Add 2 downstream receptacles from a single outlet I have a receptacle in the middle of a series of receptacles, it has line in and load out to the next receptacle (no pigtails). I need to add another outlet near this receptacle and due to placement this is my only option.
What is the best way to do this? Should I strip some 6" pieces and pigtail the charge, neutral and ground wires at the line end of this receptacle? Or should I pigtail the load end and make this receptacle feed two others simultaneously?
Also, while the current series is all 12/2 (on a 20amp circuit breaker), I'm thinking of using a GFCI 15amp as the new outlet, can I just run 14/2 to the new outlet?
This image shows what I am trying to do (notice the last outlet says "new"), except the last outlet will be GFCI.
(https://i.stack.imgur.com/o09Ej.jpg)

I use the words "supply" and "onward" to refer to the two types of cables coming into an electrical box.  I don't use Line and Load, because those terms are special where GFCIs are concerned, and careless use of them leads to disaster.
LINE and LOAD: Just use LINE.
You say every receptacle you've ever dealt with has LINE and LOAD plainly marked.  That means you're only dealing with GFCI receptacles.
Virtually all GFCI receptacles have a feature that allows 2 wires on the LINE screws.   (If you need more, you can always pigtail).
GFCI devices have a very special feature called "Downline Protection".  It allows the GFCI device to confer GFCI protection to additional loads that are fed from it.  So for instance if you had a GFCI recep in a bathroom, it could protect a light inside the shower stall.  This Downline Protection feature should not be used casually or carelessly.  It should never, ever be used unless it is your specific intent to do that.
To protect a downline load, attach them to the LOAD terminals.  LOAD terminals should never be used for any other purpose.   That is why they put warning tape on them.
When you protect a downline load, there is more work to do.  The downline load must be troubleshot to assure there aren't pre-existing ground faults or miswiring.  Any receptacles must be labeled "GFCI Protected" (and also "No Equipment Ground" if that applies). These markings are mandatory, and are part of the act of protecting a downline load.  Ignoring this is a Code violation, and will get you written up at sale time.  Again, LOAD should never be used except for that purpose.
Of course you know what happens  :) Novices just slap the extra wires on LOAD and they don't even know what they are protecting, so they do not label those extra outlets.  They don't even know that they are protecting, so they are flummoxed when the socket just quits working.  Many call electricians only to be "led by the nose" to a GFCI they themselves installed. Whoops!
Part of my own "GFCI Protected" labeling is a statement of where the GFCI device can be found.
I'm fond of saying that warning tape says "Do Not Use. For Wizards Only". A wizard being someone who has learned to wield the downline-protection tech correctly.
...Or, do use LOAD. Deliberately.
Between what you already knew, and what you read between the lines above, I gather you have figured out the downline-protection stuff.  Congratulations, wizard!
Now... Use it when you want to, and when it makes sense.
If it best suits the situation, you can put one of them on LOAD and the other on LINE.  Or both on LOAD - this doesn't require a pigtail because the LOAD wires also can accept 2 wires under each screw (read the instructions to see how).
If you want to put both on LINE, given that there is already a wire on LINE, that would be three, so you'll need to pigtail.
Also revisit any past installations and move LOAD to LINE everywhere (except places where you specifically want downline protection).   In particular, eliminate any instance where LOAD of one GFCI feeds LINE of another.  That will cause major annoyances.
Watch out for box fill cubic inches
Now the box has finite size.  There'll be a practical issue fitting the wires and also a GFCI device, but there's also a statutory issue.  Given that your wire size is #12, you must allocate 2.25 cubic inches for each hot and neutral wire.

Pigtails are free.
All ground wires together count as one wire count.
A "yoke" (read: receptacle or switch) counts as 2 wire counts.   Yes, really; it counts the same whether it's a small 1-way switch or a fat GFCI.
If cable clamps intrude into the box, all of them together counts as 1 wire count.

So I count 6 for your hots and neutrals, 2 for your yoke, 1 for ground.  That's 9.
9 x 2.25 cubic inches = 20.25 cubic inches (or 22.5 with cable clamps).
Look around in the back of the box for a stamp indicating number of cubic inches in the box.
If you are beyond statutory maximums, or beyond practical maximums, you can get a box extension. One of my favorites is called the Legrand Wiremold Surface Conduit Starter Box.  It's made to give a 1" lift so you can run surface conduit off of the box, but if you just use it for the 1" lift, I won't tell ;)
If the breaker is 20A, then #12 wire. End of subject.
You can't come off a 20A circuit with #14 wire.  Not allowed.
If you're thinking "tap rule arcana" you need to read a lot more closely; that only applies to industrial applications in metal conduit etc. If you're in metal boxes, you're really in trouble on cubic inches lol.
If you're thinking the 15A GFCI device will somehow block >15A, no, it doesn't have any ability to do that.  As a matter of fact, it is specifically made to pass 20A.  UL requires every 15A rated receptacle be able to passthru 20A.  That matches a Code rule allowing 15A receptacles on 20A circuits.  That is so consumers and electricians only need to stock/buy one kind of receptacle for ordinary stuff.
Or, if the circuit is allowed to be 15A (kitchen, laundry and bathroom receps are not), then you can downgrade the breaker to 15A and run #14 as much as you please. This, however, invites some goober to see the #12 wire in the panel and think it's OK to up-breaker to 20A.


Anyone know what this 4 inch pipe on the outside of my house could be? Does anyone know what this 4 inch pipe on the outside of my house could be for? It has a concrete base around it. We are installing an egress window that is next to this and wondering if this pipe is functional for something else.

Quite possibly it was a pole for a clothes drying line that was cut off once no longer needed.


Faucet supposed to stick out this far? A local plumbing company installed my tub/shower.  In my uneducated opinion, this faucet doesn't look right and seems to be sticking too far out.  Should it look like this?  I don't want to be overly picky, but I did pay a decent chunk of change and want it done right.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGmyRhQ1eto  (video of the sleeve sliding back and forth - if it helps to see what's going on.

That's just.... nasty. The spout looks fine but the faucet is both too far out and not square. There's a large gap at the base that looks like it can leak water into the wall space.

The "plumber" was either drunk, half-asleep or incompetent. There is no excuse for work that sloppy.


Hot tub, new pump, but jets won't work Have a 10 yr old Four Winds, KeyWest model spa, with a Balboa GS300 control board.  Spa was working great until one day the pump just made a loud, constant hum.

Bought new AquaFlo 230v pump and installed.  Bled air to ensure no airlock, but when powering up spa, pump does not start.  Control panel shows no error, but during Priming period, pressing the jets button just make the relay click, but motor wont start.  Power at pump is correct.

Any Ideas???

If the power at the pump is correct you may have a bad pump. To verify, check the following 3 things:

There are usually fuses to protect the wiring. Are they good?
Are the motor leads correct (low voltage, high voltage)? If not connected properly the stator windings wont spin the rotor.
Is the startup capacitor good (where applicable)?

Whatever you do don't dry spin the pump (power without water) or you will damage the shaft seal (pump to motor) and it will leak.


Large 1" Gap between new flooring and trim. Help! We had 3/8" engineered flooring installed over our original floor in the hallway and landing. I asked the contractor to install around the door trim instead of cutting them down but did not anticipate that he would leave gaps of approx. 1" between the new flooring and trim. Help! He has installed shoe moulding over some of the trim to cover the gap and wants to cut up smaller pieces to fill in the others and then caulk. Please advise on what the appropriate fix would be. Does this require ripping up the engineered planks around the trim and recutting? What's currently there is unsightly. Please advise and thanks in advance.

I would have either

removed the door trims, trim as necessary then refitted after,
cut the door trims in-situ so that the new floor would slide under.

Have used both methods in the past - often depends on how hard it would be to remove the old door trim (sometimes they are so old they split), but cutting in-situ can be difficult - have used just a blade held in a rag as one solution.


Why does my concrete not look smooth I have laid a concrete slab for the first time. I bought a general purpose, ready mix tub of concrete and followed the instructions (add 400ml water to 5kg of concrete mix)
The end result is disappointing
As you can see, it's patchy and not smooth.
I read and watched countless videos and articles and so I am confused if this the result of my screeding effort
Arrogance would make me think the mix was too stoney.
Ignorance would make me think it wasn't wet enough (or wasn't mixed but I made sure there was no dry concrete)
Common sense would suggest it's my fault and a lack of technique
What would cause concrete to be patchy like this

The back and forth motion of the screed or float shakes the aggregates and makes the fine ones rise and the big ones sink, which gives a smooth surface. But the concrete has to be more liquid than what you did for that to happen. Then after screeding, before it hardens completely, spray some water on it and finish it with a float.
However if you put too much water in it, you'll have problems, like cracks. So you have to either get the water content "just right" or add some plasticizer which makes it fluid without extra water. You can also vibrate it, but that requires a special tool.
If you intend to tile this, then the rough surface is not a problem. It looks pretty good actually, since if the concrete will be covered, no need to bother with the extra work of making it smooth, all you need is to not have bumps. Tiles will cover roughness and holes just fine. If some aggregates stick out and the tiles stand on them, just smash the aggregates out of the concrete with a hammer.
If you intend to leave it visible, then you can spread a bit of mortar made with fine sand, or self-leveling, to make it smooth if you want.


How can a sock gets into a washer's drain boot My beloved Kenmore front loader washer cannot drain water yesterday after 10 years of not so heavy use.  I opened it up, thinking I may need to replace the drain pump, but I saw a sock in the drain boot.  I am going to put everything back tomorrow and try it again to see if it fixes the issue by removing the sock.

I am wondering how can a sock gets into the drain boot.  Is it a sign that I need to change the door seal boot as well?

The washing machine consists of what is effectively a barrel with a spinning cage inside.  That cage is where the clothes go.  There is a gap between the top of the cage and the barrel.

If the gap between the top of the cage and barrel were big enough, and the washer were carelessly loaded, then a small item could easily fall behind the cage into the barrel, where it would get sucked into the drains.


