Connecting new ceiling light in 1970 house

My guess is one of the cables is a switch loop the other one is a 2nd light, and the hot you know.
I would check the not hot cables with an ohm meter looking at the black white resistance with the switch in the on position one or both of the dead cables will short or very low resistance depending on the type of lamp in the other fixture, now turn the switch off check both again the cable that was shorted and now reads open is a switch leg.
The black hot goes to the white of the switch leg usually a wire nut. The black coming back from the switch is the switched hot that you connect the other dead cable black to with the new lamp black the cable that had the hot also has a white this the neutral you connect the new light white to this white and the other dead cable white together.
This will properly connect your lights. There should be some bare ground wires in the box they should all be tied together and bonded to the box it looks metal, if conduit that may be your ground instead of a bare ground.


It looks like you scrubbed away the top layer of paint. There's no way to scrub it back on.

If you have the paint, you can easily blend it in, though fading due to age may result in it being slightly conspicuous.

If not, get a paint match (for both color and sheen) and paint the entire wall.


Does adding a disconnect box below the meter mean that my service panel is now a subpanel?

If the power company did not change the bonding point, you still have a main panel ("the one with the bond in it.")

So long as there's only one, the location of the bond can and does vary with the preferences of the power company, mostly. Mine is inside the meter box, so my panel is wired as a sub-panel.

On a typical panel run from a meter and bonded in the panel, the meter itself is a disconnect point that's upstream of the bond, and that's not a problem.

You should realize that the neutral and ground conductors are not interrupted by a disconnect, so the bond in your panel is still effective even with a disconnect upstream of it.

If the power company had opted to move the bond point, they would have needed to rewire your panel - a considerable expense (for them) and inconvenience (for you) they avoid by not changing the bond point.


The old one had a single neutral wire, which absolutely forced you to have fan and light on the same circuit.

The new one has 2 separate neutral wires, allowing you the option of putting fan and light on totally separate circuits.  If you don't want to exercise the option, simply add both neutral wires to the place the old neutral was before.

As far as the blacks, one is hot for the fan, the other is hot for the light.  Mark one of them with red tape, and wire it like the old unit.  If this has now exchanged the switches, then put the red tape on the other black instead, and repeat.


What is the difference between LVL 1.9 and 2.0?

LVL is laminated veneer lumber.  The numbers 1.9 and 2.0 refer to the Modulus of Elasticity which is a measure of the stiffness of the beam.  I would seriously doubt that there is any meaningful difference between 1.9 and 2.0 rated beams.


Gas line in contact with concrete - is this code compliant?

The only code I know around gas lines pertains to foundation walls/floor.   There it must be in a sleeve.   For this, it is certainly best practice (and actually easier to pour concrete with a sleeve).
This is really only an issue in your case if the gas line material is corrosive to water and may never be an issue at all if it is under something and never sees standing water.   What material is used for your lines?


I used to prefer oil based finishes, but the water based ones have gotten so much better over the years that I will now use them instead. For a simple closet organizer I suggest 2 coats, lightly sanding after the first coat.  The main problem with water based finishes is they tend to "raise the grain" of the wood on the first coat, which requires light sanding to remove.  Almost always the second coat doesn't.  And if you aren't yet satisfied with the 2nd coat, another light sanding and third coat would almost certainly be sufficient.

But to be succinct, I really think for your purposes 2 coats of a quality, water based Poly would be fine.


What can I do to avoid incandescent bulbs for my 3-bulb ceiling fan, yet maintain brightness?

I posted a response in JoshDM's thread over on Sustainability.stackexchange.com. Replying here as well in case this might help someone.

I'd been looking for a 60W equivalent candelabra base bulb for a while too. For the past few years the highest equivalent available to consumers was 40W. Now it looks like the 60's are finally making their way to market. This one claims 700 lumens which, if true, would be very close to the brightness of a 60W incandescent.

https://web.archive.org/web/20160308065010/http://www.wholesaleled.com/products/60w-equivalent-7-watt-joshua-series-round-top-clear-silver-base-led-candelabra

Update: Lowes now carries a 7.5W LED candelabra for a bit less. It's sold as a 60W-equivalent, though only puts out 500 lumens.


How many wires can I fit in 1" schedule 40 PVC conduit?

TL;DR No.
Chart in answer at: How do I determine the fill rating of a conduit?

1" Schedule 40 @ 40% = 0.333 in2
8 AWG = 0.0366 in2 x 4 = 0.1464 in2
6 AWG = 0.0507 in2 x 4 = 0.2028 in2
0.1464 + 0.2028 = 0.3492 > 0.333

There may be additional issues of how many circuits and/or types of circuits in the same conduit. But 0.3492 > 0.333 so it doesn't matter.


Most of those old motion detector stalk light deals are modular.  You can open them up and change just the motion sensor, for instance.

That's exactly what you can do.  Change the motion sensor to one that does require a neutral wire.  That means the sensor will be powering itself with its own local power supply, and won't be leaking current through the bulbs.


What's the difference between Casing and Trim?

Trim is a general term, often used to describe all types of molding and millwork.

Casing is a type of molding, typically used to trim the perimeter of windows and doors. Casing is typically less wide (tall?), but thicker than base molding.

11/16" x 2 1/4"

Base molding (or baseboard) is a type of molding, which is applied where the wall and floor meet.

9/16" x 3 1/4"

Crown molding (or crowns) is a type of molding, which is applied where the wall and ceiling meet.

7/16" x 3 5/8"

I think what the person was saying, was that the previous owner used casing in place of base molding.


I grew up with vermiculite (now rare due to most of it being contaminated (in the ground) with asbestos), moved on to fiberglass, and am now a blown-cellulose convert.

They all work, for various values of "work."

Cellulose is inexpensive, gets MORE effective when cold, and blocks airflow well enough that a vapor barrier is (possibly) optional according to some researchers. It's dusty during install, but otherwise innocuous. I'd suggest getting a bale from each supplier (or each different brand from suppliers) and inspecting it - or from the supplier you'd go with on a cost basis (first) and if that fails your inspection, from others. I found the sample I got from a major home improvement chain was contaminated with a lot of scrap plastic; as it turns out, not only were the bales from my local home improvement non-chain cheaper per pound, they were also good clean cellulose with no plastic scraps.

Fiberglass compares well at 70F (where R values are measured) but gets quite terrible at -20F, just when you want it working hardest. It's far more prone to air movement (whether in batts, where seams are are a problem or as loose-fill.) Plus there's that whole scratchy thing going on with glass fibers.

According to "belt and suspenders" thinking and "it's cheap enough" my cellulose is sitting on top of a vapor barrier. One more way to stop air movement. Since your climate is primarily heating, your vapor barrier goes on the inside (generally, the "warm" side - complicated in climates where heating and cooling are similar.)

If you are not using the space beyond the wall, insulate the wall (and perhaps add some furring strips to get more insulation on the wall where there is room.) If you insulate the roof, you need to provide cold air channels against the roof surface to vent the roof appropriately (though with that steep of an edge, it might be difficult to get a serious ice dam, which is what roof venting/cold roof design is trying to prevent.)

Since you are gutting it, you may also want to furr out the endwall to make it thicker and give you more space for insulation, since you won't get a lot of R-value with any insulation in the space available. Alternately, and at higher cost, you could sandwich a layer of sheet-foam type insulation over the studs and under the drywall on that wall.

Generally you will also want at least a few cans of polyurethane spray foam. While you can do all your insulating with spray-foam, it's very expensive, relative to other kinds of insulation. But it's great for sealing irregular cracks and crevices.


What exactly is a PAR type LED lamp, how does it differ from R/BR type LED & CFL lamps?

Due to the lack of adequate answers, I decided to research the differences myself and provide an answer to the benefit of the community.

PAR Type Lamps

From a build quality and light control standpoint, PAR type lamps are generally considered superior. The explicit parabolic nature of the reflector means light is more precisely reflected directly out of the bulb cavity, with less dispersion, than an R or BR type lens. PAR type lamps, thanks to the design of the lens in front of the actual light emitting element (which is usually a given with home lighting...PAR in general can referr to a very wide variety of lighting which may or may not have a front lens, including high powered stage lighting). The lens is often fresnel in nature, are often additionally capable of focusing the more accurately reflected light into a brighter, narrower spot. The fact that they have a more precisely crafted lens means they are capable of being designed to emit beams of varying angular degrees wide (anywhere from 12° to 70°), with high intensity narrow beams or more diffuse wider beams, makes them highly flexible.

PAR type lamps are also frequently designed in such a way that makes them viable for outdoor use. Not all PAR type lamps are properly sealed for use in humid climates or areas where rain or other water could intrude upon the bulb, but many PAR type lamps are. This is a key difference between PAR and R or BR type lamps.

In terms of nomenclature, PAR lamps are usually designated with a number. The number of a PAR lamp, such as PAR38, gives the diameter of the lamp in inches. In the case of a PAR38, the diameter would be 4.75" (4 3/4"), or "thirty eight eighths of an inch." Common PAR lamp sizes for home are PAR20, PAR30, PAR38, with the latter being most common.

R Type Lamps

One of the more common types of flood light lamps for use indoors, the R-type lamp is a more cheaply constructed "reflector" type lamp. They are not particularly efficient in any key respect, their design is roughly defined and there are no strict rules or guidelines regarding the reflector. As such, R-type lamps generally produce a highly diffuse light with a broad angle.

They use a similar nomenclature as PAR type bulbs. For example, an R40 is a bulb 40/8ths of an inch in diameter, or 5". The two most common R-type lamp sizes are R40 and R30.

BR Type Lamps

Preceding the CFL and LED age of high efficiency lighting, the BR-type lamp was an attempt to produce a more efficient indoor-use only replacement for R-type lamps. Standing for "bulbous reflector", the design of a BR-type lamp is more strict. The reflector is designed in such a way as to more efficiently reflect light. They still produce fairly soft, diffuse light, however it is reflected in a narrower beam, thus more efficiently utilizing light produced by the internal emitter (filament, LED, or CFL spiral.)

