Yeah you gotta clean the stuff you put in your recycling bin or it goes straight in the regular rubbish.
(basically everything goes in the regular trash now rip china recycling)
China for the most part wasn't recycling that stuff anyway. A lot of it was burned. Which is what led to their reduction in recycling purchasing (they finally implemented some environmental regulations on what could be burned).
Edit - Hopefully this leads to actual recycling implementations. Where we do a good job of actually re-using the materials. Instead of just hoping someone else will do it.
Jebus314 on
"The world is a mess, and I just need to rule it" - Dr Horrible
0
AbsoluteZeroThe new film by Quentin KoopantinoRegistered Userregular
The only thing that I honestly believe gets recycled out of my bin is aluminum. The rest I'm 90% sure is burnt or strangling a sea turtle somewhere.
So how easy is it to install a new front door deadbolt? I just closed on my first house and we need to rekey the lock but since we’re going to need a dog walker, I figured it would be safer to get a smart lock that I can set an individual code for them with. Does anyone have experience with smart locks and have any recommendations? I have no problem hiring a professional if it’s easy to mess up.
So how easy is it to install a new front door deadbolt? I just closed on my first house and we need to rekey the lock but since we’re going to need a dog walker, I figured it would be safer to get a smart lock that I can set an individual code for them with. Does anyone have experience with smart locks and have any recommendations? I have no problem hiring a professional if it’s easy to mess up.
Screwdriver and a 15 minute job for traditional locks. Just follow the directions. No experience with smart locks.
So how easy is it to install a new front door deadbolt? I just closed on my first house and we need to rekey the lock but since we’re going to need a dog walker, I figured it would be safer to get a smart lock that I can set an individual code for them with. Does anyone have experience with smart locks and have any recommendations? I have no problem hiring a professional if it’s easy to mess up.
Screwdriver and a 15 minute job for traditional locks. Just follow the directions. No experience with smart locks.
The one smart Lock I installed was pretty trivial. Very similar to regular bolts
AbsoluteZeroThe new film by Quentin KoopantinoRegistered Userregular
I recently discovered the cold water going to our shower is hard and the hot water is soft. Is there any good reason for this? Any reason I shouldn't call a plumber to make both hot and cold soft?
I recently discovered the cold water going to our shower is hard and the hot water is soft. Is there any good reason for this? Any reason I shouldn't call a plumber to make both hot and cold soft?
Conditioning all your incoming water is potentially expensive, so it's not uncommon for it to be set up so that only the hot water heater supply line is conditioned (because hard water can significantly reduce the operational life of the heater) as well as only a few cold water lines - this is how my father set up his conditioner.
I recently discovered the cold water going to our shower is hard and the hot water is soft. Is there any good reason for this? Any reason I shouldn't call a plumber to make both hot and cold soft?
Conditioning all your incoming water is potentially expensive, so it's not uncommon for it to be set up so that only the hot water heater supply line is conditioned (because hard water can significantly reduce the operational life of the heater) as well as only a few cold water lines - this is how my father set up his conditioner.
Also, hot water is typically what goes to your washing appliances, and softer water reduces how much soap a person needs for cleaning their clothes/dishes. It's a pretty normal thing.
Between you and me, Peggy, I smoked this Juul and it did UNTHINKABLE things to my mind and body...
How inadvisable would it be for someone with no soldering experience to cut and install new copper water pipe?
it's not difficult but if it's something you plan to seal up behind a wall make sure you test it thoroughly after completing. Also if there's a lot of stuff around the pipe that's flammable maybe pay a plumber to do it (it's not that expensive).
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
Anybody know anything about attic vents and insulation? Buying this two flat, it has an attic unit. The roof is vented, along with a wall vent above the finished space in the small unfinished space above it. There is also fiberglass insulation bats in between each roof joist running to the top of the roof. These bats also block any channel between the base of the roof, the finished portion, and the vented top of the roof. So essentially a lot of things working against each other here. There's no channel for heat to rise from the base of the roof flashing to the vents in the summer. And in the winter, the vents will just leak cold into unfinished space onto the furnace (sits in the unfinished space on top) and flex-ducting. Living in Chicago, we can swing between extremes on both heat and cold at the height of various seasons, so I can see how you'd want venting in the summer, but prevent all that cold in the winter.
My question is, what can I do, short of gutting this attic unit and having a contractor do everything perfectly from scratch, to rectify this situation? My best guess is that that the cheapest and most effective option, and what would make most sense for Chicago weather (since cold vastly outlasts the heat), is to seal the roof vents somehow, seal up the wall vent, and push the insulation up over the sealed vents. Any ideas?
