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AFewBricksShy posted:Outside the shower, you don't need to waterproof. Buy the spacers. You will thank yourself later. A harbor freight tile saw will make your life a hell of a lot easier.
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Nov 20, 2019 18:18
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Anyone have a recommendation for a good screw extractor set? Reviews for commonly available sets (home depot/lowes) appear to be pretty terrible :\
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Nov 20, 2019 21:27
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Scarf posted:Anyone have a recommendation for a good screw extractor set? Reviews for commonly available sets (home depot/lowes) appear to be pretty terrible You only need screw extractors when you’re having a lovely day. I can’t imagine wanting to write a nice review after needing a set. Sears has a 3 piece set that’s as good as any of them, but don’t expect miracles.
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Nov 20, 2019 21:41
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If you want to measure the air temperature in a room (what you feel when you enter) does an infrared thermometer actually work or is that supposed to be pointed at something? Trying to figure out if the HVAC is heating equally.
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Nov 20, 2019 22:39
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Pan it around the room, it'll give you a range
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Nov 20, 2019 22:44
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IR thermometers measure reflected/emitted IR light so it can't be transparent or otherwise non-reflective. You can measure the temperature of the wall, the floor, your cat, a steak, etc. but not the air or a pane of glass or a ghost or a black hole.
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Nov 20, 2019 22:47
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Nevets posted:IR thermometers measure reflected/emitted IR light so it can't be transparent or otherwise non-reflective. You can measure the temperature of the wall, the floor, your cat, a steak, etc. but not the air or a pane of glass or a ghost or a black hole. That's kinda what I thought. Is there a kind of thermometer that reads quickly otherwise? If I type in instant in Amazon I get meat thermometers.
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Nov 20, 2019 22:52
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Charles posted:That's kinda what I thought. Is there a kind of thermometer that reads quickly otherwise? If I type in instant in Amazon I get meat thermometers. Honestly those can be pretty accurate for room temps if you don't hold the metal part.
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Nov 20, 2019 23:00
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Charles posted:That's kinda what I thought. Is there a kind of thermometer that reads quickly otherwise? If I type in instant in Amazon I get meat thermometers. I just use a meat thermometer
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Nov 20, 2019 23:22
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Scarf posted:Anyone have a recommendation for a good screw extractor set? Reviews for commonly available sets (home depot/lowes) appear to be pretty terrible :\ Screw extractors suck. They have bad reviews because they rarely work.
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Nov 21, 2019 00:07
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Fallom posted:I just use a meat thermometer TheBananaKing posted:Honestly those can be pretty accurate for room temps if you don't hold the metal part. Sounds good, will get one.
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Nov 21, 2019 00:32
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kid sinister posted:Screw extractors suck. They have bad reviews because they rarely work. Is the same true for bolt/nut extractors? I recently hosed up a bolt on my car and have been looking into them but I'm thinking I'll exhaust some other options before spending the money for something that won't help.
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Nov 21, 2019 00:41
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Bluhhhhhh I have mice in my kitchen, hiding out behind the stove. Got two with snap traps today. Any advice beyond keeping the traps going, cleaning everything with disinfectant, and keeping all food in secure containers?
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Nov 21, 2019 05:34
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TooMuchAbstraction posted:Bluhhhhhh I have mice in my kitchen, hiding out behind the stove. Got two with snap traps today. Any advice beyond keeping the traps going, cleaning everything with disinfectant, and keeping all food in secure containers? You could try and find the holes they are getting in from. Somewhat of a mix between useful and a fool's errand. Given that they are behind your stove they could be coming in via where your electric or gas cabling comes in to fuel the stove especially the older your home is. Get in your crawlspace under the kitchen and start lookin'
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Nov 21, 2019 05:43
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I know that behind the stove is a common entry point. No crawlspace in my house though, the floor's directly on a concrete slab. The stove backs up to an interior wall too, which I assume means that they're in the walls. My dog was going nuts in one of the other rooms one night and I found a crack in the corner trim (badly installed...by me, most of a decade ago) big enough for a mouse to get in. I patched that with caulk. What I don't know is where they're getting in on the exterior of the house. Bleh. Stupid little plague carriers. 
