power surges causing internet dropouts? What I now know is that the problem is the power and not from ISP. The frequent almost hourly dropouts to the adsl started when I began using a Powerline Adapter.

The dropouts would affect the router modem as though someone yanked the modem phone cable from the wall and plugged it back. I have two adapters, plugged in an outlet near where the modem cable is and another in my bedroom. Removing it reduces the dropouts greatly. I can not do without i through, and the powerlines themselves work fine. I feel there is a preexisting power problem exacerbated by powerline adapters.

I'm planning on using shielded modem phone cables, would that help? Is there something else I could try?
A few more information about the house, its not grounded as its euro plug system and there are plenty of surges because it's third world and bad wiring. I've changed receptacles in the outlets I use, and multimeter gives me stable readings afterwards.

These adapters are using the electrical wire to transmit data over your power wiring. If there is excessive electrical noise surges or droops this can cause packet loss. Installing a whole house surge suppressor could eliminate surges droop is less common in my experiance and many times is caused by bad connections. Power line monitoring may be the only way to find out if it is the power line causing the problem or the quality of the adapters.


Help with fire code in a condo building We had a "contractor" come out to bid our project and told me I needed to cut the drywall off one side of our living room wall. (We live on the 15th floor of a condo building in Minneapolis MN.) I did and then he bailed on the job, I have since had others out and the latest one said the wall needs to be re-drywalled due to fire code. What is the rule here in regards to a residential wall between living room and bedroom with some electrical and a sprinkler pipe running through it?
Please help.
Thanks

Generally fire code will require that any exposed wiring (not run through metal conduit) be behind sheet rock or some other wall board.

I would imagine the same is true for plumbing.

The logic here is that you can't pull, bump or otherwise disrupt wires and pipes if they are behind a wall.

I don't know the particulars of code in MSP BUT I can't imagine that they allow exposed pipes and wiring.


How should I connect these two yellow wires? I don't know what this cap is... is it ok to cut it off and splice the two yellow wires together as I have been with the previous splices.

These are called Bullet connectors. They're used as a male/female pair, and allow for quick, repeated connection and disconnection of a circuit. They can be found at any automotive supply store, and some hardware stores.

If you won't need to disconnect and reconnect the wires, you can simply cut the connector off, strip the wire, and use whatever other type of connector you'd like.  Just make sure the connector you choose is rated to handle the size of wire, current, and voltage that it will be exposed to.

Side Note:
Typically wires used in car stereos are 18 AWG, though sometimes the power (Red) wire is larger. The blue butt slice connectors you're using are rated for 16-14 AWG. You should be using the red 22-18 AWG connectors instead. You may find that with the larger connectors, you have to squeeze the crimp tool really hard to make a good solid connection. The wire size should be printed on the wires.


Can I use the extra thermostat cable as C cable for wifi? I just purchased an ecobee4 and I found that I need C wire for wifi which is not connected to my current thermostat. However, there 2 extra wires I found in the wall. Could you use one of them for the C wire? Also the board has something already going in to C screw but I think its for something else? It's coming out of the separate brown cable. There is also one wire coming from brown cable going to yellow. I leave these 2 alone?

Go ahead, hook that blue wire up to C and use it for your Ecobee

As the terminal strip on your furnace control board is typical in that it has room for 2 wires on each screw, you can simply land the blue wire on the furnace control board's C terminal alongside the white wire that's already there.

BTW: the brown cable you're asking about can simply be left alone -- it's the cable that connects your thermostat's yellow wire (Y terminal) and the furnace control board's C terminal to the compressor contactor in your air conditioner so the thermostat can turn it on and off when things get sweltering in the summertime.


Ceiling light won't switch off after replacement I am replacing a ceiling light fixture. I thought about replacing switch at same time, but didn't. It is one light fixture on one switch using a red, black, white and ground cable.

The switch is connected to the black and red wires, white is capped off in this box.

I attached the light fixture  to the white and red and ground. I was pretty sure the black was capped off in the fixtures box.

The light won't turn off - is it possible that I should cap off the red and use the white and black for thew fixture?

Wire color isn't a certainty, particularly with switched power. You need to be certain of how it was wired before and use the same configuration. Without that, you need to disconnect and use test equipment (non-contact tester, multimeter) to determine the neutral, hot line, which hot goes to the switch, and which hot is switched. A common convention would be black as always hot and red is a switched hot, but you need to test to be sure.

Once you have identified the wires, the light fixture will be connected to the neutral and switched hot. The hot from the line needs to go through the switch to become the switched hot. And neutrals should all be connected together.


Fixing peeling paint on timber cladding The paint applied to a section of timber cladding (outdoor) has failed to adhere to the to the timber as evidenced in the photos below:

.

The paint was applied in the same year as the timber was installed, which is approximately 2 years ago. The peeling/flaking stated appearing within a year and exhibits worst conditions on south/south-westerly elevations (where the sun shines most in this side of the world).

The timber is reportedly Douglas Fir (unclear if it was treated or untreated), and the paint is Bedec Barn Paint (Acrylic based), which appears to have good reviews.

I do not have the history of how the paint was applied (how many layers, whether any primer was applied, whether it was brush painted or other,...).

The photos above show:

different degrees of peeling/flaking (not uniform across all planks.
There appears to be a correlation with the wood grain and the level
of peeling
Peeling follows grain pattern
Same as above (no peeling between grains)
Same as above

Any suggestions on:

what the cause(s) of the peeling/flaking may be?
how to remedy?
what further questions to ask from the contractors who conducted the work that would help establish the above?
any tests you would suggest would help with the above?

There are multiple reasons for outside paint to peel and crack.  It can be hard to pin down if it is a application issue or just an outside factor.  But as you state it was applied on newly installed (non-aged) wood has me tending toward that aspect.

Based on the product data sheet DATA SHEET the following is listed, "Pressure
treated timber should be weathered for 6 months. Denatured wood
should be abraded to reveal new cells. Any new finished wood needs
to be abraded."  So was the wood sanded prior to the first coat?
I myself would lean toward this thought if I was more familiar with the paint itself. This would be do to the fact I do not see paint staining of the cells in the underlaying wood where the peeling has occurred, fresh sanded cells can fill with the paints pigments.

If a primer was used was it of the proper type for the paint could be another issue.  With peeling more on the sunny side paint expansion and primer expansion should be matched.

This info may help you with other possibilities. WHY PAINT PEELS

If the surface prep (sanding) was not achieved then I would scrape and sand off the old paint and abrade the wood, then reapply new.  I would not just scrape off the loose and paint over it all for fear of old that remains would peel under the new.


Wiring to a detached garage I have a detached garage approximately 50' from the house supply panel.  I want to wire 6 outlets & maybe 2 overhead lights. I will have no heavy use, mainly 1 outlet & overhead lights. I have installed underground conduit approximately 25' between house & garage but not below the frost line. The main panel is all 20 amp breakers, with 12-2 wiring.

Can I run standard 12-2 to the conduit, tie 12-2 underground through the conduit then retie to standard 12-2 to wire garage?  The underground conduit is sealed Schedule 80 PVC.

If you're not planning on installing an electrical panel in the garage, the installation is quite straight forward. You can basically treat the garage circuit, just like any other branch circuit. If you do plan on installing a panel in the garage, the following information is not for you.
Overview
You'll install a 20 ampere breaker, in the panel in the house.  From there you can either go straight into conduit, or you can run any other approved cable. From the question, it sounds like you want to use nonmetallic sheathed cable from the panel, which is just fine. You'll connect the 12/2 with ground NM cable appropriately in the panel, and run it out to a junction box near where the conduit will leave the house.
Then you'll run conduit from that junction box, outside, underground, then up and into the garage, ending at another junction box. You'll want to make sure you install expansion fittings where appropriate, especially if you're entering the buildings above ground.
Next you'll pull three, 12 AWG THWN wires through the conduit. Connect the wires from the NM cable, to the THWN conductors in the junction box in the house.
Finally, you'll run cable from the junction box to the outlets in the garage.
Single, or Multi-wire branch circuit
National Electrical Code allows a garage to be supplied by a single, or multi-wire branch circuit without much trouble. If you don't plan on using much power, and don't mind having the lights and receptacles on the same circuit. You can simply run a single circuit out to the garage, and power everything with it. However, if you want to separate the lighting load from the receptacles load, you can install a multi-wire branch circuit without much extra effort.
If you decide to install a multi-wire branch circuit, you'll have to install a double pole breaker instead of a single pole breaker. So to do this, you'll have to have two slots open in the panel. You'll also have to install an additional conductor, so you'll have to use 12/3 NM cable and pull and extra wire through the conduit.
Conduit Size
Whether you decide to install a single or multi-wire branch circuit, you'll need to use at least 1/2" conduit if you're using schedule 80 PVC. According to Table 5 of Chapter 9 of the National Electrical Code, each 12 AWG THWN conductor has an approximate area of 0.0133 in.². Table 4 of the same chapter, says that 1/2" schedule 80 PVC has a total internal area of 0.217 in.². However, since there are more than 2 wires in the conduit, you can only fill the conduit to 40%.
0.0133 in.² * 3 conductors = 0.0399 in.²
0.217 in.² * 0.40 = 0.0868 in.²
Three 12 AWG THWN conductors will take up 0.0399 in.², while 40% of the total internal area of 1/2" schedule 80 PVC is 0.0868 in.².  So there's no problem fitting the 3 conductors through the conduit.
0.0133 in.² * 4 conductors = 0.0532 in.²
Even if you decide to run a multi-wire branch circuit, you'll still have plenty of room in the 1/2" conduit.
Conduit Minimum Cover
According to Table 300.5 of the National Electrical Code, direct burial nonmetallic raceways not encased in concrete or other raceways is required to have a minimum cover of 18" (450 mm). However, if it's a residential branch circuit, 120 volts or less, GFCI protected, with 20 ampere or less overcurrent protection, it can have a minimum cover of 12".
So if you're installing a single branch circuit to supply the garage, you can install a GFCI breaker and you'll only have to bury the conduit 12". Otherwise, you're going to have to bury the conduit 18".
NOTE: Minimum cover is based on the conduit running under nothing but grass and dirt. Minimum cover may vary if run under concrete, walkways, streets, parking lots, etc.
Grounding and Bonding
Since you'll only be installing a single or multi-wire branch circuit, you'll only be required to run an appropriately sized grounding conductor along with the current carrying conductors (250.32(A)Ex. 1). You'll extend this grounding conductor to each outlet, and connect any devices to it.  There are no other grounding or bonding requirements, as long as there are no metallic pathways connecting the two structures.
Means of disconnect
As Speedy Petey points out, you'll also need a means of disconnect inside or outside the building near where the circuit enters (225.31, 225.32). A means of disconnect is simply any approved method of disconnecting all ungrounded conductors. This could be simple snap switches, a pullout disconnect, a safety switch, etc.
Outlets required
Once you supply a garage with electric power, you'll also have to install a few required outlets. First you'll need at least one receptacle outlet (210.52(G)(1)), which will have to be GFCI protected (210.8(A)(2)). You'll also have to install one switch controlled lighting outlet inside (210.70(A)(2)(a)), and one switch controlled lighting outlet on the outside to provide lighting for the entrance/exits (210.70(A)(2)(b)).

