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Aoi-chan posted:All this electrical chat has me paranoid, now. aluminum is fine unless they didn't put proper oxgard on the connections or didn't torque the terminals properly or bent the wire too much or or or or or... put AFCIs in it like DNova said, fix circuits that nuisance trip. Or rewire. There's a reason we only use aluminum for service entrance wiring and larger now.
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Oct 6, 2014 23:30
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What's the expected lifespan for something wired in the 70s with aluminum? Also, how does one discover arcing preventively? Years ago when I was sleeping in a spare downstairs room at my parents', I remember waking up a couple times hearing a snapping noise. Now that I'm renting the whole house with the thought of potentially inheriting it, I'd love it if it didn't spontaneously combust. None of the outlets in the room show oxidation on the outside. I haven't opened anything up yet. All that wiring should be copper installed in the 80s.
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PopeCrunch posted:I used to have a gig inspecting houses for insurance companies, and "there is a stab-lok panel in the house" was one of the few things that was a nope gently caress you that got a letter of policy cancellation from the insurer. They would literally rather you have multiple holes in the roof, lead paint, and broken or missing blocks in the foundation. Interesting. What about Zinsco panels?
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Oct 6, 2014 23:39
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Leperflesh posted:If Stab-Lok is still in business or if the trademark is owned by any company, perhaps Holmes does not want to be sued for stating on the air that their products are too dangerous to be used? Stab-Lok is now owned by Schneider Electric (manufacturers of Square D as well) and new products are still sold with that design in Canada.
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Oct 7, 2014 02:41
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Powerlurker posted:Stab-Lok is now owned by Schneider Electric (manufacturers of Square D as well) and new products are still sold with that design in Canada. Yep, I work for Schneider. God only knows why they kept that branding, while dumping the branding of more reputable names they have bought. That being said, Merlin Gerin, Telemechanique and Square D brandings are all being slowly dumped in favour of Schneider branding.
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Oct 7, 2014 03:10
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Oh god most houses I can think of have stab-lock panels. Why are they so terrible?
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Oct 7, 2014 05:09
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Aluminum also expands and contracts more with heat than copper, so if you have aluminum wiring, it's worth rechecking connections once or twice a year. It's not impossible for what was a perfect tight connection two years ago to be a loose one now- and a loose connection is a fire hazard. While you're in there, look at the receptacles and switches and whatnot and make sure they are marked as being ok for aluminum wiring - it'll be marked with AL somewhere. But yeah I would consider any aluminum wiring circuit that wasn't on an afci breaker to be questionable at best. With an afci breaker, the risk is largely mitigated. Edit to add: the insurance companies I worked with didn't give a gently caress about zinsco but told me if I saw a federal pacific stab-lok panel, I should save the homeowner some time and just light it on fire myself.
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Oct 7, 2014 05:31
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Baronjutter posted:Oh god most houses I can think of have stab-lock panels. Why are they so terrible? The 'lok' part of stab-lok didn't, so the breakers can wiggle loose causing arcs in panel. Independent of that fault with panel design, the actual breakers themselves frequently stick on so they won't trip in an over current situation, and can catch fire themselves.
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Oct 7, 2014 05:45
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Aluminum wire talk... AFCI's won't trip on "glowing" connections (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arc-fault_circuit_interrupter#Limitations), which are the major concern with aluminum (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aluminum_wire#Coefficient_of_expansion_and_creep). If your switches/receptacles aren't certified for aluminum, you can pigtail coper wire with appropriate connectors (but they run about $3/ea): http://www.kinginnovation.com/category-pages/products/alumiconn.php (You're supposed to use those connectors on every #10 or #12 connection, even AL to AL... that means every box including receptacles, switches, lights, junctions, etc... no standard wire nuts... if you have to do it on an entire house...  )Government study: http://www.cpsc.gov//PageFiles/118856/516.pdf A bit about "old technology" aluminum (early 70's) vs newer (hopefully later 70's): http://cmrris.com/news-real-estate-details/17/aluminum-wiring-hazard-mitigation.html
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Oct 7, 2014 06:55
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My basement stairs are stupid. They just dead-end to a wall, and then you have to awkwardly turn sideways while taking the last step to get through the door to the hallway. I don't loving get it at all. I've been in the house next door, which has the exact same layout as mine, but their cellar door is at the top of the stairs where you'd expect it, in the corner of the kitchen. My kitchen has cabinets there, so maybe that's why? I want to replace it with a set of winder stairs, like the stairs I have to go up to the second floor, which is how I learned that my other set of stairs isn't to code either anymore. But I guess it's grandfathered in because they only changed the code after the house was built (1930).
