Is it OK for dishwasher waste to be connected lower than sink trap elbow? We have a new-build house with an integrated dishwasher that was already fitted when we moved in. It's about 4 months old, and it recently stopped draining.
The engineer found that the waste pipe was clogged with fat. I was surprised, since I don't put fat-coated dishes in the dishwasher; although I do, sometimes, empty small amounts of still-liquid fat down the sink (naughty, I know - but it's not much, honest!). So the engineer pointed out that the dishwasher waste is plumbed in below the level of the exit pipe from the sink trap, so it will be sitting in the trapped sink waste-water, and any fat layer could enter and clog the dishwasher waste pipe.
I've attached a picture of the pipe arrangement below. My question is - is this a sensible arrangement for the waste pipes (and I'll just have to be more careful with fats), or is it a mistake to have fitted them like this (so I can get the builders to fix it)?

I'm not sure anyone has answered your question yet. It's hard to tell from the picture but I'll defer judgement to the "engineer" on site that the drain line from the dishwasher is somewhat lower than the drain feed out to the sewer line. If that's the case this would cause some of the water (weir) in the trap to back up into the lower part of the dishwasher drain.
To put this in perspective - it's probably not going to cause you major issues. However, since it's under warranty - have them fix it. I'd recommend isherwood's solution above - have them shorten the leg above the dishwasher drain and the corresponding ell going out to the mainline.
The reason I recommend that is based on the picture. The vertical rise from the trap to the horizontal drain piece looks to be border-line long. To explain, here's an illustration of a proper setup:

The height of the weir (area between the red lines) should not be more than 4 inches. Again it's hard to tell but the weir on your trap looks higher than 4 inches which would make it less effective in flushing out debris.
Edit
If the weir height is no more than 4 inches the installers have the option of moving the dishwasher drain up to the higher unused fitting going into the tailpipe on the right or raising the trap as indicated by thye blue lines in the picture. As Harper mentioned in his comment, those pipes may be pre-fab and not adjustable so the installer may have to install new pipes above the trap to get the dishwasher drain line above the outlet pipe on the left.


Possible ceiling fan failure Just purchased a 1940 home with mostly 2 conductor cloth wiring installed.  The ceiling fan (reversible w/light) in the bedroom wasn't working so I checked and discovered that it had been disconnected from the house wiring.

I connected the motor and light to the hot (black) and the fan's neutral and ground to the neutral (white).  When tested, the light did not work and the fan only runs in reverse.  When I switched the fan direction, the motor smoked and I, of course, turned it off.

The question is: should the fan run in both directions wired this way?  I'm guessing not, but I plan on replacing the fan and upgrading the wiring.  Long term is to rewire the entire house and upgrade to a 200 amp service panel.

Any thoughts and suggestions would be appreciated.
Keith

I believe the fan was probably damaged and that was the reason it was disconnected the forward switch position may have fried or the wire to the motor, in the reverse position the wiring was good but the motor was bad so once you energised the circuit what little magic smoke that was left in the motor escaped , time for a new fan your wiring is probably fine as fans are low draw motors a quick inspection will tell if still usable they probably are but since you will be updating the wires it really won't matter. You should not connect the neutral and ground together this can be dangerous until the new 3 wire upgrade is done don't connect the ground wire to the circuit. Or as new code allows pull a ground from another location from the same panel. If the box is metal connect the fan ground to the box many older homes the metal boxes were grounded on the back side.


What kind of expertise is required to install a gas fireplace log? I already have a gas igniter for my fireplace and want to replace it with a gas log.  While we do that, I'd like to also upgrade to whatever the latest safety features are for gas fireplaces.

First, I imagine this isn't a do-it-yourself job, is it?  Assuming not, what kind of professional would I seek: a plumber?  handyman?  chimney sweep?  fireplace store?

I consider it a DIY project myself.  However, it may be more ambitious than it seems at first.

Gas line work.
Brick/masonry drilling/patching
Electrical wiring for high heat environment
Control system
Modification of fireplace and/or gas log
Possible flue revision
Several building authority inspections

Whether this should be a DIY is determined by obtaining and understanding the "building authority" requirements and regulations for your location.  Maybe they say that a NFI professional must do the work.  Or maybe they say "all work must be to X standard and inspected by Y".


The GFCI outlet in my bathroom pops when I turn off the bathroom fan I didn't do the wiring in this house, this has been happening since I moved in.

Basically, about 50% of the time that I turn off the bathroom fan, the GFCI outlet pops and needs to be reset. Once that happens, the fan no longer turns on until I reset the outlet. This only happens when shutting the fan off, not when turning it on or while it's running.

Does this likely indicate a problem with the wiring, the fan, or the outlet? I'm wondering what I should look at first.

It's not the outlet.  It's a ground fault.

Here's what is happening.  When you have a big magnetic coil, and power is flowing through it, it makes a magnetic field.   When you suddenly interrupt that power, the magnetic field collapses, and this has a small force behind it. It is the nature of coils to resist changes in current flow.  It does this by turning that small force into voltage, which increases until the desired current flows, or the force just runs out of energy.  This is called an "inductive kick" and everything in the circuit must be insulated for it.

When the insulation fails, the high voltage will ignite an arc that the lower voltage will sustain.  It can also leap across switches!   In DC power over about 30 volts, this arc is Very Nasty Business because the arc will never stop.

However, with AC power, AC switches polarity 100-120 times a second (8-10 milliseconds).  It is a sinewave, and part of the time it is near zero volts.  The arc will self-extinguish at the next zero crossing.  But in the meantime, the arc will flow enough current (potentially a lot of current) to trip the GFCI.

However... If you happen throw the switch at the right instant, you are near a zero-crossing for the voltage or magnetic field, so there's no magnetic field and no inductive kick.  So no voltage spike.

So, no leakage and no GFCI trip.

Insulation is failing.  This will get worse.

I would start by changing the switch because they are cheap.  But prepare for a fan replacement, or at least take it down and clean it.  Damp dust makes a great leakage path.

Note that switches have ratings, and their rating for a motor (inductive) load is much lower than a plain load.   They may also have a similar "ballast" rating, because HID and older fluorescent lights have ballasts with a big inductive winding.  Their tungsten rating has nothing to do with this.


Should I use a subfloor for a finished basement's floor? We are refinishing our basement and have not yet decided what to do for the floors.  Part of the basement will be tile, and we are all set.  However, the rec room side is going to be carpet.  The basement is dry, and we have never had any water or moisture issues.

Some research has said to simply lay carpet like normal, with a thinker pad on the concrete.  While OK, I am worried a little about the coldness, a vapor barrier, and the comfort level (too hard on concrete).  One carpet guys said they make special pads that are vapor or moisture proof and will not have mold issues and are made for concrete floors.

Other people has said to lay .5"-1" foam board down, and then install plywood on top of that.  That would help to insulate, make it feel like a normal floor, and provide a good moisture barrier)  But this would cost more in labor and materials, and cut into the height of the room (it is 7'8").  And although we have not had water issues, heaven forbid if we did, this would be a major pain to rip it out.

What has everyone else done?  Any recommendations?

I just recently finished my basement project.  I spent a lot of time scouring the web and grilling friends and co-workers about their basements to gather information to try to make an informed decision on this very subject.

Here are the options I considered:

Carpet tiles directly over concrete

PROS

cheap

CONS

cold feet
hard, unforgiving floors
Potential for condensation/mildew, even if floor is mostly dry

VERDICT

I couldn't find a tile with a padding thick enough to make the floor even close to comfortable in a midwestern US winter

Traditional carpet and pad directly over concrete

PROS

Pretty cheap
Many choices of carpet and padding thicknesses available

CONS

Floor is still much harder than wood subfloor
Even thick padding can still leave the floor a bit chilly
Potential for condensation/mildew, even if floor is mostly dry

VERDICT

Thick padding can help the floor feel less cold, and less hard, but it's no match for wood, especially if you have a kid's playroom or a workout room in the basement
It seems like asking for moisture/mildew trouble to not allow air circulation between concrete and carpet

Rigid foam insulation under 5/16" plywood subfloor

PROS

Cheap
Good R-value to provide insulation from cold
Feels almost as warm and soft as a regular subfloor

CONS

Opinions vary about how long the foam will last before breaking down
Installation instructions vary wildly (some anchor directly to floor, others anchor through wood bracing, etc.)
Opinions vary about how much air circulation the foam would allow

VERDICT

Although it doesn't seem like a terrible idea, there just wasn't enough information about this approach to make me feel comfortable trying it

DRIcore-style subfloor tiles

PROS

Dimpled underside allows excellent air circulation over concrete
Feels almost as warm and soft as a regular subfloor
Most come in 2'x2' tiles so there are no 4'x8' sheets to lug around
Easy install, much like a "floating" hardwood floor
Nothing anchored into the concrete

CONS

By far the most expensive option
Each 4 sq foot panel is about $5.50 [as of 2016]
USD

VERDICT

I had a fairly large amount of floor to cover, and this was just too expensive.  It would have approached 20% of the total budget for the project.

Dimpled underlayment under 5/16" plywood subfloor

UPDATED March 2019

The Platon underlayment I used years ago seems to be hard to find these days. Home Depot currently offers what appears to be a similar underlayment product called DMX 1-STEP, and others may be available from other manufacturers.

PROS

Dimpled underside allows excellent air circulation over concrete
Feels almost as warm and soft as a regular subfloor
Much cheaper than the DRIcore tiles, because the Platon is purchased separately in large rolls

CONS

More difficult to install than probably any other option
4'x8' plywood subfloor is no fun to lug around
Requires the subfloor to be anchored to the concrete

VERDICT

Although it required more manual labor, the cost was less than 10% of what it would have cost to use the DRIcore tiles
I still got it done in just a few days, with some help moving the plywood
I used a hammer drill and Tapcon concrete screws to secure the floor
My basement floor is as warm and soft as any other floor in my house, and it didn't cost an arm and a leg


Lead based stain from 1800’s? I’ve been sanding down a wood piece from the 1800’s. I performed two lead tests that came up negative but I’m still worried. I did the test patch by sanding it down to the bare wood, then rubbing the tester tube over the edge of the stain and the bare wood. When did they start to use lead in paints, varnishes, and stains? Does it go back as far as the 1800’s? Do I need to worry?

