Home Improvement Today?

Yes and RO tap for drinking. Although the mountain water is completely sediment free. Not even much iron. Just medium Ca and Mg hardness. It's "good" water.

I run NaCl for winter, KCl summer. Time for change over soon anyway.

The previous owners had no water treatment at all and said they never noticed anything. Normal liars.

 

I think the bacteria can grow at the top where it's the least salty. Nothing much can grow right against the salt I should think. There did seem to be more water than usual in the brine tank. Maybe I have been regen'ing too much. hmmm...

So I drained and cleaned the tank. Other than hard matted salt at the bottom, it didn't stink down there. So I rinsed and sanitized the tank and put it all back together. Remade with clean KCl blocks.

Dumped old salt on gravel driveway. Wife gave me the look.

 

New thunderbucket installed. No drama, no broken flanges. Still can't get the septic gas smell out of my nose though



And I had just enough room for the heat register. No cutting or bending!



Pulled the old one and there was a nice coating of nicotine behind the toilet. Apparently the little ol' lady smoked in the bathroom something fierce. Still need to deep clean the grout and if that doesn't work, re-grout. Ugh.

 

Smokin in the baffroom!!

 

Yea, lots of little surprises in this house

I mean, my parents smoked in the house, but never anything like this! I could clean the walls with TSP and they continue to bleed! Only thing that will cover it is oil base primer

 

Yes, I have a ~17 ft shallow well. It's been a few years since I've done it. I calculated the gallons of water in it based on volume and followed a guide for how much bleach based on that. I ran a garden hose for a while to avoid the worst of the bleach getting into the septic system. For a week or so it smelled like city water. It definitely cut down on the iron bacteria I had.

 

I'm not totally sure what my intentions are with my basement yet. Basically, my goal is to slowly make it less horrible while spending minimal money on it. I don't think I'll fully finish it, but maybe it'll turn into that with enough time. This was the latest project:

Previous owners had left five boxes of cedar planks behind, so I figured I'd use them fix one of the walls around the staircase. It was a half wall open under the stairs. I extended the studs and removed the sheetrock that was in rough shape, then put the cedar up.

Long story short, half of the basement was finished at one time. The original owners had five kids and had a couple bedrooms in the basement. When I bought the house, it was partially gutted so it looked worse than a completely unfinished space would have. I think either they got water down there and removed anything damaged then decided not to refinish it. Or, it wouldn't pass Title V because it had too many bedrooms so they quickly eliminated them when they sold it.

EDIT: I should note that the oddly placed outlet is there because it would line up behind the left side of a 55" TV if I centered it between the switches and left edge of the wall. I'm not sure if I'll actually do that or not, but two friends mentioned it would work perfectly there so I figured I'd place an outlet there in case.

 

I really like that. And if you don't, I'd recommend using it for axe throwing.

 

Slowly starting to re-set my eyes on my barn renovation. Anyone want to make an assessment of this water damage? Looks like some of the rafters have mold on them:


Toward the gable it looks pretty good still. That center wall is coming down shortly.


Some of the plywood on the roof looks tore up.


Generally, the wall framing looks good. I think it just needs a good scrubbing. My plan is to replace the siding and the roof sheathing this summer, but I’m curious if I shouldn’t try to mess with the rafters? They might also just need a scrubbing and some paint. Trying to keep costs relatively low as it’s just a shop, but at the same time I’m not a framer.

 

The well that serves the garage had sulfur smell and so much gas that the water wouldn't flow smoothly from the faucet, it would spit and pop, the water would change colors even. I don't use the water much and always felt that contributed to the problem.

Lots of gas drilling was going on (Marcellus Shale) and this Engineer kid came around doing a survey and taking samples. He observed the water and said "I can help you with that". He changed the well cap out for one with a vent -- a standard cap with with a hole for a 1" x 6" tall pipe nipple held to it with two conduit lock nuts and an oil tank mushroom vent on the end.

To be honest I was thinking "yeah, right" -- the original cap isn't air tight... At this point I would have bet $10 there would be no change.

Ran the water for two pump cycles and the spitting and color changing were gone! Several years have gone by and the problems have never returned. You can build you own for about $10, just need a big drill bit.



I believe it makes a chimney effect encouraging the gas to flow away.
Like this:

 

Nice yes it just needs to be oxidized away not even a strong oxidizer- air will do

 

that could all be a result of condensation , was there a ground seal inside , or do you know what was previously stored inside ?

if the material was rough sawn or green lumber when it was built that can have a really high moisture content that will harbour mould

 

It’s a gravel floor, so I imagine there’s been quite a bit of wet stuff stored in here. It’s a barn, so I have to think there was hay at some point, horses, etc.

 

No matter the manufacturer, any water softener tank may start to smell bad if it becomes infested with sulfur bacteria. This type of bacteria is attracted to the sodium found in water softener tanks. As the bacteria develops, hydrogen sulfide gas is released as refuse, resulting in the rotten egg odor.

Bleach to kill it.

 

My softener doesn't have any brine farts, butt I'm using a whole house water filter before the softener that backwashes weekly along with a sediment and charcoal filter after the softener before it goes to the house.

A charcoal filter before the softener would help significantly.

 

I'm so tired. And my hands are all sliced up. And I'm sure I've broken a half dozen codes and would fail inspection. And some of my romex is twisted vs straight. And I haven't landed about 10 circuits in the panel.

People do this for a living? Crazy talk. Hats off to you real workers.

 

Does your water have H2S to start?

 

I've never smelled it, but I've never had it tested either.

 

If you been dealing with it for more than a few months you would know. It's not particularly hard to deal with in small amounts, as in my case. But it can be odd, like (with no treatment) showing up at the highest furthest faucet, or suddenly after two years, the brine tank smells like a mackerel fart.

 

plywood is a great condensing surface , cold outside , humidity inside and it can basically be dripping with beads of moisture