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Kaiser Schnitzel posted:From what I can see it looks like you are basically making a cosmetic repair. There's still a bunch of mortar between the blocks right? It's just falling out on the edges? If it goes much deeper than 3/8" or so then you may be looking at a more structural problem and mortar or something might be a better solution, but from the pictures you posted it doesn't look to me like that's really necessary. Alright, cool. Yeah I'll know more once I start digging out the loose stuff. If it's not too deep, I may just go with the caulk recommendation, thanks.
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Jul 31, 2023 19:43
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I’m looking to bury some gutter downspouts in my yard and every article seems to recommend pop up emitters at the end. But they also recommend burying the pipe beneath the frost line, which means a foot of vertical travel at least (42” actually). This seems kinda at odds with the whole idea of an emitter. I want to run 10-15’ 4” PVC with a 1” drop per foot of distance onto about four inches of gravel at a 2’x2’ termination “box” (a big gravel hole), no emitter. We don’t have city sewer or street storm sewers, so sending it to a collection point doesn’t make sense. Our ground is very sandy, hence the gravel to stop it from forming sinkholes. Any thoughts or ideas about this plan?
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Jul 31, 2023 22:09
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Dr. Lunchables posted:I’m looking to bury some gutter downspouts in my yard and every article seems to recommend pop up emitters at the end. But they also recommend burying the pipe beneath the frost line, which means a foot of vertical travel at least (42” actually). This seems kinda at odds with the whole idea of an emitter. Depending on the amount of rain you get at one time a popup might be good to relieve the system in the event of a large volume of excess, so it doesn't end up where you might not want it. But I've installed a lot of these, never below the frost line (in IL) as it wouldn't make sense, unless it's going to like a drainage canal or something. If you want to be sure the pipe doesn't freeze when full, could do the last couple feet in corrugated pipe to get some extra seepage out of it.
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Jul 31, 2023 23:32
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I just had the same question being similarly frost-lined. The conclusion I came out with was while it would be ideal, it isn't practical. Instead, it's just absolutely critical you make sure it doesn't clog during the transitional season when it's bouncing around the freezing point. The ice can and will push your house around.
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Jul 31, 2023 23:43
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Would putting an access port near the top of the buried pipe make sense so I can snake it? I’m looking at four of these across a house plus one on an external garage, and I want em to be solid and easy maintenance for like twenty years. I figure I’d snake em once in the fall and once in the spring. e: oh yeah, I’m in MI. Forgot to mention that. Dr. Lunchables fucked around with this message at 00:49 on Aug 1, 2023 |
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Aug 1, 2023 00:46
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Dr. Lunchables posted:Would putting an access port near the top of the buried pipe make sense so I can snake it? I’m looking at four of these across a house plus one on an external garage, and I want em to be solid and easy maintenance for like twenty years. I figure I’d snake em once in the fall and once in the spring. Yep absolutely.
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Aug 1, 2023 00:50
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Dr. Lunchables posted:Would putting an access port near the top of the buried pipe make sense so I can snake it? I’m looking at four of these across a house plus one on an external garage, and I want em to be solid and easy maintenance for like twenty years. I figure I’d snake em once in the fall and once in the spring. I'm having a hard time picturing your setup, but any gutter drain you need to snake twice a year is absolutely broken/never been right. I have several of these, well above my frost line. Some drain to daylight, some don't. I added a pop up to one this year, hasn't been through a winter yet. I do not anticipate issues. At least in this climate when things are thawing enough for water to come into my gutters it's also going to thaw anything in the drainage lines as well as the popup. Yes, make them serviceable....of course. But if they need that much service something is very wrong. Motronic fucked around with this message at 00:54 on Aug 1, 2023 |
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Aug 1, 2023 00:51
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I’m just thinking of snaking more for root intrusion than leaf buildup. I’m gonna be drilling holes the last few feet, giving possible intrusion points.