0
AbsoluteZeroThe new film by Quentin KoopantinoRegistered Userregular
The pipes are all exposed in the basement, but they run near the wooden floorboards so maybe I won't go up there with a blowtorch.
PEX looks like it might do the trick though! Trying to get this done without paying out the nose for a plumber.
to do a single solder joint like that is maybe $120, if it's multiple then it starts costing more per connection/foot and ~$100 per hour (depending on where you live)
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
Anybody know anything about attic vents and insulation? Buying this two flat, it has an attic unit. The roof is vented, along with a wall vent above the finished space in the small unfinished space above it. There is also fiberglass insulation bats in between each roof joist running to the top of the roof. These bats also block any channel between the base of the roof, the finished portion, and the vented top of the roof. So essentially a lot of things working against each other here. There's no channel for heat to rise from the base of the roof flashing to the vents in the summer. And in the winter, the vents will just leak cold into unfinished space onto the furnace (sits in the unfinished space on top) and flex-ducting. Living in Chicago, we can swing between extremes on both heat and cold at the height of various seasons, so I can see how you'd want venting in the summer, but prevent all that cold in the winter.
My question is, what can I do, short of gutting this attic unit and having a contractor do everything perfectly from scratch, to rectify this situation? My best guess is that that the cheapest and most effective option, and what would make most sense for Chicago weather (since cold vastly outlasts the heat), is to seal the roof vents somehow, seal up the wall vent, and push the insulation up over the sealed vents. Any ideas?
Is the flex-duct insulated and well-sealed? (In the non-conditioned attic space.) That's useful and fairly straightforward. Sealing up intentional ventilation always makes me nervous.
The pipes are all exposed in the basement, but they run near the wooden floorboards so maybe I won't go up there with a blowtorch.
PEX looks like it might do the trick though! Trying to get this done without paying out the nose for a plumber.
First, you need to make sure that PEX is in code where you are - not all places allow it. If it is, there are various ways to interconnect it to copper - you'll want to do your research here.
@Simpsonia they sell pretty cheap channels/baffles that allow for fresh air to flow up through the eaves to the ridge vent. I've seen them in both foam and plastic. That should help a bit.
Without being able to visualize it well, your biggest concern is making sure the furnace isn't starved for fresh air, since that will kill your efficiency and could cause an early death to your furnace. If you can confirm the furnace still gets enough air, you could install hinged baffles in the vents to keep the cold air from flowing through. You can also just grab a magnetic cover for the direct vent in the winter to help mitigate. Neither one will necessarily create an airtight seal without some additional effort by you, but it would still help.
---
Related: My oldest daughter's room is serviced by one floor vent. That vent has a solo run from the main "trunk" that goes to the outer wall of the house and up to her room. The airflow is the square root of non-existent, so her room tends to have greater extremes in the Summer and Winter, when she closes her door at night. I suspect the vertical run has become at least partially disconnected; as well as the fact that air has a long run against the exterior of the house, during which it loses most of its conditioning.
Short of cutting holes in walls in at least one room to try to repair the run, are there any other measures I could take?
She does have a cold air return on an interior wall, so I don't know if there's any potential there for a new/separate run that I can redirect once it gets to her room(?)
@Simpsonia they sell pretty cheap channels/baffles that allow for fresh air to flow up through the eaves to the ridge vent. I've seen them in both foam and plastic. That should help a bit.
Without being able to visualize it well, your biggest concern is making sure the furnace isn't starved for fresh air, since that will kill your efficiency and could cause an early death to your furnace. If you can confirm the furnace still gets enough air, you could install hinged baffles in the vents to keep the cold air from flowing through. You can also just grab a magnetic cover for the direct vent in the winter to help mitigate. Neither one will necessarily create an airtight seal without some additional effort by you, but it would still help.
---
Related: My oldest daughter's room is serviced by one floor vent. That vent has a solo run from the main "trunk" that goes to the outer wall of the house and up to her room. The airflow is the square root of non-existent, so her room tends to have greater extremes in the Summer and Winter, when she closes her door at night. I suspect the vertical run has become at least partially disconnected; as well as the fact that air has a long run against the exterior of the house, during which it loses most of its conditioning.
Short of cutting holes in walls in at least one room to try to repair the run, are there any other measures I could take?
She does have a cold air return on an interior wall, so I don't know if there's any potential there for a new/separate run that I can redirect once it gets to her room(?)
You could get an inspection camera or similar that hooks up to a cellphone for cheap ($20+); this is basically a camera on the end of a 10'+ flexible cable. You can then poke it into the vent and see if you can see any problems. At that point, you should at least know which wall to cut a hole in.
