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Brut posted:So a lightbulb burned out in a room here and when I opened the fixture, it turned out it had this behind it: Yes, that entire fixture needs to go in the garbage.
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Feb 24, 2023 18:23
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A brand new one-bulb flush fixture is as low as $8-15 at Home Depot, super easy to install, and if it catches on fire you can probably sue
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Feb 24, 2023 18:33
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i like nice words
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Here's hoping there's an actual ceiling box under that thing and not two raw wires sticking though the ceiling.
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Feb 24, 2023 19:19
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yup replace the fixture. Make sure the circuit is off while you do this, do not rely on the light switch for your safety. Get a circuit tester pen if you don't have one so you can verify the circuit is off.
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Feb 24, 2023 19:23
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Yeah I'm probably not gonna be doing the replacement myself, I can tell with my little cheap voltage detector that the thing still has power with the switch off, it was one thing if it was just gonna be glueing a new piece of insulation in place but I'm not touching wiring, especially not in this particular place where apparently turning off every single breaker still doesn't turn off the power in certain spots (presumably because there are more mystery breakers somewhere, but gently caress if I know where, perhaps even inside one of the other units?), ask me about sitting and watching in horror as people were replacing light switches and replacing the fluorescent lights in the kitchen (?!) with proper LED spotlights, while the power was still live, at least I convinced them to borrow the detector.
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Feb 24, 2023 20:47
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Does your voltage (not really) detector just blip a little when you wave it past the fixture, or is it full on strongly blinking/beeping/whatever it does when the circuit is live? They work via magnetic fields and occasionally can weakly blip a little when there's a mess of metal and wiring even if it's deactivated. Also you just mentioned units. Are you a renter? If so 100% this isn't your problem, make your landlord fix it.
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Feb 24, 2023 22:05
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Yeah it's full force blinking, I know I can set it off even by rubbing it strongly against my arm but it's not like that, basically the same as when it is live or when I hold it next to an outlet. Yeah the landlord is who hired the aforementioned people who didn't even seem bothered with "gently caress it, we're doing it live", but they're also family so when there's small things I can take care of (such as if it was just replacing that foam pad) I just end up doing it myself instead of making them hire someone. They only own this one condo though not the entire building of like 20~ units, thus the mystery breakers.
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Feb 25, 2023 04:32
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Probably a switch loop and a mystery breaker. Checked your service entrance / meter?
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Feb 25, 2023 06:47
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The false shutters on my house are painted black and I’d like to take them down, strip them, and paint them a less-dismal collar. But I can’t figure out how to detach them, I don’t see any kind of fastener holding them to the house. House was built in ‘47, how do I go about pulling these things down? They’re not just glued to the brick, are they? 
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Feb 25, 2023 21:27
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Filled screw holes?
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Feb 25, 2023 22:57
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Admittedly I’m lazy, but it might not be the worst option to pick a day that’s not too windy, tape up some garbage bags around/behind them, and go nuts with a sprayer
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Feb 25, 2023 23:03
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Unless they're inaccessible I would paint them in-situ with a small roller and brush. Put some plastic or paper between them and the bricks, especially for the side edges.
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Feb 25, 2023 23:22
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Phanatic posted:The false shutters on my house are painted black and I’d like to take them down, strip them, and paint them a less-dismal collar. Are you are they're totally false? You've got what appears to be a functional shutter dog at the bottom of the photo.
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Feb 25, 2023 23:49
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Danhenge posted:Are you are they're totally false? You've got what appears to be a functional shutter dog at the bottom of the photo. The bottom of the shutter extends past the brick protrusion at the bottom of the window.
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Feb 26, 2023 00:04
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Danhenge posted:Are you are they're totally false? You've got what appears to be a functional shutter dog at the bottom of the photo. Meh fake shutters come with those, they’re not really a telltale sign.
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Feb 26, 2023 00:12
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Danhenge posted:Are you are they're totally false? You've got what appears to be a functional shutter dog at the bottom of the photo. Yeah, that's just ornamental. There aren't any hinges.
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Feb 26, 2023 02:02
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Phanatic posted:The false shutters on my house are painted black and I’d like to take them down, strip them, and paint them a less-dismal collar. They’re nailed in to cleats that in turn are fastened to the brick. I can (barely) see nail heads at the bottom left & right corners. Get a crowbar under and pry gently. Stick a piece of something like thin plywood against the brick where you’ll be prying. They’ve got 900-layers of paint. Get them horizontal and go hog with stripper/a sander with 40-grit. If you’re in a warm area: make sure nothing is nesting back there. Yellow-jackets love to nest in the void. PainterofCrap fucked around with this message at 03:02 on Feb 26, 2023 |
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Feb 26, 2023 02:59
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I did a smallish drywall patch/tape job on a painted wall and used joint compound over it all. Do I need to prime first after sanding/cleanup or will it blend in fine by just directly applying the paint? It's latex paint, egg shell sheen.
