Home Improvement Thread

Postby **meow** » Tue Aug 23, 2022 3:47 pm

Speaking of electrical. We are having a whole house surge protector installed tomorrow. I’m oddly excited

Postby **NTP66** » Tue Aug 23, 2022 3:56 pm

Install it yourself, lady.

Postby **meow** » Tue Aug 23, 2022 4:01 pm

No no no no no. I don’t do electrical. I’ll swap a receptacle or a light fixture, but I’m not doing something that impacts the whole house

Postby **NTP66** » Tue Aug 23, 2022 4:05 pm

What are you paying to have it installed? I’ll do it for half and a signed puck.

Postby **dodint** » Tue Aug 23, 2022 4:08 pm

Of course meow has a parlor.

Postby **NTP66** » Tue Aug 23, 2022 4:10 pm

We all know it’s not his.

Postby **meow** » Tue Aug 23, 2022 4:11 pm

I ain’t paying you ****

Postby **NTP66** » Tue Aug 23, 2022 4:12 pm

Tough, I’m still coming over.

Postby **RonnieFranchise** » Tue Aug 23, 2022 9:48 pm

Bath remodel contract settled today. Good to be finally effing done.

Now wifey wants some work we can’t afford done downstairs. It never ends.

Postby **mac5155** » Tue Aug 23, 2022 10:10 pm

HELOC baby!

Postby **RonnieFranchise** » Tue Aug 23, 2022 10:16 pm

HELOC baby!

Yeah, we just refi'd for the bathrooms. I told her it needs to wait till bonus time but she ain't having it.

Postby **NTP66** » Wed Aug 24, 2022 7:58 am

I just replaced all of the dome ceiling lights in my house with these. So far, a big improvement on brightness. I did notice that one of them had a bit of a flicker at startup, but only saw that in one bulb. Gonna keep an eye on it and replace it if need be.

In other news, I also dropped one of the domes down the stairs, sending glass everywhere. Had to scream like a lunatic to get the cats to run in the opposite direction, and then spent 30 minutes vacuuming the glass. Thankfully, I have two space fixtures in the basement, so I grabbed one of the domes from them.

Postby **shafnutz05** » Wed Aug 24, 2022 12:27 pm

Can't see the photo, can you repost?

And I know that broken glass panic

Trying to scream at your 2 year old son to NOT run towards you is very hard.

Postby **NTP66** » Wed Aug 24, 2022 1:24 pm

Who are you talking to about the photo? I posted an Amazon link...

Postby **shafnutz05** » Wed Aug 24, 2022 5:52 pm

Who are you talking to about the photo? I posted an Amazon link...

Oh, so NOW it's working for me

Thanks

Postby **Shyster** » Wed Aug 24, 2022 8:36 pm

I've had a couple LEDs here and there go bad, and flickering is how it usually manifests. They're cheap enough that I don't really care. The only conventional bulbs I still have in the house are bulbs in my garage and laundry room that are on motion sensors. The sensors are old enough that they can't do LEDs, and the minor extra cost of a halogen bulb doesn't justify the cost of replacing those two motion sensors with modern units.

Postby **NTP66** » Wed Aug 24, 2022 8:50 pm

I love the halogen bulbs I used to use, but they burn out way too fast.

Postby **LITT** » Fri Aug 26, 2022 2:47 pm

probably a stupid question - is there some sort of contraption that would either fit a power tool battery or other power source to test a chandelier and how it looks lit? we bought a chandelier for our kitchen and dint want to wire it in because the cord is 144" and has a decorative canopy so we wanted to see what it would look like hanging before we tried to manage the wiring (cant return if we cut the wires). since the cord is so long and won't fit concealed in the canopy, was curious if theres a way to wire the chandelier to another power source to see if we like it illuminated. wanted to avoid taking it down and putting it back up

Postby **mac5155** » Fri Aug 26, 2022 3:38 pm

Wire an extension cord plug to it.

You can't use tool battery, DC power won't work.

Postby **mac5155** » Mon Aug 29, 2022 8:54 pm

I have a GFI outlet on the exterior of my house that hasn't worked pretty much since we moved in. I just hadn't used it until like 6 months ago (we moved in almost 5 years ago now) so I don't really want to call the electrician unless it's something a bit more difficult.

I put my test light on there and I receive an "open hot" message (aka no lights).

The amber LED is on the outlet very faint. And I cannot hit the reset button. It goes in obviously but no click or reset.

Far as I can tell this is on the same circuit that my two GFI protected bathrooms are also on. But all of the other outlets on that circuit work, and the GFCI reset in the master bath trips when I test it in the second bathroom.

Is it possible that this is on like an "offshoot" of the second bathroom and on its own section of a circuit? I can see the wire come inside the house and up through the floor into the second bathroom.

I should just pop the receptacle out and see if there's a loose wire but I'm also afraid of getting shocked. I need an electricity test pen maybe to be safe. It's probably something simple, hopefully.

Postby **meow** » Mon Aug 29, 2022 8:57 pm

Just throw the breaker?

Postby **NTP66** » Mon Aug 29, 2022 8:59 pm

Yeah, throw the breaker, test for a live circuit, and replace the receptacle if the wiring looks correct to confirm, IMO.

Postby **mac5155** » Mon Aug 29, 2022 9:02 pm

My thought was the breaker I throw may not be the same one it's on. It may go through the floor and into another circuit.

Anyway I'll just kill the main to be safe probably. Don't know why I didn't think of that.

Postby **NTP66** » Mon Aug 29, 2022 9:03 pm

Get the tester first and find out for sure. If it’s not, throw other breakers until you find it and can properly label the panel.

Postby **robbiestoupe** » Tue Aug 30, 2022 9:23 am

It could be something as simple as the hot and neutral wires are flipped. I had contractors put in a GFCI outlet in and I had similar issues: Green light on the outlet, but couldn't hit the reset. Flipped the wires and voila, good to go.