Q-My house has a pitched roof covered with slate shingles. I have to get up near the peak of the roof to repair the television antenna’s cable, but I’m concerned about walking on the slate shingles.
The local TV repairman didn’t want to do the job. He said it was too small a job-unless he replaced the entire antenna-and he didn’t want to be responsible if he damaged any of the shingles by walking on them. I might tackle this job myself. Do you have any suggestions?
A-Walking on a slate roof can be dangerous and can cause damage if the slates are old and brittle.
Normally, any work done on such a roof, especially if it has a steep pitch, should be left to a professional. However, if you decide to tackle the antenna-repair job yourself, then I suggest you first build yourself a “chicken ladder.”
This ladder consists of a board 10 or 12 inches wide that’s long enough to reach from the peak of the roof down to within a couple of feet of the gutters at the bottom. Wood cleats are nailed to the board at 15- to 18-inch intervals to provide secure footing.
Two large shelf brackets are attached to the upper end for hooking over the peak of the roof. When in place, the chicken ladder will enable you to climb up and down without stepping on the slates and without slipping.
Q-Last winter, a leak showed up on our kitchen ceiling. We discovered that the leak came from loose bricks in the chimney.
Besides tarring the base of the chimney, would it be advisable to seal the chimney by covering all the bricks with a coating of cement?
A-It’s not clear whether you have already tarred the base of the chimney, but that’s not the way to stop the leaks. Neither is troweling a coat of cement over the entire chimney.
If the bricks are allowing water to enter, then it’s usually through the mortar joints, meaning that tuckpointing is required. A professional bricklayer should be called in to do this properly. The job involves not only applying fresh mortar around the loose bricks but also cutting out all the mortar joints and then filling them in with fresh mortar.
Make sure the bricklayer also checks the chimney cap at the top to see if it’s cracked. Water often works its way in through the top of a chimney if the cap is defective or if the cap is missing.
Q-I own a two-story, two-family house. The ceilings have recessed lighting fixtures that fit up into the ceilings.
Noises pass freely from the upstairs to the downstairs and vice versa. You can actually carry on a conversation between the two apartments, talking in a normal voice.
I once worked on a job where they solved a similar problem by installing layers of gypsum board with sheets of lead between them. Will this work in my case?
A-Chances are that much of the noise is coming through the recessed lighting fixtures that stick up into the ceiling.
One solution would be to have acoustically insulated covers or boxes built over the fixtures. Be sure, however, that the covers still allow for adequate heat dispersion.
You may be better off closing up the openings and replacing the fixtures with others that aren’t recessed.
Laminated lead and foam or lead and gypsum layers are probably the best of all acoustical barriers. But it may pay to first try insulating the ceiling between the floors and also installing carpet and thick padding upstairs.
Also, make sure you close off all openings between floors-including those around the recessed lights and any pipes that go from floor to floor.
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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.
