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That Works posted:So for the chimney, it seems to be just a pipe like you said enclosed in a box covered in siding on the house. I didn't plan on removing the chimney and if possible just sealing up the pipe on both ends and as Jaded suggested make sure the box itself still gets some kind of venting. Would that work or would the entire pipe etc going up the side of the house all need to be removed? If that was the case it's a much bigger job than I think I want to consider as DIY at all. I would like to amend my previous statement based on new information that has recently come to light, your honour. It's worth noting, structurally speaking, that I come from a land where chimneys, certainly the ones I have experience with, are triple-thick brick constructions that are sturdy enough to form part of the structural support for the entire house. For example, a large part of my roof is currently resting on one of my chimney stacks. To that end, don't take my advice as gospel when you're dealing with something made of wood. That said, here's the exact process that was involved in doing what you're doing when I did it: 1. Remove the fireplace gubbins (the grate etc where the actual fire goes) 2. Seal up the fireplace(s), either straight across the opening to make it flush to the wall, or at the top of the fireplace where it meets the flue 3. Vent through each fireplace seal into the main body of the house to circulate drier air, using vents that can close when particularly icily windy 4. Do not seal the top (though I guess you could, at which point the wind might be less of an issue)
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Sep 12, 2019 08:53
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TofuDiva posted:Genuine question: is there a reason that you aren't considering going again with bamboo similar to what you had before? From your posts, you seem to have had really good luck with it and liked the durability of the finish. We've got about 400sqft of the bamboo down right now. The design spec for the material said that it was 30' maximum without an expansion joint. We went 35' because it wasn't that broad of a section that actually went that distance. It held up okay, but there was a small area where the floor was maybe 1/32" higher than the cork underlayment and if you looked at the glare from the windows, you could see that section flex when you walked on it. I worry that putting 4 times the amount of material would bring more problems like that, and I want a long-term solution. I don't know if that's a valid concern, but it seems like one to me, since there's no real structure with a 3/8" floating floor. Nevets posted:I redid the living room floor in my new house with this stuff: https://www.calibamboo.com/geowood-flooring.html That's interesting, I may get a sample. Thanks.
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Sep 12, 2019 11:56
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EVERYWHERE 
Kaiser Schnitzel posted:I'm sure there are Reasons that aren't clear to me, but it seems way easier/cheaper to run whatever chimney pipe you need for the wood stove up the existing chimney? Put the wood stove on the current stone hearth (replace/expand it if needed since the stove will stick out in the room) and then remove/replace the existing mantel with whatever stone/tile you need to have around the woodstove. Yeah in my longer original post I mentioned it a bit. Basically none of the free-standing stoves or inserts that extended out that had a cooktop on them were short enough to fit under the current chimney pipe. To install it in the same location we would need to cut open the chimney from the outside and cut upwards from the insert area on the inside and basically repipe the entire chimney just to move the exhaust pipe starting point upward a few inches. Instead, it was far far cheaper to reroute a freestanding exhaust pipe adjacent to the current chimney location. Also long-term for the room we strongly preferred the corner installation of the wood stove as well. It's not that it's impossible, just definitely a lot more labor to reinstall in the same location as the original. The good thing is I have lots of time to consider all the great advice and cautions the thread has given. I have a contractor (FINALLY) coming out tomorrow to do some other smaller stuff around the house and if they seem good I will chat with them about the fireplace stuff to see if they have an opinion on it / may consider an estimate for the future. A tremendous problem here for us has simply been getting any contractor to even show up to work on the house. Plumber, electrician etc has been fine, but I'm on my 6th or 7th contractor now since February. If the guy shows up tomorrow it will be the 1st person who's actually shown up without cancelling at the last minute or just set up an appointment and then no-showed and not returned calls, texts etc. Each time through this process has eaten up a couple weeks of waiting so we literally lost the entire summer for work we wanted done over that. So, a lot of my considering more ambitious DIY stuff like this is due to that. I started setting up contractor appts in Dec 2018. The wood stove install is being carried out by a local shop that just does fireplaces and heating. When they install in Mid-October I'll also try to chat them up about thoughts on the old fireplace issue also. Good thing is we can just leave it in place and cover it with a screen or bookshelf or something until we decide. Thanks again everyone for the advice.
