Joe Perez

iTrader: (8)

Progress! The garage is completely empty, and I have removed the last of the carpet. It was still a sopping wet mess, but it's on the trailer and will be going to the dump tomorrow (along with several hundred pounds of the now ruined personal property of the late Charles Moore.) Gonna stop by the local tool rental shop tomorrow morning and pick up a dehumidifier, and let that run for a few days which will hopefully make the glue come up more easily with a floor sander. At this point, I'm just ecstatic that this pissant little town even has a tool rental shop.

Interestingly, I uncovered another water-related problem which was just about ready to surface. The condensate drain line from the A/C evaporator runs through the garage on its way outside. Whoever installed this was a fracking moron. The line enters the garage at the back wall (opposite the bay door, from the laundry room) about 18" off the ground. It then goes straight down to the floor, makes a 90° turn, and runs along the left side wall for about 10 feet before then making another 90° turn upwards, to the outside penetration, about a foot off the ground. Anybody who has plumbed a turbo drain knows that this is bullshit. The design of the drain is such that there is standing water under pressure of gravity sitting in the horizontal section at all times. And it's leaking.

WTF? This house was the fracking model for gods' sakes! (That's why the garage was carpeted- it was the office/showroom. It's also why it has every interior upgrade known to man, which I can't complain about.) Was the GC on this project a complete and utter retard, or was it just his last week on the job?

One more thing to replace. At least this one should be relatively inexpensive. I'm into this project for about $500 thus far (new heater, new expansion tank, copper pipe and fittings, a new MAPP torch, and what seems like a couple hundred gallons of bleach) and I have a feeling the bill is going to jump sharply after the dehumidifier, floor sander (and probably a hundred pads), possibly an ozone generator if the mold doesn't die, and of course I've still got a huge hole in the ceiling that needs taking care of.

Yes, I checked. And there isn't one. I don't mean that it's dissolved, I mean there was never one to begin with.

No, I'm not on crack. Here's a picture of the top of the unit:



The opening at the top of frame center was covered with a plastic plug, but I removed it and there's nothing but foam. I inserted a 3" awl down into the foam, and it went all the way in without hitting anything. Apart from that there's just the two water pipes, the electrical junction box, and that one knockout just above and to the left of the right-most (inlet) water pipe, which I knocked out after taking the picture, and there's nothing but foam under it too. I even checked under the stickers- nothing.

Oddly, this is not a cheap heater, either. It's a Reliance "Sta-Kleen" model, with a lifetime guarantee, and although it's only a 40 gallon tank, it's rated at 5500 watts (most units in this size, including the one I replaced it with, are configured for 4500 watts.) So I don't know what the hell is up with this heater. I went to the manufacturer's website and downloaded the documentation, and apparently it is a "maintenance-free" model. Whether that means that it does not require maintenance or that you simply cannot perform it I do not know.

The expansion tank, on the other hand, is a different story. I cut it open to perform a failure analysis, and found several faults. First, the metal it's constructed from is one step above aluminum foil in terms of thickness. Second, the interior appears to have been given some sort of protective coating, however it's mostly gone. Third, there was no rubber bladder, only an inverted dip tube, which makes absolutely no sense whatsoever.

I replaced it with a 2 gallon "Wellsaver" brand tank, which seems to be built from somewhat stouter stuff. It's heavier and it has a rubber bladder inside which is clearly visible from the opening on the bottom.




So before hitting send, I decided to go to the kitchen to pour myself another rum & coke. I found that the during the course of the drain cycle, the output of the dishwasher had filled the sink with foulness. So I turned on the facet to clean it out, and the sink was draining slowly. This happens, so I turned on the garbage disposer to accelerate the process, whereupon it burned out.

I hate this house.

TonyV

iTrader: (17)

Holy **** man, only thing i can think of is when it rains it poors...

Keep ur head up Joe

jayc72

iTrader: (14)

Sorry for your pain but I burst out laughing at that last bit.

Jay

ScottFW

iTrader: (4)

ASCII Picard facepalm
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Then the disposal too, OMG. At least those don't cause much damage when they fail.

Reminds me of when I bought my condo in Houston. A month after moving in, we had three straight days with highs above 105° and the A/C compressor gave up the ghost. With overnight lows not much below 90° the place was pretty much uninhabitable, so I packed up my toiletries and sleeping bag and camped in my school's library at night so I could get some shuteye. The repair company finally fit me into their schedule three days later and all was well, for about a week, at which point the evaporator inside started leaking refrigerant. That one we more or less anticipated. Thankfully I managed to get the home warranty to cover a bunch of the cost. But still, when stuff starts breaking right after you move in, it really makes you want to verify that your homeowner's insurance will cover you in the event of a total loss due to a mysterious electrical fire.

Stealth97

iTrader: (5)

Man that sucks absurdly. It takes a real baller to park their cars on berber though.

kung fu jesus

iTrader: (1)

does your sink have an air gap? these help to keep the dishwasher from backing up into the sink.

disposals at lowes were 79-up easy to replace. i just replaced mine saturday.

Joe Perez

iTrader: (8)

There are dehumidifiers, and then there are DEHUMIDIFIERS.



This baby's been running for about 22 hours, and it's put out more than 5 gallons so far. Amazing how much water can just hide away unseen. I wonder how much of that came out of me in the form of sweat...

I've got the bay door completely sealed with duct tape, the hole in the ceiling covered in plastic sheet and taped, and the attic door taped. The place is airtight. Four box fans sitting on the floor circulating the air in a counterclockwise direction. It's like being in a sandstorm without the sand right now- hot, dry, and windy.

Gonna let it cook for another day and then rent a floor grinder. Still debating between Strip-Serts and a conventional diamond cutter...

jayc72

iTrader: (14)

Look at the failure of the garbage disposal as a blessing. Eventually you'll be looking at a costly repair of your waste system. After all it was designed to deal with poo and wee wee, not ground up chicken bones.

Are you going to coat the floor after grinding it?

Joe Perez

iTrader: (8)

I contemplated laying down a 2 part epoxy coating such as this one, however in reading through the directions, you're supposed to rinse the floor (with water) after the etching process. Given the grief I'm going through right now, I'm not real keen on getting this floor, and the surrounding walls, wet again.


On a related note, I finally watched episode 14 last night. Holy frack! So, when exactly did Zarek turn into Emperor Palpatine? I mean, he's always been a snake, but this is some seriously professional-grade evil here. Nice to see that Tigh finally found his *****, and that the old man never lost his. Thought Roslin playing the role of Ahab might have been a tiny bit of a stretch, but couldn't see any other way to do it. Best last words ever: "It stopped."

dpexp

iTrader: (6)

For all things garage. The Garage Journal Board - Powered by vBulletin

jedduh01

iTrader: (4)

Im with you on the water damage, I too on of all days friday the 13th... had a pipe burst, Upstairs in my house. ran water for a good 4 hours. Rainbow - cleaning restoration company was dispached that night to start the drying process, by my insurance comany. They have been there daily thru today, they might be leaving now. They had constantly running 8 high volume fans, 3 industral dehumidifyers.and they cut out half my drywall and ceilings. all the while Pumping air everywhere, it was amazing the moisture held everywhere. Only their meter would detect. I would atleast call your insurance comany, thats what they are for. I already got a start of a check to start repairs. Im sitting at 13K in damage. New bamboo wood floors completley ruined. Time to start over. no fun with the car for a while... UHHH end of rant.

jayc72

iTrader: (14)

If you are grinding the floor you don't need to etch. Mechanical grinding is better than chemical etching anyway. Although you'll still have to clean the floor, which means water. But you'll never have a better time to do it. Besides, you are going to want to keep things wet while you grind, otherwise it's gonna be dusty. I would love to do mine, maybe once I'm done building my home theater I'll get my *** back into the garage!

You have to remember Zarek plotted to kill the president and take over, he just backed out at the last minute. This in my mind was not a huge leap. Tomorrow is going to be bitter sweet for BSG. The conclusion I look forward to, it's the ending that I dread.

Good luck.

LostSoulMiata

Joe, if you need any help, I'm probably about 5 minutes away from you. I have time after work around 6:30 tomorrow, if you need some extra hands and what not moving and cleaning up stuff. Off this weekend, let me know and I'll head on over. Sorry to hear about the bad luck.

Joe Perez

iTrader: (8)

At last, after two solid days pushing around a lawnmower-sized power grinder, generating tons of indescribably fine concrete powder that sticks in your hair and clothes like you wouldn't believe:

THE FLOOR IS CLEAN!

When I am named Supreme Chancellor of the Federated States of America (provisional) pursuant to the 2016 Emergency War Powers Act, my first order of business shall be to name the pouring of carpet glue onto concrete as a capital offense. Even at that, if I ever find the man who laid the carpet in this garage, I shall murder him with an axe. First, I shall kill his son(s), then his wife, then his dog. The daughters shall be spared, so they may bear witness to others of what they have seen. The cat shall also be spared, so that it may grow fat feasting upon the remains.

There's still about a 4" wide strip of foulness all the way around the perimeter that the grinder couldn't reach, but I think the 7" angle grinder ought to make short work of that with a diamond wheel.

Now, what to do next. I'm half-tempted to call it a day, move everything back in, and get on with life. I'm also half-tempted to either polish it, or coat it. No time like the present. I just don't want to have to go through the process of chemical etching and then rinsing with a hose, as it'll get the walls wet again. No more drywall, but I have a feeling that all the rigid foam insulation will wick up any and all water that comes into contact with it. I suppose I could cut the insulation a few inches up and expose the bare concrete behind it...

LostSoulMiata

You could just paint the garage floor with one of the kits they sell @ Home Depot or Lowes if you don't feel like laying down carpet again. Faster and it holds pretty well to chemicals.

Joe Perez

iTrader: (8)

And that's exactly what we've done. Behold the awesome and radiant glory of a epoxy-coated garage floor:



This is the stuff I used: Rust-Oleum Gray Garage Floor Paint - 2-1/2 Car Garage Coverage - 213934 at The Home Depot

The finish is pretty good. Not awesome, but good. I laid it down with a roller in appx. 4x6' sections. You can see a subtle difference from one section to the next, which seems to relate to the time elapsed between mixing of the compounds and application onto the floor. The instructions tell you to wait 15 minutes after mixing to begin application, but since I was doing this solo (and working against a 1.5 hour pot life) I may have skimped a bit on the waiting time. As a result, the first section I did out of each mix ended up slightly dull, and the last few have the highest gloss. Here's an example:




Now, to fix that damn hole in the ceiling...

sixshooter

iTrader: (12)

Good job. I hope it holds up well. I need to do that to mine.

I know what else might make you happy. The next high-speed autocross event is on Saturday, April 4th, if you are interested.

gospeed81

iTrader: (51)

Man, you've really cleaned up a shitty situation. I've always wanted to put that epoxy on my garage floor...I just hope I do it before some crap like this prompts me to.

miatamania

iTrader: (9)

Joe doesn't play.

Nor does his house...beat that bitch into shape.

CRYPTiC

The owner of a house I previously lived in applied some kind of gray epoxy to the garage floor. It looked really nice, but after a year or so, there were spots where the tires had lifted the coating off the floor. Hope yours lasts longer.