Painting Over Old Walls The stairway in my mother's house has been unpainted for a while. I recently asked if she wanted help with it, and now I'm out of my depth.

There's a layer of old wallpaper that she and my brother started removing a while ago. It took forever and left a rough brown residue (first picture.)

Another area appears to have been plastered over at some point (second picture.)

There are areas where this wallpaper seems like it would be very difficult to get off, and other areas where it's crumbling off.

After some research online it seems as though scraping and sanding are definitely in order, but after that some sources suggesting using lining paper to cover minor bumps. Other sources have said that this isn't what lining paper is for. My questions are:

Am I on the right track? Is there a standard way to handle this?
What is lining paper and will it work to cover minor imperfections
before painting?

I feel your pain.  In some rooms I had 2 layers of wall paper and the upper layer had been painted - SWEET.. yeah!

I have had your issues tried the sanding methods.. I tried joint compound to fix the imperfections, and used flat paint - that kind of works - but lots of work and not perfect.

For how much wall are you talking about I would pull the old drywall and replace with new - Faster, Cheaper, Better.

Assuming you are in the USA The drywall will set you back $10 a piece, and the joint compound about $8. Joint tape about $6 . Given it is a stair way there probably is not much dry wall ..

After my experience here is my opinion: I would Remove and Replace (R Square for short) the dry wall with new as I think it is faster, cheaper and will turn out better and you should be able to use any sheen paint you like.

EDIT

To answer the question about the liner..

Basically a tape product - personally I wouldn't use it.

You can however sand and then use a thick primer to cover up small imperfections.
Just don't expect thick primer to go on like paint - it doesn't, it is work - but for stairwell maybe you take the plunge - worth a shot anyway but will cost you some green for that primer.

To help you understand the process a bit more I attach a video for a drywall surface repair. As a preface to the video so you can understand the purpose and reasoning behind how it is done. In the video the reason for the thick primer is to keep the fibers down and have a surface suitable for the joint compound. It works but can be tedious depending on how much area has to be fixed. The sanded areas of your wall - well you get the idea from this video that it works similar except you are not adding joint compound over those areas.

This video will give you an idea of some fixes
Dry Wall Paper Repair Process using thick Primer


Help understanding how to remove faucet with perpendicular pipe sticking out My mom's kitchen sink is very old and the faucets were leaking so I tried to help her replace them.

I am not sure where to proceed from here. I believe that the attachment nut cannot be removed because it would not fit over the part of the pipe that is sticking out perpendicular to the rest (I do not know what it is called). I'm also very concerned that the faucets are too old and there is too much rust for the nut to be removed. How should I move forward with this?

This is the top of the sink, I have no idea what model the faucets are but my mom said that she believes they're Pfister.

I suggest that you should remove the faucet handles and take a look from above. Most likely you remove a small cap at "A" and reveal a screw that when taken out permits the faucet handle to be lifted off.

Once removed there may be a nut or ring clip that is normally covered by the "B" skirt of the faucet handle. Removing that nut or clip ring would allow the rest of the faucet assembly to drop below the sink.

The center water spout part of the faucet assembly most likely does need to be freed from below and then pulled up through the top of the sink. You would would need to take apart that 4 way pipe fitting assembly that all the hoses are attached to and then use a basin wrench (as suggested in another answer) to loosen the large nut up around the center hole part of the sink.

Note that if the faucet units have ring clips it may be necessary to also loosen their large nuts from underneath so that the ring clip can then be removed. Usually when these types of faucets are initially installed the large nut is pre- threaded  down on the unit toward the right angle port where the hose attaches.Then the thing is shoved up through the hole, the clip attached, and then the nut underneath is tightened up to the underside of the sink to secure the valve unit in place.


is AFCI required for 220v CA residential? As I understand it CA now requires AFCI protection for practically all residential outlets.

I'm setting up my theater room and it calls for a 50A 220V NEMA 6-50 outlet for the subwoofer I want but I'm having trouble finding an AFCI breaker in this size.

I know this isn't the right place for product recommendations; I guess I'm more fishing to see if there are exceptions I'm missing?

NEC AFCI requirements only apply to 120V, 15/20A circuits

NEC 210.12(A) is clear on this (list omitted):

  (A) Dwelling Units. All 120-volt, single-phase, 15- and 20-
  ampere branch circuits supplying outlets or devices installed in
  dwelling unit kitchens, family rooms, dining rooms, living
  rooms, parlors, libraries, dens, bedrooms, sunrooms, recreation
  rooms, closets, hallways, laundry areas, or similar rooms or
  areas shall be protected by any of the means described in
  210.12(A)(1) through (6):

Furthermore, a quick check of the 2016 CEC reveals that it hews to the 2014 NEC language with no state amendments (the quote above is from the 2017 NEC).


Sewer smell after installing garbage disposal I installed a new garbage disposal today. Here is a photo of the plumbing:

It seems like there is some sewage/sewer smell coming from the garbage disposal, as though the P-trap were missing (which it is not).

Is the plumbing suitable?

I did notice that the dishwasher drain hose smelled pretty bad when I took it off the old garbage disposal. I do think the foul smell could be coming from that, so I plan on changing the hose tomorrow. But, I wanted to ask the pros here if the other plumbing was okay. (And yes, I do have a stopper on top of the garbage disposal strainer for the time being.)

Edit: My sink has an air gap, and the hoses are connected to it properly (one from dishwasher to air gap, and another from air gap to garbage disposal).

Edit: So, I did three things: (1) slowly ran water faucet to fill the P-trap, as perhaps the P-trap was not absolutely full for some reason (I ran the water a lot since replacing garbage disposal, so not sure why it would not have been full); (2) poured some bleach down air gap; I made sure it went to the hole that goes to the garbage disposal; and (3) ran dishwasher on sani clean cycle.

Smell seems to have gone away now.

The plumbing appears to be fine. A simple method you can do is to first remove, clean, reinstall the gooseneck then pour a box of  baking soda down the disposal and run it that through.

On another note, I noticed the water hoses in the background. If those haven't been replaced in the last 8-10 years, consider doing so.


How often should I clean the drains in my house? we moved into our house three years ago. The drains were new, and now three years after I'm interested if we should cleen them.

Normal modern drain installations do not require any regular cleaning. If you notice a clog/slowdown or gurgling, a targeted cleaning may help. But if your concern is buildup of material inside of drain/waste/vent pipes, this is rarely a concern. Sometimes after 50-100 years there can be enough buildup to cause a problem. But preemptive cleaning of drains is not typically worth it.


Converting light socket to outlet, what do I do with ground? I'm swapping out a light socket for some outlets in the garage, and the ground wire is running through a little clip in the box, with some extra coming out from there, not enough to hit my green screw on the outlet though. Wondering what to do with it, figured the options are:

Disconnect ground from the box and connect it to the green pole on my outlet.
Leave ground attached to box and splice extra length to reach green pole.
Ignore ground on outlet (assume this is a bad idea).

Here's what I'm working with:

Which of the first two options is proper, or something else altogether?

The proper thing to do here would be to free the wire from that clip and then wire nut that bare copper wire with two additional bare copper wire pigtails. Green wire nut would be ideal. One of the pigtails will go to the green screw on the outlet assembly. The other bare wire pigtail needs to be connected to the box. It is unknown if the clip can be used again so barring any judgement I would look to see if the electrical box has a pre-threaded hole in the back. The threaded hole is intended to accommodate a green box grounding screw. Get one and use it to attach the second bare pigtail to the back of the box. The picture below shows what appears to be the pre-threaded grounding hole in your box.


Why is my toilet bubbling when other fixtures drain? After having septic pumped out, main line professionally augered  and installed a new efficient toilet, water in toilet still bubbles when other drains empty. When laundry water drained, some came up in bathtub. All drains have also been treated with CLR, draining etc. Roof vent has also been checked, and treated for clogs. Septic pump has also been checked, and is working fine.

What could it possibly be now. December has been a very expensive month trying to rectify These problems.

I'm with Hari Ganti on this one. Sounds like a venting issue. Improper or partially clogged vent pipe.


What's the best way to add a neutral wire for smart switch? I know this has come up before and I have done a quite a bit of reading around stealing a neutral from another circuit, and I understand why this is bad.

So, here is my situation:

I want to add a zwave switch to my front driveway lights.  The house was built in 2005 and the electricians have a 3 gang unit for the entry, garage and foyer lights.  On another circuit in a single gang is the switch for the driveway lights.  I have a neutral into the 3 gang, but it looks like they tried to save money or take the easy route as the single gang for the driveway is switch loop with no earth or neutral.

So, how do I get a neutral there?  The driveway lights are about 300ft away and the circuit box is about 25 feet away.  What would an electrician typically do in this case to add the neutral?  Run it from the circuit, or from the fixtures 300ft away.  Either one seems like it would be expensive.

Thoughts?

If you're going to run a neutral after the fact, you'll pretty much have to trace out the circuit, and run a new wire / cable.  This could be a real project.

As mentioned in another answer and the comments, you could put the wireless switch in the circuit somewhere ahead of the lights where the neutral is present, and just splice the wires from the driveway switch.  There are battery-powered switches such as the Lutron Pico that you can install in a cover plate - you could mount that in the driveway switchbox, and things would operate as they always have, along with other wireless control.

Of course Lutron makes some Caseta wireless switches that do not require a neutral.  They "bootleg" their neutral return on the ground wire, which is generally verboten, but UL allows it for the tiny currents these devices draw.


What is this old manual tool for? I just found this in a pile of old tools, more or less related to plumbing.

The edges are sharp. The ridges do not have the same size on both sides.

Does anyone know what this is and what it is for?

This tool is used for spreading tile adhesive (or a mortar base).  The large teeth are  for  floor  tile and the  small  teeth are  for  wall  tile.  If kept clean, it will  last a  lifetime!


