Yet Another Surprise!

Well, I was supposed to get a refrigerator today.  And I ended up getting...two!  Lowe's showed up with my fridge around 9:00 A.M., and I walked outside to greet them and show them a path to walk it through the garage.  Well, the loading dock came down, and the big door went up, and I looked in the truck.  "That's not a dent, is it"?  From about 30 feet away, I could see a large crinkle on the bottom right of the fridge.  I walked over to the truck to inspect with the installer, and he just started cussing up a storm, so I figured it was indeed a dent.  He apologized, saying that was the second that day already, but I said I would pass seeing as how much money I paid for it.  He understood.

But agh!!!  I need a fridge!  I literally went to pour milk on my cereal this morning and couldn't!  The milk was frozen solid from being stored in the garage all night!  I've enjoyed my "garage fridge" for the last couple of weeks, but now it's getting TOO cold, and I can't regulate it!  And I mean, it's cold.  Single-digit cold outside.  And freezing inside, too.  I woke up to my house being 50 degrees.  That's too much.  I need to kick on my back-up heat, something I've avoided doing thus far.  But walking around in 50 degrees is just too much.

I went to pour my milk in my cereal, but it was solid!  So I ended up pouring my cereal back into the box!

My make-shift fridge outside.  Unfortunately, it's now TOO cold.

What I woke up to this morning.  Absolutely frigid!

Mom asked if she could come over to clean cabinets this morning, and, boy, oh, boy!, do I never refuse help!  I had planned on taking the day off, but with her working, I figured I might as well, too.

So while she scrubbed the cabinets (I would hear occasional comments of "This is just gross" or "This is disgusting" or "This is taking way longer that I expected" throughout the day!), I decided to do a quick patch job of the dryer vent hole that went into the garage.  It has been taped up since the day I purchased the home, but I figured I might as well wrap this project up!

The film of dust, dirt, and grease that Mom had to fight on and inside cabinets all day long.  Gross!

Oh, why do I think ANYTHING will go "quick" in this house?  I bent down to work on the hole, and I just couldn't believe my eyes.  "You have got to be kidding me."  In absolute terrible luck, the previous owners had drilled right through a duct that went from the crawlspace up to the second floor.  I knew all about this duct as I had to work around it for the dryer vent hole to the crawlspace.  But I quickly realized that my 20-minute patch job was going to take much, much longer.  There was literally a 4-inch hole on two sides of the ductwork!  Not good.

A massive 4-inch hole went straight through a duct!

The plan was to install a new piece of flat duct over the holes, seal it up nice and tight with foil tape, and then patch.  But, of course, even that was going to be difficult.  I cut out a square in the drywall to work on the hole, and that's when I realized that the previous owner just drilled a hole into the duct, then cut pie-like all the way around the duct and pushed the pieces in.  I had to be VERY careful not to cut myself when I bent them forward.

I bent the pieces back forward and tried to prevent slicing my fingers!

Well, on this side I took a pair of tin snips and cut myself out a square.  It wasn't too bad.  But on the garage side, I just couldn't get the snips in there to cut.  On the house side, only a piece of drywall separated me from the vent, so it was easy to reach in and cut.  On the garage side, I had drywall, then Celotex, then insulation, then the vent.  So I couldn't cut it.

I tried over and over again with various tools.  The snips, a saw, a roto-tool.  But I just didn't have the blades or angle I needed.  So I finally broke down and headed to Lowe's to pick up a bit that would allow me to cut sideways with my roto-tool.  Once back, I had the piece cut within 10 minutes.  It's all about having the right tools for the job!  It went so quick after that!

I cut out ductwork to cover the holes, then screwed them into place.  As a sidenote, I was creative with the ductwork.  A 3'x2' sheet of flat duct cost about 10 bucks.  I found that too expensive.  So I bought myself a $3 4-inch duct that was 2-feet long and unrolled it.  Then I cut out the pieces I needed.  Perfect!

