Damp on the ceiling of the flat downstairs looks like a leak - what should I do? A couple of days ago the downstairs neighbour knocked to say he was seeing some damp on the ceiling of his bathroom that might indicate a leak coming from my flat, so I went down to look and it does look suspiciously like leak damage (one corner of the room has black mould in it, about an inch diameter, with brown tide marks radiating out from there). His bathroom is directly below my bathroom (I live in a relatively modern building, about 8 years old, so his flat is an identical clone of mine in terms of layout).

There is absolutely no sign of a leak in my bathroom (no damp or puddles on the floor or up the walls) so my question is where do I start? I have read that water often travels a fair distance before pooling at the lowest point, and my bathroom is an integrated unit which has drywall on one wall but the rest of it is basically floor to ceiling tiles - if possible I would like to avoid ripping out and breaking all my tiles on a wild goose chase.

Questions:

does it make sense to cut a peep hole in the drywall ceiling of the flat below, before trying to rip out tiles from my bathroom?
what is the most likely culprit? I have read in several places that the wax seal on the toilet is a suspect - is it possible for this to be leaking only into the downstairs ceiling, and not outwards into my bathroom as well?
any suggestions for troubleshooting and figuring out where the leak is, without pulling out the entire bathroom?

Thanks!

Sounds like a Wax seal issue to me, it would only leak when you flush, and would certainly drip through openings in the floor or tiles.
They are only good for a limited time, but good news they are only about $7 and easy to change if you have a helper.

Loosen bolts, lift toilet, have partner remove and replace seal, plop down toilet, sit on it, then tighten the bolts without breaking the toilet. Since it's a rental, Tell your landlord to credit you $100 and everyone wins.


What's the widest two-by size for a door frame I can use without warping becoming an issue? In order to be able to connect the outside (brick/masonry) and inside (lumber framing) structural elements, I need to use 2x10, anything shallower won't do. However, I'm reluctant to use lumber that wide as, in my experience, the wider it is (the width in 2xX being X), the more prone to warping it gets and I certainly don't want that for my entry door frame.

Is 2x10 okay to frame an entry door? Is my observation about the relationship between width and warping correct?

You are correct for the most part if buying what is in stock at big box.   However if you have a local lumberyard that can get you something comparable to kiln dried SPF, I have never had an issue - or maybe 1 issue in 20 years.

I do recognize your statement though because if I do buy 2x10/12s from big box half of them will go back with a few days - I way over buy because of this.   If you are worried about them warping after install then you should cross block the gap every foot or so and brace it in.

I have had to do many many doors with 10by lumber.   I just make sure I buy good wood from lumberyard and get it installed within a day or two of buying.   I am not sure really what alternatives you have because I am assuming the door is load bearing.  I mean you could go with an LVL that is rated for vertical install and have them rip it to 10" - this seems to be way way overdoing it but just giving you a "perfect" option.


Combine two independent switches into 3-way? Currently  I have two independently powered switches powering two lights. The dining room is a single pole switch controlling the light. The kitchen used to have two 3-way switches controlling the light prior to removing a wall. After removing the wall, I just capped the old 3 wire in the basement so the remaining 3-way switch is the only control of the light. What I'd like to do is have both existing switches turn on both lights simultaneously but I'm not sure how to (or if I can) accomplish this.

Here's a rough text diagram of the current set up

Dining room:
Feed ----- single pole switch ----- light

Kitchen:
Feed into light --3wire ---3 way switch --- 3 wire -- terminated in junction

One thing that seems odd to me is that there's a 3 wire from the light to the first (and now only) 3way switch. Let me know if this makes sense.

Thanks Dan

The black coming into the hall switch is what provides power here. I think it I tap into the red wire coming off the top of the 3way switch and a neutral, I can pass that power to the dining room light.

If you use the hallway circuit to power the three-way circuit, you must run four conductors (plus ground) between the two switch boxes.

(If you needed to use the dining room feed you would have to run five conductors.)

With this circuit, you abandon and cap off, or remove completely, the feed cable to the dining room switch. You also abandon and cap off, or remove completely, the useless stub cable to the terminated j-box. I have omitted those cables from my diagram.

I have omitted the fault ground wires from the diagram, but don't omit them from your house.

Using the hallway light j-box as your power source is safer than using the dining room switch j-box. With power coming from the old dining room end, the two-gang (the one with the hallway switch) would have live wires from two separate circuits. A future electrician might not know that he has to flip two circuit breakers to make the box safe to handle.


Brand new air compressor trips onboard breaker on start I bought a new air compressor from Harbor Freight (8-gallon, 2hp,) and last night I added oil to the fill line, opened all valves, and started it to run it for the break in period (30 minutes with no load, open valves on the tank.)

When I first turned it on, it shut off immediately (1-2 seconds.) I pressed the reset button, started it up again, and it ran a bit longer (3 seconds) and then shut off again. Each time it shut off, it took progressively longer for the reset button to be pressable (it gives a little click when it's ready to be reset.) This went on for 5-7 cycles until it finally stayed running (much louder,) at which point it ran for the full 30 minutes until I turned it off.

Today I changed the oil and went to turn it on again, and it was the same deal: several cycles of progressively longer short moments of quiet run time, and then it fired up and ran fine.

Is this normal for oil-lubed air compressors? Is this part of the cold start process, or should I return it as DOA?

I would return it.  It doesn't sound like a lubrication issue - it sounds like either the motor soft starter is bad, is not well paired with the breaker, or is simply not present on that model.  AC motors can pull substantially more current on initial start, and I'm guessing that is causing the breaker trips. I don't mean to knock Harbor Freight (much), but higher quality compressors of that size and capacity aren't usually that much more expensive.  You can obviously do an exchange and hope for better luck with a replacement unit, but if you are planning on any serious use of it, reliability is a huge plus.  Nothing destroys a work plan for the day like having a bunch of air tools that you can't use because the compressor won't start.


New woodean board for a kitchen table I live in Germany and would like to replace the top of a kitchen "table":

I am thinking of taking a rather inexpensive wood board from birch or beech:

Of course I'd need to paint it. I though of using a lacquer of some sort:

As a second thought, this comes into my mind:

but I am neither very excited about the way it looks, not how it feels to touch, nor antything.

Questions:

Comments on general worktop made of birch or beech?
Is birch or beech better?
Comments on the two types of lacquers I am think about?
What lacquers would you recommend?
What's the impact of the lacquers on surfaces that touch all kinds of foods that eventually come to our stomachs?

For a food-safe wood finish, I have had good success using a 1:1 ratio of real pure tung oil and citrus solvent.

My kitchen table is cypress, which is much softer than birch or beech, soft enough that I need to lightly sand and refinish the table every year or so.  Working with tung oil and citrus solvent rather than a lacquer makes this task very easy because I don’t have to deal with toxic fumes and a long drying time.

I also have a birch butcher-block countertop with the same finish.  The area closest to the sink has a small amount of water damage after about 5 years. I might consider using the marine finish there.


How to handle large bluestone slabs I'm looking for tips on how to handle large bluestone slabs. Each is 24" square, 1.5" thick, and weighs 80 lbs. They are geo-cut with thermal surface treatment.

Presently I have 100 of these slabs sitting on two pallets in my driveway. The pallets are right next to the patio but to reach the patio surface requires going up 4 ft of concrete steps. I'm debating moving each slab by hand up the steps as I place them vs running several slabs around the yard on a hand truck. Any tips on moving slabs from the pallet to the patio.

Having moved a few slabs already I find that the edges chip easily. We are going for a clean modern look (dry-laid with minimal joints in a regular grid pattern) so I would prefer to minimize on the "natural beauty" of chipped stone edges. Any tips on avoiding chipped edges? I plan to leave an 1/8" gap (filled with stone dust) when I place these to reduce chipping with thermal expansion. I was contemplating filing off the edges but it's 400 edges and I worry I won't get good results without some sort of a jig.

Can I use a vacuum-style tool to pick and place slabs? Do you recommend the hand-held style used for countertops or am I better off renting something larger that runs off a compressor and is designed to be maneuvered by two people?

I've also seen images of slab lifters that grip the edges of the slabs but I'm not sure how well these will work when I try to place one slab right next to another.

Wheels!    I would recommend a hand truck, furniture dolly or a wheelbarrow.


Have 3 machines on 1 wire In the laundry room, I currently have 1 socket, with 1 underlying wire of 1.5 mm2 of section. This connects to a 16A circuit breaker. In the country I live in, voltage is 230V.
I need to install 3 machines in this laundry room:

washing machine : 2100 W
dryer : 2700 W
tank water heater : 2000 W

This is obviously way too much for this 1 wire. The ideal solution would be to get a new wire from the fusebox, but that is hard to do, and would require redecorating large portions of the house, which I just can't do at the moment.
So I thought of a solution. Could I replace the wire that currently goes from the fusebox to the socket, and replacing it by say a 4mm2 one?
I would put 3 sockets with this underlying 4mm2 wire, and plug the 3 machines on these sockets.
So 2 questions:

I read online that the tank water heater should be on its own wire, so that would not be the case in my scenario. Why do they suggest that, and is it somewhat reasonable to not follow this direction ?
Knowing that there are about 6m between the fusebox and the socket, how easy would it be for someone with no experience at all to to replace the existing cable by a new one, thicker?

In general upgrading the wire is an acceptable solution, but you will probably also need to have new breakers at the laundry end of the wire.
You will need to put a new breaker box in the laundry at the end of the wire and have breakers for your three appliances there. there are probably rules about which parts of the room are allowed to have the breaker box.
Alternatively if your house has a three phase service you could just run two more lives in the conduit (from the other two phases), and share the existing neutral and ground wires, that's assuming there's room in the conduit for two more wires.


Electrical device for testing continuity of long home-run wires Does anyone know the name or have a link to an electrical testing device for verifying home-runs to electrical box?

If you are trying to label or find a wire, the typical way is to use a wire tracer. One end is a tone generator, the other end is a detector that can hear those tones.