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Sep 12, 2019 12:20
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Noticed some small pooling of water in my carpeted basement area this spring/summer when it would rain a lot, contractors are finally coming around from my requests for quotes from then. I'm not sure exactly how to proceed, could use some advice. I have a concrete patio that has settled to angle towards the house right above where the water has been coming in from and seems to be the leading cause of the issue. Part of the issue is that the roof line of my house drops some rain very close to the house. Most of the rain hits the flat roof and drains from there. The exterior guys want to demolish part of that patio and a retaining wall, dig down, and apply waterproofing from the outside to seal it up. They wouldn't be pouring concrete afterwards so I'd have to hire a different crew for that, and they potentially have to destroy my retaining wall because its concrete blocks glued together and may not pry apart. They would also be working to improve the grading on that side of the house in general while waterproofing that as well. This would cost a lot of money. The interior guys want to poly jack the backyard slab to get it back in order, plus filling any void the water had carved out under it. Then install a sump pump in the room the water has been coming in because they found evidence water was spreading throughout the walls in the room through the foundation blocks. This would be about half the cost of the exterior approach. It sounds like there is merit to both approaches, any advice on how to proceed? View of the sloped backyard, it does have a bit of a channel away from the house to the left of that Oak in the center: https://imgur.com/2osag9t View of the patio slab: https://imgur.com/U6GiWb1
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Sep 12, 2019 19:05
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Oppression posted:Noticed some small pooling of water in my carpeted basement area this spring/summer when it would rain a lot, contractors are finally coming around from my requests for quotes from then. I'm not sure exactly how to proceed, could use some advice. Water is very stubborn. It will go where it wants to, and it looks like you have a long, long slope telling both groundwater and overland flow that your house is the place to go. I had a similar problem a bunch of years ago after a bunch of upslope development in my neighborhood, and the best thing I ever did was to hire a professional landscape architect to advise and create a plan. Since he had an understanding of the whole system and no financial stake in anything but successfully figuring out what would actually make the water go safely away from my home, he was able to give me independent advice on what measures would work and what wouldn't work. (And, as importantly, how to do it without inadvertently sending the water into to my neighbors' basements, either.) I followed his advice, got the work done as he suggested, and have not had water in since then, despite nor'easters and hurricanes and the like.
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Sep 12, 2019 19:48
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meatpimp posted:So I'm in a quandary... we are hard on floors. This bamboo with aluminum oxide factory finish held up to our use. I absolutely cannot spend $15k+ on a floor to have it perform worse than the cheapo bamboo we had... Welp. Looks like I may be trying to find something that doesn't exist. I went to 2 flooring stores today with a sample of the bamboo I'm replacing. Neither one had any suggestions. The bamboo with the aluminum oxide finish is absolutely impervious to my attacks with my tungsten carbide ring. Every other sample I looked at, other than LVT, was scratched/gouged by the ring. I know LVT has come a long way, but it's still LVT... So it looks like I compromise and go with a "lesser" material that will hold up to our use, or get a 3/4" hardwood floor and know it's going to get beat to poo poo and just keep a $2500 budget to refinish when we move. I don't like either option. 
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Sep 12, 2019 20:15
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meatpimp posted:Welp. Looks like I may be trying to find something that doesn't exist. I went to 2 flooring stores today with a sample of the bamboo I'm replacing. Neither one had any suggestions. The bamboo with the aluminum oxide finish is absolutely impervious to my attacks with my tungsten carbide ring. Is it this stuff? https://www.homedepot.com/p/Home-Le...HL663/305576189 Googling "water resistant bamboo flooring" gave me that and many other results, it claims to be woven and have an aluminum oxide finish. Do you know the brand of the stuff you had installed?
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Sep 12, 2019 20:33
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meatpimp posted:The bamboo with the aluminum oxide finish is absolutely impervious to my attacks with my tungsten carbide ring. https://www.bwdepot.com/ipe-decking-pictures http://www.ipedepot.com/flooring.htm
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Sep 12, 2019 20:51
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H110Hawk posted:Is it this stuff? It was a Costco thing, Golden Arrowana, I think. They don't stock or sell it anymore. HycoCam posted:Do you know about IPE? I suspect IPE is up there with baby seals, fur coats, and homes over 2,000sq ft. But if you want a dense wood that can't be scratched, IPE is one of the toughest. Usually people use it outside, but it can be used inside. Not only is a high dollar, but it is a pain to work with/costs more to install. This is interesting and probably beautiful, but probably price-prohibitive. Budget is going to call for less than $15/sqft installed. A quick look shows that is the cost for installation only of IPE. 
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Sep 12, 2019 21:22
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meatpimp posted:It was a Costco thing, Golden Arrowana, I think. They don't stock or sell it anymore. That is a vinyl plank product. You sure you have bamboo?
