gregmac

14,446 reputation

3067

bio	website	gregmaclellan.com
	location	Canada
	age	32
visits	member for	2 years, 10 months
	seen	yesterday
stats	profile views	354

Professional software developer, with several years working on industrial control and monitoring systems. Slowly remodeling parts of my house.

	14,446 reputation	bio	website	gregmaclellan.com	visits	member for	2 years, 10 months
3067 badges		location	Canada		seen	yesterday

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Feb 1	comment	How common are wet rooms in the US? Wow.. my basement powder room (toilet + sink) is 5x5, which is fairly spacious for what it is.. but I'm looking at it and really having trouble seeing a shower to be honest. Literally, you're going to have water all over everything. Definitely get a very easy to clean toilet and sink - no little crevices. In fact, a toilet like the one in the above picture may be a great way to go. You're also going to have to put some consideration to water proofing the door, and preventing water from getting out underneath it.
Jan 30	comment	How do I care for the land area directly above a septic tank? Mark mostly touched on it, but recognize that when you do need to get service done, the area around it will be trampled a bit. Don't put anything too elaborate or delicate in the way, and be prepared to do some fixing after the crew is gone (as well intentioned as they may be, the people that work on septic systems aren't landscapers).
Jan 24	comment	Is there an easy way to make a square hole in plaster/brick to put an electrical outlet box in? As pointed out in your other question (diy.stackexchange.com/questions/4174/…), a pattress jig is one way.
Jan 17	comment	How do I replace a non-standard (oversize) closet doors? In what way is it oversize -- too high, wide, or both? What are the dimensions? A picture may help.
Jan 12	comment	How do I wire an old house with Cat6? I'll also add: an installer bit (a long, flexible drill bit) is invaluable for doing installations in existing walls.. here's my blog post from when I did it: gregmaclellan.com/blog/running-network-cables
Jan 9	comment	Why won't my toilet's water valve not turn off? An alternative to soldering in a new valve is to use a "retrofit" valve, like this one: amazon.com/Watts-LFPBQTR-615-Retrofit-Straight-Fem-COMP/dp/…. It has a compression fitting (like the hose to your toilet) and just connects in front of the existing hose. Your existing valve just stays open all the time and can be ignored.
Jan 5	comment	Should I use a float “piggy-back” sump pump switch? You don't need a relay if you have the correct float switch. They're designed for switching pumps in these situations.
Jan 5	comment	Garage Door Opener Light loosens in socket. How to fix? Turn the power off before you do this, at the breaker. The switch is not enough - depending on how it's wired part of the socket may still be hot. The few seconds spent turning off the breaker is worth it to not be electrocuted.
Jan 5	comment	Can I run a dehumidifier pump to a washer stand pipe? I don't think they'd interfere in any way, though a Y adapter may be more aesthetically pleasing or may physically secure them better. Again, so long as there is an air gap on both pipes, it's fine.
Dec 28	comment	Why does my furnace turn off when the thermostat's LCD dims? There's usually an indicator the furnace is "on" (I would guess the flames icon to the right of the temperature in your picture). Does that turn off as well when the LCD dims?
Dec 21	comment	Should I use a subfloor for a finished basement's floor? Chris, I used what looks like a similar product called DeltaFL, using the same method. I was concerned about height (old house, basement is not high) so an additional con for me with the rigid foam was losing 1-2" of height. I blogged about my subfloor here, for future reference: gregmaclellan.com/blog/basement-sub-floor
Dec 21	comment	Can I change a 1-gang electrical box to a 2-gang electrical box? Pardon my ignorance, but why not just buy a power bar in this situation? You can get surge protection as well, and you can get power bars with flat (low-profile) plugs so they easily fit behind furniture pushed against the wall.
Dec 20	comment	What can I use to automatically turn off a bathroom heater after a fixed time? The LTB02-1LZ is rated for 1800W Incandescent, 20A Resistive/Inductive at 120V, so for any 120V heater it should work. It's hard to answer otherwise since you didn't mention what the heater actually is but this would be my default answer.
Dec 20	comment	Is it OK to turn off power to a fuel furnace? Except on a two-wire system, connecting other wires may still cause damage. It's better to be safe and turn off the power than have to spend a bunch of money to replace a control board.
Dec 14	comment	Do I need to do anything to protect my pool during a rare freeze? I'd agree, and it's especially important to keep the pump on because it's the water in the pump and pipes that will freeze first, which will crack the pipes and/or pump/filter parts.
Dec 10	comment	How do I install a wood stove as an auxiliary heat source? Many thermostats have a "fan on/auto" switch which controls the fan - in "auto", they just run when the furnace is running, but in "on" they run all the time. You could switch it to "on" to effectively use the furnace's fan to distribute the heat from the wood stove.
Dec 9	comment	Can a locksmith open a deadbolt lock? Just search youtube for Lock bumping. Videos like this (youtube.com/watch?v=SP920ttSctU) show a "high security" Medeco lock being bumped in ~20 seconds. There's another one of a 12-year old girl doing it as well.
Dec 7	comment	How do I take a live wire off of a two way switch? @shirlock homes: Good point, and I always do that as well. If it doesn't beep, I'm skeptical until I actually hear it beep by testing on another circuit. Then I go back and confirm it really isn't beeping on the wire I'm about to touch.
Dec 2	comment	What the heck is/was this keypad for? @Saxtus: that's why I went back to the Wayback machine, it looks like they changed their logo a few years ago, before they were acquired by Universal Services.
Dec 2	comment	What the heck is/was this keypad for? The wayback machine only has the first letter of their logo, but it looks like it matches: web.archive.org/web/20030909151808/http://… (their web page from 2003). I believe this is the right answer.