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H110Hawk posted:I can tell you this much, my city inspector would fail this as >6 throws to de-energize the panel unless the feeder panel is in line of sight. Ask me how I learned that. It connects to a 60a breaker inside the main house panel. I dunno what the code is but when we had the house inspected for purchase the inspector had a few issues with the way the panels were, and we had the sellers get a licensed electrician to fix them before we purchased.
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Nov 13, 2019 16:54
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Short answer: if in doubt, get an electrician. Given the risks, it'll be well worth your money (which you can afford, given that the cost will pale in comparison to the huge jump you're about to see in your power bill for heating your garage). Long answer: your local laws likely require that adding circuits requires permits and possibly licensed electricians. Even if not the last part, then an electrician will virtually guarantee you make it through permitting/inspection without major rework. I doubt those wires are 10AWG; residential electricians don't make a habit of running oversized wires for future expansion. If you can locate the outer jacket of the cable, it should have the wire size printed on it. That said, if they're original and run behind sheetrock, they'll be stapled/fireblocked, so it won't be easy to pull a new cable. Also your service may not be sufficient to support the additional load. 10A is not likely to make a difference, but if you're already on the edge then it may be an issue. There's an electrical thread over in the DIY forum, and there are a few electricians that hang out who could answer way better.
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Nov 13, 2019 16:56
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Elysium posted:So I want to add heat to my garage. Running gas seems cost prohibitive so I'm looking at electric (even though it's expensive to run). I'm looking at stuff like this: https://www.amazon.com/Fahrenheat-FUH54-240-volt-Garage-2500-5000-watt/dp/B0000AXEZV Wow! Very full with different breakers, and a lot of circuits for a garage. Is this built up as a workshop? You certainly could abandon something that you're not using and cap it as you described. Or perhaps a cordset on a heater on the existing 220 outlet. If you're feeling real sassy you can get a whole new panel and rewire it and add your new circuit.
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Nov 14, 2019 02:47
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Hi guys, so my wife and I have embarked on a home improvement quest that will likely take a very long time and cause plenty of woe & comedy considering our luck thus far. As I've mentioned in other threads (maybe this thread?) we bought a home that is somewhat smaller than ideal for the size of our family (3 daughters), and leaves no guest room for family when they come to visit. Right now we usually kick one of the girls onto a sofa bed when people visit, but that usually means guests can't stay very long since that's not a sustainable place for them to sleep, and also the two older ones are basically getting into knife fights now about who has to give up their bed. Enter my retired (and apparently bored) in-laws who keep saying they want to spend long periods of time in California vs. New Jersey (especially in the winter). Instead of renting/buying a townhouse year-round they've offered to basically help us convert our detached garage into an additional dwelling unit they could come stay in when they wanted to and which would be available as guest space when they aren't around. Right now we have this garage that was built in the 1970's and was built really well to code at the time (I've literally looked at the permits on the city website). It's basically just a huge waste of space since we don't park our cars inside of it, and we always had the long-term plans of converting it into livable space when we saved up enough money. My wife's parents are basically just offering to speed up the process. Ironically the garage already has it's own electric sub-panel, cold and hot water, and gas hook-up since our laundry room is in the garage and uses all of those things. So it actually might not need a lot of work on those fronts. So far my wife and I measured the space in the garage, drew a diagram and sent it to her father for him to think about. He sent back a drawing of what he wants to put inside the space (kitchenette, bathroom, bedroom) based on our measurements and then asked when we planned on starting. So here's my question, now what? I actually want this place to be updated in an intelligent, by the code, fully permitted manner since it would make the house immensely more valuable down the road, as well as not wanting the place to burn down. My thoughts are that I should find an architect to look at the project and draw some real plans, and then see if they have GCs they work with? How does one go about finding an architect? Yelp  ?
