Above 1200 Sq/FT Vel's 40x60 Garage

[velillen01]

It's amazing what one person can accomplish, with enough determination and ingenuity. You have done a great job...keep t up.

Thank you!

Keep up the fantastic work on your garage!

Shoot! The way the wind blows there? If one of those panels gets away from you?

I'll put up a net! Should get here in an hour or so! (I'm below Punxsutawney, Pa)

Groundhog day coming!

Luckily Im in the part of the state that doesnt get the bad winds. Nothing like the eastern side of the state! But Im also pretty cautious and dont work with the panels if its much above 15mph

I have been looking for one of these but not sure witch one is worth buying, what brand is this one?

We went with an LG unit mostly cause its what the local HVAC company uses so in case of an issue we figured they could at least help with parts. Out side of that Im not much help picking one unit over another. We were a bit limited when we started going multi zone and the ability to heat down below -10 degrees F.

 

[rd65]

Hey V Man,

One more thing?

On the older trucks, the BUDD WHEELS on the drivers side?

Were LEFT HAND THREAD!

If so, there will be an "L" stamped in the center of the "square stud head"....

You do not want to break them....(not sure how "beefy" your impact is??)

Lots of Never Seize or oil when putting them back on...even a bit of grease...just do not put them on dry.

Hope this helps....

Later, Mark

LOL these companies and their L/H thread wheel studs. Found out I have them on driver's side rear of my 80 F350 DRW....after I broke 2 studs off. After cleaning things up some I could just make out the L on the stud, not that I would have even thought to look for it.

 

[Sumboodie]

After getting all the sheathing up, it was time to do some trenching. The plan was to run two separate trenches. One for electric and one for nat gas, water, and a conduit for internet.

The issue is there is a petroleum pipeline than runs perpendicular to where I needed to go. I was fortunate that the owners of that pipeline were super easy to work with. Their only real requirement was to stay 10ft away from the pipe prior to them being there. So we set up a date that worked for both of us and I rented a mini excavator. I actually rented the mini for a week and had it a few days before.

But things went smooth. It took a good half a day to get the trenching done under the pipeline. It was pretty simple, just dig out either side of the pipe line then we just punched a hole through under the line around ~36 inches below it. Once we had the lines ran all they wanted was for bags of concrete to be set on top.

The electrical trench was only ~36" (or deeper) in depth and tapered down to the ~7ft at the pipeline. The other trench was 6-7 feet the whole way (frost depth is 48")

Glad that was done. Who knows when Ill get power out there or finish getting gas/water/ect done but I dont really need those for awhile still.

While I had the mini I also tackled two other projected. The first to be filling in the trench from the house gas line. Being in a rush we only ever laid the line and never filled in the trench. So got that done. The second was to fix the shoddy power supply run to our other garage. And also run a nat gas line. Whoever had run power to that garage ran a single 20amp run using direct burial. And they only buried that line ~6" deep. Made removing it easy as I could just pull it up. So I went ahead and ran the gas line and the two risers and then ran conduit for a new 50amp run.

Then the wife and I headed out for a wedding and left my parents at our place to dog sit. Since they cant sit, they did a lot of work smoothing out the areas that were filled back in. Looks like I was never there!

Why is the LB coupler hanging out in the breeze? It should be against the building.

 

[velillen01]

LOL these companies and their L/H thread wheel studs. Found out I have them on driver's side rear of my 80 F350 DRW....after I broke 2 studs off. After cleaning things up some I could just make out the L on the stud, not that I would have even thought to look for it.

I was lucky enough to both see the L on the studs (the passenger side actually is stamped R too) and while getting ready to do the wheel bearings had read that one side was left hand threaded. Im sure most people who work on these would know that from the get go though.

I would have been in your shoes on a F350 though! Wouldnt have even bothered to check most likely!

 

[velillen01]

Why is the LB coupler hanging out in the breeze? It should be against the building.

Simply because that's how the previous owner had installed them some 25+ years ago.

Rereading that post it sounds like I did install them that way. Wasn't clear but the PO had conduit ran like that and the conduit going down to dirt level (ran it like two inches below dirt level) then it was bare wire across. I just dug down and added the depth and more conduit to what was already there.

