What home improvement work did you do today?

Because I want it to last for 20-30 years (or twice that) without warping or bending. The wood PT one it replaced had Peyronie's. At least a good 20° hook to it, dogleg right. I finally got tired of looking at it, is started hooking around 5yrs in, and by 15yrs it was shot.

I wanted to replace it, replace it once, and never need to replace it again as long as I live here.

@bfunke I just looked it up, I got the post from Vson's design in Canada. PB60S316 - 316L marine grade - The Minimalist post 58.5"- Modern mailbox - full stainless steel - post mounted - set in concrete - PB60S

https://vsonsdesign.com/products/in...1&_sid=48b0c8316&_ss=r&variant=39401587048621

I paid $240 shipped 3yrs ago. Clearly, you could probalby make this (or similar) out of non-stainless for a fraction of the cost if you've got the resources. What I'll say is, the welds are perfect TIG with excellent penetration, all cuts square and clean, holes perfect on center and diagonal, all edges clean, it legitimately is a work of art.

3yrs ago. Yeesh. No wonder the better-¾ wanted it outta the dining room.

 

Well, I think you nailed it!

 

Nah, I cemented it.

 

I would have bolted and epoxy’ed it.

 

Man, I had to buy JB weld the other day. At current pricing, I needed to save the $$.

I'd have bolted it to the fence, but they're semi-strict about distance from curb and height. I'd have bolted a bracket to the fence that holds it in the right place, but TBH, I'll probably need to replace the fence, or at least its pickets, in the next 10 years.

 

New roof is in order after 14 years. Hail damaged, fully covered by insurance, 39K with 1% deductible. Not a bad deal.

 

Great call outs.

No garage, pier and runner house. Building a barn soon for the garage.

One other recptacle in the bathroom, no jumpers from that, so I think it terms there. I confirmed three more outlets are all running no power and close to this bathroom. So I will be checking.

But during my walk, I got annoyed at my jack propped deck and started inspecting...







This picture is my greatest concern... I see edge rot on the subfloor and it was directly attached to the decking. So when I rebuild, it will be a free floating deck and not attached to the house. So now I need to figure out how I am going to repair this and then seal it.

Plus, i will be calling around for gutter companies tomorrow. fun fun

 

We're in the market for a roof soon. I've been contemplating metal. Looks like we get a sizeable insurance discount if we go that route. I think it'll solve celebratory gunfire issues we deal with every so often (brass thru roof). Fortunately, pitch is steep enough we're not impacted as frequently as neighbors with older 1story homes.

 

Yeah he totally screwed up. Plugs and lights on the same circuit is a no-no. 15 amp to plugs a no-no. Hopefully he ran the homerun to each room in 12ga.

 

Yikes, tough to tell from the pics but it looks like the deck was pitched towards the home instead of away, combined with no flashing on the ledger board? I 100% agree with free floating, especially at that height.

 

As far as the house, I would cut joists back 1 1/2" to get a rim joist in there to support the sub floor then rim it with pressure treated. After that flashing will keep it dry.

 

That crossed my mind, and I may eventually do that, but the Mrs. likely won’t be super keen on it.

I do plan updating my floor plans with an actual map of the outlets and lights though, and marking each circuit there

 

You can also replace the whole label (sticker) in the panel and start a new...

 

add a mesh hardware cloth around the inside border; will allow water to escape and rocks to remain in the bed?

 

I got some things done today that kicked my butt, maybe I am not back to 100% like I had hoped...

1. finally removed this stupid rando pipe from the yard. Cut it short so I can check for water flow before I crawl under the house. I am pretty confident it was an old spigot lead that has been cut off.
2. cleaned up the deck debris from my work yesterday.
3. removed a bunch of dead wires I found run through the ground, thinking old landscape wiring.
4. removed the old phone line box and wiring.
5. opened up the outside GFCI's.
5.a. turns out they all have power going to them but they are all tripped to off. The last one I checked had a disconnected neutral line, so I reconnected this one and confirmed it wasnt getting power. So I am going to try to reconnect the bathroom one now to see if it is feeding it.
5.b. The other three external plugs are being fed from somewhere else and are all tripped and wont reset.

Ready for the shocker? absolutely none of them are fixed to the house correctly.... I know... I know... I was shocked too. So I am not going to push getting them fixed yet as I want to get some materials to remove, wire and attach the housing correctly. I will most likely call out an electrician after I try the bathroom one again as one of the outlets made an interesting noise when I hit reset. I am concerned it is something within the wall and I am not about to tackle that with everything else I have going on.

