89 replies to this topic

[RShack]

No outlets with buttons on them. No meter either. I bought outlets and switches out of the 47 cent bin at home depot. Maybe I'm getting what I paid for.

 

The ones with buttons on them are the GFCI ones I mentioned... they click off if there's a ground fault... (after a bunch of years, they might need replacing because they get tired and click off for no good reason)... they're for bathrooms and other places that get wet... if you're messing with them, it's well worth the $5 or $10 it cost to get the little ground fault testing gizmo I mentioned earlier... (there are other ways to do it, but it's well worth a couple bucks to make it easy and idiot-proof...)   http://www.amazon.co...nd fault tester

 

Get a multi-meter... if you're messing with wiring, it's as much of a basic tool as is screwdriver... a cheap one will do, you don't need a fancy one for this kind of task... mine cost like $10... (just make sure you don't get home with one and then discover you need to make another trip to get the batteries!)... if you have one, you adjust the dial to the proper setting and then use the 2 probes to see if you have 120V (or 115V or whatever) coming out the other side of the outlet... if you don't have one, then you need to lick your fingers and touch the poles to see if you get shocked... believe me, having a cheap little multi-meter is way, way better...  http://www.amazon.co...5751582&sr=1-23

[RShack]

Did you install any outlets with the test/reset button on them? If so you may need to reset those. I have a bunch in my house and if one trips several other outlets stop working. It doesn't trip the breaker, just the outlet. Hitting reset on the one that tripped will solve the issue.

 

Just an FYI... it used to be that GFCI outlets cost a lot more than they do now... so, due to the expense, they'd wire things so that 1 GFCI outlet cut off the power to not just itself, but also to all the other outlets on the same circuit that were on the far side of it...  the idea was to give multiple outlets the benefit of GFCI without buying a GFCI outlet for each one... which means outlets in one or more places would quit working, and the required fix was to reset the GFCI outlet that might be in a completely a different room (usually a bathroom, kitchen, or garage)...

 

Nowdays, they're cheap enough that they typically don't wire things that way anymore... instead, each outlet on the at-risk-of-being-wet circuit has it's own GFCI outlet... which makes sense... each outlet is its own thing and doesn't affect other ones... so, if you get sick of having one of them trip (click off) and turn off several other outlets, you can google to find out the tiny fixes required to make each one independent from the others...

 

Also, if you have one the keeps tripping (clicking off), it might just be that it has been there for 20 years and it's just worn out... when that happens, they trip for silly reasons... like you just turned on a lamp or did something else that's completely innocent and danger-free... just replacing an old one with a new one can fix this...  

 

They're supposed to never trip unless something is really wrong that might cause you to get a bad shock... if they trip in normal circumstances, and if a GFCI tester says the circuit is fine, then you probably have an old one that's just worn out... if so, the good reason for replacing the old one is not just the saved hassle, it's also to get rid of the old one before it dies completely... because if it dies completely, then the reset button will quit working and there's no way to turn those outlets back on without replacing it... so, better to replace it before that happens one night at midnight when you need the juice to work but can't get a replacement right then...

[NewMarketSean]

They were replaced about 3 years ago and yeah, haven't had problems with them tripping since.

[RShack]

They were replaced about 3 years ago and yeah, haven't had problems with them tripping since.

 

Do you know how old they were?

[NewMarketSean]

Sold my kegerator this weekend and even though it has wheels, I think one was locked and it scratched the shit out of my wood floors. After a few drinks and not thinking it through completely, I took some 400 grit sandpaper to the floor to try to buff it out. Wiped it down with mineral spirits thinking it would bring back the sheen -- WRONG.

 

So now I've got a five foot long scracth and a streak of dullness running across the floor, against the grain. I tried to buff it out with floor wax -- didn't work. I've got some poly-based floor refinisher I can try to use...also some poly and poly with stain I can try but it's going to show up pretty bad.

 

Any advice?

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[RShack]

Sold my kegerator this weekend and even though it has wheels, I think one was locked and it scratched the shit out of my wood floors. After a few drinks and not thinking it through completely, I took some 400 grit sandpaper to the floor to try to buff it out. Wiped it down with mineral spirits thinking it would bring back the sheen -- WRONG.

