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Fuck Bob Vila... the Home Repair Thread

Discussion in 'Permanent Threads' started by Nettdata, Jan 16, 2010.

  1. Nettdata

    Nettdata
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    Mr. Toast

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    I hear you. I spent about 5 years building furniture out of cedar to realize that i love it for big, timber-sized projects, but hated it for smaller, more detailed projects. Hardwood makes ALL the difference.
     
  2. SouthernIdiot

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    That's what she said.
     
  3. GTE

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    That looks almost like hickory in those pics but I'm more familiar with birds eye maple than curly maple.

    I built European cabinetry all through my teens and into my early 20's and swore off wood. Other than a super cheap chop saw I had to buy, I have zero wood working tools. You guys are making me miss it a bit.
     
  4. Fiveslide

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    Our house doesn't have a dishwasher, I think I'm going to remedy that today. I don't think it's going to be a big deal, but those words have certainty bitten me in the ass before. The cabinetry already has a dishwasher space, I just have to remove one filler cabinet that is in that spot. It's not wired for a dishwasher, but I just have to bring power straight down a couple of feet from the outlet above the space. Typical plumbing mods needed.

    This will be second one I've installed, but the first time I've had to run the wiring myself, the first house was pre-wired. And I've removed and reinstalled half a dozen at the apartments for repair.

    Thinking of going with this one...

    https://www.lowes.com/pd/GE-55-Deci...-24-in-Actual-23-75-in-ENERGY-STAR/5001495713

    It doesn't match our other white appliances, but it's getting near time to start upgrading them anyway.

    I'm excited, fuck hand washing dishes! I swear, I'll wash them and nobody will eat a fucking thing and the sink will be full again in a couple hours. Like my wife and kid are hiding dishes, gaslighting me by bringing them out when there should be no dirty dishes.
     
  5. GTE

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    Fuck not having a dishwasher. First place I moved to when I was a teen didn't have one. Never again.

    Do you have a garbage disposal? If so, make sure that you knock out the drain blocker thingy. Also make sure that you don't pull power from the disposal or you will only have power when the disposer is running. I've had many a client call me that their brand new dishwasher was DOA only to flip the switch and it turns on.
     
  6. Nettdata

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    I highly recommend getting a leak tray for under it. That way any leaks come out the front of it so you know it’s happening rather than it just soaking everything behind the cabinets that you can’t see for years and it rots everything out.

    Learned that one the hard way.
     
  7. Fiveslide

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    Nah, no disposal. The breaker panel is on the other side of an adjacent wall, so it would probably be just as easy to put it on its own breaker as it would to pull power from an outlet above.

    Plans may get put on hold for a day. The trailer I was pulling to Lowes, its wheel bearing can apart on me. Just picked up a new hub and bearings. On the way to fix it.

    That is good advice.
     
  8. Nettdata

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    Spend the $30 up front so it saves you the thousands in mold abatement later. Again, ask me how I know.
     
  9. dixiebandit69

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    Okay guys, I promised y'all some pipe porn, and here it is! (this will be two posts long.)

    So to start off, the whole reason I had to do all of this is because the original builder used PVC pipe under the house (but copper pipes inside the house... Strange, to say the least.)
    I wanted to get rid of all the plastic pipe from start to finish, so I got a 1" copper fitting for the water meter, and started from there:

    KIMG0523[1] - Water meter.jpg

    That was no small amount of concrete I had to dig under; I originally considered breaking through it, but I realized how deep it was and it was FULL of rebar.
    So I dug under it, and I still had to cut out some rebar.
    Here's how it looks from the other side (and you can see one of the faucet lines I added.)
    KIMG0526[1] - Main line - concrete.jpg

    From there, I laid about thirty feet of pipe (heh heh) to my second obstacle: the foundation of the house. I was afraid that I was going to have to cut through a section of it, but after clearing some grass away, I found a drainage pipe leading from the front yard to the backyard. I ran the pipe through that twelve foot passage. Note the copper elbow in the dirt: I didn't like the way the soldering turned out on that one, and I didn't feel like disassembling it, cleaning it, and resoldering it, so I just used a new one. I had bought one of those big contractor packs, anyway.
    KIMG0514[1] - under the concrete.jpg

    Here it is on the other side. Some mushrooms started growing on some dead tree roots in the freshly dug trench.
    KIMG0515[1] - Mushrooms.jpg

    To give you some idea as to how long that trench is, here it is from the other side:
    Fun fact: that's the box-van I bought for $500!

