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TooMuchAbstraction posted:I'm hiring an electrician to install a 240V/50A outlet for charging an EV. The installation location will be somewhat sheltered, but it's still exposed enough that I want to build a box to protect it from rain. Building the box is easy enough -- backing board with a hole in it for the outlet, sloping roof, charging cord exits through a hole in the bottom, hinged cover with a latch. What I'm wondering about is water getting between the box and the wall. The siding is stucco, so not the kind of thing that I can get a piece of Z flashing into. Is this a case where I just caulk the top and sides and hope for the best? You got it. Caulk that poo poo.
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Jan 27, 2022 19:36
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H110Hawk posted:I would just us all UL-Listed waterproof equipment and let it get rained on directly. If you're using cord-and-plug instead of hardwired then use IEC 60309 connectors like a baller. Plenty of outdoor chargers that have 0 protection from the elements. I mean, yeah, of course use the exterior-rated in-use receptacle, sorry, I should have made that much clear  I guess I just don't like taking chances with this much power. Fair call on not enclosing it fully. There'll be a hole at the bottom for the charge cable to exit through, and I guess I can include a vent hole or two up top that are angled to prevent water from easily getting in.
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Jan 27, 2022 20:15
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TooMuchAbstraction posted:I mean, yeah, of course use the exterior-rated in-use receptacle, sorry, I should have made that much clear I would just trust the rating personally, but if you want to build it a little house live your best life. You can also get little ports that let you pass a indoor charger to an outdoor cable. For example: https://store.clippercreek.com/level2/level2-40-to-80/40-amp-plu-charger-nema-14-50 Plug and cord, outdoor rated. By Intertek not UL 
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Jan 27, 2022 20:37
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Is quarter round moulding used more often with certain floor surfaces than others? most of my place was carpeted, and just had baseboard, and when I got hard floors it was the same. But the tiled floors in the bathroom, kitchen and entry have a quarter round as well, and I'm not sure why. Is it to protect the baseboard or perhaps the gap between the floor and the wall from water?
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Jan 28, 2022 04:29
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actionjackson posted:Is quarter round moulding used more often with certain floor surfaces than others? most of my place was carpeted, and just had baseboard, and when I got hard floors it was the same. But the tiled floors in the bathroom, kitchen and entry have a quarter round as well, and I'm not sure why. Is it to protect the baseboard or perhaps the gap between the floor and the wall from water? It's general purpose is yeah, to eliminate gaps between the trim and the floor, not necessarily for water intrusion purposes (water pooling against shoe is gonna infiltrate, no matter what), but just for aesthetics.
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Jan 28, 2022 04:52
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actionjackson posted:Is quarter round moulding used more often with certain floor surfaces than others? ... If you're retrofitting a floor surface & you don't want to disturb the baseboard because then the wall paint gets screwed, even if you pre-score the caulk line at the wall, or You're not a golden god at floor laying and/or the room is really out of square, and leaves gaps; then base shoe is your jam.
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Jan 28, 2022 05:15
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what do you mean by the wall paint getting screwed? I just remembered a small piece of quarter round came out a while ago, and I'm waiting until the floor there gets retiled to have it nailed back in, so i took it off for a sec to get this picture. you can see that there's no issue with the laminate flooring not having a quarter round, but there is with the tile. I'm thinking it's because the tile is just a bit shorter than the laminate - this is obvious in the bathroom for example, as there's a tiny vertical gap between the tile and the transition, and you can see it here as well (separate from the small horizontal gap on the left part of the tile, which I think is just the tile cut being just a tad off). actionjackson fucked around with this message at 06:08 on Jan 28, 2022 |
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Jan 28, 2022 06:06
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When removing painted trim from a painted surface: unless great care is taken, ripping of the paint surface is common. Usually paintable caulk is applied & painted over during the build; cutting that caulk improves your chances of not ripping the wall paint - getting all the way through can be tough to ascertain. Consequently, a floor installer can guarantee no issue arises by leaving the base alone, and laying down base shoe.
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Jan 28, 2022 17:00
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ah ok, thank you any thoughts on how I can remove this cat5e from the wall plate? I've tried everything.
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Jan 28, 2022 17:29
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actionjackson posted:ah ok, thank you cut and reterminate?
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Jan 28, 2022 17:59
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apparently that top part is a "keystone" which snaps in, seems bizarre that it can't be removed in the same manner
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Jan 28, 2022 18:03
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actionjackson posted:apparently that top part is a "keystone" which snaps in, seems bizarre that it can't be removed in the same manner https://diy.stackexchange.com/questions/93862/removing-a-keystone-jack-from-the-wall-plate
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Jan 28, 2022 18:05
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actionjackson posted:apparently that top part is a "keystone" which snaps in, seems bizarre that it can't be removed in the same manner Some of those are just ridiculously tight.
