Backed Up

Got the flange fixed on the toilet.

They have these nifty metal rings you install over top your old flange and you're on your way. The toilet doesn't even rock.

But it's not fixed.

I guess while it was sitting on it's side, the weight of itself stretched the seals around the bolts between the tank and the bowl.

Now the tank leaks, but only enough for a towel and bucket to keep it from becoming a complete mess. Not sure when I'll get around to completing this one.

Next I took a little time to at least figure out why the water line to the fridge was leaking. My first suspicion was the coupling between the new line I put in a little while ago and the line from the fridge. I had some problem with it the first time. I figured it finally gave up. Turns out that wasn't the case.

The copper line itself gave up. I realize we have hard water (at least going through this line), but I'd expect the line to last a little more then a year or so. So it's off to Home Depot to find something stronger and replace all this.

- b

Toilet Flange

Our toilet rocks.

Literally, it rocks, which means it now leaks.

Well, it did till I took it apart.

A little wobble overtime will cause the wax seal to fail and the toilet to leak. That's why it leaks. The next question is why does it wobble or why does ours wobble?

Could it be that the flange is somehow installed incorrectly? Could it be that somehow the closet flange bolts aren't in their normal slots (which are broken, the slots, not the bolts), but have been drilled through the flange which causes irregularities in the flange surface (the bolt slots are recessed for the bolt heads. The manually drilled holes for the bolts are not recessed), thus causing the toilet to rock?
Though you can't see where the flange rises above the height of the floor at the bolts, you can see where the bolts have been manually drilled and pushed through the flange. How this was done, I have no idea. The flange doesn't just pop off the pipe and pop back on.

The correct fix for this is to cut the pipe, remove the flange, and put a whole new assembly back in its place. The problem is I have two layers of vinyl flooring in this bathroom I'd like to replace with tile, which could change the level of the floor. If I replace the flange now, which has to be flush with the floor, it could be off once the tile floor goes in. Better to wait for the heavy work until the floor is right.

For now, I'll return the "extra thick" wax replacement ring I bought (which has longer screws that I can't replace because of how the above screws were installed), get a regular ring, then use caulk around the base of the toilet to stop the wobble. Of course if it ever leaks again I'll never know as the caulk will keep the water under the toilet and rotting through the floor. One day I'll go to sit down and fall right through to the basement as the weight of me and the toilet crashes through the rotted floor.

Joy.

Is it too late to rent?

- b

The List Gets Longer

My well is leaking.

Huh?

Ok. Not exactly my well, but the pipe that runs the electric out to the well is carrying water back into the house.

My plan is to silicone the joint where it's leaking. Probably not the best permanent fix, but we'll see how well it lasts.

Now if it would just stop raining long enough for the ground to dry enough for the water to stop running in, I could actually try and fix it.

- b

Chores Before School

Not completely done before work, but I did get up early one morning and paint these spots in the kitchen.

The above had been a hole in the wall since June 2008. The switches below had been open and exposed the same period of time. Ouch.

Now it's all done or done enough - haven't decided which.

- b

For Caulk Sake

So the day before I noticed a huge split between my wood siding behind one of my gutters.

We need new siding. That's just plain and simple. The splitting is nothing new. A few years back I spent a few days caulking the entire front of the house (needs to be done again) hoping to get a few more years before we actually had to get new siding.

But this split takes precedence. This one is cause for concern. It's on the western side of our house. It takes the brunt of the majority of the weather we get. Also I have suspicions the effects of this one has actually penetrated the house.

In our living room, at the ceiling along that side of the house, we have this funny thing going on with the paint. It appears to be bubbling.

Typically when paint bubbles there's some kind of contaminant. Now our house originally had popcorn (i.e. textured) ceilings. It could be this is some kind of leftover from the work done to remove the texture. Either way, I'm not taking chances and the fix (even if temporary) isn't that difficult.

So up the ladder I went.

The split was pretty bad. There appeared to be things living in there.

