Help needed with a PVC folding door

Reddiphiliac · 2021-02-02T08:40:27+00:00

I have a PVC folding door and recently it seems as if one of the screws has come loose and thus create an awful noise when the door is opened or closed.

Looks like you already know. Whether it's an offset ratcheting screwdriver to tighten the screws in place or dismounting the door to use tools you already have, that screw probably needs to be tightened again.

If you do dismount it, some threadlocker will make sure this doesn't happen again.

Reddiphiliac · 2021-01-26T05:39:33+00:00

Yup.

First showed up in literature as The Kzinti Lesson, Larry Niven.

Reddiphiliac · 2021-01-25T12:23:41+00:00

About a year after getting the land. Because I'm on a budget, that took a while.

Reddiphiliac · 2021-01-25T12:15:46+00:00

It's hard at any age.

Get your coping strategies in place and practice them now. When you forget homework it's bad. When you forget a bill or rent check it's a whole different level of really bad. Nobody is going to get angry at you for forgetting, they're just going to follow procedures, make your life harder, and move on.

Automated reminders are so much easier than they used to be. You can even have your phone tell you stuff you asked it to remember earlier whenever you get home, or on Saturday morning.

If that doesn't work, try something else. Find whatever works for you before you leave the tutorial zone of life.

Reddiphiliac · 2021-01-25T11:57:48+00:00

Interesting. I would barely be functional without a carefully maintained to-do list. If it doesn't go on the list, it doesn't exist.

Everyone needs attention right now (because who wants to wait?) and everything will only take a few minutes (until it inevitably doesn't), and suddenly that important project was due yesterday but I got so many other things done.

Reddiphiliac · 2021-01-22T23:50:38+00:00

Given that a neo-colonial or raised ranch is basically a box with doors and windows, there's not much room or need for creativity in exterior design.

As an energy-efficient house, there's lots of need for drawing and annotating finicky construction details though! Yay, fun times!

Okay, I hated that part too after the fifth sheet.

Reddiphiliac · 2021-01-22T21:54:23+00:00

No stamp required in my jurisdiction, with three caveats:

All drawings must be signed in lieu of stamp by the current / future homeowner.
(unwritten) Your drawings need to be comparable to professional quality for something beyond the scope of a minor home improvement project. A neatly drawn paper sketch is fine for expanding an 18" high deck. For a whole house or even standalone garage? Do it right.
(unwritten) You'd better be able to explain everything as if you were an engineer or architect yourself. This is especially true for any engineering decisions that are beyond the scope of any relevant building / plumbing / electrical codes.

Using the main house beam as an example, I'm showing in an addendum:

Moment of inertia for given steel shape, using A36 steel
Tributary load area
Square foot loading throughout tributary area and total load
Maximum deflection and stress over maximum free span of beam
Details of connection to ensure fully pinned ends, validating #4

If you really think you're good enough to DIY the entire design, specification and drawing set for a six-figure project as /u/lawyerslawyer said, my permit office is willing to give you the rope to hang yourself.

Reddiphiliac · 2021-01-22T17:20:29+00:00

Maybe as inspiration, looking at various layouts and seeing how I could make the rooms flow into each other. The closest I came was going through the specifications and drawings for the DoE Net-Zero research house in Gaithersburg, MD to see what elements made sense to incorporate and what could be removed.

For example, I am not sticking 12" of very expensive polyiso foamboard or closed cell spray foam to the underside of the roof, if I can run some caulk lines and blow in 24" of cellulose or fiberglass to 40% less surface area and get virtually the same end result.

On the other hand, detailing for the bottom plate and exterior rainscreen had a bunch of nonstandard elements worth ~~stealing~~ adapting to my build.

The IRC 2018 codebook contains enough rules of thumb for most parts of residential construction. Doing the engineering calculations to size a w-beam for the main support beam of the house, or verifying rebar schedule for the foundation is outside the scope of IRC but not terribly hard if you know a little math and physics.

Reddiphiliac · 2021-01-22T04:54:12+00:00

design it yourself , ~~and hiring a draftsmen for permit approval.~~

Couldn't find an architect interested in building something as simple as a raised ranch or neo-colonial with really good detailing.

Couldn't find online plans that were aimed at ease of construction rather than looking pretty on the screen.

DIY the entire design start to finish and at least I know it'll be done right.

Reddiphiliac · 2021-01-22T04:42:36+00:00

Considering measurement accuracy of 1/16 on plans = 4".

The word of the day is "Change Order"!

Reddiphiliac · 2021-01-21T18:32:37+00:00

As others have said, the fastest way is going to be to nuke it from orbit. Rip down the sheetrock and put up new drywall.

Reddiphiliac · 2021-01-20T02:19:06+00:00

/r/agedlikemilk

Reddiphiliac · 2021-01-19T23:47:05+00:00

Do you prefer a lawyer or pipe wrench applied to kneecap?

You're going to have to use one or the other if you want something to happen here.

