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.
QUESTION: I have a very small, 2,500-gallon swimming pool and spa that was built in the 1980s; it now needs replastering. In addition, everything on the pool always seems to need fixing or replacing all the time because it’s out-of-date. I’ve reached the point where I’m really tired of dealing with it. I’m not a pool guy; I don’t like using it. Can I bury it and get rid of it? Or will it affect the real estate value of my house to remove it?
ANSWER: Yes, you can fill it in after doing some demolition and punching holes in the bottom, if that’s what you want to do. You want to have the work done by a licensed contractor. We’ve been told in the past that removing a pool won’t damage the value of a house whatsoever. If you do fill it in, you probably have to get a permit from the city beforehand. It’s also possible to cover it with a deck and make a patio out of the area.
Q: Why don’t they sell or install whole house fans in Arizona? Back in the Midwest, we had them and they were very effective.
A: It’s probably because there are very limited seasons for using them in hotter climates as we have in Arizona; you could use them a little bit in the fall and in the spring.
You can’t use them in the summer because they defeat the work of your air conditioning. But it is true, in some parts of the country, they can be a substitute for an AC system.
Q: What kind of vegetables can I plant in my backyard garden in the summer?
A: You can plant edible sweet potatoes; they will tolerate the heat. Other possibilities are melons and squash.
Q: I have an old house with rumbling pipes. The house was built in 1954. Starting about a month ago, there are frequent rumblings that sound like pipes that occur throughout the house. It seems to happen when we’re filling a sink or bathtub. We’ve haven’t made any changes in the house; we haven’t changed our sprinkler system. We changed our water heater two weeks ago, but that didn’t affect anything. It happens when the water is running, but it happens at random times.
A: Chances are that it’s happening because you have an old plumbing system with galvanized pipes that are rusting out. Contact a qualified plumber to check out the condition of your system and give you some recommendations for correcting the noises you hear.
Q: If I stick a layer of Styrofoam on the inside of my overhead garage door, will it help cool off the garage in the summer?
A: It can’t really “cool off” the entire garage, but it will help to reduce some of the heat slightly in the garage.
Q: I recently moved into a larger house, 3,600 square feet, and ever since, I’ve had to keep replacing various plumbing fixtures as well the sprinkler system. I wonder if my problem could be because the water pressure in the house is reading 75 to 85 pounds per square inch. In my previous house, it was 65. What do you think?
A: I agree; the problem could be the water pressure. You need to put a pressure regulator on the system and dial it down to 65 psi.
