What's causing every light on a single breaker to dim and turn off randomly?

Ok I figured I would give this a shot. First I like Harpers suggestion. It's important to know if they are all doing this at the same time or randomly. Second what type of light bulb are you using? Incandescent, fluorescent, or LED. This is important to understand if the problem is consistent with the lamp.

Finally, except for the dimming, you are describing what happens to recessed cans when the integral thermocouple begins to weaken in recessed cans. These are installed in all commercial cans to protect from overheating. If you disassemble the can trim you will be able to see it mounted on the side of the can assembly. The only way I know to repair it is to contact the original manufacture and replace the assembly.

Hope this helps, good luck.


LoBase layer of paint resists chemical stripping

It is likely milk-based paint, which often resists remover.  Unlike normal paints that just need a solvent to remove, milk paints require a caustic, such as lye.
Oddly enough, it sounds like PeelAway 1 could work to remove it, but another option would be Real Milk Paint remover.  It is essentially lye with some added stuff to make it a bit easier to handle.
I haven't used it myself, but as the entire basis of the company is milk paint, it should be good.


Do I need a voltage converter to run an imported bandsaw?

As the others have suggested in the notes, the frequency of the supply has an effect on the induction motors that power the bandsaw and the dust collector.

If you move a motor designed for 50Hz onto 60Hz power, it will turn faster, by roughly 20%.  It will also draw more current (possibly a lot more, it depends on the motor as to how much).   The speed may exceed design tolerances on parts such as bearings, the impeller in the dust collector, etc.  If the current increases over the motor's full load amperage rating, the motor (or possibly other wiring of the device) would fail.

It seems likely to me that you would be able to buy replacement motors of the correct type cheaper than a frequency converter.


Nickel is softer than chrome but chrome is brittle.

Many high-carbon tools have a chrome plating, but many times there are other softer metals flash coated first to allow the other metals to "stick" together better. On steel bumpers, a flash coat of copper allows the chrome to stick. Electroplating with CVD chemical vapor deposition similar layers are deposited.

My opinion is it depends on the base metals used. Mild steel is soft but can be made to last longer with chrome coatings. Both nickel and chrome prevent rusting. Jump to high-end tools and the metals are different.

So to really tell, even the craftsman screwdrivers had 2 levels the old clear and red and then the black handles. Check them out - it was the base metal that was the difference not the outside coating.


Why does my washing machine leak only during the spin cycle?

You have a crack somewhere in the drainage system. The most likely reason that it's leaking on the spin cycle is the vibration caused by the spin cycle is opening the crack to let the leaking occur.


There are several types of concrete patch’s available at most home stores I like latex type products because they are flexible . All you will need is a calking gun and a tube of the proper type, give a big box store a try tell them what you want show them the photo.

When they make a recommendation if they don’t provide a reason (like I said I like latex because it remains flexible and will not break up with summer heat and winter cold) ask them why they like that brand or type.

This is as close as I can get without it turning into a shopping question that would be off topic and closed.


There are certainly shower heads with their own flow control valves, and I know such valves used to be available separately to be installed between wall and head.

There are also mixing valves which separate temperature and flow, though most of the ones sold in the US seem to put on/off on the temp control, perhaps for some obscure liability reason.

So yes, it probably exists... But it may be hard to find or require importing.


What are the downsides of using plasterboard for a (short) HVAC duct?

It would be easier to put a piece of ductwork in than the drywall.  You can always use flexible duct work.


There is a good possibility that the pine boards in a 130 year old house are very dense wood. Old growth timber from that time was quite different from what we experience as "pine" today. As such that type of wood is much less absorbent than even some types of hardwood that you may choose today. The dense wood leaves more of the stain material on the surface as opposed to penetrating and thus longer to dry.

As case in point I used Minwax stain on some oak shelves I built recently. I wanted to use the shelves with just the stained surface without applying a shiny sealer like polyurethane. It took a good 10 days before the stain was completely dry. And that was in west coast spring weather. Such stain in 90° and 80% humidity could very well take longer to fully dry.


Different countries, or even more specific, the localities in the US use different standard.  Even when they adopt a standard, they may use a specific year of adoption.  I suggest more detail, or contact the building officials for details on the code that they use.


Could insulation around copper pipes cause condensation problems?

Insulation on pipes should prevent moisture in the air from condensing on the pipes, by preventing the air from coming into contact with the pipes.  What you are experiencing could be caused by a few things.

Insulation was not installed properly, and is not preventing the moist air from contacting the pipe.
Condensation is forming on an un-insulated section of the pipe, and is flowing along the pipe into the insulation.
The roof is indeed leaking.
A leak has formed somewhere along the pipe (remember, there is water in them there pipes).

But why don't I see the problem when I remove the insulation?

Removing the insulation may be allowing the moisture to evaporate before it can build up and cause problems. the insulation could have been preventing evaporation, which allowed a noticeable amount of water to build up inside of it. Once the insulation reached its saturation point, the water had nowhere to go but onto the floor.


Can I safely nail a wall's top plate to a laminated beam?

Go ahead and put that wall right on under that beam. The beam is a bearing surface for what is up above the beam. The wall you are adding is a non bearing wall that will not hinder the bearing capacity of the beam. Nail it in place using standard nailing practice. In other words, don't load it up with no more nails than you need, one nail staggered every 16", 2 on the ends.

The thing about the non-bearing wall you are building, it can never be made a bearing wall unless you do something with the floor it sets on. The reason why I bring this up, it is possible that in the future, and it is highly unlikely that somebody at some time sees this wall under the beam and thinks "well this wall is under this portion of this beam and I need to run such and such through this area, I will just cut it out since there is this wall under it." WRONG. The beam MUST remain intact as if there is no wall under it.


How should I wire a subpanel for a tiny house?

If you use a 100A breaker your main in the mobile home you will need #3 copper wire to feed the sub the sub panel. A 60 Amp breaker in the main panel should provide enough power from the loads listed this would require #6 copper wire.

You will need to run both hots a ground and neutral. In the sub the ground and neutral buses need to be isolated. Many times Panels come with the buses connected the connection will need to be removed or you can add a grounding buss screwed into the metal of the panel. (Make sure there is not a connection from the original buses to the box.)

I am hoping you will be living in the tiny house while remodel work is completed on the mobile. If both the mobile and the tiny house are used at the same time you may trip the main. If you trip the main you may have to do things like turn the AC off while the cook top is in use to prevent the main from tripping.


How to wire in my replacement fluorescent light fixture?

Most likely the second white and second black wires are the connection to the switch itself.  If so, then what you've got is power line from circuit box to light, switch line from light to switch.  (The alternate method is power line from circuit box to switch, switch line from switch to light - which would have been less confusing for you but he probably was dealing with old work by the sound of it.

How it works in your configuration (if I'm right) - imagine the electrical current like a flow of water.  The power comes in from the breaker box on the black line (aka the hot line).  The power then runs to the white line and down to the wall switch.  When the switch is on it then runs back up the black line to the light.  You connect black to black, and the power flows into the light, then out the white line.  You connect white to white, and the power flows on down back to the breaker box, and out.

So - don't touch the second white and black.  Just wire the light's white to the lonely white and black to black the same way.


What modern 20 amp breaker is compatible with my Challenger panel?

TLDR: Replace every breaker in your panel with a BR type from Bryant, Cutler Hammer or Eaton, readily available most places that sell breakers.  Nothing else should be in your panel - especially not a Challenger (unless you like fires)!

For the best answer ever on this subject, see here.

Green highlighting added. The breakers don't actually have that.

You must use UL-listed or UL-classified breakers

UL-listed means the manufacturer of the panel makes the breakers using their internal knowledge, and UL certified it as safe.

UL-Classified means a competitor reverse-engineered it.  UL has torture-tested it and confirmed it safe.

Never stick random Brand X breakers in your panel. The bus stabs are different for patent reasons, and will arc and burn when heavily loaded.  We call these "alien breakers".

Challenger is cursed...

Because of the need for backwards compatibility, one cannot change a bus design. But it's a good bus design. Unfortunately Challenger hopped on the FPE/Zinsco crazytrain and made some very bad breakers for that good bus.  That is why Challenger is on the same "remove it" list as FPE/Zinsco, but only insofar as the breakers, not the panel.

... but Challenger is blessed.

This industry runs on mergers and acquisitions.  Challenger/Westinghouse wound up in the hands of Bryant who promptly fixed the breaker problem. They changed its name to BR, so they could outlaw use of the defective Challenger Type C breakers. (The buses remain the same).  As for BR breakers, they cross-listed those Type C, since of course they fit Challenger.  This gives Challenger panel owners a super easy upgrade path; simply swap out the vile Type C for Type BR/C for about $5/circuit.

To be clear: BR/C isn't "UL-classified" for your panel.  It is "UL Listed" for your panel.  And your only legal choice.

BRyant got folded into Cutler Hammer who got folded into Eaton.  The buses are still the same to maintain backwards compatibility and because the original bus is perfectly fine.

You must change every breaker in the panel to BR type

Since the Challenger breakers are dangerous, every breaker in your panel needs to be a Type BR/Type C from Bryant, Cutler Hammer or Eaton.  If it's not, change it now.

Also, where your breaker has failed, look closely at the bus stabs under the breaker.  Challenger never had a bus-stab problem, but lots of people don't know about the BR/C thing, so they run out and grab any "alien breaker" like a Square D HOMeline or GE or Murray.  Those could have burned up the bus.  A burned bus is unusable; that space is permanently dead. Search the panel for any other alien breakers and get rid of em.

An alien breaker can be a sleeping monster; most circuits aren't loaded very hard (until they are, and that's when it fries).


Delta Bathtub Faucet - Unaligned handle stopper

What you need to do is adjust the end valve nut based on the screw position of the valve handles.

  1 > A > 4: Note: End valves may be rotated to align handles and stops before
  tightening nuts.


