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Queen Victorian posted:
This is what my friend is doing for his house that's historic looking (in that it's one of the original houses in the area from like 1890.) He's trying to keep the character of his house while renovating / modernizing it a bit. He recently cast lead counterweights for his double hung original windows he had restored because the modern wavy glass or something was much heavier and he wanted to open/close the windows with a finger. He might be insane. It might be all the lead.
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Jul 2, 2021 16:52
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Why have I never heard of this option before?? If we could pull this off, it would be ideal. There's even a fancy Victorian brass option for the little vent openings! 
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m0therfux0r posted:That's definitely the wall. Based on the pattern in the first pic I'd guess plaster- that's what it's been like in about half the apartments I've lived in. Well, poo poo.
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Jul 2, 2021 17:04
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Johnny Truant posted:Well, poo poo. If you're looking to repair a spot you can get a sand finish additive or sanded primer like this for the bumps. The swirl is probably from plastering or some other finishing effect.
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Jul 2, 2021 17:18
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Queen Victorian posted:
seems like someone had clearly not been watching this old house in the 95-2005 stretch when it seemed like every house got the Unico treatment. It really is neat.
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Jul 2, 2021 17:23
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Jimong5 posted:If you're looking to repair a spot you can get a sand finish additive or sanded primer like this for the bumps. The swirl is probably from plastering or some other finishing effect. Nice, thanks. I'm just confused cause on a few walls I'm seeing what distinctly looks like, to me, drywall tape that is blistering from shoddy installation. Like, that's in the dining room, that doesn't have any texture, but then the adjacent front room has that swirly texture. And there's definitely drywall tape blistering/peeling in the stairwell  All the walls sounds uniformly hollow, which I also thought was more indicative of drywall?Can you have completely different wall types just from room to room? Could the PO have added that texture stuff to drywall? 
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Jul 2, 2021 18:31
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Johnny Truant posted:Nice, thanks. I mean, mud sticks to drywall, so I don't see why it wouldn't be possible to make some sort of pattern on the drywall before applying paint. Now, WHY someone would do this, I don't know . . . maybe they grew up with plaster and didn't like the drywall look? I don't know anything about what I'm talking about, of course, but in theory I think it could be done. Edit: It could be that they redid certain rooms at one point that required tearing out the plaster, and they just decided to replace it with drywall. My dad did something like this (it was my job as a young teenager to break up the plaster so it would go in the garbage can . . . no masks, probably lead paint . . . yeah . . . ) except I think he ended up taking ALL the plaster off the walls eventually.
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Jul 2, 2021 18:48
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Zarin posted:I mean, mud sticks to drywall, so I don't see why it wouldn't be possible to make some sort of pattern on the drywall before applying paint. It can be done and it's routinely done around here when people are redoing rooms in 1700-1800s farm houses. I'm all about authentic, but I don't get it. I don't feel the need to be authentic about a shittty plaster job from 200 years ago.
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Jul 2, 2021 18:49
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Motronic posted:The only properly nice central AC retrofits I've seen in older homes like yours are HVLP systems. Especially with a 3-story, it may still be difficult and expensive. Well poo poo, I'm going to have to agree with Queen Victorian in wondering why I never even heard of this before. It certainly would have helped with that entire rodents living in my crawlspace ducts during the winter thing I had going on. This has to be some kind niche thing, right? Like I've never seen or heard of it before and no HVAC person brought it up with me when I was searching last year.
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Jul 2, 2021 19:06
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H110Hawk posted:This is what my friend is doing for his house that's historic looking (in that it's one of the original houses in the area from like 1890.) He's trying to keep the character of his house while renovating / modernizing it a bit. He recently cast lead counterweights for his double hung original windows he had restored because the modern wavy glass or something was much heavier and he wanted to open/close the windows with a finger. He might be insane. It might be all the lead. My dad did that in our house, rebuilt all new sashes and had double pane units made for them, and made new weights. I would call it a passion project but I know he hated it. Looked amazing though to maintain giant openings and not feel the breeze through the cracks, or the cold rolling off the glass. While being all solid oak and original frames.
