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So what're the best practices for keeping house plumbing drains running smoothly? I think I've got a partial clog starting to form somewhere along the line, as I can occasionally hear a glug glug when draining a lot of water, and I wasn't sure the best way to go about dislodging the buildup without having to auger it. It's an old house with old cast iron waste pipes in places, so I didn't want to do anything too caustic that could damage them.
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Jul 26, 2016 04:01
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Lol my mom's considering reroofing her house with metal, and asking me and my brother to do the work, and will pay us. Pretty sure it'd be cheaper to hire a company, no? I make $14/hour and lil' bro is a surveyor's assistant so probs $20/hr. Also I'm too fuckin' old to climb up on a roof, so I'd charge a premium for that (and maybe subcontract some kid).
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Jul 26, 2016 06:05
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Bad Angus! Bad!
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FogHelmut posted:Any ideas for a knee wall door? The opening is like 22.5" wide x 29" tall, I don't know if these are standard. The previous owners have a piece of 1/8" plywood poorly screwed into the drywall. IKEA's got you covered. Just add some hinges, screw them in to a stud, and you're probably set.
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Jul 26, 2016 08:26
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Mercury Ballistic posted:I have a 1950s home, 1000 sq feet or so with a finished English basement and garage. My Air handler return is in the upstairs living area. Am I wrong in assuming that if I were to make the handler able to draw supply air from my cool basement vs the slightly warmer upstairs, I could shorten the duty cue on my ac? My reckoning is that the ac will be able to work faster with the cooler supply air. I would ideally want it back to upstairs in the winter for the same effect. I also close the registers is the basement all summer, and open them in the winter whatever that is worth. If your return air is colder, yes your discharge air will be able to get colder, but that is not the same as most effectively cooling the room. Comfort is maximized by creating a mixed air zone where you don't sit in a hot layer but also don't have very cold air blow on you. Putting a return at the top of a room pulls the hottest air out so that the heat can be removed at the evaporator coil, and it prevents the air from stratifying into a static hot layer up high with a mixed zone where air is being changed at your feet. It's a lot easier to create this air flow in a commercial setting were a floor is usually defined within 9-16 vertical feet on one level, but the principle is the same in residential. Also, be judicious with closing dampers. Seasonal re-balancing is pretty necessary in older homes, but avoid extremes where too much is closed because you want to maintain a certain amount of air flow over the coil.
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Jul 26, 2016 13:30
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glynnenstein posted:If your return air is colder, yes your discharge air will be able to get colder, but that is not the same as most effectively cooling the room. Comfort is maximized by creating a mixed air zone where you don't sit in a hot layer but also don't have very cold air blow on you. Putting a return at the top of a room pulls the hottest air out so that the heat can be removed at the evaporator coil, and it prevents the air from stratifying into a static hot layer up high with a mixed zone where air is being changed at your feet. It's a lot easier to create this air flow in a commercial setting were a floor is usually defined within 9-16 vertical feet on one level, but the principle is the same in residential. Thank you for this. I have been keeping basement dampers closed in summer and it makes a difference. Come winter I open them with the reasoning the hot air will percolate up through the house. Our energy usage is still fine, I was just wondering if I could eck out some more.
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Jul 26, 2016 15:58
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Any tips for refinishing / refacing melamine? Previous owner tore out a wet bar that was set a few feet into the wall, in it's place he put in a well built, but super ugly set of built-in shelves (for AV equipment). He used black melamine that he edge banded with a really dark stained oak. He was going for a rustic look i think... Anyway, now that I've redone the house with classic white trim, the built-in looks even shittier. Is there any chance that I reface the box and shelves with white Formica, paint, veneer, ANYTHING and it comes out looking decent? My first choice would be to scrap the whole thing and do a new built in but time is not on my side with this one. Looking for a something that's a weekend get-er-done.
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Jul 26, 2016 18:27
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Delivery McGee posted:Lol my mom's considering reroofing her house with metal, and asking me and my brother to do the work, and will pay us.
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Jul 26, 2016 19:35
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I swapped the LED tubes in the pantry room for the known-good ones in the laundry room and it turns out both tubes I bought on Saturday are bad. What are the odds on that? I was dreading having to replace the ballast or the fixture or whatever, but I just ran over to Ace and exchanged the bad tubes for another pair and hey, they light up! Plus my new washing machine was installed today and compared to a 1977 Montgomery Ward, it's absolutely tits  Thanks for the advice! 
