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Tree roots attacked our sewer line, and backed them up solid. Our (very friendly and helpful) plumber found our 'cleanout'. This was covered with a foot long length of 4" PVC split lengthwise. EXTREME NWS POO PICS, linking for gross: http://i.imgur.com/L3YC147.jpg?1 I am so loving mad right now.
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Jun 17, 2013 19:31
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Leperflesh posted:Thank you for this explanation. You can always shut the power off by pulling the meter. Basically a meter is a big jumper with prongs on the back that bridge connectors for the mains lines to your house electrical system. Pulling a meter isn't as ideal as flipping a switch or breaker, but it works. Sometimes they're locked on and you have to call the power company for them to do it. Well yes, anytime the power is still on there's always danger. However, it can be done without shutting off the main if you're careful. With the electricity on, the only energized portions are the busbars in the back, and the screws for the wire clamps on any breakers connected and turned on. You're lucky, you have one of the easier breaker types to remove. Yours have a little tab hinge toward the box's outside and a metal clip on the box's inside that grab onto the busbar. To attach, turn off the breaker, fit the breaker's tab under the hinge bar in the box and push down until the breaker's clip attaches on the busbar. Removing is a little trickier. Stick a flathead screwdriver between them, use one hand to hold down the breaker opposite the one you want to move and pry up the other one.
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Jun 17, 2013 20:28
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Leperflesh posted:Thank you for this explanation. You're required by code to have a main breaker now, and have been for a very, very long time. If you wanna take all your pix and whatnot over to the electrical thread, we can help you there. kid sinister posted:A multiwire branch circuit is where 2 or more circuits on different phases share a neutral. It's mainly for safety reasons. Usually, those 2 circuits would be bundled into the same /3 cable on the red and black wires along with the white neutral. Well, that cable runs somewhere in the house. Suppose that someday you have to do work on the box where that /3 cable ends, so you shut off the circuit with the black wire at the panel, thinking you're safe. Then you go to untwist the red wire also in that box and you get shocked. The new code tries to fix that from ever happening. By tying those two circuits together, shutting one off forces you to shut the other off as well. This has been code for major appliances using multiple phases for decades. Depending on the manufacturer, either all the levers on that multiphase breaker are tied together, or that mulitphase breaker only has a single handle. It's actually more insidious. You turn off the black wire, untwist the neutral, and get SHOCKED BY THE NEUTRAL! The power goes down the red hot, through some device, and is returning to the panel on the white. So now you just got shocked by a white wire, on a circuit you thought was off. The code dealt with this originally by prohibiting devices in multiwire branch circuits from interrupting the neutral. No using an outlet to daisy-chain neutrals, etc. Now, like you said, they require a handle tie so both (or all three) circuits go off.
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Jun 18, 2013 00:39
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babyeatingpsychopath posted:
This actually happened to me a couple of weeks ago. I was replacing an ancient motion sensor light above the garage and got a nice little surprise from the white wire. I shut the main off after the tingles left my fingers.
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Jun 18, 2013 23:23
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This electricity stuff seems like magic. I'm just going to hire someone else to
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Jun 19, 2013 17:27
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It's basically just plumbing for nerds, if you can do basic math and do a bit of reading on how it all works, it starts making a lot of sense. Current: volume of water passing by a point Voltage: pressure Resistance: friction/turbulence in the flow due to small pipes, turns, etc Capacitor: storage tank Inductor: flywheel connected to an impeller in the pipe. Hell, even just a long pipe. Don't believe me? What's water hammer then? etc etc. This is somewhat of a simplification, but it makes more sense than you'd think at first.
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Jun 19, 2013 17:37
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kastein posted:It's basically just plumbing for nerds, if you can do basic math and do a bit of reading on how it all works, it starts making a lot of sense. I basically had the same ideas for everything but the inductor. It really does fit incredibly well to think about it as a long pipe and a voltage spike as water hammer, I'm gonna use that one in the future 
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Jun 19, 2013 17:41
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Jonny 290 posted:Tree roots attacked our sewer line, and backed them up solid. I cannot even tell what that is. Is it just a hole in the pipe?
