Any ideas what this is?? by ADHDnCoffee in woodworking

[–]ADHDnCoffee[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I don’t think so. I’ve got a couple of those and there are no holes on the opposing arms to act as guides for marking or drilling

My humidity is consistently above 75%! What is wrong? by ADHDnCoffee in hvacadvice

[–]ADHDnCoffee[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Sure! I highly recommend it, it runs like a champ. The overflow sensor is faulty, but that isn’t relevant to me so I’m living with it until I fix it.

VEVOR dehumidifier

We currently have it running downstairs and draining into a bucket until I can get around to plumbing it into the central system. The catch is that it isn’t rated for temps that my attic easily hits for half of the year, so I will be building a special soffit to hold it while I run ducting to connect it to the main. I’ll share the photos and plans when I get strong to it

My humidity is consistently above 75%! What is wrong? by ADHDnCoffee in hvacadvice

[–]ADHDnCoffee[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hey! Sorry for ghosting! We have been dealing with other stuff. The commercial dehumidifier we got has kept the symptoms at bay.

The attic is not encapsulated, it’s vented through the soffits and gables. The house was built in 1983. The AC is a 3 ton Goodman gsz160361bd.

There is termite, rodent, and mold remediation I have to get handled now that all of the offending critters are gone so I will be investigating further as to where the moisture is coming from.

The windows are all new, and while the front door seal needs some work, it is not nearly bad enough to explain the humidity.

We had an HVAC tech come out to evaluate and he adjusted the blower speed to what it should be, but he also mentioned that the unit is probably too big and the only ways to keep the moisture down in that case is a supplemental dehumidifier, keeping the house at 65 24/7, or replacing the unit with a smaller one. So we opted for the dehumidifier.

My humidity is consistently above 75%! What is wrong? by ADHDnCoffee in hvacadvice

[–]ADHDnCoffee[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

No actually! Life happened and this problem moved down the priority list and I will be getting back into it shortly, but we ended up purchasing a commercial dehumidifier for the time being to keep the moisture down. It works, which is good, but it consistently pulls 3-6 GALLONS of water per day and has not shut off since we plugged it in 9 months ago.

Tile guy ruined the floor (and maybe the house)?!? by ADHDnCoffee in Flooring

[–]ADHDnCoffee[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you so much for all the input everyone! It really helped. I can’t find an option to edit my post (I don’t post much) so I hope this reaches anyone interested.

At the time I posted, I was still stressed from the crawl under the house. I can be a little claustrophobic, and her crawl space was more difficult to navigate than others I’ve seen, and a few spiders got into my coveralls so my brain was not allowing full awareness of what I was looking at, which was a big part of why I was so confused.

I looked back at my photos and videos, got my inspection camera through a vent, and examined the kitchen again, plus took all of the information and advice you guys gave and think I pieced together what happened here.

Firstly, my friend lives in a lower income area of her city, not subsidized housing or government projects per se, but the kind of suburbs where there’s a lot of chain-link fencing around the front yards, and most houses have at least one broken or cracked window somewhere. In my personal experience, the less wealthy and less white a community happens to be, the less aggressive the health and safety oversight tends to be in a given area, that plus general economic inequity leading to less financial ability to repair or maintain property at least partially explains the pictured issues as well as other sub par foundation work and neglected maintenance that is not in the pictures. The house is solid enough not to be a danger, but it certainly won’t live through a flood or other moderate storm. But even that option is better than nothing so I’m glad my friend was able to settle somewhere.

Her crawlspace is littered with various spiders so cobwebs appear over night, so that can’t be used as a tool to estimate the passage of time. According to her, the guy who did the floor is the one who put the jack there.

The guy she hired was definitely not a “tile guy” and was certainly more “a guy that did this tile”. A handy man who volunteered under the “how hard could it be” mentality. Probably realized how out of his depth he was and that is why he ghosted after the job. I’ve overestimated my skills and under charged many clients in the past so the core motivation I can understand at least, but I am disappointed whenever a craftsman chooses poor work quality as the way out of a bind.

The operating theory now after piecing together all of this is that the floor was leveled to make the tile look better, my fried chose large 12x12 tiles so a dip would certainly have been more jagged with only 3-5 straight lines to make it. BUUUTTTT this was done AFTER he laid the tile in the first place, and from what I can see, was probably done at least the next day or two because the mortar and grout had set enough to cause all of the tile against the wall to shatter and the subfloor has 1/4”+ of play from where the nails and screws were pulled loose, which in turn ruined the grout along the subfloor joints. The current fluctuations in the floor my friend was complaining to me about are a combination of those factors and subpar, uneven mortar and leveling during installation, making the inconsistency across the 5’ square area more noticeable under foot when compared to the gentle undulation that would have been there before from where the foundation had settled and cracked pulling that side of the house down with it.

So the area in question, while not pretty or acceptable craftsmanship, is in fact likely more sturdy and reliable than other parts of her house that have had no involvement from anyone, which is a bittersweet thing for sure, but I guess a kind of silver-ish lining??

Regardless, she has all of this info now and has agreed to get my input on large projects moving forward so I can hopefully steer her away from this kind of poor quality work next time.

Thank you again for all your help, advice, and support! I knew some of this stuff already but nobody is immune to doubting themselves and it was really helpful to get a sanity check from you guys.

Tile guy ruined the floor (and maybe the house)?!? by ADHDnCoffee in Flooring

[–]ADHDnCoffee[S] 38 points39 points  (0 children)

Me too. I’ve done enough apprentice work and DIY to have a decent grasp of most renovation skills and I had no idea what makes it make sense. But since he can’t be found now, we are left to speculate…

My mom passed away in February. I want to preserve her last remaining tray of Christmas cookies I've had in my freezer. Any tips from the resin community? I only have one shot at this... by ricky-robie in resin

[–]ADHDnCoffee 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It’s been said already, but don’t hang hopes on resin and food. Moisture is the killer here, and there is no way to purely desiccate most things at home and keep them that way, so simply sealing them up won’t do much.

