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Question about setting a couple of post for a sunshade. Our driveway is covered by a large pine tree that constantly drops sap and needles on-top of our car, longterm I want to build a timber frame carport but need a short 1-3 year fix in the meantime. I want to attach a sunshade to the garage and two posts at the end of the driveway, the post need to be around 8 feet tall. I plan on using 8" quick-tube for the base and 4"x4"x10' treated timber for the post, I want them to be freestanding. Should I cement the post directly into the quick-tub by 2ish feet or am I better off using a base bracket the cements into the tube and attached the post to that? This is a temp fix, I will be ripping it all out to pour a new slab and footings for a carport eventually.
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Aug 24, 2022 19:00
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King Baby posted:We just bought our first home and made a tiny huge mistake. The house was built in 1940, and not grounded! Inspection found this out and the owners were like “we’re at the corner of gently caress and you” they gave us the equivalent of 2 tickets to itchy and scratchy land for our problems and we took it. The electrician said it would be between 30000 and 16000 to ground it. Or we could do the first floor and the bathroom for 8000…the kitchen and basement are already grounded. I can feel the electricity on the bathroom light switch….weird. For whats worth I am in the same boat, house was built in 47 and has the OG panel and wiring which all seems to be in ok shape but there is no grounding and the panel is only 70 amps. Luckily my dad is an electrician and is going to help swap out the service and panel and then I am going to re-wire the house over the winter. It's going to be a ton of work but I can do it the right way and with added goodies a flipper wouldn't have done like a whole house surge protector, pre-wire for a backup generator and solar plus future proof for a EV charger. My understanding is you only need a GFCI receptacle closest to the breaker on that circuit, everything downstream should be protected but a GFCI breaker would be better protection (you may not be able to find one if your panel is older).
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Aug 24, 2022 19:41
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nwin posted:Once again, trying to weigh the pros and cons of my existing boiler. I just helped install a heat pump hybrid heater in a similar setup. If you pay attention while installing it and save all of the relevant parts, most models can use ducted air, so you could continue to pull from/vent to a different area if that makes sense (just make sure you are replacing any air in some way so other sources of combustion aren't gassing you in your sleep). They can also be in a smaller room if the air exchange rates are high enough, usually accomplished with a louvered panel on a door. As for the cooling during winter, if you decide that it makes the space too cold, on the "smart" versions you can always disable the heat pump during specific times (dumb ones as well, but you need to do so manually rather than scheduling it) and it will revert to being merely a nicely insulated electric resistance heater. With the new energy efficiency legislation covering much of the cost of a heat pump hot water heater for many households, it makes the price difference that much lower. The only downsides at that point would be that the heat pump does make some noise, and you may need a condensate pump if you don't have a floor drain in the basement. Both of which are pretty minor in my experience.
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Aug 24, 2022 22:15
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vs Dinosaurs posted:Thank you poster (and posters above) for the information. My house has a wide open 3" crawl space, and wide open attic which needs to be properly insulated. I'll try getting more quotes for ductless systems, the last quotes came around that PNW heatwave of 100+ degrees. I'm in PNW also and am having a single-head system installed in an ADU for 4200 in the next month or so, for reference.
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Aug 24, 2022 22:29
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Sloppy posted:I'm in PNW also and am having a single-head system installed in an ADU for 4200 in the next month or so, for reference. This is a pretty reasonable price.
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Aug 24, 2022 22:44
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Wanderless posted:I just helped install a heat pump hybrid heater in a similar setup. If you pay attention while installing it and save all of the relevant parts, most models can use ducted air, so you could continue to pull from/vent to a different area if that makes sense (just make sure you are replacing any air in some way so other sources of combustion aren't gassing you in your sleep). They can also be in a smaller room if the air exchange rates are high enough, usually accomplished with a louvered panel on a door. Thanks for the info! We’ve got a split system on our main level so no ducting there to use. However it’s nice to know I could just switch off the hybrid feature if it’s too cold. I read a study last night saying it may only cool the basement an extra 5 degrees so that’s not a big deal. I’m a little concerned about the noise and the lack of a drain. My washer and dryer is on the main level, I’m on a septic, and so I’m not sure how running a condensate would work to possibly tie into the main drain. My basement has insulation on the ceiling so I’m hopeful that would negate the noise a bit, but I have no frame of reference wrt how loud the pump will be.
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Aug 24, 2022 23:03
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Sundae posted:So what I'm hearing is to always weld galvanized steel. Sweet. I welded a galvanized nut once. I held my breath and ran away after.
