Help! Do I want to use angled power strips? Do I want UCL? Ahhh...
sivalleysteph
9 years ago
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sivalleysteph
9 years agozwizzle1
9 years agoRelated Discussions
Do I need to strip my 12 year old deck to restain it
Comments (5)Well I am done stripping / cleaning it. I sprayed the areas that still had a solid color of the old stain with the stripper and then used a power washer to strip it off. Then I sprayed the deck with the brightner and power washed it clean. Some areas that were still left or areas i could not reach with the sprayer I sanded the next day. It went pretty smooth. I was not looking for perfection as the deck is 15 years old and some boards are splintery and splitting. I just wanted to get it looking good for a while longer and maybe in 5 more years replace the decking and railings with composit decking (quote for that this year was $16,000). The deck support is in great condition. Maybe in 5 years I will look into ipe or something? Wish I could do that work myself, i think material would be about $4000, that I can handle, $16k i cannot....See MoreMother in Law says DO NOT get black granite!! But I want it!
Comments (46)I came from polished AB pre-remodel and have now put in another black granite - not AB. I love black granite. The one i have now (blues in the night) is a black granite with cobalt blue flecks in it (like the gold flecks of Black Galaxy) and a few clear quartz veiny bits here and there. Yes, in my experience, black granite shows dust and crumbs. The AB showed it very clearly - it is slightly less clear in this new black granite because the flecks can disguise some of the crumbs. Personally, while I love my blue-flecked black granite, the polished AB was easier to maintain. Why? Because it showed the gunk perfectly and so it was easy to clean up. It's a kitchen counter! It ought to be clean! I don't like the idea of cooking on a grimy countertop. In my house, surfaces do get dusty (we probably need to vaccuum more often but we're not home enough to do so) and it is easier if the dust and grime shows up clearly so that it can be attended to. I clean my counters a lot more now because it is a touch less easy to tell if the counter is actually clean. NOt only that, but I wipe the counters down, obsess over a spot that turns out to be a granite inclusion, conclude as much, step back to see what I might have missed, revisit a few spots - oops this one's an inclusion, nope this guy was an actual crumb, bend down to change the viewing angle to find another perspective from which to find unattended areas - wipe down the areas I missed ... . Do you see what I mean? If you want your counters actually clean rather than just looking so, Absolute Black tells you exactly where to focus. It was easily the easiest counter I've had. I love Blues-in-the-night and would get it again and again and again because I adore those cobalt confetti-like inclusions. But even it - for all its black graniteness - is more work to maintain than the AB, in my own experience. A more detailed, dirt-hiding granite would make my head explode, I dare say....See MoreHELP! What do I do with a West facing 20 foot wall of windows?
Comments (56)For your large windows, we recommend roller shades. If you don't have power to the units, you can opt for lithium battery motors that last between 6 to 9 months before they need to recharge like a smart phone...plug and play. You can operate the shades via phone, iPad or 15 channel RC...up to you. We offer over 700 interesting fabrics to meet your needs... For your large windows, we recommend roller shades. If you don't have power to the units, you can opt for lithium battery motors that last between 6 to 9 months before they need to recharge like a smart phone...plug and play. You can operate the shades via phone, ipdad or 15 channel RC...up to you. We offer over 700 interesting fabrics to meet your needs......See MoreRange Hood Inserts: Can I Do What I Want to Do? And what brand?
Comments (11)"Can we attach flexible piping to the 6" duct" DANGER. You cannot install flexible pipe for a cooktop exhaust. Flexible duct is prohibited by Building Code. It is a fire hazard. Here is why: the duct must be smooth so that grease particles do not get trapped and cause a fire. If you have grease particles in the crannies of flexible duct above your hood, and your cooking has even the tiniest flare-up, that grease will catch, the fire will whoosh up the duct assisted by the pull of the air flow, and then spread across your walls, and ultimately your house. You may be thinking "this isn't likely for us". Except that according to the Insurance Information Institute, a home fire occurs every 87 seconds in the U.S., and 50% of all home fires are caused by cooking fires. So just use rigid metal duct, and an elbow if you need to turn it in a different direction. "Will it affect the venting power?" What will affect the venting power is the 6" duct size you specified. The duct needs to be a 8" or 10" diameter for good air flow to pull up the smoke and grease. People get by on a 6" duct size because their homes already have the 6" duct behind walls so they are stuck with it. But if you are installing new duct - which it sounds like you are - you have the opportunity to install 8" or 10" duct. It does not make much sense to spend money on a new hood, but curtail its air flow from the getgo with a 6" duct. "induction doesn't cause as much smoke." Not true. The smoke and grease is a function of what you are cooking, not the energy source. If you are cooking bacon, frying a hamburger, or stir frying, the smoke and grease are the same whether using induction or a gas cooktop. If your family is vegetarian, or you never use the cooktop for frying , then it makes sense to say your cooking does not cause as much smoke, but it's not because of an induction cooktop. I think it's best to budget for smoke and grease, and if you don't often generate it, you can turn the hood fan to a lower speed, but on the occasion you are cooking a smokey item, you have enough ventilation not to set off the smoke alarm. Not what you asked, but essential measurements: - width of the hood is ideally 6" wider than the cooktop, so your hood should be 42" wide. - depth of the hood front-to-back should be 24" in order to cover the front burners. This is where a lot of cabinet hood surrounds fall short. You can get away with a 22" depth, but not less, or you would have spent all the money and effort for a hood that does not even cover your front burners. - Distance from cooktop to bottom of hood shoud be between 30"-36". Shorter than that and you will have a cramped feeling when cooking. Higher than that and you are giving the smoke and grease too much opportunity to escape....See Morethepeppermintleaf
9 years agoErrant_gw
9 years agosteph2000
9 years agoGooster
9 years agolast modified: 9 years agoInspired LED
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