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Queequeg grows stuff, and fixes junk.

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plants:
if they look crumy, its because they are.
need water and ive been lazy, ill go back out there and water them at some point today.
also got SMASHED last night by some nasty wind...
 




victim of mine, not the wind. pvc hose sliped off the table and snapped it.
serrano dosent seem to care though. we shall see what happens...





lettuce plants.



cactus plants.



tobacco plants from last winter... i chopped these down to a stump but they grew back. ive not watered these what so ever since last... december ?
no clue why they are alive still.



fertigation machine. in pieces.

my intention here is to shrink the system down substantiall.... such that it fits into the trunk of my car. im going to fold my old design into 2 pieces... and push the frame out into the third dimension.
im also going to add a filtration system. the filtration will require a far more substantial pump, so im going to just mount this onto the frame as well as the filter.





my fancy pump. grundfos up15-58 with a custom plastic head from some other hydronic heating company.



can anyone identify this plug? if so i will kiss your mouth.
spent like an hour on the molex website... im 60% sure its not a molex branded connector.



 
Click to expand...
hmm. yea you are right. i just realized the weep holes are on the threads though, not where your arrows point.

look here. where the threads are. there is a sizable gap there... presumably for water to escape into the drain.

93-9382-0505-2.jpg


https://www.tilestoreonline.com/Laticrete_Hydro_Bonding_Flange_Drain_Metal_Grate_p/93-9382-0505.htm

i like this drain alot fwiw... was super easy to install. was it worth 100 bucks? probably not to you, but i think it was for me... very easy and straight forward.

are you sure abotu the caulk around the drain? i have some of the laticrete documents on my desk and they show 'latiseal' around the drain.

here check out this pdf, go to page 4/4.

latiseal is basically the same thing as kerdiseal right? which is a polyurethane?
http://www.laticrete.com/Portals/0/datasheets/lds0350.pdf
ah... latiseal is silicone. nm.
 
Yeah, I dunno. I have seen that data sheet before on Laticrete's website. They make some of the best products on the planet (I ❤️ Hydro-Ban) but IMO, this is just another product they are trying to make seem "necessary". We have been making shower pans for a millennia and never needed that shit before. My school of thought is, Make the shower and the pan 100% waterproof. After that, tile, thinset, grout, etc needs to be consistent (no voids) and allow for drainage, water migration and vapor transmission. I have never caulked a drain in and I never will, but it's also one of those things: "The only 1 thing 2 carpenters agree on, is what the 3rd one is doing wrong". LMAO.
 
You did a good job on your shower and I hope you're proud of yourself. Tile is one of the most rewarding things you can do. Nobody realizes what it takes to, come out, not only technically correct but, laid out correctly so it looks nice. Like I always say, "tile looks so easy, when it's done". haha
 
Also, (you probably know this) but the arrows I showed pointing the the edge of your drain (in the finished pic) is not to be caulked. That is the edge of the hair screen that sits in the drain tray, It's meant to take out for cleaning and access. If you decide to caulk, keep it out of that gap. Like I said, you probably already know but I wouldn't be doing my job if I didn't say it. LOLOL
 
Scoville DeVille said:
Yeah, I dunno. I have seen that data sheet before on Laticrete's website. They make some of the best products on the planet (I ❤️ Hydro-Ban) but IMO, this is just another product they are trying to make seem "necessary". We have been making shower pans for a millennia and never needed that shit before. My school of thought is, Make the shower and the pan 100% waterproof. After that, tile, thinset, grout, etc needs to be consistent (no voids) and allow for drainage, water migration and vapor transmission. I have never caulked a drain in and I never will, but it's also one of those things: "The only 1 thing 2 carpenters agree on, is what the 3rd one is doing wrong". LMAO.
 
You did a good job on your shower and I hope you're proud of yourself. Tile is one of the most rewarding things you can do. Nobody realizes what it takes to, come out, not only technically correct but, laid out correctly so it looks nice. Like I always say, "tile looks so easy, when it's done". haha
Click to expand...
cool, im glad to hear that. im defiantly going to leave it in. if it ever cracks or something then ill caulk it in.

what you are saying makes sense to me... considering the raging debate between the TCANA book and tile pros regarding caulking the wall to floor joint verses grouting... im going to assume the same thing with the drain caulking... namely that both work but each has its merits?
 
