What's this wiring contraption in my closet? I recently moved into an old apartment and found this contraption in a closet, with wiring going in different directions around the door frame. Some of the wires are cut in places mid-wall and have been painted over into the wall. Right adjacent to it, by the closet door, is the equally ancient buzzer I use to let people into the building. Both the audio AND video feedback don't work -- I just press the unlabeled button for entry; it has no telephone capability.

My concern with the wiring is that occasionally my buzzer will go off for a split second even though my door isn't being rung (when it IS my door, the screen turns on too, so I'd know). The screws on the contraption are labeled "RGBY," which a quick Google suggests landline telephone wiring -- except! -- there is no phone jack in my apartment.

So: Is this just a remnant of previous landline wiring? Can it be causing the false buzzing? What's that hole in the center? Just, what is it overall?

The device is simply a junction block for telephone wiring. Normally, it would have a square cover that's held in place by a screw that goes into that center hole.

The false buzzing cannot be caused by this alone; there must be wiring errors elsewhere in the building.


Can a cold air return be shared by two rooms? Can I use the same cold air return duct in a wall between two rooms? For example, the duct would run down the wall between the studs and then could I put the register at the bottom of the wall on both sides giving both rooms access to the same return duct?

I see no problem in doing that, as long as the return duct is sized big enough for the both rooms. I would think it would need to be at least the size of both room supply ducts combined.

An alternative would be to use a Jumper duct.


Neutral wire going into panel has ~120 volts on it I know there are threads about open neutrals, but wasn't sure if this is a different case with it being in my panel rather than outlet or switch.  Can I assume there is an open neutral somewhere or could it be something else?  Where should I start looking?  Would the break or loose connection be between the panel and first outlet or could it be anywhere in the circuit?  We noticed this when swapping a breaker in the panel.

If you have a neutral wire removed from the neutral bus bar in your panel it is possible to see 120VAC on that wire if the circuit breaker for that circuit is turned on and there is a load connected to the circuit and load device is also turned on.

The disconnected neutral means that no return current is flowing in that circuit but with a connected load it is possible to see the 120VAC through the load when when measured.

This picture will help you see how you can measure the 120VAC on the neutral wire:


Why won't my deadbolt unlock and how can I fix it? We've got a deadbolt that decided to stop working today. When we turn with either the key (outside) or the lever (inside), the knob/key moves the full motion, but the deadbolt only moves about 1/2 an inch. It does not retract all the way inside the door, and therefore we can't get the door open.

As I said, the movement seems fluid, but the deadbolt just doesn't move far enough. What would cause this, and how might I go about fixing it?

You'll have to remove the dead bolt and thumb turn mechanism in order to inspect it. It could just be gummed up in which case it needs to be cleaned and lubricated, but also common is someone forcing the lock and bending a component.  If bent, you can try and straighten whatever is bent with a pair of pliers, but if it bent that easily it is probably a low-end deadbolt in which case it's probably better to replace it.  A locksmith can key a new deadbolt to your current key if that is a concern.  There might also be debris lodged in the mechanism which can be removed.


How to maintain a pool without eventually having to replace water? Liquid chlorine is weak and cumbersome, but seems to be the safest solution as it seems to just add salt.  Also raises PH as it has a value of 13.

Dichloroisocyanuric Acid and Trichlorisocyanuric Acid have Cyanuric acid, which with continued use will be too high and require a water exchange.  These are also acidic and lower ph.

Calcium Hypochlorite will eventually add too much calcium, which can cause scaling and also require either a Reverse Osmosis filter or an exchange of water.  This has a high ph.

I don't know much about Bromine, but I think it is only used in indoor pools.

Is there any way to use the powder form stuff without oversaturating the water with calcium or cya?

You don't say much about the type of pool (in-ground,above ground, lined, concrete, etc) or the environment (is freezing an issue) but our in-ground vinyl lined pool in the southern United States uses a salt water chlorinator and the water has not been replaced (aside form evaporative losses) in the 5 years since the pool was installed.  It doesn't get much safer (just add salt) or easier.  We get the water tested at the pool supply store and have to add a bit of this or that from time to time, but overall it is hassle-free.


Can I cap off and ignore red wire? I'm replacing a light switch. From the looks of the box and my limited electrical knowledge, it was wired for a 3 way setup (picture below). I can't find any other switch in our house that it's connected to, so my intention is just to cap off the red wire and wire the new switch like a standard single pole switch. Are there any problems with that plan?

Find the switch, before somebody else does and spoils your plans!

The problem with this plan is that someone will find the other switch, flip it to turn the light on or off, and inadvertently disable your now-single-pole light switch in the process.  Either that, or your single pole switch won't work to begin with because the "hidden" 3 way switch is flipped to the wrong position, energizing the capped off red traveller instead of the connected black traveller.  Moral of the story: find all the switches on a circuit before doing anything to it.


Reuse wire nut when adding electrical outlet? Went to Lowe's and bought the materials to pig-tail an electrical outlet. The guy had me buy some wire nuts. But the outlet and I am going to run the additional outlet from has 3 wire nuts already.

Can't I just reuse the wire nuts?

Wire nuts have improved in leaps and bounds in the past 20 years, so if a wire nut is clunky or finicky, I toss it out immediately and replace with new.  I will only reuse one if it seems to be performing "tip top".

It isn't like you have to evaluate each nut individually.  There are probably only 1 or 2 types in use in your building, you soon learn which aren't very good.

Also, wire nuts are only expensive when buying them in small lots, and you're paying for packaging and the big-box store premium.  Once you are buying them in bulk, they're too cheap to care about.

There's also a question of size.  Wire nuts have a working range, and it's best to be sort-of in the middle of their range.  For instance I like yellow wire nuts for 2 wires, maybe 3; for 3 or more I  prefer red.  On the fringe of their working range, they will often give unreliable results.

Lastly, don't use wire nuts for aluminum, even if they're purple.  Use Alumiconns and an AFCI breaker.


Microwave oven is not working but display works well I recently moved to a new place. Since moving my Bosch microwave oven (model number: HLK4555EU/01 1) stopped working.
The user interface seems to be functional but it just doesn't start. While moving  it's door came out and my friends helped to put it back. Thereafter the problem remains.

"while moving it's door came out"
That's the key. A microwave oven is an extremely safe device as long as the door is closed when in use. It is an extremely dangerous device if it is used with the door open. In order to make absolutely certain that nobody will ever turn on a microwave oven with the door open, there are normally multiple interlocks or switches to make sure that it is closed before starting. These switches are NOT as obvious or as simple to override as, for example, the door-open-light-on switch for a refrigerator because the consequences are much more serious with a microwave oven.
A couple of likely possibilities:

When the door came off, some internal wiring connected to the door came out and when you put the door back on the oven the wiring was not reconnected.
A small hidden switch in the frame of the oven where the door closes was pulled/pushed out of place when the door came off and now when the door closes it doesn't trigger the switch correctly.

You may be able to figure this out by checking the schematic. What I do NOT recommend is trying to bypass the door switch because it only takes one accident to cause some serious damage.


Leaking Washing Machine Shut Off Valve I noticed a leak coming from the valve between my main water supply and the pipe connected to washing machine's cold water intake. I looked online and saw 2 common solutions : tighten the packing nut , or replace the packing washer.

Now my problem is that I can't locate these parts on the valve I'm working with. I was able to remove the handle and expose what looks like the valve stem (based on a diagram I found online) , but the packing nut is what I'm having trouble finding.

You can see in the second picture where it's leaking from. The plastic cap is what the blue handle fits over, and is held in place by a screw.

I assumed the big nut right above the stem/screw (second picture) was the packing nut, but I can't seem to turn it at all, in either direction. I don't know if that indeed is the packing nut and it's simply stuck because of rust buildup or something, but I don't want to force it and break a soldered connection.

Can you guys help me figure out what I'm looking at here ?

Julien

Definitely packing. Can't 100% confirm from the picture whether it was designed to be serviced, but there has got to be a reason for the hex-shaped machined valve bonnet. I think you need to use bigger wrenches (back-up wrench and working wrench) and get that bonnet off so you can repack the valve. It's likely just stuck.

I would just cut it off or "un-solder" it and replace it with a top quality ball valve.


What's wrong with my table saw? (I asked Should I sharpen or replace my table saw blade? and got a good answer.  (Paraphrased: sharpen $100 blades, replace $30 blades.)  But, as it turns out, I was suffering from superstitious behavior, attributing the problem to the last thing I did rather than finding the root cause.  A brand new blade bogs down ripping 1/2" poplar so the blade is not the problem.)

I have a Craftsman table saw (model 113.298031) which recently started bogging down and stalling while ripping soft woods (1x4 pine, 1/2x3 poplar).  I cleaned the blade to no effect and put in a brand new combination blade also to no effect.  I now wonder if the belt or motor are to blame.

The motor mount allows the motor to be pivoted to tighten the belt but is at the furthest point from the blade so there is no room to tighten it by adjusting the position.  The belt is a series of links that look like leather.  It seems I could take the belt off, remove a link, and put it back together as a quick and cheap way to prove if the belt is the problem.  If that works, does it mean the belt is so stretched out (and weakened) that it needs to be replaced or does that solve my problem?

If there is no more room for adjustment of the motor to tighten the belt then the belt is too long.  If you have a link belt remove a link. This can give the impression of the saw bogging down when actually the belt is just slipping.


Should I turn the hot water tank off or turn it down on extended vacation? I am going to FLA for winter this year. I will turn off my water to my home, and set my thermostat at 55 for my 4 month absence. Should I also turn my hot water tank off? Or should I turn to lowest setting?

If you have good access to the pipes and can be completely sure that they're empty down to the service entry, then you can get away with turning off the hot water heater and draining the lines/tank.  If it's a newer model, though, they're generally extremely efficient, and won't cost you much to leave on for peace of mind.

If you can't verify empty lines, then no, you probably shouldn't turn off the hot water heater.


