Useless Conversation

[Rasix]

Poop.  Poop never changes.

[Sky]

Good start to page 700.

[ghost]

So my buddy is taking classes to get his truck driver license.  I don't know why, but that seems pretty badass.

[Yegolev]

Depends on his other job skills?

You should put that on a t-shirt and get Forrest Gump rich.

Not a bad idea.  I have another one I have been sitting on, too.

[pxib]

At the front desk today, I introduced myself to a man who had been a student teacher and after-school supervisor when I was in 6th grade. He had just graduated from college then, younger at the time than my "baby brother" is today. It's been a slow day, so the relativity of age became a conversation topic with the rest of the circulation staff. Folks brought up the weirdness of being older than one's doctor, how young recent grandparents and High School teachers can seem, and then how people we actually know well never seem to age quite so fast because we never really look at them.

So when another tech commented that she will occasionally see people who are her age and wonder "Oh no, do I look that old?" the answer was obvious:

"Not to the people you care about."

[Hawkbit]

So my buddy is taking classes to get his truck driver license.  I don't know why, but that seems pretty badass.

He'll make shit money for the first two years, but after 5-10 he'll be doing great.  My brother in law has driven for 30 years and is kicking over 6 figures now.  I considered going to school for it when my wife and I were on the outs, but then decided to go back for webD.  Not sure I made the sane choice.

[Morat20]

About connections, push-in connections are great these days and work on copper as well as PEX.  So I'd not expect anyone to need to zip-tie anything.

There's two ways to join PEX pipes. The cheap way is those zip-ties. The proper way takes a copper fitting that's bigger than the pex tub, and you use a specific tool to expand the end of the tube so it slips over the joint, and then let it snap shut. That's required by code here, because the zip-tie method can leak.

As for exposure to sunlight -- they're pipes. For your house. If they're exposed to sunlight, your problems are a hell of a lot bigger than your pipes.

Pex is great here. We've got a lot of calcium in the water, and that stuff builds up on copper but not on pex. Or at least, not as fast.

[Merusk]

Unlike large portions of Texas, a good deal of the US has basements or crawl spaces.  Those have windows or louvers where UV can penetrate and, depending on where piping is located, hit the PEX. ;)

Now that I'm home I see the Green Building forum blocks most folks. Whoops.  The Wiki article also gives a good overview of the pluses and minuses of it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross-linked_polyethylene

It's a building material, and like any other has its advantages and disadvantages. My preference is copper and I'll spec copper when I can, but if the client wants Pex I'll do it. As I said I'm just not a fan of plastic pipes for water delivery.   The whinging from plumbers about the 'difficulty' of soldering and installing really just underscore how shitty tradesmen are in the country anymore.  As most of you who have had to hire GCs can attest.  It's a career that doesn't make a lot comparatively so it doesn't attract the best and brightest. aka Our culture doesn't value blue-collar work. Shocker.

Yeg - Insulation is your best answer to pipe burst. Even Pex will split if the pipe freezes solid. There's no excuse, with your house being as new as it is, for them to have not put insulation in the walls where the pipes are running.

[rattran]

It's Georgia. They forget it gets cold here, and builders are just as shitty as the rest of the country (if not more so)

[Morat20]

I can't imagine having exposed piping like that. My stuff is in the attic and walls, and it's covered in insulation to boot.

I think price is another factor. When I had this done several years ago, the cost of re-piping my house with copper was a full third more. So I could pay around 4500 for pex, which lasts longer, doesn't get pinhole leaks, went in faster, and involved less ripping up my house -- or replace with copper for 6000. Copper pipes I'd had to pull because of a few decades of calcium desposits and that I'd repaired several pinhole leaks in over the five years prior. (Admittedly, that was 20ish year old pipe at that point).

I understand the price of copper hasn't fallen since.

But yeah, definitely not an option if it's somewhere where sunlight hits it.

I also like the manifold water systems that pex systems tend to have. Those are pretty dang useful.

[Selby]

Since we are on car repair now, over the last month I can detect a faint odor of coolant when I run my heater, I'm guessing this is a small leak in the heater core.  This is an expensive repair on my car as it involves removing pretty much the entire dash area, I think I would be game to do it myself but am worried that I wont be fixing the right thing anyone have some better diagnosis ideas other than my gut feeling?