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Jul 2, 2021 19:19
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Anonymous Zebra posted:Well poo poo, I'm going to have to agree with Queen Victorian in wondering why I never even heard of this before. It certainly would have helped with that entire rodents living in my crawlspace ducts during the winter thing I had going on. This has to be some kind niche thing, right? Like I've never seen or heard of it before and no HVAC person brought it up with me when I was searching last year. It's pricey, and so is used only where traditional ducting is impractical, and with the advent of minisplits, the market is reduced to retrofits where aesthetics are preferred over cost. Someone has helpfully put the price list online https://bucherep.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/2020-Unico-Price-Book.pdf A complete indoor air handler with refrigerant coil looks to be between $4000-$5000 depending on whether you want single speed or ECM, add in $2500 or so for an outdoor unit and you're at $7500 with no ducting or labor.
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Jul 2, 2021 19:30
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Qwijib0 posted:It's pricey, and so is used only where traditional ducting is impractical, and with the advent of minisplits, the market is reduced to retrofits where aesthetics are preferred over cost. I think another goon was looking at it in the DIY HVAC thread - there was only a single contractor near them that installed so, so the pricing was even crazier.
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Jul 2, 2021 19:49
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Qwijib0 posted:It's pricey, and so is used only where traditional ducting is impractical, and with the advent of minisplits, the market is reduced to retrofits where aesthetics are preferred over cost. We ended up getting the mini-splits in the end for a variety of reasons, but I'll admit that the big units on the walls are kind of something you have to get used to. We're happy with them, but drat I wish I'd at least know these exist so I could play the pros/cons game with them.
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Jul 2, 2021 19:58
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Anonymous Zebra posted:Well poo poo, I'm going to have to agree with Queen Victorian in wondering why I never even heard of this before. It certainly would have helped with that entire rodents living in my crawlspace ducts during the winter thing I had going on. This has to be some kind niche thing, right? Like I've never seen or heard of it before and no HVAC person brought it up with me when I was searching last year. Others have covered the highlights of cost and finding an HVAC installer to support the system, but add to that you really need a very good GC/carpenter to install the ductwork, working with the HVAC company/calculations if you are doing this in an effort to keep things as original as possible. They also sometimes/often have some noise issues. Not nearly as noisy as your average minisplit, but you can get a decent amount of air wooshing sounds, and the better the install the less you will hear (i.e. bends near an outlet create more noise, etc). I know of these things because as I often note I live in an area with a lot of 1700s/1800s farm houses owned by people for whom price is often not a consideration.
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Jul 2, 2021 20:07
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Trip report status post selling our house: I have not mowed the lawn, priced out roof replacements, or worried about my basement flooding in two weeks and I do not miss it AT ALL.
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Jul 3, 2021 15:54
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Residency Evil posted:Trip report status post selling our house: I have not mowed the lawn, priced out roof replacements, or worried about my basement flooding in two weeks and I do not miss it AT ALL. And someone PAID you for this
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Jul 3, 2021 18:53
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Questions about removing shrubs up against the foundation of a house: - Would those shrubs normally be sucking up a ton of water that might now endanger the foundation? I've heard this said about trees, though I have no idea how valid it is. - Is there any particular kind of soil or dirt I'd want to fill the resulting holes with to keep too much water from filtering through and sitting up against the basement wall? Or is it just a matter of making sure the holes are filled enough to avoid pooling after the dirt/soil settles?
