Home Improvement

  • Guest, it's time once again for the massively important and exciting FoH Asshat Tournament!



    Go here and give us your nominations!
    Who's been the biggest Asshat in the last year? Give us your worst ones!

Lanx

<Prior Amod>
65,160
146,767
I hate that everyone is painting their wood cabinets these days. I know fashions change and whatnot, but why would you want to cover up nice oak cabinet doors with paint so they might as well be particle board?
I have had friends say that it its too"dark" in the kitchen with oak maple etc
 

Captain Suave

Caesar si viveret, ad remum dareris.
5,249
8,950
I have had friends say that it its too"dark" in the kitchen with oak maple etc

Much like people asking for well done steaks, your friends need training on the propriety of painting nice wood. Oak and maple are plenty light if left at their natural color and not stained to a deep mahogany/walnut.
 
  • 1Solidarity
Reactions: 1 user

Palum

what Suineg set it to
26,457
41,107
Yes pest entry.
Much like people asking for well done steaks, your friends need training on the propriety of painting nice wood. Oak and maple are plenty light if left at their natural color and not stained to a deep mahogany/walnut.
Yea but what do you do after it's stained 80s dark walnut? Paint or replace unfortunately.
 

Goatface

Avatar of War Slayer
9,868
15,647
never seen a recessed gutter before. is this common in some places? he doesn't explain why is doing it this way. just expensive house things?
1704554552480.png


roof part starts around 3min

 
  • 1Like
Reactions: 1 user

Kobayashi

Ahn'Qiraj Raider
779
1,940
never seen a recessed gutter before. is this common in some places? he doesn't explain why is doing it this way. just expensive house things?
View attachment 507634

roof part starts around 3min

Interesting, I've never seen that before either. I imagine it's mostly just aestheitics. Only advantage I can think of is since they're built into the structure, you wouldn't have to worry about the hangers coming loose and the gutter sagging over time. Looks like a lot of extra work, must be way more expensive.

I cringe at that rubber roof they were installing. My old house was mostly asphalt, but it had one section of rubber that was getting a ton of bubbles along the edge. I had a roofer look at it who assured me it was fine, but it never sat well with me. It would get slippery as fuck too, it had the flattest pitch of the whole house by far, but was the only part of the roof I almost fell off of.
 

lurkingdirk

AssHat Taint
<Medals Crew>
46,545
214,075
never seen a recessed gutter before. is this common in some places? he doesn't explain why is doing it this way. just expensive house things?
View attachment 507634

roof part starts around 3min


Interesting, I've never seen that before either. I imagine it's mostly just aestheitics. Only advantage I can think of is since they're built into the structure, you wouldn't have to worry about the hangers coming loose and the gutter sagging over time. Looks like a lot of extra work, must be way more expensive.

I cringe at that rubber roof they were installing. My old house was mostly asphalt, but it had one section of rubber that was getting a ton of bubbles along the edge. I had a roofer look at it who assured me it was fine, but it never sat well with me. It would get slippery as fuck too, it had the flattest pitch of the whole house by far, but was the only part of the roof I almost fell off of.

I wouldn't say it is common anywhere. I have installed one, and once it's in, it's fantastic. It's mostly justifiable for the aesthetic. Very clean roofline, no visible gutters from the ground, and incredibly effective. Another bonus is that because the water from melting snow exits the roof BEFORE it gets to the fascia you won't get ice dams and hanging icicles.

But yes, it is so labour intensive that it is ridiculous. And especially if you use copper, you are probably looking at 4-5 times the cost of conventional gutters.
 
  • 1Like
Reactions: 1 user

Captain Suave

Caesar si viveret, ad remum dareris.
5,249
8,950
never seen a recessed gutter before. is this common in some places? he doesn't explain why is doing it this way. just expensive house things?

A cousin-in-law has internal gutters in his 1920's house. They drop from the roof gullies inside the walls and drain out of the foundation just above ground. It's a fucking maintenance nightmare.
 

lurker

Vyemm Raider
1,521
3,320
I was doing work on a new, expensive house, oh, probably 15 years ago where they had installed copper rain gutters. Not recessed, just hanging off the fascia. The very finicky HOA told the general contractor that the gutters were too shiny and to do something about it, quick. He told the gutter sub who then proceeded to put a patina on them in a couple of hours with some acid. He fucked them up bad. They were black instead of that greenish look oxidized copper gets and which the homeowner was expecting. They took them down and put all new copper gutters back up and told the HOA that it would take about a year for the gutters to mellow out and to please be patient.

So there was a couple hundred feet of copper gutter on the ground. I asked and they said "Sure, you can have it. We can't use it and would just take it down to the recyclers or sell it as scrap." With a lot of work I might have been able to make them coppery again, but the stuff is soft and it needed to be supported every 2 feet along the fascia with a bracket and those brackets were $24 a piece back then. I passed.
 

Goatface

Avatar of War Slayer
9,868
15,647
1705107076367.png


does anyone make outdoor chandelier light bulbs? have a post lamp like this, but uses 3 chandelier bulbs. i have not found any listed as for outdoor use. tried several types like these and they all fail fairly soon, even just running a few hours a month. the 3 took out today, one like in the middle, blew the glass apart, one like the 1st, was dead and glass had turned a blue color on top. one like the 3rd, was still sorta working, but would take several minutes to start up. nothing seems to be getting wet. might just find another socket and replace it with normal sized bulb this summer.

1705107208158.png
 

Hatorade

A nice asshole.
8,448
7,196
Just finished a 300 ft underground run of cat5e in conduit. Cable is direct bury rated but ran conduit in case I ever need to rerun. Do you guys think it’s worth sealing the ends where it comes out? Was trying to find grommets of some sort to seal but couldn’t find anything. Could use expanding foam but wanted something a little cleaner looking.

View attachment 507120
lb conduit body is overkill but would point it towards the ground and give it the finished look.
 
Last edited:
  • 1Like
Reactions: 1 user

lurker

Vyemm Raider
1,521
3,320
View attachment 508953

does anyone make outdoor chandelier light bulbs? have a post lamp like this, but uses 3 chandelier bulbs. i have not found any listed as for outdoor use. tried several types like these and they all fail fairly soon, even just running a few hours a month. the 3 took out today, one like in the middle, blew the glass apart, one like the 1st, was dead and glass had turned a blue color on top. one like the 3rd, was still sorta working, but would take several minutes to start up. nothing seems to be getting wet. might just find another socket and replace it with normal sized bulb this summer.

View attachment 508957
Those are called candelabra base bulbs and not chandelier bulbs. A quick search using the proper name yields lots of results for outdoor candelabra base bulbs. Don't know if they would work better for you or not. Good luck.
 
  • 1Like
Reactions: 1 user

Goatface

Avatar of War Slayer
9,868
15,647
what would cause heat pump to blow hot air (80's+) then stop heating and blow cold?

this started the other night during this cold snap. this morning it 28 out, 62 inside. turned it on it was blowing hot, got up to 66.5, stayed there for 10-15mins then stopped. the outside fan stops spinning.
it has an electric heating, which still works. when that is on, at least when manually turned on, it flashes a little icon. which wasn't flashing this morning.
 

Palum

what Suineg set it to
26,457
41,107
what would cause heat pump to blow hot air (80's+) then stop heating and blow cold?

this started the other night during this cold snap. this morning it 28 out, 62 inside. turned it on it was blowing hot, got up to 66.5, stayed there for 10-15mins then stopped. the outside fan stops spinning.
it has an electric heating, which still works. when that is on, at least when manually turned on, it flashes a little icon. which wasn't flashing this morning.
Heat Pumps are inefficient below 30 and most do basically nothing by 15. With supplemental heating working it should keep going. Is it a coil heater? Seems like it's not really working if you have it and it's failing at 28.
 
  • 1Like
Reactions: 1 user

Nija

<Silver Donator>
1,977
3,884
Heat Pumps are inefficient below 30 and most do basically nothing by 15. With supplemental heating working it should keep going. Is it a coil heater? Seems like it's not really working if you have it and it's failing at 28.
That is MOSTLY true. There are a range of heat pumps available now, that work beyond temps where they used to work. Mine works consistently well down to 15F. Mitsubishi has one that works to -15F, but I only think it's available in ductless mini-split form.

I had a breaker die in my air handler. Had to move around the heat strips to the functional breaker. I wasn't able to find these things anywhere locally - I had to use a site, called simplybreakers ( Simply Breakers - Buy Circuit Breakers Online ), which has... every breaker known to man, at good prices.

I have 4 heat strips, one of which is entirely missing the 10ga wire to it. I wonder if it was intentionally never connected. With my setup, I had 2x heat strips hooked up to the dead breaker, 1 on the functional breaker, plus the control wires. I turned everything off, and moved one heat strip off the dead breaker to the functional one, so I'm running at 2/4 heat strips currently.

I woke up Saturday morning (last week) and it was mid 50s inside.. sucked, but not the worst possible thing. The wood stove did OK, but could only manage getting things up to low 60s on that side of the house, since it's moving the cold indoor air through the baffles and ejecting it up top. Now that I have 2/4 heat strips working, it keeps the house mid 60s.

I haven't received the new breaker yet, but when I get it I'll try hooking up all 4 and see how it works then. The unplugged heat strip was hopefully left unwired for cost savings, rather than something else. It's impossible to find a schematic for my air handler, even though it's dated 2014... TEM3, not TEM4 Trane, 5 ton model. Even the Bluon app doesn't have anything listed for TEM3. Son of a bitch. The condenser outside is from 2019, so hopefully that lasts a long time.
 

Goatface

Avatar of War Slayer
9,868
15,647
last couple of days have been freezing, high yesterday was 11, so not even tried using it. today, it was 26 out and did work good enough to get it to 66 from like 64 without using electric.
been reading, seems like it could be faulty defrost board. it is not switching on the electric when going into defrost and just blowing cold. this week isn't supposed to be as frigid so should be able to check it.
 

lurker

Vyemm Raider
1,521
3,320
Finished kitchen remodel. Took us 53 days and came in at around $7200. Under budget.

Before, sink area
2023120113403727-4871852651346974415--L.jpg

After
2024012508192406--688193146292296544-L.jpg

Before, range area
2023120113354090-4586735642309888370-L.jpg

After
2024012508192406--679302795753808253-L.jpg

Before, no more bar counter.

To be continued...
 
  • 2Like
  • 1Solidarity
Reactions: 2 users