100 Amp Shed Workshop from 200 Amp House Panel 120' Direct Bury Cable I am interested in some advice/support on installing a 100 Amp Main Breaker Sub Panel approximately 120' from my 200Amp Main Panel in my basement.  I have a background and experience in electrical wiring but this is only my second garage/shed wiring experience.  My plan is to install a 100 AMP breaker in the Main Panel (Basement) using 2-2-4 Aluminum Direct bury cable from mail to Sub Panel.  Trenching the yard to a depth of 24" per NEC Code for direct bury cable.  I will only be using Electrical PVC Conduit (grey)conduit for all above ground wire and building entry points.  I welcome your input and recommendation on my plan to help keep me 100% in compliance with NEC Codes.  Thank You.

First, a few general thoughts:

You'll need four conductors, not three. Two hots, neutral, and a separate ground.
Also need to add a grounding electrode system at the outbuilding. (two ground rods, concrete-encased electrode, buried copper wire, copper water pipe, etc)
It seems short-sighted to direct-bury cable. You could put it in an enormously over-sized 2" conduit for under US$1 per foot. 1-1/2 is adequate and, though it might be a tough pull, even 1-1/4 SCH 40 PVC meets the fill requirements for holding 3x1 ga (hot, hot, neutral) plus 1x4 ga (ground).
Don't forget to mount the riser conduits to the buildings (strut and conduit clamps, for example).
Some detached buildings provide prime roof real estate for PV generation. Does yours?  You might do well to drop an extra conduit in the trench so that PV wiring can be carried back from the outbuilding to the main panel in the future.
Will you ever want any low voltage connections between the buildings? Security, fire alarm, networking? If "maybe" then "add another conduit."
Last rule of wiring: buy the wire last! Too often people buy the wire first, then partway through the project become aware of something that makes the already-bought wire less-ideal or even inappropriate/unusable.

I think your 2-2-4 cable is undersized. It's true that the 90 degree C column of NEC table 310.15(B)(16) pegs the ampacity of 2 ga aluminum at 100 A, but you can't use the 90 degree C column because your breakers' terminals will be rated for just 75 degree C.
The 2-2-4 cable sounds like a USE type cable? I'm not certain that's allowed to be used for a feeder. Also not sure that a feeder is allowed to down-size the neutral conductor the way services are.
For reference: I've just finished a 100 ft 100 A feeder similar to yours; I used 3x1 ga plus 1x4 ga aluminum THWN conductors in conduit. The 4 ga was for grounding, and although it could have been #8 copper or #6 aluminum, I used 4 ga because I needed a few for another circuit and because at that size and heavier one can re-mark a "hot color" conductor for neutral/ground use. I put a wrap of green tape at each end and that black wire suddenly became a ground wire.


How many jack poles should I use when opening a doorway through a load bearing wall? I'm opening a 6-foot wide opening in a 19-foot section of load bearing wall between two rooms on the main level of two-level-with-basement home.  I'll be installing a built-up 4x10 header (using (2) 2x10 boards) with the requisite jack/cripple studs.

My question is how many jack poles I should use to shore up the upper floor's floor joists while I'm installing the header?

Each of the two temporary structures (one in each room) will need to mimic the section of wall that is being removed.  So if the jack poles are resting on a single bottom-plate and are holding up a double top-plate, then jack poles 16" on center are called for.  If something more substantial than the double top plate and single bottom plate are used, then fewer jack poles are required.  In the extreme, it'd take only two jack poles placed 6ft apart to hold up their own temporary 4x10 header.  The first floor's floor will need similar support in the basement.

I'd build the temporary support structure using lumber that I could use again somewhere else.

All that is assuming the ceiling joists are perpendicular to the wall in question and that the support structures are placed close to the wall in question.

If instead the ceiling joists are parallel to the wall in question, then there must certainly be a 2nd flr wall that is on top of the wall in question, in which case all the temporary support structures will need to be installed up on the second floor.

Personally, though, my choice would be to do it like this, without shoring up ...

0) pick through the pile at the lumber yard for straight 2x10s

1) open the wall on both sides

2) install the king and jack studs

3) notch the top of the studs on one side to let in one 2x10

4) install the that 2x10 onto the jack studs

5) shim between the cut tops of the studs and 2x10

6) cut off the stud ears (produced by the notching) that are on the side

7) nail off the 9" wide rippings of 1/2" plywood filler

8) install the second 2x10 onto the jack studs

9) nail off the header

10) remove the shims

11) remove the old studs


Do exterior duplex electrical receptacles have to be on multiwire branch circuits? I have an exterior receptacle on my house, and it is currently taking up 2 circuits (similar to kitchen counter plugs). Is there any code/regulation that indicates exterior receptacles must be on multiwire branch circuits, or can I convert it to a single circuit? I know HOW to do it, I just can not find any details of whether it is a code requirement (I could only find references to GFCI and grounding for exterior plugs). We do not have any high power exterior appliances/devices, it is only used for a car block heater in winter.

A dual circuit (where you have one hot conductor on one outlet and another hot conductor on a second outlet and they share a neutral) may not be 'required' anywhere.  This kind of circuit is called a 'multi wire branch circuit', if you're having trouble finding the right verbage to find out it's required in your locality.

It probably should be a GFCI outlet at any rate.  It may or may not be code where you are, but it's just a good idea.


Solving active sump issues We bought our 20 year old house in Fishers, IN (northeast Indy suburb) this past summer. Three days after moving in, we had the last of the bad summer storms. One of the pumps in our Triple Safe sump system had failed, and we had about 2–3 feet of carpet along the entire east wall saturated. In addition to sump overflow, we also saw evidence of water entering between the wall and slab. We decided to replace 2/3 of the interior drain tile.

Once that was opened up, they discovered our footer cracked in multiple locations, separating from the wall. 9 low profile piers later, the job was completed and restoration in place.

Christmas weekend was rather wet. We were out of town and when we got home we realized that power had been lost at some point. No problem, though, because we have a standby generator (never had one before). Well, the standby generator didn't start because whoever touched it last put the lid on backwards, choking the engine of air. This time, the entire carpet was soaked.

We've now installed a new (better) generator and put both of the AC pumps in the basement on it (only one was on previously). Before we do any restoration, I want to be sure we've got things figured out.

Water is entering our sump pit every 12 seconds (from the time the primary pump shuts off to the time it starts again). 12 seconds!

I've unplugged the pumps to see what happens. The flow hits a point of stasis (or at least slows significantly) maybe 3–4 inches below the level of the slab.

Has anyone had experience with that much flow?

The sump discharges to a 4" PVC pipe that goes directly to a storm beehive about 15–20 feet away in my yard.

I am at a loss. I feel duped by the seller, duped by the home inspector, and we're left with 1/3 less of the house that we bought.

Any help or advice anyone can offer is appreciated.

I have experienced massive water flow in the sumps when they've been unplugged or just not running while water continues to build up around the foundation.  If you have a lot of clean #57 stone around the footer, under the slab, and even up the exterior walls some, it will "store" water in the voids between the stone.  This water can travel quickly to the sump when it is "stored" between the stone in this situation, which is precisely why the stone is used in the first place.  Sand will do the same thing, but slower.

In torrential rains, you need to move a lot of water fast... and clean #57 or larger stone allows you to do that.  Basically, the stone is a big pipe or conduit.... and water can travel both horizontally and vertically through it, so long as it's not infiltrated with sediment.

Is the "every 12 seconds" you speak of measured just after you plug in the sump?  Depending on how much 4" pipe you have around your foundation, a gigantic amount of water can be stored in it.  Eventually, though, the pump will "catch up" and all that stored water will be gone.  Then I would expect that it slows back down to a more reasonable rate...even if it's still raining outside.

The time to be most worried is when the sump ISNT working.  That's when you start to get differential settlement and buckling walls in freeze-prone areas.


Where do you put multiple washers when you have a bolt and a threaded hole? I bought a bed second hand, and it came without instructions, the bed posts have threaded holes, for bolt to go into, and the bolts have a locking washer, and a bigger bigger, flat one. I wish to know which order they go onto the bolt, and where in relation to the holes, and the bed sides.

Slip the lock washer on the bolt, then slip the large washer on the bolt, then screw the bolt into place.

The lock washer "bites" into the bolt head and into the large washer so that the two become connected.
The large washer has a lot of friction against the bed post, so the bolt does not turn and back out.


Should fence post height be adjusted to accommodate panel height when on a slope? We are building a vinyl fence on a slight slope and want to know how to handle the difference in post / fence heights.
The next fence post is sunk 24" is an inch shorter than the first. Do we adjust the brackets higher to make the panel level or adjust the fence post?  We can't do a step down because it is the same panel.

When building a fence you need to decide which strategy you'll go with when it comes to slopes:

Skew the panels into parallelograms so they follow the slope ("racking" in this image)
Step the panels down to ground level at the high point for each segment

source
In either case, post height depends on the height of the panel top at the low end. You want the same extension above the higher panel for each post.
My $.02: I find the step-down approach comically goofy-looking for anything more than a mild slope. They end up looking like sails in the wind and quite inelegant. The steps look wrong and the gaps under the low ends can be very large, reducing the intended benefit of having a fence. I'd skew the panels if possible. A smooth line along the top is much nicer.


Southwire M550 says coaxial cable is misfired and reversed? Ever since I moved into my house the upstairs cable has not worked, so I recently I started looking into fixing the cable wiring and figuring out how its laid out in the house.

I bought a Southwire M550 to trace the coax cables run under the house and attic, and discovered a strange issue. One of the coax cables, when tested using the M550, shows that there is a miswiring and a reversal issue. I thought these types of issues were more reserved for network cable, where there are individual pairs within the cable, but a reversal within a coax? Would this be an issue with a splitter where it has in/out sides, and maybe the hookup is reversed?

From what I can determine from the instruction manual for the tester, and my previous experience as a cable television technician, the test requires a free-floating cable in order to be tested properly. Your question regarding a splitter is valid, as there are electronic components within a splitter that will generate failed tests. "In the old days," one attached a 75 ohm terminating resistor to a piece of coax being tested and read the opposite end using an ordinary volt-ohm meter. If the reading was approximately 75 ohms, the correct cable was identified and was possibly healthy.

