Each year, thousands of Arizona residents email or call Rosie Romeroβs 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.
QUESTION: I recently had new grab bars installed in my home in various rooms of the house. But when it came to my shower, the contractor didnβt want to put them in because the shower is lined with Corian. Is there really some problem with doing this? Iβve looked at grab bars with suction cups, but Iβm afraid they wonβt work in a shower.
ANSWER: There is no real reason why you canβt drill into Corian to install grab bars. But you need a stud finder to find the studs where you will put in the screws. Whenever you remodel or build a bathroom, by the way, you should have solid wood reinforcement installed behind the shower areas so that you can install grab bars that will not pull out of the walls when you use them.
Q: My husband and I just bought a home with exterior walls covered with burnt red adobe bricks. As we head into summer, we wondered if we should cover the outside of the house in stucco in order to help cut back on our energy bills and perhaps improve our eventual resale value.
A: Putting stucco on the outside of your house is not the first thing Iβd do to address utility costs. You probably want to go through a summer in the house anyway to see what your air conditioning bills look like. You might also have a whole-house energy audit by a heating and air conditioning company to show you what repairs to make in doors and windows to improve utility bills. In an older home, you want to be sure you have double-paned windows that operate properly.
Just covering your walls with stucco might not improve your summertime bills anyway. The stucco system commonly used in Arizona will most likely give you very little added insulation value above what an adobe wall provides. Remember that once you stucco the house, you will have to repaint every few years, of course.
Burnt adobe bricks are made about the same way as regular adobe bricks, but they are also baked in an oven. Lots of buyers like the look of burnt adobe, by the way.
Q: How should I prune back my yucca and agave plants?
A: You donβt prune them from the top obviously and you donβt want to shear the edges off yuccas or agaves. You wait until the leaves on the very bottom turn completely brown and then you cut them off. Cutting off a sword or leaf thatβs still green could create a wound in the plant that can weaken it. You can also remove the dead flowers that have bloomed on the top of yuccas. But when agaves produce a large stalk with flowers, itβs a sign that the plant is about to die. Often these mature agaves produce βpupsβ that can be dug up and planted elsewhere.
Be sure to wear long-sleeved shirts, full-length pants and heavy gloves to protect yourself from the spines of these plants when you work with them.
Q: I have a hibiscus that is located in a shaded courtyard that is growing well. But as soon as the leaves come out, they get yellow and fall off. Why is this happening?
A: This can happen some of the time, but if itβs doing this all the time, itβs because your plant needs to be fertilized with nitrogen and phosphorus. Rose food is perfectly set up to fertilize tropical plants like the hibiscus, so try using it to see how your plant reacts.