You can get low-voltage ones, which can be used for (unpowered) electrical cables, ethernet/phone and cable:

You can also get specialty live-voltage tracers, many of which can be used if the circuit is powered:

If you're actually trying to get continuity (and get an ohms value) one way is to use a standard multimeter with a long extension cord. This only works if the circuit is unpowered (otherwise you risk blowing up your meter and/or electrocuting yourself). Plug in the extension cord at one end, and bring the other end to the source (eg, near the panel), then you can use one of the multimeter probes on the extension cord and the other on the wire you're testing.


How can I fix this sliding drawer? We have a large kitchen drawer - I believe it is known as a metal sided drawer box - used to store pots. The screws have just come undone from the metal side that is attaching it to the front. In order to reattach the screws I need to somehow remove the fixing from the side so I can get into the back of it.

This picture shows the side of the metal side that attaches to the face of the drawer. The arrows point to where the screws need to be fixed to.

I imagine that I somehow need to remove this piece. But I cannot for the life of me work out how!

Here is another shot of the side of the metal side if it is of any help :

Any ideas how I can get to the back of those screw holes?

Edit - this hopefully gives a better idea of the components involved :

Edit 2 - After a bit of research I have realised my terminology is all wrong. It is the side of a metal sided drawer box that has become unscrewed and not the runner as I was initially saying.

That's an IKEA MAXIMERA Drawer side. You have to turn the cam nut (circled in red) and either depress or pry away the metal tab to release it (that's why it goes click) and then pull out the bracket.

(source)


Why would a bulb need a 30mA RCD for the bathroom? So I have bought a new light fitting for our shower room (This is the bulb.)

On the instructions it says if fitting in a bathroom a 30mA RCD is required. We have a fairly old fuse box, so wired fuses no RCDs. I see the lighting circuit has a 5A fuse on it. Does this actually equate to a 5,000mA RCD?

Does this mean the light fitting is no good for our circuit? Would I need to wire up a whole new circuit just for this light? Why would fitting it in the bathroom affect the size of RCD required?

An RCD is different from a fuse.  An RCD (residual current device) is known as a GFI (ground fault interrupter) or GFCI (ground fault current interrupting) device in the US.

In non-technical terms, if the RCD device sees current "missing" on a circuit - more leaving than returning - it shuts down power, based on the idea that that missing current may be starting a fire or shocking someone.

A 30ma RCD trips when 30ma of current is "missing."  In some locations, a 30ma trip is the maximum allowable for personal protection, prevention of electrical shock injuries.

RCD / GFCI are especially important in bathrooms because people are in contact with water and pipes, which increases electrical hazards.


How much weight can a 2 by 4 support in this configuration? I'm using dimensional lumber ( whitewood ) from Home Depot.

https://www.homedepot.com/b/Lumber-Composites-Dimensional-Lumber/N-5yc1vZc3tc

It is just a 4 foot by 8 foot rectangle with a center vertical piece and a center horizontal piece.

I am hoping to put a 1/4" plywood on top to make a small structure to hold 500 to 1000 lbs.

If 2 by 4s are not strong enough I could used 2 by 6 or 2 by 8.

I'm trying to keep the design very simple.

There will be a caster/wheel at each corner were the weight is transferred to.

The 2x4's are also the problem.  You want to support this from casters only on the corners.  That means you need an 8 foot span, as well as a 4 foot cross-span, and you need to keep all this rigid so it doesn't spread and lose strength.

Half of the structure is the wood to carry the weight.  The other half is to keep the first half from twisting or spreading when the weight is applied.

2 by anything isn't going to work lain flat.  You'll need to stand these tall and I would go with 2x6 myself.

I would create two box structures on either side of the frame running the long way.  How do I describe this?

Start with two 2x6's that are 7'9" long, set on edge and parallel to each other, and about 8" gap between them.  Got it?

Under load, these beams will want to twist, spread or lay over.  We don't want that. So we put stuff between them.  Spacers made out of more 2x6 material 8" long.  In the middle we set those vertically, making a tall "H", except we need more than one cross-spacer.  Near the ends, different deal. We lay the spacers horizontally - and this is what we attach the casters to.  We can position these spacers up or down as needed to set the desired height for the platform.   Got it?  We build two of these.

Now we get two 4' 2x6's.  These will become the end caps.  Lay the box structures parallel so their outsides are 4' apart, and attach them to the end caps.

That leaves a big, thin 2 foot by 8 foot rectangle in the middle with no support whatsoever. Another 2x6 joist would suffice there, or even a 2x4 if weight is a worry.

Now the framing is done.

The top plywood is very important. It's not just a hole filler.  It also provides structural stiffness to keep the whole thing from skewing or spreading.   So 1/4" will certainly not cut it.  Given that we now have joist support every 12" or so, 1/2" will probably do.


Should the covers on sewage drainage pipes be airtight? Should the caps on the sewage drainage pipes outside be airtight? We've had a little back-up (vent related, it looks like) and I loosened the caps in case water couldn't drain fast enough, so overflow  would go into the yard instead of the shower stall. I'm thinking we have a vent issue, but until we can get them cleaned next week, I'd like to leave the caps loose when doing laundry. Just wondering if loose caps contribute to drainage problems or if it matters.

The risk is that you have sewer gas escaping at ground level and this could easily enter your house. This gas is potentially flammable or explosive.

Venting issues are not going to cause a backup. Slow draining or gurgling are common symptoms of venting problems. If you have a backup it is very likely your sewer is clogged.

There are also environmental concerns with discharging sewage on your lawn in that it can enter the drinking water supply. I imagine you could be fined for this.


GFCI Outlet in kitchen cutting off power of all other outlets I have one GFCI outlet in my kitchen and sometimes it just tripped and cut off power without anyone touching it. The annoying thing is that it is the head of the circuit which ends up cutting off power of many other outlets in the kitchen area including my internet modem.

I was reading this post Which Kitchen outlets do NOT need GFCI? and learnt that GFCI outlet is required for countertop outlet. I got that.

BUT few questions:

Why GFCI outlet is tripped for a random reason? I am not sure what triggered it. Would it be possible if the current is overloaded somewhere else causing that specific outlet to pop?
Is there a way to rewire and avoid the chain reaction where one outlet leading to the next? I would like to isolate the outlets so they don't end up blowing each other off like that.

Thanks.

How to ignore the problem

A GFCI device of any kind, even the kind that looks like a receptacle, is able to provide GFCI protection to other loads beside itself.  It has a couple of output terminals called the LOAD terminals, and anything attached to LOAD will get GFCI protection also.  This is an efficent way to use GFCI devices, but only for people who actually treat electrical maintenance seriously and have a healthy fear of it.

For others, you get this situation.

Others are discussing how you can use multiple GFCI+receptacle devices to separate one receptacle's problems from another's, by tactical use of the LOAD terminals (or rather, tactical disuse).  It's straightforward enough; just leave the warning tape on the LOAD terminals and pigtail everything onto LINE.  Once you do that, only things plugged into a GFCI+receptacele can trip that GFCI.

How to fix the  problem

A GFCI has one job.  What is it? Detecting ground faults: Cases where electrical insulation is not tight anymore, and the appliance is leaking current in a way that could shock you or start a fire.  So if something trips a GFCI, what is most likely to be?  Right.

One of your appliances has a ground fault.

This news tends to be disliked.  We've had flame wars with askers who were in full military denial.  If you're not interested in that...

It is a process of narrowing down.   An appliance may have a ground fault, but it can't trip a GFCI if it's not plugged in.  So unplug all the appliances that have been plugged into those GFCI protected sockets for the last 10 years.  See if the problem goes away.  Once a day, plug one back in and see if the problem returns.

Here's a useful tidbit: a 2-prong appliance can't trip GFCIs unless it can reach ground somehow - sitting in a puddle of water that often leaks from the sink, a cable modem through the TV cable shield, or a plumbed coffeemaker through the water in the supply pipe.

For a big machine like a refrigerator, run an extension cord to a receptacle on a different circuit, solely for temporarily testing.  Ideally that other circuit is also GFCI, so you get the double confirmation of a) the kitchen stops tripping and b) the other circuit does trip.

Once you find the culprit appliance, you can take a swing at giving it a good clean-up... But realistically, into the trash it goes.  This is an age of throwaway appliances.

Don't be surprised if it's your refrigerator.  That's common, and here's the thing:  Refrigerators don't belong on GFCI.  Refrigerators are the exact opposite of the use-case for GFCI: a grounded machine with all the electrical bits shielded by all metal, in the back bottom where you could not possibly access them, and you aren't going to drop it in your sink.  I have seen cases where the fridge was the last outlet on the kitchen countertop chain, and as a result every single kitchen countertop outlet needed its own GFCI+receptacle, with LOAD terminals not used at all.  If a fridge has a 10ma ground fault, I really do not care.  It's not going to threaten anyone but the ground wire.


Does bending drywall weaken it? I bought 1/2" x 4'  x 16' to install on a ceiling with 16" centers. When the lumber yard loaded it they used a fork lift in the center of the 4 sheets to lift it onto my trailer.  As they lifted it the panels flexed so much that it almost bent in half. I couldn't believe that it didn't break.

Now I'm concerned that flexing it that much could weaken it and that it might not be rigid enough to use on the ceiling. Would bending the sheets that much weaken it?"

Gypsum (drywall) panels get most of their strength from the paper face that wraps them. Generally speaking, if this is intact the sheet maintains its integrity. Without the paper, the gypsum inside is soft and brittle.

However, severe bending cracks the gypsum core at frequent intervals. This reduces overall stiffness in the sheet, which can mean a wall or ceiling that feels less stout. Occasional cracks in the core don't mean much if they're not closer than the distance between framing members, for example.

Any sheet that has been bent beyond about 45 degrees over say half its length could be considered compromised. Any sheet that's been bent 90 degrees, or that has been bent to a lesser angle but sharply, shouldn't be used, in my opinion, or should be used in less critical areas.

