Show farat 4 baid gyro gy ro the ni s HOUSE by roger 11 whitman il tej Q roger B whitman service settlement of new house A A NY newly built house can be ex XA pecked to show cracks in plaster walls and elsewhere through the effects of settlement settlement occurs as the foundations are forced deeper into the earth by the weight of the house and also by the shrinking of timbering as it dries out settlement of the foundations can be prevented by adjusting th the e size and thickness of the footings to the th e character of the ground wide wid e footings for ground that is soft or that has been filled and narrower it if the ground is firm and solid the greatest shrinkage in timbers will be in in the cross section that is in breadth and thickness if there are many more layers of timber in the framework of an outside wall than in that of an inside wall the outside wall will settle more than the other the walls should be so designed that they have the same of timbers settlement will then be equal in all parts of the house and there should be no cracking of plaster or distortion of door frames some degree of settlement cannot be avoided and cracking is worse when it is greater in one part of the house than in another with eq equal ual settlement there is no trouble bathroom decoration decolati Deco rati on question how can I 1 cover or remove an enamel combination of orchid and black from my bathroom walls I 1 should like to finish the walls with white enamel answer if the walls are now tiled the color can be changed only by sandblasting sand blasting or with an acid treatment that will eat into the glazed surface which will then hold enamel if the surfaces are of plaster or s a tile substitute the enamel can be taken off with a paint remover another method would be to cut the glaze of the enamel by rubbing with medium coarse sandpaper which would give a tooth for new enamel to bond with however if the black is not removed more coats of enamel must be used to hide it than would be needed over a lighter color clogged drain question the drain pipe outside my house has very little pitch and makes a right turn it frequently clogs with grease at the angle the only way to clear it out is through a plug can you make any suggestions answer one way to get around that trouble is to install a grease trap under the kitchen sink which would separate out the grease before it could reach the drain pipe the trap would require occasional cleaning but this would be a much simpler matter than your present arrangement A good plumber should be able to supply the trap land and install it baseboard crack question through settlement there is a crack up to three eighths inch wide between flooring and baseboard the house is 14 months old Is it time to close the crack by moving the quarter round answer you can do that job at any time provided you do it correctly the strip of should not be nailed either to the baseboard or to the flooring but with long nails put in diagonally to pass through the open joint between flooring and baseboard and into studs and other tir timbers behind this will keep the crack closed regardless of settlement porcelain sink question I 1 am told that lemon juice will injure a porcelain sink and that hot water in which potatoes have been boiled will make a stain Is this true answer any kind of an acid will eat into ordinary porcelain on plumbing fixtures but fixtures of good quality and especially sinks and dra inboards are finished with acid proof porcelain stains in sinks can usually be removed with a liquid bleach |