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VendaGoat posted:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allegheny_mound_ant I had a delightful surprise while peeling up some old retaining wall blocks a few days ago. The second I tipped the block over, thousands of huge black ants just started swarming up everywhere. Not knowing anything better to do, I poured a bunch of gasoline over everything and lit it on fire. Haven't seen an ant since  What's the least passive aggressive way to get my neighbor to take his trashcans in off the sidewalk? I mean, I guess it's better than their dogs getting into the cans and littering garbage all throughout my adjoining driveway, but it blocks the sidewalk, doesn't have a lid, and smells bad. I mean, these are white trash people who run an illegal daycare out of their house, so I'd rather not start a tit for tat because I know I can only lose. Along the same lines, how do I get random people to stop cutting through my driveway?? Even though you can see through to the other side, it's not a through alley  Thank god the house next to me is more or less abandoned, I don't know how I could deal with more of these knuckleheads. This is what I get for trying to save a few bucks by moving outside the city Catatron Prime fucked around with this message at 03:44 on May 5, 2016 |
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May 5, 2016 03:40
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VendaGoat posted:Planted my tomatoes today.  That's great! What all varieties did you plant? Any plans for other edibles? I'm still working on building a raised bed garden, my girlfriend and I are planning on getting some starter plants from the farmers market next Saturday. Still looking around at different composting solutions to implement.
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May 6, 2016 18:59
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Making screens is surprisingly cheap and easy! For people asking about cleaning gutters, get you some gutter guards! Just finished putting these in today, and they are worth every penny. Much better quality than the other expanded metal guards I tried previously, and they just slip right into place. A+, would absolutely buy again. Probably the best thing short of a custom system. Re: Home checklists, I'd just make sure you have freeze proof water spigots. Also clean gutters so ice dams don't build up before winter. Google calender for furnace filter replacements. Try not to put too much crap down your drains, especially rice and potatoes down the kitchen garbage disposal. A hair strainer is great for the shower too, prevents crap from building up in the first place and causing you bigger problems down the road. Clean your dryer lint trap every time and exhaust line every so often! Keep painted surfaces painted, and watch out for roof damage, eg wavy, missing or lifted shingles. Great idea to know where your main water shutoff is, and tag that. Try and drain your water heater once a year. Yardwork is basically constant, so there's that. Anything more falls under home maintenance/improvement. Honestly it's not too hard, just try and have some familiarity with stuff around the house. Black and Decker's guide books, such as guide to home wiring or Popular Mechanics Complete Home How To are both excellent guides with lots of pictures and simple instructions. Doing stuff yourself really helps you understand how things work, and gives you a great feeling of competency, really honestly a perk to owning a home.
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May 9, 2016 03:01
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Anybody here planted a tree and had success with it/any advice they could pass on? I'd like to plant a small ornamental tree out front once I rip out the retaining wall, and a few Paw Paw or other fruit trees in the back. I'm just a bit nervous since it's a fairly big investment (relatively) and I've known my fair share of planted trees to not make it.
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May 9, 2016 03:24
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Zanthia posted:Awesome Tree Planting Guide This is absolutely fantastic, thank you so much for the effort post! That was exactly what I needed. For whatever reason, I was just derping out on my Google searches to find a succint tree planning guide that would help me avoid common screw ups. SiGmA_X posted:So my buddy was talking home automation last night. He's going with Wink stuff, it seems excessively consumer to me - but kind of cool. For those worried about hacking, the vast majority of property break ins are crimes of opportunity. Eg, you left your garage door open and sometime steals your snow blower. Or you left a window open, or valuable poo poo out while a shady contractor visited. Or, in my case, the apartment was clearly vacant while you're moving and sometime crowbars in the front door. The rest of break ins are usually deterred with advertising a legitimate basic security system, especially one with central monitoring. Like I said, most crimes are that of opportunity, and the random bad actor passing through your neighborhood will probably just move on to your neighbors unsecured house if there's not an easy obvious target. Plus my house is covered in big windows so I'm not worried about my front door lock being vulnerable to a specialized tool or someone with the know,how to bump it with a special tool. Home locks are there to inspire trust in each other, not to be any kind of hardened impenetrable barrier. Re: smart things going forward, I've had no noticeable issues with my Samsung Smart Things hub, in terms of server outage issues or whatnot. I do eventually want to host my own locally control hub, and there's several crowdfunded startups offering such a thing, so maybe in a few years I might go that route once it's more established. The actual devices and sensors I've accrued are universally compatible, and connect to a hub via z-wave or zigbee, so I'm not worried about getting siloed to a particular brand there. Yes Nest bought and bricked the revolv hub (they wanted the employees), but they've caught a bunch of bad press for that and are compensating owners, so I'd be surprised to see something so drastic happen again. If you're going to go with something right now, I'd recommend looking into smart things and nest. I believe Apple might be coming out with their own thing here soon, I'm not sure.