Lead was used as a pigment.

White lead was used in cheaper paints; quality paints used titanium dioxide, which is now the dominant white pigment.

Lead (II, IV) oxide yields a bold red pigment.

Lead chromate (boy, there's a nasty customer for you) yields a yellow pigment.

Mineral pigments, including all these mentioned here, are naturally resistant to UV light, so very durable. Carbon black remains an ideal black pigment.  Color pigments tend to be toxic minerals. (Or modern organic compounds that don't hold up under UV. Look at the nearest parking lot. See all the black/gray/white cars?  Now you know why.)  Old black is safe; old white/gray might be safe; old colors, lookout.

All of these things are pigments.  They add color for the purpose of masking the underlying surface.  You'd never find them in a varnish, whose job is to allow light to make a 2-way trip through the varnish and allow the underlying surface to shine through.

Use PPE, regardless.

That said, use PPE - i.e. a competent dust mask and safety glasses. Any dust WILL end up in your lungs, and there's a lot of other stuff in old varnish (and wood fiber itself) that you don't want in your lungs.

Also don't panic about lead.

It's lead, not plutonium.  (Even plutonium isn't plutonium in the panic sense). There are a lot of materials we can live alongside safely, merely by not being idiots.

Lead was only ever a problem when paint was allowed to chip, peel and deteriorate. The reason lead gets all the press is that it's also a social problem - the upper classes living in newer suburban housing stock had titanium-pigment walls that were well-kept, so children were not eating paint that was peeling off the walls. Meanwhile, in the slums...


Can I wire my under cabinet lighting in parallel? Not sure if this is the appropriate place, or something like DIY. I have purchased 6 of these light bars from Amazon https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B074NX7H1K/

The power supply is 6A and each bar takes .3A (4W / 12V). So the power supply should be sufficient.

I know that wiring in parallel each light will get 12V and reduce the current.

The light bar itself seems to be a set of 24 LED diodes with a resistor (hard to read the ohms through the frosted plastic) every 2-3 lights.

My plan is to wire nut them all together directly to the spliced end of the powered source, with a separate run for each light. Alternatively, I might create 3 'feeds' and then wire them in parallel in a set of 2. As far as I understand that is the same thing.

Are there any problems going this route? Will this suffer from thermal runaway or anything? If it does, how can I calculate what size resistor I would need before each light bar? If I don't put in a resistor, realistically how much would this reduce the life of the lights?

Please note that I am a layman and can't really understand electrical diagrams, but I will try my best.

Three LEDs per resistor is a common arrangement for fixtures designed to be connected directly to 12V.

No external resistor is required.

Your plan to connect them all in parallel is correct. Just make sure that the total current (0.3A per fixture × 6 fixtures = 1.8A) doesn't exceed the capacity of the power supply.

The lamps can be "daisy chained" with one cable running from the power supply to the first lamp, then a cable from there to the next lamp, and so on. However, electrically, this is still a parallel connection across the power supply, not a series connection. Each lamp is still getting the full 12V.


What to use to seal an exterior cable penetration in brick? A Comcast tech came to our 3-unit building, ran a new cable into the utility room, and pulled out the seal that was there before, leaving it open as we're getting cold and wet for fall.
What should I fill this gap with? Is what was there before just some generic exterior silicone caulk? I'm wary to use polyurethane foam I don't want to "glue" everything shut, and caulk can kinda be removed without much destruction. I have some window/door/siding/trim caulk, but I don't know if there's something better to fill the giant gap (or just glob it in there...)

Duct seal. The stuff from the electrical aisle, not the stuff with a similar or identical name from the HVAC aisle.
A non-hardening putty for sealing electrical ducts (conduits, holes in the wall) against water and insects.
Usually gray. Removable and reusable. Comes as a "bar" or "brick" of putty in a plastic bag (at least when I've gotten it.)


How can I figure out why my undersink water filter system is clogged? enter image description hereMy 3-year-old undersink water filter system stopped working (i.e., no water comes out). I changed the filters but still no water is flowing. Any suggestions on where to look for the blockage? My contractor did not leave a manual for this device and I cannot tell who manufactures it.

If the filters are the twist-lock type (o-ring that tightens with a 1/4-turn)  they may not be fully seated into the filter port. Remove the filters and re-install them making sure to apply enough upward pressure to fully seat the filter. BTW: the Aqua-Pure web page will have this filter. Here is the link:  http://www.3m.com/3M/en_US/company-us/all-3m-products/~/3M-Aqua-Pure-Under-Sink-Water-Filtration-System-Model-AP-DWS1000-1-per-case-5583101?N=5002385+8709316+8709366+8710655+8710937+8711017+8711350+3294748997&rt=rud


Is Kitchen cooktop venting required? I'm replacing an electric cooktop with downdraft ventilation. Does building code require that I keep this ventilation, or can it be removed?

Because code varies by region, it's difficult to say yes or no to this.

Typically you only really need ventilation to the outside if you have a gas range.  Often the hoods on top of electric cook tops just recirculate the air inside and don't actually vent outside.  That being said, the often have a carbon filter which is handy for removing odors.  They also usually have a light on them which is also handy for cooking.


replaceing a toggle switch for EXHAUST fan for small bathroom with a rocker switch I have a bathroom with two separate toggle switches; one for the light and one for the exhaust fan. I have updated the light switch with a dimmer/motion sensor rocker style switch. Now, my question is: Can i replace the toggle style switch to the exhaust fan with a rocker style switch? Do you use the same rocker style switch as one would use if it were for a light or is there a special type of rocker switch for an exhaust fan vs a light ? And what amp rating do I use: 15 or 20 ? Does it matter if the rocker switch is rated for more amps than it needs?

A simple on/off switch is best for a fan. This is a 'single-pole' switch. For a rocker style, something like this would work

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Leviton-Decora-15-Amp-Single-Pole-AC-Quiet-Switch-White-R72-05601-2WS/100058788

The switch will most likely be rated for 15 amps. This is fine, the switch must be the same as or more than the fan.


What wall materials to use behind glass shower wall? I am looking to install a glass wall shower system like the one in this video:
https://youtu.be/8-qDda-c6yo
Question is: What should be behind here? They don’t say in video. Should it be some kind of concrete board or is drywall sufficient?

They are gluing it to a form of drywall in the video.  I am not sure what the choices are from the manufacturer but I will make two comments.

Glass panels are probably hung the same way as big mirrors.   Preferred on drywall and glued.   Why drywall?   It has a little bend in it.   Glass/mirrors have play too.   For instance you would think gluing mirrors on plywood or concrete board would be more secure or easier.   Nothing further from the truth.

Love this system.   Glass/Tile-like paneling will be the wave of the future.   The maintenance levels, longevity, water-proofing... this is where it is at.   I have installed some granite sheet showers.   They are great but granite is porous.  This one-ups the granite sheets.   Also these can carefully be taken out if there is an issue.

Coolest shower I have seen in my life was pure glass panels.   The inside of the walls were painted 3 different colors and it was a work of art - used antique plumbing lines.


What should I do about damaged electrical conduit? I'm adding an electrical line to my outdoor pool breaker box.  I was digging near the box with a pickaxe (yeah, I know, stupid) and was trying to be careful, but I was not careful enough. I don't believe the wire cable itself is damaged, but it is possible.  The conduit and its hole is shown below.  Unfortunately some mud has gotten into the hole because of the rain last night.

Some water leaked out of the conduit when I made the hole so water was already getting in.  Given that, I'm inclined to either leave it as-is or wrap it with duct tape or something.  I could cut it and splice it inside of an outdoor electrical box but I'm not sure if it's worth the trouble or not.  Advice would be appreciated.

As a minimum, you really ought to test the cable (or have it tested by a professional) to ensure that it hasn't been damaged. You really don't want to find that there is a problem when a fault occurs at a later date.

If there is no physical damage to the cable, you should at least seal the conduit to prevent further ingress of water, for example wrap the damaged area with self-amalgamating tape.


How can I protect laminated floor from casters on office chairs? How can I protect laminated floor from office chairs?
An acrylic mat looks ugly.  Can a rug end up damaging the floor too?

Replace the casters on your chairs with "hardwood floor" casters.

These have a rubberized edge instead of typical hard plastic. Should cost in the order of USD$20-40 per chair, and takes only a few minutes at most to replace.

It's cheaper than those acrylic mats, works everywhere (not just a 4x6' area), and doesn't look stupid (in fact you probably don't notice at all, especially if you get all black). They also make moving your chair a bit quieter.


GFCI and Refrigerator and Circuit Breaker We have a new home and a new refrigerator.  The refrigerator is plugged into a standard outlet and on the same circuit is one GFCI.  While using a hand mixer on the GFCI outlet the circuit breaker - not the GFCI - tripped twice and that, of course left us with no power to the refrigerator - until we reset the breaker.  We figured the mixer was the problem although we didn't understand why the circuit breaker tripped and not the GFCI.  We just aren't comfortable with a situation where we could leave for a few days and come back to a dead refrigerator.  Question one is, in new construction these days is the general practice of providing a refrigerator its own circuit no longer an issue?  Question two is if the mixer was the problem why wouldn't it trip the GFCI before tripping the circuit breaker?

A refrigerator does not have to be on a dedicated circuit, it's simply a convention some builders/Electricians follow.

A ground-fault circuit interrupter (GFCI) trips in response to a ground-fault.  While a standard circuit breaker trips in response to overloads, and overcurrents.

If the combined current drawn of the refrigerator,  mixer, and whatever else was connected, is greater than the breaker rating (for long enough). Then the breaker would trip, but the GFCI would not.

If there was a ground-fault. The GFCI would trip, but not the breaker.

They are two different types of devices, designed to provide different types of protection.


