For context, this is leading to my AC unit. While hanging a light above my workbench, I noticed daylight coming in from the wall where there shouldn't be any. It appears a previous owner had pulled back the insulation and forgot to put it back - shudder to think how much money that's costed me over the last two years. Would like a hardier seal than insulation to stop water and mice, but not sure what is required.
It's super awkward but I can get to it from inside the house (between insulation and hole). Going to have to move my workbench but so be it.
Any direction on the type/brand of foam I should use? I have a can of fireblock to seal ethernet runs from my basement to main floor, though it's probably seized up by now.
I would use fire block since normal expanding foam is flammable. If I could get behind it, I would see if the hole was excessively large and if so, cut a piece of OSB to fit the space with a hole the correct size in it. Then I would bisect the piece of OSB (making sure to bisect the hole) so that I would be able to get it around the cables and refrigerant line. If the hole isn’t excessively large, fire stop caulk the penetration and insulate the best you can.
I'd pack some stainless steel wool around it before doing the expanding foam. This will prevent rodents from chewing through it, which they can do to the foam.
They make rodent-blocking foam but I trust the steel wool more
If you pull air from the basement, it's going to get replaced with warmer, wetter air from upstairs. As it cools the air is going to deposit that water on the coolest surfaces. You might be trading this problem for another, more damaging one.
Good point, I'll have to keep that in mind. I would think that after the initial temperature equalization, it shouldn't be an issue as long as the temp remains relatively stable afterward, so in theory, if the rate of the initial equalization is gradual enough, I would think it wouldn't cause any long-term issues.
Though that does depend on how exactly any possible solutions would work, and how controlled they could be. I might just re-evaluate after I get the insulation work done.
I live in a geodesic dome and the finished basement is always noticeably cooler than the main floor and top floor.
As a test, I got a blower fan and put it at the basement stairs blowing the air from the very bottom of the house up towards the middle floor.
After about a day the temperatures equalized enough that it was difficult to tell the difference between the Middle floor and the basement.
Doing that causes the colder air to mix in with the warmer air upstairs, and the registers pull the warmer air in and blow out dehumidified air back into the basement, so no moisture build up.
The only downside is the noise and energy costs to run a fan. Probably 400 watts.
What I want to do is get a 4 inch duct fan and place that in the wall and run ducting from the basement up to the top floor so that the cold air is constantly being reblendid back up with the rest of the air upstairs.
I feel like that would use much less power and do a decent job of blending the two.
Maybe you can find something like that that will work for you.
Just piling on at this point, but we made 2 changes last spring that made summer so much more tolerable in our house.
More insulation. I bought a cheap thermal camera on Amazon and found entire closets and a bathroom with no insulation. Those rooms are a solid 10+ degrees cooler now.
More ventilation. Half my house didn’t have any soffit vents, but had attic vents. Adding soffit vents made that half the house 5 degrees cooler all on its own.
And we haven’t found ourselves needing it, but a mini split has popped up a lot here already and is a great idea.
Get a Wood Moisture Meter and check everything. If the wood contains more water than it should you have an ongoing problem and there is ongoing microbiological growth.
Some of the Black / Dark parts look like fungus. (In Swedish "svartmögel" which is directly translated to "black mould"). That shit can cause allergies and worse shit.
All in all: get a professional to check this. I'm Sweden we have "building inspectors" that are experts in leakage and mold that checks this for you.
I have one of these, I put it on the slowest to heat/furthest sink. I put a 200uF capacitor on the trigger wires and plugged it in to a smart outlet. I added an automation in homeassistant to turn that outlet off after 3min whenever it gets cycled on. Whenever we need hot water we just toggle the button in HA and the showers all have hot water in <90s and <1L.
It could be a couple of things that I am aware of.
Dust would be the most obvious. Many plastics can hold a static charge and dust can stick to it. The pattern looks “splotchy”, so if not static electricity, it might be oils or some other kind of chemical that is mildly sticky. (Injection molding can sometimes use release agents during manufacturing that are rarely cleaned off. Don’t eat random bits of injection molded plastic, kids.)
