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Hubis posted:Just wanted to say this looks rad and while I'm not a drainage expert this definitely seems like it's an improvement over where you were previously. Thanks! It gets a fair amount of sun, probably too much for what my wife really wants to do which is cultivate some gnarly mosses. We are looking at a few different options, and I’ll have to look into the supports you mentioned.
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Sep 23, 2019 14:38
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Hubis posted:If you have an old/original master valve (especially a gate type valve) that's totally possible that it is faulty -- happened to me. My house has no end-point shut offs on anything that hadn't been remodeld since the 1950s, so that's not suprising, either. Yeah, I'll do some more testing to be sure. I've got a new bathroom faucet to install (at least the bathroom already has the proper fittings so I don't need to cut anything,) so I'll shut off the master, and shut off the inlet to the hot water heater, open everything to drain pressure, and then open the stop valve back up to see if it dribbles. Nevets posted:Did you drain all the pipes in the house? You might still have had a lot of water in the pipes above the level of the supply for the faucet. It's a single story ranch, and after closing the master I opened up the faucet to relieve all the pressure as much as I could...there wasn't enough pressure in the system to get through the faucet valves, since when nothing was coming out I assumed it was safe to cut the pipe, but as soon as I did water dribbled out...I let it go a while to see if it would ever stop and it didn't look like it was going to, and I was running out of dry towels to keep soaking up the water. Edit: Related to my house's aged plumbing, I also don't have an expansion tank. I'm pretty sure I have a check valve to prevent backflow to the city water, so I'm thinking of getting one...but at the same time, I might want to install an on-demand heater (single guy, who needs a 50 gallon hot water tank (electric, to boot, so lots of money to operate.) and they don't really need an expansion tank, right? I don't have gas service yet, but the gas company says they'll install the line to my house for free as long as I get a gas appliance installed and running within 6 months of the install. They also offer rebates on high efficiency tankless water heaters, so it's a bit of a win-win. DrBouvenstein fucked around with this message at 14:53 on Sep 23, 2019 |
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Sep 23, 2019 14:49
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Motronic posted:The only reason I'd see that being "tricky" would be due to lack of soil - doesn't look like there's much space to fill to the top of the stone. Yeah, I was thinking sun (rhizomatic cool season grasses tend to not do too well in shade) and soil compaction/drainage. But if you have good sun then there should be no problem. For compaction I was just worried he was planning on just throwing down topsoil around his rocks and seeding. The reference picture has the pavers in strips along the wheel base to effectively keep the car from ever actually rolling on grassy space. The more scattered pattern he show he had laid out looked like there would be plenty of room for rolling off/between the pavers, which could be a problem. There is a whole class of products (just Google "grass driveway" for a bunch of options) that you can install to transfer weight from above the grass down past the root layer so as to prevent compaction. And of course, obligatory This Old House video: https://youtu.be/99-c1TRffhI
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Sep 23, 2019 15:26
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Hubis posted:There is a whole class of products (just Google "grass driveway" for a bunch of options) that you can install to transfer weight from above the grass down past the root layer so as to prevent compaction. And of course, obligatory This Old House video: https://youtu.be/99-c1TRffhI Not arguing the soil compaction issues at all for a driveway, but even before you get to that there doesn't appear to be sufficient depth for them at the current grade of whatever that "slag" is. My point was not having enough organic matter for grass to be viable. If we've overcome that and this is a normally used driveway then we get to the point you were making, equally valid.
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Sep 23, 2019 15:31
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Motronic posted:enough organic matter for grass to be viable Simply want grass to not grow there, that's normally enough organic matter for it to thrive.
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Sep 23, 2019 15:40
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cakesmith handyman posted:Simply want grass to not grow there, that's normally enough organic matter for it to thrive. This is a good post.
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Sep 23, 2019 15:41
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DrBouvenstein posted:It's a single story ranch, and after closing the master I opened up the faucet to relieve all the pressure as much as I could...there wasn't enough pressure in the system to get through the faucet valves, since when nothing was coming out I assumed it was safe to cut the pipe, but as soon as I did water dribbled out...I let it go a while to see if it would ever stop and it didn't look like it was going to, and I was running out of dry towels to keep soaking up the water. Yeah, it's always a good idea to open all the faucets, shower taps, and flush the toilets even on a single story. Even then you are going to get a cup or two of water dribbling out slowly due to surface tension. Take any excuse to get gas piped into your house. It'll open up alot more options for heating and cooking, especially if you live somewhere with rising electrical rates.
