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HootTheOwl posted:Every toilet in my house was grouted to the floor and all were leaking but I couldn't tell because, again, they were grouted to the floor. Where I live, almost everything is single-story built directly on a concrete slab. Almost every toilet is grouted down, which is fine. …Right up until the wax ring fails and fills the void between the slab and the flooring with sewage and you start to get stuff squishing up through the flooring.
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Mar 20, 2024 16:42
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i caulked the front of my toilet and now i dont know how to feel
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Mar 20, 2024 16:48
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Your flanges and valves are probably also secure to something so that when you sit on the toilet all the force isn't applied directly to the pipe. My flanges were load-bearing
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Mar 20, 2024 16:56
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Deviant posted:i caulked the front of my toilet and now i dont know how to feel Front is fine, and frankly is a good idea because it makes cleaning a lot easier. You're not on your hands and knees with an old toothbrush trying to scrub the gap between the toilet and the tile, which can get amazingly grody over time. You can just mop/wipe like you would the seam between the tub and the tile. As long as you leave a gap in the back you'll find out if your gasket fails in plenty of time. That said, don't use wax gaskets in TYOOL 2024. The two-piece rubber ones cost $10-ish and are basically impossible to gently caress up. What's better, if you don't get a good seal or you need to yank the toilet for whatever reason (painting the walls etc) you can just re-seat the toilet without putting a new one on.
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Mar 20, 2024 17:10
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No. Scraping shitwax is a vital step in the installation process and I won't hear otherwise.
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Mar 20, 2024 18:12
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Trawling r/HomeImprovement today and I found something I consdiered posting in the Crappy Construction thread, but it turns out to be even more appropriate here: https://old.reddit.com/r/HomeImprovement/comments/1bjh6cm/my_toilet_has_been_leaking_into_the_subfloor_when/ My toilet has been leaking into the subfloor when we flush it. I can replace the gasket, but do I need to be concerned about the water damage? posted:The toilet has been leaking for about a year now, but has gotten a bit worse over the last few months. It's obvious that the gasket is to blame, but I'm wondering how much of an issue water damage can be? It's a relatively small amount of water each time, maybe 15ml/0.5oz, and there is a bit of white staining on the subfloor and joist below the toilet. I'm sure it's fine
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Mar 20, 2024 18:24
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Why fix it? just let it keep leaking. Eventually you'll have a hole & you can build an outhouse bench
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Mar 20, 2024 18:35
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Arsenic Lupin posted:Niiiice work. PainterofCrap posted:Well, you sure as poo poo picked up taping like a pro in a hurry. Sweet! Seriously great job.
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Mar 21, 2024 16:42
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H110Hawk posted:Seriously great job. Thanks! I soon start painting the next room, where I have to do 3 walls (and change) and the design is not mine, so I hope it comes out looking as good. It was a good practice run to figure out "how does painting work" though, hah. I had planned to do it last weekend, but it turns out that some wallpaper is more difficult to remove than others, and I've spent at least seven hours now getting it off his walls. It was already peeling off on its own, but apparently that was just the "top level" and the bottom layer is a real bitch. Should be done with that and filling holes and otherwise prepping the walls tonight though. The walls themselves in this room look very different from the ones in my own bedroom though, like weirdly so. They are flatter, which is nice, but now I'm seriously wondering what bare walls are supposed to look like/feel like? Walls I'm working on now for reference: 
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Mar 21, 2024 21:13
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Here's an "accidentally mixed cleaner" question. I grabbed what I thought were two bottles of Clorox bleach cleaner to clean some bathroom spots. One was on it's last leg and so I grabbed the newer one to use when the other one ran out. AFTER the fact I saw I mixed Clorox NON bleach with bleach. The non bleach is basically like a 409 cleaner. I know you're not supposed to mix ammonia and bleach cleaners (and really just cleaners in general). I had the window open, fan on, masked with an n95 (just for the smell) and am fine and had no ill feelings. But I just wanted to confirm that this is probably a "definitely do not mix" or "do not mix out of principle but you probably would have been fine." Bottle 1 - Clorox Cleaner + Bleach ingredients: Sodium Hypochlorite (this is the only one listed on the bottle with "other ingredients" listed as the remaining 98% - those are below) Soidum Chloride Sodium Hydroxide Lauramine Oxied Sodium Carbonate Myristamine Oxide Sodium Chlorate Soidum Orthosilicate Bottle 2 - Clorox NON Bleach Cleaner: Alky C12-16 dimenthyl benzyl ammonium chloride - .3% Other ingredients: Tetrapotassium EDTA Ethanol Polyoxyalkylene Substitued Chromophore Anyway - just wondering in general! edit: and to clarify - I didn't pour one bottle into the other. I used up the non bleach cleaner wiped those surfaces (mostly) down then went for a second round on 3 tougher spots with the bleach cleaner (that I didn't realize obvi). BonoMan fucked around with this message at 17:52 on Mar 22, 2024 |
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Mar 22, 2024 17:09
