Mind The Gap Again

SWMBO has complained about the carriage house entry being cold in the winter. With it being colder than normal over the past few weeks, she applied pressure for me to do something about it.

It didn't take much investigation to notice that the top edge of the door was not level with the jamb.

I fixed a problem like this once before, but in this case the solution is a little different.

The easiest way to solve this particular problem is to build up the door.  So I found a piece of poplar at the store that was about the right thickness at the thick end of the gap.

After planing it down and tapering it to fit the gap I installed it with glue and my pneumatic pinner. A little painters tape held down the thin end until the glue dried.

Now that the glue is dry we can pull the last of the tape remnants, clean it up, and paint it in the spring.

Bleed Valves

All last winter one of my bleed valves had a slow leak. Not much, just a drop every minute or two. Just enough to be annoying and make a wet spot on the floor.

The leak was not from the valve itself, but rather from the threaded connection between the PEX-to-threaded pipe fitting and the bleed valve adapter.

This photo is of the leaking old one with 6 months of mineral deposits, etc...

A few weeks ago I made a new assembly, cut the old one out, and installed the new one.

When I opened the shut off valves...

It leaked worse than the old one.  Argh!

Did I mention that I assembled it using used parts?

Probably not a good idea...

So, off to the store to get new ones and try again...

And a third time...

Still no luck.

So I gave up and installed a PEX plug at the top of the tee. I filled the vertical PEX stub with water before crimping everything, so it will still function as an air trap.

Lo and behold, no leaks.

Now SWMBO is happy because the in-floor heat is working again.