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Feb 26, 2023 05:53
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Prime it. The patch is drier than the surrounding area and will suck up 2-3 coats.
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Feb 26, 2023 05:55
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In the age of physical yellow pages being hard to find and Google Ads being somewhat sketchy, what's a good aggregator those days for finding local contractors?
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Feb 27, 2023 04:52
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I've had luck with Google Maps/reviews as well as Thumbtack.
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Feb 27, 2023 06:57
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C-Euro posted:In the age of physical yellow pages being hard to find and Google Ads being somewhat sketchy, what's a good aggregator those days for finding local contractors? I find Yelp somewhat helpful. I miss when Annie's List was real. There's always Nextdoor if you don't mind a wee bit of racism.
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Feb 27, 2023 07:06
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Note that thumbtack charges them a leads fee if you message them, and more if they message you back. So I'll look on there for info and just call them or wtvr outside of the app. Ofc won't work if they are only using the app or wtvr. Other than the already mentioned, can also check if your city runs any sort of "good contactors list" or something akin to it.
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Feb 27, 2023 18:10
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I just use Facebook or next door, get some word of mouth from actual customers
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Feb 27, 2023 22:06
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floWenoL posted:Hey thanks! "center outlet tee" was the magic phrase to search for to find what I want. Also I noticed that there is an arrow pointing to the direction of water flow, and indeed it was on the reverse side of the original outlet tee pointing to the right. Based on that and the previous replies (and after a few trips to Home Depot) I managed to replace the entire plumbing underneath the sink, and it's working well so far! So, about a year and a 4 months after re-doing the plumbing, a leak popped up! Thankfully, the leak detector caught it immediately and nothing was damaged. Here's where the leak sprang up:  I tried tightening it down by hand, but it didn't quite work, but once I unscrewed it fully as well as the connection to the sink, then rescrewed both sides (all by hand) it stopped leaking. Some questions: 1) Is it expected that PVC slip joints like this might spring a leak within a year or so? 2) Could it be due to vibrations from the garbage disposal, normal water flow activity, etc.? 3) I hand-tightened and didn't use any pipe dope or plumber's tape. Should I be doing anything differently? I also double-checked that the washer was facing the right way (wide end up). Is there anything else I should check? I'd appreciate any advice/tips!
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Mar 1, 2023 05:01
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and after (baffle in the middle): 
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No, that isn't normal. You fastened it the right way. One thing to check is the slip nut. Make sure that it didn't crack. Same goes for the washer.
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Mar 1, 2023 06:51
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Also, make sure that the section of the tailpiece that slips into the trap is smooth, clean and dry.
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Mar 1, 2023 17:04
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We have a furnace/blower that seems to be making a loud low foghorn kind of humming noise. Sometimes it doesn't last long (heater just turned on, I heard a hum, then heard the air start to move and the hum went away) and sometimes it goes on longer. I changed the filter last night after googling and seeing 'it could be a dirty filter causing the blower motor to not be able to turn over, and the hum is from a capacitor' and when I turned the entire unit off to change the filter, I still heard the hum, which had just started a few minutes before. Is it a 'call the hvac people immediately' situation? What could the issue be? They've said it's sort of end of life (I think it's like 10 years old?) but apart from this it works fine!
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Mar 1, 2023 17:59
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When was the last time you removed the cover and had an actual look at the fan? Could be a bad bearing; could be a load of crap or a piece of paper. Have a look, and bring your vacuum.
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Mar 2, 2023 05:51
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PainterofCrap posted:They’re nailed in to cleats that in turn are fastened to the brick. I can (barely) see nail heads at the bottom left & right corners. I checked closer and those aren't nailheads, just pareidolia. Still give just gently prying it off a try or is there some other potential fastening mechanism they'd have used?
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Mar 2, 2023 20:08
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Moved into a new apartment, one issue is that where the toilet is located, the bathroom door can only open like 85° before hitting the toilet, as seen in the following image: I'd like to put a door stop on the hinges to stop it from slamming into the bowl, but idk what the max range is for those, would need to be like 100° to be safe. I can't figure out the right google search to get the max range for a hinge pin door stop to tell if that's the right option, also if it's a bad option, what other choices would I have here? Floor mounted stop?
