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H110Hawk posted:Can you show us a picture of one? Nice wide angle. Preferably the one at the highest elevation / end of the loop as that ought to be the most bang for your buck. Upstairs bathroom, easiest to get a pic of:  Upstairs bedroom (need to get a fin comb now that I know those exist):  Renovation reroute:  I've examined most of the places in the other rooms upstairs one could expect to find a relief valve and found nothing but elbow joints. Fortunately, NYC's water is pretty good and not wildly aerated and the rushing water sound seems to be diminishing. 🤞 theflyingexecutive fucked around with this message at 05:05 on Jan 28, 2022 |
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Jan 28, 2022 05:02
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I like the new thread title.
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Jan 28, 2022 06:18
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That's wild that they wouldn't put a burp valve anywhere on the loop. (I say having never had to deal with closed loop water heating. Only listen to one pop all drat night in Alaska for a night or two.)
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Jan 28, 2022 06:19
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I'm thinking of relocating our washer (laundry) 4 feet to the right and omg it's turning into a biggish project. We have to think about water in, water out, and electric, without drilling through the foundation or the stairs.
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Jan 28, 2022 07:25
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armorer posted:I like the new thread title. I got one from a friend who lives in the boonies, i.e. far from emergency services. The stove pipe started a fire in the ceiling/roof. He ended up running up on the roof with a chainsaw. He says maybe he should have spent more time on the ceiling side first, but hey, in the moment you make the call
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Jan 28, 2022 10:58
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H110Hawk posted:That's wild that they wouldn't put a burp valve anywhere on the loop. (I say having never had to deal with closed loop water heating. Only listen to one pop all drat night in Alaska for a night or two.) Same people who installed pipe half an inch behind the drywall I guess 🤷
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Jan 28, 2022 12:53
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peanut posted:I'm thinking of relocating our washer (laundry) 4 feet to the right and omg it's turning into a biggish project. We have to think about water in, water out, and electric, without drilling through the foundation or the stairs. Sounds like 3 extension cords??
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Jan 28, 2022 13:09
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Epitope posted:I got one from a friend who lives in the boonies, i.e. far from emergency services. The stove pipe started a fire in the ceiling/roof. He ended up running up on the roof with a chainsaw. He says maybe he should have spent more time on the ceiling side first, but hey, in the moment you make the call How did a chainsaw make that situation better?
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Jan 28, 2022 13:51
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H110Hawk posted:That's wild that they wouldn't put a burp valve anywhere on the loop. (I say having never had to deal with closed loop water heating. Only listen to one pop all drat night in Alaska for a night or two.) It's pretty typical on copper/aluminum fin. You just don't really need it. One above the heater does the job. On many occasions I've used a short length of garden hose on a hose bib on the drain side of a system like that to "burp" air out. You get it running and hot, make sure the fill is on, hook up the hose and let 'er rip. You can squeeze the hose a bit and feel the air coming through. When it slows down/stops close the valve while the system is still running. This does NOT work with any other style of radiator, whether baseboard or standalone. You pretty much have to have a high bleed on those.
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Jan 28, 2022 15:00
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Yeah I bled my hydronic system through the boiler drain but I still would have preferred high point valves since all the zone shutoffs were in a spider-infested crawlspace.
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Jan 28, 2022 15:54
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Motronic posted:It's pretty typical on copper/aluminum fin. You just don't really need it. One above the heater does the job. Is that because the water stays in straight pipes using the fins to sink heat vs snaking around loops in a cast iron sort of system? Still seems incredibly useful to basically have a high loop and a burp valve just because, but I guess if you don't need it it's several more places for it to fail.
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Jan 28, 2022 16:23
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NomNomNom posted:How did a chainsaw make that situation better? Cut a messy hole to put out the fire
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Jan 28, 2022 16:58
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H110Hawk posted:Is that because the water stays in straight pipes using the fins to sink heat vs snaking around loops in a cast iron sort of system? Pretty much yes to all of this. Cast iron radiators are fed from the bottom and have all manner of twists and turns in them. And yes, I don't know why people don't put in a high loop. It can't be any worse than any of the rest of the piping. They probably just don't know where to hide it/lazy/lowest budget contractor. I would have put one in my old system but since it burped fine it wasn't worth messing with.
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Jan 28, 2022 16:59
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Epitope posted:I got one from a friend who lives in the boonies, i.e. far from emergency services. The stove pipe started a fire in the ceiling/roof. He ended up running up on the roof with a chainsaw. He says maybe he should have spent more time on the ceiling side first, but hey, in the moment you make the call And that was the right call. My gnarliest fires were chimney/flue/wall chases and it was lights-out when it made it to the roof.
