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Poknok posted:I have a same problem like you, the hardwood floors are hideously worn where my computer chair is located, down to the point where wood is literally splintering away. I might even need to replace the wood in these damaged bald spots. A $40 plastic chair mat would save you lots and lots of money and work in the long run.
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Apr 15, 2011 15:13
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Zahgaegun posted:A $40 plastic chair mat would save you lots and lots of money and work in the long run. The chairs used to have plastic standoffs to prevent this sort of thing happeneing, but they have long since fallen off.
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Apr 15, 2011 16:44
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I'm trying to rescreen my front door, armed only with Youtube instructional videos, but the old "spline" that jams into the channel to hold the screen material is in square, flat plastic strips unlike the round plastic "string" I see in the hardware store. Its also like 3/8" wide so the roller tools I see don't look like they'd work. What am I dealing with here?
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Apr 15, 2011 19:28
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eddiewalker posted:I'm trying to rescreen my front door, armed only with Youtube instructional videos, but the old "spline" that jams into the channel to hold the screen material is in square, flat plastic strips unlike the round plastic "string" I see in the hardware store. Its also like 3/8" wide so the roller tools I see don't look like they'd work. Nevermind. Another hardware store was a lot more helpful and had the right spline!
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Apr 15, 2011 19:36
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eddiewalker posted:I'm trying to rescreen my front door, armed only with Youtube instructional videos, but the old "spline" that jams into the channel to hold the screen material is in square, flat plastic strips unlike the round plastic "string" I see in the hardware store. Its also like 3/8" wide so the roller tools I see don't look like they'd work. Sounds like you have flat spline. If you can't find the right tool for it, you should be able to put it back in the the handle of a screwdriver anyway. Just pry it up, replace the screen (get a screen roller to help push the screen into the channel) and then shove the spline in, either with a proper wide spline roller or by slowly working it in bit by bit with the back of a screwdriver or similar. I find the flat spline easier to work with for someone who only does this kind of thing occasionally. The guys who know what they are doing seem to prefer the round spline and can absolutely fly through jobs with it.
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Apr 15, 2011 19:40
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Motronic posted:Sounds like you have flat spline. If you can't find the right tool for it, you should be able to put it back in the the handle of a screwdriver anyway. That will be helpful advice when I can actually find the flat stuff. I called around and thought I had, but when I got to the store all they had was the round stuff. Home Depot, Westlake, Lowes... where else can I look?
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Apr 15, 2011 22:00
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Well, I was digging around the back-yard looking for rocks and killing weeds at the same time (I'm cheap) and I nicked my data (Time Warner, Internet/TV) cable. Everything still works and I've wrapped the thing up with electrical tape. I'm a bit annoyed because I expected the cable to be buried a little bit further than 1 inch underground, it could have literally been damaged just from a yard rake. Before I go back to exploring; is there a way I can avoid hitting anything else that could be running in my backyard? Can I call the utility companies or the city to come out and mark the locations of cables? Is there a tool that can scan (Like a stud finder) an area to locate cables? Is the cable line the only one I have to worry about? Are there state mandated rules to how cables can be laid?
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Apr 16, 2011 00:16
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Orange_Lazarus posted:Well, I was digging around the back-yard looking for rocks and killing weeds at the same time (I'm cheap) and I nicked my data (Time Warner, Internet/TV) cable. Everything still works and I've wrapped the thing up with electrical tape. I'm a bit annoyed because I expected the cable to be buried a little bit further than 1 inch underground, it could have literally been damaged just from a yard rake. Coax cable is usually sleeved in red plastic. I don't know what the mandated burial depth for it is but mine is also buried extremely shallowly. Your water, gas and electric company should be more than happy to let you know where their utilities are buried. Most cities have a "call before you dig" hotline for that kind of thing
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Apr 16, 2011 00:28
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Orange_Lazarus posted:Before I go back to exploring; is there a way I can avoid hitting anything else that could be running in my backyard? Can I call the utility companies or the city to come out and mark the locations of cables? In my state, there's a number to call for just this situation. You tell them you need to dig in an area and they will notify all the relevant utilities. The utilities then have 2 business days to come out and paint/flag all buried cables.
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Apr 16, 2011 00:29
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sixide posted:In my state, there's a number to call for just this situation. You tell them you need to dig in an area and they will notify all the relevant utilities. The utilities then have 2 business days to come out and paint/flag all buried cables. You can call 811 in every state in the US. They will get in contact with all utilities that serve your address.