How to properly ventilate a Mansard Roof? I recently purchased a home with a Mansard roof, I had some roofers come to give quotes to replace the top (it is finished) and they all recommend adding ventilation (known issue with Mansard's).

The problem is that they are offering two different solutions and I don't know which is best... hoping for some professional recommendations from the community.

1- Maximum Mansard Air-Intake drip edge

This is what 95% of the mansard homes on my street have and is the more expensive option

2- Ventilation Maximum (VMAXAT1 or VMAXAT2) uniformly positioned at the eaves

There is 1 house on my street that has it and it is less expensive

Any advice, first-hand experience, or help for me to decide which would be the right solution would be very much appreciated.
Thanks,

I own a mansard and we are battling this issue.  We had our roof replaced last year and the roofer that did it didn't even install 1/10th of the recommended ventilation.  Last winter was brutal in the north and we sustained substantial water damage from condensation inside of our home.  We are working with another roofer to get the proper edge venting installed.  Think of a cold glass on a hot summer day, that is what the inside of my roof decking looked like last winter.

Do not skimp or you will be sorry and sustain a substantially decreased lifespan of your roof, not to mention you could incur damage to the interior of your home if you live in the north (hot inside of the roof + extreme cold outside = large amounts of condensation).

Make sure you have a proper vapor barrier as well.  Loose fill insulation = more required ventilation.  I would also consider a power vent with both thermostat and a humidistat.  I am not a professional, but I am a Mechanical Engineer by education and since our issue, I have researched proper ventilation of mansards extensively.  Go with a very reputable roofer that will stand behind their work if you have condensation issues.


What to use to funnel floor air vent in cabinent for proper air flow I ripped the "floor" of the kitchen cabinet out to reveal that all along, my vent was funneling air like this, an open hole.  The circular opening is about 6 inches across both ways. I need to funnel it into the air vent but don't know where to start. Any advice would be appreciated. I'm thinking something like this but it just seems like there has to be better angled things I could use?

An air conditioning supply warehouse could fabricate a metal duct for you. Cut a cardboard template before you go. They will like you for that.

Alternatively, you could just fashion something yourself out of air duct foam board and foil tape, both of which should be available at your local hardware store.


What size Wire and breaker for Mitsubishi Mini Split HVAC I am running power for a Mitsubishi mini split
MSZ-GL12NA

https://hvacdirect.com/hvac/pdf/Mitsubishi-MSZ-GL12NA-U1-Installation-Manual.pdf

It says max 15amp  min 14AWG.  I will be running the romex wire about 90 feet from power panel in attic to the unit in Arizona heat.  Do I run a double pole 15 amp breaker or double 20?  Do I use 14awg wire or 12awg wire?  Should I run 3 conductors or 4? Hot Hot Ground Neutral, or just Hot Hot Ground?
Thank you in advance for any help.
Thank you,
Pete

The problem is your attic temperature

Phoenix makes outside-the-insulation-envelope attics just stupidly hot, and so you run into trouble at NEC 310.15(B)(2)(a) - the thermal derate.

Suppose we use 12 AWG wire that is allowed 90C for thermal derate purposes (NM-B or UF-B).  The 90C column in 310.15(B)(16) gives you 30A "to play with". When you derate that to 50%, you find yourself at 15 amps.  Well, look at that. That's enough.  And that 50% derate will cover you all the way to 167F, according to 310.15(B)(2)(a).  Which hopefully will be enough.

If we need 176F we'll need 10 AWG wire; if we need 185F we'll need 8 AWG wire.

You may want to discuss with your inspector what they expect.

Now, the circuit breaker must be 15A, because the UL-approved instructions say so.

Now it looks like this unit will pull less than 7.5 amps normally. That's less than half of circuit capacity, so you have the option to run a neutral wire and install a service receptacle as ThreePhaseEel describes, and for those reasons.


How do I wire my dishwasher and disposal back to my house wiring? I lost the diagram I had when I took this circuit apart and I am having trouble trying to get it back together.  Disposal and dishwasher, each on a separate breaker.  Have 2 hots and a neutral coming up from basement.  Disposal has switch on wall and there are another two wires headed that direction.  When I turn either of the breakers on, both of the hots set off my non contact tester which is making it difficult for me to figure out which is supposed to be which.  No outlet involved, was all direct wired.

Orange and yellow on the left are the two headed towards the switch.  Black and yellow coming towards the camera are the 2 hot wires, white I assume is a neutral.  Romex on the right is dishwasher, coming in from the top is the disposal

OK, let's see if I can make this clear:

White from feed spliced to both whites from the romex cables.

Yellow from feed to yellow from switch.

Orange from switch to black from disposal.

Black from feed to black from DW.

Be sure to splice all grounds and a ground tail to the box, and put a blank cover on the box.


how to avoid tiny gaps in end joints of hardwood floor install I am installing my first ever hardwood floor.  It's pre-finished 3/4" solid wood, and it's been pretty fun.  I've noticed that some of my end joints have some very tiny gaps on one side of the joint (flush on the other side).  I often have to look closely to notice, but some are visible from standing up.

My assumption is that these small gaps result when the board next to the end joint has a very slight bow to it (either concave or convex relative to the boards that comprise the end joint).  I suppose it's also possible that the boards were not cut at the factory with perfectly square ends, but enough of my joints do meet perfectly that I don't think this is the case.

My question is: is there anything I can realistically do about this?  It's not really a big problem and maybe the answer is just to live with it, but it's slightly irksome to the perfectionist in me.  How do I ensure as I lay each row that it doesn't have any slight curve and, therefore, will not pass along any problems to the next row?  Are there any tricks to this?

If I could perfectly straighten the bowed boards, it would presumably solve the problem, but frankly, I usually can't even tell if a given board is indeed bowed or not.  Certainly not by eye, and not with a 4' straightedge for the shorter pieces.  Some of the longer pieces appear to have a very slight bow relative to my 4' level.  And even if I did know a board was slightly bowed before I installed it into the floor, I'm not sure how to install it perfectly enough that such slight discrepancies are avoided...?

Here is a photo of the floor - it was put down from right to left (tongues facing left of photo).

Here is close up of end joint from the middle of the photo.  board width is 4 1/4".  My guess is the light-colored board to the right of the end joint is slightly concave relative to the end joint.

I'd use wax filler or even colored caulk (sometimes sold as wood mastic) -- a tiny amount. Let a bit of it dry first and compare the color to the wood--it can change substantially as it dries/hardens. Some laminate flooring I bought last summer (made by Classen) came with a wax sealer pre-applied.

For a solid (or even multi-ply) wood, sanding is sometimes an option, but for a beveled (v-groove) edges like yours it will probably look a little odd anyway and it's more labor intensive, but you can reshape the bevels this way. This requires pulling out the pieces though. If you really wanna go this way use a fine grit, 180-220 at least and an orbital sander. Try your technique on a piece of scrap first. You'd have to apply varnish after that and chances are it won't look exactly the same as the factory applied one. So I'd leave this route for when you redo your whole floor.


What is the Virginia code regarding gas water heater connections? I am renting a home that had to have the gas water heater replaced. The landlord had someone install the new one and the connections are questionable. My plumber informed me that using cpvc with shark bites directly out of the tank instead of soldering copper lines in was not only lazy but not to code, also the expansion tank was removed and never reinstalled. Any help confirming this job was done incorrect and incomplete would be very much appreciated

Virginia code regarding materials for water heater hookups doesn't get too specific but does to say to make sure you're in accordance with the water heater's manual.

I'm not sure what model you have but the instructions for a current Whirlpool electric water say CPVC is fine (see page 6, item 3). It also recommends compression fittings if you don't want to solder, but doesn't specifically prohibit Sharkbites.

Also the code is OK with CPVC. I took a look for something specifit to within 'X' distance of a water heater and didn't see anything. Here's the link for the code if you'd like to take a look yourself.

Expansions tanks are required if you have a Pressure reducing value (PRV) or backflow preventer. If you do not then there's no need for an expansion tank.

Local codes may superceed state codes, so check what your county & town say. If you call the inspector's office and set up a time to call and speak with an inspector, they should be happy to answer your questions. And if this was installed without a permit they'll be interested to hear about that as well probably. (And if it was installed with a permit it should have been inspected, which would mean it's fine).


Can I use 8 AWG THHN in conduit for a 50A outlet in my garage? The end goal is to add a 50A receptacle in the garage.

Whomever installed the subpanel ran 1 inch "smurf tube" stubbed out to the ceiling which currently has no conductors.  For the new outlet I plan to add a 50A GFCI breaker (the equipment involved holds a lot of liquid). I'll then pull THHN wire (this stuff), through the smurf conduit through the attic to the wall I need the outlet on, then transition to the gray PVC stuff, and run it down the wall to a surface mount box with a 50A receptacle.

The equipment will at times draw 45-47 amps, but for short periods (15-20m), most of the time it will draw less than 30A.  Total run should be around 20-25ft.

First, and main question, will 8 awg THHN get it done?  I've seen things about derating that indicate runs in the attic need to be lowered to 75*, which might require me to upgrade to 6 awg.

I also see reference to "terminations" which may derate it to the 60* capacities, but I don't understand what that is.  Is it what the outlet is rated at?

I plan to pull two black, and two white conductors.  Two black for the hot conductors, one white for neutral, and the other white I'll label green somehow (paint, tape, whatever) for the ground.  This is mainly to save on costs (a 50ft roll is only $4 more than 25 ft roll).

Is there anything grossly wrong about my approach?

First, you are required to use the 60 degree table for household wiring below 100A. That will call out #6 copper or #4 aluminum wirewhich is 55A but you are allowed to round up.  Yhis is a wobbler point where I wouldn't normally mention aluminum (it is cheaper) except for the asterisk below.

Your short 47A peaks don't inherently require a 125% (80%) derate for continuous load, but you didn't mention what your load was, and certain loads have a statutory requirement to be derated as a continuous load, e.g. Heaters.  The load's sly choice of 47A for its peak suggests the builder knows it is one. Regardless, it does not matter to wiring since 6Cu/4Al wire good for 50A is also good for 60A.