 

So now I've got a five foot long scracth and a streak of dullness running across the floor, against the grain. I tried to buff it out with floor wax -- didn't work. I've got some poly-based floor refinisher I can try to use...also some poly and poly with stain I can try but it's going to show up pretty bad.

 

Any advice?

 

The Kegerator Memorial Floor Gouge....

 

Any scrap pieces of the same wood you can turn into sawdust?  If so, mix the sawdust with a little wood glue to make a paste... fill in the gouge with that stuff... then sand it a little after it has a chance to really dry...

 

Depending on the gouge, you might even wanna make it slight worse just to give the paste something rough to grab on to...

 

That's just for the gouge... dunno what kind of finish you have on it... what is it?  Is it glossy, satin, or matte?

[NewMarketSean]

It's semi-gloss oil poly thats been buffed with a machine.

 

The scratch didn't penetrate the wood...I think it just scratched the poly. Sanding it down didn't remove the scratch either.

[RShack]

It's semi-gloss oil poly thats been buffed with a machine.

 

The scratch didn't penetrate the wood...I think it just scratched the poly. Sanding it down didn't remove the scratch either.

 

Does the oil poly provide color?  Maybe give a bit of yellow tint?   If so, then I'd think that the only possible issue would be color-matching where the sanded place meets the unsanded place...

 

Other than that, if it was me, I'd just sand it, wipe with a solvent to ensure it's clean of microscopic debris, then put *exactly the same stuff* on the area... I'd err on the side of multiple thin coats instead of one mega-coat...

 

If the scratch is just in the finish, then I'd think doing that would solve both problems...

[NewMarketSean]

Yeah I think it's going to come down to putting some poly on it.

 

I have a poly-based refinisher that I may try to use first.

[NewMarketSean]

Does anyone know if a 400 grit sandpaper is too fine a sandpaper to get poly or a refinisher to bring back the sheen?

 

I know people have said to use 220 grit paper to sand and buff poly, but I used 400 since I thought a finer paper would do less damage. Now I am wondering if it's too fine.

[Mark Carver]

My daughter asked me how to get rid of popcorn ceilings. As never having to had to, off to YouTube. Does this sound right?

 

[RShack]

^^^^^^^^^

 

I have no news about how to get rid of it... but I do know why they put it there in the 1st place... it hides all the imperfections in crappy sheetrock work... that's what it's for...  

 

So, if you get rid of it, then what?

[Mark Carver]

I told her if you remove it, she'll have to replace it with something. Personally I'd leave it alone.

 

^^^^^^^^^

 

I have no news about how to get rid of it... but I do know why they put it there in the 1st place... it hides all the imperfections in crappy sheetrock work... that's what it's for...  

 

So, if you get rid of it, then what?

[Mike in STL]

Has anyone replaced the inner workings of their toilet tank before? I have a leak from the tank when it flushes which leads me to think a gasket broke or something. Either way, It's cheap enough, I might as well replace the flapper, the fill tube, the hose coming from the outside, all of it. It's pretty old. Are these things pretty universal, or should I try to take it apart and find the matching parts? Any advice for completing this task with minimal headache?

 

Just want to make sure there are no surprises. Everything I start takes hours longer than it should. The other day I replaced our dryer vent on the outside, it was old and cracked. I literally bought the same exact one that was already here. I pull out the old tube, and cant put the new one in as it wouldn't fit in the hole cut in the side of the house. Who ever did this before us crimped their tube down to make it fit instead of cutting a bigger hole. The crimped tub didn't make a good seal with the vent pipe and dryer lint was all up in between the walls. That's not cool. I chiseled out a bigger hole, snipped the aluminum siding to size, eventually got it done the right way.

 

So yeah. I'm hoping to fix my toilet in 30 minutes or less. Not make 3 trips to Lowes and make this simple project spur another one. It's too nice a day today to be stuck in the bathroom all day.

[RShack]

^^^^

 

AFAIK, it's all standard... dunno about Japanese toilets though...