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Jul 27, 2016 00:43
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I'm neck deep into remodeling an old (1905) house that appears to have undergone renovations in the 30s and 60s ("Could you put asbestos in everywhere?") and I have a few questions. 1. We're extending a bathroom and want to put in a window. The exterior is a thick 1930's stucco. I've heard that it can be difficult to cut into old stucco because it can cause cracks. Does anyone have any tips to mitigate this or is this a "hire a professional" type of problem? 2. When I removed the plaster from the mud room in the back, I found out that the room was actually a porch that was enclosed in the 1930's remodel. The two original walls retain their original oh-its-lead-painted-don't-worry-about-it wood siding. I'm redoing the plumbing from the other side and have already cut out the access panels that I need. Would it be an okay idea to just drywall over the old wood and be done with it? The other option is to rip it all off, but that means resealing the place and going through the whole lead removal dance again. 3. This isn't a question, here's my sweet original circuit box for the range:  Seems safe! 
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Jul 27, 2016 02:04
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Subterfrugal posted:2. When I removed the plaster from the mud room in the back, I found out that the room was actually a porch that was enclosed in the 1930's remodel. The two original walls retain their original oh-its-lead-painted-don't-worry-about-it wood siding. I'm redoing the plumbing from the other side and have already cut out the access panels that I need. Would it be an okay idea to just drywall over the old wood and be done with it? The other option is to rip it all off, but that means resealing the place and going through the whole lead removal dance again. I'm not as well versed as some of the other people here, but I would say in general, if you have the time and resources to redo something in a better way, do so. Yes, you did just deal with the lead in part, but if I were planning on living in a house where I might some day have to go through the steps again, but I have the resources now, I'd do it now. Yeah, it's a pain in the rear end, but would you rather do it now, before you've done all the plumbing stuff, or after?
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Jul 27, 2016 03:47
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hogmartin posted:I swapped the LED tubes in the pantry room for the known-good ones in the laundry room and it turns out both tubes I bought on Saturday are bad. What are the odds on that? If the shipping was rough you'd find a cluster of failing equipment, at least that's how it often went in the restaurant business. Nice, LEDs seem like all-around positive.
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Jul 27, 2016 04:48
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Subterfrugal posted:
Would just painting it with encapsulating paint not look good? If not I don't see anything wrong with putting drywall over it.
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Jul 27, 2016 13:31
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I have a ceiling fan which became unbalanced after a contractor accidentally tilted a 2x4 into the path of the blades. I spent a while trying to fix the pitch and angle of the affected blades, and more time trying to adjust the others to exactly match. Even after doing this, however, I can only run the fan at medium--the imbalance is still awful on high speed. Instead of spending another 45 minute dicking around with this piece of poo poo fan, can I save myself a lot of trouble by replacing the fan blade arms with brand new ones? Assuming that none of my fan blades are appreciably warped or anything, replacing the arms should bring all the blades back to the same pitch and angle, right?
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Jul 27, 2016 23:06
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Slanderer posted:I have a ceiling fan which became unbalanced after a contractor accidentally tilted a 2x4 into the path of the blades. I spent a while trying to fix the pitch and angle of the affected blades, and more time trying to adjust the others to exactly match. Even after doing this, however, I can only run the fan at medium--the imbalance is still awful on high speed. Instead of spending another 45 minute dicking around with this piece of poo poo fan, can I save myself a lot of trouble by replacing the fan blade arms with brand new ones? Assuming that none of my fan blades are appreciably warped or anything, replacing the arms should bring all the blades back to the same pitch and angle, right? Can you even remove the arms? All the fans I recall are assembled save the blades and mount. I would just get a new one as I dont think you will have much luck finding parts. Why can't the contractor replace what he broke?
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Jul 27, 2016 23:31
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I have been shopping around thrift stores and garage sales for hand made mugs, bowls, and other dishes. Things with engraved stuff like "for mom" or signatures on the bottom made with a toothpick before the item was put through a kiln. I would like to eventually break these and repair them in a similar way to kintsugi, and use them as my main set of dishware. Does anyone have any advice on good looking binding agents? It doesn't have to be gold, but must work on ceramic and clay.
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Jul 27, 2016 23:59
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William Stoner posted:Does anyone have any advice on good looking binding agents? It doesn't have to be gold, but must work on ceramic and clay. Ask in the woodworking thread here in DIY. I've seen all kinds of epoxies with additives and such to fill gaps in woodwork.
