Question: I have an antique house which is beautiful, but the bathroom sink is Corian, and the rust in the water has stained the bowl a dark beige color. How can I remove those stains? -- Michelle Murray, Mendon, Mass.A. Try a little bleach. Put liquid chlorine bleach on a small spot to see if it works; if it does, then do the whole sink. Or, sand the stains off; that is the standard way to remove stains on Corian. Use the finest sandpaper you can find, and wet the surface first. Or use water and emery cloth. The fineness of the sandpaper or emery will keep scratches to a minimum, the water is a lubricant to help prevent scratching.
Or, instead of sandpaper or emery, you can use a coarse Scotch pad; it will take longer to reduce the stain but will scratch less.
A final possibility is an old remedy to get stains out of cast iron and fiberglass bathtubs. Wet the sink with hydrogen peroxide, sprinkle a goodly amount of cream of tartar on that, leave for an hour, then scrub and rinse.
Speaking of Corian, we received a friendly but firm rebuttal of our recent claim that Corian is good for kitchen counters, that stains are easily sanded off, and that it is just wonderful.
Wrote Jenny Luongo of Acton, Mass.: "I just read your answer to a couple wanting to know if Corian is a good material for the kitchen. It is not. In this house we specialize in 'research' (never really accomplishing anything major but looking into everything so thoroughly that we know exactly what we would have done if we ever did it).
"My husband . . . installed a slab of Corian next to the stove, and I use it as one of my main cooking countertops. I cook a lot.
"Corian stains badly and scratches easily. Sure, you can bleach the stain, and, sure, you can sand the shallow scratches, but then the sanding marks show. So you sand the whole thing and change the surface of the entire piece. The shine/smoothness is gone. And I bet a bacteriologist would have a field day identifying everything that could happily reside in microscopic sandpaper scratches on Corian.
"And price: You can do two changes of Formica for the price of one Corian. Bathrooms OK."
Whew! says the handyman, and thanks; it adds to the handyman's vast info file.
Jenny Luongo has some good points, and she missed one: Corian is sensitive to heat. However, the finer the sandpaper or Scotch pads, the fewer scratches and the more shine, I think. And even burn marks can be sanded.
Question: I have a half-inch space between my new gutters and the edge of the roof. I am afraid that bugs will get into the attic, and possibly wind-blown rain. What can I do about them? -- M.J., Winthrop, Mass.
Answer: The half-inch space between your new gutters and the edge of the roof may have been created deliberately to ventilate the attic at the eaves, or perhaps to add ventilation, which is a good idea if there was no ventilation originally. If so the space should be screened to keep out insects. If the gutters are not overflowing and are draining properly, there should be no problem, even with blowing rain and snow, particularly if the roof overhangs the wall.
If the attic floor is insulated, which is should be, then this additional ventilation will cause no problem; the attic should be cold. After all, the vents on the roof are already making the attic cold.
If you don't need the ventilation, and if the space was left there accidentally, it had nothing to do with the dimension of the lumber; a properly-sized board could have been cut to fit the opening. If the space was left accidentally, the carpenter was incompetent, and should make the proper repairs. A half-inch-wide board can be inserted in that space and the eaves will be as good as original.
Question: My old Victorian has some fine old metal tiles 4 1/4 inches square. Some of them have been ruined. I have called many places without luck in trying to locate some for replacement. Any ideas? -- John Natale, Winchester, Mass.
Answer: Possibly. Try one of these: The Restoration Resources Store, offering authentic and reproduction restoration items, 200 A Webster St. Hanover, MA 02339; telephone 781-878-3794.
Or, for metal tile, the Metal Tile Corp., Great Neck, NY 11021 or Vikon Metal Co., Washington, N.J.
Intaglio Ltd. of Middlebury, VT 05753 makes a metal-glazed tile: Questech, 136 East 74th St., New York, NY 10021; telephone 212-744-3091.
General Flooring House of Carpets, 208 Main St., Rte. 18, Weymouth; telephone 781-337-3600, offers old tile.
Globe Handyman on Call Peter Hotton will answer reader questions. Write him at the Boston Globe, Boston, MA 02107.