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BonerGhost posted:If your clothes are too delicate for a tumble dry on very low/no heat, they're too delicate to hang, too, and need to be dried flat or dry-cleaned. Knits generally shouldn't be hung at all, wet or dry, but for clothes that don't last as long (like tee shirts) it's less of an issue; if all the necks are stretched out and you don't have an insanely abnormally large head, hanging is the reason. You will still stretch out woven dress shirts hanging them straight out of the washer, but maybe you don't own them long enough for it to be a problem. while knits (especially wool knits) should be laid flat to dry, for other clothing you can buy wider should hangers to prevent them from stretching out
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Dec 28, 2022 02:56
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KS posted:Man, I hope you didn’t get scammed but it feels like you got scammed. The guts of those valves come in a $20 replacement kit. The price was probably a little high, but I was ok with it The entire thing needed to be replaced as the casing ruptured. They put in a new Febco 850 1” double check valve unit. The guy was here almost 2 hours or so and had to dig up the box, cut the old one out and all that. His boss needs to come out and certify it as well and that’s included (usually 100 bucks). The water utility here requires all homeowners with sprinklers to get the back flow devices certified every year or they could cut your service off. It’s the original company that installed the system for me, and it’s a well established local company that does good work. I know if I have any problems they’ll stand behind their work. I figure the valve was 200-250 bucks maybe a little more. 2 hours of a licensed guys labor, miscellaneous materials needed to replace the valve, and then the annual certification, I don’t think the price was too out of line. I’m ok paying a little extra to keep my money local with them.
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Dec 28, 2022 02:58
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I've got a boiler/radiators so can't plug anything into the non-existent forced air system. "Someday" I'll get a whole house humidifier that works without forced air, but for now I just need a larger stand alone humidifier.
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Dec 28, 2022 03:01
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skipdogg posted:The price was probably a little high, but I was ok with it Plumbing is a racket but it sounds like you got off ok given the amount of labor they did. A corporate plumbing company once quoted me $600 to replace a $20 screw-on pressure relief valve on a boiler and the tech broke kayfabe long enough to tell me I shouldn't pay them to do that. I also recently got quoted $1300 for 20 minutes of labor to install a well pressure tank. Tiny Timbs fucked around with this message at 03:05 on Dec 28, 2022 |
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Dec 28, 2022 03:03
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Oh I’ve been taken for a ride before. I paid 185 in labor to replace the capacitor on an hvac unit under parts warranty. I ordered replacement contactors and capacitors that night for my units.
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Dec 28, 2022 03:07
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FISHMANPET posted:I've got a boiler/radiators so can't plug anything into the non-existent forced air system. "Someday" I'll get a whole house humidifier that works without forced air, but for now I just need a larger stand alone humidifier. They make a fan kit for the aprilaire for this purpose. You install it like an air vent separate from the canister. Humidity will equalize throughout a floor of a house. You still need a water supply, a drain, and a circuit. I’m thinking about installing one in my laundry room since that has all 3 and putting the fan on the other side of the wall into the large kitchen/dining area. I have forced air but it’s in an unconditioned attic and that’s asking for a frozen supply line in my case. Every portable humidifier sucks and is a moldy mess unless you vinegar it out daily. There’s a this old house episode of both versions of the install. Infinotize fucked around with this message at 04:04 on Dec 28, 2022 |
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Dec 28, 2022 04:01
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StormDrain posted:What you're describing is racketeering.
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Dec 28, 2022 04:07
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Infinotize posted:They make a fan kit for the aprilaire for this purpose. https://www.supplyhouse.com/Aprilaire-865-Residential-Steam-Humidifier-w-Model-850-Fan-Pack 850 fan pack. This is the actual long term solution unless you're going to change your hvac around. I mean......go ahead and dick around with filling up humidifiers. I did that for years and it's close to useless. It is better than nothing, but it's real drat close to nothing.
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Dec 28, 2022 04:09
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I raised the humidity upstairs with two small units from 20 to 50% so it's far more than "nothing".