Should I lock the door between my garage and my house? My house has a garage. The garage has a "garage opener" - so when I leave home, I press a button and the gate lowers. There's a door between the garage and house. What level of security do people usually give this door? What kind of lock do I need. Is the external garage door considered as secure as a dead bolted door? Is it unwise to simply leave the internal garage door unlocked just like any other internal door in my house?

I understand that I should err on the side of caution, but I just wanted to get an idea for what the "standards" are.

If your garage door opener is made in the last 10-15 years, it's almost certainly impossible to "hack" the code. Modern openers use unique codes for each remote with 64- or 128-bit keys (which allow for a ridiculously huge number of possibilities).

However, it can be really easy to break into a garage mechanically, using the quick release:

As others have said, once inside, someone is free to work on the door.

Often the walls between the garage and house are nothing more than drywall with insulation in it, so it's also possible to simply cut/smash the drywall and go around the locked door.

A locked door may thwart a crime of opportunity (if the garage door is left open, for example) but if someone actually goes through the effort of opening the door it doesn't really seem like a really big obstacle.


What size wire should I use for my yard shed, and how deep should I bury it? I'm planning to build a shed next spring, and want to make sure my thoughts on power are correct.

The shed is about 100' from the house, with another 20' inside the house to get to a subpanel. All I plan on having out there is some LED lights and a couple 120v outlets for convenience. The heaviest load I can foresee would be a leaf blower or maybe an electric lawn mower, if I ever get one.

Coming out of the house I'd go underground for about 15' to get under 2 gates, then I'd bring it up and run it on the backside of a fence, to save myself trenching the whole way.

With 8 AWG THHN wire I'm calculating a 2.62% voltage drop (down to 116.86) on a 20-amp load. Is this right, and sufficient? And I would need 3 conductors (black, white, green), correct?

How deep does my conduit need to be for the trenched sections? I'm planning 1" PVC conduit, is this good for both buried and aboveground sections? Any reason to go with a trench the whole way?

Any other tips? Thanks!

One trench the whole way will be easier to pull cable through.  You could make it direct, one straight line, or closer to it than otherwise.

Fences can get blown over, run into, replaced for service, or removed for aesthetic reasons, which will become more of a pain to deal with if you run conduit along the fence.  Also its less pleasurable to look at conduit than to not.

Your municipality or county should be able to tell you your local minimum depth for buried cable.  It depends on your jurisdiction if you're asking about code as I assume.

I would recommend oversizing the conduit significantly to make pulling easier and allow for easy upgrades in the future.  2" can't be that much more than 1".  It will be more durable and it could save a lot of work later on.

You can save costs on grounding by using bare wire, or using metal conduit as your grounding conductor.  But I would not bury metal conduit to avoid dealing with corrosion.  Even a bare ground conductor inside a plastic conduit is going to fare worse than a sheathed over time.

Paint a white line where you plan to excavate and call your utility locating service out to mark obstacles. The white line or shape will keep them from needing to mark unnecessary things in far off parts of your yard.

Rent a trencher and make the work easy on yourself.

Bury conduit larger than you need, because excavation sucks.

Dig depth is often 2foot minimum for nonmetallic, 6 inch minimum for metallic, but ask your codes department what they will approve.

For wire gaguge, use a calculator like http://wiresizecalculator.net/.

By my estimate you would want 6awg, but maybe the direct patch can cut down distance and let you use smaller.


Should I attempt to fix a sink leak myself? I have a slow leak under my kitchen sink, in what I think is the top-most screw thread in the photo below. It leaks when the sink is full.

EDIT: specifically, I think the leak is between the gray sink pipe and the off-white pipe right at the top.

I am very practical (carpentry and such) but have zero plumbing experience. Even with sinks.

Can I "just" buy some parts and connect them up? Like water lego

Thanks!

Are you talking about the threaded joint between the white pipe and the gray pipe leading down from the sink?  You could just try snugging the joint up by turning the nut clockwise.  If it is loose you can do it with your hands and then just snug it up with a large pair of slip joint pliers or a pipe wrench.  Be careful not to over do it and break anything.  All those joints are like compression fittings.  The mating ends of the pvc pipes are compressed against each other by the plastic nut that you can see on all the joints.

If the joint is just seeping, chances are that just a little tightening will stop it.

If you are talking about the black pipe that connects to the bottom of the sink you may have to loosen the nut connecting the black pipe to the gray one so that you can tighten the black pipe up against the sink.  There is a threaded pipe inside the sink (the metal pipe that the sink stopper goes in) that threads into that black pipe and holds it firmly to the sink.  Normally plumbers putty is placed as a sealant under the flange of that pipe, which is then inserted into the drain hole in the bottom of the sink and then threaded into the black drain pipe you can see in the photo.

Again, a little snugging up may be all that is needed to stop the seeping water.  If not you will have to disconnect the plumbing under the sink so you can remove the drain pipe from inside the sink and reapply plumber's putty and reinstall.  Look for Youtube videos about installing sinks for more details.


Found neutral and ground feed twisted together in a junction box. Safe to fix? I recently found that the neutral bar and ground bar in my home's subpanel have no resistance (0 ohm) between them (when the neutral feed to the subpanel is disconnected). I root caused the symptom to one particular pair of neutral and ground wire. That leads to the junction box pictured below.
In the picture, you can see 3 wire nuts. The red ones each have 2 wires in it. The grey one has 3 wires in it: a thick wire (which I presume to be neutral), a bare aluminum ground, and a green wire. (EDIT: added this paragraph in case the picture is not clear)
I believe that the right thing to do here is to remove the neutral cable from the gray wire nut, and cap it off. I found the installation manual of the appliance, and the manual seems to support my belief.
But I'm a bit hesitant because the existing setup of the wire just seems too crazy. I wonder if I'm missing something. Is there any possibly valid reason that this junction box was wired this way?
My home is in California.

It was wired this way because Goober the appliance installer guy, whose job is pushing heavy appliances around on dollies, needed to hook this up and collect the customer's cheque ASAP.    Goober had a 3-wire appliance to attach, and saw 3 wires in the wall, and boom zoom and out the door.
You actually have 4-wire service to this range.  However it is in aluminum wire, which is a serious problem.  If the ground is aluminum, surely so are the hots and neutral.  None of those splice connectors are rated for aluminum wire.
You will need to obtain some "MAC Block" connectors, which are a somewhat miniaturized version of Polaris lug connectors, which are proven to work well with aluminum.

The two hot wires use a MAC Block to go from that aluminum wire to the corresponding copper wire from the range.
The aluminum neutral wire is simply capped off; one of those wire nuts is fine for that, but tape it on.
The aluminum ground wire goes to one side of the MAC Block. To the other side go 3 wires (which is allowed): the range's ground wire; a new jumper wire to the steel box; and a new jumper wire to a new hole in the cover plate.  All need to be grounded.

... By the way, fix that schizoid lid.
On one hand, you've got a 4x4 junction box with a 2-gang mud ring that has 6-32 mounting screws in the correct positions to mount 120V outlets and switches.  On the other hand, you've got a common 4x4 junction box lid that expects to attach to the corners of the box.
I see now that the junction box is blocked in by cabinetry.  That isn't allowed and is a serious code violation: not only is it uncovered, but flammable materials are inside the box!   Get a vibrating tool and cut away enough of the cabinetry above it that it's possible to mount a normal junction box cover plate the normal way.  It looks like what's above that is nothing special, just the back of a drawer box or something, so it won't do any harm to remove the offending material.
Now you need a different lid that attaches to the 2-gang screw locations... a real electrical supply can help you out there.  Home Depot won't have it, it's not popular...


Is it possible to use the GE Link bulb without a wink hub? I am looking to automate the GE Link bulb but I do not have a Wink Hub. What I do have is a raspberry pi and an arduino. I've search but can't find any documentation about how to even get started on this. Is there anyone with a little bit of information that can point me in the right direction?

There are several emerging standards for home automation, but from looking online it seems like th GE bulbs use Zigbee 1.2. The Wink hub then serves as a bridge between that and your home wifi network.

So if you want to communicate with the bulbs from a Raspberry Pi you will need to get a Zigbee module. If you want the Raspberry Pi to the communicate with other devices (say, your smartphone) you will also need to connect it to your home network via wifi or Ethernet.


Liftmaster garage opener keypad stops working when temp drops below 40 degrees F Lift master garage opener keypad stops working when temps drop below 40 degrees F.

Have you tried replacing the battery?   A weak battery might work when it's warm, but, like all batteries, their performance is reduced substantially at lower temps.


Convert a Hunter Fan (with light) from a wireless remote control to two wall switches I have a Hunter 21621 that I got for free.
Based on the documentation it came with a wireless remote control and a receiver/switch (which is connected between the house wiring and the fan), but the remote is missing. My idea is to bypass the receiver and hard wire it.
The issue is that Hunter does not provide details about what the wires do exactly and how to hook them up.
I have two wall switches (one for the fan and one for the light) (nondimmable)
I tried the standard way (black2black/white2white/ground2ground/red2red but it's not working and I have a few wires to spare. (Gray/Pink/Yellow)
I would like the fan to turn on at its lowest speed on the switch flip.
Any help would be appreciated on how to wire this

In the beginning wireless ceiling fan controls were simple things consisting of little more than a box of relays (or triacs, or whatever other kind of electrically controlled switch). They were grafted onto an ordinary non-remote-controlled unit either at the factory or as an aftermarket kit. It was easy to add or remove the remote control option.
Now it's more common that the fan is originally designed and built with the wireless unit. It's also more difficult to separate the two because the circuitry that makes the motor work has been migrated into the wireless control unit.
Supposing that the motor itself is still a plain AC motor like they always were it may be possible to achieve your goal. You'll have to figure out which of the motor leads are the correct leads to energize, and it's possible you'll need to add a capacitor to help the motor get started or for speed control. If you measure resistance between pairs of wires on the motor you can figure out which ones have an electrical path between them. You can try blindly energizing them and see what happens..
From here we get into motor control and control design, or into circuit analysis to figure out just enough of what's in that wireless controller for you to either replicate or modify/reuse. That's probably more into the electrical engineering stack than this DIY stack.


