Half of my lights and oulets are not working after heavy winds? We have solar panels and mains power. Last night was very windy; we heard quite a few bangs from outside and thought it might be the wires getting knocked together. Woke up this morning and we have power to everything except the lights and our stove. We have a smart meter and it has no pulse light. What do you think could be the problem. Is it a main fuse coming into house before the meter?

It sounds like the winds knocked one leg of your service down in a way that kept your inverter from powering up the dead leg -- most inverters are line-interactive, and won't feed into a dead or partially dead system to avoid desynchronization problems (i.e. feeding AC of the wrong frequency to some devices may make them work improperly due to internal timing motors) and dangerous backfeeding of the utility mains.  Contact your utility!


Fence posts through patio stones Is it a bad idea to put a fence post "through" patio stones? We're building a patio and then enclosing 2 sides of it with a privacy wall. I want to make the patio larger than the enclosed area so there is extra space for storage behind the wall.

After researching the right way to install a 4x4 post this is the design I came up with.

The idea is that I'll cut the patio stones to fit snug around each post. Then I'll caulk the edges. Below the patio stone is the sand and gravel. Halfway through the gravel the concrete of the post starts; it's dome shaped to divert water away from the post.

Things to note

No dirt is touching the post; only sand and gravel
12' pressure treated posts
A little less than 4 bags (80#) each post
Posts are 6' apart

Running the posts through the patio stones shouldn't cause any serious concerns. However, even though you won't have topsoil directly against the post (which could accelerate decay even with pressure-treated), ground water could still compromise the base of the post with your design. Ideally you want the base of the post above the surface with the surround sloping away. That may not be desirable from an aesthetic perspective but it will give the posts a longer life-span.
One other option might be to bring up the domed concrete footing to just below the brick and then coat the bottom few inches of each post with a water-proof sealant up to just the top of the bricks so it won't be visible. These sealants come in various colors and most work fine with wood.


Furnace reaches temp, shuts off but wont come back on I have an American Standard furnace (natural gas)with a manufacture date of 2004.

The thing won't come on unless I power it off (have a switch right beside it that serves this purpose), let the fan stop spinning, open and close the kill switch, then power it on again....and it will run just fine until it hits set temperature then goes off as it should.

Then if I want to call for heat again I have to go through the entire process again.

Anyone have any ideas?

This sounds like a safety lockout occurring on shutdown.  You are probably clearing the lockout each time you go through your procedure.

Look for a failure code to be set on the control board after the furnace stops.  The code should point you in the correct direction.


Can’t seem to find the C wire on the furnace in my new home My wife and I just purchased a Mobile home and there is no C wire on the furnace to hook up the common wire. We came from a rented home where we already had a Nest and wanted to hook it up in our new home. Can someone help me figure out what wire is the common wire that I need to hook up the blue wire running to my thermostat?

A "C" wire would have to connect into the circuit as per the the wiring nodes highlighted in the blue color as shown below. A likely place to connect in would be the BLK wire that comes out to the optional COND. UNIT CONTACTOR and to the BLEND AIR CONTROL BOX.


Deal with humidity in Garage with no vapor barrier My garage slab has no vapor barrier and I live in Houston which is often wet and almost invariably humid. Water seeps up through the concrete and humidity is always pretty high in the garage. Power tools don't care much but my chisels and hand planes are a red mess after a few months which requires very deep and cumbersome cleaning. Is my only option to install a vapor barrier and add on 3 or more inches of concrete on top? Would it be possible to wait for a long dry spell and apply some kind of sealant or will this just peel off as the water moves up?

I have had great luck at sealing slabs with 2 part epoxy paint, in a garage you don’t want to go cheap or when you drive the car in and park it where the tires are ends up pealing up.

I have painted in summer when the slab was dry enough and eliminated a huge amount of moisture in basements.
This will help if the source is from the slab if high humidity is from the air a dehumidifier will be needed.
I had a friend use a single part epoxy paint and he had the pealing problem. We stripped the paint and used 2 part and it held up fine.


Is it okay to insulate some but not all steam pipes coming from boiler? I have a Slant/Fin boiler with un-insulated pipes in the basement. The previous owners of the house finished part of the basement and covered some of the pipes behind drywall in the ceiling.

Is it okay to only insulate only the pipes that are not behind drywall? Also, must I insulate the elbows and tee intersections in the piping?

Any pipes you insulate, including elbows and tees will help contain heat and make it available to where you want it, in your case, the third floor.


How do I prevent window drafts? I live in Florida. I have noticed that in the Winter it seems that the cold air leaks through the windows and into the rooms. This, of course, raises my energy bill for heating (yes we have to turn on the heat in Florida sometimes!)

It seems like to me that the air is leaking through where the bottom of the window meets the aluminum frame.

I thought that I could use window frame weather stripping to place between where the window comes down to meet the frame and the frame itself. So essentially, the window would "squish" the insulation and make a good seal.

Is this the preferred method? I have checked the caulking in and around the window. It is definitely not leaking through there and in the Winter I can feel the cold air come through the sill.

Adding that EPDM weather stripping will help if the leak is between the sash and the window sill.  I actually had a piece of that stuff in my car to stop a door frame air leak for many years.

I would also check to make sure the air isn't leaking between the sashes of the window as well.

Once you put the weather strip in place, I would go back and double check the perimeter of the window frame for leaks using the old candle test to check for any drafts.

Additionally - Aluminum windows are notorious heat transmitters (they let in lots of heat from outside in summer and cold in winter).  I've noticed on cold days aluminum window frames can be so cold relative to inside it almost feels like a slight draft due to convection or whatever effect is in place there.

One more overlooked spot you may want to look at to seal up is your electrical outlets - they are responsible for leaking a lot of air as well.  You can get gaskets which go on underneath the cover plates that will seal that leakage up.

Good luck!


How can we connect a smart thermostat to our heating system, which is a gas furnace and wood fireplace? We have a KozyHeat wood fireplace connected to our older gas furnace.
The idea is that the furnace serves as a fan when the fireplace is hot, or will use gas to heat the house if the fireplace is cold.
This works great, as we can save lots on gas by heating with wood.
We would like to upgrade our older central thermostat to a smart one, and need some guidance on which one would support this system.
KozyHeat told us we need something with a “low volt/no volt” setup...whatever that means.
And a local KozyHeat dealer told us it can’t be done.
Help?

Do you get much heat flow out of the fireplace without the fan running?  Would it be possible to locate a Tstat to sense the heat from the fireplace?  I'm thinking of using a Tstat that supports air conditioning, but repurpose the A/C terminal and connect to the "fan on" terminal on the furnace. That way, when the Tstat detects warmth from the FP it would turn on "A/C" which is now actually just the blower on the furnace.   When the fire goes out and the house cools down, the Tstat would turn on the furnace normally.

I'm not an HVAC guy, so take this with a grain or two of salt. You might need a pro to get this right. But it seems to me like an approach that might work.   Ed, Jack and Harper?  Ideas? Comments?


What product to use for sealing a wood tv stand I just finished building a tv stand (it is basically the same design as this one but with modified dimensions to be bigger: http://www.ana-white.com/2012/05/plans/rustic-x-console) and have stained it and now want to apply a finishing coat. It's a tv stand so it's not going to get a lot of abuse but I want to still give it a finishing coat. Want I want to know what is the recommendation for a piece of furniture like this? They seems to be shellac, lacquer, polyurethane...etc. Is there a preferred medium to use and if so why? From what I read polyurethane seems like the way to go, however, it sounds a bit difficult to use and where I am most concerned is on the more hard to reach places like the X's.

Polyurethane will be a durable and glossy finish and will really bring out the beauty in the stain you used. I can tell you, however, it will take at least a couple weeks to fully cure and stop smelling.

The key to a great finish is to use many thin coats.  Brushing it on can be the most economical way, but its important to maintain a wet edge so you have a smooth application.  Thin coats.  An easier way to apply poly is to spray it on.  You can buy it in spray cans for a little higher price per unit.  Again just remember to make very thin coats.  You do not want any drips or else you are laying it on way too thick.  Let it dry until its just tacky and apply another coat.  You shouldn't need to sand in between coats if you are applying them in succession before the layer before totally cures, and looks smooth.


How to manually control HVAC without thermostat? I would like to create a solution (Probably with Arduino) to control my AC remotelly.

Opening my thermostat and doing some tests I got these values bellow:

Blue (C) - Neutral (AC)
Red (R) - Phase 28v (AC)

Just Fan
    - Green (G) 28v

AC On Running
    - Green (G) 28v
    - Yellow (Y) 28v
    - Orange (O/B) 28v

AC On Not Running
    - Orange (O/B) 28v
    - Yellow (Y) 0v

Heat On Running
    - Green (G) 28v
    - Yellow (Y) 28v
    - Orange (O/B) 0v

Heat On Not Running
    - All 0v

Orange (O/B)
    - If high (28v) is cold mode
    - If low (0v) is heat mode

Yellow (Y)
    - If high with Green (G), AC is running (cold or heat)
    - If low with Green (G) high, just fan is running
    - If low with Green (G) low, AC is off

My thermostat:

Is it possible to control my AC just joining these wires

For example:

Join green and red wires and just fan turns on.

Thank you and sorry any english mistake.

Yes, that's all any thermostat does.  It connects the red wire to one or more of the others to turn on fan, heat, cooling.

The old mechanical thermostats did this with a simple glass bulb full of mercury fastened to a coiled spring.  The temperature  would make the spring length change slightly which would change the angle of the bulb, which would make the mercury run down to the end with the contacts...connecting Red to green (fan) and yellow (in your case, heat pump).

And yes, for your example, most simple thermostats have a way to make the fan run manually...that's all they do.  Hook red to green with a simple switch.  Fan stays on.