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Oct 7, 2014 20:15
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So this thread got me interested in Canada's Worst Handyman back when it was mentioned in here. Unfortunately, the only youtubes of it I've found look like they were recorded and encoded with a potato. Anyone got any better links to it?
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Oct 8, 2014 00:49
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Thanks
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Oct 8, 2014 01:53
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taiyoko posted:So this thread got me interested in Canada's Worst Handyman back when it was mentioned in here. Unfortunately, the only youtubes of it I've found look like they were recorded and encoded with a potato. Anyone got any better links to it? Season 4 was done in 360p, which is about as good as it gets on YouTube. Discovery seems to have removed it from their web streams, so you're looking at the kinda bad quality on YouTube or maybe :files: Much like watching the show, you might have to grimace and bear through the poor quality. It's a bit poetic, really.
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Oct 8, 2014 14:21
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I live in a big Queenslander style house (well ventilated wooden houses on stilts) and it had been renovated a few years back. The most common job on Queenslanders is to jack up the entire house and put in taller stumps underneath. This create a big space to install new rooms, effectively turning it into a two-storey home. The house was lifted and renovation commenced, but it was only once the flooring was being installed they realised the ceiling was 1.5cm short of being a livable space. By technicality, the ground floor is now considered a storage space. In this  storage space the owners have decided to stash a bathroom, kitchenette, couch, television, bed, windows and a biological object they call 'Scott'. What a bunch of weirdos. (But at least nobody is living there, because that would be against the rules.)
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Oct 8, 2014 15:24
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Goon fknlo posted this over in the electrical thread. It's his, unfortunately. Previous owner did it.fknlo posted:
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Oct 8, 2014 16:41
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kid sinister posted:Goon fknlo posted this over in the electrical thread. It's his, unfortunately. Previous owner did it. That's almost not entirely cringeworthy. The wirenuts should have been outside the subpanel in a junction box, and the cord grips are for rigid conduit, not romex, but all in all, not entirely a fire inducing death trap. They even did the grounding right! I'd tear it out and just put a junction box in depending on exactly what the hell they were trying to accomplish there. It looks like two branches being fed from the yellow romex, which is perfectly fine to do with wire nuts in a standard box. No clue why they got an 8 spot breaker box and then halfassed it with wirenuts afterwards. Methylethylaldehyde fucked around with this message at 01:40 on Oct 9, 2014 |
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Oct 9, 2014 01:36
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Javid fucked around with this message at 21:30 on Apr 8, 2020 |
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Oct 11, 2014 21:29
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Is that as gross as it looks, or worse? Would the whole carpet near that spot just be horribly moldy underneath?
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Oct 11, 2014 21:38
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SystemLogoff posted:Is that as gross as it looks, or worse? Would the whole carpet near that spot just be horribly moldy underneath? I think that's just lint and poo poo, probably remnants of the pad. Look at the carpet they've already pulled up, there are clear spots.
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Oct 11, 2014 21:48
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SystemLogoff posted:Is that as gross as it looks, or worse? Would the whole carpet near that spot just be horribly moldy underneath? Looks fine to me; that spotty stuff is just the carpet pad.