At what height should CO detectors be installed? I've got a Carbon Monoxide (CO) detector (BRK CO250B, instruction sheet PDF) that I am looking to install in our house.  All of the bedrooms are on the top level of our quad-level house, and I'm planning on installing it in the hallway.

The directions say that it can be either ceiling or wall mounted.  I've looked around online, and I've seen various recommendations for what the ideal height is for the detector.

Some say ceiling mounted is best, because CO is lighter than air.  (Combination smoke/CO detectors all get mounted here.)
Some say that a few feet below ceiling height is best, because a pocket of warm air may prevent the CO from getting all the way up to the level of the detector.
Some say that "bed height," or 2-3 feet off the floor is best, because that is where you are when you are sleeping.

What is the best height for CO detectors?  Are there current recommended heights or best practices to use when installing these things?

Carbon monoxide detectors should be installed according to the instructions that accompanied the unit.
From Nest Protect's website:

There’s a myth that all carbon monoxide alarms should be installed lower on the wall because carbon monoxide is heavier than air. In fact, carbon monoxide is slightly lighter than air and diffuses evenly throughout the room.
According to the carbon monoxide guidelines of the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA 720, 2005 edition), all carbon monoxide alarms “shall be centrally located outside of each separate sleeping area in the immediate vicinity of the bedrooms,” and each alarm “shall be located on the wall, ceiling or other location as specified in the installation instructions that accompany the unit.”
Standalone carbon monoxide alarms are often placed low on the wall, but it’s not because they’re more effective at that height. It’s usually because they need to be plugged into an outlet near the floor or have a digital readout that can be easily read.


How to remove yellow blotch from MINWAX Stainable Wood Filler on pine wood Before staining the pine wood siding of my balcony, I used MINWAX stainable wood filler to cover nail holes and knot cracks.

The holes are filled alright, but there is a yellow blotch where the excess product was. Sanding (120 grit) does not make it go away, the wood is stained.

Unfortunately, thinking this product was like plastic wood (which does very well on pine, after sanding, only the hole shows with the filler), the job is done and now I have patches of yellow blotches everywhere.

What should I do to get rid of this?

You can be sure I won't be using this product on pine again.

I used an electrical sander and the blotches were sanded away. Hand sanding was not hard enough to remove the stain (or fast enough to show a result).


Wiring a 3 way Leviton VPT24-1PZ Vizia 24-Hour Programmable Light Switch I'm trying to install a Leviton VPT24-1PZ Vizia 24-Hour Programmable light switch replacing an existing 3 way switch.  the electrical box for this switch only has a black wire, white wire, red wire and ground.  The Leviton VPT24 has a black, white, red, yellow red and ground.

I can get power to the new switch by connecting BL to BL and WH to WH and the ground to ground, but when I connect the RD to RD I can get the light to turn on, it did before with the regular switch.  I tired connecting the YR to the RD with no success.  I tried reviewing the wiring install provided by Leviton but the number of wires in their guide has one more wire than I have coming out of the wall box.  How do I connect this device?

To use this system at all, two things must be true.

Power must enter the 3-way complex at one of the switches, not the lamp. AND
You must use one of the two available models of matching smart remotes, not a plain 3-way.

If either of those is false, you bought the wrong family of smart switch. Try one that uses wireless or powerline communication.  This is the end of the answer for you.

Now, this family of switches has a master (4 wire + ground) and a remote (3 wire + ground). You must use both and You get no choice of which goes where.

Both 3-way switch boxes will have one cable that is /3; that is the colors are black white red.  We will totally redefine how its colors are used, to accommodate the needs of the new smart switch.  I need you to mark the red wires with alternating bands of yellow tape, so its color is red-yellow.

One of the boxes has the /2 cable going up to the lamp.  It will be black and white.  Mark the black wire solid red.  This box is the one that must take the master smart switch.   This box now has a red wire, a red/yellow wire, some number of blacks, and some number of whites.   The master switch has those same exact colors, thanks to the magic of colored tape. Match 'em up.  All blacks together under a wirenut, etc.

Now the remote.  If you are using Leviton's "Coordinating Remote Switch", with 4 wires + ground, then you need to cap off and tuck back the red and black wires. You will not be using them and do not connect them in this next step.  If it is Leviton's "Matching Remote Switch" (why are there two kinds??) then do not cap any wires, you will use them all.

The other box will now have a red/yellow, some number of blacks, and some number of whites. The smart switch remote goes here.  Same deal.


How to replace PVC Valve Pictured is a broken valve on a pipe that is part of a pool heating system.  The pipe sends water to a solar heater on the roof.  We bought the house its in its current state but I assume the handle was broken off and the valve seems to be stuck closed.  Being totally new to this I'm wondering:

Is there anyway to fix this without replacing the valve?
What kind of valve do I replace this with? A combined ball and check valve?
Does replacing it means cutting out the broken valve?

Those look like compression fittings.   You should be able to unscrew them:  Make note of which way the compression rings (O-rings) are seated (if there are any).
You should be able to buy a replacement.  Here's a similar one:


Can't drill deep enough into the wall nor the ceiling; what am I doing wrong? I need some guidance in this DIY wizardry. I've always had trouble drilling the ceiling in my house, but now I'm having the same trouble with a wall. I've relegated myself to avoid drilling at all costs but I want to know what am I doing wrong.

I've already used the hammer action of my drill, but with the same result.

I can drill very easily for a few millimeters, and then I can't get past that. Here are some photos of my latest failures along with the drill and the bit I'm using. The tools are very old, they belonged to my father, so I wonder if that's the problem.

Are you sure your not using a masonry drill bit?  It will drill through the drywall, but you will have a tough time if you hit wood behind it.


How to hide light-colored wires in a dark-colored cabinet? I'm installing some LED lights in a particle-board cabinet. The cabinet's walls have dark-colored veneers (nearly black), while the wires to the LEDs are beige, and would stand out quite prominently.

Routing the wires on the other side of the walls is not an option.

Cable raceways I see are all way large and also light-colored.

I probably could use thin dark-colored PVC tubes of some sort, but I'm not sure how to attach them to the walls of the cabinet neatly enough.

Painting the wires black might be the last resort :) I still hope there's a better solution. Is there?

There's stick-on wire chases that can be purchased.  I think the usual big box hardware stores carry them.  Slide the wire inside, peel off the sticky, and bury it in a corner.  You won't see it.

Google plastic raceway cable organizers.  The first one that came up says it was available in black or ivory.  http://cableorganizer.com/economical-latching-raceway/


Zeno's Toilet: Toilet fill valve cranky about shutoff I have a toilet with a relatively new, conventional, fill system. Float goes up, valve shuts of.

Except when it doesn't, and keeps dribbling a little water into the tank until I pull off the lid and jiggle the float.

I've bent the float rod down further for more leverage. Not much effect.

Is this just a symptom of 'time to replace the valve tower'?

There are several potential causes

It might just need lubrication.  Try greasing things up and see if that helps.
The float itself might be bad.  Try replacing that (they're quite cheap).
You could have a flapper or stopper that is old, which would make it sometimes not align properly to shut off the water flow.  This is easy enough to test, just smear the edges with vaseline and—if the flapper/stopper is the problem—the problem will go away for a while.  It's not a permanent fix, but it'll last long enough to get a replacement in there.

Great title, by the way


Soundproofing a Door with a Shower Pump Behind It I have a small room in which a shower pump is located. This room is only separated from the rest of the house by a wooden door. The shower pump is located on top of some sort of vibration dampening material, which is itself located on top of a layer of plywood which is then placed on the wooden floor.

The pump makes quite a loud noise while in operation and is very annoying to anyone in the flat. It is a Salamander CT50 (or very similar). Here's the culprit:

I want to somehow soundproof that door in order to reduce the noise. Considering the way the pump is placed, I would exclude the noise being transmitted through the floor. Hence I would assume there's only noise transmitted through the air.

I am renting the flat so changing the pump or making some sort of serious modifications is not an option.

I've already fitted a draught excluder under the door which can be seen in the picture as well. It is one of these.

I was thinking of also fitting some draught excluder tape on the side of the door frame and maybe some sort of sound dampening foam on the door but I'm not sure this is the way to go. There are about 3mm of space between the door and the frame.

How would you recommend to soundproof the door from the pump noises?

I wouldn't completely rule out sounds getting through the floor, and the walls via the air.

But the door is certainly significant,and you're in the right track with sealing it. Is it solid wood or hollow? If the latter, filling it with foam filler might help, though the cardboard honeycomb in such doors may make it difficult or impossible.

There are self adhesive heavy foam sheets for reducing noise in vehicles. They aren't pretty but on the inside of an airing cupboard door that shouldn't matter. Some of the stuff sold in big sheets is lighter and less effective so be careful.

An acoustic hood would be a good idea. It would have to have some ventilation, and should be made of thick plywood or MDF lined with noise absorbing material. Normal foam would help but only a bit.


Can I cut or cover a sewer cleanout pipe in front of my house? I have a PVC pipe sticking up in front of my house, in a flower-bed area. It's 20 inches high and 5 inches in diameter. As I understand, it is a sewer clean-out pipe.

It's rather unsightly and I've been wondering whether I can cover it or cut it to a shorter length.

Obviously I don't want to prohibit access, but I've been thinking a hollow-bottomed bird bath might be ideal to put over it.

What should I do with this thing?

You will need PVC cement and primer, and a female pipe adapter (available at your local or big-box hardware store; measure your existing plug -- it looks like 4" in the photo).    Dig out around the pipe to get enough room to saw it off near ground level (any sharp hand saw will work).   De-burr the edge with a piece of course sandpaper or a file, and follow the instructions on the cement and primer to glue the adapter on.   Give it some time to set, replace the plug and backfill.   As @Scott mentions, measure where it is so that years from now when you need it, you will be able to find it.    If the sewer line runs through your basment, mark the location on or near where the pipe exists the house.


Professional grade Expandable and Contactable tubing - similar to Slinky Pop Tubing I would like to find some kind of tubing, piping, or hose that I can both make longer and shorter, but just as importantly, with a material that even when expanded doesn't 'slag' down, that the material is strong enough to extend horizontally a couple of feet without need of an intermediate support; such as the slinky pop tubing as seen in the video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Z0hs2p7YN4

Now there are lots of small diameter tubes such as the one in the video, but seem to be used for toys. I am hoping to find something more professional grade that can be contracted/expanded hundreds of times, has a few inch radius. A plus if I can send water through it.