The conduit going into the house and garage I'm not sure what he used but it's quite glued/cemented in is the main reason I reused it least for now.

So that's the only reason it's "in the wind"




And sadly that's not even the worst the PO did. There is a lot of head scratching that I've had to do on why they did things how the did. And when I say PO I'm not necessarily meaning the people we bought from. The house has a bit of an odd history coupled with being in the county with no building permits led to some.... interesting things

 

[jollygreengiant]

Finally read through your build so far, it looks great! Will be following this one.

 

[velillen01]

Got a bit more done on the garage. Hardly anything exciting though.

Got the "last" piece on the front up that I can do with just a ladder. The slope of the "driveway" makes getting the last section up by ladder difficult. I also need one more piece of the garage door trim. Ill finish the rest when i rent the boom lift again.

Then I moved to start working on the back side of the garage.

Got the first piece up and then needed to trim the windows. Thats when i realized I didnt have any caulking. Is it needed? Probably not but its an added thing I want to do. So I got all the trim pieces cut and thats all.

Felt good to get back to working on the garage. With a bunch of other projects going on we will see how much time I can put into it

 

[velillen01]

Thanks to @InsaneEd @ScottW and @msharley for telling me about the inner lug on the npr. The socket finally came in the mail so I went to work on the truck.

And boy did those inner lugs put up a fight! The drivers side wasnt to bad but the passengers side took a long time to get off. This is where i missed having my large air compressor as the batteries for the Milwaukee were not happy. I kept having them go into some sort of temperature protection mode and then the charge on the seemed to not be lasting long at all.

I did inquire with a tire shop in town who does tractor and semi tires if they could break the inner lugs loose but they were a bit hesitant. Soon as I mentioned they werent coming off with my high-torque, I think they were worried about breaking the stud or damaging something. I dont blame them and it would have been different if I were getting tires but for just a "break them loose and tighten again" I respect them not wanting to do it.

My Milwaukee High-Torque Impact struggled thats for sure. By itself it wouldnt remove them. The drivers side took a bit of heat and then with the Milwaukee they came off.

The passengers side...not so much lol. I tried the heat/impact method, a 3/4" 40" breaker bar with cheater pipe, and hydraulic jack. I ended up having to pretty much just heat cycle the nuts. Get them nice and hot, then let it cool, then try the impact while heating it again.

It took way longer than it should have. But they are off. The drums at least came off pretty dang easy so i dont have to fight them! But thats as far as I got. I have the specifications for the drum and linings so tomorrow Ill measure and see if they are acceptable or need replacing.

O and one of the nuts and outter lug nut portion ended up being a bit galled. So I ordered a new one of those. But more to come on this as there is another reason Ive gone through all of this that ill share soon

 

[jollygreengiant]

I'm probably going to ignite some controversy with this, but as someone who has worked with heavy equipment in cold weather make sure you don't put the wheel nuts back on dry. A little bit of never seize or grease keeps them from seizing.

If your going to be doing this job again I'd suggest getting either a 1" air impact or a bigger breaker bar. When I used to work on equipment we had I think a heavy duty 44" breaker bar and a piece of 36" heavy steel pipe. That gave us almost 6' of leverage and there were still some nuts that were hard to remove.

 

[velillen01]

I'm probably going to ignite some controversy with this, but as someone who has worked with heavy equipment in cold weather make sure you don't put the wheel nuts back on dry. A little bit of never seize or grease keeps them from seizing.

If your going to be doing this job again I'd suggest getting either a 1" air impact or a bigger breaker bar. When I used to work on equipment we had I think a heavy duty 44" breaker bar and a piece of 36" heavy steel pipe. That gave us almost 6' of leverage and there were still some nuts that were hard to remove.

Wont ignite controversy with me. I do know that the whole grease/oil/anti seize is a big debate but when properly done Ive never had issues with people doing it (properly being just a tiny bit, not a huge glob, and run the nut on and back off to spread it out). Luckily this has been the first real experience with hard to remove wheel nuts

I dont plan to do much more heavy equipment type stuff beyond this truck. But I do agree on the 1" air impact, although in this case it wouldnt have been much help since I dont have an air compressor hooked up that could run it and even the one i do have would be underpowered from what Ive seen on some specs for 1" guns. Course then it goes down the rabbit hole of needing 1" sockets too lol.

