The house I live in has an existing oil-based boiler for both heat and hot water. The hot water tank (50 gallons) will likely need to be replaced in the next few years as it is more than 10 years old, probably approaching 15. I am on well water without a water softener, and I assume that the previous owners never did any sort of maintenance with the current hot water tank. (A neighbor mentioned that there is some sacrificial part that can be replaced every so often to extend the life of the tank.)

I keep reading that the hybrid heat pump water heaters are incredibly efficient, and I hate having to burn oil during the warmer months just to heat my showers. My plumber tells me that it's a really efficient system and that I should keep it intact as long as I can. He also seems a bit old school in his opinion and preferences, as he scoffs at the idea that I would eventually like to replace the whole boiler and system with a heat pump system instead.

Is there a good place to learn about how my existing system works, and any way to compare to possible savings (or pitfalls) of switching to a new system? Are there other options, such as tankless hot water heaters, that I should consider? I gather that recovery time with a hybrid heat pump water heater will be much slower than the existing system, so should I also calculate for a larger system (65 or 80 gallons)? Two adults live here full time but we frequently host guests and family gatherings, and we sometimes need enough hot water for 10 or so adults to shower. There are three full bathrooms in the house and one day we may add a fourth.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/45847204

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/45847124

For quite a while I had been longing to measure the waterlevel in my well.

The first attempt with a HC-SR04 failed due to distance (4 meter deep well) and problems of how to mount it in the well. Then I came across the JSN-SR04 sensor. It's all running on an esp2866 (I found it to have better wifi than the esp32). Several parts re-used from old projects. Added small solar panel to keep it all self contained. Data is sent to homeassistant (mqtt) and a bit of log/debug data to syslog.

Due to circumstances had it been lying on my desk quite a while, but finally, today I was able to install it!
I screwed a drainpipe cap to the lid of the well and mounted the sensor in another. A simple pipe connector in between works like a charm.

Removed the plastic and wire guard rail that was put in originally and now I'm unsure what to replace it with. Any ideas?

anybody who is interested in this community would probably be interested in this video

Home inspector and certified builder Tobias Condill joins WIRED to answer the internet’s burning questions about house safety maintenance. What are the biggest red flags spotted during a home inspection? What are the dumbest home maintenance DIY fixes? What’s the most common cause of house fires people don’t know about?

This all on same breaker. Left, spliced wires are hot, but do nothing and there's no switch for them.

Wires on the right are on a switch that controls two other lights closer to the breaker.

Can I just removed the splice and terminate the hot wires into a box mounted on the rafter?

i think the spliced goes to these wires, then leads somewhere else?

cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/57512484

Had this local lumber yard trying to charge me $100 A BOARD FOR 8 FT PIECES!!!

It's wavy cedar siding. It's actually pretty common here up northern US.

I can't imagine that price is right. I could see $50 or $60. Or is lumber really that insane?

I just need like 4 of them for a repair..

This dishwasher leaks out the door. It seems there should be a gasket there. Unclear why it isn't there, but based on manuals and videos I can find, this model always has one, and it's typical of all dishwashers.

GE has the part listed, and I ordered the correct part number from a cheap third party site. But I can't get it to stay in there long enough to even test shutting the door.

Should I use some kind of high temp adhesive? What if it doesn't actually fit, like it doesn't let the door properly shut? Will it be difficult to remove the adhesive and try again? I hate dishwashers, but this is for someone else.

Thanks for any input

Edit https://www.geapplianceparts.com/store/parts/assembly/HDF330PGR6WW

I haven't gleaned any extra clues there but I'm at a loss. Stupid thing is listed for $430 u.s.

Hello! My bathroom faucet has an insert aerator. We attempted to remove it in order to remove the chalk in the faucet, and broke the bottom part off as a result. The keys we have to remove the aerator are now not working, and we can't quite get it out.

Does anybody have any suggestions? We've tried using thin pliers for electronics to grab it and twist, but we can't get a good enough grip. A few photos attached: the remaining part inside the faucet, the broken off bottom part, and the keys that we have.

