How messy to get underlayment off of concrete floor?

Asbestos use in construction in the United States was banned in 1977 so there should be no asbestos in your house. To get the underlayment off, I would recommend using pouring adhesive remover available at any hardware store on the underlayment and using a sharp tool to get it off. Once you get the underlayment off, you can spread some sweeping compound on top of the floor and then use a broom to get the rest of the glue off. It is somewhat of a time consuming process but I do not believe that either of those materials are too toxic, and besides, they will be removed before putting down the new floor anyways.


Ground wire pass-through safety switch to sub panel?

Look for the grounding symbol stamped into the switch enclosure
There will be a grounding symbol stamped into the switch's enclosure somewhere around the bottom-left corner, as per the wiring diagram.  That symbol marks where the ground bar, a Square-D GTK03 in your case, goes -- there should be a hole and a bump near it.


Either buy a bundle (#2 white cedar, and pick out the better ones) and cut them down, or visit a jobsite with shingling in progress and ask for offcuts (bring coffee and doughnuts to improve your odds of "yeah, sure, take whatever you need from the scrap pile")

A quick glance shows that $10 will get a bundle of "utility" grade shingles, which is codeword for "bad" but you can probably trim those to get enough usable shingles for your small job and a lot of kindling for lighting fires with.

Any job will have a large number of cutoffs where the top of the wall or roof is finished with short shingles - no short shingles are sold, so all the 4"-8" shingles lining the top have a corresponding 12"-8" cutoff.

You might think you'll just buy a pack of shims, but shims are too narrow to function as shingles (anything less than 3" wide is not wide enough.) That might even be what was originally done on your bird feeder, upon a quick count - and part of why it failed so badly. You need at least 1-1/2" from a joint in one layer to a joint in the next layer - thus, 3" is a minimum.


Connect 1/2" supply line to 3/8" outer diameter faucet line

You need a brass connector. "1/2" female iron pipe" (1/2" FIP) is the size of the female connector on the end of the hose coming out of the sink plate in your picture; "3/8" female compression" is the size of the connector on the end of the hose coming out of the faucet in your picture. You need a 1/2" MIP (male iron pipe) X 3/8" male compression adapter. Super common at any hardware store, er... should I say "ironmonger shop"?


Why do I only have 30V going to my light fixture

Are you sure the circuit was live when you measured it? If you try to measure an open (i.e. off) circuit, you can sometimes read a "phantom voltage" caused by coupling with other nearby live wires. Phantom voltages can't generate a significant amount of current and are therefore harmless, but they can be measured by a multimeter.

If you say the fixture doesn't work even though the old one did, perhaps a connection came loose somewhere and now you have an open circuit with only the phantom voltage. Or maybe you just forgot to switch the breaker back on?

I don't see how the old fixture could've worked if it was actually only getting 30 volts, so something must've changed during your installation.


Your RV plug is a TT30.    The 10/3 NM "Romex" building cable is sufficient to the task provided it is not exposed to weather.  If exposed to wet or weather, you just need a different category of cable for the exposed run.

You can use this with a 30A breaker, either single pole or double pole.  In either case you land the in-use hot wire (black preferred, red will also suffice) on one of the breaker poles.

The other hot wire, cap it off on both ends: put a wire-nut on it (probably yellow), tape that nut on (nuts don't like to stay on single wires), and tuck it back.

If  you ever have call to fit a NEMA 14-30 receptacle out there (say, for a larger RV, which uses L14-30), it's now an easy job.

You could also fit the NEMA L14-30R today by using a 2-pole breaker and both hots -- then this $20 adapter cable.  This is safe because it's a 30A-30A adapter, so properly breakered.


How can I deal with waste water from a washing machine in a non-plumbed room?

In homes where there are no drain lines in the basement floor, it's common practice to use some form of cistern containing a pump.  A quick search at Home Depot turned up the SANISWIFT®, made by a company called Saniflo. The specifications list this unit as having a vertical discharge of 14 ft., which should be more than enough.

I've seen similar setups in many basements, where the only drain available is overhead.

Grey water from the sink and washer are collected in the cistern, then pumped up and out of the area when the cistern is filled to a certain level.

If the washer discharges faster than the grey water pump can handle, you're going to have problems. That's why when installing a system like this, the cistern should always be large enough to hold more than the volume of water that will be discharged by the washer.  In the above image, the sink acts as a secondary reservoir (as well as an air gap) allowing the pump extra time to discharge the water. If you're not using a sink it's a good idea to have a larger cistern, and/or a grey water pump that can handle the volume.

You'll also want to install a check valve, on the discharge line from the grey water pipe. This will prevent the water in the vertical pipe from draining back into the cistern, and causing a potential infinite loop situation.

As for whether or not you should rely on your washing machine discharge pump to lift the water, you might find this related question useful.

WARNING:
This is only appropriate for grey water discharge.  This method is NOT appropriate for sewage discharge.
Obviously there are other manufacturers of other systems, and you could always build you own system. I do not recommend or endorse this product, it is only used as an example. Searching for grey water pump will find many alternative products.


Hanging faux wood blinds- screw broken. Is there a tough screw I can use for a wall stud?

You said you pre-drilled but then said you thought you hit a stud with the screw?

Nope not if you pre-drilled.

If you did that properly and drilled all the way into what the depth of your screw would be, you would have drilled into that stud and the screw would go in just fine. The drill bit when you backed it out, you should have seen the pine wood on the bit flute : if it went into a stud.

Perhaps you did not drill deep enough or maybe there is a metal protective plate - protecting pipes or wires. Further your drill bit could be a size to small for the screws.

Wood Screws are what you want - standard wood screws are fine - they go through studs just fine - pine is a VERY soft wood (of course that is relative - if some one hit me with one I probably would say it was hard enough).

No there are no special screws just for studs.

When was your home built and did they use steel studs to build it ?


Is it okay to use silicone sealant on plexiglass?

Plexiglas (poly (methyl methacrylate)) is strongly attacked by xylene, one of the solvents in the sealant you selected. I'd expect the sealant to soften the plexiglas and probably also whatever plastic the air conditioner is made of.


We’ve had several similar problems. We’ve solved them by 1) undercut the door, 2) through wall grille,3) through wall grille with sound baffles,

You’re right, you can’t “push” more air into the room without providing an air relief. (It’s the old straw example...you can’t blow into it if you have your finger over the other end. )

1) The simplest and quickest is to cut about 3/4” off the bottom of the door. We’ve done this several times and it works well, except you’ll loose a lot of your sound control. (The 3/4” will about the area of your grille.)

2) providing a through-the-wall grille above the door is also simple and you will also loose some sound control. This option has never turned out good for us. The grille is up near your ears so passerby’s can hear everything better.

3) We added a grille above a company’s presidents office door with sound baffles and it worked great. We cut the grille in just above the door header on the office side, then extended a duct with sound baffles up the stud space to a grille on the hall side near the ceiling.

The studs were 16” on center and we used the whole stud space. The duct was about 20” long and had 4 baffles. The baffles are made of strips of duct board mounted perpendicular in the stud space and about 4” apart alternating from side to side. This makes the air travel back and forth through the space. (We often use this design on large supply ducts to trap the sound of the motor noise coming on and going off on the supply side of heating/ac systems.)

It sounds like you have enough air when the doors are open...it’s just a problem when the doors are closed. (The straw example.) So, providing a “relief” vent seems like it will solve your problem. You’ll be “pushing” air out so it should not affect the house return air grille located close by.


Changing out receptacle that is controlled by a light switch

Because you didn't look at the old receptacle to see if any tabs were broken off.

You should break off tabs in the new receptacle exactly as you find them in the old receptacle.

Breaking off the tab changes the meaning of the two screws. Instead of "two screws that connect to the same thing and can be used for supplying power onward to other receptacles", it now means "each socket in this receptacle is being fed power separately by a different wire, and each socket gets only one screw".  This is used for splitting receptacles for lamp control, and a few other uses.

I have no idea if the old receptacle broke tab off the hot side (brass), the neutral side (silver) or both.  You will need to trash-dive the old socket and have a look. Breaking the hot side is the most common.  But if neutral had been broken/split before, and you fail to split it now, it creates a "silent but deadly" failure mode that will be revealed only by a fire or GFCI trip.


Mounting wifi access point to lath and plaster ceiling

My house was built in the 1890's and is predominantly plaster & lathe. I've mounted everything from small pictures to 10' long by 8' tall shelving to the wall by simply running drywall screws into the wall. I've tried using a stud finder to find studs, but the lathe befuddles them. I simply drive a screw wherever I want to hang something and have never had a problem.
When mounting on plaster and lathe, I'd recommend simply driving screws through the mounting holes and into whatever they find to hit behind them. As small and light as these are, even if all 4 screws only find plaster, they'll still hold just fine.


As OP noted in a comment, this is a 1.5" copper vent pipe. He found it poking through the roof.


Dishwasher not actually washing dishes, soap left behind

There should not be a problem with any normal dishwasher detergent - powder, liquid or "pods". Plus a dishwasher even in simple rinse mode (deliberate or "oops, forgot to put in any detergent") will usually get most of the crud off the dishes.

Detergent left behind, as well as dishes not being clean, points to "not enough water". So intake valve is a possibility, but also possibly:

Sensor detecting amount of water cutting off too early (most machines use a sensor of some sort because the fill rate will vary depending on water pressure)
Water filling but not pumping into the spray arms

You should hear water filling when you start a cycle. As soon as the water stops filling, open the dishwasher and you should find a few inches of water sitting in the bottom. Close the dishwasher and open it a minute later and you should find evidence of water having splashed around from the spray arms. If you don't see much water - intake valve or sensor. If you see a lot of water in the bottom but no evidence that it has been sprayed around then a bad pump or valve to the spray arms.


Voltage increase when connecting a large load to household circuit

This seems like the neutral cable in a split 120-N-120 service is not handling the full current. A small gain in brightness of a lamp on one side of the circuit, when a 30 or 50 A load is applied to the other side, is not unusual, but measure the voltage if it's more than a barely-noticeable increase in brightness. The maximum voltage should be no more than ~127 V.

