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Is a malfunctioning attic fan something to be concerned about? It's old and when the thermometer triggers it every few moments it tries to spin up but just makes a buzzing noise instead. My attic access is insanely treacherous so I'll only go back up there again if it seems like the house might burn down. Unfortunately it's not on a dedicated circuit.
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Jun 20, 2017 23:48
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H110Hawk posted:A motor that's trying to start but fails is generating heat instead of motion. Heat is one of the components of fire. Good point. I wouldn't have been able to sleep without doing something about it so I bit the bullet, figured out a safe-ish way to get into the attic, and capped the wires in the junction box for the attic fan. At some point I'll get around to repositioning the entry to the attic. It's located directly above split staircases going up and down so it's impossible to set a ladder directly on it.
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Jun 21, 2017 01:41
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Anne Whateley posted:It depends on the situation. My super has the key to the knob lock, but not to the deadbolt I added. It's a big NYC apartment building, and I'm not giving the key to my super because he'll put it in a cabinet where five constantly-changing porters, all the meter guys, and anyone else who walks through the basement can access it. That would be a worse idea. Does your lease have a statement about the landlord being authorized to enter the apartment to address a maintenance emergency? Sounds like a good way to end up out on your rear end when the landlord has to bust down the door to fix a leaking pipe. Is renters' insurance prohibitively expensive in NYC or something?
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Aug 27, 2017 20:09
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Anne Whateley posted:I'm sure it has that boilerplate. The super could climb in through the window if he wanted, but worst case in an emergency I guess they would drill it out and I would pay for a replacement. The super knows he doesn't have my key and he's fine with it. Yeah, that's sensible. Getting a deadbolt that you can only lock from the inside seems like it would avoid most of the issues.
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Aug 29, 2017 01:15
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Salvor_Hardin posted:Thanks for the input. My HVAC is connected to a different thermostat, this one would just run the gas boiler for heat if that makes any difference. I've had no issue running my gas boiler with a two wire connection off my Nest
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Sep 11, 2017 15:42
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I had a boiler guy come by to do a non-invasive inspection of my 8-year-old hot water boiler and I asked him what I'd have to do to add a common wire to my existing 2-wire setup to get power to a smart thermostat. He poked around in the guts with a multimeter and said the transformer probably wouldn't be able to take the stress of splicing a new wire in without frying the circuit boards. Does that sound right? Are there any alternatives? I found this: https://www.amazon.com/Rheem-1000-FAST-STAT-Wire-Extender/dp/B009AXJ39C but when I read the manual it seemed like it would only work for existing 3+-wire systems. I had a brief scare with my Nest when it said its battery had run down when I first started using the heat but it's been fine for the last couple of weeks. I'm more worried about the potential for upgrades, since ecobee thermostats all seem to require a common.
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Oct 11, 2017 02:14
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glynnenstein posted:This sounds like a guy who didn't want to pull a wire. To be fair, it might be a huge pain in the rear end to do that, but "the stress"? If the transformer is maxed on amps, it could be swapped out for like $35. Lame. I had already told him I was going to pull the wire myself since the boiler is like 10 feet of straight-line distance from the thermostat; maybe he was angling for something else. Maybe I'll call somebody out specifically for the wiring job instead of just an inspection. Tiny Timbs fucked around with this message at 23:26 on Oct 13, 2017 |
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Oct 13, 2017 23:23
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How do you guys go about finding a decent general contractor? All my prospects through work dried up because they ended up doing the typical rear end in a top hat contractor poo poo of threatening to sue people for bad reviews over shoddy work. I want to have a proper vent hood installed over my oven so I'll need a guy to modify the existing cabinets and run the vent through the attic and out through the roof or a soffit. Thankfully the electrical's already been run.
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Dec 11, 2017 05:30
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uXs posted:I put laminated wooden flooring boards in the bedroom of my previous house. I put it on top of a previous floor which was incredibly uneven. I’m pretty happy with the laminate floors I had installed in my concrete basement, especially since they replaced peel and stick strips laid over moldy linoleum. The installer leveled the floor as much as he could with 10 bags of floor leveler and you can barely tell there’s any unevenness. I bought fancy underlayment because the stuff attached to the boards is super thin.
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Dec 21, 2017 02:35
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surf rock posted:Not sure where to ask this, but I'm outfitting my guest room and need a bit of advice. Box springs/foundations are not necessary with a foam mattress and a platform bed. You can get one if you think the mattress and bed will be too low. The foundation you linked would be for converting a standard (3-4 slat) bed into something that would properly support a foam mattress. Tiny Timbs fucked around with this message at 06:09 on Dec 25, 2017 |
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Dec 25, 2017 06:06
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How do you de-texture a wall? Some walls in my house are smooth and have the blobby kind of texture which isn't too terrible, and some have texture sharp enough to feel like a cheese grater on your hand. If I wanted to get rid of the latter, would I just sand the poo poo out of it and paint?
