Removal of drain extension pipe at the wall under bathroom sink I'm replacing the drain pipes under my bathroom sink and having trouble removing the final section behind the escutcheon that connect to the wall fitting. I have a metal pipe extension pushed into a brass nipple fitting at the wall. The extension is  trapped in the brass nipple via a washer that is internal to the brass nipple so I cannot pull it out without removing the brass nipple. The nipple has a hex nut but it's inset in the wall behind the tiles. I cannot turn it without removing tiles and causing wall damage. What to do?
Photo links:
https://i.imgur.com/NmUOyOz.jpg

Cut the extension pipe off close with a hacksaw.

Then use a regular socket on the brass nut.


Is this safe? 2 wires to 1 screw I want to buy a WiFi wall switch for my lights outside to turn on without me but my house has no ground and the WiFi wall switch requires one and I noticed this can somebody explain the wiring?

No, it is not safe.  That screw terminal is made to take just one wire.  Since it doesn't use the switch as it's intended (by its UL listing) it's a code violation.  It will make a poor connection, which can heat up and potentially cause a fire.

As long as there's room in the box, it can be corrected by pigtailing.  You would connect one end of a new short section of wire (the "pigtail") to the terminal screw, and splice the two wires on the screw and the other end of the pigtail.

Very basic task for an electrician, doable for a DIY that knows the basics of working safely with electrical.


What is the best "Tropical Fish Room" insulation? I am enclosing half my garage with what might be called a greenhouse to raise tropical fish. I was thinking of building studded walls inside my garage using
treated 2 X 4's and 2" styrofoam insulation and then wrapping both the inside and outside of each wall with plastic to prevent air flow. Picture a box built within the garage not attached to the garage. 4 walls and a top!!

Been there , done that. My room is a 13' X 13' corner of the garage . Mild climate ( Houston TX) I have 4" fiberglass in the walls, 2 walls of double glass windows , 8" of loose glass plus 4"  of foam in the ceiling . Summer is fine with a small room AC unit. But in winter there is condensation from the Al window frames and glass. The paneled walls are damp and get moldy, the ceiling (drywall) has black mold. In spring I seal the aquariums and wipe everything down with bleach rags. I have 125,75,39 and  20 gals with about 80% glass tops. I would recommend concentration on your interior surface finishes , understanding they will tend to get mold. I have no heat in the room other than the aquarium heaters ; I believe an electric space heater would help by reducing the relative humidity . We enter the garage through the room so there is some air exchange. When I built it ( 14 years ago) the EPA required the mold inhibitors to be removed from caulk, so the caulk around all the windows is black and not cleanable. I understand new inhibitors have been developed  , be sure to get "good" caulk.


What material would support the outer ring of a woven children's nest swing? I would like to build a nest swing for my daughter (similar to attached image) but am not sure what I can use as the base ring under the rope. I have considered bending some plumbers copper pipe into a circle and soldering with a straight coupler, then lagging and rope. But not sure this will be strong enough.

And ideas on where I can find a metal ring of around 1.2m diameter off the shelf?

I suppose another option is a sheet of wood and a jigsaw, but not ideal.

1" or 1-1/4" flexible polyethylene pipe, such as is used for irrigation systems, would probably do well. It would be rigid enough to hold shape, yet light enough to not knock a kid out in a forehead shot. If you're concerned about rigidity, nest one size inside another.

You should be able to buy it by the foot from big-box home stores, or in small coils at most hardware stores. You'd want to use an interior splicer, or a wooden dowel if one isn't readily available.


What kind of paint should I use on the hinges and hardware of an exterior door? I've stripped and painted an entry door.  What kind of paint should I use to paint the hinges and hardware?

Spray paint made for metal.  Take hardware off to get a professional look.


Should I run 1/2" pex from a manifold to each fixture or 3/4"? Right now my setup is 3/4" cpvc pipe running from the water heater and then branching off into 1/2" cpvc pipe to each fixture. If I buy a manifold will there be a a pressure drop if I run 1/2" pex directly to each fixture?

Every manifold I've looked at has 1/2" outlets so not sure if that is a standard to use 1/2"  pipe to each fixture.

The average fixture has no need for 3/4" inch, particularly with homerun piping from a manifold. 3/4" is really only needed for tub fillers with larger tubs, or showers with multiple shower heads.

Running 3/4" hot water lines to fixtures will significantly increase hot water wait times, and should be avoided when not necessary (and for lavatory sinks, I'd strongly recommend 3/8" hot water supply lines).


Repair roof flashing that is tucked under gutter rather than over it I noticed water dripping from behind the gutter.  When I climbed up to investigate, I found that a piece of flashing was installed incorrectly.   The gutter should be tucked under the flashing.  But instead, the flashing goes behind the gutter and allows water to run off the roof and behind the gutter rather than into the gutter.
The roof was replaced a couple years ago and I'm sure this was installed incorrectly then.   You can see the rusty stains on the gutter from where the old galvanized flashing was in front.  The new aluminum flashing appears to have been installed behind.
This is the only piece of flashing on the house that I've found with this problem so far.  In other places, the flashing appears to be installed correctly over the gutter so that water drains into the gutter.
This is a very short section of roof over my front door.  The edge of the roof, the flashing, and the gutter are only about 10 feet long.
How should I fix this?
What repair steps would be needed for the best solution?
It seems like the options would be:

Remove the gutter and put it back on behind the flashing.
Un-nail the bottom row of shingles, remove the flashing, then put it back on (like detailed here.)
Get a pry bar or screwdriver behind the flashing and bend it in front of the gutter without removing anything.

I wouldn't want to un-nail the bottom row of shingles because the second row could easily be damaged and now you'd have a roof leak. Bending the flashing might work but if you bend it too much, you'll never straighten it back right. Removing the gutter, or removing enough fasteners to slip the gutter under the flashing would be the best, do it right, option.... and wait until it warms up a bit.


How can I rewire my bathroom fan, light, and receptacle? My bathroom has one switch that powers the fan and light.  In that electrical box, there is also a hard wired electrical outlet that sits in the bathroom.  Since I don't have room for a 2 gang box in my location, I would like to install a double rocker in that one gang box.  Can I get a diagram showing what that wiring would look like?

Top switch: Light on
Bottom switch: Fan on
Always on: electrical outlet

This is the switch:

EDIT:

So I took a look at my current plug and this is what I've discovered.  The switch has no ground, only a white wire that leaves it from the bottom and is HOT (I checked with a Klein).   The upper black wire powers the fan and light when in the up position. I can see that lower white wire that's connected to the switch, comes back as black and is one of those 3 hot ones i've labeled.

If you accidentally broke the tab between the black (common) screws on the swtich, simply use two short pigtails off the supply line like this...

If you have two separate cables (one to the fan, and one to the light), then you'd wire it up like this...

And again if you've clipped the tab between the terminals, it will look like this...

Here is what the original circuit would have looked like with 3 wire cable...

And here is what the original circuit would have looked like with two separate cables...

Don't forget, since it's a bathroom the receptacle has to be protected by a ground-fault circuit interrupter (GFCI).


What is a really good light-bulb changing tool I have a lot of 4 inch floodlight bulbs that are recessed in cans and that are very difficult to change by hand (you cannot get your hand around the bulb within the can that it is recessed in).
I bought a "Universal light bulb changing kit" from home depot that does not work at all (in fact, the suction cup does not suck, period).
Can anyone suggest one that is really well designed and built,   that actually works ?

My answer is duct tape. Make a loop, sticky side out, room enough for a couple of fingers on the inside, and press the tape to the front of the dry and clean light.  Put your fingers inside the loop, and twist counterclockwise. Important: make sure you have a secure ladder and an assistant with a phone handy in case you need help.  Let us know how you do.


Ceiling LED lamp blinks After  a few months of installed my Home Depot round ceiling LED lamp started to act like its being possessed. After turning it On, it goes Off and On repeatedly. Sometimes after a few minutes it stays On. Lately it doesn't stay On.
Any ideas why this happen?
Thank you

The LED driver is most likely faulty. You should be able to take the whole lamp back for replacement or refund.


Help Planning DIY Butcher Block Desk For context, I'm no professional but I'm comfortable figuring things out with advice/instructions. I'm planning on building an L-shaped desk for my kids. I've already selected the important materials, but I have some questions on assembly. First, here are the pieces I am using (I will put pictures at the end of the post).

3 Pottery Barn cabinets/pedestals (link)

All three are 16" wide x 20" deep x 29" high

2 butcher block slabs (link) and (link)

One is 74" x 25" x 1.5"
The other is 98" x 25" x 1.5"

Here is a diagram of how I plan to configure these pieces:

Here are my questions. I'm super excited to receive any advice you are willing to offer, but assume if you suggest something I will need a good reference (e.g. if you suggest a ledger board and you know of a good reference, can you point me to it or tips?). Again, I'm no pro.

Obviously the longer butcher block needs something to support it on the side with no cabinet. I suppose I could add a couple pipe legs? What is my best bet for getting something the exact right height as the other cabinet? See my wall desk question below, maybe that is my best bet?
On the longer butcher block, I'm going to have some weight there including a computer and heavy hutch. What should I do to support this length? I want to stay away from legs in the front of the desk.
On the shorter butcher block, will the two cabinets be enough to support the butcher block?
I assumed I would make this a wall desk, but I suppose it doesn't have to be. It might help with supporting the desk at the back (especially on the 98" piece). I've seen there are options such as adding a ledger board on the wall. Pros/cons of making this a wall desk?
How should I attach the two pieces of butcher block?
How should I attach the cabinets to the butcher block?
Obviously the cabinet depth is 5" shorter than the depth of the butcher block. I'd like to have the front of the cabinets flush with the front of the desk. Therefore, I'll have a 5" gap at the back. Aesthetically, do you think this will be an issue? Any suggestions on how to address this?

Here are pictures of the pedestals I am using:

Thank you in advance for your time and help!

I would add a fourth cabinet to support the long run of the top pieces but at about 27" from the end that is in the corner. This would put two cabinet faces at right angles to each other and preclude opening drawers from both at the same time but should be of the most minor inconvenience.

The extra cabinet idea would eliminate any need to attach things to the walls.

