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Pilfered Pallbearers posted:Tub update: Planning a bathroom reno and it's workmanship like this that reminds me that actually, leaving the existing and new-ish acrylic shower surround really isn't so bad after all. Well that was a lovely snipe, but still not as lovely as that tile job.
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Mar 24, 2022 21:33
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Technically the garage is part of the house, and arguably the most important, at least in my opinion. We moved in last June and it's great having a garage but now it's time to start making it work for me. We're still trying to plan how we want to organize it but we started with getting all uniform totes from Costco (green made black and yellow tough totes). I went through a bunch of stuff that was left by the POs like scrap wood etc. I couldn't find any rafter hooks that would fit my 4x8 beams so I bought some flat steel and made my own. I used rubber plumbing insulation for padding to hang our skis up and out of the way.   One huge issue was lighting, you can see in those photos. There was a single wall mounted flood light which just didn't really work. It cast bad shadows and didn't put out a lot of light. Harbor fright has some LED shop lights for $20 so I bought 4 and wanted to see how they would work. The lights can chain together so I plugged them into one another and swapped the old flood light with an outlet so the lights are switch operated. It was crazy bright after. No shadows. It feels like a new garage.   My garage door opener was super old. Zero safety measures, no remotes. The button to open it worked 50% of the time. I bought a new 1.25hp belt drive model and holy poo poo, it's really quiet. Having remotes and a key pad is nice. It also has a lockout feature from inside that prevents the keypad or the remotes from opening the garage which is nice. I also get a notification when it's open or closed. While installing it, I added another outlet and an extension cord reel. The other issue was there were only two outlets in my entire garage, one of which was up high for the garage door opener. I needed to add more so I started roughing out electrical for the other two walls. I'll be adding 6 additional outlets. In the next few weeks we'll be ordering sod so that will be fun. I also noticed our sliding glass door needs to be fixed/replaced. The window is bowed in and rubs against the door when it opens. The aluminium frame is also coming apart. I tried fixing it but it keeps coming undone when the door closes. It's going to be a busy and expensive few weeks/months.
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Mar 28, 2022 10:27
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Since we started putting humidifiers in the house, one room in particular smells like cigarette smoke. We didn't smell it before but it's there now. Not new smoke, ancient smoke. No, our almost two year old is not smoking. So how do we get rid of it? The Internet says to wash the walls with water and vinegar, and possibly do an HVAC deep clean, repaint the room, and replace the carpet. We can't afford all of that right now, anyone dealt with this before?
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Mar 28, 2022 19:49
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redreader posted:Since we started putting humidifiers in the house, one room in particular smells like cigarette smoke. We didn't smell it before but it's there now. Not new smoke, ancient smoke. No, our almost two year old is not smoking. So how do we get rid of it? The Internet says to wash the walls with water and vinegar, and possibly do an HVAC deep clean, repaint the room, and replace the carpet. We can't afford all of that right now, anyone dealt with this before? Have you considered taking up smoking, so that the new smoke overwhelms the old smoke? (I've got nothing; never had that problem.  )
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Mar 28, 2022 20:26
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redreader posted:Since we started putting humidifiers in the house, one room in particular smells like cigarette smoke. We didn't smell it before but it's there now. Not new smoke, ancient smoke. No, our almost two year old is not smoking. So how do we get rid of it? The Internet says to wash the walls with water and vinegar, and possibly do an HVAC deep clean, repaint the room, and replace the carpet. We can't afford all of that right now, anyone dealt with this before? Do you have hardwood or carpet in that room? Thoroughly steam clean any carpets. Scrub the floors if wood. The best thing to do quickly is to wash all the surfaces as much as you can without over soaking the walls and ceiling. You'll want to do it several times. This includes all hard surfaces, windows, trim, fixtures, doors and knobs etc. Anything in the room will hold that smell. I would suggest the water and vinegar method, the other option is ammonia but vinegar is easy and cheap. You could also consider an ozone machine for a day but you might want to hire a pro to do this if you're not familiar. Next would be prime and paint. I would use kiltz restoration or something similar meant to seal. Thoroughly prime and then paint. This should do the bulk of the work removing the smell. Honestly, cleaning/priming/painting is going to make the biggest difference.