Single branch circuit supplying garage

Multi-wire branch circuit supplying garage
Notes:

This answer is based on National Electrical Code 2014, and may not be applicable to areas that do not follow NEC.


Replacing exterior door sill - making it fit I'm replacing the aluminum threshold for my exterior basement door.  I bought a new one but it seems to be a little taller than the original.  It's adjustable but can't go any lower.  If I remove the rubber gasket attached to the bottom edge of the door, the door will just barely close.  But I know the gasket is there for a reason.  Can I replace it with one that attaches to the face of the door?  The current one is in pretty bad shape anyway.  If not, what is the alternative?

The rubber thing is called a door sweep and they come in many styles and materials. It's purpose is to seal off the bottom of the door from drafts. The swing orientation and threshold style usually dictate the sweep. Some mount under the door, on the front side and the back side. Bottom sweeps are often a softish D shape with the crest pointing down. Fronts and backs are often a bristle or rubber blade.

Undercutting the door is an option. If it's an exterior wood door undercutting is easy.

Also relocateing the threshold towards inside or outside may help your situation. If you are able to move the threshold to the exterior and put the sweep on the exterior of the door, the door will not need to close over the threshold.


How strong should the air current from my heat pump be, and is there a way to adjust the power myself? I've had a heatpump installed this spring. And it really feels like the air strength is not enough to circulate the hot hair around. So the temperature is unequal around the house, like floors being cold while the chest is fine.
My SO was the one that was there when they installed it, and of what I've heard, on normal power, the drapes were flying off, so they toned it down. I really wonder if the installer had it at 5/10, but since it was requested to tone it down he put it to the minimal 1/10.
So how strong should the air current be (if I put my hand on the air exit, for instance, or some other general test that shows its decent enough) and if it's too low, how can I adjust the power myself?

If this is a standard ducted A/C unit you could check the temperature drop across the A/C coil using a thermometer. Check the air temperature entering the coil (return air) and the discharge air above the coil (cold supply air). The temperature drop should be between 15 & 20 degrees F. If the air temperature drop exceeds the 20 degrees F more air may be required. This is about all you can do yourself. The rest should be done by the installer or another HVAC company.


How can I protect white risers (and oak treads) when using a hand truck on stairs? After replacing the old carpeted stairs in our condo with oak treads and painted white risers, I now need to move a few large / heavy pieces of furniture from the first floor to the second, or vice versa.

I never worried about using my hand truck (a.k.a. "utility dolly") on the carpeted stairs, but I'm very reluctant to use it on these pristine new stairs for fear of scuffing the risers.

Is there a common method to protect painted risers (and/or oak treads) from damage when moving furniture with a utility dolly?

Thanks!

If you are running a hand truck as part of a specific project, tape rosin paper to the stairs, and be careful when going up and down.  You can buy this at a hardware stores.

This also works for floors, though masonite boards underneath work well.


How can I hang a 250 lb wooden piece of art on the wall? I have 3x8 Brazilian Cherry timbers cut with tongue and groove that stack on top of each other to make a very large wooden piece of art to hang on my wall. I have all of the pieces glued to each other and 2 solid pieces of threaded rod running from top to bottom on each side right through the middle. (What a pain to put those in)

My question is now that I want to hang it on the wall, what is the best way of doing that without having and mounting hardware showing and wanting to keep it as close to the wall as possible? The whole piece weighs roughly 250 lbs and I can have no risk of it falling as it will potentially hurt or kill someone.

I was thinking maybe running 2x6 across the back cut in half at a 45 degree with match boards on the wall... my only concern is that it would be pretty far off the wall at that point. Maybe 1x6 would be better... Just not sure how many boards I would need to hold the weight and what would be the best fasteners to use to screw into the wood?

Keep in mind this wood is Jatoba.. about twice as hard as Oak.

Thanks!!

Picture of the wall laying on the ground

What you described with the 45 degree bevel is called a french cleat. It's used for securing heavy items to walls and I've seen them used in upper kitchen cabinet installations. 1x6 hardwood cut in half on a 45 I think would suffice.

I would consider putting one on the top and one on the bottom (mounted upside down) if you have enough room to slide the piece from the side. That way it eliminates rocking and someone trying to lift it up.

They make metal french cleats for hanging large pictures and mirrors but that max I've seen was a 200lb rating. Maybe you can find some that are rated for your project. Unfortunately they are 20" wide which would be too long to have 2 of them side by side but they do make smaller ones. Maybe there's the right pair for your work.

Here's another idea I had..... Disclaimer... verify that this will be strong enough for your needs. this is a DIY solution with no testing for fitness.

if you can drill into steel. Get some structural steel channels and drill some holes in the backside every 16" to drive lag screws into studs. In the front drill slightly larger holes to allow you to get the lag screws in from the front.

On the top and bottom drill holes for long bolts. Drill the holes just the right size for the bolt to slip through and fit snug so there's no rocking. You'll need to secure them on the inside of the wall mounted channel with a nut. Getting the nuts in on the edges shouldn't be hard. The ones in the middle you'll need to cut some access holes in the front to get the nuts in.

Attach a similar channel with the same type of cutouts (except the access holes for the blot nuts) and attach it to the back of your artwork.

Make another pair for the bottom or at the very least attach a piece of channel as a spacer.

Attach them near the top and bottom so that you can reach in with a nut driver extension to secure the bolts.

If you can't or don't want to work with steel here's an improvement to the french cleat that will provide some more support to help keep the artwork from lifting up and moving side to side if bumped and doesn't require reversing the bottom cleat.

Make the cleats as you normally would out of 1x6 lumber but make sure it's a couple of inches shorter than the width of the artwork. To the upper cleat attach a 1x1 or 1x2 strip of wood that is 5-1/2" long so that it's flush to the top of the cleat on the artwork. Do this for both the top and bottom cleats.

After you slide the artwork on the wall mounted cleats, predrill and drive some long wood screws into the sides of the bottom cleat. I only did 2 screws per side piece but should be room for 4 on each side.

This way the artwork won't fall, lift or slide to the sides.


What type of air filters are these? Are they any good? I'm pretty sure these air filters have been in the house for 30+ years.

I'm not sure what type of filters they are. Are they disposable or can you clean them?

Are they efficient at all?

They look like expanded stainless steel and that would make them completely reusable. I would hose them off and put them back in and save yourself some money. Unless you are sensitive and need a HEPA style filter these should work fine for most dust and hair.


Is this light switch installation safe and legal? I did this wiring in my bonus room years ago, and now I'm wondering if it is in fact legal and safe.  This is a built-in book case that I built and installed myself.  The bookshelf went in over a light switch box, so I moved the light switches with the boxes and cables you see here.  I've removed the plastic blank faceplate for the picture.  When the faceplate is installed, the two cables come out over the top of the faceplate.  The two cables enter the top rear of the box through a cable clamp which you can't see in this picture.

I'm happy to go back and do it right if this doesn't pass muster.  I guess my main question is whether the exposed cables are okay.

This is all in North Carolina, US.

Update:  here's a pic of the wiring in the wiremold tracks, before snapping on the elbow covers.  I had to do quite a bit of hacksawing and grinding to shorten the elbows so they would fit.

And here's the almost completed job.

Thanks to all for the help!

My concern here would be for physical abuse

Right now, nothing stops those NM cables from getting whacked/pinched/crushed with books and such, especially if you have heavy tomes on your shelves.  This could be considered a violation of NEC 334.15(A) or (B):

  334.15 Exposed Work. In exposed work, except as provided
  in 300.11(A), cable shall be installed as specified in 334.15(A)
  through (C).

  (A) To Follow Surface. Cable shall closely follow the surface
  of the building finish or of running boards.

  (B) Protection from Physical Damage. Cable shall be protected from physical damage where necessary by rigid metal
  conduit, intermediate metal conduit, electrical metallic tubing,
  Schedule 80 PVC conduit, Type RTRC marked with the suffix -XW, or other approved means. Where passing through a floor,
  the cable shall be enclosed in rigid metal conduit, intermediate
  metal conduit, electrical metallic tubing, Schedule 80 PVC
  conduit, Type RTRC marked with the suffix -XW, or other
  approved means extending at least 150 mm (6 in.) above the
  floor.

  Type NMC cable installed in shallow chases or grooves in
  masonry, concrete, or adobe shall be protected in accordance
  with the requirements in 300.4(F) and covered with plaster,
  adobe, or similar finish.

You have two options to address this

There are two ways to address this issue: you can either replace the NM cables with a wiring method better suited to withstanding said reader-inflicted physical abuse, or you can put something in that will protect the boxes and cables from rough encounters with books while still allowing for access to them.  We'll discuss these options in turn.

