Enough of COVID...what are you doing to the house?

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I built and installed two new gates to replace the sagging ones. I just have to apply some end-cut sealant.

Mine's the curvaceous one.
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The next major project is replacing the cedar hedge across the back of the property. A discussion with the neighbour on the other side has opened up some options.

He already has cedar on three sides of his yard and wants a fence to break things up. I don't want to see a fence so will go ahead with the hedge on my side.

He sees a fence and I see a hedge, all good. Some shared input reduces the extent and therefore costs. If he pays for his fence on his property, I'll pay for the hedge on mine.

I've got pricing on the R&R of the hedge but have no idea of the cost of a six-foot high fence, PT or cedar. Comments for about 40 feet long?

Also on the prewinter list is painting a few exterior windows. Scrape, sand, prime and finish coat. The joy of home ownership.
 
GreyGhost said:
If it is a leak, it should be pretty obvious on the underside of the deck. I'd probably put a sprinkler on the roof and ensure there was nothing coming in prior to spray foam installation. You may not have the time to do that though.
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Looks like a leak, maybe more than one, not huge but bad enough No idea why we only saw issues in the summer but maybe the batts dried out when there was little humidity in the winter/end of summer and soaked the water up, in the summer with high humidity they were saturated along with condensation and the water came through? There was also condensation too so who knows. They also got rid of an old bees nest and some dead mice. They also found out that the continuation of the ceiling inside a closet wasn’t insulated at all.

Plans have changed. Drying the ceiling out with industrial fans and a huge dehumidifier. Getting a quote for a peaked roof. Need an engineer and building permits. The idea is to go ahead with the spray foam insulation, keep the flat roof. Put a ridge line down the middle of it and add a peak with soffits and vents. That's quite a bit cheaper than ripping off the flat roof and installing a proper attic space. The new roof above the existing flat roof will be fully ventilated and the spray foam above the ceiling will be a very good thermal barrier.

I've been up on the roof all morning putting bitumen patch compound down every seam with seaming tape. I spread it out wider where the plywood underside was wettest.

Time to open the pocket book.
 
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JC99 said:
Looks like a leak, maybe more than one, not huge but bad enough No idea why we only saw issues in the summer but maybe the bats dried out when there was little humidity in the winter/end of summer and soaked the water up, in the summer with high humidity they were saturated along with condensation and the water came through? There was also condensation too so who knows. They also got rid of an old bees nest and some dead mice. They also found out that the continuation of the ceiling inside a closet wasn’t insulated at all.

Plans have changed. Drying the ceiling out with industrial fans and a huge dehumidifier. Getting a quote for a peaked roof. Need an engineer and building permits. The idea is to go ahead with the spray foam insulation, keep the flat roof. Put a ridge line down the middle of it and add a peak with soffits and vents. That's quite a bit cheaper than ripping off the flat roof and installing a proper attic space. The new roof above the existing flat roof will be fully ventilated and the spray foam above the ceiling will be a very good thermal barrier.

I've been up on the roof all morning putting bitumen patch compound down every seam with seaming tape. I spread it out wider where the plywood underside was wettest.

Time to open the pocket book.
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You might need permits, but you don't need an engineer. If you buy trusses (usually cheapest and best), the truss company stamps your drawings. If you stick frame (heavier on labour) your carpenter will know how to do it to code.

Another option is to keep it simple with a single slope instead of a peak. Fast and easy to frame, works great up to 16' spans, and if you face the high point to the front of the house you can use forever sheet metal roofing.
 
Mad Mike said:
You might need permits, but you don't need an engineer. If you buy trusses (usually cheapest and best), the truss company stamps your drawings. If you stick frame (heavier on labour) your carpenter will know how to do it to code.

Another option is to keep it simple with a single slope instead of a peak. Fast and easy to frame, works great up to 16' spans, and if you face the high point to the front of the house you can use forever sheet metal roofing.
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I don’t know if it makes a difference but the roof is not a normal shape. I'll post some pics.
 
Weird shape. Second photo shows a bit of the tie in to the existing sloped roof. The stripes are what I did this morning to the seams.
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The wettest plywood was in-between the 3rd and 4th seam from the leading edge of the roof. That's a low point on this particular roof and where we get pooling water. The stains on the plywood indicate that it isn't a huge area. There was staining at one edge where we get an ice dam at times and opposite at a point where I can see daylight from inside the room which is a bit disconcerting. That point seems to be from an edge panel that was bulging out a bit from an old satellite cable under it that looks like it was installed pretty shoddily.
 
