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Whoreson Welles posted:Laminate floor question: Our finished attic is just a subfloor right now. It’s not bad by any means but also not PERFECTLY even, some of the boards are off by about 1/16” at spots. How much of a hassle would it be to lay down snap-together laminate floor on top of a thin foam sheet layer? Do we have to meticulously go through and level out every board or is laminate pretty forgiving? In my experience laminate is forgiving in the way that you can lay it down and its generally flexible but it will stand up and flex on uneven spots and you will always notice it. If its just utilitarian usage for an attic, not a big deal. If you want to actually use this space you might get annoyed seeing uneven laminate flooring. My last apartment had laminate and I hated it. There were some high and low spots and I noticed them all the time. Standing on them you could feel the depression or the bump. The laminate we had was really thin and floppy so it wasn't rigid enough not to notice. I would suggest trying to lay something down that might absorb/level out the floor a bit before putting flooring down if you're like me and noticing it will bug you.
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Aug 6, 2021 21:22
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Good point. I WANT to say it won’t bother me as that will mainly just be our exercise bike and my computer but I’m sure down the line I would regret not doing it right.
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Aug 6, 2021 21:34
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You say the attic is just subfloor right now, but isn't that a hardwood finished floor covering? I thought subfloor was like, sheets of plywood, I'm still learning though.
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Aug 6, 2021 21:41
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Inner Light posted:You say the attic is just subfloor right now, but isn't that a hardwood finished floor covering? I thought subfloor was like, sheets of plywood, I'm still learning though. Pre-plywood days this would be considered flooring/subfloor. It's just a lower grade/smaller pieces/wider boards than what you'd typically consider "hardwood floor". A lot of older/more modest places around here often have no subflooring at all - it's just hardwood right on top of joists.
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Aug 6, 2021 21:44
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Whoreson Welles posted:Laminate floor question: Our finished attic is just a subfloor right now. It’s not bad by any means but also not PERFECTLY even, some of the boards are off by about 1/16” at spots. How much of a hassle would it be to lay down snap-together laminate floor on top of a thin foam sheet layer? Do we have to meticulously go through and level out every board or is laminate pretty forgiving? Spend the time to flatten it. If boards are loose, drive a screw in them. If they are just high/uneven, run a planer over it and smooth it out. Hopefully you can rent an electric planer. You might just use this for a workout space for now, and in 5 years use it as a bedroom. Am extra few hours of work here is worth it. There is underlayment for laminate, it helps reduce sound transmission. Check the product data for your flooring to see if they reccomend it and if so what kind.
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Aug 6, 2021 21:53
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Inner Light posted:You say the attic is just subfloor right now, but isn't that a hardwood finished floor covering? I thought subfloor was like, sheets of plywood, I'm still learning though. Should have prefaced by saying the house was built in 1906 and moved in 1930, which is when I imagine they probably redid the attic.
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Aug 6, 2021 23:37
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Pilfered Pallbearers posted:poo poo. It certainly looks like water or lack of maintenance (paint).. unless you've been screwing with it, the damage definitely seems to get worse the further down you go. I'd cut out from where the damage begins, and go all the way down to the floor.
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Aug 7, 2021 00:14
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What causes a small differences in floor heights in a single room on the second story? Our master bedroom has a noticeable, but very small, drop in elevation at one point 2/3 of the way into the room. It’s not a slope, there’s no movement with weight, the hardwood floor is perfectly fine, and there are no noticeable foundation issues anywhere inside or outside the house. Framing screwup? Weird subfloor?
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Aug 7, 2021 00:41
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Assuming that the sub floor was done all at once... Normally house/foundation settling and if it's a truly sudden "drop", some kind of disconnect at that point like an addition was added there at some point which settled differently.
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Aug 7, 2021 01:03
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devicenull posted:It certainly looks like water or lack of maintenance (paint).. unless you've been screwing with it, the damage definitely seems to get worse the further down you go. Ah ok. It’s just a lack of maintenance. lovely wood that was painted lovely with lovely paint. It’s like that (though less bad) at the top of the frame too. Was worried I was missing something. It’s worse at the bottom because that’s where the door closer was bolted in. According to my brother they just didn’t use wood screws and they drove them in too deep, causing splits which caused it to eventually crack out.
