by Carey, James
Also keep an eye peeled for trucks in front of homes in your neighborhood. Visit or call your neighbors and ask about their experiences with the contractors who’ve been working in their homes. Also, ask if they can recommend other types of professionals. Add the ones who receive good reviews to your referral list.
When you don’t have a referral for a particular type of pro, improve the likelihood of a successful outcome by calling an established local company. Companies with roots in the community and a history of serving people in the community are unlikely to be unqualified hacks — they couldn’t stay in business if they were. Plus, they’ll be more familiar with homes like yours.
Check for licensing (where required), permits, and insurance. If you aren’t sure what the licensing requirement is in your neck of the woods, check with your municipal and county offices. These folks can also tell you what type of insurance contractors are required to have and which permits you’ll need.
When checking insurance coverage, always require certification directly from the insurance carrier, not the contractor.
For most maintenance jobs, that’s the majority of the information-gathering you need to do. You’re ready to move on to getting a price quote.
Getting a quote
If the job in question is really simple — such as a minor furnace service — the price is usually based on an hourly rate with a minimum service call or trip fee. The job isn’t very complicated, and the price is based on a few hours of work. Often, such tasks are so inexpensive that it isn’t worth getting lots of quotes — especially if you know that the company has a good reputation.
Comparing estimates for service work is a bit easier than dealing with large, complicated projects like extensive rot repair or a roof replacement. So, for most of these bigger maintenance jobs, you’ll want to get extensive and detailed quotes.
After you’ve determined the scope of the job, ask your approved pros to estimate what the job would cost and how long it would take. Try to get two or three quotes, and make sure you’re comparing apples to apples, that all the quotes encompass the same scope of work, and that all the quotes use essentially the same quality of materials.
Selecting a pro
With quotes in hand (which inevitably vary widely in price), you’re ready to assess the professionalism, skill, and experience of the pros in question and evaluate their estimates.
Even small maintenance projects require the same kind of investigation and reference-checking as major remodeling projects. With your home and money at stake, you want to make absolutely sure that you’ve hired a reputable, professional, and qualified contractor.
Never make price the most important criteria — don’t automatically choose the lowest bidder. Instead, all else being equal, you’re usually better off selecting the contractor whose price is nearest the average of the bids.
Choose an individual or firm that you feel comfortable with. Home-maintenance projects involve a certain degree of closeness.
One final piece of advice: Never, ever, ever hire someone who comes uninvited to your door offering a “special deal” on driveway coating, roofing, carpet cleaning, and so on. These unsolicited visits almost always are scams, and the only thing they’re going to do is take your money.
Part II
The Energy Envelope
In this part . . .
It’s time to roll up your sleeves, put on your safety goggles, crawl on your belly, and sometimes stand on your head. It’s you against one of the strongest forces imaginable — Mother Nature. Sun, wind, rain, and snow can give your home a real run for its money.
In this part, we show you how to protect your home’s energy envelope: the foundation, roofing, siding, windows, and exterior doors that keep you warm (or cool) and dry.
It’s not nice to fool Mother Nature. It’s even worse to let her get the best of your house.
Chapter 4
Foundation and Floor Frame Fundamentals
In This Chapter
Stopping cracks in the foundation
Caring for brick and block foundations
Keeping your basement dry
Silencing creaky floors forever
Leveling uneven floors
“A home is only as good as its foundation.” We couldn’t agree more with this familiar phrase! A sound foundation keeps other parts of a home in good working order. In this chapter, we tell you how to care for this important component of your home. We show you how to keep cracks in concrete from spreading, maintain mortar surrounding brick, control excess water, and keep your basement or crawlspace dry.
The foundation bone supports the floor frame bone, and the floor frame bone supports the subfloor bone. Together the foundation and floor surround the crawlspace or basement. In this chapter, we tell you how to rid the floor system of squeaks, sagging, and unevenness and how to care for the underside to prevent fungus and rot.
Focusing on the Foundation
The foundation is a home’s infrastructure. It supports the floor, wall, and roof structure. It helps keep floors level, basements dry, and, believe it or not, windows and doors operating smoothly. The foundation is also an anchor of sorts: It often travels deep into the ground, creating a structural bond between the house and the earth, which can be especially important if your home is built on anything other than flat ground or is in an area prone to earthquakes.
Interestingly, the origin of many leaks and squeaks can be traced to the foundation. A cracked or poorly waterproofed foundation, for example, can result in excess moisture in a crawlspace or basement. Without adequate ventilation, this moisture can condense and lead to, at best, musty odors, leaks, and squeaks, and, at worst, rotted floor framing.