Simple moisture could be the issue as well. If you have been using your air conditioning, it’ll get the plastic cold and water can condense on it. Dust or something else might be sticking to it. The water could dry, leaving behind the dust and obfuscating the root cause.
While it could be a mold of some kind, it doesn’t look too much like it. That would point to existing mold in the ducts that is sporulating. Those kinds of house molds are usually dark and nasty, not white. White house molds exist but I suspect it’s region specific as to what kind would grow where you are at. (I grow mushrooms, so I have a supply of petri dishes I would test that substance on, TBH.)
Just for good measure, check your air filters. It’s something you need to do anyway and if they are nasty or old, you could be circulating excess dust in your house and it’s a sign the filters need to be changed. Air filters are functional! Air conditioner heat exchangers can get clogged and, depending on the type of unit you have, be somewhat costly ($500-$1500) to clean properly. I have paid for this procedure twice before I found out that the air filter assembly is garbage in my unit.
Is the substance oily or powdery? If you clean it off, how long does it take to come back? Did someone spill something near that register that you weren’t aware of? Were the carpets recently cleaned?
I am sure that HVAC people may have a more direct answer, but that is my list of things to check.
It’s the splotchy pattern that is bugging me though. It’s highly unlikely that something is getting sprayed out of the air ducts, other than small quantities of water condensation.
Thank you so much for going so detailed! That is so much good information and brainstorming. I washed it with soap - it still stays, I doesn’t go away or even reduce a bit.
Spray - possible. My cleaning people come over once every two weeks and clean windows and blinds as well. This vent happens to be right above a window.
I also run a humidifier in the room at night. No other room has this much gunk on it. Only my room does. So that could be one more contributing factor.
The substance is not oily. It is not powdery either. It seems like almost etched into the plastic - this may support your spraying theory: someone cleaned something nearby with sprays that could damage acrylic surfaces.
That was a good investigation! Awesome person you are!
If it’s etched, it’s chemical damage. Just from my 3D printing alone, I know that common chemicals (generally acetone or various alcohols) can easily damage and melt some kinds of plastics. So, I agree. I think we found part of the puzzle.
And you are welcome! Thanks for letting me spew out theories.
I didn’t know that. Chloroform always helped my girlfriends melt into my arms, but I never thought about its use on PLA. (Huge /s for people who think I was serious.)
While I was googling around about chloroform smoothing, I also stumbled upon ethyl acetate as a smoother for PLA. It’s probably better for your internet search history to go that route instead. I have a ton of weird shit for my engineering fascinations, but a bottle of chloroform would probably be at the top of that list.
Spray - possible. My cleaning people come over once every two weeks and clean windows and blinds as well. This vent happens to be right above a window.
The shape of the stain and the spread of the dots look a lot like a spray to me. The large stain is where the centre of the spray hit, the smaller dots are where it misted out / splashed from the centre, and the neat clear line across the middle looks like the front of the acrylic piece protected part of the back / inside because of the angle of the spray. If it’s mounted the same way up as you’re holding it in the photo, it would make sense based on someone spraying upwards towards the top of the window.
As remotelove said, some chemicals can damage plastics, and that’s what I think has happened here.
I don’t think so. We found a mysterious wire in the basement that goes outside to nowhere directly below it. Either way that doesn’t work and I’m just trying to find the best/least damaging way to remove it.
But it did cross my mind and I tested it with the switch on and off and it worked with neither. That being said I don’t think it’s an outdoor rated plug so it could just be bad either way.
Well, if the interior switch is bad, the device (outlet or otherwise) would never turn on. I’d start by confirming that power is coming into the switch (LINE), and power if leaving the switch in the ON position (LOAD). One of those voltage detectors can do that. If you know the LOAD is good, then use the voltage detector on the suspected lights.
