Down with the old & Up with the new

[luvmytoolz]

Nothing worse than water running through the shed. Ours is a little downhill from the road, so I dug a trench along the front and diverted it down the side. Really torrential rain I put a roofing sheet across the roller door in the trench to stop backflow. It's on my list of things to fix!

 

[Michael Kellough]

Grading looks very good. Does the drain go below the frost line?

 

[rvieceli]

[member=44099]Cheese[/member] were those Koi fish in that catch basin or just leaves.  [tongue].

Ron

Everything looks great.  [big grin]

 

[Cheese]

Nothing worse than water running through the shed. Ours is a little downhill from the road, so I dug a trench along the front and diverted it down the side. Really torrential rain I put a roofing sheet across the roller door in the trench to stop backflow. It's on my list of things to fix!

Ya, it's amazing how long we all live with these glaring issues. After a couple of quick fixes, we just live with the problem for years and years and think nothing about it... [big grin] I guess that's how we're programmed to deal with more consequential issues.  [smile]

 

[Cheese]

Grading looks very good. Does the drain go below the frost line?

No Michael, the drain is only about 6"-12" below the top soil. In Minnesota, the drain would have to be at least 48" below the top soil but because it runs under an alley, it would then have to be about 60'' below the soil level because the frost line is "pounded down" further with heavy trucks & traffic. On busy streets and on the coldest months, the frost line can be at least 72" deep. Nothing's sacred in Thor's country.  [big grin]

 

[Cheese]

[member=44099]Cheese[/member] were those Koi fish in that catch basin or just leaves.  [tongue].

Ron

Everything looks great.  [big grin]

That's funny that you mention that Ron as Koi ponds are a big thing here despite the cold winters. My neighbor has one that's only about 3' deep and he's nurtured that for the last 10 years. Another neighbor has raised Koi outside for the last 15 years but hers is about 4' deep.  [cool]

A surface heater and a smidgen of food goes a long way.  [smile]

 

[luvmytoolz]

Nothing worse than water running through the shed. Ours is a little downhill from the road, so I dug a trench along the front and diverted it down the side. Really torrential rain I put a roofing sheet across the roller door in the trench to stop backflow. It's on my list of things to fix!

Ya, it's amazing how long we all live with these glaring issues. After a couple of quick fixes, we just live with the problem for years and years and think nothing about it... [big grin] I guess that's how we're programmed to deal with more consequential issues.  [smile]

One of the many, many, things I've learnt from the decades of marriage with my very knowledgeable wife, is that no matter how bad I think a problem is, my missus will regularly find one that's actually waaay more urgent, so a lot of stuff gets left longer than it probably should as I've been shown there's more important stuff to do! ;-)

 

[Cheese]

Here's the 4" diameter drain line from the 12" basin box drain. I'd estimate the total drop from the initial install is probably close to 20". So if we apply the 1/4" per foot rule, at 80' that works out to be pretty close.

[attachimg=1]

And here's a photo of where it exists .

[attachimg=2]

And to ensure that it will actually drain, you always have to test it. Look closely.  [smile]

[attachimg=3]

 

[Michael Kellough]

Grading looks very good. Does the drain go below the frost line?

No Michael, the drain is only about 6"-12" below the top soil. In Minnesota, the drain would have to be at least 48" below the top soil but because it runs under an alley, it would then have to be about 60'' below the soil level because the frost line is "pounded down" further with heavy trucks & traffic. On busy streets and on the coldest months, the frost line can be at least 72" deep. Nothing's sacred in Thor's country.  [big grin]

You forgot to mention that the drain pipe is heated. Good job!

 

[Cheese]

You forgot to mention that the drain pipe is heated. Good job!

Thanks Michael...typical practice locally, is to install/pull 2 heat tapes at the same time because they are known for having a short service life. Frost King heat tapes offer a whopping 30 DAY warranty.  [blink]  In most cases, the heat tape hasn't even been plugged in and it's already out of warranty.

Because of the long 85' run and the interior corrugations inside the drain pipe, I was expecting the install to be difficult so I searched for an industrial/commercial heat tape so that I wasn't replacing it every year. I found a local manufacturer, Radiant Solutions, that produces their own heat tapes and they offer a 10 YEAR warranty. You register the tape online at their website and they send you an email confirming the warranty dates for your own records. Everything is up front and both parties know how long the warranty lasts...pretty slick.  [big grin]

Here's a comparison between a Frost King tape and the Radiant Solutions tape. The differences in physical size and construction are stunning.

[attachimg=1]

[attachimg=2]

A couple of other nice features is that the RS tape produces variable heat by varying the current it draws so as the air temp increases the tape draws less current and thus the tape temp decreases thus lengthening the life of the tape. The traditional heat tape draws a constant current so as the weather warms the tape runs hotter and hotter...until it no longer does.  [blink]

The RS tape also has an LED light at the end that lets you know if it's working. No more removing your mittens to grab the tape to see if it's warm or not.

[attachimg=3]

[attachimg=4]

 

[Cheese]

Sorry to everyone about single handedly taking the Fog down today. [big grin]

I never realized that the Down with the old & Up with the new thread was so powerful.  [cool]

 

[ChuckM]

Because a couple of days ago, Peter posted that Festool had done something to solve the alarming and unpredictable performance issues. Someone screwed up, or the technical issues are beyond the existing IT staff to diagnose. The on-and-off IT problems have persisted for months now.

 

[luvmytoolz]

Because a couple of days ago, Peter posted that Festool had done something to solve the alarming and unpredictable performance issues. Someone screwed up, or the technical issues are beyond the existing IT staff to diagnose. The on-and-off IT problems have persisted for months now.

I blame Cheese!

 

[ChuckM]

I actually blame temu, which successfully opened some accounts and posted spam. It might be pi- ss-ed off when their posts were removed. So it decided to teach us a lesson. [big grin]

 

[Cheese]

I actually blame temu, which successfully opened some accounts and posted spam. It might be pi- ss-ed off when their posts were removed. So it decided to teach us a lesson. [big grin]

You may not be too far off on your evaluation Chuck... [scared]...I'm certainly no conspiracy theorist but...

Interestingly enough when I tried to reply to this post it took almost 30 seconds just to load.  [sad]

AND it took 80 seconds to post.

 

[Cheese]

And 7 hours later we're back up and running.  [blink]

 

[ChuckM]

I'm not holding my breath until after we have had a few days of smooth running. But at least it's nice that they seemed to have tried harder this time.

 

[Cheese]

I originally installed this aluminum fence 16 years ago. At the time, I ordered all of the posts & panels I thought I needed to future-proof it when I constructed the new garage which was only going to be a couple of years down the road.  [tongue] [blink]

Well I was close but not quite there in my original assessment, so I recently needed to purchase 1 additional 8' panel and 2 more posts. Each fence panel comes with 4 mounting brackets and 8 stainless fasteners. The normal mix is 8 stainless carriage bolts and 8 stainless flange hex nuts. When I picked up the fence panel, the nut on the RH side is the style of nut I was provided. They're referred to as T-groove security nuts.

[attachimg=1]

I chose this particular fence because of its heavy duty construction as it's very popular for commercial installations. Well it seems that during Covid, this particular fence suddenly became very popular with scrappers because of its weight, as they didn't have to risk electrocution or "breaking and entering" to maintain their scrap quota.  [sad]  Thus Ameristar changed all of the nuts provided on their Echelon Plus® product line to T-groove security nuts. 

 

[Cheese]

So, I mentioned previously that I knew I was going to build a new garage at some point and I attempted to order all of the fencing before hand that I may need in the future to prevent that dratted "No longer Available" reply when you try to repurchase in the future.

I lucked out and pretty much nailed it when I originally purchased the fencing materials 16 years ago.  [smile]  It amounted to needing an additional 8' fence section that could be split into a 5' section and a 3' section...both were perfect for my application.

So, to take a step backwards, when the new fence sections needed to be installed, the total distance was only 10', but the fence sections are only sold in 8' increments. To make the installation look proper, I took 2 of the 8' sections and shortened each of them to 5' long sections.

There's also a considerable drop in grade level next to the sidewalk to aid in snow melt runoff and keep the water away from the garage itself. That necessitated shortening each picket in one of the 5' sections to mirror the grade of the yard.

Here's the new 8' section being shortened to 5' and also being shortened in height so that it mirrors the grade of the yard.

[attachimg=1]

[attachimg=2]

And these are the actual lengths I needed to remove from each picket.

[attachimg=3]

Here's the before and after for the last fence section.

[attachimg=4]

[attachimg=5]

And finally, how the lower fence rails look relative to the grade of the yard.

[attachimg=6]

 

[Michael Kellough]

Looking really good!

Aluminum fence? Cut with track saw?

OT  I like the tight figure/grain on that sheet of plywood.