That's one way to *brick* a turbocharger.


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    Continuing the discussion from Build Status: Sentient and Annoyed:

    @Polygeekery said:

    Status: What a freaking day. A home improvement :wtf: turned in to a mild tech :wtf:.

    I should elaborate on this one, now that the sting has worn off.

    I love home improvement. I find it cathartic. There are a few things that were on my to-do list that I need to get done before our next little one arrives in August and my wife has asked for a cooldown period after the baby gets here. One thing I wanted to get done was laying tile in our entryway, hallway and living room. As the hallway is the only access to the master bedroom and our son's room I had my wife take him and spend the weekend at her parent's house so that I could get that section done. The rest of the project can happen at anytime as we can do without those areas for a short while.

    Saturday we get up early, they get out of the house and we get to work. We pulled up the flooring and the first problem happens. The flooring we pulled up was thinner than expected so we need to put down Hardi-Board to make up the discrepancy. Shit. That immediately meant that we would not be able to get the hallway done as that ate up almost all of Saturday.

    Well, there was one other problem area that I decided to go ahead and knock out since we could not lay tile. There was a low spot where the entryway transitions in to the living room. We pull up all of the flooring in there and it is worse than I had thought. We needed to put down about 6 bags of self-leveling concrete. Shit. That is just going to eat up more time. Every home improvement project takes much longer than planned.

    For those who aren't familiar with self-leveling concrete, you basically mix it up to the viscosity of pancake syrup and pour it out and it seeks its own level and then hardens, filling any low spots and smoothing any transitions. It is basically water that hardens in to concrete. Really amazing stuff. The only work you have to do with it is to just feather the edges a little bit as the surface tension will not let it completely level at the edges.

    So, they start mixing and bringing it to me and I start smoothing the edges with a trowel. As we get back to the entryway, they bring a bucket, I dump it and I hear something. It is hard to place exactly what it is. It sounds like bacon frying, which is what an electrical fire sounds like if you have never heard one. So, immediately I am concerned. Then I make out what it is...the concrete has found a hole and it is running in to the basement!

    The area we were working is directly over my office. I run down the stairs and there is a table in the center of my office with a PowerEdge C2100 sitting on it with the lid off that is filling up with concrete at an alarming rate. One of the guys helping me goes to grab the server, like he is going to be able to save it. I tell him to just leave it, it is FUBAR already. I go in to damage control mode and grab some heavy-duty trash bags. We pick up the server enough to get a trash bag under it. I take a notebook and set it in the server chassis opened up like a a-frame to stop the splashing of concrete.

    Thankfully the server had no drives in it, no RAM, no processors. It was just a bare chassis that I was refurbishing. It really was not worth much as it sat, so that damage was contained. The only thing I wish had also been pulled were the power supplies, but I did not know that I was going to fill it with concrete...

    Sadly, as I was kind of disgusted by the whole affair I did not get pictures of the server after it hardened up. We loaded it in to my friend's truck for him to toss in the dumpster. I felt it safe to assume that the guy I send my e-scrap to did not want it anymore. ;)

    I did take a picture of the concrete, FWIW.

    Directly below that hole was the server that got "bricked". The shadows make it look much larger than it was. There was just the tiniest gap in the subfloor that I never thought concrete would get through as there are two layers of subfloor in the house. There must have been a corresponding gap in the subfloor below this one in order for it to have gotten through.

    I am really kicking myself for not having taken a picture of the server that got destroyed. It was rather impressive. It also weighed nearly 200 lbs when we removed it from my office...


  • ♿ (Parody)

    @Polygeekery said:

    our next little one arrives in August

    Congratulations!


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    Thanks man. We are having another boy.

    Side note: It is amazing how technology progresses. Now they can pull a blood sample from the mother after the 10-week mark and do genetic testing of the baby. As part of that, they can tell you the gender before there are even parts. Pretty fascinating.


  • ♿ (Parody)

    Wow...not sure what I would have done differently, but pouring self leveling concrete on a not-bottom level would have scared me of exactly that sort of scenario. What was under the flooring there to begin with?


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    @boomzilla said:

    pouring self leveling concrete on a not-bottom level would have scared me of exactly that sort of scenario.

    Meh, I have done it many times. You just take a look at the floor and if there are any apparent gaps or holes you go over them with caulk first to keep it from doing what it did. I never thought it would get through though because whomever built this house overbuilt it. Our subfloor is 2x12's on 12" centers (code is 16" centers) and then there are two layers of subflooring. One layer of 1x6 planking with a layer of 3/4" sheathing on top of that. The crack that it went through was tiny.

    Still, it was an oversight on my part. I should have caulked the seams.

    @boomzilla said:

    What was under the flooring there to begin with?