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Dec 28, 2022 04:18
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Any idea how many kwh of power these things draw - or more importantly how to estimate it? I see it draws either 11.5 or 16A but I'm not sure how many hours per day it runs - basically as many hours as I call for heat? Or does it turn the fan on on it's own sometimes as well? I wake up with a parched throat pretty often in the winter despite them being very mild here in general. Not even sure exactly how much this would help. I assume I would need to plot my indoor relative humidity with hygrometer first to know? Reading the install guide it looks like our water is "ideal" (500 conductance, 15 grains) for the unit. Our house is 1250 sq ft of probably "on the loose side of average" construction - insulated, good windows, but certainly old enough to feel air through the floors.
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Dec 28, 2022 04:27
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FISHMANPET posted:I raised the humidity upstairs with two small units from 20 to 50% so it's far more than "nothing". 20 to 50 is not a good benchmark of success. There are a lot more considerations. If you're happy with what you did that's great and I'm glad for you. Most people find that initial humidity spikes in the air are quickly dragged down by the rest of the house being so dry and mostly their air exchange quickly exchanging the air with very dry outside air that no reasonable amount of portable evaporative or sonic humidifiers can keep up with. Or they don't know the reasons and just know that "thsi doesn't work". That's great if it works for you. Congrats. It works for nobody I know in the northeast. It's a stopgap you do if that's all you can do of course, but it's not a solution. H110Hawk posted:Any idea how many kwh of power these things draw - or more importantly how to estimate it? I see it draws either 11.5 or 16A but I'm not sure how many hours per day it runs - basically as many hours as I call for heat? Or does it turn the fan on on it's own sometimes as well? I wake up with a parched throat pretty often in the winter despite them being very mild here in general. Not even sure exactly how much this would help. I assume I would need to plot my indoor relative humidity with hygrometer first to know? Depends on demand. It's "a shitload" because it's a steam machine.  The 11.5 vs 16 is simply a dip switch setting on the 800. Feed it what you can, it's gonna consume the same amount of energy over time to satisfy the set point. Less time at 16 amps 240 volt than 11.5 120 volt of course. But in the end....it's the same amount of energy unless you don't feed it enough to keep up with the set humidity. No free lunch and all. Motronic fucked around with this message at 04:40 on Dec 28, 2022 |
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Dec 28, 2022 04:35
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Motronic posted:Depends on demand. It's "a shitload" because it's a steam machine. Yeah, looks like what I was expecting. 16a @ 120v ~= 2kwh per hour of runtime (rounded up) so looks like you get 2-3 hours a day on your unit? Does it interface with my normal thermostat, furnace. or just detect air draw and start blasting?
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Dec 28, 2022 04:47
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H110Hawk posted:Does it interface with my normal thermostat, furnace. or just detect air draw and start blasting? You don't need to nor should you do that. The model 60 humidistat that it comes with properly installed in the return duct with connections to the outdoor thermometer that is included and 24v connections to your heater (common, call for heat, fan) are entirely sufficient to set a humidity level and walk away from it. It's literally made to do that. It will even drain it's steam canister if it doesn't get a call for humidity in x hours so you don't even need to bother with it seasonally. It's simply the best set and forget system I'm aware of and I've installed like half a dozen over the last decade. And just installed another one in my new house (that's where that graph is from). There is nothing inexpensive about these. Yes more humid air feels warmer so you can tell yourself you can turn the thermostat down or whatever. You can pretend it makes your hardwood floors last longer (it does make them squeak less) or whatever. But in the end it's a comfort thing. If you can afford it it's very much worth it. (it really is health thing for people who have issues with being all dried out, so maybe that can justify it? I don't care. I just want my piano to stop going out of tune and I want to wake up not feeling all dried out).
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Dec 28, 2022 04:55
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Shout color catchers are the bomb. Put one in each load, never sort into whites and colors again. Even if you prefer to sort, color catchers protect you from redepositing dirty and excess dye.
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Dec 28, 2022 05:01
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Motronic posted:You don't need to nor should you do that. This part is what I was after - how does it know to work. Wires to the furnace looks like the answer. Perfect. I'll talk to the hvac people about how many units of private college the owners kids are going to have covered if they sell me one. Trying to get a sense of actual operating costs so I know if I want to pay for it. Thanks
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Dec 28, 2022 05:02
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H110Hawk posted:This part is what I was after - how does it know to work. Wires to the furnace looks like the answer. It has a singe wire to the call for heat and actually is in the middle of the call for fan between your thermostat and the furnace that way it can turn the fan on to circulate even when there isn't a call for heat. Because it needs to heat up to steam so with something like an oil heater that is oversized it may never have enough time to run enough if it can only work when you have a heat call. But if it can control the fan it just does whatever the hell it needs to. This is the beauty of using the real deal humidistat with a proper install (including the outside temp sensor! which can be bypassed in the stat but don't do that). It's literally set and forget.
