Home Improvement Today?

Drywallers started taping today

 

Got a coat of stain on the deck (8'x16') yesterday after work.

 

You're only seeing about 1/4 of the wall in that pic. It runs the entire property line. It's a haven for freakin' hornets & wasps.....EVIL!!

 

Oh - and it's only about 1' tall at each end.....and get's taller toward the center (which is what you see).

 

Sort of, I'll get a pic of the entire length later. My back yard is hilly.

 

@scottalot

Found one from a few years back when I had my driveway redone.

 

I'm sanding my deck for a redo. What a crappy thing to have to do.

 

Part of our newest code revision now requires skylight curbs to be insulated so we are laminating 1 1/2" polyiso on the curbs prior to putting down our upper layer of Titanium PSU30 peel and stick

 

Weird electrical crap going on in my bathroom remodel. 3 circuits - 1 for the in-floor heat, 1 for the receptacles and 1 for the lights and fan. All are home run/branch circuits.

Weird shit #1: There are going to be 3 vanity lights, but currently it's just the boxes mounted in the wall. The line comes into #1 (it's hot) and is capped off with wire nuts. From there a separate wire runs to light box #2, then a separate wire goes from #2 to light box #3. None of those are connected. To anything. I run my proximity tester over the wires for #2 and #3 and it starts howling. Why the hell are wires in box #2 and 3 showing current with the tester?

Weird shit #2: My in floor heating wire (20 amp, dedicated home run with no splices or breaks at all) gets the tester to howl when the breaker is off. Dicked around with it a bit more and found that when I turn the can lights (completely separate circuit) off the tester Is quiet on the floor heater circuit. I disconnected all the floor circuits wires in the service panel - neutral, hot and ground - and it still sets off the tester when the can lights are on.

There were a few other odd things like that but suffice it to say I was like WTF? Pulled the switches out and checked all connections (all good), checked the panel to make sure all nuetrals had there own spot (all good). GFCI tester says those outlets are good.

After an hour fucking around with it I finally figured it out. Anyone care to take a guess?

 

No. But waiting anxiously!

 

After I pulled everything apart and checked all connections, tested and re-tested everything, I sat and thought it through. Why was I getting alarms from wires that were connected to nothing? How could that possibly be? I worried that maybe, when I stapled the wires to the studs I accidentally drove a staple through 2 wires and current was moving through it. But that seemed highly unlikely.

Finally it occured to me to break out the multimeter and see how much voltage was in the wire. Bingo - there was none. Zero zilch nada. Turns out it's the stupid voltage sensor. Did a bit of research and found this;

"A no-contact tester is susceptible to induced currents from wiring running in the same conduit or in close proximity to the wiring being tested..."

"...inside its kinda a capacitive & audio or low freq amplifier circuit two stage amp with a comparater circuit at a set frequency so any freq detected outside this set freq meaning ac 60 hertz will change the op amp inside to go negative which turns on that beeper inside.."

"They are an electromagnetic field detector, which people relate to as voltage"

So basically the highly sensitive voltage tester was actually detecting an electromagnetic field, likely passed down the unconnected wire from being in proximity to a live wire in the wall, which would be 3-4 feet away. Not actual voltage in the wire.

Baaaahhhh!

 

Yes, I used one of those proximity testers once. They suck and are completely unreliable IMO. I use something like this...

$18 Extech ET26B Voltage Detector with 120 and 240V AC/DC Ranges

https://www.amazon.com/Extech-ET25-Neon-Voltage-Tester/dp/B01MG52W0C?th=1

 

Tile Question

I'm in the process of redoing a bathroom in my house. The house is a 1 story concrete slab built in 1997. I've taken up the old tile and 99% of the old thinset (which was a major PIA). This is my first time tiling directly to the concrete, as my past projects have always been in homes with wood subfloors in PA/NJ. For those projects I'd just rip up the subfloor and lay new, creating a smooth level surface ready to tile. The concrete for this project is overall even with a few minor variations that won't effect the tile, but it is very rough. Here's the question: Do I need to skim coat the floor to create a smoother surface? If so, do I use the same thinset I'll use to lay the tile? Do I use self leveling concrete? I've heard conflicting things....

 

Rough texture is good for tile setting. Better bonding quality over a silky smooth slab. But both work with a good polymer modified thinset.

If you see that you have a bunch of deviations in the floor levelness over (high or low spots) then you may want to consider a leveler since the thinset may not absorb that unevenness and it may affect the finish tile. If it's only one low spot in the room and it's not too deep, is just skim that area with your thinset.

If you end up wanting or seeing a future needn't for a self leveler, I highly recommend UZIN NC-170. I just used it on my remodel and it was much easier to apply than Ardex k-15 (industry gold standard) and it was about 60% the price per bag. I had issues using ardex over a cutback adhesive. After working with ardex technical team and buying like 4 products to tackle that room, it still failed. I was turned on to Uzin from an old industry contact of mine and it worked without additives and all that stuff ardex required.

Disclaimer: this is my first time seeing this forum on this site, so I'll just add that I was a project manager for a commercial flooring company in Austin for 3 years and specialized in tile and stone. I've been out of that game for about 2+ years now but I'm finishing up my own home remodel in Dallas.

Here's a finished pic of the kitchen floor I did. This was the cutback adhesive room I mentioned previously. Wood with tile in-lays.

 

Thanks for the advice! I think I'll try putting it directly on the rough slab then. I dont want to create a thin brittle layer of thinset and I also don't want to make it so thick that it screws up the height of my floors. Beautiful floor by the way.

 

Yes, I think most thinsets have a minimum thickness anyway so that's a good call.

Thank you! My first attempt at this kind of design. Turned out great. Really happy with it.

 

Yea, if i had to do anything i was going to lean towards a self leveler cause I know that can be very thin. I dont want to try to "fix" a non-problem and create problems with the floor I lay over top it.

I'm assuming thats wood tile vs actual wood? Very cool counters also. Are they concrete with a rough edge?

 

Yes it's a 3/4" hardwood plank. It's the same wood I have everywhere else.

The countertops I made out of quikcrete countertop mix with their brown colorant. I used some chiseled edge molds for the front edges. Then I put a sealer that also deepened the color. This was a major undertaking as I made molds of all the pieces. It was fun though.

 

that is an amazingly beautiful kitchen! farm sink. raw edge counters. brick backslash... I love it all! (when we rebuild, can you come do my kitchen???)