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Renting a place built in the 60s. I had to use a knife to cut through all the layers of paint sealing the breaker panel: drat. No the photo isn't upside down, that is how it is installed. I kinda want to pull the cover to witness the wire routing  that surely is within.The whole place is filled with the usual 60s construction/design quirkiness but that's fine I find it a bit endearing. Except for the FEP panel stuffed to the gills.
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Jun 8, 2013 16:33
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Farside posted:You guys with the Stab-lok panels might want to see if yours are the ones that are prone to overheat and catch fire. You mean "all of them"? Seriously FEP just gave the middle finger to the whole concept of UL standards. I have read of failure-to-trip rates reaching 80%. I popped the cover off. I am going to put a fire extinguisher in that room I think.  Who wants to take bets on if all the 3 prong outlets in the house are actually grounded? Edit: also of note is that I found the smoke detectors all stuffed into a kitchen cabinet, and they are all 3 years past their useful lifetime. There are also a pair of mystery valves in the house. Shifty Pony fucked around with this message at 21:22 on Jun 8, 2013 |
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Jun 8, 2013 21:16
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kid sinister posted:What kind of valves? You tell me.  There is one in a closet and one behind the bar.
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Jun 9, 2013 03:42
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That can't be right, there are only two spots where the valves are and radiator heating systems are practically unheard of in central Texas houses of this age. Somehow the outlets are reading as being properly wired but I find that impossible to believe because there are only three ground wires visible in the panel. I suppose I need to yank an outlet to confirm what I am sure of: they just tied the common to ground. But to do that it wold be best to cut off the breaker yet everything i've read says not to "exercise" FEP breakers or their failure rate skyrockets.
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Jun 9, 2013 04:44
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My thinking is that it is a CO2 supply for the bar. Put the cylinder and regulator in the closet and have more room at the bar for delicious drink storage.
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Jun 9, 2013 12:51
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ShadowStalker posted:Now it's time for you to install your own tap! Put those valves to work! No, I need the dual gas lines on my regulator so I can serve different beer styles. Oh yeah it is worth mentioning that I already have a kegerator and homebrew. The bar will be functional. I just wish that for once I were wrong about the electrical:   At the very least the bathrooms and kitchen are going to be sporting some new GFCI outlets once my budget recovers from moving.
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Jun 9, 2013 17:27
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Splizwarf posted:Wait, you said it was a rental. Is it a rent-to-own or something? Or just considering basic safety part of your "Other" expenses category? I am not comfortable living in a place with non grounded non GFCI outlets next to water and where the breakers may not properly trip, even if I have to pay for and install the fixes myself. They are a snap to install anyway, the hardest part will be figuring out which way the daisy chained outlet connections run so I can install the GFCI in the proper location to protect the other outlets in the kitchen or bath, without overload. Mystery valves were natural gas, for anyone genuinely curious.
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Jun 10, 2013 02:44
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Sagebrush posted:Also, what is a natural gas line doing in a closet? Think maybe there was once a gas water heater in there or something? It really only raises further questions doesn't it? The water heater is on the opposite side of the house in the original utility closet. I don't know if they were run through the slab or through the attic. That brings up another peculiarity of the house: it has a slab foundation, yet was built at the same time (~1952, for some reason i keep thinking 1960s) as surrounding houses that have pier and beam construction. I'm guessing it was a one-off semi-custom job. At least I certainly hope there are no more houses like it! edit: also in the future (a few years perhaps) if I am cool with the neighbors I may make an offer on the place. The owner tried to sell it a year ago but went to renting it out instead. Shifty Pony fucked around with this message at 04:57 on Jun 10, 2013 |
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Jun 10, 2013 04:08
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I just want to double-check this... To ensure that the GFCIs that I install will function properly I am going to have to make sure that all of the jumpers from the ground pins to neutral are removed from downstream outlets, correct? My understanding is that 3-prong outlets with no grounding but protected by a GFCI are OK if labeled with "GFCI Protected - No Equipment Ground". I will just need to avoid the use of regular MOV-protected surge protectors as they won't function correctly without a ground line. This is going to be frustrating as hell because I can't key-out the circuits without turning the breakers off at the panel, which is a huge do-not-do on FPE stab-lok panels if you want them to actually work in an overcurrent situation. kastein... did you see the panel I posted?! Maybe you need more resolution because check out the number of red/black pairs in single-pole breakers.  I mean... oof. And the double-pole breakers are the really bad FPE breakers, which if one pole has an overcurrent it jams. So if they did something silly such as using dual poles to run two sets of outlets or if an appliance experiences a short between one pole and neutral...  Also I really need to find out where the hell that hot white in the middle right is going.