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Jan 28, 2022 18:14
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actionjackson posted:ah ok, thank you See those notches at the bottom of the keystone? Get those above the lip and it will remove. You just aren't trying hard enough. You may snap the faceplate trying this. Try to slide something in there like a spudger if you have a sufficiently rigid one. Tolerances on those, especially cheap ones or mismatched brands, are extremely sloppy because the penalty for error is so low. Often you would terminate, test, install, leave it until the next full gut renovation 1-25 years in the future.
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Jan 28, 2022 18:18
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that did it, thanks!
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Jan 28, 2022 18:21
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H110Hawk posted:I would just trust the rating personally, but if you want to build it a little house live your best life. You can also get little ports that let you pass a indoor charger to an outdoor cable. Yeah, but those things are expensive. Just a 50A plug and outdoor-rated receptacle is $40, then hiring an electrician to install it (including installing breakers, and moving existing circuits to tandem breakers) is $350. Then I use the charging cable that came with the car. Related -- I ordered this receptacle, and despite the item description on Amazon listing using it for EVs, the actual ordered product has a little sticker on it saying "CAUTION: Recreational Vehicle use only". Is this actually anything worth worrying about?
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Jan 29, 2022 01:20
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TooMuchAbstraction posted:Yeah, but those things are expensive. Just a 50A plug and outdoor-rated receptacle is $40, then hiring an electrician to install it (including installing breakers, and moving existing circuits to tandem breakers) is $350. Then I use the charging cable that came with the car. I don't know why it would matter. I like that in their pictures the 14-50R is molded UL but the whole enclosure is Intertek. Assuming it's actually rated at 50A it's fine. (And you don't wind up with like, a knock off. I don't know this brand in particular.)
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Jan 29, 2022 01:31
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H110Hawk posted:I don't know why it would matter. I like that in their pictures the 14-50R is molded UL but the whole enclosure is Intertek. Assuming it's actually rated at 50A it's fine. (And you don't wind up with like, a knock off. I don't know this brand in particular.) Yeah, I keep forgetting about the knockoff risk :\ It feels pretty heavily-built, and there's nothing obviously wrong with it, but I'm not an expert at spotting shoddily-built electronics. Hopefully the electrician I've hired has a better eye.
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Jan 29, 2022 01:37
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Man, this is an embarrassing question to have to ask, but uh, I can't figure out how to change my new house's furnace filter. In my defense, I know how to change filters on every other furnace I've ever dealt with, but this one is new to me. The filter is a blue mesh set in a metal frame. It's at the bottom of the unit, which sits on a wooden shelf, and there's a hole cut out in the shelf, so the intake air is just coming from the interior of the house. The filter doesn't appear to come apart, so if I'm supposed to replace it, I'd be replacing the metal frame every time, which doesn't sound right. Are some washable? This thing feels potentially washable. The confusing addition to my issue is that there's a half used pack of more traditional filters (mesh with a cardboard frame) sitting next to the furnace. The furnace was replaced shortly before I bought the house though, so I'm gonna say those are from the old furnace...
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Jan 30, 2022 20:31
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Don't feel bad. A lot of furnace filter locations are made in the field, by idiots who don't care because they're not the ones changing the filter, and are getting paid by the job anyway. Some pictures would be helpful here. I've not seen a washable filter with blue stuff in it. Those are usually the cheapest of the cheap filters, but I'd possible I'm just imagining something totally different than what you're looking as.
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Jan 30, 2022 20:44
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I hold particular hatred for the assholes that put in our HVAC system and opted for a wall grille instead of, oh, I dont know, the filter rack on the bottom of the handler? They both take a 20x20x1, but I have to fight with the grille because the actual size is like 3/8 smaller. And I cant use the slot because they blocked it with the condensation pipes 
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Jan 30, 2022 21:43
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Motronic posted:Don't feel bad. A lot of furnace filter locations are made in the field, by idiots who don't care because they're not the ones changing the filter, and are getting paid by the job anyway.   I noticed the part numbers when I pulled it out. Both of the numbers bring up very similar, but not identical filters on Google that appear to be washable.
