The Home Improvement Thread

[photon]

Oh and one of the Cree bulbs I replaced it with buzzes even if it's at full brightness First Cree bulb I've had that with.

[mrkajz44]

Originally Posted by DuffMan

I think you may have rats in your walls that have chewed through the wire.
Has it ever worked?
You can get this line tracer to see if you're tracing what you think you're tracing.
http://www.homedepot.ca/product/lan-...-1-clam/963530

We bought the house in November and it never worked for us (noted in the home inspection). The old owners lived there for 18 months or so and it never worked for them either. The outlet itself looked very "used" though, so I'm pretty it did work at some point.

So tracing the line is really my only option at this point? Not sure I feel confident doing that myself and dropping $50 on something I might not even be able to function correctly. Thanks for the suggestion though!

And good god, we better not have rats!

[You Need a Thneed]

Removed the appliance garage in my kitchen last night. Found a live electrical outlet behind the back wall that must have been covered up for ~20 years.

Oh, and the ugliest 1980s tile ever.

[CarlLester]

Question for those of you with more expertise in plumbing and/or water related issues than me (ie. everyone).
We've got an issue in our house where the water pressure is reduced to a trickle if anything else requiring water is on. Filling up the sink to do dishes, if someone flushes a toilet in the house, kitchen tap reduces to a trickle. Flush the toilet, jump in the shower, not enough water pressure to fill the toilet tank. That sort of thing.

House is about 10 years old. No obvious leaks anywhere. My wife says it has only been an issue in the winter (I haven't paid close enough attention to confirm or deny). Not sure what to do next or who to call....a plumber? the city utility?

[Madman]

Partially frozen main line coming into the house?

Water meter problem reducing flow?

[Ducay]

Originally Posted by CarlLester

Question for those of you with more expertise in plumbing and/or water related issues than me (ie. everyone).
We've got an issue in our house where the water pressure is reduced to a trickle if anything else requiring water is on. Filling up the sink to do dishes, if someone flushes a toilet in the house, kitchen tap reduces to a trickle. Flush the toilet, jump in the shower, not enough water pressure to fill the toilet tank. That sort of thing.

House is about 10 years old. No obvious leaks anywhere. My wife says it has only been an issue in the winter (I haven't paid close enough attention to confirm or deny). Not sure what to do next or who to call....a plumber? the city utility?

Did you make any changes to your plumbing? If its not something being frozen/broken or otherwise reducing service to your house, I'd imagine it has always been that way and you're just noticing now.

You'll get pressure drops when using other fixtures when the plumbing was done in series instead of each fixture coming off of a central well supplied manifold. (ie if you have one 1/2" pipe that runs upstairs and serves a couple washrooms and the laundry, you'll have severe loss of pressure since the 1/2" cant keep up to demand. now if you had three 1/2" lines running upstairs, all fed from one larger source, it can keep up with more usage before you get to noticable loss in pressure at each fixture.

[CarlLester]

Originally Posted by Ducay

Did you make any changes to your plumbing? If its not something being frozen/broken or otherwise reducing service to your house, I'd imagine it has always been that way and you're just noticing now.

You'll get pressure drops when using other fixtures when the plumbing was done in series instead of each fixture coming off of a central well supplied manifold. (ie if you have one 1/2" pipe that runs upstairs and serves a couple washrooms and the laundry, you'll have severe loss of pressure since the 1/2" cant keep up to demand. now if you had three 1/2" lines running upstairs, all fed from one larger source, it can keep up with more usage before you get to noticable loss in pressure at each fixture.

No plumbing changes. Understand what you are saying and it may have always been that way to an extent. However, it is much more noticeable now...my wife is sick and it took almost an hour to fill the bath tub! Thanks for the feedback, I appreciate it.

[Knalus]

Originally Posted by CarlLester

No plumbing changes. Understand what you are saying and it may have always been that way to an extent. However, it is much more noticeable now...my wife is sick and it took almost an hour to fill the bath tub! Thanks for the feedback, I appreciate it.

I'm no plumber, but it sounds like there may be a problem with/plug in the vent stack??

[Ducay]

Originally Posted by Knalus

I'm no plumber, but it sounds like there may be a problem with/plug in the vent stack??

I sure hope your vent stack has nothing to do with your pressurized water lines....

Venting is needed to drain properly, not to fill the tub.

But an hour to fill it sounds ridiculous unless you had another water source or 2 running at the same time.

Call 311 and have them get someone in water services to look into the pressure levels in your neighbourhood and they should be able to tell if you if any work has been done and what pressure you should be expecting coming into the property. I've done it before when I was adding a pressure reducing valve since water comes in from the city at much too high pressures in some spots.

[PaperBagger'14]

Answers for a bunch of electrical questions here:

Photon

1) All electrical work is to be permitted. One of the first rules in the code book says any installation, maintenance, repair or alteration has to be inspected. This causes a grey area as it would backlog inspections for someone changing a bulb.

2) 200A seems very high, there's a load calculation that I can do for you but with a 1200 sq ft house I can almost guarantee a 100A disconnect would suffice.

