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Speaking of drywall, quick question (burnt out on research codes after doing a bunch of electrical work) -- 8" gap between screws on the edge, 16" between screws in the middle, does that sound right? Or have random crappy Youtube videos lead me wrong?  
sadus fucked around with this message at 15:49 on Apr 19, 2019 |
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Apr 19, 2019 15:46
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sadus posted:Speaking of drywall, quick question (burnt out on research codes after doing a bunch of electrical work) -- 8" gap between screws on the edge, 16" between screws in the middle, does that sound right? Or have random crappy Youtube videos lead me wrong? I hear 7" and 12", but I might be thinking of ceiling drywall.
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Apr 19, 2019 19:56
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Are there any good appliance recommendation/review sites? We are moving into our first house in a couple of weeks and need a washer/dryer and water softener. Also, we have a patio on the side, but want to build out a wooden deck area around the back and have stairs down (Currently a good 12-18" drop to step onto the lawn). Would this be all local recommendations?
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Apr 23, 2019 05:19
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Consumer Reports is ok, but ymmv with washers and dryers. I bought mine from Costco and stacked 7 years of warranty on them. For a water softener find a local company that uses a Clack valve and a quality tank. It shouldn’t cost more than 2500 dollars installed. There is zero reason to pay culligan or kinetico 7k for one. I had a 2 cu ft 60k grain softener installed for about 1850 recently. High quality clack valve and enpress tank
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Apr 23, 2019 06:16
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When buying a washer and dryer (our house did come with them either), I read a buttload of reviews on various sites (don't remember which off the top of my head), and then we went to the local appliance dealer to buy and had a lovely experience with the purchase and delivery/installation. We ended up with the Maytag Commercial beast machines (Maytag's answer to Speedqueen) and have been extremely pleased with them. Warranty is great, too. Oh, and you might want to avoid Samsung - after we'd decided on the Maytags, I asked what the deal was with this space age wifi-enabled Samsung unit, and the sales lady started unloading - turns out all the salespeople hated the Samsungs because they were finicky, complicated, had a high rate of issues/repairs/failures, and getting parts for them is a pain in the rear end. When there's an appliance that an appliance salesperson wants to not sell you, that's a red flag. For the deck, ask local friends and/or get on Angie's List/NextDoor referrals for contractors in your area.
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Apr 23, 2019 14:23
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Get a Miele set 
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Apr 23, 2019 14:28
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I actually bought the fancy space age Samsung Flex washer and dryer last year and they’ve been problem free so far. I did make sure to get 7 years of warranty coverage on them though in case there were issues. I got a smoking deal on the pair during a sale at Costco. We actually like them a lot, but I did take a huge gamble on them and probably wouldn’t recommend someone else do the same. The smart features are neat and we actually use them.
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Apr 23, 2019 14:32
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Can anyone educate me about gravel driveways? Living out in the sticks has its benefits, but one major con is having a 1/2 mile shared unkempt gravel road kicking up dust everywhere. Anyway, my main issue is our actual driveway which is about 250ft long. Ideally, I would just get an asphalt driveway put in, but getting some quotes it would be around $8-10k. I can find asphalt installers no problem, what I can't find is someone to redo my gravel driveway or at least get quotes. Maybe I'm using the wrong terminology or something when Googling. From my preliminary research, a proper gravel driveway should be 3 layers. But it seems that when they built this house they just dumped gravel on top of the soil and just reapplied more gravel as needed. tl;dr: who do I need to contact to get a nice gravel driveway estimate?
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Apr 23, 2019 16:12
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Etrips posted:tl;dr: who do I need to contact to get a nice gravel driveway estimate? Anyone with a tractor and box blade. In my area most landscapers (actual landscapers, not lawn cutters that call themselves landscapers) would do a job like that.
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Apr 23, 2019 16:49
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Motronic posted:Anyone with a tractor and box blade. In my area most landscapers (actual landscapers, not lawn cutters that call themselves landscapers) would do a job like that. Assuming it's just dumping gravel on top and then going it over with the box blade to level it?
