WTF i have a crack in my corian countertop!!!

it's an odd almost arched shape similar to a banana. about 3 inches long. it's next to the coffee machine, nothing has ever been dropped on the countertop & no excessive weight (i am guilty of standing on it counter from time to time to get things out of high up cabinets...)

also, found a chip in the glass top of my gas stove top. it's not a totally flat surface as the burners are elevated & there is a metal grate thing that goes on top but the corner is most certainly cracked

and.. couple of fractured tiles in the downstairs but i know thats from the train that comes by 20 times a day (prob not an exaggeration)

7/7/2012 10:50:03 AM

So, I'm having a weird problem that I'm not exactly sure what's going on.

My upstairs AC unit can no longer seem to meet the required load. The past few days we have had it set around 75, and it basically runs all day but only cools the house to about 77 or 78. The air out of the registers is cold, outside unit is running and I'm feeling hot air off the discharge, so I'm not sure what could have happened.

We replaced the outside unit a couple of years ago, and we actually got a slightly larger tonnage unit to replace.

Other than the unit being undersized, what could the problem be?

Airflow from the registers seems to be the same amount of cfm it always has, but I can't be absolutely positive. No new heat sources upstairs (that I'm aware of), no changes in insulation or anything like that. This is the first time I've had this problem.

7/8/2012 4:44:20 PM

After a long conversation with my ac unit guys several years ago they basically told me that the AC unit I have can only cool the inside of my house about 20 degrees cooler than the outside temperature. I'm not sure if this is b/c of the size/construction/tonnage, but it's rarely a problem unless we hit 100. It always pumps out cold air, and returns to a lower temperature when outside temperatures start to creep back down, but if we're going to hit 100 it simply not going to keep the inside temp under 77. I woke up to 71 degrees inside around noon today and it's crept up to 77 despite having the AC on all day.

7/8/2012 5:22:48 PM

^ which I think leads to a general sizing issue. It's not like it's uncomfortable in here because it's just so hot outside, but unfortunately I think that's it for me as well.

7/8/2012 5:41:17 PM

How long has this been happening Drovkin?

If it just seems to be lately there are a few possibilities.

Even if you have cold air coming out inside and hot air off the coils outside it is still possible you have a very small refrigerant leak which can easily affect discharge temperatures (and thus inside temperatures) by a couple degrees. You should definitely consider this.

The second possibility is a small leak in either the supply or return ductwork. On the supply side it might just not be THAT noticeable since you still feel air coming out and I assume haven't actually measured the CFM. However, a small change in CFM easily can mean a couple degrees difference on a design day. On the return side, if you have a negative leak / infiltration, then obviously you are pulling a hotter mixture of air across your evaporator coil and thus the delta T across the coil is starting at an artificially high point compared to your room T.

The third scenario I'll mention is that, if this is a problem that has been occurring just over the past few weeks, it is very possible that you have nothing wrong with your unit at all and it can be blamed on the weather. I've mentioned this in other threads before (maybe even in this one but I'll mention it again. I know you are an ME but I don't know how much you ever deal with sizing HVAC. So hopefully I'm not wasting your time

Anyway, I don't know the ASHRAE weather data for Raleigh off the top of my head (is that where you are? I forget) but I would guess the design temperature used to size your house might be in the range of ~93F. Along with that, the indoor temperature used for the calculations was most likely 75F. So, when running the Manual J load calculations for your house, the unit was sized to keep your house at 75F on a sunny, 93F day in your city. The *average* high that Raleigh has experienced over the past 10 days is 100F. Not only is that ~7 degrees above your design temperature on a daily basis but a prolonged period with highs significantly above that temperature start working the thermal mass of your house and its contents against the load too. There is more internal heat load during off-peak hours because it has been hot for so long and the house never really gets to completely cool off the air and the contents and building materials completely.

The biggest thing I want to note here is that this does not mean your unit is undersized. ASHRAE weather data for residential stuff is compiled suck that your unit will keep your space at 75F for at least 98% of the hours for an average weather year for your area. Right now you are just in that 2% portion where it can't meet the load, coupled with the fact that this has been an abnormally hot and long heat wave for the region.

Residential DX units do not run very efficiently at part load. Sizing your unit to meet 75F up to, say, 100F just for the handful of days you see that temperature simply means that your unit would be running more inefficiently during the other 98% of the year. On top of the mechanical inefficiencies, humidity control gets worse the more over-sized your unit is. This is due to the fact that, because the unit is oversized, it cools the air way too quickly on non-design days (98% of the year) when the design load is not there. Humidity is drawn out of the air slowly in the cooling process - the air needs to be in contact with the cold coil (below the airs dewpoint) for an extended period of time to appropriately dehumidify the air. What ends up happening with an oversized unit then, is that the air may get to 75F but the humidity keeps rising in the space and you end up at 75F and say 60% Relative Humidity when the smaller, more appropriately-sized unit would have had the house at 75F and 50% RH which is actually more comfortable! You actually potentially suffer comfort in off-peak time to have comfort in the very few hours a year you are seeing the extremes. The third thing to note is that your compressor will almost always wear out faster in an oversized unit because it is always going on-off-on-off quickly. New control logic with thermostats does help control that - but it would be at the expense of humidity control as stated earlier.

