David Meiland

If you don't like gas flex, what do you do when installing a range?

I don't really ever look at the numbers on my meters. "Dry" drywall barely registers, and wet drywall pretty much pins the needle. If 1.75 is dry, 2.95 doesn't sound much higher. It's possible he put the meter over a stud, a pipe, a wire, a drywall screw, a piece of metal cornerbead, or something else. It's also possible the moisture content in the bathroom is slightly higher. He should take several dozen readings in various areas, high and low, to get a picture of what might be going on. In general, if the leak has been fixed, the materials will dry out without a problem, and I wouldn't worry about it.

Actually, do the both-elements-firing deal, add a tempering valve so you can run it at 145 and temper down to 120, you're probably all set, watching basketball and drinking beer by 1 PM.

Before I added a 10 I would rewire the 40 for simultaneous firing of both elements. You're adding another wire anyway, so try that first, it might be enough.

Electric baseboard heat and electric hot water in this 1970 house, as is common here, but it has been unoccupied and (owner says) minimally heated during this winter. I'm going to recommend they have an electrician check this out. Hopefully they can find someone with the right troubleshooting skills.

I was at a house this morning where the complaint is high electrical usage. I ended up finding amp readings in a small panel that I don't understand. In the photos, the neutral wire shows about 1.5 amps on it, with the A and B phases showing almost nothing. There are a couple of 120 breakers in the panel for garage lights, and another for a well pump, which was not running. Nothing at all drawing on this panel as far as I could tell. I'm wondering if there is somehow an electrical "leak" going on here, because I'm accustomed to seeing a more logical relationship between these three readings. For instance, in my shop right now, there is 5 amps on the A phase, .9 amps on the B phase, and 4.1 on the neutral. The panel in the photos is in the garage. The service is overhead and comes down the exterior wall of the garage directly behind this panel. The meter, a large disconnect, and a trough are mounted on the exterior wall. There is a conduit going to the house carrying a 400-amp service to a pair of panels there. Not sure if it matters, but there are *big* conductors on the exterior, very close to where my amp clamp is. I normally don't think this will influence the reading at all. No doubt some of you guys can clear this up for me. Thanks in advance. Click to Enlarge 66.05 KB Click to Enlarge 63.67 KB Click to Enlarge 63.11 KB

Now you got me thinking. I wonder if insects crawl in there and die, and then fungus grows on them. Seems like it would need a lot of feedstock. It is most often at the bottom of the sash, and there can be a lot of it.

It can be done. The Simpson PC64-16 connects a 3-1/2" post to a 5-1/2" beam. W1=5-1/2", W2=3-9/16". Simpson makes some other stuff for this also. Click to Enlarge 14.77 KB

I see this a lot here in the pacific northwest. It looks a lot like yellow fiberglass insulation and mostly seems to show up around modern casement window sash, which have a weatherstrip attached to the edge of the sash near the exterior, and another attached to the frame facing the interior of the sash. Whatever-it-is gets in between the two weatherstripping lines and makes this stuff. The owner of this house thinks it's some kind of spider. Click to Enlarge 46.47 KB Click to Enlarge 51.88 KB

Dagnabbit... I called you Mark instead of Marc. I won't let it happen again.

I think what Mark is saying is that he posts an invoice for a standard amount to his books, and if the customer pays by check he gets the full amount whereas if the customer uses Square he gets less. Suppose you generate an invoice for $350, post it to your books, and then get paid $340.37 because Square took 2.75%. How to you post the payment received if it doesn't match the invoice amount? For some folks it would be easier if their bank statement showed the full $350 coming in and then a separate debit of $9.63. Sounds like Square does not do that. Using Quickbooks, what I would probably do it create an account called "Credit Card Processing Fees", show an underpayment of the invoice, and write off the missing money to that account. QB asks if you want to write off the missing money if you enter a payment for less than invoiced. But I digress..... carry on.

