wolrah posted:

From reddit:

wolrah posted:

From reddit:

wooger posted:

Probably true. Also the open concept houses with kitchen + diner + living room all in one room don't seem viable if you do cook all the time, at least not if there are more than 2 of you.

If I want to listen to the radio while I cook, everyone else has to listen too. Even if they're watching TV.

wolrah posted:

From reddit:

wooger posted:

Probably true. Also the open concept houses with kitchen + diner + living room all in one room don't seem viable if you do cook all the time, at least not if there are more than 2 of you.

If I want to listen to the radio while I cook, everyone else has to listen too. Even if they're watching TV.

Suspect Bucket posted:

The rule in my house is whoever's cooking gets to pick what's on tv. If you don't like it, hang out on the patio or in your room with your magical pocket sized media consumption device. help cook.

canyoneer posted:

Yeah I have one and I have mixed feelings about it. It's nice that you don't have to be isolated while cooking, but I have a crappy builder-grade dishwasher that is loud as crap so I hear it in like half the square footage of the home when it's running.

EKDS5k posted:

We had that problem for the last 5 years. We rent, and the dishwasher was a 30 year old Frigidaire that was loud as poo poo. Forget watching TV or even having a conversation near it. A few weeks ago the pump ate poo poo and so the landlord replaced it with a new one and man is it quiet. Basically we can't tell it's running unless we're standing next to it. I think it was like $500 (Canadian) from Costco. I must have gotten used to the old one because if I had known the difference was going to be this great I would have seriously considered just buying it myself.

GreenNight posted:

http://i.imgur.com/wVbgEyj.mp4

Platystemon posted:

Suspect Bucket posted:

The rule in my house is whoever's cooking gets to pick what's on tv. If you don't like it, hang out on the patio or in your room with your magical pocket sized media consumption device.

GreenNight posted:

http://i.imgur.com/wVbgEyj.mp4

GreenNight posted:

http://i.imgur.com/wVbgEyj.mp4

TooMuchAbstraction posted:

I'm pretty sure this one's intentional though?

wolrah posted:

From reddit:

kid sinister posted:

I'll bite. What's the story with this? They weren't allowed this many urinals by code, so they walled one off instead of removing it?

kid sinister posted:

I'll bite. What's the story with this? They weren't allowed this many urinals by code, so they walled one off instead of removing it?

GreenNight posted:

I hope this was also by design:

http://i.imgur.com/GYWI8WY.mp4

FogHelmut posted:

Dunno, but I know there have been cases where a large downtown building gets put up with water free urinals, but due to political pressures, the plumbers union gets paid to install full plumbing that goes unused.

quote:

They’re flushless urinals that require no water; gravity does the work, pulling the waste through a filter and then down a pipe and into the sewage system. It’s clean and efficient, and in the Comcast building alone, it would save the city 1.6 million gallons of water each year.

Not so fast, the city’s plumbers union said. Less water means fewer pipes. Fewer pipes mean less work. And so the union blocked the job, threatening the completion of the building, and in turn delaying all the business that would happen inside it. But worst of all was the prospect of losing the title of “tallest green building” to that most dastardly of cities: New York. The Comcast tower would stand 975 feet, only a bit taller than the 962-foot Bank of America building under construction in New York. And the Big Apple’s building came equipped, of course, with the special toilets.

In a stunning testament to the power of Philadelphia’s unions, the city twaddled in the face of the obvious choice: “We’re still looking into this,” the top building code official told the Inquirer at the time. “I want to make sure they’re safe.”

Sounds prudent, except that flushless toilets have long been installed at elementary schools elsewhere in the state, as well as in state government offices. And so far, both children and bureaucrats have remained intact.

One clue to Philadelphia’s paralysis lies in the city’s building code: Philadelphia is, for example, said to be the only large city in America that doesn’t call for PVC pipe as the standard plumbing material. It still calls for cast iron. PVC is cheaper, lighter and longer lasting. But one plumber can carry 10 lengths of PVC pipe; it takes 10 plumbers to carry a length of cast iron.

One reason for the political, financial and social strength of the building trade unions in Philadelphia is that construction — unlike textiles, say, or automotive work — can’t be outsourced overseas. So without competition in the market, the building trades maintain a powerful grip on one of the citizenry’s most basic needs: shelter.

Philadelphia’s unions have such a hold on construction costs in the city that they — unlike home prices, unlike job salaries and taxes — can disobey the market. So the city’s residents and businesses are squeezed between economic reality on one side, and unions on the other: lower home values, higher building costs.

Knowing the power of the trade unions, the developers of the “green” Comcast tower had little option but to strike an absurd deal: The Comcast tower got its new toilets. But only because it also got a full set of old-fashioned pipes, installed by union plumbers. The pipes run throughout all 58 floors, just like in any other skyscraper.

Except in the Comcast tower, they’re not connected to anything.

FogHelmut posted:

Dunno, but I know there have been cases where a large downtown building gets put up with water free urinals, but due to political pressures, the plumbers union gets paid to install full plumbing that goes unused.

kid sinister posted:

Is that what the access panel is for then? To refill the trap once the water in there evaporates and starts letting sewer gas out?

kid sinister posted:

Is that what the access panel is for then? To refill the trap once the water in there evaporates and starts letting sewer gas out?

kid sinister posted:

I'll bite. What's the story with this? They weren't allowed this many urinals by code, so they walled one off instead of removing it?

Platystemon posted:

OP on Reddit doesn’t know, and no one else knows where the building is, so it will remain a mystery.

Phanatic posted:

Yep!


http://www.phillymag.com/articles/the-last-union-town/

GreenNight posted:

I hope this was also by design:

http://i.imgur.com/GYWI8WY.mp4

Phanatic posted:

Yep!


http://www.phillymag.com/articles/the-last-union-town/