My take is that I would set the cabinet faces an inch from the front edge of the top. That will make it look a lot better.

The top is attached to the cabinets by placing screws up through the top of the cabinet from inside the cabinet and into the bottom of the top pieces.

Joining the two top pieces together can be as simple as using several flat metal strap pieces placed across the joint and screwed into each piece up from the bottom. You can get these strap pieces at a hardware store in the same area where angle and corner brackets are found. Here is an example:

(Picture captured from Home Depot web site)


Fix plaster behind skirting board I'm renovating an old house circa 1893, and I have a problem with blown plaster behind a skirting board.

I'd like to leave the skirting board undamaged as its an origin feature, but how can I repair the plaster behind it?

Is my only option to remove the whole skirting board and re-plaster?  The rest of the plaster on the wall is fine so I'm hoping there's a way to avoid replacing the whole lot.

Thanks

I understand not wanting to risk damaging that original trim, but it appears the piece is only a few inches long and not solidly attached. It's probably easiest to carefully remove it, use plaster and/or drywall to fill in the area behind, then reattach the short piece of trim.  If you damage it slightly, you can fill dents and cracks with wood putty, then just sand and paint.


Filling a gap between drywall and stair stringer I was planning to remove the old ugly cove moulding on my stair stringers. 30 years of lazy paints jobs have left it in a very bad state.

My initial plan was to just sand the stringer and wall, get them all cleaned and patched up and looking good, then caulk the right angle where they meet.

However, when I started prying off the moulding I discovered the drywall doesn't actually meet the stringer. It's about half an inch short.

Is there any durable, secure way to fill this void and achieve the clean finished angle I was hoping for, or am I going to have to resort to covering it back up with quarter round?

Wow!  If that's your most important home improvement project, you're really lucky.

Even if the drywall came all the way down to the stringer and you sanded everything smooth and caulked the corner, I don't think you'd be happy with it. Caulk is very hard to apply right. It looks easy but to get it perfectly smooth and even, Well if you ever caulked a tub or backsplash you know it's not. You could try sanding everything smooth, filling in the crack with drywall mud and taping the drywall down to the stringer. That will probably give you the sharp angle you're looking for. Remember, sharp angles dent really easy.

Personally, I think a new piece of quarter round would look better. Good luck and stay safe out there.


Do NOT connect this water heater to a CFCI or AFIC Circuit. Why? I am installing a 190K BTU Natural Gas Rheem tankless on demand water heater in a barn. It also requires a 120v electrical connection. The instructions say, "Do NOT connect this water heater to a CFCI or AFCI Circuit." However, the power to the barn is supplied by a 20Amp Underground Feeder that is on a GFCI+AFCI breaker.
Why would instructions say this and what can I expect if I connect the water heater to this circuit? The instructions say that "the water heater only draws a maximum of 3 amps of current" that are mostly used to run the on board electronics.
Water Heater: https://www.homedepot.com/p/Rheem-Performance-Platinum-9-5-GPM-Natural-Gas-High-Efficiency-Indoor-Tankless-Water-Heater-ECOH200DVLN-2/304820618
Rheem ECOH200DVLN

It's the ignition system
Your tankless water heater, like many gas-fired appliances, uses an electronic Direct Spark Ignition (DSI) system to light the burner instead of a standing pilot light.  This saves gas, but requires the electronics to generate a high voltage in order to get sufficient spark energy to ignite the gas reliably.  In order to keep the implementation from becoming too bulky or complicated, the high voltage is generated relative to the chassis of the appliance using an HV supply that is not isolated from mains earth, so that the spark igniter's counter electrode can be a grounded burner part instead of having to be insulated for the full ignition voltage.  This, in turn, trips up GFCIs and many AFCIs, since it effectively acts as an intermittent leakage path to ground.


Second 100 amp breaker inside existing 200 amp residential panel for new detached garage I'm planning to build a new detached garage. My question is can I add a second 100 amp breaker to my existing 200 amp Square D residential panel box? The existing 100 amp breaker goes to my quest house and the new 100 amp breaker would go to my new garage. Wire for garage would be ran in 1-1/2" sch 80 with a total run of 100 feet (panel to panel).

The 200 amp panel is feeding a single family home 3/2 about 2300 sf and the existing guest house of 800 sf.

Watch your stab limits

Sure, you can fit as many 100A breakers as you please.  What you cannot do is place them opposite one another so they clip onto the same bus stabs.

Those little bars of metal, which are typically shared by breakers across from each other, have "stab limits" limiting the max current you can put on any one of them.  The stab limit may be discussed in the panel's labeling.  If not, make sure the breakers opposite them are smallish, like 15 or 20 amp normals (not tandems).

Note that it is common and normal for the individual breakers to total far more than the main breaker. That's because they're not all used to capacity at once.

Don't oversubscribe - but electricity is for using

200A service is more than enough for most homes.  Because of that, you have some headroom for things like cottages and shops. And what's more, these days so many people have money that lots are putting in 100A subs on a whim, when in the past they might have fit a 30, 40 or 60A sub.   So I'm not particularly worried about these multiple 100A subs.  However, it is possible to overdo it, and excessively load your panel.

You haven't given us nearly enough information to know if you are doing that. That is determined by practical load calculations which would evaluate all your potential loads.  But it is something to be mindful of.

For instance if I had a lovely wood shop in my garage, and wanted to add a big L3 EV charger, I would simply install the charger so the EV must be pulled into the wood shop area to charge, preventing its use.

Remember though; electricity is there to be used.  If you need to, you can always increase your service size.

One last thing: think BIG on the panel

A guy sold us his entire shop for $5000. Suddenly we had eight 240V tools, and I needed 16 spaces in the panel.  The moral of the story is: Spaces go fast! Get loads of 'em!

I was certainly glad I installed a 30 space sub panel, however suddenly I really wish I had installed a 40 space.  I have backed away from advising 40 space subpanels simply because it seems so absurd, but it's not.  Note that 30-40-space subpanels are not made in 100A sizes.  You will be getting a sub panel rated for 150-225A and simply feeding it with a 100A feed breaker back in the main.  That is fine.

Yes, the far breaker will trip first, but it's gonna do that anyway even if they are of equal trip value, since consumer breakers are too cheap to coordinate.  Anyway if you really, really want coordinated breakers, use a shunt breaker as your sub panel main and a little Arduino or Raspberry Pi listening to a current transformer, and write code to have it shunt-trip the breaker before the main would trip.


Best way to fill a pothole in asphalt What is the best way to fill a pothole in asphalt?

There are some huge potholes in an alley used by 5 homes that I would like to repair - meaning it gets a fair bit of traffic each day.

Would gravel be a sustainable filler into the holes?

Does it have to be more asphalt?

Cold patch asphalt repair can be packed into holes and stands up well for standard car/truck use. If the hole is really deep you can pack crushed rock to fill the hole and save some $. I would not use pea gravel to fill the deeper holes as it never locks together like crushed rock. After filling and adding the patch material I like to run over it with my truck to pack it then if needed add a little more until the patch is even with the original level.


Do disconnect breakers have to be the same brand of breaker as in the main panel? I have a cutler hammer breaker box with a cutler hammer breaker that will be fed to a disconnect box with a GFCI before going to the hot tub. Does the disconnect box necessarily have to be a cutler hammer brand with cutler hammer breakers. I wouldn't think so but want to be sure.

Generally, the breaker has to match the manufacturer of the box. But you do not need to match manufacturers between separate boxes.


Touching up black aluminium window frame I have a set of folding doors (interior <-> exterior) that have been badly scraped and scratched during a renovation project. I have purchased the correct colour touch up paint from the manufacturer, but there are no instructions on how to apply.

My initial thoughts are that I should sand down the area with 60 then 120 grade paper. Clear the area with white spirit and then apply the touch up paint. Does this sound about right? Is there a better way?

The finish of the frame is very smooth. Im worried that if I use a paint brush it will be streaky. What applicator should I use?

Note: the white area is what's left of the protective plastic, my concern is the abrasion below it.

do exactly what you described just as you described.  put four or five coats on.  then:

1)  sand the new paint very carefully with 800 gr sandpaper.  use wet/dry paper and use water to lubricate.  use a block of wood as a backer to make sure you dont get too much pressure in one area or another and sand through the paint.  sand down until smooth and flush with adjacent paint.  dont worry if it looks flat and dull now.

2)  repeat with 1200 and then 1500.

3)  buff the repaired area and the adjacent area with a smooth cotton cloth (t shirt will do fine) with some brasso, toothpaste, or some other polishing agent.  polish with hand pressure and the polishing agent on the cloth until you get the same overall gloss to match. more rubbing, more shine.

4)  if a smooth finish is desired, you are done.  if you want a brushed finish (like many aluminum panels) rub very lightly with a scotchbrite pad in the same direction as the grain you are trying to match.

done!


Shower Light connected to bathroom ventilation fan. Does it need GFCI? I am going to attempt to make this as clear as possible.

In my bathroom, there is a switch that directly controls only the bathroom ventilation fan. I would like to add a recessed light over the shower by adding it to the circuit that the recessed fan is on, so the connection would be switch->vent fan->shower recessed light.

Does this connection need to be GFCI protected, and if so how would I do that because there isn't an outlet in this circuit? Would the only option be a dead-front GFI?

Thanks in advance!
Dan

You need a fixture listed for wet locations: from the NEC.
Bathtub and shower areas. Luminaries located within the actual outside dimension of the bathtub or shower to a height of 8' vertically from the top of the bathtub or threshold of the shower shall be marked for damp locations or for wet locations were subject to shower spray. NEC 410.10.D. Since in a shower you will need a "wet location" fixture. Many call the main type of fixture used a "jelly jar" because it looks like a jar that is screwed into a fixture. There are many types that look better depending on what you want to spend.


What is the best way to secure a set of folding attic stairs? My company is opening a new office in an existing office building. While inspecting the office prior to move-in, I noticed that the attics between all suites in the building are open to each other. Someone from another suite could easily gain access to ours by just pushing open the folding attic stairs.

What is the best way to secure the folding attic stairs? I considered using a padlock, but the ceiling is too high to open a padlock using a ladder. Do they make a lock attached to the pull cord?

