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| Author |
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ball
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The Ball Residence
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Oct 1 18:19 UTC 2007 |
As mentioned elsewhere, we recently bought a single story brick house
in Illinois, USA. The most pressing issues are structural:-
* A post in the crawlspace supports the main beam of the floor, but
that post lacks a proper footing.
* A piece of concrete footpath has sunk, tilting towards the house.
* The roof requires a little reflashing work.
Then there are a few electrical issues:-
* Every "grounded" outlet in the house, isn't.
* Some important wires that should be in conduit, aren't. They also
happen to be just inches away from dubious-looking water pipes.
* There is no 240V outlet for an electric clothes dryer.
Of course there's plumbing too:-
* The brickwork around the well needs re-laying and some way must be
found of locking or bolting the cover in place.
* Did I mention that we have a well? There has been some discussion
about putting the house onto city water. It's not clear yet
whether there would be any cost or quality benefit. It would be a
big project.
* The water heater is in the attached garage. It needs to be raised
by about 18" and to have its flue fixed.
Outdoor projects will mostly be discussed in the Gardening conf:-
* A Mulberry (I'm told) tree has been planted too close to the house
and is busy dropping leaves and blocking guttering.
* Three HUGE connifers eliminate light from most of the back yard
and take up quite a bit of space. I'm thinking of having them
professionally murdered.
This item is for the discussion and of the above projects and other
challenges that lurk undiscovered.
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| 86 responses total. |
ball
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response 1 of 86:
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Oct 1 18:34 UTC 2007 |
Today I had to go out and buy incandescent bulbs for use with a
ceiling fan. The magnetic field from its motor interacted badly with
the ballast built into compact-flourescent bulbs, causing an ominous
and obtrusive buzzing noise.
I finally got around to hooking up the ice maker on our fridge/freezer
only to discover that what looked like at first glance like a
convenient valve and connection point, turned out to be a vampire tap
with no obvious way of shutting off the water supply. If I try to
disconnect the old, mangled semi-rigid fridge line, water squirts out
into the cupboard. :-(
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keesan
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response 2 of 86:
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Oct 1 21:39 UTC 2007 |
Mulberry trees plant themselves and grow fast. Unless you really like
mulberries, it should probably get murdered too. Have you considered a
clothesline instead of an electric dryer? A sunporch dries clothing nicely
in the winter. Have fun with the wiring and plumbing. I think there is some
way to add grounding to an outlet if you have an appliance that really needs
it - I can ask if you want.
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ball
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response 3 of 86:
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Oct 2 00:49 UTC 2007 |
I would probably prefer my clothes dried on a washing line outdoors
than in a dryer. I will suggest it, but ultimately that decision
rests with Mrs. Ball.
Somewhere I read that the next best thing to a grounded outlet is a
ground fault circuit interrupter (GFCI), which may the American term
for a residual current circuit breaker.
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keesan
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response 4 of 86:
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Oct 2 01:31 UTC 2007 |
Is something preventing you personally from putting up a clothesline and
hanging wet laundry on it?
What do you need to plug into a grounded outlet?
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ball
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response 5 of 86:
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Oct 2 02:29 UTC 2007 |
Lack of time and possibly the look on my wife's face.
Anything with a metal chassis and a three-pin plug should ordinarily
go into a grounded outlet.
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cmcgee
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response 6 of 86:
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Oct 2 03:06 UTC 2007 |
I have GFCI outlets next to the bathroom sink, the kitchen sink, and on
all outlets accessible from the outside of the house. Any outlet that
I'm likely to be standing on a damp or wet surface when I plug in the
appliance.
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keesan
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response 7 of 86:
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Oct 2 04:30 UTC 2007 |
Jim says to tie the ground to low. You can use a 3 to 2 pin adaptor with a
ground on it that screws to the 'box' behind the outlet. Ground is neutral.
The third wire does not carry current. Maybe you should phone for details
because I cannot follow this enough to communicate it and it is late. You
don't need to rewire the house, you can use one of the existing wires as the
ground (I think).
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ball
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response 8 of 86:
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Oct 2 05:12 UTC 2007 |
"When there are separate wires for neutral and ground it is much
less likely that a problem in electrical wiring causes a dangerous
situation which will cause electrical shock or fire."
http://www.epanorama.net/documents/groundloop/neutral_ground_separate.htm
l
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rcurl
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response 9 of 86:
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Oct 2 05:16 UTC 2007 |
One side of the power to the house, the neutral wire, is grounded at or
near the service panel (or should be). The separate ground wire, when
present, is also grounded that way. Therefore either can be used as a
"neutral". What is different is that the neutral wire is normally the one
that carries the current. If, however, some current in a device leaks to
the ground, because of bad insulation or otherwise, the GFI will detect
that, and open the circuit.