How many Outlets can you put on a 14-2 Barcode how many outlets can you put on a 14-2 Wire

In the U.S. the NEC has no limit on the number of outlets per circuit for residential, some county's do or have had a limit based on the commercial limits of 180va per yoke or strap. since the question says 14 gauge wire we use 80% max draw or 12 amps. So the counties that impose this limit use 8 as the maximum for 15 amp circuits and 10 as the max for a 20 amp circuit, or this is how the county I live in did it until the last code cycle where they now use the NEC and there is not a limit to residential outlets. There is an example in the code book that shows 10 outlets on a 15 and 13 on a 20 because they were allowed to use 100% but my county used to require the derate because the ampacity of the wire is supposed to be 125% for continuous loads or loads that are running for 3 hours or longer.


Do tiles look darker when hanging on a wall than they'll appear when layed horizontally on the floor? The salesman in the showroom told us that the tiles we see hanging on the wall will be 20% lighter when are layed down horizontaly on the floor, so we should take into account when choosing our prefered color.

Is this true or it's only a sales people myth? (I tried to google to find anybody mention this interesting fact but couldn't really find any source for that)

It's neither strictly true nor a myth. It's an oversimplified (and arbitrarily quantified) suggestion that has some merit. Check color in your room with the lighting it'll actually have. It's more likely that color will vary due to light source color and reflected color from other elements of the room's design than installation orientation, though.


Should I leave gap between my house's slab and a new one I'm laying outside in the garden? I'm planning an outdoor kitchen.

This will be a simple brick sided bench about 3 metres long and maybe 800 mm deep.

I'm going to build it on a slab to support the weight and ensure a level surface.

As one end of the bench will butt onto the side of my house, I was wondering if there are reasons for or against leaving a gap between the new slab and the house's one.

I would like to not have a gap in the brickwork so as not to leave sanctuary for spiders and other creatures (I live in Australia).

You definitely want to leave an expansion gap. However,  you can fill the seam using a flexible material. Foam rod covered with a seam filler, is one common solution.  There are also products sold that can simply be pushed into the seam.

Check your local hardware/home improvement store, to see what's available in your area.


Disassemble IKEA Godmorgon drawer I put in the front panel of the cabinet upside down. The screws it uses are some kind of cam locks, but the locks are attached to the drawer face and were not put in by me. I've not really seen them used before and I can't find any help online. I need to know how to take it apart so I can fix it!

I have had and solved this problem. There are three wood dowels on each side between those cam lock screws.  You must cut them. When you do, you will be able to tilt the side piece in order to extract the screws. I did not feel like getting out my multittool for such a small job, so I used a sharp bread knife. The dowels are not even 1/4" so you will have no problem. To reassemble, I would recommend that you first insert blind nails into each dowel for stability. I suppose you could also try drilling out the dowels and replacing them, but that seems like overkill.


Mystery Electrical Voltages in Duplex Junction Box So I'm finally getting around to installing the ceiling to floor bookcase in my home office.  There is a single duplex outlet that I intend to reverse from facing into the office, to facing outwards to the hallway.  To do the drywall flip, I intended to:

Shut off the breaker to that outlet.
Carefully record the logic of what wires in the box go where.
Remove the duplex socket.
Remove all wire nuts and unwind all connected wires.
Carefully cut out the old plastic junction box.
Transfer the location to the hallway side of the wall (drill thru drywall from inside the office)
Add a new "old work" junction box on the hallway side of the wall.
Reinstall the duplex and all wiring to be fully functional from the hallway.
Repatch the drywall in the office, then install the new built-in bookcase.

Sounds easy, right?  I plugged in an incandescent lamp to the outlet, then started shutting off circuit breakers to find the circuit.  The house was built in 2007 and generally there are no markings to tell which breaker is which. The builder has been VERY unhelpful in obtaining a wiring diagram of the house.  I'm not the original owner.  I find a breaker that controls the lamp.  When I start taking things apart, I received an electrical shock.  Ugh.

Here's the original installation:

And here are the voltage readings, breaker #23 OFF, duplex socket removed.

So what's going on here?

How is it possible that two circuit breakers are required to be shut off to access a single junction box?
Is that even to code?
What in a home generates a 51 VAC reading?
Why am I seeing voltage on the four conductor line?
In fact, why is there a four conductor wire in this box in the first place?
I have no clue what's going on here.  Any ideas?

Note: In this office, there are two switches on the wall, one controls the ceiling lamp, the other I assume is for a ceiling fan (not present in this room.)  The rest of the rooms in the house do have ceiling lamps and fans (and two switch controls).

Oh, and by the way, thanks to the folks at DigiKey for their "Scheme-It" sketch tool.

Update, 10 Feb 2016

So it turns out that the entire house is wired with a whole bunch of these  Multi-Wire Branch Circuits (MWBC). Look at the junction box with the cover panel removed. (black-red, black-red, etc...)

Somebody did take the time to mark each of the red/black pairs inside the box (note the pink sleeves on the right hand side of the box.)  They also took time to ensure the pairs are adjacent in the breaker box.  That helps a little.

Oh, and one slight mis-step.  When I first turned off the adjacent circuit breaker, and went inside to measure residual voltages. I turned the multimeter to Volts AC, but left it in autorange mode.  When I looked at the reading I saw 200!  Ouch.  But it turns out that was 200 mV (or 0.2V AC) Dang but that mV icon is small.

TL;DR -- find the breaker that shuts that red wire off, then slap the builder with it, so to speak
The builder of your house needs a slap with the NEC.  There are two very clear Code violations here, and they're both things that are trivial to avoid.
First off, the lack of panel labeling isn't just a massive inconvenience to you, it's against Code -- the NEC requires it so that the next electrician/homeowner who looks at the panel can actually figure out what breaker to shut off to make a circuit safe or get that sparking oven to quit.  In particular, it'd get dinged for busting 110.22(A):

110.22 Identification of Disconnecting Means.
(A) General. Each disconnecting means shall be legibly
marked to indicate its purpose unless located and arranged
so the purpose is evident. The marking shall be of sufficient
durability to withstand the environment involved.

and 408.4(A)

408.4 Field Identification Required.
(A) Circuit Directory or Circuit Identification. Every
circuit and circuit modification shall be legibly identified as
to its clear, evident, and specific purpose or use. The identification shall include an approved degree of detail that
allows each circuit to be distinguished from all others.
Spare positions that contain unused overcurrent devices or
switches shall be described accordingly. The identification
shall be included in a circuit directory that is located on the
face or inside of the panel door in the case of a panelboard
and at each switch or circuit breaker in a switchboard or
switchgear. No circuit shall be described in a manner that
depends on transient conditions of occupancy.

Second, what you have is indeed a Multi-Wire Branch Circuit (MWBC) -- the 52V on the black wire with breaker #23 OFF is stray capacitive coupling from the still-live red wire.  The red wire, of course, is still live because of another Code violation, this time of 210.4(B):

(B) Disconnecting Means. Each multiwire branch circuit
shall be provided with a means that will simultaneously
disconnect all ungrounded conductors at the point where
the branch circuit originates.

So, it's time to find the breaker that turns off that darn red wire (leave #23 off while you do this!).  Hopefully it will be adjacent to Breaker #23 -- in that case, you can get a handle-tie from the electrical supply house and handle-tie the two dodgy breakers together to fix the issue as per 240.15(B)(1).  If the builder was as clueless as I fear though, that breaker is somewhere totally else in the panel -- something you'll want an electrician to fix.


Is ivy bad for your walls? We have a front wall covered by ivy. We do like it very much, but keep getting remarks that ivy eventually destroys your wall.
My usual response is that you often see ivy on century-old buildings and those seem to have survived all right.

So my question is if there really is potential danger in ivy growing on your (brick) walls and should I remove them, or is it just an urban legend and should we enjoy the beauty of it?

 (source: By Ikar.us (Karlsruhe:Alter Friedhof) [CC-BY-2.0-de (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/de/deed.en)], via Wikimedia Commons)

Unless my house was all brick and done well I would not let ivy grow on it.  Ivy spreads out and finds its way in any crack.  As the ivy matures it grows thicker to keep spreading.  As it grows thicker it will push out on things once it is in the crack.  I have ivy on a chain link fence in back yard and fence is ruined.

Think about the ivy getting in between the gutters and house.  It just grows so quick during some parts of the year that you might have to potentially check every couple days.

Nonstructural Note:  The bad ivy (poison) can grow with the good.  Taking down the ivy on my back fence resulted in 2 bouts of poison ivy for me.

Obvious Note:  Ivy holds water.  So anything that can decay, rot, warp, or whatever due to water will not last as long.  Also Fiasco Labs has a great point with their "suckers" that they use to attach.  Within a year of freshly painted house you could need a new paint job because of them.


What should you do first paint ceiling and walls or strip and finish hardwood floors? I am remodeling my home and is putting on a fresh coat of paint and will be stripping and finishing the wood floors

My general rule is that paint should generally be one of the last things that you do.  Refinishing a floor can make a horrible mess, and dust from sanding is going to end up all over the place. It's probably going to be easier to clean up from the floor job before prepping the walls and ceiling for painting than it would be to clean up freshly painted walls.  Also, if you're taking any of the trim off (i.e. shoe molding) to do the floor the finish will look a lot better if it's done in one go after it's reinstalled.

As for getting paint on the refinished floor, interior latex paints are incredibly easy to clean off of a newly finished floor (even after they've dried). Not as much so on bare wood.


What are the connectors for black irrigation hose called? I’m fixing my irrigation and there are some cracks that I need to cut out and reconnect them. I have these connections already but being new to irrigation, I’m not sure what to call them. See the attached images for a zoom in and a zoomed out with red highlight.

Home Depot calls them compression couplings. Here is an example.

And if you are looking for the type that go on the inside of the hose, it'll be called a barbed coupling or barbed connector.


Should I use transitions with laminate flooring to control the size of plank needed at each wall? Im aware my questions sounds silly but the real issue is the basement im installing in has two bedrooms and a long family room. My understanding is that planks should be atleast 2 inches wide at the walls to maintain stength.

My worry is that i can measure the larger room and easilly cut the starting row so that the last row in that room is larger than 2 inches but if i continure into the bedrooms how do i adjust so that when i hit the wall in the bedrooms the last plank will be larger than 2 inches?

My initial thought is that i should use transitions in the doorways  to possibly adjust the size of my finishing row in each room, and i figure the room is large enough that i should have an expansion gap in the doorways anyway. I feel like this isnt the first complicated basment to ever have laminate used in it? Am i missing something obvious???

