Replacing an over the range microwave with a wall range hood Hubby and I just purchased a new range and are looking to replace the over the range microwave with a wall mount range hood.

Floor to ceiling in the kitchen is 10'.
Range from floor to top of range is 37"
From top of the lower cabinets to the bottom of the upper cabinet (where the microwave sat) is 38"
The cabinet above where the microwave sat has duct work going to the exterior of the house, and an outlet.
We live on a two story house (so can't do chimney hood venting upstairs).

Questions:
 1. If Hubby is successfully able to take the cabinet directly above the microwave
    out, as a beginner, can he install the new wall hood himself?
 2. The duct work inside the cabinet (I don't have precise measurement) goes up ]
    approximately 12 inches, and then elbows outside.  Will this be sufficient
    for a wall mount hood (please note we still have ample space above the
    cabinet, however prefer not to go that route).
 3. If hiring a pro is recommended, what is an approximate amount we should expect
    to pay (we live in Northern CA).

Below are all the measurements:

Distance from floor to Ceiling is 10 feet Distance from floor to to of the vent (before it elbows to the opening outside) is 81 1/2" Distance from the top of the 81 1/2" elbowing to the opening to the outside is a little over 4" The wide of the opening is 30" The height of the range is 37"

Hood measurements we are considering: 30" W x 24.0" D x 16.375" H

The measurement that is relevant is the height of the bottom of the hood above the stovetop. This will determine what you would need to do to connect a given hood to your existing ductwork.

As far as the skill level to install a hood in a space occupied by a microwave oven, 25 years ago I did a similar project and I am not a skilled carpenter. I removed the 1970 builder's single unit range with double oven and installed a Vent-A-Hood (basic model) over a basic GE slide in electric range with single oven. I chose to put the bottom of the hood at 29" above the burner surface which I have found is too high for this quality of hood. A height of 24" to 26" would have allowed good visibility of food in deep pots on the back burners, but would improve effectiveness of the hood and would possibly decrease the noise level by getting the bottom of the hood below ear level.

To determine what height works for you (which depends on the height of the people doing the cooking and the depth of the pots) I suggest using a tape measure or a piece of cardboard across the opening to determine that you can see into the deepest pots you will use on the back burners.

  High-capacity range hoods are typically installed between 24 and 30
  inches above the cooktop, while standard models are installed on
  average between 18 and 24 inches above the surface of the cooktop.

  . . . Sometimes contractors prefer to measure the height of
  the range hood they are installing from the floor rather than from the
  surface of the cooktop. When this is the case, the bottom of the range
  hood typically measures 60 inches from the floor.
  https://www.hunker.com/12269148/what-height-to-put-a-range-hood

EDIT

You can arrange for the manufacturer of your kitchen cabinets to provide you with a cabinet which would support the hood and enclose the ductwork and the electrical receptacle for power to the hood. Then you could decide whether you want to try to install it yourself or hire a carpenter to do it yourself. Be aware though that measuring the space for a cabinet unit to fit between two already installed cabinets is tricky.


Should I run two gas water heaters if I don't need to? We purchased a house recently that has two water heaters(configured in series). I just realized that the first one hasn't been running as the thermocouple was defective. For 6 months we had no problem using just the second one. If we don't need the extra water capacity is there any need/benefit to having the first water heater consuming gas? Would having the first water heater lessen he amount of "work" the second heater needs to do? Or, am I just wasting gas?

If you haven't noticed a lack of hot water, I would say there's no reason to have both water heaters running.  Just make sure that the gas line to the one that's not working is turned off.  While the second water heater is currently doing more work than it would typically do if they were working in tandem, it's not using nearly as much gas as you would if both water heaters were running.


Do I need to cut this shop vac hose adapter when I use it? I am using this with Rigind vacuum and a router table. The router table adapter is the size of the second section in the picture, counting from the right side bottom up.

The vacuum is struggling because its hose diameter is reduced from 2" to whatever the end diameter is and it is not very effective at collecting dust in this situation.

So do I need to cut this ?

Yes you are supposed to cut this at the point which gives you the correct diameter.

Collecting dust from tools requires large amounts of airflow (cfm) and static pressures can be very low and still effective. In your case, you will have high pressure but low airflow due to that restriction.

Also helps to ensure there are minimum bends and turns in your hose and keep the hose as short as possible.


Why can I receive low band VHF on one tv but not another? I'm getting channel 5 to come in on my living room TV through a rooftop antenna. This station is not coming in my bedroom. I'm using a splitter in the basement.

I've tried different antennas, cables, and even an amplified splitter but still can't get channel 5 in the bedroom. I also tried plugging in a small TV antenna directly into the bedroom TV, but still no-go. If I plug the bedroom TV into the same jack where the living room TV is plugged in, I do get reception of this station.

Any ideas on how to get this to come in or why it's doing this?

UPDATE: I finally got this resolved by using a 2-way splitter for the tv that was having issues and directly connecting one of the “out” ports to the TV in question and the “in” to the rooftop antenna. Then I connected a coax cable connected to the “in” port of another splitter that has “out” ports that connect to the other TVs in our house. I also adjusted the antenna to get the best signal.

Inside each TV is a tuner that separates individual channels from your antenna signal. Some tuners are better than others in tuning in channels that are either too weak, too strong, too noisy, frequency range etc.

If your TVs are different brands, from different years and sometimes different models from the same manufacturer, chances are that they use different tuner circuitry and one is simply better than the other at picking up that channel.

If your tv has the ability to view signal information then try to see what's different in that channel that might be causing the problem.


How do I keep a clean recycle bin for organic material? Location is New Zealand, Christchurch, we have a green rubbish bin per household that takes organic rubbish, which is collected weekly.

In summer, flies always manage to get in and soon after maggots start to crawl out of it. I have been using fly spray every second day but I am wondering if there is a better way to prevent this explosion of flies and maggots?

One way I can think of is to:

Every time after I dump food waste into it, I cover it up with a layer of lawn.

Thanks

You could put your organic matter in a sealed bucket  and then only transfer it to the the green bin the nite before the collection day. Or you could build or buy a compost bin and put some of your organic matter in that and let the maggots do what they do, break it down into an excellent compost for gardening etc.

HOW TO COMPOST FOOD SCRAPS


Electical Outets with Bootleg ground I replaced a couple of broken outlets that had a “bootleg ground “ on them.

Most posts say it’s dangerous to have bootleg ground. Older home, no ground, no metal, no metal sheathing on wires.

Question: Is it better to have no ground?

Thank you

Bootleg ground is always super bad

Bootlegging ground (faking a ground by attaching it to neutral) is always bad.

The reason is that neutral is not safe!

In a perfect world, neutral is near zero volts.  But lots of perfectly ordinary failures can happen where neutral is hot and dangerous. These ordinary failures should not make your system dangerous.  And that's why we insulate neutral.

A simple neutral break will cause the neutral wire (downline of the break) to become energized. If you  have tied ground to it, now the chassis of the machine is also energized.

So no bootlegging ground!  Try to avoid it even on dryers and ranges where it is legal due to a special exception.  When  you have a 3-prong dryer or range, that is ungrounded (the funny wire is neutral not ground). Use the "GFCI Breaker" or "Retrofit ground" option below.

What can you do instead?

First, you can roll them back to a 2-prong receptacle. I gather that option is not acceptable to you. However, you must, unless you go with another option.

Second option and an easy bolt-up: install GFCI protection, one way or the other:

Fit a GFCI receptacle at this location. Label it "No Equipment Ground".
Place a GFCI device somewhere else, so that this receptacle is fed off that GFCI's "Load" terminals.  Fit a plain 3-prong receptacle, and label it "GFCI Protected / No Equipment Ground".

You're welcome to use a GFCI breaker as the GFCI device. (this is the only viable way to do a 240V load).

Third, an option is to retrofit a ground wire. They greatly liberalized the rules for doing this in 2014.  Run any large enough bare or green copper wire from this location to any other junction box that has a large enough ground wire (or metal conduit) back to the panel, or to the house's Grounding Electrode System wires (i.e. the thick bare copper wires between water pipe and panel), or to the panel itself obviously.  You cannot attach to a water pipe.


How should I connect ground wires for new ceiling fan? I am replacing a ceiling fan in a house we just bought. The current box for the fan has 3 sets of wires coming into it, one for the switch and 2 for the outlets. However, the ground wires are were pushed outside the box immediately after where the wire sheathing ends and I assumed they were tied somewhere on top of the box. The old fan didn’t work when we got the house and when I took it down, the grounding wires weren’t connected to anything.
My question is how would I attach the ground wire for the new fan? Would I need to or would the box itself be grounded already and the fan safe to use? I’m attaching some pictures and can try to take better ones in the morning if needed. It would be extremely difficult to get into the crawl space to even see what is up there. Any help is greatly appreciated.

Here is a better picture of inside the box. You can also see the ground wires which I pulled down slightly to get a better view of them

If I understand correctly, based on your recent update, you have access to all of the ground wires.  As you said, they were not attached to anything and you were able to pull them back into the box.
You should pigtail the fan into the current grounding path.  This can be accomplished by taking a short piece of bare copper (of same gauge as current ground wires) and tie it together with the other grounds using a wire nut.
Should your fan be grounded?  Yes, ground it.  There is a bigger problem here though.  If the grounding wires in your current cables are not connected, then you do not have ground downstream.
As EdBeal pointed out in the comments, this box is not rated for a ceiling fan and cannot provide the support that a fan requires.  It should be replaced as well.


Why did my wall-mounted garage door opener button stop working? Yesterday, my wall-mounted garage door opener was working fine. Today, the opener is not working. There is no green light or any other sign of it working. I tried pressing it a few times but no response.

