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Makes sense, just don’t think supercritically about it.
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Jan 13, 2023 17:27
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DaveSauce posted:Peanut butter has a high percentage of fat/oil in it, like grease. 
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Jan 13, 2023 17:28
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Glad to hear it'll protect my Adam's
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Jan 13, 2023 18:09
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Anyone have an idea what this is and why it’s just hanging out? It’s been tucked away in the corner of a cabinet we are opening up. Going to get an electrician to look at it, but also wanted to see if I could get it identified beforehand.
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Jan 13, 2023 20:17
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It's the inside/wall mount portion of a telephone jack. If you clip wires/take it apart some other jack(s) in the house will stop working as it appears that one is in the middle of a run.
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Jan 13, 2023 20:23
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Thanks! That makes sense as there is a telephone jack on the other side.
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Jan 13, 2023 20:27
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we have an unfinished basement under about half or house. when it rains very hard - probably 5-10 times a year - we get some seepage from one of the exterior concrete walls. its never standing water, just dampness and moisture. is this very bad long term? the house is from 1913 and the exterior structure is about a foot thick concrete, stone and brick wall around the entire basement. the basement will never be finished and only exists to hold hot water heaters, furnaces, and a few storage racks. it's also sloped to a floor drain.
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Jan 14, 2023 22:34
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My basement windows definitely leak air and I’m curious the best way to fix it since the window is surrounded by concrete. There’s a huge gap in the red circled area. Between the dark grey and the shiny grey portion of the frame and window. Could I just spray foam that or is there a better way?
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Jan 14, 2023 23:21
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Upgrade posted:we have an unfinished basement under about half or house. when it rains very hard - probably 5-10 times a year - we get some seepage from one of the exterior concrete walls. its never standing water, just dampness and moisture. is this very bad long term? the house is from 1913 and the exterior structure is about a foot thick concrete, stone and brick wall around the entire basement. the basement will never be finished and only exists to hold hot water heaters, furnaces, and a few storage racks. it's also sloped to a floor drain. That sounds like a house form that era. You may be able to improve it by extending gutter drains away from the house/correcting any negative slop pointing towards the house. Some people even go all the way with perimeter drains, etc so they can finish their basement and are all surprised when it gets wrecked every few years anyway even after all that expense and all the sump pumps they put in. The design goals weren't "water tight" and they weren't built as such.
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Jan 14, 2023 23:28
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Motronic posted:That sounds like a house form that era. yea, thats what I figured, and for me that's not a bad thing. I don't think anyone is ever going to want a finished basement with a 6 and half foot ceiling and enormous brick pillars every five feet. I just don't want the house to collapse! I'm going to go on the roof tomorrow to see if the gutters are clogged (which would let more water down the side of the house), but the two downspouts actually go directly into the wastewater system, so there's really nothing to extend. directly next to the wall that's weeping is a sidewalk path... I guess I could see about sealing the seam between the sidewalk and the brick? is that a thing? probably a good clue to seepage to be expected is the sloped floor with the enormous drain in the middle.
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Jan 14, 2023 23:54
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We regularly lose power in the winter, when storms blow trees over. We want a whole-house generator, but got stalled on county regulations (the guy I left a message with didn't call back, and I need to go back to calling regularly.) My husband heard today from a friend that the friend's neighbors were using Tesla Powerwalls instead of generators: banking the power and then feeding it back into the house automatically when the power went out. Note that this is without having solar; the Powerwall is just being used as a battery. Some of my Googling suggests that this is a bad idea, because the Powerwall isn't great at generating clean A/C from stored D/C. Has anybody heard of commercial installers doing this? Does it make sense? We sometimes have outages lasting a couple of days. The goal is to keep the refrigerator and freezer cooled, the well pump running, and to be able to use the stove.
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Jan 14, 2023 23:56
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Upgrade posted:directly next to the wall that's weeping is a sidewalk path... I guess I could see about sealing the seam between the sidewalk and the brick? is that a thing? I wouldn't worry about that. Because yeah..... The best thing someone can do in a house of that era is get a nice inverter style dehumidifier with a pump. Set it up to run automatically and pump the water to a drain so you can just let it go. It makes the whole basement totally fine/livable/suitable for off-the-floor storage and keeps the rest of your house from getting humid/getting that funky basement mildew smell. Arsenic Lupin posted:Does it make sense? We sometimes have outages lasting a couple of days. The goal is to keep the refrigerator and freezer cooled, the well pump running, and to be able to use the stove. Then no, that doesn't make any sense. You could do those things much more cheaply with a 7500 watt portable generator (unless we're talking electric stove) and a simple manual transfer switch and generator inlet.
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Jan 14, 2023 23:58
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I should add that we keep a couple of camp stoves for disaster purposes, so if it's wildly optimistic to run a stove, we're still set up to cook.