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Mar 28, 2022 20:27
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redreader posted:Since we started putting humidifiers in the house, one room in particular smells like cigarette smoke. We didn't smell it before but it's there now. Not new smoke, ancient smoke. No, our almost two year old is not smoking. So how do we get rid of it? The Internet says to wash the walls with water and vinegar, and possibly do an HVAC deep clean, repaint the room, and replace the carpet. We can't afford all of that right now, anyone dealt with this before? I'd be scared of a slow smouldering electrical fire where the burning wire parts smell similar to cigarettes.
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Mar 28, 2022 21:23
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Poldarn posted:I'd be scared of a slow smouldering electrical fire where the burning wire parts smell similar to cigarettes. Worth a look! The attic access is in that room too, so I went up and it's all ok in there. It really is a smell awakened by the humidifier. I think we'll have to do a steam clean (it is carpet) and a repaint. Thankfully there's not much stuff in there yet. Thanks for the advice everyone!
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Mar 28, 2022 23:24
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So, my garage has a 5-20 outlet on its own dedicated circuit. Install is a bit janky looking. I'm considering adding a 6-20 (for car charging). Is it reasonable to expect an electrician to be able to use the same conduit, and maybe use a duplex combo receptacle that has one 5-20 and one 6-20 outlet on it, if that's even a thing? Tyro fucked around with this message at 23:49 on Mar 28, 2022 |
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Mar 28, 2022 23:45
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Tyro posted:So, my garage has a 5-20 outlet on its own dedicated circuit. Install is a bit janky looking. You would need two different wires cause you are turning the current neutral to a hot to have a combo but you should be able to convert it to 6 20
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Mar 29, 2022 01:59
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Why not go all the way and add a 14-50?
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Mar 29, 2022 02:15
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On a scale of 1 to insane where does "I'll buy a push lawn mower because there's no maintenance besides sharpening the blades, and I need the exercise because i'm a wfh computer toucher" fall Back yard is perfectly flat, about 30x60 and then there's a negligible strip of grass in the right of way between the street and the sidewalk maybe 100 sq ft, if that Looks like American Lawn Mower and Scotts both make acceptable quality models for ~100usd? I'm sure there's some tradeoff between the 14", time, and effort, and the 18" model but I suspect they only offer the 14, 16 and 18" models because it's hard to have a company that just sells a single product, an 18" model edit: I'm using mostly a shade blend of grass seed, which appears to mostly be fescues which is a bit more on the fine side, like bermuda Hadlock fucked around with this message at 02:55 on Mar 29, 2022 |
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Mar 29, 2022 02:49
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Hadlock posted:On a scale of 1 to insane where does "I'll buy a push lawn mower because there's no maintenance besides sharpening the blades, and I need the exercise because i'm a wfh computer toucher" fall Are you talking about a manual reel mower? Because those things cut VERY nicely and as long as the yard is flat (I don't mean slopes, I mean good even ground without stones or ruts) they are great if it's a small enough area that you can handle pushing it. When you really really want grass to look great and be healthy, think golf courses, reel mowers are primarily what is used (albeit on motorized platforms).
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Mar 29, 2022 02:52
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ah yeah that is the technical term I suppose, yes, manual reel mower last time I pushed one, was out of curiousity when I was like, 9 years old, and it had been sitting, rusting unused in the back corner of the garage since before I was born, so I have no idea what they're actually like to push if new and not rusted and forgotten about in 95% humidity. presumably a new one fresh out of the box won't be completely terrible And yeah the yard is perfectly flat, sandy east coast costal land. Almost looks like someone came in with a dump truck load of white beach sand and professionally graded the land. I think that's just the local soil here though. and the fact that this is probably at least the third home built on this ancient city lot kind of wondering what the high end reel mower market could look like, there's a lot of crossover technology available from the high end stroller market
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Mar 29, 2022 03:02
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Hadlock posted:ah yeah that is the technical term I suppose, yes, manual reel mower They take some oomph to get moving, but work like a flywheel so they don't take much to keep moving. Sounds like you have a perfect yard for that kind of thing and in a place where local stores may even sell them. See if you can rent/borrow one and give it a try.