The opener still works with the remote outside the garage to enter.

I opened the button and touched both wires together as mentioned in another post but that didn't open the garage door.

I'd start by opening up the opener, and making sure the wires for the switch are securely connected.

Inspecting the cable for damage, would be the next step. This would include testing the wires for continuity, to make sure there's not damage that couldn't be seen.

Check the control board in the opener for any fuses, and make sure any fuses are good.


What flux should I use for copper that will be used for food prep? I need to solder some copper tubing that will be used in food preparation.  I have of course silver/lead-free solder, but I understand that I might need/want water soluble flux or another type of food-grade flux.

How do I ensure that I can sweat these tubes and not contaminate the fluid with flux?

I would like to use a food-quality flux
I would like to be able to clean the flux

On another web site I saw someone mention acid-washing or acid cleaning.

What should I be doing to ensure my fluid is contaminant-free?

All the flux is for is to make the solder wick around the copper more easily to give you a better join.

As long as you're using lead free flux, after you complete the solder joins, run the water for several minutes from each fixture and you're not going to have any worries.  People have been using flux w/ copper for decades now w/o any harmful side effects.


Did I wire this dimmer switch correctly? We just bought a house built in '74 and all the lights were on dimmers except for one in the hall by the bedrooms. I wanted to to put a dimmer in so my daughter can use it as a faux night light if she needs to get up in the middle of the night.

I opened the box up and it was crammed with wires and texture/paint:

I bought this guy:

And after some research I made the following connections:

Top Wire on old switch to new black wire.
Bottom Wire to red wire.
Unfurled the curved "ground?" wire in the back after confirming it was grounded and connected green to it
Capped off orange w/ white stripe by itself.

The light works just fine. On is on, off is off, the dimmer works. There's a split second delay when turning it on though, while its twin (same fixture, bulbs, and switch [though it's much older]) further down the hall turns on instantly. It's not really noticeable unless you look for it, but it's probably 1/10 of a second or so slower.

I've got the breaker off for now (we still haven't quite moved fully) - but I'm having second thoughts on my color coordination and such.

That's exactly right.

A lot of these new dimmers are coming through as both single-pole and 3-way. This does add to confusion for some DIYers.

Again, this new crop of LED/CFL compatible dimmers could have a very slight delay in coming on.

Capping off the red/white stripe wire basically turns this into a SP dimmer.


Washbasin Tap not working properly and no water pressure. Refer images just shifted to a house and after moving in got to know about the tap situation. The house owner hasn't shown up since ages as per current roommates. Kindly view the image and suggest a solution to the low water pressure situation. I have clicked a picture of the section where water outlet is and another showing the water pressure.

Looks like a clogged aerator. Unscrew it and flush it out with water. Use a pliers and wrap the aerator in a cloth as to not scratch the finish.


Thread extender/nut for basin waste with gap in thread I just took my basin apart to replace the broken waste only to find the replacement I bought (the only unslotted waste with the click clack mechanism I wanted at a length the same as the old one to reduce the plumbing required)

Is there a part/nut I can buy to deal with the fact that the thread stops 2 inches from the top? (My basin is a about a 0.5 inch thick.

Use a piece of tubular material (like a cut section of pipe), along with a couple large washers, as a spacer.


Problem with GFCI at start of circuit with both lights and two receptacles With normal receptacle at first device in circuit all works fine--all lights and both receptacles. (I inherited the circuit--didn't do it myself.)

I thought, "Why not install a GFCI as first device?" to provide protection to the two receptacles that are the 3rd and 4th devices in the circuit.

Well, neither of two NEW GFCIS even acknowledge that there is current being supplied to them. (I assure you that there is 120v there.)

A friend wasn't sure but guessed that the GFCIs are saying "I can't help you with lights; receptacles only."

I obviously didn't know that, but it makes sense. There's no way to provide GFCI protection for lights anyway (I assume).

I've Googled a fair amount and followed many links, but have yet to find someone saying "GFCI is wired to not let this situation work." Every one either "it's okay but it's against code so don't do it" or similar hedging.

Whatever, I'm going back to the normal receptacle where I was on Monday with everything working. BTW, a GFCI tester showed no red and two yellows, which means "CORRECT" for this particular tester.

My only question is: forget code for the moment--should the two GFCIs have worked?

Lights?
A GFCI can protect lights. You just usually don't need to protect lights. Lights that are installed out-of-reach in the ceiling are normally not required to be protected by GFCI simply because GFCI would not help. GFCI protects against current leaking through a person. If you can't touch the light, no current can flow through you. There are some exceptions: lights above a tub or shower and some outdoor lights, especially if near a pool or other water.
However, there is nothing wrong with GFCI protecting lights. Just keep in mind that:

If your lights & receptacles in a bathroom are on the same circuit and the lights are protected by the same GFCI that protects the receptacles, then if the GFCI trips, the lights will go out. You might be holding a hair dryer or other device that, while at that point no longer an electric shock hazard, might still not be a good situation in the dark.
If your lights use a smart switch that relies on leaking a little current to ground, that could cause nuisance trips of a GFCI.

Line vs. Load
With a regular (non-GFCI) receptacle, you typically will have "incoming" hot/neutral and "outgoing" hot/neutral, and it doesn't matter which wires go to which screws, as long as you get "hot" vs. "neutral" correct.
With a GFCI, it matters. A lot.

Figure out which set of wires is "incoming" - i.e., hot/neutral coming from the circuit breaker. There are a number of ways to do this if the wiring isn't obvious. I would turn off the breaker, disconnect all the wires from the receptacle, cap them for safety, turn on the breaker and check with a non-contact tester.
Connect the "incoming" wires to the LINE side of a GFCI receptacle.
Test the receptacle - it should work fine with normal loads. TEST/RESET should work for testing the GFCI functions, as well as a "GFCI tester". If you have problems at this point then your wiring is really messed up or you have a bad GFCI receptacle.

Now that you have the LINE side working, connect the remaining hot & neutral wires to the LOAD side of the GFCI. If it trips immediately then you have  ground fault somewhere in the existing LOAD-side wiring (the lights or other receptacles). If it does not trip then use a GFCI tester to test from each of the other receptacles to make sure everything is good.
FYI, the lights on the "GFCI tester" have absolutely nothing to do with GFCI. The tester is really two functions stuck in one convenient package:

"Magic 8-ball" (Harper's term) tester for hot vs. neutral vs. ground connections. Not 100% reliable for diagnosis of a particular problem, but very useful for basic testing.
GFCI tester - drains a small amount of current from hot to ground to test GFCI functionality.


New bathtub diverter spout drains back into wall I replaced my old diverter spout with a new one (both Delta), and I've found that the new one will leak water back through the hole in the wall if the diverter is switched off while the shower is running.

If I first turn off the water pressure and then push in the diverter, no problem. So, seems to me that the issue has something to do with the onrush of water when the diverter is switched off while under pressure. I'll just mention that our water pressure is typical (wimpy) for Southern California.

The new spout has a copper piece that screws onto to the water supply from the wall:

...and then the spout screws onto that until it's flush with the wall (there is no set screw).

If I block the spout with my hand and try to blow air through it from the back (with the diverter off), I'd expect flow to be blocked. Instead, I can feel air escaping out of the holes in the back.

What puzzled me when I was installing this (there were no instructions) is that it doesn't seem to be designed to seal against the wall or prevent water from getting into the outer body of the spout.

Anyone know what I'm doing wrong? Any advice?

I need to finish this up so I can repair the drywall in the downstairs ceiling.

Cheers!

How do you know water it leaking back into the wall. I can't quite see from your pictures, did you uses plumbers tape between the copper threads and the new brass piece (three times around, in the direction of the threads)?

I've installed some of these spouts. They never have a set screw. Once the rubber seal is well inside the spout water shouldn't get back there, unless there is a leak between the copper and brass.

The diverter isn't air tight. When water hits the diverter it gets pushed tight making a water tight seal, your breathe can't push it enough to make that seal.


Trying to identify the names of ikea hardware This piece is #124401 they sent me 1, I need 2 and feel it would be faster to just go out and get one myself but I can’t find the name. Any thoughts?

It's part of an IKEA TYSSEDAL Bed frame.
Part number 124401
Assembly Instructions
Ikea will be the only place to find a part like this.
According to Ikea:

Sometimes things don't go as planned. If your order arrived incomplete, contained damaged products, or didn't even show up, we're here to help.

Visit your closest store
Email us
Give us a call 1-888-888-4532

They should be able to help you if you tell them "Tyssedal bed frame part number 124401"


Leaking valve connection, recent shower install Shower is on second floor, I noticed wet spots in first floor ceiling. I opened the shower trim and found the drip on the left copper connection to the valve. I shut down water in the house.

I assume that pipe needs to be reinstalled to the valve and thus I need to remove the tile.

I want to ask perhaps there are better methods to fix it.

Thank you

I would definitely look at cutting an access into the drywall instead of removing tile. You'd have to remove a lot of tile to get in there and redo that connection. Dry wall is easy to fix. You should frame it in afterwards for access in the future. Just make absolutely sure you know where the water is leaking from. It could be another location and pooling at the point you see it. If the installer has a guarantee, I'd be getting him back there. good luck and stay safe out there.


I can only water lawn by manually opening the bleed screw My sprinklers in one zone won't  go on unless I open the bleed screw. I replaced the whole valve and yet still, in that one zone, I can only water the lawn by opening the bleed screw instead of it going on automatically like it is supposed to.

What do I do??

Are you confident that the voltage necessary to operate the valve is reaching the valve? You are performing a manual mechanical operation with the bleed screw. A new valve will behave as you describe if the wiring is interrupted.

