What home improvement work did you do today?

Second vote for copper. Love it.

Properly sweated copper in normal conditions will last a lifetime. Our entire house was copper, and I insisted on more copper when we reno'd our basement and both bathrooms. But I know my plumber personally and he's a savant with copper. I can't sweat copper to save my life.

 

I just saw the pex going into the wall. haha. The copper will last for a long time It's just a PITA when you have to cut out drywall to replace.

 

Flux is your friend, and so is map gas.

 

It's much more of a PITA when it's buried under the slab and you get to cut holes in all your drywall to reroute through the walls and ceiling with Pex. Expensive too

 

Clean copper. That was what'd been killing me all those years, if the copper is even a hair oxidized and not blazingly flashy, it doesn't seem to seal worth a shit.

 

That DOES sound like a HUGE PITA. Yikes

 

Old springs were FUBAR on one of our doors. Shit scAmazon quality, the other door still has 21yo originals intact and healthy, I replaced these when a pulley went out 8-9 years ago, and look at 'em already. Same tension as the other door, but the coil thickness was subpar. I went with DURA-LIFT brand this time, Home Depot carries their stuff. Calipers out closer to the originals.

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I'd say they were pretty done.

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Water chemistry can have an impact on copper too. I still trust it over most alternatives though. There are bad batches of PEX - I have a coworker that has had four separate blowouts in the PEX in his house. Not fitting failures or localized damage/scratches. Literally pipes split and leaked, traced back to a bad run of material. At this point his whole house has been gutted and repiped ($1.5mm home).

 

Yes
And good quality solder

 

Emery cloth or a good rotary brush. Then good flux. Then good solder, and MAPP gas in your torch.

 

I want to get rid of those style springs and switch to torsion springs one of these days

 

Then when soldering concentrate the heat more on the fitting than on the pipe... With the fitting hotter than the pipe... and then when solder melts on the pipe the heat of the fitting sucks the solder right in ... The whole fitting (all inlets/outlets) has to be done at the same time... Can not do one connection and then try to come back (after the first has hardened) and do another...

Justa a thought...

 

Yep.

 

Copper is the way if you want your water to stay in place, but if you have a well water it usually has a high mineral content (pending on location)it will break down the Copper unless you do the tedious chore of filter replacement.
Just food for thought.

 

Inspection today, then can get started replacing all the drywall. The city is worse than the damn cable co, at least the "window" for cable is usually a few hours, the city- 7am-4pm.

 

Talk about a low stress job,just do what you can at a snails pace.

 

Getting some concrete poured this weekend for the side yard. Gonna put a few sheds and the box we keep all the pool toys in.

 

Honestly, I'm debating whether to keep the damn doors or not. The doors are 7'x9' (HxW), that's four 21" x 9' wood panels. Heavy as hell, and with all the rain we get, I'm replacing the lowest panel that touches the ground every 7-8 years or so. (I've got proper seals on the bottom, water still eventually wicks up). If I hadn't just replaced both openers with new chain drives and installed MyQ bridge on them, I'd trash it all and go with a different system. I really hate that the doors roll up and obscure 1/2 my garage ceiling, it's preventing me from installing more lighting, the door would just block it.

Ideally, I'd like to have a steel roll-up door that rolls up into a box in the ceiling, just in front of the garage opening. Or trash everything and go to a multi-panel all-metal door that's insulated on the back side for our mild winters and sound control with a rotary or screw style opener - anything quieter than a chain drive, I don't know what type would be. Garage is in the basement, I can hear the garages opening two floors up in my bedroom. Which is a blessing (security/awareness) in the days before I installed the MyQ bridge, and a curse (noisy as hell).

 

Look at belt drive openers, very quiet.

 

Second on belt drive. When we needed to replace the door a couple years ago, went ahead and got a new opener. Belt drive, super quiet...I won't be going back.

 

edited because I forgot how to read this morning....

Skil brand is my go to for table saws.

 

Grabbed a load of mulch for the wife and kids to spread, as I sit and watch while drinking beer (can’t help due to rotator surgery)

 

Is that a yard? Or ?? In the past I usually get It delivered at 5 or 7 yards as a minimum. But I need just a little and and thinking I’d get a Tundra load. Less of a schedule hassle then.

note: Tundra load.

 

yes, 1 yard

 

Once you add concrete, where does the water run off? Just curious how it will drain with your neighbors house so close.

 

I have a couple projects in the works after cleaning/organizing the garage this coming week.

First is a cart for the miter saw and job site table saw. I'm thinking something like this:

 

A cart like that with a good set of locking casters would be sweet. I use the DeWalt miter saw stand, it’s far less mobile but really stable. The extendable wings on either side really help with long pieces as well

 

Looking for some opinions here. This retaining wall was replaced by the previous owners when we bought our house 3 years ago. They paid some DIY rednecks who only installed drains at the very bottom. I'm trying to keep it from getting worse. The contractor who did our bathroom recommended I dig down above the worst section and then drill a hole and install drains. Curious if anyone has different suggestions. I would think I could drill and install a drain without digging down.

I do not know if the entire wall is brick, or just brick covering block.

 

Got the keys to our new home a week ago. Can’t wait to start doing some home improvements.

The list: extend concrete patio, add a 20x30 shop in the back, and remove grass on the left side and add concrete to the gate.

 

Congrats!