Home Improvement Thread

NTP66
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Postby NTP66 » Wed Sep 19, 2018 7:57 am

Yeah, you probably shouldn't be shocked that I want to do that. :)

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Postby Lemon Berry Lobster » Wed Sep 19, 2018 9:23 am

To be fair I didn't know all the equipment you needed to run your tank. So finding out what you have is shocking. When I had an aquarium it was a small fresh water one for a couple aquatic frogs.

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Postby NTP66 » Wed Sep 19, 2018 9:40 am

To be clear, the picture above is what I would like to do, not what I currently have. My RODI unit is in my utility closet, and I manually make fresh saltwater every two weeks using 32g Brute containers. You don't need much more equipment to run a saltwater tank, but some of the equipment makes a world of difference, thus making it easier.

Image

I use a 50' hose to suction the old water out, and a pump in the Brute to put NSW into the sump of my tank. Not a ton of work, but being able to automate this and literally have to do nothing but add salt to a container every once in a while would be awesome.

Image
Last edited by NTP66 on Wed Sep 19, 2018 9:41 am, edited 1 time in total.

dodint
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Postby dodint » Wed Sep 19, 2018 9:40 am

I gave up because I move too much.

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Postby meow » Thu Sep 20, 2018 5:42 pm

Toilet update. Home Depot sells a universal tank for $35. It fit and doesn’t leak so I guess that’s a win. It’s a real weak flush. I should have just replaced the whole damn thing, but this works

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Postby Freddy Rumsen » Thu Sep 20, 2018 5:47 pm

Winner

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Postby shafnutz05 » Thu Sep 20, 2018 7:36 pm

Pop chips are tasty

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Postby mac5155 » Thu Sep 20, 2018 8:25 pm

Whats 'at have to do with home improvement?

NTP66
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Postby NTP66 » Fri Sep 21, 2018 6:21 am

Because there's a Pop Chips box in one of my photos.

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Postby Silentom » Fri Sep 21, 2018 8:07 am

That's a badass fish tank setup. Most I ever had were Goldfish and Convict cichlids in a freshwater tank.

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Postby NTP66 » Tue Oct 02, 2018 12:24 pm

@Silentom: What are your thoughts on keypad and/or keyless electronic front door locks? I'm considering replacing my deadbolt and keyed knob with an electronic deadbolt and blank knob.

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Postby Silentom » Tue Oct 02, 2018 12:35 pm

Only thing I can really offer is common sense tips. Just make sure it has a key override. I'm sure you have more than one way into the house, but always have a key for backup, in case batteries die or the lock fails.

I don't have much practical experience with residential electronic locks...I only deal with commercial grade for my job, and it's a whole other animal.

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Postby NTP66 » Tue Oct 02, 2018 12:37 pm

Gotcha, thanks. Yeah, the ones I've been looking at all have key overrides. I'm just trying to decide whether or not the keyed knob actually matters. I may just wait a few more years to see where the technology goes.

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Postby Silentom » Tue Oct 02, 2018 12:38 pm

Keyed knob isn't really necessary, and a lot of people change it to passage function.

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Postby shafnutz05 » Tue Oct 02, 2018 1:23 pm

Silentom: What are your thoughts on keypad and/or keyless electronic front door locks? I'm considering replacing my deadbolt and keyed knob with an electronic deadbolt and blank knob.
I love ours for our front door. The main reason I got it was because we constantly have people staying at our house or watching our dog, so it's much easier to just give them the code then worry about hiding a stupid key. We don't have key override, although that would be nice.

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Postby dodint » Tue Oct 02, 2018 2:52 pm

We use this one and really like it: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00R7JVFCE/

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Postby Silentom » Tue Oct 02, 2018 3:29 pm

One thing I will do is recommend Schlage over Kwikset.

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Postby dodint » Tue Oct 02, 2018 3:30 pm

Yeah. The one I linked is the minimum entry into the market, imo. The house I currently have it attached to is empty. ;)

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Postby dodint » Wed Oct 03, 2018 9:51 am

This is a really general question with a ton of variables not supplied but I'm trying to see what kind of ballpark I'm in.