If the cable was already confirmed as correct and the reading appeared shorted, it was likely there was either damage or an in-line splitter, typically buried in an attic or nearly unreachable in a crawl space!

You can confirm the reading you see if you have a splitter in hand, along with a known-good segment of coax. Connect only the coax, test it (as good, of course), then attach the splitter and observe the difference.


Replacing Shut Off Valve I changed out our kitchen faucet over the weekend and after getting everything hooked up, I'm only getting hot water. Our cold water valve's handle broke off a while back so I just use the screw to open and close the valve. I've unscrewed it all the way and even used pliers to turn the white part but I'm still not getting anything. I'm guessing it's the valve that needs replaced but I'm not sure what to do. Do I just unscrew the valve? Does it screw out of the white cap with text on it or is that part of the valve? I don't ever do projects like this so sorry if I'm not describing it very well.

As long as you can get the existing valve fully open you can leave it in place.  Buy a piggy back valve, you screw it into the existing valve and use it instead of the original.

As zelinka mentioned the existing valve is done in expansion pex and the tools needed to put a new one on are close to $600.

You could probably do a sharkbite fitting on the pipe if you cut it below the expansion ring.  Something like this:

https://www.homedepot.com/p/SharkBite-1-2-in-Push-to-Connect-x-1-4-in-O-D-Compression-Chrome-Plated-Brass-Quarter-Turn-Straight-Stop-Valve-23337-0000LF/202721912


Is there a more attractive alternative to a drop ceiling that allows easy access to the space above it? Are there any ways of installing a basement ceiling that is seamless and does not look like a drop ceiling, but which can still be somehow disassembled?

Alternatively, are there more subtle forms of drop ceiling technology available?

My subjective opinion is that drop ceilings look ugly. But as I need to access the area above in my basement, at least until all my re-wiring-the-house tasks are done, I don't want to put up drywall, unless I can rig up some panes that I can later remove (which is one option I am considering).  I could also just put up drywall, and cut holes in it, and patch it later.

What would you do? Put up with a drop ceiling? Make holes later? Third alternative?

You may be able to hang birch- or maple-faced plywood. You can screw it to joists and then unscrew a panel when you need to get in to change stuff.

My neighbor used this as a floor, with a urethane coating, but you may be able to skip the finish.

I haven't tried this approach myself. YMMV.


How to replace office chair wheel? Hello all you happy people.

Kay, so I've got a star-based office chair, and one of the wheels has popped off. The attachment itself is still fixed to the chair, it's just the actual wheel discs that have snapped off.

I've tried whacking them back into place, and it works for a few days and then it comes back off.

1) Are there replacement office chair wheel thingies available in DIY shops?
2) If yes, do I need to be wary of size differences, etc? Or are they standard?
3) I assume I have to replace the attachment, how does one go about removing that? So far I've tried upwards pressure, clockwise and counter-clockwise spinning, cursing, and Cajun voodoo. No luck.

I have replaced those, but I had the fortune of working for a company that had spare seats with other broken casters, so when I pulled one off of one of those it did not matter.

The part that removes is not the part you have featured in your pictures. Those are the non removable axles. The point of separation is higher where the whole wheel assembly pivots. A strong direct pull down should separate it from the support arm that it pivots in.


Where can I find a replacement faucet sprayer hose? My kitchen sink sprayer is broken and I need to replace the hose.  The hose has an unusual connection that clips into a plastic piece; but doesn't seem standard compared to what I've seen as replacements.  Anyone familiar with where I can get a replacement hose like this?

That's a Quick or Snap Connect connection. They might be a little difficult to find, but there should be a few in the Home Improvement stores or online of course. Or, you can just replace the black rubber O-rings if it was just leaking.


Demolishing a shed floor made of plywood. Can I use circular saw? I just tore down my backyard shed. All that is left is the base/floor, which is plywood. Basically, I want it in small pieces so I can bag it for disposal.

I have a low power Li-ion reciprocating saw with a "green wood" super aggressive blade, which I know can do the job, but I also have a corded 15-amp 7 1/2 circular saw lying around. It is much more powerful, and I know it rips plywood much much quicker and effortlessly.

My general safety understanding of the circular saw is, one side of what you're cutting should not be fastened (free to fall off), or else it may kick back. So, would it be unsafe to run a circular saw through a plywood floor fastened to a wooden frame on the ground?

A circular saw can be used to plunge cut into flooring cut out sections for repair/access.  I don't see how this would be any different.  Just make sure you adjust the blade depth for the width of the plywood.so that you don't hit anything that might be under the shed (support beams/metal/concrete/small animals too stupid to move/etc).


Why is special sand used for leveling masonry? I see some stores selling sand specifically for leveling the ground, e.g. before building a stone sidewalk or a brick wall. The local rock quarry even sells some sand for this purpose. What is so special about this? Can I just use regular dirt from my yard that is unneeded to level the ground before building a stone wall?

It is just sand, to the best of my knowledge, other than the price they apply to it. Otherwise it can be a coarse sand, fine sand, washed sand, even stone dust. The benefit of using sand is, it is easy to grade out and readily packs tight to reduce settling after the pavers are set. Which is another big plus.
I have done what you suggest with large pieces of flagstone, not brick. The disadvantage using dirt under brick is that it will settle differently in places, so eventually the brick may not be as flat as you first laid them. If you can live with that, them go for it. It is what was done back in the early days. When I was setting the flagstone, I wish I had sand to use, it would have been much easier, but I wanted to save a buck.
About using flagstone, large pieces, 18"X18" and larger, the rough ground under the flagstone is "smoothed out" by the stone spanning over the high spots. I did what I could to get even bearing under each stone. The downside on what I was using was the material was not uniform in thickness, much unlike brick. If you could scrape the ground evenly, you may have a chance to set them right on grade. As soon as roots or grass roots enter the equation, like my situation did, forget easy, uniform scraping.


How do I solve this mould problem? Before I get down to details I just wannna say that we are in UK and unable to go anywhere else as of financial issues.

We've been living and renting a bottom floor flat for 4 years and it's been total nightmare. We been doing fine. Its just that the mould has gotten best of us. Before I list the rooms with problems just want to note that the house is quite old and way it was built was poorly done when looking from outside brick work. Apparently flat above us have same problem but instead the owner wishes not to fix it as it requires money and time. We also know that the roof has a leaking but we are unsure if it is the cause of it. Another thing to note that inner walls of our flat are perfectly fine but it's the outwalls that anything touch are the big problems.

For better understanding of our situation I'll list rooms and the conditions that they are in.

My dad bedroom is worst one of them all. there are 3 outer walls that are damp and have mould at bottom of them. We've tried everything to get it fixed such as Bleach or allowing some air to flow through.
My bedroom has 2 outer walls and 2 inner walls. The 2 outer walls are fairly wet sometimes but show no signs of mould.
Living room/ lounge has 2 out walls that are wet also.
Kitchen is unsure but there has been signs of mould on things such as dining chairs.

I read a post on this site about people suggesting to get anti-mould paint and some sort of spray to stop it or keep it at bay. Knowing this is great because I didn't know there was such a thing, but problem is still there as it catches onto things and just destroys it. Today I wanted to listen to music but when I open the case my headphone with leather padding were covered in mould. I understand it is bad for our health but having no where to go or if we did it would be a struggle.

You don't need a DIY forum, you need a lawyer or a politician. Your landlord is breaking the law. Good luck getting this resolved!


what 2017 NEC code talks about knob and tube replacement Have an insurance job and the home owner wants to redo the 1st floor apartment. The apartment is wired with knob and tube so I recommended it needed to be updated. When pitched to the insurance company they said that would be fine, but I need to let them know where it states knob n tube needs to be replaced. I know rule of thumb is once you work on the circuit it needs to be updated I just cant find any codes to back that up. If anyone can help give me a leg up here it would be appreciated.

Although what Billy says may be technically true, that doesn't mean it is not a good idea to update it. A lot of insurance company's won't insure a house with known knob and tube wiring.  The insurance company execs are not stupid.  It has nothing to do with code compliance.  They know that all k&t wiring is 70 to 80-years old and never designed to handle the loads of the modern-day house hold.   Stick with your pitch.  They don't need chapter and verse.  They just want someone who will upgrade it for a reasonable price. Good Luck. P.


How to fix my ceiling lights? I have a bunch of ceiling lights that don't work when I replace the bulbs.

Electricians are too expensive but although I don't have experience in this area I'm willing to learn and do it myself if possible.

How can I figure out what's wrong with them and fix them myself?

How can I figure out what's wrong with them and fix them myself?

Equip yourself with the basic tools needed. Make sure you understand the basic principles of household electricity. Make hypotheses, test those hypotheses. Act on confirmed hypotheses.

As far as I know, about 1 person a week is killed in the USA by accidental electrocution (and many times more in the construction industry). You seem a little inexperienced so I hope you'll understand that folk contributing to this website don't want to contribute to those statistics. I recommend you learn about electrical safety from someone with experience. Perhaps there are local evening courses you can attend or you know someone who is qualified and willing to teach? Fixing broken household electrical items is something that careful householders can do but it isn't something you should rush into in a state of unprepared ignorance. Think of it as akin to knowing nothing about cars but wanting to replace the brakes on the car your wife uses to take your kids to kindergarten.

Equipment wise, you might need a set of insulated screwdrivers and a category-II multimeter that can measure AC voltage.

You need to have a basic understanding of voltage and current, the purpose of fuses, circuit breakers and RCB/RCBO/GFCI devices. You should understand what live/hot, neutral and ground/earth wires are for and how they are typically connected in homes in your country or locale.

You need to understand exactly in what ways this investigation can kill you and how your attempts at repair might kill other people. You need to be really sure you know how to work safely and how to always have the system in a safe state.

Some hypotheses you could test:

The replacement bulbs are broken.
There's no electrical power reaching the bulb holder.
There's a fault in the switch associated with the light fitting.
The fuse or breaker in the main-panel has cut-off the circuit to isolate a fault.

