by Carey, James
Ornamental iron
Ornamental iron is a fancy term for steel fencing, handrails, or other decorative steel elements. It’s no surprise then that the biggest maintenance challenge associated with ornamental iron is rust — the reddish brittle coating that results from attack by moist air. Therefore, the key to preventing rust (and the damage it does) is to prohibit moist air and water from making contact with the steel. Painting, as you see in Chapter 19, is the most effective means of stopping rust dead in its tracks.
Unfortunately, rust may have already sunk its ruthless teeth into your helpless handrail. Before you pull out the old hacksaw to start cutting out bad spots, have a look at Chapter 19 for information on how to remove rust — chemically and mechanically — and what to do to patch the damage left in its tracks. You’ll discover not only our secrets to getting rust off, but also how to prevent it from returning.
The Interior: Your Home’s Insides
As with the exterior of your home, basic elements of the interior require maintenance from time to time. The following sections help you identify these elements and the ongoing maintenance they require.
The plumbing system
Of all of a home’s systems, the plumbing system is likely the most demanding when it comes to maintenance. Leaking pipes, clogged drains, and a banging water heater are just a few of the many plumbing-related maintenance challenges that pop up.
Let us be the first to tell you that Chapters 7, 8, and 9 are all wet. That’s because they focus on running water in the home. In these chapters, you can find out how to locate and shut off your water main, deal with your water heater, and care for wells and water softeners, as well as a bunch of other stuff.
Although the plumbing system is one of the most maintenance-intense, it really isn’t particularly complex. Even beginners can easily perform the most common plumbing maintenance tasks: cleaning, lubricating, adjusting, and replacing worn parts. Make your plumber jealous by reading all about these simple maintenance tasks in Chapters 7, 8, and 9.
Pipes and water heaters
Indoor plumbing is one of the marvels of the last hundred years. It can also be the scourge of mankind when it isn’t operating quite right. Banging or rattling pipes, water pressure that has been reduced to a trickle, and shower temperatures that fluctuate like the stock market — one minute it’s nice and hot and the next you’re playing freeze-out. Yikes!
Many factors can affect the performance of your water pipes: water pressure, scale buildup on the interior of the pipe, and a dreaded leak. Armed with the proper tools and the information in Chapter 8, all your water woes will soon be behind you. There, we tell you how to replace a clogged pipe, fix a leaking pipe, and increase water pressure. Who could ask for more?
When it comes to the water heater, what’s on most people’s minds is how long it’ll last before it conks out. What most people don’t understand is that, with a little care and maintenance, they can double or triple the life of their water heater — really! In Chapter 8, you learn that a little sediment removal from the bottom of the tank, replacement of a metal rod known as a sacrificial anode, and replacement of a broken dip tube (yes, there is such a thing) will keep your water heater going long after others have failed. And, as an added bonus, your utility bill will drop, and you’ll get a good night’s sleep if your water heater is rumbling in the middle of the night. We challenge you to find an undertaking that will have such a positive impact on so many facets of your life.
Fixtures
The best thing you can do for your sinks, faucets, toilets, tubs, and showers is to keep them clean. Chapter 8 offers straightforward guidance on this very topic.
The drain, waste, vent system
Chapter 9 discusses two essential elements of a plumbing system: running water and plumbing fixtures. Where does all the running water produced by faucets and all the waste produced by people and collected by fixtures go? Thankfully, it ends up in your on-site septic system or a municipal sewer system. The key is to get it from the fixture (tub, shower, sink, toilet, and so on) to one of these locations as quickly and as easily as possible.
The part of the plumbing system that performs this very important task is the drain, waste, and vent system. The drain and waste system uses gravity to carry wastewater and solid material to your home’s main sewer line, located in the basement, in the crawlspace, or under the concrete slab.
The vent system prohibits dangerous sewer gases from making their way into your home. A “trap,” or water door, at each fixture accomplishes this chore by being full of water at all times. You’re probably familiar with the chrome or black plastic U-shaped pipe under your kitchen sink. What you may not know is that the same configuration exists below your bathtub and shower and is an integral part of the design of every toilet in your home.
If the foul odors don’t make it into your home, where do they go? They’re carried out vent pipes that are connected to drainpipes and go through the roof. The vents also serve another important function. They equalize pressure in the drain and waste system that facilitates drainage and prevents the siphoning of water from the traps.
What can go wrong? Plenty! Toilets, tubs, showers, and sinks can back up and cause chaos. What’s more, slow-running drains and the foul odor that accom-pany them can drive you nuts. Don’t wait another moment. Set yourself and your drains free with the information in Chapters 7, 8, and 9 . Don’t waste another moment, because all your plumbing problems will soon be down the drain.