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Jun 12, 2013 18:19
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Oh my, just looking at that image: There was a red wire in the molex run but they cut it off at the box entry. There is no neutral connection, but there is a ground! What the gently caress...
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Jun 12, 2013 18:42
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The electrical in this house is just... yeah I dunno. The 1950s were a different time I guess. Owner-rewired 1950s additions are a different matter altogether. It is a mix of "old but reasonable for the time I guess" such as this lightswitch (which I replaced with a non-busted one):   and "what the gently caress is this wire?" such as this panel behind the bar with three sets of mystery wires just cut off and left to hang out in the steel box. I replaced the dimmer with an LED/CFL compatible one, the outlet is getting changed out for a GFCI tomorrow. Jumpering between the connections in the back and the outlet/switch was done with 12ga stranded copper wire when the switch/outlet very clearly say solid copper only.   Then there is the exterior lighting. Instead of built-in fixtures he just ran outlets off of the wall switches. On the one hand that means you have unsightly cords hanging from the outside flood lights and can't use motion lights, but on the other it means my outdoor christmas lights are going to be a snap to turn on and off! Shifty Pony fucked around with this message at 03:12 on Jul 14, 2013 |
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Jul 12, 2013 15:04
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I just spent nearly 5 hours installing three GFCI outlet/breakers. The wiring in the house is insane! At the risk of exposing my own work to criticism, let us revisit this setup. Why am I bothering with this wall box? Well you see I want to add GFCI protection to the bathroom, bar, and kitchen outlets, because I don't like dieing. Thanks to the circuit layout the bar and bathroom share a circuit, as well as three of the kitchen outlets. Oh and the disposal as well. Because of the way the circuit branches from this wall panel I was faced with either putting a single 20A GFCI in this panel OR at least three, likely four GFCI breakers out on the various meandering branches. Oh and this outlet needed protection too because it is by the bar, just above the window to the sink in the kitchen. Something could easily get splashed or fall through. For example these outlets in the kitchen:  The top right one feeds to the bottom left one. But the bottom right one, despite being on the same circuit, is actually fed back from the bathroom outlet on the other side of the wall which is fed via the bar outlets. I've heard of "ring" circuits before but this is more like a "knotted up hose on the ground" circuit. Oh but covered up it looks so plain, let's pull everything out.  There we go. Ignore the "bar light" label, I stuck that there for my own sanity earlier. I also already pulled the nut off one of the common connection bundles, to show the stranded wire. If you want to keep track... to power the refrigerator, microwave, or disposal you go from the panel, into a wire nut connection, through a short section of 12AWG solid Cu, to the outlet, across the metal tab bridge of the outlet, along a length of 12AWG stranded, to another wire nut connection, then finally to the 12AWG solid heading to that branch of the circuit. Safe. All the poo poo pulled out:  I still have no idea where the wires at the bottom left go. They have no voltage and read as open so perhaps Narnia? I love labeling things. Future me always thanks past me when I have to come back.  All ready for the GFCI to be installed:  The new path for any branch of the circuit is simply panel in -> GFCI -> 12AWG jumper -> wire nut connection -> out. Step 1 done, now the dimmer:  And done. Works like a champ:  Finally I got it mostly buttoned but but I am going to need to get a new faceplate. I may have to get a custom one and I may need to break off the right half of the dimmer heatsink. It cuts the power handing ability of it a bit (I'll have to look up how much) but it is only running an above-bar lamp running LED lights so I'm nowhere near the capacity.  But it is all worth it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0yfksww1p1E Onto another circuit, over the kitchen counter. Here is the first outlet box in the chain:  Simple enough, the right wires go to the panel, left wires feed the rest of the chain. Now a further one:  Where the gently caress did that ground line come from? It isn't like they are far apart!   but I'm pretty sure that either in hooking up the range hood or installing the outlet under the cooktop that some new wire got used and I'm drat sure they didn't run a new ground back all the way. So it has to be jumpered to common at some point, which completely 100% would disable the GFCI. Thankfully code isn't stupid and it is perfectly OK not have the "ground" wire connected as long as the outlet is behind a GFCI and is properly labeled: But still. I never did figure out the entire circuit layout for the circuit running the second bathroom and part of the living room wall. All I managed to do was to isolate a branch of it leading into the bathroom and slapped the GFCI into that to give protection. Oh and I need to get a junction box cover pronto because this is lurking under the cooktop:  Exposed 240V wiring? Under a cooktop where people likely would pile conductive metal pans for easy access? Whatever could be wrong with that? Shifty Pony fucked around with this message at 03:18 on Jul 14, 2013 |
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Jul 14, 2013 02:24
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I hope you only are referring to the before  It looks like I may have to just pick up a two-toggle one-GFCI faceplate and get a toggle dummy to fill in the hole.
