Got a pool? Well this post is for you. This pool pump was to little for the distance and size it was pumping making it difficult to keep the pool clean so we replaced it with a Pentair Digital VS which moves much more water at the same and higher speeds due to a brushless motor and other advancements. Variable speed pumps give you the advantage of running different speeds at your choosen times of the day rather than just full blast. Generally power is more expensive during the day due to market demand so you can now run a higher RPM at night vs the day with positive feedback from various users coming in at $50 to $120 monthly savings...just on you your pool pump!!! That leaves your payback at less than 12 months and with power companies giving out rebates even lower! Why wouldn't you upgrade? How to replace? Cut the breaker, cut pipe, and use 45 degree angles and not 90 degrees. If you are paying for an upgrade to be more effecient why on earth would you use 90 degree piping. Think city traffic turns vs smooth highway turns. Less friction on flow of water. Eventually when we replace other parts we'll remove the 90's and go with 45's as well. Also the electronics comes with a weather tight seal, but um...if you've seen what I've seen go ahead and cover the cover! Shade, salt, moisture, on and on.....Be careful when you install these pumps making sure you fill with water before you turn on to prime them. Pentair will cut your 3 year warranty because you don't have a "license" to install them, even if you follow their directions. What the hell happened to ownership?!? You know, because the brain surgery of connecting 4 wires and glueing some plastic pieces together will cause Vendors to have heart attacks. Have fun!
Proper Grounding
So you finally bit the bullet and pulled off your first purchase. Man, you are screwed...hahahah, just playing, buuuut maybe not. ;) First thing you want to do is check your grounding. One of the greatest risks posed by ungrounded electrical systems are fire and shock. Neither are good for you. Any questions? The best way to check grounding is at all points in your home at every single outlet. Some may be grounded some may not depending on when the home was built along with who built it and who worked on it within that time period. First thing is to get a multimeter. We are using a Klien CL2000 but any cheapo will work. Place the hot(black) in the smaller hole and the red in the bigger hole. You should read around 120v. In our case we are at 120.8v. Next move the red wire to the ground you should read about the same voltage plus or minus 5. If your reading on the ground is completely off your original reading than the ground at that outlet and everything connected to that outlet outside and inside the wall is at risk and you should seek repairs or youtube what you need to do. As for me I'd trace wires to see if I could find where the fault is, which sometimes included ripping sheetrock out, breaker off of course. If all your outlets test good, well you might as well turn the wifi on, plug that jam in and crank it up!!!
Corrosion Resistance
There are two things you should never do in life. The 1st being, doing everything opposite your wife tells you to do; the 2nd is applying white aluminum to pressure treated wood. As you can see when you mix the two bad things happen. Pressure treated wood used to be treated with chromated copper arsenate, but I believe this was phased out in 2005. This house was built in 2005 so not sure which type of lumber was used. Now treated wood is treated with alkaline copper quaternary and copper azole. This contains much more copper than previous applications. When aluminum flashing contacts this type of wood the two metals collide and corrodes the aluminum. This flashing is only 10 years old and you can see the damage. Our last build we used pressure treated as a base and then painted over it. If you do it this way you'll have to repaint every 5 or so years. With flashing you'll have to replace every 10 years. Paint is about $20 for a gallon and flashing replacement with paid professional install is $400. You be the judge. Of course there are many ways to wrap a post but in my opinion if you are building complete custom posts wrap it in Hardie board and then paint. You'll still need to paint every 5 years but there will be fewer warps and fewer calk applications to apply. Of course we did it all wrong and re-wrapped with aluminum so you'll catch us 10 years later trying to figure out what our wives told us not to do.....Oh, and if you need help with any flashing or vinyl work call my buddy Paul at 850-624-9625
Polymeric Sand
Had some 10 year old pavers that needed to be redone. First step is clearing the ant mounds and weeds that had piled up over the years with a flat shovel. Next is pressure washing the pavers and blasting weeds out and anything else between the pavers. For a finer stone you want to wait a good day so the pavers can become completely dry, then you'll want to seal them before applying the sand. In this case it's just a walk way. Wait a couple hours for the pavers to become dry in full sun and brush the sand in between the cracks, tap each paver one by one with the end of the broom stick to make sure the sand fills all crevasses. Blow the remaining sand off the pavers making sure you don't blow the sand out of the cracks. Next up is to lightly spray water 2-3 times waiting about 30 min in between. Then let sit. Polymeric sand is very fine sand with glue mixed in. Once the sand hardens it will lock the pavers in place and give you another 5-10 years of worry free and hopefully weed free maintenance. Make sure you do a better job than we did blowing off the sand as when you spray water, glue will be on top of the pavers. Have fun!