They too use the same eighth-inch nomenclature as PAR and R type lamps. The most common sizes are BR40 and BR30.

CFL and LED R, BR, and PAR type lamps

While the core design of these types of lamps was implemented in the days of tungsten-filament (incandescent and halogen) bulbs, the design is still used for CFL and LED lamps. In the case of CFLs, the actual reflector efficiency is likely suspect (at least in the case of a PAR type lamp), as the design of a PAR lamp, and thus it's efficiency in utilizing light, is dependent on the size and location of the internal emitters. CFL spirals are usually used in CFL-based flood lamps, and CFL spirals are a very different kind of emitter than a filament or LED. LED based flood lamps probably resemble classic filament based flood lamps better than CFLs do.

LED and CFL Light Quality

In some experimentation of my own, LED-based PAR type lamps definitely seem to direct a far greater quantity of their light downward, where as CFL spiral-based lamps still generally produce a more diffused output. Depending on the type of lens in front of the emitter, the quality and shape of the projected light for both CFL and LED PAR type lamps can vary greatly, from caustic refraction to fairly diffuse. CFL R/BR type lamps nicely simulate their incandescent predecessors. LED R/BR type lamps do not seem to diffuse quite as well as CFLs, so if you are looking for diffuse flood lighting, CFL generally has a more pleasing diffusion.

LED PAR lamps definitely produce a greater amount of directed illumination, so if you need to brightly light anything, LED is probably the best choice. LED flood lamps are also usually fully dimmable, "instant" on (sometimes "instant" really means up to a half-second delay before light is actually emitted), and produce far greater consistency of color (CFL color consistency is often rather poor, and during cooler or cold days, CFL floods will frequently brighten, dim to a deep magenta, then slowly normalize as they warm). LED lamps, of all designs, are usually fully dimmable these days as well. Dimmable LED flood lamps are usually dimmable down to 10% illumination, with some from the better manufacturers (such as Lighting Science) often dimmable down to 5%. Dimming quality, smoothness, minimum output and consistency is vastly superior on LED compared to CFL, with no flicker, popping, blinking, or inconsistent dropout as is frequent with dimmable CFL lamps.

In terms of the quality of projected light, BR-type CFL lamps definitely produce a smoothly diffuse light with little visible pattern directly underneath each bulb. PAR type lamps, either CFL or LED, but more so in the case of LED, produce visible refraction patterns under each bulb. I believe this has a lot to do with the design of the lens, and when multiple flood lamps are used along a hall or in a kitchen, diffusion improves. LED PAR type lamps can be very bright, which is nice when you need light.

My Choice and Recommendation

I have chosen to refurnish my kitchen, and eventually my hallways, with Lighting Science 5000k and 3000k (or possibly 4000k) Dimmable PAR38 LED lamps. These puppies are about $34 each, however they have twice the lifetime rating of comparable lamps from all other manufacturers (50,000 hours @ 6hrs per day vs. 25,000 hours @3-6hrs per day). The light is not as diffuse as your standard R-type incandescent, but the color quality is far superior for those who have never much liked the deep orange color of a classic incandescent (the 3000k versions are closer to a halogen in color, and the 5000k produce a nice, clean, crisp neutral white.)

For the highest quality, I recommend the following. Since LED lamps are dimmable, it is recommended to use a dimming switch wherever you use high lumen LED PAR lamps (i.e. 800 lumen or brighter). Personally I use Lutron HED-certified digital dimmers with dimming setting memory. One push of the button and the lights fade up over about a 1.5 seconds to your pre-set brightness level. Another push of the button, and the lights fade to minimum brightness then off over several seconds. With 800 lumen bulbs, setting a Lutron digital dimmer one or two notches down from maximum brightness produces very pleasing illumination, with the added bonus that if you need more light, or wish to add light during the daytime to fully illuminate areas that might generally be in shadow, you have the ability to crank up the illumination beyond that pleasing level.


Direct Vent natural gas fireplace has shut off 3 times by itself

1)your system is not bringing in fresh air for combustion

2) your system is not getting rid of exhaust gasses

3) you have a faulty oxygen depletion sensor that is lying to your system and causing shut down

If you leave the box open does it operate properly? If yes rule out number 3

DO NOT OPERATE THIS WITH THE GLASS OPEN !!!! You and your family could lose your life.

After reading your comments I have a couple more suggestions

The vent pipe must be designed specifically for use in your model fireplace. These are two pipes in one. The inner pipe carries the hot exhaust air out of the fire box while the outer pipe brings in fresh out side air. If you have simply attached a single wall flue to the box your fresh and exhaust air are mixing. That is not good. It would lead to combustion issues. If you have  have a two chambered flue that that is designed for use on direct vent fireplaces installed you should be sure that a proper termination cap is installed outside the house where it exits. These have baffles that can minimize effects of wind on the operation of the air exchange.  A high wind cap for these systems is available. Example


It's important to reapply the caulking / silicone, but not vital that it happens immediately. You'd probably want to do it in the next few weeks though, as it gets into the summer season. And when you reapply the caulking to this window, you should do it to all of your windows.

Gaps around door and window frames are one of the easiest areas to fix to reduce energy usage in your home. Given the state of the caulking around the other windows, though, the lack of caulking around this window is probably not going to cause a noticeable increase in your A/C usage - it's been increasing steadily - though slightly - over the years.

Caulk degrades over time, as it becomes brittle and cracks, and needs to be replaced every so often. Your A/C has been working harder than it has in the past because of this. This is why it's a good idea to replace the caulking once it starts to crack.

Silicone is (supposedly) more resistant to cracking than caulk, but may still need to be reapplied at some point.


The load will be transferred to the supports mostly based on how you stack it, not how the sheets are laid.
OSB has a dedicated (and labeled) strength axis. It's normally lengthwise with the sheet. While your OSB may be thick enough that it doesn't much matter, it's almost never appropriate to run it parallel to the joists. If you don't have a compelling reason to do otherwise, install it perpendicular with the joists.
Also, stagger the sheets. You should not stack joints like you have. Instead, start the second row with a half-length sheet and lap past the first butt joint with a full sheet. This allows the tongue-and-groove connection between sheets to help support the area around the joint. Even if you're not using t&g doing so will help stiffen the floor.


Help understand what's in the electric box

Put it back together the way you found it.

I don't really care if you substitute a new switch when you reassemble it. I'm more concerned with the wires being where they belong.

The #1 mistake people make in situations like this, is they take too much stuff apart because they're curious, and then they end up with a mess. And it's even harder to troubleshoot because remember, it started broken.  This is gravely misguided.  Not least because what's installed may be wrong.  It is certainly broken, and my guess is not there.

Do your learning from books, and read the whole book. Not online, because online is like looking through a keyhole: you need the big picture, the entire landscape.  Without that, you can't even know which questions to ask.


Best Practices for Measuring Screw/Bolt TPI?

A thread gauge is not tapped. A tapped gauge is attempting to show both size and threading, and can be limited by being too thin to correctly discern close metric/inch threads, for instance.
A thread gauge lets you worry about size, while it concentrates on accurately determining threading. Of course, you need to buy one that's not a hunk of poorly made junk...
You might "prefer something else" but your title asked for best practices. This is a problem with a tool that solves it; that is the best practice.


Replacing leaking Scalemaster scale inhibitor

Your plan is decent, but I'd amend it slightly:

Turn off the water
Take off the scalemaster and throw it away
Replace with a couple couplings and a regular piece of pipe
Turn the water on.
Be happy you saved your money by not buying a pointless device


How to unswitch a junction box so it is always on?

To answer your specific question requires you remove the cover plate from the switch, take a photo of the wiring, and post it here.

If your wiring is unfavorable, consider a wireless switch.  Newer versions of these use the kinetic energy of flipping the switch to power the switch, so no batteries and no restrictions on placement.

You could also put the "switch controlled" light on a timer, so it goes off automatically after a few minutes.  This lets you use the switch as originally desired, and also gives you a chance to control the motion light (many of which take a quick flip of the switch to mean 'stay on forever').

In general for anyone wiring an outdoor switch and light, strongly consider running 12/3 or 14/3 wire, even if the light is supposed to be switched.  This means running an extra "hot" wire for future use.


HVAC air handler with a built-in humidifier

Whole house humidifiers exist, and could be wired to work in your situation. This would require the air handler blower to run during the winter, and humidity level detection might be a challenge.

Typically the humidifier is installed on the return ducting of the air handler, and a bypass duct is connected to allow humidity to be added to the air. A humidistat is also installed on the return air ducting, which allows the humidifier to activate based on the humidity in the air coming from the house. Since you won't want the air handler to run constantly, you'll have to figure a way to passively detect the humidity level throughout the house. You'll then activate the blower, and the humidifier based on that.


It is possible the coils are full of dirt on the outside coil. They can be hosed down. Don’t use high pressure water that will fold the fins over and make it worse. Also when flushing make sure the water is coming out the drain. I put several gallons of water on my sister-in-law's floor cleaning her window type unit, but it worked better after that (or she was so hot from mopping just the fan felt cool). Also verify the inside filter is clean and dust free.


Setting up makeup lights on this rotating jewelry cabinet

Make up mirror.

source
Your cabinet has a full length mirror but not a makeup mirror and that is what she needs to do makeup.  A magnifying makeup mirror will also serve to reflect ambient light onto her face.  Install the makeup mirror and then make sure lighting for the room it is in is adequately bright (or can be made adequately bright) and the correct spectrum for applying makeup.


Where to start and end kitchen backsplash?

Not what you're asking about, but important:

If you regularly plug in more than 2 devices, as implied by the 6-1 gadget in the picture, then I highly recommend putting in another dual 15A receptacle a few inches away from the existing one. It can be on the same circuit and on the load side of the existing GFCI. I would put it a few inches away (either above the existing receptacles or to the left, below the light switches - presumably there is a stud between the switches and the receptacles) rather than putting in a 2-gang box because many devices need extra room (e.g., wall warts). It can share the same circuit so the cost is basically standard dual 15A receptacle + box + a little bit of cable and appropriate clamps, etc. This solves two problems:

For now and the future it eliminates the extra plug-in gadget to "expand" the receptacles. I use those, but I hate them. When there is a specific need - e.g., provide surge protection, then they make sense. But when they are just to add more receptacles they become another point of failure.
Doing this now, before you tile, means you don't have to do extra work patching. If you do a half-way decent job, any mess (extra holes, scratches, etc.) will be totally covered up by the tile! Very convenient.


