Homeowner Forum / Repair / September 2008

Model SHU9955 - due to the accidental application of excess weight to
our dishwasher door when it was fully open, I believe the hinges are
now slightly pranged to the point where the door will no longer remain
latched closed.

My central air unit is on the 3rd floor. When it's on, the air flow on
the 3rd is tremendous and it becomes cold in a second. At the same
time, the air is barely coming out on the 2nd and the 1st floors. The
ducts are old, but I inspected the parts that are accessible and they

We're in the process of having the exterior of this old place redone.  I'd
hired a painter, who needed a carpenter to replace 'a few rotten corner
boards'.
Well, this has led to a major replacement of siding, plywood, and some

Wife say's dishes must be rinsed before loading in dishwasher.
Husband say's get garbage off dishes and let the machine do it's job. Wife
is winning. Husband rinses.
Any allies on either side?

I'm practicing sweating 1/2" copper pipes, but I find that when
sweating on small fittings, such as a coupling or an elbow, I melt the
solder in the first joint when working on the second because they are
so close. What's the trick to avoid this problem?

Never had one before, so I have no idea what to look for. Usually I just
keep the house coldish in the winter and warmish in the summer rather
than running a bill up, but I may now be ready to move forward <G>. I
spend most of my free time in one room watching tv etc, using a ...

I recently put CFL bulbs in all my lamps, ceiling fans and light
sockets. On the ceiling fans there are dimmers. When the fan lights
are turned on at the dimmer and then turned all the way up, one fan
light stays dim for about an hour, then will start to flicker and go

I've been scanning the freecycle and carigslist free areas and
have found a lot of "free, must be moved" buildings. aside from a lot
of labor is there a downside to recycling these building materials?

    We are looking to have an exhaust fan added to our two bathrooms.
A new roof was installed this past May and I had the roofer already
add the exhaust vents. What is a fair price to have them installed?
Also can anyone recommend a good quality one?

We're about to start tiling a kitchen floor over stripped bare
concrete slab.  We're going to be using 18" X 18" tile and we've
started noticing that the floor has quite a few uneven spots in it up
to 1/4" or so.  We've heard about leveling compounds but we're kind of

I want to make some "stuff" out of old weathered wood common to my area.
When you cut through the wood, though, there is a new color to the wood
where it is not aged.  Is there something I can apply to that area that will
make it at least colored like the weathered part?

At my place of work they had some flowerbeds which they turned into
small fountain / ponds.. They dug them up, put down liner and rocks,
installed a pump then hid it, put in a drain if the water gets too
high and it was done. Looked easy and Im going to do the same in my

I am still contemplating installing laminate wood in my kitchen.
While looking at samples today, I also saw laminate ceramic tile.
Has anyone installed the ceramic tile, and do you like it?
I am going back to the store to look at the tile, as I ran out of time.

Is there such a thing as a high-quality adjustable wrench?  One with high
enough quality that you could use it in place of a lot of ordinary
wrenches, and not have it round/damage the heads of the nuts?
In particular, it should reliably hold its exact adjustment, and should be

Need some advice on this. We have an older mobile home, 1973.
Currently on our second hot water heater, installed about 13 years
ago. It is a natural gas 30 gallon unit.  The temperature is set at a
low-warm about 120*   I am getting a slow but constant discharge