Fix it Fast: The Early Years 2008-2020

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slap me silly: Nov 1, 2009; Grimey Drawer

GobiasIndustries posted:

The bedroom electrical outlets in my duplex don't have grounding plugs; is replacing them with grounded outlets something I can do easily?

Do they have a ground wire present? Probably not. In which case, you should replace them with three-prong GFCIs and be aware that they are safe to plug grounded things into, but they don't provide an actual ground for the things.

# ? Mar 19, 2016 04:18

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# ? Jun 7, 2024 11:44

Slugworth: Feb 18, 2001; If two grown men can't make a pervert happy for a few minutes in order to watch a film about zombies, then maybe we should all just move to Iran!

Alright, can't imagine where else to post this, so here goes. I have these bin rack things that I am looking to get rid of:

They are full of assorted fasteners, and are thus heavier than poo poo. Planning on putting them on craigslist, but I honestly can't figure what to price them at. They are theoretically fairly valuable to the right person (I am seeing similar racks sold new for like a grand each), but it's a pretty drat specific buyer. I'm kind of thinking of just selling them for a little under their price in scrap, unless someone has a better idea?

# ? Mar 19, 2016 04:39

kid sinister: Nov 16, 2002

GobiasIndustries posted:

The bedroom electrical outlets in my duplex don't have grounding plugs; is replacing them with grounded outlets something I can do easily?

I wrote a 3 prong upgrade post that is linked in the OP of the electrical thread stickied here in DIY. I would post a link, but I'm on mobile right now.

slap me silly posted:

Do they have a ground wire present? Probably not. In which case, you should replace them with three-prong GFCIs and be aware that they are safe to plug grounded things into, but they don't provide an actual ground for the things.

GFCIs would definitely work, but there are few tests you can do to see if you could have legitimate grounding protection. I posted them in that post I mentioned above.

Slugworth posted:

Alright, can't imagine where else to post this, so here goes. I have these bin rack things that I am looking to get rid of:

They are full of assorted fasteners, and are thus heavier than poo poo. Planning on putting them on craigslist, but I honestly can't figure what to price them at. They are theoretically fairly valuable to the right person (I am seeing similar racks sold new for like a grand each), but it's a pretty drat specific buyer. I'm kind of thinking of just selling them for a little under their price in scrap, unless someone has a better idea?

I used to work for a fastener company in college. The only thing I can think of would be to call up local machine shops, fastener suppliers and manufacturers to see if they would want it. If not, there's already the local recycling center. You could at least get the scrap price for all that steel, and probably the racks and bins on Craigslist once the steel is gone.

How well sorted and labeled are they?

Edit: if they're zinc plated and you'd be interested in selling them piecemeal, you could maybe sell some to mom and pop hardware stores? I admit that there aren't too many of those left anymore though.

kid sinister fucked around with this message at 05:59 on Mar 19, 2016

# ? Mar 19, 2016 05:51

erosion: Dec 21, 2002; It's true and I'm tired of pretending it isn't

GobiasIndustries posted:

The bedroom electrical outlets in my duplex don't have grounding plugs; is replacing them with grounded outlets something I can do easily?

kid sinister posted:

I wrote a 3 prong upgrade post that is linked in the OP of the electrical thread stickied here in DIY. I would post a link, but I'm on mobile right now.

I can help you with that...

http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3090739&pagenumber=49&perpage=40#post399240083

kid sinister posted:

You should throw in a "can I upgrade to 3 prong outlets?" section too. Here, I rewrote a previous post of mine:

Can I legally upgrade to 3 prong receptacles?
Of course! Just how easy that will be depends on your existing wiring type.

The following is an explanation for modern wire insulation colors and their purposes. Old knob-and-tube wiring often used the same color insulation for both hot and neutral, making it an extra chore for you to figure out which is which in each box. Even better, when houses are being built, painters typically come before electricians do the final install of devices in boxes when the cables aren't energized yet, so don't be surprised if your wires are painted over. Ignore the painted color.

Black insulation is for hot wires. Every box in your home will have at least one of these. The narrower prong slot on a receptacle is for hot.

