How can I prevent cracking in concrete (or earthen) walls from the freeze/thaw cycle? I'm interested in building a garden wall from either concrete or rammed earth, or a mixture of the two, but I'm concerned about Michigan winters and the havoc they wreak on everything solid.  It seems that all concrete steps I've ever seen around here are either quite new or in the process of disintegration.  I would consider anything that can't last 100 years to be a failure.

I've been unable to find any good information online about this, and even asking a friend who is a builder didn't turn up any good info.  (It seems that all residential buildings around here are built from wood, primarily.)  It's easy to find info about the frost line, but not about the actual longevity of the concrete (or rammed earth) structure.   How would I go about getting information on how to build/pour a wall so that it can last a century or more?

Also, could I expect rammed earth to be more or less resilient to cracking? (Would the clay involved make it a bit more flexible than straight concrete?)

Drainage, drainage, drainage.

All frost heaving issues disappear when there isn't water trapped.  Piers sunk to below the 100 year worst case frostline (piers of crushed gravel, holes lined with landscape fabric (to prevent silt intrusion.  Oversized (width wise) trench footings packed in crushed gravel (21AA in MI)
Active groundwater management via French drains, swales and contouring.

Once you take care of the foundation, whatever you build above will last.


Why is this airduct twitching and making a noise? I have an air duct in my basement. It leads from my furnace (I think?) to the outside world.

However, as you can see from this video, it is "twitching".
Every second or so it jerks slightly and makes a noise.

https://youtu.be/u-WKaxWBnw4

The portion of the duct shown in this video is the end of the duct that terminates outside the house. The rightmost portion of this duct leads to an opening on the exterior wall of the house.

When the furnace switches on, the twitching stops. What's going on?
Do I have an alien living in my air-duct?

Update: The end of the duct is not connected to the furnace. It is connected to a clothes dryer. But I still don't know why it is clicking like this.

The outside end of the duct has a flapper to prevent air (and critters) from coming into the house when the dryer is off. However, even with the dryer off, there can still be a small amount of airflow through the duct, e.g. from inside/outside air pressure differences. It seems that in your case there isn't enough airflow to keep the flapper open, so it swings closed, making a "click". Then, as the (small amount of) pressure builds up, the flapper pops open to let a burst of air through. The changing air pressure causes the flexible duct to throb. Repeat twice a second, and bingo: alien living in your vent duct.


Why did the junctions in a circuit for my electric range melt? I have a range and it runs 240 through the attic and then splits off in the attic to two 120 lines to the breaker box but whoever installed it before did not do it right because the range wasn't working and when I found the problem the wires had melted.

Does that mean it gets too hot or just wasn't capped  off right? They had electrical tape around it instead of wire nuts. Could that be why the melted on the connections?

I connected it this time the right way but I just want to make sure it's fine and it's not going melt again

Electric ranges usually use size #8 American Wire Gauge (AWG) conductors. What does the rating plate on the electric range say? The wires must be large enough to handle the rated Amperage, and the breakers must also be sized correctly. What size are the wires in the attic? If they are too small a gauge they could melt from too much heat in the line, caused by too much resistance, like trying to force Niagara Falls through a small garden hose ....


Kitchen installation plumbing and electricity preparation Hi when I install a new kitchen, should I first take care that the electric wires that are behind the base cabinets will be hidden inside the walls? Is it ok if they will be inside a plastic "tunnel" outside the wall?
The plastic tunnel outside the wall is shallow enough so it won't interfere with the cabinets (no need to cut the cabinets back walls)

Thanks.

In the US the wiring just needs to be protected, normally by 1/2 inch plywood or Sheetrock. With that said the wiring is also required to be 1-1/4” back . If the wires are covered with conduit that would also work. ( not sure what you mean by tunnel).

Added:
With a closer look at the outlet you are not in the us so this may be ok your location would be helpful.


Washing machine cord- only green wire- other wires do not have colors? How can I identify which is black and which is white?

First, are you using a heavy enough line cord? Washing machines are fairly high draw appliances owing to the motor (and water heat if equipped) and should have at the very least a 14AWG if not 12AWG cord -- or whatever the previous cord was if you are positive it was the factory cord. In my experience, those cords come with 3-color wires, and usually light 16AWG cords don't color.  Just indulge me and check to be sure.

Granted, I have seen thick extension and appliance cords that are flat.  However I am used to the conductors having colored insulation .

If you have a flat cable such as that, with no markings, look for either ribs on the edge of one side, or the cable lettering  or a stripe on one side.   Follow it down to the plug (the tall pin is the neutral) but typically the neutral is the ribbed, striped or lettered side.   Ground is in the middle.


Do joists need to be attached to the beam they're resting on? Installed a 2 x12 x10 header opening that supports the above floor joists. Wanted to know if the header needs to be toenailed to each joist resting on it?

The Code (See ICC Table 2304.9.1) requires joists toenailed into beams by:

3 - 8d common nails, or
3 - 10d box nails, or
3 - 3” x 0.131” nails, or
3 - 14 ga. Staples with 7/16” crown.


How should I fur out cement board in shower stall to match the original mortar position? I have a 1950's house where, in wet areas like shower stalls, the original mortar behind the tiles is 1 1/2'to 2' thick. I had to remove one side of a stall and need to replace it (it mighty be a little leaky otherwise :)).

Question is, to shim out the wall so the tile correctly meets in the corners and on the pan, should I just use a full sheet of 1/2'+ plywood behind the cement board, directly onto the studs, or just strips of plywood on the studs, or some other solution?

You should build out the framing with... more framing. Either sister studs at the correct projection depth, or cut furring strips. Fitting full sheets as filler is a waste of time and materials.


Medium term repair for cracked shower pan The following crack appeared in our shower pan today when I stepped there:

I need a fix that will last 12-18 months until we re-model the bathroom, and I don't really care how it looks. This location is about half way between the drain and the wall. The pan is sitting on the concrete house foundation (no basement). Several other locations feel like they also have too much give to them.
Would a shower pan inlay be enough to fix that for a few months? Does that crack require a fiberglass repair kit to support and spread out the load? Both?
Looking for suggestions. Due to COVID19 and a high risk individual I need something I can do now, myself, without calling someone in.

Materials Needed

A sheet of something to act as a patch (FRP, acrylic, etc.)
Good two-part epoxy
Sandpaper (150-220 grit, maybe)

Procedure

Cut a patch to the desired size. It should overlap the crack a fair bit to act as a gusset.
Trace the patch on the tub with a pencil. Optionally mask outside the patch area to protect that surface.
Scuff the patch area with the sandpaper to clean it and rough it up. Also scuff the patch sheet if it's not already rough.
Bond the patch to the tub with the epoxy. Finger out the epoxy that squeezes out to create a short taper and seal the edge.
Ease the edges of the patch with sandpaper to prevent injury.

You could also do an old airplane mechanic's trick to stop the crack from growing first: Drill a 1/8" or 3/16" hole at the ends of the crack. This distributes force over a wider area.


Water Tank in loft no longer fills up When changing a washer on the kitchen tap we turned off the mains water supply from under the sink. However, when turning it back on we no longer have hot water in any taps and also no cold water in the shower or bath. Cold water in all sinks works fine.

Our system is gravity fed and it seems the tank in the loft is filling very slowely (only a drip).

Does anyone have any advice on what could be causing it and how to solve this?

It seems your fill valve is stuck in the off position.

I don't have that particular type of valve but I'd try wiggling the moving parts (the blue parts probably) to see if that frees things up.

The instructions show how to check the valve and replace the seals.

I'd turn main stopcock off, pull that valve cover off, clean all moving parts up and replace them.

If still not working , you may have to turn off the water and replace the seals with new parts or replace the whole valve with a new unit.


What style of lock for swinging garage doors that shift with the weather? This is a rim lock on a swinging "carriage style" garage door from 1925.  The lock is terrible, very hard to adjust, and to keep adjusted as seasonal variations occur in the spacing.  The lock is keyed on the outside.

What type of lock would be better?

The lock is a standard household door lock, not really designed for doors that slop around as much as garage or barn doors do. You'd have to do a bit of jury-rigging, since they are virtually all designed for modern-style roll-up garage doors, but a garage door style lock will have considerably more slop and adjustability. You'd probably have to mount either an actual section of garage-door track, or simply something else with a slot to accept the tongue/bolt to use most "garage-door" hardware.

Here is one I found looking for "gate" locks, described as a "long throw rimlock" (key cylinder on the other side, this is the inside view) that would not appear to require jury-rigging. Note that there is considerable room for the parts to move up and down or side to side while still locking.


Use cat5e 2-pair RJ11 cabes for network connection I've thought cat5(e) means always RJ45 lan cable.
But my house has "cat5e 2-pair rj11 green (data) cables" from the living room to each room. My internet router is in my living room in the 1st floor (XFinity).
What I want to do is to connect the Internet line from my router through the green cat5e rj11 cable to two upstairs rooms.
My problem is how to connect from my router(RJ45) to the port RJ11 on the wall of living room and from the port RJ11 in the room to my other Internet devices (RJ45).

Is there any easy adaptor available?

The best solution you can arrange for 2-pair cables will be limited to 100 Mbits/second (or 10 times slower than the current most common standard wired ethernet speed.)

Rather than looking for an adapter (dubious at best - any you find will likely be intended for telephone signals rather than data), I'd suggest just removing the RJ-11 jacks, and replacing them with Cat5e RJ-45 jacks.

You'll connect your two pairs to the "Orange & White/orange and Green & White/green" marked terminals (1,2,3,6) and ignore the blue/brown marked terminals (4,5,7,8)

Edit: Since the cables have been discovered to be normal 4 pair cables after all, connect all 4 pairs, and Gigabit (1000 Mbits/sec) speeds should be possible across them.


How to introduce more run into roof? I have a 16'x20' deck roof that is attached to my garage on one side and (3) 4"x4" posts on the other side.

The rise over the 16 feet is about 2 inches which is not enough for the water to get off the roof. It's pooling in certain spots. Probably because the 16 foot run is unsupported in the middle and it sags.