I'd raise the issue with your contractor and have a closer look. The lumber yard should take responsibility for any damaged product.


Strange smell in August only I have a strange smell (somewhat like decomp but its not) that has presented its self every August since 2009 and stays for 14 days. It comes on strong the second day and stays the same smell level for 12-13 days and goes away until the next year. I have had the plumbing inspected twice with a camera and 2 pest control companies that say its not rodents. I have bored holes in walls and used video scope to inspect inside walls looking for any signs of pests and have found nothing. The house is 2 story built in 2007 on concrete slab with no drainage issues around the house.

Could there be a hidden floor drain in the area? It wouldn't explain why the timing is so regular, but it might be connected to something that does. I've dealt with a similar come-and-go odor problem in a commercial buidling that ended up being a 4 inch open floor drain that was just carpeted over when the building was turned into offices. That drain line connected into a drainage system that was tied to a nearby building that housed a chicken processing operation. You can imagine what sorts of things were washed down their pipes. It typically only smelled during the dry season, I suppose because some elbow trap between us and the odor dried out.


Will my warped(cupped) oak flooring flatten out after it dries? I have a refrigerator sitting on a solid oak floor with a plywood underlay/subfloor that had the ice maker line break and the water got under the flooring and it is cupped now about 4 feet square on each side of the wall backing the fridge.

The floor is under the fridge on one side but on the other side of the wall (behind) it is in a hallway and is noticable.  I placed fans both at the floor from above and at the bottom/under the subflooring but did not note any improvement after several days.

Will the cupped floor settle over time as it dries out or will I have to remove and refinish?

Unfortunately, you will probably have to replace that section.


Remove interior concrete chimney I have an old chimney from a long-gone oil furnace. It does not go through the roof, just cut flat at the floor of the attic.

I was hoping I could remove it brick by brick, starting from the top however it seems to be made of concrete.

What tools can I use to break the chimney up in a slow and controlled manner for removal? Definitely no room for a jackhammer in here.

Is there at least room for a hammer drill that would allow you to drill smallish holes in the concrete, and then use stone-splitting wedges to break it up?

This would work if it's pure masonry, but not if there's any steel rebar in the concrete.

If it's reinforced (do you see any steel ends in the cut surface in the attic?), then I can't think of any easy way to get rid of it. A diamond saw would be slow, noisy and messy. Probably time to call a professional for advice.


How to replace cartridge for this tub valve? I need to replace the hot water cartridge on my jacuzzi tub.  This is all I have access to -- I can't get to the other side.  I can't tell how to disassemble this valve to get the cartridge out... any ideas?  I can't figure out the manufacturer either since there are no markings.  Thanks!

The valve cartridge is threaded into the valve body. The valve body stops at the top of those visible threads in your photo. That is also where the valve cartridge begins.

Get a wrench on the flats of the valve cartridge and turn CCW. Don't use an adjustable wrench if you can help it. Use a fixed box wrench if you have the right size. Brass is soft!

I would really try and remove the valve body from the jacuzzi first to eliminate any risk of damaging the jacuzzi. By leaving it in place and turning CCW on the valve cartridge you'll be tightening the valve body against the tub and things could break... There has to be a way to get it out - how was it installed? If you can get it out hold the valve body with a pipe wrench and unthread the valve cartridge from it as described.


concrete drive heaves where it meets garage floor This past winter, my concrete driveway heaved 1.5" above where it meets the garage floor. It is three years old. Also, we dug along the sides of the drive to try to guage if a 4" slab was actually poured- discovered many crevices on the side. Could this cause a problem later? Specifically cracking?

Frost heaves are caused by water in the ground freezing and pushing up. The thickness of the slab has nothing to do with it. The force caused by ice expanding when it freezes is huge, and it's almost certainly not practical to resist it. Better to remove the force in the first place.

There are only two ways to prevent frost heaving, and neither is perfect:

Dig down below the frost line. This is obviously not practical for a driveway. (Also, even a foundation whose bottom is below the frost line may be susceptible to heaving if water can freeze around the sizes and pull it up.)
Reduce the amount of water underneath the structure with grading, drains, etc. A properly-prepared subsurface can also help here by reducing the water content of the soil

What is the drainage situation like around your driveway?


Why did my miter/table saw stop cutting? I have a DeWalt 743 flipover saw, the blade stopped turning for some unknown reason.
It was working fine yesterday morning, but when I came back from a break, the blade refused to turn.
I can hear the noise, the motor was trying to spin, the blade vibrates but is not turning. I can make it go as normal by manually spin the blade a bit to start. Switch off, manually turn the blade, it moves freely.
I have cleaned saw, but the problem remains.
Any help would be appreciated.

Most of these power tools use a type of commutator motor called a universal series motor. Current passes through the windings on the rotor, called an armature, through brushes that run on the commutator which is made up of a number of segments, usually 12-35 or so, arranged in a cylinder. Between each of the segments is one winding that runs in two slots of the armature core, and then there are a number of these windings in series between the brushes at any one time. As the armature spins, commutator segments pass under the brushes and the windings connected to that segment reverse their current direction as they pass under the next field pole to keep the torque they produce all in the same direction.

What can happen is that some of the windings can break, typically near the connection to the commutator, and leave a series of winding sections that are not connected to the other sections. While those sections pass under the brushes, they produce torque, and though it's not a continuous torque, it's enough to keep the motor turning. When the motor stops, it's a matter of chance as to where those breaks in the circuit are relative to the brushes, so it may just jerk into an unenergized position, or do nothing, but manually rotating the armature to a different position may make it start.
   You can usually see when this happens, in that the sparking at the brushes, visible through the vents at the back of the motor, gets significantly worse than normal.

Unfortunately, these winding faults aren't easy to repair, and usually requires a new armature, which then will likely need to be pressed into a bearing, though some service parts come with the bearing already attached, to be fitted into the housing with a retainer plate or C clip.


Replacing galvanized I am redoing my basement. My plumber suggest I should change my 3" galvanized steel pipes on my hot water heating system that run across the hole basement for 1" copper pipe. I currently don't have any leaks or any problems. it would just be done so I can gain more height and will give a better finish. Is this practical, or the pipes I have are better then copper he wants to put in place?

Pay now or pay later. Galvanized pipes inevitably fail over time because they crud up from the inside which constricts flow. This reduces the thickness of the wall, so if the flow doesn't get you, the failure of the wall will.

Having said that, 3" is huge, so it would probably take a while before you noticed flow constriction. You'd still have a problem with wall failure.

It sounds like you're putting up a wall finish now, so fixing now would be cheaper, as you wouldn't have the future process of [demo/ re-pipe/ re-finish].

If you knew how old your existing pipe was, you might have a shot at predicting its lifespan.

See also: Galvanized pipe life expectancy


Cold water through hot water faucet only when cold water faucet is turned on A few faucets in my house aren't getting any hot water. Kitchen sink and upstairs bathroom (directly above kitchen) don't get any hot water. Cold works fine.  Nothing comes out if I turn on the hot water. The other bathrooms and sinks in the house are getting hot water normally.

The odd thing is that I can cold water to flow through all the hot water faucets that don't work if I turn on the cold water faucet in the kitchen. If I turn off the cold water faucet in the kitchen, cold water continues to come out of the hot water faucet in the kitchen for a few minutes until it goes back to a drip. All of the hot water faucets upstairs stop immediately. Turn on the cold in the kitchen, cold water comes out of the hot water faucets upstairs.

Why does this happen? I'm assuming it has something to do with the subzero temps in NJ the last few nights but I can't figure out why some water, just not hot water will flow through those faucets. Any ideas would be appreciated.

Faucet in the kitchen - the Cartridge is defective.


Replacing sill (bottom plate) of wall I need to replace the sill of an exterior wall (load bearing wall that faces the outside the home). I ripped the sheet rock off and noticed some very old termite which was apparently treated years ago and there's no sign of new termites/damage.

There's a couple caveats though. The section that needs replacing is about 3ft of damage and its a corner. The section around the corner is only about 12 inches long before I hit the garage door (see pics).

What's the best procedure for replacing this? Can I just nail a support across the studs or should I support it vertically from the ground when I cut out the sill?

Also, this came right after I just built a full loft and put new anchors in....

You need to set up a temporary wall under the ends of the ceiling joists of the garage, bearing onto the floor of the garage. Since the section needed is so short, you will only need 5 or 6 2X4s or 2X6s to hold the ceiling and lift the wall for the short time while you replace the bottom plate.
 If you need 10 ft studs to hold everything up, cut 2 of them in half to double up as top and bottom plates, then use the other 3 to use as studs cut 1/4 longer than needed for a snug fit to lift the existing a little. Get one stud jammed in, set another and with either a hydraulic jack, or by "bowing" them in, as in pushing in the middle of the stud to bow it so it in essence gets shorter between the 2 points until you release it, which will lift the wall a little. work all the studs together one at a time, one will help the other.
Or 2 bottle jacks can do it all too, if you have 2 handy. 7 ton, maybe even 2 1/2 ton would work too. That corner, if there is no more than a roof over the garage, is pretty easy to lift up. You wont need much, an 1/8" will do.

This is all on the premise that the loft is contained under the roof with no 2 story bump out to house it, that the roof rafters bear on the top plate of the same wall that has the destroyed bottom plate.


Gas fireplace flame won't stay on; both flame and pilot go out I have a Charmglow 300TQ unvented gas fireplace. It worked beautifully until I had the 100 lb bottled gas tank refilled three days ago. I am now having two problems, which I imagine are related:
1) The pilot burns just fine but the flame won't come on by itself when the room temperature drops. This has never been an issue before.
2) I have to turn the flame on manually. It stays lit for 5 to 10 minutes and then the entire heater--both the flame and the pilot--shuts down. It lights again immediately and again, the pilot will stay on but the flame doesn't come on automatically.

I take the fake logs out and clean the pilot assembly (including the nozzle the gas emerges from) every time I refill the tank.

I've done all the troubleshooting steps I can do without a multimeter, but I'm ordering one today so that I can do those steps, too.

