Hi all. I have a 2 storey, ~1200 sq ft home in a hot climate. I have a single HVAC unit...central air and ductwork, electric AC/heat. There is no zoning to the system. The thermostat is downstairs....
The mini-split route idea is a great solution, but I am wondering if you have an unvented or poorly insulated attic that is a contributing factor to your problem. If your attic space isn't setup properly and you throw a mini-split at the problem, it is sort of like pumping water out of a boat without fixing the leak that is flooding the boat. Even something as "simple" as a powered attic vent could help in HVAC performance and operating costs. If the hot air can't vent or your insulation is inadequate, it just stacks down and heats the top floor.
The other thing I would be looking at is if the HVAC run up to the second floor is done properly or if the dampers are not right. A house that size really shouldn't have much trouble if everything is balanced right.
Closing vents on the first floor and leaving the second floor open will increase the wear on the fan and may decrease efficiency if not enough air can be moved through the open vents. Knowing how bad an idea that is would require some measurements and math.
Having the nest with a second temp sensor would just force your HVAC to work harder to cool the upstairs. The single sensor nest can be a smart move to reduce costs with the higher degree of control.
Having dampers installed does more or less the same thing as closing vents, but with a higher cost. A zoned system is expensive and kind of silly on a house of that size.
You would have to get a GC out to inspect the attic and then give you a written recommendation of alterations, which you then would take to your association. Talk with your neighbors and see if they have the same issue, them jumping in on the issue would offer a greater chance of approval. It is possible the association may pay for it if the problem is attic venting, insulation would likely fall on you.
Forcing the system to run more to compensate for the upstairs would drive up your electric bill and may not actually help if the problem is in the attic or balance of the HVAC. You could set the temp lower at night to accomplish the same thing as dual sensors, but you still are just throwing money away that should be better spent on addressing the issue directly.
Having a nest vs non-smart thermostat allows you to set schedules in a smarter way than a regular tstat.
Having dampers allows you to balance the system so the downstairs gets less air than the upstairs, instead of you having to go around closing vents and the downstairs would be cooled better than just shutting vents and sending most of the air upstairs.
The flange they adapted was done pretty badly so it isn't making as even contact as would be ideal. Looks like they tried to use sealant to make up for it and didn't use enough, so it still had gaps.
If it were my circus, I'd use butyl sheet under the boot for more expansion/contraction tolerant waterproofing and take the extra time to do a better job on that flange.
You could go ham with some roof patch and be done with it for a decade and do it better when it needs redoing.
Edit: Resolved. Decorative brick is actually a chase and doesn't need to be completely filled in. Thanks to @Death_Equity for advice on rebuilding the crown....
The left side flue was appropriate when it was built with a closed chase supporting the flue tiles. The right side has no flue tiles and would only be acceptable like a 100 years ago.
I'm certain neither flue would meet modern safety standards, and that is just from what I can see in that picture with very little information. There are some grandfathering of some issues.
Both flue almost certainly has deteriorated mortar joints or damaged tiles. You would need to have the flue camera inspected(level 2 inspection).
The right flue is fully fucked and should not be used. The tiles are gone and there is masonry that has fallen and is obstructing the flue. Edit: Not a flue, is open chase cavity.
To determine if the flue will be able to have a stainless liner, you need the measurements of the firebox width, depth, and rear wall width. You then can put those measurements into an online calculator to determine liner size. The next problem is how much space you have in the chase(chimney structure surrounding the liner). If your chase has an opening of 10"x10" and you need an 11" liner, that is a problem.
The flue may be able to be coated with a masonry product like Fireguard or Fluesaver. That would depend on the condition of the flue tiles and the exact system used to reline.
The top of the chimney should not be closed off with a cap like you have there. It should have the tiles or a liner extending past the crown(top) of the chimney, the crown would close off the chase and keep water, debris, animals, etc. from being able to enter the chase. Water and products of combustion acting on the mortar joints of tiles and brick will destroy the structure. Just putting that cap on there is better than nothing, but it is more of a way to buy time so you can actually fix it properly. The crown used to be covered and sealed properly, but has deteriorated to the state it is in now.
Get a certified chimney sweep out there for a level 2 inspection of both flue and they will be able to give you a better understanding of what all needs to be done and you can go from there. Use a company that does the inspections and the work. If they don't do the work, then you will have to deal with inaccurate quotes and a bigger headache. Just do an inspection on the right one, no sweep. They should be swept with the inspection to get a good idea of the tile and mortar joint condition.
Edit: fixed some stuff based on further explanation of the situation.