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Aug 1, 2023 00:53
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Hi thread, I have an internal door I need to make lockable with a key. Technically there's already an old lock in there, but the key is long gone. This is what I have:    Considering it's an old style keyhole, I'm not sure a locksmith is going to be able to do much with it, or am I making an assumption there? It's probably better I just replace it with a new one, but my concern is that after looking at what's in Home Depot, the face plates on the side of the door are a lot smaller these days than the large one this old lock has. Trying to reuse the hole would result in still having a very large hole in the side of the door. Is the better option just buying a separate lock and making a new hole in the door? (Though I'll need to buy a couple of new tools to do that)
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Aug 1, 2023 02:59
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The magic word is mortise lock. You can buy new mortise locks. You can also pop yours out, see if you can get any clues about size, brand, etc., and start ordering new old-style skeleton keys to find one that fits.
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Aug 1, 2023 03:16
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i like nice words
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I did that myself recently and it's easy and cheap to just replace its guts. I had to do a little bit of chiselling to make everything fit but they're a fairly standard shape and everything lined up for me. Bring the old one to the store to double check it's the same size.
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Aug 1, 2023 09:43
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I had a similar lock. Took it to a locksmith. None of the sizes of new mortise lock lined up, so got them to make me a new key for the original. Problem solved for $25 or so.
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Aug 1, 2023 11:43
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Dr. Lunchables posted:I’m just thinking of snaking more for root intrusion than leaf buildup. I’m gonna be drilling holes the last few feet, giving possible intrusion points. I think they have a mesh sock you can put over the pipe to prevent that. I’ve done what you’re talking about in MN. Did not dig below the frost line and it was fine 5 out of the 6 years I lived in that house. I did have a problem with backup one year when we had a freakishly hard rain in January when the pipe was still frozen shut but many basements flooded that year due to downspouts and gutters being frozen so I’m not sure anything could have been done short of putting a pipe heating cable in there for just such an occasion (which I probably would have done had I stayed in the house).
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Aug 2, 2023 05:02
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Anne Whateley posted:The magic word is mortise lock. Thank you for the magic word! This job just got a lot simpler
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Aug 3, 2023 02:01
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I posted this a while back, but it got lost in other discussion. Now that I have a toilet fill valve needing replacement, I'd like to at least have a nice new quarter turn valve on hand ready to go. What's my best route here?Final Blog Entry posted:Since we're talking shut off valves, I've had in my mind to work on replacing all mine with new quarter turns. The existing multiturns are ~20 years old from new construction and make me nervous every time I need to use one.
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Aug 3, 2023 13:28
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What's a good option for these drawer/cabinet cushion thingies: Ours all stick like crazy and it's really annoying. Takes a wildly unreasonable amount of force to open some of them. Hoping to get something that works well, rather than something cheap that will also stick and cause grief. edit: I mean yeah this is kind of a stupid question, but my assumption is that this is one of those commoditized things that are universally cheap and lovely unless you buy The Right One. I don't want to spend time scraping the old ones off, then cleaning up the surface so the new ones will adhere properly on dozens of drawers/cabinets, only to find that whatever I put on is equally lovely if not worse than what I had before. DaveSauce fucked around with this message at 14:13 on Aug 3, 2023 |
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Aug 3, 2023 13:49
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The "not lovely" version of those is soft-close hinges. Just grab some felt or rubber/silicone ones from home depot and go to town.
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Aug 3, 2023 15:00
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Clean that up with your solvent of choice and use felt pads
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Aug 3, 2023 15:25
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None of the 3M silicone bumpers in my kitchen have fallen off yet, but it's only been three years.
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Aug 3, 2023 15:26
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H110Hawk posted:The "not lovely" version of those is soft-close hinges. Just grab some felt or rubber/silicone ones from home depot and go to town. I will never... EVER... NOT... use soft close again. My new house has them for the cabinets and it's the most amazing thing ever. Total life changer.