Making this more rugged

While the normal wiring methods that are used to withstand the NEC's definition of "physical damage" are the various flavors of heavy-duty rigid conduit (RMC, IMC, EMT, Schedule 80 PVC, and RTRC-XW), surface metal raceway is also rated for such a duty, and doesn't suffer from the bending radius issues that other wiring methods in this application would have to deal with.

If you're using Legrand's Wiremold line for this, you'll need:

Two BW17 right angle raceway-to-1/2" conduit fittings, attached with 1/2" chase nipples and locknuts
Two BWH6 flat elbows
A BWH7 inside elbow
A length of BWH1 raceway
And a two gang metal extension ring for the old switch box

The idea here is that you use the extension ring instead of the normal starter box (as they don't make one in two gang, and two-gang to one-gang mud rings stick out too far) along with one of the BW17 fittings and associated parts to get the raceway going upward from the gang furthest from the inside corner, then use the two flat elbows and the inside elbow to get around the bend and going back down.  Then it's just a matter of using the other BW17 and its friends to transition the wires back into the box.

Once the raceway's in, then, you run individual THHN wires inside it to connect the circuits between the two boxes, just as if you were working in conduit.  (The existing NM cables can be tossed, or shucked and their wires kept for pigtail duty, your choice.)  Don't forget to plug the knockouts where the cables once entered/exited the boxes!

Using some cabinetry to box the boxes

If you feel yourself a better cabinetmaker than electrician, another option for this situation would be to put a cabinet divider wall in just to the right of this, and then add a cabinet door over the front, maintaining access while protecting the existing assembly from physical abuse or damage.  This also has the advantage of being a more finished look, at the cost of having an "un-cabinet" in your house that you can't really use for anything at all.  Making it match the existing built-in bookshelves may be a challenge, as well.


How can I determine if a wall is load bearing? I am doing some renovations on our home and would like to open up some areas but not sure if the walls are load bearing or not I have a three story semidetached home no basement just a crawlspace were furnace is and duck work. also would like to open up stair ways but keep part of walls

Load bearing walls typically run perpendicular to the floor and ceiling joists. So if you can figure out which direction those run in, any wall perpendicular to that has a good change of being load-bearing.

If there is a crawlspace you can access, that's an easy way to determine floor-joist direction. You can also spot the support pillars/poles underneath as well. Any wall above a support pillar is also likely load bearing.

Other than that, you need to bring someone in that can help you figure it out (contractor/engineer).

Note that if you are open to the idea of keeping 'parts' of the walls, that's helpful, as said parts can then house support columns for beams that span the section of the wall you took out. How large those beams need to be goes back to needing a structural engineer for help.


Should a bathtub be installed on a concrete slab or the subfloor that will be installed over the slab? I am currently finishing my basement and looking to install a bathtub. I have already decided that I will be using a sub-floor in the basement.

My question is: Should I place the bathtub directly on the concrete or place a subfloor down first then install the bathtub?

In most cases if you place the bath tub directly onto an existing concrete floor you will then have to remove the concrete in the area around the bathtub drain to permit room for the drain basket, drain pipe and P-trap. Sometimes you get lucky and the bathtub drain lines up perfectly with a drain line that comes up just through the concrete floor .. and .. the necessary P-trap is already in place under the concrete surface.

If this is not the situation that you have then it may be necessary to have the tub on the elevated floor. This can leave just enough room to route a drain pipe from the tub drain over to where there is access to the necessary further parts of the drain line.


Water heater burner won't stay lit I'm having trouble keeping my water heater burner lit or lighting automatically.

When I press the pilot reset button (allows a small flow to generate the pilot light) and use the piezo sparker, it lights fine.  Hold for about a minute and it stays on (my guess is that this warms the TC so the gas doesn't shut off), as it should.
When I release the pilot button and turn the knob from pilot to on, allowing a normal gas flow rate, I usually hear a quick burst of gas and then it immediately shuts off.
If I finesse it and turn the knob very slowly (gradually increasing the gas flow), I can get it to stay on at full blast.
Almost without fail, when I leave it alone for several hours, I can tell, for whatever reason, it hasn't been able to ignite itself (most likely because it needs finessing to get it to light)

Given that the burner will stay lit at full blast after I finesse it (increase the gas flow gradually), but will go out otherwise, what might this be indicative of?

It might be an indication that gas regulator on your water heater might be going bad or incorrectly adjusted. It sounds like it's allowing too much gas pressure and blowing out your pilot light.

Your water heater should have a sticker that says what the regulator pressure should be set at. It will likely be listed in inches of water. Mine says 4"wc (wc = water column). Somewhere on the control box to your water heater should be plug that takes a hex key. This is a testing tap. You can attach a manometer to this port to test the output pressure. If it doesn't match what the sticker says then that's probably your problem. Manometers are fairly inexpensive. I bought one from Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00D38K39Y). If it has two ports, one will be for the inlet pressure and the other for the outlet.

The regulator on your water heater might be user adjustable. You'll have to look at the service or user manual for your heater. On my water heater, it is not user adjustable. Granted the box is sealed with security screws. I bet if I opened it, I'd probably find adjustment knob or screw that's normally set only at the factory.


Maximum height of hand-shaped concrete curb? I need to guide water flow at the end of my driveway (see this question). My plan is to put in a concrete curb or hump to guide the water. I've gone all over the map in thinking of how to build it, but right now my plan is as follows:

Set short (8"?) rebar pieces vertically into the ground, with the top ends bent at 90° about 2" above the ground
Have one long rebar piece wired to the vertical pieces
Hand-shape concrete (probably good ol' Quikrete) into a 4" tall by 6" wide curb, centered on the long rebar piece

This is an approximate cross-section of the curb, where the sloped side will be guiding the water:

I'm not heavily invested in this shape; I wouldn't mind if it ended up just a rounded hump. I just want it to be durable, to guide the water, and to not look too awful from a distance.

I've been going back and forth on whether I'll need to build a form to hold this shape while the concrete sets. Right now my plan is to have a single board define the vertical rear edge of the curb. and then use hands and trowels to mold the concrete against the board and around the rebar.

So, the question: will I be able to mold this, or will the concrete slump? (Any other tips would be welcome.)

How much concrete slumps is directly related to how much water is used to mix it. Interestingly, (within reason) drier mixes are also stronger than wetter mixes, all else being equal. Most people mix too wet by default.

I'd firmly suggest some experimentation (by which I mean not "try to do a section" but to actually build a short test piece that you will discard.)

You may find this description of the standard "slump test" somewhat informative to your application:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concrete_slump_test


Can stranded wire be used for pigtails in a junction box? I replaced a fixture today that had a piece of 12Ga stranded (probably THHN) wire used as a pigtail.   The building has some wiring in conduit (other wires in this box were solid), so I'm guessing that's what the prior person had handy.

If this is a legitimate use, it seems that it may be worth keeping a bit of stranded wire handy, as the pigtails would be a little easier to work with in a tight box.

I'm in CT, USA.

As long as all the equipment is listed for the use, there's no problem using stranded wire. The UL White Book says that screw terminals and pressure plate terminals can be used with both solid and stranded wire.

  UL White Book 2013

  Receptacles(RTDV)

  Receptacles for Plugs and Attachment Plugs (RTRT)

  Terminals
  Terminals of the wire-binding screw, setscrew, or screw-actuated backwired
  clamping types are suitable for use with both solid and stranded
  building wires.

It says switches are solid only, however, you can use terminal connectors such as fork connectors.

  Switches (WFXV)

  Snap Switches (WJQR)

  Terminals
  Terminals of the wire-binding screw, setscrew, or screw-actuated backwired
  clamping types are suitable for use with solid building wires unless
  otherwise indicated either on the device or in the installation instructions.

  Terminals of a flush snap switch are permitted for use with Listed field-installed
  crimped-on wire connectors or an assembly, if so identified by
  the manufacturer.

  A flush snap switch may also be provided with conductor leads with
  factory-installed crimped-on connectors. Such connectors may be either
  attached to the flush snap switch terminal or are provided with the flush
  snap switch in the smallest unit shipping container and are suitable for
  use with the terminal of the flush snap switch.

Wire connectors (including twist-on wire connectors) can be used for both solid and stranded wire sizes between 30-10 AWG, in combinations listed by the manufacturer. Unless they are clearly marked to be used with one type or the other.

  Wire Connectors (ZMKQ)

  Wire Connectors and Soldering Lugs (ZMVV)

  Wire stranding -- Unless clearly marked "Solid," "SOL," "Stranded" or
  "STR" for a given wire size, wire range or wire combination, conductors in the range 30-10 AWG are both solid and stranded, and 8 AWG and larger
  are for stranded wire only.

Ideal Industries has a handy PDF, that lists all the allowable wire combinations that can be used with their various connectors. For example, the Ideal 74B® (their basic yellow wire-nut) can be used with 1 - 4 #14 solid or stranded conductors.


Direct Wire LED: T12 Replacement CONTEXT
An older office's 4-foot T12's are to be replaced with direct wire LEDs because the ballast cost + labor can be avoided.  The instructions indicate that the hot is wired to one end and the neutral is wired to the other end.  Because they are T12 fixtures, I believe they are non-shunted tombstones (sockets)
The new wiring configuration will be augmented with a sticker to indicate that only LED bulbs can be used and not to use T12 bulbs.
QUESTION
If the sticker is ignored and a T12 is installed in the new wiring configuration: 120V AC applied to each end of the bulb, will this result in a safety or fire hazard when the 120AC power is applied to the T12?

A fluorescent light is an arc-discharge light (like neon, sodium, mercury vapor and metal halide).  There's a tube of gas and cathodes on each end.  It takes a high voltage to strike the arc, and a less-high voltage to sustain it.

4-foot T8 and T12 tubes have 2 pins on each end of the tube. They connect a small incandescent style filament, whose job is to preheat the cathodes to reduce the strike voltage and ease wear-and-tear on the tube.  Instant-start ballasts ignore this filament and use an extra high voltage to strike the arc.

