Can a twist tie be used as a jumper for HVAC?

In a pinch, well you have to do what you have to do.  It's a wire, albeit a steel one, so it's not going to do as well conductivity-wise as a copper wire, but as long as it doesn't short out to any of the other terminals you should be OK.

The wiring in a thermostat is 24V not 120/240V like other electrical systems in you home, so the danger is significantly reduced.  But don't let it sit that way for an extended period of time.  The "insulation" was meant for one purpose which was not to insulate a conductive wire for a long period of time.

Did you check around for another wire that you could scavenge? An old speaker wire or something from your garage.  Just thinking out loud...


Occasionally when a lamp blows the elements short and create a large amount of heat the center conductor may not be touching or the switch may have failed.
The fact 2 lamps blew in a short period may be due to power spikes in your area but unless you have other household items not working verify there is a connection from the cord to the center then the other side of the cord to the shell of the lamp holder. If the center is not working on either side of the cord and turning the switch on still provides no continuity the switch is probably bad and will need to be replaced.
A cheap 10$ ohm meter is all you need to check the cord/switch combination and you can even check the bulb to see if it is good by measuring from the center to outside.


How can I conceal interior camera wiring?

Like any wiring, you need to learn to put it in the walls/ceiling if you don't want to see it.

This generally involves drilling holes in the wall/ceiling at minimum, and may also involve some larger holes and drywall repair. How difficult or easy it is depends on the specific construction details of the building and where you have access.

It almost always involves some amount of surface repair and repainting.


I might have accidentally vacuumed asbestos. Is the vacuum ruined now?

I don't think the vacuum is ruined, it just needs to be cleaned properly. Since it is a shop vac just empty the dust out into a safe container, clean the inside of the vacuum out with some household cleaner, and then change the filter. You should be good to go after that.


Old electrical - changing out light fixture

Since the light works by the switch your new fixture won't need a switch (pull chain). I like pigtailing if the wires are connected through the fixture not sure from your question. Basicly the 2 wires that connect to the existing fixture connect go to the new fixture. If a metal fixture there should be a ground wire that connects to the ground in the junction box, if a plastic fixture there may not be a ground wire on the new fixture. You should not need to change the switch.


I would not be going 4’ deep. For a small wall like that I would want a wider footing 16” sounds good but would go 18”deep max , I don’t see any way for there to be hydraulic issues that may require a deeper footing. I would have rebar in every other hole and back fill them all with concrete. On the back side I would lay a drain in a sock at the footing or base of the wall and fill around it with rock and cover the rock with landscape fabric. Then the only thing you have is the dirt and 18” should hold up fine possibly 12” depending on how hard it freezes in your area.


What can I do about out of square rough opening for new windows?

Rough openings are exactly as they are called, rough. Yours sounds extra rough though. All rough openings are made to have space to add shims, sometimes the rough openings, because of conditions, can only take shims on one side or the other.

As a rule of thumb I usually do not use no more than 2 shims on a side. If the rough opening (RO) has need for more, I usually add a piece of plywood to bring the opening down where 2 shims will work on a given side. There is no rule that says the plywood has to be the full length of the opening. I also rip my plywood filler 1/4" narrower than the RO material. Dimensional lumber shrinks, and this smaller dimension keeps the plywood from giving you trouble later on.

Edit 12-31-13 I need to clarify the shim statement. The 2 shims I refer to is, per placement. I use what is called undercoursing shingles used in roofing. They need to be made narrower, whether split, razor knifed, or table sawn. You get a lot for the money. The ones in the little packs aren't even uniform in their taper. There will obviously be a number of placements per side, depending on how large any given item is to be fastened.

On the opening that is too small at the top, if it is a non bearing wall, you may be able to remove the jack stud and replace it with thinner material. If it is a bearing wall, a picture would be handy to see what the conditions are. It may be as simple as using a chisel to trim the little you need to get the window in. It may only need a good smack with the hammer to shift the framing enough to get the window in. A couple well placed 12D-16D toenails may help too. Give it a whack, literally.

I can't determine anymore to do without seeing the conditions. Bearing, non bearing, jack studs, common studs etc...

Also check the ends of the wall that the windows are in, the wall may have racked, which in turn will make your ROs out of square.


Try an electric drill.  Put the two ends of the wire into the drill chuck; fasten the other ends of the wires to something; step back until the wires are taut, then turn on the drill.  As the wires twist and the cable shortens, you'll have to walk forward to where the wires are anchored.

But I'm not sure if this would work with your "90 degrees to each other" requirement.


Is 20 amp line needed for washer and gas powered dryer?

According to the National Electrical Code, yes it should be a 20 ampere branch circuit. This circuit should also not have any other outlets, other than the ones for "laundry equipment".
So keep the 15 ampere circuit for your general use receptacles, and run a new 20 ampere circuit for the "laundry equipment".
Also note that the receptacles in the laundry area must be GFCI and AFCI protected (210.8(A)(10), 210.12(A)), as well as tamper resistant (406.12(A)).

National Electrical Code 2014
Chapter 2 Wiring and Protection
Article 210 Branch Circuits.
210.11 Branch Circuits Required.
(C) Dwelling Units.
(2) Laundry Branch Circuits. In addition to the number of branch circuits required by other parts of this section, at least one additional 20-ampere branch circuit shall be provided to supply the laundry outlet(s) required by 210.52(F). This circuit shall have no other outlets.
210.52 Dwelling Unit Receptacle Outlets.
(F) Laundry Areas. In dwelling units, at least one receptacle outlet shall be installed in areas designated for the installation of laundry equipment.


What's the procedure for stripping wires with pliers?

Use your pliers to open the packaging on a 6$ pair of strippers.  This is the ONLY correct answer.


When we finish a project we make the plumber test the water by sampling at least two faucets.

They take the samples to our local medical testing lab. Be sure to tell the lab what they’re testing for...because they’re usually testing for fecal matter.

Maybe you could call a local plumber and see who they use and what they use for taking the samples. (The testing lab will want to establish a chain of custody on who took the samples, where the samples were stored, etc.)


If you're happy with the height of the kitchen baseboard being a little lower, then you could cut a strip off the bottom of the kitchen baseboard so when it rests on the tile, its height matches the lounge baseboard.

You can then mitre the right end to make a neat finish with the lounge. If the baseboard ends here then the left end can be mitred as shown here https://youtu.be/dX2tVUg9r8I or https://youtu.be/8UlntpiHB8k


It sounds to me like the defrost heaters are not turning off.

I can not tell you if yours uses a thermal switch or a timer to cycle them, my guess is for a mechanical switch not working anymore, and stuck in the on position.

I am going for the idea that the repair guy thought nothing about the hot sides/top, because it is normal for it to happen, and he decided yours were just at the on part of their cycle.

The heaters running produces more heat (never saw that coming, did you). The compressor is doing its best to get rid of the heat, but it can not really keep up with the heaters, because of this it runs much more than normal.

The compressor was never designed to run as much as it is doing right now. With the duty cycle now so high, the compressor is running loud. And around we go again.

A full freezer is a happy freezer, never a worry there (if all is working right).


How much sagging is considered normal for floors in old (100+ years) houses?

Assuming the sag is new/progressing.

There are countless hundred+ year old homes with proper structure that have floors that don't sag, bounce or shake.

Sagging is never good.  Sagging is a sign of either poor engineering to begin with or structural damage done later.

bcworkz does raise a good point about older foundation methods and short term sags that stabilize.  I still maintain that even in such cases, a sag isn't "good", but it may not be deal breaking.


Are flexible PVC couplings rated for direct burial?

I just replaced the main stack in my house.  Went from cast iron to pvc.  I dug out about 10 foot in my basement to connect the pvc to the clay piping that goes out to my front yard.

I used a bigger version of this coupling to marry the pvc to the clay and it is buried underground and under concrete.

Inspector told me that they only start allowing these underground a few years ago in my area.  He also told me to go get a thick trash bag and he came back with some rubber-band like material.  He had me wrap the coupling with the trash bag and seal the bag with his wraps.  He said the 20 cents and 5 minutes should keep it from rusting out an extra 20 years.


How should I prepare doors and windows for painting?

Strip off all the old paint and sand the wood very well. Then use a good primer that seals the wood that water cannot enter it. Finally paint the wood in a colour of choice.


How does a shower valve get installed backwards?

It's not "backwards" or a "mistake" at all - it's perfectly standard for dual (separate hot/cold control) faucets. In a sink deployment, you pull the outside (away from the faucet) of the handle forward to open, and push it back to close - that requires the hot and cold to close in "different directions" from a clock-wise perspective - which is perfectly natural from a "handedness" direction since the right hand works the cold faucet and the left works the hot one (in the standard arrangement.)

To avoid this standard arrangement, look for one of the minority of companies that thinks all valves should be righty-tighty and buy one of those (there are a few - they seem backward in this application to me.) Or skip the whole business and get a single-handle control.


How to systematically find my HVAC return air intake?

Houses from that era usually had 1 or 2 large floor grates as cold air returns or the return grills/registers were on the outside walls under windows. There has to be return air grills or you would not have any supply air coming out the registers. Are there any registers high up on the walls, these could be the returns.With the fan running, light a match or candle put it near the register to see which way the air is flowing, in or out. Follow the return air duct work, from the furnace, (the duct that holds the air filter), and see where it goes. If you find metal sheeting nailed to the floor joists in the basement, this would also be part of the return air system. Follow it to see where it goes. Where the metal stops, that is where the return grill/register is, above that location in the floor or in the wall. And if you use the basement for anything, storage or any use, you should have 1 or more supply registers and return grills to keep that area somewhat conditioned. One last thing is this house a 1 story ranch, split entry or a 2 or more stories?


It looks to me like it's still the sprinkler pipe, they're attached at the top? So that line that's covered in ice is probably the supply that comes from inside your house, and the line going down goes out to the sprinkler system, and there is a backflow preventer at the very top where they connect.