The house is a ranch, 65ft long. What we want to do is extend the entire thing back about 25ft for the length of the house. No new bathrooms/plumbing or kitchens, just making the rooms on the back of the house bigger. The catch is the house is on a hill, so the existing rooms would become 'lofts' that overlook the new sunken portion of the rooms. It would basically be a split level as the addition would be about a half story above (and behind) the existing unfinished basement. Each room would have a small half staircase in it.

Not sure how the roof would be handled, but a good friend of mine is a roofer so I'll probably just ask him.

Anyway, given those few details does this project seem doable, in Westmoreland County, for less than $80,000? Or am I way off?

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Postby willeyeam » Wed Oct 03, 2018 10:48 am

My friends wanted to add on a master bed and bath and the average quote was 60K ish in Hermitage. So yeah, maybe if no new bathrooms

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Postby grunthy » Wed Oct 03, 2018 10:54 am

This is a really general question with a ton of variables not supplied but I'm trying to see what kind of ballpark I'm in.

The house is a ranch, 65ft long. What we want to do is extend the entire thing back about 25ft for the length of the house. No new bathrooms/plumbing or kitchens, just making the rooms on the back of the house bigger. The catch is the house is on a hill, so the existing rooms would become 'lofts' that overlook the new sunken portion of the rooms. It would basically be a split level as the addition would be about a half story above (and behind) the existing unfinished basement. Each room would have a small half staircase in it.

Not sure how the roof would be handled, but a good friend of mine is a roofer so I'll probably just ask him.

Anyway, given those few details does this project seem doable, in Westmoreland County, for less than $80,000? Or am I way off?

Is the basement more than 1k square feet? Because I believe code now requires that anything above that have two exits.


If so, would they have to move the exit from the basement to do this addition?

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Postby dodint » Wed Oct 03, 2018 11:01 am

The foundation of the house/basement footprint is 25x30ft, so 750sqft.

There is an exterior door on the affected side of the house. You open it and step up about three steps and you're in the grass. Our intent is to make a corridor that would be like 4ftx25ft and have doors that lead into the two bedrooms and the new exterior door on the new back of the house. It would basically be a finished 'mud room' with exterior access, access to the existing basement, and a door each to the two new sunken rooms.

Then we could seal off the awkward interior staircase that goes from the kitchen to the basement and make that a much needed pantry.

The other 35ft of expansion not accounted for above is garage, which might be more effectively done as a completely separate project as the interior finishing requirements are entirely different, as is the height of the floor.

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Postby grunthy » Wed Oct 03, 2018 11:12 am

The foundation of the house/basement footprint is 25x30ft, so 750sqft.

There is an exterior door on the affected side of the house. You open it and step up about three steps and you're in the grass. Our intent is to make a corridor that would be like 4ftx25ft and have doors that lead into the two bedrooms and the new exterior door on the new back of the house. It would basically be a finished 'mud room' with exterior access, access to the existing basement, and a door each to the two new sunken rooms.

Then we could seal off the awkward interior staircase that goes from the kitchen to the basement and make that a much needed pantry.

The other 35ft of expansion not accounted for above is garage, which might be more effectively done as a completely separate project as the interior finishing requirements are entirely different, as is the height of the floor.
Would the “finished” mud room technically be part of the basement? If so, it would require two exits.

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Postby dodint » Wed Oct 03, 2018 11:19 am

The finished mud room would be on the same level as the new rooms in the addition. It would be completely finished, I just call it a mud room colloquially. It would effectively be an interior hallway connecting the doorway that used to be the exterior basement door to the house, to a new exterior door 25 feet away.

I anticipate that the new rooms and this hallway will be on a concrete slab (or similar). There won't be any new basement created.

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Postby dodint » Wed Oct 03, 2018 11:21 am

Worst case, if that doesn't count as an 'exterior door' then we'd just put a second cellar-style door on the non-affected side of the house.

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