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Dec 28, 2022 05:10
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H110Hawk posted:My new neighbor dropped off a lb of See's candy unexpectedly because I told her about a gas leak on Friday morning (Dec 23). Gasco came by the same night and told her it was indeed a leak in the meter, safe for now, and today they came by to finalize the repair. When my kid did that I took him to the neighbor & made him apologize directly. She forgave him & gave him a big hug.
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Dec 28, 2022 06:01
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Sadly we opened it (and I don't think anyone ate a single piece) on christmas at the in-laws house because my kid threw a brick over the fence at the other neighbors house among other things and now I need to bring them something to say I'm sorry.
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For those who have struggled with being static shocked from laundry (or anything else in their life), I started doing this a while ago. I do it every single time I get laundry from the dryer or otherwise any time I feel I am statically charged and due for a shock. For the dryer part, while you grab clothes, if you keep one finger on any big metal screw in the door assembly or where the door closes against, the charge goes through you, there's never an air gap with a voltage difference and a shock. Chances are all the big screws should be grounded through the appliance and outlet. Whenever I feel charged otherwise, I'll grab a metal object like.... a scissors, or a nail clipper, grab it, then touch the other end of the object to any grounded metal piece in my place (faucets are everywhere). This DOES have an air gap but the spark goes from whatever ground to the metal object you're holding.  Am I wrong or what? I can't remember being shocked since I started doing this. And I hated it man. I don't use dryer sheets anymore either plus my fancy Samsung gas dryer (PO) has an anti-static steam thing. Inner Light fucked around with this message at 06:51 on Dec 28, 2022 |
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Dec 28, 2022 06:48
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I haven't lived in New England since 1992. I still reflexively hit the back of my hand against the car when getting out, to avoid the static shock. Brains, man.
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Dec 28, 2022 07:05
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A manager at an old job told me he likes to rap on metal with his knuckles. He didn't say this part but you have fewer nerves in your knuckles then you do in your fingertips so it's a lot nicer to get shocked there than on your fingers.
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Dec 28, 2022 08:17
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Motronic posted:I mean......go ahead and dick around with filling up humidifiers. I did that for years and it's close to useless. It is better than nothing, but it's real drat close to nothing. This is me right now. I've got a huge 4 gallon capacity humidifier on my first floor that does a good job keeping humidity at around 40%. Its loud as all hell, and I still end up filling it up 2-3 times a day during the winter. In bedrooms I've got little 1 gallon units that are much quieter, and again about the best I can do is 40% and thats with filling those once a day. Because my toddler has been waking up twice a night crying and I've been a walking zombie, I havent filled any units and my humidity is showing as 22%. They suck and are annoying to fill but are definitely better than nothing.
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Dec 28, 2022 14:58
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December was Lighting Month. One swagged pendant, one chandelier, a track light, and one five bulb fixture in, three boobie lights out. Holy poo poo it has made a tremendous improvement in livability just by having lighting over the sink and dishwasher. Plus the chandelier is enough whimsy to make this goon feel like a very pretty princess.
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Dec 28, 2022 20:25
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We discovered we have a minor sewer leak of some kind under one of our bathrooms, and I’m trying to do some exploratory work to figure out what exactly the issue is before throwing contractors/plumbers at it blindly. Pretty sure the issue started when someone plunged the toilet. Now, most of the house has a crawl space, except under this bathroom. It’s walled off by the concrete supports under the home. So, I need to access things from above through the flooring. Here’s the bathroom in question, where I’ve removed enough flooring to expose the decking (maybe wrong vernacular, I’m more of a car guy than a home guy).  Below shows where the support beams (again, probably wrong term) run under the decking in red, and in yellow is where I want to cut a hole in the decking so I can poke my head down there and just get eyes on things.  So here’s my question. I’d like to remove the decking in such a way that I can patch it up easily. What’s the right approach here?