Here's a few things you might do to test those hypotheses

Try swapping bulbs with ones in a room that has working lights.
Use a multimeter to carefully measure the voltage in the socket.
Turn off power at main panel, Remove the switch, examine it, swap with working switch.
Examine fuses and circuit-breakers for indications that they have blown or turned off.

If a fuse has blown or a circuit breaker has turned off, you need to identify the cause before replacing or resetting.


How should I install underfloor heating over OSB subfloor? I need some help on my DIY project for underfloor heating system in an apartment.

The question is on the screed requirements provided that I have the following (non traditional) setup. There is polystyrene insulation that is glued to the concrete base. Then there are whole OSB plates freely positioned on the insulation. I plan to fix the heating tubes to the OSB and to implement a floating screed over it (sand and cement). Finally I plan to have a tiles finish.

First of all do you see any potential problems with this setup? Please mind that any changes with it will be expensive to make so I need to make this work.

Skip the OSB - attach the tubing to the insulation. XPS insulation plays well in concrete/cement applications. OSB Does NOT. I can't imagine what lead you to this particular "non-traditional" idea, but run away from it before you find your whole floor disintegrating under your feet.

Responding to comment - the insulation glued to the slab should not have any appreciable gaps - if it does, fill them with more insulation. If it is, in fact, XPS (extruded - as it should be - closed cell foam, smooth-surfaced, usually pink, blue or sometimes green) rather than EPS (expanded - crumbly white stuff) it stands up to foot traffic just fine. Tubing clips are typically screwed right into it. If you have glued EPS to the slab, then you'd be well served to buy the thinnest sheets of XPS you can find (1" or 25mm is typically the thinnest) and place that over the EPS, without leaving any gaps this time. It usually has a tongue and groove edge treatment to help with that.

These are folks to whom my relationship is "just a happy customer" with plenty of detailed information about installing radiant heat in a manner that will last. I installed mine over 2" XPS, walked all over it running tubing and reinforcing steel, and didn't make so much as a dent in the insulation. That page has links to both a written manual and a video.


How can I resolve a "vent intake or termination" problem on my furnace? It's June so my furnace has been off for a while. But it's cold today and I have a sick kid home so I tried to start my furnace but it's not working. I'm getting an LED code with three red flashes which, according to the label on the inside of the access cover, means "Vent intake or termination problem". I noticed that the filter (16 x 20 x 1) was out of place and kind of pulled a little into the unit. But it didn't look like it damaged anything. It was also really dirty, so I figured maybe the issue was that the dirty filter blocked the air enough that it triggered the error. So I bought a new filter and replaced it.

I couldn't find a "lockout reset" button on the unit so I reset the LED fault indicator and turned the unit off for a minute or so, hoping that would reset it. That didn't work and I'm still getting the 3 red flashes. I waited an hour, thinking that it might reset automatically (which I know is the case with some units) but that didn't work either.

Any suggestions as to what else I can check? The intake where the filter goes looks fine; as for the outgoing vent--I don't see how I can check that for a blockage. It vents through a metal vent into the chimney. I also don't understand how that would have gotten blocked up.

The unit is a York TG8S gas furnace. I haven't been able to find a service manual online--just a "technical document" that wasn't much help and an owner's manual that was pretty useless from a technical point of view.

I had the same code. After hours of searching, I too, found an object in the bottom of the intake line.    It was a Golf ball someone had put in the pipe from outside the house.   I removed the intake pipe from the unit and the ball was just below the connection.


what lamp "ceiling" support to use having only a plain 5cm diameter hole I moved to a flat that has on the ceiling 5cm holes with no way to screw or a hook to hang up a lamp, just the cables coming out, like the pictures attached.

What type of support could I use to install a basic e27 socket without the need to drill or damage the ceiling?

build-in lamps could be an option but how to fix them?

Put a fisher (6mm is enough for a lamp fixture) with a hook next and hang the fixture to it. When you'll move out, just fill the holes with stucco, I assume you live in a 'brick and mortar' house and not in a 'US-style' "wood and glue" home.

Fisher:

Stucco:


Turning old AC wiring into a simple 120V outlet? UPDATE: Resolved. The ground wire was located behind the box, in the wall. It's a bit short (??) but it will do once I put the subpanel in. Thanks for everyone who responded.
I am tracing the somewhat old wiring network in my house... and I found one blind box on the patio (outside), with 3 8AWG wires inside, two hot and one neutral, that is connected, via a 50-60' wall run, to my main panel and a pair of 60AMP breakers.
I am guessing that was for an AC, since that would justify using 8AWG wire on such large breakers. Now, I don't have an AC there, or a need for it, but I could use a couple of patio outlets.
I was first thinking about putting a small sub-panel there, to have some space for future expansion, but digging into the wall is out of question, so I cannot put the 4th wire (ground) in to make it code-legal.
So, in fact, with 3 wires only I seem to be limited to doing a 120V setup?
Can I just install a smaller single breaker at the main panel, say 20A, and then use the 3 existing wires as hot/neutral/ground (re-wiring them at the panel, obviously). Do I need to mark them, e.g. "turn red into green"?
Or is there a more interesting way to use the existing wiring? What would you do?  ;)

Thanks so much for your response(s), guys! The box is in a somewhat hard to access place, so it took some time to figure out how to access it fully... no metal conduit, but... as I cut the old stucco around and wiggled the box... I found the ground wire jammed far back behind the box in the wall!! Yaaay!


What could cause my boiler to provide hot water, but not heating? My boiler kicks in when the thermostat asks it to, but when my room thermostat asks the boiler to fire up, nothing happens.

My room thermostat clicks on, and lights up so I think it can tell the temperature of the room.

Please can anyone help with my problem?

Boiler: ideal classic lxff
Room thermostat: horstmann HRT 2

The room thermostat does not control the boiler directly. Instead, it controls a circulating pump that draws heat from the boiler and delivers it to the radiator(s) in the room. It is the removal of heat that subsequently causes the boiler to fire, when its thermostat indicates that its internal temperature has dropped because of the heat removal.

It sounds like either the circulating pump or the relay that controls it has gone bad and needs to be replaced.


Why is my kitchen water supply so high? I'm about to move into a new apartment in Germany, which in most cases you need to put in your own kitchen!

One confusing thing about the apartment I've rented is that the water supply (outlet?) is above where the kitchen counter would be. Any ideas why this would be and solutions for dealing with it?

There are faucets not part of the desk but mounted directly onto the wall.
Some of these faucet-things have a heater unit above the tap. As there is only one outlet instead of two this installation could be designed for this kind of tap.

I don't see marks of a former installation on the tiles that could give a hint of what was installed before you came. So you should ask your landlord what is expected to be there. They surely have advice for you.

I assume you have to provide the kitchen on your own when you move in? Then, if you'd like to have something that has the heater unit below the desk, perhaps you can connect this outlet with your under-desk installation. Ask the experts to suggest something that you like.


Why is my booster fan pulling cold air from outside? This is my first winter in a house with an oil-heated, forced air system. I noticed my wall vents were pushing out warm air, but the floor cold air return vents were pushing out cool air. I followed all the ducts and found a booster fan pulling cold air from the outside, and pumping it into the ducts. I covered the outside hole with a piece of rigid insulation, and that has stopped the fan from turning on, and the cool air from coming up my vents. (they do suck cool air into the furnace) Did the previous owners make a mistake, or am I missing something?

It would appear to be a poorly tuned fresh air vent (aka a "Make-up Air vent")

Blocking it completely is not a good choice.

Tuning it correctly is a good choice.

The intake should not be bringing in more air than the furnace blows out (far less, in general)

A page from 11 years ago...

http://www.nchh.org/Portals/0/Contents/Read_This_Before_You_Ventilate.pdf


What could be causing my gas fireplace to shut off? I have a gas fireplace that is 4 years old, that shuts off after a couple of minutes. The  pilot lights ok, then the burners turn on and work fine for about 3 minutes. After that the entire fireplace shuts off, even pilot.

If the glass door is kept open, then the  fireplace works fine.

What is the fix for this problem?

I sprayed wd40 to clean the entire pilot/burner assembly, but problem still persists.

It sounds like a draft issue that disturbs the pilot flame when the doors are closed. Or it could be that the flu/chimney is closed and chokes out the flame when the door is closed.

First check that the chimney is open and clear. If it is, then light the pilot only and observe the pilot flame as you close the doors. If you can see the pilot with the doors closed, then observe if the pilot flame starts "dancing" around like it is getting blown on. If so, you could try adjusting the ignition sensor closer to the flame or at least in the direction that the flame tends to go when the doors are closed.

Check if there is a fresh air intake adjustment on the unit and try different settings.

Also, there have been times when I had to actually put a ceramic or steel cover over the pilot flame/sensor to keep drafts from blowing it out when it was running.


What is this wood joint called? What is this wood joint called and how difficult is it to accomplish? What tools would I need beside a regular saw?

It would be with 2"x4" wood over 4"x4" wood.

The 2x4s are joined with a half-lap joint (or a variation on a scarf joint). It's unclear from your diagram if there is any joinery holding the 2x4s down to the 4x4 or if they just rest on top of the post.

Not sure what you mean by a "regular saw", but half laps can be cut by most saws - circular saw and table saw are most common, though you could use a handsaw as well. Simply run the saw across the board multiple times, removing a sliver each time. A bandsaw (or jigsaw with a long enough blade) could be used by tipping the workpiece on its side and cutting the material away that way.

You could also use a chisel to cut that joint, as well as a router.


Why did this wire in my dryer melt? I have an electric Kenmore dryer, actual manufacturer appears to be Inglis - model number on the sticker says "C110-8240091", though that doesn't bring up much in my online searching.  It's been working fine since we bought it (used) 6 months ago.

Today it stopped heating, so I pulled it out, opened the back panel, and had a nice "well there's your problem" moment.

One of the wires on the temperature switch mounted to the bottom of the heating element has melted.  I can easily cut back the melted part of the wire, crimp on a new connector and plug it back in.

