Dec 13, 2014 4 min read

Q. Our relatively new refrigerator, which was unplugged to be moved into a new place, now has a horrid smell in the water/ice maker. We have emptied the ice maker and filled pitchers of water to see whether there is anything in the line, but the smell won’t go away. Our plumber said once you get that smell, you can’t get rid of it. Do you have a solution? We were so excited to finally get an ice maker and water in the door, and now we can’t even use them!

A.That’s a new one on the Handyman, but I don’t think your plumber’s opinion is permanent. Did you drain any water before moving the refrigerator? Perhaps some water dropped to the overflow tray at the bottom. If you drained the water and it stayed awhile in the overflow tray, it will smell to high heaven. You could try draining the unit and emptying the tray and then cleaning the tray with bleach, but I think it is wiser to call your appliance store, especially since the refrigerator is relatively new, for an answer.

Q. I just purchased a single-family home in July and moved in in late August. The interior had been painted right before we moved in, and shortly after we started living there, I noticed cracks. Some of them were clearly cracks that had been there before and had been spackled over, but others were new. Then after four days of rain in October, we had a roof leak and I noticed even more cracks. There seem to be new cracks every day or existing cracks that get bigger or longer. And it seems like the house is settling; I see small gaps where I don’t remember finding them before. After we bought the property, we did “disturb” some things: We had the original windows replaced and the house insulated, but other than that we have not done major work. I think it’s safe to say there’s a problem, but whom should we call to look at the house? Does this sound like a water-infiltration problem, a foundation problem, or both?

A. Did you order the paint job, or was it the previous owners? If the latter, it was put on willy-nilly, slapdash, and overly thick, and when the paint dried too fast, it cracked in many places. Or you just got a very bad paint job. Also, spackled-over cracks are bound to crack again. I don’t think the roof leak caused the cracking. (The leak should have been caught by the house inspector.) Settling? Symptoms don’t show that quickly and might be due to expansion and contraction of the house itself. So, have an architect, builder, or general contractor inspect the damage and make recommendations. The windows and insulation are unlikely to have an effect unless the workers were inexperienced and heavy-handed.

Q. We have an older home with forced-hot water-radiator heat. The furnace is about 10 years old. Last winter we started hearing cracks. It seems to happen as the heat goes up after being cold for a while. Some of them can be rather loud – kind of sounds like cracking of the knuckles. Is this harmful to the system? Any advice or suggestions would be appreciated. P.S. The cellar does not have insulation in the ceiling where the pipes are. I am not sure if that would help.

A. The copper pipes are expanding and contracting when the heat comes on, and when it cools itself down. Sometimes the pops and clangs can be loud enough to crack pipes, but usually they are quiet, like a slow tick, tick, tick.