Home Improvement

Dandai

Dandai

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Lanx said:
idk, i just want it? lulz nothing is broken, everything runs fine, aside from the furthest sink gets a frozen pipe on mega cold days.

if thats a stupid reason, please say so, and wait until shit hits the fan when i "HAVE" to break down the drywall to access pipes to then replace with paneling.
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I don’t think it’s a stupid reason, but I’m not convinced it’s worth the time and effort to demo and install paneling for peace of mind. There’s no access at all to the frozen pipe sink’s pipes? Crawlspace? Removable panel?
 
Lanx

Lanx

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Dandai said:
I don’t think it’s a stupid reason, but I’m not convinced it’s worth the time and effort to demo and install paneling for peace of mind. There’s no access at all to the frozen pipe sink’s pipes? Crawlspace? Removable panel?
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yup, none, the pipe as far as i can tell, comes out from my water heater and goes length wise across my basement bedroom ceiling to my master bath on 1st floor. the only removable panel i have w/ water is the master main, which i just foamed and sealed up.

no crawl space, just basement to mainfloor.
 
iannis

iannis

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As far as i know the main strategy to deal with termites is to not allow them access to the house. It's a prophylactic defense.

Keep deadwood (firewood stacks) away from the house, be careful with surrounding trees/shrubberies (bugs as well as moisture retention), treat the foundation every few years with bug-b-gone spray. That bug-b-gone stuff works. I was having a problem with ants (just pissants) and between treating the foundation, tracing their nearby colonies, and the borax/sugar trick lanx mentioned... no more ants.

Some beetles got into a corner of my house years ago. Luckily they didn't get into any load bearing beams. But they ate the shit out of part of a doorframe and part of the subfloor. I can't fix it without replacing the door itself which blows. Cause those things are fucking heavy. I mean I faced it out so you can't tell. But I know it's there. I know!

It was bushes creating a nice moist patch back there. I had to replace a lot of siding that was almost rotting. And this is how I learned that tall leafy bushes are a bad idea close to the house. Garden spiders like them which I thought would be a net positive.
 
BrutulTM

BrutulTM

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I think a good time to put in a plumbing access panel is the first time you actually need to access the plumbing.
 
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Lanx

Lanx

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iannis said:
As far as i know the main strategy to deal with termites is to not allow them access to the house. It's a prophylactic defense.

Keep deadwood (firewood stacks) away from the house, be careful with surrounding trees/shrubberies (bugs as well as moisture retention), treat the foundation every few years with bug-b-gone spray. That bug-b-gone stuff works. I was having a problem with ants (just pissants) and between treating the foundation, tracing their nearby colonies, and the borax/sugar trick lanx mentioned... no more ants.

Some beetles got into a corner of my house years ago. Luckily they didn't get into any load bearing beams. But they ate the shit out of part of a doorframe and part of the subfloor. I can't fix it without replacing the door itself which blows. Cause those things are fucking heavy. I mean I faced it out so you can't tell. But I know it's there. I know!

It was bushes creating a nice moist patch back there. I had to replace a lot of siding that was almost rotting. And this is how I learned that tall leafy bushes are a bad idea close to the house. Garden spiders like them which I thought would be a net positive.
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this?
0176310_0.png


Just spray it on the concrete outside?
 
iannis

iannis

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There's a lot of different types. That's for lawns looks like.

They make stuff that you spray on the brick and it will deter ants and bugs from crossing it. I had an old bucket of it down in the garage. I forget exactly which brand I used and what it was called. Smells bad to them, I guess. I think it was just called something like Orkin house guard.

Ants don't like marigolds either, from what I know. Natural pesticide. I guess you could make marigold beds around your house just as well. I've seen that as a serious recommendation before.
 
Lanx

Lanx

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iannis said:
There's a lot of different types. That's for lawns looks like.

They make stuff that you spray on the brick and it will deter ants and bugs from crossing it. I had an old bucket of it down in the garage. I forget exactly which brand I used and what it was called. Smells bad to them, I guess. I think it was just called something like Orkin house guard.

Ants don't like marigolds either, from what I know. Natural pesticide. I guess you could make marigold beds around your house just as well. I've seen that as a serious recommendation before.
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this?
0db429aa368f5fae93b5d122bb5fbef4.png
Ortho 0200010 Home Defense Termite & Destructive Bug Killer

No joke after seeing GuardianX GuardianX 's bathroom of horror, i'm legit freaked out!
 
iannis

iannis

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yeah, that's the stuff. There's a lot of different versions of it from different manufacturers. Just gotta read the bags or bottles and decide what fits. Some came as salt that you disolved, some came as concentrate that you dilute.

I think that might be -exactly- the stuff i used. I thought it was Orkin, but it was probably Ortho. Bottle looks like it was.

