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BonerGhost posted:I've just about given up on this but if you have any tips I'm all ears 1) remove screws from the mounting arm. They won't help you. 2) bend the wires so that they'll fold into the box somewhat logically, twist the outlet so that the neutral/ground side is closer to the box then the hot side (because there's an extra wire on this side) 3) ram the GFI into the box with your palm flat on the face of the device, if you have a retro box you'll have to hold it with pliers so you don't ram the whole box through the plaster. 4) when it springs back a little wiggle/bend it so that it's where you want ot. 5) ram it home again, repeat until it's about where you want it. 6) grab a pair of slip-joint or channel-lock pliers, use some "over" bending it to the problem side to compensate for movement. 7) when it's finally sitting flattish against the box by itself, install the screws, but leave them a little loose. 8) insert the largest flathead screwdriver that will fit in the neutral slot gently wiggle it around to take the last bit of crookedness out, careful not to damage the plastic. 9) use the screws and plaster ears to get the device flat. 10) *optional* take the whole thing out and throw it in the trash, use a nice commercial outlet, pigtails, and a combo GFCI/AFCI breaker on the circuit, since it sounds like you want to retrofit those in your panel anyways.
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Nov 23, 2020 04:06
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kastein posted:Framing is looking great, yours that is. Original framing - WHAT THE gently caress is with the abandoned in place stair stringer and haphazard wall framing around it? That has to be flexible as gently caress. Good advice, and thank you. NOTHING has been done right here in terms of remodeling. Based on the method of framing and lovely pocket doors I think the second floor was added/remodeled in the 70's, when the garage was built and the kitchen was added (easily dateable by Zinsco panel and Aluminum wiring) and they changed the second floor from a loft thingy or small attic, with the scary steep stairs. It looks like it was all DIY, and done badly. No one ever bothered to open anything up and dig down so they could retrofit properly, it's just poo poo scabbed on top of the old original lathe and framing. The stairs are super duper bouncy under my considerable weight.
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Nov 23, 2020 04:19
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I know you're the electrician and all but I'm going to disagree and say that the nylon plates are nice and worth it for an old house. I'd rather have a slight deformation so the edges sit flush than a cracked plate or one with an edge gap and I'm not going to redo the entire wall to make it flat. But that's just like my PO-ish opinion man. Your framing/windows look nice!
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Nov 23, 2020 04:36
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tangy yet delightful posted:I know you're the electrician and all but I'm going to disagree and say that the nylon plates are nice and worth it for an old house. I'd rather have a slight deformation so the edges sit flush than a cracked plate or one with an edge gap and I'm not going to redo the entire wall to make it flat. But that's just like my PO-ish opinion man. Good point, hopefully my walls will be flatter than that. Also invaluable when the plaster ears don't touch the plaster and the outlet receives the full force of stuff being plugged in. I need a better way to get stuff to the dump. 
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Nov 26, 2020 01:43
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Is a dumpster rental not a thing where you are? We had one drat near the size of our driveway for a couple hundred bucks, made a huge difference when we were doing demo.
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Nov 26, 2020 02:16
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My driveway is too small to get a dumpster truck into  E: it is exactly big enough for a cement truck to barely fit, cement truck driver was a pro though, various delivery drivers and whatnot have told me to screw, rather than deliver me things. Including dumpster guy.
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Nov 26, 2020 02:23
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Elviscat posted:Thank you! I'll see if I can make it look good. If not, that's what caulk is for! Please don't do this. I think I have PTSD from the amount of caulk in unexpected places in my house, including holding the wallpaper border up in the living room, because they didn't remove the texturing on the walls first. Yes, I
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Nov 27, 2020 10:07
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Darchangel posted:Please don't do this. I think I have PTSD from the amount of caulk in unexpected places in my house, including holding the wallpaper border up in the living room, because they didn't remove the texturing on the walls first. Oh no, this house is going to be chock full of caulk and bondo, have to make the new straight/level stuff match the old stuff somehow. I was supposed to get three days of solid work in on the house this weekend. Instead I get to drop the transmission on my stupid truck. I was backing into position to load it up with more demo stuff and the clutch started engaging itself, I had to move it back into its parking spot by wildly pumping the clutch, because I was blocking my GF and brother in. 
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Nov 28, 2020 07:11
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Every manufacturer who uses internal clutch actuation should be forced to warranty them forever. Thankfully, my RX-7s plop the secondary cylinder right on top of the transmission. Don't even have to jack up the car.
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Dec 1, 2020 17:42
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The bonus is that they use a massive double lip seal instead of a simple o-ring, so they're less reliable than external designs. They seem to fail reliably at 100kmi, my truck has 97k on it, so just about right. I was hoping to avoid the bleeding hell Kastein described to me by using pre-filled units, but alas an air bubble seems to have snuck in, the first half of pedal travel is mushy, and the clutch only barely disengages with the pedal on the floor. Whee, that ate up my whole weekend, more time spent contemplating laying down on the freezing wet ground than actively working, but still a blow to progress.
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Dec 1, 2020 22:40
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Counterpoint, I suppose, would have been the mechanical linkage that would be in my '70 Cutlass if it had a manual. The famous "z-bar". One end of the pivot anchored on a ball stud on the engine block - the other on the frame. God help you if your engine mounts are bad. Edit: house stuff - I patched a hole in the bottom of the wall in my office. The bathtub for the main bathroom is on the other side of that wall. I *really* don't like what I saw of the bottom of the studs, not to mention why the drywall was soft there. To be fair, I knew it's a problem - the tile has literally pulled loose from the wall at one point in there. The best part, though, is that I patched the hole because I spotted the rear end end of a rat in my office, and I'm pretty sure that's where they're getting in, coming down the wall from the attic. Wouldn't have been much of a problem until the day after Thanksgiving, when I lost my fuzzy pest protection. Nothing like your house's level of yikes, but several rooms in mine need to be torn down to the studs. Darchangel fucked around with this message at 22:22 on Dec 2, 2020 |
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Dec 2, 2020 22:17
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Darchangel posted:Counterpoint, I suppose, would have been the mechanical linkage that would be in my '70 Cutlass if it had a manual. The famous "z-bar". One end of the pivot anchored on a ball stud on the engine block - the other on the frame. God help you if your engine mounts are bad. Ugh, the scope growth on any project that involves moisture is just so daunting, it travels so far and does so much damage before you start to see evidence. And no one but a crazy person just starts ripping their house apart because there's a weird spot in the paint.... I'm pretty lucky that I haven't had any mice running around the living space, the couple that get in have been swiftly and efficiently murdered by Rosie, and left in her food bowl for me to find in the morning, the desirability of the crawlspace as a home for stray cats also keeps that part of the house pretty clean. When everything's said and done, I'll have everything encapsulated and an exterminator out to get any lingering population. Truck: used a vacuum bleeder on the slave, and it worked easily and well, pulled about 20mL of fluid out at 20" of vacuum, and watched the air come out of it, tightened it back down and the pedal is nice and firm and starts disengaging the clutch as soon as pressure is applied, as it should. When I say "easily" I mean after an hour of applying clamps to poorly made vacuum fittings, bending a midget wrench to make a custom tool, and leak testing a couple dozen times the final attempt was easy.
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Dec 3, 2020 00:29
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One of my friends just posted something that might look familiar on my facebook wall... Glad the truck slave cylinder bled fairly easily, guess you got it together well enough and fast enough that it didn't put so much air in the line that it wouldn't effectively bleed at all. I really wish they'd just use external slave cylinders and a clutch fork, but I guess it lasts past warranty end date which is good enough for them.
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Dec 3, 2020 08:22
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drat, wish my house had wall tiddies
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Dec 3, 2020 21:53
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Is that full of water?
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Dec 3, 2020 22:01
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MomJeans420 posted:Is that full of water? That's the best scenario.
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Dec 3, 2020 23:05
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Dec 3, 2020 23:48
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kastein posted:One of my friends just posted something that might look familiar on my facebook wall... Man I've had a lot of trouble with that on the house and not. (GF's apartment windows are badly sealed and growing mold) Yeah, it's cheap enough, and fails around the same time as the clutch and pilot bearing, so good enough I guess? I'm impressed the clutch lasted this long considering I learned how to drive stick in it 15 years ago, and did a couple no-wheelspin burnouts. Anyways, I'm finally done with that poo poo, back to the house today, just flashing and foaming windows and tidying/organizing, I'm a little burnt out. Trying to apply Vycor in the PNW in winter is fun, wait for a nice day and wait to hit the window of 3:30-4pm where the house is warm and dry enough to let it stick. I had a nightmare about opening up the floor/wall to mitigate the rotting beam, and mouse corpses spilling out everywhere so that was cool. Actual good news: the Navy is not going to move me out of the area in the Summer, whether that means I go to a submarine stationed locally, or finish out my contract where I am remains to be seen, but it takes a lot of the time pressure off of me, compared to the alternative where I'd have to get the house 100% ready to rent/sell by June. Elviscat fucked around with this message at 02:43 on Dec 6, 2020 |
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Dec 6, 2020 02:40
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Dunno how your local AHJ feels about it, but mine here is 100% fine with me using zip tape as flashing around windows instead of Vycor. Vycor is awesome stuff but WAY more money, and zip tape seems to handle low temp application way better. I had already bought one roll of Vycor so I used it in the most exposed and windward locations until I was out, but I didn't buy more after discussing it with him.
