How to wire electric blinds (UK) I'm looking to purchase 4 remote controlled blackout roller blinds in the UK.

I'd like to have them connected to 4 switches in a single grid plate, so they match my light switches.

I'd like each switch to control a blinds individually (using a 3 position retractive switch - up/down/off).

I know that the motor used is basically a 2-core - 2 wires that would connect back to the appropriate control module to supply the voltage to drive the motor in one direction or the other:

A +24Vdc supply will result in the motor driving in direction 1 (i.e. blind open)
A -24Vdc supply will result in the motor driving in direction 2 (i.e. blind close)
Removing the voltage will stop the motor (i.e. stop the blind at a mid point between open and close)

Can you suggest the best way to wire this - I assume wired to a master controller that takes a mains feed and powers all the blinds or something similar? Any ideas what I could use?

Anyone who has seen a wiring diagram would be really appreciated!

Thanks!

Figure 1. (a) 3-wire circuit. (b) 2-wire circuit.

You need a 3-way (as in "positions"), 2-pole, centre-off, switch for each blind. ( Note that "3-way switch" in North America means a two-way changeover switch as used in stairs lighting.)
Figure 1a shows how to wire it with three wires assuming the end-of-travel switches are installed in the motor mechanism. As drawn, the motor will run until the open position is reached. The OPEN limit-switch will open and stop the motor. By switching SW1 the motor will run until the CLOSED switch opens upon which the motor will stop.
Figure 1b shows how to reduce wiring to 2-wire by the addition of a pair of diodes. As shown, current will flow through D1 until OPEN opens, as before. When SW3 is reversed current can flow through the CLOSED switch and D2.

We have no idea if the switches or diodes are in your blinds mechanism at this time.


How can I cut this recessed PVC pipe? The top of this pipe is gouged where it needs to seal with the new shower base.
I need to trim off a few inches from this pipe so I can glue on a clean piece. the hole is 10" square. The pipe diameter is 2 3/8".
What's the best tool I can use that will fit in the hole.

Follow up, I ended up using the dremel with a diamond disk. I used a hose clamp on the pipe to keep the cut straight. Lot of great suggestions but this tool I had so no need to run out to the store.

When I had to do this for our basement I used an "Inside Pipe Cutter", a fancy bit that fits into your standard drill. Looks something like this:
You chuck it in your drill, put the blade at the height you want on the interior of the pipe, and run the drill, cutting through the sidewalls. Won't be 100% perfectly straight unless you have a very steady hand, but for this application it doesn't need to be perfect.  There are versions that have a large disk that rides along the top of your pipe to make straighter cuts, if you really think you need it. I chose the style depicted since it's commonly available at Big Blue and Big Orange
If you need to cut off more of the pipe than this tool reaches, do it in multiple passes.


House wired with Cat5e, but no central access? In every room of my home, there is an outlet with three connections: coax, Cat5e RJ45, and an RJ11 for phones. I unscrewed the outlet and noticed that all of the wires seem to be heading up towards the attic.

I did a very brief check of my attic (just took a peek from the ladder), but all I could see were valleys and mountains of insulation. If the wires end here, I would have to literally go hunting for them under the insulation. Why would the wires terminate here? Is this common?

I've searched all over my house, but there is no central point where the ethernet cords lead to.

I'm guessing the wires end somewhere in the attic, but I can't fathom why the master builders would lead them all up here and then stop. Is it common for a prewired home to leave it up to the owner to further wire them to a central location closet?

If you don't have a basement and the builder didn't want to put a cover plate in a closet somewhere, the attic is the only place left inside.

It is very common for a builder to simply run the low voltage wires and leave them un-terminated. A builder can say "wired for cable\internet" without any terminations being made. Hopefully there's an outlet somewhere up there because you'll need power for the router and if you're lucky there's a breaker you can toggle instead of having to climb back up there to reset it.

If you find coiled lengths all piled-up in some location, the builder might have planed on dropping them down one of the walls, otherwise have fun making all the connections hunched over in your attic and dealing with having equipment up there.

Why are most of my cable/coax wires disconnected?

This would be no different than many people's basements I've seen.


Re-Pointing Fieldstone Foundation I purchased my 110 year old colonial house 6 months ago. It has a field stone foundation that looks completely original (with a few small repairs). The house is located in North Eastern Massachusetts and is exposed to the worst of the elements around here. This has lead to the walls of the foundation starting to crumble, the mortar is loose on most of the wall and unstable. I can peel pieces off with my fingers. When I "knock" on the joints it almost sounds hollow. this is widespread throughout the basement. However the walls seem solid enough.

My question... I want to sure up these walls. I want to get a more water/rodent tight perimeter.

What are the steps I need to take?
How much of the old mortar should I remove? if I removed all of the "loose stuff" it seems like this project would take months! years even!
What kind of mortar can I use as a replacement? I read online that its bad to use Portland cement? Best to use Type N Lime mortar?
What tools will I need?
Is this a do-it-yourself job? or should I hire someone?

thanks for any info... getting really nervous about this project!

I have recently researched this for my granite foundation. There's quite a lot of info on the internet on this topic, but here's what I can answer based on my experience:

You will only need the most basic tools: a throwel, joint filler and somewhere to mix the mortar. I also recommend getting masonry hawk to hold the mortar while you are repointing

This can easily be a DIY project as there's nothing complicated or requiring expensive tools. It will definitely take a long time. I usually work on my foundation just a few hours a week and there's still quite a lot left. The process is pretty tedious but I find it relaxing. It is probably best to work in small sections so you do not destabilize the whole foundation. I typically remove crumbling old mortar with the joint filler, vacuum the cavity, spray with water and fill it with the new mortar.

I think fieldstone is pretty soft, so even type N mortar might be too hard.  You might want to look at type o or type k

If you decide to hire someone, I would make sure that they know and understand old masonry and techniques.


Change location of water heater I have a gas water heater inside my home at the moment. I am planning for the work to remove it, and install a new electrical tank-based water heater, at a different location.
The new location is just on the opposite wall of the current location. It already has hot water and cold water pipes (that are currently simple taps). These pipes are the same diameters as the pipes currently going in and out of the current was water heater.
My plan is to close the pipes that are currently going in and out of the gas water heater (with a simple cap - I do not have the skills to properly crush them with a machine, and there is not enough space to do so). The length of these pipes will therefore become unused.
I am not sure how this will play out, but I imagine this could result in the length of these 2 pipes containing stagnant water : they will be filled in the first time I turn water on after installation of the new, electrical, water heater and then the water in there might not ever be used because it's a dead end.
Should I be concerned about that?
Here's a picture of the current gas water heater:

no. my house has had a much longer capped hot-water stub line for 50 years and there have been no problems with it.
In the dark inside a pipe clean water does not become stagnant.


Why does my food truck trip GFCI outlets only when a grounded cord is used? I have a food truck with a 60 amp service installed. When I plug into a GFCI with an ungrounded cord it works fine. But when I plug into GFCI with grounded plug it trips immediately. Please help.

GFCI's work by measuring the current going out on the hot wire and the current coming back on the neutral. If there is more than ~5ma of current difference they trip.

So, if it does not trip when you use the 2 wire cord and then trips with a grounded cord, that tells me your equipment or cord has a problem. If it trips with just the cord with nothing attached to it, then the cord seems to be the problem and you should try another cord.

If a piece of a equipment has a ground fault problem and is leaking current to the ground wire, then a two wire cord continues to work, while a three wire cord allows the current to leak to ground and trips the GFCI.

This is a dangerous situation and should be corrected immediately. That is the purpose of the GFCI. It tells you when your equipment has a problem. Repair it now.

Good luck!


Are Porter Cable 20v and 20v Max batteries interchangeable? I have this drill and batteries and am wondering if it would fit a PORTER-CABLE 20V MAX Random Orbital Sander.

You'll need to check your battery model against page 8 of the compatibility chart.


How Is "Super Laminate" flooring installed? I recently learned about AABSO "Super Laminate" flooring (aka Vinyl flooring planks). It seems to have some advantages over standard laminate flooring when it comes to moisture resistance so I'm considering it (especially for our kitchen).

For some reason, I haven't been able to find installation instructions for it. Can someone summarize the procedure? Is it the same tongue-and-groove implementation as standard laminate? Or completely different?

-M

It seems to depend on the range of flooring that you choose.  I found a video on YouTube showing it without the tongues, and I also found a seller with some photographs showing the tongues on the edges of a piece.

This review backs up that assessment:

  Loose Lay Vinyl Plank Flooring (you literally can just unbox the floor and then install without glue or
  anything!)

  Mid Level Vinyl Plank Flooring (this clicks together like laminate flooring and is INCREDIBLY well milled)

  High End Vinyl Plank Flooring (This is a wide planked handscraped floor that looks like wood and has a depth of  visual detail that can not be beat)


How useful is double-glazed glass for sound and heat insulation in a semi-tropical climate? I'm located in Bombay/Mumbai, and I've been trying to figure out what windows I should install for soundproofing and heat insulation.

I was talking to someone who does consultation for uPVC windows. He said that
double-glazed glass (two sheets of glass with an inert gas in between) was almost useless from the point of view of sound insulation. He said double-glazed glass was mostly useful for heat insulation.

He also said that in a Bombay climate, heat insulation was not that useful For people who don't know, the climate here gets up to around the high 30s C, say like 38 C or so max, but never gets cold enough to require heating sources.  So, the question is whether double glazing is useful in these sorts of conditions. In this case one would be trying to stop the heat from coming in, particularly during the summer.

So, his recommendation was that of 12 mm toughened glass, vs a double-glazed approach, which would be like 5 mm + 6 mm glass sheets, separated by a 12 mm gas enclosure.

I'm sceptical about this, so I am asking here. I had a number of other people recommend double-glazed glass as though it was the natural solution. I did find some support for this statement from this random web page - http://www.stormwindows.co.uk/index.php?id=42, which says

  Typical 4mm toughened glass will provide a mean noise reduction of Rm
  = 27dBA while double glazing with a 12mm hermetically sealed air-filled cavity, again using 4mm toughened glass, gives Rm = 29dBA.
  This 2dBA difference in sound intensity between single and double
  glazing would barely noticeable for the average person, thus
  demonstrating that standard double-glazing is not always a suitable
  and cost effective solution for noise insulation.

