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Motronic posted:Nope you don't have that backwards, that's the stuff in the well at my old house. It's such a pain in the rear end. Man, I'm like 99% certain that bacteria is in my entire town's water supply. I've lived in several apartments and a couple houses here over the years, and most of them end up with weird pink discoloration where water might pool slightly, the corner where the tub meets the tub/shower wall is the big one. Weird that it's not removed by whatever process the town uses to purify the water, but I guess it's not harmful, so why bother? How would one deal with that in a home with municipal water? Same thing, just replace "just past the well pump" with "just past the supply line"?
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Nov 12, 2020 17:47
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Motronic posted:Not knowing/seeing exactly what you're talking about and exactly what you tried I'm reluctant to give you any suggestions. But I just can't imagine a situation where this wouldn't work with the proper technique, which probably doesn't involve cutting concrete. Thanks. I do have a tanked water heater, so I'll keep that in mind if I decide to do this. I'll look into a water test, but I've looked over the ones the town does on the water supply, and it has nothing on bacteria, other than they didn't find E. Coli.. Looks like the culprit is probably Serratia marcescens. My water reports have nothing on that: https://www.burlingtonvt.gov/sites/default/files/tiles/2019%20Consumer%20Confidence%20Report_Final.pdf I checked a few back years too, nothing in there. DrBouvenstein fucked around with this message at 19:10 on Nov 12, 2020 |
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Nov 12, 2020 19:07
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Blast, that means I have to actually just loving clean more often. It can be really obnoxious, like...I clean and two days later there's a pink ring around the toilet and tub. Oh well. I can at least mitigate the toilet by using those drop-in bleach tablets that last a moth or so.
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Nov 12, 2020 21:42
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Wait...you people live places where you can leave loose leaves on the curb and they get picked up? drat...we have to bag them, here.
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Nov 16, 2020 17:12
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Motronic posted:All the munis around here bought leaf vac trailers decades ago. It's simply too wooded to expect people to bag all the leaves they need to pick up. To be fair, I think a LOT of people around here think the same. They started leaf pickup in my neighborhood/ward two weeks ago...and you wouldn't know it. Still bags and bags everywhere. I've seen many posts on various local FB groups and whatnot basically asking why the city doesn't get leaf vac trucks. But of course, if they did, you betcha they'd complain the NEXT year, after seeing a new truck, that they think it's a waste of tax dollars. But surely something has to be better than the current system, which as far as i can tell from driving by it a few times, is just an F-350 dually with some high sides. Like..how many bags can that possibly hold? 100? At least have it pull a trailer at the same time, double/triple up that capacity before it has to be dumped.
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Nov 16, 2020 18:45
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I'm failing to see what your plan is. Subfloor needs to be attached to the floor joists. Even if you manage to cut out the rotted part without damaging the floating vinyl planks (which would be tricky in the first place,) how are you going to get the replacement piece back in?
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Dec 2, 2020 17:37
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X-Posted from the wiring thread: Asking here, though maybe the HVAC thread (does that still exist?) is better. My electric baseboards don't seem to be heating enough, namely the one in the living room. 240V double pole, replaced the thermostat last year from the old dial, bi-metal style to a programmable one. It does turn on, but the heat seems a lot less than it used to be last winter. Like...it's set to 67, but never gets there, at least not if the outside temp is below 20F. It was on all day yesterday and only barely got to 67 by like 3 or 4 PM, and the oven being on a lot helped with that (living room and kitchen share a wall where the thermostat lives.) It goes to 58 overnight, and when I got up this morning to work from home, set it to 67, and it's only at 62 now, 3 hours later. I can put my bare hand on the baseboard, I feel like I shouldn't be able to do that? It should be hotter than that. Is it possible it's somehow only getting 1 leg of the 240V and is operating at 120? None of the breakers were tripped, and they're all double pole so it's not like only 1 leg could be off, but maybe something in the thermostat wiring is wrong? It worked last winter when I replaced it, so I'm not sure what cold have happened, but I guess I can take a look to verify. I know my house is not perfectly insulated, but again, last winter I had no problems getting the house/room to the set temp, so I feel like something happened to the thermostat or baseboard.
