Home Improvement Thread

Postby **meow** » Wed Aug 22, 2018 4:10 pm

I'm not a good plumber, but I'm going to try and replace my shower cartridge tonight. Here's to hoping all goes well
Do yourself a huge favor and get the correct cartridge tool at either Lowe’s or HD. It makes the entire process a piece of cake.

The one I need comes with the tool. I wonder if it is a POS.

Postby **NTP66** » Wed Aug 22, 2018 4:15 pm

I'm not a good plumber, but I'm going to try and replace my shower cartridge tonight. Here's to hoping all goes well
Do yourself a huge favor and get the correct cartridge tool at either Lowe’s or HD. It makes the entire process a piece of cake.
The one I need comes with the tool. I wonder if it is a POS.

If it’s metal, you’re probably going to be okay. I had to pull a severely frozen Moen at my wife’s old condo, and couldn’t imagine doing it with a plastic one. If it’s plastic, just take your time.

Either way, it’s 100x better than simply trying to remove it with pliers, etc.

Postby **robbiestoupe** » Wed Aug 22, 2018 4:43 pm

Oh now you tell me they make a tool to pull out shower cartridges. mf'er nearly drove me insane using a pair of pliers. Thought I was going to rip the entire manifold out of the wall.

Postby **NTP66** » Wed Aug 22, 2018 4:54 pm

Postby **robbiestoupe** » Wed Aug 22, 2018 5:07 pm

about a year and a half late, but thanks!

Postby **meow** » Wed Aug 22, 2018 8:58 pm

That wasn’t difficult. Added the cartridge puller to my single use tool set. Right next to the basin wrench

Postby **eddy** » Thu Aug 23, 2018 11:43 am

I'm not a good plumber, but I'm going to try and replace my shower cartridge tonight. Here's to hoping all goes well

Best of luck. My last 3 DIY plumbing jobs have resulted in either no water or bathroom for multiple days and a professional coming to fix my mess so no pressure.

Postby **meow** » Thu Aug 23, 2018 11:45 am

I'm not a good plumber, but I'm going to try and replace my shower cartridge tonight. Here's to hoping all goes well
Best of luck. My last 3 DIY plumbing jobs have resulted in either no water or bathroom for multiple days and a professional coming to fix my mess so no pressure.

That wasn’t difficult. Added the cartridge puller to my single use tool set. Right next to the basin wrench

Postby **eddy** » Thu Aug 23, 2018 11:46 am

yeah, I saw that after I realized I replied to an older post. I'm happy for you.

Postby **meow** » Thu Aug 23, 2018 12:03 pm

I will share a lesson I learned. The cartridge post definitely has an up and down. I placed it in upside down at first. It was a system shock to see the water on full blast with the handle in the typical off position.

Postby **NTP66** » Fri Aug 24, 2018 2:51 pm

My taxes are paid through escrow, for now. Like I said earlier, I am petitioning my lender to drop it and let me take care of it on my own. Twice in the last four years I've had to make catch up contributions to get to a certain level, which is required by law. I'd much rather let all of that money sit in a high interest savings account so that it at least earns some money.
I see. When you mentioned your petition earlier, wasn't sure you were talking about escrow. It all makes sense now. That being said, did they require an assessment on your house to drop escrow? If so, I can kill two birds with one stone.
I don’t know what they’ll require because I can’t even petition for it until June. I’ll definitely post back here in case it helps you out.
This is an excerpt from an email I just received from my mortgage:

"It looks like we can release your escrow once we know if we can release your PMI because you have to escrow if your loan to value ratio is over 80%. There is a fee of .125% of the principal balance to drop your escrow. I attached a document you signed at closing that indicates that fee."

So I am tied to escrow because I idiotically signed up for it in the beginning, and my loan to value ratio is still (supposedly) above 80%. I'm also obligated to pay a fee to get out of escrow, based on this tidbit from the document that was attached:

"In addition, I/we have acknowledged that I/we may have received a financial benefit (either in rate or fees) by allowing (bank) to collect and hold escrow funds on my/our behalf. If...I/we decide to terminate...I/we will be charged a fee of .125% of my/our outstanding principle..."