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Jan 26, 2018 02:10
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peanut posted:We got the whole door for a new house and it was probably... something like $4000 for touch card + pocket key fob, compared to $3000 for an analog regular door for just normal keys. That sounds ridiculous but it's a good door! Insulated! And it's magnetic! What in the holy gently caress Are you sure this was "Japan regulations" and not you being taken for a wild ride
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Feb 15, 2018 04:24
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I thought the whole reason people had houses built was to avoid dealing with amateurish hack jobs
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Feb 19, 2018 02:21
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Asperity posted:It's hard to get a decent paintable surface from just sanding the wall texture down, and the dust will be prodigious. I'm sanding the highest points off the wall, then skim-coating a couple of times with thinned joint compound, then priming and painting on the now-smooth surface. Yeah, after I made that post I read about skim-coating. I was worried it would be extremely laborious but if it's basically just like painting with liquidy joint compound then maybe it's not so bad.
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Feb 19, 2018 22:53
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Grem posted:I have two bathrooms and no outlets work in either one. I'm not loving around with electricity, but what could be wrong? Is it an easy, cheap fix for someone to come look at, or should I save up for a couple months cause it's gonna be a huge problem? The most likely thing aside from a circuit breaker or GFCI trip is some wire coming loose. Fixing that just requires that you re-strip the wire and wrap it around the screw terminal instead of using the lovely backstab connector. Don't call somebody out to look at it before you rule this option out. The hardest thing about dealing with outlets and switches isn't the electrical, it's dealing with the loving boxes being in random orientations or falling off into the wall, and the drywall holes being too large to fit in an old-work box without replacing a big drywall section or finagling some wooden supports in. Tiny Timbs fucked around with this message at 00:17 on Feb 20, 2018 |
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Feb 20, 2018 00:14
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Get a stone about 3' tall and it'll withstand people driving over it just fine.
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Apr 5, 2018 01:53
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How are the outlandish quotes not counter productive? If some guy told me he’d charge me $10k to hammer a nail I’d tell everyone I know to stay away from that scumbag. Isn’t it better to just say “I’m too busy right now to take on that kind of job”? I guess maybe it works sometimes when you find a sap who just says “ok”.
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Apr 19, 2018 03:35
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Seems like it might be as easy as scoring it along the edge and using a scraper to take it off.
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May 20, 2018 01:55
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eddiewalker posted:The prehung doors are so cheap, what’s the point anything else as a homeowner? Rip down to framing, measure the rough opening, buy the next width up and a bunch of shins. I'm so close to doing this for a few doors in my house but I assume "buying the next width up" means I'd have to plane off the side of the door or something to cut it down to size and I just know I'd end up with a weird pentagon instead of a rectangle.
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Jun 3, 2018 23:09
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jerry seinfel posted:No no no no no no no aw yeah that's the combination of moronic bougie poo poo and disregard for both practicality and style I've learned to expect from flippers pull off an outlet cover and you're going to find bare copper connected to knob and tube with masking tape Tiny Timbs fucked around with this message at 14:43 on Aug 23, 2018 |
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Aug 23, 2018 14:41
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I had a very rewarding weekend working on restoring the original, stone windowsills that came with the house. The previous owners had covered them up with poorly-done blue tiling and thick white paint and now I'm a huge fan of CitriStrip:    
Tiny Timbs fucked around with this message at 01:35 on Sep 4, 2018 |
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Sep 4, 2018 01:32
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Jaded Burnout posted:I've also seen trades ghost on a quote because they don't really want it. Heck, I've done it, even. Just had that happen to me. Like, just tell me you can’t take the job. Now I’m going to tell everyone they suck and won’t respond to messages.
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Sep 14, 2018 23:05
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Jaded Burnout posted:
The water vapor is lighter than air and displaces the air in that volume. 
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Oct 9, 2018 14:46
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why would that be the case? Air + water is heavier than air on its own.
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red19fire posted:So I just pulled a cord out of one of my outlets. The outlet itself is kinda loose on the wall, but a huge spark shot out of it when I pulled the cord, and it looked like there was a spark behind the plate too. Is my house going to burn down, and should I call an electrician or is this something I can fix myself? Pretty easily fixed by replacing the outlet for $2 and making sure the insulation is intact on the wires, they're spaced out well, and there's no debris in the box.
