At Home In The Woods

[brandoro]

Furnace and Water Heater Exhaust Vent Question

The PVC pipes sticking through the brick wall are the exhaust vents running from the gas furnace and gas water heater. It sounds like the H&A guy plans on cutting off the pipes and putting 45 or 90 degree PVC elbows turned downward at the ends of the pipes. While that seems like it will work, I envision the result to look hideously ugly. Is there a solution that is more visually attractive?

I may just have the H&A guy leave the PVC pipes the same length they are and place the elbows on the end without glueing them until I can figure out another option.

Thanks,
Obed

When I put the high efficiency furnace in my last house the vents pipes were a bit of an eyesore. I painted them the same colour as the siding and they nearly disappeared. Harder to do with brick but I think if you painted them with a matt finish paint that is close to the colour of your brick they would not draw the eye like they do now.

 

[Danno1]

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Brick colored camo !!!!!!!!!!!!!



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[WBWI]

Obed,
I thought about you and your PVC furnace intake/exhaust last night. I would be hesitant to cut them off or cap them too close to the house. Condensation from the exhaust might freeze on the brick exterior on really cold days. Mine exit the house under part of my deck and mositure accumulates there every winter. Last night I had to break the ice off of my intake pipe beceuse it was completely frozen over. The furnace does not like that very much.

 

[Obed]

Guys,
Thanks for the encouragement. This week has had its share of adventure. I'll fill you in on the details tomorrow - with pictures of course.
Obed

 

[Obed]

When I put the high efficiency furnace in my last house the vents pipes were a bit of an eyesore. I painted them the same colour as the siding and they nearly disappeared. Harder to do with brick but I think if you painted them with a matt finish paint that is close to the colour of your brick they would not draw the eye like they do now.

I'm thinking that a dull black might work. Our brick has some black in it.
Obed

 

[Obed]

On Wed. the plumber finished his work and got his final payment.

 

[Obed]

Ice Storm

We have freezing rain forecasted for tomorrow afternoon and evening which may impact the work.

On Wednesday my work laptop got an ugly virus. The virus tried to claim it was an anti-virus package, that my computer was infected, and wanted me to enter my credit card information so it could "fix the virus". That was the low point in my week. My notebook had to be rebuilt which meant I would not complete my required projects for my job before I went on vacation this Monday. The result is I will have to work while I am on vacation. Bummer.

Wednesday night we got the forecasted freezing rain. I really needed to get to work to get a new laptop so I could start configuring it in hopes of salvaging some of my upcoming vacation. I had parked my car at the bottom of the steep hill that runs to our house so that I could get to work on Thursday. I put some plastic over the driver's door so it wouldn't freeze shut.

Road conditions were slick but seemed manageable. However, about a 1/2 mile from my house, as I went over a hill I saw that the road was solid ice on the downhill slope. I wasn't going fast but there was no way to stop. As I slid down the hill, I knew I couldn't stop so I then started looking for the least damaging thing I could try to run into. I slid through the stop sign and ran into the ditch across the intersecting street. My car appeared undamaged but I had taken out a mailbox.

There was no way to get the car out of the ditch until the ice thawed. I talked to the owners of the mailbox and told them I would repair it on Saturday. So I hiked through the woods back home. Late in the afternoon after the ice had thawed, my wife and I pulled my car out of the ditch using my pickup truck and a chain.

Needless to say, with all the ice, we didn't have any workers make it to our house on Thursday.

On Saturday I replaced the mailbox post and reattached the mailbox. When I had dug the post hole 18" deep, I hit a large rock. I ended up chipping pieces off the rock with my digging bar until I could make the post hole 24" deep. Also, while digging the post hole, one of the wooden handles on my post hole diggers cracked where it was bolted onto the diggers. So I cut off 4" of the handle, drilled a couple holes through the remaining handle and bolted the shortened handle onto the post hole diggers. Fortunately, I had all the tools I needed with me and was able to finish the job in one trip.

 

[tommu56]

When it rains it pours then freezes for you guys!

I have to use a computer all day at work too
I came to the point that just after I get all my programs on it I ghost the hard drive for a quicker recovery.
It is still a pain in the but!
And I have been using a external hard drives for all my data and alternating them daily

Please keep up posting your project is interesting at the least.

tom

 

[Ranger Rick]

Ice Storm

On Wednesday my work laptop got an ugly virus. The virus tried to claim it was an anti-virus package, that my computer was infected, and wanted me to enter my credit card information so it could "fix the virus". .

Obed if you ever get the problem again run Malware Bytes a free program and run it on your computer in safe mode to remove that virus. Been there done that. Rick
House is really looking great. It has been great following your project for the past year. Have a happy holiday.

 

[Obed]

Friday, every sub we have except the painter showed up. It was a three-ring-circus. That morning, before any of the subs got here, my wife had parked our pickup truck in front of the garage. Why she did so, I'm not sure. Shortly afterward, the H&A sub shows up pulling a trailer. Then 3 other pickups arrived behind him. Our truck was blocked in and I needed to drive it to work. It took almost 30 minutes to get all the vehicles moved so my truck could get out.

We had the H&A crew, electricians, hardwood flooring crew, garage door installers, and trim carpenter all here at the same time. The state electrical inspector is also approves the H&A installation. My wife learned from a different H&A sub that we are supposed to have a permit for the H&A installation. When my wife asked our H&A guy about the permit, he said he didn't think he needed a permit. The state electrical inspector also inspects the H&A installation and verified that we need a permit. He will inspect both the electrical and H&A installation next week. The H&A guy is supposed to get a permit Monday.

Last week we returned the duel fuel stove (gas range/electric oven) we had ordered and picked up from Sears. My wife didn't like the way the burners were arranged on the stove. There doesn't seem to be a standard for gas stoves regarding where the gas line connects to the stove. You really need to know which stove you will use before the gas line is run to the kitchen. Yes that seems extremely stupid but that is what we have found out. If we had kept the stove we purchased, the gas line behind the stove would have needed to be moved or it would interfere with the stove.

My wife decided that she didn't like having to move the gas line every time we replace stove so she had the H&A guy reroute the gas line so that it is recessed in the wall behind the stove. My wife is going to build a metal box in the wall to house the H&A line. The picture shows the she made in the wall and shows the gas line after it recessed in the wall.

The duel fuel stoves are unbelievably expensive; the one we returned was $1800. My inlaws have given us the electric stove they recently replaced; we will use it until we get around to buying another stove. When you're spending $1800, you really want to get something you like rather than something you can "live with". If we wait for sales, we can probably get an all gas stove (range and oven combined) and a separate electric wall oven for the price of one duel fuel stove. We have a spot in the cabinets where we can put a wall oven if and when we decide to buy one.