If you need any clarification let me know, i know it sounds kind of confusing. Any help is appreciated!

No. Narrow, sometimes tapered finishers are a fact of life. In practice most installers don't rip the starter row because it's inevitable. If the first room doesn't have an awkward finisher, the next one will. Or the kitchen island will.

Your 2" standard sounds like an ideal. Carpentry is more art than ideal. One tactic is to glue the finisher to the last full row to give it more support.

If you have trouble finishing a room due to a narrow strip, raise a new question and we'll help. Bring photos!


Unthreaded holes for AC fan motor mounting screws? My AC is not working.  It is a Trane AC (Model 2TTB0030A1000AA).  In the process of diagnosis I tried replacing the capacitor, and that did not help. I tested the fan blades and they no longer spin easily.  I purchased a new AC fan motor (the blades now spin effortlessly).

I have a problem trying to install it.  There are 4 holes where the motor should mount to the top grill of the AC.  The motor came with 4 fine-threaded bolts that presumably go into the holes.  The bolts do not have thread cutting tips and those holes are not threaded!  See attached photo.

Notice that the hole (where the sharpy mark is) is not threaded.  The bolt in the image holds the housing together.

EDIT
Below I added is the corresponding hole in the old motor (notice the whole is threaded).
END EDIT

Question :

Did I get a defective fan motor, or am I expected to tap these holes?

Today I visited the parts store that I bought this from and they insisted that this was normal.  He suggested that I use a power drill to drive the bolts into the case  (no tapping of holes involved).

I followed his instructions and it attached easily and solidly. I suspect that the screws are a stronger metal than the holes in the case and the increased friction from displacing the softer case metal prevents the screws from loosening over time.  This must be their solution in place of using loc-tite or lock washers.


can i stick 6ga wire directly in earth instead of using grounding rod? can I stick a 6 or 8 ga copper wire directly into the ground a couple of feet deep then run it into the house to an earthing mat to ground it ?

"Buried wire ground" is possible, but that's a ground ring "not smaller than 2AWG, at least 20 feet long" buried 30 inches or more deep around the building.
If you are building the building, providing a concrete encased electrode (usually an electrical connection to the reinforcing steel) as part of the building footings is inexpensive and very effective.
You can stick your 6Ga wire a couple of feet in the ground and clamp it to a ground rod driven from the bottom of the hole (which makes it more effective) but no, you can't just stick a 6Ga wire in the ground and call it a day. If this is your only grounding conductor, you should extend a trench so that you can drive a second grounding rod a minimum of 6 feet (more is fine) from the first rod (it's far less expensive than doing the measurement with the fancy equipment you won't have to determine if one ground rod is adequate.)
You may also need to protect the grounding wire with conduit where it is "exposed to damage" aboveground.


Laying tile and floor joists Planning on laying tile in our house. We're putting down cement backer board, and then ceramic tile. The tiles are 7in x 20in.

My question is, should the tiles be placed so they are perpendicular with the floor joists, or can they be laid parallel to the joists?

Your subfloor should be rigid enough that joist orientation isn't a factor in your flooring design, be it hardwood or tile.

Follow the specifications of your mortar manufacturer, or go with 3/4" solid boards, plywood, or OSB plus 1/2" plywood or cement board as a minimum.


Small bugs coming inside from closed windows at night; spray solutions? Every summer at night when we have curtains up and turn on the indoor lights, a large number of small insects (moths, small beetles, spiders, other slim thin-legged insects, etc.) will manage to find their way inside. This happens despite that the (double-hung) windows are closed. The situation is much better if the lights are out or if the curtains fully cover the windows. On the other hand, even if we block the lighting, the insects can still come in if the windows are open. As a result, our summer becomes pretty miserable, choosing between temperature and bugs..
This happens in every room of our two-story house and I certainly checked that the window screens are intact or patched up. I suspect that there might still be small gaps between the screen frames and the window sills and the lighting or human smell may be what is attracting them.
Since physical barrier isn't working, is there some spray solutions that are safe end effective to use?

We live in Greenfield, MA, if that matters. And it does not look like this post provides solutions for our problem.
UPDATE I have used a thermal camera to find cracks. The only cooler spots (in winter) are where walls meet the ceiling but there are no visible opening. I also suspected that the bugs come in through wall cavities (e.g., outlets) where vapor barrier is not continuous, but it is curious why closing the windows and curtains would help if this was the case.

Unlessyou seal your house in vacuum wrap this is an on-going issue in the summer in most areas. Even here in Colorado where the dry air keeps the bug population low, it's a problem.
As you suggested and I have found that a preventive spray is the most effective solution. I don't like using chemicals unless it's a last resort and I don't want to endorse a specific product but I have had very good success with a home defense perimeter spray. There are several out there. I spray it all around the exterior foundation, window frames and anywhere else insects might enter. Although they claim it's safe for interior application I personally only use it outside.
I only do it once a year in the spring and it lasts all year but your experience might be different.


measuring electricity on a shared circuit I live in a flat above a business and my utilities are all shared with
the business. I need to measure my electricity usage so I can reimburse the business. I do not need to measure the gas. Can I plug in or install
one meter to measure all my usage? Do I need to put a power use meter on each used socket and ad up the numbers on all these socket meters?
Thanks

You're looking for a home energy meter. These are available with a clamp-on current meter and wireless remote display.

There are several details missing from your question.

What country you are in.
Where the fuseboard is. If you are sharing a fuseboard with the business than the situation becomes more difficult as you would have to monitor each of the lighting, socket, cooker, water heater, etc., circuits individually. If you have a fuseboard for your flat then you just have to monitor the incoming cable.


How can I safely get power strip to desk in center of room? I can't even tell if this is a stupid question anymore.
I have a desk in the center of a 12′ × 13′ room, on which I would like to have a power strip to power a computer and other, less power-hungry devices. After my first, definitely stupid and dangerous idea (to run an extension cord under a rug), I started looking into the NEC and the UL White Book and the difference between "relocatable power taps" and "multioutlet assemblies" and now I feel like I have no idea what is safe.
Here's what I think I know:

Extension cords are not to be used as a replacement for permanent wiring. I want this setup to basically stay in place for the next one to five years, so extension cords seem to be out.
A power strip—erm, "relocatable power tap"—can maybe be used as permanent wiring if it contains a fuse or circuit breaker and if no tools are needed to remove it. But it still can't do things like go in walls (I'm a renter; I'm not looking to break through any walls anyway).
"Flexible cords" (which includes the cord of an RPT?) must not be attached to "building surfaces." (But does that prohibit attaching cords to walls/ceilings using hardware designed for this, like cable staples large enough not to put pressure on the cord, or ceiling hooks like what I see used with lamps sometimes? Neither of these methods require tools to remove; is that relevant?)
Power cords should not be covered because they are designed assuming they can be cooled in the open air. (But does that prohibit floor covers like this, or raceway sections like this?)

I should also note that my computer has a 1200W power supply, and while I've never actually measured it using nearly that much power, to have a margin of safety, I want to assume that it could basically start drawing 10A at any time. Therefore, whatever powers it should both be rated for that level of current (ideally the full 15A that the room's circuit can provide) and also be installed in such a way that resistance heating in the power cord isn't a fire hazard.
So it seems like I have three general approaches:

Run a power strip with a circuit breaker and a long power cord across the carpet up to my desk. Try not to trip on it. There is a virtue in simplicity, but hey, everyone trips sometimes.
Same as above, but cover it with something safely (i.e., by means that prevent tripping, damaging the cord, and up-to-15A currents causing anything to heat to an unsafe temperature). I'm not a huge fan of the floor cord protectors I've seen (they seem like they'll be obnoxious to move when vacuuming), but if it's the right thing to do, I'll do it.
Run a power strip with an even longer power cord (I'm looking at this one) up the nearest wall, across the (drywall) ceiling, and drop down onto the desk. Barring electrical issues, this is my favorite approach, but it leaves me with a lot of questions about whether there is a code-approved (or not technically code-approved but still assuredly safe) way to affix a power cord to walls and ceilings. The codes all seem to forbid this generally but things like that Wiremold raceway and ceiling hooks for lamp cords seem to indicate otherwise (and if those are safe, I don't see why appropriately-sized cable staples wouldn't be also). If the Wiremold raceway is the way to go, I also can't tell if there's a meaningful difference between just covering the power strip's existing cord with raceway versus doing a more extensive Wiremold installation, which seems to involve tapping into an outlet with a starter box, running a different kind of wire through the gateway, placing a receptacle... on the ceiling? And running the power strip down from the ceiling receptacle? Is that actually safer?

What should I do, and which of these various questions and concerns are actually safety issues versus misunderstandings or excessive pedantry?
(If relevant, I live in Connecticut, USA.)

Appliance and extension cords are called cordage.
Use the right stuff
The issue with cordage as a substitute for permanent wiring of the structure is not a “don’t do it” issue: it’s a “use the right stuff” issue.
“The right stuff” is appropriate wires designed for permanent use in structures, including appropriate physical protection.  For instance instead of stapling cordage to a wall, you should use surface conduit with THHN wires inside.
Of course, that requires a transition from the THHN to the cordage at some point.  That happens at a junction box, e.g. with a receptacle in it; the easiest way to transition from hardwiring to cordage.
Consider a pendant for center-of-room power
A pendant is a piece of special cordage with high quality strain relief on both ends (think the Chinese finger puzzle webbing) that drops straight down from a box on the ceiling down to a junction box suspended in midair by the cordage.  You then plug into that recep.
Probably best to use a fan-rated ceiling box.  This can be a surface-mount box (you’ll need to find the studs) which in turn can be supplied via surface conduit such as Legrand Wiremold.
The suspended box would probably be a metal box rated for a fan, since they are tough and built to endure tugs on the pendant.
If you want to be very fancy, you can have the pendant lock into a locking connector like a NEMA L5-15.
That PC power supply is a terror
That “1200 watt” PC power supply is a gigantic beast made for gaming.  The “1200 watt” figure is the actually useful DC output of the supply; it is NOT the AC mains input — that is affected first by the efficiency of the unit and by the power factor.
   X (actual power drawn) x efficiency% x PF% = useful power out.