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May 19, 2016 21:02
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I think Freakonomics or Marketplace did some research where they found that the highest return investment you can make on your house in terms of resale value is stuff like adding an extra toilet, or new light/plumbing fixtures, paint, and that kind of banal stuff. They also found by the same metric, kitchens are a terrible investment if you're looking for ROI. Point is, whatever you do probably ain't going to pay you back all that much on resale value, so if you're making an upgrade, just do it for yourself, not the next person on down the line.
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May 20, 2016 03:46
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Frinkahedron posted:I have a birds nest above one of my porch lights right where it meets the wall. I'm afraid to move it because it's little birds season, but I don't want these rear end in a top hat birds messing with my walls, do I just wait them out until the winter then take down the nest? I was cleaning out my gutters and installing gutter guards a few weeks ago when I noticed this guy giving me the stink eye:  Sure enough, got a little bit closer and immediately felt like the biggest dick in the world:  I knew I shoulda cleaned these gutters out last fall Worst part is, the bird was circling and watching me the whole time, so I tried to move the nest into an adjacent tree (with disposable gloves even), but the dove was too dumb to figure it out I'm a monster 
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May 24, 2016 04:35
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^^ Beer and a grill are all you need, having a tv out there sucks as everyone is glued to that instead of talking to one another, at least in my experience. Having stuff like a football, frisbee, or bocce ball available is way more fun when everyone is outside anywaysDevian666 posted:They only understand the same location, and even gloves would likely change the smell so it would reject them. I don't think most animals are so dumb that they abandon their children, even if they smell a bit funky. This bird was pretty smart at any rate, it was watching me like a hawk from different spots. I just hope it found where I put the nest
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May 24, 2016 15:03
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Leperflesh posted:Yeah basically there's nothing in that bird's many millions of years of evolution that would ever make it need to adapt to a situation where it's nest full of eggs got moved to a different location many yards away. So its instinct is to find its nest right where it left it... or not, if the nest got raided by a predator. Speaking of the birds and the trees, there's a dead ash tree that's leaning towards my house. I noticed the crown was dead last year, so I figured it probably has ash borer, and sure enough, this year it didn't sprout leaves at all. Problem is, it's right on the edge of my neighbors property, and as far as I know, that house has been abandoned since before I moved in. What do I do?
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May 24, 2016 19:10
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Elephanthead posted:If the house is abandoned, just cut the tree so it falls into the neighbors yard and leave it. Either way send the owner certified notice that the tree is a hazard so you can sue them for damages. If you don't it falling is just an act of God and you can't sue him. Thanks! I was thinking I should try to send something certified mail, I looked up the owner's currentaddress via the county auditors website so that's probably where I should start then. Is there any sort of template I should follow, or should I offer to help pay some of the tree removal since it touches my property line?
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May 25, 2016 15:40
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Jealous Cow posted:All I can think of when y'all poo poo on zestiment is "unskew unskew!" but maybe I've been spending too much time in D&D. Zestimates piss me off, especially when they're not even close to the recent sales price. Also annoys me all these sites like zillow, redfin, realtor, estately, etc aggregate posting photos from the mls listings and hang onto those photos for all perpetuity, detailing the interior layout and preserving crappy broken things or interiors I've since fixed. Re: Shower estimate--I know from going through house paperwork the old owners left behind that they paid 8k for the shower unit they had installed, and it's nothing fancy. From the same paperwork, I also know their ssn, bank information, overdue and unpaid bills that still to this day show up in our mail, you name it. Seriously, why don't people update their addresses??