Should a gas water heater be shut down if the water main has to be turned off?

Water heaters have a dip tube on the cold water side that puts the cold water into the bottom of the tank. If water pressure is lost on the cold water side, the tank can siphon down through the cold water inlet till it reaches the bottom of the dip tube. Then since there's no water in the tank to absorb heat, the dip tube can melt and the tank can be damaged.

It would be best to at least set the heater so it is on pilot only.

Note: Manufacturer AO Smith states in their manuals that their gas water heaters must not be operated without being certain it's filled or with the cold water inlet shutoff valve closed.


Window film affixed to the wall around a window?

You'll be just fine sticking the tape to the wall outside the frame then sticking the plastic to that. There's a reasonable chance that there is cold air moving through gaps in the exterior trim, along the outside of the window casing, then through gaps in the interior trim. Applying plastic as you've suggested will help reduce this cold air movement.
WARNING science content: It's actually the warm air that's moving out, not the cold air moving in. There's more energy in warm air, so it's moving faster and wants to escape to where the temperature is colder in order to equalize temperatures. Also, your HVAC system is forcing warm air into the house, slightly increasing the interior air pressure. That increase in pressure wants to escape to where the pressure is lower to balance things out, no matter what the temperature is. Except, of course, when the wind is blowing outside and forcing the cold air in because now the outside pressure is higher.
Unless there is zero insulation in the wall (and even if that is the case), it's highly likely you're losing more heat through the glass than through the wall.
Warning: Do be aware that the double-stick tape used to hold the window insulation film in place can remove paint or wallpaper from whatever it's attached to (window frame or wall). Be prepared to repair damage or sacrifice some of your damage deposit if this happens.

Just a thought for you: With all the issues you seem to be having with insulating your windows (and exterior walls), if your landlord doesn't show any interest in improving the situation, you may want to consider moving as soon as your lease is up! I realize that economic realities may make that difficult, so don't feel you need to address this point in a comment, it's just something for you to think about.


Are GFCIs now required in all unfinished portion of a house?

GFCI outlets are not required anywhere.
In places GFCI protection is required, plain outlets can be protected by a GFCI device elsewhere (GFCI breaker, GFCI deadfront, or GFCI receptacle).  Doing so is the one and only legitimate purpose of the GFCI's "Load" terminals.  They should be used for nothing else; the "Line" terminals get all other wires, and they take 2 wires per screw.
When a plain outlet is protected by a GFCI elsewhere, it MUST have a label saying:

GFCI protected

and a pile of them come in every GFCI box.
Obviously, nobody ever does that LOL...  and then, they get written up for it.  And very often, this is interpreted as "You need GFCI receptacles there".   Never true.
You need stickers there.  The stickers have to be not lying.
If the sticker is there, and a cheapie GFCI tester trips a GFCI somewhere, that's good enough.
I find the default blue stickers ugly, and I prefer to make my own on a Brother or P-touch labelmaker.  On a white cover plate they look perfectly fine.  I also consider it helpful to add a line stating where the reset is located.


That upside-down diagram seems to indicate you need a 60A circuit to run this heater, but a typical electric clothes dryer (in the US) only has a 30A circuit.  I say circuit because you can't just change the fuse/breaker without increasing the size of the wires.

You will have to look closer at the specifications for this heater to determine the electrical requirements and then make sure that the wire size and breaker are correct for it.


How can I determine which is the neutral wire in an old house light box?

Plug a modern (polarity-enforced) extension cord into a nearby outlet. Set your multimeter to 200V AC (or something just above line voltage where you are). Touch the negative probe to the neutral (wide in the US) slot of your cord, and the positive probe to each of the wires in your light box. Only the hot should show voltage near line-level. (The neutral may show residual or induced voltage at a much lower level.)


A "heat wrap thing" sounds like the cheese they sell at the big-box shops.  Cheap and ugly and not very good.  Take it back.

The right way: good heat tape

First, use the good stuff.  It's called self-regulating heat tape , that is, it reduces its own power as temperature rises.  Effectively shuts off at 150F, which means you won't boil out your pipe if the thing goes crazy.  You probably want the highest wattage you can get, e.g. 10 watts per foot, and spiral it nice.  Obviously, get the 240V heat tape.

McMaster shows the variety available.

You'll need to make those electrical connections correctly for this wet location.

If you want, you could put a thermostat on it.  240V thermostats are cheap and readily available, used for baseboard heaters.  Getting one fit for outdoor use might be trickier.

After the pipe is wrapped with the heat tape, wrap both with foam pipe insulation.  You'd only want to do that with the "good" self-regulating heat tape.  Otherwise the insulation would only help the cheapie heat tape go into thermal runaway and set the insulation on fire.

The wood housing lined with insulation is a good idea, probably better than the concrete top.  The light bulb was a silly way to do it, not least, the bulb will burn out and you'd never be wise.

Try to keep water out of the area. Maybe make a weatherproof cover that goes over lid and walls.

Or maybe light bulbs after all

Here's an alternate way to approach the light bulb method. Install three incandescent lamp sockets.  Here's the tricky part: Wire all 3 sockets in series across the 240V.  Hot----lamp 1----lamp 2-----lamp 3----Hot.  Three matched bulbs in series will run 1/3 the voltage, or 80 volts.  So you can use common 120V bulbs.  And at the lower voltage, they'll burn exponentially longer.  But since they're in series, if one goes out, they all go out.   The bulbs will burn at slightly less than half their rated wattage.


You're right that the sound blankets will do little if anything to soundproof the room. They mostly just serve to reduce echo.

Hanging MLV curtains on the walls will probably make a noticeable difference at higher frequencies, but won't do much to stop bass. You can get somewhat better results if the curtains are separated from the walls by a good distance (a few feet) but again it's still not going to do a lot to stop bass. You can add in a riser that isolates the sound from the floor, for a bigger improvement.

But your only truly effective option if you can't modify the existing construction is to build a room within a room, with its own isolated floor and ceiling.


No, this is a bad idea. The exhaust from the air conditioner is high humidity. You'll be creating the perfect environment for mold growth in the air handler at the other end of he heating duct.


recessed can lighting auto off and outlet heating

Actually I think you have two problems.

First, Recessed cans come with a thermal overload, so if the fixture heats up beyond normal the thermal protector turns it off. These protectors can get worn and will trip at random until replaced. You might see if you can access your can from above and if it is covered with insulation then you need to pull the insulation away from it so it will operate cooler. This might fix the problem, if not you will need to replace the unit. Unfortunately you really can't replace the thermal protector without replacing the can. This really isn't for a DIY, you need someone who knows how to get the parts, take down the bad parts and reassemble the fixture.

Second, If your outlet is overheating from the Christmas lights, that is an indication of a loose or bad connection in the receptacle or splices in the box. If you need to remove the cover and check out the wiring. Also if the outlet conductors are stabbed in at the back of the receptacle you need to remove them and wrap the around the side terminals. There is plenty of comment on this subject on this site so no need to go into detail.

Last is just to answer your final question. Its really easy to find out if your receptacle and lights are on the same circuit. Just go to your circuit breaker panel and it should be marked, but if it isn't then you just need to turn each breaker on and off until the circuit in question turns off.

Good luck and Happy Holidays.


Are switch screws sufficient for load grounds?

At switches

Grounds at switches must be pigtailed to the box, then all the grounds from all the cables joined to the box with a wire nut.

If you don't want to use wire nuts, you could a) use box clips on the edge of the box, b) drill and tap any #10-32 holes in the back of the box for each ground wire and land it on the screw.

You cannot land one wire on the box and one wire on the switch.  This defeats the entire purpose of pigtailing grounds; ground paths should remain continuous even if you remove a device.

At luminaires

It depends on how the luminaire is built, and you have to make a case-by-case judgment call.

For instance some luminaires have two ground wires -- one for the ceiling rose, and another one for the lamp proper which is on the end of a chain or cable.  Chains are not valid grounding paths!  In that case, you can ground the rose via the metal box, but must wire the ground that runs down the chain.

If the luminaire has some plastic and some metal parts, that problem may recur.


Should we cover weep holes with wire mesh?

Sorry thought this was for windows... Brick weep holes are different.  Wire mesh will keep out rodents and small animals.  Won't keep out bugs - your drywall does that.  I would try steel wool.


How can I install a light fixture when the junction box is partially blocked by a mirror?

This one is a huge bummer. You don't have many options here.

Either cut out the box and replace it higher up, or re-mount it higher on the stud, or lower the mirror. Whether you can re-use the box depends on what kind of box it is and how it is mounted. I think moving the box is by far the easier option.


Why am I getting condensation on the first floor joists of my new build?

It sounds like you're saying your basement is heated, but nothing else is (possibly the floor above is exposed to the outside).

What you've done is put in insulation below the subfloor to try and keep the heat in the basement. This is a good idea, however, any time you have warm meeting cold, you're going to get condensation, and so you need a vapour barrier on the warm side only. This prevents the moisture in the warm air from getting into the cold zone.

If you have the vapour barrier on the cold side, you'll get condensation on the vapour barrier itself, between the insulation and vapour barrier, and this will lead to mold (and it's possibly a worse thing to do than have no vapour barrier).

If you have vapour barrier on both sides, you'll also run into trouble as if any moisture DOES make its way in between, there is no drying and no way for it to get out.

If you're using batt insulation, the best thing to do is put a 6mil vapour barrier on the bottom side of the joists, and seal it as best you can around the edges. Ideally you want a continuous barrier with no gaps. The vapour barrier on the ceiling should be connected to the vapour barriers on the walls, and then is typically sealed to the floor using acoustic sealant.

