|
That just seems so depressing to me I guess if you're a car guy it would be cool as heck but nothing is appealing to me about living In your garage.
|
#
?
Dec 27, 2014 21:04
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 14, 2024 02:17 |
|
|
FCKGW posted:That just seems so depressing to me Doesn't look like they live there... it's just a big garage with a kitchen and a table so you have some comforts for taking a break.
|
|
#
?
Dec 27, 2014 21:05
|
|
|
You guys will enjoy this thread: http://garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=49785 Found it when I was looking for tips on building my garage. Craftsman style garage with an apartment above, lots of great construction photos. And I wish I had pics of my woodshop teacher's workshop/house. It's out in the Hill Country of Central Texas and he built it entirelly himself. The workshop is below and he built a two bedroom living space above for him and his family. The floor in his bedroom is recycled hard maple from an old gym floor and he used birds eye maple for the stairs. The kitchen cabinets are solid wood, furniture grade as is the plank ceiling. He never got around to finished the other floors which are still plywood but it totally works in the space. You can see a little of the shop on his website: http://www.michaelcolca.com/ (that's his deck in the front page photo)
|
|
#
?
Dec 27, 2014 21:25
|
|
|
Tora! Tora! Tora! posted:You guys will enjoy this thread: http://garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=49785 Found it when I was looking for tips on building my garage. Craftsman style garage with an apartment above, lots of great construction photos. Electric, woodwork and floors are goddamn gorgeous. And $43,515 with half the labor done by yourself is a steal.
|
|
#
?
Dec 27, 2014 22:11
|
|
|
Nitrox posted:What a minimum effort job. They are relying on paint and caulk to keep water out of joints and wood surfaces. Metal roof plates directly on plywood. Non vented soffits and all around. And why they poured the concrete floors after painting the walls? Also, metal roof panel wainscoting, lol. Didn't see a single picture as to where main plumbing drain is connected to, it's sure not visible in any foundation build photos. I see a total of zero permit stickers anywhere. Sorry if some of those issues were explained, I skimmed most of the text. With regards to the roof, are you talking about the apparent lack of felt or the lack of purlins? I think he's using a synthetic underlayment instead of tar paper and I didn't think you needed purlins if you used plywood decking, only if you didn't or were installing over an existing roof.
|
|
#
?
Dec 27, 2014 22:50
|
|
|
Nitrox posted:Non vented soffits and all around. He's got a metal roof and a climate with less than 10" average annual snow fall, he doesn't really need soffit vents.
|
|
#
?
Dec 28, 2014 01:05
|
|
|
Tora! Tora! Tora! posted:With regards to the roof, are you talking about the apparent lack of felt or the lack of purlins? I think he's using a synthetic underlayment instead of tar paper and I didn't think you needed purlins if you used plywood decking, only if you didn't or were installing over an existing roof. Zhentar posted:He's got a metal roof and a climate with less than 10" average annual snow fall, he doesn't really need soffit vents.
|
|
#
?
Dec 28, 2014 02:21
|
|
|
My brother and I subdivided a block of land (inner city block, and we split side by side so both would have street frontage, making them narrow but long blocks). He built a house on his half, I sold my land. As it was on a slight hill, there's a basic 2 course limestone block and mortar retaining wall between them (E: about 3-4ft high). The people I sold my half to are building a house now, with their brick garage (part of the house) against my brother's boundary side. Builders didn't even put down a slab for the garage, but they built a full height brick wall right on the boundary just sitting straight onto this dinky little retaining wall. I guess they're going to pour the garage floor concrete slab later? The slab for the rest of the house is there and walls are up for that. Never seen a builder skip the slab for the garage until last, what reason could they possibly have for that? Usually you build a wall on the slab, not next to it. Never seen a wall that's going to be connected to the rest of the houses roofing just chucked up upon a cheap retaining wall (that someone else built), before either. Fo3 fucked around with this message at 15:24 on Dec 28, 2014 |
|
#
?
