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The Home Improvement Thread. Successes and Failures

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Re: The Home Improvement Thread. Successes and Failures

I know ND used to be copper supply and PVC drain. That's been changed to allow PEX supply also.

What I wish was allowed more here in the US is the Teck cable they use in Canada. Canadians aren't required to run that in conduit. It's basically MC cable with an extra water-resistant PVC outer and inner.
http://www.southwire.com/ProductCatalog/XTEInterfaceServlet?contentKey=prodcatsheet329
 
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Re: The Home Improvement Thread. Successes and Failures

FreshFish said:
In some cases, building codes are also influenced by local politics (i.e., who has enough electoral clout that can be exercised to give themselves a competitive advantage through regulation).
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The old joke is local politics is just developers fighting over the graft. Growing up on L.I., local politics was hilariously corrupt and the party label meant absolutely nothing -- it was just which machine you'd hung your shingle with. The backroom dealers were all* realtors and developers. That's how we got constant growth for twenty years despite every single voter screaming STOP!

* Well. Almost all.
 
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Re: The Home Improvement Thread. Successes and Failures

The Sicatoka said:
I know ND used to be copper supply and PVC drain. That's been changed to allow PEX supply also.
Click to expand...

Maine was also primarily copper supply and PVC drain, but now PEX is common for supply in new construction. My old house was a mix of cast and copper for DWV (waste/vent) and copper for supply, new house is PVC for DWV and PEX for supply.

ABS is available and legal for DWV, but I don't see it being used much. I find it strange some places allow ABS but not PVC, others allow PVC and not ABS, and some allow both but one is far more common in that particular area.
 
Re: The Home Improvement Thread. Successes and Failures

My house has PEX and it is an enourmous pain in the butt. I feel like whoever built the house just did it to mess with every future owner. I forget which size it is in our house, I think 1/2" PEX, where 3/4" seems to be more common (or maybe the other way around). But any time I go to put in a new faucet, new dishwasher whatever, I end up needing to string together a couple adapters to make it work. Home Depot and Lowes both seem to have exactly the part I need, but for the other size PEX, every stinking time.
 
Re: The Home Improvement Thread. Successes and Failures

jerphisch said:
My house has PEX and it is an enourmous pain in the butt. I feel like whoever built the house just did it to mess with every future owner. I forget which size it is in our house, I think 1/2" PEX, where 3/4" seems to be more common (or maybe the other way around). But any time I go to put in a new faucet, new dishwasher whatever, I end up needing to string together a couple adapters to make it work. Home Depot and Lowes both seem to have exactly the part I need, but for the other size PEX, every stinking time.
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Maybe your builder was European. :D

I was completely convinced that whoever wired my old house was running psych experiments. From not just room to room but wall to wall within room there was absolutely no common pattern. You just had to learn every switch. And the box looked something like this.
 
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Kepler said:
Maybe your builder was European. :D

I was completely convinced that whoever wired my old house was running psych experiments. From not just room to room but wall to wall within room there was absolutely no common pattern. You just had to learn every switch. And the box looked something like this.
Click to expand...

He wasn't well grounded in the code.
 
Re: The Home Improvement Thread. Successes and Failures

Chicago still requires conduit for electric in residential construction. That's a gift to the union boys

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk
 
Re: The Home Improvement Thread. Successes and Failures

jerphisch said:
My house has PEX and it is an enourmous pain in the butt. I feel like whoever built the house just did it to mess with every future owner. I forget which size it is in our house, I think 1/2" PEX, where 3/4" seems to be more common (or maybe the other way around). But any time I go to put in a new faucet, new dishwasher whatever, I end up needing to string together a couple adapters to make it work. Home Depot and Lowes both seem to have exactly the part I need, but for the other size PEX, every stinking time.
Click to expand...

1/2 inch would be more common to serve an individual fixture. You shouldn't have to mess with the PEX to put in a dishwasher or new sink faucet though. There should be a threaded shut off where you screw on a supply line that connects to the faucet fixture or to the dishwasher. There is no pex between the shut off and the fixture. For all my sinks the pex is crimped onto a copper Ell (something like https://www.supply.com/shop?nid=716...zn1ZijlHzPwWciWbZCH_7AG84VuYE3Gj0HRoCbhPw_wcB), and then a threaded shut off is soldered onto the copper. From the shut off you run a braided supply line (or if it is a pedestal sink you run a chrome rigid supply line that needs to be bent to shape).
 
Re: The Home Improvement Thread. Successes and Failures

BassAle said:
1/2 inch would be more common to serve an individual fixture. You shouldn't have to mess with the PEX to put in a dishwasher or new sink faucet though. There should be a threaded shut off where you screw on a supply line that connects to the faucet fixture or to the dishwasher. There is no pex between the shut off and the fixture. For all my sinks the pex is crimped onto a copper Ell (something like https://www.supply.com/shop?nid=716...zn1ZijlHzPwWciWbZCH_7AG84VuYE3Gj0HRoCbhPw_wcB), and then a threaded shut off is soldered onto the copper. From the shut off you run a braided supply line (or if it is a pedestal sink you run a chrome rigid supply line that needs to be bent to shape).
Click to expand...

Not the case in my house. I have a PEX manifold in the utility room with a shutoff for each line, then the PEX runs straight to the faucets with a connector on the PEX to directly attach to the faucet. The one exception is the toilets do have a copper Ell with a shut off.
 
Re: The Home Improvement Thread. Successes and Failures

This discussion about plumbing parts reminds me of when I first began working for a home builder and remodeler (as an untrained grunt). My boss did his own plumbing on some jobs, so early on they often sent me on runs to the plumbing supply store. It was always an anxious experience for me because I didn't know shyt and they would always listen to me give the order (or hand it over to them) then ask me something like, "male or female" or "right or left-handed" or "this thread or that thread." They ALWAYS had a question I couldn't answer, no matter how careful I was to get the order right.