I'm currently working on renovating the bathroom in our 1958 home. I just finished tearing out the shoddy job some flippers did a few years back, and found some issues with the floor that have got me scratching my head. I've learned that it was common practice back in the 50's to have a mortar slab subfloor, and it looks like that's what I have in our bathroom (except where the old bathtub was, where there was just 2 layers of 5/8" plywood). The tile was adhered directly to the slab with no decoupling membrane, and the only way I could get it and the thinset off was with a rotary hammer. I'm afraid that might have been too aggressive though, because now there's a bunch of cracks in the subfloor. I'm not certain if the cracks go all the way through because the bottom/sides of the slab are hidden. But I'm also not certain the actual original mortar slab is cracked, or if the flippers put a super thick layer or two of leveling compound down, and that's what's cracked, because in one area where I accidentally made a deeper gouge, it looks like there's about an inch of smooth grey mortar-like substance at the surface, but beneath that is a lighter-colored concrete-like substance with an aggregate mixed into it.

I'd like to get some more opinions on what's actually going on here, and what my next steps should be. Can I put leveling compound down as-is, do I need to patch/fill the cracks, do I need to fully chip away this smooth, grey top layer, or do I need to tear out the slab completely and lay a new plywood subfloor?

Imgur link for reference: https://imgur.com/a/xF7go4z

I can add more photos if needed. Thanks in advance!

I guess "hire someone" is always an option, but it's a difficult task sometimes, especially finding someone reliable. It's not even that the larger thing is outside my ability, it's just "ugh, I don't have time for this".

Curious if anyone has any tips and tricks to overcome this kind of paralysis.

Ok so this is fun. We are finally redoing our deck on our house that was built in the 70's.

The stair treads were these nice wide low-angle kind, using a bracket made by Erecto-pat, which is no longer in business at all! I find it baffling that NO ONE makes a stair step bracket like this, at least nowhere that I can find! Literally the only thing I could find on the entire internet is this ebay listing:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/324682985573

If anyone knows a similar part, that would be super helpful. Otherwise I am going to have to go to a custom metal fab shop to get some made!

Side note, their patent expired, so if you wanna make some bucks, start making some of these up! They work perfectly for stairs. The only reason I need new ones is some are rusted after all these years.

I'm not sure what other lemmy community might be fitting for this post, so here I go. Feel free to redirect me if you know of another community that might have an answer for me.

Starting this year, my whole kitchen starts smelling really weird whenever I turn on my electric oven.

It's not inside the oven. I just turned it on, and when the smell was starting to appear, I opened the oven and smelled the warm air. It was smelling as normal, so it's something outside the oven.

It's an odd smell that doesn't smell like anything I've ever experienced. I've talked about this with a friend, they suggested it might be the insulation around the oven that might contain some kind of bacterial growth. My washing machine did flood my kitchen a bit between the years, but since the oven has a drawer underneath, I'd be surprised if the insulation got wet somehow. Could the insulation get bacterial growth from just high air humidity for a few days?

Are there things I could to to test whether the air is safe to breathe? The smell just smells... off. It's not a sharp smell, but I do feel like I get a slight headache whenever I smell it, which might just be placebo because of the deeply unpleasant smell.

I'm at a loss as to what I can do short of replacing the whole thing, which seems overkill.

Fixed a water supply valve leak. Decided clean the slightly clogged drain as well. Really appreciate the manufacturers that do that much more.

Hola!

I am in Spain, and just today found out the model of my AC (it's very difficult to access). It's a Fujitsu General ARH 45 LUAN split system.

I was thinking of getting a smart controller for it, but so far I have been unsuccessful figuring out if there is a smart solution for this AC - native or third party - so I would be grateful for any tips and ideas.

EDIT: The AC is a duct type system with just a wall-mounted control (no IR receiver).

We recently moved into this place and the shower has this crack in the tiles.

I imagine this is quite bad in terms of humidity creeping into the wall?

Is there a way to fix this without having to redo the entire wall?

Thanks for thinking along!

example - https://www.wakefit.co/mattress/latex-mattress/WMFWLM72608

Hey all, I was looking to see if anyone had any storage suggestion ideas for this Dead space. I have behind my refrigerator. I'm only able to reach in. Probably about 3 ft or so, but the space is about 4 ft wide by 7 ft long. The floor of this space is also the ceiling of my basement, so I can't see it supporting very much weight without being reinforced. Looking for ideas if you have any, thanks!

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/40000592

And there it stands. Still a lot of work to do, but there will be grilling this weekend!

Okay so I decided to hire a contractor for the first time in a long time. We had a structural beam put in since the original beam was rotting and we already had extra support on the other side of the wall supporting the joists over there. But nothing supporting the joists on the other side.

