Homeowner Forum / Repair / December 2007

Last night during a wind storm (gusts around 50mph) a small section of
my vinyl siding got blown off.  It's about a 2 foot wide section right
at a roof peak (ie it's a small triangle).  I'd give this small job a
shot myself but I don't have a tall enough ladder to get up there

WTC Towers: The Case For Controlled Demolition
By Herman Schoenfeld
In this article we show that "top-down" controlled demolition
accurately accounts for the collapse times of the World Trade Center

I have been having an intermittent Rheem air conditioner/
heater problem. The blower won't shut off unless I cut
the main power. The furnace shuts off fine. Switching
off the fan or anything on the thermostat won't shut it

Bought a mid 1970's vintage house in the Seattle area last April.  The house
has had ongoing problems with rats in the crawl space.  If the assortment of
insulation between the joists is any indication, some has been replaced at
least twice, likely from this problem, and a bunch ...

Some copper heating pipes (forced hot water) that pass through an
uninsulated crawl space froze last winter. My plumber suggested heat tape.
However, heat tape seems to come with a warantee of only two years and
require regular inspection. Failure, apparently, could lead to fire.

Is it ok to have a thin layer of that adhesive/glue on the foundation prior
to vinyl floor installation?  I've used a big scraper to get off alot of it.
Theres still a thin layer though.  Its mostly level with the foundation
right now.

I recently added an outlet in my kitchen for a under cabinet microwave
off of an existing circuit.  Before mounting the new cabinets and
covering up everything, I was unsure if the new setup could handle the
load of the new microwave.  I borrowed a friends' clamping ammeter and

I live on the Oregon coast, and I am watching the shingles blow off of
my roof.  This doesn't happen often, but it happens often enough that
I want to find a better way than just nailing them back on one at a
time.

I've got an old Toro CCR [3horse?] that was showing signs of carb
problems last year so I rebuilt it last week.
The carb is a diaphragm type on a Tecumseh HSK600-1680s.[replacement
carb is  640086A - the only numbers on this one are '744 9BS']

We recently had a windstorm move through our area of Washington (yeah,
we're all over the news) that deposited about 20-30 of my asphalt
shingles all over my backyard.  I looked at the roof carefully, and
there's no plywood showing, the places where shingles came off still

What you are seeing is called a "dip flood" perpetrated by unknown
individuals for their own amusment.
A "dip flood" consists of many nonsense messages - sometimes several
thousand - directed against particular newsgroups. The current flood is the

Any tips or links to websites for effectively removing aluminum windows,
frame and all, from a previously exterior wall?
Removing the window with ample force (e.g. sledge) would be easy.  However
doing it without destroying much of the surrounding wall is not so clear.

I have a Weil McLain WTGO-4 boiler and a Honeywell aquastat with a low
and high setting. Right now it's set at 120 low and 150 high. From
what I read it seems that every house is different for where the
optimum setting should be between comfort and efficiency. My question

I've been asked to rebuild a snowblower carb on a Toro unit, about 5 yrs old
and of unknown engine mfg.  I haven't checked this out at all but my fear is
that carbs have changed appreciably from the '70's and early '80's carbs
that I'm experienced with.  The unit belongs to a ...

I have a very large watercolor painting (measures almost 4' x 12') which I
want to hang on a wall.  My choices are to put it in a 4 x 12 red oak frame
that I already have, or the suggestion of a local frame shop, which is to
sandwich it between two pieces of acrylic, without a ...