biscuitdough wrote: Sun Mar 12, 2023 10:16 pm

RyanZ wrote: Sun Mar 12, 2023 11:26 am The longer that I own a home, the more I think my dream home should be made like an industrial building. The kitchen would have concrete floors and walls with drains everywhere. 100% spray down friendly. All pipes and conduit on the outside of walls. All bathrooms would be the same like the locker room at a gym. It boggles my mind that there are not more isolation and shut off valves throughout home in case of a burst pipe.

I think this isn’t done because it’s not kid friendly.

I think it's more that it would be considerably more costly than the average house, especially in places with lax codes where you can get away with running cheap romex vs. conduit, etc. I definitely like the 'industrial aesthetic' (beyond just looks) but I've only seen it done in high end homes. (the idea might be more feasible for multi unit housing but that's true in general)

Nico Adie wrote: Mon Mar 13, 2023 9:11 am

biscuitdough wrote: Sun Mar 12, 2023 10:16 pm

RyanZ wrote: Sun Mar 12, 2023 11:26 am
The longer that I own a home, the more I think my dream home should be made like an industrial building. The kitchen would have concrete floors and walls with drains everywhere. 100% spray down friendly. All pipes and conduit on the outside of walls. All bathrooms would be the same like the locker room at a gym. It boggles my mind that there are not more isolation and shut off valves throughout home in case of a burst pipe.

I think this isn’t done because it’s not kid friendly.

Someone mentioned chair height toilets. I might actually stock up on the standard height ones. It seems like the industry wants to push the extra tall ones, which lead to uncomfortable shitting for me (5’11”, 32” inseam, so not incredibly short or anything).

Chair height toilets are, for the mechanics of crimping one out, a bad a idea. You want to be as close to a squatting position as possible.

Gotta tell ya, our household has two adults with two different bowel diseases and the taller toilets have made my life so much better.

Ok, so does anyone have experience working with prefab sheds or other means of economically setting up an extra room (home office) in a back yard?

Close to 100sqft would be ideal, but the budget is tight. I could do the insulating, wiring, and paneling easily right now. Window installation would probably be fine for me as well (installed plenty but not as replacements). Ground leveling, blocking, moisture protection, etc. intimidate me a little.

Thinking of searching out surplus materials in this area for repurposing.

The ultimate goal would be a space for reliably dry storage, a computer station suitable for working from home situations (which would include some voice recording, conference calls and lots of writing), a small non-computer surface and work station for any meatspace tasks/projects.

Needs to be safe for electronics to be left out year round. Good lighting is necessary (probably not hard with planning).

VaticanShotglass wrote: Mon Mar 13, 2023 4:21 pm Ok, so does anyone have experience working with prefab sheds or other means of economically setting up an extra room (home office) in a back yard?

Close to 100sqft would be ideal, but the budget is tight. I could do the insulating, wiring, and paneling easily right now. Window installation would probably be fine for me as well (installed plenty but not as replacements). Ground leveling, blocking, moisture protection, etc. intimidate me a little.

Thinking of searching out surplus materials in this area for repurposing.

The ultimate goal would be a space for reliably dry storage, a computer station suitable for working from home situations (which would include some voice recording, conference calls and lots of writing), a small non-computer surface and work station for any meatspace tasks/projects.

Needs to be safe for electronics to be left out year round. Good lighting is necessary (probably not hard with planning).

signing on to read this thread

This dumb light fixture in our pantry stopped working. Have tried several different known good bulbs (our laundry room uses the same dumb fixture). Won't turn on from either of the two switches it's connected to. Would like to change it out, and SEEMS like it should be easy enough to install a normal light bulb socket fixture, but I really don't know anything about that work.

Any good online tutorial on how to do this? I've put my hands in amps for various things, so I know enough to not fuck around w/ electricity and to be super careful.

Theoretically it's an easy thing to do, and yeah I'm sure there are tons of YT videos about this. The only thing sucky about opening things up is you don't know how correct things were done in the first place. If you're gonna attempt this go buy a $15 voltage tester. Don't assume something labeled on the panel box is correct. Once it's open, if things are way out of whack with what you see in the video, it might be worth seeing if someone on Taskrabbit can do light (duty) electrical projects. Otherwise you'd have to call an electrician, and that's like $200 vs $75 or so.

tallchris wrote: Mon Mar 20, 2023 1:50 pm This dumb light fixture in our pantry stopped working. Have tried several different known good bulbs (our laundry room uses the same dumb fixture). Won't turn on from either of the two switches it's connected to. Would like to change it out, and SEEMS like it should be easy enough to install a normal light bulb socket fixture, but I really don't know anything about that work.

