Whooshing sound in water supply lines in my house I would like to resurface this question. I put it on StackExchange a few months ago and I now believe I know the cause of my problem but can't seem to come up with a good solution.

I replaced the main water shutoff valve in my home last September. Since then whenever I run water anywhere in the house including sinks, showers or toilets I get a very loud whooshing in the supply lines while the water is running. This happens on both the hot and cold sides. I didn't have this before. One clue is that when I shut off the water at any faucet I can hear water continuing to run through the lines for another four or five seconds before the sound stops. It never varies. Another clue might be that when I replaced the main shutoff valve I was very careful to turn on the water at the curb very slowly so that I wouldn't slam the plumbing and cause a leak. I now believe the problem is with trapped air somewhere in the line coming into the house. However, opening the faucets and letting the water run hasn't solved the problem or made it better.

Someone on this site suggested that I might have an inverted U somewhere in the supply line that has trapped air in it. If so, could this have been caused by turning on the water at the curb too slowly and not flushing the air out of the inverted U? I think this may be the case because it would explain the whooshing and the delayed shut down due to the water pressure compressing the air in the inverted U section after I shut off the faucet. The supply lines are behind walls and mostly inaccessible so I can't visually verify this.

Assuming the above deductions are correct, could I possibly solve this by shutting off the water again at the curb - Then open all of the faucets inside and outside the house to prevent high pressure from slamming them and then opening the main valve at the street more quickly to flush any air out of the line?

I would appreciate any thoughts and suggestions.

Have you considered the possibility that the main water shutoff valve is the culprit here?   It may appear to work fine, but perhaps it's allowing air to enter the pipes?  Maybe the valve itself is faulty, or the installation of the valve is faulty.

From what you've written, the only difference is the new main water shutoff valve.
 It seems like it's the culprit.  If you didn't have air getting in your lines before, then it seems likely the new valve is the issue.  Replace it.


How can I determine if my outlets can easily be grounded? I'm not sure what to do here. I just moved into a building and my outlets are all 2 prong outlets. Here is what I know of for sure:

All the outlets are 2 prong outlets
The bathroom outlet has the red/black reset/test switch. I'm guessing that means that the building is grounded?
The building is off of power lines (not underground)

My fear is blowing my electronics. I am not sure what to do here to properly protect my electronics. I'm hoping that my outlets are grounded-ready or the such, but how can I know? What do I do here?

Depending on how old the building is, and when the wiring was done. You might be hosed, or really lucky.  To find out which, you'll have to open up the box.

Start by turning off the breaker to the receptacle in question, and verify power is off with either a voltage tester or a non-contact type tester.  Remove the receptacle cover, and undo the screws holding the receptacle in the box. Pull the receptacle out as far as you can, without damaging or disconnecting the wires from the receptacle.  If there is a bare copper wire hanging around inside the box, you just hit the jackpot!  Go out and buy a new receptacle (with ground), and hook it up.

If there is no ground wire in the box, You're basically done.  There was a time when you could use the metal shielding of Type AC cable as a ground (if the building was wired with shielded cable), but I believe this is no longer acceptable in the eyes of the NEC.

Depending on the code adopted in your area, you may be able to replace the 2-prong outlets with GFCI receptacles.  If you do this, you'll have to make sure you label the receptacles "No Equipment Ground" (a sticker should be included with the receptacle).

The best option at this point would be to call in an electrician, and have the circuits upgraded, or a new grounded circuit installed.


Sliding Glass Door Mortise Lock Replacement I live in Florida and I have a Hurricane sliding door there the lock has failed. I thought that this would be an easy thing to replace, but when I removed the screws to take the lock out, there is a metal bar behind the lock that prevents the lock from sliding down or up (I had to force it to where it is now). The metal bar probably goes up the whole length of the sliding door. I think that the only way to fix this is to remove the door from the track, lay the door down, loosen the bottom bolts then and remove / angle the side out. (I had to do this to replace the rollers a few years ago).
Anyone have any experience with this? Am I missing something simple or is my path forward the correct one?

In order to replace this lock, I needed to take the door off the track and then dismantle the aluminum frame with a block of 2x4. Once apart, I unscrewed the locking mechanics and then rotated the lock 90 degrees inside the aluminum channel and slid it to the top. (It would not come out of the bottom.) To replace the lock, I followed the same process in reverse.
It's a shame that the whole door had to come apart to replace a $12-13 part. But I am glad it is done. If pictures are needed for someone else, I will be more than happy to post some.


Can I install hardwood floors (not floating) on a concrete floor? We have recently bought an old house, and the ground floor has a hard floor and is currently covered in tongue and groove laminate - which we hate.

We'd like to put reclaimed floorboards down - is this possible on a solid floor!? If so how would be go about this? If we get the boards cut to size is it something I could attempt - or is a strictly pro job?  I'm guessing the latter and that its probably going to be well over our budget (£600 for 2 rooms) - but if anyone can provide any advice we'd be very grateful.

Installing hardwood flooring over concrete is generally not advisable for multiple reasons.  Two of these reasons are:  1) oftentimes the concrete is moisture permeable, which means that any solid wood floor installed directly to the floor will buckle irreversibly; 2) typically solid wood floors are nailed to the substrate, which is not an option with concrete.  One can install 1.5" sleepers on top of the slab to provide this nailing substrate, but this affects significantly things like ceiling height, door height, countertop height, etc.  So this is generally not done as a remodel project unless you're remodeling the whole thing.  One thing I would recommend as a compromise is finding some way to seal the slab, say with an epoxy paint, and then gluing an engineered wood floor to it.


How do I raise my garage ceiling after spray foaming? I'm starting to add central vac to my house, which mostly involves pipes in the garage. I cut a hole in the garage ceiling (drywalled) to check things out, and found there's an 18" up to the bottom of the joists on the second floor (There is a room above 80% of the garage).

My garage ceiling is 9', so having nearly 18" more space would make a huge difference (eg, I could walk underneath bikes, winter tires, etc, stored up near the ceiling, whereas now I can't).

The existing ceiling 2x4's that are hung from the joists above, and then covered with drywall.

I would like to spray foam, and then drywall the ceiling up as high as possible. With the space now, there is a fairly effective thermal break between the garage and the second floor. If I were to just spray foam between the joist bays, the joists themselves would not have that thermal break anymore.

What's the best way to spray foam, and then drywall below while maintaining the best insulation? Should I get the joists spray-foamed, and then put strapping below that for the drywall, and if so, how do I connect the strapping after spray-foam and keep it level?

Note, I'm in South-Eastern Ontario, Canada, which means we go from -30C to +30C (-22 to 86F), so having a good thermal break and vapour barrier is very important. Since this is a garage, keeping the exhaust fumes out of the house is also important.

The hole I cut is right next to the brick wall, in the far corner:

Looking up into the hole, opposite the bricks.

In the above picture (looking towards the back of the garage) you can see a heating vent that runs across. There are two vents in the front of this room (next to the brick wall from the first picture), and more vents that run through the ducts themselves. Presumably I'll have to build a bulkhead at the back of the garage for this, but the rest of the ceiling can still be raised.

The electrical you can see is for two lights and a plug on the ceiling for the garage door opener -- all easily moved.

I'm in a temp range about 5C more in each direction. Attached garages tend to be about half as cold as outside so a thermal break is less important here. It wouldn't be a huge loss if you just screwed the gypsum board directly to the underside of the floor joists. However, it's easy to get a thermal break without much more effort, and it's almost as easy as applying directly to floor joists.

After applying the main insulation, sheath the bottom of the joists with 1/2" polyiso (polyisocyanurate) insulation board -- your thermal break. Then using longer screws, apply the gypsum directly to the joists through the polyiso.

Highest possible ceiling, thermal break if you want one, level application, no faffing about with hangers. Wins all around.


how can I remove broken spigot from garden hose end? I had a leak where my two way connector was attached to my garden hose so I tightened it up.  When I turned the water on, the male end of the two way broke off inside the female end of the garden hose.  I was wondering how I would go about getting it out, as I do not want to replace the hose.

TRY a POTATO !
just cut a piece of potato and "screw" the potato into the female end-- it just might grab enough for you to unscrew the broke male threads --   it is safe on your hands and cheap to try - won't damage anything--  I have used this to get out broken light bulb parts in a socket too! GRANDPA taught me this decades ago!


RV heating and cooling using multiple sources of fuel I'm trying to design an all terrain/all weather RV for some extreme camping and I'm wondering if it's possible to have a multiple fuel source heating/cooling/refrigeration system.  I want to be able to heat and cool with wood/pellets, coal, #2 oil/K1/diesel, LPG/LNG.  I'm thinking I can build a multiple fuel firebox (with only one fuel running at a time) and use an ammonia based system for the cooling (like my propane fridge upta camp has).  Thoughts, ideas, things I should research/consider?  I'm expecting the living space of the vehicle to be roughly 30'×8'×8' = ≈2K ft³.
Additional information:

