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Philthy posted:Window question time! The window 'guides' on a few windows seem to have broke from opening them too hard and breaking against the stopper, while others are missing the thumb lever like in this picture (the pointy end that pokes out is what is missing on a few other windows), it is spring loaded: If you haven't found latches yet, I have a couple suggestions. First, the proper name for the part you're looking for is a pivot latch. The sticker you posted would be useful to the manufacturer for warranty purposes, but unfortunately it doesn't say who made it. There should be another sticker somewhere on the window, probably in gold or silver foil, that will have the manufacturer name or code printed on it (excuse the lovely cellphone pic, the wife took my good camera). If you can find that sticker, you can contact the manufacturer for a replacement, or at least find out from them who sells replacement parts for their windows. Otherwise, you can get a universal replacement that would screw on top of the sash (see here for examples), as long as you don't mind seeing those latches on top of the sash. You'd just have to find one that fits over the existing latch.
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Jun 12, 2010 18:23
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NosmoKing posted:Any suggestions? Tile? I would also investigate coatings used on driveways and pool sides. http://www.outdoor-designs.com/driveways.htm http://www.outdoor-designs.com/patios.htm Whatever it is, it is 3/16" thick.
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Jun 12, 2010 21:27
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Cross-posted from the Ask/Tell megathread, as I just found out about this thread: I decided to replace an ancient ceiling light fixture, and I want to make sure I'm wiring things correctly before burning my house down. The new fixture has a white wire, a black wire, and a thin copper grounding wire. The wiring from the old fixture looks like this:  1) A reddish brown wire 2) A black wire 3) A whitish, long looping wire thing Based on how the old fixture was hooked up, I'm assuming the two blacks go together, the reddish brown wire should be hooked up to the new fixture's white wire (it was connected to the old fixture's white), and then... I don't know what the hell number 3 is. It's an old house, so I honestly wasn't expecting there to be a grounding wire at all, but is that what it is? With the old light, it actually was placed through the fixture's center hole and then screwed in underneath the lamp socket:  I conceivably could do that with the new fixture, but the instructions don't give any indication for a wire to be placed like that. My guess is it's the grounding wire but my track record at guessing isn't so great when it comes to wiring things, so I could definitely use a second (or third) opinion.
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Jun 13, 2010 05:10
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It kinda looks like that #3 was used to hang something off - is there a bare end anywhere, it doesn't look like it from those pics?
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Jun 13, 2010 13:55
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Cakefool posted:It kinda looks like that #3 was used to hang something off - is there a bare end anywhere, it doesn't look like it from those pics? The wire is exposed right where it curves around. The bare portion wrapped around a screw that helped keep the old fixture in place (represented by the poorly drawn orange markings in the second pic). Edit - close up of the wire in question. The white insulation is blackened near the exposed portion, because it was pulled through the old fixture's center hole and thus had the light bulb right on top of it.  Edit 2: And out of curiosity, how unusual is it for the main wires to be black and red instead of black and white? Did the standard colors used to be red instead of white? Ballz fucked around with this message at 18:31 on Jun 13, 2010 |
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Jun 13, 2010 16:33
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Quick advice question: Does anyone have any experience stripping some seriously old paint off of stairs? We're currently working on renovating a 90+ year old house, and the (original) stairs have quite a few layers of paint on them, most of them oil-based. We'd ideally like to get these back down to the wood. I've tried straight scraping as well as sanding them, and while it works, it's an INCREDIBLY slow process. Also tried some chemical paint stripper - basically a gel-like substance that you spread on, wait 15 minutes for the paint to rise up, and then scrape away. The chemical stripper works moderately better than straight sanding or scraping, but it still looks like it's going to take quite a while to get everything off this way. Any advice on some heavier-duty options to get rid of all the paint?
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Jun 14, 2010 02:03
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enki42 posted:Quick advice question: only way to fly This thing is amazing. Remember, you're dealing with lead based paint here so careful w/ sanding w/o protection. Straight heat is hazardous because, well, hello house fire. Most of the citrus based ones suck and the chemical ones have their own disposal issues. RemovAll was what I used to use but the SPR is superior in every way. e: for more hot linkage action Flay Minion fucked around with this message at 03:35 on Jun 14, 2010 |
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Jun 14, 2010 03:30
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On a related note, I've got a couple of concrete porches with peeling paint. They obviously weren't correctly prepped last time they were painted. What is best - scrape and sand, chemical strippers, or surface grinding? Then, what are some good paints for this purpose? Edit - what the hell, that RemovAll sounds like some sort of magic.