Using two blacks for two hots is fine.

Your plan to re-mark the wires has a problem: in THHN you are not allowed to re-mark to change a wire's function At all, not even whites to hots, unless the wire is 4 AWG or larger in which case you can mark anything you please.  And now you know why I mentioned aluminum.

#4 will just fit inside that 1" conduit, though it will be a challenging pull.

However, "bare" is a wire color.  You could strip all the insulation off a white to make it a bare wire.   Just don't get caught.   And be careful, if the wire is too finely stranded, it may go all rats-nest on you once out of the insulation, and that would not be acceptable.

You are not required to use a #6 ground wire. For 60A, #10 will suffice.


Smoothing OSB plates Planning to build a wardrobe out of OSB plates, however, I fear clothes might get stuck on the material and tear up. What's a simple and cost-effective way to get this smooth? Coating or sanding maybe? Does anyone have some experience with this and can offer some advice?

Straightforward enough job.  We stabilize wood like that all the time.

I'd start by painting the piece with a thin coat of either Amercote or West System Epoxy, just to freeze the splinters so they won't keep redeveloping as you prep.  Then a very thorough sanding with a jitterbug sander until there are no high spots whatsoever.  Then one more shot with the West System, then a sand-down just to knock the high spots off, if any.  Then prep & paint.

How much money did you say you'd be saving by using OSB instead of finish plywood?


What is the best adhesive to use for attaching nylon webbing to acrylic? I'm working on a costume for comic con - and I know that's not your typical home improvement project, but out of all the SE sites, this seemed the most appropriate place to ask.

The costume consists of multiple pieces of plexiglass molded into an armor. I need to attach the armor to my body, and I bought 1.5" nylon webbing, some slide lock buckles, and some velcro. The plan is to attach the webbing to one piece of armor, with one end looped through one of the loops of the buckle, and sewn back on itself. Then I can run the strap from the other piece of armor through the other loop in the buckle and velcro it against itself. It will work something like this picture.

I need to adhere the nylon webbing to the acrylic. I know there are tons of adhesives and solvents for adhering acrylic to acrylic, but I'm not sure about nylon to acrylic and searching the web hasn't found me anything useful. The acrylic will be painted before I do my gluing; I'm using Rustoleum Painter's Touch 2X ultracover paint+primer.

Gluing on structural straps is an iffy project for most materials.  Have you considered pop rivets? The tool can cost less than $10 and the rivets a few dollars more.

You just drill a small hole throught he plastic, punch a small hole through the strapping, insert the rivet through the holes, add a washer on the webbing side and operate the tool.  You may need two or three per attachment point, depending on how much strain they will be under.

The rivet tool may come in handy on other projects, like repairing your Tricorder.


How do I properly paint a wood floor made of plywood? I have built a yurt platform, which is basically a deck with 1 1/8" tongue-and-groove plywood as the decking. Usually that stuff is used as a subfloor, but in this case it's the floor itself. Call it rustic.

I bought this deck (and yurt!) standing at another location, disassembled, moved it to my location, and rebuilt it. The previous owners had painted the floor after assembling the yurt, so the paint doesn't go all the way to the edges. There are some rough spots from damage over the years. And some of the panels suffered in the weather while they were in storage. (I'm a slow builder!)

(click through for a full-sized image)

I would like to repaint it before I erect the yurt. I was thinking of renting a floor sander (the spinning kind) and taking a pass over the floor, and then putting on a few fresh coats of paint.

Most of the online information about painting floors is either for fancy indoor floors, or for outdoor floors exposed to weather. This will be protected from the weather once the yurt goes up, and our expectations are simple.

How should I attack this problem?

(Speed is an issue, we want this done fast!)

if you use one of those powerful floor sanders, be sure to use fine grit paper and go easy.  Plywood can damage easily and those sanders are aggressive and designed for hardwood. A good 6 or 7 inch DA sander would be a good bet, especially around the edges. Be careful, don't tear up the plywood with a monster sander!!!  lol.

As far as paint, select a good grade floor enamel. Roll it on with a short nap roller. A moehair or 1/4" nap is perfect for leaving a good smooth finish without a lot of orange peel effect.


Advice on removing brick fireplace and gas fireplace I would like to remove this fireplace in its entirety...

My 'current understanding' of the best approach to this is as follows..

support the wood sleeper on either side, then chisel away surrounding cement and remove
starting at the top layer, chisel away cement from each brick and remove
Once brick surround removed, have professional gas fitter cap the gas outlet
remove tiles and remaining brick as per point 2.

My current understanding is entirely based on conversations with friends & family and YouTube videos of similar jobs.

Is this a sound approach, or am i overlooking anything important?

A few close up pics...

Typical fireplace construction.

The wood mantel above the masonry is usually added as the last part of the esthetics of the fireplace. Wood cannot be used as a structural element in a fireplace. This could possibly be removed with reckless abandon.

The area of the firebox, not the brick beyond the face of the wall where your insert is, usually that's where the structure is, both above and below. Don't mess with it unless you really know what you are into.

The red brick that is in front of it all TYPICALLY is just a veneer. It is USUALLY never built with the fireplace, always after, it is only for looks. It just as well be tile, natural stone or hardened mud pies.

As you expect to do, after you pop the wood off, no need to support it temporarily, then start to remove the brick with chisel and hammer, protect the floor if you are going to repair it, no need to repair more than you have to.

The biggest problem you should have is the hearth. It will be no more difficult to remove the brick than the rest of it, but the slab that supports may be in the way still. Then again maybe not, since you have a tile floor and it all looks like it is laid starting at the same level. You will need to figure out what to do the bare spot where the tile is cut around the hearth that is no longer there.

Do get a pro to remove the gas line before you take anything apart..


Ceiling Drywall Direction I plan on installing 1/2" lightweight drywall over an existing textured ceiling. The room measures 23' x 8.5'. Joists run parallel to the short end of the room, spaced 16" however there is another single joist that runs parallel to the long end of the run (see attached picture but make note I didnt include all the 16" joists so that it looks cleaner).

Do you recommend I buy 4x10 sheets and run them parallel to the joists to minimize joints? I'm just afraid of the joists not being absolutely accurate and then it turning into a hassle.

Or should I just run them perpendicular and then have a 6" leftover piece at the ends since the room is 8.5'?

Thanks in advance for any help.

Go for the easiest option.  It isn't worth trying to maximize material usage or trying to get a few less seams.

Even 1/2" drywall sheets are heavy.  I'd opt for 4x8 especially if you aren't renting a drywall lift.  Even if you are using a lift you still have to move the sheets around.  A couple more tape seems just isn't a big deal.


Can I reduce or eliminate water hammer without plumbing? I have a friend who lives in an apartment with terrible water hammer problems which the management is unwilling to fix.

I'm curious if there is a product or device that would attach, for instance, to a faucet with the faucet on that would act as a water hammer arrestor.  I haven't seen anything like that, and I expect that even if it did exist it wouldn't help too much as it's not near the source of the problem, and the pipes would still rattle, but even if it helped a little he might get more sleep.

Right now it feels like someone's hitting his walls with a sledgehammer a few times an hour as other people in the building use the supply.

Pretty much, no.  To reduce the noise you need to secure the pipes properly within the walls, and add pressure-relief tubes to the pipes that hold air in them beyond and above each fixture.

You cannot affect the pressure within the closed system of the plumbing by changing something on the outside of the system...  so at a minimum you have to at least open the walls - something the landlord will frown on...


How can I wire this dimmer switch? I'm trying to put a light and a dimmer switch together for use in a chicken brooder. I have the switch and porcelain light socket but am a bit confused on the wiring diagram. My diagram looks exactly like the one found here

Basically I have a cord with a plug on one end and want to cut it in half, put both ends into opposite sides of a surface mount electrical box and have one side go to the wall (plug end) and the other go to the light fixture. From that diagram I only see two wires coming in from outside the switch but I'll have 4, not counting the ground wires which I also want to use and don't know where to put. Additionally, there are two wires coming from the dimmer mechanism but they show clearly going to 'loop' and 'c'.
So if someone could fill in the blanks below I'd be grateful!

Plug-brown?    (Loop, C, 1, or 2)
Plug- blue? (Loop, C, 1, or 2)
Plug-ground? (Loop, C, 1, or 2)
Light-brown? (Loop, C, 1, or 2)
Light-blue? (Loop, C, 1, or 2)
Light-ground? (Loop, C, 1, or 2)

From the diagram it looks like the dimming assembly is simply in series with the load, on the hot side.

Yes, if you have two conductor cord, and you cut it, then you have four wire ends. The dimmer would be spliced into the hot wire, and the other one would have to be spliced back together.  It would make sense to just cut one conductor in the cord.  Leave one intact. The intact one is your N to Load line, and the one you cut gives you the other two pieces: A to dimmer, dimmer to load.

What to do with ground wires? You have two devices: dimmer and load (light socket). If the dimmer has a metal chassis, you can ground that. Follow manufacturer's instructions!

The light receptacle is porcelain, so don't bother.


Blown Thermostat Twice and Dead Transformer A year ago, I had a brand new smart thermostat that caused the A/C fuse to keep blowing.  I replaced the thermostat with a duplicate, swapped the fuse out and everything has been fine.   Now a year later, my AC fuse again blew.  I checked the thermostat on another ac in the house and it blew that fuse too.  I replaced both fuses.  Now the AC with the problem will not supply any power out of the 24v side of the transformer, as tested with a multimeter.  I've ordered a new transformer and a replacement thermostat for the third time.
Is it coincidence it's the same unit and I've now had 2 bad thermostats?   It is possible the transformer has been bad this whole time and finally gave out, taking the thermostat with it?   This AC is not even 2 years old but the company that installed it is pretty poor and won't stand behind their install.

