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lurkingdirk

lurkingdirk

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I've just replaced three windows in my kitchen and found out that sections of my house don't have house wrap on it. I've flashed and wrapped the dickens out of it, and now I plan to declad my entire house of cedar siding next summer (it's about half brick), wrapping it, and putting up new, no-maintenance siding. The house is drafty, and we've been thinking we just needed to replace the forty year old windows to help that, but I see it's more than that. Crap. Now I have to try to figure out what to use for the exterior. I was thinking of this stuff:

GAF Weatherside Profile9 9 in. x 32 in. Fiber Cement Shingle Siding-2271000WG - The Home Depot

Anyone have experience with it?
 
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Picasso3

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This is the kind of bullshit project my uncle comes up with at 70.

Have you considered your payback period honey
 
error

error

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If it's bare cedar siding, donate it to me. :) Mine is stained grey and I want the natural look.
 
lurkingdirk

lurkingdirk

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Picasso3 said:
This is the kind of bullshit project my uncle comes up with at 70.

Have you considered your payback period honey
Click to expand...

I'm going to stay in this house until I die, likely. So I'm going to make it as awesome as possible. Additionally, my cedar siding is starting to show its 40 years. Sections of it are going to have to be replaced anyway.
 
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Adebisi

Adebisi

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Put in a new window well today.

I'm not totally happy with how tight it is to the foundation. Is there a foam sealant I can blast in between the metal well and my house?
 
lurkingdirk

lurkingdirk

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There is specific silicon for wide gap, shouldn't be hard to find.

Edit: everyone should see this skit from SNL about caulk.
 
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Adebisi

Adebisi

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I also bought a higher window well so I could create a steep grade around the well.

The biggest issue with the original well was that the fucks didn't attach it to the house. Just filled around the well and figured that would keep it in place. Then built a fucking deck on top of it. Over the years some of the soil washed away from the sides of the well and the well started to slope away from the house. The water from a heavy rain would just start dumping in from the sides.

Now I've got a nice hole in my deck above the window. I'm going to just make a trap door over top of it in case I need to get in there again.
 
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Talenvor

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Just bought a new house and moved in a week ago. Built in 2015. Passed inspection with flying colors. Was upstairs tonight taking the kids stuff out of boxes and noticed this water damage around one of the recessed lighting cans. Appears to be old water damage (we haven't had rain here in 2 months so no way it's recent, I don't think). It's the 2nd story, nothing above it so no leak from a bathroom or whatever. Wasn't noticed by myself or the inspector during the inspection. I checked the other 30'ish can lights in the house and it's the only one like this. How big of a deal is this? I'm fearing a leaking roof with attic damage, etc. Hoping it's minor :(
edit: sorry the pic is so big, don't know how to resize it.
IMG-0976.JPG
 
Palum

Palum

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Talenvor said:
Just bought a new house and moved in a week ago. Built in 2015. Passed inspection with flying colors. Was upstairs tonight taking the kids stuff out of boxes and noticed this water damage around one of the recessed lighting cans. Appears to be old water damage (we haven't had rain here in 2 months so no way it's recent, I don't think). It's the 2nd story, nothing above it so no leak from a bathroom or whatever. Wasn't noticed by myself or the inspector during the inspection. I checked the other 30'ish can lights in the house and it's the only one like this. How big of a deal is this? I'm fearing a leaking roof with attic damage, etc. Hoping it's minor :(
edit: sorry the pic is so big, don't know how to resize it.
View attachment 151061
Click to expand...

It doesn't look bad. If a leak, it must be small. It is very suspicious in size and shape though, so it looks like condensation damage rather than a leak. I would guess the area around the can up in the attic is poorly insulated. Remember your attic isn't 'sealed' per se, so if it's humid outside, it's humid-ish in there. During the summer if the can is naked, if it's hot and sticky in the attic and that light is near an AC supply, it will cool the thin metal can walls and condensation will form on it due to the temperature variation. Or vice versa, during the winter someone was running a humidifier up there.
 
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T

Talenvor

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Palum said:
It doesn't look bad. If a leak, it must be small. It is very suspicious in size and shape though, so it looks like condensation damage rather than a leak. I would guess the area around the can up in the attic is poorly insulated. Remember your attic isn't 'sealed' per se, so if it's humid outside, it's humid-ish in there. During the summer if the can is naked, if it's hot and sticky in the attic and that light is near an AC supply, it will cool the thin metal can walls and condensation will form on it due to the temperature variation. Or vice versa, during the winter someone was running a humidifier up there.
Click to expand...

Makes sense thanks. I live in a very dry climate. Low humidity all the time. We run humidifiers in the bedrooms at night year round to keep humidity levels in the house in the 25%-40% range. Ac is on a lot in this new house since it's been 100+ every day since we moved in so I could see the warm attic air hitting the ac air and condensing. Would you r commend I just add a bit more insulation over that light and then repaint the slightly damaged drywall, or should I pay to have a professional come take a look at it?
 
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Palum

Palum

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Talenvor said:
Makes sense thanks. I live in a very dry climate. Low humidity all the time. We run humidifiers in the bedrooms at night year round to keep humidity levels in the house in the 25%-40% range. Ac is on a lot in this new house since it's been 100+ every day since we moved in so I could see the warm attic air hitting the ac air and condensing. Would you r commend I just add a bit more insulation over that light and then repaint the slightly damaged drywall, or should I pay to have a professional come take a look at it?
Click to expand...

Well, the drywall is easy, take off can trim, KILZ prime and paint.

The can is probably a bigger issue. You likely have an issue of cheap assholes. You need cans rated for direct contact with insulation. My guess is they put that one in and all they had left over was the single wall like you'd use for drop ceilings. Then someone moved the insulation away from it. Well, this is the consequence.

