Home Improvement Today?

you just need to find an a couple of downs, that was for the longest time how id come home with wood, get a call about some downed trees run the chainsaw, into like 18inch sections, and then split and stack away for a year or so. which reminds me, I should start looking I need a cord or so to stack up in the dry shed area I have at my house, but like you i only use my wood stove for outages, and like thanksgiving and Christmas.

 

I love in high desert. We don't even have trees for the most part lol

 

Routing the gas aside, maybe others have mentioned but as someone who’s set a bit of tile and stone,, it’s going to be interesting to get an insert to fit very flush on that stone wall like that imo.. No plane. I’d be curious to what model/design the Mrs likes… looks like a lot of cutting and grinding plus if/when you break some stones can you even replace it?? Anyways I’d talk to someone regarding that as well before blowing that thing up.


My apologies if you aren’t looking for holes in the idea.. just a thought!

 

Some updates in the basement, paint, new flooring

 

That was already a concern we had but when we had the installer/quote guy out to do measurements and look at everything he said it would be no issue for them. Im actually curious how they will do it too lol.

 

Probably some cutting/grinding then hopefully not too much repair!! Also depends on the design of the stove I’d imagine, anyways seems like you had that in mind with project, just wanted to mention as things like this can get tricky to make look right if that makes sense.. the joys of remodeling!!

looks like there’s already wire of some sort through the “seat”, for a blower or something? Like you said removing that is probably a better better than trying to removing and mess with the vertical.. plus if you had to you could replace just the seat with a different material, it would still look intentional, be expensive but like a black slate slab for example..

 

pallet wood is already kiln dried... Literally anywhere with businesses will have it.

I've rarely ever burned real logs my entire life. Always pallets because they're free and the majority are clean burning. And the wood stacks far nicer than logs.

 

Yeah there is a blower so hopefully there isnt something odd with the wiring there (previous owner tried to be an electrician but definitely is not one lol)

And that was our thought on if the rocks really couldnt come out for whatever reason. Just do something else for the seat area.

Should hopefully know today if i get time to look into it (ie start demo)

 

TLDR: Had a leak, called a plumber, ended up doing it myself.



A couple of months ago I replaced my tub/shower hardware. The tub spout was all pitted and the diverter wasn’t sealing correctly so half the water was pissing out of the spout when running the shower. I tried cleaning it up and getting a new seal but the pitting was so bad, I just felt better replacing it. Decided to get a Moen fixture so I wouldn’t have to change the valve or anything….or so I thought. Old spout was a clamp on and the pipe was too short so decided to just solder a new one on. Should have just put a coupling on the existing pipe but instead thought that would be half assing it. Instead rather burn up the back of my shower surround lol.

Anyways fast forward a couple of months. My wife was complaining about some rust stains forming on the bottom of the tub drain. I replaced the cover with the new one that matched the new fixtures. Looked at it and figured must of been some metal shavings or something that came off my tools while doing the job. Everything is brass or aluminum. So I pulled the drain cover and the drain flange out of the shoe just to be able to clean anything up that was around the flange. Gasket looked roughed so decided to replace it and clean out all the old putty. When moving the drain shoe a little I thought I heard something, and looking back on it it moved more than it probably should of didn’t really think much of it, and was trying to get it done quick before I had to leave for work. Got it all back together and got ready for work not even think to test for a leak. Wife gave the kiddo a bath and laid her down for a nap after I left. A few hours later she calls me at work after seeing this:



She’s calling me to come home. I’m asking her if she’s hearing running water or what. After her explaining a little and me realizing it’s probably just from the drain and no more damage will be done, I tell her not to use that bath and I’ll look at it in the morning.

So this morning I take a look. Didn’t see anything noticeable. Was thinking maybe was leaking out of the seal I replaced on the drain shoe. Decided to run some water in the tub with the stopper. No leaks I could feel or see. Empty the drain and feeling around then feel a bunch of water coming out around the tailpipe going into the trap. Shit! I have a little access panel maybe 14x14 but this is all pretty low and in a tight spot. I had taken today off of work just incase I need, but was planning to go in if possible. So decided to just call a plumber instead of me making 5 trips to the store and perhaps missing work. First plumber couldn’t come out for 2 weeks. $159 just to show up. Called another place, they could come out today, and $49 to “diagnose”. Ok cool. Suppose to come between 12-2. I usually leave for work at 1:30 so we’ll shoot the dice. 2 o’clock comes and goes, no word or anything. Just as I’m getting ready to call them and see if they are coming or not I get a text saying the tech is being dispatched. At this point I’ve already pondered just saying screw it and doing it as it’s already getting later into the day and I already missed out on work. So like an hour later the guy shows up. I give him some of the back story and he goes up to take a look. I run some water and he said he thinks one of the nuts split. Causing the compression fitting to come loose and leak. Said they would have to cut the access panel open more and possibly even the kitchen ceiling to get in there. He also said he didn’t have time today and that it wasn’t gonna be cheap. They could get it done on Monday. So he goes out to the truck to get me a quote. At this point I’m thinking I’m just gonna do it myself but wanted to see where the quote was. He come back and tells me $1450. Ouch! So I tell him I’m probably gonna try to tackle it myself. He understands and tells me if I change my mind to call them and they’ll get it done.