The unfinished space (at least on the top part) is large enough to crawl around on the 2x4 ceiling joists to get access to the furnace and flex-ducts. This area is also where the roof vents are. Think of a mini attic on top of the the finished attic. The furnace's cold air return is essentially just a single 24"x18" vent through the air filter directly into the ceiling of the finished attic unit, it basically just sits on the other side of the ceiling, with ducts running to a couple different areas of the ceiling.
I'm not sure if I could run channels easily unless they were very narrow. Narrow enough to feed between the 6" space of the 2x6 roof joists behind the fiberglass baffles and the finished drywall edge? The existing fiberglass baffles are just stuffed the full length of the roof joists. The other issue is the area between the base of the roof and the lower portion of the attic as I think a lot of that is inaccessible.
+3
MichaelLCIn what furnace was thy brain?ChicagoRegistered Userregular
The pipes are all exposed in the basement, but they run near the wooden floorboards so maybe I won't go up there with a blowtorch.
PEX looks like it might do the trick though! Trying to get this done without paying out the nose for a plumber.
First, you need to make sure that PEX is in code where you are - not all places allow it. If it is, there are various ways to interconnect it to copper - you'll want to do your research here.
PEX is OK here but now I'm actually thinking of going with copper and use press fittings like Sharkbite. They look easy enough to install and no torch required.
Offer fell through so I went looking at some other places. One looked promising, until the realtor sent me a seller's report that showed that the foundation had been worked on in '15, and had 37 piers put in all around the perimeter and in the middle.
I can only imagine that the home had been originally been built on top of a saltine.
The pipes are all exposed in the basement, but they run near the wooden floorboards so maybe I won't go up there with a blowtorch.
PEX looks like it might do the trick though! Trying to get this done without paying out the nose for a plumber.
First, you need to make sure that PEX is in code where you are - not all places allow it. If it is, there are various ways to interconnect it to copper - you'll want to do your research here.
PEX is OK here but now I'm actually thinking of going with copper and use press fittings like Sharkbite. They look easy enough to install and no torch required.
When we remodelled our bathroom a few years ago we tried soldering copper but couldn't get a seal so we just used a sharkbite to interconnect copper to pex and haven't had any issues. It's a nice alternative if its allowed.
Greetings Starfighter! You have been recruited by the Star League to defend the frontier against Xur and the Ko-Dan Armada.
Looking at lots with no buildings in a place you're not planning on building anything for years is a fucking nightmare.
Why is that?
I guess there's more factors which make it harder than just the lots thing.
My wife is from a different country. We were looking at idealistically splitting time between those countries when we retire, and also getting a place where we can build to have a place to stay when we visit her family. However, as this is potentially a longer-term investment for purposes of USAGE, that means things like climate change, etc become factors for the decisions. Which means trying to be realistic about how fucked things may be within certain timeframes while not losing myself to the crippling nihilism which tends to happen with me when facing those prospects. Also, in this case, having to keep mental space for things like "okay, so this has a source of water and electricity, right?"
We didn't find anything we liked while we were over there this time, which means it'll probably be put on the back-burner for a while.
Looking at lots with no buildings in a place you're not planning on building anything for years is a fucking nightmare.
Why is that?
I guess there's more factors which make it harder than just the lots thing.
My wife is from a different country. We were looking at idealistically splitting time between those countries when we retire, and also getting a place where we can build to have a place to stay when we visit her family. However, as this is potentially a longer-term investment for purposes of USAGE, that means things like climate change, etc become factors for the decisions. Which means trying to be realistic about how fucked things may be within certain timeframes while not losing myself to the crippling nihilism which tends to happen with me when facing those prospects. Also, in this case, having to keep mental space for things like "okay, so this has a source of water and electricity, right?"
We didn't find anything we liked while we were over there this time, which means it'll probably be put on the back-burner for a while.
Ahh, gotcha. Which country out of curiosity? I've often thought of doing something similar.
The Philippines, which has some laws that need to be dealt with to buy property as a foreigner (or not deal with since my wife is a citizen, so basically everything would be in her name).
Posts
China for the most part wasn't recycling that stuff anyway. A lot of it was burned. Which is what led to their reduction in recycling purchasing (they finally implemented some environmental regulations on what could be burned).
Edit - Hopefully this leads to actual recycling implementations. Where we do a good job of actually re-using the materials. Instead of just hoping someone else will do it.
Screwdriver and a 15 minute job for traditional locks. Just follow the directions. No experience with smart locks.
The one smart Lock I installed was pretty trivial. Very similar to regular bolts
I prefer Schlage to Kwikset but that's mostly based on Aesthetics. Both work just fine.
We made sure our keypad locks aren't connected to IoT as a personal preference.