    KIMG0513[1] - Side of house - van.jpg
     
    #489 dixiebandit69, Mar 14, 2021
    Last edited: Mar 14, 2021
  10. Nettdata

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    Nice job! That's a lot of work.
     
  11. dixiebandit69

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    Now onto the other side of the house, where things start getting hairy.

    This is the trench at the back of the house. You can see one of the extra faucets added, and if you look really closely behind the big sewer vent pipe, you'll see the propane line. I spent about an hour carefully digging out that section with a hand trowel.
    KIMG0512[1] - Gas line.jpg

    I'd say this was the hardest part of the job: Cutting through the foundation to hook the new pipes up to the house water lines.
    I bought a diamond grinding wheel to cut through ten feet of concrete. I borrowed a friend's portable air compressor and air-chisel to break it all up, I'd like to have gone a couple of inches deeper, but that was some hard-ass-fucking concrete, and it took me about six hours to get this done. Here's how the beginning looks; that smaller pipe to the left is for another added-on faucet:
    KIMG0516[1] - Concrete cut 2.jpg

    Here's the second half, with the new 90-degree COCK VALVE soldered in. In case you're wondering about that little capped-off stub, that's for a toilet that is just out of frame; I'll hook it up later.
    KIMG0517[1] - Concrete cut.jpg

    After I got everything soldered together, I had to test it out before hooking it up to the water meter; otherwise, I might have had to do with NO WATER for a day or so. I I pieced together some PVC fittings and some 3/4" heater hose, pressurized it, AND NO FUCKING LEAKS.
    I'm pretty proud of this; I grew up watching my dad do all of his own plumbing (he was a PVC man to the end, though), and I hope he would be proud of me.
    KIMG0524[1] - Test rig.jpg
     
  12. Nettdata

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    I just look at all that and bow my head in jealousy for someone who doesn't live in a winter climate and the inherent "frost heave".
     
  13. dixiebandit69

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    One last thing I want to mention is that I'll be filling those trenches about halfway through with gravel to avoid corrosion on the copper, and also to help you access the pipes easier if you ever need to do anything to them.
    Another thing my dad used to do.
     
  14. GTE

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    My hat's off to you Dixie. That is a hell of an undertaking. I am way too fat, old and lazy to attempt that on my own. Great job sir.
     
  15. wexton

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    Or the fact that you can have exposed copper or it buried a foot or less under ground.
     
  16. Nettdata

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    I know... it's hard to look at that and not think "well, I'll have to do that again next year after it blows up this winter."
     
  17. Fiveslide

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    Got my dishwasher and all my installation supplies today. I'll document the process in case it is something some of you want to do in the future.

    The reason I didn't get everything Saturday. \/


    Screenshot_20210315-143310.png
     
  18. Nettdata

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    Ha... it took me way longer than I want to admit to get past "that tire doesn't look flat..." Then I saw the bearing rollers. "Ahhhh... yeah..."

    Hopefully you found that out before you ended up hauling ass down the road!
     
  19. wexton

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    Dude, that is just air cooled bearings.
     
  20. Revengeofthenerds

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    I live a few hours north of him and I got the willies just looking at it for that reason. We just finished fixing the floors and dry wall and pipes in our house from a copper pipe fun-plosion during the snowpocalypse.

    any copper piping that gets replaced is replaced with pex tubing now