I installed a new piece of ductwork over the old duct.

A view looking in from the garage.  I caulked the new duct piece for a tight seal.  I then did the same on this side.

After I installed the piece with screws, I taped it tight with foil tape.  It's amazing how much air was actually coming out of the side of the vents.  And it's amazing just how much air was coming through the garage before I got the house-side in place!  Air moves quickly through large openings!  I'm not sure where this vent goes upstairs, but it should help out significantly.  I'm guessing it goes to my very cold walk-in closet!  It's always been freezing in that closet even though it has a vent.

All taped up!

Now ready for drywall!

After the pieces were in, I FINALLY cut out some drywall and installed it.  I mudded it and called it a day.  This project took about five hours longer than expected!

A new piece of drywall.

All mudded!

New piece of drywall in the garage.



And while I had the mud out, I did a spot where drywall paper had ripped off left of the stove.

Mom had worked non-stop on the cabinets from 9:30 this morning to about 3:30 this afternoon.  I'm glad she did it because I'm sure I wouldn't have cleaned them with the same vigor!  But it's nice to have clean cabinets to put clean dishes in.  We had done three loads of dishes in the dishwasher throughout the day, and I started putting the dishes back on clean shelves.  That's a good feeling.  Up until this point, I've been rinsing every plate or bowl I've taken out of the cabinets!

The cabinets as clean as only a mom can do!

So it's not a huge list of items to check off, but both were necessary.  I now have a sealed-up duct which should provide more airflow upstairs, and I have a sealed-up wall which should provide less airflow from outside to inside.  And I have exceptionally clean cabinets!  Thanks, Ma!

And some more good news...Lowe's called back and said they had a brand-new fridge with NO dents!  I'm very thankful for the gentleman coming back by.  He was embarrassed this morning, and his professionalism in bringing me a new one today and patiently coaching a trainee was pretty impressive!  Both Mom and I commented on how patient and kind he was!  So neat to see.

My new fridge!

The fridge looks good!  The rest of the kitchen?  Not so much!

After Mom left, I spent about an hour cleaning out the inside of my stove.  I had sprayed it with oven cleaner this morning knowing she was coming over, but we had totally forgotten about it!  So I figured I might as well get it done!  It always amazes me just how well ovens clean up, but it was still work!  I had to scrub, scrub, scrub!  But it's nice to have the ability to cook in a clean oven!

The stove as acquired.  Gross!

All cleaned up!



I would eat out of there!

Another good day.  I think I shall rest tomorrow!  I need it!

The Dryer is Done! No, Wait, It's Broken! Wait, What?! Agh!!!

I was workin' alone today (Dad's LAST day of work is today!), and I had two goals:  get the dryer vent hooked up and installed, and get my skinny cabinet installed to the left of the stove!

The work wasn't very difficult in theory, but it was a bit difficult by myself!  I was trying to connect the five-foot ducts together while raising them up in a straight line from the vent hole from the dryer to the vent hole on the exterior of the house.  Again, it sounds simple!  But trying to raise them and line them up at the same time while trying to connect them (loosely until I had it exact) was proving to be a chore!

Setting the ductwork in place.

And the hardest part was trying to get the elbow on the exterior piece!  It just did not want to go!  So I finally went upstairs and secured that outside.  That way it wouldn't move on me anymore.  The rest was just holding it together and strategically working my way back towards the dryer.

Once I had all pieces elevated to the right height and in a straight line, I taped them all up with foil tape.  And with the two-foot pieces I bought, I only had to use two out of the three five-foot sections I bought.  It was nearly perfect!  With the slightly extra length, I used that to raise the dryer vent attachment point above the hole in the laundry room.  In other words, I left about three or so inches to easily connect to from the dryer.

Starting to look good!

Directly below the dryer.

And a perfect amount to attach to from the main level.