If you lean a ladder against a wall, only a small part of your weight pushes against the wall horizontally, most weight is still directed towards the ground. You can roughly estimate how much of your weight will push against the wall:
with a vertical ladder it would be 0.
with a ladder put up in a 45 degree angle it would be ~50% (actually less).
Your angle will be somewhere in between.
My guess is any wall can handle this, otherwise it would fall if you lean on it. But no one can tell you for sure without inspecting it.
Make sure to follow the 4-to-1 rule - for every 4’ of climb, the base should be 1’ from the wall.
You should be fine. Ideally, you’d tie the ladder off to something, or have the top extend 3’ above the surface it’s against (like if you’re using it to get to a roof). Obviously neither of those really apply here. I’m an electrician and we have to do stuff like this pretty often.
As for the strength of the wall around the windows, those should be framed in, meaning there are extra 2x4s around them. Try to extend the ladder higher than you need to be so you’re not on the very top of it and you’ll be alright
Right, this is the correct answer. Even with a very tall ladder, the force is relatively small. If the ladder is well anchored, you can demonstrate this by standing at the top, holding on tightly, and pushing on the wall to see how hard you have to push to move the top of the ladder away from the wall a little.
Also worth mentioning that they sell covers/pads for the top of the ladders to prevent denting the drywall, but you can also make them from a piece of foam pool noodle.
you can demonstrate this by standing at the top, holding on tightly, and pushing on the wall to see how hard you have to push to move the top of the ladder away from the wall a little.
I have a major in structural engineering, and I’m commenting to say that you want to be very careful with reasoning that something will total less force because it caps out at your body weight.
Just to give an example, if you have a wire strung between two poles, and you hang your 100 lb self from the middle of that wire, the tension against the poles can easily be thousands of pounds.
It’s not going to play out that way with the ladder, unless the ladder is flexing. But if you have a ladder that bends, and it’s got a 10 degree bend in it, while the ladder is straightening it can be exerting far more force than your weight on the two ends.
Considering the static force diagram, a 100 lb downward force is going to be balanced by a set of opposing forces that sum to an upward 100 lb force.
Given that there are horizontal forces involved too, these individual force components can easily be greater than their sum.
Not saying for sure this ladder situation is one of those situations, but if you’re consistently applying a heuristic that a system of forces will be limited to the force input of an external stressor, you can be very rudely surprised by the actual system when it generates forces in the tons.
Many good suggestions, but I didn't see anyone bring up how well the house is holding the temperature, aka insulation or leaks. The best AC can't keep it cool if that cool is going outside somehow. You say the vent air feels cold so it seems to be doing its best. Single pane windows, especially facing the direct afternoon sun will be hard to keep from undoing the cooling. Attic space that has little insulation will also defeat the efforts.
This. Lack of insulation, leaky doors and windows, etc. will give your system a lot of load. My sister has no insulation and her electric bill in the summer is double mine, and I live in a bigger house.
Yep, always my first thought. If you’re in the US you can get tax benefits by making your home more energy efficient. It’s doable yourself but hiring someone to do it will eventually pay for itself.
And for the attic don’t just pile on insulation, need a good air sealing first if that’s no good.
I’m more interested as to why you have a cottered crank from a bicycle on your counter. It looks like it has been cusomized into a tool with a little blacksmith work. What’s it do?
It’s not ideal, but could be worse. The old decking gave way. Whether the roofers saw that and covered it up or it gave through when the air nailer got it is another matter. Most roofers would probably keep going till the job was done and address isolated issues like this after.
If decking repairs or a warranty were in your contract then they should make it right. If you don’t have a contract then it’s at the discretion of the roofers if they want to do anything about it.
Over the life of the roof that spot may wear prematurely or give way if any weight hits it. It’s under a vent so there is probably a metal flange over it. So it might hold up. Time will tell.
It’s certainly fixable. To do it the right way you need to take it all the way down to the decking and patch in a new board. Certainly doable, but kind of a pita.
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