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Jul 28, 2016 01:02
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William Stoner posted:I have been shopping around thrift stores and garage sales for hand made mugs, bowls, and other dishes. Things with engraved stuff like "for mom" or signatures on the bottom made with a toothpick before the item was put through a kiln. I'm a potter and I'm familiar with this type of repair. It's most successful with e6000 and then using gold flake on top. And using this as your main set of dining ware is a terrible idea. The ware isn't going to be able to take the stress of hot and cold. You can't microwave it. You can't put it through the dishwasher. And because you are buying the pots 2nd hand you don't know if any of the glazes are going to leach heavy metal into your food. It's a fun idea, but do it as some vases or decorative bowls. Don't eat out of it. Seriously you could die.
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Jul 28, 2016 02:48
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Mercury Ballistic posted:Can you even remove the arms? All the fans I recall are assembled save the blades and mount. I would just get a new one as I dont think you will have much luck finding parts. Why can't the contractor replace what he broke? I shouldn't have said "contractor", because that was being way too generous. It was really the (almost-certainly uninsured) handyman my landlord hires, who breaks something every time he comes over (whether its gouging a hole in the wall while moving an air conditioner, destroying the o-rings in a faucet and "fixing" it shutting off the inlets and going home, etc...). For $15, I will gladly fix something in my apartment if it means this guy doesn't stop by (at least the landlords paid me for the new faucet when I replaced it myself). If you're asking why the landlords keeps hiring him, I'm pretty sure it's because he's intellectually handicapped and they pay him below minimum wage under the table. Anyway, yes, the arms are definitely replaceable. They have 3 holes where they are screwed on to the tops of the blades, and 2 holes for screwing them onto the motor. I haven't taken measurements yet, but they match the general hole pattern of something like this: http://www.homedepot.com/p/Westinghouse-Replacement-Fan-Blade-Arms-5-Pack-7740100/203077893
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Jul 28, 2016 03:27
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We're just moving in to our new (to us) house, and I noticed that one room has a dual ethernet wall plate, but I couldn't find any other ethernet ports in the whole house. Any idea what these are for it could be connected to?
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Jul 28, 2016 04:06
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hooah posted:We're just moving in to our new (to us) house, and I noticed that one room has a dual ethernet wall plate, but I couldn't find any other ethernet ports in the whole house. Any idea what these are for it could be connected to? Are you sure it's not a phone line connector?
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Jul 28, 2016 04:11
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William Stoner posted:I have been shopping around thrift stores and garage sales for hand made mugs, bowls, and other dishes. Things with engraved stuff like "for mom" or signatures on the bottom made with a toothpick before the item was put through a kiln. XmasGiftFromWife posted:I'm a potter and I'm familiar with this type of repair. It's most successful with e6000 and then using gold flake on top. E6000 is always the answer, but it's not food safe. Or human safe. It's gnarly stuff.
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Jul 28, 2016 04:28
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XmasGiftFromWife posted:I'm a potter and I'm familiar with this type of repair. It's most successful with e6000 and then using gold flake on top. Thanks for the advice. I will use e6000 and switch the dishware to planters instead of food. Any more info about the heavy metal problem would be appreciated. My partner and I just moved into an apartment and we still need to stock dishware.
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Jul 28, 2016 05:29
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William Stoner posted:Thanks for the advice. I will use e6000 and switch the dishware to planters instead of food. Any more info about the heavy metal problem would be appreciated. My partner and I just moved into an apartment and we still need to stock dishware. Go to like Ross or TJMaxx and buy a box-o-dishes for under $100. We love ours and it all matches. It's like 8x dinner plates, bowls, mugs, bread plates. Enjoy your new pots.
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Jul 28, 2016 05:36
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Slanderer posted:I shouldn't have said "contractor", because that was being way too generous. It was really the (almost-certainly uninsured) handyman my landlord hires, who breaks something every time he comes over (whether its gouging a hole in the wall while moving an air conditioner, destroying the o-rings in a faucet and "fixing" it shutting off the inlets and going home, etc...). For $15, I will gladly fix something in my apartment if it means this guy doesn't stop by (at least the landlords paid me for the new faucet when I replaced it myself). If you're asking why the landlords keeps hiring him, I'm pretty sure it's because he's intellectually handicapped and they pay him below minimum wage under the table. If 'universal' blade holders will fit it, it's probably a harbor breeze/hampton bay smc-manufacture and you should probably just replace it. If it's an older Hunter/Casablanca/Emerson or other higher end, you can get a new set of blade holders from the maker.