White insulation is for neutral. There's also white with a red stripe that's pretty recent, but recent cable also has a ground wire. Again every box will have one neutral, although sometimes white is repurposed to be a hot-carrier. If it has been repurposed, the white is supposed to be wrapped in black tape to show that it has been repurposed, but that wasn't always the case in the past. If you see any kind of switch or a 220V receptacle with one of their hot terminals attached to a white wire, then it's a good bet that that white wire has been repurposed. The wider prong slot on a receptacle is for neutral.

Green insulation and just plain, bare wiring are for grounding wires. Bare grounds are much more common in residential wiring. The round prong on a receptacle is for ground.

Red insulation is for secondary hot. This is used to carry another hot alongside a black wire. 220V receptacles and 220V hardwired appliances use them. They're also used to carry a switched hot to a different box, for example a ceiling fan where the switch controls the light but the fan is always powered, or a bedside duplex receptacle where one jack is always on for the alarm clock (via the black wire) and the other jack is switched for a nightstand lamp (via the red wire).

Blue insulation is for tertiary hot, but for residential you would almost only ever find this in very recent construction and very recent cable would have a ground wire. It's used in certain 3-way switch wiring methods after the 2011 code update requiring that all switch boxes have a dedicated neutral, as well as for some bathroom light/heat/fan combo fixtures. Also, ceiling fans like to use a blue braided wire internally for their light connections, but that isn't structural wiring.

Here are the tools you'll need from any hardware store:

a $5 circuit tester. These are very simple, just a tiny bulb with 2 probes. The probes even fit in receptacle prong slots. Touch either probe to hot and the other to neutral. If it lights up, then you know that both pieces of metal you touched the probes to have unbroken pathways all the way back to your panel box. Next try one of the grounding tests listed below and see if it lights up just as bright as touching hot to neutral.

a flathead screwdriver

a flashlight

a utility knife if your faceplates are painted over

The methods listed below don't require running any new cable in the walls. The first step is to check every box in your home, including receptacles, switches, light fixtures and hardwired appliances. That means taking off every faceplate and taking down every light fixture. I've found work from past electricians using left over cabling without ground from another job for a single box on a circuit, when the rest of that branch all has the ground wire. I've found the complete opposite of that too, where one box in the house has the ground wire, yet every other box in the house does not.

If you have a ground wire AND it's hooked up (check with the circuit tester between the black wire and the ground wire), go ahead and hook up those outlets! This is by far the easiest method, but also the most rare. Whenever they ran grounded cable in the old days, they would almost always ground the steel box it was in as described in the next section instead of the devices in those boxes. They usually only grounded directly to the switches and receptacles if they used nonconductive bakelite boxes, which weren't very common.

One way that electricians grounded steel boxes in the past was to bend the grounding wires back out their respective box entrances, twist them together outside the box and then attach them to the outside of the steel box via one of its gang screws. This method can be easy to miss sometimes if the ground wire was bent behind the sheath to the rear of the box where you can't see it. You can check if your boxes are like this by testing for a circuit between the black wire and the steel box. If so, that box is grounded. Either wire up some grounding pigtails with some green grounding screws if your boxes have holes with the right threads, some pigtails with green grounding clips if they don't, or use self-grounding receptacles. "Self-grounding" doesn't mean what you think by the way. That just means that the receptacle is designed to ground itself to the metal box it's mounted in via its own mounting screws, no pigtail required.

Do you have metal conduit? Conduit in finished living space isn't common in older homes (or new ones) but I have seen it before and it is a legal grounding method. It seems to be more common for branches in masonry walls, for example brick fireplace surrounds. It's also used in unfinished basements to protect cable from the ceiling down to wall boxes. Certain locales love conduit, like Chicago. To spot if you have conduit in a finished wall, look for cables entering the box through a knockout via a small pipe instead of a cable clamp against the back of the box. Again, test for grounding first between the black wire and the box. For this you would again need some pigtails with screws, pigtails with clips or self-grounding receptacles.

Do you have either Armored Cable (AC) or Metal-clad Cable (MC), not BX cable? They are all covered in a spirally-wrapped flexible metal jacket, and they're all still referred to by the trade name of "BX" since it's the oldest, even though the codebook never mentions "BX". Do you have wires entering a box via a knockout without an outer sheathe that aren't in a conduit? Sometimes installers would just poke BX/AC/MC through a cable clamp hole, tighten it down and be done with it. That being said, there are important differences between the 3.