Does the wall dividing the gap and the flue tiles visible from the top go all the way down or does it stop after a few bricks and then just has the flue stack naked in the chase?
So it is basically a closed chase with brick surrounding the flue. That isn't how it would be built today, but very common on most older homes. What you really don't want is naked flue tiles in an open chase with no brick supporting them because they will be prone to serious failures like the tile stack collapsing.
You don't really need to worry about that cavity. They want the brick cores filled and adequate mortar joints in the brick, not dry set(no mortar).
Construct a new crown to seal off the chase and extend the flue tiles by about 6" off the top of the new crown. There is a chance of a cross breeze pulling smoke down the adjacent flue, but there are a few factors that can cause that and I would need a few photos of the whole picture to have a decent idea if that could be an issue.
I would use a grinder to put rebar down over the gap, set into the bricks, put cement board on top of that which has a 1/2" overhang onto the brick. I am extra and would do a rebar every brick across the short side. From there you can built a mold to pour a rebar and concrete slab with a 2" overhang, or no overhang if your rain cap can accommodate the tile extensions. The overhang will help to protect the mortar joints of the brick, so if your cap has less drip edge, I would just pour with the overhang. You do want to make sure the concrete is shaped to allow for water runoff, water sitting on the crown will fuck shit up faster if it sits. Use some foam seal around the tiles to give some relief for expansion and contraction. Seal over the foam with an exterior polyurethane sealant so water will have a harder time acting on the joint between the tile and the concrete.
If you elect to have the tiles with their own individual rain caps, I would suggest adding a sand cap over the concrete to act as a sacrificial wash. You'll want to slip a tuck pointing trowel up against the tile to give some expansion room. Seal that wash to the tile with polyurethane as well. You don't need more than an inch thickness, tapering to 1/2" at the edge. You will have to replace/patch that sand cap every so often, so make sure to check on it. Most of the time you just need to patch it with the leftover sand cap thinned out and applied with a brush, but you can use mortar as well.
Epoxy or silicone, I favor epoxy. You will need to make sure everything is absolutely clean and you will probably want to take some sandpaper to them to provide a better mechanical grip.
So my home office is in our basement while my wife’s is in a finished attic space. We have a mini split system, but it has to be all heat or all cooling, and many days it’s cold in my office, but hot in my wife’s office....
Depending on the size of the flue, it would be entirely possible to put a 4"-6" stainless corrugated liner in there with a "T-Body" and "snout" going through the side of the chimney in the attic and close off the damper with an opening for airflow. Then you would have in-line duct fans with a rheostat control at both ends pushing air one way or the other. The duct fans that are the same diameter as the duct don't have much pressure, so you would probably want a centrifugal fan to spend once and get desired results. You can buy the fan with the speed controller or they do have ones you plug into. The fans are loud, so the Mrs would appreciate it if it were inside of a baffle box to keep the noise down while she works. How low speed the fans can go is limited, so don't expect to have infinitely varial speeds without spending a lot more.
There also are temperature controllers so you can have the fans cycle to regulate temperature without manual control. You would probably want to put that on only the attic fan if you went that route.
You could use galvanized duct, but it will rot out over time in the flue and it is harder to install vs a stainless corrugated liner.
The fans are $200-400 depending on how much chooch you want. The liner runs $12-16 per foot. The T-Body and snout are about $150-200.
There are bi-directional varial speed duct fans but they carry a premium, typically require custom duct manifold/plenum fabrication, and are two fans put together to achieve the pressure required. Going with one fan at each end is easier, cheaper, and easier to repair should one fan fail.
If it were my project, I would try just having the fan in the attic pulling and control it with a speed control plus temperature controller. If that wasn't enough is when I would add the fan in the basement and do manual control with variable speed and have both fans push. I don't really see why you would want to pull air from the attic, but you seem to feel you would need to.
It can be tricky to get the snout on the T-Body, you will want some 1/4" extensions and impact, as well as someone who can help you.
In your case there are a lot of complexities that may make such a simple solution less viable than OPs.
The total volume of the two spaces, the floor and wall construction, if the basement is finished, and the layout of the basement and main floor all come into play.
Adding ducting to the walls may be a major hassle and expense.
If it were my house, I would probably push air up from two spots into the main floor via registers I added or add more returns to the basement and hope the HVAC circulation helps with the top floor without having to add dampers to the main and top floors in both cases.
If the masonry is gone and there is just a framed out hole then galvanized would totally work with fairly easy install with the help of a second person or some clever use of support. You wouldn't want to just blow air through the cavity without ducting as it would be horribly inefficient and tank the air velocity across that much distance.