I doubt I received any financial benefit from this bank in either rates or fees. This loan was sold to them from the original mortgage lender, and they had to keep the initial contract conditions. Either way, I don't remember escrow being one of those things where they said if I opted out, I'd get a worse rate or more fees.

Such a racket.
So, I finally requested to have my escrow account waived, but was denied due to seasoning rules. I can request escrow to be waived in September, and confirmed that there is no fee for this to happen. You also mentioned a 75% LTV ratio requirement in another post. I saw the following on my loan servicer's site that could be what you saw, referring to home improvements:

If you have completed substantial STRUCTURAL improvements (e.g. an addition put on the property or other combined substantial improvements), please send specifics including what improvements were made, materials used, and costs excluding labor. We are requesting this information so we can determine if you are eligible to receive the pre-2 year appraisal information. Loans that are under 5 years will need to show a LTV of 75.0% or 25% equity from an appraisal. If the improvements do not meet the requirements, then you must wait two years to have an appraisal done. Loans that are under 5 years will need to show a LTV of 75.0% or 25% equity from an appraisal. If the improvements do not meet the requirements, then you must wait two years to have an appraisal done.

September is right around the corner, so what do I find in the mail today? A letter stating that my mortgage has been sold to another lender. Now I have to hope that they don't have any wacky rules about dropping escrow, because I wrote the damn request and printed it out just yesterday.

Postby **dodint** » Fri Aug 24, 2018 2:52 pm

I just changed homeowners policies to a new company. I'm sure changing over to the new policy and the escrow issues that entails won't be a hassle at all.

Postby **NTP66** » Fri Aug 24, 2018 2:54 pm

I'm going to call my new company once the mortgage officially moves over, but at the very least, their website looks like it was designed recently (as opposed to my current lender's site). It's totally unrelated, I know.

Postby **mac5155** » Fri Aug 24, 2018 8:30 pm

I need a new water filter for our new fridge. It's an RPWFE GE model. It doesn't look like there are any aftermarket options for this. Wtf. Am I stuck with a $50 GE filter

Postby **mac5155** » Fri Aug 24, 2018 8:33 pm

Newer GE refrigerators "use radio frequency identification (RFID) to detect leaks and monitor filter status." This means the RPWFE filter contains a chip which "talks" to the fridge to let it know that it's a genuine factory product.

Ah wtf. Ridiculous

Postby **mac5155** » Mon Aug 27, 2018 8:59 pm

Yay homeownership

My ecobee just sent an email that my AC has been running for 4 hours and is not cooling.

And I have moisture in my basement.

My house is 4 months old. Lol. Warranty...

So all good, until yesterday it happened again. I shut the system off and went to bed last night with the windows open (paying for it today, thanks allergies). Turned it on this morning and it kicked back on just fine. So I let it run all day and came home to a cool house. The ecobee sets temp to 84 during the day and back down to 73 at 5pm. Monitored it remotely all day and it only kicked on once or twice before 5.

I started poking around in the basement doing other things and then noticed there's a puddle under my air handler. Immediately I'm thinking clogged condensate line. Got out the shop vac and hit it, felt a big thump through the vacs hose. And then water ran out of it for like 20 seconds. Woof.

So I then look up how to change an air filter (I've never used a furnace before in my 30 years... We always had a boiler). Pull the air filter out and it's soggy wet, not to mention filthy black. So I presume that was my culprit, and there was probably some sort of switch for when the pan underneath fills up to switch off the heat pump.

Now let me ask yall two things. Should I rip apart the panel and clean the condenser (I think that's the piece that probably got dirty?) and two, do I really need to change that filter every 2 months? I hadn't changed it since we moved in. Probably a mistake as I'm sure it sucked in a ton of plaster and saw dust during construction.

Let's hope ive put this to bed with some routine maintenance going forward.

Postby **Shyster** » Mon Aug 27, 2018 9:06 pm

Two months seems a little short, but regular filter changes are a must. A clogged-up filter will make the system work a lot harder. Does your thermostat have any sort of filter timer or reminder? My Honeywell thermostat lets me choose from a number of options, each of which represents the total amount of time the fan is actually running. The "10 days" option works out to changing the filter roughly every three months, so that's the one I went with.