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Aug 25, 2022 00:44
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nwin posted:Thanks for the info! We’ve got a split system on our main level so no ducting there to use. However it’s nice to know I could just switch off the hybrid feature if it’s too cold. I read a study last night saying it may only cool the basement an extra 5 degrees so that’s not a big deal. You're essentially running a small dehumidifier or (nice) window AC unit so the sound will be similar (with the exception of a run of apparently very annoying Rheem hybrids that had a bad bearing or something). Mine is directly below me in my garage and it is barely audible over my PC fans (~40db), and that's all vibration through the walls. Looking at the spec sheet they even have further vibration damping mounts.
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Aug 25, 2022 01:31
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Wanderless posted:You're essentially running a small dehumidifier or (nice) window AC unit so the sound will be similar (with the exception of a run of apparently very annoying Rheem hybrids that had a bad bearing or something). Mine is directly below me in my garage and it is barely audible over my PC fans (~40db), and that's all vibration through the walls. Looking at the spec sheet they even have further vibration damping mounts. Oh poo poo. My dehumidifier is currently running 80% of the time and I don’t hear that so I’m probably good-thanks!
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Aug 25, 2022 01:55
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Today, I was the PO. Broke a perfectly good toilet flange, then cocked up the repair for good measure. Tomorrow I'm calling a plumber because I'm incompetent
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Aug 25, 2022 04:59
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Just had 2 electrician give me 2 different alternate solutions for the grounding issue. One said to install GFCIs in all the outlets and get a new fuse box…but not a GFCI fuse box cause we’d just have to keep switching that back on. The other electrician said to just get the GFCI fuse box and that would solve everything. Ugh! Both mentioned shared circuits could be a problem. Oh hey the light switch in my sons room turns on the fan light but not the fan. I have to pull the cord for that…neat.
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Aug 25, 2022 07:06
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King Baby posted:Oh hey the light switch in my sons room turns on the fan light but not the fan. I have to pull the cord for that…neat. PO slapped a fan up there at some point to replace a light fixture. How accessible is the space above the room? Have your electrician quote adding a switch for the fan (and a proper ceiling fan box). I just re-wired the fans in both of the twins bedrooms last week to add a second switch, took about 3 hours each but it was best case scenario of direct attic access to everything.
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Aug 25, 2022 10:24
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CloFan posted:...Tomorrow I'm calling a plumber because I'm incompetent This is decidedly not PO behaviour. I'd say you dodged that bullet. Now if you stuck some gum in the flange, called it fixed, and installed the toilet anyways...
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Aug 25, 2022 15:32
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How does one know when a chimney liner needs to be replaced/? We just bought our house in May and the top of one of the flues is definitely a bit messed up, and there's a crack in the wash, I snapped a pic with a cheap drone: There's a ventless gas insert in one fireplace on the main level (which I think means we don't need a liner?), and the other fireplace is in the basement and we don't plan on using it. The smaller flue is to the furnace. We had a couple of chimney/masonry guys come out and pretty much all of them quoted a liner. One guy did say that maybe we should get away without a liner and keep a carbon monoxide detector near the main floor fireplace. I think it's one of the pricier chimney jobs so I'd rather avoid if possible. Also, we got two quotes so far to prep+paint the 2000 sq. ft interior and they both came in at like 17k which is about double what we expected 
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Aug 25, 2022 17:40
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Colonel Taint posted:How does one know when a chimney liner needs to be replaced/? By having a qualified fireplace/chimney company inspect it. Inspecting it means cleaning and a camera inspection. As a part of this inspection they will determine the length so they will be able to accurately quote a liner. Colonel Taint posted:We had a couple of chimney/masonry guys come out and pretty much all of them quoted a liner. One guy did say that maybe we should get away without a liner and keep a carbon monoxide detector near the main floor fireplace. I think it's one of the pricier chimney jobs so I'd rather avoid if possible. So are you shopping for the cheap answer or the correct answer?
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Aug 25, 2022 17:53
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I mean... mostly the cheap answer right now as we have a bunch of other things to work on. We don't really need to use either of the fireplaces - the gas fireplace would be nice, and I interpret 'ventless insert' as implying that there doesn't even need to be chimney (maybe I'm wrong?) We did have a home inspector come out, and he noted that he could see another liner through the flue of the gas-insert fireplace.
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Aug 25, 2022 18:47
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Colonel Taint posted:One guy did say that maybe we should get away without a liner and keep a carbon monoxide detector near the main floor fireplace. I don't have a dog in this fight and as a fellow homeowner I completely understand the dread of repair costs, but I'm going to recommend against the advice of the dude who suggests you skip the repair and just buy a tool to make sure the amount of deadly gas you're exposed to from skipping the repair isn't fatal.
