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I am not happy at all with our new system. It's much louder. I thought that a variable speed system was supposed to be quieter. But it regularly cranks up to full speed and it's loud. The airflow is much faster, so the registers and the air return grilles roar. We have to turn up the volume of...

I'm looking at buying a heat pump for my house. I've had five contractors here, and they each recommend something different. One guy recommended a single-stage system because of 1960s ducts in the slab can't be altered. He says that the static air pressure will be a problem otherwise. He...

Sometime in the past few hours, a circuit in my house failed. Resetting the breaker didn't do anything. When I tested an outlet with a meter, I get 0V hot to neutral, 120V hot to ground, and 120V neutral to ground. I turned off the breaker and I'll look into it tomorrow. This is old wiring...

A contractor is fixing my house. He's putting junction boxes inside the ceiling. Is that legal? The previous owner had house wiring running through a duct from the cooler on the roof. I'm getting new ductwork. The wires were re-routed. But is this code? The wood on the bottom is going to...

RANT! The duct looked collapsed when I looked through a grille. It was worse. This is the mess the contractor found when he opened the ceiling. Someone used drywall and painted it silver. The drywall got moist, collapsed over the years, and got moldy. And you have to love how the installer...

My mother is moving out of her house into an apartment, so she's downsizing everything. She gave me my father's tools. He wasn't very handy, so there aren't very many. In the mid 1960s to early 1970s he shopped at Wards, so some tools are Power Kraft. In the early 1970s Sears opened a store, so...

I have inherited my fathers tools and don't understand a couple of them. What are they? The handles of the small pliers touch before the jaws close. There are no markings. The long aluminum rod has a magnet on one end and a slot screwdriver on the other. The screwdriver end has an adjustment...

I just bought a tandem breaker, one with two switches that fit into one slot. I wired one terminal, and left the other empty for now. When the empty terminal is switched off, it still reads 4V. Am I missing something? When both breakers are switched off, they both read 0V. It's a Square D QO...

Husky 40" toolboxes, top and bottom. 50 sets for sale, today only. Buy it now online auction. They're too far away for me, but maybe someone in Arizona can get some. http://www.auctionnationonline.net/cgi-bin/mnlist.cgi?anation6/category/ALL

The previous owners installed an outlet on the inside wall. They ran the cable out the wall and around the beam inside the garage, and then back into the house between the joists. The beam is sistered 2x12s. The light for the garage is the same way. The power for it goes around the beam...

I'm starting to insulate the ceiling of my flat roof garage. It has x-shaped cross bracing between every joist. Is there an easy way to insulate the cross braces? All I can come up with is to stick little bits of insulation into each of those spaces. I used batts because they were left over...

1975 / 1976 Sears Craftsman Power and Hand Tool catalog. The binding is slightly worn, but otherwise the catalog is in good shape. See the picture. I'm selling it for the heirs of the next door neighbor. $9.00 shipped. 1977 Buick catalog. It's also from the house next door. The top inch...

I had a roof leak, and I finally ripped the ceiling out of the closet to find it. I'm glad I did, because it was black and slimy up there. Wet insulation was keeping everything nice and damp, and mold was taking over. My plan is to scrub the area with bleach, replace the insulation that I...

I have a New Mexico flat roof house. The roof is fastened to the top of the joists, and the ceiling is fastened to the bottom of the joists. The garage if unfinished with exposed roof boards. It's a single-car garage. I'm planning to insulate and install drywall on the exterior walls and the...

I am reassembling the bottom end of my Speedaire Campbell Hausfeld 5Z185 air compressor. It's a 2 parallel-cylinder pump that's belt-driven by a 5 hp motor. I took out the crank so a machine shop could cut a new keyway slot. How tight do I turn the bolts that attach the bearings to the...

measure once cut twice