In the extreme case of a neutral wire breaking (which happened to my service after a tree fell on the entrance cable), the voltage across each half of the circuit becomes 240V split by the resistance for the circuit. E.G. with a 40 A designed load (3 ohms) on one side, and a 1 A designed load (just a 120 W lamp, 120 ohms) on the other side, the actual voltage across the lamp would be ~234 V, and the 40 A water heater would get only ~6V. The lamp would be very bright for a very short while. (In my case, I was lucky -- a few lamp ballasts burned out, but over-voltage protection varistors on outlets blew circuit breakers before a fire started).


Nail Gun for Framing and installing subfloor

Most framing nailers will accept a variety of nail lengths.  For example, mine will take nails between 2" and 3.5" (6d to 16d equivalent) and from casual searching this seems to be fairly typical.

That said, you'd be much better off screwing down the sub-floor with decking screws. It's a little bit more work, but you won't have to worry about the nails working themselves out over time due to the deflection of people walking on it.

As far as roofing or hardwood flooring installation, both would require a different gun.  Framing nailers aren't designed to accommodate the larger heads on roofing nails, and likely won't ever be - in general, you don't want the nail heads to be much smaller than the nose-piece.  The more space you have between the nail head and the bore, the higher the chance of misfires or jams.  This is also the reason that most roofing nailers are coil fed instead of stick fed.

Hardwood flooring nailers are fairly specialized equipment because they are designed for precisely blind nailing through the flooring tongues:

Image courtesy of Amazon.com, does not constitute an endorsement of either the specific tool or seller.

They also use a fastener that is much more like a finish nail than a framing nail.  Unless you're planning on doing a lot of roofs or a lot of floors, I'd compare the price of renting a roofing nailer or flooring nailer before purchasing one.


Are all of these smoke detectors required?

I'm in Va as well. You need one in every bedroom, then one in every room leading from the bedroom to the room with egress. Each county official interprets that latter part a little different.

In my county, he'd want one in each bedroom, then one in or near the hall.


Toilet leaking at mounting bolts when flushed

It could be that you have a small crack on the bottom of the toilet that's letting water seep past the wax ring, you have a leak from the tank, or the wax ring is not sealing properly.  Also check to see that it is vented properly and that you don't have anything trapped in the drain


How do I interpret a central air conditioner label?

The text Volts 208/230 Phase 1 means the device will run on either 208 volts or 230 volts (which is nominally 240 volts).

In the amps section, the separated numbers (which are the same) are the corresponding value for operation on 208 or 230 volts, respectively.


What is the safest way to fix a curtain rail?

Your best solution would be to take the curtain rail down completely and re fix it.

Fill in the existing holes and repaint the wall if necessary then put it back up as if it were new.

You'll need to avoid the existing holes and some of the answers to this question may be of use.


Making sense of existing wiring for multiple switches controlling fan+light and separate light

Going in circles (without making a loop)

What you want is possible with the addition of a single extra cable -- a 12-2 from the light box controlled by switch 5 to the fan box.  Once this cable is in place (turn the power off first of course):

Remove the retagged white wire from its screw on the dimmer (switch 5) and move it to the terminal on the dimmer that's connected to the black wire coming from the orange cable (i.e. the black hot coming in from the fan box).  This is the only change needed in this box, so you can button it up now.
Nut the new cable's black to the existing red, white to whites, and ground to grounds in the ceiling light-only box -- this makes the new cable an extension of the red wire in the 12/3 from switches 2 and 4 to the ceiling light box.  This finishes the ceiling light box.
Nut the blacks from the red, yellow, blue, and orange cables in the fan box together.
Nut the whites from the red, yellow, and orange cables in the fan box together.
Nut all the grounds in the fan box together.
Nut the black from the new cable to the black from the fan/light combo.
Nut the white from the new cable to the white from the fan/light combo.
Retag the white from the blue cable to a hot with some black tape, and nut it to the blue from the fan/light combo.
Mount the fan and button everything else back up
Turn the power back on and enjoy!

Note that the white from the new cable is not nutted to the other neutral whites in the box as that'd create a looped neutral in violation of 300.3(B)/310.10(H).  Switches 1/2 form a classical 3-way switch loop controlling the light in the fan, while 3 and 4 are considered a T-loop (where power goes to one switch and the other switch is looped from the first switch's location), and switch 5 i.e. the dimmer is wired conventionally (vs. the utterly nonsensical traveler connection that it currently has).


What are the potential hazards of converting to a saltwater pool?

From my personal and professional experience with Saltwater Pools with "Salt Chlorine Generators" on them has always been positive. I will bullet point some information to help you ensure it's a positive experience:

Correct Installation:
The Salt Chlorinator Systems have 2 main parts.

A "Salt Chlorine Generator Cell" that is spliced into the return side of the PVC usually directly after your filter or heater. (Important Note: Ensure that the salt cell is installed as the last place in the PVC that returns to the pool. If you install it say before a heater or before the filter, then when the salt cell converts the salt to chlorine, you will have a high concentration of fresh chlorine (which is very corrosive). Chlorine is basically double the strength of Bleach and is used in your pool to sanitize and eat up/destroy organic matter in your pool. Remember, that single cell has to create enough chlorine to sanitize and be useful in a, say, average pool of 15,000 gallons. So the chlorine level directly after the cell is well over a "readable" level (20PPM+) but once it gets to your pool, it instantly dilutes to a more preferred level of 3 PPM - 5 PPM.
A "Salt Generator Control Box" is usually installed by your pool equipment on the wall and is connected to your pool's power source (so that it only runs when your pool is running and circulating water) and it also connects to your "Salt Chlorine Generator Cell" (which is what provides the electrical power to turn the salt into chlorine. There is also usually a built-in flow meter to ensure that there is water flowing at a minimum rate to protect the system).
EXPERT TIP - A final part of the installation is not included with your purchase of a Salt Chlorine Generator system for your pool, but I recommend it for ALL pools that have some type of automatic chlorinator on them. That part is a Standard PVC Check Valve, which you have installed Just Before the Salt Cell. A Check Valve is a simple PVC adapter you can get at any local hardware/plumbing store (Home Depot/Lowes) for $1 and what it does is allows water to only flow ONE WAY through the valve; if water tries to flow the wrong way the check valve stops the water. This is important for many reasons but, on this topic, this will ensure that when your pool equipment turns off each day, the Very Concentrated Chlorine water made by the Salt Cell does not "drain back into your pool heater, filter, pump, etc. and basically sit there and corrode your o-rings, gaskets, etc.... I've seen the damage countless times from this. You can Google "PVC Check Valve" to understand it more if you want, but it's a very simple part to be installed during installation of the salt chlorine cell and should only be at most $10 extra for installation & the check valve. If you're doing a personal install, pool equipment uses 1.5" or 2" PVC pipe; ensure you know which you have to get a check valve that fits.

Salt Chlorine Generator Facts:
These simple facts that compare the amount of salt your pool will require for a salt chlorine generator vs a tear from a human eye vs Ocean Salt Water.

The average Salt Chlorine Generator requires 3,000 PPM of salt in your pool to operate correctly (Check instructions for exact amount of the system you buy).
Everyone has probably cried enough before to get a tear on your lips or in your mouth. A human tear normally has 9,000 PPM of salt
The Salt Water from the Ocean such as the Gulf of Mexico has 20,000 PPM of salt

We sell Thousands of Salt Chlorine Generators A Year All Over The World. To this day, I'm not aware of ONE single customer who was unhappy and wanted a refund after they installed it. In my last house, I had a pool built and I used a salt chlorine generator from day one. I can say that the 3,000 PPM of Salt Required in the pool makes the pool water feel "soft" on your skin vs the normal "dry" feeling from a liquid/powder chlorine pool. I also only had to clean the cell 2 times in the 8 years I lived there and it ran every day without any other issues.

Common Issues:

Ensure You Clean Your Filter Often - There will be times that you may see that your salt chlorine generator isn't on due to "flow" (some systems will just turn off). Always check and clean your filter as a dirty/old filter will slow down the water flow enough to make your salt system not work. Do this before dishing out $300+ for a new "Salt Cell".
Clean Your Cell* - Basically every pool requires calcium for proper water balance. This calcium with time will start to collect on the salt cell. When you remove the salt cell (which should be installed on **Union PVC Connectors so you can easily unscrew the salt cell for cleaning vs having to have a pool repair tech out to cut into your PVC again) use the manufacturer's directions on cleaning your cell. To clean the salt cell on my pool required a mixture of about 70% water and 30% Muriatic Acid in a bucket in which you place your cell and you will start to see it bubble and foam, which is the acid eating the calcium deposits off the metal blades of the cell. EXPERT WARNING - Muriatic Acid is VERY dangerous and if poured onto concrete or your body it will eat a hole right through it, so be very careful when handling Muriatic Acid. EXPERT WARNING - Muriatic Acid if mixed with Chlorine creates "Mustard Gas" and is deadly if breathed in. So don't think of adding chlorine to the cleaning bucket like I've heard of people recommending before.

Well that's my 2 cents and facts I know from selling tens of thousands of salt chlorine generators over the past 10 years online and it's still one of our top selling product lines.

Happy Swimming!


How do I repair/reattach downspout and gutter after snow/ice damage?

Well, fixing the damage won't prevent it from happening again, so to fix this and prevent further damages from ice in the future, you will need to install some hardware. First, you are going to need to get out the ladder and , with some assistance, push the down spout back up and re-attach it to the elbow. I'd use extra fasteners, and possibly a short rubber connection hose to ensure a good tight seal. It is likely ice formation caused the metal to flex, creating a weakness in the fastener, so the rubber hose will help.

The gutter issue really comes down to weight. Installing some "Heavy Load Gutter Brackets" would help. For the distance of gutter and weight on it I'd put in two brackets with each in the middle of the roof jousts near the middle that are shown in the picture.