The guy put sandwiched 2 2x8s instead of using an LVL, I specifically asked for LVL because I though using regular lumber was a ridiculous idea, we wanted it fixed right. Those boards are being held up by temporary jack posts, I found the manfucator, checked their website and theres a big note about them being for temporary use only. They bolted the jack right into the 3" concrete slab, no footings put in. And theres pretty significant gaps between the beam and some of the joists, one of them I can fully fit my pinky through to the other side, most of them I could slide a little piece of cardboard through.

I did get a structural engineer to right up a report. In the report he says to use a "3inch adjustable steel post" and "use commonly accepted construction practices". So I assumed this meant 3 inch adjustable lallys, rated for permanent use and commonly accepted practices meant putting a footing beneath the structural column.

I called the contractor and he had a few things to say

The jacks are fine for long term use, theres no need for footings because the engineer didn't specifically state it, the jack is technically a 3inch adjustable steel post.

The 2 2x8 is even better than LVL because there's 2 of them and it provides better support for less money.

(Here's my favorite) The gaps between the beam and joists are fine and eventually the house will settle and the joists will bear on the beam. Putting in shims would be pointless because they'd get crushed and compressed when the house settles. (He really told me to wait until your floor sags and it'll line up)

Now I've done this type of work before, I did general construction for years, but I feel like I'm going crazy here.

Is anything I said out of place? Am I over reacting here?

We paid for a permanent structural beam to be installed and got 2x8s held up by jack posts with no footings. Has anyone seen this before? This is an integral beam that's supporting about 10 joists, not extra support.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/39806045

Help scheduled for wednesday to lift in the kamado. I left the front beam and breads out for now so we don't have to lift it that high.

The far right has no table top, there i'm gonna place a concrete slab with a castiron grid. Under it will be space for brikettes and my dutch oven(s)/skillets can be placed on the cast iron grid

Q1: I’ve looked for “faucet supply lines” to the specifications on the tag but none of them fit this bottom connector look, has it been modified or do I need a speciality line?

Underview

Topview

Q2: I’ve seen recommendations for 2 hole faucets for this situation, but with copper tubing I wanted an at least somewhat experienced opinion before I started ordering. What do you recommend for this type sink?

Found a leak in the main drain pipe while in my crawl space. It's 1-1/2" copper tubing, leaking from a crack in the middle of a section with no joins nearby. I got one of those epoxy/resin pipe bandage kits to try to just patch it, but as I was working the epoxy over the crack, my fingers went through the bottom of the pipe in a spot a couple inches upstream of the crack. After further inspection for other weak spots, I'm figuring on replacing about a foot of pipe.

The pipe's in a weird spot where I really don't want to try to use a torch to sweat in the new section. Push-connects in this size are hard to find and expensive as hell, but I saw these shielded neoprene couplings and they seem like they'd be perfect, plus they're inexpensive. Does anyone have any experience with these?

https://www.menards.com/main/plumbing/pipe-fittings/flexible-fittings/fernco-copper-x-copper-or-plastic-proflex-flexible-coupling/3003-150/p-1444430440945-c-1478181399646.htm

This might not be the place for this but I feel like someone here should know.

I moved into a new house recently and there's a whole security system, infrared scanners, alarms on all the doors and windows, glass break detectors everywhere. When we open a door or window there's a little chirp so something is working, but I'm curious if anyone knows if I can rewire this somehow or get a new panel so that I can actually set an alarm and stuff.

My kitchen is from the 50s and has been updated somewhat over the years by previous owners. The wiring has all be updated to Romex but it's still all running from two circuits, and one of them is inconveniently placed and practically useless. The end result is I can only use one countertop appliance at a time without tripping a breaker. Only the dishwasher and oven have dedicated circuits.

I've lived with this limitation long enough. My 2026 project is to put each outlet on its own circuit and move a couple other outlets from circuits that are shared with adjacent rooms. In all, it's looking like it's going to be 5 or 6 total circuits.

Would I be ahead to do a single big circuit (220V split phase) from the breaker box and break it out in a sub-panel in the kitchen or just run new individual circuits up from the main breaker box?

Secondary question:

Assuming I do the sub panel and break out five 15 amp circuits in the kitchen, that's 75 amps. I only have 100A service from the meter. I do not ever anticipate drawing 75 amps from the kitchen outlets at once, but AFAIK codes require that I account for the possibility.

Would it meet code (NEC) to put a 30 amp "main" breaker on the sub-panel that feeds 75 amps worth of 15 amp circuits (or, alternatively, feed the sub-panel from a 30 amp breaker in the main panel)?