The Home Ownership Thread

[brokencycle]

Anyone know a good paint on product to seal ceramic tiles? My new outdoor bar and countertop is 16x24 tile. It's beautiful but I want to seal against spills.

Is it natural stone? Wouldn't porcelain be okay without sealing?

 

[Ataturk]

Most are pretty much stain proof, but I guess it depends on the specific tile and how porous it is. You probably want to seal the grout anyway, though.

 

[Numbernine]

I’ve used the StoneTech heavy duty on various projects. Seems a solid product

 

[Piobaire]

http://www.florimusa.com/ethos/

Misquoted the size, used 12x24 then a 2" glass mosaic to border. Noce was the colour. Really turned out well.

 

[Ataturk]

According to the website those tiles are "not affeted" by stains, at least by whatever standard they tested for.

I guess that's good?

 

[Piobaire]

According to the website those tiles are "not affeted" by stains, at least by whatever standard they tested for.

I guess that's good?

It's one of those situations that if one doesn't take active steps, and the product doesn't live up to claims, you'll still look stupid.

 

[FlyingMonkey]

Our bookshelves are now almost finished and they are gorgeous. Definitely a great advert for using your local carpenter. Pictures soon.

 

[brokencycle]

LEDs and dimmers are going to be the death of me.... a bunch of the recessed lights the electrician installed buzz, so he's taking those back. I can't find any that I like that are tested with the dimmers I have though. I really want warm on dim bulbs, but I can't get a guarantee that they won't buzz.

 

[Ataturk]

I tried replacing mine recently and literally all the newer bulbs buzzed even with the most popular dimmers. I couldn't believe it.

The only thing I can assume is that most people don't notice or care, but it's just plain awful.

 

[lordsuperb]

I tried replacing mine recently and literally all the newer bulbs buzzed even with the most popular dimmers. I couldn't believe it.

The only thing I can assume is that most people don't notice or care, but it's just plain awful.

Your switches aren’t powerful enough to handle the wattage. You may need multiple switches to handle all the recessed lights.

 

[brokencycle]

Your switches aren’t powerful enough to handle the wattage. You may need multiple switches to handle all the recessed lights.

This is incorrect. LEDs consume less power (due to lower current) than incandescent and halogen. The real reasons are because there are phase issues and LEDs are susceptible to line noise (among other reasons).

 

[Ataturk]

The bulbs I already had worked fine.

In one case it was a newer version of the same bulb, same model number and everything. But obviously the guts of it were different (as it claimed to draw about 20% less electricity and was quite a bit lighter).

 

[Piobaire]

Using our ramada/outdoor kitchen even more than I thought we would. Everything is working perfectly per plan and the only minor change I'd make is I would have not allowed where the workers placed the sink by moving it more towards the front of the counter. Minor gripe and completely in love with it all.

Backyard completely finished. Only major infrastructure project left that I want to do is a front courtyard and thinking that will be in 2019.

 

[SkinnyGoomba]

The bulbs I already had worked fine.

In one case it was a newer version of the same bulb, same model number and everything. But obviously the guts of it were different (as it claimed to draw about 20% less electricity and was quite a bit lighter).

I use the screw in type LED's and its pretty noticeable to me as well, they change a lot in a short span of time. At least the color of even fairly inexpensive LED's is finally looking pretty good. I never dim mine after dealing with annoying issues, but I do have a set of dimmers and nearly every bulb on a dimmer has one issue or another. It's pretty annoying so maybe 2-3 more years of this and they'll figure all of this crap out.

All in all I'm really surprised by how great inexpensive LED's have become, the bulb ban really put the pressure on them to make good options available I assume.

I had a bunch of spare incandescents from that period of time when the bulbs were being banned and the LED options were kind of crappy if you wanted any kind of real output. I've tossed them all out now, no sense in holding onto bulbs that I'll never bother with.

 

[Ataturk]

It seems to me that the problem is that LEDs have swung too far in the direction of cheap and efficient. The makers seem to have decided that they can't make money selling better bulbs that, say, don't buzz.