A friend is recommending that I jack up the roof, saw off 4 inches off the bottom of the posts to get the water to run off.

My concern is that this would rip the roof off the garage wall. Is this a practical way of introducing more pitch? Or is it better to just rip down the current structure and redo it with the appropriate pitch?

You've got a flat roof that isn't "true" (straight - you don't want it level).  Your pitch isn't the problem so much as the dips allowing water to pool.

Ideally the best fix here is:

Remove the existing surface material (tar and rubber)
Remove the existing sheeting
Shore up the roof structure with extra beams, and shim it as
needed to make it true and consistent from high point to low point.
Install a double layer of sheeting with perfectly flat plywood
Resurface the roof with ice shield, tar and rubber


Fixing Sliding Door Weather Stripping I installed a sliding glass door recently and recently noticed this.

There seems to be a hole in the bottom small portion of the door between the sliding door and the static portion of the door. This leads right into the house and creates a huge space for air and other things to get in. What would be the best solution to fix this? I have called the manufacturer but it will take a while for them to get back.

Normally on the rear of the sliding portion of the door is a flap that engages at the last moment as the door closes.  That may cover your gap.  If you don't have one, you can add it (search for "sliding door draft stopper").

But looks like you could cut a block of wood to fit the gap (or, fancy, 3D print it).  The strip insulation is available at most hardware stores.

But really, this looks like a manufacturing defect, not even an install defect.


Which cable to use for Antenna? I have purchased an outdoor antenna. I need to run a line between the antenna and the TV. To save time, i'd like to use the existing (unused) cable line by attaching the antenna to one of the cables in the image. Can someone with experience please advise which of these cables go to where and which one I can safely connect my antenna to that will track to my TV.
We currently only have Centurylink via a phone line (the small brownish cable attached to the PVC pipe on the left of the image).

It looks like you have a common RF 4 way cable splitter, with cable coming into through the green wire and 4 TVs (the other cables). You should look at the splitter closely (is this RF or digital; one in and four out?), and determine if I traced the line correctly.

If this looks like an RF 4 way splitter, and you want to add an antenna (no more "cable TV") you just need to remove the green cable from the splitter and plug in the antenna.

However, if you have a digital (only) splitter, it will not allow the antenna signal to pass through. If you can't be sure what kind of splitter you have, then just try it... nothing will explode if I'm wrong.

If you only have two wires from the antenna, then you need a converter like this:


Removing cartridge from tap problem I have a dripping mixer tap, and trying to replace the cartridge.

I'm following some google/youtube videos and they say you have to remove a nut then the cartridge will come out.

After removing the tap head and casing there is no nut to remove

It is a brass circular piece with 2 notches, not sure how to remove this, or should it be removed?

Like Mike said, you need a special wrench to get that "nut" off your faucet. You will need something like this:

You can get them pretty cheap at home stores or plumbing supply stores.  Trace out the nut on paper and bring it with you to the store so you can get a match.

It looks like someone already tried to remove it by tapping a screwdriver placed in one of the slots. This can work sometimes if the nut is not too tight but you always have to be careful not to damage the threads because some sleeves screw down on them. Good luck.


Acceptable "3-way" switch wiring solution? I would like to use a raspberry PI to turn lights on remotely from a raspberry PI.

Wiring Diagram http://imstarboard.com/grachen.png

In this diagram, I am proposing 2 paths for completing the AC circuit and therefore turning the lights on: 1) the lightswitch, and 2) the relay controlled by the raspberry pi (orange wiring).

I know that this isn't a true 3-way switch, meaning that if you turn the lights on using one method you can't turn them off using the other method, but it does allow me to turn them on using either method when the lights are off.

Are there any concern with doing this?

I'm not sure what type of relay you're using, but most relays have at least five terminals. two coil terminals, used to power the coil. One common (C) terminal, where the circuit to be controlled will connect. One normally closed (NC) terminal; which is as it sounds, the side of the switch that is closed when no power is supplied to the coil. And one normally open (NO) terminal, the side of the switch that is open when no power is supplied to the coil.

When power is supplied to the coil, the relay is toggled. The NC contact will now be open, and the NO contact will be closed. This is fairly similar to how 3-way switches work, except that with a 3-way you are the coil (sort of) and determine which way the switch is.

Because of this, you could wire up a circuit like this...

However, this setup isn't going to be very smart, since the Raspberry pi is simply going to be switching the current state of the load. So whether the lights go on or off, will depend on the state of the 3-way.

To make this system smarter, you can add in a current transformer (CT), and connect the leads from the CT back to the pi.

With this setup, the pi can use the output of the CT to determine the state of the lights. So the pi could either toggle the relay to turn the lights on/off, or not toggle the relay to leave the lights on/off. In any event, the 3-way switch would still work properly.

I don't know much about the Raspberry pi, so I'm not sure it has the ability to work in this way. I also don't know exactly what equipment you're using. I'm simply suggesting a possible solution.


How do I find out if Air Admittance Valves (AAVs) are allowed in my municipality? I saw Richard Trethewey of Ask This Old House install an AAV as part of a kitchen island sink system. I thought I might be able to use one for the water line for my washing machine. I'd like to relocate the machine but I don't want to have to open a lot of wall area for the air vent. The AAV seems like an good approach but apparently its not code in a lot of places.

I live in the San Francisco Bay area of northern California. Apparently California has the "California Building Code (CBC)...based on the... International Building Code (IBC)" but I think one has to be a professional plumber to read those. How can I find out if I'm allowed to install an AAV?

Your municipality's Building Department will be really helpful for this sort of thing.  At least in the USA, some cities are small enough that they do not have their own building department but may use the counties instead.  Either way, they will know what codes apply for your property and can get you the correct answer.

Ask to speak to one of the residential building inspectors. Simply calling on the phone is probably enough, though they may have certain rules about when an AAV can and cannot be used and talking to them in person may make it easier for you to explain your situation (a picture can be a thousand words).

They will want you to get a permit.  This is not a bad idea and in my City it is pretty cheap if you are the homeowner and doing the work yourself.  If you really do not want to get a permit you can still ask them about it since you are simply in the planning stages now and tell them you will pull the permit once you actually start working on your project.


Some odd wiring in my breaker box. Is this up to code? I'm poking around in my breaker box and I notice a white wire screwed into the ground bus. Tracing it back, both bare and white are on the ground bus and the black is screwed into a breaker. Is this up to code?

This circuit is connected to an RV plug.

Secondly, I also notice a bare wire screwed into the neutral bus. As far as I can tell this is 14-3 Romex with bare & white to the neutral bus and black & red to different breakers. Is this up to code?

Both of these circuits are additions by the previous owner.

Normally neutral and ground are bonded at your main panel, but must not be bonded at any subpanels downstream.  So mixing neutrals and grounds on the same bar is OK in the main panel but not at subpanels.

The 14/3 with black and red on two breakers and white on the neutral bar - that's a multiwire branch circuit with a shared neutral.  When installed properly this is code compliant.  However take particular care when working on and around this circuit, if the neutral is disconnected it can result in an overvoltage on the affected circuits.


Changing input to water heater If I'm changing the input (and output) hoses in my gas water heater, do I need to drain the tank first?  Or can I just shut off the water, shut off the gas to water heater and disconnect both hoses?  I'm somewhat worried the system is under pressure and water will come shooting out uncontrollably...

All water on the planet is under pressure of its own weight by gravity.

If there are shut off handles for both the input and output on the house-side of the hoses, then shut off the input and the shutoff where water enters the house.  Then turn on hot water in a sink.  That will relieve any air pressure in the system.

If there is only a shutoff for the hose going TO the water heater, then you won't be able to stop all the water in the hot water pipes above you from running down and making a mess if you don't drain them, THROUGH the water heater.

If it were me, I'd shut off the gas and drain the water.  It's not that hard.  It gives you a chance to clean the tank out.  If you end up having to move it it will be possible empty.


Continued Excessive dust in home air I'm having minor breathing issues and suspect the home air quality, which seems to be excessively full of particles/dust. The air quality is visually noticeable daily, regardless of basic cleaning/outside air steps take the day before.

Background: I bought the home last fall, it was a DIY 1700sq ft remodel built in CO in 1980 and the home inspection found nothing substantively wrong. It has central air - electric single unit AC/Heat Pump.

Just before the winter I had the attic insulated and sealed with cellulose. A short while later I started noticing the breathing issues and dust in the air. There is no HVAC in the attic, and it started getting cold around the installation time, so perhaps it's just a misleading coincidence.

I have replaced the HVAC filter several times and use one of the higher quality HEPA filters (rated for smoke particles). I had a company come in and clean the ducts. I have vacuumed, dusted, and had all the windows open on days 65F+ to circulate new air in, without engaging the HVAC system more than a couple of times. The picture is less than 24 hours after such a complete clean and open window day and shows the density of particles in the morning sun.

Couple of edits from comments - I have basic home air filters in the basement and in the master bedroom and I leave a humidifier on in the kitchen area constantly (definitely a hard water area though). House is still low though... about 34% humidity in the basement. No one smokes in the home, and I moved about three miles... my last place I never recall seeing the air quality so low (gas central air in a studio)!

What can I do to identify and fix the excessive dust/air quality? Are there tools, a likely suspect, or a professional service that I need to source?

The biggest culprit is likely environmental: your dry Colorado mountain air and low humidity. We have the same problem south of you in New Mexico. Raising your interior humidity will help a lot. There are several approaches, ranging from using a humidifier constantly (cheap up front, expensive to run over time) to sealing your house up airtight and using an ERV system to bring in fresh air and exhaust house air (expensive up front, cheap to run over time).

Electrostatic filters and air purifiers will help too, and falls into the category of "expensive to run over time." High maintenance, too.

