Dear Maintenance Men:
Dear
Maintenance Men:
We have an upstairs unit that is above the laundry
& utility room. The
building’s 100-gallon water heater is located in the utility room and the
exhaust tubing goes through the walls to the roof.
The upstairs resident is complaining of warm walls in the area above the
water heater. Is this a
problem and if it is, what can I do about it? The building was built in the
early 1960s
Jim
and Mary
Dear
Jim and Mary:
For
a building of that era, it was common to have the water-heater vent stack tubing
run vertically through the wall to the roof. The walls were normally not insulated, even at the vent stack
locations. If your units were built
with ½ inch thick drywall, the chance of heat radiating through the wall would
be common.
If
the wall is hot to the touch as opposed to warm, this may indicate a problem
with the vent stack collar at the ceiling in the utility room.
The pipe going into the ceiling collar may have shifted, or dropped down.
This would allow hot gasses to bypass the vent tubing and exhaust into
the wall cavity, creating hot areas or spots in the walls. This not only creates a fire danger, but possible carbon
monoxide poisoning issues. The
repairs are as simple as realigning the vent stack tubing and sealing any
joints.
Dear
Maintenance Men:
I
have a beachfront apartment building. The metal stairs leading to the upper
story are constantly wet and pose a slip and fall hazard.
What can I do to protect the stairs from the elements and make them less
slippery?
Joan
Dear
Joan:
It
is common in exterior metal stairs to have a raised diamond pattern on the
treads. This makes them poor
candidates for the easiest solution of using nonskid adhesive grit tape. Because
of the raised pattern the tape will come loose quickly.
A second short-term method is to paint the treads with sand imbedded
industrial or marine paint to form a nonskid surface.
Because of the wet conditions, the paint will chip and peel in time.
The third and best method is to use an elastomeric epoxy polyurethane
based product such as “Pacific Polymers” 5001/6001 deck coat system.
A #16 grit silica sand is embedded into the base coat (5001), which is
followed by the top or finish coat (6001).
This system will not only encapsulate the metal to help prevent
corrosion, but will be a non-skid surface for safety.
The application process is very similar to painting, which means you can
do it yourself or with a handyman.
Dear
Maintenance Men:
I
have a nine-unit apartment building with a 100-gallon water heater that serves
all the residents. The problem is
that only the nearest units to the water heater gets any hot water. The units at
the other end of the building only get cold water.
The heater seems to be working and producing hot water.
How do I solve this dilemma?
David
Dear David:
Sounds
like your circulation pump is not working properly. Calcium or hard water deposits in the water heater and
lines may also aggravate this problem.
The circulation pump’s job is to bring hot water to all the units
at the same time. When the pump is not working or is clogged, the hot water will
take much longer to get to the units furthest away from the heater.
The first step is to determine if the pump is working.
Locate the pump near the water heater, check that the motor is plugged
into an electrical outlet. Next,
touch the water lines on either side of the pump and determine the temperature.
If it is working properly, the lines should be warm or cool to the touch,
not hot. If the
pipes are hot or very hot to the touch, the pump is not working properly.
If the pump does not spin when plugged in, it may need to be replaced.
If the pump motor is working, the pump may be clogged with debris.
Remove the pump and clear out the lines.
Take care to clean the line from the pump to the water heater. This is
generally the problem. While you
have things apart, this is a good time to clean out the calcium deposits in the
water heater, which caused the clog in the first place.
Water heater clean outs should be done at least once a year.
Bio: