The Home Repair/Improvement Thread

Yes, that is exactly what I have. I had to buy a few to get the right color (2700K is the warmest and looks much better than the 'daylight' temps). They're great because you can also stick them on stuff.

I was hoping I could get some general advice about security systems both in conjunction with a monitoring service such as ADT, or independent.

Reasons for getting a security system. First of all, my wife works at the local juvenile detention center in a neighboring county. She has always been very careful not to hint to the kids there where she lives, but last week when she was pulling out of the driveway, she and one of the kids previously locked up saw each other. While she doesn't have any immediate concern about this particular kid, it is enough of a concern now to think that if a kid was sufficiently pissed at her for whatever reason, they would be able to find out where we live.

The second concern is that our bedroom is the upstairs loft. Our 2-year old daughter is downstairs and down the hall and her room has a big window. We use a baby monitor at night, but the fact that she is so far away at night is a concern for us.

With that though, I feel we live in a very safe town, and a fairly safe neighborhood (though we do live right next to the combined middle/high school. Not sure if that is good or bad). Also, I've generally been of the opinion that security systems make you feel safer than actually doing much in terms of actual safety.

What I want to hear are people's impressions of them, what else I should be considering, etc. Oh and 9mm security system is also a possibility, but probably won't really directly address our concerns with regards to our child in the downstairs room.

Ugh I found out yesterday that the home we live in was NOT built in 1960, but rather 1920. I had just assumed based on how the kitchen looked... good to know it's been updated a whole 50 years ago and nigh since.

Unfortunately (fortunately?) we rent so we're not going to actually do anything to make the space more livable. We're in a multi-family home and our unit is 1 bed + 1 bath. Our landlady is old and has a hard time getting around, plus our lease is month-to-month (we REALLY didn't expect to be living here as long as we have), so we're not keen on asking her to do any work on the place lest she hike our rent to pay for it. So we've done some minor stuff on our own, if it's inexpensive and the risk of royally messing something up is low.

Right now we're looking at three things. The first is our water quality. We're on well water, but we've had it tested. It's technically within legal water quality limits, and is safe to drink, but the iron concentration is still pretty high. This means that any time we cook things that react to iron--tea, coffee, certain vegetables--the end product is black and sludgy and bitter. Currently we're operating on a crummy brita filter pitcher and bottled water. Surely though there's a cheaper way to remove the iron. Any ideas?

The second is also about our water. We also have a pretty noticeable amount of sulfur oxide. Our water smells terrible. It also seems worse in the bathroom than the kitchen, and the absolute worst part is turning on our hot shower. The smell goes everywhere. I was wondering if there's anything simple to put right before the shower head to help out with that, but anything I've been able to find basically calls for some expensive and slow chemical filter for the whole house. The smell is something I've gotten somewhat used to but I always feel bad for guests who stay with us. It was pretty nauseating to me when I first moved in. But, if there's really nothing that will help other than asking our landlady to put something between the well and the house, we'll just forget about it.

The last is our bathroom sink. Our bathroom has, in general, been poorly maintained, and the hairball I removed from a 2" drain pipe under the shower was probably just days from sentience. Our sink is now similarly clogged, and stuff like drain-o has not been the least bit effective at helping speed up the flow of water. I'm terrified of dismantling the plumbing in the cabinet under the sink, since it already leaks (and I figure clearing up the clog would help with that to some extent). The coat hanger we used on the shower doesn't fit down the sink drain though, no matter how we bend the hook at the end. If I take the plumbing apart under the sink and manage to break something that was near about to crumble anyway, how much am I looking at in terms of replacement part costs?

If things get to the point where kids are hunting down your home address and finding you, a security system isn't going to be much help. The question is if this is a likely and rational situation to defend against. If so then there are other options you'll want to explore.

Baby monitor should be fine. I'd imagine the difference between 'room right next to us' and 'room that is 5 seconds away from us' is academic when all other factors are involved, so long as you can hear your children.

You can use neighborhood crime reports to get a feel for actual crime.

http://www.raidsonline.com/?address=Lexington, KY

go to 'analytic layers' and turn on 'density map', then give it a reasonable date range

Proximity to apartment homes and lower income neighborhoods seem to be the biggest correlation to crime. Proximity to schools can lead to higher incidence of mischief and vandalism but I think there are potentially offsetting benefits, like being able to benefit from more stringent firearm, drug, and resident-sex-offender laws that are near school zones. And I doubt vandalism is that big an issue anymore, back when I was kid we routinely walked or rode our bikes to school, which gave opportunity for mischief coming home, but in modern America pretty much everyone takes the bus or is driven to school.

I would consider pepper spray before a handgun, particularly with other people in the home, unless you are supremely confident in your gun handling skills. This isn't an anti-gun comment (since I own a handgun) but a 'if you are going to do it, do it right' sentiment.

Actually this topic can/should probably be in its own thread.

Instead of a coat hanger, you can get a snake at a hardware store. They go down in drains and clean all the horrifying gunk out.

I agree, you can get cheapo plastic snakes at the local hardware store and they worked great for all the clogs in my house, shower and sinks. And it's reusable too. Granted you actually have to see what you dredge up, my wife would rather we just pour drain cleaners down the pipes, but they don't seem to help that much in my experience.

Yeah, that's what happened with the shower drain. Several bouts of drain cleaner later, I was the one to hook up what could have been a small animal out of the pipe. And hubby was thoroughly disgusted and wanted nothing to do with it, but he was helpful enough to bring the trash can to me so the wad of... whatever didn't have to drip all over the floor.

Yet another reason I don't want to empty the catch under the sink. I am sure I will be thoroughly disgusted with its contents.

As it turns out, the freon recharge didn't stick. Temps still started climbing back into the low 40-43 range when, immediately after the recharge, it was in the 37-38 range. Note that I had both a wireless remote temp sensor and an old fashioned analog thermometer in it to verify temps.

So I bit the bullet and ordered the 6 year newer version of the fridge on the off chance it doesn't suck. The new version is significantly more modern with an integral air filter, digital controls, and better overall design. Unfortunately it's a lot taller so the old trim kit is toast, which means there's an awesomely ugly uneven gap in the cabinetry and, best of all, the freezer is shorter than the fridge by quite a bit so the arrangement is horribly janky looking.

But at least the new fridge works! But that made me realize that fridge tech is pretty iffy. There is a large degree of temperature difference both spatially (top vs. bottom, front vs. back) and temporally (they cycle). I've seen the top shelf reach 43 and go as low as 32, and the door compartments never get below 40 even when the rest of the internal area is in the low 30s. And of course that's where milk etc. are kept, which are the things that tend to spoil first.

Yes, I'm aspy about my fridge tech.

I just got a new fridge, whirlpool It is HUGE, I am not used to something taking up that much space. It is nifty and seems to have been a good deal. My other half is a stickler for whirlpool products. His reasoning is straight forward. Found a top open freezer in the junk pile (small town at the time), parentals fridge was fritz. Freezer had a compressor. He figured what the hell , cut it out ..bent pipes took home to dad. Dad person tested pressure (their family is INCREDIBLY handy I cannot stress the levels of fix it in this family) hooked it to fridge walla fridge kept things cool.

That fridge lasted something like 20 years. From a compressor that was a throw away on a already older freezer.

-end cool story-

Arise! My wife is getting her promised kitchen remodel. Anyone have anything advice against Quartz countertops? They seem the most maintenance free. Also, any gotchas one should look out for, for cabinets? Currently deciding between refacing or getting new cabinets from a big box store. The price on new stuff was semi comparable. I know to avoid particleboard, and go for dovetail for the cabinets, but any other advice is welcome.

Also, anyone ever installed one of those two way flush handles on a regular toilet? I bought an install kit for one, to give it a try. Supposed to save water, and was fairly cheap and is supposed to take only 25 minutes to install. We'll see how that goes. I bought it on a Sunday night, and I learned my lesson to always start those kind of projects on a Saturday morning.

I recently attempted to fix a drip in my shower stall, so I started on a Sunday afternoon, and tried to shut off my water main. The handle broke off in my hands. No leakage, but my water was stuck half on. Lots of fun, they had to replace the whole valve.

I recently replaced a cartouche in my faucet - I had no idea what a cartouche was prior to that (or if it's called that anywhere else... but it's not like it's a Danish word). Considering it was an expensive faucet, I think I saved a lot by buying the thing online and doing it myself instead of getting a plumbr.

Are you doing the remodel or having someone do it? I'm hoping to do our kitchen in the spring or summer next year, but have to finish off some things in other rooms and then move a staircase. Anyway, I have been looking at cabinets at this place called Mei Kitchens. I will buy a sample cabinet from them first, but they look nice from what I can see online.

Oh, I'm not much of a handyman, so for a complete kitchen remodel/refacing, with new countertops, having someone else do it.

Okay, Home Depot/Lowe's have some pretty nice stuff and will install them for you. This might help you. Go to "Features".

I've been directed here by our friendly neighborhood threadcop so here goes :)

We have a 1980 house, as far as I know original wiring. We've been here 6 years.

Our light bulbs, including the fancy $12 "last forever" bulbs, burn out regularly. Does this indicate an electrical problem or are we doing something wrong with wattage or something? I'm just using the normal ones you get at the store for standard use.

There can be a lot of different issues. If lots of lights are burning out it could be oscillating voltage, uneven load on a circuit, etc. Is this all lights or just some specific sockets? You had also mentioned that when you use a hair dryer that sometimes lights dim, etc.

A house from 1980 isn't that old (mine is from 1964 and I have a friend who is going through hell with his house from 1912).

The hair dryer thing -- if the whole house dims when it's on, then it's possible the feed into your home isn't that beefy and you're already taxing it too much with other stuff. Check to see if you have a 100/150 or 200A feed into your home. If it's only 100A, you're probably going to want to upgrade the feed. 150A you can probably get by unless you have a TON of electronics/electrical devices that aren't standard (like a home recording studio or home theater).

If the lights flicker and they're on a shared circuit, you might have a live wire/open ground.

If the feed seems solid, then it's probably a case of not enough circuits and/or your circuit is overloaded. Older homes might have all the lights on a single circuit for example, or one side of the house is sharing a single circuit because they assumed that it would just be some lights. You might have 10A circuits (doubtful -- I want to say that by 1980 most homes had 15A circuits). A 15A circuit should be able to handle a hair dryer no problem, as long as you don't have a bunch of high amperage devices on the same circuit fighting for juice (fridge/freezer/AC/microwave/electric oven/fans/etc.).

You should definitely map out your circuits. Either get a lamp (or a socket tester) and flip breakers, noting which sockets and devices are tied to which breaker. Most breakers on older homes are labelled totally inaccurately due to changes over the years.

If the lights flicker on their own and doesn't coincide with your AC or anything like that, then you should call your electrical company, they'll verify that the exterior feed isn't jacked somehow.

I hate the new fangled lightbulbs. They never last as long as the good old incandescent bulbs (fuck congress for their incandescent ban). I have noticed something for some newer lights we did in a recent remodel that were on a "soft-on/soft-off" switch - they routinely last 3-4 times as long as lights not on those switches.

Other than shitty lightbulbs, I'd venture to guess you are light nazis and are always turning them on / off which kills their lifespan.

FWIW - I've wired my entire house, was up to date with the electrical code as of 2000, and have helped friends rewire & diagnose all sorts of weird shit in their houses. I'm not an electrician but I know when to give advice and when to tell people to go ask for an electrician.

Can I ask that you please refrain from giving any advice on electrical problems because it's obvious you are picking up little pieces here & there from talking with the contractors working on your house, but as a whole, your post is so disorganized and has outright bad advice without taking many things into consideration, I'm not even going to try & dissect it. Just stop it.

She's asking about why her lightbulbs aren't lasting very long. Quit going into batshit hypothetical arena-land.

The only thing I hate about the new bulbs is the cost is high enough that I feel like I'm wasting money, but still low enough that I don't want to take the effort to see if I'm actually wasting money.

My wife also hates the fluorescent flicker they give off, so between the two of us, we've been very slow adopters.

They last longer than incandescent bulbs for me, but also no, banning incandescent bulbs is a great idea because they are terrible. But if you do want bulbs that will definitely last a really long time: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004IUMGV4/ref=ox_ya_os_product

Apologize for the double post.

We live in a condo that we own on the second floor. It has a squeaky spot in the floor near the heat register in the hallway (high traffic area). We're going to have a new baby soon, and our first kid always woke up when we stepped on the squeaky floor.

Anyone have experience fixing this type of thing? It seems very simple as advertised in this video, but I sometimes have trouble doing simple things, and we have people living downstairs.

That should work, all he's doing is driving screws in to fasten the floorboards to the joists underneath, which will permanently secure and flatten the floorboard so that it's not bending every time you step there.

The problem, since you're in an apartment, is hitting some lighting fixture or wire for the place downstairs. Ask your neighbors if you can come in and find the general area in their ceiling where you'll be drilling to make sure you're not going to hit anything important before using the method in that video.

Odds are if it's so loud that it bothers you, then it definitely bothers the people downstairs.

Might want to get approval from your landlord as well.

That's because CFL's aren't really meant for lights that are turned on and off frequently, they're meant for "long haul" work (where they'e on for lohg periods of time, like outdoor lighting.) The new LCD lights coming on the market are much better for indoor light.

At no point did I give any direct advice other than to map out circuits -- which anyone can do and everyone should do if they don't actually know what outlets are on what circuits -- and that in some instances she should call the utility company. I gave a list of potential issues for the original problem she was running into, mostly as an example of "There are a lot of different things that can be going on".

If I had given dangerous advice that she could have run with and gotten hurt, I'd understand your tone, but seriously, this is the Home Repair/Improvement thread, it's going to be a lot of people recounting their specific problems/solutions/experiences. We're smart enough not to run off giving or taking potentially lethal advice.

So while I appreciate your nerd rage at seeing other people have opinions less qualified than your own having a discussion, I'd also like to welcome you to the motherfucking internet.

Calm the fuck down.

I was referencing her original post where I threadcopped her in another thread where she specifically mentioned issues with multiple devices having issues (i.e. her computers), including dimming lights.

Chill the shit out, I didn't tell her to go swapping circuit breakers while standing in a puddle.

That solution is fucking brilliant. The alternative is to move your furniture, peel back the carpeting, fix with normal screws and then put the carpeting back.

Your list of potential issues just gets people worked up - when there is no need. I read her original post - and it's a simple diagnosis - a big appliance on a circuit with a lot of smaller things plugged in. It's the same reason you have dedicated circuits for freezers, refrigerators, etc.

But you have to trot out "oscillating voltage","If the lights flicker and they're on a shared circuit, you might have a live wire/open ground", "you're probably going to want to upgrade the feed",etc. Do you really want me to do a drive-by on these and other statements?

The irony here is that I didn't make a concrete diagnosis and you have, and I'm the reckless one?

When people have issues -- with computers, with cars, with whatever -- they often start with a simple description that may or may not be comprehensive enough to give reasonable advice. So it's totally sane to go over other scenarios in a response, just like someone diagnosing car problems or whatever. And if there are safe things for someone to try, then they can try them.

I feel like someone asked "My 'check engine' light came on" and I responded with "Is your fuel cap on tight? If so it could be some of these other things depending on what other variables exist" and you're all "OMFG TAKE IT TO A MECHANIC DON'T LISTEN TO HIM YOUR CAR COULD EXPLODE!"

EDIT: And to be clear, I have no beef with you Tman, I just think you could have stated your concerns a little less dramatically and with less acid.

And Bryce, I feel that by you liking both TMan's and mine posts you're goading us on =)

I was tempted to like that and run. :)

Naw, it's that subjects like this are tough to tackle and you're both making really good points. On the one hand, my instinct is to ask questions before providing analysis, but on the other, I don't like simplistic diagnosis because if it isn't it then the person will likely come back and ask for more help and then you're fighting an uphill battle against a person who doesn't think you know what you're doing. I've seen it time and time again. It's probably just the nature of technical discussions on the internet with non-technical people, but a part of it is also that this used to be "call your handyman/electrician/plumber/roofer/etc" territory and now it's "ask the internet first and yell at them if they get it 'wrong'" territory.

Sorry about the confusing and apparently contradictory likes. I don't, uh, quite like Tman's tact, but I can see where he is coming from, as can I you - thus the like-fest. :)

goodness, sorry to be so controversial!

Thank you for the advice. Both of you :D

It's probably lupus.

When a bathtub is slow to drain, how can you tell whether it's a clog close to the tub as opposed to tree roots or something in the main going out to the street? If the tub drains normally for a very short time and then slows down, might that mean the clog is local?

