Home Improvement Today?

don't kill yourself replacing them

 

Why you getting a new one?

 

The cable that attaches to the bottom of the door broke the other day, luckily I had some cable to replace it with. But after looking it over with the door down, it looks like one spring is getting 2 weak spots. The coils had more distance between them in 2 spots. I figured I’d go ahead and buy 2 springs and have them on hand in case it did break. OCD kicking in I guess!

 

Few things are scary to me. Garage door spring is one...

 

Yeah, they’re not fun!

 

Unless you like broken arms.

 

At least they’re not the wind up torsion spring.

 

I actually prefer the torsion springs. If it breaks, it just unwinds. I changed mine to torsion for that reason

 

The same people that are afraid of garage door springs will also change strut springs with a few c-clamps.

 

I used the compressor clamps...

 

Ratchet straps and zip ties, and baling twine.

 

Anyone have vent-less gas fireplace experience? Had our chimneys looked at and its about 8k to get them re-lined. We just dont have the money to do that right now.

 

I got lucky on my house and found an insert that fit perfectly off Amazon for $400. It was perfect width and depth but height was 3/4” short so I just threw a piece of plywood under it to raise it. it heated up the room really nicely but there was always a burn off once a year to get all the accumulated dust off the fake logs. Even after vacuuming there would be some stuff trapped on there. Apart from that never had a problem.

Worked great for 6 years until I remodeled it and put in an electric faux fireplace. Just for decoration now

 

My new house has one of those sealed gas fireplaces, where the combustion air comes from the outside. When we bought the house I thought it was silly, but we used it nearly every day last winter. We used it so much I had the company add the optional fan. IMHO it's great. Heats up the living room while the bedroom areas stay cool for sleeping. Like @mCat said the first time you use it there's a bit of a smell, but it goes away pretty quickly.

 

We’ve had one for 10 years. The ones with the remote control/thermostat are nice, but we have to replace the batteries at least once or twice each winter. We usually use ours from late October through February.

 

thanks guys. sounds like we will be converting to that. just makes sense financially for us at this point

 

I installed a Heat-n-Glo gas fireplace insert myself. It was pretty easy, but you do need to run electrical to it for the fan and of course gas. I did that stuff myself earlier (I had a friend experienced with gas line installs help me to the gas lines, and that was inspected too).

But the fireplace insert was easy...there are just two ducts going up the chimney...one for incoming air and one for venting the fireplace. Works well, i only wish i had gone with a model that outputs a bit more heat vs the one I got that was more aesthetic looking than the others (also a little cheaper).

 

I have old wooden windows with a key lock. House built in 80s. What’s thoughts on restoring them vs replacing.

I think restoring them would be cheaper even with adding a storm window like this, plus better insulated with the extra window.


Just looking for opinions on what to do. Thanks

 

Yeah, that looks like a pretty bad ass saw.

 

If the wood is in good shape (not rotten or cracked) restoring them and adding a storm window makes the most sense. Window efficiency really comes down to good weatherstripping and sealing. if you can get a good seal around the window and add a storm window you are looking at 1/3 of the cost of replacing the window itself. People will insist that you need to upgrade to fancy dual/triple pane glass, but its generally not worth the expense if your existing windows are in good shape.