The breaker bar I have (in 3/4") is 40" and then I had a 48" long pipe for a cheater bar. It just didnt really work out with the ice/snow on the ground and then the box over hanging meaning I had to hold it at a bit of an angle.


Appreciate the advice anyways though!

 

[msharley]

Thanks to @InsaneEd @ScottW and @msharley for telling me about the inner lug on the npr. The socket finally came in the mail so I went to work on the truck.

And boy did those inner lugs put up a fight! The drivers side wasnt to bad but the passengers side took a long time to get off. This is where i missed having my large air compressor as the batteries for the Milwaukee were not happy. I kept having them go into some sort of temperature protection mode and then the charge on the seemed to not be lasting long at all.

I did inquire with a tire shop in town who does tractor and semi tires if they could break the inner lugs loose but they were a bit hesitant. Soon as I mentioned they werent coming off with my high-torque, I think they were worried about breaking the stud or damaging something. I dont blame them and it would have been different if I were getting tires but for just a "break them loose and tighten again" I respect them not wanting to do it.

My Milwaukee High-Torque Impact struggled thats for sure. By itself it wouldnt remove them. The drivers side took a bit of heat and then with the Milwaukee they came off.

The passengers side...not so much lol. I tried the heat/impact method, a 3/4" 40" breaker bar with cheater pipe, and hydraulic jack. I ended up having to pretty much just heat cycle the nuts. Get them nice and hot, then let it cool, then try the impact while heating it again.

It took way longer than it should have. But they are off. The drums at least came off pretty dang easy so i dont have to fight them! But thats as far as I got. I have the specifications for the drum and linings so tomorrow Ill measure and see if they are acceptable or need replacing.

O and one of the nuts and outter lug nut portion ended up being a bit galled. So I ordered a new one of those. But more to come on this as there is another reason Ive gone through all of this that ill share soon

Hey V Man,

That top shoe looks ok.....(from here) LOL

I usually replace shoes at 2/32" (1/16", I know, but gauge reads in /32") LOL

Unless they are "peeling" or "pulling loose"...

Glad you got them off!

Not impressed with battery guns in winter.....Heavy work needs air, like you said...You will have it soon...

Give them all a good wire brush/wheel job and be GENEROUS with anti seize/grease/oil on putting them back together...

They can be ignorant. I have used a 10' cheater pipe on a 1" breaker bar (supported with a jackstand) to get them loose...so the 1" SPLINE DRIVE gun could undo them...(175psi!!)

Later, Mark

 

[velillen01]

Hey V Man,

That top shoe looks ok.....(from here) LOL

I usually replace shoes at 2/32" (1/16", I know, but gauge reads in /32") LOL

Unless they are "peeling" or "pulling loose"...

Glad you got them off!

Not impressed with battery guns in winter.....Heavy work needs air, like you said...You will have it soon...

Give them all a good wire brush/wheel job and be GENEROUS with anti seize/grease/oil on putting them back together...

They can be ignorant. I have used a 10' cheater pipe on a 1" breaker bar (supported with a jackstand) to get them loose...so the 1" SPLINE DRIVE gun could undo them...(175psi!!)

Later, Mark

Mark,
The shoes on that side didnt seem to wear evenly. The ends of each shoe are definitely thicker than in the middle. One the drivers side ones. The passenger side shoes looked even

The service limit for the lining is 0.039" and the lowest reading was right around (or slightly under) your 1/16" (0.0625") so while still technically acceptable I went ahead and ordered new shoes and a hardware kit. Figure might as well so I dont have to check or worry later! Thankfully the drums looked to be in great shape. No grooves and was flat.

Im not sure why the Milwaukee batteries gave me so much trouble. Ive been using Ryobi ones that have more use and age on them building the garage and they have done just fine in the cold. Guess the milwaukee ones just dont handle the cold as well or something.