Dec 28, 2014 15:21
|
|
|
There was a soffit strip vent barely visible in one of the photos. Its a resized photo so it loses some clarity and is hard to see, but it is there.
|
|
#
?
Dec 28, 2014 22:07
|
|
|
Nitrox posted:That's very interesting. At what point does air circulation is not necessary? Really, whether you need attic ventilation depends on your roof design and insulation. But the point where you pretty much need some ventilation, no matter what, seems to be when you have a ground snow load of 50 lb/ft^2 or more (that's about 2 1/2 feet of heavy, wet snow), which is basically most of climate zone 7, plus Minnesota climate zone 6. And for typical roof constructions, you need venting at least down to 30 lb/ft^2 (which is basically the rest of the 6-Moist climate zone). But below that, if you're getting ice damming it's because you're heating up the attic too much, and while ventilation can mitigate that to some extent, you're much better off fixing the root cause with better air sealing and insulation.
|
|
#
?
Dec 29, 2014 18:36
|
|
|
Fo3 posted:My brother and I subdivided a block of land (inner city block, and we split side by side so both would have street frontage, making them narrow but long blocks). He built a house on his half, I sold my land. As it was on a slight hill, there's a basic 2 course limestone block and mortar retaining wall between them (E: about 3-4ft high). Guessing they are probably skipping through permits too? It sounds pretty outside of building code. My main worry would be would this structure start to put your bothers place at risk? Unless we are talking Detroit or something, most cities would be on top of this if an inspector got wind of the shenanigans.
|
|
#
?
Dec 29, 2014 19:43
|
|
|
I just tiled ~60 sq ft in my parents' upstairs master bathroom over Christmas. I did 700 square feet in my house earlier this year, and man, I am so much better at it now than when I started. I'm thrilled with how it turned out. All their lines are crisp and even, the cut lines against the tub/shower are perfect, and the layout is perfectly square. I wish I had done as good a job on my own kitchen (which was babby's first tiling job). Let me share with you the sins of the previous tilers. The guy who did it before was the stoner teenage son of a family friend who is a general contractor. He brought along one of his dumb buddies and did it in a day for $250 plus materials. They did this probably 10 years ago, and the floor started looking crappy within 3 years. This is on a plywood subfloor. - No thinset underneath the backerboard. - Drywall screws in the backerboard (surprise! totally rusted!) - Backerboard was Tetris pieced together using cut scraps where they should have used another full sheet or two. (or, how to save $20 on cement board and ruin a tiling job) - Didn't remove/replace the baseboards, tiled/grouted up to them instead. - Didn't lift the toilet flange to the finished height of the tiled floor. - Did it all in a day, not leaving dry time in between laying down tiles with thinset to doing the grouting. - Left a huge, marble sized booger of dried grout in a corner tile joint by the walls. - 50% of the tiles at this point had already lifted up or come loose. - Many of the tiles came up in the demo process clean as a whistle, with no thinset bonded on the backside (probably from too-dry thinset combed onto the floor). They were being held down by gravity, and laterally by the grout lines (which all had disintegrated by this point) And for our own crappy construction tales, the old man got a little aggressive with the floor chisel taking up the old floor and punched a hole in the existing toilet. Now unable to reuse it, that became a $250 mistake!
|
|
#
?
Dec 29, 2014 21:59
|
|
|
As long as your wall to sewer rough-in offset is a standard one (12 or 14 inches, iirc) I would recommend using that as an excuse to buy an American Standard Champion 4 throne. Throw away your plunger, you will probably never need it again. e: wow, literal crappy construction tales.
|
|
#
?
Dec 29, 2014 22:30
|
|
|
My parents have a hyper-powered toilet (my dad's 6'6", it was the one with the tallest seat). That thing is terrifying. You could absolutely lose a cat or small dog down it.
|
|
#
?