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May 31, 2016 18:22
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Droo posted:I think you can take ownership of a property and update the photos on most of the sites. I am almost positive that I deleted a bunch of photos of my house from Zillow. Only on zillow, the rest I actually had to contact customer service and request they be taken off, and I'm not even sure where else they might be hiding on the internet. Yours are almost certainly still on trulia, realtor, estately, and other places. Pretty sure in a few years, Google street view will be extended to Google interior, and once more people start getting their genome mapped, whelp  E: Bojanglesworth posted:Any ideas? Try the fix it fast thread... I'd link, but I'm on my phone
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May 31, 2016 22:58
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LawfulWaffle posted:New house stuff Hey, congrats on the first home! It's a nerve wracking experience but worth it. Whereabouts in Cbus are you? I'm out in Hilliard  A few thoughts-- Nearly all home sales are as is. Even buying a new home, the company that built it and offered the 30 year warranty is likely to dissolve and reform under a different name in five years, invalidating the warranty. A regular home warranty is a five hundred dollar scam that might just might do the least amount of work possible to fix your furnace if it really dies in your first year, or some other unlikely scenario. Not worth it. Things I wish I had known? A lot, but that'll come with experience, particularly if you're up for diy fixing stuff. Most household stuff is really easy to fix, especially with the plethora of resources online, and a little bit of experience and knowledge goes a long way. There's a lot of knowledgeable goons in the fix it fast thread, plumbing, and electric thread in creative convention--diy. BFC has another house buying thread you may already know about. I highly recommend buying a couple of books, especially Black and Deckers guidebook series (the home wiring one in particular is the best electrical resource I've found. Popular Mechanics complete home how to is a good resource to have on hand as well, and can be found cheap at thriftbooks.com. Stuff isn't so intimidating one you understand how it works, and a lot of stuff, like replacing or fixing a toilet, is actually stupidly quick and easy. The sump pump thing is completely normal, it's just a cost effective actively managed way of dealing with site drainage. The backup pump is a good idea to have because they burn out over time, make sure the backup is alarmed so you know when it kicks in. You can also buy moisture sensors with stuff like smart things and it'll notify your phone if you there's water where you place it, if you're worried. Get an inspection, but keep in mind that every house has its issues. Just know what you want to deal with and what's a deal breaker. My inspection didn't catch a lot of things, but I've come to terms with it, that's just life. Even new houses aren't perfect. Best of luck to you! If you have specific questions, someone here can certainly at least point you in the right direction I think someone asked earlier in this thread about regular house maintenance stuff, you might flip back a few pages and check that out too.
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Jun 7, 2016 23:19
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Dazerbeams posted:How serious an issue are raccoons? Apparently I have at least one living under my front porch. I haven't seen any damage, nor heard any scratchings inside my walls. I'm inclined to live and let live. A friend of mine had a raccoon living in their attic that broke some plumbing fixtures causing ~10,000$ in water damage
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Jun 9, 2016 16:24
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Ah yeah, grilled some burgers and corn outside tonight while chilaxing with a few brews on the new (to me) cast iron patio furniture. This is what homeownership is all about 
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Jun 14, 2016 04:25
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blackmet posted:We just dropped $5100 on central air conditioning for our house. You should also install a whole house fan to stuck in all the cool evening air and push out the hot stagnant air upstairs and in the attic. Basically turns the house into a wind tunnel and cools it down within minutes
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Jun 14, 2016 12:06
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Yeah, you're pretty much dicked on the water heater. Only person who's going to shoulder any financial responsibility in this matter is you. Plan A would be just installing a maintenance hatch over the tankless heater rather than sealing it back up, which kind of seems like the optimal solution. Plan B would be to install a cheap typical tanked water heater in a better location. Water heaters have a finite lifespan and if you're already up to the wazoo just trying to access what could potentially be a faulty unit, maybe just pick up a cheap reliable tank unit? Just my two cents... Speaking of costly stuff, anybody built either a deck or privacy fence lately? I'm looking at doing both, with a basic 12x20 elevated deck and a few sections of privacy fencing, and was curious to see what it's cost other people to get some starting point in planning everything. I'll probably be DIYing both, and I was thinking it would be a good idea to get vinyl fencing and artificial decking for durability.