Yeah, good call. But if our pan is waterproof BELOW the tile and grout, it will never leak. water will be below the tile forever, that why pan liners are sloped. Even though you didn't do a tradition shower pan the principle is the same. Water will seep down through the grout and into the weep holes. You'll be fine.
 
Yeah, I bought the new version of the TCNA Handbook, and it's got some cool new info but it's more of a handbook than a code. Some of the shit is getting out of hand with new products and new methods. Fo instance, I grout all of my corners but make the substrate BULLET PROOF first. Then I warn the customer that it "might" crack and if it does, to call me and I'll caulk it with color caulk. No problem! I've had to go back and caulk about 10 showers in the last 15 years or so. ;)
 
yea the TCNA handbook is cool... its out of my price range, i had to borrow one from my moms collection. shes an architect so shes got tons of shit like that.

i think im also goign to follow your lead on caulking the floor. im just now reading that the acrylic silicon caulks do not last when exposed to water, and indeed are not rated by the manufacturers for shower floors.

ill have to keep en eye on the grout though, this slab does move, but the shower is on an exterior wall which sits ontop of the large concrete bond beam that runs the perimeter of the house.

BUT! today as i was putting on valve trims i realized i made a huge forhead slapping mistake.

i set the volume valves too shallow... ill have to remove them and fix that before i can finish the shower. sucks, but what ever.

i know exactly what i did wrong... i mistakenly assumed the volume valves were the same depth as the mixing valves. NOT THE CASE.
i know exactly how i can fix it... it will probably take like 2 hours minus glue cure. i set it up such that you can change the valves from the closet when/if they fail so this shouldnt be a huge issue.
 
Scoville DeVille said:
I want to see a picture of the solid body tile.
 
Pronto! LOL
Click to expand...
 
ah, check out the end of post 271. i didnt know what to call it back when i made that post.  thanks again for that info btw. 
 
 

 
incase anyone is wondering what im talking about...
 
this is a pic of a scrap tile piece i cut. that white junk is the glue blobs that hold the pieces of mosaic together. i was suprised when i got the tile and both sides looked EXACTLY the same minus the glue blobs.  i was even more suprised when i found that the tile was perfectly uniform inside as well. i didnt know this type of tile existed to be honest. i just got lucky.
 
even the SUPER expensive tile i got to fix the pool around the skimmer was just like... a thin milimeter surface of color ontop of a cream colored ceramic tile. granted the pool tile was like glazed front and back... or atleast it was shiny on the back too. 
 
actually, the color tile place made me buy a whole box of that pool tile... if i find that tile ill take a pic of it.
 
i dont think id ever consider any flooring tile that was NOT solid body tile like this. it hides chips VERY well, and you can profile the cut edges  instead of buying bullnoses or schluter trim pieces because they match the surface color.
 
asshole spiny ass gay ass wierd plant thing thats taking over the area. im spraying it with diquat because i hate it.


Probably Yucca rigida...not that you care seeing that you are killing it. It's actually an excellent security plant for areas where you want to deter trespassers. 
 
 
ill gladly allow the ocassional trespasser if i can reclaim the 60 sq.ft of my yard this stupid thing is occupying. 
 
its not responding to diquat FWIW. going to have to machete it down to a stump and dig it out im guessing. the leaf/spines or what ever tissue is exceptionaly rigid and waxy.  im guessing it cannot penetrate it well.
 
i had a cracked floor tile!!!. i think it broke when i was fiddeling with the fixtures. i was using this step stool that has very tiny feet. i had not noticed it untill i started showering. i noticed the square of grout around the tile remained dark for a while longer than the rest of the shower floor.
 
as it turned out, this tile was only like 10% thinsetted on just one side. being a brittle material it looks like it failed due to the step stool feet being close to a point load, and with no thin-set underpinning the center of the tile, it simply cracked. 
 
this tile was at the intersection of two mosaic sheets... i think i simply under estimated the amount of thinset to put down.  i was putting thinset down row by row moving from back to front.  i think i simply under estimated how wide the v notched thinset bed was? then i put a sheet down that missed like 90% of the last row of 2x2 tiles?
 
this has me worried! did i miss the whole row or just a few tiles? they all sound good... tapping with knuckles and such, but idk how definitive that is.
 
