Category archive for ‘Ask the Woodchucks’ 
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Simple home tweaks that make a world of difference
If your 911 light switch – the one that flashes the outside light to help the 911 responders find your house – stops working, it may not be broken.
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A look back on the first Woodchucks repair day of 2012
This is the start of the eleventh year the Woodchucks have been working in the Millgrove Woodshop. We are very happy with our facility, and as a way to give back to the community, we open the shop twice each year and invite residents to bring broken wooden furniture and other objects to the shop that need to be repaired. Thirty to forty of our most experienced woodworkers volunteer a day to repair these objects.
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Patio Paver Sanding
If you have a paver patio, walkway, or driveway and the sand needs to be replenished between the pavers, there are two alternatives. The best alternative is to use polymeric sand, which bonds the pavers together, keeps out weeds, and is less susceptible to ants. Before you go out and buy a bag of polymeric sand, read on so you know what is involved in getting the sand into the joints properly.
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Cleaning Garage Floors
Spring is finally here, and there is a rather lengthy list of traditional spring cleaning tasks that must either be done or avoided. Winter has a way of making a mess in the garage. The concrete floor has an accumulation of sand with salt residue mixed in. If your car has any leaks, there may be some oil spots. Another problem may be rust stains.
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Securing Your Home, part 2
As most of you know, there have been a number of break-ins in Sun City. These have been daylight events where the front door was forced open, and money and jewelry were taken. On many of the homes, there is a double pane window the full height of the door on one or both sides of the door. Since the deadbolt on the doors of these houses is a single cylinder, i.e. there is no key lock on the inside, a burglar can break the window, reach in and turn the knob on the deadbolt to open the door.
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House Security
As most of you now know, there have been about 12 break-ins in Sun City in the past year. These have been daylight events where the front door was forced open and money and jewelry were taken. In an earlier column we suggested that the short screws holding the latch plate to the doorjamb be [...]
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Fixing a wobbly chair
This is the 10th year the Woodchucks have opened the shop to the community to repair furniture and other wooden objects. This event, appropriately named Ask the Woodchucks, is held twice a year in April and in October. 25 to 35 woodchucks donate a day of their time to repair furniture for residents of Sun City. The most common item repaired is a wobbly chair. We typically fix 18 chairs each time the event is held, or 36 chairs per year.
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Surge Protection for your electronics
Every year, we add to our homes more electronics that are vulnerable to power surges. You probably added another device this Christmas. Some of the devices I am talking about are computers, the circuit boards in your refrigerator, oven, microwave, dimmer switches, your TV, DVD player, garage door opener, and the GFI outlets (Ground Fault Interrupt outlets in your bathroom and kitchen). The repair bill for a single surge on an unprotected house can exceed $10,000.
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Honey, the dishes are not getting clean; we need a new dishwasher
Several Woodchucks have reported lately that their dishwashers have not been getting the dishes clean, and there is water on the floor inside the dishwasher that does not drain properly.
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Annual Preventative Maintenance
As we start the new year of 2012, it’s appropriate to remind all residents of some preventative maintenance that should be done at the beginning of the year. Skipping this simple and inexpensive maintenance could result in hundreds of dollars of repairs in the future.
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Light bulb technology
When we were young and Thomas Edison was still alive, buying light bulbs was easy. You had to decide if you wanted 60 watt or 100 watt. Today there are many more decisions to make.
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Instant hot water
Did you ever wish that when you stagger into the bathroom in the morning and turn on the hot water in the bathroom sink there was instant hot water like in quality hotels? There is a device that will fulfill your wish. It is called a recirculating hot water pump.
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Mysterious noise solved
Recently two Woodchucks reported that a hissing or low whistling noise started in their homes. One thought it was an electrical sound, but after checking each electrical appliance found nothing. He then noticed that when he turned on the water in the bathroom sink or the shower, the sound stopped. He then turned off the main water valve to the house. This also stopped the noise. Since turning off the water to the house was not an acceptable solution, he kept looking.
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Door Bell Maintenance
A couple of Woodchucks have reported a strange humming noise that turned out to be a failed door bell mechanism. To track down this problem, first locate your door bell mechanism. Have someone ring your door bell, and look and listen for a box mounted high in the wall, usually in the hall.