When you shut it off, there was still water in the line going outside, and it's likely that it burst. The pattern of ice looks like there was water flowing from the backflow preventer. There's a lot of water there though, I don't think the water in the lines would be enough to make that much ice. You should double-check that you shut that line off. You should be able to see where that comes into the house, and there should be a valve on it. If that line isn't shut off, and has also burst, then as soon as the ice melts it will start leaking/spraying again, and as it gets cold freeze again, etc.

I'd say you have another shutoff that you missed (eg, did you shut off the sillcock (outside tap) next to the sprinkler instead of this line?). In the spring, you'll have to replace part of that pipe or the backflow preventer, depending on what broke.


Where is the water shutoff in Australian units

When it comes to locating shut-off valves, it seems antipodeans are more ruggedly individualistic than the more conformist locales I inhabit.

Live in a house?
You’ll find the valve near the front of your property ... our valve is located inside the front fence near the boundary with our neighbour. For those of you with larger properties, it might be outside the front fence.
Live in an apartment?
There should be an isolation valve that controls your apartment’s water only. It’s usually under the laundry sink, but also look under the kitchen sink. Look for a tap that appears to be doing nothing. Draw its location and tape it inside the pantry door.

From http://pipeperfection.com.au/plumbing-sydney/water-leak-repair/fact-sheet-turning-household-water/

use the main shutoff valve to turn off the water supply to the entire house. You'll find the main shutoff valve on the inside or outside of your house where the main water supply pipe enters. Turn the valve clockwise to shut it off.

From http://www.powerplumbers.com.au/tips_&_hints.html


Can I use 0000 steel wool to remove streaks in my polyurethane finish?

I would use a dual action orbital sander and wet/dry paper @1200 grit a very wet sponge to dampen the area dont press down let the sander float and as the streaks are cut out the residue will turn milky, keep wiping and moving this high grit with water will leave a mirror finish, I have used 800 & 1000 to remove larger imperfections but the 1200 works best in my opinion. (agree with JPHIL dont use steel wool)


I would cut a thin strip of drywall to fit that missing section. It will be a little awkward because it's thin and long and therefore easily breakable. Cut it from a piece that has a finished edge to help hold it together. That edge should face the door frame. Because it's so narrow the best way to fasten it in place will be with construction adhesive. You may have to support the strip from behind to get the strip level with the existing drywall. Scrap cardboard should do the trick.
When mounting the strip pack some spackle between the strip and the drywall. The reason you want to do this is because the repair will be too narrow to tape and the packing will help keep the spackle from cracking.
Smooth any excess spackling and hold the strip in place for a few minutes to let the adhesive set.
You can then finish the job with additional spackling and sanding as needed after the adhesive has set firmly.


Can 12"x12" ceilings on ground floors typically be made solid/permanent?

That's called a drop-ceiling, or a suspended ceiling.  It doesn't have to be "justified".  It's one of several choices with many advantages and disadvantages.  If you damage other types of ceilings, you'll spend hours speckling and sanding and painting them to repair, whereas with a drop ceiling you throw the tile away and put a new one in.  They can leak air/breathe a bit, so you might not want them between a living space and attic.

A solid ceiling will usually be 'higher' than a drop ceiling because you don't need the clearance to install tiles and suspend the frame.

If you haven't looked at everything above it you should before considering replacing it with another type of ceiling.  There's probably a good reason that it's there.  Perhaps it conceals beams or ductwork.


Best way is to find some more of the same (or similar) material, clean out or expand the hole to make it easy to patch, cut the new material to match and glue it in.  Caulk if necessary and paint to match.


Currentwise, I think a 60A supply breaker will suffice.  You use #6 copper or #4 aluminum wire for this. There's a case to be made for either one. Copper can be spliced in smaller boxes, but it's stupid expensive and it invites a dissimilar metal issue on the panel lugs (which are typically zinc plated aluminum).   If you run this cable in conduit, and you use THHN/THWN-2 wire, then you might as well use a 70A breaker since the #6Cu/#4Al 60A wire is good for 70A when it's in THHN.

Panel-wise, we need to have a conversation.  The most difficult problems we see here (the ratio between simplicity of project vs cost to do it) is "Panel Full" situations.  "My panel is full, how do I add a circuit?" often means a $1000+ panel replacement for a simple circuit add.  In practicality, that means the on-demand heater, table saw, or EV charger simply does not happen.

So, you have to size up your own house. If you've got a 40 space panel that's half empty, this may not be much help.  But not knowing all those details, our default reco would be for something on the order of an 18-space panel - that would give you a lot of expansion room for future circuits.  For instance if you needed room in the main panel, nearby circuits could be rerouted here.  The cost differential is not that large, and the protection it gives you is considerable.

The subpanel does not need a main breaker, and the bus rating is just a rating, like the 130 mph rating on your car's tires. So there's nothing wrong with feeding a 125A or 200A panel from a 60A breaker for instance.


You didn't mention how tall the chimney is.  2 story house or single. Is there or was there ever a displacement for a fireplace, one flue or two?  Lined or bare brick interior?

In general, the procedure is brick by brick. A small mini jack/impact  hammer will speed up the process, but it can be done with a hammer and cold chisel. Most chimneys are independently supported and not structural to walls or the roof. there may be ties to framing members that you will have to cut or remove as you go through the roof or floor. You definitely want to use basic safety equipment like a dust mask, gloves and good eye protection. You can cut down on the dust and debris spreading in the house by hanging plastic from the ceilings around the work area. Use some painter's tape to hang lightweight plastic from the ceiling creating an enclosed area around your work area.

One cool trick on chimneys with a large flue opening and a clean out on the bottom is to drop the bricks one at a time to the bottom and have a helper remove them and stack them at the bottom. This is a bit neater and saves bringing bricks through the house.


How to avoid nailheads in stud behind plaster?

Answers, in order.

This is plaster and wood lath.
Toggle bolts are typical, but the comment from @EdBeal about using the studs is spot on. Plaster is quite variable in its holding power... chances are fair that it wouldn't fail, but you can't be sure until you try.
Forget the pilot hole unless you're having real problems driving the screw. The stud is softwood, so a pilot isn't necessary.
The nails that attach the wood lath to the studs are tiny, so a screw will push past them. (Unless you're really unlucky and hit one dead-on-square in the middle, but that's very unlikely. Then reposition the screw a tiny bit up/down and do over.)
You should always worry about electricity, but the chance of you drilling through a wire is relatively slim.
Screw the top of one of the standards into the stud. Use a level to make it plumb and screw the bottom. With the level, mark the tops or bottoms of subsequent standards. Align to the mark, roughly plumb, screw one end, plumb for real, screw the other end. Repeat.


do I need to fill with spackle or can I paint directly

The corner of your wall may be "protected" with corner bead, a metal strip that is bonded to the wallboard and provides impact resistance. If you can see the metal surface in the chip, it may be that you need to prepare the surface to take the paint you use to cover it. Using a paint that is also a primer will help in that regard.

Abrade the surface as well as you can, perhaps extending to the paint around the chip. Ensure that the surface is clean, using an appropriate solvent. Acetone or similar material that will not damage the surrounding area, or even rubbing alcohol may serve the purpose.

If you use a paint that includes a primer and comes in a spray can, mask off the area around the chip to avoid overspray, or spray some into a container and apply with a small brush.

It's difficult to determine the depth of the chip. If too deep to simply paint over, you would still want to prepare the surface and use something like auto body filler putty (or bondo!) to get a good bond to the underlying surface. Any filler would have to be sanded to have a smooth surface for the paint, of course.


parallel #8 or #10 from splice point in outdoor box for 60 amp rating?

You're not allowed to parallel wires smaller than 1/0 AWG (NEC 310.10).  Further, paralleling requires special equipment on the supply-side, and special dual lugs on the load side.  This equipment handles certain very serious problems that can arise with paralleling.

Not least, what happens if one of the two wires breaks or has a contact problem, and all the current is flowing on the other wire?

It's maybe not so bad since since your issue here is entirely contained inside a junction box... however, it's maybe not so hard to get some #6 wire.

If you must cheat this, use a single #8 wire and declare "inside the box" to be a 90C environment, 55A@90C rounding up to 60A. That's not legal either, but it's a better argument than paralleling.  Then do replace it as soon as you can obtain some #6.

NFPA does a lot of thinking about electrical safety in writing the NEC.  Many rules didn't make sense when I started, but do make sense now that I have some experience and have thought more about all the reasons.  I have never found a rule that didn't make sense, both in terms of safety and finance.

An example is the "neutral on switch loops rule" -- it causes 50 cents worth of additional hardship at install time, and saves $200 of additional hardship (or a dangerous hack) when the homeowner wants to install a light switch.


What's the easiest process for cutting bathroom flooring tiles to fit complex door trim?

I would cut the bottom of the trim so the tile can slide underneath. Then you only need to approximate the shape of the tile, but you don't have to worry about perfect edges.

I've used the Dremel Multi-Max with the 3/4" flush cut blade to cut base trim and door jambs so I could slide hardwood flooring underneath. I borrowed a friend's and decided I needed to buy my own as soon as my next project came up.


The usual tool to use for this is a screw extractor.

You drill a hole in the screw, then use the screw extractor bit in the hole you drilled.  The brand pictured has the drill and extractor on the same bit.

Drilling the hole is usually the hard part.  It may help to drill the smallest possible hole first, then re-drill with a bigger bit, then extract the screw.

If you're patient, you can use a Dremel tool with a cutoff wheel or tiny grinding wheel to cut the heads off, remove the hinge, then use vice grips to unscrew the bits left behind.

Rather than cutting a slot with the Dremel, you can try to just grind a flat on the head so you can get a better grip on it with vice grips, but in this particular case it looks like there's not enough room for that to work well.


Why is there a supply vent in my unfinished basement?

Any area that contains water lines should be heated if temps hit freezing where you live. Crawl spaces without insulation should also be heated in these climates particularly if you have non-carpeted floors above them to avoid cold floors in the winter. Also, I'm not an HVAC expert, but I've been told you should condition the air through which uninsulated ductwork runs.


Will heat set off a smoke detector placed in an attic?

