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Sorry, I'm sick and my brain isn't working properly. For some reason I couldn't think of the word knob. I wasn't sure if I should post here or the plumbing thread. I just unscrewed it with my hand. I assume it shouldn't do that? Edit: Never mind, looks like I need a new valve stem. Off to the plumbing supply place. Wotan fucked around with this message at 19:35 on Oct 10, 2011 |
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Oct 10, 2011 17:03
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Just for shits and grins I took down the mirror hanging in my bathroom and discovered a hole for an in-wall medicine cabinet behind it that was never covered. Hooray. It's in the plaster above the tile, so that's a plus. Here's the thing: my walls are a full inch thick, due to the original plasterers using 1/2" drywall for the underlayment. What do I use to cover that hole? I can cut back the plaster a little around the edges to expose studs to drill into. I was thinking 2 sheets of 1/2" greenboard to match the existing wall surface?
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Oct 10, 2011 23:05
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PainterofCrap posted:As an insurance adjuster who seems to spend most of his time handling basement floods in South Philadelphia, I can offer these kid sinister posted:What do I use to cover that hole? 
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Oct 11, 2011 03:29
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Not sure if I should post here or the plumbing thread. Also, I do not know much plumbing jargon, so I hope my descriptions are coherent. I have a freestanding clawfoot bath with a rolled rim all the way around the tub. The normal option for these is a freestanding faucet, but my water pipes have been drilled through the wall (long, stupid story). I have Googled every term I can think of but can't figure out if there exists such a thing as a freestanding faucet that connects to wall pipes, rather than through the base of the faucet to floor pipes. Can anyone tell me if it does exist and what it's called (or where to find it)? If there is a reason what I'm describing can't work, would it be easier to redrill the holes for my water connections through the floor or to try and mount a standard deck-mount faucet on a curved rim? Hope that made some modicum of sense. I can post pictures if anyone wants but figured my query was too general for them to be much use.
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Oct 11, 2011 12:27
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A picture might help clarify things, but is there some reason you can't mount the faucet assembly on the wall on the long side of the tub?
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Oct 12, 2011 03:39
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PainterofCrap posted:A picture might help clarify things, but is there some reason you can't mount the faucet assembly on the wall on the long side of the tub? Yeah, a bit more detail here from me probably would have been good. The short of it is that while the pipes are through the wall, they're near the ground, about 10-15cm above the floor. In other words, far too low to mount the fixtures directly on the wall. The longer story is that there used to be a spa in the bathroom that we wanted to take out. The couple we bought the house off said it'd be easy to remove the spa (it was) and the pipes were wall mounted (they were) so it'd be easy to install our tub (it isn't). I probably should have asked them for a bit more detail or clarified what kind of tub/fixtures we were putting in, but I'm new to this home improvement stuff and I'm learning the inconvenient way that some knowledge can only be gained with experience.
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Oct 12, 2011 10:18
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So just get some 90 degree elbows and a free standing faucet?
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Oct 12, 2011 15:31
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kid sinister posted:So just get some 90 degree elbows and a free standing faucet? All the free standing faucets I've found connect directly through the base of the fixture on floor pipes. Can you give me some more info on the kind of get-up you're describing?
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Oct 13, 2011 08:22
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I'm building storage shelves for my mother this weekend and was planning on only using fairly cheap 2x2s and 1x8s in the pictured configuration, with ~12" between the shelves. It will be free standing, but I will use two L-brackets at the top to secure it to the wall to minimize tipping. Any safety concerns with using this kind of 2x2 frame to support the 1x8s if there will only be 10-15 lbs per shelf? If the floor on which the shelves will be sitting is linoleum, is there a smart way to cover the bottom 1x8 to it doesn't beat up the floor too much?
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Oct 13, 2011 20:49
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We are in a rancher 3-bedroom house that was built in the 60s but that was gutted and completely redone after a fire in 2005. All of our appliances, toilets, showers are brand new but apparently our plumbing is hosed (although we might be the reason). Our toilets started burping at us a couple of days ago with a large bubble just constantly coming from the hole. We also had to plunge the thing a few days ago. Last night, I was doing laundry - albeit a couple of really large blankets - and the thing went crazy and flooded the kitchen. My husband said the water was coming from the hose, not from overflowing. Lastly, my shower drain threw up something black last night while all this was going on. A friend of ours thinks it's the main line and that we are screwed and gonna have to get a plumber. The only thing other than toilet paper we put down the potty was Kleenex and flushable wipes...could that cause a massive backup? Is there anything we can do to fix this ourselves or no? Neither my husband nor I have any plumbing fix-it experience.
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Oct 13, 2011 21:30
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CharlieWhiskey posted:I'm building storage shelves for my mother this weekend and was planning on only using fairly cheap 2x2s and 1x8s in the pictured configuration, with ~12" between the shelves. Felt pads on the bottom 4 corners to protect your floor. You can get adhesive backed ones that just peel and stick. Or get your own felt and cut/glue it yourself i guess. Also, since your bookshelf has no backing, it might be a little weak to lateral forces/"shearing". If you find it a bit wobbly left and right you can run some wire diagonally between the four rear corners, strung up with eye hooks. Like the kind of wire for hanging picture frames.
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Oct 13, 2011 22:13
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jcschick posted:Our toilets started burping at us a couple of days ago with a large bubble just constantly coming from the hole. We also had to plunge the thing a few days ago. Last night, I was doing laundry - albeit a couple of really large blankets - and the thing went crazy and flooded the kitchen. My husband said the water was coming from the hose, not from overflowing. Lastly, my shower drain threw up something black last night while all this was going on.  Call a plumber with a scope to check out your lines to the street. Something seriously wrong may have happened like an old pipe collapsing or something equally awful. I hope it's not the case but urgh, those are some horrible symptoms. You can do more damage to your already wonky pipes if you start jamming snakes in there or dumping chemicals in. I think you'd be best served by calling in the pros on this one.
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Oct 14, 2011 00:47
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jcschick posted:We are in a rancher 3-bedroom house that was built in the 60s but that was gutted and completely redone after a fire in 2005. All of our appliances, toilets, showers are brand new but apparently our plumbing is hosed (although we might be the reason). Is your home on a slab, a crawlspace, or over a basement? Ja more nightmares from my South Philadelphia claims experience (daily!)...You have a partially or fully clogged main sewer line. It's backing up and coming out of the lowest point in your sewer circuit. If you're lucky, it's just, you know, crap. Once it's cleared you should be OK. And yes, the flushable wipes take a while to break down. You may find all kinds of interesting stuff in your lines. One time I was with the plumber I called out & he was running a sewer camera downstream to see where the clog or break was. Rounded an elbow...and were staring straight at a Barbie doll head, smiling back at us through the muck. Gave us both a hell of a start. The good news is that if the house was built in the 60s and does have cast-iron sewer line, it should be intact. I have stuff that was installed in 1930; my street service was installed in 1968 and is fine, and in the Phila rowhomes I inspect the lines tend to be from way from earlier than that (although they are pretty much shot after 80+ years). If, however, they used terra-cotta or orangeburg pipe, it's probably shot and you may have to replace it from your foundation wall out to the street connection  If you're REALLY lucky, you have a whole-house trap (a big, 4" cast-iron P-trap, in your basement (or crawlspace) that is finally trapped to the limit. It has an access plate on one side that can be a bitch to remove. Home Depot has a tool rental that'll rent out a power router. I would start at the cleanout, which should be somewhere between the front of your property and the street, in line with where your sewer lateral exits the front wall. You may have to poke & dig through turf to find it, but it should be near the surface. It maybe above the lawn with a dome on it. If you can't find it then you may have to pull the closest toilet to the exit of the sewer line. It sounds dramatic but is fairly simple unless you are unable to lift 45-lbs straight up for a moment. First, go to the hardware store and pay $4.00 for a wax ring seal. Next, get a lot of rags and old towels that maybe you don't want any more (they will wash up; just wash 'em by themselves) Shut off the supply to the tank, flush the toilet, and use either a wet-vac or old rags/towels to remove as much water as possible from the bowl & tank. Unscrew the supply line from the underside of the tank, unscrew the nuts on either side of the base at the floor, and lift it with two hands on the bowl as close to the tank as you can get. DO NOT lift it by the tank, or with one hand on the tank & the other on the bowl. It's easiest to just carefully put it in the tub; I put a couple pieces of cardboard in there first to protect the tub and the toilet flange from chipping, since there is a flange cast in the bottom center of the base which sticks out below the plane of the base that sits on your floor, so a removed toilet can't sit up straight by itself on it's base. Run your router. To reinstall the toilet, first clean all of the old wax off of the bottom of the toilet. The easiest way is to take a plastic trash bag and a plastic paint scraper. Put the bag over your hand, hold the scraper, and scrape off the wax, which is somewhat sticky. When you have it all, just pull the bag off your hands and everything will be self-contained. Wipe down the toilet flange with a rag - you want it as clean as possible and DRY. Put the new wax ring on the floor hole (it'll fit over the flange there) and carefully lower the toilet directly onto the bolts & hole. Sit on the toilet to crush the ring (I then stand on the bowl & rock it a bit), bolt it up, reconnect the supply, and away you go. Plumbers'll charge $250 for this and it won't take you an hour. If you're not lucky, the line collapsed somewhere, or is full of tree roots. You'll find out when they pull the router claw back and it has roots, or pieces of orangeburg or cast-iron with mud stuck to the business end. FINALLY*** If you have had some water damage as a result of this backup, your homeowner's insurance should cover the damage, More importabtly, even if the damage is less than your deductible, you should be able to talk them into bringing in a plumber on their dime to diagnose the problem. PainterofCrap fucked around with this message at 01:44 on Oct 14, 2011 |
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Oct 14, 2011 01:07
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Junius posted:All the free standing faucets I've found connect directly through the base of the fixture on floor pipes. Can you give me some more info on the kind of get-up you're describing? Buy a free standing fixture, have a plumber install some 90 degree elbows in the pipes that would come up from the floor so they can go into the wall. Problem solved. kid sinister fucked around with this message at 02:32 on Oct 14, 2011 |
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Oct 14, 2011 02:28
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Remedial reciprocating saw question: Are all reciprocating saw blades interchangeable with all reciprocating saws? I've only seen this kind of shank: and I'm having trouble believing that all manufacturers agreed on a standard without prompting. When should I expect a different kind of shank?
