Home Improvement

I bought a foreclosure a couple of years ago so I've slowly updated it since then.

I'm in the process of replacing my kitchen faucet today. There are a ton of light scratches on the stainless steel sink where the last person tried to scrape off putty I presume. They're just about completely hidden by the new faucet. Is it possible to recondition the spots that are still visible?

Noodlemod_sl said:

I'm trying to outfit my house a bit better for the winter. Installing a nest thermostat but we have a problem where we are in a cape with only one heating zone on the first floor. This means if we turn up the heat at all upstairs gets super hot. Downstairs will be 70 and upstairs gets to 80.

Im sealing the basement windows this weekend. I also looked at adjustable radiator valves. The ones you can set1-5. Gonna throw them in upstairs. Has anyone had any issues with them? I'm thinking since it gets so hot we can just limit the water going into the radiators. Will probably save us some money too. Brother in law gonna put them in for free.

Also our basement ceilings don't have any insulation. If I throw in the pink shit down there how much will that help the first floor?

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You've got to adjust your main trunkline of your furnace. Cut it off almost completely to the second story in the winter, and almost completely to the first floor in the summer. I do this, and it really evens out the temperature difference between up/down stairs. Before I did it, I had precisely the same problem you have.

Also, the cold basement won't have all that much impact on your first floor. Want to make a difference? Make sure where the joists meet the exterior wall there is a bat of insulation in each bay. Lots of houses don't have any insulation there. Just cut a square for each space. Easy and effective.

lurkingdirk_sl said:

You've got to adjust your main trunkline of your furnace. Cut it off almost completely to the second story in the winter, and almost completely to the first floor in the summer. I do this, and it really evens out the temperature difference between up/down stairs. Before I did it, I had precisely the same problem you have.

Also, the cold basement won't have all that much impact on your first floor. Want to make a difference? Make sure where the joists meet the exterior wall there is a bat of insulation in each bay. Lots of houses don't have any insulation there. Just cut a square for each space. Easy and effective.

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Nice - we do have insulation in each bay. Either way, the basement windows and doors have gaps between them and aren't really sealed properly so I really should be sealing those up. Our 1st floor wood floors are freezing in the winter, so I assumed the basement was causing that.

I wonder if these valves will operate the same way as shutting off the source to the 2nd floor.

We also have heat pumps that I use in the summer for AC/heat when required., the furnace only turns on for hot water use and nothing else. We've tried to use them in late fall before and they well full bore so I had to shut them down.

Burnesto_sl said:

I bought a foreclosure a couple of years ago so I've slowly updated it since then.

I'm in the process of replacing my kitchen faucet today. There are a ton of light scratches on the stainless steel sink where the last person tried to scrape off putty I presume. They're just about completely hidden by the new faucet. Is it possible to recondition the spots that are still visible?

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Go to Home Depot and buy some Scotch-brite. It's an abrasive material that leaves feint scratches in metal. You can replace the sinks original grain with it.
3M 96CC Scotch-Brite 9" x 6" General Purpose Green Scouring Pad - 10 / Pack

n/t double post.

So I tracked the temp in my house for about 48 hours according to the thermostat and a thermometer I bought with in internal sensor and an external probe, with the external probe mounted on top of the thermostat. I compile all this data, get ready to show the actual fluctuations in temp vs what the thermostat says, and when I called them back to say "hey this thing is still broke and I can prove it with math and science" they didn't give a fuck, they were just like sure whatever we'll replace it with the newer model. So, got the newer model. Still no wireless. It has ports though, USB dongle and load the firmware for the wireless model, LET'S PARTY RIGHT? No, i'm not doing that.

More interestinglyer to me, this is the first year since I replaced the sliding glass doors in my house and the difference in heat loss from then to now is kind of shocking. I didn't think it would be so noticeable.

chaos_sl said:

So I tracked the temp in my house for about 48 hours according to the thermostat and a thermometer I bought with in internal sensor and an external probe, with the external probe mounted on top of the thermostat. I compile all this data, get ready to show the actual fluctuations in temp vs what the thermostat says, and when I called them back to say "hey this thing is still broke and I can prove it with math and science" they didn't give a fuck, they were just like sure whatever we'll replace it with the newer model. So, got the newer model. Still no wireless. It has ports though, USB dongle and load the firmware for the wireless model, LET'S PARTY RIGHT? No, i'm not doing that.

More interestinglyer to me, this is the first year since I replaced the sliding glass doors in my house and the difference in heat loss from then to now is kind of shocking. I didn't think it would be so noticeable.

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Yea, those doors are literally radiators if they are not double+ pane and insulated/sealed properly. When it was 15 below out (less with wind chill) the house could be 70 by burning 100 gal of oil that night but you could still get hypothermia walking by the slider to the porch. No different with windows, really, but they aren't 36+ square feet of glass in one spot either.

We've talked woodworking here. Lay it on us, man.

Just to comment on your Drill question...an 18v Dewalt is going to do just fine for you. You aren't a professional carpenter that is using the thing 8 hours a day every day of the week.

Sure, you could spend $300 on a Milwaukee or Bosch cordless drill, but for just using it around the house or occasionally for a hobby it's not worth it IMHO

I actually don't own any cordless tools other than a weedeater. I use them so infrequently that keeping the batteries charged would be a hassle. The once every month or two that I use my drill or reciprocating saw I just plug them in with an extension cord and go. Now my weedeater I use every single week from April - October each year, so that one is worth keeping the batteries charged.

Check out some YouTube videos by woodworkers, lots of good info for people getting started. The wood whisperer has a good video about what tools to start with. I'm fairly big into woodworking myself, table saw is most important thing (one with an accurate fence). After that you need sanders, routers, drills, different jigs like the kreg jig. If you are going to mill rough lumber you would need access to a jointer and a planer. The jointer makes one side and one edge of the board flat and square, then the planer matches the other flat side then the last edge can be cleaned up on a table saw.

I would keep an eye on Craigslist, local estate sales and auctions, I have a pretty complete wood shop and most of the things I got for 25%-50% of retail cost.

I just put dimmiable LEDs into dimmiable cans that came with the install but they make a humming some Google fu later it seems that it can be a number of problems. I used Phillips 10.5 watt leds anyone have any suggestions before I go ahead and try replacing the cans and switches.

Harfle_sl said:

I just put dimmiable LEDs into dimmiable cans that came with the install but they make a humming some Google fu later it seems that it can be a number of problems. I used Phillips 10.5 watt leds anyone have any suggestions before I go ahead and try replacing the cans and switches.

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Wrong dimmer? I don't understand what you mean dimmable cans, cans are literally a light fixture, of course they can be dimmed - it's the bulbs that will be an issue. Look up the Lutron or Leviton compatibility charts for the bulbs. Basically you can't just use a normal rheostat to good effect on dimmable CFL/LEDs even if they 'work'. Need a PWM control or other similar controller.

Yeah, it's a dimmer/bulb combination problem you've got if you have humming.

Palum_sl said:

Wrong dimmer? I don't understand what you mean dimmable cans, cans are literally a light fixture, of course they can be dimmed - it's the bulbs that will be an issue. Look up the Lutron or Leviton compatibility charts for the bulbs. Basically you can't just use a normal rheostat to good effect on dimmable CFL/LEDs even if they 'work'. Need a PWM control or other similar controller.

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Bro I was just saying what the Internets told me thanks for the info on lutron compatibility charts. on a separate note why the fuck are blinds so expensive, thinking of going through Costco to get Bali cellar shades unless someone has a lead to something better and more affordable.

Blinds are hugely overpriced. It should be obvious but when Levelor is running 30% off on special orders EVERY WEEK you know it's full of shit.

Really, unless you want fancy shit the in-store trimmable ones are pretty good now. Levelor recently (well, in the past decade anyway) upgraded their vinyl and wood horizontal slat blinds (IE 2" vs mini blinds) to have better control mechanisms and they're pretty awesome now for so cheap.

I redid my whole house for like $300 that way and spent the $2.5K on other things. I was going to go with the really nice cellular shades, but I couldn't force myself to pay thousands of dollars for what is basically plastic cloth sheets. Costco will probably be a bit cheaper, but don't discount other places, you can get 30-50% off special order stuff a lot of the time and there's some pretty good discounts for buying in bulk during big holidays at Lowe's and Home Depot. Costco is usually just reliably cheaper but you won't find any 'steals' there.

Palum_sl said:

Blinds are hugely overpriced. It should be obvious but when Levelor is running 30% off on special orders EVERY WEEK you know it's full of shit.

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Curtains are the same way, they're ridiculous for decent ones that aren't paper-thin. Was looking at some online with my wife for our living room window and we found some we liked and they were only like $40. I thought that wasn't too bad. Until I realized that was only 1 panel, and we needed 4 to cover the window. Fuck that.

joeboo_sl said:

Curtains are the same way, they're ridiculous for decent ones that aren't paper-thin. Was looking at some online with my wife for our living room window and we found some we liked and they were only like $40. I thought that wasn't too bad. Until I realized that was only 1 panel, and we needed 4 to cover the window. Fuck that.

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I am is these redishade temporary window shades right now. I mean they work but I would like for something that doesn't feel so fragile when I try to adjust them.