Real estate, home improvement forum
Q: This is our first house, and there is a really nice tree in the front on which we strung Christmas lights this year. Can we keep those lights up all year, instead of having to string and unstring then annually? We like the effect, but the work is a big pain, especially when it’s cold. We’d also like to get the lights to the top of the tree, but our ladder isn’t long enough.
A: You’ve touched a nerve here. Two years ago, I hung lights on the weeping cherry tree in front of our house for Christmas and left them up after the holiday. In the spring, while trimming the tree, I cut a couple of the light strings and ended up having to replace them.
After the next Christmas, squirrels chewed through the lights in several places, and I ended up replacing the strings again — on a cold, snowy weekend.
If I were you, I’d keep the lights up, but I’d also check on the connections periodically — so there will be no surprises at tree-lighting time. As for getting the lights up into the higher parts of the tree, home centers sell an 11-foot telescoping pole with attachments for stringing lights in tree branches and along house gutters.
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Q: What is your opinion of installing heat tape on outside gutters and downspouts in places where we occasionally have an ice-dam problem? In one area, when we had prolonged low temperatures and icing, we got interior seepage. Since we’ve recently upgraded that room of the house, I would like to avoid recurrence of the problem now that winter has arrived.
A: If your roofer believes that installing heat tape is the best answer to an occasional problem, I see no trouble with it. Proper insulation and ventilation of attic spaces so that you prevent escaping heat from accelerating snow melt on the roof are the usual solutions to ice damming, as is installing a leakproof membrane under the shingles about two feet from the roof’s edge in situations where the attic work doesn’t do it.
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Q: Recently, I bought pieces of old stained-glass windows from 100-plus-year-old Catholic churches that have closed. Everyone at the sale was handling the windows with latex gloves; I thought it was because your hands got dirty if you didn’t. Then someone told me that lead was coming off, and that I should handle them with care. I became concerned about hanging the stained glass in my house, possibly exposing my family to lead poisoning.
Can you tell me how the windows should be handled, how dangerous it is to have them hanging in my house, and the safest way to display them?
A: Unless they are handled carefully, lead cames and solders used in stained glass can be a health hazard if lead dust is swallowed or inhaled. Since the glass came out of churches that have been closed (with window maintenance likely not much of a priority), the lead soldering probably isn’t in good shape and decomposition will produce lead dust.
If you really want to keep the lead glass in the house, I would call a conservator (or a company such as Willet Stained Glass Studios in Chestnut Hill, Pa.) for professional advice.