Home Remodel: Do, Don'ts, Advice

[Vt-Freeheel]

Does your bath fan draw through that box?

The excessive dust speaks of insulation issues if it is getting pulled in through the box and up the walls by conductive flow.

[adrenalated]

Replacing doors in a rental. Hollow core-> solid. Going with unfinished pine. Don't have a sprayer. What’s the easiest way to finish for durability? Reading about acrylic varnish...but new to me.

Danish oil or wipe on poly were my initial thoughts..

I like water based poly, it's durable and water white (clear - not yellow). If you stain, use a stain conditioner to keep it from being blotchy.

The easiest, but more expensive, is probably spray lacquer. You'll need to do a bunch of coats but it dries super fast and dries quite clear.

Poly is going to be more protective but take longer to apply. It'll also have more of an obvious "I coated this in a thick plastic coating" look, for better or worse. Personally I like the look of oil based poly better than water based, it's a bit more rich looking but definitely has a bit of a tint to it and cleanup isn't as easy.

Regardless of how you finish you can stain first, or not. Definitely use a wood conditioner first if you do stain.

I've built a couple things out of blue pine recently and they've come out looking really good using wood conditioner -> a very very light stain (mostly just to enhance the natural colors rather than add color -> either oil based poly or spray lacquer depending on the project. Went poly for some shoe shelves and spray lacquer for a medicine cabinet.

[oldnew_guy]

dans electrical adventure is reminding me of the time I replaced my bathroom vent/light/heat unit and didn’t pay enough attention to which wires went where. Took me like half a day just to figure it out. Had to draw the circuits out on paper, etc

Then had a buddy help me paint and he pulled the ceiling light completely off and didn’t get it wired back together correctly on the three way switch. It took an actual electrician close to 45 mins to figure out the wiring and put it back together correctly (old wiring, not the modern stuff that is color coded).

[old goat]

Replacing doors in a rental. Hollow core-> solid. Going with unfinished pine. Don't have a sprayer. What’s the easiest way to finish for durability? Reading about acrylic varnish...but new to me.

Danish oil or wipe on poly were my initial thoughts..

Polyurethane, either oil or water based. Danish oil isn't a durable finish (but easy to refinish). Polyacrylic is not as hard as polyurethane. Oil based will darken/yellow, water based will not change the color of whatever is under it. I like the oil based, like Bandini, because of the color, so I don't have to stain. Wipe on PU will give the smoothest result but require a lot of coats. For oil based I use throwaway foam brushes which work just as well as expensive brushes. I hate cleaning brushes with mineral spirits.

The only reason PU would give a plastic look is if you put on too many coats--popular in restaurant table tops for obvious reasons. I prefer a satin finish myself.
We replaced all our hollow core doors with 6 panels fir doors with vertical grain veneer. Very pretty and not any more expensive from the local lumber yard than plain pine doors from HD delivered to Truckee. We finished them with amber shellac, then PU, because I wanted to get the appearance of old varnished doors. Most people probably wouldn't like the look.

[skaredshtles]

dans electrical adventure is reminding me of the time I replaced my bathroom vent/light/heat unit and didn’t pay enough attention to which wires went where. Took me like half a day just to figure it out. Had to draw the circuits out on paper, etc

Then had a buddy help me paint and he pulled the ceiling light completely off and didn’t get it wired back together correctly on the three way switch. It took an actual electrician close to 45 mins to figure out the wiring and put it back together correctly (old wiring, not the modern stuff that is color coded).

This reminds me of a couple electrical jobs in my house:

microwave:


bathroom fixture:

[Djongo Unchained]

@Joeshek: How many doors?
What kind of a workspace do you have and how much time to do it? Plan on coating them hanging or off the hinges?

Lacquer is fine but requires a sprayer and cleanup can get messy, fumes will get ya loopy, so there's that.

My advice would be: If ya wanna keep the time to a minimum, go with water based polyurethane. It's easy, fast and generally more durable than Lacquer.
The beauty of lacquer is it can be glassy smooth and clear.
Poly depends on how much time you have to sand, precondition, stain or sanding sealer, then the poly.
2 coats of poly are usually enough, 3 is tougher.
You can get polyacrylic stuff which has some color in it to skip the staining step.
Again, it's a rental. Fastest, easiest and most durable will be priority I'd think.
Sanding sponges are the tits for doors, a good vacuuming, then a good wipedown with a tackcloth, then materials. Sand, vac, tack then next coat.

Ideally doing each door laying across sawhorses.
Gotta be careful not to stir up dust in the room vacuuming. Prep all doors first to the point of poly application, then do all consecutively without even churning the air around you.