Pretty much can guarantee either you've wired up your thermostat wrong, or that you chose a thermostat whose current draw on the connection to the A/C unit  exceeds the A/C port's rated capability.
Consider checking the manuals.
Then see if you can power the thermostat off a different source, such as a local DC supply, rather than hanging it off the A/C block.


How do I keep my shower handle's entire stem from spinning? I unscrewed the knob and pulled it off, then took of the escutcheon, then removed the entire valve body.
The stem screws in and out of the valve body which is what controls the water flow.
The valve body is smooth and has a rubber o-ring at the end of it.
My question is what holds the valve body in the seat?
The body just keeps spinning when I turn the handle.
I read this on another forum which sounds similar to my problem:

"the hold down retaining nut that you remove that secures the stem in the body needs to be very tight so the barrel seat will not move. some of the barrels have an "O" Ring seal at the base and can cause the barrel to slip, so tighten it down real good. Let me know if that helps...."

I did make the nut pretty tight, but it still spins.
Any other ideas?

The answer to your dilemma as I understand it, is answered Here.


How to prevent DIY Activated carbon from throwing a layer of scum on top of water? I cook regularly on a wood stove. Lately it occurred to me that I could also dump a sealed container into the flames to make activated carbon ... which I did. To test the carbon I dumped some iodine to colour the water - then tossed in a lump of the charcoal (crushed).

After a while the water was clear - which is perfectly fine. The trouble is, a layer of charcoal 'scum' formed on top of the water. I can get rid of the scum by passing the water through a filter - perhaps sand, or even fine cloth.

Is there a way to prevent the charcoal from carrying impurities that form the scum in the first place?

Filter carbon needs to be packed and prewashed to remove fine dust. "Crushing it and dropping it in" is fine if you are an old sailor on an old ship burning some ship's bread to drop into the nasty cask of fresh water - not so much if you want the water to be crystal-clear.


how to test to see if a humidistat temperature sensor is working I have an April Air 600 humidistat with an outside temperature sensor. What is the procedure to test a temperature sensor to see if it is working.

I have an Aprilaire Model 55 TCH (Temperature Compensating Humidistat).  Do you have an ohmmeter?  This is what I found in my notes:

I'm thinking the sensors haven't changed between models.  I would measure it at the TCH to make sure there isn't any discontinuity between the sensor and the TCH.


Is it safe to connect a timer to an instant hot water dispenser? I'd like to connect a timer to my new instant hot water dispenser.  The installation instructions mention not to use an extension cord, but I'd like to make the timer accessible under the cabinet so I can adjust it.

My plan had been to run a short heavy duty extension cord from behind the dishwasher to under the sink with a timer in between.  Is there anything wrong with this?

You need to determine the maximum current (amperage) your water dispenser will draw, then verify that both the extension cord and the timer can each handle that current as as sustained load.


Do I need to pre-drill holes in particle board for screws? I'm set to buy a bunch of IKEA furniture, which is notoriously all particle board. (Ah, particle board.) I'd like to strengthen some of the beams of the HOPEN bed with L-brackets from the big-box hardware store of choice.

My question is this: since adding the L-brackets will mean screws, do I need to pre-drill holes into the wood to avoid splitting the particle board? Is there a way to prep these holes without a hand-held power drill? Can I drill the L-brackets in without pre-drilling at all but with great care?

To answer your question: it depends.  The larger the screw, the more likely you'll need to pre-drill.  If you're installing the screw near the edge, or if the screw is larger than maybe 1/8" wide on the solid part, then I'd pre-drill.  To pre-drill, make the hole almost as large as the solid part of the screw (not the threads themselves, they need to have something to bite into).  Also, make the hole as deep as the screw minus the size of the bracket.  Use some tape on the drill bit to see when to stop.

That said, for your bed, looking at the plans, I think you'll get the most added stability by adding a short piece of 2x2 vertically as a center brace under the metal bar.  Check the hardware isle of your HI store to see if you can find an adjustable foot to put on this board, and then attach it via a few screws to the center beam.  This is actually a quick way to detect some lower quality beds that use wooden slats from side to side.  If the slats have a center brace going to the floor, it's a lower quality bed.

Edit: For clarity, just imagine a table with a 5th leg right in the middle.  You have a long span from the headboard to the foot of the bed which will benefit from an extra support directly in the middle.  The adjustable legs I'm thinking of screw into the wood leg of a piece of furniture and look something like this (this is a cutaway view, you simply install it into a hole you drill into the bottom of the leg):


How to troubleshoot gas supply not making it to some appliances I recently purchased a home and once utilities were turned on I've been having issues with certain gas appliances. Some appliances required a normal amount of time to get the gas flowing after being off for some time. One water heater was finally able to light, as well as one furnace and the stove. However, a second water heater, second furnace, and the gas-log fireplace will not light. The individual gas valves to each appliance are in the on position but I never smell any gas. Is it possible for there to be restrictions in the gas supply lines that would affect all of these appliances? How can I troubleshoot this issue?

It sounds like the gas system was never purged after a nitrogen test. The appliances in question are probably farther down the line and still have non-combustables in them. It will take a very long time to purge through a pilot tube. You need to close the gas line valve on one of the appliances, remove the drip leg, open the valve to vent non-combustables and close it when the sound changes or you smell gas. Replace the drip leg, open the valve and start the appliance.

Do not do this alone. Someone needs to be with you in case you pass out, have a stroke, faint etc. It's very unlikely but if you are rendered incapable of closing the valve a second person can. This is important. Explosions happen because of this.


Proper technique to adding a wire to existing pigtail This seems like a pretty straight forward question and hoping not a poor question but here we go.
If you have a pigtail for three wires (say # 14 AWG if that makes a difference) together in a wire nut but you want to add another wire to the mix. Is the proper method to undo the wire nut and untwist them and try to straighten out all three as best as possible? (In IT there was a tool to straighten ethernet wire but haven’t seen such a thing for Romex). Then line up all four wires (new one included) so they're parallel and retwist again from scratch and wire nut it with a fresh new wire nut? Seems like a commonsense answer but with all things in life you can never be too sure and curious if professional electricians had a technique of their own to share.

It doesn't really matter how the wires were before.  The wire nut is gonna reshape the wires when you crank down on it!
The #1 blunder with wire nuts is being too much of a softie and being afraid to use the nut to reshape the wires.  You have to!  If you don't, the wires won't mesh firmly, you won't have good contact, and the connection will overheat, arc and start a fire.
A properly done nut should pass a "pull test" -- hold the nut and yank on each wire, one at a time.
If a nut fails a "pull test" then it's either a problem with technique, not tightening enough, not lining up the wires evenly, or using the wrong nut - i.e. using a wire nut right near the extremes on its bell curve.  Go up or down a size, please!
If somebody's going for "tape" to keep wirenuts from falling apart, they usually think they are doing a great job securing it, actually they have a bad connection to begin with that is likely to melt and burn up from arcing.  The job isn't to physically hold the wires together, it's to electrically do that.


How to tell if my new, unfurnished apartment has bed bugs? I just signed the lease on a new apartment in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. I did so after looking up the address and seeing that it had been listed twice in the bed bug registry. In 2009, a tenant said a few units had been infested. In August 2010, a tenant said bed bugs had been seen in at least one of the top floor apartments (mine is on fl. 5 of 6). Nothing has been said about the building since.

I have not yet moved in, and I don't have to move in for several weeks -- maybe even a month. Currently, the apartment is empty of all furnishings except a refrigerator.

What can I do during the next few weeks to ensure the apartment is not infested?

Bed bugs are hard to see. They get in small cracks (e.g. between the flooring and wall) and can survive for months. Finding them by sight will be next to impossible. But you could have a service inspect the place before you move in. I think some use trained dogs that can smell them.

That said, no matter how careful you are, bedbugs can migrate through small cracks, vents, a shared laundry facility, etc. So even if you don't have any before moving in, it's possible they will migrate to your unit once there's a food source (people).


Any US building codes about a door opening into a hallway near a stairway? A while ago I changed a door out from my tiny bathroom so that it opens outside of the bathroom and into the hallway.  It looks attractive and provides a great deal more room in the bathroom making it feel much bigger now.  It was also a great deal of work since I reused the existing door frame, chiseled new hinge slots and used wood putty to cover up the old hinge slots in the existing door frame.

Now that we are going to sell the house, a friend of mine mentioned that perhaps the house was purposely built for the door to swing inside the bathroom because the door is close to the stairway and that it could be some kind of building code.  The house was built in 1958 so if it were a code decision so long ago then I am sure somebody might know something about this.  My father in law is pretty handy but has never heard of such a building code.

I am terrified now that this might get called out in a home inspection and that if it were a code issue that I will be required to replace the door before I can sell the house.  Is this indeed a code issue in the United States?

EDIT:

I included a rough diagram so that you can visualize this:

EDIT 2:

I realize that information this localized is not on topic for this forum, but I am a resident of Pennsylvania and according to the local building codes that user Sean Cheshire was so kind to give me (Thank you!), this was the only building codes in regards to stair landings that I could find:

  R311.5.4 Landings for stairways. There shall be a floor or
  landing at the top and bottom of each stairway.
  Exception: Afloor or landing is not required at the top of
  an interior flight of stairs, including stairs in an enclosed I
  garage, provided a door does not swing over the stairs.
  A flight of stairs shall not have a vertical rise larger than
  12 feet (3658 mm) between floor levels or landings.
  The width of each landing shall not be less than the width
  of the stairway served. Every landing shall have a minimum
  dimension of36 inches (914 mm) measured in the direction
  of travel.

It doesn't appear like the door swings over the stairway so I should be okay!  Thanks everyone!

There's no such thing as US building codes, there are state, county, and municipal codes which vary widely between areas. The only way to know is to ask, which is what I'd recommend you do. There's no harm in it, simply call the office that is responsible and ask. You don't have to say you've already done it if you're worried about it, you could say you are planning on doing some remodeling and ask them if a door opens into a landing if that's OK and see what they say. Worst case is you have to turn it back in the way it was.


