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Thanks for talking me through it guys.
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Dec 7, 2023 02:49
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I had a microwave that tripped if you opened it before stopping it, replaced it without touching the wiring and everything is fine
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Dec 7, 2023 02:54
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The sound difference is likely the magnetron in your microwave powering up, as opposed to the unit just running its internal fans. And it makes sense that it wouldn’t draw peak power (and trip your breaker) until sometime in that process. Most microwave settings don’t run the magnetron continually.
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Dec 7, 2023 03:27
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Do we have a masonry thread?
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Dec 7, 2023 15:39
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the yeti posted:Do we have a masonry thread? Nah I think the term in masonry is cement
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Dec 7, 2023 17:39
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tuyop posted:Nah I think the term in masonry is cement 
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Dec 8, 2023 15:04
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Inzombiac posted:I am livid right now. From a number of pages back, but I sympathize with you. My 1964 cast iron waste pipes finally gave up. Under the foundation of a 1400 sq.ft. house. They literally dug tunnels under my house and replaced everything, so now I have the added bonus of worrying about the dirt they put back settling, since it's impossible to pack it back as tight as it was (the sizable pile of dirt in my back yard that isdidn't go back in proof of that.). I would really have rather bought a new car, or paid off the home loan, if I *had* to spend the money, but here I am paying off a loan for goddamned plumbing. At least I was able to borrow against my life insurance, so I'm only paying 2% for the privilege of borrowing my own money. Why no, of course my insurance didn't cover that. Under the house doesn't count as [i]part of or inside the house, you see. loving butt pirates. the yeti posted:Do we have a masonry thread? Typically you use rebar.
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Dec 8, 2023 17:09
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I don't know anything about anything, but isn't major unexpected expenses like that what a Homeowner's line of credit for?
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Dec 8, 2023 18:40
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With interest rates now? Eh no thanks imo, I'd put it on a 0% credit card or something over paying like 8+% interest.
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Dec 8, 2023 18:51
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wesleywillis posted:Homeowner's line of credit A what now?
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Dec 8, 2023 18:54
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Home Equity Line Of Credit, probably? And yeah very high interest. Also if your life insurance is a thing you can borrow against, that... might not be the right kind of life insurance for you. Whole life has some rare specific cases where it makes sense, but most of the time, it's a huge ripoff. Because the investment rate of return they give you after accounting for their massive fees is godawful and you'd do better carrying a term life policy and investing the difference in premiums into index funds, and then canceling the term life once you have enough invested to cover your family's needs if you should die. We talk about this sometimes in the long term investing and retirement thread in BFC, there's also an insurance thread there but I don't read that one but I bet they'd be happy to discuss it too. That's all a tangent though, yeah HELOCs are not very attractive right now.
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Dec 8, 2023 19:22
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https://www.td.com/ca/en/personal-banking/products/mortgages/td-home-equity-flexline?GOOGLE&HELOC/FlexLine+-+Generic+-+English+(24_S_RL_RMO_AO_ACQ_ENFR)&HELOC+-+Generic&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIt_rkiLmAgwMVNwCtBh1dPQ0hEAAYAyAAEgJZkPD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds Thats the first one I came up with googling it, no idea if the terms are actually good or bad. There are of course lots of shady places offering that kind of poo poo, but TD bank is at least a "legit" bank, compared to payday loan places and all that type of poo poo. I had one when I was a student but never used it. It wasn't based on my home equity because I didn't own one at the time. Its *possible* that my parents co-signed for it but I have no idea. https://www.canada.ca/en/financial-consumer-agency/services/loans/loans-lines-credit.html posted:
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Dec 8, 2023 19:22
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The main benefit of a HELOC for home repair emergencies is that most contractors don’t take credit card. You need cash money for your plumbing emergency or your leaking roof. It’s a decent thing to setup if you have the discipline not to misuse it, as there’s no fees associated with opening the LOC (unlike mortgage) and you don’t pay anything unless you withdraw from it. The major downside is the variable interest rate. The Top G fucked around with this message at 20:39 on Dec 8, 2023 |
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Dec 8, 2023 20:36
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The Top G posted:The main benefit of a HELOC for home repair emergencies is that most contractors don’t take credit card. You need cash money for your plumbing emergency or your leaking roof. And silly me, I thought that's what an emergency fund and house repair fund was for. Lots of house repairs aren't surprises. Maybe the exact time is, but it's all pretty predictably going to cost you money which you should be setting aside in addition to a normal "whoops I lost my job" style emergency fund.
