Q. I have a glassed-in porch with a concrete slab. Everything is in good shape, except water is coming up into the porch, partly from the slab and partly from plants. There is a lot of condensation occurring. I was thinking of installing porcelain tile to prevent this. Water is not coming up through the concrete, unless there are cracks in it.
Ventilation is less necessary in cold weather.
The paint is chipping badly on the tops of my porch railing. The only stain you should use on a horizontal surface outdoors is a semitransparent stain, and this must go on bare wood. A solid-color latex stain is generally not recommended on an outdoor horizontal surface because it wears too fast. However, it can go over old paint, and you can experiment and give the railing two coats of solid color stain, just to see how well it stands up. Otherwise, sand heavily after scraping, wash with paint thinner, apply an oil-based primer and finish with two coats of latex house paint.