Home Remodel: Do, Don'ts, Advice

[old goat]

Anyone have experience sealing their house? I’m looking to significantly reduce outside air intrusion primarily for when it is smokey but also for efficiency. I have a 3 year old who has mild asthma, I have mild asthma, and it bugs both of us. I currently have about 6 air purifiers running but on the worst days out indoor AQI sensor said it was 200+ (outside was 1500).

House has a ventilated crawl space and ventilated attic. Also has a louvered whole house fan (these three things kinda makes me think I might be pissing into the wind). I’m debating between the DIY of turning on the WHF and walking around feeling for air intrusion and fixing with weather striping, caulk, great stuff, etc. vs hiring a contractor.


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At the risk of stating the obvious, if you have a forced air furnace get the best filter that your system can tolerate and run the fan continuously with the heat off. Check with the manufacturer for the highest rated filter that still allows adequate airflow so your furnace isn't damaged. Change often. Filtrete sells a filter that will tell your phone when the filter is plugged enough to reduce airflow. My furnace was able to handle a MERV 13 (1900MPR). Some furnaces may not be able to handle over 12. The difference in reduction of PM2.5 between 12 and 13 isn't that much. The MERV12 filter I'm using now seems to do a good job on the smoke, at least as judged by smell. I don't have an AQI meter. (Information source: a lot of googling.,)

If you're worried about the whole house fan tape some plastic over the louvres and see if it helps the AQI.

Some quick cheap solutions while you deal with the problem definitively.

Super tight houses--to save energy--are an excellent example of how the tech solution to solve one problem introduces another.

[climberevan]

Merv 13 will definitely clean your air. I have 2 HEPA cleaners and run this setup too when it's really bad. Its a carpet drying blower with 3x merv 13 box around it. It moves about 1600cfm, significantly more than even a big hepa cleaner.

I've also found that even small cracks can let in a lot of smoke. For example, taping the cat door (decent one with double flaps) allowed the inside AQI to get from 50 to under 20 with the various and cleaners running.

I have a sensor, and when it's about 350 outside, like now, I can keep it under 20 inside of we don't open doors. If I turn on the range hood it sucks in enough smoke that it will go to 70 within a couple of minutes. When the outside AQI was 650, like a few days ago, I couldn't get it below 100 inside.

Definitely tape your WHF and any other things you can find. But I also agree that fully sealing your house isn't the best unless there's smoke, so permanent solutions might not be warranted.

[neufox47]

I wish I was off by a decimal. The AQI I listed should be pretty close to accurate. We were 12-25 miles from the Mosquito fire and when the air was drifting to us under an inversion it was awful. Visibility was down to a few hundred feet. Purple air listed every sensor in the area >1,000. I have a purple air indoor sensor for the indoor aqi that usually reads 15-40.

Thanks for the info. Can I rent a FLIR camera?




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[I Skied Bandini Mountain]

FLIR one, it attaches to your cell phone. I use one for work and they're great. You can find them on fleabay used for under $200.

[bagtagley]

Yeah, I mentioned that a couple pages ago regarding any kind of cup gun. Too much dikin around refilling your cup. Plus, they put material out too slow.
Airless is probably the most versatile sprayer. Spray a wider array of product w/out having to reduce it(not always the case even w/ airless).

Yeah you got me thinking how often I’m gonna be spilling stain filling that little thing. Will I regret cheaping out on the hobo freight airless sprayer?

[Djongo Unchained]

When I had mentioned the little wagner cup sprayer earlier, I had forgotten how fast ya go thru it.
Unless you have multiple cups and someone filling them, you'd have plenty of down time between shots.
I consider tools like them and even a HF sprayer, kinda throwaways. They really only need to work properly on the first project. After that, it's paid off and replaceable if breakage.

The key, as mentioned, is saturation. Whatever it takes to juice it fully.

[krp8128]

Good turbine gun for interior use?

Need to spray a lot of waterborne poly.

Would also be cool if I could spray latex.

[Art Shirk]

Ok, not a remodeling question but it is a home “improvement” project. Anyone here ever install a zip line on their property. I’m thinking about something pretty dang long and heavy duty. The kids will love it but I want to make sure my 200lb buddy won’t kill himself after a few G&Ts. There are some rinky dink kits on Amazon but not burly enough.


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[Supermoon]

Ok, not a remodeling question but it is a home “improvement” project. Anyone here ever install a zip line on their property. I’m thinking about something pretty dang long and heavy duty. The kids will love it but I want to make sure my 200lb buddy won’t kill himself after a few G&Ts. There are some rinky dink kits on Amazon but not burly enough.


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https://backyardziplines.com/product...t-zip-line-kit

Expensive, but rated for fat drunk guys

[tuco]

Yeah you got me thinking how often I’m gonna be spilling stain filling that little thing. Will I regret cheaping out on the hobo freight airless sprayer?

No experience w/ HF sprayer.
But I'm jaded now. Only airless I'd buy says Graco on the front. There's other good sprayers, but gracos last, they come w/ a decent gun, and, too me, simpler to use.
Not cheap though.

Good turbine gun for interior use?

Need to spray a lot of waterborne poly.

Would also be cool if I could spray latex.

Airless is your huckleberry.

[bagtagley]

Thanks Djongo and tuco! Yeah, Graco has a model that’s not much more than the HF and feeds directly from the 5 gallon jug. Still trying to wrap my head around cleaning oil based stain out of one of these things. Am I just relying on a shitload of mineral spirits?

Not that anyone is following along, but the saga continues. We’re in the middle of the driest weather we’ve had all summer, including some unusually low humidity, and I’m stuck in bed with COVID. Starting to feel like fate is keeping me from getting this thing done.

