Is converting a BSW to Ethernet jack ends possible?

You can certainly put some ends on the cable and find out what happens. Chances are it'll be CAT3 cable at best and the Ethernet may link at only 100 Mbps or 10 Mbps (if at all). But maybe that's good enough for you.
If it's not good enough you might look at some of the G.hn equipment. The G.hn standard can be used to bridge Ethernet over AC powerline, coax, or twisted pair cable up to 2 Gbps. Most G.hn devices I've noticed support only one or maybe two of these physical media.
Failing that there are of course a multitude of wireless options in 2.4, 5, and 60 GHz unlicensed spectrums, or of course fiber.. But all of that goes well beyond the scope of your question.


Sanded wall rough after brushing / rolling Kilz Original -- should I sand or is this normal?

Could it be that your roller is a TEXTURED roller and not a smooth roller.

Many rollers that are available for purchase can have a texture by design and others by fault that they will leave on a smooth surface even 3/8 knap rollers, and some paints because of how they are made might be more susceptible to roller defects especially primers as the intent for a primer is coverage.

Search for a roller that has a very small knap or if the area is small enough prime it with a spray paint or a smooth flat style brush - typically a flat style brush is used for knockout work. I have used it on a small wall before with nice results.


How are mixing valves installed? Do they affect just the hot water line?

The purpose of these thermostatic (static: constant, thermo: temperature) mixing values is to give you a controlled-temperature output even when the hot and cold input temperatures can vary.

When you take a shower, the temperature can fluctuate because of the cold water (water from pipes in the walls vs water that just came in from underground) and because the water heater is "running out" of water and getting cooler.  The value works by mixing cold water in with the hot to give a constant output.

So, let's say you set the valve for 120, and have hot water at 140 and cold water at 60 degrees.  I'm going to make up some math on the fly and say that the valve will mix about 80% hot water with 20% cold to cool it off down to 120.  As the incoming temperature drops, it uses less cold.  So when the water heater gets down to 125, it's going to be more like 95% hot and 5% cold.  Finally when the heater is down to 110 degrees, you're going to get full hot water and then you're left on your own to adjust the shower handle.

The speed at which the adjustments happen will be device dependent an "adding hot water to the cold" or "adding cold to the hot" is really just two ways of saying the same thing.  Also I believe that some models only have one "valve" to change the amount of hot or cold and others have two separate valves (maybe for greater temperature swings or faster action?).


Chirping in Kitchen - Always one minute apart

Even though you do not have a smoke alarm in the kitchen I would suggest that you check for low battery condition in all of your smoke alarms in the home. If you have not done so in more than a year the general advice is to replace all the smoke alarm batteries with fresh new ones.

I had the chirp problem at my house and can attest to the fact that it can be difficult to locate the source of the chirp. I believe that the problem is that the chirp sound is one that easily bounces and echos around the house. In addition I have found that the sound duration is so short that our brain has difficulty performing the triangulation that it normally uses to find the source of sounds.


Hanging clothes on a line between concrete pillars without drilling

Wrap one end of the rope around a pillar 3-4 times, tie the loose end back to the standing portion of the rope (probably with a bowline), and then slide the wraps up to the top of the pillar so that the part furthest from the knot is highest, with the rope smoothly wrapping down from that point. Do the same for the other end, tightening the rope enough to get it as far off the ground as you like (use another bowline, or a taut-line hitch, whichever is more convenient).

The friction between the rope and the pillar will increase exponentially with the number of wraps of contact; 3-4 wraps and a relatively rough pillar will make it impossible to drag the rope down.


I am assuming we are talking about copper conductors here and the service is not a parallel feed.

NEC table 250.102(C)(1) is for sizing a service with no overcurrent protection so it is sized by the incoming conductors so it would require a 1/0 copper grounding conductor.

NEC table 250.122 sizes the grounding conductor by its overcurrent protection. So if this is after a 400A breaker, your grounding conductor would be a #2 copper conductor.

I need to make this clear. You are calling for a minimum grounded conductor which is a neutral and I am assuming you mean a grounding conductor . I am giving you information on sizing a grounding conductor. If you really do mean a neutral you shouldn't downsize it from a 500 Kcmil without professional assistance since it would require a load study.

Hope this helps.


How do I fix a minor scratch on a dyed aluminum anodized surface?

the best way to touch up a scratch in anodizing is two steps:

1)  colour with a marker or paint to match.  rub the paint or dye in and wipe off with a clean rag.  use whichever solvent is appropriate to get it off of any overage areas.

2)  this is the hard part.  since anodizing is a crystalline coating of hexagonal aluminum oxide, its tough, but non-directional.  it has no grain to match.  any lines you scratch into it by trying to buff or sand will be visible as different.  take 800 grit sandpaper (silicon dioxide - black - waterproof) and place wet over the scratch area.  then, using gentle taps, strike the back side of the paper with a small rubber mallet, or a wooden dowel.  keep tapping and checking the scratch area until the scratch is "gone".  it won't be perfect, but it will be much better.  once the scratch is gone, re-apply the dye or stain to the area again and repeat as necessary.

the logic here is that the scratch has cut through the surface oxide crystals.  since its made up of essentially little glass tubes filled with colour, you have to smooth the shards out with impact.  since the process causes some of the little tubes to crack open differently than they were before, you keep applying pigment to keep getting it into the tubes that open up.  hopefully when you are all done, the pigment will have seeped into enough of the broken tubes to make it look invisible.

caveat - this process does work well for some anodizing (it depends on how the anodizing was applied), and not so well for others.  its entirely a hit or miss.  just go slow.  if you want to be extra safe, dry the surface out between attempts with a hair dryer.  the wetness from the sandpaper can sometimes make the repair look better than it is.

once done and happy with the repair, put the part in boiling water for a few minutes to seal up the tubes (the heat and moisture cause a change in the crystal structure at the surface).  if its not possible to submerge the part, you can just set your kettle to boil and direct the steam discharge at the area.  or you can omit this step with the understanding that if you don't seal the tubes, the colour will disappear over time from oxidation and cleaning.


Why is the water (either hot or cold) in the kitchen suddenly shutting off

Start by shutting off the water supply for the Hot and Cold lines under the sink.
Next detach (unscrew) the hot supply line from the faucet line (if possible). If you can't than unscrew the hose from the valve.
Place a bucket under the valve and a rag over the open connection. Slowly open the valve to check for water flow. When (and if) water is flowing into the bucket open the valve more to jettison any debris in the line. Do the same for other side.
If no water is present at the valve than the problem is before the valve. When you reconnect the faucet hose after confirming water is flowing but no water flows from the faucet thr problem is after the valve.


The caped pipe you could hear the toilet flush is the clean out . This the location a snake is put in if the pipes backup. Is the second pipe outside a bathroom or kitchen? If so it may be a second clean out especially if they are quite a distance apart and if it is a clean out it should be capped also. A second possibility for the uncapped pipe is a clean out for the drains to the storm water runoff from your gutters these don't require a cap but it is a good idea so material from the flower bed dosent fill it up.


How to find the water connection behind a shower wall?

What is on the other side of the wall?  Cutting a hole in the drywall on the other side would be the preferred method.  If the 2" diameter hole is not large enough for both flex-lines, the you might need to enlarge it, or drill a 2nd hole through the tile and backerboard with an appropriate bit and lots of muscle.

Though.... if the contractor abandoned the job the tile job probably wasn't done right either and will leak meaning you will need to rip it down anyway.


How to replace non IC-rated recessed lights in ceiling with IC-rated LED lights?

If the fixtures were installed prior to the drywall ceiling install, they are going to be 'new work' type. Which means they have an apparatus which is nailed onto the sides of the rafters above the ceiling.  Without crawling around up there in the attic and removing them from there, it could be challenging to remove them from below without damaging the ceiling drywall..

Get you a piece of 2x4' piece of 3/4" thick plywood and lay it across the top of the joists so that you can snuggle over close to the lights, to work on them, without having to perform trapeze belly balancing.

If the cans are 'old work' cans, meaning they were added after the ceiling was already in place, then they would be a lot easier to remove and YES could be removed from below.  Remove your trim rings and pull the light bulb shroud down.  Do you see four black clips in the inside of the can, equidistance apart?  If so, you have an 'old work' can and those clips can be tapped out of their locking positions, to allow the can to be removed from the hole.

If you don't see those black apparatuses and your'e looking a just a slick walled, aluminum cylinder...you have 'new work' cans and a trip to the attic is in store.


Would a chunky mantel allow me to mount my TV above a wood burner?

A few issues with your drawing:

code may very well not allow a wooden mantel directly above a woodburning stove like that. Woodburning stoves get extremely hot. Check the spec's on your stove to determine the minimum clearance from combustibles.
Soot. No matter how hard you try, a woodburning stove is likely to kick a bit of soot into the room now and again. Not the best for TV screens.
your neck may not like the angle. Lots of people put TVs above fireplaces and they look really great in magazines, but are often the worst possible place to actually place a TV.

(BTW, very nice sketch! That's always a great asset to questions here.)


How would you create a high gloss finish on furniture?

If your existing finish truly is lacquer, all you would need to do is apply additional coat(s) of high gloss clear lacquer.

Always use the very best brush you can afford, or spray it. Lay the material flat, for best results. If you have no experience with this type of finish or with the application techniques mentioned, you should practice practice practice on some sample pieces first (and read a book about working with lacquer, maybe).


Confirming the set-up and wiring of 60AMP subpanel

Your main panel

I gather your breaker in the upper left corner of the main panel, yes? Your breaker is back-fed, and is 60A.  Since your main is the same rating as your subpanel feeder, you don't actually need a feed breaker in the main panel.  You can just grab the subfeed lugs at the top of the panel.  That will free up 2 spaces.

You will need the 2 spaces if you upsize the main panel's main breaker to 125A, but then, you'll also need a 60A feed breaker at that point.  At that point you will hit stab limits on the stabs that the main breaker is clamped to; i.e. You won't be able to have any breakers across from the main breaker because the stabs can only carry 125A, and the main will absorb it all. However, those forbidden spaces can be used for a generator interlock, if you had any thoughts to that.