If you are not opposed to replacing the ladder, they do make attic ladders with integrated locks (i.e. Fakro Insulated Wood Attic Stair Ladder.  It looks like you need a special "handle" mounted on a 3 foot pole to lock and unlock the latch.  I'm not sure if these locks can be accessed from the top, but it is at least worth looking at.

If you prefer to leave the door in place, you could attempt to retrofit a remote control deadbolt to the door.  Depending on the style of door and the way it is installed, this may or may not be possible.


How to repair or at least hide cracks in wooden door panel? I have a door with cracks running along the grain on one of the panels:

Its a solid wood door, not a composite material nor hollow. These go all the way through although they are not as obvious on the other side for some reason.
Since the door is a dark color these stand out, especially at certain angles of view.
Otherwise however the door is solid & strong, and I'd prefer not to replace it.
Unless there is some way to remove the panel (which I thought would require disassembling almost the whole door) I can't see how to glue it back in one piece?
I don't mind if some part of the repair requires refinishing, since that already seems to be necessary. However if there is a way to effectively hide the cracks in a permanent way that could be the best approach.

You are correct. To get that panel out, you'll have to pull the top rail off the door, then the panel will slip out. You can then glue it up and glue the rail back in place. However, it's not that easy, as that top rail will be well and thoroughly glued in place.

You may want to try staining the edges of the cracks a dark color so that the bare wood showing through doesn't stand out.

You could put some wood filler in the cracks, if there are pieces missing, then stain that.

If the cracks have made the panel loose enough that it rattles, you'd probably be able to carefully pull the panel apart at the cracks, and force some wood filler in. Then squeeze the panel back together. You do not want to leave the gaps wide enough that the panel cannot move or you'll end up with more cracks due to seasonal expansion. The filler won't hold quite as well as glue, but, since you won't be able to properly clamp the panel, you'll have some glue or filler showing, and you'll be able to stain the filler to match, but wouldn't be able to stain the glue.

If you do want to attempt to remove the top rail, I'd suggest asking a question about how to do that Woodworking. There are loads of experienced wood workers there and you're likely to get an answer about how to properly loosen/soften the glue to get it apart. That would be the better solution, but it won't be easy.


How can I remove just one tongue-and-groove subfloor board? I am not talking about laminate planks, but actual subfloor sections.  My entire room consists of tongue-and-groove boards.  I was under the impression that the point of this was so you didn't have to fasten them to joists with nails or screws, but all of mine are nailed in.  Pulling up the nails is not a problem, but being able to lift up a section of floor without damaging the tongue (which I have done prior to figuring this out the hard way).

Are the tongues necessary?  Can I just take my circular saw right between the boards, cut them way, and then screw them back down afterward?

I am doing remodeling and think I have a squeaky joist.  I want to tend to it before putting an underlayment over it.  If someone can tell me how to secure a potentially squeaky joist through the top of the subfloor and not from below then I will change the title of this question and mark you as the answer.

Are the tongues necessary? Can I just take my circular saw right
  between the boards, cut them way, and then screw them back down
  afterward?

You've been misinformed.  The point of tongue-in-groove planking is to keep the floor boards from twisting, slipping and sliding against each other and squeaking (or squeaking more in your case).  You still need to secure a tongue-in-groove floor to the subfloor or joists.

Joists almost never squeak on their own.  Squeaking comes from two pieces of wood rubbing against each other - usually because a floor hasn't been adequately secured.

Now if you DO need to cut away the flooring, then you should cut along the seams, and then buy Hardwood Floor Spline and rout out the old tongue so you end up with two grooves facing each other, and use the spline to rejoin the flooring when you reattach it.

But BEFORE you do that, I'd get a bunch of 2" coated screws and drop them through the subfloor into the joists below and see if that fixes the squeak.  It's subfloor so you don't care about the face, and if it doesn't work, they're easily removed.

*Tip - use a hammerdrill when putting in the screws


How tight does vent screen have to be, to keep out swarming termites? So I found some winged "ants" on my roof. My roof and crawl spaces have vents with 1/4 inch wire mesh, very easy for such "ants" to get into.

Of course, they were not ants, they were swarmer termites.  In this case they came from outside the house.  And I happen to know they were drywoods.  That said:

What size mesh is needed to keep out swarmers, without blocking too much ventillation? If you answer, what's your source for the information?

Ants have a narrow body in the middle, termites have a solid body. It would take a fine mesh like screen doors to keep both critters out. 1/4" can let even wasps and other bees in.


What is a proper high-quality sub-floor preparation for porcelain tile floor installation I am preparing to do a kitchen remodel where I am replacing an existing tile floor with a new porcelain tile floor. The old floor that is being replaced has several areas where it is not level and some areas where the old tiles have cracked, possibly because the sub-floor is not stiff enough.

I am interviewing contractors to do this work and I really want a high-quality installation, even if I have to pay more for it. I have a book about remodeling by that TV guy Mike Holmes and he says that the proper way to prep a subfloor for tiles is:

  First, make sure you have a 1 1/4-inch sub-floor before any tile goes
  down. That means if there's a 5/8-in layer of oriented strand board,
  then you need at least another 5/8-inches on top of that. Use oriented
  strand board, conventional plywood, or better yet, a waterproof
  product like WonderBoard or HardiBoard which are concrete-based
  products. Whatever you use should be set onto the existing sub-floor
  and glued and screwed to the joists underneath.  Finally, I recommend
  a waterproof membrane on top of that such as Ditra from Schluter. It's
  a bright orange waffled plastic that's put down right before laying
  the tile. It helps with water-tightness and provides just a little bit
  of flex, which allows the tile to absorb impact.

I have prepared a scope of work describing that I want this done and sent it to some local tile laying companies for quotes. The responses I have received have indicated that this is not the way they would recommend prepare a floor for laying tile and they recommend alternatives. After I received those responses I went to a tile store and asked about this and they also said not to do this.

I have three questions

Is the way described in the book a good way to prepare floor for
laying tile?
Why would he write this in his book if it wasn't a
    good/standard way of preparing the subfloor?
If you were having a
    tile floor installed in your house what subfloor preparation would
    you want assuming you are looking for the highest quality
    installation?

I guess I am also wondering why I am getting pushback on this from the installers?

One comment on the advice you read is that I don't see a thing in there about deflection - evidently Mike Holmes is sure that if he merely has 1-1/4" of subfloor, all is good. Real tile specs tend to involve a concept called deflection, and that's the distance part of the floor system moves when loaded, relative to the span you measure over. L/360 is a typical spec - L/180 is twice as bad. (It's usually a lowercase L, but on the computer I'm using a capital to be clear that it's an L.) I happen to have a 3/4" subfloor that's L/587, so it really doesn't need another half-inch on that basis.

Consider what a tile manufacturer has to say...
(I'm not going to cut and paste their extensive text here, or rewrite it all) but for one thing they specifically mention setting the backer board in a mortar bed, not "gluing" it down. I'd also venture to sneak in that if you really want "the best" (and will you pay for it these days) look at the "old fashoned mortar bed" (TCNA (Method F145-02)) mentioned at the end of their article. That, of course, means you need to establish an adequately rigid base 3/4" or 1-1/4" + tile thickness below the surrounding floor level, which is why it's not popular these days. But it was a VERY good method, as a lot of old houses demonstrate.

Kinsman Tile


What ampacity circuit breaker would I need for an 18 amp electric heater? What ampacity circuit breaker would I need for an 18 amp electric heater?

Here's a link to the model (IEP-4024), it's North American, 240 volts, 4000 watts, installing it outdoor.

RTFM

After reading the user manual for this heater, as per National Electrical Code.

  National Electrical Code 2011

  ARTICLE 110 Requirements for Electrical Installations

  I. General

  110.3 Examination, Identification, Installation, and Use of Equipment.
  (B) Installation and Use. Listed or labeled equipment shall be installed and used in accordance with any instructions included in the listing or labeling.

It appears that it has subdivided heating elements, which requires 2 separate 240 volt 9 ampere branch circuits. It also states that "the electrical connection must be performed by a qualified tradesperson.".

  Connect each lamp circuit to a 230 - 240 Vac, 60Hz, 9 Amp copper wire circuit that is properly grounded. Electrical connection must be performed by a qualified electrical tradesperson.

  Installation must conform with the latest edition Electrical Code ANSI/NFPA N0 70 in the
  U.S.A. and PART 1 CSA C22.1 in Canada.

Select the Conductors

Since you're dealing with space heating equipment, you'll want to check article 424 of the NEC. In article 424, you'll find that the conductors have to be sized to 125% of the load served.

  National Electrical Code 2011

  ARTICLE 424 Fixed Electric Space-Heating Equipment

  III. Control and Protection of Fixed Electric Space-Heating Equipment

  424.22 Overcurrent Protection.
  (E) Conductors for Subdivided Loads. Field-wired conductors between the heater and the supplementary overcurrent protective devices shall be sized at not less than 125 percent of the load served. The supplementary overcurrent protective devices specified in 424.22(C) shall protect these conductors in accordance with 240.4.

So you'll have to do a bit of math to figure out the minimum ampacity of the conductors.

9 amperes * 125% = 11.25 amperes

Now that you know the minimum ampacity required, you'll want to check article 310.15 to figure out what size wire you need. A quick look at table 310.15(B)(16), shows that 14 AWG wire is good for 15 amperes at 60°C.

Select the Overcurrent Protection Device

Now that you've selected the wire size, you can choose your overcurrent protection device.  In this case, you'll want 2 15 ampere dual pole circuit breakers.

Wiring the Circuits

When it comes to wiring the circuit, you have a couple choices.  You can pull two 14/2 with ground cables from the panel to the outlet, or you can pull a single 14/2/2 with ground cable.

Two 14/2 with Ground

Pull two 14/2 with ground cables from the panel to the outlet, and connect the heater as follows:

Don't forget to reidentify the white conductors, by marking them in an approved manner.

One 14/2/2 with Ground

A 14/2/2 with ground cable consists of a black, red, white, white with red stripe, and a bare conductor.  The only drawback here, would be that since there are more than 3 current carrying conductors, the conductors have to be derated by 80%.  Even with the derating, the conductors are still rated for 12 amperes at 60°C. Which is still above the 11.25 amperes required by the circuit, so there should be no problem using this cable (as long as the run is not overly long).

