Renovation & Design
Renovation & Design
Try hydrogen peroxide to remove pesky stain
Question: A small kitchen mat that had a black cloth border on the bottom got wet when cleaning the floor and transferred the black dye into the beige vinyl flooring. I have tried everything I can think of (vinegar, bleach, solvents, laundry soaps and stain removers) to try to lift it or at least lighten it to no avail. Henry
Answer: Since the dye has become part of the vinyl, anything you apply to the flooring may destroy or at least discolour the vinyl. You need a product that will seep into the textile without ruining it. Vinegar does not contain a bleaching agent and will therefore not be effective. Soak the area with three per cent hydrogen peroxide, every day for several days. Take note of whether the area lightens, as you do not want a large white/yellow patch on your floor, so a little whitening at a time is ideal. Last resort is to use the Rit dye remover according to the instructions on the box.
Question: Our boat was stored over the winter, and mould developed quite badly on the carpet and the vinyl seats. Concrobium Mold Control was recommended, and it did remove a lot of the staining, and a light coat of it should protect it from further mould. Is this a product you would recommend? Do you have other suggestions? Thanks so much. Carol
Answer: Regarding the vinyl seats, I have never used or heard of Concrobium Mold Control, but the fact that it is working is cause to continue use. It may require several applications to clear the stains completely. You can also attempt to erase the marks using an art eraser, or apply mineral spirits or WD-40, these products that have had great success.
Question: Part of my grocery bill each week is spent on premium orange juice. So, I want to confirm that 100 per cent orange juice is made with oranges alone because the carton says, "never any water or sugar added." Is there anything at all added to the oranges? Norman
Answer: While many orange juice cartons/bottles claim to be 100 per cent pure premium orange juice, manufacturers often add a chemical flavouring compound known as ethyl butyrate to orange juice to enhance the flavour. The easiest observation of this may be done with your own simple experiment. Squeeze enough oranges into a cup to give yourself a few sips. Next pour yourself a cup of your favourite store-bought orange juice. Smell the difference? When flavour packs are added to "fresh" orange juice, it gives consumers the illusion the oranges are freshly squeezed. When compared side by side, most people notice a difference between fresh and store-bought juice.
Note: Every user assumes all risks of injury or damage resulting from the implementation of any suggestions in this column. Test all products on an inconspicuous area first.
Have a great suggestion or tip? Please send an email: info@reena.ca
Renovation & Design
Take caution when storing potentially harmful materials
Question: I read an article you wrote answering a question about insulation from 2011. I was wondering if you had a minute to give a stranger some input. I am an artist that uses Styrofoam boards for my projects, both extruded and expanded polystyrene. I recently moved to a studio apartment with little storage, so I have been keeping the panels under my bed. To your knowledge is this unwise or dangerous? I can’t seem to find answers online. I’m worried I may be compromising my health.
Thank you, N. Neeman.
Answer: There are many types of building materials in our homes that may pose a health concern of some sort, but some only to susceptible individuals. As long as you are a generally healthy person, with no known chemical sensitivities, the polystyrene insulation should pose little risk, as long as it does not burn.
Your question is quite unusual in nature, but one that may be of interest to many other people, especially if they use polystyrene insulation for their work, as you do. The thing I don’t understand is why you are concerned about the storage of this plastic insulation, while you are using it daily in your art work? If you are exposed to this material daily, often cutting, painting, or otherwise manipulating it for your art, does that not pose a greater potential exposure than when the material is laying untouched under your bed? I suppose you will spend more time sleeping with the foam sheathing in that location than working directly with it in your home or studio, but otherwise there should be little difference. So, my first suggestion is that if it does not cause you any health issues or harm working with it, then it should be fine to store it anywhere you want, even under your bed.
Extruded and expanded polystyrene rigid foam sheets have been in use for insulation in homes and other buildings for as long as I can remember. When I was a teenager, working evenings and Saturdays at a local building supply retailer, I remember loading this product onto lumber carts and into vehicles for customers. It often had a moderate plastic odour, but otherwise appeared to be quite benign, even when cut with a utility knife. I would expect that if this material was truly harmful to a significant number of people, there would have been class-action lawsuits, or other information on safety hazards, long ago. The only well-known concern with this type of plastic sheathing is that it will give off toxic fumes when it burns. For that reason, it should be covered with a fire-resistant sheathing when used for insulation in buildings.
