Home Improvement/Repair Questions

[Dleg]

Yeah, I had an inspection (by a civil engineer).  He looked at the panel, plugged the GFCI tester in several outlets, looked at the wiring in the crawlspace but that was about it.  He didn't go around and determine how many outlets were on each circuit, etc, although as I mentioned he did discover the strange combo of areas that were connected to the garage circuit.  

The circuit never trips out, even when we run a vacuum or iron on the big circuits, so I am not worried about safety or anything (this house was build in 86, so pretty good record of trouble-free operation).  I just would like to see a few more circuits so i can have a more logical layout and some more capacity. for example when I installed my new bathroom fan a couple weeks ago, it took me switching about 8 breakers until I found the right one (labeled garage), and then half the lights in our living area and kitchen were off for ~4 hours while I did my work. That just doesn't make much sense to me - I'd like to see a bahtroom on its own circuit, with its own GFCI.  

 

[mudpuppy]

I just would like to see a few more circuits so i can have a more logical layout and some more capacity. for example when I installed my new bathroom fan a couple weeks ago, it took me switching about 8 breakers until I found the right one (labeled garage), and then half the lights in our living area and kitchen were off for ~4 hours while I did my work. That just doesn't make much sense to me - I'd like to see a bahtroom on its own circuit, with its own GFCI.  

I find it nice not to have everything in one room on the same circuit, because it's a pain when you flip the breaker and all the lights and outlets in that room go off and you've got to work on stuff by flashlight.  Much easier when you can plug a lamp into an outlet and/or keep the overhead lights on.  I suppose there's always extension cords for that, though.

As for the number of outlets and lights on one circuit, there's definitely limits to that in the code--I vaguely remember some of it from the PE exam but I'd have to dig out the code book to look it up again.

My panel was fairly small--100 A service with 15 breakers or so, but even still I was shocked [pun] they only charged $1k for it.

 

[knight1fox3]

As for the number of outlets and lights on one circuit, there's definitely limits to that in the code--I vaguely remember some of it from the PE exam but I'd have to dig out the code book to look it up again.

Negative red leader. The NEC doesn't limit the actual number of receptacle and lighting outlets on a general-purpose branch circuit in a dwelling unit. It's based more on power available. In that regard, one can certainly apply the code in this fashion: take the sq footage and multiply it by 3VA (per NEC T220.12). Example: 1200sq ft dwell (3VA)= 3600VA. Then take the ampacity size of the lighting breaker (which is 15 or 20 amps) and multiply it by the corresponding voltage (120V) being applied. Example: 15A(120V)= 1800VA. Then divide: 3600VA/1800VA = 2 circuits. Also note NEC 220.42 where it tells you that a demand factor from T220.42 shall not apply for general illumination.

 

[Dleg]

Yeah but what about my "1600 Watt" Velodyne subwoofer?  (I am pretty sure that thing has never drawn anywhere near that power).

 

[Road Guy]

That's when you need a dicfur.

 

[Ble_PE]

That's when you need a dicfur.

Wait a minute, are you trying to get us to ask "what's a dicfur?"?

 

[Road Guy]

Since you asked..

For baby making!!!!

 

[mudpuppy]

Negative red leader. The NEC doesn't limit the actual number of receptacle and lighting outlets on a general-purpose branch circuit in a dwelling unit. It's based more on power available. In that regard, one can certainly apply the code in this fashion: take the sq footage and multiply it by 3VA (per NEC T220.12). Example: 1200sq ft dwell (3VA)= 3600VA. Then take the ampacity size of the lighting breaker (which is 15 or 20 amps) and multiply it by the corresponding voltage (120V) being applied. Example: 15A(120V)= 1800VA. Then divide: 3600VA/1800VA = 2 circuits. Also note NEC 220.42 where it tells you that a demand factor from T220.42 shall not apply for general illumination.

You're correct.  I was mis-remembering the general lighting load rather then outlets.

 

[MA_PE]

how many outlets for 221?

 

[Road Guy]

Number of outlets =  (221) / (woobie)^1/2

 

[Road Guy]

anyone bought oak (unfinished) hard wood flooring lately?