Adding an in-line towards the middle does mean having controls up in the attic more involved and you do want the Mrs to have control over the fan there instead of her having to go downstairs.
If you wanted to circulate the air instead of forcing air with a passive return, then you get into a more complex situation with two ducts and fairly informed placement of intake and return.
Pulling into the attic will help to lower temps and will be the simplest/cheapest option so long as there isn't a wall you can put a window heat pump unit in.
When you say flexible ducting, are you talking aluminized plastic or the corrugated aluminum? That would be a fair amount of weight for flexi in either case, you would want to have access along the route to secure it, especially if it is insulated. The aluminized plastic would need more support than aluminum.
Without site inspection, I couldn't say how necessary insulating the duct would be. Using insulated duct would be a good "better safe than sorry" move but will make installation without full access a bit of a bother.
If you keep one eye closed and expose the other to sunlight, you can see the difference. The lenses tint a dark shade of purple. I have dark brown eyes, so you can't really notice the difference easily. There is a purple ring that is most noticeable outside of the limbal ring. They don't turn your eyes black like you had the tint of sunglasses or transitions glasses, which would be cool.
I would imagine someone with lighter color eyes, like really light blue, would have a very noticeable difference.
Something I did notice as the wearer is when the lenses are tinted there is like a contrast filter on your vision so colors look better.
Nitrile goes on the moment anything sticky comes out. Spending the next hours or days picking bits of bullshit off your dick ticklers isn't great.
I honestly wear gloves when working all the time, work gloves or nitrile, because I don't want rough hands with tiny cuts you only find when you use sanitizer.
I understood why he wore a glove with Vaseline in them, you wife probably does too.
Petroleum-based lubes are not wise compared to water-based for internal use and say you aren't a fan of classic American literature without saying you aren't a fan of classic American literature.
This corner of the shower seems to be having some mold issues from regular use. Water seems to be collecting in that spot after a shower and doesn’t seem to be draining properly. Is there anything I can do for a permanent fix?...
Those tiles should be slightly sloped towards the drain, I am guessing they aren’t or aren’t enough so water just sits where it lay.
Squeegee is the cheapest and best option, you should already be using the squeegee on the glass after use anyways, but ain’t no body got time for that.
If you are leaving the shower door open when you are trying to dry it out with the exhaust fan; a larger or additional exhaust fan or a dedicated dehumidifier are reasonably easy and cheap options that may do the trick. Personally, I’d rather add another fan than the hassle of a dehumidifier.
Removing and resetting the tiles with a properly done slope and corner is the best option, but you may be in for rebuilding the entire shower because of the risk of compromising the waterproofing during demo if the waterproofing is membrane.
We have a standing shower with a strange leak. It was built with a small tiled wall/step that the frame-less glass shower wall panel sits on. I noticed water pooling outside the door after a shower. At first I thought it was the door seal but upon closer inspection it is coming out of the grout. See pics (right where the arrow...
I am going to assume you have run the shower and watched the water leaking from that spot, eliminating any other possibility like water following the grout lines on the outside.
Redoing the grout may stop the leak from exiting, but the problem is water getting back there and coming out the grout. Closing off the exit just means the water will go elsewhere.
I would start with removing the glass and sealing the screw holes that may have compromised the waterproofing. You might as well seal the glass trim as well, both under and around. While you are at it remove and reseal the caulking around the shower pan. I would not reseal the grout unless the above resolved the leak.
If you have access below the shower, I would look there even if it means cutting a hole in the ceiling. That may give you a better idea of where water is actually entering behind the tile and if it is getting anywhere else. Doing a drywall patch is better than not knowing if water is getting elsewhere.
The best thing would be to remove the glass and tile to really understand the source of the problem. You may end up having to do that to fix the problem if resealing the screw holes and pan don’t resolve it. Long-term you would want to redo it anyways because there has been a waterproofing failure and that should be properly fixed. If you end up ripping out the tile, you can use inset glass track that won’t puncture the waterproofing and will likely need new glass made.
A processed deer including tag, skinning, and butchering ends with 70lbs and costs about $300. 70lbs of processed beef costs $800-900. You can cut those prices in half if you butcher the deer yourself or buy a primal beef and butcher that yourself.
We wiped out their natural predators to protect livestock and pets. Leaving deer population unchecked leads to crop destruction(incliding soy and lentils) as well as deer suffering from famine.
Cows are absolutely an environmental nightmare and factory farmed in an abhorrent manner. Deer that are part of the natural ecosystem and lived nice and mostly healthy natural lives free of steroids and antibiotics are not abused ecological nightmares.
