Homeowner Forum / Repair / July 2008

I have a fairly large 20 year old cedar deck which I have cleaned and
resealed religiously every 2 years for the past 6 years that I have
owned the house.  I use a wood cleaner/brightener and deck scrubber (a
stiff bristle brush on a pole) to clean it... which easily takes 12 to

I have a vacation home in upstate NY that has a Thatcher oil
furnace.Recently it had a problem with firing up. It turned out that
there was an air pocket in the line after a new oil line was run to
the tank. I was not sure how to bleed it. There was a flathead screw

I have to go and repair a pressure washer tomorrow.  The hoses we'll be
using may not even be the same size.
How do you join two pieces of hoses from these machines?
One of the things is how to get some kind of terminal onto one end of the

My server (Verizon DSL) has just informed me that all of the "alt" groups
are being dropped from its service. That means alt.home.repair, which I find
extremely congenial and useful.
Is there any way to switch it to "rec.home.repair" -- with that name, it

I have rock wool insulation stapled to the rafters of my cape cod
built in 1952. It's in pretty good shape but I'm not sure if it should
be replaced or augmented. My 2nd floor is always a degree or two
colder than my 1st floor in the winter so I decided I'm in need of

We have droppings in one corner downstairs.
1. Are there do-it-yourself spproaches that work?
2. Are "green" pest control people better than standard ones?
3. Are there specific chemicals that are more or less dangerous?

Well I noticed yet another flaw in my flow rate calculations for my sump.  
The flow rate is about 10GPM but thats when its on.  Its on about 17% of
the time.  Anyway, my actual GPM is 1.4.  Which is a lot of water, but not
enough to come close to powering a sprinkler system.  

I have a Deck that's about 10 years old on my house.   it's not in
real bad shape, but the boards are splintery and cracking.  I was
thinking of sanding it.  Would this be a good option?
Tony

Suppose it's pretty obvious that a circuit is dead (no power
in a several adjacent wall-sockets in a room nor to the nearby ceiling
light)
But plenty of power at the *other* outlets in that room, and also

In our new house the garage to house door is self closing.  It has
some kind of small chair, in the middle of the door (on the hinge
side).    I don't like it closing all the time, so would like to
unscrew that mechanism.    If I later change my mind, will it be next

Please help me in what might be a stupid question:  Need to replace some
hinges off a bifold door, 2 1/2" x 1 5/8" in size.  Went to local  home
depot and picked out the appropriate size.  When I went to install them I
noticed that there was a slight bend on one half of the hinge ...

We moved into a new to us house that is about 6 years old and the garage
has been an oven since the summer is here.  We into the garage attic and
discovered that there is no insulation.  Oh well something else to get
accomplished.  While I was up poking around I did notice that ...

From Factcheck:
Katrina Kerfuffle
McCain claims he "supported every investigation" into the government's
role regarding the hurricane, when in fact he twice voted against an

We've got a screened porch (they call them Arizona Rooms here in
Arizona), and the floor is covered with that green "astroturf like"
indoor-outdoor carpet. My wife understands that it is possible to paint
over it using several coats of primer followed by a floor paint, to wind

Not sure if this is the correct term, but can foil faced structural foam
board be used as floor underlayment?
Present subfloor is 3/4" plywood.  I'd like to put a layer of the foil
faced board on top and then lay down cement board and finally ceramic