Heat will not set off a smoke detector. Heat will set off a heat detector, but most heat detectors would not be set off by the temperatures in an attic (and if one is, if probably means the attic could stand some ventilation upgrades.) A heat detector is commonly employed in areas where some minor smoke might be expected but fire is still a concern (such as near the stove in a kitchen, or directly over an oil furnace or boiler, which can smoke a bit when being serviced - much more so than a gas furnace or boiler.)

A photo-electric smoke detector can be set off by dust (and if poorly designed, by spiders getting in the beam - a better designed one will exclude spiders from that area, but I have certainly seen false alarms that were blamed on spiders in the unit.) However, if nothing is stirring up dust, that is relatively unlikely.


We live within city limits.

Depending on where you live, the sewer system may be tied into the storm drain system. When you get enough water in the system, it can back up into the sewer line in your house

A sewer backflow valve can prevent waste water backups, particularly from a public sewer. But before we get into the details and benefits of a sewer backwater valve, let’s explain what backwater is. Sewer backflow is a term used in plumbing for unexpected and unwanted flow of water in reverse direction. Normal plumbing allows wastewater to flow from a home to the city sewer, but backflow is the exact opposite.
When backflow happens, there can be a serious health risk due to contaminated waste water entering your premises. Backflow occurs when the municipal drainage system or city sewer overflows, and sends water back through a sewer pipe into your home. Immediate proper clean-up is required to prevent risk of disease and further damage to property.

You might be experiencing what that article terms a "sewer surcharge", but on a smaller scale. If you do not have a backflow valve installed (and most homes do not), the sewage can back up into your house. Even if this is not the issue here, I would check to make sure you have one installed.


How to affix a wooden branch to the ceiling as a chandelier?

I'd suggest three supports as a minimum - Any less and the branch will wobble about when touched or with any sort of draught/breeze.  Also consider rigging the fixtures not in a row, also to minimise swing.

20 kilograms (42 pounds) is also a lot of weight to hang up in the air from jute rope, which does deteriorate over time.   I'd strongly recommend some braided steel rope/cable, perhaps with a thin sheathe of cosmetic jute weaving over the top.

Knotting your rope might work, but over time the rope will sag and thin, putting stress on the power wire.

I'd recommend putting three stainless steel eyebolts into the top surface of the branch and three more into the ceiling.  Make sure you hit something solid and load-bearing above the ceiling!

Then use a swage tool to permanently secure three braided stainless steel cables to the log eyebolts, and attach three positively-locking hooks to the other end, to clip to the ceiling eyebolts.  This will allow removal of the log without cutting the wire rope.

  cable eye and a swage closure.

 An uncrimped swage.


my generator trips one pole /30 amp generator breaker even when the transfer switches are off

You said:

  I disconnect the red, black, and the neutral from the generator to the house neutral and the transfer switch leads and I read 120 volts from the black feed to the generator neutral and 120 volts from the red feed to the generator neutral and 240 volts between the red and black generator leads as would be expected but when I measure the black generator lead to the house neutral I get 0 volts and from the red generator lead to the house neutral I get 240 volts and the red generator lead is the same one popping the 30 amp generator circuit

If the black generator lead to the house neutral is 0 volts then someone has connected them together somewhere. That is why the red lead to the house neutral is 240 volts.

It sounds like something is seriously mis-wired here. Take apart what you have and post some pictures or better yet trace every wire and draw a diagram of what you have and post that with the pictures.


Which alternative will be more efficient and beneficial for Bathroom Ventilation? How?

Moist hot air rises.  If you have a fan placed near your shower on the ceiling that can move a lot of air out you will have little to no condensation.  Fan should be turned on when you get in the shower and generally speaking should stay on twice as long as the shower taken.  If you buy a fan sized for a bathroom 2 times your size and keep your bathroom door or window open while showering (if you can) you would more than do it.


If you have a multiple ground rods then that could be causing the issue. Everything should be bonded together; if they are not bonded then that could be the issue.

http://www.reddit.com/r/electricians/comments/23jjlu/hi_reddit_is_it_a_bad_idea_to_ground_an/

34 min video on grounding https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ypo99VRxT44


Distance between countertop power outlet and gas range

Code doesn’t restrict the location of a range receptacle. They are normally behind the range location most are below the counter height so the receptacle is not visible when the range is in place. The builder has no idea what range may be used in most cases.
Added to be more specific; the location of countertop receptacles is not restricted other than there must be one within 2’ of counter space or 4’ between. The receptacle can be mounted adjacent to a stove cut out and or adjacent to a sink location but there are no restrictions the same as the location of the receptacle behind the stove if one is installed.


Is it possible to use plastic sheeting rather than tiles in a temporary bathrooom?

There are no regulations or restrictions for temporary bathrooms.  You can do whatever you want.  What you propose seems fine, certainly better than newspapers (old roommate put newspaper in our bathroom to walk on so we didn't have to clean the floor - don't ask how it turned out).


What could be causing my gas fireplace to shut off?

It sounds like a draft issue that disturbs the pilot flame when the doors are closed. Or it could be that the flu/chimney is closed and chokes out the flame when the door is closed.

First check that the chimney is open and clear. If it is, then light the pilot only and observe the pilot flame as you close the doors. If you can see the pilot with the doors closed, then observe if the pilot flame starts "dancing" around like it is getting blown on. If so, you could try adjusting the ignition sensor closer to the flame or at least in the direction that the flame tends to go when the doors are closed.

Check if there is a fresh air intake adjustment on the unit and try different settings.

Also, there have been times when I had to actually put a ceramic or steel cover over the pilot flame/sensor to keep drafts from blowing it out when it was running.


What is the 2-inch layer of masonry under my bathroom tile?

This floor has been floated, a very common and traditional method for preparing surfaces for tile. To "float" is to apply a cement and sand mix similar to concrete but without rocks, gravel or coarse sand. A 2" thick float is not uncommon at all.

It is often applied using a "dry pack" method wherein only enough water is mixed to ensure proper set but wet enough to pack, shape, feather, and blend.

Do not use pre-mixed bagged concrete mix. If you do not want to mix your own, use pre-bagged mortar mix and "dry pack" the area. I guess you could then use a thin layer of floor leveling compound to flatten, smooth, and blend the damaged areas and seams.


Why does my gas fireplace shutdown when fan starts up?

A gas fireplace has several temperature sensor settings.

One is to turn on the fan.  When the firebox gets hot, the fan turns on to spread the heat through the room.

There's also an overheat safety setting.  When the firebox gets dangerously hot, the heater shuts down.

It sounds to me like these two settings are too close together.  I'd call in a gas tech for a cleaning and servicing.  It doesn't cost much, and should be done from time to time.

It's likely not electrical, as the overheat protection will work even if the power goes out.


How do I fix a good size gouge in my faux wood vinyl floor?

Obviously the best bet would be to replace the tile, if it's tile, if it's sheet vinyl well...
If you have ANY of the material left over, you can cut out a patch and replace it, use a liquid seam sealer to make it look good...

You can purchase a vinyl sealer, that will basically attempt to fill in the gouge, use of lacquer thinner is required, as this is going to clean the area first...

You can purchase wood putty, or a wood crayon at your local hardware store. I used to work in Lowe's flooring department. They also sell repair kits, but you would probably be better off matching it yourself, start low.
So clean it up, broom and mop. Neutral cleaner if necessary,

Apply the putty or crayon or whatever you will use to fill the gouge. They sell markers that help you fill in the extra stuff colorwise...You can set and let dry this way, wipe it clean and repeat the process, if necessary...OR...

you can apply wax to the whole floor, this will seal up and if you go low-gloss, you might be able to mask up the imperfections in a similar process as would be handled by a flat paint on an ugly wall.

Minwax has a reputable putty here


Tooth Count for 6 1/2 inch Circular Saw Blades

Geometry. It ain't the number of teeth, it's how close together the teeth are.

an 8.5" blade is 26.7 inches long at the edge.

a 6.5" blade is only 20.4 inches long at the edge.


Easy.   For each wire, determine if it's 10 AWG, 12 AWG, or 14 AWG wire.   Then consider the following table:

14 AWG, 15 amp breaker
12 AWG, 20A breaker
10 AWG, 30A breaker

Don't upsize any breakers.  But if the breaker is bigger (in amps) than the wire in the above table, downsize the breaker.  BR breakers cost $5 for a single and $10 for a double.

Any wrong-type breakers (looking at  you Square D), replace them.

If any cables have 2 hots (e.g. red-black-white Romex) get a 2-pole breaker of appropriate amperage and land both hots on the 2-pole.  Note a 2-pole is not a duplex. A 2-pole is twice the size of a normal breaker.

That's it.  You're done.

After this, some loads may trip the breaker.  If that's the case you'll have to follow the usual troubleshooting - too many loads on one circuit, too small cable needed, etc.

If a breaker serves only one motor load, ask a new question with the motor specs and ask whether you can use (size of wire you have) with (size of breaker you used to have).


Why won't my furnace run on the generator?

Your portable generator has ratings for starting watts and running watts. When you first turn it on, it starts with a higher number of watts then reduces to the amount of running watts. I am wondering if there is a mismatch in watts needed by the furnace and those provided by the generator. Make and model might help us discern this. 8000 watts might just be the starting level, while the generator provides only 5000 (arbitrary number) watts as running watts, underpowering the furnace.


Is there a better way to join two corrugated pipes?

In The Old Dart, extension kits typically include a suitable joining pipe and Jubilee-clips (rather than spring clips)

You can buy the connector separately (e.g.)


It's basically plaster, so unless it has a bunch of water damage or hollow spots, which you should easily hear by running your hand over the surface. I'd go with tiling over it, since the bond is just as good as plaster & people tile over that daily.

However, not knowing its porosity you should first apply a Thin-set Bonding Agent. The Artex or similar product has lasted this long in a wet environment, so I think it's proven itself extremely well. What you may not realize is that your plasterboard behind the Artex also quite likely contains asbestos. So, leave well enough alone & finally add a locking layer that doesn't have asbestos.