Scoville DeVille said:
After that, tile, thinset, grout, etc needs to be consistent (no voids)
Click to expand...
 
Exactly what I was talking about. I wish you asked me BEFORE you set the mosaics, but you should throw that V-notch trowel in the garbage. I have never found a practical use for that POS. When setting 2" mosaics (or even smaller), I use a ¼" X ¼" notched trowel to get the consistency right, then I turn the trowel around to the straight edge and nock down (or "smooth out") the ridges in the thin-set so it doesn't squish up thru the grout joints when I take my rubber hand roller to push the tile into the thin-set.
 
As long as you don't keep putting step stools in your shower, you should be fine LOL. However, one thing I worry about with voids under the tile is mold because it will hold water for a time, which is probably why your grout in that area was darker for longer than the rest of your floor.
 
Scoville DeVille said:
Exactly what I was talking about. I wish you asked me BEFORE you set the mosaics, but you should throw that V-notch trowel in the garbage. I have never found a practical use for that POS. When setting 2" mosaics (or even smaller), I use a ¼" X ¼" notched trowel to get the consistency right, then I turn the trowel around to the straight edge and nock down (or "smooth out") the ridges in the thin-set so it doesn't squish up thru the grout joints when I take my rubber hand roller to push the tile into the thin-set.
 
As long as you don't keep putting step stools in your shower, you should be fine LOL. However, one thing I worry about with voids under the tile is mold because it will hold water for a time, which is probably why your grout in that area was darker for longer than the rest of your floor.
Click to expand...
interesting thought on the wet grout... i assumed it got into the crack, but you could very well be correct in that it was just holding water under the tile.

if that IS the case, then this is the only poorly bonded tile =). somehow i doubt that just 1 tile got fucked up though. its alright... ill replace each and every tile if they crack down the road. i have like 7 sheets left lol, and it only took about 30 min to get it out and another 10 to mix up a thimble of thinset and put it back down.

lol i had not thought of knocking down the 1/4" notched thinset... ive only ever heard of that technique when using those glass mosaics with no mesh or glue blobs on the back? the ones that allow you to see right down to the thinset?
 
shout out to grant... very good imperial stout brewed right here in houston. its not a ten fiddy, its got some good hop aroma and bitterness and it feels like its better carbonated and its only like 9.5 abv? very very good imho.
 

 

 
so here are my shower handles BEFORE i fixed the depth issue. you can see how they stick out about 3/8"
 

 
shower head.
 

 
heres the old valve mounting scheme... i wanted it to be easy to replace them in the future... just cut out some drywall, back out some screws and snip a few pex pipes and go after it.
 
LITTLE DID I KNOW... that it would come in handy just a few months later lol. i didnt cut any pex though.
 

 
air admittance valve. origionally i was going to plumb it out the ceiling into the vent boot on the roof... but i f**ked up and the shower wall fell EXACTLY onto a joist so i could not get the pipe out into the attic. this thing is alright though... its just a shower anyways, not a toilet or anything.
 

 
fixing the valve depth. pretty much just unscrewed the valves  then glued 2x4's to the durock. worked very well. the poles you see are just to keep pressure on the wood while it cured.
 

 
other side of the shower. this one had the OSB strips to correct the crown in the stud. i had to CAREFULLY saw the screws.
 

 
borrowed the worlds smallest wrench from my brother.
 

 
this took like an hour for both sides of the shower lolol. never again.
 

 
the other shower head arm had bad threads cut... it would not thread down properly, so i had to recut these threads.
 

 
you can see the bottom 2 threads were the issue... they were just not cut deeply enough. tooling at the plant that day must have been f**ked up.
 

 
all valves and junk sitting properly now. the hand shower thing... its installed but i lost my glass cutting drill bit so its just sitting on the window for now.
 

 
testing out a 20 dollar shower head on amazon. its chromed plastic, but its sold without a flow restrictor =).  its like being pissed on by 30 athletic men.
 

 
heres the thing about the rain can shower thing. i literally just installed them to look nice.  im not planning using them very often if ever... so i opted for the cheap shower head because it had such good reviews. the real shower head is actually quite expensive. embarassingly expensive but i had to have it.
 