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Sep 23, 2019 15:46
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Wasn't the white bread with no crusts trick mentioned a few pages ago? Plumbers have little air bladders and a few other tools they can slide in the pipe to dry things enough to solder. A bit of redneck method is to wad up a bit of white bread with no crusts and push it into the pipe to soak up the drip just long enough for you to do your work before it dissolves. Sharkbite sure does make working with wet pipes easy!
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Sep 23, 2019 18:31
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Motronic posted:Not arguing the soil compaction issues at all for a driveway, but even before you get to that there doesn't appear to be sufficient depth for them at the current grade of whatever that "slag" is. My point was not having enough organic matter for grass to be viable. If we've overcome that and this is a normally used driveway then we get to the point you were making, equally valid. Absolutely true. I was kind of giving benefit of the doubt when they said "let the slag settle" that they'd have enough room for a few inches of topsoil on top. But that's definitely not a given. Lots of organic matter isn't *strictly* necessary -- people grow grass in extremely sandy soil all the time -- but if it's the consistency of crushed rock then you may have problems where the pore size doesn't hold onto water long enough to keep the roots moist, and there is nothing for fertilizer and nutrients to bind to. If the consistency is sand like, then you could probably get away with raking in a fair amount of leaf humus and peat compost and be ok. After a while, the cycle of grass root growth and dieback would provide the organic matter you need for the long haul. Aside from your point, my concern about the slag would be how it affects pH of the soil. After prep and before seeding, I'd do some testing and maybe amend to get it into 6.0-6.8 if it's not already.
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Sep 23, 2019 20:01
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H110Hawk posted:Buy an expensive German appliance filled with plastic parts they said, it will have superior German adhesives they said, *cough* So it turns out you have to give it a twist then it locks into place. Guess I'll have a spare for when this thing finally wears through. I was in full panic mode yesterday at the thought of washing a single bottle by hand and trying to get out the door to meet people for brunch. Today I had my new TV mounted and my old TV moved to the office. I took a picture just for you guys I'll try to post it later. 
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Sep 23, 2019 22:55
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Flooring saga update: I was able to find and contact an Amish business that installs hardwoods. The main dude is stopping out tomorrow, I hope it goes well and we can get a contract going. That takes me to my next step -- kitchen. Another casualty of the dishwasher drain breaking was the cabinets. We have a 12x17 kitchen with very long stretches of granite, including one that's "L" shaped with the sink cutout (and seam) right at the bend. Everyone we've spoken to has said there's virtually zero chance of taking it up without breaking it. With that, we're looking at new cabinets and countertops. We had very good luck with the granite that has been down for about 5 years, so we're going to look at granite again instead of quartz. Quartz is more trendy, but also almost twice as expensive, with no tangible benefit for us. Plus, I like putting hot pots on the granite to cool them and that's a no-no with quartz. Why pay more to be able to use it less? But anyway, what is conventional wisdom on cabinetry? We're right at the budget threshold between going with a good semi-custom like Kraftmaid and going full-custom. We're leaning towards semi-custom just because they manufacture in a controlled environment and use conversion vanish. We're looking for painted, and we use our stuff. From what we've read conversion varnish holds up to wear much better than other coatings. What should we be considering, or may have missed?
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Sep 23, 2019 23:20
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EVERYWHERE 
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Any traditional ideas for this before I get creative with a 3D printer?
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Sep 24, 2019 00:00
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eddiewalker posted:Any traditional ideas for this before I get creative with a 3D printer? Extend the entire wall or six inches.
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Sep 24, 2019 00:08
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DrBouvenstein posted:Extend the entire wall or six inches. Wall is already 6 inches thick and the window casings look goofy.
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Sep 24, 2019 00:10
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eddiewalker posted:Any traditional ideas for this before I get creative with a 3D printer? Paint it green and draw a Super Mario Bros level along the baseboard
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Sep 24, 2019 00:23
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eddiewalker posted:Any traditional ideas for this before I get creative with a 3D printer? Kind of related to this: I would like to delete the soffit over the toilet in my guest bathroom. It's an interior room and the toilet is on what I assume is a non-loadbearing wall since the roof structure is truss-based and going on what the structural engineer told me regarding another wall I removed for a kitchen remodel. With that said, I suspect the roof vent for the toilet passes through the soffit so that they did not have to cut through the top plate of the wall. The house is 2x4 construction. Is there a safe way to pass the vent through the header-- if I ever were to get around to it? I've tried googling this sort of question but my Google Fu isn't great when it comes to home construction questions.
