Home Improvement

The Evil Greebo

15:29

Hola

lsiunsuex

whats @TheEvilGreebo demo'ing today?

The Evil Greebo

haven't done anything since monday

had to go back to work

lsiunsuex

yeah

lsiunsuex

16:43

businessweek.com/articles/2012-11-07/… "Most clothing items like this go to Africa as donations. There are entire countries that think the Buffalo Bills won 4 straight Superbowls."

Tester101

@lsiunsuex I can't see this happening with sports memorabilia. Misprints and mistakes are worth butt loads of money to collectors.

They probably use them to fuel the furnace that heats the bathrooms at the bills stadium.

The Evil Greebo

17:46

I'm gonna be leaving here in 45 mins

so I'm gonna do my PUT early

plus.google.com/u/0/photos/106945064958447877272/albums/…

That was last week through Monday of this week

love that shot :)

This is how not to remove a cast iron tub:

lsiunsuex

your avatar isn't your real photo ?

The Evil Greebo

My avatar is Evil Spock from Star Trek, n00b!

lsiunsuex

ahh haha

The Evil Greebo

lol

this is my restructured floor under the toilet (old structure had 5" out of 8" joist removed)

Chris Cudmore

That cracked tile. Is that a result of the tub going through the wall?

The Evil Greebo

17:49

what cracked tile?

Chris Cudmore

First pic.

The Evil Greebo

Oh in the first shot? That was demo on day 1, knocking down the old bathroom wall

we extended the bathroom 3 ft

Chris Cudmore

Ok. I thought your bathroom reno turned into two bathroom renos.

The Evil Greebo

There is the new sink plumbing and PROPERLY sloped drain line (old drain line had a valley in it - YURG was grossgrossgross removing)

lol no :)

Proper slope! :D

Chris Cudmore

Is that what the double lines on a spirit level are for?

The Evil Greebo

17:51

sure, why not :)

and this is me by Monday, exhausted:

Chris Cudmore

No. Seriously. It that the intended purpose?

The Evil Greebo

I dunno, honest

but i was happy w/ the slope

Chris Cudmore

Cause it makes brilliant sense.

The Evil Greebo

i suppose I could measure and see how much slope the double line represents

lsiunsuex

@TheEvilGreebo that looks photoshopped!

Chris Cudmore

17:53

Many years ago, some level vials had double lines. The first line indicated level, while the additional marking was used as a reference for pitch. Today, pitch vials are used when needed.

The Evil Greebo

and this is where we've been since Monday - haven't been able to get back to it:

Chris Cudmore

I'm not sure what that means though.

The Evil Greebo

@lsiunsuex What looks shopped?

lsiunsuex

you laying in the tube surrounded by beer bottles (was a joke)

The Evil Greebo

lol - it was a beerble bath (beer & bubble wrap)

ok, i'm done :)

<-- was just so happy to finally have a P.U. to update and I have to go to DC in 30 mins

Chris Cudmore

18:04

Why? YOu joining Trump's Revolution?

BMitch

@TheEvilGreebo You gave a project update before PUT? No rep points for you!

But the bath is looking good

The Evil Greebo

@ChrisCudmore I am going to the inspection for the property my out of country cousin is buying

they asked me to be their eyes/ears

@BMitch sob

I honestly have no idea how rep points work in here

somehow I have 19k of them though

BMitch

@TheEvilGreebo Are you crying? There's no crying in the chat room!

wax eagle

@TheEvilGreebo sum of all yer SE accts

The Evil Greebo

@BMitch throws a wrench at you

BMitch

18:08

Thanks, I needed one of those. I hope you don't need it back. /high five

Chris Cudmore

you only

get

to

see them

if you post 4 lines or more.

