The Home Improvement Thread

[Shazam]

They're basically guaranteed to leak at some point in their life. They are an intrinsically flawed product.

[Wormius]

Originally Posted by Engine09

I was wondering if he was going a bit overboard an spending money he didn't need to, I only did a bit of searching. I can imagine the insurance issue and peace of mind would be motivating factors to get it done.

That's exactly what I was wondering, if these guys connect the new line to the old Poly-b and fish the new line while removing the old.

Yeah, I think if your mechanical room is open it makes that part easier, but all of the fixture connections that are behind tile or hard to access is probably where most of the pain points will be.

I keep kicking myself for not getting in on that class action settlement.

[DoubleF]

Originally Posted by Engine09

I have a friend with poly-b water lines in his house and he's having a company replace every single water line due to the high failure rate. I had no idea that type of pipe was so prone to failure but I guess it's serious enough that a lot of people are paying to have drywall cut open and everything replaced.

Has anyone here had this done? I'm curious how the old line is removed and how much drywall needs to be cut open, especially with clips nailed to the studs used to secure the original water line during installation. How do they fish the new line?

I had it done earlier this year. No issues in the poly B until it did, then it started to cascade. The failure point in my home was just above the utility room. With an 80s era dual furnace, I guess the hot and cold contributed to the failure even though the UV exposure thing or connectors weren't as big of a contributing factor.

Each time, it cost $600-900 for a repair. We're talking pinhole leaks and hair line cracks. The plumber would rip out a piece of poly B + and put in PEX. But then some other section had an issue, so we had to call in again in less than 12 months so after $1,500 in repairs and going from zero in the history of the house when I bought it to twice in less than 12 months only 2 years of owning the house, I decided to bite the bullet and replace it all. For most people, waiting until failure is OK, but according to websites poly B only has an expected life of around 25 years. Mine was almost 35 years when I had it replaced. Not to mention, as soon as you have an issue, it either is a cascading issue that you might as well do it all, or you get a singular catastrophic issue. My friend's place had this issue probably 10 years ago when his house was around 25 years. Returned from a vacation to a kitchen that flooded after less than 24 hours of someone checking on the house (albeit I wondered if there was already a hairline crack the person checking the house didn't even notice). A couple days of inconvenience plus a few casual weeks of cosmetic patch ups is less than the months of BS and insurance stuff to deal with if you get a catastrophic failure.

How much work depends on the house. If you have lines going everywhere, it's more. If your water pipes are situated in specific locations, it's less. Walls and ceilings had to be cut open in my home. Approximately 6-8 locations on the wall and approximately 4-6 locations in the ceilings (some were close to each other so I don't know whether to call them 1 or 2). They ranged in size from 3-4 inches squared to 1-2 feet squared. One of the holes was in the stone of the jacuzzi so that the entire piece of poly B could be done instead of it partially poly B PEX method. I just asked for a nice specific size and I put a plastic access panel over the hole. I also took the opportunity to put in pressure valves so I'm not dancing as much when people use the bathroom or other taps while I'm showering.

Overall it took around 2.5 days so it wasn't super intrusive, but the cosmetic part was a bit more involved than the actual poly B work. Hiring someone to patch the walls, sand it, let it dry wasn't bad. That was done within a week and a half after the 2.5 days work. But the painting it, and the ceiling texture... tbh that's not done yet after more than half a year. That's more laziness on my part though. I've painted what needs to be painted, but nothing more. I haven't bothered with the ceiling to save time and effort and no one notices it anyways.

Originally Posted by dubc80

Yeah this is very common. I see lots of posts in my community facebook group about poly-b failures and replacements. I think lots of houses in Calgary from the early/mid 90's have it.

Luckily we have not had issues in my 6 years in this home, but the day will likely come at some point.

I think most folks wait to have a failure, then just replace that portion.
Or, if you're doing a major reno people will do it then and do a full re-do of all the piping while you're at it.

You can run into insurance issues too, as some companies will not insure a house with it.

Insurance wise, they can insure a house with poly B, but they have to get a special inspection done. That's what I had. Basically they inspected the types of connectors used to terminate the poly B or something like that, took pictures and said they'd only insure a portion of the damages caused by poly B failure. For my friend who dealt with that a decade ago, basically they only paid 1/4 or 1/3 of the costs to repair his kitchen. Part of that was partial coverage, part of that was him wanting to upgrade the kitchen rather than just restore it.

I think for non-insuring of a house with poly B, that's extremely rare in Canada but much more common in the US.

After I got the project done, I get an insurance rate reduction and peace of mind. Plus I think the value of the house increases by more than the price I paid to get it done.

Project wise, it certainly helps to contemplate other things you can do while the walls are open. Ethernet line isn't a bad thing to consider doing as well (easier to fish lines).