One note: If the pilot assembly needs replacing, I'm going to have to do it myself. I'm ... let's say financially challenged right now. I can't afford labor to have someone come in. Is this something I'll be able to do myself or am I up the proverbial creek? Anybody have a rough idea of the cost of a pilot assembly? I've looked online but I can't seem to find my model Charmglow anywhere. I suspect it's pretty old since it was here when I bought the house four years ago and the guy who sold me the place didn't leave anything new behind.

I'd be grateful for any input anyone has.

Standard gas log sets are fairly simple. If the gas fireplace shuts off after a few minutes, it's pretty much always going to be a pilot head issue, or a valve issue. Take note that it’s the pilot head, not the thermocouple. The whole assembly is usually replaced, and they usually come at the same price. New models usually come with improved designs.

It is recommended to replace the whole pilot head instead of just the thermocouple. If you're still having issues that the gas fireplace will not stay lit, then the valve needs to be replaced. There are just no other moving parts that can go wrong on this.

One thing you can try gas fireplace shuts off after a few minutes: there's a small screw on your valve that regulates the size of your pilot flame. You can turn that screw to make it bigger. This can be done in case the pilot flame is too small to do its job. Be careful though, sometimes the screw has a spring behind it and will shoot out and you'll have a difficult time finding it. If you mess with the screw, slowly relieve pressure and make sure it's still threaded into the valve.

If this doesn’t resolve the problem, you may want to consider replacing the valve. Here’s a useful article regarding DIY valve replacement. Hope this helps.


Worn out shelf holes I've just moved into an apartment that has really nice IKEA-style (or possibly IKEA) kitchen cabinets, in great shape, but some of the holes to hold up the shelves are worn out. Surely this has happened to somebody else here before. I go to great lengths to not let this happen to my IKEA shelving units but the previous residents here have not been as cautious.

To make matters worse, the supports for the shelves are a low grade plastic with rounded edges that just don't "stick" in the holes even when there's a decent fit. So they aren't much help.

Anyone have a solution for this? Can anyone recommend

a) a better type of shelf support anchor and b) a technique to do something with those holes to make them useful again?

I don't have the right to take down the cabinets but I could do something non intrusive or that would benefit the shelves in the long run like filling the holes with something and securing these pegs.
Thank you!

Google 'locking shelf support' and find something that looks like this:

As long as your shelves are approximately the right width, these will hold them securely.


Why does my water heater stop after a few minutes? I have a Junkers (European water heater) that works for a few minutes and then stops. Anyone have experience with this/know how I can troubleshoot?

Or, would a regular plumber be able to fix it?

It turns out someone had placed a board that was blocking the junkers' vent, so the thing was doing auto-shut-off to prevent over-heating. It's working fine now!


Water backing up into Refrigerator Freezer I have a General Electric HTS20GBCCC fridge that, after working faithfully for over a decade, suddenly started forming a layer of ice in the bottom of the freezer compartment.

I looked it up online, and the most likely culprit seemed to be that the drain at the back of the freezer had become clogged. So, I shut the unit down, took the back panel off, thoroughly melted and cleaned out the ice buildup, and ran some baking soda and water down the drain.

Now, earlier this week, the unit is building up ice on the bottom of the freezer again. I rapidly took out the back panel this time to try to see exactly where the water was coming from and.. nothing interesting is apparent.

I'm not a repairman or engineer, just a dad on a budget trying to avoid a service call. Is there something I'm missing? Is it clogging in such a way that it does not appear clogged when I take off the panel? Please let me know, and thank you so much for your attention.

I have had this issue myself. I had a good service tech who explained the issue and said if he fixed it the cost would be $300. Or he could explain how to fix for it $75. You have already figured out how to take the freezer apart. I used a turkey baster with a small hose attached to force warm water down the drain. After the water cools suck it out with the baster and replace it with more warm water. When the drain is completely free the water should flow through and collect in the drain pan under the fridge.


"C" wire in wall! Where does it go in air handler/furnace? Got a wifi thermostat. Behind the old thermostat was a blue "C" wire. The other side of the blue wire in the equipment room isn't plugged into anything. I need to get the 24v common hooked up to this blue but don't know where it goes. Any help is greatly appreciated.

If there's a C terminal on your board (can't tell from picture), use that.
If you have an air conditioner, it will have two wires that connect back to the thermostat (usually via the furnace): so long as one is going to R, the other will be C and you can splice into the same spot.
Lastly, you can splice into a wire from the transformer. You'll need a multi-meter to figure out which one it is (measure 24V between the C side of the transformer and the R terminal).

It does look like common is grounded to the chassis, so you can also use that to identify the side of the transformer -- find the side that has a wire connected to the chassis.

It'll be one of the bottom two terminals:

Test

You should use the multi-meter to test -- no matter which method you use -- before you actually splice into anything.

With the furnace powered on but not actually running (fan off, heat off), you should measure 24V AC between the R and the place you're hooking into.


Connecting two single pole switches I am replacing two old switches in a bathroom.  I purchased two standard single pole switches from home depot (two screws on one side, ground screw on the other)  the old switches had a wire connecting the two switches.
I'm assuming the line from the panel feeds one switch, the jumper wire feeds the other switch and the other two wires power their respective light sources.  I've tried multiple connections and am getting the same problem.  The switches do not work independently.
One switch seems to power both of them, so when i turn that switch on, both lights turn on,  then the other switch can turn on and off it's light only if the other switch is on.
What am i doing wrong?
Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Pretty sure you have crossed up the hot wire. Disconnect all three wires from switches, temporarily connect or bump all three two-wire combinations. Only one combination will power neither light, the solo wire will be the hot that needs to be jumpered between switches.


Demolishing large concrete patio slabs My new (1950s) house has large -- e.g., one is 3.5 feet by 8.5 feet by 5 inches -- concrete slabs in our back yard.  I'd like to remove them but don't know which tool(s) to use.  Could this be done with a sledgehammer (in, say, an afternoon), or do I need a breaker hammer or the like?

What you have is a concrete slab  not a block. Semantics.  I would rent a jackhammer, breaking that thing up with a sledgehammer will be a arduous task.  You may also need an angle grinder with a metal cut off wheel to cut the metal lath or rebar reinforcement’s that should be inside the slab.  You will want to break it down into small enough pieces to lift and handle in order to make the disposal job easier.


How should I go about a partial (bottom 1/5) exterior wall stud replacement? I tried searching for this answer but only found one other question that seemed relevant, but doesn't exactly answer my question.

My water heater blew while I was on vacation. I didn't have insurance on my home at the time due to a lapse that occurred to a disruption in my employment so now it seems I'll have to clean up the mess without help.

After removing the bottom 14" Of drywall it was clear that the studs nearest to the heater have a fair about of mold damage near the floor. As these studs face the exterior foundation, I'd like to remove the moldy studs to prevent it from spreading.

After cutting out the stud and replacing the plate, how do I replace the bottom part of a stud that has mold?

Do I just cut an equivalent block of wood and place it under the hanging piece?
Do I need to brace the block? should I brace it on one or two sides?
What type of bracing should i use? Aluminium? Wood?

Thanks!

For a 1 time event like a broken waterheater or pipe failure I doubt the studs need to be replaced. A 3% Hydrogen peroxide works better than bleach and dosent stink. All wood has mold spores at the lumber mill we spray the wood after the finish cuts or it will look ugly in a few weeks. The fungicide is only a short term preventive measure, keeping the wood dry is the only way to prevent growth. Using a screwdriver push in on the wood If it is rotten the blade will go in with ease If just surface mold the screwdriver won't go very deep unleaded pushed hard.  If the wood is sound a 3% hydrogen peroxide and water solution is all that is needed to kill the surface mold once the area is dry replace the insulation and sheetrock.


What problems can I have if I try to dry up the parging of a wet wall using a plumber's torch? On the outer wall of my basement I have a couple of wet spots which I am trying to understand if they are drying up or not. ( I like to believe that I eliminated the source of water which was an incorrectly sloped patio) In order to determine if they are drying up in time I marked their margins with white chalk.

It has been some time since I did that and I do not see any change. Very dry weather here in Toronto or heavy rain left these spots unchanged.

In order to see if they are actually wet spots and not just some sort of darker mineral salt I would like to try to dry up one of these with a plumber torch
I am wondering if there could be any potential problems with doing this. Do you see any?

thanks in advance

You mean other than burning your house down? Yes, rocks that have water in them like to explode sometimes when you heat them. Use a fan and come back next week (seriously, if the wall is saturated it could take months to dry out).

Also, it's going to leave scorch marks, which will be less than helpful.

More also's: one of the by-products of combustion is H2O.


How to identify the wires on the dimmer to convert it to Conventional on/off switch I have a dimmer switch that I need to convert to a conventional on/off switch. I have checked this link for guidance already: How do I replace this dimmer switch to a conventional switch?

It seems like I will need a 3-way switch do replace this. I am having very hard time understanding the wiring and how to connect this to a 3-way switch.

This is what I have:

Green from dimmer -> connected to 3 white wires in the outlet box
One black -> connected to one black in the outlet box
Other black -> connected to two black wires in the outlet box

I had an electrician convert a similar dimmer switch to a conventional on/off switch in the past and this is what he did.

Basically, in this he has done this:

One black going to the bottom hole
Second black going to the bottom screw
Third black going to the top hole
Nothing on the top screw

Can someone please help me make sense of this and help me with:

Confirm the switch type I need
The circuit and connections needed

Solution Pics (solution provided by Ed and Carl in the comments):

Wire Connection (I did not use the pigtail connection, in the lower screw with 2 wires together, although that is what everybody is recommending):

This is the WRONG way of attaching the wires (although it works). This causes fire hazard and should be avoided.

The good way is to use the hole at the back. Note this uses backstabs which is not recommended. Check the update after the pic for a better way.

Update (8th Sept 2019) - Better way:
I followed Harper's suggestion to avoid backstabs as there are considered risky. I instead ended up using a Pigtail connection to connect the live wires as he recommended in the comments below.

