You can cook hot dogs on this propane rocket engine.
The People who Eat Tasty Animals (PETA) are reported to have issued a proclamation demanding that reindeer NOT be used to pull Santa's sleigh.
Instead, they recommend the use of propane - a wonderful fossil fuel that evidently is naturally renewable being created by Mother Nature.
Look below at a second photo where I've zoomed in on this one. You’ll see flecks of dirt left behind by an inexperienced cleaning person. Copyright 2022 Tim Carter
Sarah reached out to me a few days ago. She was more frustrated than I get when I miss a 2-foot putt at the golf course. Six months before she had a new master shower installed with a marble-tile floor. The pieces of marble are small 1-inch hexagons.
Sarah’s finding impossible to keep the grout clean. Fortunately she uploaded a high-resolution photo of the tile floor via my Ask Tim page on my www.AsktheBuilder.com website. That photo allowed me to zero in on what I believe is the source of the problem.
See those black flecks? They're even on the smooth surface of the marble. That's a clue that they should be very easy to remove using the correct cleaning TOOL.
Sarah’s conundrum reminded me of another woman I had a contentious back-and-forth email exchange perhaps ten years ago. That memory caused me to think long and hard about how I’d respond to Sarah. You see, all those years ago the other woman claimed I had ruined her tile floor.
I had sold this woman a bottle of the most powerful oxygen-bleach cleaner you could get. My wife and I used to own a company that manufactured the highest-strength oxygen bleach cleaner available in the USA. The two ingredients were made in the USA and it was certified organic. Most of the oxygen bleach products I see online are made with inferior Chinese chemicals and there's quite likely more filler in the bottle than active ingredient!
She was using it to clean her wood deck. For whatever reason she took her shoes off while cleaning the deck and got her socks saturated with the cleaning solution. This woman then walked back in her home with her wet feet across her tile floor.
This cleaning solution was so powerful that it often cleaned without you having to scrub. It happened on the woman’s kitchen floor. When the solution dried, you could clearly see her footprints. She insisted my solution had etched and ruined her tiles. She didn’t take too kindly to my retort that she was a poor housekeeper and that while she thought her kitchen floor was clean, it was far from it.
Fortunately she had a pantry closet with the same tile floor. I shared with her that if she would go into the corners of the pantry where no one ever walked, she’d see the original color of the tile. I never heard back from her.
Based on the photo that Sarah sent, it appears she, or the person responsible for cleaning the shower, doesn’t know how to clean. You tell me how I’m supposed to communicate that to her. Most women I know would react with flared nostrils. But I digress.
When I looked at Sarah’s photo, I could clearly see small flecks of dirt that were clinging to the grout. Sarah asked me in her email if the wrong grout had been used. The answer was absolutely not. It appears to me tile setter used a sanded grout. Once I zoomed into the photo, I could clearly see what appears to be tiny grains of milky silica sand. The silica sand makes the grout strong and very durable.
What often happens is the tile setter strikes the grout joints with the grout sponge and removes a bit too much grout. The top surface of the grout is now below the top surface of the tiles.
Cleaning, like many other tasks, requires that you use the correct tool for the job. In Sarah’s case the cleaning person may be using the worst possible tool. For example, a sponge or scouring pad of some sort might have been used for the past six months. These don’t have the ability, in many cases, to apply enough mechanical agitation to the grout to get small pieces of dirt and grit out of the grout.
The best tool to clean grout is a stiff scrub brush that’s equipped with nylon bristles. These bristles need to be stiff enough that they don’t flop around like a toothbrush. They need to have just a small amount of flex to them as you move the brush across the grout.
This is a perfect nylon brush that will allow you to have the bristles contact the grout. GO HERE to order one now.
What’s more, the cleaning strokes have to be parallel to the grout lines to be effective. If you slide the brush across the grout lines at a 90-degree angle, the bristles might not get down to the surface of the grout with enough pressure to effectively clean.
The type of tile Sarah chose is the hardest one to clean. Each small 1-inch piece of tile has six sides each oriented at 60 degrees to one another! Imagine trying to orient the scrub brush to have the strokes be parallel with all of the grout joints.
You may have been taught to use circular scrubbing motion to clean floors. That works well when the floor surface is all in the same plane and smooth. Recessed grout lines are the bane of most professional cleaning people.