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Jun 20, 2016 02:59
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No Butt Stuff posted:I'm working with one of my friends to see about modifying my existing deck and putting a roof over it. Thanks! I'm just looking to do a few small impactful sections where I've already dug out and ripped out the previous chain link fence, about 86 feet worth. I saw this vinyl fence at Lowes for ~7$ a linear foot, but then the posts and hardware drive it up to ~12$ a linear foot. This is assuming I'm doing all the work... Does that sound about right for a budget vinyl privacy fence?
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Jun 20, 2016 16:15
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Or if you're in California, you should plant more seasonal crops, like rocks
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Jun 22, 2016 04:54
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mastershakeman posted:gently caress. I was just in the basement and found a big wet area in the carpet. We had a big storm about a week ago so I'm guessing it's from that. Number thing you can and should do ASAP is get some air moving over it. A few strategically placed box fans should do the trick. If you can, pull up the carpet and try to expose the source so it can dry out without molding. If you have a basement dehumidifier, crank it up to full blast to pull moisture out of the air, or rent one from home depot or sunbelt rentals or something. The source may not always be obvious, my basement flooding was because of ancient damaged buried clay drain pipes, which I fixed by sealing the exterior opening with quikrete (the old plug had crumbled through).
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Jun 29, 2016 18:06
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^^That sucks man... I'd sell you the spare one my girlfriend picked up when the sears near us was going under, but I'm sure it would cost more to ship the dang thing than it's worth. At least it's not a snowballing expense, like replacing a window. Re: Washers--my parents switched to a high efficiency front loader and have had nothing but problems with it, the latest being the gasket seal around the door leaking and draining water everywhere upstairs. Sample size of one and I'm sure there are better units out there, but I'm happy with the basic 300$ top loader I picked up from the ding and dent appliance store (appliance smart I think?). Found an ancient postcard in my walls with the inspection camera while I was trying to figure out the obstruction stopping me from running new wiring up to the attic. I'd love to pull it out and take a look at it, but I don't think there's any way I can do so without drilling a sizeable hole in the wall. Kind of makes me wonder what other poo poo is lurking in there... When I first starting fixing stuff around the house, I found an old trolley token behind the medicine cabinet, which is crazy since there hasn't been streetcar service around here for almost eighty years. Kind of feels like an archaeological expedition, except the only mummies are my lungs after being exposed to asbestos and lead paint 
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Jul 8, 2016 03:43
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slap me silly posted:It is your duty. Post pics Didn't think I would ever find it again, but here I found myself cutting out a new box to install a switch for the ceiling fan I'm running wiring for, and luckily my inspection camera (which has intermittently been on the fritz for awhile now) cooperated just long enough to get a picture! Down into the walls we go!  Hold up a sec, what's that outline?  Computer, zoom. Enhance.  It may be a baseball card or something, unfortunately, I believe it's behind cupboard walls in the kitchen, so it's likely going to stay in there until we completely redo the kitchen. I'm still searching for the Trolley token, but here's an ebay picture for someone selling the same thing: 
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Jul 9, 2016 21:36
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kbdragon posted:Google saintsations trading cards. It's a cheerleader. Dang you're good!  Betcha one of the kids from one of previous owners needed to hide or ditch the spank bait, and probably slipped it in a crack in the wall for the old gas light fixture upstairs. And he thought nobody would ever find the evidence 
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Jul 10, 2016 18:13
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Spring Heeled Jack posted:Does anyone have recommendations for painting a concrete basement floor? Paint types in particular. I'm not married to any brand but I've used Sherwin Williams for the rest of the house. I put Killz primer over a section where the PO's kept the litterboxes, to block the smell, and it worked for awhile but now it's coming up and looks awful. Granted it was more practical than an aesthetic choice, but still... uwaeve posted:Aside from meeting code and actually like, having a railing, I can technically do this last, correct? Like I can tear out the railing, posts, and decking, then (assuming the deck structure is still good) put my railing 4x4s in and re-deck around them, leaving the actual post slip covers and railings/balusters as the last decision I need to make? Granted, I don't know much, but I do know that vinyl composite deck boards are awesome and that the minimum post size for decks are now 6×6 and you can't just bolt on joists now, you have to properly notch boards and stuff. Aand that's about the sum of my knowledge till I build a deck next year. I've no idea on railings unfortunately
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Jul 12, 2016 05:18
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canyoneer posted:There's something to be said about just paying for the install and having it done in 3 days. I wish I had just done that with the dishwasher I just installed. My hands and somehow feet are covered in lacerations from razor sharp loving edges, and I had to make a number of trips to the other end of town just to get replacement parts for stuff missing/broken on the unit (never buying ding and dent again) and the whole installation just sucked. A lot. But hey, at least it's done now, and no longer do I have to dick around with a portable dishwasher!