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Jul 3, 2021 19:21
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So of course I manage to get the air flowing pretty well just as the HVAC guy comes over but it was still good to have a professional to help me figure out where the vents were going and I think I have a little better idea of how to mess with airflow because of that. He did check the system and confirmed it's in perfect shape and also suggested a new return grille for the second floor. Current one does not have particularly wide gaps for airflow and it looks like they painted it at some point which probably narrowed the gaps even further. We're in a pretty good spot so maybe better flow out of the top floor will take us the rest of the way. At no point did he try to upsell me on anything so I think I'll keep those guys on my mind for any future work. I'm debating adding a mini-split to the garage as that is likely to end up being my workout area. Pros/cons? Now I have a new issue (this never ends does it?). I was replacing all the outlets in my office as the old ones were both old and had been helpfully painted over whenever they last painted this room. I also wanted to add one with USB outlets. Electricity is definitely not my specialty but shutting off the breaker and double checking current leaves me feeling pretty safe. I've got almost everything done, but I've come to the last outlet and then was going to do the switch. All the previous outlets had 2 hots and 2 neutral except for one that was 1/1, but this one has two hots and THREE neutrals. I maybe should have stopped at this point but I figured if the previous outlet was wired up like this, the new one wouldn't be any worse if I set it up the same way. I get the thing disconnected, start stripping the wires and getting ready to connect the new outlet. I notice some little pings in my fingers but thought i was just stabbing myself on the tips of the wires. Finally I feel something that is definitely more than that so I break out the non-contact tester again and go each wire individually. One neutral is testing hot. Now I did not blow myself up, so doesn't seem full voltage, but I am a little wary of diving back into this. Any idea what's going on and if I should let someone else handle this? edit: The outlet is in a thoroughly unremarkable place so there's nothing obvious about what else it might be connected to. Kase Im Licht fucked around with this message at 19:57 on Jul 3, 2021 |
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Jul 3, 2021 19:54
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Kase Im Licht posted:I'm debating adding a mini-split to the garage as that is likely to end up being my workout area. Pros/cons? Pro: They are awesome and you won't be left working out in 100F garage. Cons: They cost money to install and run. Which do you value more? Kase Im Licht posted:but this one has two hots and THREE neutrals. To start: You were NOT doing this safely, as you should be hitting EVERY outlet with your non-contact meter and should have caught this before you zapped yourself. If you did and just missed those wires then you've learned something. To finish: We have a wiring thread in the DIY forum that's helpfully called Hobbies and something something. https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3090739 Post some pictures, be prepared for Motronic and others to yell at you for not using your non-contact tester right. Also, color of wire means nothing.
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Jul 3, 2021 23:44
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Black on brass but sometimes the white wire still shocks your rear end.
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Jul 4, 2021 01:48
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Was it possible this was a half switched outlet? As in, one of the two outlets is operated by a switch? I'm glad I've never had that experience before. I've opened a few boxes that were confusing but in the end correct, with the colors doing what I expected. The worst was a double gang with two three way switches.
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Jul 4, 2021 05:22
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We're looking at houses to buy right now, and saw a downstairs bathroom with this in it the floor: Can anyone identify what this is? It's near-ish a toilet. Is it... a sealed-up cleanout?
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Jul 4, 2021 07:30
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Progress! That's like 4 days of work. Rain on Friday so they didn't get any further than this, but I'm impressed for just 2 guys. Only minor issue so far is the skylights won't be as large as expected. Interferes with the ceiling if they're any taller I guess. Not sure if there's a technical reason or if they just don't want to make a light well, but honestly it's not a big deal. Now that the roof is up we have a good idea of how much shade it provides. Unfortunately not as much as we hoped, but curtains can fix that if we really want. Good shade from like 10am to 3pm, though. Trees to the west will help later in the evening. We did notice, however, that after around 4pm there's decent shade on the deck, so that'll be awesome for grilling in the summer. One potential gotcha is that they're hoping for 3 posts on the screened section; the 2 you see in the corners then a 3rd in the middle. Contractor thinks the inspector might make him add 2 more in between (matching what's below the decking), but we'll see. Sooo this brings up a question: The windows above the roof and also to the left are the kids rooms. The current latches will work for a while since they're young, but is there something a little more tamper proof I can put in? I'm envisioning an easy escape for a teenager in the future... already planning on adding security system sensors to those windows, but prevention would be nice.
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Jul 4, 2021 20:20
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DaveSauce posted:Progress! Anything that would keep a teenager from escaping would probably be against fire code. As it should be. Security system sensors are likely your best bet here. Many of them now give alerts when tampered with.
