We moved the upstairs computer today, into our library/study. So, I figured I’d fish some Cat 5 and install an ethernet jack there. Nothing I haven’t done before… should take, oh, an hour or so, right? Well, not this time, it turns out..

The difference between this time and all the other times I’ve fished wire, is that this time I’m fishing the wire in an outside wall. And I learned today that my outside walls apparently have lots of horizontal fire blocking in them. After awhile of fooling around in the attic with a 4′ flex drill bit (the longest one I have), I came to the conclusion that I either need a longer flex bit, or a new strategy. So, I’m going to try fishing down to the basement instead. The hitch with this is, there’s a floor joist blocking most of my access to the area where the wire would come through. However, I think there’s enough space there to get the job done.

Why don’t I just use wireless, you ask? Well, that would be too easy, wouldn’t it?

Followup 11/11… OK. I can say that absolutely without question, that was the hardest I’ve ever worked to fish a wire through a wall.

After a few attempts, it became clear that wiring through the basement wasn’t going to happen. It basically boiled down to: no drilling access from below, and no way to drill a straight hole downwards through the hole in the wall. I would have had to spend more money on specialized tools, or make more holes in the wall to facilitate drilling. That made it a non-starter.

So, I went back to my original plan to fish through the attic. To get to the wall opening, I needed to drill down around 5 feet, through a top plate and two pieces of 2×4 fireblocking (the beveled ceiling in the room actually helped me out — otherwise the distance would have been greater than 5 feet). My 4 foot flex bit was not long enough. So, I lengthened it using a 12″ bit extender I had lying around. That did the trick. Here was the winning formula:

1. Drill a 5/8″ hole through the top plate. The flex bit is only 3/8″, but the initial hole needed to be 5/8″ to accommodate the bit extender.
2. Attach extender to flex bit, and drill through fire blocking until the drill bottoms out on the top plate.
3. Go downstairs, locate bit in wall opening, and attach pull wire through hole in bit.
4. Smear wire pulling lubricant on the bit and the pull wire.
5. Go back into attic, and carefully back the bit out of the hole.
6. Detach pull wire from bit. Attach Cat-5 wire to pull wire with electrical tape. Apply wire pulling lubricant.
7. Go downstairs and pull wire down through wall opening.

That’s it. Seems simple, but it took several failed attempts, many swear words, and a couple of skinned fingers to get it done. Bottom line, I won’t be fishing wire through outside walls any more unless I absolutely have to…

My SIL’s washing machine died the other day. It fills and drains OK, but won’t spin or agitate. It’s a Whirlpool direct drive (badged as a Sears Kenmore). I did a little poking around on the net, trying to identify the symptoms, and it appeared that the problem may be the motor coupling. I’ve always been partial to Whirlpool appliances, particularly washers and dryers, because of their easy serviceability. This one was no exception. Following the instructions I found at the web site, I had the motor out in about 10 minutes, and the coupling was indeed broken. So, tomorrow I’ll pick up a new coupling, put it back together, and see if it fixes the problem.

This is actually my second washing machine repair. Our house has a similar Whirlpool direct drive washer, and a few years back, some “stuff” found its way into the pump and jammed it up. Fix was a new pump. The disassembly procedure for the two washers was exactly the same, although the Kenmore has a couple of trim pieces covering two of the screws that need to be removed (sneaky sneaky).

Of course, now that I’m a certified expert at repairing these Whirlpool top-loaders, we’re thinking about going out and buying an LG front-loader. Go figure..

Just when I thought I’ve seen it all with our house, I find more weirdness.

I’m working on relocating the clothes dryer circuit, in preparation for our new washer and dryer. In the process, I noticed some disconnected copper tubing hanging down the wall behind the dryer. It’s the standard 3/8″ stuff that you might see supplying a dishwasher or ice maker. I’d noticed it before, but I just kinda ignored it until last night. Last night, I figured I’d trace it to wherever it goes, and take it out, as it’s obviously not doing anything anymore. Well.. it goes up the wall, along the top of the foundation (oh yeah.. I forgot to mention this is all in the basement), then outside through the rim joist and siding, right near ground level. Then it goes into the ground. Except the ground at that spot is a concrete deck. The line actually goes into the concrete. Where it goes after that, is one of life’s great unsolved mysteries.