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Nov 18, 2019 09:19
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Anonymous Zebra posted:So far my wife and I measured the space in the garage, drew a diagram and sent it to her father for him to think about. He sent back a drawing of what he wants to put inside the space (kitchenette, bathroom, bedroom) based on our measurements and then asked when we planned on starting. So here's my question, now what? I actually want this place to be updated in an intelligent, by the code, fully permitted manner since it would make the house immensely more valuable down the road, as well as not wanting the place to burn down. My thoughts are that I should find an architect to look at the project and draw some real plans, and then see if they have GCs they work with? How does one go about finding an architect? Yelp Go to the city with the drawing and ask if it's even legal to do what you're intending to do, it might not be. This could be a range of "we do not, under any circumstances, allow people to convert garages into ADU's" to "You forgot a second egress / the shitter needs 3 more inches of clearance / etc" to "looks good, do you plan to do this yourself or hire it out?" Lookup if your city has an ADU incentive program and what the requirements are, I think ours offers expedited permitting if you meet certain requirements in your drawing and plot location. You probably don't need an architect for a 1 room ADU conversion, but you also want someone who isn't just going to eyeball it. They should be taking measurements, probably with a nifty laser measurer thing, and go draw it themselves on a computer to make sure it all actually does fit - assuming you haven't done this.
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Nov 18, 2019 12:13
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H110Hawk posted:Go to the city with the drawing and ask if it's even legal to do what you're intending to do, it might not be. This could be a range of "we do not, under any circumstances, allow people to convert garages into ADU's" to "You forgot a second egress / the shitter needs 3 more inches of clearance / etc" to "looks good, do you plan to do this yourself or hire it out?" Lookup if your city has an ADU incentive program and what the requirements are, I think ours offers expedited permitting if you meet certain requirements in your drawing and plot location. The sad part is, CA's housing crisis is partly driven by zoning that often strictly prohibits ADUs, and the recent attempt to make them legal statewide to try and help got spiked by a CA state rep for a wealthy enclave. Best of luck, but I suspect your only recourse will be an actual home extension.
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Nov 18, 2019 12:28
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The opposite, more recently. ADUs are now available for a lot of the bay area due to the housing crisis, with steps to speed things up.
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Nov 18, 2019 17:35
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Yeah. I was about to post that CA just made these types of conversions easier in order to alleviate housing stresses. The California megathread was throwing a shitfit about it a few months ago because they thought it meant every homeowner was going to become a slumlord renting out their toolsheds. I'm not actually considering this just because the law changed, it was actually being planned before then and is being kickstarted by my in-laws. Also I never intend to rent the place out, it's just for family. The reason I brought up an architect is because 1) my wife and I are terrible at aesthetics and it would be nice to have someone who knows what they are doing give their opinion on how things could be efficiently laid out in the space provided, 2) having someone that knows permitting rules and how to design a space that meets them on the first run around would be great, 3) I'm trying to avoid the contractor shitshow I've had over the last year by just having someone who works with contractors regularly give me recommendations. Maybe that's the wrong train of thought?
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Nov 18, 2019 18:20
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ntan1 posted:The opposite, more recently. Oh I got it confused with SB50 that got blocked earlier this year, my mistake! I would say getting an architect may or may not be necessary. You could try to see if there is a larger contractor used to being prime with its own subcontractors and can manage a job like this as well.
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Nov 18, 2019 22:25
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I'd like to get some input from goons who have done full kitchen remodels. We're going to do ours - gut everything, new flooring and ceiling, keeping the walls as they are. New cabinets, new countertop, new appliances (double oven, OTR microwave, dishwasher, fridge). We're removing the fixture lights and going with recessed lights. What are some gotchas we should be aware of during the process? The house is a 1949 Cape Cod, we're in northern/central NJ. Our budget is fairly flexible, we're hoping not to exceed $40k but we also want to make sure we get quality products that will last a lifetime. We don't intend to sell the house. No kids, just me, my wife, and two cats. We have general contractors that we like and have used before, and as far as I know they can do everything but the countertop and painting (they don't do painting for some reason). I'm already making extra meals and freezing them in our basement chest freezer, so we can move the microwave and fridge to the basement and have some semblance of home-cooked food and not resort to takeout for 8 weeks. What else should I be worried about/prepared for?
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Nov 20, 2019 21:24
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If you're doing new ceiling and new floors then you'll definitely be doing new walls. The chances that you'll be running electrical and plumbing lines is pretty high.
