Home Improvement Thread

[robbiestoupe]

This isn't so much a prepping job for painters, as that involves taping trim work, setting up the plastic sheets, etc. They hate that, but they do it. The work you're talking about is the plasterer's job. Sometimes guys are good at painting and plastering and do both. But you'll have to pay them for it. A buddy of mine was more of a painter but he's done some patching for me and it was 10x's better than I could do it. And he still said he did a shitty job, which I cannot see.

[mamaemeritus]

Need some help and I am not handy so please take it easy on me.

Old whole house fan appears to have crapped out. I am assuming it is quite old given how it's set up, has an old shutter box vs. damper box (am I even using the right terms?). In looking at new fans it appears that the damper boxes (which I much prefer) are more rectangle. My shutter opening is pretty square and takes up most of the hall ceiling width. What do I do in that instance? Since the current cutout is too wide for the new cutout? Am I screwed and stuck with the shutter thing?

[NTP66]

Need some help and I am not handy so please take it easy on me.

Old whole house fan appears to have crapped out. I am assuming it is quite old given how it's set up, has an old shutter box vs. damper box (am I even using the right terms?). In looking at new fans it appears that the damper boxes (which I much prefer) are more rectangle. My shutter opening is pretty square and takes up most of the hall ceiling width. What do I do in that instance? Since the current cutout is too wide for the new cutout? Am I screwed and stuck with the shutter thing?

This is a case where pictures are just about necessary. I can’t visualize what you’re talking about, personally.

[mamaemeritus]

The fan is mounted in the hallway ceiling. Directly under it is an opening in the ceiling covered by shutters that are flat when not in use. When you turn it on, the shutters flip open so that the air can get sucked up by the fan. This shutter fitting is say 26" x 26" square.

New fans have a damper box. It does not have shutters. Lays flush to ceiling. Say it's like 14" x 30".

Examples I just pulled from Google:

Old: https://www.grainger.com/product/3HHR3? ... lsrc=aw.ds

New: https://www.centricair.com/whole-house- ... icair-2-7/

[NTP66]

Ah, I see what you mean now. I have no real world experience, so take this with a grain of salt, but my initial thoughts are this:

If the fan no longer works, I’d probably remove it entirely to see the structure in the ceiling. If the new damper style fan has a smaller grille, I’d probably frame out a box for the damper using 2x4s so that it could be mounted. Then just install drywall on the ceiling to cover the outer area.

This is all assuming a full replacement is required, though. What’s broken on it? Oliver’s not opening? Motor not turning at all? If the former, I think most are belt driven - my uncle’s was. So it could be something dumb like a broken belt, or just lubricating the pivot points on the louvers.

[dodint]

I want to turn that room into a theater/game room so the water heater needs to move either way.

I got around to researching this and realized that it will affect every single water line in the house so I would be asking the plumber to do a whole-home refresh of the water system. So I'm just going to do it myself. We have a small home, so there are only 4 hot outlets and 7 cold outlets that need to be accounted for. I can do this myself by installing a medium size pex manifold and laying pex home runs. Our bathroom is already on pex anyway from the remodel we did a few years ago.

The cool thing about the manifold is I should be able to hook the main water lines to it and then bring the fixtures online one at a time as I connect the fittings, so the whole house doesn't have to be dry for the duration of the project. I'm calmed by things being orderly and I'm very much drawn to the idea of having a "circuit breaker" style central cutoff for water, rather than having them at the fixture (aside from the toilet, gotta get to the shitter cutoff pretty quick at times).

Similar to this:



The water heater is electric. I won't have an issue running a fresh power line from the main panel. I figure this will end up costing less than $600 to redo the whole house, whereas if I hired a plumber I assume it would run me $1500 minimum.

[NTP66]

I'm a huge fan of pex manifolds for a number of reasons. Makes working on your home so much easier, and the install should be cleaner. The only downside is that some installers get lazy and don't use hangers where they should, so you can get knocking.

Also, I've mentioned it before, but I've used Supply House for multiple projects involving my Pex system, and would recommend them. Terrific pricing, and fast shipping.

https://www.supplyhouse.com/pex

[dodint]

Good info, thanks.

[robbiestoupe]

Maybe a dumb question dodint, but what do you plan to do with all the old piping and how do you plan to run the new piping through the existing walls? That seems like the real tough part, and makes it hard for me to wrap my head around this costing you less that $2k even if a plumber did the work.