The issue is leaking coolant won't throw a single code, so any shop that isn't competent will not be able to diagnose it or figure it out from a code scanner.  It could be as simple as a fresh air door diverter has coolant misting towards it, which could be leaking from inside or outside depending on car\heater core design (since you don't say the model or year I'm assuming it's very modern).  A friend of mine bought a Ford Focus recently and I discovered that when you get it wet, the plastic cover that goes over the cowl no longer sealed to the windshield and thus any water ran directly into the fresh air intake and dumped onto the floor.  Check your engine hoses while it's hot and running and just shut off to see if you can find anything obvious or see anything hissing (it will be under pressure when hot and chances are you can see or hear it).

Regarding doing a heater core job, it isn't *hard* per say on *most* cars, but there are steps involved that have to be followed in the right order and any car with passenger side airbags is just going to be a potential nightmare if you screw up putting it back together.  Granted, I do my own heater cores on most of my cars, but when the shop offers to charge me $350 for the job and I get to avoid losing a Saturday on something I don't care about... it's hard to turn that down.

Yeah, even replacing headlight bulbs is an arduous task these days. Engines (and thus the space under the hood) are smaller on average, and everything is just jammed in there so you have to move like 2 other components just to get at things.

I do like working on the older ones:



Two people and a few hours can install a new engine with almost zero issues or trouble.  Everything is easily accessible!  Modern stuff makes me cringe when I have to contort to get into it (often burning my hands in the process because the catalytic converter is RIGHT THERE on the manifold now).

[Hawkbit]

I'm fucking balls deep in EERDs for this database class.  Absolutely the most intriguing class I've taken in this degree, but my mind is melting.

[Salamok]

Since we are on car repair now, over the last month I can detect a faint odor of coolant when I run my heater, I'm guessing this is a small leak in the heater core.  This is an expensive repair on my car as it involves removing pretty much the entire dash area, I think I would be game to do it myself but am worried that I wont be fixing the right thing anyone have some better diagnosis ideas other than my gut feeling?

The issue is leaking coolant won't throw a single code, so any shop that isn't competent will not be able to diagnose it or figure it out from a code scanner.  It could be as simple as a fresh air door diverter has coolant misting towards it, which could be leaking from inside or outside depending on car\heater core design (since you don't say the model or year I'm assuming it's very modern).  A friend of mine bought a Ford Focus recently and I discovered that when you get it wet, the plastic cover that goes over the cowl no longer sealed to the windshield and thus any water ran directly into the fresh air intake and dumped onto the floor.  Check your engine hoses while it's hot and running and just shut off to see if you can find anything obvious or see anything hissing (it will be under pressure when hot and chances are you can see or hear it).

Regarding doing a heater core job, it isn't *hard* per say on *most* cars, but there are steps involved that have to be followed in the right order and any car with passenger side airbags is just going to be a potential nightmare if you screw up putting it back together.  Granted, I do my own heater cores on most of my cars, but when the shop offers to charge me $350 for the job and I get to avoid losing a Saturday on something I don't care about... it's hard to turn that down.

Thanks for the advice, yes on newish model (2003 tundra) and yes on passenger side airbag.  I do only smell it when I actually use the heater, when the AC is on I don't smell anything.  Do you think dumping some stop leak in the radiator might be at all helpful?  If this was just a $500ish repair and I could locate a trustworthy mechanic I would just have it done.

[Sky]

(Admittedly, that was 20ish year old pipe at that point).

That's not old.


My first car repair cost me a bike ride to the junkyard and $15. Three bolts later and I had a functioning alternator (on the aforementioned falcon). Everyone should have a classic car (early 70s or prior) as their first, especially if it breaks down a lot. I learned almost everything I know about car mechanics from it.

[Signe]

I love old cars, too.  I never owned a new car until after I got married.  My first car was a 1972 Karmann-Ghia.  I loved that car but had to get rid of it after about two years because my dog was bigger than my car.  :(  My second was a 1972 Ford Maverick Grabber which I wish I still had.  I had it until I moved to England and, for some horrible pay back reason, my Dad gave it away.  I guess I could have sued him but he was my dad!  Once in England, we had new cars and old cars and awesome cars... Gordon loves sports cars.  I kind wish I still had my Maverick, though.  It was green and black.

[Yegolev]

Yeg - Insulation is your best answer to pipe burst. Even Pex will split if the pipe freezes solid. There's no excuse, with your house being as new as it is, for them to have not put insulation in the walls where the pipes are running.

Interestingly, in 2002 anyone could build a house in Georgia.  No license required.  I understand that there are regulations now, likely due to the percentage of new homes that literally collapsed on themselves near the end of the housing boom.

Really, though, the pipes in question are in my detached garage.  The detached garage didn't get blown insulation, so retrofit would be incredibly bothersome for insulation.  Running new pipes would be less bothersome.  However if PEX won't really survive a hard freeze then I don't have any incentive to fix the issue.