There are likely many other plastics in your home that have somewhat similar chemical composition to this material. They may not be exactly the same polymers, but as long as they are not visibly deteriorating, they are usually very stable compounds. Their lack of deterioration is one of the most useful properties of these products. The only concern I would have with any petroleum byproduct in the living space is off-gassing of potentially harmful chemicals into the air. This can occur with products like cleaning solutions, paint thinners, inks, gasoline, and various other products. These have known high volatility and breathing in large quantities can be harmful. Many rigid or semi-rigid plastics may off-gas potentially harmful chemicals after initial production, but that normally will lessen the longer the product is away from the manufacturing facility. So, it stands to reason, if this material would pose a hazard simply by being present in your bedroom, you would also have to suspect the plastic lamp on your night table, the comb, hairbrush, toothbrush, hand lotion bottle, hairdryer, and makeup containers in the same space. This list may be almost endless when you actually start looking at all the plastic products that are in daily use within your home.
The last item to consider is whether you have allergies to various known items, especially a sensitivity to any chemicals. There are people who develop serious health issues when they come in contact with numerous types of chemical products, often with unknown causes. This can include sensitivity to plastics, paint, moulds, fungi, and other common household materials. Otherwise, allergies to certain foods, asthma, bee stings, yeasts, gluten, may also make one more cautious. If you don’t fall into any of these categories of individuals, then you should have little to worry about.
One precaution you may want to take is to ensure the foam sheets are prevented from coming into contact with anything that would cause melting or other forms of combustion. This means keeping it away from baseboard heaters, electrical cords and appliances, candles, smoking accessories, or anything else that would cause a fire. A good idea might be to build a box lined with drywall or cement board sheathing to store the rigid foam inside. Because this material is very light you could simply leave the box under the bed and slide the individual sheets in and out from a hinged side, or other removable covering, when needed.
Taking precautions to prevent harmful material storage in your living space is a good idea, but worrying about health issues related to the polystyrene sheets stored under your bed may be unwarranted. If you don’t have any known allergies or sensitivities to similar materials or products, protecting the insulation boards from catching fire should be your only concern.
Ari Marantz is the owner of Trained Eye Home Inspection Ltd. and the past president of the Canadian Association of Home & Property Inspectors — Manitoba (cahpi.mb.ca). Questions can be emailed to the address below. Ari can be reached at 204-291-5358 or check out his website at trainedeye.ca.
trainedeye@iname.com
Renovation & Design
Freezing condensation a concern for homeowners
Question: After a previous winter’s two weeks of sub-zero temperatures here in Calgary, what I believe to be the cold air return piping started to drip water through some tears in the insulation covering the pipe. I understand that this is caused by condensation. Apparently, this has happened before because I noticed that the steel straps holding up the pipe shows rust on them. However, it is the first time that I have noticed water dripping from the insulation wrapping the pipe. The insulated pipe has been there for at least 35 years, although the furnace was replaced 21 years ago with a mid-efficiency Lennox natural gas furnace. Can I replace this existing solid metal pipe with a flexible insulated one? I have an air intake piping that is flexible and it works fine. Your advice on this would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you.
Robert Mercer, Calgary
Answer: Replacing properly sized and installed metal ducting with lower quality materials will surely compromise airflow and should not be attempted. Finding the cold air leakage contributing to the condensation and stopping that will be a much better solution.
It is unusual, but not unheard, of to have condensation and leakage from return air ducting attached to the furnace plenum. This may occur in ducts that are located in an unheated or poorly insulated crawlspace, or if the ducts are in contact with a cold foundation wall. I am not sure where your ducts are located, but I would suspect that one of these situations is present in your home. Otherwise, there is no need to install insulation on the ducts, as they normally travel through the floors and interior walls of your heated home.
There is also another possibility, and that is the pipes you are looking at are not return air ducts, but some sort of fresh air intake. It is common for homes of a certain age to have a duct connected to a vent hood on the exterior of the home, terminating in the return air ducting. This was done to add fresh air to the home for adequate ventilation. These insulated ducts were often connected to the return air system, a fair distance away from the furnace, and were designed to passively draw fresh air into the heating system for circulation. The theory is that when the furnace blower comes on, this would pressurize the heating ducts, as the warm air is forced through to the registers in the rooms. This will put the return air ducts under lower pressure, as the heated air cools and flows back towards the furnace. This low pressure will cause fresh air from the outside to be drawn in to the return air ducting through the insulated pipe. When the furnace turns off, the pressure in these ducts will drop almost to neutral, and the cold air flow from outside will be minimal at that point in time.
