Jul 12, 2014 7 min read

Q. I own a contemporary house with a dirt-floor crawl space under part of it. Recently mice and voles have tunneled into the floor from the outside. Pest control has been called in to deal with them, but I want to cement over that dirt floor. The crawl space is hard to access, you can’t stand up in there, and the surface is uneven. There is even bedrock ledge in part of it. Should my husband cement over the floor by hand, bit by bit? We don’t have a lot of money to throw at this. The space is roughly 20 feet by 20 feet. Any ideas much appreciated!

A. A concrete slab laid by hand, even a thin one, is not worth the miserable hard work your husband would have to do. Having a pro do it is best but more expensive than you’d like. Try this: Buy sheets of polyethylene or vinyl, the thickest you can get, and lay them on the dirt with the extra going up the sides. Weigh them down with heavy timbers set against the walls, and see what happens.

Q. I have owned my condo for more than a decade, and the number of cracks in the plaster walls has increased tremendously the past few years. I would like to repaint, but the walls will need to be replastered. It was suggested to me that 1/8-inch sheetrock be installed, plastered, then painted. Is this correct?

A. I think that the plaster job is a skimcoat on blueboard, but why the number of cracks has increased is a good question. Perhaps the “skim” wasn’t the right thickness? Call a skimcoat plasterer to see whether he or she can apply another coat or may have to add an underlayment.

Q. Ten months ago I moved into a rented two-bedroom condo. When first looking at the unit, I noticed an odor in a bedroom but thought the space just needed to be aired out. The odor is offensive, but others say it smells like soap or hand cream. I do not use the room because of the odor. I have tried airing it out for long periods (even in the winter), burning scented candles, sprinkling baking soda, spraying room deodorizers, vacuuming, and leaving bottles of vanilla extract open, but the odor persists.

The condo owners had a new rug installed in the room before I moved in. I think the odor comes from the carpet and installation materials and plan on having the carpet professionally cleaned. Do you think that will work?

A. I do, as I said to my wife 58 years ago.

Q. I had a window air conditioner installed recently, and a strip of foam was put around the exterior of the unit to fill in the openings. The foam stripping is not doing a good job, so I peeled it off, leaving a sticky residue on the vinyl windows that is difficult to remove. How can I get it off?

Also, what would you recommend to clean up a very dirty basement? I have swept the floor numerous times, and there is still a lot of dirt and dust. The walls are also dirty and dusty. I am not planning on refinishing the basement, but I would like to clean it up as much as possible so I can store items there.

A. Try an old faithful, paint thinner. No? Then rubbing alcohol. Still? Then ammonia and water. If none of those works, go to a hardware store and pick up some Goo Gone or other fancy brands until one does.

And regarding the basement, use a shop vac on the walls and floor. Build a wooden platform to keep stored items off the concrete.

Q. I had the same doors for 20 happy years and then moved. We had four Perma-Shield gliding doors installed at our new place, and there are lots of leaks. Is a repair possible without rebuilding 24 feet of wall? Is there some sort of storm door unit that would cover the entire assembly? Please offer a solution. It’s not Andersen’s fault; it’s the carpenter’s and he’s moved away.

A. I am not sure there is a real answer for you, because Andersen did not install them. I would appeal to Andersen for help, however. The units are under warranty, but the installation is not. If most of the leaking is under the doors, it may be that they are too close to the ground, even flush. All doors should have a full step up to allow for good drainage.

Q. Two years ago mortar between bricks on our front entrance stairs began eroding. We had it repointed. That winter the new mortar became granular and disintegrated. The same man came back, said he didn’t know what happened, and repointed the areas again. Last winter the new mortar became granular and disintegrated. I have not asked this man to return. I’ve now had opinions ranging from “This isn’t bad; wait until you need to replace the entire stair” to “It needs to be power washed, scrubbed with bleach, and then repointed after any loose mortar is removed.”

A. It’s amazing the number of “cures” you get when something goes wrong. Anything lightly packed with mortar will fail. Simple as that. The answer: Forget all of the others and chip out and remove all of the mortar, dampen the joints, buy a bag of mortar mix at any hardware store, and blend it with water to make a crumbly, not mushy, consistency. Buy a small trowel and a pointing tool, an elongated S-shaped steel bar used to pack down that mortar as compactly as possible. Mortar fails when it is loosely applied. Another cause is the use of salt products to melt snow and ice. You MUST compact the mortar. Press it in, and do not “paint” with the tool; that will release water and weaken the mix.

My father-in-law, the late Louis Bonaiuto of Connecticut, taught me these tricks when we laid brick on its wide side on the front porch floor, and while it has a roof but no walls, it is today as nice as it was when we did it 40 years ago.

Q. I am about to have stairs and six floors sanded ­upstairs in my two-family house in Dorchester. One sander says seal and then two coats of polyurethane. Next one says no need to seal, just two coats of polyurethane. Is sealing necessary? Is two coats of polyurethane sufficient? The floors are not bad, is there such a thing as a light sanding?

A. Any first clear coat on a wood floor is a sealer, so two or three coats of polyurethane will stand up well.

Q. I have a gas burner/boiler and stainless steel chimney liner. Does that need to be cleaned by a chimney sweep? Additionally, the steel exterior door to my cellar entry is rusting. Suggestions?

A. Burning gas produces nothing but water vapor (the fumes are toxic), so I don’t think there is a need to clean it. An occasional inspection would help. For your other issue, get a steel bulkhead and door that is secure, and with powder coat to avoid rusting.

Q. We have a “pre-fab” shower unit in a basement bathroom, necessitating that the wastewater be pumped up to the sewer line. Therefore, the floor of the shower is elevated to accommodate the piping to the pump. The floor appears to be fiberglass. Unfortunately a crack developed. Previous owners tried to place epoxy over it. The edges have now lifted, the floor is still not properly supported, and we are concerned water could be getting under the epoxy, below the shower floor. Could we re-epoxy the crack, or must we tear out the unit and start over?

A. To reinforce the floor and fix the crack will be more work than replacing with a properly floored unit, so you should go with a new unit.