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Aug 3, 2023 16:50
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Counterpoint: I’ve used incredibly lovely stick-on silicone bumper replacements and for the cost of scraping those old ones off and popping the new ones on, they’ve been pretty much solid for about 5 years. If you’re looking for lowest lift, my vote’s for: Flipperwaldt posted:None of the 3M silicone bumpers in my kitchen have fallen off yet, but it's only been three years.
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Aug 3, 2023 17:06
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NZAmoeba posted:Thank you for the magic word! This job just got a lot simpler
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Aug 3, 2023 17:08
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BonoMan posted:I will never... EVER... NOT... use soft close again. My new house has them for the cabinets and it's the most amazing thing ever. Total life changer.
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Aug 3, 2023 17:11
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Kaiser Schnitzel posted:I hate them. They're so slow. Thankfully most soft close hinges have a little switch you can flip to disable the soft close mechanism. When new I find that leaving both on soft close is just WAY too slow. One on, one off seems to be pretty decent.
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Aug 3, 2023 17:20
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Kaiser Schnitzel posted:I hate them. They're so slow. Thankfully most soft close hinges have a little switch you can flip to disable the soft close mechanism. Slow? You swing it closed and it just catches right before it hits and closes itself softly What's slow? Are you waiting on something? Motronic posted:When new I find that leaving both on soft close is just WAY too slow. One on, one off seems to be pretty decent. Maybe mine are like this.
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Aug 3, 2023 17:32
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Requesting advice on hot water heaters. My mother sent me this picture today and asked me if this means she needs to replace her hot water heater. drat if I know, but I figure folks here might be able to give advice.  It's an electric installed in 2004. That is not an actual wet puddle in the foreground but it seems obvious to me as a layperson that there has been some leakage at some point. If she does need to replace it she was asking about a tankless water heater. Is there anything specific I should tell her that wouldn't be covered by a basic pros & cons list I could google up? Thanks.
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Aug 4, 2023 01:31
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Yes. If she doesn't need the space and has no complaints with her current one just do like for like. If she's on gas she can consider tankless but I wouldn't bother if it's in a garage.
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Aug 4, 2023 01:44
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Lemniscate Blue posted:Requesting advice on hot water heaters. An electric, tanked heater is going to be an easy swap and basically be the sticker price on the unit from Lowes Depot + $250 or whatever 2 hours of your local plumber's time costs. Do check the dimensions of the new unit vs. the old unit and any doorwars it has to go through. Part of the reason I switched to tankless when my tanked one died is because the closet has a tiny, 17" wide door. The old heater barely fit in/out, but all the new ones were 18" diameter unless I wanted a tiny mobile home one. Basically get a tankless if you a)take long showers/are a large household b)really really need an extra 8 square feet of space in a random closet/basement c)can't fit a new tanked one in the same space as the old tanked one. I will say since I got a tankless when my old gas tanked heater died, my gas bill has gone down a good bit because I'm not heating water all the time, but for the cost of the unit and install it's gonna take a good while to pay for itself.
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Aug 4, 2023 01:58
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Lemniscate Blue posted:Requesting advice on hot water heaters. Electric tankless is a mistake. Electric heatpump might be an option.
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Aug 4, 2023 02:16
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Righto, I'll pass all that along. She's on electric, not gas, and it's inside in a utility closet not the garage (next to the AC unit she just had replaced). It's got a big double door setup so access shouldn't be a problem. I'm not sure how big the tank is but I'll keep that in mind when we're looking for a replacement. Thanks folks.
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Aug 4, 2023 02:18
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Electric dual element, if it were my mom
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Aug 4, 2023 02:24
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Dr. Lunchables posted:Electric dual element, if it were my mom This right here.