Dec 29, 2014 22:47
|
|
i like nice words
|
Too late! Already installed this one. http://www.homedepot.com/p/Delta-Brevard-2-piece-1-28-GPF-Elongated-Toilet-in-White-with-FlushIQ-C43903T-WH/205195168 All hail the robotoilet. 
|
|
#
?
Dec 29, 2014 22:55
|
|
|
So anyone remember the dude from Minnesota that got hosed over by predator0y flippers(http://www.hoodwinkedhouse.com/#sthash.53cl1lB3.XOOc8n9N.dpbs)? The county dropped the case against the flipper because they couldnt find him. Dude who owns the house finds him within an hour and sends the county investigator the info. They finally got back to him on the 10th of this month and told him a lawsuit would be pointless and that he'd never recoup his money. Talk about getting hosed.
|
|
#
?
Dec 29, 2014 23:42
|
|
|
This is where I think he'd be pretty justified in waiting a couple months for plausible deniability and then burning down that fucker's house. Not that I'd ever advocate doing such a thing mind you. 
|
|
#
?
Dec 29, 2014 23:45
|
|
|
Yeah this is just a case where you're only left with vigilante justice, or moving on.
|
|
#
?
Dec 29, 2014 23:57
|
|
|
Meanwhile, he hasn't stopped falling for scams, insulating his crawl space walls with R-1 bubble wrap.
|
|
#
?
Dec 30, 2014 00:04
|
|
|
Some people just live to be examples I suppose. 
|
|
#
?
Dec 30, 2014 01:03
|
|
|
canyoneer posted:Too late! Already installed this one.
|
|
#
?
Dec 30, 2014 01:20
|
|
|
On toilet talk, the toilet in my basement (probably from the mid 60s) flushes very slow. You have to hold the handle down for about 10-15 seconds while it weakly flushes. It is in a utility room and gets used only once or twice a month, so it isn't a huge deal, but I was thinking of replacing the toilet in my main bathroom and am wondering if it would be worth it to just go ahead and replace the toilet in the basement while I am at it, or if the slow flushing is more likely caused by low elevation and lack of gravity? The innards of the toilet appear to be completely functional and the flap opens all the way when the lever is depressed.
|
|
#
?
Dec 30, 2014 02:43
|
|
|
SkunkDuster posted:On toilet talk, the toilet in my basement (probably from the mid 60s) flushes very slow. You have to hold the handle down for about 10-15 seconds while it weakly flushes. It is in a utility room and gets used only once or twice a month, so it isn't a huge deal, but I was thinking of replacing the toilet in my main bathroom and am wondering if it would be worth it to just go ahead and replace the toilet in the basement while I am at it, or if the slow flushing is more likely caused by low elevation and lack of gravity? The innards of the toilet appear to be completely functional and the flap opens all the way when the lever is depressed. Do you float off the floor in that room if you aren't careful? No? Then it isn't low elevation and lack of gravity.
|
|
#
?
Dec 30, 2014 02:52
|
|
|
Make sure the tank is filling up to a reasonable level. You might need to adjust the float or something. Alternatively it might be one of those low-flow water-conservation toilets from the 80s that are totally ineffective.
|
|
#
?
Dec 30, 2014 02:59
|
|
|
kastein posted:Do you float off the floor in that room if you aren't careful? No? Then it isn't low elevation and lack of gravity. Maybe that IS the problem, which is why he didn't post in the plumbing thread, because that thread specifically deals with poo poo rolling DOWN hill. But yeah, like LF said: check the float, see if it needs adjustment (is the water getting like nowhere near the overflow?), then decide if it's just a lovely toilet (LOL)
|
|
#
?