Three of your breakers look like Siemens, Murray or ITE.  Those are alien breakers in this panel, and they must go, presuming this is a GE panel.  They will not fit the bus properly.  The only non-GE breaker I am aware of that can fit that panel is Eaton CL. If you need shunt-trip or remote on/off capability, Eaton CL has that.

Grounds

They make smaller ground bars that may fit in the ample wire bending space at the top and bottom.  All neutrals should be brought to their breaker for AFCI/GFCI reasons.  All wires should be cut long enough to reach any location in the panel.

If you can run the conduit entirely in EMT, you don't need a ground wire.  However if you have one, think future and go #8.  You might upsize the wire in the future, and why buy the ground wire twice?

Your subpanel does not need a main breaker if it's in the same building.  If it is in an outbuilding, you need a disconnect switch, and the breaker will suffice but its size doen't matter.  So there is no earthly reason to change out that subpanel main breaker.

Getting the most out of conduit

Conduit fill: you can get more than 60A out of #6 in conduit.

You can run THHN at the 75C column (65A rounding up to 70A breaker) if terminations at both ends are rated for 75C, which breakers are.
However you are capped off at 80% of its 90C rating (75A)  giving 60A, because you have other circuits in the pipe.

If you can find a way to get those other two circuits out of that pipe, you can use a 70A breaker on the feed.

I would also consider larger than 3/4" sized conduit, to empower a switch to aluminum wire and future upsize. At 60A+ copper is a waste of money. Aluminum's bad reputation is inapplicable to these large sizes; and an AA-1350 feeder would be perfectly fine.  That's outlawed today; now you get AA-8000.


How can I drill to an exact depth with a hand drill?

Homemade Stops
Wrap a bit of tape around the bit, to mark the desired depth.  Then carefully drill your holes, stopping when you've reached the tape.

I've also seen this done with a bit of wire.

WARNING: Wrapping the wire in the wrong direction, can lead to property damage, injury, and death.
Store Bought Stops
Or you could purchase a drill stop.

Which are also available in plastic

Portable Drilling Guide
There are also portable drilling guides available.

I tried one of these and it was total crap, so I wouldn't recommend it.  Your mileage may vary though, so give it a try if you like.


How to switch 40A timer used for outdoor lighting and direct 120V outdoor lighting

The key is to provide protection at the lowest level needed.

Wire - smallest size (highest AWG) determines necessary protection. So with 10 and 12, you breaker for 12 == 20A max.
Switches - lowest current rating determines necessary protection. 20A switches are more expensive than 15A switches, but they are readily available. Moving down to 15A is likely just fine if you switch from other lighting to LEDs, but then your breaker will have to go down to 15A. Oops. According to Harper, switch rating depends on loads. So as long as the switched load is lights only (because if it includes a receptacle then you need to allow for that potential load), if you are using LEDs (or other types with a real max. of 1,440 W) then you can stick to 15A switches but still have a  20A circuit with a 20A breaker.
Timers and other devices - a 40A timer can work on a 15A or 20A circuit just fine.
Lights - the total of all lights should be <= 80% of the breaker. 80% of 15A x 120V = 1,440 W. 80% of 20A x 120V = 1,920 W. That isn't much for incandescent, but (as noted by Ed Beal) is a lot for LEDs.

In the end, the lowest common denominator - likely switches in your case - determines the breaker size. The breaker size then determines the maximum lighting load.

One caution: 10 AWG is non-standard enough that anyone looking at it will hopefully not assume that the circuit is really a 30A circuit all the way end-to-end. But 12 AWG is standard enough that if you use a 15A breaker then someone looking at it later may not realize there are 15A requirements in the circuit, see the 12 AWG wire and decide to upgrade the breaker to 20A (e.g., to support some receptacles in addition to the lighting). So if you downsize to 15A then label it in the panel as a warning to not assume 12 AWG = 20 A.


Assuming you have a traditional, isolated transformer with separate primary and secondary windings, the output of your transformer as currently configured is floating, meaning that while there is 120V between line1 and line2, the voltage from either of those to ground could be anything, and can change over time.  If you want to make it a traditional hot/neutral setup, you can bond one of the two output lines to ground.  If you're wiring this as the input into a breaker panel, make the bond there -- this makes it a main service panel, from a separately derived service, rather than a subpanel.  The bonded lead then becomes your neutral, and the other is your 120V hot.

If instead your transformer is really an autotransformer, where the primary and secondary windings are actually the same thing, then you cannot ground one of the outputs.  In this case, the voltage is not floating, but where exactly it is depends on the transformer's construction.  I'd recommend measuring from each of the hot leads to ground to see if one of them is at 0V already, or if they are each approximately 60V from ground, or something else.

To check if it's an autotransformer or a regular transformer, check if there's any continuity between the primary windings (input) and secondary windings (output).  If there is, then it's an autotransformer.


Tie the black and blue wires to the incoming black wire, the white wire to the incoming white wire, and the bare wire to the ground screw.  This will allow you to turn the fan and light on and off as a unit.


How can I install a pre-hung door when soundboard has been installed?

One approach is an oversized pre-cased, split-jamb door.  These have casings (room side moldings) pre installed to the jamb and are attached separately from each side. The joint in the middle is hidden by the stop (the molding that the door actually rests against when closed). This is a home center site describing the process.

These doors probably would have to be special ordered and cost more than standard prehung doors. An alternative is to create your own jambs using standard clear boards. This does require some skill with either a chisel or router, but is not beyond the skill level of a fair DIY carpenter.

You could also install a standard pre-hung door with the jamb on the hinge side flush to the outer edge of that wall. This will leave the other edge of the jamb about 1/2 inch recessed, the thickness of the soundboard. Just putting a narrow piece of board the same thickness as the jamb would work (there is no structural issue). However, butt aligning boards generally does not look good - the edges shift slightly and it always looks like an unintentional (or unprofessional) joint.  The standard way to solve that is to create a reveal.  This is a small step in level between two adjoining lengths of wood.

You could put in a simple square edged molding (or thin strip of board) that is set back from the inner edge of the jamb opening about 1/8 to 3/16. If the soundboard is tight up against the jamb (it really shouldn't be, but sometimes is) use a board/molding slightly thinner than the jamb. Other wise, just slid it back a bit. Then when you measure for the casing. create a second small reveal set back from this filler strip.

Another, simpler, but less elegant approach, is to use a backband or cap type molding.

The one illustrated is a bit deep, but you can probably find one smaller and simpler.

Putting the shorter edge on the outside edge of the short jamb with the thin edge overlapping onto the inside edge of the jamb.  Then nail the casing agasint the cap/backband. Becasue the door opens on the hinge side, this inset molding should not interfere with functionality.


The correct way is to have the trap directly below the tail piece from the basin that does not have the disposal.

You would cap or eliminate the Y fitting so you just have one outlet.

The disposal will connect straight over to the tail piece into a Tee ( baffled tee ) fitting attached to the tail piece and the tee will go straight down into the trap.

Here is a basic YouTube video.

How do you drain a garbage disposal?


Copper pipe identification using electrical current

Put an earbud from your cell phone or iPod in one of the tubes. Crank up some music. Put your ear to the other end. You will absolutely be able to tell the difference between the one with the earbud in it and the other three.


Putting tar paper between plywood subfloor/underlayment and decking in kitchen

Yes its an additional vapor barrier and could prevent underlayment from warping. In a bathroom its always a good idea to do to keep moisture away from subfloor.


Why do I see only 50 volts on my live wires?

I do agree with jsotola , inductive coupling created a voltage on this wire.  When next to a live line for a distance. Lines of force from the hot AC line induce a voltage if the lines ran further together the voltage would be higher (this is how transformers work) , it is commonly called phantom voltage as there is really no potential. Did you try and measure the voltage with the switch on? Also verify the breaker since this is all new to you someone may have turned this breaker off.


How hard is it to replace a hollow-core door with a solid one?

I have hollow core doors on my pantry and I have full height wire shelves on the inside, each one chock full of canned goods. No problem. Just be sure to use hollow door anchors to mount the shelves though, not just screws and not just the cheap little plastic inserts.
This type that expands behind the door skin:

As to changing them to solid, the thing that you may find challenging is in getting the hinges in the right place. I've found that pantry doors often have less standardization than bedroom doors and setting hinges is a skill set that is not for the uninitiated (in my opinion). I'd try to not change them first.


The professional service you need is that of a structural engineer, in combination with a contractor or builder.  Each professional has a contribution to make and can enhance the work of the other.

Internet advice does not suffice for altering structural members in a home.

You can get general advice on feasibility by posting photos annotated with dimensions.  Ensure that if you widen the door, that the garage itself is large enough that you can open the car doors (unless you enjoy exiting via the sunroof).


Depending on the device you're installing, the installation can be a bit different.  Consult the installation guide that came with the device, to determine the proper wiring.
I've randomly selected installation guides from a couple available devices, and I'll show the differences.  Keep in mind that your device may vary, and you should consult the documentation with your device.
Lutron
The Lutron installation guide, shows this wiring diagram.

Which seems very straight forward.

Connect the Black (common) wire to the Black (common) wire from the device.
Connect the Red (traveler) wire to the Blue (traveler) wire from the device.
Connect the White (traveler) wire to the Black (traveler) wire from the device.

Leviton
The Leviton Installation Guide, shows a bit more complicated diagram.

They even provide a troubleshooting section, to help you get the thing working correctly.

NOTE:
This is just a small sample of the available devices, consult the documentation that came with the specific device you are trying to install for proper installation instructions.


If you get power across the 2 terminals when the switch is "on" (closed), it means your switch has failed and needs to be replaced. Of course be sure to turn off the power before replacing and if this is a switch outdoors, be sure to get a high quality replacement and appropriate coverings for the code in your area.
EDIT--additional info: To test, with the power off you could disconnect the switch, wire nut the 2 wires together, turn the power back on and see if your pool lights work then.  Have you checked to see if they are simply burned out?