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Jul 20, 2016 02:17
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^^ Outlets are incredibly easy to install and only a buck or two apiece to buy in bulk, but I would refrain from doing any electrical work without the explicit permission and understanding from your landlord. Black (hot) goes to brass, white (neutral) goes to silver, green or bare (ground) goes to green. Outlets wear out over time and don't grab plugs like they should when they loosen up. New covers are cheap toemocrat posted:What do people here do for fire/smoke alarms? We had a minor scare the other night and are now looking at what we can do for real protection. Personally, I've had both the nest thermostat and protect for two years now, and I seriously couldn't be happier with both systems. I've smoked out my kitchen on several occasions, one of which caused the nest to warn me the kitchen alarm was about to go off before actually going off, which gave me time to cancel it without an ear piercing screech. The monthly verbal tests are quiet and convenient, and I also really like that I can monitor/get alerts from anywhere. Best part is, the mobile app is far better than FLIR's cameras or Smart Things or any other smart home thingy I've tried so far. Worth every penny, in my opinion. Especially because previously I had battery detectors that just died, without any notice, and I had no idea I was living with dead detectors for who knows how long, since they worked fine when I bought the house. Now that I've had a wired nest for awhile, I'm never going back to dumb detectors. Catatron Prime fucked around with this message at 05:33 on Jul 23, 2016 |
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Jul 23, 2016 05:29
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drat Bananas posted:Does anyone want another house? I don't want mine anymore. Every day is a new adventure for the wallet. Oh the places your credit card will go... Man, that sucks... When you pay out the nose for a company to take care of evening, you would expect for it all to get done without so much hassle. Thankfully I've never had to hire anyone to do anything yet, but I dread the day that comes, based on all the horror stories. What kind of siding do you have? Vinyl? Might just be easier to replace the box yourself with a new weatherproof one, and then tack on some foam board, cutout siding, and caulk around the edges? Though that doesn't fix the principle of the issue, at least the bulk of the hard work is out of the way now
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Jul 26, 2016 04:15
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couldcareless posted:I honestly don't trust any extenders or repeaters. Nothing beats a good wired AP in reliability. I'd try out a powerline adapter instead. Seconding this. Ideally your house will have runs of cat 5 cable, but if not, powerline adapters are handy to transmit wired signal to other rooms via electrical outlets, where you can pick it up with a wireless access point (eg any of Unifi's products). Add a switch at either end if you need more ports. There's so much wireless interference in the 2.4 Ghz spectrum, adding a wireless repeater is usually a bad idea. They only work marginally well to begin with, and exponentially amplify usage of air time so you can't have as many clients. The key to better wireless access are more (wired) access points, on non interfering channels , with the 2.4 radio turned down low and 5 ghz radio turned up high. You can also do stuff like enable zero handoff transfer on the access points, to shuffle clients when the signal noise floor gets too high, and set up a minimum RSSI threshold to kick clients that wander too far away.