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Nov 20, 2019 21:32
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MJP posted:gut everything, OTR microwave If you're gutting everything, think pretty hard about doing what I assume is an "over the range" microwave combo with an extraction fan. They all
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Nov 20, 2019 21:50
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H110Hawk posted:If you're gutting everything, think pretty hard about doing what I assume is an "over the range" microwave combo with an extraction fan. They all The only real option then is counter-top. In-wall/cabinet/whatever units are going to be harder to come by, so you're either stuck with low-end or high-end stuff in 10 years when the "perfect" microwave you buy breaks and is discontinued. Don't get me wrong, I hate my OTR microwave if for no other reason than I can't use a proper hood vent. But the OTR microwave I have has plenty of power and space in it for the vast majority of use. That said, I would gladly use a counter-top unit if I could swap the OTR microwave with a proper vent hood, even though I don't have a ton of counter space. Trouble is, some dipshit decided that that wall was the PERFECT place to run the upstairs gas line, in addition to the drain and condenser lines for the upstairs A/C, so there's no chance I can get an actual exterior vent there anyhow. And unless someone makes a HEPA/charcoal combo vent filter, I don't see the point of a vent hood if it doesn't go outside. edit: also if you're loving with your kitchen to the tune of $40k, run a drat exterior vent line for your microwave/range. If you do ANY real cooking whatsoever, this will save you so much trouble/smoke.
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Nov 21, 2019 00:00
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DaveSauce posted:The only real option then is counter-top. In-wall/cabinet/whatever units are going to be harder to come by, so you're either stuck with low-end or high-end stuff in 10 years when the "perfect" microwave you buy breaks and is discontinued. FWIW, I didn't want to use up precious counter space, so when I had my kitchen done, the designer suggested putting an extended-depth bottom shelf on one of the upper cabinets, so that a countertop microwave would fit there. The contractor put a wall outlet on a dedicated circuit right behind where the microwave sits, and we left the upper shelf open to hold things that are useful and that look nice. I thought I might hate having the bottom of that cabinet stick out an extra three inches, but it hasn't been a problem. It's been more than balanced by the ease of replacing the microwave when needed. When I do have to replace it, all I have to look for is that the basic dimensions work, and that the vents are on the sides rather than just the back.
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Nov 21, 2019 00:26
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DaveSauce posted:The only real option then is counter-top. In-wall/cabinet/whatever units are going to be harder to come by, so you're either stuck with low-end or high-end stuff in 10 years when the "perfect" microwave you buy breaks and is discontinued. Our OTR microwave of shame has an exterior vent line. It still sucks at sucking, and is loud as all getout while doing it. I guess I'm OK with future-me's problem with in-wall/cabinet mounted microwave.
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Nov 21, 2019 00:31
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TofuDiva posted:FWIW, I didn't want to use up precious counter space, so when I had my kitchen done, the designer suggested putting an extended-depth bottom shelf on one of the upper cabinets, so that a countertop microwave would fit there. The contractor put a wall outlet on a dedicated circuit right behind where the microwave sits, and we left the upper shelf open to hold things that are useful and that look nice. This is what I had my contractor do. It was two shelves instead of one cabinet. We found the smallest microwave we could that held a large Fiestaware dinner plate and called it good. It's only 1000W I think but that was beefy as they went at the size we needed. It's 0.7 cubic feet I think? Also it has a dedicated button to enable and disable the beeps and I love it.
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Nov 21, 2019 00:39
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H110Hawk posted:Our OTR microwave of shame has an exterior vent line. It still sucks at sucking, and is loud as all getout while doing it. Yeah technically any bends will kill air flow and make a lovely blower even shittier, but at least you're blowing all the smoke outside instead of recirculating it.
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Nov 21, 2019 01:22
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I opted for the wall micro/oven combo instead of a double oven. I’ve never needed the second oven and much prefer the real hood over a otr microwave.
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Nov 21, 2019 01:31
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OTR microwave fans do suck, but they can still move 200-300cfm if your ducts are good. Much more than that and you need makeup air, which almost nobody does correctly. There is zero chance those mega range hoods are actually moving 700+cfm without a window open. Even with my 300cfm microwave vent, there's a big difference in its ability if I crack a nearby window and get a proper flow-through.
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Nov 21, 2019 01:41
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200-300 CFM is fine, my bathroom sucks 150CFM and clears the room in minutes of the bulk steam. I would love to be able to hear the garbage disposal grinding up a fork over this thing. Right now I am unclear on which is louder. I assume more money could make it quieter, but there is only so quiet you can make this setup.
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Nov 21, 2019 02:02
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poo poo POST MALONE posted:Also it has a dedicated button to enable and disable the beeps and I love it. One of my lifelong ambitions is to completely de-beep my home, but the goal has been elusive and this sounds wonderful. Mind sharing what make yours is?