Another possibility is that the contractor didn't do a very good job with the attic floor air sealing and the dust from the cellulose (it is basically dust, after all) is making it into the house. Likely entrance methods:

Poorly-air-sealed can lights and ceiling electrical/light boxes
Poorly-air-sealed pull-down attic hatches
Poorly-sealed ductwork and registers in the attic, if any
Poorly-air-sealed bath fans and their ductwork
Gaps around chimneys and flues that penetrate the ceiling and roof
Giant stupid egregious holes that should not be there (you might be surprised)


How do I use existing cat5e wiring to distribute internet in my house? Description

My current setup is I have a single router/modem combo in my living room connected through DSL. Internet is distributed through the house via WiFi.

The upstairs rooms have all been run with Cat5e cable from the cable box and terminated with 6pin connectors. Important to note that even though all the rooms have been run with Cat5e cables, I can only plug the modem/router into one of them to get internet. So something is already wrong.

Ive recently finished my basement and had the contractors run Cat5e cables from the new rooms to the current box in my utility room.

I would like to have each room to have 8 pin (RJ45?) connectors with internet. I would also like to have the router and modem in the utility room (unless convinced otherwise). The utility room is pretty centrally located in my house.

I am also hoping to be able to identify and name some of the things in the cable box to help me better understand what is happening.

Questions:

In the first picture, what is the white board(labelled A) called?
How do I trace cables?
Why do I have 7 cables going into the board if I only have 3 outlets upstairs?
Is there a reason other than material availability for why some of the cables are yellow and some are blue?
Can I just swap out the upstairs 6pin connectors with 8pin RJ45 connectors?
How do I hook everything up and distribute internet throughout the house?

1,2, and 3 are the cables run from the basement. 4 was existing and just tucked behind the cable box.

Thank you. Feel free to point me towards any helpful resources as well.

Ho Le Crap! most of the pics you are showing involved phone service, not in house Ethernet / LAN. Your 6 pin connectors are for RJ16 jacks/plugs (3 line phone service).  RJ45 requires 8 conductors and an 8 pin jack/plug. cat5e or cat6 can be terminated on a patch panel, but not a punch down block ("A" in your pics).

It can be pretty simple:  Connect all the cat5e cables to a patch panel and then choose which ones go to a router/switch.  Alternatively, you could simply  not use a patch panel and just install plugs on the ends of the cat5e cables and plug them into a router or switch.

Bottom line:  You need to separate your Internet (coming over POTS - Plain Old Telephone Service) from your Ethernet connections.


ABS offset toilet flange dilemma. Suggestions to make my 11" rough-in into a 12" rough-in. USA Recently I started a thread to get advice on how to move a flange for a toilet so that I can wind up with a 12" rough-in when I'm done. It's problematic since I can't really work with the ABS under the floor. It wasn't done properly and has the drain for the tub, the sink and the toilet all going into the same toilet drain. See photos below. To do it correctly would cost around $5K, according to a quote we got from a plumber recently.

To summarize from my previous thread I removed three layers of linoleum, two layers of fir planking and am now down to the bare joists. I cut away the flared portion of the flange and as you can see the hubs for both the ABS align with the hub of the offset flange. Meaning, they are both four inches in diameter. Also, now that so many layers of flooring has been removed I am wondering if I can shave off a bit of the hub from both the ABS drain pipe in the floor along with removing part of the hub from the offset flange to help bring it down lower. The hubs on both measure 1.5" in length. If I can remove an inch off of each hub to eliminate two inches and be left with just one inch to work with this would help a lot.

I thought I could buy some ABS piping that could fit inside both the flange hub and ABS hub in the floor. It would basically be a one inch ring connecting both hubs from the inside.

Once I put my 3/4" plywood over the joists, cement sheet rock and possibly a leveling compound followed by 1" hexagon porcelain tile I am confident that I can get the metal ring of the offset flange to sit flush against the new final height of the floor.

But I am wondering if my idea is bad one or if anyone can suggest better ideas. I really want to use the offset flange to not only give me about an extra inch from the back wall but also want to place it diagonally to allow an extra inch away from the side wall. It's a bit too close to the side wall. This is a 2" offset flange, by the way.

I've also included a very bad drawing to help provide a visual as far as getting my idea across without any confusion.

A summary with pics:

Here is a pic of the old flange in place:

After sawing off the flared portion of the flange I am left with this:

I am going to attempt to carefully grind away the rest of the flange that is bonded on the inside of the ABS in the floor to be able to re-bond the new ABS "ring" I will cut to size to connect the new offset flange in place.

Another angle where you can see all the the other ABS drain lines that connect to the toilet drain line:

^ This is why I simply can't just extend the horizontal portion of the ABS under the floor to give me a 12" rough-in. I' have to redo all the drain pipes that connect to one drain. It would be a real pain.

Setting my new offset 4x3 flange on top of the ABS hub in the floor. They are the same diameter:

My (very bad) drawing summarizing what I am trying to do:

After sawing away the old flared portion of the flange I can see that only about a half inch of ABS from the old flange made a permanent bond with the ABS drain pipe in the floor. So this is why I am wondering if I can make the hubs a half inch in length and create a "ring" with ABS to fit inside each one to make this work.

Hope to hear back and get some input, thanks!

You can get a flange that fits inside a 4" pipe, or if you remove inside get one that sits inside a 4" hub.


Attic vent with exposed rafter tails I just purchased a 1927 bungalow style house.  The roof has no trusses and has exposed rafter tails with 1x6's placed between as a block.  There are no lower vents and wondered how to proceed to correct this.  I thought of drilling holes for round vents but wanted to confirm this is the correct approach.

In theory that is a legitimate option. The usual problem though is there is insulation behind the blocking that would obstruct any air flow. Retrofitting the necessary baffles to allow air to get past gets to be a lot of work and makes the cold spots at the eave even colder.

It sounds like you may have adequate ventilation except for the lack of benefit from the stack effect by having high and low vents. This of course is a good thing to strive for, but I'm questioning if it's really worth it if the existing vents are ample. Even if not, adding additional ventilation where it's easier may be a reasonable compromise to the ideal high/low configuration.


Second Coat of Latex Stain I stained my deck with Behr semi-transparent waterproofing wood stain.

It is NOT an oil based product.  It is more of a paint.

For the most part it worked well and the water is beading on the deck.

There are a few places where the stain is lighter colored and the water is not beading.  There are also places in the deck boards that are cracked and would like to coat the cracks a bit more.

What is a good technique for applying a second coat to the light spots?

For instance, do I need to sand first?

I painted my deck last year with Behr stain, water based, but looked like paint because I wanted color. Later I noticed that some of the boards seemed like they didn't get as much coverage. So the next day I simply added a second coat on the spots and the boards where I felt it was too thin. It still looks great over a year later and I never had to deal with any sticky spots. I would just add a second coat after it is thoroughly dried on the spots you feel need a bit more.


How should location on roof be flashed or sealed? During hurricane Florence we had significant water get into our house from the roof.  There is a location in our roof (see pic) where from inside in the attic I am able to stick a toothbrush through and see nearly all of it from outside the house.  What would be the appropriate way to flash this or seal it to prevent water from coming into the attic from this location?

There are a few other ways to do the detail, just variations on the same theme.


Follow-up to 12/18/20 Question about Feeding 2-Gang Receptacle Boxes with MC 12/4 Good day, folks.  I have a follow-up question related to my other post (yesterday) regarding MC 12/4 with a blue wire:  <https://diy.stackexchange.com/questions/211590/new-circuit-help-please-feeding-2-gang receptacle-boxes-with-mc-12-4>

... after having read something in an another 15-month-old thread here in the forum: Should I use pigtails for pass-through split outlet connections?
... given it seems that it could be applicable to my situation.  In my case, each receptacle box will receive power from two independent circuits.  I have already installed two independent 1-pole Eaton CH type 120V-20A breakers (matched to my box), which is one breaker for each circuit.  So after reading this thread below, do I need to use a 2-pole breaker instead?  Or am I good with the two independent breakers?  My preference is to keep them as individual circuits so the breakers don’t risk “not” tripping under an overcurrent situation on just one leg of the 2-pole breaker.  I’d really appreciate your explaining where this is in the code and how to interpret what I have vs. what Harper wrote about if they’re indeed different.

**Harper - Reinstate Monica wrote:**
> **Breakers**
This is not a multi-wire branch circuit. This is two independent circuits on a single "yoke". Because of this, the two independent circuits must be handle-tied.
A handle-tie must come from the manufacturer of your breakers; you can't use a nail. While you're there, make sure your breakers are correct for your panel because there's no point buying a handle-tie for an alien breaker. If they are the same manufactuerer (Bryant=Cutler Hammer=Eaton), you are all set. Otherwise, they are probably wrong but ask.
Handle-ties are annoyingly difficult to find, and overpriced for being a bit of plastic.  As such, some of us recommend using a 2-pole breaker instead - they are very easy to find for modernish panels, and they cost the same as 2 singles without having to pay for a handle-tie also.
The only difference is common trip (both shut off if one is overloaded): a 2-pole breaker guarantees this, a handle-tie does not guarantee it. For this purpose, we only need tied handles to assure common maintenance shutoff.
Is this applicable to me? Or can I leave two independent breakers being sure to clearly label the receptacle boxes?
Again, many thanks for your time and support!   Happy Holidays!
Rich

Since each circuit has its own yoke of receptacles, you're fine
The rule that Harper's referring to is in NEC 210.7:

210.7 Multiple Branch Circuits. Where two or more branch
circuits supply devices or equipment on the same yoke or
mounting strap, a means to simultaneously disconnect the
ungrounded supply conductors shall be provided at the point
at which the branch circuits originate.

Since you are giving each circuit its own duplex receptacle, and thus its own yoke, though, this rule does not apply to your situation, so you can leave the two breakers un-handle-tied.  (Note also that since you're dealing with 120V AC, 406.5(J) does not apply to you, either -- that rule's generally only a concern when dealing with 277/480V systems found in industrial work)


Where to attach the c-wire inside Goodman GMP100-4 Furnace As a relatively new home-owner, I recently came across the whole C-wire issue for the first time, having had to recently replace an old thermostat, and there is no C-wire connected inside the furnace.

The furnace we have is the Goodman GMP100-4 and is 25 years old, but the last homeowners replaced the circuit board in 2015. There are two unused (black and blue) wires in the 18/6 wire that goes from the thermostat to the furnace, and I wish to use one as a C-wire.