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Jun 19, 2013 19:16
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Heresiarch posted:I cannot even tell what that is. Is it just a hole in the pipe? I think so 
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Jun 19, 2013 22:58
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Jonny 290 posted:Tree roots attacked our sewer line, and backed them up solid. This is an obvious Dufresne issue you have here. You can confirm that's the problem by the telltale signs (soapstone chess pieces, hollowed out bibles, boxes of old shoes, and large holes behind the posters in your house).
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Jun 20, 2013 01:29
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kastein posted:It's basically just plumbing for nerds, if you can do basic math and do a bit of reading on how it all works, it starts making a lot of sense. diode = check valve... And I always thought a water tower was a better analogy for capacitor: it's where water is put during times of surplus to maintain pressure during times of demand.
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Jun 20, 2013 01:45
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That's probably a valid point, I didn't think that one through much.
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Jun 20, 2013 02:29
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No, if you think about it too much, then a water tower is part of a charge pump circuit. Don't get too far into that analogy.
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Jun 20, 2013 02:32
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I think that would be if it was a water tower with a check valve and a long vertical pipe full of water with a volume of compressed air in it, also connected to another water tower with a check valve facing the other way  (buck/boost or charge pump circuits are awesome ok)
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Jun 20, 2013 02:37
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babyeatingpsychopath posted:You're required by code to have a main breaker now, and have been for a very, very long time. Thanks. I will get around to posting over there when it looks like I have time and money to deal with my house's impending electrical disaster (apparently).
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Jun 20, 2013 03:18
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Qwijib0 posted:I think so Missed this, but this is beautiful. Somebody reposted back in yospos and I about died laughing. Exact situation. I did examine the pipe closely and we found no traces of rock hammers or accounting paperwork. Update: Sewer itself is running GREAT, this weekend or next I'm grabbing an angle grinder, chunk of pipe with a cleanout, and a couple of this particular splice fittings that he told me about - forget the name but I'm sure I'll remember as soon as I see them.
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Jun 20, 2013 15:06
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Crappy construction tales, indeed. 
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Jun 20, 2013 15:24
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Bad Munki posted:Crappy construction tales, indeed. Don't stink up this thread with your lovely puns. 
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Jun 21, 2013 04:28
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I am in the midst of a drain tile update on a 50 year old rancher style house and it is really exposing some of the terrible additions done sometime after the original construction. None of which are all that surprising that they're done badly (it's obvious to an external observer) but the depths of just how bad is kind of a shock. Dining room extension - The dining room was pushed out about 4 feet with totally mismatched flooring. They put floor to ceiling windows in but neglected to use safety glass. When it was being opened up it was discovered they used 2x6s for the flooring that are not strapped in place, just nailed. The sole footing at the corner is a 8"x8" concrete pillar of sorts supporting a 4x4 which is not fastened to the footing. Needless to say my contractor got a couple 2x12s supporting the whole thing until they can get a proper footing in there. Additionally, by pushing this out they covered the basement entranceway so you had to go into a tunnel type entrance and then turn 90deg to get in the door. This meant NOTHING large was getting into the basement. A Queen size bed boxspring is the absolute limit of what will fit in there. The previous owners asked if they could just leave a couch in the basement, I said sure. Later I realized it was because there was no way you could get it out because the stairs to the main floor are too narrow too. So I had to sawzall the loving thing in half to get it out.  Deck - This piece of poo poo scared the hell out of me every time I went on it. It was just held to the house with nails, set on top of a 2x6 that was also nailed to the wall. The stairs down from it were rotting away rapidly because they were just placed on the concrete slab so moisture wicked up and dissolved it. The span between the house and the supports was too far, I think at least 6 feet too far. The supports themselves were too small (2 2x4s) and they weren't anchored properly. Basically it was amazing it was still standing.  