I dug out an ant hill and sprayed that shit on them just to see what it would do. It kills them in like 5 seconds. It went from a wriggling pile of pissed off ants to a wet pile of clay.
 
Dandai

Dandai

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iannis said:
yeah, that's the stuff. There's a lot of different versions of it from different manufacturers. Just gotta read the bags or bottles and decide what fits. Some came as salt that you disolved, some came as concentrate that you dilute.

I think that might be -exactly- the stuff i used. I thought it was Orkin, but it was probably Ortho. Bottle looks like it was.

I dug out an ant hill and sprayed that shit on them just to see what it would do. It kills them in like 5 seconds. It went from a wriggling pile of pissed off ants to a wet pile of clay.
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There’s something about detergent that literally dissolves their carapace:

 
GuardianX

GuardianX

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Lanx said:
this?
0db429aa368f5fae93b5d122bb5fbef4.png
Ortho 0200010 Home Defense Termite & Destructive Bug Killer

No joke after seeing GuardianX GuardianX 's bathroom of horror, i'm legit freaked out!
Click to expand...

The major issue I have is largely due to previous owners not using treated lumber on the sill (? Boards contacting the floor holding the studs, whatever those are called)...beyond dumb. That shit basically gave a huge food call to termites once it got wet and inhaled the water (it was kiln dried). Moral of the story...don't use god damn kiln dried on the ground...
 
Dandai

Dandai

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GuardianX said:
The major issue I have is largely due to previous owners not using treated lumber on the sill (? Boards contacting the floor holding the studs, whatever those are called)...beyond dumb. That shit basically gave a huge food call to termites once it got wet and inhaled the water (it was kiln dried). Moral of the story...don't use god damn kiln dried on the ground...
Click to expand...
Yeah, if it's contacting the ground (or contacting concrete that's on the ground), you gotta use pressure treated. Shame on them for sure.
 
P

Picasso3

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^ i'm sure they saved a good $50 though.

There are different grades of pressure treating as well, some are not rated for ground contact.
 
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Lanx

Lanx

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safety? knees?

my goto for long kneeling work is this
6c06efad6187982d2793c01c0fe50386.png

(something like that) basically just thick foam pad, i used that when i was tiling my porch. I do have kneepads i picked up from menards, but they ride up or ride down and after using em for a bit (just now, since i was using em in the attic), the velcro wore out.

put an order in for these
f5e695d3f285dbf5b08a64581700d927.png

LAROSA MEDICAL Protective Knee Pads - Knee Protector for Gardening, Cleaning, Flooring, Working, Construction - Comfortable Gel Cushion, Heavy Duty Foam Padding, Strong Straps & Adjustable

from what i can see they are everywhere, just relabeled differently, these are using straps, no more velcro and ppl use em for work and paintball, so this old man will test this stuff out.
 
BrutulTM

BrutulTM

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I like the buckles. Mine have Velcro and it doesn't hold for shit after a while.
 
Dandai

Dandai

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Lanx said:
used em for a day, already sold, funky footing made me land on a joist with this, didn't feel a thing.

99% perfect if it had gel in the front, i'd love it, cuz otherwise i'm afraid it'd mar my hardwood.
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I've got big legs so I've just accepted that knee pads are always going to ride up or down my leg and be uncomfortable. Glad those are working for you though.
 
GuardianX

GuardianX

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So, plumbing questions...

1:

I have this going on

1547785194970.png


Up: Master bath

3 down? No clue

you have 1 hot and 1 cold going up attached to their respective 3 downs.

Main question, is this shit normal? What the hell am I looking at, generally speaking.

---

2:

May somewhat piggyback on 1 a little bit but, can I line run from my sink to my surround?

My thought is, the piping for 2nd bath sink is in a much better (for my purposes) location for long term usage, I want to run pex off it, into the ceiling and then down again at the shower location.

I would seal the old shower connections with a copper cap (since it's a copper pipe) if that is best practice.

---

Ultimately the goal is to avoid jack-hammering my foundation if I can avoid it at all.

I still need to contact my home insurance rep and home warranty people in regards to the termite damage, I'm PLANNING on doing it this week or ASAP but with kid 2 due shortly, I'm on a crunch on most sides. To cap all this madness off, a rat decided to fuck up my driver-side turn signal in a way that can only be described as retarded, trying to pull the wires from that socket basically was driving me batty.

This connector can eat a dick:

FindPigtails-Part-No-A42C3.jpg


Site wants 75 USD for it.

Sorry for the car repair derail LOL...
 
lurkingdirk

lurkingdirk

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I have no idea wtf I'm looking at in that picture. Cap it all, and find a new source. Running from your sink might degrade water pressure in your shower, and any time anyone turned on that faucet, shower temperature changes like crazy. If possible, find a 3/4" feed near the water heater and run pex from there, reducing to 1/2" as close to the shower fixture as possible. Keeping it near the water heater keeps it upstream of all other calls for hot water.
 
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