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Oct 11, 2014 21:56
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TooMuchAbstraction posted:Looks fine to me; that spotty stuff is just the carpet pad. Ah, I've never had to deal with carpets, so I assumed the pad was grody. Woops!  Edit: I can't even spell words tonight. SystemLogoff fucked around with this message at 22:51 on Oct 11, 2014 |
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Oct 11, 2014 22:17
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Looks like the same cheap carpet and pad every rental and flipped house has.SystemLogoff posted:Ah, I've never had to deal with carpets, so I assumed the pad was groady. Woops! The pad is always 'groady'. CopperHound fucked around with this message at 22:52 on Oct 11, 2014 |
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Oct 11, 2014 22:47
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If a lot of chunks of carpet pad fell down in there it could negatively impact the efficiency of the vent. I used to piss my parents off as a kid by stashing stuff down the vent in my room.
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Oct 11, 2014 23:40
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Javid posted:If a lot of chunks of carpet pad fell down in there it could negatively impact the efficiency of the vent. I used to piss my parents off as a kid by stashing stuff down the vent in my room. It's a good place to keep your M&Ms cold in the summer!
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Oct 12, 2014 05:09
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So did they find the vent after hearing the carpet hissing softly all the time?
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Oct 12, 2014 05:11
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"Honey, why does the carpet rise like a hovercraft everytime the A/C is on?"
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Oct 12, 2014 06:28
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http://i.imgur.com/bjbo02f.gifv Linked because maybe dead. For those who don't click through, it's a guy Looney-Tunes'ing himself off a concrete ledge with a jackhammer.
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Oct 12, 2014 08:01
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canyoneer posted:http://i.imgur.com/bjbo02f.gifv  if he's not dead it looks like he's going to be brain damaged for life the way he fell
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Oct 12, 2014 08:35
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He survived and was fine, though I'd suspect he was already brain damaged since he loving did that to begin with.
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Oct 12, 2014 08:45
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canyoneer posted:http://i.imgur.com/bjbo02f.gifv The best part is that he intentionally put up a board to stand on, but decided not to actually put his body weight on it.
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Oct 12, 2014 14:14
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Could've been worse. He could've been doing the same thing but from underneath.
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Oct 12, 2014 17:42
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Oct 13, 2014 03:42
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Excellent.
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Oct 13, 2014 03:48
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Cock and balls window, is that what we're looking at here or is there something else that's horribly unsound that I'm not seeing?
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Oct 13, 2014 03:49
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Antifreeze Head posted:Cock and balls window, is that what we're looking at here or is there something else that's horribly unsound that I'm not seeing? Well, if there's something else, then I guess I would feel a little bad for instantly seeing cock and balls window and nothing else amiss.
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Oct 13, 2014 03:52
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canyoneer posted:http://i.imgur.com/bjbo02f.gifv This disappointed me because your description made me think his feet came off the ground and the jackhammer carried him pogo-stick style off the edge of the platform. Edit: Possibly with a mid-air pause while gravity considerately waited for him to realize he wasn't standing on anything before pulling him down.
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Oct 13, 2014 04:52
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Antifreeze Head posted:Cock and balls window, is that what we're looking at here or is there something else that's horribly unsound that I'm not seeing? Also gently caress wheelchairs. Provides a long, gentle, wide slope, then a step at the end.
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Oct 13, 2014 11:13
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Yeah, that looks juuuust fine.
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Oct 13, 2014 15:01
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Terrible Robot posted:Yeah, that looks juuuust fine. At least it's energy-efficient 
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Oct 13, 2014 18:09
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Terrible Robot posted:Yeah, that looks juuuust fine. Australia? How is the brick staying on the ceiling?
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Oct 14, 2014 12:24
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| # ? May 15, 2024 03:46 |
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That appears to be a piece of aged roughsawn 2x4 with some paint or horsehair plaster residue on it and I'd bet it's held up with screws, nails, or some sort of glue.
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Oct 14, 2014 14:33
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