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Aug 7, 2021 02:33
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Pilfered Pallbearers posted:Ah ok. Predrill the holes when you put the new one in, and you shouldn't have issues (once you fix the current issue, that is)
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Aug 7, 2021 02:45
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Just bought a 2 story 98 year old two story double(duplex) with tons of deferred maintenance and fun things like knob and tube. I expect to have many many many questions and stories to fill this thread very soon. Electrician is coming out to estimate the cost of ripping the know and tube out next week; I’m starting to dive into home automation and my general contractor FiL is arriving as I type this up.
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Aug 7, 2021 17:59
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Pilfered Pallbearers posted:Ah ok. From what I saw in the pics, you can fix this with a lot of time to stack shims and dry fit a section, then screw it in, fill the gap and paint it. It may even be worth it compared to the cost of a new prehung exterior door. Depends on what your skill and time is. Judging by the wainscoting, you have a nice house you care about, so it should be done right. Not just slap a piece of wood in there to get by. I say a prehung because hanging a separate frame and fitting a door is a difficult job and I doubt you'd be asking us if you were comfortable with it. Chances are a carpenter good enough to do that will cost a similar rate in labor versus buying a prehung and having them hanging it as well, unless you have exquisite taste. And long term, it looks like that's a nice solid glass screen door with two cylinders on top and bottom. The door puts a lot of stress on those cylinder mounting points especially if the wind grabs it. I put a safety chain, the kind with a spring, on my last one as a preventative measure so it would slow and stop the door before the cylinders reached their limit and it lasted the last 5 years I lived there. I also used longer screws for the mount that went through the frame and back to the framing. Before that I had replaced two mounting brackets and had to patch a section of my own frame. It was built differently and I could easily replace a trim section on it, fortunately.
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Aug 7, 2021 18:01
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StormDrain posted:From what I saw in the pics, you can fix this with a lot of time to stack shims and dry fit a section, then screw it in, fill the gap and paint it. It may even be worth it compared to the cost of a new prehung exterior door. Depends on what your skill and time is. Judging by the wainscoting, you have a nice house you care about, so it should be done right. Not just slap a piece of wood in there to get by. Thanks for the advice, this is super helpful. You are correct that my skill level is not currently adequate to hang a whole door frame. For now my plan is to cut some of it out and shove a piece of wood in there (as nicely as possible) as a stopgap because I have a 5 year old who doesn’t know how to close doors. Losing the auto closer sucks. I also think I’ll do the chain thing you said, it’s a great idea. Then once I get lots of other stuff out of the way (I’m a new owner, tons of poo poo to do always) I’ll probably do it right and get the whole thing replaced.
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Aug 7, 2021 19:16
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freeasinbeer posted:Just bought a 2 story 98 year old two story double(duplex) with tons of deferred maintenance and fun things like knob and tube. Goonspeed. Our place is 140 years old but was totally gutted and everything redone about ten years ago (apparently a tenant at the time set the place on fire, fun!) so we didn't have to deal with any of that silliness.
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Aug 7, 2021 20:14
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Pilfered Pallbearers posted:Thanks for the advice, this is super helpful. You're welcome. Nothing wrong with sticking something there to mount to just for a while.
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Aug 7, 2021 20:26
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Anyone have a couch they like; or decent couch brand?
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Aug 7, 2021 22:08
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freeasinbeer posted:Anyone have a couch they like; or decent couch brand? Check out the article.com Sven, I went with grey fabric and I like it. I had a price point I was going for, so it's not the most incredible ever, but it's a really nice value. I considered Sactionals but it got middling goon reviews and was expensive.
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Aug 7, 2021 22:11
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freeasinbeer posted:Anyone have a couch they like; or decent couch brand? My recommendation is heavily dependent on budget and fabric/leather. Not a fan of online retailers when it comes to furniture. I recommend finding a locally owned furniture store and checking out what they have. Key word: locally owned. No chains. Stay away from rooms to go and Ashley if possible. I bought a Palliser top grain leather sectional and it was not cheap. It wasn’t as expensive as some options out there though which can go over 5 figures. Good furniture is expensive.
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Aug 7, 2021 22:28
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freeasinbeer posted:Just bought a 2 story 98 year old two story double(duplex) with tons of deferred maintenance and fun things like knob and tube. At first glance I read this as built in 1998 and was very confused as to why it had K&T.