Please could you help me out with where this would go in the furnace? The circuit board is visible in the attached pictures along with the whole set up. I'm fairly handy in general but new to this particular situation/electronics.

I really appreciate any time you can give. Thanks!

That black box in the top left is the 24vac transformer that powers the circuits of the furnace.  The blue wire that appears to have a brown ground wire piggy-backing onto it is what the C wire needs to connect to.  Sometimes there is a connector exposed on the circuit board for a C-wire connection, but not always.

If there's no other place to connect the C-wire, under that ground wire screw would be once place to connect it.

Use the blue wire in your thermostat wiring for the C-wire - that's the common color for it.  Don't use the black.

On second look at the pictures...  The leftmost wire nut in the bottom of the pictures has a thick bluish wire that goes up to a ground screw and a small red wire that goes somewhere else.  You could tie the C-wire in that connection rather than trying to put it under a ground screw yourself.


Should I apply rigid insulation between existing basement framing? I'm replacing wood paneling in my basement with drywall.  There are 1x furring strips attached to the cinder block and covered with tar paper, and the wood paneling was attached to those strips.

Before I put up the drywall, would it make sense to put some thin styro between furring strips and cover it with tar paper, then drywall?  Or, would this create a moisture problem and mold growth in the walls?

Here's my preferred basement wall construction method:

Should I use steel or wood studs for basement exterior walls?

You live in NY, so I'm guessing your winters aren't the warmest. I'd suggest pulling out the furring strips so you can put a decent amount of insulation. It's recommended to use a continuous insulation model to a value of r-10:

http://www.buildingscience.com/documents/guides-and-manuals/irc-faqs/irc-faq-basement-insulation

To get to r-10 will take a few inches (it will vary based on the type of insulation you are using...extruded vs. expanded polystyrene, for example.)

Then put up new studs (I'd suggest metal) and then your wall board (I'd suggest a paperless product such as DensArmor).

All that said, if you don't want to go to that extent, sticking 1" foam insulation in the existing cavities will help a bit, so you might as well do it. I'd forgo the tarpaper, though.


Grinder guard question - can I use a mix sizes? Getting ready to cut off a metal pole that is set in concrete and figure the best way to get a flush cut is with a grinder. Only have a 6" guard for my cutoff blade, but have brand new 4 1/2" blades suitable for metal...hoping not to let them go to waste.
Hoping this will work OK..

Some angle grinders, such as the DeWalt model that I have, come with three different sizes of guards. I have not measured them but I believe they support 4", 5" and 6" grinding wheels.
The down side I see using a bigger guard than the size of the wheel is that it will be like working with a wheel that is nearly worn out compared to the larger size. Depending upon the specific design of the grinder and its guard mount scheme it is possible that the larger size guard can limit the amount of freedom that you have in getting the grinding wheel up to the work piece.
Another thing to consider even though it is a little off topic for this question is the advantage of a larger diameter wheel. For a given rotational speed of the grinder (i.e. RPM) the larger wheel will have a much higher circumferential velocity of the cutting edge as it engages with the work piece. This can have a dramatic effect on how quickly the grinder can remove material.


What are these grommets (= snap holes / snap-rings?) on tool cases for Wanted to buy a set of pliers and noticed that a lot of cases are equipped with holes on:

What is the use of those holes? Do they have a name?

Those are grommets, not snap-rings or snap holes.  Grommets provide a permanent ring providing an anti-tear resistance.
They are used to hang the tool roll from nails/hooks on a wall, for easy access to the tools in the roll.  This would need fewer hooks than hanging each tool separately.
This is pretty rare in my experience, most workshops would hang tools on pegboard, or lay out the tool set in a drawer, or store the whole lot in a toolbox.  I have one roll of ring spanners like this that lives rolled up in my car.


Is there any advantage to using larger stones in a free-standing dry stack wall? I'm building a free-standing dry stack wall using ashlar scrap from a quarry (pieces of uniform thickness with completely flat top and bottom faces, but irregular sides):

Within each course of the wall, I will use stones of the same thickness. The final structure will be approximately 4 feet tall (6-8 courses total).

The stone is available in many shapes and sizes from small fragments of < 40 lb, up to the largest blocks that we can move without specialized equipment, ~300 lb. We have already used these largest pieces for our foundation and first course, but is there any advantage to using large pieces in the upper courses as well?

Disadvantages:

Larger stones are more difficult and take longer to move and place
Larger stones are more difficult to fit tightly with other pieces (without further shaping)
Although the courses are of approximately uniform height, there are some slight variations that can cause stones in the next course to wobble and rock. Larger stones create more leverage and thus can wobble more easily, requiring careful shimming. Smaller pieces can more easily be placed to avoid wobble.

Advantages:

Frictional force is proportional to mass. Larger stones are more resistant to lateral shifting.
Showing off that I can move such heavy stones
???

The frictional advantage gained by using larger stones makes sense in a retaining wall, where there is the lateral pressure of the retained soil, but is there any reason to use larger stones in a free-standing wall? Other than unplanned loads like a tornado or a bus, I don't expect significant lateral loads on this wall.

There are two reasons for using various size stones in the wall: 1) strength, and 2) appearance.

1) The strength of a dry-set stone wall is largely determined by the placement of the rocks within the wall.  Stone walls are stronger when the stones (rocks) “fit together” and are of various sizes. If all the stones are the same size, they tend to “roll” and act like marbles.

If you’ve ever walked on a gravel road where the rocks are all about the same size, you’ll notice that it’s like walking on marbles.

Yes, the larger rocks are more difficult to “slide” and excellent in a retaining wall, but they work well to stabilize a non-retaining wall too. If all the larger rocks are placed at the bottom with smaller rocks on top, the top rocks will tend to be unstable. Various size rocks will help “bind” everything together, but they need to have the correct gradation.

We call using various size rocks “gradation”. This gradation is very important in gravel roads, concrete mixes, etc. so that the rocks bind together.

2) If you’ve ever seen a really good mason work on a wall, you’ll notice that he’s half artist and half laborer. I don’t know how they do it, but when they’re done you’ll notice the rocks are all blended together and none of the rocks “stand-out”. That is to say, they all seem to blend together...not all the large ones are on the bottom, etc.

I think the key to a good wall is taking the time to “fit” all the rocks together. Sometimes that means chipping the rocks so there are various sizes and various shapes that fit into those small little spaces.


Kitchen receptacle sparked and now has no power My Aunt plugged in a device and the receptacle sparked. Now she has no power. The breaker did not trip and the GFI will not reset.

Without any kind of electrical knowledge or experience, a tripped breaker or GFI are the two things to check.

From my perspective calling an electrician is the safest bet at this point. Especially considering the receptacle sparked. She needs to get this checked out.


Installing dual fluorescent tube ballast electrical I had removed a couple years ago a double fluorescent round tube light fixture. I want to install it back but am unsure which cables connect to the wall socket. I am guessing the white neutral with any of the left white cables and the black with the short lonely black cable on the left of the ballast on the picture.

Please correct me if am wrong.

Thanks.

The white and black wires emerging from the left side of the ballast are the neutral and hot, respectively.   Perhaps the poor condition and burn marks on the ballast label should deter you from re-installing this?


Need Comment on How my House Was converted from 120vac to 240vac This is an As-built drawing of how my home was converted from 120vac to 240vac
The house now has the Neutral moved in the house and used as L2 power source
Each circuit had the neutral moved from the Neutral bar and attached to a breaker on the L2 side.  Now the circuit has L1 and L2 load making 240vac.
Ground wire is connected to the outlets and lights so we have to be careful not to get between the Ground and L1 or L2 load wire.  It has been working for 15 years now.

Note we are not in USA and in an isolated area with no inspection and rules.
Just wanting to check, knowing the safety concern with the ground and possibility of electrical shock what other concerns might be known.

You should change the light switches to double pole switches that cut both halves of the power supply. These are commonly available (how hard they are to get where you are, I don't know.)

The breaker handles for each pair of circuits (that are now "one") should be "tied" if the breakers are not themselves double breakers (which is what I think you've described) - preferably they would all be replaced with double-pole breakers which do not need a tie. While you don't have local codes/inspections, this would be safest for you. This requires the pair of breakers to be located side-by side, not opposite as you have drawn.

You should also change the outlets (evidently still US-120VAC style) to the local common/standard 240VAC style, if only to prevent mishaps with 120VAC equipment being plugged in.


What size wrench do I need to remove home water heater TPRV? I'm trying to remove the temperature and pressure relief valve of a water heater.

The problem I'm having at this point is the actual removal of the valve from the heater unit.

I've removed the copper outflow pipe, and am left with only the brass valve itself. I've unloaded nearly an entire 4oz of PB-blaster (per the suggestion of someone at the big box home store), and still nothing. I've even tapped around the entire area with a soft mallet. I have managed to shear off half of the female outlet stem from the side of the valve.

My main issue is that I cannot grip the valve. I've tried flat and angled beaks, screw and slip-adjust (pardon my lack of technical names) wrenches, but nothing will grip the brass valve to allow me to gain any traction -- they all just slip off.

I think I need something with a longer beak, or maybe I need to wrap the valve itself in something so I can grip it. I've considered the self-tightening rubber wrap wrenches, but I'm not sure that's going to provide any help, especially with the outlet stem still partially there.

I've also read I could wrap the stem area directly against the heater unit with a wet rag, and then apply some brief flame to the end area of the valve, and that this should help loosen things.

This is supposed to be easy enough to do w/o calling in a plumber, and I suspect it is if I'm using the proper tools.  Can you please provide some assistance?   Specific names/sizes/models are more useful than "get a big wrench".

Thank you for any help you can send my way!

Get a 14" Craftsman or RIDGID pipe wrench. Clamp it on to the valve and turn it counter clockwise. Game over.


