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devicenull posted:This is what wiring is supposed to look like, right? Sure, if that's a picture of the dumpster you threw all the old wiring into.
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Jan 3, 2016 23:02
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OSU_Matthew posted:I don't know what you're complaining about, at least they put a small modicum of effort into taping the live end Don't forget covers for those boxes too. That silver woven NM is from the 50's. That also was an era before wire nuts were common. Back in those days, they typically soldered and taped the wires.
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Jan 3, 2016 23:03
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OSU_Matthew posted:I don't know what you're complaining about, at least they put a small modicum of effort into taping the live end I've decided it's all going to have to come out. The previous owner did all sorts of stupid stuff (we have one breaker labeled "girls room" which seems to control random fixtures throughout the house). I don't think it's rubbing going into the box, there's some kind of strain relief going on there. These junction boxes somehow set off my voltage detector (with the breaker off), but my multimeter didn't show any voltage. That magically stopped happening once I fixed everything... That transformer is safely in the garbage now (the doorbell button was *in* the garage, because they never moved it after they added the garage). House was built sometime in the 1960s, and has an odd mix of wiring. This is what it looks like now (before I added the cover plates)  Bonus picture from under the kitchen sink:  Obviously, when one saddle valve stops working, the only solution is to add another one (because you can't turn the water off; the main shutoff was a corroded gate valve and there's no shutoffs under the sink)
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Jan 4, 2016 04:06
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devicenull posted:I've decided it's all going to have to come out. The previous owner did all sorts of stupid stuff (we have one breaker labeled "girls room" which seems to control random fixtures throughout the house). I don't think it's rubbing going into the box, there's some kind of strain relief going on there. This is why you don't don't label bedrooms after who used them: it makes no sense to the next owner. Use cardinal directions and floors. Still, odd circuits running all over the house was much more common in the old days. They really liked to overextend them in the old days. Then where does that valve on the left go? Also, if you don't have shutoffs, install a pair of these: http://www.homedepot.com/p/BrassCra...FX-C1/203309315 edit: what about that wire nut dead center in the top picture? I hope that isn't capping off a live wire... kid sinister fucked around with this message at 22:33 on Jan 4, 2016 |
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Jan 4, 2016 18:02
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FISHMANPET posted:So, I've got this white insulation around the pipe that feeds hot water from my boiler to all the radiators. What are the odds it's asbestos? that is absolutely asbestos. If it were in good shape I'd say leave it be and slap a coat of thick paint over it to contain any fibers. From the pictures it looks frayed so whatever has fallen off it is now dust in that area... You probably want to have it removed before it makes more dust. I've worked with pro's who do this and the process is to tent off the area, wet things down (controls dust), carefully score and peel it off the pipes, and seal it in garbage bags. They wear full body suits and good respirators. It's not rocket science by any means, just got to make sure you are clean and careful to contain your mess. The stuff is not radioactive, it's only a problem if you breathe it in or touch it regularly.
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Jan 4, 2016 21:17
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Dirty Beluga posted:that is absolutely asbestos. It's also illegal to dispose of in the garbage.
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Jan 5, 2016 02:43
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Don't they also not just tent, but put some small amount of negative pressure on the tented area so that any unfiltered air transfer happens strictly INTO the tent? That seems sorta crucial, imo.
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Jan 5, 2016 02:48
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kid sinister posted:This is why you don't don't label bedrooms after who used them: it makes no sense to the next owner. Use cardinal directions and floors. Still, odd circuits running all over the house was much more common in the old days. They really liked to overextend them in the old days. The valve on the right goes to the garage spigot. It's gone now. I tried to replace it with a frost free one, but the hole wasn't big enough, and was surrounded with asbestos siding. There are now quarter turn ball valves *everywhere*, one on the supply coming out of the wall, then one immediately before each fixture. Dead center from which box? The small orange wire nuts are capping off the random red wires that were previously just flopping around in the box. I don't know if they're live at this point, I don't know where they all go. It's incremental improvements at this point, all the wires going to those boxes are going to get replaced.