 

[msharley]

Hey V Mann,

That often happens with drum brakes...

Once they get below 3/32" or so....the rivets can/do come "un riveted" (scoring the drum)

If that has wheel cylinders? You may want to replace them now? As well as the hardware...did the rear end of my F 350 this past Fall...I was at 3/32"...but the friction materiel was "peeling" on the one secondary shoe...replaced the hardware, wheel cylinders, drums and parking brake cables.... Drum brakes last a LONG time on vehicles...the related parts can/will deteriorate over time...

The only "success" in winter with battery tools (sawzall, porta band, impact) were with the 60v battery on the DeWalt....they had them at the last job I worked prior to retiring...Always take two or three 60v batteries per tool/per job in the winter....(I'm not lucky with batteries, period. Any time I go to use a battery tool..it does not have enough azz or the battery is dead...wind up dragging the air hose or extension cord.......ANY fool WAY! LOL)

But...the impact in no way matches the old 1/2" Blue Point Impact Wrench, the Mrs. (God Rest Her) got me off the Snap On Truck 25+ yrs ago. That thing really works at 125psi.

The drum measuring tools are cheap....but if it looks good...go on with it.... If you can not catch your finger nail on the drum, it should be fine....

Good luck.

Going down to the single digits here in Central Pa.

Stupid Groundhog Day (about 20miles from me) will be in 2-1/2 weeks .........February 2nd....

Later, Mark

 

[msharley]

Hey V,

Let see if the "Can & String Rip Off Co/aka windstream" the slowest internet on the planet....

Will let me attach a pic...this time....??

I check the adjustment on the shoes when I R&R the snow tires, every Spring & Fall....

I have ZERO LUCK with battery tools....(100% Luck if you factor frustration!) LOL

I know you will have it back together in good order!

Later, Mark

 

[velillen01]

Hey V,

Let see if the "Can & String Rip Off Co/aka windstream" the slowest internet on the planet....

Will let me attach a pic...this time....??

I check the adjustment on the shoes when I R&R the snow tires, every Spring & Fall....

I have ZERO LUCK with battery tools....(100% Luck if you factor frustration!) LOL

I know you will have it back together in good order!

Later, Mark

Thanks Mark,

it will be back together in probably a week or so.

And hopefully it will warm up for you soon! We are out of the negative temperatures finally. Course now it is Sunny and getting slightly above freezing which means all that snow is melting and turning to slick slush and the dirt below it to a nasty slick mud.

 

[velillen01]

I started to really work on the mini split install for the house the past couple of days. All the big parts showed up finally.

Not knowing exactly how and where things would go, I decided to make my own linesets. Simple to do and definitely cheaper and will be a bit nicer than buying premade ones since it will be exactly the right length. I did over estimate by a bit though. I planned on a ~75ft run and a ~50ft run so i order 150ft of copper and insulation. Well turns out the runs are closer to ~40ft and ~55ft. O well.

The first set of lines i insulated on the ground. This worked ok. The second set i sent up as bare copper lines and then insulated like that. Both methods had pluses and minuses.

Part of the mini split install was to add lights in the attic. Ive never understood why this isnt more common as it makes it so much nicer even if you only go up there once every 5 years. Plus its cheap to do. But I added three lights and with add one more. But here shows the lights and the linesets pulled through into the attic. Dont mind the coiled wire as its for the fourth light (and the switch got a cover just had to run to the store to get one)

Then it was time to install the ceiling cassettes. These are definitely bigger than either the wife or I realized but thats ok. First step was to cut the hole.

Sorry i forgot to get pictures of the mounting solution I came up with...but Ill show that with the next unit. But from the bedroom side it doesnt look bad at all! And the grille isnt installed its just hanging there for reference. Still have to position the ceiling unit and hook everything up.

 

[velillen01]

While up in the attic I'm "fixing" some of the electrical work. Theres a couple junction boxes that didnt have covers on them and one small (like in the picture) that was so full of wires the cover wouldnt fit!

But i did come across something I have a question on. The bedrooms both have baseboard heaters that are no longer hooked up. Well it appears they used to be and someone just took the 12/3 wire (two runs one for each heater) and are using it with just the Black, White (neutral), and Ground. The Red wire is then just capped off with a wire nut.