I'm planning a hull design cabin such as big orange or the Globecruiser.
Here is a cutout image of a firebox, for reference.  Other cutout images I've seen call it a combustion chamber.
I'm planning on having the furnace part on the exterior of the vehicle with no direct access to the inside.  I was thinking of building a heat exchanger that will pump water through the firebox/combustion chamber into some ½" PEX tubing in the floor and walls of the vehicle that will be sandwiched between two layers of metal and fill poured with a castable refractory cement.
Once I get my camper built, I'll be on a very limited retiree budget - so I don't want to buy propane or heating fuel any more than I have to.  I prefer to run mostly wood (chunk or pellet) or coal whenever possible.
Air conditioning is not a matter of living fancy, it's a matter of breathing with my lung issues. I'm expecting to go all kinds of places across north and south America and I might even make my way across the ice bridge in northern Alaska to hit Asia, Europe and Africa.  So, I will need both heat for the cold locations and air conditioning for the 120°F day in the shade places.
I do plan on having a couple different electric generation sources including solar, but I didn't want to have to build it to a size that would be required for air conditioning.
An absorption refrigerator is a refrigerator that uses a heat source (e.g., solar energy, a fossil-fueled flame, waste heat from factories, or district heating systems) to provide the energy needed to drive the cooling process. The system uses two coolants, the first of which performs evaporative cooling and is then absorbed into the second coolant; heat is needed to reset the two coolants to their initial states. The principle can also be used to air-condition buildings using the waste heat from a gas turbine or water heater. Using waste heat from a gas turbine makes the turbine very efficient because it first produces electricity, then hot water, and finally, air-conditioning—trigeneration. Absorption refrigerators are commonly used in recreational vehicles (RVs), campers, and caravans because they can be powered with propane fuel, rather than electricity. Unlike more common vapor-compression refrigeration systems, an absorption refrigerator can be produced with no moving parts other than the coolants. [1]

Don't make perfect the enemy of the good, or the project never finishes.
Space dimensions do not decide HVAC requirements. Insulation value x surface area does x air leakage.
So it's all about the insulation.  Walls with 6" of aerogel and good door/window sealing will be a completely different energy picture than J random converted step van with #16 aluminum on 3/8" plywood and a 1/4" crack under the door.
Where you lost me, however, was "multiple fuel firebox".  Firebox????   It sounds like  you want to rocket off into space and design your own stove from scratch that will take everyfuel.  Forget it, that's a Manhattan Project to do with any level of safety or sophistication.  I assume you want a heater that you can refuel without getting your pajamas wet, yet that will also not kill you from carbon monoxide?  Generally you have 2 options:

Build a hillbilly nightmare that will burn the place down or gas you
Buy a quality, efficient product off the shelf that Just Works and you can run it while you sleep so you don't have to sleep in long johns and spend the first hour of the morning trying to restore heat while your hands go numb.

Since I gather you don't want three totally separate furnaces in that compact space, you better select one that's a safety and functionality winner and stick with it.  There's not going to be any shortage of propane or diesel anytime soon.
I gather you'll probably want to cook.  Think about that as part of the heat source decision, pretty dumb to need 2 different fuels for the two tasks.
When you're RVing, you don't need air conditioning.  If you really want it, cover the roof with solar panels and you'll have plenty of power to run a compressor based A/C system.  You'll want a sensibly sized battery pack anyway, because if you're too fancy to live without A/C I'm sure you're too fancy to live without electric conveniences.  Running an off-grid electrical system, sizing panels, batteries, loads etc. is a topic all its own.
Solar plays well with A/C because the only reason you need air conditioning in the first place is solar gain.  Thus the need and the power supply arrive in same proportion.
I seriously doubt an ammonia based absorption refrigerator would even be capable of scaling up to air conditioning size.


Why do I see only 50 volts on my live wires? I'm trying install a lamp to my apartment but it didn't light up as I expected. I recently moved in and this is the first time I'm trying to install a lamp here. The spot where I'm trying to install the lamp is just a hole in the ceiling with three wires hanging out: Two brown (live?) and one blue (neutral?). Some Googling revealed to me that the separate live wires can be used to control specific bulbs in a multi-bulb lamp. Nearby there is a switch on the wall with two buttons which I assume is for these wires. So apparently the idea is that current flows from each live wire through the bulbs to the common neutral wire when to buttons are toggled on. One live wire and the neutral were connected in parallel to a connection strip, while the other live wire was connected alone to its own connection strip.

My lamp has a spring-powered connection strip with L and N labeled holes so I simply took one of the brown wires to L and the blue wire to N.

I removed the connection strips and tried to measure the voltage to see if the problem was somewhere else in the circuit, and I noticed that each of the live wires measures around 50-54 volts with respect to the neutral, even though the AC line voltage in my country is 240 volts. Even stranger, I measured this voltage regardless of the positions of the switch buttons! Only when I removed the fuse I got 0 volts.

So I assume the reason why the lamp didn't light up was that the voltage was way too low. Could somebody point what is it that I'm doing wrong, or is there something wrong with the wiring on my apartment?

I do agree with jsotola , inductive coupling created a voltage on this wire.  When next to a live line for a distance. Lines of force from the hot AC line induce a voltage if the lines ran further together the voltage would be higher (this is how transformers work) , it is commonly called phantom voltage as there is really no potential. Did you try and measure the voltage with the switch on? Also verify the breaker since this is all new to you someone may have turned this breaker off.


How should I fix cracking wood around door lock? Old door, the wood around the lock is breaking apart. Today a chunk of the material fell off. The chunk that fell off feels like rock and not wood.
I wonder it they previously try to patch it up with Bondo or something like it.
What should I do to secure the mechanism into place?
Do I need to remove the lock mechanism, extract all that is deteriorating and then fill the void with a solid piece of wood?
(Yes. That is a piece of tape holding a loose screw.)
Is it salvageable or is it time to get another door? I would rather that replacement be the last option bc our door is not a common size and I think will be expensive to replace.

You have an old wood door that used to have a Mortise lock in it.  Someone 'upgraded' it.
You have 2 choices:

stuff the cavity with whatever you can find, bondo, wood putty, etc.  Then buy a metal plate that "wraps around" the lock area.

Pull the lock out, pull out everything that smacks of wood filler.  Carefully measure the cavity and use a bandsaw, planer, jointer, etc. to take a piece of wood and shape it to slide into the cavity.  Make it just a bit wider and taller than the cavity so that it has to be tapped in with a hammer.  Then liberally smear it and the cavity with wood glue, tap it in, and clamp the door down tight in between 2x4's.  When everything has hardened redrill the doorknob holes.


How can I check for possible damage after water leaking into loft chimney? I had a loose tile on the roof in front of the chimney breast and noticed that in the loft the internal chimney breast was a bit damp. Since then had it repaired (i.e. the tile tapped down and the flashing secured.

I once saw a surveyor test water moisture in wall with a little machine. I would like to know if there has been damage to the chimney and wondered if I could buy one to test. Just really worried that this is a serious problem and I have been ripped off!

How can I check to make sure there is no permanent damage?

The best way I've found to check for damage isn't the way you want to hear: pull everything out, open it all up, and expose any areas that could have been damaged.  Faced with that, most of us ignore the problem until there is a visible sign (rotting wood or water damaged drywall).  But that's not to say this is the right choice, since mold and mildew will spread and make the problem worse.

If the problem is behind a few sheets of drywall, the best option may be to simply pull them down and replace them with a mold and mildew proof board.  Do a thorough inspection for damage while the drywall is out.

The probe sounds like a wood moister tester.  A high reading is bad, but a low reading doesn't mean you're ok (the water could have gone somewhere else).  If you can't access the affected area from the attic or crawl space, then you may want to see if you can rent a borescope, drill some holes near where you think the water could have gotten in, and see what you can find.


What is a minimally intrusive way to move a wire that is in a wall 3.5" to the left? I need to move a speaker that's mounted on a wall about 3.5" to the left.

Here's what the actual mounted speaker looks like:

The wire comes out inside the bracket that attaches to the wall, and feeds up into the speaker, so there's no room for wall plates or anything like that.

This is an interior wall, though there is insulation (for soundproofing) in it. I have access to the other side, though it is also finished wall (really I already have to patch this side..). This is in the middle of the stud bay; there is a stud about 5" to the right of the existing wire.

Does anyone have any tricks to doing this in a minimally intrusive way?

UPDATE: Done, Thanks. (Well, aside from another coat of polyfilla, and some touch-up paint). The hole is drilled on almost a 45 degree angle towards the old hole, and I jiggled (technical term) the drill bit around inside so it's larger on the inside, more like a cone.

The tape on the end of the wire has nothing to do with how I pulled it: it's a precaution to avoid shorting out my amp in case it is turned on. Good practice to do anytime you have bare speaker wires that are connected. (Better practice is of course to disconnect the other end, but I digress.)

Thanks all

You could always pick up a 1-Gang low voltage old work bracket like this...

Cut the hole to install it, which should give you enough space to grab the wire from the previous hole. Then finish it off with a wall plate like this.

This is sort of an ugly wall plate (used for example only), they make nicer looking ones but I couldn't find one with a quick search.  They used to have some that also had a way to mount the speaker built in, but I'm not sure if they still make those.

One of these snap-in types might look better.


How do I recognize which socket cover (fused or 3-pin) connects to which outlet? I have two power outlets in this room, one is a normal 3-pin (UK) plate cover and the other is a fused (switched) plate cover (much like the one below).

I've know removed them and wish to put them back, but unfortunately I do not remember which one goes where. The outlets both have the same wires coming out (one live, one neutral and one earth).

Is there a way to tell them apart? Are they actually the same thing and I can swap them over?

It's a switched outlet to connect to something else (a washer, dryer, ceiling fan etc) so there should be another set of wires going from this switch to whatever it's supplying.

The incoming 'hot' cable can be the same one that goes to the socket, it's a 13A switch so can be on a regular ring main


Drilled hole through wall stud First post here... I made a mistake and would like some suggestion on how to properly fix it.
I wanted to mount window curtain rods with toggle anchors. I drilled 3/8th inch hole through drywall, wall stud and hit concrete. To make it worse, it’s two holes on either side.
How can fix these holes in wall stud? I am worried it will affect something structurally.

With no more specifics than that I would say you should have no concern that one 3/8 inch hole drilled through one stud could present any structural problem. There is so much redundancy in standard stud construction that there is a vanishingly small probability this could have any practical consequence.
If the hole is where you want it and it is not on the edge of the stud, then use the right size of plastic sleeve anchor and screw in this hole to hold the curtain rod. That would be stronger than a toggle bolt into drywall.