I've seen it done both ways but the feed to the switch is more common. You'll probably have a black and white coming into the switch the black will be pigtailed to the switch and to a black wire going to the outlet. you'll also have a red connected to the switch going to the outlet. The white coming in will be connected to a white going to the outlet. At the outlet the black will be pigtailed to a brass screw and continue to the next outlet, the switched red wire will be hooked to the other brass screw, and the link between the two screws will be removed. the white wire will be pigtailed to the silver screw and out to the next outlet.
If you're fed from the outlet, you'll probably have a switch loop with a hot white wire going from the outlet to the switch and a black wire from the switch to the outlet.
You'll need to run wire to your ceiling light location. Where it's run from depends on what you'll find out when you remove the switch and outlet for inspection... don't disconnect anything until you take a bunch of pictures.
Naturally, there will probably be ground wires that are connected but I left that part out until we know what's there.


You see how the new switch has 4 terminals: C for common, 1, a covered-up 2 that you won't be using, and "Loop" which appears to be merely for convenient splicing.

You also notice the old switch has 4 terminals that appear to be in the same position. I will assume they are labeled the same.

So.  The two red wires from the wall that went to "1" on the old switch.  They need to to "1" on the new switch.   Easy peasy.

The one red wire that went from "Loop" on the old switch needs to go to "C" on the new switch.

And we're done.

Oh wait.  You also messed with the black wires.  That was not constructive since they never went to the old switch in the first place.  Put them back exactly the way you found them.

In the future, if you are replacing something, and you see wires that do not go to the thing you are replacing, leave them alone.  They are not part of your project.   You made your situation worse by messing about with those black wires.  We see this all the time; at extremes one fellow wanted to change a light fixture and instead of touching the 2 wires that went to the fixture, dismantled all 12 wires in the box.  He knocked out power to half his apartment and his neighbor's lights, and wound up having to throw himself at the mercy of his landlord's electrician, that wasn't cheap!   I call this "trying to learn electrical by dismantling your house".  I recommend a book.

Now if you're wondering what is the deal with those color codes, look at the cables available for sale at your home improvement store.  Now, your working theory is that the color codes are there to help you hook up the wires, and therefore they designate the function/purpose of the wires.  There would need to be a variety of color combinations offered buy shops, so you could use black/red for power, black/blue for lamp, red/blue for switch loops, etc. But no.  The shops only sell red/black.

With all cables looking identical, position is everything.  Position gives us the information of what the various wires do.  That's why it matters which two red wires were together in the previous config.  That is why the guy I mentioned got in so much trouble.

Myself, I either work in conduit or color-code my wires with tape. So in my boxes, yes, you just join all purple wires. But that is because I go out of my way to make it so.  It's not automatic.


What is the name of a liquid coupler between a wet/dry vac and a hose?

Just look for a Drain Adapter Kit for Garden Hoses. It may vary by brand.


Turning a mobile home with a basement into a recording studio

Not knowing what you have for head space under this mobile home and what the moisture/humidity levels are, makes a difference.  Let us assume, for the purpose of answering the construction questions that the space is tall enough and dry enough to use as a functional  space. Notice that I did not say living space. Most codes would require minimum ceiling heights, egress etc to be considered living space.

Most single wide MH's are designed to sit on a slab or jacks/blocks on a slab. Not knowing exactly where these walls are located under the MH may be a clue as to whether or not they are supporting the floor above. If there are beams that span the 12 foot width and rest or are welded to the parameter frame then the load may well be supported by the outside beams. If there is a center main beam  at apx 6 foot, that well may need to be supported at some point along it's length. You may need to do some research into the manufacture's spec for placement.  Without actually seeing the construction of the existing walls, their placement and attachment to the upper floor, it is unsure what their purpose is. A few strategically placed jack posts may be required to replace the existing walls if the center line of the MH needs support.

The other requirement is that the plumbing is protected from freezing. If you remove insulation from areas of plumbing, then it may be necessary to heat the area to avoid freeze ups. Also, the temps inside the MH could be effected by removing insulation from the underside of the floor.


Why is there a hot white wire in my ceiling light

Neutrals are hot anytime a load is connected.  That's why we call them "conductors" and insulate them (note this is different than the practice in automobiles). What's supposed to keep them near earth is a solid connection back to the neutral busbar that has much more conductivity than you.   When you interrupt that connection, the load will "pull up" the neutral to line voltage, and will place you in series with the load.

The sparky didn't see it, because at the time, the load was unplugged/off.

"But I turned off the breaker!"  That particular load was on a different hot circuit, but was stealing neutral from your circuit.   This is either a wiring error/laziness... Or a multi-wire branch circuit, whose entire design is to do that.  However all legs of an MWBC are supposed to travel in the same cable.


Wall dimmer switch is warm to the touch after leaving the light on - cause for concern?

If this was a normal switch, I would say, no this is not normal.  Since the switch does contain a dimmer, it is perfectly normal.  Dimmers are electronic devices that do heat up. In fact, because of the heat they create, dimmers are rated for a maximum wattage.  Special high wattage dimmers are available, and they even have integrated heat sinks to help dissipate the heat they generate.

That said, you need to calculate the total wattage of the bulbs you are controlling with the switch.  If you have 6 bulbs, the max wattage you can use is probably 40W.  A typical residential dimmer will have a maximum of 600W (yours will be labeled, probably on the face where its easy to see).  Using 12 40W bulbs you have 480W, but using 60W bulbs you would be over-budget at 720W.  This is important, because when you are over 600W, the dimmer will still work, but it could possibly get hot enough to damage itself or the wiring connections in the same box.


Power options for inside cabinet drawer outlet

You don't do it with 120V unless you have AHJ approval for your installation.  I can't imagine that happening; there's some argument to be made in NEC 400.7 for flexible cords for equipment which moves, and maybe they'd approve it with armored cable or something... but instead I think the AHJ is going to take one look at this and say "Heck no".
12 volts DC
So what we do is, use 12 volts DC. As long as the entire system is under 55W, we get to play under the easier Class II wiring rules.
So you have a UL-listed 12V DC power supply making up to 55W of 12V DC.
Then we come over to the drawer with, well, I would still use AC mains-grade armored cable, say 12/2, or a UL-listed pantograph arrangement as you see pictured in that product. It needs to be made to flex, though - you can't use in-wall wiring.
How do we get from 12V to USB?  LOL, that's easier to find than eggs.  Every convenience store, gas station, cell phone shop, big-box of any kind, etc. sells 12V USB adapters.  Usually right up by the checkout.
The USB charging hub may already do this for you.
Given the difficulty of getting a UL Listing for a 120V device, and the ease of simply including a commodity "wall-wart" power supply that is already UL-listed, I would expect most USB charging hubs already make a DC transition using a "wall wart" or "power block" of some kind.
They don't even make the wall-wart; they buy it from someone else who already slogged through the difficult UL approval for an AC power device. Their own device proper is an entirely low-voltage creature; and as such it breezed through UL listing since nothing lethal/dangerous needed to be tested for.  If you wondered why every darned electronics product in the whole wide world insists on using those annoying wall-warts, yup, that's why.
So simply buy a device like that, which comes with a wall-wart.  The wall-wart plugs in at an appropriate FIXED location. Then you either splice in the appropriate cabling, or maybe just wrap the supplied small cable in some wire loom (e.g. the spiral stuff) so it doesn't get chewed up by the drawer going in and out.  Run that cable to the moving drawer, and you're all set.


Will different sized bullet crimps fit together?

According to the spec sheets of the Morris Nylon Insulated Double Crimp Bullet Disconnects. There is a blue that will fit the reds, and a blue that will fit the yellows.

#Red (22-16 AWG)
T 0.016
L 0.886
B 0.433
C 0.067
D 0.157
F 0.335
W 0.157

#Blue 1 (16-14 AWG)
T 0.016
L 0.886
B 0.433
C 0.091
D 0.197
F 0.335
W 0.157

#Blue 2 (16-14 AWG)
T 0.016
L 0.886
B 0.433
C 0.091
D 0.197
F 0.335
W 0.197

#Yellow (12-10 AWG)
T 0.016
L 0.925
B 0.512
C 0.134
D 0.256
F 0.335
W 0.197


Power Panel Grounding and Neutral Bonding / Dryer hookup in an older home [1975]

Neutral does and should carry normal currents

This may be the crux of your misunderstanding.

240V loads are carried on the two hots.  120V loads are carried on one hot and neutral.   So a typical dryer might draw 20A of 240V and 3A of 120V.  In that case the amperages of L1, N and L2 will be 23, 3 and 20.  This is normal.

Ground is a safety shield only

The design philosophy of grounding is that grounds should never be used to handle current.

The circuit's overcurrent protection already protect from a fault between conductors.  But what about faults between a conductor and anything else? That could cause a lot of mischief.  Ground's job is to be the path of first resort for any wayward fault current. That works really well in metal-chassis machines.

"Wait. Won't GFCI do that same thing?" Kinda. Yeah. 30A 2-pole GFCI breakers can be had.

Neutral and ground should be separated everywhere except the designated Neutral-Ground Bond.

In an ideally wired panel, all neutrals land on the neutral bar, and all grounds land on the ground bar.  There is a neutral-ground bond that can be removed.

This panel can be effortlessly converted to a subpanel by feeding it from another main and removing the neutral-ground bond.

It is also easy to measure ground fault current, by clamping a meter around the N-G bond.

However builders also have a lobby with the NFPA, and they lobbied for rules that let them spam it all onto one bar.  It does no real harm, since they're connected anyway by the neutral-ground bond.  It is leeeegal, just is a builder grade shortcut, and obviously prevents any of the things I mention above.

Why not bootleg ground on NEMA 14?

Well, that is what the NEMA 10 type hookup already does, so if that is your intent, there is no need to bootleg NEMA 14... you are already there.

It's back to the same problem as NEMA 10 and any other bootleg ground - any trouble with the neutral wire will result in the neutral being pulled up to 120V by loads, and with it the dryer chassis.

Whereas that does not happen if the neutral and ground are separated. In that case the machine just doesn't work and the ground continues to protect against hot-ground faults.   Since there should be no neutral-ground faults, this becomes a non-event except the machine doesn't work obviously.  The broken machine motivates the person to seek a proper repair.