The “850 watt” power supplies actually draw 10 amps. So I could see a 1200 watt supply drawing 16A or 17A.
I would revisit the necessity of such an ostentatiously large power supply.


What are my options for fixing a laundry faucet? We're replacing our washer so I had to turn off the laundry faucets, hook up the new washer, and then turn them back on.

In doing so, the hot water faucet now has a slight leak where the stem of the knob enters the faucet.

What are my options to fix this? Can I add any sealant around the stem? Does the stem part come off and replaceable? Or should I just relegate myself to replacing the entire thing?

Try tightening the packing nut (the hex part the stem goes through) a little. That's what it's for. Don't overdo it. The "packing" is the material that seals around the stem - the packing nut compresses that material. On a valve that is not used often, actuating the valve does commonly cause it to leak, as things have "set." Tighten a little, wait, tighten a little more, wait - try to sneak up on it, as the pressure is a balance between enough to seal and little enough that the valve turns easily.


Mold in my bathroom is spraying bleach and painting over with Kilz enough? I live in an apartment and I noticed what I believe to be mold growing on my bathroom ceiling. I have a daughter with asthma and I now know it's the cause of her constant coughing since we moved here. The maintenance guys came in said they fixed the leak from upstairs, treated the wall/ceiling, painted over with Kilz, and stated nothing further was needed.

Am I wrong in feeling like this didn't solve the issue? I went myself and bought a moisture tester at Lowes to monitor the leak from an overflowing toilet from upstairs. This was two weeks prior to seeing the mold, because they shrugged it off as no big deal. I'm seeing mixed answers here on what to clean with and I was told the black mold is the worst and can cause a lot of respiratory issues. The way I see it it's in the drywall and if it's black it's been there awhile we've lived here for just at a month. To me they are not solving the issue only painting over it just to cover it. Help this single mom of 3 to know what's best for her 3 kids, one with asthma that can't stop coughing.

It depends.

It depends on the type of mold. It depends on the severity of the infestation. It depends on how many treatments they applied.

Bleach is not sufficient or approved for mold remediation. You may need to use something like MoldStat and even then you may need to take additional steps. If the infestation was bad enough you probably could replace the affected drywall section (and, while doing so, treat the lumber behind it).

It sounds like you live in a communal building like a condo or apartment. If a leak from your neighbor caused a mold problem in your unit then your association likely has a legal obligation to hire licensed mold remediation specialists. I would raise it concern immediately with your management company. Suggest that if action is not taken that you will contact the ombudsman.

You are not responsible for damages caused by your neighbor's leaks. Your neighbor has insurance and/or the association has insurance. If you are concerned, have a professional mold agency deal with the problem.


Is my plan to move and upgrade service panels reasonable? I'm adding a workshop needing its own 200A panel, and power company (TEP)  is requiring me to move the service entrance from the house to the workshop (and upgrade to 400A panel) the house is to be backfed as a feeder 100' to its original (old) 200A panel, moving the entrance from the overhead meter to from below (see pic).  The bond between neutral and ground will be removed in the house panel.  the entrance feeder will carry 4 wires in a 2.5" conduit (Al250 Al250 Al4/0 and a #6cu ground wire).  ground rods will be kept at the house and tied to the incoming #6 ground (there is also a big ground rod at the shop where it is tied to the neutral leg) I finally Found an affordable box approved for 400A by TEP on a waiver, don't know why they are so expensive...
There is a bunch of space in the old 200a house box behind the breakers (the box is 5.5" thick, and the insulators just stand off 1.5" all the way up to the main breakers on top.  Can I run the new entrance below the breakers in the box straight up to where they tie to the lugs?  (ive never seen this on any other box... and I plan to run in the gutters as normal otherwise)

Does anyone see anything wrong with my plan (I wont remove the N-G tie till the day service is cut off)?
Edit: Proposed new 400amp all-in-one meter panel Is a Siemens MC0816B1400SC . Old panel is something from GE. Shop will need 200a, and Tucson Electric Power directed us to drop the service into the shop and customer (me) run back feeder to power the house box. Rationale was, they didn't have any more capacity on the pole at the house and the shop is closer to another pole (even though its just 100'). I had proposed the update recommended (320 service to house with sub at shop, they said "nope, no more capacity")
Here are the current knockouts on the existing House 200A box...I cant find the label on it with the make and model.  I do have some moving around to do for a couple of the existing conduits -out- to make room for the giant feeder into the center.
[
And here is pics of the completed install after inspection:  The three supply Hots and neutral go through the center section under the breakers up to the home owners meter.

400A boxes
400A panels are expensive because nobody does that.  The normal thing to do with a 400A meter is immediately split it to two 200A main panels, just ordinary common-as-dirt main panels, nothing fancy at all.  In fact, ordinary/common "class 320" (read: 400A) meter pans provide for two 4/0-sized lugs per phase. That's not for paralleling: That's for splitting to two different main panels. You couldn't attach a single 400A panel if you wanted to, because the lugs won't take a 500 kcmil conductor, and they're not for paralleling.
For some reason, some people with a certain level of electrical knowledge get fixated on doing it some other way (sometimes they cannot believe you can just split to two main panels like that)... and they always wind up with an expensive adventure.
Now, given your requirements, what I would do is (gosh) split to two 200A main panels.  One of the panels would have "Thru Lugs". The other would be the normal shop panel. So one-a these, and one-a these, coming off any common 320-class meter socket.  Together under $300. You can spend a little more and get the better QO, Siemens, CH etc.  I'm presuming outdoor for NEC 2020.
Anyway, feed the house off the panel with the thru-lugs. It's beholden to the 200A main breaker in that panel, so the run to the house is protected. It has 8 spaces for if you want to tap anything locally off that side of the service.  The 30-space is for the workshop.  I know it's smallish, but feel free to get a 40.
that was easy :)
The neutral bars (plural)
On your original panel, both sides are intended as neutral bars.  They have several features that ground bars don't have.  The panel provides enough neutral lugs for every space in the panel to be a "double-stuff" breaker feeding 2 independent circuits.  You're nowhere near even half that, so you have the option to spin off one neutral bar to make it a ground bar.
However, that's not your only option.  The common way to do that is to buy accessory ground bars for the panel ($8 or so). These bolt to the metal frame of the panel.  You may find that more convenient if some neutrals or grounds are too short.   You can get those (I would get 2), move the grounds to it at your leisure, and then simply remove the N-G boding screw or strap on Upgrade Day.  I don't see one, which is a bit odd.
Routing the cables
Your proposal for cable routing (coming in the bottom when it came in the top/back before) seems perfectly fine to me.  It's clear from your photo that the panel builder left you plenty of wire bending space for that purpose.
Make sure to put a knockout cover on any abandoned holes.


Using tool at home made to work in cigarette socket? I have a tool that only works by connecting its "plug" to my car cigarette lighter socket.

How can I use this tool at home? Is there an adapter that will let me use it somewhere else?

Search for 120V 12V cigarette lighter adapter. If your home electricity is 240V (i.e., most places outside USA/Canada) then look for 240V 12V cigarette lighter adapter. Some adapters will, like laptop chargers and other equipment, handle a range 110V - 240V, 50/60 Hz.

You'll find more of the reverse (to run 120VAC equipment using your car's 12VDC) but there are plenty like this adapter on Amazon. I recommend getting one that is UL listed if possible and make sure it can supply the power (watts) your tools need.


Plumbing rough-in pressure test PSI My plumbing rough-in is done, and inspection was passed.  Unfortunately, I had to move a couple of things the plumbers did.  I probably had to redo about six crimps rings.

Before I go any further, I'd like to pressure test the system again.  How many PSI do I pump it up to, and how long does it need to hold?

I've heard everything from 5 PSI for 15 minutes up to 100 PSI overnight.

Is there a definitive answer?

According to IRC, for supply system testing. You have to test using the maximum working pressure (80 psi) of water, or 50 psi of air. And you have to maintain the pressure for 15 minutes.

For air testing drain-waste-vent (DWV) systems, you have to maintain 5 psi for 15 minutes.

Contact your local government, to find out what they require.

  International Residential Code 2012

  Chapter 25 Plumbing Administration

  Section P2503 Inspection and Tests

  P2503.5.1 Rough plumbing.
  DWV systems shall be tested on completion of the rough piping installation by water or for piping systems other than plastic, by air with no evidence of leakage. Either test shall be applied to the drainage system in its entirety or in sections after rough piping has been installed, as follows:

  Air test. The portion under test shall be maintained at a gauge pressure of 5 pounds per square inch (psi) (34 kPa) or 10 inches of mercury column (34 kPa). This pressure shall be held without introduction of additional air for a period of 15 minutes.

  P2503.7 Water-supply system testing.
  Upon completion of the water-supply system or a section of it, the system or portion completed shall be tested and proved tight under a water pressure of not less than the working pressure of the system or, for piping systems other than plastic, by an air test of not less than 50 psi (345 kPa). This pressure shall be held for not less than 15 minutes. The water used for tests shall be obtained from a potable water source.

  Chapter 29 Water-supply and Distribution

  Section P2903 Water Supply System

  P2903.3.1 Maximum pressure.
  The static water pressure shall be not greater than 80 psi (551 kPa). When main pressure exceeds 80 psi (551 kPa), an approved pressure-reducing valve conforming to ASSE 1003 or CSA B356 shall be installed on the domestic water branch main or riser at the connection to the water-service pipe.


Would a bit of grease on overhead door cables or bearings cause the springs to break? I have a roll-up (2 car-width) garage door. The right top torsion spring broke. I would have fixed it myself, but no time. I called out a repair company, and they guy came out and said that I need to replace both torsion springs. He claimed that the rollers were the cause of the springs snapping and that the rollers weren't moving. Said there was garage lube (lithium grease on the rollers) preventing them from moving.

Is this guy lying to me, or can this spring snapping be caused by rollers not moving? He also said there was lithium grease or lubricant on the garage door rails. Would grease cause these rollers to cease movement? Seems kinda sketchy to me, but want to rule this out.

