I remember my college move-in day like it was yesterday. I got my room assignment, marched up the stairs, opened the door, and was disappointingly greeted with four walls of uninviting cinder blocks.

Q: My house was built in the '40s and has a cinder-block foundation. On the inside, it has paint that's peeling. Some of the blocks are crumbling, but the problem is not deep, less than an inch. In ...