Homeowner Forum / Repair / November 2004

I have a recently purchased secondary home with an inground concrete
pool. The winters are quite cold up in that region and I was wondering
if I should put in some antifreeze to finish winterizing. Also, is
there an automatic cover that would be usefull to keep out the massive

Would appreciate any tips,ideas,etc on how to remove old caulk from around
tub/toilet/pedestal sink in bathroom.
Thank you!!

In a rental house I take care of, theres a fluorescent light
fixture on the ceiling of the kitchen.  The fluorescent lights
in the fixture are flickering on and off, even though the wall
switch is turned off.  What's likely to be the problem there?

I have a house in Guatemala, as such there is no such thing as buiding
codes or a professional plumber etc, only people who think they know
what they are doing and work for around 3 dollars a day so calling a
pro is OUT.

Trying to help out a, neighbor. We have the same in house fire detectors,
wired to the main breaker panel.
there 3 in each house, he has one that is sounding at odd times a few times
a day, I have removed the unit, and swapped it with one

Hi all, I have a room in an attica that is surrounded with insulation but
there is no vapor barrier covering it.
The room is cooler than the rest of the house. Would it make it warmer if
there was a vapor barrier surrounding it. I was thinkingof putting anonther

I live in an older home where the 30 year old oil furnace has finally kicked
the bucket. AFAIK, the heat system is water based versus hot air based.
We're trying to decide what to buy for the replacement. Unfortunatley, our
house isn't hooked up to natural gas, so our options for ...

I have saltillo tiles in the dining room.  They look very
dirty and have some sort of wax on them.   I went to HD and
the guy suggest me to buy some sort of "stripper" to clean
the tile.  One gallon costed me around $20. and required

Yesterday I was out and about and saw these things for friends who had hired
people to do various jobs.
1. If you are hiring someone to gut and then rebuild a room, if the floor
above has slopes this is the time to fix it. If the person who did the

Is there a carpet cutter (electric or batteries)  that will do the
following?
I want to remove carpeting in a house, and want to cut it up into smaller
pieces re ease of handling and lifting.  I can use a box cutter or such, but

I just connected the motor of a therapeutic bath in the following way:
continuing the circuit from a nearby electircal outlet, I ran the
circuit (black-white-green wires)to a faceless GFCI (line side). Then
a I connected the black-white-green wires from the bath blower to the

have an older amana refrig/freezer
model: txi 20 ML
have two inside door trays (smoky gray) whose holding hook is broken;
need to replace

Hello, I purchased a 1F97-371 thermostat and installed it myself according
to the instruction manual.  It replaced a mechanical thermostat. I have a
heat only, cool only, & heat/cool single transformer system.
I tested it and all functions are working properly, it heats, cools, ...

I am going to insulate my basement according to the building science
document here..
http://www.buildingscience.com/resources/foundations/basement_insulation_systems.pdf
It is a full basement.

I am fixing a leak at the90 degreee junction of a relatively flat roof
and a steeper sloped roof.  The flater room ends about 1 foot up from
the bottom of the steeper roof, creating a small overhang.
ASCII art picture: