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I'm moving in a few months into a place where the walls are about 90% brick on the inside, and I'm gonna need to hang stuff of varying sizes and weights. I'm renting and will eventually have to leave the place in good shape - so how do I go about securing my various racks, picture frames, and bookshelves to a brick wall without leaving giant holes all over the place when I'm gone?
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Feb 14, 2008 22:39
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What's some good software for planning a room? re-aranging furniture etc?
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Feb 14, 2008 23:19
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jackpot posted:I'm moving in a few months into a place where the walls are about 90% brick on the inside, and I'm gonna need to hang stuff of varying sizes and weights. I'm renting and will eventually have to leave the place in good shape - so how do I go about securing my various racks, picture frames, and bookshelves to a brick wall without leaving giant holes all over the place when I'm gone? Is the brick wall plastered over or is it exposed brick? If the brick is plasterded/painted/wallpapered you can just use wallplugs and screws and fill in the holes with hole-filler (do a quick paint job afterwards if you really like to leave stuff spic-and-span). My local DIY shop even sells hole-filler in brick-red, but over here every older building is made of brick, so there's quite a market for the stuff  .
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Feb 14, 2008 23:34
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jackpot posted:I'm moving in a few months into a place where the walls are about 90% brick on the inside, and I'm gonna need to hang stuff of varying sizes and weights. I'm renting and will eventually have to leave the place in good shape - so how do I go about securing my various racks, picture frames, and bookshelves to a brick wall without leaving giant holes all over the place when I'm gone? With these: http://solutions.3m.com/wps/portal/3M/en_US/Command/home/
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Feb 15, 2008 00:16
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Optimus_Rhyme posted:What's some good software for planning a room? re-aranging furniture etc? A quick check on Google found this: http://www.cfg.gov.uk/service/room%20planning/cfg_service_free_software.html You can also do it pretty easily with some paper. Just cut out shapes representing the outline of your furniture, and draw the outline of your room on a larger sheet of poster paper. Make sure everything is to scale, and don't forget things like entrances, windows, and power outlets. It's archaic and time consuming, but it's probably my favorite way of doing it.
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Feb 15, 2008 00:22
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I have some flooring questions. My girlfriend and I are replacing the flooring in a basement. There is carpet down there right now, and under the carpet is padding and tackboard around the edges, and under that is concrete. We just noticed as we were painting that in one corner of the room the carpet is wet. We just had a really heavy rain. I don't think it leaks normally. At the moment, we're not sure exactly where the water is coming in; we'll have to lift up the carpet and padding and check it out. I've seen multiple people mention in this thread that concrete seeps moisture; is this something that could be caused by this property of concrete, or is it definitely a leak of some kind? It wasn't just a small spot; it covered a couple of square feet, but there wasn't standing water anywhere so it wasn't a total flood. In addition, we're looking to replace the carpet and we're thinking of going with laminate floors instead of new carpet, since we found decent laminate floors at the same price/cheaper than decent carpet. What kind of preparations do we have to take in installing this over concrete? Should we put something else down first? One of the laminate floors we looked at had a rubber backing to it. Would the procedure change for that type of flooring? How difficult is it to put this stuff in? It just snaps together; it looks really easy but we've never done it. Any help is appreciated. Thanks!
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Feb 17, 2008 07:16
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DevCore posted:I recently found my dad's old Mont Blanc fountain tip pen. It's one of those thin ones and is very sleek and sharp looking, but I'm guessing it's around 20 years old. I was given an old Parker fountain pen in high school from my grandfather. A teacher of mine who collects pens was fascinated with it and helped me restore it. All he did was clean out the old ink using warm water. My pen had a plunger type thingie that sucks the ink up, so he just used warm water and flushed it out until it was running clear. As far as ink goes though, that teacher told me Parker ink was the best thing, it's what he used in all his pens. http://www.parkerpen.com/en/discovery/inks/quink Hope it helps Now for my question: is there any way to increase the water temp on a dishwasher only? I know where to increase water temp at the water heater, but it doesn't need it. I would just like hotter water at the dishwasher only. Briantist- there is a flooring thread here, but you will need to put a plastic barrier under the laminate if you aren't going to use laminate that already has it on there. The plastic comes in rolls and you just cut it to fit.