Have water seepage in basement bedroom of 5 year old home, still under home warranty I have a rental property, about 5 years new.  The basement is half underground, ground is level, not sloped.  Tenant has been noting that there is slow water seepage into their bedroom floor from the edge, during rain.  No complaints for first 4 years.  The builder suspects plugged weeping tiles,but has not checked yet.  Foundation leaks are covered under warranty still.  It was built by a reputable builder (I think). Few questions:

Even if weeping tiles are plugged, should I expect the foundation to be water tight anyways and not leak?
Or is it expected that if weeping tiles are plugged, it will seep.
If it is plugged weeping tiles, does that mean the foundation leak warranty does not apply?
When does the foundation leak warranty apply?
Should I file a warranty claim regardless?

EDIT:  I should add that there is a sump pump inside the property which I suspect is for taking the drain water away.  The builder said it is working, so that is not the issue.  I have not been to the property myself as it is an out of town rental unit.

Yes, file a claim against the warranty AND file a claim with the local Contractors Builders Board (CBB). It may be called something different in your area.
All contractors are required to be licensed with the CBB in their state. If you don’t know how to contact them, ask your local Building Department.
The CBB will assign a claim number and help mediate a settlement.
I don’t know how the contractor would know why it’s leaking due to a plugged drain tile.
Moisture is either coming up from below (a rising water table) or its coming from the surrounding ground water in the saturated soil, or both.
If it comes up from a rising water table, it will enter the living space from below through the crack between the foundation wall and slab.
If it comes from the surrounding ground water, it COULD enter the living space through the wall, especially if the EXTERIOR side of the foundation wall is not sealed properly.
Either way the moisture enters the living space it will need to be collected and disposed. I think the best way to collect it is on the exterior side of the foundation wall in drainrock and a perf pipe laid 6”-8” below the interior basement slab.
To keep the subsurface water from seeping through the wall, I recommend installing a moisture barrier on the exterior side of the foundation wall and install a 2” thick plastic mesh on the wall to allow water to flow down to the perf pipe. If dirt is allowed to be backfilled against the wall, the dirt could hold the moisture giving it a chance to seep through the wall.
Once collected it needs to be disposed by extending a solid pipe over an embankment or in a collection well and pumped away.
This may be the most expensive method of solving the problem, but it’s sure to work.
Note: I would start a journal listing the dates of the leaks, estimate of quantity of water (location and size), pictures documenting extent of leak, and weather conditions (amount of rain per day, etc.).


How should I run a sink drain around a corner in my basement walls? I have a bathroom vanity on the wall about 3 feet from where I want to put a bar sink. Is there a way to run the plumbing around this corner? I still need to put a couple studs on the corner for drywall. What is the proper way to layout the studs to run pvc around the corner.

Normally a wall corner like that is framed with a U structure comprising three studs, plus one stud on the adjacent wall, though some variations use just three studs total in the case of interior walls. The idea is that both inside and both outside corner faces have backing for drywall and corner bead. The plumbing passages are then hogged out using industrial hole saws which make quick work of the job.

In your case, you might place two studs at the inside corner, do your plumbing, and then block in the outside of the corner around the pipes. This would require you to cut holes through just two studs and avoids the need to cut across the wide face of one or more studs.

Here's a plan view:

                               |        |
                               |        |
                               |        |
                               |________|
                               | stud   |
_______________________________|________|
                           | s |        |
                           | t |        |
                           | u |        | <---
___________________________|_d_|________|     | block here later above
                                              | and below the pipe
                                   ^----------

You'll want to install protective steel "nail plates" along each stud where pipes pass through to prevent damage from drywall fasteners.

If you find that it's difficult to get a single elbow to make the corner, use two and orient them vertically. The first bends down and the second back to horizontal, with a 90 degree swivel between them and the vertical drop centered in the wall intersection. This puts the curve of each elbow in a single wall plane, give you more room to work (assuming you have height available to make a short drop). One could be a street bend to eliminate the section of pipe between. This technique also allows you to create virtually any angle when standard fittings don't meet your needs.


How To Get A Noise Barrier In my Community I moved into a new house about a year ago that's located inside a very nice well established neighborhood that's been around for decades. At the end of the neighborhood is a busy highway that has been increasing in use each year as the local population grows. My house is about three blocks away from the highway and so I didn't think (or notice) the sound pollution was so bad. After having been in my house long enough though I notice the highway noise anytime the TV is turned off, while I'm sleeping at night, or when I'm just sitting on my deck outside. It's not so bad that it would prevent me from selling my house (I didn't notice it when I bought the house) but it's definitely something that annoys me when I'm trying to relax outside and look up at the stars or something peaceful.

I'm curious what it would take for me to get the government to build one of those noise barrier walls along the edge of my neighborhood. The distance would only be about half a mile and there are no residential houses on the other side of the highway (so the wall wouldn't be reflecting the noise elsewhere). There's also already about a ten foot clearance between the highway and the neighborhood (parallel). Right now there is a chain-link fence and a few trees lining this space but I think it's plenty big enough for a noise barrier wall. I honestly can't think of a single reason other than cost that would prevent a wall like this from going up.

How can I get the ball rolling on an endeavor such as this? How do I know who to contact? How do I get them to take me seriously? Do I need to get the entire neighborhood to sign a petition? Does the neighborhood have to pay for it? Is it up to the Highway Administration, my Congressman, Senator, or Governor? I live in a relatively rural area so it's not an official city with a mayor or town council or anything like that.

Yes, contact everyone you mentioned and ask them who else you should contact. These projects are prioritized, budgeted and then approved. In order to get to the top of the priority list, you need to find out who makes the list and who determines what is important.

First, find out if it's a state or federal road. They are your target. Contact them and ask for help. They can guide you.

Then, I'd hire a TRAFFIC Engineer to get his advise. He can have a sound test completed. If it's a noise issue, I'd contact your town, or surrounding towns, to see what the ordinances are for noise. Yep, every town has a noise disturbance law. Then see how it compares to your local noise disturbance laws.

Your Traffic Engineer can prepare a cost estimate, which will enable you to get started with the appropriate budget committees.

Also, contact your local government representatives and ask for their help.

This is a long process. I'd guess it will take 2-3 years before you see progress.


Do only certain WiFi dimmer switches with with older wiring Hi I have a WiFi dimmer switch that I want to replace an existing dimmer switch.
Based on the picture the existing wiring doesn’t have a neutral, only line and load.
But the WiFi dimmer has line load and neutral.
I set it up and the app saw the switch and said it was working but the lights didn’t turn on.
Any advice?

Fro you photos, you attached the dimmer’s neutral to the load (light). This is allowing the dimmer to power itself. Meanwhile, the load wire from the dimmer is unconnected; this wire would actually control the light. This will not work.

Bottom line: without a neutral wire in the switch box, you cannot make the dimmer work safely. (You could connect the neutral wire to ground, but this is a serious code violation and could potentially electrocute (kill) someone!)


Is it safe to use a fan control with any ceiling fan as long as you wire it properly? A lot of modern ceiling fans seem to come with remote control units.  Several of the new units even come with plastic plugs on the wiring to make it easier for the installer.  These fans all say "Do not install this fan with variable speed wall control."  However, it says that it will damage the remote control receiver.

Is it reasonable to assume that if you remove the remote control unit and wire the fan directly to the variable speed wall control, this installation is safe?  My understanding is that a proper variable speed fan control (not a dimmer) would operate in exactly the same manner as the remote control unit.

In the case of the fans with the plastic plugs, this would involve cutting the plug off the end and wiring the fan directly into the wires in the ceiling.

Here is an example manual from a fan sold by Lowes:
http://pdf.lowes.com/installationguides/836071007989_install.pdf

Page 3:
ELECTRIC SHOCK HAZARD - Do not install this fan with variable speed wall control or wall-mounted dimmer switch. It will permanently damage the fan’s remote control receiver and cause the fan’s functions to fail.

No.

There are different ways to design fan motors and speed controls.  Many of the technologies are incompatible with each other.  The industry does not want to help you match up brand X fan to brand Y control, because Brand X also sells a fan with feature Y, and they want to upsell you into that instead.

Since they don't want you doing it, they don't list their products for that use (i.e. Ask UL to test and certify it as safe).  You must install all electrical machines consistent with their listing/instructions.


Is venting a vertical waste line required? I am putting a bathroom in a section of the house that has a crawlspace under it.  The main drain is in the basement area of the house.  The soil pipes will run horizontally in the crawlspace, then a double 45 to drop down the basement wall, and then horizontal again to run under the floor to the main drain.  At the point where the waste line transitions from horizontal to vertical is a vent required?  I think I remember reading somewhere that all vertical stacks have to be vented.

No, vents are not required for any random vertical drop. Only plumbing fixtures require vents.

The main point of the vents in the drain system is to let the air enter the pipes at the spots where water enters it too. Without vents two things would happen: First - poor drainage, as both water and air are competing for space in, say, your sink drain. Second - low pressure in the pipes, created by water draining through one fixture, might suck in water from other fixture's trap. Which would let nasty sewer gases into living quarters.

As there's no new water entering at your vertical drop, a vent there won't do anything at all.


Insulation over flex duct Can R-30 insulation catch fire if placed over flex ducts? I do not have air conditioning - only heat.  Thanks, Victor

The air in a properly sized heating supply system should only reach somewhere between 100 and 150 deg if all is well.  That temp is too low to catch anything on fire.  Not only that, most flex ducting comes with insulation already integrated in it.


Why do you need a Residual Current Device if you already have trip switches? My electrician has suggested installing a RCD into the house. We already have trip switches so I am not sure what the point is (but then my knowledge of RCDs is limited to what the Wikipedia article just told me).

What advantage does installing an RCD have if you already have trip switches?

Circuit breakers protect the wiring from overheating and the house from burning down due to electrical fire.

The GFCI (RCD) protects you from electrocution. To put it in perspective, a 20 amp circuit breaker can pass 100-200 milliamps (0.1-0.2A) indefinitely, you cannot and are facing heart fibrillation and death if the current takes the right path through your body.

The GFCI can sense the ground fault current and shut the power off to save you from electrocution if you bridge the circuit to ground.


How do I repair a broken garage door opener arm bracket? The bracket that connects the push arm of our garage door opener is getting ripped off from the door (see picture below). All screws, except a bolt at the top of the bracket are detached. How can I fix this if I do it myself?

You might be missing the point.

Most people have only ever pushed buttons and never actually lifted a garage door, so it's easy hold the belief that a garage door is a massive 200 pound behemoth that can only possibly be opened with a burly machine.   That's absolutely untrue.

Garage doors are balanced by their springs.  Opening forces are only a few pounds.   When a power opener lifts a door, it's more like walking an old lady across the street.   At least when things are working.

Before openers, if a garage door was having problems, you'd know it immediately because you'd feel it bind, and you'd fix it early.   Now that we push buttons, the lifter just muscles the door through the defect, which of course does nothing to improve the situation.  Eventually the lifter stalls, the lifting arm breaks, or the door tears itself apart.  That last case is super bad:  Since doors amount to a spring balanced against gravity, doors contain lethal amounts of energy at all times. If a door fails, it can kill you.

So when a lifting arm breaks, that's your deity looking out for you.  Think of a weak lifting arm like a fuse that protects your wiring, or like the spillway that protects the dam.  You don't want to defeat that.

Fix your door.

Something is binding seriously in the door.  The door is trammed due to a broken lifting cable, a spring has broken, rollers are off their track or seriously damaged, etc.  Focus on that.


whirlpool top load washer stops at rinse cycle, can open and then shut lid and then starts not always but most of the time my washer is stopping after the rinse cycle.  I can open the lid a little and then shut it and then it will start.  sometimes takes just one open and shut, other  times may take two or three times.  What is the problem?

I'd agree with Ajeh. Check the Lid Switch connections, including the ground right near the switch. I'd throw in a new Lid Switch and see if the problem continues or disappears. They're usually cheap and you may be able to shift the drum around enough to not take anything apart.

The only other culprit, I'm familiar with, would be the Control Knob...it directs everything. In some cases those can be very pricey, so you'll have to decide if it's money better spent on a single expensive part or a whole new washer.


Most cost effective thermostat setting: consistent temperature vs. lowest temperature possible The problem: Our heating bills are about 25% higher than our average neighbors according to our bill, yet our temperature is always as low as we can stand it (mid 50's), we have excellent insulation throughout the house, we don't have drafty windows, and our furnace is a brand new natural gas system.  The WAY we are heating is one of the last variables to explore.

The Set Up: We have a natural gas forced air heating system, set up with two zones.  Zone 1 is where we sleep.  Zone 2 is the rest of the house.  We live in New England, so we do have freezing temperatures in winter.

The Question:  What would you suggest as our timed pre-sets for Zone 1 and Zone 2, especially in the winter?

Here are some specific scenarios I'm trying to figure out:

If the temperature outside is above freezing, do we need to really keep
the interior heat of the whole house at 50-60 degrees F in order to prevent freezing pipes, like it seems every website suggests?
Is it cost effective to turn off the heating (or turn very low) for the night in Zone B (where we don't sleep) if it's not going to go near freezing that night, then turn it back up to normal room temperature in the morning?  Or is it more cost effective to keep it within 10 degrees F of room temperature, so the furnace doesn't need to work as hard in the morning when we want the temperature to come back up?

And are there any other factors to consider?

An Old Debate
There are is a very old debate about whether it's better to leave the thermostat at a constant temperature or to turn the temperature down when unoccupied and up when occupied.  I am in the heat-as-needed camp that believes in turning the heat up and down.
One Argument
From a theoretical perspective, I think about it this way:  Your furnace runs to replace the heat that escapes your house in cold weather.  The greater the difference between the outside temperature and the inside temperature, the faster you lose heat.  So with the temperature down when possible, the difference between outside and inside is less at those times, and you lose less heat over the course of the day.
There are those that say the furnace operates less efficiently this way.  There are furnaces that run in two modes, one less efficient and faster, another more efficient but slower.  I don't think this counters my argument.  If this is the case, the right thing to do is start the heat up earlier and run at the slower / more efficient rate, not abandon the idea of changing temperature during unoccupied periods.
Actual Results
From a practical perspective, I have installed many programmable thermostats to lower heat in homes so that the temperature goes down to 60 all day when everyone's at work and up to 70 when everyone's home, with consistent results - lower heating bills.  I don't have detailed data matching weather conditions to the bills but I am confident in the results - there are plenty of people with large commercial buildings that have maintenance staff that monitor these things very carefully, and looking at all the data have come to the same conclusion.

The Set Up: We have a natural gas forced air heating system, set up with two zones. Zone 1 is where we sleep. Zone 2 is the rest of the house. We live in New England, so we do have freezing temperatures in winter.
The Question: What would you suggest as our timed pre-sets for Zone 1 and Zone 2, especially in the winter?

I'd turn set both zones to 55-60 during the day, weekdays, if everyone's out at work or school.
I'd set the living area zone to 68 from an hour before people get home from work or school - maybe 4PM? to bedtime, say 10PM.
If the bedrooms are only occupied overnight, I'd set them to 68 from an hour before bedtime, whatever that is in your household, until 8AM or whenever everyone's up and out.  If there are kids using the bedrooms after school before bedtime, you might want them up to 68 from 4PM to 8AM.
Don't forget, it's no big deal to turn up the thermostats for a temporary override if you happen to be in a zone outside of the usual schedule, so it's no big deal if there's a holiday or something.
I'd definitely want thermostats that allow a different program on the weekend unless the household is occupied the same hours on weekends as it is during the week.
How Low Can You Go?
If you want to take this to the extreme you could turn the heat all the way down when unoccupied.  That would be a bit extreme for a house you come home to every day, but it's not uncommon for vacation homes.  Of course you'd want to heat to a level temperature where the pipes won't freeze, and the temperature at the thermostat is no doubt warmer than the temperature where pipes are in outside walls - so 32°F is not a safe setting.  The lowest safe thermostat setting would depend on how your plumbing runs, how your walls are insulated, and the outside temperature.  I know in my area many people set the thermostat in their vacation home to 40°F or so off season when they might only be occupied one weekend a month.  When there are extreme cold snaps, a few people will find they were a little too aggressive with the setting and wind up with burst pipes.
(Incidentally - if the outside temperature is above freezing, there's no way it can freeze your pipes.  At worst, it could get as cold inside the house as the lowest temperature outside, but under normal conditions, even with no heat, it won't get quite as cold inside as it gets outside.  There is always some insulation, some greenhouse effect, some appliances running inside, etc.)
Other Potential Problems
If your heat bills are higher than expected, there are lots of possibilities.  If your heat bill is higher than your neighbors with similar homes by 25%, it's not because they have better thermostat schedules than you.  There must be some other issue.  For example, a common culprit is a hot water leak.  Even a drip leak can drain a lot of hot water over the course of a month, and that's heat escaping your house - your water heater will have to run more to make it up.  If your water heater and furnace are both natural gas, you may assume the culprit is the furnace, but the real problem is money dripping down a drain all day.


calculating screwpiles requirement in clay ground Does anyone know a good way of calculating screw-pile requirements in clay ground? I'm in the Netherlands and this old seafloor so carrying soil type is going to be at least 10m deep before it there is just peat and clay.
Location doesn't allow permanent building foundations (concrete slap) and is logistically challenging(everything needs to be carried there by hand) so screw-pile seems like a great option just need to figure out how many I need.

Pay a local engineering firm, that will be familiar with the local requirements, typical bearing capacity of those soils, etc.
The fact that you are on old seafloor (but not underwater) is a testament to the overall quality of engineering in the Netherlands ;-)


What could be the cause of eroded mortar in exterior brick? This question actually reminded me of an issue with my exterior walls. I have the same problem with the vertical mortar being eroded/missing from several bricks at ground level on the exterior of my house. I live in Alabama, so we don't have much severe weather (unless you count ridiculous humidity), and I have no idea how this could have happened. The rest of the mortar is fine, but only a few joints are completely missing. Is there a way to prevent this from happening? Is this some purposefully built structural feature that I'm just oblivious toward - they seem to be fairly regularly spaced.

When the home inspector came by before we bought the house, he didn't mention anything about them, and I didn't really notice them until we moved in.

The gaps are there intentionally. They are weep holes which allow moisture to escape from inside your walls. This website has some more information as well.


Shower Water Handle central plastic core is stripped out - how to replace? After 15 years of use, the handle popped off my shower and the attaching screw (not pictured) will no longer thread in the central plastic part you see below.
The assembly does not leak, so can I replace just the plastic threaded part without pulling the whole cartridge?
Do I need a special tubular wrench type tool? The flat edge in the picture below (about 10 o'clock) makes me think that I'm seeing a special nut that can be taken off.
Also, does the house water need to be shut off for this particular procedure?
There are no brand names anywhere. The Delta & Moen videos on youtube aren't giving me any clues either.
Thanks!

The first thing I would try is getting a screw that's a little bigger and see if you can screw it in tight. If that piece was metal, I'd say tap a new thread but if it's plastic as you think it is, a self threading screw might do the trick.
If not, you'll have to replace the cartridge. That little central part can't be replaced, It's part of the cartridge. That outer sleeve should be removed, pull it straight out or turn it counterclockwise. Then use an adjustable wrench or a pair of Channelocs to remove the retaining ring for the cartridge and then remove the cartridge. The water to the shower has to be turned off to do this. If the shower doesn't have a shutoff behind the chrome cover, then the water to the house has to be turned off.


A separate electricity counter exclusively for heating the basement? I got a recommendation to start heating the crawl space in the building, as simple as placing two heaters with thermostats on two exterior walls (the other two are attached to neighbouring units), putting them to 5°C (41°F), and leaving them on for the winter.

All units in the building are occupied by tenants. Is there a straightforward way to separate the cost for heating the crawl space and their electricity bills? Perhaps a separate electricity counter exclusively for heating the basement?

"Is there a way?  It's mandatory!" - Suze Orman

(That question was about prepaying your taxes throughout the year).

This question is about how to meter what are commons loads, electric loads which serve not one single tenant, but all of them or the building itself.   Commons area loads are such as outdoor site lighting, the shared-usage washer/dryer, commons hallway and utility room heating, security system, garage gates, etc.

Most jurisdictions that have laws about this require that "commons area" loads be on separate metering from in-unit tenant loads.  This can either be on separate electric company meters paying separate bills, or on their own landlord-owned sub-metering, which yes, do exist as purchasable products.

The laws are either in the tenant protection laws, or in the building codes.  If the latter, then you may be "grandfathered" until you do serious work in that area, at which point you must comply woth modern code.

All of this is moot if you include electricity as part of the rent.  If the city nails you for a violation of these codes, most likely they would settle for you switching to that model.


Removing wall under truss I am wanting to turn this wall into a pony wall to open up my kitchen. It is directly under a truss. It contained a pocket door and there is no floor joist running under it or no other load bearing item in the basement under it. The top plate of the wall intersects the top plate of the exterior wall and is directly under the truss. The yellow circle is the truss and the red is the top plate of the interior wall interlcoking the exterior wall top plate.

What, if anything, can be done to safely remove the top plate of the wall? Can the 2x4 be cut flushed?

The wall is not structural and the top plate tie-in is not structural if, 1) the trusses are tied to the remaining wall, 2) the top plate is spliced properly.

1) Any lateral bracing that the wall could provide, can be taken by attaching the existing roof trusses to the top plate. I like using Simpson H-1 clips to tie the truss to the top plate. I like the H-1 because it provides lateral resistance and uplift resistance.
See: https://www.strongtie.com/resources/product-installers-guide/h1-installation

2) The existing top plates need to be properly lapped (spliced), which now needs something like Simpson LSTI strap. I like the LSTI strap because it’s made for application on a single plate. See: https://www.homedepot.com/p/Simpson-Strong-Tie-LSTI-3-3-4-in-x-49-in-18-Gauge-Strap-Tie-LSTI49/205326016

The bottom plate extends past the wall, so provide a block at the top plate where the wall is removed and center the strap at the intersection of where the wall was located.


How to establish footings for a raised frame I have a situation where an old wood-framed garage with a concrete slab has been jacked up about 6" to increase the door heights and head room. Currently the studs are just resting on little brick stacks. What would be right approach for properly establishing footings for the raised frame?

If the existing slab had extended under the base plate of the wall studs then it is a common procedure to use a row of concrete blocks along the edge of the slab to create a curbing to provide the fill-in for the space where the walls were raised up. The best situation would of course would be to have raised the walls an inch or so above where the top of the block row will come so that it is possible to properly mortar in the concrete blocks and get them leveled and even.

If the concrete slab surface is clean the mortar under the concrete blocks should bond the blocks to the slab. If there are hold down bolts embedded in the slab some consideration needs to be made to extend those up to the above the row of blocks so that there is provision to re-anchor the base of the wall sections back down onto the top of the row of blocks.

For this application I have seen solid concrete blocks used for when the curbing height is 4 or 5 inches. Concrete blocks with holes are common when the curbing height is 8 inches. The holes would of course face up and down. It would be your choice to choose to fill the block holes with concrete mix or not. It is common that the holes that accomodate the hold down bolts are filled.

Note that when laying in the curbing blocks some accommodation needs to be made to plan the lengths of some blocks so that webbing in the blocks does not come right where hold down bolts would be located.


Can screwdriver tester detect ghost voltage? While I was replacing a switch, I noticed that my screwdriver tester lit up (it can detect 100V to 240V) when I touched it to the earthing wire. Then by testing the supply with my multimeter I got this result: the ground and neutral wire have no potential difference nor do the live and ground and earth have any potential difference. I must specify here that I have a cheap multimeter that doesn't have LoZ mode hence I wasn't able to make any further diagnosis whether it is ghost voltage. By all this now Iknow that the earthing is not proper but I still want to know what was the reason that the tester detected voltage but multimeter did not?

Yes.
A "neon screwdriver" has to operate at very low currents for both safety (you don't want to give the user a shock) and functionality (the capacitive coupling between the user and earth may be weak) reasons.
Therefore it can detect voltages that are only weakly coupled, for example by cable capacitance.


How do I seal a painted deck? The builders of my home painted my front and back porch.  The railings are white, and the decking itself is the same color as the house.  It looks great, but the paint has all peeled up.

I'm in the process right now of re-painting it to get it looking good again, but once I'm done with that, is there a way to seal it?  I'm guessing that something like Thompson's water seal needs to absorb into the wood, and wouldn't work on paint...  What other options are there?

I had thought about polyurethane, but wasn't sure about how slippery it might be.

Paint is a sealer of sorts. If the paint is peeling, then the issue is the paint itself. Perhaps the wood wasn't prepared right, or there is no proper primer, or they didn't use paint specifically for foot-traffic (they make paint specific for floors/stairs that wears better with foot traffic).

Your best bet is to strip what's there and start over. Sand it down a bit, use a proper primer, etc.


Junction box in dishwasher bay According to the NEC, is it permitted to put an electrical junction box inside a dishwasher bay behind the actual dishwasher?

If it ever had to be reached, which I hope is never, the dishwasher would need to be removed.

The junction box would not be supplying power to the dishwasher but supplying other ends. I.E. it is a separate circuit than that of the dishwasher circuit.

Use a Non-Metallic (NM) splice kit; these are allowed in a wall without a box, as per NEC 334.40(b). These run about $15.00, maybe more.
 A box can be accessible behind a panel designed to be removable, but a dishwasher would not meet that requirement for accessibility.

Added : tyco non metallic splice , 2 wire non metallic splice, 3 wire non metallic splice will all bring up the models available 14-21$ from what I saw today. I have a few, just in case I cut a cable in a wall.  I have no association with any of the mfg’s it is a product that has saved me time and $.


What is the best way to patch 3" holes in plaster I have a number of ~3" holes in my plaster from where my walls were filled with insulation. (Why did they drill a 3" hole? I have no idea).

Obviously I would like to fill these holes in, but they have no lathing behind them, and I'm not sure what is the best way to fill them in is.

Here is what the holes look like:

This question is very similar to this question:

How Do I Fix a Hole In Drywall

There are some good answers posted, so it is worth a read.

To build on those answers for this particular case, I would recommend the medium size hole fix.  The only difference is since the hole is on the small side, trying to screw the new 3" circular piece may crack or break it in half or in pieces, so my recommendation is to glue it to the strapping or backing material using gorilla glue or similar.  Just make sure the new piece doesn't stick out of the existing wall.  If you can make it slightly less than the existing wall, that would be optimal, and then you can just fill in the depression with mud/spackle.

If the plaster is painted, you can use mud to fill in, it doesn't have to be plaster as the paint will cover it over.  If it is unfinished plaster, then fill in with plaster as the finish will be the same.  It looks to be painted, so standard mud/spackle should work out fine.


Rocks in Washing Machine? We recently purchased a home that had the washer and dryer left behind. The washer is a GE and in good condition. We were told by the previous owners that the washer worked fine, but we tested it with a couple loads of rags to be sure.

It seemed alright so we did two loads of our laundry and on the second load it wouldn't drain. We kept getting a warning buzz and blinking lights. Code read clogged drainage hose so we took it apart and sure enough it was all jammed up....with ROCKS.

They looked almost like small pieces of concrete that had been soaked for a while. Many of them looked like they had originally been formed into a square grid. There were about 30 pieces total.

I cleaned the lines and put everything back together. So far the test loads have been running fine.

My questions are...

Are there any parts in a washing machine that would splinter into rocks/stones when breaking but still allow the washer to work?
Is there something else I should be checking or am I correct in assuming the previous owners children may have had rocks in their packets when their cloths were washed?

The drum seal is deteriorating and breaking off.  Remove the agitator (look up how for your model) and you will see the piece below it is crumbling and made of these same deposits.


How does a two-piece water softener work and what maintenance does it require? I've read that there are single units and conditioners with reservoirs. I've gathered that they both need to be replenished with conditioning salt. I have a two piece (below) unit and am wondering how exactly it works and what kind of maintenance I am supposed to perform on it.

When I looked in the reservoir, there's only a small amount of water and it doesn't look like there's any salt:

From online research, it seems as though I have a unit that refills daily which is wasteful. I recently saw a single unit from Costco and am curious whether this would be better than what I currently have.

The reservoir of your unit needs to have a reasonable amount of rock salt in it in order to create a brine. You can fill it with salt, then check it occsionally and refill when you can see water over the remaining salt.

The Costco unit you linked still has two tanks, they are simply contained in a single package. Ion exchange water softeners all work on the same principal. Other methods of softening include chemical treatment, reverse osmosis, and distillation. Hard water is caused by dissolved minerals, mostly potassium and magnesium, in the water. These minerals can precipitate out and cause deposits of scale, as well as prevent proper functioning of soap chemistry.

Water can be softened by exchanging the undesirable mineral ions with sodium ions which do not precipitate and do not interfere with soap chemistry. This is achieved by passing water over resin beads that have been soaked with a brine solution such that they are saturated with sodium ions. Because of the way the resin is chemically charged, water would rather have sodium ions and the resin would rather have potassium and magnesium ions, so an exchange occurs and the water is softened.