Unfortunately, home systems do not always work as designed and there may be other factors in the home that cause air pressure changes. Particularly when exhaust fans are running, the clothes dryer, or kitchen range hoods are operating, it can cause the air pressure in the home to drop, drawing cold air in through the fresh air duct. In really cold weather, like your previous winter, this air can condense on its way to the furnace through the fresh air duct or return air ducting. If it is cold enough, this condensation will freeze until the weather warms. At that point, the frost will melt and leak through into the insulation or through gaps in the ducts. If it is a fresh air pipe, not the return air ducting, which is the source of your problem, replacement or re-insulation is the solution. Using pre-insulated, flexible plastic ducting for this purpose is fine, as the air coming in is under very low pressure and it doesn’t matter if it is slightly restricted. Often the insulation in this type of ducting, or fibreglass wrapped around metal pipes, will become saturated with the products of condensation and will become useless. At that point, replacement with new materials should help.
If the sweating ducts in question are return air ones directly connected to the furnace then another issue should be investigated. In that situation, there must be some area that is allowing excessively cold air to contact the metal ductwork, which is allowing the relatively warm inside to condense. Since the duct is already insulated, this is likely in a difficult to reach area, like a crawlspace. The solution is to find the source of the cold air and insulate or seal that spot. This may require insulating a previously uninsulated foundation wall or grade beam. If the ducting is installed inside an exterior wall, or directly up against a cold foundation wall, moving the duct further inside the home is the best course of action. Either way, replacing the return air duct with a flexible pipe can significantly reduce the airflow, due to the corrugations in the piping, and should not be used. Replacement with proper metal ducting materials, relocated to a warmer spot, is the right course of action, in that case.
Replacing ducts that are wet and leaking with flexible ones may not provide adequate return air to the furnace from that area. Finding the source of the cold air causing the condensation, and sealing or insulating that area, should be the proper method for eliminating the problem in your home.
Ari Marantz is the owner of Trained Eye Home Inspection Ltd. and the past president of the Canadian Association of Home & Property Inspectors — Manitoba (cahpi.mb.ca). Questions can be emailed to the address below. Ari can be reached at 204-291-5358 or check out his website at trainedeye.ca.
trainedeye@iname.com
Renovation & Design
Fresh gasket will make fridge seal good as new
Question: I was wondering how to get condensation out of my fridge. Thanks, Bev
Answer: The most common reason for condensation build-up inside the refrigerator stems from a worn gasket. Test the unit by holding a five dollar bill up to the open door. Close the door and pull on the bill. If it comes out without resistance, chances are that the seal is worn. Purchase and install a new gasket. Before replacing the gasket, remove the screws and soak it in warm water so that it is easier to work with. A new gasket will tightly seal the fridge, so that air will not transfer from outside to inside the unit.
Question: Many of the jackets and suits that I purchase are sold with an extra button. Any suggestions of how I can organize and store the buttons so that I don’t lose them? Thank you, Sherise
Answer: One option is to sew the extra button onto the inside label of the garment. Some people tape the extra button onto the blank side of a business card. Label the business card with which garment the button matches. The business card is then put inside a book style business card holder set apart specifically for spare garment buttons.
Question: Is there a difference between evaporated and condensed milk other than the fact that sweetened milk costs more?
Answer: The difference between evaporated and condensed milk is the sugar content: only one is sweetened. Both begin as whole milk. When making evaporated milk, the milk is heated until about 60 per cent of the water is evaporated. Condensed milk is made by blending whole milk with sugar (which accounts for the price difference). It is then heated until about 60 per cent of the water is evaporated. There is a difference in the flavours of both, which may make a difference when substituting one for another in recipes.
Question: My white sheets are yellowing, I imagine from body oils, that I can’t get out. I’ve tried baking soda and a few other things, but nothing is working. I just want nice white sheets again. Can you suggest anything? Thank-you, Pam
Answer: My favourite solution for brightening sheets is to soak them in washing soda and very hot water for 10 minutes. Or if you have a very large pot, boil them in the solution. Washing soda may be purchased online and at many grocery stores, in the laundry section. Fabric safe bleach is another option. Hang them outside to dry or lay them on the grass. Worst case scenario, re-dye the sheets using white Rit dye, according to the directions on the box. To prevent sheets from yellowing in the future, add a half cup vinegar to every wash.
Note: Every user assumes all risks of injury or damage resulting from the implementation of any suggestions in this column. Test all products on an inconspicuous area first.
Have a great suggestion or tip? Please send an email at: info@reena.ca. Reena Nerbas is a popular motivational presenter for large and small groups; check out her website: reena.ca.