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Mar 2, 2023 23:37
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mount the bathroom door so it opens out instead of into the bathroom (this is apparently not against code even though nobody does it) mount it on the opposite side of the frame, so it opens to the right get a bifold door or to actually do what you suggested: put a bumper on the back of the door at toilet rim height, just glue or screw something on there or buy one of these round things that are supposed to be on a wall so the doorknob doesn't dig into the wall but you could just screw it onto the door https://www.amazon.com/Door-Stopper-Wall-Protector-Adhesive/dp/B07N164MY4 Leperflesh fucked around with this message at 00:26 on Mar 3, 2023 |
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Mar 3, 2023 00:21
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Plank Walker posted:Moved into a new apartment, one issue is that where the toilet is located, the bathroom door can only open like 85° before hitting the toilet, as seen in the following image: Just buy the hinge stop and experiment. There like 5 bucks.
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Mar 3, 2023 00:55
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kid sinister posted:Just buy the hinge stop and experiment. There like 5 bucks. I literally bought an 8-pack for $12 off Amazon and re-did all the hinges in my house because the rubber bumpers had dry rotted on all of them. Super cheap and takes 2 minutes to install. Pretty sure they can do the angle OP is looking for. They will stop a door before it gets to 90 degrees, just not sure exactly how much. We have some doors in tight corners and they have some adjustment leftover, so I think it should work fine.
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Mar 3, 2023 13:05
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Welp my fridge isn't cold this morning. Super.
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Mar 3, 2023 15:49
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Welp. I cleaned out the vents in the back which were CAKED in dust (hush). Opened up the drawer and there was a huge chunk of frost. After jostling it, it fell off. Freezer is full but not over full. Power cycled it. Whole thing sounds like it's running, but it's not blowing cold air that I can feel. The back vents are blowing cool air. kill-a-watt showed 5A startup which subsided to 0.30A after a few seconds, and crawled up 0.01A/s or so to 0.75A where it's held consistently. My IR thermometer has a dead battery.  Anyways, this feels like the inside blower maybe got frozen up? Or some relay isn't closing on the compressor? I feel like the back should be blowing warmer air than it is. It's an LG French Door fridge. I'll google a service manual here in a bit. Any pro tips on what to look for?
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Mar 3, 2023 19:37
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I can only speak with authority about the Samsung french door; chunks of ice forming & the unit not staying cold may be the circulator fan between the freezer & the fridge has iced over or failed. You could try killing power & blowing a hair dryer down the fridge vent for at least ten minutes to see if anything breaks loose/starts collecting under the freezer drawer. Whomever assembled mine didn’t properly site the heater element in the drain channel under the fan properly. Had to tear out the freezer drawer, rolling frame, and the inside back panel of both the freezer & fridge to get to it. First time I’d ever seen waterlogged & freeze-blown styrofoam. Had to trim the foam, glue in aluminum foil & bury the little heating element in it.
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Mar 3, 2023 22:19
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Funny you mention that! I did get a pile of ice out of it. Opened up the back and put it in test mode, freezer and fridge blow strong cold air. Back in regular mode, nothing. Compressor sounds fine, fins get warmer than ambient. I can't discern "refrigerant flow" and think anyone who can is making that up. Bought a new battery for my ir thermometer over lunch. I was literally sitting here holding a hair dryer in the rear vents as the back panel was still metering 54f and felt cool despite being empty, door open, and unplugged for an hour. It's blowing cold air out of the other vents when I put it right up on there. Hopefully it's just this and not the defroster itself. This fell out on its own:  Sharkninja hair dryer cranks. 
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Mar 3, 2023 22:31
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H110Hawk posted:It's an LG French Door fridge. I'll google a service manual here in a bit. Any pro tips on what to look for? Make sure that the fan on the back/bottom is running. That moves air over the hot coils to cool them off. It could be a bad fan or a bad relay. You'll need to know how to solder if it's the relay.
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Mar 3, 2023 23:03
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kid sinister posted:Make sure that the fan on the back/bottom is running. That moves air over the hot coils to cool them off. Yeah the exhaust fan is running fine, cooling everything off. I think my original hypothesis is wrong, after blasting the freezer coils via the vent until it no longer felt cold in there and there was a small puddle on the ground, now when I put it in test mode it's just tepid air blowing through. Probably time to disassemble it in earnest and start metering things. Or calling someone to overcharge me to parts canon it. Or both.
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Mar 3, 2023 23:16
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