But first I really want to know what caused it to melt like that in the first place.  My guess is that it was poorly crimped, and had enough resistance to heat up and slowly melt the wire.  Does that make sense?

The thermal switch appears to be closed circuit, which is normal.  Anything else I should check for before repairing the wire and testing it out?

You are correct in your assumption.

Poor crimped connection lead to a high resistance join and heating over time causing the wire to melt.

Re Terminate with a new connector.

As an extra precaution check the resistance across the thermal cut out switch the resistance should be close to zero.


Requesting Evaluation of Power Plan at Rural Cabin What I am looking for is guidance and honest evaluation. I'm not afraid of being wrong. I want to save some bucks and learn some things, without blowing myself up. So please tell me if I'm doing something dangerous, and preferably please tell the section of the code I'm violating.

OK, so I have a cabin in the boonies. Right now there is a pole with a transformer on it that is connected to a meter. Below that is an old box that is going to come out. I met with the rep from the POCO, and here is the culmination of what I remember discussing with him, and my own independent research.

Here is my attempt at explaining my cheesy diagram.

A) So the POCO comes in with 14.4 kV. The transformer steps this down to split phase 240V, delivering two 120V hots and a neutral to the meter base. The transformer neutral is bonded to a ground wire running to the base of the pole. Out of that meter base we come into my wiring. I provide a 100A main lug panel.

B) On that main lug panel are two breakers, a 100A and a 20A. The 100A goes to the house. The 20A goes to a rarely used outdoor GFCI receptacle. The main lug panel has the neutral bonded to the POCO's ground wire. This is the ONLY place in MY wiring where the neutral is bonded to ground. After this point the ground never touches the neutral.

C) Out of the main lug panel we go through underground triplex 1/0 cable to my house panel. I've calculated the voltage drop to about 4.91V at full 100A (which I'll never use), and the POCO rep told me this was perfectly acceptable, and that this was the right cable to use.

D) In the house we come into a 100A main breaker panel, with various breakers etc. The neutral is NOT bonded to ground here, and the ground goes to two ground rods 6 ft apart.

E) From here we run 10/3+ground out to the shed which we treat simply as a multiwire branch circuit, since there's no panel out there. Note that one neutral is run, and both breakers are mechanically connected to disengage if either one disengages

NOTES:

Inside the house I run EMT conduit, and at every opportunity I attach
the green wire to the conduit or metal box.
In all circuits I plan to use AFCI breakers.
I figure that two 100A breakers in series is fine (there's still no way that I can exceed 100A. Am I wrong?
I worried that I screwed up at the pole. Do I need to lose that 20A breaker & receptacle? Or use a 70 and a 20?
Is my grounding correct at the house? Why or why not?

Thank you very kindly for any help and guidance.

EDIT I've added some corrections:

number 6 bare copper ground wire added to underground run from pole and terminated in ground bar of house and ground bar of pole (which is bonded to
neutral at pole)
changed shed circuit to 10/2 plus ground, and run the neutral through
the GFCI

ALSO: I can lose the 20A GFCI at the pole. If I need power up there I can just haul the generator up there.

The bare ground + triplex is a reasonable solution, assuming we're talking type USE triplex here

Underground direct bury multiplex cables, such as the USE triplex your power company is trying to sell you on, have all their conductors (hots + neutral) insulated.  This means that you can use it along with the separate ground wire in the same trench, as per NEC 300.5(I):

  (I) Conductors of the Same Circuit All conductors of the same circuit, and where used, the grounded conductor and all equipment grounding conductors shall be installed in the same raceway or cable or shall be installed in close proximity in the same trench.

TORQUE ALL LUGS TO SPEC WITH A TORQUE WRENCH

Aluminum wire on aluminum lugs (as in a typical panel) works great -- no problems with dissimilar metals, expansion rates, or any other things that could invoke aluminum ooga-booga.  However, the setscrew-type lugs in a panelboard are sensitive to torque -- too loose is no good, obviously, but too tight can lead to problems with smashed conductors and damaged panel lugs as well, and aluminum is not as forgiving of this as copper is.

As a result (and this is a Code requirement as of 2017, see NEC 110.14(D) for details), you will need to use a torque wrench (preferably calibrated in inch-pounds, since a foot-pound unit will likely be sloppy at the relatively low torques called for on panel lugs) to torque the lugs to manufacturer specified torque in order to achieve proper reliability.

This is especially important for you as the power company can legally sell you a type USE only triplex here (instead of tri-rated USE/RHH-2/RHW-2), and that cable can legally, as per 310.106(B), be made from the unforgiving EC-grade (AA-1350) aluminum that did such a miserable job at being building wiring back in the day.  (The assumption is that the power company knows what they're doing when terminating cables.)

Expansion is a concern here

My other concern with this setup, as amended to correct the grounding issue between the pole-panel and the house-panel, is the lack of expandability.  You'll be severely constricted in the pole-panel by the "rule of six" limiting how many breaker throws you can put in it, and actual 100A panels don't come in upwards of 24 slots or so, which limits the house panel.  Furthermore, having to replace both panels in addition to re-trenching wire and such just aggravates any potential upgrades rather needlessly, and 200A breakers take up lots of panel space.

So, going with Siemens hardware here (although equivalent parts are available in Eaton's BR line (OK) or Square-D Homeline (cough) as fallback options if you can't get the Siemens stuff from your friendly local electrical supply house), this gives us an amended plan as to the panels themselves:

Starting at the pole, we throw out the idea of using a main lug panel here altogether.  Instead, we use a convertible, 200A panel, field fitted with a 100A main breaker but factory fitted with a second pair of lugs, called feed-through lugs -- the Siemens part number for this is PW0816L1200TC, and you'll need a MBK100A kit for the field fitted main breaker.  These are normally used as service entrances to mobile/trailer homes, but provide a good slot economy in a pole-mount application like yours as well.  In the Square-D world, you're talking about a HOM816M150PFTRB fitted with a QOM2100VH main breaker instead of the stock 150A main, as there are no QO mobile home loadcenters, and putting a NQ panelboard on your pole is a mighty expensive proposition.
In the pole panel, once you have the main breaker in, the service conductors land on it, and the house feeder is taken off the feed-through lugs instead of off a breaker.  This leaves plenty of room for your GFCI (even though you won't be able to use a plug-on neutral type here, even if you go Square-D, as PoN is not available on these mobile home type panels) as well as other outdoor circuits (to other outbuildings and so forth) you wish to add later on.
Going to the house panel, you want lots of slots, and that means using a 200 or 225A panel chassis.  In the Siemens lineup, this'd be a P5470B1200CU.  If you are sticking to the Square-D catalog, you can go to 60 slots using a QO160M200PC -- Homeline has an equivalent loadcenter, but I wouldn't bother with it for your main interior panel unless you didn't have the choice.
Now that you have the house panel taken care of, your plan to run 10/2 to the shed is fine -- you might as well use 10/2 UF for the other outdoor receptacle as well, as that lets you get a straight-forward 100' of 10/2 UF instead of 75' of 10/2 and 25' of 12/2.  One problem with putting a GFCI breaker in for the shed circuit, though, is that your lights will go out if you trip it on account of a ground fault.  You'll also need a disconnecting means at the shed -- this can be a molded-case disconnect switch similar to what's used as a service disconnect for an air conditioner, though, or even a subpanel, which'd let you put a 20A GFCI breaker in for the receptacles and an ordinary 15 or 20A breaker in for the lighting, along with a main breaker to serve as the disconnecting means.


Do I need a mixing valve in my boiler/water heater system? My hot water seems to run out sooner in the winter than in the warmer months. This has been the case for the 5 years I’ve lived here. Last year seemed worse and this year though seems like even more so. We’ve had no changes to our living situation. I had a plumber come and he checked the efficiency on the water heater, said it’s all good but that the installation was done improperly. That it needs a mixing valve and a pump, we turn the temp up and the tank will last longer and recover faster. He wrote up the estimate with “boiler not piped with priority and no mixing valve. Bandaid repair install mixing valve on tank and set outlet temp to 120 degrees and raise tank temp.”

Does this sound legit or is he just working an extra $900 out of me for plumbing work only to turn around and tell me I need a new water heater afterward?

Thanks.

Looks like you have a hydronic boiler that is heating your house through multiple zones as well as heating your domestic water via a heat exchanger within the tank to the right. If so, this would be referred to as an indirect fired hot water heater.

During the warmer months, the boiler only needs to heat the domestic water as the zone control valves for the heating zones would be closed. This allows for 100% of the boiler’s output to be used to heat the water.

Now in the colder months, the boiler must satisfy all zones, including the domestic water tank. Therefore the output of the boiler is being shared to each of the zones as they call for heat and the zone feeding the water heater will no longer be getting 100% out the output of the boiler.

There could be many potential reasons that your’s is not keeping up with he demand such as:

The boiler is undersized and cannot satisfy all the zones during peak demand
Improper balancing of the zones
Something piped incorrectly and causing a reduction in efficiency

A schematic diagram of your setup would be helpful in reviewing for potential issues. However, being that this seems to have always been the case, it might be that your boiler is undersized.

Regarding the addition of the a mixing valve and pump: where were they suggesting them being installed?

If you have turned up the tanks temperature too high, there is potential for scalding to occur at the plumbing fixtures. However it is often more efficient to run the water heater at a higher temperature and in these cases a mixing valve is installed on the outlet of the domestic hot leaving the tank to bring the temperature of the water as it leaves back to below scalding.

The only place I see that a pump might help would be on the heating zone that heats the domestic water tank. Similar to this setup:

However, a better understanding of your setup would be required to determine if feasible.


Connecting new ceiling light in 1970 house I am putting up a new ceiling light. There are 3 white wires and 3 black wires coming out of the ceiling. I tested them all and only 1 black wire is hot.

How do I hook up my light fixture that only has 1 black and 1 white wire to work with the wall switch?

