bought a house that came with a pool and have been trying to
figure out how to properly maintain it.  A couple weeks ago, I got a test
strip kit from Wal-Mart and noticed the pool water was registering a 0

Dear Sir:
We just bought our first home, a town house in Northern Virginia. We are
thinking to replace the carpet of main level with Pago or Laminate or
something else. We have no ideas how good/bad these are. Could you give

I have a large two-car detached garage that was built in 1960.  The
garage is in great shape, but the floor has several cracks in it and
the cement has shifted making the floor uneven.  I would like to use
half of the garage as a workshop, but none of my tools (i.e.

    I read in the paper that some woman in CA won a house (from a real show
sweepstakes) way over on the east coast worth $1.2 million and would have to pay
a hefty tax bill.
    Does anyone know what that tax bill might look like?

i'm in a brand new house in markham, ontario, Canada (north of
Toronto)
We have wood (hollow) interior doors...they've been painted on both
front and back.......

I have an outside carriage light to illuminate my sidewalk and
driveway. It's operated by a photocell and it has 3 sockets rated at
60 watts each. I have been using 25 watt, small base "long life"
candelabra bulbs, and for some reason when one bulb burns out the

I am thinking about buying a "non-conforming" property (mixed
commercial and residential).  Since it is harder to find a lender for
this type of property, is it substantially less valuable than a
comparable "conforming" property

I just had an above ground pool installed.  Because I had the area
excavated, the pool is sitting about 4-6 inches below the rest of the yard.
Can I backfill with soil, or will the pool track and walls rust?
Thanks very much for any advice!

the contractor for my house has poo-pooed argon-filled windows
(recommended by the architect) because they leak.  I have found some
people saying that such leakage is inevitable; yet these windows seem
to be rcommended by all the energy-efficiency guru's.

I sold my house FSBO. The buyers put down earnest money of 5k. They
had a preapproval based on credit for a loan equal to the  final
selling price of the home. They were to obtain a conventional mortgage
with 10% down. They did go to the mortgage company but they never

What are the best tips you've ever read and been recommended so far
(and also practice) relating to how your family has made and makes
it's money go a lot further than it used to, whether it's for
expenses, weekly consumption or home investment.

I am working on a research project designed to evaluate different
levels of Internet expertise. If you can spare a few minutes to
complete my online survey I would be most grateful. The survey is
completely anonymous and all data collected will remain confidential.