Of course, one should not believe everything one reads online. So, I'm asking here if anyone can direct me to reputable sources about this.

One additional concern is whether the gas can escape over time, in the case of double-glazed glass.

The important comparison is not between double glazed and single glazed windows. It is between specific windows and their specifications because there are high quality single glazed windows and low quality double glazed windows and even among one group or the other, thermal and acoustical performance can vary with manufacturer and part number.

Generally speaking and so long as the sash is not open, double glazed windows will offer superior thermal performance because the separated panes inhibit heat transfer by conduction. As a relatively mature product with several decades of manufacturing and installation history, seal failure that allows the dissipation of the inert gas is not usually a problem with products from established manufacturers.

The American Architectural Manufacturers Association has well established standards for windows and doors. The Window and Door Manufacturers Association is another resource. Their building science is sound. Similar resources exist in other regions.


What type of switch is this? I am trying to replace the switch in my space heater, but am unsure what type it is to do a search for it. It has three terminals one one side and 2 on the other.

This part is from a Duraflame heater (Model: DFH-NH-1-T).

I was able to find this site: http://www.czjinhe.com/english/content/product5.htm

Which show some information about your switch and might sell it. I used this query with google: zhongling pa66 xk-2 switch


How do I move my sheave pulley vertical with the bottom door bracket? I just recently purchased a house and the garage doors need some work (Replace wheels with silicon for less noise, etc..). While I'm at it I also want to change the stationary sheave pully so that the wire connecting the door to the pully is no longer in front of the door and I can move the sensors to be on the track itself instead of attached to the floor with 2x4s.

Do I need a new track piece, track flag bracket, or both in order to fix this? If I need a new track piece, can I find it at my local hardware store?

Just screw that two-by vertically on the wall, or mount the bracket directly to the wall. That's why that bracket is adjustable, so that you can extend it out in front of the track so it can see the corresponding sensor.

Like this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fd25t6i72XU


Replacing old 4-way switch I have a old 4-way switch whose toggle broke and now needs replacing (see attached).  My problem is I can't figure out the wire mapping.  All 4 wires are yellow.  I guess the ones on top are for 1 3-way switch and the bottom for the other, so I could keep the top for the brass screws on a new 4-way.  Am I making this too complex?  Never replaced a 4-way before.  Thx.

"all 4 wires are yellow" -> an electrician after my own heart!  Those are my preferred colors.
Here is how 4-ways are wired.

As you see, the yellow wires (yours actually are that color) come from 2 different places. A pair of yellows comes from one place, and a pair of yellows comes from another place.
Your setup will be in conduit, since nobody makes yellow-yellow-red cables... and much of Chicagoland requires metal conduit.  (that's why there are no ground WIRES; the metal conduit is a superb ground).
So it's as simple as identifying the two pairs.  That's easy because each pair will be in a different pipe.  Hook up the 2 black screws to one pair.  It's downhill from there.

If they're all in one pipe, then yikes. The installer should have done something to mark them as pairs.  Look for black and brass screws on the old switch.
Worse comes to worst, if you have to decrypt this, make a test apparatus. Lop the plug end off a $2 extension cord, and plug a night light into it. Simple night light, not a smart light-sensor job.  Split the wires for about 8" and strip the ends. Mark the ribbed wire white and the non-ribbed wire black.
Illegally attach the white wire to the metal of the junction box, i.e. by abusing a mounting screw.  Connect the black to one of the yellows.  (all with the power off, of course).
Turn the power on, and see if the light lights.  Then run around and flip 1 switch at a time, checking in between every switch throw.  If that light comes on in certain switch positions, you have identified a supply-side yellow.  Turn off power and do it all again with the other 3 yellows to identify the other supply-side yellow.  Now, mark those two with black electrical tape for next time!


Can I run NM-B inside EMT conduit for protection? If I'm adding some new receptacles to a garage, and the wiring will be run surface-mounted to walls and ceilings, I think protecting the wiring with EMT conduit is probably a wise way to go.

I'm seeing some conflicting information as to whether it's OK to run NM-B (e.g. romex) inside EMT tubing. The more typical application is individual THHN conductors inside EMT. Rather than having to buy two types of wiring, is it OK to run the NM-B inside the EMT? Are there any special considerations?

In full EMT installations, it would be very hard to pull romex through EMT.  Also, if you need to rewire or add additional wires, it would be near impossible to do without taking everything apart. It's definitely okay to do, in fact it's required to protect cable from damage.

2008 NEC - 334.15 Exposed Work says, "Cable shall be protected from physical damage where necessary by rigid metal conduit, intermediate metal conduit, electrical metallic tubing. . . ."  See also Can Romex (NM-B) be run through conduit?

An option, which may be appropriate for you, is you can run regular NM-B along the wall close to the ceiling, and come down to your box with EMT.  This way your cable is protected from physical damage where it's needed, but you don't need a full EMT installation.  They make clamps which secure NM cable to EMT ends.   You don't want to overfill your conduit, as heat build might be an issue.

In my experience wiring my house, in the end I found it was best to do a full EMT installation and run THHN though it.  It is frustrating that 500 feet of White/Black/Green 12 gauge THHN is not cheaper than 500 feet of 12/2 Romex.


Supporting Shower Mixer with Silicone - is this acceptable? I recently asked a plumber to fit a new shower. For some reason he used a large lump of silicone to support the middle of the shower:

Is this acceptable? Is it safe? Whenever I move the shower handle the whole shower flexes and the pipework moves back and forward. See this video:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B7AFK9NIKSRNa0RGdmU2a3diR1E

I don't know why he did this. The shower is supposed to look like this:

Edit: Here is a link to the shower's instruction manual http://wickes.scene7.com/is/content/travisperkins/Mixer-Showers-Wickes-Classic-Manual-Mixer-Shower-Adjustable-Riser-Kit-Chrome-White~T3274_190463_TECH_0

Is this acceptable?

No, if you paid money for this installation, it is unacceptably poor work.

The central part and where pipes enter the wall should be covered by decorative rings. The central valve body should be firmly secured to the structure of the wall. Any visible silicone sealant should be no more than a thin bead to prevent water penetrating the surface.

  Is it safe?

No, water can leak through there and cause hidden rot or mould to develop.


Can a 15 amp electrical switch be used to replace a push button switch for garage door opener? My garage door opener switch was run to a 3 gang box and just dangles through the opening in the switch cover plate. Can I use a 15 amp switch to open/close the garage door or do I need some other type toggle switch?

A switch can be used for any voltage from it's rating or less, voltage wise. Thing is, a garage door opener button is momentary, where a wall switch is maintained. There is the possibility of damage if you leave a switch in the on position too long in an application like this. I wouldn't do it.

The problem you have is that someone ran this low-voltage wire in the box with the line voltage wiring. This assumes the wiring is something like thermostat wire or what came with the opener.

I would remove the wiring from that box and mount a regular opener button to the wall.

And @gregmac makes a good point. If this opener is newer, as in maybe ten years or less, then a regular switch may not work, or at least it will not give you all the functions that the opener offers.


Outside cap for exhaust fan What is the best cap to use for a thru-wall bathroom exhaust fan install? The ducting is 4" smooth aluminum.
Winters here are brutal. I'm concerned about wind sucking the cap flaps open, letting in cold air. Thanks.

I have two bath fans that are the inline style, 1 for each bathroom. one fan is 4" solid duct end to end, the more powerful uses a 6" solid duct end to end.
From the vent side in the bathroom ceiling, there is a butterfly damper that remains closed due to gravity and lifts up when the bath vent is turned on. On the exhaust side, the 4" bath fan has a plastic hooded exhaust cap, while the 6" duct has a plastic louvered cap.
I would say on very windy days, my 4" duct probably opens up, as I can hear my damper lift up and down sometimes.
I also recently installed a new dryer duct, 4" diameter, where I used a heavier gauge exhaust cap which is damper style, with magnets. This cap could probably work for a bath fan, as long as the fan is powerful enough to lift up the damper flap. I used this one.
I would try adding a damper inline and a beefier exhaust cap.


Leaking roof valley strategy UPDATE: New album with additional photos here: http://imgur.com/a/RGfrP

My parent's house has a pretty bad leak that has been going for a few years.  Because of money and other issues with the house I need to try do an improvement myself if at all possible.  Getting a new roof (or house, since everything else is outdated/has an issue) may be possible down the line but not right now.

One thing slightly in my favor is this is in San Diego so it rains infrequently.

I have included some pictures.  In the last you can see where I pulled some of the ceiling down where it was mostly soft/mushy.  Asbestos test was negative.

Estimators have suggested the issue is definitely with the valley and one of them recommended I could install flashing in/along/under (not sure what he meant) the valley to improve the situation.  I purchased a roll of aluminum flashing.  I am not clear on exactly where to put it though.

The examples I see on youtube when I search 'roof valley' don't have such a low slope or the part where it goes up/horizontally again like that.  The ones I saw were mostly just one smooth seem.  If it was like that then I have some tutorials on doing underlayment, flashing, trimming shingles for a normal valley.  But I haven't seen an example quite like my roof.

Thanks so much for any advice.

Yeah, that roof's pretty beat. I'd actually go heavily at that seam with Mortar Caulk (its gritty & gray), the whole length of the seam if you don't know where the leak is. But, spraying a hose at the seam & very slowly moving the spray up the seam should give you a good idea of the problem area.

Still caulk the whole seam, but then do under the shingles in the leak zone. Be careful & don't pry them anymore if they're brittle & chunks start snapping off. I caulked a flat roof in the rain 3-years ago & it still hasn't let in a drop.


How to prevent leaving hot tap/faucet running? Occasionally one of us in our house leaves the hot tap/faucet running, and sometimes this can be overnight, which is costly.

