I have an intermittent leak somewhere that sometimes creates a puddle in my basement and it appears water is finding it's way behind the tub surround (which is just the plastic variety glued on to an old tile wall). Plumber couldn't find anything and his best suggestion was a complete remodel. Yeah no thanks, I don't have thousands of doubloons laying around.
Anyways, it's leaking somewhere that doesn't cause the pipes in the wall to be wet, which makes me think water must be dribbling out somewhere near the wall openings for the spout and faucet handles.
Any ideas? Am I going to have to rip this whole damn thing apart?
Does it start leaking quickly after you use the shower? If so, grab a bucket, pour water on various parts of the surround, and see which ones cause a leak.
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ShadowfireVermont, in the middle of nowhereRegistered Userregular
Electrical question: whether the light is off or on, the fixtures are hot. I'm reading conflicting information, but it seems like this is normal if the light switch is after the light in the circuit instead of before the light. Is that true, and if so, is that kosher?
Pretty sure it is not up to code to have the switch after the light, but I could be wrong. Even if it is though, having the light fixture be hot when not on means there is a short somewhere, which is definitely not good.
Followup. I got in touch with my electrician to ask him, and he said the switch after is perfectly fine especially for older houses. Sometimes it's the only way to make the wiring work. But after looking around, I noticed that all of the ceiling fixtures are hot when they're switched off. Time to pull out the multimeter!
120V when powered on. Great. Breaker off, 0V. Perfect. When the breaker is on, but the switch is off, the fixtures in the house all read somewhere between 9-25V.
So I've got phantom voltage. And after looking more, I'm pretty sure it's because a lot of the wires are the old style cloth wiring because the previous owner was lazy. Safe for now, replace later, $Texas, ffffffuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu.
Electrical question: whether the light is off or on, the fixtures are hot. I'm reading conflicting information, but it seems like this is normal if the light switch is after the light in the circuit instead of before the light. Is that true, and if so, is that kosher?
Pretty sure it is not up to code to have the switch after the light, but I could be wrong. Even if it is though, having the light fixture be hot when not on means there is a short somewhere, which is definitely not good.
Followup. I got in touch with my electrician to ask him, and he said the switch after is perfectly fine especially for older houses. Sometimes it's the only way to make the wiring work. But after looking around, I noticed that all of the ceiling fixtures are hot when they're switched off. Time to pull out the multimeter!
120V when powered on. Great. Breaker off, 0V. Perfect. When the breaker is on, but the switch is off, the fixtures in the house all read somewhere between 9-25V.
So I've got phantom voltage. And after looking more, I'm pretty sure it's because a lot of the wires are the old style cloth wiring because the previous owner was lazy. Safe for now, replace later, $Texas, ffffffuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu.
If that is metal it could also just be retaining heat from the lights.
Not with actual voltage. That's not a good sign. Mind, it depends if there's a conductive path between the two terminals when the switch is off. They are supposed to be disconnected.
If that is metal it could also just be retaining heat from the lights.
Not with actual voltage. That's not a good sign. Mind, it depends if there's a conductive path between the two terminals when the switch is off. They are supposed to be disconnected.
I assume shadowfire was testing the actual terminals and not the fixture's surface.
not a doctor, not a lawyer, examples I use may not be fully researched so don't take out of context plz, don't @ me
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ShadowfireVermont, in the middle of nowhereRegistered Userregular
If that is metal it could also just be retaining heat from the lights.
Not with actual voltage. That's not a good sign. Mind, it depends if there's a conductive path between the two terminals when the switch is off. They are supposed to be disconnected.
I assume shadowfire was testing the actual terminals and not the fixture's surface.
Oh yeah. If there was voltage on the fixture itself I'd be in panic mode that we'd wired it wrong. This is in the sockets which is ok-ish.
Switches after the fact is basically just lazy electricians of yesteryear, not technically wrong in that'll still function, but dangerous since to kill the circuit while working on it you have to hit the breaker or pull out the fuse. Which you should do anyways, though.
bowen on
not a doctor, not a lawyer, examples I use may not be fully researched so don't take out of context plz, don't @ me
The trick is finding a way to attach weight to the inside of the lid. Or tension ropes.
Cords are the easy off the shelf solution though can possibly be lost if your sanitation workers aren't the most attentive.
Weighing the lid can be done with a drill, zip ties, and weighted items with a whole in them like masonry bricks that have holes due to being on the inside of masonry where no one will see the holes. That's how I've weighed a small feral cat feeding station that raccoons would knock over if they couldn't find food in it.
Why not drill holes through the can and lid that are big enough to accommodate a bike lock and use that?