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Aug 25, 2022 18:55
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I would say if multiple chimney experts are saying you need to replace the liner you need to replace the liner
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Aug 25, 2022 19:00
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That's the problem really... nobody's said we need to replace the liners, and one guy didn't even look inside the chimney. The quotes we got were also pretty confusing and it's been a bit of a poo poo show dealing with just the estimators who've come out - one guy quoted us to basically revert the gas fireplace to wood, which we never asked for, so I don't know if they're just quoting stuff just to try to get more work - maybe it's just clear that we don't know anything about chimneys. Given we have no idea what we really need, I guess I'll take the advice to pay for a cleaning/inspection so someone can tell us what needs to happen.
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Aug 25, 2022 19:24
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I recommend against CO poisoning
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Aug 25, 2022 23:26
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Do we think it is possible for insulators to properly seal gaps in an attic that currently has shallow fiberglass blown in (just a couple inches of depth)? In my mind you would need to vacuum everything out in order to see what's going on. First updated quote for a three zone system came in at $13.5K - I swear these companies do not want customers.
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Aug 26, 2022 00:08
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The correct answer is sealing the fireplace and putting an electric unit in there.
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Aug 26, 2022 00:09
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vs Dinosaurs posted:First updated quote for a three zone system came in at $13.5K - I swear these companies do not want customers. That's probably $5k in equipment (src but note this is the cadillac model) so I don't find it amazingly unreasonable. But of course shop around.
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Aug 26, 2022 03:25
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vs Dinosaurs posted:Do we think it is possible for insulators to properly seal gaps in an attic that currently has shallow fiberglass blown in (just a couple inches of depth)? In my mind you would need to vacuum everything out in order to see what's going on. I've always seen them vacuum everything out, seal the gaps/joints/lightboxes and then blow back in.
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Aug 26, 2022 03:44
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KS posted:That's probably $5k in equipment (src but note this is the cadillac model) so I don't find it amazingly unreasonable. But of course shop around. This quote didn't include upgrading to a hyper heat model, which would be $2.5k extra. Getting more quotes next week.
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Aug 26, 2022 16:56
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Colonel Taint posted:How does one know when a chimney liner needs to be replaced/? We just bought our house in May and the top of one of the flues is definitely a bit messed up, and there's a crack in the wash, I snapped a pic with a cheap drone: I got a quote for about 15k worth of work after getting a chimney inspection to get it in working order before I bought the house in April or like 8k to convert 2 fireplaces to gas. Should probably get around to scheduling the conversion soon so they can be ready for winter.
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Aug 26, 2022 19:08
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3 houses in my neighborhood have gotten new roofs this summer and it has summoned a swarm of roofing salesmen. The only silver lining is that nobody has signed off on a solar install so those guys have rotated our.
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Aug 26, 2022 20:17
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Democratic Pirate posted:3 houses in my neighborhood have gotten new roofs this summer and it has summoned a swarm of roofing salesmen. The only silver lining is that nobody has signed off on a solar install so those guys have rotated our. Those guys show up whether or not anyone actually got a new roof in my experience, they're just scammers. I always tell them I'm renting.
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Aug 26, 2022 22:50
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Looking for some help here: I want to replace some can lights with brighter lights with a different hue. I know nothing about light fixtures - it seems a typical can light fixture - there's a trim/bulb piece with wires into a junction box. Can I buy just a new fixture and connect the wires? What would I search for?
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Aug 27, 2022 00:20
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Upgrade posted:Looking for some help here: I want to replace some can lights with brighter lights with a different hue. I know nothing about light fixtures - it seems a typical can light fixture - there's a trim/bulb piece with wires into a junction box. Can I buy just a new fixture and connect the wires? What would I search for? Before you go trying to change light fixtures I think you should figure out what bulbs are in there and what surrounds. The cans can be adjusted for height, allowing bulbs to be closer or further up in the can. Trim rings can be swapped out. Various LED bulbs can be purchased. Also, various LED bulbs that are also trim rings can be purchased and won't require changing the can itself. They will screw into the bulb base you already have. So what do you have and what are you trying to get to? https://www.1000bulbs.com/fil/categories/led-down-lights is a great place to start looking at what might be available. They have a really good, meaningful search/filter on CRI and color temp among other things.