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I built this generator sound box this morning using spare wood I had laying around. The top is angled to allow snow/rain to run off, sound waves to be directed away, and heat to escape easier. It is also the correct size to fit nearby under a deck out of sight to store when not needed.
I plan to line it as well but I took some initial readings using my calibrated microphone inside the room closest to the generator. Red is without the box and green is with. There is a massive difference as well. The human ear perceives 3dB as being twice as loud. In the 100-200Hz area it is 7dB quieter and in the 250Hz area it is 13dB.
 

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Hardwrkr13 said:
I built this generator sound box this morning using spare wood I had laying around. The top is angled to allow snow/rain to run off, sound waves to be directed away, and heat to escape easier. It is also the correct size to fit nearby under a deck out of sight to store when not needed.
I plan to line it as well but I took some initial readings using my calibrated microphone inside the room closest to the generator. Red is without the box and green is with. There is a massive difference as well. The human ear perceives 3dB as being twice as loud. In the 100-200Hz area it is 7dB quieter and in the 250Hz area it is 13dB.
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3 dB is half the energy but not perceived as half the level. 10 dB is perceived as half/twice as loud.
 
Sigh. For my roof issue I think the major damage is partly down to a satellite cable install (not me) from nearly 20 years ago I think. The cable looks like it helped water follow a course under the edge flashing at one area to a point where there was a small gap into the ceiling cavity. If rain blew a certain way it would lead water into that area. One of the roof repairs we had must have created that gap or shifted the cable.

If I had a Time Machine there's quite a bit of ass kicking I'd like to do.
 
@madmike do you have a link for the multizone mini-split heat pump you talked about before? I see some at Home Depot but the multizone outdoor unit plus the indoor air-blowers are more than twice the cost of two single zone units which doesn’t seem right to me.
 
JC99 said:
@madmike do you have a link for the multizone mini-split heat pump you talked about before? I see some at Home Depot but the multizone outdoor unit plus the indoor air-blowers are more than twice the cost of two single zone units which doesn’t seem right to me.
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Senville has a few brands and sells a ton of them. They have many options for number and size of heads. I don't have an opinion on quality or value.

Mini Split Heat Pumps - Ductless Heat Pumps

Find a selection of ductless heat pumps that can heat your home or business up to -30C. View prices of our most popular mini split air conditioners with heat.
senville.ca senville.ca
 
GreyGhost said:
Senville has a few brands and sells a ton of them. They have many options for number and size of heads. I don't have an opinion on quality or value.

Mini Split Heat Pumps - Ductless Heat Pumps

Find a selection of ductless heat pumps that can heat your home or business up to -30C. View prices of our most popular mini split air conditioners with heat.
senville.ca senville.ca
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That's the kind of thing I was looking for. 18000 BTU Dual Zone Mini Split Air Conditioner - Heat Pump - SENA/18HF/D

Thanks. The Home Depot units were giants and cost 4K without the head units.
 
GreyGhost said:
Senville has a few brands and sells a ton of them. They have many options for number and size of heads. I don't have an opinion on quality or value.

Mini Split Heat Pumps - Ductless Heat Pumps

Find a selection of ductless heat pumps that can heat your home or business up to -30C. View prices of our most popular mini split air conditioners with heat.
senville.ca senville.ca
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Those seem very European like, and seen them quite often in Mexico. Doesn't LG make tons of them.
 
sburns said:
Those seem very European like, and seen them quite often in Mexico. Doesn't LG make tons of them.
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My guess is the LG ones are a bit pricier but I'll look. I'm interested in one of these as the prices don’t seem outrageous, I can’t run ductwork to this area and I have a 220V circuit free near where it needs to be installed. Initially for the room above an unheated garage I was going to get an electrically heated floor under new vinyl plank flooring but this is not much more expensive than the electric floor, gives AC as well and means the floor install will be cheaper. We can clear out both a window AC unit and an oil heater from the room too freeing up space and a bonus in that the units are pretty quiet. If I can get a dual unit I can then block off one duct outlet in another room upstairs and just have the main furnace and AC for mostly the lower level of the house. It'll be better balanced.

We've used them a lot down south (just AC) and they are great.
 
JC99 said:
That's the kind of thing I was looking for. 18000 BTU Dual Zone Mini Split Air Conditioner - Heat Pump - SENA/18HF/D

Thanks. The Home Depot units were giants and cost 4K without the head units.
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While you can self-install, most people shouldn't. For most people, I would recommend a competent installer and use the hardware they recommend. Lots of cowboys (and homeowners) connect the lines, pop the valves and call it a day. That lowers efficiency and lifespan. Lineset should be properly vacuumed down (either pull down to <200 microns or vacuum and nitrogen purge at least three times to remove water and oxygen from line set and evaporator).