Presumably because one wants the sanitation workers to unlock the lid to empty the trash and one can't easily give all of them the combination or a key.
I have an intermittent leak somewhere that sometimes creates a puddle in my basement and it appears water is finding it's way behind the tub surround (which is just the plastic variety glued on to an old tile wall). Plumber couldn't find anything and his best suggestion was a complete remodel. Yeah no thanks, I don't have thousands of doubloons laying around.
Anyways, it's leaking somewhere that doesn't cause the pipes in the wall to be wet, which makes me think water must be dribbling out somewhere near the wall openings for the spout and faucet handles.
Any ideas? Am I going to have to rip this whole damn thing apart?
Does it start leaking quickly after you use the shower? If so, grab a bucket, pour water on various parts of the surround, and see which ones cause a leak.
Takes about 10 minutes or so to start seeing drips in the basement. Could possibly still make this work using a hose or something. Hmmmm.
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minor incidentexpert in a dying fieldnjRegistered Userregular
Why not drill holes through the can and lid that are big enough to accommodate a bike lock and use that?
Presumably because one wants the sanitation workers to unlock the lid to empty the trash and one can't easily give all of them the combination or a key.
I was going to say "leave the key in the lock" but some raccoon would just end up stealing the key, further escalating this arms race.
Ah, it stinks, it sucks, it's anthropologically unjust
Why not drill holes through the can and lid that are big enough to accommodate a bike lock and use that?
Presumably because one wants the sanitation workers to unlock the lid to empty the trash and one can't easily give all of them the combination or a key.
Geez, their only raccoons! You'd just paint the combination on the can. Then the sanitation workers can easily read it and ignore it because fuck you buddy and when the raccoons take over the world they'll remember you fondly for helping them master the concept of writing.
minor incidentexpert in a dying fieldnjRegistered Userregular
Okay, but for real tip: I've never met a raccoon that could work a caribiner.
Get two of the huge like 7" ones and drill two holes in the lid/rim. Run the carabiners through as a makeshift padlock.
The best part about this is that if you come out one day and find that your local raccoons have mastered opening a carabiner, well, that's your cue to sell your house and move away because it won't be long until they can pick your locks.
Ah, it stinks, it sucks, it's anthropologically unjust
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joshgotroDeviled EggThe Land of REAL CHILIRegistered Userregular
Okay, but for real tip: I've never met a raccoon that could work a caribiner.
Get two of the huge like 7" ones and drill two holes in the lid/rim. Run the carabiners through as a makeshift padlock.
The best part about this is that if you come out one day and find that your local raccoons have mastered opening a carabiner, well, that's your cue to sell your house and move away because it won't be long until they can pick your locks.
Jim Gordon: What about escalation?
Batman: Escalation?
Jim Gordon: We start carrying semi-automatics, they buy automatics. We start wearing Kevlar, they buy armor piercing rounds.
Batman: And?
Jim Gordon: And, you're wearing a mask. Jumping off rooftops. Now, take this guy.
Okay, but for real tip: I've never met a raccoon that could work a caribiner.
Get two of the huge like 7" ones and drill two holes in the lid/rim. Run the carabiners through as a makeshift padlock.
The best part about this is that if you come out one day and find that your local raccoons have mastered opening a carabiner, well, that's your cue to sell your house and move away because it won't be long until they can pick your locks.
Jim Gordon: What about escalation?
Batman: Escalation?
Jim Gordon: We start carrying semi-automatics, they buy automatics. We start wearing Kevlar, they buy armor piercing rounds.
Batman: And?
Jim Gordon: And, you're wearing a mask. Jumping off rooftops. Now, take this guy.
I'm more frightened about crows and ravens. Those fuckers have an understanding of fluid mechanics and displacement.
They also bring us gifts occasionally when we feed them. Either that or they just drop rocks and pick up the peanuts. Keeping the squirrels away from the crow food has been the hardest part.
I'm more frightened about crows and ravens. Those fuckers have an understanding of fluid mechanics and displacement.
They also bring us gifts occasionally when we feed them. Either that or they just drop rocks and pick up the peanuts. Keeping the squirrels away from the crow food has been the hardest part.
If you figure out how to keep squirrels out of anything, please let me know.
Has anyone here redone the insulation in their attic and had a noticeable difference in energy bill or general comfort around the house? I have about R-24 in my attic right now and current building code in my area of colorado is R-49. I won't be redoing any wall insulation, which is currently R-13, or my vinyl double pane windows.
In the winter time there are definitely days when the house feels much colder than the 68 degrees I have it set to. I'm guessing that is caused by areas near the walls or windows being colder than the area right next to the thermostat? When we had our new furnace put in 6 years ago the tech suggested we leave the fan on "on" (instead of auto). This was supposedly because even if it isn't heating or cooling it is moving air around which should even out the temp in different parts of the house and reduce cold or hot spots. Using an IR thermometer gun in the winter time I have noticed colder spots on the ceiling near the edges or corners of the ceiling. I'm assuming the insulation in the attic isn't pushed all the way out to the walls or maybe those areas are near soffits which can't be covered?
House is a 1960s ranch.
CommunistCow on
No, I am not really communist. Yes, it is weird that I use this name.
Yeah what you're feeling is the drafting coming from walls/windows and how furnaces work with their air returns.
I don't know if I'd be too concerned with the corners on the ceiling. You've probably got almost 0 insulation in your walls with anything older than the 1970s. Or if you do it's things like newspapers.
E: I dunno if the fan on would even help, it'd even out the temp but you'd still have drafting from air moving constantly and it's probably making it worse.
bowen on
not a doctor, not a lawyer, examples I use may not be fully researched so don't take out of context plz, don't @ me
@bowen So would there be any use in putting more insulation in the ceiling if I made no changes to the walls or windows? I have checked the walls in a few places and there is insulation, but the basement walls have these sweet 1x3s and 0 insulation.
I didn't even know 1x3 was a lumber size until we had to fix something behind the drywall in the basement.
CommunistCow on
No, I am not really communist. Yes, it is weird that I use this name.
I'd look for cold zones around doors and windows first. Your attic space seems pretty well insulated, but maybe the insulation is sub par or old in the walls. You can get foam injected into the walls so you don't need to do a full tear down. Not sure how that works if you've already got some there.
Insulating the basement would help too.
Hard to say for sure though!
not a doctor, not a lawyer, examples I use may not be fully researched so don't take out of context plz, don't @ me
If it's a mid-60s ranch, you might have R-9 in there. Maybe. And based on what the insulation in my house looked like, it's probably seen more useful days. If they failed to tack it right, it may have even slipped down in some sections. When I renoed my house the first time, I was told that foam would be the way to go if I wanted better insulation, and it can easily be injected even with existing insulation in the walls. That's what I would look into if I were in your position.
Blown in or foam is great but expensive or a pain in the ass to move around in the space (if that matters).
I just squeeze in new roxul (batting made from rocks but looks like the old pink fibreglass) whenever there's a rebate or sale.
It's made a marginal difference during the winter and summer so I guess my long winded opinion is that more insulation is almost always a good idea.
So I have a meeting with an agent on Monday...
*nervously eats avocado toast*
Oh, shit!
life's a game that you're bound to lose / like using a hammer to pound in screws
fuck up once and you break your thumb / if you're happy at all then you're god damn dumb
that's right we're on a fucked up cruise / God is dead but at least we have booze
bad things happen, no one knows why / the sun burns out and everyone dies
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minor incidentexpert in a dying fieldnjRegistered Userregular
So I have a meeting with an agent on Monday...
*nervously eats avocado toast*
Oh, shit!
Hell yes increase your tax burden. Do iiiiiiiit.
Psh, I already pay property taxes via my rent.
At least now I'll get the credit for it.
life's a game that you're bound to lose / like using a hammer to pound in screws
fuck up once and you break your thumb / if you're happy at all then you're god damn dumb
that's right we're on a fucked up cruise / God is dead but at least we have booze
bad things happen, no one knows why / the sun burns out and everyone dies
Posts
However they tend to be super destructive and not good if they get into your house, so I can see wanting to deter them.
The true solution is to befriend one, and use him to fend off the other
This may or may not still cause the "trash on the ground" problem, but you have the bonus of starting a raccoon turf war.
Does it start leaking quickly after you use the shower? If so, grab a bucket, pour water on various parts of the surround, and see which ones cause a leak.
Followup. I got in touch with my electrician to ask him, and he said the switch after is perfectly fine especially for older houses. Sometimes it's the only way to make the wiring work. But after looking around, I noticed that all of the ceiling fixtures are hot when they're switched off. Time to pull out the multimeter!
120V when powered on. Great. Breaker off, 0V. Perfect. When the breaker is on, but the switch is off, the fixtures in the house all read somewhere between 9-25V.
So I've got phantom voltage. And after looking more, I'm pretty sure it's because a lot of the wires are the old style cloth wiring because the previous owner was lazy. Safe for now, replace later, $Texas, ffffffuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu.
Fun....