Any good ideas on how to prevent this?

So far I've thought of these:

Set up some kind of electronic alarm which detects heat or running
water and sounds after a few minutes.  But this could be quite hard
for me to set up, and would probably use batteries all the time - more cost and work to monitor and change occasionally.
Set up some kind of simple alarm which detects heat or running water without much electronics (e.g. a rubber band on the hot water pipe, or the waste pipe, which should tighten as it heats up, thus triggering a switch which completes a circuit and sounds an alarm).  I like this kind of idea, but my tests so far show no noticable change in length of a rubber band after running the hot tap for a while, when wrapped around these pipes, so I'm not sure I can get this to work.  An alternative could be to use metal which bends in one direction when heated (I think this has 2 strips of different types of metal which expand at different rates with heat, glued together size-by-side).
Install some kind of whistle on the taps, so they make a noise when they run.  But aside from the irritating noise (especially at night), I doubt these would work with very slow water flows (e.g. which could even be a fast drip).
Prevent people from using the hot tap (e.g. duct tape the hot tap    handle).  Not very user-friendly, and then they'll probably leave the cold tap    running, which is also not ideal.

Thoughts?

The very best solution for this is to install the newest type of faucet that has an infrared sensor that detects your hands near the faucet and turns on the water. When the hands leave the area of the faucet the water turns back off.

These generally operate on a battery so no special wiring is needed and as I understand the batteries last a good length of time. You can find many examples of these faucets online by using search terms of:

Automatic Faucet

Sensor Faucet

Touchless Faucet


How to taper a flat roof for a slight fall I'm building a flat roof (3.6m x 3m) and I've purchased some treated timber firring strips which go from 100mm to 0 along the length. These will be placed directly on the joists.

I will then add ply, vapour barrier, insulation, OSB3, then roof covering.

If the fall were from the back to the front, with a rainwater gutter along the front, this would be a very simple thing to do. I could simply lay the firring strips from back to front, and the ply would create a slight ramp on one plane.

However my problem is that I don't want a gutter along one side, but rather a downpipe near one of the front corners.

Should I have the main fall / ramp from back to front, then a slight fall at the front from one side to the drainpipe side?

Or should I attempt to create a fall in 2 directions at the same time?

If I imagine a 2-plane fall, with a split across the diagonal (top right to bottom left of pic below) this seems ideal, however the firring strips need to bear on the joists and I want to avoid having to create additional support between joists for diagonal firring strips.

It goes without saying that the full weight of the roof bears on the firring strips, and they are far too thin (in places) to carry that weight across any gap. They can only run along and atop joists.

You do not want a roof to puddle or otherwise impound or store water.  The slope of the "flat" roof must be steep enough to assure this doesn't happen, even with the normal build tolerances and settling which will occur. With that in mind...

Close your eyes and imagine your perfect roof line.  Now imagine the existing joists are tall enough to reach your perfect roof line.  That gap is what you need to fill with firring strips.   I would not worry about the crosswise slope of the firring strips, that won't matter much.  Just get the longitudal slope correct.

And each firring strip will be custom.  That's how it is.

How on earth do you lay that out?  Computers are no help.  Computers only help you automate what you already know how to do.  They don't solve problems for you.  So close Google Sketchup and grab a piece of graph paper.  Old-school! Let's revisit how you slope a roof the simple way: suppose our code requires 2 in 100 slope.

OK, so we want to fold the roof so it tends (tends!) to dump in a corner.  It's not as simple as simply having two 2% planes intersect, because the intersection will be less than 2% (whoops).  But let's divide and conquer.  To make sure we keep our Code required 2/100 slope, let's strike out at the diagonal first.  A 45 degree diagonal is 1.414 times longer (Pythagorean theorem) so at 2% rise and 100 square, we must rise 2.88 on the diagonal (3 is good).  So let's strike that first.

The rest of the roof needs the same minimum slope.

Next, since the roof is basically two planes intersecting, we are able to interpolate (fill in gap numbers) within each plane.  That is a matter of 0 x 6 y 12 z "fill in the missing numbers".  Don't interpolate across a plane boundary.

The math gets a little more complicated if you're not on 45 degree angles.  You may need to roll out Pythagorus's theorem again.

Now follow the lines of the joists. That reveals the shape your firring strips must be.  It's funny, even though this started complicated, it ended simple.  That happens.  You can do any design or complexity of roof this way.  The key is knowing where your planes are, so you know where to transition.

It's up to you whether you cut the firring strips custom, or composite them out of pre-made layers (e.g. a 3% taper on top of a piece 6 thick).

From your roof and your materials, you will have to figure out whether to try to bend your plywood/OSB around the bend(s), or cut.  If you cut, consider reinforcing it so you don't have weak edges unsupported.


Borescope recommendations (features) I'd love to get a borescope, but I've never used one. Should I try to find a place to rent one first (does such a place even exist?) or should I bite the bullet and buy one? What features should I be looking for?

Specifically, I want one to be able to examine inside walls in preparation for running wire, (i.e., Cat 6, coax, ROMEX).

This one has really good reviews on Amazon, for what it's worth.  It comes with 3 attachments: a hook, a mirror, and a magnet, all of which sound like nice things to have.  There are also extension cables available for going longer distances inside the wall (the included cable is 3 feet).  Here's a pic:

The price seems really reasonable at $160 (as of Nov. 2010).  My guess is that if you went to rent one, you'd be limited to more commercial-grade models and that if you wanted to keep it for a few days you'd be looking at something close to that just in rental charges.


Lightweight lumber or lumber alternative for building a 6'x7' portable privacy screen? I'm planning to build a privacy screen to be attached between two posts of the pvc railing of a composite deck. I want the attachment to be temporary so that it can be removed and stored during winter months. The privacy screen will be approximately 6 feet wide and 6 or 7 feet tall.  I would like it to be made with boards 4" to 6" wide by 6 feet long placed horizontally across the 6 foot width (like a horizontal fence).  There will be a space of an inch or two between each board.

I'm looking for material suggestions.  I would like to use composite decking for this but the boards are very heavy.  I'm considering using PT pine boards but I don't know if I'm overlooking better options in lumber or in a lightweight composite material that I am unfamiliar with.

I prefer to see the wood grain so stain rather than paint and prefer the wood to be free of excessive knots. The boards can be as thin as possible while remaining sturdy.  I would guess no less than 1/2 inch thick.  Over the 6 foot length, I'm planning to have 3 or 4 vertical supports - something like 2x3s.

I would also like some suggestions on temporary fasteners.  I am considering heavy duty wire ties to avoid drilling into my posts.  Any other ideas?

I would stick with plastic rather than wood.  It will last longer, retain its appearance, it's cleanable, it's lighter, it doesn't warp or split, and it's easy to work with.  Most of the external trim on houses is cellular PVC.  You can get thin planks or cut them from a sheet.  Companies like Azek and CertainTeed make endless varieties and are sold at building supply stores.  Chains like Home Depot and Lowes have in-house brands.

A slightly different design: use PVC slats made for "faux wood" window blinds.  The slats are very thin and light, and 2" and 2 1/2" are commonly available widths (you would just need more of them).  They are much thinner than the thinnest available trim boards and sheets, so they flex a lot more. You would probably want a solidly made frame to mount them on, with a vertical support maybe every 2' or so.

In terms of mounting the screen, wind will be a problem.  That amount of surface area will result in a lot of force when the wind blows.  It will need securing at many points, and best at the top and bottom.  I've used very heavy duty zip ties, but they deteriorate in the sun, become brittle, and break after a few years (probably sooner if under heavy stress from the wind).  You'd need to replace those each season.

Another idea: use vinyl siding for the planks.  Trim off the mounting strips so you only see the "planks".  If you are concerned about the appearance on the back side, use another set there.  Alternative: use PVC cement to glue the siding back to back to create a hollow "board".  If you don't want to see the ends, which would give away the illusion, cover the sides with a trim strip.  You can get the siding in any finish or color you want.


How do you remove Minwax stainable wood filler? Recently my husband and I (who both have no idea what we are doing obviously) just got done redoing our wood floors throughout our entire house. Everything turned out great excpet for the few areas that I applied minwax stainable wood filler.  Well it's NOT stainable and I learned the hard way.  Our floors are a dark walnut color and the filler is almost white or light cream.  It looks horrible and the filler is cracking in spots.  It's in a high traffic area. The floor also has been gone over with poly.

How can I just remove the wood filler without damaging our floor?

There is really only one way to rid yourselves of the "white" fill spots. You will need to carefully dig out a small amount of the filler so only dark wood is showing around the edges. You don't need to remove all the filler from the original hole. Buy a pre-colored filler crayon, Minwax and others make them. Match the color of the filler stick to your floor color. Sand a small area around your repair with fine sandpaper, an inch or two is plenty.  Fill the indent with the matching colored filler, smooth it well and put a couple of coats of urethane over the repair, feathering the urethane into the existing urethane finish. A foam brush would be good for this purpose.  Good luck.


Add an outlet to the end of a partially-switched circuit I am wanting to add an outlet to (what I believe is) the end of a switched circuit. There is only one set of 4 wires coming in to my existing outlet (black, red, neutral, ground). I don't need my new outlet to be switched, so I'm thinking I don't need to run the red wire to my new outlet. Is that correct? I have sketched out what I believe to be the correct wiring connection below.

Also, if I'm not continuing the switch, do I need romex cable with the red wire? Or, can I just use 14/2 cable with black, neutral, and ground?

Thanks in advance!

Right on the money!

You might consider running /3 cable anyway.  Every bedroom in our house has a long extension cord circumnavigating the room because the switched outlet (instead of a proper overhead light) is not in the roght place for how we fit out the room. You can just cap off the unused red wire. A future use of the room could swap wires so the switched outlet is in the new location and the present outlet is all unswitched.  The hard part is getting wire into the walls!