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Nov 21, 2019 05:53
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What Tangy Yet Delightful said. I would also add that you need to check the seal on your exterior doors. There should be a gasket around all sides that keep bugs and vermin out, and if it's worn down or missing that could be how they got in. A great way to check is to turn off the lights during the day and see if you can see light coming in under or around the door. If light's getting through, that's a problem. Also, for sealing holes you find. Use caulk, or something better than spray foam. They will chew right through that stuff. e: Also check your attic for evidence of rodent activity. Do you have trees near/touching your roof? Vines? Cables or Wires going up the side of your home? They will climb all of that poo poo and either find a hole at the top of it, or run on your roof and find a way into your attic there. Once they're in the attic it's pretty easy to get down a wall or wherever. The P/O of my home had gigantic crepe myrtles on the side of the house that touched the side of the roof and mice and carpenter ants were using them to gain entry into the attic and roof. SpartanIvy fucked around with this message at 06:00 on Nov 21, 2019 |
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Nov 21, 2019 05:54
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Stuff some steel wool into the holes before patching them, the mice won't chew through it.
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Nov 21, 2019 16:25
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Thanks for the advice, y'all. My house fortunately does not have any nearby trees. Mice could conceivably climb up the gutters maybe? Or the cable that the PO ran loving everywhere. When I moved in my Internet quality was atrocious until I found a box full of cable splitters and just removed them all. Actually the cable runs are a good bet for how the mice are getting inside; it wouldn't surprise me if that was done by Comcast reps. No mouse in the trap when I woke up this morning, which means either they got scared off by the scent of a dead mouse still lingering in the area, or there were only two to begin with. I know which one of those is the safe bet. 
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Nov 21, 2019 16:33
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TooMuchAbstraction posted:Thanks for the advice, y'all. My house fortunately does not have any nearby trees. Mice could conceivably climb up the gutters maybe? Or the cable that the PO ran loving everywhere. When I moved in my Internet quality was atrocious until I found a box full of cable splitters and just removed them all. Actually the cable runs are a good bet for how the mice are getting inside; it wouldn't surprise me if that was done by Comcast reps. They will climb right over dead mice fresh in traps. They can also scale drat near anything they can sink their claws into or around. My dad cleared our attic of them once and when he found where they were going as a primary route he put a 2x4 with 1, then 2, then 3 traps in series. Every morning for at least a month he would climb into the attic and clear all of the traps. This was back when we were swamp people. He eventually figured out where all the places they were going into the house from, but that was a weekend chore, so weekdays it was just a hedge against inflation.
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Nov 21, 2019 17:04
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I had a bad mice infestation when I bought my house. That first winter I caught probably 50-60 of them in snap traps. The following winter it was down to about 10ish. Now I get one every once in a while. Just leave the snap traps out. If it's the easiest food to get to, they'll get to it. (Also seconding that mice don't give a gently caress about other dead mice. I've literally seen them stacked on top of each other dead.) I always wanted to set up the water bucket trap (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SIlYiiCGLI), but my mice are in the attic that has no space in it, so not a good spot to put it. Comedy option was that super expensive triggered hammer trap I saw someone else post. That would be super gratifying too but at like $100, no thanks. Snap traps are effective enough.
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Nov 21, 2019 17:40
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TheBananaKing posted:Is the same true for bolt/nut extractors? I recently hosed up a bolt on my car and have been looking into them but I'm thinking I'll exhaust some other options before spending the money for something that won't help. That depends on how much is left exposed above the surface. If you just rounded off the bolt, it's possible to hammer on a smaller diameter socket. If there's enough room around, it's possible to grab it with vice grips. You can cut a slot in the top and try to use a flathead screwdriver to get it out. Yet another option is to tack weld something on top and use that to get it out.
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Nov 21, 2019 22:26
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I had an old house where I was killing dozens and dozens with traps because the landlord would neither fix holes and remove plants nor let me do it. Eventually I just spray foamed and steel wooled everything in the house and hacked out tons of landscaping doing realistically thousands of dollars in damage in a fit of anger because the landlord had basically stopped communicating altogether and it worked really well and I got my deposit back though one time I sealed a cat into the crawlspace (managed to get it out tho) which led to some unholy yowling. Anyway I also used poison baits very heavily and I think that did 90% of the work honestly. Strongly recommend it for mice because a rotting mouse only stinks so much vs a rat or whatever. Not the most child/pet/wildlife friendly solution but the mouse pros evidently all go straight for it so...
