Enough of COVID...what are you doing to the house? | Page 287 | GTAMotorcycle.com

Enough of COVID...what are you doing to the house?

GreyGhost said:
Next time try to offset seams more and use fewer pieces. You'll have a little more waste but less likely for cracks to come through tile.
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I concur. My bath reno of decades ago only has one seam and the tiles cracked on it. I strongly recommend doing something preventative like anti fracture membrane.

In my case I'm not sure if the problem is due to the seam in the board or the fact that half of my wall is exterior solid masonry and half wood frame.

If you gamble and the wall cracks someone's not going to be happy. Doing it over will be unpleasant. That or a tub surround.
 
Conundrum…we have a corner jacuzzi bath in an upstairs bathroom that was installed 20 years ago when we bought the house. At that time we had a slate floor and the contractor put a false front panel on the surround so we had access to the motor innards/electrical connection. I didn’t pay that much attention then. Fast forward 17 years and we had a heated floor put in that bathroom that needed the slate floor removing and a concrete 1” bed installing for the heating cables, plus the floating floor on top. Fast forward another few years and the bath taps are leaking. The shower head hand hose has a leak and the central water spout outlet has a leak. Luckily they are just dripping water into the bath as there’s no indication that the ceiling downstairs is affected and there’s no damp smell etc. The thing is…the added concrete depth for the heated floor means I can’t get the original access panel off! I think the bottom part needs chipping out the concrete.

I’m hoping any repairs can be done from the topside and maybe just cartridge changes will solve everything. The good news is that these are American Standard fittings and they have lifetime cartridge changes so just waiting on those to arrive and at least they will be free.

The bad news…I have no idea where the shut off valve for the bath is and I’m hoping it’s not inside the sealed off access panel. I can shut the water off to the house easily but I’m concerned that if the faucets are fubared I might have an issue after changing the cartridges. I need to go down into the inhospitable crawl space to hunt around and hope that someone sensible put a shut off valve down there for the bath. The handheld shower hose is a problem too because I already changed the head and it made no difference. I think the entire hose needs replacing…which means getting access to the underside of the bath….which is now sealed in.

I think the combined issues might need a plumber to solve things but I’m also worried that a job of a few hundred $ might turn into a bigger nightmare.

I’m thinking about how viable it would be to cut a new access panel in the bath surround but this time right below the faucet set. I’d need to cut through slate tile and what looks to be 1/2” plywood neatly and then fabricate a new panel. I have no idea if an angle grinder with the right wheel would do this though or if it would just chip the slate beyond repair. Some cuts would be in grout lines but others would be right in the slate.
 
jc100 said:
Conundrum…we have a corner jacuzzi bath in an upstairs bathroom that was installed 20 years ago when we bought the house. At that time we had a slate floor and the contractor put a false front panel on the surround so we had access to the motor innards/electrical connection. I didn’t pay that much attention then. Fast forward 17 years and we had a heated floor put in that bathroom that needed the slate floor removing and a concrete 1” bed installing for the heating cables, plus the floating floor on top. Fast forward another few years and the bath taps are leaking. The shower head hand hose has a leak and the central water spout outlet has a leak. Luckily they are just dripping water into the bath as there’s no indication that the ceiling downstairs is affected and there’s no damp smell etc. The thing is…the added concrete depth for the heated floor means I can’t get the original access panel off! I think the bottom part needs chipping out the concrete.

I’m hoping any repairs can be done from the topside and maybe just cartridge changes will solve everything. The good news is that these are American Standard fittings and they have lifetime cartridge changes so just waiting on those to arrive and at least they will be free.

The bad news…I have no idea where the shut off valve for the bath is and I’m hoping it’s not inside the sealed off access panel. I can shut the water off to the house easily but I’m concerned that if the faucets are fubared I might have an issue after changing the cartridges. I need to go down into the inhospitable crawl space to hunt around and hope that someone sensible put a shut off valve down there for the bath. The handheld shower hose is a problem too because I already changed the head and it made no difference. I think the entire hose needs replacing…which means getting access to the underside of the bath….which is now sealed in.

I think the combined issues might need a plumber to solve things but I’m also worried that a job of a few hundred $ might turn into a bigger nightmare.

I’m thinking about how viable it would be to cut a new access panel in the bath surround but this time right below the faucet set. I’d need to cut through slate tile and what looks to be 1/2” plywood neatly and then fabricate a new panel. I have no idea if an angle grinder with the right wheel would do this though or if it would just chip the slate beyond repair. Some cuts would be in grout lines but others would be right in the slate.
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If you cut carefully, you can likely use the piece you cut out as the access panel. Cutting for two good sides is much harder than cutting for one though.

The original may not be a lost cause. You may be able to tip the top of the existing panel out and then slift/slide panel out even with the raised floor.
 
Well what you dont wanty to hear is years ago , whoever cemented in an access panel needs a swift kick. You use an isolation strip, foam rod or whatever and a nice moulding to cover because someday..., which is now, you need in. I'll bet there is no shutoff for the faucets, they will be no doubt just be direct connect. . You could get lucky with cartridges and O rings, best of luck
 
All done. Went a lot smoother the second time around.

c50JkgP.jpg
 
mimico_polak said:
Wow great job @48Connor! Looks awesome.