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Mar 29, 2022 03:06
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I’ve gotten one for free and another that I bought cheap on Craigslist (like $30 or something, I don’t remember). As Motronic said they do not like any kind of obstruction. Any kind of little twigs or stones can stop them dead. But they are piss easy to use apart from that. If you have children, you can probably Tom Sawyer them into mowing the lawn because they will think it’s fun to push. The other thing to keep in mind is that you can’t let the grass get overgrown or it will not work.
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Mar 29, 2022 03:36
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therobit posted:The other thing to keep in mind is that you can’t let the grass get overgrown or it will not work. Oh yes....this too. You need to be on a SCHEDULE. And have a backup plan like a string trimmer. Because they absolutely don't cut long grass.
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Mar 29, 2022 03:39
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Hadlock posted:On a scale of 1 to insane where does "I'll buy a push lawn mower because there's no maintenance besides sharpening the blades, and I need the exercise because i'm a wfh computer toucher" fall I'm on my first year of ownership of one, but they're fine to use. I got the american mowers one, and it's not really hard to push. It will very abruptly stop if it gets jammed up by anything though. I got it more for the smaller space to store it than anything else, and I have a tiny lawn that nobody but me and my neighbor can see anyways. Fortunately grass here doesn't grow too fast so I can be a bit lazy about it
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Mar 29, 2022 04:20
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My big Lawn Project for 2022 is to improve my soupy, swampy bog-like drainage. Pacific Northwest clay soil with an underground river that flows right under my house but only seems to affect the eastern half of my lawn, so it seems POSSIBLE to get this under control. Some not-quite-professional landscapers put a French Drain under the lawn last summer but it didn't help even the tiniest bit. One day of rain and my lawn is ready to drown Artax. Another lawn specialist said I should just throw a full inch of soil & sand on top of the muddy side, let the grass grow, and repeat it again next year until it's built up enough above the water table, but man that's a lotta dirt!
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Mar 29, 2022 04:33
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Hadlock posted:On a scale of 1 to insane where does "I'll buy a push lawn mower because there's no maintenance besides sharpening the blades, and I need the exercise because i'm a wfh computer toucher" fall
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Mar 29, 2022 06:52
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A reel mower is good- we have a similar lawn and it makes it easy and peaceful/quiet to mow. I can do it at 6am or during baby naps and it’s no biggie. My one caveat is if your yard is bounded in by a fence and has short/narrow segments it can be a pain to get it moving and to get all the way to the edge easily. I’d be really excited about crossover with the high end stroller market but it doesn’t seem to exist
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Mar 29, 2022 11:01
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GoGoGadgetChris posted:My big Lawn Project for 2022 is to improve my soupy, swampy bog-like drainage. Pacific Northwest clay soil with an underground river that flows right under my house but only seems to affect the eastern half of my lawn, so it seems POSSIBLE to get this under control. I have the same PNW wet clay dirt at my house but the wettest part is limited to the far end of the sloped back yard. The neighbours have added a lot of fill to their lot to get a regular flat yard, but we decided to just make a bog garden instead. Ferns, hostas, elephant ears, japanese iris, and whatever else we figure out. It's literally just in planning stages at this point (we've only been in the house 2 years and also I loving hate gardening) but it's an idea if you're willing to get rid of the lawn altogether.
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Mar 29, 2022 15:25
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Grass whip or get out. 