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Jul 4, 2021 22:22
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Adding to the above - your teenager will escape regardless of what you put on there if they want to get out. I wouldn't worry about it. You don't know what kind of kid you're going to wind up with and most kids don't need the surveillance state to enforce honesty. Cross that bridge as trust is lost, not when they're supposed to be gaining it.
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Jul 4, 2021 22:40
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It's called home improvement but the stories aren't about remodeling, it's about growing as a family.
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Jul 4, 2021 22:48
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StormDrain posted:It's called home improvement but the stories aren't about remodeling, it's about growing as a family. Woah. Woaaaaah.
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Jul 4, 2021 23:00
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Getting into a nice routine of painting a room each weekend. Whoever posted the how to paint YouTube video a few weeks back thanks! It takes some practice to cut in as clean as that guy does but it just means each room is getting visibly neater as I go along. I'm going to have to pause for a few weekends anyway as I wait for a plasterer to skim a few textured ceilings so I might go back and clean up the mistakes I made first time around. Speaking of plaster, I've heard it said you should dilute the first layer of paint you put on fresh plaster to let it soak in and take hold. Is this old advice or still true with modern paints?
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Jul 4, 2021 23:02
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Welp, now I kinda feel stupid about fire code stuff. Pretty obvious in hindsight. And about the kids, yeah I have literally no idea how they'll turn out. Got 10 years or so. But the temptation is clear, and even dork teenager me would probably have been tempted just for shits and grins. Of course I hope I can trust them, but time will tell if I gently caress that up or not. The security stuff is partially for kids, but also because these windows are now way more accessible from the ground so they have become a security concern.
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Jul 4, 2021 23:12
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It’s the kids that are locked in that you have to worry about because then they go to their first party and they were so protected that they go full bore and next thing you know they’re blowing lines after selling all the clothes they were wearing.
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Jul 4, 2021 23:45
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The Dave posted:It’s the kids that are locked in that you have to worry about because then they go to their first party and they were so protected that they go full I went to the wrong parties. I could have sold my clothes for blow?!
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Jul 5, 2021 00:13
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Read that as you will.
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Jul 5, 2021 00:13
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H110Hawk posted:Pro: They are awesome and you won't be left working out in 100F garage. Both. But I think pro/con was a bad way to ask it. I'm willing to pay money for things that will lead to real quality of life improvements. More of: Will this really work out as well as I think, has anyone done it and loved it/regretted it, or wished they'd gone a different route. Am I paying 20x the price of a window air conditioner for a 20% improvement or is this in a whole different world of solutions? quote:
I'll follow up in that thread for some more assistance but I've got a partial answer to what's going on which has raised its own questions. On a hunch, I turned off a nearby circuit, which was successful in turning off the white wire. StormDrain posted:Was it possible this was a half switched outlet? As in, one of the two outlets is operated by a switch?
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Jul 5, 2021 01:46
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Kase Im Licht posted:Both. But I think pro/con was a bad way to ask it. I'm willing to pay money for things that will lead to real quality of life improvements. More of: Will this really work out as well as I think, has anyone done it and loved it/regretted it, or wished they'd gone a different route. Am I paying 20x the price of a window air conditioner for a 20% improvement or is this in a whole different world of solutions? I put a Mr Cool diy mini split in my garage recently, and it's pretty great. It's quiet, keeps it in a specified temp range, and is fairly unobtrusive. I had to run a sub panel for it, my adventures are over in the wiring thread. The unit itself is actually 120v, though you can get bigger 220v ones.
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Jul 5, 2021 02:35
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Goddamn, a shop vac is seriously one of the best purchases of my entire drat life. Used it every day since I bought it and there's no signs of slowing down just yet.
