How Can I re-attach my bathroom fixtures which are hanging loose from the wall? Please see the two pictures below. I'm trying to re-attach the two faucets so that there is no gap between them and the wall. These faucets work perfectly fine its just that they aren't attached to the wall as they should be.

Is this something I'd need a plumber for? or What would I need to buy/do to get this in order?

Escutcheon =  the cover plate used over a hole in a surface that exists to allow a pipe/fitting to go through the wall.

Your first picture looks like it's a simple case of the escutcheon needing to be re-caulked.  Using a scraper, clean the existing caulk completely from the wall, then apply a new clean bead of bathroom grade white silicon caulk around the escutcheon and hold it in place until the caulk sets.  In this case the caulk is both sealant and adhesive.

Your second picture - how loose is the tub spout?  Caulk won't hold it in place - too much water pressure on the spout - there should be some kind of set screw or other means of getting the spout up tight to the wall.  Once you lock the spout in place, seal it with caulk like with the escutcheon.


Can used Xmas trees be recycled into particle board? Not really a home improvement question per se but somewhat related:  Can main trunks of used Xmas trees be recycled into particle board if all the branches were cut off?  I mean if you had 100s or 1000s of them?

Not on topic, and no, too much bark. Debark them and there's nothing left. Feel free to invent a debarker that will work on tiny trees, and then find out that tiny trees are still an insignificant fiber source, with excessive handling costs associated. Grinding them up for mulch is about the best thing you can do with them, other than not getting a disposable tree in the first place.


Two TVs and two satellite TV receivers Blown in three months My home has a good grounding using underground copper plates. In three months I lost two TVs (Phillips old tube type) and the satellite receiver boxes attached to each. Both TVs had the Audio/Video Out sections on the main boards burnt out, while one receiver had its  Audio/Video Out section blown.

Some facts:
1) Both receivers connected to the same 8 foot dish with a dual output LNB
2) Both TVs were fed by the same TV Cable(Coax) using a splitter at the main line.
3) TV cable (Coax)sometimes shows voltages as high as 12 VAC. The main line Coax when removed from coax showed 24 volts yesterday, the splitter dropped it 12 VAC

The technician said the Audio Video sections blow out due to volatages from Dish induced by lightening, but the Tuner section  of the receiver where the satellite cable enters the receiver is OK. Howcome Audio Video of both the TV and the satellite receiver get burnt at the same time.Where can be the source of burning voltage. I have new TV but will not connect to Cable Tv of satellite receiver unltil the problem source is identified. Please help in this regard soon so that I can watch TV.

Add a lightning arrester and grounding block to your satellite cables.  bond it well to the ground plate.


At what temperatures do pipe sleeves protect pipes from freezing? Pipes start icing at 20ºF and below. Down to how many ºF do the foam sleeves protect the pipe? The foams I placed in my outdoor pipes had a 0.35" thick polyurethane foam surrounding them.

This is a picture of the sleeves I installed:

There is a time aspect not just r-value.  No matter what r-value something has it doesn't keep something warmer for an infinite amount of time.  If there is no temperature coming from inside the pipe (pipes just laying there), then the pipes will very soon be the same temperature as outside.

What you are relying on is the temperature inside the housing to provide this section of pipe with warmer air.  Which depends on the temperature inside and the amount of water flow through this section.  Really no way to answer the question accurately because there are a ton of variables.  You are going to get way more warm (inside) air dispersed on the pipe by keeping the water running  than by putting a sleeve on it for example.


How to fix drainage clog in the shower? Drainage in my bathroom is keep getting clogged. I tried using a snake by drilling manually ... poured at least 4 cans of Drain clog remover on different time period... in the last 3 days.. however, drainage is getting clogged .. it takes so much of time for water to drains through the drainage.

I wonder, is there a better or best chemical which can remove the clogs?

The problem with all liquid drain cleaners is contact time; they need time to dissolve the clot materials, but if there is even a small amount of flow, they drain away and thus stop working. A good snaking job is much much better. If you were using the typical sink snake that is long and thin, try renting the type that is a long flexible spiral steel spring with a way to rotate it. Rotating it is how you get down past the trap. Also as you do it, pull it out every few feet and look at the material on the end to make sure it is getting something. If it is primarily hair, get a good hair trap for the drain to prevent it from going down there in the future.


Drilling into a outside house wall I want to drill into a outside house wall to mount one end of a pull-up bar. The other end will be drilled and mounted into a cinder block wall. For the outside house wall, I’ve thought about drilling at the corner, cause I think that is where the most support will be. Is there any reason I shouldn’t do this? Anything I need to consider?

Your primary concern will be that you're putting a hole into the outside of your house that will let water (and bugs and, possibly other things) into your house. Therefore, it is critical that you ensure that when you're done, the hole is water tight. Water leaking into the wall, especially if it's a wood-framed house will lead to rotting out the sill and studs, and the cost to repair that in a few years will be much greater than that of going to the gym to do your pull-ups.

The second concern is to ensure that the bar can support significantly more than your weight. Any jerkiness in your pull ups (on the way up or down) will exert more force than just your weight. To this end, you need to ensure that you're attaching to a stud (if a framed house), or that you're attaching into something solid (if a brick or block) house. If you've got poured concrete walls, your only concern (once you have a hole drilled) is ensuring that you've got a solid connection (use proper concrete toggles). Also, consider that once you've got this handy bar right next to the house, that you (or someone else) may use it for hanging other things of considerably greater than human weight on.

An additional concern is that at some point you may want to leave the house. This would mean selling (I presume you're not renting or you'd be asking the landlord about this). Is the next person going to want a pull-up bar attached to the outside of his house? Sure, it could be removed, but then you've got the stub where it was cut off, or holes where screws/bolts were removed. Might not look all that pretty when you (or they) are done, and make it more difficult to sell.

You may consider mounting it to the cinder block wall like a towel bar instead of crossing the span between the house and wall.

Oh, yeah, one more thing... Is that cinder block wall yours to be drilling into? (Just checking...)


Why would a blower motor work with A/C, but burn out with furnace? I've gone through 2 blower motors since I purchased the home 3 yrs ago. I never have an issue with the blower when the AC runs; but it keeps dying in the winter with the furnace.  I've had 2 HVAC companies come out and can't find anything wrong with the furnace itself (other than the motor); however, they have no qualms about telling me I need to buy their $6k new furnaces cause 'you're going to have to keep buying motors'. What could possibly be wrong? I think the furnace is from 2000. Possibly a Goodman. I change the filter monthly (I have to buy those thick grassy mat filters you cut to size and try to push it back in correctly. It's a ridiculous setup.) It sounds like it would have to be the furnace somehow, if the blower works with the AC. I do have lot of dust and debris on my vents-not sure what that means. Help!

Lots of dust and debris on the vents means your air filters pass dirt.  2" pleated MERV 7-8 are good if your system will handle thicker media.  1" pleated are OK but may be more restrictive.  In my region, specialty filter supply houses are the best place to purchase filters.  They will sell retail at a fair price, and if you need a nonstandard size they will make a custom fit for a small fee.

High heat causes motor insulation to fail prematurely.  If the motor windings are burning out frequently during heating season and not cooling season, the cause is probably that the high heat is worse during the heating season when the blower is delivering hot air.

I can think of four possible causes:

The blower capacitor is weak causing the motor to overheat (a good tech would usually replace both the motor and the capacitor after a motor failure).
The motor is undersized.  The HP and RPM of the motor must match the fan.  If someone replaced the blower motor with an incorrect unit on the first go-around, then new motors that size will continue failing.  Certain Goodman units have a blower that requires an uncommon lower RPM.  On this unit, the typical 1075 RPM 1/2 HP motor is not an acceptable replacement and will fail.  Checking the motor amperage against the nameplate would expose this problem.
The air temperature from the furnace is too hot.
The voltage supplied to the blower exceeds the motor nameplate rating by more than 10%.


UK Land Registry plan confusion I'm in the process of buying a property, I've just received the land registry plan from the solicitors and I'm confused as to what the grey line through the property is. Also why the bounds of the property extend over the road.

Anyone have any ideas? (Couldn't find a more appropriate stack to post this to - sorry if its not as relevant as most questions!)

Unusual that the grey is just on your property. If its utility based I'd expect to see it run through the whole plan.

The road as mentioned is probably unadopted and although it indicates that you're responsible for the section outlined, in practice these roads are often work as 'shared' ownership and the cost of work on it would be shared out between all that use it for access to their properties.


Furnace keeps resetting My trane xr90 furnace keeps resetting just while it
is in its "heat up phase" I'm a laymen but a description of what is happening is like this...
The furnace gets a call for heat, it makes a sound and lights up near the burners, when the burners start to heat up it makes a "whisk" sound an restarts the process. This continually happens soon after the burners begin to heat up and before the fan begins to blow the warm air into the ducts. The filter is new, the red light is blinking fast and steady (when it is calling for heat). Sometimes if I switch off the breaker and reset it will work once or twice and then start failing again. Any ideas?

Check the flame sensor.  Sounds like the furnace may not be sensing that the burners are on. Also, consult the manufacturers documentation for trouble code light sequences. The flashing light might be trying to tell you something.
Unconfirmed Trane Error Codes
Codes are displayed using a light (LED) turning on a number of times, followed by a pause. For example:
._._._.___._._._.___
. = On _ = Off
Would be read as 4 flashes, and would mean that one of the limit switches was open.

Flashing Slow - Normal - No call for heat
Flashing Fast - Normal - Call for heat
2 Flashes - External lockout, retries or recycles exceeded.
3 Flashes - Pressure switch error.
4 Flashes - Open limit device.
5 Flashes - Flame sensed when no flame should be present.
6 Flashes - 120V power supply polarity reversed, or poor grounding.
7 Flashes - Gas valve circuit error.
8 Flashes - Low flame sense signal.
9 Flashes - Check igniter.


