Enough of COVID...what are you doing to the house? | Page 53 | GTAMotorcycle.com

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

GreyGhost said:
I pushed our RE agent hard regarding radon in the area before we bought. He looked at me like I had two heads. That agency has sold thousands of houses in the area and had no idea about any radon readings (positive or negative). Fack. Not exactly something you can check before conditions are cleared. Just buy and hope for the best.

As I understand it, it is substantially similar to ground water so an area may generally have issues (or not) but within the area, individual houses may not experience the same issues as their neighbours. All of my neighbours apparently have sump pits, many of them hear their pumps cycle often, I don't have a pit (or ground water issues). From street level, the grading/slopes etc all look similar.
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That could change.

I was called to investigate why a residential snow melting system wasn't working (Near Downsview Airport)

The history was that an existing system stopped working and the owner called in a guy to replace it. He did so without testing the old system consisting of IIRC four cables. It is extremely rare to have four cables fail at once.

The replacement system also failed t melt snow even though it was the right output. Over a period of five years they tried everything to get it to work, boost transformers and cable modifications on site and improvement was marginal. Then a couple of years ago it started working.

The only thing I could come up with was that by looking at Google maps street view, about the time the cables stopped working the modest house next door was torn down and a bigger one built. Did something affect the ground water and quench the cables or????

There was a freezer plant in Hamilton that had a similar problem with the floor heaving in the spring. It was slab on grade, more like slab on swamp. In the spring walking across the parking lot felt like walking on a mattress.
 
GreyGhost said:
I don't know which vaughan place you are referring to, but investment hardware has some cheap, ok discs. For a floor, I would rather use a cup as a disc will have a lot of angle to it, but I don't know if a cheap cup exists.
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I actually made an adapter that lets a disc run flat to the floor. I have yet to try it out. It would be like a disk sander
 
No I’m confused.....I’ve got the same brick pattern around the garage where I’m 100% is block wall on the other side as I took off everything and we did it from the block.
 
mimico_polak said:
No I’m confused.....I’ve got the same brick pattern around the garage where I’m 100% is block wall on the other side as I took off everything and we did it from the block.
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The inner layer must be block and the outer one brick cheaper than using brick for both apparently a Toronto thing.

Sent from my moto g(8) plus using Tapatalk
 
This is the brick on the outside of the garage (block on the inside)...

IMG_3280.jpg

@GreyGhost this is the rink in the area I mentioned earlier...

IMG_3284.jpg

If you look on the tree branch, there's a white piece there....they put a light onto the rink, and put a white half bucket above it to protect from snow/rain.
 
mimico_polak said:
This is the brick on the outside of the garage (block on the inside)...

View attachment 46709

@GreyGhost this is the rink in the area I mentioned earlier...

View attachment 46710

If you look on the tree branch, there's a white piece there....they put a light onto the rink, and put a white half bucket above it to protect from snow/rain.
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The rink has gone into the failed projects bin. We were going to have to buy a liner to make it work and the wife wouldnt commit to spending the time required to get it cleaned off and in good shape. She was trying to avoid the reality of how much work is required to maintain it. I'm ok to throw a few bucks at it and see if it works but by the time we are spending over $100 for a liner that is likely only good for a single season (no protection of the edges with snow berms), I would go crazy if it was never usable due to lack of attention. I told her before we started the first rink it was her project and she had to do it with some help from me and I ended up doing 90% of the work (as expected).
 
GreyGhost said:
The rink has gone into the failed projects bin. We were going to have to buy a liner to make it work and the wife wouldnt commit to spending the time required to get it cleaned off and in good shape. She was trying to avoid the reality of how much work is required to maintain it. I'm ok to throw a few bucks at it and see if it works but by the time we are spending over $100 for a liner that is likely only good for a single season (no protection of the edges with snow berms), I would go crazy if it was never usable due to lack of attention. I told her before we started the first rink it was her project and she had to do it with some help from me and I ended up doing 90% of the work (as expected).
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That's too bad, but live and learn right? I will build one in our backyard eventually once the kids are older but not as big as the one in the pic. That's for the pros.

