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tater_salad posted:each has it's own usage.. Rods are very good if you need a straight shot. Rods however let you push cable as well as pull… That’s a lot harder to do with fish tape.
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Feb 4, 2023 07:28
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I'm planning on finishing the interior of my shop out back and I'm wondering about tips on how to work insulation around the existing lighting. It doesn't say IC rated on the label and I'm having trouble finding information online. I'm considering just hanging it from a chain to drop it a couple of inches. Or would it be fine if I just reattached it to the beams through the drywall once I have that in place? Any thoughts?  
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Feb 4, 2023 21:00
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Nervous posted:I'm planning on finishing the interior of my shop out back and I'm wondering about tips on how to work insulation around the existing lighting. It doesn't say IC rated on the label and I'm having trouble finding information online. I'm considering just hanging it from a chain to drop it a couple of inches. Or would it be fine if I just reattached it to the beams through the drywall once I have that in place? Any thoughts? FL fixtures like that aren't IC rated. At least I've never seen one. Why would they be in contact with insulation? Aren't you sheet rocking the ceiling to put insulation above it? They are intended to be attached directly to the sheetrock. Hanging on chains is fine too, but complicates wiring.
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Feb 4, 2023 21:14
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Motronic posted:FL fixtures like that aren't IC rated. At least I've never seen one. I am planning to sheet rock. Just the first time I'm doing this kind of work, trying to get all my answers lined up in advance. Thanks for the information.
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Feb 4, 2023 21:31
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Our 40-gallon gas water heater is 20 years old. Pretty impressive! Lately, it hasn't been able to keep up, and we find ourselves without enough hot water for two showers at the end of the day. In the course of checking out the water heater for the first time in... well, ever — I was unfortunately ignorant of annual maintenance, so I haven't been draining it or checking the anode rod at all. We've been here since 2014, so it's been on its own for at least 8-9 years. I was taking a look at it last night, and I decided to test the temperature and pressure relief valve by pulling it up, and... nothing happened. No water, no air, no gurgling — nothing I could perceive came out of the pipe it was attached to. So, I turned it off and turned off the gas to it, and figured I'd replace it today. Taking a closer look at it today, though, I'm worried that if I start cracking this thing open, I might not be able to get another valve on there either due to rust, corrosion, or general decay of the threads. Is there any benign explanation for why nothing comes out when I open up the valve? I'm worried that there something blocking it up, and that if it needs to open up to release pressure, it won't be able to. There's an expansion tank on the cold line, and there's also a T on the hot line with a small copper pipe that leads to our humidifier. Image of the valve in closed position:  Image of the valve in opened position, where nothing happens:  And a video: https://i.imgur.com/nYS8zqM.mp4
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Feb 5, 2023 20:12
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I don't know what time zone you're in, but its 3pm here. 3pm on a Sunday isn't likely the best time to be starting something like this unless you're a plumber, your neighbor is a plumber and they owe you a favor, your brother, cousin, best friend is a plumber etc...
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Feb 5, 2023 20:59
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Not to mention if it's been that long without any annual maintenance, or service... probably better to just replace it, lucky it's lasted 20 years imo. Chances are there is tons of mineral build up in there.
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Feb 5, 2023 21:09
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wesleywillis posted:I don't know what time zone you're in, but its 3pm here. Rakeris posted:Not to mention if it's been that long without any annual maintenance, or service... probably better to just replace it, lucky it's lasted 20 years imo. Chances are there is tons of mineral build up in there. Yeah, this is definitely true. We were planning on replacing it with a tankless heater soon because of how we've been running out of hot water in the evenings (and the fact it's 20 years old) but it was at least functional. The only thing that has changed is that I pulled on that valve and nothing happened, and now I don't really know how to assess the risk of it blowing up. My best guess is that it's not very likely since the thermostat would have to fail first, and then this valve would have to truly be blocked up beyond the structural integrity of the tank, but it gives me the heebie-jeebies regardless. Having it turned off with three young kids is *tough* though.
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Feb 5, 2023 21:39
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Pulled on the drain valve or pressure release? Chance of it blowing up is <0, the gas is controlled via a completely separate mechanism. You will have to relight the pilot but that is pretty trivial and the instructions are normally on the side of the tank. If you are worried about pressure valve/build up....well it's been fine for X years without working, and you are correct in the thermostat would also have to fail.