With all of these fixes, be sure your nails or screws get "purchase" or else it is all for nothing.

EDIT:Use the same fasteners you are using, just use more. Not a ton more, maybe just one or two. Don't use sheet metal screws, use wood screws. Sheet metal screws have smaller thread, wood screws are made for, well, wood. That will handle the horizontal movement. For the vertical sliding, either rivet the joints together(this option costs less, but more permanent, and is more invisible) OR buy a  vinyl connector and put a fastener on the connector itself and on the downspout itself just above and just below the connector


Using half of a 240v dual-phase circuit as a 120v single-phase circuit (US)

The problem with doing this is you may have, say, a 30 amp double pole breaker on your 240V line which may be 10g  wire,  and the you come off it on one phase with a 120V circuit with 14g wire, the 30 amp breaker is to high for 14g wire, which then is not protected from melting.

The US has moved to 4 wire 240V service, to accommodate appliances that have internal 120V electronics.


Proper way to brace a knee wall with hold downs

Yes, you're on the right track to improve lateral stability. Your ideas will all help.

Some things to add is a layer of OSB or plywood as wall sheathing on one or both sides, if possible.

Another thing would be joist blocking in the floor below. An example of that would be a few 14.5" long 2x10 between the joists a bay or two on both sides of the knee wall (if your floor is 2x10 at 16" OC.)

Use screws and subfloor glue instead of nails for this. You already know it's not strong in the one direction, but also try to imagine how everything will move if you installed a countertop and a person lifted up and pushed down on the edge. The top and bottom plates will try to rotate, but the OSB/plywood wall sheathing will resist that. Screws and glue will also prevent that rotation.

If your wall would be too thick with OSB/plywood, then at least use Simpson coil strap along both sides of a few studs to prevent rotation between the studs and plate. What I'm saying is that even if you make the studs stiff, your next weak point is at the plates.

Even if your wall is super stuff, next the floor sheathing (and the single floor joist under it) will flex/bow as the wall is wiggled, so that's what the floor joist blocking is for. If you can't do full depth joist blocking, do cross bracing (it's like making an X with 1x4s.) The tops of your floor joists can't move since they're connected to the floor sheathing, but the bottoms of your joists are the place that movement will occur, so adding something to stop that will help, even if it's just a direct applied drywall ceiling/lid below.

Kitchen cabinet lowers will help so much more than you think. I've had to put countertops with and without cabinets on a knee wall for commercial receptionist desks and the difference is night and day. We always overkilled it if there wasn't a cabinet to hold anything, since we can't stop people from sitting on the edge of the countertop after it's installed. Cabinets added a ton of stability though.


Does a thermocouple need to be screwed in to work?

To be clear for future searchers: the nut is critical, it provides half of the electrical connection.

A thermocouple requires two wires to function: electricity is generated at the junction of two different metals and two wires are needed for current to flow.  While some thermocouples have two wires, the original poster is talking about a model with one wire.  The case of the thermocouple must firmly contact the frame of the furnace, to complete the circuit.  Consider buffing the furnace frame with steel wool to remove rust and scale.


I think it is time to call a structural engineer before you take out any more studs. Once the mistake is made and you take out too many, it may too late to correct the problem or very costly to fix. If it is a load bearing wall, taking out even one without supporting the load above, could be a costly mistake.


How to cap this water pipe so it is flushed with the concrete?

That looks like a cleanout to me. I would cut that thing as close to the concrete as you can with a hacksaw. Then take a die grinder (Dremel Tool) and cut it down to flush from inside the pipe. Then get a Flush Cleanout Repair Plug and secure it with the tool that comes with it. You don't need any glue or any threadings and it will hold up to 50' of back pressure. They are available in several different sizes to fit your needs.


How should I remove felt from old vinyl flooring before installing backerboard?

I have not used this brand on my job but once I have removed all the mastic I would clean the floor with water then I allow the floor to dry overnight and start installing my backboard and tile. If I was gluing another floor I would do a rinse with a cleaner. Hope this helps and saves time and money.


I don't know much about combination washer / dryers, but are you sure you've identified the problem correctly? Why would there be so much soap residue in the dryer exhaust. I don't recall ever seeing any soap residue on a dryer. And why is there a heating element in the on the exhaust side of dryer?

To answer your question, though: if this part is subject to high heat, which it sounds like it is, I would use an oil paint designed for radiators, or some high-temperature Rustoleum.


Yes, you should have a grounding block wired to a ground rod before the antenna wire enters your home. It won't necessarily prevent all damage from a direct lightning strike, but it will help.

NEC in the States (NFPA 70) says that if you don't ground the grounding box to the same ground rod that is connected to your breaker box, you need a #6 wire between the ground rods. Obviously, that doesn't apply in your locale, but it's still a good idea.

YMMV, but I get excellent digital TV reception from an antenna mounted in my attic. Removes all the worries about grounding, wind, etc.


Where to install a carbon monoxide detector when the boiler is in a closet?

I'll start by saying that I'm a big fan of following instructions. However, there are exceptions to rules sometimes.

Let's assume for the sake of argument that you don't spend an inordinate amount of time in the closet with the boiler and the door closed. So risk of CO poisoning in there is pretty slim.

Let's also assume that you spend time in the living space. If you place the CO detector in that living space, it should warn you of danger without being overloaded by proximity to the appliance.

So, I'd put it in the hall by the closet.


Do I need to do anything other than wire grommets to protect electrical wiring in a 2 1/2 inch steel stud?

The NEC language for metal studs is different, it doesn't actually say 1.25", but enforced much the same.

300.4(B) Nonmetallic-Sheathed   Cables  and Electrical  Nonmetallic Tubing  Through Metal   Framing
Members.
(1)  Nonmetallic-Sheathed    Cable. In both    exposed and concealed   locations   where  nonmetallic-sheathed cables  pass    through either  factory-
or    field-punched,  cut,    or
drilled   slots   or  holes   in  metal   members,    the cable   shall   be  protected   by  listed  bushings
or    listed  grommets    covering    all metal   edges   that    are securely    fastened    in  the opening
prior to  installation    of  the cable.
(2) Nonmetallic-Sheathed    Cable   and Electrical  Nonmetallic Tubing.
Where nails   or screws   are likely  to  penetrate   nonmetallic-sheathed    cable   or  electrical  nonmetallic tubing, a   steel   sleeve, steel   plate,  or  steel   clip    not less    than    1.6 mm  (1∕16   in.)
in thickness  shall   be  used    to  protect the cable   or  tubing. Exception:
A listed  and marked  steel   plate   less    than    1.6 mm  (1∕16   in.)    thick   that    provides    equal
or    better  protection  against nail    or  screw   penetration shall   be  permitted.

Sometimes you can drill an extra 1/4" hole to use a zip-tie to pull the cable against one edge to require just one plate or zip-tie toward concrete wall if stud if stud is just furring.
The wording of the previous paragraph that covers wood leaves no wiggle room to not use nail plates on edges not likely to get nailed or screwed to like double walls or furring.


What’s the marginal value increase as toilet price increases?

There are different materials, i.e. porcelain (vitreous china) or ceramic. They are similar, but there are cost differences based on the manufacturing process. Porcelain is baked at higher temperatures, so they take longer to cool, resulting in fewer toilets per day from the manufacturing plant. Ceramic however needs additional coatings to make it smooth, but people are wanting things like anti-bacterial coatings, oil resistance etc.

One piece toilets increase the price too because if something cracks or splits in the baking / curing process, they have to throw away the entire thing, vs only the tank or only the bowl. But when you have separate parts, you have more nooks and crannies to clean.

After those main details, it mostly becomes marketing, aesthetics and hype, often about that the toilet is capable of "passing". I bought one that famously claims it can "pass a tennis ball", that was total BS...


Window Manufacturer - Anyone recognize this window?

You may very well be looking till doomsday trying to find repair parts for old broken windows. And even if you do find parts you will still be left with some thirty five or forty year old window.

You will likely be better off looking at ripping out the remnants of the window and replacing it with something new that is double or triple glazed in an all vinyl frame that will provide much better energy efficiency than the old unit ever did.

Measure carefully and study replacement type window styles that will install easily. Most windows like this are custom made to size.


Sounds like deterioration of major rubber stuff, so get a plumber to entirely replace ALL of the toilet's components. Noticeable chunks typically indicate your tank gasket is going quick & not just the tank needing to be cleaned. These particles can collect & clog the toilet's functions if not addressed.

This requires removing the tank & you may as well replace the bolts, their washers, the flapper & the fill valve along with the new tank gasket. Probably $400 in parts & labor for a Handyman or Journeyman Plumber ($20-$30 if you do it) & good for at least a decade, so consider doing all toilets to ensure all water wasting is stopped.

However, getting a new toilet(s), that may work vastly better, might be the same Pro price & of course would fix the gunk problem. So, ask the Pro about this option as a quicker & better alternative. Lowe's cheapest Project Source toilets ($100-$130) were wonderfully welcomed replacements for my place when I did them.


Is it ok to let something hang from its plug in a receptacle? (electric car charger)

Generally, cables carrying high current for long periods are expected to be fully unwound from any coiled storage arrangement. This is certainly true of ordinary extension cables.

It is generally not OK to hang heavy loads from power outlet sockets. Regardless of the design of a cable and its storage accessories, the sockets are likely to be designed to carry the weight of the plug and sufficient cable to reach the ground. I'd expect the designers to make provision for people tripping over the cables, pulling on them and driving off without detaching them. However it is likely that the intent is to reduce the likelihood that any consequential mechanical damage to the socket subsequently exposes people to an electrical hazard.

For $72 you can obtain the J1772 standard and find out if it specifies the mechanical strain that the socket should be designed to withstand. In the EU you'd check standard IEC 62196‑2.


Should I glue down or top nail the first and last row of hardwood engineered flooring?

You have another very viable choice too. There are two parts to this one.

