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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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v1nce posted:I have a tv ariel attached to the side of my house with a standard coax cable running into our roof. Our signal reception of certain freeviews channels is pretty poor despite being in a good signal area, so I've been trying several different things to get these channels to work. Yeah, a dead short between the shield and the core would be a "bad thing" and would probably go a long way to explaining your poor signal 
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Feb 26, 2008 21:00
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Blowupologist posted:Personally I would talk to a real estate agent and ask for their opinion on what it would do to the value of the house. I mean, what's preventing you from calling it a 3BR house still? The only difference is the presence/absence of a closet. I would be very surprised if any of those walls were load bearing. Arguably the presence of a closet is exactly what differentiates a bedroom from a room / den / office. Our house, strictly speaking, is a 2+Den which I prefer since we have no need for a closet in our office. Question time: Any recommendations on circular saws? I was considering getting the Black and Decker 14.4V cordless so it uses the same batteries as my drill but it seems to be weak and quite frankly I'm not going to be using it all that often. I've got a project coming up that will involve me cutting a shitload of 2x4's and 2x6's into short chunks (building some planters and benches) but beyond that it will probably spend months at a time not being used. Any recommendations for a solid but still cheap circular saw? Doesn't need to be cordless, I can deal with a cord when I need to use it.
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Mar 26, 2008 00:21
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kapalama posted:Specifically a good cordless reversible drill with a clutch (Easiest to get a set of hex head drill bits too, but that may be spendy) Yes, I will second this. I've been on my own for a few years now and that was the first major power tool I purchased - in fact I still haven't had an absolute need to purchase any others for around-the-house work (I did pick up some air tools for my vehicles). I suppose it's me coming from years of working with my dad's collection of various power drills - a few corded ones that are older than me and a lovely cordless that doesn't work worth a drat. Any modern 14+ volt cordless has plenty of power for most jobs, battery / charger technology has come far enough to remove the worry of the packs dying in a few months, and a chuck that doesn't require a key is a godsend. The clutch helps a lot too when you're using it as a driver instead of a drill. I haven't really ever seen a need for quick-change drill bits, only quick change driver bits. I have two sets of drillbits, a basic Bosch set I received as a gift, and a large Harbor Freight set I bought myself. I suspect the Bosch set cost as much as the HF one but has literally 1/4 of the bits, if that, and the HF bits seem to work drat well (again, compared to the scores of dull ones rolling around my dad's toolchest). I can't tell the difference in actual use between one set and the other. Harbor Freight tools are usually poo poo, but there are times when the savings are considerable and the quality difference really isn't there. Like a hacksaw - a cheap hacksaw is a cheap hacksaw, so might as well get it even cheaper at Harbor Freight
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Apr 1, 2008 22:09
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Axlan posted:connector It's hard to tell but does that perhaps use the same pin size / spacing as an IDE or floppy drive connector? Those will obviously be far larger / more pins than you need but it could give you something to work off of. Asking my own question now: The closet door in my master bathroom (standard door, 24" wide - not a sliding or multi-fold door or anything) is bowed / warped, to the point where both the top and the bottom of the door impact the door stop in the frame, but the latch is a good bit short of actually hitting and closing. I've tried adjusting things a bit here and there but it seems to be too far out. Is there anything I can really do to this door to fix it, or am I going to have to go through the process of cutting a new door to fit and replacing the damned thing? IOwnCalculus fucked around with this message at 05:29 on Jun 9, 2008 |
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Jun 9, 2008 05:27
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Axlan posted:hmm, judging by this I was referring to this style: 
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Jun 9, 2008 05:42
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I'd probably try #2 first, and if that fails, then #3. You don't even need it big enough to walk through - a crawl space should suffice and will be a bit easier to patch up nicely.
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Jun 16, 2008 22:03
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A breaker that trips with any regularity is a sign of a problem, especially an A/C breaker since absolutely nothing is supposed to be on that circuit except for the A/C. Get your apartment's maintenance crew on it, that's why you pay rent and not a mortgage
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Jul 4, 2008 19:55
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Quick plumbing question: The shower in my master bathroom is one of those shower/tub things with the little stick on the tub faucet that you pull up to switch it over to a shower. I think that valve is wearing out / out of adjustment, because no matter how much you yank on it now you still get a spray at reasonably high pressure coming out of the tub faucet, even though the showerhead does have pretty good flow. How the hell do I go about adjusting this?
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Aug 25, 2008 16:25
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Haikeeba! posted:The second type is dead easy to get off - you basically just unscrew them, but a lot of the time they are sealed units inside, and you can't replace the washers, meaning you have to get a new one. BUT your mileage may vary. The best advice I can offer is to take off the fitting (making sure you remember to turn off the water beforehand) and have a butchers at the innards. If you can get the valve out, the parts generally aren't expensive or rare. It's definitely DIYable at any rate. It's the second type. I'm not afraid to dig into this kind of thing, it's just that I haven't dealt with any plumbing in roughly a decade so it's a bit foreign to me, and what little I have done has all been bathroom sinks where you can easily get at both sides of the issue, not showers. Thanks for the tip, hopefully I don't have to replace the whole drat thing because the set that's in there is plenty nice and I'd rather not have it mismatched too badly.
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Aug 26, 2008 22:22
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Chib posted:I'm sorry if this has been asked here a million times, I tried looking through some threads but nothing seemed relevant. I just went through this myself. As far as I can tell, most diverters are in the tub spout itself - so you just need to yank it off (it's probably threaded) and install a new one since the diverter parts cost nearly as much as the old spout you probably scarred up while removing anyway  Sounds like yours isn't opening or closing all the way, which is slightly odd. Mine just never closed all the way.
