Home Improvement Today?

After-

 

Not exactly improvement so much as 'emergency repair', but....

The other day I came home to the sound of running water and found an inch of water in my sunroom. The temps here last week bounced up and down a lot; a high of 45 one day and a high of 15 the next. I usually keep the heat set to around 50 when we close that room off, just to keep the pipes from freezing, but apparently the GF shut it off on a warm day and didn't turn it back on when things cooled off again and the door got shut. Bah. Didn't feel like calling (or paying!) a plumber to come out, so I went and got my plumbing kit.
Cut the burst section out:







And soldered a new stretch back in from some spare stock and splices I had kicking around in the workshop. Hardly a professional job in terms of appearance, but it doesn't leak, so I buttoned it back up.






The subfloor is Advantech and doesn't seem to have taken any damage, but all of the laminate flooring is swelled on the edges/seams, so it'll have to be replaced. I had it on my list of to-do's anyway, since it was crappy/cheap (and poorly installed in the first place) but I wasn't planning on doing it quite so soon.

 

For my setup the photocell operates the 12v transformer which feeds the low voltage lighting. Pretty easy way of doing it and no worries about DST clock setting.

 

That room must be cold in winter

Was there any sign of mould on the back of the drywall or furring strips on the cinder block wall ?

 

The whole house is like that. Every room has an exterior wall and none of them have any insulation. Just cinder block. And no insulation outside either, it's just cement stucco right on the blocks.

Everything has been dry and mold/rot free. There was a layer of something on the exterior wall behind the Sheetrock. It was black and almost looked like a tarp, how it has the woven fibers. I'm guessing that was supposed to be a vapor barrier, so I'm guessing I should install one before the Sheetrock. I just hadn't really thought of it till now and don't want to end up trapping moisture and causing a problem.

 

Yeah , that's a tough question

With so little insulation , you are likely to get condensation on the cold side of a plastic vapour barrier

 

And the can of worms begins. Closed-cell foam?

 

Yea and I've had problems with condensation in my attic and garage lately so im real unsure of what to do lol

 

Any recommendations on a quality shovel manufacturer? Would love to pick up a Forest Service FSS shovel but the price is sky high.

 

What kind of shovel do you need? Metric, or dead-blow?

 

Dead blow sounds nice, I would like to avoid tipping off the neighbors.

 

The Ames True Temper stuff is pretty solid.

But what kind, srsly. Round point, square, trenching, spade, WTF, over?

 

Only 3/4" of thickness to play with to stay flush with existing strapping plane , IIRC , you need a thickness of about 2" of 2lb foam to achieve an effective vapour barrier

 

So frame out/fur the entire interior of the house with studs or sell it?

Or clad the entire exterior with a system?

And all he wanted was a nice shower surround.

 

Will need a flat scraper and a normal, pointed digger blade. I just want a hardwood handle (with correct grain orientation) and quality steel, riveted construction.

I was really interested in Rogue Tools, but they don't make shovels (problem 1) and they have a lot of problems with steel being too soft (problem 2), but they use recycled material for the blades, like huge saw mill blades and whatnot, which I liked the idea of.

 

It may be better to put a semi permeable vapour retarder behind the drywall ( which may be what was there ) allowing the wall to dry to the interior vs a non permeable vapour barrier

 

Honestly, it's a shovel. Look into Ames. It is hardwood and quality tight fit/rivets for the heads, and thick gauge steel (at least last time I looked). They will probably outlast you. But...are you planning to do a shit ton of landscaping? Fiberglass is lighter, whic can make a differnce when you are going at it all fucking day for weekends or months on end with damp soil, clay, rocks, roots, yards of gravel, ask me how I fucking know. I actually got a Rigid round head last time when my old round tip was giving up the ghost.

Otherwise, save $$ for good power tools or precision tools

 

But still...I see snow and woodburning stoves in his photo gallery. What about increasing R value...

 

Fur out the wall or build a 2x4 wall in front of the block but both will alter the shower location / drain