What home improvement work did you do today?

Spent some money on a new garage door. Insulated too which is nice. Just shows how much we need to paint our house lol.
Old HEAVY wood door

new LIGHT and insulated steel door

 

THAT GRASS THO!

 

lol, that was the end of last year....I need some time to get there again as I haven't turned on the water yet this spring.

 

I kinda figured. haha

 

I got enormously lucky.

1. Bought some cedar fence posts and planking last year and got lazy as hell and never did it.
2. A friend owns a mill and just gave me what has to be at least about $1500 or so in oak/cedar boards (1' x 8' x 12 or so) for free.

Actual pic of me walking out to the shed to do some woodworking:

 

Using PT wood for vegetable garden or just flowers? I'd use a good ground-contact wood like juniper or cypress and leave it natural. Don't want those chemicals in my veggies...

 

Does anyone have a garage flooring product they like? We're buying a house Friday that has a normal concrete garage floor and I wouldn't mind putting something on it to make it look a little nicer.

 

I’ve always liked the epoxy look but never wanted to spend the money on it. Especially since I would have to move everything out of my garage first

 

I've used the Rust-Oleum epoxy with decent results but I also shot blasted it first.

 

What is that?

 

So I was talking to my wife about pergola's and I started looking around at some. Anyone have any experience with them in terms of building them or having them? I saw a pic (shown below) of one with the rafters being set at an angle of about 45 degrees. Being that our back porch takes a beating with the sun and we're wanting this to help add some shade, I'm thinking of doing something like this so it can block more sun from noon to about 5 or 6 pm. let me know your thoughts on this. It would be built about 35'x15-20'. Any advice/criticism/ideas is appreciated!

 

we both do, I'm just curious if there is something to consider ( a downfall to it) and how to attach it. Hangers? Toe nail screw/nail it? Screw from back side and stagger opposite end?

 

Basically sandblasting concrete with steel shot to remove the previous coating. If memory serves we shot blasted, vacuumed, and laid the new coating.

https://www.concretenetwork.com/surface-preparation-buyers-guide/shotblasters.html

 

Not sure what you mean by stacked exactly but I would of course just use Strut!
Easy enough to make vertical section to attach to a wall and then bring arms off that one to hang the bikes on. Pipe Foam over the arms to protect the bikes.

 

We had our garage floor epoxy coated professionally prior to moving in….. worth every penny!

 

I did mine myself before I moved in. Rented a floor polisher from home depot with a diamond tip blade to remove the old paint that was there before hand. Got everything from garagecoatings.com and picked it up as their warehouse is local to me. Love it!

Polishing pad


After paint removal, then final product.

 

I need help from you handy fellas. I posted about this a while ago, We upgraded our main fridge and now we have a garage fridge. I want to hook up the 1/4 line for the water dispenser and ice maker. At first i thought about cutting a hole and exposing the plumbing for an interior sink that shares a wall with the garage.
I just saw someone on Nextdoor post up how they had tap'd into the water lines for a sink and has me thinking this would be a better way of doing it:


Looks like they just T'd off the in/out of the hot water heater and ran a line. Seems like it would be a lot easier than opening up a hole in the wall. Just T off the flex line and connect in the 1/4" line for the ice maker.

here's what i'm working with. Anyone know what size T i would need?

 

Why not T off @ the wash basin after the ball valve?
That would be the easiest option. You barely need any volume for just the ice maker.
The bonus of T off @ the sink is fittings are smaller, and therefore cost will also be less.

 

So that picture of the sink is someone in the neighborhoods....not mine. It was meant to show pulling water from the hot water feed line

 

I don't want veggies in my veggies...

 

The wife has looked into pergolas a bit. If you are wanting shade, think about how the sun normally travels over that area and determine which way you want the slate to run. By rotating them in the picture it allows more overlap than if they were just horizontal or vertical but only when the sun is lined up correctly. If it was about 45 degrees from the front you won't have much shade.
I guess you could make them adjustable and built onto a slider so you could adjust the angle?

 

I don't mean to sound like I'm coming off the wrong way here, but what is the point of a pergola? I've seen some around here and always thought the people were framing an enclosure and just never finished it. They offer varying shade protection and no rain protection, why not just put a roof on it? I would think if you want temporary shade protection get one of those retractable awnings like RV's have. Like I said I don't want to sound like a cock, I genuinely don't understand their purpose. I googled it and it looks like they're more used for foliage to grab and grow on?

 

Right. The sun rises in our front yard and sets in the back. So I need the shade on the back. I would slant them from top to bottom at a 45 from east to west so when the sun is setting in the west, it would have shading more from about noon to 5 or 6 I would think. I considered a system to move, but I'm building it....so no lol. But also its just more cost and moving parts. With us in SW Louisiana, hurricanes would probably destroy that quickly.

 

Cock away man haha. Its somewhat an aesthetic deal, but it does help provide shade. I don't want to roof it because that means I'd have to get with my roof line to match and would slant down too much for thr distance and clearance to walk under wouldn't work. If I didn't match it, the slope would look bad and water wouldn't run off. Also, again with hurricanes, I don't want too much of a pocket of air to be able to develop and be ripped off easier. Its not rain proof for sure, but it can pretty nice place to sit....especially with it next to our pool about to be built.

 

I don't have one nor can I recommend a brand. Only thing I can suggest is going with a solid light color. It makes it much easier to find a lost nut/washer/bolt/spring etc. if it stands out against it's surroundings.

Can you imagine trying to find a small nut or bolt on a floor like this?

 

You live in some sort of vortex? I’ve never seen that. Most places we watch it setting in the west…

 

It’s also a good way to hang up some yard mood lighting without having a roof over it. Lets in more light yet still provides a little shade and feeling of seclusion. And yes, a cool way to run some climbing plants like wisteria or honey suckle…or even grapes.

 

First thing is how much threat of freeze do you have? How much use will that sink get? Pipe insulation doesn’t do any good if the line is static (not moving) and not used much. Once it loses heat, there’s nothing to keep it warm unless you heat trace it and put that on a low temp sensor of some kind. In-wall piping would be 1) a shorter run, so less water sitting to lose heat, 2) connected directly to the bathroom, which probably gets used a lot more, and 3) more aesthetically pleasing.

If you’re not worried about freezing, or are prepared to account for it, then…
Typically your water heater connections are 3/4”. That’s sweat copper up to the flex hose, then that flex is connected to a male pipe thread adapter.
If it were me (and I was going to run it along the wall like that), I’d cut a sweat 3/4 x 1/2 tee into that copper line between the valve and the flex, and then run it 1/2” over…but that’s because I’m comfortable with sweating copper pipe. If you aren’t, then you could thread a brass 3/4 x 1/2 tee onto that male adapter, run a brass nipple out the other end of the tee to connect the flex back up to, and come out of the branch of the tee with CPVC or PEX. PEX has the advantage of being a bit more freeze resistant if run correctly (add an expansion loop in it, for example), but I would use expanding backing ring style fittings that require an expander tool rather than using hose-clamp style fittings.

You still need to tie into the waste line, which will require getting into the wall as well.

 

Haha....swipe text got me

 

Looking at upgrading some blinds around the house, anyone have luck getting blinds online, or maybe from Lowes or Home Depot