Your recent repair? 2013 - 2020

[REWahoo]

When we moved into our built-in-1959 home (southern Ohio), I found 6" of settled fiberglass insulation in the attic. I spent 2 days doing a pretty good job of sealing the ceiling (raking back the fiberglass and sealing things up with caulk, Great Stuff, and even sheets of rigid polystyrene over the dropped soffits in kitchen and bath, etc. Yes, there were some amazing surprises.). I added proper soffit baffling and venting, then blew in 12" of cellulose. It was the cheap way to do things, but has really worked well.

I admire your DIY enthusiasm and dedication. Crawling around in my attic, raking back the existing insulation and sealing up around light fixtures is something that would have given me pause even when I was 20 years younger.

One thing about fiberglass in very cold weather (not Texas, but places north): when attic temps get very cold, fiberglass (batts or blown) is "open" enough that convection cells get established in and above the insulation, so it loses a significant amount of its R value just when you need it most. IIRC, this doesn't happen until the interior (ceiling) and attic temps differ by about 60 deg F. If you've got such a situation, it can be remedied inexpensively with a layer of cellulose insulation on top of the existing fiberglass.

I'm always learning something new on this forum.

 

[RetiredGypsy]

The Triumph saga continues. I finally got the electrical issue straightened out, but because they chose a soft foam gasket instead of rubber, it tore getting the airbox housing out, so now I have to wait two weeks to get a replacement.

Huzzah.

 

[Ed_The_Gypsy]

Just finished replacing the master bathroom flooring after the flange on the commode broke and leaked into the ceiling downstairs. Another $1400 plumbing disaster. My knees are not happy.

 

[harley]

We've recently gotten a contract on our townhouse, and of course during the inspection a number of items were listed. Some are legit, like a water spot in the attic needing to be checked/repaired, and some caulking and siding maintenance. But others were pretty absurd, like our outside garage light being "defective" (needed a new light bulb), and a wall plug face plate not having a screw in it to hold it to the wall. I don't know why the paint can't just keep on holding it like it did for the 10 years we've owned the place. And there were a few others.

I knocked most of them out in about 10 minutes. I refused to accept the "must be repaired by a licensed contractor" nonsense for the simple ones.

One of them was an actual problem, but I still fixed it myself. I've never had to replace the coil balance spring on a window before. I didn't even know there was one. But one of ours was busted. A quick google look up, followed by ordering a part and waiting a week or so, and I was on the job. As usual there was a handy Youtube video. And as usual, it wasn't anywhere near as easy as they make it look. But I got it installed and working. Now I'm a window expert (at least DW thinks so). Yay for the internet!

 

[doneat54]

Circulation pump downstairs heat zone. Again, happy the the builder owner we bought our house from in 2004 was very OCD and made ample use of shut off valves. 2 wire nuts, four bolts and a tug. Local plumbing supply shop has new pump for $111. And HVAC specialist would have probably charged $800 for a service call.....

 

[John Galt III]

Continuing to seal up new and unexpected possible water entry places on my exterior french door. Latest event was taping a clear sheet of plastic over the threshold, after which there was no leak from the usual basement spot during the last rain. I will not assume I have fixed it completely though, lol. Eventually may spring for the $4,000 $5,000 $6,000 gouge-fest and have a new french door installed, but for now I have an ongoing project to keep me busy and engaged, and hopeful.

 

[Sunset]

^^^^^
A relative had a lovely entrance door, but when the interior baseboard was pulled off, it revealed rot.
The issue was caused by the threshold, which was aluminum covered and looked fine. However, getting down on my knees, I could see the aluminum cover was actually 2 pieces.
This left a barely visible line along which water would enter.
This rot happened even with a porch roof over the door, so basically it rarely got wet.

Perhaps your threshold has the tiniest of separation/hole, or even sucks up the water from the bottom outside edge via surface tension.

 

[momoftwo]

This thread is awesome!

Always called our wonderful reasonably priced handyman to fix the numerous ongoing issues in our 200+ year old home while I was working.

