Category: Home Improvement

There will always come a time when you wish the noise outside your room in your home could go away and that the sound that you are making, e.g. from playing music to watching a movie, could not be heard by people in other rooms. There is a unit of measure called STC (Sound Transmission Control) that indicates how much of a sound can penetrate a wall. According to Wikipedia, here are common levels.

STC	What can be heard
25	Normal speech can be understood quite easily and distinctly through wall
30	Loud speech can be understood fairly well, normal speech heard but not understood
35	Loud speech audible but not intelligible
40	Onset of “privacy”
42	Loud speech audible as a murmur
45	Loud speech not audible; 90% of statistical population not annoyed
50	Very loud sounds such as musical instruments or a stereo can be faintly heard; 99% of population not annoyed.
60+	Good soundproofing; most sounds do not disturb neighbouring residents.

and here are different STC values by partition (wall) type.

STC	Partition type
27	Single pane glass window (typical value) (Dual pane glass window range is 26-32)
33	Single layer of 1/2″ drywall on each side, wood studs, no insulation (typical interior wall)
39	Single layer of 1/2″ drywall on each side, wood studs, fiberglass insulation
44	4″ Hollow CMU (Concrete Masonry Unit)
45	Double layer of 1/2″ drywall on each side, wood studs, batt insulation in wall
46	Single layer of 1/2″ drywall, glued to 6″ lightweight concrete block wall, painted both sides
46	6″ Hollow CMU (Concrete Masonry Unit)
48	8″ Hollow CMU (Concrete Masonry Unit)
50	10″ Hollow CMU (Concrete Masonry Unit)
52	8″ Hollow CMU (Concrete Masonry Unit) with 2″ Z-Bars and 1/2″ Drywall on each side
54	Single layer of 1/2″ drywall, glued to 8″ dense concrete block wall, painted both sides
54	8″ Hollow CMU (Concrete Masonry Unit) with 1 1/2″ Wood Furring, 1 1/2″ Fiberglass Insulation and 1/2″ Drywall on each side
55	Double layer of 1/2″ drywall on each side, on staggered wood stud wall, batt insulation in wall
59	Double layer of 1/2″ drywall on each side, on wood stud wall, resilient channels on one side, batt insulation
63	Double layer of 1/2″ drywall on each side, on double wood/metal stud walls (spaced 1″ apart), double batt insulation
64	8″ Hollow CMU (Concrete Masonry Unit) with 3″ Steel Studs, Fiberglass Insulation and 1/2″ Drywall on each side
72	8″ concrete block wall, painted, with 1/2″ drywall on independent steel stud walls, each side, insulation in cavities

Note that a typical interior wall has an STC value of 33.

Some options for increasing the STC value in your walls:

• National Gypsum makes a board called “SoundBreak XP Retrofit” which you place over your existing standard drywall. This increased the STC value from 33 to 36.
• Adding fiberglass insulation in your wall increase the STC value from 33 to 39.
• Adding another layer of 1/2″ drywall to your existing 1/2″ drywall and adding batt (pre-cut fiberglass) insulation between the studs will increase the STC value from 33 to 45.
• For doors, try placing a soundproof curtain in front of it along with a door gasket / sweep and automatic door bottom or a draft stopper

 

Cutting curves in ceramic tile, plywood, and plexiglass / acrylic

Cutting straight lines in ceramic tile is easy with a tile saw. But cutting curves, e.g. for toilet drains, can be tricky. Diamond hole saws are expensive. Instead, use a rotary tool (e.g. Dremel) with either a tile cutting bit or a tile cutting wheel.  Or, use a jig saw with a carbide grit blade. You can also cut wood and plexiglass using the appropriate bits as well.

Drilling a hole in ceramic tile

Drilling a hole in ceramic or porcelain tile can’t be done with a regular twist drill bit. Use a diamond or carbide-tipped masonry bit. To keep the bit from slipping off the glossy surface, put masking tape on the surface.

Cutting drywall

Cutting drywall can be done manually with a drywall saw but you can also use a power tool. Though oscillating tools and reciprocating saws can do the job, they won’t give a fine cut. Instead, use a rotary tool with a drywall bit.

Trimming drywall

If you cut drywall that is slightly too large to fit an opening, instead of trying to trim it with a utility knife or saw, use a rasp plane.

Measuring long distances by yourself

Put a nail into one end of the distance you want to measure. Put the end of the measuring tape into that nail to keep the measuring tape end in place. Pull the measuring tape end into the nail and pull.

Drawing circles

Put a nail into the material at the center of your desired circle. Hook the end of a tape measure into the nail. Hold a pencil against the tape measure at a distance equal to the radius of your desired circle. Rotate the measuring tape to draw a circle.