Some LEDs want 120V on 2 pins on the same end, and the other end is a dummy.  On those, if you put a real fluorescent in there, you can expect a Pop! as the filament burns out.

Since you got the powered on opposite ends type of tube, I would expect nothing to happen.  The strike voltage of a 4' fluorescent tube is significantly  above 120V, especially without preheating.


Gluing T&G solid flooring joints ? I'm not a flooring guy so I'm asking a question that'll sound silly to pros.

I'm thinking of having 3" solid maple flooring installed. The contractor said 3" flooring needs to be glued AND nailed to the OSB. Even more, all t&g plank joints need to be glued.

I'm not a flooring guy,but I've seen many solid hardwood floors installed on job sites. I've never seen all joints glued or 3" plank glued and nailed to OSB.

Does this sound correct ? Is maple flooring different than oak and hickory flooring that it needs to be glued and nailed ?

I live in colorado where humidity is low and temperature swings are high.

cheers

Wood is going to move. It is going to swell and contract with humidity changes in the home. This typically happens during the winter and summer, when the temperature changes outside cause the heat in the home to dry out the air and during the summer the air in the home typically, is more humid. Wood WILL react to this, there is no stopping it.

In my opinion the floor is narrow enough not to warrant gluing down to the OSB, secondly on that, OSB is not the best material to be gluing strip flooring to. Depending how the OSB weathered as subfloor while it was exposed to the elements, the top layer of chips/flakes are barely set in place still, not to rely on for gluing. Beside, you don't need it, But if it is used, it won't cause any problems, it just won't do anything either.

The biggest factor in laying hardwood floors is the humidity that is present in all parts of the process. This is where a moisture meter comes in. Any flooring installer worth his salt has a good one. IMHO, if he doesn't along with what he is prescribing, he would not do my floor.

Since the wood is going to move, and the T&G joints are glued, the flooring will crack elsewhere. Instead of the joints opening and closing the minute amount, when the floor is laid in the proper conditions (this is where the moisture meter comes in) which would be undetectable, with gluing, the wood would crack in irregular places, creating a mess to see on the floor. If the conditions are not right for a floor, I have seen a white oak floor shrink to an 1/8" gap over much of a floor laid where the wood was not acclimated to the house first and laid without consideration for its' moisture content.


Troubleshooting: Why does my multimeter not work when a non-contact volt detector shows current? I recently purchased a 1970's home, and the lights in one room don't work. Troubleshooting yields odd results, and I don't know where to check next.

The room

A fairly standard secondary room on the second floor.

One switch to a standard ceiling light fixture – non-working.
One switch to a closet light fixture – non-working.
Outlets around the walls, all of which work just fine.

The room is controlled by a single breaker, which works as expected, cutting all power to the room.

The non-contact tester

Using a Fluke, non-contact tester – the "VoltAlert" made to be stuck into an outlet - I don't get any results (as expected) when placed on the plate of any wall switch in my house, whether the switch is off or on. The only exception is the switch for the light in question, which lights up when the tester is 4-5 inches from the switch. I have no idea what could be causing such a result. It's just as sensitive around the light fixture - making it impossible to test an individual socket.

Flipping the breaker does cause all tests be negative, so at least we know the line from the breaker box to the switch is working.

The switch

The switch appears to be fairly new (blue plastic back), and is wired on the hot side. The rest of the wiring in that box appears to be done correctly. The hot line comes in near the baseboard and into the bottom of the box, and the switched line exits the top and continues up toward the ceiling.

The multimeter

This part throws me. I can't get my (cheap) analog multimeter to return any reading. I've tested both incoming and outgoing hot wires against the ground, both with the switch on and off, and I get no result. I tested a nearby outlet just to make sure it wasn't the multimeter, and got normal results.

The light fixture

It's old and is what I initially assumed to be the problem. Bulbs that are known to be good do not work. When the switch is off, the fixture still reads hot on the non-contact testers, despite the fact that this is a terminal. The multimeter also does not give any result when testing the hot/neutral behind the lighting fixture while the switch is on. This leads me to believe that the problem would persist beyond changing the fixture.

Ultimately, I've eliminated enough issues that I don't know what to test for next. I'm hoping someone with more experience has seen something like this before and can advise on the next most likely cause. Thanks in advance for any advise.

At the switch it sounds like your "ground" is not actually connected to the grounding system.

At the light fitting it sounds like your neutral wire is not actually connected to the neutral.

What makes this situation really worrying is that the combination of results on the light and the switch strongly suggests to me that a "bootleg ground" and/or "bootleg neutral" is involved where a Neutral is used as a Ground and/or a ground is used as a neutral. If this was the case then you may well find that when the switch is on and a bulb is in the light that the switch plate is live.


Suggestions to hold floating laminate floor from sliding on vapor barrier installed over concrete slab I need suggestions for keeping a laminate floating floor in place during installation on a vapor barrier over concrete.  I was hoping to hear of good ideas to prevent this slip/slide effect on the vapor barrier.  Should I replace the vapor barrier and, if so, with what?  Is there a non-slip product available?  Any better tips/tricks of the trade?
Problem:
I can't keep the floating floor from sliding over the vapor barrier.  I can start the floor straight, but as soon as I start tapping the flooring together, the flooring pivots and slides and I lose my straight line resulting in a major shift over 40'.  I've tried placing spare boxes of flooring as well as had a 250 lbs person stand on it.
Background:
I am installing a floating laminate floor on top of a concrete slab in my basement.  The flooring is Pergo Outlast+ with built-in padding and barrier but since it is going on top of concrete it is recommended to put a > 6 mil vapor barrier underneath.  The vapor barrier is a black, vinyl, slick surface - snapping chalk lines doesn't work well.  I've been using a Bosch laser level instead but I fear I am trying to be "too precise" over the 40' span.   I have put down and pulled up this flooring twice as a result and I am at my wits end.  I ended up hiring someone who ended up botching it even worse (picture attached) and now I am back to doing it myself.

Last time I did this I put wedges along the long side to stop the floor moving, once complete they were removed to allow proper expansion and the gap around the edge was covered.


Wood Staining in a Garage I am working in the garage with the garage door open as I am working for ventilation. My garage also has gym equipment in it. Am I able to use the garage again soon after or do I have to wait a day or so?

If you've removed the stained project material, the vapor will clear out as soon as you allow it to through adequate ventilation. Some slight lingering odor may remain, but it shouldn't be enough to cause health concerns.


Why do the two-pronged Shaver Sockets in the UK have two sets of connectors? In the UK, you can often find two-pronged sockets in bathrooms; the idea of these is that they offer a lower voltage than standard three-pronged sockets, so are safer to use for charging lower-powered devices.

I've noticed that some of these faceplates offer two sets of prongs - one on either side. Interestingly, it's only possible to connect a single device at once - attempting to connect a second doesn't work; it simply won't fit if there is already a plug in the other socket. Does anyone know why these faceplates have two connectors if it's only possible to physically have one charging at a particular time?

UK shaver sockets are not a lower voltage, but the ones in bathrooms include an isolating transformer and thermal cutout so that neither wire of the shaver has any voltage to earth (so a shock to earth is impossible) and the socket cannot be used for more powerful appliances.

As bathroom shaver sockets include a transformer, it is easy to incorporate an additional tapping to provide a 115 volt outlet for shavers for visitors from 110-120 volt countries.

The shutter interlocks so only one socket can be used at a time

to prevent the transformer being overloaded

but more importantly

if two shavers were connected and became faulty it might be possible for a shock to occur from the shaver in one hand to the shaver in the other hand. This could be full 240 volts and a hand-to-hand shock would cross the heart line, and such shocks are much more likely to be fatal.

Some styles of sockets have a single socket outlet and a changeover switch to change the voltage, eg

(note that if both switches are pressed down accidentally, the lower voltage is selected)

Transformer-isolated shaver sockets are the only type of socket allowed in bathrooms in the UK (or at least, within 3 metres of a bath or shower, and most British bathrooms aren't big enough to have 'ordinary' sockets far enough away) but shaver sockets without transformers can be used in bedrooms and dressing rooms (the 3m distance does not apply to handbasins):


LED issues in high bay applications I have a linear high bay that is 240 watts putting out about 27,000 lumens, we have added a bi-level sensor to the fixture and what's happening is that when the fixture times out the fixture goes off except for about 6" of one board, after about 6 seconds the fixture does go completely off.
The other thing we have noticed is that in one application we had a ghosting issue the fixture's went to about 10%  and did not shut off at all.
HELP !!

Disconnect the bi-level sensor and see if the fixture behaves normally.

Disconnect any other controls and wire the fixture direct to supply to verify that it works properly without occupancy controls.

Troubleshooting is a process of elimination.

Good luck!


Could a Cadet heater release metallic nanoparticles? I have a few Cadet wall units in my house. (These are about 12x8 in units mounted in the walls.)
One of the units has a built-in thermostat and a knob to adjust the temperature.
I don't know how old the unit is.
The strange thing is that often after running for a while the unit starts making a hissing noise. Not a buzzing but something higher pitched, like as if steam were being released from a valve. (But I don't believe there is any liquid involved here.)
My best guess is that the hissing happens when the temperature reaches and thermostat value, so the heater turns itself off, but then some other mechanism with different calibration decides it still needs to be on. And it goes back and forth very quickly. But event then I would expect to hear a bunch of fast clicking sounds, not a hissing sound. (One other detail of the hissing is that when it's in that state it can mess with my computer mouse -- like the mouse doesn't work, and then I adjust the thermostat to stop the hissing, and then the mouse works again. So there is some electrical strangeness happening.)
So one question is where the hissing comes from.
But the more important question for me is that I was recently diagnosed with a life-threatening form of sarcoidosis. It's too late to undo that now, but for sanity's sake I'm trying to understand if this misbehaving Cadet heater was partially responsible for my illness. They don't know what causes sarcoidosis, but among the few possible triggers they list are various types of inorganic dust, especially metallic dust.
So the real question is whether this hissing heater could have been spewing out aerosolized bits of metal that I was then breathing in. A friend says the heat would not be enough to break off tiny pieces of metal, but I don't know.