Cathedral ceiling retrofit with no ridge beam or ridge board - what are my options? I'm buying my first house (we close in one week!!) and I'm remodeling almost the whole house before moving in. One thing I'm considering is putting in a cathedral ceiling on the 2nd floor. I'm not a carpenter, just a DIY guy who's watched a lot of This Old House, bu here is what I know:

Pros to doing this:

It's a gable roof, very simple. I think (but I don't know) that it's a 45 degree angle.
Small footprint, only about 14 x 24 ft or 336 sq ft (rough measurements) and rafters are 24" apart on center
It's an old house, over 100 years old, and the stick frame uses quality 2x's and no trusses
the existing lathe and plaster would have to be repaired anyways because of cracks and water stains
the ceilings are pretty low and a cathedral ceiling would give us space for ceiling fans
there's very little insulation (blown cellulose) in the small existing loft so no big loss
I have to go into the loft and rip it all up to get the old tube and knob wiring out anyways so might as well just knock it out
installing new electrical wires all throughout so if it's demo'd to the frame then that would be easier
opportunity for exposed "beams"

Cons:

there's no ridge beam or ridge board!!
the 2x6s rafters are obviously not deep enough to fit enough insulation in (unless it's the expensive stuff) so I will likely have to deepen them with 2x4s or 2x6s
this will make an already narrow room feel even narrower
will have to worry about roof venting. As it sits, there is just one gable vent and that's it.

So, my main question (though I'm open to any advice and why, why nots) is this:
Can I do this without a ridge board? Can a ridge board be (realistically) installed??

Here is something I drew up. Will this work? (illustration is not to proportion at all)

Any other way to do this? Any other problems you can forsee? THANK YOU!

Here is the view from inside the attick/crawlspace. You can see there is no ridge board, but there is some hefty roof decking:

And a view from the room (we might knock down the closet walls and make two small bedrooms into one). As you can see the ceiling is low and a "quasi-cathedral" ceiling (if you know what term is actually used to describe a ceiling like then than please let me know what it is!)

And finally, the house. Our new home! A lot of work to do...

Dan, the horizontal slats, resting on the roof joists, replaced your ridge board (not the best thing to do but it is an alternative).  Worst case scenario: someone removes these when replacing roof decking or to install a skylight.

If your plan is to remove/block-off any of the attic, up to the roof deck, you'll need to replace the gable vent with the combination of soffit-ridge venting (they work together).

Your drawing describes the installation of a ridge beam.
Take a look at this: ridge beam vs ridge board

Ridge vents are sized to the space they vent.  They work differently (or not well) if one uses them in conjunction with soffit vents or ridge vents.

Re: Knob & Tube Wiring.  Assume you have K&T throughout the house (in the walls). Many careless/short-cut re-wiring jobs are made by keeping the K&T within the walls but re-wiring just the switches/outlets to make it appear all the K&T was removed.

All-in-all, you should find someone with old house restoration experience.  Such people are most qualified to understand what you have and how to make it what you want.  General remodeling contractors and the usual, run-of-the-mill architects tend not to know such things.


What is the easiest way to remove this stump (under wall)? The picture shows the stump. We ground up the main stump, but there are parts of it and the root under a block wall/fence dividing my property and my neighbor's property. We suspect that this is pushing the block wall and causing it to lean. (I show a men's size 8 shoe in picture for scale).

I'm able to dig under the root/stump a bit.

What is the best way to remove this and any other remaining roots under the wall.

update
Added note that the wall is actually a block wall fence separating my property and my neighbors property. We suspect the root is causing the wall to lean towards his property. We hope to correct the lean once the stump is gone.

Easiest? Saltpeter. If you drill holes with a spade bit, fill them with a liquid stump remover, then wait for a week or so it should convert the wood to a punky black consistency that's much easier to dig out. If the chemical you used is saltpeter you will have converted the wood to an oxidizer. Should the stump somehow become saturated with kerosene that was left in the holes for a day or two and set alight it would burn even underground, destroying all of the roots.

Your best bet is probably a reciprocating saw. It won't take a week and a half or attract the fire marshal. It's also safer, in my opinion, than using a chainsaw in very tight quarters.

There are wheels that would allow you to grind the rest with an angle grinder. I'm not too sold on them from a safety perspective, so it'd be a last resort for me personally.

On the professional side of the house, makers of large oscillating saws for masons offer general purpose blades that cut wood. (ArborTech's AS170, for example) Unfortunately it's probably not a common enough tool to be available at most rental places. I'd call and ask, but not get my hopes up.


Is my expansion tank leaking  in my oil water heater system? I have an oil water heater (see related question) used for a hydronic forced-air furnace. There is a backflow preventer on the incoming cold water and return hot water, and a small expansion tank on a T in the cold water intake. The tank weeps a little bit through the pressure relief valve.

Is some sort of maintenance required on the expansion tank? Does it need to be emptied?

Expansion tanks can fail over time. There should be a valve stem like you have on a car tire to add air to the tank. Shutoff the water supply, open a faucet to release any pressure from the water on the tank, and pump up the tank to about 60psi (even better is to fill to your average water pressure at your home, but 60psi is typical). If the tank doesn't hold the pressure with an open faucet, then the internal bladder has ruptured and the expansion tank needs to be replaced. They are usually threaded, so you can unscrew the old tank, apply some plumbers dope or Teflon tape to the threads, and screw on a new tank (pressurize it first).


Are surge protector power strips designed for long-term, mounted use? Some of these units look yellowed and half-baked. In apartment electrical rooms I see many old surge protector power strips attached to the wall holding various small transformers and plugs for camera or intercom equipment. Many are 20 or more years old. Are they designed for long term use, essentially permanently attached? The transformers hide much of the receptacle openings. What can I tell the building owner so that these units are not fire bombs in disguise?

Almost no electronic device lasts forever.  Instead they have MTBF(Mean Time Before Failure), although if you reverse engineered a bunch of power bars, you would probably find some more robust and likely to survive much longer, you probably shouldn't count on any past their warranty.  They are not likely to fail short and explode, it's more likely they will fail in such a way that the connected devices are not protected.
I'll just mention at this point that you can get system sized surge protectors if your boss is really worried about surges.
One thing you could do is go around and check the ratings of them and see what you can look up about each individual unit.  No telling whether they are all surge protectors in the first place, what their protection ratings are, if they have any connected equipment warranty, whether it applies to commercial use, whether the warranty has expired.
By the time you've done an assesment you'll likely have enough information to say to your boss "Ok roughly 30% are ancient, 20% are power splitters not surge protectors, 45% are out of warranty and another 30% aren't sized well or warranty doesn't cover all connected equipment.  I also found 2 of them that don't have regulatory markings (CSA(Canadian Standards Association) or UL(Underwriter's Lab) in Canada). There are 114 units in total, and we can do a bulk order of insert quality replacement for 22 currency each.  Would you like to replace them?"


I am replacing a ceiling fan in a bedroom and the wiring in the receptacle is confusing me I am replacing an old ceiling fan and combination switch in a bedroom in my house. I am trying to connect a new switch that controls both functions (fan and light) separately, as well as a dimming function for both. The previous fan (while unsightly), worked perfectly fine with the old combo switch. The top controlled the light, the bottom controlled the fan. Problem is, when I took the old fan off, and installed the new fan, there were only 3 wires coming out of the ceiling: load (black), neutral (white), and ground (bare). The new switch demanded two load wires (one for each function). I did not take a picture of the way it was wired beforehand (although i wish I had for the life of me). The point is, the ceiling fans were both wired the same way from the wires protruding from the ceiling itself.

In the electrical box, there are 3 sets of wires. From testing I have figured out that the two sets protruding from the bottom are both hot, and the single set of wires coming from the top are the load wires for the fan. The 3 neutral (white) wires were not all connected together originally, but the instructions for the new switch told me to do that. I cannot rewire the old switch to control both functions, a single switch just controls both. if i touch either of the two bottom hot wires to the load wire for the fan, both the light and fan come on and are steady.

I spoke with an electrician about it and he said I either needed a fourth wire or it had something to do with the break-away tab on the old combo switch. I am not trying to use the new switch anymore, I just want to understand how the thing was wired originally. THERE IS NO FOURTH WIRE. I have not added or removed any wires from the previous configuration with the exception that there may have been two wires spliced into one (from the remains of disconnecting the old switch there is about a 3-4 inch black wire by itself no longer connected or spliced to anything else), but like I said, I didn't take a picture of what it looked like beforehand. I am perplexed, please help.

Take your fan controller back and get a Lutron MA-LFQM instead

Most fan controllers on the market today are incompatible with your wiring configuration, where there is only one hot going up to the fan from the switch.  However, there is one that's suitable, and that's the Lutron MA-LFQM.  This uses a module in the fan canopy to decode a digital signal from the wall controller into separate fan and light outputs, and isn't too hard to find.  (It also can use matching Lutron accessory controls for 3-way or 4-way work.)

Once you get the correct control in, you'll want to pick one of the bottom hot/neutral pairs and stick with it, capping the other incoming hot and neutral off individually.  Once you do that, the control is wired according to the single-pole instructions, with the load neutral nutted to the remaining neutral, the line hot connected to the black screw on the control, and the load hot connected to a brass screw on the control.

At the ceiling fan, the canopy module is wired with its white neutral to the remaining neutrals (fan-neutral and incoming-neutral), its black to the incoming black (switched-hot), its red to the light kit wire off the fan (typically blue), and its yellow to the fan wire on the fan (typically black).  Connect all the bare/green grounds (fan ground, box ground, incoming ground) together, button up both boxes, turn the breaker on, follow the control activation procedure in the instructions, and enjoy your fan!


replacing double switch old cable colours I'm having trouble replacing an old dimmer switch with a normal on/off double switch.
One switch is for the ceiling light and the other is for two wall lights inside the living room, the cabling is 3 wires red, yellow, blue and an earth is connected to the back box.
I thought that I could just rewire into the new switch as it is in the old but the terminal connections are different on the new switch.
There is nothing written on the old connections to help.