The steel cover of BX was meant only for wire protection and not as a grounding path. That doesn't mean that it wasn't used in the past for grounding, and there are plenty of stories from electricians seeing BX runs glowing red without tripping breakers. A few places still allow BX for grounding if the BX is less than 6' in length, but I don't recommend it.

The upgrade from BX was AC, which came out in the 40s-50s. AC contains an additional copper or aluminum strip that combined with the steel jacket does offer proper grounding protection. Look for the strip where a cable enters a box. Sometimes installers would bend the strip back against the jacket and tighten down the knockout clamp on it.

MC is the newest and easiest to spot, simply because it contains a dedicated ground wire inside. The other difference is that it's wrapped in aluminum, which is a better conductor than steel. MC cable came out after 3-prong outlets became standard though, so I doubt you'll find a 2-pronger wired to this.

With MC you'll already have a ground wire, but for the other 2 (please don't use BX) you would again need some pigtails with screws, pigtails with clips or self-grounding receptacles.

Yet another way electricians wired things in the past was to actually use NM cable with ground, but not hook up the ground wire. Typically they would cut it off right at where the outer sheath was removed. If possible, look in your boxes and see if you can find any with the outer NM covering still on where you can reach it. Use some wire cutters or a pocket knife to carefully peel back the outer covering a bit. Push aside the paper insulators and look for a bare ground wire. If you find one, you might be able to gently tug on it with a pair of needlenose pliers and pull out a good inch, enough to twist an extension onto. In my home's old NM, the ground wire was actually bent zigzagged inside the outer sheath, so by tugging on it, I managed to straighten out an inch to work with. This is the hardest method to do without running new cable since you will have to take out every device out of every box and correct those grounding wires all the way to the grounding busbar in your breaker box. That's every receptacle, switch, light fixture, hardwired appliance and even the circuit breaker box itself. And if you break off any grounds tugging them out or twisting an extension onto them, you'll be hardpressed to pull out more. I would very much recommend push on wire connectors for attaching extensions onto wires cut so short in the box, but use wire nuts for everything else.

If you don't have any of these, you have 2 options. Well, certain areas require GFCIs upgrades regardless, but we'll get to those later. Anyway, your options are:

You can run new cable, but check your local codes before you do. Some places have their own requirements beyond the NEC codebook, like insisting that all new wiring has to be enclosed or protected somehow (conduit or MC), so if you would update your cabling, then you wouldn't be grandfathered in anymore. If they just follow the regular NEC though, code allows for running just a grounding wire to every box while still using the existing cabling for hot and neutral, but since you're going to the trouble of running new cable, you might want to think about replacing all of it. The nice part about just running a separate ground wire is that this method allows you to ground certain boxes that are just a portion of a larger circuit. Running new NM requires doing the whole circuit, or at least from that wiring branch's base up to the node in question and leave any farther branches ungrounded on their original wiring.

Whether running new NM or just ground, the gauge of your new cable must be at least as thick as the existing wiring on that circuit. Pay attention to the wire sizes. Most homes use a combination of 14# and 12#, for 15A and 20A breakers respectively. This is the only option for 220V receptacles (dryer, range, welder, etc), and they use even thicker wire than your regular receptacle circuits.

You can use GFCIs to offer similar protection as that grounding wire, with some stipulations. First, you have to put the included "NO EQUIPMENT GROUND" and "GFCI PROTECTED" stickers on all your receptacle faceplates. Well, if you use GFCI receptacles, then you still need the "NO EQUIPMENT GROUND" on the GFCI itself, but you can skip the "GFCI PROTECTED" on it. That one's superfluous. Second, some older surge suppressors actually need that grounding prong to suppress. In fact, some "attached equipment warranties" from the suppressor manufacturers won't pay out if that suppressor isn't grounded. Third, the motors in older major appliances can behave in such a manner that they resemble a surge to a GFCI and cause them to trip. The compressor in your refrigerator could ruin all your food by trying to keep it cold... I've also seen washing machines tripping GFCIs in the middle of a cycle.