1) Yes.  It would probably be easier and more cost efficient to simply cover it (drywall, paneling) or fill it in with more stucco (requires more skill).

2) Brick or block.

3) Purchase a TV mounting kit suitable for your make/model TV and use masonry anchors (http://www.doityourself.com/stry/h2anchorconcrete) to mount it.

Good luck!


Control the individual brightness of LEDs on WS2812B

With WS2812B LEDs you supply the binary values for Red, Green and Blue of each LED. Each time a new serial bit stream is sent to the LED string all of these values need to be provided. I really suggest that you read the data sheet for the LED and you would already know this.

It is possible to scale the RGB value for each LED by multiplying each of the three LED binary values for the Red, Green and Blue by the factor. To brighten use a factor > 1.0 and to dim use a factor < 1.0. You must use care to make sure that the resulting calculations stay within the size/range of the normal binary values for each color. For example you cannot program a color value > 255 or less than 0.


Structural impact of removing windows from formally exterior wall

The windows themselves will not be structural, and in your case the wood in the middle between the 2 columns will not be either. I see in the picture the rafters over the windows appear to be the same dimension as the rafters of the rest of the ceiling. those rafters have no additional support under them so it is safe to assume that the rafters over the window section can carry the load of the roof on their own without the center post between the windows. The only exception that would be if the rafters were notched to accept the vertical post. That notch would weaken the rafter and not allow you to remove the wall unless the rafter was repaired or replaced.


Likely needs to be brazed and repainted if you want to do it right. If you just want quick and dirty, try using a grounding clamp. mcmaster.com/grounding-clamps/grounding-screws/


Help diagnosing power outlet that sometimes works

I find intermittent receptacles quite often are caused by backstabs, you replaced the receptacle but the problem may be from the receptacle feeding this one.

It most likely is a bad backstab but can be a loose connection or broken wire.
When on a chain of receptacles the problem will be in the last working receptacle or first non working one.

You replaced the non working one moving closer to your service panel find the next receptacle if that is working it could be the connection for the wires feeding the problem receptacle. Back stabs are the cause in the very high 90% range but a broken wire loose wire at a wire nut or screw can also be the cause.

It can be either the hot or the neutral.

You did not find an outlet but there is a connection someplace since the breaker, & outlet were replaced other that is a nail or screw driven through breaking the wire. Put a load on the receptacle like a hair dryer it will probably fail quickly. There are circuit tracers that can find broken wires in walls. These are expensive and not all electricians have them.


The under part of my kitchen sink is flaking off some white particles

The white material that is flaking off looks like an insulation/sound deadening coat applied by the sink manufacturer. It wasn't supposed to come off. Unfortunately, I don't think there is a quick & easy solution.

The white material looks friable (it breaks up into dust). I see the white dust on your garbage disposal unit. If the sink is over a couple decades old, have a flake of the material looked at by a lab that deals with asbestos. Wet a paper towel, dab up a sample and drop both the sample and the paper towel into a zip-lock baggy. The lab will just look at the sample with a microscope, so it shouldn't be expensive. Often they will take a look at no charge.

If it contains asbestos have an asbestos abatement contractor remove the sink. Again, don't assume their service is super expensive - abatements are very common.

If the material doesn't contain asbestos, here is a suggestion: Remove everything that is stored under the sink to enable your access. Wear respiratory and eye protection - a good dusk mask and goggles. Scrape the material off the bottom of the sink. It looks like it may come off fairly easy. The tool that comes to mind is a paint scraper. A dust management tip is to wet the white material with a spray bottle before you scrap it off. I would clean up with wet paper towels rather than a broom or a vacuum, just for better dust management.

After the bulk of the insulation is removed you could coat the bottom of the sink with an encapsulant, or even another sound deadening product.


Should I cut air space in my basement foam board insulation?

I did almost what you propose, but used a commercial dimpled tile mat between the foam and the slab floor.  It worked out great, no issues after 6 years.
That said, the go to place for detailed energy questions like this is Green Building Advisor http://www.greenbuildingadvisor.com/ (I have no affiliation with them).


How do I attach hinges to a media console?

Provided the frame is thick enough to hold the hinges, the tool of choice is usually a Forstner bit:

You don't need a whole set - if you know exactly what you need, you can just get one size.
There are also plenty of hinges that simply use screws and don't require a big hole. Depending on the specifics, that may be better.


Above Ground rigid steel conduit over creek

Christy is one of the many companies that make handhole boxes (like a minature manhole) for underground conduit / cable.  It gives you access to pull or splice at junction points on an underground cable / conduit rum.

I am going to assume the rigid conduit goes into the bank of the stream on either side and a direct burial cable will go in the pipe, or a direct burial cable will be spliced to something else at those points.

So someone suggested you'll need a handhole at those splice or pull points, which is correct.

(Unrelated to the question, also assuming the cable is supported by a bridge or something because you can't span 30' with unsupported conduit, and that the poster is aware the permitting for things crossing streams can be ridiculously difficult.)


The arched notches in the rear skirt are intended to accept heavy bolts with rubber pads and washers.

Be sure that you have solid backing where the bolts will need to go. Install two-by lumber, wide face forward, between studs where needed. Be sure they're well anchored.
Finish your room. Paint should be complete and well cured.
Install the sink by carefully locating the bolts to align with the sink notches. I'd put rubber or plastic sleeves over 7/16" bolts, and use neoprene rubber and stainless steel fender washers to secure to the inside face of the sink skirt. Leave the bolts about 1/4" loose when hanging the sink, the snug them slightly against the skirt. The bolts should be piloted properly and extend at least 2" into the wall.
Optionally caulk along the wall. Use the smallest bead necessary to create a good seal and nice appearance. An acrylic with silicone should last well and is paintable.
If the drain assembly that comes with your faucet doesn't work out, look for a standard 1-1/4" assembly with full-length threads. Otherwise it's a typical P-trap installation. That's well covered in other questions on SE and throughout the internet.

Product brochure


It's really hard to assure that they won't be under load anytime in the next 50 years.  Obviously, the bottles only need to break once to be ruined.  Also, depending on the type of bottle, it might be hard to find lids that are waterproof, rustproof, and won't decompose.

I recommend using something sturdier, like large diameter PVC or ABS pipe.  It's easy to work with, you can cut it to whatever length you want, and it's easy to completely seal it off from the outside world.

You'll inevitably have at least some humidity from the air trapped inside, so I recommend adding some desiccant packets to help preserve the contents.


What the purpose of a label on top of a capacitor?

The black circle is not a label; it is a safety vent. If an electrolytic capacitor overheats due to high DC voltage, to a large AC component, to reverse connection or to internal failure, it will build up pressure until something gives... hiss, or sometimes bang.

To prevent B A N G, vents are designed to fail gracefully, or at least not too abruptly. The vents are marked below: a weak thermoplastic disk in the harder thermoset top of the large capacitor, and the score marks to weaken the thin aluminum in the smaller, which has already failed.

There should be clear polarity marks on the electrolytic (unless it's a non-polarized cap), often a black stripe along the negative side, plus mark(s) (+) on the positive, or embossed marks near the terminals. (Barely visible in the photo below is a plus mark below the right terminal of the big blue cap.)

BTW, from the terminals, I might guess that this is a non-polarized motor-starting capacitor, but take that surmise with some circumspection. Check the schematic or parts call-out if it needs to be replaced!


Many hardware stores have swatches of laminate and other countertop material you can bring home. Take some home and compare visually, and after washing. Home Depot, for example, shows "Durable clink vinyl plank with reclaimed grey hardwood look", looking something like your good photo.

Usually, samples picked up in-store are free.


Recommended Insulation For Finished Basement

I finished my basement a few years ago, and I did a lot of research before I began.  The code here (in Ontario) says you need R-12 with batt insulation, a vapor barrier, and tar paper behind the batts but only, I think, 3' below grade.

From everything else I read, this is the wrong way to do it.  I should also mention that when we had the house built in 2006, it was insulated exactly like this, just without drywall in the basement.  I decided to take off the vapor barrier and take out the batts, and there was already some fungus or mold starting to grow on the basement walls behind the batts.  My opinion is that the code is wrong.

There's a home improvement guy around here named Mike Holmes, and not everybody likes him, but he's generally all about "doing it right".  He's been advocating spray foam, or in lieu of that, using XPS.  I also came upon a website called Building Science.  It had some good information published comparing batts with vapor barrier vs. spray foam or XPS, and they clearly showed the foam better.  They also gave a pretty good explanation of why...

An effective "air barrier" is more important than a vapor barrier.  Spray foam, or very-well-sealed XPS is an effective air barrier, so humid air from inside can never contact the cold basement wall behind it, so condensation can't form.  The foam is also moisture resistant.  The air can only contact the top of the foam, and that's at internal room temperature so it won't condense.  Also, the closed cell nature of the foam will allow moisture in the wall to (very slowly) move towards the inside, where it will evaporate into the room.  For this reason, they pointed out it's important to not have a vapor barrier on top of the foam.

The idea is: concrete is wet, and doesn't mind being wet.  The foam has to tolerate wetness, and block humid air inside from contacting anything below the condensation point.  Allow the wall to dry to the inside, to prevent moisture from building up in the wall.

I opted for spray foam, including up in the headers, which saved me a huge amount of time.  They were done in 2 hours.  The main thing with spray foam or XPS is that you need to cover it with something that has a 15-minute burn rating.  Typically this is just drywall, but you wouldn't be able to leave foam exposed.  I have drywall walls but a suspended ceiling in the basement, so the spray foam up in the headers isn't protected, so the inspector had me put Roxul insulation overtop of it, to act as a 15-minute fire barrier.  He did say that the code still technically requires a vapor barrier, but I disagreed, we had a short discussion, and he basically said, "sure, OK."

I also used 1" of XPS on the floor, sealed with tuck tape, and then plywood over that.

That was about 4 years ago, and I'm very happy with the result.  It's a comfortable space.