Need help buying the right sized off-grid solar system I'm planning on using solar power to supply electricity to a 12x24' building. This building will be located near our main house, but will have no connections to the house, electrical or otherwise. It won't be connected to our utility's power grid, so there aren't considerations for tying it in.
I've done as accurate an estimate as I can, and figure I'll have a peak load of 2524 watts. I plugged some data in to a solar contractor's system calculator and it gave me this info, based on our location in central Arkansas:

kWh per month: 288 kWh
Sun hours: 3.76 hours/day
System size: 3.06 kW
Wh per day: 9590

I'm looking for some help making sense of those numbers. (I have an EE degree, so I understand electricity and electronics, but some of the numbers related to solar power are foreign to me.) For example, I'm looking at a system that is an "800W 24V solar panel off grid system kit with 8 100W mono solar panels, a 1500W 24V-110V Inverter, 200Ah Battery, and 60A PWM charge controller".
Will that system power my building based on the needs I listed? Does the output of the inverter (1500W in this case) need to be greater than my projected peak load of 2524W? It seems to me it would need to be, but I'm new at this.

There's no magic here. Plenty of engineering, though.
Yes, the inverter output needs to be greater than your peak load.
Not only that, your battery bank size needs to be adequate that the peak load is not exceeding the battery bank charge drawdown rate. Hint, yours is not - you're contemplating drawing over 100 amps at 24 volts off a 200AH battery, or C/2 - that needs to be about 10 times bigger for the usual C/20 that solar storage batteries are designed to tolerate.
That's harder with cheap but fussy lead acid batteries and easier with expensive but tolerant (except where they are not) lithium batteries. In both cases reducing your peak load is usually the most cost-effective option before any others.
Off-grid solar is expensive. In many locations, the "average full sun-hours per day" is a lovely figure that is essentially useless for the month you have to design for (in my area, November - gray and terrible from a solar point of view. If you can make it through November here, other months are easy, but enough solar input and batteries for a non-grid-tied November is daunting/expensive.) That also means that you have excess power (and no grid connection to sell it) most other months.
Those cheap but fussy lead acid batteries have limited lifetime and limited tolerance for being deeply discharged, which is one thing that makes the ongoing "cost per kilowatt hour" significantly higher than grid electricity, in most cases. The popularity of grid tie is in part because it's like having a really, really good battery 99+% of the time, and the maintenance is just paying for your connection fee, which is usually a lot less than paying for a few tons of batteries every few years (perhaps longer if you are very careful with them.)
I spent a while designing a solar system for my place, since the power company and neighbors were being uncooperative (the power line is not quite on the road, so an easment to get it to the road and then to my place was needed.) It was a heck of a lot of money. Fortunately the neighbor situation changed, and then the power company became cooperative, and it was still a heck of a lot of money to get the grid, but it was a lot less money than off-grid would have been, and lacked some of the limitations (I was going to have to have a generator to run for heavy loads that could not be reduced.)


How to deal with soil erosion under slab floor of garage? There is a small crack extending 10 feet down the center of the slab floor of my garage.  The floor sounds hollow when I hit it with a 2x4.  Also, there is a 4" water drain and I can feel air when I put my fingers under the slab.  It seems the soil under the slab floor has eroded away.  There is a high water table in my neighborhood. Most of my neighbors get water in their basements, but I do not (yet?) The crack does not seem to  have gotten worse over the 5 years I've lived here.  There are bedrooms over the garage.  What, if anything should I do about the floor of my garage?  Thank you.

It doesn't look to me like the slab has shifted, since the crack appears level and isn't terribly wide.  I would contact a concrete contractor, one that specializes in repairs, if there is erosion under the slab they can usually pump a slurry under it to fill in the void. Is your garage floor "Floating"? Look around the edges, if the floor goes under the walls, it's part of the support of the building and you want to consult a professional immediately. If the floor butts up against the wall, it's a "floating" floor and isn't part of the structure, however you may still have erosion under the wall footing, and I would still consult a professional, however a floating floor will be easier for a contractor to break up, install proper drains and such so it won't erode underneath again, and re-pour.

You could get an endoscopic USB camera from Amazon for about $20 that you could probably snake under the slab and inspect it, but I would consult a professional. Most of these types of things are cheap to fix now, but could end up costing thousands to fix later.


How can I find replacement dishwasher parts? We just got a second hand dishwasher but there is a piece missing in the aqua lock water inlet (think that's what its called) that causes leaking.

This missing piece looks like a filter with a black rubber gasket around it. I can't find a replacement part anywhere. Does anyone know where to get one? The missing piece is the red/orange part with a black ring in the picture.

I agree with @BrownRedHawk: find the manual online and then look for the exploded parts view.  You'll find a part number and use that to search.  I actually find most common parts like wheels and stuff on Amazon but for this part you're looking for you may have to look harder.  I have had a lot of success with http://www.searspartsdirect.com/


Can I power my air conditioning with solar energy? In my house I have 3 small air conditioning systems running at 8000 BTU/hour each. I would like to power them with solar energy. I found that I would have to generate:

3.41 BTU/hr = 1 Watt

8000 BTU/hr =  2346 Watts

That means to power the 3 units for 4 hours/day, I would need (2346 Watts* 4 hours/day * 3) = 28152 W*hours/day, or approximately 30 kWh/day.

I checked that in my region, I have 7 hours of sun each day. So to generate 30kWh/day, I will need something like 5kWh/hour = 5000 Watts.

first question:

Are these calculations right?

second question:

Going further, I'm able to generate now (i have 4 * 250 watts solar panels) 1kW, but I generate it 7 days per week, and I use the air conditioners, maybe 2 times/week. Thinking in this scenario, I don't have to be so concerned about how much energy can I generate hourly/daily, but weekly right?

third question:

Another important point here is the batteries where I will store the generated energy right? Any suggestion which kind of batteries set should I use?

Actually your AC is much more efficient than that because it is a heat pump, not a direct conversion of electrical watts in to BTU of heat moved per hour. If you know your SEER rating, you can just divide the BTU/h by SEER to get Watts.

An SEER of 10 is very common so that would mean each AC needs 800 W to move 8000 BTU per hour.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seasonal_energy_efficiency_ratio

BTW, it's good to keep your units straight between energy and power (which is the rate that energy is being used).
Watt-hours and BTU are energy.
Watts and BTU/hour are power.

And your AC is not 8000 BTU, it's 8000 BTU/hour.


What could I use to detect a leaking riser pipe in my apartment? I live in an older 5-story apartment building. The riser pipes which supply hot and cold water as well as the sewage pipe have seen better days. It seems that one of them had sprung a leak, possibly in my apartment. The maintenance guys came and changed a piece, but there's still plenty of old pipe there, just waiting for a chance to rain upon an unsuspecting neighbor.

I'd like to have some sort of alarm in place that would notify me that there's something wet in there. I have easy access to the pipes, so I could just check them every now and then, but... that'll get boring soon and I'll just stop doing it. And if I check them rarely (like once a month) then I'll probably miss the essential moment when things can still be salvaged without needing major repairs in the apartment downstairs.

I'd prefer something low-tech, non-electronic. I pass the place every day, so if I could tell at a quick glance that everything is OK, that would be great. Any ideas?

Here's a picture:

This is almost a shopping question.
 Molecular sieve desiccant, the indicating type would be a non electronic method. This material you could put down kinda like round BB’s or small cylinder shapes . when it turns color Usually from white to blue it’s damp, over time the desiccant will turn colors and it can be put in the oven and bake the moisture out. Many years ago I saw a metal gauge with a disk of desiccant for this exact purpose but did not see one of those with a quick internet search. The  Molecular sieve desiccant can be dried many times. Other than that electronic moisture detecting pads would be the only way I would know how to know at a glance.


Attic Fan Furnace Interlock I want to add a relay to my furnace so the attic fan can't run while the furnace burner is firing.  Am I correct that the 24V side of the relay should be connected to the C and W terminals on the furnace?

I'm not sure why you would want to do that, but paralleling the 24V relay coil to the C and W wire and connecting the attic fan to the normally closed contacts on the relay would achieve what you want to do. I would use a RIB (relay in a box) and make sure all wiring above 50V is protected per NEC. Also make sure your control voltage transformer has enough VA to handle the addition.

Good Luck


240Vac LED Off-Peak power flicker Aussie from NSW here - We recently changed our lounge room light fixture to a modern 6 bulb setup, connected it up to see the nightsun that it was at 640lm per bulb.
We quickly installed a dimmer only to find that around 5 am and 8:30 pm we get a major flicker in all 6 globes. The other LEDs in the house don't have this issue.
I'm putting it down to the Off-Peak power signal being flashed down the line as its a pulsed flash, but the question is; how to correct it?
The GE bulbs are dimmable.

As @user253751 says - it sounds most like the effects of ripple control signals  - high frequency tones used to turn off and on hot water heating and other low priority loads.

Even if it IS ripple control related - it MAY be an interaction between bulb, signal and dimmer. If you place one of the new bulbs at a location where the other LED bulbs do NOT cry out to you, does the effect persist.

_______________________________________

Here are some Australian sources of ripple control filters - and DIY with off the shelf components may be feasible. Also, local electricians should be aware of the effect if it is ripple control related.

Google search here

Here  is a purpose designed $75 Australian solution. Hunter Pacific
ZF-1050 Notch Filter Noise Suppressor

This is far far far too dear for what's inside - but may help.

Note from here

" ... The ripple control filter must be matched to the local signal being output by your electrical company, usually 750Hz or 1050Hz (information of which can be acquired through your electrical company), and must be installed by a licensed electrician.
There may be extreme cases where the ripple control frequency is so strong it requires two filters to be installed to reduce the noise sufficiently and in some locations multiple ripple control frequencies are used also requiring multiple filters. ... "

Useful comment on page 14 here - related to fans but probably relevant

Throughout Australia, but in particular Sydney ... NSW ... , electricity distributors use a remote control and switching system that is commonly called ripple control. ... Ripple control systems superimpose signals on the 50 Hertz mains  ... Electrical equipment such as televisions, toasters, fans, fluorescent and halogen lighting and some appliances may be sensitive to ripple control signals. This results in an audible buzz being generated whenever the signals are present. As different frequencies for these signals are used in different areas, products may respond is some areas and not others. Some areas have more than one ripple control system in operation and different signals may be present at different times and affect different products."
Also: " ... In areas that have ripple control installed for off-peak tariff switching (such as off-peak hot water systems) there is
usually a dual tariff meter installed, or dual meters. A smaller control box marked “Zellweger” may also be present. The
meter or Zellweger box will usually have the ripple control signal frequency marked on it (for example 1050 Hz)."

