What home improvement work did you do today?

The robots are trained that they can’t break copyright laws

 

I think that’s how SkyNet started…

 

A little bit of a network upgrade....Ubiquity Dream Wall and a U6 AP.

 

Those are great! I put them all over our home to help with our internet coverage and speed.

 

Care to explain to a novice?
Is it a router and a range extender?

 

How many do you have? I was shocked with how powerful a single U6 Pro is, probably could give enough coverage for our entire house. I ended up having to drop the wifi power of the Dream Wall because i was noticing that clients almost directly below the U6 were connecting to the Dream Wall instead of the AP. Pretty crazy.

 

Simple terms...yeah its a router and an access point.

Ubiquiti kinda bridged the gap between commercial and prosumer networking. Most of their equipment belongs in a server rack, but the Dream Wall was made to not look like a server room.

There's some really cool software that goes along with it. You can see the topology of your network and see where the internet traiffic is going

 

Damn. User name checks out.

 

I need to replace this white 2x4 that my garage door bolts to. I mentioned this before and it has gotten worse. It seems like the wood dried out with age and warped so it's separating from the wall.

I have no idea how I'm going to replace this yet. My question is, should I go with a pressure treated 2x4 or no? I called a few garage door companies but they said I need a contractor.

 

I’m replacing a dryer heating element

 

I’d use either pressure treated 2x6 or a vinyl 2x6

 

Not sure on best attachment method to cinder block, but if you could run at least one large lag bolt with a washer through at the top, the new one will stay in place better. It doesn't look like what's there is substantial enough. Maybe overkill, but this is what I did to my track mount, when I saw it pulling away at the top, and my mounts on the side lag bolt through to the studs...

 

Is the cinder block filled with concrete or foam or empty. That would impact the type of anchor you should use

 

No clue honestly. I'm wondering how I'm going to hold the door up while I remove and replace the 2x4.

 

Is the 2x4 deteriorating, or just that it's bowing and separating from the wall? If just the bowing/separation, if you can get a good size lag bolt in top, with proper anchoring to the inside of the block wall, tightening it might pull in the bow and correct the issue in place, so you don't have to do anything else.
Those who know block construction will need to speak to it, it *might* be too much tension in one spot and pull out the bolt AND the anchor, putting a hole in the cinder block...I don't know, but that'd be my one concern about that route. Hope that helps, I'm not a pro, just a serious do-it-yourselfer!

 

@1UPPER is my first and only call when I win the lottery and build my dream home.

 

Can the U6 connect to an existing router or does it need the Dream Wall?

I'm looking for more coverage at the far side of my house, without using those cheesy plug-in types.

 

If it's not broken I'd drill through it and use some 3/8" sleeve anchors into the block. One above the steel mounts one below with a piece of 1/8" plate for a washer on top of the wood.

 

You dont have to have the Dream Wall, but you do need to be in the Ubiquiti ecosystem as far as i know.

I'm installing the same setup at my parents house and currently they have the Netgear Orbi that i was fairly impressed with. Very good speed from node to node (way better than the google wifi they had before).
https://www.costco.com/netgear---orbi-ax5400-wi-fi-6-mesh-system.product.100942085.html
The only reason why i'm going with the Ubiquity setup for their house is because its on an acre (unheard of around here) and trying to extend the wifi signal to the entire property would just be adding a bunch of the Orbi nodes everywhere and it adds up.

 

Gotcha, thanks for letting me bug ya!

 

That 2x looks damn near flawless to me, maybe a little split at the end but does not affect the strength in any meaningful way in this application. From what I can tell from those pictures there is no real connection between the 2x and the exterior wall.

Can you take a picture looking straight down the track at the top of this that shows how the white-painted 2x overlaps the block and the header over the door?


This fastener here looks like it went between the block and the door header and is now pulling out and the top of the board is separating from the wall.

 

What ISP do you have? I've got Breezeline (coax) and had Ubiquiti stuff in our previous house, and am wondering if I should bridge my Breezeline modem and utilize the Ubiquiti stuff again.

 

Like this?

Agreed. Most of the way down it looks like the 2x4 was fastened using nails. More nails than screws. I tried driving in a new lag bolt but all it did was split the 2x4.

I don't think anything is screwed into the block walls.

 

For the moment i'm on a 1gbit xfinity plan (1000up/25dwn on coax). They just laid fiber in the neighborhood earlier this year so i cant wait for them to light up the lines. From what i've heard, the company only offers 1g symetrical but i'm hoping that they will offer 2.5gig.

Coming from an Asus AiMesh setup, i'm very happy with Ubiquiti. I had 3 routers in the house (one main and 2 mesh nodes all hardwired backhaul) and the Dream Wall and 1 AP gives me a stronger signal that before for the entire property. The software is super cool....i'd go for it!

 

Those pictures are perfect! When you are within about 3-4 inches from the end of a board it will split out like that if you try to screw through it since the screw is working its way through the fibers and pushing them apart. You have to pre-drill the wood if you don't want splits, normally you would drill out to the diameter of the fastener shaft but not to the diameter of the teeth on the screw.

I would try to put in two 1/2" dia x 5" lag screws, if you have a 2x6 beyond, or a 1/2" dia x 4" if it only a 2x4 beyond. Make sure they are perfectly centered in the edging for the door behind and pre-drill the front board to stop it from splitting at all (the board behind will not split but it would not hurt to pre-drill that as well if you have a long enough drill bit. Go slow and do both at the same time alternating a turn each so they don't strip out of the wood and as long as there is not a ton of pressure it should pull that board back tight to the wall. The nails that are there have almost no pull-out strength and as the wood dries it will actually shrink away from the nails, further reducing that strength which is probably why it started moving.

 

All of my internet work was done by a good friend of mine. I don’t know the exact specs and details but I do have one of the ceiling mounts upstairs and one of the wall mounts like this downstairs. Works flawlessly now.