Thanks,

Brian

I use extendable rain-gutter downspout extension tubes during the rainy season. Very similar to your "pop-tube" but 3"-4" diameter heavy vinyl (and made to "send water through". They support their own weight reasonably well, but would sag if fully extended. If you only expanded some of the folds (like every 3rd fold?) it would increase rigidity.


Why is my electric fence killing birds? I have an electric fence/wire around the top of my split-rail fence surrounding about 1 acre of land.

I keep finding dead birds right next to/under the fence wire.  Not just one or two, but actually have found 6 birds so far this summer (small sparrows of something similar).

There is a wire going from a copper ground rod to the unit.  Then from the unit around the 1 acre fence.  For the last ~100ft or so, the wire splits down and goes along the bottom (the area where the dogs kept digging out).

I'm not SURE it's only in the area where the bottom split exists, but so far, that's the only area I've found birds.

There are weeds/grass growing that touch the fence at the bottom, which is my guess as to why this is happening (grounding the whole thing, even if only slightly?), but I don't know for sure or really understand why.  Are my two options really to either keep the fence from touching ANY weeds/grass or have it kill birds?

I actually have this same scenario in two locations, one with this Fi-Shock 5-acre fence charger, and one with this Fi-Shock 10-acre fence charger.  Both with dead birds.

Other than the dead birds, is this an issue for my dogs?  Neighborhood kids? ...etc?

Even with a small charger like you have if a bird is eating at the fence line and touches the fence ! Wham ! It is dead. We spray our fence line to keep the horses and grass / berry vines from shorting the fence out. Our charger is a 50 mile running at 15KV with no shorts from grass/ berries before we started weed eating and spraying we did have a few dead birds but since then I haven't found one.

I did not notice you asked about dogs and kids. Kids will usually only touch the fence 1 time and the jolt keeps them from doing it again unless they are like I was and when wearing rubber boots I would touch the fence and a buddy yes we both got shocked but I would be expecting it maybe that had something to do with me becoming an electrician...lol. Dogs some times take a couple of shocks to figure out where the thing that bit them was and to stay away from the fence. I have never heard of a large animal or person being injured beyond the initial jolt.


How can I fill odd-sized spaces with fiberglass insulation batts? A good deal of the insulation batting in our crawlspace needs to be replaced. Some areas are completely bare. But the width between beams is about 44 inches, and I can't find any batting that's even close to that width. (The current insulation is that wide, but it's very old.) Any suggestions are appreciated.  Thanks

A "bib system" is often used in these scenarios. A mesh is stapled to the underside of the joists, and fiberglass is blown into each cavity.

If you really want to use batts you'll need to support them somehow. You could install strips across the voids and lay the batts on them. You'll need to use several rows and cut to fit.


Do they make 1.5/1.5/2 combo wye (and is that what I need) Looking to add a bar sink.  There is already an existing DWV stack that I believe is dedicated for this (based on location and model homes, etc).  This is a diagram of what I'm working with and the fittings I was planning on using (0 is the sink where the P-trap will go horizontal to the back wall)

90 degree long sweep along the horizontal plane
45 degree elbow
45 degree elbow
1.5"/1.5"/1.5" sanitary tee
90 degree 1.5" vent elbow
1.5"/1.5"/1.5" sanitary tee
2"(bottom)/1.5"/1.5" combo wye

Does this look right?  Is there such thing as #7? (seems like most of the combo wye I've found are 2" top bottom).  If not, what would be the best way to go from the 2" at #7 to the 1.5" at #6?

Also, if I install a P-trap with a union coupling at #0, that would allow me to take the P-trap off.  Would that be sufficient as far as a cleanout is concerned?  I'd like to avoid putting a cleanout cover in the wall if at all possible.

Since it is a vent to waste transition and not a waste to waste transition -- I would consider a 1.5" to 2" reducer fitting atop a 1.5"/2" combo wye acceptable (the vent line doesn't care).


Why does a shower valve make a buzzing noise when water is run elsewhere in my house? The mixing valve in my shower makes an audible  sound when the water is running in the elsewhere in the house. For instance, when I'm running the sink in the kitchen it makes a quiet, but audible buzzing/humming/groaning noise. The kitchen is on the other side of the house, on a different branch of the water line. The water comes in from the street, runs down the middle of the house and splits off one way for the kitchen and the other way for the baths.
Why this is this happening and how can I fix it?

Thermostatic shower faucets are known for this problem.
Normally they are the only valves with direct connection between the cold and warm water tubing.
In contrast to non-thermostatic valves, these shower valves mix the water upstream of the flow control valve.
A kitchen valve mixes the water downstream of the open/close valve.
If the trim of the thermostatic faucet is removed, most likely access is possible to the 2 built-in backflow preventer and to the 2 separate built-in shut -off valves (e.g., a Grohe thermostatic shower valve has normally 3 valves).
In this case here, at least 1 of the back flow preventers inside the shower faucet is defect. This could be confirmed by closing the built-in shut-off valve(s).
If another valve (non-thermostatic) in the kitchen is opened for the  hottest possible  water, i.e. only the warm water side is opened, there will be a huge  pressure difference between this open hence low pressure warm water side and the non-opened cold water side, which is under higher pressure.
If the back flow preventer in the thermostatic shower valve is failing, cold water will flow to the warm water tubing.


Plasterboard on roof rafters. Is this okay? I am looking to convert the eaves of my loft into storage space. I plan to lay chipboard floor panels over the joists below, but not sure how to best cover the exposed sloping rafters above. I was thinking I could just screw plasterboard across the rafters and screw them on with plasterboard screws. Would there be any issues in doing this? I don’t plan to put any insulation between the rafters.

Thanks.

There is nothing wrong with installing drywall on the rafters. You mentioned it's pretty dusty up there, keep in mind the that dust is coming from the soffit vents and will continue to do so after the drywall is installed. You don't want to block off the soffit vents. Not sure where you live but if it's in a hot climate, do yourself a favor and wait until October to do the work. Good luck.


Sewer drain cap replacement options I have sewer cap that has lost its threads.  I am wondering what options I have to replace/fix that does not involving tearing up the cement floor.  Are compression fittings a good option?

Yep. You can buy rubber "test plugs" of the appropriate size. They look like this one sold by Zoro Tools:


Water pipe extension to livestock corrals I have horses and sheep that live about 100 feet from the main house/ outside water faucet.  We want to install a pipe that allows access to the water down at the corrals, what sort of things should I be worried about? It seems simple, lay the pipe then connect to the main water line, but I know that I'm dealing with a high pressure so I should probably install a safety valve? maybe even turn off the water before adding the pipe? etc.  Tips/Advice for safety & efficiency?

P.S. Never laid pipe before, never worked with the water mains either.  Complete newbie in this area.

A lot depends upon whether you live where it can freeze. If you do then you want to bury the pipe from the house to the stock tank in the ground at a depth sufficient to prevent freezing. Then you want to use a frost-free farm or yard hydrant type valve to join with the buried water line and bring the water service up to the working level above the ground. The hydrant has an actuator lever at the top the works a rod inside the pipe all the way down to the actual water shut off point under the ground. When the rod is pushed down so that the water flow is off the hydrant is designed to drain the riser pipe through weep holes at the bottom. This prevents freezing of the riser pipe above ground.

Some hydrants will require the addition of a back flow preventer if you intend to leave a hose attached while the hydrant is off. This so that the drain feature will work correctly by letting air into riser pipe.

The auto drain feature is one reason it is necessary to lay in a good amount of pea gravel or crushed rock around the bottom of the hydrant so that it is easy for the water from the drain feature to flow away from the pipe and down into the surrounding soil.

Here is a picture of a typical hydrant:


How many and how heavy of container plants can a rooftop deck handle? We have recently had a rooftop deck constructed on the third floor of our MN home, and since we have virtually no yard, are considering using some of the space to "go green," while still leaving plenty of room for entertaining.

The deck is 8x24, made of cedar, by a reputable contractor.  It sits on the third floor on a nearly flat section of roof, above the enclosed living space on the 2nd floor and an open porch on the 1st floor.  We have several lightweight pots we use for tomatoes, other vegetables and flowers outside.  When filled with potting soil and plant material they weigh 25-30 pounds each.  At about 15" in diameter we could put a row of about 15 of these on the deck with still ample space for sitting/entertaining -- or up to 3 such rows, if in the future we wanted to grow more of our own vegetables.

As what point would the weight of the plants potentially become a problem for the structural integrity of the deck and/or roof?

While I realize that it's disappointing not to have every question easily answered by the internet for free, there is no way to correctly and reliably answer this question than to consult with (yes, pay money $$$ to) a civil/structural engineer, preferably one licensed to practice in your local jurisdiction (State, since you are in the USA.)

For 5 different houses, built differently, there will be 5 different answers. There is no "General" answer, and the stakes are at least your house, if not the lives of your family if you get it wrong and collapse the place while you are all asleep, etc. It is NOT a good place to "guess."

Joining a community garden near your house might make more sense as a way to get garden space.


Can I build my own walk-in meat cooler? A family member is building a brand new barn and she's amenable to my idea of makeshift-ing a 4'x4' (or so) closet that would be used primarily for meat ageing (I like to hunt) but also pickling and other similar stuff that a regular fridge is too small for and a restaurant-grade walk-in cooler would be too costly.

The barn is studed up and I can use a corner to implement this idea. The ceiling is high enough to hang even a cow although deer is more likely. I was planning to modify (hack) a regular window AC unit to be able to chill down to 40 deg F, I have heard this is possible and if not, I hear Cabela's sells some kind of conversion kits. The room would be against a wall facing outside so I could make an opening to fit the unit.

Questions:

Considering it is a makeshift cooler, what insulation should I put?
Will using a regular (laminated) door with a spongy gasket around the perimeter properly seal it from the outside?
Any ideas on how actually difficult it is to modify an AC unit for this purpose?