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Mar 29, 2022 16:22
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Elephanthead posted:You would need two different wires cause you are turning the current neutral to a hot to have a combo but you should be able to convert it to 6 20 Yeah I am hoping to keep the 5-20 and also add a 6-20, but that could be an option too. bird with big dick posted:Why not go all the way and add a 14-50? Because it's charging a Volt and I'm selling the house next year
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Mar 29, 2022 18:09
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If you have a boggy space, I'd be tempted to excavate it another 30", throw down a thin mat to slow down drainage and put in a seasonal pond, or just have an actual koi pond
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Mar 29, 2022 18:15
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Hadlock posted:If you have a boggy space, I'd be tempted to excavate it another 30", throw down a thin mat to slow down drainage and put in a seasonal pond, or just have an actual koi pond I have a golden retriever, so this is simultaneously the best and worst idea
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Mar 29, 2022 18:27
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Tyro posted:Yeah I am hoping to keep the 5-20 and also add a 6-20, but that could be an option too. Wiring thread is over here: https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3090739 Off the top of my head, I would expect that you could pretty quickly and easily repurpose the circuit for a 6-20. IIRC you can just phase tape the N wire at both ends to repurpose it, but if you have conduit then it'd be pretty simple to pull a new wire. Then all you'd need to do is re-wire the breaker side and install the new receptacle. This is of course assuming it's a dedicated circuit. If not, then it may not be as simple as that... could be slightly more complex, could be much more complex. Only other gotcha is you'd need a 2-pole breaker, instead of the current 1-pole, so if your panelboard is full up then you might be SOL. I don't know what code says about 2 different style/voltage receptacles in the same junction box. That's a 2-gang box, so you could theoretically install 2 different receptacles... but I don't know if it's legal. That said, you would need to run 2 more wires because they'd be each on separate circuits. So you'd need the conduit to be big enough to handle 2 more wires. Should be fine, but if other wires are going through it, or if the wires are bigger than they need to be, then this could be an issue. And of course you'd still need a new 2-pole breaker. Assuming the conduit can fit the wires you need, I would guess an electrician could do this for $200-$300 maybe? Though with prices the way they are, who knows...
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Mar 29, 2022 18:53
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DaveSauce posted:Wiring thread is over here: Thanks for the link! Plenty of room in the panel and it's on its own circuit if I decide to just repurpose the existing wiring.
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Mar 29, 2022 20:19
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I had to patch a few small spots yesterday, and the last tub of patch I bought was all dried out and worthless. I decided to try setting-type drywall mud instead of keeping a tub of drying-type around to dry out before I needed it again. I'll never go back to the plastic tubs of drywall patch again. I've got a small 3# bag of 5 minute lightweight, resealable so hopefully it'll be good next time I need it, and holy crap was it so much easier. Mixed maybe a cup of dry, added water a little at a time until the consistency was good, and patched up my 8 screw holes. An hour later, sand, wipe, and paint. Sanding was easier, shrinkage was negligible, and what would have been a two day process was an hour from start to finish.
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Mar 30, 2022 18:51
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PitViper posted:I had to patch a few small spots yesterday, and the last tub of patch I bought was all dried out and worthless. I decided to try setting-type drywall mud instead of keeping a tub of drying-type around to dry out before I needed it again. I'll never go back to the plastic tubs of drywall patch again. Hot mud is also stronger. For that reason alone it's worth using for any type of patching work.
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Mar 30, 2022 18:59
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Good to know. The 3# bag was also cheaper than every quart size tub of premix patch, so I don't know why I never thought to use it before.
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Mar 30, 2022 19:16
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PitViper posted:Good to know. The 3# bag was also cheaper than every quart size tub of premix patch, so I don't know why I never thought to use it before. The downsides are that it's not as convenient since you have to mix it and it doesn't sand as well as regular mud in a bucket. This isn't a big deal for patching and it sands (as in with sandpaper) just fine. What you can't really do with it is wet sponge "sanding", which matters a lot more if you're doing a whole room or something. I'm very much "paper tape, bucket of heavy mud, then bucket of light mud" for large projects. But I'm on team self-adhesive fiberglass tape and hot mud for everything else.