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Jan 5, 2016 02:49
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devicenull posted:Dead center from which box? It's yellow in the very center of the picture.
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Jan 5, 2016 03:34
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kid sinister posted:It's yellow in the very center of the picture. Oh, haha didn't even see that. It's just one of the old wire nuts that fell off. I have to get back up there with the shop vac and clean up all the dirt and other debris.
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Jan 5, 2016 03:49
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devicenull posted:
E. I did not see the box had screw clamps inside it.
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Jan 5, 2016 15:44
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Can stealing those rolling stairs from Home Despot and putting some wood blocks on top be considered “construction”?        some guy on Reddit posted:Not sure if here's the right place for this but our Landlord has stalled for months to fix stairs, gets 3 weeks while we're in mexico and leaves this garbage
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Jan 5, 2016 22:34
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Wow he didn't even come close to half-assing that job. I sure want every trip in and out of my house to be a death defying stunt, goddamn. Fire Marshall would be the first guy to call, eh? I wonder if that place has a proper evac route in event of a fire.
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Jan 5, 2016 22:56
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Holy poo poo, those loose wood blocks. I'm crying. Picturing the guy trying to work up the nerve to steal one of those mobile stairs vehicles from an airport and suddenly spotting a Home Depot. Reminds me of the shithole I used to live in, where they dug up the empty lot in front of two houses to build a new one, and really the entire lot. What had been street-level front doors suddenly were second floor. They installed some very steep provisional wooden stairs and kept them up for close to a year. They started visibly deteriorating after maybe four months. They also only put down a few boards as a pathway through the pit, and only after people complained because it turned into ankle-deep mud when it rained, and never bothered to install a light. It was fun coming home from work in winter, stumbling down the access ramp and guessing what the builders had left where today. Oh and the builders didn't give a single poo poo that their pit was also the only means of access to the houses behind and more than once I had to dodge an excavator or wait until they'd got their vehicles out of the way. e: yeah, evac routes were a concern. I mean, wood stairs.
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Jan 5, 2016 22:56
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Those stairs have to be hilariously illegal pretty much anywhere. But then again those light switches on the wall in the first picture have to be hilariously illegal too. My own tale. Landlord put in some window planters in the back yard at some point, not sure if it was 2014 or earlier. But they were made out of untreated lumber that was just painted white. Last summer there were tons of mushrooms growing off the wood, and then a few weeks ago I leave for work and I see this: 
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Jan 5, 2016 23:27
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Arrath posted:Fire Marshall would be the first guy to call, eh? I wonder if that place has a proper evac route in event of a fire. OP confirmed that it's the only way into or out of the residence.
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Jan 6, 2016 00:11
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Your landlord should put you up in a hotel or something until real stairs are in.
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Jan 6, 2016 03:31
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Chemmy posted:Your landlord should put you up in a hotel or something until real stairs are in. Just check that the elevator isn't a bucket and clothsline rope first.
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Jan 6, 2016 03:39
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Platystemon posted:Can stealing those rolling stairs from Home Despot and putting some wood blocks on top be considered “construction”? This is poo poo you legit call the local news about. They all have an 'On Your Side' sort of thing and will send out Secondary Weatherman X to film in a heartbeat. I've seen them interviewing people about cracked sidewalks. The local news loooooves poo poo like this.
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Jan 6, 2016 04:51
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Suspect Bucket posted:This is poo poo you legit call the local news about. They all have an 'On Your Side' sort of thing and will send out Secondary Weatherman X to film in a heartbeat. I've seen them interviewing people about cracked sidewalks. The local news loooooves poo poo like this. You know who else loves poo poo like this? The goddamn fire marshal. Call your nearest town hall and/or fire station and ask for the AHJ (Authority Having Jurisdiction) for building code violations.