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Feb 17, 2008 20:32
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I have a cartridge pen, so I ended up finding a dental syringe with a rubber cone adapter that fit the pens threading perfectly. I flushed it out with warm water and then used the syringe with a 1 part ammonium 2 part water solution and that pulled out all the caked ink residue. Just be careful when you use the ammonia, some pens use different materials that can corrode. Though I really like Parkers black blue ink, it's just I can't use well ink. If they had it in cartridges I would totally get it, my current blue ink is very bland if not silly.
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Feb 17, 2008 20:58
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Janelle posted:Briantist- there is a flooring thread here, but you will need to put a plastic barrier under the laminate if you aren't going to use laminate that already has it on there. The plastic comes in rolls and you just cut it to fit. I had another minor question; electrical this time. I wanted to keep the cable modem/router/small switch up in the drop ceiling so that they're out of the way, and to make routing network cable behind the walls easier. The only problem is that I have no where to plug them in. Is it a terrible idea to put an outlet up inside the drop ceiling?
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Feb 18, 2008 02:43
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i just clogged the gently caress out of my kitchen drain, i think by pouring hamburger fat down it my theory is that the tallows in the fat solidified in the drain, forming a solid blockage of beef lard (this is just my guess) this is weird because i've poured plenty of beef fat down the drain in the past and never had any trouble going off my solidified lard theory, i boiled up a pot of water and poured it down the drain, hoping to melt the fat and get things moving again, but this is not working is this a job for liquid plumr? a real plumber? help me internet...what do i do
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Feb 18, 2008 07:51
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Briantist posted:Thanks. I saw a hardwood floor thread, but I didn't think the laminate would apply since it's not strictly hardwood. I did find out from Lowes and Home Depot that I would need the moisture barrier plastic, even if the laminate flooring has padding because the padding isn't for moisture. Regarding your electrical question, yes, you can put an outlet above a drop ceiling. As long as the ceiling tiles can be removed, the area above is considered exposed. To get power to it, you may be able to tap into a nearby light fixture, or another outlet with a few exceptions. You can not tap into any outlet in a bathroom or kitchen, nor can you use an outlet dedicated to a single appliance (washer, dryer, sump pump, water heater, furnace, etc.)
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Feb 18, 2008 14:35
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For electricians: In the back stairwell of my building, each landing has a light fixture with two bulbs, and each fixture has a motion sensor attached to it. The problem with this is that it means you have to walk out into a completely dark stairwell and then wave your arms until the lights turn on. I'd like to take these fixtures off the motion sensor and put them on a timer. There are five fixtures on a motion sensor, but also one more that is on all the time, so six fixtures, 12 bulbs. I have almost no electrical experience, is removing the sensors and adding a timer out of my league or could I do this myself? I have a feeling it's pretty simple fix, but maybe there's something I'm not thinking of. If this is something I can do myself, what are some tips to getting it done?
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Feb 18, 2008 19:05
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I've got an electric shower that drips. It's one of those ones with a button you press to turn it on, and I'm guessing there's some kind of solenoid affair inside that turns the water on and off, but the washer is going. Is this something I can fix myself? Or is it going to be one of those things that is impossible to get at, and I should get a plumber rather than electrocuting myself or breaking lots of tiny plastic bits while taking it apart?
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Feb 18, 2008 22:01
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mdf posted:I've got an electric shower that drips. It's one of those ones with a button you press to turn it on, and I'm guessing there's some kind of solenoid affair inside that turns the water on and off, but the washer is going. It could be a couple of things, the solenoid valve might need to be replaced, which is doable on most models, but some are more tricky than others. If it is a model with a dial for temperature control then sometimes the washer on the dial gets worn, which you can also replace yourself. Generally speaking, it's doable, but you might have to order the part from the manufacturers or a large plumbing-supply place, because most hardware stores only carry standard shower parts. It's hard to give better advice without knowing the model of the shower you have.
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Feb 19, 2008 04:53
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Secret Asian Man posted:i just clogged the gently caress out of my kitchen drain, i think by pouring hamburger fat down it Run hot water and plunger the poo poo out of it.
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Feb 19, 2008 04:53
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TLG James posted:Run hot water and plunger the poo poo out of it. And never pour liquefied grease/lard/fat/oil down your drain again, ever. You've gotten lucky the past times, but that poo poo sticks to the sides of the pipes and builds up over time.
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Feb 19, 2008 05:01
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Meltathon posted:For electricians: As far as I know, the sensor is merely a switch that uses infrared sensors instead of a mechanical switch. You should be able to put a timer in the same spot as the sensor and achieve the function that you desire.