My guess is one of the cables is a switch loop the other one is a 2nd light, and the hot you know.
I would check the not hot cables with an ohm meter looking at the black white resistance with the switch in the on position one or both of the dead cables will short or very low resistance depending on the type of lamp in the other fixture, now turn the switch off check both again the cable that was shorted and now reads open is a switch leg.
The black hot goes to the white of the switch leg usually a wire nut. The black coming back from the switch is the switched hot that you connect the other dead cable black to with the new lamp black the cable that had the hot also has a white this the neutral you connect the new light white to this white and the other dead cable white together.
This will properly connect your lights. There should be some bare ground wires in the box they should all be tied together and bonded to the box it looks metal, if conduit that may be your ground instead of a bare ground.


How should I add an AFCI to this panel? I'd like to add an AFCI to the middle circuit here. But that circuit shares a tandem breaker with the circuit above it, so I don't know if there are any subtleties of this setup that I don't understand. They don't appear to be a multi-wire branch circuit--they have separate neutrals going to the neutral bar. Can I just move the middle circuit to a new slot?

You have a panel with 12 spaces and you are using 4. Just move the red wire to an AFCI in a new space in the panel.

I would also move the lower black wire to where the red wire is now, so it becomes visually obvious that both wires are meant to be on the same pole.   I'm all for using a rainbow of colors in conduit/THWN, but in residential use with NM cable, red always means something special in some way.

On a tandem (I call them double-stuff) breaker, both circuits are on the same pole.  It is very easy for someone to confuse them for a 2-pole breaker, which MWBC's require for safety.  So when an electrician sees a panel with a double-stuff with red and black wires, he'll pause and follow the wires just to make sure that mistake wasn't made.


Build shelves into wall, but is it load bearing? I am planning to install built-in shelving only as deep as the studs in my wall.  There are several things that give me pause that I have questions on.  1) the stud sensor is telling me that the studs are doubled up.  I'm wondering if this is a load bearing wall as, 2) the wall has the family room on one side and the guest bath on the other, but above it on the second floor it is an outside wall as there is only a roof over the guest room and bath.  3) There is a vent pipe right down the center of where I want to locate the shelves, if the wall is load bearing how can I re-route this, & 4) if it is load bearing, will I need to build headers in as if I were installing a window?

Thanks,
Eric

Update:
We have decided that messing with the wall, as it is surely load bearing (based on your answers), is not a great idea.  Since we wanted a simple project & not to completely restructure the wall we looked at alternative options.  We have decided to makes some floating shelves that will still give us the depth and also hold the decorations.

Thanks for your help!
Eric

The exterior wall above this indicates that it is almost certainly load bearing. To remove the studs in the wall, you'll need to remove the weight with a temporary support that runs to the foundation floor. Then with the weight off you can remove the studs and reroute any wiring and plumbing in the process. You'll need to construct an appropriately sized header for the load it needs to carry, and that will rest on jack studs that need a continuous path all the way to the foundation and footers inside the foundation. The sizing for all of this depends on how much load you're carrying, and for that, you'll need an engineer that can review the floor plans and give the proper advice.


What type of heating system would you recommend? I am remodeling an old two-story duplex, opening it up into single dwelling. The existing heating system is oil/forced air and also a coal furnace built into the same ductwork. Unfortunately the ductwork leads to one half of the house, and only to the first floor (the assumption being second floor gravity-fed, which doesn't happen well in reality). I'm going to install new siding and better insulation this Spring. Before taking out walls and opening it up, I want to have a new heating system in place. I need something that is basically self-sufficient (I'm a trucker and work very long hours), so coal isn't a good option. The house is located in western Pennsylvania, so it's a relativily cold climate. What type of system do you recommend?

I always had the impression that hot water baseboard heat was the best, or the modern equivalent, radiant floor is the best. Since it does not warm by moving air, it does not dry out the room as bad as forced air.
Radiant won't mess with furniture arrangements, whereas base heat may keep some items off the wall. Electric base heat and forced air may yank furniture placement too. Unless you don't mind the inefficiency of the system it creates. If you block electric base heat with furniture, that is not only inefficient, but a fire hazard too.


Why does the pilot light in my propane heater go out when turned up? The pilot light goes out on my Heatstar heater when I turn it up to burner 1 setting. It pops a couple of times trying to relight then nothing.

A pilot light has a thermocouple that sits near the pilot flame, its tip impinging upon the pilot flame.
A temperature differential across the thermocouple from tip to base creates a small electrical voltage 30 mv that energizes the pilot valve that you manually depress to light the pilot light, after 30 seconds or so the thermocouple begins making 30 mv which energizes an electromagnet in the gas valve that hold the pilot valve open once you stop depressing the button to light the pilot.
When a thermocouple gets old or is placed to far into the pilot flame making the entire thermocouple hot with no temperature differential across the thermocouple from its tip to its base.
Sometimes the pilot flame will be turned up thinking adding more heat to the thermocouple makes it stronger when it is opposite, once the entire thermocouple is hot no temperature differential exists and it stops making the 30 mv and the pilot valve will drop out.
The thermocouple proves a pilot flame exists by creating 30 mv and holding the pilot valve open which allows the main burners to run safely.
The thermocouple is a flame proving device if it has not been recently adjusted or installed it likely needs replacement, not as often the electromagnet in the gas valve gets weak and fails as described as well.


Will ovens emit carbon monoxide when off at high altitude if not properly adjusted? This CBS news story seems to say that a turned-off oven emits carbon monoxide when not properly adjusted for altitude, such as 1 mile high in Denver, CO.  My BS detector is going off.

https://denver.cbslocal.com/video/4208794-carbon-monoxide-detector-found-behind-wall-at-belmont-buckingham-apartments/

High altitude conversion kits for gas stoves are an actual thing you can buy. The kit decreases the amount of natural gas sent to the burners, because of the decreased quantity of oxygen available at altitude. Here's an installation manual that mentions that not installing the kit where needed can result in incomplete combustion. This will result in CO output.

Now, the news video isn't playing correctly for me, but it sounds like they were saying levels were around 22 PPM. Normally, this is not yet at the level to cause symptoms, which starts around 70 PPM, though it's obviously still worth tracking down the source. However, the high altitude plays a role here as well. This document states specifically that "at high elevations the onset of symptoms occurs at much lower concentrations of CO than expected". Is 22 PPM life-threatening at that altitude? Probably not, (lethal range starts around 400 PPM at normal elevation) but I wouldn't want to stick around to find out.

In the end, if you have gas appliances, make sure you have a CO detector, and make sure it works.

TLDR: They are talking about a real phenomenon, but I doubt this is a life-or-death issue.


Doubling the size of a closet with two rods The closet currently contains one 48" rod, two flanges and two 1" wooden piece to support a shelf.

I'm thinking of moving this one higher and installing a second rod lower to double the space in the high-ceiling closet, but as a home-improvement beginner I have a few questions:

Are these wooden pieces always needed? The walls are 50" apart and standard rods I found were 48" long, so I can guess the landlord either had to complement with the wooden pieces or used them to support the shelf. In my previous, the flangers were nailed straight into the wall, but in this video the guy is moving the wood higher as well.
One side is a drywall, I'm not sure it's ideal to support a rod and the heavy clothes, let alone two rods. Is it safe?
If I need to install the wooden pieces, where can I find some in NYC?
How should I look for studs, and what kind of nails are recommended?

The blocks of wood your refering to serve two purposes, a resting place for the shelf above them and to provide a sturdy place for you to screw in the holders for the closet rod.

I understand once you move your rod up and install another one lower you probably won't use a shelf but I still recommend using the blocks of wood. Sure you could screw directly into the drywall, and maybe even hit a stud, but the chance that your closet rod will fall is much less if you use this block of wood.

If you have a hard time getting to a home improvement store to get wood, you can probably even use a board taken from a wooden pallet for this purpose. Just cut it to size, paint it up and it'll be fine.


Is this box bonded properly to the ground? The receptacle is from the mid-1950's and my multimeter shows that it is grounded. There are a solid 120 volts when testing between live and ground. I noticed a bare copper wire coming from the cloth wiring in the back tied to a screw connected to the box. I looked around for usable screw holes in the box to screw a ground screw into but they were all way too large. Does this look okay? I get good continuity here between the green insulated copper ground wire I added and the rest of the box.  The green wire goes to the ground screw on the new outlet in this case.

I do a lot of work on older homes and see stuff like this all the time.  Keep in mind that the equipment grounding conductor (EGC), that bare safety ground, was not always present in wiring systems.  If you see old homes - a little older than this one - with two-prong receptacles, those were wired back before the EGC was part of the system.

I think when the EGC was introduced, people were not exactly sure how to terminate it.  You'll see the EGC wrapped around any handy screw.  If it makes solid contact, and the screw is still doing it's job, it's probably not an issue, but it is not code compliant.

In this case, it doesn't look like that wrapped EGC is making solid contact, and it definitely is interfering with the screw clamping that clamp so the cable is secure.  So from a strictly practical standpoint there is room for improvement here.

The NEC has the following rule, but I am not sure it would have been in the code at the time of construction:

  250.148(C) Metal Boxes. A connection shall be made between the one or more equipment grounding conductors and a metal
  box by means of a grounding screw that shall be used for
  no other purpose, equipment listed for grounding, or a
  listed grounding device.

In addition, code requires that the box be listed and installed according to the manufacturer's instructions, and there's no way the manufacturer's instructions suggested the clamp screw be used for a ground screw.  That rule goes back so far, it was probably a rule when this was installed, but I think when the EGC was new, inspectors were not super strict about things.  But that's just my guess.

You'll notice in this picture that you have nonmetallic cable with a cloth jacket.  Always be careful handling cable / wiring this old, the insulation is often brittle.  This insulation looks like thermoplastic rather than rubber so it's probably not too bad to handle.  The EGC is smaller than the line and neutral conductors - probably 16 gauge EGC with 12 AWG or 14 AWG line / neutral - which is not an issue.

Since it's no big deal to make this A-OK I would remove the bare ground from the clamp screw and make that clamp snug as it should be - but not super tight, not necessary and that old cable may be fragile.