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Apr 23, 2019 17:07
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Etrips posted:Assuming it's just dumping gravel on top and then going it over with the box blade to level it? Pretty much (for a top dressing). If it's really been done wrong and in bad shape you might get a suggestion of putting down a base layer of "modified" (multiple sizes of rocks plus screenings that will lock together) and rolling those, then top dressing. Or something like that - it varies by area because the available materials and soil composition vary.
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Apr 23, 2019 17:25
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Motronic posted:Pretty much (for a top dressing). If it's really been done wrong and in bad shape you might get a suggestion of putting down a base layer of "modified" (multiple sizes of rocks plus screenings that will lock together) and rolling those, then top dressing. Or something like that - it varies by area because the available materials and soil composition vary. Excellent, I have something to go on now. Thank you again, Motronic.
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Apr 23, 2019 18:17
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Moved into a house with a gas dryer (previous dryer was electric so we left it behind) and it is super efficient. The only thing I miss is the steam function for getting out wrinkles. Also the washer here is old as gently caress and has an agitator but it still runs great and does full loads in like 15 minutes. Aside from energy savings, is there any reason to upgrade this thing before it dies?
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Apr 23, 2019 20:28
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So am I just the only one who went on Facebook Marketplace for their washer/dryer? 
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Apr 23, 2019 20:52
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Spring Heeled Jack posted:Also the washer here is old as gently caress and has an agitator but it still runs great and does full loads in like 15 minutes. Aside from energy savings, is there any reason to upgrade this thing before it dies? It's probably using 3-4x the amount of water that a modern HE washing machine uses, so that might be a good reason to upgrade even if it's still working.
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Apr 23, 2019 21:19
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How much water does it take to dig up a bunch of gasoline, burn the gasoline mining iron ore, refine it into washing machine components, ship the components to a factory somewhere, build a new washing machine, box it up, ship it to the distributor and then have it delivered to my house, and transport my old one to a dump somewhere?
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Apr 23, 2019 21:26
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Droo posted:How much water does it take to dig up a bunch of gasoline, burn the gasoline mining iron ore, refine it into washing machine components, ship the components to a factory somewhere, build a new washing machine, box it up, ship it to the distributor and then have it delivered to my house, and transport my old one to a dump somewhere? If you cut yourself on the edginess of this post, I'd recommend running your washer with cold water, it will get the blood out better.  OP said their washer was "old as gently caress" so it's not like I'm advocating tossing out something that's new and presumably has a long life ahead of it. I recently replaced my older washing machine that was using ~40gal of water per load to one that uses about 15. Saving water seems like a cool and good thing to do, imho.
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Apr 23, 2019 21:46
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Sirotan posted:Saving water seems like a cool and good thing to do, imho. You seem to have missed my point - all the water your washing machine uses flows back into your sewage line and returns to the city to be treated and reused in a happy cycle. All the oil that got burned to pointlessly manufacture a new version of something you had that was working fine, on the other hand, is now gone or turned into CO2 and other bad things. As far as the pure financial aspect of it, I pay about $0.05 for 25 gallons of water so assuming a nice new washer is about $750 I will break even after 15,000 loads.
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Apr 23, 2019 22:07
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I will say one of the downsides of an HE washer is the longer load times. Loads on my Samsung run anywhere from 55 minutes to almost 2 hours depending on what options I select.
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Apr 23, 2019 22:08
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You can have gravel sprayed with some kind of demon oil to keep the dust down too Drywall screw inspection and final electrical tomorrow, yay actually finishing projects!
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Apr 23, 2019 22:13
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Droo posted:You seem to have missed my point - all the water your washing machine uses flows back into your sewage line and returns to the city to be treated and reused in a happy cycle. All the oil that got burned to pointlessly manufacture a new version of something you had that was working fine, on the other hand, is now gone or turned into CO2 and other bad things. And electricity , detergent , your time , the feel-good factor of saving natural resources (my sewer doesn’t recycle directly into my mouth, not sure about yours), as well as what’s probably a top loader’s agitator against a front loading drum. To the OP, take Droo’s Model T to the store (still works fine!) when something that’s on sale that offers you an advantage is available. Check on parts availability for the unit you have and use the time you have to upgrade based on want versus immediate need. Then use your old unit to build your own J-5 
Partycat fucked around with this message at 22:53 on Apr 23, 2019 |
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Apr 23, 2019 22:51
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sadus posted:You can have gravel sprayed with some kind of demon oil to keep the dust down too Yea I was looking into that as well. Soybean oil soapstock and calcium chloride/lignin sulfonate are a thing. Would still want to get my driveway fixed first though.
