Dear Shell,

After 24 years it is time to replace my shake roof. The type I have now is the 24″ long heavy duty type. Today there are so many options so it is difficult to make a choice. My main concern is to purchase a roof of good quality that will be fairly trouble free. One individual I have checked with has suggested either taper sawn shakes or a duroid brand called Elk Material. This is a new product I believe. Can you give me your opinion of a good roof for this climate?

Dear Shell,

I am living in a 1100sq bungalow, and the previous owners had an addition put onto the kitchen. This area became the main eating area of the house. The addition is on the north side of the house, and does not have a basement under it. It has a dirt floor under it and has insulation and poly under the floor. (The area under the floor is maybe 2.5 feet) There is also a patio door on this addition. The floor is very cold in the winter. There is a heating duct on the far north side floor, but there doesn’t seem to be much relief from that. What can I do to make this room warmer and more comfortable? Someone suggested I have another heating duct installed and heat the ground (that sounded strange to me!) Another suggestion I wondered about was to blow insulation into the area. Help! I don’t want to spend another cold winter in my kitchen!

Many Thanks!

Dear Shell,

We have an older stucco home, which was painted in the past. We want to redo the exterior because the paint is peeling off and there are cracks. I was told that new stucco would not stick well because of peeling paint. Do we have to sandblast? What about liquid vinyl?

Dear Shell,

We have a bathroom downstairs and the other day we noticed that there was no water in the bowl portion of the toilet. We also have a sump pit and pump in the bathroom area as well. We were wondering if when the pump goes on would the water in the toilet bowl evaporate? Looking forward to your reply.

Dear Shell,

I bought a log cabin with a tongue and groove pine floor that was put in a little sloppy. The spaces in between most of the boards are 1/8th and some a little wider. The floor has a medium brown stain with a varathane finish on it. I plan to drum sand the floor and have the natural pine colour. I’m not sure what to fill the cracks in with. The bigger spaces I was thinking of filling in with small strips of wood perhaps. Could I buy a separate piece of pinewood and sand it and with the sawdust mix it with a paste that you could recommend and fill in the cracks BEFORE I drum sand, or do I have to do this after I drum sand? Would it match good enough, or would I have to sand first and use the sawdust from the floor. Which method would not be as convenient? Could I clean the cracks and fill them in with the polyurethane finish that I would use for the finish without putting anything in the cracks? What do you recommend to fill in the cracks? Should I use a wood filler of some sort? Since this 20 x 18 floor is a cabin that we live in and all the furniture, TV, stove, fridge, couches, stereo, dishwasher, computer is in the one room. The only other living space is just the bathroom and bedrooms. I would like to know if we could do half the room at one time, (sand and put on the finish) so we would not have to move the fridge, stove and heavy hide-a-bed couch outside.

Dear Shell,

I live in a strata-titled high-rise concrete condominium, which is scheduled to be power washed on its exterior. This will be the second time. The first washing resulted in some damage to not only the paint, but to the concrete surface. Would you recommend that power washing be done at all on such a building? The first washing also necessitated a huge cleanup of all the black material (removed from the building) on owners’ balconies. Your opinion would be greatly appreciated, as I am concerned as an owner, that the damage to the exterior may eventually cause possible leaking in one of the few buildings left that does not have this problem already.

Thanks Shell!

Dear Shell,

I have a question for you about asphalt shingles and the problem of trying to have the manufacturer stand behind their guarantee. We moved into our new house in April 1992 and received a guarantee document showing our shingles were guaranteed for 25 years. Two years ago it became obvious that the shingles had to be replaced. My first letter went to BP Products in August 2000 and sent a further letter Feb. 2001.Two different Emco representatives have called and claimed that the fault was with the builder for not having enough ventilation and that the shingles were installed incorrectly. My builder has sent them a letter stating that the shingles and insulation were installed by professionals and were inspected by the local building inspector. We have been told by a number of local people that we may as well replace the shingles ourselves because shingle manufacturers will find some excuse for not standing behind their guarantee. We know of at least a dozen homes that have replaced their shingles in the last two years on houses that were 10 or less years old and we don’t know of any that received any help from the shingle manufacturer. I lived over 60 years in Manitoba and N.W. Ontario and have never had to replaced a roof. In last house we lived in for 20 years we had cold winters with large ice build ups in the eves trough, heavy hail storms, once hail stones over golf ball size and summer temperatures well over 30 degrees. We had no problem with our roof. Is our and many other peoples, just a B.C. problem. And have you heard other similar problems?

Dear Shell,

A fellow co-worker is building a backyard play centre with treated wood and wanted to know whether he could properly seal the treated wood with a solid stain.

Dear Shell,

What should we consider in deciding whether to get pre-hung interior doors or non pre-hung doors (what are those called?)? We just paid to have non pre-hung doors installed on our lower floor. Our contractor spent 1 1/2 days to install four doors and we had another contractor who spent 1 1/2 days filling holes, priming and painting the trim around the doors, (we’re changing from dark wood doors and trim to white panel doors and trim). Now, none of the doors close properly (some are hinge problems, some are strike plate problems) so we will be bringing the contractor back to adjust them. Our question is: would it be less expensive or less time-consuming to install pre-hung doors? Our contractor says, “no” but we don’t know enough about the differences between the two to make an informed decision. Please help us understand the difference between the two.
Thanks very much.

This is my first question ever to you. We have removed a shower caddy in our single stall bathroom. Unfortunately, it left behind a very hard contact glue, on the shower surface. We have tried to remove it with a product called Goo Gone, Vim and hard rubbing with no results. Have you any suggestions on how we might be able to remove this substance. Will anxiously await your reply.