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I definitely would not mix anything that said “bleach” on one bottle and “ammonium” on the other. An N95 won’t protect you because the issue is vapors. An N95 is good for droplets and aerosols, but it’s not a full-on gas mask. At this point, as long as you wash off the mixture and air out the room, it should be fine — you don’t have to keep worrying. Just don’t do it again
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Mar 22, 2024 21:03
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i like nice words
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Those release chlorine gas when mixed. Your n95 will do nothing. It's not even materially reducing smell in all likelihood. You need an organic vapor filter to get those fumes. Typically activated charcoal. For example I believe this will do it: https://www.3m.com/3M/en_US/p/d/v000057515/ You're fine from the small incidental exposure here, it's a few sprays after one had flashed off. Your lungs are probably mildly irritated but not in a noticeable way. You had some ventilation - positive even with the fan. All playing in your favor. H110Hawk fucked around with this message at 00:06 on Mar 23, 2024 |
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Mar 23, 2024 00:04
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I'd love to solicit some feedback on a drainage plan in progress. It's a ~100 year old house with a rubble foundation. In Rhode Island so it rains a lot. The seller was... less than truthful about water in the basement.  I'll link out to a google doc so no goons have to scroll past 15 pictures of my disgusting (car)hole. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1XHaptwOHg6yoxWSjgwqModSd0qjZy8kyz5tyrEFrD6A/edit?usp=sharing
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Mar 23, 2024 20:45
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sillyloquy posted:I'd love to solicit some feedback on a drainage plan in progress. It's a ~100 year old house with a rubble foundation. In Rhode Island so it rains a lot. The seller was... less than truthful about water in the basement. I also have a 100 year-old home with a rubble foundation. We ended up excavating the front elevation and waterproofing the exterior with drains to daylight. We get a little bit of water in now when the water table rises enough, but it's nothing like it was previously.
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Mar 23, 2024 21:20
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I am probably going to need to re-do the wood slats on my deck this summer. What do people like for non-wood materials? I would like something maintenance free if possible. I am not sure how much square footage it is, but its not a huge deck. I live in the Twin Cities.
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Mar 23, 2024 21:27
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Composite is good and will last forever.
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Mar 23, 2024 21:38
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sillyloquy posted:I'd love to solicit some feedback on a drainage plan in progress. It's a ~100 year old house with a rubble foundation. In Rhode Island so it rains a lot. The seller was... less than truthful about water in the basement. It's pretty standard in RI to have sumps and some work done on the outside of the house to redirect rain away. Which one you need, or whether you need both, depends on where exactly the water is coming from. Is it coming up from the ground or down through gaps in the walls?
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Mar 23, 2024 21:39
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sillyloquy posted:I'd love to solicit some feedback on a drainage plan in progress. It's a ~100 year old house with a rubble foundation. In Rhode Island so it rains a lot. The seller was... less than truthful about water in the basement. Remove the concrete driveway, set a new grade at your foundation 6-8 inches below the bottom brick (this will expose the side of the bulkhead, eliminating water infiltration between the bulkhead foundation and the framed wall), feather that grade out from the house sloping 1 inch per foot away from the home. I'm guessing you'll end up below that adjacent driveway, so you'll probably stop sloping the yard around four feet from the adjacent driveway and install a permeable area for collected water to percolate. Short term, put downspout extensions on all downspouts, whatever length is needed to get to an area that does not slope back to the home or a minimum of six feet if the ground is already sloping the right direction. I can't think of any short term solution for that concrete driveway sloping into your foundation, you just need to rip that out. If you need to put it back have it follow your new established yard slope as much as possible, you can drain it into the same swale you establish during the regrade.
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Mar 23, 2024 21:48
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GlyphGryph posted:It's pretty standard in RI to have sumps and some work done on the outside of the house to redirect rain away. Which one you need, or whether you need both, depends on where exactly the water is coming from. Is it coming up from the ground or down through gaps in the walls? We get a little bit of ground water during the heaviest rain, but as a separate problem the water comes in through this wall which is what I'm hoping improving the drainage will help with.
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Mar 23, 2024 21:55
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kri kri posted:I am probably going to need to re-do the wood slats on my deck this summer. What do people like for non-wood materials? I would like something maintenance free if possible. I am not sure how much square footage it is, but its not a huge deck. I live in the Twin Cities. I had an Azek deck put in last year and that stuff has a 50 year warranty. It's 100% PVC so the only maintenance you'll need to do is hose it down occasionally if it gets dirty. It looks great, and is not slippery when wet or with snow on top. Doesn't get hot either though my deck is in a shady area. Only downside I've encountered so far is it scratches easier than wood and there's not a lot you can do to repair it (I haven't tried the heat gun trick yet though).
