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

[GreyGhost]

Watch out for wear on the keypads. If you use the same numbers continually some will wear and give a strong hint to the code.

My wife and I use different codes for mainly that reason. Wear on eight buttons narrows things down a bit but not enough for the average burglar to care. Breaking a window is always easier and faster (unless you have a bluetooth/smartphone lock, those suck)

 

[Mad Mike]

Well he didn't say if the peaceful valley far from dangerous roads contained a river and the raccoons crossed over after a delicious last meal.

 

[Mad Mike]

The issue would be present even if your framing is dead flat. The long edge of a drywall sheet are factory tapered to accommodate joint thickness but the short ends aren't. Usually you would do a 24"+ wide joint to hide the slight rise due to the thickness. You could probably get away with doing a much smaller + flatter joint this way. The downside I see is you would need to make sure the edges are well supported - you'd run the risk of cracking as the joint is "floating" between the studs instead of each board edge being screwed down. Good idea for a ceiling but not ideal in a high impact area.

There are niche tools that will taper in the short edges - https://drywalltapertool.com. This is the best solution I've seen.
You can also buy manufactured backer that works the same way as the plywood idea - ::\\ WILCO TOOLS //::

Some guys just lightly bang in the short edges with a drywall hammer once they are screwed to the stud. On high end residential I've seen architects specify 12' to 16' board on certain walls to cut down on short end joints. Can be a real issue on big / long walls with natural light.

On high end builds they use 5/8" and back cut (taper) butt seams.

 

[GreyGhost]

Lord help you if you need sheathing ply right now, its doubled in price literally in the last 45 days, and shortages are everywhere, mill are booking loads into October. It went up 9% on friday. Everybody is scared to order inventory because it will drop and nobody wants $45 sheathing when the market goes back to $25. What a mess

This is going to do nothing good for the price or availability of plywood.

A day ago it was Cat 3, now Cat 4 and apparently still getting worse.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1298617881534640128

 

[GVH]

Didn’t want to do work on the house especially my mothers. She’s on vacation and I went to cut lawn water plants. Walk in the door and the sound of a babbling brook coming from the basement. Something on one of the water heaters let go. Shut the water off but fully finished basement wall to wall carpeting soaking wet. Drywall about 4 inches up. Shop vac for hours but still very moist. Dehumidifier going and bought industrial carpet floor drying fan. Back tomorrow for 7-11 am reliance guy. One stupid cheap hair dye plastic glove left on the floor plugged the drain two feet from the water heater. She’s back Sunday from vacation and time to decide on insurance or not. My brother has many hopes it all just dries out.

 

[GreyGhost]

Didn’t want to do work on the house especially my mothers. She’s on vacation and I went to cut lawn water plants. Walk in the door and the sound of a babbling brook coming from the basement. Something on one of the water heaters let go. Shut the water off but fully finished basement wall to wall carpeting soaking wet. Drywall about 4 inches up. Shop vac for hours but still very moist. Dehumidifier going and bought industrial carpet floor drying fan. Back tomorrow for 7-11 am reliance guy. One stupid cheap hair dye plastic glove left on the floor plugged the drain two feet from the water heater. She’s back Sunday from vacation and time to decide on insurance or not. My brother has many hopes it all just dries out.

Personally, if I am dealing with a finished basement flood, I am cutting off the bottom 4' of drywall asap. That stops the moisture wicking up through the whole wall and let's the inside dry out. What is the ceiling? If suspended ceiling with tiles, the tiles are garbage (unless you are ok with the saggy look).

Run house a/c if furnace is ok to help get more moisture out. Slow down fan speed to ~350 cfm/ton to get more dehumidification and less temp drop.

 

[J_F]

looks nasty

fortunate for the US they have such a steady hand to lead them in a time of crisis

#TexasGoinBlue

 

[Baggsy]

My wife and I use different codes for mainly that reason. Wear on eight buttons narrows things down a bit but not enough for the average burglar to care. Breaking a window is always easier and faster (unless you have a bluetooth/smartphone lock, those suck)

As long as you don't have the type that a big magnet messes with.

 

[crankcall]

I never considered the pushbuttons wear giving away the code, but looking at the microwave, same GO button used every time and now not legible it makes sense.
I'll start a rotation on codes, wonder how many nights I'll sleep in the car?

 

[GreyGhost]

I never considered the pushbuttons wear giving away the code, but looking at the microwave, same GO button used every time and now not legible it makes sense.
I'll start a rotation on codes, wonder how many nights I'll sleep in the car?