Can this panel have a main shutoff switch installed on it?

You could install a main breaker (what you're calling a main shutoff) but that REALLY shouldn't be done live, by anyone.  You'd have to lift your feeders and land them on the new main breaker terminals.
When the disconnect is not where you can keep an eye on it while you're working, like in your building, it should be lockable.  If the disconnect has a one-arm-bandit type arm to open it, those can be locked open with a padlock.  If it's just a regular breaker, you might be able to find a breaker lock that clamps on the breaker handle and can be locked with a padlock.


How to remove this toilet supply line that seems to have no nut?

That valve seems to be of the variety where the supply line and stop-valve are a single integrated unit. In the foggy haze of past bad ideas, this was not uncommon (although most that I encounter are metal).

You will need to shut off the cold water supply and replace the valve and flex supply line...


It's difficult to say from a photo but it appears that there is damage to the piece marked below.  It's also quite possible that there is more damage on the other side of this wall that you cannot see now.
I'd tear the whole thing out and fix it right.  Of course that's a bit of work and it depends on whether you are looking to fix it for the long term or just wanting to patch it back together for a short term fix.


Replace plywood behind outdoor meter can

See @Tyson's comment - Let's start with your comment:

  On the one hand this seems like an easy DIY project.

Hate to be the bearer of bad news but its not. Note that I and others can see all kinds of things that also need to be repaired electrically. Also in order to pull the meter base and enclosed breaker of the board you want to replace you will need to call your utility company for a disconnect/reconnect. This means that the project will have to be permitted and inspected in most areas of the county (USA).

A good electrical contractor can handle the work including the material to hang it on to fit your location. Beware there may be other damage to structural timber if moisture has penetrated the wall and rotted them out.

  How would you go about getting this done with reasonable expense?

What do you consider a reasonable expense? In my area something like this would run around $1500 to $2000 for repair and that would not include repair of any unforeseen damage.

Hope this helps and good luck


Should I use cement board or green board behind the walls of a neo angle shower?

I would always use cement board in the shower area.  I would extend the cement board to where you shower unit will cover.  You can go past that point just plaster with a nice joint compound, like durabond to join to the rest of the plaster board for a permanent bond. I typically do not use green board unless you expect the wall can get wet, like a basement.  My bathroom is upstairs and my house would wash away before those walls got wet, therefore regular board is fine.


Electric water heater leaks around the top, how do I fix it?

Water heaters do not live forever. Start shopping.

While it is possible that you have a leaky fitting near the water heater, (which could be fixed) the most common cause for a leaky water heater is that the water heater itself has started to fail, and the only option there is replacement, as the corroded tank is not a replaceable part.

Depending where you are, there are some pretty good deals on more-efficient water heaters available in some areas.

Most temperature and pressure relief valves are not adjustable, and in any case the pressure inside should just be the water pressure of your house, so if you could lower the relief pressure, it would leak all the time.


Effective ways to get rid of smell in basement from drain?

This is precisely why fans exist. One in, one out. You might also sprinkle baking soda (or a freshening product which includes same) on the raw concrete to absorb odor.

The key is getting things dry, though. Bacteria can't survive long if things are dry. A dehumidifier would help with that.

If all else fails, rent an ozone neutralizer.


find the Transformer inside the furnace. One wire connects to the R terminal 24 v
other wire is common or neutral.


Best way to create a simple and economic steam machine for steaming wood?

The container doesn't have to be a PVC pipe. Wood boxes were the traditional solution, and still seem to be more common among woodworkers than the PVC approach.

There are steam generators available from woodworking stores which are a bit more effective than an electric kettle. They may or may not be significantly more energy-efficient; boiling water takes the same amount of energy no matter how you do it, so the only question is how much energy gets lost to the environment rather than going into the water and being kept in the steam.


Compatibility of aluminum fittings with brass rough-in valve

It will corrode quickly. The Aluminum will break down.I recommend that you put a non-metallic barrier between the two. If you want to do it on the cheap, and If you have some Never-Seez or even some PTFE tape laying around, do it. Check it in a few months, replace the barrier, check again later.

Galvanic Corrosion happens because of the different in electrical potential. The amount of difference (and the environment) that determines how fast one metal will corrode.

Aluminum has an anodic index -.9
Brass has an anodic index of about -.4

A difference of .25 is acceptable, in harsh environments (heat, salt water) the max is .15.

http://www.fastenal.com/content/feds/pdf/Article%20-%20Corrosion.pdf
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galvanic_corrosion


Nomenclature for water management objects

Impervious Surface Area is the term you are looking for. The opposite - land that allows water to flow through - is technically "pervious" but more commonly referred to as "permeable".


How can I repair these cracks in my balcony wall?

It is not possible to know if these cracks are structural or cosmetic, without knowing many construction and assembly details (such as the use of pre-stressed, reinforced panels).

This is would be in the domain of a structural engineer.

If cosmetic, an elastomeric, exterior grade concrete crack filler would be advisable. Sika products come to mind


How can this mirror be mounted on a wall?

For a "floating" appearance you could use construction adhesive (or "mirror adhesive") to mount a board to the back of the mirror (just the central mirrored part), and use some form of hanger or French cleat to attach that to the wall, with the mirror itself out a bit from the wall.

That would lend itself to wrapping that board with flexible light strip or rope lights to "halo" the mirror a bit and emphasize the stained glass edges by lighting behind them.


What is a suitable filter cage to guard a wet pump from leaves?

Hardware cloth, it's easy to cut in squares or rectangles.

Use small fence staples to tack it to 2x2 sections at the edges to create a screen box to set the pump in.

1/2" or 1/4" mesh.


Help identifying a walkout door threshold and repair options

A quick update so the question can be closed. I ended up cutting out the old one and installing a new adjustable aluminum threshold from Home Depot. I had to saw open the hard black plastic and the aluminum ramp, breaking them into pieces. I also used an oscillating multi-tool to cut into the door jambs and scraped the old caulk around the perimeter. Finally I pried everything out. Installing was relatively easy. I just had to cut a few wood blocks to fill under the door jambs. With some cleaning, a fresh paint and caulk, the end result looks half-way decent:


Convert 220v dedicated oven connection to 110v receptacle?

You're creating a multi-wire branch circuit (MWBC).  These have special rules, but you seem to have them covered.

Handle-tied breaker.  Must be on opposite poles.  You've got that covered with a 2-pole, providing you really do mean a 2-pole and not a double-stuff.

Hooking 2 major appliances may be a pain, because most plugs have the cord go right-angle downward (down=ground pin side).  I have a hunch they do that on purpose, to stop you from plugging two major appliances into a single duplex receptacle, presuming that a single 15A or 20A circuit can't support two major appliances.

You will need to pigtail neutral

Of course, in this case you only have one outlet, so you don't need to pigtail neutral.  But you would if you extended this MWBC to another outlet.

However, you will need to pigtail after all, all the wires, because of the impracticability of putting a #8 wire on a receptacle.  Pigtail with #12 wire.

GFCI on fridges, no.

"Should I consider using a Ground Fault (GFCI) circuit breaker since it's a fridge?" No, you should consider avoiding at all costs using a GFCI on a fridge*.  There's absolutely no safety benefit whatsover (provided ground is present): The "hot" equipment is in the bottom back of the fridge, impossible to access without pulling the fridge out. The metal shell and good ground assures any ground faults will be trapped. And you're not likely to drop the fridge in the sink.

The fridge is a safety system: its job is to keep food safe.  It has that in common with a fire pump or radon venting system.  You don't want "dueling safety systems", especially given the nil benefit a GFCI provides a grounded fridge.

"Food getting spoiled" happens by someone noticing the GFCI (breaker) has tripped, and resetting it - often because something else doesn't work.  It never occurs to the person that the fridge has spent the last 11 hours off, and it chills back down with the damage done.

"Hurting someone" happens by the astonishingly common scenario of a caregiver feeding food to a child, elder, or sick/disabled person, who are already vulnerable to food illness. It's common for caretakers to not taste the food (if the caregiver is paid, always; eating client food is stealing).

Even worse, refrigerator makers were caught completely flat-footed by the emerging GFCI and AFCI requirements in kitchens.  They haven't even begun the engineering necessary to prevent refrigerators from generating ground faults or appearing to generate arc faults.  So it's very common to buy a brand new fridge, get a string of nuisance GFCI trips, and be told "tough toenails" by both the dealer and the manufacturer.  Many manuals even say "Do not put on GFCI/AFCI", and UL approves the manual this way.  Which is actually the final word on the subject; you're not allowed to install those on GFCI because the instructions say you can't, and that's how UL approved it.

If I had to put a fridge on GFCI or AFCI, I would put it on an isolation transformer sized for continuous run wattage (VA), so quite a small unit in the 100-300VA range.  Transformers can handle startup spikes just fine.  The transformer would make the GFCI not care about the fridge's internal ground faults, and dampen the arcing signals that make AFCIs trip.

If you want GFCI...

Since I gather you only have a 1-gang opening there, your choices of GFCI are limited.

You can fit a GFCI receptacle here, but that means you'll have to cap off the red wire, and only have one 20A circuit instead of two.

You can fit an $85 2-pole GFCI breaker, and have both MWBC legs protected.   However, they will also trip together, so another appliance could take out your fridge, even if you try my "isolation transformer" approach.  Double trouble...


What type of wood should I use to resurface my table?

Depends on what the table is used for.  Given the description of wear, let's assume it's a college project work table, that needs to handle anything from homework writing, gaming, to x-acto knife cutting, to light woodworking, painting, etc.

I would suggest hardboard (aka Masonite).  It ain't fancy, but it's cheap, widely available in 4 ft x 8 ft sheets (so no cutting required), and suitable for this level of usage.

You could glue it to the existing surface using regular wood glue, however you might think about instead just nailing it in using a lot of small tack nails; this way if the surface becomes too heavily marred, future maintainers could just rip it off and replace it with a new sheet of hardboard.

