All Questions

Here in central Virginia, most houses use heat pumps with electric auxiliary heat. I have inquired with several different contractors about installing outdoor thermostats on my units to 1) disable ...

I intend to finish a part of my basement following this guideline from Fine Homebuilding and Building Science. In this configuration, the foam board completely contacts the concrete. My conern is that ...

My house is plumbed using PEX trunk-and-branch, with the main 3/4 line coming in, splitting off to 3/4" to the hot water tank, and then a 1/2" trunk that all the other branch supplies tee off from. ...

I am in the process of installing a whole house humidifier. I am planning to mount it to the supply side and need to connect the bypass to the return. I'm not sure if I should be using a take-off or ...

Background: I had a contractor finishing my basement, and part of that was installing underfloor heating using several heating mats in parallel. It worked initially but soon after it just started ...

I'm in the process of replacing some of the light switches in my house with smart switches, Wemo Light Switches in this case. I've had no problem with the replacement of my One-way switches (SPST I ...

I have hired a contractor to line the walls of an old apartment with metal stud and drywall as the walls are very uneven. The drywall is up but the walls have quite a lot of give in them, if I push ...

I have 3 cables coming in from the ceiling, with one being the supply. At the switch box I have 2 cables with neither being hot. In the switch box I have a black/white and another set being black/...

Here is a picture of the top of my uninsulated basement wall. The foundation is poured and from early 1970s. For orientation to the photo: the white in the lower left corner is the vertical face of ...

Our home was built in 1957. We have had problems for years with having a wet drain field and keep having our septic pumped. Today (of course my husband is away), I have done a couple of loads of ...

I have a Harbor Breeze ceiling fan and light kit. When I turn on the light, it starts out bright, but then in a second it dims. It doesn't turn off, it just dims. What could be causing this to ...

Can anyone recommend a better method of affixing UPVC (e.g. Homelux) floor trims to skirting other than the adhesive tape provided? Can you mechanically affix them or is it just down to adhesives?

I'm in the process of trying to run some CAT6 and speaker wire at various places in my house. One of the things I'd like to do is run speaker wire in the living room to a wall plate behind my sofa, ...

So up in the attic guest room of our century home, there’s a baseboard electrical outlet that looks like a light socket (see picture below). I’m not sure what exactly to call it, and various Google ...

I have a solar array with 2 Sunpower/Sunnyboy inverters model SPR-6000m. One of the inverters has an error that from the manual (see pic) is "Inverter Interference". The indicator lights that blink ...

I had a fountain in the middle of my yard. The fountain is now gone but my GFCI Outdoor box is still there and is in a mid-run, as I have another outlet against my far fence. The electrical is buried ...

I have exterior door installed and its 1/4 inch shorter in width than Jamb. when closed I can see straight 1/4" inch gap from top to bottom. Fortunately dead bolt works but latch bold is just hanging ...

My Carrier Performance 96 series furnace (similar to the 59TP6 currently shown on Carrier's website, but I don't have the exact model number in front of me) has been showing codes 13 ("Limit Circuit ...

I have a corrugated metal shed which i want to fit a pvc window. I am not so sure how should i approach to this. The shed looks like the one pictured below but there are 2 vertical perimeter channels ...

There’s a strange mechanical whirr coming from the building next door. It buzzes every four minutes. Listen here: https://clyp.it/3qwn1qhc We keep the windows open in our bedroom during the winter ...

Does anyone have experience, guidance, tips on what is required for LV wiring at rough-in inspection? I have run a number of speaker wires, coax, ethernet (CL2/CL3) but they do not all terminate in a ...

My plumber just moved the laundry's washer drain location and this is the picture from the outside: It was re-connect to the old drain pipe and go into crawl space. My question is: Does it look ...

In an attempt to fix a wiring problem from five years ago, I made a huge error. Here's the scenario: Box 1: Has switch #1 in a four-way set up (it's a 3-way switch) and is where the power comes in. ...

I've tried looking for guides, but I haven't seen any other lights like mine It seems like there is a cover over the bulb but I haven't been able to remove it and even if I could I don't think the ...

I have a interior soffit (that encloses a structural beam running along the exterior of the building) directly above an exterior sliding door. The drywall covering this soffit abuts right up against ...

I'm looking for the way to make the pressure treated wood in my project last the longest possible. I want to put a piece of plastic (black) sheeting to protect the 2x12s being used for a new retainer ...