Certain home areas now require GFCI protection regardless if they have a grounding wire or not. In these situations, it's up to you whether to ground them or not. Personally, I would. These areas now require GFCI protection: kitchen countertops, bathrooms, other sinks like wet bars and utility sinks, unfinished basement sections, crawlspaces, garages, laundry areas and anywhere outdoors. Outdoor outlets are also required to be weather-resistant too. GFCIs of any kind are required to be accessible. That means don't put them behind appliances that you would need to pull them out to reset them, or on the ceiling in your garage for your garage door opener.

As for GFCI installation, you have 2 options:

Use GFCI breakers. This is easier, but more expensive. GFCI breakers cost 3-4 times what a GFCI receptacle does. They're useful if you have very shallow boxes in your walls, and are usually the best option for old knob-and-tube wiring. If you have a wiring situation where putting in a GFCI outlet would violate the "accessible" requirement, then use a GFCI breaker instead. Breakers are manufacturer specific and sometimes model specific. Some manufacturers have bought out each other over the years with the new owner taking over the other's manufacturing, so don't be surprised if the brand of breaker you bought doesn't match the brand on your panel cover. In order to find the ones that will work with your panel, turn off the main on the panel, take one of the breakers out of your panel (ones marked "spare" are perfect), take it to the hardware store and find the compatible GFCI that will work with your box. Match the amperage of the breaker you are replacing.

For installation, turn off the main panel, pop out the old breaker, follow its hot wire back to where it enters the box to find its accompanying neutral wire, remove that neutral from the busbar, screw those hot and neutral wires into the appropriate terminals on the new GFCI breaker, screw the white pigtail from the GFCI breaker into place on the busbar, and put that breaker into place on the panel.

Use GFCI receptacles. These are much cheaper, but harder to install circuit-wise and cannot be installed everywhere. GFCI receptacles have an extra set of terminals that allow other devices farther down that branch to piggyback off of their protection. The hard part is that they need to be installed as the first receptacle on the circuit, and that can take awhile to determine. GFCI receptacles also have an "accessible" requirement. If that first receptacle is in a location that isn't accessible, for instance, in a garage on the ceiling for the door opener, then you can't install a GFCI there. If you have really old knob-and-tube wiring, it can be nearly impossible to trace the source and it will be a lot faster to just use a GFCI breaker.

For installation, the test involves turning off the circuit, pulling every receptacle on that circuit out of its box (don't remove yet), labeling and documenting where each wire goes (a numbered masking tape label and a cell phone pic are great for this), removing each receptacle, untwisting and separating every hot wire in those boxes, turning the circuit back on, and tracking down which single hot wire is still hot now. Mark it once it's found with a piece of tape or a different colored wire nut or something, turn the power back off, take that hot wire's accompanying neutral, hook up the source hot and source neutral to the GFCI, attach the other hots and neutrals in that box to its protected terminals, put the rest of the wires like they were before, then finally put 3 prong receptacles in the other boxes. By the way, if you do have that "major appliance falsely tripping a GFCI" problem, it might help to get a commercial-grade GFCI from a local electrical supplier. Home Depot and Lowes don't have them.

Last notes: 2008 code requires tamper-resistant receptacles nearly everywhere including all of those 3-prongers that you will now be adding, and yes they do make tamper-resistant GFCI receptacles. If you are upgrading outdoor receptacles, then also upgrade to in-use covers since they're also code now but weren't when 2-prongers were used.

Happy wiring!

That all said, I found it fairly simple, even in my ancient house. I bought some multistrand green grounding wire and a small pack of green grounding screws, along with a few three-hole outlets. I happen to have a multimeter so I was able to check voltages in this way. Cut power at the breaker, tested to verify no voltage, then yanked the old outlet out. Turned the breaker on, carefully verified I had 120v from the live wire to both neutral and the outlet box, as well as near-zero from neutral to outlet box. Cut the breaker off again and hooked everything up, attaching the ground wire to the outlet box. Turned it on and verified again with the multimeter, and I was on my merry way.

Even so, I might burn my house down because the wiring here is ridiculous. At some point I will go through all the wiring as suggested just to make sure I have a proper ground.

# ? Mar 19, 2016 08:31

Catatron Prime: Aug 23, 2010; IT ME; Toilet Rascal

Slugworth posted:

Alright, can't imagine where else to post this, so here goes. I have these bin rack things that I am looking to get rid of:

I'm kind of thinking of just selling them for a little under their price in scrap, unless someone has a better idea?