If there was a neutral-ground fault, the machine may work normally misusing ground as current return.  That is why bad repairmen create neutral-ground faults, to git-r-dun and onto the next job, safety be damned.

You can  retrofit ground

Under NEC 2014 (and earlier for dryers) it is legal to retrofit grounds.  You can run just a ground wire (#10) and retain use of the existing wires. It can go back to that service panel, or to any other ground also served out of that panel, as long it is of sufficient size (#10).

This same rule also makes a dryer ground retrofit useful for retrofitting grounds almost everywhere else, so it can be wise to plan it as a "backbone" for other ground retrofits.


Is a tiny dent in a compressor tank a safety concern?

As the reservoir for an air compressor holds air under pressure, the forces on the dent will be outward. If the dent is not on a seam or other metal discontinuity, and is shallow enough, little will happen. When it is pressurized the first time, if it does not "un-dent" itself, you likely have little about which to worry. Even if it does pop out, it won't go beyond flush and again, no worry.

Keep an eye on the dent. If the paint is scratched and the metal under begins to rust, not so good. If the paint is cracked or scratched, consider to apply primer and topcoat to remove future rust problems.

Rust is a problem over long periods of time, especially on the inside, so drain your tank frequently and examine it for outside rust and damage as well.


Are two 6x6 posts adequate to support a stone or brick wall in an earthquake zone?

No, code does not allow masonry, of any kind, to be supported by wood:

  2104.1.6 Support on wood. Masonry shall not be supported on wood girders or other forms of wood construction except as permitted in Section 2304.12.


There is/was nothing in the Wiring Regulations to require or prohibit such an arrangement.

It is/was not unusual to have electricity meters in communal cupboards, especially in larger blocks where a concierge could open them for the Electricity Board meter reader without the residents having to be disturbed.

Many 1970s flats had various types of electric heating, such as storage heaters, underfloor heating, panel heating, and water heating. Separate tariffs for ordinary use, water heating, and space heating, were common. This would need a 3-rate meter and a timeswicth or radio teleswitch to change the meter rate and turn on/off various circuits, and 3 main cables between the meter and supplier's timeswitch or teleswitch equipment in the cupboard to the consumer unit(s) inside the flat. Heavy main cables are expensive. To allow for the possibility of heating being changed from storage to panel heaters, etc, all the main cables would have to be sized to take the full load.

Also, meter 'tails' or submains longer than 3 metres are supposed to be fused near the meter, as the supplier's cutout cannot be relied upon to clear a fault quickly enough. That means a switchfuse next to the meter (more expense, and takes up space in the meter cupboard).

Therefore, putting the consumer unit(s) next to the meter in the cupboard, and running a few extra metres of circuit cables to the flats may have been considered the cheaper and more practical option at the time.

An example of a multi-rate consumer unit from the late 1960s is shown here

https://www.flameport.com/electric_museum/wylex_fuse_boxes/wylex_multi_rate_metal_fusebox.cs4

It will be noted the fuses are grouped into separate sections, each with their own main switch: lighting and power, heating, and water heating. This could have been supplied by 3 separate mains cables and a 3-rate meter.

Most of these multi-meter multi-rate tariffs and heating setups are now obsolete.


Does code mandate outlets when windows are above the counter?

The area the range and sink occupy is not counted. But code shows 24” what I would do is put a tombstone receptacle in on each side of the stove counter top.
Some tombstones are quite nice I have used them in large islands and peninsular counters on multiple houses this may be the cleanest looking option as it will not affect the window and would not be below the counter.


How can I verify that the ground wires in my outlet boxes are grounded properly?

Connect the new receptacle with hot going to small slot, neutral to larger slot, "ground" wire to ground screw on receptacle. Turn power back on, insert a 3-prong circuit tester into the receptacle and see if the tester says you have a good ground.

Even if you don't have a good ground you can install a GFCI receptacle and get protection from any shock that a GFCI protects from (or at least some types of shocks).

If you find that the ground is not good then unless and until you fix this, just leave the new GFCI receptacle in place and put a sticker on the receptacle stating it is ungrounded. You can legally use it that way.


The lower vents will indeed be less effective than the upper ones. In addition, you are reducing the effective insulation of the wall/roof in order to install baffles. With effective cross flow ventilation and a proper ceiling vapor barrier, you only need a total of 1/300 of the attic area in open free area ventilation. IMO, getting at least 1/2 this minimum area from the soffit is the important part. Actually balancing the areas when you have more than adequate ventilation is less important.

If you can achieve this 1/2 minimum area in the upper soffits alone, then forget about the lower ones all together. Only if you have no choice would I attempt to bring in air from the lower soffit. I'm fairly dubious on just how effective these would be.


three way switching with a dimmer and timer

Too many chefs

The problem is, you have too many options all trying to control the switch.  You've got the timer, the dimmer, and two switches.  These control inputs (and their meanings) are too complex for "steam wiring".  Seriously... work out every possible combination of states and control inputs, and what you want to have happen in each case... Suppose the timer is 2 minutes from finished, and someone throws the other 3-way. What should happen?

The person clicking the switch doesn't know the timer turned it on.

You know exactly what you want.  But having the system know what you want is a real user-interface problem.

Smart switches are the way to go

With a smart switch platform like Insteon, you get to set up controls to work any way you like, because the hard decisions are done in software.  State is also stored in software, so for instance you could dim or start a timer from both locations, switch allowing.

And, if the event logic doesn't work the way you want, you can change the software!


Bi-fold doors use channels mounted to the underside of the door opening. Most of the load presented by these doors is taken up by the hinges, but the track serves to guide a roller at the edge of the door panel. Some shower doors are suspended by rollers, which take the entire load of the door.

If one is handy, one could use a shower door track secured to the wall and mount the wheels to the edge of the desk or to the underside with the wheel extending. I am able to remove my shower door by lifting it, moving it in a direction perpendicular to the track and pulling the bottom edge clear.

In the case of the desk, you would want to have a second "idler" wheel which pushes against the track, pulling the guide wheel into its rail, preventing such a movement. Another method of preventing the guide wheel from disengaging would be to have wheels riding outside of the track, preventing the sideways movement necessary to disengage the guide wheel. This is more like a monorail design.

The above thought process leads me to consider some amusement park rides in which a series of rollers/wheels surround a large diameter tube (ride track) but this could become unsightly.

Think of a handrail mounted on the wall. The rail need only to be secured at the top and bottom, just outside the travel range of the desk. Behind the rail, between the rail and the wall, the securing wheel/roller pulls the desk to the rail, while side wheels prevent left/right misalignment. If necessary, another wheel between the desk and the rail keeps the desk from contacting the rail.

The image above is necessarily more robust and perhaps more complex than that needed to protect a stand-up desk, but works well enough as a concept clarification. One word is worth one one-thousandth of a picture.


How to fix a wooden screw hole that is stripped?

Remove the castor, get some PL premium, glue it back on.

Or just get some small pieces of wood (wooden match sticks - minus the head - and jamb those into the hole with or without glue, cut the ends of the wood pieces off flush and screw into that mess.


The hammering action of the drill isn't activating

So the bit is overheating due to friction. It is supposed to hammer the material you're drilling into dust then evacuate it, not rub it off through friction.

You have to activate the hammer action.

Pretty much the only use cases for not using the hammer action are when drilling into ceramic tile to avoid breaking it, or drilling into plasterboard or other soft materials where hammering will smash through and make a crater on the other side...

  Is this a better job for an impact drill?

Advantages of cordless hammer drill's are

Light weight.
Convenience, you can drill the hole and drive the screw with the same tool.
It works for a few small holes (like less than 6mm diameter) in easy to drill materials like brick, cinderblock, soft stone (limestone), etc.

Drawbacks: noisy and underpowered, slow/useless on tough materials (hard stone, concrete especially if it contains rebar).

If you want to make lots of holes, or diameters like 10mm and up, or drill into tough stuff, a rotary hammer with SDS+ bits will be a LOT faster.

Don't get an impact driver for drilling, impact drivers are for bolts and tough screws, not for drilling.

  I don't have a means to sharpen it, but just from visual inspection it looks OK

It's tungsten carbide, you can't really sharpen it. Besides, it doesn't need to be really sharp, it's basically a tiny hammer with a blunt point.


Breaker feeding sub-panel causes other breakers to trip

Wow, very mysterious.

First of all, if the AC unit trips a breaker, it may be the compressor is intermittantly having a hard start.  Mine was doing this in cooler weather, or at night.  Adding a hard-start capacitor to the compressor fixed it.

But your event looks more troublesom than that, as you have unrelated circuits tripping together.  What I would first guess is that you are having brown outs.  The brown outs could be caused by the AC compressor having a hard-start.  Or the brown-out could be caused by the grid voltage being low.

When a AC compressor starts, it acts like a dead-short for a brief moment, until the motor is spinning.  The unit starts in the "locked rotor" condition, and the locked-rotor current is usually many times that of the breaker, so a unit that has a 40 amp breaker might have an locked rotor amp  (LRA) rating of over 100amps.  Most breakers trip on heat, so they can take a load 3 or 4 times higher than they are rated, for a few miliseconds.

So if your AC is slow to start, it might hit your house with a 100+ amp load for a second, causing your house voltage to drop.  If the voltage drops, then many things you have plugged in with reactive loads will increase in current as the voltage drops out.  The breakers run off current only, and don't care that the current is caused by a brown out, so if the brown-out causes current to exceed ratings, breakers trip.

So the first thing I would do is tell your AC repairman you are popping the AC breaker from time to time, and ask him to investigate putting a hard-start kit on your compressor.  What the hard-start kit does it ads a little extra boost of start-up power to the compressor, so a tired old compressor can start easier, and avoid tripping the breaker.

Replacing the AC bereaker may be called for, but don't put one in that is larger than the name plate rating on the compressor.  The compressor will say on the nameplate how large a breaker you should use.  Don't put a larger one in, a larger breaker will not make a hard-start compressor better, it will make it burn-up quicker.  The only fix is a new compressor or a hard-start kit, never a larger breaker.  Of course that assumes it is your compressor.  It could be something else entirely, like a power grid brownout.