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Feb 19, 2008 06:32
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MrChupon posted:Perhaps you guys can shed some light on this. I have a smoke detector in the house that randomly beeps maybe 5 times once a day or so. Do you know why that may be? There is no fire, and while I'm not positive if it has a Carbon Monoxide module, I have a separate Carbon Monoxide tester that reads zero on its digital display like 10 feet away from it. On this note, you may also want to strongly consider replacing the alarms if they're particularly old. One, they're cheap. Two, smoke alarms often do have a 'use by' date - the ones on my house were good for 10 years and the place was built in 1999. On top of that, I was also getting an obnoxious problem where a few of them were routinely destroying their backup battery - I would put a new one in and ~3 weeks later it would be dead with crap oozing out of it. Replacing them all was very easy - kill power to the circuit, remove the old alarm from its bracket and unplug it. Yank the wires out of the ceiling and remove the old pigtail from the house wires. Use wirenuts to connect the new pigtail - power, ground, and most newer homes should also have a common-alarm wire. If you do you may need to do some research if you're not replacing them all at once, I have no clue as to whether or not there is a standard for the signals on that wire. Loosen the screws holding the bracket about a turn or two and remove the bracket, install the new one, tighten the screws back down. Plug the new one in and put it on the bracket. I also made a point to get ones with a better battery door - one easily accessed from the front of the unit, not around the side.
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Feb 19, 2008 23:53
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Today I opened the water tank on my toilet (adjusting the amount of water per flush) and saw these odd globs on the three bolts that hold the tank down. I took one of them off (it appeared to be originating from the top of the bolt), and with some pressure it crumbled in my fingers. The larger of the three globs:  The inside of a glob:  These bolts are less than two years old, to give an idea on how quickly this grew. The grout in my shower is also tinged pink, so I am thinking hard water, which means that the fix would be a water softener, correct? Or am I completely off since this looks more like rust than the white deposits I see on Google images and need something else? City water from the Detroit water system, so the water should be coming from the lakes, and new copper plumbing in the house. If anything, I think this problem is recent since the bolts were nowhere near this bad when I changed them and I think they were a decade or two old.
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Feb 21, 2008 02:01
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I've got an oil furnace with a 250 gallon tank outside. I got a fill-up of 200 gallons on January 4, and just a few minutes ago my furnace hiccupped and shut itself off prematurely. I was able to get it going again, but I'm just wondering if there's any way possible that I'm scraping the bottom of the tank, meaning I somehow used 200 loving gallons of $3.20 oil in the past six weeks. I'm in a one floor apartment, about 800 square feet, and I keep the thermostat around 70 when I'm home, 65 when I'm not. And there was a one week stretch where I didn't use heat at all because it was really warm. I'm trying like hell to find some kind of heating oil estimate calculator, but I can't find anything; could anyone take a guess on how much oil I'm using? Edit: To answer the obvious question, I can't really tell how much oil is in the tank. It's an old rusted piece of poo poo and there's no meter or anything, just a hole in the top and a rock tied to a rope used as a dipstick. Not very trustworthy.
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Feb 21, 2008 02:07
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I have an issue with my bathtub. I looked through this topic and didn't see much regarding bathtubs so I suppose I'm the first to ask this, if not then I'm sorry. For the past six months to a year (I haven't really been paying attention) my bathtub has begun to build up this ridiculous and disgusting amount of hair in the pipes. I can't figure out how to get rid of it now. I've poured bleach, drain cleaner, and backing soda + vinegar into the pipe yet it's not doing any good. The only temporary fix is to slid this barbed plastic cord down into the drain and slowly pull out globs of hair, as well as use a grate and clean the hair off that after every show. I'm convinced there has to be some way to clean this out. It's getting disgusting to the point that I don't even want to take a shower in there. In fact, if I set a cloth or soap or anything on the floor of the tub while water is running it'll be covered and coated in hair when I pick it up. Is there any chemical I can use to clean this out or something that doesn't require me to purchase new pipes, go under the house to fix the pipes, etc?
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Feb 21, 2008 04:25
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Xanderg posted:Is there any chemical I can use to clean this out or something that doesn't require me to purchase new pipes, go under the house to fix the pipes, etc? Air plunge it. I tried chemicals, hell, I was about ready to rip apart the plumbing and scrape that crap out, but I used one of these (actually, the one I had was a 3 use disposable one), and it actually worked EXTREMELY well. One blast and the pipes were flowing free and clear. Actually, just try that first. Just make sure you plug up the overflow drain first.