____________________________________________

It's likely DIY enthusiasts will have established components suited to ripple control filtering. A suitable series inductor (maybe a fluorescent light ballast) and a suitably rated across-mains "X" capacitor of the right values may well be adequate. Off the shelf components designed for residential mains installation are available.

Another possible solution (YMMV) is to use a suitably rated 1:1 ration "isolation transformer" to feed the lighting circuit. This may  work by itself or with a following across mains X-rated capacitor. [ Capacitors connected across mains phase to neutral MUST be rated for such service. X-rated caps (a real term :-) ) are intended for this use. ]


Pilot light keeps going out I have a Coleman mobile home furnace and my pilot light keeps going out.  I have replaced the thermocouple twice, cleaned the orfice, replace the gas regulator with a brand new one, and even crawled up on my roof and checked my Flue, my propane tank is fuel so i know its got propane going into it.  This is what keeps happening.  I get the pilot light lit and it will run and warm the mobile home up and then when it shuts down/cools it may kick back on a couple times but then sometime later the pilot goes back out and i cant figure out why and what is going on.  Can you help me give me any ideas on why it keeps doing this?

Something to look at is the pilot flame itself. It is often adjustable by removing a small screw cover marked plt.adj. or something similar. The thermocouple should be fully immersed and the flame should not be lifting.


Can't find a garden hose that fits Just moved into a new house and the spigot the in backyard is too big for the hose I bought. Is there an adapter or a special hose that can fit this?

That is not a standard garden hose fitting. Instead it looks to be part of a anti-siphon adapter where the other part was unscrewed to reveal the inner section of the unit. The regular hose thread coupling would have been on the down stream part of the missing part.

It will be unlikely that you can find just half of a anti-siphon adapter that would screw on there unless you got rather lucky and happened to find an identical new one and were able to cannibalize it for the missing part.

Also it looks to me that the way that remaining part is corroded that you would not want to keep that part anyway and would likely want to replace with a new one where the anti-siphon feature would actually work correctly.

It would be great if you could provide an additional picture from the side of the valve. Some additional advice may be possible to offer after seeing that. The reason I say that is because I see a knurled portion of the remaining part that looks a lot like a anti-siphon adapter shown in this picture.

This type of adapter is designed to thread onto the regular hose nib of the valve and then the hose attaches to the hose threads shown on the left side of the picture. You may be able to remove the part of the adapter that is still remaining threaded onto your valve.

Do be aware though that some valves are designed with the anti-siphon feature integrated right into the fundamental part of the valve. A side picture would help to identify the situation. I suspect that in your case it is not integrated because I see from your picture there is a rusty hole where the locking set screw from the original part must have been attached. Hopefully the valve itself is a brass valve. An iron one may have rusted so bad that it may be very difficult to remove/replace the defunct anti-siphon adapter.

In case you are wondering...the set screw on the pictured adapter is used to secure the anti-siphon adapter onto the valve threads and keep it from turning when attaching or removing the hose from the opposite end of the adapter.


After staining a deck how long until rain is no longer a concern? I want to stain my deck with an oil based stain it is to be hot and sunny all day today 85 for a high and has been dry for last 3 days tomorrow's forecast say 70% chance of rain should I do this or put off again. I've had my stain since Memorial Day and we haven't had a dry stretch of more than 2 days in which we needed time for the deck to dry to even consider doing the job.

Most oil-based deck stains need at least 24 hours of dry time. High humidity and/or low temperatures will increase that time, so will over-applying the stain. I would not apply it unless I was fairly confident that I had at least 48 hours with no rain. Better to wait.


Hollow-core door shelves bracketed with 3 pieces of 1x1? I want to build shelves for a linens closet. I plan to use hollow core door as the shelf material. The doors are 15" deep, and after cutting will be ~70" long. I need to come up with a way to brace the shelves to the wall.

I had two ideas:

Affix 1x1 lumber to the studs of three walls of the closet as depicted here:

My concerns with this design is: will this provide enough support for the shelves to hold towels and sheets? Or actually, what kind of weight could this design support?

Use shelving brackets like these.

My concerns with this are (This is similar to this question.):
I can only find 12"x14" brackets in an idea price range. Will these sized brackets work with 15" deep shelves ? And how many would I need for 70" of width, with 1x1 only on the short-end walls ?

You should re-consider several of your ideas.

The stripping on the wall is an excellent way to support shelves. However do use something like a 1x3 or 1x4 so that the material has some substance and strength. A 1x1 is just too flimsy, can bow between studs and after accepting one screw through it there is not much meat left to the piece. A wider strip allows for two screws at each stud.
I would purge the idea of using the hollow core doors for shelves. First off for a linens closet where you have multiple shelves the thickness of the doors ends up wasting storage space! Secondly after you cut hollow core doors for length and width you are left with open sides that only will show the internal web of cardboard. That will not standup over time. So unless you intend to re-glue side and end strips back into the edges of the cut off doors I would purge the idea of using them.

With the wall stripping I would think that a decent quality 3/4" plywood would make a much better shelf. If you have concerns of it bowing across the front you can add a 1x2 strip along under the front edge of the shelf that extends the full length. But honestly the plywood will be plenty strong for linens.


how do I replace an unknown brand casement window? this is an old house. it has double paned casement window. some of them are foggy and need to be replaced. I dont know what brand it is. but on the casement window operator, it saids "entrygard truth". not sure if only that operator is made by entrygard or the whole window.

I just want to know if I can just go to homedepot to buy a casement window sash to replace the one I have.  I am not sure if they are all standard.

If your window is in good shape except for the fogginess of the glass, the insulated glass unit (IGU) can be changed out by a glass installer. They will make a house visit, or you can remove the sash and they will replace the IGU in their shop.

There are shops that will "fix" the old unit by drilling a hole in the glass and evacuating the moisture out of the cavity and leave a "breather hole" in the glass. I am sure this works, and a cheap fix too, but I would not hold my breath on this type of repair.


How would i check if my receiver blows speakers I picked up a Yamaha htr-3064 from good will for $14.99. Seamed like quite the steal. Back of the unit says it can take 6 or 8ohms speakers. I had also picked up a pair of Tandy Realistic tower speakers, said 8ohms max. Looked good, mesh was intact and cones were clean. So i hooked them up to the bannana plugs and i had no sound, no crackle or pop. After the fact i opened the speakers up and 1 had noticable charing on a wire going to the cone and no continuity. I then hooked my multimeter to the outputs on the receiver and could hear the music theme from my Playstation. The volume is at -33.5 to hear the start of the beat and around -29 for vocals and other instruments. With distortion and buzzing of the multimeter of course.
If i hear music from my multimeter would that mean my reciever is fine?
What would be the proper way to test that the reciever is not the one to blame?

Generic advice: test the speakers on a known functional system. Test the receiver with speakers known to be functional.
My suspicion is that the speakers are toast.


Why are there two grounding bars in my breaker box? I just purchased a trailer that was used for dog grooming. It is fully wired with for 120 volts AC. All the wires in the breaker box have been disconnected. I have already toned the wires to identify their use. I am going to hook the trailer up to the on board Generator that came with it. I will not be using shore power only the Generator power. When I looked into the breaker box and it has 2 grounding blocks. The block on the left is grounded to the box, the block on the right is not grounded to the box. I am wondering what the block on the right would be for? I am building a food trailer so i want to make sure that everything is grounded properly. Would i connect both the ground and the white to the block on the left? Also the Generator is only a 120 volt AC output. Thank you for your help with this matter.

The isolated bar is intended for Neutral.
If, like many generators, yours has ground and neutral bonded inside the generator, your generator neutral and all neutral wires go to the isolated bar, and the ground wires go to the one connected to the box.
That also sets you up properly for a "shore power" input.
Your hot feed either goes to one of the line inputs and you only use that half of the breaker spaces, or you connect your hot feed to both line inputs with a jumper, since this is 120V only, so there won't be any 240V dual-breakers. The former leaves the ability to connect to shore power (or a larger generator) "properly" and the latter does not (but will work if you are only plugging into a 120V-only shore connection.)


How do I prevent a drop in flow in a system with a pressure tank, 40/60 pressure switch, filter and water softener? I have a well with a 30/55 pressure switch, and I hate the shower pressure. I am redoing the main water appliances with a new pressure tank (going from 20 gallon to 35 gallon), new 40/60 pressure switch, a sediment filter, whole house filter and water softener.

Each appliance uses a 1" hookup and I'm worried about the flow. Should I use 1" PEX equivalent to 3/4 copper or go with 1" CPVC? I'm worried about all these appliances obstructing the flow.

From my well I have a pressure tank, then a sediment filter, then a whole house Morten filter, than a water softener.....with these appliances I don't want to lose flow....each has a 1" hookup on it and feed in is a 3/4 " copper......should I go with cpvc in between 1" or Pex 1"

I will usually feed the home with 1" but then drop down to 3/4" and have not had problems with flow. Most of the plumbing to your sinks is 1/2" and the orifices in the faucets are much smaller so even with the kitchen sink and a bathroom or 2 having there valves open you should not see much of a change in flow at all with 3/4". The one place that will affect the pressure is hose bibs or outside faucets these have much larger passageways in the valve than sinks do. Already mentioned the flow restrictors in shower heads, these are taken out at my house before even installing them. Not long ago I found a flow restrictor in a bath faucet, don't know how filling a tub slower would save water but that came out also. With my shower head restrictions remove our guests mention how nice our pressure is. 60 should be a big improvement over 50 but look at your restrictor if you have any build up issues like lime, scale or rust the head may need a good cleaning that and removing the showerhead restrictor will probably provide the results you want.