In my case, the compressor hard-start was only when it was cool outside, but that is just one odd case, most of the time a hard start compressor will hard start all the time, or only when hot, or only when the unit is short cycles, or only when it's been off for a while.  Your AC guy should know to look for hard-start when you mention the breaker tripping intermittently.  You should hear him talk about trying a hard-start kit even if you don't mention it to him, but that doesn't mean you can't suggest it to him anyway... if he thinks you know what is going on, he is less inclined to give you B.S...  If he is unscrupulous, he may suggest a compressor replacement first, but really a hard start kit is a better first move if a hard-start condition is suspected.


How to prevent outdoor wall touching concrete fom getting moisture issues?

The first issue is the moisture in the concrete - where is moisture coming from? Is the foundation sealed correctly? Even if you're dealing with drainage, you need to make sure that the basement has a proper incline (and make sure that the floor is sealed) directing the moisture towards the drain. This is a good place to start: http://www.everything-about-concrete.com/basement-floor-sealer.html

The second issue is that wood is resting on concrete. That has to change. Not just because it's kind of ugly, but also because it's going to be a repetitive source of problems associated with moisture. Exposed concrete in itself isn't terrible, but you shouldn't have any organics or drywall in direct contact with it. You could remove the wood and just have a concrete wall, or create a proper raised floor, or raise the wall with a metal separator. Painting a bare concrete wall isn't a terrible idea either - it may end up looking better than that wood, too.

I would remove the wood, seal the floor, and paint both the concrete wall and floor.


Look for reducer or adapter plates. They’re a pair flat rings that go on both sides of the door hole. The outer diameter is big enough to cover the hole completely and the inner diameter is sized for the lock.

They’ll have basic ones at any home store. Usually in brass and satin nickel finishes.


What's the best ratio for sand-only concrete?

First I want to point out that the hardness has a lot to do with cure time and temperature. Longer cures (6-8 weeks) at cool temperature (say 50 °F) are harder. Short, hot cures are harder initially, and crumble later.

Generally, the 1pt cement : 2pt sand ratio is best and will have a 3500 psi compression stress. A 1:3 ratio will have less than 3000 psi. Gravel can actually strengthen the mix... up to 3 parts. The mix of choice (concrete) is 1pt cement :2pt sand : 3pt gravel, because it's the best/hardest (for the money).


Can an existing exhaust fan with a light and night light be replaced with just an exhaust fan and a seperate can light in the shower?

Yes, absolutely.

Install the recessed light over the shower and use the junction box attached to the lights to then extend the wiring to the new fan location. You'll obviously need new wire between the light and fan.


I do not have a main breaker in my breaker box

You likely have a "split-bus" panel. The NEC allowed no more than 6 switches to disconnect all power from a building. The top of the panel has space for not more than 6 two-pole breakers, one of which fed the lower section of the panel. Was legal.
Bigger issues are brand, age, and capacity to add circuits.
First brands. Zinsco and Federal Pacific have history of defects, you should consider replacing ASAP.
Second, the 2nd law of thermal dynamics, everything goes from order to disorder, things wear out. Your panel is aging to the point that a critical failure could happen at any time.
Third, many split bus services were only 100A, it sounds like you have some capacity (if you described all the significant breakers accurately), but adding a EVSE or air conditioner may be out of the question.
Also it is a bit odd to have a range on a 2p30 breaker, may be inadequate supply to Code standards, but not likely to cause any damage, just limited power available to be used at the range.


Gable venting a bathroom fan and kitchen range hood

The primary concern with any opening is bulk water infiltration. Sound practice is a minimum of 8" between the sill of the opening and the roof surface to provide for proper flashing and counterflashing. 12" is better.

So long as the duct layout and clearances are consistent with the manufacturer's recommendations, the installation should otherwise be fine.


Do chips in a stained floor reveal differently-colored, unstained wood?

Yep. If they bug you you can touch up the chips with stain as needed until you refinish the floor completely someday. For minor chips it's not really necessary to also apply sealer, but you could.


This is an interesting question. Actually, you can have a squared waterfall with the top trim being all the same height, however, the bottom has to be an incline leading to a sump pit where you can install a small water feature submerged pump. I'm not much at drawing pics, maybe one of my fellow SE buddies can help me out here.  Let me try to explain the theory. Even though you want the shape to be square, think of it as a straight sluice. You will have a pump at the lowest point, and recycle the water to the highest, starting point. So if you build a square canal, there must be a start and an end. The barrier between the "start" and "end" could be very thin, maybe a piece of plexiglass. The difference in height between the start and end does not have to be much, but practically speaking would depend on the dimension of the overall square. So if the start of the flume was 6 inches deep(for example). then the end of the flume/ pump location, could be 12 inches. Since water is going to seek it's own level, the volume of water in the feature has to be a bit less than is required to fill the entire feature to the top.  So let's see how it works: Water from the lowest point/pit or reservoir is pumped up over a barrier to a shallower starting point, raising the surface level at the "starting point. Gravity and the flow created from the pump, sends the water downhill along the sluice. As the water seeks a level state, it flows back to the pit/reservoir where the pump lifts it to continue the cycle.


Why is our water heater running the burner for so long and why is the relief valve running?

"the burner had been running... even after we had opened the faucet"

Every time you open a faucet on the system you introduce cold water into the heater, necessitating additional burner operation to bring the water to the temperature setpoint. The longer you run the hot water, the colder the tank water becomes and the longer the burner will operate to heat it up.

Also, older water heater T&P valves are notorious for dripping/leaking. You may need to replace the valve, it's easy.

The fact that you have had no noticeable pressure increase and that your water temperature is normal seems to indicate a properly functioning thermostat and gas valve. Test the temperature then turn the thermostat down and see if there is a corresponding response.


Need helping finding a limit switch for motorized raise/lower led light bar

A simple and reliable means to your objective might be magnetic reed switches. A magnet placed on any portion of the moving structure can be used to open and close as the lights rotate.
The circuit for one direction of travel would have the reed switch set to open as the magnet reaches the end of that direction, while the polarity switching circuit receives the other reed switch.
If you can post your circuit diagram, I can be more precise regarding placement of the reed switches, but it's relatively straightforward. When your movement switch is in the "up" position while the lights are down, the reed switch is closed, allowing current to flow. As the light reaches the desired location, the reed switch opens.
When the movement switch is in the "down" position while the lights are up, the same thing applies, as the second reed switch will have closed once the magnet moves away.
I searched for "high current reed switches" and found too many returns to post, especially as the prices range from a few dollars to a few hundred dollars.
Ensure to use a normally-closed switch, as explained on this useful web page.


How can I figure out what mystery wall switches might do?

First thing I'd check is if the switch is even connected to any wires. You can probably check this just by removing the face plate.

You already checked the receptacles, but did you check both the top and bottom outlet?  Sometimes a switch will only control one part of the outlet.  In this case, the metal tab connecting both hot terminals is broken so that the top and bottom outlets can be individually powered (and switched).

The next step is to look at the wiring of the switch.  First turn off the circuit breaker and test again with a non-contact tester (if you don't know what the switches do, then it could have more than 1 circuit in the box - just to be safe). Remove the switch and take note of the switch type - is it a single pole switch or 3-way switch?  (If its a 3-way switch then the color of the traveler might be helpful in finding what it controls.)  Is the line (from the circuit breaker) in this box?

If a visual inspection doesn't give you any clues then you need to trace the circuit.  This is usually done with the power off using a circuit tracer:

A telecom probe/tracer can also be used in many cases.  You hook the tone generator up to the wires at the switch, and then you use the probe to follow the wires through the wall.  With any luck you will find your way to a ceiling or wall box. Depending how badly you want to know, you might need to open the wall (or use a scope) at some point to help trace the wire.  More expensive versions of this tool exist that might be needed to find really sneaky wires.

It's not unheard of to find out that a previous owner dry walled over an electrical box, so keep this in mind as a possibility.

And if you just can't sleep at night without know where it goes, you could always x-ray your house as a last resort.

(source: tomcomunicacao.com.br)

(The above image is by photographer Nick Veasey. While this photo was stitched together, there are companies that x-ray buildings )


What are the IRC requirments for bracing/blocking in a load-bearing 2x6 stud wall that is 12' high?

If I remember right, any stud section that is over 10' tall needs blocking. Any place I have seen, has been in the center of the height, placed flat so it completely blocks the cavity. It is for fire stopping I believe, perhaps structural as well.


I sometimes have the same effect in some of the LEDs in my own home.
I assume you are using a dimmer? What brand and model?

I am using Lightolier electronic dimmers, with LED level indicators on the side. The tiny load the dimmer causes will create current flow through the LED lamps in the fixture. A backlit device can do the same thing.


How long should it take to a 1.5 tons AC to cool down a 2000sqf house from 80F to 77F?

As written this question is pretty hard to answer.  It sounds like you're having AC problems tho and need a test method.

Find or purchase 2 probe type thermometers like thermometers. Analog or digital doesn't matter, the only things that are important are that they have a probe and that they give the same reading laying next to each other on a table (you will be surprised how many don't).  You can purchase these many places for under $10, there normally used in the kitchen.

Take these to the area of your furnace and find someplace to stick each in, one in the return air, one in the supply air.  There is always a crack or hole in the ductwork somewhere, I have yet to see a case where a hole needed to be made.  On the return air side, the simple place is where the air filter is located. The supply side is harder to find sometimes, but just get the probe into the airflow.

Once the system has been running 15-20 minutes the thermometer should be reading temps about 15-20 degree's difference.

If your aren't getting 15-20 degrees of cooling you may need a service man, but check the filters first, and check airflow on the outside coils as well.  They typically need to be hosed off once or twice a year.


Can I reduce the amount of noise created by metal shrinking after the fireplace is turned off?

There's not much from a practical standpoint that can be done. Obviously, as metal heats it expands and as it cools it shrinks again. The creaking primarily comes from seams in the firebox and the flue that move against one another as they cool at different rates.
Nothing will totally eradicate the problem other than possibly uninstalling the unit and reinstalling it with fused/welded seams to reduce the friction. It's impractical and even that would only reduce, not eliminate the noise. You might contact the manufacturer.