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Dec 8, 2023 20:41
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The Top G posted:The main benefit of a HELOC for home repair emergencies is that most contractors don’t take credit card. You need cash money for your plumbing emergency or your leaking roof. This. Sister in law had something similar happen, said she was using a 0% credit card deal to handle it. I told her to get the heloc anyway. Only downside is the little bit of trouble to get it, then in an emergency she would at least have the heloc available to pay the credit card before the 0% expired. If she waited, then something did happen she'd have 30k in credit card debt about to blast her with back interest and or transfer fees while she tried to convince a bank to give her, a person underwater in credit card debt and whatever new financial problem she had a heloc then. She didn't bother, and luckily nothing unexpected did come along, but jesus christ imagine having a conversation with someone about the best way to handle an unexpected financial problem and their literal argument is 'it'll be fine as long as no unexpected financial problem comes along.'
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Dec 8, 2023 21:14
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Motronic posted:And silly me, I thought that's what an emergency fund and house repair fund was for. HELL YEAH BROTHER!! AND LET ME TELL YA, THAT IF YOU CAN'T AFFORD TO SET ASIDE ANYTHING A MONTH THEN YOU SHOULD drat WELL GET A BETTER JOB, PULL YOUR rear end UP BY THE BOOTSTRAPS OR SELL YOUR HOUSE TO SOMEONE WHO CAN AFFORD IT!! (USER WAS PUT ON PROBATION FOR THIS POST)
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Dec 8, 2023 21:23
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Let's go ahead and stop this derail right here. BFC is probably a more appropriate place for this conversation.
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Dec 8, 2023 21:27
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Got a dumb electricity question. I live in an old house with no ground wire. I don't have the money to redo the whole house's wiring yet so for the time being I've been replacing the outlets in the house with GFCI outlets, starting with those that get used the most. In my home office, which has been fine for months, the GFCI outlets trip after about ~10-20 minutes when the PC is turned on. There are 3 outlets in the room on the same circuit, in order: #1 (Not GFCI, behind a piece of furniture with nothing ever plugged in), #2, GFCI, also empty, and #3 (GFCI, has a power strip with a PC/monitor/router/speakers plugged in.) What's interesting is that when the GFCI outlet trips, it's #2 that trips, taking #3 with it, despite not having anything plugged in. After testing different combinations of devices on different outlets, checking the power with a multimeter, etc I replaced GFCI outlet #2 with a new one hoping it was the problem. That didn't work, and the new one still trips. Any idea of what the most likely cause of this issue is? At the moment I've got things working by putting most of the room on outlet #1 instead, but I'd ideally like to find a more permanent solution.
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Dec 8, 2023 23:01
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The most likely problem is the thing those outlets are designed to protect against: a ground fault. And that is likely to be the wiring in your walls. I would suggest temporarily moving all of the things plugged in to other GFCI outlets on a different circuit to see if they still trip that one. If they do not you likely have a legitimate wiring issue that needs to be addressed. This doesn't mean you can't use the outlet/need to rewire the whole house. Depending on where it is there could be some fairly inexpensive and simple ways to replace just one run or the bad part of a run.
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Dec 8, 2023 23:05
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Open each outlet and inspect the wiring carefully (with that circuit turned off, of course). I've had a GFCI tripping because of minor arcing between the exposed bit of a wire not quite covered by a wire nut and the body of the outlet in that receptacle. The arcing was evident from slight scorch marks. No burning, just a shadow of dark on the plastic wire nut. But I agree with Motronic, if you can't find an issue in the receptacles it's somewhere else, the wiring in the walls or possibly back at the fuse box.
