Official Gramps' Memorial Eternal OT Thread

#31,927
#31,927
W.TN.Orange Blood said:
Thanks, but it's a little too late for doing that. I can eat the price. I bent way over & grabbed my ankles.
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I understand, I hate to see people get ripped off. Now go watch a couple of youtube videos and buy a spare capacitor so the next time it craps out you can fix it in 10 minutes and look like a hero. The POS caps made in the peoples republic of china are junk and seldom last 5 years if you're lucky.
 
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#31,928
#31,928
I've also been outside having to clean up after this tropical storm came through here knocking limbs & twigs all over the ground.
When it came through my area it was almost like any other kind of rain shower that would. It wasn't all that strong.
 
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#31,929
#31,929
VolStrom said:
I understand, I hate to see people get ripped off. Now go watch a couple of youtube videos and buy a spare capacitor so the next time it craps out you can fix it in 10 minutes and look like a hero. The POS caps made in the peoples republic of china are junk and seldom last 5 years if you're lucky.
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It's on a weekend trip charge and we have to pay weekend prices.....it sucks I know. They have you & they know they have you.
 
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#31,930
#31,930
McDad said:
Twerent good.

However, good bonus is I will never go in a crawl space again without a boogie board. Those swim toys are the best at keeping rock from gouging me and it keeps me off the ground about 1 inch.

Bad bonus #4, I've got other CPVC joints failing. Those are just drips atm...not a spray shooting out 5 feet.
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Who built your house? Is it old?
 
#31,931
#31,931
McDad said:
I'm on well water. Well doesnt pump without electricity. Power went out a couple days ago. But there's enough water under pressure in the bladder to run a few gallons. I went to wash hands about 30 minutes after power loss. No water. Uh oh.
Spent the morning in my crawl space in a puddle of water and mud repairing the leak. Bonus, it was hot water leaking. Bonus 2, it's been doing it for weeks...maybe months. Bonus 3, the joists and subfloor are saturated and have fungus growing.
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That doesn't sound like fun at all. I finally got back to the other house, and the crawl space moisture - letting that one ride a day or two while I build up the determination to go after it (another word for procrastination) - it needs plastic ground cover in the worst way for a start. The humidity in the house has been staying between 60 and 65% over the last two days. After a ton of rain yesterday and last night the cellar is still dry, so there's that.

Sometimes those pumps don't work with electricity either. Last trip I decided to check out the well - the house is on city water, but the old well was handy for outside use. No water, but 220v on both sides of the pressure switch, so I'm going with a well aged submersible pump bit the dust. Guess I'm not going to be in a hurry to have that pulled and replaced - an outside tap from the house seems to be a more reasonable solution for very intermittent outside use. This house is over a hundred years old, but recently seems more reliable than the much newer one.
 
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#31,932
#31,932
VolStrom said:
95% of the time the starting capacitor on the outside unit dies and the motor just hums when it tries to start. Hopefully you trust your HVAC guy, a lot of them will try to rip you off and sell you a motor for $300 when all you need is a $10 capacitor. I keep a spare on hand even though I replaced my entire system last year.
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Yep, I've started keeping start capacitors for the blower, compressor, and outside fan - much easier than living with an irate wife.
 
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#31,934
#31,934
McDad said:
Twerent good.

However, good bonus is I will never go in a crawl space again without a boogie board. Those swim toys are the best at keeping rock from gouging me and it keeps me off the ground about 1 inch.

Bad bonus #4, I've got other CPVC joints failing. Those are just drips atm...not a spray shooting out 5 feet.
Click to expand...
My house is on an incline so it’s 8 blocks high in the front and at least 3 in the back. I can almost stand up straight in the front part of the crawl space and can squat versus being flat on my back at the rear. I ran electrical lines under there as well so I’ve got lights.
How bad was the fungus on the floor joists? Do you have hardwood floors? If so, are any of them cupping? If not, do you have a lot of floorboards that creak?
 
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#31,936
#31,936
McDad said:
Twerent good.

However, good bonus is I will never go in a crawl space again without a boogie board. Those swim toys are the best at keeping rock from gouging me and it keeps me off the ground about 1 inch.

Bad bonus #4, I've got other CPVC joints failing. Those are just drips atm...not a spray shooting out 5 feet.
Click to expand...

I decided to do a little work today after all - thanks to you. Looking for the plastic ground cover led me out to the shop - wasn't there either, but I know I saw it somewhere on the last trip ... Anyway since I brought loppers, I cut down the privet trying to take over the under-house access and take a look under there. Two immediate things - a drip from a line going to the shower, and it's way too cool under there. Like an AC duct failure kind of way too cool - I'd already had some questions about the AC performance. One thing I can say about this house is that there was no electricity or indoor plumbing at the time it was built, so all the plumbing is under the floor right in front of you until it goes up into a sink or whatever. Some day I'm going to figure out why the whole fireplace in the living room is huge in comparison to the coal fireplace at best a foot deep in the front.
 
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#31,938
#31,938
W.TN.Orange Blood said:
"Black Panther" star Chadwick Boseman dies of cancer at only 43 years old ..... what a shock to me. RIP dude.

4 long year battle with colon cancer. He passed away at home in La with his wife & with family members by his side.
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No way to go. Seems like with all the medical research we'd have some better solutions than a never ending and growing supply of maintenance drugs. Maybe there's a better return it that than in definitive solutions.
 