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Aug 7, 2021 22:34
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freeasinbeer posted:Anyone have a couch they like; or decent couch brand? I wanted a Taylor King but the order timeframe was absurd, was quoted something like 8 months. Also liked several of the Sherrill brands, so I ended up getting a Precedent since it was in stock. I'm very happy with it so far. If you're going to order something that's not in stock it will take months right now.
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Aug 7, 2021 22:39
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freeasinbeer posted:Anyone have a couch they like; or decent couch brand? We just bought a fabric sectional from Costco and we love it. Very comfortable and looks nice, price was great, seems great overall. E: Ellery was the brand, I'm very happy with it QuarkJets fucked around with this message at 23:08 on Aug 7, 2021 |
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Aug 7, 2021 23:05
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I think we'll end up going with an article leather sofa. There's a store nearby that resells their returns so we've had a chance to see them in person. The fabric sofa we bought from Macy's started pilling 5 years in. It's trashed after 8. Can't remember the brand. We've thought about the Costco stuff but most are too big for our place.
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Aug 7, 2021 23:40
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Really love my lovesac sectional.
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Aug 8, 2021 00:23
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freeasinbeer posted:Just bought a 2 story 98 year old two story double(duplex) with tons of deferred maintenance and fun things like knob and tube. I’m here for this poo poo. Just ripped out an entire second floor’s worth of lath/plaster and knob & tube over the past couple months. Not fun but 100,000% worth it.
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Aug 8, 2021 05:54
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Whoreson Welles posted:I’m here for this poo poo. Just ripped out an entire second floor’s worth of lath/plaster and knob & tube over the past couple months. Not fun but 100,000% worth it. So I went to my outdoor electrical boxes and helpfully all the knob and tube seems to be labeled in there. I turned everything off that was labeled and most of it looks like it’s just downstairs light fixtures which I’m guessing will be the biggest pain in the rear end. Two things to note; there seems to be some sort of insulation in the attic that looks like saw dust, and there is knob an tube buried in it. But I don’t know if any of that’s live. Other thing is when I flipped the breakers back on a rooms worth of fixtures did not come back on; how badly should I be freaking out about that. All the circuits are flipped back on at the electrical box, should I be hunting down that circuit right now and flipping it back off?
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Aug 8, 2021 09:57
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freeasinbeer posted:So I went to my outdoor electrical boxes and helpfully all the knob and tube seems to be labeled in there. If you have Knob and Tube and it's now behaving erratically yes. First things first though - is the breaker actually working? Did it just fail open? (This can happen regardless of switch position.) Do you have a multimeter? Are you comfortable working in a hot panel with the cover off? (Note: You shouldn't be touching anything with your hands. This is just to verify with a multimeter.)
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Aug 8, 2021 15:03
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freeasinbeer posted:Two things to note; there seems to be some sort of insulation in the attic that looks like saw dust, and there is knob an tube buried in it. But I don’t know if any of that’s live.  Did it look like this? If so that would be old blown-in cellulose. We had to rent an industrial vacuum with 30ft hose sections and bring it up through a window to suck it all out. I tried doing it in sections with a normal shopvac and it was taking waaaaaaay too long.
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Aug 8, 2021 16:09
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but isnt that treated paper insulation?
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Aug 8, 2021 16:51
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The Saucer Hovers posted:but isnt that treated paper insulation? I've never heard it described as "paper" but cellulose is in fact wood pulp so kinda. And yes, it's treated with some types of borate and packed densely for fire resistance. It actually performs better than fiberglass in a lot of typical fire scenarios.
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Aug 8, 2021 17:04
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Motronic posted:I've never heard it described as "paper" but cellulose is in fact wood pulp so kinda. And yes, it's treated with some types of borate and packed densely for fire resistance. It actually performs better than fiberglass in a lot of typical fire scenarios. What is paper but cellulose.  The lit cigarette test on it is amazing. The fact that embers smolder and extinguish blows my mind on something that untreated would be the perfect kindling. And borax isn't likely to be discovered later to "oops cancer". I remain a huge fan of cellulose or cotton (denim) treated with borax as insulation for everything. Blah blah blah cost.
