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Official Pit Home Improvement/DIY thread

IamThunderbolt said:
Plumbing question:

  • the shower drain in our son's room has a foul odor when hot water runs.
  • We've checked the water and it's the drain, not the water
  • We done all the cleaning tips for the drain (drill brush, vinegar/baking soda, bleach and boiling water, bioclean - this helped some, but not much)
  • P-trap is not dry

had a plumber out once and he said to try the biocleen, but didn't really know what to do. We do have cast iron pipes in that bathroom, so he said maybe the biofilm has sunk into those pipes and they need to be replaced (but suggested the biocleen first b/c that's a lot less expensive)

Any thoughts here, or recommendations for triad plumbers?
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Go to lowes or HD. In the plunging area you'll find something called Crystal Heat or something like that. Use as directed.
 
GoDeacsGo said:
Go to lowes or HD. In the plunging area you'll find something called Crystal Heat or something like that. Use as directed.
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Had a plumber come out and apparently the venting is a little bit too far away (and on the wrong side of a y bend) from the shower drain, so when the water runs, pockets of sewer gas bubble up through the pipe.

Our house was built in the early 50s with an addition in the mid 70s. I swear I have had more problems with the addition because of cut corners than I can tell you. Over 80% of the time we have to have someone come out to look at something, their first comment is “you were able to buy the house like this?” We bought the house when we were young and Stupid and used the realtor suggested inspector, who didn’t catch a whole lot.
 
That explanation makes sense.

In our first home we had a bathroom that was almost never used. After a long time of not being used the trap would dry out and sewer gas would seep into the house…really bad smell. We’d just run some water into the drain to seal the trap and that would solve the problem for another long while.

Sounds like a different reason you’re getting the gas, but I can attest to the foulness of the phenomenon.
 
IamThunderbolt said:
Had a plumber come out and apparently the venting is a little bit too far away (and on the wrong side of a y bend) from the shower drain, so when the water runs, pockets of sewer gas bubble up through the pipe.

Our house was built in the early 50s with an addition in the mid 70s. I swear I have had more problems with the addition because of cut corners than I can tell you. Over 80% of the time we have to have someone come out to look at something, their first comment is “you were able to buy the house like this?” We bought the house when we were young and Stupid and used the realtor suggested inspector, who didn’t catch a whole lot.
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That explains a lot. Was the addition done with proper permits? If not, you may have issues when you try to sell. That is something for lawyers. However, you need to be discrete when checking. If it wasn't properly permitted, your certificate of occupancy could be at risk.
 
Has anyone had lighting installed under their kitchen cabinets? Our new house doesn't have them and I was wondering how much something like that would cost. Thanks

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Considering knocking out an interior wall between my living room and the kitchen/dining area to open up the space more and get more natural light inside.

I'm 95% certain the wall is not load bearing...but want to be 100%. Who can I call to determine that? Any GC or do I need an engineer?
 
Liquid Karma said:
Considering knocking out an interior wall between my living room and the kitchen/dining area to open up the space more and get more natural light inside.

I'm 95% certain the wall is not load bearing...but want to be 100%. Who can I call to determine that? Any GC or do I need an engineer?
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Do you have a crawl space? I would think if it were load bearing there would be structural elements in the crawl space that would indicate that...or you could just knock it down and hope for the best lol
I think it would make your kitchen/ den real awesome. Good plan
 
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iodeac said:
Has anyone had lighting installed under their kitchen cabinets? Our new house doesn't have them and I was wondering how much something like that would cost. Thanks

Sent from my SM-S906U using Tapatalk
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Under cabinet lighting can be anything from 5 year old simple to master electrician complex. Depends on what you want.

A few stick on puck led lights? Go to a big box store, buy, add batteries, peel and stick. These can also give you a feel for what undercabinet lighting will do. Now available in multiple colors and with remote controls (dimming and color change). $5.00 on up


Next is linear independent units that hang under cabinets and plug into outlets above the counter. These mount under the cabinets, usually with screws.This is also pretty simple DIY. Mount the units with a few screws, plug in, turn on. Again, now available with colors and remote control.