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Feb 5, 2023 21:47
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dakana posted:Our 40-gallon gas water heater is 20 years old. Pretty impressive! Lately, it hasn't been able to keep up, and we find ourselves without enough hot water for two showers at the end of the day. Don't touch the PRV on anything. They are unlikely to ever close/seal again unless it's brand new. Your absolutely won't ever work again if it becomes unjammed. In fact, don't touch any of this stuff. Run it until it dies/needs to be replaced. It's too far gone. Anything you do will only require you to throw parts at it or replace it outright. If it's been longer than a couple of years (in most places I'm familiar with - water chemistry matters a lot here) that's the way of it. And as already mentioned, you don't do things like this on a Sunday or day before/of a holiday. You do this when there are real actual plumbing supply houses open because Lowes Depot isn't likely to have the PRV you're about to destroy.
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Feb 5, 2023 22:00
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Any issues with trying put some blub seal or weather stripping in between the garage door wooden panels?
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Feb 5, 2023 22:21
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dakana posted:Yeah, this is definitely true. The cheap solution is just a new shower head... I've used this one successfully in a couple places: https://www.amazon.com/Faucet-2-Spray-Shower-Chrome-75152/dp/B000LV7W4K My parents have an ancient oil furnace that wasn't really able to keep up with their shower head. I replaced it with one of these and now it's fine. You shouldn't need to go tankless - I suspect you've just got a bunch of crud built up in the bottom of that water heater that's preventing it from heating effectively. If it weren't so old & unmaintained you could flush that out, but I wouldn't try in your case. Even a regular water heater like this will produce 81 gallons of hot water in the first hour.
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Feb 5, 2023 23:42
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What would be the cheapest way of obtaining a trivial amount of .020" bare stainless wire? I want to repair a cheese slicer, and the best I can find is a 930 foot can
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Feb 6, 2023 04:09
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Skinnymansbeerbelly posted:What would be the cheapest way of obtaining a trivial amount of .020" bare stainless wire? I want to repair a cheese slicer, and the best I can find is a 930 foot can Theft.
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Feb 6, 2023 04:30
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Sounds like a steel guitar G-string would probably work.
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Feb 6, 2023 04:57
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Crossposting this in a more appropriate thread. Any idea what could be making this sound in a microwave/convection oven? https://i.imgur.com/xKC9H4B.mp4 When it first happened the noise lasted like 30 seconds before going away. It happens in all modes (microwave, convection, broiling etc) and the turntable spins normally and doesn't seem to correlate with the noise in any way.
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Feb 6, 2023 09:45
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Sounds like fan bearing noise.
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Feb 6, 2023 13:53
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Skinnymansbeerbelly posted:What would be the cheapest way of obtaining a trivial amount of .020" bare stainless wire? I want to repair a cheese slicer, and the best I can find is a 930 foot can Buy some nice cheese from an independent cheese shop and then see if you can sweet talk/guilt your way into them giving you a length of wire. Or, try to thrift a cheese slicer and salvage the wire. I see them all the time in thrift shops.
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Feb 6, 2023 16:07
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how do you replace flooring in an HVAC closet? obviously you can't move the water heater, A/C and furnace. do you just cut out the floor around it?
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Feb 6, 2023 16:22
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tater_salad posted:Sounds like fan bearing noise. Same.
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Feb 6, 2023 17:02
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actionjackson posted:how do you replace flooring in an HVAC closet? obviously you can't move the water heater, A/C and furnace. do you just cut out the floor around it? Close the door and forget about it!
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Feb 6, 2023 17:18
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devicenull posted:Close the door and forget about it! generally yes, i'm just curious what you would do if for example the floor was damaged and needed to be replaced
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Feb 6, 2023 17:46
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tater_salad posted:Sounds like fan bearing noise. withak posted:Same.  That would make sense. There's a fan I can see that only runs for convection, but there must be another one that's always on whenever the oven is on.  Managed to find a German service manual with a parts diagram and 4400 seems like would be it. It's the whole thing for $70 but that's probably better than trying to pull the bearing from the old one  For reference, p/n 481236178029 or C00312224?