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Jan 25, 2021 17:27
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Edit: Nevermind
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Mar 25, 2021 16:23
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I looked in AI and didn't see a small engines thread that there used to be, so posting in here. I have a Honda harmony 2 HRT 216 self-propelled mower that doesn't self-propel. Like so many of my outdoor tools, it was a free side-of-the-road mower, so I'm hoping it can be a small/cheap fix since I don't want to put a lot of money into it. Yesterday I took the bottom apart and cleaned a lot of crud that was all gathered around the back of the belt and transmission, thinking that might be the issue. If I manually spun the motor shaft (spark plug was disconnected, I'm not a total idiot,) while the clutch lever was clamped down, I could see the wheels spin, so I thought it was alright. After re-assembly and starting it up, still a no-go. If I lift the back wheels off the ground slightly, they spin, albeit weakly and slowly. In addition, if it helps diagnose, the wheels are VERY hard to roll backwards when the self-propel is not engaged, even when the engine is off.
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Apr 11, 2021 15:19
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My front yard is butt ugly. PO was an older woman who really just wasn't able to do any sort of landscaping, and had very little money and kids who didn't care about it so it got neglected. I want to try and make it at least a little nicer. I've got a spreader, some sun mix grass seed (it gets almost constant sun,) a small electric dethatcher, and some broad leaf herbicide. Even got some sand and compost to mix and fill in the low spots. What's the best order to do this? Specifically, do I apply herbicide first and then wait a bit and dethatch? Hoping the dethatcher will then grab all the dead/dying weeds a part of that process? Or do I dethatch first to "clear the way" for the herbicide to be more effective? maybe both? Dethatch, apply weed killer, dethatch again? After that it's fairly straightforward. Fill in low spots with sand/compost mix, apply lots of seed to those areas like it's a "new" lawn, cover with something like straw, then overseed rest of lawn. And how much time should I wait overall between laying down herbicide and then overseeding?
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Apr 15, 2021 17:12
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alnilam posted:What is there now? After, do you want it to be 100% grass or do you want a flower or veggie bed somewhere in there? The herbicide sounds like overkill imo, especially this early in the season with nothing going to seed yet you could probably just thoroughly weedwack the whole patch and till it under. Using herbicide to nuke an entire yard's worth of plants is a bit much. I'd like to have it right now as just regular grass. I might put some raised beds for fruits/veggies in there next year, but right now I've got enough space for my garden plans in my beds in the backyard. It's specifically one of those "won't kill grass, kills other things" type of herbicides. Right now it is a giant mix of things:  That's technically a pic from last spring, but basically looks the same this year. Dead areas, crab grass, some good grass, low areas, high areas, clover (which I'm ok with, if it was mostly all clover I'd let it be.)
