DIY Home repairs

Sounds like self leveling will be the best bet.

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Thanks man, I have never used it, does it work on a floor that flexes, I would think it would crack and break up. I need to see if I can find anything on YouTube.

Any particular products better than others in your experience :thinking:.

Heres a pic you can see some of the cracks its like that all over the floor with these lumps.

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I really want to add a hose spigot to my basement but I need a canna friendly plumber (in Connecticut).

I’ve got nice clones or flower to trade…

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Any experienced electricians around?

I installed a 20 amp duplex outlet installed in my grow room with a 12/3 cable running out to the vicinity of the electrical panel.

I hired an electrician to connect that cable into the 20A breaker on the subpanel for my emergency generator. Unfortunately he made a mistake and cut into one of the the non-emergency generator circuits rather than the one I requested. My cable is now disconnected entirely.

I’m capable of installing junction boxes and making the correct connections, so I just need to find the right cable for the emergency subpanel 20A breaker and connect it the existing cable connected to the outlet in the grow room.

What is the best to way trace a circuit through the complex maze of sub-panel, main panel and out into the spaghetti of wiring in the basement?

Isn’t there an electrician’s tool I can plug into the desired 20A circuit that injects a traceable signal through all the cables running off that circuit?

Any advice greatly appreciated,
-Grouchy

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Yeah, what I have in mind is flexible, they also make fiber to add to the mix, which makes it like a composite fiber, how much motion are we talking about here? I will call my rep and get you an exact product combo.

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Not sure how much expansion and contraction yet just been here only 5 months most of which is winter and fall. Underfoot it feels like a 1/8 to 1/4 some areas are worse.

From lifting one of the floor vents it looks like a 3/8 particle strand board over the 1inch plank flooring, not the best thing for a floor substrate.

I will probably remove that particle board and switch it for propper plywood with the self leveling on top of that to fill in any dips but until I can rip the vinyl tiles off I am not completely sure. We might switch the kitchen with the dining room as that has more wall space for cupboards which may also resolve the floor problem or just create it in another place for laying ceramic tiles.

The kitchen will probably be next year but the bathroom I want to add with the new bedroom imminently, is probably going to have similar problems but I can access that from underneath in the basement to shim the posts and beef it up with plywood top and bottom if necessary.

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What are your water pipes made of copper or plastic. You can get press on compression fittings now if you dont want to solder copper joints. If it plastic, you can hire a pipex collar crimper cheap and to do that job would not take to long to T off another pipe and add your tap.

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If you are trying to label what outlets are on which breaker there is a tool for that or you can always use a vacuum if you are in earshot or light if you can see the outlets you are testing and start flippin and labeling. Have you tried reaching back out to the contractor to resolve the issue they created? Best of luck!

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Thanks, @Brujobob. The circuit I want is labeled at the subpanel breaker. The problem is to find that cable after it exits the subpanel, is then wired through the emergency generator transfer switch, then into the Main breaker panel and finally it emerges from a conduit along with a hundred other identical cables.

Near as I can tell, the only appliance on that 20A circuit is the refrigerator but the wiring for it is inside the wall and not visible.

So, Yeah… :confused:

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Is it an automatic transfer switch?

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If so during your monthly testing (nfpa110)you can use a non contact v tester to track down the circuit. If you do not have one they are great and usually under 10 bucks

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I’m pretty sure I can figger this out using this tool:

This is what I was remembering: Plug the Transmitter into a wall socket and you can find the breaker serving that receptacle. Then I can trip the breaker on/off to find the cables from that breaker.

$45 is more than the minimalist non-contact voltage tester, but I’m a tool junkie and the price is far lower than hiring another incompetent electrician! I don’t “need” the GFI/circuit tester, but I’m sure I’ll find a use if I have it.

Twenty shiny new Amperes will be appreciated in the grow room!

Cheers,
-Grouchy

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Cool! This is what I was referring to in my label your outlets comment above. I need to learn how to paste links like you did. The gfci tester will be handy if you change an outlet on a exterior outlet or wet wall that is not like for like or if you have one that continuously fails. Cannot go wrong with Klein too. Great brand!

Best of luck on this and future projects

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Ok folks, I’m here for plumbing advice for my new job. I just started at a cafe/bar/etc sort of place that’s very busy and they needed someone in management who could also do facilities and that’s definitely me, in general. However- the bathrooms are from the original buildout twelve years ago which was pretty DIY, and while there’s been professional renovations on the rest, the sinks were in rough shape, and today my boss asked me to try and get one draining that was clogged.