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Jul 28, 2016 05:42
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H110Hawk posted:Go to like Ross or TJMaxx and buy a box-o-dishes for under $100. We love ours and it all matches. It's like 8x dinner plates, bowls, mugs, bread plates. Enjoy your new pots. Actually, better yet, go to Ikea and get a whole set for $20. I'm not exaggerating, they're that cheap and fantastic quality.
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Jul 28, 2016 07:31
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hooah posted:We're just moving in to our new (to us) house, and I noticed that one room has a dual ethernet wall plate, but I couldn't find any other ethernet ports in the whole house. Any idea what these are for it could be connected to? I've very often found wall cable in a basement or closet (look for the MPOE - minimum point of entry where you'll find phone/cable connections inside) that was simply terminated with RJ45s. And yeah, that's the wrong way to do it but it's common. They probably tied them up into the ceiling of whatever area that is so there weren't a couple of cables just hanging.
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Jul 28, 2016 15:35
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hooah posted:We're just moving in to our new (to us) house, and I noticed that one room has a dual ethernet wall plate, but I couldn't find any other ethernet ports in the whole house. Any idea what these are for it could be connected to? If it's just a single room then it's likely a VoIP phone line installed by the ISP.
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Jul 28, 2016 15:52
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I'm beginning planning stages of building some shelves similar to the ones in this blog post. Instead of painting the plywood sheath, I'd prefer to give it a dark stain to fit the style of our kitchen. I'm not the most well versed in wood working, will stain work for this project or will it look weird with the multiple cuts of plywood tacked together? And if stain is fine in this scenario, what sort of plywood should I be looking for to maximize an interesting grain/stained look?
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Jul 28, 2016 15:56
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couldcareless posted:I'm beginning planning stages of building some shelves similar to the ones in this blog post. Instead of painting the plywood sheath, I'd prefer to give it a dark stain to fit the style of our kitchen. Probably the reason they painted their shelves is because that makes it a lot easier to hide the edges of the plywood, which otherwise make it obvious that you aren't using "real" wood. Some people do like having exposed plywood edges. If you don't, and you want to show off grain, then you need to get plywood that has a nice veneer (you can buy oak or maple veneer plywood; it's more expensive than the regular kind, but not excessively so), and you need to get strips of veneer to glue onto the edges of your plywood, to make it look to the casual viewer like it's not plywood. Veneer is kind of fiddly, and even if you do a good job it won't stand up to a close look due to the seams and mismatched grain, but I doubt anyone's going to be looking that closely at your shelves. Otherwise, you can totally stain plywood and it'll look fine, but uncovered edges will soak up more stain and thus be darker than the surface of the plywood. Always test your stains on a scrap piece of wood so you can be certain you get the color you want.
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Jul 28, 2016 16:05
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Motronic posted:I've very often found wall cable in a basement or closet (look for the MPOE - minimum point of entry where you'll find phone/cable connections inside) that was simply terminated with RJ45s. And yeah, that's the wrong way to do it but it's common. They probably tied them up into the ceiling of whatever area that is so there weren't a couple of cables just hanging. Or even screwed to an exterior wall of the house. It will be labeled with your local incumbent providers name (or past name, a-la GTE->Verizon->Frontier, Bell->ATT.) Our ethernet jack runs straight from the ONT bolted to the back of our house to my router. If you can't see the cable entering the box pop it open (some have varying degrees of lock/proprietary bolt holding them closed. Don't break anything opening it, don't fiddle with anything inside.)
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Jul 28, 2016 16:21
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H110Hawk posted:Or even screwed to an exterior wall of the house. It will be labeled with your local incumbent providers name (or past name, a-la GTE->Verizon->Frontier, Bell->ATT.) Our ethernet jack runs straight from the ONT bolted to the back of our house to my router. If you can't see the cable entering the box pop it open (some have varying degrees of lock/proprietary bolt holding them closed. Don't break anything opening it, don't fiddle with anything inside.) That's also a good point. If your MPOE is actually outside it's likely to be there. I know for FIOS without a TV package you can/might/will get ethernet from the ONT rather than coax so this is a possibility. Typically they tie the phone jack(s) in the ONT to the existing phone wiring in the house so I don't know what a second RJ45 might be in the situation but I've seen setups where they are just a run to somewhere else inside the house (usually on a different floor) so you can tie in a home office or add a second AP in a larger home.
