OT: Best Stud Locator?

If you have access to the top of the joist, good idea. Pull strengths of a hundred pounds, or more, aren't tough, though.

5/8 is code everywhere for it fire stop value, not strength.

1/2" FC (fire code rated) is good enough in most residential applications where a fire-stop is needed.

You've been wrong on just about every subject imaginable. And you're too dumb to use a Zircon, so that's pretty dumb.

How observant of you.

Last month was a good time to go fly a kite, but I suggest that you try to do so this month starting right now. I did not repeat what you wrote, but I suppose that you believe that anyone who uses any form of the word "ignorance" must be repeating what you wrote.

Fire rated Type X 1/2" sheetrock exists with a 45 minute rating, but code always specifies a 1 hr rating, which requires 5/8". Ordinary

5/8" sheetrock is not fire rated. Builders would probably use fire rated 5/8" throughout the house if it weren't for the price of combined fire proof and fire rated panels. While ordinary and Type X might cost $9 to $12 per panel in small quantities, the combined fire rated and mold proof panels are $16 to $22. Still, they're required for bathrooms and kitchens, so most houses get a mixture of sheetrock types with water, mold, and fire proof in the kitchen, water and mold proof in the kitchen, fireproof between the house and garage, and ordinary most everywhere else.

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Jeff Liebermann     jeffl@cruzio.com 
150 Felker St #D    http://www.LearnByDestroying.com 
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com 
Skype: JeffLiebermann     AE6KS    831-336-2558

Type X is only about $0.75 more per sheet. And I'm not aware of any code requiring mold-proof drywall.

Last time I had to attach to ceiling joists (something sufficiently heavy that I didn't want mistakes) I climbed into the ceiling space (it's horrible up there!), and made small holes through the board, either side of the joist.

Sylvia.

It can be double layers of drywall. It's commonly done for soundproofing. Fanatics might also put an inch or three of insulation between the drywall layers for really good soundproofing. When the stud finder is anywhere from 1.25" to 3.25" away from the studs, it's not going to work very well. There are deep scanning stud finders that might work. I have one of these: that works through 2 layers of 5/8" drywall, but not if there's more than maybe 1" of insulation in between drywall layers.

Well, it's better than walking around in the attic, and falling through the drywall when your foot slips. I've only done that once, at my parents house.

I carry several magnets with me. I climb into the attic and place them on both sides of a ceiling joist, roughly where I plan to drill. The magnets are easy to fine with a compass or the magnetometer in my smartphone. For example: I had to do this last week when I stupidly volunteered to help move a cash register for a customer forgetting that the CAT5 cable went through the 19th century floor, and through a chamber of horrors furnished with rubble from the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. The exercise confirmed that I'm far too old for this kind of work. Bummer, because I think it's fun.

Before I had my smartphone, I would lay temporary wires on both sides of a ceiling or floor joist, and connect it to my "fox and hound" type of wire finder, and use the tone tester to find the location of the wires. Hint: Carry some white chalk or a chalk snap line to mark on the ceiling or floor.

--
Jeff Liebermann     jeffl@cruzio.com 
150 Felker St #D    http://www.LearnByDestroying.com 
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com 
Skype: JeffLiebermann     AE6KS    831-336-2558

Sorry. I forgot about the made in China drywall, which is much the same except for the label and price tag.

I can dig it out for you if you would like. The green drywall (moisture proof only) is being phased out in favor of the purplue drywall, which is both mold and water proof. I just happen to be at Home Despot today. I noticed that they have

1/2" lite drywall. No green, but plenty of purple. I didn't write down prices.

For the walls, code now allows ONLY cement, fiber cement, or glass mat gypsum backer material in tub and shower areas. On the ceiling, I think (not sure) that only water resistant gypsum backing board can be used, not green board that might cause puddling in the ceiling. If it's 1/2" backing board, it has to be on 12" framing centers. For

16", 5/8" backing board will work. I have to lookup what's permissible for 24" centers.

Also, I lied. The purple board is also fire resistant as it usually includes fiberglass binder to prevent it from crumbling when hot.