Eventually, the resin's supply of sodium ions is depleted and must be recharged. This is done by exposing the resin to a concentrated sodium brine. The high concentration forces out the accumulated magnesium and potassium ions and replaces them with sodium ions. The recharge water, containing unabsorbed sodium, as well as potassium and magnesium ions is then flushed away.

It is unfortunate if your unit recharges once a day no matter what. Most softeners have more flexible methods of determining when to recharge, either by time passed or amount of water used. Measuring water used directly addresses the important variable, but timers generally work well once you determine the typical water usage of your family.

Ion exchange softeners are pretty much maintenance free other than replenishing the salt supply. The manufacturer of the softener in my home suggests adding a half cup of household bleach to the brine every time the salt is replenished to keep any potential growths of algae or bacteria from gaining a foothold as the only other maintenance item.


What is this stake in my yard and can I remove it? My child has been swinging in our front yard (NC, US) and worn away the grass, revealing this metallic stake (* See photo, note the acorn top for scale*):
I gently tried to pull it up, but it is lodged in pretty well, and I don't want to damage city property it could indicate a gas line or something important. I don't think it is a ground rod (it seems to be stainless steel).
As it is right under her swing I'd like to remove it as it is a safety hazard, but I think I probably shouldn't.

Looks like a run-of-the-mill landscape stake to me. They're used for securing plastic edging, fabric, etc. Could also be a tent peg. It's a horse apiece.

I'd give it a few taps with a hammer to loosen it, then try prying it out with a spade or the hammer with a block under it.


Is there any difference in the type of wiring in common household? I know this question is way, way below the norm for this type of place, but I just want a straight answer and not something that I have to try to glean from other places answering a different question.

I'm replacing a light fitting in my house, except in the new one the junction box is basically affixed to the fitting itself, and I needed some longer wires to be able to fit it, the problem is the only type of wire I have is a spool of earth wire, and not one for live or neutral. I ran to Wickes to try to get some other types of wire but they only had earth too, but they did have electrical tape in red and black.

I realise that the wires are used for different purposes, however, is there any actual difference in the physical wires themselves? eg, would a section of piece of earth wire, wrapped in red electrical tape, work instead of the live wire? I assume they're all just copper wire, and the colour is just for identification purposes, but I just wanted a straight answer to the question from someone that knows

Thanks

There are two separate issues here:
Bare Ground vs. Anything Else
A bare ground of a particular size is, nominally, no different from an insulated wire of the same size. However, wrapping a length of wire with electrical tape does not provide the same level of protection as manufactured insulation, and is not considered a reliable substitute. Among the problems:

If you miss a spot when wrapping, you have a real safety problem.
The ends (and there may be many "ends" as you wrap a long wire) of sections of electrical tape are more prone to catch on screws, other wires, parts of junction boxes, etc. than manufactured insulation
The thermal and/or electrical properties of electrical tape may be sufficiently different from manufactured insulation to cause a problem

Electrical tape is great for:

Patching up a nick in the insulation of a wire (ideal is to replace the wire, but that is not always so easy)
Wrapping around screws on a device (receptacle or switch) to prevent contact with ground wires
Marking wires for identification (within certain limits)

but not as a replacement for insulation on a length of wire.
Note that ground is the only wire that can be bare. That is because it is also, depending on other factors, often attached to metal boxes & conduit or to appliance frame/casing, all of which are (effectively) "bare metal". All other wires, including neutral wires that are nominally "same as ground", are insulated everywhere.
Changing Colors of Wire
The general issue of changing the color of a wire is an interesting one. The actual colors (except for ground = bare, green or green/yellow) vary significantly by country/region. Using the US as an example (I assume you are in the UK based on reference to Wickes), the normal colors are:

Neutral = white or gray
Hot = black, red, blue or any other color except green, green/yellow, white or gray

Within each category, wires can be marked using tape on the ends. For example, you can mark black wires yellow by putting a piece of yellow tape on each end for identification. However, you can't put white tape on black wire (to change hot to neutral) or red tape on white wire (to change neutral to hot). There are some exceptions with cables (e.g., to mark a switched hot), but this is a nearly universal rule.
The end result for your situation is:

Can't turn a bare wire into hot or neutral by wrapping with tape
Can't turn a green or green/yellow wire into hot or neutral by marking the ends with tape

You might be able to turn a green or green/yellow wire (i.e., insulated but wrong color) into hot or neutral by wrapping the entire length with an appropriate color of tape (i.e., does not have the "miss a spot" or "maybe not insulated well enough" problems). I wouldn't recommend it, but a UK code guru could give you the answer to that option.


What is the R-Value of plastic over a window? So we're about to have a cold snap (20 degrees, cold for us here in Central Texas).  I have old windows on the house in need of replacement, but for now, I did a hack for the next week/month: I placed 2.5 mil plastic over the window banks (groups of 2 windows) and securely duct taped the edges.  The gap is about 2 1/2 inches.

The windows themselves are standard 1/16" thick single pane windows, double hung, been around forever.

My question is, how much value is there in doing this?  I am doing this for approximately 140 square feet of window surface.  Is there an estimated flow differential between with and without in terms of BTU's/hour, assuming an outside air temperature of 20 degrees farenheit, a an inside air temperature of 78 degrees farenheit?  Thanks!

A 0.0025 inch thick sheet of any solid has negligible R-value in-and-of-itself (for purposes of home insulation).

The (relatively) calm air next to it does have some R-value, on the order of R 0.7.

Heat flow is calculated using conductivity (U-value).  U-value is the inverse of R-value.  R-value has units of (square foot)(hour)(Fahrenheit degree)/(British Thermal Unit).  A British Thermal Unit is enough heat to raise the temperature of one pound of water by one Fahrenheit degree, or about 1055 Joules.  1 BTU/hour is about 1055 Joules / 3600 seconds, or about 0.3 Watts.

If you have pulled your sheet of plastic tight against the window, then you have not trapped any air between the plastic and the window.  Thus, you have not improved the R-value of the window.

If you have pulled your sheet of plastic taut, but with a layer of still air between the plastic and the window, then you have replaced an air-pane assembly (with a total R-value of about 1.2) with an air-pane-air-plastic assembly with a slightly higher R-value (perhaps 1.9).  If the effective R-value of the original assembly was higher, your savings would be less.

Here are the ΔU-value calculations for going from an R-value of 1.2 to 1.9, and from an R-value of 2.2 to 2.9:

1/1.2 - 1/1.9 = U 0.83 - U 0.53 = ΔU 0.30
1/2.2 - 1/2.9 = U 0.45 - U 0.35 = ΔU 0.10

Suppose you reduced the heat conduction by 0.10 - 0.30 BTU/sf/hr/F°.  For 140 square feet, with a temperature difference of 58 F°, this is a savings of 800 - 2400 BTU/hour, or 250 - 750 Watts.

Citation (for materials available in 1950):  http://wps.prenhall.com/wps/media/objects/2513/2574258/pdfs/E09.4.pdf


How do I add in-floor heating to a small area? I get extremely cold feet, and have radiant heating in some rooms of my house, and I love it.

I spend a few hours a day in a room without radiant heat.  Is there a way to heat about two square feet of floor space?

There are small radiant heat mats commonly used under tile in  bathrooms. These are electric and can be thermostatically controlled. They are safe to use under carpet and thin type wood flooring.  The mats are apx 30inches by 15 inches and can be connected together to cover the desired area. Both the heater mats and controllers are avail at the home improvement stores or any flooring specialty store.


Trying to change a lightbulb out of a ceiling fixture I am trying to change the light-bulbs in my kitchen ceiling light, I'm just unsure how to do it with this one without accidentally tearing it out of the ceiling.

Does anyone know how to unfasten this fixture, as well as what make it is?

See that dimple in the third photo? I' guessing that there are three or four of them. They engage with slots in the other half of the housing.

Rotate the lower portion counter-clockwise roughly as far as the dimple is long and it should come down. You may have to align the screws on top with their slots as well. Loosen the set screw to avoid scratches.


Drilling into brick through stucco I have a new flood light/security camera that I want to mount above the back deck.  The current flood light is a bit low and doesn't have a proper junction box.  I want to use that connection and run conduit a couple of feet higher and hang my new light/camera there.  The exterior is stucco and the structure underneath is brick (with a wire mesh in between).  Everywhere I read that you don't want to drill through stucco (particularly here) but what if you have no choice?  Also, I hung window bars recently and we just used a hammer drill to go right through the stucco and brick before using a tapcon.  Similar to this post, I'm also in Baltimore but I know my house is stucco over brick.

Well drilling stucco may fracture it and allow leaks but you have a brick wall behind this so that rule is not quite the same as stucco over wood frame. When I have to drill or cut stucco I use concrete bits at a fairly high speed not a hammer drill hammer drills break it up and catch the mesh making a bigger problem. The higher speed makes a lot of dust and usually easily cuts wire mesh (not expanded metal mesh) once you have your holes fill them with silicone sealer then put your screws in the pressure pushes the sealer into the cracks, if I see any cracks I will use a grout sealer above and around the hole.
For stucco with expanded metal do not drill it will have very bad results. I usually use a masonry blade and cut a hole normally for a box, but the masonry blade will cut the stucco and will cut the metal but the metal will Accelerate blade wear have a few extras. Grinding a cut line works best but cracks can radiate from the cut. Again a grout sealer liberally applied helps to seal cracks if the cracks are large fill with paintable silicone sealer and make sure to texture the surface nothing looks worse than a smooth line when a coat of paint is used to cover and final seal. In both cases. I really have not had problems with high speed and wire but expanded metal the drill bit will grab and pull you in creating huge fractures 1/4” wide up to a foot away, with cutting in a box I move from side to side to keep from over heating  and had the best luck with that and the thinnest masonry blade I can find I have used angle grinder and a skill saw more control with a skill saw but normally for a larger box. Those are my tips hope they help.