The Evil Greebo

@BMitch :P

lsiunsuex

18:21

think i should up my life insurance - third day i'll have a sub with bacon on it this week :(

2

The Evil Greebo

I volunteer to be your beneficiary

ok i'm off to DC

cheers

lsiunsuex

bye

lsiunsuex

18:48

anyone into photography ?

wax eagle

@lsiunsuex I take pictures, but I'm not really into it

lsiunsuex

when we were in vegas, my wife dumped a bottle of water into her purse and all over our Leica D-Lux 4

the camera actually survived the soaking after a few days of drying, but the lense / sensor obviously now has water spots on it

wondering what the odds are if i take it apart, i can actually clean it, without it being sent away to be done and costing me a shit ton of money

wax eagle

@lsiunsuex pretty sure that'd be on topic on photography.se

but not 100% sure

lsiunsuex

i'll try that

haha, water is a valid tag there - great.

wax eagle

@lsiunsuex seems like something that would be a common problem

lsiunsuex

18:57

for sure

she always said she hated the camera (she never learned how to use it) but no reason to trash a $900 camera :(

wax eagle

19:10

@lsiunsuex seriously

lsiunsuex

helloladi.es/image/0n3c1C2u3L2k

wax eagle

is the position random?

lsiunsuex

in the game, the letters are positioned randomly, yes

wax eagle

@lsiunsuex game to guess which states went for which candidate?

lsiunsuex

no no no - the image was modeled after a (new) game called LetterPress

the game is to make words from letters

wax eagle

19:23

@lsiunsuex ah

gotcha

now things make more sense

lsiunsuex

once all the letters are used, the person with the top score wins - using more letters doesn't guarentee a win - the score does

wax eagle

@lsiunsuex gotcha

lsiunsuex

you must be an android user :) haha

wax eagle

@lsiunsuex I am :P

lsiunsuex

(think its only on iphone right now)

wax eagle

19:24

@lsiunsuex was about to see if they had it

lsiunsuex

it might - not sure

decent game - i suck at spelling though so i get frustrated

wax eagle

@lsiunsuex lol

no app for the android, not even a knockoff/cheats/timer one yet

Karl Katzke

19:36

So, is PUT running or .. ?

I see the banner, but didn't see the announcement in here.

wax eagle

@KarlKatzke starts at 3

Karl Katzke

ET? Ok.

wax eagle

banner runs on the site half hour before and half hour in

Tester101

Anybody here do any android programming?

Niall C.

@Tester101 Dabble a little

wax eagle

19:49

@Tester101 no, keep wanting to get started, but the time eclipse finally loads I'm already bored and on to something else

2

Steven

and then once you calculate how many freakin devices and OS variants you need to test on, you move on to something else

Tester101

I just stated messing with it, and I'm trying to test WifiP2pManager.discoverPeers, but I'm not sure how to do it. Do I have to run 2 AVD's?

Will they detect each other?

Or should I just install on two actual devices, and make sure it's working properly?

Steven

never trust an emulator!

Niall C.

@Tester101 Above my API level, so never used it, sorry. I have an early Galaxy S that can't be upgraded.

lsiunsuex

@Tester101 unless your making a game, try appcelerator titanium maybe? cross compile to iOS and Android as native apps (one of the only 3rd party dev environments that does)

agree with @Steven always test on a real device if you can

Tester101

19:59

Welcome to Project Update Thursday

Karl Katzke

as soon as I get out of my meeting I'll start with my project. The rest of y'all can go ahead. :D

BMitch

(hey, you beat me)

Karl Katzke

/me beats @BMitch

BMitch

There's a new definition of mod abuse

Tester101

My only project lately, has been to figure out why my freezer is randomly tripping the GFCI receptacle.

My project should have been to build a loss of power alarm, before I lost a freezer full of food.

Steven

20:03

any luck?

wax eagle

@Tester101 I really need to figure out why my ice maker stopped makign ice, but I'm too lazy

Tester101

@Steven No.

The manufacturer says it's not happening.

@waxeagle I was too lazy to build the power loss alarm. Now I'm too lazy to replace all the food I lost.

wax eagle

@Tester101 :'( laziness does not pay

Steven

I think its safe to say if tester101 doesn't know, no one does! :P

lsiunsuex

I'm probably going to install 4 more in-wall speakers this coming week. Monoprice has the same ones i got from lowes for half the price (which means i can buy twice as many) - 2 in the family room, 1 in the upstairs hallway and another in the dining room as that appears to be where everyone congregates when we have a party anyways.

Tester101

20:08

@Steven I just can't catch it. Everything test fine 99.9% of the time, but that other .1% of the time something very strange is creating a ground fault.

Steven

@lsiunsuex are you going to stuff insulation behind them? ive heard it helps with sound quality of in-wall speakers

lsiunsuex

i have so far to the 2 i have right now, yes

Tester101

@lsiunsuex Don't forget to keep the wires straight. Remember, electrons can't navigate corners well and your sound quality will suffer.

lsiunsuex

@Tester101 almost forgot! thanks for the reminder.

