Should I turn AC's power off in winter to save money?

A: Turning off power to your HVAC system won’t work because your heating system needs electricity to run the motor for a fan that blows warmth into your house. In a sense, the circuit breaker that powers your AC also powers your gas-powered furnace.

Q: My home has a 100-foot-long driveway with a 10-degree slope. It now has six very large cracks in its surface that range from about a half-inch wide to 2 inches wide. Is there anything I can do to repair those cracks?

A: Asphalt is very tough to patch and repair. Putting a semi-permanent patch on the cracks would require a large piece of paving equipment. In general, it’s not economical for contractors using that equipment to pave a residential driveway. They only make money when they are fixing large areas, like shopping center parking lots.

My advice is that you remove the driveway in segments and replace each section you take out with concrete pavers. It’s easier to do it in sections rather than taking on the whole job in one big bite.

I’m doing that myself right now with a driveway problem of my own. My situation is probably worse than yours actually. There are some consumer asphalt patch products on the market, like liquid asphalt. By using one of those products, you could end up with areas of your driveway that are a different shade of black than the old black. You could do that temporarily, of course, until you can put in the pavers.

Q: A large mesquite in my backyard has grown to the point where its roots are lifting up the concrete paving all over the yard. What can I do to stop this from happening?

A: The problem is probably going to get worse as time goes on. You need to dig down all around the tree and cut off some sections of the roots. But don’t get too close to the tree if you want to keep that tree alive and growing. Cutting too close to the trunk can kill the tree. You only want to cut roots that are less than a third of the diameter of the trunk in their thickness.

Q: A while back, I heard from someone that if you have sod that has been planted in your yard and it starts going to seed, your sod is going to die. My 5-year-old section of sod now seems to be flowering, so I expect that soon it will go to seed and then die. I’m wondering if I can stop the process by cutting off the flowers. To tell the truth, I let the sod grow a long time without mowing it. Will cutting the grass work at this point?

A: Just because the grass is getting flower pods doesn’t mean it’s going to seed. Sod is a hybrid and when it flowers, there are no seeds in those pods. So it’s not likely that your sod will die. You’ve just been letting the grass grow too long between mowings. So it’s time to get out there and mow. The sod may get brown and look half-dead after you cut it, but once the weather warms up it’s going to get green again.