I also added a copper wire to create a ground connection with the back of the electrical box. I could see copper wire connected to the screws in the back of the box. I added the copper wire for ground to these screws.

Below are the detailed steps on how I did the pigtail connection.

Pigtail connection Step 1: I took a black wire from another electrical wire and stripped it on two ends.

Pigtail connection Step 2: I connected the two live wires coming in with this new wire and twisted the three wires using a plier. Then I used a wire nut and twisted it on. Give a good tug and ensure that the wires don't come out of the wire nut and have a good grip inside.

Pigtail connection Step 3: I used electrical tape over the wire nut to enhance the security and twisted the other end to ready to put it on the switch screw.

Pigtail connection Step 4: Finally I tucked the wires in the electrical box and screwed the switch onto the box.

Wires that are green, yellow/green stripe, or bare, are always and only Protective Earth aka Equipment Safety Ground*.  They must only be connected to each other and never anything else.  That makes the green-white splice WRONG, and it should be removed immediately and attached to real ground where it belongs.

Protective Earth is always a safety shield, and never figures into the actual wiring, so it is excluded from your thinking about how to arrange wires.

Now, voilà!  Things are simple. The two remaining black wires must be the wires to the switch.

* on mains equipment which is legal to use in the US, i.e. Has a non-counterfeit stamp and file number from a Nationally Recognized Testing Lab.  If you acquire equipment from Alibaba, Aliexpress, EBay or Amazon, all bets are off...


What type of space heater should I use in a child's room? I have a bi-level house in Michigan.  The lower level is much cooler than the upper level, which is awesome except we're trying to move my 1-year old son to his own room down there but it's much colder than what we would like.  We'll keep the upstairs at ~75F, but his room won't get higher about 67F.  This is even with shutting off all of the vents downstairs.  We'd really like to get it to at least 70 or even 72.

We would like to use a space heater to keep the room at a warmer temp.  The room is on the small to medium in size so it seems like a space heater would be more than adequate.

Is there something out there that:

Has a set-it-and-forget-it thermostat with a temperature reading -
i.e., we set it to say 72 and it runs and turns on when it needs to
Is as child and pet safe as it can be - I realize it's not going to
be cool to the touch but at least have a killswitch if it gets
knocked over and whatever is safe in general
If it was wall-mountable it would be even better

Or, in general what type of heater am I even looking for?  I don't necessarily want to heat a specific point, but raise the temp of the whole room.  There seem to be a variety of types and it's unclear which would be best.

I'd go with a permanently installed baseboard heater with independent temperature controls (i.e. not connected to the main thermostat.)  These are attached to the walls so that it can't be tipped over.

You can get safety covers for them which will keep little fingers out, and also make it more attractive.

You will need to get an electrician in to do the wiring, so you might wish to install a wall mounted thermostat at the same time.


Shark Bite fitting and galvanize pipe Can Shark Bite fitting be connected to galvanized pipe? Have broken galvanized water pipe on outside of house.Want to connect pex pipe with shark bite to place where galvanized pipe broke.

The actual SharkBite push to connect fittings are not designed to press onto galvanized pipe.

For mating your PEX to galvanized, SharkBite makes a threaded to press fit transition adapter.
You will need to square cut the end of your galvanized pipe and then rethread it.


I have a 6" insulated duct what size t should I use? I would like to know ,do I use a 6" insulated duct to a 6" register?

A 6" duct should feed a 4x10 or 3x10 standard adjustable floor register. The round duct has a cross section area of about 30 sq. in. In a well designed duct layout there would not be excessive pressure at any register, so closing the adjustment vanes any amount should not be a problem.


Air gap behind drywall on exterior brick veneer wall I was preparing to hang some shelves in our garage the other day and after some inspection I discovered that the drywall is hung on staggered horizontal 1x’s attached to the studs (can be seen just inside drywall in picture).
Our home is a split-level built in 1963 and the wall in question is an exterior wall with brick veneer. There appears to be sheathing between the studs and brick.
I’m considering removing all of the drywall to make some repairs for old termite damage. When hanging the new drywall, is there any reason I can’t/shouldn’t attach it directly to the studs?  Or is the “air gap” created by the 1x’s somehow important to the function of the wall?
Really, I’m trying to understand why the drywall was originally hung this way rather than attaching directly to the studs.

It's hard to say why someone installed the framing in such a way. Most likely it was installed to (as you stated) allow for better air circulation and removal of moisture in the wall.
You should plan your project to include a means to prevent moisture and/or a way for it to escape. This can be anything from vent holes for every wall bay or spray foaming each wall cavity. The foam would have the secondary benefit of also providing a R- value by insulating your home.
Since the wall is an exterior one (I believe?) some type of insulation should be installed in order to keep the living space in your home comfortable and utility bills low. Foam is a good choice<as mentioned before, but blanket insulation with a paper vapor barrier would be less costly. Check the exterior facade for vents which should be considered in your plans.


What’s this pipe outlet looking thing on the wall below sink? Is this what’s known as a drum trap? What do I need to do with this?

Most likely, that is a drain clean-out. If you unscrew the cover, you get a fairly straight shot to your main sewer line. This way, if you get a clog (often tree roots penetrating the pipe) in your sewer pipe leading to your municipal waste system, you can get tools (rotary cleaners, inspection cameras, etc.) into the line.

Just leave it be and make sure you can get at it if necessary.


How can I extend a concrete step without repouring? Two rooms in my house are connected with a set of concrete steps (one tread). As built, the ledge for the first step is inline with the wall framing.

This means that when I add drywall the finished door frame will extend 5/8" over the ledge. I would like to double-rock this wall so now I'm looking at 1-1/4" overhang.The finish floor will likely be tile or perhaps something like a rubber gym mat.

I would like to add material to extend the top step by 1-1/4" but I don't want to break and repour the steps.

I'm thinking of getting a solid plastic board (like decking maybe?) And trimming it down to fit. Then glue + tapcon into the slab to hold it.

I have measured and the resulting tread depth will be 11-1/4" (currently 12-1/2")

How might I accomplish this?

I have used the thin little "fake bricks" (brick veneer) for this very purpose. It looks like it was supposed to be that way. The only trouble I had was when my kids were younger, they tended to "bang" their boot toes on those bricks a lot going in and eventually one cracked. But it was easy to replace.


Fix intermittent connection problem in a monorail low voltage light fixture I have a WAC low-voltage monorail (probably a SOLORAIL model) that is about 7 years old. The rail is about 12 ft long and has four fixtures attached.

For the past 2 years, one of the fixtures has shown an intermittent connection. It will turn on full brightness and work fine for 10 mins then "flicker" and go out. Sometimes it doesn't even turn on. If I wiggle the fixture, it will stay on for a while then turn off.

The fixture is a Quick Connect QF-195x2 with platinum finish. It attaches to the monorail using a Quick Connect Adapter (LM-QADP).

I've disassembled the connector and fixture as much as possible, tried to clean a spot that looked corroded, and tried to make sure no shorts are happening (e.g. there is a plastic washer in one spot to prevent a short contact).  After I've rebuilt the connector, it will usually work well for a few weeks then start acting flaky again.

Is there a definitive way to repair this fixture or should I spend approximately $70 to buy a replacement?

I found a solution.

The first photo below shows the light fixture removed from the monorail, but fully assembled.
The second photo shows the shade and bulb removed. Also, the fixture has been unscrewed from the mounting bracket.

I used an ohm meter to check continuity on the fixture, and decided there was an intermittent connection between the lighting fixture and the mounting bracket (the two pieces that are unscrewed). Screwing the two pieces together is supposed to make a solid connection such that the circular top of the fixture (the area right above the black band) touches a conductive area inside the mounting bracket. The connection between these two spots has become loose over the years (I don’t know why).

I took some thin sheet metal (actually the bottom of a can of mixed nuts) and cut out three circles the diameter of the top of the fixture. I carefully stacked the three pieces of metal on top of the area (above the black band) and screwed the two pieces together. The electrical connection is now tight, and the light has been working perfectly for the past three weeks.

[UPDATE 3/12/15: As requested, here are more images and notes. If you use the metal from a can, you should probably sand it to remove any clear coat on the metal. I used heavy duty scissors to cut the metal. The metal discs are cut slightly smaller than the diameter of the post they sit on top of. I think you have to prevent the discs from touching the sides of the light when you screw on the top piece (to prevent a short). Also, the light stopped working again after about 8 months. So I made a second fix where there was a loose connection on the side of the light. I cut out a crescent-shaped piece of of metal (shown by itself in the next-to-last photo) and shoved the shim into the loose joint (final photo). I might trim up the crescent shim when I have time. The light has been running fine since this second fix.]


How much stronger is a triangle-shaped vs. A-shaped truss? Max snow load comparison? I'm on a property in which there is a garden shed and its roof collapsed yesterday because of heavier than normal snow that accumulated on it over the past few months and it looks like yesterday was simply too much for it.

The roof trusses were made in an (unusual?) A shape like this:

I'm reading online that the rafter tie should have been closing the truss triangle shape at the bottom so that the rafter tie touches both the outer walls and the rafters, like this:

The question is just how much of a difference in load weight support is there between the A-shaped (1st picture) vs. triangle-shaped trusses (2nd picture) ?

Thanks

Ballpark, factor of 4.  In general strength goes up with the square of the depth of the web.  But this is only an approximation, and very much depends on the failure mode.

Here's a truss calculator:  https://skyciv.com/free-truss-calculator/

Edit:  I've been mulling this over, and am no longer convinced that my first order answer is correct.  A truss is not a beam.  A beam has two main failure modes under   a transverse load:  Either the top crushes, or the bottom tears.  A truss has far more failure modes -- in effect each element has those same two failure modes, plus compression and buckling of the element as a whole, tension failure as a whole, and the connectors that tie the elements together.

