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Chaosfeather posted:Follow-up, I decided to test the kitchen water by doing a lot of dishwashing by hand tonight. The reaction seemed slower, but still present. I may have been imagining the slower, or it might have been from the lower average temp I was using to wash the dishes. Either way, it appears to be in three sinks and two showers in the apt. I'll look into pool places, though I am a little confused because if it's the chlorine, wouldn't I have reacted to swimming in chlorinated water as a child? I know allergies can develop with age, but this seems a little silly. just to check, you haven't changed soap brands or something, right?
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Oct 14, 2022 04:08
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Tunicate posted:just to check, you haven't changed soap brands or something, right? No change in soap brands, dish soap, laundry detergent, or anything else like that. I've been buying the same brands since they are available at the grocery store. The closest allergen change would be I moved in with a cat, which I have a mild allergy to. However, I used to live with cats and being on daily allergy medicine, occasional nose medicine when she decides to try to sleep on my face, air filters and regular cleaning of clothes, linens and vacuuming keeps that more than manageable. But before I moved I stayed (in a different apt) with my partner and their cat and did not react in this manner to any of the water, so I think that is completely unrelated. I'm going on a trip to see family soon and have been enlisted in practicing Part of me feels like I'm crazy because of how nebulous this feels and how the claim seems extremely vague ("There's somethin in the water!") but I get confirmation if I spend too long in the shower and my partner agrees that the symptoms are definitely presenting themselves after I do these things. I've even looked into a vague 'water allergy' but that's not it, because I recently went fishing and got dunked in the river, stayed soaked in river water for an hour no problem. That's extremely close to home, so while I am confident the river isn't the water source for the apt, I feel like that tells me it's not like, the water in the region or something weird.
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Oct 14, 2022 06:22
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Not a doctor: there is a rare condition that causes people go have an allergic reaction upon skin contact with water. aquagenic urticaria My real bet is that you're stressed out and stressing more about the water is causing a feedback loop of more stress symptoms. The mind is a hell of a drug.
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Oct 14, 2022 11:42
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Have you ever had an allergen test done? Does the reaction go away with the use of an anti histamine?
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Oct 14, 2022 12:29
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I'd be interested to know if you get the reaction with prolonged exposure to cold water from your taps, or if maybe it's specifically a heat reaction.
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Oct 14, 2022 15:59
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NomNomNom posted:Not a doctor: there is a rare condition that causes people go have an allergic reaction upon skin contact with water. aquagenic urticaria quote:I've even looked into a vague 'water allergy' but that's not it, because I recently went fishing and got dunked in the river, stayed soaked in river water for an hour no problem. That's extremely close to home, so while I am confident the river isn't the water source for the apt, I feel like that tells me it's not like, the water in the region or something weird.
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Oct 14, 2022 20:52
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i like nice words
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Chaosfeather posted:No change in soap brands, dish soap, laundry detergent, or anything else like that. I've been buying the same brands since they are available at the grocery store. The closest allergen change would be I moved in with a cat, which I have a mild allergy to. However, I used to live with cats and being on daily allergy medicine, occasional nose medicine when she decides to try to sleep on my face, air filters and regular cleaning of clothes, linens and vacuuming keeps that more than manageable. But before I moved I stayed (in a different apt) with my partner and their cat and did not react in this manner to any of the water, so I think that is completely unrelated. I have autoimmune disease and test negative for a couple dozen allergens, but for a couple years after moving to an apartment in an old building with very, very hard water I had similar symptoms. You may not be allergic to the disinfectant and/or minerals in the water per se, and your cat symptoms sound under control, but the constant allergen exposure could be lowering the threshold for other irritants to give you reactions. If I get a few bug bites, for instance, I usually have to switch to my eczema body wash for a couple days because I'll get itchy all over with regular soap. This stuff is pricey but it doesn't stink like Cetaphil or lather like poo poo like Aveeno, and it's very gentle. You might need to cut out perfumed cleaning products and detergents for a few months and see if that calms things down somewhat. A goon responded to me in this or the other thread with an inline shower filter recommendation, let me see if I can find it. devicenull posted:Check out this place - https://www.purewaterproducts.com/ BonerGhost fucked around with this message at 03:42 on Oct 15, 2022 |
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Oct 15, 2022 03:19
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We have two bathroom vent fans that don't vent to the outside - one has some ducting that just empties into the attic, one doesn't have ducting at all and has probably been shooting humid shower air in between joists for the life of the house. I'm planning on going up into the attic in a couple weeks and fixing that mess. My question is, is there a reason that I can't or shouldn't join the exhausts of the fans inside the attic and send that combined duct outside? I'm not too keen on punching holes in my roof in the first place and if I could get away with one instead of two then so much the better for me.