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Jan 15, 2023 00:00
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nwin posted:My basement windows definitely leak air and I’m curious the best way to fix it since the window is surrounded by concrete. That’s exactly what low expansion spray foam is made for
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Jan 15, 2023 00:18
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Motronic posted:I wouldn't worry about that. Because yeah..... This is a very good and obvious idea and I literally already own a dehumidifier with a pump and a garden hose
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Jan 15, 2023 00:45
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Does anyone know if someone makes a wireless smoke alarm with a built in strobe light? Do they make wired to wireless smoke alarm adapters? Edit: or other visual indicator Jenkl fucked around with this message at 05:17 on Jan 15, 2023 |
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Jan 15, 2023 04:47
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Motronic posted:I wouldn't worry about that. Because yeah..... thank you BFC for suggesting the (in retrospect) obvious solution. 
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Jan 15, 2023 17:56
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StormDrain posted:You can also use a Kill-A-Watt meter to test individual plug in items if you are curious. OK as a fun game for me this kill a watt thing is pretty cool. I'm glad I didn't pay much because it's not really going to save me $20 over the lifespan of ownership or anything. It's interesting to know the toaster my wife insists on unplugging uses 0.8 watts to light up the counters, and the espresso machine she doesn't unplug uses 2 watts when it's off. Although I'm smart enough not to try to leverage this information, it will lead to me unplugging the coffee machine.
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Jan 15, 2023 18:16
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StormDrain posted:OK as a fun game for me this kill a watt thing is pretty cool. I'm glad I didn't pay much because it's not really going to save me $20 over the lifespan of ownership or anything. It's interesting to know the toaster my wife insists on unplugging uses 0.8 watts to light up the counters, and the espresso machine she doesn't unplug uses 2 watts when it's off. Although I'm smart enough not to try to leverage this information, it will lead to me unplugging the coffee machine. Speaking of which, is there a solid rule of thumb for how much of a fire hazard a small appliance is if left plugged in? I want to assume that space heaters aren't great to leave plugged in and off, but my wife insists on unplugging the stand mixer.
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Jan 15, 2023 18:24
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Cyrano4747 posted:Speaking of which, is there a solid rule of thumb for how much of a fire hazard a small appliance is if left plugged in? I want to assume that space heaters aren't great to leave plugged in and off, but my wife insists on unplugging the stand mixer. The rule of thumb is that they are absolutely no hazard at all when they are a properly maintained and listed device being used in an appropriate manner and not in jeopardy of say, falling off the counter. There is absolutely no reason to unplug a switched off appliance such as those. Especially appliances with a physical off switch that literally cuts power as opposed to computerized/membrane switch on/off that it always on/standby and therefore drawing power.
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Jan 15, 2023 18:28
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Motronic posted:Turn off the water, disconnect the hoses from the back of the washer. Now one at a time run each hose into a bucket for say 60 seconds. Does it fill up as much from the hot side as the cold side? If the volume and pressure is about equal now that you have those hoses off check the inlet screens on the washer where the hoses hook up. Make sure there isn't a bunch of gunk on them, especially the hot side in this case. The water pressure from the hot side seemed ample, but the cold side filled the bucket significantly faster - bout twice as fast. I cleaned out the filters which did have a good amount of gunk on them, but there was no notable difference. Maybe I just try twisting the release valve on the cold side so it isn't fully open to attempt to match the flow of the hot side?
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Jan 16, 2023 06:24
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vs Dinosaurs posted:The water pressure from the hot side seemed ample, but the cold side filled the bucket significantly faster - bout twice as fast. I cleaned out the filters which did have a good amount of gunk on them, but there was no notable difference. Maybe I just try twisting the release valve on the cold side so it isn't fully open to attempt to match the flow of the hot side? It may be worth trying to trace back the hot water line all the way to the heater, and seeing if there are any partially closed valves that are restricting flow. It could be as simple as a quarter turn ball valve that got bumped. Might also be a piece of -something- lodged in the hot water valve for the washer, but that seems unlikely.
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Jan 16, 2023 15:10
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vs Dinosaurs posted:The water pressure from the hot side seemed ample, but the cold side filled the bucket significantly faster - bout twice as fast. I cleaned out the filters which did have a good amount of gunk on them, but there was no notable difference. Maybe I just try twisting the release valve on the cold side so it isn't fully open to attempt to match the flow of the hot side? Not knowing how your machine "knows" how much to fill I couldn't say. It might work. But I was more looking for root causes. Is the hot water half the volume in all of your faucets? If so have you checked the hot water valve coming off of your water heater to make sure it's open all the way? If it's a tanked heater have you serviced it ever?
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Jan 16, 2023 15:13
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It could also just be that they ran a larger cold line, maybe 3/4”, when they ran the hot water line also, which would usually be 1/2” unless it was just a lateral off and continued on. This especially happens if there’s outlets downstream just would just use cold water, such as utility sinks, hose bibbs, etc.