I'd then splice the green wire, the bare ground, and a 6" bare ground pigtail with a wire nut, and bond the other end of the ground pigtail to the box by a suitable method.  It's very possible that old box doesn't have the usual 10-32 threaded hole for a ground screw, so the easiest DIY thing to use is a grounding clip:

Grounding clips don't require any special tools to install and you don't have to reach inside the box to do what you need to do:


What sort of professional can I call for attic inspection and checking foundation? I am a single lady homeowner of a fix-up foreclosure. I bought the home for cash but did have a home inspection done. It has been almost 10 years, and although I did fix the things that were initially spotted I want to make sure everything is OK in a couple specific areas that I am really unfamiliar with: attic (enough insulation, look for plumbing leaks, dead birds, etc) and foundation (have cracks in walls & ceiling). I was considering whether getting another home inspection would be helpful, because they can look at all my major systems. Who to call - can I get a cheap analysis and estimate for any damages from just one person? Do I need a contractor or can a handyman type do the job?

A home inspection would tell you WHAT's wrong. An architect would tell you WHAT's wrong, EVALUATE the conditions (i.e.: cracked foundation, lack of attic insulation, etc.) and offer SOLUTIONS on how to fix it, but not provide a bid...(but they could recommend several contractors to get bids from). A contractor would tell you WHAT's wrong, offer a SOLUTION and provide a bid to fix/repair the problem...but I'd recommend 3 reputable contractors and 3 bids.


Rewiring outlet from half-hot to full-hot I have multiple outlets in my room where the top plug on the outlet is controlled by a light switch. My objective is simply to make it so that these top plugs are always hot, regardless of the position of the light switch.
After turning off the breaker, testing the outlet, and opening the outlet, the job appeared pretty simple: I have the expected ground wire near the bottom and two white wires connected to the left side of the outlet under screws (and connected together by an unbroken brass/copper tab), and on the right side there was a red wire connected to the top screw and a black wire connected to the bottom screw (but the brass/copper tab on this side has been intentionally broken, presumably to allow them to operate independently of each other). Since the top plug is connected to the red wire, and the top plug is the one that's controlled by the light switch, my instinct was that the red wire was my culprit. Therefore, my goal was to remove the red wire and have only black wires going to the right side: https://imgur.com/a/F5cZfeZ
To confirm this hypothesis, I opened up an adjacent full-hot outlet. As I suspected, no red wires were attached, only two white, two black, and the ground (green). https://imgur.com/a/1ayrXRW
The electrician seemed to make things easy for me. There were two caps, one red and one black. The red had three wires terminating in the cap, one of which was very short (it was this short wire that was connected to the outlet). I just removed this short wire, and left the other two wound together and in the cap. https://imgur.com/a/g4tBEdj
Similarly, there were three black wires terminating in the cap, one of which was very short (again, the short wire was the one connected to the outlet). I removed the short wire and the cap completely, and just took both of the other two wires and attached them to both of the (newly available) screws. https://imgur.com/a/jpBEDVQ
After completing the wiring, I turned the breaker back on. Nothing alarming occurred (and the breaker didn't trip or anything), but now all of the half-hot outlets in my room are completely non-functional. In fact, the light/fan that were also controlled by other switches in the room is also not working. The other outlets and lights in the room are working normally.
My only guess is that I need to get an unbroken brass/copper tab to replace the broken one on the outlet. This is my guess because the adjacent full-hot outlet had an unbroken one, which I saw when I opened it up as a reference. I was very careful to make sure that screws were fully screwed in to prevent a wire from popping out and was careful that uninsulated ground wasn't touching any uninsulated hot (which I imagine would have caused an immediate short/breaker flip if it had).

The short wires are called "pigtails".
As you gathered, it was important that the two black non-pigtails remain connected to each other irrespective of the receptacle.  You can use the 2 screws on the receptacle as an ad-hoc splice block... but that doesn't work if the tab is broken. The purpose of the tab is allow you to use it as a splice block instead of for separate control.
You can't buy a new tab.  You have 2 ways you can fix this.
1. pigtail each socket separately.
Leave the two pigtails on it, but simply move the red pigtail from the "red wires" wire-nut, to the "black wires" wire-nut.   You can still do that if you saved the bits.  Or you can buy some loose wire and cut some bits if you have a stripper.
Putting 4 wires on a wirenut is a little challenging, and you'll need red or tan wire-nuts, not yellow ones.
There's no way to replace just the tab.  To salvage a tab-broken recep, just pigtail both sides as above.
2. Replace the outlet
You can "get the tab back" by replacing the whole receptacle - but given the DIY repair boom, prices are going crazy, and you could pay as much as $1.25 for builder (cheap) grade... or $4 for the vastly better quality spec-grade ones.
In fact the spec-grade ones allow 2 wires under each screw, so the builder wouldn't have needed to pigtail.


Insulating the concrete attic with rockwool slabs I want to insulate the attic with rockwool slabs in an unusual way. My house is old and we may have to rebuilt a new house in next 5 years, so I do not want to spend a lot of money on this.

Attic / ceiling of my house is made of concrete and the floor of attic is covered with nothing. I want to cover it with rockwool. I've heard that if you leave the rockwool slabs uncovered with planks or etc. you will end up with a lot of fleas in the summer. I am not sure how much of it is true!? So, I do not want to cover them with planks because of the cost of it. I also want to reuse the materials in the future for the new house. The area to be covered is 59 M2. We do not use the attic almost at all.

I thought about the styrofoam insulation but it costs more and once you do cement finish to cover it you cannot use it anymore.

Are there other alternatives used to cover the rockwool on the floor? Or, maybe there are other insulation materials that I can use instead of rockwool!?

Note: The attic's temperature differs from the temperature outside just 1 C degree or so.

Additional question: How much is it going to be effective to just have the attic insulated for the house?

Thank you for taking the time to answer

Just throw any insulation material you can get on your hands on the attic floor and cover it with "vapor-permeable film" (I don't know the correct term here) if it's not waterproof like styrofoam. Make sure the film is laid proper way up and won't move. Of course, this assuming that you won't be using this attic at all (not just "almost") - such insulation won't survive being stepped on it.

Because you're going to tear this house apart soon, the quality doesn't matter much. I also doubt any insulation would be reusable after 5 years, I think you should treat it as disposable.

I think it's going to be effective, as ceiling is where the most heat is lost. I've seen many houses which were insulated like this - just styrofoam slabs tiled on unused attic floor. I haven't heard about the flea problem - any insulation is certainly a nice place to nest, but fleas also have to eat somewhere.


Converting generator power to "clean" power for sensitive electronics I have a Duromax "Beast" power generator that I've been using to run my home during power outages due to storms, etc.  From the start, I decided to do things right and had an electrician install an input outlet with a manual transfer switch onto an exterior breaker panel which feeds the house; a high-quality cable runs power from the generator into the panel.
We had a recent hurricane and once I figured things out, the generator ran things near-flawlessly.  However, in researching generators, I read about sine waves and how generators supply "dirty" power, so I was worried about using any sensitive electronics -- TVs, computers, cell phone chargers, cable modem, etc:  we unplugged every single one of those things and didn't use them.
I have a relative who is an electrician, and he argues that if I have decent surge protectors on those outlets, then all of those sensitive electronics should be absolutely fine, and this is echoed somewhat on a couple of sites where I've been researching this issue.  However, someone else argued what I was thinking:  surge protectors guard against spikes in power, not sudden drops or brief spans of low power...and those could possibly damage sensitive electronics as well.
Which of us is correct?  Am I being overly worried and good surge protectors are truly all I need?  Or is that honestly just a makeshift measure and there are better solutions?  Which one is likely to be the most effective...and economical?
Thank you in advance for all of your advice!

This is a half answer, based on some parallel knowledge not directly related to small home generators, so bear with me…
The only generators I get near are those on movie sets, which are gigantic by comparison - see Aggreko for an idea of the sizes I'm talking about. These, of course, are smooth as silk so require considerably less external mitigation.
Basically, you need several levels of protection if these are not already built-in to your generator.
Power limiting - ie surge protection.
Brownout - power slump - protection.
Grounding protection & isolation.
Delicate electronics don't like any of those. A general purpose mains surge protector will be the least likely to come into play in this, but shouldn't be skipped; they're dirt cheap. The other two could be more insidious.
A UPS (uninterruptible power supply) is the standard method of protecting computers & other delicate electronics from brownout or even total power-loss. These are an entire topic to themselves, but start fairly cheap & run to 'ouch' prices.
Grounding protection/isolation may be built into these - pay more, get more. Essentially, grounding protection is built on the 'in-house' side of a 1:1 coil-wound transformer. These seemingly odd little boxes - 120v in, 120v out, (or 240v i/o as appropriate) seem to do nothing; but they isolate one circuit from another. You then correctly ground the 'in-house' circuit to achieve total isolation from the external power supply.


How to resolve a rusting uPVC window fixing torx screw? The window in this property has been fitted with steel screws, all of which have rusted as the window is often open and inevitably moisture has reached the screw heads. My goal is to replace them all before the heads are corroded so much they cannot be removed in future. All the flat-head screws have been successfully replaced, but to the right of the frame you can see a single T30 torx screw head which is significantly corroded.

Should I:

A. Remove the T30 screw and simply screw in a corrosion resistant equivalent of the same dimensions?

or

B. Leave the screw where it is, but treat the screw head to prevent further corrosion?

My hesitation relates to what exactly the torx screw is screwed into, as I suspect some of these fixings come with a plug assembly that the screw may be screwed into and I don't want to remove the screw and find I cannot drive a new one in. A rusted screw head (with corrosion resisting compound on it) is probably better than no screw at all!

I think I would see if I could remove the rusting screw.  It boils down to, it is never going to be less likely to break off than it is right now.  If you're lucky, you could coat it with silicone, seal out the air, and it won't get any worse, but that's just the head - the shaft may continue to deteriorate.