Foam insulation works as a vapour barrier as well, but you need to ensure all gaps between each piece and around the edges are sealed using air-tight tape (eg, Tuck tape).

Realize though that having this vapour barrier in place once you're finished construction will actually be detremental. You don't want to vapour seal between heated rooms, as it inhibits natural drying and air/moisture movement. If you end up having the basement unheated (or minimally heated), then it becomes the cold zone compared to your first floor and so your vapour barrier will be installed on the wrong side.


What is this style of cupboard door called?

While the "flush" or "integrated handle" style door is common, it's likely that this particular design with this particular molding profile is proprietary. They were probably cheap to purchase initially due to economy of scale, but they may no longer be in production.

You may be better off refinishing the wood (sand, stain, seal), and if necessary reapply laminate to the face. Creating a new identical door would be an exercise in detail work.


No water coming from water supply line to icemaker

I'm assuming you have a connection like this:

I've seen these fitting leak, but I've never seen them have no flow before.

Generally these compression fittings don't need to be on very tight, because it's the pressure of the sleeve against the fitting that keeps them from leaking. Usually they only take about one half to one full turn with a wrench after being hand tightened.

Things to check:

Make sure the brass insert is not crushed or bent
Make sure the sleeve is on straight, has no nicks or other damage, and seats well in the fitting
Check the tube isn't folded over or crimped (if it is, cut it off a bit past the damaged part)
The end of the insert shouldn't sit too deep within the valve. Generally the sleeve should be about centered over the insert.
Check for blockage or dirt in the valve and on the edge of the fitting where the sleeve sits


Three Mosquito Lures, Still Tons of Mosquitoes

Those instruments that use a light and electric grid to kill will kill everything but mosquitoes. Don;t waste your time and money. And they kill beneficial pollinating insects. Mosquitoes are attracted to the smell of humans  sweat or breath, not light or electric. I live in Texas where the humidity is high and the mosquitoes can stand up and whip a tom turkey. We have tried all kinds of remedies and the one that I have found that works the best, and it won't keep all of them away, just most, is Cutter Yard Fogger. It is about the best I have tried, and believe me, I have tried them all. It only is a temporary remedy and will have to be repeated as the summer goes.


How do I drill through a shaped tube with a handheld drill?

One option especially suitable for this scenario (outdoors, often drilling above your head, with the tube bending and vibrating, using handheld drill) is using special drill bits tailored for fast drilling into sheet metal. The market has numerous offers, including Irwin Turbo Max, DeWalt Extreme 2 and Ruko Fast Cut - the idea behind all those is that the drill bit looks similar to a drill bit for wood and the small tip of the drill bit helps the drill bit dive into thin metal.

One important thing is that you should not proceed to drilling the second wall until you retracted the bit from the hole and checked that there's no metal on the tip. Otherwise the following can happen: the drill bit will burst through the first wall and the metal which the tip was facing will remain on the tip and prevent the tip from contacting the second wall.

Beware of the following downsides:

these are next to impossible to sharpen in your workshop - prepare to either throw them out or grind them into "regular" shape bits once they get dull
the price is notably higher compared to "regular" bits
the "metal on the tip" problem described above
not that easy to find in an average store, so you should shop in advance


13ft wide desk/workbench with only one leg

Attach the angle to the plywood and put the 2x8 behind the angle where it doesn't use up any extra height. you can screw through the vertical part of the angle into the edge of the 2x8.
put extra plywood under the seam where there is not already angle or 2x8.


Replacing 2-prong outlet - existing wiring has two neutral wires, one hot?

First, the outlet is just a red herring; it is just an older style of outlet.
There’s more going on in this box than you know
Note the extra black wires that you haven’t discussed at all.
What’s actually happening is that one black-white pair is delivering power from supply. The other black-white pair is delivering power onward to another point-of-use.
The red is delivering power to this outlet, with the white as neutral.  That means one of (at least) two things:

The outlet is, or was, switched.  And the red wire is (or was) coming back from the switch to deliver switched-hot to the outlet.  Perhaps it’s been wired to bypass the switch and be permanently on.

The circuit is a Multi-wire branch circuit or MWBC, with this outlet receiving one 120V “leg” of the circuit, and the black onward wires are the other 120V “leg”.  However there’s at least one defect with this setup: in an MWBC you are not allowed to use a device to splice the shared neutral.  It must be pigtailed.

It’s normally allowed to use the 2 screws on a (non-tab-broken) outlet as a splice point.  However that is not allowed in MWBCs.
Fortunately, you don’t need to care.  Just use a red wire-nut to join the 2 existing white wires to a short pigtail, and connect that to the new outlet.


What is this ridge inside my toilet flange? Do I need to replace it?

It looks like you have a standard toilet flange, but it's attached to a 3" pipe instead of a 4" (that's what the 4x3 on top means). It could also be a "push fit" flange that you push into the drain pipe to replace an older flange. I admit this looks weird, because I would expect the inside lip to be sloped downward so sewage can't sit on top.

The flange itself is low, but appears to be in good shape. I wouldn't replace it just because of the lip. It looks like that's standard to all the Charlotte 4x3 flanges I've seen.


Is it normal for fiberglass to face down in basement?

It's standard for paper to go on the warm-in-winter side. You can get mesh or spring steel rods to keep the fiberglass a little bit tamed, but encapsulating it entirely is a different matter.


Running AC/MC cable in boiler room, do I need additional metal conduit?

This question may seem to be fairly straight forward but it is not and here is why.

First in the NEC AC cable and MC cable are two different cabling systems and follow similar but different requirements. Since you have asked which one would be better, MC is permitted in more situations. AC is NEC Article 320 and MC is NEC 330. So you need to determine how exactly is your basement is used and if you are going to change it at anytime. Normally I would say either system would work fine in a normal basement situation, but if your AHJ believes it to be a damp or wet location. Then you will need to use MC. (See the articles for use permitted and not permitted).

Second you are trying to find out the requirements of wiring a basement but you are not sure if it is finished or unfinished. Once again it depends on its intended use and your AHJ can help you determine exactly what you are trying to do. Some of these classifications are covered in Building Codes but not necessarily the NEC.

Third you are asking if you should run cabling in a conduit system. This is common for DIY'ers to think you need to run cabling inside of conduit, but a conduit system is an alternative to a cabling system where allowed by code. So let me suggest if you are going to run conduit don't put a cable in it just run the conduit and the necessary conductors and this will cost less and be a better system. Determine which conduit system you want to run NEC Articles 334 rigid metal, 348 flexible conduit, 352 rigid pvc conduit, 358 electrical metallic conduit, or 362 electrical nonmetallic conduit.

If I may suggest and as I have mentioned above, get in contact with your AHJ and he can help guide you through what you are going to need. I know some people think they are annoying and a problem, but my experience is they can be very helpful when you get them involved early. Remember they work for you and want to help you protect yourself from many different things such as safety and lets say shady contractors.

Good luck


How to protect an old, internal windowsill?

I generally use a clear-coat Varnish finish on my outdoor painting projects to reduce wear damage and to extend the life of the paint. You can get this as a spray or a paint. This is the easiest and cheapest solution but provides only moderate protection.
For superior protection:
You could attach a piece of plexiglass or tempered glass with adhesive or standoff mountings. I'm not sure if the adhesive would be visible between the glass and the voids in the surface. Using an attractive glass with standoff mountings would provide a very clean and modern look. A quick google search for glass standoffs shows that you can get them as short as .5in/1.25cm.
A final thought would be to make a mold around the windowsill and pour in an acrylic resin. This would fill in the voids in the surface and provide a very sturdy glass-like finish.
Here is a link to pouring acrylic on a table. You can adapt the instructions for your windowsill.
Note that using an adhesive or acrylic resin is more a less a PERMANENT installation. It will be very hard to remove either. The varnish or glass+standoffs is considerably easier to remove later if you want to repaint or change the look.


Can a light circuit be split out of the ceiling fan?

This is usually fine, just watch out for box fill

Adding extra lights to the light side of a fan+light circuit is fine.  The only real limit on how much you can add here (until you get to circuit ampacity, that is), is the watt rating of what controls the lights; this isn't an issue for switches, but can be a problem if there's a dimmer or combination light/fan control involved in the circuit.

The only other issue you can run into is box fill in the fan box; this isn't an issue for crossbar or saddle type fan boxes, but pancake boxes have essentially no usable fill, so if your fans are mounted to pancake boxes, you may have to change the box you're tapping power off at out for a different type, or tap power at the switch if switched-light-hot and neutral are both available there.


There are two different sets of recommendations depending on the type of decking:

For a pressure treated lumber deck:

To start with, you will want to remove the current flaking varnish, otherwise any treatment you give the wood will not apply consistently, and in any case will just sit on top of the varnish, so strip it all with a good paint stripper. An oxygen based one can brighten up the wood quite considerably as it gets rid of mildew.

Wash the wood - a power washer is pretty good for this.

You may also need to sand - this helps take the surface to a consistent level, and can remove splinters that may have been left after the paint stripping and washing.

Then use an oil based stain if you want to go for long term wood protection - this will get right into the pores in the wood. Ensure the deck is dry first - a couple of days of sunshine and no rain will help the uptake of stain. Make sure the stain is semi-transparent if you want the lustre of the wood to show through.

Varnish and paints should not be used - You have seen what UV rays do to varnish.

For a hardwood deck:

You will not want to use such active chemicals to strip the paint, and in fact you may wish to just use a sander to avoid chemical damage to the wood.

An oil based stain will not be as useful either, so you may want to go with a more resin based stain, or even just re-varnishing it.


What wire type & size for sub-panel in a shed?

Well, I would not say you're doing anything stupid.  You have some very good questions.

First,

If you did decide to direct bury the wire the minimum depth for direct burial is 24", not 18".
At least three #6 ( black, red, white) and one #10 insulated ground ( green coating).
Anything <= 60amps just requires a #10 insulated ground with green coating.

