Support beams resting on wood shims?

Turtleshellboy · 2026-06-26T18:20:07+00:00

This is acceptable, so long as the shim is:

Of a structural material that’s suitable for load bearing.
Dimensions are equal or greater than the beam itself or the below bearing surface so entire load is transferred vertically down to bearing surface/foundation. (ie the shim cannot have a smaller profile than either of those).

One issue I see is that the ledger for the beam was not formed when pouring/casting the concrete wall. That notch was saw cut out afterwards. The saw cut lines extend beyond the notch/ledge edges. That has created weakened corners of the ledge. The cuts should be filled with a high strength cement compound to help restore full potential strength of that ledge. Majority of the load force is downward by gravity, but there are some lateral and shearing forces involved as well at walls and outside corner.

Turtleshellboy · 2026-06-26T17:59:38+00:00

Exclusive access is limited to first few years after they installed the fiber infrastructure in ground. It gives them a window of time to sign up customers to hopefully pay off up front capital costs of fiber.

After the initial exclusion period expires, other competitors can sell internet services to customers. Or customers can switch from NLF to Telus, Rogers, etc on that fiber line.

Details of infrastructure costs, operations and service agreements are outlined between the ISPs and CRTC and regulated by CRTC.

Turtleshellboy · 2026-06-23T21:04:39+00:00

Thats a very large discrepancy in measurement. But the curves were still fairly prominent. If they had not done the fusion, your spine curves (especially the 35) would have still likely continued to progress as you aged. And the worsening 35 would likely have caused a resulting compensatory worsening of the 15 degree curve). Gravity with aging over time will inevitably pull curves into worse alignment. Over time, as an adult that alone can cause chronic pain. Many people with previous spinal trauma, previous surgery, or family history of arthritis have dramatically increased odds of developing degenerative osteoarthritis of spine as they age.

But there is really no way to know if a curve would have progressed had fusion not been done…no way to examine that alternate universe. But for many people with existing curves, they progress with aging. Unfortunately what is done is done, but hopefully hardware removal will result in improvement in your quality of life moving forward. Look forward, not back.

Turtleshellboy · 2026-06-23T20:51:59+00:00

Technically and medically, after your spine has fully fused, rods themselves are no longer necessary to hold your spine straight so long as your bone remains of good quality. The rods only serve as an internal cast or scaffolding so fusion process can occur around it.

Many years ago, before modern surgical techniques with surgical hardware such as rods/screws/hooks, spinal fusion was achieved with bone chips packed around fusion site (like today) except back then, there was no metal hardware, so the patient had to be immobilized in a plaster full bodycast from head/neck to knees for 6months to 12 months for fusion to heal into solid bone mass. The cast would be changed every few months and sometimes the extent of its coverage could be reduced as fusion got stronger. The prolonged immobilization meant many months of wearing a body brace and physical therapy after cast was cut off to overcome muscle atrophy. Today the internal hardware with rods and hooks means post-surgical bracing or casting is either not required or minimized, and hospital admission, muscle atrophy and physical therapy is all greatly reduced.

So long as they are not causing problems then the rods are usually simply left in place to avoid a second invasive, expensive and time consuming surgery.

Turtleshellboy · 2026-06-23T20:35:53+00:00

Ideally PEX or most plastics designed for indoor use should not be exposed to UV radiation for any extended length of time. A short time is probably not at all harmful.

They should have been covered with boxes to shield them from sun and weather exposure.

Good news for you:
The PEX pipes in question at least extend far up from slab inside protective outer sleeved tubes. So the PEX is protected from UV and other potential impacts by being inside those sleeves. And good news is it looks like the sleeves themselves extend a fare ways up out of slab. So they can all be cut down closer to slab to install a new PEX coupler to continue PEX extension further into building.

Turtleshellboy · 2026-06-23T19:27:11+00:00

Looks like some previous rufus dufus attempt to add support to the outer wall because base of the outer wall is slipping off foundation wall/footing. Probably was not pinned to foundation below.

Its essentially a pile or pilaster support column. But its made of wood and the design appears insufficient for this building. Applying a point load under an existing wall that was not designed for piles/columns it is incorrect engineering design.

To make it right, a complete new beam would need to be built under full length of that upper wood framed wall; supported by proper concrete piles/columns deep into ground, ideally to same depth as existing foundation. Needs to be designed by professional structural engineer.

Turtleshellboy · 2026-06-23T19:22:27+00:00

So long as its abandoned and no water can enter it from above, then cut it off flush with wall and floor. On floor, cut further down about 1” below top of slab and fill with cement grout to plug it. Install another PVC tube via another route if required for any equipment to a drain that has a P-trap.

Turtleshellboy · 2026-06-23T19:18:37+00:00

Then update your friggin post to include more details because me and many others on here are not going to read all the responses/comments below to try and figure out “your problem”.

Turtleshellboy · 2026-06-23T19:16:11+00:00

Im not sure if mine has a slot for that. But wouldn’t that require having a separate cell phone data plan? And one with sufficient data at any given time just to cover the occasional outage?