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Aug 8, 2021 17:09
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thirding that type of insulation is good thing even if i obviously dont fully get it
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Aug 8, 2021 17:12
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H110Hawk posted:I remain a huge fan of cellulose or cotton (denim) treated with borax as insulation for everything. Blah blah blah cost. And they're increasingly having to turn to other feedstock for it since newspaper circulation is down. Also, most modern ones aren't just borax. They are also using boric acid and ammonium sulfate and I think some other stuff. And it's a LOT, like 1/4 of the overall weight. The stuff that is both wet and dry treated is even more incredible than the classic cigarette video.
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Aug 8, 2021 17:18
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H110Hawk posted:If you have Knob and Tube and it's now behaving erratically yes. First things first though - is the breaker actually working? Did it just fail open? (This can happen regardless of switch position.) Do you have a multimeter? Are you comfortable working in a hot panel with the cover off? (Note: You shouldn't be touching anything with your hands. This is just to verify with a multimeter.) I was the one flipping it on and off, when I flipped it back on the lights that I think are on it didn’t come on. I’ve since flipped the breaker back off out of paranoia, an electrician is coming this week. Re multimeter; anyone have a particular recommendation, I swore I used to have one, but even if I did it’s back in my NYC apartment that I haven’t been back to in 45 days, and won’t likely be visiting soon. I would also say that I can in theory do electrical work it scares the ever living poo poo out of me, and I’m not keen on it. Dealing with the main panel is a nightmare for me. On the flip side I am soldering arduinos to self crimped cables this week to make my mini splits link up to home assistant and upgrading to an ecobee for the parts of the house on the traditional HVAC to start attaching my house to home assistant. I can eventually get over stuff it just takes me time. I’m also debating zoning my system as two of the 4 rooms are “offices” that don’t need to be on at night, and the “master” doesn’t cool well. First pass at it is using the ecobee remote sensors to have the ac prefer that room. Whoreson Welles posted:
Yes? So I take that’s ok? The idea of live open to the air wires chilling in my walls and attic are not super fun with my aforementioned mentioned skittishness when it comes to electricity.
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Aug 8, 2021 21:00
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freeasinbeer posted:I would also say that I can in theory do electrical work it scares the ever living poo poo out of me, and I’m not keen on it. Dealing with the main panel is a nightmare for me. Then calling that electrician is the right move. No one here is going to pressure you to take the cover off a hot panel. My limit is main off, cover off, main on, non-contact or multimeter. I don't start messing with lugs or wires. Fluke is the gold standard but I have been getting a lot of mileage out of my extech $50ish one. Does all of the basics, and I am not around any voltages where I would be nervous about it. If I had access to 480v or 600v systems I would upgrade to a fluke. Edit: oh and I won't do anything period the end on the input side of the main. H110Hawk fucked around with this message at 21:29 on Aug 8, 2021 |
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Aug 8, 2021 21:20
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H110Hawk posted:Then calling that electrician is the right move. No one here is going to pressure you to take the cover off a hot panel. This is a good post and all great advice. $50ish multimeters are going to be fine for your basic circuit chasing and outlet replacing/ is it safe testing. I don't gently caress with my main panel but I do with the sub panels I've added for my shed and garage.
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Aug 8, 2021 21:54
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freeasinbeer posted:Yes? So I take that’s ok? The idea of live open to the air wires chilling in my walls and attic are not super fun with my aforementioned mentioned skittishness when it comes to electricity. Oh no the knob & tube should be removed imo. I was mostly pointing out the insulation that everyone had been commenting on. The wires from that picture were buried in the insulation, I took that pic after I cleared some of the insulation out.
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Aug 9, 2021 02:29
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Whoreson Welles posted:Oh no the knob & tube should be removed imo. I was mostly pointing out the insulation that everyone had been commenting on. The wires from that picture were buried in the insulation, I took that pic after I cleared some of the insulation out. Oh yeah we’re gonna do that. Just was worried about the insulation and you answered my question
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Aug 9, 2021 12:41
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Let me know if this is better served elsewhere. Bought a estwing hammer on Amazon and regretting it because I think it looks fake compared to the other estwings I saw at Home Depot (they were out of the one I wanted) It’s got tons of little bumps along the whole surface of the hammer and the grip feels kinda crappy and looks cut bad, plus it looks different from all the product images I’m finding.     
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Aug 9, 2021 21:13
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Pilfered Pallbearers posted:Let me know if this is better served elsewhere. I'm no counterfeit savant but it looks pretty real to me. SKUs and packaging can change from month to month... Is the nail puller thingy supposed to be off center?
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Aug 9, 2021 21:19
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