See this picture, which for now I tapped into for the lights (its hard to tell but the red is capped)

The breaker panel has the red and black each hooked up to their own 20amp breaker with a (removable) connector bar between them.

My question I guess is two fold

1) Is this acceptable? Im guessing it is, but that the red wire should be disconnected from the breaker and capped off?

2) Would it be acceptable to use both the Black and Red wires as their own circuits? IE using the Black wire to run a circuit of lights and the Red wire to run outlets? With each the black and the red on their own breaker?

Im leaning towards #2 not being acceptable but figured I would ask.

 

[velillen01]

just an update cause I feel like it. Kind of feeling like im swimming against a current so bit down/ frustrated.

The Isuzu brakes....having issues with them. The pads and new wheel cylinders dont want to work together causing the drum not to fit. The mini split, nitrgoen pressure check passed but the vacuum micron is being annoying. Pretty sure its a crappy connection with the gauge causing it to not hold correctly. And I haven't touched the garage.

Just frustrated. And to top it off I finally went to the doctor about back pain Ive been having for ~2 years and pretty much got the diagnosing i was expecting of "welllll just do physical therapy"

Thats all. Not the best post. Tomorrow will be better!

 

[velillen01]

Much better day today!

Got the mini split finished up and it runs. Course they want you to test it by "cooling" which isnt doable when its 20 degrees outside.

The ceiling units actually looks pretty decent

Just have to clean up and finish the last little bit of insulation. Then install the lineset covers and itll be wrapped up!


I also got the drum brakes figured out. After doing some measuring I discovered the "new" wheel cylinders were 20-30 thousands longer than the OEM ones. That was enough to make the drum not want to slide on.

One of the OEM adjusters was bent and messed up though.

So I canalized the parts of the "new" cylinders and rebuilt the old ones. Once I got those reinstalled the drums slide right one. Adjusted everything. Now I just need to bleed the brakes and things will be wrapped up!

 

[the-max]

Regarding your 12/3 wiring electrical query:

1) Generally speaking, it is acceptable to have unused wires in place and capped off. Personally, I would disconnect it from the breaker and cap it off at that end as well... why have an extra energized wire in place serving no purpose other than a potential problem. 'Spare' wiring does have to be accounted for as if it's 'live' for some de-rating purposes, but I don't think that applies here.

2) You could have 2 120V circuits on the 12/3 with a shared neutral. That's called a Multi Wire Branch Circuit (MWBC). There are MWBC rules... Let's say you have 12/3 Romex (in code speak NM-B) an insulated black, white, and red with a bare ground. The white would be the shared neutral and in the panel connected to the neutral bus. The bare ground in the panel connected to the ground bus. (In a "main" panel, the neutrals and grounds are bonded together, in a "sub" panel they are separate.) The black and red wires in the panel would each come out of a separate breaker...BUT... they need to be on the different legs of the supply...AND... they need to be simultaneously disconnectable; so, they are usually on a 2-pole breaker with a single disconnect throw handle for both poles (a full size 2 pole breaker, not one of those tandem breakers that's coming off a single leg of the service). This works and is acceptable because you have an unbalanced load on the neutral. The black and red wires will have their AC sine waves offset from each other by 180 degrees (because they're on the 2 different legs of the service and that's why they're required to be that way). So, the neutrals from each will cancel each other out to an extent and the load on the neutral won't exceed the larger load on the red or black.

I'm not an electrical engineer or a licensed electrician, but they used to work for me and I had the responsibility for it all... but hey, feel free to correct me if you know better.

p.s.
Nice garage !

 

[velillen01]

Regarding your 12/3 wiring electrical query:

1) Generally speaking, it is acceptable to have unused wires in place and capped off. Personally, I would disconnect it from the breaker and cap it off at that end as well... why have an extra energized wire in place serving no purpose other than a potential problem. 'Spare' wiring does have to be accounted for as if it's 'live' for some de-rating purposes, but I don't think that applies here.

