This Old #%&@*$ House

I replaced all those stupid wax rings with those heavy duty foam guys that you get off of Amazon.

Never regretted it one bit. I never have to scrape wax off my bathroom tile floor again.

Wax rings are the devil's invention. In my old house when I replaced the tiling in a bathroom, I had to replace the wax ring 3 times before it would sit right.

Rainsmercy wrote:

Wax rings are the devil's invention. In my old house when I replaced the tiling in a bathroom, I had to replace the wax ring 3 times before it would sit right.

No kidding. My dad just found out that a bathroom renovation from ~2 years ago had an improperly installed wax ring. Toilets been leaking long enough that some of the floor joists are damaged! They only discovered it because someone was under the house doing unrelated work, and happened to notice.

Good times!

Tyrian wrote:
Rainsmercy wrote:

Wax rings are the devil's invention. In my old house when I replaced the tiling in a bathroom, I had to replace the wax ring 3 times before it would sit right.

No kidding. My dad just found out that a bathroom renovation from ~2 years ago had an improperly installed wax ring. Toilets been leaking long enough that some of the floor joists are damaged! They only discovered it because someone was under the house doing unrelated work, and happened to notice.

Good times!

Not wax ring but my neighbor was attempting to find a leak that was causing ceiling damage beneath the bathroom. He was poking around when his wife used the toilet and proceeded to flush....Blasting him in the face. He found the leak.

Hobear wrote:

Not wax ring but my neighbor was attempting to find a leak that was causing ceiling damage beneath the bathroom. He was poking around when his wife used the toilet and proceeded to flush....Blasting him in the face. He found the leak.

The leak was on the supply side right? Right? Please tell me the leak was on the supply line. Please.

T-Prime wrote:
Hobear wrote:

Not wax ring but my neighbor was attempting to find a leak that was causing ceiling damage beneath the bathroom. He was poking around when his wife used the toilet and proceeded to flush....Blasting him in the face. He found the leak.

The leak was on the supply side right? Right? Please tell me the leak was on the supply line. Please.

He said "he found the leak". Take that how you may . . .

T-Prime wrote:
Hobear wrote:

Not wax ring but my neighbor was attempting to find a leak that was causing ceiling damage beneath the bathroom. He was poking around when his wife used the toilet and proceeded to flush....Blasting him in the face. He found the leak.

The leak was on the supply side right? Right? Please tell me the leak was on the supply line. Please.

T'was not.....The story would not be nearly as awful/funny if that were the case.

I looked up those foam rings on Amazon and would love to be able to use them next time a wax ring gives out. (They're those green rings that look like a segment from that children's stacking toy right?) Do they work on concrete slabs?

I had tried one of these when I tried the no wax option and it didn't work at all:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...

Does the foam ring work different, and does it really fit everything?

I just put an oversized funnel in the pipe hole.

I am never ever ever touching plumbing again. I am so mad at myself.

I'll spare you the details on the toilet situation but eventually just hired someone who fixed it in like 5 minutes (needed a stupidly specific part). However, just after he left I noticed a spot had appeared on the ceiling of the floor below the bathroom, I'm sure because at some point while I was working, a gush of water shot past me.

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/vFHuelu.jpg)

I am incredibly embarrassed and frustrated and my wife is understandably upset. I thought "crap, well, it was just a brief leak, we'll just paint over it" but my wife insists we will need to cut open the ceiling to air it out so there's no mold or anything and then patch it over with new drywall. Going to call contractors, of course. Anyone have any confidence that that's not necessary?

I would 2nd your call but I understand that your wife is worried. If you dumped GALLONS of water down in there yes you would IF it dries up pretty quick and it doesn't get larger you'll be fine.

Your wife is the ultimate concern but I would advise you both chat it over and see if paint vs contractor is the better path with someone you trust.