So I'd first check the insulation around it in the attic and then get a model number from it (some are labeled on the housing what it's rated for under where the trim ring hooks in).

So best case: rated can, no roof damage, someone just moved insulation.

Mid case: unrated can, no roof damage, need to replace can then insulate.

Worst case: it's all coincidental, there's roof damage right above the can and drizzled down into a live fixture and you need to hire a roofer then inspect everything for damage to avoid an electrical fire.
 
Dandai

Dandai

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It's a shot in the dark, but I don't suppose any of you have assembled and/or mounted a laser cut steel sign before? This is unfamiliar territory for me, so any advice (even if it's offensively obvious to you) is appreciated. My biggest concerns are strength of attachment (I don't want to kill someone because I mounted it improperly) and ease of maintenance should the LEDs fail.

Sign specs:
  • 5 ft tall x 10 ft wide x 1/8 in (11 ga) thick
  • ~250-300 lbs
  • Frame needs to be ~2 in deep for the waterproof power supply (for LED backlights)
  • Sign mounting area is a roof skirt framed with 12 in OC (2x4 studs) and covered with wood siding panels.
My plan was to build the frame on the ground to make sure that everything worked and looked the way I wanted. Materials for the frame:
  • 3 sheets of [bcolor=rgb(24, 24, 24)]plywood[/bcolor] for the back of the frame
  • 30 ft of pressure treated 2x4s for the perimeter of the sign (the boards from Lowes are actually 1.5 in so I'll need some sort of shim/spacer to make up for the remaining 1/2 in needed to fit my 2 in LED power supply)
  • Framing screws to attach plywood to studs and the 2x4s to plywood
  • Eight 1/4 in bolts (what's the best type for this purpose?) to attach the sign to the frame (the fabricator pre-drilled 8 1/4 in holes in the steel sign - 4 on top and 4 on bottom)
  • 8 nuts (type?) to fasten over the bolts and secure the sign to the frame
It seems straight forward to me, but none of my friends are handy enough to offer feedback.

Edit: paging doctors P Picasso3 and Palum Palum
 
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Siliconemelons

Siliconemelons

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Good call on the can light condensation - it seems to me too uniform and circle to be a leak that wicked and traveled over to the light and didnt cause a short or anything... also if it is a normal attic and you can get up there and look, if its water leak damage that travels on over to that location- you most likely will see mold, or other water damage along the route.. if it happens to be a drip leak directly above it... then you should be able to find and patch it.
 
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Picasso3

Silver Baronet of the Realm
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Dandai said:
It's a shot in the dark, but I don't suppose any of you have assembled and/or mounted a laser cut steel sign before? This is unfamiliar territory for me, so any advice (even if it's offensively obvious to you) is appreciated. My biggest concerns are strength of attachment (I don't want to kill someone because I mounted it improperly) and ease of maintenance should the LEDs fail.

Sign specs:
  • 5 ft tall x 10 ft wide x 1/8 in (11 ga) thick
  • ~250-300 lbs
  • Frame needs to be ~2 in deep for the waterproof power supply (for LED backlights)
  • Sign mounting area is a roof skirt framed with 12 in OC (2x4 studs) and covered with wood siding panels.
My plan was to build the frame on the ground to make sure that everything worked and looked the way I wanted. Materials for the frame:
  • 3 sheets of [bcolor=rgb(24, 24, 24)]plywood[/bcolor] for the back of the frame
  • 30 ft of pressure treated 2x4s for the perimeter of the sign (the boards from Lowes are actually 1.5 in so I'll need some sort of shim/spacer to make up for the remaining 1/2 in needed to fit my 2 in LED power supply)
  • Framing screws to attach plywood to studs and the 2x4s to plywood
  • Eight 1/4 in bolts (what's the best type for this purpose?) to attach the sign to the frame (the fabricator pre-drilled 8 1/4 in holes in the steel sign - 4 on top and 4 on bottom)
  • 8 nuts (type?) to fasten over the bolts and secure the sign to the frame
It seems straight forward to me, but none of my friends are handy enough to offer feedback.

Edit: paging doctors P Picasso3 and Palum Palum
Click to expand...

What's your plan for access? Hinging the top could be worthwhile.

May want to use pressure treated 4x4 for frame. Definitely want pressure treated regardless.

How is it mounting to building?
 
Dandai

Dandai

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Picasso3 said:
What's your plan for access? Hinging the top could be worthwhile.

May want to use pressure treated 4x4 for frame. Definitely want pressure treated regardless.

How is it mounting to building?
Click to expand...
My hope was to assemble the frame as a solid piece and mount the frame to the building using deck screws (or whatever would be appropriately waterproof). To attach the sign to the frame I'd like to drive some bolts (from the back of the frame through the front) that were long enough to let me thread locking nuts (but not so long that they were an eyesore) and compress the steel into the frame.

The idea is that hanging the sign would be a simple matter of getting someone to help me hoist the steel sign up and simply align the predrilled holes with the bolts and tighten the nuts. This way if I need to fix something with the LEDs I can remove the sign and get into the entire frame instead of trying to squeeze in through a hinged top.

The problem is I don't know if what I want is sturdy enough or even possible. (I.e. will the bolts sheer from the weight of the steel? Will the frame rip away from the wall at the first sign of inclement weather? Etc)
 
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Picasso3

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300 lbs is not that much, if it's going to be flush with the building you don't have big wind load concerns.

You can find shear ratings on fasteners. If you do a 2x4 flat side the weakness would likely be the wood splitting over time.

The building attachment itself is what I would be worried about either way you do it. Wood frame you want to make sure you hit framing. Concrete block you can do a shit ton of tapcons or I'd try do to through bolts.
 
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