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Jun 14, 2010 04:47
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slap me silly posted:On a related note, I've got a couple of concrete porches with peeling paint. They obviously weren't correctly prepped last time they were painted. What is best - scrape and sand, chemical strippers, or surface grinding? Then, what are some good paints for this purpose? Have you considered sandblasting? It's quick and thorough. A DIY link: http://www.doityourself.com/stry/sandblastcleaning Also, my experience w/ Removall has only been with old wood (and it works great) -- I've no experience with their heavier duty products.
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Jun 14, 2010 05:04
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Quick question: I just recently purchased my first house. It was built in 1989 and I've had some various small projects to fix it up, but luckily nothing major. In the process of working around my house, I've found several mysterious "outlets" that I have no idea what they are. There are three or four of them, two of which are right next to each other. They don't seem to be electrical or phone, as the lines running to them are tiny tubes or hoses rather than wires. The tubes have a small metal collar to hold them in place, and the tube is cut off shortly past that. They don't look like they've been used in a long time, and actually had those tamper resistant clips on them (which had rusted through) Does anyone have any idea what these are for?  
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Jun 14, 2010 17:39
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What the hell? they look like pneumatic lines. Where are they all situated around the house?
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Jun 14, 2010 22:11
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Threedymodeler posted:Does anyone have any idea what these are for? First guess would be the remnants of old knob and tube wiring. It's still around but codes won't let you insulate over it so most folks pull it. The junction box may have had some sort of meter in it/by it.
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Jun 15, 2010 01:25
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Did the pics not load for you? It's blue and yellow plastic with aluminum or stainless steel fittings.
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Jun 15, 2010 01:39
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Ballz posted:The wire is exposed right where it curves around. The bare portion wrapped around a screw that helped keep the old fixture in place (represented by the poorly drawn orange markings in the second pic). That's not unusual at all for there to be red and black hot wires, especially for ceiling fixtures. For ceiling fixtures, black is always hot, red is switched hot and white is neutral, or at least that's how they're supposed to be... You can find out by taking off the faceplate of the switch that controls that fixture, unscrew the switch from the box and look at the two wires connected to it. If they're red and black, then the red at the fixture is a switched hot and the black is probably always hot. If they're both black, then the black at the fixture is a switched hot and the red probably isn't attached to anything. I still can't get my head around that neutral looping around and going back up into the ceiling... Do you have an attic above that room? You might want to find out where that goes... It might help you to put up an old work ceiling box first, as that will give you something a little more substantial to mount your new fixture to. If you're wondering, the "always hot" line is useful for ceiling fans (DON'T put one of those up, they need a box mounted to your house frame), while having the light of that fan controlled by the switch.
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Jun 15, 2010 01:44
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slap me silly posted:Did the pics not load for you? It's blue and yellow plastic with aluminum or stainless steel fittings. oh, heh, red x's for me, nevermind
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Jun 15, 2010 02:26
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I'm in a rental house configured like so (ridgelines in red): There doesn't seem to be any access to what is a pretty large attic space in the wing (horizontal in this drawing) - should there be? As far as I can tell, where it connects to the main attic space there is just insulation, presumably with sheathing or whatever underneath.
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Jun 15, 2010 16:24
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I have that configuration and there is a ragged 2-foot-square hole in the attic between the main space and the wing. It doesn't seem like an access until you go crawl through it: But you probably would have found something like that by now. Another possibility is a 2-foot-square hole in the ceiling of a closet or something.
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Jun 15, 2010 16:43
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Cakefool posted:What the hell? they look like pneumatic lines. Where are they all situated around the house? There is one on the west side of the house, on the same wall as the electrical and phone panels, but not connected to them by anything that I can see. Inside that wall is the living room, and there's no sign of anything on the interior wall in that location. The other two (pictured) are on the east side of the house, under the breakfast nook window, near the kitchen. Again, no signs of a connection or other panel on the interior at that location. One of the boxes has a small gap where the stucco does not fully meet up with the box, and you can see that the hoses are running upward into the wall, and not downward into the ground/foundation. There might be one on the south side of the house, but I think it was a GFI electrical box, not one of these "mystery outlets." I'll check again tonight when I get home, and maybe try to get a better close-up shot with a better camera. I thought they might be pneumatic as well, but what the heck would you be running pneumatics for to the outside? Could they be some kind of micro-vents for something?
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Jun 15, 2010 18:48
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Threedymodeler posted:I thought they might be pneumatic as well, but what the heck would you be running pneumatics for to the outside? Could they be some kind of micro-vents for something? If you can get into the roofspace you might be able to see where they go, might be a junction box of some kind? They wouldn't be vents, you need to push really air through those size pipes.