Consider to swap wiring with an adjacent valve. The new valve would operate properly and the old, formerly working valve should fail if the wiring or continuity is the problem/solution.


Plumbing: Can the drain go down into the floor after the p-trap inside the vanity, or must it go in a wall? Plumbing: Can the drain go down into the floor after the p-trap inside the vanity, or must it go in a wall?  Are

The drain exits to right side of the vanity, not the back wall of the vanity.

I have plumbed them both ways many homes have the plumbing hidden in the walls but sometimes it is easier to go through the floor so whatever is best for your layout is fine, the only negative of going through the floor is you loose a little storage but this is not much a sacrifice compared to the ease of not having to open the wall and with a small sink it can be much easier to go to the side and down compared to back through the wall and then down.


How should I paint pine furniture? I built a bed for my son out of Pine (from plans on the internet.)  I am going to paint it white.  What kinds of preparation do I need to do to the wood, especially considering the 4 posts are from pressure-treated pine -- the kind of wood you use on a deck that you buy from Home Depot that probably is treated to keep away insects and repel moisture.

Sanding - how fine? 220 grit?

Anything after sanding like a sealant?

I would not ever use pressure-treated wood for any internal application - framing or furniture.  Go buy non-pressure treated 4x4s, or sister together two 2x4s to build 4x4s.

Otherwise, I sand pine down to 180 grit, prime, and paint.


What is this door mechanism called I am planning to flip a door round so it opens with the hinges on the other side. Before I even start I want to know if the 'lock' mechanism exists in a mirrored format so the door can still open into the room.

I have an photograph of the mechanism that I would like to identify. If I can find out what the name is then I can at least start to search to see if that component exists in a mirrored format!

This is a rim lock or sometimes called a rim latch. Yours looks to be made of cast iron, and while you may not be able to find the exact duplicate, you may be able to come close.


What is this implement called and where can I get one? In my shower there are two bumps meant to receive a square rod. I drew a picture as I don't know what they would be called. I want to put a rod in there, but I don't know if there is a special name for it and where I would get one.

It's called a towel bar. Usually they come with the "bumps" so you might have to buy both.


How to correctly add flooring to insulated attic My attic is well-insulated with fiberglass insulation strips laid between the joists, silver thermal wrap stretched across the joists, and 18-20 inches of blown insulation on top.

But as I conclusively demonstrated yesterday, there is no flooring to prevent me from plunging through the ceiling and into the room below.

What is the best way add flooring to the attic without compromising the insulation factor? There is too much blown insulation for me to simply compress it all under plywood. Should I add plywood to the existing joists and leave the blown insulation on top?

Two slight complicating factors: my only attic access is through a standard pull-down ladder, so I can't fit whole sheets of plywood. Also, I have an A/C unit (no heat) in the attic that sprawls extensively across the floor. I can work around that, but it makes access more difficult.

The alternative to Eric Simpson's simple solution is a product like the following. (This particular one is from Amazon, but searching for "loft flooring legs" will find many like it.)

Plywood/chipboard is often sold in 2400x600mm (8'x2') sheets precisely for fitting through a hatch to floor a loft.

Also, beware!  Roof trusses are usually designed down to a price, which means using the thinnest pieces of wood which can take the load of the roof.  They are usually not designed to carry substantial loads like a standard floor and a massive pile of junk on top of it.  If you want to put in a pathway and store empty suitcases and spare duvets/sleeping bags that should be fine; a complete floor + piles of old books - not so much.
(Thanks to isherwood for the comment.)


What to do to prevent/get-rid of snakes? This morning we found a snake in our front yard, this is the first time in 5-6 years that we've ever seen one in our yard. The next door neighbor did sell his home to someone who is rebuilding it. So it could be related to the fact the next door house was demolished, or who knows, maybe some genius kid forgot to close his snake's cage.

What to do in this kind of situation? Do you just kill it and hope for the best that there aren't others? Call a special spraying service?

For all I know there could be layer eggs in the area.

The best advice I can give is to do some research on the type of snake it is.  Is it native? Is it venomous?  What does it eat?  Where does it like to live?  And then you get rid of the types of things it likes to live around.  Most snakes that live around people are harmless and pose no risk to health or property.  Usually they are doing quite a bit of good by eating garden pests like bugs and slugs.

That said, getting a cat is usually a good way to keep small animals away, unfortunately, they keep the native birds away too.


Where in the breaker box should I terminate the neutral wire from my dryer circuit? I am looking for an answer to something I am lost about, hopefully I can fins some help. I recently moved into a new home. The previous owners had a gas dryer and no outlets for an electric dryer. I had the gas line removed as it was faulty, and am now trying to install an electrical line for my electric dryer. I purchased the correct 3 wire outlet, a new 220v breaker since there was not an extra one in the breaker box, and a 15ft indoor copper building wire (which is 4 wires). I wired the cable to the outlet using the 2 hot wires (red and black) and the white wire (neutral). I left the bare copper wire (ground) out as from my understanding the dryer is already grounded and this wire is not needed. then ew breaker is installed and now i need to wire the outlet to the breaker. Here is my issue. I can run the red and black wires to the breaker, no problem, but there does not appear to be an open spot on the neutral bar, where all the other white wires are running to. There is another bar directly below it, which i assume is the ground bar that has open slots. the top bar has a large black wire running from it to the outside along with the 2 main wires coming into the house. the bottom bar has a black wire that runs to a screw a few inches away on the breaker box itself. With there being no open slots for my neutral wire to go, where should i put it?

Can I put it on the bottom bar?

Can I tie it in with another neutral wire?

Perhaps one of the other neutral wires can be moved to the other bar?

Edit: I just noticed that behind the two bars at the bottom, there is a copper piece of metal right in the center that appears to connect the 2 bars, at least I assume so.

Edit 2: Just thought I would update everyone on the situation. I added a 220V 30Amp breaker to the breaker box. I ran the red and black wires to this breaker. i then moved the green wire running to the neutral bus down to the ground bus. This green wire was labeled as upstairs kitchen with its associated breaker. I checked the kitchen equipment, it is all running normally. I then hooked the white neutral wire coming from the dryer outlet into the now open spot on the neutral bar. i then turned on the breaker and my dryer appears to be working normally as well. Thank you all for the help. I will of course be updating my dryer hookups to the 4 wire standard as soon as possible, and i will probably be adding an additional neutral bar to my breaker box as well. I will update this post if i run into any problems.

Without being able to see the cables as they enter the cabinet; or the ability to touch or trace them, here is what I assume is going on.
Definitions:

Grounded (neutral) from the service
A typical single split phase service is made up of 3 wires. Two ungrounded (hot) conductors, and one grounded (neutral) conductor.  The ungrounded (hot) conductors will connect to the main service panel through a disconnect (usually a large breaker), while the grounded (neutral) connects to the neutral lug.  The neutral lug will be bonded (electrically connected) to the neutral bus bar, and all grounded (neutral) branch circuit conductors will terminate at the neutral bus.
Grounding Electrode Conductor
This conductor is used to connect the grounding electrode (ground rod, etc.), to the grounding bus in the panel. All equipment grounding conductors will be connected to this bus.
Bonding Jumper
The bonding jumper is used to bond (electrically connect), the un-energized metal parts of the panel to the grounding system.
Assumption:
Since it appears that (what I assume is) the grounding electrode conductor terminates at the neutral bus, I'm also assuming that this is the main service disconnect. This leads me to believe that the neutral and grounding buses are bonded (electrically connected). In which case, technically, grounded (neutral) branch circuit conductors can terminate at the grounding bus.
So you have two options:

Terminate the grounded (neutral) from the new circuit to the grounding bus.

Move the green wire that is terminated on the neutral bus, to the grounding bus. Then terminate the grounded (neutral) from the new circuit, to the freed up slot on the neutral bus.

Additional Information and Code Compliance:
Number of Conductors
Since this is a new circuit, it has to be installed to current code standards.

National Electrical Code 2011
ARTICLE 250 — GROUNDING AND BONDING
VI. Equipment Grounding and Equipment Grounding Conductors
250.140 Frames of Ranges and Clothes Dryers. Frames of electric ranges, wall-mounted ovens, counter-mounted cooking units, clothes dryers, and outlet or junction boxes that are part of the circuit for these appliances shall be connected to the equipment grounding conductor in the manner specified by 250.134 or 250.138.

Which in this case means installing a NEMA 14 receptacle for the dryer, and a proper grounding conductor.

You'll have to follow the dryer manufacturers installation instructions for upgrading to a 4 wire cord. For more information see this answer, and this answer.
Since you've said that you're already using 4 wire cable, you'll simply have to terminate the grounding conductor in the cable to the grounding bus in the service panel. Then connect the other end of the grounding conductor to the grounding terminal in the dryer receptacle.
Size of Conductors
You'll also want to be sure that you're using the proper size breaker and conductors.  In the case of a dryer, you'll typically use a 30 ampere breaker and 10 AWG conductors (depending on the length of the run). However, you'll want to check the dryer manufacturers installation instructions to verify this.


How to remove waves from ceiling and paper from walls [picture] I saw a house recently that has wave pattern on the ceiling and paper on walls. What would I need to do to make ceiling flat and remove the paper to paint it?

Thank you

There are many approaches. One of the least labor-intensive (but folks who have not gone down the route of removing wallpaper, etc. almost never believe it) is to apply a new layer of drywall (thinnest you can source) over the walls & ceiling you don't like the paper/texture on. That spares you from hours of steaming wall paper and fighting with the resulting wall (usually not) taking  paint nicely, and filling and/or scraping off the ceiling texture. You may need to extend electrical boxes, but you get a nice new paintable surface without the fuss of removing the old one.