If you are doing it yourself, make sure you consider lineset routing and get proper lengths (and have a good plan to deal with extra if you need to). You also need to consider where condensate is going. You probably don't want to dump it out the wall hole as it will be a pain for your future self.

For sburns, yes, LG makes a bunch, moov makes a bunch, also mitsubishi and many others. As with most chinese sourced products, there are a few actual manufacturers and many labels slapped on. Fwiw, my pool heat pump is made by moov with a different brand on the sticker. It's worked with no issues.

Sadly, the popular solution in texas with an evaporator in your ductwork (similar to conventional A/C) is almost unobtanium in Ontario. I see that Senville has what looks like a ducted air handler but not a loose coil. They do have one intriguing solution with a duct mounted coil that I could use to zone the house and increase heating/ac to the top floor.

There are also different outdoor units depending on how cold you want it to maintain efficiency in the winter.
 
GreyGhost said:
While you can self-install, most people shouldn't. For most people, I would recommend a competent installer and use the hardware they recommend. Lots of cowboys (and homeowners) connect the lines, pop the valves and call it a day. That lowers efficiency and lifespan. Lineset should be properly vacuumed down (either pull down to <200 microns or vacuum and nitrogen purge at least three times to remove water and oxygen from line set and evaporator).

If you are doing it yourself, make sure you consider lineset routing and get proper lengths (and have a good plan to deal with extra if you need to). You also need to consider where condensate is going. You probably don't want to dump it out the wall hole as it will be a pain for your future self.

For sburns, yes, LG makes a bunch, moov makes a bunch, also mitsubishi and many others. As with most chinese sourced products, there are a few actual manufacturers and many labels slapped on. Fwiw, my pool heat pump is made by moov with a different brand on the sticker. It's worked with no issues.

Sadly, the popular solution in texas with an evaporator in your ductwork (similar to conventional A/C) is almost unobtanium in Ontario. I see that Senville has what looks like a ducted air handler but not a loose coil. They do have one intriguing solution with a duct mounted coil that I could use to zone the house and increase heating/ac to the top floor.

There are also different outdoor units depending on how cold you want it to maintain efficiency in the winter.
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I saw that. These units heat down to -30C, the Costco ones I just looked at were -20C. Costco have Danby single units but they are decent prices.
 
JC99 said:
I saw that. These units heat down to -30C, the Costco ones I just looked at were -20C. Costco have Danby single units but they are decent prices.
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Don't read the marketing, read the engineering. You can probably find some data at neep (link below).

As temps drop, heat output drops and coefficient of performance drops. When COP gets to 1, you are essentially running a resistance heater with lots of moving parts. There is no magic temperature where it stops working. Marketing people aim for the lowest number to sound better.

Here's a snip from a random mitsubishi. COP at 5F is still 2 and it maintains the 45K BTU it was rated for. Power usage is double what is required at 47F (which has a COP of 4). Many manufacturers let output fall off instead of cranking input power higher.

ASHP

ashp.neep.org ashp.neep.org

 

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GreyGhost said:
Don't read the marketing, read the engineering. You can probably find some data at neep (link below).

As temps drop, heat output drops and coefficient of performance drops. When COP gets to 1, you are essentially running a resistance heater with lots of moving parts. There is no magic temperature where it stops working. Marketing people aim for the lowest number to sound better.

Here's a snip from a random mitsubishi. COP at 5F is still 2 and it maintains the 45K BTU it was rated for. Power usage is double what is required at 47F (which has a COP of 4). Many manufacturers let output fall off instead of cranking input power higher.

ASHP

ashp.neep.org ashp.neep.org

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I've never had a heat pump before. I'm going to guess they make things comfortable rather than pump out masses of heat?
 
JC99 said:
I've never had a heat pump before. I'm going to guess they make things comfortable rather than pump out masses of heat?
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The heat is different than heat from burning fossil fuels. That isn't necessarily good or bad. Like EV's, if you try to do exactly what you've always done, you'll probably be annoyed. Change your plans and expectations and you may like it better than the old system. In general, a heat pump will be much lower btu output than burning. This means temps at vents are not hot, just a bit warmer. This means that changing the temperature takes longer. They are far more efficient (btu/$) than the alternatives. Set the temp and forget it. It will be cheaper to run than your old system even if the old system was setting back every night. Because it runs for longer to satisfy demand, temp is more even.
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