Deck Posts Were Covered With Dirt, Dealing With Rot One of the inspection notes from when I bought my home was the dirt making contact with the posts on the deck:
https://ibb.co/album/ju0n3v

I dug out the dirt and it looks like this:  https://ibb.co/album/nBumDv

As you can see in the first two pics, there is some rot at the the base of one of the posts. The other posts did not look as bad. There is one tricky portion in a few pics where you can see the wood running along the dirt.  Now that i've dug out the posts and its raining, some posts just have water pooling by them.  For now, putting the dirt back is better than standing water correct?

How bad does the rot look in that first post?
For the wood thats just running along the dirt, is the best way just to clear some space below it and remove any dirt that's touching the wood?
Should I fill in the cavities that I just created with gravel? If so, what type? I'm concerned I now have area for water to pool and damage even further.  Is there anything else I could do to the posts or fill in the surrounding area to help temporarily alleviate the issue?
Any other thoughts or recommendations?

Thanks

That first post is looking pretty bad. Most deck lumber is not meant to have contact with ground/dirt. The concrete filled holes should have been higher than the existing grade and sloped away from the posts. Filling in the area you dug out will not solve the problem as water will still accumulate. Your best bet would be to get some concrete deck supports and place them over the concrete after cutting off a portion the posts. The remainder part of the posts would go into the concrete supports.

As far as the wood running along the ground, clean it off, reseal it and dig out the area so there's no further contact.
As always, it never hurts to check with local authorities on what to do.


Sheer vs daylight blinds? I suspect it refers to the fabric type, but what do shops mean when they refer to "sheer" blinds as opposed to "daylight" ones?  Here's an example of two similar blinds with these fabrics:

Sheer | Daylight

The "daylight" one looks whiter, but they are not described as "beige" and "white"; is there some other difference in the two fabrics?

Let's look at the language offered.

Sheer

  This sheer blind allows light to flow into a room while offering privacy, so it's a great option for a window that is overlooked.

Daylight

  This daylight blind offers privacy, while still allowing some light into your room.

Comparing the two, it would seem that Sheer is designed to allow maximum light while concealing detail. I assume that shapes may be visible, as they would be in sheer clothing. Daylight apparently allows less light to pass, but probably conceals shapes for greater privacy.


How can I use this timer? At my home I have this timer and I am not sure how to use it. Model seems to be TM8IM-24. I have found a company that sells it but cannot find instructions.

Does anyone knows how to use it or where I can find instructions?

It looks like you pull the red tabs in or out to have the device turn on or off for a given 15 minute interval. I'm guessing the black arrow is pointing to the current time. The switch on the side is to manually turn it on or off (or perhaps permanently off or on the timer). You'll just need to test it to see if the tabs being in or out correspond to on vs off. And to know about the switch on the side, try turning it off and see if the timer moves after 30 minutes.

To adjust the current time, you can turn the dial clockwise, but not counter clockwise.


Is there a reason drill bits are stored pointy side up? The title says it all... Is it for marketing purposes, or is there an actual reason bits are typically stored sharp side up?

In older days a drill bit set would normally be kept in a metal box called a drill index. Here is a picture of a typical drill index.

The hinge out carriers for the drill bits were made of metal and it is a possibility that the nice sharp ground edges on the drill flutes could be worn if the fluted end of the bit was shoved down into the holes.

More of the modern drill kit boxes use a different style. They are made of plastic and often have a squeeze in holder for the smooth shank part of the drill bit. It is much harder to get the fluted end it snap in to this type of holder and the sharp edges would cut up the plastic.

So there you have two plausible answers to your question. Only other thing I can say is that the fluted ends all look cool when packaged in a size sequenced set. Why not show them off?


options for new floor over concrete slab I am in the middle of a basement renovation, roughly 1000 sq feet. The existing floor is some sort of vinyl sheet material over concrete slab. There is an existing floor drain in the current washing machine room. I am planning on moving the washer/dryer, and have cut the slab for the new drain line, but was not planning on removing enough of the slab to add a new sloped floor drain. I would like the room with the existing floor drain to end up with a level floor.

Some areas of the vinyl were in poor repair, delaminating, or cracking, some were in good condition. Initially I thought I would simply scrape up all the old vinyl sheet material and then use a self leveling concrete (SLC) to fill in the slope near the existing floor drain (not sure whether to cap or plug the pipe and seal it in, or just extend it so I have a drain w/ no slope toward it?).

However now that I have started scraping the vinyl, I am not so sure. Some areas came up pretty easy, but left quite a bit of adhesive and paper-like backing material. Other areas feel more like chipping concrete. I have tried boiling water, and this helps a little bit but I am still not able to scrap down to smooth, bare concrete in most places. I think doing the remaining floor might take weeks of labor.

I am not certain about what finished floor I might use yet. Likely tile in about 1/3 of the area and floating laminate in the rest.

Are there any other tricks for scraping up old vinyl and adhesives? (I am not too keen on solvents because I have heard they can soak into the slab and make it difficult to bond anything later, and I don't generally like working with chemicals if I can avoid it).
How much of the adhesive and paper backing do I need to remove? Everything down to bare concrete? Or will the SLC work over stubborn patches of paper/adhesive.
Is it possible or advisable to simply remove all the vinyl where it is poorly bonded and then pour SLC over the top of the rest of it? Would that be really expensive for 1000 sq feet?
Is there some completely different solution here that I have not thought of?

Visit your local tool rental store. They will have something that will make this much easier. There is pneumatic scrapers and concrete grinders

For the hardwood laminate you dont not need to even remove the old tile but to lay ceramic tile you should


How can I treat and prevent rust in steel wire rope? After 8 years of questions, I finally completed the fence. The issue I’m having now is that the loops in the steel are rusting at a pretty fast rate.
I’m looking to spray them with something that will just stop the corrosion.
What do you suggest? The screw eyes are stainless steel.

That horse has already left the barn.
You striped off the protective  rubberized coating and exposed the cable underneath which is not galvanized and the rust has already started to eat the cable. Had you left the coating on it would have lasted much longer, at least until UV light cracked and compromised the coating and exposed the cable to the elements.
The best cable for outdoor applications is stainless steel (especially in your location).
Also you should have use the protective Wire Rope Thimbles on the loop going around the eye bolt.
Coating the already rusted cable will be futile, the rust is already there and probably deep in the strands of wire.
I suppose you could coat the rusted cable with naval jelly and then spray a coating of liquid rubber but that is really just a hack  which is unlikely to stop the rust and you will need to replace the cable in the future anyway.


Will this arrangement of bricks be a good base for a concrete floor for a garden shed? I am building a 6ft x 4ft garden shed which will have a concrete base.
I've levelled some ground, built a frame, and made a floor out of old bricks.

The ground is fairly clay-heavy. I've been stamping down on the bricks and they seem stable. Cement will be about 6-9cm from the top of the bricks to the top of the frame. There is a few millimetres of gap between the bricks, I imagine the cement will not flow between them and hence it will be kept clear of pooling water. The bricks are partially above and partially below the level of the surrounding soil.
I haven't worked with cement before but based on what I've read I believe this will work.
Can you see any problems? Is there anything missing? Do I still need grit? Rebar? Or is it okay to just go ahead and pour?

I’m no expert but it looks like you’ve made a good job for your shed base and will be more than substantial for a 6x4 shed. When you talk about ‘cement’ you mean concrete? So that’s cement with aggregate in for strength. If the wooden surround is level from side to side, once filled you’ll be able to strickle across to produce a smooth and level surface (or sloping fractionally for drainage?).
Regardless of the underling surface the shed should go onto a slight wooden frame (use tanilised wood) to raise it slightly to avoid the base of the shed from rotting. Once your concrete base is finished and the surrounding ground levelled (or whatever you intend doing with it), see how the water drains and this will determine the height the shed needs to be raised. Usually this is only 2-3cm. Good Luck!


Does a Daikin AC remember the settings when it was last turned on, or what the remote is set to on power-on? This is a very specific question that I've been trying to wrap my head around and can't figure out.

I have a Daikin Air Conditioner that has a "human sensor" which automatically switches to "low-power" mode when it does not detect a human presence for 20 minutes in order to save energy in case you forget to turn it off.

When I set this feature using the standard remote control that comes with the unit, the icon for that feature lights up on the LCD screen of the remote.  That feature seems to be saved permanently because if I turn the air con off, the icon still appears on the remote's LCD screen, and when I turn it on again, the icon is still there.  So unless I turn that feature off, it stays permanently on, which is to be expected. The "Econo" mode feature does not do this, for example, and its icon turns off after you turn off the air con, so if you turn on the air con again and want "Econo" mode again, you have to press the button again.

Now, I need to get a Universal Remote for Air Cons for this unit, and was trying to figure out how I could use the Universal Remote to ONLY allow for "on/off" and "change in temperature", while leaving the "human sensor" permanently on.

So my question is this:  if I use the standard Daikin remote to turn (and leave permanently on) the "human sensor", but then use the Universal Remote to simply control the on/off and temperature setting, will the "human sensor" continue to stay activated, or will it be deactivated since the Universal Remote does not know how to send that particular signal?**

I read the manual for your AC and it did not contain any information which could answer your question. I will guess and say that your AC will remember the "Intelligent eye" setting through a power cycle.

Why not just use your Universal Remote to turn the AC off and on and see how it behaves? There is an "Intelligent eye" indicator on the cooling unit so you can quickly see what mode the AC is in.

You don't give any details on the Universal Remote you are using, but the ones I am familiar with tend to be programmable. So if you do need the Universal Remote to send a command to set the "Intelligent eye" feature on, you should be able to program the UR to do so.


Trying to work out existing light switch wiring with possible loop Have a row of ceiling lights which used to work about 10 years ago. Want to get an understanding of the wiring at the switch before I go to the effort of removing the ceiling panels which holds the fittings (not an easy job).

There are 4 lights which are connected to 2 switches, one upstairs and one downstairs. The idea was that you could switch the lights on at either switch.