Do you have one of those cheapo zipline drain snakes? Could always just attempt to declog the drain that way and see if the problem goes away. They're super cheap at hardware stores, and I tend to get better results than draino type decloggers.

There's often a hair catch grate that's after the initial catch that will frequently get clogged up.

And a close clog will have the bath tub filling up with water more quickly.

Oh, and I put in a dual flush toilet upgrade thing the other day. It's like a thirty dollar kit, supposed to save water. I've seen dual flush toilets at some fancy places around town, and they seem to be more common internationally. Was fairly easy to install, but it's got one of those lazy handles, that you have to hold a bit for it to kick in, which always annoys me. Also not entirely sure how much water I'm saving, as it seems to flush the same strength regardless of which setting, and in fact I have it set to the lowest setting for each type of flush. But good experience for learning how the heck a toilet works, so not entirely wasted.

Water main broke near the street last Thursday. Utility company finally arrived today to fix it. Solution? Dig everything up, then slap a compression sleeve around the burst part of the pipe. Quality engineering there!

I have something like this. I just ran it the entire length into the drain but didn't get caught on anything. It had a little hair on it when it came out but not the massive wad (sorry) I was hoping for.

Time for environment-raping chemicals.

Err, I know what a compression sleeve is for small pipes that you would use for filters and stuff, but now I really want to know what one looks like for a fuckin' water main. I can't find any pictures though.

I don't know if that's the exact term, it's what they called it though, but basically it's a long collar that they slap around the leak, then cinch it down with huge ass bolts. Apparently most of my city has these...everywhere. The water dept guys said that this is what they spend most of their days doing, fixing old infrastructure that just starts to leak. They only replace pipes if the leak or break is a longitudinal one, but they hate doing that since it takes a couple days.

CFL bulbs don't flicker. Or rather, they do, but at many, many orders of magnitude faster than the human eye can detect. Many people can perceive flicker at 60 Hz, which happens to be the frequency at which the magnetic ballasts in old fluorescent tubes cycled. This flicker gives some people headaches. Some people are really sensitive to flicker, and can perceive it even up to ~100 Hz or so. That's pretty uncommon, though. Modern compact fluorescents have electronic ballasts that refresh at somewhere between 10,000 and 40,000 Hz. No human can perceive flickering at that frequency. You just can't.

As for burning out, that's not the technology, that's just the cheap (relatively) bulbs you are buying. Off-brand bulbs that you find at Home Depot or Walmart may seem like a good value, but they frequently use cheap ballasts that burn out long before the bulb does. Spend a little more and get bulbs from Phillips or GE and you won't have this problem. We have CFLs in our house that have been in continuous use since the early 90s.

I've been trying some of the new Philips LED bulbs in my house, since you can buy them at Home Depot now. They have some good points and some bad points, but my impression so far is generally favorable.

Pros:
They come on instantly at full brightness, unlike CFLs, which take a minute or so to warm up.

They don't contain mercury.

The bulb is plastic, and effectively unbreakable (unlike CFLs and incandescents, which are fragile).

Good CRI value (how accurately they render colors). With some caveats (see cons).

They last even longer than CFLs ~30,000 hours).

Cons:
Expensive. Even with various subsidies, they still cost about $18 at retail. Each.

Only available in one color temperature, ~2,800K. This is roughly the same as an incandescent bulb, and thus a popular color temp. I like to use ~4500K bulbs in my studio, though; the light from 2,800K bulbs is just too orange. But for elsewhere in the house, they are fine.

While they have a high listed CRI value, that value assumes an ideal electrical source, and minor line fluctuations/noise (fairly common) can make the real CRI lower than what is listed. This is an issue with LEDs in general.

They are also unlike CFLs and incandescents in how they lose brightness over time. All bulb types do, but most lose it on a fairly long curve, with much of the loss in brightness near the end of the bulb's life. LEDs, on the other hand, incur most of their light loss up front. The average LED bulb will lose 10% of its lumens in the first 100 hours of use, and another 10% in the first 1,000 hours. After that the curve flattens out and the bulb becomes relatively stable, losing another 10% over the remainder if its life (~29,000 hours). Still, it's kind of a bummer that your bulb is going to get 20% dimmer in the first 1,000 hours of use. This is an issue inherent in all LED lighting.

Overall, though, I do like these bulbs. I wish they were cheaper.