Another cleaning tip for showers is to be sure to use a squeegee to wipe down the walls and the floor after you shower. The goal is to remove as much water as possible from the surfaces. Water is part of the recipe for mildew and mold growth. It’s best to actually use a second older towel to wipe down the shower surfaces drying them as you dried your skin. Keep the shower door open or the shower curtain pulled back after you leave the bathroom. You want the shower to dry as rapidly as possible.
I was taught how to mop a floor when I was fourteen years old. It's not hard to do, but many people do it wrong. Here's how to get amazing results.
Step 1. Sweep the floor to get up all loose debris and grit.
Step 2. Get a traditional string mop that doesn't have a bound bottom like you see some janitors use.
Step 3. Fill the mop bucket with clean soapy water. Get the mop saturated with the water. Squeeze out excess water.
Step 4. Spin the mop like an amusement park ride as you put it on the floor. The strings of the mop should be radiating out from the center of the mop handle.
Step 5. Use sideways back and forth motion about four-feet wide pulling the mop closer to you.
Step 6. Put the mop back into the bucket, swish it around and repeat steps 3 through 5.
Step 7. Change the water frequently as soon as it appears murky and filthy.
Step 8. Rinse the floor with clear water and change this water out too as it gets filthy. Trust me, it will because while the floor SEEMS CLEAN, it's not.
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DIY Ceramic Tile Kitchen Backsplash - While it looks quite complex, it’s not as hard to install a ceramic tile kitchen backsplash as you might think. Copyright 2022 Tim Carter
Six months ago my son purchased a new house. He had been looking to move from his apartment for well over a year. The white-hot real estate market made it quite difficult to locate a house in his price range. Each tired and worn-out house we toured with him needed quite a bit of work and I cautioned him that if he thought it was hard to buy a house, wait until he needed to hire contractors to do most of the work to transform a house into a home.
Fortunately out of nowhere a brand-new house came on the market just a few miles from his apartment. It was built by an older builder that was on-site each day ensuring all the work was done perfectly. It was one of the best-built homes I’ve ever seen here in New Hampshire and I advised my son to stretch and purchase it. He did and six weeks later we were helping him move in.
But as often happens in many new spec-built homes, the builder leaves things undone. One of them happened to be the kitchen backsplash. The kitchen has magnificent granite countertops with a 4-inch-high granite backsplash, but that’s not what my son wanted. He wanted a full backsplash that extended from the granite to the underside of the wall cabinets.
I had told him the day we looked at the house that installing a ceramic tile backsplash was a simple job. “Son, you can do it yourself with my guidance. I’m more than willing to help, but I want you to do most of the work for a host of reasons.” He knew I had helped his older sister build her home in Bar Harbor. It’s always been a dream of mine to help my kids do projects on their homes so it was now his turn.
Are you in the same situation? Do you want to jazz up your kitchen, make it look better, and easier to clean up around the sink and stove? Great! Let me help you install a tile backsplash just as I helped my son. Let’s get started!
The first step is to select a tile that has trim pieces. In almost all situations you need special pieces of tile that have finished edges. These pieces are required where the tile ends along a wall and doesn’t butt up against a cabinet or something else that would hide the unglazed edge of the tile.
If the tile you absolutely must have doesn’t have glazed trim pieces, you can hide the unglazed edge with a thin piece of painted wood trim, a fancy metal trim molding, or carefully formed grout that disguises the unglazed tile edge. There are hundreds of photos and images online that will inspire you as to how to deal with this small conundrum.
You’ll need a few tools. The size of the tile determines the size and shape of the notches in the trowel that spreads the mastic that holds the tile to the wall. Most of the time you’ll discover a v-notched 1/4 x 1/4-inch trowel will do the job. The tile manufacturer may have written instructions calling out the size of the trowel notches. You can also get amazing guidance from the Ceramic Tile Education Foundation about all aspects of installing tile.
While a diamond wet saw is what I’d use to make many cuts, it’s not practical for you to buy one for this one project. You can use a tile snapper to make most straight cuts on normal tile. Harder porcelain tiles and glass tile can’t be cut with a snapper. You may want to purchase an inexpensive 4-inch angle grinder and equip it with a dry-diamond cutting blade.
The last tool you’ll need is a rubber float to spread the tile grout. I’ve got a four-part video series on my AsktheBuilder.com website that shows you how to use this tool and how to install the grout so it never crumbles or cracks. I urge you to watch this video series.