How to arrest Cat6 cables from falling inside the wall? I successfully drilled through floors (see this), pulled Cat6 cables and terminated them with keystones. I tested everything  and now am ready to finish the installation by installing wall plates
I want to put some kind of stopper on the cables, so that they don't slide down with their own weight.  Initially I thought of making a single loose knot (~2") with the whole bunch, but not sure if this may be detrimental to signal quality.
What do you guys recommend?
(somewhat old photo):

(almost finished):

Purchase ring-ended cable ties.
Put a short drywall screw (or other wood screw, assuming wooden studs) through the ring.
Reach in the hole and screw it to the stud that's closest.
Grab the cables and thread the cable tie around them (this can be a high-skill activity one handed in a hole in the wall.)
Pull cables up to have reasonable slack and cinch the cable tie to hold them in place.


Do I need to install carbon monoxide detectors to be up to code? My home was constructed in 2003 and has a natural gas furnace. Do I need to install carbon monoxide detectors to be up to code? It seems confusing since the first code IRC 315.1 is only for new construction, but the second code IRC 315.3 loops back on .1 for "Existing dwellings" with fuel-burning appliances.

  International Residential Code for One- and Two-Family Dwellings 2012

  Chapter 3 Building Planning

  Section R315 Carbon Monoxide Alarms

  R315.1 Carbon monoxide alarms.
  For new construction, an approved carbon monoxide alarm shall be installed outside of each separate sleeping area in the immediate vicinity of the bedrooms in dwelling units within which fuel-fired appliances are installed and in dwelling units that have attached garages.

  R315.3 Where required in existing dwellings.
  Where work requiring a permit occurs in existing dwellings that have attached garages or in existing dwellings within which fuel-fired appliances exist, carbon monoxide alarms shall be provided in accordance with Section R315.1.

You should install a carbon monoxide detector regardless of what the code says!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_monoxide_poisoning:

  Carbon monoxide is a toxic gas, but, being colorless, odorless, tasteless, and initially non-irritating, it is very difficult for people to detect.

  The initial symptoms of acute carbon monoxide poisoning include headache, nausea, malaise, and fatigue. These symptoms are often mistaken for a virus such as influenza or other illnesses such as food poisoning or gastroenteritis. ... Increasing exposure produces cardiac abnormalities including fast heart rate, low blood pressure, and cardiac arrhythmia; central nervous system symptoms include delirium, hallucinations, dizziness, unsteady gait, confusion, seizures, central nervous system depression, unconsciousness, respiratory arrest, and death.

Detectors are cheap ($15-$60) and readily available. They come as battery-operated, plug-in, and as combination smoke/CO detectors. I recently replaced the smoke detectors in my house (which were 10 years old and thus at end-of-life) with these combo hardwired units: they are linked, so if one goes off, they all do, and announce "Fire" or "Carbon monoxide".

Bottom line: If you have a fuel-burning appliance (furnace, stove, etc), fireplace, or attached garage, you should have at least one CO detector.

As far as current compliance, the IRC and local building codes typically only apply to new construction or renovation. For example, if you are doing an addition to your house or other type of permit-requiring renovation, you'll have to comply with the building codes for at least that portion. This may vary by jurisdiction, and there may be other specific laws or regulations that require retroactively complying with the codes. I am just a random person on the internet; you should consult with your local permit office and/or building inspector to know for sure.

Your insurance or mortgage company may also have other requirements, on top of local building codes and law.

Law in US

Since July 1, 2009, Colorado requires CO detectors in all new homes and any re-sold homes.

Since Feb 22, 2010, New York state requires at least one CO detector on the lowest story having a sleeping area. Homes built after Jan 1, 2008 must have a hardwired CO alarm.

Since Jan 1, 2011, California requires CO alarms for new homes, and since July 1, 2011 for existing homes.

Law in Canada

In Ontario, homes built after Aug 6, 2011 must have hardwired CO detectors installed. Legislation was passed in Nov 2013 to require CO detectors in all homes with fuel-burning appliances.


How can I mount heavy stuff on wooden studs? I want to replace my kitchen cabinets (shoddy DIY stuff, very rough) with some nice floating shelves.

I tried to find information on how to mount heavy stuff to wooden studs but all I found were information for what fasteners to use when mounting heavy stuff into drywall.

What kind of fasteners do I need to use if I want to mount something that will be bearing heavy loads into a wooden stud?

The hardware needed will likely be dictated to some degree by the manner in which the shelves are supported and how much weight the shelves are being asked to support. A  true floating shelf will often use a french cleat as Keshlam suggested, often in this situation an aluminum version called called a Z-clip.
This shows the short, clip style but it's available in 8' lengths too that you would cut to the length you need.

These are easy to install and can hold some pretty extreme weights (the exact load maximums will be listed on the package or the website tech sheet) but the shelf has to be thick enough to encapsulate the thickness of the brackets plus the distance required to engage the two halves, plus some room for a lip top and bottom. Like so:

The good news is these are available in many sizes and can be found in most home centers or online for a reasonable price. The (possibly) bad news is you'll almost certainly have to make or at least modify a shelf to suit your needs. As far as hardware is concerned in general: use a good quality wood screw that gets at least 2" of bite into the shelf and on every stud that you can catch (you may have to enlarge the countersink to accept a larger screw head or drill some new holes to suit the spacing of your walls substructure) into both the shelf and the stud side. Unless your trying to support an unreasonable amount of weight you should be okay.

Of course you can always just pick up a store bought floating shelf. Most come with a lightweight keyhole style hanger (seen here)

but will still hold a fair amount (not much though). As for screws, they're often included with the kit but the same rules apply as previously discussed so if you buy a shelf package from Ikea or wherever and it comes with inch long screws or those plastic drywall anchors, do yourself a favor and go buy some real screws to mount it.


Foundation concerns with 40 year old home I just purchased a home built in 1978 (I literally moved in last weekend.) This is my first home purchase, and I tried to do as much research as I could -- I had it inspected, and the inspector found some cracks and mentioned they were probably just settling with a home this age. The appraiser hired by the organization financing my loan rated the condition of the home as C4/Q4 as "some minor deffered maintenance" and "meeting or exceeding applicable building codes", and also marked "no" for all the of the "has settlement/foundation problems" boxes.

When I moved in, I noticed the hardwood floors in my office (downstairs, east corner) and the linoleum ones in the kitchen (downstairs, west corner) were bouncier/shakier than I'm used to. I braced the one in my office by adding a beam made of 2x4s across the joists with a small jack post in the middle (Not super tight, I wasn't trying to raise anything up, just make it feel stiffer.)

I've inspected the floor joists as well as I can, and I've found no rot, cracking, etc. They all seem solid.

My concerns increased greatly when I set up my washing machine -- on the concrete slab in the basement, which is under my office -- when it went into it's spin cycle, my entire office began to shake. This felt wrong to me, as the concrete slab should not carry that much vibration up and into the house, should it?

There are a few doors in the home that are slightly sagging on one side, maybe by 1/8th to 1/4th of an inch, and there are a couple of small cracks in the drywall extending from the corner of two doors -- one in my office closet, and one in the upstairs bedroom -- the bedroom on the same side/corner of my house as my office.

The slab in the basement has some cracking that has been repaired, and I know there was some minor water infiltration issues in the past, but they were fixed and the inspector found no evidence of recent water issues in the basement. It has been the wettest year in probably the past 10 where I live, so I feel like if the basement were going to leak, it would have done so already.

I've attached some images of the concerns I mentioned above -- I don't know what to do here. I'm extremely concerned because I just bought the place, so I have no equity to fall back on if I need an expensive foundation repair.

Should I start looking for a structural engineer, or am I being paranoid?

Update:
So, I wanted to add an update here for anyone else who may have similar problems. I had a contractor with years of experience that I trust come in and look at everything. We discovered a couple things, firstly, at some point there was a load bearing wall in the basement that someone removed -- and replaced with a couple of inadequate and poorly-positioned posts. This caused the center of the house to sag slightly -- but the foundation seems okay. I got a few more posts, put them in better locations along the beam that runs along the center of the house, and I plan to eventually rebuild the wall that was there at one point. I likely won't try to jack anything back up -- because the contractor said that could cause things to crack more since it's settled how it is -- but it should be fine and stable now with the added support. As for the cracking in the cement wall -- we discovered it was three blocks -- not the whole wall, that are pushed in very slightly near/just under the ground line outside -- he suspected that our two very wet past winters resulted in water seeping into the ground, freezing, and pushing those block in a bit. He said that as long as I don't start having water come in there (which so far there has been none despite very heavy rains lately and a high water table), and they don't continue to push in, it's nothing to worry about.

Floor bounce is often a factor of the spacing and span of the joists. Assuming you are in the US, there was a time in the 70s when the building codes were still based on the pre-WWII lumber strength data. But after the baby-boom era in the 50s and 60s, most of the old growth trees were harvested and lumber was coming from new faster growing trees that were not as strong. Eventually the "Floor Joist Span Tables" that are used in the construction industry were updated to reflect this, but the lag time meant a lot of wood frame homes built in the 70s have more "bounce" than older ones or newer ones. It's not necessarily bad, it's just different than you might have experienced in a newer or older home. I have a home built in 1971, I noticed it the day I toured it before buying and I researched it, thinking that the home was defective. But the spans and spacings were correct, for the time it was built.

The vibration from the slab and the cracking may be due to the type of soil you have. Clay soils tend to change a lot each year as they absorb water in the winter and dry out in the summer. My house is on California Adobe soil, in the winter and spring I can feel vibrations coming from transformers in a utility substation 1/2 mile away, but by June or July, I can't feel them any more.


"Phantom" touches on capacitive buttons on new refrigerator LCD panel every ten minutes The timing is random and varies from 10 minutes to 2 hours between "phantom touches" on the touch buttons on refrigerator panel.
The touches activate the functions, like turning on the dispenser light or trying to set an alarm.
We had a similar thing happen previously with an electric cooker with a touch panel - but it stopped when we didn't run an exercise machine on the same circuit - but we've gotten rid of the exercise machine and the "phantom" touches are now happening on the refrigerator.
Do we have a serious problem here?
Thanks!