The truss with the collar tie at the wall is a 'common truss'  If you run a post from the peak down to the collar tie, it's a "king truss"

I do know that A-frame (also called 'raised collar truss') are used less often.  This source:  https://hubpages.com/education/The-Flexible-Roof-Truss-And-Its-Many-Design-Options mentions that you need to use larger rafters (top beams) when using a raised collar.  By implication a raised collar truss is weaker than a common truss when built out of the same dimension wood.

If you are planning on building your own trusses, various extension departments for universities offer truss plans.  Note that you MUST follow the nailing diagrams with reasonable prescision.  It it says 11 4d nails in such-and-such pattern, do it.

Alternately consult with your local truss builder.  They are set up to to make them in a reasonable hurry, and the market is competitive enough that it's often not worth making your own.  Indeed:  Having a pro design them may save enough material to pay for them to make them and deliver them to your site.

Apologies for my initial answer.


What type of subflooring should I use for a basement? My  basement has wall-to-wall carpet in the two bedrooms and living area.  The carpet was probably from the 70's when the house was built and we decided to remove it.  After removing the carpet from both of the bedrooms, we noticed some water spots on the drywall and the tack strips for the carpet.  It's not currently wet, but I am concerned that dampness will be an issue.  We were originally going to put down an organic compound sub-laminate and then have 12" laminate put down on top of that.  After noticing the water spots, I did some research and it says if there is potential for moisture, not to put down any material that might be susceptible to mold growth.  This included plywood.  I was thinking about putting down something like DriCore, but it contains plywood which could rot or mold (if excessive water damage occurs).

So I was hoping to find something that was waterproof.  So far I've only come up with a few options, but most of them are not offered locally or for diy's:

ThermalDry Basement Floor Matting (rigid plastic)
ThermalDry Basement Floor Tiles (rigid plastic with tile)
Delta Flooring (Plastic membrane)
Superseal (Plastic dimpled Membrane)
Tyroc (Rubber and inorganic surface board)

Does anyone have any recommendations for a breathable subflooring that is waterproof for a below grade basement?  Right now I'm leaning toward using Delta Flooring because its a cheap option that I can install myself.  Any other advice or experience would be helpful as well.

DriCore is a subflooring that is specifically designed for light or occasional moisture.  The portion of the product that touches the floor is all plastic and it lifts the upper portion more than 1/2 inch away from the concrete floor.  The joints are fairly tight (although not actually sealed). It is intended to allow water to accumulate in the open spaces under the plastic waffling and drain or seep away without reaching the upper layer.

The particle board that makes up the surface is impregnated with resin and is meant to be fairly impervious to moisture. If you have an actual flood that occurs which is high enough to reach and damage the surface, you have much bigger problems.


Connect cold faucet to washing machine's hot inlet to test internal connectivity? In the absence of a working water heater, is it okay to connect a cold water faucet to a modern H-E washing machine's hot inlet to test the machine's internal tubing for leaks by running a warm or hot full wash cycle? If so, can I use a Y-connector to split the cold faucet to both cold and hot inlets?

Will it cause any damages or malfunction?

It won't damage the machine I have seen this done where the home owner only wants to use cold water. Having both connected keeps water in the hot solenoid and having 2 solenoids running the machine on warm it will fill faster but still be cold. Some machines will throw an error if there is no pressure so this solves several problems.


Old Outside A/C Unit - replacement vs repair? I recently had my home A/C system inspected and I am trying to decide how to act on the results. Can anyone offer guidance?

Here are my notes from the A/C Inspection

Amps on outside unit are concerning

Both compressor and fan are running at/near max current right now
Expect to see amperage about half of the rating
Fan is rated at 1.4A, running at 1.4A
Compressor 21.5A, running at 20.7A
Thinks compressor and fan are close to failure

Unit actually appears to be Running well

Freon looks good
Capacitor actually looks fine
Contactor has burn marks. Suggest replacement

Suggest replacing the outside unit.

Unit is from 2002 (16 years old)
Contractor: Replacing Compressor + Fan + contactor does not seem worthwhile.

If the unit is starting and not make your lights go out or dim I would not change it. All contactors have have some evediance of arcing after a short time again since the cap is good and it is starting it really is fine. Last if someone wants to change out the outside unit and continue using the inside unit RUN AWAY! I have seen two many times where someone tried to save a few bucks and the new unit failed in 3 to 5 years, I would only do this if the old refrigrant uses the same type as the new poe or pag oil is what modern units used very old ones used mineral oil. So I agree if it is not broke don't fix it you have a functional unit, companys do free inspections to drum up business in my area and I think it is a scam.


How can I fill this gap between two areas of flooring I have two half-inch gaps in the flooring in my kitchen.  One between the kitchen and the living room (first image) and another between the kitchen and the outside door (second image)!

at their widest the gaps are an inch wide and about a half inch deep at the deepest.  The tile on the kitchen to living room gap starts about a quarter of an inch higher than the threshold, and finishes about a quarter of an inch lower.

What is the best way to fill these gaps?  I'm willing to live with some visual imperfections.

Upper Picture - there is a saddle, but it is not doing what it is supposed to do - transition fully from one room/floor to another.  You could remove that saddle and get a wider one that covers the full gap. An issue may be the relative height between the two areas.  If they are uneven, you might need to put a filler under the saddle that levels them.  This should be a molding made of the same wood as the saddle and stick out slightly beyond the saddle on the lower side (maybe 1/2" to 1").  it needs to be tapered to avoid a sharp transition.

Lower Picture - There does not appear to be any saddle creating a close seal between the bottomn of the door and the floor.  This is an area that needs attention to avoid insulation problems, moisture seepage and even insect incursion. There shoudl be a saddle that reaches the outside floor level. Again, uneven levels require some build up generally under the main saddle. The gap is less of an issue than bridging the gap.


Why is it important to have a receptacle next to load centers? Why is there a receptacle next to a load center? Is it necessary to have this circuit dedicated to one breaker by itself? Or can I pigtail it at the load center?

Convenience
It is simply convenient to have a functional receptacle near the panel to plug in equipment. No requirement as far as I know, but trivially easy to add and very useful.
No reason that it needs to be dedicated unless it is being used for a specific appliance with high current requirements. But if it is just a convenience receptacle with nothing normally plugged into it then it can be on any circuit that itself can be shared - i.e., that rules out the kitchen countertop receptacle circuits and bathroom receptacle circuit. However, as Harper noted, there are advantages at times to having this receptacle be on a circuit all by itself, so if you can spare a circuit to do that, it is a good idea - and just the cost of an extra breaker - to put this receptacle on its own circuit.
Also keep in mind that depending on location it will likely require AFCI and/or GFCI, though if the receptacle is already in place then you normally don't need to upgrade it unless you are making changes to the circuit.


How to repair this hefty wooden fence gate? Our place has a large wooden fence and gate. There's a gate for people, and then the fence itself can actually be opened by pulling up a latch from the ground. The gate for people ("door"?) has become unhinged this year and I want to figure out how to best repair it. Photos below to show damage:

Here's the gate itself. The hinge at the bottom-left is where the damage is.

Close up of the bottom hinge's current condition.

Another view of that busted bottom hinge.

It looks like the hinge itself is undamaged, and it's simply that the screws lost their bond with the wood, either due to the wood deteriorating and/or too much force on those screws. That bottom horizontal 2x4 is pretty solid (aside from the torn up screw-holes).

I'm thinking to reconnect the bottom hinge back to that same horizontal 2x4 with longer screws and in slightly different screw holes. I'm not sure how to avoid the same problem happening again however. Should I first beef up the bottom horizontal 2x4 by screwing in another piece of wood on top of it (but that would tilt the door)? Should I add another hinge, but where (there's no horizontal 2x4 in the middle, and if I added one, it wouldn't extend across the door)? Can I add another latch on the right side of the door to take off some pressure from the hinges when it's closed?

Currently, when the door is closed it leans against the 6x6 beam it latches to, and when the door opens it has to be held up by the user or its latch-side will scrape against the ground. I presume both of those things happen because of the broken hinge.

Note that the 6x6 beam the door latches to is starting to bow a little bit, as are other 6x6s supporting this fence/pavilion (similar to this). We've asked carpenter and engineer friends about it and they said those posts should be OK for quite a while, but it does worry us (they're big, and all this wood is heavy and on one end attached to the house itself!) I share all that in case it affects options for supporting the gate.

The hinge is damaged, it's bent. You should either bend it straight or get a new one. The hinge has three holes for screws your only using two of them. That's putting extra stress on the two that you are using which is probaly why they pulled out. Hard to tell from the picture how bad the wood is split. I would not try to add any wood, if anything perhaps replace the bottom horizontal piece if it's split badly. If it was my gate I would drill holes all the way through and use a nut and bolt as opposed to wood screws to re-fasten the hinge. You should be able to find decorative ones that match. Someone else may come along with a better answer.


Is it safe to swap a 30A "Dryer Socket" with a 40A "Range Socket" if the breaker is 40A? Just bought a house built in 1979 and am working on renovations. Today we had a new range delivered and ran into an issue trying to install it. Essentially, the old range was connected to a 30A "dryer socket" in the kitchen while the new one requires a 40A "range socket". The delivery guys were adamant that all we had to do was pop over to a store and swap out the receptacle in order to get it working.
Based on Dryer Outlet in the kitchen?, I'm skeptical that it will be so simple. Checking the breaker box:
and wiring description:

shows that the old circuit has a 40A breaker. Given that, is it ok to assume that the wiring for this circuit is also safe up to 40A and I truly can just swap the receptacles and call it a day?
30 amp dryer plug is hooked to a 40 amp double breaker, is this ok? indicates that the current setup maybe shouldn't have existed in the first place so I'm trying to be cautious about how I fix this.
Edit: here are some pictures of the wiring

Edit 2: full electrical panel and back of receptacle

Wire Gauge:

It appears to me that this cable has two insulated conductors for the two hot legs plus an uninsulated conductor to be used as a ground, i.e., it does not have a third insulated cable to be used as a neutral. The cable is wired to the receptacle using the uninsulated conductor as a neutral. This is not allowed by code.
This cable can legally supply 240 V, not both 120 V and 240 V. It is not suitable for any appliance which requires both 120 and 240 V. What are the requirements of your new range?
Unless your new range is a special design which requires only 240 V, you must replace this cable all the way back to the panel or subpanel if there is one. Look at the installation instructions for the range. It should tell you whether it requires a neutral. If it does, then you will need a new (4 wire) cable.
You could use a 3-wire appliance cord and plug it into this receptacle and the range would work perfectly, but if the range requires a neutral, then current will regularly be flowing in the uninsulated conductor. This is not allowed by code.
If the cable had 3 inslated conductors, you could use it as is or you could retrofit a ground, but you cannot retrofit a neutral.