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Oct 19, 2018 00:09
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Elem7 posted:Every box I've ever been in has been stuffed to bursting with extra lengths of wire and full of paint and drywall debris. Is it actually a good idea to trim some excess wire off in situations like that for tidier boxes? You want a little extra in case you rewire it later with a smart switch or something but if there's excess to the point where you have to jam the outlet in with a lot of force to get it to fit then you should probably trim it down to avoid stressing the wires, drywall or box.
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Oct 23, 2018 00:12
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Please don't use floor stickers. Removing those from my basement was a nightmare. I had vinyl faux-wood planks put down to replace it and I'm really happy. Just make sure to put underlayment down to avoid issues with moisture coming up through the concrete and to make the floor a little more comfortable to walk on. The fancy stuff doesn't cost much extra.
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Oct 26, 2018 02:50
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H110Hawk posted:This is what we were thinking, but I'm not really sure how to know which "grade" of plank to put down, or how to choose an underlayment. For example, the one I linked claims "Pre-attached underlayment provides a floor that's warm, comfortable and quiet underfoot" - does that mean I'm good to go, or should I use one that is one step down where I get to choose the underlayment? Or do both? The pre-attached stuff is extremely thin and won't cover the seams. Might as well do both and gain the slight bit of extra padding. I'm not sure about the grades. I bought my flooring at Lumber Liquidators where they had all the varieties marked with a 1-5 scale of durability and I chose something on the high end so I wouldn't have to worry about it.
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Oct 26, 2018 04:49
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Does anybody know how to identify a baseboard end cap? I'm only missing one in the entire house and it drives me a little crazy. There's no maker's mark on the inside. 
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Nov 4, 2018 00:01
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BigFactory posted:That’s probably all of 40 years old, right? I wouldn't be surprised given how thick the paint is on all of the covers. I'm thinking the easiest thing to do would probably be to find a cap approximately the same size and chop it up with a dremel to fit.
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Nov 4, 2018 20:53
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Gee, I wonder why the bedroom is always so cold   I must've straightened, vacuumed, and blown out 50ft of radiator today
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Nov 5, 2018 01:06
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I just want to give props to the spider who made that excellent web in the second picture
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Nov 21, 2018 22:39
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What should I look up if I want someone to tell me whether or not it’s ok to bust out a wall or column in my house? “Structural engineer” just gets me foundation repair companies.
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Jan 13, 2019 19:54
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Don’t do anything yourself. Trying to service a heater that’s too far gone can damage it even worse.
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Feb 2, 2019 04:57
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Just picture in your head a broken water heater endlessly gushing water into your downstairs neighbors' apartments and you explaining to the management company how you were just trying to fix it without bothering them
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Feb 2, 2019 20:08
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My old cabinets couldn't accommodate a range hood without thousands of dollars of carpentry work so I just had a round vent fan put in the ceiling with a vent through the roof. Totally worth it - now I get to sear steaks without smoking out the whole house for three hours.
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Feb 3, 2019 16:52
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Jaded Burnout posted:The "simplehuman" brand bin is the only pedal bin I've ever used that gets the leverage right so the pedal doesn't either doing nothing or slam the lid into the counter at a billion miles an hour. Plus soft-close and washable internal plastic sleeve. I never imagined I'd pay $60 for a black plastic trash bin but it was worth every penny They take regular kitchen bags just fine, too Tiny Timbs fucked around with this message at 04:25 on Mar 11, 2019 |
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Mar 11, 2019 04:22
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Spring Heeled Jack posted:Homesite via Geico. I moved under a month ago (From MD to PA) and kept the same insurance. I had trimmed the particular tree like 2 weeks ago of my own volition, but gently caress replacing a perfectly okay roof a month into new homeownership. I offered to have a licensed roofer give it a 'health check' but they wouldn't budge. People in my area get pushed to replace roofs every 4 years. It's loving wild and a massive waste of money.
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Apr 18, 2019 00:49
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Spring Heeled Jack posted:What the hell kind of area is this. What the hell are the roofs made of!?!? Colorado gets a lot of hailstorms but people spread "replace your roof every 4 years" as a rule of thumb instead of the far more sensible "get it inspected if the hail was the size of baseballs."
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Apr 18, 2019 00:58
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Yeah true "custom" blinds are like $300 a pop but Home Depot will make you "custom fit" blinds by just slicing them to size Just make sure you measure the width across both the top and bottom of the window
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Jun 7, 2019 03:56
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Hubis posted:That (wood glue and clamp) is what I did and it worked great so far. When properly applied and clamped, glued wood will be stronger than the surrounding fibers I've done the same. It doesn't look pretty but it works.
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Jul 6, 2019 01:53
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