You live in a large complex. This just made the probability that someone else in the facility has a fridge or some other device that is cycling every 10 minutes to 2 hours causing spikes on the line and your phantom problems. You might try a surge arrest outlet and see if this helps. A cheap plug in one may be a better first try.


How to fix electrical system that feeds a studio unit Main lug panel with two 20 amp breakers which feed an old Cutler Hammer 30 amp Buss fuse box panel in existing studio. There are no grounds in old Buss fuse box.

My question is I think this is all wrong. The home has 2 meters. The main line ground system is tied to a water pipe from the 2 meters. Meter  1 feeds the main home where there is a main breaker shut off that feeds a large breaker panel.  Meter 2 goes into main lug panel with no main breaker. It seems they have bonded the ground and neutrals in the panels. they have installed two 20 amp breakers that feed a 30 amp Buss fuse box in the studio upstairs off the main lug. My friend wants all new wiring upstairs and we are trying to attempt this on our own. What change do I have to make to main lug in order to properly wire a sub panel upstairs? Or can we add larger breakers on the main lug to feed a sub panel upstairs? Or can we use the 4 breaks on main lug to service upstairs? The upstairs is a one bedroom studio. There are 10 lights, 2 attic fans, one 110 A/C unit, 2 receptacles in bedroom,  5 receptacles in kitchen, one receptacle in bathroom and three in living room plus the doorbell.

First, that 20A dual breaker does not have common trip.  It needs common trip.  Get a 2-pole breaker (about $10) or a handle-tie (about $3).

That thing you have pictured, the tiny Cutler Hammer (BR?) panel, is your main breaker box, since it's the first stop from the meter.   Here, and only here, neutral should be bonded to ground.

This is actually rather good news.  It is not realistic to DIY replace a main panel, because there's no way to completely de-energize it. By having this "runt" main panel, you will be doing pretty much all the house's wiring in a sub-panel which will replace the fuse box.  And that makes DIY easy and safe, just shut off the main breaker in the exterior panel.

Get yourself a nice 40/42-space subpanel and you're good to go.  (you can get away with a smaller subpanel, but that is no place to scrimp - ask anyone who has run out of space in their panel.) I suppose you could do a 30, but you'll have a happier kitchen if you give it decent electrical service - one circuit per half-receptacle is not excessive, ask any cook who's tripped a breaker!  These bigger panels tend to come with a lot of free "bonus" breakers, and that helps with the finances. But the main criterion is sanely priced AFCI and GFCI breakers - because many of these will be required in the future.  Since AFCI and GFCI are full-width, "half-width" or "duplex/twin" breaker schemes are useless, so avoid "20 space/40 circuit" panels.

You may think it odd to hook a 225A subpanel to a 20A breaker.  That is actually fine because the 225A subpanel can handle 20A.   (a 60A subpanel off a 100A breaker, no.)  Given that all modern service must be at least 100A, the city will probably require 100A at the very least, the reason to go 150++ is more spaces, and more future expansion.

Why would you ever want more amps?  Four words, On-demand hot water which are great for studios because they're small. Some fine ones can take 120 amps all by themselves (but 0A the rest of the time, hence the cost savings.)  Also the usual - electric range, dryer, EV charger, etc. There's always another thing.

In the future, you upgrade by contacting the power company to talk about your options (your subpanel size is a limiting factor here, if it's 100A you cannot get 200A service etc.).  Then you obtain a new meter pan with main breaker onboard, and run appropriate sized wiring to your fine subpanel.  Or you could run that wiring to your current mini-main panel today, it's aluminum wire and not terribly expensive.  (this aluminum wire is fine.)  You would need lug splices to go from the fat stuff to a smaller wire size that would fit in a 20A breaker, but that's no big deal.


Loud circuit breaker pop with burned neutral wires. Need advice on next steps. Photos in description At the bottom are some photos to help aid in my description.

I have 3 circuits leaving my main panel, traveling ~5 feet behind drywall in NB-B cable to a surface mounted junction box where the NM-B splices to THHN wires.  The THHN runs through EMT.

The first circuit (110V 20A) ends at a receptacle
The raceway continues with the other two circuits where the second circuit (220V 15A) ends at a receptacle
The raceway continues until the third circuit ends at a third receptacle.

I just finished wiring all of this and things were working well.  I flipped the breakers to kill power so I could safely put the cover plates on.  I switched on the two 220 circuits and all was well, but when I on the 110 there was a loud pop on its breaker.
I opened the first junction box (where the NM-B splices to THHN) to find the hot wire had rubbed against the screw tab on the box, cutting the insulation and exposing a small bit of copper causing a ground fault (pictured).  The neutral wire is burned (pictured)... At the receptacle end, all appears normal.

The other two circuits seem unaffected - other than one wire nut appears burned (pictured), but I think this was just because it was touching the burned neutral wire.

The junction box was pretty full, but was within box fill calculations. My ground was connected properly.

I am curious where to go from here?  It seems like I should at least fully replace the THHN of the 110 circuit? Or can I just cut out the burned area? I likely should replace the NM-B in the wall? Do I need to replace any portion of the other circuits? Why was there such a loud pop and burned neutral - I would have guessed the short would have traveled down on my ground and tripped the breaker pretty uneventfully?

I think the neutrals just have some soot from the flash on them. The damaged part of the black wire should be cut off and the wire reconnected to the other black. You might have damaged it when you screwed the cover on, screwed the screw into it. Direct shorts on a breaker are never uneventful and pops are common. Examine the wires closely for any damage but I think they'll be OK. The breakers are meant to protect the wiring.


Is bathroom sink pipe configuration up to code and does it have a trap? We recently renovated our bathroom in our apartment building and noticed the bathroom sink wasn't draining poorly. Our contractor said it just needed to be unclogged, which he said he did and now it appears to be draining properly. However, upon inspection of the pipes underneath the sink and enclosed in the vanity, we noticed the configuration of the pipes looks strange, like a roller coaster with multiple loops. We were told they did it that way to accommodate the drawers so the bottom drawer would close since it didn't have a cutout to accommodate the pipes. We are concerned that the pipes may not be be up to code and have recently heard about P trap drain and was wondering if our pipes have that trap or any trap for that matter. Any possibility of this configuration causing blockage/backups again in the future and possible leaks/burst pipes also?

It looks like the original installer didn't quite have the correct combination of pipes and and fudged things a bit. It's perhaps not optimal but fine to leave as is.

There is a trap which is the bit that goes down and then back up in a classical U-trap. There is water in that section to block the foul smelling air coming back up the drain.


Shelves but can't find the studs If I can't find the studs and I'm putting up shelves in my closet which is drywall,would it hold better if I used some kind of glue in the hole before I screw in the screw,??

Whenever mounting shelves in a closet I would recommend the following:

Determine what is behind the wall you are mounting to. Is there any electrical, plumbing, or ducting to worry about? Don't just assume on this. Actually check as if there is something and you didn't check you could seriously injure or kill yourself (if electrical).
Determine where studs are with stud finder. If none are found within span you are mounting shelf, there are almost always at least two on the corners of the room.
If studs are found, try to anchor as much as you can directly to the studs. I know that often the studs aren't in the optimal placement for a shelf but you get the most secure mount for "free" as the support already exists.
For those mounts that you can't find a stud for, then uses drywall anchors. For these you will need to estimate how much load you expect to be on them. If your shelf has a support touching the ground (most weight is not on the wall) then less than pretty low weight rated ones are perfectly fine. If it is a floating shelf then calculate the weight of the shelf + the most weight you would ever put on it and divide by the number of mount points to determine your weight requirement per drywall anchor.


Confused about humidity levels in basement - a math problem I can't work out the math on this one.
I have a basement. The size is about 10,000 cubic feet (about 35 by 32 by 9). I bought a dehumidifier that says the humidity is  70 %. I want to get this below 50 %. The temperature in the basement is about 70 degrees (Fahrenheit). Now, here is where I may be doing something wrong.
at 70 degrees 100 % each cubic foot of air should contain about 0.0011 lb of water. I get that from here
https://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/maximum-moisture-content-air-d_1403.html
So at 70 % there should be about 0.00077 lbs of water per cubic foot. At 10,000 cubic feet this would be 7.7 lbs of water in the air in the basement. Since I started running the dehumidifier yesterday, the humidity has dropped to 65% (so not a lot). In that time (so about 24 hours), the dehumidifier has produced about 5 gallons of water. But five gallons of water has a weight of 42 lbs.
And that is what I don't understand. If there is only 7.7 lb of water in the air, how can the dehumidifier take out 42 pounds of water and only lower the humidity by 5%?
The basement is sealed of pretty good. There is a crawl space covered in plastic. It doesn't smell bad and I was a bit surprised with the 70% humidity. I thought it was less. The numbers above are very rounded, but 7.7 lbs is nowhere near 42 lbs.

Your basement is not nearly as sealed as you think. Which is actually a good thing.
You need to constantly have make up air. That is air to replace the air you breathe. Otherwise, while your H2O is going down (thanks to the dehumidifier), your O2 is also going down and your CO2 is going up as you breathe. I am not going to do the math, but just think "Apollo 13".
End result, even a relatively well sealed basement (or any other room or entire house) has quite a bit of air moving in and out all day long. Yes, we want to minimize it to keep heating & cooling costs down, but it is nowhere near zero. So some fresh air comes in, with more humidity and some old air goes out. All day long. Plus if there are people or pets around then they will add to the humidity with every breath. Plus, depending on the permeability of the basement walls, you may get some moisture coming in from the ground as well.


Wiring GFCI/Switch Combo My current set up is that I have a switch on the kitchen wall with power from the panel at the switch.  Then a 12-3 runs to a box under the sink, where there is a half hot for the plugged disposal.  The switched (red wire) feeds the top of the half hot.  The always hot wire (black) from the 12-3 feeds the bottom (always on) of the half hot and also is spliced to a GFCI that is on the end of a kitchen island.  (The sink is in the island.)  (Neutral is also spliced too at the under sink box to connect to the unbroken side of the half hot and the white wire leading to the GFCI.)

