The Home Reno Thread | Page 8 | GTAMotorcycle.com

The Home Reno Thread

Make a trip to Century Lumber Mill in Stouffville (Between McCowan and Kennedy at 3993 Stouffville Side Rd). They have an inventory of slabs, they also have workshop that will dress an finish slabs.

The staff are helpful with all things woodworking.
Much appreciated, thanks.
 
This popped up on my Facebook feed:

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This popped up on my Facebook feed:

LKiK0ix.png



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Yep they closed up two locations and consolidated the stock to the North York warehouse.

I was there a few weeks back and picked up two smaller pieces of walnut that I turned into a bread board and charcuterie serving board.


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Exotic Woods in Burlington had a 50% off slab sale that was running two days and has run a week now, and this slab guy has shut down two locations. The trend has trended.

George Nakashima, a japanese american, was the father of live edge slab furniture, started thirty some yrs ago, it took that long to hit mainstream but when you see it in a Lowes store......... the bell tolls
 
Exotic Woods also has a Father’s Day sale, Pre-inventory sale, Guitar Day sale. The slab sale is effectively their boxing day/week sale.

Slabs are not just for live edge furniture.

I would agree with you that the live edge ‘trend’ is getting old.

Anglewood is a young business that may have grown too quickly and is pulling back to focus on the one large location. They appear to have over-reached on the retail side.

Btw, they do make some unique furniture pieces, but they also produce some very traditional furniture which I saw first-hand while I was there.


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Thanks Evon. I picked up a small piece to make thwarts for the canoe that may some day get finished. One sad part is a lot of the live edge ash showed the reason the tree was cut down. Emerald ash borers munched their way through the inner bark. We lost two trees. Unfortunately felling a tree in a small back yard isn't practical.
 
How Water Heaters:

We have a rental tank set-up where the tank is around 13 years old. Because we recently had our chimney removed, we now need to find a new venting solution for the water heater. Now I'm thinking about just getting rid of the ol tank and going tankless.

Anyone here use a tankless water heater? If so, do you rent or did you purchase? Any other insights are appreciated.
Thanks!
 
Based on research I did a couple years ago, you'd need a pretty powerful tankless water heater to adequately heat incoming water to suitable temperature during our winters, which would also involve installation of a 3-phase electrical service. Things may have changed since then...
 
How Water Heaters:

We have a rental tank set-up where the tank is around 13 years old. Because we recently had our chimney removed, we now need to find a new venting solution for the water heater. Now I'm thinking about just getting rid of the ol tank and going tankless.

Anyone here use a tankless water heater? If so, do you rent or did you purchase? Any other insights are appreciated.
Thanks!

I haven't run the numbers recently, but when I looked in the past, you were way ahead financially buying a tank water heater. Tankless require yearly (at least) chemical flushing that if isn't done kills them quickly. They are expensive to buy so I would consider renting one so they can replace it if it dies early, but they are damned expensive to rent and that will more than eat up any gas savings.

Tankless starts to make sense if there are other factors (eg. can use space saved efficiently, hugely variable loads like 4 showers that are occasionally used simultaneously, property only used on weekends, etc.).
 
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Thanks for the info.
We have a technician coming out on Friday to suggest different options that can work for us.
My thoughts were less about saving space and more about saving energy. We don't use that much hot water to start with.
 
My thoughts were less about saving space and more about saving energy.

If you are doing it to save the planet, try to find someone that has factored in the cleaning and life expectancy. It looks like the flush kits are using 2 to 5 gallons of vinegar so that may be negligible impact. Life expectancy I don't know the stats on, but my gut says the same or less than a tank.

If you decide to go tankless, make sure your plumber installs a flush kit as part of the install to make cleaning it a simple process and therefore more likely to be done.

EDIT:
The other thing that I haven't seen factored in is half the year the heat "lost" from the stored water in the tank heats your house so your furnace needs to burn slightly less gas as a result (although the furnace is more efficient so there is still some lost energy). The other half of the year, that "lost" heat fights your A/C which multiplies the negative impact on your energy usage.
 
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I worked as a gas tech for 15 years, installed hundreds of tankless units. I found as a service tech that most problems in the earlier units were caused by improper installation by untrained people. Things have improved a lot in that aspect if you use a certified tech from a reputable company.
There are only two people in your home, little laundry, showers, dishes, very little hot water consumption period. You are the ideal application for a tankless.
Its is advisable to have a water softener, this cuts down on the mineral deposits in the tankless unit. With a softener, an annual back flush of the tankless is all that's required for the water end of it. You should be draining and flushing a hot water tank annually as well to prevent sediment buildup. So that's 40-60 gallons of HOT down the drain annually.
I'm no longer current on model offerings, so no advice there. In my time Bosch was making good equipment with a solid warranty. Ymmv.
Edit. Tankless units have no problem at all making hot water reliably in Canada.
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Thanks for the info.
We have a technician coming out on Friday to suggest different options that can work for us.
My thoughts were less about saving space and more about saving energy. We don't use that much hot water to start with.

