Fuck Bob Vila... the Home Repair Thread

Thanks for the ideas. As this project advances I will post about it on the DIY thread.

 

No, just no. There is no circumstance under which it is okay to work on an electrical circuit while trusting the wall switch to cut off the power. The only safe way to do any electrical work is to turn off the breaker in the panel and check the power with a meter, even a cheap one, at the fixture. If the electrician who did the original wiring was just a little bit lazy, he might have put the switch in the neutral circuit in order to save himself some wire pulling, even though it's not up to code. That means there is always power in the fixture - even with the switch off - and it is switched on its return back to the panel. Just flip the breaker, and spend $8 on a meter from Walmart to check the power. In your case with the light socket, the threaded part should have been wired to the neutral circuit. Touching it shouldn't have shocked you unless the bulb was actually burning, regardless of whether the switch was on or off.

 

Got bored several months and made a table out of an old solid core external door and rail way sleeper type timber. Worked a treat.

 

Thought I would throw this here...guys, don't suffer a leaky pipe to exist. Smack that shit down and replace it.

Two weeks ago, my dad decided to replace the square shower in his master bathroom. It was getting old, and he knew he had a leaking pipe. Simple weekend job, right?

Wrong. The bottom support board and the lower sections of the vertical supports were infested with black mold, three pipes were leaking, and the drain needs to be moved, leading to three straight weeks of working on it every night after work. After finally getting the new support beams in place and putting up new (mold and moisture resistant) drywall, he has to do the drain. Then he has to pull out most of the shower head/knob piping and replace it or move it over so it doesn't come through the wrong party of the new shower, and the shower head is leaky.

Furthermore, since 1-1/2" copper piping isn't exactly cheap or easy to find, he has to use PVC, PVC connectors, plastic-to-copper connectors, and all that lovely stuff, which is honestly beyond my scope of knowledge on the subject, but looks to be a real pain in the ass. Of course, this is after using a 70-pound jackhammer to break up the cement to get space to move the drain.

Two weeks from now we start tearing out the gutters and replacing the boards behind them, next on the list is pulling up the 15' by 15' or so stone patio we put down a few years ago and replacing it with concrete. Guy. Is. Nuts.

What makes it all amusing to me is how much he absolutely hates it. He has a talent for working on stuff, and what he doesn't know, he quickly picks up from ten minutes of internet browsing, but home repair drives him up the fucking wall, especially plumbing.

 

I am in the process of purchasing a townhouse and my girlfriend has plans to mount the television above the fireplace. The fireplace itself is only 45" high and we would be sitting back far enough that it shouldn't be too much of a strain to watch it. My issue is with hiding the wiring. There is an unfinished section of the basement directly below where it would be placed where I could hide the components out of sight. I was planning on using this:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001BLTDZA/ref=ox_sc_act_title_4?ie=UTF8&m=ATVPDKIKX0DER
My question is what is the best (and safest) way to get the wires from above the fireplace down to the basement?

 

I did something similar in my place and have the components on the other side of the wall in the room behind my living room. I went with this. I bought mine from Amazon, but they don't seem to be selling them anymore.

It's kind of a best-of-both-worlds setup, because the remote is both IR and RF, so it'll work your TV and send a signal to the RF box where your components are without having to run IR repeater wires. When the signal reaches the RF box, it translates RF into IR and blasts out the IR signals to your components. It's good enough that I have the RF box sitting on top of my BluRay player in the stack (sitting slightly father out than the face of the player) and it reaches all of the components with no problem. If for whatever reason it doesn't reach everything, it comes with 6 IR eyes that you can run from the back of the RF box to the IR sensor in the front of your component. I've done three setups with this system and I've never had to use them, though.

It takes zero time to set up, and programming the remote is a cinch. It allows you to run macros, as well--which is nice when you want to turn the volume up on the amp without having to switch from "cable" to "amp" on the remote.

With your setup then, you should only have to run one HDMI cable to the TV.

 

Okay, let me preface this by addressing the fact that I am not handy. I feel like a fucking retard when it comes to anything that involves tools, and am totally unsure of myself. That said, I'd like to attempt something of a craft / tool project.