My water heater stopped working a few days ago and I've been trouble shooting it ever since. I found water in the connection receptacle. the leak from the the Air Conditioning unit above it has been ...

I have a thermostat that controls the AC/Heat upstairs which is located on my bedroom wall. Right below that I have another Millivolt thermostat for the gas fireplace in my bedroom. If I want to ...

I've got a 200 year old house with a crawl space under one corner of the house. The entrance to that crawl space is very tight (pictured below), and I am a large man. I want to expand the entrance to ...

Having recently removed a separating wall between kitchen and kitchen-diner, there is now a gap left in the floor that needs to be filled (150mm x 3000mm). The floor is ground floor, laid on-top of ...

I've got a ceiling fan/light wired to a double switch (like this: https://www.homedepot.com/p/Leviton-15-Amp-Combination-Double-Switch-White-R62-05224-2WS/202027008) The source is at the switch and ...

I've lived in this home for two years now. Roof is probably at least 10-15 years old, perhaps 20 years. We started noticing some water stains on the ceiling soon after moving in. On a closer look, it ...

I need to hook up the outbuilding to the main power pole. It was hooked up before and we moved, moving the outbuilding. I have 10/2 WG UFB wire. the photo shows main power pole. What size amp do I ...

So I purchased a historic house built in 1920. The house has two HVAC units, one for the upper floor, one for the lower. Total sq ft 3300. I had been setting the upstairs thermostat at about 83 ...

We are finishing our basement stairs, and I'm struggling with how to drywall the side that is parallel to and tight against the foundation. Should I pull down the stairs, frame the wall, hang drywall, ...

I'm looking to get my house panel upgraded from a 100 amp FPE firestarter panel to new Square D Panel. The panel I want to use is surface mount and the one built into the house in the 1970's is flush ...

I have a dual energy electric/oil furnace that is wired to a thermostat with 2 wires R and W. I don't have any AC. Inside the furnace there is a switch relay to control the fan but it is not connected ...

Amateur here. I have a house where the chimney run framing extends to the basement (rather than simply sitting on a platform attached to the main floor). The only fireplace present is on the main ...

An AC-only machine cools a storage facility: no heat. The 30 year old thermostat is to be replaced with a wifi thermostat, which requires a C-wire to power the electronics. There are 4 wires: Red (...

The Pipes are about 7.5 feet above the basement floor. I am in Canada. . The pipes are about total 2 feet in vertical length as measured from the 90 degrees turn from the basement, popping up the ...

I noticed cold air from my Carrier 58SS furnace. The main burners were not lighting. The pilot flame was strong, but yellow. When I tapped on the gas valve, the pilot shut off. I removed the pilot ...

OK, in a rehab of existing outlets I came across a 30A dryer receptacle on a 50A breaker with 12/3 AWG. Needless to say I am not happy. In looking at the breaker box, the white and bare ground are ...

Cement board has a higher density than 5/8 drywall. It also probably, and this is just a guess, probably has a lower resonance as well (being cement), so less sound should get through. 5/8" drywall ...

first SE post! MY QUESTION: How do I safely attach an articulating mount (tilt/pan) for a 75" LCD TV to a "sound deadening" wall that uses resilient channels? Thanks to the miracle of the ...

We have a dock (fixed-pier) that is about 40 feet from the house, and +100 feet from the main panel. 4-wire (2 hots, 1 grounded neutral, and 1 ground) run to a large junction box at the start of the ...

I have an LG smooth-top Electric range, LDE4413ST, that keeps burning up infinite switches on the Right Front burner, which is a "dual element" burner. This burner also operates at high power only, ...

I have a Swaby 5200 pump in my home, and I am hoping that someone out there might be able to suggest a replacement switch part number – or at least point me in the right direction. Pump model: 5200 ...

I have a York TG9S080B12MP11A up-flow configured natural gas furnace. We have had the furnace since 2007. I am having an issue where the furnace is not starting correctly. When I power up the blower ...

Younger home owner here. I've had water get into my basement a few times last spring in the corner and in this area (directly under my little front deck). The corner was due to no downspout (water was ...

I typically have a local landscaping place blow out my sprinkler lines for winter, but they went out of business this year so I'm trying to figure out how to do it myself. I've done a lot of YouTube ...