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Dec 28, 2022 20:51
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Bobcats posted:December was Lighting Month. Excellent. I'm temporarily using the hall bath while I remodel the master bath. The first early morning showers were surprisingly dark, that bathroom only had a vanity light in it but the window usually provided enough light that I didn't realize how dark the shower was. Listen to this project creep decision making. I have to put a bath fan in the master bath. Drilling a hole in my roof is a pain. I may as well drill two while I'm up here and add the fan to the hall bath now. If I have to add a switch to the box I may as well add two canless lights and another switch. It was worth every penny and the added expense. I can shower in glorious light, and the mirror doesn't fog up anymore.
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Dec 28, 2022 20:57
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hattersmad posted:So here’s my question. I’d like to remove the decking in such a way that I can patch it up easily. What’s the right approach here? You should cut the piece of subfloor ("decking") to the middle of each floor joist ("support beams") so you'll have something to screw it back into when replacing it. If it's a 1.5" wide piece of lumber, cut to 3/4" in, etc. Sirotan fucked around with this message at 21:20 on Dec 28, 2022 |
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Dec 28, 2022 21:17
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That makes sense, and was what I was thinking. This isn’t my domain so I wanted to ask in case there was some other wild thing everyone does that I wouldn’t have thought of. Thanks!
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Dec 28, 2022 21:36
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A great way to do this is mark it clearly, and run a circular saw with the depth set to 3/4". It should be just deep enough to cut thru the wood without hitting the joist underneath, or skimming it. You will hit nails. Then cut the edges where the blade couldn't reach with an oscillating multi tool.
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Dec 28, 2022 21:38
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hattersmad posted:We discovered we have a minor sewer leak of some kind under one of our bathrooms, and I’m trying to do some exploratory work to figure out what exactly the issue is before throwing contractors/plumbers at it blindly. Pretty sure the issue started when someone plunged the toilet. Why are you doing all this? Pull the toilet. It's going to be real obvious that its leaking from there once you get it off. It started leaking when you plunged it because your closet bolts are loose or broken so the wax seal got unseated/broken. Have a flange repair kit and one of those nice fluidmaster silicone wax ring replacements (comes with new closet bolts) ready to go and hope you don't need the former. If and only if that's not the issue continue on with what you're doing to your floor.
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Dec 28, 2022 22:49
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So, I called a plumber initially who pulled up the toilet and replaced the wax seal and swore up and down he didn’t see anything wrong. The problem continued. This led me down the path of just trying to get eyes on the plumbing under the bathroom. Logic being, if a pro can’t see anything wrong from the top, then the repair will almost certainly involve getting access to what’s underneath, and I can pull up flooring as good as the next person (with questions to goons along the way). Might as well see if I can at least figure out what’s going on, and then decide who to call. Before going full hog ripping up the entire bathroom, I wanted to just cut a hole big enough for me to look around down there. Now, I haven’t pulled up the toilet. I’m by no means a toilet expert, but it doesn’t sound too difficult to give it a shot myself. I’ll have to go find a YouTube tutorial. Maybe I see something the plumber didn’t.  The other complete black hole to me is what a toilet flange is and how difficult it is to replace. So that’s another video I’ll have to go pull up. Definitely thanks for the replies. I wasn’t going to pull up the toilet, but now I’m thinking that’s probably worth doing, too. Maybe I’ll do that before cutting the hole in the subfloor.
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Dec 28, 2022 23:30
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Pulling a toilet is really easy. I'd argue it's by far the easiest "serious" bit of home poo poo you can do. I've replaced a toilet before and I'm a moron. The only trick with it was making sure you get the wax seal to seat properly, and the new plastic seals they've got make that a non-loving-issue. Don't gently caress with wax seals in TYOOL 2022, incidentally, the only reason to ever look at those is if you need bulk wax for something else (they're a cheap source of wax for all kind of weird hobbyist poo poo). Seriously, if you can manage to tighten a set of nuts tight enough so poo poo doesn't move around but not so tight you crack porcelain you're like 95% of the way there. edit: things you could gently caress up in order of severity: 1) tighten the nuts holding the toilet down hard enough you break it. Don't do this. Tighten them up tight, don't be a gorilla. 2) decide to use wax seals because your dad insisted on it or something and don't seat it right. Don't use wax seals. 3) Forget to turn the water off before unhooking the toilet. Lol go get a rag and clean up the half gallon of water you dumped before turning the water off. 4) I dunno, slosh the tank and spill water on the floor or something. Tip: Flush after you turn the water off to clear most of the water out of the tank and avoid this. It also makes the toilet lighter. Cyrano4747 fucked around with this message at 23:51 on Dec 28, 2022 |
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Dec 28, 2022 23:48
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I had removed plenty of toilets in my life and for some reason watched this video earlier in the year when I had a concern on my downstairs toilet. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYCYUIhZDCI All these years and nobody had ever reccomended clearing the bowl with a sponge. Also I wish the style of "expert teaching another person" demonstration was the norm, it's very easy to watch.
