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: I have an older house located in Central Tucson. The roof isn’t leaking, but the asphalt shingles blow off now and then; I’m always picking them up. I think that I’m now missing about 35 shingles off the roof. It’s a low-pitched roof, not a flat roof. The pitch is about 2:12. But I’m wondering if they can apply foam to low-pitched roof?
A: Call a licensed roofing company and have them take a look at your current shingled roof. The roofers can give you an assessment of what you need to do next. When you have that low a pitch for your roof, they may have to do something to the underlayment before putting on more shingles. So foam may be a better choice, even though you don’t have a completely flat roof.
Many homeowners in Tucson, however, seem reluctant to use foam, even though I think it’s often the best possible solution for the flat roofs that are so popular in Tucson. That pitch rating of 2:12, by the way, is a ratio that measures how much slope there is in roofs.
Q: We have a problem with the cultured marble shower on the second floor of our house. A couple months after the warranty on the house expired, the shower started to crack and leak. Now I’m getting conflicting advice about what I need to do to replace it. Some contractors say I have to put in cultured marble again; they say tile will crack because of the natural movement taking place on the second floor. Is that true? Installing a tile shower will be more expensive, of course.
A: Either way of replacing your shower should work. There won’t be any more problems with tile than there would be with cultured marble.
Q: A plumber came out to my house to do some preventive maintenance, but he also did a water test at the kitchen sink because he said there was a lot of calcium building up on our faucets. He said the test showed that the water was really hard and I need to replace my entire water softening system. My softener is about 12 to 13 years old and was installed by the builder when the house was built, but I’m not completely sure it’s broken. The water doesn’t seem as soft as it used to be, but could I be thinking that because of the test he did? How accurate are these tests and should I be suspicious about this situation?
A: It’s possible that the test was inaccurate because when water softeners are installed during construction, the builders often leave the kitchen out of the loop for the softener. That’s because many homeowners prefer not to soften their drinking water. The water in your outside irrigation system will also be hard.
In addition, if your water softener is still using up salt pellets regularly and you keep having to add more, that is definitely a good sign that your softener may still be operating properly. You can also buy a kit at the hardware store that will allow you to test the water yourself. Even if you still think there is a problem, it’s possible that you can have some parts replaced in your water softener to get it operating properly again. You probably want to call up another licensed plumber, however, if you weren’t happy with your previous experience.