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Jan 6, 2016 05:42
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Hope he's got good renters' coverage for staying in a hotel and/or liquid cash, because as soon as the fire marshal sees that poo poo, they can't occupy that building at all anymore. They'll be out on their asses and the landlord doesn't have to do poo poo. They'll be let out of the lease and get their prorated rent back in 30 days. The law doesn't make rear end in a top hat property owners fix anything; your remedy is to get out of the lease.
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Jan 6, 2016 06:19
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NancyPants posted:Hope he's got good renters' coverage for staying in a hotel and/or liquid cash, because as soon as the fire marshal sees that poo poo, they can't occupy that building at all anymore. They'll be out on their asses and the landlord doesn't have to do poo poo. They'll be let out of the lease and get their prorated rent back in 30 days. The law doesn't make rear end in a top hat property owners fix anything; your remedy is to get out of the lease. Even a cheap landlord would rather get it fixed than have a property he can't make any money on.
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Jan 6, 2016 06:32
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NancyPants posted:Hope he's got good renters' coverage for staying in a hotel and/or liquid cash, because as soon as the fire marshal sees that poo poo, they can't occupy that building at all anymore. They'll be out on their asses and the landlord doesn't have to do poo poo. They'll be let out of the lease and get their prorated rent back in 30 days. The law doesn't make rear end in a top hat property owners fix anything; your remedy is to get out of the lease. It would really suck to move all their stuff out, too. Maybe rent a scissor lift and bill the landlord.
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Jan 6, 2016 06:42
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KillHour posted:Even a cheap landlord would rather get it fixed than have a property he can't make any money on. Nope, because he's a loving slum lord. That landlord isn't going to fix a drat thing until the place is empty. He's had since June or at least 3 weeks depending how you look at it, and on day 1 those stairs were a lease breaker. The family should have, the day they came home and found that poo poo written a letter that said "I'm out of here immediately since there is no entrance to this residence, you've got 7 days to fix it if you want me to stay in this lease and you owe me prorated rent for the days I can't occupy this place" but they didn't because they are dumb/poor/illegal/some combination of all three. If he was worried about it being empty, he wouldn't have done this in the first place. He's garbage and I hope he breaks his stupid lovely neck while half-assing whatever he does on the stairs. The OP and his family either are going to stay and put up with it because they can't afford to move, or they're going to leave without putting anything in writing and thus be on the hook for the entirety of the lease. This poo poo stain is going to fix the stairs enough that they look workable, rent to a new family of illegals/poor people and keep trying to collect from OP for bullshit, and because this poo poo show is probably in Texas, none of the code violations will be lease breakers if they were present upon move in. It'll take the fire marshal locking the doors to get them out of it, they'll have that day to find a new place to sleep, and the landlord sits on their prepaid rent for at least 30 days.
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Jan 6, 2016 07:21
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What? Many states have tenant laws that allow you to withhold the portion of the rent for repairs that a landlord refuses to fix. Those people probably don't have enough money to spend...well however much a set of stairs costs to build per code but in many states they could handle it without being put out on the street.
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Jan 6, 2016 17:26
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NancyPants posted:because this poo poo show is probably in Texas Good guess, but it's actually in CA.
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Jan 6, 2016 17:59
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California has relatively good renters rights laws on paper. Unfortunately getting them enforced without becoming homeless is another challenge.
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Jan 6, 2016 18:04
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BraveUlysses posted:What? Many states have tenant laws that allow you to withhold the portion of the rent for repairs that a landlord refuses to fix. Those people probably don't have enough money to spend...well however much a set of stairs costs to build per code but in many states they could handle it without being put out on the street. Yep, and in general if it's a big enough deal to withhold rent to fix, it's also a lease breaker. There's usually nothing that means a renter can stay and force the landlord to fix it, it usually means the renter can now get out of the lease without penalty. But that pretty much means becoming homeless on very short notice.
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Jan 6, 2016 20:32
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Kastein's German clone is now fixing his centuries old roof. https://youtu.be/e737lLUPq6Q To be fair, this house is more of a massive success just because it is still standing, but these videos are fun to watch.