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Apr 15, 2021 17:41
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DaveSauce posted:If you don't have a torsion spring, you may have an extension spring: I'm not saying DON'T get professional service on an extension spring if someone feels they need to, but they aren't anywhere NEAR as dangerous as a torsion spring. Any damage an extension spring can do it does during failure. If it's already broken, damage done (annd hoprfully that damage is zero because the safety cable held it in place.) It's back in its "relaxed" state (or possibly in multiple pieces, all relaxed) and unless you go around trying to stretch it or the one on the other side for funsies, it's not going to hurt you. IF you can get the garage door open (might need someone to help if it's too heavy without spring assistance) then any spring remaining will then be in the relaxed state and you can safely remove and replace them. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXmTAYzs7ro I guess if you can't get the door open at all because the spring(s) is broken, then yeah call a professional cause they should have lifts/jacks to get the door up so the weight is taken off whatever spring(s) remain and they are no longer dangerous. DrBouvenstein fucked around with this message at 13:30 on Apr 16, 2021 |
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Apr 16, 2021 13:27
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How much do stump/root killers like potassium nitrate or glyphosate spread? Last summer I cut down a very overgrown lilac bush that couldn't really be saved because of a bunch of also overgrown wild grape vines around every branch. Now the stumps are trying to re-grow even though I ground them down below the dirt. Persistent little fuckers. But I have a tree that the lilac bush was growing around I want to keep, hence why I was hesitant to use chemicals. But if they can stay relatively "local" to the stump, then I can at least eliminate most of the little stumps that aren't right next to the tree. DrBouvenstein fucked around with this message at 19:50 on Apr 27, 2021 |
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Apr 27, 2021 19:46
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I'm thinking of putting down some peel-and-stick vinyl tiles in my kitchen. I'd like to do something nicer, but this is more of a temporary "fix" than anything, since I want to do a fuller kitchen reno in a year or two. I'm honestly just sick to death of looking at this ugly piss yellow, stained, faded, etc... linoleum (or maybe vinyl) floor. But there are several gouges, a few humps from a fridge or stove getting pushed, etc... What's the best way to even the floor out? I was thinking of cutting out the humps and lumps with a knife, but what's the best way to fill in the gouges and scratches? Small ones I don't imagine will matter, but there are some that are almost 1" wide and a few inches long, I feel like that would be visible under one of those peel-and-stick tiles.
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May 7, 2021 17:05
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AmbassadorofSodomy posted:If you're going to put tiles over tham, maybe get several extras and cut out pieces roughly the size of the gouges to match, then stick them in the holes?  Should work as long as the tiles are close enough to the thickness of the existing flooring. And with thin vinyl, I can't imagine there's that much variation.
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May 7, 2021 18:20
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I guess this is the best place to ask. While on vacation a couple weeks ago, our cat pissed in the corner of the living room. As much as I'd like to assign human pathos to the deed and that she did it out of spite, my guess is the friend we had watch the place didn't come by as often as he should to clean her litter box (on top of that, it seems she is not a fan of a newer litter we're trying, so...yeah, maybe not switch litters the week before we leave next time.) Since that week, she peed there once more like three days ago. And it's hard to say how often she went there while we were gone. NOTHING I have done has gotten rid of the smell. It's a weird corner where my pellet stove is, and that sits on a custom made tile thingy, on top of hardwood, but the tile corner thing can't go all the way into the corner because a nearby baseboard heater is in the way. Picture of said corner:  I have tried, often in alternating order (after first cleaning well with just soap and water): Vinegar Nature's Miracle Advanced (red bottle, green label) (honestly, this stuff almost smells worse than cat urine...I see a lot of people online agreeing with me that any NM in a red bottle is best avoided, stick to white bottle formulations.) Hydrogen Peroxide Nature's Miracle Cat Urine Destroyer (white bottle, yellow label) MORE hydrogen peroxide because that almost made the smell go away until she peed there again a few days ago MORE Nature's Miracle Cat Urine The vinegar and nature's miracle were left on there with a damp rag (rag soaked with the liquid being used) for anywhere from 10 minutes to a few hours...the H2O2 was left for several hours each time, since I read it works best when left a long time. Also covered the rags with plastic wrap and then foil to keep oxygen and light away since I think they quickly turn H2O2 into just H2O. Still smells...and not a little, TERRIBLY, partly because it's so loving hot and humid the past couple weeks I have to have the windows closed and AC on. I leave them open in the day and if it has cooled off at night to get SOME airflow, but that barely helps. I imagine two big issues that make this worse than it would normally be 1) Some urine almost certainly got under that tile thingy the pellet stove sits on, and I have no way to get under there. 2) The floors are in terrible shape, I had planned to get them redone, BUT other things in the house were a bigger priority, so most of that corner (if you can't tell) is functionally unfinished wood, so it definitely is soaked in a LOT more than if it had a healthy coat of stain and poly. Should I just keep up my regiment if alternating H2O2 and NM Urine Destroyer? I'm this close to trying bleach, but not sure if that will help or not, or damang the wood to the point I couldn't refinish it?
