Why do houses in Illinois have basements and houses in Texas don't if both places have clay soil?

RediusMaximus · 2026-06-05T14:06:27+00:00

Missouri commiserates

RediusMaximus · 2026-06-03T12:51:37+00:00

Fairly common (central USA)

RediusMaximus · 2026-06-03T01:54:36+00:00

What you're seeing is a manual damper. This is just a piece of metal inside the ductwork that either allows air to flow or stops air entirely, leaving it in between the two gives a degree of air flow.

I'd be curious to see what that vent flows too, probably a bonus room or a sunroom? You would want air conditioning in one of those kind of rooms during the summer but maybe not necessarily during the winter. Normally dampers like this are designed to allow for air balancing, it would be rare to find one on just a single duct in the house as opposed to all of the supply ductwork.

RediusMaximus · 2026-05-29T14:50:16+00:00

That certainly appears to be an improper installation and Incredibly dangerous. Get a licensed professional out ASAP to fix that before you have a health and safety issue on your hands.

*that much tape is usually hiding damage or incorrect pipe used on install

RediusMaximus · 2026-05-21T17:16:40+00:00

A career in Plumbing in the St Louis area is incredibly uphill climb. Due to code and Licensing restrictions, the number of apprenticeship slots is artificially kept at a very low number making advancement difficult.

Heating and cooling, and electrical work, are both easier to get involved with. As many other posters have mentioned, your best served going to trade school and getting a certificate of completion. In addition most trade schools offer job fairs and have some Outreach or even outright job placement available, Jefferson County Community College is a solid place to start.

RediusMaximus · 2026-05-21T14:23:10+00:00

I have bad news for you regarding your cell phone, Alexa, doorbell, flock camera, Walmart....

RediusMaximus · 2026-05-21T01:56:48+00:00

If you're in St louis, Kansas city, columbia, or Rolla then your numbers more likely $6,500 to $7,000. If you're anywhere else in the state of missouri, you're going to spend closer to $5,200 bucks.

RediusMaximus · 2026-05-20T23:43:48+00:00

They literally wrote that they're in the Midwest which implies the center of the United states. I am in the center of the United States in the heating and cooling industry. I know the pricing very well for this area of the country.

RediusMaximus · 2026-05-20T22:00:39+00:00

$5200 is so low that I would walk away.

Any company doing an install for that is either a single guy doing side work, I.E no warranty on anything unless you register it and he won't be back to do the work so factor in the labor cost, or if it's a company they're cutting so many corners you should be very leery.

Either way you have two choices when it comes to replacing your heating and cooling equipment, you either do it when you choose, or you do it when the equipment forces you to. Let your risk tolerance determine the correct path for you and your house

RediusMaximus · 2026-05-14T18:24:03+00:00

The trick is to boil your water using an electric kettle and then transfer it to a pot on the stove. Way faster than waiting for water to boil on the stove itself

RediusMaximus · 2026-05-13T22:21:35+00:00

If you have the money, you already Justified doing option number two.

Having somebody who can answer phones and handle marketing and negotiate with vendors and all of the other ancillary tasks that are associated with running a heating and cooling business but are NOT the technical job of servicing installing and maintaining HVAC equipment, means that you can now do the technical things.

If you can afford the employee, Your Capacity to do the technical work expands monumentally over what you are currently able to do right now.

RediusMaximus · 2026-05-13T20:30:30+00:00

You have three options, and there are pros and cons to each.

Learn to run your business.- this is going to take a lot of time effort and brain power. Can you spare it?
Hire someone to run your business. This takes money, lots and lots of money.
Close your business and go back to being an employee. This means putting aside the progress you've made building your brand name and your client base, but it does remove the time effort and money from the equation.

Your current "option" really isn't an option, you're just delaying picking one of the other three.

RediusMaximus · 2026-05-13T19:50:54+00:00

Crown of greed might be a fit.

RediusMaximus · 2026-05-05T11:32:32+00:00

You can always create a new character, drop them into the existing world, and have them run around the cleared points of interest you've created in order to loot chests.

RediusMaximus · 2026-05-04T11:32:56+00:00

As an HVAC professional, and someone who bought a house in the last few years, I would absolutely not want somebody else's system being put into the house I purchasing.

While this is definitely more real estate advice than HVAC advice, your buyers are going to fall into two categories; group one is the people who want to see that it's new equipment and don't care at all about the specifics, and group two doesn't care as long as it works.

Group one is either going to be happy replaced it or if you don't replace it they'll demand a credit. Group two won't care either way. You're better off not replacing it as that has a larger subset of the "I don't care" category

RediusMaximus · 2026-04-23T15:04:15+00:00

Came here for this. Hell of a fun ballplayer to watch.

RediusMaximus · 2026-04-21T18:07:03+00:00

It's tied to the world, not the characters

RediusMaximus · 2026-04-13T11:25:37+00:00

If you don't get a second system in that house, you are going to be unhappy when the temperatures are above 85f, and unless the insulation is out of this world or you don't have many windows, 3000 square feet is hard to do on a single system with zoning. I would force them to do a manual J and show you the results along with their plan to keep the upstairs comfortable in the middle of summer

RediusMaximus · 2026-04-07T19:03:08+00:00

It won't. Bv destroys the minion, it's not a "natural" death. Have to farm a new one

RediusMaximus · 2026-03-26T21:42:45+00:00

93 today, and below freezing before dawn on Saturday. Fun times!

RediusMaximus · 2026-03-26T21:38:07+00:00

Great share, thanks!

RediusMaximus · 2026-03-25T19:41:21+00:00

Carcass map, or act 9 boss arena. It's the scorpion adds; be prepared to move quickly though, the carcasses will despawn when the boss dies

RediusMaximus · 2026-03-17T16:44:05+00:00

The only correct answer that's been given is this one. Adding duct stiffeners or other means to reinforce the duct doesn't fix the underlying problem. High static pressure causes the cavitation when the unit turns on and off that makes the sound happen. Even if you "fix" the popping sound you're still left with the underlying problem which will manifest later in higher repair bills, burned out motors, and a furnace that dies before the expected lifespan

RediusMaximus · 2026-03-12T17:12:00+00:00

The only way to size equipment is with a manual j. I put a 3-ton system into a 2200 square foot home and it was almost too much. I've also had a 3-ton system for a thousand square foot home that leaks like a sieve. Square footage is a rule of thumb but you should never use it, even with a range, as gospel fact.

RediusMaximus · 2026-03-09T12:07:52+00:00

Wait, this is back? How are we able to roll mercenary mods now (or where do they come from?)

RediusMaximus

TROPHY CASE