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I don't know weather the walls go below the frost-line. I do know the house has a basement, so on that side at least the garage is attached to a foundation wall below frost-line. Is there any way to tell this by visual inspection?

Thanks for the advice glennjanie. I actually ended up solving the problem a differeny way. Rather than replacing the window, I removed the dryer vent on the left, chipped out the glass and took it to a glass company. They were able to replace the pane in the glass for me. I did some pointing...

I am considering purchasing a house, I am concerned whether some issues with the attached garage could affect the foundation of the main dwelling. The garage is roughly 12 x 24, there is a crack that works it's way entirely across the 12' width. I am going to guess that it is caused by the...

Okay, well I actually figured out my problem. After talking with an electrician, it turns out that the outlet was being powered by two different wires. The outlet is in the kitchen, the breaker (the one that was smoking when I turned it on) was a double, and there are 2 hot wires (red &...

I have an outlet in my kitchen which is not working. When I measure it I get 75 volts so there is some power there, just apparently not enough. My main issue is that I am having trouble diagnosing the problem because I cannot turn the power off to the outlet. I turned off every single...

I need to replace my basement window but I am not quite sure what measurement to use for it given that the current frame looks like it is actually embedded into the concrete. The situation is also complicated because the concrete has a slope on all four of the outside edges. See image for...

Right now it is a fairly tight seal. The frame has warped ever so slightly so it is quit snug on the top left corner and somewhat less so as you move away from that. Still you couldn't put more than a couple sheets of paper in the gap.

The current exterior door in my house is in need of replacement. It is an old wooden door which does not seem to be particularly heavy and hence probably hollow. It is ugly, it is drafty, and to top it off it has a giant window in it which seriously defeats any concept of security. The door...

You guys were correct. The switch wasn't screwed down so when I was nailing in the staple, the pressure must have been just enough to pull the hot side to the box and ZAAAPPP!

I have just finished the wiring for a room in my house and was putting in the last few staples to hold the wire down. I didn't think to turn the power off while doing this. While pounding in a staple of a wire going into a switch box, the switch box threw a series of sparks and the power off...

Ok. If I staple the wiring to the sides of the 2x2's, then in that case do I need to use metal plates over top or is that ONLY where they go through the wood.

Well thanks for the help everyone. After thinking it over and talking with some more people it doesn't sound like what I have will work. The solution I ultimately came up with was to install some special X-10 switches which only require 1 traveller wire. They are not easy on the wallet though!

Hi. I have the same issue with installing electrical around furring strips and I just wanted to make sure I understand how this works. I am working around 2 " x 2" strips, this is the original framing in my basement and I would like to avoid re-framing. I am planning to put drywall up over...

So let me get this straight. For starters, a clear definition of terms. There are basically three boxes I am dealing with here: 1) a central junction box, from which the cables to the old switch and the new switch go. 2) the old dual switch box. This is where I am trying to replace a...

I am trying to figure out if my exiting wiring will allow me to use a 3-way switch. I have 3-conductor wire going from a junction box to a dual-switch box. I would like to replace 1 of the existing switches with a three way switch. The other switch is wired to the same three way cable and...

Okay, thanks for the link, the site is well .. very informative. A little overwhelming almost but exactly what I needed. Reading through some of the water diagnostic papers it sounds like it may be a problem with moisture in the air condensing onto the interior surface of the walls, and then...

I don'[t mean to second guess you, but .. are you sure I don't need back vapor barrier or something by the foundation? :) Believe me, I am truly hoping the answer is yes as this would save me considerable expense and effort. The 1 thing I didn't mention is that there is some browning of the...

I have a project underway to redo a couple of rooms in my basement. The house is from the early 70's and is basically new to me. Since I am happy with the current layout of the rooms, my plan was to rip down the old walls (cheap panel board) and just replace it with drywall. I would like to...