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Jul 28, 2016 16:27
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Hi people. Recently I've been entertaining the thought of setting up a wall-mounted loft bed in my room. My living situation is cramped and will continue to be so for the next 3-4 years. If I could free up some floor space that'd be amazing. Problem is, I'm a heavy guy - 260 pounds, give or take - and stability is a concern. With the bed itself including the frame I might end up with another 100 pounds or so. I've been looking at commercially available loft bed frames and they feel a tad too rickety for my taste (even if I'd fix 'em to the walls). So I figured I'd build my own sturdy frame with some help from a carpenter buddy. Thing is, I'd like to forgo 3/4's of the legs if possible, i.e. secure the frame to the walls and just use the one leg to support the free corner. Like so:  (Please excuse the lovely drawing) Would this be viable, using big-rear end screws and fasteners? My room used to be part of an old stairwell; the walls are brick and the floor is concrete beneath a thin plastic mat. My worry is that the brick wouldn't be able to handle the strain, but maybe that fear is unfounded?
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Jul 28, 2016 16:29
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TooMuchAbstraction posted:Probably the reason they painted their shelves is because that makes it a lot easier to hide the edges of the plywood, which otherwise make it obvious that you aren't using "real" wood. Some people do like having exposed plywood edges. If you don't, and you want to show off grain, then you need to get plywood that has a nice veneer (you can buy oak or maple veneer plywood; it's more expensive than the regular kind, but not excessively so), and you need to get strips of veneer to glue onto the edges of your plywood, to make it look to the casual viewer like it's not plywood. That makes sense, didn't consider the edges coloring completely different. Might have to think of this because sticking on a veneer is less than desirable
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Jul 28, 2016 16:44
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Motronic posted:That's also a good point. If your MPOE is actually outside it's likely to be there. Or even with a TV package! You only need their moca router garbage if you have >1 TV. Cablecard in a TiVo + standard home wifi router both home run to the ONT. And the two RJ45 jacks could even be super jankily split from a single piece of cat5 to form 2 functioning phone lines with RJ45/RJ11 combo keystones. The janky possibilities are endless!
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Jul 28, 2016 16:45
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couldcareless posted:That makes sense, didn't consider the edges coloring completely different. Might have to think of this because sticking on a veneer is less than desirable One other thing you might be able to do is use 45° mitered cuts to hide the plywood edges. That will make it trickier to join the plywood pieces together though; you might have better luck if you attached each individual piece to the frame.
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Jul 28, 2016 16:47
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anatomi posted:My worry is that the brick wouldn't be able to handle the strain, but maybe that fear is unfounded? You could build it with four legs and still fasten two sides to the walls. That way the load isn't being carried solely by the walls, and it'll still be a lot more stable than freestanding. Maybe 2"x4" legs for the back three corners, and a 4"x4" leg for the front corner. Add some bracing for the front leg in case you drunkenly run into it or something. The rear legs and edges of the bed support can be fastened to the brick using Tapcon or other masonry-specific fasteners. e. Again I didn't read very closely, and see that you considered fastening a 4-leg loft to the wall already. I think your proposed 1-leg design would work with the correct masonry fasteners, but you could always add additional horizontal blocking or steel braces below the platform edges if you're worried about it. I'd be a little concerned about the dynamic loading of getting in and out of the bed every day with the masonry fasteners, but it probably depends on whether the wall is soft old brick, concrete block, etc. One Day Fish Sale fucked around with this message at 18:33 on Jul 28, 2016 |
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Jul 28, 2016 18:29
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I built a washer/dryer stand for my laundry room that I'm considering just attaching to the floor. Should I A: attach it to the subfloor and lay laminate flooring up to it or B: put laminate flooring on the whole floor and attach the stand through it? The new subfloor is 3/8 particle board that's going over lead-painted wood planks.
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Jul 28, 2016 20:39
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I wouldn't put particle board in a laundry room. To big a chance for moisture to infiltrate it.
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Jul 28, 2016 20:45
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Do you mean particle board or OSB/chip board? Particle board is what IKEA furniture is made of, OSB is a common subfloor. Plywood would be better either way if there's any chance of moisture. FCKGW fucked around with this message at 21:39 on Jul 28, 2016 |
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Jul 28, 2016 20:48
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OSB Chip board. Sorry, used the wrong term.
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Jul 28, 2016 20:56
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