 

 

Microfiber cloths (available at Costco)

• for wiping kitchen, windows, glass, etc

Pressure Washer (available at Costco)

• clean driveway
• clean house exterior
• clean fence

Clorox Disinfecting Wipes (available at Costco)

• clean glass, including hard (mineral) water stains on shower glass
• clean soap scum on shower tiles
• clean dirt and soap scum on vanity and sink bowls
• clean stainless steel appliances
• clean kitchen countertops
• clean microwave interior
• clean faucets

Continue reading Cleaning Tips

• Ground wires always go to ground
• To see if a circuit is correct, there must be a loop. Follow the black wire from the panel (source) and then through the light or outlet and then along the white wire and back to the panel. If there’s a loop, then it’s correct.

I’ve accumulated quite a bit of tools now to the point that I sometimes forget what I have so I created a personal tool inventory page.

View My Tool Collection

Recently my shower drain wasn’t draining water as fast as it used to. I normally use Drano but heard about the good reviews that Hair and Grease Drain Opener got which also comes with a money-back guarantee so I gave it a shot. Turns out it worked perfectly the first time. Here’s what I did:

1. Poured 2.5 cups of the Hair and Grease Drain Opener liquid down the drain
2. Waiting 6 hours (you can also just wait overnight)
3. Boiled a pot of water
4. Poured the boiling water down the drain
5. Clog was gone

tl;dr

• Put the choke in the off position.
• Pull the start the engine.
• If the engine doesn’t start after two pulls, put the choke in the on position and pull to try to start the engine again

Normally

• when the engine has been off for a long time, e.g. after storage, you need to choke the engine by turning the choke to the on position and then pulling the rope to turn the engine on.
• when the engine has been running and you temporarily turn it off for, say, 15 minutes, then the engine is still warm and you don’t need the choke to be on to restart the engine. if you restart a warmed-up engine with the choke on, the engine won’t start because there will be too much fuel going into the engine.

Continue reading Starting a Small Engine Equipment with Choke Control

If you open your circuit breaker, you’ll see a bunch of breakers with tabs. Each breaker controls a circuit for a certain part of your house, e.g. a circuit for the kitchen, a circuit for the bathroom, etc. Each breaker has a max amp rating, e.g. 15A or 20A. If you multiply the amp rating by 120 volts, you’ll get the max wattage the circuit can handle. e.g. 20×120 = 2400 watts. So if you have 14 circuit breakers that each can support a maximum of 20 amps (or 2400 watts), then your entire circuit breaker panel for your house can handle 14 x 2400 watts = 33,600 watts. However, this is all theoretical. If someone replaced a 15A breaker with a 20A breaker, you’ll have problems, e.g. a possible fire.

Continue reading Calculate Max Wattage a House Can Handle

Calculate Energy Cost For a Device

1. Read the wattage on the label of the device
   If the device doesn’t have a label, you can buy a wattage measuring device, such as the Kill A Watt.
   
2. Calculate Watts Per Day
   To calculate energy consumption costs, simply multiply the unit’s wattage by the number of hours you use it to find the number of watt-hours consumed each day. For example, let’s say you use a 125 watt television for three hours per day. By multiplying the wattage by the number of hours used per day, we find that you are using 375 watt-hours per day.125 watts X 3 hours = 375 watt-hours per day
3. Convert to Kilowatts
   But electricity is measure in kilowatt hours on your electricity bill. Since we know that 1 kilowatt is equal to 1,000 watts, calculating how many kWh a particular device uses is as easy as dividing by 1,000.375 watt-hours per day / 1000 = 0.375 kWh per day
4. Calculate Usage Over a Month Period
   Now to find out how much that’s actually going to cost you on your electric bill, you’ll have to take the equation a bit further. First you’ll need to figure out how many kWh the TV uses per month.375 watt-hours per day X 30 days = 11.25 kWh per month
5. Calculate Monthly Cost
   Next, pull out your last electric bill and see how much you pay per kWh. For this example, let’s say you pay 10 cents per kilowatt hour. To find how much the TV is costing you in a month, multiply your electricity rate by the kWh per month that you calculated above.
   11.25 kWh per month X $0.10 per kWh = $1.13 per month

Continue reading How to Calculate Electric Costs

When deciding on lighting for a particular room, it helps to see how light from different types of light bulbs placed at different locations will look, e.g. do you want a bunch of spot lights or a few flood lights? Below is a simple setup showing how you can attach lights to your ceiling for testing purposes.

Buy these long pendant lights. They’re available on Amazon for $13 for a pack of two.

Continue reading Test Lighting in a Room