A short or arcing would most likely sound more like a buzzing (but could sound like a hiss, I guess) but would also be accompanied by smoke, a nasty "fried circuitry" ozoneish smell, and black soot marks near the source. I have never heard of this being a common source of danger for anything besides fire and/or shock.
I think it is way more likely that the noise you are hearing is a vibration; one that just happens to happen at a certain point of operation and coincides with a frequency that interferes with the wireless signal from your mouse's transmitter and the receiver unit.
Occam's razor: the most likely solution is almost always the solution. Take the grille off and tighten every screw you can find, whilst also looking for any signs of arcing or electrical failure.Either way, I doubt those little Cadet heaters are the cause of your illness (which I am sorry to hear about and hope you find health and happiness).


Is there harm in using my mini-splits in conjunction with my hot-water baseboard heat? My new house has a natural gas boiler with three zones of radiant baseboard heat (one per floor). It also has a mini-split system (again one head per floor). The mini-split was advertised as air conditioning, but I realize that it's actually a proper heat pump. My situation is somewhat similar to Mini-split vs gas boiler for heating, although I think my numbers are a bit different — my last gas and electric bills were $1.20/therm and $0.22/kWh (both excluding fixed charges).

It's my understanding that there's probably a cost-savings cutoff in favor of the mini-split when we're just keeping the chill away and the exterior temp is above 60°F. And there's a better-for-the-world emissions cutoff somewhere below that — maybe as low as 45°F (and which will only get better as my state switches to more renewable sources for electricity.)

But of course there's a complication. As the lone answer to the other question suggests, the radiant baseboard heat is hard to beat for comfort. But in this house

the first floor mini-split head is in the kitchen which, because of the layout, only has a small section of baseboard radiator and so gets kind of cold;
the second floor mini-split is a in a guest room which we only use rarely, and the other rooms are bedrooms which don't have their doors open all the them; and
the third floor mini-split is in my home office.

So, all of this together comes to the question. On the second floor, I'll probably just use the radiant heat, because it heats the bedrooms which are in use. But on the top floor, when it's above 50° or so outside, I'm thinking of leaving the radiant heat set to 60° and running the mini split in my office (when I'm there) to keep the heat up to 68°. The baseboard thermostat isn't next to the mini-split, so it might turn on if the other rooms on that floor dip below 60°. On the first floor, I'm thinking to primarily use the radiant heat, but if we're in the kitchen and it's chilly, also running the mini-split to warm up that room.

Are there any perils in running the system this way? It seems optimal for comfort and might also increase energy efficiency.

Running them at the same time won't cause breakage

As Ed Beal indicates in his comments, running both systems simultaneously with the mini-split set for heating won't cause trouble -- in fact, your mini-splits have support in their controls for running an auxiliary heating system while the heat pump runs if it can no longer keep up with heating demand.

However, you'll need to get clever with controls here

Normally, what I would suggest for your type of situation (no significant concern for running heat during power outages) would be to have the mini-splits control the baseboards using their auxiliary heat control facilities.  However, due to the lack of a second floor head outside the little-used guest room, this approach won't work on the second floor, for sure, and also seems not quite compatible with your control goals in general, given that your economic crossover point is rather high.

As a result, you'll need to do some dancing with your control setup to get the right mix of baseboard and mini-split heat for a given situation -- most low-voltage thermostats should be able to handle controlling the hydronic zones on your behalf, although you may need to route C wires to them, while the Flair device you linked in the comments can handle bending the mini-splits to your will.


Is it OK to drill one or two 2 inch holes into a load bearing header in my basement? tl;dr: Is it OK to drill one or two 2 inch holes into a load bearing header in my basement made of doubled-up 2x10s on top of 2x6s?  This area is in the center of my two-story house, and bridges over a 56 inch span that originally had no other support (but a couple of new 2x4s have recently been added).  No holes have been previously drilled in this area, but one has been drilled into a joist nearby.
Update: Since posting my question, I talked to the general contractor again.  He thinks it would be fine to drill even two 2 inch holes in the header.  His reasoning is that since he added the two 2x4s, which now bear some of the load (in yellow below), the header is now only spanning ~19 inches unsupported, when it was designed for much more.  He thinks a hole would have probably been fine even without the 2x4s, but it sounds like the 2x4s make the situation clearer.
Further questions:

Is my original plan OK?  To be more precise, It's a plan to drill a 2 1/8 inch hole and a 1 1/2 inch hole.

If two holes are too many, would just one 2 1/8 inch be fine in the area I have marked for "planned holes"?

Would it be better to try to drill a single hole in the joist with the "existing plumbing" hole between the joist and the header?  The difficulty here is that I may have to drill a larger hole big enough to fit a conduit fitting through, not just the narrowest part of the pipe (this is because of the access limitations, I'm not sure if I can wrestle a pipe with enough length after a 90° turn to cement it on the other side).

What if I asked the general contractor to beef up the new 2x4s under the header (like double them up or replace them with 2x6s)?  Would this area cease to be a "header" in that case?

Diagrams: my construction terminology is not good, so I've created some diagrams to show exactly what I mean and what my plans are.
Color code:

The darker pieces wood are fully pictured.  All are 2x6s except the header at the top, which is made of 2x10s.
The lighter pieces of wood are two newly-added 2x4s (to support a new finished wall).  The general contractor says they're bearing some of the load now.
The white pieces of wood are not fully pictured.

Front view:

Top view:

Side view:

Side view (with joists omitted):

Context: I'm having my basement remodeled, and I am planning to run conduit myself to one of the new bedrooms and the only interior-wall path to the attic (for any future needs in the rest of the house).  The routing is extremely difficult here, and going through this area is pretty much my only option.  It's also behind my furnace and only accessible from one side.  I've run my rough plan by my general contractor who's also personally handling the framing, and he thinks it's fine.  But I just realized today when making my final detailed plans that this area is much more heavily constructed than anywhere else, so I want to tread carefully.

While your local building codes may vary somewhat, please refer to this IBC document section on "Notching and Boring" of load bearing members:
Notching and Boring Standards
According to section R502.8.1, you can bore a hole up to 1/3 the width of the member as long as it is not closer than 2" to either edge of the member.  Also note that you cannot bore or notch engineered beams unless you have the modifications to the beam certified by a qualified and registered engineer.
I would proactively check with your local AHJ (i.e. building code compliance office) so that you are aware of any differences they may have from the IBC.  That will help you a lot when the time comes for the inspector to pay you a visit and sign off on the work.


Wiring 2-way connected switch in 2-gang configuration I've done this a few times now, but I've come across an odd wiring setup that I need a bit of guidance with. The current setup isn't using a netural, which I need for the connected switch, but instead has a single black wire that's stripped in one place to connect the two switches. (Bottom pole, leftmost switch.)

My question is: based on this setup, what do I do with the single black wire, and what do I do with the maretted neturals? I'm guessing I have to split that wire into two segments, but I've never seen this sort of arrangement, so I'm a bit confused. Any info is very much appreciated.

The black coming in to the double loaded screw is the always hot. It is then jumpered over to the other switch. Each then has a switched how leaving to the lights.

you can make this proper by using another short black wire and wirenutting it along with the existing jumper wire and the always hot. Then every screw in the switch will have exactly 1 wire connecting it as is proper.

As for the neutral you can add a white wire to the wirenut to jump it over to the smart switch (though you may need to get a larger size nut).


Low-profile clear cover for a basement window I'm looking to protect some wooden exterior basement window casing so that I don't have to re-paint it so regularly.

I've seen window well covers like so:

...which could be useful except that this particular window is right next to a sidewalk that I walk by and drag garbage cans on frequently, so something that sticks out more than 6" or so from the wall will be an obstruction.

I searched for low profile window well covers, and I've found things like:

...which is low-profile in the wrong direction (low to the ground).

What is an easy solution that will not stick out far from the wall?

Do a search for shutter caps.  These are metal caps that go over the tops of shutters.  They will help with the top, but not likely the splash-back from the ground.  If you can find a roofer or a siding contractor with a sheet metal brake (and is willing to deal with a small project) you could easily bend a strip of metal, perhaps 3 or 4 inches wide, to create a narrow shed roof/awning over the window to direct the water away.  You can lap it under the siding if you have siding or adhesive and caulk if you have brick.  You might even find a suitable piece of "L" flashing, valley flashing or drip edge that might work at the local building supply or lumber yard.


well pump keeps turning on and off every few seconds I woke up this morning to find that the water feeding the toilets in the house was full of dirt/mud/silt. After taking a look at my well pump system I found that the pressure switch keeps turning the pump on and off every second or two. Each time the switch turns the pump off, the water from the pressure tank discharges back down the line towards the well/pump. After enough pressure is lost, the switch activates the pump again. This repeats ad infinitum.

I believe that the water discharging back down into the well is causing dirt to be kicked up in the well, which makes the water in my toilets filled with dirt since the water line to them isn't filtered.

Any way, what is most likely the problem? It seems that there should be a check valve or something to keep the pressure in the pressure tank / line from escaping back towards the well. Maybe that went bad?

Or maybe the pressure switch went bad? When the switch is turned on for the first time (after letting all the pressure out of the line), the water pressure worked its way up to 80 or 90 psi, and stayed there with the pump on for a minute before the switch turned the pump off... it seemed like the switch should have turned the pump off sooner.

Some basic details: My system consists of a ~100 ft deep well with a submersible pump, a pressure switch (that was replaced about 2 years ago), a control/electrical box for the switch, and a 5 or 10 gallon pressure tank that looks fairly new (it's at least 3 years old).