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Jul 31, 2016 14:11
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BeastOfExmoor posted:We haven't taken over ownership yet so any fees would go to them. The contract says they have to notify the company prior to ownership change, which they apparently didn't do. Option C: Just don't pay it, it's their lease, their problem Who leases a water heater  If it's any help, this is the water heater I've settled on getting to replace my electric unit. Saves~30$ a year over similar units, has the 12 year quality rating, and not too pricey. Sucks the marathon unit is electric only, otherwise I'd definitely spring for that one. E: you may want to get larger depending on family size, but gas replenishes real quick anyways
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Aug 3, 2016 01:08
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-S- posted:Vacuum chat: Shark is the way to go. My $150 shark is better than the $600 Dyson we got as a gift. Vacuum chat: How are robotic vacuums these days? Anything worthwhile for helping keep on top of things?
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Aug 5, 2016 02:54
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^^ Awesome, thanks! That's exactly what I need, something to help stop the cat hair tumbleweeds from forming every week, and the downstairs is pretty open, so I might just go ahead and gamble in this 100$ roomba 650 I found on this sketchy site Fifty fifty shot whether I actually get a roomba, or my PayPal account hacked
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Aug 5, 2016 20:47
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^^ Completely unrelated, but I found a stray Apple tree riding my bike home last night, and I just gorged on apples. It was excellent, I need an apple tree. Have you considered composting the apples?GameCube posted:Do I need a storm door? My house has a storm door and I hate it. It's a huge pain in the rear end to have to open the stupid storm door and hold it while I unlock and open the real door. I've taken to leaving it propped open, at which point I might as well not even have the stupid useless piece of crap. Otherwise, you could just replace the door wholesale with a good prehung exterior door rated to stand up to the elements. It's a fairly easy job, hardest part is chiselling out the strike plate and lock bits. Menards has a good selection of exterior doors, and mine was only ~160$ for a basic security door with small window. Front door you'll probably want something more spendy, but it's an idea. Catatron Prime fucked around with this message at 12:28 on Aug 9, 2016 |
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Aug 9, 2016 12:26
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Pryor on Fire posted:Maybe combine those snap light covers with USB charging in a few spots around your home: I put one a similar one in my living room, and they are indeed awesome--no more octopus cover or power strips for us!
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Aug 14, 2016 14:36
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a shameful boehner posted:Insulation stuff Dollar for dollar, attic insulation is the best way to spend insulation money, so I think that's an excellent decision right there, and it doesn't sound too expensive. You might ask them how much it would be to insulate your exterior walls, it's really not that hard. They just peel off the siding at the top, drill a 4-6" hole, blow in insulation, and repeat every 16" in each stud bay. Might be a worthwhile investment to tack on, since they're already out there doing all the work anyways.
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Aug 15, 2016 23:48
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Irritated Goat posted:I made it into my house after the flooding. We took ok about 2 feet of water inside. Anything that wasn't on a shelf or the kitchen counters is heavily water damaged. My car is most likely totaled. We closed on the house on the 5th. We were supposed to move in totally on the 13th. Dear god that's awful... My sympathies, I can't imagine anything worse happening, especially so soon after closing... Have you gone over your home insurance paperwork to see what is and isn't covered by food insurance, or gotten in touch with your agent/FEMA? Two feet of water is pretty bad, I'd be surprised if you didn't have to rip walls out down to the studs. I'd definitely be in touch with someone who knows what to do asap, because I can only imagine it's a matter of hours before home condemning mold sets in, especially behind the drywall and in the insulation. Box fans are great to get air circulating and help dry things out. First thing I'd do is take pictures and document everything for your insurance, I think there's a goon somewhere on here that's an agent and might be able to offer you better advice. NPR recently did a story talking about how tons of Sandy victims got completely screwed by their insurance/fema, so best of luck to you... At last you and your family are safe, that's honestly the only thing that really matters, as much as everything else sucks. Are you in Baton Rouge? Catatron Prime fucked around with this message at 03:28 on Aug 16, 2016 |
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Aug 16, 2016 03:24