Hard wired fixed units with wall switches? Lots of options. Level of difficulty depends on how easy accessible electricity is and how elaborate a set up you want. Go to a lighting store or big box store and look.
 
Liquid Karma said:
Considering knocking out an interior wall between my living room and the kitchen/dining area to open up the space more and get more natural light inside.

I'm 95% certain the wall is not load bearing...but want to be 100%. Who can I call to determine that? Any GC or do I need an engineer?
Click to expand...

BacktoBack said:
Dl you have a crawl space? I would think if it were load bearing there would be structural elements in the crawl space that would indicate that...our you could just knock it down and hope for the best lol
I think it would make your kitchen den real awesome. Good plan
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That is a good way to add more certainty.

Is it possible the plans were filed with the county building inspection department?

If I wanted be safe, I would get a structural engineer not a GC. A GC might have incentive to say it "needs" added support and thus get work.

A Registered Professional Engineer Structutal just renders a professional opinion. He has his reputation and license on the line to I sure it is correct

And get a written report. Keep a copy in a safe place so if/when you want to sell some shyster real-estate agent doesn’t ding you for "unsafe house."
 
BacktoBack said:
Do you have a crawl space? I would think if it were load bearing there would be structural elements in the crawl space that would indicate that...or you could just knock it down and hope for the best lol
I think it would make your kitchen/ den real awesome. Good plan
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I do. The wall is basically a T where part is parallel to the joists (not on top of one) and a 6 foot part spans a few of them.
 
I'm refinishing some furniture. Everything is going well except that the oil based polyurethane looks terrible on two sides. The other 10 sides that I've done look good. I resanded these two sides down to stain and got the same results both times. Rough finish plus white patches that look like dried salt got lack of a better description. Any ideas? I also attached a picture of a good side. Same brush, same application technique, same can of poly.


1000002829.jpg1000002830.jpg
 
Did you apply a wood conditioner before staining?

Did you sand between coats and then remove dust with a tack cloth?

My first guess when a finish ends up rough is dust got trapped.

Was it oil based stain ?
 
Yes to wood conditioner. Yest to sanding between coats and removing dust. Yes, oil based stain.

All other sides look great. Just these two look terrible, and I can't determine why. I really don't want to sand them down to bare wood again.
 
From your pics its like some kind of waxy buildup under the finish.

I'm stumped...even if it was different types of wood, it shouldn't be that different.
 
Same type of wood. It's definitely in the polyurethane. I sanded smooth before reapplying polyurethane. I'm stumped. It's very frustrating. I'll probably take it back to bare wood tomorrow.
 
A few more stabs in the dark...

Did you use any sort of stripper to remove the prior finish?

What grit are you sanding with between coats?

Thin coats or thick?

Maybe try thinning the poly before applying or even trying a rub on?
 
Perhaps I left some stripper residue on those two sides. I'll clean thoroughly when I start again. Thanks!
 
WFFaithful said:
Perhaps I left some stripper residue on those two sides. I'll clean thoroughly when I start again. Thanks!
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I think you know what you're doing, but my process for finishing wood:

Sand thru 80, 120, 180 grit. Anything finer can close up the grain which makes it harder to apply stain.

Wood conditioner (same base as stain and poly...oil with oil, water with water, etc...).

Lightly sand with 220 to knock down fibers that stand up during conditioning.

2 Thin coats of poly. I don't sand after 1st coat because you can go right thru it into the wood.

Light sand with 220 grit.

Coat of poly.

Repeat until you've got 5 or 6 coats.

After final coat, sand it with 00 steel wool.

Rub and polish if desired, but I find the steel wool evens out the finish.

I wear a respirator for all finishing work (fumes from stain/poly, plus fine sanding dust are brutal).

I also make sure I have light air flow across the entire finishing space...open window at one end of room, box fans blowing out window at other end of room.
 
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