I'd try to get it out with just the torque I can work up with a screwdriver with a Torx bit, if I couldn't get it out by hand, I'd leave it.

I'd also try to get some penetrating oil on it, although it may be tough to get it past the head and down to where it counts.  Also tap down on the head a little with a hammer to vibrate it a little, this often helps break a stuck screw free.


How Much Weight Can My 1/2" Drywall Ceiling Take? Okay, so, I'm doing a DIY home improvement project; I do not have access to the attic as my home is on the second floor of my building.

The project: Installing a beaded ballchain/shimmerscreen curtain that will serve as a partition. The rod from which several chains will be suspended from is 78 1/2" long. The net weight of beaded ball chains that will hang from the rod is +/-70lbs and will be distributed evenly across 78 1/2".
For clearer concept, look here: http://www.shimmerscreen.com/portfolio.html

Is it reasonable to attempt to install 70lbs worth of beaded curtain across 78" given that my home's has drywall ceiling is 1/2" thick? Now, lay into me!

And sorry, more genius which a different aspect of engineering (computers/IT).

You will NOT want to support your 78 1/2 inch rod from the drywall alone. Drywall fastened up to the ceiling is a pretty good challenge just holding up it's own weight then yet you trying to add 70 pounds to that.

So what you want to do is to locate the support members (usually called ceiling joists) to which the drywall is attached. You would then want to use screws that penetrate through the drywall and and up into the support member to hold up the brackets for your rod. For most ceiling supports the members will be found to be 16 or 24 inches apart so you should be able to find 5 or more support points for the rod if it is running across the direction of the support members. If the rod is running in the same direction as a ceiling support member then you would attach the rod support brackets at 4 to 6 locations along the same support member. In this latter case it means that you cannot locate your bar just any old place but directly under a ceiling support member.

Finding where the ceiling joists are located can be done with a stud finder tool. A simpler scheme is to get a strong magnet and scan it across the ceiling looking to find the steel nails or screws that are holding up the drywall. Each located screw will be at a point just under a support member. Find multiple points and a ceiling joist map can be created.

If the bar that holds up the ball chain partition is an extruded metal track then the mounting technique will likely not involve any brackets but instead involve drilling holes through the metal track at the correct points where screws can then be run up through the track into the support members in the ceiling.


Two dryers connected to the same exhaust via a "Y". Backdraft problems? I have two dryers (one gas, one electric) and their exhaust pipes are merged with a "Y" to a common exterior exhaust.  I'd like to keep it that way to minimize cuts through the wall (and eventually I may get rid of the old electric dryer).

The new gas dryer is 15 feet away from the wall, the old one is close to it (and to the "Y").

Question: there's a bit of back draft when the gas dryer is working.  I can smell it when I'm around that old electric dryer.  Can I install some sort of backdraft preventer?  Is there such a thing?

@Peter: I think you answered your own question in your comment to ChrisF.  What you want is an "inline draft blocker."  And you'll want two, one for each dryer.  Here are a few on Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/Lambro-Industries-Blocker-1775L-Accessories/dp/B000H5PTJA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=hi&qid=1304804320&sr=1-1

http://www.amazon.com/DEFLECTO-BD04-Draft-Blocker/dp/B00009W3HB/ref=pd_cp_hi_2

http://www.amazon.com/Dundas-Jafine-DB4ZW-Dryer-Blocker/dp/B000DZDPPE/ref=sr_1_34?s=hi&ie=UTF8&qid=1304804226&sr=1-34


awkward driveway curve has cars nearly colliding with house, how to mitigate? Bellow is an arial photo and a road-side photo of my new house.

As you can see the driveway is an awkward curve especially when backing out of the car port to the side of the garage - you have to do a slight "double S curve" to avoid the house and a parked car/truck. Worse yet, it come dangerously close to the house! [more info about the vehicle and parking at the end of this post]

I'm sure that after a few weeks of practice it will become second nature to navigate it in reverse, but for guests and for those rough mornings without coffee, I'm worried that a car could graze the edge of the house and cause damage to the car and the house.

So I'm wondering what my options are. What would you do? Thanks!

[edit] here's some more info for those interested: I drive a truck and the lady drives a car. She will park in the car port as shown, and I will park my truck in the driveway. The outbuilding is actually a workshop with a wooden floor and cellar underneath it, not a garage, so no parking in there. The car is a compact Toyota, the "truck" is not a truck at all but a Jeep Cherokee so not too large either (I only wrote truck because that's whats parked there now but I'm selling it soon. It's a short bed full-size '83 chevy)

My suggestion is to add to the size of the concrete drive way in the following manner:

This gives you the option of backing up out of the car port in the new area toward the rear yard. Then you can drive in a forward direction which would be far easier to navigate by the truck and the corner of the house.

Additionally the part added onto the side nearer to the street view will allow the truck parking area to be moved over a little to alleviate the congestion posed by the parked vehicle in its current spot.

Adding onto existing concrete like this is certainly doable but there can be some downsides including looks and joining the new to the old slabs. If those are of concern to you then you would be looking at taking out a good portion of the existing slab and replacing with all new. Cost factors can be a good aid in the decision path.


Would down-stuffed curtains stop heat loss through windows? My home has some very big 6 ft by 8 ft windows likely a big source of heat loss and is contributing to high heat bills. It would be too expensive to replace them with modern vinyl windows and the products themselves are of high quality, just old and made of some kind of metal, so not energy efficient.
I know a seamstress who makes custom blankets for a few hundred dollars each. They can fill with any material, cotton, goose feathers, etc. I could request they make blankets the size of the windows, but with added holes so they are supported by curtain rods. Would such a product have a big affect on stopping heat loss through the windows?

Absolutely. Down is a terrific insulating agent. It would work even better if you seal up the edges of the curtains along the window. A good way to do that is with either magnetic strips or velcro along the curtain seams on each side. That way you can let sun in during the day and seal rhem up at night to prevent heat loss.
I assume your windows are single pane. If you want to go a step further you can conserve even more heat by also installing plastic film insulation on your windows. Kits are available online and at most hardware stores.


Is there any way to make a sink connected to a garborator drain faster? In the kitchen there are two sinks side by side which share a common drain. One sink has a garborator. It drains ridiculously slowly. The other sink drains faster but I've been told it doesn't actually because it has more space underneath for the water to go so it only appears to drain faster, or something like that. The garborator is basically never used. Is there anything I can do to speed of the the draining of the sink(s)? I'm not sure if it's relevant but I think the gorborator is broken or doesn't work well.

I would just remove the garborator if it is unused.  Over time, it will become clogged since it's internal holes are smaller than that of a normal drain.  You could try cleaning it out by throwing some lemons in it and running it for a while.

Your real problem may be a clogged drain though.  In the good drain, fill the sink completely and let it drain.  If it becomes slow at any point, you need to have the drain cleaned.


ornamental security light I Have installed  a motion sensor light at the front of my house. It was working ok but kept going lighting up all the time becuase of next doors bush, so decided to put an in line switch on the live side of the feed to the light so I could turn it off going to bed. However it now does not work at all even if I take the switch back out of the circuit reconnect it to the way it was before I started. Hence my question by doing what I did, putting switch on the live wire of supply, could this have caused damage to the sensor causing It to malfunction and if so why.
many thanks for any input

No, in fact most motion detectors require a switch to be able to take advantage of the override function they have. Typically, flipping the switch off and back on a number of times puts a motion detector light into override mode.


Sub Panel feed to existing garage I am wanting to upgrade a garage by putting in a larger 10 space sub panel with a 60 amp feed from the house. I plan to use a 4 wire assembly of #6 copper USE-2 conductors direct buried from house to garage and protected with SCH 80 conduit where emerging from the ground. The sub panel will be main breaker style as to have a means of disconnect in the building. My questions on the project:
Is my wire size adequate and legal on a 60 amp 2 pole breaker in the house which is about 75' away?
Do I need to install a ground rod at the garage location or is the grounding conductor from the main house panel adequate?
Will 1 1/4" SCH80 PVC be large enough to sleeve my 4 wires entering the house?

You might as well go all the way with your subpanel upgrade
There is absolutely no reason to put a dinky 10-space panel in your shed when you could get a 24-space or 30-space, 100 or 125A, main breaker panel for a minimal additional cost (the price differential we're looking at here pays for oh, a pizza or a few fancy cups of coffee, depending on where you are).  Keep in mind that the main breaker in your subpanel is simply a shutoff means for the shed, so it being larger than the feeder breaker in the main panel is not an issue.  Don't forget to buy and install the correct grounding bar for your panel if it doesn't come with one pre-installed!
There are better ways to invest in copper
You're far better off pulling a 2-2-4-6 Al mobile home feeder cable for your run than doing anything with copper.  It's one-third the price, has 50% more current-carrying capacity (90A at 75°C), and will happily fit in 1¼" Schedule 80 PVC conduit.
While you're at it, you might want to use some of that money you saved by not running copper to lay a continuous run of PVC conduit belowground.  While 1¼" will work for this, going up to 1½" gives you room for future upgrades, up to 100 or 125A even depending on the panel you get.
At the main panel, you'll need an 90A breaker of the correct type for your panel (although you can use a 60A breaker if you already have it fitted) to take full advantage of the mobile home feeder cable.
As to that grounding situation...
You are correct that you'll need ground rods at the shed in addition to the grounding wire in your feeder cable.  This is handled with some bare 6AWG copper run from the garage subpanel's grounding bar to two 8' ground rods driven 6-8' apart, as a single rod might not get a low enough resistance to earth to protect your shed adequately against wayward natural electricity.  Don't forget to pull the green bonding screw or strap out of the subpanel while you're doing this installation, for that matter!
TORQUE ALL LUGS TO SPEC
Last but not least, you'll want to use an inch-pound torque wrench or torque screwdriver to tighten all connection (breaker, panel) lug screws to the rated tightening torques marked on the breaker or panel labels.  This is required in 2017 NEC 110.14(D), and is a good idea even if you're on a prior edition of the NEC, lest your electrical work give your garage the loose lugnut!