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Irritated Goat posted:I'm in Baton Rouge, yeah. The water probably came in around Saturday afternoon so I'm sure the mold situation is not good. We've started an e-mail to our agent for home\flood (same company thankfully). We're going to document tonight so hopefully, we can get started soon. Stay safe and good luck, I heard the flooding isn't quite done and there's more rain on the way. If your ac (or even any of your electrical) works, that might help to pull moisture out of the air... And you probably already know, but don't forget a respirator. Please let us know how things turn out, or if there's anything a bunch of fat sweaty nerds on the internet can do to help
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Aug 17, 2016 03:23
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moana posted:Be careful with this. We got new switches - the dimmer one flickers like crazy, and the one with the light inside of it made the lamp it was connected to via outlet flicker like crazy, even when it was turned off. Back to boring plain light switches for us.. Dimmer switches work by rapidly modulating the voltage on and off, which is great for incandescents because it takes a bit for the filament to start glowing, and then cool down, then start again. With LEDs and CFLs, they're just instant on/off, so you wind up with flickering unless they're designed to be dimmer compatible Pryor on Fire posted:I'd also like a more interesting light switch to replace my cheapo ones, and I find the new trend of bafflingly complicated switches with like four buttons and six dimmer sliders to control two zones of lights pretty awful. Any other neat options out there? I don't need dimmers everywhere stoppppp You can get switches that have built in lighting behind the switch, which is great for finding them in the dark. I got a switch/led night light combo for my basement stairwell, so it's always illuminated, and it's great. Had to run new 14-3 wiring because there wasn't a neutral on the circuit branch for the old light switch (only had a hot going straight up to the switch, then coming straight back down to the basement through the neutral), but it was worth it. Otherwise in light/receptacle land, I've seen night light outlet covers, and I put in a USB receptacle or two which were great to remove loose wall warts beside the bed.
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Aug 18, 2016 12:36
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Bozart posted:There are some backlit light switches that do not require a neutral, such as the Lutron CA-3PSNL-WH Diva, which is what I used because I am made entirely from monies. How exactly is that possible? Is it using the ground as a neutral return pathway? I could have googled the wrong one, but the one you mentioned doesn't have a backlight... E: nvm, was looking at the wrong model. Thanks Google, for linking the exact model I searched second behind something else Catatron Prime fucked around with this message at 14:10 on Aug 18, 2016 |
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Aug 18, 2016 14:07
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QuarkJets posted:I've been meaning to upgrade one of our bathroom outlets to GFCI and your post has inspired me to actually get this done, and now I'm considering replacing all of our floor-level outlets with tamper-resistant outlets (because we have a baby on the way and it turns out that tamper-resistant outlets actually aren't that expensive) Excellent choice! You can get a ten pack of preferred tamper resistant outlets really cheap at home depot. I switched out all my outlets because the old ones wouldn't hold a plug and after discovering scorch marks behind one, I wanted to check the rest. You shouldn't need wire nuts as you're not changing any configurations, but sometimes you might need one to extend the wiring a tiny bit if say your old outlets were backstabbed with no extra wiring to work with. You might need to pigtail an extra length on to get the wiring long enough you connect to the new outlets, or if the old exposed wire is chewed up and you just need to clip it and expose a fresh length. Or if you pull off your outlet and discover scorch marks caused by arcing behind the outlet, you may need wire nuts to clean everything up and redo the connections with the correct size wire nuts. It's just easier to have all the tools handy than having to run to the hardware store in the middle of a project, and you never know what you'll find once you dig into the walls. I would definitely get some electrical tape and a good pair of wire strippers beside you start as well, plus a voltage sniffer and outlet tester. Also not a bad idea to have a few feet of scrap 12g & 14g to extend wires if need be. Also, if you have really old metal boxes, you may need to switch them out with deeper nylon old work boxes to accommodate a gfci outlet--the old box may not be big enough. Catatron Prime fucked around with this message at 13:10 on Sep 5, 2016 |
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Sep 5, 2016 13:06
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Elephanthead posted:I would splurge on the needle nose. The cheap ones suck. Also wagos are amazing for fixing wtf this is too short in the box problems. I've been curious to try these things for awhile now... Do they loosen up over time like tension on old backstab outlets, or is that issue basically solved now? Seems like a far more secure method of making connections than wire nuts
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Sep 5, 2016 22:58
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