Pictures for fun.











This was the one with the loose white wire

 

Whoever cut the siding for the box that the GFCI is in:

 

my thoughts exactly!

 

I’m confused, did they daisychain multiple GFCI outlets in one circuit? Or all they all single runs? You only need one GFCI, specifically on the 1st outlet off the panel, it’ll protect the entire circuit. I’ve run into issues in the past with multiple GFCI in a single circuit, where an upstream outlet will cause a downstream outlet to fault, especially with age and use. I know people like to see the pretty buttons outside and everything, but it’s overkill, unnecessary. Is there a GFCI breaker on each circuit with GFCI outlet?

 

This is where I am confused as well. I am used to one GFCI per run. So, I am thinking I can pull them all out (since my meter is showing the supply line hot) and then do the ol breaker flip thing to see if they all go dark at the same time or not. I cant tell where they are fed from and they are annoyingly close to each other. So I dont know... Hopefully not in a series, but I have found a lot of things wrong with this house, with a lot of clear "I can, or, I know a guy" type installs.

So, I am going to check the one I know. The rest, I will have to do more to find out and trace. But it is already 85 degrees, so I am done messing with them for the day.

TLDR, I agree, i dont know yet.

 

Actually, we do know the answer to this. All three externals are getting power but tripped. So they are not in series. maybe the first one, but not the rest.

 

FYI, this may no longer be correct depending on where you live and who your inspector is. The inspector I had in Charleston, SC had me change all exterior receptacles to GFCI on or under a newly built, free-standing, covered pergola. I initially installed them being protected (fed) from one GFCI on the existing covered porch. He rejected it. NEC states ALL exterior outlets MUST be GFCI (at least that's how he interpreted it). This was a major change in the 2017 edition. Below is a portion of the applicable section.

2017 Code Language:

210.8(A) Dwelling Units. All 125-volt, single-phase, 15- and 20- ampere receptacles installed in the locations specified in 210.8(A)(1) through (10) shall have ground-fault circuit interrupter protection for personnel.

(3) Outdoors

Later editions expand the requirement even further.

I honestly think he was wrong, but it wasn't worth arguing over. It did cost the customer an extra $100 or so in material (GFCI @ $25/EA v "regular" receptacle @ $5/ EA.
If every exterior receptacle needs to be GFCI, I would have worded it as follows to avoid confusion: "EACH outdoor 125-volt, single-phase, 15- and 20- ampere receptacle SHALL BE ground-fault circuit interrupter for protection of personnel."

Multiple GFCIs on one circuit shouldn't be a problem so long as they are all terminated to the LINE side of the receptacle. Then, only the respective receptacle(s) experiencing a fault should trip. GFCI receptacles and a GFCI breaker for a single circuit is overkill.

 

Technically, not true. All 3 can be connected in "series" if power is terminated to the LINE side of each of the receptacles in the circuit. This could explain why each receptacle won't reset (because there's obviously still power getting to each of them/ the breaker in the breaker panel is not tripped).

 

I did not know that, since I was under the impression the lead GFCI tripped would stop downstream power.

That said, they are all fed to the line spot. The sticker is still intact. I think breaker popping is going to be the answer to the question. Especially since I have breakers that I have no idea what they are going to. I just need to be able to power down the critical components first.

 

I meant LINE side. I corrected my post above.

 

hrm...

Thank you for the correction. I am going to check on interior outlet and then try to wire up the one that started this journey. From there, I will see what the breakers say. All this is while I wait for the subfloor to dry out so I can start putting the deck back together.

 

That being said, whatever fault(s) is/ are in the circuit is happening BETWEEN the 3 receptacles. If the fault was before the receptacles (assuming the 3 receptacles are the only ones in the circuit), the breaker in the breaker panel would be tripped.

 

no tripped breakers. I may end up reaching out to you later when I decide to tackle this. Then again, I am still heavily debating just calling someone out so I can focus on other things.

 

Looking back at the pictures, I see they also "backstabbed" the receptacles. That is a big NO-NO for any experienced electrician. Many agree that backstabbing is a primary cause for electrical faults and/ or fires. Please J-hook your conductors and use the screw terminals on the sides of the receptacles for your connections AKA terminations. To assist in your troubleshooting, I would disconnect all 3 receptacles. Then, connect them one at a time and see if each GFCI will reset as you go. The receptacles themselves can have an internal short or the wiring in between is shorted somewhere.

 

Sure, buddy. No problem.