Ensuite bathroom extension - At some point the master builder who was at work here decided it would be a great idea to punch out the bathroom and turn half of it into an ensuite. He built an overhang and put a giant soaker tub in there. He supported it with.. uh.. Basically nothing! The entire support structure was a sistered 2x4 beam resting on a 4x4. This held up a sheet of plywood, which held up the bathtub. Most of the bathtub load was probably taken up by the edges of the tub. It's amazing no one filled it up and had it plummet through. Additionally, the access to the motor of the soaker tub was via the external siding of the house. The motor was dead before we moved in. We never used the tub, we knew better!  post holding up the weight of a bathtub. So when the guys took the deck down, they just attached a chain to a bobcat and yanked the deck directly off the house, it took almost nothing to pull it free. When they did that, the 4x4 support holding up the tub fell over because it was also not secured to anything. The tiles around the tub all cracked because the addition was better secured to the deck than it was to the house and there is a gap of about 3/4" between the house floor and the edge of the tub support wall right now.  Held up by 2 2x12s temporarily. My contractor (whom I have a great working relationship with) told me "This is a new experience for me, usually we don't see stuff done this badly still standing" as they get called in for a lot of remediation when poo poo goes bad. None of these lovely things were that much of a surprise, we knew they'd need to be fixed, it's just interesting to see how dumb some people are when building onto their house. I'm pretty happy that we're well underway to fixing it and making it right though, despite the fact it is gonna cost a lot. New footings for the dining room + ensuite are going in next week and will be creating some nice usable storage spaces underneath. Cutting a nice french door double wide entranceway into the basement from a new dug out sunken patio. Should be pretty cool!
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Jun 23, 2013 19:24
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It sounds like you're really taking the right approach, though, and that's great: go in hot, guns blazing. I think most people tend to say, "Well, it's standing now, it must be fine!" or "No, we'll just fix this one thing, leave everything else alone," even if they've been explicitly told (by, say, a home inspector) that something is horribly wrong. It may cost you some money, but hey, money is transient anyhow. You'll be so happy once it's all done.
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Jun 23, 2013 19:36
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Wow, that sure is some poo poo. This is why it pisses me off that I have to get building permits when I build everything bombproof/way above spec even without being watched, yet these chucklefucks don't, get away with it, and somehow don't die.
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Jun 23, 2013 19:43
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Bad Munki posted:It sounds like you're really taking the right approach, though, and that's great: go in hot, guns blazing. I think most people tend to say, "Well, it's standing now, it must be fine!" or "No, we'll just fix this one thing, leave everything else alone," even if they've been explicitly told (by, say, a home inspector) that something is horribly wrong. It may cost you some money, but hey, money is transient anyhow. Hell yeah, Basically the exterior of the house will be done and awesome after this, then it'll just be basement, bathrooms and kitchen.. But those will just be more modernizing than fixing any structural defects so it'll be more visible improvements rather than "ahh oh my god that is so hosed up!" Plus the new perimeter drainage (and sump, there wasn't one before) will help a lot keeping the basement nice and dry. Anyone know of the best method for solving floor squeaks on a wide scale? The main floor is hardwood which could use a refinish anyway, I'm hoping there is some method where they come in, sand the floors down, run some screws to catch the joists then refinish the floor nicely. This is just a "TBD" thing, at some point. Never ends 
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Jun 23, 2013 19:44
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Can I recommend that you gut the basement before you redo anything supported by it? No telling what dumbfuckery the PO got up to down there, you could have squeaky floors because he decided that cutting notches 60% of the way through half the joists would be a great way to add a sewer drain line. And it's much nicer to be able to jack things and repair structure at will because you don't care if the sheetrock upstairs gets a little cracked. If you redo the whole first floor and then discover you have to jack things up and crack all your newly done drywall, it's a little more annoying.
