Ah ok, by mostly luck I went with an airless sprayer for the one unfinished ceiling I did a few years ago. I looked at the ratings for usage and it was clear I needed to buy an entry level pro sprayer. The comparison is simple, the $300 Graco X5 is rated at 125 gallons per year. The (at the time $900) Graco 395 is rated at 50 gallons per week. The 395 should last me a lifetime as long as I keep it clean and oiled.

Great work! Yes, a sprayer is the way for unfinished ceilings.

You can do exactly what you’re asking. It will throw a few sparks so try not to work over flammable materials.

Just feel the wire. Neutral wires are indicated so the neutral will have a ribbed feeling to it the hot does not. Specifically, this is the outside of the wire and will be obvious once you learn it.

Wow!! I’ve never seen a window well pond before but that’s impressive.

Pulling up floor to look for the sump pump? If so, no need and just look for the discharge pipe. I’d be very surprised if they put flooring over a sump pump pit.

Do you have a sump pump? Sounds like there’s probably a floor drain under the middle of the room. They can backup with heavy rains. They are often plumbed into the sump pump basin.

Those look like landscaping blocks to me. It should ok as long as you don’t have an absolute inferno in there. Technically they could have trapped air in them and explode but my old neighbors had landscaping blocks around their fire ring and never had a problem.

You are correct. With this setup, some water will always sit in your garbage disposal and it will drain slow.

The ideal is to lower the height of the pipe the drain connects to. It looks like you have a vertical drain that goes down through the floor. Super easy to cut a section out and lower it down.

It’s possible but all depends on how quickly they shower. I believe the dip tube failed on my 9 year old Brandford White 40 gallon. It would get much colder after 5 minutes in the shower. After a few more minutes it was only warm on full hot. Due to how much rust there was at the cold water tank inlet I chose to replace the tank.

I know someone who bought a foreclosed home on the open market (MLS). After they bought it the city inspected it and found the unpermitted finished basement. The city made them pull down every inch of drywall for the electrical to be inspected. The owner tried to reason with them about just taking down certain parts but the city refused. After removing all the drywall the city came back and approved the electrical and said the drywall could be reinstalled. That was 10 years ago and not a single piece of drywall has been put up out of anger over the whole situation.

Do not come clean. Inspectors should only be looking at what they’re there for or some life threatening problem. They should not be snooping.

I once bought a house at auction and later learned it had an unpermitted full bathroom in the basement. When I went to sell it the city did their required inspection and thankfully ignored it. That was the best possible outcome.

When you changed the water supply line did you replace the small restricter in the line? Mine was yellow and in the water supply line at the solenoid on the water filter side of the solenoid.

The 50 gallon is only 63 pounds lighter than the 80 (281 vs 218 for Rheem). Still a two person job with stairs.

Nice!! How many years did your 80 last? The 50 I helped install is about 6 years old now and problem free so far.

This is the answer. An appliance dolly used properly with the straps and two people. One person at the top and one at the bottom. Going slow and steady. It will be out in no time. I feel his pain and once helped install a 50 gallon hybrid water heater.

You must have no idea. An 80 gallon hybrid water heater is 281 pounds without water. 80 gallons of water alone weighs 667 pounds. If he hadn’t drained it it would be nearly 1k pounds.

Ah, you’re in a very different climate than me.

I forgot to directly answer your question. My area uses PVC rather than ABS but a reciprocating saw or oscillating saw will cut through it nicely. Dragging a utility knife across is backwards will shave off the burrs. Truly, any handsaw would cut through it. Just depends what tools you already own and how much you want to spend.

Your area is pretty dry then. In almost all the houses I’ve worked in they usually run at least daily, year round. With rain fall they can run multiple times per hour.

Your pit looks bone dry. Do you hear the pump run ever? Normally there should be 1-4” of water in the bottom at all times depending on your pump but I only see some dry dirt in your pit.

Yours is so dry I wouldn’t worry about changing the pump. If you want to have one on standby you can. When it comes times to replace it just cut the pipe near the 90 and reconnect with a Fernco coupling.

I’ve seen a few dry pits before and they were due to not being properly hooked up to the perimeter drain system. No reasonable fix for that and as long as you don’t have other ground water issues you’re all set.

Any photos? Typically there’s a check valve on the discharge line where you can unscrew the bands on the rubber collars. If you don’t have one you should add it or at the very least cut the pipe and reconnect with a Fernco coupling.

For sure a brad nailer won’t work. When I replaced an oak handrail the instructions said to glue, pre-drill, and hand drive finish nails. There were no spindles and I was connecting the top and bottom handle returns to the main rail. Worked well.

You’re welcome. I like Liquid Nails construction adhesive. Just don’t use a “Gorilla Glue” type glue for this.

It’s not stuck together. You have no metal at all and that’s why it was glued in place.

Technically you have a reducer moulding but the person who installed it did not do it correctly.

The metal u channel acts like a clamp to hold onto the center wood channel on the bottom of the transition strip/threshold/reducer moulding.

Moving forward, I wouldn’t worry about buying a new moulding. If you did install the U channel you would probably need to cut the floor to have the proper gap. I recommend just cleaning off the glue and then gluing it back in on just the taller floor side. While not perfect, it is good enough and will be better than you had before.

They glued the transition strip to both sides of the floor which contributed to the failure. They also didn’t install the metal U channel to the subfloor in the gap between the floors of the two rooms for the floors to float freely.

The caulk is probably a white acrylic latex but you don’t want that. It acts like a glue a prevents the floor from floating.

Here’s a link to a product that best shows the metal U channel you’re missing.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/PERFORMANCE-ACCESSORIES-Warm-Stone-0-75-in-T-x-2-37-in-W-x-78-7-in-L-Laminate-4-in-1-Molding-M4IN1-05699/316754925