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: We’re putting a new shower stall in our master bedroom bath. Once I remove the old stall and get the old pan out from the bottom of the shower, can I lay the tiles directly on the slab underneath the shower, instead of installing a new shower pan first?
A: No, no, no; you don’t want to try that. It might seem like a money-saving shortcut, but within a short time you will start to have problems with the tiles popping off the floor of the shower.
The shower pan, made of fiberglass or some other synthetic material, is constructed to direct all the water that falls into the drain in the floor of the shower if installed properly. So you have to install a shower pan first. If you try to lay those tiles right on the slab, you could end up with a lot of problems with the grout and mortar. You could develop mold, mildew and more serious problems.
You don’t want to end up ripping out the shower and starting all over again.
Q: I live in an 1,100 square-foot townhouse, and occasionally, when I brush my teeth, I notice a strange odor in the water that’s sitting in the sink — something like gas or rotten eggs. What could be causing this problem?
A: There are various situations that could be causing this odor.
One possibility is that you have a water heater problem, due to a corroded anode rod inside the heater that needs to be replaced. To test this option, you need to close the stopper to the sink; then fill the sink with really hot water only. Let the water sit for a minute and then sniff the water. If you don’t smell the odor that you mentioned, then it’s not the water heater and you don’t need a new anode rod.
Another possibility is that you have some kind of backup waste material in your sink drain. You get rid of the clog in the pipe with regular use of an enzymatic drain cleaner that will eat away the bacterial waste without damaging your plumbing.
If neither of these solutions works to eliminate the odor, you should call a plumber to investigate whether you have some kind of sewer vent problem that needs to be corrected.
Q: We have an 8- to 10-year-old water heater, and we’re worried about its lifespan. So we were thinking about replacing it before the old heater springs a leak. We were wondering about installing an electric tankless water heater. Would that work for us?
A: It will probably cost you a lot more than you think. There are additional expenses besides the cost of the tankless unit itself. First of all, you will have to install a water softener if you don’t already have one. That’s because your new tankless water heater will only last a year or so in Arizona because of damage due to hard water.
Additional electric circuits will also have to be installed in your electric panel due to the high demand for heating the water quickly. Adding those circuits means you need a building permit and city inspection as well. Of course, your electric power bill will go up, too. It can cost less to run a tankless natural gas unit, but it will still be more than with a conventional, gas-powered water heater.
To put in a new conventional water heater might cost you $1,000; but a tankless unit will cost $6,000 or $7,000.
The only time that a tankless water heater really makes any sense is if you install a small one at the end of the house to provide water for one bathroom that’s far away from your conventional water heater.