The heating, cooling, and ventilating systems
Heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) — without these systems our homes would be little more than the caves that primitive civilization once occupied. How important are these systems? You tell us. Try turning off your heating system in the dead of winter or your air-conditioning system when a heat wave sends the mercury soaring above 100 degrees. It’s no wonder that these systems are routinely referred to as “comfort systems” by heating and air-conditioning professionals. After all, their mission is to provide comfort, regardless of the climate or weather conditions.
There’s more to a home-comfort system than heating and air conditioning, of course. Studies show that most Americans spend more than 90 percent of their time indoors, so the quality of the indoor air has as much to do with health as it does comfort. That’s where ventilation comes in. Without adequate ventilation, heat, humidity, air pollutants, and odors can build up inside a home, causing serious health problems.
You can read about all these systems and find out how to maintain them in Chapter 10.
Heating
Home heating systems, also known as furnaces, come in various shapes, sizes, and configurations and are fueled by a host of different types of energy, including natural gas, oil, propane, wood, coal, and even the sun. The common system styles include forced air, hydronic (water), steam, gravity, electric resistance, radiant, and solar. One thing that all the systems have in common, regardless of the style or the energy that powers them, is their need for periodic maintenance.
Cleaning, lubrication, burner adjustment, and filter replacement, which we tell you about in Chapter 10, are among the most common maintenance tasks needed to keep a furnace running at peak efficiency. The more efficient a system, the less it costs to operate, the less energy it uses, and the longer it lasts.
Air conditioning
In 1902, Dr. Willis Carrier invented refrigerant air conditioning. Concerned that his new invention would receive a cool reception, he staged a boxing match to showcase this never-before-used technology. Although boxing remains a popular sport, it can’t begin to compare to the phenomenon that air conditioning has become. Today, a whopping 30 million homeowners cool their homes with central air conditioning. In addition, another 18 million homeowners cool one or more rooms in their homes with a room air conditioner. That’s a lot of cooling!
All air conditioners, whether window- or wall-mounted units or whole-house central air-conditioning systems, o
perate on the same principle. A fan sucks warm indoor air across a series of cool coils that contain a refrigerant. The cooled air is then blown back into the room. Amazingly, the refrigerant absorbs the heat and then exhausts it outdoors through another system of coils and fans.
The maintenance requirements for a home cooling system don’t differ dramatically from those of its heating counterpart. In many cases, the systems are connected, sharing the same ductwork, blower, or other components. Cleaning, lubricating, and keeping the refrigerant level up are the most common maintenance tasks associated with a cooling system. (Many of these tasks should be performed by a professional, depending on what kind of system you have.) Maintain your cool by checking out Chapter 10.
Ventilation systems
There are two types of ventilation: passive and active. The former uses physics and natural air currents, while the latter incorporates some type of energized mechanical device. Passive systems can include a mechanical device so long as it isn’t energized. A roof-mounted wind turbine is an example of passive attic ventilation.
Mechanically powered exhaust fans in the attic, bathroom, kitchen, laundry, and basement are active means of improving ventilation, reducing indoor humidity, removing pollutants, and improving indoor air quality.
Here, again, cleaning and lubrication top the list when it comes to maintaining a home’s ventilation systems. After you read Chapter 10, you can breathe easy knowing that you can keep your home’s ventilation system, and the people it serves, healthy.
Interior walls and ceilings
For the purposes of home maintenance, there isn’t much that you can do to maintain interior wall structure, per se. It’s the material that is on the interior walls that requires attention now and then. The same goes for the ceiling.
Drywall is the most common finish for walls and ceilings in homes built since the 1950s. Before that time, plaster was the material of choice for interior wallcovering.
Although drywall is a time- and cost-efficient building material, it doesn’t have the rigidity and resistance to damage that plaster does. By the same token, maintaining drywall is a heck of a lot easier than keeping plaster in shape. A nick here, a gouge there, a hole here, and a crack there — these are, without doubt, sights that are seen on the walls and ceiling of almost any home. They’re often the result of a doorknob crashing through the wall, a shift in the earth, foundation settlement, and the ever-present roughhousing by little ones.
Patching holes and cracks in walls and ceilings, cleaning grit and grime, and painting are by far the most pervasive maintenance tasks that folks encounter with their walls and ceilings. Cleaning, patching, and painting — it’s all in Chapter 11.
Floors and interior doors
Floors. You can’t live with them, and you can’t live without ’em! Maintenance-starved floors can be summed up in three words: squeaky, creaky, and dirty. Sounds more like the members of a punk-rock group than a list of maintenance woes.
As for interior doors, they’re particularly important elements in your home — particularly when they’re located at the entrance to a bedroom or bathroom — if you get our drift. Do they close easily and securely? Do they stay open without the need for rocks or paperweights in their paths?