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Dec 8, 2023 23:21
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Leperflesh posted:Open each outlet and inspect the wiring carefully (with that circuit turned off, of course). I've had a GFCI tripping because of minor arcing between the exposed bit of a wire not quite covered by a wire nut and the body of the outlet in that receptacle. The arcing was evident from slight scorch marks. No burning, just a shadow of dark on the plastic wire nut. Another thing I've seen frequently with wiring old enough to not have a ground that people have added GFCIs to is just cut up insulation around the box clamp/box entrance created by moving the wires around reinstalling outlets. Some of that insulation is just real crusty by now and the more you mess with it the worse things get. Sometimes not touching old stuff that is currently working is the right move.
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Dec 8, 2023 23:31
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Yup. My own house is 1950s wiring, basically the same as Genpei Turtle is describing - most of the circuits are two-wire no ground, and I've installed a lot of GFCI outlets. You need to be careful with the crusty old wire. The GFCI that kept tripping was thankfully in the garage, where I had access to the rear of the receptacle because there's no drywall up out there, so I could inspect reasonably.
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Dec 8, 2023 23:36
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Leperflesh posted:Open each outlet and inspect the wiring carefully (with that circuit turned off, of course). I've had a GFCI tripping because of minor arcing between the exposed bit of a wire not quite covered by a wire nut and the body of the outlet in that receptacle. The arcing was evident from slight scorch marks. No burning, just a shadow of dark on the plastic wire nut. This might actually be it I hope. Looking closely at the receptacle I popped there’s definitely a little discoloration and copper residue, and the exposed wire there was quite long so probably wasn’t covered by the nut entirely. Not sure why it popped out of the blue but I wouldn’t be surprised if there was something wrong with the insulation given how old and crusty those wires are. Guess I’ll have to call an electrician if it keeps up. This has been an expensive year repair wise…
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Dec 9, 2023 01:52
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Darchangel posted:From a number of pages back, but I sympathize with you. I am surprised they did this rather than just cut your slab, excavate trenches, and then cast back the slab. The company I work for has done tunneling like this for almost a decade, but almost exclusively on buildings with post tensioned slabs or pile supported podium slabs that receive no soil support. Cutting trenches through those is kind of a no-no. If anyone has to do this in the future, ask the contractor to provide an alternate bid for job assuming they offhaul and dispose of the soil and backfill the tunnels with cellular concrete. It may be more cost effective (installing it is fast and light on labor) and you won't worry about them having to compact soil horizontally with a powderpuff or something else silly like that.
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Dec 9, 2023 07:50
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Drywall patching a ceiling, painted with typical flat ceiling paint. Would you spot-prime the fresh mud, or the prime the entire thing? The entire thing is gonna get repainted.
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Dec 9, 2023 18:26
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Jenkl posted:Would you spot-prime the fresh mud, or the prime the entire thing? The entire thing is gonna get repainted. If the paint is in otherwise good shape I wouldn't bother priming the whole thing. But fresh drywall mud really sucks up paint so absolutely prime that once or twice depending on how it looks when dry so that your new top coat will look consistent.
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Dec 9, 2023 18:47
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I had my roof replaced a couple of years ago and as far as I can tell, they did a good job. No problems whatsoever… except, the bottom of one of the plumbing vents has started to lift up a bit. The vent itself looks fine, but the shingle-like material it’s set in is curling upwards on the down slope. I just noticed it, I don’t know if it’s always been like this, or if it’s getting worse. Should I do anything?
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Dec 10, 2023 22:40
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Email (or text) your roofer a picture of it and ask them. They're the ones you hold a warranty with, they should pop by and fix it one random Wednesday without warning. You can also post it here for us to admire.
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Dec 10, 2023 23:20
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I am planning on replacing the kitchen sink with a new drop in. I read over the short install instructions and it says to use caulk or plumbers putty on the underside of the sink rim before placing it. For some reason I had in my mind that I was supposed to use kitchen and bath silicone there but the instructions say to use it after the sink has been placed along the edge. I assume the instructions are correct and I misunderstood some comments somewhere from when I was looking at how to do this or does it not really matter and using the silicone under the rim saves me a step from having to do it along the edge after its placed?