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Oct 14, 2011 06:59
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kid sinister posted:Buy a free standing fixture, have a plumber install some 90 degree elbows in the pipes that would come up from the floor so they can go into the wall. Problem solved. On my second read, your suggestion doesn't make sense to me, but that's due to my poor descriptions I think. I'll post a picture later if I can to try and better illustrate my problem. Junius fucked around with this message at 08:46 on Oct 14, 2011 |
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Oct 14, 2011 08:38
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CharlieWhiskey posted:I'm building storage shelves for my mother this weekend and was planning on only using fairly cheap 2x2s and 1x8s in the pictured configuration, with ~12" between the shelves. http://www.woodbin.com/calcs/sagulator.htm The design is flimsy for something that tall and wide and your span is right on the edge for .75" thick shelves. Might be okay if you secure it well to the wall but I would consider beefing it up a bit. It isn't that the 2x2s are too weak but that the structure is too spindly. Your weakest points will be where the sides attach to the base, any lateral force and that thing will just fall over or fall apart. Keep in mind your drawing is out of proportion and the width is going to be 1/2 the height.
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Oct 14, 2011 09:42
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So like an idiot I spilled a glass of water onto a surge protector strip, got a nice pop, and all the lights went out in the room. Checked the breaker box and nothing appeared tripped, cycled through all the breakers that aren't on a circuit with a major appliance (I think, labeling is unclear) and haven't gotten anywhere. At that point I decided not burning my house down was the better part of valor and I have turned to the internet.
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Oct 14, 2011 11:37
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Rent-A-Cop posted:So like an idiot I spilled a glass of water onto a surge protector strip, got a nice pop, and all the lights went out in the room. Checked the breaker box and nothing appeared tripped, cycled through all the breakers that aren't on a circuit with a major appliance (I think, labeling is unclear) and haven't gotten anywhere. At that point I decided not burning my house down was the better part of valor and I have turned to the internet.
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Oct 14, 2011 11:45
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grover posted:You may have tripped a GFCI feeding that power strip and the lights that you just haven't found yet (many will make a pop sound when they trip), or the surge could have broken a loose connection in a box somewhere. Look for the GFCI first; this circuit could be fed from someplace weird. Failing that, you would need to start opening up every connection box and outlet in the circuit to find the culprit. Do you have a voltmeter? Don't have a voltmeter but I don't have anything better to do today after Home Depot opens. So it's possible that I tripped a GFCI that's somewhere else in the house? There aren't any in that room or even on that circuit as far as I can tell, but like I said the labeling on the breakers isn't particularly helpful and I can't really start moving furniture around at 6 AM.
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Oct 14, 2011 11:49
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Rent-A-Cop posted:Don't have a voltmeter but I don't have anything better to do today after Home Depot opens. So it's possible that I tripped a GFCI that's somewhere else in the house? There aren't any in that room or even on that circuit as far as I can tell, but like I said the labeling on the breakers isn't particularly helpful and I can't really start moving furniture around at 6 AM.
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Oct 14, 2011 12:08
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wormil posted:http://www.woodbin.com/calcs/sagulator.htm Thank you for the link. After mulling it over, I came to the same conclusion, which was reinforced by the fact that the most convenient wood supply near me only offered kiln-dried furring 2x2s that are more warped and cracked than FYAD. I will likely be upgrading to 2x3s or 2x4s and adding some backing of some sort to subdue lateral forces.