The bad or missing paint is where the gutter was. It really wasn't hard removing and replacing the gutter. Why the painter didn't do it (LAZY) is anyone's guess.

After cleaning out the crap, I stuffed as much of the gap with backer rod (strip of foam to fill up the space too big for just caulk).

Then caulked it. Considering the western orientation and my possible moisture infiltration, I went ahead and caulked this entire section. It's about five and a half feet wide between the chimney (which I caulked too) and the front edge of the house. I think it took three tubes of caulk, which meant a trip to Home Depot for more (I should just keep a case of the stuff around).

In the caulking mood, I decided to tackle a similar job at the pool.

Since replacing the pool skimmer, the expansion joints between the concrete pads and coping has been missing or damaged. Not only is it unsightly (especially if you're considering selling), but it can cause damage if water gets in there and freezes over the winter. The expansions joints that were there are made of some kind of really hard, yet flexible, plastic. It's a real pain to remove or work with, so I spent most of the time since the skimmer job trying to figure out the best way to remove it. Finally it came to me. I could use my pneumatic cut-off wheel to just cut it out, so that's what I did. I got the majority of it cut out and cleaned up. To replace it, I'll use pool expansion joint caulk. It's a self leveling super durable caulk that does the same thing as the plastic. It just comes in an easy to use dispenser.

I got it all cleaned up, dry and filled with sand (sand is cheaper then backer rod, since I had it free in my yard, with cat crap no extra charge!), then went to apply the caulk.

The reason why I was doing any of this caulk stuff that day was mostly because of the weather. It was sunny and 65° F all day. That's great weather for caulk. As I'm reading the pool caulk instructions, I see it's application is good down to 0° F. Knowing that, I decided to leave the spot alone for a day or so to dry out more. With a temperature rating that low, I could effectively apply the caulk one night after work regardless of outside temp (at least for a few weeks), and instead spend more time caulking other things that did have temperature limitations.

Back to the siding.

This is on the front of the house. I re-caulked (the previous owner had done it at some point) the front of the house two years ago. Most of it is still ok (just ok, not fine). I'm guessing because of the window install the integrity of this caulked area was lost. In the bottom of the gap, you can see the backer rod I put in two years ago.

The gap had gotten so big, it required two more pieces of backer rod (Yeah I know. This is like using a band aid for an amputation).

So now I'm really in the caulking mood and proceed to check out what else is in need.

Of course everything needs it. All the windows in our downstairs haven't been touched since we moved in.

Then I find our bay window is like this.

And suddenly I get bored/tired of caulking. It's late anyway. At least that helps explain why our bay window leaked last year.

At this point, all I can muster is filling some carpenter bee holes.


You'd be surprised how roomy those little holes can be.

- b

The Attic Sucks

Since yesterday was supposed to be rainy and semi-cool (70° F isn't exactly cool, but it was raining), I decided to get up in the attic and hopefully finish that job.

You may remember last spring I started putting in rafter vents so the air from the soffits could more easily travel between the rafters up to the ridge vent. This is done for two reasons. In the summer it helps to cool the attic. In the winter it helps to dry the attic. When our roof was replaced in 2006, I think nearly half the plywood was replaced because it was rotten from too much moisture. The previous owner stuff the insulation too close to the soffits, thus stopping the air flow and trapping moisture in the attic.

I had something like 30+ of these vents to install. I wanted it done and over with so I didn't have to go in the attic again. I put on my attic garb and headed up.

While working at the western most part of the roof I found this.

I put my sweaty fingers near it and the wood felt damp beyond the dampness of my fingers. When I could hear the wind outside, I could feel it on my fingers. Crap.

Have I mentioned how much I loved our roofer.

For comparison here's a spot that used to be wet, was fixed, and has since dried.

I climbed out of the attic, took off my gear and went outside to investigate. The obvious part was this was happening near the chimney, so I got out the ladder and climbed up.