First you arrange the design of the planned for final moldings to include a combination of baseboard and shoe molding that will cover up the flooring expansion gap and then some. Knowing how much additional overlap there will be of the molding over the top edge of the flooring will help you to know how close to the edge of the first flooring strip you can surface nail and not see these nails once all the trim is in place. Since you say that your expansion gap needs to be 1/2" I would suggest that you may want to plan to have the baseboard installed above/after the flooring. Thus you get the thickness of the baseboard plus the shoe molding to cover the expansion gap plus the first row surface nailing.

The second part of this is to realize that there is the old fashioned way that flooring was installed in the days before pneumatic automatic nailers. You can hand nail the leading edge of the first few rows of flooring using the hidden nail technique applicable to your particular type of flooring. Once you get a few rows down the automatic nailer will be able to be used.

When I installed a hardwood floor I had a choice to make as to whether to purchase a pneumatic nailer or to hand nail the whole floor. The project was in a fairly narrow room and when I looked at the percentage of flooring runs that had to be hand nailed anyway I ended up not buying the machine and just did the whole thing the old fashioned way. Although I did use the hardened type of flooring nails that have spiral ridges along the length. These nails will provide more resistance to coming loose over the years as the floor goes through seasonal changes.

I would also tend to suggest it may not be the best idea to glue some of the flooring down to the sub floor. This has two problems. First and foremost is that flooring that is nailed has some flexibility to move when it expands with seasonal changes. If you glue down a part of the flooring you will loose that flexibility and maybe even risk having future buckling in the area of the glued down strips. The second issue is that gluing precludes putting down a material between the flooring and the subfloor such as rosin paper or other material as may be recommended by your flooring manufacturer.


What could cause a melting/overheating light switch?

It sound like you have a partial ground from a pinched or nicked wire. This would draw a large amount of current but not enough to trip the breaker.

If the switch is overheating I would suspect the partial ground is in the load side of the circuit after the switch.

Check the circuit with an ammeter to determine the current draw. If you don't have one remove all your lamps from he light fixtures and see if it still gets hot. You could also series a lampholder with an incandescent bulb to the switch with all othe lamps removed. If the lamp lights up you have current flowing to a partial ground.

Good luck!


Would a transformer protect a 24V digital flow meter if it received 48V?

It's impossible to say.  It really depends on how the meter's internal power supply works.

Being electronic, obviously it runs on DC and not 24VAC.  They're just using that voltage because it's extremely common in North American homes, being used as control voltage for the furnace and there's usually an existing 24V transformer somewhere in the house.  Those transformers are cheap and common, by the way; I'm surprised you have to wait for one.  Any HVAC supply will have them, maybe even a hardware store or big-box.

So it must have an internal power supply. If it's a switching power supplY, they open and close (switch) a gate, and on higher voltage they simply close the gate sooner.  (That is how many consumer electronics can auto-range from 90-264VAC).  So you can run switching supplies beyond max spec if their insulation is in good enough shape to handle the higher voltage.  Insulation is cheap to add to most components (not electrolytic capacitors), so you have a fair chance.  If it's fried and you want to attempt component repair, start with the big caps.

None of this will fix anything else that was plugged into that 240V receptacle.

Putting 240V on a NEMA 5 120V receptacle is simply outrageous.  And needless - they make receptacles for that.  They look exactly like standard receptacles except they are keyed differently.  Every big box store and hardware store sells the receptacles and plugs.

Now if you found a NEMA 6 receptacle and altered your transformer to fit, that's on you.  But if the previous homeowner fit a NEMA 5 receptacle because he was too lazy and cheap to get the correct NEMA 6 at the hardware store, and his logic was "well I know it's wired 240V", then he should have disclosed that in his disclosures, and he would've been written up for it and had to fix it, presumably by installing a NEMA 6.   If he did not do any of that, then he is liable for all your damages here.  I would go after him for it.  Not least, he sorely needs an education, because you bet he did it again to save $5.

This could have caused a house fire.


changing hard wired smoke alarm on house that once had an active alarm system which is now shut down

OK, clarify. Are you referring to alarm system detectors, or hard wired line-voltage (120V) smokes?

Either way, if you shut off the main, you should have no line voltage power anywhere. Line voltage smokes can, and typically do, have battery backup (9V battery), but this would NOT pose ANY safety hazard with regard to working on them.

If you are talking about an alarm system, then there is also mostly likely a system battery backup, but again, this should pose no safety hazard at all since these systems run on low voltage anyway.


How should I label and organize my home electrical circuits?

I spent a couple hours this past winter mapping out my entire house.

The fields on my spreadsheet are as follows for each box in my house (lights, outlet, switch, garage opener, anything):

Panel Breaker (examples A1-10, B1-10)
Drop # - the first box on the branch is simply labeled 1, second box 2
Notes - if I know how things are wired in the wall I will put a note like "wire goes straight up to attic from outlet"
Room of the outlet - each room with unique name (Bedroom 1, family room, den...)
Location of outlet in room - I use actual navigation directions and go from left to right on each wall.  So an example would be "West wall outlet #2" - meaning there was outlet #1 to the left of that on the west wall.
What the outlet does.
Other notes - I have aluminum in some of the house so I marked these here and marked if I have an extra wire for fan.

I could see wrapping the branch with yellow tape with BRANCH written.  You could also give every wire a unique code A1-4 = branch off of panel A1 and outlet #4.  This becomes hard to conceptualize if your branches aren't daisy chained but still works with notes.

My wife thought I was nuts spending a few hours doing this but I have already saved a ton of time.  If I need something off, I just pull up the spreadsheet.  Also this allowed me to transfer some of the outlets to other circuits or to new circuits - I had 4-5 circuits with way too much on them.  I am now down to 1 circuit that only has a little too much and would have never realized without the spreadsheet.


The 2 choices you suggested are pretty much the standard. The amount of overhang for the first choice can be varied, from a 1/2" to 1", perhaps as much as 1 1/4" AFTER the fascia is applied. This will require screws through the top to help keep it in place.

There is no reason the second choice will not work either, it give a more contemporary/modern look that may or may not fit your exterior of your home. The other is more traditional. The fascia board will need to be wider for the second choice, to cover the framing the same as the first choice.

If it was me in either case, I would router the cut ends and edges the same radius as the  uncut factory edges, so all the gaps take on the same look.


What is causing a motor to trip my GCFI on every OTHER start?

Well, it's not so much every other time as it is every second time.  This suggests that something inside, be it a cap or something else, is storing charge  which back-EMFs the second time you start it up.  Then the breaker trips, everything dumps, and you start clean.
If you can, see if you can :

run the machine, then turn off
use a grounding stick to discharge the cap
turn on again

I know from my days messing with CRT televisions that caps can hold charge for days.


How is this electrical service setup to subpanel able to work?

No neutrals.
My first reaction is "they played "fast and loose" with the differnce between neutral and ground.  Neutral is not ground.    However, I don't see any neutrals at all in the photographed fuse box.  It looks like this panel is for 240V loads only.  (baseboard heaters would be my wild guess; can't be a range or dryer, those need neutral).  Water heater maybe.
As long as all loads are 240V only, I'm OK with the 2-fuse disconnect since 240V-only loads don't need both legs to trip out on a failure.  However split-phase loads (a 120V subpanel, washer, dryer, MWBCs) do need common trip to avoid a variety of badnesses.  So if you plan to add circuits that use neutral, you really need to change that master disconnect/fuse box out to a breaker.  The usual manufacturers make a variety of "breaker disconnects" (basically a 2-space service panel) or you could fit a small main panel there and have some extra breaker spaces.  However it'd need to have a distinct main breaker.
Here's how it ought to be done.
Safety Ground, or its legal name is "the Equipment Grounding Conductor", must originate at the first disconnect switch from the meter.  The takeaway here is that the power company does not supply ground, and so you don't bring ground from meter to disconnect.
Actually, you bring it the other way; the meter pan is grounded from the main disconnect; but that happens via the metal conduit. Done and dusted.
The meter to disconnect wiring is correct.
The "Grounding Electrode System" is the wiring from your main disconnect to the ground rods or water pipe or Ufer that actually provide the contact with the earth.  The GES should come into this disconnect box.  This is also the one place in the system where it should be tied to neutral.
Beyond this main disconnect, both hots and neutral must be carried as insulated wires to the "main" subpanel, which is a subpanel because it is downline of this point.
By modern Code, ground and neutral must be carried separately from here to there.
Archaic Code allowed the subpanel to be grounded to the neutral wire.  The neutral wire could even be bare, as it typically was with pole lines.  However, the neutral wire would never, ever be carried as the metal of a conduit pipe! That was illegal the day it was installed.
More notes
Note how your feeder to the first subpanel "daisy chains" - it is then carried onward with more #8 wire to anther subpanel. That is fine, but you need neutral there too.
Note that your existing #8 wire is TW type, which is limited to 60C per Table 310.15(B)(16).  That means your #8 is only good to 40A.  If that wire were THWN, it's good to 90C so the limiting factor becomes the lugs on the fuse boxes.  If their labeling is intact and blesses 75C operation, then it's worth changing the wire to THWN so you can up-fuse from 40A to 50A.


What is the permissible distance from weather head to roof edge?

Without actually seeing the installation, I'm simply guessing here. They could be referring to National Electrical Code 230.24(A)ex. no. 3.. Which says that the clearance above a roof can be reduced to 18 in. if the service conductors do not overhang the roof by more than 6 ft., and there's less than 300 volts between conductors, and the service conductors terminate at a through-the-roof raceway.

So basically, if the service conductors have to overhang the roof by more than 6 ft., this exception can no longer be applied. Without this exception, the service conductors must be 8 ft. above the roof.

You'd either have to extend the weather head up, to keep the conductors 8 ft. above the roof. Or move the weather head, so that the conductors do not have to overhang the roof by more than 6 ft..

  National Electrical Code 2014

  Chapter 2 Wiring and Protection

  Article 230 Services

  II. Overhead Service Conductors

  230.24 Clearances.

  (A) Above Roofs. Conductors shall have a vertical clearance
  of not less than 2.5 m (8 ft) above the roof surface.
  The vertical clearance above the roof level shall be maintained
  for a distance of not less than 900 mm (3 ft) in all
  directions from the edge of the roof.