Actual project I want for this summer....outdoor theatre for the kids. And maybe e 'Little Library' type of project for the young kids in the area as there isn't a single one I've seen in this area. Our old area, Mimico, they were on every other street from what I recall and it looked like a good idea.
 
mimico_polak said:
That's too bad, but live and learn right? I will build one in our backyard eventually once the kids are older but not as big as the one in the pic. That's for the pros.

Actual project I want for this summer....outdoor theatre for the kids. And maybe e 'Little Library' type of project for the young kids in the area as there isn't a single one I've seen in this area. Our old area, Mimico, they were on every other street from what I recall and it looked like a good idea.
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Hopefully skiing happens again next year. Two outdoor public ice rinks (~50x100') and a ski hill within walking distance so in a normal year, it doesnt make sense for us to put the time and effort into a private rink. Municipality shut down the rinks due to stupid people.
 
Scuba Steve said:
The inner layer must be block and the outer one brick cheaper than using brick for both apparently a Toronto thing.

Sent from my moto g(8) plus using Tapatalk
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My daughter's place in Hamilton (90 year old house) is brick in and out. The outer brick is as hard as nails. The inner is like chalk.

Mimico Polak's looks like sand / lime brick. It is soft as well The header courses tie the inner and outer layers together.
 
GreyGhost said:
The rink has gone into the failed projects bin. We were going to have to buy a liner to make it work and the wife wouldnt commit to spending the time required to get it cleaned off and in good shape. She was trying to avoid the reality of how much work is required to maintain it. I'm ok to throw a few bucks at it and see if it works but by the time we are spending over $100 for a liner that is likely only good for a single season (no protection of the edges with snow berms), I would go crazy if it was never usable due to lack of attention. I told her before we started the first rink it was her project and she had to do it with some help from me and I ended up doing 90% of the work (as expected).
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Maybe you need a little mechanization

globalnews.ca

Video shows 5-year-old New Brunswick boy using mini-zamboni to clear ice | Watch News Videos Online

Watch Video shows 5-year-old New Brunswick boy using mini-zamboni to clear ice Video Online, on GlobalNews.ca
globalnews.ca globalnews.ca
 
GreyGhost said:
The zamboni is the easy part once I have ice. It will be made of a surplus wheelie green bin. Trying to make ice in a tarp that apparently leaks like a sieve is a nightmare.
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I’ll take a picture of my neighbours failed attempt at a backyard rink tomorrow....100% total failure. I feel bad.
 
To bad about the rinks.

We've been in this house about 40 years, getting new neighbours about ten back. The first winter here the new neighbours put in a rink for their son to practice hockey. I told them the sound of skates and a puck hitting boards sounded so Canadian.
 
home rink is not hard if you have two things, constant cold below freezing and a level, water resistant surface.

How this escapes so many backyard builders is a mystery to me.
 
crankcall said:
home rink is not hard if you have two things, constant cold below freezing and a level, water resistant surface.

How this escapes so many backyard builders is a mystery to me.
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Well I knew I definitely didnt have one of the two but didnt realize how ornery it would be to solve. Wife decided she wants to put the time in so proper rink tark is on it's way. Ordered at midnight, shipped eight hours later. Good job rinkmaster.
 
crankcall said:
home rink is not hard if you have two things, constant cold below freezing and a level, water resistant surface.

How this escapes so many backyard builders is a mystery to me.
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If the lot isn't level you need to put slope additive into the water.

Seriously though, artificial ice is made by putting brine pipes under the base. If the base isn't level the ice will be uneven thicknesses which means a different hardness in a different place.

I forget what are optimal rink ice temperatures for hockey and figure skating. "Ice Capades" and hockey at the gardens created a problem. I may have it wrong but figure skaters wanted a softer ice for more grip and hockey players wanted harder for better gliding and puck control.
 
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