Our upstairs unit has struggled to keep up with the temperatures here in SC lately as well and I do not believe there is anything wrong with the unit - it's just been freakin' hot.

7/8/2012 8:29:57 PM

^excellent post. Thanks!

7/8/2012 10:33:42 PM

^^ wow , post of the year concerning AC units. Great info up there even if you aren't experiencing problems, good to know. thx

7/10/2012 10:32:13 AM

I've got the same issue Drovkin has. If I set the thermostat to 77, the unit will run constantly (or had when it was so blasted hot last week). Air in is cold. Air outside is hot. Only large difference is my unit is 25-27 years old.

7/10/2012 11:00:56 AM

anyone want to give me their opinions on crawlspace vs. slab? I'm in the process of building a house & they want to charge me $3000-5000 more for crawlspace. I've grown up always having a crawlspace & thought the slab was crappy..but the more I look into it seems like it's really just your personal preference. Any reason I shouldn't go with slab?

7/10/2012 8:10:41 PM

^^^^,^^^ Np

As far as a crawl space goes, I like having the HVAC vents in the floor on the first floor and also having the ability to run wiring or cables after the fact. I've routed ethernet, cable, thermostat wiring, audio wiring etc. after moving in and I've been able to do it very easily with a crawl space. If you go with a slab, I'd definitely wire everything up you think you might need during the construction process.

7/10/2012 8:30:47 PM

^ yep. And crawlspaces can make walking around on the first floor easier on the joints since the floor will give a little vs a slab. Although you may not have any joint issues or anything right now but something to think about.

And I just like the idea of the house being up off the ground a little bit compared to a slab. Just my personal preference

7/10/2012 9:03:58 PM

I hope the rain keeps on coming this week for me like it says in the forecast. We had a couple weeks of a hot, dry streak there but I've still only manually watered my bermuda on 4x this year and 2 of those times were just watering in fertilizer.

That is definitely a far-cry from what I had the last two years where we were pretty dry and I was having to water newly sodded areas as well

7/11/2012 8:47:14 AM

^^^^ Crawl space.

7/11/2012 1:08:58 PM

The only upside of a slab is if you're terrified of spiders you don't have to enter a crawlspace, ever.

7/11/2012 2:55:12 PM

^and also those big-ass cricket things (We grew up calling them "barn hoppers")

But yeah, my experience as a homeowner is that a crawlspace provides significant number of benefits when it comes to modifications, maintenance, renovation, etc. Also storage, depending upon the slope of the lot and the home placement/design.

7/11/2012 3:15:50 PM

You mean grasshoppers?

7/11/2012 3:46:48 PM

camel crickets

7/11/2012 3:50:05 PM

^^nah, they look like a cross b/t a grasshopper and a brown cricket. Perhaps they're technically a grasshopper, but you find them in dark, dry places like barns and crawlspaces. Maybe they're called camelback or camel crickets? mean looking, but harmless i guess.

^yep!



[Edited on July 11, 2012 at 3:53 PM. Reason : .]

7/11/2012 3:52:47 PM

yeah always called them camel crickets as well.

they're dumb as fuck because they jump at you when they're trying to run away.

7/11/2012 6:04:49 PM

we call them camel crickets or camel hoppers. I hate those bastards

7/11/2012 9:18:08 PM

Anybody else having ant problems? Came back last weekend and they seem to have found their way into my living room. I haven't yet seen them in the kitchen where I'd expect them to naturally migrate. I've been in this house for six years and this is only the second time I've had an issue like this. I'm wondering if it has to do with the extreme heat last week?

Waiting for the Terro to work.

7/12/2012 11:25:33 AM

No, but I annihilate any hills that pop up in my yard before they get a chance to spread.

7/12/2012 2:57:02 PM

There are a ton of ants around here. I usually spray at least once a week to try and keep them away. However I live in a townhouse so if the neighbors don't take care of any that are in their house, that means they'll be in my house as well

7/12/2012 3:09:44 PM

Reposting from previous page. Anyone..?



anyone know wtf kind of bug this is??



it's small ish, a little bigger than an ant & they seem to be attracted to water because i keep finding them in my cat's water bowl


Also any commentary on my cracked countertop? I'm pissed & have no idea how it happened

7/12/2012 4:31:35 PM

Don't know, but I've had some crazy fucking bugs popping up the last few weeks. A beetle looking bug, but smaller and with crazy bright colors. And another one that looks like its a cross of a preying mantis and a spider.

Quote :

"NOT A FAN"

7/12/2012 4:55:46 PM

ok - so I'm building a new house..want opinions.

Should I have the wall above my fireplace wired for a TV or should I have a hole placed up there for the TV like they use to do years ago. I'm concerned about if I mount the TV where the hell am I going to put the DVR & DVD players? I've found a mount online that hides the cable box behind it but seems like it would be hard for the remote to work correctly with that.

Looking for advise from anyone who has a wall mounted tv thx

7/17/2012 3:23:41 PM

Just mount it and have a piece of furniture underneath it.



