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Modus Man posted:Has anybody here built a house with 2x8 exterior walls? Opinions on wether it's worth it? I'm pretty sure I will have to cut every single board to stud length but I will be able to go with 24" stud spacing to mitigate thermal transfer. I live in Michigan where we regularly see sub zero temperatures in the winter and near 100 in the summer. 2x4 double stud 16 on center is probably a better idea, just to toss a really common assembly out there. Material cost won't be that much more (2x8's are expensive, at least where I am), it's a better thermal solution (you can make it as deep as you want, and it has a perfect thermal break between the studs), it's easier to put up for a small crew (less weight), you can buy studs to length depending on your ceiling height, and 16" on center is going to make finishing/hanging pictures/etc easier. I've never used any stud bigger than 2x6.
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Sep 20, 2017 18:29
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Tezer posted:2x4 double stud 16 on center is probably a better idea, just to toss a really common assembly out there. Material cost won't be that much more (2x8's are expensive, at least where I am), it's a better thermal solution (you can make it as deep as you want, and it has a perfect thermal break between the studs), it's easier to put up for a small crew (less weight), you can buy studs to length depending on your ceiling height, and 16" on center is going to make finishing/hanging pictures/etc easier. I should probably head to the lumber yard to get some pricing ideas to compare
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Sep 20, 2017 19:42
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I used to rent a place next to a cheapskate who bragged about how much money he saved building his addition with studs 24 inch oc and 3/8 drywall. His wife went butt-first through the wall moving some furniture.
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Sep 24, 2017 13:41
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I was thinking about insulating my attached garage, but it has the attic space and the roof is directly exposed, so I'm guessing I have two options: 1) Create a ceiling (I don't really need the storage above the rafters), lay insulation on top of the ceiling, put a ventilation fan near the peak on the outside wall up in the new uninsulated attic crawlspace. 2) Insulate all the way to the roof, but that would require those air channels under the insulation and a roof cap so that the roof doesn't overheat, afaik.
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Oct 1, 2017 16:22
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Rescue Toaster posted:I was thinking about insulating my attached garage, but it has the attic space and the roof is directly exposed, so I'm guessing I have two options: 3) Spray foam the underside of the roof
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Oct 1, 2017 21:22
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devicenull posted:3) Spray foam the underside of the roof Doesn't a normal shingle/asphalt roof need ventilation under it so it doesn't overheat in the sun? I'm in the midwest and we get plenty of 90+ degree days, plus the garage roof gets lots of direct afternoon sun.
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Oct 1, 2017 23:03
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Rescue Toaster posted:Doesn't a normal shingle/asphalt roof need ventilation under it so it doesn't overheat in the sun? I'm in the midwest and we get plenty of 90+ degree days, plus the garage roof gets lots of direct afternoon sun. No, all that ventilation is necessary to keep the moisture levels down and prevent your attic from becoming a mold colony. http://www.greenbuildingadvisor.com/blogs/dept/musings/creating-conditioned-attic
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Oct 2, 2017 13:33
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devicenull posted:No, all that ventilation is necessary to keep the moisture levels down and prevent your attic from becoming a mold colony.
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Oct 2, 2017 23:18
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Question: how the hell does this wall not have a stud? It's about 3 feet between the wall on the left and the door frame. It's an outside wall with a light fixture on the other side, basically along the same vertical as the light switch. I don't know if there's some weird exterior stuff or maybe a metal stud where the electric is? I thought I had located a stud about 10" in from the left wall, where you see a penciled corner. But the pilot hole went straight through with no resistance at all. And all the other attempts at pilot holes went the same. I finally found something to drill into right next to the doorframe, because of course. But I was hoping to mount a speaker closer to the corner of the room. (The candle holders, of course, are simply nailed into the drywall.)
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Oct 4, 2017 11:44
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It might be a very thin stud, and/or horizontal, hiding precisely between your pilot holes. (I hope! ) Can you check with a pinhole stud finder instead of a power drill?
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Oct 4, 2017 12:02
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Given the amount of spackle work that wall's going to need now you might as well just neatly cut out a square of drywall and physically look for studs.
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Oct 4, 2017 12:35
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There should be a stud beside the light switch.
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Oct 4, 2017 15:02
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That wall would have been perfect to assess with a cheap magnetic stud finder. Oops.