why? because it was on that Seinfeld episode about shower heads.  go to 3:28
 
https://youtu.be/dlrtQb24Qxw?t=3m28s
 
wider shot.
 

 
grouted niche. the grout was still wet in this pic, it lightens up a bit but its not quite white enough to jive with the glass tile properly.  i could not bring myself to buy a new bag of white grout just to to 2 sq.ft lol.
 

 
the hand shower thing was missing a set screw that holds the chrome trim piece to the brass bit that sticks out of the wall... i did not want to wait like a week for a proper one from TOTO, so i just got this kit from amazon shipped overnight. found the proper metric set screw easily. it was an m5x.8mm pitch x 8mm long. worked perfectly.
 

 
 
broken tile pic. you can see all the thinset thats missing =(.
 

 
few hours later... its all dirty because that grout scrapping tool made a mess. im not sure where it is exactly, i lost track of it to be honest.
 
its in there somewhere.
 

 
oh and heres how the valves sit now.
 

 
 
ive done almost nothing to the shower since the last update months ago. the floor grout is sealed... but not 100% hydrophobic(annoying). all the fixtures are up, the sill is caulked and all the grout is done save for some random areas.
 
i naked shower in it every day. the guest bath is officially a no go now, save for shitting. i shit in the guest bath all the time, but you are not allowed to shower in there owing to leaks in the tub shell that i can barely manage with epoxy and foam.
 
eventually i will make the final touches the shower needs to go from 98% to 100%, but not any time soon. its mostly just painting the ceiling and  replacing the pve pipe nipples in the overhead rain can thing with some chrome plated thing i got on the shelf right now. 
 
the only real problem i have at the moment is that the tile floor does not dry quickly enough because 1: 
 
the thing is fucking huge.
 
and two:
 
 the f**king sealant i applied to the grout.is also on the porcelain tile face as well.
 
the water just beads up on the 2x2 tile mosaic instead of spreading out into a film. the water also cannot get into the grout so it just sits on the grout in little beads lol. i feel stupid for not anticipating this, but what ever.
i think i can acid wash off the sealer off the tile surface while keeping it on the grout, but i cannot be bothered right now.
 
 
anyway.... actual gardening related update:
 
 
melons:
 
 it turns out that melons are not meant to grow vertically, and they hate it when you try. the grow journals i read suggested this was feasable, though not widely done... i think i know why that is.
 
its basically impossible to force a meon to grow just 2 vines. every 2 days ive had to go out and remove dozens of small vines shooting from the base or elsewhere... for each plant. the growth of these things is truely unreal. its an order of magnitude more than anything i have ever seen in a tomato plant.
 
melon vines are substantially weaker than a tomato plant stem. they sway in the wind quite substantially. in a few cases ive lost a vie due to wind, when the vine was repeatedly rotating back and forth untill the stem basically died. 
 
once the vines set a melon this movement is hugely retarded, but its not absent entirely. im sure a good storm could damage a vine even with a heavy melon there to dampen the motions.
 
melon vines are aslo huge assholes with their little asshole tendrils. they do train upwards onto a string fairly well, but the "vine" is not a climbing type vine that automatically rotates around something( idk what that behavior is called).
 
they grow inches per day so they need DAILY training to stay on the line. if you train it properly the tendrils grip the line and you are good to go, but if you dont? well the vine will lean to one side or the other and the tendrils will inevitably start gripping a neighboring plant.
 
manual pollenation is not that bad, but its not entirely clear to me when is the best time to pollenate the female flowers. the flowers open wide when the non fertilized melon is still small, but the flower AND non fertilized melon will continue to grow to the size of ... a cherry tomato, wherethen the female flowers stamens sort of seperate and open up. i think this is when manual pollenation is best but im not 100%. shit pollenates all the time without me doing jack shit... so i have to confess i dont know exactly.
 
anyway heres a shit load of pictures.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
strange sick plant that i culled. no clue.
 

 

 
lower-n-lean'n
 

 

 
first leopard melon. they are supposed to average 4-5lbs?
 
this one was only 3.7lbs so its quite a bit underweight. hoping to do better later on.
 

 
 
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