WTF?? Well, I know that at one point, the basement of the house was used as an in-law apartment. So it’s not inconceivable that our present-day laundry room used to serve as a kitchen, which would explain why there’s an ice maker line there. But that begs the question: There’s already plumbing right there in the room. Why not just tap the ice maker line off that, rather than running it outside, then underground?? This seems too obvious, so I could be completely wrong. Or it could be that some previous owner (or plumber) was just incredibly boneheaded. We may never know. But in any case, the mystery remains: where does the line go? Stay tuned!

So, the float switch on the old FloTec sump pump in our basement office died a while back, and I’m just getting around to doing something about it. This particular sump gets very little water in it, even with a dehumidifier draining into it, so my solution for the summer was to just manually pump it out every couple weeks or so. But now, with vacation looming, I want to get an automatic pump back in there. Rather than getting a new float switch for the old pump (that would cost money, you see), I’m just going to replace the pump with a Zoeller that I’d been keeping around as a hot spare for our other sump pump (the one that sees tons of action from driveway runoff). I figure I can still use it as a hot spare, and as an added bonus it’ll see some occasional action in the office sump, so I’ll know it’s working.

I went to do the work today, and true to form, it’s proving to be a bit more difficult than expected (nothing in this house is ever easy or straightforward, you see). First, the bottom of the sump is so impossibly uneven that I couldn’t find a level spot for the new pump. And, the original pump’s plumbing is some sort of half-assed Rube Goldberg conglomeration of flex ABS, threaded couplings, band clamps, and what appears to be automobile radiator hose (rule two of this house: all previous-owner retrofit work must be done half-assed). So, I have the fun of sorting all this out. I started by dumping some gravel in the bottom of the pit to level it out. Next I have to pick up some PVC and a Fernco coupling or two (to replace the radiator hose) and redo the plumbing. I’ll start by just doing the piping near the pump, and tying it into the existing stuff where it exits the foundation. But long term, I might reroute the run out the foundation.. we’ll see.

Now that our boiler job is complete, I’m going through and insulating all of the near-boiler pipes, which put off quite a bit of heat. First priority is the primary loop (1-1/4″ copper), followed by the secondary loop for the indirect water heater (1″ copper), followed by the DHW piping near the indirect (3/4″ copper), and lastly the secondary loops for our 3 heating zones (mix of 1″ and 3/4″ copper). I’m using the pre-formed fiberglass pipe insulation that has a white scrim jacket, as that’s what was recommended to me. Home Depot carries this stuff. I found it in the aisle with the furnace/air handler filters, thermostats, and ductwork. Here’s the catch — the stuff is tagged as being for various sizes of copper pipe, but the tags have no bearing on reality. I initially bought the stuff labeled for 1-1/4″ copper, but it was way too big for my 1-1/4″ pipe. I had to return it and get the stuff labeled for 1″ copper, which was a snug fit on the 1-1/4″ pipe. And, the stuff for 1″ pipe is actually more expensive than the stuff for 1-1/4″ pipe (by about 50¢ per 3′ length), which makes absolutely no sense.

Fast forward to the actual installation. The insulation slips easily over the pipe, and seals shut with an adhesive strip on the scrim jacket. However, on the stuff I bought, the adhesive doesn’t hold up very well against the expansion and contraction of the pipes as they heat/cool… a lot of the seams were popping loose just a few hours after I wrapped the pipes. I’ve compensated by adding some strategically placed wire ties, but I may need to track down a better adhesive to apply to the problem areas.

For butt joint (and possibly seam) sealing, I found some white scrim tape at Grainger, but it’s mind-numbingly expensive: Around $35 for 50 yards. That’s almost 25¢ a foot. I can’t imagine what’s in the stuff to make it that expensive.

On a totally unrelated note, I see that Home Depot is now carrying trench drainage systems. This could come in handy for my driveway down the road….