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Nov 22, 2019 00:29
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You get the occasional mouse who won't set off a snap trap so putting some glue traps in the mix helps. You get some mice who can escape those but I guess if you bait the glues with poison you can be sure either way.
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Nov 22, 2019 00:32
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shovelbum posted:I had an old house where I was killing dozens and dozens with traps because the landlord would neither fix holes and remove plants nor let me do it. Eventually I just spray foamed and steel wooled everything in the house and hacked out tons of landscaping doing realistically thousands of dollars in damage in a fit of anger because the landlord had basically stopped communicating altogether and it worked really well and I got my deposit back though one time I sealed a cat into the crawlspace (managed to get it out tho) which led to some unholy yowling. Anyway I also used poison baits very heavily and I think that did 90% of the work honestly. Strongly recommend it for mice because a rotting mouse only stinks so much vs a rat or whatever. Not the most child/pet/wildlife friendly solution but the mouse pros evidently all go straight for it so... Rat poison kills large raptors. Please don't use it. Plug holes instead. If you don't want the mess they make electric rat death chambers too. Peanut butter in the end, rat crawls in, it shocks them to death.
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Nov 22, 2019 00:35
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kid sinister posted:That depends on how much is left exposed above the surface. If you just rounded off the bolt, it's possible to hammer on a smaller diameter socket. If there's enough room around, it's possible to grab it with vice grips. You can cut a slot in the top and try to use a flathead screwdriver to get it out. Yet another option is to tack weld something on top and use that to get it out. Yeah, I've got all these on my list to try. The loving thing refused to budge from both my impact driver and my breaker bar, so I don't think the screwdriver is gonna work and the vice grips are probably not an option either due to space constraints. I've been letting it soak in some penetrating oil and will try a few cycles of heating and cooling before attempting to remove it again.
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Nov 22, 2019 00:47
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H110Hawk posted:Rat poison kills large raptors. Please don't use it. Plug holes instead. If you don't want the mess they make electric rat death chambers too. Peanut butter in the end, rat crawls in, it shocks them to death. I just moved in the end, gently caress that guy, he found a new tenant in a day bc rent was 30% of market I think that house is more mouse than house by weight and I'm glad I didn't die of hanta
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Nov 22, 2019 00:48
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TheBananaKing posted:Yeah, I've got all these on my list to try. The loving thing refused to budge from both my impact driver and my breaker bar, so I don't think the screwdriver is gonna work and the vice grips are probably not an option either due to space constraints. I've been letting it soak in some penetrating oil and will try a few cycles of heating and cooling before attempting to remove it again. Breaker bar with a cheater. If that doesn't work, breaker bar with a cheater until you break the head off, then drill it and retap it. We do have a metalworking thread here in DIY in you want a second opinion.
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Nov 22, 2019 04:04
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What you want for a lot of mice is a tin cat. https://smile.amazon.com/Victor-M310S-Trap-Catches-Geometric-Pattern/dp/B00004RAMU/ Options: 1) Use it as a have a heart. 2) Pitch it in water when there are mice in it. 3) Bait it once and scrape it out months later. The bait attracts the first mouse. The first corpse attracts more mice. It's gross.
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Nov 22, 2019 04:51
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My wife got ripped off. She got roped in by a boutique furniture salesman and spent $3,000 on a chaise (chair) while out of town, and had it shipped here. It was tufted on top. I say "was", because within the first year, many of the tufts unstrung themselves all on their own. After watching videos of furniture being built (timestamped the moment) I am not sure how this is even possible unless someone is being seriously sloppy with the staple gun. These tufting strings are strong and should not just pop loose during normal usage (we only sat on it, never rough, no rough cleaning, no pets, etc.) The dark blue dye on the fabric is also coming out streaks. What the hell is wrong with this thing? This shouldn't happen ever for $3,000 right?   Can someone confirm that it is a defect in construction for this to be able happen on its own? I asked the company owner for a refund by e-mail the other day and he refused to honor the warranty because we did not act soon enough. Unfortunately my wife kept no paperwork about the purchase, so for years we lost the company's contact info until she finally found an old e-mail from them. I pressed the owner to stand behind their craftmanship anyway, and told him why I knew this had happened within the first year (it was in storage for much of the time since anyway). He did not reply. Should I bother reminding him? Is there anything I can do besides leaving a lovely review? They're all the way in Seattle and we're in LA. Can anyone also confirm that this is not something I can fix DIY? The back of it looks completely sealed in by these shiny rivets at the bottom (shown below), but thankfully most of the damage is in the horizontal section, so we could maybe rip the black felt out of the bottom to access the buttons that need to be re-strung. Probably through wooden holes right? Would this require anything we can't obtain? We have no way of transporting it to a professional, but how would they access it and fix it? 