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Nov 21, 2019 04:16
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DaveSauce posted:Yeah technically any bends will kill air flow and make a lovely blower even shittier, but at least you're blowing all the smoke outside instead of recirculating it.  Oh no my desired extraction fan setup involves two 90 degree bends and a good ways up through the old stove chimney (that still has the port for the original wood stove in it) - hope it doesn’t totally screw up airflow. Then again my parents’ house has the ducting for the stove fan going up through a second floor wall and out the roof and that’s worked out pretty well, but it might be a mostly straight shot.In regards to OTR microwaves, a friend asked if we were going to do one, and I was quick to say no. I grew up in a house where the microwave was off in a corner and was generally regarded as an optional auxiliary appliance that didn’t deserve any special consideration in kitchen design. I also lived in a rental with an OTR microwave setup and mostly hated it - it made the stove hood low enough that I couldn’t have tall pots on the back burners and still be able to stir comfortably. Only thing it was good for counter space saving.
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Nov 21, 2019 06:38
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Queen Victorian posted:
Ducts have bends in them. It doesn't "totally screw up" airflow, it's just something to be taken in account in overall design. If you can do less than a hard 90 that's great. If you can up-size, also helpful but not necessary. There are legit calculations for this, but they're hardly relevant as you aren't going to have much choice in fan motors unless you're putting in a commercial hood.
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Nov 21, 2019 14:28
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My parents got one of those microwaves that install into a cabinet and have a drawer that comes out. It's pretty cool but time will tell how it holds up given it had a motor to control the drawer.
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Nov 21, 2019 14:59
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So after some water issues in our finished basement, we just had a contractor do a full french drain. This involved them cutting about 2 feet off the bottom of the walls including through the studs. Well now that they're done and we're planning on putting the walls back together, we can see that there is no insulation in the walls whatsoever. This isn't particularly surprising given how much colder it always was down there but it throws a wrench into our simple "just close up the walls again" plan. https://imgur.com/a/gEpX4pK My dad suggested we just put regular fiberglass insulation in them, because it would be relatively simple to just stuff the batts up between the studs. I've been doing a little research and that seems like it's not gonna work because apparently fiberglass insulation is super bad against basement walls. So I seem to have 3 options: 1) Just close up the walls with no insulation 2) Rip down all the rest of the drywall and put in hardboard insulation ($$) 3) Rip down all the rest of the drywall and spray foam ($$$) Anything else I should think about?
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Nov 21, 2019 16:18
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Lots of feedback, thanks goons! I'll reply as needed below:H110Hawk posted:If you're gutting everything, think pretty hard about doing what I assume is an "over the range" microwave combo with an extraction fan. They all We don't have much countertop space for a microwave and our space/layout probably won't allow for enough countertop to put a microwave. We have a large baker's rack that holds the microwave and toaster oven, and that's going away in the remodel since it's big and ugly and takes up space. A double oven will replace the toaster oven, and we don't really do much steamy/smoky cooking to use the crappy recirculator hood we presently have. An OTR is better than our current setup since we can at least vent it outside. TofuDiva posted:FWIW, I didn't want to use up precious counter space, so when I had my kitchen done, the designer suggested putting an extended-depth bottom shelf on one of the upper cabinets, so that a countertop microwave would fit there. The contractor put a wall outlet on a dedicated circuit right behind where the microwave sits, and we left the upper shelf open to hold things that are useful and that look nice. I'll bounce that off our designer, but she's leaning OTR to allow for more utility in the cabinets. skipdogg posted:I opted for the wall micro/oven combo instead of a double oven. I’ve never needed the second oven and much prefer the real hood over a otr microwave. We'd have to build deeper walls to get a wall oven/micro combo, alas :-( Motronic posted:Ducts have bends in them. It doesn't "totally screw up" airflow, it's just something to be taken in account in overall design. If you can do less than a hard 90 that's great. If you can up-size, also helpful but not necessary. I actually calculated this at one point while planning out an airbrush spray booth. https://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/duct-friction-pressure-loss-d_444.html helps and will be part of our planning for the OTR fan. FWIW, it's listed at 400CFM, which is close enough to my 385CFM airbrush booth fan that's overpressured for a 24x12" opening at 17' worth of duct given bends.