Now, having more time and less I come, I've gotten a bit more intrepid.
Not on the level of posters so far but maybe I'll get there! (I'm 63 so might have time)

We bought our lovely little lake house at retirement. It is ONLY 100 yes old, so pretty new for us.
It is sound and perfect in many ways for us.
We overlooked some small cosmetic issues at closing, no big deal to us.

There were about 8 missing tiles where floor meets wall in our second bathroom.
Did they come loose and got thrown? It's a mystery.

The biggest problem was finding 'matching' 4x4 tiles of same color and texture.
Stalked Ebay and Etsy and other sites for weeks. Some looked like perfect matches but sellers wanted BIG money for each and no one had enough to complete my job.

Decided to try lowes online.
Nothing a perfect color match but found one that looked pretty good.
Was able to buy 10 tiles for like $15. Small investment if not usable.
Learned how to cut, cement and grout tiles on youtube.
Installation was about one hour over 2 days for drying.
I cant believe how good they look! The weird flesh/pink colored tiles are not identical but unless a visitor wants to get down on my bathroom floor, I doubt it will be noticed!

Looking forward to learning more from the brave souls here!

 

[aja8888]

Decided to try lowes online.
Nothing a perfect color match but found one that looked pretty good.
Was able to buy 10 tiles for like $15. Small investment if not usable.
Learned how to cut, cement and grout tiles on youtube.
Installation was about one hour over 2 days for drying.
I cant believe how good they look! The weird flesh/pink colored tiles are not identical but unless a visitor wants to get down on my bathroom floor, I doubt it will be noticed!

Looking forward to learning more from the brave souls here!

Fixes like this just give the old place a bit of charm and character. Great job!

 

[John Galt III]

^^^^^
A relative had a lovely entrance door, but when the interior baseboard was pulled off, it revealed rot.
The issue was caused by the threshold, which was aluminum covered and looked fine. However, getting down on my knees, I could see the aluminum cover was actually 2 pieces.
This left a barely visible line along which water would enter.
This rot happened even with a porch roof over the door, so basically it rarely got wet.

Perhaps your threshold has the tiniest of separation/hole, or even sucks up the water from the bottom outside edge via surface tension.

Thank you, Sunset. Yes, there is a small horizontal crack in part of the threshold, which is aluminum. I can't tell if it was made that way or if it appeared with age, but I'm going to tape over it today and see what happens. Also going to seal up the seams in one of the 2 windows in the door with caulking.

 

[GravitySucks]

Clothes dryer broke. $9 belt online but went to parts supply house where talking with the counter person I learned there is an up grade kit replacing the slider tensioner with a roller tensioner and it came with all new rollers. $45 and two hours all in including the drive to the parts store. Belt alone at the store is $15, but no wait and get to pick the brains of a pro.

Damn thing squeeked for the last 15 years. Nice and quiet now.

 

[Finance Dave]

Continuing to seal up new and unexpected possible water entry places on my exterior french door. Latest event was taping a clear sheet of plastic over the threshold, after which there was no leak from the usual basement spot during the last rain. I will not assume I have fixed it completely though, lol. Eventually may spring for the $4,000 $5,000 $6,000 gouge-fest and have a new french door installed, but for now I have an ongoing project to keep me busy and engaged, and hopeful.

Often those are not flashed correctly, especially if they are adjacent to a deck or porch. As a home inspector I saw that sometimes. Hope you figure it out.

 

[John Galt III]

One of my VCR's (yes, the player of VHS tapes, lol) has started to get cranky when loading and ejecting tapes. Took it apart and watched it doing its thing when loading and ejecting. Turns out there is a very thin small belt going around a pulley that looks loose (the belt), since it 'flaps' when in use. Decided not to try to replace it since too many parts would have to come off. May try to get a local place to do it, if price is right. One screw vanished during the whole event. Gotta be on the living room rug somewhere, but nope. Gone. Fortunately the lack of the screw does not seem to make the VCR operate any worse.