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Sep 24, 2019 00:40
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eddiewalker posted:Any traditional ideas for this before I get creative with a 3D printer? Depending upon what room it is, you could build a shallow, moderately wide plinth over it up to about wainscoting height, to display a nice piece of art. You could make it look built-in or like a separate piece of furnishing, whichever suits your style.
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Sep 24, 2019 00:54
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eddiewalker posted:Any traditional ideas for this before I get creative with a 3D printer? Get a water line run to that spot. Install toilet.
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Sep 24, 2019 01:15
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Hubis posted:Yeah, I was thinking sun (rhizomatic cool season grasses tend to not do too well in shade) and soil compaction/drainage. But if you have good sun then there should be no problem. I guess I should've mentioned that we have no intention of parking cars on this park of the driveway, and theres still room for 3 cars even with the segment busted up. We are a little concerned about the depth, but we were told to tamp it down the best we could for about a week. I guess we could always rake what dosen't compact down.
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Sep 24, 2019 02:36
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couldcareless posted:Get a water line run to that spot. Install toilet. It’ll just dump under the house. That’s radon mitigation.
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Sep 24, 2019 03:15
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Hubis posted:Paint it green and draw a Super Mario Bros level along the baseboard Voting for this. 3D print Mario and some blocks
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Sep 24, 2019 05:57
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Can someone who knows roof things tell me what is going on here with my month old roof? The j-channel(?) is wavy as hell and is collecting some debris up against it. Some shingles at the roof to wall junction are cupping.
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Sep 24, 2019 22:55
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Wind, stones and seeds. The frost of winter and the summer sun.
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Sep 24, 2019 23:29
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peanut posted:Wind, stones and seeds. The frost of winter and the summer sun. I mean...he said it's only a month old. Maybe not enough ventilation in the attic space, and the heat is causing things to warp?
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Sep 25, 2019 01:23
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oh my god
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Sep 25, 2019 07:41
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Nice haiku though
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Sep 25, 2019 10:28
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Turns out my roof has a hole for the bathroom fan, but the fuckers didn't actually hook it up so my fan is blowing into the insulation.
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Sep 25, 2019 13:38
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oh my god
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Sep 25, 2019 14:10
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My farts are trapped.
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Sep 25, 2019 15:01
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toplitzin posted:Turns out my roof has a hole for the bathroom fan, but the fuckers didn't actually hook it up so my fan is blowing into the insulation. Gentle breeze blowing Cross the clean wooden snowfall A warm damp failure
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Sep 25, 2019 15:33
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My house is a raised ranch from 68 with "good enough to get your FHA or VA loan but that's it" hardwood that was 100% covered by wall-to-wall for most of its life. When we bought the house all the carpet was removed (which is good) but had people who were....less meticulous than us living there, so the wood is tired. The whole upstairs creaks and squeaks when you walk over it which drives me and my wife crazy. We bought custom cut carpets for the bedrooms which cut down on the noise a lot (though not all of it) but the halls and living room are still bare hardwood. As near as I can tell (from replacing the trim in the upstairs) the hardwood floors are just laid over plywood. Can I just screw in a bunch of those squeak elimination screws and be done with it? Has anyone else done this? Do they actually work? Can I just screw them where the floors squeak, or do I need to secure them to the joists underneath? Is this a bad idea?
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Sep 25, 2019 16:07
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toplitzin posted:Turns out my roof has a hole for the bathroom fan, but the fuckers didn't actually hook it up so my fan is blowing into the insulation. At least you have one. I have no exhaust fan in my bathroom...no overhead fixture of any kind, all I have are lights on the vanity that are actually built-in to the medicine cabinet. I'd like to get rid of the old thing, but I can't until I get some other kind of lighting system in there. And obviously I'd like the benefits of a fan. I'm going to have to crawl around in my attic to try and fit one in there.
