The Home Improvement Thread

[Hack&Lube]

Has anybody ever done concrete grinding before? Like if a house had old ratty tiles and glue or holes in concrete and you had to level and fix it?

What are the cheap options for grinding off glue, fixing small holes, and then levelling/polishing it off?

[Fuzz]

I had to grind my concrete steps a little this summer. I used one of these:

http://www.homedepot.com/p/RIDGID-4-...WD40/202884364

made short work of it. Would be good for small jobs, not the whole floor though...

[llwhiteoutll]

Originally Posted by Hack&Lube

Has anybody ever done concrete grinding before? Like if a house had old ratty tiles and glue or holes in concrete and you had to level and fix it?

What are the cheap options for grinding off glue, fixing small holes, and then levelling/polishing it off?

Angle grinder with a concrete wheel is going to be the easiest.

Ventilation and removal of the dust is going to be the biggest issue. I always used a full mask when grinding and clothes I didn't mind ruining. If you don't have a full mask, a good quality 3M mask, face shield and safety glasses (preferably with foam on the back) would work as well. You'll need to figure out a good way to vent the dust to outside as well, it will clog things up like crazy.

[topfiverecords]

It would be nice if these wi-fi thermostats had 'wife' mode, that you could program to show a false temperature in her app. Then perhaps facial recognition at the thermostat, although my wife only uses the app to change the temp. All day long...hmmm why is it freezing in here? Oh look, the temp has been lowered again.

[Barnes]

Originally Posted by topfiverecords

It would be nice if these wi-fi thermostats had 'wife' mode, that you could program to show a false temperature in her app. Then perhaps facial recognition at the thermostat, although my wife only uses the app to change the temp. All day long...hmmm why is it freezing in here? Oh look, the temp has been lowered again.

You could create a website that mimics the app's interface and shows only one temperature and make sure the site has the app's icon as it's favicon. Sneak on to her phone, delete the thermostat app and save the website to the home screen.

[sworkhard]

Originally Posted by Hack&Lube

Has anybody ever done concrete grinding before? Like if a house had old ratty tiles and glue or holes in concrete and you had to level and fix it?

What are the cheap options for grinding off glue, fixing small holes, and then levelling/polishing it off?

I did my whole basement floor.

You can rent special walk behind tools for that. There are 2 Home Depot Locations in Calgary that rent Werk brand concrete grinders. The others rent a different kind that's not as good for polishing the concrete, but fine for removing the glue.

The grinding cups that Fuzz linked too work well for initial material removal and levelling the floor, but if your trying to level your floor, avoid using an angle grinder. Your more likely to make it worse than better.

[sworkhard]

Originally Posted by topfiverecords

It would be nice if these wi-fi thermostats had 'wife' mode, that you could program to show a false temperature in her app. Then perhaps facial recognition at the thermostat, although my wife only uses the app to change the temp. All day long...hmmm why is it freezing in here? Oh look, the temp has been lowered again.

1/2 a solution: https://www.ecoventsystems.com/

[Ducay]

Originally Posted by topfiverecords

It would be nice if these wi-fi thermostats had 'wife' mode, that you could program to show a false temperature in her app. Then perhaps facial recognition at the thermostat, although my wife only uses the app to change the temp. All day long...hmmm why is it freezing in here? Oh look, the temp has been lowered again.

A wife who lowers the temperature????

You sir, have yourself a keeper. My wife is lucky gas is cheap right now, otherwise the divorce rate in Calgary would be a lot higher.

[Wormius]

Nm

[Wormius]

Yesterday I was looking for something in a closet and noticed the baseboard in the inside corner was stained from water, the walls were really cold and I could feel some water along the inside corner of the wall. It was just damp, but not soaking wet or anything. This is one of those closets that kind of juts out a bit, so I am kind of wondering what should I be looking for here?

A leak or is it just really bad insulation that is causing condensation on the interior of the wall? There was no staining on the ceiling. Just wondering if there is something obvious to fix here? As a note, we have really bad humidity in the house in general, and the windows are mostly shot so I have been spending some time soaking up the condensation on the interior windows with paper towels so the water doesn't drip down to the window sill. I guess I am suspecting that maybe there is a problem with the insulation in this closet, but not ready to tear the drywall off yet.

[Fuzz]

Do you mean juts out from the external wall? If so I'd go take a look outside and see what it looks like from below. With the wind it can drive snow up there if there is a spot for it to get in.

[Wormius]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

Do you mean juts out from the external wall? If so I'd go take a look outside and see what it looks like from below. With the wind it can drive snow up there if there is a spot for it to get in.

My terminology is probably wrong here. I guess it might be known as a "bump-out"?