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Feb 6, 2023 17:52
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Plumbing question: I have the common problem of a sewery smell in my guest bathroom. Dried out p traps, right? Well, there's 1 sink, 1 toilet, and 1 bathtub. Ran water in all of them of course, took the sink one apart, etc. All is well. Can't pinpoint the smell as coming from anywhere in particular, but one extra symptom is that it appears to get worse when it rains. The only thing that's really changed is that I got a new roof, which could be unrelated, but that plus the rain made me wonder if its an issue with the roof vent being clogged. Google doesn't seem to think so though. Any ideas?
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Feb 6, 2023 20:30
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Hoping this is the right thread, don't really come to this part of the forums too much and figure I might be able to get a quick answer before I go through the plumbing thread or w/e: Bought a condo in Chicago a while ago, garbage disposal doesn't work. The side of the sink the disposal is on also doesn't drain, which leads me to think that something is clogged. This is something I keep putting off working on for a while, because I've got other stuff to do (other home improvement jobs, work, travel, ER visit, etc.), but today I decided to learn about garbage disposals . Either I can fix it, replace it myself (I'm not really the handiest person but tbh it doesn't look overly hard, if I can solder a keyboard I can probably put in a new garbage disposal) or, if necessary, hire someone to do it. Discover that garbage disposals have a reset switch, cool - I hit that, and now the disposal will make a lil noise, then stop. Still won't drain. I see something about manually turning the disposal blades online, so I get under the sink again, and realize something's... off, compared to the images I've been looking at.  That outlet at the top should connect to the dishwasher, right? I craned my head/a flashlight around there and it looks like there's still the original plug in it. Can this even work in this configuration? I live in a large building in Chicago, is it possible that it can all just go through the drain as configured? I've tried searching online but everything I find seems to be concerned about having a dishwasher without a garbage disposal, not the other way around. If this is an acceptable configuration, then my issue is probably just that the drain is clogged, right?
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Feb 6, 2023 20:59
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death cob for cutie posted:Hoping this is the right thread, don't really come to this part of the forums too much and figure I might be able to get a quick answer before I go through the plumbing thread or w/e: Yeah you got this. The plug keeps drain juice from shooting out of the hole when you drain stuff in there or run it when there isn't a hose hooked up. That's fine. Follow a youtube tutorial on removing your disposal, clean out everything in your cabinet first and have some big rags and a bucket handy. Everytihng SHOULD be hand tight, though plumbers have stronger hands than you and time has stuck them. Remove the side pipe p-trap first, put it in a bucket, stuff a rag in the wall, and see if that's your problem. Clean it out. If it's not, then unplug and remove the disposal and take it somewhere that can get gross. Your shower isn't a terrible idea. I would default to "outside" but that might not be a great option for you. Stick a flashlight in there and fish around until you figure out what's wrong with it. If it's just old and janky you can now decide if you want to replace it, but there is probably just something plugging it up you need to get out. Zooming in on that sticker I imagine it's not "too old and janky." It looks too nice. H110Hawk fucked around with this message at 21:07 on Feb 6, 2023 |
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Feb 6, 2023 21:04
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Cool, that sounds doable. I think I need to go get some bigger pliers/wrench to get things disconnected, but I had to run to the hardware store anyways. Sounds like some gloves might be in order too if I have to go fishing around in there. Really hope I don't have to remove the entire unit, though - it's not plugged in but appears to be wired directly to the wall :/
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Feb 6, 2023 21:21
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death cob for cutie posted:Cool, that sounds doable. I think I need to go get some bigger pliers/wrench to get things disconnected, but I had to run to the hardware store anyways. Sounds like some gloves might be in order too if I have to go fishing around in there. Really hope I don't have to remove the entire unit, though - it's not plugged in but appears to be wired directly to the wall :/ If there's no way to disconnect it from the power you also need to kill the breaker. You shouldn't need wrenches for anything here beyond potentially breaking things loose. You don't need them for re-assembly. The disposals I removed had a way to use a long screw driver as a twisting lever on the collar. That's like sample size 2 though.
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Feb 6, 2023 21:46
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Well, talking about it made me think a bit, I tried manually spinning the blades again - turns out originally I was using the wrong size allen wrench to try to turn them. Turned the blades, felt them move a bit, disposal still wouldn't run... so I just kind of scraped along the bottom of it and came up with something wrapped in hair and... a lot of mold  But now it seems to work just fine, and as a bonus, now I have an idea of why my sink kept occasionally getting spots of mold. No need to take anything apart, drains just fine now. Thanks for the advice though! Talking it out did make me realize that I had missed a step in troubleshooting - just like programming. death cob for cutie fucked around with this message at 22:49 on Feb 6, 2023 |
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Feb 6, 2023 22:39
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Hurray? It's always so gross. 