EDIT: video of the behavior (action starts at 4:10): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EfE98N5p1gQ&list=UU-PYeNYSUiTfiH1ZfcD9_cw

EDIT 2: video of pressure behavior when 2 outlets are open letting water run (remains at ~56psi with pump on): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDqSMMJUVXY&list=UU-PYeNYSUiTfiH1ZfcD9_cw

And more info: With the pump off, and pressure on line at 0 psi, I measured the tank pressure and it was at around 65psi - so I'm guessing the bubble/bladder isn't bad? But the pressure might need to be lowered in the tank?

Any help/advice/suggestions you can give me is appreciated! Thanks in advance!

All sort of issues here - while there's a short list of things that one normally looks for with extreme short cycling (such as a blown bladder in the pressure tank) that doesn't touch the 90 PSI issue...

If, in fact, water is going back down the well, the check valve in the pump (there is pretty much always one built into deep well pumps) is bad. Depending how your system is set up, there may or may not be another one inside the house, which would also have to be bad. My own system, after considerable reading and opinion-gathering, has only the check valve on the pump 300 feet down my well. When it goes, it's pump-pulling time. That would be the case even if there were others, and others might actually cause that to happen sooner according to a number of experienced well folks, which is why the other one I bought is still sitting in a box, not installed. In another few years I'll put a new pump on the shelf for when this one dies, so it's not a panic buy when (not if) I need it.

80-90 PSI is VERY high and almost certainly indicates a problem with the pressure switch. Certainly on my well the emergency relief valve lets go at 100PSI. On 40 off 60 is usually the upper range of domestic well pump "common settings" (30/50 and 20/40 being the other two commonly seen.) Ideally you'd know what your setting usually is or it may be recorded on a sticker somewhere on the system. You mention it going to the very high pressure when first switched on after being off for a while - what was it cycling between when you found it?

You could TRY hooking up a garden hose and opening that valve, then turning the pump on to flush out the crud that's been stirred up. It's possible-but-not-likely that this MIGHT clear a bit of crud that is jamming the check valve open. If nothing else it will get the stirred-up crud out of the well before the pump is repaired or replaced.

If your well is prone to throwing dirt, you may want to add a "spin-down filter" (I put mine after the relief, but before the rest of the system - this was contrary to the manufacturers instructions - they suggested after the pressure tank - but in line with the whole point of having it.)


Is a moisture barrier needed over gyp-crete (gypsum concrete) for wood / bamboo flooring? In a condo, and just discovered that the floor is actually gyp-crete, presumably over wood. Is a moisture bnarrier necesary? This is above grade.

The answer is :

It depends

Above grade doesn't mean above ground, necessarily.

If you are referring to concrete that rises out of the ground - then yes, you should put down a moisture barrier.  Concrete is porous and moisture will (slowly) permeate the concrete if there's enough moisture around.

However, if the concrete is suspended - a concrete floor above ground with air below it - then no you won't need a moisture barrier.


Unclogging bathtub with an external tower drain I have a clog in my bathtub. There is no visible overflow and it has an external tower drain. When I try to snake through the tub drain the snake comes up the external tower. Do I need to remove the tower and snake through it? If so, how? I've snaked and succeeded unclogging drains but this is the first time encountering an external tower drain.

I think what happened is, when the snake got to the "T" where the horizontal pipe meets the tower, it went UP.

A metal snake is always bent a little, which makes it tend to go one way or the other when it gets to a junction.  If you remove the tape, turn it over, and reinsert it, it might go DOWN instead when it gets to the "T" - the bend in the tape will make the tip point down instead of up.

But it would be easier to just snake straight down the tower.  You have cleared the pip from the drain to the T, so going straight down the tower should be fine.

Just remember to go nice and easy with the snake!


Where should I put the Google Nest smoke alarm in this room? I have a large open plan kitchen dining and living area with a high vaulted ceiling. The ceiling meets two separate one-sided peaks in two places on the wall.
I'd like to put a single Google Nest Protect in the room. Where should it go? The instructions say 90 cm vertical from the peak but doesn't say whether it's ok to place it under a second lower peak.
See photo:

After consultation with Google customer service, they recommended that the alarm go at the top peak. They did not provide the rationale.


what the best option to deal with a rusting screw in drywall? I have some rusting screw in my garage drywall:

What's the best option to deal with it?

Do I

drive it back into, spackle it with Drywall Joint Compound and touch it up with paint?
Remove it somehow, fill the hole with Drywall Joint Compound and touch it up with paint?
Something else?

Thanks

Rust will continue to rust.

Remove it (them) and replace it (them) with coated drywall screws, which resist rust.

Then fill and paint.

P.S. The cause of the rust may be a leak in the wall behind the board. If so, you have a bigger problem that this cosmetic fix will not solve.


What's the best way to remove a wall plug? I use wall plugs a lot for putting screws into brick walls.

It's easy to get the screw out when you want to remove them and usually you can loosen the screw a bit and pull and then both the wall plug and screw slide out.

Sometimes, however, the screw slides out but not the wall plug.

What's the best way to get it out?

I usually just poke them into the wall (unless they are the screw in kind obviously, or the kind with a large collar).  Put a screw driver on them and give it a sharp whack, then patch the hole.  I find it's easier and faster to patch the slightly larger hole, than it is to try and dig them out and then patch the hole anyway.

For the larger collar ones, try to bend/mutilate the collar enough then poke them through the wall.

Be careful when you do this, you don't want to put the screw driver and/or your hand through the wall as well.

In a brick wall you could drill them out.  Find a bit that is about the same size as the hole in the anchor, then carefully drill it out.


Which pipe do I need to link under sink trap and drain? I removed the trap to clean it out. There were actually two pieces: the trap, and a piece of pipe connecting the trap to the drain pipe When putting it back, I realized the threads and top of the connecting pipe were broken a bit and wouldn’t fit back into the pipe as is. I must have removed something that wasn’t supposed to be. Anyways, now I need a replacement pipe to go from the drain pipe to my trap. The top I think needs to be female but I don’t have much room to wrap around the drain pipe- maybe only a half inch- before it would hit the stopper device.
Which pipes do I need?

If you can’t get the tail out of the basin pop up /drain stopper you may need to replace the entire drain assembly.
Don’t panic only about 12.00$ at the big orange home store “pop up assembly” by easy flow is one inexpensive one that will work.
First remove the drain pop up lever unscrew the plastic and pull the rod out the back. the rod is held in place by a spring clip  now you can slid the rod off the clip
The basin nut at the bottom of the sink now needs to be unscrewed loosened.
Now comes a possible difference depending on type some the nut will come all the way off and the assembly can be pushed up.
The other way (most common) is the top section unscrews and when the flange is loose pull down and remove lift the top piece and stopper out and it is ready to be reassembled.
When you purchase the new piece if it doesn’t have a seal for the top (many come with a neoprene seal) you will need a small tub of plumbers putty.
Roll out a nice fat worm slightly longer than what it takes to wrap around the pipe at the top part (the flair that the stopper sits on) when snugged down plumbers putty squishes out and fills the voids creating a water tight seal of there is not a neoprene seal.
Other than that you can keep the existing piece to push and pull the stopper or remove and install the new one.
The stopper adjustment is the toughest part it may be slightly higher or lower than the original once adjusted I put the slip joint pipe to the P Trap and snug all the nuts. After doing this a few times it can be done in under 15 minutes, but the first time expect 30-45 minutes. A pair of plumbers players with the adjustable jaws that can open to 1-1/2” really makes the job much easier and is the only tool I usually use other than a screw driver to scrape any old plumbers putty away after removing the drain/ pop up assembly.
There may be some instructions make sure to look them over , if you have an over flow drain you will want to line up the holes with the drain.
I probably made it sound hard but really I have to pull mine apart several times a year because it gets plugged with long hair from the wife, daughters and all the granddaughters long hair they are not hard and if you can’t get the tail out or find a new one to screw in you will need to replace it.


How do we add structurally sound faux stud for a single stud TV mount? We are preparing to install a single stud TV mount, (Kanto PS300). However the ideal place to put it (visually for the room), lies between two studs.

We want to open up the wall and frame in a faux 24" vertical stud, securely suspended between the real ones, then attach the TV mount wall plate assembly To the faux stud.

So, how do we add a structurally sound faux stud for a single stud TV mount?

We have a handyman coming over who says he can do this but are looking for tips/best practices, (proper blocking/bracing, etc.) from people who know about framing, so we can make sure the job is done right.

We have searched for how to do this but have not come up with much, but it could be that we lack the correct terminology to search for.  Is there a name for what we are trying to do here?

Any help you can provide would be appreciated.

Thanks!

A bunch of ways to do this. What I would probably do myself, which is not what you are currently planning, is:

Cut a piece of plywood, probably 3/4" thick, 24" tall by ~ 20" (studs 16" apart) or ~ 28" (studs 24" apart).
Mount the plywood with 3 screws on each stud.
Paint the plywood to match the wall. It doesn't have to be perfect because it will be mostly hidden by the TV.
Mount the Kanto PS300 to the plywood.

I wouldn't necessarily recommend that for all situations, because of the need to paint the plywood. But if you are going to open up the wall to put in a stud, you are going to need to do drywall patching and then painting, so this will actually be a lot less work.

If you insist on the original plan:

Cut a hole in the drywall ~ 36" tall (24" stud + 4" on top and on bottom for the cross pieces) x ~ 16" or 24" (depending on distance between existing studs)
Screw metal brackets into the existing studs and new 2x4 pieces to span at top and bottom.
Screw metal brackets into the new 2x4 cross pieces and the new stud at top and bottom.
Patch drywall
Paint
Mount Kanto PS300


what's the term for double window in one window frame and why is it considered outdated technology? I live in Montreal and I just moved from a building that had double sliding windows in each window frame (I assume a single pane each) to a building with single double-pane windows that look a lot newer. The heating bill for the new apartment is much larger and the soundproofing is non-existent, I have a volume of street noise that sounds like my windows are open at all times, I can hear two people talking on the other side of the street (I am on the second floor).