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Jul 14, 2013 03:25
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I was chatting with my neighbor about the crazy in my house and he showed me how his utilities are laid out. He is a mechanical engineer with experience in semiconductor fabrication plant gas, chemical, and electric supply. It was goddamn glorious. Everything labeled, everything mapped on the blueprints, and individual shut off valves for every water and gas line.
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Jul 18, 2013 03:03
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evilnissan posted:Going around the outside of the house and adding drainage would be a good proper fix along with sump pump.. Where on earth is this house? I wonder if a geothermal heat pump could be a super-efficient heating/cooling option given how drat close the water table is, but it sounds like you wouldn't have the room on the lot for the loop field.
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Jul 26, 2013 23:35
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This house is just so... strange! I was cleaning out an overgrown flowerbed when I noticed that there was an extra valve on the outdoor spigot. I wonder where.. oh.. oh no nobody would be that dumb...  Yup, that's the cold water supply for the washer.
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Aug 4, 2013 18:21
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ntd posted:Have to ask...where does the hot water supply come from? loving Narnia wouldn't shock me at this point. I presume it is coming from the bathroom which is to the right in the second photo, but that raises the question of why not just pull the hot and cold water from there? Perhaps it is being routed via the attic. I have yet to get a ladder to go up there.
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Aug 5, 2013 14:30
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Cmdr. Chompernuts posted:No way, that line just goes deeper underground to get that energy saving thermal heat. This is Texas. A foot or two black pipe of in the sun ought to do it.
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Aug 5, 2013 16:05
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Turns out that knowing the property line is actually really important when putting in a driveway. It becomes even more important if you refuse to negotiate with your neighbor over the asking price for the place because you know he wants the lot to link up two lots he already owns so you demand extra. 
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Nov 13, 2013 19:44
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Bad Munki posted:Yeah, I'm having trouble parsing the relationships here, but that looks like a fantastic bit of spite going on there. Bingo. The house on the left is for sale (currently is a daycare actually), and the owner of the house on the right owns three lots (two on one side of the daycare and one on the other) and would very much like to connect them. During price negotiations the buyer brought up the encroachment issue and that it reduces the property value. Seller refused to budge on price, soooo.... up the fence went over the weekend. Probably severely reduces the value of the property to any third party looking at the place. I know I would be very hesitant to buy a house with that bad of an encroachment problem because it doesn't bode well for the rest of the structure's permitting and build quality. Here's another angle 
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Nov 13, 2013 22:03
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Indolent Bastard posted:Bah! You think a spite fence is a big deal? Try a spite house. Try 9 of them! I used to walk by the Hollensbury Spite house all the time. It always amused me as it very clearly was different than the other houses nearby. Apparently the guy who built it didn't even bother putting up new brick or plaster for the interior walls; there are still deep long marks from carriage axles in the brickwork visible inside of the house. Jaguars! posted:Wow indeed! How old were the titles, and when was it last surveyed? It blows my mind that someone would allow the drive to be built on their property in the first place ...if they knew that was the case. (And I'd laugh pretty hard if it turned out the drive was over an easement or something) That's East Austin so the original subdividing was probably in the 50s-60s sometime. The driveway looks fairly recent and I wouldn't be surprised if it were not a combination of spite and a touch of "oh poo poo I have to exclude them or I lose this part of my lot!"