I am about to start doing a few rooms this summer in our house in hardwood and I checked the prices and HFS have they gone up!  around $3.50 / SF for the unfinished red oak stuff is the best I have been able to find?  I went back and checked my notes from my old house and the high grade stuff was $2 bucks a SF? (This was 6+ years ago) but has it really gone up that much?

 

[snickerd3]

anyone bought oak (unfinished) hard wood flooring lately?

I am about to start doing a few rooms this summer in our house in hardwood and I checked the prices and HFS have they gone up!  around $3.50 / SF for the unfinished red oak stuff is the best I have been able to find?  I went back and checked my notes from my old house and the high grade stuff was $2 bucks a SF? (This was 6+ years ago) but has it really gone up that much?

location location location

 

[Road Guy]

so you are saying I need to be closer to the oak trees?

I have enjoyed my last 4 years of home ownership with no projects... wife is all in the mood to replace floors, paint, install a fireplace, gonna be a long end of summer / fall..

I am glad my kids are all of age to do the "heavy lifting"

 

[jeb6294]

Picked one of these up at HD last night.

Put the saw to good use and I can say that the Kreg pocket screw jig that was all over TV for a while is great.  We wanted to bump up to a king size bed but couldn't find one that we liked.  Found a website with a lot of pretty good furniture plans and made one myself out of good ol' fashion pine with no press board/particle board/plywood in sight.  I did manage to put my Engineering skills to (limited) use...the plans were for a queen so I had to revise the dimensions and the plans actually had 6-foot posts at all 4 corners which neither of us liked.

Bed went together fine.  We did have a bit of an issue with the mattress though.  Mrs. Jeb6294 found a memory foam one she liked on Amazon and it had really good reviews..  It was only ~$450 so it wasn't even terrible expensive, especially for a nice foam mattress.  Amazon Prime Day it shows up on her list of deals for $208 so she jumped all over it.  Only problem is that it has to be taken out of the box so it can expand within 24 hours of getting it and the bed was still getting painted.  No problem, we'll just throw it down in the basement.  1. A memory foam mattress folded and vacuum packed into a 2'x2'x4' box goes down into a basement really easily.  2. A fully expanded king size mattress is too big to get out of a basement.  Fortunately, being a foam mattress we found out that it was very easy to fold it in half.  Threw a ratchet strap around it to keep it folded and we had it out of the basement and upstairs to our bedroom in 2 minutes.

 

[Road Guy]

that's solid work! very nice!

when we were moving in to our current house the wife bought a similar mattress from Costco and didn't want to wait on me to help her drag it upstairs and this happened:



 it was probably for the best as we replaced that white railing with the iron stuff.. but I was still like WTF couldn't you wait an hour?

 

[Road Guy]

& did you use some plans for that bed? or just make it up as you went along?

 

[jeb6294]

Started with plans and then did a little customizing as I went.  Site called http://www.ana-white.com has a ton of stuff.

Our old queen size mattress was a Costco mattress too.  Fortunately it was just a replacement so it went right upstairs while it was still in the box.  The stairs are a straight shot though so no demolished handrails.  Our old bed got moved down the hall to the middle kid's room.  Middle kid, but also the biggest kid, was still on a twin so he got the upgrade.

 

[Supe]

Ana White has some good projects on there, and very well detailed.  I can't remember if I've actually built any of them, but I've been to that site tons of times.  

 

[Road Guy]

I don't have any fully finished photos but the replacement we did had a much better look even before my wife smashed them to pieces!



I'm going to be getting a new table saw to do some wood floors and the steps you see in the picture and Id like to try my hand at a bed - my oldest goes off to college next year and we were going to convert his room to more of a traditional guest bed room and right now we just have his full mattress on a frame and no headboard.. I will check those sites out!

 

[Road Guy]

So while I was out of town (this always seems to happen) the outlets in our bathroom stopped working, wife flipped the breaker, still nothing, reset the GFI, still nothing..

 

Get back home and plug in my tester and it displays this:



(says hot and ground are reversed) – so how could something work for 4 years (since we bought the house) and then all of sudden not work?

 

I haven’t taken the outlet apart to see if it is just broken, but its getting power but not working?

 

Could it have worked previously in this condition and then just all of sudden decide that it couldn’t work the way it was originally wired? – Its very strange..