So, at the switch box, there's a 12-2 from the service panel, and then leading out there's a 12-3 to the box under the sink.  And then from the under-sink box there's a 12-2 to a current GFCI that I want to replace with USB/duplex.

I want to replace the GFCI in the island with a GFCI-protected outlet that has USB chargers in it.  I can see a couple of ways to do this.  I could probably just put a two-gang box in under the sink and install a GFCI outlet after the half hot and and then put the 12-2 running to the box that will hold the USB on the load from the GFCI.  Then I don't need to touch the switch box.

What I'm wondering though is whether there's a way to put a combo GFCI/Switch device at the switch and then be able to run to a switched outlet (for the disposal) and to feed the USB on the load side.  I've read a bunch of old questions and have read the Leviton instructions for the combo devices and I'm very confused.  I'm ok with the switched receptacle being GFCI, or, as I understand the code, it doesn't need to be for a disposal.

I need help with the wiring both at the switch box and at the box under the sink.  To recap, existing wiring is:  12-2 going into the switch box.  12-3 leaving the switch box and going into the under sink box.  12-2 (housed in FMC if it matters) leaving the under sink box to the box where I would like to put the USB receptacle.

Edit:  Still confused about how to wire using existing wiring with a switch gfci combo and the 3-wire romex leaving the wall box.  A picture of my best guess here with ground wires omitted:

Given that you are splitting power to disposal and dishwasher, you cannot "split" and have some things be GFCI and others not.  You have to put the works on GFCI, which will be annoying.

Putting the GFCI under the sink in a 2-gang box is out of the question; the reason is GFCIs must be accessible.   Your options are:

GFCI breaker. And done.

Or:

Put the entire downline on the GFCI+recep+switch

...including the switch itself.

Pretty simple to wire:  The hot and neutral from supply go on the LINE terminals. Nothing else goes on the LINE terminals.  All other things go on LOAD, no matter what (except grounds, of course).  Pigtail if necessary.


How can I intentionally make my toilet make this noise? For Halloween I want to haunt my toilets and have them make the noise heard here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6S0zewtkqso

How can I do that?

I think I would just need to cut a slit in a rubber part of the fill valve.

Sounds like a pissed-off fill valve, acting like a reed. You'd have to get your hands on a crappy toilet, swap out the fill valve, and hope it has a similar failure; not recommended. (all puns intended)


I need a stronger fan for this CO2 scrubber This image is a CO2 scrubber I'm trying to optimize. It's 3 inch PVC with a fan to draw or force air over soda lime to extract CO2 out of the air. It presently drops the CO2 level a small amount, and I want to boost its performance. The first fan I tried is a USB computer fan powered from an Anker battery recharger.

Constraints:

it needs to work where there's no electric, so has to be battery powered
it should be able to run about 24-32 hours from a battery charge

I think the next logical step is to use a more powerful fan setup. That would move more air, and could move it over a larger amount of soda lime. What I'm thinking is to find a fan compatible with the 3 inch PVC that is powered by a 12v motorcycle battery.

What kind of fan should I look for to fit this application?

EDIT:

Considering Ed's advice, it may be that I need a new scrubber design. There are a couple options to try with this design, based on his comment that the air must be forced through a volume of the pellets.

In the following images, the purple area represents pellets in the scrubber. I've tried configuration 1 and 2, and intend to try 3 and/or 4 with the existing fan or stronger one, before scrapping the design.

Configuration 1:

Configuration 2:

Configuration 3:

Configuration 4:

I have removed CO2 from breathing air (a rebreather for diving) the area of the absorbent is a big part of the systems ability to convert the CO2. The
 gas needs to be in contact with the media pushing it faster may actually reduce the efficiency where reducing the flow by increasing the area may be a better choice.


How should I troubleshoot a refrigerator that is not cooling? I am having an issue with an 3 month old Frigidaire refrigerator. Suddenly today, I noticed it was not cooling, there were no circuit breakers flipped and the unit was still running but just not blowing cold air.

The coils are clean the condenser is not super hot. The fan that circulates the air and the fan for the coils are both running. I believe the compressor is also running because it is warm to the touch.

One thing I can notice is that the coils are not really hot, and the copper wire coming out of the compressor is not cold (it is cool though).

My first thought was, is it stuck on defrost? But since the fans are running I don't think so. Then I thought maybe something is wrong with the overload or start capacitor, but since it appears that the compressor is running (since it is getting warm), I'm not sure if that logic is sound though.

Just a note I do not have a volt meter so I cannot test if the start or overload relay are working.

Thoughts on troubleshooting or should I just call a repair man?

Check to see if the freezer side is working. Often times the cold air comes from the freezer side via vents/holes going from the freezer to the fridge which can be adjusted. If the freezer side is working and the fridge isn't, it's likely these are completely closed or maybe blocked by items in the freezer covering them.

This may not be your exact issue. But, I'm adding it as an answer because I'm sure it will be the source of the problem for many others.


How do I wire a remote fan switch and still be able to use wall switches? I have 2 wall switches. 4 wires coming out of the ceiling (black-hot, red-hot, white-common, bare- ground), this ceiling fan and remote (PDF of instructions). How do I wire them and still be able to use wall switches and remote?
I'd like to be able to turn off the light/fan switches individually but also utilize the remote when each switch is on. So 1 switch provides power to the lights and the other to the fan.
Remote unit has Black and White inputs and Black, White, Blue (bottom light) and Orange (top light) outputs to fan/light fixture.
Is this possible or do I just cap the red and have a master switch and a useless switch?

Get a different remote and receiver
If you want a remote and receiver that will play nicely with having light switches in the wall that work, you'll need to set what came with your fan aside and get something else instead.  My suggestion would be to get a Lutron Caseta fan controller and matching dimmer; they install instead of your existing wall switches and provide both wall and remote control.


24 Electrical outlets replaced, only 12 work My husband updated 20yr old outlets in our grandma's house. After replacing roughly 24 outlets only half of them (12) worked when we turn the power back on -- He went back and rechecked for loose wiring and all were connected. We also checked,double checked and triple checked the with the breaker box.

It sounds like either there's something seriously wrong with a) the products he is using; or b) his methods in doing the work.

"Back stab" connections are a common source of problems.  These are a little hole you jab the wire into, on cheap outlets. It's easy to mess up and hard to realize it.  Electricians use them because they are cheap and they can work fast and make more money.  The quality is terrible and they tend to fail (which may relate to the question of why the old outlets need replacing).  I never use them.  I buy better outlets, such as the $3-4 ones, and use screw terminals or the "clamp-and-screw" method the better outlets allow. Here's a page comparing "cheap" and "better".
 https://www.handymanhowto.com/electrical-outlets-side-wire-versus-back-wire/

Another mistake is blindly replacing a bunch of outlets without testing each step of the way.  Power comes in from the panel and goes to the first receptacle in the chain, then from there to later outlets, typically by "passing through" the outlet. Understand the layout of the wiring, and work one outlet at a time.

There's also the mistake of breaking off the "tab" between the outlet screws, or using used outlets where you do not realize the tab is broken off. These separate the two outlets into separate circuits, so for instance one outlet can be always-on and the other can be switched with a light switch.  If you're trying to use both terminals or backstabs to pass-through an outlet with broken tabs, the pass-through won't work and that will kill downstream outlets.


Is there a device that will allow a bathroom fan to run for 5 minutes after it is switched off? There is one switch that controls the lights and fan in the bathroom.  Users turn the light/fan on when they enter, and off when they leave.

I'd like for the bathroom fan to run for a time after they leave, after turning off the lights.

Is there a device, some sort of delay relay perhaps, that would help me do this without altering user behavior?

You want a timer switch. They are quite common. As Tester101 states, you have to make sure the switch is either:

a. rated for the load of the motor (most should be for a standard fan) or, if not...

b. you need to have the switch control a relay, which in turn will turn the fan off/on. I did this to install the lutron timers that I like on a ceiling heater unit (which was more of a load than the fan):


#8 THHN in Conduit for 50 amp circuits I am installing a new electric point-of-presence hot water heater which requires 3 240v 50 amp circuits (6 hot wires, 1 earth ground). The water heater is roughly 50' from my panel.

I would like to run the wires from my main panel in PVC conduit (the grey sched 40 stuff the big box stores sell) to make a neater installation, rather than attempting to run three 6/2 cables (not to mention there is only 1 connection point inside the water heater for an earth ground, so running three 6/2 cables, each with its own ground wire, would be problematic as to what to do w/ the other two ground wires in the cables.)

I've read through the NEC to attempt to ensure I will be compliant, but I am still unsure as some of the language is confusing...

I read I can run #8 (rather than #6) THWN/THHN for a 50 amp circuit when the THWN/THHN is installed in conduit "as part of a 3-wire set". I am unclear as to what exactly is meant by that... e.g. when they say "3 wire set" do they mean something like 6/3 where you have two hots and a neutral and ground wire, or is 6/2 a "3 wire set"?

Is it permissible under the NEC for me to run all 6 hots plus one earth ground in the same conduit (in which case, from what I see, I can use 1" conduit), or do I have to have a separate conduit run for each "3 wire set"? The conduit fill tables seem to indicate it is permissible, but then I ran into that "3 wire set" language elsewhere which confuzzled me.

I know it is not permissible for me to run NM cable through conduit and do not plan to do so.

Thanks.

YES.

I can't vouch for what "3-wire set" means.  I suspect it only made sense in context of that other question (you didn't get it out of NEC).

Cable in Conduit: Yes actually, but it sux

You ARE allowed to run cable in conduit, in two modes. You can either use it as physical armor only (for which sched 40 PVC is inadequate), or you can use it in the conduit wiring method, however that requires excessively large conduit to meet the fill rules.  Both require excessively large masochism to pull those stiff, balky things.  Not a job I would want!