You need to exercise diligence when installing the tile around electric outlets and switches. The tile must extend to all the edges of the electrical box that’s in the wall. This allows the small metal frame of the outlets and switches to rest on the surface of the tile after the tile is in place. Doing this ensures the faces of the outlets and switches is flush with the top surface of the cover plates. Be sure to turn off the circuit breakers before you unscrew the outlets and switches from the electric boxes!
As you install the tile, don’t allow any of the mastic or thinset to ooze up into the spaces between the tile. If it does, remove it immediately using a toothpick or thin putty knife. This space must be kept open so grout can fill the spaces and gaps between the tiles.
If you want to ensure success do a tiny test panel. Purchase enough tile to cover a small piece of drywall that measures 18 by 24 inches. Hone your beginner skills tiling and grouting this scrap piece of drywall. You’ll be stunned by how simple it is to get professional results.
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This is a very powerful motivational speech. Listen to it very closely.
Renovating an Old Building | This modern loft apartment was built in 1890. The brick shell and massive wood floors were in great shape, but everything else had to be redone. Copyright 2022 Tim Carter
Not a week goes by that I don’t receive an email asking me about what’s involved in renovating an old building. Most who reach out to me realize it can be an expensive endeavor, but the allure of restoring a sound old building to either its former glory or transforming it into an attractive modern look sometimes overrides the financial aspects of the project.
And as you’re about to discover, there may be a lucrative investment opportunity you’ve not thought about when it comes to old buildings. A little over a week ago I stayed in a renovated one-bedroom loft apartment that was part of a solid brick building built in 1890 in the East End of Cincinnati, Ohio.
The owner of the building is a long-time friend of mine. At the time he renovated the building five years ago, he was doing construction and real estate investing. I was nearly 1,000 miles away, but he sometimes called me to ask for advice when he was faced with a problem or a difficult choice. I was always happy to help him.
Keep in mind that when you build just about anything, you have choices to make. All too often I see people make poor choices. They select products that have a short useful life or require lots of ongoing maintenance. With raging inflation and a tight labor market that I don’t feel is going to improve in the coming years, ongoing maintenance can become a vast bottomless money pit.
Fortunately my friend made all the right choices when it came to the renovation. He knew he was going to keep the building for many years to create a passive income stream. He owned a handful of other buildings on the same street and the neighborhood was being reborn. It was exciting for me to watch this transformation from a distance.
My friend made wise decisions about all sorts of materials that cost a little bit more to install now, but would be virtually maintenance-free for many years to come. Here are a few examples. He could have installed standard asphalt shingles on the steep roof, but instead he went with standing-seam metal roofing. This metal roof will not require maintenance for at least 40 years.
He had to install both interior and exterior staircases. He could have just used treated lumber outside and standard lumber inside. But no, he went with industrial-sized steel outside with cast concrete treads. Even the handrails and guardrails were made from wrought iron that can last well over 100 years with periodic painting every ten years.
I remember a conversation we had about what was the best exterior paint to use and I shared that he should go with one that has a urethane resin base. I painted my last house in Cincinnati about 25 years ago with this type of paint and the paint looks as good today as it did decades ago.
There are things you should be aware of if you decide to do an old-house renovation. First and foremost be aware of the lead-paint hazards. Be sure to test any and all painted surfaces that you’ll be working with. Note that even old clear varnishes sometimes had lead. Small amount of lead can make you very ill, so you need to treat lead paint with the utmost respect.
In almost all cases you’ll have to install all new mechanical systems. Budget for all new plumbing drain and water lines. You’ll want to install all new electrical wiring. Be sure you install 20-amp circuits in critical locations so you avoid tripped circuit breakers in the future.
Most of all don’t cut corners on the heating and air-conditioning. This system is what keeps you comfortable year-round. It’s vital the contractor does accurate heat-gain and heat-loss calculations so the equipment is sized properly. Be sure you have return-air vents in all rooms except for the kitchen and bathrooms. The return-air system needs to be designed properly as it ensures each room is comfortable no matter what the outdoor temperature might be.
If your goal is to renovate a property to rent, don’t overlook the possibility of short-term rentals. My wife and I rent houses several times a year when we go visit my daughter, her husband, and my granddaughter. There are many people who prefer to do this rather than being crammed into a motel or hotel.
When you do the math, you might discover you can double your rental income using short-term rentals. You might only need to rent the space for 120-150 days a year to achieve this financial result. In many cases the building might get far less wear and tear vs. renting to a tenant that lives in the space everyday all year long.