 

[Sunset]

One of my VCR's (yes, the player of VHS tapes, lol) has started to get cranky when loading and ejecting tapes. Took it apart and watched it doing its thing when loading and ejecting. Turns out there is a very thin small belt going around a pulley that looks loose (the belt), since it 'flaps' when in use. Decided not to try to replace it since too many parts would have to come off. May try to get a local place to do it, if price is right. One screw vanished during the whole event. Gotta be on the living room rug somewhere, but nope. Gone. Fortunately the lack of the screw does not seem to make the VCR operate any worse.

Good luck finding a place that knows how to repair one, I'm still looking for a shop to balance my ox-cart wheels

 

[Megg1141]

Replaced the pump on my pressure washer. I will test it this afternoon . Fingers crossed .

 

[ls99]

A checkbook repair.
Had stainless steel chimney liner installed for furnace's chimney. The brick chimney's mortar is pretty bad so the same crew will re-point it.

 

[BrianB]

Frigidaire washing machine

Two days ago our 6 year old Frigidaire front-load washer stopped going into spin cycle. The wash, rinse, and drain all worked but at the end of the cycle it would just turn slowly and never go into high speed spin to get the water out of the clothes. Our washer & dryer are stacked and in a small closet so I was not looking forward to pulling both out and getting inside to work on it.

Some internet research showed me that the number one service problem with these machines is the door latch / lock, and this was likely our problem. This didn't make sense to me. Why would the machine turn on at all if the door latch wasn't engaged?

The door latch replacement looked easy and is one of the few repairs that can be done from the front so I decided to gamble on a new switch ($25 on Amazon with one day delivery). Put it in today and it works!

I broke open the old switch to see what I could learn. It is actually a two-stage switch. In the first stage a "finger" on the door actuates a leaf switch that lets the machine go through the slow speed cycles (fill, wash, rinse, and drain).

The second stage is a wax motor. It is a small sealed container of paraffin wax with a heating element and a tiny piston / actuator. When the paraffin is heated it expands, pushing out the actuator, which contacts a leaf switch. This stage only controls the high speed spin cycle. The heating element resistance was supposed to be 1.3k to 1.7k ohms but the old switch measured about 200 ohms, so it was definitely defective.

I think this was a win / win / win situation: My wife was ecstatic that we could wash clothes again and she thinks I'm a mechanical genius; we saved the $500+ cost of a new machine (or $200+ repairman bill); and I learned a lot about a technology I had never heard of before!

 

[Ready-4-ER-at-14]

I put new wiper blades on my car a week ago and got snow and frost Monday. Passenger blade was frozen solid so I tapped it with the snow brush and for first time ever literally broke the blade. Was bummed out about having to go buy another in less than about a week so checked the storage shed just in case I kept some after downsizing.. I must have had a horder moment as I found three of what size I needed purchased at some sale in the past.

 

[NW-Bound]

My Harbor Freight battery maintainer failed. The lead-acid batteries I put it on measured 12V something, not the 13.8V it should be. These are the batteries off the motorhome, which I replaced with lithium batteries. I have no immediate use for them, but want to keep them well in case I need to use them as starting batteries for my cars.

Pried the plastic case open. Saw the problem right away: the electrolytic cap on the bridge rectifier was bulging. Quickly soldered on a replacement, wrapped the pried-out case with electrical tape, and put it back on the batteries.

Three days later, checked the batteries. Same darn thing! I was so sure of the fix, I did not even bother to measure the output of the battery maintainer after replacing the bad cap. Checked the output, and saw that it put out a puny 20mA.

Back to the electronic bench. It turned out that they used a 7805 IC to do the voltage regulation, and this chip went out with the bad cap. Good thing I have a few of this common IC on hand.

Half hour later, and the Harbor Freight battery maintainer is working like new, putting out 13.8V at 200mA. And I saved not only the $10 to buy a new one, but also the hassle of driving there.

 

[travelover]

My Harbor Freight battery maintainer failed........ .

I've had poor luck with these HF trickle chargers, even when new. Now that I'm rich (heh), I've moved on to genuine battery tenders that Costco has on sale every Christmas.

Neat that you are able to diagnose the failure mode, though.

 

[NW-Bound]

There's nothing wrong with the circuit they use. It has short-circuit protection, meaning if you short the clamps together, it will not burn out. If you put it on the battery with reverse polarity, it shuts down.

