Q-Our family room is behind the garage and there’s no basement under this room. The floor consists of an 8-inch-thick concrete slab with a 36-inch-deep concrete block foundation around the perimeter.
Several heating and air conditioning ducts go under the slab floor.
My problem is that the floor has settled so that it slopes from the center of the room to one corner, with a drop of as much as 1 1/2 or 2 inches in that corner.
The floor is covered with oak-parquet wood blocks that I originally installed. The settling seems to have stabilized, so I want to take up the wood flooring and level the floor.
I’m a pretty good do-it-yourselfer and plan to do this work myself. How can I remove the wood-parquet flooring without damaging the blocks so that I can reuse them, and what should I use to level the surface of the concrete after I take up the wood flooring?
A-Since the flooring is cemented down, you’ll have to scrape the wood blocks up as carefully as you can. Use a scraping tool such as a stiff, wide-blade putty knife or a long-handled scraper of the kind sold for scraping ice off a sidewalk.
No one can guarantee that the parquet squares can all be saved, but if you’re careful, chances are most will be reusable.
As far as leveling the slab is concerned, you’ll have to first remove all of the old felt and any adhesive used to apply it, either by scraping or grinding it off with a floor surfacing machine.
Then you can trowel on and “feather out” a layer of latex or acrylic underlayment cement-sold in most masonry supply houses, as well as by flooring dealers.
I should warn you that not only will this project be a sizable, time-consuming one, but the troweling of the underlayment also can be tricky for an inexperienced amateur.
A-Since your problem occurs only when the washing machine is in use, anti-hammer devices-small air chambers that act as “shock absorbers” when the water flow is suddenly shut off-are needed only next to the washing machine.
You can either buy and install ready-made units, or you can make your own anti-hammer chambers by using two lengths of pipe, each 18 to 20 inches long and capped at the upper end. The capped end must be air-tight.
One length of pipe is teed into the cold-water line right behind the cold-water spigot and the other one, behind the hot-water spigot.
If you’re reasonably familiar with plumbing work, there’s no reason you can’t make these air chambers and install them yourself.
Q-We plan to build an extra bedroom in our basement, but there is a water pump in one corner that’s a bit noisy. We’re going to enclose this pump, leaving an access door that will permit servicing when necessary. What type of insulation will quiet the pump?
A-The most efficient acoustical insulation you can use is a special lead-and-foam sandwich-type of material that’s widely used in industrial applications, as well as in boats and other places where noisy machinery can be a problem.
You can buy or order this material from most dealers who sell acoustical insulation, as well as from many marine-supply outlets. It comes in various thicknesses and should be applied to all walls inside the enclosure surrounding your water pump, as well as over the top and on the floor.
Don’t forget to insulate the access door and to apply foam stripping around the edges of the door to insulate it.
Q-I had a new wood deck built against the back of my house last year. The builder said he used all pressure-treated lumber so that no maintenance would be required. However, there are some small knots that I’m worried about because water collects in these holes when it rains.
Is there some kind of filler I can use to smooth over these holes?
A-Most wood fillers, even if suitable for exterior use, probably would not stand up for very long on a wood-deck floor. If you’re concerned about possible rotting, you don’t have to do anything because the lumber is pressure-treated.
However, if you want to fill the holes for aesthetic or safety reasons, then your best bet would be an epoxy filler.
Use a clear two-part epoxy or color it to blend in with the wood. Experiment first to see how it dries. Incidentally, even though the treated lumber won’t rot, it can splinter and crack if not sealed or protected, so I would advise applying a suitable wood-deck sealer or stain every year or two.
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Have a question about home repair problems? Write to Bernard Gladstone in care of Your Place, Chicago Tribune, 435 N. Michigan Ave., Chicago, Ill. 60611. Questions of general interest will be answered in future columns. Sorry, letters cannot be answered personally.