Am I right in thinking, on the new switch as you look at the terminals, I put red wire from the wall into the furthest right terminal, the blue from wall into next furthest right terminal, the yellow into either of the remaining terminals and the red loop wire into both Comm terminals?.

Thanks in advance.

Pete

It looks like you need the red wire into one of the COM terminals, with the red loop from there to the other COM terminal. Then the yellow wire into one of the 1 way terminals and the blue wire into the other 1 way terminal.

Leave the red tape on the blue and yellow wires to show that they are switched live.


How can I order custom-tinted paint colors from a computer graphic? I'm trying to paint a mural on my child's nursery wall. I created exactly what I want in Photoshop and now want to get the right paint colors. I found paint colors that match close for some of the colors, but most of them don't have a color anywhere close. How can I order just the right color to match my mockup?

Color is more complicated than you think.   Right off the bat, those RGB # colors are made by adding light sources.   That does not map well to how paint works, which is selectively reflecting certain hues of a natural or artificial light source.**.  At the very least, you must get into the ink-based CMYK system, and photoshop can do that at least.

And even then, the lush, rich colors that work so well on RGB screens have a funny way of going "out of gamut" for the paint matching system.    It's not necessarily even being outside the scanner's range; I often find it's because they can't fit enough pigment into the paint can.

Mind you, paint is matched by scanning your sample which must be on a fixed medium like paper, metal, etc.  And paint is not CMYK, there are actually about a dozen pigments.

Your best option is to print this out on a color printer.  Wrestle out all the stuff you have to do to get the printer to give you exactly the colors you want.  Then create a new layer in the drawing and draw some squares or circles of your colors, about 3" across (75mm).  Hide all the other layers and print that layer.  Those will be the swatches the paint store will match with their digital scanner.

One other thing.. I see that two of your colors have goofy names like the paint companies like to use for swatches.  I'm guessing they're exactly that.   Expect considerable drift between the original swatch color and what comes out of your printer.  That is one of the things you will have to compensate for.

Don't wear yourself out trying to make a perfect match, the eye can see very fine differences in color when laid side by side, and trying to get it perfect is hopeless.   Ultimately what the printer prints out will be your canonical reference.

** did I mention light sources can differ and throw your colors off.  I once heard about a restoration where the color research was top shelf, but the Smithsonian required a color that was very particularly incorrect.  The issue was that the artifact was meant to be seen in daylight, but the lighting in the display area was not daylight color.  The intentional color error compensated for this.


Water from sink draining into dishwasher, no air gap I've had this house a little less than a year.  We've had issues with nasty water turning up in our dishwasher.  We assumed there was just something wrong with the dishwasher/filter, etc...

Upon inspection of the drain setup, the dishwasher is plumbed in directly to the top of the garbage disposal.  We discovered water from the sink was making it's way right into the dishwasher.

It seems, that there is supposed to be an "air gap" fitting installed, that I assume is what would prevent this from happening.  There appears to be no such animal in this install, and the port from the GD is plumbed directly to the dish washer.

Is an air gap setup all I need to resolve this?  I was debating on skipping the garbage disposal and plumbing directly to the drain pipes, as it would be a lower point in the system, and less likely to cause drain back to the dishwasher.

having just redone the dishwasher, sink, disposal and faucet/drains in my kitchen I can hopefully help you here.  You shouldn't need an airgap for one.  I actually removed mine when I redid them because I found it to be ugly and both the dishwasher and disposal manuals say one was not necessary.  What you can do is loop the dishwasher drain hose so it reaches above the connection to the disposal, this should keep stuff from running backwards into the dishwasher.  I am however concerned that this is happening in the first place and might suggest checking your disposal to see if it is clogged or having other drainage issues as the water level in the disposal shouldn't ever get high enough for water to backwash down the to the dishwasher.

Also running the dishwasher into the disposal is beneficial so any large food waste goes through the disposal instead of directly down your drain so I wouldn't change that part out.

I would also double check your manual for your dishwasher to see if it has special instructions for the connection without the airgap.


Drywall mudding tape wet under and over So, I am new to the drywalling thing and I went to tape/mud a few butt joints, but my process was to put mud on the joint, then put the tape over, but then instead of letting that first mud undercoat dry, I put another coat of mud over top and then let that all dry for 24 hours.  I am using the pre-mixed mud, btw.

Am I going to run into major / minor problems on the joints that I have done this way?  I didn't get an bubbles so far.  I just don't know if I need to rip out all the work that I have done on these.

You have listed the process correctly, and if you're new at this, then yes use pre-mixed joint compound (mud). But hopefully you used the regular setting-type joint compound on the first coat with the tape because it has an adhesive quality to bond the tape. Lightweight compound or "easy sand" does not and that's why it's easier to sand between coats, as it has no adhesive in it.

First, with a new 3.5 gallon of mud you'll want to add about an inch of water (it will sit on top of the mud) to the bucket. Use the appropriate mixer and mix thoroughly until smooth with no lumps. Put mud on the joint (wide enough to cover the tape width), place your tape over the top and lightly press it in with your fingers flat.

Using your 6" taping knife (putty knife) start at the very top near ceiling and run over the top of the tape embedding it flush against the surface, you will have quite a bit of mud squeeze out of the sides from underneath, and you can use some of it to go back over the top if you like, but keep it VERY minimal.

You are going to put a total of 3 coats of mud on. Don't make the mistake of trying to cover it all in the first coat. Remember, the objective is to not see the joint at the end, so don't use too much mud on your coats or you can end up with a big mess and a very ugly wall. Each coat you put on should be wider than the previous; knife sizes for the novice might be a 6" first, 10" second and a 12" for the last coat.

Remember, it's easy to add more later than sanding off too much.


How to remove some unknown sticky dirt from a window? This happens on my car, but it could happen in any home window. Therefore, I post here.

My car has some unknown sticky dirt on the window. I have no clue what it is. I can remove some of the dirt by my finger nail but not completely. I tried to use wet paper towel but does not remove any at all.

Note: I took two pictures. One is from the inside of the car. The other one is from outside of the car.

If it's on the window glass the simplest way to remove any foreign substance  without the risk of harsh chemicals , is with a single edged razor blade. If you install the blade in a retractable holder you can extend the reach of the blade. Hold the blade at a 25-40 degree angle.


Wireless Track Light Switch My goal
I want to run a single track light rail all across the entire ceiling (about 38ft) in my family room using one junction.

My problem
I also want the ability to turn off certain light segments, such as; only the light on the left or right side of the room when desired.

My question
Does anyone know of an attachment I can add along the rail to give me this ability ? or maybe someone could point me in the right direction to overcome the issue ? In my imagination, I picture some kind of wireless transmitter and receiver kit I could purchase on ebay or my local hardware store.The receiver would fit and look like a standard track connector does, except, this would, of course; be a two way switch receiver, allowing me to use transmitter(s) to control each receiver along the track rail, turning the lights on and off as I please, but not all of them.

Background details
I live in a condo in the USA with certain restrictions on how much work could be done with and without a licensed and insured electrician, because of those limits, I'm trying to avoid too much cutting, drilling and serious electrical work (aka, anything that requires a month or two of back and forth with management). I already have two 4ft tracks mounted on their own junctions, one in the hallway, the other on the right side of the family room.

I figured it'll be best I just extend the track from the hallway since it's closest, and would look more "natural" given the angles of the track.

I understand that power might be an issue when considering the kind and power requirements of the light bulbs, which currently; are standard halogen, but will likely be replaced with 2700k LEDs.

I am by no means an expert, but I don't think what you're looking for is something inherently compatible with the idea behind track lighting.

Track lighting is, fundamentally, a hot rail and a neutral rail separated by insulating materials.  When you install a "head", it contacts the rails and completes the circuit, so when you energize the circuit, you get current through the head, producing light.

The hypothetical wireless device you are describing would have to interrupt the rails somehow, turning off power downstream of them.  This would not divide your circuit into segments, however, it would just turn off everything past your device.  A multi-rail track would allow you to get around this, but would also solve the problem inherently by giving you multiple parallel track circuits.  Short of modifying an existing track to permit a third-party device to open and close the circuit, I'm not sure how this would be done, or if it has been done commercially.

An alternative is something that exists between the head and the light bulb (or integrated into the light bulb itself) that allows you to connect and disconnect the bulb from the circuit.  Smart-home-based lighting might be an easier (albeit potentially pricey) alternative, permitting you to group different lights together and issue them commands wirelessly.


Refrigerator fiberglass exposure The plastic piece that covers the door of the refrigerator broke off and is exposing the fiberglass underneath. Is this a health hazard???
How can this be fixed or should I just get a new one???

The fiberglass itself is not really a serious hazard like asbestos would be, unless it gets into your food or on containers. Not a good idea to have exposed fiberglass near your food however.  You should seal the hole with duct tape or something to keep the fiberglass from getting on your stuff.  If the missing piece of door is too big or you can't confine the fiberglass,  you should consider getting a new fridge ASAP.


How do I get the Nest Thermostat to warm up my house prior to arrival I have a Nest Thermostat and live in the UK. I have a radiator based heating system.

When I leave the house, some time later the Nest realises this and sets my house to Away. From this point onwards the thermostat does not obey any of my schedules. I have a schedule set to change the temperature at 5pm, but the nest ignores this because I don't arrive home until 5:30pm. At this point the house is cold.

I know that I can set the Nest to Home manually before I start my Journey, but is there any way to automatically have the Nest warm my home prior to arrival without disabling the Home/Away Assist or manually intervening?

You can use an application like Stringify on your phone to do this.

The application can be configured with a geofence around your home.  As the phone is detected entering the fenced zone, i.e. you are approaching home, it can switch your Nest to home mode.  Alternatively, set a fence around work and have it set Nest to home mode as you leave work.

There is a "Flow" to do this on their website.  You can play with this to adapt it to your needs.

Alternative such phone apps include IFTTT and Zapier.

(Of course, you could also replace Nest with one of the competitor smart thermostats that do all this GPS phone integration automatically anyway.)