When not in use, I would like the closet to be modifiable for storage, e.g. have shelf support brackets etc.

I made a locker in my shop using atlas energy shield foil covered foam panels, it was a little larger 6x6 it worked ok the second time I set it up I doubled the insulation because it was in the high 90' s . I used a 8k BTU unit and changed the thermostat to a cheep refrigerator one. The only problem I found is it takes almost 24 hours to get the temp to 36f. And I really need a fan to pull the hot air away from the corner. I used the panels to make the door also. I collapse my room down when not in use. One change for the next time is a track (trolley) down the center so I can run the animal in as it is tough to hang a whole cow in this small area even using a tractor. A deer would be much easier, I did install a 2 tube fluorescent fixture that I converted to LED. Running a window AC unit colder like this can lead to icing but I have not seen this but do check every morning that I have it running. It is a very old R12 unit with a simple stat (not electronic). Note getting the room down to 36 and putting the animal in there the temp did raise up I hang at 38f. But try to get everything pre cooled with the lights off to get it to temp as quickly as possible.


How do I repair my stair bannister? My stairs bannister are made of small wood posts nailed to the ramp. The whole thing have always been quite fragile. After 10 years, a couple posts came loose and most show a gap between the posts and ramp.

I know how to use a screwdriver and screw, but I've never done any woodworking with nails. I only have basic equipment (hammer, various screws, screwdriver).

What would be the simplest fix?
What nails do I need?
What tools should I use to solidify the whole ramp?

Those wooden circles are plugs that will pry out of the holes in the balusters.  Under that would be a pre-drilled hole for a screw (typically).  I would have never used nails on this in the first place.

The correct fix is going to be to remove the nails and replace them with screws that fit into the existing holes snugly.  If there is really just a nail hole, you may want to pre-drill a larger hole (sized appropriately for the screws you choose) and then drive in screws.  An electric driver is going to be the best for this unless you only have a few to repair.  A manual screw driver is going to get tiring and hard to use very quickly.

Once they are screwed into place, the wooden plugs can be tapped (maybe with some glue) back into place.


Identify fuse that is off/bad but not tripped I have a set of outlets and an overhead light in the garage that are not powered. I believe I know the fuse they are under via simple labels and from some process of elimination. The fuse is not tripped. When I flip it on and off, it feels just as 'tight' and snaps into place just as the others do that are working. I hope to make sure this is not something super simple before having an electrician come out.

How can I verify that I have the correct one located?

To verify you have the correct one, turn off every other breaker one at a time and confirm that it controls whatever it says it does. By process of elimination, you can be fairly certain which breaker controls your garage because there should be one breaker that doesn't seem to control anything.

Thoroughly check your garage for a tripped GFCI outlet. It used to be common for an outlet in the garage to be a GFCI outlet that would protect all the bathroom and kitchen outlets, or all of the exterior outlets. The overhead lighting should not be protected by the GFCI, but I've seen stranger things.


How should I mount a TV to a wall that slants inwards 8 degrees? I am going to attach a piece of plywood across 3 studs and then attach the mount to the plywood, as described in the answer to Can I use 2x4s to extend studs so I can mount my TV?.

However, my wall slants inwards 8 degrees ("inwards" meaning that the bottom of the wall is further out than the top). How should I handle this so that the mount is ultimately vertical? One thought I had was to have a 2x4 cut to the right dimensions with one side having an 8 degree angle to match the wall. I'd then place this on the bottom of where the mount will go, ultimately leaving me with studs > 2x4 > plywood > mount on the bottom, and studs > plywood > mount on the top.

Is this the right approach?

Your approach sounds perfect to me.  3 tips:
1.  Err on the side of thicker plywood.  3/4" sanded pine is what I'd be thinking.  3/4 MDF would probably do fine as well.
2.  You can use pretty much any CAD program to tell you the correct angles/dimensions for the upper and lower wedge-shaped 2x4's.
3.  Upper wedge?  Yes, I'd cut a thin wedge of 2x4 to put at the top as well, so that the fasteners aren't trying to bend the top edge of the plywood as you draw them up tight.


How can I replace an integrated security light with a solar powered version? Above our front door, we have (for want of a better word) a security light. This light can only be controlled by a switch near the front door. The light switch for the is just one of three on the same panel that also controls both the hallway and the landing lights.

Rather than just simply replacing the light with one that's activated by a motion sensor, I am looking to get one that is solar powered so that it is completely removed from the electricity supply and just does what it needs to. There seem to be some great ones out there, but what do I do with the existing light?!

Ideally, I'd like to take the old one down and put the solar powered one in its place. Also, when I have done that, it would be a good idea to change the light switch to have just two switches rather than three. So, my question is, what do I do about the wires that I will be disconnecting from the switch and the bare wires that will inevitably be left coming out of the external wall?

Typically an exterior light will have a cable directly from the switch to the light soley for the purpose of switching. This is unlike some electrical boxes you will find in your interior where there are circuits branching off within the box, or where power might come in at the ceiling and then a cable is run to the switch.

Assuming this is the case, once you disconnect it the old switch and light, connect the hot and neutral (black/white) together with a wirenut on both ends. This is a good way of indiciating that it is no longer in use, and if someone were to mistakenly connect it again, it would short out and trip the breaker.  If it is not wired in this manner you will need to be a bit more careful with what you disconnect and tie together.

On the outside, if your new light fixture is not being mounted to the same electrical box then you would want to cap the box with a weather tight cover.


Aluminum to Copper run I'm in the process of remodeling a bedroom in my house and will be replacing all the drywall. I'm contemplating the idea of replacing the aluminum wire in the room with copper. My question is can I replace the aluminum wire just in that room or does a run have to be all the same wire from the main to the end of the run. For example I was thinking I would find where the aluminum comes into the room and at that first outlet pigtail to copper wire, likely use AlumiConn, and use copper for the rest of the outlets. Same for he recessed lightning - replace from the switch up to the lights. Possible?

Possible and definitely use AlumiConn and follow the installation instructions. I got a torque screwdriver to pigtail my house (wiha 7.5 to 20 in.lb), but there are alternate instructions that don't specify torque.

You could just pigtail and not replace the aluminum conductor, but you would still want to pigtail the receptacles. The connections at the switches are reportedly less prone to failure, but I do those too and use the two-port Alumiconn connectors. I also use the 2-port on terminal receptacles.

When I am torquing an Alumiconn to 15 in.lb I find it helpful to put the connector in a Crescent wrench. It's easier and safer. I put the copper pigtails in ahead of time so I don't have to change the setting on the screwdriver while installing.

If I am approaching box fill, I use a twist on connector for the grounds, but I put on Penetrox A joint compound. Thirty years ago I pigtailed the receptacles and switches with twist on connectors and NoAlOx (an inferior antioxidant to Penetrox A) and I have had zero failures, but I am slowly going back and re-pigtailing with Alumiconn connectors. I think these are the only DIY connectors for connecting #12 or #10 aluminum to copper in branch circuits which are recommended by Jesse Aronstein http://www.kinginnovation.com/pdfs/alumiconn-docs.pdf


How can I accommodate high washing machine drain flow rates with older plumbing? Newer machines have a drain flow rate which overwhelms older drains, and there's no adjustment. The only answer I ever hear is tear up your floor and put in new bigger drain pipe. That is not an option in some cases.

Getting an older machine isn't feasible because it's starting to be hard if not impossible to find parts. Is there any way of cutting the pressure down so it doesn't back up and flood the floor in older homes?

As mentioned in other posts, in the old days, we had laundry sinks/tubs that the washer drained into. The tub would fill up and then slowly drain. The tub acted as a "buffer" to temporarily hold water until the drain would catch up. My solution was to replace the 1 1/2" drain pipe with 3" pipe. I used a 3 to 1 1/2" reducing coupler to mate with the existing drain, connected 24" or so of 3" pipe, put another reducing coupler on top for the hose to go into. The top reducing coupler is just so nothing accidentally falls in. A 3" pipe holds 4 times the amount of water that a 1 1/2" pipe holds for the same length (a 4" pipe holds 7x the water!). The 3" pipe mimics the old laundry tubs. Newer HE washers use a lot less water so we don't need big tubs. Here's a picture:


Add fiberglass rolls across joists in attic if joist cavities not completely filled? We purchased a house with an insufficiently insulated attic. There's currently about 2-3 inches of loose-fill fiberglass insulation in between the 2x6 joists. I'd love to just roll unfaced R-30 fiberglass batts across the joists (simple, no equipment rental, very little mess), but that would leave a 2 to 3 inch air pocket between the bottom of the batts and top of the loose fill insulation. Is this a bad idea?

(We have no current problems with mold, high humidity, etc. I'd rather not create any. I don't understand the physics of this, whether it would cause problems.)

Yes, you can do this, but...

Any gaps between the layers effectively negates the benefit of the upper layer. If unconditioned air is allowed to flow between the layers, the upper/outer layer does almost nothing. By putting the layers in contact with one another, the negative effect of small gaps is minimal.

I'd fill the cavities with R-11 and run R-19 crossways on top of that. Problem solved for minimal extra expense.


How to drill and remove inside from precious stone through small hole? My friend's trying to drill fist sized precious stone through tiny hole and remove inside.We want to keep outer side intact. He's going to fill and keep oriental medicine inside.
But we can't figure out how to drill and remove inside of stone without making big hole.
My friend already smashed one fist sized stone into several pieces while trying to drill it.
By the way it's very hard stone. We bought one already done by Chinese craftsman, but it was too expensive. So we decided to do it by ourselves.

Define "tiny".

Normally a grinder is used to hollow out a hard rock. Knowing what kind of rock it is may be relevant. For example, if it is subject to fracturing, you definitely want to use a grinder and take special measures.

To hollow out a sphere manually the typical equipment would be a flexible shaft grinder with a right angle attachment. It will be a long process. Professionals can use specialized milling machines to do something like this, but such equipment costs a lot (like $100,000 or more).

You might be able to hire a machinist to do the work. Where I live they would charge maybe $300-$500 to do something like this.

Update based on OP comment: if the hole is 5mm they are almost certainly using a CNC mill to do it with a straight shank hemispheric diamond burr. Programming the mill to do an inverse spherical turn like this requires expertise. If the outside of the sphere is irregular you will need a 6-axis mill, very expensive.