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Aug 21, 2021 00:08
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PainterofCrap posted:Chances are, she's been peeing there once in a blue moon for awhile. I doubt it, only because good LORD this cat has some of the strongest smelling piss I've ever smelled, so I definitely would have noticed (and the corner is right next to the side of the couch I tend to sit on.) I just think the person we got to check on her and clean/change the litter box did a shite job, and that combined with the stress of us being gone resulted in the pee, but I do believe she peed there multiple times while we were gone, and then she got into the habit of thinking it was a spot to go, and did it one or two more times after we got back and cleaned it the first time. I've had foil covering it for a while, and it does not appear she has gone back there in a week or so, but the smell is STILL THERE. I have checked everywhere else in the living room and that corner is the only spot that smells, so it's not coming from anywhere else. No new wet spots on or under the foil, so it's just the lingering odor from before. I honestly think they only way I'm gong to fully remove it is to remove the pellet stove so I can then lift up the tile thing it sits on to clean under that. I feel like I might even have to try and sand down the top layer, just in case? I tried the vodka mentioned by someone, no dice. I haven't tried the anti-icky-poo spray, but I'll see if I can find some of that today and give it a go...though it looks like according to Arsenic Lupin I might have to buy two different formulations of it and use the P-Bat first?
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Aug 23, 2021 14:17
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Speaking of annoying/crappy electrical stuff, I have a bad outlet. It's been fine the entire time I've been here (over two years) until now, when I plugged something in and it the circuit. I SUSPECT it's because plugging it in moved it just enough inside the box for it to arc to said box (new enough to use NM cable, but old enough to all be metal boxes with ground attached to boxes, as well, not directly to the outlets or fixtures.) Reset the breaker but it tripped as soon as just my outlet tester was plugged into it. The odd things is, again owing to just bad mid-century electrical shenanigans, is that there is, at best, 3 outlets and no overheat lights on this circuit, in two different rooms. I know of 2 outlets that do not work right now, and every other outlet in the house, save one, I have either manually checked is working or there is something plugged in still working. I'm just going to assume that one is on the same circuit for now and verify if/when I decide to replace that one too. Just odd to have a circuit with so few receptacles on it, spread over two rooms...I'm plenty used to a circuit spread out over two...or three...or in one case in my house, three rooms PLUS a garage, but in those cases you typically have TOO MANY receptacles on the circuit, just seems odd that it would be across two rooms but only be 3 outlets. I've considered the possibility it used to be 1 room and was later converted to 2, but unlikely. It's your standard post-war, 3 bedroom, roughly 1000 sq ft ranch home. I could go to half the drat houses in my neighborhood and they'd have near identical floor plans.
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Dec 9, 2021 16:26
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PainterofCrap posted:You need to know what kind / make of stove it is in order to look up a manual, and research how it's made, how far it can be disassembled, and if the parts are available. Yeah, if it's an old barn stove, it might be nigh-indestructible, but it also could be an absolute poo poo stove. Older woodstoves aren't efficient. Newer ones (by "newer" the designs are still several decade old) have a secondary combustion and/or catalytic combustion chambers, improving both efficiency AND reduces the pollutants that go into the atmosphere. But they are certainly more than just "a big hunk of iron" so if it IS one of those, then some of the internals may not have survived the fire. If this is going in your house as a main source of heat, I'd be weary of it. If it's just going to be another barn stove for you, just to heat up the garage in winter while you're working in there, then maybe? But again "just" finding a new piece of glass might not be that easy or cheap, either.