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Dec 6, 2020 05:43
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That's interesting, some searching on HD's website seems to indicate they're about the same price per foot? Either way, I already have enough Vycor to complete the first floor.
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Dec 6, 2020 06:20
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I opened up the ceiling to see where the joists overlap so I can set my beams. They don't, They're just 28' long.
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Dec 7, 2020 01:37
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Elviscat posted:I opened up the ceiling to see where the joists overlap so I can set my beams.  That's... Unusual.
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Dec 7, 2020 14:26
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I think it's pretty cool! Also fits with the theory that a lot of the lumber for this house was harvested and milled on site. I need to do more digging, but I think it might be possible to rehab the original fir floors upstairs! The old wood has a really lovely gold hue to it when sanded and stained. Here's some terrible pictures, I don't know why I thought these would turn out. Taken from a hole in the middle, looking north and south in the same joist bay.   I don't think 2x6's are rated for a 28 foot span though! (They are kind shittily held up in the middle by crappy walls.)
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Dec 7, 2020 23:13
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Old growth true dimensional 2x6's maybe? IANAE Interesting stuff, my guess is that if you asked a structural engineer now they'd have you put some structural walls in at some point(s) of the span. What are you thinking about doing, if anything?
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Dec 8, 2020 02:21
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They're not true dimensional, in fact all the original stuff is a little under size. I think the massive amount of ship lathe is accountable for a worrying amount of this place's structural integrity. The two "load bearing" interior walls (2x4's laid the wrong way, not meeting the joists so the ship lathe ceiling is visibly bowed) are getting replaced with 2 12×4 beams.
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Dec 8, 2020 03:15
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Just doing some digging to figure out where my beam pockets should go, find the beam under the wall between my bathroom and the area I'm remodeling, good 'old piece of 6"x6" heartwood, should hold everything up nice and good, the face I can see is in excellent shape. Oh cool my hand just goes through all the rot on the face not visible from the crawlspace. Coolcoolcoolcoolcool. Every step forward reveals five more I have to travel on this stupid loving house.
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Dec 9, 2020 01:11
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Elviscat posted:Every step forward reveals five more I have to travel on this stupid loving house. New thread title?
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Dec 9, 2020 01:30
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Elviscat posted:Just doing some digging to figure out where my beam pockets should go, find the beam under the wall between my bathroom and the area I'm remodeling, good 'old piece of 6"x6" heartwood, should hold everything up nice and good, the face I can see is in excellent shape. This is why I fear to touch anything in my house, and it's only 56 years old, and of "normal" US suburban construction, much less "logging camp temporary".
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Dec 9, 2020 22:06
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The upshot is, once you adjust your mindset that everything is going to be hosed all the way down, you'll be pleased when you find solid bearing somewhere. Basically for each project assume it's hosed all the way down. Replacing a light fixture means you need a new ceiling box, wiring to the switch, a new switch, wiring back to the panel, a new breaker, and a new panel. Plus patching drywall, mud and paint.
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Dec 9, 2020 22:29
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Darchangel posted:This is why I fear to touch anything in my house, and it's only 56 years old, and of "normal" US suburban construction, much less "logging camp temporary". Yeah, I suspect that this beam used to be laying in ground contact, before they dug out under the porch to make it a bathroom. There's also a MASSIVE block of concrete that goes up and contacts the bathroom floor, has a conduit cut off in it and I cannot wait to see wtf that is, gotta resist the temptation to explore outside the current project tgough. StormDrain posted:The upshot is, once you adjust your mindset that everything is going to be hosed all the way down, you'll be pleased when you find solid bearing somewhere. Yeah, I've been adjusting, like framing those windows was easier/better when I just sawzalled and drop kicked the old wall out, I got rid of some work I had done, like the sill-plate I retroed in when I was jacking up the house, but the end product is sturdier, simpler, easier and better. The only problem is that when trying to dig deep enough into these problems to start from scratch without collapsing part of the house, you end up at the logical step one, as listed in the thread title. I'm sooooo excited to get to wiring, I already know that's gonna be a clean sheet brand-new service.
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Dec 10, 2020 01:32
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Elviscat posted:I'm sooooo excited to get to wiring, I already know that's gonna be a clean sheet brand-new service. Of all the things, this is the best thing.
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Dec 10, 2020 20:45
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Still loving around trying to figure out how to set these beams without bulldozing the house. I think I have a path forward, but every time I dig I uncover some new bullshit. 
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Dec 22, 2020 22:12
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Got some floor up to explore one of the rotten beams some more. It's uh, rotten. https://youtu.be/K_QJEbAv4-c Cut the bad section off and dropped it into the crawlspace. Hear a hissing noise. Why is the beam hissing. OH GOD WHY IS THE BEAM HISSING.  Oh good. I'm really lucky that broke on the downstream side of that valve. Valve leaks a little, I'll just tigh.....  Got the rest of the beam out.  I was lucky enough to get a rare visual confirmation of the adult form of what's living in the beams, they're definitely Deathwatch Beatles, a scary name for something that isn't that scary (relative to other insects consuming your house) they only nest in damp wood, and they can be killed with sodium borate based wood treatment. So once this project is done, and the house is properly sealed, this particular problem shouldn't be a problem anymore, all the damage has occurred in places that are damp and inaccessible (these two problems go hand-in-hand)  Can't be too sure though. Here's the cause of the rot, motherfuckers poured concrete straight up against the house. I'm planning on replacing this section of lovely block hip-wall with PT lumber and sheathing, but first I have to jackhammer ANOTHER giant loving block of concrete poured by stupid motherfuckers off my loving house.  The whole porch is a clusterfuck, and the footprint of the foundation follows it for some godawful reason. The whole thing will be hacked off and replaced, eventually. I think I can save the rest of this beam with borated wood treatment, I can access the whole perimeter, and there's no signs of rot except that lower corner, on what remains, I'll add some clips and straps to help tie these beams together too.  A couple more shots of the awesome job they did leveling the floor.  
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Dec 23, 2020 01:32
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I need to get this place done so this dickhead can move in.  
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Dec 23, 2020 01:36
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Holy Christ, what the gently caress were they thinking there? Even my previous owners didn't pour concrete against the side of the house.
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Dec 23, 2020 05:45
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Nah it's cool, they used the vinyl siding as a moisture barrier. 
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Dec 23, 2020 06:08
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Rented a jackhammer from the local place Saturday (Hilti TE 3000, the usual) got it home, smacked like twice before the cord ahit itself, place closed by then. Sunday tried to rent same hammer from orange box for 50% more, their Hilti was NFG as well (same problem, at least they check it in store) . They tried to give me a Makita for the same price. I told them no, was a 2 hour ordeal total getting a hammer from them. Finally got to unleash hell on the porch steps, and holy gently caress did all the fucks that worked on this house do everything with a savantish eye to making it the confluence of structurally unstable but impossible to loving remove. Roughly 2 tons of concrete, no deliberate structural steel, but random pieces of pipe/etc thrown in.  "Structural Steel"  Some structural aluminium, maybe also the reason everything sucks?  Finally I broke through to the soft, gooey rubble and block center. Right as twilight hit.  Hoping to pour new 'Crete this week. Couple hours later, I'm chilling, and my cat alerts to a threat, I hear a bunch of noise, go to investigate.  Silver-haired bat, threatened species around here, I think he was cold, very docile but didn't want to fly away outside, oh well the alternative is being murdered by Rosie. Reported bat sighting to the State.
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Dec 28, 2020 07:42
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Elviscat posted:I think he was cold, very docile but didn't want to fly away outside,
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Dec 28, 2020 08:03
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Scarodactyl posted:That's also how they sometimes get if they're rabid, soooo.... Good point. I handled it with a towel and washed my hands thoroughly after, that should be good, right?
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Dec 28, 2020 08:37
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Elviscat posted:Good point.
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Dec 28, 2020 12:24
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