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. Here are questions about home maintenance and improvement from the Tucson area.
QUESTION: I have an 11-year-old house with a foundation that is about three feet deep and has a poured concrete slab. Now my engineered wood floor seems to be separating because of a crack in the center of the floor. Is this a problem with the structure of the house?
ANSWER: Just because you have a crack in the floor does not necessarily mean you have foundation problems. Check to see that there are no changes in your doors and windows. Are they becoming difficult to open; do the doors look as if they have warped?
When foundation problems become serious, it’s hard to ignore any of the large cracks you will see in walls inside and out.
But if you suspect a problem is just starting, you want to look for cracks in the stem wall under the stucco on your house. Cracks that are about the size of a drawn pencil line are OK; but if they are the thickness of a pencil, you may be having structural stress. If you are worried about what you find, call a foundations repair company for an inspection.
If everything turns out OK, call a flooring company for advice on how to fix or replace the floor. But be sure to treat the area for termites where the crack developed. Otherwise, if you put in wood again, you could have termites moving up through the slab to damage your flooring.
Q: This spring I sprayed a weed control herbicide on the parts of my garden where not much was growing except for weeds. It’s done a pretty good job. But can I apply the same herbicide to the wells around my citrus and fig or will I damage these trees in some way?
A: Probably this will not hurt your trees. But always read the instructions carefully on any herbicides to see if it’s safe to use them around trees or other plants in your yard.
Q: I have a house that was built in 1983 that I am pretty sure has a plastic sewer line coming out of it. Now I want to park my RV on a vacant spot on the lot that is probably where the sewer line is located. The RV weighs about 11,000 pounds. Will it damage that sewer line, which is about 3 feet underground? I have previously parked cars in this area.
A: The fact that the sewer line has been there that long and there hasn’t been a lick of trouble with it indicates it will be OK. It seems to be far enough down to be protected from harm. However, if you really want to be sure of protecting the sewer line, you can always pour a concrete slab over the area or install pavers. That would go a long way toward spreading out the weight.
Q: Whenever we use our swimming pool, there always seem to be wasps flying around. How can we stop them from buzzing at us?
A: There is probably a nest nearby that serves as the source of these pests. A pest control company can remove the nest.