The three grounds/1 ground point problem can be solved by pigtailing.

A single circuit of 50A is allowed to use #8 THHN, if the terminations at both ends are rated for 75C temperature.  You cannot use #8 NM or UF cable at 50A, because it is not allowed to go to 75C temperature. (but weirdly, NM-B uses the 90C column only for the derate I'm about to describe.)

Thermal derate

Let's go through the math.  NEC 310.15(B)(3)(a) requires you derate conductors based on how many are in the pipe. In split-phase systems, neutral and ground don't count, so you have 3 circuits and thus 6 wires.  6 wires requires a 20% thermal derate off wire max.

The only thing in the conduit is THHN wire which is allowed to 90C (terminations aren't, but they're not in the conduit). As such, you can use 55A as your basis.  The 90C number for #8 is 55A.

That derates to 44A. You get to round up to the next breaker size. Nobody makes a 45A breaker, so welcome to 50A.

Conduit size and aluminum

You'll need 1" conduit for seven #8 Cu wires.  If you use 3/4" EMT metal conduit, metal conduit is the ground, and  six #8Cu wires will just fit at limits.
Aluminum might be your friend

You could use #6 aluminum instead for cost.  There's nothing wrong with it at these large sizes. However if the water heater's terminations are not rated for it (CO-ALR) you would need to pigtail the aluminum wires to #8 copper. Price the needed Polaris connectors versus the savings in wire.

You need 1" conduit for six #6Al wires + 1 bare Cu ground.


Is Insulated Ground Wire Required? I am installing a new 240v receptacle in the garage to charge my electric vehicle.  The charger requires a 20 amp breaker and will pull 16 amps.  I plan to run 30' of 12/2 UF-B wire beneath the floor in the 3' crawl space to the outside wall electrical panel.  Question - must the ground wire be insulated or can it be bare?

You can use standard 12-2 with ground on this outlet. The equipment ground wire is not individually covered.


Installing double-pole line voltage thermostat for 2 baseboard heaters I'm trying to replace an old manual thermostat with a new digital thermostat for my line voltage baseboard heaters. If it's important, this particular thermostat simultaneously controls two separate baseboard heaters on opposite sides of a large room.

The hole in my wall has 6 wires, 3 black and 3 white (and a 7th ground wire, which I am ignoring for the purposes of my question). The wires come in black/white pairs from three corners. I am naming these corners α, β, and γ (alpha, beta, gamma). Thus the six aforementioned wires are αb and αw, βb and βw, and γb and γw.

The old double-pole thermostat seemed to function correctly. The wiring was as follows, where parentheses indicate a single solderless connector:

(L1, αb, γb)

(T1, βb)

(αw, βw, γw)

L2: unused

T2: unused

I thought it was strange that L2 and T2 were unused. When I wired my new double-pole thermostat I did as follows:

(L1, αb, γb)

(T1, βb)

(L2, αw, γw)

(T2, βw)

However, this new thermostat does not appear to be working. Did I wire it correctly?

I hope my notation is clear but I'm happy to edit if necessary. Thanks in advance for your help; much appreciated!

Two long for a Comment: It looks right after a couple more sips of coffee.
I did not follow your wiring , not enough coffee yet. But I think your old thermostat is only breaking 1 side for each heater, this is a trick we used to do to double the ability of a single thermostat. We would tie the whites together with one of the hots (usually the white hot and Mark them black) we would then use the supply or other hot to both of the line sides of the stat. Next we would put 1 heater on t1 and 1 heater on t2 this way a double pole stat could control 2x it’s listed ampacity (but each would be be below the max) this worked great since most rooms have multiple heaters. Yours are both in parallel on one contact I would have split them up so the stat would last longer. As you did and yes it looks like you did it correctly. Please verify your new stat is listed for use without a neutral. Some can use the ground and some require the neutral, and some only need the 240v but it looks good.


120v house equipment with 240v generator question Tornado took out power around here for a good while. Parents aren't here and I'm stuck with the task of hooking up a generator. I'm not savvy with this stuff very much at all.

Here's the issue. The connection coming out of the house is L14-30P. The generator has L14-30R. In my head we just need a 30a cable between the two.

The only stuff we have right now is an adapter L14-30P to L14-20R. My dad says this adapter is needed because it puts the voltage down to 120v. It's literally just an adapter. He says at 240v it would fry our equipment and appliances in the house. Doesn't make sense to me to have this adapter, then have a L14-20P to L14-30R cord connected between the adapter and the house. Seems like an extra useless step right?

I'm not worried about breaker positioning and all that. I just need to make sure I have the cords done properly between the generator and the house. I've got the rest done.

Feel free to correct everything that is incorrect about what I just stated, logic and all.

Here is the front of the generator :

https://imgur.com/a/4SzrEbm
https://imgur.com/a/Emj9TKR

To answer your specific question, the difference between L14-20 and L14-30 is maximum amperage, not voltage. Both carry both 120 volts and 240 volts (actually two legs of 120 which can be combined for 240).

As you suspected, the combination of the adapter and cord are useless (as opposed to a direct L14-30 to L14-30 cable). Actually, it’s worse that that. The L14-20 connectors are only rated for 20 amps. Since the generator can produce 30 amps, those connectors could melt or catch fire!

I’m assuming your father went shopping for a 30 amp cable and the sales critter sold his those, what it had, making up the story about voltages.

For safety, you really need an L14-30P to L14-30R cable. Since you don’t have one, I suggest you follow @JACK’s advice and plug the appliances you need directly into the generator instead.


Tile to carpet transition I will be removing my old carpet and getting a new one. I am not sure the height of the carpet yet. But i need to finish installing door jambs and I think I'll need to leave at-least 3/8 gap for the carpet to be tucked in, correct (orange line)? Or just put door jamb all the way to the sub floor (blue line)?

What i am concerned about is the gap between the tile schluter and the carpet. As it stands, it is about 1 inch gap now between the sub floor and the schluter. If carpet is 1/2 inch in height, there would be a visible gap between them. Can carpet installer maybe build some sort of buildup to raise the carpet at the and or i will be stuck with a gap there?

Any advise welcome.

The way I addressed this  issue was with a wide shim under  the carpet that brought the floor height up gradually over about 12 inches I made my own but you can buy them
look at this video to see how they work

You can purchase kits of various sizes to fit your needs here

( I do not have any affiliation with the companies featured in this answer)


Why is thermostat calling for cool when set to heat I have a White Rodgers 1F97-1277 thermostat. I set it to call for emergency (propane) heat on my York heat pump. Display shows 'Heat - Stage 1'. When I look at the furnace, no heat and no flame. The status light is blinking a slow amber, which is call for cool. This is not a new install.
My thoughts: Perhaps the cool is the defrost cycle for the heat pump (is that stage 1?). However, one would think if it can't meet the demand from the thermostat using the heat pump, it would turn to propane for heat. The amber light though means the furnace thinks the thermostat is calling for cool.
Why would the furnace show a call for cool, when the thermostat shows it's calling for heat.
Here is thermostat wiring:
Here is the heat pump :

My first thought is that the the wires are hooked up incorrectly.
Pop the cover on the thermostat and look at the labeling where the wire to the furnace attaches.
Do the same at the furnace end.
This may make it clear.
Second step:  Check the installation manuals for the furnace and the thermostat.  If you have 12v control for the heat pump, and the furnace wants a 24v signal...
Third:  It may be that the thermostat cannot properly control two devices.  In this case install a second thermostat at a point that is both reasonably central, and easy to run wire to the furnace.


Vapor barrier behind electrical panel? My electrical panel is mounted on bare studs of an exterior wall in my attached garage (living space above).   The garage is not insulated and it does not need to be (except for the ceiling which will happen someday soon).   I would like to mount my electrical panel on 3/4" fire-treated plywood, and I was planning to keep the stud cavities empty.  Location is moderate SF Bay Area.

Do I need to be concerned with adding a vapor barrier?

Since the garage is not within the conditioned envelope, then no

The key to understanding a "vapor barrier" (really, an air barrier) is to understand that it is part of the system that separates "inside" aka conditioned space from "outside" aka unconditioned/outdoor space.  So, your air barrier needs to go with the other barrier layers, in particular your thermal barrier (insulation).

From this, we can determine that since your garage is unconditioned space, the air barrier should sit on the ceiling along with the insulation there, instead of being on the wall behind the panel, divorced from the insulation and letting unconditioned air get through the insulation as a result.


How can I stop gutter water flow noise? My gutter runs along the bottom of the roof and not around the bay window. Because of this there is very little sound insulation between the gutter and inside the bedroom and so we can hear water every time it rains! So annoying. Only options recommended to me at this point really have been to insulate the ceiling which sounds like a big job, but I am thinking of trying to get some thick string to run along the base of the roof and inside the gutter to slow the flow of water. Does anyone think this sounds like a crazy idea? Of even know how I would attach string to my roof and gutter please?

The sound should be the water entering the downspout's top, but could also transmit from the water hitting the very bottom elbow at the ground. One solution is to remove a few gutter nails or screws back from the window & install rubber bushings or pads to insulate or isolate the gutter's connection to the house. Then, of course put your gutter screws or nails back in...a little loose will assist the padding.

A Second measure, is to back the gutter & downspout, give them more density. Like a stainless steel kitchen sink's noise reduction pad(s). As an example is Grace's Vycor Plus Ice & Water Shield self-adhesive flashing. The 4" wide by 75' long for $20 at home improvement stores should accomplish this quite well. You can build it up to dramatically deaden or eliminate that sound & then paint it to match.


Burnt modules but no breaker trip I had two power supplies fed from the DB protected by an ELCB. Yesterday I had the power supplies burnt at the incoming end and no breaker was tripped. I also had couple of phase dimmers fed from two separate phases protected by a breaker each. They also were damaged at the incoming end but the breakers never tripped. What could be the cause? I checked all the connections , didn't find any short circuit.

Most probably you have had a voltage surge on the incomming power line. There can be many reasons for this.