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Oct 5, 2017 16:37
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eddiewalker posted:That wall would have been perfect to assess with a cheap magnetic stud finder. Oops. I actually use a bottle opener that sticks on my fridge with a phenomenally strong magnet. Just wave it over the wall and BAM, it pulls itself to any nails hidden in there. Weirdly, though, there is one wall in my house where it is attracted to the entire surface. I haven't figured that out, and I'm sort of scared to investigate.
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Oct 6, 2017 13:55
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tetrapyloctomy posted:I actually use a bottle opener that sticks on my fridge with a phenomenally strong magnet. Just wave it over the wall and BAM, it pulls itself to any nails hidden in there. Might be an expanded steel mesh with plaster over it?
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Oct 6, 2017 14:32
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Embrace the magnetic wall. I wish I had some.
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Oct 6, 2017 15:40
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Yeah, I always wind up living in buildings that have not plaster-and-lath, but some ancient plaster-and-chicken-wire setup. Stud detectors are useless, which makes everything fun, but it's not actually magnetic enough to hang magnets on.
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Oct 6, 2017 16:28
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i like nice words
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Pigsfeet on Rye posted:Might be an expanded steel mesh with plaster over it? That's literally my entire loving house apparently... guess they didn't have drywall in 1910.
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Oct 7, 2017 08:18
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Zero VGS posted:That's literally my entire loving house apparently... guess they didn't have drywall in 1910. Oh, the poor WiFi signal...
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Oct 7, 2017 11:06
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Pigsfeet on Rye posted:Might be an expanded steel mesh with plaster over it? I was considering it, but it would be the only wall constructed like that (as far as I have examined). This is the wall in question:  The wall to the right, with the coat hanger? Not magnetic. The one straight ahead? Magnetic. The walls of the stairwell and upstairs? Not magnetic. The one upstairs that runs parallel to the magnetic wall I know for sure is just drywall over studs, because when we were investigating a leak I cut an approximate 16" by 12" hole to investigate pipes I could not access otherwise. Given that this is the house with a demon-pit in the front yard, I just try to leave things alone when possible.
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Oct 7, 2017 11:32
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tetrapyloctomy posted:I was considering it, but it would be the only wall constructed like that (as far as I have examined). This is the wall in question: How deep is that terrifying looking demon pit?
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Oct 7, 2017 18:41
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IncredibleIgloo posted:How deep is that terrifying looking demon pit? Precisely zero meters now.  It was maybe 42-48" deep, all told. The surface was remarkably smooth. I suspect the second owner put it in, since he -- according to my semi-demented neighbor who occasionally speaks of Alan in the present tense in the creepiest fashion imaginable -- was a nature-lover and strikes me as someone who would have had a pond installed. The construction appears to be fieldstone (Wissahickon schist, like everything else around here) that was then mortared over. Should I decide to return it to pond status it will be extremely easy, as it is deep enough that I can remove the gravel, pour concrete into the drainage hole this solution necessitated, and keep pouring until there's a few more inches across the entire bottom.
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Oct 7, 2017 20:27
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Could have had a dope demon pit, man
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Oct 7, 2017 23:03
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It will be much more impressive this way when the barrier breaks and beams of light and claws start bursting through the gravel.
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Oct 7, 2017 23:07
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w00tmonger posted:Could have had a dope demon pit, man It was disgusting. I mean, utterly disgusting. Four feet of water that had filled over time with leaves, pine needles, and probably dead animals. The surrounding plant life had actually started growing over it -- it was not visible at all when we moved in due to surrounding brush plus overgrowth. It was filled with a black ooze, and when I poked it with a stick, it bubbled. This might be less interesting, but it's a better choice for something within thirty feet of the road.
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Oct 8, 2017 01:09
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tetrapyloctomy posted:It was filled with a black ooze, and when I poked it with a stick, it bubbled. I think you filled in the home of the monster that ate Tasha Yar 
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Oct 8, 2017 01:15
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[quote="“tetrapyloctomy”" post="“477142362”"] [/quote] Just wanted to spend a moment on the fact that I still love that painting of your dog.
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Oct 8, 2017 15:58
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Subjunctive posted:Just wanted to spend a moment on the fact that I still love that painting of your dog. It seriously makes me happy every time I walk through that door. We need to let the oil set for a bit more and get it revarnished before we frame it, but I'm looking forward to putting a ridiculous frame around it.