How thickly can I install self levelling concrete to fix a tilted garage floor? My garage floor is not level. The garage doors are level as I have held a spirit level up to each. One side of the garage door gently touches the floor (as desired). The other side has a gap between the bottom of the garage door and the floor of 2 inches.

I have researched how to fix this and videos show that self levelling compound exists. From what I've understood, I use an adhesive such as Eco Prime Grip on the existing concrete, and pour the self levelling compound on top.
The confusion I have is, the levelling compound description on the website says

Coat Depth: 1-10mm

Does this mean that I can only apply up to 10mm at a time? Or can I use this to try to fill this 2 inch gap?

Yes, you can only use such products to a certain depth. This is due to shrinkage and lack of aggregate, which means that thicker applications become rather weak.
More importantly, though, is that those products are not intended as a finished flooring surface. They're soft and chalky when cured, and you're supposed to put actual flooring over the top. It will not withstand the rigors of garage life.
Secondly, your garage slab may have been intentionally poured with a drainage slope. This means you can't use self-leveling products without causing a puddling problem. If you're in a freezing climate this is a serious concern.
You'll need to pour a new actual concrete slab--either as a replacement or over the existing in a substantial thickness.
However, if your only goal is a sealed door opening, I'd install a tapered shim onto your door and a new astragal (seal). Much cheaper and just as effective.


Pulling wire through EMT and PVC conduit I'm running two circuits outside to other side of yard. I don't have much experience pulling wire so I wanted to make sure I'm doing it right. I have stranded and solid 10awg. I purchased both not sure which to use. I figured my new construction house is all EMT with solid wire, I will use solid to stay consistent.

The solid wire is much stiffer, so I purchased the wire lube to help pull it through and watched some videos about trying pull string in multiple places and electrical taping it.

I will have about a 40ft run of EMT in the basement and then a 60ft run of PVC outside. The PVC will have the LB coming put of house, two 90 deg sweeps (coming out of house, and going up to receptacle), and two 45 deg bends.

I will most likely be doing this myself, so can I pull each wire individually? It will be two circuits, so 5 wires total, (2 hot, 2 neutral, 1 ground).

I purchased a 500ft role, and plan on taping each end to color code. So I was going to pre-cut 5 wires and mark them and pull starting at the junction behind the LB and through PVC, then feed the rest the opposite way through the EMT, basically piecing the EMT as I feed it.

Is this a good idea? Also, can I pull one wire at a time through PVC to make it easier? Or is there best practices to follow to reduce nicks in wires.

Finally, can I pull a 6th wire through and leave it unused to possibly be used in future for a 220 volt with neutral.

This is for a pool circuit and general use receptacle. As of right now I don't need 220 because it's an Intex storable pool. But later on when upgrading the pool pump or heater, may need a 220.

Wiring methods

EMT and other fixed metal conduit works as a grounding path, so you only need ground wire where the conduit is otherwise.  Green, green/yellow or bare is allowed for ground wire.  You don't need a ground wire per circuit, only per conduit, but it must be large enough for the largest circuit present.  If bare, it must be copper outdoors.

You join a ground wire to EMT by getting a #10-32 screw and fitting it in the pre-threaded hole in the junction box.  Do not use a sheet metal screw.

Conduit outdoors in conduit is outdoors.  It's pretty much a foregone conclusion that your conduit will fill with water at times no matter how much you try to seal it... that's why you use THWN wire.  It's designed to soak.

I have no earthly idea why someone would use solid wire in conduit, perhaps because they were buying (cheaper?) receptacles and switches not listed for stranded wire, or because they were a Romex Kaiser**.  It's not worth "fixing", but I wouldn't do any more of it. It's fine for them to mix, just make sure  your devices are listed to take stranded wire, and notably backstabs are not, but those are unreliable in any case.

Stranded wire costs about 5% more here.  After your first time wrestling 6 solid wires and a GFCI into a 22cu.in. box, you won't mind paying 5% more.

Pulling

You have a tough pull due to the four bends, so gear up for a big one.  THWN-2 is already pretty slick and lube won't be worth the unbelievable mess IMO.

The main way to prevent damage is first to thoroughly de-burr, and second prevent kinking,  by watching the wires as they enter.

You cannot splice inside the conduit body. Out of the question.*

Pulling one wire at a time isn't better, it's worse. The big hank of wires will mutually help each other as well as provide added strength, whereas pulled individually the existing wires will drag on the new.   Don't tape them mid-run, they need to slide a bit to go around corners.

Similar circuits

Beware of NEC 225.30, which generally prohibits running two similar circuits to a building.   So having two unswitched 120VAC circuits may be disallowed.   However 225.30(D) considers them dissimilar if they are switched, or a different voltage (240V).  So the quickest way to clear 225.30 is put one of the circuits on a switch for some reason.  Nowhere in the code does it require you to use the switch.

Marking wires

Tape is the key to marking when you don't have 8 colors of wire.

Don't distinguish wires unnecessarily: for instance the two hots going to a 240V heater or 120/240 dryer don't really need to be distinguished from each other.

In your case you need to distinguish two hots from each other, and two neutrals from each other (why? Because you might put a GFCI on one), and potentially a third spare hot.

You can put any tape color on any wire color, but it doesn't always do what you want:

Same-color tape is a little subtle, but is useful for marking. With colored tape it usually doesn't quite match the color or finish of the wire, and you can feel it.

In cable, it's easy to tell which wires are partner to a white, since they emerge from the same cable.  This can drive you crazy in conduit with 4 whites coming out of a conduit.   In conduit, remarking whites to a hot is disallowed (in most cases) but this cuts both ways: you can use the colored tape to distinguish different wires.

* To be pedantic about it, Code says any box/body is only a conduit body until you splice in it, then, it's a junction box... and must use junction box fill rules.  This makes them way too small to splice in, in practical application. Even if the conduit body is wildly oversized for the wire, making the splice strangles the remaining capacity of the conduit, defeating the purpose  "room for expansion" to oversize.

Now to be super, duper, duper pedantic, literally NEC says conduit bodies use conduit rules, but they have anything but thru wires, they are still conduit bodies but have to use special fill rules that are identical to the junction-box fill rules.  And then, junction boxes use junction box rules, unless they have nothing but thru wires, then they are still junction boxes but use special rules that are identical to the conduit body rules.

** you can tell when conduit work was done by someone used to working in Romex, because they stay as close to Romex practice as possible, e.g. choose only black, white and red for the wires, and occasionally use a white for a switch loop.  The old WWI German flag colors.  Add green and you have the Pan-Arab colors LOL.


How to connect my new light fixture that has 2 (+ground) wires to the ceiling box that has many? I have lots of wires coming from my ceiling box. I guess because of two wall switches that turned on old fixture. Check the image below.

Analog voltage detector "beeps" on black wire in the middle and black&white tied pair on the right. It doesn't react on white wires on the left.

How to connect my new light fixture that has just two wires: black and white (plus green which is ground)?

Thanks

While most people can make educated guesses about what the coloring means on electrical wires, I would suggest using a multimeter to actually test the wires and through a process of elimination, determine your live wire, the return, and ground wires.  Too many ceiling boxes are wired oddly to have confidence in guesses based on wire color.

The live wire will have a proper voltage reading (in AC) to the other two bundles when the switch is on.  The return wire will have a proper voltage reading (in AC) to the live wire, when the switch is on, and will have no voltage reading (in AC) when the switch is off.  The ground wires should have a proper voltage read to the positive regardless of the switch position.

If you can't identify which wires in your outlet using the above rules, odds are something is really off with your wiring, and you probably should call in a professional.

Keep in mind that testing live wires can be very dangerous, so you need to take proper precautions.  If you don't know what those are, call a professional.


Affixing a 5kg mirror to an outdoor wall I would like to  mount a 4-5kg   (10-11 lbs)  30" circular    wood mirror on a courtyard wall that occasionally gets strong winds. The mirror currently has two hooks at the top.
Can you suggest a way to affix it to the wall in such a way as to mitigate potential issues during stormy (windy) weather?

Depending on how permanent you want it to be and the surface you want to fix it to, a backboard and or adhesive would do the trick.  For less permanent options, build either large or many mirror clips out of some similar wood or pre-set a backboard of the same size and drill and countersink nice screws through the edge of the frame where there is no glass.  If safe frame thickness is substantial, you could recess the backboard 15mm from the edge of the mirror frame and add indirect weatherproof RGB lighting strips in the recess for a nice garish touch.  Mirror clips are probably your best option as they are secure and won't damage the frame and a wide array of aesthetics will be available even if you have to make them yourself.
To elaborate on what I mean by building your own mirror clips:
Here is an image of 3 common types of mirror clip, all far too small for you to use:

You need 3 mirror clips to firmly secure a round mirror.
The first type has a lot of meat to it, so you could build a variety of similar shapes out of wood.  The type of fasteners you'd need depend on the wall you're attaching to.
The second type Would work well in wood as well.  Note the convenient seam shown in the picture.  The bottom clips could be solid and the top clip made in two pieces so the front can be screwed on once the mirror is in place.  With the right design, screws can be hidden on top for a flat face.
The third type would be easy to make in 1/8" thick flat iron.  For the size mirror you have I'd use 1.5" wide.  You can see that a slot is provided for the screw so that two screws can be used to hold the bottom clips without moving and a single screw can be used on the top clip so it can be slid to remove the mirror.  The modification I'd make for a large version is to have the base about 4-5" long and have two slots cut in it so it can slide up and down but not rotate.  1/8" flat is very easy to work with, I built this exact shape just last year for ladder hangers.  To bend round 90 degree bends, use a blowtorch and vise, heat directly the part you want to bend and clamp extra layers of flat or angle to the parts you don't want to bend.  Heat and bend.  For tight 90 degree bends, make sure your vise is firmly mounted to the workbench and the workbench strong, clamp the flat in the vise so the top edge of the vise is where you want your bend.  Apply a small amount of pressure 20" away in the direction you want the flat to bend and use a 3-5 pound sledge hammer to strike the flat close to the jaw of the vise.  Don't try to do it in one hit.  To make the second bend, the jaws of your vise may not be deep enough because of the L shape sticking out from your first bend.  Use a steel block to extend the vise jaw.