Does my hanging light have to Match other lighting in the house? we recently moved into a new house and all the lighting is brushed nickel which is okay but we cannot afford to replace them all. In the livingroom I would like to put a large chandelier in the vaulted ceiling. However, this opens to the kitchen and dining rooms. Can I pick an entirely different finish for this hanging light?  I love the wrought iron look but with the hanging kitchen light, would this look bad?  I looked at brushed nickel or silver lights and they are just too formal or I do not like them. Any ideas will be appreciated. Thank you!

Depends on the design of your house and the proximity of the fixtures. If the overall character of the house is similar, you may want to keep everything similar. However, we often "mix-it-up" if different areas are "different ".  Especially, if the "different" area has an unusual ceiling: (I.e.: different shape, height, color, use, etc.)

If the fixture can't be seen from another fixture, I doubt anyone will notice.


15ft Deep Sump Pump Hole So I had a home inspected this evening and noticed something I have never seen before. The hole is about 15ft deep! It looks like it was drilled out and then encased with concrete. The pump has a long PVC pipe that stretches all the way up and to the exterior or the house.

Why would anyone do this?

To remove water below the basement.

To provide a significant amount of storage in the event that the pump fails, allowing some time to correct the problem (depends on the inflow rate, but more depth is more storage.)

Depending on the age of the house, it may actually have been the well supplying the house at one time, and was converted to a sump pit when the water supply changed to an alternate well or municipal supply.


Windowless room Air Conditioning, Sky light only I have a dilemma. I have a windowless room in Brooklyn. Only a sky light 10 feet up. Right next to my room however is the washer/dryer. Not sure if that would help at all, but my landlord isn't open to a big hole going up out the roof. I don't know what to do anymore. Possibly a portable or ductless with a drain box? Can I connect it to the washer/dryer pipes? I have no idea please help, I don't care if its cute I just need to feel cool in this heat.

The portable A/C units that I've seen have a 3 or 4" diameter air duct to get rid of the hot air. Usually you hang that out of a window.   If you are not looking for a permanent solution, you could connect it to the air vent hose that comes out of the back of your dryer.  You would have to switch it back to actually use the dryer.  I'm not positive but I'm guessing that the A/C unit has a condensation reservoir that you have to empty occasionally like a dehumidifier so you probably don't need to connect that to any hose or piping.


Exists: power to outlet1 to outlet2 to switch - can't change wiring, would like switch to control only outlet #2 Not sure how I would make the connections at outlet #2 and switch to control outlet #2??

Any help appreciated.

Connect the white wire between outlet #1 to #2 to the neutral screw on outlet #2. (Do not break the tab on the neutral side.)
Break the tab on the hot side of outlet #2.
Use a wirenut and a short piece of black wire to connect the two black wires for outlet #2 to one hot screw on outlet #2. This will be your unswitched outlet.
Connect the white wire to the other hot screw. This will be your switched outlet. Wrap some electrical tape around the ends of the white wire from the switch. This is an indicator to future people that the wire is a switched hot, and not a neutral.

Note:

If this is new construction or a permitted remodel where you have removed the drywall (and you therefore have to meet the newer electrical code),
Or you want to install a smart switch that requires a neutral wire...

...then you will have to replace the cable between outlet #2 and the switch with some /3 cable. In that case, you would use the red wire between the switch and the outlet, and instead connect the white wire to the neutral side of outlet #2, and leave the white wire unconnected in the switch box (or connected to you smart switch).


How do I reduce dust from driveway made of stone dust? I have this situation where the driveway in front of my house was made from stone dust, the problem is the dust from the driveway was carried by the wind and goes to my house and cover everything in dust. I am wondering is there any way to reduce the amount of dust carried away by the wind?

A very common dust control agent for road is Calcium Chloride it uses hygroscopic properties that allows it to retain water molecules.  It hydrates and forms a "liquid layer" that helps dust particles to stick and hold, this on the a road suppresses formation of dust.
The dirt roads in front of our home and surrounding streets are sprayed annually by the county maintenance to form a hard dust free road.

As and alternative a coating like Soilworks Gorilla Snot which is a biodegradable liquid copolymer that is sprayed on for erosion and dust control.
For the last 8 years the near by Marine Air Station has applied it for dust and erosion control on the training range.
As of this last summer it was started being used by the state highway department on desert areas near Tuscon/Phoenix to keep dust storms from causing traffic wrecks on the near by freeway.


Does one need to be certified in order to do residential electrical work? I have a Bachelor in electrical engineering, a lot of hands-on experience with electrical work, and I'm very familiar with NEC 2011 and electrical codes. Can I do residential electrical work without being certified? I heard that I only need to be certified if I work for a contractor. The certification seems to require 3-4 years apprenticeship and 8000 hours of training. Can anyone shed some light on this?

Home owners can do un "certified" electrical work on their own home in most states,. Unless you are the home owner, I'm quite sure you will find that in California, USA, just like most other states, you need to have a license to do electrical work for hire. Fixing minor things like replacing a light fixture or a broken switch does not fall into this category, however, adding circuits, doing anything in a panel, or upgrading services certainly does.
You would never be able to acquire any type of liability insurance as a contractor to do any kind of electrical work without a license, nor would you be able to pull a permit for a homeowner.
California has 5 different classifications of electrical license and each carries an apprenticeship: Voice/Data/Video Technician, Fire/Life/Safety Technician, Residential Electrician, General Electrician, and Electrical Contractor. Each one can take years to complete.
,
I would caution you sternly, basic knowledge of codes and theory is not a substitute for practical knowledge/experience and  proper guidance from a seasoned professional.
Working in the trade as a unlicensed contractor could cause you a lot of grief and possible legal problems as well. I would suggest contacting your Secretary of State's  department or website for licensing requirements.


Should I use pressure-treated wood for a firewood shed? Should I use treated wood or not?  Is it preferred to use treated lumber for the studs and plywood for a firewood shed?

Is there a reason not to use treated wood?

It probably depends on how much effort you're going to be putting into it.

If you're just planning on slapping something together quickly, then sure, go for untreated, and if something goes wrong, you can rebuild it in a couple of years.

I'd personally use pressure treated, as I'd have to make a larger structure due to local ordinances.  (I can't store firewood within 18" of earth; I don't know if it's an attempt to deal with an invasive species that caused a ban on exporting firewood from our county)  Because of the extra work involved, any savings on cheaper materials would be wasted if I have to rebuild.

I'd also be interested in the anti-insect properties of pressure treated, not only the anti-rot aspects.


Two lights on a 3-Way Circuit with Separate Dimmers The Background:
I have one room that's both Kitchen and Dining. There are two lights, one for the dining room table, and the other is for the stove / sink area. What I'd like to do is:

Be able to turn both lights on with either the switch at the hallway or the switch at the garage entrance
Be able to adjust each light's intensity.

The Requirements are:

Both Lights 1 & 2 must turn on at the same time with either Dimmer Switch 1 or 2
Dimmer Switch 1 will only dim Light 1
Dimmer Switch 2 will only dim Light 2

The Question is:

Using two 3-way light switches with built-in dimmers (Like: Lutron DVCL-153P-WH), it is possible to satisfy the requirements above with only one power source coming into one of the switches?
If Question #1 is not possible, how could I achieve a similar result?

Current Photo of Kitchen/Dining Room:

Q1: With your existing setup, the short answer is:
No, you can't do that without separating the circuit.

Q2: You could add a dimmer at the each location that would dim each light separately but you would have to run at least one more cable depending on your current wiring diagram. Then the three way switches would just turn the lights on and off and the dimmers would dim each light. It would be complicated and a pain to install. Sounds like a lot of work to me for the result.

With a 3-way circuit the lights are all in series with the switches. Effectively, all on one wire at any moment. Whatever dimming you do at one location affects both lights.

Good luck and stay safe!


Future underground electrical supply We are about to start on a phased plan to landscape our back yard. Phase one calls for a driveway to be poured behind our house, which will cross the entire property and connect two shared driveways on either side of our home.

Phase two involves adding a tiny house/office on the back of our lot which will need utilities including electrical.

I have no idea what our electrical needs will be, nor do I know the exact location of the structure.

What is the best way to prepare for an eventual electrical supply, given that it will need to run under the new driveway? Should I bury conduit without a cable, maybe with rope inside of it to pull cable in the future? Or should I go ahead and run cable through the conduit and terminate it in a box underground for future connection?

Definitely run the largest conduit you can obtain across the driveway. Possibly two or three or four parallel runs -- you don't know if you will eventually want to use one for low-voltage cabling, another to pass a water pipe through, etc. PVC conduit holds up very well underground and is relatively cheap even in large diameters.

You can put conduit underneath the driveway and terminate it 10' away on both sides of it. Plug the ends with putty or something else removable, and you can reduce the conduit size to whatever size you actually need in the future when it comes time to do the installation.

For such a short length of conduit, I wouldn't worry about a pull cable. You can easily run a fish tape 15-30 ft.


How to run electrical wires in an exterior wall with a low-pitched roof? I am hoping to run electrical wires in my exterior walls, but I have a very low pitched roof which makes it tough to get to that part of the attic. To give some examples:

One of my switches does not have a neutral wire, I'd like to run a 14/3 wire from the light to the switch to bring the neutral to the switch.

I only have one exterior light by my garage door (on one side of the garage), and I'd like to install a matching set of exterior lights, one on each side of the garage door, to better illuminate the driveway at night.

One of my bathrooms is near an exterior wall, and I want to rewire the switches so that the lights operate in a way that makes more sense. An electrician installed an extra can light, by tying it into the fan, rather than the same switch as the over-vanity light, leaving me with a situation where one switch has a light; and the other switch has a light and a fan. I'd like to adjust this so the lights are on one switch circuit, and the fan is on the second switch circuit. This isn't actually in the exterior wall, but just off of it, so it's the same problem of getting physically into the space.

This may seem like multiple questions at once, but the problem is actually all the same: Of course, it's tough to run wire through the exterior wall if I can't get physical access to the part of the attic. There just isn't the space for a human body to get in there.
So what is the solution? Is there a way to run electrical wires to a location in an exterior wall when you have a low-pitched roof? Or am I stuck with what I've got?