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Feb 21, 2008 04:46
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jackpot posted:I've got an oil furnace with a 250 gallon tank outside. I got a fill-up of 200 gallons on January 4, and just a few minutes ago my furnace hiccupped and shut itself off prematurely. I was able to get it going again, but I'm just wondering if there's any way possible that I'm scraping the bottom of the tank, meaning I somehow used 200 loving gallons of $3.20 oil in the past six weeks. I'm in a one floor apartment, about 800 square feet, and I keep the thermostat around 70 when I'm home, 65 when I'm not. And there was a one week stretch where I didn't use heat at all because it was really warm. I dont keep up on oil heat too much because i rarely see it, but heres what I remember from class. The nozzle that sprays out the oil has a drip rating for how much oil it drips each hour. I wanna say that theyre typically around 1 gallon of oil an hour. So I'll let you do the math. Remember this is only around 1 gallon of oil per actually furnace running time. I dont know how long your furnace will cycle for on average until the call for heat is satisfied. Should be something you can figure out.
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Feb 21, 2008 05:05
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Fire Storm posted:Liquid Plummer maximum strength gel or foaming gel works good. Let it sit for a half hour, then lots of water. If THAT doesn't work... I'm not sure if the air plunger will work because of the way my drain is designed. http://fi.somethingawful.com/is/img139/4275/dsc00446ld1.jpg And I've used Liquid Plummer as well.
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Feb 21, 2008 19:48
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Xanderg posted:I'm not sure if the air plunger will work because of the way my drain is designed. You should still be able to remove the plug in the centre if you want to use an air plunger or a snake on it. Generally you have to twist then pull.
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Feb 22, 2008 03:18
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I shut off the water to my house to replace a supply valve to my sink. Now the water will not come back on, even though I have reopened the main valve. Is it possible that something in the main supply valve came apart and is blocking water to the house? Is there anything I can do here?
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Feb 22, 2008 05:43
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EVERYTHING I SAY ABOUT JAPAN OR LIVING IN JAPAN IS COMPLETELY WRONG, BUT YOU BETTER BELIEVE I'LL 
ABOUT IT.
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kapalama posted:I shut off the water to my house to replace a supply valve to my sink. Now the water will not come back on, even though I have reopened the main valve. Is it possible that something in the main supply valve came apart and is blocking water to the house? Does the main water valve just spin in your hands? I had that happen. The stem broke and let me tell you, that was fun. Is your problem your main valve (what happened to me), or just one of the branch valves? If it's a branch, turn off main and replace valve (use a ball valve. I love those things!). If it's your main that broke... oh boy, you are in for fun. Lucky for me, my uncle is a plumber. You have to turn your water off at the main (look at your lawn and you will find a small metal water department cover. You can try turning it somehow, but I don't recommend it. There is a specialized tool for the job (I think they sell them at Home Depot/Lowes). Now... you could do this part yourself, if you are really good at plumbing, but really, miss a little and you have to go outside to shut off the water.
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Feb 22, 2008 08:29
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Fire Storm posted:Does the main water valve just spin in your hands? I had that happen. The stem broke and let me tell you, that was fun. Is your problem your main valve (what happened to me), or just one of the branch valves? If it's a branch, turn off main and replace valve (use a ball valve. I love those things!). If it's your main that broke... oh boy, you are in for fun. After reading what you said, I went and checked and that is exactly what is happening: The main is just spinning. I turned it about twenty times and the knob does not move up and down and I never hit any kind of stop. (I really wish it had broken when in the open position though. I cannot flush the toilets.) EDIT: Well it turns out we have paid the additional fee for maintenance so the water company is coming out to shut off the curb box, and replace the main valve, for free. They said the main valve is over 30 years old, so no surprise it konked out. kapalama fucked around with this message at 13:26 on Feb 22, 2008 |
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Feb 22, 2008 10:12
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Is it just the knob that is spinning, or id the stem spinning also? If it is just the knob, you may be able to to take it off and grab the stem with some pliers to turn the water back on.
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Feb 22, 2008 13:26
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emanonii posted:Is it just the knob that is spinning, or id the stem spinning also? If it is just the knob, you may be able to to take it off and grab the stem with some pliers to turn the water back on. It's the stem itself.