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The X Files was a fascinating television series.
Here's some footage shot in 2015 or possibly 2016 which means it was probably scripted a year before that.
Watch it with an open mind. Realize tens of thousands of people are now dying mysteriously, many of them healthy young people. Have you wondered why? Have you even been exposed to this news?
If not, that should send a chill through your bones like a January New Hampshire Nor'easter.
Be prepared to have your mind opened up:
How many mistakes do you see in this photo? I count over four. Keep reading below! Copyright 2022 Tim Carter
Over the past five months I’ve watched the dream of a neighbor I’ve yet to meet start to come true on my own street. It started just after the snow melted when two men arrived with a giant machine that wrestles logs and chain saws. Their job was to cut down and haul away no less than fifty trees on the stubborn hilly building lot.
I remember starting jobs and feeling that excitement. Those same endorphins rushed through my body when I broke ground on the stunning Queen Anne Victorian home I built back thirty-six years ago for my family.
However, as the weeks have progressed my new neighbor’s dream is slowly transforming into a ghoulish nightmare. Sadly they may not be aware of this. I’ve been chronicling the progress with lots of videos explaining what’s going on. The sad thing is the mistakes I’m seeing are all based in misplaced trust. I get at least fifty emails a week from homeowners just like you who have made the same mistake.
WATCH THE ENTIRE VIDEO PLAYLIST of all his mistakes. Videos are added WEEKLY until the job is complete or they run me off:
Just days ago carpenters showed up to put the first layers of wood on top of the poured concrete foundation. Weeks ago I witnessed the foundation being installed and based on my past experience I sensed there would be mistakes made. My instincts were not to be denied.
The lead carpenter should be congratulated because I know for a fact he checked the foundation for level. He might have used a high-quality optical builder’s level or he could have used a laser level. Within a short time, he discovered a long side wall and a short return wall were out of level by 1 and I/4 inches. That’s a huge variation and unacceptable.
It’s important to realize that everything that follows is speculation because I was not privy to any conversations. It’s entirely possible the carpenter called the builder making him aware of the problem. This, by the way, is one of the other mistakes I’ll expound on shortly.
The carpenter should have told the builder that he wasn’t going to install the two sill plates until such time as the out-of-level foundation was corrected using a time-tested thin concrete overlay using coarse sand and Portland cement. This repair could have been done in less than four hours by two men. The materials for the repair would have cost less than $25.00.
This repair didn’t happen. Instead, the carpenter proceeded to bolt the treated-lumber sill plate to the concrete and then install the untreated plate next. He leveled this second plate using cedar shims that are water-resistant, but not waterproof. That was another mistake.
We already know the foundation contractor made the error. It happened, in my opinion, because he failed to snap level lines on the inside of both sides of the forms. Once the chalk lines were snapped, a worker would install 4 or 6-penny finish nails spaced about six or nine inches along both chalk lines.
The magnesium float used by the foundation contractor to smooth out the wet concrete would glide the tool along these nails ensuring the top of the foundation was level. It would have taken about an hour for one man to install these nails. Such a sad mistake to skip this simple step.
The builder, whom I’ve yet to see in five months, made no less than two mistakes in my opinion. Once the foundation forms were placed, he should have stopped by the job site to check to see how the foundation contractor was going to ensure it would be level.
After the forms were stripped, the builder could have set up a laser level by himself and determined the foundation was out of level. This could have been done in less than 15 minutes. There are all kinds of possibilities at this point. He could have seen the error and ignored it or selected the wrong solution to the problem.
Now it’s time to lay part of the blame at the feet of my new neighbor. You see, I’ve done thousands of autopsies on similar situations in the three decades of wearing the Ask the Builder hat. The biggest mistake the homeowner made was hoping everything was going to go well. He didn’t do a great job of vetting the builder with his $1,000,000-plus investment.
The homeowner probably didn’t have in-depth meetings with all the bidders on the job to go over the plans and specifications. My guess is the homeowner didn’t make it crystal clear what his expectations were. He just hoped those expectations would be met. I doubt the homeowner had an hours-long meeting with the builder to go over his bid to ensure the builder calculated all the right amounts to meet the homeowner’s expectations. You have to do this before you sign a contract.
