Do It Yourself Help-Home Projects

[Kimbo]

I might add that the rot does not seem to be too bad from what I can tell--I did quite a bit of jabbing with the screw driver and didn't find and really bad spots other than the spot I already know about so I think fixing the floor is going to be easy. I am going to tile the floor so I already know I am going to put in the cement floorboard.

[Kimbo]

Originally Posted by Jackhammer

(((sorry Kimbo I accidently hit the edit button on your post)))

Good news.
If you can see ANY rot from beneath the floor in the crawl area, make sure to cut a board that will fit between the floor joists and use a few 1x2 to scab it up. Otherwise a termite inspector will call it and charge you to do the same thing.

I'll check this out when I get to working in the bathroom--still projected for Jan of 2010.

Jack I cannot thank you enough--

The game plan is that tomorrow at 0600 I will begin taking down the wall on the opposite side of the bathroom plumbing, at 0830 my friend will be here to train me in the art of plumbing. She thinks we will have it done by noon but what is not done she is going to leave me to do and will check back in on me after she gets done with her racing. We are going to drop the gas lines in for a gas tankless water heater and for a dryer while we are at it. I'm working on the water heater to buy--I think the Bosch Aquastar that is 6.4 GPM, it meets all the criteria for the energy credit. She'll check in with her distributor for a price break and by next weekend, if not sooner we will get that installed and get the wall back up.

We are going to completely replumb all the pipes with the exception of the main pipe in--for now we are going to let that one be and concentrate on everything else. Once I know something like this is going on I have to get if fixed -- I'd be constantly crawling under the house checking on the pipe and I really hate crawling around under there.

I sure hope I can find my knee pads, I know I'm going to be needing them. One thing I am really glad I did is part of the sale agreement on my house was that the prior owner had to clean out the crawl space and install new visqeen (sp?). I've had the house 10 years now but that plastic is still pretty clean and the crawl space seems to be rodent free. The spiders don't bother me but I hate the cobwebs on my face--I take a broom in with me to take care of that.

Wish me luck--I've never plumbed a house before especially after a plumbing crash course.

[WILDCAT]

I LOVE this thread! What a good start Kimbo - although sorry you have to deal with these kinds of repairs and such. They certainly are ongoing for homeowners. I will be back!

Great advice thus far!!

WILD


*Plumber, huh Jack??????

[Kimbo]

Originally Posted by WILDCAT

I LOVE this thread! What a good start Kimbo - although sorry you have to deal with these kinds of repairs and such. They certainly are ongoing for homeowners. I will be back!

Great advice thus far!!

WILD


*Plumber, huh Jack??????

Don't you have some wood to chop---

I've been so stuck on the plumbing thing I haven't been able to get into the wood chopping thread.

[WILDCAT]

Originally Posted by Kimbo

Don't you have some wood to chop---

I've been so stuck on the plumbing thing I haven't been able to get into the wood chopping thread.

__

Either has anyone else once the "gnomes" invaded!



I will say this, (little bit I KNOW?, kinda...) when I bought this place, it was all customized threaded on the property galvanized piping. My father [back then] came right in (from HIS house building time period, upgrading a large landmark town building, -and just working with things knowledge, I guess) and said "easy replacing that piece". He measured, had it threaded at the local little town hardware store. That lasted years.

And I actually viewed ALL of this "exposed" metal plumbling as something akin to "Lloyd Wright" home artwork! LOL!!

But, I recently got copper replacement. At some point prior to this, (to add on) I adapted some plastic plumbing which is super easy and inexpensive to do of course, but I didn't like it! AT all.

Like some have said though, if you are in it for the LONG haul and have concerns... the galvanized does clog up from the inside. I would have thought that with a smaller diameter the water pressure would have been "greater"...(?) Want to explain that to me Jack?

But, it was well water sediment in mine from over the years, not "rotten from the inside out", that I could tell anyway. Maybe I was misinformed though. (One very unique description of this here, I'll tell ya!! Thanks. LOL!! Blech!!!)

I'm worried about the friggin' carpenter ants here. Whatcha got for that Jack? I've done many things over the years here. Little bastards.

Hi all! Happy SNL!!

WILD

*OH! Hot water tanks should be flushed out regularly, I "think". I did anyway. Now, I have the "hot water on demand", tankless "thingie"... (popular in Paris!). I believe that cut my gas bill down as well! But, like Jack stated, if it is that old, I wouldn't flush that out now unless you want to kayak out of your house!