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Nov 14, 2013 04:03
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Rocko Bonaparte posted:Hello Austin buddy! So this was all in Austin? I showed that picture to me wife and folks with the story about the neighboring properties. It went from "good for him" to "gently caress that guy" when East Austin came up. They figured the guy wants to blow over the four contiguous lots and throw up some more gentrification condos. That's a pretty fair bet really. I'm all for densification but the residents of the neighborhood are really getting the short end of the stick. On the general subject of property lines: you would be shocked just how far off people can be and how they don't think it is all that important to get a survey done. My father deals with land management of rural property in SC and that can be an absolute nightmare. Some plots haven't been surveyed for 6+ generations and for some reason landowners seem to get a bit pissy when he has to inform them that the logging company won't touch the timber on the property until a survey is done because they don't want to get reamed by accidentally cutting lumber from an adjoining property. "Oh yeah that is definitely the property line, I walked it with my grandpa!" isn't good enough. And in really really grand scale fuckups, how about messing up which state you are in? "The State newspaper posted:Last fall, officials sent letters to 93 property owners – a mix of homeowners and business owners, more than half now in North Carolina – notifying them that they could be affected by the new survey. Roughly 30 replied with letters of concern. Oops.
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Nov 14, 2013 14:29
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smackfu posted:Yeah, that's a tough spot for the other guy. Even if the guy didn't build the spite garage... he still probably would have planted new trees on his side of the property line and blocked the view. People DO NOT like it when you cut down what they consider their trees. Exactly, hence why I mentioned the loggers my father works with not touching anything until it had been surveyed (and even then they leave buffer zones).
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Nov 14, 2013 16:25
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My house has less than energy-efficient windows.
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Nov 22, 2013 16:12
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I'm really unsure exactly what was being attempted here but I am a bit disturbed to be living in a house with it. The water heater is also popping/gurgling while heating plus the relief valve looks like it has leaked in the past. 1988 construction date in an area with hard water...
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Dec 27, 2013 21:57
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Motronic posted:CA has earthquake codes. So you can begin by forgetting about strapping for most of the world. Which is sensible in both cases. We dont' know where this is, so assuming it's in a small portion of the world that requires that is pretty nonsensical without further information. Haha, yes it is. Natural gas fired. Edit: Here's a quick video tour of the room it is in https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-1_R41nnCw As you can see the ventilation consists of some holes drilled in the bottom of the door. Shifty Pony fucked around with this message at 16:28 on Dec 28, 2013 |
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Dec 28, 2013 16:16
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It is more me whining about the general slipshod construction of the house that the wall is made up of a random smattering of exterior fiberboard siding screwed haphazardly into the wall, with the heater having no drainage despite being on the same slab as the rest of the house. I plan on draining it to see if it improves the pretty awful swings in water heat and the banging sounds while heating, which are audible from a few rooms away. Oh and per specs on the installation instructions it requires 20in^2 of ventilation in the door.
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Dec 28, 2013 17:16
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Sagebrush posted:I've heard that with a lot of houses (or additions to houses) constructed in the 1950s in North America, the attitude was "unlimited cheap, clean atomic energy is just around the corner!" so adding insulation was considered a waste of time and money because you would soon be able to have your very own nuclear furnace in the basement. I think that is an after-the-fact rationalization applied by the people who were selling the places. The real truth is that they just cut corners and costs while throwing up as many ticky tacky houses as humanly possible. Very similar to the building "quality" you saw in the late 90s-2007 mcmansion boom. My neighbor, a PE with construction experience, has introduced me to his habit of wandering through in-construction-but-almost-done houses in the neighborhood (with permission of course) and it is a parade of crappy design tales. Yesterday we walked through a house that is being renovated but was the same original model as the house I'm living in. They took it all the way down to the foundation but for god knows what reason kept the room layout in one area of the house. The combination of modern floorplan everywhere else with this one section of the original 50s mini-hallway pseudo-ranch abomination was just so strange. If you take it down to the foundation why not start fresh?
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Jan 26, 2014 17:03
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Baronjutter posted:It's a cultural/generational thing but there was a time when the idea of the "open kitchen" was a totally gross and unthinkable concept, so even tiny tiny apartments need the kitchen sealed off and out of view. That's been one of the greatest design and cultural changes lately, the idea that the kitchen is basically part of the main room and cooking and food are an extremely social activity. I mean what party doesn't always gravitate to the kitchen? On the other hand food prep isn't the most presentable uncluttered activity and it is somewhat nice not to have the entire process on display viewable from every square inch of living space. I don't like completely open kitchens but also dislike entirely closed ones. Having a middle ground with a large pass through window or bar seems ideal for me. I did talk to a realtor once who claimed that the proliferation of open layouts was a byproduct of TV shows (both sitcoms and real estate shows) preferring them because they allowed ease of filming and realtors liking them for how quickly they can be shown. That may very well be bullshit though.
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Feb 6, 2014 21:29
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Baronjutter posted:Never trust anything a REALTOR(tm) says, ever. Yeah, that's why I included the bullshit flag.