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Jan 30, 2022 21:55
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Oh yeah, that texture is not what I was thinking about. That definitely looks like a washable filter. I was thinking about this garbage: 
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Jan 30, 2022 22:11
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Someone talk me off a ledge here, or at least stop me from going on British youtube videos for another hour of my life. The front rooms of my house are fieldstone with (what I assume is lovely) stucco on the outside and plaster on the inside. Suffice to say the walls themselves are pretty cold and I think are the contributor for having a cold breeze go against the back of your neck head when you're trying to relax in the living room during a winter night. From my manic googling it seems like the UK has a lot of different options for adding some interior insulation without completely taking down the wall covering. Specifically seeing stuff like thermal wallpaper (can't be legit... right?) and insulated plasterboard. I guess what I'm wondering is if the US has stuff that is comparable, or if the route is something like rigid foam board with sheetrock over it. I know there's things to consider with condensation and air gaps but if I could raise the temperature in any meaningful way without taking the plaster down and only adding 1-2 inches to the width of the wall that could really be worth it for me.
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Jan 31, 2022 15:38
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The Dave posted:Someone talk me off a ledge here, or at least stop me from going on British youtube videos for another hour of my life. Sound like you have a wall made out of various types of rock that are all touching. Just like all of the fieldstone farm houses around here. It's a thermal mass problem and benefit. These homes don't "work" like a modern home. They tend to slow down temperature swings over time, which is why you can get away with good circulation through windows in the summer, and, if you're living like it's 1789, keep the fireplaces going to keep the heat in the chimneys and walls. But to make it act like a modern home with temperatures you can reliably set from a thermostat on the wall that controls a device with heat and/or cooling? You need to insulate. Which will absolutely ruin the look. This is why all of these places have a modern built addition on them where you have a kitchen/living room and master suite. Because nobody wants to deal with that kind of thing in this century, but wants to leave the "charm" of at least some downstairs rooms and the original fireplaces. There are no easy answers. Just compromises of various types and cost.
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Jan 31, 2022 15:52
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In the US, you can have insulation blown into your walls. Loose fluffy stuff, but you need to cut holes in the drywall to stuff the nozzle in, between each stud. So you'd still have to patch a bunch of holes, but you wouldn't need to rip down the walls.
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Jan 31, 2022 15:55
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Motronic posted:Oh yeah, that texture is not what I was thinking about. That definitely looks like a washable filter. These fuckers killed my first A/C unit. My landlord said "oh these should be fine" ignoring the fact that we have cats. Took me weeks to figure out why the unit was freezing up until I stuck my phone up the intake and saw a damp, disgusting cake of cat hair and dust that had gone through the filter. I got coil cleaner and fabricated a brush out of a dish brush and a backscratcher with duct tape and spent an hour loving with it. Only ever got about 15%-20% of it clean.  I now use MERV8 filters minimum, not that translucent bullshit.
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Jan 31, 2022 15:55
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CRUSTY MINGE posted:In the US, you can have insulation blown into your walls. Loose fluffy stuff, but you need to cut holes in the drywall to stuff the nozzle in, between each stud. So you'd still have to patch a bunch of holes, but you wouldn't need to rip down the walls.
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Jan 31, 2022 15:58
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Motronic posted:They tend to slow down temperature swings over time, which is why you can get away with good circulation through windows in the summer, and, if you're living like it's 1789, keep the fireplaces going to keep the heat in the chimneys and walls. Yeah this is on the money, summer time is fairly pleasant with no additional cooling (for the most part). CRUSTY MINGE posted:In the US, you can have insulation blown into your walls. Loose fluffy stuff, but you need to cut holes in the drywall to stuff the nozzle in, between each stud. So you'd still have to patch a bunch of holes, but you wouldn't need to rip down the walls. Oh for these walls there's literally no space. It's plaster, lathe, stone, stucco with no gapping whatsoever. stealie72 posted:Have also seen it done from the outside on cedar shingled houses. Not sure if that's better or worse, but wood outside means plaster inside which is not as easy to fix as drywall. Of course, holes inside don't mean an incursion point for water. The UK and Canada seem to also have a cork stucco-like spray on exterior solution, which after typing it out feels like I've already lost money.
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Jan 31, 2022 16:00
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The Dave posted:
Oh. Okay. Short of framing up interior walls and stuffing them, kinda boned. At that point you might look at radiant floor heating, going to cost a decent buck either way.
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Jan 31, 2022 16:09
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I'm removing the PO's illegal suite kitchen from my basement and there's a small patch of black mold or mildew at the bottom of the wall behind where the sink was. In the medium term I'm planning to replace the drywall, but I'm hoping for a short term fix in the meantime. With the source of water removed can I just hit it with some fungicide spray and paint over for now? And with the mold dry and dead do I need fancy mold paint or will regular latex do? Edit: it's an interior wall, open on the back side in the utility space, so I can be quite confident that it's fully dry.