The upstairs switch is standard, one wire in and one going out. Downstairs is wired as per below:

This is the houses original wiring, so the colours won't make much sense.

The switch in question is the top one. In the left connection is hot coming in. The top connection is typically for switched going out. The bottom connection is typically for loop. You can see both the top and bottom are a yellow wire.

Going into each light fixture is modern/standard Australian wiring with one wire for hot, one for neutral and one for earth. The earth is not connected into the fitting, but the hot and neutral are. The next length of wiring (going to the next light fitting), the hot and neutral are twisted into the incoming wiring, so they are also screwed into the connection with the incoming wiring.

My guess is that the downstairs switch has a loop and the upstairs one doesn't? Maybe the downstairs one has a loop with the first light.

Not a direct answer, but a way to clue you in if nobody else comes
  along with an answer:

I had to diagnose the wiring on my house when I first moved in. What I did, I first turned off the power on the circuit, then after being sure it was off, I connected a little 9V battery across two wires.

I had my wife stand at the other light switch, and with a multimeter (or voltmeter) check the wires to find which two I was holding in my hands. If you find +9V, the wire contacting the positive lead of the multimeter is the wire touching the positive side of the battery. If you find -9V, the wire contacting the positive lead of the multimeter is the wire touching the negative side of the battery.

If you identify all your wires, and what goes to where, you can make sense of it by drawing a diagram.


What sort of things should one look for in a water-softener? Hard water (from a well) at the house, and I was wondering what to look for in terms of getting a water-softener, or things to avoid.

For the most part, softeners are pretty simple. Softening water works by exchanging positively charged ions with sodium ions.

Because softeners backwash periodically to recharge, they have a timer (and sometimes a meter) to control when this happens. One of the problems with a mechanical unit is when the power goes out, the time freezes, and just picks up where it left off when the power comes back, so it will start backwashing at strange times - most (if not all, now) electronic timers have battery backup for the time. Electronic ones have been in use for 10+ years now, and are quite reliable now. If you use a metered timer, it will regenerate during the night only after using a certain amount of water, so it wastes less brine (salt) water.

Get one that is easy to service. Although softeners only have to be rebedded about once every 10 years, it should be possible to turn a bypass valve and disconnect the softener. I've seen some old units where you actually have to cut the plumbing to disconnect them, although I'm not sure if those are still on the market anymore. You don't want one of those.

Pay attention to how it is connected: All of your hot water should be soft. Outside taps should be hard (you don't want to water your garden/grass with soft water), with perhaps the exception of a hose in your garage for washing cars. Some people leave their kitchen cold water tap hard, so as to reduce the amount of sodium they are drinking and cooking with, but this partially depends on preference and partially on the amount of hardness (and thus amount of sodium being added). Obviously this is a bigger concern if there are people on low-sodium diets in your house.

Personally, I would avoid electronic/magnetic softeners. There has been some evidence that this can help with very low levels of hardness, there is a LOT of junk out there.

I used to work summers for my dad who ran a water treatment business. We replaced one of these electronic softeners (it had wires going from each end that wrapped around the pipes) with a real softener one time, and took the electronic one back to play with. We tore it apart, and could not find any active electronics in it except for the ones that drove 5 LEDs on the front that flashed back and forth. We hooked the wires up to an oscilloscope and all it was doing was alternating between about +10 mV and -10 mV, with almost no current. I can't see how this possibly did anything -- and the home owner was replacing it with a real softener, so what does that tell you..


What do I separate in my aerator assembly? Still trying to connect 3 to my faucet (shown in 4-8), I unscrewed the aerator. Now what do I separate? How? Please state if I can do this by hand or need special equipment.

I managed this by myself. As shown in picture 7, just twist the bottom white part, off the golden part.


Fixing a 1920 row house - hardfloor cupping/buckle/warpping So today my wife noticed the new floor (3 weeks installed) has a funny feel in one spot.  I noticed a few wood panels look warped and cupped   particularly in one area.  What causes that and how to correct it. ?

Moisture can often cause that, if a spill isn't cleaned up promptly or you mop with excessive water, for example.

Likewise, if this is over a wet basement this can happen, but I would bet the issue is from the top half of the floor (in the room).

Less likely is that there is not enough of an expansion gap between the sides of the floor and the wall, and temperature changes in the room are forcing the boards into each other (though the damage in this case is quite possibly more extensive).


What can I do about my deteriorating basement floor with a large hole that seems to go right through to clay? We live in 90 year old house with an unfinished basement.

I've been working on removing a lot of the crap that the previous owner did, and removing a lot of concrete debris.

Then I ran into this hole.  http://imgur.com/a/XIWGQ

It's sort of located between the chimney and the boiler, but not directly between. Once I started vacuuming out the concrete, the hole just kept getting bigger and bigger. Eventually I stuck my hand in and pulled out what looked like soaking wet fireplace remnants. The hole is wet and it seems like I may be touching the clay beneath the foundation.

Any idea what can I do about this?

Well, lacking a picture for now (try it again, please, and don't delete the link text it puts in on the bottom - that won't show up in your post, but it will let us see the picture) If you have a concrete floor now, you can break out bad concrete until you get to good concrete, put in some crushed rock for a sub-base and pour new concrete. Depending what's going on, you may want to break out some more floor and install drain pipes and a sump pit before you backfill and concrete over it. Avoid getting too close to walls, chimneys or columns/posts when breaking things out, or call in an engineer if it seems like you need to.

OK - the lower bit of concrete with the tidy corner is presumably a footing - so don't mess with that. The floor, you can basically do as described above - cut back to a sound edge and fill in with fresh concrete, or fiddle with drainage as seems appropriate. Many older homes were built with dirt -floored basements, and a concrete floor was an afterthought, often poorly done on the cheap by some later homeowner. If you just want to plug the hole, see above. If you have higher aspirations for your basement, describe them and we'll give it a thought.


Can I apply caulk over caulk? I just had my shower re-tiled and the contractor used a cream colored sanded caulk instead of standard white silicone (without asking me).

I want it to be white but he refuses to come back. Can I just apply a new layer of white caulk over what he did? Or do I have to take it all out and start from scratch?

Experiment.  Along one stretch of joint, apply a new layer of your preferred caulk directly over the existing caulk.  If you like the result and the new layer holds up, complete the other walls.  You are most likely to succeed with this approach if you first give the area a really good scrubbing to remove any soap scum.

If the new caulk does not stick, it could be that the old caulk was silicone caulk: nothing truly sticks to silicone (including silicone).

Regardless, if the result is not to your satisfaction, then scrape/peal/clean the joint really well before re-applying new caulk.

FWIW, the guy that did my old bath also used the wrong color caulk. As I get older, I'm learning not to trust contractors to handle any aesthetic decisions. :)

(If, on the other hand, you are asking about grout, then that's a whole other question and likely will involve a dremmel tool and a whole lot of dust.)

UPDATE:

Oh, one more tip while we're at it. If you are wanting to match the caulk to the grout, note that many grout suppliers also sell sanded caulk color-matched to the grout.


How to avoid drilling wires when boxing in (UK) We have an ugly fuse box and electricity meter in our hall we want to box in. It's on the wall as you enter, the wall that separates mine and my neighbour's terraced houses. They're 1950 ex council, if that makes any odds!
We've built a wooden frame and want to attach it to the wall to cover the boxes (it'll have a hinged access door). But how do we avoid drilling through wires? We have a stud finder with wire locator but I tested it on a wooden door yesterday and it detected electricity (ha!) so I don't trust it!
There's so many wires running out and on and I'm terrified of hitting one. Any thoughts?

A trick I use when I'm unsure of any obstructions behind a wall is to drill a very small pilot hole that just makes it thru the wall surface. Then I take some sturdy metal wire, insulated electrical conductor or a coat hanger and bend one end into an arc. Now feed that bent end into the hole and twist the coat hanger around to see if it hits anything. You will easily be able to tell if there are any obstructions. I love this method because it will help inform you of any wiring, plumbing, studs or other obstructions. I made a quick image to help explain it better.


How to make cold lay asphalt less porous? Yesterday I finished off a job replacing a gully to add channel drainage on the driveway. The area we dug up (around 2m²) was topped off with 5cm (2") of cold lay asphalt laid in 2x 2.5cm (1") stages. For each stage the asphalt was rammed down hard using a handheld tamper.

Product used: https://www.hanson-packedproducts.co.uk/en/products/asphalts/drive-repair-macadam

The end result is quite a porous asphalt. A lot more noticeably porous than the rest of the driveway which will have been laid with hot asphalt. I'm in the north of England and the freeze-thaw cycle is consistent. I don't want this new patch of asphalt to start breaking up after only a few years.

Is there a technique to finish off cold lay asphalt/tarmac which fills in that porosity?

Thanks.

I would use a sealer and sand, first I would pour the sealer on just enough to almost fill the area, then with clean dry sand sprinkle it on top and work it in so it looks black, when it drys it will be much smother and will not hold water like the porous surface will and the sand provides a binder and helps to reduce the “slick” or slippery texture. I have done this with hot tar and latex sealing blends.


Can I still use my bathrooms if my sump pump is broken? My sump pump has gone out. We have a bathroom in the basement and our laundry room is downstairs. My question is will we be able to use the upstairs bathrooms until we can get the sump pump fixed? Or another way to express my concerns: Is the upstairs plumbing affected by the downstairs plumbing in regards to the sump pump?

The sump collects water from around and under your foundation. It has nothing to do with your plumbing.

If you have a sewage ejector, that would be a different story.