Bumping an old thread here. I saw a pair of these today, in a house built by an electrician in the early 90s. Is it possible to get breakers for these if you need them? Click to Enlarge 37.38 KB

A friend sent me this photo of his furnace, in a vented crawl in Berkeley, CA. He temporarily re-tasked the condensate pump to deal with storm water accumulating in the crawl space in the middle of the night, but promises to get a proper sump pump installed ASAP... but I digress. What I noticed is that the intake pipe is not routed to the outside--it's terminated in the crawl. My comment to him was that this certainly was not correct, that the manufacturer probably stipulated that both pipes be terminated outside and close to each other (possibly in the same fitting), and that pressure differentials at the two terminals could be an issue, although probably not a pressing one. Comments? Click to Enlarge 73.54 KB

I've never seen a disconnect or any type of switch at an indoor unit--they have a remote-style thermostat, and that's all. As far as I know, the indoor unit runs on low voltage supplied by the outdoor unit, not line voltage. There is always a disconnect at the outdoor unit.

The first thing I noticed is that the skirt is not on top of the ribs. Can't tell exactly what's going on at the head, and can't see the sides.

Hopefully automotive guys wrap the wire around the screw in the correct direction.

This photo is making the rounds on Facebook. I did not take it. I do not own it. Maybe I shouldn't be posting it, but it's irresistible. Click to Enlarge 57.01 KB

He could possibly have used the Velux sloped curb, but he would have had to install it on another curb that was flashed with metal bent to order from the roofing manufacturer. As far as I can tell, the Velux item is designed to be shingled in. I wonder how that installer normally deals with skylights on metal roofs. I wish I could easily get some photos of mine, but I'm chicken-sh!t on a ladder anymore. They're on a 6:12 pitch with the eave about 18 feet above a concrete slab. I do have a ladder hook built into an adjacent part of the roof, so I could conceivably climb 20 feet up on a 12:12 pitch and then cross over onto the 6:12. Last time I was up there was in a bucket lift, which I rented to trim trees.

The sides and sill are flashed over the roofing. The profiles are both 1" tall so they can sit on top of the ribs, with a hemmed leg that goes down to meet the field of the panel. The panel is cut and bent up the sides of the curb. I wish I had some photos. There are two curb-mounted skylights above my head that are flashed into a 12" snap-lock roof, but it's dark right now and way off the ground.

Marc, the version of your method that my roofers use is to install a head flashing that they call a "back pan" above the skylight curb. It is not installed on top of the panels as you are describing, but under them... but the leg that extends up the roof goes 12" or more. With adequate slope (I'm gonna say 3:12 or more) the top edge of that flashing is at least 3" vertically above the point where the curb meets the deck.

So, what are the roofing manufacturer's instructions for flashing a skylight on your roof pitch? How did the Velux curb fit into this? Did the roofer follow their specs? These are the questions you need to be asking. And, so far you haven't posted any pics of the install, which would be helpful.

Step flashing and metal roofing do not go together... not even close. If a shingle roof was converted to metal, the original skylight might not even work, if it's not the curb-mounted type. There are Velux skylights that you screw to the roof and then shingle in, and there are others that you install on a curb AFTER the roofing is completely done and the curb is flashed. I'm not familiar with the skylight type you referenced in the OP so not sure what the install looks like. My opinion is that a curb skylight on a metal roof can be made virtually bulletproof. Question: what type of metal roofing was installed? 2:12 is a low slope roof for metal, so hopefully you have an appropriate type.

Brand new Carrier heat pump. The sticker seems to indicate that power is to be single-phase, but that the compressor and fan are 3-phase. I don't look at these too often, especially not newer ones. I assume this has something to do with it being inverter drive. Can anyone clarify? Click to Enlarge 82.29 KB

Kurt, any links to photos or drawings I could look at showing how this flashing would be done. Sounds like you're describing a continuous metal flashing through the wall, so I'm wondering what connects the blocks to itself through that flashing line.

The soil here doesn't really support clean enough cuts to just pour in a ditch. By the time you finished jumping in and out to do the rebar, you'd have knocked the edges off, and as pointed out above, installing the drainage would require more digging around the new concrete. Forming footings does not take long and you can reuse almost all of the lumber. We generally stack the wall forms on top of the footing forms and pour the whole thing at once. We are often using a pump, so pouring once is a big advantage. That said, there is a certain appeal to just cutting an outline and filling it with concrete. I assume that in Jim's area they are stacking block for the walls, not pouring concrete.