ncbill
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
I put one of those in a couple of weeks ago. The deer like a light over their salad bar.
Ours lights up so you can see your way to the garbage can.
The raccoon appreciates it too...
I put one of those in a couple of weeks ago. The deer like a light over their salad bar.
Is there any way the water can be coming in from way up above? We had a first-floor window that had a small, periodic leak and it wasn't until we added caulk to the (exterior) bathroom fan vent about five feet directly above it that it stopped. Talk about odd. Over a decade in this house and there has never been caulk around that vent, so we have no idea what changed. It was a "well it couldn't hurt to try" thing as we were really stumped and it worked, so we aren't complaining.
It could be that the water has two entry points and you only found one of them, as you have wondered.
Three weeks home after 6 months away, and the repairs are racking up. Just this past week:
- Troubleshot a neutral ground on electrical outlets and found the loose connection, repairing it and restoring power to the master bedroom.
- Replaced the front door handle which had corroded internals making the front door difficult to open... thanks ocean breeze!
- My coup d'grace: we've been fighting palm root intrusion into our master bathroom toilet sewer connection. The roots grew up through the hole in the slab for the sewer line, up through a hole in the flange, through the wax seal and down into the sewer line. This first happened about 18 months ago, and we got it fixed along with some other plumbing issues in the house at way too much of a cost. The second and third times, the HOA took care of it as a courtesy, including helping us figure out where it was coming from. The fourth time happened roughly 3 months after the previous time, and our better plumber came out and fixed it for $95 including a toilet installation for dummies session with yours truly.
Six weeks after that, root intrusion happened again, so I took the toilet off myself, applied instant plant death to the roots, removed as much of the root system as I could, and put rock salt in the hole (PVC piping). I let that sit for a couple of days, then reinstalled the toilet with a new-fangled plastic+wax seal. We'll see how this goes. If it lasts longer than 6 weeks, it's a win... hopefully this solves the problem without making our neighbors have to remove the palm.
I used concentrated glyphosate, same stuff I used to kill the ficus root when we cut that down. I applied it several times - initially when I pulled the "mare's tail" out, then I poured it around the sewer flange and let it sit before removing the root material further, and then again after I had removed as much of the root material as I could get to. I don't know if it'll kill the root entirely, or if it'll kill the tree (which honestly I wouldn't mind), or if it won't do anything... so I poured the rock salt all around the flange and into the space between the flange and the soil/slab to create a barrier through which the root shouldn't grow. From what I've read, the rock salt barrier can work for a year or two. If that doesn't stop it, the funky seal I used might work better than the cheap wax seal. I hope I bought quite a bit of time before I have to go ask the neighbors if I can cut the root system away from the house, which would probably kill the tree. Palm root can be a real PITA, so we'll see. But maybe we'll move and it'll be someone else's problem.Your problem is different than mine, so I do not think it will work the same... I had a willow tree that was on the neighbors yard that found a space to insert a root into my sewer pipe and grow every bushy.... it would cut almost all the flow... paid twice to get it cut... the second time the guy suggested to use root killer... every 2 to 3 months flush a bunch down the drain...
Since yours is up high I am not sure it will do anything... especially since you are putting it directly on the root... have you tried Round Up?
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I was particularly proud of my caulk job, which looks pretty good considering it's the first time I've done a toilet install!
If this is caulk around the base of the toilet and the floor, they recommend that you leave a small part un-caulked in the back. That way, if there is a leak, you will be more likely to see it before a lot of damage is done.
As far as the roots, I've heard about placing copper wire in the pipe (I think this is used to keep moss from growing on roofs. But my searching seemed to come up with the usual anecdotes of "Works great, never had a problem", to "had to dig up some and the pipes were full of roots - with the copper wire in place", so I dunno. Best solution always seems to be get rid of the plant.
-ERD50
I don't think RoundUp will work applied to a root. It's supposed to be applied to the leaves of a plant. I've sprayed weeds right around trees (including palms), definitely hitting the roots. Killed the weeds (sometimes), but never the trees. I've also had no luck spraying exposed roots/stalks of things like ferns and oleander. It seems to need something green to transport the poison to the roots for effectiveness.
My DW had planted bamboo that she swore up and down was not a runner.... well, it was... we had new shoots popping up all around...
We used round up to kill them... we used the concentrate and had a paint brush.... cut the stalk and very quickly paint the stem... it drew the poison down to the roots and killed them... took a bit of time as new ones kept coming up for awhile but we eventually got them all...
My fuel pump failed in my car. I spread the repair out over several days. The pump is inside the gas tank. I had to get the gas out of the tank to reduce the weight when removing it. I couldn't siphon it out. I finally used a inline 12 volt fuel pump attached to the fuel line at the engine. Borrowed the pump from a friend that's a bigger gear head than I am. The hardest thing was getting the dead car into the garage and on the lift. Once on the lift I found our local wildlife had chewed up the wiring near the gas tank. Didn't need a fuel pump. Didn't need to drop the tank. Spliced 3 wires and all works again. Cost about 50 cents.