Second, Consider voltage drop:

Load: 30 Amps @ 240V Single Phase.
Length of run: 80 feet
Wire Size: #6 Copper
Voltage: 240V
Voltage Drop: .81 %
Voltage At End of Circuit: 238.05

That is less than 3% which the NEC recommends for a feeder. Very Good !

Note: I would hesitate to install the ground rod if you have a in-ground pool in line of the transformer.

Correction: This being a feeder would require a grounding electrode!


I typically use something like this for drains when I have to go into hard to access cast iron pipe. You stick it inside the cast iron pipe and then insert PVC into it. Make sure it fits very tight inside the cast iron pipe if you go this route.


You can replace the two single pole breakers with a 30A double pole, or use an appropriately identified handle tie between the existing single pole breakers as well as per 240.15(B)(2) as typical electric storage water heaters don't have any 120V loads.  Of course, this all requires the breakers to be adjacent.


How do I install a generator pass through?

This is what you would use for a regular house receptacle in the us.

For the outside use a "inlet receptacle"

Then you need a cover for it while not in use.

Ideally a bubble cover or an in-use cover would be best.  If I find one I'll edit this.

After you get all this and you will need for the inside a cut-in box, receptacle and cover.  A piece of 12/2 romex or NM to go between, wiring the black wire to the brass screws, the white wire to the silver screws and green wire to green screw.


How can I handle water softener output without relying on a sump pump?

Water softeners can drain up and out. The house I currently live in has a softener drain that runs up about 5 feet from the softener and over through the basement to the drain. So, you could drain it outside fairly easily.

I have never had a problem with it but if you are concerned about drain back you can put a check valve in the drain tube at the beginning next to the softener. Mine doesn't have any and it works fine.

Good luck!


How can I prevent a wooden bed frame from creaking?

If you can disassemble the frame, separate the siderails from the head and foot boards. Use a crayon or candle to wax the mating surfaces of the wood. This will help eliminate the squeeks. If the bolt has machine threads apply a small amount of thread lock (Loc-tite) which is available at the local hardware store. Get the smallest tube you can as you literally need four drops. One drop for each bolt. If the bolt has wood threads get some chair-lock. It is a glue designed for assembling chairs. Again apply a drop to each bolt. It also is available at the hardware store. While at the hardware store pick up the correct tool you need to tighten the bolt. Assemble the bed tightening the bolts until no movement is felt at the joints. If you can allow the bed to sit unused for an hour or so your adhesives can set.


Why is there an opening where the burner connects to the gas line on a gas oven?

(based on comments)

The opening is called a Primary Air Mixture.

Gas flowing through the line from the service point passes this opening, picks up air (oxygen), mixes and is ignited at the burner head.

Pressure in the line keeps the gas flowing. As there should not be air (oxygen) in the gas lines, this port allows the proper amount of oxygen to mix into the gas allowing ignition. Most gases (all?) require oxygen to burn.


Porch flooring: vinyl click & lock planks an option?

I'm not a flooring expert, so take this with a grain of salt...
So long as you're willing to accept the fact that you're using a product designed for indoor use in an outdoor application and that means:

it's likely to fail earlier than you'd like
it's likely to fail in less time than is claimed on the tin
that any guarantee on the flooring probably won't be honored for being installed outside recommended parameters

I can't see a reason not to.
Some points to consider:

It might be slippery when wet, you may want to choose something textured
I've seen ads for "100% waterproof" flooring designed to resist spilled drinks, dogs peeing, etc. This is probably more expensive, but may be better suited for your more humid outdoor installation.

As far as your concern about tiles, remember that many in-ground swimming pools are tiled and have tiled/concreted decks and they survive in northern climes. Of course, they have the advantage of being directly on the ground and getting some heating from the ground itself, but the upper edges are well above the frost line.


Are black deposits on the interior of copper water pipes a health concern?

You may notice a rotten egg odor from the water from time to time if the sulfur content is high enough. Bacteria in the water convert sulfur compounds into hydrogen sulfide which reacts with the copper to form a coating of copper sulfide.

There are no set limits on how much sulfur can be in the water. It's naturally occurring and not considered to be a primary water contaminant.

If you are having problems with slime, stained clothes or rotten egg odor, chlorination can reduce the bacterial action that produces hydrogen sulfide. Chlorination will cause the sulfur to precipitate out of the water which you will now have to filter to remove the particles.

Excessive sulfur content in water has a laxative effect, probably the only reason to worry about it. Lower content is basically an added nutrient. Hydrogen sulfide gas in quantity is a poison, but since it's smelly and you haven't mentioned it, the quantity is likely a non-issue.

As to the pipes, it sounds like your problem is a stable black copper sulfide tarnish that has low solubility in water (unlike copper sulfate which readily dissolves and is toxic). New copper will quickly acquire the same coating from the hydrogen sulfide (which will also tarnish silver).


Breaker sometimes trips when Microwave turned on

No a power strip will likely not help. If your electrical circuit is properly installed, undamaged and being properly used then it should not trip. Even just a $5 breaker being repeatedly reset could damage the panel, resulting in a $1000 repair.

If you do get a power strip and it does trip before the electrical panel circuit breaker then it would likely be because the trip time-curve of the power strip is not designed to accommodate the power curve of the microwave, and you won't be fixing the problem, just delaying the inevitable, and possibly damaging the electronics of the microwave due to a disorganized power shutdown.

Residential "thermal-magnetic" breakers don't trip instantly at 20.1 amps. They are designed to trip under conditions that damage wiring, on an inverse time curve for thermal overload conditions, low overcurrents such as 1.5x the rating should trip between 90 and 300 seconds, 5x the rating should trip in 4 to 10 seconds, and a high magnetic inrush or short circuit of 10x or more they trip instantly.

For instance if you have a 1200 watt power hungry coffee maker and a 1800 watt microwave (actual ratings of my appliances) on the same circuit then you have 3000 watts on a 2400 watt circuit. (Code requires kitchen circuits be 20A, 20A x 120V = 2400 watts.) That 125% overload should hold for at least 5 minutes, and if it never trips it would still be within NEMA specs.

Those numbers really create a situation that a microwave tripping a breaker means some real circuit evaluation is necessary. Your microwave is faulty and drawing enormous overloads, a circuit breaker is failing, you have a loose connection that could cause arcing that could start a fire, or your combination of loads is greatly overloading your wires and repeated resetting and resuming abuse will create expensive repairs.


What can I do about softened polyurethane finish?

It sounds like your hair product or scalp oil has reacted with the poly finish.  I would take some mineral spirits or paint thinner and try to wipe the area vigorously to remove the softened poly and then lightly sand and recoat.  You should probably not rest your head there in the future, or put a pillow between your head and the board.


Which side of a sink should I install a garbage disposal in?

The small bowl is typically called a veggie bowl. The idea is that you use the large sink for cleaning dishes or soaking and then the other sink is available for prep usage, peeling etc.  So, the disposal would go on the small bowl.


Extending 2x4 joist to square up shed foundation

You are correct to worry that the sistered joists connection to the post is weak. What's supporting that corner is the shear strength of the 4 framing nails above the post, the friction of the 2x4s being compressed by the bolts, and the levered shear strength of the bolts. You could improve it by:

put a bolt through the 2x4s above the beam.
add 2x4 blocking below the 2x4s and nailed to the post
add framing angles with structural screws, fastened to the post and the outer 2x4s

Something else I don't see is attachments to keep the 2x4s atop the beams. You most likely want some joist hangers or hurricane ties to maintain that connection.


light turns on when window ac unit is on

Call a trained electrician and get them to take a look at it.

Electricity is dangerous, and it sounds like you've got mains voltage leaking between at least two circuits - and it's entirely possible that things like the wall or floor of that room are currently electrified, depending on how the leakage is occurring. Trying to fix it without formal training could potentially get you killed or your house burned down - and is potentially illegal, depending on where you are located. I can say with a certainty that it's definitely legal in Australia, at the very least.


Yes, but over-kill for 2 reasons: 1) 5/8" C-D plywood is fine for 16" on center supports. If you look at the grade stamp on the plywood, you'll see "48/24". This indicates it's suitable for spacings up to 48" on roofs and 24" on floors. You can use 5/8 with a grade stamp of 24/16. Yes, the industry has gone to T&G because builders are using the minimum thickness and the plywood will flex and rub edge-to-edge. This causes noise (and sometimes squeaks). The 3/4" plywood will be so stiff it won't flex and won't squeak. (However, glue and nail it down anyway.) And 2) The A-C designation indicates the A side is patched so it's smooth (and maybe even touch-sanded.) This is used as an underlayment, where the finish floor is to be installed directly to it. (Most vinyls can't be installed on particleboard in wet locations.) C-D is cheaper and doesn't matter in your case, because you're adding an underlayment for the "finish flooring."


If you only notice it draining when the air conditioning cooling unit is on, my guess would be it is the condensate drain for the evaporator coil.


Neutral
Ordinary switches don't need neutral. Many (but not all) dimmers, timers, smart switches, motion detectors, etc. need neutral. There are some exceptions that:

Leak a little current through the circuit when "off" - works fine with incandescent but often not very well with LEDs
Use ground - permitted for very low current in limited circumstances. But you can't just "use ground instead of neutral"
Battery backup

but a lot of devices now need neutral and hot in the box, so that they can complete a circuit to power the switch itself even when the lights are off. Because of that, code now requires neutral to be available (or easily added via conduit, but the cables you described are not a conduit installation). But older houses often don't have neutral in switch boxes.
Based on your description, you have either 2 travelers + hot (i.e., first switch in the group, so hot comes in from the panel and travelers go out to the 2nd switch) or 2 travelers + switched hot (i.e., last switch in the group, so travelers come in from another switch and switched hot goes out to the fixture). But in any case, it doesn't sound like you have neutral available.
Take a look at the other 3-way switch. You may have better luck there - i.e., 2 cables - one to this switch and another either to the panel or to the fixture. There are a few different possibilities, including:

Panel -> Switch 1 -> Switch 2 -> Fixture

and

Panel -> Fixture -> Switch 1 -> Switch 2

and depending on a number of factors, you may or may not have neutral available in the other switch box. If you do, then install the dimmer there. If you don't, then you have to do some rewiring to make this work. You can't just add a neutral wire - you have to replace (e.g., 2 wire + ground with 3 wire + ground, or 3 wire + ground with 4 wire + ground) entire cables.