--
Jeff Liebermann     jeffl@cruzio.com 
150 Felker St #D    http://www.LearnByDestroying.com 
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com 
Skype: JeffLiebermann     AE6KS    831-336-2558

Here's the best Stud locator in the world

Oh! I like that idea! Could have avoided some holes.

Sylvia.

I'm guessing this makes the building permit cheaper, or lets you dodge bringing everything up to code, or something like that?

I'm told something similar happens for some parts for light aircraft, even when new parts are available - it turns out to be cheaper to "rebuild" or "repair" an existing part. The specific example I heard of was a muffler; apparently the "rebuild" can consist of cutting the original data plate and a small piece of sheet metal out of the old one, fabricating a nearly complete new muffler, and then welding the data plate and original piece on the new one.

I did this when I had a wall open in my living room. It has already come in handy when I wanted to hang some curtain rods.

Some people I know bought a house that was in very dire need of interior remodeling and repair. They took photos of each room before they did anything. After remodeling, they printed one photo of each room in 4x5 or so and hung them in their respective rooms.

Matt Roberds

I know here any substantial remodel has to done to current code. Maybe with a remodel you can "reuse" the original building permit?

When they were building a new Ikea here I saw someone had done a phone app to organize taking pictures tagged with times and coordinates to document the building process so they full documentation of all the intermediate ste ps that get hidden as the build goes on

-Lasse

[snip]

The remodel game is to avoid what many places, such as Santa Barbara, CA, where most of the houses are labeled by the government goons as "historic". You can't tear down a "historic" building, but you can "remodel" it ;-) ...Jim Thompson

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| James E.Thompson                                 |    mens     | 
| Analog Innovations                               |     et      | 
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems  |    manus    | 
| San Tan Valley, AZ 85142   Skype: Contacts Only  |             | 
| Voice:(480)460-2350  Fax: Available upon request |  Brass Rat  | 
| E-mail Icon at http://www.analog-innovations.com |    1962     | 
              
I love to cook with wine.     Sometimes I even put it in the food.

r

but wouldn't you have to leave it pretty much identical on the outside?

-Lasse

That's why they leave, usually, the front face of the house. ...Jim Thompson

--
| James E.Thompson                                 |    mens     | 
| Analog Innovations                               |     et      | 
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems  |    manus    | 
| San Tan Valley, AZ 85142   Skype: Contacts Only  |             | 
| Voice:(480)460-2350  Fax: Available upon request |  Brass Rat  | 
| E-mail Icon at http://www.analog-innovations.com |    1962     | 
              
I love to cook with wine.     Sometimes I even put it in the food.

As I understand it, it has to do with tax reassessment.

Here in California, for the past few decades, property tax rates have been controlled by "Proposition 13". This proposition (a citizens' amendement to the California Constitution) limits the rate at which a property's tax assessments can rise.

Prior to Proposition 13, tax rates were assessed on the basis of the property's "market value" - i.e. what it was assessed to be worth at current property prices. This caused tax assessments to climb sharply during propety "booms". Quite a significant number of older long-term property owners (e.g. those on fixed incomes) were put into a bind where they had to sell their homes and move away, because they couldn't afford to pay the taxes.

The Proposition limits the increase in tax rates on a property (technically, the assessed value for tax purposes) to 2% per year, except when the property is sold or when some other qualifying event occurs. AIUI, one such qualifying event is the building of a new house on the property.

If you have an older house, tear down the house completely, and build a new one, the property ends up being reassessed at current market rates. It's as if you just bought the property with the new house on it.

On the other hand, remodeling of a home does not trigger reassessment of the property.

What I've been told is that it's a "remodel" as long as you're retaining at least one substantial load-bearing wall of the old structure. It's a "new build" if all of the old load-bearing structure is removed.

The difference in taxes can and does amount to more than $10,000 per year on a home in this area. So, it can be well worthwhile to do a "major remodel" rather than a "scrape".

Proposition 13 has had some other weird effects. It results in very unequal tax rates for near-identical properties - new buyers are at a real disadvantage. And, I've read, it has actually acted to shift the tax burden of the state *onto* residential homeowners, because business properties tend to turn over less frequently than homes.

Like other "rhythm methods", this one is also likely to fail at the worst possible time.