Any good online tutorial on how to do this? I've put my hands in amps for various things, so I know enough to not fuck around w/ electricity and to be super careful.

Make sure the breaker's not tripped.

Look around for GFI outlets, make sure none of those are tripped in case this is wired down-stream from one of those. If any are tripped, press the little reset button.

From there, the only points of failure are the fixture itself, the switches, and the connections between everything. With a florescent tube like that, the fixture may have a ballast under the hood, which could be bad, though I'd expect it to be exposed here.

If you're gonna crack anything open, that voltmeter will be handy. For safety, turn the breaker off first. To remove that fixture just unthread that nut on the central threaded tube, the back plate should just slide off, AND/OR there will be a couple screws in key-holes, if that's the case, loosen those and twist to unhook it from the screws. In theory, there will be 3 connections to the fixture. Think of home electrical kinda like XLR that can kill you. Hot (should be black if done correctly, or red) Neutral (White ") and Ground/bonding (green or bare copper). Inspect and make sure the connections are good. If anything's flapping in the breeze, or looks burny, that's probably the issue. If everything appears to be intact, take a picture for reference. We're just talking about the wires directly connected to the fixture, There may be a bunch of other wires/ connections in the box, which is where things get complicated and are likely best left to someone with some experience.

Now, you could CAREFULLY test the wires with the voltmeter to confirm which wire is Hot and which is neutral. This would involve turning on the breaker and making sure the light is switched on, and being careful. CAREFUL.

Another option, would be to get another fixture (you can pick up a single bulb type from the big box store for like $2) and connect that. Brass/Black screw is for Hot connection, Silver screw for Neutral, green for ground. Connect it, attach it, turn the breaker back on, then test with your voltmeter (hot is the little tabby thing in the middle, neutral is the threaded part) or just slap a bulb in it and flip the switch.

Might also be worth pulling the switches out of the wall to make sure connections are good there.

Either way, consider ditching the florescent nonsense and switch to LEDs ( I like the ones in olde-school bulb type. )

Apologies if this wasn't helpful

Has anyone ever dealt with a toilet basin that refills every couple of hours for no reason? I'm guessing there's a slow drip near the seal but I haven't been able to detect it when I open it up. It seems to happen more when the temperature changes although it's been more frequent in recent weeks. Could this be as simple as replacing a rubber ring around the seal or do I need a whole new assembly? (bonus points if you know the actual names of these parts)

penningtron wrote: Fri Mar 24, 2023 7:27 am Has anyone ever dealt with a toilet basin that refills every couple of hours for no reason? I'm guessing there's a slow drip near the seal but I haven't been able to detect it when I open it up. It seems to happen more when the temperature changes although it's been more frequent in recent weeks. Could this be as simple as replacing a rubber ring around the seal or do I need a whole new assembly? (bonus points if you know the actual names of these parts)

I had a toilet that would randomly fill because of a slow leak. I got a new rubber flap at the big box store and it did the trick. It may have come with a new float for the valve as well? In any case it was super easy to replace. There are a few different sizes so take some photos and notes beforehand. I probably spent more time finding the correct part than installing it. Good luck!

penningtron wrote: Fri Mar 24, 2023 7:27 am Has anyone ever dealt with a toilet basin that refills every couple of hours for no reason? I'm guessing there's a slow drip near the seal but I haven't been able to detect it when I open it up. It seems to happen more when the temperature changes although it's been more frequent in recent weeks. Could this be as simple as replacing a rubber ring around the seal or do I need a whole new assembly? (bonus points if you know the actual names of these parts)

By "basin" do you mean the Tank or the Bowl?

Depending on the toilet (classic style vs newer low-flow pressure flush) it could even be as simple as making an adjustment. Mine is the newer style and it started running constantly. Just had to adjust the float limit and that got it to shut off the way it should. Same applies for older style. The part that opens when you flush to flood the bowl is called the flapper. Rubber parts in a toilet tend to harden up over time and need replacing. Thankfully the parts are still readily available and you don't have to replace the whole toilet.