 

The only thing that ever caused me a problem when doing that is on one toilet where the new flapper had to sit on an incline that was built into the bottom of the tank... it was annoying to get it to balance and seated just right so it wouldn't fall over... on another one, one of the bolts that holds the tank onto the base simply crumbled, just from me fooling around vaguely near it inside the tank...

 

I really like getting rid of those damn float things and instead having a modern one that's sensitive (and adjustable) to the weight of the water pressing down on it... just a partial turn of a screw with a screwdriver instead of fooling around adjusting the float cutoff...

 

Personally, I think you're setting yourself up by setting a 30-minute time target... better to take your estimate, triple it, and use that... so, say 90 minutes instead or 30... that way, if you finish any earlier at all, even if it's 85 minutes, then you can declare victory... in my case, doing that leads to less cussing and scowling....

[Mike in STL]

Start to finish, 3 hours 30 minutes. Required taking the enire tank off the toilet. Which was necessary because the leak was actually the main gasket between tank and bowl. The nuts and bolts were badly rusted and took the most time to get off.

Flushed it 3 times with no leaks. Fingers crossed.

[Mike in STL]

More fun stuff. [Sarcasm] 

 

Not gonna be DIY...but I wake up yesterday to a pool of water in my front lawn and trickling down the sidewalk. Encroaching on my neighbors lawn. Thank god it wasn't sewage. I call Baltimore City who also manages Baltimore county water to see what they can do. Said they will respond within 24 hours. They come around 8pm, tell me they are only responsible from the meter to the curb. So about 1 foot of pipe. How convenient. My problem is in the piping under my yard. Probably a hole in the 60 year old galvanized pipe. Had to call a plumber.

 

So Len the Plumber came out today. Read that companies like them and Roto-Rooter charge out the ass. But Len the Plumber had much better reviews than Roto-Rooter, and many other independent plumbers it seems don't tackle the big jobs like this. 

 

Told it's gonna run $3500 and change. I signed off on it because I pretty much had to. Job has to be done. Price is probably on the high end without being ridiculous outrageous.  But it certainly isn't work I can do myself. I've read it's more expensive in regions like this where they have to go below the frost line. Probably half the price if this were Florida or Gulf Coast or something. Digging my yard up with a backhoe. Replacing the entire incoming water pipe with a polyurethane one. About 30 feet. Labor for about an eight hour day. A couple of adapters they are putting in my interior to bring it up to code. 5 year warranty on their work.  They also have to acquire permits to dig, set up for Miss Utility to come out. 

 

I was also told that it had to wait until Monday because for the job, inspectors have to come out to ensure it's done to code. Probably an extra fee for me to pay for the inspector to be on site. Inspectors don't work weekends, so I get to look at a swamp in yard for three more days. 

 

Wish I would have gotten an itemized invoice. Miss Utility is a free service, and I hope they aren't charging an extra $500 for Miss Utility.

 

I'm probably getting screwed a little bit. Getting screwed but at least taken out to dinner first. 

 

I'm jealous of my apartment dwelling friends sometimes. 

[RShack]

^^^^^

 

Bummer.

 

If you had a water key, you could turn the water off for most of the time, then let it run for a little bit a couple or three times per day... much less swamp, plus less water bill, that way...  you can accomplish the same thing with a large wrench or vice grips and long arms, but a water key is way easier... IMO, everybody who owns a house should have one...maybe your neighbor already does....  https://www.amazon.c...words=water key

[Mike in STL]

^^^^^
 
Bummer.
 
If you had a water key, you could turn the water off for most of the time, then let it run for a little bit a couple or three times per day... much less swamp, plus less water bill, that way...  you can accomplish the same thing with a large wrench or vice grips and long arms, but a water key is way easier... IMO, everybody who owns a house should have one...maybe your neighbor already does....  https://www.amazon.c...words=water key

Yeah. We carry one on the fire engine. Doesn't really help me out at home though. Our bill has always been really cheap. Like $23 every 3 months. Feel I was getting ripped off in apartment living where it was about $45 a month.

I hope the bill isn't well up into hundreds next time.

[RShack]

I can't believe I didn't know about this method of defrosting windshields before...