A bad neutral connection at your place if you have a 3 phase supply.
A bad neutral connection or connection mistake during work outside (third    party)
A voltage surge due to lightning. Could be a direct hit but does not need to be.


Problem installing rivnuts into aluminum skin and steel tubing I have an enclosed cargo trailer. I need to install some rivnuts in the roof beams from the outside of the trailer. The aluminum skin of the trailer is attached to the steel tubing framework using some sort of adhesive. The result is that the aluminum is not directly against the steel tube. When the rivnut is installed, the deformed part of the rivnut ends up between the aluminum skin and the steel tube instead of inside the steel tube. This results is a much weaker anchor.
The following pictures shows the problem:

These are three different cross section drawings. Looking at the left one you can see the aluminum skin on top and the 1" wide x 1.25" tall steel tube. Between them is the layer of adhesive. I have no access to the underside of the steel tubing (which is why I am trying to use rivnuts in the first place). Removing the adhesive is not an option for several different reasons.
The rivnut is just placed into the hole in the left cross section.
The middle cross section is the result I am getting after compressing the rivnut in place. Note the compression is happening where the adhesive is.
The right cross section is the result I wish to get with the compression inside the steel tube.
The tool I'm using to install and compress the rivnut is little more than a big nut on a grade 5 bolt.
How can get the rivnut to install as shown in the right-most cross section shown in the picture? Would a different/better tool work?
The nut on my installation tool has a slight lip on it about the same height as the flange on the rivnut. It seems that if the nut had a taller lip on it (the same as the thickness of the aluminum skin, the adhesive, and the wall thickness of the tubing) then it might work.

I think that part of your problem is your use of the super economy installation tool. With that kind of tool it is difficult to hold the rivet nut very firmly into the hole.
I use this type tool for installing rivet nuts and have had good luck with its use. The tool allows you to press down firmly on the rivet nut while at the same time folding the handles together to compress the rivet nut.

Picture Source
Rivet nuts are designed to allow crimping into materials in a certain range of thicknesses. They do require a hole through solid material that is a snug fit with the body of the uncompressed rivet nut. It is quite possible that you will never achieve a satisfactory result with the soft adhesive material between the outer skin and the metal tubing. One thing that you may want to try, after obtaining a better installation tool, is to heat up the area surrounding the installation site for a four or five inch area to soften the adhesive. Then with the better tool you may be able to compress the softened adhesive a bit when pressing hard down on the compression tool.


Need help wiring new dimmer I'm trying to wire a new Legrand Adorne Softap dimmer without any luck. It's replacing a Legrand Adorne paddle dimmer which uses the HOT and 1-POLE connections on the back of the dimmer. The new dimmer requires an additional neutral wire to be connected to WHITE on the dimmer.

This is in a 5-gang box with a few other switches. From the feed coming into the box from the light, there is a black, white and ground. On the old dimmer, black from the feed was going to 1-POLE, while another black wire was connected to HOT which is pigtailed to a red wire from another feed. The white wire from the feed is connected to 3 other white wires in the box and capped off.

I attempted to move the wiring as it was to the new dimmer, and take the white wire from the feed and connect it to WHITE on the dimmer. After snapping it into the frame, I can't get it to come on at all. Does it sounds like this dimmer won't work because I don't have 3 wires from the feed itself? Thanks.

Switches from left to right:

3 way switch for kitchen light
3 way switch for another kitchen light
New dimmer for living room light
Existing dimmer for living room light
Fan switch

Your problem is that the white wire that is connected to the new dimmer never actually connects to neutral -- it simply connects to the load.  You'll need a white pigtail and a new wirenut to fix this.

Turn the power off at the breaker. Undo the existing wirenut for the white wires, and undo the white wire from the new dimmer.  Twist one end of the white pigtail and the white wire that was undone from the new dimmer with the existing bundle of white wires, and put the new wirenut on.  Attach the other end of the pigtail to the new dimmer and put everything back together, then turn the power back on and enjoy your new dimmer!


How can I pull cable through wood and metal framing without damage? I had to install a new wire for my water heater (higher amperage/bigger wire), and was drilling through the wooden top plate to snake the wire down the wall to the pass-through. Everything seemed standard. Put the wire in and heard what sounded like wire scraping something (possibly metallic). Pulled it out, and the cable sheath had little scratches on it; not gouges, or cuts. The hole was at least 3x larger than the wire and was clean.

Now this house in Florida where metal studs are commonplace. Elsewhere in the house there have been metal bottom plates which transition to wood as we exit the exterior wall zone so I suspect under this wooden top plate there was a metal top plate - probably a few mm of metal.

I know that with metal studs anti-short bushings are used, but I am curious how this kind of situation is handled in old-work scenarios such as this where putting in an anti-short bushing isn't possible. Short length of conduit? Don't worry about it? Pulled the wire in and out a few times - more scratches but no cuts or gouges.

The simplest thing I could think of would be to use MC cable, the armor is pretty rugged.  If you don't want to re-do the entire run, you could transition from NM to MC in a metal box mounted over the hole you made.  Bring the MC in the back of the box, screw the box onto the top plate face up, and enter one of the sides with NM and a "button" NM clamp.
In my opinion MC with a right angle connector on top of the water heater makes a nicer install anyway.


How to connect earth(grounding) that has copper wire attached? This is my first time doing a light fixture. In the ceiling, the wires are black, white and green wire with a copper wire attached to the green wire.
 In my light fixture, there is a brown wire, blue wire and a yellow wire with green stripe ( which is attached to the fixture housing). I went through online to figure out I have to connect (black with brown wire, white with blue wire) I am just confused how to connect the copper wire(from the ceiling), green wire(from the ceiling) and the yellow wire (from fixture). Do I connect the yellow wire to the copper wire or to the green wire? Hope I explained it clearly.

The bare copper wire is a "pigtail" that exists to make your connection to the light fixture easier. I'm guessing that you have a metal junction box (which requires its own ground connection).

Simply nut your fixture's ground wire to it. The key is that all grounds are connected to the panel. It's usually not critical what the actual path is as long as the connections are sound.


Spring water in basement of new construction Location: Northern New Brunswick, Canada
Lakeside property.

Last fall we dug and poured our concrete foundation, which has a full height basement and a walk-in, which needed a step foundation in that area.  While digging the step foundation, we hit rock bed at approximately 5ft bellow the normal footing elevation.

During the dig, we didn’t hit any water source.  The dig and concrete pour went as planned.  However since winter came early, we didn’t pour the concrete floor right away.  So we went through the winter with a compacted gravel floor in the basement, just waiting for warm weather.

When spring came along, I had water come in the basement, and I was happy to have installed a drain tile along side the inside of the footing with a sump and pump.

But now that all the snow and spring melt is over, I still have water coming in the basement at one specific place in the gravel floor. It’s at a slower rate, but it seems to be a spring source, since it even created a small hole in the gravel floor where the water comes in.

Now I was thinking of running a drain line from that ‘hole’ direct to the sump, but i’m wondering if I should go even further to permanently fix this problem before pouring the concrete floor...  Does anyone have any good ideas?

I have had several daylight basements, the thing to do now is to install drains from beyond the spring to outside the building envelope, if you do this no pump will be needed. If it was my place I would install a drain on the 3 sides with drains at each end of the home, as far as other problems this will eliminate any problems the weeping of the spring in natural and the water will run no matter what you do so provide an easy path for it to get outside the building and you won’t have to plug the pump in.


Could stove element be powered through fan switch? I have a Jenn Air C221 modular cooktop (circa 1983). EDIT: here is the wiring diagram:

By design, the downdraft fan turns on whenever a grill element is installed and turned on. This is done using an extra spade contact present on the grill element (but not the burner cartridge) which is shunted to one of the other contacts used for powering the element. So if the fan switch is off, the fan will be powered from terminal H1 of the grill element switch via the shunted receptacle contacts.

Now imagine the following scenario, starting with all elements switched off:

The fan is switched on, i.e. the fan is being powered from L1 through its switch
The switch for one or both grill elements is then turned on
There exists a fault in the connection between L1 and H1 at the switch (e.g. no continuity inside the switch between L1 and H1, or either of L1 or H1 terminals on the switch are disconnected), but there is no fault with the connection from L2 to H2.

Would this effectively cause the grill element to be powered through the fan switch?

EDIT: here is an annotated wiring diagram for when a grill is installed in the right bay, and the front element is turned on. The red path is where I suspect current would flow, and the red 'X' indicates that no current can flow through its normal path out the black wire from the receptacle due to a fault.

According to the housing for a replacement switch, it is only rated 6A 3A at 250V, whereas the element could draw over 10A; is this an imminent safety issue/fire hazard, or are the faults leading to this issue considered extremely unlikely?

I'm not sure how pervasive this feature or wiring configuration is. After briefly looking online for other models' wiring diagrams, some (such as the CVEX4100B) use the same configuration as the C221, while others (such as the SVE47600) use a relay to implement this feature.

Original answer: no

Edit: Maybe

With the revised diagram and the path highlighted, the possible L1-heating element-L2 path via the fan switch is now discernible.  Theoretically, yes, you could have a heating element "shorted" through the fan switch.

However...

Cooktop switches (especially ca. 1983) aren't on-off switches, they are simmerstats - like slow, analog PWM controllers for resistive heating elements.  They function by drawing a small bit of current through a heating element inside the switch, which causes a bimetal strip to deflect and "pulses" the L2 contact.  A cursory Google search suggests the deflecting L2 contact is more likely to fail (open or closed) than for the relatively static L1 contact (held in place by the knob itself).

Therefore...

Your concern is at least somewhat validated because there is the potential for a short there (barring any fuses or fail-safe devices that aren't shown in the diagram).  However, since the L2 contact is left alone in your scenario, you should still be able to turn the burner off and control it normally, even if the L1 contact fails open.  It also seems as though the more common problem is a failed switch in general, resulting in a burner that either can't be turned on (relatively safe) or can't be turned off (decidedly unsafe).

Also...