How to handle carpet offgassing? I moved into a new apartment and the carpet is offgassing VOCs.  I'm quite sensitive to chemical smells and it irritates my nose and throat constantly.  The carpet is around 1 year old, so it will probably take another 3-4 years before the offgassing reduces significantly.
I have already tried the following:

Asked the apartment office to replace carpet (even offered to pay) with vinyl or something else.  They are not agreeing to that.
Vacuumed and carpet cleaned (Bissell + hot water + cleaning solution) 2-3 times.  Didn't help.
Tried Pureayre (http://www.pureayre.com/).  Didn't help.
Airing out with multiple fans - helps somewhat but once the fan is off, the smell comes right back.  I can't run the fan 24x7 due to weather conditions.
Tried https://www.greenbuildingsupply.com/AFM-SafeChoice-Comprehensive-3-Part-Carpet-Shampoo-and-Sealing-System - Seemed to have reduced the smell from one area but ineffective in another area.
Covered the carpet with plastic drop cloth and taped the edges with duct tape.  Reduced the smell slightly, but not by much.

Short of breaking lease and moving (which would cost me around $6,000), is there anything else I can do?
The carpet is only in the bedroom and the closet.  Most of the remaining smell seems to be coming from the closet (40 sq.ft. area), which has a hinged door.  Is there anyway to airtight that door?
The closet has no other windows, so can't ventilate without blowing the closet air into the apartment.

Since you've tried all the practical solutions with no success, I'm going to recommend a not so practical one but since it's a closet, it might work. Get a heavy duty plastic drop cloth and cover the entire closet floor. Tuck the edges into the baseboard or seal the edges with painters tape.


File mm groove onto glass? How can I go about filing a groove onto glass?

I want to adhere something slightly heavy onto glass. Since glass isn't the best in terms of gluing surface, I figured with a groove I can use gravity to help mount the object (along with glue).

You do not want to score the glass with a groove. Even the shallowest score mark in glass will create a line along which the glass will crack. In fact a glass cutter is nothing more than a very hard metal wheel attached to a tool handle that allows a score groove to be created across a sheet of glass.

Glass Cutter:

There are also specialty tools such as this glass bottle cutter that essentially is a mechanism to allow a score mark to be made around the outside of a bottle.


Possible to make suction cups work again after being unused for a few years? In the shower of my old apartment, I had a shower caddy with suction cups mounted in my shower. I then moved to a new place, and the shower caddy was never remounted in the new shower.

After being laid to rest in a box for almost two years, is there a way to get the suction cups to work again? Is there a coating of dust and fats that are preventing the cups from mounting on the wall, or have the suction function depreciated by some other means?

clean them thoroughly and they may work no problem.

However it's possible that the rubber hardened and cracked which means that you won't be able to get a grip with it anymore.


Conduit / Best practices for a shared ground between branch circuits in residential? According to NEC 2014 250.130 :

Article 250 - Grounding and Bonding
VII. Methods of Equipment Grounding
250.130 Equipment Grounding Conductor Connections. Equipment grounding conductor connections at the source of separately derived systems shall be made in accordance with 250.30(A)(1). Equipment grounding conductor connections at service equipment shall be made as indicated in 250.130(A) or (B). For replacement of non–grounding-type receptacles with grounding-type receptacles and for branch-circuit extensions only in existing installations that do not have an equipment grounding conductor in the branch circuit, connections shall be permitted as indicated in 250.130(C).
(C) Nongrounding Receptacle Replacement or Branch Circuit Extensions. The equipment grounding conductor of a grounding-type receptacle or a branch-circuit extension shall be permitted to be connected to any of the following:

(1) Any accessible point on the grounding electrode system as described in 250.50
(2) Any accessible point on the grounding electrode conductor
(3) The equipment grounding terminal bar within the enclosure where the branch circuit for the receptacle or branch circuit originates
(4) To an equipment grounding conductor that is part of another branch circuit that originates from the enclosure where the branch circuit for the receptacle or branch circuit originates
(5) For grounded systems, the grounded service conductor within the service equipment enclosure.
(6) For ungrounded systems, the grounding terminal bar within the service equipment enclosure

This allows for a non grounded branch circuit to borrow a ground from another branch circuit.  (related stackexchange question Is it OK to borrow a ground wire from a different circuit?)
My question would be what would be the best way to bond it? Run THHN inside a conduit? Is a conduit necessary? Is bare copper bad? Should I use a bonding lug on the outside of a box? Should you wrap the conduit in green tape? Can you use green THHN without a conduit? Is it bad to use romex and just cut off the non-grounding wires?
I'm trying to think of the best way to do it without confusing future electricians too much.

You can barrow a ground from another circuit as long as they come from the same panel or grounding electrode conductor.
The size of the grounding conductor depends on the branch circuit. See table 250.122.
the maximum required size is 6awg when connecting to the existing GEC. (Even if tying into a #4 ufer ground or concrete encased electrode)
The minimum size is 14 awg if you are grounding a 15 amp circuit and since you won’t find anything smaller that makes 15 amp circuits Easy.
When you have a larger circuit let’s say a 60 amp you have to use a #10 ground
So you have to ground off of a #10 ground or larger (most electricians will pull a (#10 and use that for multiple branch circuits) if I am doing an entire home I will pull a #10 unless actually grounding a sub then I go #6 (I don’t carry #8 normally)
I run the length of the home in the crawl space or attic and drop a j box every 20’ or so. (Yes boxes are needed and the box it self requires a ground to the box if there is a splice in the box.)
If tapping the ground from a higher amperage circuit inside that is ok.
I do not run grounds in conduit unless outside and smaller than #6.
So just run 6 to a outside location.
Thhn/thwn dual rated green # 10 is my normal wire but it can be bare.
If in conduit, No you don’t color the conduit green.
I think I hit all of your points.


What size wire for a 100A sub-panel at 275 feet? I need to run power from my house out to my 35X70 workshop out back. What I have; a dedicated panel with 150 amp breaker on the side of my house that is currently only powering my well. My workshop is 275 ft. away. I intend on putting a 100 amp sub-panel in the shop. I have most of the 2” conduit ran in a trench from my house to the workshop. I intend on having a welder, compressor, wall unit a/c in a small office, lights and maybe an outside outlet to hook up for a travel trailer. I want to use copper wiring. What main wiring is recommended to run inside the conduit from the 150 amp/panel on the house to the 100 amp sub-panel in the workshop?

I use Southwire's wire size calculator.
At that length aluminum feeder would be much cheaper, selective boxes for; feet, single (phase), aluminum, direct burial/conduit/overhead, minimum conductor size, input 275 (for the length), input 240v for the voltage, max voltage drop leave at 3 (but we will play with this), current at end (since you don’t know guess at 80), input 1 for parallel sets.
This came up for 2/0 with a standard 3%.
Input in 5 in the %  and the wire size drops to 1 awg with a 4.44% voltage drop
In the US the National Electric Code there are suggestions of 3% and 5% for voltage drop but these are only suggestions.
If you actually used 80 amps of 240v then the drop would be 10.6v with 1awg or #1 wire not a problem.
if you are drawing 50 amps 240v on the #1 wire the voltage drop would be only 6.6volts (got that by playing with the amperage and % voltage drop).
Only during really heavy loading of your circuit would #1 aluminum have a voltage drop that was at the max recommended by the NEC and it never exceeds 5% up to 80 amps.
Going to a larger feeder breaker 90 or 100 requires a larger wire size but I doubt you will need that much power.
I would get the 150 amp panel with more circuits you can feed it with anything below 150 as long as the wire size matches the feeder wire requirements.


How do you secure solid blocking in joists without staggering them? I have some construction being done and the plan is to install blocking in the I-joists which I presume will consist of solid blocks of wood about 16 x 11 x 1.5 placed inbetween each joist in a row. Apparently they have a method of installing it so that the blocks are in a perfect row, not staggered, but if so, how could they be nailed in since each block will obscure the nailing point through the web of the joist for its neighbor?

It's called "Toenailing". Basically, you drive the nails at an angle through the block to anchor it into the studs on the side.  More info can be found at Family Handyman


Are transition strips necessary in doorway for laminate? I all installing laminate flooring in my basement. The basement is a simple layout. The stairs lead down to a 6'x6' landing. Turn left into a rectangular room, no door but the entrance is 5' or so. I started in this room on the far wall.

Turn right from the stairs and it is an identical room but there is a door from the landing into the room.

This is the snap together laminate.

Unless I'm missing something, I don't see how you would snap it together if you ended up in the middle of the doorway in the right side room. It requires a transition strip.

Is there some trick I'm missing?  Also I'd be pushing the max run length for the product. So I think the transition strip world be a good idea.

Thoughts?

Yes there are a few tricks.

Lay out the flooring to find where the joints will finish at the door. If the run to the door is really far away, it can be done, care needs to exercised. You want to cut the starting piece to allow a lang seam to happen with in the width of the door jamb.

First, the door jamb and trim are cut to allow the flooring to slide under it by about 1" Cut it and check it, be certain it goes in at least close to 1", 3/4" is acceptable, no less. Also, at least on these pieces, make sure the length will slide under the drywall to the plate (1/2") as well. If base is in place, at least a 1/2" there, but it is really worthwhile removing the base everywhere first. The job is SO much easier.

Typically the pieces going in the door will be large exaggerated "L" shaped pieces. But for this it does not matter. Start laying the last 2 runs together. When you get to the door, set the piece under the door jamb first, pushed tight to the wall to allow the next to the last row to go in, Before that piece is set, you will need to determine where the piece in the door will engage it. That part of that piece will need to have the lip removed so the door cut can simply slide in place with glue in place. Use lots of glue and clean up the excess. Dry it and hold the joint together with 3 or 4 pieces of painters tape, the wide stuff. This approach works whether the butt joint is in the door or not. To finish the door, depending on the type of laminate you will only need to remove a portion of the lip where the angle to lock it in cannot be done, and keep the lip were enough warp can be made to lock it in, using glue where the lip was removed. You may be able to warp the first pieces going into the door as well. That depends still. It will save some gluing if you can.

Thes last pieces at the door can be done first as you go into the next room, once the door is finished, the other pieces can be back filled in.

Word of caution, when going through a doorway and establishing the true course the floor needs to run, get a long reliable straight edge to set the run going into the next room. Do not let the floor dictate "what is straight" It will mess you up. At the most you can set another piece to the pieces going from the door to get a line a little farther from the wall, but a critical line needs to set by a straight edge.