Steven

can you elaborate on that? do you mean don't take sharp turns with the cable, or when terminating it?

(never heard that one before!)

wax eagle

20:12

@Steven it's a joke from earlier in the week

lsiunsuex

@Steven its a joke

Steven

fewwf

it sounds like BS but what do I know

Tester101

Speaker wire bend radius is 200x wire diameter. You need long steady curves for good sound.

Steven

I read an article recently where they brought in some so-called audiophiles to test speaker quality - some speakers were hooked up with "high-end" wire, others lower end, and some just used metal coat hangers

Karl Katzke

It depends on the length of your sounds too.

Chris Cudmore

20:15

And remember. Your wire needs to rest for 48 hours after installation.

wax eagle

@ChrisCudmore and 15 minutes after feeding (you do feed your wires right?)

Chris Cudmore

@KarlKatzke No... Length of the sound is irrelevant. It's amplitude that's important. If you have too thin a wire, the waveform won't fit and get clipped.

@waxeagle That's just some audiophile BS there.

Tester101

No - bending CAT6 is highly unrecommended. every bend how ever small it is to the right angle bend being the worst causes serious bandwidth loss! CAT6e should be run in straight as possible lines and only curved - not bent. Typical home installations of Cat6e ony has a maximum throughput of 250-400mbs because of excessive bending. Sure its better than 100mbs.. but is still up 60% less than specced. — ppumkin Nov 5 at 14:57

Pigrew

I think that the length does matter... I find problems when working with high frequencies (such as a few hundred MHz) and bent cables.

Tester101

@ChrisCudmore That's why you should always us 4/0 wire.

Niall C.

20:18

What's the difference between bending and curving?

Chris Cudmore

@Tester101 I don't know. I think that a sharp bend in a network cable might do something to the twisted pairs and possibly allow for some interference.

Steven

the other thing to consider is that cat5e/cat6 wires are pretty brittle typically, if you bend the wires individually you will often find they break easily

Chris Cudmore

@Tester101 But of course!

Steven

seems to be worse with plenum-rated cable IMO

Tester101

@ChrisCudmore The wires are already bent, over, and over, and over. They are twisted around each other.

Chris Cudmore

20:21

They really thought out the twist patterns of those cables to reduce crosstalk and line noise. And when it comes down to it, that is really the only difference between cat 5 and Cat 6.

Tester101

The only thing bending could do, is damage the cable.

@ChrisCudmore Really, I thought it was just price.

Steven

im pretty sure the ratios of the twists are different between 5e and 6

Tester101

I always thought they just re-stamped Cat5 with a Cat6 label.

Steven

you cannot push 10gb on cat5e but you can on cat6..there is definitely a difference

Chris Cudmore

Nope. Cat 6 will take higher frequencies with less noise.

Karl Katzke

20:23

Yeah, cat6 will take higher ... damnit, @ChrisCudmore.

Chris Cudmore

@Steven What if there was a PERFECT Cat5 wire?

Steven

and a perfect RJ45 end and a perfect crimp and a perfect network card with perfect drivers and a perfect computer... maybe.

Chris Cudmore

So it's really about tolerances.

Karl Katzke

Hey, that's a nice segue into what I'm doing with my project. Tolerances for tiling a floor.

Chris Cudmore

Don't anybody be misconstruing this conversation to mean you need expensive stereo cables.

Karl Katzke

20:25

So, I've been talking a little bit about my project ... basically, I have a 16x30 room with a very unlevel slab and a lot of minor stress fractures of the slab.

wax eagle

@ChrisCudmore but I was just about to pull the trigger on that 1000$ HDMI cable (said no one ever)

Chris Cudmore

@KarlKatzke Just slap the mortar on an inch thick. It'll level itself.

Karl Katzke

I gridded the floor and measured it's height from one point.

And ended up with something that looks like this

Chris Cudmore

HDMI is the biggest scam. Buy the cheapest you can find.

Karl Katzke

Shimon Rura

20:27

it's hard to tell when you guys are joking vs. when you are serious :)

3

Steven

$2 is the most I pay for HDMI cables

Chris Cudmore

@KarlKatzke So Nader wins this election?

