The Home Improvement Thread

[Whynotnow]

Originally Posted by Kiran403

If my furnace is off for a week, how cold does it have to be outside before pipes can burst? Turns out I need a new inducer motor and the new motor won't arrive for 7-10 days and I have to go out of town for a week. I was thinking about leaving my furnace off as I can turn it on through an app on my phone if needed. My logic is to leave it off so it's not under any strain but obviously I don't want to risk my pipes bursting.

I just wouldn’t risk this at all, the consequences are basically a flooded house and no insurance coverage. Other option would probably to be to shut off main feed to house, and turn taps on to basically drain the system.

You will probably be fine, but if something goes sideways it’s a massive problem,

[topfiverecords]

Originally Posted by surferguy

Recommend me a quality stud finder.

This one works great for me. Won’t work for everyone but from what I know should work for you as well.

https://www.amazon.ca/OMIRO-Mirror-B...2269561&sr=8-4

[bizaro86]

Originally Posted by Kiran403

If my furnace is off for a week, how cold does it have to be outside before pipes can burst? Turns out I need a new inducer motor and the new motor won't arrive for 7-10 days and I have to go out of town for a week. I was thinking about leaving my furnace off as I can turn it on through an app on my phone if needed. My logic is to leave it off so it's not under any strain but obviously I don't want to risk my pipes bursting.

I think in this situation I'd be trying to get someone to turn on electric heaters for a couple of hours per day if at all possible.

[DoubleF]

Originally Posted by Kiran403

If my furnace is off for a week, how cold does it have to be outside before pipes can burst? Turns out I need a new inducer motor and the new motor won't arrive for 7-10 days and I have to go out of town for a week. I was thinking about leaving my furnace off as I can turn it on through an app on my phone if needed. My logic is to leave it off so it's not under any strain but obviously I don't want to risk my pipes bursting.

If I were you and trying to wait for the part:

- Turn off the water main when gone (should be considering doing that anyways)
- Drain the pipes by turning on the taps until there's no water.
- If you have baseboard heaters in the basement, then use those. If not, get an electric heater in the basement with a temperature sensor and have it running at like 15-18C while you're gone.

A couple hundred bucks for an electric heater you can keep (if you can't borrow one) and like $20-50 bucks max for electricity if a sudden cold snap happens isn't worth the risk of thousands of dollars out of pocket for some type of cluster#### from frozen pipes.

Doubly so if for whatever reason, your house has poly B in it vs PEX or copper.

[DoubleF]

Originally Posted by surferguy

Recommend me a quality stud finder. I need to find my ceiling joists through some heavy popcorn stipple.

Thanks

My stud finder didn't have too many issues. I just had to make sure to turn the stud finder on while facing 90 degrees away from the ceiling, before turning it towards the ceiling to look for the stud (as per the manual). A fresh battery helps too.

Another thing I did was to use a very small drill bit (ie: 1/16) and going slowly after marking the joist. If the bit returns with some wood in in the drill bit, I know I hit a joist. Then I'll hit that hole again with larger bits. If it seems like I missed the joist, a tiny bit of dry wall mud into that drill hole and it'll be hard to find once it dries.

In some situations, I guess you could just cut a sizeable hole out to look around and replace the slot with an access panel. Get a wire cam if you want to be fancy. That's what I told the guys fishing wires in my basement to do. $30-50 holes that saved me way more than that in labour trying to blindly fish wires through a finished ceiling. Pretty easy to get good locations especially if you can coordinate and target key locations like closet ceilings, holes for lighting etc. I did access panels because it was cheaper than repairing the ceiling and faster too. With the strategic positioning, most of the access panels actually look like they're supposed to be there.

Lastly, don't forget to apply logic. Once you figure out how far apart the first two joists are, logically the rest of the joists are likely the same distance away. Use a measuring tape to figure out where to logically start using the stud finder. Dragging the stud finder blindly to detect the next joist is so slow, and it's messy on popcorn ceiling because you'll knock off bits of it sliding across it (and the worst is when it goes into you eyes). I use the measuring tape, put a dot with a pencil approximately where I'll put the stud finder, and then mark an x where the stud finder identifies as the approximate centre of the joist (where I'll drill with the 1/16 bit to confirm).

[CorsiHockeyLeague]

Under slab insulation complete... next step, they pour the floor.

[Titan2]

Originally Posted by surferguy

Recommend me a quality stud finder. I need to find my ceiling joists through some heavy popcorn stipple.


Thanks

I just use a mirror and two thumbs. Your mileage may vary.

[Titan2]

Originally Posted by bizaro86

I think in this situation I'd be trying to get someone to turn on electric heaters for a couple of hours per day if at all possible.

If you have electric heaters, plug them into a smart plug and you can turn them on from your phone or set a schedule. I have 5 Meross I could let go for a stupid good deal. (Google keeps losing the connection. They work fine through their own app)

[kevman]

Originally Posted by Kiran403

If my furnace is off for a week, how cold does it have to be outside before pipes can burst? Turns out I need a new inducer motor and the new motor won't arrive for 7-10 days and I have to go out of town for a week. I was thinking about leaving my furnace off as I can turn it on through an app on my phone if needed. My logic is to leave it off so it's not under any strain but obviously I don't want to risk my pipes bursting.