Dec 30, 2014 03:00
|
|
|
SkunkDuster posted:On toilet talk, the toilet in my basement (probably from the mid 60s) flushes very slow. You have to hold the handle down for about 10-15 seconds while it weakly flushes. It is in a utility room and gets used only once or twice a month, so it isn't a huge deal, but I was thinking of replacing the toilet in my main bathroom and am wondering if it would be worth it to just go ahead and replace the toilet in the basement while I am at it, or if the slow flushing is more likely caused by low elevation and lack of gravity? The innards of the toilet appear to be completely functional and the flap opens all the way when the lever is depressed. kastein posted:Do you float off the floor in that room if you aren't careful? No? Then it isn't low elevation and lack of gravity. Yep. You can replace the inner parts of it and get it working like new. Or you can replace it with a modern toilet that uses 1/3rd of the water per flush and is less likely to give you problems again (do this). Sometimes your local utility will give you rebates for replacing am old toilet. My local utility will write me a check for up to $130 for replacing a low efficiency toilet manufactured prior to 1991.
|
|
#
?
Dec 30, 2014 03:02
|
|
|
I thought it might be that the drain pipe could be barely above the elevation of the sewer main out under the street, so that's why I mentioned the gravity/elevation part. I've adjusted the float the the back of the tank is full, it just seems like there is very little action going on in the bowl when I press the lever - it acts like there is a partial clog at the outlet but it has been that way for 10 years. If it doesn't seem likely that the elevation of the toilet relative to the sewer main would be the problem, then I'll install a new toilet. I just didn't want to pay for a new one only to discover that it wouldn't make any difference.
|
|
#
?
Dec 30, 2014 07:14
|
|
|
The tank at the back of the toilet is higher than the toilet bowl. That means the water in that tank will flow into the toilet bowl when you flush. If your sewer line were backing up, the toilet would overflow; if it's not overflowing, then that is not the issue. Low flow has to be somewhere between the water in the tank, and the toilet bowl. If when you flush, the water level rises to nearly the seat, and then slooooowly drains, that is when you have a partial clog or low-flow problem downstream of the toilet bowl somewhere. When it overflows, you have a near-total or total blockage.
|
|
#
?
Dec 30, 2014 08:23
|
|
|
Leperflesh posted:The tank at the back of the toilet is higher than the toilet bowl. That makes sense when you explain it like that. Thanks much!
|
|
#
?
Dec 31, 2014 01:44
|
|
|
My friend lived in a basement suite where the toilet's pipe actually had to go up-hill a meter or so. It would often back-up or just stink. They had no idea until they gutted the suite for other horrible code issues (structural drywall replacing what should have been an entire 8x8 post)
|
|
#
?
Dec 31, 2014 02:11
|
|
|
SkunkDuster posted:On toilet talk, the toilet in my basement (probably from the mid 60s) flushes very slow. You have to hold the handle down for about 10-15 seconds while it weakly flushes. It is in a utility room and gets used only once or twice a month, so it isn't a huge deal, but I was thinking of replacing the toilet in my main bathroom and am wondering if it would be worth it to just go ahead and replace the toilet in the basement while I am at it, or if the slow flushing is more likely caused by low elevation and lack of gravity? The innards of the toilet appear to be completely functional and the flap opens all the way when the lever is depressed. If the flapper opens all the way, then why do you have to keep holding down the handle for it to flush completely? You might not have the right flapper for that toilet. For instance, putting a regular flapper on some low flow toilets can make them do weird voodoo poo poo like flushing twice per lever press. How hard is your water? You might just have to clean out the jets in the bowl, both the big one at the bottom and the little ones around the underside of the rim. A wire coat hanger usually works pretty good for this, just be careful not to scratch the porcelain.
|
|
#
?
Dec 31, 2014 02:40
|
|
|
kid sinister posted:If the flapper opens all the way, then why do you have to keep holding down the handle for it to flush completely? You might not have the right flapper for that toilet. For instance, putting a regular flapper on some low flow toilets can make them do weird voodoo poo poo like flushing twice per lever press. It does absolutely sound like a problem with the innards, potentially a missmatch of parts. As far as I know, the above is the only way for the actual toilet itself to go wrong (well, short of shattering into a billion little pieces) and almost any other difficulty is remedied by replacing the insides. Many of the old, dubious-quality low-flow toilets can readily accommodate the old-fashioned brass and copper innards which will more or less turn them into a high-flow toilet. Personal experience also suggests that Kohler's modern low-flow toilets are very nearly as satisfactory as the old high-flow toilets if you decide that you're sick of looking at the old one, although personally I'd never replace a high-flow toilet due to the difficulty of obtaining another one.
|
|
#
?
