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My wife used to rent a commercial ionizer when she was a realtor. It ‘oxidizes’ the smoke particles that have settled on everything. The good ones are powerful enough that you need to leave the house while it’s running.
The typical ionizer puts out MUCH LESS. I think they’d work eventually, but there’s nothing like getting rid of most all of it at once.
Contact the rental places and see what they recommend.1 & 2) bad faucet or blockage in the hot water line:
Under the sink, turn off the hot water valve. Turn the sink faucet all the way to hot, all the way on. You should get nothing out of the faucet at this point. If not, the faucet is bad (it’s leaking from the cold supply side). Turn the hot valve on, and you should now get full flow. If not, the hot line is blocked.3) your sink hot supply is plumbed to cold instead of to hot:
If you’re getting hot in the bathroom but not in the kitchen sink, even after letting the hot water run for several minutes, it points towards this. If the plumbers used white poly pipe to the valve under the sink, it’s easy for them to have made this mistake. Thats why I like red and blue poly.Hard to guess on this one… possibly the hot water is shut off under the sink? If you have a single handle faucet, it might be easy to miss this unless you turn the handle all the way to the hot side.
Yes. They’re a mixture of several flammable gasses (propane, isobutane, etc).
Sound like a bad idea? Wouldn’t want something flammable in the A/C?
Well, sorry, but you already have that condition. The oil charge in your R22 A/C is very flammable, specially if sprayed out in a stream or as a mist. When I was younger and smarter, I used to get a 25′ stream of flame from that type of oil.
Is a hydrocarbon coolant more of a fire risk than R22? Yes and no. The tests I’ve looked at show it’s REALLY HARD to get the right conditions to cause a problem. A slow leak is no problem, since you’ll never get to the percentage air/fuel mixture to ignite. Tests where they intentionally tried to start a fire, at worst, caused small short-lived flames.
In Germany, A/C techs have been surreptitiously replacing R22 with propane for many years. It’s a whole lot cheaper, and reportedly works better.
If you wade thru all the hype and hyperbole, it looks like the stuff works, works dang well, and is safe.
If anybody’s tried it, or has more opinions, please let me know.
GFI checks that the current in the hot wire and the return wire are the same. If not, it trips. For each outlet, even with this more confusing wiring, they’ll be fine.
If you were considering adding a GFCI breaker instead of outlets, the picture is a lot more convoluted, and I can think of cases where this doubling up of return current on one wire would cause problems and false trip.
Honed granite is very popular with upscale homes. I think it looks great.
It is possible to scratch granite with carbide, other granite, and such, and the honed finish helps hide such scratches.
I usually use short nose needlenose pliers, the type with grooves cut in the face. I also like needlenose vice grips, but they’re probably too thick to fit where you need them.
An alternative is to drill out the top of the screw head, open the door, grab the remaining part of the screw with pliers. Helps to have a sharp drill bit and a steady hand.
For replacement, helps to have other toys to scavenge one from. A very tiny button head wood screw may also work.Before I installed my first door, I watched a videotape on the subject from the local library. It emphasized how to shim the sides, how to get things square, and seal and weatherproof the door.
I’ve done 5 exterior doors now in the past 2 weeks. The video was most helpful.
Point of note: put the finishing nails in so there’s still enuf head exposed that you can still easily remove them. Check with a level, and adjust things till they’re close to perfect. Check gaps on the top and bottom of the door that they’re even. Check that the door closes smoothly. THEN and only then drive the finishing nails in the rest of the way.
Whether you’re 6′ tall or 3′ tall, you’ll want help when you first set the door in place and start to fasten it so it won’t fall. The rest you can do without help.
The self leveling concrete would guarantee that it’d be level when it’s done. If that’s what you want, great. I’d want just a tad more slope to it than that, so when it gets wet, it drains. Points away from self leveling. The new concrete needs to be at least 3″ thick at the thinnest end, although there are ways make it thinner.
The cheapest solution is… you guessed it… ear plugs.
OK, that wasn’t funny.
The best most efficient soundproofing alternates dense and lightweight materials. You don’t want to tear down walls (I assume even removing drywall is out of the question), so the next best is to alternate something lightweight (sheet styrofoam, for instance) and another layer of drywall. Could all be fastened with construction adhesive, or carefully with a minimal # of drywall screws. That much should cut it down to where you can’t hear her talk, but could still hear her scream (that’s how I picture her in my mind, anyway).
My first experience with new seed was similar. I couldn’t believe how aggressive the weeds were compared to the grass sprouts. Somehow, those weeds liked all the new wet conditions.
There’s a chance your grass will still take off. Once it’s healthy, any you’re mowing it, it’ll tend to choke out most of the other weeds. Crabgrass can be taken care of, eventually, with crabgrass treatment. That’s what I did, and it turned out OK.
A guaranteed way to solve it is, as suggested, to treat all with Roundup, and wait a few weeks for it to dissipate. I don’t think you’ll need new topsoil. A second time around, you’ll still have a few odd weeds germinate that blew in or for a number of other reasons didn’t germinate last time. But, that should be drastically less weeds.
They say the Ribbon elements are faster than traditional radiant. Supposed to be about as fast as Halogen, but cheaper. Anybody know more?
The mikeholt link is excellent.
I’d seen local codes that did limit the number for residential, and had forgotten about it. Most I looked at didn’t; mine doesn’t. Also noticed that some local codes exempt smoke detectors from the AFCI rqmt.
Personally, I don’t agree with the AFCI requirement. GFCI’s make a lot of sense and clearly have saved lives, but the AFCI justification is more convoluted. I’m doing it, though, since it’s in the code. Maybe if the AFCI breakers ever get cheap, I won’t care.
to have more than one breaker servicing a room. No hard fast requirement, just personal preferences. For my case, I think I can adjust things to split 2 AFCI breakers so each services half of 2 bedrooms.
AFCI breakers are in the 2002 NEC for all bedroom power. I’d guess they’d like to eventually require them everywhere. Hope the cost comes down… they’re a bit more pricey than GFCI breakers.