GHOST EM
Advances in materials in all industries have advanced tremendously. Some things are getting cheaper to make, lasting longer and performing better and making it easier for an average handy man or handy women to get into while other older materials were better than current. It's always tricky finding the medium and YES I'll say it again. Go-Go Inspector law guy is clueless in ALL states. One of these products is Ghost-shield Lithi-Tek LS 9500. This is a concrete sealer which permanently seals your concrete. Yeah.....PERMANENTLY with a 100 year warranty. What The? Use this stuff on the bat-cave Robin! One of our 1962 slabs gets moisture soaked all the time especially in morning via due. It sweats and gets moldy in our high humid climate very easily. Not anymore! We may be coloring the concrete in the future which we'll post about another industrial non box store product that works better than paint or epoxy. If you have this problem on your old but better than new concrete use this stuff. All you need to do is spray off the dirt, scrub it down with a concrete cleaner, let dry, spray on, let dry, spray a 2nd and wait 24-48 hours. It is truly an amazing product and we don't say that too often. Where do you get it? Well duh, Google. Excerpt description from Ghost-shield:
Lithi-Tek LS ® 9500 is an advanced, high performance, industrial strength, penetrating concrete and masonry waterproofing sealer / vapor barrier solution designed to reduce water and moisture intrusion. This unique formula incorporates leading molecular nanotechnology, putting an end to water and moisture migration through any porous cementitious substrate. Lithi-Tek LS ® 9500 is a uniquely transparent, blended formula with added enzymes and surfactants that aide in accelerating a deeper penetrating disbursement. Thus eliciting a more effective, uniformed chemical reaction between the formula and the concrete / masonry substrate it’s being applied to. Lithi-Tek LS ® 9500 provides a hydrophobic barrier beneath the surface and seals out moisture while remaining highly vapor permeable and chemically bonding with the substrate. The treated surfaces will show no change in visual appearance from application and the surface will not chip, flake, delaminate or breakdown with UV light exposure.
How Does it Work? A hybrid densifying, impregnating sealer is typically used to densify, harden and prevent water and water-soluble damaging substances from penetrating concrete and mineral substrates. Once impregnated the reaction process from the active silicate ingredient produces additional C-S-H (calcium silicate hydroxide) within the capillary tracts thus increasing the density and volumetric mass. The change of the surface tension elicited from the waterproofing component forms a repellent cross-linking membrane that is hydrophobic and able to repel water and water-soluble deleterious materials.
In structures on and below grade water should generally be kept out and away to prevent damage. Lithi-Tek LS ® 9500 can block up to 99% of surface moisture. The chemical reactive and active ingredients seal the pores within the substrate adequately blocking surface moisture while still maintaining the concretes ability to breathe. It will not significantly modify substrate appearance or traction and will only wear away if the concrete surface itself wears away.
New or existing concrete can be treated and performance can be improved in as little as two applications. Backed by an unrivaled 100-year warranty, Lithi-Tek LS ® 9500 is a small investment that leads to long-term savings and improved performance for decades.
Let it Drip
It's too late for this post but just in time to find the issue. We stress whether you stay with us or you've finally bought your own always leave a couple of interior and exterior faucets slow drip overnight when below freezing temperatures occur. This will prevent expansion of interior and hidden pipes. Even if your home is "Up-To-Racketeering-Code" pipes will still burst. 1 gallon of water when frozen expands approximately 9%. This year was no exception. The below is a picture of a brass fixture that could not handle the pressure of a freeze. Just think if brass can't handle this pressure, what do you think Copper, Cpvc or Pex will do depending on your attic airflow ratio? I'm sure everyone will agree that it was cold and grueling winter, but it's starting to warm up and everyone is coming out of hibernation. So next year, Let It Drip or costly repairs will occur.
Take your Shirts off
Get in your attics, let the sweat drip, burn calories, and build muscles for your significant other all while insulating your pipes! A workout and stuff done! Holy Smokes, we've got a winner! In this case its the reverse #Loudpipessavelives Is it #mardigra yet because we support #breastcancerawareness . . .