Lentils require many acres of farmland that ruin the local ecology, far more if you grow them without pesticides and fertilizers that cause their own ecological disasters including the loss of insect populations and algae or plankton blooms that release carbon and kill ocean and river ecology. Can’t harvest all of those lentils without 3rd world near slave labor or carbon emitting farm equipment. Harvesting pesticides, GMO, and fertilizer free crops without carbon emitting machinery by using fair wage paid people would increase the cost of the end product to far exceed viability.
Hunting is cheaper and more ethical than factory farms and veganism. Advocate insect farming as an ethical, sustainable, and environmental food source instead of ruining the environment with misguided vegan or vegitarianism.
Minimum wage goes up with inflation with a 1932 basis and rent is restricted to 1/3rd of monthly wages at minimum wage with obvious exeptions for students and those on a fixed income for one bedroom apartments.
I am re-arranging the shelves in an old bookcase, and I’m having trouble removing a few broken shelf pins inside the holes I want to use. They don’t protrude enough for me to get any kind of grip with the needle-nose pliers that I used to take out the other pins....
The twist on the shank means you need to left-hand twist it as you pull. So an easy-out or a broken schrader core removal bit/tool would work best, so as to not rip out the hole.
Every attic I have been in that had mice had tunnels through the insulation where the mice were going through. Like actual tunnels, not gaps or disturbed insulation.
Looking for some HVAC suggestions to better cool my stifling second floor
Hi all. I have a 2 storey, ~1200 sq ft home in a hot climate. I have a single HVAC unit...central air and ductwork, electric AC/heat. There is no zoning to the system. The thermostat is downstairs....
Sewer Vent Through Middle of Standing Seam ( sh.itjust.works )
Recently had a new standing seam metal roof installed. Roofers could talk the talk but I was not impressed with the quality of work overall....
Chimney Gaps ( sh.itjust.works )
Edit: Resolved. Decorative brick is actually a chase and doesn't need to be completely filled in. Thanks to @Death_Equity for advice on rebuilding the crown....
[RESOLVED] The plastic cylinder in my soap dispenser is loose and the soap no longer pumps. What's the best way to fix this? Super glue didn't hold. ( sh.itjust.works )
EDIT: I ended up using epoxy. Thank you for the help.
I’d like to build a ducting system to actively push air from one room to another. Is that a thing?
So my home office is in our basement while my wife’s is in a finished attic space. We have a mini split system, but it has to be all heat or all cooling, and many days it’s cold in my office, but hot in my wife’s office....
xkcd #2929: Good and Bad Ideas ( imgs.xkcd.com )
https://xkcd.com/2929...
Just used spray foam for the first time...
It's on everything, my fingernails are glued to my skin underneath, I hate everything and most of all I hate spray foam....
Shower curb standing water ( lemmy.sdf.org )
This corner of the shower seems to be having some mold issues from regular use. Water seems to be collecting in that spot after a shower and doesn’t seem to be draining properly. Is there anything I can do for a permanent fix?...
Weird shower leak. Advise needed. ( photofed.world )
We have a standing shower with a strange leak. It was built with a small tiled wall/step that the frame-less glass shower wall panel sits on. I noticed water pooling outside the door after a shower. At first I thought it was the door seal but upon closer inspection it is coming out of the grout. See pics (right where the arrow...
Can I hang kitchen cabinet on my subconstruction I built? ( lemmy.world )
Hey!...
Why Won’t Men Wear Hot Pink While Hunting? - More states adopt the color alongside orange, but opinions aren’t all rosy ( www.wsj.com )
*mic drop* ( lemmy.world )
How to Extract Broken Shelf Pin? ( lemmy.world )
I am re-arranging the shelves in an old bookcase, and I’m having trouble removing a few broken shelf pins inside the holes I want to use. They don’t protrude enough for me to get any kind of grip with the needle-nose pliers that I used to take out the other pins....
Gaps in floating floor ( lemmy.world )
I DIY’ed the floor in my bedroom but I’ve got gaps like the one pictured in a few spots. What’s the best way to close these up?
Called Bugout for a bug inpection, and the guy said i have mice in my attic. Told me this is a mouse pee stain. Is that right? ( programming.dev )
Is there something wrong my AC? It’s a 1 year old unit and it can’t seem to keep up. For reference it is a high of 92 F today ( discuss.tchncs.de )
Here's my before and after pics of me replacing my furnace
https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/814a6660-a4d1-4805-b3b8-bbce21f581db.jpeg...