Mrkajz44

Check all outside plugs for a gfci and hit test then reset. Often to save money only 1 gfci will be used and they can be run in parallel from each other. If it seems faulty (gfci trips immediately) try replacing just the gfci plug first, it might have just been the electronic components going bad. Next, take off every outside plug and look for signs of arcs, the problem may be there. Also check and see if the wires going into the plugs are wrapped around the screws or plugged into the back of the outlet. I've seen many problems with them being inserted into the back. Lastly if there is no exterior gfci plugs, check the basement for a dead front. A dead front looks the same as a regular gfci with no outlets on it and they are generally mounted next to the panel. Hit test and reset.

Also if you're looking at buying a circuit tracer make sure it can work on dead circuits. Many are only able to work on live circuits and that's not always helpful.

You Need a Thneed

You should replace them to afci's. If you are still using incandescent bulbs in these bedrooms I would advise changing the lamps to LED as incandescent and fluorescent bulbs are prone to nuissancely trip AFCI breakers (afci detects arcs and that is what is used to create light inside of CFL bulbs).

/Phew

[Slava]

I'm hoping that someone can help me solve a mystery (to me anyway ). I have low flow toilets and one of them is really slow to fill the tank. It's basically a trickle. If I turn off the supply valve and turn it back on though it fills quickly/normally. Then as soon as it's flushed again its back to filling very slowly again. Seems so weird to me, and I would like to fix it. Anyone know what the issue is and basically what I would replace? (seems like something needs replacing)

[Ducay]

Originally Posted by Slava

I'm hoping that someone can help me solve a mystery (to me anyway ). I have low flow toilets and one of them is really slow to fill the tank. It's basically a trickle. If I turn off the supply valve and turn it back on though it fills quickly/normally. Then as soon as it's flushed again its back to filling very slowly again. Seems so weird to me, and I would like to fix it. Anyone know what the issue is and basically what I would replace? (seems like something needs replacing)

I'd pop the lid off and play around with it. Can you get it to flow normally by pushing on the float either direction? Does anything change/get hit after a flush?

Barring anything in the filling mechanism (ie toilet side), do you have an "anti-flood" supply line? (They have mechanisms in them to cut water in event of a burst, and can often slow down filling). My money would be on that. They look just like a normal braided steel line, except normally a little fatter with bigger connectors on either end.

[photon]

Originally Posted by PaperBagger'14

2) 200A seems very high, there's a load calculation that I can do for you but with a 1200 sq ft house I can almost guarantee a 100A disconnect would suffice.

It's actually a 4plex each with its own meter and cutoff and such.

I think I figured out what it was they're quoting, I guess there's nothing between the transformer and the next thing (meters I guess?), so I think the quote is to put in a 200A disconnect for everything.

[rayne008]

Originally Posted by Slava

I'm hoping that someone can help me solve a mystery (to me anyway ). I have low flow toilets and one of them is really slow to fill the tank. It's basically a trickle. If I turn off the supply valve and turn it back on though it fills quickly/normally. Then as soon as it's flushed again its back to filling very slowly again. Seems so weird to me, and I would like to fix it. Anyone know what the issue is and basically what I would replace? (seems like something needs replacing)

I had the exact same concern. On mine there is a black rubber seal under the top cap that becomes worn, causing a vacuum leak. Doesn't look like much, and no noticable tears or wear. Simple $5 repair fixes it right up. Mine was a fluidmaster 400 valve.

[PaperBagger'14]

Originally Posted by photon

It's actually a 4plex each with its own meter and cutoff and such.

I think I figured out what it was they're quoting, I guess there's nothing between the transformer and the next thing (meters I guess?), so I think the quote is to put in a 200A disconnect for everything.

Oh if it's the main disconnect for a 4 plex than yeah a 200A main disconnect is reasonable and required. I've built several strip malls and they work off of the same code rule. There is a demand calculation for that but 200A is very likely the case.

[Komskies]

Hoping someone with some HVAC experience can weigh in here. We're in the process of developing our basement, in the framing stages right now, and before we close in the duct work with the bulkhead theres an ongoing issue that I need to deal with.

Every winter there will be periods of time where (typically during very cold outside temperatures, but not always) the cold air duct will gather condensation and start dripping. Obviously this needs to be corrected before closing it in with a bulkhead, but what would be the best way to deal with this issue?

[surferguy]

Everlast should be able to chime in here

[BigNumbers]

Originally Posted by Komskies

Hoping someone with some HVAC experience can weigh in here. We're in the process of developing our basement, in the framing stages right now, and before we close in the duct work with the bulkhead theres an ongoing issue that I need to deal with.

Every winter there will be periods of time where (typically during very cold outside temperatures, but not always) the cold air duct will gather condensation and start dripping. Obviously this needs to be corrected before closing it in with a bulkhead, but what would be the best way to deal with this issue?

Sounds like you're not closing your exterior intake flap - should be closed (mostly closed) in the winter to stop this from happening. I take it you don't have an HRV system?

[Komskies]

Originally Posted by BigNumbers

Sounds like you're not closing your exterior intake flap - should be closed (mostly closed) in the winter to stop this from happening. I take it you don't have an HRV system?

No, we don't have an HRV system. I'll have to take a look at the exterior vent flap to see if there's something that can even be closed. We would have whatever the builder installed 4 years ago. I assume if it doesn't have adjustable flaps would I want to get something like http://www.homedepot.ca/product/ezfi...ket-set/843970 so that I can close it up in the winter?

[BigNumbers]

I'd follow along a line from the outside plumbed into your cold air intake in the basement. It's likely an insulated pipe.

Not what you sent - that's not what you want. it's a flap you turn in the house to open or close the vent: