Home Improvement Today?

My wife and I really like the look of polished and stained concrete, but we're concerned with the aesthetics and durability of the coating.

Can you please elaborate on the hydronic heating aspect?

 

Hydronic heating is just in slab heating by way of pipes carrying hot water through the slab

You can get some pretty resilient concrete sealers .

 

Nice! How is the back-up pump hooked up? Float just set higher than the second? Also, looks like you're missing a check valve, or is it in there somewhere?

 

Backup pumps power is routed through the battery. So main float is behind the main pump in that second pic which is low and secondary float is the little white delrin looking thing with the wire coming from it which is noticeably higher. So the wires going to the battery is both the backup float switch, and power to the backup pump which sets off an audible alarm when power has gone out OR when the backup pump is working because backup float was activated. The check valves are actually integrated into the unit coming from the two pumps. They both have their own check valves in the white pipes that come together. Made it a really easy job to install too.

 

Here's a trick I'm committing to the memory banks . We drilled a hole though the marble tub deck at my place to mount the tub filler and after we were done realized we were both dummies and drilled the hole about 1/16" undersize to allow the filler's threads and supply pipes to pass through . Anybody thats been in this situation knows what a pain in the ass it is to redrill a hole slightly larger , and to complicate matters the Silver Shadow marble on the top is more " crystally " than the Carerra so cutting it tends to produce a rougher edge and with the tub filler only covering about 3/16" outside of the hole I couldn't risk anything that would be too brutal .

Enter my recent experience coping the marble chair rails with my occilating spindle sander . I found that a 3/8" x 8" carriage bolt is the perfect size to mount my 1" drum on to my cordless drill and make a portable spindle .

Enlarging the hole took about 5 minutes once I was set up .

I'll likely be using this trick again to shape wood or enlarge holes in cabinet installations

 

Nice trick oz!



I just picked up a set of these saw horses today from Home Depot. Pretty impressive. Completely solid, 1,100lb weight rating each.

http://m.homedepot.com/p/TOUGHBUILT-41-5-in-Folding-Sawhorse-TB-C550/205068379

 

Those look good! Saw something similar at Lowes but this might be a better option.

 

not a bad price. don't know what normal price is on sawhorses but I'd pay that lol

 

I've been using those for a while and have been happy with them. A little taller would be nice, haven't used the extra features much but the horses are solid and travel better than any set I've used.

 

Nice that's how I touch up inside corners on solid surface counters. I think the ability to solve problems like that is what separates good contractors from your average ones.

 

Alternative was 2 plastic ones for $60 with less than half the weight rating.

Yea I just discovered today that adjustable legs would be nice.

 

I should have taken a picture but I was trimming my cypress hedge yesterday and had two 6' aluminum sawhorses with 2 16' aluminum planks on top with a 3' aluminum sawhorse on top of the planks with me on top of that so I could trim the top with the gas powered hedge trimmer attachment in my Murayama line trimmer power head , lol

 

Sounds like fun

 

Mine are adjustable just a little on the short side.

Was "hold my beer and watch this" said for saftey purposes

 

Ok, who all are electrician savvy? Buying a older house that has been remodeled VERY nicely with granite countertops etc...

Only kind of hold up is some electrical in the attic is still "knot and plug" 2 wire and some of the wiring needs to be consolidated and labeled better.

I'm pretty experienced with vehicle electrical, but only done a few house jobs. Most of the work I figure I can do, and just be carefull

 

Knob and tube? Are you sure it's live?

 

Some of it is live, at least down to the food storage in the cellar

 

You said it was remodeled, but they left the knob and tube. That sounds more like a quick flip that probably hiding a lot of serious issues

 

Da hell is knot and plug

 

Agreed. Be very cautious moving forward.