Permitting is for Winners
The permitting process is designed to protect the consumer from bad materials and poor tradesmen ship. Obviously we wouldn't offer any property that we wouldn't feel safe living in ourselves and obviously our builds are built as if they were our own, well because they are our own. So lets talk about why the permitting process should be moved out of governments hands or at least get someone to debate me. I can never find anyone willing....All new homes are constructed so well and superior to homes built before there was a permitting process. You can now go into any neighborhood and a home built in the 80's through current will stand longer than those still standing built in the 1800's. In fact, International codes have gotten so well off that now they charge twice if you don't follow the overlordship rules that all young adults getting into any field are born with already knowing all the rules set forth by our forefathers. They just keep increasing. No wonder babies heads are getting bigger! Housing should all be the same and there should be absolutely no art involved. Don't you agree? Don't trust your neighbors and names of the tradesman, trust what the overlords tell you. In fact, don't even think just put .gov on it and all will be ok. In .GOV we trust....Fixed it! You know if something bad happens its not like a sign off of a permit will protect you. Tradesmen are on the hook anyways. Last name Woolard Here let me make it bigger -> W-O-O-L-A-R-D. I have no idea why this damn rent is sooo high. I cannot for the life of me figure it out. What is the point? They'll say. "Safety of the People!" knowing you cannot do anything about it and you cannot challenge in court. We'll say Theft by Gov. and degradation of an unborn's vision (MY way NOT YOUR way). What are they gonna do if you don't pull a permit, probably fine you (on something you OWN might I add) but in reality are they going to barge in your door with Florida castle doctrine? Good luck with that. If you bought it, you own it P-E-R-I-O-D and unless you signed some HOA document, engineer and design to your hearts consent. If you do it wrong and something happens it's your fault anyways....so don't do it wrong and ask a professional a question, INVENT a new way that has not been done before or hire it out. Is anyone willing to actually discuss a better system yet because the current one is NOT working. It never has and never will. I am simply asking for builder and consumer freedom of choice, that which has been stolen. a.k.a I'll do whatever I want to so long that it does not hurt others AND it will be BETTER and last LONGER than any of the filth that is produced today, or was your checkoff sheet degrading society with time and designed to fail from since before I was born? It simply amazes me that we can build a car and sell it without any inspections but the game is rigged on real estate. Cheers! #TheRentistooDamnHigh #Permits
Curb Appeal
Literally. Concrete work is easy, it just requires an enormous amount of muscle. We had a broken curb that needed repair before paint. Drilled some holes on the sides and inserted rebar to prevent future breakage. This curb was poured in the 60s and has done a great job holding up. Yes, it has rebar. Fiber enforced concrete was invented around the same time and is rated for higher loads and strength and some say replaces the need for rebar. We used rebar and fiber enforced concrete. Not sure if the original concrete was fiber enforced but North Florida and 60's, I'm guessing not, but then again maybe these boys knew exactly what they were doing, because these builds will easily last over 100 years. The ground will cave before the housing does. This a very good example of energy being used properly. One crew's labor benefits many many generations. :) Always use rebar unless you want to redo your concrete every 15 years, especially in Florida where sand is concrete's worst enemy. You could use only fiber enforced concrete and sit around for 20 years to see how it holds up but who has time for that? Wait...that's what we do... Have fun!
Derek Diedricksen has loved tiny homes since he read Lester Walker's "Tiny Tiny Houses" as a ten year old. It was the same year he built his first "non-fort tiny house" (complete with insulation, electricity, bunk beds), mowing lawns to raise the money for the two-by-fours.
Tiny houses' polymath: tinker, lyrist, carpenter, cartoonist
Hardwood Soffits
If you're going to finish your soffits off with wood, choose a hardwood. Although a repaint still needs to occur every 10 or so years. They won't completely rot within a year should mother nature decide to breach your painted weather barrier. Otherwise use vinyl or aluminum. These were last painted in 2005. A pressure wash was in order and they were repainted with Behr Exterior Gloss.
Garage Torsion Spring
We had a Garage Torsion Spring that had snapped (Made in Canada..eh). Went ahead and picked up a new spring at Overhead Door Professional Services Inc. Warning, this is a dangerous job and precaucions should be taken if you decide to do this yourself. Of course you could just have Overhead do the job for you, or could ignore all of that noise put some thick long sleeves on, safety glasses and de-pansy yourself while also saving $200 plus. To start unbolt the wheel and bracket at one side while leaving the other side bolted. Unbolt the spring and slide it off. Slide the new one back on, bolt it up and then bolt the wheel back and tighten the braided cable. Clamp some vice grips on the shaft so it doesn't move and start tightening the spring with a bar found at any local hardware stores. Keep tightening and adjust as necessary until the garage lifts easily and until your automatic opener can open and close at ease. This is the dangerous part. If something snaps or isn't tight when carefully winding this spring it could snap which could pop your shoulder out, take out some fingers or something might fly back towards your head. Stay Safe.