How about a door knob lock-out device? No holes or screws required:


Remove Trim/Baseboards Installed Prior to Hardwood Floors (No Leverage)

An oscillating tool is your friend. It looks like it would reach to the bottom nail. Looks like you were able to pull the top of the board out enough to get to the bottom nail. You also may be able to break it with a chisel, but nails are hard.  Get some good blades for the osc tool, I found that a cheap blade only cuts 5-10 nails.
https://www.homedepot.com/p/RIDGID-4-Amp-Corded-JobMax-Multi-Tool-with-Tool-Free-Head-R28602/206824272


replacing pressure treated 1x4 boards on roof with non-pressure treated white pine - OK?

Keep in mind that those boards that you see under the plywood sheathing were originally spaced out as they are so that they could accommodate the installation of either wood shake shingles or tile type roof. The boards were surely never treated lumber at the time your house was built 85 years ago. (1935 places your house build in the pre-WW2 years).

The most common lumber used at the time was rough sawn and may very well have been more than the standard 3/4" thick. White pine boards should be fine for replacement being as you are re-installing plywood over them. The white pine boards may very well not have the same strength as the original lumber but the plywood can take care of the difference. The difference in thickness should only be a problem if a plywood splice happens at the same rafter where new and old board butt up to each other. It the thickness difference is significant you may want to shim under the new pine board where plywood splices may occur.

Note that it has been my observation that roofers that are covering spaced board with plywood sometimes do not put much energy in trying to splice the plywood on the rafter centers so shimming may be a moot point if you are following that scheme.


Hail hit my roof. Do I need to replace it?

Yes
The granules (they're typically ceramic) act as UV protection and fire retardant. It's normal to lose these over time, but the shingle in your bottom picture looks to be missing as much as half its granules. Additionally, the larger the hail stone, the more likely it damaged the shingles themselves (1" hail stones are serious).
Most homeowners insurance will cover this type of damage, meaning you pay the deductible and get a new roof. The key here is I would not wait long to at least explore a claim on this, lest you be unable to prove it was hail that did the deed. This is one of those lesser known (and hard to notice) ways your roof can be seriously damaged. I would get at least two roofing companies out to examine it and verify the damage.


Adding 2 X GFCIs to protect Switched and Unswitched Hot sharing same Neutral and Ground

Thank You both...As suggested I traced the circuit to the first switch witch was the one that controlled the light fixture in the dining room.  I went ahead and cut out the single gang outlet and fitted a two-Gang box and spliced in the GFCI and voila both switched and un-switched lines are now protected with 1 GFCI.

Sorry about the first picture being on its side.


And I'm embarrassed to say that I've figured it out.  I thought I had checked all the wiring, but I missed a small section of exposed copper on the Y wire in the air handler.  Once I taped it up, the problem went away.

Thanks for the suggestions guys!


Can a bathroom vanity be installed higher than 30 inches?

I've seen lots of houses that use standard kitchen cabinets as a master bath vanity -- around here at least it's considered an upgrade.  A 36" height is not uncomfortably tall for anyone but small children (which is why they're only used in the master bath).  My wife is 5'2" and loved the 36" double vanity in our old house.


How do outdoor mist-cooling A\C units fare in real-world usage?

For the record, I tried it out myself. I installed the Cool-N-Save system on a 4-ton A/C unit that was scheduled to be replaced in three months.

After that three month period in the middle of the summer, the positive effects of the system were negligible at best, and probably detrimental. There were no detectible savings in cooling costs nor increase in cooling performance. And after that three-month period, despite using the manufacturer's own anti-calcium system, the calcium build-up on the outdoor unit was extreme, with a thin layer of rock uniformly covering all of the heat-exchanging surfaces, effectively destroying the unit.

So that's a strong "Do Not Buy" from me.


Old wiring into appliance has 60V neutral to hot and 120 either to ground?

Maybe hot miswired to neutral somewhere and your hot wire's connection is somewhere open and floating.

Panel      Fubar         Box

Hot --------.   -------- Hot                    <--.
             \                                     |
Neutral ----  '--------- Neutral     <--.          | 60V
                                        | 120V     |
Ground ----------------- Ground      <--'       <--'

The 60V is probably an induced "ghost voltage".

  Typically this voltage reading may be as high as 50% of the energized voltage in the same proximity.

If things change radically when you move the wires in in the box, it might be that you have a loose connection in a wirenut or similar, plus some goofy connections.

A low impedance meter (e.g. one with a "low-Z" setting) might help with the diagnosis. I think I'd be turning power off and remaking the connections in the box and at any places upstream toward the panel.


How should I run a sink drain around a corner in my basement walls?

Normally a wall corner like that is framed with a U structure comprising three studs, plus one stud on the adjacent wall, though some variations use just three studs total in the case of interior walls. The idea is that both inside and both outside corner faces have backing for drywall and corner bead. The plumbing passages are then hogged out using industrial hole saws which make quick work of the job.

In your case, you might place two studs at the inside corner, do your plumbing, and then block in the outside of the corner around the pipes. This would require you to cut holes through just two studs and avoids the need to cut across the wide face of one or more studs.

Here's a plan view:

                               |        |
                               |        |
                               |        |
                               |________|
                               | stud   |
_______________________________|________|
                           | s |        |
                           | t |        |
                           | u |        | <---
___________________________|_d_|________|     | block here later above
                                              | and below the pipe
                                   ^----------

You'll want to install protective steel "nail plates" along each stud where pipes pass through to prevent damage from drywall fasteners.

If you find that it's difficult to get a single elbow to make the corner, use two and orient them vertically. The first bends down and the second back to horizontal, with a 90 degree swivel between them and the vertical drop centered in the wall intersection. This puts the curve of each elbow in a single wall plane, give you more room to work (assuming you have height available to make a short drop). One could be a street bend to eliminate the section of pipe between. This technique also allows you to create virtually any angle when standard fittings don't meet your needs.


Under-slab insulation vs. slab perimeter insulation

Concrete 4" thick has a r-value of roughly 1 (a lot depends on the weight of the concrete).  2" of XPS foam board has a r-value of 10.  So roughly speaking, using the 2" of foam board under a 4" slab is going to reduce your heat transfer (loss) by ~ 90% (going from a u-value of 1 down to 0.1).

If you know the area of your floor, you can then estimate the amount of heat flow through the floor into the ground (winter scenario), in BTU's per hour.

Then you can do a similar calculation to estimate the heat loss through the perimeter, compare the two, and see how much the under-slab insulation buys you.


Without knowing the design of the brackets this is impossible to answer, but rather than calculate angles using trigonometry, there's an easier way:

Assemble it, and sit it on the ground. Then use an offcut of 4x2 or whatever, laid on the ground next the posts to mark a line parallel to the ground on each one. Then take it apart, cut them, and re-assemble.


Go ahead and cap off the permanent live
Your old fan likely had some sort of sensor or timer functionality that allowed it to run despite the wall switch being turned off.  It seems that your new fan lacks such brains, so simply capping off the permanent live from the wall is the right thing to do -- the fan will then be controlled solely by the corresponding wall switch.


White fuzz on the walls of the basement may be harmless mineral deposits called efflorescence from slow water movement, not mold.


I disagree with your uncle on the hydraulic cement part. Hydraulic cement when used properly has the viscosity more like water and is used to flow into cracks and crevices and harden which makes it hard to do on the side of a wall as it will just run down the block. In addition it is very hard when dried so eventually other cracks will appear on both sides of the crack you tried to fix in the future, because the block is weaker than the hydraulic cement.

The best approach is to place a backer rod which is like a mini pool noodle in the crack and then use elastomeric concrete crack filler, its like chaulking for concrete. The benefits are that it will bind to the concrete and if there is any movement in the future it will not crack and yes there will be movement however minor.
After you seal the joint then follow Uncles advice.


Is it safe to mount a surge protector strip behind a wall-mounted television?

Technically, this is not okay. Wiremold® and other similar products are not typically listed for use with power-supply cords, cordsets, or other similar cables.  They're designed to contain data, communications, and audio video cables. See this answer for more details.

Check the manufacturer's documentation, to determine exactly what types of cables are allowed in the specific product you're using.

As for plugging the surge strip into the extension cord, that's definitely not allowed. There should be a label on the strip, or in the documentation included with the strip that says not to plug it into another strip of extension cord.

  UL White Book 2013

  Relocatable Power Taps (XBYS)

  ...Relocatable power taps are intended to be directly connected to a permanently installed branch circuit receptacle. Relocatable power taps are not intended to be series connected (daisy chained) to other relocatable power taps or to extension cords.

The common solution to this problem, is to use a kit designed for this, like the one described in this answer. Though with a system like this, you'll have to cut holes in the wall.

If the wire management channel is a listed raceway, then you shouldn't be running power and communications cables through it together. Unless the raceway is divided for the entire length.

  National Electrical Code 2014

  Chapter 8 Communications Systems

  Article 800 Communications Circuits

  800.133 Installation of Communications Wires, Cables,
  and Equipment.

  (A) Separation from Other Conductors.

  (1) In Raceways, Cable Trays, Boxes, Cables, Enclosures and Cable Routing Assemblies.

  (d) Electric Light, Power, Class 1, Non–Power-Limited
  Fire Alarm, and Medium-Power Network-Powered Broadband
  Communications Circuits in Raceways, Compartments,
  and Boxes. Communications conductors shall not be placed in
  any raceway, compartment, outlet box, junction box, or similar
  fitting with conductors of electric light, power, Class 1, non–
  power-limited fire alarm, or medium-power network-powered
  broadband communications circuits.

  Exception No. 1: Where all of the conductors of electric
  light, power, Class 1, non–power-limited fire alarm, and
  medium-power network-powered broadband communications
  circuits are separated from all of the conductors of communications
  circuits by a permanent barrier or listed divider.