2) You could have 2 120V circuits on the 12/3 with a shared neutral. That's called a Multi Wire Branch Circuit (MWBC). There are MWBC rules... Let's say you have 12/3 Romex (in code speak NM-B) an insulated black, white, and red with a bare ground. The white would be the shared neutral and in the panel connected to the neutral bus. The bare ground in the panel connected to the ground bus. (In a "main" panel, the neutrals and grounds are bonded together, in a "sub" panel they are separate.) The black and red wires in the panel would each come out of a separate breaker...BUT... they need to be on the different legs of the supply...AND... they need to be simultaneously disconnectable; so, they are usually on a 2-pole breaker with a single disconnect throw handle for both poles (a full size 2 pole breaker, not one of those tandem breakers that's coming off a single leg of the service). This works and is acceptable because you have an unbalanced load on the neutral. The black and red wires will have their AC sine waves offset from each other by 180 degrees (because they're on the 2 different legs of the service and that's why they're required to be that way). So, the neutrals from each will cancel each other out to an extent and the load on the neutral won't exceed the larger load on the red or black.

I'm not an electrical engineer or a licensed electrician, but they used to work for me and I had the responsibility for it all... but hey, feel free to correct me if you know better.

p.s.
Nice garage !

Bit late but thanks for the info. #2 pretty describes exactly how they are hooked up now. I completely forgot to ask the electrician when he was out here.

 

[velillen01]

Update time!

First off lets start with the mini split....it has been working great minus one issue. The remotes. The unit itself heats great (more on that in a minute). The two ceiling cassette units each came with their own remotes. Problem is they seem to be on the same "channel". This caused weird issues with the ceiling units turning off when we didnt want them or not turning on. We tried programing them per the (less than spectacular) manual but that didnt seem to help. no matter what we tried either remote could control both ceiling units. We had a HVAC tech that my wife knows come out who looked things over and didnt see anything wrong and he confirmed that the remotes should only work for one ceiling unit and not both. So no clue what is going on with that.


BUT a day or two after getting the mini split up and running we had a big issue with our furnace. It stopped working. I was pretty sure it was the blower fan but we had a HVAC guy out (different then the mini split guy) who confirmed it as best as he could. He was an interesting guy. Im not sure if he was just having a bad day or what but the whole time he was there he was complaining. Mostly about our Well Pressure Tank being in the way. Which I agree is in the way to an extent (can still get at all the control and stuff for the hvac but wouldnt be able to pull the motor). When I redid the plumbing I added unions so that the Pressure Tank could be easily moved EXACTLY for this situation. I offered multiple times to move it for him but he kept saying no its ok, then a few minutes later I would hear him on the phone with tech support complaining it was in the way. Long story short he told me the price of the motor from him, which I politely declined and let him leave. He quoted me $1300-1600 for the motor. He also mentioned how hard it would be to get the motor out.

After he left I moved that Pressure Tank out of the way and dug into getting the motor out. I was expecting something complicated but it was literally 5 screws holding everything in place. 2 holding the control board in place, 1 holding the condensate drain thing in place and then two holding the fan assembly in place. Then the fan assembly just slides out.

With access to the fan I double checked all the part numbers for the blower motor and found it online for ~$800. Paid to have it overnighted.

The blow motor arrived next day like expected. So moved the pressure tank again and got to installing it. Pretty simple to install but I did have to do the whole assembly twice. Theres a flap part on the assembly the fits into a slot below the air intake (sorry im not 100% sure on the terms exactly). I didnt realize this the first time and the "flap" didnt go into that slot. This made the opening way to small and upon turning the furnace on it didnt work and gave an error. Luckily the air it did give made it obvious i had installed it wrong. So pulled it out and slide it back in making sure the "flap" went in correctly.

Then the fun part begins....everything seemed to be working great. The house heated up nicely. But then I started to hear the loud screaming of a bearing failing. i let the furnace finish getting the house up to temperature and the noise got worse and worse. I poped the covers off and it was the inducer motor this time. Once the furnace turned off on its own i shut it down and looked at the inducer motor. It isnt really a unit that the bearings could be easily replaced in sadly. Then things got worse (again). I reinstalled it and turned he furnace on again. This time it ran for ~10 minutes and the the loud screeching was gone. Followed by the furnace turning off. The motor had seized. So I went to grainger and paid to overnight one. Well overnight turned into a two day. Guess the midwest got hit by a pretty good storm so UPS couldnt pick it up. Luckily it came today so quickly got it installed and everything is working great as of now!