Floors
Floors get the most wear and tear of anything in a home. Cleaning is the single most effective means of cutting down on the deterioration of a floor. Frequent vacuuming and spot-cleaning can more than double a carpet’s life span. And if you’re looking for a way to keep the finish on your vinyl and hardwood flooring looking good, the answer is as close as a broom and dustpan. The grit and grime underfoot that we track into our homes acts like sandpaper that can turn a rich finish into a work in progress. The same holds true with ceramic tile and other types of flooring. Chapter 12 explains that when it comes to flooring, cleanliness is next to godliness.
Are squeaks in your floor driving you to the edge? You’re not alone. They are, without a doubt, one of the most common home-maintenance issues and, aside from leaks, a contractor’s biggest nightmare. Good news! Quieting a squeaking floor isn’t brain surgery. Better news: We tell you how to do it in Chapter 4.
Doors
Open, close; open, close; slam shut! Interior doors get more than their share of use and the accompanying wear and tear. Beyond the occasional patch that needs to be made due to an errant clothes hanger or other hurling object that goes part in parcel with a disagreement between siblings (speaking from experience), door hinges can become loose, which can make a door really hard to open or close; the marriage between a latch and strike plate can become strained and prevent a door from being securely closed or locked; a pocket door can be jammed in its pocket; and it seems like sliding wardrobe doors are always coming off their tracks. So, if your home is experiencing some of these common door dilemmas, we suggest that you open the door to Chapter 12 for help on how to solve the problems once and for all. Door, er, case closed!
Cabinets and countertops
In the building trades, cabinets and countertops are referred to as finishes. We, on the other hand, like to refer to cabinets and countertops as your home’s furniture. Like your home’s furniture, aside from occasionally tightening a screw here or there, the biggest maintenance challenge that faces each is cleaning. Grit and grime from cooking and sticky fingers are the most common cleaning tasks with these things. The cleaning means and methods vary from finish to finish, as you can read about in Chapter 13.
Aside from keeping your cabinets looking good, cabinet doors, like interior doors, have hinges and hardware that, from time to time, need lubricating and adjusting, as do the cabinet drawer glides and hardware. After you read Chapter 13, your cabinets will, indeed, be like other fine furniture in your home.
In days gone by, countertops in most homes consisted simply of ceramic tile, plastic laminate, or linoleum with a metal edge. As with other home finishes, countertops have come a long way. Today, linoleum has all but disappeared, ceramic tile has remained strong, plastic laminate is enjoying renewed interest, and an array of solid surface materials are the rage.
Scratches in plastic laminate; stained, cracked, or mildew-laden grout; and grungy caulk are among the most common complaints that folks have about their counters. Accordingly, Chapter 13 offers solutions to all these problems and then some.
Appliances
A well-maintained appliance is both energy efficient and safe. In Chapter 14, we tell you how to maintain your cooktop, oven, range hood, microwave, dishwasher, refrigerator, freezer, washing machine, and clothes dryer, so that you get maximum efficiency and safety from them. As a bonus, we include a host of our special “people-friendly” cleaning solutions that require less elbow grease and are safer for you, your family, and the environment.
Fireplaces: Traditional and gas
Today, a fireplace is rarely used as a primary source of home heating due to its poor efficiency. Nevertheless, fireplaces remain popular because they provide a cozy atmosphere and romantic appeal. More than any other element of a home, a fireplace represents warmth and comfort.
Not all fireplaces are created equal. Fireplaces built 50 to 100 years ago were constructed of solid stone or brick. After World War II, the fireplace became more of a decorative feature than a viable source of heat. Consequently, solid stone and brick were replaced by less pricey variations, such as the free-standing metal fireplace and “zero-clearance” prefabricated models. The latter have been used almost exclusively in new construction in the last 20 years as a means of trimming building costs.
Cozy and romantic as it may be, a poorly maintained fireplace can be one of your home’s most deadly elements. If you have a fireplace, following the advice in Chapter 15 is imperative. Regardless of the age or style of construction of your fireplace, you have to follow certain maintenance routines to ensure that the fireplace is safe.
The firebox, glass doors, screen, damper, spark arrestor, flue, and chimney require ongoing maintenance. Al
though all aspects of a fireplace are important, the integrity of the firebox and flue are of prime importance. Creosote, a byproduct of burning wood, can collect on the interior of a flue, and, when ignited, it can explode with the force of several sticks of dynamite. Consequently, one of the most important fireplace-related maintenance tasks is cleaning to prevent creosote buildup.
In addition to regular chimney inspection and cleaning, cleaning and adjusting the glass doors and screen, cleaning and lubricating the damper, and making sure the spark arrestor is in tip-top shape are the most common preventive maintenance tasks.
Feel like a fire? Check out Chapter 15 first! It may save your house — and your life!
Your home-safety systems
Repairing a leaking roof, quieting a squeaking floor, or making sure that your heating and cooling system is operating at peak performance are important and beneficial tasks. However, in the grand scheme of all things home, nothing is more important than making sure that your home is safe.