Again, don't forget to reidentify the white conductors.


Drains backing up - will it affect my drinking water? We had -15 below zero weather a few days ago.  I did not notice any plumbing problems at the time.  However a couple of days ago my toilet starting gurgling and then over flowing.  I thought my daughter had put something down it (she may have).  Now when flushing it, backs up into the bathtub.  At the same time this was happening we were running the dishwasher.  I attempted to plunge the toilet but you hear the gurgle in ALL the drains, including the kitchen sink.  I also tried force flushing with several gallons of bottled water.

The water is also coming up the bathroom sink drain.  As I have an S trap under the kitchen sink, draining through the floor to the basement, I am worried about the safety of my drinking water.  There is a call into a plumber but this will take several days to hear from him.  I have one of those funny kind of vents in the basement (looks like a plastic tube) and also a clean out in the side yard.  My biggest concern in the drinking water safety until this is fixed.  We are on city water.

What can I do right now to keep my drinking water safe, protect my house, and minimize my overall expense and trouble?

Blocked drains have no effect on the safety of your drinking water, if you don't contaminate the supply with the backed up drains.

Any remotely "modern" faucets (and other plumbing) are designed to prevent such contamination - they terminate above the level of the sink, so the end of the faucet cannot be submerged. Those which can be submerged or have a hose attached are outfitted with vacuum breakers to prevent backflow.

Even with a submerged faucet end (from an old faucet), there would ALSO have to be a loss of pressure on the city water to cause any backflow into the supply system.


I have an open neutral on all electrical circuits I have an open neutral on all circuits in my house. Everything is working fine. how do I fix this situation?

turns out tester is faulty. checked with a new tester. neutral is fine.thank you for all responses.


How to respond when something floods inside home The dishwasher flooded and I didn't know what to do. I guess the first step in dealing with a flood is cutting off the source of water, right? I opened up the dishwasher door which caused it to shut off the water. How do you clean up the water? We didn't have many tools handy, we had a small mop which was insufficient but found using the dust broom to sweep the water out of the house worked alright, though now the water carried with it a bunch of garbage which collected at our door step. Are there any tools that are worthwhile to buy encase of a flood like this?

Water damage isn't easy to deal with, here are the steps off the top of my head:

Shutoff the water
Get the water out, via floor drains, buckets, submersible pump, or a shop vac. I'd recommend the shop vac for being a fairly handy tool everyone should own.
Dry the area, and remove anything damaged by the water. Use fans, open windows, and/or dehumidifiers to dry it out. I would completely remove carpeting, drywall,
fiberglass insulation, finishing woodwork (trim), and probably plywood/OSB that has absorbed water. Appliances, duct work, and utility lines should also be inspected.
Clean and treat the area to prevent mold. This means bleach and other mold killers.
Replace anything that's been damaged.

As for the flooding dishwasher, make sure that the float sensor in the bottom of the dishwasher is always moving freely, and avoid running it when you're going to be away. Objects can get lodged under this float, preventing the dishwasher from filling. If something ever holds the float down, then it won't stop filling since the float is indicating that there isn't any water in the bottom.


Should the edge of a tiled shower wall and floor be left unsealed? Our shower remodel was just completed and our tiler intentionally left the edge of the shower wall and floor unsealed. This seems strange to me but he insisted that it should be left unsealed. He said that if water ever works it's way behind the wall higher up it'll need a place to drain out instead of collecting inside the wall. Is this correct or should we seal this bottom edge? Is there any risk to leaving it unsealed?

Yes, that's normal.  Any water that does penetrate the grout lines (keep in mind that grout is NOT water tight) needs to go somewhere.  There should be an impermeable material behind the tile that will allow water to flow down the wall and into the pan.
If you seal the bottom, that water will be trapped and will eventually leak into something else.


Should I be worried if I missed the studs while mounting my TV? I think I missed the studs based on how easily the drill moved through the drywall. My LCD only weighs 27lbs and the mount itself is 5lbs (rated to hold 165lbs, and uses 4 8mm lag bolts). I pulled as hard as I could downward on the tv and nothing moved at all, everything seems pretty sturdy.  Should I be worried? Is there something I can test in a week or so, to see if it will continue to hold strong?

Your TV is being supported by two pieces of paper. That should be all you need to know.

The white plaster material in the middle of drywall resists compression. The interaction between the shaft of the bolts and the inner plaster is keeping the load from shearing straight down the wall and will support a significant load.

However, on the front and back of the drywall are two sheets of paper that resists tension, similar to the purpose of rebar in concrete. And the interaction between the threads of the bolts and these two sheets of paper are all that are preventing your TV from being pulled out of the wall. Over time, the top bolts will pull out from vibration, temperature and humidity changes, and especially if you adjust the angle of the TV.

Once those top bolts start to pull through, the paper will tear, the plaster will shear out of the hole, and the TV will only be supported by the lower bolts under a highly leveraged load. Those lower bolts will immediately fail, and you'll have a broken TV on the floor at best, or a broken person that was hit by the TV at worst.

So, as everyone else has already said, remount the TV to proper structure.


What is this kind of bracket called? I would ideally like this buy the below bracket, but I can't find any reseller.
Searching for angle bracket oval adjustable hole doesn't give anything similar, so I am guessing this kind of bracket have a particular name.
Does anyone know what it is called?

It is a slotted "L" bracket. It's available at most home stores.


What could cause corrosion in a water heater? My water heater was replaced about 5 years ago.  Recently I discovered some corrosion on some of the pipes and valves connected to the heater.   Pictures are attached.  I have yet to inspect the anode rod but wondered if these pictures indicated a particular problem that required corrective actions or some maintenance tasks.  Any direction to help this situation would be appreciated.   Thanks!

The long copper pipe, is that the discharge pipe? If moisture collects at the end of it, it can become acidic and cause corrosion. You may want to test the acidity of your water, but in general discharge pipe corrosion is not too much of a concern.

The other pipes, however, seem to be suffering from galvanic corrosion which occurs when you have different metals connected to each other. Normally this is prevented by installing a plastic insert between the two metals so they do not contact each other. You may want to do this the next time the water heater is replaced.


Is there a missing ground wire in my pedestal service circuit? I just had a electrical inspection stated 2 hot 1 neutral and one ground needed.
I thought all of that was there.

Here are the inspection forms. I have no clue what is wrong or what is correct.

You are being written up for a missing Equipment Grounding Conductor (EGC) which is the ground wire that goes with hots and neutrals in every circuit or feeder.
The thing between this meter-main and your house is feeder not service wire.  Above the meter is service wire.   Feeder requires EGC, service does not.
What I see
is 200A service coming from the top.
I see a bare wire that is part of the Grounding Electrode System which bonds the meter-main chassis itself to local grounding rods.   However this is not an EGC ("ground wire") and does not go anywhere an EGC needs to go.
I see the main feeder going into the lower pipe in 3 wires.  I see no ground wire (EGC), so yeah, the inspector got it right.
Fire your electrician.  What were they thinking?
If the power company installed this feeder, that would be why. They follow a different codebook (NESC) and they're not used to working in NEC rules.  They make this mistake all the time.
Some people think that if the pole has a ground rod (GES) and the house has a ground rod (GES), they don't need a ground wire (EGC) also, because there's dirt between the two.  Um... dirt doesn't conduct electricity that well :)
What to do
You will need to add an appropriate sized ground wire to the pipe.  If the hot wires are exactly #2/0 Copper or #4/0 Aluminum, you can use a #6 Cu or #4 Al ground wire.  (However, if the hot wires are larger than that, the ground must also be larger, forcing you to #4 Cu or #2 Al).
The added wire can't exceed conduit fill limits.  The ground wire can be bare if it's copper, which helps with conduit fill.  It's OK to use aluminum hots + copper ground.
You can fish just the wire if you can successfully get a fishing tape down that conduit with the wires in there.  If not, you'll have to pull the 3 wires and then pull them back in with the 4th wire.


How to best keep floor vent by shower dry/mold free? We just moved into a rental home. It turned out after living there for a few weeks that we discovered the vents were innudated with mold. They were so bad the landlord had to replace all the vents in the home both upstairs and downstairs.

Toward the end of the job, the guy in charge of the job told me that a major cause of the mold was likely a bathroom floor vent close to a shower. Water dripped slowly over time into the vent and pooled in the vents causing mold to flourish. Now there's a couple exacerbating factors. The AC only runs in the summer. So a few drips during the summer were not a big deal. They would dry up as the AC ran. In the winter, though, the home doesn't use the AC vents. Instead radiator heating is used. So water pools from the vent, but no AC comes on to dry up the water.

Additionally, the bathroom has no exhaust fan. So with the door shut, the room gets rather steamy. I imagine that in the winter, the hot steam can easily travel down the vent and condense underneath the home. This might be a bigger cause.

What can we do to deal with this situation? How can we keep our vents dry and still take showers in this bathroom? Keep in mind we're renters, so we have to ask for everything. It seems likely that the mold problem will repeat unless we can find a way to deal with this problem.

Cover the vent
They sell magnetic vent covers at nearly all hardware stores. Buy one, and cover the vent when it's not being used. This will prevent moist air from entering the vent, though it may not stop water if it pools around the vent.

Install an exhaust fan
Install a properly sized exhaust fan in the bathroom. Let it run during showers, and for about 20-30 minutes after showers.
WARNING: Make sure you vent the exhaust properly.
Sizing an exhaust fan
Exhaust fans are sized using Cubic Feet Per Minute (CFM), so you'll have to first figure out how many cubic feet your bathroom is. To do this, measure the length, width, and height of the room.

Length = 10 ft.
Width = 8 ft.
Height = 8 ft.

To find the cubic feet, simply multiply these numbers together.

10 ft. * 8 ft. * 8 ft. = 640 ft.3

Next we'll divide the cubic feet by 60, to figure out how many CFM is required to exchange the air one time in an hour.

640 ft.3 / 60 Minutes = 10.66 ft.3/Minute.

It's recommended that the air in a bathroom be exchanged 8 times per hour, so you'll have to multiply our CFM value by 8.