[Kimbo]

Originally Posted by Jackhammer

Good deal I'm glad you have some help on the way.

You mentioned a gas dryer and a tankless water heater, these wont be sharing a gas line.... right?

The manufacture should be calling for a separate gas line coming off the gas meter for the tankless. NO sharing. Id double check on that little ditty.
Then you will be on your way to punching out the required power venting.

Im not going to tell you your old pipes make me nervous because the newer units have built in filters to eliminate the problem of debris jamming up the unit.


LOL, I should be in the wood thread too. I bought a flat screen TV and I have been a damn zombie with my mouth hanging open for a week.

I am glad I've got some help as well--I was a bit intimidated by the wall with all the pipes and elbows. My friend is also a contractor--ironically she is afraid of gas so she will help me with the wall and pipe but I have to call to have the other line fully brought in and hooked up. I knew that the heater would need it's own line, can the furnace and dryer be on the same line--I have a T already off of that line?

[cara]

Kimbo--I don't have to hang lights this year, it's just something I've always been curious about. My dad refused to put lights up outside, so if we wanted them, we had to do the task ourselves. I could never get them straight, though.

Jack--Pretty funny question, huh? Ah well. Glad I could keep you entertained.

~cara

[WILDCAT]

Originally Posted by Jackhammer

WILDCAT

Let me get back to you on those questions, Bronco Billy is on, he's trying to rob a train.

wooohooo

Oh my god! This reminded me of the "Married With Children" episode "Psycho Dad"!!! I just saw that AGAIN tonight?!

(Sorry, don't know what your show is, but I'm gigglin' here!!)

PSYCHO DAD!!!!! (There is a "Psycho Mom" version on the show for Peg, too!)

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7wJX1Atch1k"]YouTube- Psycho dad and psycho mom[/ame]





*I love Al Bundy's way of fixing things! I know a guy like that!! Seriously!!

[christie]

Originally Posted by cara

Kimbo--I don't have to hang lights this year, it's just something I've always been curious about. My dad refused to put lights up outside, so if we wanted them, we had to do the task ourselves. I could never get them straight, though.

Jack--Pretty funny question, huh? Ah well. Glad I could keep you entertained.

~cara

Cara... Being that this is one of my pet peeves.... the "zen" Christmas lights and their unacceptability... I found a couple of tricks over the years...

The lil clip thingys that are sold at whatever your favorite retailer might be... a LIFESAVER. These are for hanging lights on the house...

The lights for trees/shrubs now are sold in "nets" rather than the strings and strings of lights twirled around the shrub.

Other than that, its a matter of patience and "being on a mission"...

On another note... pet peeve #987... special order countertops that were cut WRONG!!!! Thank goodness that Jess had measured meticulously (how did we ever live without the laser measure thingy from Sears?!?!?) and it wasn't the measurement that was the issue... the manufacturer just cut one of them wrong...

We know Jack's latest obsession with the flat screen... we picked one up on Black Friday with the BluRay DVD... AND have discovered the netflix streaming feature... needless to say, it makes not being able to finish the countertops more bearable.

The last thing on this round of kitchen renovation is installing the faux tin kitchen tiles. They look pretty easy... adhesive up...

Next on the list is moving the w/d and installing beadboard over the existing STUCCO walls in our now dining room....

For now, I am glad that we are on hiatus till after the holidays... more time for TV!!!

[Kimbo]

Well the sheetrock is down and my mess is cleaned up--now that I have a look inside the wall it makes sense. It does look like the culprit pipe is the hotwater pipe out of the water heater. Of course I am not going to be able to get that one fixed today because we will need to drain the tank and move it--I am hoping we can get the new heater early this week.

I've got an 1.5 hours before my friend is here--guess I'll go to Starbucks!

[Kimbo]

Sadly my project is delayed a week. Due to the location of the pipe and the fact that we need to drain and move the water heater and the fact that she thought rehooking up this water heater would be a bad decision. I've got to get the new tank in house so we can do the whole project at once. We have some challenges, we are going to try and move part of the plumbing so it would better accomodate a stackable laundry set saving even more room in the already small room...I am hoping it gets a bit warmer throughout this week--it's pretty cold here, not good for in, out project work.

Stayed tuned--