Or, if electrical or insulation upgrades would be good anyway, rip out the existing drywall and replace it.

Of course, if you "saw a house" the easiest approach is to not buy that one. If you buy it anyway, letting it be for a year to see if you still hate it enough to bother is often worthwhile.


LED recessed light J-boxes My electrical inspector just failed me because the hidden J-boxes that attach to my 6" LED recessed lights were not mounted to studs. He didn't cite any specific code, so just wondering if this is actually a thing or if more his personal preference.

You'll need to mount them to something substantial
NEC 314.23 requires all junction boxes to be securely and rigidly supported, whether it be by mounting to the face of a wall, attachment to a structural member, "old work" clamps into a finished surface, a pair of rigid conduits, or being embedded into cement or brick.  So, your inspector was bang on in calling out your floppy boxes for a fix, even if they didn't have the Code cite on the tip of their tongue.


How do I properly lay a tongue and groove plywood subfloor remodel when joist layout is not always 16" oc? I'm working on a remodel of a room that spans two different areas of a house.

Each area has joists 16" OC but where they come together there is a "short" bay; one where it is not a full 16" between joists:

16"
16"
16"
16"
16"
9"
16"
16"
16"
16"
16"

The short bay (9") basically in the center of the room.

Should stay with full sheets and have to install blocking for one-half of the project (which will be a pain since the bays are full of mechanicals and lighting for the floor below) or should I shorten one of the sheets to maintain the OC spacing for each side?

If I shorten the sheet, do I recreate the T&G on the cut edge for that joist or is there another method I should be using?

Note that the finished surface will be tiles on top of Ditra Heat.

A sketch would help us better answer your question, but per manufacturer installation instructions T&G subflooring should be installed so that the T&G are perpendicular to the joists.

The tongue and groove support systems are not meant to support weight between joists for more than 24", and by the sound of it you are hoping to have a T&G joint that is the whole length of your room. Do not do this!

You should never have two panels butt together between two joists where the joints run parallel to the joists. Those panels should both be cut so that they each lie on half of the joist. So you get 1.5" of the first panel on the joist and 1.5" of the second panel on the same joist.

Simply put, cut your subfloor panels so they both rest on the odd spaced joist. If your measurements above are accurate, you have about a 12'x <8' room. You will need two pieces of 8'x4' subfloor to complete the job.


How can I troubleshoot faulty motion-sensor security lights on a timer? I have around 5 security lights with motion sensor around the house but they are not working, and I couldn't figure out where the switches are. Finally, in the garage I found this timer (attached). I can't think of any other thing in the house can be the switch for the security light, but it seems damaged, because the odds of 5 security lights go bad should be very low. So I guess my first question is, is this thing typically used as switch for security light? If so, what is the best way to troubleshoot this?

This is a very common type timer for light, sprinkler pumps, pool filters, etc. Start out by pulling out the yellow disk and turn it to the current time. Monitor it to see if it keeps proper time. There is an "off" tab still on the disk but no "on" tab. It looks like it might have fallen off and is still in the box. This would prevent the lights from going on. There is also a silver lever that says "on" and "off". This lever is a manual switch for anything hooked up to it and it will over ride the timer so start checking that to see if the lights go on. Then turn off the power and swing that plastic cover out of the way and check the wiring for power. Also check the bulbs to make sure they are good.


How to remove old pancake junction box (metal brace, lathe and plaster cieling) I'm trying to upgrade my ceiling electrical boxes for ceiling fans. The house is from 1935 and lord knows when the electrical work is from, but it's old.

Got up in the attic to get the old box out and this is what I found:

So it's a quarter inch thick metal (iron?) bar running between the joists and attaching via a clamped metal threaded rod that comes through the center of the existing junction box.

From what I've read, my best guess is that the metal rod is likely nailed into the joists from below? So do I need to cut under the joists? Is that safe to do? Can I do it with hand tools or do I need to go out and buy a sawzall or something?

As for the box itself, once I get the bar out, do I just start chipping the plaster until it comes loose?

Thanks from a plaster newbie.

I'd be looking to cut around the perimeter of the box, isolating it from the ceiling and then. go to work on the steel once the vibrations from cutting it will not be transferred to the ceiling

An angle grinder will make short work of steel, but does produce lots of red-hot sparks that travel quite a distance before cooling. A hack-saw is slower, and can produce larger vibrations but will not produce sparks.

This will not be a quick job consider erecting a scaffold rather than working from a step-ladder.


How do I remove this exterior Water Valve cap? How do I remove this exterior water valve cap?

Bonus points for a name!

Update:
I cleaned it a bit more:

I attempted to pry it but, I haven't made much progress:

I also noticed this bolt but I don't think I have a wrench for it.

Careful what you are prying up on, the 5 sided nut is what removes the cast iron top. usually the city only wants a licensed plumber to open these, if not the city plumber only. I refer to it as city since it is not a well. Those plastic items on top may very well be the remote sensor to read the usage for billing. It is just a guess, I have never seen anything like that above/on the cast iron cover. Usually the cover is removed to read the gallons used. but this seems a hi-tech model....


What determines if a plaster can be floated or can only be sanded as the final smoothing step I'm looking at some datasheets for interior plaster by Saint-Gobin (which unfortunately are not available in English as far as I can tell) and I'm miffed why some interior (white) cement-based plasters are advised to be sanded as the final smoothing step and for others the advice is to wet float them. As far as I can tell the maximum aggregate (sand) size is the determining factor, those that they advise to float have max particle size of 1mm, the other ones are in the hundreds of micrometers range. Is this the determining factor, or are there other considerations?

To add some details, these are all skim coats. The one with 1mm max particles allows for maximum 5mm layer, while the other ones (hundreds of micrometers particles) only 2mm layers.

Yeah, after trying this in practice, this floating 101: you can't bring out aggregate that's much finer than your float's sponge. The max 200um stuff turned out to be some lawyerly spec (as in them not getting sued if someone finds a spec of sand in it); in practice it's as fine a flour or even finer (perhaps close to toner dust). There isn't any float in the typical hardware store that has a sponge that fine. You can "float" it of sorts, but you're not really bringing out the aggregate, just leaving impressions that match the sponge's pattern. You can surely do interesting decoration this way, but it ain't floating.


Multiple lights question I have a switch that turns multiple lights on. But I make some recent renovations and while maintaining the current switch I want to control each light individually too with different phases / hot lines independent from each other and from phase #1.

I try to make a schema.

Is this possible? How two phases can control the same light?

Thank you.

You can't mix supplies like that for numerous reasons.  Top of the list is the rule that currents must be equal in every cable or conduit i.e. cancel each other out/sum to zero.  What goes out on hot comes back on neutral. All of it, no crisscrossing to other cables.    If a cable has are two hots, then counting source current as positive and return as negative, hot1+hot2+neutral=0.

You should also get clear on the switch logic you actually want.  Often people have trouble describing (specifically enough to write software code for it) what exactly they want. What they want is a butler.  Or if they know exactly, as you do here, they find after living with it that isn't what they wanted after all.

So the simplest way to do this problem is smart switches such as Insteon or Homekit, which install in a code compliant fashion, and you can program to exactly the behaviors you want.  That is what I recommend.

But if you want to hardwire it, Commander Adama...

one option to wire this is to have supply hot/neutral (black/white) come into junction box #1 with a switch.  The switch's 2 terminals get black and red pigtails. (Red=master switched-hot).

From there you have three cables which are /3 (black red white).  As it works out, things are color coded: white for neutral, black for always-hot, red for master-switched-hot.  The three cables tie into the same colors in junction box 1, and then split, never to rejoin.  Red will be hot in the entire network anytime switch #1 is on.

The first /3 cable goes onto junction box #2. Between that junction box and light #1, 2-wire+ground /2 cable is used, except its black conductor is re-marked with blue tape for individual-lamp switched-hot.   There is also a 3-way switch there.  The two brass screws get black and red from the /3 cable (always-hot and master-switched-hot).  The black common screw gets the blue wire (lamp swithed).   The two neutrals get joined with a wirenut.

The same thing happens in junction box #3 to lamp 2... And junction box #4 to lamp 3.   Except as described here, boxes 2-4 and lamps 1-3 do not connect to each other in any way whatsoever.

Currents are equal (canceling) in every cable.

The 3-way switches in boxes 2-4 have 2 positions.  In one position, they connect master-switched-hot to their lamp, yielding to switch #1‘s setting. In the other position, they connect always-hot to their lamp, overriding switch #1.


Dimmers don't turn on at low setting I just had these new dimmable LED lights installed. When I turn them on at the lowest setting, they don't turn on at all. I have to bring it up and back down again to get it to the low setting. This is annoying because at night I want to be able to turn on the lights at low brightness so it's not so startling. They do turn on immediately at higher settings.

Many modern dimmable LED bulbs will dim with older dimmer switches, there are some issues. One is that the bulbs may not dim as low as they can, the other is that the bulbs may not come on at the lowest setting. You may need to bring them up and then back down. I've typically had issues with the first while you seem to be having problems with the latter.

New CFL/LED compatible dimmers solve a lot of problems. In addition to being engineered to be more compatible with dimmable LEDs and CFLs they also have a low trim adjustment. Either a sliding switch, knob or some other mechanism to adjust the lowest dimming setting where the bulbs perform satisfactorily.

There are still compatibility issues so it's best to see what dimmers are compatible with the bulbs you have. The manufacturers of dimmers (and usually the bulb manufacturers too) will have a compatibility list so you can get the right dimmer for your bulbs or vice versa.