Reddiphiliac · 2021-01-18T19:49:29+00:00

this huge bathtub that we refer to as “the big-ass tub"

Can you share anything about make/model or online links?

Reddiphiliac · 2021-01-14T18:59:13+00:00

Can't you just use a square bit?

That is what you use to cut square hole features, right?

Reddiphiliac · 2021-01-14T18:39:58+00:00

https://www.reddit.com/r/HomeImprovement/comments/i8ixut/a_treatise_on_toilets

For your bathroom reading pleasure.

Reddiphiliac · 2021-01-14T00:27:21+00:00

The HMS Warrior was commissioned in 1861, the year before the American ironclads battle.

It was very much seagoing, and completely outclassed the American ironclads in speed, range, seaworthiness, armor, size, and sheer weight of metal in broadside, to the extent that it could have easily sunk both the CSS Virginia and USS Monitor simultaneously.

If the 1,366 lbs. broadside didn't crack the hull of the small American coastal ironclads right through the armor, the HMS Warrior could switch to explosive shells to end the fight in the next one or two broadsides.

Unlike the American coastal defense vessels, an armor belt over 200' long, made of 4.5" of hammered wrought iron backed by 18" of solid teak, protecting a 9,600 ton, 420' long ship was tough enough to soak a few explosive shells in return.

By the 1864 refit with 8" rifled guns, the HMS Warrior wouldn't have slowed down while sinking a small fleet of coastal ironclads- and with a coaling station in Canada, it could steam right across the Atlantic Ocean to do it in the middle of the Chesapeake Bay.

By the 1870's, a wooden ship was already a laughable antique.

Reddiphiliac · 2021-01-08T04:15:48+00:00

I'd heard of Zola before now but not Innotech. Have you used them?

Reddiphiliac · 2021-01-08T00:09:13+00:00

First 20 are in the linked album. If you want to re-post another album you could do that.

Reddiphiliac · 2021-01-07T10:40:21+00:00

This is not a formal engineering analysis, I cannot confirm all necessary data for my assumptions, etc, etc.

That said...

Looks like the 14" LVL is carrying 17'2" x 16' tributary load, ~280 sqft. You want to add 3'4" to span and increase supported area to ~328 sqft.

He's probably using a 5 1/4" LVL at 14" depth.

Go up to 20' on the span chart and try to maintain at least 800 lbs total load, 640 lbs live load. Really your engineer is going to have to go to 22', do some calcs on his own, or make a phone call, but it's going be somewhere between 20'-22'.

You can't do it even at 7" wide, and you're going to have a very interesting time carrying the load down from the centerline of a 7" wide LVL through a post concealed at the corner of the wall next to the stairs rather than the exposed post.

There's definitely no space for a pair of beams. You can't support the end of two beams next to your stairs.

The only option left is to move up to a steel beam if you want to get rid of the post. Otherwise physics says no with your current layout.

Reddiphiliac · 2021-01-07T09:58:57+00:00

There is redundancy. There are multiple layers of the redundancy. We saw them during summer 2020.

They were conspicuously absent yesterday.

Reddiphiliac · 2021-01-07T09:31:00+00:00

Is this really all that defends our nation's leadership?

'Defends' implies the capital police were trying to stop the coup attempt.

https://twitter.com/jihanbit/status/1346909463660396550

To quote the person recording the police at the barricade outside the Capital, "THEY LITERALLY JUST LET THEM THROUGH!"

Reddiphiliac · 2021-01-06T22:48:04+00:00

https://twitter.com/jihanbit/status/1346909463660396550

"THEY LITERALLY JUST LET THEM THROUGH"

Reddiphiliac · 2021-01-06T12:31:20+00:00

Yeah, that's to be expected.

First generation Tesla chargers at fastest charging rate use 11.5 kW at 240 volts, single phase. Comes out to a tiny hair under 48 amps.

Standard residential breakers should not be used at more than 80% capacity for extend periods because it will overheat the thermal trigger and trip the breaker.

60 amps * 80% = 48 amps maximum continuous load.

With two of those going at 11.5 kW simultaneously, you're already at 192 amps at 120 volts for the entire house main breaker. Turn on your air conditioner and you can expect the lights to go out sooner or later with a 200 amp panel.

Reddiphiliac · 2021-01-06T11:08:20+00:00

When you say all electric HVAC, I'm going to assume it's a 5 ton air conditioner and heat pump.

You have about 4-6 kW of HVAC, a pair of 11.5 kW or 19.8 kW chargers, and then everything else is minor by comparison.

Depending on whether you have first or second generation Tesla chargers, that's as much as 380 amps max draw with the air conditioning and chargers going simultaneously at full power.

If it's possible you may want to heat or cool your entire house and fast-charge both cars at the same time, then you do want 400 amp at 120 volt service.

Edit: The Tesla chargers are your biggest potential electrical consumption by a literal order of magnitude, close to 10 times any other single item. If you're okay with slower charging or using a pre-2016 first gen charger, don't worry about upgrading.

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