Building code requirements normally require a minimum of around 30-40 pounds per square foot of live loading capacity for standard residential floors. Assuming they are stacked and laid flat (and the floor was built to code), a 4' by 8' section of floor should be designed bear somewhere between roughly 1000 to 1300 lbs of live loading.  Note that this is both the minimum and the average for a uniformly distributed load, so the bearing capacity along the walls will typically be substantially high.

That said - if you have the space, divide it into multiple stacks.  2352 lbs. comes out to 73.5 pounds per square foot. I'll usually stack them up standing against the walls in the rooms they'll be installed in.  Less carrying sheets around when you're hanging it, and unless the room is enormous you don't end up with huge piles anywhere.


If your available tools include a sledgehammer, just use that, held vertically, head down, pick it up and drop it, repeatedly, every 2 or 3 inches of soil fill (you cannot effectively tamp thicker layers of soil with hand tools.)

Forget the wood block.


Is there a simplified chart of how many amps can I get at a distance by wire gauge?

I'm not sure how helpful it is, but here's a chart that shows voltage drop at various distances. This chart shows the voltage drop across copper conductors, at 100% the allowable circuit capacity.

This chart that shows the voltage drop across copper conductors, with a 15 ampere load on the circuit.

And one with a 20 ampere load.

If you want to do the calculations yourself, you can use the formula:

Voltage Drop = 2 * Length * Current * Resistance

That will give you a rough approximation of the voltage drop that should be expected.

*You can look up the resistance of the conductors through the manufacturer, or use values found in the National Electrical Code.


What can I do about water coming in from underneath when it rains?

I would try to identify the source of the water.

You don't have gutters. If rainwater runs off your roof and splashes onto the ground next to your walls I would consider installing guttering and leading the rainwater through pipework away from the house to a soakaway (large gravel filled pit).

If the surrounding ground slopes towards the house, I would consider installing something like a French-drain that intercepts ground water and directs it around the house to a point where the ground slopes away from the house. This is a big project and you need to be sure of what  is causing your problem before starting.

In both cases you probably need professional help or at least get someone experienced to come and look at the building.


Dusk to dawn light goes out when heat pump starts up

I am pretty sure what you have is classic case of voltage drop. Ballasts for vapor lights and some cheap light sensors for incandescent par bulbs will be tricked or drop output, so light goes out and has to restart when voltage is restored.  The reason for the sudden drop is really the concern.  Since the heat pump employs a fairly large motor, it draws a lot of current at start up. This is called inductive kick. It takes a few seconds for the coils of the motor to saturate and start he armature spinning in the magnetic field. Since the coils are a dead short until saturation is achieved, they draw large current.  E = I/R, ohms law explains this. So what is the solution?  You may need to have the heat pump motor checked out or add a motor starting capacitor across the windings. I cannot tell you what size capacitor you will need as it can vary widely depending on motor size. This is a very common problem in residential services that are close to current capacity with an unbalanced motor load. Even though you may have a 100 or 200 amp electrical service, it can be overtaxed temporarily  by an unbalanced motor start up


Any reason you are not you are not using fiberglass batt insulation.  This can be done your self with adding 2x4 on end to get at least 9.5 inches.  Then staple the insulation up.  no need for baffles if insulation is at least 1" less that rafter width.
The cost saving will leave you enough money to pay someone to hang drywall on ceiling maybe even spackle.

Spray foam is a good product but expensive and your electrician will charge alot more if he has to run wires through it for lighting.


Use external switch to control blower fan on furnace

Connect the switch from R to G

Wiring a standard light switch between R and G will do what you want -- the switch will perform the exact same function as the fan switch on a thermostat in gas mode.  Namely, you'll be able to run the fan without heat by turning the light switch on, but the furnace will run the fan on its own when heat is called for, using its internal fan-thermostat.


What type of bolt should I use to maintain a movable joint?

For neatness you could consider the use of a carriage bolt through from one side of the wood "pivot" point and then put a flat washer and a nyloc nut on from the other side. The parts look like this:

Carriage bolt - The square part under the rounded head keeps the bolt from turning in the wood.

Flat Washer - This keeps the nut from digging into the wood.

nyloc nut - This special type nut has a nylon insert that keeps the nut from loosening and spinning off the bolt.


The black wire that is hooked up to the blue wire that keeps the light on, that is your always hot. Follow that wire back to the encasement and the white wire coming out of that encasement is your neutral. Hook that neutral up to only the white wires coming out of the fixture. Now take your always hot black and hook it to the remaining white wire in the other encased cable and mark it with some black tape. That wire now energizes the switch. Take the black wire in that encased cable and hook it up to the black wire and the blue wire from your fixture. Both fan and light should come on when operating the switch. Naturally, you want to turn off the power when you do any of this.


Change my 220v 50 amp breaker to 70 amp on existing wiring to pool panel

All I am trying to do is answer your basic question. Simplistically put, the NEC requires electrical conductors to be protected by overcurrent protection that matches the current carrying capacity of said conductor. So in your case you must run a #4 for your 70A breaker.

If you are trying to determine a wire size you should be looking for a marking similar to this.

The reason everyone is asking questions is because we think we could help if we had more information. See comments above.

PS - Instead of a 12 your looking for a #8 or 6 or 4.


Building custom cigar box - is there a MAYA or 3DSM to wooden cutout service

Besides Shapeways, check out Ponoko, Big Blue Saw, and 100kGarages.

Shapeways does 3D printing of plastics & metals.
Ponoko can do laser cutting of wood/plastic/fabric/rubber as well as 3D printing.
Big Blue Saw does laser or water jet cutting of wood/plastic/metal.
100kGarages is more of a community of workshops with digital fabrication tools.


When attaching velcro, my thought process is - when the two items are separated, which one would it be more pleasing to have the fuzzy side or the scratchy side?  Using velcro to mount a flashlight?  Fuzzy side on the flashlight for sure because it's soft.  Normally it ends up being scratchy side on the fixed surface and soft side on the portable piece.

You might also consider which side would pick up more dirt or dust when they are separated.  They both stick the same and have the same forces acting on them when attached, so my decisions focus on the separated items.


Translucent film lets a lot of light through and provides privacy as well (as long as you don't get to close to the window). There are window films with beautiful patterns and even ones that can be attached to window panes without an adhesive. (I think I'm not allowed to suggest a brand here.)


How can I figure out where the toilet overflow pipe goes?

The overflow pipe is for when the tank is full AND the normal fill-control system for the tank fails. If there is water entering the overflow pipe either due to a failed fill control setup or due to a leak in the connections at the bottom of the tank then that is a problem that should be fixed.

I would suggest adding some food coloring or similar dye into the tank. This should allow you to quickly determine if the water is coming from the tank or not.


How to uninstall this fancy bathroom faucet?

You should be able to remove that small cap at the very top of the cold water valve. Try to pry it off with a small screwdriver. There should be a brass screw inside there, remove it to remove the handle. Then the cone should lift off or unscrew counterclockwise. That should expose the valve stem. There's packing and washers that would need to be replaced or you might have to replace the valve stem. Look for a good plumbing supple store. Remember to turn off the water to that faucet before removing any parts. Water is probably seeping out through the top and dripping out the bottom.


What should I do with my leaking chimney?

Ventless gas fireplaces are a suspected health hazard, and may dealers won't sell them.

I strongly suggested a vented model, which will have two pipes: one for fresh air, one for exhaust.  The new cap will likely solve your dripping problem:

If you have doubts about where the leak comes from, get a hose.  Wet the chimney 1 meter above the ground and wait for the drip to stop.  Repeat this until you get to the top of the chimney.  I'll bet the leak is in your chimney cap, or whatever masonry topping the thing has.


POL fitting on a propane regulator -> pipe: what do I need / will it work?

Simply changing pipe size does not affect pressure. Flow affects pressure: for a given pipe size, pressure drop increases as flow rate increases. Likewise, for a given flow rate, pressure drop increases as pipe size decreases. We can't say anything at all about the pressure drops that might occur in your system without knowing a lot more about the flow rate, ie the consumption by the gas appliance.

My first reaction is that the whole project has the suspicious feeling of being built on some false premise. I feel this way because gas appliances typically require an inlet pressure around 11 inches water column (about 0.4 PSI). It strikes me as "wrong" to have plumbing bringing gas into a building at 20 PSI.

As to the shopping part of the question: it looks like you've chosen a part that matches your description, but the vendor might be in a better position to confirm that.

As to whether the adjustable regulator can work with just 20 PSI on the input rather than full tank pressure: charts of Propane vapor pressure on Engineering Toolbox indicate that propane's vapor pressure at 0 degrees F is about 40 psia, which is about 25 PSI gauge pressure. If that regulator works when the propane is very cold, either because of winter weather or because of prolonged use, there may be reason to expect it'll work in the setup you described.


In the U.S. the NEC has no limit on the number of outlets per circuit for residential, some county's do or have had a limit based on the commercial limits of 180va per yoke or strap. since the question says 14 gauge wire we use 80% max draw or 12 amps. So the counties that impose this limit use 8 as the maximum for 15 amp circuits and 10 as the max for a 20 amp circuit, or this is how the county I live in did it until the last code cycle where they now use the NEC and there is not a limit to residential outlets. There is an example in the code book that shows 10 outlets on a 15 and 13 on a 20 because they were allowed to use 100% but my county used to require the derate because the ampacity of the wire is supposed to be 125% for continuous loads or loads that are running for 3 hours or longer.


How can I repair this detached kitchen sink pipe?

Drain lines are pretty easy to work with.  If you are completely unfamiliar but want to do it yourself I would recommend removing all the drain line you can, ideally all the way from the sink to the wall.  If you want to do less of it, remove the portion you plan to replace and leave the rest hanging.

Once removed bring the stuff to your local hardware/big box store and ask someone for assistance getting you what you need.  Pictures may come in handy there as well, make sure you have one of each of the places where pipes connect to something, also helps to have them for reference when putting it all back together.


How does hardwood floor acclimate to a location with variable humidity?

Humidity is variable everywhere. I live in the desert where the indoor humidity varies from 10% to 60% depending on the time of year. I've installed engineered hardwood and it's totally fine. Don't most houses in the northeast have hardwood flooring? I think you'll be totally fine too. Just keep in mind seasonal cycles; if you install during a high-humidity period, expect it to shrink a bit. If you install in a low-humidity period, expect is to expand a bit.