10.66 ft.3/Minute * 8 = 85.33 ft.3/Minute

So in this example, we'll need an exhaust fan with at least an 86 CFM rating.
Quick formula: (Length * Width * Height) / 7.5 = Required CFM rating.
Making sure the fan runs long enough
When installing an exhaust fan in a bathroom, it's a good idea to put the fan on a timer. This allows you to run the fan for the recommended 20-30 minutes after a shower, without having to worry about remembering to turn it off.
Warning: Make sure you get a timer that is rated for motor loads.


How to remove this type of shower handle? I'm replacing the FRP board and I wanted to replace the handles while I'm at it. I'm not sure how to get the piece shown disconnected. The outer piece spins freely. Do I need to some how twist the inside part?

Use a pair of pliers to secure both pieces together and then turn counter-clockwise. This will then expose the valve behind the handle.


How do I connect my new faucet to my supply line? I purchased a faucet with integral Flex Hoses.
One of the hoses is not long enough to reach the supply line.

The hose has a female thread swivel type fitting.
Can I purchase a Male-Female extension or is there another simple way to make the Flex Hose reach?

Sure, you can buy the extension flex. If I were you, I'd call the store where you bought the faucet, and they will probably have it in stock. This happens to a lot of people, but it's simple to correct


Can a single metal electrical box use two ground clips? Inside a metal electrical box, can I use multiple ground clips (one for each conductor), or is it required that all ground conductors be twisted together and pigtailed into the same clip?

If you are carrying ground from one cable to the next, you should pigtail them. The ground clips are there to ground the box, not carry the ground to another cable; if one were to become disconnected, you would lose the ground in the circuit.

I prefer a screw connection in metal boxes over a ground clip.

Oh, and instead of a pigtail, you can use one of the green wire nuts with a hole in the center; that lets you pigtail with a bit less effort.


Do electrical circuit systems break down without use? I have no knowledge whatsoever about electrical issues so please bear with me! I am holding my wedding at a very old family estate that has not been used in a  few years. My planner questioned whether the electric system could “wear down” because no one has used the outlets in so long. We will be having 30 people stay in the house as well as hair and makeup (so hair dryers and lighting etc) the morning of.
Is that a thing / should I be concerned about the electrical system or are we completely off base here? Thanks for your help!

To answer your question... no.  Electrical circuits do not break down if they're not used.  Most common wiring is made of copper and doesn't break down over time.  Some wiring can be  aluminum but again, it doesn't break down.
However, to expand.  The connection points can corrode overtime, especially in moist environments, and create connection problems in outlets, switches and light sockets.  Depending on the connections you can clean these up with some steel wool or in bad cases get new switches, outlets, etc...  If you don't feel comfortable doing it an electrician is just a phone call away.
As well, animals (rodents such as mice, rats, racoons, etc...) can chew on wiring and cause major problems that you might not see.
Also, depending on the age of the building is the service amperage.  If you don't have enough amps you could be blowing breakers when everyone is using their hair dryer at the same time or the DJ/Band (if you are having one) starts plugging in their equipment.  Lots of older homes have two or three rooms connected together on the same circuit so this could be a very annoying problem.
So while the circuits do not break down, you can have a host of other problems.


Can you put a matte polyurethane over a semi-gloss polyurethane to make it a matte finish? I have a piece of furniture that my mom has painted and she put on a semi-gloss polyurethane finish.  It is way too shiny for the type of painting.

Can we put a matte polyurethane finish over the semi-gloss one to make it more of a matte or satin finish?

Yes (with some prep), however, you can try lightly sanding with 600 grit wet/dry sandpaper.  Use it lightly wetted. Buff dry with a soft cloth.  You may find this is matte enough.. DONE!

If its too matte (flat) you are now prepped and ready to recoat with satin or matte.


Draining Water Heater Recently, my water heater started leaking from the top edges. I can see rust lined up all along the outer rim on the top, and water is very slowly trickling out. I've made an appointment with a local water heater company to come repair it, but it will be three days before they can come. So now, I'm trying to shut down the water heater safely.

Since it's an electric heater, I've turned off the electricity on the breaker panel, and I've shut off the cold water valve on the top of the heater. I heard that I also need to drain the heater through the outlet near the bottom of the heater.

Questions:
1. Is draining the heater through the bottom outlet necessary?
2. If I do drain the heater via the bottom outlet, will the water be scalding hot?
3. Why can't I drain the heater via my bathroom faucet? Will turning on the hot water in the bathroom cause any issues (besides not getting hot water of course)?

To drain it, you need gravity working with you; you don't have water pressure because you've turned off the incoming cold water.

Your sink us attached to the top of the water heater, and in most cases is located even higher up. You can't drain that way unless you turn the house upside down.

So instead you open a hot water tap somewhere to let air into the system, then open the valve at the bottom of the tank to drain its contents. You'll presumably want a hose and/or buckets to move that drained water somewhere appropriate -- route it into a sump, perhaps.


Specific tiling for washing machine closet? I am planing to install a washing machine in a closet. There is currently a fitted carpet in this ca. 2 m² closet.
To avert consequences a plausible leak/overflow, I want to replace the fitted carpet with tiling.

I am concerned about both the mechanical stress to the tiling and the noise (both for us and my downstairs neighbours) generated by the vibration of the washing machine.

Is there something specific I can/should do before or during the tiling (knowing I will install a washing machine on it)?

(One restriction is the choice of the tiles themselves, as I plan to use the remainder of another project.)

Note: I have never done any tiling before, nor am a specifically experienced DIYer — so please excuse the probably naive question. (Nonetheless, I believe I haven't two left feet nor half a brain only, so I should be able to get through the tiling.)

I agree with ecnerwal rubber pads would be best. We are a diy site and here to help you.
Other things

I prefer to use a concrete backer board screwed down to the flooring to mount tile to. Never put tile directly on chip board , OSB or most underlayments. Plywood will work but the others when wet come apart as the tile can allow moisture and then it becomes a real mess.

Pick a tile you like because it can last your lifetime and I think most new to tile do better with larger sizes. I have seen many first timers try 2x2 because they are on a sheet and it usually looks diy. Larger tiles and spend the few bucks for spacers and use them.

Watch some on line videos so you understand how to “set” the tile using a notched trowel.

Starting with a small space like a laundry closet is a great way to get experience , remove existing mop or trim boards. Put your backer down and go for it, good luck!


Can I use a segmented abrasive blade in my circular saw for cutting drywall? Is it o.k. to substitute a 41/2" dia. segmented cutting wheel in my 43/8" dia. 14.4V saw? No one makes blades anymore, since B&D/dewalt abandoned
the line.

I use my saw to cut drywall, and install the blocking for the cabinets that the carpenters 'forgot'. Or do I need one of those 'diamond-encrusted' blades?

You ask if a 4-1/2" blade will fit a 4-3/8 saw probably not, but take the saw to the store and ask them to let you see if it will fit.
Using a saw to cut drywall? I usually use a razor knife, or a jab saw when cutting in old work boxes, I have never seen someone use a circular saw to cut drywall, I would hate to see the mess that leaves. Change over to a razor knife if you want less mess.


r 30 insulation in my downstairs basement is it ok for copper hot/cold water pipes running along the basement ceiling to be covered with pink insulation? I have most of the insulation in, but wondering about this one row where those pipes lie. My plan is to install drop ceiling. I ask because I've heard of condensation build up as well as if the hot pipes can burn and cause fires? Thanks for your time
Matt

Matthew,

The auto-ignition temperature of paper (the moisture barrier on fiberglass batt insulation) tends to be between about 425-455 degrees F (depending humidity, altitude, etc.).  The auto-ignition temp. of other substances will vary.  Hot water heaters are capable of being set above the 120 degrees F max. but 425F is far above that.

Condensation will happen.  There is no practical, absolute preventative (though many will argue there is but these measures tend to conceal the condensation rather than prevent it).

The two most effective (imo) measures are:

1) pipe insulation (to create an "as effective as possible" barrier between hot and cold water to the surrounding air temperature) and,

2) air flow (to allow for evaporation of any condensation that will occur...though "air flow" can also introduce air temperatures that can further encourage condensation).

"Excessive" insulation at the rim joists of a basement (between the concrete foundation wall and the floor joists) is where people can control outside temperatures from infiltrating a finished basement.  I say, "excessive", because this is where most people don't use enough or don't install it correctly.  It is in this area where joist cavities get temperature fluctuations (not to be confused with "air flow") between the basement's finished ceiling and first floor.

Most condensation, from pipes, is most notable in ceilings directly below a vertical run of the pipe...condensation from the pipe runs down its vertical length onto one spot of the ceiling.  For this (and reason of "access") there's no legitimate reason to not provide a removable access panel in the ceiling.  We camouflaged ours to appear as an audio speaker panel though it's just a drywall cut-out.


Oil Viscosity in Snowblower Got a brand new snowblower.  The manufacturer calls for 5w-30 oil but I do not have and can't get to the store before I need to use it.  I have 10w-30 full synthetic and I have 5w-20 conventional.  Which would be a better choice?

Use the 10w-30.

If you store the blower in a warm place then you need do nothing further. If you store the blower in a cold place (around -20°C) then you should replace the 10w-30 with 5w-30 as soon as practicable. In the meanwhile, double or triple the warm-up period before engaging any load.

The first number is the viscosity as tested under cold conditions. The different oils are tested at cold temperatures particular to each viscosity. See the chart on this page. The second number is the viscosity at typical engine operating temperature (around 100°C).

If the first number is too high, the engine will not get enough oil flow when very cold. (Also it may be hard to start.) If the second number is too low, the oil will not protect the bearings enough when hot.

In your case, the 10w-30 may cause some excess wear for the first few minutes of operation if you store the blower outside, but the 5w-20 certainly won't provide enough protection once the engine is warmed up.


Decent Brand Names for Beginner Carpentry I have done a few small projects but nothing too extravagant without a table saw.  I would like to get more into woodworking but the one tool I don't have right now it's a table saw.  All the rest of my tools are craftsman, but I have seen other brands like Genesis and Rockford in my price range too.  Is there a better between brands like these for starters or does it really mainly matter once you get into the higher priced equipment?

