Home Maintenance Questions and Answers - Recent questions without answers

hot water cast conneceted with my neigbour

Wed, 20 Mar 2013 19:20:08 +0000

I live in the condo unit that is unfortunately connected with my neigbour through pipe in hot water radiator. When i turn the heat down in my bedroom he pounds on my walls because he's whole apartment is cold. What should i do?

follow up/answer to question from admin....

Wed, 13 Mar 2013 01:28:18 +0000

I have a gas furnace & it was purchased just before I bought the house (November 2006)...so just about 6.5yrs old. Thanks much, Carrie

follow up question

Wed, 25 Jul 2012 21:39:06 +0000

Thanks for the advise. I'm trying to avoid buying a new power draft unit as the one I have is only a few years old.

Can I run the exhaust up past the roofline once it's outside the building? Will this give me enough draft to make it safe?

If i had my druthers, I'd just run a b-vent pipe straight out of the building as I will be getting a couple of feet of rise before it exit the wall. With this said, I think you will be telling me that THIS IS NOT THE WAY TO PROCEED.

Can you recommend a good chimney cap? Maybe a preformed composite?

Sun, 29 Apr 2012 14:57:14 +0000

My brick chimney is 42.5 X 17. There are (3) terra cotta 8.5 sq. liners coming out the top.

hitting remote door starts up,stops,after reset will go down - capacitor?

Sat, 25 Feb 2012 20:56:23 +0000

not the door, released it.

Undersized and too long water heater power vent PVC pipe

Sat, 03 Dec 2011 03:59:10 +0000

Larry says:

May 23, 2011 at 1:33 pm

I had a similar symptoms with my power vented water heater, which over a period of a few years, increased in frequency of occurances. During that period of time, I had technicians work on it two different times – each time, replacing the ignitor/sensor unit.

The symptom continued, even increasing to 2-3 times a day! After countless shutdowns, I finally had enough! I found the installation manaul for my A.O.Smith Power Vent WH. After doing some reading, I suspected the exhaust vent.

I went over the PVC diameter and length calculations, and found that the installer had reduced from 3" to 2" and used to many 90 degree elbows – all within the first TWO feet of piping!! Plus, the rest of the 2" run was right at the max length. So, the power vent could not “breath”.

We demo the first three feet of pipe, replace with (1) sweeping 45 and (2) 22.5 three inch elbows, THEN a 3 to 2" reducer, and finally connecting into the resat of the pre-exiting system. Haven’t had one ‘mis-start’ in about six months.

I have one garage safety sensor that is green and the other is yellow

Tue, 15 Nov 2011 03:09:27 +0000

Terri says:

November 30, 2010 at 8:07 am

I have one garage door safety sensor that is green and the other is yellow. but the door will not move but a couple of inches and stops. I have tried realigning and cleaning. will try the reset. any other suggestions

Garage safety sensors light problem

Tue, 15 Nov 2011 03:07:00 +0000

Crowley says:

December 15, 2010 at 9:02 pm

Wow, I have the same problem as Brian. I read somewhere online that said if one of the lights is yellow, you must replace it. I ordered the correct model/part number from amazon. I hope this will fix my problem.

I have checked the alignment of garage safety sensors and cleaned the lens. I called a local supplier and they wanted almost $70 for the infrared safety sensors. I found them on amazon for $18. I’m do most of my small work and repairs and I’m sure this will be a simple install for me. I just hope this is the problem.

Water heater venting into an unlined chimney

Sun, 06 Nov 2011 02:28:18 +0000

From Todd Beaulieu:

Thank you for this useful information in chimney flue sizing!

Sadly, I recently discovered that our water heater was (apparently) incorrectly installed, venting directly into the old chimney, w/o a liner of any kind. We’ve been struggling to keep the pilot lit.

Paid over $600 so far in the past year on “warrantee” replacement parts from Sears. Their most recent visit led to this discovery (after how many visits???). The worst part is that we purchased the home like this and don’t have the receipts. I’ll bet anything that Sears installed it. And we’re left stuck!

I asked the guy if we could vent the heater out the side of the house, as our Trane heating unit does. He said no, that we’d need a heater designed for that. At this point it occured to me that it might be cheaper to buy a new heater that vents directly, than to pay to have the chimney fixed.

What do you think? Thank you!

Burning type smell, almost sulfuric from sump pump area

Sat, 05 Nov 2011 01:33:10 +0000

From Mike D.

Hey, I just had the exact same thing (as other Mike) happen this morning. I woke up and smelled a weird burning type smell, almost sulfuric. I went and noticed it was the sump pump area. Unplugged it and opened it up – noticed a layer of oil at the top of the water, and the smell was pretty bad. It has been off for an hour now and there is a small but consistent stream of oil bubbling from the motor to the top of the water.

I did research and am almost certain that is the issue and water got into the motor effectively burning it out and causing the smell. I emailed my condo corp to send someone out, hopefully it is covered.

As for removing the oil, I may just have to do that manually with a bucket and then clean the pit with bleach afterwards?