That said, hardwood flooring isn't a the best choice for a building that's not temperature controlled at all, as you've implied.


Prevent hot and cold water mixing through kitchen faucet

They make in-line "spring-type" check valves. Commonly found in 1/2" pipe thread, you may need to adapt to install on your hot/cold supply lines, but it certainly is possible to do.


Sounds like a problem with the ground. Does it have power? If so its definitely a problem with the ground. How close is your ground rod to bedrock? Since bedrock is non conductive you could be getting an electron feedback, since the power has nowhere to go it just builds on the rod till it is strong enough to arc. #electronproblems #gotstobetheground  #youhitmewithlightning


How to fix front door that needs to be pulled for latch to open?

This is likely related to alignment of the latch (the mechanism that runs through the edge of the door, from the lockset to the door frame) with the strike plate (the metal plate attached to the door frame which guides the latch plunger to its "latched" position).

Look closely at the strike plate for signs of misalignment; like heavy off-center scratches in the area where the latch "strikes" the plate. Look for indications that the latch is not lining up with the hole in the strike plate.
Sometimes this happens due to settling/movement of the house due to seasonal changes, and can be remedied by filing the hole in the strike plate. Try removing the strike plate and watching how the latch behaves, at the edge of the door, when closing the door.

There could also be one or more of numerous other problems: loose hinges, loose lockset screws, warped jamb, warped door, worn out latch, worn out lockset, wall movement, etc. Start troubleshooting and eliminating possible causes until you find what the problem is.


WIll electric pressure washer work with low water pressure?

You need at least the same flow rate out of the hose that the pressure washer uses. look at the GPM (Gallons per minute). With the hose on the roof, run the hose wide open for a minute or 2 so you will have the true flow rate. Then fill a bucket and time how long it takes divide by the size of the bucket if your unit uses 2.5 gallons per minute, a 1 gallon bucket would need to fill in 24 seconds, 12 seconds for a 5 GPM. You don't want to starve the pump or it will damage it. Many contractors use 5 GPM @ 5000 PSI and larger units. 1450 is probably 1.8-2.5 GPM from the units I have seen. If you have slightly higher than the flow the machine needs you should be good. There are also inline booster pumps with standard hose fittings that could be used at ground level to increase the pressure (Running on 120V) these can be expensive for a good one.


In my experience there is no product that either removes or seals in pet (or other) urine.  the only solution that I've found is to remove ALL the contaminated materials and replace them.


How can I temporarily partition a large open space to create another room?

You can get divider screens that are made of several reasonably lightweight panels connected together with hinges (like the IKEA RISÖR). Something like that could be used to divide the room. I've also seen people use freestanding shelf units to divide a large room, that are open on both sides (like the IKEA EXPEDIT), and then fill the shelves with books, decorative vases/bowls, and collectibles.

Neither option really creates a wall, but you're looking for something more temporary. Anything tall enough to go to the ceiling will either need to be really wide for stability, or attach to the ceiling, which I don't think you want to do.

Note: The linked products are used as examples of the type of furniture I'm writing about. They aren't meant as recommendations for specific products.


which wires to connect when installing a dimmer switch?

Edit: From your picture and descriptions you appear to have a three way switch.

Your dimmer is a single pole dimmer.  Meaning it is designed to operate in one location.

A Lutron three way dimmer that is similar to what you have would have one red, one red/white striped, one solid black, and a green.

The two blacks off the switch wire to the black on the dimmer.  The one red goes to red, the one black goes to the red/white striped off the dimmer, and the green goes to the bare copper.

Be sure to turn off power first, and make sure the dimmer is rated for the correct load: Incandescent, LEDs, total wattage.


If it were my house, I would leave the blown in insulation in there and remove enough sheathing to blow in more, say maybe 16" total or at least dd enough to get it to code.

I would think 1 or 2 boards about every 6-8' apart will allow good coverage and depending on the roofing going back down, just add a layer of plywood over the existing sheathing since it is a strong base there to build on.

If the space is a continuous 20" deep over the whole attic, only place a maximum of 18" for the hot air to travel over the insulation to the vents


Can I DIY fix the broken main feeder support cable?

You can see right there where the steel cable is bonded to the lighter colored of the three service entrance wires.
Yeah, you lost a neutral.   This is when we get out the big font and say
This is a power outage. Call your power company NOW.
Normally these arise as “Hey, my appliances keep blowing up”... or “I measured 84 volts on an outlet” “check your other ones” “Oh, this one is 148 volts”.
But the funny thing about lost neutrals is people can take quite some time to realize they have the problem.
But yes, that wire is electrically “hot” - well, it’s near ground voltage if everything is working... but if you go up there and try to rejoin it, you’ll end up with one wire in your left hand and the other wire in your right hand, and the neutral current will try to go through you.
Of course, you said “feeder”.  That is a word with a specific meaning: it means a cable after the meter going between panels.  So supposedly you would have a house and a pole barn or something, and an overhead line feeding a subpanel out there.  But that would be 4 wires (with messenger as ground), not 3 as we see in this photo.
The specific name for this cable is “service drop”.
And the service drop is in the power company’s bailiwick, so they will fix it for free in almost every case.


Gaps Between Aluminium Sign board Theming and External Wall

I doubt it. You need something that will not swell, rot, wick water, or delaminate even under water exposure. Gypsum board is very susceptible to moisture.


How can I make a finished attic cooler and all bedrooms comfortable when central A/C is shared between 2nd and 3rd floors?

In summer the attic is heated by the sun through the roof and windows and also by warm air rising from the rest of the house through the staircase.  Closing the attic door would reduce the amount of warm air rising, but that is not the main source of heat.  The sun is.  And closing the door also decreases the flow of air from the attic registers back to the return on the second floor.  The gap below the attic door is just not enough to conduct an entire floor's airflow back to the return.
These were the problems:

The system was very poorly balanced.  The second floor bedrooms got most of the air flow and the attic got very little.
The attic had no return vent which was a big problem made even bigger when the attic door was closed.
The thermostat was in The Annointed Place in the upstairs hallway near the return vent but that turns out to be the worst place for my house.
My upstairs A/C was a little oversized for the total amount of airflow it had.

These were the steps I took:

I added a return duct in the attic hallway.  A small one, 10 inches.  I think this was the essential element.  It mixes warm attic hallway air with the cooler return air from the 2nd floor return, and thus balances the whole system.   It massively increases flow THROUGH the attic when the attic door is closed.  With the air mixing from the two returns the thermostat now gives love to the entire two-floor zone.
I added a second register in each of the two attic bedrooms.  It was easy to do by snaking ducts through the unfinished attic crawlspaces.  This gave the bedrooms a  greater share of the attic's air flow, a slightly greater share of the overall system airflow, and also brought the total air handler's air flow closer to its ideal, given it was a bit oversized to begin with.
I moved the thermostat from the 2nd floor hallway to the master bedroom.  This sent all the professionals involved into wild conniptions, and they made me sign a notarized release before they would work on it. Not really that.  But they all follow a universal rule of thumb that the thermostat should be in the hallway outside the bedrooms near the return.  In my house, with the bedroom doors closed and the downstairs system shut down during the night, and the open staircase, the upstairs hallway was where all the warm air collected.  So the bedrooms were always 3 to 8 degrees below the set point.  And the result of that was that the thermostat was never satisfied and the 2nd floor bedrooms were cold and clammy.  So I forced the electrician to move the thermostat into the master bedroom.  Because of all the attention I had paid to creating balanced air flow, this worked like a charm.

So far so good.  Within 5 minutes of the system starting up, all the rooms on both upper floors were in balance and when the thermostat became satisfied all the rooms were at the set point.  This worked with the attic door open or closed.  Once the system shut down the attic rooms would then heat up much faster than the second floor so by the time the thermostat called once more for cooling, the upstairs was about 10 degrees too warm.  So .....

I upgraded my thermostat from a $20 one to a $40 one, slightly smarter (but not a "Smart" one) that has a setting which, while the system is down, wakes up the fan for 5 minutes every so often.  This worked really well.   The setting was hidden deep in some secret menus available only in the "installers" manual that did not come with the stat.  But all the 2nd and 3rd floor rooms stayed in balance at all times and always within a few degrees of the thermostat set point.

Notes
This was not a DIY project for me.  The ductwork changes took a pair of professional installers an entire day.  Because I had a finished attic the job to move the thermostat from one interior 2nd floor wall to another one was a bear of a project for an experienced electrician with a helper.
It was easy for me to install the attic return because the upstairs air handler is in the unfinished attic space behind the wall of the hallway.  They just had to poke a hole in the wall and add a short duct that joined the main return in the plenum outside the handler.  If the handler were in the basement it would have been a MUCH bigger project.


Adding a ground wire to old 2 wire wiring before extending to grounded wiring.

You are asking about the rules for ground retrofit, which were greatly eased in 2014.  We discuss that here and there on the site.

To answer your questions,

You can start the ground any old place.  There's no requirement that the ground parallel the supply conductors.

Grounds for one circuit can be extended to protect another circuit, provided both circuits come out of the same service panel.  That's only an issue if your house has subpanels.  The only restriction is that the ground wire must be large enough for the circuit all the way home.   So for instance if you are retrofitting a 12 AWG circuit, you can bring it to the water heater and its 10AWG ground wire.  Then you can retrofit a #14 circuit and bring it to the #12.  The reverse is not allowed, a #14 ground wire can't be part of the grounding path for a #12 circuit.

Order does not matter, do it any which way you can.  Several circuits can share ground:  Remember, grounds never flow current except during a ground fault.

GFCI protection has absolutely nothing to do with the grounds.  GFCI's don't use ground at all, and have no access to ground.  (Well, GFCI receptacles do, but only to supply the ground pin on the sockets; the GFCI device doesn't even connect to ground.) There shouldn't be any neutral-ground connections on the downline wiring; that would be the very definition of a ground fault.