Jim is right - the neutral wire can be used as the ground - but it is not
recommended (and violates code). The purpose of the ground wire is to
ground metal parts of appliances so that one cannot be shocked if a fault
occurs in the device. If just the neutral wire were depended upon as the
ground, one could get a shock as there will be a voltage drop in the
neutral wire when it is carrying current.
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cmcgee
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response 10 of 86:
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Oct 2 05:30 UTC 2007 |
Speaking of code violations.
Before you do any remodeling on the property, be sure you know what BOCA
codes your city/town/township requires you to follow, and what
inspections they will need to make. You may also need a demolition or
building permit for various changes.
Many of the things you're talking about are regulated by the local
government, and following some of the suggestions in this thread can get
you fines and penalties, along with much more intense scrutiny for every
inspection you ever go through.
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keesan
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response 11 of 86:
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Oct 2 13:16 UTC 2007 |
There are a few communities that ban clotheslines.
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mary
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response 12 of 86:
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Oct 2 14:06 UTC 2007 |
The very last time I used a clothesline I was living in rural
Pennsylvania. I had waited for a dry sunny day to wash a slew of
blankets. I draped them along the line to dry and felt so productive in
an old world way when along came the neighbor's dog who proceeded to mark
his territory along every single hem.
Yeah, it's funny now. ;-)
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keesan
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response 13 of 86:
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Oct 2 14:23 UTC 2007 |
Are there still communities that allow dogs to roam around loose?
My warm-weather clothesline is under a roof in back of the apartment, and the
winter clotheline is heated by the furnace (which runs nearly 100% of the time
because the upstairs neighbor took off her storm windows and leaves a window
open and likes to go barefoot all winter). Things dry in as little as 2 hours
in hot weather or mid-winter.
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ball
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response 14 of 86:
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Oct 2 17:03 UTC 2007 |
Re #10: I have thought about that. One concern I have is that the
moment an inspector looks at the wiring here (and possibly also the
plumbing, paving etc.) he or she is likely to demand that it all be
ripped out and re-done. It's a safe bet that the previous owner of
the house never got things inspected, or he would not have been able
to cause these problems in the first place! I suppose I'll wander
over to the village hall to see what my options are.
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ball
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response 15 of 86:
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Oct 7 02:06 UTC 2007 |
This evening: two blocked toilets (plunged), one broken bathtub drain
mechanism (not sure whether to attempt repair or call in a plumber)
and a sudden influx of houseflies (swatted, pesticide "fogger" in
reserve as an all-else-fails last resort).
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keesan
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response 16 of 86:
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Oct 7 02:46 UTC 2007 |
The houseflies may have hatched in the warm weather. Try flypaper.
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rcurl
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response 17 of 86:
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Oct 7 04:08 UTC 2007 |
If the tub drains OK - get a rubber stopper for it to take a tub bath.
Hardware stores carry them.
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ball
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response 18 of 86:
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Oct 7 17:07 UTC 2007 |
Re #16: flypaper was my first thought too, but I couldn't find any in
the shop that I went to. Thankfully the majority of them were dealt
with courtessy of a simple flyswatter. Looking at the box, the
insecticide "fogger" things kill anything within a four mile radius:
flies, bugs, pets, children, adults, oxen, rhinoceri, mammoths and
so on.
Re #17: It doesn't. I could buy a new drain assembly, but I don't
have the tools, skills or inclination to fit it. I'm going to make
a plumber quite rich.
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rcurl
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response 19 of 86:
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Oct 7 18:29 UTC 2007 |
Our tub drain malfunctions in the same way - i.e., the drain stop no longer
is held up properly. We have managed to make it stay up by jamming a piece
of wire into the mechanism (well, actually, a safety pin - it was handy).
We don't want to fiddle with it to take tub baths, so only take showers.
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keesan
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response 20 of 86:
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Oct 8 18:28 UTC 2007 |
Do you have access to under the tub where it drains?
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rcurl
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response 21 of 86:
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Oct 8 18:30 UTC 2007 |
We don't.
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keesan
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response 22 of 86:
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Oct 8 18:44 UTC 2007 |
Sometimes there is a removable panel in the adjoining room. You could try
putting in some washing soda for a while to dissolve any hair buildup, or even
baking soda.
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rcurl
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response 23 of 86:
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Oct 8 19:49 UTC 2007 |
The problem is holding it up. It drops (closes) by itself. Besides, the
mechanism is entirely inside the overflow piping.
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ball
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response 24 of 86:
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Oct 8 21:56 UTC 2007 |
There is an access panel in a closet in an adjoining room. It's not a
question of disolving a blockage, but as rcurl suggests replacing a
mechanism that is sealed inside the kind of pipes that I'm not
equipped or inclined to do battle with.
Today I bought an 8' ladder and an axe, which enabled me to remove
more Mulberry branches that overhung the house roof. I cleared out the
length of guttering under the tree.
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