Securing a backyard animal / cat shelter fence from escape?

Any fence that will even stand a chance of keeping a cat in needs to be like 8 feet high. Depending on how adventurous they are, they'll just jump on top of the arch.

And if they're declawed you shouldn't be letting them outside unsupervised anyway.

But w/e... buy more metal posts, bend them at a 45, 1/3 of the way up, and attach that third (as elsewhere with something better than plastic zip ties) to the existing posts. Make sure you get the homeowner version and not the industrial, or you won't be able to bend it.


It's called a pick and a shovel. Should take an hour or three. I own a backhoe - I don't try to get close to my foundation walls with it - that's inviting disaster. P&S is also inexpensive and can get anywhere, unlike equipment.

If you mean "solid rock" the answer is a bit different, clarify if that's the case. For rocky dirt (or any dirt) loosen with pick (and/or digging bar), remove with shovel.


How do I prevent mobile home flexible water lines from freezing?

If the line is PEX, then yes, it can generally withstand freezing. Thawing is pretty easy with a hair dryer. It doesn't take much to thaw PEX.

If the toilet shares a line with another fixture such as a sink, a simple solution would be to just open the tap and let it dribble when it's freezing out.

But if freezing is the norm for you, then you might need a bit of heat tape. Just make absolutely sure you know what kind of tubing you have before you buy and install the tape. Only a few specific varieties of heat tape are designed to work on PEX. And those that are usually have special instructions on how to install it.


Why are some of the boards in my hardwood floors disintegrating?

Its either rot or termites.

The discoloring suggests a water leak that persisted long enough to rot.  Do you have access under that spot?  Is the subfloor similarly discolored? If so, it may need to be repaired at the same time as the board.

Board replacement is possible by any flooring contractor by sawing out the center of the board and chiseling/prying out the side pieces.  The replacement piece will be dropped in by cutting off the lower half of its groove (of the tounge/groove pair) and glueing it in.  Small finish nails can also be used to tack it down (and set and filled with colored wood putty).

The new piece may be a bit proud if the floor has been refinished more than once, and can be presanded to blend.

Here's a video found by Shirlock Hoimes on the TOH site


Big table with both height and angle adjustable?

Look for a "drafting table". I happen to like the vintage ones, but there are more functional varieties with shelves, drawers etc. as well.

Just a suggestion to help the planet: LOTs of people have been giving these things away for free or dirt cheap because companies don't do mechanical drafting any more and they take up a lot of space, so check out your favorite on-line resources (like Craigslist, Nextdoor etc.) before shelling out a lot of money.


Did I fry my fridge water valve by plugging it in wrong?

If there are only two terminals on each valve's plug then reversing them should not be a problem, as the valve is probably driven by AC (no polarity), and is just a coil of wire (again, no polarity).


Does US electric code permit running an aerial electrical service wire from a 2-story house to a one-storey outbuilding?

Virginia is on the 2014 code according to the NEC adoption map.
NEC 225.18.1 thru 5 provide clearance requirements.
10’ is acceptable for foot traffic only area.
12’ if there is a driveway.
18’ if there will be truck traffic.
65’ is not excessively long for a single span of an aluminum feeder but I would not try copper. The weight causes more sag thus more tension is required to maintain your minimum height.  Aluminum feeder will cost less also.
We don’t know your total load but a messenger wire probably be enough for 65’ with aluminum. If you go to 1/4” aluminum messenger cable (not a single wire) you now have a ground that can be used with your 3 insulated conductors sunlight resistant type or a multi conductor cable.
Edit: I double checked and these references will be helpful.
6awg aluminum can span that distance NEC 225.6 I do much larger runs so I am used to messenger wires.
If you connect below the roof you need to be 3’ away from any window openings 230.9.A.
Above the roof check out 230.4 for those clearances.
And remember make your run at least 6” taller at the lowest sag point because a hot day the cable may sag that much it really can.


What is the best way to fill in the holes in aluminum siding?

Do you have (or can you acquire) any pieces of aluminium or other non ferrous metal at all?

If so you could cut small squares that will fit over the holes, screw them over the hole using self tapping screws and seal round the edges of the patch. Painting would give it an extra layer of protection.

It might not look particularly pretty, but will do the job until you are able to replace the affected pieces.

Alternatively, some sort of mastic filler might work, but you'd have to check it adhered to aluminium otherwise it would just fall out. However, I think this would look worse than a patch.


How can I fix cracks between the bathtub and the wall surround?

I'm not sure where some of those cracks came from, but it doesn't look like anything a good quality bathroom caulk won't fix.  Here is the big secret to caulking anything in the bathroom:

Clean those surfaces as good as you possibly can.  Like cleaner than you've ever cleaned anything in a bathroom.  After its super clean, clean it again with alcohol to make sure there is no residue at all.

Once it's clean, use a high quality silicone bathroom caulk (don't try to save a few bucks - you're buying one tube).  Let it dry properly before use and enjoy a leak free tub.


What type of screw is the most resistant to rust: galvanized, stainless steel, or deck screws?

The stainless steel screw will absolutely be the best screw to resist rust.  Stainless steel screws are rust-resistant throughout the entire screw, not just on the surface.

The other screws are only covered with a rust-resistant coating on their surface, which will break down or wear off over time.  Galvanization is a process that coats with zinc.  Other screws may be zinc coated as well using another process, or they may be coated with something else.

I have some screws on an outdoor fence which have rusted inside the slots in the screw head, because the screw driver tip wore away some of the coating in the slots at time of installation.  Phillips-head screws in particular are notorious for getting ground up when the tip "cams out" and jumps out of the screw head.

Stainless steel is undoubtedly the best material for resisting rust and corrosion in screws.  Why, then, would anyone use anything other than stainless steel outdoors?  Two reasons:

(1) Stainless steel is slightly softer than the hard steel used in deck screws or other similar screws.  You can't just "go crazy" with the power tools and slam the screws into place.  It is easier to chew up the heads on stainless screws, or to snap the heads right off by over-torquing them (though that is more of a problem with bolts than wood screws).  You have to slow down and be a little more careful.

(2) Stainless steel screws are more expensive.  Galvanized or other coated screws are just plain cheaper.

Despite those drawbacks, the rust prevention is unmatched by other screws.  I live in a rainy wet climate, so I use stainless screws on anything outside that I might need to ever take apart again.


How can I stop a board from "leaking" sap?

It's a pitch pocket.

Just give it time - "a few days" is not much time in this case - it might ooze for a year before it gets done. You could try heating it (to make it ooze out faster), but that might have detrimental effects such as checking, a.k.a. cracking; or in this case, cracking more.


Only caution would be if it's actually in the floor, in which case you might want to consider precautions from liquid water going into it. Down low it won't vent moisture as well, but since that's not a concern for you it should not matter much - right behind the toilet bowl would appear to be your ideal intake position. Negative pressure is fine in ducts unless you are using a jet engine rather than an inline vent fan.


Nailing baseboards using nail gun on concrete wall

If you are considering an air powered nailer, the nail will just fold up when it hits the concrete. Powder actuated guns will not treat the base well at all, at least from my experiences.

You may be able to find case hardened 4D (1 1/2") finish nails. They will go in the concrete but it will take accurate striking with the hammer. I have seen and used them. I have seen them in place on a job I was helping demo.

The glue JACK suggests sounds like a good alternative, but if you are having issues with any glue, it still may have the same results.

Another way to nail which has been done before, but is still hand nailing, drill the concrete with 1/2" diameter holes, blow out all dust and glue in wood pegs. Set them in a  pattern that is easy to mimic on the face of the base, or layout whatever you drilled into the wall and use regular finish nails to hold the base.

You could do a "hybrid" of this. Cut and set the base on the wall as if it was to be glued only. Mark with blue tape the problem areas, like the base is bowing away from the wall or rising up off the floor. Using a finger, mimic where a single nail will hold the base where it needs to stay and mark with the blue tape. Drill those locations, clean the dust out the holes set wood plugs in glue, or perhaps carve them so they wedge in,  add glue on the back of the base, set in place and nail where the plugs are set to hold it in where needed and down where needed. The glue will do the rest.

Yet another alternative I have used is concrete screws. Set the base in place, drill the proper sized hole for the screw through the base and wall at the same time. Before setting the flat head type screw, counter sink the base so the screw does not have to sink itself, cracking the base possibly. It will be a larger spot to fill with putty,but it will grab and definitely hold.


Replace forced air heater with electric radiant floors

800 watts/room is 2,400 watts, drawing 10 amperes total at 240 VAC. Assuming you need to increase it by 50%, as you suggest, the maximum current is still just 15 amps, still within the 20 A circuit capability.

You must have a very mild climate and well insulated house if 800 W (about 2,700 BTU.hr) is sufficient to keep it warm... you're not up by Snoqualmie Pass. ;-)


Why does turning my kitchen light off turn on my outside light?

Sounds like the sensor on your light might be aimed incorrectly. It could be that it is sensing the movement in your kitchen, and when the kitchen light is turned it becomes dark enough for the light to activate. Try adjusting where the sensor is pointing and see if that helps at all.


Adding a plug to a direct wire vent hood

As long as the plug and the corresponding outlet are sufficient for the hood's power requirements, there's no problem hard-wiring a plug to it. No different than hard-wiring a plug to a dishwasher or other appliance.


Garbage disposal install - runs on off, trips breaker when switched to on

You incorrectly wired the switch into this device. What you've created is an always on device and a short in the middle of the circuit:

      Black --------+-----------+
                    |           |
line              switch      disposal
                    |           |
      White --------+-----------+

In this scenario, when the switch is flipped, you create a short circuit that trips the breaker, and there's nothing preventing power from always going to the disposal.

Instead, what you need is to switch the hot, so that power is turned off to the appliance when the switch is opened. Note, you don't switch the neutral since that would result in power going to the appliance and becoming a shock hazard should anything make a path available to ground.