TLDR: The spring failed naturally due to old age or manufacturing defect.  Not your fault. As an aside, learn to properly grease garage doors.

Oh boy.  The bull-oney here is thick.  Let's start with Springs vs Door Motion.

The Spring is a counterweight. THAT IS ALL.

We're not even talking about lifters yet.  Just the door, with no external forces to move it. Capische?

The door is heavy. You could not hand-lift it.  You should not rely on an active mechanism to sheer-muscle-lift that door.  Why not? First if the lifter breaks,  the door guillotines and everyone under it is dead. Problems start out as minor (and reveal by stiff motion) so you want to detect that early, not brute force it, breaking the door further until guillotine. So muscle-lifting a door is Right Out.

The trick with counterweighting a door is as it rolls upward, it weighs less and less, because part of it is going horizontal.  That is pretty linear.  Springs are also "pretty linear", so they're a natural.

The point of counterweighting is that the door weighs effectively zero in all positions and will stay where you put it, not wanting to go up more than down in any position.

The counterweight interacts ONLY with the door.  If the door moves, the counterweight instantly tracks with it. No interference!  If the counterweight slackens, catastrophe follows.  Which brings us to the First Rule Of Garage Doors:

Opening forces act ONLY on the door, never the counterweight.

  We had four large 14x20' tall doors. The door and spring were conventional, but some genius put a geared lifter on the spring shaft. Worked going up. But going down, you were slackening the spring, and hoping gravity would pull the door down to keep the cable taut.  Springs are instant.  They follow the door motion no matter where it goes and how fast.  Doors, not so much, especially when horizontal and gravity isn't working on them. The cable did not remain taut, came off the spool, guillotined... And that's why you never do that.

So.  Back to your problem.  Assuming your installer did not make the above mistake...   It does not matter how the door moves.  The spring counterweight should be able to keep up with it no matter what. Therefore, anything that affects door motion - like grease in the tracks - has no bearing on the performance of the spring.

The spring failed all by itself, in its own time, simply because it was old.   Final answer.

Why are you greasing door tracks?

Grease is not a magical "make things move that should" elixir.  Actually, making things not stick together is a complex problem that you can't just throw one chemical at.  And garage doors are a case in point of this.

Grease, being sticky, is a magnet for dirt and dust. Those are abrasives, so the net effect of greasing is the opposite - you might as well have used spray sandpaper.  Grease makes sense inside areas sealed from the environment, like roller bearings.

Now what about door tracks? Remember how a door functions. The vertical part of the track, the track is basically a guide.  The door is hung by the counterweight cables, and has basically no horizontal motion at all, except for wind loads. So on a still day, garage door rollers are doing zero work (in the vertical) and certainly don't need any grease.

But, the horizontal part of the door tracks?  When the door is horizontal, all its weight rests on the rollers, and that's where they earn their pay.  (However if your door is sticky when it's barely open, that's not the problem since it isn't horizontal).  Effectively, the horizontal track is a roadway and the rollers are the bicycle wheels.  Now let me ask you something.  To make your bike roll freely, do you grease the road?  Of course not!  You make sure your bike wheels are top top.  You clean the road to keep debris out of it, because debris slows you down.

The same here with garage door rollers.  Make sure the rollers are tip-tip.  Don't lubricate them with grease, because dirt magnet.  Rollers are cheap and if they seem to be anything but excellent, just replace them.  As for the horizontal track, make sure it is spic-and-span.  Particularly remove any grease and the accumulated dust/dirt/sawdust that it attracted, that got up there.

There is one spot that really does need lubrication, but grease really will not do.  You notice the garage door's track is on a very slight angle, so the  door slides slightly  toward the building as it drops.  At bottom, it makes a tight seal to the building.

If the door is sticky at the first few inches of opening, look there.  However, grease is right out, because it'll get on your clothing. Go to a tractor supplier and get a quart of Paint-On Graphite Lubricant and a few acid brushes.  This stuff looks, walks and quacks like dark grey paint, but is nicely slick.  It's oil based, so be prepared to throw the brushes away.

The graphite is heavy, and really loves to settle to the bottom leaving useless resin at the top. It's like cookie dough on the bottom and water on the top, and it takes 20 minutes to hand stir it to lump-free.  So ask the hardware store to give it a good long run in their paint shaker upside down. (Buy quarts; the gallon is too heavy and would break their paint shaker).

To keep it from separating while you paint, pour out 1/4" of depth into a paint cup or old soup can, at that depth it will stir as you wet your brush.

Rollers are cheap and I don't sweat just replacing them, but graphite paint is one thing I will use on rollers with open bearings. A light touch will suffice, don't drown it.


Can I vent my bathroom exhaust fan into a plumbing drain vent? I installed a bathroom fan in the ceiling.  My bathroom is in the room right next to the laundry room.  The washing machine has the standard drain pipe vent of a pvc pipe venting to the outside through the roof.  To avoid cutting another hole in the roof I connected the bathroom fan vent to the washing machine drain vent in the attic so it can vent outside.  The only problem I can foresee with this is maybe some rain could possibly get down into the bathroom fan, but that is very unlikely the way I have it set up.  Any other issues or problems I can't see?

You have two big issues here.

First is that you have a serious risk of venting sewer gasses into your home. This is why drain vents open above the roof line or use one-way air admittance valves. This is likely to be unpleasant and possibly unhealthy.

Second is that a drain vent is typically too small and too moist to properly vent a bathroom fan. Your fan is probably designed to use a 4" duct, and instead it's going through a 1.5" diameter pipe. And if any lint/dust gets pushed out by your fan, it risks accumulating on the sides of the vent pipe, potentially blocking the pipe and slowing both your drainage and ventilation.

Beyond those functional problems, you'll also have a pretty visible issue that anyone inspecting your attic will see. You should do this the right way: add a properly-sized duct line and a roof vent for ventilation, and re-seal your drain vent pipe.


What would be the proper connectors to use to enter the box? Running 1 1/2 PVC with 2-2-2-4 inside to an 8x8x4 PVC J box to connect to 2-2-2-4 SER cable inside box.

You'll use a 1 1/2" PVC male terminal adapter, to fit through the knockout in the box. Then a 1 1/2" locknut inside the box, to hold the terminal adapter in place.

For the SER cable, you can use a 1 1/2" cable clamp.


How to fix bathroom tiles falling off This happened in my bathroom just now.
The build got completed approx 12 months ago and now tiles are coming off this extended wall.
During construction, the builders told me, that the bathtub didn't fill out the length of the room. So they wanted to "pad" the adjacent wall a few inches so it didn't leave a gap. At the time it seemed sensible. In hindsight, it was a terrible idea. I'm sure there would have been better solutions for this little problem.
How can I best recover from this?
And what did the builders do wrong?

EDIT
I contacted the builder and they ended up demolishing the entire bathroom, including knocking down ALL of the tiles. It comes with a 5 year warranty so I walk away scot-free.
For the wall that needs to come out a few inches extra (in the picture), they are using metal studs and Villaboard which is all drilled deep into the wall with plugs and screws. Then tiling goes on top, this time no five spotting but applying the tile glue the right way covering 90% of the tile. Also they are re-doing the waterproofing.

It's a bit difficult to figure out from the photo but it appears that they stuck scraps of tile to the wall with compound and then simply stuck the finish tiles to that with more compound.  NOT A GOOD PLAN!  The finish tiles are poorly supported and also the smooth surface of the scraps doesn't provide good adhesion for the compound.
This is a total tear-out job if ever I've seen one!  I don't see how you're going to salvage any part of this and I'd also be concerned about substandard work on the rest of the job.


How can I stop a desk from vibrating when I type? Yesterday I finished building a corner desk for my home office. I have no previous experience with woodworking, but I thought it would be a fun project. The end result is actually pretty good, the desk looks nice and is very close to what I was expecting. Here are a couple pics for reference:

The wood is 15mm MDP, and the base is made of five 25mm x 25mm steel bars. It is pretty solid, with no noticeable movement when I try to shake the desk.

The problem is that when I type, there's a slight vibration that transfers to the bigger LCD screen, making the screen shake a bit. It's not a huge deal, but it is bothering me. My previous desk did not have this problem - it was made entirely of wood and feels more solid than the one I built.

Is there a way I can stop this vibration? Maybe changing something on my design to make the desk more solid... I'm open to suggestions.

Is the ledge that the monitors are sitting on actually attached to the desk? It kind of looks like it's just resting on the speakers (Btw, I swear I had those same speakers like 15 years ago). Since there is some natural bounce in any kind of wooden surface like you have, my guess is it's transferring to the upper support which will naturally be prone to movement due to not being attached. If you add at least 3 supports so it can stay up on its own (not relying on speakers) I would guess most of the movement will go away.


Lot grading, water percolation & french drain on the property line along the fence..What is a correct drainage for this property? I am now trying to understand if the current water drainage on my lot is wrong. The previous owner excavated the soil around the house and he probably spread the soil around the house in the backyard.
Also, my neighbor's property is on a higher grounds and I suspect his drainage is not 100% fair.
Below you have a representation of the rear side of the house, the left side house is mine.
The purple line is the general slope of the terrain, as mentioned my neighbor's house is on grounds slightly higher than mine.
The blue and brown lines show the backyard general grading. The 8' strip that you see along my patio is not sloped correctly and I intend to fix that.
The patio drains towards the red spot where I intend to install a catch basin and I plan to drain that to a dry well south east of that corner.

Problems

the yellow line on my neighbor's garage is a gutter that he extended on the soil and that currently drains on his property on the paved walkway that you see there
by design both properties seem to drain the water toward the property line and that should at least affect the fence. As a matter of fact one of the poles is completely cut (rotten) at the base
I believe that under the soil (subgrade) the water moves towards my house anyway due to the general slope of the terrain

Questions:

Looking at the measurements of the space between the garages do you think that the water that comes out of his gutter (yellow on the figure) will infiltrate the soil and move laterally towards my property and my garage? Just next to the garage the former owner built a small parking lot, paved with precast concrete blocks and I suspect that the base of that parking spot will suck all the water that makes it to it. Am I too worried about this?
Looking over the fence at my neighbor's patio one can easily see that when he built that he accentuated the slope and that now all that water drains toward the fence. I think that the only remedy here is to build a french drain along the fence which I should drain in the dry well that is in the plans for the patio. Is this a correct plan? Will this french drain affect the fence in any way?
Is the distance between the fence and my house long enough to keep my house safe from that water which probably collects underground on the property line? (not sure where it goes from there).