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Sep 12, 2019 22:01
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Motronic posted:That is a vinyl plank product. You sure you have bamboo? Yes. Edit: http://costcocouple.com/golden-arowana-strand-woven-bamboo-flooring/
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Sep 12, 2019 22:15
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Interesting - that company simply doesn't make anything like it anymore. That's why I was asking. The reviews I was able to dig up based on the addition of "strand woven bamboo" are almost all really great. Why would you kill off a product that's so durable?
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Sep 12, 2019 22:40
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meatpimp posted:It was a Costco thing, Golden Arrowana, I think. They don't stock or sell it anymore. Do other products of the same type not stand up? There seem to be a lot of options.
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Sep 12, 2019 22:55
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I bought some click lock engineered bamboo floor at lumber liquidators and hoo boy was that a mistake. It's barely 10 years old and has worn awfully. comically I think it's this stuff there's a class action fishing expedition for https://www.yourlawyer.com/product-liability/lawsuit-lumber-liquidators/
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Sep 12, 2019 23:33
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Motronic posted:Interesting - that company simply doesn't make anything like it anymore. That's why I was asking. Sorry. I was snippy. Long day. Strand woven bamboo, I found out today, is unreasonably hard wrt other flooring types. There is a scale for hardness: https://www.lumberliquidators.com/assets/Flooring101/images/Janka%20Hardness%20Scale_files/Janka%20Hardness%20Scale-1.jpg Note that is from Lumber Liquidators, but it was the most reasonable representation of bamboo that I found. A lot of the huckster bamboo sellers put it a over 5000 janka... either way, it's seriously hard stuff. From what I learned today, the local flooring companies stopped selling bamboo because they had problems with dimensional stability. I've heard that repeatedly. Our application gives the floor a lot of room to move, plus we have it on a high-quality cork underlayment. Again... either way, it's not a good idea for us to run 4-5 times more than what we have now where it would be in several rooms and take the risk of buckling or whatnot. That leaves us with 2 options that I see -- either go with LVT, which would be cheaper, but LVT, or go with a 3/4" hardwood and just know that we'll use it and plan for a $2500 bill to refinish it before we sell. I don't know which way we'll go.
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Sep 12, 2019 23:35
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meatpimp posted:That leaves us with 2 options that I see -- either go with LVT, which would be cheaper, but LVT, or go with a 3/4" hardwood and just know that we'll use it and plan for a $2500 bill to refinish it before we sell. I don't know which way we'll go. I've never done it on anything big, but I just redid the bathroom of the old house in LVT. Holy poo poo is that stuff really nice. I mean, I get where you are coming from. But we're not talking about $2/sq foot floating sawdust with injet printed wood pattern or peel and stick vinyl. LVT is legit nice these days.
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Sep 12, 2019 23:45
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We got laminate flooring that's designed for pets (for kids). It's scratch and spill resistant but gets dents from heavy objects. Live in your house now. Don't worry about the next owners or matching every room (if you're making normal choices.) peanut fucked around with this message at 00:01 on Sep 13, 2019 |
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Sep 12, 2019 23:57
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peanut posted:We got laminate flooring that's designed for pets (for kids). It's scratch and spill resistant but gets dents from heavy objects. https://www.homedepot.com/p/LifeProof-Fresh-Oak-8-7-in-x-47-6-in-Luxury-Vinyl-Plank-Flooring-20-06-sq-ft-case-I96711L/300461638 We just installed this stuff in my office. It feels great. Mind you so far it's being used to hold up two dozen ikea boxes and a intel NUC but such is life. I bet it will be great over time. I agree with this poster, if you're going to be there for 10 years don't worry about it. I really don't care what the next owners think about my dumb ideas.
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Sep 13, 2019 00:06
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H110Hawk posted:https://www.homedepot.com/p/LifeProof-Fresh-Oak-8-7-in-x-47-6-in-Luxury-Vinyl-Plank-Flooring-20-06-sq-ft-case-I96711L/300461638 A different pattern of LifeProof is what I put in the bathroom I was talking about that I was so impressed with.
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Sep 13, 2019 00:35
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meatpimp posted:From what I learned today, the local flooring companies stopped selling bamboo because they had problems with dimensional stability. I've heard that repeatedly. Our application gives the floor a lot of room to move, plus we have it on a high-quality cork underlayment. Again... either way, it's not a good idea for us to run 4-5 times more than what we have now where it would be in several rooms and take the risk of buckling or whatnot. Take another look at that geowood I linked earlier. It's strand woven bamboo on a 'limestone composite' backing that is supposed to be very stable. It's pricey but very easy to install if you do it as a floating floor. I did it myself and made all my cuts with a chop saw, circular saw and oscillating multi-tool. Even if you have to buy all the tools just for this you'll still end up with thousands of dollars in savings. Took me about 15-20 hours to do 500 sq ft myself, and most of that was walking back and forth to the garage to cut the planks since I didn't want to get any dust in the house.   