Investing in an inexpensive HVLP sprayer can make the doors very nice, just short of a lacquer spray. Lacquer dries in minutes, poly, an hour or 3 depending.

Wipe on? No.

[dan_pdx]

Does your bath fan draw through that box?

The excessive dust speaks of insulation issues if it is getting pulled in through the box and up the walls by conductive flow.

Hmm, that's interesting. There are no ducts in that bathroom, it just has infloor heat and a radiant bulb. So when we run the fan during a shower, the only routes for makeup air would be under the door and I guess up through the wall via that electrical box. Hard to think that there's much airflow through there, but maybe enough to draw all that dust in there. We'll start leaving the door open during showers. Should be a fun convo with Mrs. PDX: "No, really, you have to leave the bathroom door open when you're showering."

[dan_pdx]

This reminds me of a couple electrical jobs in my house:

microwave:

Ha! Your microwave photo is pretty much how my range hood was installed when I moved in to my house in Portland.

[skaredshtles]

Ha! Your microwave photo is pretty much how my range hood was installed when I moved in to my house in Portland.

Seriously... I gotta wonder if all the electricians were sick or maybe just drunk when the day arrived for bathroom light fixter/microwave installation.

I was super irritated by both, but did things... somewhat properly.

Motherfuckers.

[Ted Striker]

This reminds me of a couple electrical jobs in my house

Every time you've posted that behind the microwave pic, I've chuckled at how big and rough that hole is. It's like they tried three different locations for the receptacle before finally half-assing it into place.

[Stuntmonkey]

Seriously... I gotta wonder if all the electricians were sick or maybe just drunk when the day arrived for bathroom light fixter/microwave installation.

I was super irritated by both, but did things... somewhat properly.

Motherfuckers.

I haven't done a lot of residential in my day as I was primarily an industrial electrician, but the amount of shit I have seen helping friends with things leads me to believe a lot of the electrical work isn't done by electricians.

At least in my old union you'd get dragged through the mud for hiding JBs and splicing shit together and mudding over it.

@dan_pdx if you get all those switches pulled out, then take a photo I can probably give you a better idea. But Core Shot is right, there will be a pigtailed neutral somewhere in there.

[Ted Striker]

Seriously... I gotta wonder if all the electricians were sick or maybe just drunk when the day arrived for bathroom light fixter/microwave installation.

Guessing it was the previous homeowner

[skaredshtles]

Every time you've posted that behind the microwave pic, I've chuckled at how big and rough that hole is. It's like they tried three different locations for the receptacle before finally half-assing it into place.

I'm convinced that the guys putting in the Hollywood lights in the bathrooms just used the claw on their hammer to axe out a trench to sort of the middle of the fixture for the wire.

By the time I got around to replacing the microwave I was... bemusedly irritated, as opposed to surprised and irritated.

[old goat]

Re finishing doors--if you want a perfect finish then preconditioning--depending on the wood, especially cherry, sanding sealer for very porous woods--especially sapele. But for doors in a house I'd skip those steps. I'd finish them in place. I agree with 2 coats. I'd use more for a table top or other high wear surface.

If you decide to stain (somehow the wood finishing industrial complex has convinced Americans that all wood needs to be stained) consider water based powdered dyes by Transtint. (This is more for finer pieces than a bunch of doors). For woods with a nice grain dyes accentuate the grain, rather than obscuring like stain does. (Stain consists of gops of pigment suspended in liquid. The gobs stay on the surface after the medium evaporates.) You mix them in hot water. The downside is that the water makes the grain fuzzy, so you dampen the wood before the last sanding grit, let it dry, and then sand the fuzz off. When you apply the dye it won't make the wood fuzzy again.

[joeshek]

@Joeshek: How many doors?
What kind of a workspace do you have and how much time to do it? Plan on coating them hanging or off the hinges?

Lacquer is fine but requires a sprayer and cleanup can get messy, fumes will get ya loopy, so there's that.

My advice would be: If ya wanna keep the time to a minimum, go with water based polyurethane. It's easy, fast and generally more durable than Lacquer.
The beauty of lacquer is it can be glassy smooth and clear.
Poly depends on how much time you have to sand, precondition, stain or sanding sealer, then the poly.
2 coats of poly are usually enough, 3 is tougher.
You can get polyacrylic stuff which has some color in it to skip the staining step.
Again, it's a rental. Fastest, easiest and most durable will be priority I'd think.
Sanding sponges are the tits for doors, a good vacuuming, then a good wipedown with a tackcloth, then materials. Sand, vac, tack then next coat.

Ideally doing each door laying across sawhorses.
Gotta be careful not to stir up dust in the room vacuuming. Prep all doors first to the point of poly application, then do all consecutively without even churning the air around you.