  Exception No. 3: Where the voltage between conductors
  does not exceed 300, a reduction in clearance above only
  the overhanging portion of the roof to not less than 450 mm
  (18 in.) shall be permitted if (1) not more than 1.8 m (6 ft)
  of overhead service conductors, 1.2 m (4 ft) horizontally,
  pass above the roof overhang, and (2) they are terminated
  at a through-the-roof raceway or approved support.


The defrost heater is clearly marked in the diagram, so it is extremely unlikely the "compartment heater" is used for defrosting. Most probably the compartment heater is for what used to be known as the "butter keeper" compartment, which maintains a slightly warmer temp than the rest of the fridge so that butter is not rock hard when you want to use it without waiting for it to soften after taking it out. The "compensating thermo" would be used to generate the right amount of heat to keep the compartment at the ideal softened butter temp regardless of what the main fridge temp is set to.


A better option might be adding an Air Admittance Valve under the sink.  It will just take a little bit of work to change the pipe between the p-trap and wall.


I would start by trying to find a service manual for your furnace, and see if it has a troubleshooting flow chart.

I am thinking either:

Something is not functioning correctly, and the control board is shutting it down to prevent damage
A sensor is reading incorrectly
The control board is having issues and not applying logic correctly.

If the control board is detecting something wrong, it might throw an error code.  Previous systems I've used had an LED on the board that would blink out the error code.

You might be able to check the output of the various sensors by back probing the connectors.  You can do your 8 hour reset to determine the 'good' values, then test it when it is short cycling to see if these are different enough to cause the control board to think something is wrong.

Look over the control board for signs of damage - blown capacitors, burn marks.


Soldering copper pigtails to aluminum wire

A lap-soldered joint like that is good enough for low-voltage low-current low-risk electronics.  But it has never been approved for The Big Stuff, and in fact, is unprecedented.
There was a standard for soldering "back in the day"; and it coarsely resembles the Western Union splice.  If you dismantle any old Knob-n-Tube that was soldered, it looks like that.  Note also that splices had fairly complex insulation: first a layer (by which I mean, 3-6 layers) of cloth-tar "friction tape", with the ending tied off to prevent unraveling... then as it became available,  a layer of conventional plastic tape.
However, a Western Union splice would never be conceived of for a dissimilar-metal copper-aluminum splice.
Now I note that your soldering looks pretty nice on the copper side, but the aluminum side doesn't look too happy.  So I don't think this would work as a Western Union splice either.
Your judgment of "what I'm doing is no different than a Copalum splice" might get challenged by the manufacturer.  It certainly is different.  These look like a sophomoric attempt to apply Adafruit tier electronics skills to a very serious problem that's had 30 years of attention from an army of PhD's.  If it was anything like this easy, it would have been developed into a solution and added to Code.
What you have there, with the solder-to-aluminum, is akin to a cold solder joint. You've enveloped the aluminum but that is all. You are not bonding to it.  Next, corrosion will set in.

Your root problem, the need to pigtail, is already addressed by devices with CO-ALR rated connections.  Take a close look at one sometime.
The science of copper or aluminum lugs vs. copper or aluminum wires, is well understood.  Aluminum lugs are the universal donor, and will take anything. Copper lugs only take copper.  This is where the 1970s efforts went wrong; they hastily labeled copper-only lugs for aluminum without adequate testing.
That's why most panel lugs are aluminum, neutral bars are aluminum, Polaris connectors have aluminum bodies, and MAC Block and Alumiconns are miniature aluminum Polaris connectors, essentially.
As far as the reliability of lug connections, that's been addressed in Code by the mandating of use of torque screwdrivers.  Playing around with solder when you don't even own a torque screwdriver is having your priorities in the wrong direction!
Some regulatory issues
First, everything you do on a house has to be permitted and approved by a local inspector (the AHJ).  Typically the inspector will waive simple stuff like outlets and light switches; however that presumes that what you're doing is the normal stuff.  You need to ask the inspector whether you need to pull a permit.  I am quite sure when you are honest about what you are doing, the inspector is NOT going to waive inspection. Now you're going to be in a bake-off with the inspector over whether this should be allowed. How do you think that's going to go? Not well, I bet you know.  So really, this whole thing depends on the inspector not finding out.  I think that answers your question about what happens at sale time.
Keep in mind that the electrical inspector, from whom you pull permits and get at-time-of-work inspections, who has regulatory power and can revoke the house's occupancy permit, compel you to pull a permit to remove all unauthorized work and pull another one to redo it properly... is a completely different person from the "home inspector", who is a jack-of-all-trades who merely advises the homebuyer.
The home inspector may be a jack, but knows this town and other homes in these developments, knows what the builders then liked to use, and will instantly recognize the aluminum wiring despite your notion.  Will not recognize the novel pigtailing technique as any legitimate or approved item, and will state that in the inspector's report.  The buyer will withdraw their offer or reduce their offer to require total replacement of the aluminum wiring.
Lastly, you're not allowed to do electrical work on other people's houses. You have to be a licensed electrician, or an owner-occupant.  There is no way to "test into" an electrician's license; it requires a very lengthy apprenticeship.
Further you have this impasse:

110.14 Conductors of dissimilar
metals shall not be intermixed in a terminal or splicing
connector where physical contact occurs between dissimilar
conductors (such as copper and aluminum, copper and
copper-clad aluminum, or aluminum and copper-clad aluminum),
unless the device is identified for the purpose and
conditions of use.

However

110.14(B) Soldered
splices shall first be spliced or joined so as to be mechanically
and electrically secure without solder and then be
soldered.

How do you make them electrically secure without solder, without having them in physical contact?  You can have them contact an intermediate device (e.g. Alumiconn) but that item has to be identified (and 110.2 Approved) for the use.


Which is better indirect or tankless hotwater heater

Tankless units are limited in the amount of hot water they can produce. It is rated at a certain number of gallons per minute. Think of it in terms of continuous versus multiple use. With a tankless unit rated at 7 gallons per minute you could shower with a 3 gallon per minute shower head until you ran out of fuel. If three people were multiple showering at the same time your use would use 9 gallons per minute and you would run out of hot water. The plus of tankless is you only heat water when needed. However if the tankless unit is part of your furnace it will cycle to maintain a minimum water temperature. With an indirect unit the water in the furnace will heat tank water via a coil in the storage tank. The furnace will still cycle to maintain the internal temperature. You are keeping approx. 40 gallons of water hot for when you need it. The key to an efficient indirect heater is a well insulated tank so the furnace doesn't have to run very often to heat the stored water. This is usually specified as degree drop per hour. Your decision needs to be based on a calculated maximum hot water use per minute versus the capacity of the tankless. Then compare the added cost and how long it will take to recoup the cost based on utility prices.


Did the cove molding that I'm removing support the drywall panels behind it?

No, the decorative cove molding is not supporting your drywall sheets. They'll be securely fastened with nails or screws.


How can I know if my HVAC is taking air from outside?

They're not very common in residential, but an outside air duct would connect to the return air duct. Trace out the return air duct and see if there are any smaller ducts attached to it. Or walk around your house and look for the opening the duct would connect to. It would most likely be near the furnace. As for your filter, you can get some foil tape from the hardware store to tape over the filter opening so no air is bypassing the filter.


Can a ceiling fan be installed on a box with only one black and one white wire?

Yes.

But it depends how your house is wired.

Some houses have a light switch on the wall, which controls the fan or fan/light together.  In that case there would only be 2 wires - switched hot and neutral.
Some houses have 2 light switches on the wall, for the fan, and light, separately.  Then you would see 3 wires - fan-switched-hot, light-switched-hot, and a neutral.
Some houses have no light switch at all, and the fan needs to be switched off at the fan.  They have only 2 wires - always-hot and neutral.

In the last case, your choices are: use a switch on the fan; use a wireless remote that's part of the fan; or a special control module that mounts in the fan shroud and talks to a remote control (typically installed at a light switch).


50w GU-10 recessed bulb sockets not working

Hmmm...sounds like a bulb itself shorted (true short) and tripped the breaker.  It's rare for bulbs to do that, but it happens.  Then a connection someplace failed and now you have an open circuit. Are there other lights on the same switch that control the GU-10s?  If they work, then it's not the switch. But if just the GU10s are on a separate switch here's what you do:  With the power off start with the switch, pull it out and check it for damage.  If a "back stab" switch, re-wire it using the screws.  If you can't get the wire out of the back-stab, it's OK to cut it off flush with the back of the switch, re-strip the wire and use the screws on the side to re-wire.  The switch itself may have gotten fried.  After you have removed the switch, if you have a multi-meter, set it on ohms and test resistance across the screws. You should get almost infinite resistance when "off" and very low or zero resistance when "on".  If you don't have a multi meter, you could simply replace the switch with a high quality unit, they aren't expensive.
Never use the "back stabs" on switches or outlets. They are a well known point of failure.
Anyway, reconnect the existing or new switch and try it.   If still not working, you'll just have to get into the fixture boxes and check connections.
Again, the fact you had a true short that flipped a breaker means a poor connection someplace got fried.


Drilling holes to install shelves and came across this material. Is it Asbestos?

It's possible there is some asbestos in that skim coat over the wall.
 It's impossible to say but it would be totally unnecessary to have this material tested before hanging shelves.

Asbestos is dangerous when you inhale airborne particles.  It's a real hazard in the workplace, where people may inhale asbestos particles for months or years or decades without the proper precautions.

The exposure you have when drilling a few holes to install shelves is very small by comparison.  Wear a dust mask when drilling and cleaning up.  By all means, refrain from arranging it into lines on a mirror and snorting it.

Keep in mind that the silica dust that you make when drilling masonry - any masonry - can also be harmful.  Again the risk with such a limited exposure is small, so it's nothing to get nervous about, but you'll want to take the same precautions against breathing the dust even if there's no asbestos present.