It turned out looking pretty good, if I do say so myself!  And legal!  With two five-foot sections and two two-foot sections, I'm up to 14 feet!  And because I have four 45-degree bends, that reduces the total length by 20 feet.  So from national code, I am allowed 15 feet.  With Springfield code, I'm allowed 25 feet.  I beat 'em both with my 14!

Turned out looking pretty professional!

Dad came over after being released from his last day of work early (Happy Retirement, Pa!  Now it's time to put you to work!).  I tested out my vent, and when I went outside, I saw dryer lint hanging off the exterior plastic vent!  That's a good sign!  Air is going all the way through!  Woo hoo!

I see lint!  That's a great sign!

The vent officially installed!  Done!

I was going to work on the skinny cabinet next, but we decided to tackle the dryer itself next.  Over the last month or so, my dryer has been making a terrible clunking noise.  It's a weird noise, and I assumed it was the rollers.  But before I went and ordered those, Dad said we should tear it apart and see rather than ordering a wrong part.  Well, we opened it up not having the slightest clue what we were doing, and, wow, did I learn that my dryer had been broken for a long time!  There was lint EVERYWHERE inside the unit.  I noticed that the exhaust vent was only venting about 75%, and the rest was being let inside the dryer!  So I had lint and dust everywhere!  But I thought the rollers appeared just fine.  Hmm.

I had lint everywhere!!!

Look at that mess!

Dad moved the big drum by hand, and I tracked down the sound that the dryer was making to the motor.  Being covered in lint, we figured it dried up the bearings.  "Dust is the worst thing for a motor," Dad said.  So we sprayed the motor with a bit of penetrating oil, but it still made the noise.  And it would make it just after I stopped moving it by hand.  Hmm.  It didn't matter if I went right or left, it wobbled.  Yes, it was a loose wobbling sound.  So I tracked it down to the front of the unit where the fan was.  I thought the motor shaft that went to the fan needed lubricating.  We had to tear down the dryer even further, but that's when we saw the exact problem.

Look at all of that lint!  It's not getting out like it should!

The fan was broken on the motor shaft.

Getting paid to work is fine by me!

The fan itself could be pushed back and forth on the motor shaft.  We would later learn that two snap-rings hold it in place (one on the front of the fan, one on the back), but the back one had become dislodged.  So the fun was able to move freely back and forth.  At electric motor speeds, of course it wobbled!  But when tearing it down even further, I found out that the fan itself was broken.  It's not perfectly circular on the inner plastic shaft as it has a straight edge to line up perfectly with a straight edge on the metal motor shaft.  By having this edge, the fan rotates in step with the motor shaft.  Without it, it rotates simply by friction, not by rotation.  In other words, it wouldn't spin as much as the motor shaft would.  And there was my wobble!  If it would slip on the shaft, it would wobble!

So as any cheap man would do, I simply stuffed a metal staple in there and tested it out.  Perfect!  The fan moved in-step with the shaft!

So we went to put the dryer back together, and that's when we encountered a mind-boggling problem.  When I went to connect the belt to the pulleys, I had the belt rubbing against itself.  Hmm.  Maybe I didn't have it on the drum properly.  I checked that, but it was in the groove.  So I tried figuring out how I connected it wrong, but there was really only one way it could go, and it matched the pictures that I pulled up online.

It just wasn't making sense.  It's like the belt stretched while we were working on the dryer.  Dad couldn't believe it, so he looked at it himself.  I showed him how it rubbed, but he just wouldn't buy it!  I made sure it was on the necessary groove of the dryer, watched videos on how to install it properly, and lined it up on the pulleys.  It still rubbed.

It was maddening!  And Dad still wasn't buying it.

For whatever reason, though, the belt stretched.  Just enough to get it to rub.  I don't know how or when or why it happened, but it's definitely too long now!  So I needed a new belt.

The belt as it was taken off.  When put back together, the part on the right rubbed on the upper shaft!

With all of the tearing apart, cleaning, learning, video-watching, and head-scratching, we ended up working on this thing for four hours!  And still had it apart.  I was getting frustrated, but I bought that the belt was loose.  Dad was still not buying it!