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Oct 15, 2022 04:32
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Venting moist bathroom air into the attic or joists sounds uh, like really bad? Can't you put a bend on the pipe that goes into the attic and vent through the side of the wall, then you don't need to run it through the roof. As for joining the two to a single exhaust, I guess it depends on how it's all set up. If they push air into the vent pipe I guess you don't want to create a situation where one bathroom exhausts into another, so one way valves. His Divine Shadow fucked around with this message at 06:27 on Oct 15, 2022 |
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Oct 15, 2022 06:24
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csammis posted:We have two bathroom vent fans that don't vent to the outside - one has some ducting that just empties into the attic, one doesn't have ducting at all and has probably been shooting humid shower air in between joists for the life of the house. I'm planning on going up into the attic in a couple weeks and fixing that mess. My question is, is there a reason that I can't or shouldn't join the exhausts of the fans inside the attic and send that combined duct outside? I'm not too keen on punching holes in my roof in the first place and if I could get away with one instead of two then so much the better for me. In the USA most codes are reasonably silent on this. They are more concerned with exhaust streams that contain combustion products (heating equipment), flammable lint (dryers), and grease (kitchens). However, there is one big umbrella code that always applies, which is that equipment must be installed per the manufacturer's instructions. Your fans will have installation guides that show how to duct them and I'm fairly certain they won't show a situation where two fans are ducted together. So you 'cannot do it' because the manufacturer does not say it can be done with their equipment. That said, here are two ways to do it, one that will pass inspections in every jurisdiction I'm familiar with in the USA and one that an inspector might tell you is wrong but probably won't make you fix it. 1. Code compliant - install one remote fan that pulls from both bathrooms and exhausts through one duct. These types of fans will have installation diagrams that show what you are trying to do. 2. Not code compliant but likely to get a shrug - either ensure that your fans have an integral backdraft damper or install an in-line backdraft damper in the 4-inch duct leaving the fan anywhere before you 'Y' them together. Then after the two ducts are combined, run 6-inch to the exterior. This system will like result in the two bathrooms 'contaminating' each other a little bit, but it's odors and moisture (gross) not grease/lint/combustion gases (bad) so the chances someone cares are low. Tezer fucked around with this message at 01:43 on Oct 16, 2022 |
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Oct 15, 2022 14:26
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BonerGhost posted:cut out perfumed cleaning products and detergents Perfumed cleaning products should be illegal. Nothing better than having people's lovely perfumed garbage trigger your asthma. If your clothes are clean they won't smell at all.
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Oct 15, 2022 15:56
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H110Hawk posted:Perfumed cleaning products should be illegal. Nothing better than having people's lovely perfumed garbage trigger your asthma. If your clothes are clean they won't smell at all. I get a grim chuckle out of all the laundry detergent ads I see that bemoan how your clothes don't smell clean after you take them out of the wash with your current, crappy detergent. And then go on to say how the clothes will keep smelling clean for weeks on end! Convincing people that "clean" smells like heavy perfume was a loving stroke of genius move. An evil one, but still genius.
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Oct 15, 2022 16:43
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H110Hawk posted:
The higher quote was just us giving a blank check to a sales person from what turns out to be a national VC firm that buys out mom and pop shops and runs them into the ground. He basically said that we needed a hundred million helical piers and two other big installations that I can't quite recall. The lower quote was a local shop not owned by ground works (after we had a structural engineer come out). The salesman came out and didn't provide a quote, said the engineers would figure out what needed done before they quoted anything. Turns out their recommendation and scope of work matched the structural engineers report exactly and was significantly cheaper. The engineer also offhandedly mentioned that helical piers actually wouldn't do much with our particular problems and that the next best thing from the beam, post, and footer system they will be installing would be a brand new foundation. New question: my front porch has concrete stairs going up to the wooden porch and there's one wooden riser board that I'd like to tile. Problem is that it's not very level. Can I do some kind of wet shim or wood epoxy to build up the parts that slope in? Should I just sand it down super aggressively?