It's like this photo, but finished with stucco, and about 6 feet off the ground. The damp area was right along the two inside corners. The drywall inside is painted, but it didn't feel mushy or soaked through. It's like it just had condensation and dripped all the way to the bottom into the baseboard.

[OMG!WTF!]

For sure condensation. Check to see if the bottom has been insulated and has vapour barrier. You can likely take the soffit off and check from the outside. If not, foam insulation is likely your best bet. The walls are probably fine. .

[Wormius]

Originally Posted by OMG!WTF!

For sure condensation. Check to see if the bottom has been insulated and has vapour barrier. You can likely take the soffit off and check from the outside. If not, foam insulation is likely your best bet. The walls are probably fine. .

Is it normal for the walls to be so cold if the floor hasn't been insulated?

[speede5]

The problem with corners is there are multiple 2x studs and not a lot of insulation. Also it can be an area where insulation is missed depending on how it was framed. Jutt outs are extra cold because they have an exposed floor, that needs to be well insulated, and a ceiling which is not vented.
Your problem doesn't have an easy fix. Start with the floor from outside, we spray foamed one and it helped a lot.

After that adding my recommendation would be to remove the drywall, gut the walls, spray foam walls and ceiling, Strap the studs, with 1x to create an airgap (not really necessary if you spray foam, more applicable to batt/vapour barrier) and drywall.

Also your home shouldn't be retaining so much moisture, do you have an air exchanger? is it working?

[Wormius]

Originally Posted by speede5

The problem with corners is there are multiple 2x studs and not a lot of insulation. Also it can be an area where insulation is missed depending on how it was framed. Jutt outs are extra cold because they have an exposed floor, that needs to be well insulated, and a ceiling which is not vented.
Your problem doesn't have an easy fix. Start with the floor from outside, we spray foamed one and it helped a lot.

After that adding my recommendation would be to remove the drywall, gut the walls, spray foam walls and ceiling, Strap the studs, with 1x to create an airgap (not really necessary if you spray foam, more applicable to batt/vapour barrier) and drywall.

Also your home shouldn't be retaining so much moisture, do you have an air exchanger? is it working?

An air exchanger? Is that part of the furnace? I don't believe we have anything other than the furnace. Each room has a cold air return. The only thin I can think of are we have a lot of tropical plants. We have a humidifier, but it's turned off since the humidity is already pretty high. There are also some drafts near the windows, where I guess some moist air could be coming in from the outside. The drafts are huge though, but you can kind of feel it. On the topic of windows, every one of our double-pane windows has frost on the inside, and we try to keep the house at 21, according to the thermostat.

[OMG!WTF!]

Originally Posted by Wormius

Is it normal for the walls to be so cold if the floor hasn't been insulated?

Yeah those build outs are notorious for that. No one insulates the floor for some reason and the cold just works its way around. Like speed5 said, spray foam the bottom from underneath and hopefully that does it. If not the walls likely need a better insulation and vapor barrier job too.

[speede5]

An air to air exchanger draws outside air in, and exhausts inside air. They go through a heat exchanger to try and retain some of the heat from the exhaust air. You would know if you had one it is a seperate unit.

Newer houses are so airtight that they trap moisture. All the efficiencies in insulation and vapuor barriers have actually created a humidity problem. It's kind of funny bacause now you take your warm moist air and pump it outside, and draw in cold dry air. The heat exchange is not very efficient so you are cooling down your house, which means the furnace has to work more, which sort of defeats the point of all the insulation.

In the end it's still better than leaky walls.

Your windows are always going to be colder than the walls and you will get some frost build up because of that but it is a sign that the air in the house is fairly humid. An average family pumps 7 litres of water into the air every day, add in tropical plants and you can see where this goes.

Anyway it's not really something to be worried about. Just watch where that moisture is accumulating and do what you can to prevent damage. The window frames tend to pay for that frost build up and it can seep into the trim and damage the drywall.

Just opening a couple windows for short periods in the day will do wonders.

[metallicat]

So I've got a Frigidaire furnace (I don't know the model) and it doesn't seem like all other furnaces I've had, because I can't seem to find the furnace filter to replace. The only thing I can think of is I have an adjacent electronic air cleaner...Does that take the place of a regular old furnace filter?

[Flames_Gimp]

Originally Posted by oilers_fan

So I've got a Frigidaire furnace (I don't know the model) and it doesn't seem like all other furnaces I've had, because I can't seem to find the furnace filter to replace. The only thing I can think of is I have an adjacent electronic air cleaner...Does that take the place of a regular old furnace filter?

measure the filter slot get one that fits, or try and get the model number got to be on there somewhere might have to open the panel don't think air cleaner will do anything