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Jan 28, 2022 17:35
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NomNomNom posted:How did a chainsaw make that situation better? Have you ever seen a fire department knock down a major structure fire? A huge part of what they do, if the fire has made it to the upper parts of the building, is cut holes in the roof with a chainsaw which I assume is limiting the heat powering the fire, balanced with the negative effects of introducing more oxygen. Motronic will lay down the facts here soon to keep me honest, he did this for real. Because I'm a weird nerd I follow some stringer channels in LA which show fire response if you want to see the saws in action, this one's decent: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BOxpCa7mH1o Inner Light fucked around with this message at 18:44 on Jan 28, 2022 |
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Jan 28, 2022 18:39
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Inner Light posted:Have you ever seen a fire department knock down a major structure fire? A huge part of what they do, if the fire has made it to the upper parts of the building, is cut holes in the roof with a chainsaw which I assume is limiting the heat powering the fire, balanced with the negative effects of introducing more oxygen. Yup re: heat - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Backdraft
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Jan 28, 2022 18:47
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H110Hawk posted:Yup re: heat - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Backdraft Yes and no.......we "steer" fire with roof venting. And also get the steam out, because we don't really put fire out with water, we cool it down with water until it's small enough that it happens to get smothered with water. Also, in apartment buildings/large building we absolutely will make a call on "we're saving THIS part, cut the roof right there, that's our line."
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Jan 28, 2022 19:12
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Motronic posted:Yes and no.......we "steer" fire with roof venting. And also get the steam out, because we don't really put fire out with water, we cool it down with water until it's small enough that it happens to get smothered with water. Wait what, can you explain this some more?
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Jan 28, 2022 19:52
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Johnny Truant posted:Wait what, can you explain this some more? So let's say you have heavy fire in the center of a structure. You can vent on say, the left side to save as much of the right as possible. Once you vent the fire is creating it's own wind because of both the heat convection and just the consumption of oxygen and it gets "sucked" towards your vent, once you're providing it with makeup air from somewhere else (like a door or window on the opposite side of the fire). This is very very simplified and also involves window/door venting, or might be made impossible due to excessive "automatic venting" (broken windows, fire already burned through parts of the structure to the outside). We will literally close doors to rooms and use hallways as sacrificial for this purpose, opening the door of a room the furthest away and venting through it's ceiling. Another fun one is when you need to clear smoke from a room you can open a window, knock out the screen and put the nozzle on it's widest fog pattern and have it just outside of touching the window frame. It's basically hydraulic venting. Obviously you don't want to do this one for fire or excessive heat because you're gonna cook yourself. E: if you're talking about the cooling down/steam part, yeah......well, you go drag a hoseline through a house into the fire room(s) and you might be able to see if you're down low where the smoke isn't so bad. As soon as you open the hoseline everything goes black/gray with steam and you IMMEDIATELY feel the heat creeping through your gear. If the fire is big enough we have to stop and figure out how to vent/let the exterior crew know we're loving WAITING ON THEM so we don't cook ourselves. So you can't see, there probably poo poo all over the floor including furniture and stuff you knocked down. You don't know where you are other than the mental map you've made from looking at the outside and during your run inside. It's all controlled chaos. Good times. Motronic fucked around with this message at 20:17 on Jan 28, 2022 |
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Jan 28, 2022 20:10
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I wanna do something with this wall in the family room that has a fireplace and built-in entertainment center: There's a big sectional couch opposite of this, and I guess the main goal I'm going for is to get a TV that is bigger & centered on this wall. The height of the current TV is good, just needs to move to the left. Center of the couch is basically looking right between the fireplace & TV. The fireplace is wood burning, which I'm never going to use as-is. If I converted it to gas I might use it once in awhile but not really as a heat source. Guess I'm looking for some ideas of what might be possible here. I'd be tempted to just seal off the fireplace & built-in (maybe leave part of it as a media cabinet), then I could put a bigger TV right in the center of the wall and not have to worry about the big shroud around the fireplace getting in the way of my desired mounting height, as well as heat from the fireplace messing up the TV.
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Jan 29, 2022 02:01
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fletcher posted:I wanna do something with this wall in the family room that has a fireplace and built-in entertainment center: You should cross post this to the interior design Q&A thread too: https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3955916&perpage=40&noseen=1
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Jan 29, 2022 02:23
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oXDemosthenesXo posted:You should cross post this to the interior design Q&A thread too: Good idea, thanks!