Your primary concern is the voltage rating on the switch, which is rated at 6A @ 125VAC or 3A @ 250VAC (or 1/4HP @ 125-250VAC), but in the scenario you describe could see as much as 10A @ 250VAC.  Given that the switch is rated for motor loads, it is designed to handle high-inrush current levels at the moment the switch is closed.  So how well it fares in your scenario may depend on whether or not the fan was already running.  Given the unlikely nature of the scenario, it's plausible the engineers designing your stove weren't concerned about the possibility of powering a stove element through the switch in the event of an abnormal switch failure mode.


Header question for newly created exterior basement door I have an 1888 Victorian. I have hired a contractor to create an egress exterior door going into my basement. Originally the door to access the basement was on ground level but we needed to dig down and move the door access point to the basement level for several reasons. I have always been told that an exterior door MUST have a header. It makes no sense to me why it wouldn't. My contractor tried to tell me that the door does not need a header because there is a window directly above the location of this new door and that window has a header so the basement door doesn't need one. Am I wrong about this?

I am also asking because the concrete pad that was newly poured 3 weeks ago where the base of the door is has now cracked in 3 places. I think that he is wrong about the header and that the weight on the door is too much and has caused this concrete to fracture.

Thoughts please?

When you make a window or door opening, you will remove one or more studs in the door opening in the wall.  The header has to carry the load that was previously carried by the studs you remove, transferring it to the king studs on either side of the door.

Since the door is stacked, aligned under a window above, the header for the window opening has already transferred  the load above the window to the studs on the sides;  the stud removed for the door probably wasn't carrying much load.  It was carrying the weight of the window and the cripple wall below the window, which isn't much.  Depending on the direction the floor joists, run, that stud was also the supporting the floor joists resting on the top plate above the stud.

I'd say if you have

A doubled top plate above  the door is in
Joists not supported by the wall with the door
Just one stud removed for door opening

Then it's not likely you'll see any problem there. But you'd normally put something there anyway, if only for a nailing surface for the trim etc., and to avoid debates about it.

In any event, I don't see how failing to install the header would lead to cracks under the door.  If the header is missing, the wall above the door opening may sag, the floor above the door opening may sag, but no additional load winds up on the floor around the door opening.  The door frame pretty much floats between the king studs.  If it was bearing any weight, it would probably deform and the door wouldn't open or shut properly.


How can I convert from an overhead door to a man door? A property I purchased has a detached and pretty solid detached garage in the back on a raised cement foundation. It has running electricity and I have no need for it, so I'm considering turning it into an office space for myself.

The door is slides upward like a garage door, though I'd like a doorway a bit simpler for my office and I'm not sure how to convert this into something more practical... assuming I can at an affordable price.

The picture doesn't show it well, but it's very spacious reaching back a good 30 feet.

Assuming that the walls are standard wood construction, with dimensional lumber, pulling out the door and putting in a standard entry door is fairly straightforward.

First take out the rolling door. It's best to do this in the reverse order that it was put in. Carefully remove / release the tension on any springs or lift assists that may be in place. If the door is a series of panels bolted together with hinges, start at the top and remove the bolts holding the top panel to the one down, and remove the rollers at the sides of the door. Set the panel down, and repeat with the next panel down.

Once the door is out of the way, remove the track and any other door bits.

Then you have a choice. You can leave the already framed / trimmed opening and put in a wall to house the new door set back a bit, or you can remove the trim and match the existing siding.

In either case, you'll have to frame up a smaller wall to fit in the opening with a new door header / opening, place some sill gasket material down, and fasten it to the slab and existing opening.

Once the temporary wall is up, you can sheath it, leaving the new door opening clear, and place siding over that.

Install the new door and hardware, and the space is enclosed.

You didn't mention what the inside of the structure is like. If you're considering turning it into an office, you might consider an air conditioner, drywall, and nice inside accouterments.


Why bother referencing neutral to ground in residential transformer? I'm going to list the 3 scenarios for electrocution I can think up for both a residential transformer with grounded neutral and an isolated transformer. I find that the grounded neutral transformer has one more scenario in which I get electrocuted than the isolated transformer does and I want to know why despite this, we reference neutral to ground in residential systems. I have heard it is for safety reasons but my thinking suggests that it is actually more dangerous to reference neutral to ground. I'm hoping someone can clear this up for me.
Imagine I'm standing at my main breaker looking at my hot and neutral lugs. For all of the examples below please imagine I'm not standing on any insulated platform. I'm barefoot on some kind of wet concrete floor. I'm also explicitly talking about the service entrance wires to do away with any complications coming from different branch circuits inside the home. Please assume I'm just talking about the service entrance wires.
I'm also going to talk about the current as if it were DC current and electrons come from the hot lug towards neutral. This is just because it helps get my ideas across in English easier. But please understand that I do realize that current will be flowing in both directions on an AC circuit.
Regular Residential Transformer w/ Grounded Neutral

I touch the hot lug. There is a potential difference between the
wet concrete floor and the hot lug. There is also an unlimited
source of electrons (ground connection at neutral) connected to an
unlimited acceptor of electrons (wet concrete floor). Current flows
from the ground connection at the transformer, through my body, to
the wet concrete floor and I get electrocuted.
I touch the
neutral lug. There is no potential difference between the neutral
lug and the wet concrete floor since the neutral lug is grounded and
I do not get zapped.
I touch both the hot and neutral lugs at
the same time. Current flows through my body (in addition to flowing through my body to the wet concrete floor) and I get electrocuted.

Isolated transformer (Neutral not grounded)
Now imagine that my residential transformer was not referenced to ground at the neutral point. Imagine it is like an isolated transformer.

I touch the hot lug. There is a (very likely - but unknown) potential difference between the concrete floor and the hot lug. However, there is no unlimited source of electrons like a grounded neutral. There is a limited source of electrons which is the wires inside the transformer themselves. I may get a small shock similar to static electricity shock as my body and concrete floor get brought up to the same potential as the hot lug but ultimately there can be no flow of electrons because there is no sustainable source for them to come from. They will push into my body because of the potential difference but at some point the transformer conductors will be so electron deficient that the force on the electrons to stay will be greater than the force they feel to push into my body.

I touch the neutral lug. It is unlikely that there is a potential difference between the neutral lug and the wet concrete floor so I will very likely feel no static-electricity like shock. In addition for the same reasons as above, even if there is a potential difference between the neutral lug and ground there is no sustainable source for electrons to come from so again I do not get electrocuted.

I touch both the hot and neutral lugs at the same time. Current flows through my body and I get electrocuted.

Electrocution Breakdown

Regular Residential Transformer w/ Grounded Neutral: Cases (1) and
(3)
Isolated transformer (Neutral not grounded): Case (3) only.

So given this breakdown why do we ground neutral? Seems like it only introduces scenarios to get electrocuted. We could even have ground faults with an isolated transformer and not get electrocuted. Seems more dangerous to ground than to not.

I know you're looking for a "tweet" of an answer, a simplistic reason "Oh, it's this". There's actually a lot to it.  It's not an ideology, it's hard empirical data culled from a sea of accident reports. They are using field data to "min-max" for minimum casualties.
What you're talking about is an isolated system.
That is a thing.  And yes, if properly maintained, it amounts to "your first ground-fault is free".
I discuss the matter at length in this posting.
However, that "first ground fault" creates a treacherous situation for the rest of the system.
I had exactly that happen on a system I did not intend to be isolated.  I found it when working on a circuit that I had turned off, and I flashed hot to ground just to be sure of it, and I got a tiny blue arc, and the fluorescent lights on that circuit came back on.  The neutral was 120V from ground (whoopsie!) and the other phase was 240V from ground.  Neutral was now dangerous, even though I had turned off the breaker, and it was a darned good thing I had done the "flash test" and chased down the problem before proceeding, because I was about to handle neutral in a grounded metal box, and that would've kicked my butt.
So "the first ground fault is free" is only clever if you have maintenance people actively searching and testing for that first ground fault, and they repair it BEFORE a second ground-fault occurs.  Otherwise, it simply fails in silence, creating a time-bomb that is a worse situation than a grounded system, and bites you later with very unexpected behavior.
Indeed, Code does allow isolated systems on sites where on-site staff do active maintenance and monitoring of the system.  That's sure as heck not a house.


My house has Exterior & Interior insulation. Would it be advisable to remove the internal? A bit of background:
I've bought a house built in the 1960s which has been retrofitted with "bolt-on" insulation. On the inside, which was done first, there is a layer of plasterboard with insulation bolted to the brick and plaster walls - in places this was very shoddily done.

On the outside, there is cladding that has been bolted to the outside and rendered with some kind of spray-on roughcast - this was done much more professionally.

Having recently discovered the internal insulation (by trying and failing to fit a shelf) I'm considering removing the internal insulation to both increase space and allow me to more easily fix shelves etc to the walls.

Is this advisable given the external insulation, and does anyone have any data comparing heat loss with internal vs external vs none vs both?

Edit with more info:

Thanks for the answers so far, I will consider carefully before deciding whether to remove or not.

I'm in a wet & windy climate, between 1 and 15 degrees C year-round.
Wall construction is brick & plaster (I believe there is a cavity), then 3" thick polystyrene insulation on the outside.

According to another answer I read on here, internal insulation can have the effect of keeping the brick walls "cold" by reflecting the heat back into the room. This has the effect of stopping heat leaking out, but when the heating is off, it gets cold very quickly - this has been my experience so far. Considering I have external insulation, I could remove the internal, and lose a bit of heat to the walls but warm them up, helping to keep the rooms warmer for longer rather than warm / cold immediately. The external insulation will stop this heat loss being extreme.

It sounds like you are willing to spend money to remove something that that is designed to help save money. If your houses walls are made entirely of brick and mortar the two layers of (rigid) insulation is the only material slowing the heat from conducting through the walls. I think you will find most, if not all, information and scientific data states the more (thicker) insulation in a conditioned space the less energy will be loss from heat conductance. If I can suggest that a better question posed here might be how to hang a shelf on a insulated brick wall. It could save you an un-needed financial burden.