I think the typical "you get what you pay for" rule of thumb applies for the most part. That being said, sometimes things are cheap because they are not designed to last under heavy load like drills that use plastic gears instead of metal. In these cases, assuming you only lightly use the tool, they might last for decades.  Some other tools are cheap because they are just poorly made.  An example of this is a tablesaw whose guide isn't accurate or that slips when used.  But again, it really depends what you are doing with it.  If you are just doing rough cuts, a 1/16th slip might not be a big deal for you, but for precise work, it will.

The good thing about online shopping is that many of these products have customer reviews on them where you can read about actual experiences. I suggest that you review these for the tools you are considering and come to your own conclusions.  Also talk to the staff at your local tool store - they usually have good insight on this type of thing.

Always keep warranty and return policy in mind - even expensive tools can break and the warranty makes the difference between years of service or a paper weight.


How can I heat up my apartment to kill bedbugs in Southeast Asia? I have a bedbug problem in my apartment and I want to fix it myself with heat. (I do not want chemicals sprayed around.)

Apparently, getting a room to 140 degrees for two hours is sufficient to kill the bugs, or 130 degrees for a few more hours.

My first thought was to get a space heater for my room (I think the infestation, which is minor and new, is confined to my room, and that's where I'll start at least).

However, I live in Cambodia, where "cold" means 80 degrees Fahrenheit, so I don't think heaters are exactly flying off the shelves here.

My next thought was to put black trashbags over the windows (maybe 3 square meters) to absorb heat (my room gets direct sunlight during the day). Given that my room already gets to at least 100 degrees with the window open (it's the top floor apartment, which gets hot), do you think that trashbags + closed windows + closed door would be sufficient to heat it to at least 130?

If not, what cheap electronics could I buy here that would emit enough heat to tip the scales? I know my desktop computer with the graphics card running used to pump out a bunch of heat, but obviously I want to get something more economical... Perhaps some powerful halogen lights? Candles under overturned clay pots? Would a hairdryer work, or would it turn off? Rice cooker filled with water?

The good news is that the bugs have nowhere to run to, as the room is really well sealed. Also, it's heating up to 97 this week.

Any other thoughts on how to heat the already-hot room?

Edit

There is almost nothing in the room. Just the heavy, wooden bedframe, mattress, and a small bedside table. No carpets- all tile. Oh, and an armoire made from thin, cheap wood.

Also, turns out that bedbugs die at 113 degrees for 90 minutes (source: http://www.vdacs.virginia.gov/pdf/bb-heat1.pdf). Which is why professionals heat it to 140, to ensure the heat gets everywhere. So I'm just looking for about 20 extra degrees.

Another question- will my room get hotter with black trashbags over the closed windows, or without?

The bigger issue is that if there are bedbugs in your apartment, the whole building is probably infested.

Your best bet is probably to isolate yourself from the bedbugs and set a CO2 bedbug trap. Look into finding a new apartment.


Good replacement actuator? I have 2 Belimo actuators

that control dampers for A/C ducts in my house that the motor has gone bad on. I can't find much info about the model "LM24-T US" so I think it has been discontinued. I don't see it listed on their Replacement list though so I have no idea what to replace it with. Any suggestions?

Something that meets or slightly exceeds the 35 in-lb rating, and matches the 24V spec (though you could check if your system is using AC or DC, and just get one to match your system rather than an AC/DC version.)

I suppose the time should fall in the general range of this one's 80-110 seconds as well, so vents are not slamming open and closed, but I suspect that is somewhat less critical. The power draw should not be too much more than this one at 3VA or you may overload the system that's running it.


Should I be concerned about concrete/cement sealer fumes? Full disclaimer, I don’t know anything construction really and this is not a project I am working on. Our rental unit is having the balcony redone right now, the flooring is pebbles embedded in cement/concrete; yesterday the contractors applied what they called a “sealer” and my god it smells! The whole apartment still smells so bad even 24 hours later. We asked the contractors about it and they told us it was “probably not toxic” and recommended we open our windows after they left and use fans to blow air out. We did as they suggested as the smell inside was so unbearable we have been considering leaving for a hotel, however this only made the smell worse as all but one window are directly over the balcony so we quickly shut them again. We’ve been running air purifiers with carbon filters and our two exhaust fans (kitchen and bathroom) but over 24 hours later and it still smells like someone has left their car running in a sealed garage or like manky old camping gear that has been left to rot in a storage shed. My partner is concerned we are breathing toxic fumes. Is that at all likely? Is it dangerous or does it just smell horrible? We have made attempts to contact our property manager and local health/safety authorities for advice but both are swamped due to COVID-19. Thank you for any feedback/advice.
ETA: The products used were Tremco Vulkem 350/351; safety datasheets for the products are here and here. It's Sunday night now, we spent the last two nights in a hotel, leaving the apartment to air out and when we returned the smell is still nauseatingly strong. Should we be concerned?

Get a canary if it dies you know you should not be there.
Seriously, some mixtures do release VOC’s (volatile organic compounds), and these are not good for you.
The adhesive in the pebble stone overlay I have used in the past is approved for indoor use but it stinks bad.
It takes about a week to off-gas and this is most likely what you are smelling. Keeping a positive pressure so the air is pushed out from that side of the house will help. I believe the stuff I used sets in 3-4 hours and is cured in 24 hours but stinks for about a week (it gets better as time goes on)
I would ask the contractor for the name of the bonding agent they are required by law to provide the safety data sheet used to be called MSDS (material safety datasheet) you should be able to find a document that provides any known hazards like VOC’s the hazard limit and all the information on the chemicals.
I would say if they were working without respirators you will be fine but I worked without respiratory protection around both asbestos and lead for ~30 years before the current recommendations for masking and isolation were made.


What are the downsides to a DIY heat exchanger on my shower drain? I have a shower stall built into a bathroom.  It will not accept a tub in its current incarnation, so this applies to showering only.  Outside of the hassle around fabrication, what are the downsides to thermally bonding the cold water copper pipe to a segment of copper pipe on the shower drain?  The drain is sloped, so there is a lot of time that the water is in contact with the piping.
The idea is to preheat the incoming water so less hot water is needed from the thermostatic valve.

Basically none beyond the hassles involved in making it and installing it. While there's a bit of pressure drop from longer piping, it's minimal and can be eliminated, if it would be an issue, by choice of tubing size.
There are commercially-produced implementations of this concept, which (as I recall) are optimized for vertical pipe (the supply tubing is coiled around the drainpipe), and save enough energy cost on heating (at least for dorms/gyms/etc.) to make installing a drain pump to elevate the drain water on bottom floors where there's no "natural" vertical fall available pay off. Insulate the completed assembly for best results.


( bathroom van fan ) which wire goes where? I bought a basic bathroom van fan, its Vents 100 S L. So I unmounted the old one and replaced the new one on the wall I noticed the cables in the old fan and the new fan are opposite as below :

old fan

new fan

I am not expert in electrical stuff, so didn't want to risk plugging the wire cables. so my questions is :
if the 2 black cables attached the fan are connected in opposite way with the white connector, do you need to change the order of the blue and the brown cables coming from the wall ? so in my new fan, the brown cable should be on the top and the the blue cable on the bottom ?

If you are expert, please advise me. Thank you very much.

Which of the two black wires is connected to blue or brown doesn't matter. This is because it is a AC-motor and will therefore spin the same way no matter how it is connected.


How do I know if my wiring is aluminium or copper? In this answer, Chris has mentioned that, before replacing a worn-out electric outlet, it is important to know whether the building has an aluminium or copper wiring. How can I get this information?

I live in a rented apartment, and the homeowner doesn't know.

Look in the panel
Carefully remove the cover of the main service panel, and take a look at the wiring. Looking at the neutral/ground bus bars, is probably the quickest and easiest way to tell.

You'll notice in this image, there is a mixture of both aluminum and copper wiring.
Look at the receptacle wiring.
Turn off power to the circuit you'll be inspecting at the breaker/fuse box. Then remove the cover plate from the receptacle. Use a flashlight to peek at the wiring attached to the receptacle. If you still can't tell. Remove the screws holding the receptacle in place, and carefully pull the receptacle out of the box.


Noisy 240V AC Residential Light-Fitting I have an ordinary residential
ceiling-light that emits an audible electrical hum that increases in amplitude as the dimmer switch on the wall is turned down.

In other words; as the room grows brighter, the noise fades away.

What exactly is this sound?

What exactly is this sound?

It is called the 'mains hum'. It is usually emitted by transformers or arcs. The cause of this sound is that the electricity coming to your bulb is constantly changing direction/polarity 60 times (or 50 if you're outside the US) a second. The electricity is moving either the transformer if you're on a CFL or LED, or somewhere around an arc or loose connection if you're on an incandescent bulb.

tl;dr 1. It's the mains hum. 2. If you're on an incandescent bulb, you  have to start worrying about it.


Is a combined AC/Dehumidifer unit more efficient than separate units? I've just moved into a "basement-ish" apartment; the actual ground level is about at my waist.  It's a bit mustier than I'd hoped, and not as cool as I'd like during these closing days of Summer.  I'm looking to pick up a small dehumidifier, and a small portable air conditioner, one to handle dampness in general; and the other to keep me cool.

In looking at my portable AC options, I see that there are a bunch of them that also function as dehumidifiers, on their own.  Does anyone know if they're decent and efficient at this task?  Should I stick to purchasing separate units, or can I get by with a two-in-one?

Actually, an AC unit is a dehumidifier by default -- so the two in one things are just advertising something that an AC unit already does.


How many CFM for a range hood do I REALLY need? I like to cook. I would like to put in a fairly powerful range (nothing huge, though; I don't need six burners and a griddle), and will need a hood that can carry smoke, heat, steam, grease, etc. from cooking out of the house. The trend seems to be huge hoods with, e.g., 1200 CFM, and a lot of people say you "don't need that", but then I do know that a lot of people don't actually COOK in their kitchen. I'm not convinced that I have any need for 1200 CFM, but I'm also not convinced that something like 350 CFM will be sufficient. Assume I'll have a 30" Wolf all-gas range (not sold on Wolf, but most of what I'm looking at is in that ballpark in terms of BTUs, so it's a good comparison), and be using two or three burners on the stove five or six nights a week, the oven three or four nights a week, and cooking things that may produce large volumes of steam and/or smoke and grease vapor (boiling/simmering large pots of water, stir fries, roasting meat, pan-searing steak) at least half of that. I don't want all that going out into my house, and I certainly don't want it clogging up the filters/core of an HRV, so I need a hood that can exhaust it. How do I size hood CFM appropriately for both the amount of gas that will be combusted, and the amount/scale of my cooking? I don't want absurd overkill, but I don't want my smoke detectors going off when I roast a chicken.