Conditioning all your incoming water is potentially expensive, so it's not uncommon for it to be set up so that only the hot water heater supply line is conditioned (because hard water can significantly reduce the operational life of the heater) as well as only a few cold water lines - this is how my father set up his conditioner.
Also, hot water is typically what goes to your washing appliances, and softer water reduces how much soap a person needs for cleaning their clothes/dishes. It's a pretty normal thing.
~1-2% of your purchase price per year
a) not getting the house, or
b) getting the house and the looming mountain of debt that comes with it
it's not difficult but if it's something you plan to seal up behind a wall make sure you test it thoroughly after completing. Also if there's a lot of stuff around the pipe that's flammable maybe pay a plumber to do it (it's not that expensive).
My question is, what can I do, short of gutting this attic unit and having a contractor do everything perfectly from scratch, to rectify this situation? My best guess is that that the cheapest and most effective option, and what would make most sense for Chicago weather (since cold vastly outlasts the heat), is to seal the roof vents somehow, seal up the wall vent, and push the insulation up over the sealed vents. Any ideas?
PEX looks like it might do the trick though! Trying to get this done without paying out the nose for a plumber.
like
to do a single solder joint like that is maybe $120, if it's multiple then it starts costing more per connection/foot and ~$100 per hour (depending on where you live)
Is the flex-duct insulated and well-sealed? (In the non-conditioned attic space.) That's useful and fairly straightforward. Sealing up intentional ventilation always makes me nervous.
First, you need to make sure that PEX is in code where you are - not all places allow it. If it is, there are various ways to interconnect it to copper - you'll want to do your research here.
Without being able to visualize it well, your biggest concern is making sure the furnace isn't starved for fresh air, since that will kill your efficiency and could cause an early death to your furnace. If you can confirm the furnace still gets enough air, you could install hinged baffles in the vents to keep the cold air from flowing through. You can also just grab a magnetic cover for the direct vent in the winter to help mitigate. Neither one will necessarily create an airtight seal without some additional effort by you, but it would still help.
---
Related: My oldest daughter's room is serviced by one floor vent. That vent has a solo run from the main "trunk" that goes to the outer wall of the house and up to her room. The airflow is the square root of non-existent, so her room tends to have greater extremes in the Summer and Winter, when she closes her door at night. I suspect the vertical run has become at least partially disconnected; as well as the fact that air has a long run against the exterior of the house, during which it loses most of its conditioning.
Short of cutting holes in walls in at least one room to try to repair the run, are there any other measures I could take?
She does have a cold air return on an interior wall, so I don't know if there's any potential there for a new/separate run that I can redirect once it gets to her room(?)
You could get an inspection camera or similar that hooks up to a cellphone for cheap ($20+); this is basically a camera on the end of a 10'+ flexible cable. You can then poke it into the vent and see if you can see any problems. At that point, you should at least know which wall to cut a hole in.
I'm not sure if I could run channels easily unless they were very narrow. Narrow enough to feed between the 6" space of the 2x6 roof joists behind the fiberglass baffles and the finished drywall edge? The existing fiberglass baffles are just stuffed the full length of the roof joists. The other issue is the area between the base of the roof and the lower portion of the attic as I think a lot of that is inaccessible.
I scrolled too fast and thought this was a (correct) response to the Captain's question about budgeting.
Also I saw a gray mouse hanging out on my fence close to my house last night. Which is preferred, burn it down or flood it out?
PEX is OK here but now I'm actually thinking of going with copper and use press fittings like Sharkbite. They look easy enough to install and no torch required.
I can only imagine that the home had been originally been built on top of a saltine.
Looking at lots with no buildings in a place you're not planning on building anything for years is a fucking nightmare.
When we remodelled our bathroom a few years ago we tried soldering copper but couldn't get a seal so we just used a sharkbite to interconnect copper to pex and haven't had any issues. It's a nice alternative if its allowed.
Why is that?
I guess there's more factors which make it harder than just the lots thing.
My wife is from a different country. We were looking at idealistically splitting time between those countries when we retire, and also getting a place where we can build to have a place to stay when we visit her family. However, as this is potentially a longer-term investment for purposes of USAGE, that means things like climate change, etc become factors for the decisions. Which means trying to be realistic about how fucked things may be within certain timeframes while not losing myself to the crippling nihilism which tends to happen with me when facing those prospects. Also, in this case, having to keep mental space for things like "okay, so this has a source of water and electricity, right?"
We didn't find anything we liked while we were over there this time, which means it'll probably be put on the back-burner for a while.
Ahh, gotcha. Which country out of curiosity? I've often thought of doing something similar.
And of COURSE, her SIL finds a real promising place we could afford right after we left.
How convenient!
Then you get a clear day but you look at the lawn and it's so bad you're like "oh no I can't do this."
Yeah........