Monday, September 19, 2011

Replacing the base under the kitchen sink I found......

While replacing the base * of the kitchen sink, I discovered, that the forced air duct was not connected to the register( on the left by the edge). In this picture you are looking under the sink through the right door of the cabinet.



It has been that way for 27 years! The forced air was being fed into a huge pizza box space, uninsulated, with gaps that led the air to the basement, and probably outside. Probably cost me several thousand dollars in 27 years.

* I haven't shown the removal effort. There are other web sites, many, that show that.




Anyway, because of the peculiar set up, there was no easy way to buy ductwork. The duct was at right angles to the opening under the sink and fortunately almost aligned and not too ofset. So with a friendly help from a Master Plumber at Home Depot I constructed a new ductwork that fed the forced air to the register on the left. On the right hand side I added a support cross piece so that I could lay 2 pieces of the new base. For extra insurance, I added a bunch of insulation. The register is visible now and the orientation of the picture should be evident.






And now here is the finished work, with two pieces painted white. You can see a slight gap. I chose just to seat the pieces this way and if it doesn't work out I'll add some screws to anchor it. I left it that way in case I have to replace it again, only in another 30 years, I hope.






Note: How do you know you have this situation in your home? A fellow told me to see if the space under the sink was hot (in winter) or you can drive a small hole and see if there is any air coming out.

Thursday, August 18, 2011

Weatherizing Double Hung Windows

I have double hung windows that have Aluminum tracks that are spring loaded. There are no counterbalancing weights. The Aluminum track under pressure holds the window.
While I was replacing the brick moulding I noticed that the way these windows are built is there is a wide opening behind the tracks and the vertical window support(don't know the term for it, the vertical wood that the track fits on to!)
Anyway,there is no impediment for air to flow through these tracks, in and out.
So this winter I'm got some v-shaped plastic weatherstrip that has adhesive onone side and I'm slipping it betwee the stop and the aluminum. Hopefully that will shut off air going out/coming in.
I also have storm windows so that might be why I haven't had a more severe loss of warm air.
I'll let you know next spring how it worked out.

By the way, when replacing the brick moulding I got some special adhesive backed tape that has some sort of asphalt backing. I applied it to the outside of the window over the stop and the frame before I installed the brick moulding. So that should help a great deal too.

IF you have any questions, please contact me and I'll explain what I probably have poorly written.

Replacing brick moulding on windows

My brick moulding required a 2 1/2 inch brick mould that is not available in any of the big box stores. My old builders supplier, F.E. Wheaton Co, now has moved to Yorkvill, Il and has been sold to Probuild. They have the material. Unfortunately it is not vinyl, but hey, you probably won't have to replace it again, since the first one lasted 25+ years. Probuild in Yorkville, also has the sill-nose as well as the sill (if you are unfortunate enough to have to replace that).
Again, contact me and I'll show you how to do all this.

Re-Glazing Windows

If you have double hung windows, glazing is probably required to remove and replace the existing glaze(putty). Arduous task, but too expensive to send to the glazier so I learned it myself looking at videos on youtube, etc.

Contact me if you want to know how to do it. You can do it.

Making sliding shelves


Its basically creating a simple drawer and adding slides. Slides are from Blumotion. I did buy two of them and made the rest myself.
The drawer is made from plywood(Baltic type) that is nicer to look.
If you want to make some, contact me and I'll walk you through the steps. You can make 1 and see if you like making them. Or you can buy one and try to make one similar.