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Jan 29, 2022 02:26
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There's 4 overhead garage fixtures (Each fixture has 2 narrow fluorescent bulbs) in my garage. Over the past 2-3 years all but one of them have lost all their bulbs (The one closest to the house door is still working.) I changed the bulbs in the one next furthest away but the light didn't come on. What am I looking at? A) Oddly multiple fixtures failed and I just need to replace them? B) Something weird with the circuit causes the bulbs to burn out rapidly? C) Something is wired in serial and having a burned out bulb means the ones on the other side are failing and I should replace all bulbs? D) ???
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Jan 29, 2022 02:52
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I now have working minisplits and a 100A sub panel in the basement. And also three ground rods. For some reason they didn't believe me when I told them there was already one running alongside the EV charger line. Thanks to everyone in this thread offering advice, words of encouragement, or photos of extension cords running inside walls to power jacuzzi bathtubs. I couldn't have gotten here without y'all.
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Jan 29, 2022 03:11
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Hughlander posted:There's 4 overhead garage fixtures (Each fixture has 2 narrow fluorescent bulbs) in my garage. Over the past 2-3 years all but one of them have lost all their bulbs (The one closest to the house door is still working.) I changed the bulbs in the one next furthest away but the light didn't come on. What am I looking at? How old are they/what size bulbs? If these are like T12s or something the fixtures/ballasts are just hilariously old, probably from the same batch, and ready to die. I'd be looking for the next good sale on LED replacement fixtures of the same length and do them all at once.
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Jan 29, 2022 03:15
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Motronic posted:How old are they/what size bulbs? If these are like T12s or something the fixtures/ballasts are just hilariously old, probably from the same batch, and ready to die. Came with the house which is 8 years old, but I replaced 2 of them with brand new ones from Home Depot and no change.
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Jan 29, 2022 03:18
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Hughlander posted:There's 4 overhead garage fixtures (Each fixture has 2 narrow fluorescent bulbs) in my garage. Over the past 2-3 years all but one of them have lost all their bulbs (The one closest to the house door is still working.) I changed the bulbs in the one next furthest away but the light didn't come on. What am I looking at? Bad ballasts? I would try swapping them to direct wire LED. I removed the ballasts in my garage and direct wired these GE LED tubes. They're great, brighter, more efficient, and I'll never change a ballast again. If you're reasonably capable with electrical it's easy.
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Jan 29, 2022 03:22
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cruft posted:I now have working minisplits and a 100A sub panel in the basement.  Congratulations!
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Jan 29, 2022 05:11
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cruft posted:I now have working minisplits and a 100A sub panel in the basement. Omgggg hella excite!!! Finally!
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Jan 29, 2022 13:18
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The small original bathroom in the house is awesome; it has a clawfoot tub and the original '30s sink, which is a wallmount. (Sadly, the toilet is a builder-special California ULF that I need to upgrade to one that flushes reliably.) There aren't any cabinets, or any room for them. I'd like to build a small box cabinet around the sink to provide a place for cleaning materials and extra toilet paper. Is that something a carpenter could do? I was thinking of facing it in beadboard and painting the beadboard to match the walls.
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Jan 30, 2022 20:53
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Ok 1000lightbulb afficionados - Do you get what you pay for? I have finally exhausted my box of TCP LDCT5W27K6 (E12/Chandelier, 5W, 300 Lumen, 2700k, dimmable) bulbs I bought prior to moving in to this house 6.5 years ago. I don't need dimming, nothing has a dimmer. Looking at the above sworn upon website I see several options. The direct replacement says it's $7/bulb which seems spendy. We only go through 1-2 a year it seems, and I could buy 3 of the cheapest ones for 1 of the expensive ones. How much light do you lose to frosting? My current bulbs are clear and I wouldn't want it any darker in the house. https://www.1000bulbs.com/fil/products/115241 - $7.57/ea, direct replacement, looks very similar to mine. https://www.1000bulbs.com/product/219324/PLT-11835.html - $1.69/ea claims it's identical but frosted, which would be nice. https://www.1000bulbs.com/product/208210/PLT-11045-B.html - $2.37/ea and literally looks identical down to the internal plastic molding, more identical than the TCP brand one. https://www.1000bulbs.com/product/208330/PLT-11251.html - $4.50/ea Middle ground price.
