Random pic thread.

Last minute ride to bama for a jeep for a buddy.

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jeepinmatt said:
When I built this house, I went with spray foam for the entire envelope and it’s been fantastic. However, it has one downfall, which is the house is too tight for having a wood burning fireplace, so we have to open a window or two so it draws well and doesn’t smoke up the house. That’s fine for an ambiance fire on a 55 degree night, but sucks when it’s 20 degrees out and you want to be cozy. So I’ve been wanting to add a “make up air” vent of sorts behind our fireplace for years. My theory is that putting a vent in the outside wall behind it will allow the air to come in all around the firebox without pulling cold air through our living space. And it’s on an obscured corner of the house where no one ever goes, but also within the screened porch so there won’t be any bugs. Only problem was the wife thought it would be “unsightly” :rolleyes: :shaking:

Anyway, thanks to the impending icemageddon she finally realized how wise I am and said ok.
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I then realized that we also have lights on the porch and I don’t have to work via headlamp haha!
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Based on construction pics, I was 98% sure where the studs were, but I cut a small hole and felt around just to be sure.
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Dang, 67” instead of 66.5”, close enough! :D
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Also knew that wire was there so kept the saw shallow. Cutting through masonry board got suckier as the blade dulled, but it got er done with a bit of red glow haha.
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Amazing how much foam volume comes out of this 14x25” space.
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Her “unsightly” looks good to me.

Most importantly…
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First fire we’ve ever had in this house where we didn’t have to open a door or window, the living room is actually warm, and not even a hint of smoke! :D:D:D

She asked me how long ago I bought this grill, I said “I dunno, probably 4-5 years ago”
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Yeah make that over 6 years ago haha. We moved in August 2019 and we have been dealing with drafty cold fires for 6.5 years! So the moral of this story is: if your wife says don’t, do it anyway! 👍
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Holy smokes! You need to go back and add back 80% of what you took out 😅. As you know, Im rotting my roof deck via open cell foam as well. Unlike you though, I had a makeup air vent built into the chimney. Its a 3" pipe with a sloppy fitting slide door. After experimenting with it over the past 6yrs, I now only open it halfway to get the fire started and after it gets hot I can close it completely. After the chimney gets hot it draws well enough to get the smoke out with minimal makeup air coming in.
 
awheelterd said:
Holy smokes! You need to go back and add back 80% of what you took out 😅. As you know, Im rotting my roof deck via open cell foam as well. Unlike you though, I had a makeup air vent built into the chimney. It’s a 3" pipe with a sloppy fitting slide door. After experimenting with it over the past 6yrs, I now only open it halfway to get the fire started and after it gets hot I can close it completely. After the chimney gets hot it draws well enough to get the smoke out with minimal makeup air coming in.
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I’m surprised to hear that. Mine has a 3” makeup pipe too but it’s never been even remotely enough. Is your house on a crawl space, and if so, is it 100% sealed up like my basement is?
 
jeepinmatt said:
I’m surprised to hear that. Mine has a 3” makeup pipe too but it’s never been even remotely enough. Is your house on a crawl space, and if so, is it 100% sealed up like my basement is?
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Yes and yes. Professionally sealed crawlspace. The backside of my chimney is outside so the pipe is only the thickness of the masonry itself. Is your vent the dryer looking hose in the picture?

You sure your wife hasn't had the dryer on when you've been starting fires? 😅 I know a guy who took a shower once after starting a fire and absentmindedly turned on the fan.... That guy set off ALL the smoke detectors.
 
awheelterd said:
Yes and yes. Professionally sealed crawlspace. The backside of my chimney is outside so the pipe is only the thickness of the masonry itself. Is your vent the dryer looking hose in the picture?

You sure your wife hasn't had the dryer on when you've been starting fires? 😅 I know a guy who took a shower once after starting a fire and absentmindedly turned on the fan.... That guy set off ALL the smoke detectors.
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Yes, vent is dryer looking hose. I’ve always questioned if it’s pinched off because of spray foam expansion somewhere, but I can see enough of it that I don’t think it is. And we’ve accidentally turned on dryer or bathroom fan while the fire is going and you know immediately that you’ve made a mistake haha. Last night I turned on the high flow Panasonic bathroom fan while the fire was going and it still was drawing fine.
 
Finally putting my automatic wood stacker to use!

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carpal tunnel surgery yesterday has prepping for the storm difficult to say the least. My generator won’t start, and I realized the gas thats in it has been in it since Helene. My bad. But with only one good hand, my non-dominant hand, I can’t pull the carb apart.

This morning I went to Lowe’s to get salt and they actually had generators, so it was an impulse buy. This one is bigger than the one I’ve got. Now I don’t feel obligated to tear up my bad hand fixing my generator right now. That can come later.


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Yesterday would have been a little better for this. Family friends called this morning without water and asked if I could call my plumber (cousins husband) to come out and see if he could diagonose the problem. Pump, pipe and new wire had been replaced by someone this summer wiring had been shoddy at the well head and smoked the pump in 2 days. They came back pulled it back out, changed pump and dropped it back in. It worked, but buddy said still didnt act right....we ended up pulling it and finding lots of skinned up wiring and a splice about 60' from the top. We'll was suppose to be 600', they had only put about 380' back in.

The wells up at the tree line

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awheelterd said:
Holy smokes! You need to go back and add back 80% of what you took out 😅. As you know, Im rotting my roof deck via open cell foam as well. Unlike you though, I had a makeup air vent built into the chimney. Its a 3" pipe with a sloppy fitting slide door. After experimenting with it over the past 6yrs, I now only open it halfway to get the fire started and after it gets hot I can close it completely. After the chimney gets hot it draws well enough to get the smoke out with minimal makeup air coming in.
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A fresh air intake on your HVAC system would solve all your issues.
 
"Snow" fun.

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ramjo said:
Yesterday would have been a little better for this. Family friends called this morning without water and asked if I could call my plumber (cousins husband) to come out and see if he could diagonose the problem. Pump, pipe and new wire had been replaced by someone this summer wiring had been shoddy at the well head and smoked the pump in 2 days. They came back pulled it back out, changed pump and dropped it back in. It worked, but buddy said still didnt act right....we ended up pulling it and finding lots of skinned up wiring and a splice about 60' from the top. We'll was suppose to be 600', they had only put about 380' back in.

The wells up at the tree line

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A buddy and me replaced a well pump yesterday afternoon as well. Nowhere near that depth though. We only had about 60-70’ to deal with. It was smoked from sediment. Got another to do this week. The well was drilled at 100’ and they set the pump at 100’. It’s sitting in the muck. No guessing why the pump is smoked. We’ll bring it up to get it suspended in the middle of the waterline.
 
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