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Feb 6, 2023 23:13
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bobua posted:Plumbing question: I have the common problem of a sewery smell in my guest bathroom. The wax ring on the toilet has gone bad. Can you move the toilet at all? Because I bet the closet bolts rotted out and are allowing movement.
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Feb 6, 2023 23:32
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I have a window with a wooden sill in my shower. This is just one of many issues with this shower. We're planning on redoing it, but we have kitchen work to finish first, so I'm just looking to patch this up so it'll last until we're done with that. Can I/should I just run a bead of caulk/silicone along that crack on the wooden frame, and under the vinyl part of the window? Seems like the best short term fix for now. 
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Feb 6, 2023 23:53
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Also clean the shower while you are at it.
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Feb 7, 2023 00:14
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Grumpwagon posted:I have a window with a wooden sill in my shower. This is just one of many issues with this shower. We're planning on redoing it, but we have kitchen work to finish first, so I'm just looking to patch this up so it'll last until we're done with that. You have bigger problem than that window sill. Look at the crack in the grout below it. The whole wall is likely a moldy mess inside. So when are you going to get to this? If it's a "this year" project sure, scrape and clean as best you can, lay down some silicone over the window sill stuff as well as the cracked grout. If it's longer than that you're gonna need to do some intrusive stuff to try to stabilize this situation for the longer term. Is this your only shower? Please say no.
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Feb 7, 2023 00:25
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Motronic posted:You have bigger problem than that window sill. Look at the crack in the grout below it. What Motronic said. A proper fix here will be more involved than you think. First off, you got the most likely interior rot you'll need to replace. Second, then make special windows for showers and yours isn't one of them. Shower windows don't have sills on the bottom that trap water. They drain outward. One option for a shower window is to replace it with glass block. The problem is you need at least one method of venting for a bathroom: either a window or an exhaust fan, either one of appropriate size for the bathroom. As for a window sill, use PVC, stone or tile. Mount it at a slight angle, enough that it will shed water into the tub yet not so steep that bottles will slide off. Almost forgot! If your bathroom shower window looks directly into your neighbor's window like mine, get something frosted. No free shows. kid sinister fucked around with this message at 02:22 on Feb 7, 2023 |
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Feb 7, 2023 01:35
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Alright. I knew that grout was a ticking time bomb, but I guess it's good to know it has probably already exploded. Guess we'll probably have to deal with that before the kitchen. Thanks for the help, even if it wasn't what I wanted to hear.
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Feb 7, 2023 03:42
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Motronic posted:The wax ring on the toilet has gone bad. Can you move the toilet at all? Because I bet the closet bolts rotted out and are allowing movement. That's the other thing I figured, but it doesn't have any movement. I give up, plumber coming friday.
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Feb 7, 2023 05:11
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Speaking of cracks in the grout in a shower. Just found this crack behind a shampoo bottle. It definitely wasn't there about a month or so ago (as far as I can remember). This bathroom was redone in June before we moved in. Can I just patch it with something? It's about 4-ish inches tall. 
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Feb 7, 2023 15:29
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BonoMan posted:Speaking of cracks in the grout in a shower. Just found this crack behind a shampoo bottle. Looks like they grouted the corners, which is not something I would suggest/do. Corners move, so they're gonna crack. If that were my place and I had lots of time I'd dig that entire line of grout out of the corner and any other corners and replace it with a nice quality silicone caulk. If I didn't have much time I'd just dig out that cracked section and silicone caulk it there knowing I'll probably have to come back and to the rest at some point in the future.
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Feb 7, 2023 15:49
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Motronic posted:Looks like they grouted the corners, which is not something I would suggest/do. Corners move, so they're gonna crack. Good to know! Thanks! I think replacing the corner grout is doable (over time at least... we got lots of "small" crap we're going around fixing). edit: and there's a nice little grout removal tool for my rotozip (my favorite new tool) BonoMan fucked around with this message at 15:59 on Feb 7, 2023 |
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Feb 7, 2023 15:53
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