What type of hose do I need to replace a pull out faucet?

Unbolt at the section you've highlighted (yes, it should just unbolt), remove the weight, and bring the whole pull-out to the hardware store to ensure your replacement matches.


The metal conduit, in good order, is the ground

This tends to gobsmack people with residential experience when they first see a commercial installation.  I have four buildings with less than 30 feet of green or bare wire in all of them combined.  You'd think it was an obsolete ungrounded installation, but actually the grounding is modern.

Working in conduit is nice... Means never having to think about ground.

It also breaks you of the bad habit of thinking of ground as an afterthought-- e.g. where someone hooks up the conductors, tests and passes, hooks up grounds at the end, and it fails.  He's like "why is my ground defective?"  Which is an upside down view of the problem obviously.


The 50PAR20 is a 50-watt bulb.  The halogen is 38W, so the total heat dumped into your cabinet will be less.  However, the halogen bulb itself will get a lot hotter than the PAR20, so if the bulb is enclosed (e.g. behind a translucent lens), you probably shouldn't use the halogen.  Further, if the bulb sits close to wood or other flammable materials (and theres' no metal liner to the socket area), you probably don't want to use it.  Even if it never leads to smoke, it might age the wood around the bulb.


what 2017 NEC code talks about knob and tube replacement

Although what Billy says may be technically true, that doesn't mean it is not a good idea to update it. A lot of insurance company's won't insure a house with known knob and tube wiring.  The insurance company execs are not stupid.  It has nothing to do with code compliance.  They know that all k&t wiring is 70 to 80-years old and never designed to handle the loads of the modern-day house hold.   Stick with your pitch.  They don't need chapter and verse.  They just want someone who will upgrade it for a reasonable price. Good Luck. P.


Can an electric stove infinite switch for a small burner be used to control a large burner?

I spent some time researching these infinite switches because they are failing on our 25-year-old GE range but by a different mode than you have. Ours are losing the lower end. They don't heat at all on low but do work above a certain setting.

The infinite switches are different part numbers for the two different burners and it is not clear to me that it is "safe" to use an infinite switch for a small burner on a large one. The wires and the sensing element in the small infinite switch might not be sized to carry the larger current drawn by the large burner and might overheat or fail somehow.

The current through the switch is determined by the size of the burner. The infinite switch regulates the heat of the burner by square wave time modulation of the current on a time scale of maybe a second. So when the current is on it would be at a higher value (9 A?) on the large burner than on the smaller one. It is questionable in my mind that it is wise to use the infinite switch for the smaller burner on the larger one.

I suggest you get the specified one for the larger burner and get a new heating element for the smaller burner.


Deck post cut too short - possible solutions?

Best bet is to remove the posts and get ones that you can re-cut to the right length.

If you cemented in the bottom of the "short" posts now is the time to correct that. Try to use a metal bracket to hold the posts up off the concrete some so the post bottoms can dry if they get wet.


You can use it. But it is NOT RECOMMENDED.

The vast majority of the time, the ground plug does "nothing". But under certain fault conditions, the ground plug is vital for safety. There are certain types of tools that are "double insulated" and do not have a ground plug. But if a device has a ground plug then it is not advisable to use it without the plug. This includes both a problem with the plug, as you described, and also includes using a "3-prong to 2-prong adapter".

This is especially the case with a shop vacuum. Shop vacuums often handle water, metal and other conductive materials. If something should go wrong and the ground plug is not intact and functioning properly, that could lead to serious injury.

Replacing the plug is usually not hard to do. Depending on the type of cord, you might be able to replace the entire cord, or you may cut off the end and attach a new 3-prong plug. Look for a replacement that is "UL Listed".


Is it possible to get my existing dimmer switch to dim lights further?

This is often the problem with incandescent dimmers used with LED lights. The lowest setting for an incandescent dimmer is too much when used with an LED bulb.
There are no adjustments you can make to increase the dimming on the actual switch. There are many types of LED bulbs out there so you could experiment with different types until you find the one that fits your needs. You could also replace the dimmer with an LED dimmer. They will lower the brightness on an LED bulb more than the incandescent dimmer will do.


need help with completing Zone, Thermostat and low pressure wiring for a Alpine Boiler ALP150

First things first, you'll need a transformer to step power down from 120 volts to 24 volts. Next, you'll obviously need a zone valve.  You'll also need a thermostat, to actually determine when the heat should come on.  You'll need a thermostat and zone valve for each zone, but a transformer should be able to supply a few zones.

Start by connecting one of the yellow leads from all the zone valves, to one of the leads from the transformer.  Next connect a wire from the R terminal of each thermostat, to the other transformer lead.  Connect the other yellow lead from each zone valve, to the W terminal of the corresponding thermostats.

Gather up one of the red leads from each of the zone valves, and connect them to one of the Heating T-Stat terminals in the boiler (using a pigtail is the proper way to do this, as you're only allowed one wire under screw terminals. Gather up all the other red leads from the zone valves, and connect them to the other Heating T-Stat terminal in the boiler.

Example wiring for a single zone

That's it.  Now when a thermostat calls for heat, it will open the appropriate valve, and signal the boiler.


Why do pleated blinds have to be 2 centimeters wider than the windows they are covering?

It's probably not a requirement. It's probably so that less light is shooting past the blind through the gap between it and the window frame.

If it is a requirement it probably has to do with the mounting system, which we have no information about.


Caulking corner of showers changed grout color

Generally speaking, any time you apply a glossy material over a matte material you get darkening. It's unfortunate that this was discovered now, but you do have options.

If you haven't yet sealed the grout, and plan to, see what that does for the situation. Some sealers won't change the color, but some will. Maybe it'll bring things closer to a match.

Otherwise you'll need to cut away the caulk, scrape off at least the surface of the grout (deeper is better for bonding), and re-grout those joints.

Clear silicone is great for many things, but color-matched caulk is better in this situation, and urethane is the best I've used in terms of grab and durability. Use as small a bead as possible (trim the nozzle to act as a tool and don't "finger" the bead out), and note that urethane does not come off what you put it on. Plan well, wear latex-type gloves and old clothes, and consider masking the tile outside the bead boundaries.


Assuming that this is a new 4 inches of floor on a ground level structure...

No this is definitely not ok.

Greenboard is mold resistant.  It is, however, still just gypsum with paper over it.

Neither is using pressure treated wood as a barrier.

Why?

Concrete wicks water.  Any water near the area will be distributed to be brought into direct contact with the gypsum or wood.  Gypsum and paper, when left exposed to moisture, falls apart.  Wood, even pressure treated, will rot eventually.

This is why sill plates, which sit on top of foundation walls that can be several feet above ground, are protected by moisture barriers.

You need to put a waterproof (PROOF, not resistant) substance between the new concrete and existing walls, OR lift the walls up (not likely feasible).


How do I install drywall when the door is too close to a concrete wall?

Looking at your wall photos, can I assume that seeing hinges on both left and right, the doors (2) meet in the middle? first we have to make some assumptions based on the yet unknown. if the walls are always dry, seasoned and pose no moisture or condensation issues, there is a couple of ways you can go ahead and finish he walls with drywall. i would consider putting a 1X6 up to a 1X10 finish pine board in the corners.  This should clear the hinges. You can then install 1X3 strapping on the concrete wall with PL400 adhesive and short ramset nails or concrete screws. You can then decide if you want to install any blue moisture proof rigid insulation between the strappings.  Then install a vapor barrier such as 4mil plastic over the strapping and then install drywall with 1 or 1 1/4 inch screws.  You then can finish your drywall and build a neat trim at the ends onto the finish pine boards.  The other alternative is to build a regular frame wall out of 2X3's or 2X4's and mount to floor and upper joists. This will allow more insulation and still allow doors to open almost fully, depending on the width of the pine trim at the corners.  The wider the trim in the corners, the more fully the doors will open without being restricted by the new wall. If moisture on the walls is possible, you should really consider using Dry-loc or some suitable waterproofing before you even think about closing the concrete in behind a wall.  Mold and mildew with ruin your good looking wall and potentially cause foul odors and a possible health hazard.


Should I caulk the baseboards to sheet vinyl floor in a basement bathroom?

If you’re not installing cove base, I would definitely caulk the base to the sheet vinyl...or make sure you never allow teenage girls in your basement bathroom.


What type of paint should I use to paint a block foundation wall?

There is very little difference between interior latex and exterior latex enamels, the primary difference in exterior enamels is probably in some additional chemicals to help resist moisture as well as resist cracking and flaking due to extreme changes in temperature.

Moisture issues aside, concrete blocks will contract and expand greatly with temperature differences and an exterior latex paint is appropriate to withstand this without cracking.

To prevent peeling and flaking however you need a good surface for the paint to bond to, so I recommend using a wire bristle brush or a rotary tool with a paint scraping attachment to completely remove all areas where paint is peeling or flaking.  Areas that are not peeling or flaking should be "roughed up" with your tool as well so that the new paint has a good surface to adhere to.


Replacing switched two prong outlet to a no switched gfci

The red is probably the switched leg which went to the bottom of the old outlet.
Just cap it off safely with a wire nut and leave it.
Since you don't have a ground wire on your new GFCI, you should label it "No Equipment Ground" (and your new GFCI probably came with some pre-printed labels for that).


What Hinge Should I Use For Heavy Swinging Shoe Cupboard?

Websearch will find good descriptions of bookcase secret doors using center pivot hinges, which are one of the best solutions currently available. If you were putting two cases next to each other, there are other solutions; the Rockler catalog (among others) offers one such center-fold bookcase door hardware kit. There are also companies who install these professionally.

Note that any pivoting case needs some clearance designed into the system. There are ways to mask that with additional moving pieces.

(Yes, I have plans to do something along these lines. Not sure I wsnt to say too much morel that risks taking the fun out of it.)


Can I steal a neutral from another fixture on the same circuit?