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Sep 13, 2019 01:53
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TofuDiva posted:Water is very stubborn. It will go where it wants to, and it looks like you have a long, long slope telling both groundwater and overland flow that your house is the place to go. I had a similar problem a bunch of years ago after a bunch of upslope development in my neighborhood, and the best thing I ever did was to hire a professional landscape architect to advise and create a plan. That's a good idea, how long did that process take and did you end up going with their design 100%? The plan is to get whatever done before winter in MN and all the water around the foundation freezes, not sure there is enough time this year.
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Sep 13, 2019 02:11
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Oppression posted:That's a good idea, how long did that process take and did you end up going with their design 100%? The plan is to get whatever done before winter in MN and all the water around the foundation freezes, not sure there is enough time this year. It took him about a week to do some test pits, slopes and other measurements, and a couple of weeks to create the plans. Then, it took a bit more than a week to get the work done, and a few days after that to put in the plantings around the foundation and in the front garden. I went with 100% of the design elements that had to do with water control and slope stability. He had also suggested recommended plantings and design elements that would support the water control and help with beautification afterward. I went with all of his plantings directly around the house, and everything that directly supported the water control fixes, but I had to defer some of the beds and other plantings that would have been lovely but were not crucial to fixing the water issues.
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Sep 13, 2019 02:49
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Anyone familiar with a vinyl plank or otherwise waterproof floor that looks like slate (or a darker stone)? I’m looking for something to replace the cheap poo poo laminate floor in my kitchen but I’m not a huge fan of the faux wood patterns.
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Sep 13, 2019 03:18
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Great job. That looks really nice.
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Sep 13, 2019 09:30
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Spring Heeled Jack posted:Anyone familiar with a vinyl plank or otherwise waterproof floor that looks like slate (or a darker stone)? I’m looking for something to replace the cheap poo poo laminate floor in my kitchen but I’m not a huge fan of the faux wood patterns. Could you jump straight to actual tile?
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Sep 13, 2019 09:49
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cakesmith handyman posted:Could you jump straight to actual tile? From what I can tell it's laminate > some foam underlayment > heart pine floor (which the rest of the house has). I'm not sure of their condition, being under poo poo laminate floor for who knows how long otherwise I'd get them refinished. I recently tiled my bathroom which was relatively small and my kitchen sqft is roughly 3x as large. As much as I would love actual tile, prep would be hell.
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Sep 13, 2019 19:14
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I’m about to replace our carpet/linoleum with vinyl plank flooring. This is the first house I’ve had that has a subfloor with crawlspace instead of a slab. Do I need some kind of secondary subfloor? I ask because the linoleum is on a second layer of ply but I’m thinking it’s just to raise it to the same level as carpet and pad.
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Sep 13, 2019 19:18
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Got a warm dimmer switch.
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Sep 15, 2019 02:17
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toplitzin posted:Got a warm dimmer switch. They radiate heat through the body by design. Plastic faceplate/box? Less mass to sink heat into. How old is the dimmer? Fairly recent, or pretty old looking? It's probably rated for 600-1000W in a single gang installation. If you don't have more than that running through it (and it's not physically uncomfortable to touch) then it's probably fine. Otherwise, switch to some dimmer-friendly LED bulbs. E: actually, looks like dual gang in the thermal image. That would de-rate it somewhat, but I think it should be able to handle 600-800W easily.
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Sep 15, 2019 02:58
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Newish construction, running a mix of dimmable led/incandescent in a chandelier. We grabbed the flir since it was hot af to the touch a couple times. That was after about an hour running at full brightness.
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Sep 15, 2019 13:11
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toplitzin posted:Newish construction, running a mix of dimmable led/incandescent in a chandelier. OK! "Warm" is normal, but "uncomfortably hot" is probably worth examining. So first, it's worth confirming what the total capacity of the dimmer is. If you take off the faceplate you should see a model/rating on the front of the dimmer. That should give the maximum incandescent load without derating, and/or a model to look up a datasheet for. Next, figure out what the derated capacity is for being in a 2-gang configuration. It's probably not hugely different, but might be enough to matter. Third, figure out the total load of incandescent and LED/CFL bulbs being powered by it separately. As it turns out, you can't just add them up, and so people might have mixed LED and incandescent bulbs thinking they were well under the rating because the wattage was lower. Here's an example: http://www.lutron.com/en-US/Service-Support/Pages/Technical/InstallationInstructions/Ganging-Derating/Capacity.aspx It's worth figuring out all of this just to get a baseline, but even after all of that at the end of the day the best solution may be to just replace it with a higher rating dimmer regardless of where you are with respect to the limits.