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Feb 22, 2008 14:23
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I just moved into the top floor of a house that's has a hot water radiator heating system. Except the radiators on my floor are not heating anything. The landlady told me that this is because the house was empty for several years prior to my arrival and so my radiators are full of air and need to be bled daily to relieve the pressure so water can fill them up. The problem (aside from the whole "it's loving freezing" deal) is that when I turn the screw on the side of the radiators to bleed them only the tiniest amount of air comes out of one (if water replaces the amount of air that's coming out it can't be more then a teaspoon) and nothing comes out of the other. Should I just trust that this is doing something and it's just time consuming? Is there anything else I should be doing? Is this a job that a professional should be doing and I'm just going to end up scalding myself? If it helps the radiators on the second and first floor work and I can tell that hot water is coming up to the radiators on my floor because that pipe is warm, it just doesn't seem to be filling them.
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Feb 22, 2008 20:04
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Some radiators/pipes have shut off valves where the pipe connects to the radiator. Make sure yours are open all the way. And to bleed the radiator, you should keep the screw open until water starts coming out (make sure that the heat is running so water is being circulated). But she may be correct in that it may take a couple days to get all the air out, but you should start to see (feel) results pretty quickly.
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Feb 22, 2008 21:55
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Well, this isn't home-related, but something broke and it sure doesn't deserve its own thread... In a bleary-eyed haze I smacked my coffee pot against the sink a little too hard filling it up, and now it has a spiderweb fracture on the bottom about the size of a dime. Liquid doesn't exactly fall out of it (one drop coalesces on the bottom every 10 seconds or so) but I don't feel totally comfortable drinking liquids brewed in a partially broken glass container. Is there anything I can do to mend the fracture to make it totally watertight again, or do I have to get my rear end out to Wal-Mart and start pricing new coffee makers?
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Feb 23, 2008 19:25
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Willie Tomg posted:Is there anything I can do to mend the fracture to make it totally watertight again, or do I have to get my rear end out to Wal-Mart and start pricing new coffee makers?
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Feb 23, 2008 21:14
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Fire Storm posted:Well... superglue could work (but could give an odd taste and might leak again), as could a few other things, but given how cheap a new one is, just go get a new coffee pot. The carafe itself is less than $10. No need for a whole new coffee maker. Yeah, I could have sworn they sold just carafes, but I've never actually seen one. Hell, if it's under  then it's probably cheaper than a tube of superglue....although I could use that glue to fix my sandals... 
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Feb 23, 2008 23:19
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Fire Storm posted:Well... superglue could work (but could give an odd taste and might leak again), as could a few other things, but given how cheap a new one is, just go get a new coffee pot. The carafe itself is less than $10. No need for a whole new coffee maker. Thrift stores usually have orphanned coffee pots for cheap. Superglue is apparently not poisonous once it is dry, but you can bet that pot is going to shatter unless you get one of those windshield repair kits to suck the glue into all the cracks. kapalama fucked around with this message at 03:13 on Feb 25, 2008 |
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Feb 24, 2008 00:57
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Yeah, just get a new carafe. Walmart should carry them, if not try Sears, at worst (I had a Krups cappuccino maker carafe my clumsy rear end dropped) hit the manufacturer's website. My dumbass coworker at the gas station used to boil his bowl in the coffee pot to get all the resin out, and must have cracked 3 of them at least, but Wally world had the standard ones. Word to the wise: If your gas station is on the main drag from the State Trooper barracks, and you work the 2-6 shift, you probably shouldn't boil your paraphernalia out in the open between 5 and 6pm. Lucky for him the trooper just shook his head, laughed, paid for his gas and left.
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Feb 24, 2008 18:35
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Meltathon posted:For electricians: Adding a timer is not tricky. The first thing you need to do is figure out WHERE to put the thing. There are timers made that replace the light switch, so that's always an option. The sensors will probably have two wires going into them. If you remove the sensor, you should just be able to wire-nut the two wires together to have the lights always on. First thing to do is make sure all the lights are on the same circuit and identify that. Then turn the circuit off, remove all the sensors, install (and program) the timer, then turn the circuit back on.
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Feb 24, 2008 18:37
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Fire Storm posted:Well... superglue could work (but could give an odd taste and might leak again), as could a few other things, but given how cheap a new one is, just go get a new coffee pot. The carafe itself is less than $10. No need for a whole new coffee maker. Amazon.com also has replacement carafes. Just do a search for "replacement carafe" and see if something there would fit. As a rule I would suggest not heating tempered glass that's already cracked.
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Feb 24, 2008 21:39
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Willie Tomg posted:...although I could use that glue to fix my sandals... Goop is a better sandal repair tool. That or "Shoe Goo".
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Feb 25, 2008 03:14
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