Why can I see roller marks after I painted? I just painted a wall and now that it is dry I can see roller marks.  Not ridge lines where I got too much paint, but it looks like two different shades of the same color.  What did I do to cause it and how can I prevent it?

Most likely, you tried to cover too much area between dunks of the roller in the paint.  The later strokes have less paint, so you're seeing some of the underlying color come through, whether it's primer or another layer of paint.

Some tips that might help:

go back to the roller tray more often.  FWIW, I generally do four to five strokes with the roller between dunks, and do three overlapping sections over the height of the wall, so maybe 10-15 sq.ft. per dunk.
I always count on doing a second coat.  I prefer a couple of thin coats to one thick coat; after the first one has dried, it gives you a chance to see where you need to pay special attention on the next coat, and (for me anyway) it's difficult to get an even coat.
with a freshly-dunked roller, I will start a couple of feet over from where I stopped the previous time, roll back towards that point until I overlap, then change direction and roll until I've gone a couple of feet past where I started.


Toilet paper to the left or right? I just repainted my bathroom, and at the same time decided to replace the toilet paper dispenser.  I patched the holes from the previous TP holder, so I'm starting with a clean slate.

I'm at the point where I'm ready to install the new dispenser, but I'm not sure which side to hang it on.  the walls on both sides of the toilet are an equal distance away, so that is no help in making the decision.  And there are no obstructions or other factors to consider, so I'm having a difficult time trying to choose.

Is there a standard when it comes to this, or is it just personal preference?  Does handedness of the majority users play a factor?  Is there a standard height?

I know this seems like an odd question and it's possibly argumentative, but I have not been able to find any studies or research on the subject.  So I figured I'd ask for help.

My suggestion would be to put it on the side that makes it invisible or less obvious when looking into the bathroom from outside it.


Repainting a sealed block basement wall Looking to improve my basement a bit.  The walls are concrete block, with some kind of waterproofing or sealing paint over them.  The paint is in good condition, no cracks, flaking, peeling, etc. and there are no moisture or mold issues.  The only problem is that the paint used was tinted a hideous shade of green.  Can I just paint over it with latex to change the color, or is there something better to use?  Also, if there's a sprayable option, please let me know.

Thanks!!

Something better? Get some oil-based paint from 1975. Related: How do you choose when to use oil vs latex paint?

I'm just messing with you (they don't make real oil-based anymore), the problem is when you try to paint oil-based over latex, not when you paint latex over oil-based, which is what that green goodness probably is (oil-based). So you're probably good to use either "based".

Your required surface prep sounds minimal: wash the wall with TSP or the equivalent, and go nuts. Do not use sandpaper or abrasion to prep; that green-goo likely contains lead.

Spraying is always an option, but masking off everything had better be worth it. Add to that, the time it takes to clean the machine, the cost of it and its hoses and spray heads; over spray drips; stiffer learning curve, etc.

I've sprayed entire factories when it's worth it; a single room or a basement isn't worth the trouble, unless there's pipes absolutely everywhere making rolling it unfeasible.

$20 in painting supplies, plus paint, will get the job done in a few hours. If you're looking for an excuse to buy hundreds of dollars worth of stuff however, don't let me stop you ;)


Can you have both 15 and 20 Amp receptacles off the same 20 Amp GFCI? Currently, in my kitchen I have a 20amp GFCI receptacle (faceplate only accepts 15amp plugs but back says it is 20 amp rated) off of that GFCI outlet there are 3 15amp receptacles, one is for a garbage disposal, the other 2 are at counter top level for usage. The breaker for the kitchen is 20amps. I have purchased two new 20amp outlets with USB charger capability for phones etc.

Is it okay to have the two receptacles at counter level be 20amp and the disposal be on a 15amp receptacle or should I return the new 20amp receptacles and install 15amp ones?

Not sure if it is correct to have both 15amp and 20amp receptacles off of the 20amp GFCI.

Yes you can.

(I see the OP was edited to include details and will retain the rest for the database)

Having the GFCI marked 20 Amp is so the one model can be used for either type of circuit.  If you have a 20 Amp Circuit then there is no problem with using 15 Amp receptacles on the same run.

BUT

Having the receptacles is one thing.  Having the wiring and circuit breaker to support 20 Amps is another matter.

Unless you have the 20 Amp breaker and proper wiring, you will want to limit the total current draw to 15 Amps.

PLUS,

Most 20 Amp circuits are dedicated for specific purposes.   Most often there will only be one single outlet for a specific need like a computer rack or a dialysis machine.

In a GFCI situation like described here, the second outlet would most likely be very near to prevent causing the breaker to trip inadvertently.  Example:  Plugging in an electric heater.  Something that has nothing to do with the original reason a 20 Amp circuit was installed.

ALL THAT BEING SAID,

Yes, you can have either or both kinds of outlets on the same circuit, and it will work well unless you exceed the amperage allowed by the circuit breaker.


Dehumidifer level in basement I own a raised range house and upstair with hard wood floor.I just bought a 70 pin dehumidifer and put it in my basement. My question is what is dehumidifier level need to set for best result for my wood floor upstair.
Thank you

Generally speaking, it's best to keep the relative humidity level between 35% and 55% for hardwood floors (and that's also a comfortable range for most people). You need a humidistat to measure this upstairs where the floor is. Over a couple of days, keep checking and adjusting your dehumidifier to get the humidity within that range.

The actual number on the dehumidifier is irrelevant, and even if it displays actual humidity, note that the humidity in the basement may be different than upstairs. You may also need to adjust as the seasons change.


Backflow from Bathtub Over the past few months, I've noticed occasional "gurgling" within my bathtub drain. Over the past week, I've had 2 occasions where there has been significant backflow from the drain into the tub. Along with the water, there is what looks like dust and other types of debris. I'm considering a call to a local plumber in order to have the drain snaked, but I'm wondering what may be causing this. I live on the first floor of a 3 floor condominium complex and I'm wondering whether this is something that I may have caused, or whether this could be a building-wide issue, and therefore a matter for the HOA. In other words, is it likely that a plumber can resolve this issue by snaking my drain, or might this require something more involved? Thanks for your help.

Definitely a clog. If it backs up rather quickly you might assume it is a "local" issue, meaning your responsibility. If it takes a while then it's probably farther on down the line, and perhaps a communal responsibility.

Talk to your neighbors and see if anyone else is having any problems.


Few month old Stamped concrete patio crumbling in a few areas had a stamped concrete patio poured back in may. There are areas around the stamped line that look kind of crumbly dry.. like the stamp was lifted but the area wasnt smoothed. Some areas are starting to chip away. I have been having trouble getting a hold of the guy who did it (no surprise). I did finally get a hold of him and he said he would be out today but never showed.

Below are some pictures but is there anything i can just do to be done with it? I dont feel like getting involved with a small claims court over this but if it's going to get worse then i surely will. It almost looks like it needs to be sanded smooth and then more sealer applied.

Pictures:

It looks like maybe the concrete was allowed to cure too long before stamping and had started to harden excessively. You could grind the loose areas down, but they'll have a different appearance from the textured areas.

If it was my patio, and I wasn't interested in pursuing satisfaction from the mason, I'd probably find an epoxy sealer that's designed for concrete and try to bandage it up as well as possible without altering the appearance too much. You may be able to tint the epoxy to match, and then fill the cracks in the crumbed areas to bond them together.


How can I sand the underside of an enamel sink? we need clearance to install stem valves because the faucet hole was drilled too close to the sink.  We need about 1/2" extra clearance.
The counter top guys drilled too close to the sink and did not leave clearance for the stem valves.  I'm afraid if I sand the enamel sink, underside that it might crack the sink.

If you could sand on the bottom of the sink - by the time you removed 1/2 inch you would be way through the sink thickness. So I think that the sanding of the sink is a non starter.

Since it was the counter top guys that screwed this up you should demand that they be the ones to take the steps to correct this problem. If that means ripping out the counter top to install a new one then that is a cost that they will have to bear.


Power issues in out-building sub panel - What's the best way to repair? I am having electrical issues in my out-building shop. I think I might have an idea of what is wrong, but I want to hear others opinions, and I also want to know the best method of repair.  I will try to keep this concise.
When I run tools that have a heavy current draw, the lights will completely go out.  Some circuits do not work at all.  Here are my observations:

The shop is fed by a 100A breaker from the house
When I measure the voltage between the main lugs in the shop sub panel, I get 0 volts
When I measure the voltage between each leg and ground (or neutral) I get 120 V.
When I measure the voltage at the load side of the 100A breaker in the house, I get 240 V (this tells me the issue isn't the breaker or house feed)
I removed the wires from the main lugs in the sub panel, then turned the power on and measured the voltage again.
Between the main lugs, I got 210 V ( a 30V voltage drop)
One leg has a good 120V, the other has 90V.

My conclusion is that somewhere between the house and the shop, one leg has excessive resistance and dropping voltage completely when I connect to the sub panel as a load.
Does this make sense?
What is the best way to go about fixing this issue? Is it easy enough run new wire in the conduit? Is this a good idea?  Would it be better to dig up the conduit and inspect what exactly went wrong?
UPDATE:

I measured the voltage on the two lugs (wires attached to lugs) as I switched breakers off.  My reading again started at 0 volts
When I switched a particular 20A double pole breaker off, the voltage went from 0 to 180V
I continued to switch off breakers.  When I hit a 20A single pole breaker, the voltage went up from 180V to 210V.  Recall 210V was the voltage I was measuring when I removed the wires from the lugs and measured the voltage between them.
I turned all the breakers back on and the voltage again went to 0. I then went to my 240V machines and unplugged them.  The voltage on the main lugs shot back up to 180 or so Volts.
The garage door opener on the other side of my shop (single pole, powered by the 120V leg) works fine.