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Tip 26: Vacation Checklist
We have had several requests for the going-away checklist we published last year. A few additional things have been added. All of these columns are available on the Sun Day website if you want to refer back to one.
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Questions & Answers
This month we received four questions on our e-mail site, more than we have in any month since this column began over a year ago. Question: What is the best way to eliminate green moss growing on the inside of the steel window-well liners?
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Tip 25: Fix a Leaky Sillcock
You have two or more sillcocks on your house even if you don’t know the name sillcock. They are the outside faucets where you connect garden hoses, and they often leak. If a sillcock leaks when the water is on, you are in luck, as the fix is relatively easy. This leak is caused by a loose packing nut.
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Tip 24: Driveway Maintenance
The last foot of a number of blacktop driveways in Sun City are becoming cracked and are sinking. They will soon need to be replaced unless some required maintenance is done. To see if you have neglected your driveway enough to have this problem, inspect the last foot of your driveway where it interfaces with the concrete sidewalk and where it interfaces with the concrete apron in front of your garage.
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More air conditioner tips
If your air conditioner was not keeping your house cool during the recent heat wave or if your summer electric bills are higher than your neighbors’, your problem might be an overcharged air conditioner—one that has too much refrigerant.
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Tip 22: Screens
If the screens on your house are stretched or have holes in them, it’s time to replace them. There are two ways you can replace your window screens. You can either bring your damaged screen to the hardware store and have them do it for you, or you can do it yourself and save the labor costs. If I tell you how to take it to the hardware store, this column will be too short, so I’ll tell you how to do it yourself.
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Tip 21: Keeping birds out of house vents
When we moved here ten years ago, there were very few birds. Our previous house was located in the woods, and we were used to hearing birds in the morning when we awoke, and there were many birds to be seen in the air and in the trees all during the day.
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Tip 20: More Air Conditioner Information
In the last issue we talked about normal maintenance that all residents should be doing, such as changing filters and washing the condenser fins. In this issue, we will discuss some of the things you can do when using your air conditioner to get the most out of it.
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Tip 19: Air Conditioner Maintenance
The unit on the outside of your house with the large fan pointing upward is called the condenser unit. It contains the compressor and the condenser heat exchanger. The condenser is like the radiator in your car. It has tubes that wrap around all four sides of the box. These tubes have thin aluminum fins to dissipate the heat. Its function is to get rid of the heat that is collected from inside your house. The fan draws air across the fins and tubes of the condenser and exhausts this air upward.
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Tip 19: Garage Door Maintenance
Back on January 13, we talked about things you need to do to keep your garage door working well. (To review this article, go to the mysundaynews.com website and search under columnists.) We have heard about a few door spring failures and have some more complete information on how to deal with this type of failure.
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Tip 18: Setting the water heater temperature
Question: How to I correctly set the water heater temperature? I believe it should be set around 120 degrees.
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Ask the Woodchucks: Live and in person
On April 20, every workbench in the Millgrove Woodshop was covered with broken furniture and parts of furniture. Small teams of Woodchucks hovered around each bench, squinting at their projects and talking to the other team members, deciding on the best way to fix the problems.
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Tip 17: Moen faucets
We told you about the manufacturer’s warranty on the windows in your house, but did you know that if you have Moen faucets, they are also warranted? Moen has a lifetime warranty on their faucets to the original owner, and not just in senior communities. Below is an extract from the warranty:
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Tip 16: Repair a Squeaky door
In an informal survey at the woodshop of household problems, the problem most mentioned was squeaky doors. We discussed a number of ways to fix the problem, including turning up the radio to drown out the squeak. The problem most often is caused by the hinges running dry of lubricant, causing the metal parts to rub together, making a squeaking noise.
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Tip 15: Clean mildew off vinyl siding
Question: The following question came into our website: “We have had several neighbors ask about mildew on the outside of their home, on the plastic siding. Can you give some advice on this subject?”
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Tip 13: Tankless Water Heater
In the last issue, we wrote about the two types of storage tank water heaters used by Del Webb in Sun City, Huntley (open combustion and closed combustion). After 10-15 years of use, these water heaters will need to be replaced.