Here’s the flip side to this. My son just purchased a new home in the spring just 60 miles south of me in southern New Hampshire. It’s the best built home I’ve seen in the fourteen years I’ve lived here. My son discovered from a neighbor that the builder spent many days at the job site to ensure everything was done correctly. He did this quality control each and every day. Is your contractor going to do this, even for a small two-week job? How do you know? Stop hoping. Stop trusting
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I was the first person in the world to identify that copper prevents the oxidation of asphalt molecules on asphalt shingles. See how easy it is to install this copper in a new-roof installation? CLICK the photo or TAP HERE to order the copper strips.
A week ago I made a decision to ratchet up my ability to save you as much money as possible in these very challenging financial times. Inflation is raging. In my opinion, it’s going to get worse. Each day I’m receiving more and more emails at my website like the one I got from Beryl about the roofs in her giant condo complex. Go here to tell me what issue you’re having. I’m going to address as many as I can in future columns.
Beryl’s email was deeply troubling for a number of reasons. First, I could sense the fear in her cry for help. She said she lives in a community of seventeen free-standing two-story duplexes from what I can tell from her photos. The development was built in 1985 and the roofs were replaced in 2005 after twenty years. The current shingles on the condos have a 30-year warranty. They’re now 17 years old.
Beryl said they’re experiencing some leaks and failures not related to ice and snow. The worst part is she said the condo board is budgeting the staggering sum of $1,000,000 to replace the roofs eight years from now. Doing the math, that’s over $58,000 per building.
I only knew the city where Beryl lived and she had sent me a low-resolution photo of the buildings taken from her deck or patio. Using Google Maps in the satellite mode I was able to locate her development in less than a minute. I then used parked cars for scale and determined that each of the roofs on the buildings averaged about 85 squares or 8,500 square feet of roof area.
Taking inflation into account and what it might be eight years from now, it turns out the board’s estimate could be very accurate. It’s a mind-numbing number and imagine what kind of special assessment each condo owner will have to cough up like a bad hairball to pay for the new roofs!
How does this affect you? The odds are you have an asphalt shingle roof on your home. The vast majority of homes and small businesses in the USA use this disposable roofing material. You might wonder if it’s possible to have an asphalt shingle roof last fifty or even sixty years like the one on my friend’s house in Los Angeles. It is possible.
Beryl and her fellow condo owners may not have to spend all that money in eight years if their current roof is in great shape. They can add copper strips at the top of all the ridges on the roofs and dormers that will arrest the aging process of the shingles. While writing my Roofing Ripoff exposé book five years ago, believe it or not, I was the first person in the world to discover that copper ions bond with asphalt molecules. When this happens, it prevents the asphalt molecules from cross linking using oxygen.
Cross linking makes the asphalt more brittle. When the asphalt becomes brittle, shingles start to curl and lose the granules. The colored granules are incorporated into shingles to prevent them from failing in a few years. Think of them as sunscreen like you use on your skin to prevent sunburn.
Look at how the small amount of the copper on the roof of the cupola prevents the shingles from aging.
I cover all this in great detail in my short easy-to-read book. What’s more, I have the photographic proof that copper works and the feedback from three physical chemists who subscribe to my newsletter.
If you have a new asphalt shingle roof or one that’s older but in fantastic shape, you can extend its life by decades if you simply install thin rolls of copper at the top of the roof ridges. The copper should be blind nailed as you see in the following photo so it doesn’t get destroyed by wind storms. Each time it rains, copper ions wash off the strips and bond with the asphalt that you can see in between the colored ceramic granules.
If you NEED HELP understanding how to install the copper, I do affordable phone consult calls. You can even order a transcribed and recorded call so you don't have to take notes! Go here to set up a call.
I was the first person in the world to identify that copper prevents the oxidation of asphalt molecules on asphalt shingles. See how easy it is to install this copper in a new-roof installation? CLICK the photo or TAP HERE to order the copper strips.
The best part is the bright new copper turns a deep nut brown in about eighteen months. On low-slope roofs you can barely see the copper when standing on the ground. It’s easy to install the copper as part of a new roof installation. It’s a bit more work to install it on existing roofs in good shape where the shingles are still flexible when heated up by the sun.
You may wonder if zinc strips will do the same thing. I can’t tell you as I didn’t test zinc and the test takes about 20 or 30 years to complete. To get the maximum benefit from the copper you need at least six to ten inches of it exposed for every 25 feet of shingles that are below the copper. I had ten inches of copper exposed on each side of my daughter’s roof.