I use hardboard for surfacing my work tables in my shop.  I generally throw a couple coats of polyurethane on top.  I suspect you could use pretty much any sealant you wanted on it (or none!)  If it's going to be used more for homework/gaming, and less for crafts, a hard coat might make sense.


Light bulb stays on regardless of switch position?

What you are seeing there is the light end of a new-style switch loop.  The two blacks should stay nutted together (one's the incoming hot and the other goes out to the switch), and your light fixture should be wired red-to-brass and white-to-silver.  The reason it didn't work when you tried the red wire the first time is likely because you didn't nut the black wires back together, so there was no power to the switch.  As to why it stayed on all the time initially -- the black wire you chose the first time around was the hot feed coming in, so you wired the switch out of the circuit, rendering it useless.


Is wolmanized wood different that just treated wood?

Wolmanized wood is a subsection of pressure treated wood. There are many different processes that fall in the preserved wood category and Wolmanized wood used a copper azole process. It is manufactured by Arch wood products.


Why new 32W circular fluorescent light bulbs keeps getting blown?

It's the ballast

When old magnetic ballasts go bad, that's one of the things they do.  I swear, I'm about ready to stick a logbook inside every fixture because I think most of our bulb replacements are in the same 5 fixtures.

Decide which type of bulb you want going forward (T12 vs T8) then buy an appropriate electronic ballast.

If you want to play around with some of the new LED "tubes" or fixtures, those should last 20 years... but there is also a lot of cheap junk out there that really won't.


How can I protect wood and preserve its natural beauty?

If you like the current look of the wood, then you should not stain it, as any stain will alter the color.  2 or 3 coats of clear polyurethane will highlight the look of the wood without altering the color.

I suggest a clear, satin finish, as glossy would make your table look shiny.

Such as:


LEDs need very little power (that is the point after all).  In fact, if you have a live cable running next to a cable feeding the light, then there can be enough inductive coupling between the cables to cause a glow.

The fact that you say "I tried to seperate the 'main line' as much from the lines feeding the lights and it seems to have worked for the most part." makes me think this is the explanation.


Because your electronics are probably fried you can just pry it open.

The cost of replacing the electronics will probably be more then it is worth to fix and you can get a used one cheaper.

But if want to make sure you can pay to have an appliance repair person come out and tell you what it would cost to repair.

The latch in most cases is just a plastic piece that is being held by the electronic mechanism.

I would just pry and break the plastic locking mechanism.

A big crowbar would do the job.


What is the glue stuff you use to seal a glass shower panel to the tub?

What you're looking for is clear silicone caulk. you want to peel off the old caulk, scrap the tile with a single edge razor blade to get all the old caulk off, clean with bleach to remove any trace of mildew and let dry. Then apply the caulk and let dry for 24 hours. The caulk can be bought at any home store or hardware. Here's a picture of a popular brand.

It also comes in a tube that doesn't need a caulking gun. Good luck.


I'm guessing there was an old light exactly there?  And that light happened to have an integral junction box which housed the wiring splices?

You'll need to install an appropriate outdoor junction box for your country's wiring methods.  Then mount the light either independently, or I have been known to mount it on the junction box lid.  Then create a proper entry for that cord into the junction box, and splice it therein.


Is the tab broken on the hot side? Garbage dispisal, so probably a kitchen.

If the breaker double-wide? If so, you probably have a multi-wire branch circuit - so if you join the two hots you may find that the breaker trips hard as soon as you turn it on.

If you have a voltmeter, check the voltage between the two hot wires - it should either be 0 volts (they are the same phase) or 240 (they are opposite phase and it's a MWBC - pretty common in kitchens to meet the "two 20 amp circuits" rule.

If the tab is NOT broken and the voltage between the wires should then be 0, yes, you can splice and pigtail.


How to keep pine needles out of a gutter?

I installed the foam strips on my gutters last fall for this very reason. The design is that leaves should just blow off.

Does it work with pine needles? Eh...sorta. The problem is that they don't blow off like leaves do...they tend to just sit on top of the sponge, but that seems OK as water still seeps into the sponge fine and drains away. I still have to brush off the needles once a year, but that's a lot easier than digging them out of the gutters by hand.

The only drawback is that in a really heavy rain, in some areas, the water is hitting the gutters with such volume that it can't all soak in and overflows. This really only happens in the valleys on my roof. That said, I have a poorly designed house with a roof line that wasn't well thought out for drainage so that's more the architect's fault than the gutter sponges, methinks.

I live in the PNW so we're talking lotsa rain + lotsa pine needles. If I were to design a house from scratch, I probably would design it to forgo gutters completely...I'd have large overhangs, properly slopped grade, and then likely those 'rain fins' to help spread the drip line out a bit.


Phillips (non-dimmable) 60W LED bulbs breaking in the light fixture

Many LED lamps are designed to ONLY be used base down because the LED "driver" (the power supply board that is the equivalent of the ballast in a CFL lamp) must be able to dissipate the heat. It likely said so in small font on the packaging, but you didn't notice or didn't realize what that means. In some cases the mfr is less than forthright about that though, and a quick look at Phillips' site makes me think they are in that category. When used in things like overhead fans where the base is up AND the air cannot flow around it, the heat of the driver cannot escape to the surrounding air and the glue holding it all together separates.

Read this; very informative. https://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/readers--choice-2013--toyota-s-killer-firmware--epic-apple-fails--raspberry-pi--more/4423570/That-60W-equivalent-LED--What-you-don-t-know--and-what-no-one-will-tell-you-


Can Tongue and Groove plywood be used if interior walls already in place

Yes.  I have no idea why someone would say that.


Here is the manual for this hydrant:

Woodford Sanitary Hydrant

Perhaps you're not pulling down on the diverter enough to close it.  If that's not it, then the diverter is either damaged or has foreign material in it that is causing it not to seal.  Either clean it out or replace it.


Light fixture has 3 white wires together, 2 black together, and one by itself, how do I connect a new fixture?

Do you have a photo from before the old fixture was removed fully?
You need a hot plus a neutral for a light.
Likely the bare black wire is your hot switch lead, something you can verify with a non-contact circuit tracer (a tool you should own for safety sake, for example Klein NCVT-1).  The white neutrals often get all tied together, don't worry about overthinking that one too much, just hook your white there.
The connected hots might be some totally other circuit using this box as a waypoint.  Unless there are more lights run by the same switch, or something else, it's best to just ignore them and move on.


How can I avoid repainting a wall after removing pictures?

As @jphi1618 said, if the spackle isn't a color match (and it usually isn't), a bit of local touch-up with paint of the right color can solve the problem.

If you don't have leftover paint stored away, hit the paint store for sample chips and use them to find a match. Once you know what color you need, and have figured out whether the surrounding paint is flat or semigloss, see if the store offers 8-ounce samples; those are cheap enough that you can afford to experiment if you aren't sure of your choice.

Try to match the existing texture, and to "feather"/dry-brush the edges of tge new oaint so it blends into what's already there.

It won't be perfect. But it will probably be good enough that nobody but you ever notices it.


Water coming in through the walls of an old concrete garage

It sounds like your garage is the low spot in the landscape and making a drain system difficult or impossible.  If you are sure that drains aren't possible, the only other possible solution may be treating the interior wall surfaces with an epoxy wall treatment like "Dry Loc".  Dry Loc will withstand hydrolic pressure of about 3psi, which is usually enough for walls and floors effected only during times of heavy rain etc.  The trick of making this stuff work well is to be sure the concrete is dry and any loose, flaking or effluence is removed. Obvious cracks and foundation form pins must be "keyed" and filled with hydrolic cement such as "rocktite" before painting the Dry Loc on.  The Oil based Dry loc is much easier to use than the latex based version, but lots of ventilation is needed, which should not be a problem with a garage. you will probably need two coats and be sure to work it into all the tiny holes etc, 100% coverage is important.   Good Luck.


Is gap between the tub and the drywall necessary?

What is a mold defense board? I have done hundreds of tub surrounds / showers and have never heard of this it looks like someone may have used water resistant Sheetrock and attached the tile to that. A gap at the bottom is normal and should be filled with calking.  If there is no gap any moisture that sits on the ledge is sucked up buy the Sheetrock So no you should not extend the tile backing. You should seal your grout sealers don’t normally last more than a few years, make sure the gap from the tub to the tile is well sealed this should stop water from getting behind the tile unless there is a plumbing leak. Yes even copper may develop small pin holes and leak I have seen this a few times over the years with well water that had a heavy mineral count. Where galvanized and copper were mixed without a dielectric union, and where metal was in contact with the copper. Plumbers strapping that was galvanized being a big issue plumbers tape or strapping for copper pipe needs to be copper coated.
So seal the grout, and the tub /tile gap and if you still have a leak it is probably in the plumbing.


Proper repair of a burnt conductor in a main panel

This is easy enough if a branch circuit.
Turn the breaker off (I hope it’s not the main service conductors).
Cut the wire where the damage is & strip off the insulation, if the wire is long enough use a wire nut and reconnect the wires together. This is legal in the service panel and code compliant.
If the wire is now too short, a new piece that is the same gauge will be needed to be spliced, usually with a wire nut to the breaker.
If it is the service conductors it just got a lot harder. The power may need to be shutdown by the power company, service conductors rarely have extra wire for a repair so the wire may need to be replaced back to a point it can be spliced, possibly in the panel with a split bolt or Polaris type connector. I would suggest Polaris for DIY since they just need to be torqued, while split bolts require taping and usually 2/3 types of expensive tape and I rarely see DIY do this correctly. Once the repair is complete turn the power back on.
Note usually when a screw causes a short the wire is damaged. This is why we cut it and splice it back together. Covering with tape hides the fact that the wire can no longer safely carry the rated load.


A wire can break at the nut and become disconnected - you have 4 wires - so I am wondering the wire nut size if it is too small.

Did the fixture have stranded wires or was it solid ?

I am guessing your wires are not connected anymore whether a wire broke or one slipped down to the insulation of another.