Simple and effective circuit. But just like with more expensive electronics like TVs and computers, dang 5c electrolytic caps fail, and the whole thing gets thrown away. What a waste!

 

[ERD50]

...
I broke open the old switch to see what I could learn. It is actually a two-stage switch. In the first stage a "finger" on the door actuates a leaf switch that lets the machine go through the slow speed cycles (fill, wash, rinse, and drain).

The second stage is a wax motor. It is a small sealed container of paraffin wax with a heating element and a tiny piston / actuator. When the paraffin is heated it expands, pushing out the actuator, which contacts a leaf switch. This stage only controls the high speed spin cycle. The heating element resistance was supposed to be 1.3k to 1.7k ohms but the old switch measured about 200 ohms, so it was definitely defective.

I think this was a win / win / win situation: My wife was ecstatic that we could wash clothes again and she thinks I'm a mechanical genius; we saved the $500+ cost of a new machine (or $200+ repairman bill); and I learned a lot about a technology I had never heard of before!

Nice! I wonder why all the complexity for that second stage of the switch? Isn't it enough to know if it is open/closed?

I wonder if this was some way to add a time delay, w/o modding other circuits used across some other models? But isn't this all firmware control these days? And why a time delay before you go into high speed spin? Isn't just closing the door enough?

Curious.

...

Back to the electronic bench. It turned out that they used a 7805 IC to do the voltage regulation, and this chip went out with the bad cap. Good thing I have a few of this common IC on hand.

Half hour later, and the Harbor Freight battery maintainer is working like new, putting out 13.8V at 200mA. And I saved not only the $10 to buy a new one, but also the hassle of driving there.

That's what saved a trip (or a wait for parts to arrive). But of course, who doesn't have a few 7805's sitting on the shelf? Hah, I have some, plus I'll cut them out of anything going to recycling. Can usually salvage at least one, or a 7815, that way.

Now we need 3.3V regulators for these new wimpy, low voltage circuits.

-ERD50

 

[aja8888]

But of course, who doesn't have a few 7805's sitting on the shelf? Hah, I have some, plus I'll cut them out of anything going to recycling. Can usually salvage at least one, or a 7815, that way.

Now we need 3.3V regulators for these new wimpy, low voltage circuits.

-ERD50

I don't, but I am a mechanical engineer. I have a REAL Battery Tender...LOL

 

[NW-Bound]

Nah. Inside your more expensive battery tender may be just a 7805. And if an electrolytic cap goes kaput, it will take that 7805 along with it.

I paid $6 or $7 for this HF thing 7 or 8 years ago. It has worked that long, and I got my money's worth.

By the way, I looked back at my record to see that I bought 10 of these 7805 as part of an order of miscellaneous electronic parts from China last year. The cost for 10 ICs: $0.65.

Seems cheap, but then I paid only $0.50 for a 32-bit 48MHz STM ARM microcontroller, which is vastly more complex and difficult to make.

 

[NW-Bound]

Another story about "wonderful" Harbor Freight electronics.

I had a few of the following HF meter. They give them out quite often with coupons stating "Free with any purchase - Value of $x.xx". How can I resist this? Travelover admitted to having a few himself.

I have these laying around where I may need them; in the garage by the spare batteries hooked up to the tender, in my cars, etc... I keep the better meters at the bench.

Don't sneer at the accuracy; these are far better than the VOMs that people older than 60 would still remember. And those doggone VOMs of 20,000 Ohm/V sensitivity required a lot of squinting to get any reading worth anything. And they cost more than this HF wonder. The meters are far better than their test probes, which are pure garbage. Good test probes alone cost the same as these cheap meters. I can't figure this one out.

But back to my story. In verifying that the battery tender now worked, I found that the 200mA current range was shot. Only the 10A range worked.

Opening up the meter revealed the problem shortly. The 1-ohm shunt resistor for the 200mA range was burnt. This was my fault, as I was tired of changing the 200mA internal fuse, and put in a 2A fuse. With that 1-ohm resistor replaced, the meter works again as well as it ever has.