I found two spots that looked like they could use some caulk, so I caulked them.

While I was up there, I noticed this huge open gap in the seam of our wood siding behind the gutter. Guess what I'll be doing today?

Later, back in the attic, I was at the far western edge and checked my possible fix. I put my fingers back up to the wet spot and thought I felt a breeze, but it was pretty stormy outside. With all the rafter vents in place in that part of the attic, it's breezy in general. So I'm kind of stuck. It's a really difficult spot to get to in our attic with all the insulation I have up there. The ideal way to check if the caulk fix worked is to go back in a few weeks and see if the wood has the past wet now dry look to it like the picture above. The other option is to call the roofer and have him get up there. His work was guaranteed for 5 or 7 years, but he's a pain in the ass.

I'm really not sure what I'm going to do at this point.

Somewhere around 6pm, I got sick of the attic and came down.

My sick of the attic shot with the new camera

I got one half of the attic completely vented and insulated to R40+. All that's left is 9 or so more vents and some insulation. Hopefully I'll get to that today or sometime this week.

By the way. I also found another fossilized mouse. Nothing but fur and bones. I think that makes 30 something dead mice found in this house since we moved in.

I hate the attic.

- b

Rainy Day Jobs

Not much (I want) to do outside when it's 37°F and raining.

So it's a day for inside chores, which means I needed the truck, which was 440lbs. full of stuff to go to the dump.

Off to the dump the dogs and I went. Gretchen wasn't happy about it.

After the dump it was Home Depot to get insulation for the attic (great cold rainy day job).

But Jen wasn't home, working in the attic sucks, so I decided on something else (wasted trips?).

Since we've started using the pellet stove for the year, I decided to finish the electric project I started this summer in our downstairs hallway. - see it here. In that process I temporarily took out the programmable switch that powers the fan

(the switch is programmed to turn on/off the fan in sync with when the stove goes on/off) that moves the heat from downstairs to upstairs.

The programmable switch was in the box on the right. The original owners had installed this switch box to power two lights we don't use or have chosen to switch from somewhere else.

I could have put the programmable switch back in the box on the right, then find a cover for a decora switch and blank (pain in the ass), but I had another issue. The switch box on the left was wiggling. To kill two birds with one stone, I decided to put in a more stable three gang box on the left and either put a solid cover on the right box or just patch (w drywall) over it completely.

First step was getting the wiggly left box out. Mmmm wires.

Second was cutting the hole bigger (including my hand accidentally), rerouting some wires from the right box and putting in the new three gang box.

Now the box on the right is empty.

Next step was wiring up the light switches, programmable switch (which needed new batteries), and the receptacle powered by the programmable where the fan plugs in.

So it's all wired, programmed and plugged in, but no fan.

Hmmm.

Check this. Check that. Still no fan.

Call Dad.

He says try a regular single pole switch, maybe the ($30) programmable switch is bad?

Sure enough. Switch is bad.

Luckily I had another one. Not quite as functional as the first, but programmable none-the-less.

So that's done. The lights all work as they should and there's an automatic program powering the fan at the appropriate times for the stove.

I guess if I was really cool, I'd get a thermostatic switch to power the fan when the temp in the hallway reached a certain setting.

Maybe next time.

- b

Side Project

After dragging lengthy lines of air hose from the garage, under the door (particularly unpleasant when the inside and outside temps are at extremes) and throughout the house, I came up with a better plan.

I'd simply drill a hole through the wall from the garage to the basement. Brilliant!

Eh. Not so brilliant. A hole through the wall doesn't really help with temperature differences between outside and in, nor does it protect from critters.

I had to have a better way.

Which of course required some machining.

And voila!

I'll be the first to admit it's not perfect, but it's a start.

It's a start to a whole series of air lines plumbed throughout the house and garage!

Just imagine the euphoria to opening a closet door and finding an accessible air chuck in the back corner! It will be amazing!

Home repairs nuts everywhere will bow in envy!

Or not.

- b