As per my limited experience, the double window technology (two single panes) seem to be a lot better than the newer windows in the new apartment. That's what my parents in Russia seem to have too and the second window was installed on the interior for the winter only and removed during summer.

I would like to do some research online, but I am not sure what to even call the double window set-up, nothing comes up. Any tips? What's your experience with this?

Edit: Interior Storm Windows seem to be the best term so far. The question remains - why is this considered an outdated technology? Again, from my limited experience it seems better to me in every way than any fancy new windows.

Sounds like you're talking about "triple-track storm windows", which usually has 3 panels, 2 with glass, one with a screen; in the summer you slide the bottom glass panel up, and screen down; in the winter you slide it down. They were commonly retrofitted to older houses that had no storm windows.

Newer windows (the windows themselves, not the storm windows) usually have two glass panels with a vacuum or gas in between, eliminating the need for bolted on storm windows. The newer windows, besides being more energy efficient, also can block UV rays that damage curtains and furniture.

The reality is there's a lot of cheaply made windows out there that look modern, but transmit sound like a hollow steel drum; and properly maintained triple tracks can be almost as energy efficient.


Best approach for smoothing brick I am rebuilding the wall at the front of my house, but the previous (now partially taken down) wall was built into the pillar on my neighbours land.

It used to look like this (pillar is 100% on their land, white wall is 100% on mine);

It currently looks like this;

What is the best tools/ technique to "sand" the bricks in the pillar, so it resembles a pillar in it's own right? (I then plan to build my new wall adjacent (but separate) to the neighbours pillar).

Some thoughts;

Use an angle grinder to sand the brick down. Not sure it's the right tool?
Chisel out the "jutting out bricks", and replace them. Not sure how cleanly the bricks will come out?
Knock down the pillar, and rebuild it. Seems like a waste, when it's only a few bricks that are the problem.

I would have cut the bricks with a masonary saw to give the straight neat line then sorted the mortar lines.

You can still do this to tidy the edges up and use some of the half bricks to fill the gaps and then finish the mortar lines.

One point about the construction was the wall was built and just the pillar part continued upwards leaving the wall surface at its height.


What is a good way to cleanly cut through steel? What tools can I use to get a clean cut through thin steel? Specifically, I have several mini beer kegs I need to cut the bottoms out of. I don't mind it taking a while, but my cuts are jagged (easy to cut myself on them) and it takes me about an hour and a half to get a semi-clean cut to where I don't cut myself.

I also would prefer a tool that does not create sparks, as I don't exactly have a fire-safe environment to work with, but I can always do the cutting elsewhere if need be.

A Nibbler, is a tool that is used for cutting thin metal. A heavy duty nibbler is usually capable of cutting up to 14 gauge steel. I'm not sure what gauge metal is used for mini kegs, so this tool may not be appropriate in your situation.

Some nibblers work similar to a punch and die, nibbling small sections of the metal at a time (think hole punch). Other versions make two parallel cuts, and roll the scrap material in front of the tool as they cut.

Nibblers come in both manual, and powered variations. Powered version can be powered by both air, or electricity.

There are even some available that attach to a drill, converting the drills rotary action to a reciprocating motion.

Nibblers will give you a clean cut, and will not create sparks.


How to repair a crack along the grain in a solid block of wood from a single tree? Approximately 3 years ago I purchased a slice of a log, approximately 50 cm (~1.5') wide at the widest place, approximately 2.5-3 meters (~9-10') long, and about 4-5cm thick (I don't have exact measurements with me right now, will add them in a comment later, if necessary and will add photos if necessary, also later). I think the wood is pine, but am unsure at this moment. The piece was cut into two pieces (~2m and ~1m).

One was treated (by me) with an oil based coating ("Yacht Varnish") with two or three (can't remember now) fairly thick  coats, from all sides. I don't know whether this is a mistake or not (let me know!) but I did not fill the imperfections first, but rather tried to put enough of the varnish to coat them as well.

The other, after some time, was treated with two coats of water based laquer which gave is a nicer matte finish, in order for it not to be exposed to the elements.

The long piece was attached at the ends (screwed with 2 corner joints on each end, such that it was resting on the joints) to a wall and a concrete column. The shorter piece did not find a use.

After about a year the shorter piece developed a crack along the middle, with the grain. I did nothing about it. After we moved I turned the bar piece into a bench by screwing 4 feet into it. I did not remove the corners from the wood as I thought it might ruin the thread there, and allow moisture to enter the wood (planned to use them to add hand rests at the ends).

Despite the fact that it felt very sturdy and that people sat on it a handful of time for a total time of maybe an hour, the board developed a fairly wide (3mm I think, at its widest) crack along the grain, around the middle of the bench.

So, I have two questions:
1. I presume I treated the wood badly or this would not have happened. What should I have done differently?
2. What can I do now to stop the crack from spreading and to make the bench safe for sitting without fear of breakage? Most of all I want to avoid sanding it again as I don't have the proper place to do it and don't want to breath wood/lacquer dust.

In regard to Q. 2, I thought about adding a frame undernear, shaped as H or as a rectangle. I thought that maybe the crack didn't develop earlier since the corners did not allow the wood to expand, and now that there is nothing holding them, it did expand in an uneven manner? or perhaps that the presence of the corners did not allow the ends to expand with the middle, and it was bound to happen anyway, with the way it was affixed?

Thanks in advance for all the answers!

Edit:

Just measured: The cut piece is ~1.5m x 40cm  x 4cm. The largest crack is about 1 mm wide and 50cm long.

Photos:
The crack at the end I think has been from some time after cutting the smaller part off and before the varnish:

(http://i.imgur.com/CgnBjeM.jpg)

First part of the crack (it is one long crack with varying width):

(http://i.imgur.com/AeAREE3.jpg)

Second part of the crack:

The attached pieces and legs may have exacerbated the effects by not moving with the seat but a piece of pine of that size was probably destined to crack regardless. You can try to weep glue down into it (run a line of yellow glue over the crack then blow it down into the void with an air nozzle) and then clamp out the space but it probably won't be permanent and you could damage your finish with the clamp pressure. Were it me, I'd fill the crack with tinted epoxy and let the piece wear the crack like a badge of honor. Think of a piece reclaimed pine:

Tape off the crack with painters tape. You don't want epoxy all over the finish, just down in the crack.
Mix a 5 minute epoxy to the manufactures specs, then add 5% by volume a Van Dyke Brown (or similar) aniline pigment. Most manufacturers will recommend a product compatible with their own on their website, I recommend West System.
Apply the mix carefully over the crack and then force it down in with a putty knife or shim. Trowel off the excess as neatly as possible and let dry. Repeat this step as necessary (sometimes is sinks in after application) until the epoxy fills the void flush with the surface.
Remove the tape preferably when the epoxy is still sort of gooey and let dry over night. (yes it's 5 minute epoxy but trust me)
Sand off the residual epoxy with 220 and a light touch and then scuff sand the entire piece with 280.
Apply a light fresh coat of your original finish.

Hope this helps, cheers!


Do we need to replace wet insulation resulting from a a/c drain Licensed air conditioning company replaced a part in our air conditioning unit in our attic and while doing so left a drain hose open and leaking water that we did not know about until it dripped through our ceiling   We had a small puddle on the floor and several obvious wet spots on the ceiling including one around a light.  We called them and they came immediately today and ceiled the leaking hose; however, there is wet insulation in the attic.  What do you suggest we do.   Should we remove the wet insulation and what kind of business do you call to look at the light and the ceiling damage?

You don't have to replace insulation unless you think that you can't dry it.  Normally we would set up halogen lamps and fans to dry attics out.  You can replace it too if that seems easier.  How do you tell?  Well after 1.5-2 days of lights and fans things should be bone dry.  If not you probably need to replace.  For instance in the winter we know we can't get enough heat and air going so we would just replace.

As for your ceiling, drywall can get wet and if it fully dries it retains 90%+ of its structural abilities.  There was actually a study done I read about wetting and drying ceiling drywall 50+ times and basically they found if it dried right after it got wet you could basically get the drywall wet an unlimited amount of times.  However if it is wet too long then the gypsum starts to break down.  How do you tell?  You will probably see all of you screws/nails popped out down.

If you just have a couple that popped out I would wait for it to dry then add screws back where needed.  You might have to do some very minor mudding/sanding.  If you don't want to do it pretty much any handyman/contractor/dry wall service can handle this - about the easiest job you can get.

If the drywall is just too wet to salvage, you simply need to remove all insulation on top of it, take it down and redrywall - and then put back insulation.  This isn't hard but is a mess.

To get rid of the stains you need an oil based stain cover like the original Killz.  If you try anything else you could end up putting 20 coats on.  Usually 2 coats of Killz and then two coats of ceiling paint takes care of it - you can double coat within an hour for each with correct air flow.

As for your light - I would assume it is fine if it is dry and still working.  I would not be concerned about that.


will using a ventilation system with an heat exchanger give me the same quality air indoors as outdoors? will using a ventilation system with an heat exchanger give me the same quality air indoors as outdoors?

is using a proper ventilation system equivalent to having all your windows open without any heat loss in terms of the air quality (namely the freshness/crispness of air)

A heat-recovery ventilator will give you mostly what you want, though how much you get depends on how big it is and how much it runs.


Clothes dryer exhaust duct touching PVC pipe I'm running exhaust duct for a new electric dryer. There's 10cm(4in) space between a 5cm PVC drain pipe and the wall where I wanna run the rigid duct. My concern is that the heat from the dryer might melt the PVC pipe. Is that something possible or am I way off and dryer exhaust is nowhere near that hot.

The glass temperature (point at which it starts becoming molten) for PVC is 82°C (179°F). The generally accepted maximum operating temperature for PVC is 70°C (158°F) though again, this can vary by product. Pressure ratings are at room temperature (21°C/70°F), and they go down as the temperature goes up: at 70°C the pressure rating is decreased by around 20% (eg, schedule 80 PVC rated for 230psi is only rated for 43psi at 70°C).