I really am starting to think something is up with the one leg on the way to the shop. Can anyone think of anything else I could try? I still need to clean the connections and see what happens.
UPDATE 2:
-AHA!! @Ed Beal was right on the money.  If I swap my breakers around so the problematic ones (single pole) are only on one particular leg (the opposite one they were originally on), they all work fine! I can run my tools no problem, and the lights on the one side of the shop now work.
-If I take single leg measurements again (with the 240V tools unplugged) I get 120V on one leg, and 70V on the other leg.  So I am certain now that one leg is bad.
Is the only way to fix this to dig up the conduit?  I could just pull new wire through but I am worried the conduit has failed or broken somewhere and the new wire will be in the same peril.

By having zero volts across the main it appears that 1 leg is open and the tools are back feeding so it appears there is 120v to ground on both.
the zero was a clue. With no load the 240 v can be there there is probably moisture in the pipe and no load provided a path much like phantom voltage there is voltage but no current.
No load and a path for voltage may be how the 240 is being measured with no load.
I have seen wires blow open in conduit in lumber and plywood mills more than I thought possible and the other conductors are usually damaged.
In some cases I will pull the conductor that is damaged and use it to get a location to dig, in others I use a scanner as long as there is not a reenforced concrete pad the scanner may work but having the damaged conductor also gets us close.
Depending on cable size I may drop a box at the location and then repair the conductors and pull the wire to repair the open leg.
At this point it is obvious the 70v leg is damaged but there may be insulation damage and even conductor damage on the other leg.
To tell at the feeder which one is damaged I would use an amp clamp and see which is loaded and the other may just show leakage.
If they are both pulling 10 amps let’s say change the load reduce the evens or odds the leakage usually remains somewhat constant but adding or reducing the load on the good conductor will make it easy to identify at the feeder breaker.
The conductor that is damaged should be disconnected at the feeder breaker until it can be repaired as you are paying for the leakage current and it will do more damage if not disconnected.


Do all garage receptacles have to be GFCI protected, and 18 inches off the ground? I have a couple quick questions about garage outlets.

If I recall correctly, outlets in a garage must all be GFCI.

Does that include ceiling outlets for garage door openers?
Why? Genuinely curious the logic behind this code (not debating it, just wondering).

I also remember hearing that all outlets must be 18" off the ground because of something with gas fumes (I guess gas fumes don't rise higher than 18 inches?).

Is that 18 inches to the bottom of the box or middle?

Yes, even the receptacle for a GDO in the ceiling is required to be GFCI protected. The exception for this was removed in the 2008 NEC.

IMO the reasoning behind this is that folks will plug an extension cord in anywhere they can, even the ceiling. And many folks like to install those pull-down cord reels on the ceiling in the middle of the garage. The GDO receptacle is a super convenient place to plug these things in.

There is no height restriction in the electric code. This may be in the building code in your area.


Connecting C-wire in the furnace (C terminal already taken up) Trying to install an Ecobee. This is the picture I see inside my furnace. As you can see, a redwire has already taken up the terminal marked C (?running to A/C unit). Where should I connect the C-wire that is hanging in the air?
Thanks in advance

that furnace is a typical carrier/bryant control with terminals
C  Common
Y   Call for Cool  (call for A/C)
GC   Fan Cooling (high speed)
GH   Fan Heating (low speed)
R   24v power
W   Call for Heat  (call for furnace)
The jumper between R and GH is for thermostats that do not have a High and Low blower speed selection.  (which is most of them, yours probably)  When it is there the control board works "normally" in that if you call for heat the low speed blower turns on if you call for cool the blower goes into high speed.  It should only be cut if no A/C is present at all, and the thermostat is heat only and has a low and high speed fan for those weirdos who want to turn the fan on high when running the furnace.
You can connect the ecobee thermostat G wire to either GC or GH depending on whether or not you want to be able to turn the fan only on, and what speed you would want to run it at if you did.  (for example you want to run it in circulation mode in the fall or spring)  Probably you would want to run the fan at low in that situation so I would use GH for the G terminal.
The other terminals are normal,  R to R, C to C, W to W, and so on.
Now here is the meat/heart of the problem.  THERMOSTAT WIRE COLORS ARE BLINKIN MEANINGLESS!!!!!!!!   There are TRADITONAL colors, they are:
G  Green
R  Red
C  Black
Y  Yellow
W  White
But NEVER NEVER NEVER  N_E_V_E_R!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Trust them E_V_E_R.    ALWAYS validate BOTH ENDS OF THE CABLE!!!!
You have that cable with the red going to C and the white going to Y.  What is it for?  I dunno.  Maybe someone put a motor operated pinwheel on top of the house that turns on when the AC is turned on.  You certainly better trace it out and find out what it is I think.  It MIGHT be going to an AC unit that is completely separate from the furnace such as if someone put an A/C on the furnace that was made by Johnny Kewel not Carrier.   If your furnace has a Carrier A/C on it then the A/C is certainly controlled by the furnace microprocessor not by that oddball second wire and the connections would be to a header buried in the furnace not some hokey extra wire.
Anyway I'm assuming the wire on the right is going to the ecobee.  In that case the unconnected C wire needs to go to.....drumroll please.....  C
I see several unconnected colors you have a black an orange a blue and maybe a thin little pink in there.  The installer probably had whatever the heck extra coil of thermostat wire in his truck.  If you followed the "color codes" then use the black wire for C.  But DO NOT BLINDLY TRUST THE COLOR CODES.   Make sure that the alphabet matches at both ends the furnace and the stat.  If you want to be a decent person you would follow the traditional color code in your own wiring so that the next guy who comes along isn't screwed over.  And that next guy might be you if that ecobee breaks down.


Mixing two different primers? Can I cut in my walls with a latex primer sealer by gliden if I already rolled walls with zinser oil base sealer

While not best practice you can prime with latex over the oil prime.

For future reference though, do not do it the other way around...it ends poorly.


Rod fell into overflow pipe of tub pop-up drain I have a Kohler pop-up tub drain and the lift rod fell off the crank piece of the overflow hood assembly.  What's the best approach to try and fish the rod, spring, etc., out?  Obviously, I don't want to remove the tub.

Alternatively, can I replace with a toe stopper style drain stopper?  For now, it's a $5 rubber stopper...

These are cheap and a great addition to your toolbox.
Provided it’s long enough, this should get a grip on it.

.


How to fix persistant cracks on this section of the wall and why do they show up even after repainting? There is a section of the wall in the bedroom that even though been repainted several times by actual painters, within weeks the cracks would resurface again. im trying to figure out if there is an easy temporary fix since im not painting the room again, and what should i take into consideration next time i decide to repaint the room? This is concrete or whatever, not drywall. Here is what some of the cracks look like:

Your 1st picture shows an issue where you have a layer of paint which is not well adhered to the surface underneath (and probably more layers painted on top of that).
This is like putting a piece of scotch-tape onto a dusty surface and expecting it to stick.
More and more layers of paint will never fix this.
You'd need to strip/scrape/peel all of the old paint off until you get back down to something solid and start the paint journey over again from scratch.

While doing this you'll probably also find what's under that crack in the 2nd picture - there's likely still movement on each side of the crack, but it might be possible to manage this once you know what's under there...


Powder room venting into ceiling space? Is it OK to vent a powder room into the ceiling space?

Humidity isn't the issue just odour. I don't have access to the outside unfortunately. I see there are ductless fans for this purpose, but they have charcoal filters and I would rather like to avoid having to replace the filters.

If it's a half bath (no shower/bathtub), sure, that'd be fine. It's done all the time.

If there's moisture present, you may have to find another way. Recent code (recent in my time frame), technically speaking, forbids it. If you ceiling space is not a wide-open attic, you could make a mold trap by introducing moisture to a dark unvented environment.


How would you plug this old weeping drain hole, in a brick/concrete retaining wall This little sunken porch area stays dry, mostly.  There's what looks like an old relief drain in the wall that lets water in.  Its kinda dirty in there, and very uneven.  Is there any hope in sealing such a thing from the front, and if so what type of product would be worth a shot?

The soils are clay in the area.

Since it is leaking I would guess it is below grade, lucky it is only a couple of feet. First I would dig out the area at the crack now the tough part , clean the wall at the crack (a pressure washer is handy in this case). I would fill the crack with hydraulic cement and let it cure then coat the area with a water proof coating last refill the hole.


What length of finishing nail should I use? I just re-tiled my master bathroom and plan to put wood trim back up around the perimeter soon. How do I know what length of finishing nails to use?

I see 2" and 1.5" nails - does it really matter?

Well, you want enough length that there is sufficient nail in the stud to hold the trim on. The drywall is 1/2" thick, so if your trim is 1/2" thick, that would only leave you 1/2" in the stud, which is not enough. So I would suggest 2" nails for what you are doing.


Table saw blade stops on contact with wood whilst motor keeps running Table saw blades spins fast, but stops on contact with wood whilst motor keeps running so cant saw wood
Its Rexon Model RM130, 1.6kW, RPM 4800 had not been used for some years
I have sharpened the blade.
Your advise willbe most helpful

Either the blade is slipping on the arbor or the belt is slipping on a pulley. If the former, tighten it. If the latter, tighten it.


Ceilling light wont switch off after a new installation I have bought a new ceiling light to replace an old-fashioned one.

I have 3 grey cables hanging from the ceiling: 3 red wires connected together and 3 green wires connected together and 3 black but only 2 are joined together the single black not marked with any insulation.

What I did at first is joined all the black together and connected them to the neutral of the ceiling light and the red to the live and the green to the earth but that caused the breaker to break.

I then rewired it without the single black wire and the light came on but it won't turn off by the light switch. The only way to turn it off is by the main breaker. I have replaced the light switch thinking it might have been faulty but that didn't solve the problem.

How should the light fixture be wired?

The single black wire should be connected with the L on the light fixture, and the 2 black are the neutral. What about the 3 red wires, where should they be connecting?