So, given the comments, although electrically this would work, it is unsafe and a code violation.  This is because the hot and neutral are to be in the same raceway to have the magnetic field of the hot wire cancel out the magnetic field of the return wire, and thus reduce any induction eddies in any nearby metal components.  Such eddies could cause heat buildup and be a potential fire hazard.
It has also been brought to my attention that the dimmer that I had bought has no electrical safety standard certification such as CE, CSA or UL (or anything else for that matter).  FCC is a radio emission standard, not a safety standard.


Is it possible to run a water-heater on a undersized breaker for years?

TL;DR 25A is the right size
First of all, your hunch is correct. 4500W/240V = 18.75A. That should be on a 25A breaker because it is a continuous load - if you pulled water out at a rate that the water heater could not keep up with (or barely keep up with) then the elements would stay on "forever".
You also did the right thing changing the wire. 12 AWG is fine for 20A, but since you really need 25A here, 10 AWG is the right size. It is a good thing you did not have 14 AWG previously (to match a standard 15A circuit) because that would have been undersized considering what was actually happening - an 18.75A load.
So why didn't it trip? Breakers are not some magic device that trips at exactly the stated max. current. In fact, you wouldn't want that because an appliance that needs a little extra power at startup would frequently trip the breaker. So a 15A breaker might not trip on an 18.75A load for an hour. Another 15A breaker might trip on that same load in 1/2 hour due to manufacturing differences. But any 15A breaker will trip very quickly if it gets a 50A load. All of this is factored into the electrical code. For example, a 12 AWG wire is rated for 20A, but in reality it can carry much more for short periods of time, so a 20A circuit with 25A for a little while isn't going to suddenly burn up the 12 AWG wire.
My guess is that your breakers were just barely tolerant of the 18.75A current flow but gradually became more and sensitive and tripped sooner. Then you replaced it with another 15A breaker, which was probably closer to the 15A specification than the original and it (correctly) would trip after a little while but not immediately. Then you replace with a 20A breaker which can handled 18.75A "forever" but which is still undersized (but would be correct for 12 AWG wire) and 10 AWG wire (which is the right size).
So put in the 25A breaker and permanently switch to 10 AWG wire and you're all set.
I would check anything else done by that plumbing company for safe & correct installation. While a plumber is not an electrician, the crew putting in a water heater should know what to do and what size breakers & wire to use. If the 15A breaker and 12 AWG wire were from the previous water heater, the installers should have told you it was not correct and either swapped it at the time or stopped work until you got an electrician to switch to 25A/10 AWG. But they likely didn't because they wanted to get in, get out, get paid. So I'd worry about other "shortcuts".


Hitachi brad nailer - firing it empty against a hard surface

Don't dry fire brad nailers against anything you wouldn't drive a nail into. The instructions (PDF) specifically state, "against the workpiece," don't they? Use a scrap piece of wood for the initial testing. You may also want to limit dry firing to initial setup and any future troubleshooting procedures. Many newer nail guns have a dry-fire lockout that prevents the tool from firing when fasteners run out. This is partly to protect a workpiece from being marred by the hammer, and partly to extend the life of the tool.

Why would you test fire it against concrete? You bought a brad nailer, not a Ramset!


TLDR

Use THWN-2 #12 stranded wire.

Use six wires: black white red blue gray and green/bare.

Green/bare is ground for both circuits.

At the ends (once they are installed) wrap the black/white/red with electrical tape to group them.   Also wrap the blue/gray.

On the lighting circuit, gray is neutral and blue is hot. No need for GFCI here.

On the outlet circuit, white is neutral and black and red are both hots. Cap off red for now on both ends.  If you're not doing GFCI, get a 2-pole breaker (handles tied!) and punch the black down on one side and don't use the other yet. If you do GFCI, get a 1-pole for now because 2-poles are expensive. The red wire is there to make it legal, and gives you a spare circuit.

You can't run two of the same type of circuit to an outbuilding.

So you can't have two 15A 120V circuits to the shed.  Nor can you have a 15A/120V and a 30A/120V circuit (e.g. for a travel trailer) - the amps are different

However you can have two different types of circuits:

One 15A receptacle circuit and one 15A switched lighting circuit
One 15A receptacle circuit and a 240V utility circuit
A 240V compressor circuit and a 240V pump circuit because the pump is switched on/off by equipment in the house
One 15A receptacle circuit and a 120/240V multi-wire branch circuit providing two 20A subcircuits

For instance I would run a 20A multi-wire branch circuit providing two legs of 120V that you seek. That counts as one circuit for the above discussion.  However, this requires a circuit breaker that would most likely common-trip, so you'd lose the lights when the saw tripped the breaker. If that's what you want, then you may want to consider a MWBC for the power (strictly to avoid the same-circuit requirement) then a plain 120V circuit for lighting.

Another option in the LED age is to use 240V for lighting.

Wiring

Wiring wise, since you are in conduit, you run individual THHN type wires (actually THWN-2 but they'll be cross-labeled).  For instance in an MWBC, you'd run black-white-red, and for a 120V circuit you'd run blue/gray.  (gray is a neutral color).

1 ground large enough for the largest circuit; you can share grounds because you're only expecting to have a ground fault on one circuit at ta time.

Subpanel

If you foresee any need to expand beyond that, then you should install a subpanel in the shed.  I gather that you have a 60A subpanel next to your main becuase it is full. Also, 60A implies it is very small in terms of spaces, so it's a stop-gap, not a long-term solution.

We preach "you want lots of spaces" pretty loud around here, so if it were me, I'd replace the 60A with a much larger panel in terms of spaces. I'd aim for 45-ish spaces in a typical house.  So if  your panel is 24 space, 18-24 space is good; if 16, aim for a 30-space panel.  Then move the old 60A subpanel to the shed.


Tub re-glazed and re-caulked, drippy residue from caulking

I have seen this happen just once before - a caulk that never seemed to cure. It just stayed runny, even when given multiple days to do so at room temperature. My guess is the caulk was old or stored under conditions that caused it to fail to cure, or perhaps it was simply a bad batch from the manufacturer. Regardless of the reason, clean it out, and redo the caulking job.


How to troubleshoot wiring that trips AFCI breakers?

You don't need to decrypt breaker indicators.  The fact that two breakers trip is all you need to know.

Why would one thing trip 2 breakers?  These two circuits have their neutrals crossed, tied together, or interacting in some way.  Perhaps one device which takes its hot from circuit 1 is taking its neutral from circuit 2.

Hots and neutrals are supposed to be monogamous -- they're only supposed to partner with each other, ever.  That's always been in the code.  But until recently, crossing neutrals "worked" - it didn't cause any detectable problems.

What happened "recently" was adoption of GFCI and AFCI.  Those absolutely require hots and neutrals be monogamous.  If current comes back on the neutral in an unexpected way, that makes it trip.

So you have to go through each circuit, look closely at every box, and find the place where a neutral doesn't match its hot.  It's a tedious job, and I've done it.  If it helps, get gray tape and put it on the neutral from one of the circuits.  Gray is an allowable color for marking neutrals.


Can I have multiple heating zones with a combination boiler?

As long as the boiler is capable of providing enough hot water through the system to heat the whole house if necessary you shouldn't have a problem.

What you are proposing is a "coarser" version of thermostatic valves on each radiator and that is perfectly safe for a combination boiler.

I don't think you need return valves.

Make sure that you leave one radiator "open" (usually the bathroom one) so that there is some flow around the circuit.

By the way the fact that it's a combination boiler is a red herring. The "combi" bit refers to the hot water heater, the central heating aspect is pretty much the same as a "standard" boiler with integral pump.

Update

If you want to control the times each room is heated independently you can get combined timer and thermostatic radiator valves - My Greener Home has some for example.


What is this feed though attachment in my home Load Panel?

This is call a FEED THROUGH LUG and it's used for exactly what you have.  Feeding from one panel to the next.

Yes, they seem to be available for SOME Square D QO panels but you'll need to check by the model number.


Building an Attic Loft with a Low Pitch Roof (Approximately 5:12)

I'd say bad idea & keep looking at other houses. Go look at it again with a tape measure. But, the only thing I might consider is putting the utilities up there to gain more user-friendly space on the main floor. Get rid of closets to use floor to ceiling cabinetry instead & store more up in the attic. Maybe a garage or porch can be abandoned & converted to real square footage.

The issue is structural framing & of course roof pitch. It may be stoop worthy but not stand-up worthy & therefore would not ever constitute a legal room of any kind. Typically, the ceiling has to have a minimum peak of 7-feet & you may only have a 3-foot wide section of anything even close to that. Depending on joist height, insulation, rafter depth, collar ties & ridge beam. If any wood has to come out, the plan fails instantly & should not be attempted.

However, if it's wide open & you're thinking it'll just be an office type use where you're seated the majority of the time, then it may work for you. Though, I'd opt for more insulation & hanging utilities from the rafters to then use it as just a crawlspace sort of storage area.


That switch won’t work in a three-way application.  The Lutron website has an FAQ which includes this question.  Here is the answer:


Lights flickering, outlets randomly stop working

It's not normal, and you probably have loose connections somewhere. As usual in my experience, "Home insurance" looks like a scam that does not solve anything. Send incompetent who sees nothing wrong, laugh all the way to the bank. Won't pay for a competent serviceman, they have their own special people who are selectively blind.
If (as Jack asks in his comment) the Kitchen outlets are on a double breaker (Multiwire Branch Circuit or MWBC - very common USA/Canada for the required two 120V 20A circuits in a kitchen) that will support 4800W - I would question whether your "6000W" worth of appliances was actually drawing 6000W, or merely "nameplate rated" for that much total.
There's often quite a difference between maximum draw and actual draw at a given time.


Replacing a double wall switch and I am confused by the wiring

Whoever wired this was trying to cheap out on wire nuts and pigtails in a sloppy/cheap way instead of doing a proper pigtailing job -- "through wiring" a terminal screw like that is not considered proper workmanship and also violates the device's listing.

What I would do is use a 6-port push-in type connector (Ideal In-Sure, Wago connector, or equivalent device) as the unused port is finger safe, and then pigtail to each switch terminal.  (The 6-port type seems to be much more commonly stocked than the 5-port is.)


