What home improvement work did you do today?

Technically my wife did it for Father’s Day. Came home from paddling to find this….. even has a full tank of propane

 

Ran CAT5E cable drops to every room. It was hot as balls and after a shower I'm still super itchy but improved the internet speeds downstairs from 150 mbps down (WiFi) to 905 mbps (hardwired) and WiFi downstairs is now 350 mbps. For reference, my modem is upstairs and I moved our router downstairs to the living room in a more centrally located area, hardwired to the modem so it's improved just about everything. I'm super happy now that it's over with. Fishing cable through insulated walls is ass. Especially when the attic is 120 degrees.

 

Need to get my stamped concrete resealed on the patio and around the pool.

 

Those granite monstrosities are going to be beautiful once mother nature polishes them up. Are you getting straight from one of the quarries or is someone else digging them up from their project?

 

Ok builders. I have a question. Our Master bedroom that is partly an addition is too hot in the summer compared to the rest of the house and I wanted to put a cold air return into the room. It does stay cooler in the winter too so I’m thinking of doing two return vents, one low and one high on this little wall. You can see the small ‘pinky’ wall that I”m talking about as well as the existing hallway cold air return vent that this will channel right into without much work on my part besides some drywall cutting. I checked and there is no bottom plate so that should make things easy. The ceiling in the basement below is open except for the cold air return steel sheeting that runs down the floor joints so I’m HOPING this is going to be my easiest solution to get some air movement through this room. And I can close off the bottom vent in the summer and close off the top vent in the winter to help move the air I want out according to the season…does that make sense? Any better ideas?

 

The added load to your HVAC system will change fan, condenser, and furnace requirements *potentially* from what I remember. Might just be easier to put a mini split air con/ heat pump in your bedroom.

 

Nice! I used to do this when working at AT&T for customers. It was a pain in the ass to do wall drops much less in a 2 story house. You deserve some beers my friend.

 

Finished up this bathroom today. Still waiting for glass.

 

Been on a PVC grind lately. Shop light stand for the garage and a raised garden bed complete with irrigation system for my wife.

 

Cheaper then wood!

 

Shouldn’t be any additional load, would make the system work easier as it’s able to suck air from more places now…

 

A little (motor) home improvement, thanks to my daughter for Father’s Day.

 

Really stupid question - how's the insulation in your attic look?

I ask solely because when our extension was built, the guy who built it skimped on it - says he put like 12" or so, and there was only 4" or so. I hired a guy who blow about another 12" in our extension, and another 6" or so in the rest of our house, and was flat amazed at how much cooler it is in the summer/warmer it is in the winter.

Also - we put a mini-split in our extension for the same reason @kparrow mentioned, and am glad we did. Able to heat/cool the master suite to our own preferences aside from the rest of the house; and it actually didn't add any cost to our monthly electric bill.

 

There’s a really good chance it’s the insulation and it may not be vented properly.

 

Got the house painted

 

Has anyone rented one of those insulation blowers and added more to their attic? I'm in zone 4 where the range is R38-R60. I have between 10-16" of insulation up there now. Most places are around 13".

Can I just add cellulose right on top of this? Anything I should know before hand? I'm thinking this is a project I'll tackle this fall.

 

Built the sauna 8yrs ago.

It's nice to come home to after having worked outside for 10hrs in winter, at elevation.

Edit to add: we've got a few Fin's in the family. Goes well with KettleOne

 

That's pretty cool and looks good.
We built our house inside of a sauna. Well....most call it southwest louisiana. But it's the same

 

I pumped in more insulation last summer as it only had batts of r-13 I think. It helped a bunch but is still lacking. The room is a 10x20 with only 1 register.

Insulated and vented correctly.

I rented one from Home Depot. Pretty simple job but two people is a necessity. One to keep loading the half bags and the other to blow it in. Respirator is a must too. Prepare to get sweaty.

 

Basement? Crawlspace?

I insulated my crawlspace and I found OH NOW I KNOW why my bedroom is cold! My duct was disconnected halfway. You would be surprised you just have to keep looking.

My parents house built in 1970 (well build huge house 4500 sq ft) our upstairs was alway cold in winter. 2 parents 7 kids and 40 years later I found 2 stub walls Not insulated and kitchen ceiling not insulated. Once I insulted it Instant difference!!

I would check basement/crawlspace rim joist insulated? Heck did you watch the builders? Are the walls even insulated?

I’m not a contractor but I always try and figure out the problem. I think you have a really simple problem/solution. My one bedroom is cold in winter, it doesn’t have a cold air return my heating guy said the gap below the door is enough (it’s a big gap too big) but he said if the door is open and it’s still cold you have other issues.

 

I really want to hog a hole in a few of the outside bedroom walls that were part of the addition to see if there is any insulation in them but I’m scared as what I might find and the pain it would be to fix it.
It has a tiny ‘crawl’ space that I wanted to put up some rigid foam insulation as it’s just vapor barrier on the floor and nothing on the concrete walls.

 

You might see if the gas or electric company will do an energy audit. Ours offer them for free.

 

Energy audit? Interesting. So I did a little research and found my master is 240sq ft with only 1 hvac register. Sounds like 1 register is only good for up to 100sq ft. Maybe adding another would help as well.

 

Absolutely; ours does as well. In fact, that's how I found out that I needed more insulation in our attic above our extension. They also identified other ways we could save money, make the house more insulated here and there, etc. Highly recommend it.

 

Just to be clear, the soffit vents should be open, and not covered with insulation correct? I wasn't able to see that far yesterday but I plan on checking that next.

 

Got a plumber out to move this house from well to city water. City apparently ran lines to the house, but prior owners never connected in and just dealt with two wells (why two, we'll never know).

Got hooked up yesterday, and tested the cold. Felt like some wonderful water pressure (I hate weak faucets). Plumber didn't install a pressure regulator, because the city told them it wasn't needed. This was confirmed with the city.

Turned the shutoff for the hot water heater to fill it up and it quickly started leaking out of the T&P valve. Ruh roh.

Stuck my gauge on a hose bib outside, and I shit you not, the water pressure was 140psi.

ONE HUNDRED AND FOURTY!

Needless to say there's a pressure regulator being put on at this minute.

 

Correct. Often you'll see foam baffles in the between the roof trusses. These allow the air to get up from the soffit into the attick and keep insulation from clogging the soffit.

 

Your pipes and wallet will thank you!