Home Improvement Today?

Minor improvement but might make a huge difference. Installed a 50A inlet and a generator interlock today on our main panel.




Winter doesn’t look to be going anywhere anytime soon and we lose power a lot where we’re at outside of the city. Kind of nice knowing we’ll most likely be able to power the whole house. We use wood as a primary heat source so the HVAC won’t be an issue. Might be able to squeeze our stove on with some lights if we monitor the draw. If we’re not using the stove we’ll easily run all of the lights, outlets, and the water heater, at least.

 

What kind of generator are you planning on using? I have some relatives that bought a Generac natural gas generator from Costco several years back.

 

We ordered a DuroMax 12000EH. Neighbor has one and I’ve heard good things elsewhere. Generac has great customer service. Would’ve loved to have gotten one of their house gens, but kind of spendy.

 

Swiss cheese with some garnish. One hopes it’s enough.

And I just realized I forgot to insulate the stud wall above the drain pipe before installing the header. Rats. I could drill and use expanding foam?
Thinking I might be able to get a closed cell spray foam can nozzle around the drain pipe to fill the space I no longer have any access to.

 

My you have a big beam!

 

Getting a little personal, aren't we.

 

Definitely. Remember the breezeway cover last spring? I had a couple spots like that. Works better than batt insulation if memory serves, R value wise.

 

Any recommendations on brands or it's all the same stuff? We are going to use some anti-rodent foam around the gaps to the crawlspace so I could just go big on that style/type for everything? I should have stuffed some fiberglass in before we threw the header up, I wasn't thinking.

 

Maybe some of the builders here know. Yes I used some of the no rodent kind. But for big spaces, just buy lowest cost per ounce unless someone says one brand is garbage. Seems like I have used whatever brands I grab at HD, Lowe's, none have failed. They all hate UV, but that's not an issue here.

 

I have an old fence around my house that I want to get rid of. Half of it is already falling down so it should be easy to pull the posts. The wood isn't rotten, but it is old.

Rather than paying for disposal, I'm considering renting a wood chipper. I've never used one before. A quick search online shows they run a out $70 for 4 hours for a 4" chipper.

Does this sound like a bad idea?

 

I'm not sure what code is where you are but spray foam sound good to me. The hardest part is going to be getting it far enough back there.

How far away is the space you need to access?

 

Cut it up and burn it

 

hard to tell in the pics but is it cedar split rail ?

also that deer is not scared of the dog

 

Like in my fireplace? Not a bad idea. I doubt this wood is treated.

 

I didn't even realize there was a deer in this picture. We have tons of deer and they aren't scared of anything.

Your guess is as good as mine on what the wood is. It came with the house.

 

Its prob cedar like he said. Good for camp fire too

 

I spray foamed all my exterior walls with closed cell. The r value is high but it’s extremely expensive and a pita to trim if you’re trying to completely fill the cavities. All the brands are pretty much the same but you’re limited on choices if you live in certain states. I personally would never do it again or recommend it.

 

if they are cedar split rail , in my neck of the woods you could sell those for $10 each

 

By closed cell, do you mean polyurethane foam? I've used this to make molds for custom fiberglass motorcycle fairings. It's very easy to trim with a wood hand saw. For smaller fine adjustments, use a sanding block with coarse paper like 60 grit. Even a wood rasp works great. Anything with big teeth works great.

 

Why did you try to fill the cavities with closed cel ? What r value were you trying to acheive ?