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Q. How do you hang pictures on old walls (wood slats) without all the plaster crumbling?
Put a square of masking tape or duct tape on the spot where you nail. The slats (lath) are bouncy, but the plaster is thick enough to take a nail, especially if it is a picture hanger nail, which is driven in at an angle. If that doesn't work, drive a round-headed screw through the plaster and into the wood lath.
Rust-colored windows
Q. My modular house has good (I guess) double-glazed windows. They work OK, but recently a rust-colored film has appeared on the outside glass, mostly on the east side.
I tried washing, even scraping with a razor blade scraper, without success. I called a glass company, and they are coming tomorrow. How can I clean them?
I think that stain is from water that has a lot of mineral in it, making the film rust colored. The hot sun might have helped, too. Try cleaning the glass with Zud, sold in hardware stores. Or clean with paint thinner and scrape with a razor scraper. Or, rub with Mr. Clean Magic Eraser.
Condo roof replacement
Q. We live in a condo where roofs are being replaced - mostly because of leaks from ice dams on some units. The new roof will have continuous vents between the soffit and the new built-out gutters. Our unit has an 18-by-24-inch vent on the end of the building venting our attic. This vent has an exhaust fan that operates on a thermostat. The condo folks say we must remove the fan so they can completely close the louvered vent. They claim the vent will interfere with air circulation from the new roof edge vents to the ridge vent. Do you agree the closure of the wall vent is necessary? I'd like to suggest we at least try not removing the fan but closing the vent and see what happens. Does that sound good to you?
Sounds good to me. I agree with the condo people for once, that the gable vent and fan are not needed with a ridge vent and soffit vents. They can interfere with the efficiency of the ridge and soffit vents. So, convince them to cover the gable vent and leave the fan in place, but don't let it run. If everything works, you can make the closure permanent.
Self-sharpening mower
Remember the item recently on sharpening a reel (push) mower? There are places that sharpen them, but Charles Reynolds of Melrose, Mass., called to tell us that reel mowers can sharpen themselves as they move, because their blades cut grass with a scissors motion. Said Reynolds: "On each end of the cutter bar (the one you can't move), there is a set screw. Loosen one and tighten the other, ever so lightly, and then when the blades move as you mow, they will sharpen up and keep sharp."