Proper fasteners for Post/Beam/Joist intersection So I am building a deck, and I have a point where a post, the deck beam, and a joist all meet together as shown in the (crude) drawing attached. What would be the appropriate fasteners to use in this case? I can notch the post if needed.

To clarify, I plan on fastening the joist to the beam using a just hanger, but I'm not sure how to secure the beam to the post since the joist hanger would be in the way of most fasteners used to connect the beam to the post.

Thanks

I agree with @JimStewart , notching can be dangerous. Go to your local lumberyard and order a Simpson Strong-Tie column cap similar to this one:

https://www.strongtie.com/boltedcolumncaps_columncaps/eccl-ccc-cct_productgroup_wcc/p/eccl.ccc.cct

You can order them for 3-2x10 built-up beams on 6x6 posts with 2-2x8 beams joining the 3-2x10 beam. Also, you can order a corner connector.


What type of outlet has a button and small hole in the middle? I just had a home inspection done for a home we are planning to purchase. The home inspector saw an electrical outlet and didn't know what the part in the middle was for/what was special about it.

  The outlet at the front right corner of the family room is one I have
  not seen before, as shown in the following photo. I believe this
  outlet is designed for use with electrical equipment such as stereos
  and TVs. This is not a GFCI (Ground FaultCircuit Interrupting) outlet.

My first thought was home automation of some kind, but as I'm not in the house yet, not sure. Does anyone recognize it from the photo?

It looks a lot like a GoControl W015Z-1 Z-wave smart receptacle.  See here


Putty knife : when to use flexible blade and when to use stiff blade? I'm prepping my walls for painting. There are various sizes of putty knives and they come in flexible and stiff versions.

I know that I need to get a few sizes for different kind of work: 4", 6" and 10"

My question is when should I use a more flexible blade and when to use a more stiff blade?

I don't want to buy more putty knives than I have to.

Flexible "putty knives" find more application when performing operations such as doing drywall taping. Particularly when larger width blades are used such as 6", 8" or 10" sizes.

Smaller sized blades in the 1" to maybe 2.5" sized are more often used with the stiffer blade for operation such as spackling over small areas.

I have found it invaluable to keep a stiff blade putty knife of the following style available. These come with a relatively sharp edge which makes them very useful for scraping down high bumps and removing paint edges that may be left when something like a door stop or base show molding is removed. The flat end nose of this tool also works very well to open spackle and putty can covers.


How do I patch a large hole in plaster and lath? I am having some plumbing repaired in my 1913 house that will result in a large access hole (2' x 16") on the first floor.  The wall is currently plaster and lath and I'm trying to get a handle on the best way to repair the damage after the plaster and lath are removed.  From what I've read so far, plaster of Paris hardens too fast, making it difficult to work with so I'm leaning towards DAP® Plaster Wall Patch (Dry Mix).  I know I need to provide some backing material either metal or wooden lath but I'm not sure what else is needed.  Do I need to use any fiberglass mesh to put over the lathe or can I just start with the plaster.  Does anyone have any experience with the Plaster Wall Patch?  Is there something better that would work?  When applying plaster it sounds like I need at least two layers, once base and another finishing. Should I build up a first layer, let it dry and then another layer level with the existing surface or is there a technique that would be better. Do you think I can paint over the Plaster Wall Patch or is something else needed to prepare the surface for painting?

I can't wait to get started, I just need a little help in putting a plan together.

What I have done on my 1909 house (I am in the U.S.) in the same exact situation is clear a wider area of the lath and plaster and replace it with drywall.  To do that, you will need to add some padding over the studs because the lath&plaster is thicker than 1/2" -- what I did was pad it with 3/8" plywood, then drywall over plywood to achieve approximately an even joint between the new drywall and the old plaster.  Then you tape and sand the joints like you would with regular drywall, prime and paint it later.


Can a NEMA 6-15p plug into a NEMA 6-30r? I'm adding a 240V circuit and receptacle to my garage for wood working tools. I really only need a 15A circuit, but want to leave myself extra room for upgrades without running new wires later. I also thought it would be good to be ready for EV charging in the future, so more amps seems better.

I know a 6-20R will accept a 6-15P, but will a 6-30R?

Or should I look into a 14-30R for the EV compatibility and can I safely use some kind of adapter for my 6-15P tools?

No.  The backwards compatability of 20A sockets with 15A plugs is a "one-off" because of a very special exception in Code.

It does not apply to any other combination of ampacities at any level.

Generally you want the breaker to be a reasonable near match to the appliance, so if the appliance has an internal problem, the breaker will trip before the appliance's line cord starts a fire.   30A is just too large to protect a common appliance cord.


Can I use sprinkler cable for LED light strip extension? I have a bunch of leftover sprinkler cable, 18/5 solid copper.  The product description from the manufacturer says it can also be used for low voltage landscape lighting.

I need to run an extension from a power supply to LED light strips, 24V.
Most of the cables sold as RGBW extension are actually 22AWG stranded, but I do see some 18AWG stranded as well.

Is there any reason I couldn’t use the sprinkler cable?  Is there more to it than just the wire gauge?

Based on my understanding, stranded would allow some movement without breaking, but I’m not sure if that would be a concern.

I’ll be using this under a covered porch.

The biggest barrier will be physical.  18 AWG solid is much too stiff to solder directly onto LED strips.  "The tail will wag the dog" as it were, and the strain placed by the wire on the strip will tend to tear the solder pads off the strip.

I prefer to use #20 or even 22 stranded, however it's fine just to run that for a short 6-12" pigtail.  Then transition to the #18.

Remember there is a lot more current on the common wire than the other 4.


running low voltage wire from outside to inside I have low voltage wire under my deck.  I would like to drill a small hole (1/4 in or less) and feed the cable through the deck ledger board and the house's rim joist so that I can keep the transformer inside (the basement which is unfinished).  I would then fill the hole with silicon to keep water and bugs out.

Is this an absurd idea?  Is there a better way to do it?

I'd seal around the cable with duct seal, instead of silicone.

It stays pliable, and will not interact with the cable jacket.


Is there an advantage to using EMT over Plastic Flexible Conduit for Low Voltage runs? I am planning a structured wiring project. As AV wiring is always changing, I think it would be pertinent to run the low voltage wire in conduit. While discussing the idea with a friend (and hardware store salesmen), he told me that in his personal project he installed all the low voltage in standard EMT.

To me, this seems like a bit of overkill. Working with EMT in a crawlspace doesn't seem fun, and for pulling AV cable, it seems like the sharp bends might actually be harder to work with. Then again, "smurf tube" has ribbing inside that could also cause snags.

So, is there any advantage to using EMT instead of flexible conduit (Carlon, smurf tube, etc) for running low voltage structured wiring runs?

Electrical Metallic Tubing (Type EMT)
Pros

Protection from physical damage
Larger internal area (1/2" EMT = 0.622 in. ID)
Available in sizes over 2"
Easy to push through closed walls and bored holes.
Can be used as equipment grounding conductor

Cons

Requires fittings
Costs slightly more ($0.256/ft.)
More difficult to cut
More difficult to bend

Electrical Nonmetallic Tubing (Type ENT)
Pros

Easy to cut
Easy to bend
Long runs without fittings
Slightly cheaper ($0.24/ft.)

Cons

More difficult to pull through closed walls and bored holes
Only available in sizes 1/2" to 2"
Smaller internal area (1/2" ENT = 0.560 in. ID)
Releases toxic fumes when burned


Can I remove knee braces in garage? My 1955 california home has exposed knee braces, connecting the wall to the ceiling (photo shows garage).   Can these be removed, or replaced perhaps with a sistered joist?
Removing them would really open up possibilites for wall mounted cabinet storage.  The living room (with flat roof) is above the garage.  I can't find any mention of these braces in home building books, or the internet.

Those were almost certainly added for a reason since even in 1955 builders did not add extra components to a structure needlessly.
You will need a building permit and in order to get that you'll need plans.  For those plans you'll need an engineer's stamp since you are changing the structure in a major way.
My recommendation is to hire a licensed engineer who can examine your current structure and give you some options to accomplish what you want.


What is this extra wire in my light fixture box? House built in the early 70's. Yesterday, I had to unmount a few light fixtures in my hall. The three lights are all controlled (as a single group) by three different wall switches. The fixtures are newer vintage and the bases are very lightweight, so I left them hanging by their electrical leads connected to wire nuts. One of them was not well connected to the wire nuts, and the black leads pulled out. The white ones remained connected and supported the weight.
When I went to connect the fixture and remount it, I noticed an extra black wire coming from the box. I assumed it went with the other black fixture leads in the wire nut. I had the breaker switched off so I was surprised to get a zap from one of the mounting screws when trying to work with the wires. I also noticed that when the "extra" black wire was connected to the fixture, the light bulb flickered dimly. I moved the extra wire aside and connected the light fixture to the other black lead (the one still in the wire nut). Flipped the breaker on and all the lights works fine. After that, I noticed another wire nut and bundle of black wires up in the box (picture below). Can anyone tell me if the extra wire belongs there? I really appreciate any help anyone can provide.

I wanted to follow up with the correct answer for anyone who might find this thread in the future. We're in the middle of a kitchen/dining remodel, so I waited until the electricians were here for their rough-in and asked them about this hall fixture. One little detail I forgot to mention regarding the two wires from the pipe: The pipe is "filled" with some kind of black solid or foam. Turns out the two wires from the pipe should have been twisted together, but there was no wire nut for them, and they were not making a good connection. This made our DOORBELL not work. It has not worked for the 7 years we've lived at this house. Directly above the ceiling box (in the attic) was the transformer for the doorbell. I've looked for it a bit in the past so I could repair/replace it, but was never able to find it. Also, the electrician noted that the hall light circuit was sharing a neutral with a kitchen circuit. They said that was not ideal, and fixed it.
So in summary, in addition to its normal ceiling box duties, this box was doubling as a junction box for the doorbell transformer AND doubling as a junction box for a kitchen circuit. Mystery solved. Thank you everyone that contributed!