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Arsenic Lupin posted:"Portaband" is a portable bandsaw? What sort of protective equipment, besides eye protection, do I need? Yep, portable band saw. That seems like it would be the easiest way to do it, but you could probably get away with a sawzall. All you need is eye protection for either.
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Jan 7, 2023 23:05
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Regular ol' hacksaw could probably do it also.
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Jan 7, 2023 23:12
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I think a sawzall would do a better job of cutting flush with the ground, compared to a portaband, just because the blade is "naked" instead of having a framework built around it. It'd take longer and produce a slightly worse cut, but for a one-off I don't think it'd make a big difference. Honestly, a muscle-powered hacksaw would do just fine.
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Jan 7, 2023 23:13
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Qwijib0 posted:Closetmaid makes brackets for those standards that are already on your wall meant for solid shelves if you don't mind the wall-mount part. Get some prefinished baltic birch plywood and cut it to size as the actual shelving. a 4x8 sheet I think runs ~$100 still. cool ty edit: is it this one? https://www.homebyames.com/en-us/ho.../050054004.html actionjackson fucked around with this message at 23:27 on Jan 7, 2023 |
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Jan 7, 2023 23:20
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Arsenic Lupin posted:"Portaband" is a portable bandsaw? What sort of protective equipment, besides eye protection, do I need? Other goons have posted good suggestions. Hacksaw, portable bandsaw, sawzall, and my suggestion: angle grinder with cut off wheel. You can probably rent one of those also for cheap, don't forget some face protection. You probably already have a hacksaw though. If so, put a new blade on it and keep a spare or two with you. There is no shame in breaking a new blade so don't sweat it if you do. Thats what the spares are for.
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Jan 8, 2023 00:23
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Any suggestions for popping one of these bad boys out of their hole? Something like a magnetized pair of tweezers or something adhesive. I have a screwdriver with a magnetic tip but it's not strong enough to remove this.
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Jan 8, 2023 02:27
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C-Euro posted:Any suggestions for popping one of these bad boys out of their hole? That's just a cam lock fastener. All if you have to do is rotate to a certain position and it'll come out. It's not threaded any or anything. Generally rotating 90 or 180 degrees to left will unlock it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJxtZaWfLOQ edit: If you know what it is and it just seems stuck then some needle nose should give you the grip it needs (just make sure it's *actually* unfastened). BonoMan fucked around with this message at 02:37 on Jan 8, 2023 |
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Jan 8, 2023 02:34
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Yeah, turn it to the left (against the curved arrow) until the small notch is pointing back towards the piece it's fastening. That should release its hold on the rod inside it. Once you have all the fasteners in that position you should be able to pull the piece off. Then it takes almost zero force to remove the fasteners from their holes, anything you can jam in there and get a grip should do it. Or just turn the part over and bang on it with your hand
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Jan 8, 2023 02:43
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If you are sure it is unfastened then maybe just flip it over and give it a good hard shake or tap. It should just fall out.
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Jan 8, 2023 03:20
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If it really doesn't come out, the first ten steps are to re-check repeatedly that it is rotated correctly. Afterwards, push in some tweezers into the screwhole to grip them. The opening force should be enough to grip most normally stuck versions. If that fails, apply some extra force on the tweezers or use cross tweezers if you have small enough ones.
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Jan 8, 2023 10:46
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You can also finish disassembling the thing and then push a crochet needle or thin screwdriver into the adjoining hole to push it out the rest of the way.
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Jan 8, 2023 21:45
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Not sure if this is the right place to ask BUT I bought a huge expensive rug that's wayyyyy too dark (charcoal) for the room. Is there anything I could reasonably do at home to dye/brighten it without a lot of mess or ruination? Or are there affordable services that could dye it? (I would literally turn it white if I could.)
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Jan 9, 2023 14:40
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https://www.bobvila.com/articles/how-to-dye-carpet/ I'd try returning it and ordering a lighter shade, if you still have the receipt.
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Jan 9, 2023 15:44
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You can't dye things lighter. Definitely do an exchange. If you can't, you could try posting on a local buy nothing group to see if anyone wants to trade?