Yeah, water's not going to necessarily turn into mold, I didn't notice the caulking around the tub in the kids' bathroom was cracking a few years back, and my daughter's bath/apparent cannonballing into the tub caused a bunch of water to splash over, and I had a spot on my kitchen ceiling. I've had spots in a few other places with plumbing issues; it happens. It'll dry out and should be fine; getting the drywall replaced is a bit excessive if it's just a short-term leak. Now, if you'd discovered a leak that had been there for months and was slowly seeping into the drywall and it had been long-saturated, sure, but this shouldn't be more than a spot on the ceiling.

Thanks. It was at most a pint of water, the amount that couldn't drain out of the tank with the flusher open but that could flow out of the bolt hole when I opened it, so I am convinced this is not an emergency, not a mold risk, just something to clean up when we get a chance. The challenge will be convincing my wife of this shortly after telling her that repairing a toilet was no big deal and something I could easily do and then oops it wasn't. I've reached out to a bunch of handyman types, possible one will be here this afternoon... Sigh. My wife has been having a really tough week for reasons completely unrelated to all this, so the fact that I've created this situation, even if I agree that it's not *that* big of a deal, makes me feel like the world's biggest asshole. Best case scenario, a reputable handyman comes out here in the next day or two and tells us it's no big deal and slaps a coat of special primer and paint on it and it's over. I think the worst case with a real chance of happening is just that no one comes out until mid-next week and we have to keep stressing about it.

Yeah it is really not a big deal. If you put a pint of water in a wide bowl on the counter and left it, would it evaporate or grow mold? It will just evaporate. Especially if you point a fan at it for a few hours.

Not to veer off into a bit of another subject here, but, given a choice between waiting for a wet spot to dry or inviting a stranger into my house during a time with 3,000 people a day are dying of a pandemic, I think I'd give "drying" a solid shot.

I’m terrified of mold because of a previous experience with my first house but, in your case, I’d probably do the following:

1) Drill a couple of holes near the leak.
2) Put a dehumidifier as close as you can for a day or so.
3) Spackle and paint.

Fixing a hole in drywall isn't that hard, but it generates a metric assload of plaster dust, which could be an issue. And it sucks when you have to do it overhead.

Basically, after cutting a hole, you buy a replacement piece that's bigger, and a thin board that's a little longer than the hole. Put the board through the hole and screw it down with drywall screws on both sides, cut a new plug to fit the hole exactly, snug it in there against the board, and then use more drywall screws to attach it. Make sure the heads are a little lower than the main surface. Then you fill in all the holes and the screw tops with filler compound, and sand it smooth after it sets. Once it's smooth, repaint. Repainting invisibly can be tricky, however, and sometimes you have to paint the whole wall or ceiling, which sucks.

It's the sanding that generates a ton of dust, and it gets everywhere. And sanding overhead means you'll end up covered in it. Wear a good mask.

I'd definitely try a spot repaint first.

Malor wrote:

Fixing a hole in drywall isn't that hard

Fixing a hole in drywall so you can't see the patch is extremely hard if you don't have experience; I'll do almost anything in terms of home repair, but I won't touch that because I don't have the patience to get it right. It takes a while to get the hang of it, and a ceiling's a bad place to do your first experiment.

I totally agree that ceilings are much harder to patch.
One trick I've used is to rough-cut your patch piece to a rectangle slightly larger than the hole you're fixing. Then cut out the hole to match your patch. You'll get a tighter fit with cleaner and neater edges. That makes the sanding and spackling easier in my experience.
I'm getting the sense that I'm an outlier in that I can't stand hanging drywall, but don't mind taping and mudding at all. It's very calming to me to carefully even out the drywall mud and then sand everything smooth and clean.

I had a handyman/contractor guy come out Friday to take a look and he provided me and my wife sufficient confidence that yeah, its not really a big deal, does not warrant cutting into the ceiling. He said we should give it another day or two to dry and he's coming out tomorrow, estimates it'll take an hour or two at most, $100-125 in total. Reassuring to me and, more importantly, my wife. Plus he seems competent, responds to texts, has insurance, etc., so will definitely keep him in mind for future work. Alls well that ends well, I hope.

Anyone have experience with battery backup sump pumps? I noticed this yesterday:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/ZRdGa59C4p...