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Apr 16, 2011 01:55
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dwoloz posted:Coax cable is usually sleeved in red plastic. I don't know what the mandated burial depth for it is but mine is also buried extremely shallowly. Mandated burial depth is 18"-4' depending on stuff, but that doesn't mean the lazy scrub from Time/Warner (or Comcast/Qwest/Verizon/etc) will actually do more than casually scrape a bit of a trench with his boot heel. Those guys are LAZY. And call before you dig is (at least around here) statatorily mandated to come 1) within 24 hours and 2) make a mark within 12" above the spot where their lines are, or write "NONE". If you hit a line that's more than a couple feet away from their paint line, the guy who spotted it is at fault. That said, be careful, because the telephone/cable guys NEVER know, the electric guys can guess pretty well, and the water guys may as well be using pure magic. The only people who seem to be at all decent marking is Natural Gas.
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Apr 16, 2011 02:49
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Orange_Lazarus posted:... I've wrapped the thing up with electrical tape. Electrical tape is unlikely to keep moisture out of a buried cable. Unless it is 100% waterproof, moisture will seep in and your internet connection will gradually degrade until it stops working. I would call Time Warner and having them replace it. If they try to charge you just throw a fit over it not being buried properly.
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Apr 16, 2011 03:17
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babyeatingpsychopath posted:The only people who seem to be at all decent marking is Natural Gas. Unless you live in a place where plastic gas lines from the 80s are buried. They put metal tracer tape around them so they could locate them with a metal detector which has pretty much all rotted off by now. I went through a fun summer of responding to gas leak calls when they were installing new water lines in my town that had a mostly late 70's to early 80's gas line infrastructure. Every. drat. Weekday. Morning. For months.
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Apr 16, 2011 04:36
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quote:Chairs wearing down floor This is due to using wrong chair wheels. On some (most?) chairs, you can replace the wheels and they sell wheels of many different types for various floor types, to eliminate this problem.
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Apr 16, 2011 11:59
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babyeatingpsychopath posted:Mandated burial depth is 18"-4' depending on stuff, but that doesn't mean the lazy scrub from Time/Warner (or Comcast/Qwest/Verizon/etc) will actually do more than casually scrape a bit of a trench with his boot heel. Those guys are LAZY. It took me running over the phone cable here with the lawn mower twice before they would come and bury it deep enough so a normal rain shower wouldn't expose it.
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Apr 16, 2011 19:10
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I just got an older house which is a bit of a fix-me-up and I'm trying to tackle some of the minor repairs/upgrades myself while saving the really big things for professionals. Here's what I'm looking at:
I'm sure I'll have other various repairs to post about but those are the ones on my mind right now.
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Apr 18, 2011 00:24
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Stunt Rock posted:I just got an older house which is a bit of a fix-me-up and I'm trying to tackle some of the minor repairs/upgrades myself while saving the really big things for professionals. Here's what I'm looking at: Rusty fasteners sounds like you have a leak. The other ceiling problem would support this possibility. Did you have the house professionally inspected? Leaks can be detected with fancy thermal imaging cameras; definitely worth a check. Once that's sorted, if its a nail you can hammer the nail in and fill in the resulting divot with drywall compound. If its a screw, scrape the compound out of the head and screw it in then patch. You should drive some more screws near the area as well since it sounds like its sagging. The previous owner idiots did the same thing in my house, drilling holes in the floor all over the place. You can buy a piece of matching floor board and cut plugs with a holesaw then glue them in. Alternatively you can just leave the holes and spray some expanding foam in them
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Apr 18, 2011 02:36
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dwoloz posted:Is the ceiling drywall or plaster or...? No, drywall nails are usually rusty when they come out. Drywall joint compound goes on wet, its water rusts the nails. Regardless, the proper thing to do is to pull the old fastener out be it nail or screw since it isn't doing its job, then to screw a new drywall screw about 2 inches away from that hole into the same joist or stud. Just barely sink the screw past the surface. Note that tightening the drywall to the joist/stud in this spot could make other loose fasteners on that line poke out too. If so, do the same process for them. Do 2 skim coats of mud over the old hole and new screw (3 if you made a huge divot pulling the old fastener out), then sand flat. kid sinister fucked around with this message at 05:52 on Apr 18, 2011 |
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Apr 18, 2011 05:48
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I have a couple questions as I'm planning on installing some speakers on the walls of my living room. The speakers are small (about 2.5 lbs. each) and I'm using monoprice wall mounts. My house was built in the mid-50s and is in the midwest. I guess it'd be best to mount the speakers on studs, but I'm having trouble finding those. I got a (too?) cheap stud finder, but it doesn't seem to consistently find studs and, if it is right, they don't seem to be evenly spaced. I'm also not sure if my walls are drywall or plaster in case that matters. Since the speakers are relatively light and play no low frequency sounds, would there be any problems using a good drywall anchor/toggle bolt? That would also let me put the speakers exactly where I want them which would be nice.