That means that GFCI protection and ground retrofits are orthogonal; they have nothing to do with each other and can be done independently of each other.


How can I identify the source of a leak at the hot water heater?

Dry all the suspect areas well.  Wrap a paper towel around each inlet/outlet. Turn on your hot water draw and start checking the paper towels. the first one to get wet is where your problem is.   Then it my just be a matter of tightening a connection or removing and replacing a soldered fitting.


How does everyone set up sprinkler timer with residential outdoor faucets?

This valve comes through the house's insulation and wall. Heated side left, outside right.
Those aren't residential outdoor faucets. Those are sillcocks.
You've linked a bunch of hydrants/sillcocks, which put the valve proper inside the building, and the handle and spigot outside the building.   The purpose of those is freeze protection in winters.
The trick is to drain the water in the 6-30" of pipe coming through the wall.  That won't happen naturally. Vacuum, combined with surface tension across the small spigot outlet, will hold the water in there.  So these hydrants have a "vacuum breaker" which allows passage of air in, but not allow water to gush out. The water drains out the normal spigot.
Which means, if something is blocking the spigot, it will fail to drain.
The thing blocking it could be an extension hose (it doesn't even need a valve at the far end; a long enough hose will do), or a hose reel, manifold, timer, you name it.  Any of these will defeat the sillcock's self-drain ability, and result in freeze damage to the sillcock.
Further, if something like that has a valve of its own (think manifolds), it will entrap water pressure between the accessory's valve and the hydrant's valve. The vacuum breaker isn't made to have pressure on it 24x7, and may stick or rust closed, which is what the warnings are telling you.
So, basic sillcock hygiene 101, unhook everything attached to it at the end of the day.
Dump the sillcock. You need a plain faucet.
The valves you want to use are made to use with a plain faucet, or are made to be hard-plumbed.   So get one.
You'll have freeze problems in the winter of course, so install that line in a way that lets you drain it.  I like to place a shutoff valve then carefully slope the pipe to (or away from) a faucet I add indoors, so I can close the shutoff, then open that faucet and the outdoor ones, creating a "vacuum break" so gravity will drain the water.  Obviously if the low point is indoors, you'll need a bucket or put a hose on it (which is why I use a faucet :)
Or perhaps a more "pro" solution would be better
Another option is to (indoors) plumb in an industrial-quality solenoid valve.  Have that supply your irrigation lines.  The solenoid valve would open the water line when you apply something like 24 volts AC.  Where would that come from?  A plug-in wall-wart transformer.  Now this changes it from "needing a water timer" to "needing a lamp timer".  Now you can use any lamp timer, X10, any of a variety of smart  controllers for plug-in lamps, etc.
The exit of the building could be a sillcock, since the control valve is indoors and comes before the sillcock, hence pressure would be removed when the system isn't irrigating.   However with the hoses permanently attached, it would be on you to disassemble the system before the first freeze.


Can I use a dimmer with the light in my ceiling fan

Most fans have different wiring for high medium and low many times with a pull chain or remote. A dimmer could cause the fan not to work correctly and may cause overheating and damage to the dimmer and fan itself.


Hot Water Pump Too Sensitive to Cold Water Pressure

this sounds like a problem with a thermostatic balancing valve in the shower valve.  you may have to pull the cartridge and clean it out or replace it.  these valves use a setup that can act strangely with time and gunk.  start with the simplest thing first.


Using strong magnets for hanging window blinds

You need to worry about not just the weight of the blinds, but also a weight slightly greater than the blinds focused at the string when the blinds are pulled up.  I'm going to make up some numbers, but if you had a blind that was 10lbs, you would see maybe 7lbs on the left bracket and probably upwards of 20lbs on the right bracket (assuming string on the right) when they are lifted.  The weight of the blinds plus friction is going to add up.

I have some 6' blinds and haven't measured it, but it takes a lot of force to raise them.   I normally lift them with my free hand as I pull the string, but my wife isn't that "nice".  There's also some lateral force if you're not pulling straight down and when you have to pull sideways to unlatch the mechanism.

Any pull force listed on the magnet is in a purely perpendicular force performed in a lab.  They are very, very strong, but I wouldn't trust a "working load" with that listed weight.  You're going to get a stronger hold from a mechanical fastener like a screw or bolt.


Can I swap the tumblers in two locks from the same manufacturer?

I generally go to a locksmith for that kind of thing.  Locksmiths come in 3 flavors.

Scammers and lead-generators
Outbound locksmiths who want to drive their truck to your location, and charge you a king's ransom for the privilege
local community locksmiths with a retail shop who are happy to let you bring your lock-sets into their shop and charge you a sensible price (for a locksmith)

Use the third kind.   They're the hardest to find, natch.

That said, the big-box stores do have a possible option for you.  One lock manufacturer (don't recall, except they actually do have a reasonably well-reputed history in the lock business) has a mid-consumer-tier product where you can re-key the tumbler yourself.   It's pretty slick.

You stick the old key in.  You stick a special slotted tool in a tiny slot. This allows you to turn the old key in a weird, awkward, backward way.  You pull that key out, put in your new key, and then do some other twist with it.  Voilà - your lock is now keyed to the new key.

We're not a shopping site so it isn't really for me to say the brand, but you shouldn't have any trouble finding it.

One more thing about buying consumer tier locks at the big-box store.  Look at the package.  That package came in a cardboard box which holds 4-12 packages.  Flip the package over. You'll see there's a "Key Code" displayed somewhere on the package. Every package in that box has the same Key Code - go look!  That's handy if you want more than one package's worth of locks keyed alike - in fact, that's why they do it.

However, it also means anyone else who buys that lock, that store, that time, has a key to your house.  Ewww.  For this reason, when I buy locksets, I buy them at a store far, far away from my usual paths.


What can I do about this deteriorating staircase?

Sure - many people build new wooden or "plastic-decking not-wooden" stairs over old, excessively steep concrete steps like that rather than rebuild the concrete ones, as much to make them more reasonable in rise/run and landing area as for fixing the basic steps.

In many ways it is easier if you demo the concrete ones first, (other than the concrete demo), since then you don't have to futz with supporting the pressure-treated wooden step framing on the old concrete steps. But plenty are done with the concrete steps still there below them.


What type of paint to recoat a ceramic tile hearth?

I like the hardness of enamels.  Oil based trim paint or the newer water borne oils are quite tough.


How to fix a plug socket whose screws don't hold anymore?

As tacky as it is, I have seen electricians use drywall screws to hold receptacles when the threads are stripped out. the sharp threads of the drywall screw will cut new ones into plastic or thin metal. If your screw goes into a brass insert molded in the plastic, you may be out of luck. Do be careful of the length of screws used, the sharp points will go into a wire with no resistance, shorting out your connections.


Attaching gymastic rings / pull-up bar to the ceiling

You can always run 2x4 or 2x6 across the joists over the drywall where you want to suspend rings and the pull up bar. As long as you secure the board  properly across at least 2 joists (3.5” or 4” construction screws-2 or 3 per joist) you should be good. Not the prettiest setup, but it is quite strong and easy to mount to.


How many lumens needed to light up a lawn using floodlights?

I'm not sure whether we can find any charts for this, since it's very much a subjective thing. I can tell you about my experience...

My back yard is similar, but maybe a bit larger. It's probably 100' by 75'. On the rear gable of my house is a dual-bulb flood, which I've recently furnished with these 90 watt equivalent LED bulbs. They're as bright as the original bulbs and at only 15w. They light up about 1/3 of the yard to the level you describe.

Based on that, I strongly suggest a fixture that provides four sockets, each containing bulbs like mine. I think you'll be happy. Obviously, with a single point of origin, you'll have hard shadows behind yourself and any objects in the yard. That would take a different solution, though.


Why do my water pipes jump when running water?

It could also be that you may have some pockets of air in the pipes that cause them to jump or knock. You can try shutting off you main water valve, then open all of faucets until there is no water left. Then with the faucets and spickets open turn the main valve on.


Can I remove accumulated sawdust from fiberglass insulation?

Blow it out with compressed air instead.  Any of the modern, "made safer" type blow guns should be weak enough to not tear up the insulation.  (I'm thinking air off a compressor, not "canned air" (basically freon), the latter wouldn't be powerful enough.
Then, in the future, don't do woodwork around unfaced insulation.  I totally sympathize with not wanting to drywall, because access to utilities is a huge money saver. But at the least, staple up some 4-mil plastic sheeting and replace it every few years when it gets rotten.


Aah, plumbers.
Google instructions on 'framing an attic hatch'. At a minimum, you want the cut joist to T into something across the two good joists.
You also want to put short joists (going in the same direction as the rest of the joists) as close to the plumbing as practical to support the edge of the flooring.
If you already have a compressor available, a palm nailer will drive the joist hanger nails in tight spaces quite nicely.
Edit----
Here's a bit of a diagram to show how the new parts should go. It's probably best to assemble them with joist hangers (ie, Simpson LU28, if the joist is a 2x8). You'll have to notch a little for the plumbing on the right. (These notches are perhaps the worst type of notches you can put into a floor joist, so make them as small as possible.)
If the joist on the left is rotten all the way along, I'd sister an additional joist through as much of the length as you can manage. (Glue and screw.) If it's just the very end, you could extend the perpendicular joist to the next good joist, but in that case, double the perpendicular.


Dishwashers don't require a full size drain. There is no need to run a DWV line to your dishwasher.

They drain through a 5/8" or 7/8" flexible hose that attaches to the sink tail piece or the food disposal unit.

They fill through a 1/2" feed line.

You shouldn't need larger than a 1 ½" hole through the wall into your cabinetry and then run the lines in the back of your cabinets. I think you will want to go lower though since your drawers probably go all the way to the back of the cabinets and anything mounted there would keep them from closing.

Have you bought the DW unit? If you have it, check the install instructions and the feed and drain line sizes.


Install Common Wire (unable to find terminal or 24 VAC)

Currently according to the wire diagram the wire on the R terminal comes straight from the transformer. The C wire should be the other leg from the transformer. So you need to add a wire branched off from one of the Y wires and run it to the NEST thermostat.