So we called it a day, and Dad headed home.  I headed to the crawlspace to pick up all my tools from the duct install, and I decided to fix another problem that I noticed a couple of months ago.  While in the crawl for something previously, I noticed that my plumbing drain pipe had fallen.  Almost every single strap had broken, and the pipe was laying on the ground, most likely accumulating poo and everything else at the lowest point in a corner where it was not supposed to be accumulating!  I temporarily fixed it by setting it on top of wood that I found in the crawl.  At least it would drain properly now.

The straps had broken.

Almost every strap had snapped.

Cheap material or heavy pipe?

My make-shift stand that has worked for the last month.

So while down in the crawl, I decided to tack it back up.  The less time I spend down here, the better!  The dust is just crazy!  Well, the pipe is very heavy, and it was difficult to hold up while I held up my metal support band.  Long story short, the pipe gave way, and the band went with it, slicing my pinky along the way.  Somehow I had managed to avoid getting cut working with ductwork (that stuff is nasty) all day, but this little metal strap got me.  It was a clean slice, so it didn't hurt initially, but did it start bleeding.

Time to call it a day.

I used my leg to hold up the pipe and at least mount one strap to it, but I called it a day after that.  Ouch!  I cleaned up and threw a Band-Aid on it and decided to put that afternoon behind me!

Tonight, though, I ordered a new dryer belt ($11) and fan ($7).  I also ordered myself a new soap door kit for my dishwasher ($15) and a new brush for my vacuum ($7) which I broke today while cleaning the dryer.  So for $40, I should have two working appliances again!  That's about the cost of the service call alone from an appliance repair man!

So it was a decent day.  The dryer ductwork is up and waiting for the dryer!  But it was frustrating, too, as the previously-working dryer is now not working!  It really IS weird about that belt.

I just hate it when projects are left unfinished!  But she needs a new belt.

But soon enough, the dryer will be fixed and back in place.  And the dishwasher will work flawlessly.  And the skinny cabinet will finally get attached to where it goes!

Little by little...

Venting Our Frustrations

Today's project was pretty straightforward:  Install a dryer duct through the crawlspace and out the west wall of the house.  Easy enough.

The current dryer vent is illegally routed straight through the wall and into the garage.  From the day I bought the house, we've always wondered where all of the lint went in the garage.  But after reading code, venting into the garage is definitely not allowed.  And I want to do a job right!

But before we got started on that project, Dad took a slight detour and started working on my kitchen faucet sprayer which does not spray with any sort of power.  He took apart the sprayer, and a nice steady stream of water makes it to the sprayer head.  So it had to be something in the head.  So we opened it up, and eeeewwwwww!!!  Gross, gross, gross.  The Moen sprayer head was actually flaking its chrome finish, and parts were getting lodged inside the sprayer head, but even more than that, there was some nasty sludge underneath the sprayer handle which also blocked the water.

Look at that gunk in there!

I don't even know what this sludge was...just gross stuff.

Pretty gross stuff.  So we cleaned that, and the sprayer now works about 90% power.  Cold water is powerful, hot water not so much.  So that is another issue altogether.  Always something!

Well, Pa and I went back to working on the dryer vent issue.  And we ran into some major headwinds.  Dad had told me to check the west wall to make sure that a floor joist wasn't installed close to the outer joist.  I mean, it's a possibility, but what are the chances?

Well, if you're working on a project with me, chances are pretty good!  Sure enough, the last floor joist WAS installed about two inches away from the outer wall one.  sigh.  The entire west wall was now off limits, as I couldn't get a 4-inch dryer duct through the 2-inch crevice.  And I didn't want to put a 4-inch hole into a 10-inch floor joist.

Now what?

So I looked at other options around that area.  And I looked up housing code in terms of dryer venting.  Basically, the code is simple...

M1502.5 Duct construction.
Exhaust ducts shall be constructed of minimum 0.016-inch-thick (0.4 mm) rigid metal ducts, having smooth interior surfaces, with joints running in the direction of air flow. Exhaust ducts shall not be connected with sheet-metal screws or fastening means which extend into the duct.

M1502.6 Duct length.

The maximum length of a clothes dryer exhaust duct shall not exceed 25 feet (7,620 mm) from the dryer location to the wall or roof termination. The maximum length of the duct shall be reduced 2.5 feet (762 mm) for each 45-degree (0.8 rad) bend, and 5 feet (1,524 mm) for each 90-degree (1.6 rad) bend. The maximum length of the exhaust duct does not include the transition duct.

M1502.2 Duct termination.
Exhaust ducts shall terminate on the outside of the building or shall be in accordance with the dryer manufacturer’s installation instructions. Exhaust ducts shall terminate not less than 3 feet (914 mm) in any direction from openings into buildings. Exhaust duct terminations shall be equipped with a backdraft damper. Screens shall not be installed at the duct termination.

M1502.4 Transition ducts.
Transition ducts shall not be concealed within construction. Flexible transition ducts used to connect the dryer to the exhaust duct system shall be limited to single lengths not to exceed 8 feet (2438 mm), and shall be listed and labeled in accordance with UL 2158A.

In other words, I had 25 feet to get from my dryer to out of the house, and I lose 5 feet for every 90-degree turn and 2.5 feet for every 45-degree turn.  Easy enough.  And I have to exit the house at least 36 inches away from a window or door.  Well, not so easy...

So I started looking at my options in this house.  I even called the local building code guy to see if Springfield had any different local codes.  Sure enough, I was granted 35 feet instead of just 25 feet, but the rest remained the same.

So looking at my house, I had some hurdles.  If I went to the west wall, I had the floor joist issue.  If I went due south over the large ductwork and in between a floor joist, I came out underneath my bay window.  Not allowed.  Dad asked about just running along the interior of the garage and out that way.  I found that way too unprofessional and tacky.  Functional, yes.  But no thanks.  So I was left with literally just TWO more options.  And those were to run the duct at 45-degree angles towards the exterior of the south of the house.

The small area where I needed to put the 4-inch dryer duct hole!  I was working around quite a bit of obstacles!

What I really wanted to do.  Run the duct from dryer out the wall.  But it brought it up underneath a window...not allowed.

It was such a straight and easy shot!  Just not to code.

So I went back down into the crawlspace to see my options.  If I went southeast, I ran into my contractor's extra support for the floor joists close to the kitchen wall upstairs which made running a duct through there difficult.  That left just one last option.  I could run it southwest and out the south wall, but I had a very tight situation.  The gap between the two windows I was running in between was 70 inches.  The code requires 36 inches to each one.  Hmm.

Literally trying to figure out my options.  We are looking to the south.  I have a 45-degree to the southwest, to the southeast, straight out, and then out west.  Only two were viable, but only one was really doable!

So what if instead of measuring side-to-side, we measured diagonal to where the hole was going to be?  I mean, it was my only option, so I went with it.  It was a freezing cold single-digit day, but we did the work.  I bought the ducts and an expensive $20 4-inch hole saw and $10 mandrel from Harbor Freight.  But it was necessary as it took all the work out of it.

So I cut myself a hole in my house from the outside, and then after careful measuring I cut myself a hole in the floorboard behind the dryer.  The vent is now ready to be installed.

I finally settled on this location in the back of my house!

The exterior vent is in.  It was so cold outside!

The hole is made.  Time to do the duct tomorrow.

What a day!  We literally spent most of it contemplating our issue of trying to obey code.  It became very apparent why the original contractor didn't vent it out!  It was too difficult!  But it's crazy to think that some homeowner has been venting into the garage for 25 years...illegally.

So I still have to run the duct.  But at least I know where I'm running it from and where I'm running it to now.  Today was just a day of contemplating and researching!  But that's part of doing something right.