Keep in mind the copper must be exposed to direct sunlight during the day for this to work. The sun launches photons at your roof constantly and when they hit the copper at a speed of 186,000 miles per second, they dislodge the copper ions. These then get washed down the roof the next time it rains. Your roof is very important so it’s vital you do all you can to extend its life.
What can I help you with? What issues around your home worry you? What do you want me to discuss in my upcoming columns? Go here and tell me.
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Mineral deposits and grit in your faucet aerators might be the only reason you have dismal water pressure. Copyright 2022 Tim Carter
Christine lives in Sylvania, Ohio. She reads this weekly column and shared the following, “In the newspaper today you said you’re addressing topics that can save homeowners money. In my community many have water pressure issues, myself included.” She then gave me a full report about her particular water-pressure issues.
As often happens a reader shares the key that unlocks the mystery without me having to ask any questions. Christine said, “…and have had issues in different parts of the house while other faucets are fine.”
Bingo. There’s your smoking gun.
Does this describe what’s going on in your home? If so, I’ve got such great news for you. Within a few hours you can restore the full flow of water in all your faucets. You can do this yourself using a simple tool and some simple chemicals you may already have. You may spend less than a dollar to restore your water pressure.
I've been a master plumber since 1981 and solve plumbing problems of all types each week on the phone. I talk to homeowners just like you. Go here to set up a call. Note you have choices and I even offer a transcribed call so you don't have to take notes!
First allow me to explain Christine’s clue. I often think it’s hard for some people to understand water pressure in homes because the water lines are hidden from view. It’s not hard for you to understand how tree leaves get water because you can see with ease the tree trunk, the branches, and eventually the tiny twigs that extend to each leaf.
Think what happens if you were to cut a 1-inch-wide band of the tree bark from around the entire circumference of the trunk. Since the live-giving sap travels up from the roots to the leaves just under the bark, the tree would soon die as you’ve cut off the pressure completely. But what happens if you do the same thing to just one major branch? Just the leaves on the branch die and the rest of the tree is fine.
You may have poor pressure in one or more faucets simply because of a localized issue at that faucet, not an issue within your main water line. In fact, I had the same thing happen here at my own home over the past few months. Go here and see if you have these problems with water pressure.
Living in a rural area, I have my own well. I also have a water-conditioning system that has a whole-system pre-filter. The filter helps protect the filtration media that treat my water. The 5-micron paper filter needs to be changed every three to four months for optimal performance. Believe it or not, I forgot to change the filter.
The first sign of trouble was iron staining as the filter had become clogged with tiny iron deposits and now some was getting past the filter. Then I slowly started to notice that the flow of water from my kitchen faucet was less than satisfactory.
But when I’d go to use my laundry sink to fill the bucket to wash my truck, I’d not see any water flow issues. Keep in mind, the laundry tub faucet doesn’t have an aerator. Aerators are huge money makers for plumbers. Aerators are put on the ends of kitchen and bath faucets to tame the flow of water. If you’ve not looked at one up close, you should because they’re primarily miniature filters.
I removed my kitchen faucet aerator and lo and behold there were visible pieces of grit sitting on top of the top screen. Who knows what smaller things could be deeper inside? I also saw severe iron staining and felt that iron deposits could have started to restrict the flow within the aerator.
I opened my refrigerator, got out my bag of oxalic acid, heated up four ounces of water in a small glass container, dumped in a teaspoon of oxalic acid powder, stirred it, and dropped in the aerator into the solution. I then walked away for 30 minutes.
This is a re-sealable bag of oxalic acid crystals. Go HERE to get it delivered to your home NOW.
When I came back, the aerator looked like new. I rinsed it and then started phase two of the cleaning process. I wanted to make sure I removed any and all hard-water deposits. I threw out the oxalic acid solution outdoors on some crabgrass, rinsed the container and put in four ounces of white vinegar. I heated it up in the microwave for one minute so the chemical reaction would occur faster.
If you recall your high school chemistry class, you know that white vinegar is a weak form of acid and that hard water deposits are alkaline. The weak acid dissolves the deposits. I dropped the aerator into the hot white vinegar and let it soak for several hours.
Once I put the aerator back on the faucet, the flow was back to normal. If you don’t want to go through this multi-step cleaning process, you can often just install a new aerator. Take your existing one to a neighborhood hardware store and they should offer a suitable replacement.
What can I help you with? What issues around your home worry you? What do you want me to discuss in my upcoming columns? Go here and tell me.
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