I betcha you could get at least a 100-200 bucks apiece for those things if you post them up on craigslist. I'd say put 140 OBO on a few and see where that gets you--everybody wants parts bin storage. If one sells for that, up the next to 200 OBO or something.

Horror freight sells lovely lightweight versions of those for 80$ apiece, and two of them would be equivalent to yours, so you know that's at least the floor of what they sell for.

Where are you located? If you're anywhere in Ohio, I'd love to snag one

# ? Mar 19, 2016 13:37

Slugworth: Feb 18, 2001; If two grown men can't make a pervert happy for a few minutes in order to watch a film about zombies, then maybe we should all just move to Iran!

OSU_Matthew posted:

Where are you located? If you're anywhere in Ohio, I'd love to snag one

Chicago area. 100-200 each on craigslist sounds reasonable. My scrap price idea as it turns out is an awful one, considering the current steel prices. Holy poo poo have they dropped since the last time I was at a yard. Unless I'm confused, steel seems to be at about a penny a pound right now. Putting the total scrap price of the half a ton of metal in that picture at about 10 bucks.

# ? Mar 19, 2016 14:37

FogHelmut: Dec 18, 2003

Ivy update - brush attachment on my weedwacker blows away the ground cover. But the vines are piled up 6-10" deep in some spots, which means the slope is steeper than I thought. The vines coming over the fence are now trunks 4" thick. I'm going to need heavier equipment.

# ? Mar 19, 2016 22:19

stubblyhead: Sep 13, 2007; That is treason, Johnny!; Fun Shoe

Leperflesh posted:

I would never want a battery electric mower, and only recommended a plug-in one.

I've got an EGO battery powered mower, and it's the tits. As soon as I see the string trimmer on sale I'm grabbing one of them as well.

# ? Mar 20, 2016 03:16

Rurutia: Jun 11, 2009

I need to know how paranoid I'm being. We replaced our garage door spring last year with an exposed assembly. Since then, I've read that it's dangerous if the spring breaks and potentially flies out. How dangerous is it actually and should we get someone out to put in a cover?

# ? Mar 20, 2016 15:01

Suburban Dad: Jan 10, 2007; Well what's attached to a leash that it made itself?
The punchline is the way that you've been fuckin' yourself

That spring broke on a rental place I was at, nothing happened in the aftermath. It is true that it has a lot of energy if it did fail but I don't really know if it can go anywhere since it's on a shaft, so it can only move left and right on that shaft. Check the ends of the shaft and if it doesn't look too sturdy, then I might do something but otherwise I wouldn't worry too much. I'd let somebody else weigh in that might know better, though. :v:

I'm looking for help on fixing a cool old chair that lost the assembly for one of the wheels. I'm a decently handy guy with cars but I don't know the best way to go about fixing it. Pictures will explain it better than words.

Cool rear end chair:

Failure:

Hogged out hole in bottom of chair:

Side view and view of one of the other good legs/rollers:

I don't want to throw a bunch of glue at it, and I thought I could just run a large, stubby bolt up through that would get some purchase on the larger hole but I don't want to damage the chair any more than I have to to fix it. What do you guys think would be best?

Suburban Dad fucked around with this message at 20:19 on Mar 20, 2016

# ? Mar 20, 2016 20:15

Omne: Jul 12, 2003; Orangedude Forever

Big day for me: I replaced a dimmer switch and ceiling fan switch today, for the first time.

Question: is my paranoia that I screwed something up, and things are slowly melting and my house is sure to burn down, normal?

# ? Mar 20, 2016 21:00

TooMuchAbstraction: Oct 14, 2012; I spent four years making
Waves of Steel
Hell yes I'm going to turn my avatar into an ad for it.; Fun Shoe

Larrymer posted:

I don't want to throw a bunch of glue at it, and I thought I could just run a large, stubby bolt up through that would get some purchase on the larger hole but I don't want to damage the chair any more than I have to to fix it. What do you guys think would be best?

I'd say glue a dowel into the hole, then drill into the dowel to install the new caster. This wouldn't be "a bunch" of glue, but you should fill that hole IMO or else whatever solution you end up using will be weak due to the lack of wood in the chair leg.