The drawing below shows the basic strategy using a straight shank with a burr. Obviously a complex setup or CNC is required to control the cutter to make a perfectly spherical interior cavity.


Primer Bulls Eye 123 is peeling off newly flattened walls with AG joint compound The problem: Blue painters tape is peeling Zinsser Bulls Eye 1 2 3 primer off the new dry walls.

The project: I removed a fireplace and brick facade and replaced it with new sheet rock covered with it with AG all purpose joint compound. I also flattened the surrounding walls and hallway halls with the same joint compound. The walls were completely dry prior to priming - 4 days to 3 weeks.  Prior to priming the walls were lightly sponged with a very damp sponge to remove dust. I then painted two coats of Bulls Eye 123 primer on all walls.

We needed to texture the 4 inches of ceiling along the new wall - a plastic sheet was taped with blue painters tape to the wall at the ceiling.  When I  removed the  plastic sheet the primer came off with the tape. I have since tested various other parts of all the walls with packing tape. I press the tape onto the wall and peel it off. The tape removes the primer in some spots. Once a spot is created the tape can remove large areas of primer.  (I have subsequently stopped this until I learn more about the problem and how to fix it.)

Might you know why this is happening? More importantly, how do I remedy this problem?

It has been my experience that primer over drywall mud requires a looooooooog dry time. The primer is a water based product that will soften up drywall mud even over 1/8 inch thick. Your using the damp cloth to clean off dust instead of using a vacuum and tack cloths probably lent some to the softening as well. I had to wait a full week before I applied a second coat of the primer.

If you applied painters tape to primer when the underlying mud was even a slight amount damp the paint will come off.


Whats the maximum power in WATTS for this type of cable? I just bought a Hisense A/C that uses up to 1800 WATTS of power. Im worried about my electrical installation, mainly if it can resist such a big power consume and if its safe using it large periods of time.

My home cables have the following specs printed on it:

  CABLE THW 12 AWG 3.30

  600 VOLTS ANTIFLAMA

And I bought the higher AMP socket I could find, its of 15 AMP max.

Im in Mexico, were voltage is usually 127 V.

So the question is how much power in WATTS does that cable support to be in a safe range of consume??

That load should be all right. The wire you named is considered good for 1920 watts continuously (3 hours or more at a time). This assumes 120 volt AC power as used in North America, Colombia,  parts of Ecuador and parts of Philippines.

In other parts of the world that use 230V for power, the wire can carry even more watts.

However the 1920 watts is for all loads drawing from that circuit   if you were to turn off the breaker, whatever else lost power is also on that circuit.


Is temporarily reducing the water supply line an option when installing a water softener? I am installing a water softener in my house.  Currently we're getting the water supply from 1" PEX that has a service loop in the garage.

I built my own 1" PVC bypass system for a GE water softener (see attached photo); I had to use SharkBite-style connectors to terminate the PEX.  Today the system operates in bypass mode, because I didn't glue the joints square enough where the 1 inch brass valves mate to the water softener's 1 inch NPT input and output stems.

One of the household occupants has grown tired of hard water and demanded that the water softener be operational 'soon' (i.e. tonight).  AFAICT, this means I essentially have a couple of options...

Remake the PVC bypass with correct the angle; that's more work than I will get done tonight...
Use some stainless steel braided hose to bridge the gap, so I can compensate for the misaligned valves.

Option 2 seems to be the best, except for availability of parts.  Nobody in town (including Grainger and specialty plumbing supply stores) carry 1 inch braided hose.  My best option is at Lowe's... a 3/4 inch OD stainless braided hose, which measures 1/2 inch ID; I will use reduction fittings to adjust between 1 inch NPT on the water softener and 3/4 inch NPT on the hose.

My concern is that 1/2 inch ID might cause an unacceptable loss of flow when the system is designed for 1 inch PEX.  Is the 1/2 inch ID braided hose a viable short-term option until I can get delivery on the appropriate parts?

The lucklihood is that it will reduce the pressure throughout the house significantly, especially if more than one faucet is running at once.

It is also possible that the softener might not work correclty due to the reduced pressure, or that the output pressure will be even less than expected.

I would think that hard water for a couple extra days would outweigh soft water with little pressure - especially in the shower!


Any experience installing wall-hung toilets? My architect is recommending the Catalano Zero 55 Toilet:

I'm more a fan of Toto toilets. They have a wall-hung model called the Aquia, which is somewhat less graceful looking:

Does anybody have any experience with how these actually function?

The main difference between this bowl and the "standard" one is that the waste goes out the back and then down rather than straight down:

(the red arrow I've added to this cross section).

In the UK all toilets (wall or floor mounted) tend to have this arrangement.

As far as everyday operation is concerned they're the same as the "standard" as it's the action of the water rather than gravity on the waste that flushes it away.


Bare neutral to subpanel in detached garage I have an old house with a detached garage.  There is power to the detached garage through a 3-conductor cable that is routed above ground.  Power from my house comes from the power pole, to my house.  To get to the garage power from my main panel the cable routing goes back up to the power pole and down to the garage because the power pole is right by my garage.
My understanding is that 3 conductor power (hot, hot, neutral) to a subpanel is not code anymore but was used quite a bit back in the day.  In the case of 3 conductors to a subpanel you do actually bond the neutral and ground at the subpanel and then have a separate ground rod at the garage. As long as their is no ground conductor that can get back to the main panel.  Correct?
I was planning on making the necessary fixes to make it that way: install ground rod at garage, bond neutral and ground (grounds are currently not connected to anything!), and ground it to the ground rod.
I opened my panels to go over my plan again but then realized the neutral to my garage is a bare wire!  That seems unsafe to me.  Is this a big problem or not so much and I can continue with my plan?  If it is a big problem do I need to get an electrician to replace that bare neutral, and at that point just replace it with a 4 conductor cable?  Or is there some other option?

The Power Company did that, didn't they? :)  They gave us a very similar setup; thru lugs off the bottom of the main panel, back up the pole to another pole to another panel.  They're installing that according to NESC, which is their electrical code.  Not ours.
Yes, in that case, you need to install the garage exactly like a whole separate service -- neutral-ground bond in the panel, 2 grounding rods etc. (assuming the concrete guys weren't kind enough to give you an Ufer ground).  And this also counts on this being old enough to be "grandfathered".
The bare neutral is not a big concern; that's just how pole line is done under NESC.
If you want or need to modernize that, yes, you'll need to go 4-wire, and if you ask the PoCo to do it, they'll look at you funny.  They do have 4-wire; they're just not used to putting it on the truck for residential jobs. It's used to serve 3-phase to businesses.


Kerdi shower pan in a shower with 2 drains Well my simple bathroom refresh has become a full on gut and remodel. I ripped out the tub/shower and plan on turning it into a large walk in shower approx 43" × 72".  Since I already have 2 complete and separate sets of plumbing, and I plan on putting 2 shower heads each with a couple body sprayers. I was thinking it would be wise to use both drains as well, that is easy enough.

My question/problem is, I want to use Schluter Kerdi shower pan system, as this is my first shower. Would it be unwise to take two of 48" × 48" shower pans and cut them down to fit my space, so I can incorporate both drains? I'm afraid cutting them each down so much will reduce the grade of the slope, and be basically counter productive to the purpose of wanting 2 drains. The house was built in the 2000s so it has 2" drain pipes, and to be honest there will probably be very few times all of the shower heads/sprayers will be used at the same time. Am I making this overly complicated? Should I just cut/cap one of the drains, or will my plan provide the benefit I am  hoping for (better drainage)?

Definitely cut off the extra drain.

Even with two shower heads running, you won't exceed the capacity of a properly maintained 2" drain line. In addition to that, it will be more uncomfortable than you think to have a small mountain in the middle of the shower floor.

Good luck. I love the Kerdi shower system.


How can I reduce street noise behind my house? My house backs up to a street, with 3 lanes in both directions.

Even though there is a good 30 feet from the back fence to the road, the street noise can get pretty loud during peak traffic times.

I'm looking for a solution to reduce the noise in the backyard.

The fence is currently an old wood post type (5ft. in height) with gaps between it - so I am sure it is not doing anything to reduce noise.

Is there anything I can put on the fence to drastically reduce street noise?

Is there a different type of fence that does this really well - that you have tried?

To provide even a little noise reduction, you need to eliminate air gaps in the fence.   If wind can blow through, sound can come through too.  There is little you can do to improve the fence without first sealing the gaps.   Adding foliage (i.e. shrubs or vines) will do nothing.

To seal the gaps you need to

After sealing the gaps, the next steps would be to increase the barrier height and/or adding mass to the barrier (usually done by adding extra layers)

Here are some US govt documents related to barriers.

http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/environment/noise/noise_barriers/design_construction/keepdown.cfm
http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/35000/35700/35778/FHWA-EP-00-005.pdf


Just another C wire problem Sorry for the long post but if you can make it to the end, I would greatly appreciate it. I have what I believe to be an uncommon situation that I haven't been able to solve. I have a thermostat that controls only my a/c. I wanted to upgrade the thermostat and picked up a Honeywell Lyric T5 secondhand. I then discovered that I don't have a C wire.

I currently have Rc, G, and Y. When I connect them to those spots in the thermostat, it does nothing. I went to the attic and found that the Rc wire is connected to the C terminal in the air handler. So I moved it from R to C in the thermostat. Now the thermostat will power on and acts like it's working but only the air handler turns on, not the a/c compressor.

So my question is, is there a way to add a jumper at the thermostat? If not, I can run new thermostat wire but I'm not sure how I can hook it up at the air handler since C is being used. I don't remember what other terminals were available at the handler but I can fnd out. I'm pretty sure the air handler is original to the house from 1970 so I don't know if things have changed since there. Thanks in advance for any help.

Run a new cable with more wires.  Then at the air handler connect them as follows:

Red to Rc
Yellow to Y
Green to G
Blue to C

If there's already a wire attached to the C terminal, don't worry.  Just attach the blue wire from your thermostat cable there as well.  The other wire is likely from the condensing unit outside.  There may also be a wire on the Y terminal, which also likely goes out to the condensing unit.