      Black =---+-switch-+------+
                                |
line                         disposal
                                |
      White --------+-----------+


How to cut round hole in aluminum soffit after installation

This old house has an excellent video on why the soffit location is bad, and how to vent through a common shingle roof.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PqrZWd_CQIE

How to Vent a Bath Fan Through the Roof, August 2014.  The homeowner installed the same way your contractor did, and in just one season there was mold under the roof.

Your contractor should pay for this: the soffit installation was incorrect and hazardous to your health.  You certainly don't want the vent inside the soffit, nor do you want it under the soffit.


Wood posts: install on concrete slab OR dig hole and bury them?

1: Can the posts being mounted on top of the slab hold up to the tension ?

  Since you are only talking about placing the 4 x 4's above the slab
  with no other means of support other than the mounting to the slab -
  your shade sail will eventually fall if not right away.

2: Is it safer to go with the dig post holes and bury them?

  Digging your post holes into the ground and bury the poles will work
  you should dig at least 1 to 2 feet.

Additional Suggestion and Info:

Given you might be using wood, I will make a suggestion wood has many flaws in the outdoors under the sun - if you are in Florida you will notice how rapidly a pretty wood fence turns into an ugly repair project. I will suggest engineered plastic 4 x 4's not only can you bury the 4 x 4 in the ground, but also pour concrete down the hollow center giving you a very stable post. The plastic engineered 4 x 4 will last in the wind, the heat, the humidity and the rain.

How do I know ?

I have made a single pane privacy fence for a home in Florida. The posts have endured 3 Hurricanes and 19 years of grueling summer heat and high humidity. The posts still look good - almost like new and are holding just fine!


Trenching and running power to outside shed

How deep do you want to trench?

You'll need 24" of cover for buried cable, or 18" for common/cheap conduit.  You can use exotic conduit called Rigid or IMC, which only requires 6" of cover but is more expensive.

Use 1-1/4" or larger conduit.  That will future-proof you to 100A+.  In the meantime, the large size will make pulling much more DIYable.  DIYers often are stuck/defeated by hard pulls close to the limit for the pipe. That's when you must embarrasingly call the electrician. The correct wire for in-conduit use is THWN-2, better to avoid using cable in conduit because it makes the pulls much harder.

#6 wire will suffice.  If your distance was over 115' there'd be an argument for going up to #4 to reduce voltage drop, but it's not a problem for you.  Do consider bumping up 2 sizes and using #4 aluminum AA-8000 wire, which has always been reasonable for feeder, and this is the new alloy.

Grounds

You absolutely will need both a ground wire in your run, and grounding rods at the shed.  2 rods 8' long, at least 6' apart (more is better). If the conduit is metal IMC or Rigid, that serves as the ground wire.

Main panel

If your main panel is full, it's time to bite the bullet and either change the panel (ouch) or add a subpanel right there and offload 4 spaces worth of circuits to the new subpanel.

Go big.  Go HUGE.    Many builders cheap out and leave you with a tiny panel, often that require "double stuff" breakers just to have enough breakers.  Get a large enough subpanel to have at least 44 spaces between main and sub, preferably more.  Don't let double-stuff breakers substitute for a real space, they can't anymore.

If your old panel is Federal Pacific FPE, Zinsco, Pushmatic or other brand where finding AFCI breakers is hard, get at least 40 additional spaces and figure on this becoming your new main panel someday. If it is FPE or Zinsco, do that like your hair is on fire, or your house could be.

The new in-house subpanel does not need a main breaker (but it will if you upgrade it to main panel someday). The shed does, though it will only serve as a shutoff switch.   A decently large (spaces) subpanel will have a pretty big "main breaker"  That's OK, it is specifically allowed to be bigger than the breaker feeding it.  If your thought is "Make the local breaker the same size so it trips first", haha, that doesn't work! Breaker sequencing is a black art, and Murphy's Law guarantees it will never be satisfactory.

If you have any thoughts toward future use of a generator, think about an in-house subpanel that is just for the circuits you want on generator. Siemens makes a very slick kit for $30 that lets you use two common $9 breakers as the generator interlock. That, and the price of a Siemens main-lug panel, is cheaper than most interlocks alone.

You cannot reverse the line to the shed to use both as generator feed and as subpanel feed. To do that, you would have to "permanently" rewire both ends, although if you set it up right, this can take 5 minutes to change.  I do that kind of temporary permanent wiring all the time.


What is the best type of 6 ft wood fence to block wind in a yard?

As a rule of thumb, tall objects can cast a wind shadow about three to six times their height which diminishes with distance. However, turbulence dominates close to the ground so don't plan on getting 18'  of wind shadow from a fence.

In addition, clearing the land means that the wind will have additional velocity...blowing across 600' of open space actually moves the wind exposure class of a structure from B to C under ASCE-7.

The long and the short is that if you sit next to the fence you can probably create a localized effect, but you cannot use a fence to significantly alter the wind effect across an entire three acre site.


How do I install a ceiling fan without creating holes in the ceiling?

Repairing the holes in your walls doesn't need to be such a daunting task.  Have a quick look at this video on how to patch your drywall:

This Old House - Drywall 101

It will look far better in the long run if you let the wiring be run within the walls and learn how to patch them.  All told the drywall (you can often get small 2x2 boards for patch work at Home Depot), cutting knife, spreaders, joint compound (premixed)and tape will run you around $50.  By contrast running electrical in conduit will cost you just that much for the conduit alone and look far less appealing.


Need to calculate load ratings for DIY wooden storage shelving

To calculate the max load, you need to check the capacity of each piece and identify which one will fail first, in other words whatever has the lowest capacity is your max capacity. In some cases, you'll have load spread across multiple pieces, e.g. each of the decking boards will carry some of the load for the shelf and send half, give or take, to each side. This will all depend on how the load is distributed on the shelf itself, and it's a good idea to be conservative and assume someone places a heavy item on a single side and on a single board.

To start, you can check the weight bearing of a 2x4 turned on it's side for the two sides, and know the capacity can't exceed double that (since there are two sides, but I'd be conservative and assume all the load was applied towards a single side). Next, you can run a similar calculation on the 2x4 decking where the boards are turned flat and over a longer span. This will likely be a smaller rating per board and you'll have to decide how conservative you want to be with the load spread over multiple boards. The next piece of structure you have are the verticals which have to support all of the shelves down to the floor. This is compressive force where the 2x4 is strongest, but you'll want to run this calculation to be sure. Lastly, and where I and CoAstroGeek both suspect you have your weak point, you have the fasteners attaching the sides to the verticals. If those are simple nails, they have a small shear force compared to bolts and could also pull out if there's a sag in the decking.

When looking at how much weight each point can support, don't forget to include the load that's already there from the shelves themselves. So for the horizontal sides of the shelf, they need to support the weight of the 2x4 decking. And the vertical supports running to the floor have their share of 3 decks and sides.

Of course the practical method to calculate the max load is to get some weights and load up a unit until it fails, and then see how much it took before it broke. Or if you don't want to destroy a shelf, use the weights to double check your calculations once you believe you know a safe capacity. It's better to test the shelves when you are being extra safe and expecting a failure than when workers are being careless and a failure could injure someone.

Lastly, I agree with CoAstroGeek's concerns about the lack of diagonal bracing along the long axis, this could easily rack and collapse under a light load if any lateral force is applied.


How to fix leaky plastic to metal adapter?

This was a standard 3/4" pipe.  I was able to cut it off, and shark bite a new piece on.


Why does half of the christmas led lights dim down?

An arc discharge light, like a fluorescent or metal halide, is a dead short that happens to make light.  (It is an arc, after all).  They would flow infinite current if you let them, which would burn then up fast. You stop that by putting a current-limiting ballast on them.  That's what a ballast is, it's a current regulator.

LEDs aren't quite that bad.  But they are current-hungry, and must be current limited.  If you are driving a raw LED, a small increase in voltage will cause a big increase in current.  Their voltage-current curve is steep.

The best LED-based appliances use an active driver circuit which actively limits current.  These active drivers are "magical"; they can input a wide band of voltages from 80 to 306 volts AC and outlut exactly the current the LEDs want.

Low-voltage consumer gadgets like Christmas lights often use resistors as current limiters.  Resistors are dumb, and not magical at all.  They don't regulate current, they just make the voltage-current curve somewhat less steep, which is "good enough" for working with one expected voltage.  They also overspec the LEDs somewhat.

You raised the voltage to 125% of normal.

If you did that with a linear load, that would raise current to 125% and thus total power to 156% of normal (56% more).
If you had done with with a highly non-linear bare LED, check the data sheet, but it would raise current to about 300% of normal, and power to 375% and kaboom.
The resistor eases this somewhat and gives us something in between, probably in the 200-300% power range.

So you can see your "little voltage bump" is really putting the LEDs on the griller.   You are leaning heavily on whatever overdesign was built into the LED spec.

The bigger question is not why this failed, but why the other one is still working!  You seem to have made yourself into a "QA department" for these lights and are discovering the ones which were not overbuilt.


You likely need more coats of sealer.  Depending on the porousness of the tile and the quality of the sealer you may just need more to get the job done.

When you do the shower walls, I would follow these steps:

Make sure your wall is waterproof - good suggestions from @Shimon Rura.
Install your tiles.
Apply two thin coats of penetrating sealer.  Leave each coat on for at least 10 minutes before wiping off (or follow the instructions).
Grout the tiles, using sealer instead of water in the grout.
Clean the tiles very well, allow to dry.  Apply two more thin coats of finishing sealer.

If you're using the glossy sealer this might be a bit much.  I would use the clear penetrating kind for the pre-grout coats.

The pre-grout coats are not strictly necessary, but do serve two purposes.  The first is that if you have porous tile it will give you the extra protection you need.  The second is it makes cleaning up the grout easier if you're sloppy.  Adding sealer to the grout is supposed to help with bonding it to the thinset - not sure if that's true, but if you have extra on hand it works fine.


How to clear an obstruction to run power cable through stud

Maybe get an offset tin snip. You could reach back in there and snip above and below the hole, then bend the flap towards the insulation and snip it clear of the hole so no sharp edges will slice the wire insulation jacket.