I've run into this often and have become very successful at getting into corners of the attic I never thought I'd be able to. Sometimes you have to flat crawl on the joists.
What has also worked is cutting out a square in the wall inside the room at the ceiling height and using that as a pull station. You will probably have to drill through a sill plate but then shove the wire up into  the attic, lots of it. Then go into the attic with your snake or a 10' piece of EMT with a 90 degree bend at the end and snag the wire and pull it toward you. Feed more from the inside  room or pull out the slack. Use the same hole in the wall to drop the wire down to the switch location. When finished, repair the drywall using the piece you cut out. At times, you might have to cut the square into the ceiling too.


Lamps and different countries I'm moving from France to Canada. I recently had to rewire a lamp that had a bad socket. It was surprising to me how simple it was to just buy a new cable with a switch, feed it through the lamp's body, reconnect it to the new socket, and end up with effectively a new lamp with a longer cable. So now that we're moving, we've got these four lamps that we love and I'm wondering, can't I just buy new cables with switches, rewire those other lamps and start using North American lightbulbs (they now have 220V LEDs) or would the sockets have to change as well?

Thanks for any advice!!

Yes, you shouldn't have too much problem rewiring your lamps.  Replacement parts are readily available at big box hardware stores, and lighting shops.
What you call an "E27" base, we would more often refer to as an "Edison" base.  It is by far the most common light bulb socket in North America.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edison_screw

The E14 is not seen often, the E12 or "Candelabra" base are more typical for smaller applications.

Well with the socket taken care of, you have two more problems:

You will also have to replace plug, with the two parallel blade type.  Table lamps are typically not grounded but should be polarized, with the hot switched to the base, and the neutral on the screw.
Your bulbs should handle 120v @ 60 Hz


How do I install a distance power switch? I have a pair of Rokit 5 G3 powered monitor speakers. I want to mount a power switch to a control panel on my desk so I can power them on easily. There's ~12 ft of distance between the speakers and the panel on which I'd like the rocker.
My first thought was to use a power strip. However, all the power strips I find have their reset breaker in an awkward position. I want to mount the switch which turns the speakers on so that the switch is facing outward from the panel on my desk. However, power strips tend to have their reset breakers co-planar with the plugs on them, so I can't hide the power cables behind the panel.
This seems like something I could build myself with the right materials. I have some electronics / soldering experience (Arduino projects), but I'm wary to build something that connects directly to main power myself, since I'm not an electrician.
Is there an off-the-shelf product that lets me do this? Barring that, what should I be careful for if I wanted to try building it myself. For reference, there are 2 speaker monitors, and each has a max power draw of 100W @ 120VAC.

(not to scale)

This seems like a shopping question, and so would be considered off-topic..
That said, a web search for 'extension cord switch' produced a number of off-the-shelf results that look like they will do exactly what you're looking for. Add one or two regular extension cords if necessary for added length.


Can I feed a sub panel off my 200A service box? Or would I need to run wire from the inside breaker box? Can I add a sub panel feed off my 200A service box? If so what are the requirements?

Or would I  need to run it from the main house breaker inside the house and wire from there?
I currently have a 125amp? subpanel right next to my service box on the side of my house.  But it is wired not into the lugs, but into a 50 amp breaker that says "backfeed do not touch" for that breaker..

This subpanel is for an inground pool and I was going to add a heat pump to it.

Want it to be safe, but not spend a fortune or alot of work.

I don't think that's a 125 amp wire. My bet is that's an 8 gauge wire feeding that whole panel, so 50 amps per leg. I wouldn't bank on it being more than that.

Whether or not you can add more is another question. You've got a 20 amp 240v breaker and a 20 amp 120v breaker. You could add another 20A to the one leg with only 20A (the unused slot below the single 20A) and be OK. You just can't exceed 50A on any given leg.


Is this mold, mildew or just dirt? We just removed some molding from our floor only to reveal some kind of black substance that looks like dirt. We are not sure what it is. See the following photograph.

That appears to be black mold affiliated with a water leak or a flood.  If a flood you need to have mold mitigation done by a qualified mold company.  Drywall removal will be required as the mold you see is coming from the mold on the back of the drywall.  Mold loves cellulose as a food so the paper backing on the back of the drywall will be completely covered in mold.  If a flood situation it is recommended to cut a minimum of 1 foot of drywall above the noticed mold.  However the paint can hide the evidence of mold and can be 4 foot or higher that needs to be removed.  After removal in a flood situation it is recommended to use a disinfectant grease removal soap and scrub all areas affected to include the entire home.  I clean a minimum of 1 foot higher than flood level. .  I use Pinal lavendar sold at home depot as it has a nice smell.  Then dry the home or area to a maximum of 50% of wood moisture measured with a moisture meter.  You can buy this at home depot for about $30.00  After reaching 50% moisture then spray all wood down with anti microbial mold killer.  Soak it down completely 3 times over 3 days no fans, no dehumidifiers.  After 3 days then turn on fans to create a circle of wind in each room leading to a dehumidifier in each room.  For entire home floods, you will need more than 1 dehumidifier.  Recommended is 1 per room.  So in many cases a mold control company is cheaper as we own equipment.  It is also recommended to have a Hepa Air scrubber to remove airborne mold spores.  After the wood reaches a level of 10% or less, you can install new drywall and insulation.  However I require that my customers continue to dry under normal AC or heat for 1 week after certification.  In cases of clean water damage like fire or water leak you can paint the studs with antimicrobial paint.  In cases of flood damages, I do not recommend the paint unless you allow the home to dry out 6 months or more prior to painting and closing the walls.  Flood bacteria takes more time to allow the antimicrobials to penetrate to core .  And if you paint to soon...you will have structural failure from dry-rot bacteria (Fusarium sambucinum) prematurely.


Home Electric Panel Questions I’m having a pool put in and the pool guys said they need a 20 amp breaker for the pool equipment. My outside panel says 100 amps (see picture). But my panel inside adds up well over 100 amps. Is this normal?  The breakers never trip even with the dryer, AC, and other appliances running.

This is quite normal

Because you aren't plugging a 15A space heater into every circuit with the dishwasher, microwave, dryer, A/C, water heater, and stove all running full blast,  circuits have two values associated with them: an ampacity, and a rated load.  The ampacity is set by the wire in the wall and the wiring devices (receptacles, light fixtures, switches) connected to said wires, and is governed by the circuit breaker in the panel, which will be selected according to the Code rules (Article 240 and Table 310.15(B)(16)) in order to protect the wire and wiring devices from overloads and shorts.  The rated load, however, is set based on a series of rules provided in the National Electrical Code (Part II of Article 220, to be precise):

General lighting and receptacles are provided for by an allowance that covers all such branch circuits (for a residence/dwelling unit, this is 3VA per square foot).
Kitchen and laundry small appliance branch circuits add 1500VA each.
Furthermore, there is a demand factor applied to the above loads to account for not everything in your house being on all the time.  (You get to halve any of this general receptacle/lighting load that is above 10kVA, in other words.)
Standard residential electric dryers are counted using an allowance of 5000VA.  Likewise, electric ranges get an allowance based on the size of the range -- for all but the largest residential ranges, 8000VA is a safe figure, but some extreme cases may require the full complexity of the Code's procedure for this.
Finally, other appliances on dedicated circuits get counted as nameplate loads. (In other words, they use the power figure on the appliance's label/nameplate, which will be same label where the UL/ETL/... markings are found.)

Adding all these up gives you the rated load for your service, which needs to be less than the 100A mark in your case given that that is the ampacity of your service.  If you tried to turn everything on full blast at once, though, you might trip the main -- this is your clue that you're running too many things for your service and probably don't need to be drawing quite so much electricity at that point in time, or need a bigger service to handle all the loads you have.

As to the rest of your questions

The inside main breaker is simply a shutoff switch, so its ampacity simply needs to be sufficient (not less than the current flowing through it) not correct (to protect anything) -- the real main breaker is the one located outside.  As to that weird looking breaker, it's what's called a quadruplex breaker that packs two 240 volt circuits into one pair of breaker spaces.


Can cured concrete be re-colored? The well cured concrete stamped driveway was lightly rained on one morning. I was late for work and proceeded to spin the tires.  Later I saw the repercussions of my haste. The spinning tire left a tread mark; not black from melting rubber, but a pale one. The release agent/dye  used to stamp the design into the cement had been lifted and removed. My question is: how can I remove or hide this mark? Can cured concrete be re-stained? will it fade eventually? It has been sealed once  before the tire mark.

I was able to track down the fellows that installed the concrete driveway. He stated that if the concrete has been sealed it would be almost impossible (expensive) to get any color to adhere properly. He went on to say that I could 2 part epoxy the surface, but that too will eventually wear out. I'm thinking about pressure washing the surface. I'll do a small area as a test run. If nothing else I will try to remove the sealer and coloring to match the tire mark.


I need to get up on roof anyway, so what should I inspect while I'm up there? I noticed a filthy tree rat (squirrel) poking its head out from a hole in my gutter leaf guards today. Gotta get up on the roof to clean and repair that mess.

Since I'm two stories up already, what else should I inspect while I'm up there?

So far I can think of:

Gutters - clean and soundly attached
Roof openings - all vents attached properly, sealed well, etc.
Chimney - chimney cap attached and in good repair, good seal where it meets the roof
Trim - check for peeling paint, rot, etc.
Pests - check for insect damage, check for varmint holes
General survey of my yard - Might spot something from high up that I can't see from the ground

What else should I look for? Anything specific to the roof shingles I should look for?

On shingles, look for shingles that might be broken, cracked, or missing, that are curled (no longer flat), and any that have lost their stone coating. The last two are important; this is the first sign of an impending roof failure and that your entire roof will shortly need to be replaced.

If you have rubber seals around your vent stacks (between the metal flashing and the stack itself, make sure that the rubber is still pliable. If it is not, it is time to replace either the flashing with a lead one, or replace the flashing and seal unit with a new one.

If you have roof turbines, make sure that they spin easily without noise. The bearings in these are sealed; they will need to be replaced if they do not spin easily.