Are you in Calgary? Based on the forecast I probably wouldn't worry about it. With the upcoming sun, and the overnight lows barely dipping below freezing, I bet your house doesn't get colder than +10 after a full week without the furnace running.

This is absolutely not professional advice.

[CorsiHockeyLeague]

I'm pretty torn on this... I was originally going to just let them pour and finish the slab and figure out flooring later on my own. Basically I figured I'd shop around for something easy to install, like a click lock type of plank of some description, and do it myself. There are a lot of outlets that sell that stuff or you can buy batches of it on FB marketplace, etc, just have to be patient and wait for something that looks good.

Then it occurred to me that if I did a polished concrete floor for the slab, that would deal with most of the house and I wouldn't have to deal with flooring for it. So I asked for a quote, and got quoted about $5000 for a floor that is power trowel finished. Looks like this.



Then it was suggested that I actually should go with one step further, which is diamond polish and densify, which takes a little more effort - the total for that would be more like $10,000, but the guy suggested it would be more of a finished, refined looking floor. Looks like this.



... And now I'm honestly wondering if I've just created an additional complication here and should tell them, no, I'm just going back to my original idea and will do an engineered hardwood overtop of the whole thing or LVP click, or something I find at a discounted rate at a flooring wholesaler.

Gotta make a decision pretty soon here. Anyone have experience with these options?

[Sliver]

I actually like the top one better than the bottom one. Saving $5k is a bonus.

I'd do this, dude. You can always add a different floor down the road, but this will give you a finished home, will be rock solid, and $5k is not bad at all. I just dropped $5700 on carpet in my Canmore condo last February. Maybe 500sf of flooring, although three flights of stairs in there. Plus Canmore is expensive AF and they probably charged me the 'fk you Calgarian' price, but nonetheless...I think $5k is great for you.

I mean, in July 2009 I just looked up what I paid to refinish my hardwood in Calgary. 1200sf and it was $3500. I did it again in 2016 as part of a larger reno, so I don't have a breakout of what it cost then, but it really does show $5k is not an obnoxious charge here.

[CorsiHockeyLeague]

I definitely agree it's not, but it's more of... the polishing company is pretty reputable if I go the more expensive route, but then I do sort of feel like I'm pot committed to stick with that. If I spend 10k on the floor for essentially 2/3 of my house (900 sq ft is the slab portion) I am probably not changing it for a long time.

I don't really think either cost is unreasonable I'm just sort of at a loss about which door to choose.

[Fuzz]

Had the top option at my high school, so that would be trauma inducing to me.


If I were doing it, and the cost wasn't much more I'd look at the metallic epoxy coatings vs straight polish and seal. Some examples here (first Google result)


https://bjacobconstruction.com/metallic-epoxy-flooring/

[Brendone]

Might want to consider resale with the polished concrete. Our neighbours had that in their basement and when they decided to sell, it seemed to be the major issue with any showings. As soon as they put in carpet and laminate, it sold. I think they just increased the sale price to include the floor cost, but still seemed to delay their sale by 6 months.

Not an issue if this is your “forever” home

[CorsiHockeyLeague]

Yeah no issue on resale. It will never be sold.

[DoubleF]

Is warmth an issue? For me, I'd ignore look for a second. If it looks good, but doesn't feel good, then it might be a problem.

I assume the flooring will behave like tile/stone. Carpet isn't cool when temps aren't warm. Wood floors you can feel cool. But tile/stone is downright cold if in floor heating isn't built in, and the floor IMO feels cold when the temperatures are in the mid to low teens. Scenarios where absorbing heat is comfortable are far less than scenarios where absorbing heat is uncomfortable IMO.

If everyone is already sorta used to wearing slippers or somehow love cooler floors, I guess the floor being that way is fine from the temp POV. But if you spend a bunch of money only to throw another few G for carpet runners, rugs etc. to make the comfort of the floor passable for the family, I honestly don't fully see the point in changing your original idea of changing floating floor for polished concrete.

The sole reason I'd consider that is if somehow a $5K polished floor + rug availability means you can move into the home a month+ earlier than any other flooring option because of some kind materials of supply or skilled labour issue of some sort.

[opendoor]

It's hard to tell from the pictures, but will the slab get close enough to the finished wall to allow it to be exposed? It looks like there's a couple inches of foundation wall and then edge insulation on all the exterior sides that will be visible after the slab is poured. They could do a bevel cut on the insulation to hide that, but you'd still likely see the foundation wall around the perimeter. None of that matters if there's flooring on top, but obviously it would look a bit weird if it's all exposed.

[Twitchy15]

Originally Posted by topfiverecords

beyond foam spray foam company seems to have a pretty good reputation and they have a roofing division, assumed doing all with one company might be easier as they have to remove roof and sheathing spray foam from the outside then put the new roof on.

But could get another company as well. really need a new roof and our vaulted ceiling section of the house loses energy like crazy so feel like we kind of have to insulate when doing the roof.

[CorsiHockeyLeague]

Well, the slabs and crawlspace are poured... I backed out on the polished concrete and I'm just going to do mostly LVP or Engineered Hardwood with tile in the bathroom, entryway and maybe the kitchen. I think it'll just be simpler.

[CorsiHockeyLeague]

Anyone have any good leads on where I can get good WPC vinyl plank for a good price? Needs to be at least 6.5mm stuff, preferably 7 or 8... there seems to just be a lot of variation.