The Home Improvement Thread

[Slava]

Awesome. I tried to drill through the side of a conduit body and it basically shattered. So...any resident electricians here who might help this idiot out?

[timun]

PaperBagger

[Slava]

I actually got things organized. I am just going to repair the body as best as possible and I think it'll be fine.

[81MC]

Any recommendations for a basic residential structural engineer regarding replacing a load bearing wall with a beam? Fairly straight forward, 15’ exterior wall to chime by stack, currently dividing kitchen/living room.

Doing the work is not an issue, we have a good carpenter and I’m not even entirely sure if the City requires engineer stamp for such a simple job.

[Bill Bumface]

^ These guys were good for me: https://www.bravura.ca/

[Nufy]

Originally Posted by Slava

Awesome. I tried to drill through the side of a conduit body and it basically shattered. So...any resident electricians here who might help this idiot out?

I am trying to picture what you did there...

Can you post a pic ?

[Sliver]

Originally Posted by Nufy

I am trying to picture what you did there...

Can you post a pic ?

Maybe just a plastic conduit that had been UV damaged or something so it was brittle. When drilling - instead of boring a hole - the conduit shattered.

[Slava]

Originally Posted by Sliver

Maybe just a plastic conduit that had been UV damaged or something so it was brittle. When drilling - instead of boring a hole - the conduit shattered.

yeah, that's basically what happened. I needed a 3/4" hole in the side, and I got that, but a chunk came out with it. I decided that I would use the hole as it is (with a little dremel job to make it fit just right) and I'm going to use JB weld to get a piece of the body in there properly. There might be a little bit of a gap still, so I'll use some caulk in there if it's needed.

I do have a picture...but the picture posting on this site is so brutal. If there was one thing I wish we could change here, it would be that!

[timun]

https://imgur.com/upload

[Slava]

^ I know, but so annoying.

[Sliver]

Originally Posted by Slava

^ I know, but so annoying.

Yeah, I don't know if I'm just a fk up or something, but I have to go into the testing forum to relearn how to do it every time. Sometimes it doesn't work unless I add .jpg or .png or some crap at the end. Some guys do it all day long seemingly with ease, but not this guy.

[Fuzz]

Originally Posted by Sliver

Yeah, I don't know if I'm just a fk up or something, but I have to go into the testing forum to relearn how to do it every time. Sometimes it doesn't work unless I add .jpg or .png or some crap at the end. Some guys do it all day long seemingly with ease, but not this guy.

Part of it is imgur making it difficult. After you upload, hover over the image and click the 3 dots and select "get share links":




Then click "copy link" next to the BBCode.




Then you can paste that link in the CP text box. Note in Firefox the text and image won't appear in your comment box until you hit "go advanced" or "Preview post" if you are already in advanced. Weird glitch.

[PaperBagger'14]

Originally Posted by timun

PaperBagger

I haven't done any electrician work in about a decade now but I could always coach Slava through whatever the issue is.

[DoubleF]

Originally Posted by PaperBagger'14

I haven't done any electrician work in about a decade now but I could always coach Slava through whatever the issue is.

I imagine this basically as:
"SILENCE! FOLLOW MY INSTRUCTIONS EXACTLY, OR IT MIGHT KEEEEEL YOU!"

[powderjunkie]

Talk to me about whole house humidifiers.

We've got two furnaces - 1 for upper level with bedrooms, the other for everywhere else. There's an old/non-functional humidifier on the rest of house furnace, but I'm thinking I'd like one on the bedroom furnace...though moist air rises, so would the lower furnace be better?

Goal is to keep the kiddos noses happier without dealing with portables in each room. I know we'll need to turn it down on the coldest days.

Any recs for installer or particular type of unit to look for?

[timun]

Warm air rises, whether it's 'moist' or not.

If you run just the basement/main-floor furnace, and not the second-floor, does it keep the second floor warm in the winter? If not (and I'm sure the answer is 'no'...), likewise a humidifier on the lower-levels furnace isn't going to magically humidify your second floor bedrooms.

Most household humidifiers are of the "bypass" types, and any furnace installer could install one for you. These are attached to the side of the supply duct and either have a round, spongy pad on a drum that slowly rotates into a puddle of water and passes the moist pad across an opening into the supply duct, or a metal pad that air just flows through. The moist air is pushed into the supply duct by a "bypass" duct that is hooked up to the furnace supply further upstream. These humidifiers work, but are generally very inefficient and mostly suck ass.

What some manufacturers have started offering are steam humidifiers, which look like little miniature versions of the humidifiers used in big buildings. These have a small boiling vessel within which water is boiled to steam, and the steam is directed into a dispersion tube stuck in the supply duct downstream of the furnace. These are the cat's meow by comparison to the bypass types, but I have absolutely no idea how much installers want for them. Definitely more. Maybe you can be a guinea pig for CP and shop around.

[Fuzz]

Can I send some of my excess humidity to you? I really don't want to buy a dehumidifier in Calgary, but ever since redoing the insulation the humidity is way too high. Like, 20% higher than outside. I don't get it...and yes, I turned my humidifier off!

[Shazam]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

Can I send some of my excess humidity to you? I really don't want to buy a dehumidifier in Calgary, but ever since redoing the insulation the humidity is way too high. Like, 20% higher than outside. I don't get it...and yes, I turned my humidifier off!

Turn on your furnace fan? Like, for a few days?

[DoubleK]

Anyone know my best bet for about 100 sq ft of sod at this time of year.

[Fuzz]

Originally Posted by Shazam

Turn on your furnace fan? Like, for a few days?

I have it running on intermittent, so it goes several times an hour. I just can't figure out where the humidity is coming from.