Fix-It Frank

02/05/2023

A week ago (January 29, 2023) I undertook a fun-filled project: rebuilding the bathroom floor under my very own toilet. It was a pretty confined area, but even so it took ten hours. Every picture (with text) tells a story.

05/02/2022

It's been months since I posted anything. Not that I couldn't have. There's been plenty of work to keep me busy. But this past week was especially notable because I had to fix a floor in an enclosed sun room porch. It took three days.

Admittedly, the floor was pretty bouncy. Not like one of those inflatable castles, but 'tis enough, t'will serve. The inspector who cited it was going to write it up as an emergency. Some fast talking and a bit of misdirection got us out of that bind.

So, anyway, in the last week of April I sucked it up and got to work. First task was to take up the tongue & groove floorboards. Take them up, without demolishing them. That was kind of slow going, because they were nailed in place. Four or five in it became obvious why the floor was so bouncy. Whoever built it used 2 x 6s. Twelve feet long, with no cross bracing or other support.

Ten floorboards in, it became clear the builders had thrown all the debris from the old porch underneath. It was a mess. My plan was to brace up the floor with a support beam, but there was no chance of that without getting some of the debris out.

Somehow I got down to the ground. There was one small benefit to having that that junk under the floor: some of the material was still usable. Some leftover 2 x 6 short ends became a support beam, and two 6x6 posts became support pillars. The floor is good and firm now. Half of it anyway. If someone else wants to tackle other half they're welcome to it.

07/24/2021

This was how I started my week. Would it be asking too much for people to report problems when they're small and relatively manageable? I suppose so.

Rodding from the overflow accomplished nothing. I ended up having to bail most of the water out with a bucket first.

02/01/2021

A project I had to put off for a week: fixing my small auger. The crank on the back snaps off, revealing a shaft that can be inserted into a drill to make it a powered auger. The snake is only 1/4", but I've been able to use this tool effectively on sink and even bathtub drains.

Or I was until the snake got kinked in several locations. Fortunately, you can buy a replacement. I did so, and then set aside time on the weekend. Well waddya know, it only took about 15 minutes. There was a small pin to push out in order to remove the red handle in front, then the snake to extract (which I coiled up as I went so it wouldn't skitter all over the floor), then four screws to take off the back of the drum, then another screw and washer holding the back end of the snake in, and the old snake was out.

Then I cleaned up rust and other crap that had accumulated in the drum, and put in the new snake. Which entailed doing all the steps above in reverse order. Done. Good as new.

I like it when a project that could f-up in half a dozen ways goes smoothly.

11/08/2020

Elaborating on my earlier post, here's what a couple racc***s did to a roof at a different property. What you can't see: the hole they created that gave them entry into one corner of an upstairs bedroom.

09/07/2020

Bit by bit, pest control has become a bigger part of what I do as a handyman, there being a lot of Urban Wildlife (ie: mice, rats, and racc***s) that have co-evolved to trail after us fabulously bountiful humans and make nests in our homes if they can. Such was the case at a house on the west side of Chicago, where the critters pictured performed some exceptional anti-masonry work about 12' above ground level to create an access hole. Never underestimate the destructive ingenuity of 'c***s. The second week of August I set about evicting the squatters.

05/10/2020

Handyman tip: you can turn a corded circular saw into a cordless saw simply by letting the cord stray into the path of a moving blade. All it takes is a moment of careless inattention and the saw will do the rest.

09/13/2019

So, back in June I had a small emergency: fixing a damaged exterior basement door.

05/28/2019

What did you do on Memorial Day? I fixed a leaking solder joint in a 1/2" cold water line. The problem developed in the basement of a rental house where the tenant was in the process of (slowly) moving in, and I wanted the project out of my inbox badly enough to head there on a holiday. I figured it wouldn't take more than two hours anyway, maybe three.

Silly me, I should never make such assumptions about anything plumbing-related. I ended up needing some things from the hardware store, and while I was there a torrential rainstorm broke out. It somewhat inhibited the completion of the job, and also revealed another problem with that property. In the end I accomplished what I came there to do, though I cheated by using Sharkbite compression fittings.

05/28/2019

05/28/2019

04/21/2019

So, this past Friday afternoon I was working for a regular client who owns several properties, one of which was up for a re-inspection. All of the issues that had contributed to it failing its first inspection had been rectified, or so I thought. A loose toilet was one of the fail items, and when I gave said appliance a little tug and push it turned out it was still loose. Simple problem, right? Usually. In this case it turned out the toilet was loose because the fl**ge it was bolted to was also loose.

The fl**ge was new, and I was at the house working on another project the day it was installed. The guy who installed it was the same guy who put the toilet on the old fl**ge and I guess hoped no one would notice the thing was wobbly. And why did it wobble? Because the owners had replaced the bathroom's ceramic tile floor with Pergo, which is a much thinner material. Thus the old fl**ge was nearly a full inch above it. Apparently he lobbied hard for the job because he wanted to redeem himself, and then half-assed his redemption.

Although I had only about 30 to 45 minutes, I decided I'd take the time to rectify one of the guy's mistakes: he put the fl**ge on top of the floor rather than cutting some away so that it would rest on the sub-floor; positioned where it was, the fl**ge was still too high, the toilet still wobbled, and thus still had to be shimmed up. With the fl**ge a bit lower the toilet would be able to sit on the floor like it was meant to. I had to make some other minor adjustments so that the pipes below the floor still fit, but that was ok. I screwed the fl**ge down, then scrapped up as much wax from the wax ring as I could to construct a water barrier; there was no hardware store close enough that I could get there and get back for the inspection.

I finished putting everything back together just before the inspector arrived. Which was good, because Nature was Calling and he needed to use the facility. After he passed his business, the house passed muster. Huzzah!

I'm glad I had my s**t when I most needed to.