[Edited on July 17, 2012 at 3:48 PM. Reason : hotlinking]

7/17/2012 3:47:27 PM

Let me stop you right there, don't put the tv above the fireplace.

7/17/2012 4:04:56 PM

Oh, missed that. Yeah, just put the fireplace in the corner.

7/17/2012 4:09:43 PM

I also recommend not putting the TV over the fireplace. I did that in my old apartment (only choice) and didn't like it all. Just use an entertainment center unit and forget mounting it all together. I think that ^^^ is a waste of money/effort. Looks cleaner, but not worth it

7/17/2012 4:11:24 PM

Yeah, that's just a stock photo. I have mine on an entertainment center and the smaller one with regular cable mounted in my loft.

7/17/2012 4:26:41 PM

Wall-mounting with the furniture underneath and wires hidden is worth it if you like clean aesthetics. It's really not that expensive. I completely understand this is a total personal preference though.

[Edited on July 17, 2012 at 5:43 PM. Reason : ]

7/17/2012 5:40:56 PM

Quote :

"Wall-mounting with the furniture underneath and wires hidden is worth it if you like clean aesthetics."

completely agree. Can be done for less than $20

7/18/2012 8:28:11 AM

fireplace in corner is nice, but eats up a lot of room.

i have one in the corner WITH the tv on top, but right now it is just a sports room where i hang out, not my main tv.

7/18/2012 11:11:35 AM

It's the corner. What else would you put there, a potted plant?

7/18/2012 1:21:54 PM

Quote :

"I also recommend not putting the TV over the fireplace. I did that in my old apartment (only choice) and didn't like it all. Just use an entertainment center unit and forget mounting it all together. I think that ^^^ is a waste of money/effort. Looks cleaner, but not worth it"

mine is over my fireplace, but my mantle is a lot lower than some other fireplaces i've seen, and so we don't have to look up to see the TV. (I can't stand having to crane my neck up to see the damn tv)

Anyway, the space of our living room is such that the TV can't logically go anywhere BUT above the fireplace unless I want to cover up part of our bay window, or stick it in a corner (which I can't stand when I'm trying to get my surround sound set up.)

7/18/2012 4:46:53 PM

Found a leak in the roof of the closet in my garage

7/20/2012 5:49:24 PM

I have an old house that has underground terracotta piping to collect gutter runoff. It's routed around the house, and while digging post holes today, I've been confronted with the following problem: Do I want my back yard fence, or do I want my existing drainage system?

The terminal posts of the fence need to meet the exterior of my house, but the posts would need to go through the underground piping that's routed around my foundation.

These systems are dumb, right? Why would I move water from my roof to my sidewalk, when I could have a normal gutter system that deposits the water onto my lawn? My basement is more of a dugout, so I'm not concerned with keeping my basement 100% dry.

7/31/2012 4:46:20 PM

You never want water directed to your foundation, for any foundation type. Can you not just cantilever the ends of the fence a foot or so? Put the post on the outside-side of the pipe, and run your rails and pickets to the house?

That, or dig up the pipes in conflict and reroute them or daylight them away from your foundation.

8/1/2012 9:30:11 AM

Our offer was accepted on the house that we want, but the selling bank wants to close in 21 days. Pre-approval bank can't do that. Any suggestions on places that can close quick without raping you on the fees?

8/1/2012 12:19:19 PM

I thought closing was up to your bank, not the sellers? Maybe I'm wrong.

8/1/2012 2:10:06 PM

I wish houses would paint themselves

8/1/2012 2:10:46 PM

^ Write a check to the right people and they effectively do.

8/1/2012 3:28:04 PM

put my house on the market. short sale in chesapeake va.

ugh, 130k...paid 182k 4 years ago.

I was so dumb.

8/1/2012 4:02:46 PM

Why were you dumb?
Is the bank going to forgive the difference?

8/1/2012 5:34:51 PM

Could you be renting it out and breaking even or close enough to it, rather than shitcanning your credit?

[Edited on August 1, 2012 at 9:18 PM. Reason : even if you have to factor in the tax deduction for interest]

8/1/2012 9:18:16 PM

I think that is a rental house; unless I have him confused with another user in the same situation.

8/1/2012 10:31:09 PM

my fucking grass grows all week

have to mow it all the time

woe is me

8/1/2012 10:33:43 PM

^i'll trade ya, I seed in the fall and my yard looks terrific until the trees start to fill out in spring then most of the lawn doesn't get enough sunlight. I like my trees, but I want some good grass too

8/2/2012 10:13:15 AM

It is my rental. I live in Washington state permanently now. The house is too small for my family and I can't afford to not have renters and shit keeps breaking in it and I keep fixing a house I don't want anymore...its quite frustrating to say the least.

I would rather take a hit on credit and be out of the house then deal with it anymore.

short sale is better than the bank foreclosing on it, which will happen since my renters move out in November.

I am hoping for a deed in lieu of foreclosure.

[Edited on August 2, 2012 at 3:34 PM. Reason : ya]

8/2/2012 3:33:51 PM