I'm not sure how much "fair" applies to geology. If you have the downhill lot, gravity is just going to do what gravity does. :-)

It looks like water is definitely draining off of both yours and your neighbor's lots into the depression that the fence sits in. If the soil can absorb all the water quickly enough, there's no issue. Your neighbor's hard surface parking lot, and your hard surface patio, both reduce the amount of soil available for water to absorb into and cause more surface water to flow wherever it flow. Very little water will absorb into the ground under those hard surfaces. (Engineering for this kind of run-off is a serious engineering issue when facilities are built with large parking lots and large roof areas).

If your fence posts are rotting at the base, be sure you replace them with pressure-treated posts. Maybe the original posts were not pressure treated? If not, even modest amounts of moisture would rot them fairly quickly.

The same principles apply to water that seeps into the ground and migrates in your direction. You're further downhill. There's just no getting around that. Once the ground is saturated, the water will pool up on top and rapidly flow downhill. And of course if there is more high ground on your neighbor's side of the fence, gravity is going to tend to move the underground water in your direction. You definitely want good drainage away from the foundation of your house. Otherwise, you'll eventually end up with seeping basement walls, or a crawlspace you could use a canoe in.

Is the planned dry well the only option you have for drainage? Is there a slope in any direction that would let you run a perforated 4" pipe (ABC or PVC) to the street to drain excess into the city storm drains (essentially extending the french drain)? The blue line in your diagram shows water flowing away from the house and garages toward what I presume is the back of your lot, but you don't specify what's back in that direction (an alley? Another lot line? A street with gutters and storm drains? A field?).

Generally speaking, though, if you have those french drains built right, with perforated pipe buried in gravel, you can tie them together with additional underground pipe sloping downhill away from the house. If you bury them in plenty of sand and gravel, that will create a lot of additional absorption for water, and provide extra time for the water to absorb into the surrounding soil.

I'm curious if you are on city sewer, or if you have a septic system and a drain field. If you have room in the back of your lot, and if drainage is really that big an issue with water pooling around your house on a regular basis, you could even potentially build something like a septic system drain field--without the septic tank--to direct more water away from your foundations and give it more underground area to absorb into the soil. But that's kind of the big issue. The ground can only absorb so much water in a given amount of time. That varies widely based on the composition of the soil. Dense clay soils can't absorb as much water. Soil that is already saturated can't absorb more water. So the water is going to run somewhere unless you can spread it out underground and expose it to a bigger area of soil. Even then, if the flow is too high, those french drains will back up and you'll have water pooling up above them.

I worked as a design tech for civil engineers once upon a time, and I remember stories of a city sewer system that was under-designed to the extent that when a "100 year storm" would occur, water pressure would back up and water would flow back up out of manholes, with the manhole covers literally pushed up off the ground riding on top of the water flow out (that's a lot of pressure).


What hardware do I need to have a wireless light switch in UK/Ireland? Builders are converting my attic at the moment and stupidly, the electrician only installed the light switch for the attic at the bottom of the stairwell so there's no actual light switch in the room.

It's too late to rewire as the new floor has been installed and the walls finished so my only real option is to have a wireless light switch in the room with some sort of receiver in the stairwell. And optionally the wired light switch in the stairwell could be replaced with another wireless light switch as I still need the lights to be operated from both the room and the stairwell.

I'm brand agnostic but what exactly do I need?

There seems to be lots of hardware available to automate absolutely everything in the house but I'd like a simple recommendation for setting up a remote controlled light switch (with two way control)!

And are there any potential wiring complications with installing the receiver?

I found a couple with simple search for "3-way wireless switch",
Leviton 6696-W Wireless 3-Way Decora-Style Switch Kit

and BL-6133-WH Wireless Add-On Switch Set.

Unfortunately, both are listed for 120V. Though, I'm sure there is something similar available in your area (which I'm assuming is 220V).

For the two I found, installation is simple. Swap out the existing switch with the receiver switch, then install the transmitter switch wherever you need it.


Is it possible to vent two exhaust fans through a single wall penetration? I have two bathroom exhaust fans that need to be vented out of the house, but I'd like to do it using a single wall penetration.  Is there a code compliant, safe way to do this?

Both bathrooms are on the same level of the house.
There is no guarantee that both fans will be the same type, size, power, etc.
Each fan runs independently of the other.
Pipe runs will be different lengths from fan to exit point.
Fans are on separate electrical circuits.

I don't know about code compliance.  But, this might work for you:

1 Y-Connector at the outside vent.

2 Backdraft Dampers (one on each leg) at the Y to stop the backflow of noxious gases from one fan(on) to the other (off).

Note that the backdraft dampers will add to the resistance of the duct work.  You may wish to move up to the next size of duct.


How can I connect a receptacle to a two wire extension cord? How do I hook up a wall outlet to a 2 wire extension cord? My cord broke and I want to put a regular 110 outlet on it.

If your extension cord breaks, they make replacement ends for them. I'd only do this with a high priced outdoor extension cord, the cheaper cords should just be replaced completely.


What's the name of this tool and what is it for? Found this in a box of tools and I have no idea what is called and its purpose, would someone let me know please.

There is a mark on it - T12399

That is a fixture for repetitively cutting lengths of pipe or rod. The fixture is clamped to a workbench and the pipe is laid into the groove. The V-screw is then tightened to hold the rod. The end is then sawed off. The V-screw is loosened, the pipe/rod is advanced, then the process is repeated.


PEX Outdoor UV Protection PEX must be protected from UV   A Florida bypass will require 20 feet of pipe be outdoors: it is in a rectangular tunnel, where it is mounted to  concrete overhead, but sunlight illuminates the interior of the tunnel:

The PEX bridges water from the left side of the 'tunnel' to the right side.  The PEX pipe will be strapped to the ceiling of the open area above the vehicle in the photo
An older piece of PVC encases a CAT5 telephone cable and is showing signs of failure, presumably because of sunlight.  What is the best practice to protect PEX from sunlight in this scenario?

You could use black polyethlene (non-pex) well-water pipe, which is inherently sunlight resistant. Also helps to keep your water from growing algae. Either as a sleeve or as the actual pipe for this section.
You could enclose it in metallic ducting, or PVC that was painted to protect it from UV, or PVC electrical conduit (sunlight-resistant as made, they claim.) I don't think painting the PEX is likely to work.


How can you keep constant power to lights by removing switch but still keeping power to the switch? There are 4 can lights on my ceiling controlled by a switch. I just recently installed smart light bulbs in all of the cans (they require constant power), Is there a way to keep constant power to the devices and also get power to a smart switch (that will not control anything from wiring) where I will run an automation to turn the smart bulbs on from the same box?

Yes a traditional switch just connects 2 wires together.
For lights controlled by a single switch there will be 2 main configurations you will see.
(colors are assuming US conventions)

neutral at the switch. This is marked by a white wire(bundle) that isn't connected to the switch. And 2 wires connected to the switch.
To install a smart switch there pigtail the wires connected to the switch together and add a wire to the neutral bundle. Those will be your live and neutral to power the smart switch.

no neutral at the switch. This is marked by not having a non-ground wire disconnected from the switch. Often the white wire will be marked by a loop of tape.
This is more complicated to adjust. Find the junction box where the switch-loop starts (often the at the light itself) and move the white wire going to the switch to the neutral bundle and the black to the live bundle. Then you can remove the tape loop marking the white as a live both at the junction box and the switch and you now have a live and neutral at the switch.

When multiple switches control the lights, there will be a set of 3 wires running between the switches: 2 travelers and either a neutral or a switched live. The process to convert is similar to above with the addition of an extraneous wire that you can cap off.


What's the best way to leave some excess on a NM cable in a wall or joist space? I'm running new wire for my bathroom remodel (demo'd to the studs) but I'm not sure of the exact locations of the LED ceiling lights (pancakes that do not require a box).
I'd like to leave some excess wire in the cavity at approximate locations. The same is true for the vanity lights. We're not sure yet if we will have just one light above the vanity or sconces as well. I'd like to leave enough wire in the wall so I can add a new work box for the sconces and wire them in if we decide to go that way.
I've read of zigzagging but I'm not sure what that is. I've currently just made a loop and stapled the wire loosely. Would that be acceptable? What's the best way of doing this?
If NM has to be secured within X inches of the box, how do I leave extra?

You can continue to do what you are doing or wrap it with tie wire or with zip ties. Just some way of keeping it from damage during the rest of construction.
The main thing is not to connect the circuit inside the panel. Make sure there is no exposed wiring that come into contact in the panel. Do not strip back the outer cover so the ground wire is not exposed. Use wirenuts on the ends of conductors. And always label it well enough so anyone accessing your panel knows what the extra circuit is for.
Or if the circuit is feeding to other devices that need to be hot. Make sure you have a method of locking out either the entire circuit or that part of the circuit that is not being used at the time.
Good luck and stay safe.


Root cellar insulation Building a root cellar in corner of full basement.  No water issues. Humidity is relatively low in winter (SW Montana).

Details:
The root cellar will be located inside a full basement . The basement is poured concrete and is heated. The root cellar is going to be placed in a corner where 2 sides will remain bare concrete walls. The two adjoining walls that complete the room are 2x4 construction. It will be cooled by cool air from outside via duct work dropping cold air to bottom of room. There will be a warm air “exhaust” near top allowing warmer air to exit to the outside. I don’t think moisture will be an issue as humidity is typically low even in winter and there is no water in the basement (bathrooms, etc)

For insulation, is it best to use XPS panels or are batts ok?

I would use plastic foam panels; they won't be damaged so easily as batts and never absorb water. They could be easily moved to prevent freezing in winter and expose cool soil in summer.