At the thermostat, connect then wires as follows:

Red to Rc
Yellow to Y
Green to G
Blue to C

You should be all set.


How to Hang Projector Screen from ceiling against wall? Let me start off with a diagram

This is the projector screen in front of the wall. The vertical bars are the studs.

There are probably 4 or 5 more studs between the edges of the screen).
The frame of the projector has about a 3" gap from where the keyhole slots or loops for hanging are located.

I'm trying to figure out how I can attach the projector screen to the wall or the ceiling. I don't seem to be able to attach it to the wall because of the positions of the studs. I would only be able to attach to one of the studs with brackets or a screw.

I would prefer to hang the projector from the ceiling, but the joists run parallel to the wall, so the nearest one is 18" from the wall, which is much too far for where I'd like the screen to hang.

Rather that attaching into the drywall or cobbling up short mounting blocks I would strongly recommend that you mount a board to all the existing studs that is just a bit longer than the width of your screen.

This board can be a straight forward 1x6 pine board (actual dimensions 0.75" x 5.5"). Since you want the screen up near the ceiling anyway just slide the board all the way up against the ceiling and attach it with screws right through the drywall and into the studs. This will make a nice sturdy place to attach the hangers for the screen. Once it is all attached in place the board can have holes filled with filler or spackle. Then prime and paint to a color that matches the wall.

Note that once the screen is hung in front of the board it will hardly be noticed that the board is there and it will still look nicer than other kludge solutions.


Are utility lights with an outlet recommended or are there good reasons not to use them? This question is related to my other question where I am actually installing a light figure w/ outlet in a utility closet: What is the correct way to wire a utility light with an outlet?.

But while I was swapping out my broken fixture with the new one, I started to second guess myself for 2 reasons. First, I haven't actually seen these since I was a kid in the early '80s. Second, an actual licensed electrician installed the previous light...maybe there is reason he doesn't install them and why I haven't seen them in 30 years.

OR...should I not have gotten one with an outlet?

The light

The luminaire (that porcelain thing) is bad news in a closet, whether it has a socket or not.  NEC 410.16, "Luminaires in clothes closets".  While 410.16 covers what is permitted, 410.16(B) swerves out of its way to outlaw that particular type.

This may not be strictly speaking a clothes closet, but utility closets also get used for things that can catch fire.  410.16 seeks to prevent a particular type of fire, and I have witnessed that type of fire starting (and intervened obviously), and it was a utility closet.  More to the point, very good products are available today -- why not use them?  So let's use 410.16A as a guidestar, even though it may not be technically a clothes closet.

Where safe to use, the luminaires are fine with or without socket. I use arrays of them for ceiling lighting in basement/shop spaces. They are so cheap that even with steel octagon boxes and EMT conduit, material cost is ~$5 a lamp.  It lets me put my glut of obsolete CFLs to good use. Anyway...

410.16A says you can only use one of

Surface-mount or recessed incandescent or LED luminaires with completely enclosed light sources (i.e. the light emitter is behind a glass or plastic bezel and the luminaire is rated for the heat of the fully enclosed bulb including an incandescent if those exist for the socket type, because somebody will).
Surface-mounted or recessed fluorescent luminaires (but don't)
Surface-mounted fluorescent or LED luminaires identified as suitable for installation within the closet storage space (i.e. the manufacturer has specifically listed the fixture for installation in closets.)

410.16C is very particular about location, for every type except 3.  I  typed in all the gory details, then deleted it because it doesn't matter; it's clear that Code is working pretty hard to herd you into type 3 above.

Figure on this being an LED fixture with integral emitters (no bulbs to change).  It's pretty easy to make those cool enough to be safe in a closet.  That's the right thing for this job and this location.

The receptacle

Any new closet receptacle needs to be AFCI protected.  You might be able to find listed-for-closet LED fixtures with convenience receptacles, but I wouldn't count on it.  If your heart's set on a receptacle there, I'd fit a surface conduit adapter box on top of that octagon box, both because it'll give you space for a normal receptacle (with a special cover plate) and also allow you to extend via surface conduit to another location for the luminaire.

You still need to figure out the AFCI thing; you can't put an AFCI+receptacle combo device in an octagon box - it won't fit.  So the AFCI will need to go somewhere upstream.  Normally you replace the circuit breaker with a breaker+AFCI, because bonus, it also protects the house wiring from problems in the wires or receptacles, which has proven to be so useful they are now required on lots of circuits.

P.S. Here's 410.16 verbatim:


Attach light fixture with 3.5" bolt holes to ceiling box with 2.75" bolt holes I've removed an old and ugly looking ceiling mounted fan (probably installed 30 years ago) which I'm replacing with a modern light fixture.

The round (not octagonal) junction box in the ceiling (behind sheet rock) that the fan was attached to has two mounting bolt holes that are 2.75" apart and the new light fixture has mounting bolt holes that are 3.50" apart.

The problem is how to attached the new light fixture to the existing box given that the holes of the fitting are 0.5" wider than the electric box?

I've tried using an all-purpose crossbar but it doesn't work because the mounting bolts from the new light fixture coincide with the sheetrock cutout for the electric box.

I thought about drilling holes in the new light fixture but think this would be dangerous because the light fixture has wires running between two pieces of metal and I obviously need to avoid drilling into them, also I cannot easily separate the two layers of metal.

I managed to attach the light fixture using the universal crossbar, but with some improvisation.

The light fixture included two combo truss bolts that were designed to screw into the junction box but this didn't work because of the incompatible sizes(3.5" and 2.75").

The solution was to  bolt the crossbar to the junction box and hang the combo truss bolts (to attach the fixture) from the top side of the crossbar, with the bolt heads resting on the top of the cross bar. Then I secured the fixture to the bolts using nuts.

Not perfect but the fixture is stable and secure.

Thanks for your comments guys!


Moving a pair of studs 4 inches We are trying to put in an interior window between a room and an addition to the home that was added later. We cut out a hole in the drywall between the studs of the original room. However the studs of the addition are flush with the existing wall and are overlapping where the window will go by about 3 inches on each side. I was wondering what the best way to go about moving the studs would be. Would I need to put in a header?

Thanks for any help.

Edit: Adding a picture.

If you aren't changing the framing of the former exterior wall at all, you can basically do whatever is most convenient for the "wall" on the addition side.  Flat studded walls are not going to be load bearing, so you don't need a header.  The 2x4s on that side are basically only there to provide a place for the sheerock to attach.  Basically you'll be putting in 2x4 furring strips around the hole.  About the only thing that you should try to do is to attach whatever you put in to something solid (i.e. other framing) so the drywall around the window doesn't crack.


what order should I be replacing floor and drywall in? I'm replacing particle board panels with drywall (after adding some insulation) and removing the laminate floor and the carpet beneath with proper subfloor.
I've got the acoustic tiles down from the ceiling, the particle board off the studs, and will be pulling the laminate and carpet off next.

My question is, what order should I be doing the things in? Floor first or Drywall first?

This is the order that works well for me.

Subfloor
Framing & Drywall
Underlayment
Door Casings
Finished Floor (undercut the casings to the finished floor height)
Baseboards (If you are carpeting put baseboards down before carpet.)


What can hand held metal circular saws not get through? This is not per se a DYI question, but someone here might know this: If you have a standard hand-held metal circular saw, what materials can it either not get through - or would clog it up?
Basically, I am looking for a strategy, that when someone tries to cut something with a metal saw they cant do it.
I was thinking maybe some kinds of fabric (felt, or those chainsaw protective clothings) or maybe if its a mix of materials so that once the metal blade gets trough metal it breaks at some other kind of material - does anyone have any clue what might work there?

Anything that's thicker than the radius of the blade will be very hard to cut through.
Other than that with the right blade most materials can be cut.
something with loosely packed fibrous strands will tend to foul the axle.


basement subfloor - do i need sleepers for this solution I'm going to install a basement subfloor. I want to follow option 3 from this site: http://homerenovations.about.com/od/additions/a/BasementSubfloor.htm.

A nice option because the foam insulation provides an excellent thermal break between concrete and flooring.

Finish flooring.
Plywood screwed down through the layer below.
Rigid foam insulation - 1 1/2" thick.
Concrete basement floor.

For the rigid foam insulation I wanted to use XPS foam. My question is, do I need sleepers for this? I saw on YouTube someone using a similar solution but they used sleepers under the plywood and filled the space between the sleepers with foam.

Thanks,
mj

Yep, you can go with sleepers or with DA01 & Keshlam's concept while using tongue & groove plywood only. A variation between the 2 is to not do sleepers to keep the plywood flat but to do batten boards under the plywood seams with strips of plywood...you'd lay 1" or 3/4" thick insulation strips under the battens, depending on your plywood thickness.

This maximizes the thermal insulation & regular edged plywood can be used. 3/4" plywood would be more resilient if you envision heavier furniture. An aquarium, hot tub or weight lifting area would need full sleepers beneath the plywood.


How do I identify make / model of this kitchen faucet? I am trying to identify this fixture, to get some rebuild parts:

What approach should I use?

(It is a kitchen fixture in use in a bathroom)

It is an American Standard "Cadet" MODEL NUMBER: 6425
http://www.americanstandard-us.com/kitchen-faucets/Cadet-Two-Handle-Kitchen-Faucet-2197/


Should I replace "backstab" light switches? I've seen multiple mentions on this site about how bad "backstab" connections are. I recently replaced a switch for a fan with a timer, and the switch had backstab connections instead of screws (the timer has screws). That switch looked identical to all the other fan and light switches in my house, so I'm guessing they have the same type of wiring connection. Should I be worried about this? Do I need to replace them or do anything else to prevent fires? Or is this more important for outlets than switches? ... Should I check my outlets in case they're the same?

95% of the time, backstabs fail "open" - they seem pretty good at that.  That's not a fire starter, but it is an annoyance that will send you on a day-long "bug hunt" for the faulty connection.

The other 5% of the time, it will create a weak, overheating connection or a series arc fault, and yeah, that'll start a fire.