Clear densely-packed snow from driveway?

An ice chopper with some weight in the business end, such as this one can be very effective; you can use it to scrape the ice/compressed snow up, and if needed, can chop at the tougher stuff.   The tradeoff for the extra weight is more physical exertion, but I find that I make much faster progress.


Do I need to use the short neutral that came with the new switch

Yes.

(if so, specific instructions are appreciated)

The best instructions you should follow are those of the manufacturor of that switch.
But generally here's what you do.

Remove the orange wire cap and add one end of the short neutral that came with the switch you bought.  (It's called a pigtail btw)
Connect the other end of that pigtail to the neutral terminal of the smart switch.
Take the two black wires out of the old switch, and use a volt meter to determine which one is live when the breaker is on.
Label it line, or 'from panel' if you want to be extra nice.
Connect tha live black wire to the 'line' side of the smart switch.
Connect the dead black one to the 'load' side of the smart switch.

This diagram shows the general idea.  Ignore the shape of the hole in the wall.  Also your switch doesn't have wires coming out of it it sounds, or you'd probably have a red one for the switched load.


Elegant solution for wall mounted laptops holder

Drill holes in Aluminum laptop holder.
Hold on wall level and mark location on holes on wall.
Use appropriate drill bit to install anchor in wall.
Use appropriate size screw for anchor and a flat washer to mount holder on wall.
Place laptop on holder, stand back and admire laptop and handy DIY work.
If you are mounting 2  ( or 3 or 4 ) laptops all on the same horizontal plane then you mount all of the holders on a nice piece of wood and then mount the board to the wall. This way you can make sure you get the screws  into   studs and you do not need anchors.
Editors anchor choice


Why is my granite still retaining a lot of water after sealing?

If you look at polished granite with a magnifying glass, you'll see the tiny fissure and pock marks that allow moisture from water and other liquids to penetrate into it. Just because it's polished doesn't make it waterproof. One of my customers recently had picked out 3 prefabricated granite slabs but had to leave them in the granite yard for two weeks before I could pick them up. When I bought them, the slabs had darker edges and I was assured from the granite personnel that the darkness came from being exposed to the rain and that it would evaporate.  We went through a hot spell and by the time I picked up the slabs, the moisture had evaporated and the darkness from the moisture was gone. Don't seal your granite until you are sure the existing moisture has evaporated because it's kind of like painting over a dirty wall, sooner or later the coating will fail.  I don't buy my sealer from the big box stores. Go to a reputable tile or granite yard and get the best sealer you can afford and follow the application instructions. Personally, I use a product called "Rock Steel" and have had nothing but success with it.


How to clean feet of wooden chairs to replace felt pads-

Because you have to deal with a lot of movement, I would suggest using a nail on glide instead of an adhesive one:


How far should the well for a temperature gauge extend into a 3/4" pipe?

I guess it depends on what you consider significant, a half inch pipe is pretty small and depending on the rate of flow I imagine it could be an issue.
But you can have your cake and eat it too - you can install a gauge without the well.  There are external sensors made to attach to the exterior of the pipe like this thermistor

This one is $12 and much less work to install.


Yes, unless the saddle valve is corroded. Then it won't turn off completely and afterwards possibly won't open back up.  If it's really corroded you might not even be able to turn it at all.


How do you push a cable through a standard conduit inside the wall?

You don't push, you pull. If you have an assistant, they can push while you pull.

Rather than waste money on a fish-tape for a job with conduit in place, just connect a vacuum cleaner to one end and feed string from the other end. You can tie a bit of plastic bag to the end of the string to make it vacuum in better, but a bare string will work for short runs.

Check at the vacuum cleaner end and stop when the string is there. If you need more of a pull, use the string to pull in a rope - either way, attach to the cable and pull it through. Braided hollow poly rope is good, but if the pull is not unreasonable a strong string will work. Tie in and tape on well, keeping it smooth.

I have done this rather a lot. The only place I want fish tapes is if I'm trying to hook two of them in a wall without conduit that I can't just rip open for access. Pulling tape is more useful, but likely overkill for a job in your house (it's a flat, flexible tape somewhere between string and rope, often marked so you can measure distance with it, too.)

In most cases if a conduit has other wires in it, you will be better off pulling those out (use them to pull in a rope) adding the new cable, and pulling all of them in at once - adding a cable is considerably more difficult with other cables in place.


Usually people want "less pressure" because the showerhead is laying out an unusually harsh spray.  I've had shower-massage heads for the last 20 years, that are switchable between any of up to a dozen  patterns, and I've found 1 or 2 are always harsher than the others and give that "getting pummeled" feeling but not in a good way.

So the first stop, I would say, is to change the showerhead, which I gather came with the apartment.

The purpose of the single knob is to provide thermostatic control so you can set it to a temperature and it will stay there regardless of pressure fluctuations. That's a nice feature, but their reason for doing it is to obtain anti-scald protection, which is easy once the thermostatic mechanism is present.  They care about anti-scald because they run the hot water temp high enough either a) to provide anti-legionella protection, or b) also work as district heating, which runs quite hot.


fast fill faucets and fast drain for 70 gallon walk-in tub

It's likely you can only reasonably change the draining. If you have 1/2" from the street then you're stuck with that. 1/2" can work great though your utility's pressure or what they push & what you pull will be the limiting factor, so you're stuck there too.

However, you have a minimum of a 3" drain line for the toilet & the tub can possibly be taken up to that for very much improved draining. I say possibly because the tub may only accommodate a 2" maximum drain or you have building structural members that can't afford 3" losses or a 3" pipe configuration can't actually fit under the floor...it's not just a right turn into a straight pipe.


Pouring a concrete slab against my house: how to frame it up against the outside wall?

You don't need to frame against the house. Be sure that any wood of your house doesn't end up in contact with the fill under the slab or the bare concrete. Just tack a strip of that expansion material right against the house and pour right to it.


Don't seal the brick. It will only prevent adhesive from bonding correctly. If the brick is loose remove it, vacuum the dust and re-install the brick.
If the mortar is loose scrape it out and re-point the joint with mortar or concrete caulking. Allow the repair to cure.
Brush or vacuum the brick face aand joints to remove any dust and loose debris. Same for the veneer; clean the back surface.
Get a cartridge of construction adhesive and load it in a caulk gun. I've had good results with PL400, but any brand name will do. Apply gobs of adhesive about the size of a quarter to the bricks face.
Press the veneer back into place trying to make the broken seam as tight as possible. Hold the repair in place with strips of duct tape.
When adhesive has set any gaps along the repaired edge can be filled with concrete caulk to keep water out.


Well first of all for safety reasons you seem covered.   You have exits in two directions and possibly three if the regular windows can fit a human.
From a code aspect there is nothing that says you cannot put a bed in your basement.   Now there are real estate listing rules that do not count a living space as a bedroom in a basement unless it meets certain criteria.
For most home listings there must be a door that you can walk out of in the basement for a room to be considered a bedroom in a basement.   You seem to have that in the door to the garage.   Also allowable is an egress window.
That being said you can put a bed where ever you want and there are no laws against that.


A white wire connected to a hot can be seen on switched hots. A good electrician will often add a piece of black tape to indicate this, but that often doesn't happen.

When connecting wires to screws on outlets, you only want one wire per screw. If you need to attach multiple wires and don't have enough locations to screw them on, then pig tail them together with a short piece of wire, secure and cover with a wire nut, and connect the short piece of wire to the outlet.

To resolve the GFCI not resetting, disconnect everything except the line connections. Verify the GFCI is working properly. Then connect each load one at a time until you locate the fault. You'll need to trace these lines or identify what isn't working when disconnected and inspect every junction to locate the problem with that line. If you don't feel comfortable with this, then I recommend hiring a professional electrician. As always with electrical, do not work on live wires and use a voltage tester, preferably non-contact, to check all wiring before you touch it.


Can you use a heat pump for hydronic radiant?

It's certainly possible - whether you can get someone in your area to install and service it, and whether you can afford it, are two entirely different questions.
Air source heat pumps that are designed for it can operate efficiently below 0°F - many mini splits qualify, and few whole house units do, for whatever reason. As such, they also work fine at 10F which you need.
Run-of-the-mill whole-house heat pumps (that are mostly air conditioners) do indeed crap out around 30F as Lee Sam comments - but there is better tech available if you can find a dealer and know what you are looking for.
The cold-weather air-to-airs are also generally far more efficient at cooling, as a bonus.
Getting that heat into water is a far more fickle beast - there are a few companies making Air-to-Water heat pumps, and at least one of those is a Canadian firm that claims operation to -25F - but they have no dealers in my area, and self-importing a system without a service person or dealer available was a bridge too far for my taste. So I purchased an air-to-air cold weather minisplit system with a servicing dealer in my area. For the moment, the hydronic tubing in my slab is idle. I'll probably install a wood-burning boiler for it eventually.
Water-to-Water Heat Pump (ground source hydronic heat pump) seems to be somewhat more common, but ground source tends to have high installation cost (relatively low operation cost, however, due to a stable source of non-varying temperature to work from.) It either takes a lot of excavation or drilling a couple of wells, and that runs to money. If that isn't a problem, it's probably the best way to do this, and certainly the most widely available heat pump to hydronic option.
Your mini-split is a system unto itself, and most likely cannot be combined with any other system, particularly an air-to-water one. It might be possible but likely not fiscally sensible to use a larger outdoor unit of its brand that can accommodate it and additional heads, but I'm not aware of any maker offering an air-to-water version of that type of setup.
The common, normal solution to high ceilings and winter heat distribution is to use fans to move the hot air down from the ceiling in heating season.
"Heat pump water heaters" in freezing climates depend on whatever the house heat is in winter, as none that I'm aware of can work with below-freezing outside air supply. So they save a bit on air conditioning in the summer, but make whatever your heating system is work harder through the winter (even if that's also a heat pump.)
If electricity is relatively expensive compared to propane in your area, making this change is unlikely to pay back, or might even cost you more to run.
[...and the usual boring stuff nobody wants to do 'cause it's not as sexy as a whole new system - if you look at your roof and you have icicles, you need more insulation. Insulation and air sealing tend to be the best bang for the buck in saving money on heating - even if you get a whole new system, less waste makes that cost less to operate, too.]


