The Home Improvement Thread. Successes and Failures

[burd]

Basically what walrus said then.

I would recommend pea gravel with sand. Kind of like how you'd do a paver. You want some drainage.

but I've seen perfectly cromulent fire pits that were literally just dropped top top of grass or dug into the dirt a couple inches. It really depends what you want to do. If you're talking landscaped pavers around it or poured concrete patio, go the extra mile. But if you're talking a simple backyard setup with no dreams of making someone ooh and ahhh, dirt is what we were planning to do.

my neighbor did one of the most amazing DIY fire pits I've ever seen. Looks like a castle turret built into the hill because our backyards were so sloped. I can't remember exactly what he did, but Im pretty sure I remember he had a hole in the center so it wasn't on bricks.

thx, dx

[dxmnkd316]

thx, dx

Np.

walrus had it before me though ;-) in about 10% of the words to boot.

[Proud2baLaker]

Np.

walrus had it before me though ;-) in about 10% of the words to boot.

walrus? When did I become walrus? Or am I blind and not seeing a response from them too?

[dxmnkd316]

Jesus. I'm sorry. I have no idea how I managed that.

[walrus]

My only comment on backyard fire pits is you might as well have a trash barrel burning back there.

[French Rage]

Opinions on metal ducts versus flex ducts?

[walrus]

Opinions on metal ducts versus flex ducts?

Either if system and ducts are sized and designed right.

[dxmnkd316]

Either if system and ducts are sized and designed right.

The only caveat is corrugation. Not a big fan of that in any application where the material flowing through it can settle out and no be self cleaned by introducing normal flow.

[Swansong]

I thought moving it was fine and then messed up my arm after moving it (basically because it is a bit awkward given the size). The smaller one may be easier to move.

I do not think they burn that much wood, but my baseline was larger fires in pits. They burn efficiently so you have to add it more frequently, but I think as a whole, you use similar amounts of wood, since less is in the pit at a time.

Lateral radiant heat, not so much. Vertical radiant heat, yes. So if you are sitting on the side, you generally have to sit relatively close if it is cold out. Standing up near the pit, it can get quite warm. We had a tree go down in the winter, a 40 or so foot pine. We burnt all the brush in our pit and it only melted snow about 2 feet around, despite having a fire in it for 8+ hours and burning a lot of stuff.

So I pulled the trigger and bought a Breeo (the X-24). It weren't cheap, but man it rules. It gets crazy hot and once it's really going it's genuinely smokeless. Really impressive.

Also, like you suggested, there was less radiant heat than an open fire pit, but no real problems as far as I'm concerned.

[Swansong]

In other news, we're about to have two garage doors replaced (doors, hardware, everything). No automatic openers or anything. Wow are they expensive...

[WisconsinWildcard]

So I pulled the trigger and bought a Breeo (the X-24). It weren't cheap, but man it rules. It gets crazy hot and once it's really going it's genuinely smokeless. Really impressive.

Also, like you suggested, there was less radiant heat than an open fire pit, but no real problems as far as I'm concerned.

Glad you like it! I think these are great for in-city fires.

[MissThundercat]

Maybe you can help:

I live in an apartment and one of my roommates accidentally kicked through the bathtub trying to get out. We haven't been able to take a shower for over a week. There's a nice little crack on the front wall of the bathtub. Apartment maintenance was hesitant to even try and put a patch on it, and muttered something about "might have to replace the tub" in the 3 minutes he was here. My roommates and I think maintenance had no actual interest in helping.

I am tempted to do an epoxy fix on it in the meantime, but I don't want to make it worse.

[walrus]

Maybe you can help:

I live in an apartment and one of my roommates accidentally kicked through the bathtub trying to get out. We haven't been able to take a shower for over a week. There's a nice little crack on the front wall of the bathtub. Apartment maintenance was hesitant to even try and put a patch on it, and muttered something about "might have to replace the tub" in the 3 minutes he was here. My roommates and I think maintenance had no actual interest in helping.

I am tempted to do an epoxy fix on it in the meantime, but I don't want to make it worse.

Can't screw up something that is already broken. Epoxy may work, just make sure the area is squeaky clean. Use alcohol for final cleaning, wait till it evaporates and smear the epoxy on. You could use masking tape to make clean edges and make it look professional : )

[dxmnkd316]

So I found out that you can turn just about any "wireless" device into a smart accessory with a $25 receiver.

I've been looking at a very expensive cloud enabled smoker temp sensor setup but decided to get a USB SDR receiver on a whim. Holy ****. Within minutes I was receiving sensor readings from all over. My freezer alarms, my existing ThermPro temp sensors, and a few unknown things from around the neighborhood.
I just need to fire up this tiny open source software and I can log the sensor readings from all sorts of **** automatically. this just saved me $180+.

Today I was farting around with it and found that it can pick up the water meter that my city installed years ago. It broadcasts at 900 MHz using a known format. A guy released an open source application that can also log this to file. So now instead of getting quarterly bills for my usage from the city, I can monitor in real time.

anyways, I regret returning the unopened raspberry pi kit I bought because i didn't think ut was what I wanted. ****.

anyways, as soon as I can get my hands on one, I'll be setting up a home assistant server and consolidating all the smart **** in the house

[dxmnkd316]

Can't screw up something that is already broken. Epoxy may work, just make sure the area is squeaky clean. Use alcohol for final cleaning, wait till it evaporates and smear the epoxy on. You could use masking tape to make clean edges and make it look professional : )

Only caution is you gotta do this right. If it leaks.... that's really really bad. The owner or super may not even allow you to try it. Especially now that maintenance has seen it and rendered an... opinion.