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Man, the property looks gorgeous, but I have to ask... When it comes to not just knocking the place down and starting over from a muddy plot, because it sounds like you'd have had less work approaching it from that direction, is it because there was something genuinely worth keeping about the interior/exterior or just because it took a while to realize how hosed the place was? Because the impression here is that you're left with not an awful lot from the original structure by the time you're done with this. Also  at finding asbestos in there, that's always been one of my nightmare scenarios when I've been out doing plumbing work. Mesothelioma scares the poo poo out of me.
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Nov 8, 2020 01:18
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| # ¿ May 14, 2024 16:58 |
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Are those still the original wooden floors inside? Anything salvageable in them? Because it has a very satisfying rich colour.
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Nov 11, 2020 11:09
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Huh, I hadn't spotted that big ol' chimney before. Does the place have a wood-fired furnace or something similar?
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Nov 14, 2020 06:40
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Awww, you're good to the little guy.
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Jan 17, 2021 11:05
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So uh, who's saddled with the responsibility for that trash shack?
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Jan 30, 2021 22:18
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Elviscat posted:I've sweated some medium size projects together in the past, but now I think PEX is honestly just as good, way cheaper, and way easier. There's never any reason not to use PEX, in my experience, except if it's something visible, like in a basement along the walls/ceiling or along a bathroom wall if you don't have space to sink it into the walls. It lasts better than anything metal, you can bend it around corners, you can shorten it without needing to gently caress around cutting new threading, you can run like fifty meters of it with no loving around fitting together shorter parts. Wonderful. Once it's visible, Alu-PEX is definitely my favourite material, but copper or steel piping with cinched fittings is also acceptable. Sadly cinch-fitting alu-pex, steel and copper requires special tools that you might not be able to easily rent and which would be a big expenditure for just doing DIY stuff. In that case I guess there's always copper solder fittings instead, but I always have trouble trusting those entirely and in some cases you might not have the space to safely gently caress around with an open flame. Working with galvanized or black steel pipes is the sort of thing I'd only ever do if it was what was already there, though, for the sake of continuing a look or being sure I didn't cause any galvanic corrosion by mixing materials.
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Feb 4, 2021 14:39
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I gotta say, I'm really impressed with the difference you're making! I hope you're snapping some semi-similar angles from your first pics sometimes, just to set up some good before/after shots.
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Mar 14, 2021 05:11
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What the gently caress did they do to that poor bolt.
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Apr 22, 2021 12:40
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Are you doing this work in sandals rather than steel-toed footwear?  Or is that post-work wear?Proper safety gear is important.
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Apr 28, 2021 04:49
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I have to admit I'm curious about the venting, any particular reason you're custom-making rectangular vent pieces rather than just working with pre-made round vent piping?
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May 1, 2021 10:11
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Elviscat posted:The main trunk has to be rectangular to fit up to the air handler, and round duct and round adapters/reducers that could handle the required airflow aren't readily available, but bare sheetmetal is, plus for the downstairs I couldn't really fit the required diameter of round pipe to get the CFM I need. As is I had to order parts of the internet to use the two 12" flexible ducts for the cold air return that are pictured somewhere upthread before the floor went in. That's one hell of a hefty ventilation system. Around here, 100mm(about 4") would be the norm for a single room, like a bathroom, while the fan above a stove would be about 6". Pretty much nothing in home ventilation goes above the 6" size, anything bigger is more or less purely for industry. Also consider using firm pipe rather than flex ducts if you can, they'll be a lot less noisy.
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May 1, 2021 17:04
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Elviscat posted:Do you not have a lot of central forced air heating then? Pretty much any central heating in Denmark is water-based, so radiators and floor pipes rather than fuckoff-huge ventilation shafts. Anything air-based tends to be an air/air heat pump with just one or two internal locations it pumps out the heat.
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May 1, 2021 21:30
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Elviscat posted:That's how the older bit of the US is, since the 70's or so new builds seem to all have gone to forced air systems, or pure resistive electric, that's what this house had, and heating bills were like $400 a month in winter, I didn't really think of going to a heat pump until I read Kastein's thread, I'd never heard of anyone installing their own central air before he did, he's also helped me out with it outside this thread. Generally unless you have a very large home or one that's split up into a lot of small rooms, a heat pump doesn't really need to be a split version as long as the internal part can be located somewhere relatively centrally. Especially not if you have some internal ventilation for heat distribution(we've got that here, it doesn't provide heat, it just makes sure the house is equally heated and also makes sure we're not huffing the same dust for weeks). Heat pumps can also usually tolerate down to -15C, though of course their efficiency is worse the lower the outside temps are. The alternative is a ground-to-air/water pump, since the temps in the ground tend to be a lot more consistent if you dig down deep enough. Electric heating is more or less consistently the worst option you can pick in terms of efficiency, though it's got the advantage of being relatively simple and being something you can easily shove into an existing build without having to tear up too much. Central air is generally so unheard-of here that I wouldn't even know enough to compare it to central water heating. My gut feeling is that it would, once again, depend on how your home is built. If it's got multiple levels, then it'd probably be easier to find space for water pipes than air ducts, and it'd probably also be easier to insulate water pipes to avoid losing heat if you're moving the heat a long distance from the central furnace. Water also has the advantage that it could be used for heated floors, which are muy bueno. I guess the main advantage of central air would be that I could see it requiring less maintenance than central water, no chance of pipe corrosion(hopefully, unless something goes very wrong), a damaged pipe wouldn't lead to water damage, etc. and you wouldn't need to give up any wall space for radiators.