You stated you have 4 whites and 4 blacks - wire nuts for fixtures typically will support 3 wires of proper gauge and it is a stretch to get 4 wires into them - with out up-sizing the wire nut.

Disconnect the wire nuts, intertwine the wires and reinstall the wire nuts..

Don't over think this - it worked once already (did the lights all burn out at once - probably not. When you pushed the wires into the box (8 wires cramped up there ), then it did not work. - Your wire nuts probably need an up-size.


Any time you are running bare conductors in a dwelling unit that are not part of a cable system such as NM or MC, then they must be run in a conduit. Once you get to the exterior of the unit you could transition to a Direct burial cable such as UF or you could continue in a conduit system.  The most common under ground conduit would be PVC and it could also be used under the house.

good luck

Special note: Most conductor insulation is multi rated but a straight THHN rating is not rated for wet locations it should also be labeled as THWN to be approved for buried circuits.


How can I prevent the lines from showing through when painting paneling?

When you say "paneling", do you mean imitation wood paneling with grooves cut in to simulate boards?. If so, it is hard to fill those grooves. I have used Bondo auto body filler but it requires a good bit of work. Properly applied and sanded, the grooves will be invisible.


What Type of Mortar do I need for a Glass Block Shower?

Any fortified thin set will work. I have used colored grout with add mix several times for glass block shower walls. Once the mortar is cured I then seal it the same as any tile job. There are pre mixed glass block mixes it is usually white.


Will a Gledhill Boilermate 2000 work with a Honeywell Evohome thermostat?

The thermostat and the radiator units worked fine. The hot water kit was not used.


What is the recommended tire pressure for a sack barrow for different weight intervals?

Keep it inflated at or near maximum. Then if you have a task where the barrow needs less pressure you bleed the tire down to the point where it does that job while supporting the load.


Disassembling a faucet to replace its cartridge

You need to get a small mirror and bright flashlight and reflect the light into that hole so you can see what you're dealing with. Just about every screw in those handles needs an Allen wrench to remove it. It could be SAE or metric.
Once you get that handle off, you have to loosen the chrome collar at the seam you can see in your photo. A strap wrench or leather belt (Thanks Ed) works so you don't damage the surface.
These faucets are tricky so don't get too discouraged if things don't go right the first time.


Do I need to grade my turf for drainage in a small plot

1/8" per foot or 1cm per m (minimum) slope away from the house is always needed, and will save a lot of problems with water infiltrating the house.
However, since this does not directly abut the house, if the paver area next to the house is properly sloped away from the house and the drain works, sloping the grass area away from the house is less important, unless there's so much water the drain is overwhelmed. I typically try to have 12 feet or 4 meters around the house consistently sloped away - after which things can change, if water management is adequate.


Use conduit

Putting in some 2" schedule 80 PVC now is a cheap investment compared to having to dig up a busted cable to replace it.

Torque your lugs to spec!

Get an inch-pound torque wrench and torque your breaker and panelboard lugs to manufacturer's spec.  This is a new requirement with the 2017 NEC, spelled out in 110.14(D), and simply good practice anyway, especially with aluminum (which is a bit more sensitive to torques than copper is).

Make sure the outbuilding is grounded

Since you have a feeder to a subpanel at the outbuilding, you'll need to put in a ground electrode at the outbuilding and wire it to the ground bar in the subpanel, which will be separate from the neutral bar, by the way.  (Make sure to pull that bonding screw or strap in the new subpanel!)


The photos clearly show a terrible tile job. Tiles that are set crooked, tiles that are missing on the edge near the wall, grout lines of all different widths.

If the tiles were that uneven on the mesh then i would not have purchased them. If i were the tile setter and they were that crooked i would have brought it to the attention of the home owner prior to setting and made it clear that extra time would be needed to deal with an inferior product.

If i had to set tile that were manufactured with such lack of uniformity and sloppiness ( and i am not sure i would even agree to ) I would have cut out the crooked ones and used spacers to insure straight tiles with even grout lines. If care and time were taken then they could have been set to look good but the installation cost would need to reflect the extra effort.

IF the tile was that poorly set on the mesh then It sounds like you got a sub par product and tile setter who did not care to make it right.


Need advice with the removal of the soleplate

The strategy of adding a header to replace one or more studs is appropriate, with one caveat: The header must be adequate to carry the load of the floor above as well as any roof that's bearing at that point, if those currently rest on that wall. The header must rest on "trimmer" studs, which aren't shown in your diagram, whether it's load-bearing or not.


Is there any AA battery wall-powered placeholder?

Battery Eliminators

There are indeed ready made products (called battery eliminators) that perform the function that you envision.

The "active cell" has the wires that inject the 3VDC from an external source into the battery holder. The "dummy cell" is just a plastic block that has an end to end wire. (Note that when using the pictured type device it is necessary to make sure that your wall mounted device just has two wires from its battery holder off into the internal circuitry).

Installation will require some modification of the device's battery door unless it is possible to operate the device without the battery door in place.

The whole kit also includes the wall wart type AC mains adapter:

DIY Eliminator

If you start the search for "AA Battery Eliminator" you will quickly find that these units are moderately expensive. Based upon that you may be encouraged to build your own. The fake cells can be constructed using suitable diameter wooden dowel material cut to length. Sometimes the end caps can be taken from typical dead AA carbon zinc batteries as these end caps are often removable from the cell and can then be glued in place on the ends of the dowel. A hole drilled from end to end of the dowel and one from one side into the center can accommodate the wires.

In some cases alligator clips can be used instead of dummy cells:

Rechargeable AA Cells

Keep in mind that it may be another option to invest in a couple of sets of rechargeable AA cells and a separate wall/USB powered charger unit. The cost of such solution may be similar to the battery eliminator.

Do be aware that many low cost re-chargers are garbage and will do more to destroy your rechargeable cells than the actual use of the cells themselves. There are some decent battery chargers worth considering such as this unit from Lacrosse. I have the the Lacrosse BC-700 model and can report that it is an excellent product.

Buy AA Cells In Bulk

The overall simplest solution would be to purchase the AA alkaline batteries in bulk. With a little bit of research you can find bulk purchase options that include free shipping and prices of just over a quarter of a dollar per cell.


How to fix a threaded toilet shutoff valve?

Looks like it says "BRASS" on it, I'd guess American Brass. Identify your stem, here.

It may not leak anymore if you have tightened it, but now you need to loosen it a little to let it operate. I appreciate your need to be gentile, but I'd swap the entire valve out. One thing though, is that nipple NPT? It kinda looks like machine thread.

Safest way to take it off is to 'back-it-up' by using a pipe wrench on the nipple and an adjustable wrench on the valve. If you collapse the nipple with a pipe wench, it was about time to swap it all out anyway.

Backing it up, keeps the tension between the nipple and the valve, and doesn't let the rest of the piping spin.

Don't care, just want it to work and not leak: lock it down in the 'on' position.

Small leaks plug themselves. Relieve some of the tension on the packing nut, put a pan under it and see if it stops in a few days.


How do I slope a patio toward one of its corners?

For low-cost leveling, use flexible plastic tubing and fill it with water and food coloring. This will allow you to level the forms at each corner, or, in this case, to an offset of your choosing.


Where to connect C-wire on old furnace (diagram attached)

Found this link here stating that the blue C wire is the 24V AC transformer Neutral wire, hope this is of some use to you.


New plumbing - Lose Water Pressure in Outdoor Hose

If you have 2 seconds of good flow followed by low flow there is a restriction upstream.  The longer the burst the further up stream the restriction is.
The leak at the ball valve stem, You may have melted the oring or nylon seat that seals the shaft when soldering. The heat deforming the seal causing the leak.
I have had luck removing the nut and handle then the nut on the shaft. Orings are easy and cheap the ones that have nylon sleeves can be a bit tougher to find.
In some cases I have purchased another valve same size and brand and pulled the seal out to repair but most have been orings.


100 Amp Shed Workshop from 200 Amp House Panel 120' Direct Bury Cable

First, a few general thoughts:

You'll need four conductors, not three. Two hots, neutral, and a separate ground.
Also need to add a grounding electrode system at the outbuilding. (two ground rods, concrete-encased electrode, buried copper wire, copper water pipe, etc)
It seems short-sighted to direct-bury cable. You could put it in an enormously over-sized 2" conduit for under US$1 per foot. 1-1/2 is adequate and, though it might be a tough pull, even 1-1/4 SCH 40 PVC meets the fill requirements for holding 3x1 ga (hot, hot, neutral) plus 1x4 ga (ground).
Don't forget to mount the riser conduits to the buildings (strut and conduit clamps, for example).
Some detached buildings provide prime roof real estate for PV generation. Does yours?  You might do well to drop an extra conduit in the trench so that PV wiring can be carried back from the outbuilding to the main panel in the future.
Will you ever want any low voltage connections between the buildings? Security, fire alarm, networking? If "maybe" then "add another conduit."
Last rule of wiring: buy the wire last! Too often people buy the wire first, then partway through the project become aware of something that makes the already-bought wire less-ideal or even inappropriate/unusable.

I think your 2-2-4 cable is undersized. It's true that the 90 degree C column of NEC table 310.15(B)(16) pegs the ampacity of 2 ga aluminum at 100 A, but you can't use the 90 degree C column because your breakers' terminals will be rated for just 75 degree C.
The 2-2-4 cable sounds like a USE type cable? I'm not certain that's allowed to be used for a feeder. Also not sure that a feeder is allowed to down-size the neutral conductor the way services are.
For reference: I've just finished a 100 ft 100 A feeder similar to yours; I used 3x1 ga plus 1x4 ga aluminum THWN conductors in conduit. The 4 ga was for grounding, and although it could have been #8 copper or #6 aluminum, I used 4 ga because I needed a few for another circuit and because at that size and heavier one can re-mark a "hot color" conductor for neutral/ground use. I put a wrap of green tape at each end and that black wire suddenly became a ground wire.


How can I estimate the load capacity of a set of shelves?

There are a number of online calculators related to the problem in the answers & comments to an earlier question about building shelves:

What are cheap ways to build strong shelves with a large span?