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#31,939
#31,939
Carl Pickens said:
My house is on an incline so it’s 8 blocks high in the front and at least 3 in the back. I can almost stand up straight in the front part of the crawl space and can squat versus being flat on my back at the rear. I ran electrical lines under there as well so I’ve got lights.
How bad was the fungus on the floor joists? Do you have hardwood floors? If so, are any of them cupping? If not, do you have a lot of floorboards that creak?
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Joists and Subfloor are saturated in spots. Couple spots where hardware are slightly buckled.
 
#31,942
#31,942
By the way for anybody with a Chamberlain/LiftMaster garage door opener - and they put their name on many other brands like Sears. I started smelling something burning in the garage and it seemed to be coming from the circuit breaker box which really concerned me. Tested all the breakers with my finger and found nothing hot. The only other strange thing was that after a few years the garage door opener light started working again - a never-ending source of grief from my wife when she came through the garage after dark, but LiftMaster had claimed there was a problem with the light sockets - and this was when we were changing from good ole incandescents to new stuff manufactured to whatever tolerances in China. I immediately unplugged the opener, and then when the smoky smell went away after a couple of days, plugged the opener back in. There was a stream of really smelly smoke coming from the opener. When I took it apart to figure it out what component fried, it was amazingly simple. The relay providing 120 to the light sockets was never soldered - apparently for a while it made decent contact with the circuit board, and when I got frustrated and took the bulbs out it just didn't matter. The un-soldered contact is at the very top of the board - the side with colored button you push to program remotes. It's out near the edge; I would guess their soldering process never touched it during manufacture, and it took a lot of cleaning and flux before the solder would ever flow to the circuit on the board. During my cleanup of the garage during the covid inspired "vacation", I replaced one of the light bulbs ... little things.
 
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#31,943
#31,943
McDad said:
I'm on well water. Well doesnt pump without electricity. Power went out a couple days ago. But there's enough water under pressure in the bladder to run a few gallons. I went to wash hands about 30 minutes after power loss. No water. Uh oh.
Spent the morning in my crawl space in a puddle of water and mud repairing the leak. Bonus, it was hot water leaking. Bonus 2, it's been doing it for weeks...maybe months. Bonus 3, the joists and subfloor are saturated and have fungus growing.
Click to expand...
If you want to prevent this from happening again install a generator transfer switch on your load center and you can hook up 10 120V circuits or up to 5 240V circuits to the transfer panel

I’m about to install a Reliance Controls 10 circuit switch and buy a Westinghouse 7.5kW emergency power generator.
  • Power goes out
  • Plug in your generator to the transfer panel
  • Start the generator and enable the L14 plug output
  • Throw the switches on the transfer panel to generator
  • ...
  • Profit!
 
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#31,944
#31,944
NorthDallas40 said:
If you want to prevent this from happening again install a generator transfer switch on your load center and you can hook up 10 120V circuits or up to 5 240V circuits to the transfer panel

I’m about to install a Reliance Controls 10 circuit switch and buy a Westinghouse 7.5kW emergency power generator.
  • Power goes out
  • Plug in your generator to the transfer panel
  • Start the generator and enable the L14 plug output
  • Throw the switches on the transfer panel to generator
  • ...
  • Profit!
Click to expand...

I was looking at those units that switch automatically and run on natural gas - if your power is off getting gas can be a pain - lesson learned from this spring in Chattanooga - generators are gas hogs. They are expensive, and I decided my outages were too infrequent to bother, but it is a thought.
 
#31,945
#31,945
hog88 said:
insurance claim.
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Here’s the issue with filing a claim.... policies cover sudden bursting or rupturing of pipes that release water causing damage..... BUT.... a slow unnoticed leak that causes damage over time is not. If you’ve got water damage where the wood has rotted or it’s evident that the issue has been going on for some period of time..... insurance company will deny it
 
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#31,946
#31,946
AM64 said:
I was looking at those units that switch automatically and run on natural gas - if your power is off getting gas can be a pain - lesson learned from this spring in Chattanooga - generators are gas hogs. They are expensive, and I decided my outages were too infrequent to bother, but it is a thought.
Click to expand...
We are putting in a 2500 kW diesel genset with a 6500 gallon tank, just not at my house lol.
 
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#31,947
#31,947
Carl Pickens said:
Here’s the issue with filing a claim.... policies cover sudden bursting or rupturing of pipes that release water causing damage..... BUT.... a slow unnoticed leak that causes damage over time is not. If you’ve got water damage where the wood has rotted or it’s evident that the issue has been going on for some period of time..... insurance company will deny it
Click to expand...
Match and 5 gallons of gas, slow leak problem fixed.
 
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#31,948
#31,948
AM64 said:
I was looking at those units that switch automatically and run on natural gas - if your power is off getting gas can be a pain - lesson learned from this spring in Chattanooga - generators are gas hogs. They are expensive, and I decided my outages were too infrequent to bother, but it is a thought.
Click to expand...
Yeah if I lived in a rural area I’d have a whole house automatic backup. Living in surburbia I think it’s over kill. I think this is overkill too but after a 25 hour power outage two weeks ago which cost us some frozen food I said enough is enough. It’s only a matter of time before there is a major storm in North Texas where I’ll need emergency power for a couple of days so I’m gonna just do it. I’m doing the install myself so it’s around $1500 bucks in parts. I tried to figure out a way to put an AC compressor on the transfer switch but the compressor starting currents or locked rotor currents are just too much for an emergency power generator.
 
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