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May 2, 2021 13:04
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gwrtheyrn posted:Blackberry thickets and fun are not usually words that I associate with each other. ...am I the only person in the world who loves blackberry thickets? They're free berries. Plus if you have a blackberry thicket instead of a lawn you don't have to mow it, just lop off a few creepers when it tries to escape whatever containment zone you have for it.
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May 14, 2021 02:14
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Elviscat posted:I'll have to build it a cute little roof when it warms up above freezing. Oh yeah, preventing snow from actually piling up directly on the unit is a pretty important thing for keeping it actually functional. Just be careful not to enclose it too much, as that'll hurt its efficiency by impeding air flow.
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Dec 31, 2021 10:28
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God, those racks are my bane. Every so often they inexplicably become popular and we get a horde of idiots descending on the store complaining that our plumbing supplies are built for, you know, plumbing, rather than for making their coat rack construction easier.
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Feb 21, 2022 11:02
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Elviscat posted:The black iron fittings selection at my local Lowes suggests it's the #1 use for black iron pipe these days. Here black iron pipe is usually used for central water heating since, being deoxygenated, the water doesn't need galvanized pipe to avoid corroding the hell out of them. And the problem is that, yes, everyone wants to use the black pipe for it, but of course the only "foot" fittings we have are in galvanized iron.
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Feb 21, 2022 22:14
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Elviscat posted:You still use black iron for everyday plumbing? That's wild. How is it deoxygenated, vacuum? Steam blanket? N2 blanket? I never thought such a thing would exist for potable water, though I've seen all the above used for pure water used in steam and reactor plants. The thing about central heating water is that it's the same water endlessly recirculating except when you maybe add a liter or two each year to replace overpressure losses, so while there's plenty of oxygen in it going in, and that oxygen is going to be used for oxidizing the pipes, it's such a small amount compared to fresh water coming from outside constantly, and once the oxygen's been bound once, it can't be bound twice. Obviously the water used for drinking, showering, etc. is full of plenty of oxygen, thus galvanized iron pipes. What's getting more common is that everything is in PEX these days, though, if it's new constructions(but with plenty of old constructions if they're already black iron or galvanized, you usually keep using that unless it's a major renovation), or copper or steel cinch fittings. Often depends on who's doing the work and whether it's visible or not. Hidden installations are always PEX because they're easier to work with, visible installations tend to be steel/copper/aluPEX cinch fittings because they look nicer. Of course, if it's Joe Jackass doing his own DIY project, he won't have access to cinch fittings and powered cinchers most of the time, so it's going to be all PEX, copper compression or iron. Also... plastic for natural gas? loving yikes. That's always done in metal pipes here. My brain insists that plastic piping is too easily busted for those applications, or will become brittle with time or some such thing.
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Feb 21, 2022 22:46
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Motronic posted:I don't think those were actually plastic pipes he saw. Sounds like CSST, which is corrugated stainless steel jacketed in plastic. On the one hand, I want to believe. On the other hand, I have experienced first-hand how absolutely zero respect for gas some people have. If you don't have a license to work with The Air That Kills People, don't try to gently caress with The Air That Kills People.
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Feb 22, 2022 00:31
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Yow, that looks old. I recommend getting a blowtorch ready, heating the connection can sometimes make it easier to get apart, both because it expands things, softens them and also because it'll eventually burn away some of the old flax in the join, making it less tight.
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Mar 11, 2022 20:51
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With that little space to work I'd probably have considered unmounting the toilet just to be able to swing the big wrench around properly. Good job, though!
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Mar 12, 2022 10:27
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It's still impressive seeing the changes from when you started to now.
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Jul 10, 2022 08:32
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Blackberries rule.
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Sep 4, 2022 23:46
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At this point, how much of the original house is actually left?
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Apr 8, 2024 20:15
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Elviscat posted:If I had burned it down 5 years ago I'd probably be done by now. lmao, I was gonna say, it would've been easier to flatten it and start over.
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Apr 8, 2024 20:28
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| # ¿ May 14, 2024 16:58 |
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Shame about the neighbour clearing land, the wilderness in the area looked nice.
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Apr 21, 2024 00:48
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