I got tired of not being able to dim my LED bulbs as low as I wanted so I replaced my dimmers and have been very happy. Most of my bulbs have been Philips and my dimmers Lutron C-L.


Painted concrete floor surface leveler alternatives It seems there was a miscommunication and a contractor painted the concrete floor by mistake. I know that the proper way would be to remove the paint but I try to avoid that because overall project progress is too far (walls painted, cabinets built in, some ornamentals in place, ...). Now I try to mitigate, not get to the ideal solution.

The concrete slab was painted with 1-part epoxy acrylic paint. I called the manufacturer and they say that the only thing that might help is to apply a primer/sealer on top of it. They have an acrylic product that can be applied after roughing up the surface (manually roughing up the surface is as far as I can go in terms of making a mess).

It is an indoor low traffic area so there wouldn't be a lot of stress on that floor and the plan is to put a layer of floating hardwood on top of it. Even though the variation in height seems no more than 1/2 inch, there are small and big craters and bumps all over and the floor is very uneven. It doesn't have to be leveling compound, it could also be some sort of construction adhesive, epoxy or whatever.

I would appreciate any pointers to whatever could be applied here to level the floor.

I think I'd be looking at something like Gyp-Crete, which will level and smooth the base. This creates an ideal surface for floating laminate or engineered wood floors. You'll probably want to apply an appropriate sealer as well.


Does anyone know what this pipe is in an HVAC system? In a new rental (one story, approx 1400 sq ft), one of the bedrooms was not as cool as the other two. I noticed air flowing from the attic door in the ceiling, so went to investigate. The pipe (thin plastic, not PVC) circled had air flowing out of it. It has a flap on the end, so the more air that flows the flap would open. It was strong enough of a flow to blow the insulation around it away. The A/C was running at the time. I went and looked a couple hours later and the flap was closed, so air was not flowing thru it, but A/C was still running. This isn't a dampener, as it is just an open pipe and you do not set the flap to a certain position. This is just an open pipe that seems to have air flowing out of it at certain times. Does anyone know what this pipe is? I don't have any specs on the HVAC system, as I'm just renting.

This looks like a vent pipe that would be hooked up to a ventilation fan in the bathroom.  If the bathroom door was closed, you might get quite a bit of air loss out of that pipe, but when the door is open, there wouldn't be as much pressure to push the A/C out of that room.

Those ventilation fans are not supposed to vent into the attic because their supposed purpose is to remove humid air, but incorrect installations are pretty common.


Adding sheathing under a concrete tile roof I have a concrete tile roof that has just the skip sheathing.  Its common to get squirrels nesting up there because there is nothing there to prevent them from coming in through the eaves.  Is it possible to add additional sheathing behind the existing skip sheathing to help with squirrels and possibly leaks?

Here is the best image I have of the existing sheathing and back of the concrete tiles.

If this roof tile is the Spanish terra cotta style(curved or waved shaped) than  plug up the openings at the eaves. What I have done is: 1) cram rolled-up sections of poultry netting into the cavities and mix a batch of mortar keep it fairly dry and trowel it into openings. or 2) get a length of 2-3 inch galvanized roof flashing and snip the outline of each eave opening. Than push it into the eave opening.


setting up a secondary panel with generator (Wire Guidance needed) I am attempting to gather the supplies needed to setup a secondary panel for a backup generator.

The generator itself is a Westinghouse 7500 model that explicitly states that the neutral bonding has to be undone in order to use it with a transfer panel (due to having GFCI outlets in house).
I want to set up wiring for 4 gauge wire to cover my bases for future upgrade.

It will currently be a 30 amp system (eventually 60 amp).
The distance it's going to cover is about 60 feet from the transfer panel to the inlet box.
I would rather use thicker wire than thinner wire, better safe than sorry.

The issue I am running into is whether to use 4/4 SOOW cable or 4/3 SOOW cable to do the run. If neither are applicable, which would be best to use that is 4 AWG?
The inlet box itself is a 4 prong, NEMA L14-30p 30 amp since the generator itself is also 4 prong inlet. I have basic knowledge but this is something not to mess around with and will be going with an electrician, I just want to have all items available to reduce the chance of being overcharged (tends to happen in my area even with the pros around here).
This wire will run along a wall from the panel location outside to the back of the house to where the generator will be placed for security and safety.
Any help and insight will be greatly appreciated.

GFCI is no-go with some transfer switches
There are some very terrible, very expensive transfer switches which have a row of switches, 6, 8 or 10 of them, and individual fuses or mini-breakers near each one.  Those allow you to switch individual circuits from utility to gen (a "cute" feature but not worth paying $400 for, considering how junky the rest of the unit is).  The 1970s called, and wants that design back.  Those will not play at all with GFCI anything, and I can't believe it's legal to sell today.
However, another type of transfer switch looks exactly like a "subpanel".  We typically advise you to build this out of parts, e.g. a 30-space Siemens/Murray main-lug panel e.g. SN3048L1125, their simple ECSBPK01 interlock (which is $25), and two common breakers.  That will allow you to switch 26 circuits between utility and generator. All those circuits will be able to use GFCI/AFCI.  If you want more circuits just use a bigger panel.
You mentioned a Reliance TRC1006CP9 in comments; that is the second kind and that will work with GFCI/AFCI.  That particular model appears to be disappearing and I see some very good prices on close-outs.
Don't ever buy gear "for the electrician to use"
As far as the cable to buy, I get you are trying to "save money" by making the electrician use your stuff that you bought at Home Depot, which you believe is cheaper. However electricians do not like that, for very good reason: Usually, people buy the wrong stuff.   SOOW cable is completely the wrong stuff for an in-wall installation, and if it was custom cut, into the trash it goes.  Well, it can be turned into a nice generator extension cord.
SOOW is cordage which is flexible cords use for temporary connections. You know what cords are, you deal with cords every day.  Cordage is only allowed for those applications, and cannot be attached or built permanently into a building.
In-building wiring is completely different,  It is illegal to use it in the manner you would use cordage.  It is only for attaching or building into a building.  Which particular type depends on where your cable is going and how you plan to upgrade it in the future.
Don't confuse "gold-plated" with "copper".
One of the big mistakes here is to get Midas Fever and think that somehow copper is a better conductor than aluminum.  Aluminum had some problems in a 1960s experiment putting them in small branch circuits... but for a big feeder in the 60A realm, it's the right stuff. Copper is just throwing money into a hole.
What's worse is when I see people spend lavishly on copper feeder, then chintz out on something that really matters, like panel size or use of conduit where it would help.

Cable has the advantage that it can run without conduit.  It needs physical protection in certain areas where it'd be vulnerable to damage, e.g. the exterior of buildings, underground run stub-ups, or along garage walls.
Conduit is a good way to run wires. You use individual wires called THWN or XHHW, and use exactly the wires you need.  #6 or smaller neutral wires must be white or gray.  A ground wire is needed if the conduit is not metal.
However cable inside conduit is very awkward. That combination was never meant to work, and since the cable tends to be flat-shaped (especially UF), it takes absolutely huge conduit.  #6/3 UF cable is 1.35" wide and requires 2" conduit (clearances would be too close for 1-1/2" conduit).
You can switch methods halfway down a run, but if there's a cable to wires (THWN/XHHW) transition, that must be in a junction box.

Conduit + THHN/XHHW wires allows higher ampacity from the same size of wire.  For instance your goal of honest 60A requires:

Conduit: #4 Al (rated for 65A) or #6 Cu (same)
Cable: #2 Al (rated for 75A)  #4 Cu (rated for 70A)

The disadvantage goes away at 100A. If your target was 100A you'd use #1 Al or #3 Cu in either cable or conduit.  Given that your plan was #4 Cu anyway, it's silly not to take the "mini-bump" to #3 and get access to a full 100A.  Except do it in aluminum with #1.
#3 Cu barely fits in 1" conduit.  #1 Al barely fits in 1-1/4" conduit.  If the idea of taking the mini-bump to 100A seems stupid to you, 1" conduit will do fine, or even 3/4" if you stay at #6 Cu.

Cheap: Cable the whole way, selecting cable appropriate for indoor/outdoorness.
Plastic-plated: 1" PVC Conduit the entire length and THHN or XHHW wires inside.
Silver-plated:  1-1/4" EMT conduit the entire length, going to PVC underground as EMT isn't allowed there.
Gold-plated: 1-1/4" Rigid conduit the entire length.


Removing grout with oscillating tool: too narrow/too high? I just tried an oscillating tool with a carbide blade to remove grout from between wall tiles in a less visible bathroom area, and despite starting very carefully I'm chipping tiles all up and down their length.

The grout line is between 1.9 (5/64") and 4 mm (5/32") wide, usually 3 mm (1/8").  The area I tried has around 2.9 mm wide grout at narrowest.  The blade, including the carbide grit coating, is 2.6 mm (7/64") thick at maximum.  I aimed for 2 mm reduction in grout depth.  It went OK for the first couple of passes, then the next pass I chipped the tile all along its length, even though I didn't slip that I could notice, presumably because of the very narrow clearance between blade and tile.

Few web stores mention blade thickess and the thinnest I've found on the web or locally is only 2.3 mm (3/32"), so not much different.

I don't see this going well, does everybody who has success with these tools have wider grout, or a narrower blade?

Another problem is that some of the grout is level with or even slightly above the tile (maybe 10% of the grout line, but maybe 1/3 of tiles have some grout like this).  Where it's not, it often fills the gap fairly high - it's 1 mm below the tile surface at most.  It's hard to see how I can grind that out without chipping tiles.

Is it a good idea to regrout this at all, or is it a fool's errand?