What was the trickiest? Or hardest part?
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Cutting a hole in the side of the cabinet with a mini chainsaw hahaha

Replacing the countertop itself wasn't bad, just really heavy - like 150lbs. I made all the mistakes with the drain on the last one, so this one went together the first time with no issues.
 
By dropping the hieght of the toilet paper holder 3" , you can save 20 rolls a yr, women will unroll till it almost touches the floor then rip it and go, That three inches pays dividends every year.

This is not my idea , walt disney world pays workers a royalty cheque on cost saving ideas that work, the guy that came up with this one is well retired, at Disney world it worked out to thousands of dollars a month.
 
GreyGhost said:
If you cut carefully, you can likely use the piece you cut out as the access panel. Cutting for two good sides is much harder than cutting for one though.

The original may not be a lost cause. You may be able to tip the top of the existing panel out and then slift/slide panel out even with
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GreyGhost said:
the raised floor.
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Tried that…I started levering the old panel with a long screwdriver but I got to a point where it wasn’t moving anymore and the slate was about to break.
Scuba Steve said:
Can you cut 1 complete tile out.

Sent from the future
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I looked and no, I can get 2 maybe 3 grout line cuts but at least one cut has to be through the face of the tile for the panel to be useful.
 
crankcall said:
Well what you dont wanty to hear is years ago , whoever cemented in an access panel needs a swift kick. You use an isolation strip, foam rod or whatever and a nice moulding to cover because someday..., which is now, you need in. I'll bet there is no shutoff for the faucets, they will be no doubt just be direct connect. . You could get lucky with cartridges and O rings, best of luck
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To be fair..20 years ago we took the cheapest quote we could get for the renovation work. Well, you know the rest. We know better now.

Hoping the cartridges solve most things. Still need to sort out the handheld shower head.
 
Wife is tired of missing door bell / knockers as apparently our doorbell has failed.

Any recommendation for something to replace it with? Unfortunately I do not have a DC wire going to the door so I can't use something that is powered by a continuous feed, and will need something that has a battery operated button.

Current one uses a small CR2032 battery with a 9V battery operated chime in the house. Ideally will have 2 buttons as we have 2 entrances.
 
mimico_polak said:
Wife is tired of missing door bell / knockers as apparently our doorbell has failed.

Any recommendation for something to replace it with? Unfortunately I do not have a DC wire going to the door so I can't use something that is powered by a continuous feed, and will need something that has a battery operated button.

Current one uses a small CR2032 battery with a 9V battery operated chime in the house. Ideally will have 2 buttons as we have 2 entrances.
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Eufy doorbell cam!

Mine’s been great. There’s a version that is rechargeable that also has a hardwire option. I don’t have a dc wire either and I get about 4 months between recharges depending on how sensitive the cam settings are.

Bonus…switch off the doorbell at Halloween if you don’t want to be disturbed or if you see the mormons coming on the cam. Can set the ring through the home hub or through your phone etc.

No subscription for the security services!
 
mimico_polak said:
Wife is tired of missing door bell / knockers as apparently our doorbell has failed.

Any recommendation for something to replace it with? Unfortunately I do not have a DC wire going to the door so I can't use something that is powered by a continuous feed, and will need something that has a battery operated button.

Current one uses a small CR2032 battery with a 9V battery operated chime in the house. Ideally will have 2 buttons as we have 2 entrances.
Click to expand...
Doorbell wires are normally 24VAC.

We used a Honeywell wireless before. Still have it. Used it when the kids were little too. Put the doorbell button where they could reach it from bed/crib and the ringer in our room (turned low with a less annoying chime). Kept the kids from falling down the stairs while trying to get to us. Chime is powered by 6 C's and lasts years. Button is more than year between battery changes (AAA IIRC).

I am assuming you want a camera button? Neighbour has Ring IIRC. Works well, she's happy. Motion triggers a chime on her phone. Pressing the button dings on her phone. She knows when kids get home/packages arrive, etc. BIL bought Nest, nothing but trouble so far. Only a silent alert on his phone. Can't figure out how to make it make noise. Can't figure out how to make it work on multiple phones. Can't figure out how to have a chime in the house that is not phone dependent. I don't know how many of those are his problems and how many are related to device. I will say that trying to get a Nest Hub Max working for christmas was the second most painful device I have setup and it is theoretically supposed to be a consumer friendly device. Like most devices, it tries to automate setup and if that fails the whole process collapses and it gives you very little guidance as to what went wrong or how to fix it.

I would be careful with Eufy and Arlo. Both have done dodgy things recently. Eufy said only you had access to feed and they were encrypted. That was a lie. When called out, they doubled down. Still a lie. At least this camera is outside and therefore less sensitive if compromised. Arlo end-of-lifed a bunch of stuff and bricked it. F that nonsense. I understand no longer releasing updates but bricking working devices is a prick move. If you chose to need a cloud connection for your device, you damn well better keep the cloud running until most devices have naturally expired.
 
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Thanks both @jc100 and @GreyGhost for the prompt response.

I'm actually not picky on camera being a requirement, my wife isn't overly into tech so she couldn't care less either way...so long as the thing works.

I'm seeing options for both, and the non-camera option may be the way to go for the time being.
 
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