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| bio | website | alexfeinman.net |
|---|---|---|
| location | Boston, MA | |
| age | ||
| visits | member for | 2 years, 9 months |
| seen | 5 hours ago | |
| stats | profile views | 152 |
Raised by a carpenter with a physics degree, I claim lots of booklearnin' but only the usual "amateur" experience level. Take my advice with the same grain of salt you'd take any random voice on the internet!
My statements on these websites are not official statements from any employer of mine.
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Mar 27 |
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Will combining roof venting systems cause short cycling? Have you encountered cases where inspector is "recommended" by the seller? I think this is supposed to be illegal. In this case the inspector may try to downplay things due to the side deal he's got going on... |
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Feb 20 |
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How can I tell if the sagging in my plaster ceiling is getting worse? Good thought, but rather expensive to tie up a camera over the months that it might take to verify this... |
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Feb 19 |
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Is it possible to earthquake-proof furniture when you have plaster walls? Now I'm curious why they dissuaded you from attaching to stud... |
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Feb 12 |
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Where should I place nails when installing crown molding? I think the question is more about where on the crown molding the nail should go in, rather than what the backing material is. I've heard "put the nail in the deepest part as it helps hide the nail hole" but that may just be for jobs where you aren't going to fill in the nail holes. |
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Jan 29 |
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Are curtains effective for keeping the room warm? Yes, curtains make a big difference, especially if you have old/drafty windows. |
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Jan 15 |
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How to make a Bevel Lap Splice joint, for connecting a portable floor? Oh, and on cut two tilt the blade away from the work, so you don't trap the wood between the saw and the fence... |
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Jan 3 |
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What can I do about this gap between my driveway and the street? Is there a metal structure you could buy? I'm thinking of something very solid so you can drive on it, but with slots/holes in it to let rain pass under. Sort of like the floor gates at the entrances to cattle farms, the ones cows don't like to walk on... |
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Dec 17 |
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How much of this wood molding has to be completely replaced? To me it looks like the sort of damage that happens after generations of college students move furniture in and out... |
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Dec 5 |
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Water coming in through the walls of an old concrete garage I didn't. For now it's just a dehumidifier in there. We changed the landscape drainage, which helped a bit. |
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Dec 1 |
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What is the best way to insulate a room with glass window for winter? The plastic sheeting is shockingly effective. It creates an effective 3-6" air barrier and completely seals up all gaps in the windows. And it's relatively cheap. Try this first--basically every renter here in Boston uses it, and for a reason. |
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Nov 23 |
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Is krypton gas more energy-efficient that low-e argon? I would only consider such fancy windows once I'd done every other possible form of tightening up the house. The difference between the fancy and the super-fancy windows are completely swamped by, say, having a 1/4" air gap somewhere in your unit. If you were building the perfect green sealed home it might matter, but for normal construction...don't get sucked into the hype. |
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Nov 23 |
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What type of wood should I use to resurface my table? I would not recommend MDF. Someone's going to cut into it with a knife sooner or later and then spill soda, and the MDF will disintegrate... |
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Nov 15 |
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Are these drywall screws driven too deep into the sheet? I'm surprised to hear you speak of fake reviews on Angie's List; if you ever see one, report it. They take that very seriously. |
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Nov 12 |
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Using a window as a dry-erase surface If you have stubborn smudges, scribble over them with a fresh pen, and then quickly erase. This even works with permanent marker stains. |
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Nov 8 |
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How can I protect a wall from flames of a gas hob? If it's heat conductive, won't it just heat up the wall behind it? |
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Nov 6 |
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Whats the easiest way to fix sticky painted furniture so that it's no longer sticky? What about lightly sanding the top coat to accelerate the drying process? |
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Nov 5 |
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How can I repair scratches on door molding? +1, MDF....as trim...ugh. |
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Oct 23 |
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Can I hang a heavy weight from a concrete ceiling if I reinforce it with fiberglass? Warning: for a pull-up bar, you do NOT need to just support 200lb. You need to support the dynamic load of grabbing the bar, hanging from it, swinging from it, etc. This works out to many times the static load; I don't know the conversion, but 5x may be a starting point. |
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Oct 9 |
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Why would plastic anchors pull out of the wall? Flaky wall material can also cause failure. I have some horsehair plaster walls that simply will NOT support anchors no matter what I use--they're basically compressed dust held together with paint after 100 years. |
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Oct 9 |
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Why would plastic anchors pull out of the wall? I would NOT recommend using drywall screws for sheer loads. They are fragile and prone to stress failures--this led to a number of high-profile injuries(/deaths?) some years back. For hanging guitars with that many screws it's probably fine--but for a structural application, use the appropriate fastener. In your case nails into the stud would probably have worked just fine, and nails are much better at supporting sheer loads... |