There are different types of foundations and different foundation materials. The foundation of your house may be a slab, a basement, or a crawlspace, and it may be made of poured-in-place concrete, brick, concrete block, or stone. With each of these configurations come a host of specific maintenance routines that can safeguard your home’s integrity.
Types of foundations: Slabs, basements, and crawlspaces
The area below the main floor and within the foundation walls can consist of a concrete slab, a crawlspace, or a basement.
Almost all houses have one of the following foundations; some have a combination — slab in one area, for example, and a basement in another. But only a very few homes in the developed world still lie directly upon the ground without the aid of a proper foundation.
Slabs: Slab is short for concrete slab. A slab floor (see Figure 4-1) is one made of concrete poured directly onto the ground (poured in place). Slab floors are very rigid, so they don’t give the way a wood floor does, making them prone to cracking. Unlike wood, concrete floors never squeak and don’t rot.
Figure 4-1: Concrete slab.
Basements: Today, basement walls are commonly constructed of concrete block or solid concrete (which is poured in place). In the past, basement walls were sometimes constructed of brick as well. We prefer solid concrete, but, with proper engineering, concrete block is every bit as strong as solid concrete.
Crawlspaces: If you don’t have a slab foundation, you have a wood-framed floor. And if you don’t have a basement, the void between the ground and the underside of a wood-framed floor is known as the crawlspace. The clearance helps to prevent rot and termite attack that can occur when wood and dirt come into contact with each other.
Why the name crawlspace? Because you can stand up in a basement but not in a crawlspace. In a crawlspace, you have to crawl. We never admitted to being rocket scientists.
Foundation materials
The most common foundation materials are solid concrete, brick, concrete block, and stone. Each has its own advantages and disadvantages, as the following list explains:
Solid concrete (see Figure 4-2): Solid concrete foundations are made of a mixture of cement, sand, rock or gravel, and water. When poured into forms and left to dry, this pancake-batter-like blend beco
mes unbelievably rigid. Steel reinforcing bars are used within the concrete to create added strength. Because of its rigidity, concrete can crack when the earth moves, which can lead to foundation shifting and cracks that can undermine the home’s structural integrity. Water leaks also can result.
Figure 4-2: Solid concrete.
Concrete block (see Figure 4-3): Concrete-block foundations are very popular because they can be built by anyone who can lay one block atop another (making the concrete block the DIYer’s foundation material of choice). Unlike brick, large holes within the blocks allow for steel reinforcing and mortar — both of which add super strength to the finished wall. Each block is joined with mortar on all four sides. Mortar has a tendency to deteriorate or crack (or both) over time and needs to be regularly maintained. Cracks in mortar can allow leaks.
Figure 4-3: Concrete block.
Brick: Brick foundations aren’t common today. Their strength is inferior to that of other foundation materials, because they normally don’t contain steel reinforcing. Old brick foundations still exist, but they’re being replaced or retrofitted with concrete as they begin to fail.
If your foundation is built of brick (more likely if your house was built before the 1930s), be sure to read the sections of this chapter on dealing with efflorescence (lime buildup resulting from water evaporation), moisture control, grading and drainage, and especially tuck-pointing. If your brick foundation is not reinforced with steel (and it probably isn’t) or it’s crumbling, consult a structural engineer right away to determine what can be done to improve the integrity of the foundation.
Note: An unreinforced brick foundation in good condition can be reinforced by capping the foundation with concrete reinforced with steel.
Stone: If a foundation is composed of massive chunks of granite, the foundation is probably incredibly strong — the Egyptians proved that. Other than granite, though, just about every other kind of stone foundation can be compared to brick. And, like brick, stone foundations usually lack a key element — reinforcing steel.
Fixing Common Foundation Problems
A variety of maladies can occur on all the different types of foundations: efflorescence, cracks, seepage, spalling (chipping) and disintegration (caused by water getting into the foundation and freezing and thawing), and settling. Fortunately, we tell you how to deal with all these problems in the following sections.
Is there a fungus among us? Dealing with efflorescence
One of the most common foundation ailments is a white powdery substance that appears on the ground under your home, on the floor framing, or on your foundation or basement walls. Although most people mistake the white powder for a fungus (fungus is typically green or black), it’s really efflorescence, a growth of salt crystals caused by evaporation of salt-laden water.