    I think I answered this above? If not, maybe I misunderstood the question?


  • ♿ (Parody)

    @Polygeekery said:

    I think I answered this above?

    Yep. I've done a bit of this sort of stuff, but undoubtedly not as much as you have. That's just the sort of thing I get paranoid about. Though it sounds like the sort of thing I'd do...

    Goddamned, how much of this stuff do I need already? Oh shit!


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    One of the funnier bits was when my friend started to move the server.

    Me: "What are you doing?"
    Him: "Trying to save it!!"
    Me: "It is already fucked. Now I am worried about the table."

    Trying to get a server wrapped in trash bags while it is being filled with concrete is not something I thought I would ever have to do. I am just glad the table survived. It is an antique table made out of longleaf pine that I picked up for 1/10th of what it is worth many years ago. You can't exactly pop over to Wal-Mart and pick one of those up...



  • @Polygeekery said:

    I am just glad the table survived. It is an antique table made out of longleaf pine that I picked up for 1/10th of what it is worth many years ago. You can't exactly pop over to Wal-Mart and pick one of those up...

    Wife: "This is why we can't have nice things..."


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    @Bort said:

    Wife: "This is why we can't have nice things..."

    Ha! Thankfully she was gone for the weekend as part of the project or else that would have been her reaction. She missed all the pandemonium and got home after it was all cleaned up.



  • @Polygeekery said:

    Our subfloor is 2x12's on 12" centers (code is 16" centers) and then there are two layers of subflooring. One layer of 1x6 planking with a layer of 3/4" sheathing on top of that.

    OK, now I understand using concrete on something other than bottom layer. But the idea of using it not on the bottom still makes me jittery without posts of it (with encased rebar). But that may be due to growing up in a place that actually has earthquakes.


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    @locallunatic said:

    OK, now I understand using concrete on something other than bottom layer. But the idea of using it not on the bottom still makes me jittery without posts of it (with encased rebar). But that may be due to growing up in a place that actually has earthquakes.

    Well, I think your misunderstanding how much is put down and how thickly. In the very center of the area, it is less than 1" thick and it feathers out from there. It is not as though we are putting down 6" of concrete over a wood subfloor. We bought six bags, one of those bags of mix ended up in the server and two are still in the garage, so ~3 bags are down right now. 50lb bags, so it only adds 150lbs of weight over 30-40 sqft. As that load is in effect spread over the entire span of floor system, it is less than a pound per sqft added to the static load of the floor.

    Self-leveling concrete is pretty common in tile installs. Before the advent of tile backer board, it was actually SOP to leave the floor low where tile was to go and then pour a 3" slab of concrete and lay your tile on that. They still do that for custom showers.



  • @Polygeekery said:

    3" slab of concrete and lay your tile on that

    Shrug I've never seen it done that way, but home remodel projects don't always go the standard way.


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    It has not been done that way for many years. You are unlikely to see it unless you get in to older homes. Also, it is quite possible that it could be a regional thing? Different areas do things in different ways. A California contractor would probably shudder at how we do foundations, because we don't have to deal with earthquakes. Same for Florida and our roofs, but if we have 100mph+ winds it is because we are getting hit by a tornado. ;)



  • @Polygeekery said:

    because we don't have to deal with earthquakes.

    Where do you live?

    I don't think there's a place on the continental US that doesn't have to "deal" with Earthquakes-- you might build for a richter 5.5 instead of a 7, but nobody's immune.


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    @blakeyrat said:

    Where do you live?

    Midwest.

    @blakeyrat said:

    I don't think there's a place on the continental US that doesn't have to "deal" with Earthquakes-- you might build for a richter 5.5 instead of a 7, but nobody's immune.

    You do realize that there are different building codes that depend on where you live and local concerns? We have very, very, few earthquakes and they are extremely mild, so nothing special has to be done for them. We have had two earthquakes that I only knew about when I watched the news. I felt nothing.

    In California, they nail sheathing on in a very specific pattern to deal with frequent dynamic loading due to earthquakes and they design their foundation systems to deal with uplift and movement from that also. It is not a concern here. As a trade-off, we have to design our foundation systems to deal with frost heave and our code calls for a minimum depth of 42" on foundations and fluid infrastructure.



  • @Polygeekery said:

    You do realize that there are different building codes that depend on where you live and local concerns? We have very, very, few earthquakes and they are extremely mild, so nothing special has to be done for them. We have had two earthquakes that I only knew about when I watched the news. I felt nothing.

    Yeah you sound confident until the Yellowstone Super-Volcano erupts, then you'll be singing a different tune.

    There was a 5.something in Kansas just a couple years ago. Oops, 4.8: http://www.kwch.com/news/local-news/new-now-earthquake-felt-in-wichita/29683518

    But there was a 5.1 in 1867: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1867_Manhattan,_Kansas_earthquake

    That's enough to cause damage.