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Jun 15, 2010 19:41
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Cakefool posted:If you can get into the roofspace you might be able to see where they go, might be a junction box of some kind? Good idea. I'll try to do that, although since they're at the perimeter of the house and I have a two story, it might be somewhat difficult to get all the way over to where the attic meets the wall... and who knows if they go all the way up to the second story, but it's worth a shot. I need to get up there anyway to get something else down from there.
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Jun 15, 2010 20:30
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Are there any markings on the box/internals at all? What about the security tags? edit: a ha! They might be manifolds for injecting chemicals for pest control Richard Noggin fucked around with this message at 21:51 on Jun 15, 2010 |
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Jun 15, 2010 21:43
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Eureka! That's exactly what it is! http://www.onduty.com/pest-tubes-pest-control-systems.htm http://pestcemetery.com/3-misconceptions-tubes-wall-pest-control/ http://www.wikipatents.com/US-Patent-4944110/integrated-pest-control-system Thanks guys!
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Jun 15, 2010 22:11
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Is the return line to a home AC compressor supposed to get really cold? Cause mine doesn't. AC actually cools the inside of the house the best I've ever had, my inspector tested the temps last spring at the vents they were good and my summer electric bills are lower than my last 2 places despite this one being bigger. But I know at my last two places and on cars the return line is always real cold with condensation on it. It's about 90 outside and when I feel the line I'd estimate it to be like 65 or 70 at the lowest. It's cools the inside fine so I hope I'm just making up things to be worried about, but is it normal for a return line to only get "sorta cold"?
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Jun 17, 2010 00:32
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The refrigerant line? I learned this week that it gets colder and colder as your refrigerant level falls, until it actually freezes over. ($100 for a refill, yippee.) So maybe your current place just has a full charge.
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Jun 17, 2010 04:18
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Crossposting from AV... I bought a used Sanyo tube television for a 2nd tv and there are faint whitish lines running through the screen when I watch [digital] satellite through the coax. (Similar to bad tracking on a VCR) It doesn't happen on component or composite. The picture on coax also isn't as good as the other two. I never noticed the problem on the old 20" TV. Bad coax? Bad what?
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Jun 17, 2010 23:56
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Wagonburner posted:Is the return line to a home AC compressor supposed to get really cold? Cause mine doesn't. The liquid line should not be cold; a cold liquid line is a sign that pressure is too low and the refrigerant is evaporating too early. If you have a sight-glass on your system (usually near where the liquid hits the evaporator coil), it should be bubble-free. wormil posted:Crossposting from AV...
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Jun 18, 2010 01:04
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grover posted:The liquid line should not be cold; a cold liquid line is a sign that pressure is too low and the refrigerant is evaporating too early. If you have a sight-glass on your system (usually near where the liquid hits the evaporator coil), it should be bubble-free. They always have a little tube that gets hot (high pressure i guess, liquid?) and a fatter one that gets cold. (low pressure, gas, return?) my cold one just doesn't seem to get near as cold as I'm used to when I've touched others. but if what the other guy said is right then maybe this is the first AC I've had that works right. it does cost less money in the summer than what I was used to when I was renting, they were smaller houses. House is 14 or 1500 sqft and my highest bill here last summer was $170, on my last 2 houses I rented they were like 1200 sqft and I had some $230 bills a time or 2. not seeing any sight glass, both lines from the compressor just go into the ductwork in the util closet under the furnace to the coil. Vin BioEthanol fucked around with this message at 04:25 on Jun 18, 2010 |
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Jun 18, 2010 04:20
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Wagonburner posted:They always have a little tube that gets hot (high pressure i guess, liquid?) and a fatter one that gets cold. (low pressure, gas, return?) my cold one just doesn't seem to get near as cold as I'm used to when I've touched others.
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Jun 18, 2010 13:23
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wormil posted:Crossposting from AV...
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Jun 18, 2010 19:20
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So, I'm installing new baseboards right now, which sucks because our last baseboards were about an inch taller and so we need to repaint. We also did some other DIY projects a while back like tearing out an old room to make our living room larger. So here's the question: I have one wall that is half painted and half primed, with a strip of white down the middle where our wall used to be. We cannot find the color paint we used anymore, and don't have the can or lid or ANYTHING that tells us what color it is and the people at Home Depot basically said we're hosed. So, we're thinking that since it's a big room anyway, a wall transition might be neat and we can say that we pained the rooms different colors there for effect, to designate different areas (hell the last people built a PHYSICAL wall there for the same reason, so...) My question is, what kind of moulding would I use for a vertical paint-transition thing? And how would this playout with the baseboards? Lastly does anyone have any other suggestions for how to kind of "cover" the paint transition? I am open to ideas.