References included:

The Sagulator (sag calculator for different types of wood & related materials)
Elastic Beam Deflection Calculator (can handle lots of different loadings, but you have to know the properties of the materials)
Structural Beam Deflection and Stress Formula and Calculation (gives formulas, but doesn't have the fancy javascript calculators)

All of these were to calculate sag -- wood and metals are going to sag before they collapse in most cases.  The exception would be when fasteners tear out the side of wood (eg, an anchor comes free from the wall), and sometimes, there isn't a whole lot of time between sag & fail (I had a bookshelf bow, pull free from the shelf supports, and then cascade as it took out all of the other shelves below it).

Concrete will fail explosively (sudden collapse with little to no warning, which is why reinforced concrete specifically has less than the optimal amount of steel in it, so the steel goes first), but that's not normally used for shelves.


The third step in your instructions might address this

  Turn regulator knob fully counterclockwise to cause air to bleed off.

so either that or leave the drain cock twisted open while it's running.


Hot water tank only has warm water after bath

This is normal.
Your tank has 60 litres. You took 120 litres of cold+hot. So, let's assume you took 60 litres of hot and 60 litres of cold water. What went in? Cold water. Heating up this cold water will take time.
The only thing anormal, to me is :

We have a new 60L gas hot water tank.

That's small. Where do you live ? I live in a place with both abundant hydro electricity and abundant water, so a water heater would be more like 60 gallons.
After edits:
Is the dip tube installed correctly ?
https://www.discovercabrillo.com/what-is-a-dip-tube-in-a-hot-water-heater/#:~:text=A%20dip%20tube%20is%20a,the%20bottom%20near%20the%20burners.


Why is my GFCI receptacle tripping when I add another receptacle to the circuit?

Look for a ground fault

Disconnect the wires feeding the new receptacle, at both ends.
Set your multimeter (you do have a multimeter, right?) to the lowest resistance setting, or the continuity setting if it has it.
Touch one probe to the green/bare grounding conductor, and the other to each of the other wires in turn.
repeat this process for every combination of wires (G-> B, G -> W, W -> B).

With the wiring disconnected, you should not get a reading on the multimeter.  If you do, it means you have a short-circuit between that set of wires.  Repeat this process on the new receptacle, touching one probe to the green ground terminal and the other to each the brass and silver terminals.  Again, no combination should give a reading.
Your circuit is too long?
It may be possible that the circuit is just too long, and the resistance in the conductors themselves are causing the imbalance. Try connecting the new receptacle to the previous receptacle temporarily, using short pigtails (CAUTION: Working on energized circuits is dangerous.).  Turn on the power, and try to set the GFCI. Make sure nobody is near the exposed receptacles, and don't touch, or get near them while the power is on.
If the GFCI holds, there is a fault in the wiring to the new receptacle or the circuit may simply be too long.
Warning: I haven't done any calculations, research, or testing on this theory, so it could be completely false.  It's just a thought, but it's fairly easy for you to test.
According to the documentation for the Two-Pole QO®/QOB Circuit Breaker and Ground Fault Circuit Interrupter

NOTE: To minimize nuisance tripping:...

Do not connect circuit breaker to  more than 250 ft. (76 m) of load  conductor for the total one-way run

Is the power on?
GFCI receptacles can only be reset when the power is on. So if you're trying to reset it with the power off, you won't have any luck.


Can I remove the circuit breaker handle ties and treat them as individual circuits?

But they're not individual 120V circuits!

They are combined into pairs, as something called a multi-wire branch circuit.  These share a neutral, so they're not separate at all.

The handle-ties exist for a bunch of reasons.

They must be on different poles/phases

Top of the hitlist is to force them into different poles or phases, i.e. To keep someone from obliviously moving them onto a double-stuff breaker so they're on the same pole.  That would set the neutral wire on fire, because the neutral wire would be handling all the current for both hots.

Whereas, if they are on different poles/phases, neutral only handles differential current: there's some math, but on a split-phase or 2-of-3-phase system, neutral will never have more current than any one hot.  This is the slick trick of the multi-wire branch circuit.  Take a look at a big box store's lighting sometime; they make full use of 3-phase MWBCs at 277V, and it lets them put over 20,000 watts of lighting on twelve #12 wires in a 3/4" conduit.

Anyway, as a practical matter, in modern service panels, the presence of a mandatory handle-tie forces you to position the MWBC on opposite phases/poles.

That is its most important function  where someone has an itch to rearrange the panel.  We'll come back to that.

Common maintenance shutoff

Typically, an electrician plugs a radio into a circuit, and shuts off breakers until the radio falls silent. This ought to work on a MWBC.  Otherwise, the electrician could shut off half the MWBC, and promptly get nailed by the other half.  "But how can that be? He'd only be messing with neutral, and that's harmless!"   If that were true, we wouldn't insulate it... Actually neutral is hot, it's just near ground if everything is working right and properly connected.

The handle ties ensure that when he silences  the radio, he has shut off the entire circuit.

This is the part of the handle-tie that is actually Code mandated.  Forcing opposite poles is just a nice side effect.

But my half is tripping because of overuse of the other half!

My home is fantastically underserved.  It is on half an MWBC; the other half is shared by 2 apartments.  (Really.) Even so, having to reset a breaker from overload is a very rare occurrence, (maybe once every 5 years in my lifetime).  It should be rare.   If it's not rare, someone is doing something wrong and not taking a hint.

The cure for this is to learn about wattage of devices. Most people have no idea a hair dryer takes more power than a 54" TV.  They're plainly labeled: learn what that means, learn what is on which circuits, and don't overload the circuits.   My partner figured it out with only 3 explainings, and knows exactly how to sequence microwave, toaster, hair dryer and various heaters on high vs low.

But I want to overstuff my panel!

A constant refrain here is "buy a huge panel".  Because it only costs a few dollars more, and it saves you from having panel-cram problems later.  I gather your builder didn't get the memo.

Our quickest cure for that is "add a subpanel".  I like to see a total number of full breaker spaces  for a house to be in the forties.  So if you have a 24 space, get another one. 16, get a 30. Etc.   There are other strategies for underserved or obsolete/dangerous panels, that involve preparing the subpanel to become the new main panel when resources permit a changeover.  This isn't spendthrift, this is a very economical way of being smart.

However, if you are double-stuffing this panel, here is the takeaway:  they have quadplex breakers with a 2-pole breaker in the center and two individual breakers or another 2-pole on the outside. MWBCs can only go on the inside 2-pole, never the outside pair. Even if the outer ones have handle ties, which some do, those handle ties are merely decoration and do not provide common maintenance shutoff, which MWBCs require. They are labeled as such.

If you have a GE Qline panel with the cruciform bus bars which allow half width breakers, then you may use the GE half-width 2-pole breakers for an MWBC.  These look like a "duplex/twin/double-stuff" breaker, but are factory handle-tied and also have common trip.  You must never, never use an untied double-stuff.


I hate adding anything to the roof, it just gives a place to leak.

That truss you need to cut is non-structural. It’s made similar to a truss, so it will match the pitch, etc. Often carpenters will build a wall to match the pitch.

Therefore, yes, you can cut into that wall, cut through the middle 2x4 web (flat stud) and install a vent. (Make sure you don’t cut the roof joists.) However, I’d add a 2x4 around the opening to stiffen the area where the vent will be installed.

However, I’d verify that that side of your house is not the windward side. (I’d prefer the leeward side.) Wind driven rain could push through the vent causing multiple problems.


How can I replace these old ceiling tiles?

This type of tile is composed of pressed fiber material. They have edges that engage each other in a tongue-and-groove arrangement. They're typically installed on 1x2 battens running under the continuous seams.

If you can find replacements, you can probably cut individual tiles out with a fresh utility knife. You'd then install the new tiles with construction adhesive. You'd need to support them for few hours, perhaps with temporary padded stilts.

You might find it easier to pull down the cove molding, overlay drywall, tape and paint, and reinstall the molding (or just tape the corners as normal).


How to level concrete floor that is chipped and has left over thinset

A silicon carbide grinding block (gray block with grooves, red handle, is the form I usually see - about 5x9x2 inches to start with, thinner as you use it and it wears down) is how you knock down the high spots.

After you do that you can use some type of levelling compound for the low areas - normal cement won't be happy in such a thin layer.


Why would an old fridge trip a circuit breaker?

I have a homebrew chest freezer in the garage, and a very understanding wife.

I am going to guess the problem is that the fridge has a 'freon' leak.

This leads to lack of oil in the freon line to lubricate the compressor. Which causes the compressor to overheat, and then a high temp thermostat opens.

The unit cools down, the thermostat resets, and it starts back up again.

The magic temp for overheating the compressor happens to be 8C inside of the fridge.

The reason for the breaker tripping immediately the first few times was from the compressor trying to start. Even though you gave it a couple of days, because of the leak, there is just not enough oil, in the right places, to start right up.

I am guessing the fix is easy for an appliance guy, a bit of dye to find the leak, solder over it, and recharge.

Best of luck to you and your lager.


If you are putting laminate flooring down on concrete you should use a subfloor panel, such as a Dricore engineered subfloor panel. These raise the floor up and allow air to flow below the laminate. It will also keep you warmer.

This is crucial in your application. This will prevent moisture in the concrete from ruining your subfloor and allows your concrete to breath, and may allow evaporation of any moisture from urine (but... you need to get that urine quick. If it sits on the floor, it will go through the cracks - no matter how small - and eventually lift/warp the flooring, even with subfloor.)

Let me be clear - do not put wood on concrete. It will always be giving off moisture. If you do not want to buy subfloor, use at least a 4mil thick vapor barrier liner. If you don't catch urine on the floor with 4mil VBL, think - it will just sit there trapped by the vapor barrier.


How can I install a waste disposer if I have a high drain fitting?

Interesting problem.  I'm afraid that having a high drain will cause you a lot of problems. My greatest concern is that the disposer will not drain fully and the standing water and waste will cause bacteria growth and foul odors.  This could be very unhealthy in a kitchen area, not to mention unpleasant. I'd look at a way to lower the drain if possible to assure proper drainage.