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Jan 9, 2023 16:23
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i like nice words
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I have this extension on my house: It's some cheap, probably prefabricated construction -- thin walls, single-paned windows. It's developed a substantial water leak at the point where it connects to the rest of the house, at the midpoint of the interior wall. Here's a photo of the roof:  And this is a somewhat representative image of the roof edges:  The roof is nearly flat, with a very gentle slope. My guess as to what's happening: - The edges of the roof clearly aren't weathertight, though they look like they might have been at some point (from the visible tar that looks like it was supposed to be connecting the pebbled asphalt surface to the sheet metal) - Probably the edge of the roof that's under the gutter (in the second photo) looks even worse - When it rains, water is intruding underneath the asphalt. Because the roof is flat and prevailing winds blow towards the house, water's able to get in underneath the gutters - It then flows down to the visible leak I can see inside the extension. I have three questions, therefore: 1. Does this hypothesis sound plausible? Can you think of a more likely explanation? 2. Is this roof completely hosed, or do you think it might be salvageable by re-filling the gap between the asphalt and the sheet metal (this would obviously be a temporary fix)? Or by some other method? 3. If you were going to replace this extension with something else, ideally without major changes to the house's structure, what would that alternate structure look like? The extension is mostly going to waste right now; I use it for my exercise bike, as a mud room, and for storage of some miscellaneous crap. I don't need a 15'x15' room for that. I'd love to have something that shed water properly, had decent insulation, but still let in a lot of natural light. I'm not really prepared to take on an extensive rebuild right at the moment, though, so I'm looking both for short-term fixes as well as long-term planning.
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Jan 10, 2023 00:41
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Put a tarp on it
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Jan 10, 2023 02:01
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Real hurthling! posted:Put a tarp on it OK, I suppose that's on me for not listing the most basic of first-pass, temporary remedies. What about the rest of it?
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Jan 10, 2023 04:50
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TooMuchAbstraction posted:What about the rest of it? The rest of it is kind of all over the place. You need to replace the roof. The end. If you also want to start a discussion about tearing the addition down or something else that's an entirely different conversation.
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Jan 10, 2023 15:09
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You're also casting a really drat wide net trying to ask goons what to do with the space. Maybe confirm the structure is sound and stop using it for anything, then that might reveal what you wish was there.
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Jan 10, 2023 15:24
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TooMuchAbstraction posted:I have this extension on my house It's hard to tell exactly what the problem is since the transition is covered by a gutter. In a perfect world the prefab Florida room would have been installed with its roof underlapping the soffit (roof overhang to rear elevation). These kits however also came with a variety of designs on a weather-tight transition flashing made of aluminum or painted steel the were sealed with silicone or tar. Ideally (and this is a foundational tenet of exterior weather coverings, be they roof, opening wraps, or siding) the design should allow water to shed off downhill, unobstructed by bumps or breaks, overlapped from the bottom up. In the case of the transition from your tile to the membrane roof, there should be a strip of flexible material, at least a couple feet wide, that sits on the membrane roof and underneath the tile. A permanent repair in your case means pulling the gutter and the lower run (or two) of tiles to expose the felt/whatever underlayment is there, laying something like ice & water shield (a very thick felt) or membrane roofing across the transition, and torching it down to the Florida room roof. If there are height differences, it has to be built out with pressure-treated lumber or metal so that the transition isn't hanging over open space, unsupported. If the Florida room room is low enough to be underneath your main roof & abut the rear elevation than the I&W shield / membrane can be installed vertically & turned horizontally to be torched down (if using roofing membrane it will have to be heated to conform to a tight-radius turn) . The attachment point at the rear elevation should be covered with aluminum flashing, and there has to be a fillet of material (a wedge if you will) across the transition the entire width of the Florida room to support the I&W shield. The goal here is twofold: water off the main roof should transition unimpeded to the flat roof; and the entire transition assembly needs to be made so that it can handle the constant repeated expansion & contraction cycles of a 24-hour day. Which is why nailing a sheet of aluminum across the transition with sealant under it isn't the best solution. If your edges around the perimeter are worn then yes, you need a new rolled membrane roof. The transition issue will be solved by a competent roofer with the installation of a new rolled roof. FYI rolled roofs have a 10-15 year lifespan. Up-side is that they're the cheapest roof. Do not, under any circumstances, shingle a flat roof. PainterofCrap fucked around with this message at 15:36 on Jan 10, 2023 |
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Jan 10, 2023 15:28
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could you not just re-tar that? although i guess on re-reading it doesn't look like that's where the water is getting in at
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Jan 10, 2023 19:33
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Use a poo poo ton of roofing cement, like 10gal worth. Use a couple layers of fiberglass mesh too. Total cost: like $120 and half a day of work. If you wanna do it right, use the detailed instructions PainterofCrap was generous enough to provide