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Oct 7, 2008 23:46
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Mthrboard posted:If you do hard wire them, make sure you wire them into the same circuit as your master bedroom lighting. That way if the circuit blows you'll know right away. Bad advice - as far as I know it's code to have smoke detectors on their own circuit with nothing else. Sure would suck to have no smoke detectors because your hair dryer popped a breaker. That said, any good hardwired detector should beep repeatedly when it's been disconnected from mains power. Not an alarm beep, but about once a minute or so. jovial_cynic posted:Regarding 10-year batteries, I was told by my local insurance claims guy that while the batteries may work just fine (which is demonstrated by pushing the test button), the actual sensor that detects the smoke isn't really meant to last more than 7 years or so, requiring a full detector change. I've seen this documented a few places, it seems valid to me. I don't think it's the radiation source that wears out, I think the receiver gets desensitized? I ended up replacing all of the detectors in my house for a different reason, anyway - they were all just shy of 10 years old, but at least two of them were killing 9V batteries in about a month. I'd put in a new battery and a month later it would be swollen, leaking, and dead. It didn't help that all of them were yellow and nasty anyway. It's not an expensive or difficult job, and it is something that can very well make the difference between life and death in a horrible situation. I'm not about to cheap out on it. I will admit I am slightly annoyed at how the builders laid my house's smoke detectors out, though. There are five, but realistically there's only three locations. In the front of the house there's one in one bedroom...then in the office (which is technically also a bedroom) there is a detector right by the door, and another one just outside of the door in the hallway two feet away. Same deal with the master bedroom, there's one just inside and one just outside of the door.
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Feb 9, 2009 23:30
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jovial_cynic posted:Inside and outside the doors seem like a good idea, though, especially if people sleep in bedrooms with the doors closed. Having a hallway detector go off seems better than having to wait until the smoke enter my room to trigger the one in there. It seems like it would have been more effective to spread them out instead - and waiting for one to trigger is a non-issue since mine are all wired together. One goes off, they all go off.
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Feb 10, 2009 18:15
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babyeatingpsychopath posted:Unless you get dimmable CFLs, don't use them with dimmers; other than that, I can't think of a switch technology that is incompatible with CFLs. The problem is that most photosensing socket adapters essentially act as dimmers. I can't seem to find one that doesn't, which is annoying as hell because I'd love to switch my front light out for a CFL.
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Feb 16, 2009 16:58
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Mthrboard posted:Putting your smoke detectors on a dedicated circuit is a bad idea. Most, if not all, hard-wired detectors that have a battery back-up won't beep when the power goes out, they just revert to the battery until power is restored or the battery dies. The ones I have all start beeping in unison after the power has been cut for more than about 30 seconds.
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Mar 19, 2009 16:59
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Ugh. I was just working on putting up one of these in my garage and despite measuring repeatedly, I think I either managed to end up off-center on a joist or didn't drill my pilot hole deep enough, because when I was torquing down one of the lag bolts to hold the whole thing up, I heard the unmistakable sound of wood splintering. It's probably going to be a few days before I can find anyone willing to climb up into the crawl space (the garage is finished) to survey the damage. If I managed to end up completely off center or otherwise took a big chunk out of the ceiling joist there, how nasty of a repair am I looking at? Edit: I'll probably take out a piece of drywall tomorrow to see what I've done, since this is the garage after all and I don't care if there's an obvious patch anywhere. IOwnCalculus fucked around with this message at 00:14 on Nov 28, 2009 |
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Nov 27, 2009 23:25
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Double posting in the hopes of someone having an idea  Took out a section of drywall - yep, I hit the edge of the joist. My brand new Zircon studfinder was triggering "CENTER" at the edge. loving piece of poo poo. I'm going to have to take out at least one plug of drywall to see if I at least got the other joist proper or if I hit the edge of it too. Damage to that particular spot of joist is pretty minimal - I really did hit just the edge of it and drove in two 1/4" lag bolts about half of the depth, they look like 2x6 or 2x8 joists. It just split off a sliver of the wood that's still intact and bowed around the bolts. What's my best course of action - simply remove it and try again about 6" further towards the center of the garage? Do I need to repair the joist itself?
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Nov 28, 2009 18:37
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Yeah, 24" on-center - or at least, it should be! I made sure to keep the removed piece of drywall intact - I think I'll take some scrap wood and back it up with that so all I'll have to do is fill in the cut lines and drill holes. Thanks for the reassurance. I'll have to move the other two mounts as well but now that I know a few tricks to this process, it should be easier. Still going to take out a plug next to the other joist I'm using, just to be safe.
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Nov 28, 2009 19:56
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kid sinister posted:That's why you don't go with the first trigger. You mark the first detection of the stud from both sides, then use the center of those 2 marks. Yeah - the annoying thing is this one is supposed to be one that figures out the center for you. So much for that. Hell, it doesn't even reliably detect anything even at some points where I know there's a stud - I'm going to see if I can find the packaging and take it back to Home Depot tomorrow. One other thing that didn't help me - the two joists I'm working from? Yeah, 25" center-to-center.  Upright: Real hardwood, or laminate? If it's real hardwood, worst case you should be able to sand it and refinish it there. If it's laminate, and you've gone through the top layer, it's probably gone and the best you can do is make it less obvious.
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Nov 29, 2009 00:42
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benitocereno posted:I can't get search to search only the forums I want for some reason, even trying every possible combination of "+" and "-", but maybe I'm just broken or something. Neither here nor there, but I have much better luck manually typing "forumid:xx" as a search term, where xx is the number of the appropriate forum.
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Dec 16, 2009 01:02
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