What prevents the water from flowing in a 13mm garden hose?

You've basically got it. Garden hose under low-to-no pressure is VERY sensitive to any dips and will stop flowing. I have personally run into this problem with dehumidifiers that have a hose drain on the outlet, where the hoses were extremely sensitive to how they were arranged, or they would just not flow. You also run into this when trying to start a siphon - if the hose is full of water, the siphon will work, but too many air bubbles breaks the siphon.

You seem to have arrived at a satisfactory solution with your barrel (which allows adequate pressure to build to push the air out of the hose) - you should also be able to make it work by (rather tediously) carefully arranging and supporting the hose so it has a constant downward slope with no dips and rises. If trying that, rigid pipe obviously makes it easier, being more amenable to maintaining a constant slope.


How to cut out a piece of a stud fully from an existing wall?

I'd go for my pull saw or my oscillating saw/multitool

You should be able to get most of the way through with the oscillating saw and then finish it by hand with a compact hand saw. I like my compact pull saws to tight spaces like that.


in mains electrical, wiring methods are everything.  You're running smack into that right now.
What you were thinking of is this.

However for thermostat wiring, the above is a silly product, because generally speaking thermostat wiring is a permanent part of the building, and there'd be no reason to make it pluggable, and a lot of reason not to.   Enter products like yours, which are designed to mount on standard 120/240V steel junction boxes, common as dirt in 120V wiring methods:

They're so common Amazon doesn't practically sell them, since every hardware store and electrical supply stocks them for about a dollar.   As you can see, your transformer is made to be the lid of this.
However, you have it upside down. Code requires it be mounted with the AC power (black and white) wires on the inside, where they will splice to AC power wires also inside. The non-hazardous low voltage terminals are to be on the outside of the box.
Now, if your basement is unfinished, there's likely to be one of these junction boxes somewhere, with handy circuits behind it your electrician can tap.  Alternately, she can fit one of these boxes at an appropriate location, and then use listed wiring methods compliant with the Electrical Code to bring 120V mains power to the box.
At that point, the electrician splices the transformer's 2 wires to mains power hardwired, fits the transformer as the box lid, tightens it down, and leaves. You use thermostat cable to take the 24V wherever you need to go.  (or the electrician also could, obviously, and they're experienced at fishing wires through finished walls without wrecking drywall).
The key to this type is you let the thermostat wire do the traveling, you fit the transformer in a less finished utility space, crawlspace or basement where that makes sense.   I would say that is also true of the wall-wart transformer you really want.
But you don't really want a wall-wart transformer, you want this thing, hardwired in and installed to code.  Call an electrician, or learn proper wiring methods and fit your own box.  DO NOT hork this thing together like you have been aiming to do so far.


Can a doorbell transformer sit loose inside main panel?

You won't want to install the transformer inside the panel. Instead you'll install it on the panel.

Remove the retaining nut from the threaded fitting on the other side of the transformer (the bit in your hand).
Feed the wires and threaded fitting through an appropriately sized knockout in the panel.
Thread the wires through the retaining nut, and tighten the nut down on the threaded fitting.
Connect the primary wires from the transformer to the proper terminals in the panel.
Connect the low voltage wires to the terminals on the secondary side of the transformer.


Question about outswing door on attached toolshed

Sometimes sheds just are not built like standard construction.  You are right that the door is mostly hung on what appears to be brick molding.  If you want real strength from the hinges and the latch side of the door, setting it back into the opening where you can grab studs is going to be your best bet.  Having the door inset a bit also makes prying attacks a little harder (not much, but something) but the main goal is to get all of the hinge screws and latch plate screws into a structural member.

On the plus side, it looks like the stop molding is just nailed onto the door casing rather than being a single piece of casing with an integrated stop, so moving the door back into the opening might be a little easier.


Cinder Block Foundation - Excessive Moisture

The problem is obvious from the picture. The water sheds down that hill right where the house is. There is a house near me that is at the base of a hill and it floods regularly even though mine does not. It is because he is at the base of the hill.

To solve the problem, you need to dig a trench between the house and the hill that is deeper than your foundation and put a drainage pipe in the bottom of the trench to drain the water somewhere else.


I have a broken Rainbird APAS-100 valve, how can I fix it?

Champion Irrigation makes a valve called the PCL-100 which is compatible with the body from the APAS-100 (and a PCL-075 which ought to fit the body of the APAS-075), which are available as of this writing.

The specific part that I got is the PCL-100-C (not sure what the C means and if the B model works in the same way).

The valve fit perfectly onto the APAS-100's body (though the wires from the solenoid were a bit of a tight fit when installing, I had to take some parts off the neighboring valve to get it screwed on).  In initial testing, it seems to function just fine on the APAS-100's body.


Should be trivial; conduit (which is probably what your "pipe" is) is ideal for this.

Either use the phone wire to pull in a rope and use that to pull in the Cat6, (and use one for phone if you are still using a landline) or vacuum in a string if there's conduit, but no phone wire. If you need multiple wires, figure out how long they are, cut that (or a bit longer) and pull them all in at the same time - you'll need someone keeping them from tangling on the way in.

For single wires, if you buy the usual box of wire you can feed straight from it with no tangling.

Hollow braided rope is nice for a pull string, as you can expand the end by pushing on it and slip the wire(s) inside the braid, then smooth it down & tape the end in place. Allow about a foot of overlap so the rope can get a good grip on the wire.

Don't pull too hard or bend wires sharply (it ruins Cat-whatever wire) and where possible, pull down, not up (let gravity help you - carry the box of wire to the top end and pull down through the house.)


What type of supports do I need for a 12'x20' deck?

Temporary post removal
If the beam members don't all join over one post, you can probably temporarily remove the two interior posts while you do your concrete work. Assuming adequate lap (with no more than one butt joint over each post) and adequate cross-fastening (say three screws every 18"), it'll hold the empty deck for a span of 18'. If you see substantial pressure or movement when you remove the first post, consider temporary posts to the ground outside the concrete pour area.
You'll want to block off the entrance to the deck to make sure no one enters it during this time.
Permanent post removal
Generally speaking, the footings that would've been built in 2013 should be able to carry half the deck and its contents. Should. Without knowing what they are, we're speculating. 6x6 posts are also probably adequate, depending on specific local code. That leaves the question of the beam.
You'll need steel (or an outdoor-rated engineered wood beam), and you'll need an engineer to sign off on a size. Other than the challenge of moving such a beastly beam, it's more or less a drop-in situation. Ask your inspection office what type of fastening to the posts and joists they'd expect.
On the subject of beam connectors
I've never heard of a deck falling due to post or beam displacement, though I can imagine it happening in a severe wind situation or if someone hits one with a tractor. Having built dozens of decks through the 80s and 90s and beyond, we never used structural steel for that. Just toenailed screws. If you want to add something, go ahead, but I wouldn't worry about it.


Clearly something is binding, catching or blocking the door sections or roller wheels in the tracks. It could be as simple as one of the track mounting bolts has come loose and is binding with the roller as it tries to go by.

It is also possible that the door is becoming wedged as it gets toward the lowest position. There may be a small diameter cable attached to the lower section of the door on each side that goes up toward the top and spools onto the spring assist lifter at the top. It is possible that one of these cables has broken, become detached or has doubled over itself in the spool mechanism. One or the other of these could cause the door to not be supported uniformly on each side or the cable not allowed to un-spool nicely on one side.


Extending horizontal urinal flush handle vertically

The best hack is one that has already been specifically engineered:

They make remote buttons for them, the pictured style is one of several options. Go to a good commercial plumbing shop and you should be able to get more info.


Testing 3-wire receptacles indicates no ground even though 12/2 w/ground wire is connected

The grounds should be bonded to the neutrals at the main panel.  (If it's not, it's a serious problem, call an electrician.)  If you are getting good grounds on some of the outlets, it's probably bonded at the main panel.

If the ground isn't spliced right* at a receptacle it will show no-good at that receptacle and at all the receptacles on the same circuit downstream from that receptacle.  That would be a possible explanation.  It fits with the miswiring by the previous owner.  Tracking down the bad ones can be a bear.  Still that may be better than tracking down and replacing a damaged wire.

*edit:  by "spliced right" I mean all the ground conductors of all the cables and all the ground terminals of the devices are bonded together in the box, and the box itself it's a metal box ...

If there was some creative wiring going on, some wiring can cause the receptacle tester to show a good ground where there isn't.  For example jumpering the neutral to the ground terminal on the receptacle (non-code and a very bad idea) would show a good ground on the tester, but there isn't.

If you can double check with a different tester, that might be a good idea, you don't want to chase your tail if the tester is no good.


The blue wire is unconnected (floating) at the moment

I can see from your photograph of the wiring at the air handler that the blue wire in the thermostat cable is simply disconnected at that end.

Finding your C wire (using the air conditioner trick)

See how the yellow wire from the thermostat is wire nutted to a red wire going off into a second brown cable? That second brown cable is connected to your air conditioner's outdoor unit, and the white wire in that cable must be connected to your C wire in order for you to have air conditioning.

So, nutting the blue wire from your thermostat-cable into where the white wire from the air-conditioner cable is joined into (after stripping the end of the blue wire of course) will make your blue wire the C wire you're looking for.


Leaking from roof between a one-story sun room and main structure

If there are signs of past water damage I would recommend opening the wall from the inside just below the leak to attempt to determine where the water is entering. Drywall repair is cheap versus the problems of moisture in the wall long term.
I just had a similar situation with damp drywall in a ceiling corner. In opening the wall there was a leak from flashing that wasn't properly installed that had been going on for years. The top double plates, the king stud along a window and the rafter base were all rotted away. It had been leaking for years without soaking through the drywall.
I would cut out just enough drywall to inspect the framing and roof area from the interior. Look at the framing members for any sign of moisture present or past. Water leaks sometime do strange things traveling along rafters, etc. before it becomes evident. As you get in there you may have to take out additional drywall as you track the leak.
Calling the roofers who did the installing is a good first step but until you determine the source any solution is only an educated guess.
Edit
As I said in comments: These leaks are usually easier to diagnose from the interior if you have possible access through drywall. If not, obviously, have the roofer check areas of the roof above the leak - even on the other side of the chimney chase. This is often a common problem area.