My wife has a shit load of little crafty type things that she has strewn all over the house, and I want to get them organized. I've come across this:

<a class="postlink" href="http://pinterest.com/pin/155022412142891972/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://pinterest.com/pin/155022412142891972/</a>

I want to do something like that with this:
<a class="postlink" href="http://grandrapids.craigslist.org/fuo/2736634567.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://grandrapids.craigslist.org/fuo/2736634567.html</a>

First thing first though, I don't think she's going to dig the stain on it. We came across a dresser type piece of furniture awhile back that was stained purple and she absolutely loved the color of it. My first question is can I stain this thing with purple stain, and is that going to be an enormous task or not? Is the existing color of it going to make going to purple hard? Is it just go to Lowe's and ask for stain to be tinted purple, sand this thing a bit, and slap it to it?

 

I had a wall leaking in my basement. I took out the old insulation to find the cheesiest, shitty hack half-ass fuckface repair job ever.

I ended up having to remove a bunch of our outside cedar shingles to look at the extent of the damage.

Then, I had to call a contractor and the insurance company. The fucking rim-joist was eaten away. It's beyond my capabilities to fix.

Moral of the story: Guys and gals, if you are going to fix something, fix it 100% right. If you can't do it 100% right, know your limitations and call in the pros. If whoever had done that hack repair job had fixed it right 17+ years ago (the repair dates prior to my wife buying the house), there wouldn't be an issue.

 

It's not easy with the drywall installed. Your best bet would probably be to put the components in the attic ABOVE the fireplace, if you want to hide them. Or run the cables up into the attic above (assuming there isn't a second floor) and down into a nearby closet.

Worst case scenario you can use something like this (<a class="postlink" href="http://www.amazon.com/OmniMount-CMK-Cable-Management-Covers/dp/B000LTNIZE" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.amazon.com/OmniMount-CMK-Cab ... B000LTNIZE</a>) to hide the cable and run it down to the mantle, around the fireplace, and under the carpet along the edges of the walls to another location. Or drill a hole at the edge of the fireplace on the floor and run the cables down to the basement from there. It will be extremely difficult to drill through the joist in the basement below and be able to accurately find the cables behind the drywall in-between the studs, but it is possible. Not possible, however, is drilling horizontally through the studs to pull the cable to the center of the TV where a hole in the drywall would be hidden. You would have to cut out a bunch of drywall and rehang it. I've done this in pro installs before, but it is a pain in the ass. My next house is going to have a TON of pre-run conduit for AV/network installs to avoid this.

 

When it doubt, strip it down to the wood and it's a clean canvas for you. But buy or rent an electric sander to make your life one hundred times easier if you choose to sand it off. If you want a smooth, glossy look you'll have to buy rough paper to get rid of the paint, then fine to smooth it. For a more rustic look, use just the rough paper. By the way, sanding paint tends to gums up the paper fast so buy lots of stock in sandpaper before the job.

As for purple stains that probably won't be too easy to find (but I don't know, I haven't stained in a long time). Most stains are in wood colour, but the DO have colours out there. If you do stain it, don't forget the protective coating. Also, ask the store employees if you should add a primer basecoat before the stain (depends on the wood).

As an altenative to sanding the paint off, you can use chemicals that work well with names like "Can O' Tumours" with skeleton hand symbols all over it. VERY corrosive stuff. Some work very well, but be safe with them at all times.

 

Or go to an unfinished furniture store and save yourself money, time, and sweat.

 

Fuck window sheeting. Today I break out the pack I bought two years ago, and it's 4 3'x6' sheets. My bedroom window is just under 4 feet across, and my living room window is two of those side by side. Since my windows are more than 3' tall, I have a problem. I don't know if my solution was more white-trash or inspired handiness, but it worked for the bedroom.

I measured the window and used superglue to connect pairs of the cardboard strips to make them the correct length, then used masking tape to connect two of the sheets. Since the plastic didn't want to fold over properly when I tried to fold the strips into the sheets, I had to use folded-over masking tape to hold the strips to the sheets before rolling them in.

Now I have to go out and try to find a set with a larger sheet, or cobble another set together for a 8' by 4'6" window.

All in all, it wasn't too bad, just time-consuming. The pride and accomplishment of doing a home repair project, regardless of how simple, was well worth it. I can already feel a difference in temperature when I walk into the room. Since I only use a portable electric heater, this should really cut my electricity use down even further, even if I end up needing to turn on one of the baseboard units.