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Apr 23, 2019 23:10
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Droo posted:Landscape irrigation system? Crazy neighbor using a hose? City "smart" meter applying the full day of water use to just that 1 hour block? So the time windows that the city is reporting and the times we are running the sprinklers dont match up, but the frequency of the three different times and their lengths match up to about 10/11gpm and IIRC we're using 3/4" PVC for the sprinklers so I think it's the sprinklers. I had the gardeners change the times that they run and I will be watching for the city to record similar time-shifting of the spikes. There aren't other regular spikes that would account for the yard being watered, and one of the three spikes started two weeks ago when they added an additional shift for the grass sprinkler, so I think the sprinklers are the culprit. No obvious wet spots or flooding to indicate a broken pipe.
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Apr 24, 2019 00:27
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Mizaq posted:So the time windows that the city is reporting and the times we are running the sprinklers dont match up, but the frequency of the three different times and their lengths match up to about 10/11gpm and IIRC we're using 3/4" PVC for the sprinklers so I think it's the sprinklers. I had the gardeners change the times that they run and I will be watching for the city to record similar time-shifting of the spikes. There aren't other regular spikes that would account for the yard being watered, and one of the three spikes started two weeks ago when they added an additional shift for the grass sprinkler, so I think the sprinklers are the culprit. No obvious wet spots or flooding to indicate a broken pipe. Just turn them off for a few days and see what happens. You obviously have some magical smart meter on your house and it should be immediately apparent. (I didn't realize anything but electricity was using smart meters.) Your irrigation controller may have a rain delay button.
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Apr 24, 2019 01:26
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Sprinklers are probably it. Mine use about 16 gpm max. I can’t think of anything else that uses that much water.
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Apr 24, 2019 01:44
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hey everyone, those extendable hoses that are made of fabric and plastic fuckin rule, they're so much lighter and portable compared to regular garden hoses. just get ones with metal ends and not plastic. and get some quick connects for em I gotta crawl under my house and figure out why one of my outside spigots doesn't work. I bet there's just an internal valve that's closed somewhere.
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Apr 24, 2019 20:37
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100 HOGS AGREE posted:hey everyone, those extendable hoses that are made of fabric and plastic fuckin rule, they're so much lighter and portable compared to regular garden hoses. just get ones with metal ends and not plastic. and get some quick connects for em Is this on of those super collapsible hoses? I thought those were total gimmicks. Got a link?
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Apr 25, 2019 18:24
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Have a gas tank water heater from 2005. Works just fine, recently drained it and had a bit of sediment but that was about it. I'm guessing though based on age I should probably be replacing it soon before it fails and floods the finished basement. Was thinking of replacing with a tankless gas heater, though not sure if the energy savings and longer time to replacement would be worth the increased install costs. We moved in last year and going to stay at least for the next 5-10 years. For reference we have a 4br 3.5ba, family of 4. Chu020 fucked around with this message at 15:15 on Apr 28, 2019 |
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Apr 28, 2019 14:37
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We bought our LG washer/dryer from Costco. Is it worth it/can I get additional warranty coverage even though I bought it in January? We had a bunch of storms/winds come through and we lost power to roughly half of our house. Tried the breakers but no go. Power company has to come out to check things, and if all is ok, I get to have an electrician come out, which I'm sure is going to be reasonable. To top it all off, I get to work today. Yesterday was spent mowing my lawn and cleaning out gutters.
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Apr 28, 2019 14:46
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Chu020 posted:Have a gas tank water heater from 2005. Works just fine, recently drained it and had a bit of sediment but that was about it. I'm guessing though based on age I should probably be replacing it soon before it fails and good the finished basement. Depending on the number of showers+appliances you want to support and input temperature of the water you might need *2* tankless heaters. They are a luxury good and if you don't have a specific need for one I wouldn't do it. Go to a manufacturer website and pull the spec sheet on their biggest model. Look closely at their charts that show gpm/degrees heated by input temperature of the water.