The first sink was pretty simple, I took off the J-trap, which was clear, and snaked put up to the bottom of the sink (everything on this one’s siliconed shut) with toilet bowl cleaner and a Scotch Brite and that cleared out the big black booger of biofilm and soap I knew was somewhere. Went back together, works great now.

The second sink, well- I went at it figuring it was the same thing (draining slowly but not yet stopped) but when I got the J-trap off I found this:

And as soon as I tried to lift the deposit off the pipe, after a quick soak in boiling water and Scale-Away (phosphoric acid and hypochlorite, I think), this happened:

And when I tried putting the new J-trap from the hardware store on, the next pipe up, which is of course a weird one they don’t have, also broke, with the threaded part snapping off inside the heavier forged 90 degree fitting on the bottom of this old American Standard sink. I closed the bathroom for the night and am going to deal with it in the morning, what’s the best approach here? Just replace everything with PVC, right? One problem I ran into was that the 90 degree metal fitting on the bottom of the sink in this picture seems to have a 1 1/2” fine thread whereas the PVC parts I got are coarse thread, can I just toss the 90 degree and drop the sink fitting straight down into the J-trap? It seems like an unnecessary extra turn of which these drains have plenty already:

What do, boys?

Tagging @Foreigner and @Shadey

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For this I would bite the bullet and call a professional.

Too much weirdness for my skill set.

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If you can get a straight connection into the U pipe, with a pvc pipe that fits the thread on the bottom of the sink that’s what I would do, but I think they would have done it like that if they could have.

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Yeah. What’s happening with that p trap? If you straighten it out, does it not line up with the drain? Hence the need for the 90 straight off the bottom of the sink. That’s odd ball for sure.

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I’m not a pro plumber but I did residential remodeling for more than 2 decades, and in my experience it’s the sink’s drain/bottom fitting that’s unusual. How exactly does that fitting fit into the sink? It looks like there’s a compression gasket like in a modern sink. Is that so? On a modern rig, the strainer threads onto a lock nut below with a rubber gasket and a flat washer sandwiched in between. The flat washer is there to keep the rubber gasket from becoming deformed. I don’t know how that would work with that style sink. Once that’s resolved, attaching it to the trap won’t be a problem. You can always use a flex tailpiece if the trap and sink drain don’t perfectly align. If you’re in the US, and probably Canada, be sure to check to see if it’s 1 1/2" or 1 1/4".

If it was me, the next thing I would do is take the sink’s drain apart to see exactly how it’s held together. It’s possible you could replace the 90 with a normal straight tailpiece. Looking at the washer and gasket, I can’t tell if the nut that holds them in place is part of the 90 or it’s own discrete piece. It would be a lot simpler if they were separate pieces, but I’m skeptical.

Without knowing where you are, I’d go to a serious hardware or plumbing store. NOT a big box or a lumber yard that sells hardware. And, of course, take that picture. The fact that it’s a commercial sink makes it more of a challenge for me. I personally never worked on a sink/drain like that.

I’d be interested to learn how this resolves. Feel free to PM me if you think I can answer something in particular.

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That 90 attached to sink , is it 1-1/2 or 1-1/4 npt ? National Pipe Taper ie standard screw pipe threads . Easiest way would be replace the whole drain tailpipe assembly as current setup is bastardized beyond belief . A short radius 90 like that is like an additional 10 ft of pipe . A restriction not needed or wanted . Carefully take old stuff apart , don’t crack the sink . Sawzall with a metal cutting blade if it’s contrary , probably easiest . Does sink have a strainer basket like a kitchen / utility sink ? Cut just above that elbow , compression nut should unscrew . Pull rest of drain from the top . Some plumbers putty & some parts , you’re back in business . A good old fashioned hardware store or plumbing supply house should have everything you need . Worst case check local building demolition guys , commercial sinks , urinals can be had for a fraction , toilets command a premium .

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Thanks @mota and @boatbum325 the big plumbers supply is closed today so I’ll follow up with a more complete rebuild out of Schedule 40 and more flex joints, but I got it done with a cheap piece of PVC tailpipe extension and a Fernco rubber joint, works great now, much more direct flow:

Versus the old setup on the sink that was just clogged:

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