NOTE: I've split the second question I asked out into this question.

When calculating the minimum size of a range hood, there are three things you should consider. The size of the cooking surface, the amount of heat produced by the cooking surface, and the volume of the kitchen.

If the range hood is attached to a wall, you should have 100 cubic feet per minute(cfm) per linear foot. So if you have a 30" wide range, you should have a hood rated at 250 cfm ((30/12)*100 =250).  If the hood is over an island, you'll use 150 cfm/linear foot. In this case that same 30" cook top, would require 375 cfm ((30/12)*150 = 375).

Next we'll determine the minimum capacity based on British thermal units(BTU)/hour, by dividing the BTU/hour by 100. For example, if we had a cooktop that produced 40,000 BTUs, we would need 400 cfm. If you are using an electric range (measured in watts), simply multiply watts by 3.41214163 to determine BTU/hr.

The final calculation, will be based on the size of the kitchen. The air in the kitchen should be cycled 15 times per hour, so our formula will be ft³/4. If we have a 10ft x 10ft x 8ft kitchen, (10 X 10 X 8)/4 = 200 cfm.

We'll then choose the largest from these three calculations, and that will be the minimum size hood we need.  If you are doing more cooking than the average person, or just want a little more air movement. You can always get a larger hood, this is just the minimum size you should consider.

International Residential Code (IRC), says the minimum intermittent exhaust rate for a kitchen is 100 cfm, while the minimum continuous exhaust rate is 25 cfm.

  M1507.4 Local exhaust rates. Local exhaust systems shall be designed to have the capacity to exhaust the minimum air flow rate
  determined in accordance with Table M1507.4.

So you'll want to make sure the hood is at least capable of achieving these flow rates.


Cause of my roof leaking? (Victorian house with photos) I was putting some stuff in the loft of my Victorian house (UK) and found the roof was dripping wet on the inside and it is wet pretty much everywhere, not just in one area.
I have looked at the roof on both sides and don't see anything obvious.
I was looking for a slate that was out of place but couldn't see anything. Even if there was a dislodged slate that wouldn't explain why it's wet everywhere.
Any ideas what could be the cause?
Below are some photos from today but it was much worse a few days ago and there were small puddles on any of the plastic bags up there.
Front

Back

Inside loft

2

Inside loft video
Video inside loft

If you want to identify where the leak is coming from, get a buddy and have him spray your roof with water using a hose while your in the loft looking for water.  Have him start from the low point of the roof and slowly work his way up.  Sine you don't sound like a roofer I'd say this is your easiest way to find the leak.
Don't forget to give me a thumbs up so I get credit for helping you.
Good luck


Why do my bulbs glow brighter when the microwave is running? When I run the microwave oven in my rented apartment, the incandescent lights nearby glow much brighter.

What sort of mis-wiring could cause this?

EDIT: Suspecting a bad neutral connection, I measured the voltage between hot and neutral at a nearby electrical outlet.  The voltage was 113 VAC.  When running the microwave, that same voltage goes up to 129 VAC.

The voltage at that outlet measured between hot and ground is the same as between hot and neutral (i.e. it also increases when the microwave is running).

On the same circuit as the microwave, the voltage is 126 VAC without the microwave and 108 with it running.

I assume this means that the neutral and/or ground connections to the house may be faulty?

The problem was a bad neutral connection from the transformer on a pole.

I called the power company--they had trucks out to replace the power line within 30 minutes.

Now the power variation is very small.  Without the microwave running, I measure 117.5 volts on the lamp circuit and 118.2 volts on the microwave circuit.  With the microwave running, the voltages go to 118.2 and 114.0 VAC.


How to get rid of old house smell? Our house is pretty old.
It had an old house smell when we bought it.
It's not a mold smell, not a sewer, not cat urine.
It's a smell of old wooden furniture or books.

The house has hardwood floors and lots of wood trims.
We renovated the place, sanded all hardwood floors, removed old carpet, varnished all wood trims and painted all walls.

The odor almost disappeared, but I can still smell it.
I'm sure it's going to go stronger over time.

Do you know what the smell might be coming from?
Maybe attic needs to be treated somehow?
Maybe stuff that penetrates walls can be used like Room Shocker?
Any other ideas?

Years ago, my wife and I moved into a condo that had a faint weird smell. I put charcoal into a net  bag like the ones potatoes come in, and set it into the cold air return ducting at the furnace. I then set the fan to run continuously. We also put the same netted bags in some of the other rooms. After a few weeks the smells were gone. The charcoal absorbed the odors. We built our present house 20 years ago. My wife has a very sensitive nose and detects every odor. I had the furnace guy install a special filter rack where I insert a charcoal filter into this rack ahead of the normal air filter. This charcoal filter takes out almost every conceivable odor that is in the air. Of course, I have run my furnace fan 24/7 for 20 years and counting.  I buy mine at Home Depot or Lowes. They have a plastic frame that can be cut to size to fit the filter rack. No odors in my house (happy wife- happy life). This worked for me.


What type of paint can be used over oil-based primer? I don't remember what brand or type of paint was used in my kitchen about 9 years ago. One wall has developed some cracks and the paint has been coming off in brittle "chips" My kitchen gets very steamy a lot. Same paint on other 3 walls no problem...I have a gallon of oil primer still good from a previous small job I intend to use.

What paint will be best for use over the oil primer and have "flexibility ( not be "brittle")?? All the walls in my house were once painted with "calcimite" I discovered oil paint no longer made does the best for coverage and long term durability

If we're talking about a "modern" oil-base like Kilz or Cover Stain, I'd say you're on the right track. Oil-based primer offers the best adhesion for your paint.

  My kitchen gets very steamy a lot.

My bet is you have a flat latex paint on the walls. I would repaint with a semi-gloss enamel (can be latex). The semi-gloss will resist the moisture better than flat paint.


How to override an attic thermostat with a wall switch? I want to install a fan in my attic. I want the fan to be controlled by a thermostat in the attic, but I want the ability to bypass or override the fan from within my house. Ideally I would like to have a two-state switch in the house:

Fan is controlled by thermostat
Fan is on

I'm trying to figure out what type of thermostat (do they make them with bypasses built in?) and switch (numbers of poles and throws?) to buy. A wiring diagram would be helpful, but I haven't been able to find one.

(I know I'm not supposed to want an attic fan, but I have an uncommon situation and do want it.)

OH!  That's easy.

Get a 3-way switch.  Common goes to HOT.
Traveler 1 goes straight to the fan.
Traveler 2 goes via the thermostat to the fan, so that line is interrupted by the thermostat.
Traveler 1 and the switched line from the thermostat merge with the fan's HOT input.

Neutral needs to be part of the wiring bundle, so use 12/3 if you're not using conduit.


How do I add an electrical switch for a closet light using an existing light switch? I currently have a bedroom in which a 15amp single pole switch is wired to the light in the room. Power is coming from the light. The two brass terminals on the switch have the white (which has black electrical tape) at the bottom of the brass screw. The hot is at the top of the brass terminal. Of course, the bare copper ground is on the green screw. The wiring is 12/2.

I have added a closet light switch tapping power from the light switch in the room using 12/2 wiring (I know it's overkill). I wired it with black from the light switch to black to the closet switch with a pigtail going to the bottom of the brass screw. However I capped the neutral wires (white) on the back of the added closet switch and another 12/2 cable is going from the top brass screw going to the closet light. As well as the white going to white of the closet. Bare to ground. The closet light bulb is only 40watts.

Now whenever I power on the closet switch light it powers on but the bedroom lights flicker and then turn off and the closet light dims in and out. Any reason why? The bedroom lights are 4 recessed lights that only use 65 watts. If I turn on the bedroom lights first and then the closet light, the closet light does not turn on until I switch off the bedroom switch light. Any ideas on how I can fix this? Thanks.

Your light and switch arrangement needs hot and neutral to function.  You tapped it off the light switch in the bedroom, which only has hot and switched-hot (marked as white with black electrical tape).  That is not a good place to get power.  Here's what's happening:

With the bedroom switch on, the two pins on the switch are shorted out, so both power wires to the closet have the same voltage.   It can't function.

With the bedroom switch off, current flows from hot, through your closet switch, through your closet lamp, and then through the bedroom lamps and to neutral.  The lights are in series.  That would light - dimly - with incandescents, but smart bulbs won't like it at all.

You cannot tap power at the switch if there's no neutral there.  You should tap it at the bedroom light, where neutral is available.


Can I safely use a 9w LED bulb in place of a 40w incandescent? I bought a reading lamp that on the box says: Max 1x40W
The shop also sold me an LED light bulb that says: 9W=75W
So my question is, can I use light bulb or not? I am confused between the 75W and the max of 40W mentioned for the lamp

Yes.  The fixture is concerned with heat.  Your LED light bulb makes about 9 watts of heat.   Your fixture is rated for a bulb that makes 40 watts of heat.

With an incandescent bulb, 98-99% of its wattage turns directly into heat.  Even LEDs, 90% of their wattage turns into heat. For thermal planning, it's not worth pulling out the calculator. You're "close enough" just pretending it all becomes heat.

On the LED bulb, when it says "75 watt equivalent" it's trying to give ordinary consumers a general sense of how bright the bulb is - i.e. about as bright as an old style 75 watt incandescent.  The more proper way to say that is "950 lumens", which is a unit of measure for describing brightness to human eyes.


Refurbish clothes dryer motor by greasing the bearings? I have Frigidaire fex831fs4 dryer for which electric motor appears to be seized: I am unable to easily spin the rotor with fingers (after removing it from the dryer) and the dryer makes humming noise while the start button is pressed, but nothing happens.

After some googling I found this youtube video where author appears to work on similar if not same motor and refurbished it by greasing the bearings: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIi5RiRnaRI

Have three questions:

what is the black thing he is moving with finger at 0:45? Does it lock motor?
in my case the bearing cap does not want to come off easily after prying with screwdriver. Is it indicator that bearings are badly damaged or I did not try hard enough?
is it possible to replace only the bearings in case they are toasted?