Look for nails that have popped up through the shingles, or loose nails on flashings. These need to be sealed with either an elastomeric roof sealer or "3 hour" silicone caulk. Don't try to pound them back in.

If you have a chimney, make sure that the cap/spark arrestor is firmly attached and is not rusted out.

Remember that water MUST be able to flow down and out of things, so if you seal anything, seal around the top sides. You cannot seal, for instance, a dormer window where the siding meets the roof deck.


Cutting and defraying metal railing cable I am new to installing railing metal cable. One problem that I encountered is that, when I cut the cable with a grinder, it leaves the end slightly wider than the cable and often frayed threads so that it won't fit inside the ferrule of the swivel end, which is barely wide enough to fit the nominal width of the cable. I am using the Atlantis railing system.
I tried cutting it with electric cutoff pliers but they were not strong enough so I resorted to a grinder. Is there a tool, or a method of cutting, that will neatly cut the cable and then twist or splice any frayed threads so that it fits nicely into the ferrule?

You are using the wrong tool. You need a cable cutters. These cutters are constructed so they "hold" the strands together while they cut through the cable. See picture below.

In a pinch, you can put a small hose clamp around the wire, tighten the heck out of it and then use  tool with a cutoff wheel or your grinder. Think about getting the proper tool though. It will make your job easier since you've got a lot of cutting to do.


Where does the C wire go in my A/C - Furnace? I know there are similar questions asked but I can't make sense of the diagram in mine. The wire was already run, and you can see the small blue wire hanging disconnected in the picture. Diagram attached.
I'm not not sure where to connect it in the combo A/C - heat unit.
Thanks for any help.

Unfortunately I can only post one picture...so please try to explain as you would to a child...

It doesn't look like your unit exposes the C wire directly, so you'll have to run your own wire from the transformer.  Not sure where the transformer is physically in your unit, but here it is on the schematic.

You'll notice a terminal on the secondary side of the transformer, with a bunch of blue wires connected to it. This is the C terminal, and where you'll want to connect your C wire.


Is it acceptable to have two circuits with a shared hot but different neutrals? I am working on cataloguing the hodge podge electrical system in my old house. There is an old fuse box that was converted to a junction box when they put the breaker box in. Inside this box there is one hot coming from the breaker panel that is used to power two different loads. The strange thing to me is that the loads have different neutrals.

Here is a simplified diagram of what I found:

The red and blue loads are connected to a common hot, but they lead to different neutrals. As you can imagine there are a bunch of different circuits coming from the breaker panel.

The house has old steel conduit running from light to light in the attic and all these lines are THHN or older cloth-and-rubber wire in conduit. Nothing is Romex. Here is the conduit grouping:

Conduit 1: 3/4" steel conduit from breaker panel to junction box. Contains 9 THHN conductors including the hot and both neutrals shown in diagram.

Conduit 2: 3/4" steel conduit from junction box with red load hot and neutral.

Conduit 3: 3/4" steel conduit from junction box with blue load hot and neutral.

Anybody have an opinion about this?

Generally speaking, no.
In order to do it this way, they probably ran individual(unsheathed) wires, which is against NEC. From this related question, the relevant NEC is

NEC 300.3(B) requires that:

All conductors of the same circuit ... shall be contained within the same raceway, auxiliary gutter, cable tray, cablebus assembly, trench, cable, or cord [with certain exceptions that do not apply here].

The logic here is that you want to minimize the exposure of the wires. Sheathing helps prevent a small nick from turning into a big shock.
If you're going to upgrade this the proper way, you would run, say, a brand new 14-2 to your red fixture, and then from the red fixture to the blue fixture. Thus they would share the same hot and neutral circuits properly
EDIT: Since these are inside conduit, that's considered acceptable.


Installing smart switch that needs a neutral wire without a neutral wire I live in the Philippines and we don't have neutral wires. I got a Wink Relay 2 years ago but it is a 110v system, something I couldn't use here. But recently I found a way to convert it to 230v.

When I tried to replace a 2 gang switch with my Wink Relay. I saw that there are only 3 wires. Unfortunately the Wink Relay requires a neutral wire to power itself.

What are my options in this? Can I use the line/live as the neutral?

———

I don’t think there are more wires at the back because the wires are coming from above, see photo:

The wire with a masking tape is the live. The other 2 are the loads.

And this was how the wiring of the original switch was done. 4 wires in total, but the 4th one is really short and just connecting the switches.

While the Philippines have some unusual power configurations, none of that has any bearing here. OP has the modified Euro style hookup, where ground is centered halfway between the live conductors, 120V from either conductor.  Pick either supply wire to act as "neutral" here, just be consistent.

This is a switch loop.  What makes it special is it's a 3-wire switch loop because it controls two appliances, just as OP says. But it still has all the normal properties of a switch loop.

Including the absence of a neutral and thus, inability to power powered switches such as smart switches.

OP's options are:

if it's conduit,  just fish another wire to be the opposite leg.
Replace the cable to the switch with /4 cable, which has 4 wires and ground. /3 will not do, do not use a ground wire for a neutral especially not in the Philippines.
Make both appliances switch together, freeing up the needed wire.
Find smart devices able to power themselves old-school by leaking small amounts of power through the load.
Find a smart device able to live up in the ceiling rose, and be remotely controlled in some way.
Give up the project.


Hooking up my compressor to my dryer outlet I need to plug in my compressor, which has a NEMA L6-30P plug.

I currently have a NEMA 10-30R Receptacle
How do I do this? It looks like the ground from my dryer plug is grounded in the box. I do have a rod that runs into the ground outside my house. Can I run a separate plug off my dryer plug and attach it right next to the dryer plug for my compressor? They both won't be running at the same time.
Edited in from comments on an answer:

The dryer plug is in a metal box that runs through a foot of metal conduit up to the electrical box that runs to a 30 amp breaker.

Given the proximity of the 10-30R receptacle to the panel, and the presence of conduit connecting the two, you could upgrade the 10-30R to a 14-30R and likewise swap out the power cord on the dryer. That's something like US$25 in parts. This is an upgrade that is just good sense to implement.
If you upgrade to a 14-30R then you could easily make or buy an adapter from the 14-30P to L6-30R. It would deal with the ground-vs-neutral situation correctly.
There's also another option. Since the panel is just right there, get a bit of conduit and a box and install a new L6-30R receptacle. I believe code allows multiple 30A receptacles to be fed from a 30A breaker. If the panel has no room for a new breaker and you don't want to replace existing breakers with a quad breaker solution, you could choose to feed both receptacles from the one existing breaker. The terminal on your breaker might be designed for landing two conductors, but if not, attach a pigtail of wire to the breaker and use a wire nut to join the pigtail with the leads going to the two receptacles (times two: this same arrangement for both poles of the breaker).
The two-receptacles-one-breaker arrangement could be accomplished by putting the junction in the box with the dryer outlet but it might violate box fill rules and definitely would be crowded and hard to work with. It'll be much easier to run the conductors from a new receptacle directly into the breaker box and make the junction there.


Can you run an individual wire to link smoke detector together? In my home, I have a hard-wired smoke detector / fire alarm (https://www.lowes.com/pd/First-Alert-Wireless-Interconnect-AC-Hardwired-120-Volt-Photoelectric-Sensor-Smoke-Detector/1000456469) that is linkable to another smoke detector down the line. It is connected with 12-2 or 14-2 but it needs 12-3 or 14-3 normally to link the smoke detector together. I do not have any 12-3 or 14-3 wire on hand and I am wondering if you can use another individual wire to link them together. It is my understanding that the linking wire only sends about 3-9 volts down the wire to the other smoke detector to make it alarm. Could I use a 14 AWG or 16 AWG? Trying to avoid re-wiring the whole thing but if it is the right thing to do I will do it.

Would wire like this work?
https://www.lowes.com/pd/Southwire-100-ft-14-AWG-Stranded-Red-Copper-THHN-Wire-By-the-Roll/1000777296

Even if the wire ends up only having a low voltage on it, it will be terminated and spliced in the same electrical boxes as the white and black high voltage wires, so it's going to come down to the same rules as any other wire in the circuit.

Using 14/3 is the only right way to do this, unfortunately.  There is an exception for running a ground wire along a different path than the rest of the circuit, but that wouldn't apply here.


How to fix leaky plastic to metal adapter? I have a drain pipe for my 2001 camper, that goes through the bottom of the camper.   Attached to the bottom of the plastic hose is a threaded female adapter that rotates 360 degrees:

There is a small drip drip leaky that is coming from the adapter.  If I push up on it, the water comes out as a steady stream.  I'm not sure how the metal is attached to the plastic, but I'm assuming that i just need to cut the plastic  above the clamp? and purchase a new metal adapter.  I just have no idea, what that adapter would be called, and where to purchase it, and if there is a better way of taking the old one off, besides hacksawing the plastic pipe above the clamp?

Ideas?

This was a standard 3/4" pipe.  I was able to cut it off, and shark bite a new piece on.


Frequent burning of air conditioner compressors Why is it that I experience frequent burnouts of the air conditioner compressors in my house? I lose about 8 compressors within a year! Could it be because I used a 16mm aluminium cable as live and a smaller copper cable as neutral from the meter to our change over, a distance of about 10metres? I have checked every other thing but I still wonder about the frequent flashing/burning. Even the fan burns out sometimes.

What must i do to correct this.

Any motor will burn out if there is insufficient voltage reaching it.  Or it is overloaded.

Measure the voltage reaching the compressor, easily approximated by measuring at the electrical outlet.  Do this while the a/c is running.  Compare the voltage at the same place without the a/c running.   If the voltage drops significantly (240 v to 210 v), that is a sign of inadequate or poorly installed wiring.   Excellent wiring will barely have any drop (240 to 238 volts).

What is 16 mm aluminum cable?


Is this normal? Cabinet/Backsplash install We hired a contractor for our kitchen but are doing our own bathroom.

The contractor installed the wall cabinets directly on concrete and the base cabinets on top of ungrouted tile.