Here's the problem.  The cable between light 2 and S2 is what's called a switch loop.  Switch loops don't have neutral.  They have always-hot and switched-hot. These are the two wires you connect to a switch.

If you want to wire by colors, switched hot is usually red.  You're seeing white because the store doesn't sell Romex in black-red.  The installer was forced to use stock black-white.  There's an exception to the rule allowing white wires to be used for hots in this case (however, it also says you must remark the wires by wrapping them with electrical tape or other method). So get some red electrical tape and mark both ends of the white wire as red.

You never attach neutral to a plain switch, this would result in a short when the switch is turned on.

The white wire in a switch loop is not neutral.

Switches get always-hot and switched-hot... and not neutral.

Lamps get switched-hot and neutral. They can't use always-hot because then you wouldn't be able to switch it.    You would never splice switched-hot and neutral together, as it would be a short when the switch is turned on.

This drawing shows the problem.  Joining switched-hot to neutral up in the light box is causing the short when the light is turned on.

How do you tell if a white wire is in-use as a switched-hot? By following the wires and seeing if it

has black/colored tape (now required)
is one of only 2 conductors in a switch loop (therefore it must)
is landed on a non-smartswitch
is  spliced into a group of hots
goes directly to a lamp but there's another wire known to be neutral
lights up a voltage detector when the switch is on.  This can be a problem if the switch is broken.   To make this last one easier, best practice is to use the white as the always-hot, and the black for the switched-hot.


Light entering from sides of blackout curtain

We have this issue in both kids bedrooms that face west.

What I did was, below the blackout curtains, fix a blackout roller-blind against the window, and add thin strips of wood down the sides which the roller-blinds fit underneath, this stops all light bleed at the edges, and because the blind comes right down to the bottom of the casement, it stops bleed from the bottom as well, which seems to be your main issue.

Or, you could also look at adding black blackout material to the back of your curtains, which will drastically reduce the reflected light bleed (but increase the amount of heat radiated into the room - having a secondary blind helps with this, as well)


What should I do about this gap between the tub and tile?

OK this is a lot of talk about a very minor issue.

First the issue is because you laid your first row too high (or it's slightly off level).  I would also suggest going a little further out of the tub but if your tiles laid out to that width without cut I could see stopping.

Grout the gap.  Anything else would be silly at the point.  Also your grout color matches your tile well so should not be an issue.


What's the best way to remove a rusty, broken screw from a tiled bathroom wall?

You could try a screw extractor, i have had moderate success with them.

You use the first end clockwise to make divot in the screw so that the second end that turns counter clockwise will have something to bite its teeth into. Go slow and apply pressure into the screw. In your case the head is missing so it makes it very difficult but worth a try.

The set does not cost to much and is good to have on hand anyways even it does not always work.


You are not sure if the header above the doorway or the corner to the right of the doorway is load bearing.   I have added yellow highlights to each of these.

Really there are only two ways to know for sure.

Take off the drywall at both spots and take pictures of right above them in the attic and let us inspect.
Get blueprints of the house to an engineer and have them inspect.

There is just no way you can guess based on this picture that the corner to the right isn't load bearing.   In fact I would assume it is until you prove it different.


Large voltage swing on incoming main hot line- definitely outside?

Definitely outside,  in your meter box or with the utility lines feeding your box.  Call them again, now!!!  Btw, the meter is theirs also.


What does "instant wire" on LED tubes mean?

It means "don't wire that end of the tube to both live and neutral -- you can have it be the live-end of the tube or the neutral-end of the tube, but not both".  Whoever wrote it was clearly not a native English speaker; also, the illustration is a much better explanation of what the deal is.


Is that a leak from roof into my ceiling?

It looks like evidence of a leak. Be aware that because water runs downhill, it is often difficult to determine the source of a leak. For example if the leak is on the high roof, the water could run down inside the wall, then across a framing member to it's lowest point and then drip on the ceiling a full story and several feet away from the location where water is entering the building.

Because the typical roof warranty is more limited than one might expect, the quality of any repair is often more directly related to the emphasis a roofing company places upon it's reputation than what is written on paper [This is why commercial projects often require a bond covering the installation of a new roof system].

My recommendation is to investigate for the source of the water and where it flowed by entering the attic space. Seeing where it is wet will often be far more informative than looking at the outside of the roof. Also, it is possible for water to enter a building during an unusual wind conditions.


PVC Exterior Window Sill on a Brick Veneer Home

I guess the Water was previously redirected by the AC which was your sill. Therefore I would install a sill to redirect the water away from the house.


Can I bury insulated flex duct in blown insulation in the attic?

I have not had problems with flex duct sweating but the humidity in Oregon is low compared to the east coast. If the duct is totally encapsulated in insulation it cannot sweat. The humid air has to come in contact with a cold surface to condense moisture so a duct that is fully covered won’t sweat in the first place.


How do I build my basement bathroom so that it aligns with existing in ground plumbing?

Depends how it was installed. In many cases, the "standard procedure" is to cut the concrete open so you can get the "roughed in" (i.e. roughly positioned) pipes connected to exactly where you want them. Depending exactly WHAT was roughed in, you might need to do that so there IS a trap on the shower, for instance. The roughed in pipe may not have one installed, and unless you are raising the floor the shower/tub trap has to be under the floor level.
Concrete can be cut, drilled, and broken up as and when needed.
If you open the pipe up and carefully (don't drop anything in) shine a light down there, then pour a quart of water down the presumed shower/tub pipe, you should either see standing water (and the smell will stop) or you won't, and it won't. That will tell you about the trap situation. It probably won't have a trap full of water if it's been roughed in a while, even if there is a trap, so you need to add the water and see if some stays, or not. The toilet and sink/lavatory drains would not have underfloor traps.
If you do have a trap on the shower/tub drain, then you would need to choose the specific shower/tub you are going to use based on where it is, and how you will construct the walls, remembering the thickness of all layers, and build to suit - or cut the floor and adjust anyway.


Looks like you have shut off valves built in (second picture) the flat head screws on either side of the lower handle. you can shut them off and remove the cartridge to take it to a plumbing supply and they should be able to tell you.

Looking at the 2nd photo, it appears that the hot side is shut off or at least partially shut off. Try opening the valve and see if that helps.


What wire do I need when replacing with a higher gauge for a new cooktop?

Running 6/3 is future-resistant, but only a conduit is future proof

While many modern cooktops are designed for worldwide usage, running all controls and power electronics on 240V as that's what's guaranteed to be there no matter where you are, some North American market cooktops chintz out and rely on a neutral being present to run their controls, and the next owner may wish to rearrange things and put a range in, or tap an oven off this circuit for that matter -- both of these things typically require a neutral in North America.

So, running a 6/3 cable is more future-resistant than a 6/2; however, if you truly want a future-proof installation, you'd want to run a 3/4" conduit of some flavor to the cooktop location and then pull stranded THHNs through there -- ENT aka "smurf" is the cheapest option for this, just be mindful of the bending limits when installing it.  The conduit option also has the benefit of being able to run the wire at 75°C, which allows you to run 65A over 6AWG copper.  This is plenty of current, even for the largest cooking appliance setups.


How strong are copper refrigerator ice maker water lines?

I would minimize the amount you bend them.  Think of it like a metal coat hanger, if you bend it in the same place several times, it will break.  Only the copper pipe is hollow, so it will break a lot sooner.  As best you can, avoid bending it multiple times in the same place.


How should I refinish vintage wooden closet doors?

If you want to "get rid of the shiny look" why would apply lacquer at all? Shiny is what lacquer does. If the only issue you have with the lacquer is that it's shiny, all you may need to do is rub the doors down with steel wool or Scotchbrite® (generically, non-woven abrasive pads) to take the shine off. But don't apply more lacquer if you don't want it to shine!

I really don't see anything in the picture that appears upsetting if you like wood, but perhaps there is some detail that's lost in a picture, or you just have different taste, which is fine.

If you, in fact, don't want it overly shiny, and you like the look of natural wood, here you go:

Return the belt sander unused to the store unless you have some other job it's actually suited to.

Sand with the pad sander and/or by hand with a sanding block (pick one up when you return the belt sander, or make one from scrap wood) moving primarily in the direction of the wood grain. It should not take very much sanding, and there isn't very much surface veneer (thin layer of wood that looks good) so don't overdo it. Start with 100 grit, possibly with a 100 or 120 grit drywall sanding screen (less prone to clog up when removing finish than regular sandpaper) only go down to 80 if that's really getting tedious - then work up through 100 (if you had to go to 80) 150, 220 or 240 at least - possibly higher, but may not be needed. At each stage, remove all the scratches left by the previous grit of sandpaper, and clean very carefully after each grit so you don't have a loose 100 grit particle scratching things up when you are sanding with 150 or 220.

When all sanded to suit, wipe on some walnut oil, boiled linseed oil, or "tung oil" for a finish that's easy to do and not overly shiny. Wipe on only a thin layer each time, wait several hours or overnight for it to dry, and reapply until you are happy with the finish.

Be careful in handling the rags you apply the finish with - this is the oily rag that can start a fire if wadded up and given a chance - lay them out flat or hang them up or toss them in a bucket of water. Drying oils (those listed, for example) give off some heat as they harden, and in a wadded up rag the insulation of the rag around the outside can allow the middle to get hot enough to smolder.


How to test two-prong retrofit outlets downstream of GFCI

Testing the initial GFCI receptacle should be sufficient. No need to test the load side receptacles since they are protected by the GFCI. If the GFCI works, and the 2 prong receptacles are connected to the load side of the GFCI, then they are protected.

If however, you wish to pursue it, you would need a separate conductor run to a good ground. Insert the tester into a 3 prong to 2 prong adapter and attach the ground to the ground prong tab (or wire) of the adapter. Then plug in to each of the old 2 prong receptacles to test.