Can I use an extension cord for a mini fridge? I read a thread earlier basically saying a fridge should not be run on an extension cord.  I was curious why that is. And how it would be different than having the same distance ran in the wall to an outlet.  But I was really more curious if it would be any safer for a mini fridge instead.  I am building a fermentation chamber and kegorator out of a mini fridge.  The fridge plugs into a thermo controller.  The thermo controller has a 3 foot power cord on it.  This is a very popular thing to do, people do it all the time without burning down their house or garage.  I may have to put another 1 or 2 foot extension between the controller and fridge cord.  All this will be tucked out of the way and secured.

An extension cord

is usually lighter gauge than house wiring
introduces an additional connection, another opportunity for reduced voltage
the connection may be exposed to dust and/or liquids
the connection can easily be loosened exposing open, live conductors
the connection may be in a place more accessible to children, pets, falling metallic debris, vehicle tires, etc.

The lighter gauge wire may lower the life of the fridge's motor by not providing full voltage especially during motor starting.  In severe (though rare) cases, the light gauge wire could be a fire hazard if the fridge runs especially hard, like when an overabundance or lack of refrigerant oil causes the pump to work hard.

In commercial and industrial sites (at least around here), fire inspectors require immediate removal of extension cords from anything vaguely permanent looking.

If your kegerator is going to be in use for some time, why not install a real outlet in the right place for it?  In a garage or utility area, the wall doesn't (usually—depending on your wife) have to be perfectly patched.  The wire, outlet, box, nails, etc., won't set you back more than about $15.


How do you ground residential network equipment? I needed to run some Cat5e UTP network cables and decided to add network outlets to most rooms, run new phone wiring and RG6 as well.

Much of what I've seen and read about residential and small office installations doesn't mention grounding much but I know that in the data center It's an important consideration. I called a local antenna installer (the only one I could find) to have them move an attic antenna to the roof and they said they don't recommend grounding the antenna. I'm a bit confused by both the lack of information and conflicting information. The bits I've seen on the TIA residential spec didn't mention grounding.

All the cables will be terninated on a plywood panel in the basement with 2 small wall mount racks. One for patch panels (coax and cat5e) another to hold a network switch. Cabling is cat5e UTP for data and phone. Coax is RG6 with 2 seperate runs, one for commercial tv provider, other for an attic mounted antenna that I'd like to eventually move to the roof.

Is there a requirement (USA NEC) to bond these racks, and the equipment in the racks?

If it's not a requirement are there good reasons to bond this equipment?

How would you recommend grounding bonding this setup? The current drops from providers are properly grounded.

In larger data centers I've seen those big copper grounding bus bars which seems like overkill. In smaller installations I've seen small aluminum(?) grounding bars that look like the ones in electrical panels. From there ground wires connect between the block/bar to the racks and then the racks are connected to patch panels and other equipment with ground wire and grounding lugs.

Where can the other end of the grounding conductor go? People have different opinions of what the code states. Some have said a separate ground rod, other's have tied it to all sorts of things including steel building structure, water pipes, electrical conduit....

This is what's available to me where I'm mounting my equipment.

A) Lots of copper cold water pipe on the house side of the water meter. Main line is underground copper that runs at least 10' in ground. This would be the easiest/cheapest. I know in the past the cold water line (house side) was at least once used to ground the incoming phone service.

B) Some armored cable (old 2 conductor where armor is grounded)

C) The street side of the water meter is a bit further away and a little difficult to get to but possible if necessary and less than 20' of cable run to it. Thre's a ground wire on the street side of the meter for the electric panel but I think there's also another ground wire going outside from the panel.

D) Main electrical panel. The wire run would be greater than 20' though.

The above is just to illustrate what I "know" (think?) and what I have available.

This is a bigger can of worms than meets the eye.  There are huge arguments over all this.

This is a coax grounding block:

This is a grounding bar:

This is a grounding bridge, your cable company or telephone company probably has one on the outside of the house at the electrical service entrance:

What I'd do:

Run a ground cable from your frame to the grounding bridge.  Use the biggest cable that will fit properly in the bridge.  Don't use A-D above.
Install a grounding bar that will handle that wire, at your frame in the basement.
Run a ground wire from your metal patch panel rack to the grounding bar, use grounding lugs on the rack.  Probably not necessary, but use Noalox between the lug and the rack.  Remove paint if you want to go all in.
Install and ground coax grounding blocks for your antenna and CATV service.
Use good quality surge strips, at the frame and through the house, and check your outlets with a receptacle tester to make sure they have ground wires - surge strips generally don't work without a good ground.
If any of your equipment has a grounding lug on the back, ground it.  (For example, many of the Netgear metal cased switches have a ground lug on them.) AFAIK only necessary on equipment with a two wire power plug.
Remember, holy wars over all this - some will say this is all totally wrong.  This is what I would do though after following all the arguments.

Edit:

There is a good chance your patch panel doesn't ground the coax that goes through the house.  However if you use surge strips that have a coax port in those places, and the coax has been terminated properly so the body of the plugs are bonded well to the shiled, and the outlets those surge strips plug into have a good ground, you should be fine.

One last thing - this whole thing hinges on good grounding of your electrical system.  If you want to be really careful there, have an electrician check the grounding and bonding and if possible ground resistance.  This is IMO worth doing in general.


Is there any advantage to pouring a thicker concrete slab for the basement? I'm working on designing a new house and trying to determine how thick the basement slab should be. This home will have poured basement walls over the footings, so the basement slab isn't bearing the weight of the house walls.

The International Residential Code (IRC) 2012 which applies in my area states that:

  Concrete slab-on-ground floors shall [...] be a minimum 3.5 inches
  thick

I've found that most slabs are 3" to 4" thick, excluding the footings.

But I also know that the code is a minimum, and in some cases it makes sense to go beyond what code calls for. Is there any advantage to pouring a basement slab over 3.5" thick?

Before I'd add more concrete I'd add reinforcing - reinforcing is cheap and the benefit of it is huge, .vs. unreinforced concrete.

After that it's a matter of use. Will you have a machine shop in the basement? You might want a bit more thickness, too. Will you be playing ping-pong and/or putting in a 1970's basement bar? No benefit. Woodworking machinery? 4 inches is probably plenty. Storing random junk you probably should throw out? Your wine collection? Minimum thickness is fine.

An additional consideration (has not much to do with thickness) is whether you might ever want heat in the basement - in which case, installing radiant heat tubing in the floor, and insulation under the floor and around the outside of the foundation walls is another low cost upgrade with major benefits, if you get it done in the planning phase.

Yet another consideration: Installing exterior drains at footing level is trivial when the hole is open (just the cost of the pipe and placing it - perhaps one more trench to take it away from the house) but terribly expensive if you discover a need for them later on and have to excavate...


Cut steel fascia board cover lengthwise? I am wrapping a porch beam with white steel fascia board cover. The height of the space I need to cover is about an inch less than what the fascia board cover is. So I need to basically cut an inch off the entire length of steel for this beam. It's about 28 linear feet of material.

I am afraid using tin snips would crinkle the material.  I am thinking of a cutting disc on an angle grinder but that's going to make a heck of a mess and brings in potential for not getting a straight cut. A skill saw with a carbon blade would mar the paint in a heart beat, it seems like it's so easy to scratch. Any other ideas I have not considered?

I'm not sure what sort of edge treatment you need at the top, but fascia and other light sheet steel can be cut with a sharp utility knife.

With clamps or a helper, lay a straightedge on the back side of the fascia and score along it with a new knife blade. Knife angle is important and can cause your cut to run astray. Keep things in line. Run the cut twice more, then remove the straightedge and snap the metal along the cut by flexing it.

If it doesn't fold on the snap right away, and cleanly, score the metal again with the knife. You only need to get maybe halfway through the metal for it to snap.

If you know someone in the siding or HVAC business with a brake apparatus, cut your metal a bit wide and have them hem it to the final height. A hem provides a safer workpiece and a nicer finish.


How do I fix seams that open up at the corners of walls during the winter? Every winter, we get cracks like this where the walls meet the ceiling in certain rooms.  We just got our bathroom redone, so it's most bothersome here.  When springtime comes, they "seal" back up.  Why does this happen and what's the best way to fix this?  Or should I just hire someone?  How much would this run minus painting?

Update: thanks everyone for your answers! ultimately, I think the best answer is the "cover it up with crown moulding" since that will look prettiest, add some value, and fixes the issue for the long term.  But is that what I did?  Of course not!!  I went the "caulk it and hope no one notices" route, and, honestly, it looks pretty OK now.  I used Lowes White Lightning Latex Caulk and filled in the gaps, then painted.  I think there is still a question of how it will look in the spring when it closes up, and if it will "bead" when it compresses.  I guess we will see.  (FYI there's more info on why this happens in this article I found -- he also endorses the caulk solution:  http://www.chicagotribune.com/classified/realestate/sns-201401131900--tms--askbildrctnab-a20140124-20140124-story.html)

The reason why this is happening is the structural members are expanding and contracting with the temperature/humidity changes.

There is no good solution to fix the issues, but you can cover it up.

The quick and dirty solution would be to put up quarter round over the seams, and attach it to the studs only- That is not to the ceiling.  This would allow for the expansion/contraction to remain covered.

Other options would be to install Cove moulding.

or Crown Moulding

Note that the Crown shown here is clip on, and the clip attaches to the wall only.  Again, this allows for expansion.

These can all be DIY projects if you're comfortable with finicky work.  It's a bit tricky to get the corner mitres looking nice and tight, and you'll need a compound mitre saw.


Can I Notch a Double 2x12 Floor Joist Down to 2x6 Size (5.5 inches) if I need a 2x8 (7.25) per My Local Span Table I have a 12' span with a floor joist that is currently 2 2x12's. It was originally a 16'+ span with an attic opening that was 3' wide thus the reason for the double 2x12's. I'm installing an L staircase to the attic (live load, but no bathroom or kitchen will be up there) and the headroom at the point of the double floor joist is not tall enough to meet code. If I was able to cut the double 2x12's down to 2x6 size, which I think is roughly comparable to a single 2x8 (a 2x8 spanning 12' meets code for a floor joist 16 OC where I am), then the headroom would meet code.