I find once bearings seize they usually need replacement. In cases I don’t have the correct bearing size I will pull the shields and clean and lube them, And order new bearings. These small bearings can usually be found for 10$ that is cheaper than a new motor. At my mill I replace at least 1-2 sets of bearings a month saving quite a bit over a years time. I looked at the video and the black ring he is moving is a centrifugal contact set, provides high torque to get motor started then switches to high speed. This can also be the cause of the failure to start. But since you cannot spin it the bearings need to be cleaned / lubed or replaced. If the motor won’t spin by hand it will not have enough torque to start.


How to repair flaked plaster surface I recently moved and noticed this crack on the wall. When I tapped it lightly with a blunt knife it broke off. I've never plastered before but I assume I will need to re-plaster this section. Any advice would be much appreciated.

I'd tap the rest of the wall and see really how much you need to repair. From the photo it looks as though you will have another inch or two upwards and at least another inch going down. This is a really easy fix though. You can get a tub of mud (plaster patch) at any home improvement, hardware or even your local department store and even large grocery stores carry it. Get a putty knife and it would help if you got a 6" or 8" drywall knife to make a smoother coat (saves sanding time). Then lookup how to patch drywall and/or drywall finishing on YouTube. There's a ton of great short videos that will show you better than we can tell you.


Why is my cooker tripping circuit breakers? I have a four burner stove with an oven. I would like to know why it keeps tripping the power when in use.
It has a six position cam switch, and two of the four plates trip the circuit breaker at all positions 1 to 6. The remaining two start tripping at position 4 up to 6.

I have not tried resetting the breakers everytime the they trip.

Based on the timing of your post, English style, and the way you describe your circuit breakers and outage... I am guessing you are in the UK.  You did not mention any blinding, destructive explosion of arc and fire, which says this is not a "dead short" type overcurrent trip.

That all correlates. It's quite common in the UK to have the entire house protected by a RCD, or Residual Current (ground fault) Detector. Your stove has a ground fault.

It's possible it has a single ground fault somewhere in the stove's wiring, possibly in the return (neutral) wiring.

It's also possible it has four separate ground faults, one in each burner, owing to a pattern of use, cleaning or maintenance.

Or there may be a fault in the building wiring.


beam to replace 5 studs of wall I recently removed 2 studs from a wall and now I feel like it is not enough, so I intend to remove 3 more.

The house is 26' wide and 30' long, built in 1918.  It has a basement, main floor, and attic.

here is a 3D model made before I started removing studs.  The section of wall, from which I am removing studs, is right behind the brown sofa on the main floor:  https://my.matterport.com/show/?m=DPzGt7FHxGV.

There is a 6x6 beam in the basement running the length of the house, supporting the joists of the main floor.  It runs, roughly, down the middle of the house:

The wall, from which I am removing studs, runs right along on top of the beam, essentially dividing the main floor in half lengthwise.  Here are some current photos:

The joists of both the main floor and attic floor run widthwise, perpendicular to the wall I'm working on.  I assumed that the wall is load bearing, supporting the attic joists, however, when I removed the first two studs, the bottom plate was suspended not touching the sub floor.  Maybe the bottom plate was just bowed up in that place, though.

So, my question is:  What should I use for a beam?  It's going to be about 9'2-1/2".  I'd like to assume that the wall will be supporting the attic joists and that 4 or 5 people might be walking around up in the attic at some point.

I think it is time to call a structural engineer before you take out any more studs. Once the mistake is made and you take out too many, it may too late to correct the problem or very costly to fix. If it is a load bearing wall, taking out even one without supporting the load above, could be a costly mistake.


Removing angled section from edge of board? I have a 1" thick sheet (maybe plywood or solid wood or MDF) and I would like to cut a section out of the edge. This image shows the board, in green, in cross section:

The angle is 30/60 degrees. I'm considering trying to find a router bit that can accomplish this, or trying to use a table-saw dado blade at an angle. Are either of these the right approach? Should I be trying something else?

There are router bits designed to cut exactly that profile, at the standard angles needed to assemble polygonal tubes... the usual name seems to be "bird's mouth edge routing bit". Here is one example of a kit with the bit with the desired angles:

Or have I misunderstood your question?


Fastest way to apply light colour on a wallpaper I rent a house in which the living room has the most awful wallpaper ever. At the same time I don't want to put too much effort in fixing that because I intend to move in a year or two at most.

I need a quick and dirty way to put some light colour in place of that wallpaper. I was thinking I could just paint on it, but because I want it to be super easy (and I don't mind the result is low quality) I don't want to have to put several layers.

Is there a light colour paint for which a single layer is enough on a wallpaper with intricate patterns on it? It must not have a strong and toxic smell to it because we need the living room all the time and there's a small kid in the family.

It also has to be relatively cheap. Am I dreaming or can such a paint be found?

If not, what other options would I have?

I cannot advise you strongly enough to not paint over the wallpaper. First reason is this is a rental unit. You are libel for any charges and costs to return it to the condition at the time you moved in. The second reason is that trying to remove wallpaper that has paint on it can be a nightmare. The way wallpaper is removed is by wetting the paper to disolve the paste. Since paint (even interior types) are almost impervious to water the stripper cannot reach the paste. The paper will come off in small pieces if at all and the surface will be rough and uneven. With the owners permission, remove the wallpaper to the base surface. It may be drywall or plaster then apply your primer and paint of choice.


Bathroom Ceiling Fan Installation I would like to intall a bathroom ceiling fan directly over my shower, where there is an existing light that is turned on by an adjacent light switch.  I have several questions regarding this project.  First, I understand the fan will have to be vented to the outside. I currently have an attic vent that will be used for this purpose, so that is not the issue.  My questions are:

1) Can I use the existing wiring for the light to install the fan?  If so, what color wires are what?  Keep in mind this house was built in 1952.
2) I will be replacing the switch with a GFI switch. Are there GFI switches and not just outlets?

What is the fan current rating make sure it doesn't trip the main circuit, use neon tester to identify the switched live feed for the light. Disconnect the supply at the circuit breaker then use the switched life and the neutral to connect to the fan, earth the unit. May be worth having a run on timer on the fan so that steam is removed after the light has been turned off.


how to know if my home is under negative pressure? I see dust under the baseboard but not much. And also, sometime I can smell "crawlspace" like smell but I am not very sure.

How to technically test the air pressure in home?  Even more, how to technically test the air flow in home?

In short, you want to use or rent a manometer.

I suggest reading this article ( http://contractingbusiness.com/archive/how-measure-building-pressures ) as it details the differences in levels room to room and what the ideal pressure should be in vented and non vented areas, ie kitchen/bathroom as opposed to bed/living room.

As for the dust under the baseboards, that can be due to improper cleaing during construction of the dwelling.


What are the disadvantages of having electrical conduit penetrate my foundation below-grade? I'm having an electrician wire a lamppost in the backyard. His initial proposal was to do something like this picture shows:

(The diagram is from this article.) The conduit's rise from the ground and entry to the house would be in a prominent place and would be an eyesore, not to mention difficult to install a paver patio around.

I suggested that since the house is on a crawlspace, the conduit could go straight through a hole in the foundation and into the crawlspace. The hole would of course be sealed somehow to keep moisture and critters out of the crawlspace.

It seems that drilling a hole through the foundation is not to be undertaken lightly. So other than the extra work it requires, are there other disadvantages to taking the conduit straight into the crawlspace below-grade?

Note that the house is clad in brick so a hole through masonry will be required either way.

My house has the main electrical come in below grade (built in 1967 before they knew better).  I would get some small leakage coming in around the conduit where it came through the concrete and later hydro-static pressure pushing water right up into the main breaker box which, though inside, was also below grade.

With a un-floored crawl space, some water leakage is probably not a problem but I'd recommend not taking the risk.  You can paint the conduit to match the house and it'll be basically unnoticeable.  Or plant a bush in front of it.  Or run the wire to the side somewhat and come out of the ground someplace less noticeable.

It's also much easier to run the conduit into the house if you can go through wood framing rather than a concrete foundation.


Roebic Laboratories, Inc. 32-oz Drain Cleaner Crystals Product: Roebic Laboratories, Inc. 32-oz Drain Cleaner Crystals

I accidentally poured in almost half the bottle and now my bathroom sink water is not going in at all. What went wrong and how do I fix this issue. Please help.

Thank you,

Read the Safety Data Sheet! You've used a very hazardous chemical, which reacts with water to get very hot. It can easily get hot enough to boil the water in the drain, causing the boiling hot caustic (able to dissolve flesh) solution to spurt out the drain, perhaps onto you! It can also get hot enough to damage pipes, particularly those of plastic, and it could then leak out into a cabinet or onto the floor.

Do NOT touch any spilled crystals or leaked liquid. If you have, wash where it touched with a lot of vinegar.

The crystals have clumped in the drain, and perhaps the best thing to do would be to fill the sink with cold water and let them dissolve, which they will do over time. Do not push anything into the drain to speed this up. If this doesn't help, call a plumber, and warn her or him what you put in the drain.


How can I improve solid, plastered walls with minimal mess and cost? The walls of my house, like many in this area, are pretty bad. Apparently a higher than normal amount of sand was used in the bricks and the mortar, and the plaster is very old and weak. Even putting in a nail to hang a picture on risks taking a large chunk out.
To make matters worse the previous owner covered the walls with woodchip/anaglyptic wallpaper which has been painted over half a dozen times. Woodchip is messy and difficult to remove at the best of times and I'm sure half the wall would come with it.
The obvious solution is to have the walls re-plastered, or have frames and plasterboard fitted. As much as I would love to do that (and get the place re-wired too) it's both expensive and extremely messy.
What other options are there? I'd like to end up with smooth walls suitable for painting and ideally some extra wiring for power and network. The skirting boards and ceiling coving really want replacing too but are less important.

You could overlay with 1/4" gypsum, and finish as you would any other gypsum board wall. Still messy, but you would permanently fix the problem. 1/4" gypsum can even be applied with adhesives, and improves the sound transmission of the wall.