It can be done but it will take time and patience.

Where delicacy is a must, power tools are not used as my preference. You could use a grout saw, But I usually use a heavy duty razor knife and change the blades often. You may use a dozen blades perhaps doing a 3'X3' shower.


Frame a door under or around a beam? I am looking to frame in a room in our unfinished basement.  In the picture, I'm standing in the area that I want to finish, and I want to put a door in that approximate location to allow egress to the unfinished part.  The stairs in the background go to outside.
Trouble is, the bottom of that beam is 79.5 inches above the floor. I really want to be able to put an 80" door in there, for code reasons and for convenience.
I am thinking that I may need to frame against the ceiling right beside that beam instead of under it.  Are there any issues with this?  I don't want to cut down a door myself, but are there any other options?

Cutting a door isn't hard: clamp a straightedge to the door and go at it with a circular saw.
If you wanted to maximize height, you could use the beam as the head of the jamb. Maybe skin it with 1/4" luan to hide the rough lumber. That would leave you a 79-1/4" height, which is probably indistinguishable from a normal door.
That said, however, your adopted code might actually specify 80" height for egress, so you need to decide where you stand on that sort of thing.


Can you lay subfloor on concrete before framing interior walls? Our unfinished basement has a concrete floor and poured concrete walls.  It has stayed completely dry all year for a decade since the house was built.  I will be framing the exterior walls 1" from the concrete with 2" of closed-cell spray foam as insulation and moisture barrier.  I plan to insulate the floor with 1" polystyrene foam-board glued to the cement, then 3/4" pressure treated sleepers screwed to the foam, then 3/4" subfloor screwed to the sleepers, then hardwood or laminate flooring on top of that.

Must the interior walls be framed first and nailed directly to the concrete floor, with the foam and subfloor built around them?  Or can the foam, sleepers, and subfloor be put down first with the interior walls sitting on top of them?  The latter would obviously be far easier as the foam, subfloor, and sleepers would not need to be cut around a very large number of walls in a small space.  The difference could be a five day job becoming a five week job (I don't have a lot of free time to dedicate to this project each week).

I understand that nailing through the subfloor would not provide the same stability as nailing directly to concrete, but these are non load-bearing walls that will likely support little-to-no weight.  Are there any other disadvantages, or things I need to look out for or address?

I think you can do both, but framing walls on top of subfloor is potentially less work.

If you use a product like DriCore for the subfloor, they even explicitly recommend you frame on top of their subfloor product. They do, however, recommend you screw the framing through the subfloor into the concrete with something like 3" Tapcons spaced every 4 ft through the bottom sill of the framing.


I'm replacing an old 3-wire motion sensor with a new sensor that has 4 wires. How do I install this? I'm replacing an old 3-wire motion sensor (cracked housing) with a new Leviton PS100-70W motion sensor. This new sensor has 4 wires (1 black, 1 white, 2 blue). How do I install this properly? I understand the black and white wires, but don't know what to do with the blue wires.

From the document you linked one blue wire connects to live and the other to the live terminal of he lamps.


How should the transition from tile to carpet be done? How should the transition from tile to carpet be done?  What do we need to use?

We just had all our flooring replaced, but by three different crews, and now we have unfinished transitions.

We had the linoleum in our kitchen and baths replaced with tile first, but they left the edges of the areas rugged, and told us the carpet people would install a transition of some sort.  Also note, the tile was installed on top of plywood and 1/2 in backer board which caused the tile floor to be higher than the other flooring areas.  The carpet people came (HD) and told us they don't install the transitions, that the tile person should have done it and it requires a special tile glue.

So, what do we need to get exactly and who will we need to install it?  We have one wooden transition from kitchen to hall where we had hard wood installed.  But nothing anywhere else through out the house between medium types, and we know it's not right but don't know what to do.  It is especially bad because the hard surfaces are a bit higher than the carpeted areas and thus very noticeable to sight and touch.

Also, shouldn't all the transition areas match throughout the house?  We already have one strip of oak T-shape? Where the kitchen tile goes to hardwood in the hall/foyer, but it doesn't look like this type of stripping is made to go where tile and carpet meet (which are the other two sides of the kitchen).

enter image description here

If you would like wood transitions here is an example that HD has. I think wood looks better than the metal ones but metal is a little easier to install aluminum transition. I have had the carpet guys install the transitions they usually have the good ones that lock the edge of the carpet in place I did not see that style when I was looking at the aluminum.


High Water Pressure After Rebuilding the Regulator My house is in the hills; the water coming in from the city is 170psi. I have a Wilkins 600XL regulator that was installed about 10 years ago. Over the last year or so we have been getting high-pressure surges when a faucet is opened in the house. This lasts a few seconds and then calms down. I checked the pressure in a hose bib that comes off the regulator (about 20 feet away) with a Watts Test Gauge (with the twin needles) and it showed 120psi when placed on the bib (after releasing some water first). The red needle, though, capped out overnight at 160psi.
I bought the repair kit for the 600XL and installed all the new parts (all the old parts were very deteriorated). The pressure then read as 60psi but I was still getting faucet surges. The overnight reading was back at 160psi. I cranked down the regulator and now the “regular” reading is 40psi (and the pressure coming from the faucets seems pretty low), but we are still getting faucet surges and the overnight was again in the 160psi range.
I just purchased a Watts PLT-5 thermal expansion tank (there was not one on the system) but have not installed it yet because the PLT-5 is rated for 150psi max--and is supposed to be set to match my regulator’s 60psi output). I am concerned about the tank catastrophically failing if the overnight pressure hits 160+psi (as it has been doing).
So I thought I'd verify that the water heater is actually causing the pressure build-up when the water heats. I turned off the water heater last night (and ran the hot water in the house out until is was lukewarm). The gauge says the overnight pressure was 160in again, while the regular reading is 40psi.
There is a hose bib (for the garden) near the regulator that is not regulated, and that one reads consistently at 170psi.
Any thoughts on what might be causing these issues? Is there a possibility that the unregulated pipes for irrigation might be somehow mixing into the regulated pipes? What else can I do to get the overnight pressure down? Thank you for any help!

Thermal expansion in a water heater on a feed that has a check valve can indeed significantly raise the water pressure, I had a house that my son was living in that the water company just installed meters with check valves.   He complained the TPR on the water heater was leaking.  I told him to put a pressure gauge on the drain, open it up and let me know.  Sure enough it was over 100PSI.  Whats bothering me is why the TPR on your WH isn't popping off? You have one, right? If so, it might not be working right. I'd still install the expansion tank.  There is a maximum "working limit" and usually a much larger maximum limit. It's not going to blow at just 10 psi over it's working limit.  Unless your PRV is leaking a bit of water thru it, I can't see a reason for the overnight high PSI.     I could be wrong and others with more knowledge might have better ideas, but these are mine.


What is the best method of filling the gaps in wooden floors? Two years ago we had wooden flooring installed. We had the wood sit out for 4 weeks to acclimatize as much as possible before we installed. About 6 months later (fall) we started to notice gaps between some of the floor planks. Since then they haven't gotten any larger or smaller with some being 1/8 of an inch. We ran humidifiers for a few weeks hoping that the humidity would help, but this didn't do anything - we are in Colorado.

I have looked around for a wood fill, but there doesnt seem to be anything like that on the market for larger areas. I recently bought some stain to stain in the gaps and try to reduce the appearance of the gaps - the floors are dark stained. But the gaps are still visible.
I also just bought some dark caulk which I read helps, but wanted to get some opinions first before I start caulking the gaps.

I am hoping for a product that is easy to apply and fills the gaps - something similar to a wax type product that you can apply with a putty knife. Any ideas would be appreciated..!

If your floors are "set" meaning that the gaps are consistent through out the year I would advise the following.

the best thing you can do is add wood strips to your floor.  So you would cut out parts of the existing planks with a circular saw (set to the depth of the wood so you dont cut other things) and notch out a few planks - dremel might help here too.  Then add wood strips to fill in the blanks.  Nail them down and seal them.  You are fixing a poor install.  The wood didn't acclimate or had way too much moisture when it was shipped.  You didn't have it sitting outside right?
and if you don't want to go the permanent and correct route...  then I would personally buy some bondo wood filler, some colorant to match your existing hardwoods, and poly.  Fill your gap with the bondo to about 80-90%.  Put on a second coat (next day) with colorant that is level with floor or a little higher.  Sand it flat. Several coats of poly.  If you use cheap wood putty you will have cracking and dry ugliness.


When running AC, Heat turns on once thermostat reaches desired temperature I just recently installed a new wifi thermostat for my system. I went from a Trane to a Honeywell. I followed the instructions and put the wires in the right terminals (i believe)

Everything is running great... except when the thermostat reaches the desired temperture.

for example, room temp is 83 degrees. I set it to 77. It cools the house down to 78. Once it reaches 77, it automatically kicks on the heat until it jumps up to 78, and kicks on the AC. What gives? Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Check your set points.  You'll want to have a degree or two between the heating and cooling set points.  For example, if your cooling set point is 76°F, you'll want to keep the heating set point at or below ~74°F. Check the documentation for your unit, to determine the recommended buffer value.

Also note that some units allow you to program the swing setting, which determines how far off from the set point before the unit signals for heat/cool. For example, if you have a heating set point of 68°F, with a swing setting of 1°. The heating system will be signaled ON when the temperature is 67°F, and signaled OFF at 69°F.

In the above example if you had the cooling set point set to 68°F too, you'd end up fighting for control.  Heat would bring it up to 69°F, then cooling would kick on and bring it down to 67°F, then heating would kick on and bring it up to 69°F...