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Mar 30, 2022 19:45
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Hot mud all day every day. You can mix what you need, its cheaper, it dries quicker, its stronger, and it doesn't go bad with time. I've always seen bucket mud as something renters buy to get their security deposit back. When sanding tub mud, it always seems to be stickier or pill up if it hasn't COMPLETELY dried. We bought our house last year and before we moved in I wanted to repaint the entire house. That included patching a lot of holes, fixing some problem areas, and patching up old light fixtures. Some areas got pretty large fixes. I think I might have used 1/4 of the bag that I bought and I was very liberal with the mud. Now if I come across any other things that need fixing, I can go grab a scoop and have it patched in a few minutes vs hoping a tub of wet mud hasn't solidified. It also allows you to be very liberal with it and ensure you're not being frugal and trying to use dirty mud.
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Mar 30, 2022 19:53
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Let's play a fun game. We're getting quotes for painting! Curious at guesses of what they're coming in at. The project: * Painting about 900 sqft of interior space, including a 400 sqft room with 17 ft ceilings and a stairway. No trim or ceiling paint. A few cracks which need patching. * Restaining a 300 sqft deck * Stripping and repainting 14 exterior window frames, 7 of which are 20 feet up.
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Mar 30, 2022 20:33
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Sorry for Necro I don't read the thread much.. For appliance reliability I use https://blog.yaleappliance.com/ LawfulWaffle posted:They're copper pipes, house is about 45 years old. Well, the leak from the bathroom was a copper pipe and it looked like it was in the middle of a stretch of pipe. Idk what the pipe from the sink was, it was the main drain. I forgot to mention that my garbage disposal cracked and would leak water into the under-sink cabinet, also in this time frame. I haven't had my water tested, I guess I could do that. Short of replacing all my pipes someday, I'm just going to wait for them to leak, that's what homeowners insurance is for. May be something to look into, you could see the brackets they used in my crawl space. redreader posted:I have an LG frontloader I inherited from the PO and it works great, but, it loving stinks. After doing the first load which came out stinky, I ran washer cleaner in it like twice in a row, bicarb in another wash, cleaned the front gasket, emptied the filter, etc etc. Now it's fine, mostly, but if you don't wash anything in it for about 4 days it gets stinky again. There's mold growing in the liner I can't get out (it's just black, but feels like the rest of the rubber, so it must be deep inside the liner). I run washer cleaner stuff in it once a month and poo poo, and it's still like that. The reason I'm telling you is that I googled it and one of the results had someone saying "so... all LG front loaders get stinky then, I take it?"
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Mar 30, 2022 20:59
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Upgrade posted:Let's play a fun game. I'm having a larger deck stained and it's ~$800 including materials so I would guess you'll be around $2-2500 all in.
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Mar 30, 2022 21:08
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Some quick sanity check advice needed. Water is seeping up from the laminate wood in the kitchen. I believe I've traced it to the fridge water line. Seems pretty slow so not sure how long it has taken to get to this point. Besides the obvious plumber call to fix the leak and the need to speed up our planned move to tile in the kitchen, (tear out the laminate and replace it now instead of on the original schedule) is there anything else I should be thinking of doing here?
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Mar 31, 2022 00:29
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In floor radiant heating?
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Mar 31, 2022 00:38
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Hadlock posted:In floor radiant heating? Nope, nothing special like that going on.
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Mar 31, 2022 01:18
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King Burgundy posted:Some quick sanity check advice needed. Make sure to put in a new valve for the fridge water supply (because your old one is probably wearing out) and put a water hammer arrestor on it (to help keep everything working longer). If you do tile, make sure you aren't entombing your dishwasher by making the floor too high to get it out.
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Mar 31, 2022 01:31
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Upgrade posted:Let's play a fun game. Your costs are highly dependent on local labor costs. Do you live in rural Kentucky, or in Boston? For example. I'd assume having that specced out around where I live would be $6k+. e. is that 900 square feet of floor, e.g. all the walls adjacent to that, or 900 square feet of wall to paint? Also are they just going to pressure wash those exterior frames, or are they going to actually scrape them, meaning they need scaffolding? e2. I think regardless of your answers I'm gonna bump my guess up to $10k.
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Mar 31, 2022 02:37
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