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Jan 11, 2023 22:13
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Apologies for my original post being kind of scattered. That's what I get for writing it in the evenings. I appreciate all y'all's thoughts. There's two things going on here. First is whether I can do a handyman repair that's worth a drat -- which it sounds like the answer is "no, not really." Second is what I want to do long-term with this room. I don't really like it as it is, so I'm reluctant to invest too much money into it. But I'm struggling to think what I'd do to replace it. Obviously that isn't a fix-it-fast kind of question though. Maybe I should take it to the homeowners thread?PainterofCrap posted:Ideally (and this is a foundational tenet of exterior weather coverings, be they roof, opening wraps, or siding) the design should allow water to shed off downhill, unobstructed by bumps or breaks, overlapped from the bottom up. In the case of the transition from your tile to the membrane roof, there should be a strip of flexible material, at least a couple feet wide, that sits on the membrane roof and underneath the tile. A permanent repair in your case means pulling the gutter and the lower run (or two) of tiles to expose the felt/whatever underlayment is there, laying something like ice & water shield (a very thick felt) or membrane roofing across the transition, and torching it down to the Florida room roof. If there are height differences, it has to be built out with pressure-treated lumber or metal so that the transition isn't hanging over open space, unsupported. Thank you for the detailed response! I'm surprised that the entire roof has to be re-done if the edges are bad, but I'm not an expert here. It sounds like in general you would advise removing the gutter at the transition entirely, and replacing it with a properly-installed transition. Is that accurate? Or would you put the gutter back in once the I&W shield is installed? I can see the thinking behind the gutter, namely that it directs quite a bit of water away from the flat roof. But it's not going to get all the water so I do have to wonder if it's worth bothering. I mean, it sounds like the fix is something that I probably don't want to mess with myself (since hot tar is involved), but I'd like to be able to verify the work of whoever I end up hiring. For what it's worth, I had the entire roof replaced less than 10 years ago (but more than 5), so it's disappointing to hear that it's dying already.
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Jan 12, 2023 01:39
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The gutter being there is kinda weird because typically, gutters are installed on the fascia, and there's usually at least 3"-4" of soffit back under it. If the gutter is in fact on the edge of an overhang, then the Florida roof should be underlapping it & be attached to the rear elevation of the house. And thee'd be no need for a gutter. It can't be butt-joined to the main roof, though. Think we'll all learn a lot more when you pull that gutter.
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Jan 12, 2023 03:04
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Yeah, I'm just not willing to do that in the middle of a historic rainstorm. For now it's tarped more or less securely, and that'll have to suffice until probably mid-February, since I'm not going to take on a major repair project while also launching my videogame. I will note that this house has no soffits. The fascia are less than an inch out from the side walls. I don't know why it's built that way, beyond guessing that maybe it has something to do with property line setbacks. All of the houses in this neighborhood have the same basic design (post-WW2 GI housing development, they stamped out like 500 identical Cape Cods), are 40' wide, and built on 50'-wide lots. That wouldn't stop the developers from having overhangs on the fronts and backs of the house (and this room is on the back of the house), but they didn't. Probably because it's cheaper that way.
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Jan 12, 2023 04:30
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OK, so the vendor slammed it up without pulling the gutter (or remove/reset it). So the gutter's been acting to keep the water away from the seam underneath. It must have worked for most of its life, or you'd have a lot more water damage. When the time comes, pull the gutter & see what might be done to strip & re-seal the join. At the least, there should be a cove (a curved piece of metal) adjoining the main roof to the lower Florida roof. Flat roofs are slow to shed water, so that vertical transition has to be robust with some thought put in to water-sealing that'll last decades when faced with a real baptist downpour. Be careful walking on the Florida roof. W-pan is great compact engineering & all but it can get a bit dicey if you weigh more than 170-lbs with a sub-12 shoe size. Throw a sheet of 1/2" plywood up there first` PainterofCrap fucked around with this message at 05:12 on Jan 12, 2023 |
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Jan 12, 2023 05:09
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Noted, thank you!
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Jan 12, 2023 05:13
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TooMuchAbstraction posted:First is whether I can do a handyman repair that's worth a drat -- which it sounds like the answer is "no, not really." yes, using the roofing cement/fiberglass tape to seal the transition between the flat roof and your house. Use enough roofing cement to make a slope for the water to roll away from where the two meet. 1-2 5 gall buckets and a 25' x 6" roll of mesh tape, plus a trowel. Messy as hell but easy enough. Should buy you at least a year to keep your house dry while you figure out what to do
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Jan 12, 2023 13:24
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I have an HVAC question, is there a better thread? I just realized I was pretty dumb - moved into a new house in the summer and never looked into what I needed to do to winterize the AC. I have three LG mini splits on the first floor and central air on the second and third floors. Do I need to flush anything / turn them off / etc.? I have the AC systems all turned off and heat comes from baseboard natural gas from the basement. Any help appreciated!