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Jun 23, 2013 19:46
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There are some floor squeak kits where you basically drive a special screw in, and the head breaks off below the board, fixing the floor to the joist underneath without leaving (much) of a visible mark. I can't remember what they're called, and I've never used them or seen them used, but the ads claim they work. Of course, that's for addressing spots, as opposed to, say, an entire floor. And yeah, I definitely approve of the unabashed scorched earth policy you seem to be employing.
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Jun 23, 2013 19:48
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kastein posted:Can I recommend that you gut the basement before you redo anything supported by it? Great call, I have taken apart most of the basement and to my eye it doesn't look too hosed up but there are a couple spots where they did take a chunk out of a joist like where he put in a drain for the upstairs shower (and slopped thinset all over the loving place). Apart from that they didn't gently caress with too many other joists thankfully. I think most of the squeaking is just the nails coming loose from the joists. The next thing after these exterior/structural things will be the HVAC, plumbing and wiring in the basement. The furnace is on its last legs and I'd like to get a new one that is heat pump capable and have that connection set up along with changing the ductwork (and removing all the old ductwork with its asbestos tape). Bad Munki posted:There are some floor squeak kits where you basically drive a special screw in, and the head breaks off below the board, fixing the floor to the joist underneath without leaving (much) of a visible mark. I can't remember what they're called, and I've never used them or seen them used, but the ads claim they work. Of course, that's for addressing spots, as opposed to, say, an entire floor. I've seen those kits too but yeah, I'd like to just do a wholesale changeover rather than a patchwork here and there. Depending on how much hardwood is left there might not be enough to properly refinish it so then I'd probably take it up, get everything screwed down properly and go from there. Scorched earth method is the best otherwise you'll just be faffing around with half measures and probably end up spending the same amount of money and taking more time to do it! priznat fucked around with this message at 19:55 on Jun 23, 2013 |
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Jun 23, 2013 19:52
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priznat posted:So I had to sawzall the loving thing in half to get it out. Admit it, you had fun doing that part.
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Jun 23, 2013 21:23
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Bad Munki posted:There are some floor squeak kits where you basically drive a special screw in, and the head breaks off below the board, fixing the floor to the joist underneath without leaving (much) of a visible mark. The old-fashioned remedy was to squirt a little talc/baby powder in between the subfloor and joist wherever it squeaks; it's not an actual fix, it just lubricates where the wood rubs on wood (  ) to stop the squeaking.
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Jun 23, 2013 22:38
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nmfree posted:I've only ever seen those used in areas that have carpeting because the (essentially) headless screws secure the subfloor more securely to the joists. While I can't think of any reason why those couldn't be used over a large area, I also don't see how those could be used with hardwood. The ad I saw showed them driving them into hardwood. It DID leave a mark, but since the hole only had to be big enough for the screw itself to go through and not the head, it was a lot smaller, and once the head broke off, the hole closed up (a little) behind the screw. Not perfect, of course.
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Jun 23, 2013 23:22
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DNova posted:Admit it, you had fun doing that part. True, that was pretty cool. The foam was attached to the frame and it was impressive how cleanly the sawzall cut through all that. It was one of the old school couches that has acorns and oak leaves on it and probably was plastic wrapped for a significant period of its life. Was a shame to have to wreck it, it was still in decent condition.
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Jun 24, 2013 04:14
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I had to get a couch off the third floor balcony of my first apartment by chopping it in half with a splitting maul and dragging it down the stairs. It was great  It was a goodwill $75 couch and took 4 roommates and an hour of shenanigans to get it up 3 flights of front stairs, and I was the last one to move out and had to deal with it, so there was no loving way it was getting out in one piece.
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Jun 24, 2013 04:44
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I take it there was a good reason it didn't just get pushed off the balcony?