I'd try to keep a buffer of at least 1°F. So if the swing is 1°F, you'd set heating to 68°F and cooling to 70°F. Some documentation recommends only a single degree (heat=68°F, cool=69°F), but I'd recommend keeping at least one degree between the set points.


Tolerances when centering a ceiling fan I'd like to install a ceiling fan and there's a ceiling joist in the way causing me to be about 2" off-center. The ceiling is about 8'x10' and the recessed lights that the fan would be centered between are 75" apart, so about 35" away from the fan's canopy.

Would 2" be noticeably off-center? If so, what's a possible workaround?

Take that box back and get a box that attaches to the joist

It sounds like you have the wrong box for the job -- a hanger-bar type fan box like yours is designed for putting a fan between joists, not adjacent to them.  What you want instead is a fan-rated box that mounts to the side of the joist -- ask your electrical supplier for a Raco 294 or equivalent (depicted below).


What is this Lead (Pb, metal) cable called and why is it used? The kitchen ceiling is being replaced and has uncovered some curios.  The most interesting being the 1' lump of cast-iron bath that fell on the plasterer, but the other...

... is this Lead (the metal, Pb) cable that is running through the ground floor ceiling of a UK home from around 1920's.  Photo is taken below 15mm pipework for scale.

Can anyone identify it and explain its use?  I've tried to google for an answer, but as lead is a homograph for a type of cabe, I've had little luck.

Thanks,
James

It is lead clad electrical cable.  It was generally used for underground wiring back in the day, however I've occasionally seen it used indoors.  Likely a case of "Well, we already have this so might as well use it."

I've also seen something similar that contained telephone pairs, but I doubt a home would need that many phone lines.


What should I use to protect and cover my floors during construction? We are building a new house and I'm installing the laminate wood flooring.  The builder suggested I cover the flooring after I'm done to protect it during the last few weeks of construction and with moving in.  What would you suggest I use?  Rosin paper, Kraft paper, or something more?

If you don't have any heavy duty canvas type drop cloths, then use a couple of layers of red rosin paper. Tape the seams and around the perimeter to hold it in place. Keep an eye on it and tape or put an extra piece on any areas that get ripped.  Red Rosin is much better than plastic as it is not slippery to walk on and is fairly tough for foot traffic.


Can outdoor receptacle go right over conduit leading to it? Ideally, I would like to place an outdoor power outlet box right over this 1/2" PVC conduit leading to it so there is A) no conduit visible around the box and B) there isn't an extra 90° bend to make driving wire harder. Is there a box that I can have a hole in the middle of that this pipe (of course trimmed accordingly) will fit over to accommodate the aforementioned minimalist design?

That is where we normally put them and nothing in NEC forbids it.

Also note that a lot of outdoor boxes will have a hole right in the back middle to support this.

After very gently inserting your pipe through the tight hole in the back of your box, please release a generous amount of caulk around the pipe to keep the water out.

(Also box must be screwed/secured into wall)

Examples:

If you want to set it in the wall.

If you want to lay it flat on the wall.


Manual and Remote Switches - 12VAC low-voltage landscape I have a 110V/12VAC (USA) transformer for common landscape lighting. We have 3 "zones" that I'd like to turn on/off as desired, two for lights (all LED at the moment) and one for a pond. My plan for now is to run a single 14ga-2 wire to a switch box, then run a line from that to each zone. (1 line in, 3 lines out) Note from the circuit that my intent is to add lamps and pumps n stuff (yes, watching the run length and load) and then cap each line at the end to return the circuit back through ground.

My questions are:

1) Is that the way this should be done?
2) I'd like to control that with a remote, in addition to, or maybe instead of using a common switch. Can someone recommend a small, elegant, and inexpensive solution? Home Automation is all the rage but I think commercial HA is still kinda new and expensive. My house is still full of cheap X10 from the 90's, which I need to start to replace. I've never done a project like this with low voltage AC remote control.
3) Perhaps to complicate this more, this is a Hampton Bay 900W transformer with 3 taps to support 300W each. I'm concerned that if I turn off two of the circuits, and maybe just run a couple fountain pumps during the day (total<50W), that there won't be enough load on the tap. How do we protect against that? I will be putting more load on the total system as time goes on, but I don't expect too much load during the day on any one tap.

Thanks!

Easiest question first - there's no issue underloading a power supply, so don't worry about that part of question 3.

If there are three 12V taps on the power supply, would it make sense to power each of your three circuits (I'll just say circuits rather than zones as you call them) from each of the three taps?

I don't think you really meant you'd run the return through the ground, that would be a bad idea... you want to run a two conductor wire through the circuit, and tap both conductors at each load so everything's in parallel.

You can use wireless switches like the Lutron Caseta and Pico remote or similar products to do everything you want with respect to automation - it's come a lot way since your 90's X10 stuff.


Broken ground wire in receptacle box I’m pretty new to home DIY and had to replace a few outlets this weekend. On the last one the ground wire snapped as soon as I unscrewed the old outlet. It looks like the wire was clamped to the other ground wires and that’s where it broke. What is the best way to fix my ground connection?
Edit: clearer picture added

Remove the crimp connector and use a wire nut to attach a new 6" piece of wire then connect to the screw terminal on your device.


Why does dryer lint grill have wiring coming in? I had to removey dryer's plastic lint grid to reach for something that got behind and noticed it has wires coming in (lower right).

What is the reason this seemingly simple piece of plastic has wires coming in?

It's almost certainly a moisture sensor.  Search YouTube for dryer moisture sensor bar, and you should get a bunch of results showing how to replace them.


What causes an open ground on a wall outlet when I turn on the light switch to the ceiling lights? We just moved into this 1960s era home.  In the living room, when the light switch is "off", the wall outlets test ok (both amber lights are lit) using a 3 prong outlet tester.  However, when I flip the switch to turn on the ceiling light, the 3-prong outlet tester indicates open ground (the middle amber light stays lit, the amber light on the right goes off).  I actually see the amber light on the right edge of the outlet tester go off when I flip the switch to turn on the ceiling light.

What could be causing this?  Could the neutral wire and the ground wire be reversed on the light switch? Is this a dangerous condition?

Ok John this probably not the answer you want to hear but, using a tester as you describe is fine for checking for problems, now is the time to call a electrician to identify and resolve the wiring issue.... most not all homes built around your homes era did not have grounded outlets. Please get a referral and try to avoid fixed price franchise electricians. God Bless Big Jim


Can conduit just be left laying on the ground? My contractor ran a 220V line from a box in our garage, through the rear wall of the house, to the rear kitchen wall to power the microwave and oven. Although the wires are encased in a PVC conduit, the line is just laying on the ground.

My understanding is that NEC requires the line be covered by at least 8 inches of dirt. My contractor says the line is NEC compliant. I checked with a PE Electrical Engineer and he said "No Way."

Should the line be buried?

No way.  For PVC, it's actually 18" of cover.

  352.10(G) Underground Installations. For underground installations,
  homogenous and nonhomogenous PVC shall be permitted
  for direct burial and underground encased in concrete.
  See 300.5 and 300.50.


Misaligned floor joist hangers What is the best way to resolve an issue with misaligned floor joist hangers?  Our flooring in the kitchen is starting to dip and sag and it is directly related to the fact that the floor joists are not level with our support beams.  I believe that I will be able to jack the joists, bringing them flush with the top of the support beam and replace the joist hangers but I would like some confirmation that this will work.  I would rather not rip up the entire floor if I do not need to.

Rather than jacking up the joists it may be easier to sister some 2x6's onto the sides of the floor joists where the mismatches are noticed. These could be wedged into place and then fastened into place on the joist sides. The better way to secure the sistered members will be to apply construction adhesive to the mating faces of the lumber and then securely nail them together. After the adhesive has dried it will be stronger than the nails themselves and will distribute the load into the joist in a uniform manner.

Note that if you are aware of places where subfloor above has joints in wood pieces directly over the joist is would be a good idea to sister the extra member on both sides of the joist.


installing security cameras i want to thank everyone for their replies to my question about wiring. I need to get some security cameras installed but i am worried about  raising my  electric bill a lot. I have two questions, first for the people here who have cameras did it raise your electric bill a lot. And second do i have to make holes in my house to get the cord for the camera to my outlets?  Sorry if this is dumb question but i have never installed cameras before. Thanks

Monthly Costs

You can evaluate the electricity cost for a security camera setup yourself. Take a look at the cameras that you are interested in and note how much power each camera consumes. This may be a direct rating of Watts or it could specify operating voltage and current. You can compute the Watts from the voltage times the current. So say that the cameras are rated at 12VDC and the current for each camera is 0.25A (equivalent to 250mA). So 12V x 0.25A = 3Watts per camera.

Next you have to consider a power supply unit that would provide the 12VDC for the cameras from mains power. These units are not 100% efficient and consume some power as well. Typical efficiency may be say 75%. So if you happened to deploy 10 cameras at 3W each that would be a total of 30W load on this power supply. The 75% efficiency would mean that the supply will require 30W / 0.75 = 40W from the mains power line.

Electricity is typically sold in units of KWatt-Hours (i.e. 1000W usage for 1 hour). Electricity cost will vary a lot from region to region so for sake of discussion lets make an estimate of 0.25USD per each KWatt-Hour used. (This will be high for some many regions in the USA but for sake of discussion let us guess high).

Let us base cost of operating cameras on a 30day month. At 24 hours per day that totals out to 24 x 30 = 720 hours per month. The 40W that we computed for the AC line power is same as 0.040KWatt. The total cost of operating cameras day and night for the month will be 0.04 x 720 x 0.25 = 7.20USD per month.