Thankfully we the mini split. During the past week its been cold at night (single digits with one or two nights in the negatives). The mini split did great keeping the upstairs heated. We borrowed some electric heaters from the wife's work which kept the rest of the house ~50 degrees. Chilly but could always be worse!

 

[velillen01]

In garage related news the big update is on electric!

i got ahold of a company in town to come give a quote and all that. The quote was more than acceptable and the better news is they could get to it in just a couple weeks after wrapping up current projects.

So I'll be getting 100amp service to the garage. They will move the meter for the house to a pole and split it there. So our service will upgrade from 100amp to 200amp.

Since it involved moving the meter I had to have our power company come out and make sure they would be ok with it. Which they were minus one little hiccup. They own the pole we want to put the meter on, which I guess if they own the pole we cant put the meter one it. But the solution is they would "sell" me the pole for $1. Its a newer pole so I was more than ok with that. Just waiting to hear back on them to make sure that process goes smooth and there isnt something odd about that one pole.

While they were there I also got some good news. We have three phase power! Guess at some point in the past they must have had three phase irrigation pumps or something on the property. So if I ever want to add three phase power to the shop it is just a matter of adding a meter and running it to the shop. Was a nice surprise to at least know I have that available in the future.


I also spent a bunch more money and ordered most of the rest of the steel Ill need to finish the outside

 

[ScottW]

Very interesting about the order of failures on your furnace, ours had the same failures in the same order this fall/winter. First the furnace quit and I was also pretty sure it was the blower motor but had an HVAC tech test it and a quick check confirmed it. On mine they wanted $1200-1500 to replace the whole upper assembly because ”those old squirrel cages are usually practically welded on by this point (our furnace is over 20 years old) and we can’t source the motor by itself anyway”. I said forget it, found a replacement motor online for $250, installed it myself. Furnace ran great for a couple weeks then I noticed a loud squeal that started before the furnace would fire up. The exhaust blower (inducer?) fan bearings now going out! Fortunately my inducer didn't fail before I got an online replacement. Curious how old your furnace is because on mine I chalked this up to running old equipment?

 

[velillen01]

Very interesting about the order of failures on your furnace, ours had the same failures in the same order this fall/winter. First the furnace quit and I was also pretty sure it was the blower motor but had an HVAC tech test it and a quick check confirmed it. On mine they wanted $1200-1500 to replace the whole upper assembly because ”those old squirrel cages are usually practically welded on by this point (our furnace is over 20 years old) and we can’t source the motor by itself anyway”. I said forget it, found a replacement motor online for $250, installed it myself. Furnace ran great for a couple weeks then I noticed a loud squeal that started before the furnace would fire up. The exhaust blower (inducer?) fan bearings now going out! Fortunately my inducer didn't fail before I got an online replacement. Curious how old your furnace is because on mine I chalked this up to running old equipment?

Its 13 years as best as I could tell. Just going off dates on some of the parts.

After playing around with the internal information screen and seeing how the unit operates a bit, my personal theory is that the old blower motor was just never hitting its "called for" RPM of 1000rpms and instead of only able to do 500ish. The Inducer fan SEEMS to be tied to the blower motor RPM as at the 50% ish range it only spins around 2000rpm but at full power is closer to 3500rpm. So my theory is just that it was bad as well for who knows how long but since it never ran at its real speed it just wasnt noticeable. Then once it was able to run at the full speed the problems just showed themself in full force.

The door safety switch was also taped over and has been since we bought the house 2 years ago. There was quite a bit of dust inside so Im not sure if that also contributed to the failure or not. The bearings are sealed so I wouldnt imagine just fine dust would really do damage but it is a possibility as well if they ran the unit with the doors off a lot. (for what reason i dont know)

Or it is completely separate lol. Its just a bit ironic that when I ordered the new blower motor I almost ordered the inducer/exhaust fan too but decided not to.