# ? Mar 20, 2016 21:14

kid sinister: Nov 16, 2002

TooMuchAbstraction posted:

I'd say glue a dowel into the hole, then drill into the dowel to install the new caster. This wouldn't be "a bunch" of glue, but you should fill that hole IMO or else whatever solution you end up using will be weak due to the lack of wood in the chair leg.

Seconded. Gluing in a dowel and drilling a new hole would be what I would do. You could also ask in the woodworking thread here in DIY.

Omne posted:

Big day for me: I replaced a dimmer switch and ceiling fan switch today, for the first time.

Question: is my paranoia that I screwed something up, and things are slowly melting and my house is sure to burn down, normal?

As long as you didn't do a total hack job on the wiring, you should be fine. However, a regular dimmer can sometimes cause problems with most CFL and some LED bulbs. Check if the bulbs say they are dimmable or not. They also make newer dimmers that work better with bulbs that weren't designed to be dimmable. I will warn you now though, dimming non-incandescent bulbs can be a crap shoot, regardless of the dimmer or bulb design. They can blink, work only in a very small range of the dimmer, etc.

# ? Mar 20, 2016 22:14

Omne: Jul 12, 2003; Orangedude Forever

kid sinister posted:

As long as you didn't do a total hack job on the wiring, you should be fine. However, a regular dimmer can sometimes cause problems with most CFL and some LED bulbs. Check if the bulbs say they are dimmable or not. They also make newer dimmers that work better with bulbs that weren't designed to be dimmable. I will warn you now though, dimming non-incandescent bulbs can be a crap shoot, regardless of the dimmer or bulb design. They can blink, work only in a very small range of the dimmer, etc.

Thanks, but everything currently works. The fan turns on, the lights turn on and dim just fine. I was more concerned with making sure I properly attached wires and closed everything up alright. So far so good; it was more about my paranoia and whether that was normal. The only DIY thing I've done (other than paint) is to change out door hardware.

# ? Mar 20, 2016 22:45

Safety Dance: Sep 10, 2007; Five degrees to starboard!

I've got this small yard filled with bricks, scrap wood, and waist-high weeds. What's the correct tool to remove the waist high weeds? I'm envisioning something like a big tiller or a brush mower.

e. You know, assuming I remove the scrap wood and bricks first.

Safety Dance fucked around with this message at 23:19 on Mar 20, 2016

# ? Mar 20, 2016 23:16

stubblyhead: Sep 13, 2007; That is treason, Johnny!; Fun Shoe

My basement only has a single practical exit, namely the stairs up to the garage and kitchen. This is obviously not the safest possible arrangement. There are transom style windows in every room of the basement, but it would be difficult to make a speedy escape through them in case of fire, and all but impossible for our dogs to get out. The bottom of the windows are about six feet off the floor, and the window wells outside are about a foot deep. What we'd like to do it deepen one of the window wells, knock out a portion of the basement wall, and put in a window that would be easier to escape through. I'm pretty handy, but this is not something I would attempt to do myself, but I'm still not sure where to start a project like this. Since I would be removing part of an outside wall I'm guessing I would need to get a structural engineer involved at some point? Would a general contractor help me find one, or vice versa? The house was built in the mid 1950s, and to the best of my knowledge the exterior walls are solid concrete. The basement is 100% finished in case that matters at all.

# ? Mar 20, 2016 23:16

Motronic: Nov 6, 2009

The standard solution to this is excavation, cutting the basement wall and putting a steel header over the opening, pouring concrete stairs and installing a bilco door. Most often with an exterior rated and insulated door in the foundation opening.

Quite popular around here as people try putting bedrooms in basements which makes a second means of egress required. Which also means you can't lock the bilco doors (from the outside) so you want an exterior door for security.

# ? Mar 20, 2016 23:45

CzarChasm: Mar 14, 2009; I don't like it when you're watching me eat.

I feel like this one should be obvious, but I wan to be sure. I'm planning on installing a magnetic knife strip in my kitchen, and it should be a simple job. The strip itself has two C-shaped mounts where you would slide a screw head into. But there are two things that have me concerned

First, everywhere I want to put it is tiled. In my head this means that I should use a masonry bit to go through the tile, screw into a stud (presumably) and leave just enough screw head poking above the surface to slip on the mounts. There were no instructions with the strip, so I'm kind of using best guesses.