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Oct 15, 2022 19:12
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Do get a permit, insurance, and verify their license. What is uh, different about their bids other than a trailing zero? Is an engineer involved?
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Justa Dandelion posted:New question: my front porch has concrete stairs going up to the wooden porch and there's one wooden riser board that I'd like to tile. Problem is that it's not very level. Can I do some kind of wet shim or wood epoxy to build up the parts that slope in? Should I just sand it down super aggressively? How not level? Can't you just make it up with the thinset you'll be using to lay the tile?
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Oct 15, 2022 20:08
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Cyrano4747 posted:I get a grim chuckle out of all the laundry detergent ads I see that bemoan how your clothes don't smell clean after you take them out of the wash with your current, crappy detergent. And then go on to say how the clothes will keep smelling clean for weeks on end! It's wild. Last year we went on a long road trip and somewhere in the back half of it we did a load of laundry at a hotel using the little single-serving Tide they had at the sundry shop. Weeks later I would put on a shirt and go "oh goddamnit, this is a tide shirt"
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Oct 15, 2022 21:28
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Cyrano4747 posted:I get a grim chuckle out of all the laundry detergent ads I see that bemoan how your clothes don't smell clean after you take them out of the wash with your current, crappy detergent. And then go on to say how the clothes will keep smelling clean for weeks on end! Good news, we got rid of VOCs in paint! Now let me Febreeze this room... more falafel please posted:It's wild. Last year we went on a long road trip and somewhere in the back half of it we did a load of laundry at a hotel using the little single-serving Tide they had at the sundry shop. Weeks later I would put on a shirt and go "oh goddamnit, this is a tide shirt" I have to re-wash clothes where people use scented detergents, it's a pain in the butt when traveling or using a service. Justa Dandelion posted:The higher quote was just us giving a blank check to a sales person from what turns out to be a national VC firm that buys out mom and pop shops and runs them into the ground. He basically said that we needed a hundred million helical piers and two other big installations that I can't quite recall. The lower quote was a local shop not owned by ground works (after we had a structural engineer come out). The salesman came out and didn't provide a quote, said the engineers would figure out what needed done before they quoted anything. Turns out their recommendation and scope of work matched the structural engineers report exactly and was significantly cheaper. The engineer also offhandedly mentioned that helical piers actually wouldn't do much with our particular problems and that the next best thing from the beam, post, and footer system they will be installing would be a brand new foundation. Sounds like a great outcome! Is your riser warped or what? Would it make more sense to just replace it since you're going to tile it regardless?
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Oct 15, 2022 21:44
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Queen Victorian posted:This is the model I bought: https://dupray.com/products/neat-steam-cleaner. So, this came in today and it's pretty awesome. Quite fast to clean the entire shower and no noxious chemicals. Thanks again for the suggestion.
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Oct 15, 2022 22:26
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Got the SJ Wave 16-in-1 water test kit. I think I'm reading this correctly but unsure how to interpret this. Does this show anything significant or just that I need to look elsewhere? I THINK I am reading this as: Total Hardness 0 Free Chlorine ~2 Iron 0 Copper 0 Lead 0 Nitrate 0 Nitrite 0 MPS ~7? Total Chlorine ~4 Fluoride 0 Cyanuric Acid 0? Chlorine Dioxide ~20 QUAT/QAC~7 Total Alkalinity ~60 Carbonate ~100 pH~8.2 But other than "it's prooobably not the chlorine, then?" I'm not sure what to do with this.
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Oct 15, 2022 22:56
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I'm a drat weirdo that like my clothes smelling a little perfumey when I take them out of the wash. I think my default human smell is usually neutral/fine even when I'm freshly showered, so why not add a subtle scent? Makes it easier to tell if a shirt needs to be thrown in the wash by sniffing too. I totally see the appeal of the free and clear stuff, but for myself I choose normal delicious Tide pods.
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Oct 15, 2022 23:03
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My parents were always wary about perfumes/colors etc, so it just feels weird to me for to use perfumed detergent. Even scented dish soap is weird to me.
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Oct 15, 2022 23:14
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H110Hawk posted:
This is me when I visit my in-laws. If any of my stuff ends up getting washed over there it needs a re-wash at home. Inner Light posted:I'm a drat weirdo that like my clothes smelling a little perfumey when I take them out of the wash. I think my default human smell is usually neutral/fine even when I'm freshly showered, so why not add a subtle scent? Makes it easier to tell if a shirt needs to be thrown in the wash by sniffing too. I'm fine with smells on things, but that's what cologne/perfume are for.