The main reason we recommend scourging them is the future annoyance of a failed "open".


The best device to measure instantaneous energy usage What is the best way to measure instantaneous energy usage in an electrical circuit? Wattmeter, ammeter, something else?

My use case is as follows: I have a room which I use for short term rental (STR). The guests sometimes leave the room and leave the (1.5 ton) air conditioner etc. running. I want to monitor whether they have done so by attaching a suitable meter to the circuit for that room. (There is a separate circuit for that room). Such a meter would then give measurements for that circuit.

Opinions on what would be most suitable are appreciated. Obvious possibilities are a wattmeter and an ammeter, which seem basically equivalent, since W=VA.

I don't know whether there are reasons to prefer one over the other. If there are, please let me know.

My location is Bombay, India.

Without a doubt, it is the Kill-A-Watt meter.  You want to measure Watts.  And also Watt-hours.

Here is what they look like:

They are available from many vendors.  Worth every penny.

Every brand offers both instantaneous use, but also cumulative and max.

Since most work the same, I suggest you shop around, assure yourself they all do about the same thing, then look at prices and speed of delivery to make your decision


Is it possible to fry a lamp's internal wiring if I put the wrong bulb in? I went to the hardware store pulled a bunch of LED bulbs off the shelf.  One of the bulbs found its way into the wrong box and had a significantly smaller screw base than your typical light bulb base.  Because I wasn't paying attention to this as I was putting in all the bulbs, I inadvertently attempted to put in the bulb with the smaller base which tripped a breaker, causing all my power to go out.  I switched all the breakers back on and my power came back, but now my light won't work.  Did I destroy the fixture forever or is there something that I am missing here?  It's wired up to a dimmer control if that is of any use here.

TL;DR: The dimmer's toast. Replace it.

The short circuit or overload condition indeed likely smoked the switching element in the dimmer; modern dimmers use a special type of transistor-like switching element known as a triac to cut part of each half-cycle of the AC wave out in order to reduce the power being applied to the lamp.  Unfortunately, triacs are very intolerant of short-circuits, and to make a short-circuit resistant dimmer would drive the dimmer makers out of business, so dimmers just let out the magic smoke whenever shorted (such as when a portable lamp is on a dimmer, and the bulb is broken).


How can I make a sunken electrical outlet line up with an outlet cover? I recently replaced drywall in my bathroom but made the mistake of not checking to see if the existing electrical outlet boxes lined up properly.  The result is that the electrical outlet box (and more importantly the receptacle itself) are sunken in about 1/4 inch and don't line up correctly with the outlet cover wall plate. At this point the drywall is already set so I can't (or more accurately, don't want to) tear down the drywall.

Is there some sort of product that I can safely use as a spacer to have the outlet stick out an extra amount of space from the electrical box?

I'll try to get a picture or two up soon...

If you use a spacer the inset must be equal to or less than 1/4 of an inch to be NEC compliant.

See this question for relevant information: How do I extend outlets after installing a backsplash?

Personally, I would just get a box extender like the one in the answer to the question above.  They are fairly cheap and better by design (in my opinion).


Pouring concrete for an under porch crawl space There is a crawl space under my uncovered front porch. The walls seems to be a mixture of cinder block and brick. The crawlspace "ceiling" is a cement slab and the floor is dirt. The floor right now is covered with various bits of rotting wood. The floor is level with the sorrounding ground. There is one small vent in the wall and a rotting piece of plywood as a door. The space stays pretty dry and we would like to use it for storage of things like bikes, yard tools, and maybe even window AC units.

I am in Washington DC so we get below freezing tempratures, but I was still hoping to just do a pour over the roughly graded dirt to keep things cleaner and make moving things easier. Is this feasible? Given this is truly "outdoor" space without any house above it, would I need a liner?

The generic term for non-structural pours like that is rat slab, regardless of whether it's for rodent control or not. There doesn't seem to be any logical call for a liner, but local codes and ordinances aren't always logical. There are a few caveats besides that to keep in mind.

You'll want a slab at least two inches thick, three would be better. Don't be the guy that makes due with one inch and has it fail three weeks later.
I'd pitch the slab away from the house; no need intentionally create drainage nightmares.
The point where you want to have the concrete trucked in approaches a whole lot quicker in a crawlspace because lugging buckets on hands and knees sucks. A lot.


How to best join baseboard to tile trim on wall? The tile installer ran the tile trim all the way to the floor.

I need to reinstall the skirting board, but am unsure of the best way to join it up with the new tile trim.

What are my options?

This is more a matter of opinion than anything where one way is clearly best.

I'd likely mitre the end of the board, and trim so the end of the mitre was the same thickness as the tile trim, and either butt them together or leave a gap and caulk it.


Should my toilet flange sit on top of the backer board or the tile of the floor? The bathroom model saga continues.  The old toilet flange was rusting, and the subfloor was rotting, so I pulled up the subfloor around the toilet, and replaced the drain pipe with ABS, and an elbow.  The plan is to tile this bathroom.

So my question is- should the toilet flange sit on top of the backer board so that the top of the flange is close to flush with the top of the tile?  Or should the flange sit on top of the tile (thus raising the top of the flange 3/8" or so over the top of the tile)?  I've seen it recommended both ways, but have had some trouble finding the pros/cons of each.

The toilet flange needs to be on top of the finished floor. Meaning the bottom edge of the flange needs to be on the same plane as the toilet. So if your toilet sits on the tile, the flange needs to be on top of the tile too. The spacing of the toilet exit "horn" and sealing surface is designed for this height.

almost all plumbers agree, here are some sources:

http://www.terrylove.com/forums/showthread.php?51976-Toilet-flange-height

if you have it lower than the finished floor you risk leaking toilet water (the water is the best part) into the floor or worse, in-between the tile, sub-floor, backer board. This is because the wax ring was designed only to take up the air gap, not to provide a "tunnel" or extension of the pipe/flange/toilet horn.


Water Softener using 150 gallons of water a day to regenerate? We have an Ultimate II water softener that is aprox 12 yrs old.  I've been told it's on it's last legs but I don't know much about them.  I have a few questions.  We noticed our water bill has skyrocketed from 150 gallons a day to 300 gallons a day in consumption (9000gallons a month!).  We are a 3 person household. Thinking there was a leak we shutoff the water valve to the house and the meter stops (it's not an outside leak then?)...so checked each toilet (put food coloring in with no color bleeding down).  Our water comes in and up (not down via slab) and thru attic therefore I'm thinking 5000+ excessive gallons in a month we'd see it in ceiling, right?  So, we decided to shutoff our water softener (which BTW regenerates every single night-why I do not know but guy set it up that way) and now we are using 150 gallons each day instead.  So, my thought is it's the water softener regenerating huge amounts of water.  I just need some insight as I'm not familiar with water softeners at all.  We had it serviced about a year ago and at that time we were told it was not going to last much longer (but maybe he just told us that-I don't know).

Anybody have any ideas on what is causing this massive loss of water via our water softener?  I can't find anything when I google this either.  Thanks a bunch!

Water softeners do use water to recharge, but it shouldn't be that much. With a new filter and all electronic controls working, most systems should send no more than 25 gallons through during a recharge cycle.

The theory is that the filter media (special polymer beads, often stored in what looks like a high-pressure air tank) is "charged" with a high amount of sodium ions from the rock salt you load into the bin. Hard water containing calcium and magnesium carbonate, which are only slightly soluble and cause lime scale, comes into the filter from the house supply, and the sodium replaces the calcium, forming highly water-soluble sodium carbonate in the water supply, which won't cause scaling, leaving the calcium and magnesium ions in the filter. To "recharge", the softener fills the salt bin with supply water producing a brine, which is then flushed through the filter media. The sodium replaces the calcium and magnesium in the filter, which then hitch a ride down the drain as soluble chlorides.

The amount of water needed to produce the recharging brine varies by manufacturer and age of the filter media; this ion exchange does take its toll, as the charged ions are corrosive (a surplus of positive ions in a water solution makes the solution acidic). The softener also relies on several detectors to determine system status, that are exposed to hundreds of thousands of gallons of water over their rated life, much of it salty and highly corrosive. Over time, all these components wear out, with more or less detrimental effects on the system's overall efficiency.


How should I pretreat painted plasterboard before gluing fiber cement sheet over it I'm going to glue (and nail) cement tile underlay sheet to a painted plasterboard wall.

The paint seems to have decent adherence, should I do anything before gluing?

I'd sand it lightly and wash it thoroughly afterwards to get any particles off, you'll get better and longer-lasting adherence.


Which stud should I mount to if they are different widths? I'm trying to mount a pull up bar to the studs behind my drywall. The studs are 16" apart, but seem to be of different widths. Specifically, I see a 3.5" stud, 3.5", 2", 2", 3.5". Are these just 2x4s in different orientations? Is there a preference for which I should mount on?

The 3.5" studs are either doubled-up 2x4s, or a sideways 2x4. I would use the 2" studs to mount it on because if the 3.5" studs are sideways, they will be more likely to bow out under load, and a regular 2x4 is more than strong enough to hold body weight.


Can a GFCI receptacle protect other receptacles? My contractor has wired one GFCI receptacle in the main bathroom on the same circuit as a normal receptacle in our en-suite bathroom (it is less than a foot from the sink). he says that since they are on the same circuit that the GFCI in the en-suite is not needed. Is this correct? Do I still have the same protection - say if I dropped a running hairdryer into the en-suite sink - as I would if there was a GFCI receptacle in the en-suite?

If wired correctly, this is fine.

GFCI outlets typically have line terminals (power input) and load terminals (power to other outlets, which will be protected by the GFCI.)

Your contractor will have wired the outlet in the second bathroom to the load terminals of the GFCI in the main bathroom. There should also be a sticker on the outlet stating that it is GFCI protected, as it can be less obvious when the outlet stops working but no breakers are blown what's going on. However, these stickers don't last well, so they may not have bothered (or may have stuck it on the inside of the outlet plate so it would be found early in troubleshooting)

If you have concerns, you should purchase (not too expensively) an outlet tester that includes a GFCI test function, plug it in to verify correct wiring and then press the test button to verify that the GFCI trips as it should.