Investing in an inexpensive HVLP sprayer can make the doors very nice, just short of a lacquer spray. Lacquer dries in minutes, poly, an hour or 3 depending.

Wipe on? No.

Thanks. 2 doors for now. 2 more likely in next year.

Your assessment is spot on - easy and durable. Not planning to stain, so sounds like water based poly is consensus. Will look into an inexpensive sprayer. Been on the list and hasn't made the cut for a couple previous projects. Recommendations?

[fatnslow]

Help me identify line and load wore in 3 way switches that DO NOT HAVE ground wires. I live in a old house with a mixture of very old electric system. I have loved with fucked up 3 way switches and would like to try diy them bitches. I have watched some videos and have some basic ac knowledge but this is a bit over my head. Current switches do nit have any kind of ground so I can't figure out which of the 3 are the travelers and commons.
Grounding to the box I read 60 v to one of the commons, 40v in the second common and 40 v to the traveller wire.

What am I missing or do I button it up leave it for a pro ?

[Core Shot]

That is fucked.

Are you measuring open wire voltage?

Three ways are pretty simple. Sometimes you’re on the line. Sometimes your on the load. Shouldn’t have voltage on both sides of the travellers. That’s messed up

[Core Shot]

PS. If things were wonky beforehand, there’s a good chance the switch is fried.

PPS. Disconnect all wires. Then check voltage. You will learn a lot.

[Djongo Unchained]

Ok, here's a plan to work with.

For starters, I'd forego the sprayer for 2 doors unless super smooth finish is important. You can get darn smooth with proper sand, vac, tack process.
(OTOH, Ive used a friend's inexpensive Wagner spraytech and had excellent results, about $125.)

On sawhorses, protected by a dropcloth or something, sand both sides to get factory glaze off. That's the slight burnishing wood gets when it's milled.

You're just trying the clean and open the surface. About 100-120 grit. Sand with the grain and not too aggressive, those marks will show if yer gouging. No circular sanding, straight motion, easy.

Vac the door, then repeat on door 2.

If not staining, then conditioning is not needed. It's made to equalize a soft wood surface from accepting the stain unevenly. example: open grain on pine will take stain one shade, but near a knot it will likely be different.

Tack cloth door1 and apply a coat of sanding sealer to it. This locks in the surface color and makes a hard surface for the poly to bond to.

Many people skip this step but it greatly adds to the durability. Goes on easy too. It will raise the hairs but not as thick as poly so makes for sanding off the hairs mo betta. Pretty quick to dry as well.

Door2 same. One side at a time, then dry, duh.
Let them dry horizontally so the materials won't sag or drip in corners, etc.

After 4 sides sealed, door1 sand again with 180-220 grit then apply poly.

Are the doors completely smooth or have features?
With smooth, you can find a roller for very smooth surfaces. I prefer a brush but will often put it on with roller then stroke it out with a good brush.

With panels, do the small panes first brushing inside out to edges, then the stiles and rails.( Horizontal and vertical pieces)
Brushing neatly, quickly and methodically is key to no brush strokes. The materials will settle to smoothness.
Set aside, then door2, side A...

(Again, whenever it has hardened and time to sand, do all 4 sides, then vacuum and tack. No vacuuming between door poly applications as the vac will blow door 2's dust onto wet door 1.)

1 coat of sealer and 2 coats of poly is damn durable, 3 is bomber.
Minwax, Varathane are standard in my neck for clearcoating stuff. Most are fine for the rental.

[fatnslow]

PS. If things were wonky beforehand, there’s a good chance the switch is fried.

PPS. Disconnect all wires. Then check voltage. You will learn a lot.

Since I'm missing grounds should I remove BOTH switches and check ground (metal switch box)to presumed line/load/traveler first? Theoretically see 110 ? If not check the assumed commons to ground individually to try and nail down the line voltage ?

[dan_pdx]

Mission accomplished, thanks everyone for your help!

Once I pulled everything out, I saw that the funky white wire+black wire connection was just a few inches of white wire tying together some black wires. Looks like whoever put this together didn't have a scrap of black wire and said fuck it. I found the big clump of neutrals and was able to add the timer. And yes, I did vacuum it out before closing it back up.

[oldnew_guy]

I give it a week before we get the report on replacing those faded switches with new ones to match the timers

[dan_pdx]

I give it a week before we get the report on replacing those faded switches with new ones to match the timers

Goddamnit, I hadn't even noticed until you mentioned it, and now I can't unsee it

[John_B]

I give it a week before we get the report on replacing those faded switches with new ones to match the timers

Hahaha! And it'd be weird to just fix the one switch panel. Better do the whole house.

[Ted Striker]

Ha! Leave it to TRG to mock success!