Old UK wiring

Old UK wiring was as shown below

A comes from the fuse-box/consumer-unit (possibly via other junction-boxes/roses for other ceiling lights). B goes to the next ceiling light. C goes to the light switch for this lamp.

However most electricians will not have cable type C with two red wires and will have used regular cable with a black and a red wire and will put red tape around the end of the black wire to indicate it is "switched live" and not neutral (as it's black colour would suggest).

From what I've read, sometimes they would connect C's black wire to position 3 (the other red live wires) and then C's red wire would be the switched-live return from the switch. Connecting the black to the reds would make it obvious to an electrician and that might be why no wire had red-tape on it's end.

Checking

If someone has removed the red tape, you can:

turn off the lighting circuit at the fuse-box/consumer-unit,
check there's no voltage present with a voltage tester (preferable non-contact type) and
separate all the wires,
use a continuity tester to see which red & black pair are connected/disconnected by the switch

A typical Non-Contact Voltage detector (NCV) and a typical mains tester

Finding which wires go to a switch using a multimeter (at least CatII 600V rated) on an isolated circuit (off at fusebox and tested for no 240V AC).

Your wiring (Guesswork)

Looking at your photo, I think the top of the screw-block connections from left to right are probably:

Live (3,4,5 in the diagram in this answer)
Earth (9)
Neutral (6,7)
Switched Live (2)

In which case your lamp should be connected at the bottom of the two right-most positions.


I need some type of ceiling in the downstairs bathroom that will allow me access to the pipes. What would be the best way to go about this? It must be able to withstand moisture.
I have seen vinyl ceiling tiles for a drop ceiling but there is not really a lot of head room (90"). The over all area is 97 x 110 and there will be a jacuzzi tub there.

I have used tin squares on basements and you could get screws that match the tin finish.


Wiring an induction cooktop I want to install a new Ge induction cooktop & have an existing 4 wire line. If the cooktop only requires a black, red & bare ground, is the white still attached in the panel if it’s capped off and not used at the cooktop junction?

I agree with Jim.  Just cap the white wire in the box.  You are fortunate to have a 4 wire feed, in most cases here people have the opposite problem:  "Requiring a 4 wire feed for a new cooktop but only having 2 hots and a ground".


How do I calculate deflection in shelving boards? How do I calculate the deflection of a hard maple board 5/4' x 11-1/2' x 6' supported at ends only that will carry a load of 125 pounds?

Short answer: it will sag a lot.

Using The Sagulator I get a deflection of about 0.9" at the center, which will clearly be noticeable. (I'm assuming your "5/4 maple" is actually going to end up 1" thick when the finishing is done.)

Also I'm not sure what you are going to be using the shelving for but if this is going to be for books you should probably assume 30 lbs per foot, which would give you a deflection of 1.3".

(You can use that calculator to estimate sag for a variety of shelving configurations, but make sure you pick accurate values for all the inputs. Also note the footnote that says that long-term sag will be 50% higher than the calculated value.)


How should I connect to a short ground wire in a metal box? I live in a 50's era house that has breakers and a ground wire in every metal box of the house. The problem is they only used 2 prong outlets. They cut the ground wire short and wrapped it around the wire clamp screw inside the box to ground it. It's too short to connect directly to the outlet, or even get a wire nut on. I was told it would be ok to attach a separate piece of ground wire to the box, on the same or another wire clamp screw, and attach that to the ground on the outlet. Is this effective, safe, desirable, etc.?

The simple answer is get "self grounding" duplex outlets.  The typical design has a little spring plate meant to connect your grounded metal box to the outlet yoke, and thus to the third prong.  Just install, test the ground with an inexpensive outlet tester, and feel lucky that the builder left you in such good shape:

If you are in the United States: surprisingly these are legal even in new construction.  Beyond that, they're perfect for your retrofit.  See the National Electric Code (NEC) section 250.146(b). Note that your ground wires may 16 guage rather than 14 or 12. That was OK at the time, and you're not required to change it now.


How could I fix up some old plaster I'm in a house where the plaster was done in an old style. Not lath-and-plaster as one of the tags suggests but simply plaster mixed in with hay or something fibrous on top of brick.

With the humidity this has gradually started to turn to dust in two places. Downstairs this is happening in the corner of a wall and, upstairs, a piece of ceiling just under the attic has practically fallen. This can become a problem downstairs as the red bricks underneath could also soak up humidity and falling to eventually degrade too.

It was suggested that I use some tinfoil (?) then replaster but this sounds weird. How could I redo this properly? Get rid of all the plaster that's loose and put some new plaster in or use gyproc panels instead?

In older structural brick buildings, it was relatively common to plaster directly to the exterior brick walls.   Most of this plaster has successfully held for 100+ years, so if you were to simply remove the loose plaster and re-plaster I would imagine that it would hold for quite a long time as well.

However it plastering is a bit of a lost art and can be very time consuming and expensive.  You could also install some furring strips directly over the existing walls and ceilings and drywall.

I guess the decision would depend on if your goal is to retain the current plaster, or simply to have functional walls and ceilings.   It almost always works out to be less expensive to install furring strips and drywall.   Also depending on the situation this gives you an opportunity to add some insulation.


Toilet runs every fifteen minutes Toilet is one year old and started adding water every fifteen minutes or so. Replaced flapper and the problem continues.

Yeah, your new flapper doesn't seal.  That happens, especially if the flapper is shaped or rigid plastic.  I had the same thing happen to me a year or more ago with a rigid plastic flapper (with large rubber washer).  I closely examined the seat for burrs or gaps, but it was smooth and unbroken, so the problem was clearly a flapper misfit.  If you do find a burr, I recommend that you gently file the burr away using a fine wood file.

I've found the best replacement flapper to be flat and made of flexible rubber.  This will bend just enough under the tank's water pressure to seal against a seat that's not perfectly flat.  Shaped flappers (like a mushroom) are intended to sit inside the opening like a round peg in a round hole often turn out not to be positioned perfectly to drop exactly into the hole.  But a flat flapper won't behave badly like this if its hinge is not positioned perfectly relative to the hole.

Of course, also make sure your float isn't being held underwater after the flap closes.  That's likely to cause the flap to lift and leak.


My brand new fridge has a dirty mark and silver tape near the compressor, should I send it back? I have just unboxed a new larder fridge and noticed that there was a dirty black mark on the back, just above the compressor, which then has had a piece of silver tape put over it.

The fridge is otherwise fine and seems to be working, though I'm not quite sure if the (burn?) mark is a sign that it might fail sooner than other fridges due to a fault in the manufacturing process.

An image of the offending mark is on Flickr: http://flic.kr/p/9c87gf

Yes, take it back. It is obvious that the mark was caused by a burn. The silver flashing tape was placed over it in an attempt to hide the damage.


How to properly rewire these splices? After observing unusually high voltage drop while charging my car on 120V receptacle, I went to attics to trace down the wiring and came across the most likely culprit:

Those two splices did get warm after approximately 15 minutes of use at 12Amps. But they did not get too hot.

Wondering what is the proper way to fix this?

Since there are 5 wires spliced together (presumably without wire nuts), then are wire nuts fine or should I better get something like Wagos?
Most, if not all, wiring in our house is aluminium. There could be some copper wires too as I did not open these splices yet. So, should I pick AlumiConn over Wagos? Or it does not matter?
I came across one forum where someone recommended to use some kind of paste for aluminium splices, but he did not name exact product. What's the deal with it?
This electrical box was hiding below heat insulation. I suppose it should be better to keep box above insulation to help with heat dissipation, right? Or even screw it in the wood, right?

These "warm" junctions don't account for 135 watts.  I suspect one junction with ~100 watts of heat emission, and I expect you'll see thermal damage there.

Aluminum wiring combines very poorly with bad work. This work is terrible and your house is probably full of it.   You have a lot of work ahead of you, but I would immediately put AFCI breakers on every such circuit, as they have a high chance of catching problems.

Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, there's absolutely nothing wrong with aluminum as a conductor so please feel at ease with the wires.  Everything is in how the wires are terminated.  Everything.

Any connection wrapped in electrical tape isn't worth spit.  The electrical tape is covering a problem.

You can't use any of those and you'll need to replace the ones you see.  Wagos are listed for Cu only.  Wire nuts are listed for Cu only, except the ones listed for Al that don't work.   Your only option is Alumiconns or some sort of multi-port Polaris connector.  Even more than that, you will need a torque screwdriver to set torques correctly. And I don't say that lightly.
Only Alumiconns, or their big brother the Polaris type splice, will do the job.  Hooking up 5 together is a major pain.
Use of the goop is mandatory with aluminum anything.  So is the use of a torque screwdriver to set torques correctly.
The junction box is a train wreck of biblical proportions.

The box does not have a lid
it has way too many wires for its size
It is flop-a-dop and not properly mounted (stick a 2x4 between beams and mount to that)
It has wires without a sheath entering the top of the junction box (somebody really lazed that one out)

It will need to be fixed by replacing with at least 2 boxes.  I would probably stick a 2x4 between joists to give a place to mount the boxes permanently.  I'd use three 4" deep square boxes connected with short lengths of 3/4" EMT tubing.  That will give all the cables knockout holes they can properly enter and be cable clamped on the sheath.

With the all-copper connections at the top right, I'd pigtail all them together with modern Ideal wire nuts, then bring one copper pigtail to meet the aluminum wires. Those into an array of Alumiconns.

Further, I'd put this whole kaboodle onto an AFCI breaker. That will catch the worst difficulties of aluminum wires.

Also, noting that you are installing outlets and switches, you must change all your outlets and switches to those CO-ALR rated. They have notably dingy-silver screws that look different than the chromed brass or silver screws on normal receptacles.  You cannot land an aluminum wire on a copper-only rated termination, that's what caused all the trouble in the first place.

Technically aluminum is not the bad actor in the aluminum-wire mess; it's the copper terminations that failed to  thermally expand appropriately for aluminum wire. These were rushed through UL approval; as a result the "Cu-Al" rating is banned; the current rating is CO-ALR (R=Revised).  Aluminum terminations are perfectly tolerant of copper wire, and that's why they're used in Alumiconns, Polaris, and larger lug connectors.