[dodint]

Our house is small and has what is effectively an unfinished basement. So I won't have to go into any walls or ceilings to make the runs. I'm going to buy the manifold and mount it to some boards that I mount into studs. Then run the 11 pex lines directly to their fixtures. We're going to run the lines through the joists of the main level.

The bathroom is already pex'd, so I'm just going to couple into those existing lines that are already in the main level joists. Super easy, barely an inconvenience.

The only copper piping I do not have access to is the stuff running under the basement floor, under the concrete slab. I'm just going to cut it off at floor level and never think about it again. Why they did that in the first place is beyond me. Lots of odd choices made back in '64. Any copper I pull out will go to scrap.

[dodint]

Here's what I mean:



An old picture, but you can see how the 'ceiling' already has access holes cut out of it over the years. And though the walls pictured are covered, the plumbing runs outside of the walls already. So replacing the copper runs with pex is no big deal. In the end my new runs will be less visible than the copper. Hell, the main line that runs from my water filtration system to my water heater is a giant 1" (I think) pex line that's just tacked to the wall.

[mac5155]

Copper scrap prices are up right now

[dodint]

Also, to add to the simplicity of it, by moving the water heater to directly under the bathroom 8/11 of the new pex lines are going to be under ~15 feet in length. The washer/dryer and outside faucet are under the bathroom. The only thing that is getting an appreciable run is the kitchen and front of the house exterior faucet, so 1 hot line and 2 cold lines.

So if I bring in a plumber and say "I want to move my water heater across the house and then run new lines to every fixture in the house" I bet the cost starts at $2,000 and goes up, before he even actually assesses the project. Whereas I can spend a weekend myself and probably get it done for $600 out the door. And my downtime will be super low because I'll install the manifold and run the lines before I even disconnect the water. Other than physically moving the water heater the actual day of work will just be cutting copper and crimping on new fittings.

[NTP66]

@dodint, FYI, Home Depot rents Pex crimping tools (the good ones, not the cheap junk), so you don't have to go out and spend a few hundred on a nice set.

[robbiestoupe]

Good stuff dodint. Hope it goes as easy as it sounds

[dodint]

That's good to know. I hadn't considered that. My brother bought into the pex life a few years ago, he's the one that did my bathroom plumbing that's already pex. Most likely I borrow his. But again, good input, might just do that.

[DigitalGypsy66]

I miss basements.

[NTP66]

I don't know what I'd do without my basement. I have so much **** in there being stored, not to mention having access to run stuff like Ethernet, romex, etc. It is so handy.

[dodint]

One amusing by-product of this project is that I will be able to remove the last of the traditional phone system. It actually uses the copper pipes as a ground source. I removed the line from the house a long time ago so none of it is connected to anything but itself.

[NTP66]

Funny, my house was built in 2009, and they wired every room with coax. I never used it, personally, and view it as this generation's copper telephone wire that will summarily be ripped out in the not too distant future. Kinda like what you're currently doing. The only reason I'm happy that they did run coax is because I was able to use the same holes in the studs to run Ethernet to all of these locations.

[dodint]

When we moved here our only internet option was Xfinity. They ignored all the installed coax and just punched a new line in. It's tacked to the basement wall just above the main water line.

[mac5155]

I only like having coax cause I can get all my locals OTA and only had to connect the antenna to the input. I have a second input for the cable modem.

[DigitalGypsy66]

My house was built in 2022 and we have coax everywhere. Phone lines in two rooms (which are unused). I'd rather them run Cat 6 everywhere, but nope.

[NTP66]

When we moved here our only internet option was Xfinity. They ignored all the installed coax and just punched a new line in. It's tacked to the basement wall just above the main water line.

I swear this is what they teach every single Comcast tech on their first day. At my parents’ house, the main line was on a pole in the backyard. When I had my childhood bedroom wired for coax, they ran the line to the house, up the roof and to the side of my room (which faces the street). All was fine there.

Do you think they then came through that wall and into the room, like I asked them to do? No. They brought the line to the front of the house and went in there. So now it just looks trashy from the street. Well, it did. When my parents had their siding replaced, they had them install the siding over that cable to hide it, lol.

[dodint]

Similarly, it was really satisfying deleting our satellite dish and also the cabling that was up there when we did the roof. I grabbed that and the phone wire and dragged it out, all the way back to the utility pole.