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Nov 21, 2019 16:21
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Elysium posted:So after some water issues in our finished basement, we just had a contractor do a full french drain. This involved them cutting about 2 feet off the bottom of the walls including through the studs. Well now that they're done and we're planning on putting the walls back together, we can see that there is no insulation in the walls whatsoever. This isn't particularly surprising given how much colder it always was down there but it throws a wrench into our simple "just close up the walls again" plan. There is spray foam insulation that can be installed without removing your walls, they just cut a few holes in each bay and spray it in. I have no idea what the cost of that is compared to your other options though. Apparently you can even DIY it https://sprayfoamkit.com/products/slow-rise-spray-foam/ (not an endorsement just an example) Sirotan fucked around with this message at 17:16 on Nov 21, 2019 |
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Nov 21, 2019 17:07
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couldcareless posted:My parents got one of those microwaves that install into a cabinet and have a drawer that comes out. It's pretty cool but time will tell how it holds up given it had a motor to control the drawer. You can open/close the one I had without the motor - it's just an extra feature. And for what it's worth there are 4 of those in the main kitchen of my company's HQ. They are used mercilessly, every day, in an office of over 500 people for the last 2+ years. They're all fine.
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Nov 21, 2019 18:04
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Well that sorta sells me on it as that was my only concern. I love my counter space, so whenever we do our kitchen reno, it will probably be a no brainer.
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Nov 21, 2019 18:25
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My inlaws have a built in so high my mother in law can barely reach inside. It's worked fine for around a decade. I doubt they will have trouble replacing it, it looks like a really normal size. It doesn't slide out or anything. Note my mother in law is like 5'2" on a tall day. An over range presents similar problems.
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Nov 21, 2019 18:30
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Midrange remodel of a master bathroom quoted at 70k Lol! Second quote was 82k Again I lol!
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Nov 22, 2019 01:57
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TofuDiva posted:One of my lifelong ambitions is to completely de-beep my home, but the goal has been elusive and this sounds wonderful. Mind sharing what make yours is? It's a GE JES1072SH1SS the button disable the beeps just says "Sound" and it's my favorite thing about it. E: also it's not 1000W. It's 700W. We definitely searched for the highest powered compact model we could find/afford.
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Nov 22, 2019 02:16
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I'm buying an old house and got an engineer's report on the crawlspace. It says they'd need to remove the kitchen floor to replace some dry rotted beams. I really hope this doesn't turn into something huge, because everything else about it is perfect. Lots of space, overlooks a nice park, a large balcony(!), and it's even closer to downtown than my current home. I never thought I'd find something with all of these characteristics that I could afford. I accepted an offer on my own house today, so my options are quickly narrowing
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Nov 22, 2019 02:39
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poo poo POST MALONE posted:It's a GE JES1072SH1SS Thank you!
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Nov 22, 2019 04:31
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Maybe this goes into SH/SC turf, but if you have appliances with wi-fi connectivity, has anyone successfully denied them access to your home network? Blocking their MAC address, setting them up with a static IP and blocking all traffic to/from, etc.? I don't want my stove to power on and flood my house with gas because its network interface is the lowest bidder with extremely weak encryption and a Romanian botnet wanted to mine bitcoins with it.
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Nov 22, 2019 16:03
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I would assume you have some sort of password on your wifi, just don't give it to your oven?
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Nov 22, 2019 16:23
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You should be able to either whitelist or blacklist MAC addresses on your router.
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Nov 22, 2019 16:27
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DaveSauce posted:You should be able to either whitelist or blacklist MAC addresses on your router. That's not really a full solution for a determined attacker. MAC addresses are trivially changed and even spoofed. If your toaster doesn't know your properly secured wifi password that's the best you can do. I have a seperate "IOT jail" vlan/wifi for this kind of stuff, where I can turn on/off internet access as required. This wifi network obviously does not share a password with my real wifi network that most devices are on, and the vlan can't access devices on that network.
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Nov 22, 2019 16:43
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Holy hell just don't buy that poo poo.
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Nov 22, 2019 17:46
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poo poo POST MALONE posted:Holy hell just don't buy that poo poo. There often isn't a reasonable alternative anymore, which is pretty disappointing. You want a fridge with all the features? Probably comes with this. You want a nice TV? Probably gonna be a smart TV, even if you never use the features.
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Nov 22, 2019 17:50
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