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Jun 24, 2013 08:42
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kastein posted:took 4 roommates and an hour of shenanigans to get it up 3 flights of front stairs PIVOT! Man, I wish I had the pictures from when the council were "improving" homes in our area. The poo poo I saw from the workers was just... incredible. I mean it, like stuff you wouldn't even IMAGINE possible from the numbest of numbskull. They were in to modernize the bathroom, kitchen, heating and fit new double glazing. Oh and a new main breaker board thing. Lets start in the kitchen! Firstly "standards" demanded that our oven could no longer be on the far-side of the room, because it was too close to a window that a gas stove would be at risk of being blown out. So instead they routed the pipe from where the fitting point was, alll the way doubled-back on itself around the top of 2 walls of the room. Our front door, hallway door and back door are all in a straight line, so if ever the 3 are open together a huge wind tunnel surges through the house. The new oven point was right in the stream of this, but thats another story. Anyway so this ugly-rear end pipe is doubled back running across 2 of the 4 kitchen walls (and it was a big kitchen) so they had to box it. Most people would just cut a length of wood to fit, then attach it in place... most people. This guy cut the wood to be at an angle, so that as the box section ran along it got thinner and thinner till at the end the pipes didn't really fit inside anymore and were covered by a mass of some kind of filler/putty I'm not really sure. The reason for the box being cut at a funny angle? He made the box "true to the world, not to the house". Yes, you read that correctly. Our kitchen roof wasn't level, it had a slight slope, but you can't really tell by eye. So yeah we had 15 foot of box running across the ceiling that got thinner and thinner toward the end, to make it true and level with a spirit level, but not with the house itself. Then they ruined all the wheeled appliences (fridge, freezer, washer etc) by hauling them back and forth across the bumpy unfinished concrete floor they were making, smashing off all the wheels. Oh and then there was the tiling on the windows! The windowsill (and tiles fitted to it) were SO uneven you couldn't use them. I'm not even kidding here, you couldn't put a vase on the windowsill without it tipping over they were THAT bad. Oh and most of the plug sockets they fitted didn't work, I checked out their wiring (I'm not even a real electrician) and alot of the time wires were just... left. Not connected, just hanging out inside the box behind the facia. Next up: Bathroom! Took them 3 baths to fit one without cracking it en-route and making it leak! 3 baths! Oh... and the leaky baths we were stuck with a couple of weeks each time between them finding a new one? Yeah, it did kinda leak onto the junction point for the electrics, that they fitted under the bath. Yes, electrical junction under the leaky bath. "Don't worry!" said the site manager on the phone, "We're not in the business of killing people! It won't be live, but I'll send someone over to have a look". 2 hours later he turned up himself, to find that yes indeed the wires were live. Luckily so were we, as we knew enough to no trust a goddamn leaky bath sat ontop of electrics! Then they ripped most of the plaster off the walls fitting the new double glazing. Oh and the bay window was about 3 or 4 inches too short. But thats ok, nothing some newspaper and foam-filler can't fix! The main breaker board under the stairs? Yeah they replaced that. Did... did they move the leather jacket out of the way before screwing it to the wall? Hell no son, in these parts we FIT THE BREAKER BOARD ONTOP OF THE LEATHER JACKET. Yes as in, jacket it hanging against the wall they wish to fit the board to, so they fitted the board ontop of the jacket. Ontop of it. New central heating required them to have access to every room at once and for us to leave the house for a few days if possible. We then purchased the house on the spot so that we had the rights to say "no, please don't ever come back here, ever". poo poo man, I'm gonna have to go raid old hard drives, see if I can find pics. EDIT: Almost forgot, it was supposed to be a 6 week job, doing all the homes on the street. After 1 1/2 years we got sick and put in the right-to-buy so we could make them go away. Captain Hair fucked around with this message at 12:20 on Jun 24, 2013 |
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Jun 24, 2013 09:58
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Captain Hair posted:The reason for the box being cut at a funny angle? He made the box "true to the world, not to the house". Yes, you read that correctly. Our kitchen roof wasn't level, it had a slight slope, but you can't really tell by eye. So yeah we had 15 foot of box running across the ceiling that got thinner and thinner toward the end, to make it true and level with a spirit level, but not with the house itself.  What level of reality were these guys operating on... Captain Hair posted:I checked out their wiring (I'm not even a real electrician) and alot of the time wires were just... left. Not connected, just hanging out inside the box behind the facia. Electricians must have been trained by IBM, "you need more power? sure we can enable some extra outlets for you  "