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Jan 18, 2022 22:03
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Finally got around to replacing a kitchen drawer with a busted drawer slide this weekend. The new drawer, which was custom made but not by me, is VERY stiff opening/closing. It looks to me that some combination of my measuring and the manufacturer's building might have made it just a hair too wide, like....1/16" or something. Just wide enough it can still fit into the slides, but it just slightly presses out on them to make the movement so stiff. Plus, it has a "soft close" feature when the drawer is roughly 2" open, and that does not work until the drawer is close to 1/2" open...and I have to actively push it the entire way to that 1/2", if you catch my drift...it's too stiff to just sort of "set it and forget it" as it should work by giving it one big shove. With the tools that I have, I'm thinking the best fix is one of a few things: 1) Mark the width of the slides on the drawer, remove the slides on the drawer (leave the ones on the inside of the cabinet), and use my router table with a 3/4" straight cut bit to just barely route a groove for the slides...like, start at maybe like 1/32" deep on each side and see if that helps. 2) Use my table saw to just rip off a saw blade's width from one or both sides of the entire drawer. Obviously, I'd have to do two passes per side by flipping it since the drawer is ~4.5" tall. 3) The same idea as #2, but just with a hand plane...but I own no hand plane and haven't really ever hand planned in my life, so that's a factor there.
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Feb 22, 2022 17:13
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Lawnie posted:Can you tell the manufacturer it doesn’t fit and ask them to fix it? Unless you’ve got calipers you really don’t have any reason to blame yourself for mis-measuring; they just as easily could have messed up their tolerances setting up the machine to make your drawer. At this point it's been too long since I ordered it, since I slacked off on the install. I did do a quick "dry fit" with the slides when I got it, but since it is off by such a small amount, the dry/test fit seemed like it was fine.
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Feb 22, 2022 21:02
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X-Post from wiring thread: Replacing a ceiling fan on a three-way switch and the wiring is...not what I expect. I replaced the switches the other weekend, and now the fan today. Here's what it looks like coming out of the ceiling:  Two whites wires coming down, one to the white from the old fan, the other to both the black and blue (labeled as light control) of the old fan. The black and red from the two three-way switches are just wire nutted to each other in the box The instructions are both contradictory to themselves and my setup:  It expects the white and black coming down, not two whites. In addition, it has typos because it calls both wires both grounded and ungrounded. On the diagram, the two white wires are labeled as Ungrounded, but the boxes with text call them grounded, and flip-flopped for the black wire (labeled as grounded, text refers to it as ungrounded.) http://pdf.lowes.com/productdocuments/219c77c5-37ce-4246-9d20-ac6a1b73ff60/18311822.pdf PDF of the manual has the same typos. So the previous wiring attached the blue and black together to the second white from the ceiling... if I just separate them back out and bring that black from the ceiling down to attach to the black from the fan, keep the white to the white and blue to the other white (I'll make sure to piece a piece of electrical tape on it or something so I know it's the BLUE white and not the white-white), should it work out ok? Or should I wire the new one the same as the old? White to white, and black and blue to other white? Edit: looking at it and the manual, it was sort of wired like it was a single switch?  Only, again, it's wired from two whites, not a white and black.
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Mar 12, 2022 20:09
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The Dave posted:My son is jumping on me at the moment and I only have skim access but it’s always a good thing to remember that the color of the wires in your house are merely a suggestion of what should be used, not what could be used. True true. I'll just wire it the way it was before, which does say is for a single switch according to the manual, bit it worked fine previously from either switch, so...? Edit: I just realized I'm dumb. Two switch wiring doesn't me three-way, it means separate switches for light and fan. God, I'm stupid. At any rate, it all works now. DrBouvenstein fucked around with this message at 21:16 on Mar 12, 2022 |
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Mar 12, 2022 20:30
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Mario posted:Hot shingles in your area want to meet you! Please, no. Getting flashbacks to my summers roofing for my uncle; and the first few weeks my hands being perma-burned from 100+ degree asphalt shingles before I would develop my calluses, that would then recede well before next season and it started anew.