Jan 1, 2015 01:17
|
|
|
I've looked at the many individual small toilet parts at Canadian Tire many a time and thought about rebuilding my own 80s basement toilet (which exhibits similar hold to flush behavior). I should try cleaning out the jets first, and then after that start taking it apart. Wonder if there are conversion kits to get a piston style flusher. e: rebuild kit is only $25, time to learn a new skill. Seat Safety Switch fucked around with this message at 04:24 on Jan 1, 2015 |
|
#
?
Jan 1, 2015 04:12
|
|
|
Hold-to-flush is not usually a function of the flapper's quality or condition. It is a function of where on the chain the float is positioned. The float is not intended to bob on the surface all the time, it is supposed to force the flap to stay up during a flush until the water level goes down past the float, allowing the flap to relax into position and re-seal. Try moving the float down to the bottom of the chain (as low as it can go while leaving the flapper shut), then securing it there. Most of the time hold-to-flush is caused by the float's securing mechanism (cotter pins a lot of the time) simply melting away, letting it slide up the chain to follow the water level. While you're in there, poke your tank-to-toilet bolts from inside the tank. If the toilet is more than about 15 years old then odds are good that they're mushy and need replacement. Splizwarf fucked around with this message at 09:06 on Jan 1, 2015 |
|
#
?
Jan 1, 2015 09:00
|
|
|
kid sinister posted:How hard is your water? You might just have to clean out the jets in the bowl, both the big one at the bottom and the little ones around the underside of the rim. A wire coat hanger usually works pretty good for this, just be careful not to scratch the porcelain. That's a good suggestion and it makes sense. The water here is pretty hard. A lot of calcium and some iron and other trace metals (based on my amateur observations of the stains in my tub and toilet). I think I am going to just replace the whole thing though. This isn't a situation where I am thinking, "well, it would be a nice toilet if it just flushed correctly". The whole thing is in terrible shape and the area in the bowl between the top of the water and the rim is just filthy with mineral deposits. I'm guessing that is a result of very slow leaking from the jets over the course of years combined with it only getting flushed once in a blue moon.
|
|
#
?
Jan 1, 2015 16:20
|
|
|
I just replaced the 2 toilets in my condo. Both where held down with screws drilled down into the iron flange. Explains why they each had an odd offset rotation.
|
|
#
?
Jan 4, 2015 09:40
|
|
|
Fun with electrical straight from the inspection report of the house I'm buying: Plugged in tester, sparked, and breaker blew, charred the wall pretty good too. Probably shorted to the metal box in the wall  They replaced the closet pullchain lightswitch with this...interesting setup. The wires at the switch are just insulated with tape.  Nothing super major. I'll probably still buy it if they'll fix the electrical crap. Maybe even if they won't, it's still a good deal.
|
|
#
?
Jan 5, 2015 23:00
|
|
|
I'm amazed that your inspector actually tested an outlet.
|
|
#
?
Jan 5, 2015 23:06
|
|
|
I've only ever used one general inspector and he made sure to go around and do outlet tests on them all. He even did very nice long detailed reports with picture and notations similar to the ones above. Guess I got lucky.
|
|
#
?
Jan 5, 2015 23:15
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 14, 2024 02:17 |
|
|
Bad Munki posted:I'm amazed that your inspector actually tested an outlet. My inspector tested all the outlets but I didn't get photos of things with arrows or anything, drat.
|
|
#
?
Jan 5, 2015 23:30
|
|