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Mar 23, 2024 22:05
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Azek and Trex both make great products. And have a range of quality. The biggest consideration is how much sun exposure the deck gets. The lower cost composites hold heat. So, much heat it can make a deck unusable.
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Mar 24, 2024 07:55
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Our black composite deck is unusable in summer but not hot enough to make a solar oven. On clear winter days it's divine and we like to nap on the deck like lizards. Once my metal halloween lantern caught on fire and melted a neat circle in the surface. The material shows oil and soap stains so always use a blanket/towel for bbqs and picnics.
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Mar 24, 2024 08:07
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slidebite posted:Does anyone here have a dyson stick vacuum? I was going to say to ask them if anything is compatible but sounds like the chat just talks about the supply of the proper SKU? If your city is big enough you might have a dyson store with attached repair center that might be able to recommend a suitable replacement. I love my V10, we use it all the time (lots of small children  )
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Mar 26, 2024 03:42
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Its probably super expensive to get plumbing run to a new room, huh? I'd like at least a drain installed in one of the outer rooms so I can process rotting corpses there instead of in the downstairs laund room, give the smell less access to the rest of the house, but I'm not sure if it would be worth the cost. Running water would be nice too. It shares a wall with said bathroom/laundry room though, so maybe it wouldn't be *too* bad. Ugh, I'll just stick to the bathroom for now though, at least until I get the roof and foundation problems fixed. Just need to make sure none of the juices get anywhere inaccessible or I'll end up regretting it. (USER WAS PUT ON PROBATION FOR THIS POST) (USER WAS PUT ON PROBATION FOR THIS POST)
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Mar 26, 2024 04:33
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GlyphGryph posted:Its probably super expensive to get plumbing run to a new room, huh? So you can what? 
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Mar 26, 2024 04:52
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GlyphGryph posted:Its probably super expensive to get plumbing run to a new room, huh? It really depends. If it's a slab foundation and you're on the lowest floor, yes. If you can get the corpses up to a higher ground then sewer is easy to run. Just need a slight downward slope. Potable water you can run wherever if you are OK with surface mounts.
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Mar 26, 2024 05:03
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GlyphGryph posted:Its probably super expensive to get plumbing run to a new room, huh? Homicidal tendencies aside, it depends on how much digging and cutting concrete will need to be done.
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Mar 26, 2024 05:38
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This is why I always say it's a first time homeowner's mistake to let the corpse rot before you start enjoying it. This comes up every few pages I feel like so just click back a little bit OP and you'll see all the discussion.
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Mar 26, 2024 06:46
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A lot starts to make sense about running plumbing once you realize that it mostly involves drawing/connecting lines behind walls and under floors. If the corpse processing room needs draining, you're drawing a line to an existing drain, so you're likely loving up the floor and a wall or two to run those lines. Might be the same deal for water, but more places you can tap into. But don't overlook electrical either. If your mincer needs electric power to operate, and the nearest receptacle isn't near the processing sink, it would be a good time to run a new receptacle. Just remember that the receptacle should be a GFCI due to the wet environment, you don't want the blood and goo to electrocute you. And you don't want to be running the mincer permanently on an extension cord, that's just unsafe.
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Mar 26, 2024 14:44
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https://store.directsupply.com/Prod...884?quantity=1& Remember it needs to be 12/3 wire so that you can get the full 2HP fired up. Those gfci breakers are spendy but your life is worth it.
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Mar 26, 2024 15:30
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I'm having problems finding bookshelves for a wall in my living room. There's a furnace vent about 76 inches off the ground and a lot of shelving units seem like they'd partially cover it. If I were to get something cheap like Ikea billy and just cut out the backing in that area, would that still be bad long term for the wood portion of the shelf? My spouse is absolutely against Kallax style shelves. There's a light switch on the wall too and between the two of them it's hard to find anything commercial that would fit there. Anything made to order seems like it would be outrageously expensive, is there some other option I should look into?
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Mar 26, 2024 16:03
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you could get some single or dual track shelf rails and brackets and and screw them into the studs and get some finished boards to put across them. I have some of these in my living room, there's usually a section of all that stuff at the hardware store, I got these ones from Menards along with some shelf brackets and a bunch of 1x8 boards for the shelves. that's probably the most affordable solution you could do https://www.menards.com/main/storag...942-c-12645.htm the dual track rails and brackets are obviously sturdier, but I'm not putting a bunch of weight on these so I just went for the single track there's a wide variety of other shelf solutions you could get, but the nicer stuff obviously gets more expensive. 100 HOGS AGREE fucked around with this message at 17:06 on Mar 26, 2024 |
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Mar 26, 2024 16:54
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We recently learned that my son is legally blind with ocular albinism. While there is a whole poo poo ton of work in dealing with insurance, occupational therapy, learning braille, etc, I also want to help design our house to make it as comfortable as possible for him. There is a ton to do with lighting, getting everything we can on dimmers, putting in coffered lighting (diffuse lights behind crown molding), task lighting etc. I'm a bit afraid as we do still have some knob and tube thats currently in the ceilings, running our overhead room lights and switches. In the past I was willing to leave that all in because they were just running ceiling fans and lights. Am I correct in thinking that adding any lights and/or dimmer switches will require we pull that out and install modern romex to run these things?