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Oct 14, 2011 14:17
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grover posted:An ordinary glass of water isn't conductive enough to cause enough of a short circuit to trip a breaker under normal conditions, but can easily carry the few mA needed to trip a GFCI. The GFCI could be anywhere in the house; lazy electricians (or wanna-be electricians) feed the damnedest things fed from the damnedest places. I'd start with the ones you know about (kitchen, bathroom, garage, exterior, etc) and then start searching from there. At the risk of being obvious, it could be a GFCI or AFCI breaker, and even if it doesn't look tripped like a normal breaker does it might need to be reset.
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Oct 14, 2011 16:43
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CharlieWhiskey posted:Remedial reciprocating saw question: Are all reciprocating saw blades interchangeable with all reciprocating saws? I've only seen this kind of shank:
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Oct 14, 2011 18:47
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Rent-A-Cop posted:So like an idiot I spilled a glass of water onto a surge protector strip, got a nice pop, and all the lights went out in the room. Checked the breaker box and nothing appeared tripped, cycled through all the breakers that aren't on a circuit with a major appliance (I think, labeling is unclear) and haven't gotten anywhere. At that point I decided not burning my house down was the better part of valor and I have turned to the internet. Were the switches on any breakers loose? It's possible that you may have a bad breaker. Phanatic's right too, some breakers may not necessarily look like they tripped, but actually have. The way to combat that is to manually flip any suspect breakers off and on again. dwoloz posted:As far as I'm aware they all use the same Milwaukee shank Craftsmans use that same shank too.
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Oct 14, 2011 21:43
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CharlieWhiskey posted:Thank you for the link. After mulling it over, I came to the same conclusion, which was reinforced by the fact that the most convenient wood supply near me only offered kiln-dried furring 2x2s that are more warped and cracked than FYAD. I will likely be upgrading to 2x3s or 2x4s and adding some backing of some sort to subdue lateral forces. http://woodgears.ca/shelves/garage.html http://woodgears.ca/storage/shelf_plans/index.html http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_UJDh4nUTMF8/S6oXKUPQ_DI/AAAAAAAAAwI/Gh13rYTTuK8/s1600/20.jpg Adding a strip to the front of the shelves will eliminate any sag over that span. 
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Oct 15, 2011 08:20
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Thanks for the help with my electrical stupidity folks. I did end up calling an electrician after I couldn't figure things out with some poking and a voltmeter. It turns out that I tripped the AFCI on a breaker I didn't know I had. Thankfully the electrician I had out was a good egg and didn't charge me nearly what having him spend two hours in my attic should have cost. I have no idea why anyone ever thought wiring 2 bedrooms to a different panel outside was a better idea than just putting them on the panel in the garage.
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Oct 15, 2011 15:26
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My property slopes upward going back from the street, rising about six feet or so fairly rapidly. The end result is a sort of terrace, where the front yard and house itself are on the lower level and most of the back is on the upper level. When my garage was built many years ago, they dug out part of the slope and put in a retaining wall, which makes up the bottom 3-4' of the garage's back wall. This wall is not in good shape at all. A lot of the mortar has cracked and the weight of the hillside is gradually pushing it inwards. Additionally, when we get a lot of rain, water will seep in through the wall. That back wall really should be completely replaced, but I'm not sure how we could do it without completely rebuilding the whole structure. We also plan to move in the next year or so, so I'm happy to let the next owners inherit the problem. I would like to try to do something about the water, though. Would a french drain be a good solution for this? I'll try to take some pictures later today, because I feel like I'm not being very clear.
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Oct 15, 2011 20:05
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stubblyhead posted:Would a french drain be a good solution for this? I'll try to take some pictures later today, because I feel like I'm not being very clear. A french drain would probably not be the right solution. French drains work by having water take the path of least resistance for slow drainage, while it sounds like that would be through your cracked garage wall. Take some pictures which show the lay of the land and how the grade meets the house. If you're not looking at rebuilding the structure, the best thing might be to try to divert water from going toward the garage. Regrade the yard, parge the garage wall and sell it. dinozaur fucked around with this message at 06:31 on Oct 16, 2011 |
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Oct 16, 2011 06:28
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Today, I learned about parging. Thanks!