If you are having trouble locating from what area of the tank is leaking you can add a blue colored food dye to the reservoir (tank) to see if it appears in the bowl. If you see the water is turning color then concentrate your search at the tank/bowl and/or flapper section. Although 4-5 years may not seem like a lengthy amount of time, for rubber and plastic parts it can seem forever. The flapper, if 4-5 years in service, should be replaced. Also make sure the fill valve, specifically the float, is not adjusted to high. It should cut out the water flow when filling about 1 inch below the overflow pipe that the flapper is attached to. The last place to look for the offending leak is the exterior of the bottom of the tank (this would be obvious as water would appear on the floor). The rubber washers that seal the tank to the bowl can deteriorate and crack as can the large washer that the flapper closes onto. The washer on the fill valve is on the exterior and one inside. Check with a flashlight for any water trails.   One last place to check is the top of the fill valve were the float (if set up as such) is attached. If possible open the cap on the valve top and look for trapped debris that prevents the valve from closing fully.


Sellotape caused discoloration on the wooden surface

hard to tell from the photo, but I think you have old varnish, just aged and oxidized.  take some acetone and wipe the area at the edge of the ripped area.  if you wipe it and get some yellowy residue, you probably have old varnish or lacquer.  if not, wipe with methanol or methyl hydrate.  if this produces yellowy residue, you have old shellac.  if it doesn't wipe with either process you may have a urethane that's tinted and it would need sanding and refinishing.

either way, if it wipes off with either chemical, just wet feather the edge and then let dry.  you should see a lighter area when it dries, but with a smooth transition.  then you can topcoat.  don't try to match colours as the area will naturally darken in the stripped wood section when you coat it, and then further as it ages.


How can I make my outlets more secure in their boxes?

Various products are available specifically for leveling a device in an oversized opening, such as this bracket.

Selection at big box stores may be limited, go to an electrical supply house if you can't find similar.


This appears to be a classic switch loop with the white wire marked black. With your power turned off, connect your white fixture wire to the group of white wires in the box. Connect your black fixture wire to the single black wire in the box. The box doesn't appear to be grounded so just leave the copper wire from the fixture, if there is one, unhooked and tucked into the box.


How do safety labels on light fittings work with energy saving bulbs?

The safety concern is about heat, not light.  For the safety label concern, you can put 40 actual watts of whatever you want in there.

But the real world is a bit more complex.  Incandescent and halogen will run hot with little fuss.  CFL's and even more so LED's have electronics that degrade under heat, and LEDs loose efficiency with heat.  This is why both perform quite poorly in can lights and enclosed fixtures.

All that said your 28W halogen in a 40W fixture is just fine.
I'd stick to a 18W or less CFL or LED for operation heat (not safety heat) reasons.


Your terminology is a bit off   A 55uf 440v cap Provides a phase shift for the motor so you will not be under powering the cap but the motor.
Will it work with a 45uf?  Probably but start may be a bit harder.
I change caps quite regularly on single phase systems , I try to stay within 10% of the original, if I don’t have one that is within 10% would I use one that is almost 20% under?
Yes I have and it worked until I could get the proper size 3 days later.
I did monitor the start & run currents the system I believe was a 5 ton it was drawing close to max on startup ~35 amps and was taking 2-3 seconds prior to drawing less so I checked it it worked did not draw two much but did not leave them without cooling on a hot day(s).
Having the wrong size will cause the motor to take longer to start drawing more power so you don’t want to do this with a system that short cycles 5 starts per hour no problem from what I have measured but it should be replaced with the proper diced cap soon. The extra draw is not only hard on your motor but on the contactor an electronic switch inside the unit that uses a low voltage to turn on a higher voltage /high current device like the compressor motor or fan.
So it is possible but you should verify the system can get to speed (it usually takes longer) not all systems have the same sizes so without the motor size it is a possibility where I have done this.


It sounds more like the belt on the drum broke.
Most dryers are belt driven , it is possible if you turned it on enough times the NiChrome heating element over heated and broke.

There is normally a thermal fuse that blows to protect the element.

Prices are off topic as they quickly become obsolete, I have replaced belts, elements and the thermal fuses for under 100.

Find a local repair shop call them give them the model number and ask for the prices on these 3 parts. They are easy to replace. I am sure there are u-tube videos showing how to swap out the parts. I have kept driers working for decades with these parts and some rollers for the drum when they wore out.

You may not need all of them but this will give you an idea.


How do I splice a drywall metal outside corner bead?

I've always butted them together, and I've never had any problems with doing it that way.

Not sure what your builder was thinking by overlapping them.


In the U.S., that’s a Planning Commission decision not a Building Code issue. I’d go in (or call them) and explain the situation.
Here, some jurisdictions will allow you to do what you suggest and some will even allow you to pile dirt against a structure to keep it below the maximum height allowed. Other jurisdictions take the average height of the existing building site.


Impedance of electrical circuits increased - do they need to be replaced?

Unless you have aluminum wiring, there is no reason to periodically check circuit impedance. For that matter, the resistance of 10 meters of 12-gauge copper wire, often used for 20 amp circuits, is about 50 mohms, so I would question what circuits need to be replaced. The entrance cable? Certainly not your house wiring.


Thermostat set at 65 - Furnace went to 90 - possible causes?

there should be several other layers of protection from a fire, the issue is more economic. It might be a one-off event, like the thing's smarts freezing up. Maybe check the batteries.

If in any doubt, you can put the old thermostat, set at a max cut-off temp like 80, in series with the new one to prevent a "crashed" smart thermostat from running the heat all day. The heat would only come on if BOTH thermostats agreed it should. Since the older one will be on for anything under 80, it normally does nothing and stays "on".

If you have the opposite problem, it doesn't come on sometimes, then you put the backup thermostat in parallel with the smart one, so that either one will trigger. Then you set the analog thermostat for a fail-safe like 50 to prevent frozen pipes.

You can put your backup thermostat out of the way, or next to the furnace; it need not be in the comfort zone to be effective.


Should I open the top or bottom of double hung windows?

If you open both the top and bottom about 3" the hot air goes out the top and cooler air comes in the bottom.


What kind of caulk should I use around my bathtub?

I just caulked my shower last night. I used GE Silicone II caulk from Home Depot. I read up on this a little before picking out what kind I needed. From what I can tell, silicone caulk is good for bathrooms because:

It's permanently waterproof
It doesn't crack or shrink

Another factor which may play into your choice of caulk could be whether or not it's paintable, but the most important factor for a bathroom is going to be waterproof/mold proof.


I have Direct tv plugged into a gfci protected receptacle. All of the receptacles on same circuit will go dead, but not trip the gfci. Why?

If you have bypassed the GFCI receptacle and still have problems, then there must be a loose connection between the GFCI and the breaker. Here are the places to look:

At the GFCI, are the wires connected by a screw, or by push-in? The push-in connections are unreliable - I have had a receptacle "fry" because of poor connections, and it was installed by an electrician. Installers like them because they are fast, but I always go with the screw connection.
At the breaker, is the breaker making good contact with the power bus? If the bus is corroded, even a new breaker might not make good contact. Try plugging the breaker into a different slot, if there is one to spare.
Also in the panel, is the neutral (white) wire screwed down tightly?
Are there any other outlets between the panel and the GFCI receptacle? If so, make sure the twist-on connectors are tight, and that the splice is not made through the receptacle.

Note that loose connections will not trip a GFCI. Neither will short-circuits between hot and neutral - they will trip the breaker in the panel. Also, nothing "upstream" will trip a GFCI. And once a GFCI is tripped, it won't reset itself.


Use fish tape:

It's a sturdy, yet flexible metal rod meant for running cables.  Figure out which of the two openings you can easily pull from, hard.  Insert the tape from that end until it emerges on the other side.  Then cut holes in a towel and secure it to the fish tape with zip ties or hose clamps, and pull it back through.
The rag or towel should force the brush out of its way on the way back.
In the future, NEVER use brush rods that can unscrew to clean a dryer vent.  Only use the kind that are permanently attached to a tough braided wire.


How can I soundproof a hatch door in the floor?

1.5" X 2 feet X 3 feet or so?
That's not very thick to support 150+Lb without flexing, which'll give you a drumhead effect regardless of how much foam is used.
Consider putting an angle iron stiffening frame on the underside of the door.
Attached firmly, it should eliminate flex, and most of the drumming.


Grading soft white sandy soil in central Florida with only a Bobcat?

A bobcat can be used for grading. In my horse turnouts I use a bobcat as they are small enough to move around where I can’t get my big tractor in. I pull backwards this fills the tire trenches where pushing you will leave tracks or ruts. Remember a bobcat is a skid steer so if using a tracked model (it will need tracks in the sand) pulling makes a better surface and you won’t get stuck or bog down as often.


How can I add a closet to an existing room?

So based on advice from ratchetfreak in comments I took his advice and went with the 'corridor' effect on the 37" wall (pic below). As the room has two doors it gave me an interesting perspective on what the 'walking into the room' vibe was. For door #1 (the bottom door in pic) I felt like the closet made the room feel smaller on entrance. For door #2 (left wall) I was really surprised that walking into the room didn't feel like the closet was overbearing.

So my end analysis is that a closet jutting into the room across from a doorway is fine. Also, that a corridor effect makes a room feel smaller on entrance. I prefer option one, although we ended up going with option two because it really was the only place the closet would fit.


How do I know if I will drill into a hole in a wall that was already made?

Chip away the drywall over the hole and install a Stud Plate.  These are designed to stop anyone from drilling into a wire that runs through a stud.

Patch the drywall.  Next time, if you can't find the location, and accidentally drill in the same spot, you'll hit the stud plate.