Be careful on who comes into your house these days, anyone that is licensed and values that license is under obligation too write you up for any infractions or anything that is not up to code.....ask me how I know...

It don’t matter if it’s been there since Christ, if it’s not up to code they can red tag you, until it’s been corrected,

They told me my venting was wrong and not to code, even though it’s been there for the past 18 years, so out came the the tags, thousand bucks to fix it, or gas would be shut off, I turned around and replaced all with new, furnace, hot water tank, humidifier, AC, paying 112 a month, figured the grand saved has covered me for a year of payments

As for savings, not much unfortunately, I was going to go tankless as well, but it was not cost effective, short term or long term, your more or less saving space, not much of anything else, water tanks are very efficient these days, ohh and don’t get a power vented one if possible, as u will then be using electricity to power the fan, so again a loss, as you have to pay for gas and electricity...

.
 
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Be careful on who comes into your house these days, anyone that is licensed and values that license is under obligation too write you up for any infractions or anything that is not up to code.....ask me how I know...

It don’t matter if it’s been there since Christ, if it’s not up to code they can red tag you, until it’s been corrected,

They told me my venting was wrong and not to code, even though it’s been there for the past 18 years, so out came the the tags, thousand bucks to fix it, or gas would be shut off, I turned around and replaced all with new, furnace, hot water tank, humidifier, AC, paying 112 a month, figured the grand saved has covered me for a year of payments

As for savings, not much unfortunately, I was going to go tankless as well, but it was not cost effective, short term or long term, your more or less saving space, not much of anything else, water tanks are very efficient these days, ohh and don’t get a power vented one if possible, as u will then be using electricity to power the fan, so again a loss, as you have to pay for gas and electricity...

.
Water tanks efficient? What?

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Yeah they changed code from abs to pvc for venting. I didn't think they would red tag you if the system wasn't touched, though.

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Yeah they changed code from abs to pvc for venting. I didn't think they would red tag you if the system wasn't touched, though.

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Wasn’t even that, I needed to have B-vent or D-vent, it’s metal and double walled, mine wasn’t, was told it could get hot and cause a fire, yet it wasn’t even close to any combustibles...go figure, ahh whatever, now I’m good for at least 10 years, it’s all new....

Like I said, they don’t care, if it’s not to code, they tag you....whoever is last in the house and is licensed and if something happens, their butt is on the line...

.
 
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We put in a 60gal tank when then kids lived here, now for 2 people we heat a huge tank. I looked at a tankless when they were a newer idea here, the cost was prohibitive. They are extremely popular in Europe and I think the tech has gotten better. It will be part of the conversation with our enevitable reno.

I'm in the boat where the house has 35yr old B vent, its nearing the end of its life. The furnace is 22, A/C is 30yrs old, water heater is 10. Its time to change out everything, I suspect i'm looking at 10-15K depending on the level we choose.
 
I'm in the boat where the house has 35yr old B vent, its nearing the end of its life. The furnace is 22, A/C is 30yrs old, water heater is 10. Its time to change out everything, I suspect i'm looking at 10-15K depending on the level we choose.

Those $'s seem awfully low to me. Let us know where they end up.

When I had my furnace replaced, the tech didn't like the single wall pipe that ran 2' between the top of the hot water tank and double walled chimney. If he touched it, he said it had to be replaced with double wall (at crazy pricing). He went for lunch and I reorganized the pipe so he didn't have to touch it.

The new house has a beastly hot water tank (80 or 85 gallon). It's a rental three years into contract so it will probably be a while before I can change something. So many houses we looked at had multiple 100 gallon tubs and 40 or 50 gallon rental tanks. It seemed most people were downsizing as the kids had moved out so they rented a tank good for two people. Many were less than a year into the contract for the new tank. If people aren't planning on staying in their house for the next decade, they need to consider future occupants when speccing mechanical equipment or it will turn off buyers.
 
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I don't recall what our gas tank rental is but since we're empty nest I'm thinking an electric tank can be purchased for a couple of years rental. Bonus is that it can be located just about anywhere as no venting is required. That opens up shop space.
 

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