Is a PTHP an HVAC option for a super or well insulated structure?

The point of a super insulated home or a Passive house is that they rely on the body heat of the occupants plus the heat from the various gadgets in the home to keep them warm, with the insulation slowing the heat loss.
A home built to Passive house standard will usually be fitted with hydronic heating (probably as the new owners are not sure that it will do what it says on the tin.) And the heating may never be used.
Of the 37, 000 Passive houses in the world, 20, 000 or so are in Germany where 92% of the owners are satisfied with their economy.
A true Passive house is almost air tight, with a heat recovery ventilation system, fitted with a in duct heating coil to warm the incoming cold winter air, should it be 3.5C or more lower than the room temperature.
You can see from the above that having a large hole in a wall, albeit sealed with a steel sheet, where a vast amount of heat can escape will defeat the whole point of carefully installed insulation.


How do I move a door hinge out 1/8" (door is too tight to the stop molding, makes "paint popping" noise)?

In almost all cases its better to move or adjust the strike plate, the stop, or both rather than move the hinges. Here's a series of diagrams that demonstrate why (dimensions are exaggerated for effect) :

This is an ideal door set up. The gap between the door and the stop is an even 1/32 to 1/16 all the way around. It is not supposed to be tight to the stop. I use a credit card to space my stop off the door when setting a new door. Note that the door is held in its position relative to the stop on the swing side by the opening of the strike plate. In newer strike plates there is a tab inside the opening that can be adjusted without moving the plate itself but older hardware typically does not have this feature.

This shows how if you only move the hinges as you're suggesting, it will not fix the problem on the swing side if the stop and/or strike are not moved as well.

This shows moving the strike but not the hinges. It will only open the hinge side reveal a small amount but that may be all you need. The down side is, as you can see, you can only move the strike plate a small amount (which is all it takes in most cases) before it brings the face of the door out alignment.

This shows moving the stop which solves the problem without having to move either the strike plate or the hinges but it will require you to disturb the paint. I understand your reticence in tackling lead paint mitigation but it's not insurmountable. Here is a thorough homeowners guide to properly handling lead base paint posted by the state of New York's health department. Take the precautions specified, and you should be able to safely relocate the stop and get the results you're after without too much risk.
If you do absolutely need to move the hinges, follow the instructions Diceless posted, they're right on. I'll only add that you might want to place a shim the width you're trying to offset the door in the back of the hinge mortise to keep the hinge from settling back into its original position before resetting your doors and to fill the void that will be left behind.


You will need to either replace the wall or build another new wall behind the original, thus rendering the old wall obsolete. Also there is a lot more to it than that, but this is the simplest way to answer it.


Should I be worried about tears in my foundation wrap?

Heavy rains in future will pose a damp wall problem with fungus over the years.  Get it fixed promptly.  Subfloor adhesive will bond and seal well with overlap and is cheap in large tubes.

You can always demand compensation before you do it, but don't expect much.


Is it safe to use a wedge expansion bolt in concrete blocks?

I also didnt find any of the expansion bolt manufactures that could recommend using an expansion bolt in anything but solid concrete stating specifically "Not for use in cement block". They do give rating specifics for such things as 'Maximum Force" before pullout: 2000 lbs for a 1/2" x 4 1/2" zinc plated bolt. I scanned some of the questions and answers on Amazon. Some stated they had attached it to block with stable results. I'd favor the recommendations of the bolt company to not rely on it securing your pull-up bar. If you decide to use the bolts locate them in the mortar joints.
If you attach (2) 2x6 vertically (one for each side) from the floor to
higher then the top bracket hole using expansion bolts spaced at 16 inches on center; it should be strong enough to than bolt you brackets  to the 2x6 (unless you kipp!).
Other ideas involve drilling 5/8" anchor holes for 1/2" all-thread glued with epoxy glue. Using anchor epoxy would hold.


Will GFCI outlet protect downstream outlets with ground connected to neutral?

Never never NEVER connect the ground of an outlet to neutral!!! Depending on the situation, you can end up with a dangerous or even lethal voltage on the ground and therefore, on the case of something plugged in.

It is legal and advised to use a GFCI to install 3-prong outlets on an ungrounded circuit. This also applies to standard outlets downstream of a GFCI. The outlets must be labeled "GFCI protected, no ground" (labels should have been provided along with the GFCI).

You should remove all of the "bootleg" grounds.

BTW, the reason the tester didn't trip the GFCI is that it works by connecting line to ground through a resistor to simulate current leaking to ground. However, because the outlet ground is actually connected to neutral, there is no actual leakage.


In my jurisdiction they would call that bundling and flag it.
They normally won’t say anything with 2 cables and some areas up to 4 but when there are more than 3 current carrying we have to start derating
over 8 current carrying conductors the built in safety in #14, #12 &#10 exceed what is allowed.
there can be some issues there even though nipples less than 24” don’t have to be derated a long run like in the photo is normally flagged with more than 4 is all the states I have worked in.
I see 6-3 , 8-3 & 12-2 x2 10 current carrying conductors as I said most jurisdictions would flag this as bundling.


you are going to have to dig it all out, and then rebuild it properly.  you could shore it with steel plates, but it will cost you more to have the system built and then installed than it will to just do it over in concrete.


The pictures seem to be showing corrosion of aluminum. The finish on the aluminum, whether that be a clear anodize or other lacquer or enamel coating, has failed in spots and is allowing aluminum oxide to form. As you can guess aluminum oxide is white in color.


Can beams be up against a post base like this?

There is nothing wrong with this from an architectural standpoint.   Honestly you should only have tied in framework touching the support posts.   Meaning here - if the footing heaves, the ledger is failing no matter what.   Either it adjusts because of the tie or the concrete, result is the same.

It would be against standards (and maybe code) to have non-tied framing laying on or within a micro-distance of the support posts.

Being practical though, this is poor design.   At least give yourself some wiggle room.   I would say 2" at least.   What if one of your pours doesn't set right, what if your measurements were slightly off level, whatever.   I wouldn't want to have to shave concrete out to make the ledgers level.

So my answer is in theory fine, but not practical.  Also it sounds like you are a DIYer and haven't built 40 decks.   Don't make things so hard on yourself.


Should washer hoses be replaced regularly or only as necessary?

I don't know of any specific schedule, but I can recommend several "best practices":

Buy braided hoses.  These are the metal hoses with an inner
plastic tubing.  They are NOT guaranteed not to fail, but their
failure is much less likely.  Their most vulnerable failure point
would be at the connection to the coupling.
Inspect the hoses annually.
Do not allow the hoses to kink - allow plenty of space for their
installation.

Failed "fail proof" hose at the coupling:

You could also buy special high quality ($50) hoses - which frankly if you have a finished basement or your laundry is on an upper floor, is a sound investment in damage prevention.

Perhaps your BEST prevention, however, is an automatic washing machine shut off valve:

This device has an attached sensor (pic 2) which you set on the floor by your washing machine.  In the event of a leaky washer OR failed hose, it senses the water and shuts off the flow at the source.  For an under $200 investment, if you're protecting a $20,000 basement or worse, a whole house, not installing this once you know of it's existence would be downright foolish.


How to install BR30 lights instead of LED

Figured it out. Simply unplug LED driver from the connector, buy a socket, wire the wires that were going from the ceiling-> connector, to ceiling-> new socket.


How do you secure pre-built garage shelving to the frame?

I'd go two screws per wall stud thru the top and middle shelf. The weight of the thing is supported by the structure itself so all you need to do is keep it from falling over. Use a 4 1/2 inch timber tech or a 5/16 lag with a washer and you'll have two inches of screw into the stud which is adequate but a minimum. Make sure you install shims or a spacer to fill that gap before you run your screws.


How can I patch this ceiling hole my new light fixture does not fully cover?

You could install a circular ceiling medallion over the hole and run the light fixture through the middle of it. This would avoid having to match the paint of the surrounding ceiling.

Or here's an even simpler, 10", white trim piece.


Is that strap or hinge aluminum? , it may be easier to purchase a piece of bar stock of similar material and size then form it to match the good one. I have made brackets using the following technique. A hammer vice and screw, bolt or something the approximate size to roll the end, start by clamping the bar stock in the vice fold over this gives a L shape make sure the L will be long enough to make the loop. keep working the fold over by putting just bar stock in the vice and rest the folded piece on the bolt now pound down on the L folded piece down and you have a u shape. Put the U in the vice with the bolt above the jaws and close this makes the loop for the hinge rod. Now shape to match the original. Drill holes as needed to mount.
I have tried starting at the end and trying to clamp the rod and bar together and rolling , readjusting, rolling but on thicker stock have found making the L and working from there was easier. Most big box stores have bar stock that can be used for this repair and even a lighter weight steel strap could be used if this is aluminum.


How big should the gap at the bottom of an interior door be?

There us also one other possibility. If you have HVAC and there is a grill in the room and there is no return in the same room, when the central heating/ cooling system is turned on it would create a high pressure in those rooms. Therefore sometimes a door cut higher is a viable solution to equalize the pressure. Removing the doors and cutting down the jambs IS NOT a viable alternative because the tops of doors and windows should plain out same height.
I personally would do some type of detail on the bottom if the door if it was not necessary by design to equalize pressure. Get creative and there is a tremendous opportunity to do something quite unique. Such as a motion activated KED light strip as one example.


A lot depends upon the nature of the cracked part of the concrete. If that is just a thin piece cracked from the surface then that piece will almost certainly crack when trying to drill into it. But that said if the underlying bulk of the concrete is intact for a good thickness of four to five inches then it would likely be able to hold the anchor that you described.

On the other hand if the crack shown in your picture has cleaved the whole corner of that part of the concrete then you will not have a good result trying to drill into that area.

There is really no good solution to how to reinforce that area without outright replacement. Since this is part of a roof there are limited options.


How do I anchor an acrylic claw foot tub?

I believe you just set it on the floor and let the weight of the tub and connected drain pipes keep it from moving.