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Feb 6, 2014 22:54
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Bad Munki posted:
A later follow up article says they found three possible violations (no permit, electrical violation, and too much impervious cover  ) which could cost $2k each per day the structure was up. But that sort of fine would never happen and even if it looked possible the contractor's business would just dissolve and then reform under a new name. You know the drill.Austin's Code Compliance enforcement is laughable. Another balcony collapse happened at an apartment complex and code enforcement found 760 violations because they normally don't routinely inspect apartments. Bad Munki posted:How liable were the builders, though? I would sure as hell hope the remaining 90%. I mean loving come on, how can you not see that coming. Settled for $1.4m.
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Mar 20, 2014 04:41
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"I'm in the engeenering and consulting business, mostly for heating and cooling system" which clearly that means you don't need to bother with permits when fundamentally altering the load-bearing arrangement of your roof trusses  My free-body diagramming skills are a touch rusty but it looks like when the new members he put in give way by ripping the bars out of the top or bottom chords (because they are under tension in that part of the truss design) it is just going to apply a massive lateral load to the walls, likely blowing them out and dumping the entire roof right onto the flattened remains of the house and anyone in it. And then he went and put a weight bench up there! 
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Mar 31, 2014 02:35
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You people and your fancy bathrooms that actually have any sort of way to direct air outside. Mine has no vent fan, and no window. It may have had a window (perhaps with a fan!) at some point but after the third addition to the house it does not. I just leave the door open because otherwise it would be insane.
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Apr 10, 2014 04:49
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Nitrox posted:∆∆∆ why? Depending on the species it can be highly illegal to disturb a bird's nest with eggs or chicks. However if you are near a city at all odds are they were invasive European Sparrows in cavity nests like that, in which case taking them out is a service to the native bird population.
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Apr 15, 2014 01:08
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My parents just had their insurance cancelled on one of their properties over those drat shingles.
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May 16, 2015 22:56
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The Gardenator posted:It's a vacation rental according to the uploader. Suddenly it all makes sense. That kitchen exists only to enable maximum party hosting ability with a fancy veneer for minimal design and cost.
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Jun 4, 2015 16:53
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Making life difficult for tourists is practically a public service.  I agree that's an awful place for it. Beach houses in particular are stuffed sort of crap.
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Jun 4, 2015 22:24
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Baronjutter posted:That's the social/cultural aspect. In most of north america, if you rent you're assumed to be a student or a irresponsible poor. Renters are one step up from homeless people, so you have to check up on them all the time to make sure they aren't harming your investment property. Just to drive it home this is what the Texas Association of Realtors standard form lease reads: 14. ACCESS BY LANDLORD: A. Advertising: Landlord may prominently display a "For Sale" or "For Lease" or similarly worded sign on the Property during the term of this lease or any renewal period. Landlord or Landlord's contractor may take interior or exterior photographs or images of the Property and use the photographs or images in any advertisements to lease or sell the Property. B. Access: Before accessing the Property, Landlord or anyone authorized by Landlord will attempt to first contact Tenant, but may enter the Property at reasonable times without notice to make repairs or to show the Property to prospective tenants or buyers, inspectors, fire marshals, lenders, appraisers, or insurance agents. Additionally, Landlord or anyone authorized by Landlord may peacefully enter the Property at reasonable times without first attempting to contact Tenant and without notice to: (1) surveyor review the Property's condition and take photographs to document the condition; (2) make emergency repairs; (3) exercise a contractual or statutory lien; (4) leave written notices; or (5) seize nonexempt property if Tenant is in default. C. Trip Charges: If Landlord or Landlord's agents have made prior arrangements with Tenant to access the Property and are denied or are not able to access the Property because of Tenant's failure to make the Property accessible (including, but not limited to, any occupant, guest or invitee of Tenant, pet, or security device prohibiting access to any area of the Property), Landlord may charge Tenant a trip charge of $45 Yes that's right they will try and make contact, but don't have to. There is also zero requirement in Texas law for any notice whatsoever. They also reserve right to bring any buddies along with them and take photos.
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Jul 6, 2015 23:35
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A minor issue but still stupidity on display: wheels don't follow that path in a turn
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Jul 13, 2015 00:30
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The more I look at it the more it looks like the garage will be unusable except for maybe backing into it. There isn't enough room to maneuver into or out of it without risking hitting the garage with the front of your car or needing to cross the property line.
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Jul 13, 2015 02:55
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