 

<a class="postlink" href="http://www.wdlockwood.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">www.wdlockwood.com/</a>

Follow these links: Products, Water Stain, Concentrated. Boom, colors galore. The water stain can be a little tricky - here's the deal:

Mix the stain as per instructions, HOT water. Two rags, saturated. Wring one out, but don't make it totally dry. With a piece this size, it might be a two-person job if you're inexperienced. The most important thing is to apply the stain very wet and never let the fresh edge dry - you shouldn't ever have to apply stain to an already stained area that isn't still wet. So - one person uses the wet rag, liberally applying the stain, fast and wet. The other follows behind with the "dry" rag, soaking up all the excess as you go. You'll probably have to wring it out a time or two along the way.

If you apply wet stain to dry stain, you'll get lap lines, that overlap will be darker than the adjacent areas, that's why you're doing it this way.

Super important tip number two: When you've reached the end with the "dry" rag, you'll see that the stain is soaking in at a variable rate all over the piece, and it will look like hell. DO NOT TOUCH IT. Don't try to fix it, don't try to touch it up - what it is right now is as good as it can possibly be, given however you applied the stain. It does not get better from here, only worse. Stop, and let it dry. It will even out as it dries. Trust it.

Don't apply finish over that for 24 hours, to make sure it's totally dry. If you want to make it darker, repeat the entire procedure. If you want to see what it will look like with finish on it (it'll look like chalky hell with just dry stain), apply a bit of denatured alcohol in an unobtrusive spot - where the alcohol is wet, that's what the finish will look like.

Just so you understand, this is a stain (dye, actually), not a finish - those are two separate things. The stain soaks in and gives it the color, the finish (lacquer, polyurethane, varnish, etc.) sits on the surface and protects the piece.

 

So the insurance company might be covering this, I find out for sure later this week. Contractor is going to change the sliding glass door and fix about 18' of wall including two windows below the door.

The deck has to come down/away from the house to do the repair. So I was thinking, rather than have the deck put back up on/against the house, lowering it down about four feet and having stairs down to it. Right now, the part attached to the house is about 5' up, the part farthest away is about 7'-7'6" up. Quite the slope of ground under it. What I'm thinking of doing is relocating the deck down 4' and out 4' to allow light into the windows that are currently hidden under the deck. Currently, there are four 4x4s holding up the front of the deck, and the back is attached (incorrectly) with hangers nailed on to the house. The deck is apparently original from 1978. I figure I can trim down the four 4x4s for the front and add four more 4x4s to the back of the deck to keep it level. If I move the deck, the "front" 4x4s would then be in the middle, so I'll do four additional 4x4s in the front of the deck, so my roughly 12 x 18 deck would then be supported by 12 4x4s. Overkill? Probably.

Anyway, does anyone see any drawbacks or issues with this plan?

 

Thanks to everyone who sent me encouraging reps, replies with advice, and PM's with advice. Seriously, your encouragement gave me a lot of confidence to give this a shot.

I ended up finding an awesome oak armoire on craigslist on the cheap. I decided tonight to take just one of the shelves out of it, and try sanding that down and restaining it. Figuring that if I screw the shelf up beyond repair I could give up on the idea and at least have the oak armoire to give my wife as a craft organizer.

Here is the shelf as it came:


After about an hour with 50 grit on it (during which I did take a lot of breaks to blow dust off and just kind of stop and see what I was doing):


Finished sanding with I think 240 and wiped things down:


Stained and wiped back down... I think I may have wiped the excess stain up too quickly, but I'm not really sure. I'm totally open to thoughts, suggestions, anything y'all might have to say.




It's obviously going to take me an incredibly long time to sand the rest of this thing down the way I'm going at it, but I'm kind of afraid of trying to put a stripper on it first... Plus I kind of enjoyed doing it, at least so far.

 

It's looking good! A random orbital sander will make your project a lot easier and faster. You're safe to use stripper on it as long as it's solid wood, but you may find it's just as fast with a sander. Don't forget to use a mask.

 

Okay, I went ahead with the stripper. I am glad I did, things turned out to be a fair amount of work trying to strip and sand. I may have done something wrong with the stripper, as it didn't pull off finish nearly as well as it appears to always do on youtube, but eventually shit got moving.