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Oct 16, 2022 00:05
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Chaosfeather posted:Got the SJ Wave 16-in-1 water test kit. I think I'm reading this correctly but unsure how to interpret this. Does this show anything significant or just that I need to look elsewhere? If it's the alkalinity of the water (i.e. pH > 7), you can test that by adding some acid (e.g. vinegar) to water and seeing if you react to that. It shouldn't take much to neutralize a pH of 8. The MPS (microplastics, I think?) reading is also high, but I don't know what further tests you could do based on that.
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Oct 16, 2022 00:51
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8.2 is a pretty normal pH for tap water, and that total alkalinity is pretty low.
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Oct 16, 2022 00:55
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Motronic posted:So, this came in today and it's pretty awesome. Quite fast to clean the entire shower and no noxious chemicals. I am strongly tempted to get one of these.
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Oct 16, 2022 00:56
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Meow Meow Meow posted:I am strongly tempted to get one of these.
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Oct 16, 2022 02:30
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SkunkDuster posted:building a steam bender sounds like a fun and interesting project. Just checking in to say I'm still working on the steam bender. It would probably go 10x faster if I wasn't spending so much time recording everything. The machining is also taking a bit longer than I had anticipated.
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Oct 16, 2022 02:35
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Motronic posted:How not level? Can't you just make it up with the thinset you'll be using to lay the tile? It's bowed in the middle and a little twisted. ¼" low at the worst part. H110Hawk posted:Is your riser warped or what? Would it make more sense to just replace it since you're going to tile it regardless? That's an option depending on how steady I can be with my sawsall. Basically my living room is a very well disguised "covered porch" so that riser goes the entire width of the house and is mostly covered by siding. Figured it'd be easier and my wife would be happier if I tried other methods before pulling off even more siding than I already have.
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Oct 16, 2022 02:45
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TLDR: How do you hang (anything) on a drywall->concrete wall? I now live in a concrete condo which is great, all the partitioning walls between units are concrete, which is great. Some of the interior walls are concrete also but at least half are steel stud. There is a sprinkler system with sprinkler heads in every room, in the closets, etc. I know about concrete bits for drills and all that stuff, but I'm wondering if a decent product exists that doesn't require me to drill into the concrete wall between my condo and the people on the other side. I was originally thinking a couple 3M adhesive hooks but I kinda hate the feeling that gives me. If I need to drill into the concrete, okay fine but where is the piping routed for the sprinker system? I don't want to accidentally drill into it. I'm assuming it's horizontal runs at the height of the sprinkler heads but I don't want to be overconfident about it. Can I also use my studfinder to identify electrical runs in the wall too? Where are electrical runs generally placed in a concrete wall anyways? Thanks thread.
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Oct 16, 2022 03:16
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Rig up one of those blasting hammers imo. You'll either hang the thing real well or you'll have much bigger problems to worry about.
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Oct 16, 2022 03:33
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Tangentially related to hot tub chat: does anyone here have any experience with endless pools? a.k.a. treadmills except for swimming instead of running. I've been curious about them for awhile, but everything I can find about them is advertising, basically.
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Oct 16, 2022 04:57
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TooMuchAbstraction posted:Tangentially related to hot tub chat: does anyone here have any experience with endless pools? a.k.a. treadmills except for swimming instead of running. I've been curious about them for awhile, but everything I can find about them is advertising, basically. I'm pretty sure there's one canadian goon that just got one put into their house/shed, in a thread somewhere in HCH/DIY. Fake edit: Slung Blade https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3264505&pagenumber=38#post524339159 I think that's the pool type you're talking about.