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Nov 26, 2019 03:54
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I've never done it myself, but I've known several amateurs who reupholstered furniture and did a good job. I think it's one of those things that just takes patience, attention to detail, and basic sewing skills. Whether you can fix the tufts without having to effectively reupholster the whole thing in the process I don't know. Since the fabric appears not to have it's dye set properly you might just want to do that anyway. Do you still have all the missing buttons? If they aren't obviously damaged I'm guessing the metal loop on the back has a sharp edge somewhere that rubbed against the thread every time somebody slid around and pulled them sideways, which is why most of the missing ones are in that one spot. You are SOL on the warranty. I've never seen one that let you make a claim after the warranty expired even if the damage occurred before. If the manager of the shady overpriced poor quality furniture manufacturer was visited by the ghosts of Christmas past present and future he'd still need you to ship the chair back to Seattle and the best you'd get in return is a replacement of similar materials and quality.
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Nov 26, 2019 16:40
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Thanks for the info! It seems like it's time to give up hope on the company and maybe try the DIY route before throwing it out. I don't think I care about the dye and based on a couple videos of re-stringing the buttons it looks like the only special tools I need are a long needle and a staple gun. And buttons of course. I kept one button. I don't see any sharp edges on it. You're asking about sharp edges on the button itself and not on the furniture frame right? Do you think I could get more buttons like it at a fabric store? 
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Nov 26, 2019 23:49
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Is there a trick/tool that makes removing weeds from in between pavers less of a pain in the rear end? I feel like it should be a lot easier than it is, but I'm having trouble visualizing what I need to do to lighten the work. So far I've been waiting until it gets really overgrown and then going to town with an action hoe, which is effective but also a lot of effort.
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Nov 27, 2019 02:14
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Corla Plankun posted:Is there a trick/tool that makes removing weeds from in between pavers less of a pain in the rear end? Promadine (a pre-emergent). If you don't want to go chemical you need to keep up with it regularly before they root too deeply by either weeding or using something like a propane weeder.
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Nov 27, 2019 02:38
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Corla Plankun posted:Is there a trick/tool that makes removing weeds from in between pavers less of a pain in the rear end? Boiling water. No poo poo. Works like a charm.
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Nov 27, 2019 05:18
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I boil RoundUp and use that. Works way better than just boiled water and I don't have to carry as much of it out from the stove which is great ever since I got these 5 types of lung cancer that drained my stamina.
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Nov 27, 2019 06:31
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Dumb Lowtax posted:Do you think I could get more buttons like it at a fabric store? Absolutely, you may have to try a couple before you get a close enough match. Don't to the felt underneath, lever the brass tacks out, peel the felt back. Then post pics or a thread.
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Nov 27, 2019 07:56
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cakesmith handyman posted:Absolutely, you may have to try a couple before you get a close enough match. Don't to the felt underneath, lever the brass tacks out, peel the felt back. Then post pics or a thread. Too late, our cats (adopted while this thing was in storage) have already decided that all our furniture that just came back from storage is cool to climb on upside down by the claws, until the bottom felt eventually gives way to big enough holes to climb in and inhabit. At least no one can see the bottom.
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Nov 27, 2019 08:04
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Dumb Lowtax posted:Too late, our cats (adopted while this thing was in storage) have already decided that all our furniture that just came back from storage is cool to climb on upside down by the claws, until the bottom felt eventually gives way to big enough holes to climb in and inhabit. At least no one can see the bottom. Okay, step one: shake any loose cats from item to be repaired...
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Nov 27, 2019 10:45
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More like a chattes longue
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Nov 27, 2019 10:48
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Corla Plankun posted:Is there a trick/tool that makes removing weeds from in between pavers less of a pain in the rear end? vinegar?
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Nov 27, 2019 12:11
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