How to prevent expansion on wood block wall/door I'm about to make a sliding door using a plywood back and a wood block front like the one below.

Is expansion a problem in this case?

I would probably use construction adhesive to glue the blocks in. The door will be outside but protected from rain.

This panel will be attached to a metal frame making double sliding doors. I'm in southeast Brazil, so sub tropical climate warrants a bit of seasonal humidity change.

The wood will swell slightly with higher humidity but if you don't have it in a frame and are mounting it like a sliding barn door then I wouldn't worry about expansion.

The problem with expansion is mostly for doors and windows in frames that causes them to jam.

Also, like the picture you posted, if the wood is cross-cut it will be less likely to expand and contract.

I would be more worried about the panel you are attaching them to warping then the blocks themselves.

Cool idea for a door.


Help me undo gas stove flex connection I am trying to unhook a gas stove flex line. The joint B turns fine so I can unthread it. However the joint A seems to be seized and won’t turn. As a result, I cannot remove the hose as the hose cools on itself. What am I doing wrong? Is there a way to loosen this joint so that the connection turns freely at the flex line and doesn’t twist when I turn the nut? Thanks.
EDIT: To aid others who had trouble removing this, added photo to show how this was finally undone, with help of this amazing group. Thanks @AlaskaMan. Basically the connection was between two chrome hex parts and it was just too tight. I was afraid to break it but the answers here gave me confidence to just go with it. Make sure you have a couple of good pipe wrenches.

A is the fitting on the yellow gas line,
B is the nipple on the black pipe.
The two are made to go together, it is a flared compression fitting and does not flex.
Threaded joints explained.
How to wrap PTFE tape.
a wrench on the nipple (B) holds it from moving while a wrench on fitting (A) turns the fitting counterclockwise. Being a flared connection it does not get pipe dope when you reinstall it.
Since you have loosened B you will need to reset it. It does get pipe dope or PTFE  tape (Teflon) made for gas.  It appears white water Teflon tape was used.
After you get  A and B apart, take B off of the black pipe and thoroughly clean off the threads, apply PTFE tape for gas connections OR pipe dope (not both) and reset B onto the black pipe. It will be helpful to have a PIPE wrench on the black pipe while you tighten the B nipple down. How to use a pipe wrench.


How are electric range drip pans measured? I have an electric range and the drip pans need replaced, I've seen measurements on the new drippans but what is it that they measure?  Is it the radius, the diameter, or the circumference of the drip pan?

The drip pans are measured using the diameter of the hole in the range. There are many different styles so your best bet would be to take the old pan with you to your home store and get a match making sure where the electrical plug hole is located and that the burner supports will fit into the pan. You might be able to order them from the manufacturer or an appliance store.


Are these exposed wires? We had an electrician move an outlet from one location to another, and he left a big outlet-shaped hole in our drywall.  The hole is 2.75" wide and 4.5" high.  When I looked inside, I noticed these two wires in there that seem like they're exposed (pic below).  Are these dangerous? Should I do something about them?

Those wires that fed the old receptacle were likely disconnected in the junction box on the other end of the piece of cable you see. The electrician may have even cut the other end back so that he was able to push it out of the junction box completely, so you may not even be able to see the other end. It's pretty hard to take the old wire out, it should be stapled in place, including 6" up the wall above that hole.

Some could argue it would have been better form to trim that wire further out of sight, but the upside is you can see the electrician didn't feed the new location by hiding an illegal flying splice without a junction box at the old outlet location.

A non-contact tester might help confirm if it has been disconnected, but you might get a false positive if the other end was just disconnected and insulated but us still in the junction box near hot conductors, so a voltmeter might be needed if you get indefinite results.


What type of paint should I use on my hardwood floor? Latex, enamel, oil-based, water-based, waterborne, oil-enhanced, alkyds, acrylics, acrylic-alkyds... my head is about to explode!!

We need to paint our upstairs bedroom floors while we are currently living/sleeping downstairs in the living room.

They're old Douglas-fir floors and are a great candidate for painting as they're not special at all, will need a few floorboards replaced that will be near impossible to grain/color match with the old/aged ones.  There's already a thick coat of enamel paint on them and the grain will be visible even with the paint as wear and tear on them has revealed the texture of the grain which I think is cool.

We would like to not have to sleep in the backyard for a week so I'm hoping to avoid an oil-based enamel (is that the same thing as an alkyd paint?).

Oh and we would like it to look good! Brush marks are not desired as they would hide the grain texture that I want to preserve.

I've come across a new product from a reputable manufacturer that is an interior water based acrylic-alkyd. They say it is the best of both latex and alkyd paints. Will this be a good option for a floor? Should we top coat it with a polyurethane? We want the floors to be glossy. If we top coat it with poly (water based), should the paint be flat/satin and the poly be glossy? What kind of brush/roller is recommended?

Thanks!

If I were you, I'd invest in an oil-based (mineral spirits cleanup) primer. I've painted several old wood pieces of furniture and you need the adhesion to whatever they used on the wood previously. Remember, it's likely in an older house that they used all sorts of older oil stains on the floor and latex has a hard time gripping them. Oil-base primers can overcome that issue.

Once the floor is primed, you should be set to paint whatever product you see fit, latex or otherwise. If you paint latex, be sure to use a water polyurethane as well (which doesn't yellow). You might want the extra protection for the paint. A semi-gloss or hi-gloss paint might not stand up well to the traffic by itself.


What is the best order of operations for painting a newly renovated space? I'm just about ready to paint my basement project and wanted to get the opinion of the community on what would be the best method of approach for my situation. I'll be using a HVLP spray system and my original thought was to prime everything first (ceilings, walls, trim, casings, doors), then do the ceiling, followed by the trim (in place) and doors, ending with rolling my walls so that touchups are easier down the road.
Any painters out there have some insight? Picture of an example wall below.

I feel that you have the right idea here, but I would save the trim for last; why, you ask? Assuming you will use paint with a gloss on the trim (you should), it is not a problem to use gloss paint over flat paint overspray, but the converse of that is not the case.
consider:

plaster and your unprimed MDF should have different types of primer (PVA or other water-base primer for plaster/gypsum board vs. solvent-base primer for MDF, water-based primer on raw MDF can cause swelling)
prime and paint trim and doors with professional-grade brushes rather than spraying


Building custom cigar box - is there a MAYA or 3DSM to wooden cutout service I am looking to build a custom cigar box, and was wondering if I were to design it in MAYA or 3D Studio Max and the figure out all the different pieces I would need. Is there a metal, plastic, or wooden production service that would send me the cutouts in the mail?

Besides Shapeways, check out Ponoko, Big Blue Saw, and 100kGarages.

Shapeways does 3D printing of plastics & metals.
Ponoko can do laser cutting of wood/plastic/fabric/rubber as well as 3D printing.
Big Blue Saw does laser or water jet cutting of wood/plastic/metal.
100kGarages is more of a community of workshops with digital fabrication tools.


HVAC Preventative Maintenance Is it necessary to add bleach or vinegar monthly to HVAC line when system is not in use, mainly when air conditioning and heat are not necessary.

I agree with ThreePhaseEel, no. If the unit is not in use, then there should be no reason to preventively treat the condensate drain-line.

However, you may benefit from adding water alone to the condensate drain-line monthly, if it's connected directly into the building's sewage system. If the condensate dumps outside or into a sump-pit or sink, then not even water is needed.

If you're adding bleach and/or vinegar to somewhere else, then stop it immediately as you should not be doing whatever you're doing...even if it's a humidifier. Otherwise, monthly to the condensate drain-line is not ever needed and only annually is more than sifficient.


How to locate a cut low-voltage ethernet wire behind drywall? My house's builders seem to have cut one of the Cat-6 internet cables somewhere along it's run from the basement to the data hub where all of the other cables converge.  It might even be between the floors.  This is a low voltage circuit.

The basement outlet is about 12 below and about 25 feet along a single wall from the data hub box.  (The Cat-6 cable does not turn corners.  It goes up and over.)  I have access to the other end of the cable in the data box.

Is there a device that I can plug in to either end of the cable and then track the path of the cable from on top of the dry wall?  I hate to punch a bunch of holes in the plaster when I have no idea where the cut is.  If I could punch one hole, I could splice the break with a male-female connector, put it back in the wall, and patch over it.

You need a LAN Tracer

This one is from Amazon - https://www.amazon.com/Upgraded-VicTsing-Ethernet-Telephone-Tracking/dp/B008G8KE90

Connect the sender to one end of the cable, and use the tone receiver to track the cable in the wall. More expensive tracers can tell you the length of the cable up to the break - but I prefer the tone, which tells you exactly where the break is.

Trace it from both ends, and you should end up in the ballpark so one hole will suffice.


Possible to fix a safety cutoff on a Briggs and Stratton mower? I have an older Briggs and Stratton mower of the type you can get at Home Depot.

I think something in the safety mechanism broke. The safety mechanism is a bail on the mower handle that must be depressed to allow the engine to start. The safety cable (called the "stop cable") and its latch are ok, but I think that whatever they connect to inside of the engine compartment broke.

Is this a repair that is easily possible, or will it be a can of worms to open up the mower?

The answer is yes they can be repaired, my mower the cable to the break broke, type that 3 times fast LOL,
On my model the cable releases a spring loaded break shoe that stops the magneto quickly. Thx cable broke right at the connection point (the staged on end failed) in my case I was able to braze the cable back together but the cable was less than 20$ so I fixed it and ordered the new cable knowing it wouldn’t last that was over a year ago but it is getting close again so I will probably need to put the new one in before the end of summer, I had to remove my oil dip stick 1 bolt , the metal cowling 4 bolts flipped the cowling over and could access the cable not hard at all.