Why are some of the outlets and light circuits out in my home? So I'm in the dark...literally. All the switches/overhead fixtures are out and most of the outlets in the house as well. So, I do have a few outlets working in different parts of the house.
I have checked the breaker, starting visually, nothing looks tripped. So, starting with the sub breakers, I turned them all off from left to right and back on from right (main) to left. Nothing changed. And I did really push hard off and push hard on. No change. This happened in the middle.of the night Easter Saturday, so no services available until today.

Could this be the Electric company's issue, or should I just call an electrician? I did call Edison and I am waiting for them to show up....

This is an outage.  Call the electric company.

They should respond immediately, 24x7, and for free... unless coincidentally it's right after an ice storm or windstorm that clobbered power to thousands of your district's customers.

If you're going "I can't, it's the weekend and the office is closed until Monday" - wrong office.  Every power company has an emergency number to report downed wires 24x7.  That number is entirely appropriate for reporting outages.  Yes, they do keep a bucket truck and crew warmed up 24x7 because wires go down, and that can't wait.   Our PoCo sent one out on a Sunday afternoon, and I stuck around to run around and notify neighbors and shut main breakers.

Sometimes the problem is inside your service panel, and the PoCo doesn't fix that... but odds are what changed is outdoors, and thus, in their wheelhouse. Service panels don't have weather inside them.


Exterior walls or floors? I am wanting to build my own spacious house. This is on my pretend world where my family members are the first to be on the planet after scientists so there are no building codes just yet. I have looked up "How to build an exterior wall". Some of the pages I looked at say to do the floor first and then attach the wall to the floor. Others say to do the wall and floor at the same time or to build the walls first and then the floor.

So I looked up "How to build a wood floor". The pages I looked at for that say to build the exterior and interior walls first and then attach the floor to the walls.

So which should I do first, the walls or the floors?

Conventional stick framing in North America has you build the floor first, then build a wood wall on that platform. If your pretend world doesn't have lumber mills, then google yurt.


Wiring stapled across bottom of beams? Can a running board be attached and the wires secured to the running board? What's the best way to have these wires to code? Can a running board be used like in the picture?

Thanks,

John

1/2” plywood is legal and would work great in this case pop all the anchors slip the wood in place and everything will be to code  NEC exhibit 334.1 has a great example of exactly this.
Your example is a good one but I tend to go directly to the code book as it is the document most jurisdictions use in the US and that is my location.


Can fiber-optic data cable be run overhead to a garage? I want to run internet from my main house to garage located few meters away. I plan to use fiber instead of cat5 to avoid reported problems of blowing out network switches.

I could have made a trench and placed fiber inside a conduit, however any shortest path from my house to garage (from attached garage where I plan to keep all my network equipment) is filled with concrete. I would need to break concrete to dig a trench.

Instead of digging the trench, could I pass fiber from under the roof of my house? The same way the electrical cable is passed right now.

Yes, absolutely.

The fiber you'll want for this job is "Drop" fiber - it's made to resemble (and work with the hardware for) telephone "drop" wire - and it's relatively inexpensive while being quite robust.

While we tend to knee-jerk away from aerial fiber because it's more exposed to damage, this is a perfectly viable solution.

However, for most home applications at this time, it's going to be much cheaper/easier and adequately effective (not really as fast as fiber, but probably faster than your internet feed unless you have gigabit fiber to your house) to use a 5 GHz "ac" "Point to Point" radio link between the buildings.


Three Mosquito Lures, Still Tons of Mosquitoes I have three mosquito lure traps on my property in Arizona. Two Stinger 21,000 sq. ft. lures that lure via Octenol and UV light, kill via electricity. And one Dynatrap 1-acre DT2000XL that lures via UV light, kills via entrapment.

They're all placed at least 25 feet from the home on different sides. I've got a well maintained pool but no standing water anywhere. The mosquitoes are overwhelming in the evening.

Wondering what else I can do. Perhaps a propane-burning machine like the  Mosquito Magnet? Are these lures non-effective?

Those instruments that use a light and electric grid to kill will kill everything but mosquitoes. Don;t waste your time and money. And they kill beneficial pollinating insects. Mosquitoes are attracted to the smell of humans  sweat or breath, not light or electric. I live in Texas where the humidity is high and the mosquitoes can stand up and whip a tom turkey. We have tried all kinds of remedies and the one that I have found that works the best, and it won't keep all of them away, just most, is Cutter Yard Fogger. It is about the best I have tried, and believe me, I have tried them all. It only is a temporary remedy and will have to be repeated as the summer goes.


TV mount is 16.5" wide but stud centers are 17" apart. Is it still safe to mount? I am not able to install the mount by positioning it on the exact center of the studs. Is it alright if the holes are slightly off-center on the studs? The mount I am installing is this one, and my TV is 70 lbs.

Would it help if I used Snaptoggles? I was thinking of drilling through the wall and the stud and using the Snaptoggle like that.

Last time I encountered that, I put two 2x4's across the stud span, chamfered the edges too a 45 angle and painted it to match the wall. Mounted the bracket onto that, if it's a rental or you just don't want to wreck the walls, put a thin piece of cardboard between the 2x4 and wall before you mount it to make sure it doesn't pull up any paint when you remove it. You might be able to get away with one on stud one with anchor, but if it fails......


Repairing Damaged Toilet Flange I've bought an old house, and I've decided to fix a rocking toilet.  I found two flange repair kits stacked on top of the original broken toilet flange.  When sawing the flange to remove it, I found the entire pipe moves inside the floor.

Well as I was sawing the flange the riser pipe came out of the 90 degree joint.  I've also noticed standing water in the pipe, so I'm guessing the end I'm looking at is sitting lower than the tee.

I intend to buy a straight section of pipe and a new flange, but am I correct in assuming that having a toilet flange hold up a section of pipe is asking for disaster?  I'm thinking I will have to open up the ceiling below and add a hanger.  Or am I overthinking this problem?

I've ended up using the flange to hang the pipe, but the correct way as stated in the comments should be to hang it or toe it up. Given the previous plumber didn't prime the pipe before gluing, I trust this will hold way stronger.


Combining 2 110v wall plugs (different breakers) to be 220v? Good morning electrical geniuses, here's a problem for you.

I have a piece of equipment that requires a 220v connection, and I do not have the ability to run a 220v line from the breaker. Is there a Y adaptor I could buy to combine 2 different phases of 110v to create a 220v power strip?  all of the 110v outlets that I have access to are 20a breakers, so would this new 240v line give me 40a (assuming the hardware and wire gauge can handle it)?

The hardware is going to draw something in the neighborhood of 3200w/15a @ 220v (3200w/30a @ 110v), so if I combined 2x 110v/20a with a high gauge Y adaptor, I shouldn't have any problem as long as the wiring was correct?

I'm not an electrical engineer, I'm a mechanical one...  Help, please :)

Edit 1: @ThreePhaseEel
Here are photos of the electrical panel.  The room with my specific panel is locked, but this is one of 3 identical rooms per floor, 4 floors.  The room next to mine is occupied by someone who only has things plugged into the walls in the room, so if our bathroom receptacles are connected It won't matter.

Huge problems with this. Gigantic.

If a breaker trips, you'll be backfeeding the tripped circuit.

"What could go wrong?"

So your machine is loaded between circuits A and B, and SNAP! Circuit A breaker trips.   Your machine stops working, of course.

But what happens to the other loads on circuit A?  They're dead right?  No sir, they are not.  Power from circuit B is traveling through your machine and ending up on circuit A. Now, it's pulling circuit A's voltage toward circuit B's voltage.

What does this mean for other appliances still plugged into circuit A?  Oh, they're getting power alright, from circuit B through your machine.  So they're going to power back up, even though one of them just tripped the circuit.  But it will be weird, because those appliances (together) will be in series with your machine.  So voltage will be rather wack-a-doodle, and that can cause problems for some machines.

You insist that nobody will be affected but you.  Except you want to tap a circuit that's shared with your neighbor. Which means not only could they cause the breaker trip, they could be the victim of the above effect.

Current will be traveling in a big circle.

And that's a huge no-no when you are dealing with AC power. That is because AC creates inductive effects - this is the reason transformers work.  You are causing high EMFs, which in turn cause vibration, which causes fatigue and arcing failures, and eddy current heating in anything metallic anywhere near the imbalanced wires.  And the wires are running through all-metal conduit.  That reduces the chances of fire, but wildly increases the eddy-current losses; you're essentially turning the conduit wiring system into a giant electromagnet.   That could cause voltage drop at the appliance, which for a switching power supply will  cause it to draw even more current.  So all of your numbers could be wrong.

These eddy currents/heating/rattling-vibration problems are much worse at higher currents. And you are planning to run this circuit near limits.

Two plugs on the same cable

You're violating the "No cable should have two pointy ends" rule.  The reason for that rule is it's possible for one to be plugged in while the other is in your hand.  So that means you can get nailed by it, since one prongy end plugged in will make the other prongy end hot.    You can trip over a cord and pull it out and have it hit you.  Or it can short against equipment, causing arc damage (kind of a big deal in a rental) and potentially starting a fire. There is no (practical) way to make this thing fully de-energize until both plugs are plugged in.

Oh, snap. It's not 220V anyway.