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Sep 15, 2019 14:10
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Has anyone installed a smart lock on their home's common entrance? I'd primarily like something that has a Bluetooth sensor so that it unlocks when I get close, and being able to voice control it (not voice control from my phone, but the lock itself) would be good too, but not necessary. What I don't need, or want, is a wifi enabled one. I don't need logging, temporary codes, remote activation etc etc.
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Sep 18, 2019 17:57
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The Wonder Weapon posted:Has anyone installed a smart lock on their home's common entrance? I'd primarily like something that has a Bluetooth sensor so that it unlocks when I get close, and being able to voice control it (not voice control from my phone, but the lock itself) would be good too, but not necessary. What I don't need, or want, is a wifi enabled one. I don't need logging, temporary codes, remote activation etc etc. I don't think anyone does BT autounlock because it would be hard to detect the device being outside versus inside and general proximity. Samsung's Digital Door locks are the only ones I ever saw for sale at DEFCON which leads me to believe that is the only one worth buying. A friend has one and loves it. Sadly I don't think it can do NFC unlock from your phone, but it can do pushbutton unlock, plus fobs and codes. I don't think anyone does voice.
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Sep 18, 2019 18:32
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We have a very expensive door that senses the keys in my pocket when I'm within 1 meter, or unlocks with a button (like a car) within 2 meters. It senses outside/inside, so I can still leave my keys inside the entrance and strangers can't open our door. It unlocks in power outages and has a hidden keyhole for emergencies. https://www.ykkap.co.jp/products/door/sck/ But Japan lol 
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Sep 19, 2019 10:39
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I have 1 light switch for the lounge running 3 light fittings. I'm going to hate myself trying to change it to switched separately aren't I? Smart bulbs aren't an option here because 1/ I can't find smart bulbs in 6000k / >1200 lumen. 2/ I still hate the idea of smart bulbs.
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Sep 19, 2019 11:07
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cakesmith handyman posted:I have 1 light switch for the lounge running 3 light fittings. I'm going to hate myself trying to change it to switched separately aren't I? Smart bulbs aren't an option here because Probably. As an alternative, an in-wall relay like this is an option: https://aeotec.com/z-wave-outlet-socket/ Ideally hardwire the lights on (code may require you to still have them manually switchable), put a relay in each fitting, and control them independently via a scene controller. It's a little more rickety than I'd prefer (I really like having manual control as an option at all times) but it *should* work fine. I've been thinking of using those to add an automated option for my bathroom vent fans. I think they even make a dimmer version as well.
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Sep 19, 2019 13:49
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I spent all morning dethatching, fertilizing and over-seeding my front lawn with stupid-expensive coated seeds. Then I watered it in heavily so the ground was real soft. An hour later, the dudes installing my neighbors fence drove a Bobcat through it and sank tread marks 3 inches deep. I was pissed in the moment, so I went over and said something, but in the most passive-aggressive way possible, and now I'm all full of anxiety. I regret saying anything cause they're super nice neighbors who treat my kids like grandchildren. The old man is probably going to try to fix it himself before I wake up, but it really isn't that important.
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Sep 19, 2019 21:21
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That company they hired didn't have any right to cross onto your property (let alone with heavy machinery) without your prior approval. You did they right thing, if you tried complaining to the fence company (who don't have any relationship with you) they will probably tell you to gently caress off (very politely) unless you go so far as to file for damages in small claims court. On the other hand if your neighbors complain to them they are now at risk of not getting paid for the job they did, and will be much more accommodating. If I hired somebody to do a job knowing they were going to tear up my lawn and then they ended up tearing up my neighbor's too I'd be drat pissed.
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Sep 19, 2019 21:48
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“You don’t gently caress with another man’s lawn” is supposed to be the credo we’re all bound to here.
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Sep 19, 2019 21:51
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cakesmith handyman posted:I have 1 light switch for the lounge running 3 light fittings. I'm going to hate myself trying to change it to switched separately aren't I? Smart bulbs aren't an option here because 1. You can get smart ballasts like these if you like: https://www.ikea.com/gb/en/p/tradfri-driver-for-wireless-control-grey-50356187/ 2. Ikea's are the ones I use because they're the least "smart" I could find.
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Sep 19, 2019 21:58
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