QUESTION: I want to put a reverse osmosis water system under my kitchen sink. But how do I drill a hole in a quartz countertop to install the little gooseneck faucet connected to the system below?
ANSWER: You have to crawl under the sink to find the spot where you can drill a hole for the connection between the counter and the system below it. If there is any material covering the underside area that is plastic or plywood, you’ll have to cut through that subsurface first. You’ll also have to get a special bit for the drill you use as well on the quartz countertop. If you want to do it yourself, you should probably get some scraps of the quartz and try practicing the drilling several times. The problem is that the drill tends to “crawl” as you are working on the surface and you could ruin the countertop. If all that seems too difficult, you’re probably better off having a skilled countertop fabricator drill the hole for you.
Q: I want to convert my carport into a garage, and in the process I need to move my electric power panel to an outside wall. According to the utility company, I’ll have to dig down to find the wiring first, but since my house was built more than 40 years ago, the wiring could be some distance underground and might even be under a driveway. Can an electrician help me with this job?
A: First, you need to call Arizona Blue Stake, also called Arizona 811, a utility-locating service that’s free of charge. It will take them a few days to give you the location of the underground wiring. Then it’s a matter of digging to find the underground feed. You don’t want to do this job yourself. After that, the utility company can install a junction box and a conduit to the new panel location.
Q: I have a west-facing adobe block wall in the bedrooms of my Tucson home that gets really hot in the summer at night. It doesn’t seem to have any insulation inside of the wall. I’m also unable to plant shade trees next to that wall because there’s a utility easement too close to my property.
A: You might be able to install what some people call out-sulation on top of that hot wall. But a quicker and less expensive solution might be to put a trellis in front of the wall and cover it with vines that would not require much watering.
Q: I came across a new product from Canada that says it will seal concrete against water. What would be the benefit of that?
A: Possibly that product would keep any water from the ground from seeping up through the concrete. In Arizona, we often have problems like that with efflorescence — a white haze or powder that forms on concrete or bricks due to moisture that comes up from the soil. There are masonry primer/sealers that can provide very good resistance to alkali and efflorescence. If you use that kind of seal on concrete, it can help keep those stains from happening.