[Titan2]

Does anyone have a recommendation for window repairs? Several of the runners/tracks have fallen off of the vertical raised windows.

Thanks.

[81MC]

Holy hell OTR microwaves are massive. There goes that idea.

[Shazam]

Originally Posted by 81MC

Holy hell OTR microwaves are massive. There goes that idea.

There's short ones now:

https://www.trailappliances.com/whir...nf?color=Black

[InglewoodFan]

Originally Posted by Shazam

There's short ones now:

https://www.trailappliances.com/whir...nf?color=Black

I put a short one in a couple years ago, it works great. Previous owner installed a full size one too low, it was getting way too hot with the gas stove running. The short one gives me more vertical space and the fan still pulls enough to keep things vented.

[Wormius]

At some point we need to do some remodelling, and I wish my horribly unstylish white Goldstar microwave, which could be the epitomy of microwaves for functionality, could be somehow refreshed to have a more modern look.

[Fuzz]

Originally Posted by Wormius

At some point we need to do some remodelling, and I wish my horribly unstylish white Goldstar microwave, which could be the epitomy of microwaves for functionality, could be somehow refreshed to have a more modern look.

Give it a vinyl wrap and some ground effects.

[Wormius]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

Give it a vinyl wrap and some ground effects.

Only if somebody sets up a GoFundMe.

[photon]

My furnace fan comes on any time I run my microwave.

Is this by design so that any air exhausted by the microwave gets made up?

Or is this some bizarre cross wiring that I can't even imagine and should get checked.

[Shazam]

Originally Posted by photon

My furnace fan comes on any time I run my microwave.

Is this by design so that any air exhausted by the microwave gets made up?

Or is this some bizarre cross wiring that I can't even imagine and should get checked.

Yes it is by design. You will probably have a metal box near your electrical box whose sole purpose is to control this, using the most annoying potentiometer ever invented. If you change microwaves you will probably have to adjust this.

[PaperBagger'14]

Originally Posted by photon

My furnace fan comes on any time I run my microwave.

Is this by design so that any air exhausted by the microwave gets made up?

Or is this some bizarre cross wiring that I can't even imagine and should get checked.

With homes being as airtight as they are designed these days the intent is to have the furnace fan act as a make up air supply. This way you can actually exhaust the air out instead of “pulling vacuum” on your house.

[81MC]

So I decided to convince the wife to let me make the countertops for our kitchen reno…but it’s taking a little longer than I’d hoped, and the finish I’m going with is going to need weeks to cure before use.

Someone tell me if this makes sense or is utterly a terrible idea:
Since I’ll have the counters in progress, I plan to put them in place on the new cabinets I made, get them where they need to be, then mark the wall and remove the countertop.

‘Install’ temporary plywood counter that is the same thickness as the ‘final’ countertop will be.

Install backsplash tiles while temporary plywood countertops are in place.
When the new countertops are ready for service, remove plywood ones and install.
Then grout the backslash, and usual finish caulk/trim work.

Honestly leaving the backsplash undone until the new countertops are ready isn’t going to fly; I’m up against a deadline for a December gathering and am a little terrified I’ve overshot.

[opendoor]

It should be doable as long as your temporary countertop is accurate. Just make sure no cured mortar from the backsplash sticks to it; usually putting tape and/or paper down and pulling it out before the mortar cures is enough. And then leave a small gap between the counter and the tile to allow for minor variances, but you'd want to do that anyway.

[kevman]

Yeah should be fine. After the flood in 2013 I replaced my basement suite lower cabinets while leaving the backsplash in place. Loosen the counter, cut the caulk (not necessary for you) and slide it out. Slide the new one in and caulk it.

[Fuzz]

I removed and replaced a laminate counter top(including replacing substrate). I was able to remove it without damaging the tile and slide the new one in. Just make sure you have room to slide it all in level and square if you have any corners against walls.

[mrkajz44]

We have an indoor natural gas fireplace that needs someone to take a look at - any company recommendations?

[calgarywinning]

Originally Posted by mrkajz44

We have an indoor natural gas fireplace that needs someone to take a look at - any company recommendations?

myfireplaceguy.com

Ryan, super professional and straight to the point. If you can remove the glass, and you have a very soft grit 500 sandpaper and clean the two connectors metal prongs. I find a lot of times carbon will build up on the igniter.

[Wormius]

I am looking at different under-sink mounted instant hot water solutions / filtered cold water. Is there a faucet that has everything all-in-one? I feel like the regular faucet, plus an additional cold-filtered/hot watered is a little bit cluttered looking.

Specifically it’s for a basement wet bar with a small bar sink. We don’t use it for much else besides filling a kettle for tea and stuff, so otherwise we could maybe ditch the full-sized faucet for just a single instant hot and cold-filtered one, if that seems like a good idea? The only downside might be only having an option of scalding hot water / frigid cold. Besides that, would this be okay or am I missing something?