[zion zig zag]

It was recently brought to my attention that the beams in my house should probably have some type of bolted plate system instead of just being toenailed in place. I have no idea what I'm looking for but google brought me to this: https://www.strongtie.com/avantcolle...cents/category
These are held in place with a 3.5 inch wood screw and are listed as accent hardware, which doesn't seem right. What am I looking for to hold these together that won't look too out of place?

[Core Shot]

Put a level on it. How much are the walls spreading out?

I have similar thing with SIP and not enough bracing. Walls are out one inch. Fuck it. It’s been here since 1975.

PS. Your angle beams look decorative. Don’t worry. Be happy

[I Skied Bandini Mountain]

If there's a legitimate structural concern, I would call in a structural enjuneer to make recommendations and go from there.

[SorryBro]

It was recently brought to my attention that the beams in my house should probably have some type of bolted plate system instead of just being toenailed in place. I have no idea what I'm looking for but google brought me to this: https://www.strongtie.com/avantcolle...cents/category
These are held in place with a 3.5 inch wood screw and are listed as accent hardware, which doesn't seem right. What am I looking for to hold these together that won't look too out of place?

Those Simpson brackets will work great. They have a listed structural capacity and will connect things together nicely. Code requires a positive connection between beams and supports, so good idea to install them.

3.5" screws might be too long if you put a bracket on each side of the beam for symmetry. If installed one side only (all that you need structurally), 3.5" would be fine.

[Djongo Unchained]

zzz- first pic: do you know what the beam looks like behind the drywall?If it's notched and the butt end is resting on top of the horizontal, then the load is borne by the horizontal beam and not the toenails. They'd just be holding it fast in position.

second pic: any chance those joints have tenons?

[Art Shirk]

https://backyardziplines.com/product...t-zip-line-kit

Expensive, but rated for fat drunk guys

Thx Supermoon! You are invited anytime you want to put your life in my hands.


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[nickwm21]

It was recently brought to my attention that the beams in my house should probably have some type of bolted plate system instead of just being toenailed in place. I have no idea what I'm looking for but google brought me to this: https://www.strongtie.com/avantcolle...cents/category
These are held in place with a 3.5 inch wood screw and are listed as accent hardware, which doesn't seem right. What am I looking for to hold these together that won't look too out of place?

When was the house built? Do you know who built it? Who designed it? Can you look it up at the local building department?

Most of that stuff looks decorative / non-structural. Some of it is questionable. It be worth asking the builder before slapping a bunch of Simpson angles on your ceiling.


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[old goat]

The front of my house--one big room--is held up by 3 20x10 post and beam sets, with the rafters toenailed into the beams. I have no doubt that in the event of an earthquake the house, and everything and everyone in it will be flatter than wile e coyote, especially since there's no shear wall.


Also, how do I turn the picture?

[zion zig zag]

I'll try to answer questions, but I'm one of only five firefighters ever that has no construction experience, so grain of salt. And to be clear, I'm talking the post-beam connections, not the knee bracing to the ceiling, see circles on photos below. House was built in 1986, and extensively remodeled sometime in the year or two before we bought it in 2019. An online search of county records shows no permit for the remodel and 1986 is older than they have record for, online at least. House is in the county in a rural area, so I imagine stuff happens without permit and inspections? The remodel was done by the owner at the time, who works in construction and from an online search has designed and built several houses and done big remodels. Zillow photos from pre-remodel show the post and beams the same way with no connection.

I have no idea what the beams look like behind the drywall, and I guess it's possible that the ones in second pic have tenons, but again, no idea. I don't think the knee bracing in the 1st photo (not sure if that's the right term, feel free to make fun of me in true TGR fashion) is completely decorative as the original photo shows flat beams across that space instead of angled. I guess my structural concern is minor quakes, FEMA map shows the home as a risk category II, seismic design category C. I wouldn't want minor shaking to turn into a huge problem.

The Simpson ties seem like the easy button if there is no negative to doing them. I believe SorryBro is a structural engineer? Anyway, I'm sure the proper thing to do is hire an engineer and do some destructive inspections and then permit all of the work and upgrades, but that's not likely to happen.

1st photo is pre-remodel

[adrenalated]

The RIGHT way would be to get a structural engineer in there yada yada yada.... but personally if it was my house I'd slap the Simpson connectors on and call it a day. Do use the Simpson structurally rated screws that they call out in their documentation, not just a standard wood screw.

[Core Shot]

Yeah. You’re fucked if an earthquake happens.

As Djongo asked, if there’s some tenons it’s a bit better. But even that wouldn’t meet code today.

Bracketing all that with Simpson would be ugly as fuck. But it could be done.

If anything I would do something like goats L bracket.
Make some straps and T from black painted steel and use timber locks to tie it together. It might just look like it belongs.

Black strap on Timbers looks normal. Consider it an accent piece.

[zion zig zag]

The RIGHT way would be to get a structural engineer in there yada yada yada.... but personally if it was my house I'd slap the Simpson connectors on and call it a day. Do use the Simpson structurally rated screws that they call out in their documentation, not just a standard wood screw.

Copy that. Knowing that the Simpson is a code rated product, that works for me. I honestly just should have asked the builder/engineer that was standing in there with me what he would use, but we were busy having beers and chatting with wives.

[zion zig zag]

Black strap on Timbers looks normal. Consider it an accent piece.

You saw the Simpson product I linked originally?
Here: https://www.strongtie.com/avantcolle...t_strap/p/apvt

[Art Shirk]

Lol, guys just listen to SorryBro and call it a day. He does this for a living.


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