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Jan 16, 2023 20:33
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Nessa posted:we’re going be only a few houses down from transmission lines. nwin posted:
Tiny Timbs posted:That’s exactly what low expansion spray foam is made for
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Jan 17, 2023 12:26
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My house came with a whole home vacuum setup…without the vacuum. Ive got a million pipes and hose connections throughout the house and I don’t think I’ll ever buy the vacuum/hose connections to make it work. Any thoughts on what I could do with the existing plastic piping that’s laid throughout the house? I was kinda thinking it would make it easier to snake ethernet cable around the house but that was just my first guess without putting much thought into it.
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Jan 17, 2023 13:48
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Any particular type of weatherstripping for exterior doors that the thread would recommend? In particular, I'd like to dampen sound as much as possible. Going to see what I can accomplish in the short term without full-on replacing the door (which I'm hoping to do a couple years down the line, when such a thing is hopefully merely Very Expensive instead of the current state of Outrageously Expensive).
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Jan 17, 2023 14:08
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nwin posted:My house came with a whole home vacuum setup…without the vacuum. Ive got a million pipes and hose connections throughout the house and I don’t think I’ll ever buy the vacuum/hose connections to make it work. Urinal tube in every room!
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Jan 17, 2023 16:23
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nwin posted:My basement windows definitely leak air and I’m curious the best way to fix it since the window is surrounded by concrete. Soooo…I went to spray some foam and noticed that the window is just hanging in there. It’s not put in place with anything. I can pull on the top of it and it angles down like this:  I can then pull up on it and the bottom also comes up:  Is that normal for basement windows? Figured I’d ask before I go throwing foam in between. Of the four basement windows I have, I can remove three of them. The other one won’t seem to budge. nwin fucked around with this message at 17:24 on Jan 17, 2023 |
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Jan 17, 2023 17:21
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lol
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Jan 17, 2023 17:22
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nwin posted:Soooo…I went to spray some foam and noticed that the window is just hanging in there. It’s not put in place with anything. I can pull on the top of it and it angles down like this: It's a window that designed to be opened/removed. If you don't want to do that then foam it. If you want to retain that functionality you need to use something else like weather stripping to seal it in its opening when installed and still allow it to be removable.
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Jan 17, 2023 17:25
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Motronic posted:It's a window that designed to be opened/removed. If you don't want to do that then foam it. If you want to retain that functionality you need to use something else like weather stripping to seal it in its opening when installed and still allow it to be removable. What reasons would there be to remove the window?
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Jan 17, 2023 17:26
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nwin posted:What reasons would there be to remove the window? The obvious case is that it gives you an exit path in case of fire, which may be required by building code.
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Jan 17, 2023 17:32
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Cleaning and venting come to mind.
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Jan 17, 2023 17:33
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Cassius Belli posted:The obvious case is that it gives you an exit path in case of fire, which may be required by building code. Makes sense but I think the height/size of the window would be too small. It’s also an unfinished basement with a bilco door leading to an open yard. We have loooooong term plans to finish the basement, but I doubt for a sleeping area. Connecticut state code seems like it wouldn’t require these windows as a point of egress. Arsenic Lupin posted:Cleaning and venting come to mind. Agreed on cleaning to a point, but for venting the windows are sliders with screens on them.
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Jan 17, 2023 17:38
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nwin posted:What reasons would there be to remove the window? I mean it's kind of valid but reading that made me have a good chuckle. Like it's a window, maybe you never need to, maybe you do, base it on what you do in your basement. All of my windows open in my basement, in the past I have used that to air it out after using chemicals or spray paint, to fish a hose through to my basement, rare use cases but I had to order custom casement windows so why not. Consider too if you foam it and realize that was a big mistake, it's a $5 mistake that can be undone (as long as you protect the surfaces and know it's all completely removable). It's not like you're cementing it in. What might be your bigger concern is if that's some old rear end basic single pane window and you stop those air gaps you still might be getting a more than desired amount of cold coming off of the glass. Edit: Oh just saw the whole it's still a slider thing. Yeah spray it in with no remorse.
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Jan 17, 2023 18:52
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Alright, Bosch dishwashers are almost eerily quiet. Not inaudible, but soft enough that I had to pause the YouTube video I had playing while I was cleaning the kitchen to check if the thing was even running.
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Jan 17, 2023 19:17
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I heard a weird beeping noise coming from my phone while making a sandwich earlier. Turns out someone enabled the "cycle done" beeper on the bosch dishwasher. Probably my toddler. Apparently my wife put in a load before going to work this morning  I've heard pipe noise (we live in a much older house) of water flowing into the unit but I've never actually heard the unit itself make noise
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Jan 17, 2023 19:40
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Democratic Pirate posted:Alright, Bosch dishwashers are almost eerily quiet. Not inaudible, but soft enough that I had to pause the YouTube video I had playing while I was cleaning the kitchen to check if the thing was even running. You're starting to convince me. You can hear my old whirlpool from outside and down the block at the mailbox.
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Jan 17, 2023 19:53
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The drain gurgling is the only noise my dishwasher makes. Modern dishwashers are magical.
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Jan 17, 2023 20:08
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