Good luck!


I found the Wood kind of my Grandfather in my House. They are just fine. The plastic once should last even longer. Don't fix them if they don't need fixing!


Installing a new 240v receptacle - what do I need to know?

Be sure you use a 30A double-pole breaker to adequately protect your wiring. Make sure you provide an equipment ground and use a NEMA 14-30 receptacle.

The box can be metal or plastic. Some form of cable clamp is always required, it's just that most plastic boxes have an integrated clamp (that finger-trap style door).

If using NM cable, The cable must be supported and secured by staples, cable ties, straps, hangers, or similar ﬁttings designed and installed so as not to damage the cable, within 300 mm (12 in.) of the outlet box. If the wire is being fished through a finished wall and the wire cannot be secured in such a manner, this rule does not apply.

Pure Opinion

As far as selecting an actual box, from experience, I recommend getting a 2-gang plastic box (or something equivalent in size if you want to use metal). The larger the capacity the better because a NEMA 14-30 receptacle with four #10 wires is not only bulky, but can be a very stiff pain to manipulate. They even make boxes that are "specially" designed for this purpose.

If you use a 2-gang box, you'll want to get a faceplate that is designed to match (faceplates for NEMA 14-30 receptacles are also manufactured for 1-gang boxes).


How to stop a leak of water through a concrete floor

The real solution is to prevent water from escaping the pipe by finding and fixing the initial leakage. This will most likely include getting to the upstairs neighbor and kindly asking him to assist with this problem and if he doesn't want to assist bring that to the building management, authorities and the court.

It will be very problematic to seal the ceiling from your apartment. Concrete is not a sealant material - it will absorb and conduct water so water will eventually find its way to your apartment. So this would be just a waster of time.


The pilot light won't ignite on my boiler -- what I should check?

It's quite normal for the jets to slowly reduce in size as soot and tar (depending on the gas being used) build up along the walls of the jet opening.

If the jet hasn't been lit for some time the soot can "fluff up" and effectively block the hole, at least to the point where the gas flow is no longer sufficient to establish or maintain combustion. In such a case I prefer to remove the jet and clean it properly, using an appropriately sized cleaning wire and solvent. If you don't have such tools you can try a short blast of compressed air instead.


What is the best position for a French drain between a wall and a patio?

If you're going to pull up pavers to install a french drain, you might as well just pull up all the pavers and get the slope correct instead.

A well laid patio should naturally shed water via its pitch. The ideal solution is to pull up the pavers, re-grade the base layer (should be sand directly under the pavers) and then lay it all back down...perhaps with a slightly exaggerated pitch this time.

If you insist on a drain, I wouldn't bother with a french drain and instead consider a surface drain:

It'd be a lot easier to install.


Usually this stuff is metal, known as "interlocking weatherstrip", but since that's not a great search term, it's often found in the same vicinity as "spring bronze weatherstripping". Check kilianhardware.com, under the springbronze tab.


How to dislodge bluestones sitting in cement? (Pictures)

They don't seem to be laid too deep into the ground: excavate the soil behind one of them and try to crank it up from behind with a bar. If it is feeling pretty solid you may have to break that few inches of concrete sitting in front of them with a sledge to loosen them.

Start from a corner or an end stone if you don't want to dig whole lot of soil.

If you can't move them this way you may have to use a jackhammer to open some space around them but I doubt it would come to that.


How do I clean stains from rice pilaf from my off-white carpet and wall?

The method of cleaning will depend on what your carpet is made of.  Synthetic carpet (nylon)  -   and wool or wool blend carpet generally require different chemicals.  Wool responds well to slightly acidic condition based cleaners - a home made one being - approx 300mls (1 and a bit cups) of warm water, 1 teaspoon white vinegar and 1 drop of dish washing detergent.  mix well and dab on stain. Treating stain whilst still damp gives better chance of removal than when stain has dried out. Apply on a small patch of inconspicuos area first.  Dab dry with a towel.I worked as a wool technologist for 20 years and this was the most useful general method we used.


Would a failing igniter cause my furnace to blow cold air?

Could be. Could also be the flame sensor not working (if the control system can't tell that the furnace is lit, it will assume it's not and turn the fuel off.) Could be a nozzle clog (since you didn't specify your fuel - that's more of an oil than a gas problem.) Could be an issue with a power vent, or a power vent sensor (again, since no details provided, may or may not apply to your furnace.)

Unless you really know your way around them (and quite often even then) it's often a good idea to have a pro in to deal with fuel heating appliances - they have knowledge of the systems, and esoteric tools that don't make sense for a homeowner to purchase, such as the exhaust gas analyzer that allows adjusting the fuel/air mixture for best efficiency.


Confused about humidity levels in basement - a math problem

Your basement is not nearly as sealed as you think. Which is actually a good thing.
You need to constantly have make up air. That is air to replace the air you breathe. Otherwise, while your H2O is going down (thanks to the dehumidifier), your O2 is also going down and your CO2 is going up as you breathe. I am not going to do the math, but just think "Apollo 13".
End result, even a relatively well sealed basement (or any other room or entire house) has quite a bit of air moving in and out all day long. Yes, we want to minimize it to keep heating & cooling costs down, but it is nowhere near zero. So some fresh air comes in, with more humidity and some old air goes out. All day long. Plus if there are people or pets around then they will add to the humidity with every breath. Plus, depending on the permeability of the basement walls, you may get some moisture coming in from the ground as well.


Should I remove existing drywall before framing a wall around HVAC ducts?

It doesn't really matter either way. You'll have to do the same work to finish the drywall in either case.

If it's an exterior (insulated) wall, then cutting the drywall without damaging the vapour barrier is a bit tricky. I usually try to avoid cutting exterior walls for this reason alone.

Benefits to cutting the drywall:

If it's an interior wall, you might be able to put the duct work back into the wall cavity a bit deeper (or even entirely -- I don't know the entire situation). At the least this might help to have the bulkhead protrude out into the room a bit less.
You can be 100% sure about attaching to existing framing. This isn't hard anyway, but opening makes it a bit easier.
You can add cross-members for support if necessary, such as if the edge of the new bulkhead doesn't line up with the studs.

So unless you have a compelling reason (mostly one of the above), I wouldn't bother cutting existing drywall.


Using 12 ga wire to pigtail a receptacle

The 12ga wire is perfectly fine to use as a pigtail for a 15amp circuit.

Just note, The pigtail needs to be securely bound to the existing wiring.  So a couple of twisted wires and electric tape is not enough, wire caps or something similar needs to be used.  And if the existing wiring is aluminum, you will need to use specialized caps to bind copper wire to it.


Is it safe to remove the bottom chords of a series of garage roof trusses?

Absolutely not safe.

Those trusses were engineered with a heavy (critical) dependency on the bottom chords, which are in tension. Removal has left them extremely vulnerable to collapse due to spreading, especially under snow loads, but also under just the load of the roof itself. The roof system is basically a hinge now.

To get a good mental image, picture yourself standing on an ice rink and sliding your feet outward. How far do you get before your groin starts to scream at you?

Best case scenario, that ridge slowly sags over the opening and looks ridiculous. It will push walls around with it, cracking drywall and binding windows. Worst case, full collapse. Death. Destruction. Worst of all, humiliation.

Repair will require new lumber installed with a suitably fastening system, such as construction adhesive and through-bolts. It may be necessary to winch the walls back into alignment first if sagging has already begun.


When to retire aged copper extension cords with intact jackets?

If the insulation is fine, the wire is almost certainly fine.

If you plug it into a GFCI and it trips as soon as you plug it in (without anything plugged into the far end) it's toast.

If you see cracks, it's best to consider it toast.

If you plug in something appropriate for the gauge and length of the cord and it fails to operate normally (lights seem dim, motor seems slow) and does not exhibit those symptoms when plugged into the outlet directly, or into a different but still appropriate gauge and length cord, it might be that miniscule edge case that put an "almost" in the first sentence. Unplug the cord and feel for a part that's noticeably warmer than the rest - that would be where the rare defect case is, you can cut the cord on either side and have two shorter cords (for home, not commercial uses) or opt to throw it out. More often this is a problem of the plug or socket making poor contact, and the wire in the middle is still fine.

Until then, use it.


Light switch won't turn on unless switch in adjacent room turned on

Most likely the bedroom light is wired downstream from the bathroom light, but the wiring in the bathroom switch box is wrong. To investigate further, turn off the circuit, remove the switch wallplates, unscrew the switch from the box, and take a good look at the wiring. Post a picture here for more specific help.

Most likely problem: the bathroom switch box has some mixed up wiring that can be fixed by connecting the wires that are already there in a different way. This would apply if that switch box has three cables (each a 3-wire bundle: black, white, ground) coming into it. One is the power supply, one goes to the bath light, and one continues to the bedroom. If that's the case then your problem is that the bedroom is wired to the switched power instead of to the constant supply power.


How to level two different floor heights to prepare for carpet?

I'd probably do 1/2" sleepers (could be ripped from plywood or OSB) directly over the joists, then 3/4" t&g subflooring with construction adhesive between everything to prevent squeaks. Use screws or ring-shank nails long enough to penetrate the existing subfloor and joist at least 1-1/2".

Weight shouldn't be an issue, but I know nothing about your home's construction.


is there a way to use a gas stove to supply hot water needs?

In the US, hot water is often generated by the furnace. These specially designed units have a dedicated coil in the firebox that allows cold water in one end, circulates it through the coil and expels hot water from the other. The benefit (as you suggest) is the use of just one device for both room and water heating. The disadvantage is the main furnace is kept active, even in warm weather, to ensure ongoing access to hot water, a slightly less efficient system.

In theory, you could create a copper coil to run water through a heated area of your stove.  However, this presents numerous complex problems of temperature, routing, sealing, all of which are beyond the skill of most dedicated DIYers. The risks are gas leaks, fire, explosion, water leaks, flood, and a plague of locusts.

Don't try it!