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Dec 11, 2023 23:36
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Teabag Dome Scandal posted:I am planning on replacing the kitchen sink with a new drop in. I read over the short install instructions and it says to use caulk or plumbers putty on the underside of the sink rim before placing it. For some reason I had in my mind that I was supposed to use kitchen and bath silicone there but the instructions say to use it after the sink has been placed along the edge. I assume the instructions are correct and I misunderstood some comments somewhere from when I was looking at how to do this or does it not really matter and using the silicone under the rim saves me a step from having to do it along the edge after its placed? I tend to do both. I put a bead far inside so it doesn't "squoosh" out. That's my "backup". Then I tape and smear/smooth a very thin and narrow bead around the edge of the sink after it's set. Whatever you do, make sure you know what solvent works with the caulk you are using, have a bowl of that and paper towels ready, use tape because you don't do this every day and suck at it and you will get good results. Practice first if you've never done it/haven't done it in a long time.
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Dec 11, 2023 23:46
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Applied caulk to my bathtub and it cracked almost immediately. It's an old house, so the tub moves a bit when you step into it which I assume is what's causing it to creck. Any ideas?
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Dec 12, 2023 00:42
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Leperflesh posted:I don't care. If I can't see it it's not happening, right? Teabag Dome Scandal posted:I am planning on replacing the kitchen sink with a new drop in. I read over the short install instructions and it says to use caulk or plumbers putty on the underside of the sink rim before placing it. ... I stuck on a rope of plumber's putty around the perimeter, and, once set, cut out the putty squeeze, hit it with 90% alccohol then ran a thin bead of clear silicone at the joint all the way around. Held for 9-years so far.
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Dec 12, 2023 01:30
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Cpt_Obvious posted:Applied caulk to my bathtub and it cracked almost immediately. It's an old house, so the tub moves a bit when you step into it which I assume is what's causing it to creck. Any ideas? Don’t use caulk there, use silicone. It’s a lot more flexible. I’m sure others will correct me if I’m mistaken.
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Dec 12, 2023 02:47
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Cpt_Obvious posted:Applied caulk to my bathtub and it cracked almost immediately. It's an old house, so the tub moves a bit when you step into it which I assume is what's causing it to creck. Any ideas? Think the guidance for this is to use silicone with the tub full of water. That’ll add some weight in and give you a fighting chance of it not cracking if it’s not too much movement.
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Dec 12, 2023 03:47
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I wound up putting a thin bead of silicone over the grouted corners of my tiled tub/shower surround. I was told it would crack sooner than later, and it did - about two weeks afterwards.
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Dec 12, 2023 04:10
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Dr. Habibi posted:Think the guidance for this is to use silicone with the tub full of water. That’ll add some weight in and give you a fighting chance of it not cracking if it’s not too much movement. That's a good idea. Should I wait for it to dry before I drain the tub?
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Dec 12, 2023 07:17
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I bought a 1930's house last summer, yay me. the windows are original (wood) and pretty lovely condition. It's rainy season now I have one dormer window that seems to be leaking into the attic / crawlspece below it. At least I think it's the window. Water is collecting on the sill when it rains and is likely draining through the many many cracks both vertical and horizontal on this window. I have a replacement quote scheduled but is there anything I can do in the meantime to keep water out of the sill?
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Dec 12, 2023 18:14
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PainterofCrap posted:I wound up putting a thin bead of silicone over the grouted corners of my tiled tub/shower surround. I was told it would crack sooner than later, and it did - about two weeks afterwards. Yeah don't grout corners. Or do, but then caulk. The change in plane guarantees it will crack.
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Dec 12, 2023 20:25
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Cpt_Obvious posted:Applied caulk to my bathtub and it cracked almost immediately. It's an old house, so the tub moves a bit when you step into it which I assume is what's causing it to creck. Any ideas? I have the same problem but its with the sheets of acrylic that form the tub/shower walls. I guess they just aren't fastened/glued well enough to whatever is behind it. I've been thinking about drilling some tiny holes along the seams and squirting door/window low-expansion spray foam back there unless someone tells me that's a terrible idea.
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Dec 12, 2023 20:25
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 This little fucker is shooting hot, watery steam everywhere while hissing loudly. Is this something I can fix myself or do I need to call a plumber? Full disclosure, I am an idiot.
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Dec 12, 2023 20:46
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