So off to the Home Depot I go. Didn’t want to make a bunch of trips so I got a bunch of fittings, a new trap, and a section of pipe. They didn’t have any really large access panels so I figured I would order one online and just cut the hole to that size when I started doing the job. Already had a 14”x14” access panel in its place. Decided to order a 17”x30” (13.5” x 27.25” ID). So just cut the hole down to about 2” from the top of the trim and had the perfect measurements. Had enough room to work and get it done.

As I’m un-tightening the overflow the pipe splits. Awesome. Get that out and undo the tub shoe. Trying to get the tee and tailpipe out and that snapped too. Seems like the nuts were fine. It was the pipe that split and got worse when I was taking it all apart. The tailpiece broke off into the PVC. Couldn’t get the bottom nut free and not a lot of room to get a solid grip on it. Was worried about the PVC too. Didn't want that to crack or I would probably have to cut the drywall in the ceiling to redo all that. So pondered how I’m going to proceed, and decided to use an oscillating multitool to cut the nut off. Trying to be careful not to cut into the pvc to screw up the threads it was a pain in the butt. I got part of the top cut and tried to pry it open and beat it a little to split it. Didn’t work. Didn’t want to hit it anymore and risk damaging the PVC and dig myself a deeper hole. So cut some more the best I could. Still couldn’t get it split. Ended up crushing the brass pipe in and grabbing the compression fitting with pliers and pulling it out. Once I got some of that out, I was able to get it to spin with the pliers. Then unscrewed it by hand. PVC and the threads were perfect. Ended up buying another brass tub kit hopefully it holds up. Maybe should of went with PVC. Anyways got it all fitted together and this time made sure to test for leaks. Not a single drop!

Got a fan running up there since it’s more opened now just trying to get the drywall dried. Hopefully a few coats of Kilz and some paint will cover the stain. Repainted it when we bought the house a couple of years ago and shortly after there was a stain on the ceiling there by the light. I opened that access panel up and tried looking for a leak, never could find anything. Seen that brass piping was corroded and thought maybe water was dripping from the shower head cover. Figured never know what the hell happens when the kids are taking a shower in there. Plus we changed it out to a hand held so figured someone went crazy with it or from cleaning or something. Still not sure about the corrosion, but wondering if that pipe had a small crack or something before hand, then when I took apart the drain flange and shoe and moved it snapped more of the pipe? Regardless no more leaks now. Just gotta finish up the cosmetics in the coming days. Glad it’s over and saved myself $1300.

 

Nice job!

I don't mind plumbing, it's definitely near the bottom of my favorites list, but is a new top 3 if I can save myself $1000!

Though last time I did a small plumbing project, I got tired of repeated trips back to the store for fittings, so just bought 10 of everything. Ended up returning $350 in PVC fittings after I finished.

 

Same here. Being an electrician by trade, I pretty much can do most plumbing tasks. Doesn’t mean I like to though. Replaced my hot water tank in sept, ended up having to make like 3 or 4 trips back to the store for stuff I needed or forgot. So made sure this time to just buy a bunch of crap that I can return if I didn’t use. Saves time and aggravation. I’ll drop the returns off tomorrow on my way into work.

With all the money I save ordered a new panel for the house. Currently have an old challenger panel. No issue but they are known to have problems. New square D will be a lot nicer. Got the whole home surge protector too. Gonna add in a transfer switch I bought a few months ago with a generator hookup. Getting a new pool liner and I bought a new pool light. There’s an old mechanical timer that I think they disconnected, I’ll have to figure out if I’m gonna use it and if so to the light or pump. Or might say fk it and throw a cheap PLC down there and just automate it all. Guess I have a while to decide all that.

 

Done very little plumbing on my house. Good for you on this because I probably would have been afraid I would just make it worse. Luckily a few years ago my new neighbor that moved in, is a plumber! He’s done a few bigger jobs for me and will only charge me for parts. Keeps telling me that’s what neighbors are for.

 

That is a good neighbor!

 

Talking my line of work with that. PLC and robotics. Funny thing is i have no want to automate any of it at my house

 

Isn’t home ownership great!!

Good job get’er done!

 

15ft of rotten sill plate and multiple rotten joists. Lifting the house with HF bottle jacks.
Found the sills aren't even attached to the foundation, at all, just sitting on top.

Not sure, but I don't think these supports are up to code.

 

It’s overkill in my opinion, but thinking of the possibilities peaks my interest. Are you a controls engineer?

 

Yeah. 10 years of automotive conveyor controls and 2 years of robotics/vision

 

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...^^^... I feel your pain. I had to do an entire large house of sill plates, braces and etc. Massive termite damage that took us almost a year to fix.

Never, ever, ever do a project like that again.

Had to pound some of those 2x8's and 2x10's from the end, all the way into place, where the concrete garage floor was against the plates.

Hydraulic and bottle jacks were our best friends too. Also, used some rescue air-bags from work too.