Home Improvement Today?

A lot of houses now have them in the SW. The post tensioned slab essentially floats as a unit but the water table affects it. This is why I said earlier to pull the grass away from the house.

Ideally the clay should be removed down at least 4 feet and the grade brought back up with clean fill.

 

Should be room in a stud bay for some cable in addition to the gas line right?
Don't drill thru it tho lol

 

Thanks for the reply. In the last pic you can see where I started a hole over between the next set of studs, it's definitely over from where I want the box to be, and it's too weird an angle for me to continue the hole through the next stud without a flex bit, which I don't want to spend any more money on.

I can barely get the 3/4in spade bit up past that gas pipe, and I'm not comfortable drilling blind with that there, not knowing what I'm hitting. The only way I was able to get that picture was by reaching out with my phone. I can't tell you how bad it is down there, lots of dead shit from all the bug foggers I used.

Wierd thing is, there is no pipe in the stud cavity where I cut for the box. I'll have a look with the endoscope when I get home. I'm thinking a long flex drill from the top would be ideal to get around the pipe, but again I've spent too much on this already.

Another option , drilling diagonally from between the studs next to the pipe, up and to the left, crossing over into the cavity, above the pipe and where I cut for the box.

 

I saw your comment on the grass. I usually have a 6-8 inch dead area around the house. The house has pretty good drainage on all sides except one. Full gutters and splash guards all the way around.

If I would have built it, I would have had a soil test and proper fill done. This was an already finished model home the builder did.

 

Had the guys oiling these today

 

Stripped our borders today

You can see how the centre of the borders pitch down in the middle to direct the water to the catch basin



Here you can see how the key way turned out





I got the rebar all cut and laid into the first panel this evening , while the boys are tying it together and chairing it in the morning I'll be able to cut the rebar for the subsequent panels and stay ahead of them

 

What do you use for chairs? Plastic or metal? I see a lot of dobies used here like this http://www.homedepot.com/p/Basalite-3-in-x-3-in-x-3-in-Wire-Dobie-200000251/100321951

 

Plastic

Theres actually a couple in there on the bar a couple in from the right

 

We're using these

https://www.nca.ca/product/2-12-linden-chair-m-bags-200-pcs-431

 

I hate those chairs. My shell sub used them on my decks, when I have to walk the decks, those fuckers always break. Worthless. But then again your rebar spacing is not like mine. You can step in the open grids, mine are usually spaced 6" OC with a double mat so you have to walk on the rebar. I usually try and stay on the top cross piiece so it distributes my weight and I dont bust ties or the chairs.

They still suck.

 

Prefinishing before installing?

I should have done that. We will see if it comes back to bite me in the ass.

 

It will.

 

Maybe they aren't the same beacuse these are fairly stout but we're not double stacking grids

 

Walking rebar is almost an art form. Lol. I've worked on a lot of double mat reinforced concrete slabs/footings that are three feet thick with #8 and #9 bars. It's fun to see newbies walk them.

 

Endoscope came in, not seeing much unfortunately. Can't really tell where the pipe is. There's too much stuff covering the base.




Close up of underground.



What if I use a right angle drill and a stubby bit to go down into the next cavity like this and avoid the whole area? Is it going to make it impossible to get the fish tape through?

 

Going to add recessed lighting to my living room (11" x 16').

Should I do four 6" lights or six 4" lights?

 

Rebar complete , tied and chaired , grade stakes in , ready for concrete in the morning

28 yards of 32MPa , 3/8"
exposed aggregate mix

 

All of this for a rental? And it sounds like you're trying to do it under the radar? Not saying you're doing anything wrong but I'd be pissed if one of my tenants was fishing through my walls and running any cable/electric through my house. Just a thought but our rentals get inspected every year by the township and they love to nit pick...if my place failed inspection because of a tenant modification I'd charge them the cost of having a pro remedy it. Even if it didnt, i'd still be pissed because now it's on me to maintain whatever you modified for any other tenant that occupies the house. Seems like you're doing a good job, but I would certainly try to draw as little attention as possible and hope that your landlord is pretty hands off when it comes to observing any changes in the house. I know they're not the prettiest, but you should really just use one of those exterior extension cord conduit type deals that can just be removed when you move out.

 

Well, that's why most of the prewar era buildings in LA look like shit anyway. Some investor that knows nor cares anything about quality comes in, covers everything in cheap white paint and carpet, collects rent for 7-8 years, then resells it. Each time it becomes more of a slum then it did before because there is no appreciation for the history of these buildings. I don't ever expect to get a security deposit back from a rental anyway, they always find some reason to claim some BS cleaning charges, so I am not concerned about that loss. Aesthetics is the main reason I'm doing this anyway, it was Time Warner, and from the amount of free cables I found under the building, many other companies, thinking it was a good idea to be lazy and drill through walls and wood floors.

 

I hear ya... but all I'm saying is it's on that investor to decide if he wants a permanent cable outlet somewhere in his building...not his tenant. Ownership issues aside I think what you're doing is 100 times better than what the cable company would have done which is probably stapled the coax along the baseboards after running it along the exterior of the house. I have no experience with Time Warner but Comcast and Cox both love ugly exposed exterior runs.