No idea how long it's been like that, since it's in its own utility closet that I rarely think to open. Google search doesn't yield specific advise about this Craftsman unit, only people saying that a red light = bad. That is not actually the case here according to the owner's manual. A flashing red light indicates a power fault, but solid red just means it's getting power. However, it should be accompanied by a solid green light showing it's charged up (or yellow if it has activated recently and is recharging).

I tried unplugging to reset it, and replaced the 20 amp fuse, no luck. Before I go buy a new car battery, thought I'd check here to see if anyone has any ideas.

Sump pump works fine, and since all utility lines in this area are buried, even heavy storms don't generally knock out the power. But I know if I ignore it, it will happen on the rainiest night ever.

How old is the battery? Might be time to be replaced.

Duh, I just remembered I have a multimeter at home. I'll test the battery before I go buy a new one to be sure it isn't a problem with the readout panel.

Rainsmercy wrote:

How old is the battery? Might be time to be replaced.

+1

Yeah, meter confirmed it's dead as a doornail.

New battery installed, all good! Now, on to the next mystery:

Our kitchen has above-the-cabinet accent lighting that looks a little odd but works very well for the space. I've had to change a couple of bulbs but otherwise never looked closely at them. One of them is out now, and the problem looks to be in what I assume is a small step-down transformer (?). It's an unusual octagon shape, from a German company called MCT Transformatoren (though the plug is standard two-prong USA 110v). I can find the company online, but no products, and google searching the images brings up nothing useful. But, even if I can find a reasonable substitute for the transformer, the light has an adapter plug shape I've never seen before (see link above). I really hate to have to replace all the accent lights just to make them match. Anyone ever seen products like this?

Note that I did open the small white switch as well; there's no fuse or anything, just a simple toggle. The issue must be in the transformer.

Anyone here attempted an attic encapsulation?

Our house is 20 years old and the upstairs is very drafty. I'm wondering if it makes sense to encapsulate the attic space with spray foam and make it into semi-conditioned space to tighten up the drafts and make it a little more comfortable up there.

If you're talking about the spray foam, my mother had that done and it dropped her heating and cooling bills substantially.

We spray foamed our attic. We used closed cell foam. More expensive than the open cell foam, but once hardened it acts as a structural reinforcement. So our roof is now essentially one unit. We've strapped the rafters to the studs and all our exterior walls (plus a few select interior ones) were also foamed.

So a hurricane would have to lift our entire house Wizard of Oz style to do any real damage. A nice level of comfort living in FL as we do.

The thermal insulation properties work reasonably well. The attic still gets warm in the summer, but rather than due to heat from the sun on the roof (like it used to be), it's now heat rising from the rest of the house. Even in the heat of the summer, our attic rarely got above 90 degrees (rest of house cooled to 75). In the winter, the heat rarely comes on, Usually only after a night of temperatures below 50 degrees.

We did look at adding HVAC to the attic - easy enough to do as there are 2 air handlers up there - but our HVAC expert recommended against it unless we were prepared to fully finish the space. There are small air vents up there for air circulation and these would need to be closed off.

TLDR version: Worth getting if you believe you're spending too much money heating/cooling the space. Adding the foam will make the space more usable but not livable

conejote wrote:

New battery installed, all good! Now, on to the next mystery:

Our kitchen has above-the-cabinet accent lighting that looks a little odd but works very well for the space. I've had to change a couple of bulbs but otherwise never looked closely at them. One of them is out now, and the problem looks to be in what I assume is a small step-down transformer (?). It's an unusual octagon shape, from a German company called MCT Transformatoren (though the plug is standard two-prong USA 110v). I can find the company online, but no products, and google searching the images brings up nothing useful. But, even if I can find a reasonable substitute for the transformer, the light has an adapter plug shape I've never seen before (see link above). I really hate to have to replace all the accent lights just to make them match. Anyone ever seen products like this?

Note that I did open the small white switch as well; there's no fuse or anything, just a simple toggle. The issue must be in the transformer.

I had a similar issue with lighting for an old hutch. I eventually just had to replace it with a couple wired LED puck lights. The good side of this is the new lights don't get nearly as hot.