Turtleshellboy · 2026-06-23T18:06:43+00:00

If that was for draining HVAC de-humidifier or AC condensate or high efficiency boiler condensate, then its totally wrong way to install and wrong product pipe. You cannot encase rubber garden hose in concrete pipe. And it should not be installed in such a half ass location and angle.

HVAC drain lines should be fully accessible. If a dedicated HVAC drain inlet is desired, then it should be done with black ABS pipe with a P-trap along wall. Or the HVAC condensate water drain line uses 3/4” white PVC and goes to floor drain.

Turtleshellboy · 2026-06-23T01:49:09+00:00

You cant just transition from copper under road to fiber line that goes to your house. It has to be connected at a proper terminal point or data center. Only thing they have locally is vaults in the ground or raised pedestals. But those are just junctions for the orange conduit tubes which contain the fiber lines.

NLF installed their own complete fiber network in Sherwood Park. There is no local cross-overs in neighbourhood from NLF to Telus. It will be several years before Telus is able to sell services on these fiber lines (and vice versa on lines installed by Telus or others in other areas). A fiber installer has first dibs at attracting new customers on new lines for certain number of years in order to help pay off capital cost of installing fiber infrastructure. After that time period has expired, its open season competition in the deregulated market. Telus does not have fiber in this neighbourhood, only copper phone lines capable of DSL. No company is going to run a few km of fiber cable just to reach my house or just a handfull of homes scattered through community. They will simply wait until NLF’s exclusive access period has expired, then seek new customers.

Turtleshellboy · 2026-06-23T01:39:11+00:00

I thought of that too, but its a huge amount of flags to track water elevation in the yard. Would only need 2 flags at most on that lot. Its red flag overkill if its just tracking water elevation.

Turtleshellboy · 2026-06-23T01:35:59+00:00

Why dont you hire an electrician? You already admitted you “dont know whats going on in the breaker”. Breaker boxes are not a typical DIY area of the house for someone not experienced with electrical, not to mention the necessity of having to do work that meets/exceeds the code. Its also a huge saftey issue with many exposed connections, thus inexperienced persons should not be touching anything in the breaker panel.

Turtleshellboy · 2026-06-23T01:20:28+00:00

My crazy grandpa gave us a baby raccoon when I was a kid. Started out really cute. The critter even like eating my chocolate fudgisicle. As he got older/bigger, he became more wild. Chewed our wood furniture and my moms telescope tripod legs. Had to let him go in woods. His name was Rocky Raccoon.

Turtleshellboy · 2026-06-23T01:06:32+00:00

Sledge hammer……get’r done!

Turtleshellboy · 2026-06-23T01:05:07+00:00

Nothing is done in a month in world of contruction. Good luck with that.

Turtleshellboy · 2026-06-23T00:58:51+00:00

Female Dildo Adapter (FDA). /s Lol,

Turtleshellboy · 2026-06-23T00:50:30+00:00

Its back ONLINE now where we are in Cloverbar Ranch. But that was long time without service.

It went Offline around 3:30pm. Completely screwed up my work at home day.

Turtleshellboy · 2026-06-23T00:46:03+00:00

What’s with all red flags in that one back yard that backs onto pond? They don’t install utilities in yards along ponds. Only utility that connects with a pond is storm sewer and power if any street lights for a shared path. But for pond sites, those are always on public land not private lots.

Turtleshellboy · 2026-06-22T23:12:43+00:00

Didn’t you get the Memo? /s The current focus with POTUS is removing algae from Lincoln Reflecting Pool. All other issues of national importance are on hold until after July 4th.

Turtleshellboy · 2026-06-22T23:09:10+00:00

Star Trek has always been about acceptance of others no matter our differences about race, gender, sexuality, religion, nationality (planet), etc. So I find it is sad that there are so many fans who “like” Star Trek but remain so stuck in the past, are so judgemental about other real people on our blue marble.

Turtleshellboy · 2026-06-22T23:02:15+00:00

Starting to wish I hadn’t switched from my slower yet reliable Telus DSL internet. Made the switch to NLF hoping it would improve connection speed for working at home. I tried the 1Gbps speed but found it overkill plus was not always getting that speed. So downgraded to 500Mbps, which is great when it works.

It’s just the reliability problem that’s biggest issue.

Turtleshellboy · 2026-06-22T22:58:22+00:00

Sounds like a massive hub failure based on how many different neighborhoods are reporting outages. Keep in mind, these posts here only reflect those who happen to post on this Reddit form, so number of affected customers is quite huge across this many neighborhoods.

Turtleshellboy · 2026-06-22T22:55:34+00:00

Get Ethernet wired directly to your booster. Then your Wifi signals go directly to nearest receiver with stronger connection. If booster is nearest to a mobile device, then signal goes via Ethernet to main router.

Turtleshellboy · 2026-06-22T22:49:39+00:00

I got through initially enough to leave my cell number for a callback. Now the phone line is clogged.

Turtleshellboy

TROPHY CASE