New answers tagged safety
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Aside from what else has been said, the #1 practical priority is to staple the cables so that if cables are yanked on, the staples catch the force and it damages the cable there. You don't want it yanking it out of wherever it's connected, because that could cause all sorts of additional problems in places that are harder to access.
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You can run NM cable (the official term for Romex, which is a brand name) in a crawl space either ALONG the SIDES of the floor joists, or THROUGH them (i.e. fed through drilled holes). But you cannot just staple it TO the bottom of the joists. Since that may not be an option here, the next choice is to nail small "runner" boards to the bottoms of the joists, ...
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It's definitely wrong, the danger lies in getting tangled in it and pulling out connections in whatever boxes the runs go to. You can probably bet that if this is what you can see it's not secure anywhere else. Could also be an issue if you get any water down there as that is not rated for that.
I'm not 100% on code in a crawlspaces but I think it's ...
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Can't help you with arts and crafts reuse, as that's off topic here. Do hydrostatic test the tank to 225% of working pressure. Better to go "tink" than "BOOM".
For use in a home,
Take the extinguisher to get it refilled
There are shops which do this, because commercial enterprises have their extinguishers refilled every few years. Extinguishers ...
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There are (at least) two types of fire extinguishers, ones that are preloaded and ones that you must load before use. The ones preloaded have the chamber, that contains the extuingishing medium preassurized. The ones you must load have a small gas tank and when you want to use the extinguisher, you press a button that releases the gas in the tank with the ...
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Just a warning:
An accident with kilogram amounts of pressurized CO2 in a constrained space could turn that space into an actual "gas chamber" - there could be injuries from losing consciousness and falling, or even death or permanent damage from choking.
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If it's a dry chemical extinguisher (seems likely, most common, particularly with a pressure gauge) the simple answer is that the valve has got dry chemical dust in it and no longer seals properly as a result. When refilling the valve or valve parts will either be cleaned or replaced as needed, the dry chemicals will be placed in the container, the valve ...
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Fire extinguishers (here in the US anyway) are REQUIRED to not be usable after being discharged, partial or not, because you can never know HOW MUCH extinguishing material was discharged by just looking at the pressure gauge. So the valves are designed with breakaway seals that, once broken, will not hold the charge for very long, forcing you to replace it ...
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While not strictly speaking "single use", I would consider a typical consumer-grade residential fire extinguisher (I have 2 - one on each floor, with the upstairs one near the kitchen) to be a single-use item. This is for a few reasons:
Even a moderately sized fire could make good use of the entire extinguisher, so if it is "half used" it is already in the ...
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Fire extinguishers with plastic heads cannot (or should not) be refilled (recharged)...only metal heads.
Plastic heads can split, crack, etc. over time. Either they won’t take a charge or they’ll loose a charge over time.
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Yes you can adjust the air mixture. It’s called an air shutter. Gas furnaces, gas ovens, oil furnaces have air shutters you can adjust the amount of air to the burning process. Most manufacturers find anything under 100 PPM acceptable. I shoot for under 50. If you add too much air, the efficiency of the appliance drops. Always use your hood vent and if you ...
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An outdoor socket ought to have GFCI protection. This is why.
Since electricity transmits rather nicely through wires, GFCI devices are able to protect outlets which are not near them. So for instance an outdoor circuit could have its GFCI protection be at the circuit breaker, or at an intermediate outlet, or at a special "GFCI-only device" called a ...
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If this circuit is Ground Fault Cicuit Interruptor (GFCI) protected, it is designed to protect humans in the scenario you described...
And / or you can:
Turn off the circuit breaker which feeds this circuit, then unplug your cord. Turn the breaker back on again.
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From your description I don't think this situation presents much of a shock hazard.
From 40 years of living in a house with the old type of outdoor cover I am familiar with the spring loaded metal cover. If the metal cover is preventing the cord from being unplugged, then lift the cover slightly using a non conducting implement like a [dry] stick [dry piece ...
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If the outdoor socket has gfci protection through another (indoor) outlet then you can turn that gfci outlet off.
If you know which circuit the outlet is on you can turn off just that breaker.
The nuclear option is to go to the main breaker and shut that off.
After the power is shut off you can safely unplug the extension cord and then turn the chosen ...
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I think it’s safe, if...
Now that everyone has upvoted this as unsafe, I’ve got to take the other side of the argument for several reasons: 1) it’s not a truss, 2) it’s “stick-built”, 3) either side could be removed and the remainder would be stable, 4) horizontal structural support is elsewhere other than in the center horizontal span,
1) Look close and ...
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As pictured - very bad idea.
It may work IF the roof is re-engineered to carry a lot more of the stress across the top and bottom of the cutout. That means a much beefier horizontal beam on all four sides of his hole AND a rework of the roof by re-trussing the entire structure.
Some examples:
This one is a Scissor Truss, and also wears the more ...
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The triangle is an extremely stable form of architecture precisely because it has three sides. You remove one side, and you have one of the least stable forms of architecture on account that two members connected at a point can be affected by torque, which is by definition a force multiplier. If you want to play around with it to get a sense, try gluing two ...
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Absolutely not safe.
Those trusses were engineered with a heavy (critical) dependency on the bottom chords, which are in tension. Removal has left them extremely vulnerable to collapse due to spreading, especially under snow loads, but also under just the load of the roof itself. The roof system is basically a hinge now.
To get a good mental image, ...
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With no bracing above, you might want to check the out side walls - they are probably already spreading. Once they start moving the stabilization and repair can cost many thousands if the roof stays in place, tens of thousands if it comes down.
There are ways to mitigate the damage done, but it needs to be done now before the walls spread, the rafters ...
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