How can I fix this bad drywall patch I recently had my ductwork replaced and since my home doesn’t have an attic, the ceilings had to be opened up. However when they closed the drywall back up and painted, it started to become very lumpy / droopy. What are my options for fixing this?

Start out by sanding the seams and lumpy areas to determine if it's just a lousy taping job. If so, rip off the old tape and redo. If the drywall is droopy, you'll have to attach it to the joists with more screws. If the paper is separating from the drywall surface, you'll have to replace the drywall with some new drywall.


Rewiring house and replacing breaker panel. Wiring layout and breaker selections I'm doing a major kitchen and bathroom remodel project and decided the old federal pacific breaker box needs to be replaced. Since I'll be rewiring the bath and kitchen, I figured it makes sense to plan to eventually rewire the entire house.

I made a spreadsheet with all of the current and future loads I may add to the house then sectioned them off into different branch circuits with the type of breaker that will protect them. Would someone mind taking a look at my planned-out wiring and let me know if it looks correct or if I'm missing something obvious? I hope to get some feedback about best practices for planning house circuits and what methods are needed to protect them, using NEC 2014 for reference (I live in Portland, OR).

Some additional information relating specifically to my project:

My house was built in 1956
Most of the wiring is NC fabric-coated wire. Some of it is romex
The old house panel is a 100A sub panel, fed by a 200A main panel in the detached garage
I plan to replace the house panel with a 16 or 20 slot 100A panel (is one or the other better?)
If there are any AFCI and GFCI combination requirements, the main breaker will be AFCI and any outlets on that branch will be GFCI outlets
I plan on driving in two new grounding rods at the sub panel and bond them to the water main (house is getting re plumbed with pex) and gas pipes
Does this sub panel need a grounding wire connected to the main panel in the garage?

Here is my spreadsheet:

based on feedback, here's an updated plan:

Updated!! v2

That Federal Pacific panel has to go as they are dangerous.  As far as concerns about your skill, you sound like that particular kind of newbie who is well capable of learning to do it all safely and well; however my hunch is you are still thinking too much, and need to read a little more.  It's OK, we all start there.

Normally, just replacing a sub panel is a straightforward thing.  Change panel, reattach wires, done.  However, this is only part of a project with a much larger scope.  You must contemplate (i.e. ask your permitting authority) whether you have crossed the legal threshold of a remodel.  If you have, everything in-scope must be done to all current codes.  Even ADA!

The 2-circuit requirement for kitchen outlets is not intended to mean "1 circuit for this wall, 1 circuit for the other wall".  I'd encourage some more research but if it was me, I'd interleave the outlets, every other outlet on a different circuit.  Also there's nothing wrong with more than 2 outlet circuits in a kitchen, the whole point is to prevent trips when the chef is madly at work, so the chef isn't hobbled with limitations like having to put the toaster here and the George Foreman over there, and avert ugly workarounds like extension cords draped across sinks or stoves, etc.

I see you plan to go 12 AWG wire for almost everything (that's what 20A breakers mean) - that's awesome.  Feel free to kick the refrigerator and smoke detector up to 12AWG also - that way you don't have to buy any 14AWG wire.  I don't own any!  If you have some other reason to use a 15A breaker you are welcome to use that on a circuit wired in 12AWG.

You may want to run the water heater circuit in 10/2 or even 8/2.  That will allow you to easily upgrade to an electric water heater in the future.  Still use a 15A or 20A breaker because the outlet is still only good for 20A.   There is a trick to fitting 8+ AWG wire on a 15-20A outlet, just ask.

I would go with a much larger panel. You have either -1 or 3 circuits left, and that's too little headroom for my comfort.  Getting a larger panel is dirt cheap compared to the cost of replacing perfectly good breakers with duplex breakers (I call them double-stuff) merely to shoehorn everything in.   Also, larger panels in combo-packs come with more breakers and that is far-and-away the cheapest way to buy breakers.  Another reason to avoid duplex breakers is if you ever need AFCI, GFCI or whatever future thing comes out - those are much more expensive in duplex breakers because of the miniaturization required.  Don't think you must use a 100A panel - you can use a larger panel (200A), you just can't use a smaller one (70A).

Remember each sub-panel must have its neutral bus bar separate and isolated from its ground bar.  That means removing bond straps, magic green screws, neutral bar kits, whatever the panel requires to do that.  You might consider a panel with a neutral and ground bar on each side of the panel.  That's a convenient feature so wires don't have to cross over the panel.

Keep in mind how your house got a dangerous Federal Pacific panel.  The last guy bought cheap.  Feel free to research the good-better-best that each manufacturer offers, the price differential for "best" is quite small compared to the overall cost of a remodel.  You may find better selection and better prices at a real electrical supply house.

There is nothing wrong with more ground rods.  Go nuts.  The key is that all the grounds are connected to each other by wire - and they are not connected to neutral anywhere except one place - the main service panel.


How much length of pipe is needed to use a 'donut' type PVC to iron pipe connection? We have a cast iron pipe leave the house with PVC connected to it at the wall with a "donut" style adapter like this:

Basically you stick the donut into the cast iron pipe and PVC into the donut and it forms a watertight seal.

I haven't been able to find out what length of PVC is meant to enter the donut. Ideally I'd like to use a 90 elbow with a spigot end - (meaning one end is the same diameter as a pipe) but on a 3" PVC pipe that end only has a 1-1/2" long section, which I think would be too short.

The piece of PVC should be long enough to extend to the end of the donut when it's inserted into the pipe. The seal is increasingly improved the further the PVC is inserted so you don't want to cut it short.


Kitchen sink drain pipe leaking inside the wall I'm remodeling my kitchen and installed the new sink this week but noticed that any time the water runs, water emerges from inside the wall, near the drain pipe and as a result, the fiberglass insulation gets wet. Not sure what I did to cause it but I'm guessing the drain pipe is cracked.
Is this something I can repair/replace myself or do I need a plumber for this job? I'd like to think I'm fairly handy and have the tools; just not sure what this process would entail.
Thanks!

As Ecnerwall stated break open the wall to locate exactly where the leak is coming from. A common plumbing orientation that you may notice inside your wall is for the trap pipe after entering the wall will connect to the center of a Tee fitting. The top connection is the drain vent (which goes to the roof) and the bottom leads the water to the main drain pipe.
Depending on what fitting/connection is leaking you will need to remove and replace it.
ABS pipe and fittings are welded together (just like PVC) with an ABS glue. If you are comfortable with cutting out the fitting and/or pipe the repair is fairly straight forward.
It sometimes helps to enlarge the wall opening as this allows more movement of the pipes and gives you more freedom to work.
There are fittings called "No-Hubs" which are basically rubber fittings that need no glue and are tightened by a hose clamp. These are much more forgiving and can be re-positioned anytime. They're sized for 1 1/2"-4" pipes and are commonly found as couplings, but also Tee's.


If you use a filler and cover it immediately, will there be any problems? If I use cement, concrete, plaster, paste etc and fill a deep wall hole, then cover/seal the visible side with aluminium or some other cover, will it cause any problems for the fill?
I mean once put down will this fillers need air to help them cure and won't the fact that they have some air on the inside of the wall be sufficient?
So in this or any relevant context, can or can I not do the fill then cover it after a few hours with something like aluminum foil?
Thanks.
Thanks.

Cement, concrete, plaster-of-paris, epoxy:
These two-part fillers set by an internal chemical reaction, not by contact with the air, so you can cover them immediately after placing them with no ill effects.
Paste, oil-based putty, white-glue and sawdust, "mud", no-gaps etc
These fillers set by a reaction with the air, or by evaporation
If you cover them curing time will be extended.


Why do I have smaller than expected floor joist components? I cut out the subfloor in my half bath on 2nd story above garage. I didn't expect to see 2x4s proving the most support, and just one 2x6 joist. Can someone explain to this newbie what's going on? Thanks.

Those are modern engineered floor trusses, or truss joists. They often have flat 2x3 or 2x4 top and bottom chords and a web of diagonals and verticals between.

The 2x you see is a stiffener, or "stiffback", which ties the trusses together to spread load and minimize movement and vibration.

It looks a bit like someone cut out some of the stiffener, maybe to get a duct in the space below. The builder may have added additional stiffeners nearby.


Masonry screws won't engage in brick or mortar? I'm trying to put a railing on my back porch but my tapcon masonry screws will not stay in the brick or stay in the mortar. Never catches, just goes in.

Be sure you're using the right size drill. If you are then your mortar/brick material might not be suitable for tapcons. As critical as railings are, I'd suggest lag shields and lag bolts. I've always used the stainless steel lag bolts for outdoors but galvanized are available too.


Should I fix my swimming pool with plaster or a clorinated rubber? I have below ground swimming pool. The plaster is cracking and pealing off. I need to apply new plaster or another type of coating. I am wondering whether it would be easier to apply a coating of clorinated rubber?

Does anyone have experience with this type of coating that they could share?

Bring in a professional and verify what is actually going on, this is not a DIY job.
Also, rather than replastering consider going to an aggregate pool finish like Pebble Tec - much more durable and easier to care for.


How do I connect a WiFi enabled wall switch? I would like to connect an iDevices WIFI wall switch to an end of line single pole connection which controls the my table lamp connected to an upper wall outlet. The wifi switch has a red, black white and ground. My wall switch has a black, white and ground. The white is the load (hot wire) coming into the switch.

I know there's a way to do this but I can't seem to find a diagram on line.

My question is in the title:  How do I connect a WiFi enabled wall switch?

The problem you have is that your current switch is wired as a switch loop. This means that a hot lead comes into the switch box and a switched hot lead leaves the box. There is no neutral wire in a true switch loop. Commonly a white wire is used for the line to the switch, but it is supposed to be marked with black tape or a marker to indicate it is hot.

While these are common in older circuits, current practice also requires a neutral wire to be present in most switches. And your new wifi switch needs a neutral. Unless there are other wires in the switch box, this switch cannot be used without additional new wiring.