longview fucked around with this message at 10:26 on Jun 24, 2013 |
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Jun 24, 2013 10:23
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I don't think I ever posted this here. I put this in the electrician thread some time ago: I don't know anything about electrical work, but my friend on facebook is boasting about his handywork and cost savings on Facebook. Does anything he's doing look right or am I expecting and update from the ICU shortly? Grounding was broken in this outlet so he ran a grounding wire to the next closest outlet  Someone told him it looked like crap so he "fixed it"  He also bought a Nissan Leaf and installed the charger himself, it may or may not be related to that outlet.  quote:License Electrician wanted to charge me $400 for installation, and I did this for only $8.88 Outlet + $3.40 ground wire
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Jun 24, 2013 16:55
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Cakefool posted:I take it there was a good reason it didn't just get pushed off the balcony? Landlord lived on the first floor and their decrepit (almost falling in half) lawn chairs and rusty grill were directly under it, else I would have. I considered building a crane of some sort to lower it off the balcony, too, but realized it would cost me more in materials than the couch was worth.
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Jun 24, 2013 17:21
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FCKGW posted:I don't think I ever posted this here. I put this in the electrician thread some time ago: HAHA Yeah you can see the green grounding wire running from the nest of caps & wires below the green hammer.
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Jun 24, 2013 19:21
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At first glance I thought melting siding was going to be part of the story, but realized it's just fancy au naturel stuff (cedar?). Sorry your house got hosed up, glad it is getting unfucked.
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Jun 24, 2013 21:00
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FCKGW posted:Does anything he's doing look right or am I expecting and update from the ICU shortly?  I'm not an electrician, but what I can see in just this picture: * Unsecured box * Flying splice (the wire nuts should be completely inside the junction box just under the shelf, with a cover on the box) * Cables not stapled or secured properly * Cables routed in front of studs instead of through them * Cable rubbing on the front of the metallic shelf support * The cable feeding the unsecured junction box is probably too small * The goofy grounding wire This is one of those times where if it looks wrong or unsafe, it probably is. Also, assuming the long black cable is the charging cable for the car, where does that go when it's not plugged in? Judging by the rest of this picture I'd guess the loose end sits in a bucket full of water.
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Jun 24, 2013 21:23
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Shifty Pony posted:Renting a place built in the 60s. I had to use a knife to cut through all the layers of paint sealing the breaker panel: This is from a few pages back but ahahahaha. I have a side gig doing home inspections for insurance companies, and several insurance companies will straight up refuse to insure you or cancel your policy if they find out you have any FEP or Stab-Lok stuff in the house. This is one of the VERY FEW absolute dealbreakers - they'll even shrug and not give a poo poo about knob and tube or that oldass aluminum wiring that sucked. It's pretty goddamned bad when a piece of equipment is so hosed up that insurers will flat out refuse to take your money. :V
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Jun 25, 2013 00:04
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that surely is within.
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uwaeve posted:At first glance I thought melting siding was going to be part of the story, but realized it's just fancy au naturel stuff (cedar?). Yah it is cedar siding, it's quite nice stuff and fits in well with the climate (pacific northwest). Another bit of fuckery was the previous owners glooped some lovely paint on it that either was impossible to remove or peeled off in giant swaths. The guys I hired to repaint had to go at it with a heated pressure washer which burned diesel like mad to heat the boiler. It was pretty awful work trying to get some of that stubborn lovely paint off. Right now the guys are shoring up another poorly done modification where the previous owners pushed the master bedroom closet out into the garage space, however they just toe-nailed a bunch of 2x6s in there and that was all that was holding up the floor.
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Jun 25, 2013 00:45
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