How can I use toggle bolts with limited depth behind them?

Are you comfortable with cutting the bolt to a length between 2" and 3"?  That would be simplest.

Another possibility would be to use another piece of wood between your shelf and the wall to create more thickness for the 3" bolts.

If the concrete is actually concrete block, you can drill into that quite easily with a masonry bit from your local hardware store.  If it is an actual poured concrete wall, best not to bother.

ADDED:

To shorten the bolts:

A) Take the bolt to a hardware store, tell someone you want the same bolt but in a 2.5" length - this is likely the easiest thing.

B) Cut the bolts:

Thread a nut onto the bolt and spin it back towards the head.
Use a hacksaw to cut the bolt (if you clamp it, clamp on the nut and head - not the threads) - OR - use a Dremel with a cut-off wheel - OR - use boltcutters!
Unscrew the nut from the bolt; this will clean up the damaged threads where you cut it.


What can hand held metal circular saws not get through?

Anything that's thicker than the radius of the blade will be very hard to cut through.
Other than that with the right blade most materials can be cut.
something with loosely packed fibrous strands will tend to foul the axle.


How can I wire a 3 way switch with power feeds to another switch?

To wire to other loads from the box with a 3-way switch and a line feed, you simply identify the line cable, that is, the black line hot (always hot) and its associated white neutral (both being in the same cable).

Then connect another cable to the line hot and neutral routing it to the location you want to power-- connecting black to black, white to white and gnd to gnd. If your current connections are with wire nuts you must unscrew the nut on the line connections, add the new wire and reconnect with the same wire nut or a larger one if necessary.


You indicate that the fittings will spin, but not unscrew. That indicates to me that they are some sort of a "snap" fitting that goes on, but either has to have a special tool to remove or has to be cut off.

You say you're REPLACING the trap. In that case, using a hacksaw* to cut it out is probably the simplest and most expedient method of removal.

HOWEVER - If you cut the drain tail-piece (the one you're holding on to), it's quite likely that you will not have enough pipe left to attach a new, standard screw-on trap to. To that end, I'd suggest that you also purchase a new tail piece for your sink with the expectation that you'll have to replace it. Keep your receipt and return it if you end up not needing to replace it.

An alternative would be to hacksaw through the fitting along the length of the pipe to cut it open and allow you to spread it so you can remove the trap. You might need to make 2 cuts, to cut the fitting in half so you can simply lift each part of the fitting off. This will preserve the full length of the drain tail-piece, but will probably be a more difficult cut to make. You may be able to make the 2 cuts roughly 1/4 - 1/3 the pipe circumference from each other and stretch the fitting the rest of the way to get it off if you can't get to the back side to make them 1/2 circumference apart. Of course, if the fitting is rotating freely, make one cut, spin it 1/2 way around, then make the other cut.

*I keep seeing "HACK" on the pipe, just above your thumb and keep thinking that's a hint. :D


Will this concrete fence base heave/break during winter cycle?

Best advice is to dig the whole thing down to the level below frost line. It is also the standard practice to put down a bed of gravel at the bottom and lay in a reinforced concrete footing that lies completely below the frost line and is wider that the fence support wall. Say 12 inches wide. This gives the poured wall structure something solid to sit on that does not heave and will also help mitigate problems with ground movement and settling.


If I were you, I'd just plan to make a new trench and run new wire. Here's why

It sounds like a previous DIY project, which likely means it wasn't done correctly. Common problems with this are they used NM wire instead of UF, and they didn't bury it deep enough (needs to be at least 12" by code)
The previous wire might not work. If they used NM, there's a good chance it's got some damage by now. Even if not, the ends might be damaged after being buried exposed, and trying to splice in an outdoor setting is a pain. Just avoid the problems and run new wire.
Add conduit. It's cheap, it better protects the wire, and it's neater.


3 Handle Shower Cold Water Turns On Shower

I would say that the white seal looks like it fits to the flat sealing surface at the coarse threads. The coarse threads pull the flat sealing surface onto the valve body and the white "washer" makes the seal. If this is how it works you will not need any Teflon tape or pipe dope on those threads.

I suppose the brass ring is a "valve seat" that goes into the valve body, but it has been a long time since I messed with one of these diverters and I don't know the details. Look into the hole with a light and see if there is a replaceable seat inside. Examine the edge of the seat to see if there are grooves. If you don't have a seat wrench. perhaps you should leave the existing one in place and see if the diverter works with the old one.


1) To find wires buried near the surface in walls you can use a "cable detector" They have various names. One example is the Bosch PMD-7.

2) The type of screw depends partly on weight. For concrete, you could use a goodly number of tapcon screws or perhaps a fewer number of sleeve anchors. Check the weight rating of the screw and work out the expected load of your wooden panel plus all the things you will hang on it.


Depends on the jurisdiction.  In most places 8 feet is too far from trap to vent.  Better would be to route vent and waste lines from the trap separately.  You can use turns and what not as needed in those lines as long as slope is maintained.


Tile basement bathroom over cracks without Ditra

Use a thinner crack isolation sheet, ask for "slip-sheet" at the tile store. Some will bridge cracks up to 1/8" wide. Note, although slip-sheet works great for cracks caused by horizontal movement, they are not great for preventing cracks caused by vertical movement.


It looks from the photo like this is a crushed gravel drive that hasn't been "refreshed" in a few years.  I have a similar drive and I have "eights with dust" or #8 gravel delivered.  You can ask the materials company what they recommend but around here (Central Indiana USA) most gravel drives use this.
Crowning is not as important on a drive as it is on a public roadway but you may want to adjust the overall crown for the new width to help with drainage.
You also need to consider the base for the new section.  Eights are used as a top layer.  It's common to use "threes" or #3 crushed gravel for the base.  I'd apply the #3 on the new section and let it settle and be driven on for a few weeks.  Then apply a top layer of #8.


How to secure bookcase to drywall right over concrete without drilling concrete?

I think you already hit on it. The bulk head at the top would be a good place to secure the book shelf from tipping. Set the book shelf in place and then angle bracket the structure to the ceiling so it won't tip. Find a stud or other structure at the ceiling to make it sound.

If the book shelf does not stand as tall as the ceiling, then you have another aspect than needs attention. Think outside the box. Can you frame in an addition to the existing, what, a duct? Just think that you won't need extreme support for the bookshelf if you have good connections to the ceiling. For example, if you stand the bookshelf on it's own, how hard is it to tip over? Now think if you screw that to the ceiling, how hard would it be to tip over? If you have kids, or even if you don't, make sure it's secure.


OK at 220V your RLA (run load amperage) is 39.2A, NEC Table 430.250 says you can calculate 22A for a 7.5 hp @ 230V. You are saying that the new machine would run on 30A so that would fit the RLA for a 7.5 HP motor. Using that as our guide your minimum circuit amps would be 27.5A. If you machine is actually 15KW then your RLA is 39.2 and your minimum circuit amps would be 49A.

So you either need a circuit that can be fused at 30A (7.5HP) or 60A (15KVA). Your #6 conductors would work just fine. Running a quick voltage drop calculation you are under 3% but you will drop a volt or two. Besides most motors prefer to run a little hot (higher voltage)rather than under voltage.

Because of the discrepancy of the information, I would install a 60A disconnect for the machine, since you can always fuse down, while fusing up could be a problem. Also your machine disconnect must be within line of site, maximum 50' away in an unobstructed pathway and lockable. Whether you want to fuse it at your disconnect is up to you, but never fuse it higher than the main or any upstream over current protection.

Also pay particular protection to @ThreePhaseEel. If it's a 100 year old facility it could very well be a corner grounded delta. You might verify that with a local professional before proceeding.

Stay safe and good luck.


How is this bathroom ventilation fan attached?

Okay, I found the same model on Amazon so I'm just going to replace the motor, fan, and light.


One simple thing to try that would not be too much work would be to re-mount the plastic bracket in nearly the same place on the center divider panel as before. Instead of the short screws use some bolts like these:

Select the bolt diameter that will work with the mounting holes in the bracket. Select bolt length sufficient to protrude through the bracket plus the thickness of the shelf side panel plus enough extra to engage the nut.

Drill suitable holes all the way through the side panel of the shelves at the location that you would re-mount the bracket. Clamp on a scrap piece of wood against the opposite side where the drill will come through to prevent chip out of the side panel on that side. Then mount the bracket with the bolts through the holes. On the opposite side apply some flat washers as pictured below on the bolts and then spin on the nuts. Tighten the nuts using a screw driver and wrench or pliers to hold the nuts.


Fluorescent lights sometimes don't turn on

Do not use plug-n-play LEDs - they depend on a functioning ballast and your ballast is suspect.

Because then, you'd be at a crossroads.  Return the plug-n-play and remove the ballast and get a direct-wire/ballast-bypass LED... Or replace the ballast and stay with PnP and support that ballast forever, even though LEDs don't actually need it.  Obviously the second one is pretty lame.

I honestly recommend a third choice, replace the ballast and keep that nice new tube you just got, that is probably 90 CRI and better light than you'll get anytime soon from LED.  Modern ballasts fix all the complaints about fluorescents.


Using a window air conditioner outside and redirecting the cold air into room with ducts

I saw this set up you are thinking about doing in 1968 at a donut shop in Pittsburgh, Pa. and it worked okay. (wow how time flies) They did a lot of stupid things then to save a few dollars. The duct work was oversized to reduce friction loss for both the supply air and the return air. Servicing this unit was extremely hard and very expensive since the duct had to be disassembled every service call. After a few years and many very expensive service calls they made the correct decision and installed a different system. Sometimes cheap ideas are just cheap and dumb ideas.  "My 2 cents".


Should I replace 3/4" and 1/2" galvanized pipe with the same sizes of pex?

I see your system design viable and acceptable, however modern practice would dictate 1" main lines, 3/4" sub-lines and 1/2" branch to individual fixtures.  I would run 1" to the manifold.  Depending on the individual length, 3/4" and 1/2" would be run to the fixtures.