Dude.  You're in a large commercial development.  You don't have "220V" (actually 240V).  You have "190V" (actually 208V) 3-phase.    When you figure the additional losses from turning your building into a giant electromagnet, say your practical voltage is 180V.

Now take your "3200W" load.  Is that load really 100% power factor?  I kinda doubt it.  It's probably more like 80% power factor, which means if it's drawing 3200 watts, it's drawing 4000 VA.  VA is the number we have to worry about with breakers and provisioning power.

So your 4000VA into 180 useful volts - you are now at 22.22 amps.  Whoops-a-daisy.  Even if we assume ideal 208V, you're at 19.2 amps.   Even a power factor of 95% puts you over 20 amps!

Now, you're not allowed to run circuit at 100% (or 96% as would be the best case here).  Your maximum continuous load can only be 80% of circuit capacity - or 16 amps.

Even if the circuit was perfect, even if you had no losses, even if your power factor was 100%, your ideal load at 3200VA/208V = 15.38 amps.  Even at 96% power factor you're a tick over the permitted 16A.

In other words, not even close.

But go read your machine's labeling and instructions and see what it says about 208V operation.

You can get a 240V^H^H^H 208V  circuit anyway

The thing about this building is, it's a commercial building.  It's wired in metal conduit.  That means a competent electrician can fish a couple of blue wires through the existing pipe, and hook you up with a 208V dedicated circuit that's all yours.  It can be a 20A circuit if your device is able to work on that (given the above provisos), or a 25A or 30A circuit if the numbers show that it needs that.

So the right answer here is to ask management for the service you need.  It's not far out of their way.

They even make a "dual voltage" 120V/208V receptacle that can go in any normal (non-GFCI) receptacle location.  That will comply with certain Code requirements that require 120V receptacles at a certain spacing.


Replacing drop-in stove with free-standing stove. How do I modify the kitchen cabinets? I'm replacing my 42-year-old drop-in stove but can't afford to replace it with a drop-in, so I'm replacing it with a free-standing stove.

I know I need to cut out the cabinet baseboard and a strip of the countertop at the rear of the existing stove.  Unfortunately, I can't cut a straight line with a hand saw to save my life.  I suppose I could hire someone, but that would defeat the purpose of saving money on the stove, and I'd like to learn to do it myself anyway.

What's the most foolproof way to cut out the cabinets and countertop correctly so they don't look terrible?  Specifically, what tools, guides, etc., should I use?  Also, what, if anything, will be needed afterward to make the modification look good after the job is done?

Assuming there are vertical side-cabinet panels at the areas you want to cut out (ie, you won't be leaving a section of countertop or shelves hanging in mid-air) and that the countertop is a laminate over wood(-ish), then a handheld circular saw can make the bulk of the cuts, with a jigsaw to get the back corners. You can screw a straight piece of wood to the area that's coming out to act as a saw guide. Keep the saw tight against the guide as you cut, and that'll be as straight as the guide is.

Now to make it nice-looking, you have a few options. Big box home improvement stores will sell an end-cap of laminate that matches the countertops they sell, it can be glued on with contact cement, assuming it matches your counter. If they don't have one that matches your counter in color, check to see if they have one that will match your new stove. (It's not great, but it's better than bare wood.)

Home improvement stores will also sell a strip of flanged plastic or metal that is meant to cover the gap between the countertop and the stove (I believe one company calls it a 'crumb guard').


200A 240V Electric Panel Clearance I am installing an electric panel. NEC 110.26A providing for 30" x 36" x 6'6" is met EXCEPT for the main water supply line which will runs against the wall and underneath it at floor level. There is no other equipment. Is there no way around this problem?
@ThreePhaseEel Surface mount. I thought about rerunning the pipe over the panel to clear the 6'6". But the idea of putting a water line above the panel is just wrong!

This requirement is to provide a good clean standing area when accessing it.
If the inspector would give you flack for it (call them in advance whether they would) you can build out the bit of wall the electric panel is mounted to such that the water line is actually under the panel inside the wall instead of in front.


What could cause my old gas furnace to keep cutting out? I have a old gas furnace that keeps cutting out. It turns on and the when it hits the temp it turns off and then when it turns on it will not give it gas. It will just sound like it blowing but no air comes out of the vents. And I can't see any flame in the furnace. I have had an repair guy come out and all he did was hit the little reset switch in the furnace and it fixed it. For a little while at lest, now I have to do it at lest once a day. I don't know what is wrong. I don't what to keep calling someone out to just hit the reset switch. Dose anyone know what is wrong?

I would check your ignition sensor or your flame sensor. There are also heat switches that "melt" and shut off to stop the furnace from catching fire. I had a similar problem when I bought my house that was a foreclosure. The furnace sat for a while and the sensor got covered in dust and burnt out when I turned the heat on. The best way to figure out what's up is to remove the cover and look for some blinking lights. It will depend on the furnace type. These lights will give you a code that will help you figure out what the real problem is. So
Google your furnace model and how to find the code
then
Google your furnace model and the code to get an idea of the problem


Hanging Drywall Against Finished Ceiling I removed the drywall on my walls as part of a bathroom renovation project and now I am at the stage where I put up new drywall on the walls. I did not remove the ceiling drywall so I am going to butt the new drywall on the walls up to the finished ceiling from before. Can I simply tape these joints against the ceiling without removing the previous tape and finish or should I scrape the portion of the ceiling that the new tape will be applied before I put on the new tape?

No need to completely scrape down but you will need to at least rough up the existing ceiling out to the distance of your final mud coat, to facilitate good adhesion of the new joint compound (assuming existing is painted plaster/drywall, if other then please state so).


Water leaking when shower is turned on need some advice on how to look for the source of a leak around our bathtub. We have a tub/shower with surround walls. There is a small section of drywall on either side of the bathtub and the drywall on the same side as the shower head and nozzles has water damage. We at first thought it was condensation causing it and replaced the drywall and caulk. Over time we have noticed water damage again. Today when we looked at the wall it appears that there is a slow trickle of water coming out of the area where the surround and bathtub meet. It only happens when we turn the shower on. It doesn’t happen if we are filling up the tub. Any thoughts or advice on wear to look for a leak or what could be causing this. The drywall is only damaged from the point where the water is coming out and below. Thank you!

Since the shower head is above the top of the tub, while the tub spout is below the top of the tub, it makes sense that a leak between the surround wall and bathtub only happens when the shower is running and not when the tub is filling.

It sounds like the caulk in that area is either failing or has failed completely. You'll probably want to remove the tub surround and pull out the damaged drywall again. It's also possible that there is a crack in the tub surround itself, so while you've got that pulled out, you may want to inspect that for damage and replace it as necessary - I'm not sure that you could effect a good repair on it, though someone may offer some tips for doing so.

When you reinstall, use cement backer board (one description) instead of standard drywall as this is designed for wet areas. It may not be fun, but I'd suggest replacing all the drywall behind the surround with cement board instead of just the one little spot. In the long run, this will be a better option and future you will thank current you for saving future time.

Once the cement board is up, reinstall the surround then caulk with a good quality, waterproof caulk. Make sure you do a good job of it, not leaving any gaps and doing everything you can to avoid leaving voids where water could puddle.


What is the name of this ceiling fan part? I just replaced the light pull switch on my ceiling fan, but I'm having trouble putting the fan back together.  The wires were very short in the original install and I had to leave a little more room to connect the new pull.

The problem is that now the U-shaped bracket that houses the switch won't reconnect because it's too short (1 1/4") to be reattached with the extra wire above it. I have to reinstall it because it is part of the globe attachment.

It's a U-shaped piece with three small holes in each side (for the bolt that attaches to main part of the fan) and it has a hole in the bottom for the pull to drop through.  The hole also allows the male part of the globe connector to go through.

I've been all over the web and can't figure out what this part is called - if I don't know the name I can't order the right part.  I'd probably need one that is 1 1/2" long in order to accommodate the new wires.  Please help!!

Sad to say but the time that it will take you to find the right part (it looks like a part called a hanger) and track down the obscure supplier who made the piece, organise replacement and shipping and get it back will far exceed the time and cost of you taking a small piece of mild steel plate available from your local home improvement or car parts store, drilling the holes you need and bending it in a vise.


Why does my oven light flicker when I close the bottom drawer? I have an electric oven. Recently the oven light flicks on then off when I close the "pan drawer" on the bottom. Any ideas why and repair suggestions appreciated. Thank you.

There are two switches and they are in parallel--a door plunger switch which closes when the door is open and a lever switch which is manually operated. The switches are connected so that if either switch is closed then the light goes on.

Is the flickering occurring with the oven door closed? Is the console switch on or off when the flickering occurs?

Possibly only one is bad (and most likely it is the door switch), but first check the operation of each switch manually and see if you can get any indication.
The door switch is closed when the oven door is opened. The manual switch will be on the console.


How to deal with this pair of wires coming out of transformer? This monstrosity is in my attic. There is one attic light.

There is a legitimate wire from the light junction 'fixture' to a junction box elsewhere. (It's the white wire that you see behind the light.)

HOWEVER, there is another wire coming out of the light fixture that goes to a transformer...which then splits into two loose wires that have a suspect connection using electrical tape. At places along the two wires there seems to be some wear and tear with the insulator. I probably should use some electrical tape.

I didn't trace the wires to the end but they seem to go towards the front door where there is a doorbell and a porch light. (The roof pitches down near there and there's hardly any space to see where the wires go)

I used a voltage tester and it beeps to indicate that it is hot.

What should I do with this wire?  I want to cut it. How do I figure out what it's connected to?

Do I turn off the breaker to the attic light and then disconnect that transformer? If I do that then the device that is connected to it should stop working.

It's a doorbell transformer. Line voltage input and probably 24 vac output. Turn off the breaker and look closely at the transformer, the specs will be on it.

You should mount it in a covered electrical box (modern ones are designed with a 1/2" threaded post to facilitate just that) so the line voltage connection is properly enclosed, rewiring where necessary to replace deficient wire and connections. I would probably replace the transformer too but it's not strictly necessary.