Main thing is it could have been worse. We had a nice warm bedroom and the rest of the house stayed warm enough to not have to worry about pipes freezing or anything like that.

 

[velillen01]

Back to working on the garage! Not to much though. Our weather is warming up which means all the snow is melting. This turns the ground super slick so I try to only work outside in the mornings before things warm up to much. At least the "back" of the garage is shaded so the ground stays firmer.

But I started on the back of the garage (again). I realized when I originally started I kind of made a mistake. The way I had the panel, the overlapping seem would have to be lifted over the next panel as it slides under it. I decided this was going to be way to much work to try to do. So i started on the other end and will address that when i get to that panel.

I got one of the two remaining windows installed and two sheets up. Was a bit awkward installing the window by myself on a ladder but it wasnt to bad.

I then shifted gears a bit to address something that had been bothering me. When i dug the trench for electrical, I had to work quickly to backfill the trench. In that rush the conduit by the garage ended up not being straight. It came out of the ground at a ~30 degree angle (towards the front of the garage). You could "bend" it to be straight but this left a nice curve where it exited the ground. THe other thing was the conduit stuck out away from the edge of the garage by a good 4-6". I wanted it tighter.

So I dug down to the 90 degree bends and re did things. This time instead of using a 90 I used two 45's. This left me get things straightened out and also get the conduit as tight to the foundation as I can. Its now right up against the foam so cant get much closer. it isnt perfect now since the conduit deformed a bit from being unsupported and leaning for so long, but its much better than it was!

After "fixing" the conduit I got I pulled out a fiberglass fish tape I had bought a long time ago. I got it more for the 1" conduit but figured I would try it out on the electrical conduit. Have to say it was quick and worked nicely. Slide through the conduit awesomely. I know there are other ways to do this but this was a nice way to do it. After running the tape through, I did attach some pull line I had picked up and pulled it through. Again it worked great and made quick work.

Granted the conduit only has the 2 45 degree bends for fittings. But it still is ~75 feet long and the conduit does have curves and bends in it from going under the petroleum pipe.

Thats it for now!

 

[velillen01]

Been awhile since there was much of an update.


But almost three weeks ago now we had our Twins. A boy and a girl. So been quite busy with them!


My parents came out to help (and let my wife and I get some sleep). The electricians also were able to come. They were awesome to work with. We only lost power to the house for maybe two hours so we were grateful for that!

Before they came my dad and I put up two sheets of siding on the side where the electrical would go through to the inside of the garage.

But anyway the new Meter and disconnects. We now have a 200amp service with a 100amp breaker to the house (what was existing) and a 125amp breaker to the garage.

The new garage panel. They also installed a single outlet for me. Which will be soooo much nicer than having to run~250ft of extensions cords.

And then the two panels we put up. Its perfect on the conduit end, but was just the best way to fit everything keeping in mind a possible future three phase panel.

And the last thing...after our 2.5-3 hour drive home from the hospital, the wife and I realized any sort of long trip would not be doable in our sedan cars. We have a 2003 VW Jetta and a 2002 Ford Focus. let alone with two car seats there was no room for the kids. I had been driving an errands and happened to see a vehicle on the side of the road in the "middle of nowhere" for sale. Stopped and took a quick glance and it looked to be in good shape. So wife and I went back and test drove it and ended up picking it up. Its a 2004 Toyota Sequoia Limited with ~220k miles on it. Was in good shape overall. Just some rock chips, a crack windshield, and then a couple very minor things. But more importantly it had pretty new tires (only 7k on them) and the previous owner (its a one family vehicle) kept up on the maintenance and had records. Even had a bunch of work done ~3k miles ago. Plus the price was right

New windshield will go in Wed. Other than that its new wiperblades, needed a new taillight housing (already done) and a replacement hubcap fender. Once it does get warmed out I will do some fluid changes just cause I like to. Engine oil is fine but things like the differentials, transfer case and transmission I like to change a lot more often than whats normally called for. Especially since i know the previous owners towed with it.



Anyways thats it! Hopefully the weather warms up and things dry out and I can sneak out here and there to get things done!