What can I use as caulk that a cat won't destroy? I'm looking for an alternative solution to caulk/silicone sealant for bathrooms and windows because basically my cat takes it upon herself to pull at and rip out the silicone from window frames, and last night, around the bath. Regardless of how good it's done, even a professional level job, she'll somehow manage to claw at it enough to get a frayed edge, then just pull at it again and again until she gets it out. (I'm only including this to say it doesn't really matter how neat a job I do with the silicone, she'll do it regardless)
I tried using adhesive tape, but I'm not a big fan of the finish, and the adhesive isn't brilliant, it's started to come away. I saw that this epoxy resin has been mentioned as an alternative, but I would want to know if anyone has used it and if it's strong/resilient enough that it couldn't just be clawed at and broken away, because then I'd worry she'll eat it and get sick/die
Is there any decent alternatives to silicone caulk that people would recommend?

Rub a little Tabasco™ sauce or other hot sauce of your choosing on the caulked joint. That will cure most critters of chewing on things they shouldn't.
Granted, it's a bit odd that the cat chooses to gnaw on silicone caulk, but usually a good hot sauce will kill the desire to eat the object.


How can I protect an electrical box embedded in rough masonry from weather? Yesterday I had a fuse blow 3 times and I eventually tracked it down to an outdoor outlet that wasn't so watertight.  The outlet had an outdoor cover on it but after opening it it was obvious that moisture and debris had been getting into the box.  The outlet in the box also seems to have shorted inside and was actually rusted (may have been 40yrs old).

I bought another cover plate, but I really don't think a new cover plate with the foam insulator is sufficient.  It seems like a regular INDOOR box that's been embedded into a brick wall.  The electrical outlet is installed on the top of the box with the screws going into holes on the outside.  I'd like to know how to properly close up this box.

Here are some pictures:

The circuit is also not GFCI protected so I'll add one to an outlet inside on the same circuit.

Generally, it's a matter of providing a flat, smooth surface to apply any outlet cover to. This is a masonry/carpentry question, and not an electrical one.

Your photos are so close I can't see the design context, but I'd fit a block of cedar or vinyl around the box. Shape it as needed on the back side to fit fairly well, then caulk and fasten it to the brick using a non-shrinking urethane or pure silicone.

Extend the box to flush with the new surface, and mount a modern weather-resistant cover.

On a related note, you can probably salvage the mount screw tabs by drilling out the broken-off screws with a very small bit. It's tricking to keep centered, but it can be done.


Ceiling Fan Toggle Switch No Longer Used - Can I do anything else with it? I have a ceiling fan with a light kit in my house that USED to be controlled by two toggle switches. The light and ceiling fan used to be controlled separately - you flip one switch to turn on the light and the second switch to turn on the fan. I installed a new ceiling fan, and the entire unit is controlled only by the light toggle switch. The ceiling fan control is now operated by a remote control (and the ceiling fan can only be used if the light toggle switch is in the "On" position, but the light can also be turned off by the remote if you want to run the fan without the light on.)

So now I have a double wall plate with two switches on it, but only one of those switches actually does anything. Is there anything else that I can do with that second switch? I'm just OCD and can't stand knowing that there is a switch in the room that does not actually do anything (literally it's not connected to anything at this point.)

You can get a double blank plate with one toggle and the other part covered, like:

What you need to look for is 1 toggle 1 blank combination wall plate.

There are varieties available for regular toggle, Decora, etc.

You will need to cap any unused wires, from the switch you remove, with wire nuts, plus a little electrical tape to make sure they don't come loose (but the wire nut provides the actual insulation needed).


How to shape the zone a radar motion sensor detects? The light in my bathroom is controlled by a radar motion sensor. The idea was that radar based sensors can be hidden inside the lamp itself and thus be invisible (so no sensor, no switch, only the lamp is visible). Unfortunately, since it's a small bathroom and some of its walls are made of plaster, the radar sensor detects movement in the corridor as well, turning the light on every time somebody walks by.

Could the radar motion sensor's detection zone be shaped somehow? As the sensor is located on the ceiling, narrowing the detection cone would do the trick. Unfortunately, the device itself only offers control over the light duration, maximum darkness level when it still activates and the sensor's sensitivity (setting this to a low value helps a bit, but is inconvenient because you have to do an elaborate hand dance to turn the light back on again on longer toilet sessions... and it still sometimes detects people in the corridor).

I tried making a cone out of aluminum kitchen foil, but it didn't seem to work at all. Any other ideas?

I know that that's an old thread but you can use the anti-static bag used in electronic: works like a charm for me.

Regards


Joining two pieces of curtain pole together I bought this wooden curtain pole at Argos, the pole comes in two parts to be joined together using a joining screw. I sawed one of the parts at the wrong extremity (the one with the hole for the joining screw) and then I made a hole that was too large at the other extremity.

Is there a simple way to join these 2 poles together, perhaps using some metal piece or something?

What I'd do is drill out the too large hole to make it large enough to take a dowel. You'll need to clamp the curtain pole to ensure you get a clean hole.

Then glue a dowel into hole and cut it off flush - use a hacksaw and then sandpaper to finish.

Leave this to dry and then drill a new pilot hole in the dowel to take the joining screw.

If you don't have the tools/expertise for this then using glue and matchsticks/wooden kebab sticks to fill the hole like a rawlplug should work as well. This has the added advantage that you might not need to drill a new pilot hole - just screw into the mass of matchsticks. However this won't be as strong as using dowel.


Normal working time for Quikrete 5000? I'm having a hard time finding the "working time" specifications for Quikrete 5000.

The Quikrete 5000 Data Sheet says "higher early strength", but I'm only assuming that means it will achieve a higher PSI sooner on the calendar, not that it will set up faster while working it?

I'll be manually mixing six 80-lb bags total, two bags at a time for a small concrete countertop project, using water at normal cold-water tap temperatures.  The work will be outside under a covered area during cool weather (40 - 50 degrees F) on a dry, sunny day.

Any rough idea how much working time I'll have under these conditions?  Similar working time as regular concrete?

I did the pour today.

It was 50° F with about 80% humidity.  It looked like rain so I mixed by hand in plastic tubs on tarps inside a garage.

Quikrete recommends 6 to 10 pints of water for one 80-lb. mix.  I used exactly 7.5 pints for each bag, which gave me a very stiff mix that held its shape until vibrated.

I mixed four bags in two tubs and it took a good 20 minutes by myself just to get those two 160-lb. tubs mixed thoroughly enough using a hoe and shovel.  Then I was able to completely fill 3 of my 7 molds with these two tubs.  Filling, vibrating, placing mesh, and screeding these 3 molds took another 50 minutes.  I was able to catch a long enough break to clean tools and tubs.  Then I mixed the last two bags in one tub and finished the last 4 molds, which were smaller and already had rebar and mesh secured inside.  This took another hour.

Short answer:  I easily had over an hour of working time.


What spotlight beam angle to choose? I am looking into buying some 5W LED 3000k GU10 spotlights with a rating of 450 lumens, for my gypsum soffits.  The only part which is confusing me is what viewing angle I should get. I have found a lot for sale with a viewing angle of 60 degrees, 90 degrees or 120 degrees.  However I am not sure which to opt for.  At the moment, the best deal which I found is on a viewing angle of 120 degrees.  Would it be a good choice?

Below is a plan of how my spotlights are laid out. The main bedroom already has 4 spotlights which are not shown on the plan.

Would 120 degrees work for these rooms? Or else, should I get different viewing angles for different rooms?

How long should a rope be?

There is no right answer, it all depends on what you want, and how much space you are lighting. Generally speaking, spot lights will create a more dramatic scene, while floods create a relaxed casual feel or uniformly bright work area, depending on intensity.

if the fixtures pivot/tilt somewhat, spotlights can be used towards a wall to highlight a piece of art or family photograph. A lot of people still like straight-down spotlights in the hall, it tends to make space look bigger, and uniform lighting is not important in an area you don't stay in. Floods in the hall will work just fine, you just won't have the six bright spots on the flooring as you look down the hall.

In the bedrooms, you probably want those to be floods to create a smooth uniform calming light. However, you don't have to be homogeneous, especially if you have 6 fixtures. You can put out a lot of light with 6 LED bulbs. One of those can be a smaller angle to create a (slightly) more intense light on a desk, reading chair, or decoration.

TLDR: use 120s except for effect.


Refrigerator making strange sound every few minutes Forgive my description of the sound but it's all I can think of to describe it. Every few minutes, I hear a very very faint sound that sounds like what you'd expect to hear when someone is being electrocuted in the electric chair. It's very faint and near impossible to find out where it's coming from inside the fridge. The sound stops with a single "click" sound.  Any ideas?

my fridge had exactly the same problem and it turned out to be a failing relay. this relay was part of a safety recall because when it failed, it was possible for it to catch fire.

please call your manufacturer and find out if this is the same problem.


Does conduit terminated in backless gang boxes defeat the purpose of fireblocking? My understanding for an ENT conduit (other than for future flexibility) was that it was fire-rated, to reduce the spread of fire/air-flow between floors. If the conduit went through fire-blocks or floors, holes would have to be sealed with fire-retardant sealant/caulking.

But I always come across images like this:

or this:

Note the low-voltage backless gang boxes.
Doesn't the backless gang box defeat the purpose of fire blocking? If a fire starts in that section, it has no obstruction to enter the ENT conduit (through the backless gang box) and go all the way wherever the conduit leads to? What was the point of sealing off the floor/fire-block hole then?

I'm not a fire expert, but I doubt fire will actually spread through the conduit. Toxic fumes, sure, but not fire (unless the conduit is really short). Flames will, however, quickly jump through a hole in a 1 1/2" - 3" thick barrier.

If you really want to take fireblocking to the extreme, you could seal the ends of the conduit around the cables with fireblocking material.