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Jan 9, 2016 19:54
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NancyPants posted:Yep, and in general if it's a big enough deal to withhold rent to fix, it's also a lease breaker. There's usually nothing that means a renter can stay and force the landlord to fix it, it usually means the renter can now get out of the lease without penalty. But that pretty much means becoming homeless on very short notice. The landlord signed a lease to provide inhabitable housing in return for money. In a perfect world there would never be any repairs needed that affect habitability. The best situation would be to require renters to have renters insurance, then, renters can get alternate housing paid for by the renters insurance and the landlord can abate the rent for the time the home is unavailable and make the needed repairs. CA law requires landlords to provide relocation assistance with some exceptions (Health and Safety Code Section 17980.7(d)(3)) The expenses would still have to be reasonable so you aren't staying in a resort while the repairs are made. If the landlord is not able to make the repairs and provide habitable housing (there are some exceptions) the tenant will have to sue for relocation costs. CA also has a streamlined process for serving landlords, you just mail it to the same place you mail the rent. Also the tenant can notify the landlord, wait a reasonable amount of time, and then deduct the costs from rent, not included the tenants own labor. Housing law is complex and varies greatly from city to city. If you are ever in a questionable situation, get help from a local legal aid group.
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Jan 10, 2016 10:25
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Just pulled this out of my attic: What's that black part? Oh, that's just where someone had run the wire over some gas piping. Then they put a plywood board on top of the wire, so every time you walked around in the attic you rubbed the wire against the gas pipe.
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Jan 11, 2016 02:38
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devicenull posted:Just pulled this out of my attic: I'm trying to understand this, and I'm thinking step one was to wear away the coating through friction, then there was low enough resistance when under pressure to link the wire to the grounded gas pipe? Wouldn't that pop the breaker every time?
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Jan 11, 2016 15:32
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baquerd posted:I'm trying to understand this, and I'm thinking step one was to wear away the coating through friction, then there was low enough resistance when under pressure to link the wire to the grounded gas pipe? Wouldn't that pop the breaker every time? It's probably not stripped all the way to the copper
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Jan 11, 2016 15:41
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baquerd posted:I'm trying to understand this, and I'm thinking step one was to wear away the coating through friction, then there was low enough resistance when under pressure to link the wire to the grounded gas pipe? Wouldn't that pop the breaker every time? I doubt the black is from a burn. It's probably just color transfer from the gas pipe which are black in the US.
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Jan 11, 2016 17:48
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Or the color of the thread they wove the jacket out of. Most of it that I've seen just has black thread with a silver paint/coating.
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Jan 11, 2016 23:18
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Whoops. quote:Damage to a newly built bridge cut traffic on the Trans-Canada Highway in both directions Sunday and it wasn't clear when it could reopen, said the mayor of a Northern Ontario community.
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Jan 11, 2016 23:32
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baquerd posted:I'm trying to understand this, and I'm thinking step one was to wear away the coating through friction, then there was low enough resistance when under pressure to link the wire to the grounded gas pipe? Wouldn't that pop the breaker every time? It wasn't popping the breaker. Everything downstream of this was acting... funny. Outlet tester would randomly report hot and ground reversed... cycling the breaker somehow fixed it temporarily. That black isn't burned, it's rubbed off from the gas pipe.
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Jan 12, 2016 01:50
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Now is our chance to strike, while their forces are divided!
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Jan 12, 2016 03:20
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What did they forget to account for thermal expansion (or rather contraction) when they designed the bridge that would be sitting in loving canadian winters? Cause it sure looks like the cables overstressed that joint and lifted the span up.
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Jan 12, 2016 03:37
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Enourmo posted:What did they forget to account for thermal expansion (or rather contraction) when they designed the bridge that would be sitting in loving canadian winters? Cause it sure looks like the cables overstressed that joint and lifted the span up. 
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