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Jan 31, 2022 19:33
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Microwave update: I ended up getting a nice unit with convection, so excited for that. However, when I pulled down the old microwave, I discovered that the prior flipper (or maybe the original home builder) didn't install the correct venting scheme, due to how tight the space is above the microwave.  As you can see, the cut-out for the duct is offset from the cabinet. The old piece was a 7" elbow setup that they kinda frankensteined together to force it, and it didn't even cover the microwave vents properly at the bottom end. I've been trying to use 10.25x3 by 6" diameter elbows and pieces, but it's proving... difficult. Is it worth it to try and keep fighting this battle, and anyone have any ideas on it, or should I just switch the microwave back to recirculate as it arrived in? For reference, we probably have only used the vent on the prior microwave a handful of times since we bought the house 2 1/2 years ago, and we could always just pop the doors open to exchange air.
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Jan 31, 2022 22:24
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Venting outside is quite different and superior to just opening a window. VVV Our hood is a standard 6 feet from the floor (1 meter above the IH stovetop). My Very Tall Friend hits his head on it every time, but Very Tall People are used to hitting their heads on things. peanut fucked around with this message at 00:10 on Feb 1, 2022 |
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Jan 31, 2022 23:35
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Yeah, I had just typically heard/seen that unless you have a true vent canopy that's fairly close to the source, that elevated range hoods and OTR microwaves do a pretty poor job venting regardless.
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Jan 31, 2022 23:36
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SourKraut posted:Yeah, I had just typically heard/seen that unless you have a true vent canopy that's fairly close to the source, that elevated range hoods and OTR microwaves do a pretty poor job venting regardless. It's still better than nothing. I can smell our cooking outside if I am running ours on high with the new vent. It's awesome. Big improvement over the joke of a vent we had prior. It's not as good as a dedicated exhaust fan but I wouldn't give it up without a fight.
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Feb 1, 2022 00:35
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H110Hawk posted:It's still better than nothing. I can smell our cooking outside if I am running ours on high with the new vent. It's awesome. Big improvement over the joke of a vent we had prior. It's not as good as a dedicated exhaust fan but I wouldn't give it up without a fight. Yeah, I ended up getting half-panels of 3.25x10 duct and a new 90-deg elbow, and after lots of measuring and trial and error, getting a pretty good duct stack put together. For the infrequency we use the vent, it'll probably work for now, but I got measurements of everything so I'm going to see if a panel shop can fabricate up something long-term that'll be easier/cleaner.
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Feb 1, 2022 04:13
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My mother-in-law's kitchen sink gets stopped up real bad every few years. This time it also leaked inside the cabinet, and now she has a soft spot in the kitchen floor, right between the sink and the fridge where it gets a lot of foot traffic. It's going to be a heckin big project to move the moveable things out of the kitchen so they can redo the floor. She doesn't want to do a full remodel because she's already 75 years old. But the kitchen hood is also old and lovely so maybe this is a chance to finally replace it. peanut fucked around with this message at 05:40 on Feb 1, 2022 |
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Feb 1, 2022 05:38
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The majority of my plumbing is running through or below the slab but there are two remodel hacks that result in water lines running in my attic. One is a copper line the PO ran from the master bath sink, I think, to the location of a standing shower. The other is a pex line that a plumber installed for me to run a cold water line from the inlet of the hit water heater to an adjacent wall where I moved my refrigerator. We are going to have a few nights of freezing weather in central Texas and out of fear of a pipe bursting I drip all my faucets overnight. However I have found that I think the pex line has partially frozen up because flow from yh refrigerator water dispenser will be slow or non existent until I run it a few times. The plumber wrapped some foam insulation around the pex but I do not think it is doing a whole lot of good. I'm wondering if I should buy some kind of wrap insulation and go over the foam sheathing to try and prevent it from. Freezing or if it's just a lost cause and as long as I drip my other faucets I probably won't break anything.
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Feb 2, 2022 00:51
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MetaJew posted:The majority of my plumbing is running through or below the slab but there are two remodel hacks that result in water lines running in my attic. stores around here sell heated cable/rope/wire designed just for wrapping pipes to keep them from freezing (something like this as an example)
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Feb 2, 2022 01:10
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stone soup posted:stores around here sell heated cable/rope/wire designed just for wrapping pipes to keep them from freezing (something like this as an example) I was thinking about something like that, but there isn't an easy way for me to switch it on/off-- i guess it's not impossible to go up in the attic since the particular pipe is right near the ladder and I happened to install an outlet there, too...
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Feb 2, 2022 01:14
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