Cracked Tile in New Construction Home - Foundation issues? I've recently moved into a new home built in June 2019. Some hairline cracks developed in some of my tiles, but I didn't worry about it too much because they were barely noticeable and the builder is not honoring his warranty. They wouldn't come out to replace their faulty AFCI breaker less than a month into my ownership.

Today, I went into my guest bathroom and noticed that the tile has cracked all the way across the entire floor. To make matters worse, these cracks are large enough that I can feel the edges, and small pieces chipped off while I ran my finger along them. No one uses this bathroom regularly and nothing has fallen on the floor.

Someone has mentioned to me that I might have a serious foundation issue. I'm scared. This is my first home, and I haven't owned it for a year. I have written the builder with images and expressed my concerns and requested that this be address as part of my 1 year warranty but I fully expect to be given grief about it. I can't afford to do major flooring repairs on a house that's brand new.

The images are attached. Can anyone offer any insight?

https://imgur.com/a/b8FID98

Thanks,

Dustin

Your slab has cracked and that it why your tiles are cracking. This is not good and you need to document everything with pictures and get back with the builder to fix this. Check with your Better Business Bureau (or whoever you have) to see about attorneys who could help if it should come to that. Send copies of the pictures and descriptions of the damage to the builder via certified mail. Get this ball rolling while your still under warranty. Good luck.


New House Wiring in Attic + Conduit I own an old house (50s) for which the electrical is outdated (no ground, etc), so I am in the process of rewiring the whole house. The attic has tons of insulation (loose insulation atop fiberglass batts, etc), and below the insulation often it has plywood boards (subfloor). Navigating and finding anything through all this insulation is a real pain and time consuming.

Since much of the wire will be routed onto the top of the plywood (and not beside the joists at 1 1/4" from their edges) once I run the wires parallel to the joists (joists are below plywood subfloor) I would imagine that the wire would need to be protected by a conduit or wood strips; so can one use emt conduit instead of wood strips on top of the attic subfloor and could the conduit be attached to the attic subfloor wherein the wires would run (and in case someone would go the attic he/she could step on the conduits)? It would be romex (sometimes thhn) inside the conduit (and the conduit would be derated to accommodate the nm-b wiring).

By the way, the attic is accessible; and the conduit seems a much better option due to make it easier to upgrade and change the wires in the future.

If you're running the wiring along the floor of the attic; or within 7' of the floor, you'll have to protect the wiring within 6' of the point of access. Unless the attic is accessible via a permanent staircase or ladder, then you'll have to protect the wiring run across the floor (or within 7' of the floor) throughout the entire attic.

I've quoted the actual code on this elsewhere on the site


Prevent wood color bleeding through paint I am making some trim board. We had some ash wood milled and kiln dried for this. I primed it with a trim primer (it is very thick and white) and already put on 3 coats of trim enamel paint (water based).
On some of the board, where there was a variety of colors in the grain, the lighter areas are bleeding through the paint and show up as yellow.
My question is two-fold:

What can I do now to fix this?
What can I do better for the next pieces to prevent this from happening? Since we have to paint this in the house, it would be great if anything oil/solvent-based can be avoided

It is a little hard to see in the picture, but the right side of the board has a yellow hue to it.

A Shellac based primer is what you need this will normally seal in 1 coat.
The 2 main types I can think of are kilz and zinser these stop the bleeding through.
I have found this is the only way to go for freshly milled wood, covering things like smoke stained surfaces that cleaners like Tri sodium phosphate won’t remove.
A good coat of shellac primer and then even white won’t show or that has been my experience. I don’t work for or have any interest in either company I have used there products successfully for many years after having similar results with regular primer.


How can I route a 4" duct through a partition wall framed with 2x4s? In the last picture I am moving a register (1) to (2). The left side of the picture shows where the 4" duct is sitting at the top of the wall (running across the joists). This is a bathroom. I need the duct to land at the base of that wall.
I have two options:

use a 4 to 3 reducer and an 3 to 3 elbow and continue to use 3" all the way down to the register boot, practically reducing the size of the duct (this increases the static pressure in the AC system and will send more air to other parts of the system)
use an elbow transition from 4" to a boot that is 10x3-1/4 and use a range duct, shown in the last picture (if this is OK)

The right side of the picture show the framing details. As far as I can see from what was done on the opposite wall (where the duct is landing now) they cut the horizontal stud and created two segments on that wall and added studs to close the two cuts (practically creating two frames joined by the bottom horizontal stud

The room size is 102x78x96=763776 cubinc in or 442 cubic feet

A 3" pipe has roughly half the cross-sectional area of a 4" pipe (28.3 in2 vs. 50.3). You need to maintain that size as a 4" duct is already quite small. Even if you had a larger duct to begin with that's too much of a reduction.
Use the rectangular parts and/or oval ducts that meet your current flow requirements.


Calculating sub panel capacity I am creating a sub panel which will contain 20, 20 AMP circuits to provide power for 20, 1,000 watt, 120v stage lights. My calculations suggest that the light loads, which are constant, will require`20KW. 20KW at 120V means that I will be drawing 160 AMPS. My question is this: At the main panel, is it proper to feed the sub panel off of a double pole breaker that is rated for 80 AMPS? I came up with that by considering that 80 amps at 240v will be providing the equivalent wattage as 160amps 120v will need. Is this the correct way of looking at it?

If your loads are evenly spread across two legs, i don't see any problem on using 80A double-pole breaker, just size wires properly. You'll have two 80A legs. But using 100A breaker on main panel will be better (it'll allow you to load the legs not perfectly even)


How to run an extension cord through a tight space There's a space between my hearth and the wall that I can run coax cable through to a TV but it is too tight to get an extension cord through to that TV. It is only about 1/2 inch wide; the hearth was originally designed to be freestanding, but has been screwed to the wall to improve its stability.

I'm thinking of cutting a standard extension cord and re-splicing it on the other side. But of course this rubs me the wrong way.

What other options do I have that are safe?  Maybe there's a low-profile type of extension cord that is designed for this kind of thing?

There are many reasons to not use extension cord or plug strips for certain applications. But setting those aside and assuming you understand the ins and outs of proper extension cord applications....there is a sane way to deal with the situation of the "tight spot".

Assuming you purchase a reasonably decent extension cord such as:

Do not cut and try to splice back together the cord itself. Instead cut off the end of the cord right at the plug...

Now feed the cord through the "tight spot". Then provide a new end for the cable by attaching an appropriate replacement plug assembly.


Adding led strip in living room. Is 14-2 gauge wire sufficient to draw current? I am planning to put led strip behind our false ceiling. It requires 50ft of LED strip. So planning to use 3 5M led strips of these (https://www.amazon.com/SUPERNIGHT-5-Meter-Waterproof-Flexible-Changing/dp/B00KNSO0M8/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1475628971&sr=8-4&keywords=LED%2Bstrip&th=1)

One thing that is concerning is the current drawn by these. It says each 5m LED strip consumes 6amps (2amps per color) so in total 18amps.

Does that mean i can't connect these strips to a 14-2 gauge wire which has a max 15amps rating. I also have other LED lights hooked on the same wire.

It depends an awful lot what you are using the 14/2 wire for.

For 120VAC, and you want to feed all 3 power supplies

If you plan to use the power supplies that come with the kit, a 120V/15A circuit will supply those easily.  They are 5 amps at 12 volt output (60 watts).  Allowing for inefficiency, they probably draw 80 watts max on the 120VAC side.  Three of them would be 240W, easily within the 1800W (120Vx15A) hard max on a 15A circuit.  Like this.

All the DC wiring here can be 18 AWG except for the 120VAC wiring on the left, which must be 14AWG. You see why I don't like those power supplies?

However having worked with LED strips a lot, you are not going to be happy with the final result.  You will have 3 separate installations of LED strip that will operate totally independently from each other and respond separately to commands from the remote.  Not every controller will see every signal from the remote, so you'll never get the colors or brightness to match each other, assuming all 3 remotes are even compatible with each other (and not serialized).  If you are rolling/cycling colors, the three strips will be out of sync.  Try it for yourself, but I think it will find it frustrating, amateurish and dreadful, and you'll either rip it out in frustration, or look for a better way to do it.

For 12VDC  to the strip lights

There are several ways to make an installation of this size work well.  One is to power them all from a single larger DC supply, and have all that go through dimmers/amplifiers.  Here on out I assume you have a larger 12VDC supply of your own.

The "standard" in LED strips is generally:

12 volts DC
300 emitters per 5 meters
2 amps per channel per 300 emitters -- in a 3528 single-color strip, that's straight up 2 amps.  5050s have 3 emitters - commonly RGB but sometimes WWW (all three white).  They have 3 channels, 2 amps per channel or 6A total.

Of course there are modifications on that.  Double density or half density; 24V; coolwhite-warmwhite-yellow, just to name a few.

Your example seems to be a peculiar one. It's 5050, but they seem to be alternating RGB with WWW.   They claim that the WWW can be controlled separately from the RGB (you would hope!) but that means they are doing something weird in terms of how the strip is wired.   It is not 3 channels, it looks like 4.

But since half the total lights are on the "white" chanel, half the 6A power is on that channel, or 3A per strip.  The three RGB channels split what remains, 1A each.

Power all three strips from one supply

Three strips together would be 9A on the white, 3A on each R/G/B color, or 18A for any feeder wire that is handling all the power for all of them.  Also, 18A on the return ('neutral') wire.

The 120VAC wire must be 14AWG.  The feed between power supply and controller must be 12AWG (14AWG would not suffice - I believe that was your original question.)  If any distance is involved, go10 AWG and you'll want stranded wire so it's more flexible.  The return back from the strip must also be 12AWG and the "white" wire must be 16 AWG or larger.  Color wires can be 18AWG or larger.