Postby **mac5155** » Mon Aug 27, 2018 9:07 pm

Two months seems a little short, but regular filter changes are a must. A clogged-up filter will make the system work a lot harder. Does your thermostat have any sort of filter timer or reminder? My Honeywell thermostat lets me choose from a number of options, each of which represents the total amount of time the fan is actually running. The "10 days" option works out to changing the filter roughly every three months, so that's the one I went with.

It's an ecobee4. It tells me when my AC runs but the temp isn't cooling. So I've got to think it will set a filter reminder. I'll look into it. Thanks for the tip!

Postby **AuthorTony** » Mon Aug 27, 2018 9:19 pm

Over the last week or so, my toilet has been running for several minutes after it's flushed. The bowl and tank fill as normal, but the water just keeps running. I noticed that water seems to shoot out of the little hose in the center tube even though the tank's full. It stops eventually and doesn't run again like water is leaking off somewhere. I've replaced everything in the tank within the last 2 years, but something's obviously wrong. Any ideas where to start?

Postby **Willie Kool** » Mon Aug 27, 2018 9:20 pm

Now let me ask yall two things. Should I rip apart the panel and clean the condenser (I think that's the piece that probably got dirty?)...

I'm sure it sucked in a ton of plaster and saw dust during construction.

The inside coil is the evaporator, the condenser is outside. I'd probably clean it to be safe. Plaster dust will get through most filters.

Postby **mac5155** » Mon Aug 27, 2018 9:31 pm

Now let me ask yall two things. Should I rip apart the panel and clean the condenser (I think that's the piece that probably got dirty?)...

I'm sure it sucked in a ton of plaster and saw dust during construction.
The inside coil is the evaporator, the condenser is outside. I'd probably clean it to be safe. Plaster dust will get through most filters.

The installer really went overboard and gave me a filter that looks like they wove themselves.

Simple as removing an access panel on the side of the air handler and hitting it with a shop vac/air compressor?

Postby **Shyster** » Mon Aug 27, 2018 9:40 pm

Over the last week or so, my toilet has been running for several minutes after it's flushed. The bowl and tank fill as normal, but the water just keeps running. I noticed that water seems to shoot out of the little hose in the center tube even though the tank's full. It stops eventually and doesn't run again like water is leaking off somewhere. I've replaced everything in the tank within the last 2 years, but something's obviously wrong. Any ideas where to start?

I'd start by checking the adjustment of the float on the fill valve and setting the float so that the water level in the tank is lower. It sounds like maybe the float isn't pushing up with enough force to shut off the water flow. If it's a Fluidmaster-type fill valve, you adjust the float level by turning the threaded rod that connects the lever on the top down to the black plastic float.

Postby **dodint** » Mon Aug 27, 2018 9:48 pm

And if it's not...

Postby **mac5155** » Mon Aug 27, 2018 9:52 pm

Now let me ask yall two things. Should I rip apart the panel and clean the condenser (I think that's the piece that probably got dirty?)...

I'm sure it sucked in a ton of plaster and saw dust during construction.
The inside coil is the evaporator, the condenser is outside. I'd probably clean it to be safe. Plaster dust will get through most filters.
The installer really went overboard and gave me a filter that looks like they wove themselves.

Simple as removing an access panel on the side of the air handler and hitting it with a shop vac/air compressor?

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00DM8KQ ... op?ie=UTF8

Worth it? Reviews seem really good.

Postby **Willie Kool** » Mon Aug 27, 2018 10:05 pm

Now let me ask yall two things. Should I rip apart the panel and clean the condenser (I think that's the piece that probably got dirty?)...

I'm sure it sucked in a ton of plaster and saw dust during construction.
The inside coil is the evaporator, the condenser is outside. I'd probably clean it to be safe. Plaster dust will get through most filters.
The installer really went overboard and gave me a filter that looks like they wove themselves.

Simple as removing an access panel on the side of the air handler and hitting it with a shop vac/air compressor?
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00DM8KQ ... op?ie=UTF8

Worth it? Reviews seem really good.

I've never had to do it myself, but I'd probably go with that or some type of foaming coil cleaner. If you do try to mechanically clean it (brush, shop vac, etc) just be careful not to bend the fins and remember the fins are sharp and will slice you up.