I eventually learned that the guys behind the counter were good friends with my boss and foreman and were just messing with me. And my boss and foreman knew about it and got a kick out of it. They were all good natured people, and I never caught grief for my ignorance, primarily because the guys behind the counter always made sure I went back to the job with the right parts. Kind of an initiation, I guess.
 
Re: The Home Improvement Thread. Successes and Failures

burd said:
This discussion about plumbing parts reminds me of when I first began working for a home builder and remodeler (as an untrained grunt). My boss did his own plumbing on some jobs, so early on they often sent me on runs to the plumbing supply store. It was always an anxious experience for me because I didn't know shyt and they would always listen to me give the order (or hand it over to them) then ask me something like, "male or female" or "right or left-handed" or "this thread or that thread." They ALWAYS had a question I couldn't answer, no matter how careful I was to get the order right.

I eventually learned that the guys behind the counter were good friends with my boss and foreman and were just messing with me. And my boss and foreman knew about it and got a kick out of it. They were all good natured people, and I never caught grief for my ignorance, primarily because the guys behind the counter always made sure I went back to the job with the right parts. Kind of an initiation, I guess.
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That's great and it's a gentle initiation that is repeated everywhere, and I'll bet always has been.

When I was 16 my dad sent me running back up the dock to get a second life preserver before we launched out to our (tiny) sailboat. The guy behind the counter said, without looking up, "what kind of water?" I looked out at the Sound and said, "uh, salt water?" and he gave an exasperated look to his flunky and said really patiently, "yeah, but what KIND?"

I'm sure he was rolling on the floor the second I padded back down the dock to ask my dad what kind of water we'd be in that day.
 
jerphisch said:
Not the case in my house. I have a PEX manifold in the utility room with a shutoff for each line, then the PEX runs straight to the faucets with a connector on the PEX to directly attach to the faucet. The one exception is the toilets do have a copper Ell with a shut off.
Click to expand...

I really dislike manifold systems that don't also have a shut off at the fixture.


Each of my plumbing fixtures is a homerun with its own shutoff, but there are also shut offs at the fixture, with threaded supply lines from the shut off to the fixture.
 
Re: The Home Improvement Thread. Successes and Failures

I have exhausted my Googling skills. I have an older house (1941) and I need to replace a vent cover (supply, not return). It's basically a baseboard vent, so it's triangular (2.5" projection at the bottom). However - the catch is it needs to be 10" tall (vent is 14" wide - 16" opening). Any good ideas for finding one? Or, at last resort, having one custom made? The previous owners stuck a white metal wall vent in front of it (not even attached - and you can't attach it to the current frame) and after almost 9 years, I am tired of looking at it.
 
Re: The Home Improvement Thread. Successes and Failures

jen said:
I have exhausted my Googling skills. I have an older house (1941) and I need to replace a vent cover (supply, not return). It's basically a baseboard vent, so it's triangular (2.5" projection at the bottom). However - the catch is it needs to be 10" tall (vent is 14" wide - 16" opening). Any good ideas for finding one? Or, at last resort, having one custom made? The previous owners stuck a white metal wall vent in front of it (not even attached - and you can't attach it to the current frame) and after almost 9 years, I am tired of looking at it.
Click to expand...

There is a sheet metal fabricator in our town that takes orders like that: I have had custom pieces built by giving them the dimensions / drawings as needed (e.g., an overflow drain pan for the washing machine had to fit in a really precise space and also have a place to connect the drain hose).

Another alternative that likely will catch on soon is 3-D printing, if you need a plastic part. If I were more adept at it (or the technology were a bit more developed), I could have fabricated a replacement for the soap dispenser cover in our dishwasher. I just need a little flap with a plastic projection; but they don't sell that piece separately; I had to buy the entire component just to scavenge the piece I needed. :mad:
 
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Re: The Home Improvement Thread. Successes and Failures

A minor victory over a perplexing problem.

Turn on ceiling fan, works fine. Turn on ceiling fan light, after a few minutes they start to flicker off and on. I figure it is a switch problem. Replace the wall switch. Doesn't help.

So we get a replacement unit. When I am taking the old unit down, I find that there is a receptor for a remote control in the circuit. I remove the box and rewire the ceiling fan directly. Everything works fine.

I was right in that it was a switch problem; had I remembered that there was a remote control receptor box in the circuit, I could have saved myself two trips to the store (one to buy the replacement fan, another one to return it).
 
Re: The Home Improvement Thread. Successes and Failures

What's good for getting sticker glue off of putty knifes? I've been painting walls and patching them in the process - the little divots that happen. During that time, the label sticker started to peel away and leaves the adhesive residue. Would mineral spirit work?
 
Re: The Home Improvement Thread. Successes and Failures

St. Clown said:
What's good for getting sticker glue off of putty knifes? I've been painting walls and patching them in the process - the little divots that happen. During that time, the label sticker started to peel away and leaves the adhesive residue. Would mineral spirit work?
Click to expand...

Vinegar or wd40 might too. there's usually some of that stuff around.
 
Re: The Home Improvement Thread. Successes and Failures

St. Clown said:
What's good for getting sticker glue off of putty knifes? I've been painting walls and patching them in the process - the little divots that happen. During that time, the label sticker started to peel away and leaves the adhesive residue. Would mineral spirit work?
Click to expand...

Goo gone will work https://www.walmart.com/ip/Goo-Gone-Remover-Spray-Gel-12-oz/13432555

If you have mineral spirits it will work as will WD 40, gas on a rag/paper towel when you fill up your car might work also :)
 
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