If you are really worried about it moving you could mount some sort of small block to the floor behind where each leg will sit.  It would not be attached to the blocks but with for of them the tub would not be able to move.  But that may not work well with your tile floor.


Electrical Circuit for Detached Shed 200 ft

Yes, you can run a single branch circuit to a structure

Considering you only need a single branch circuit there, you can run a single branch circuit out to your shed with say 10AWG for hot/neutral/ground, or hot/hot/neutral/ground if you want to run a multi-wire branch circuit.  The exception to 250.32(A) means you won't need a ground rod at the shed as the equipment grounding conductor to the main structure is a sufficient grounding means for a single branch circuit.

You'll need a disconnecting means at the shed to satisfy 225.31; however, this can be a simple light switch in a weatherproof box or just inside the shed, nothing fancier is needed for a single branch circuit.  You'll want the receptacle to be GFCI-protected, by the way, due to the fact this is an unfinished space.

However, I'd trench in a fat conduit anyway

Renting a trencher for the day isn't cheap.  Schedule 80 PVC is, even in say 2 or 3" diameter.  This means that while you're digging, you might as well put in a fat PVC conduit to the shed even if you're only running a few 10AWG THHNs in it, instead of using a direct bury cable, as the conduit will make expansion way easier.  Besides, Schedule 80 is going to hold up to an inadvertent excavator encounter better than a UF cable anyhow.


How do we keep a porch with a fiberglass roof cool?

Replace the new roof. Clearly you chose wrong in a transparent untinted roof. It is possible that a stain/dye of some sort (applied to the underside of the roof) might be able to block some sunlight, but I expect that it will bleach out far too quickly from that sunlight.

If replacing the roof is not acceptable, then you might need to add vents to encourage more circulation.


Insulating a 4" gap between roof and false ceiling

First, keep in mind that that venting in the roof rafters is essential to the ventilation of your roof.   Essential.    Do not fill that gap completely, you will be looking at future problems.

If the current gap is 3-4", the most you could do is insert 1.5" max of insulation.  Panels of Polystyrene come to mind because their R-value is better per inch of thickness than roxul/pink stuff.   You will, however, have to follow-up with "Great Stuff" foam to ensure filled gaps if you go that direction.


what is the design load limit for a jack stud and header plate?

All structural design is done by one of two methods: 1) Ultimate Design, or 2) Working Stress Design.

1) As you might guess, ultimate design is based on “failure” of the material. When that method is used, a safety factor is then used based on the members importance. (Usually 20% to 100%...based on the designers experience and code minimums.)

2) Working stress design has already accounted for these safety factors.

The values you list are a bit confusing, because for compression perpendicular to grain for “working stress design” is 385 psi for Douglas Fir-Larch and pine and Spruce are much less, (they list 425) but compression parallel to grain for “working stress” is 1500 psi maximum.

This is all based on many factors, a) species, b) grade, c) use (repetitive or single use), d) size of member, etc.  I suspect they have given you a safe number to use.

So, to answer your question: the maximum load for your 2x6 jack stud (I call them trimmers) is: 1320 x 1.5” x 5.5” = 10,890 lbs.

However, it sits on a plate and the header sits on it in perpendicular compression, so the maximum load it can support without crushing the plate is: 425 x 1.5” x 5.5” = 3,506 lbs. (neglecting the nailing into the king stud.) Note: I used their value of 425. You can substitute 385 if necessary.


The valve should be replaced if for no other reason than if you have a leak you can't shut it off. You have 3 basic choices. Install a new saddle valve ( I wouldn't do this), cut out the pipe where the saddle valve was and solder in an an appropriate "T" fitting, or shut off the water, cut the pipe and install a "SHARK BITE" T. The shark bite doesn't require soldering and can be installed even if the water is still dripping out of the pipe.


How do I install an electrical outlet on a live circuit?

There is a reason they put a blank over that box. They do not normally put outlets in a closet, as cords plugged into them tend to get buried in junk if close to the floor or a shelf, creating a potential overheating and fire hazard.  Under no circumstances should you attempt to wire an outlet to these wires hot. It is never a good idea, even if you knew what you were doing. SO DON'T!!!!


Is THWN wire appropriate for an underground vehicle charging circuit?

The documentation from Tesla's website specifies 6 AWG copper wire with 4 conductors (including ground, 2 lines and neutral). Since we have the standard range model vehicle, it can only draw a maximum of 32A from the wall.

Tesla's website is just an opinion.  The controlling document is first NEC, and second the UL-approved instructions that come with the EVSE.
What matters is the ampacity on the (once again) UL approved nameplate on the charger, not some sales literature about what the car is supposed to draw. I suspect the nameplate actually says 39-40A.  For any EVSE, this number must be derated 125%, so we arrive at 49-50A.
Your cable will include 2 hots and a neutral.  It is a complete mystery to me why an EVSE needs neutral, but the upside of a 14-50 is if you ever get an RV, it can plug in there too.
NEC says a NEMA 14-50 recep can be on either a 40A or 50A breaker. The wire must be large enough for the breaker chosen.

When we bought the house there already appeared to be 120V electric run to the detached garage via existing conduit. We were hoping to dig a straight trench and run another conduit to house the new wire.

OK, stop and evaluate the existing conduit. It is certainly better to re-use the existing conduit rather than have to lay a second one.  In fact, you need to know what's there now, because you are not allowed to have 2 same-voltage circuits to the same outbuilding.  If the existing conduit is big enough, it may be better to install a subpanel and pull cable big enough to support the EVSE and also the other garage loads - typically 10A more than the EVSE will suffice.
Worst case let's say the existing conduit is 1/2".  And let's say your EVSE's nameplate really is 32A - which must be provisioned to 40A.  And let's say you fit a subpanel supporting a 40A EVSE breaker and two 15A breakers for garage circuits. You only need a 50A feeder for that (some oversubscription is allowed), and that's three #8 THHN wires and a bare #10 ground, and those just fit inside a 1/2" conduit.
Obviously if the existing conduit is bigger you have more size freedom. 3/4" = #6 THHN wires (good for 65A).  1" = #3 THHN (good to 100A).
Note that THHN is allowed to run at higher temperature than NM/UF cable (75C vs 60C), and so it's allowed higher ampacity (in NEC 310.15(B)(16)). That's how we're running 50A on #8.

With a bit of googling it seemed safe to dig a 18" trench and use 1" PVC conduit directly from the building to the garage.

You need 18" of cover. So for 1" PVC you'll need a 20" trench.  1" PVC is overkill, but overkill makes pulling easier.

I'm trying to find a good seller online since most local places are closed and both Home Depot and Lowes don't seem to show exactly what I think I need on their website (Unless I'm not using the right searching terms).

A real electrical supply house should be able to easily accommodate all your needs.  Those are all over the place.  You drive past 5 of them on your way to work.  You don't see them because they're not in malls, they don't have 1000-space parking lots, they don't run ads on TV or have inserts in the Sunday paper.  Their prices are better than big-box, and they'll work with you if you call them (most of them, anyway). They won't give you much help, but (huge upside)  they won't give you BAD help like the staff at big-box who really know nothing.
Also electrical supply is cheaper for 90% of stuff, if they will give you trade prices.  Some will give novices "list" prices; those guys are being jerks.  I like to open the conversation with how I'm fed up with paying Home Depot's high prices :) (which is true and they know it).
Also Home Depot sells #8 and #6 THHN both by the spool and by the foot. You need a white neutral, but both hots can be the same color.  If you're trying to cram #8 into 1/2" conduit the ground must be #10 and bare and copper, or it won't fit inside legal fill limits.
If you run #6 THHN you must use a #8 ground, for arcane reasons. #8 ground is good all the way to 100A (#3 copper).

Is there anything wrong with my thought process here? Something I am missing? Anything I can do to simplify, lower the cost, or make the setup safer?

Well, you have better instincts than most. I'm not worried about you doing anything unsafe.  But still, "trying to fill knowledge holes using Google".  Which doesn't work; Google doesn't tell you what you didn't know to ask. But you're here, so you'll get that if you keep reading and asking.
Harper's Rule: Buy the wire last.  You'll learn more that will further educate you; don't pull the trigger too early and buy the wrong thing.  Doesn't matter; the feeder goes in AFTER the conduit and panel work is complete and buried.  (cannot assemble conduit around wires).
Cable inside conduit is a nightmare. NM cable isn't allowed outdoors (can't handle water) and UF is very flat, so it requires absolutely huge conduit.   However THHN requires conduit the entire route panel to panel/socket.
As far as lowering the cost, the magic word is aluminum wire.  It is your friend for large feeders like this. The only reason I discussed copper above is because of the desire to cram feeder into existing conduit, which is obviously a huge win if you don't have to trench it lol.
With aluminum, just use 2 sizes larger - #4 instead of #6 etc. If you use #4 or larger wire, it is no longer necessary for neutral to be white, it can be black like the others and mark it with white tape. Ditto ground (green tape).


I would try, in order of escalating cleaning function, these series of things until a suitable result has been obtained:

Wiping with a clean dry cloth.
Apply a little (15 ml/1 Tbsp) white vinegar to a paper towel and wipe.  Rinse with a wet (water) paper towel.
Combined with vinegar or dish detergent (for hand washing), use a rough cloth or mild scrub brush (pink or white Scotch brite).
Green Scotch bright and soap.  Repainting might be necessary afterward.
220 grit sandpaper
150 grit sandpaper
100 grit sandpaper
woodworking plane
replace the door


Do skirting boards prevent\help to manage damp in any way?

Skirting is purely aesthetic. It doesn't stop damp transmission itself, but just hides a gap where floorboards meet wall.

In the article you quoted, the important words are:

  ...concealing the necessary gap between wooden floorboards and masonry
  to prevent transmission of damp...

They are saying that if wooden floorboards are in contact with masonry walls which are damp, then moisture can wick into them (particularly from the end-grain). In fact, I think that this quote is ludicrous; if you have damp walls, you have a problem that skirting isn't going to help you with.

To answer your question simply, whether or not you have skirting will have absolutely no effect on managing damp, particularly on a concrete floor which is in contact with the wall.