Since you're working in DC power, there is no requirement to have the "return" wire run in the same cable as the "supply" wires.  So you could use 14/4 for the supply to all 4 colors, then run a single-strand 12AWG wire for the return.  Or 12/2 for the white and return, and 18AWG thermostat wire for the rest.  Since it's low voltage DC you are not obliged to use white/blue for neutral and green for ground.

Another option is do a separate "homerun" for each 5-metre strip, so the return would be only 6 amps, which would permit you to use 18AWG intercom wire of however many strands you need.

One controller, three power supplies

You could power each strip separately, and control them centrally using amplifiers.  To do this, assemble each LED strip in the normal way, but use an amplifier where the controller would go. Then use one controller, and split its R G B W and common wires to each of the amplifiers.  This means all three strings will be the same color, do the same patterns, etc.  You will end up with 2 spare controllers, but you will have to buy 3 amplifiers.

All the wire can be 18 AWG here except for the 120VAC wiring which must be 14AWG. The wires to the controller draw very low current, but wire thinner than 18AWG isn't any cheaper.

(it's possible to hook up one string normally and use amplifiers only with the other two.  I don't recommend that, it'll be hard to troubleshoot, and the strings will not be equal.)


What is "pipe dope"? People often refer to "pipe dope" when talking about sealing threads of pipe fittings, but when I go to Home Depot or Lowes or whatever, I've never seen anything on the shelf labeled "Pipe Dope".  This seems to be an old-fashioned word that people speak and understand, but it's not the correct, technical product name.

If I have been told that for a certain joint, pipe dope is a better choice than Teflon tape, what do I need to pick up at the hardware store?  I don't particularly need a certain brand recommendation, but an example or picture of a product currently stocked at a major, national retailer would be great as an example.  If the word "dope" isn't used, what other terms do I look for to find "pipe dope"?

Pipe joint compound or thread sealant.  Should be near soldering stuff, plumbers putty, PVC Glue, Teflon tape, etc.  Comes in a tube or plastic jar.

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Oatey-8-oz-Pipe-Joint-Compound-154202/100204007


How do I repair wood that's been damaged with mold and bleach My kitchen tap is set into the wooden counter instead of the metal sink, so water has dripped into the wood around the tap and made it moldy.

I put some bleach on it and it did remove the mold in one spot, but now the wood is much lighter.

So there's still a patch of mold and now a bleached patch, too. Did I use too much bleach or not enough? How do I fix it now?

A few things here. First, you need to remove ALL the mold. Second, you need to prevent it from coming back. Third, I would fix that grout in the tile on the corner to prevent splashes from getting in and causing mold in there too.

You're going to need to remove the faucet completely. The hole that that thing is set in is most likely a mold farm. Just shut off the water, unhook the hoses and undo the nut clamping it to the bottom. The tap should come out the top no problem. Wear a mask, I'm expecting the worst for that one.

Now you're going to have to clean that mold, all of it. If it's caked on, chisel it off with a screwdriver or something, then get some sandpaper and make sure it's all gone. Check under the countertop too, there might be some down there. If it was me, I'd take the whole sink out and inspect, but that's probably overkill. However, if the caulking around the sink isn't very good, do go head and disconnect the drain pipes (there's a flange that unscrews) and pop the sink out.

Now, we're all clean, good. We have to fix the color. I'd get some very fine sandpaper and disregard the finish of the wood, it's already going to need repairs. Clean the mold off with the sandpaper, then get a fresh piece of sandpaper, sand down a bit more, then a really really fine grit sandpaper and do a final sanding. With the really really fine stuff, you might be able to feather the edge of the stain. If not, that's fine. You should have a good area of plain wood to work with, and the faucet should still be out.

Now, I'm not sure if that countertop is stained or if it's oiled. It's most likely oiled, and if that's the case, go ahead and do some research on how to replace the layer of oil. If you want, perhaps explore doing a layer of urethane, that will prevent mold very well, but I don't know about the aesthetics.

Anyways, now we have no mold and a fresh canvas to work on. If you took the sink out, make sure to caulk the edges very well when putting it back in. When you put the faucet back in, put a big fat bead around the hole before you replace it. Quickly tighten the nut a bit below, then get above and clean the edge of the caulk off with your finger. This will seal it so you won't have any more mold getting in the crack.

At that point, just make sure to keep the area dry to prevent future mold, or have a preventative coating on the wood. You could always bring the tile out a bit too, just for that square area of the countertop. If you decide to do that, make sure to install the tiles properly and to do it before you do put the faucet back in.


How to fix a hole above an outlet box? I've got a hole above an outlet box in a wall. The wall has a 2x4 to the right of the box. I can feel it from the inside. It's just lightweight dry wall. There used to be cable and network lines pulled out of the hole.

I need to patch it up, so I can sell the house it's part of. I'll make sure to turn off the power before any work. What's the best way to try to fix this hole? Are there any special considerations I should take?

The photo got rotated 90 degees for some strange reason. The hole is above the outlet. The 2x4 inside of the wall is to the right side.

You should turn off the breaker feeding that receptacle just because you will be taking the cover off.

What you do is get a new small piece of sheetrock, but larger than the hole, cut into a rectangle with nice clean edges. Then trace the outline of that new piece over the hole and using a "keyhole Saw", cut out the wall in that shape, so that the new piece fits in snugly. Then with the piece out, get some small pieces of thin wood, like lath / furring strips or even the old paint stirring sticks (but not plastic ones) and using construction adhesive like Liquid Nails, glue those sticks to the BACK of the wall so they are across the hole.* Let that dry and harden over night. Then put the cut piece back in the hole so that the wood slats are keeping it from pushing through, and use wallboard tape and mud to fix it in place and blend the texture back into the wall. Wait a few days for everything to dry before repainting.

https://www.lowes.com/projects/repair-and-maintain/patch-and-repair-drywall/project

If you CAN, make the new hole go over the 2x4 stud a little, then you have a more solid anchor for that new piece.


Removing fake self stick backsplash How can I remove self stick backsplash. Some of them have been falling off, but some are stubborn and won't come off easily without pulling the top layer of drywall off.

Just like you remove tough wallpaper really.

Get a spray bottle full of very very hot water/vinegar - I use a 1:1 ratio.   The heat and the vinegar will help break down glue.

Start at the top of the backsplash.   You say there is no room to spray the solution - I understand.   If there is zero chance of the solution penetrating skip this step for the top.

Get out most powerful hair dryer you have and heat up the tiles.   Do the very top in small sections, pull slowly from corners as you try to keep heat on it.

If you get a little bit of the top done, spray in vinegar solution very heavily so it runs down the wall behind the tiles leftover underneath.   Spray a lot and spray over and over.   If you think the spray is penetrating you can stop the hair dryer, and spray the vinegar and hot water every 5-10 mins drenching tile area.   I find that going three times through - after about 20 mins - the glue gets super weak and the tiles start peeling off rather easy.

Use hair dryer to help if they don't.

Note:  The other option is just to rip them down. Skim coat of drywall mud which takes almost no time and then mortar plus tile for new tile.   This is if you are retiling the same area.  I don't see the need for being cautious or keeping the drywall in perfect shape if you are redoing it.   If you aren't follow the above advice.


What are my options to repair a broken tab on a bus bar? My A/C went out this week. The problem was a broken tab on a bus bar with cut power to one phase of the 220v circuit.

My HVAC guy was able to get me going again by swapping the A/C unit to the dryers breaker.

I spoke with a local company on the phone, they were advising that they'd likely have to replace the panel. My HVAC recommended an electrician but he was booked for weeks and/or didn't want the job.

What options should be on the table to repair this problem? Can just the bus bar be replaced? Replace enough breakers with tandem breakers (AKA cheaters) to free up the slots needed? Could I replace the disconnect for the A/C with a fused disconnect instead of replacing my main panel? Could I have a subpanel added?

Something that will further complicate this issue is that my home has AL wiring. Code may require AFCI breakers to be installed if they have to replace the panel.

The current panel is completely full. I need to find room for a double pole breaker. I have one good slot open and one broken open slot. I could free up two slots by adding a single cheater breaker. Put the cheater in the single good slot and free up two slots for a double pole.

The objective answer I'm looking for here is one that will enumerate my options and suggest what may be a showstopper or strong advantage to each option.

I got an answer from my electrician. Here are the options in order of preference with pros and cons

Replace the panel - Pro: all new box and breakers; Con: Somewhat expensive
Replace with "cheaters" to make space - Pro: Cheaper; Con: Still expensive (labor) and the wires may not be long enough to reach where they need to reach.
Replace the 220v A/C disconnect with a fusible disconnect - Pro: Cheap; Con: Not entirely to code, have to replace fuses, in my case the outside box would have to be replaced too.

I went with replacing the panel. It cost $1600 and took about 6 hours. Expensive but its the right solution and I have a few free breakers to add some circuits if I ever need them. The old box had a few other tabs that looked fishy, it was a good idea to let it go.


How do I tape new drywall that is butted up against a textured wall? I'm replacing the bottom 12" of Sheetrock after water damage. The existing drywall is textured. How do I tape it? Do I have to sand off texture for  6" and then tape it and texture?

Scraping then taping will work.  Re-blending the new and old textures invisibly is nearly impossible.

Consider replacing 3 to 4ft instead of 12" and adding a wainscot or just a chair rail and leave the bottom smooth.


Can I make my own foil faced insulation? I come across this video where they talk about the product called SilverGlo.

I'd like to add this insulation into my attic on my own but I am unable to find a seller. I found a similar product in home depot but it's only 1 inch thick or it is a bare styrofoam without the both sided aluminum foil barrier. I need at least 3 inches and both sided radiant barrier. All I can find are the contractors who can do it for me. I'd like to save money and do it myself since it doesn't seem to be a rocket science.

Is it possible to use bare styrofoam and wrap it into radiant barrier foil somehow to make it both sided rigid foam?

Like @keshlam said, a quick search online will tell you what you need to know...