(Note: CPVC, which is more commonly found used for potable water applications, has a glass temperature of 106°C (222°F) and unlike PVC, it can also be used for hot water supplies. Since you said drain pipe, it's probably regular PVC.)

The exhaust temperature of a dryer typically cycles from 50 to 71°C (120 to 160°F), though there is a potential if the dryer is broken it could be higher (any dryer made since the 1980's has a thermal fuse in it, hard to find info but it sounds like these often blow at 198 or 185°F).

So worst case, is if the pipe was a pressurized PVC water pipe, and you have really high water pressure (90psi -- typical is 30 to 60psi), and your dryer is broken and operates near 198°F for a while before the safety fuse shuts it off: depending on how enclosed this area is, it may actually get the pipe hot enough to weaken it enough that it bursts from pressure.

However, drains are not pressurized, and so in the same situation, the temperature is still not high enough to get to the glass temperature, and from 4" away, it's definitely not going to transfer that much heat to the PVC (unless you had it enclosed in a small insulated space with no air flow at all). I'd say you are pretty safe.


Structurally mounting to hollow brick I am replacing an old balcony with these custom designed supports. When I drilled in with 1/2 masonry sleeves it would not grab. Looking at the brick, its hollow. Is there any way to safely secure these brackets without having to put supports on other side of the wall? The top header of the deck meets the floor header of house so I plan on bolting right to it, which will help, but the supports only go into the hollow brick. See pics. enter image description here. I have more pics, but cant find a way to upload more than one here.

I would never hang a deck off a brick veneer or any finish, you have to attach to something structural.  The pullout force generated by the cantilever is going to be tremendous.  When it fails, it won't be a minor mishap.
Honestly I wouldn't go anywhere near this without putting a lot more thought into it, getting an engineer or architect's stamp on the plan, and getting it inspected.


How to finish retaining wall for a paver patio on a sloping ground? Hi All: I am building a paver patio in my backyard (primarily so that kids can use it for playing). I need some advise on the best way to do it. The size of the patio would be large: 26ft by 18ft. My backyard has slope in both the directions as shown in the figure.

I already built a retaining wall on the right edge and on the far end of the backyard for uniformity. The wall is not too high - about one feet above ground at the far right corner which is the lowest point. I used the cement blocks as shown in the figure for the retaining wall. I put one step in the retaining wall at about the middle of the right edge so that the patio can be built sloping downwards away from the house (for drainage). The blocks of the retaining wall at any one level are all at the same horizontal level. Now the issue is I want the patio to be flush with no step in it as I feel the patio will look better if there is no step and I believe it is safer to walk. What is the best way to build the rest of my patio (if it even makes sense)?

One way that I could think of is to add 2 inch thick blocks on top of the retaining wall to cap the wall in such a way that the blocks follow a gentle slope all along the 26ft of the wall while hiding the step. And use mortar to fill the gap between the wall and the cap as shown in the figure. The 2 inch paver stones that I would be using will be held in place by the cap all around.  Now I am not sure if it is a good idea. I don't have much experience using mortar/concrete mix. Is there a better way? If using mortar works fine, any tips on doing it properly. Also, what kind of mortar/concrete mix is the best choice for the work? Any advise is greatly appreciated.

If you can't add a coarse of block from the step out to the end, so that the top of the entire block wall is all the same, then I would consider removing the blocks from the step out and excavating to lower them down so that you can.

To accomplish water runoff you can:

build the retaining wall perfectly level then hump the patio pavers higher by
an inch or two about 2/3 of the way down the middle from the house out,
pitch the entire retaining wall in a direction as if it were one
monolithic thing
or a combination of the two.


Purchased 1980 home, exterior outlet not working Story: purchased a home built in 1980.  One of the exterior outlets was missing.  As in, just exposed wiring (ground, white, black).  I installed a new receptacle but it doesn't work.  Theres an interior outlet nearby but not exactly opposite of the problem exterior outlet.  I checked out the interior outlet and it has two sets of wiring thats daisy chained but It seems to be chained to an adjacent interior outlet.  (Tested by unhooking the black wire and an adjacent interior outlet stopped working).  Anybody have any idea what the problem could be?  I don’t know how exterior outlets are wired(straight to circuit breaker?).   If anybody has any insight, I would be grateful! Thank you for your time!

The fact of the wires being left in the box but not capped is practically proof that they are not hooked up to anything on the other end.

The reason is, no sane person would energize wires that are just tucked into a box without capping.  In fact I believe energizing a set of wires to nothing is a code violation, even if they are capped.  Which they are not.

So it'll be a bit of a bug hunt to find the other end of this cable.


Do I have to cover pipes under slab? I'm adding a new toilet in basement and would like to know if the (drain) pipes that will be buried under the slab have to be covered with something else exept of the gravel (like wrapping them or putting it in a larger diameter pipes) in order to protect it from the stress of the slab settling etc. When looking at the point of connection to the old pipes I see nothing.                                                   Thanks

Normally your drain pipes are ABS plastic having them bedded in the rock is fine.
If your supply is copper (I do not recommend copper under a slab) it should be coated so the corrosive effects will not cause pin holes.
I have had to replace several sets of copper pipe under a slab it is very expensive the houses were not very old maybe 20 years.
I would use cpvc or maybe pex pipe under the slab. I love copper pipe but not in or under a slab.


Can an 8 gauge wire melt due to arcing on a 35 amp breaker I recently was having some HVAC issues with a heat pump blower motor not running.  Being comfortable using a multimeter, I opened up the panel to the furnace and was checking voltages on the capacitor and blower motor when one of the hot power wires arced by touching the metal furnace. I now have a complete loss of power to the furnace.  Immediately after the arc, the dual gang 35 amp breakers tripped.  I reset the breaker to find that the power was still not reaching the furnace at all.  I checked the wires coming out of the breaker with a non-contact voltage meter and confirmed voltage is coming out of the breakers.
There is only about 8 feet of wire from the main electrical panel where the breakers are and the 8 gauge wire coming into the furnace electrical panel.  The wire coming out of the breaker leads goes up in my attic into nearly inaccessible areas before coming down through the ceiling into the furnace panel. I checked the resistance between the breaker and the input of the furnace power and there was no connectivity.  The ohm meter was 0.L, if the wires were good, there should be connectivity.

QUESTION: Is it possible for both 8 gauge wires coming out of the two 35 amp breakers to completely burn out so as to not be able to feed power to the furnace because one of them arc'ed?
If so, is the 8 gauge wires being burned and not providing current the only scenario or could something else be amiss with the wires feeding the furnace from the breaker?

I went up in the attic and tried to investigate any visual failures from the 8 gauge wire but I was not able to find any nor could I get a non-contact voltage detector to work on any of the 8 gauge wires since the sheath is too thick.

There is no chance of the entire wire burning up.   The wire failed at the terminations.  Unscrew the wire from the breaker and furnace, and closely inspect both sets of wire ends, and the screw terminals on which they terminate.  You will find either arc damage, or poor workmanship, or both.

Also check for any intermediate splices.   There is nothing wrong with those if they are done properly.

It's also possble it's a failed breaker, but I wouldn't count on that.


How do I run ENT to an old work box? I have an existing low-voltage old-work box similar to this which I am using to provide a cable TV outlet:

I would like to run more cables to this location, namely, phone and CAT6. I do have access to the location behind the wall through the attic. However, I would like to improve this by drilling a hole through the floor into the basement where all the cables come into the house anyway, and pushing ENT through the hole and attaching it to something different in this location (this box does not have ENT connections).

The only way I know of to make this work is to rip out drywall to expose the entire cavity between the studs, install a new-work low-voltage box to one of the studs, and replace and patch the section of drywall:

I am certainly capable of doing this and have done similar tasks in the past, but would rather avoid the extra work if possible.
One thing I have done in other locations is to push ENT into the wall cavity and get it close enough to the outlet location that when I fish cable though, it is possible to grab it through the hole with fingers or pliers. However, this particular wall cavity has the chimney stack behind it with extra room (much deeper than a 2x4 stud cavity), so cables have too much room to wiggle around and there is a risk they will be too far behind the wall to reach and pull through the outlet box. If I can somehow do the difficult task of grabbing ENT once, and get it attached to a box, then future work will be trivially easy.
Is there a way to securely attach ENT to a box in this location without removing any drywall?
This particular project is restricted to low-voltage work and does not involve real electrical. Location is the USA with no known building codes out of the ordinary that are relevant to this project.

Just use a metal old-work box, perfectly fine for low-voltage stuff. It will have standard knock-outs for conduit connection, as opposed to PVC boxes which commonly have spring-lever grabbers for NM sheathed cable:


Can floor tiles be installed on walls? I am building a home and would like to install floor tiles on wall also, please let me know if it possible to install floor tiles on walls?

Yes, it is possible to install floor tiles on walls.


Cannot unscrew stuck shower arm I’m replacing my old shower arm but it stuck and won’t move not even a bit.
The picture is my old adjustable shower arm remnants(female) attach to the pipe(male) coming out of the wall.
I tried heating then unscrew, WD-40, lime a way and pipe wrench but nothing worked so far.
WD-40 was so hard to spray in the thread also...i don’t think it was going into thread that much.
Before calling plumber, is there anything I could do?

Thank you,

You need more leverage. To do that use a pipe wrench with a cheater bar attached so the handle is longer. Slip a 1 inch (or comparable) diameter pipe length onto the handle. This will greatly increase the torque you exert. Counterclockwise direction is loose.
Apply force slowly and in increments. Most likely there's a sweated copper fitting behind the shower arm and it can break if over torqued.
A more passive way to remove it would be with a hacksaw. Make a diagonal cut on top of the squared shoulder of the shower arm. Cut until you see the 1/2 inch nipple that it's threaded to. Make the cut from its base to the end of the square shoulder. It will spin right off when completed.