You can follow this process to come to a more realistic calculation based upon your actual electricity cost, the number of cameras you deploy, number of hours of operation per day and the actual Watts of power used by each camera. The numbers I chose above are just seat of the pants values chosen to illustrate the calculation. Your actual monthly cost may be quite a bit lower or could be higher if you chose to use many many power hungry cameras.

Installation

There are many schemes used to install security cameras. Whether any particular scheme requires you to make holes in your house will depend entirely of things that only you can determine such as:

Type of cameras that you choose to purchase
Method of powering the cameras (battery, DC power wiring or Powered through signalling cable)
How signals get from camera to monitoring system (Ethernet, WiFi, coax video)
Your concerns for camera and wiring hiding versus visibility
Your capabilities and tool resources to try to do a DIY install


How to reinforce bowing foundation? Please note: I am obviously not a tradesman, otherwise I wouldn't be on this site asking this question. However, in five years of home ownership I have: re-roofed my garage, resanded all the hardwood floors in our upstairs, built a large fence for our back yard, built a patio for said back yard, done plumbing, done some electrical and recessed lighting, etc... In other words: A lot of times on this site I seem to get answers like "If you're even asking this question you should get a contractor/professional to do this!" And then I go ahead and I do "this" all by myself and it works out looking pretty darned good. All this to say: I'm 99.999% sure that I can do this project myself, even if I've never done this sort of thing before!

When we bought our home five years ago, the only note the inspector made was that one of the foundation walls in our basement was slightly bowing inward, and that within 3 - 6 years we would need to reinforce it with "I-beams".

Well I believe that time has come. Immediately below is a picture showing the bowing, and below that are pictures showing all the cracks that have started to form:

What kind of "I-beams" should I be using, and how many? This is a 1700 sq. ft., 2-story colonial house if that helps any. I am assuming I need to (or rather, should) space them evenly apart, yes?

Budget-wise, I need something that works, but don't need something that could lift up the moon. Any ideas as to where I can start looking?

If you want to install it yourself, great. But I suggest you start by having an engineer look at the application and calculate your requirements. Could be well worth the investment.


When to use different fire suppression systems? I know a fire suppression systems is a good thing to have in one's home if you have anything that heats up, ie... a kiln.

Question is thus, what type of suppression system is best for each type of fire source. I know about water sprinklers and foam dispensers, but are there any others? And if so what are they used for.
This is related to another previous question here

I would say that your best bet is to go to a fire protection contractor and get their expertise, but I can give you a quick overview.
Your system is comprised of a sensor, your pipes, and the type of sprinkler head you choose.

Sensor: at what stage of the fire do you want to douse it? In order from early to later detection: Incipient phase uses an ionizing detector. The smoldering phase, where smoke particles are visible, uses a photoelectric detector. The flame phase uses a UV or IR radiation detector. The heat phase uses a fusible sprinkler head that is set to activate the heads at a certain temperature above the ambient room temp. My house has a sprinkler system that uses fusible heads.

The pipes can either be a wet or a dry system. Basically, wet means you have water in the pipes, ready to go on signal. Good: quick when you need it. Bad, need a propylene glycol mix if you are in a zone that freezes (my garage, for instance). A dry system has empty pipes, which can either get filed by the fire department running water into the system or by a preaction system, where the water is stored in a tank, the detector sends a signal that the pipes should fill, then the individual sprinkler heads open up when needed in that section.

The sprinkler heads can be crafted to your situation. Like I mentioned before, you could have the fusible head run the show. You can also have a mist head, which will leave less water damage. A deluge system has open heads on dry pipes, which can flood the area if needed.

Now this all presupposes that water is what you want. I don't know what you are burning, but there are four classes of fires to fight: A is ordinary combustibles, B is flammable liquids and gasses, C is electrical and D is metals. For a burning liquid fire, for example, you certainly don't want water, you want those heads to release a foam to effectively smother the fire. CO2 would cool the flame, but that would cause problems if you were stuck in there, too.

Whatever has the potential to burn requires the triangle of oxygen, heat, and fuel. Remove one of those, and you have no more fire.

For your problem of the kiln, I guess I am having trouble picturing it. It seems like a lot of money and trouble to install a fire suppression system if it is a small pottery kiln. For a more industrial kiln, I don't know...Perhaps talk to the kiln's manufacturer and ask what their clients typically do for fire protection. I don't want to lead you on the path of something expensive and unnecessary. Good luck!


How to repair (or hide) chipped kitchen cabinets Our tired old kitchen is getting a make-over!

Is there a method to repair damaged laminate-chipboard cabinet doors? As you can see in the photo the base has chipped away and it is very flaky.

I'm looking for a way to do this without replacing all the doors. Even just painting to hide it all is a possibility but I'm not sure that will work with the flakiness of the chipboard.

Yes.  You get new cabinet doors.  You can go the more expensive route and order them from a custom place (made to order are about $50-80 a door for pine depending on size).

You can also go to your nearest salvage store and match their cabinets or doors.  Of course you will have to alter some.

There is just no efficient to repair chipboard.  You would basically have to glue edging onto the cabinets and there would have to be extra material on the inner doors.  It would be ghetto, not look good and not last long.


Occupancy (motion) switch wiring question I have a single-pole light switch that I want to replace with a motion-detecting occupancy light. It is a Leviton Motion Sensor, # IPS02.

When I removed the old switch, I noticed that the switch only had two black wires connected to it, plus the ground. When I hooked up the wires to the new switch, it didn't function. Do I just need to switch the wire locations on the new switch? Or am I missing something here...

According to the documentation for the switch you're using, a grounded (neutral) conductor is not required.  The wiring diagram for your device looks like this

If your device isn't working, it's possible that you've reversed the wires. Make sure the black wire from the switch is connected to the line wire, and the red wire is connected to the load wire.

If the switch still does not function, verify that the grounding conductor is solidly connected, and that the ground is good.

If the switch still does not function, the device may be defective and need to be replaced.


One Flickering LED Bulb On Switch with 4 Bulbs I have a swiych with 4 overhead recessed lights on it. I recently replaced the switch with a ZOOZ Z-wave dimmer switch. It worked great. Nor problems except I had mismatched LED bulbs so they didn't dim evenly. I replaced them all with new EVEREADY Led Flood Light Bulbs, BR30, 65 Watts Equivalent (10W Led Bulb), 850 Lumen, 2700K Soft White Color, Dimmable, E26 Base Flood Lights for Recessed Cans, Energy Star and UL Certified.
They look great and dim very well with the new switch. BUT one of the bulbs was flickering every 30 seconds to a minute, randomly when at full brightness. It was only one of them so I replaced it with another of the exact same model. It's doing the same thing, which leads me to believe it's related to that particular socket. Interestingly, I did not have a problem with the old LED bulbs. I'm not sure how to troubleshoot this.

This is not necessarily an answer as to exactly why the flickering was occurring, but I replaced the "Eveready" bulbs with nearly equivalent Amazon Basic bulbs and there is no flickering. As was suggested above, I also suspect that these bulbs are not genuine Eveready. Either way I'm returning them.


How do I heat my basement using a wood stove on the ground floor? I just bought a new home and the living room has a wood stove with a fan. It heats the 1st and 2nd floor great, however since heat doesn't sink, what do I do about the basement? I live in NE Mass and the winter has come (6" snow tomorrow!) and I'm worried about pipes freezing in my basement. Should I be worried at all or can I do something to ensure they don't?

There's two questions here.

1) Will my pipes freeze in my unheated basement?

Probably not. Provided you don't have a lot of the foundation wall exposed to the air outside, the basement will likely always remain above freezing due to ground temperature. Ensuring that you properly insulate the stud bays and the like will make that even less likely to freeze.

2) how do I heat the basement with a wood stove above it?

I'm not sure that you can short of there being perhaps some sort of duct-work system designed for wood stoves where you could force warm air into the basement.

The alternative would be to move the wood stove. Put it in the basement allow it to heat from the lowest point.


Inbound calls to one line cause other line to ring Scenario:

Residential
Two VOIP telephone lines served by two Cisco SPA-122
boxes
Each SPA-122 connects to separate Line 1 and Line 2 junctions
in the house basement
A single, 2-wire cable connects a wireless
telephone to Line 1
A single, 4-wire cable connects a 2-line desk
telephone to Line 1 and Line 2

The problem:

Inbound calls on Line 2 will ring Line 1 once and display the CID on the wireless telephone during the CID cycle.

In other words, BOTH Line 1 and Line 2 ring and display CID on inbound calls to Line 2.

The Line 1 wireless telephone only rings once, even as the line continues to ring Line 2 on the desktop phone.

Tried:

Completely disconnecting the Line 1 SPA-122 from the circuit. Problem happens.

Completely disconnecting the desk telephone, down to disconnecting the wires from the wall jack. Problem happens.

Completely disconnecting the 4 wire cable that supplies the desk phone from the basement junction box. Problem does not happen.

Connected a new length of 4 wire cable to the junction box and tested with it still wound on the spool, leading no where. PROBLEM HAPPENS.

It's as if inbound calls on Line 2 are jumping / inducting cross-copper to Line 1 and ringing the wireless phone! Is this possible? How can it be fixed?

Is the 4 wire cable the type with 2 twisted pairs? If so, you may have the jacks wired incorrectly, such that the each telephone circuit is using 1 wire from twisted pair A, and one wire from twisted pair B. This would lead to increased and perhaps excessive electrical coupling from pair A to pair B.

If the 4-wire cable does not have 2 twisted pairs, then using a 2-twisted pair cable will reduce crosstalk between your two lines (provided you make sure that line 1 uses twisted pair A, and line 2 uses twisted pair B).