[Merusk]

Yeah it's still that way a lot of places, I just figured you had hired one of the better GCs.  Your wife is in the industry isn't she?

 (Hell you don't need a professional designer to stamp or review any part of your drawings for ~90% of residential single family construction.)

You can blow-in cellulose or foam with only 2 holes in the interior wall sheathing, no need to re-run pipes. Not really bothersome but I've never priced it.

[Viin]

I'm fucking balls deep in EERDs for this database class.  Absolutely the most intriguing class I've taken in this degree, but my mind is melting.

ERDs are fun, if annoying at times due to being required to follow specific conventions in an academic setting that would be a waste of time to model IRL.

[Sky]

Really, though, the pipes in question are in my detached garage. 

Insulation won't help in an unheated space...is it seasonal plumbing (pool or beer fridge)?

[Selby]

Do you think dumping some stop leak in the radiator might be at all helpful?  If this was just a $500ish repair and I could locate a trustworthy mechanic I would just have it done.

Better have it isolated as to where it's leaking before using stop leak.  If the hole is small enough and the right kind, sure a pellet of it could help.  Problem is if it's a rubber hose or the fittings to the heater core where the hoses mate, stop leak wouldn't necessarily do anything.  Or a rotten core itself that has a bad case of corrosion it may do nothing.  And if you have a neglected cooling system, adding stop leak can actually make matters worse (plugging up coolant passages and debris).  Coolant life is 5 years, pretty much regardless of miles traveled for most cars.  Some manufacturers love to advertise 10 year\100,000 mile coolant and that's nice, but I don't trust it and change my coolant every 5ish years on all of my cars.

[Yegolev]

Yeah it's still that way a lot of places, I just figured you had hired one of the better GCs.  Your wife is in the industry isn't she?

Oh, man, we need to spend an evening talking about this over beers.  She's in commercial construction, I'll agree to that. 

Insulation won't help in an unheated space...is it seasonal plumbing (pool or beer fridge)?

No, I use my garage year-round.

Oh, yeah, the water.  I wanted a couple spigots where I could wash my car or something.  I seemed to want water in my driveway a lot in my previous house.  Now I just drag a hose.

[Zetor]

Eurovision grand final starting in 2 hours.

MY BODY IS READY. 

[Ironwood]

Eurovision grand final starting in 2 hours.

MY BODY IS READY. 

I'm there dude.  The semis have been really good.  Especially the Norway Khaleesi.

[Cyrrex]

I am actually going to watch it this year.  Hopefully the top five won't include old Russian ladies dancing around a bread oven or something equally ridiculous.

Eurovision grand final starting in 2 hours.

MY BODY IS READY. 

I'm there dude.  The semis have been really good.  Especially the Norway Khaleesi.

My interest is piqued.

[Signe]

Go Albania?   

[Ironwood]

[Zetor]

Okay, so as the official Hungarian ambassador of f13.net, I'm not really sure what I can say about Hungary's "contribution". It's somewhere between trollface.jpg and I_REGRET_NOTHING.gif.

e: or "go look at Romania's entry and ignore us"  

[Trippy]

Norway did not win, sadly.

[Ironwood]

They won with me, that's all that matters.  But, yeah, politics crept in slightly though Denmark had a good song, it wasn't a winner, well, you know what I mean.

[Cyrrex]

Shoot, really?  I live in Denmark (though not Danish), so I cannot be totally objective...but after hearing 20 seconds of the song I knew it was a winner.  It was the right style of song, and it was competently sung by a rather cute and charismatic 20 year-old girl, and the presentation on stage was spot on.  The only song I thought that was close to being as good for a Eurovision song was Azerbaijan - which got my vote and came in a well-deserved second.

So out of curiosity, who did you think should have won?  I know you liked the Norwegian entry...her outfit was tasty, but I thought the song itself was completely forgettable.  I thought Russia was good, but not a winner song.  Ukraine got way more votes than deserved, because she was extremely attractive.  Greece was hilarious, but not a winner song.  I can't think of any beyond those that should even be in the conversation.

Different strokes and stuff, of course. 

[Pennilenko]

What is Eurovision?

[Chimpy]

What is Eurovision?

When I think of Eurovision I think of THIS

[Signe]

Eurovision is ABBA.  Srsly.

[IainC]

Eurovision is ABBA.  Srsly.

You spelled Lordi wrong.

[Signe]

Lordi confuses me.  I can't listen to them and look at them at the same time and I rather not look at them or listen to them at all, really.  It's good the lead singer has a pointy finger because that's really all he can move without risk of serious falling damage.