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Jan 31, 2022 16:26
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You can use a bleach solution to clean up the mold. E: google says one cup of bleach to one gallon of water.
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Jan 31, 2022 16:44
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I feel like I'm a pretty handy guy but hen it comes to engines small or large past filing the gas tank it might as well be the space shuttle. I'd really like to learn small engine repair but any courses I've found are tradeschool related where I just want to learn as a homeowner. Has anyone come across a youtube channel or something like a courseara or udemy that starts with the complete basics?
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Jan 31, 2022 18:27
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TerminalSaint posted:I'm removing the PO's illegal suite kitchen from my basement and there's a small patch of black mold or mildew at the bottom of the wall behind where the sink was. In the medium term I'm planning to replace the drywall, but I'm hoping for a short term fix in the meantime. With the source of water removed can I just hit it with some fungicide spray and paint over for now? And with the mold dry and dead do I need fancy mold paint or will regular latex do? Use a product like Concrobium to clean up the mold. It's cheap and effective. Do not use bleach. Bleach kills mold on contact but it does not penetrate into semiporous or porous surfaces (like most walls are made of) and bleach neutralizes within hours, so it does not actually prevent mold from growing in the future. You can use a bleach solution to clean mold off of glazed tile or glass, because these surfaces are non-porous, but... there's no point, because you can clean mold off of non-porous surfaces with water and a sponge. The bleach isn't really doing anything.
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Jan 31, 2022 18:40
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Leperflesh posted:Use a product like Concrobium to clean up the mold. It's cheap and effective. Yeah, Concrobium was just what I had in mind.
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Jan 31, 2022 19:03
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In today's episode of "The Undersink Cupboard of Horrors" (previous episodes included "my sink's turnoff valves are too seized to turn off," and "my ancient garbage disposal has finally eaten itself") we have a completely unmounted outlet sitting on the base of the cupboard next to my dishwasher's intake. The wire coming from the top of the outlet box (hard to see, but just on the left side of the photo) goes down, presumably to the basement. The wire on the bottom goes to the old busted garbage disposal. Is there any way I can safely mount this outlet as is, or is that whole box as ancient and in need of replacement as the rest of what's down here? It would only be used for the new garbage disposal (which came with a regular 3 prong power cord), as it all appears to be switched on the garbage disposal switch. Also, will I be able to open that outlet box up to disconnect the wire running to the old disposal, since the new one doesn't need it? Grumpwagon fucked around with this message at 20:07 on Jan 31, 2022 |
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Jan 31, 2022 19:35
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^^^ Yes, you can go in there and remove the dead load wire to the disposal, and yes, you can move it elsewhere & re-mount it. I think you may need a GFI. I'm old and think NEMA is insane about dishwashers & garbage disposals so I still hardwire mine with armor cable. If you're going to do all that, it might be easier in the long run to spend the $5 for a new work box & cover to replace that grotty rusty one. The Dave posted:Someone talk me off a ledge here, or at least stop me from going on British youtube videos for another hour of my life. 1. What Motronic said. 2. install 1x1 or larger lath/stud over the plaster, leaving a gap. Then hardboard insulation panels. Then drywall. You'll room size will lose 4-6" per wall. TerminalSaint posted:I'm removing the PO's illegal suite kitchen from my basement and there's a small patch of black mold or mildew at the bottom of the wall behind where the sink was. In the medium term I'm planning to replace the drywall, but I'm hoping for a short term fix in the meantime. With the source of water removed can I just hit it with some fungicide spray and paint over for now? And with the mold dry and dead do I need fancy mold paint or will regular latex do? Clean it with any cleaner you'd use anywhere. Then maybe hit it with a mild bleach solution (10:1 with water) or Lysol spray. Prime & paint. PainterofCrap fucked around with this message at 21:16 on Jan 31, 2022 |
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Jan 31, 2022 21:10
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PainterofCrap posted:2. install 1x1 or larger lath/stud over the plaster, leaving a gap. Then hardboard insulation panels. Then drywall. You'll room size will lose 4-6" per wall. The real fun is the part where you have to re-trim all the doors and windows.
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Jan 31, 2022 21:31
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when my toaster finishes and the food pops up, I notice there's a very quick flash of white light towards the bottom I've been cleaning it, so I'm wondering if I hosed something up and this means I'm going to die, or if it's normal
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Jan 31, 2022 23:05
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Motronic posted:Oh yeah, that texture is not what I was thinking about. That definitely looks like a washable filter. Washables are garbage too though. Cheap $5 pleated - MERV 7 or 8 min, MERV 11 max, replace every 2-3 months (or sooner with lots of pets), call it a day.
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