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Mar 24, 2022 18:32
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I want to replace the shower faucet in my tub, but I am woefully under-informed about plumbing. At what point/how much "stuff" do I need to remove before it's in a sort of "blank" position where any brand/model will work (with the caveat I still keep it a one-handle style system)? Like...if I remove the old handle and entire cartridge (Delta 1300/1400 series) will what's left inside the wall be able to accommodate another brand/model? Or is the part soldered into the water lines also brand-specific? Edit: Small addendum...and the "shower pipe" and actual tub faucet that stick out of the shower wall, those just screw into the pipes in the wall (with teflon tape)? So if I buy one in a different finish, those are also easy to replace without having to cut a hole in the closet on the other side of the tub? Second edit: Did more research and yeah, looks like I'll have to stick with compatible Delta models if I don't want to replace the rough-in valve. DrBouvenstein fucked around with this message at 23:49 on Aug 29, 2022 |
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Aug 29, 2022 23:27
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Admiral Joeslop posted:
Other goons went over the stranded vs solid wire issue, but it seems no one has pointed out you looped the wire the wrong way. You want to go "with" to direction the screw turns (i.e. clockwise) so hook the wire around this way:  See how, especially on the top terminal, the wire looks like it got "pushed" out by the screw? That's why. If you hook it going clockwise, that won't happen.
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Sep 2, 2022 16:04
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Leperflesh posted:I feel super stupid I didn't even notice the hooks were the wrong way. I was busy looking for how badly mashed the stranded wire got vs. how loose it must be to not have gotten mashed. https://twitter.com/alwayssunny/status/1415797138240331776
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Sep 2, 2022 19:16
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I'm thinking of getting a portable garage/carport for my backyard to store pallets of wood pellets and maybe my snowblower. BUT the ideal spot is a patch of asphalt behind my garage. What would be the best method to attach it to the asphalt so high winds don't blow it away?
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Sep 3, 2022 19:29
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Motronic posted:That's the kind of thing that is specified in the cut sheet of the carport and depends on its design and your max winds. It's typically going to be some size and amount of stakes/ground anchors in a specific arrangement, probably attached to specifically designed points on the structure. Thanks, I'll start looking and reading. Unrelated ...I'm having trouble searching if this product I'd like even exists. I want an LEd bulb for a 3 way lamp where, instead of each "click" being a change in brightness, is a change in temperature? So the two LED circuits it powers are like a 2700K set, a 4000K set, and then the third position is both so somewhere in the 3000K, and obviously each step would ideally be about the same brightness. I know I can do that with smart bulbs or even "dumb but have a remote to change them" bulbs but I don't have a smart home and not enthralled by the idea. I did before and half the time I found it more a pain in the rear end to get my phone to change the lights or try voice commands it kept getting wrong...also getting more paranoid about data collection and electronic spying crap.
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Sep 5, 2022 00:57
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CRUSTY MINGE posted:Have you tried the "growing cannabis made fun and easy" thread in TCC? Because that's where you should probably ask. You know, if it's for weed. It's not. It's literally because I prefer cool lighting on the in living room floor lamp, girlfriend prefers warm, so this way we can each have what we want when we're the one in there alone, and compromise when we're there together. Like I said, I know smart bulbs do this job amazingly but trying to avoid those. However, I'll ask in there anyway, then, if it's full of lighting experts.
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Sep 5, 2022 01:23
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I need to replace a couple little strips of vinyl(?) corner molding around my tub for my bathroom remodel, but I'm but having luck finding them...maybe my search terms are wrong? Found an item at Home Depot's website for like $66 and one that was just at a Lowe's commercial/B2B website. It's 1 1/8 " on the short/inside corner and 1 7/16" on the outside...so...yeah, great dimensions to work with. It's probably some proprietary piece from the Bathfitters or equivalent the PO used in the tub, but if I could say least find something close that'd be good. The inside dimension is most important since it meets up at the ceiling with another piece at a 45, but really anything inexpensive in a close enough size I'll work with.