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Mar 26, 2024 17:51
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BaseballPCHiker posted:We recently learned that my son is legally blind with ocular albinism. Have you considered that you might need a "letter of medical necessity" for the home adaptations and accommodations to allow you to consider this "whole home rewire" a "necessary medical expenditure" ?  But yes, you can't gently caress with the K&T and you're quickly going to realize that piecing it out is going to wind up more expensive in the long run. But seriously, look up disability services in your area ("center for independent living") and ask about these things. Also get your kid onto SSDI, etc. Get an attorney as well, right now. Talk this over to them.I have a friend who works in this field who I could ask specifics about making other people (Insurance, the federal/state governments, etc) pay for these things if you like. For example I seem to recall my parents didn't owe sales tax on stuff with that letter - so make sure whomever is quoting this out is heavy on the markup on parts and very low on labor. Consult your tax professional. Mine was a central vac system to abate my allergies. Make sure the letter is as general as possible - "X pt requires an adaptation of <lighting style> throughout primary living spaces" sort of thing. From there you, a lay person, can hire a professional to advise you on these things. Then in person you can discuss how you need the bid to read to ensure it all ties together. "Install <adaptation lighting style exactly as worded on the LMN>. Acquire permits and comply with all local standards. If K&T is found local code requires new lines run. If new branch circuits are run, entire branch must be to NFPA Code 2024 whatever. Due to inadequate space in primary electrical panel, this must be upgraded to meet standards set forth by the city." You have to pass reasonableness standards so it can't be all materials, but you also don't understand this stuff gud so get 3 bids, then work with them to make sure the materials cost a lot but it all adds up to the previously quoted price. See where this is going?
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Mar 26, 2024 18:13
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100 HOGS AGREE posted:you could get some single or dual track shelf rails and brackets and and screw them into the studs and get some finished boards to put across them. I have some of these in my living room, there's usually a section of all that stuff at the hardware store, I got these ones from Menards along with some I should have mentioned that's basically what I'm trying to upgrade from. A pair of rails isn't able to support the six foot wide shelves (if I fill them with books) we currently have there and I want a more sturdy solution that lets me use as much space as possible. heres a real crappy mspaint of the issue 
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Mar 26, 2024 20:06
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trevorreznik posted:I should have mentioned that's basically what I'm trying to upgrade from. A pair of rails isn't able to support the six foot wide shelves (if I fill them with books) we currently have there and I want a more sturdy solution that lets me use as much space as possible. More rails, space them 24-inches apart if you're really packing the books on, you can get more specific on the span by using this calculator: https://woodbin.com/calcs/sagulator/
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Mar 26, 2024 20:12
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H110Hawk posted:Words Thanks for the advice. I will start to look into that as well, so much stuff to do with this diagnosis, it is honestly overwhelming.
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Mar 26, 2024 21:11
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BaseballPCHiker posted:Thanks for the advice. I will start to look into that as well, so much stuff to do with this diagnosis, it is honestly overwhelming. Good luck. And remember that there are things that need to happen immediately and things that can take time. Pace yourself. Any time a doctor tells you "your kid needs <thing that isn't a medical whatever>" ask for a letter of medical necessity. Fsa bucks can be spent on them too. See if work has an advocate service for you. They might be able to help you find dollars in your insurance or whatever for these things.
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Mar 26, 2024 21:16
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Tezer posted:More rails, space them 24-inches apart if you're really packing the books on, you can get more specific on the span by using this calculator: I don't want to hog the thread, but why focus on rails? Just cost for strength? We would need at least another brand new row lower (can probably fill up 24 linear feet if not more) and I think it might look weird without a benefit that I'm really seeing.
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Mar 26, 2024 22:34
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trevorreznik posted:I'm having problems finding bookshelves for a wall in my living room. There's a furnace vent about 76 inches off the ground and a lot of shelving units seem like they'd partially cover it. If I were to get something cheap like Ikea billy and just cut out the backing in that area, would that still be bad long term for the wood portion of the shelf? My spouse is absolutely against Kallax style shelves. You can just get the billy and cut out the part of the backing around the vent. You could probably remove one whole shelf worth of the backing. The backing provides some rigidity to prevent the bookcase from racking but if most of it is there it should be fine.
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Mar 26, 2024 23:10
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