The contractor has cut pieces of drywall and adhered them to the exposed parts of the concrete that the backsplash will go onto. Is this normal? The drywall is not blue drywall and about 1/2 inch think. It covers part of the quartz counter top, the outlets sink in slightly (since they are behind the drywall).

Is the drywall solution normal since the cabinets are on concrete? I’ve never seen this before.

So many issues it’s hard to know where to start: 1) cabinets installed on concrete prior to wall finish, 2) cabinets installed on floor finish, 3) wall tiled without removing electrical wall plate, 4) countertop installed prior to wall oven/microwave cabinet, 5) base trim on island cabinet not flush with cabinet (1/8” gap at top of base trim), 6) countertop installed prior to wall finish, 7) cabinets and base installed prior to grout.

Yuck!


Raising an existing concrete floor I have a sunroom with ceramic floor tile over a concrete slab.  I have two steps down which are not to code. One is 9 inches deep and the second is 10 inches deep to the floor.  I would need to raise the existing floor by three inches and one step by one inch to give me the 8 inch drop.  Do I need to remove the tile and then build up the existing floor with a self leveling concrete to have a smooth surface?  I was not intending to put new tile down but would like a concrete stain.

Too new to comment, so I apologize in advance for this being a fairly rotten answer, but 3 treads, about 6-1/2" rise, 11" -13" run would solve your code problem.


How to estimate the area required by first responders with a stretcher? I am editing a book about taking care of elderly people.

Imagine the charge (person that is being taken care of) lives in a room sketched below and spends most of their time in the bed.

In case of an emergency, first responders must get from the entrance into the room, put the charge on a strechter, and carry them out (arrows from the entrance to the room and backwards).

How can I estimate

how wide the hallway must be (Y in the drawing) and
at what distance from the wall the bed must be located (X in the drawing)

so that first responders can get in and out of the room with a stretcher (incl. the room that is required when you turn the stretcher when carrying out the charge)?

There is no code requirement for width of hallways in residences.

However, the minimum width for hospitals is 6’. This is primarily so gurneys can pass. (Btw, ER gurneys are much bigger than ambulance gurneys.)

The commercial code (not residential houses) require a doorway to be a minimum of 32” clear opening when the door is in the “open” position. If you add 2” for the door to project into the clear opening AND add 1/2” on each side of the doorway for the “stop”, then the minimum width door is 35” wide, but 36” is a standard width and makes it slightly easier for the wheelchair to pass through the doorway.

When we layout bedrooms, we leave about 2’ from the bed to the wall. This is for a nightstand and for ease of making the bed...which I think would be good for the caretaker too.

Also, remember that EMT’s get people out of bathrooms, etc. so they’ll get them in an emergency.


What is this amber substance on the wood in my attic? I was examining my attic with a head lamp and the light illuminated the wood just right and these amber drops started to glow.

They are on the surface of a lot of the wood in the attic.

What is it and what is causing this?

"it's sap crystals that have been extruded from the wood due to high attic temperatures. We see more of this sap staining when the wood used for framing was not kiln dried before construction." Inspectapedia

Sap in painted wood will cause staining but it is ok in the attic.


Apartment boiler system. Very hot water coming out of cold water tap My family and I live in an apartment. There is very hot water coming out of the cold water taps, and the toilet. I know it's summer so I expect some. In order to get even mildly cool water we have to flush the toilet, or let the water run for at least 20 minutes. The issue is just getting worse. I've put work orders into the landlord. The plumber said that this is normal. It is not. We have lived here for 3 years almost 4. This just started a few months ago and has gotten progressively worse.

After my work out I take cold showers because my apartment does not have A/C. I let the water run to purge the hot water from the pipes. In the shower we only get luke warm water now. There is no cold water on a single hand mixer. That is even when it is supposed to be on the cold area completely. After 15 minutes in the shower the water was still luke warm, no cold water coming through. While rinsing off I was burned on my inner thighs and genital area, 1st degree. I double checked the temperature gauge. Completely in the blue area. I need help. Please. I think this plumber's experience is working against him.

If anyone in our apartment building uses the water at all we finally get a bit of somewhat cold water (approx 80-90 deg F). We shouldn't get hotter water coming through when it is on the cold. As far as I can tell the boiler is dieing but I'm not sure. What can I do to help my landlord?

I agree with the other answer about the mixing valve/lack of check valve being the most probable reason.

However, I just had a first last night (which still has me searching online today, thus landing me here at this page)

I got a call for the same reason. 27 story building. The apartments are split into 2 zones for the plumbing and those zones have several risers for each stack of apartments. We only had this issue on one riser (10 apartments vertically in middle of building). Only these 10 apartments were affected, and it was only the bathrooms.

Most smaller buildings, the cold water is typically higher pressure, but this is opposite due to gravity (boiler room is on roof). After going through all 10 apartments vigorously, we isolated it down to one apartment. The bathroom sink faucet was feeding hot water into the cold line as other tenants on that riser opened up their cold.

So while a bad mixing valve or check valve issue is the most likely culprit, there is a chance it is one little faucet in the building that is screwing up everyone.


Is carpet installation easier before or after installation of doors? I was wondering if carpet installation is easier if doors are not installed and how substantial the difference it makes to install doors after carpet.  I would imagine it would be easier but by how much?

I'll assume you're installing a door and jamb, if you aren't installing a jamb I'd hold off on the door until the carpet is installed so it's not in the way

If you're installing the jamb I would do it before the carpet so the jamb can rest on the ground. If it has a threshold you'll have to install it before the carpet. I'd remove the door from the jamb and set it aside until the carpet is finished.


Angle grinder brand (Not working) How can I find out this angle grinder model/brand? The label has come off so I dont know the model. The grinder is not working and I believe it is the brushes, how can I know what brushes to buy if I dont know the brand or the model? I was able to read something I believe it is "Pa6 ge30"

[img]https://image.ibb.co/jamo5a/17373171_1500457109989280_506947401_o.jpg
[img]https://image.ibb.co/fyrSyv/17351223_1500456736655984_406501642_n.jpg
[img]https://image.ibb.co/ktT1Qa/17430704_1500456806655977_787717601_o.jpg
[img]https://image.ibb.co/iNQ4dv/17392696_1500456909989300_2107525600_n.jpg
[img]https://image.ibb.co/bRWMQa/17410313_1500456943322630_1658083182_n.jpg
[img]https://image.ibb.co/gUzVJv/17408258_1500457016655956_1132823352_o.jpg
[img]https://image.ibb.co/ms6XWF/17408100_1500457046655953_1457825632_o.jpg

Few thoughts...

I don't recognize it, so can't be directly helpful.

Pa6 is usually just a reference to the plastic; not sure about the ge30 part.

You might get lucky by pulling the existing brush/holder and going to a good repair place to see if they have something you can work with.

Have you checked the switch? Failure there would make this a write-off, even with a positive identification.

I'm not a fan of throwing stuff away, but realistically, grinders are a dime a dozen. You can get a name brand used one for about triple what a set of brushes would cost you. You can get a bargain bin (ie, will only work for a little while) one for about the same as a set of brushes.


Confused by wiring in box I am finishing exchanging more than 25 switches in my home with smart Lutron dimmers and Pico remotes (no neutral wiring needed). Some of them have been single pole, some 3-way (controlling both ceilings fans and light fixtures). Up until now all of the  work has been fairly simple. Disconnect, identify hot vs load or travelers and reconnect the same way (except for the bundling of travelers together that the Lutron switches require and bundling of all cables that Pico remotes require). Nothing out of the ordinary.

I am in my last switch (3-way) and when I opened the box, I found something I didn’t expect: Two black wires connected to the two hot terminals in the switch (one screw and one push terminal) along with the two travelers (red and black) and the ground cable connected to the ground screw. Why would there be two hot wires connected to the two hot terminals in the switch like that?

The house was built in 2007. So, there are also neutrals bundled in the back of the box. I attached some pictures that might help visualize the situation better.

As you can see from the pictures one of the hot wires is coming from a Romex cable (along with neutral and a ground) and the other is coming from a different Romex (along with the travelers, neutral and ground).

I was thinking of placing the Pico remote here which calls for just bundling travelers and hot into a nut and capping the ground wire. Can I just bundle all these cables like that? I can also place the actual Lutron dimmer here which calls for attaching ground to ground, hot to one terminal and all other cables to the other terminal.
Any ideas or help would be appreciated.

It's simply a splice.  They are using the screw and the backstab to accomplish what they could do with a pigtail.  In particular, they are grabbing "always-hot" because this is the first switch.   Presumably they are also grabbing neutral.

An ideal 3-way circuit:

What they are doing: (shown translucent)


How can you cheaply add an overflow line to protect against blockage in a main line? I have 3/8" ID vinyl tubing water loop running through a unit that may create a blockage at some point.  Blockages can be self clearing or may require manual clearing.  In the case of a blockage within the unit, I would like to maintain water pressure by diverting the water around the unit.  However, I do not want to run any water through this 'overflow' line if the unit is functioning properly.

How is this best accomplished?  Is there a mechanical splitter that opens one branch only under a certain pressure?  Or would I need a flow sensor in the main line connected to a valve that can be automatically opened when flow rate drops?  The latter case adds more complexity and cost than the budget really allows for.

Mechanical

For a purely mechanical solution, you may be able to use a pressure relief valve, though this requires the pressure be high enough to trigger it.

These are fairly common parts, and a variation called a temperature and pressure (T&P) relief vale is installed on hot water tanks. You can get valves with varying pressure ratings/ranges.

I believe when operating near their set point, they do allow some amount of water through (eg, it is not a binary on/off) so you'd have to consider if this is acceptable for your use case (eg, if the pressure drops enough during normal usage that it doesn't normally let water by and if it's acceptable that some does go by).

I think this would really only work properly if your output flow is either zero (so pressure is equal to incoming) or full open (so pressure is minimal).

Electrical

A bit more complex but perhaps more flexible way to do this would be to use a pressure switch on the output side:

This would come on when the pressure is low (you can dial these down to ~20psi or so), so if your output pressure gets too low normally, it would inadvertently trigger this.

You'd wire this to a solenoid on the bypass line.