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Sep 11, 2022 03:14
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BIG-DICK-BUTT-gently caress posted:I was able to find 1 1/8" x 1 1/8" x whatever pieces by searching "vinyl corner guards", maybe that would work for you? Might have to go with that. It's def. too thick, the stuff I have is 1/32 at best, and that's 1/16, but I'll keep searching for thinner corner guards, see if I can find any.
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Sep 11, 2022 15:57
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Admiral Joeslop posted:
Also acceptable are a hamburger phone:  Or the Sports Illustrated Football Phone: 
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Sep 28, 2022 13:31
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X-Post from the plumbing thread: Coming in here to see how screwed I might be. I'm just trying to install a new tub faucet/handle/shower head set, and ran into an issue the PO/old contractor left for me. I removed the old tub spout, and the pipe it was attached to (just via sliding on and then tightened with a set screw) then went back inside the wall. There was a bunch of old caulk around where the pipe came out through the finished tub wall, and it had degraded so once I removed the spout, the tension holding it all in place was gone and it sank back into the wall. Now I'm left with not enough pipe to attach the new OR old spout to.  That's what it is now, maybe 1/2-3/4" out from the finished wall? Here's the attachment piece I'm supposed to slide onto the remaining pipe for the new faucet to screw onto:  As you can see, the pipe is over an inch short of how long it needs to be. It doesn't have to go all the way the length of that adapter, but it has to go just past where it has the hexagonal sides where the set screw is to tighten it down. I THINK I can fix this via cutting an access panel in the closet opposite the shower wall. I didn't want to have to, but oh well, I guess at least it will be there for any potential future plumbing issues? Once I have the hole cut, my plan is for my girlfriend to push on the pipe so it sticks back out to where it was, then I can push the adapter on, tighten down the set screw, and then screw the faucet on. The hole in the wall is big enough that it will sink the adapter back into the hole, so I think I'll have to have her keep pushing on the pipe until I get the faucet slightly screwed onto the threads so that it can then stop the pipe from going back in. Of course, all that hinges on having enough "slack" in the pipe so I can attach the adapter. If there's not enough slack, I'm not sure what I can do...I don't think I'd be able to "reach around' to the front to de-solder and then re-solder on a longer piece of pipe...so I guess I'd have to pre-construct a pipe with the 90 degree elbow on it, and then go back up to the valve body and de-solder and re-solder in the new piece up there?
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Nov 20, 2022 03:11
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PainterofCrap posted:Are you able to pull on that stub, and does it move at all when you do? Oooh, I'll try that. Not a lot of room in the hole on the surround, but I've got some stuff wire laying around and a couple pairs of long tweezers. Worth a try. I guess I can slightly enlarge the hole in the surround, so long as it's still smaller than the the spout's footprint. PainterofCrap posted:Too close to the tub surround, which appears highly flammable. Yeah, it's just a Bathfitters vinyl overlay, who are also partly to blame for this mess since they clearly just skapdashed it on top, as I hear they're prone to do. DrBouvenstein fucked around with this message at 17:37 on Nov 20, 2022 |
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Nov 20, 2022 16:55
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DrBouvenstein posted:Oooh, I'll try that. Not a lot of room in the hole on the surround, but I've got some stuff wire laying around and a couple pairs of long tweezers. Worth a try. Well, still couldn't get quote enough pipe. I was wrong about how long it needed to be proud of the shower wall, it needs to be closer to 1 1/2" to get past an internal O-ring to prevent leaks. So I initially assumed I'd have to entirely rebuild it and cut said access panel...BUT I think I can actually do a workaround. I was watching a plumbing video about these adapters Delta sends with their spouts, and it has 1/2" MIP threads on the inside. In the video, the plumber used a 5/8" OD compression fitting to 1/2" MIP male threaded adapter. I should have just enough room to do that if I pull out on the pipe a little bit with the wire I've still got looped around the vertical part of the pipe. Headed out to the hardware store now to get one of those and we'll try that, and if that still doesn't work, then def. cutting open that hole. Edit: NOPE. The Delta tub spout adapter doesn't fit over the hex nut end of the compression fitting...I def saw it fit in the video, I have the right size, so I'm upset. Delta must have changed the configuration of the adapter...mine is the style that uses a set screw, I think the one in the video is an older style that is only for threading or soldering, not slip on?  