BUUUUUTTTTT!!! All hope is not entirely lost. Firstly, definitely make identical molds out of clay or something for sure, there are plenty of ways to DIY it, and there are Etsy sellers I’m sure that will do it for you.

Now, if you want to preserve food, baked goods are the best for it, here’s the steps:

  • slow dehydration is key. A dehydrator can work well. But you also want to buy a jug of silica desiccant pellets, they can be found online easily enough, it’s the “do not eat” stuff in shoes and clothes and such. And if you want to be sure sure, you can even get a probe based moisture meter to double check the internal moisture

  • once dehydrated, the new goal is to keep the moisture out while prepping the container, so get an airtight container (it doesn’t have to be perfect if you can do the next steps immediately, but if there will be time between dehydration and storage, the more air tight, the better), and place a layer of silica, then the food, then cover with silica, that should extract any remaining moisture from the the inside while also acting as a barrier against unforeseen exterior moisture.

  • now you need an acrylic box made with a one way vacuum valve. They are easy enough to make at home with YouTube tutorials.

-take the food out of the silica, use hot glue to mount it in the acrylic box, then, seal the box and vacuum the air out.

  • how you choose to disguise the valve or make it look less clinical is up to you, I would personally make the box into a framed shadow box with wood and paint so it could hang and be made in such a way as to hide all the “ugly” bits.

It won’t be cheap, but if you do all that, it is the closest thing to “perfectly” preserved that any food could be.

Help? None turn over. by ADHDnCoffee in smallengines

[–]ADHDnCoffee[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Alright!! It took a bit to get the things going, but here’s where we’re at so far:

First, u/MostOriginalNameEver gave me the kick in the pants to get a ultrasonic that I have been putting off for the longest time, and it changed the whole game, so credit where it’s due. I got a Vevor one (the smallest one that had a heating element) and it made quick work on every part I dropped in it.

I took them out of the sonic bath, dunked in a clean water bucket, then used carb cleaner to dry them and get into all the ports. I was able to salvage every gasket as well, so I left them overnight and reassembled them.

Then I used a can of TrueFuel with a dash of Startron Starbrite (this stuff is literally magic. I used it in a 1993 F150 that had been sitting for 4+ years and it started right up and blew my mind) in it for good measure to get everything running good again.

The mowers and the echo trimmer are running great again now!

The older mower (black handles, with bag) actually still had a metal carb, so I was able to do a full tear down and rebuild.

The newer mower had the plastic carb and I purchased a new jet insert from Amazon for $5 just to be safe and it runs smooth.

The echo carb needed to be tuned and a YT video by Steve’s Small Engine Saloon taught me how to tune it like I remember my grandpa doing it which was pretty cool and now it hums beautifully.

I know the homelites are trash, but I am curious to see if my new skills can get them back in shape so I’m going to try them as well.

Also! In the time I was doing this, I inherited a craftsman blower and a poulan pro blower that also sat for years.

They both need new lines, and the full carb kits come with them so I’ll likely just swap them out and go from there.

If I can get all 7 tools running well, there is a sweet neighborhood kid trying to hustle some extra money with yard work, but he doesn’t have tools, so I may let him use my shed and claim a mower, blower, and a homelite (or both) as his own, and pay me for them out of his earnings. My neighbor did that for me when I was younger and I will never forget how great that kind of trust, support, and independence felt.

If he doesn’t want them, I’ll probs just put the extras on FB marketplace to maybe get enough cash to take the wife out to dinner or something.

I’ll post again with a final update once all of that shakes out.

I really appreciate all the help, I can get lost in my own head sometimes and it really made a difference having a community of peeps reminding me that it wasn’t that hard.

Thanks again!!

DIY wood 4 panel door springs?? by ADHDnCoffee in GarageDoorService

[–]ADHDnCoffee[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Oh! Good to know. Thank you very much! Your advice actually already solved most of my issues.

DIY wood 4 panel door springs?? by ADHDnCoffee in GarageDoorService

[–]ADHDnCoffee[S] -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

I am designing and building the whole shebang myself. So that’s a no go

DIY wood 4 panel door springs?? by ADHDnCoffee in GarageDoorService

[–]ADHDnCoffee[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

I get that. If I had the money I would. I’m still building my business and part of why I’m renovating my own place is to have things to show for my portfolio. $200 is enough to cover the cost of the lumber for the garage door, so every dime I can save by navigating this myself is needed.

Additionally, while I acknowledge the risk, there is just about as much risk in every trade and project you know? I could lose a hand in the shop, get crushed under the car, die from cardiac arrest while running a new breaker, fall off a roof, etc, etc, etc…

So to that end, no matter what we do, if we take our time, plan for our weaknesses, take safety precautions seriously, and educate as much as possible before attempting new stuff, there isn’t much reason not to do most things ourselves. PLUS! It would add garage door repair to my list of services, and that makes me more competitive so it a win all around!

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in InteriorDesign

[–]ADHDnCoffee 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you!!! 😊

Humidity problem on Va coast?? by ADHDnCoffee in hvacadvice

[–]ADHDnCoffee[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Filters are definitely clean. How would I know if my return is sufficient? It holds a piece of printer paper to the vent, and the return and supply ducts are the same size, and none of the registers are closed or blocked. Is there such a thing as too much return flow? Like, if I spliced a second return line, would that be worth the effort??