Just change your code to one that doesn't use any of your wifes numbers. That way you are using 8 out of 10 buttons. (Assuming your wife doesn't have a terrible code like 4444)

 

[nobbie48]

My next project will be replacing three or four ancient sashless slider windows. Off to do some shopping, looking at styles and features. Why is waxing a motorcylce more fun?

 

[nobbie48]

Just change your code to one that doesn't use any of your wifes numbers. That way you are using 8 out of 10 buttons. (Assuming your wife doesn't have a terrible code like 4444)

A bit of a diversion but someone was fighting a fraudulent account payment or the like. Their account got hacked by someone guessing the answer to the question. Q: Who is your favourite Beatle?

In case of an entry error you were given four tries.

 

[Brian P]

Roofers are banging away as I type. Big team, about 7 or 8 people. They started around 9 AM and figured then that they would be done around 6. I just hope it doesn't start raining.

This is a week earlier than originally scheduled. They called me yesterday wondering if it would be okay if they did it today ... "sure". Seems that they are having trouble getting certain types and colours of shingles that come from the USA but they had mine in stock.

 

[mimico_polak]

I had 4/5 of the garage drywalled and ready to roll before I ran out of time A few hiccups along the way (5/8" Fire drywall is heavy as F!%@ so couldn't do much on my own, plus I'm an idiot and ordered R24 for 2x4 studs...had to add 2x2 to the studs to allow for additional space). Dad's working away on it, and I'll finish dry walling the last wall when I get home!

 

[Baggsy]

I think my neighbour didn't like the look of my 14' cedar hedge on his side. He helped me trim it, and it looks like it will need to be taken out completely. This isn't such a bad thing, as the hedge was about 4 or 5 feet wide, which is a lot of space to lose. There's a decent wooden fence behind it as backup.

I had 4/5 of the garage drywalled and ready to roll before I ran out of time A few hiccups along the way (5/8" Fire drywall is heavy as F!%@ so couldn't do much on my own, plus I'm an idiot and ordered R24 for 2x4 studs...had to add 2x2 to the studs to allow for additional space). Dad's working away on it, and I'll finish dry walling the last wall when I get home!

Did a gym ceiling years ago, it was 12 or 14' 5/8 fire rated board, two layers with a wire mesh in between 30' in the air.
Wasn't such a fun job. Boss broke both his heals, so there were two of us left to do it.

 

[mimico_polak]

@Baggsy best part was that drywall lift. What a life, and back, and arm, and shoulder saver!

 

[jc100]

Patched, primed and painted bathroom walls. Removed old toilet and sink, was dreading clearing up old wax ring...but there wasn’t one? Added railing to support countertop, found my studs are not 16” on centre...also realized stud detector was about as much good as magic 8 ball, realized 12v tools have very finite capabilities and whizzed through batteries using spade bits. Installed laminate flooring, thought I’d ignore the instructions....installed it the wrong way round after I wondered why it wasn’t “click locking” properly and why installing it was so hard. Tried to trim laminate with rotozip...worked ok, made a bit of a mess, seemed to be melting laminate rather than cutting it. Wasted a few boards, started again, all is good now.

Got out my ancient mini compressor and nail guns to install baseboards and quarter round. Quickly found out compressor is just a disguised tire inflator...need to find nail setter to get nails below surface. Swore rather a lot at this one.

Got frustrated...went to Home Depot. Spent equivalent of small mortgage on new power tools. Have nice set of 18v Rigid drill, cordless nailer, jigsaw and impact driver.

Learned a lot. Swore a lot. Drank a lot. Ready for two other rooms after this. I still have sink and toilet to install.

 

[mimico_polak]

@jc100 with each completed room it gets easier and easier. Good job it looks like a hell of a project.
Personally I can’t wait for this drywall to be done because I’m spent for this year with projects. No more. Done.

 

[jc100]

@jc100 with each completed room it gets easier and easier. Good job it looks like a hell of a project.
Personally I can’t wait for this drywall to be done because I’m spent for this year with projects. No more. Done.

I have two more rooms to do. Both floors though but I’m going to try to put a heated floor in one of them.

The cordless nailer is mucho fun. Don’t know why I didn’t have this sooner.

 

[nobbie48]

Measured for new windows and made drawings. I was going to hire a contractor but heard so much BS I decided to do it myself. I used to do commercial aluminum ones a few decades back.

Made some space by throwing stuff out. Cheaper than an addition.