Let's say your patio is going to be 96 inches by 144 inches (8-by-12 feet). We know that 96 squared is 9216. 144 squared is 20736. Add them together and take the square root. Viola, your crossing number is 173.07 inches (173 and a 16th).
Draw a line on the foundation where you want the patio to start (point "A"), go 144 inches down the foundation and mark it (point "B"). Go into the yard from "A" — 96 inches with a tape measure and set it on the ground temporarily. Run a second tape measure from "B" at an angle toward the tape sitting on the ground. Make the tapes come together where the angled one says 173 and the other is at 96. That will be your point.
Stick a stake in the ground. Reverse the tapes, do the other side the same way and you are done. Of course, your patio is now square, but the building likely isn't, so it still might look a bit funny — which might be your problem in the first place. Welcome to remodeling, my friend. This is where we introduce a wonderful concept called "split the difference" and its close relative, "eyeball it."
Q: I continually hear the term "ton" when referring to air conditioners. What does this mean exactly?
A: A ton is the cooling equivalent of one ton (2,000 pounds) of ice melting within a 24-hour time period. Or it can be expressed as 12,000 BTUs of cooling capacity per hour. A BTU is the energy required to heat one pound of water one degree Fahrenheit per hour.
The heat lost to a pound of ice thawing is 144 BTUs per hour. That makes for one very cold drink!
Q: Can you provide me with a bit more information about how the age of water pipes in my house may affect the quality of the water?
A: The 1986 Safe Water Drinking Act outlawed lead-based solders, pipes, and fluxes. While fresh-water pipes made of lead were rare in single-family residential construction in our area, copper piping joints were soldered with lead-based materials.
The act prohibited more than .02 percent lead content in solder and 8 percent in fresh-water piping and fixtures. EPA estimates said that prior to the act some 20 percent of our total lead ingestion was via leaching domestic piping systems.
The current recommendation on older copper systems is to run water for approximately 20 seconds if it is to be used for cooking or drinking. This recommendation is valid if the system has been sitting idle for several hours or more. I do this anyway, to get past the lukewarm and stale water in the pipes.
In that same vein, always use cold water for drinking and cooking. Hot water tanks are big repositories of scale, rust, flakes of metal and grit. Hot water dissolves more lead than cold. To test if you have lead-based solder, scratch it with a quarter. Lead-based solder is a dull gray and shines when scratched. Electrical grounding methods may also influence how much lead is leached into the water system.
Darrell Hay answers readers' questions. Call 206-464-8514 to record your question, |