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Jan 12, 2023 20:57
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Half-assed A/C winterizing advice: I am not aware of any specific winterizing needed for box or central A/C units (also note you are NOT supposed to cover the outdoor central air unit with a piece of plywood or anything else according to my old housing agent). I believe you should be good, but you may want to check on how the window units are secured in case you want to stick some insulation there for the winter. Followup on the burst-pipe that hosed up 2 rooms, a bathroom and a hallway in my house: I looked up reviews for the service my insurance agent says they use (Sedgwick I think?) and nearly every review was 1-star. Not that surprising when my agent explained how it worked: "it's like a pool of contractors and whoever is available will take your claim" so I wouldn't have any way of knowing who would be doing the work or any time to look them up for reviews or even just photos of their past work. I tried Nextdoor but I'm adjacent to a ritzy part of town and the contractors I called from those recommendations said "your claim is too small for us, sorry" but then remembered my buddy got his bathroom redone recently and called them and they said "yep we do insurance repairs is Tuesday good for you?" so I got that ball rolling. Somehow the only property I lost was like a few dozen books, maybe two hundred to replace them all. I'll be very happy once I'm outta this hotel and moved back in and can bring my dog back from the kennel (little (75lb) guy loves it there and nearly breaks my arm getting to the door when I dropped him off but I miss him)
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Jan 12, 2023 21:42
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Tom Tucker posted:I have an HVAC question, is there a better thread? I just realized I was pretty dumb - moved into a new house in the summer and never looked into what I needed to do to winterize the AC. I have three LG mini splits on the first floor and central air on the second and third floors. Do I need to flush anything / turn them off / etc.? I have the AC systems all turned off and heat comes from baseboard natural gas from the basement. Any help appreciated! https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3761260
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Jan 12, 2023 22:26
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Tom Tucker posted:I have an HVAC question, is there a better thread? I just realized I was pretty dumb - moved into a new house in the summer and never looked into what I needed to do to winterize the AC. I have three LG mini splits on the first floor and central air on the second and third floors. Do I need to flush anything / turn them off / etc.? I have the AC systems all turned off and heat comes from baseboard natural gas from the basement. Any help appreciated! Nope. Ideally you'd clean the outdoor units, but that's not really a requirement (and you can just do it in the spring).
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Jan 13, 2023 02:40
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I'm in the process of selling my old house and the buyer inspection noted some holes in the garage that need to be covered.  What do I use to cover these up? Just some plywood pieces? In 8 and 10, how do I cover those holes with the electrical there? 8 it appears just big enough to fit into the hole. What can I do to cover or fill the hole after taking out the cat door?
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Jan 13, 2023 03:22
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Give them $250 in concessions.
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Jan 13, 2023 03:31
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CRUSTY MINGE posted:Give them $250 in concessions. Yup.
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Jan 13, 2023 03:54
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I cannot. This is from a HUD HQS form that needs to be satisfied. The city is involved and they won't approve the sale otherwise.
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Jan 13, 2023 03:55
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I've used this stuff before https://www.3m.com/3M/en_US/p/d/b40065441/ but it'll look terrible on those walls.
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Jan 13, 2023 03:57
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For the door, ask if reinstalling the worlds cheapest cat door would do it. For the holes, do you have a piece of that wood? The "best" thing is going to be cutting and gluing in some plugs. For the one with what looks like MC cable running through it I'm not sure exactly what you're supposed to be doing - if spraying some fireblock foam is fine or if you need to do something with the cable itself to make it into a box. I want to say fireblock is fine but don't quote me on that.
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Jan 13, 2023 04:03
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H110Hawk posted:For the door, ask if reinstalling the worlds cheapest cat door would do it. For the holes, do you have a piece of that wood? The "best" thing is going to be cutting and gluing in some plugs. For the one with what looks like MC cable running through it I'm not sure exactly what you're supposed to be doing - if spraying some fireblock foam is fine or if you need to do something with the cable itself to make it into a box. I want to say fireblock is fine but don't quote me on that. I don't think the problem is the cat door isn't up to snuff, I think the problem is the hole that was put in the door for the cat door to be installed. I do not have a piece of that wood but I will double check to see if there are extra pieces attached somewhere that I could remove. I will ask for some general guidance and hope I can get an answer before the weekend. Unrelated, but is anyone aware of any companies that rent out professional moisture meters?
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Jan 13, 2023 04:17
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Is there a solar power thread or something related? Connecticut is about to go through a 40% price hike for power bills, so given that I've been kicking around the idea of going solar for a while, the time is definitely come. I've just got too many questions on finding a company, leasing versus purchasing, etc, and would like goon help.
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Jan 13, 2023 16:37
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