A Pipe and Fan System Can Dry Out Wet Soil Under a House

Each year, thousands of Arizona residents email or call Rosie Romero’s radio show with questions about everything from preventing fires in their chimneys to getting rid of tree roots invading their sewer system. His goal is to provide answers that suit the specific lifestyle wherever someone lives in Arizona.

Q: My house was built about 16 years ago; it was one of the last years that they didn’t do post-tension slabs. It’s a one-story, 2,600 square foot house. Recently, it seems as if the slab of the house has been heaving up. For example, you have to step up two or three inches more than before to walk into the house from outside. The floor in the dining room seems to be raised up as well. What can foundation experts do for my house and will it be very costly?

A: From the way you’ve described your problem, it does seem as if you have a heaving problem in your slab due to expansive clay soils under the house. Those soils have become water-logged and are raising up your floors. Due to new technology, fixing a problem like this can be much less expensive than it used to be. A foundation expert can run a pipe from the soil foundation up to the top of the house using an area in a closet, for example. A fan at the top of the pipe will help draw out the moisture in the soil so that it will aerate and dry out. Then the slab will begin to resettle. It’s a much less invasive process than jackhammering out the slab in order to correct the problem. It can probably be done for less than $5,000.

Q: I live in an older concrete block home. But the face of the blocks on the front of the house are slump block in an orange color that’s supposed to give the house an adobe-style look. I don’t like the color, but if I should paint those blocks a different color, would that process be reversible if someone wanted to get rid of it later?

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A: If you paint those blocks a different color, you’re going to be turning what’s basically a maintenance-free product into something that requires heavy maintenance. You could not easily remove the paint later on if you don’t like it. Just to get the paint on the blocks, you’d have to put some fill on the surface before you paint and then you’d have to apply a couple of layers of paint over that. It would be a very expensive job. A better process that might make more sense would be to put a different colored plaster over the blocks instead; that would make them look even more like adobe. Then the blocks would be more maintenance free.

Q: I have a toilet that seems to run constantly so I think that we need to replace the rubber flap or some of the other equipment inside the tank of the toilet. What would that cost if I do the job myself and is it difficult to do?

A: Many homeowners are capable to replace equipment like that if they get a few instructions on how to do it. You’d have to buy about $40 in parts if you do it yourself. It’s the type of job for which a plumber would charge about $100 for a service call that could probably take an hour or less to fix.

For more do-it-yourself tips, go to rosieonthehouse.com.