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Oct 8, 2017 20:55
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Quick question, hopefully this is the right thread for it. Our house is set up as follows:  The red lines are the walls of the stairwell leading into the basement. Our house has forced hot air/central ac on the first floor, and baseboard hot water heating in the basement. I would like to cut away half the walls of the stairwell to open up a sight line from the kitchen to the dining room. These are not load-bearing walls, and they have minimal electrical running through them (one plug on each wall.) My biggest concern was the lack of control over where my heat/ac would go with an opening into the basement. Would my nice cold air just sink into the basement now? The contractor from Mass Saves said he didn't think it would affect it at all, but I want more opinions.
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Oct 9, 2017 21:30
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Mass Saves sounds like a discount on mass graves.
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Oct 9, 2017 22:15
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I think it depends on the type of basement. Is it a massive, damp concrete moonscape, or a cozy mother-in-law unit? We have an open staircase in our living room and the summer/winter effect was less than we expected.
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Oct 9, 2017 23:30
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SouthShoreSamurai posted:Would my nice cold air just sink into the basement now? The contractor from Mass Saves said he didn't think it would affect it at all, but I want more opinions. This is hard to say without seeing your place in person. Is this is a single level with a basement? You might already have a lot of air getting down there if the basement door has big gaps or if your construction isn't very tight. Or if the areas are strongly differentiated now, you could end up with a noticeable difference after opening it up.
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Oct 10, 2017 14:01
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Any thoughts on smart locks? I don't want to use one for my main external doors but there's a lot of glass on the outside of my house now and I'd like to put some layers between it and my expensive stuff by locking some of the internal doors. I don't want to use keys or PIN pads on those doors because I'd like them to be easy to lock simultaneously when I leave the house and unlock when I get back. As such something simple and cheap should work as long as it's mechanically sound, but my research is showing up expensive and/or crap ones.
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Oct 10, 2017 14:53
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I don't know if I'd bother. If I broke into your home and saw a normal interior door with a keypad, I'd just try to kick it the gently caress open since a) interior doors tend not to be sturdy compared to exterior doors, b) I've already made noise and a mess, and c) there's probably some better poo poo back there to grab fast.
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Oct 10, 2017 15:10
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Obvious locks on interior doors are a great visual indicator that something in that room is worth stealing.
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Oct 10, 2017 15:13
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OK, but assuming I do bother..
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Oct 10, 2017 15:13
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Vulture Culture posted:Obvious locks on interior doors are a great visual indicator that something in that room is worth stealing. So is opening the door and looking inside.
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Oct 10, 2017 15:14
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Jaded Burnout posted:Any thoughts on smart locks? I don't believe that the market has anything out of the box in the consumer world that does what you are asking. You would have to figure out some kind of Bluetooth / wifi controlled lock, then code up something so that when your phone is connected to the wifi they are unlocked, or whatever the trigger you want to use. It exists in the corporate space but I have no idea how much that would cost, I bet it's thousands to get started. In both cases you have to make sure you fail-safe/open (vs fail-secure) and people can egress in the event of an emergency. If someone burns to death because you rigged up some awful system to protect your funko pop collection you are going to be in a world of hurt. You would be better served by an alarm system sticker or an actual alarm system, plus an insurance policy. If what you have isn't replaceable you can talk to a rich person security company about hardening your home properly but again get your checkbook ready. H110Hawk fucked around with this message at 15:35 on Oct 10, 2017 |
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Oct 10, 2017 15:33
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Does anyone have any experience with speed ovens (convection microwave + broiler element)? I know Bosch and Miele at least make them, but everyone I know that has them pretty much uses it as a microwave exclusively. Do they actually live up to their claims? If you were to put in double wall ovens, are you better served by a speed oven / convection oven combo, or just double convection ovens?
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Oct 10, 2017 15:38
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H110Hawk posted:I don't believe that the market has anything out of the box in the consumer world that does what you are asking. You would have to figure out some kind of Bluetooth / wifi controlled lock, then code up something so that when your phone is connected to the wifi they are unlocked, or whatever the trigger you want to use. Thanks. The "coding it up" part is no problem but the only consumer stuff I can find is more heavily featured and premium priced which is beyond the sort of money I want to put into this, let alone big boy office solutions. H110Hawk posted:You would be better served by an alarm system sticker or an actual alarm system, plus an insurance policy. If what you have isn't replaceable you can talk to a rich person security company about hardening your home properly but again get your checkbook ready. There will be an actual alarm and insurance, this is a defence in depth thing. Sounds like maybe I'll homebrew something, wait for the locks to get cheaper, or just discard it as an idea.
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Oct 10, 2017 15:40
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