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Oct 16, 2022 07:34
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H110Hawk posted:Perfumed cleaning products should be illegal. Nothing better than having people's lovely perfumed garbage trigger your asthma. If your clothes are clean they won't smell at all. As a migraine haver with scent-based triggers, I agree. I have a sensitive nose in general, so I can't remotely fathom how anyone actually likes these absurdly overpowering synthetic fragrances even if they don't cause headaches (looking at you, OxiClean (thank gently caress there's an unscented option)). Cyrano4747 posted:Convincing people that "clean" smells like heavy perfume was a loving stroke of genius move. An evil one, but still genius. It's diabolical. The best my clothes ever smell is after I wash them at our family's lake house up north, where the water is pumped directly from said lake. The lake has a distinctive odor, but in a good lakey sort of way, and after a while it permeates everything. Combine that with line drying in the cool forest breeze and you have the best and freshest smelling laundry. I'm sure detergent makers could pull off pleasant, subtle scents like that, but all they do is come up with synthetic caricatures of them and crank the strength up to eleven. Motronic posted:So, this came in today and it's pretty awesome. Quite fast to clean the entire shower and no noxious chemicals. No problem! Yeah, it's pretty fun and highly satisfying to use (though ear protection is nice to have - the hissing can get pretty intense). One of the first things I did with it was finally kill all the previously unreachable mildew in the bathroom radiator. Then cleaned the rest of the bathroom. Overall, not needing any chemicals is one of my favorite things about it. Next major steam cleaning project is the stove.
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Oct 16, 2022 07:56
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TooMuchAbstraction posted:Tangentially related to hot tub chat: does anyone here have any experience with endless pools? a.k.a. treadmills except for swimming instead of running. I've been curious about them for awhile, but everything I can find about them is advertising, basically. 
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Oct 16, 2022 12:31
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Justa Dandelion posted:It's bowed in the middle and a little twisted. ¼" low at the worst part. 1/4" is not something to be concerned with. All the thinset I can recall using says that much for leveling is fine. The real issue is why it's 1/4" low and if it's stopped moving. If it's not you will never keep grout between the tiles and potentially won't even be able to keep the tiles on at all. Not sounding like a great idea as you disclose more information like "it's actually a covered porch" that someone enclosed.
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Oct 16, 2022 14:13
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H110Hawk posted:Good news, we got rid of VOCs in paint! Now let me Febreeze this room... What’s really obnoxious if you believe the pop story out of P&G we have the causality reversed. Originally febreeze formula led to zero odor. But people don’t think that’s “clean” so they added fragrance. I wish there was an industrial catalog where I could order this odor destroying solution by itself
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Oct 16, 2022 16:01
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Hed posted:What’s really obnoxious if you believe the pop story out of P&G we have the causality reversed. It's not odor destroying, it's odor encapsulating. Whatever was causing the stink is still there, it's just covered in Febreeze chemicals now.
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Oct 16, 2022 16:09
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I still think it would be cool to have
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Oct 16, 2022 16:15
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Motronic posted:1/4" is not something to be concerned with. All the thinset I can recall using says that much for leveling is fine. Ok cool. The main reason for the movement is part of the house lacking enough support which is why we're getting some foundation repairs done. Adding a beam, column, footer run parallel with one of our walls should address the majority of the continuing settling (according to the structural engineer). The house is a hundred years old and we've only been in it since January so yet to see the full degree to which the house is still moving. Also from what we can tell (old MLS photos) the porch had been carpeted since the 90s and we've only had the carpet off for a little over a month so very little data to work with regarding the porch and that riser. Foundation repair will definitely precede any tiling cause of weather and the relative importance of the projects. Now also because you have a good point about the cracking of the grout. I'm less concerned about the banister we will be tiling as the stucco was all in pretty good shape except where the PO nailed on a wooden frame to hang the vinyl siding.
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Oct 16, 2022 17:02
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tangy yet delightful posted:I'm pretty sure there's one canadian goon that just got one put into their house/shed, in a thread somewhere in HCH/DIY. Oh, I knew he put a pool in, but I thought it was just a chillaxing kind of pool. Looking at it again, though, I think you're right. There's certainly an awful lot of apertures in the side walls, anyway. Also, calling that place a "house/shed" is pretty drat funny 
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Oct 16, 2022 18:47
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Queen Victorian posted:As a migraine haver with scent-based triggers, I agree. I have a sensitive nose in general, so I can't remotely fathom how anyone actually likes these absurdly overpowering synthetic fragrances even if they don't cause headaches (looking at you, OxiClean (thank gently caress there's an unscented option)). This is me too. Scent-based migraine triggers are the prime cause of migraine days for me. Most natural perfumes in small amounts like flowers, natural incense, or natural oils don't trigger me, but synthetic scents in almost any amount result in an instantaneous headache. It's a struggle at times to try to find cleaning products that both work well and don't feel the need to 'smell' clean.
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Oct 17, 2022 16:56
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