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Aug 4, 2023 02:30
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We have a brand new tankless gas, installed in the garage where the old tank gas heater was, on the same 1/2" gas line which we were warned would limit the capacity. It's working fine for us: we don't try to have two showers at the same time and also run the dishwasher and the washing machine simultaneously, though. Point being you totally can get one on an existing normal gas line, if you have modest needs. Install in place, with new venting where the old venting already was (so no need for a new hole in the garage roof), of a Noritz EZTR model NRC663-FSV (EZTR40), in the SF bay area from a good plumber, was about $5500. This heater comes with a 12 year manufacturer's warranty. Just one data point. For a big family with a lot of hot water needs, running a new gas line may be necessary and adds to the cost and installation time. e. it's a half inch gas line, not a quarter inch, what was I thinking lol Leperflesh fucked around with this message at 17:16 on Aug 4, 2023 |
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Aug 4, 2023 05:51
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Some of my 100 year old plaster ceiling just fell down and exposed the boards (about a 4x3 section). I've never done any plaster stuff before. Would this be a good way to fix it? https://www.oldhouseonline.com/repairs-and-how-to/how-to-fix-plaster-ceilings/
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Aug 4, 2023 19:21
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Beef Eater posted:Some of my 100 year old plaster ceiling just fell down and exposed the boards (about a 4x3 section). I've never done any plaster stuff before. Would this be a good way to fix it? https://www.oldhouseonline.com/repairs-and-how-to/how-to-fix-plaster-ceilings/ Yep. That's about how it goes: remove any loose plaster, find laths, drill holes, glue the plaster back down to the lath, clamp down with screws, wait for glue to dry, remove screws, plaster, paint. That first step is removing the bad plaster. That "4x3 section" could get a lot bigger. That depends on why the old stuff fell.
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Aug 5, 2023 02:33
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The old stuff fell because wood shrinks as it ages, making nail holes and gaps between laths bigger. Also, the plaster breaks off where it's smooshed through the gaps in the lath, everything dries out & loses its adhesion. Not kiddding about the nails/brads. These are smooth-shank and small, so over the course of a century gravity never stops doing what it does, aided by shrinkage; check for loose lath while up there. Another trick is to cut out the plaster & lath into two joists, and install a couple layers if drywall as a patch. It can look weird since it can be difficult to get it to blend in the surrounding plaster.
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Aug 5, 2023 03:33
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Thanks for the soft close hinge chat… reminded me that I specced them in my custom laundry room cabinets and just never switched them on. Can’t wait to get used to this and start slamming my cheap kitchen cabinets shut!
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Aug 5, 2023 05:37
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I want to get LED bulbs for these two lamps that I use daily as supplemental/night lighting. The larger lamp has a frosted candelabra bulb and the smaller one has a standard size half chrome bulb.  Whenever LED bulbs are brought up, it's always pointed out that cheap LEDs suck and high quality ones are the only ones worth the money. What are some high quality ones? Are these bulbrite ones from home depot ok? Unfortunately for the half chrome bulb, choices are very limited. https://www.homedepot.com/p/Bulbrite-40W-Equivalent-Warm-White-Light-A19-Dimmable-LED-Half-Chrome-Light-Bulb-2-Pack-861426/304268868 https://www.homedepot.com/p/Bulbrit...61427/303722111 edit: censored my dumb reflection kreeningsons fucked around with this message at 17:43 on Aug 5, 2023 |
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Aug 5, 2023 17:35
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kreeningsons posted:Are these bulbrite ones from home depot ok? If they're being sold there, probably not. If you want to shop retail go to an actual lighting stre that sells fixtures and lamps. If you want to order online use 1000bulbs.com or similar, and don't settle for anything less than 90+ CRI as its a big indicator of overall quality, not just color rendering.
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Aug 5, 2023 17:53
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I have a covered exterior outlet where the cover is looking kinda grody: I'm guessing the fix here is just to wire brush off the loose paint and rust, then prime and paint it? Anything I ought to watch out for?
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Aug 5, 2023 18:59
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