Efflorescence appears when mineral salts in the concrete or mortar leak to the surface. Although efflorescence is not particularly destructive, it is unsightly and can, in some cases, result in splintering or minor deterioration of the surface it grows on.
To remove efflorescence, follow these steps:
1. Using a wire brush, remove as much of the efflorescence as you can.
2. Using a nylon brush, apply a vinegar solution (1 cup vinegar in 1 quart water) or, for really tough jobs, use a muriatic acid solution (1 cup of muriatic acid in 9 cups of water).
Muriatic acid is swimming pool acid. You can find it in swimming pool supply stores as well as many hardware stores and home centers.
Working with acid can be dangerous. Always wear safety goggles, rubber gloves, and protective clothing, and always have plenty of ventilation. Add the acid to the water in a plastic bucket. Adding the water to the acid can produce a dangerous reaction.
3. Allow the solution to stand for 10 to 15 minutes, but don’t let it dry.
4. Thoroughly rinse the area with fresh water.
More than one application may be required to achieve the desired result.
Unless the soil in your area is particularly alkaline, efflorescence will usually cease to exist after the concrete or mortar is a couple of years old. If the efflorescence continues to rear its ugly head, check out the nearby sidebar.
Getting rid of the repeat offender: Efflorescence that won’t go away
If the efflorescence continues to appear, you can usually solve the problem by sealing the concrete, masonry, or stone with a penetrating concrete sealer. Use a high-quality silicone concrete and masonry sealer. These sealers are generally clear and last for six months to a year depending upon the climate.
We don’t recommend using inexpensive “water seals” because they don’t offer the high level of protection that better-quality, pricier products do. Keep in mind that you need to apply the cheaper stuff more frequently, which generally ends up costing more money in the long run.
You can apply concrete sealers with a brush, roller, or a pump garden sprayer. Make sure that the concrete is clean before you seal it, though. A good power washing with a pressure washer or water blaster prior to application of the sealer offers the greatest penetration and lasting quality.
Being wise about cracks
Foundations are rigid and tend to crack over time. Minor cracks, though unsightly, are not normally cause for alarm. Major cracks, on the other hand, indicate substantial movement and can undermine the home’s structural integrity. Therefore, you can’t just ignore cracks in a foundation or concrete slab. Filling in these cracks and stopping them from spreading is essential to preventing serious structural issues in your foundation.
If your foundation or structural slab has an excessive number of smaller cracks or cracks that are larger than 1/4 inch in width, have it examined by a structural or civil engineer to assess the extent of the damage and to determine the source. If the damage is severe, consult a geotechnical or soils engineer, who can suggest solutions to correct the problem once and for all.
Sealing cracks in concrete foundations and slabs
Even in the best of conditions, concrete moves a fraction of an inch here or there, not always resulting in a crack. And, believe it or not, concrete expands on hot days and shrinks when the weather is cold!
Therefore, when patching cracks in concrete, use a product that gives a little. The more elastic the product, the less likely a crack will reappear. One of our favorite patching products for cracks that are wider than 1/8 inch is a vinyl concrete patch, which usually comes packaged dry in a box.
To repair a small crack, follow these steps:
1. Clean the area and get rid of any loose chips.
For cracks wider than 1/8 inch, use a small sledgehammer and a cold chisel to chip away loose material, as shown in Figure 4-4.
Figure 4-4: Chipping away loose material in a crack.
2. Mix the concrete patch to the consistency of a thin paste.
We like to mix the dry patch powder with latex instead of water to give the product some added elasticity and adhesion. You can find latex additives, like patching compounds, at most hardware stores or home centers. Also, mix only a small amount of paste at a time because most products tend to dry pretty quickly.
3. Mist the crack with water and then trowel the patching paste into the crack with a trowel.
Wetting the crack with water before installing a patching product prevents the moisture in the patch material from being drawn out by dry concrete, which causes the patch material to crack and not form a solid bond.
If the existing concrete surrounding the patch is rough, you can match the finish by sweeping it with a broom.
4. Use a trowel to scrape away any excess paste to create a smooth and uniform finish.
5. Clean up your tools and buckets immediately to avoid the patching compound drying in and on them.
If you can’t find vinyl concrete patch material, mix one part Portland cement to three parts sand; then add enough concrete bonding agent to make a stiff mixture about the consistency of mashed potatoes. Take a small part of the mixture and
add more bonding agent so that it becomes a soupy consistency. Brush the soupy mixture into the crack using an old paintbrush, and then pack the stiff mixture into the crack with a metal trowel. Use the trowel to create a smooth finish.