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Jun 19, 2010 14:40
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Myrddin Emrys posted:We cannot find the color paint we used anymore, and don't have the can or lid or ANYTHING that tells us what color it is and the people at Home Depot basically said we're hosed. What are you talking about, you already have got a sample to match. Get a utility knife and ever so gently cut an inch and a half square of the old paint and peel it off. Take that square to a real paint store like Benjamin Moore or Sherman Williams, they should be able to help you match it better. As for what kind of trim to use, you could use just that, trim. They make all kinds of trim pieces in all kinds of shapes, mainly for furniture or building up crown moulding.
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Jun 19, 2010 15:44
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You could make a false half-column or something, too.
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Jun 19, 2010 15:50
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kid sinister posted:What are you talking about, you already have got a sample to match. Get a utility knife and ever so gently cut an inch and a half square of the old paint and peel it off. Take that square to a real paint store like Benjamin Moore or Sherman Williams, they should be able to help you match it better. They gave us a quote of 3-5 days and our schedule kind of needs this done soon. I don't have time in 3-5 days to dedicate so it's kind of a "need to get this done soon. So yeah, I'm trying to hide it for now.
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Jun 19, 2010 15:52
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GWBBQ posted:This is usually indicative of a ground loop between source and TV. Thanks, I didn't realize ground loops could affect video (not that I know much about them anyway). Well I'll do some reading and see if I can do anything about it. So my choices are a ground loop or bad tuner. Any hints on how I could narrow it down?
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Jun 19, 2010 22:32
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My drat roommate pulled the towel bar off the wall in the shower. I need new porcelain bases since one was broken. I can't find them anywhere, maybe the style in my house is just out of style. They're the height of one of the shower tiles, a bit under half as wide, and hold a square towel bar (at a 45 angle, like a diamond). I can post a picture if my description isn't good enough.
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Jun 19, 2010 23:00
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Tyro, a picture would help.wormil posted:Thanks, I didn't realize ground loops could affect video (not that I know much about them anyway). Well I'll do some reading and see if I can do anything about it.
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Jun 20, 2010 02:55
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Mthrboard posted:If you haven't found latches yet, I have a couple suggestions. First, the proper name for the part you're looking for is a pivot latch. The sticker you posted would be useful to the manufacturer for warranty purposes, but unfortunately it doesn't say who made it. There should be another sticker somewhere on the window, probably in gold or silver foil, that will have the manufacturer name or code printed on it (excuse the lovely cellphone pic, the wife took my good camera). If you can find that sticker, you can contact the manufacturer for a replacement, or at least find out from them who sells replacement parts for their windows. Otherwise, you can get a universal replacement that would screw on top of the sash (see here for examples), as long as you don't mind seeing those latches on top of the sash. You'd just have to find one that fits over the existing latch. Thank you for this! Seriously. I was able to find a golden sticker on another window, and I believe they are Alside windows. Finding replacement parts seems impossible, but that link you gave me helped me refine my google searches and I found exactly the parts I need. I popped my window open and measured, and everything confirms what I need to order: http://www.swisco.com/Tilt-Window-Latch-RH/pd/Internal-Latches-For-Tilt-Windows/26-287  Thanks again! I can't wait to have all my windows back to perfect working order with some spares laying around.
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Jun 20, 2010 03:56
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Philthy posted:Finding replacement parts seems impossible, but that link you gave me helped me refine my google searches and I found exactly the parts I need. Pretty much. Googling make and model numbers is great for finding obscure parts. Some more good phrases to tack onto the make and model search for appliances and electronics are "service manual" or "parts list". kid sinister fucked around with this message at 05:11 on Jun 20, 2010 |
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Jun 20, 2010 05:03
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grover posted:Tyro, a picture would help. When you say tuner, are you talking about an external box? Previously I thought you meant some part inside the television. There is no external box on this tv, it is fed via coax from the Dish satellite. (It was far simpler than running a coax from the Dish receiver) Tomorrow I'll try to work up the gumption to haul it into the other room and connect it to the Dish Receiver via coax and see what happens. I've already checked the dish to make sure it is grounded to the house ground (it is).
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Jun 20, 2010 05:10
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wormil posted:When you say tuner, are you talking about an external box? Previously I thought you meant some part inside the television. There is no external box on this tv, it is fed via coax from the Dish satellite. (It was far simpler than running a coax from the Dish receiver) Tomorrow I'll try to work up the gumption to haul it into the other room and connect it to the Dish Receiver via coax and see what happens. I didn't realize this was coax fed right from the satellite dish. That may be your problem- I'm pretty sure Dish uses that same cable for 2-way communication signals between the receivers and dish that the receivers normally filter out, but a simple TV tuner won't. grover fucked around with this message at 11:10 on Jun 20, 2010 |
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Jun 20, 2010 11:04
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