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Apr 28, 2019 14:46
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BoyBlunder posted:Is this on of those super collapsible hoses? I thought those were total gimmicks. I bought one that developed a small colony of leaks the first summer. I guess you aren’t supposed to leave them pressurized but the valve at the house is hard to turn, so if I leave it off then the kids can’t water the garden or themselves. I bought a different kind to try this year. The reduced weight is really nicer than I expected, and they store well off-season.
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Apr 28, 2019 14:52
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Residency Evil posted:We bought our LG washer/dryer from Costco. Is it worth it/can I get additional warranty coverage even though I bought it in January? No comment on the washer dryer, but do you have any 220v appliances like an electric range and does it work? Half the house sounds like you lost one phase of power in from the pole due to the wind loosening a connection. I'm sure I'm just falsely getting your hopes up but seriously it happened to me and there were no lingering effects. Since a stove works on 220 it uses both phases to heat up the elements, and mine was weak as it was on half power. An inventory of which brakers work would answer that question too. Each phase is generally every other or every other pair in a breaker box on each column.
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Apr 28, 2019 16:56
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StormDrain posted:No comment on the washer dryer, but do you have any 220v appliances like an electric range and does it work? Half the house sounds like you lost one phase of power in from the pole due to the wind loosening a connection. I'm sure I'm just falsely getting your hopes up but seriously it happened to me and there were no lingering effects. Since a stove works on 220 it uses both phases to heat up the elements, and mine was weak as it was on half power. An inventory of which brakers work would answer that question too. Each phase is generally every other or every other pair in a breaker box on each column. Just got a call from the electrical company: that's exactly what happened. One phase of power was lost due to the wind. How are houses wired from that perspective? We lost power to our 220v appliances, but we also lost power to other things like lights/outlets that would be standard 110v. Presumably there's a stepdown transformer from 220->110, and whenever they're building the house they somehow decide to split what goes on the 110 from the pole versus the 220/transformer?
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Apr 28, 2019 17:03
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Residency Evil posted:Just got a call from the electrical company: that's exactly what happened. One phase of power was lost due to the wind. How are houses wired from that perspective? We lost power to our 220v appliances, but we also lost power to other things like lights/outlets that would be standard 110v. Presumably there's a stepdown transformer from 220->110, and whenever they're building the house they somehow decide to split what goes on the 110 from the pole versus the 220/transformer? See the three wires going from the pole to your house? Each one is a single 120v phase, middle one is neutral. See even higher on the pole the two wires? That's high voltage. Those go to the white cylinder transformers you see on the poles every few houses to be stepped down to the household voltage you use. The 220v appliances just use both sides of the split phase power. 110v ones just use one.
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Apr 28, 2019 17:19
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It's helpful to think of it coming in as positive 120 and negative 120, and the big appliances use both for a difference of 240. This is of course incorrect because it's alternating current but it gets you through the day.
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Apr 28, 2019 17:25
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This video helped me understand how 3-phase and electricity in general works. There's a bunch of other videos about it on youtube and they're all worth a watch. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4oRT7PoXSS0
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Apr 28, 2019 17:40
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Residency Evil posted:How are houses wired from that perspective? Go look at your breaker box. Many panels are arranged such that alternating rows tap into different legs of the split-phase. There may be a diagram on the lid showing how the legs are arranged. B-Nasty fucked around with this message at 18:10 on Apr 28, 2019 |
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Apr 28, 2019 18:06
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Wife says everything works now. Thanks guys. It's amazing what you forget years after taking basic physics...
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Apr 28, 2019 18:18
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BoyBlunder posted:Is this on of those super collapsible hoses? I thought those were total gimmicks. They're exactly what you'd expect: lightweight and easily collapsible, but also delicate and prone to springing leaks.
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Apr 28, 2019 20:18
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I bought a couple of these and both failed. They really do not like getting scorched in direct sunlight either. The bad reviews are accurate. https://www.homedepot.com/p/Goodyear-1-2-in-dia-x-50-ft-heavy-duty-flat-hose-GYFH12050/207196874 I also bought a couple of these and neither has failed after a year. They are not sitting in direct sunlight though. https://www.acehardware.com/departments/lawn-and-garden/watering-and-irrigation/garden-hoses/7465248
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Apr 28, 2019 23:00
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