Seems like SilverGlo is a product designed by the Dr. Energy Saver company, which also was the company behind the video you saw. Apparently, this product is simply rigid foam board of the Expanded Polystyrene variety (EPS), covered with their radiant barrier facing. EPS actually has the lowest R-value of all the foam board types.

See: Dr. Energy Saver Rigid Foam Wall Insulation

If you want something with higher R-value, try using one of the other foam board types, like polyisocyanurate or Extruded Polystyrene (XPS). Polyisocyanurate usually comes faced with foil on both sides. You can easily find both at big box stores in a variety of thicknesses.

As for 3" thickness, they might not carry, but you can always stack and glue/mechanically fasten smaller thicknesses up to the thickness you require.

I would also check local distributors/contractor oriented stores that sell to consumers. They may have better pricing and also delivery services. From personal experience, a 4ft by 8ft standard sheet of rigid foam board does not fit inside the small SUVs (RAV4/CRV etc) they make nowadays...


Identifying strange 3 way / 4 way switch wires I'm new to house wiring (not to electronics) so please forgive me if I'm using the wrong terms.

I am replacing three switches (with zwave) in my basement.  A pair of 3 way switches and one four way switch.  1x DZS15-1LZ and 2x VP0SR-1LZ for reference.

I found the line (hot) switch of the 3 way switches and installed the "smart" switch there.  No problem.  I am placing the "dumb" helper switches in the load 3 way and middle 4 way.

My problem is that my understanding of the "load 3 way" requires the use of two runs of 12-2/3 cable.  One run that serves as your traveler wires and another run that serves as your hot and neutral for the load.  My 3 way switch only seems to have one run of 12/3 wiring - this is not what I would have expected to see.

My 4 way box does not have the traditional 2 runs of 12/3 cable, it actually has two runs of 12/2 and two runs of 12/3.

There are additional switches in the same electrical box as the load 3 way but they are on a separate circuit and I'm hesitant to cross connect anything between them.

So my question - what's going on?  Am I out of luck?  Is there any debugging I can do?  Can I still install these switches?

4 Way switch:

3 Way switch (load side)

3 Way switch (hot side).  There is an extra run of 12/2 which taps into this hot and provides constant power to my garage light switch outside (controls an entirely separate set of lights).

THIS IS A GUESS - This Explanation and diagrams must be confirmed with a tester.

I added this as a comment but I'll go ahead and make an answer so I can post 2 drawings.  This is what I think you have going on, I think the original plan was for the circuit to have just 2 switches as classic 3-way, like this:

(Excuse my Paint abilities, NOTE: GROUNDS NOT SHOWN

The Next day, Next week or Next year someone decided to add a 3rd switch, the load end of the original 3-way circuit became the 4-way, like this:

This is one explanation for what I see in your pics, but I can't see everything needed. THIS IS A GUESS AT THIS POINT, using these diagrams as a guide you need to test and confirm the accuracy.

The clues that suggest this explaination to me are the white wire attaching to the common screw in your second pic, and in the first pic a white wire nutted to a pair of black wires. The guess is that's the same white wire. A good first test would be to check for voltage where the white joins the 2 blacks, if my theory is correct that will but hot when the circuit is on and not hot when the circuit is off.


Can I use a combination of two mobile air conditioner units to cool house? We have a one story house. It’s 1040 square feet. Our central air unit, which was about 20 years old, finally broke. We’ve been told it’ll be about $4,000 to replace it and that amount of money simply isn’t in the budget right now. I was wondering if maybe putting a mobile air conditioner at one end of the house and another one at the other end would efficiently cool most of the house? I thought mobile units might work better than window units because we have casement windows, and I know casement window units are also pretty pricey. All 3 bedrooms have doors but the living room has an open entryway into the kitchen, so there wouldn’t really be a way to close off the air between the living room and kitchen that I can think of. I even thought maybe just getting an air conditioner with a super high BTU, but again, what’s the point if higher BTU doesn’t translate to coverage of more square feet. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

In terms of just "can two mobile A/Cs cool a 1000 sqft area", yes, they certainly can. I lived in a similar-sized apartment for a couple years and did just that -- one unit, a monster mobile A/C, was in the living room and cooled the living room, dining room, office, and kitchen; the other was in our bedroom and cooled just the bedroom.

However, you mentioned that you have three bedrooms -- if those are occupied, I assume the occupants will want to close their doors at night. At which point, the cool air won't be able to get into the bedrooms.

I would carefully consider if the investment you'll have to make into the mobile A/Cs is worth the trade-offs (especially the noise, as Jeffrey commented), considering that you'll eventually want to fix the central air anyway.


How much mortar between bricks? Our Chimney was in bad repair, and we had two chimney companies come and and say basically the same thing, it needed to be partially torn down, re-bricked, new crown, new damper door. Ok, so the company we went with was out working on it today. When I saw the result of the partially done job it gave me concern, the bricks seem to have excess space between the bricks.

Upon inspection, the new bricks are a half 1/2 inch shorter than the previous bricks. The morter between the bricks is an inch wide though, is this a sign of bad masonry?

Typical mortar joints are 3/8", but there is no rule for it, that it has to be that size. They can be much wider than that. I have seen joints as wide as you have pictured, no big deal, it is a matter of aesthetics.
The mason could have looked to find the right size brick, but he may had to order them and possibly pay a premimum for them, especially if he is buying less than a cube(about 500 brick) much tougher when buying only a 100 or just a few dozen, so perhaps he went with what he could get.

The brick he is using may be 7 5/8" long, which is a "modular". The original brick may be 8" long or "standard" brick, from what I found on the internet. There is no way for me to know, it is an educated guess.


Telephone wiring question I am trying to rewire the telephone wires in my home, and I appear to be not getting it. I have extremely familiar with running cat5, as I use it all day long for my job, and thought telephoney was just as straight forward.

I have standard 4 wire telephone wire. It's got yellow, green, red, and black. On one end, I have a punch down terminal inside the wall in a wall plate. That side is wired correctly, according to the keystone diagram. I actually have two of these coming from two different rooms. I then combine them both into one using a splitter like this:

https://www.amazon.com/URBEST-female-telephone-splitter-converter/dp/B00PW0WKV0/ref=asc_df_B00PW0WKV0/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=198091424311&hvpos=1o1&hvnetw=g&hvrand=18191949876335458478&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=1019378&hvtargid=pla-356171280132&psc=1

That goes directly into my comcast business modem/phone. I have a cable checker that I use for my coax and rj45 connections, and it also has voice testing, too. When I check any of the cables, it shows up as open on all wires, and I can't figure out why.

I thought the wires needed to be the same all the way through, but in looking at how the wire is bundled, that doesn't seem possible. Putting the connector on both ends, then comparing the ends shows that the two inside wires are reversed. (One end is yellow, green, red, black, the other is yellow, red, green, black). I have tried remaking all the wires all the way through the line and cannot get the line to work. Even testing with a phone shows that the line is in use.

What am I doing wrong?

First of all, you don't need special telephone wire. You can use the same wire you use for networking - e.g., Cat 5, Cat 5e, etc. I used to use leftover old Cat 3 for telephone wiring, but once I went through all that, I switched to using Cat 5 for everything even if it costs a little extra for the phone wiring than absolutely necessary.

Telephone wiring does have polarity - i.e., red/green is different from green/red. But it does NOT usually matter.

The middle pair on T568A/B wiring is the same as the pair (aka red/green) for standard phone wiring. You should use RJ11 (1 pair = 1 phone line) or RJ14 (2 pair = 2 phone lines), but you can actually use RJ45 network jacks and just connect a pair to pins 4/5 for one phone line, though the patch cables may not hold as well as with RJ11/RJ12.

Troubleshooting:
Ideally you should have three tools to test:

A telephone test set. But for very occasional use, you can simply use a phone - preferably a phone that does not require any power beyond that supplied by the phone line. Plug it in at each point that you need to test, and if you get a dial and can make a call then you are good, and if you can't then you need to keep working on it.
A tone generator/detector. Mainly for checking when you are trying to figure out which cable is connected to which port. Keep in mind that there can be false positives - i.e., it is good for figuring out which cable is which, but not so useful for figuring out which pair is which.
A wiring tester. This one is just a random example - there are many different types but basically something that lets you put a remote on one end and a master on the other and see which wires are connected correctly, reversed or not connected. This is extremely useful for Ethernet cabling, but helps with phone cabling too.

Just work through it step-by-step. First check the Comcast modem and make sure a phone (or test set) works there. Then put in the splitter and make sure each connection works there. Then put in the next patch cable and check there, then the long cable run to another room, then its patch cable, etc. At each step if you can't see the problem then use the wiring tester to see what, if any, wires are actually connected.

I also recommend NOT using a long cable with plugs on the ends. Wire up (same for Ethernet) jacks on each end and use short, easily/cheaply replaceable, pre-made patch cables for jack-phone, jack-splitter, etc. Properly installed jacks rarely go bad, but plugs on the end of long cables often go bad.


Adding 2 X GFCIs to protect Switched and Unswitched Hot sharing same Neutral and Ground I currently have a switched and un-switched hot running underground in conduit sharing the same neutral and ground.  Its important to note that they are both on the same circuit.  Basically I have 4 wires (switched Hot, UnSwitched Hot, 1x Neutral, and 1 Ground).  The Switched Hot powers 3 Lamps in my back yard and the unswitched hot powers a series of outlets in a shed.

Currently the circuit is not protected by GFCI.  I have access to a junction box before the conduit goes underground.  Can I effectively install 2X GFCI switches and tie the Switched and Un-Switched Hots to their respective GFCI as normal and tie the two outlets in series with the same neutral.

Im wondering if this setup may confuse the GFCIs since the 1X neutral will carry the current back from both Switched and un-switched hots in the event that both are drawing power at the same time.

Thank You both...As suggested I traced the circuit to the first switch witch was the one that controlled the light fixture in the dining room.  I went ahead and cut out the single gang outlet and fitted a two-Gang box and spliced in the GFCI and voila both switched and un-switched lines are now protected with 1 GFCI.

Sorry about the first picture being on its side.