You can see in the attached drawing what I'm trying to do.  Can I notch a double 2x12 like this where they're still 2x12 depth at the bearing point, reduced to 2x6 depth for the 3 feet of stairs and then back to 2x12 for the remainder?  Again, I only need a single 2x8 for this span so my thinking is double 2x6 depth for that 3 feet of 2x12 will suffice.

It’s not clear the spacing of the 2x12’s nor how many 2x12’s you’d like to notch. However, I’ll make a few assumptions and you can let me know if I’m wrong.

The Code requires a Live Load of 20 psf for uninhabited attics and 30 psf for habitable attics. (See ICC Table 1607.1) Normal living spaces are required to have 40 psf.

I’ll assume 20 psf Live Load (furniture, people, etc.) plus 10 psf for Dead Load (subfloor, joists, ceiling below, etc.) for a total load of 30 psf.

I’ll also assume your 2x12 joists are 16” on center spanning 12’ and notched as shown in your sketch.

Depending on the species and grade of lumber, a 2x6 at 16” on center spanning 12’ (the notch essentially reduced the 2x12’s to 2x6’s) can support about 37 psf (live and dead load).

Therefore, your double 2x6’s at 16” on center spanning 12’ can easily support a Code required 30 psf (live and dead load).

Bearing is adequate with the joists resting on the 2x4 top plate.

I’d be very careful of your vertical cut. Do not over cut and make a notch into the remainder of the joist.

The weak link in this design is the bearing end. If the notched end piece can be “racked” it could split off and become detached. I’d insure that these joists do not move laterally by carefully extending the subfloor to the adjacent walls so it can’t move.

If you are going to use the space for living space or if you’re going to store heavy items (like stacks of books, etc.) then my analysis is not correct. (I’d put my Christmas decorations in that corner.)


I'm replacing a motion sensor light switch.There are two switches to contol this light. I swapped wire for wire The motion sensor became defective after 10 years or more.  There are two switches to contol this light.  I swapped wire for wire - red to red, black to black, green to ground, and white to white.  Light works when on.  Doesn't work when set to auto. Sensor indicator doesn't light, except when the distant switch is turned off, but then the ceiling light doesn't come on. Should have been a two minute job.  I've been playing with this for an hour.  lol

That sensor doesn't support 3-ways, so you were correct to replace it
The Topgreener TSOS5 doesn't support 3-way operation, only single-pole use (note the lack of a traveller wire/terminal on it), so you were correct to take it back and replace it with something suited for 3-way service.  (Trying to adapt a motion-sensor to 3-way service using a relay would lead to somewhat...counterintuitive behavior, I suspect.)


Installing New T8 Ballast; need wiring diagram I am installing a New T8 Single tube ballast to replace an older ballast.
The new ballast has one black wire, one white wire, two blue and one red.
The old ballast has two wires coming and going from bulb mounts. How should I wire the new ballast?

The new ballast should've come with a wiring diagram. It might even be printed on the ballast itself.

In general I think most (all?) T8 ballasts have blue wires going to one end and red wires going to the other. Are you replacing a T8 ballast or something else? T12s are wired differently so make sure to follow the new ballast's wiring if you are replacing an older one.


What to do, half the house has no power after I used the GFCI tester So I tried a gfci tester device on a non-gfci outlet without thinking too much over it.  Why, you ask?  Well, I guess because I am an idiot. As I pressed the test button, half the house lost power.  The breaker tripped, but when I put the breaker back to the "on" position, there is still no power.  What did I do?
My understanding was that pressing the gfci test button when the device is plugged into a non-gfci would be a non-event, since very little current would actually flow.  And yet, here we are.

My understanding was that pressing the gfci test button when the device is plugged into a non-gfci would be a non-event, since very little current would actually flow. And yet, here we are.

Correlation is not causality.
Your understanding is correct, and the power loss was due to something else entirely.
My money's on "It tripped a GFCI that you don't know about".
I bet it tripped the breaker because it's a GFCI breaker (those have Test buttons)...  And I have a feeling it's in a subpanel, which is fed from another GFCI breaker.  So now you need to hunt that down.


What are the must-have features for a Hackspace/Makerspace bandsaw? I've been tasked with looking into Band Saw models which could be useful for in a Hackspace/Makerspace.  This means the saw will be used fairly frequently, by many people, for a wide variety of tasks.

Ideally we'd like to be able to work with wood and metal.  With this in mind we were considering getting a Vertical band saw for wood and a Horizontal one for metal.

My preliminary research has shown me a few dimensions to consider.  They are

  Type

  Floor-standing cabinet model
  Bench-top

  Kerf
  Depth of cut
  Throat capacity
  Size of motor

  3/4 to 1 horsepower for most home models.

  Speed/RPM

  Professional models will have larger motors with Variable Speed.  This is convenient for switching from wood to metal work.

  Table

  should have a cast-iron, steel or aluminum alloy table
  should tilt up to 45-degrees for angled cuts.
  are typically be about 16-inches in both width and length
  best to equip it with a miter track

  Blade momentum

  Thicker blades have higher momentum, which helps prevent binding.

  Blade length

  Try to find a machine that uses common blade lengths

  Fence

  Not sure what this is.  I've heard I should aim to have one.

In terms of models the only brand I've looked at so far is Start Rite, but I have to be honest, I'm completely lost.

So, I guess my question boils down to:

Which features are must-haves for a Hackspace/Makerspace setup, and why?  Am I on the right track?

Our budget would be in the  £1,000 to £6,000 range.

UPDATE

I realise now that the scope of this question is might have been a bit too broad.  I've received some good advice for vertical band saws (thank you) and have narrowed it down to two models.  Ideally I'd spend a few weeks researching this, but unfortunately I don't have that time... so for now my picks are:

Jet JWBS-16X
Jet VBS18MW Wood & Metal Cutting (primarily for wood)

I'll probably start a new question specifically for the horizontal metal band saw.

Cheers!

I think you're on the right track, especially in considering TWO saws, one high-speed saw dedicated to wood and another very different low-speed saw for brass/steel. The wood saw will be fine (but messy) with alumin(i)um.

You should know a couple more more points.

First, the kerf on nearly all bandsaws (except sawmill types) is pretty much identical regardless of blade choice.

Second, a saw with a gearbox (don't DO this with a variable-speed motor!) for two very, very different speeds (wood and alumin(i)um require MUCH higher speed than steel will tolerate) will tend to be a very high-ticket item, generally much more expensive than two dedicated saws because of the dramatic shiftable gear reduction required for steel.

Now... to really answer your question of must-haves, we should know what - in particular - you plan to cut, and how accurately you want to cut it. What thicknesses of wood and metals? Do you ever plan to cut steel or brass (if not, you could do with one saw)? Do you require high-quality cuts in non-alumin(i)um metals... or could you do that work with a reciprocating saw? In wood, what are your goals? How large (length / breadth) a workpiece do you really plan to cut curves in?

For most steel I imagine you cutting, A small (4") vertical or vertical-horizontal bandsaw would suffice. I have one such from Harbor Freight in my shop, and it does everything I want a steel-sawing saw to do (which is really quite a lot).

A 14" bandsaw is the de facto standard for a "serious" woodworking shop. A wide array of manufacturers offer them, they all take one common blade size (unless they have a "riser" to lift the upper wheel another 6", in which case they all take a second common blade size).

You should know... that most bandsaws have a considerably smaller vertical capacity than the saw's "inch" size (which is a diametric measurement of the upper and lower wheels). Most saws have about a 6" vertical capacity, and that's really pretty realistic unless the saw is equipped with a very large motor; cutting material more than 6" thick requires a GREAT deal of power. A riser will gain more height capacity, but it's nearly always wasted capacity because the motor can't manage resawing stock that's much more than 6" thick (unless it happens to be balsa or basswood or tupelo or other very soft wood).

I like the 14" saws; they're generally built much sturdier than smaller saws, and have better blade guides. Blades are easy to come by. The basic saw, with no "upgrades" (some of which are glitz with no real practical upgrade value at all), works well for most tasks. Because they're so very common, there's lots of help available on the Internet if you should run into trouble aligning, maintaining, or using the saw.

I apologize in advance - I'm afraid I've rambled a bit here...


Why does my washing machine trip the GFCI breaker? My Samsung washer WA52M7750AV/A4 occasionally pops the GFCI breaker. This a new home not quite a year old. The only item on the breaker is the washer.It always completes the wash cycle and the breaker pops maybe twice a month when I push power on to start another load. I think the breaker is to sensitive.. I have had this washer for about 5 months. The old washer never had this issue.. Thoughts and recommendations please..

Just doing what it is supposed to do!
A GFCI needs to be very sensitive to do its job. My guess is you've got some moisture getting into the controls and causing an intermittent ground fault. Which is exactly what the GFCI is supposed to do.
Since it is only 5 months old, I recommend talking to Samsung about a warranty repair. You might get "nowhere", but you might find that they have had other problems - perhaps bad gaskets or something allowing water to get where it shouldn't.
If you can't get any warranty (a.k.a. free) help from Samsung, then I would see if there is any way to seal the control panel better.


How to add colour to grout for wall tiles I'm preparing to tile a bathroom wall with white 100x200mm tiles. For aesthetic reasons, I'd like to use contrasting grout in a bright vivid colour. All the pre-coloured grouts I can find for sale are shades of grey and beige. What would be the best way to add colour to white tile grout?

I'm leaning towards stirring paint into pre-mixed grout, or else mixing my own grout replacing some of the water with paint. But I'm not sure what type of paint to use, how intense a colour I could reasonably expect, and whether doing this might affect the grout's ability to do its job.

Just a guess, i would look into dyes or pigments for concrete .

Mix it into a white grout. experiment with colors and ratios, take notes so you can scale up when you find the combo you like.

A quick web search found this web site as just an example.

I Also found this tutorial,

But wait, there is more. If you act now i will include a link to a handy search engine where You also can use the internet to find out things.