ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, January 7, 1996 TAG: 9601110144
SECTION: HOMES PAGE: E1 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: Hints for Homeowners
SOURCE: STEVE ELDER
Here are several questions from readers, with some editing for brevity. If you don't see your question here it will be answered by mail, so keep them coming.
Q: I have a buyer for my home, but am confused about a repair she requested. Her home inspector told her that a number of electrical outlets were ungrounded. I had paid an electrician to install 3-prong outlets in my kitchen and office, and these are the ones the inspector cited. What is the story?
A: It appears that one of the professionals is in error. Either the home inspector's tester was faulty or the outlets are in fact ungrounded. If you have two-prong outlets in your home, it is an older home. The question is, how old? Your electrician may have assumed that your house had the older, metal-armored cable, commonly called ``BX.'' Since the metal cable sheathing is itself a ground, the new three-prong outlet can be grounded by running a ground wire from the green screw on the outlet to the junction box. However, in the late '40s and early '50s a transitional cloth-covered wire was manufactured without a grounding wire - unlike the new plastic-sheathed wire (``Romex'') now generally in use.
If your house has this cloth-covered wire, then running a grounding wire to the junction box won't help, because the box is not grounded. To make it right, a grounding wire has to be run from each outlet back to the main panel or the nearest grounded plumbing pipe (costly!) or, according to recent codes, by replacing the first outlet on the circuit with a GFI breaker outlet. Consult a licensed electrician for help and more detail.
Q: We're thinking of buying a modular home, but my father has warned us against prefab housing. The models we're looking at really look great, though. Can you give us an opinion?
A: Go for it! Your father is thinking of the prefab houses built in the '40s and '50s, and he's right. They were flimsy structures with walls so thin you could use them for origami. However, today's modular homes are another thing entirely. They are generally well-constructed modules built under factory-controlled conditions, then assembled onsite. I've inspected a number of them over the years and found them to be very good. My main caution would be to check out whoever is doing the onsite assembly. I have found some careless assembly work on occasion.
Q: We have a beautiful older home in Raleigh Court. The kitchen is quaint but convenient and doesn't really need remodeling but once in a while we notice a fairly putrid smell coming from the drain. I've tried all sorts of drain cleaners, but nothing seems to help. Do we need new plumbing? That could get expensive.
A: Check the trap under the kitchen sink. If it looks like a sideways letter S, that may be your problem. Though a fair amount of them are still in use, ``S'' traps are no longer permitted by the plumbing code, because the trap can be sucked dry by siphon action, particularly if you pull the drain plug on a full sink. When there is no water in the trap there is nothing to stop sewer gas emanating from the drain system. Have your plumber install a ``P'' trap with a self-venting device (cost should be under $100.) Or if cash flow doesn't permit that, just run a little water in the sink after you've drained it, in order to refill the trap. Related hint: do the same for basement floor drains.
Q: My heat pump looks like a block of ice. A contractor told me I need a new one, but this one's only 6 years old. It's not doing very well. Should I replace it?
A: Probably not. It's always possible for anything to fail prematurely, but it is statistically unlikely. The reason your heat pump is not doing well is precisely because it's iced up. The compressor is working; otherwise it wouldn't have iced up in the first place. What needs checking is the defrost timer. It is either incorrectly set for your area or has malfunctioned. Ice will form on the outside coils in damp weather even if the outside temperature is above freezing, because the coils are well below freezing. What the defrost timer does is tell the heat pump to switch briefly to cooling mode so that the outside coils heat up and melt the ice.
When this happens, most systems will turn on the back-up electric heat to keep the house from cooling down during the defrost cycle. On some models the defrost function is automatic and will not activate if there is no ice present. Check with another heating contractor.
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