@AarthiDevanathan, @RebeccaChernoff, hmm, is it time for the squeaky wheel again? Or are they holding off the start of Update Thursday so they have time to get the blog up?
@KarlKatzke note that you will have a bit of trouble with this. That's why we generally want a mod as an admin since they can just pull from SE profile. I guess maybe just have people plop into chat, type in their email, have you add it right then, and delete the message?
@SteveJackson Thanks, it's only $3/sq ft too through my tile retailer. Much cheaper than the $7/sq ft Daltile that I was looking at.
@RebeccaChernoff I was actually going to direct people to email me via the Contact page on my blog at karlkatzke.com/contact , which will send me an email without storing it anywhere.
When I put in new tile in my basement, I brought home 3 different samples from Home Depot. Picked one out, great. Then a couple days later I took the chosen sample back to buy all the tile I needed. Had a panic in the store because I had grabbed the wrong sample and had an internal battle convincing myself of that while I was standing in the aisle.
@SteveJackson Heh. Oh, those are the fun parts. We just did that in a friend's house a few weeks ago ... I showed him how to frame out a new wall with proper headers over the doorway and square framing.
I followed the instructions and built up the counter on blocks - to find that it ended up sitting too high
and the sink clips were evil - just evil - got more cuts on my hand from those...
turns out our 'sink base' was a hacked up non-sink base and the sink didn't exactly fit in it where I'd positioned it ... which blew out the front of the water damaged cabinet
fortunately this is all temporary - the old counter was falling apart and ant infested, this replacement only needs to hold up a year or two
And the drainage thing -- you have to worry about that kind of stuff in a normal neighborhood too. The guy that owns the house behind me and rents it out to college students drains his yard into mine, unfortunately it's been that way for a long time. I'm going to have to put in a french drain eventually because of it.
So on my simple drywall project (leak repair), I had an issue with my drywall crumbling away, which @Tester101 provided good advice for - and I neglected to follow it to the letter. I didn't want to cut to the next joist because then I'd have to do an inside corner while hanging over the stove. So I cut about 4 inches over and figured I'd run a couple crosses in between to have something to screw to.
There was plumbing in the cavity, but I just figured I'd put the 2x4s flat and give myself more to screw to anyway.
Made all my braces, climbed into the attic to install. Too fat. Only about 3/4 inch between the drywall and the pipe.
I got it eventually by drilling a 3" screw through the middle of it, sticking that in the seam and then holding that with pliers while I screwed drywall screws through it
Of course I had to run to the store in the middle because I don't keep 1" drywall screws hanging around
On top of that, I didn't think about the extra pain from doing two drywall seams 4 inches apart. Luckily I dealt with much worse when I framed in the nursery.
Oh! I forgot the other 'improvement' event since the last chat. I don't have pictures, but the galvanized pipe in the attic of my girlfriend's rental house -- which had just been replaced the year before -- sprung a leak. It rusted right through. From now on, I'm ripping out any galvanized I encounter.
I live in Houston, TX (Very Hot, Very Humid). In the summertime, my dryer is dripping with water, when not in use. I do not have overly excessive drying times.
My dryer is vented via an unfortunate run of over 25 feet with two elbows. It exhausts through the roof. Dryer is in the center of t...
So that cap (there's a pic in the question) has a gap between the flashing and the stack to let rain out if it gets in. What appears to have happened is it filled with soggy dryer lint. That led it to overflow down the tube until the first tape gap. It then leaked all over the plywood I installed to install the booster fan, and pooled until it found it's way to the gap between two sheets.
@KarlKatzke galvanized sucks! I had galvanized pipe coming from the meter feeding the house, when I ripped it out and replaced it with PEX I could hardly see through the pipe!
Which naturally was the joist above my kitchen. Water leaked down the joist and poolled in my flourescent light until I got rained on while making dinner.
@Tester101 No kidding. This pipe had only been there a year or two, and it was so corroded on the inside that it had sprung a leak and threw a ton of rust flakes into the rest of the water system. I've been cleaning plugged up shower heads for the last week.
@SteveJackson Yeah. I hate to see what the older stuff in the walls looks like. Glad it isn't my house. I have a friend who bought a house with Galv, and we've been planning her bathroom renovations. I think I know what to add t them.
@TheEvilGreebo You can still buy it, I think they had a "handyman" replace this section.
@Tester101 You would not believe the things that have been done to this poor rental house.
Anyway, the landlord was going to save $50 and have the plumber put a clamp on it, but we conveniently "missed her call" and I had him replace the entire section with CPVC. Couldn't do it myself because the lease forbid tenants to do any work on the place unless appropriately licensed.
Which ... I understand, but grrrr. In parts it was like $50. Or less.
I wouldn't have known, but it leaked right at the meter a couple years ago and I had to do a patch job. So now I'm paranoid whenever I see standing water in the front yard. Add that to the drought condition and I'm leaning towards the ticking time bomb theory.
I 100% agree with you. I'd probably plan on doing it when you can afford to this fall ... or it'll fail either when it's like 18 degrees out or when it's 110 next summer. Murphy's law of plumbing.
It's much easier to hire a day laborer when it's medium-warm out, sit there and drink a mint julep while he digs up the old line, and then put the new line in while it's a comfortable temp and in good day light.
@KarlKatzke LOL! See, I was almost going the other route just because I'm not experienced with plumbing. I'm all for learning on the job, but that's a huge fix if I screw it up. I know some people who do know what they're doing though, might be worth offering them an all expenses paid trip (presuming you want to sleep on an air mattress) to my house to supervise.
@TheEvilGreebo I usually suggest copper if it's not a long run, just because you know it'll hold up. CPVC is way cheaper though and I think it's probably just as durable for as long as we're among the living and diying.
I think it will work for underground, but I'm not convinced that it's the best material for it.
I've seen some early failures with PEX that have me worried about how it'll do long-term. That's the same problem I have with putting CPVC underground. Plastic eventually gets brittle, especially when the moisture around it changes frequently,.
I'm pretty sure that the city I live in, whose utility department is very good, suggests copper supply runs but doesn't require them.
A house in Houston, TX (southern "sun belt" climate, no frost, but flexible clay soils) has a Polybutalyne supply line running from the meter to the house. It's already burst once and been repaired, but the homeowner is considering replacing it entirely before it fails given that the repaired por...
First off, we've got a blog!
Would you like to contribute to it? You'll need to contact an administrator for an account. We need to know your username here on diy.stackexchange.com, and we'll need to know your email address -- or at least, the one you want to be associated with on the blog. Ple...
I live in Houston, TX (Very Hot, Very Humid). In the summertime, my dryer is dripping with water, when not in use. I do not have overly excessive drying times.
My dryer is vented via an unfortunate run of over 25 feet with two elbows. It exhausts through the roof. Dryer is in the center of t...