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Apr 18, 2011 16:23
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Edit: Reposted that over at AI but I have another question. Do I really really need to aerate my lawn before I sow fresh seed? Every web-resource seems to recommend it but I'm starting to run out of time and I really need this lawn sown before it's too late. Can I seed/fertilize then aerate immediately or a week or so later? Debating whether or not to IE: Rent a machine to do it, purchase a hand-tool to do it, pay someone, or purchase the machine myself become an expert and then charge my neighbors. Sephiroth_IRA fucked around with this message at 19:49 on Apr 18, 2011 |
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Apr 18, 2011 19:40
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Orange_Lazarus posted:Edit: Reposted that over at AI but I have another question. I rented a machine from Westlake/Ace for like $50 last year. It took like an hour --once I figured out that the water tank was just for extra weight and topping it off only served to make maneuvering difficult since the ground was soft.
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Apr 18, 2011 19:52
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Soup in a Bag posted:I have a couple questions as I'm planning on installing some speakers on the walls of my living room. The speakers are small (about 2.5 lbs. each) and I'm using monoprice wall mounts. My house was built in the mid-50s and is in the midwest. There's another way to find at least one stud... You should probably have at least one receptacle on that wall. New construction electrical boxes are always mounted on studs, so you should have a stud on either the left or right edge of that receptacle. Measure 16" away from there. You probably have plaster walls then if a cheap stud finder doesn't work very well with your walls. My home is also mid-50s and in the midwest, and I have plaster on top of drywall. The cheap stud finder that came with my drill works like poo poo on my walls. When hanging any pictures, did little chunks of the wall pop off when you hammered in the nail? Wall anchors should be fine. If you're hanging little satellite speakers, then you should be able to just use the cheap plastic insert anchors.
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Apr 19, 2011 01:10
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I need something like this but V shaped. I could probably even make a half-round one work but the picture is from a custom sheet metal shop. Seems like something you could buy without having made but I can't find one. Any ideas?
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Apr 20, 2011 10:10
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wormil posted:I need something like this but V shaped. I could probably even make a half-round one work but the picture is from a custom sheet metal shop. Seems like something you could buy without having made but I can't find one. Any ideas? What dimensions do you need? If it's fairly small, you could shop for conduit hangars at the hardware store.
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Apr 20, 2011 12:58
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This seems like the place to ask this. Short version: I need help understanding physical data sheets. Specifically, I am trying to work out how much weight this would hold before bending. I think this is (related to?) the 'Modulus of Elasticity' under 'Flexual Strength', but I don't actually understand what '3 x 104' means in practical terms. Long version: I have a display cabinet that I would like to add some additional shelves to. The current shelves are glass, and I figure it would be easier for me to cut and fit some acrylic shelves in between the existing glass ones. Basically, the unit has four glass shelves 14" apart, and it would be more useful to me if I can install a shelf between each of them, to increase the practical space. But I want to make sure that I get acrylic sheet that isn't going to sag under it's own weight, or once I put something on it. For reference, I use this cabinet to display miniatures, so that total load on any 12" x 12" shelf is probably only 2-3 pounds at most. Would this stuff work, or do I need to go thicker/different material?
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Apr 20, 2011 16:00
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artificialj posted:What dimensions do you need? If it's fairly small, you could shop for conduit hangars at the hardware store. 2 inches.
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Apr 20, 2011 19:08
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wormil posted:2 inches. Yeah, if you are looking for the circle diameter to be 2 inches, go to the hardware store and look in electrical for EMT or rigid conduit straps - 2" is a standard (although large) conduit size. edit: Editing to say that the conduit straps are not going to be nearly as "beefy" as what you pictured, but I'm not sure what your end use is. They will definitely be super cheap compared to getting some custom piece made. edit 2: just read that you prefer a V shaped thing, not really sure about getting that, as the conduit straps will be half circle... artificialj fucked around with this message at 22:15 on Apr 20, 2011 |
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Apr 20, 2011 22:07
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A piece of angle iron and a hammer could turn just about any circular bracket into a triangular one, just sayin'.