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Aug 27, 2022 00:29
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Motronic posted:Before you go trying to change light fixtures I think you should figure out what bulbs are in there and what surrounds. Here's a picture of what it is. Right now they're 2700ish 60 watt fixtures. I'm going to take them up to 75 (or even 100, will test) 3000k. If I could just swap out the 'light' part, that would be great. I have no idea what this is though! It seems there's two parts -- the can, and then the fixture, which is connected at the orange plug.  
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Aug 27, 2022 00:35
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I had to get an oak tree removed because it was dying and leaning toward the house. Anyways, it’s a stump now and I’m wondering if it’s worth having the arborist chip up the stump and then fill with topsoil, etc. It’s about 30” in diameter and they charge $4.75 an inch. He said they offer two things. First is just chipping it up. They’ll leave me with the chipped wood in a pile on my yard. The other option is they’ll charge more to remote the wood chips and then will fill the cavity with top soil and seed. I’m waiting to see how much extra that would cost. He mentioned that removing the chips isn’t too bad so long as I have a wheelbarrow and somewhere to put the wood chips, which I do, but I’m curious how big a cavity I’ll have with a 30” stump being removed and how big of a pain it’ll be to fill it.
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Aug 27, 2022 00:40
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Upgrade posted:Here's a picture of what it is. Oh, those are LED replacement already. So the trim ring and light are the same assembly. So I'm assuming there are 5 or 6" cans. So I'd be looking at: GU 24 base (the screw in base you've got there) High CRI (color rendering index - it's totally worth it) 3000k Incandescent equal watts 90+ Which leaves you with exactly one on that site: https://www.1000bulbs.com/product/217110/CREE-10283.html And it's dimmable.
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Aug 27, 2022 00:45
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Motronic posted:Oh, those are LED replacement already. So the trim ring and light are the same assembly. Will those style clips work? It's a halo housing apparently, this is what the fixture in there looks like clip wise: 
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Aug 27, 2022 00:58
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Upgrade posted:Will those style clips work? It's a halo housing apparently, this is what the fixture in there looks like clip wise: Yeah, those are one of the standard "universal" type clips. Just make sure you're buying something for the correct opening size. I'm guessing at 5-6" based on.....well, what its likely to be and relative sizes of connectors on your photos. Also, sorry the right serach term is E26 base......it's just that this one comes with both.
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Aug 27, 2022 01:02
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Motronic posted:Yeah, those are one of the standard "universal" type clips. Just make sure you're buying something for the correct opening size. I'm guessing at 5-6" based on.....well, what its likely to be and relative sizes of connectors on your photos. Yep, literally the exact same dimensions lol.
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Aug 27, 2022 01:03
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Upgrade posted:Yep, literally the exact same dimensions lol. Okay cool. and sorry was editing the post you responded to. You actually have an E26 base so there are more choices. Here's a better search: https://www.1000bulbs.com/fil/search?facet.multiselect=true&page=1&q=%2A&rows=15&sort=is_backordered+asc%2Cprice+asc&start=0&filter=(category:%2212831%22)&filter=(a_base_type_t_fq:%22Medium%20(E26)%22)&filter=(a_cri_t_fq:%22High%20CRI%22)&filter=(a_color_temperature_t_fq:%223000%20Kelvin%22)&filter=(a_incandescent_equal_n_fq:[90%20TO%20115]) The 90+ Lighting one looks pretty good and has the same style of clips that you've posted so you know it should work. The one I linked before looks like the clips to hold it up are in the can. I haven't used that style before but have used the kind the 90+ has and what you have now. E: Ffffff...no way to make that link work with SA markdown. Just copy/paste sorry.
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Aug 27, 2022 01:07
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nwin posted:I had to get an oak tree removed because it was dying and leaning toward the house. It's going to be a pretty large cavity - you aren't going to want to deal with that yourself unless you're able to get top soil in bulk. If it's not in your way or anything consider just shoving a bunch of mushroom spores in it. They'll eventually make the whole thing decay, and you can slowly cover it in dirt as it goes.
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Aug 27, 2022 01:08
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devicenull posted:It's going to be a pretty large cavity - you aren't going to want to deal with that yourself unless you're able to get top soil in bulk. Hmm, main reason I want to get rid of it is because it’s in the front yard so I’d like to get grass there instead. However, I’m not in a huge rush so I could just do the epsom salt route I’ve been reading about. That should only take a few months and then I don’t have wood chips to bother with.
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Aug 27, 2022 01:24
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| # ? May 19, 2024 22:21 |
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Motronic posted:Okay cool. and sorry was editing the post you responded to. You actually have an E26 base so there are more choices. Here's a better search: Thank you!! Perfect
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Aug 27, 2022 02:32
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