Shimon Rura

@KarlKatzke that image is great, how did you make it?

Tester101

@ShimonRura I'm almost never serious. I just make crap up all day long.

wax eagle

@Steven srsly. amazon basics ftw :)

Karl Katzke

20:28

@ShimonRura I measured the height of each corner of each 1x1 square with a laser level and a yardstick, and then I manually drew it with my best guesses in a program that's like Visio.

wax eagle

@ChrisCudmore pretty sure that's what all the green means.

Karl Katzke

The first thing I had to do was remove the paint, drywall goo, caulk, polyurethane, stain, and other crud from the surface of the concrete so that things would bond to it. I used my NEW BEST FRIEND for that.

That's a 7" angle grinder with a diamond cup wheel and a "Dustless Dust Buddy"

Which hooks up to my vacuum and sucks up all the dust.

Shimon Rura

@KarlKatzke is that a universal vacuum attachment?

sounds like a massive improvement when grinding masonry

Karl Katzke

@ShimonRura Yes, it is, it comes with adapters.

Literally night and day improvement. Night and day as in before you couldn't see while you were grinding, and now you can.

But you need a dust trap in line between it and your vacuum cleaner or you'll go through filters too fast.

After that, I started using a 6" fiberglass mesh tape and Redgard to treat the cracks. Did a small area first to get comfy with the process...

Shimon Rura

with that many cracks, is the slab actually OK?

Karl Katzke

20:32

And it's a good thing I did because the thirsty dry concrete really sucks the moisture out of the redgard and it dries too fast.

Chris Cudmore

Might this become a blog post?

Karl Katzke

@ShimonRura It's Texas and we have hydraulic soil ... every slab is cracked like this. The difference is that there aren't any active cracks... they're all the same height.

@ChrisCudmore It eventually will when I'm done with it.

@ChrisCudmore Or am I boring you and you'd rather go back to talking about speaker wires? :D

Chris Cudmore

@KarlKatzke No, do continue.

Shimon Rura

cool

Tester101

@KarlKatzke Do you plan to run any speaker wires in the cracks?

Karl Katzke

20:34

So what I realized I needed to do (and would have known had I read the directions on the side of the Redgard container) was to 'prime' the areas with a solution of 1:1 redgard and water ...

@Tester101 No, but I was thinking about a few twisted pairs.

I don't have any pictures of priming. Redgard and water do not mix easily. It was a struggle to get it to a consistency where I could roll it on.

Here's post-priming after I've put a layer of mesh and one layer of Redgard on...

And if you think THAT looks like I'm working for Race for the Cure ...

Tester101

@KarlKatzke Why is all this work necessary?

Karl Katzke

@Tester101 Two reasons. I'm planning to put down a "large format" tile, and it was really a pain in the ass to level a 12x24 tile on a tile by tile basis with medium bed mortar when I did it in my kitchen.

Second, I'm worried about cracks, since I'm putting down a weaker ceramic tile in this area.

Tester101

I see.

Karl Katzke

I don't think any of these cracks are active, and the lack of height difference indicates that they aren't, but ... I could be wrong.

Shimon Rura

but do you need redgard patches? why isn't latex-modified thinset enough?

Karl Katzke

20:38

@ShimonRura I'm actually planning to use DITRA over all of this, which means that latex modified thinset is a no no ... and that's true with any large format tile and any waterproof barrier anywhere. Latex-modified means that the moisture needs to migrate out. Plain ol' Portland Cement (unmodified thinset) will still cure despite the lack of a path for water to migrate to.

Plus ... this is my "play" house, where I'm learning about different methods of installing stuff and why certain ones are good ideas and bad ideas before I really start working on houses I plan to renovate and rent.

So I'm putting a lot of effort in and going all-out to see how much of a difference it makes in the installation and lifetime of the install.

Tester101

@KarlKatzke Why DITRA? is this a pool/spa/bath room?

Karl Katzke

@Tester101 Uncoupling membrane. It's secondary crack insurance. No, that would be KERDI.

Shimon Rura

@KarlKatzke I'm still missing something - is the redgard needed to keep moisture out? to try and prevent the cracks from expanding?

Karl Katzke

@ShimonRura Redgard is to try to keep the cracks from expanding. Leveling is to ease the installation. DITRA is in case the Redgard isn't successful.