Second, where I want to put it is above an outlet. If I can find studs, I should be golden, but, what are the chances, realistically, that I would hit anything electrical?

# ? Mar 21, 2016 04:44

kid sinister: Nov 16, 2002

Tile is mounted to a cement backer, so it can support a bit more weight between studs than drywall. Figure out where you want to mount it, make an X with masking tape over where you're going to drill, measure, mark the hole, then drill with a masonry bit. Don't use a hammer drill, or at least turn that function off. Plastic wall anchors should work fine.

There's hardly any chance that you would hit the wire. Electrical cabling is required to be mounted at least 1 1/4" back from the stud faces. Now add the depth of the cement backer and tile on top of that and you will have the depth your screws would need to be to even touch the cable.

# ? Mar 21, 2016 07:15

Rurutia: Jun 11, 2009

Err I accidentally flooded the kitchen last night with wood floors. It wasn't bad, maybe a couple millimeters of water and it was there for maybe an hour max. We cleaned up all the standing water with a wet carpet vacuum (not great on the suction but did the job...) and some towels, then left everything to dry. There's no buckling, cupping, or anything. However, this morning I found that there was one (previously squeaky) floor board that would bubble a little bit at the corner when you stepped on it.

I'm putting a Vornado fan on it, putting up the heat, and planning on picking up a shop-vac. Should I be seriously thinking about hiring a contractor? Also what kind of shop-vac should I get? Is there a difference besides volume between:

http://www.lowes.com/pd_549707-20097-9313211_1z11p8g__?productId=50159055&pl=1

and

http://www.lowes.com/pd_757597-20097-8891411_1z11p8g__?productId=999957747&pl=1

?

# ? Mar 21, 2016 14:42

Gounads: Mar 13, 2013; Where am I?
How did I get here?

I'd imagine it depends... real solid wood, engineered hardwood, or cheap laminate?

# ? Mar 21, 2016 14:50

Rurutia: Jun 11, 2009

I'm not sure. House was built in 2008, I think it's the cheap stuff that's like plywood with a layer on top? But doesn't look anywhere as good as the engineered hardwood I've seen.

# ? Mar 21, 2016 14:52

rdb: Jul 8, 2002; chicken mctesticles?

Where do I get a new concrete well cap? It's like a 4' circle of concrete. Turns out it was not reinforced and a 1" drop on to the wet dirt was enough to shatter it.

Also, does anyone have any recommendations for quality shallow well pumps? Said pump supplies water to a barn. It lives in a 6' deep, 4' diameter pit outdoors near to the well. Its deep enough that it doesn't freeze and it sits on a block of concrete so it doesn't get wet. This will be my 4th in 2 years. Getting tired of changing them out.

# ? Mar 21, 2016 15:27

Flash Gordon Ramsay: Sep 28, 2004; Grimey Drawer

Rurutia posted:

I'm not sure. House was built in 2008, I think it's the cheap stuff that's like plywood with a layer on top? But doesn't look anywhere as good as the engineered hardwood I've seen.

I would run a dehumidifier for a couple of days.

# ? Mar 21, 2016 16:23

signalnoise: Mar 7, 2008; i was told my old av was distracting

What tool should I use to cut the right size hole to install a wall plate mounting bracket?

# ? Mar 21, 2016 23:30

Rurutia: Jun 11, 2009

Flash Gordon Ramsay posted:

I would run a dehumidifier for a couple of days.

Ok, I picked up a powdery dessicant to put on the thing, picked up a shop vac, and borrowed my mom's dehumidifier. Let's see how this goes.

# ? Mar 21, 2016 23:34

Flash Gordon Ramsay: Sep 28, 2004; Grimey Drawer

signalnoise posted:

What tool should I use to cut the right size hole to install a wall plate mounting bracket?

Jab saw

http://smile.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_2?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=jab+saw&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3Ajab+saw

You can also use a dremel or a rotozip, but for one hole it's ot worth buying one of those if you don't have other uses for it.

This is assuming its drywall you need to cut through.

# ? Mar 22, 2016 00:08

signalnoise: Mar 7, 2008; i was told my old av was distracting

Flash Gordon Ramsay posted:

Jab saw

http://smile.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_2?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=jab+saw&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3Ajab+saw

You can also use a dremel or a rotozip, but for one hole it's ot worth buying one of those if you don't have other uses for it.