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Jul 5, 2021 02:36
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Kase Im Licht posted:Both. But I think pro/con was a bad way to ask it. I'm willing to pay money for things that will lead to real quality of life improvements. More of: Will this really work out as well as I think, has anyone done it and loved it/regretted it, or wished they'd gone a different route. Am I paying 20x the price of a window air conditioner for a 20% improvement or is this in a whole different world of solutions? Either way you're paying for comfort. Modern u-shaped mini splits that fit in an existing window will be the cheapest way to do it, a portable 2-hose will also do it, with a mini split being the MOST comfortable. They can be sized as big as you need to get the room colder faster, and will generally be the quietest. I would say they're a huge step up but if you're only out there for an hour a day it might not matter to you as much that they're quieter. How big of a space? Sun load on walls/roof? Insulation? How hot is it outside? How many hours do you spend out there a week? Do you want heating as well? Kase Im Licht posted:Well I usually think of myself as pretty careful around electricity but I can't really say how thoroughly I was testing all the white wires. I figured with testing the outlet with both whatever was plugged in, and the tester, prior and post breaker shut off, I'd be good. I didn't think of a white as being hot in a functional outlet since wouldn't that trip the breaker or make it non-functional? Definitely checking everything in the future many times over. That last sentence is the magic trick. You kinda go nuts with it. Fun finding the mixed up wires! I'll look out for your post in the other thread. We just try to make sure people understand to trust no one and no thing. Colors and labels don't conduct electricity but wires and humans can. 
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Jul 5, 2021 03:36
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Johnny Truant posted:Goddamn, a shop vac is seriously one of the best purchases of my entire drat life. Used it every day since I bought it and there's no signs of slowing down just yet. I think that's a little too much, even if you do it every day you should at least try to vary how you masturbate
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Jul 5, 2021 06:37
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QuarkJets posted:I think that's a little too much, even if you do it every day you should at least try to vary how you masturbate It's not masturbation, my shop vac and I... we have a bond. It goes beyond words. It... sucks.
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Jul 5, 2021 14:08
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Johnny Truant posted:It's not masturbation, my shop vac and I... we have a bond. It goes beyond words. It... sucks. My dad got me a ShopVac for Christmas one year, and I thought it was kinda a weird gift. I think I used it a bit, it got nasty and I had to toss it. I was vac-less for awhile and thought nothing of it. Then, he got me a Ridgid similar to his, that accepts bags like a regular vacuum cleaner (but bigger). THAT was a game-changer, and suddenly that shop-vac became the most useful gift I had ever received! The bag keeps the filter pretty clean, and it makes it very simple to switch to Wet Vac mode: just pull the bag out, pull the filter, and good to go. Don't need to worry about trying to find someplace to dump a shop vac while the water is moving around. We don't even own a regular vacuum anymore . . . my wife has some handheld Dyson thing that is, quite frankly, a piece of junk that I regret buying. But, the shop vac? We just moved into an apartment with high ceilings, so I bought a HEPA kit for it (HEPA bag, HEPA filter) and a second (extension) hose for it (also 2 more extension poles). I'd say the extension hose was a game-changer too - having twice as much hose footage to work with means I need to move the bulky unit much less, which is huge. If I was still a homeowner, I'd probably get a second one with a lower-quality filter for when I needed to clean gutters/garage/messy stuff. (Or just keep a lower-quality filter around for when I needed to use it bagless). So, yeah. While some may look at the shop vac and see a masturbation joke . . . I understand you. 
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Jul 5, 2021 16:01
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We bought a nice stick vacuum, I think a Shark, a few years ago and it was a great choice, light enough to hang on the wall like a broom but with the power of a traditional vacuum. The low weight makes it easier to use and you don't even need a different tool for stuff like stairs The shop vac is also a well-used tool for us but for normal cleaning the stick is awesome
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Jul 5, 2021 17:01
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QuarkJets posted:We bought a nice stick vacuum, I think a Shark, a few years ago and it was a great choice, light enough to hang on the wall like a broom but with the power of a traditional vacuum. The low weight makes it easier to use and you don't even need a different tool for stuff like stairs I am a die hard Shark fan. I have a beagle that moults constantly, and the “beagle groups” were rabidly in favour of sharks- when my dog methodically destroyed my old Dyson I figured there was no harm in trying one- it is phenomenal, and I have evangelised enough that 5 of my friends/family now own one. If/when it breaks I will for sure be buying whatever the newest shiniest version available is.
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Jul 5, 2021 18:10
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