Not with actual voltage. That's not a good sign. Mind, it depends if there's a conductive path between the two terminals when the switch is off. They are supposed to be disconnected.
I assume shadowfire was testing the actual terminals and not the fixture's surface.
Oh yeah. If there was voltage on the fixture itself I'd be in panic mode that we'd wired it wrong. This is in the sockets which is ok-ish.
Cords are the easy off the shelf solution though can possibly be lost if your sanitation workers aren't the most attentive.
Weighing the lid can be done with a drill, zip ties, and weighted items with a whole in them like masonry bricks that have holes due to being on the inside of masonry where no one will see the holes. That's how I've weighed a small feral cat feeding station that raccoons would knock over if they couldn't find food in it.
This can be a really long wait. From experience trying to deter raccoons, they can show up any time from shortly after nightfall to just before dawn.
Steam Profile
3DS: 3454-0268-5595 Battle.net: SteelAngel#1772
Presumably because one wants the sanitation workers to unlock the lid to empty the trash and one can't easily give all of them the combination or a key.
Steam Profile
3DS: 3454-0268-5595 Battle.net: SteelAngel#1772
Takes about 10 minutes or so to start seeing drips in the basement. Could possibly still make this work using a hose or something. Hmmmm.
I was going to say "leave the key in the lock" but some raccoon would just end up stealing the key, further escalating this arms race.
Geez, their only raccoons! You'd just paint the combination on the can. Then the sanitation workers can easily read it and ignore it because fuck you buddy and when the raccoons take over the world they'll remember you fondly for helping them master the concept of writing.
Get two of the huge like 7" ones and drill two holes in the lid/rim. Run the carabiners through as a makeshift padlock.
The best part about this is that if you come out one day and find that your local raccoons have mastered opening a carabiner, well, that's your cue to sell your house and move away because it won't be long until they can pick your locks.
Jim Gordon: What about escalation?
Batman: Escalation?
Jim Gordon: We start carrying semi-automatics, they buy automatics. We start wearing Kevlar, they buy armor piercing rounds.
Batman: And?
Jim Gordon: And, you're wearing a mask. Jumping off rooftops. Now, take this guy.
Steam Profile
3DS: 3454-0268-5595 Battle.net: SteelAngel#1772
They also bring us gifts occasionally when we feed them. Either that or they just drop rocks and pick up the peanuts. Keeping the squirrels away from the crow food has been the hardest part.
PSN : Bolthorn
If you figure out how to keep squirrels out of anything, please let me know.
In the winter time there are definitely days when the house feels much colder than the 68 degrees I have it set to. I'm guessing that is caused by areas near the walls or windows being colder than the area right next to the thermostat? When we had our new furnace put in 6 years ago the tech suggested we leave the fan on "on" (instead of auto). This was supposedly because even if it isn't heating or cooling it is moving air around which should even out the temp in different parts of the house and reduce cold or hot spots. Using an IR thermometer gun in the winter time I have noticed colder spots on the ceiling near the edges or corners of the ceiling. I'm assuming the insulation in the attic isn't pushed all the way out to the walls or maybe those areas are near soffits which can't be covered?
House is a 1960s ranch.
I don't know if I'd be too concerned with the corners on the ceiling. You've probably got almost 0 insulation in your walls with anything older than the 1970s. Or if you do it's things like newspapers.
E: I dunno if the fan on would even help, it'd even out the temp but you'd still have drafting from air moving constantly and it's probably making it worse.
I didn't even know 1x3 was a lumber size until we had to fix something behind the drywall in the basement.
Insulating the basement would help too.
Hard to say for sure though!
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I just squeeze in new roxul (batting made from rocks but looks like the old pink fibreglass) whenever there's a rebate or sale.
It's made a marginal difference during the winter and summer so I guess my long winded opinion is that more insulation is almost always a good idea.
*nervously eats avocado toast*
Oh, shit!
fuck up once and you break your thumb / if you're happy at all then you're god damn dumb
that's right we're on a fucked up cruise / God is dead but at least we have booze
bad things happen, no one knows why / the sun burns out and everyone dies
Well now you can't afford a house, you dunderheaded millennial!
Hell yes increase your tax burden. Do iiiiiiiit.
Psh, I already pay property taxes via my rent.
At least now I'll get the credit for it.
fuck up once and you break your thumb / if you're happy at all then you're god damn dumb
that's right we're on a fucked up cruise / God is dead but at least we have booze
bad things happen, no one knows why / the sun burns out and everyone dies
What's wrong with it?
My guess: it's a furnace.
Certainly no printer that's for sure
Make sure the guy you call for the new furnace reads the install guide.