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Oct 16, 2011 15:00
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I removed some walls in my house, and now I need to make a straight cut through parts of whats left to have a straight edge for sheet-rocking over. Basically I'm making a ~16' long horizontal cut through the wall that used to between my living room and kitchen/dining room. I've already rough cut out the opening, now I'm just cutting whats left hanging from the ceiling and finishing it, so basically it will look like a header across the two rooms. The problem I'm having is, using a sawzall, by the time the blade is hitting the other side of the wall its oscillating, and giving me an uneven cut. I'm trying to do it with a jigsaw from both sides, but even that isn't coming out right. I used a tube and water to transfer the level. The only solution I can think of is some kind of hand held band saw to get a perfect cut through the framing and sheetrock thats left. TL:DR : How do I make this cut even on both sides of the wall? 
ease fucked around with this message at 18:26 on Oct 16, 2011 |
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Oct 16, 2011 18:11
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ease posted:The only solution I can think of is some kind of hand held band saw to get a perfect cut through the framing I hope for your sake that wasn't a load bearing wall. Did you check first? If that ISN'T the case, just rip out that top plate board with a crowbar or something. You will never get a perfect cut, so don't try for it. At best you should score through the drywall with a utility knife first, then hulk out and rip it down. Is that 2 different ceiling heights? Your picture sucks and I can't tell. Try a 45 degree shot to the side.
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Oct 16, 2011 19:00
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I was hooking an antenna up from the roof to 6 HD TVs. The TV's are fed through a 6-way unpowered splitter. Since the splitter is in the attic I have one coax cable coming down the wall that I can hook whatever I want up to to get it to the splitter. I was coupling the coax from the antenna to the coax going to the splitter and got shocked hardcore. Like, tingle going up your arm and hair standing up shocked. I dont know if I've ever thrown something that fast. What the heck is wrong with my setup? simplified mspaint diagram: 
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Oct 16, 2011 19:07
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dinozaur posted:A french drain would probably not be the right solution. French drains work by having water take the path of least resistance for slow drainage, while it sounds like that would be through your cracked garage wall. Take some pictures which show the lay of the land and how the grade meets the house. If you're not looking at rebuilding the structure, the best thing might be to try to divert water from going toward the garage. Regrade the yard, parge the garage wall and sell it. Here's a view from the back of the garage:  You can just see the top of the cinder block wall. Straight ahead is the neighbor's garage.  This is a view from the bottom of the wall; the fence above is the same short section of fence from the first pic. My thinking was that rainwater is coming down that slope, and contributing to the amount of water that accumulates in my garage. If I had a french drain running parallel to the garage wall, would it not intercept some of that water and allow it to flow out of the way?
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Oct 16, 2011 19:39
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Maniaman posted:I was coupling the coax from the antenna to the coax going to the splitter and got shocked hardcore. Like, tingle going up your arm and hair standing up shocked. I dont know if I've ever thrown something that fast. Pfft, hardcore is when you can't throw it.
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Oct 16, 2011 19:54
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kid sinister posted:I hope for your sake that wasn't a load bearing wall. Did you check first? It was a load bearing wall. I converted the rafters and joists trusses in the attack to hang the ceiling. The truss design was approved by an actual structural engineer so no, I'm not an idiot in this regard. Ceiling heights are the same on both sides, but I don't trust them to be level enough to measure off of to make a saw blade meet on both sides. Ripping out the door header would be fine, but I'm trying to get what's left of that, and the studs to be all at one elevation. I guess I'm being a bit anal, and maybe I should just use shims to frame in the open studs. ease fucked around with this message at 20:34 on Oct 16, 2011 |
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Oct 16, 2011 20:29
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I have a record player, which I believe is one of these (A Crosley Traveler Turntable), which has recently stopped working. Specifically, the turntable no longer turns when I pull the needle arm to the right like I'm supposed to. I unscrewed the top and took a look inside, and nothing seemed to be visibly broken, except that one of the wires connecting the turntable to the base of the needle arm broke somehow (there's a red, a white, and a black wire, and a piece just sort of snapped off of the black wire). I can take pictures of the inside of this thing if people need it to further diagnose the problem.
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Oct 18, 2011 15:28
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Non Krampus Mentis posted:I have a record player, which I believe is one of these (A Crosley Traveler Turntable), which has recently stopped working. Specifically, the turntable no longer turns when I pull the needle arm to the right like I'm supposed to. You may want to try the electronics thread. From a quick look at the manual, it looks like the platter motor is activated by moving the tone arm over from the rest position. That broken wire could be the switch for that. Solder it back together and give it a shot. Check with a continuity tester on a multimeter to see if it's a switch first if you want.
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Oct 18, 2011 17:21
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Non Krampus Mentis posted:I have a thing with a broken wire Try fixing the wire.
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Oct 18, 2011 17:25
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Probably the wire but Ive also had turntables that the switch went bad (the switch gets pushed on when you move the arm into position and starts the motor)
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Oct 18, 2011 20:10
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