Tester101

@KarlKatzke I didn't think that was necessary on concrete floor? Since it hopefully won't be moving much.

Karl Katzke

20:43

@Tester101 You obviously haven't lived in this part of Texas before.

Slabs just crack here. It's the worst idea in the world to build a slab on grade house here, but it's the way all of them are built.

Well, except the super high end homes of people who know better.

wax eagle

the consistent drought conditions play into that heavily, don't they?

Chris Cudmore

What is it? Some sort of Leda Clay type soil?

That goes plastic at a certain saturation?

Tester101

@KarlKatzke I live in the north east US. Can't remember ever seeing a house built on a slab around here. Garages, yes. Houses, not so much.

I think we need basements, or the frost will heave our houses.

Chris Cudmore

Yeah, once you get into the frost zone, they pretty well have to dig deep footings.

Karl Katzke

@ChrisCudmore Yeah, extremely expansive contractive clay soils

Chris Cudmore

20:51

Might as well go for a basement then.

Karl Katzke

Sorry, things dropped out for me... couldn't connect to stackexchange for a while.

Chris Cudmore

I couldnt' get into chat this am. Server could not be found.

BMitch

Yeah, SE went down, we're trying to figure out who to blame

Tester101

@BMitch I blame the Nor'easter

BMitch

@Tester101 Is that like when @aarthi blows through the room and you don't know what just happened?

Karl Katzke

20:54

The soils here will expand and contract depending on moisture ... it hasn't rained in a week and I have 1/2" cracks in the soil of my backyard.

BMitch

yesterday, by Aarthi

DRIVEBY HUGS TO ALL!

Tester101

@BMitch Exactly.

@KarlKatzke I think NYC wouldn't mind having your problems.

Karl Katzke

Alright, everyone, I have to make a run to one of my favorite happy places... the dump. With an F-350 full of debris from previous re-siding projects that had been hanging around.

BMitch

As with European Football, the ref will give an extra 5 minutes to PUT due to the delays. Carry on @KarlKatzke

well, shucks.

Karl Katzke

Actually, that's it. Sorry. Self-leveling concrete comes next, then DITRA, then grinding down the area that's higher than I want it.

BMitch

20:56

sounds like fun

Karl Katzke

Lots of dusty work. Next week I'll show self-leveling, and I'll show my neato home-made water dust trap.

But I'm gonna be gone this weekend to see friends down at my girlfriend's place, so I won't have a ton of progress for next week.

Until then... dons redgard-spotted cape...

Tester101

@KarlKatzke Can't wait to read all about it on the blog.

Karl Katzke

It'll be a many part process. Won't start the blog post until the project's done, but I must have this project done for xmas, so...

Chris Cudmore

Just curious. What's the cost effectiveness of what you're doing vs. getting a crew in to chip out the slab and re-pour?

Tester101

@ChrisCudmore It would probably just crack again. I think what he's doing will allow the cracks to expand and contract, without cracking his tile/grout.

He needs to dig to bedrock, and build up from there.

BMitch

21:04

Ok, so everyone cool with PUT ending at 1 hour now? I don't want to cut anyone off.

instantrimshot.com/index.php?sound=crickets&play=true

I'll take that as a yes.

Thanks for joining this week's PUT

Project Update Thursday - 2012/11/08

1 hour ago, 1 hour 6 minutes total – 149 messages, 10 users, 3 stars

Bookmarked 7 secs ago by BMitch

With the new schedule comes a new bookmark format, I'm not a fan of US or UK date styles

Tester101

@BMitch The outage was tracked down. The Nor'easter caused the internet wire passing through NYC to bend.

11th day of the 2012th month in year 8. Makes sense to me.

BMitch

I think someone tripped over the cable:

There's planned downtime every night when we turn on the Roomba and it runs over the cord.

Chris Cudmore

"There's a lot of caching"

BMitch

@ChrisCudmore reminds you of SE, doesn't it?

wax eagle

@BMitch I accidentally hit /905 instead and it's topical to here:

New research shows over 60% of the financial collapse's toxic assets were created by power drills.

BMitch

21:16

> New research shows over 60% of the financial collapse's toxic assets were created by power drills.

BMitch

22:19

@waxeagle since someone bumped it, would you like this on G&L: diy.stackexchange.com/questions/6464/…

Project Update Thursday - 2012/11/08

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