This is assuming its drywall you need to cut through.

I need to install about 12 of them in plywood boxes.

So something like this? http://www.homedepot.com/p/Ryobi-ONE-18-Volt-Speed-Saw-Rotary-Cutter-Tool-Only-P531/205626511

signalnoise fucked around with this message at 00:18 on Mar 22, 2016

# ? Mar 22, 2016 00:15

stubblyhead: Sep 13, 2007; That is treason, Johnny!; Fun Shoe

Yes, though I would not recommend that brand. I've never had a ryobi tool that didn't turn out to be complete trash.

# ? Mar 22, 2016 01:09

kid sinister: Nov 16, 2002

signalnoise posted:

I need to install about 12 of them in plywood boxes.

So something like this? http://www.homedepot.com/p/Ryobi-ONE-18-Volt-Speed-Saw-Rotary-Cutter-Tool-Only-P531/205626511

You could do it with an oscillating tool too.

# ? Mar 22, 2016 07:48

DrBouvenstein: Feb 28, 2007; I think I'm a doctor, but that doesn't make me a doctor. This fancy avatar does.

Edit: Solved in the plumbing thread.

DrBouvenstein fucked around with this message at 15:53 on Mar 23, 2016

# ? Mar 22, 2016 17:31

Omne: Jul 12, 2003; Orangedude Forever

I do not like builder-grade wire shelves, especially those in the pantry. I would like to replace them with wood shelves. The pantry is 48" wide and 24" deep, which is way too deep to be useful, especially at the top and bottom. I'd like to create some L-shaped shelves, but I'm wondering what a good size would be. Should the shelves be 16" deep? 12" deep?

Would pine be a good wood for this project?

# ? Mar 23, 2016 01:55

Fender Anarchist: May 20, 2009; Fender Anarchist

How wide are the current shelves and do they work for you? Is the layout fine on those?

Just about any wood should work for the shelves, you're not likely to overload the shelves with food. I'd be more concerned about the supports.

# ? Mar 23, 2016 02:09

bobua: Mar 23, 2003; I'd trade it all for just a little more.

I want to install some suntuf corrugated plastic panels on my 12x14 pergola to reduce rain\sun. The website claims you need a lot of pitch, and I have 0... I'm assuming all of the pitch is for water proof\snow weight bearing. I'm in texas so any real accumulation of snow is rare, plus the pergola is on 8x8 posts with a LOT of cedar cross beams. On top of that, a little water leakage is no big deal, since even a little wind is going to get everything under the roof wet anyway...

Am I okay, or is there something else I should be considerring.

# ? Mar 23, 2016 02:33

cowofwar: Jul 30, 2002; by Athanatos

Full shelf made of wood is very heavy do make sure you have studs.

# ? Mar 23, 2016 02:43

TooMuchAbstraction: Oct 14, 2012; I spent four years making
Waves of Steel
Hell yes I'm going to turn my avatar into an ad for it.; Fun Shoe

cowofwar posted:

Full shelf made of wood is very heavy do make sure you have studs.

I mean, yes, secure to studs, but the actual shelf itself won't be very heavy. Pine is perfectly fine for shelves -- the shelves in my garage are made of pine and I pile all kinds of heavy crap on them with no sign of sagging. The easiest way to do this in fact would be to get some pine boards, some of those 90� brackets, screw the brackets into some studs, then attach the brackets to the pine boards.

# ? Mar 23, 2016 02:46

Vulcan: Mar 24, 2005; Motobike

What if you want nicer looking than metal brackets because its the pantry in a nice kitchen and not the basement or workshop?

# ? Mar 23, 2016 03:55

Atticus_1354: Dec 10, 2006; barkbarkbarkbarkbarkbarkbarkbarkbarkbarkbarkbarkbarkbarkbarkbarkbarkbarkbarkbarkbarkbarkbarkbarkbarkbarkbarkbarkbarkbarkbarkbarkbarkbarkbarkbarkbarkbarkbarkbarkbarkbarkbarkbarkbarkbarkbarkbarkbarkbarkbarkbarkbarkbarkbarkbarkbarkbarkbarkbarkbarkbarkbarkbarkbarkbarkbarkbarkbarkbarkbarkbarkbarkbark