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Sep 25, 2019 17:12
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beep-beep car is go posted:My house is a raised ranch from 68 with "good enough to get your FHA or VA loan but that's it" hardwood that was 100% covered by wall-to-wall for most of its life. When we bought the house all the carpet was removed (which is good) but had people who were....less meticulous than us living there, so the wood is tired. The whole upstairs creaks and squeaks when you walk over it which drives me and my wife crazy. We bought custom cut carpets for the bedrooms which cut down on the noise a lot (though not all of it) but the halls and living room are still bare hardwood. I dunno about those ones, but I use these on my squeaky floors and they work quite well: https://www.screwfix.com/p/spax-flooring-screws-4-5-x-60mm-pack-of-300/88716 I've been removing the builder's screws and replacing them with these, plus some more. The double thread is apparently the business. You need to screw them into the joists, yes. The idea is that they're pulling the various wooden moving parts close together so they stop rubbing (and thus squeaking).
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Sep 25, 2019 17:45
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Jaded Burnout posted:I dunno about those ones, but I use these on my squeaky floors and they work quite well: Okay Joists. Is there a way to find them when I don't have access from underneath? (downstairs is finished)
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Sep 25, 2019 17:49
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beep-beep car is go posted:Okay Joists. Is there a way to find them when I don't have access from underneath? (downstairs is finished) Follow the line of the existing fixings. Presumably it's your plywood that's creaking and not the hardwood?
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Sep 25, 2019 18:00
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beep-beep car is go posted:Can I just screw in a bunch of those squeak elimination screws and be done with it? I used these to reduce the squeaking in my living room before I put down my new flooring. It was really bad and only got worse when I pulled up the carpet. I don't have a plywood subfloor so my issues might not apply to you. I found they worked about 75% of the time as long as you put them into a joist. If you missed the joist and just attached them to the subfloor it only got rid of the squeak about 25% of the time, probably because my subfloor was just boards nailed to the joists and they were working their way apart too. They break off about 1/4" below the surface but do leave a noticeable hole. I didn't really care since I was going to cover up everything anyway, so I didn't bother filling them in. After a year or so of use I've noticed spots start to squeak again / for the first time, but that may be me using the floor in a different way than anybody else has. I went through about 100 screws to do around 450 sq ft but I only used them where the floor was noisy or noticeably bouncy.   If I get around to someday I'm going to see if I can pocket hole my joists and attack the floor from below 
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Sep 25, 2019 18:00
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Jaded Burnout posted:Follow the line of the existing fixings. Presumably it's your plywood that's creaking and not the hardwood? No, it's the hardwood. It noticeably moves where the squeaks are. It has most likely shrunk a bit from age and now can move when people walk on it.
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Sep 25, 2019 18:05
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beep-beep car is go posted:No, it's the hardwood. It noticeably moves where the squeaks are. It has most likely shrunk a bit from age and now can move when people walk on it. OK. How are they fixed down? or is it a floating floor?
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Sep 25, 2019 18:06
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Jaded Burnout posted:OK. How are they fixed down? or is it a floating floor? It's too old to be floating, so I assume they're nailed into the subflooring.
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Sep 25, 2019 18:42
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DrBouvenstein posted:At least you have one. I dunno, I think not having a bathroom fan is still preferrable to blowing hot moist air straight into your insulation AND a giant loving hole in your roof. Seriously, WTF. I installed 2 fans in our bathrooms shortly after we bought the house. It's not too hard, provided you're comfortable getting up and cutting a hole in your roof and doing some wiring. I might have been hesitant if we had a 2-story / steeper roof, but the low pitch 1-story rambler roof I have is practically a deck so it was no big deal. Pony up and buy the hole saw. It's pricey for what may be a one-use thing, but it's extremely worth it IMO. If your roof is just paper over slats like mine (no plywood decking???) then fix a small piece of plywood to the inside of the roof before you cut the hole to stabilize the area. Try to vent straight up if you can. If you want to go out the siding only do so if you can make the run extremely short. If you have very cold weather / a long/horizontal run, use insulated flex duct to prevent moisture from condensing inside the duct and dripping down/pooling. The wiring may be the most annoying part. In my case, the 1-story nature meant that all the wires were already accessible in the attic so I was just able to cut some runs, add some j-boxes, and fish a new wire down to the switch boxes. I went with 2 switches in a 1-gang form factor (top light/bottom fan) which meant minimal retrofitting. The Panasonic fans are highly recommended: reliable and extremely quiet.
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Sep 25, 2019 18:56
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