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Dec 29, 2022 00:09
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Motronic posted:https://www.supplyhouse.com/Aprilaire-865-Residential-Steam-Humidifier-w-Model-850-Fan-Pack it says for houses without duct work, is there one you'd recommend to hook into ducts?
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Dec 29, 2022 00:44
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Tunicate posted:it says for houses without duct work, is there one you'd recommend to hook into ducts? https://www.supplyhouse.com/Aprilaire-Steam-Humidifiers-22360000
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Dec 29, 2022 01:15
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StormDrain posted:All these years and nobody had ever reccomended clearing the bowl with a sponge. Cyrano4747 posted:4) I dunno, slosh the tank and spill water on the floor or something. Tip: Flush after you turn the water off to clear most of the water out of the tank and avoid this. It also makes the toilet lighter. https://www.homedepot.com/p/OATEY-Liquilock-6-oz-Toilet-Water-Solidifier-Gel-31419/202882917
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Dec 29, 2022 01:16
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This comes up when people talk about replacing toilets - it was astoundingly great when we did ours. https://www.homedepot.com/p/OATEY-Liquilock-6-oz-Toilet-Water-Solidifier-Gel-31419/202882917
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Dec 29, 2022 01:35
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hattersmad posted:We discovered we have a minor sewer leak of some kind under one of our bathrooms, and I’m trying to do some exploratory work to figure out what exactly the issue is before throwing contractors/plumbers at it blindly. Pretty sure the issue started when someone plunged the toilet. What makes you think you have a leak?
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Dec 29, 2022 03:04
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That was my first question. If you're smelling raw sewage after plunging the toilet, it's either the closet flange seal (wax ring) or you have a vent pipe that popped off If you are bound & determined to have a look under the floor, note that you already have an open edge along the right/toilet side of that archway. The only cuts you need to do are a parallel cut along the left side - find the line of nails & cut straight on them. I'd consider sticking a butterknife or similar down the gap there and verify that you have 3/4" thick subfloor, or something thinner, before you set your saw depth. Then cut across. The hole won't be very big, and it is unlikely that you will be able to see much of anything as you will have to get your head not only down the hole, but far enough down to see past the 2x8 framing, and even then you'll be looking for drips off of pipe because you can't see the toilet closet flange at your angle of approach. About the only way you'll see anything is by sticking a cellphone/video recorder down there and doing what I refer to as a 'pray & spray' panning shot. It's probably the toilet seal.
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Dec 29, 2022 04:00
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opengl posted:https://www.homedepot.com/p/OATEY-Liquilock-6-oz-Toilet-Water-Solidifier-Gel-31419/202882917 This is the poo poo you use if you’re throwing out that toilet. And it works great for that. But I’d never want to clean it out of a toilet I was putting back.
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Dec 29, 2022 04:06
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Cyrano4747 posted:This is the poo poo you use if you’re throwing out that toilet. And it works great for that. But I’d never want to clean it out of a toilet I was putting back. It dissolves in water when you flush again.
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Dec 29, 2022 04:10
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Burst pipe and general insurance question- A pipe feeding a hose bib burst in my garage but thanks to all the burst pipes in my area, a plumber can’t get to my house until Monday. Could I just open up my wall and do enough of a repair so I could turn our water back on? Or would insurance get mad that I did my own repair and deny my claim? We were out of town and drove up to water just pouring through the bottom of the garage door. The adjuster can’t get out until end of next week. Also due to my basement stairs sharing a wall with my garage, the water went down the stairs and got underneath our new carpet and LVP, so I’m guessing all that will need to be redone. This was all around 7pm tonight so we’re currently at a hotel, and I’ll work on drying everything out tomorrow.  edit: this same hose bib burst on the PO too
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Dec 29, 2022 04:21
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