Second edit: Yeah, in the video I can see that he has an older/different version that doesn't have the slip on/set screw connector option, so as a result, the internal MIP threads start at the end of the adapter. Mine has about 1" of smooth internal sides for the slip on section before the threads start, so I can't use a compression adapter, it would only work if I had MIP/NPT threaded pipe already coming out of my wall. I'll have to see if I can buy that other style of adapter from Delta, or maybe if I'm lucky it's something Lowe's or HD has in stock and I don't have to wait several days to have a shower? DrBouvenstein fucked around with this message at 21:06 on Nov 20, 2022 |
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Nov 20, 2022 20:20
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DrBouvenstein posted:
Found the part at Amazon and Delta, got it from Amazon since I've already got the free shipping, but unfortunately I don't even have the option to get overnight on it, so fingers crossed I can get it by Tuesday, but it's claiming Wednesday. I actually might go buy one of those "generic" tub faucets that are made to fit a 1/2" MIP fitting, they seem to run ~$20, small price to pay to have a working tub+shower for the next couple days. But I don't think my current MIP extends far enough so I'd also have to buy a MIP extension piece? Is that a thing? Edit: Well, I thought it worked...got a coupling, nipple, and cheap faucet...got them screwed together, it leaks a tiny bit from the faucet, but my nipple was too long anyway so it just drips back down into the tub, fine for a couple days. But that's not the real problem. If I use the diverter/turn on the shower, there's water spewing into my basement from somewhere inside the wall. Only with the shower on. Well, that is to say I only saw the water drip/spray down with the shower on... my GUESS is the all the movement/stress I put on the bit of pipe caused the joint at the elbow, or back further up at the valve body, to break. And maybe it drips a bit I can't notice immediately with the faucet on, but the increased back pressure from the shower being on makes it leak faster. I'm done trying to fix it, I'm just mucking it up further, it's plumber time I guess. DrBouvenstein fucked around with this message at 22:46 on Nov 20, 2022 |
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Nov 20, 2022 21:31
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OK, yeah, don't know what I was thinking that I'd be able to get a plumber in anything close to a good timetable. So far two never ansered the phones and haven't called back. One is scheduling late January for new customers, and don't do emergency calls for non-customers. Another is "only" 3 weeks out, but at least gave a sort of milquetoast "I'll take all your info and maybe if another customer cancels or a job take a lot quicker than we thought we'll call and see if we can squeeze you in" answer. Maybe I will just try to do it myself. I can get access from the closet behind the shower, no access panel there NOW, but hey, not a bad idea to have one, right?
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Nov 21, 2022 18:06
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PainterofCrap posted:The leaking could be from the tub faucet that you put on as a stopgap. Yeah, you're right. Opened it up and it's the mish mash of too many connectors I was using to try and half-rear end the repair before I could repair it for good. I either didn't put enough Teflon tape on the threaded pieces, or my compression fitting is bad and either not tight enough or too tight. At least not I know it's the same fix it was originally...solder a new length of copper down from the valve body with a proper length piece of copper coming out from the wall. Edit: it was the compression fitting. The end of the copper stub out got a little bent from my attempts to attach the other fitting so there was a gap between the compression ring and outside of the pipe. DrBouvenstein fucked around with this message at 02:48 on Nov 22, 2022 |
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Nov 22, 2022 00:28
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erosion posted:
Fill it with water THEN seal with caulk. Sounds like you did it backwards before, so it still had a but of time to cure before the additional weight was in the tub. Also, how big is the gap? If it's more than...1/4" (or maybe just 1/8"?) you might need a backer rod in there cause it's too big a gap just for silicone.
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Dec 2, 2022 19:05
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