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Apr 21, 2011 03:22
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Ashcans posted:This seems like the place to ask this. Gut feeling I would spring for 1/4" over this 1/8", that's 6mm vs 3mm. A foot square at 6mm will easily take a point load of a few pounds, your miniatures will be an even spread more or less.
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Apr 21, 2011 10:53
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Ashcans posted:This seems like the place to ask this. 3 x 104 is probably 3 x 10^4 or 30000 kg/cm^2. You can determine the maximum bending from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euler%E2%80%93Bernoulli_beam_equation. See the "Max Value" column and "w(x)" row of the "Simply supported beam with central load" table. Basically with a 10 lb. load, 1/8" will bend ~4 1/4", 1/4" will bend 1/64". (Assuming I didn't screw up my math) Go with the 1/4".
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Apr 21, 2011 17:40
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Thanks a lot, guys! The last thing I want in for one of these to gives way and start a broken-glass avalanche through the cabinet, so I'll go with the 1/4" panes.
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Apr 21, 2011 18:07
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If you have a glass place nearby they probably sell acrylic sheets and will cut to size.
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Apr 21, 2011 23:32
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grover posted:Looks good Thanks, now that I understand how you got there for the baseboards I figured it would be similar with the crown ... but that's seemingly not the case. I've been cutting all of my crown with no bevel setting, just the flip upside down and hold it against the fence method but I don't think that's going to cut it (hurr puns). How do I cut the crown for this very same section of wall?
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Apr 22, 2011 00:44
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Each piece needs to be mitered the same amount. Since straight pieces of trim total 180 degrees normally, you need to cut a total of 45 degrees out of it to get to 135 degrees. 45/2 = 22.5 degrees per each of the 2 joints. 22.5/2 = 11.25 degree miter on each end. Easy!
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wormil posted:If you have a glass place nearby they fixed
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Apr 22, 2011 20:07
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We bought a house last fall. It has a deck, about ten years old and never been sealed. It's in decent condition, but the wood definitely needs conditioning. Last fall I did the research between oil and acrylic-based stains. I prefer the oil-based choice, but it still doesn't seem ideal. So then I got a harebrained idea -- what about an oil-fashioned ship sealant? I haven't been able to find much about it, though one blog suggested sealing a wooden boat with epoxy resin cut with acetone. I want a sealant that's good for the wood and low-maintenance long term. Though I'd rather spend one day a year replacing a stain than spend several days every few years scraping off old acrylic poo poo and restaining. What's your reco? EDIT: I lazy-webbed it on Twitter an am researching the following suggestions: tung oil, beeswax and mineral oil and uh, tar and pitch. zap actionsdower! fucked around with this message at 22:03 on Apr 22, 2011 |
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Apr 22, 2011 21:55
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zap actionsdower! posted:We bought a house last fall. It has a deck, about ten years old and never been sealed. It's in decent condition, but the wood definitely needs conditioning. Its a penetrating oil for exactly what you want to do. Id recommend removing the weathered surface with a belt sander or floor sander though. If you want hardcore, they make an oil for marine application. After about 2 years you'll have to reapply the oil but no sanding necessary, just paint more on; very easy.
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Apr 23, 2011 02:12
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Sounds perfect. I ordered tung oil already, but I'm going to look into penofin, too. I'm sure I'll find another use for tung oil down the road. Thanks!
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Apr 23, 2011 21:55
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I'm installing a Basement Watchdog backup sump pump in my new (new to me) house. I'm using the existing discharge pipe from the main AC pump, connecting with a Y above both check valves. When I activate the backup pump, there's a lot of gurgling and gushing in the sump hole, and water sprays out of the vent hole I drilled in the pip below the check valve. However, water does not make it all the way outside. I'm looking at a lift of about 9 feet or so. Everything discharges fine with the main pump, but the backup one isn't clearing the sump hole. Any thoughts?
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Apr 26, 2011 18:37
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dwoloz posted:Optimal solution would be a metal anchor that would keep the post up off the ground. You sink the prongs into wet concrete, let it set, then bolt your post What would one call this thing? I've tried various permutations of concrete, bracket and anchor and can't find this on Lowe's or Home Depot's website.
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Apr 26, 2011 19:14
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Here it is on the manufacturers website. http://www.strongtie.com/products/connectors/PB-PBS.asp I dont know if its on home depot online but the stores near me carry it.
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Apr 26, 2011 20:46
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