    Anyway, I'm not saying the Midwest needs to adopt the same building code as California, because that's fucking ridiculous. I'm just saying your building code needs to account for earthquakes, as does everybody's.



  • @Polygeekery said:

    We have very, very, few earthquakes and they are extremely mild

    Two words: New Madrid



  • @blakeyrat said:

    Yeah you sound confident until the Yellowstone Super-Volcano erupts, then you'll be singing a different tune.

    In that case you'll probably be concerned with other things besides some cracks in your floor :)



  • @Polygeekery said:

    Every home improvement project takes much longer than planned.

    QFT.


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    @blakeyrat said:

    Yeah you sound confident until the Yellowstone Super-Volcano erupts, then you'll be singing a different tune.

    Yes, I will be singing a tune while I move to another continent. ;)

    @blakeyrat said:

    That's enough to cause damage.

    Yeah, but in general that is accompanied in the standard building code. All structures are overbuilt. You could get by with a lot less structure than in mandated, but that overbuilding also encompasses protecting us from any danger of earthquakes. The point is, we do nothing specifically for it. That is encompassed in the basic engineering of a structure.

    @blakeyrat said:

    I'm just saying your building code needs to account for earthquakes, as does everybody's.

    And it does, it is just that there is nothing in there specifically for it as we are at a really low risk level and the ones we do get are pretty mild.



  • @blakeyrat said:

    That's enough to cause damage.

    Only in really poorly designed things (which by building codes in the midwest is probably all of them).



  • Right; here in Seattle, Nisqually was a 6.8 and was basically treated as a joke. One fatality, an 80-something woman who had a heart attack! (Not like she was crushed by bricks or something, guyzzz.) Some of the older buildings, notably the Starbucks headquarters, had some dangerous damage done to them.

    Even the Alaskan Way Viaduct survived, and it's the exact same design (and age) as the one in San Fran that collapsed in 1989. (That said, thank GOD we're tearing it down finally. Thing's a death-trap.)


  • ♿ (Parody)

    Having grown up in CA, I still get freaked out a little when my wife hangs stuff over stuff like sofas or the heads of beds.


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    @Rhywden said:

    In that case you'll probably be concerned with other things besides some cracks in your floor

    I say the same thing about our data backup service when someone points out that the other services offer geographic diversity. "If a disaster wipes out our entire city, what is the likelihood of your business ever opening again and how long would that take? But on the other hand, if fire or flood wipes out your building, we will have local VHDs and data backups and can have you back up and running as soon as you have another building to do business from."


  • ♿ (Parody)

    I live near a quarry and an airport. Early on, when they blasted, I wasn't sure if it was an airplane crash or an earthquake, given the sound + shaking.


  • ♿ (Parody)

    @Polygeekery said:

    geographic diversity

    It makes sense if you're in an area prone to hurricanes or floods. Not nearly so much for tornadoes, but that's another possible scenario where it could make sense.


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    @boomzilla said:

    I live near a quarry and an airport. Early on, when they blasted, I wasn't sure if it was an airplane crash or an earthquake, given the sound + shaking.

    As I have mentioned before, I grew up with a father who owned coal mines. I got very used to the feel of them blasting. Maybe that is why I don't feel small earthquakes?



  • @blakeyrat said:

    here in Seattle, Nisqually was a 6.8 and was basically treated as a joke.

    @boomzilla said:

    Having grown up in CA

    And here is where our differences with @Polygeekery come form regarding earthquakes.


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    @boomzilla said:

    It makes sense if you're in an area prone to hurricanes or floods. Not nearly so much for tornadoes, but that's another possible scenario where it could make sense.

    The datacenter we are currently in is built to withstand an EF5+ tornado. The walls are 16"+ of reinforced concrete. The place is built like a bunker, literally. If we ever got news of impending disaster, me and the family are going to go do some "server maintenance". ;)


  • ♿ (Parody)

    @Polygeekery said:

    Maybe that is why I don't feel small earthquakes?

    Maybe. But most people don't feel them because there's not much to feel. Especially if you're doing just about anything. Of course, YMMV as to what you consider small.


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    @locallunatic said:

    And here is where our differences with @Polygeekery come form regarding earthquakes.

    Yep. Here, the risk is so low and big earthquakes are so infrequent that it makes no real sense to build for a massive earthquake. Almost all structures would go their lifetime without the benefit of the excess engineering. From a cost/benefit standpoint, it makes no sense.



  • It might make no sense, but it feels damned good when you have a 6.8 earthquake and zero fatalities. Damned good.


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    @blakeyrat said:

    It might make no sense, but it feels damned good when you have a 6.8 earthquake and zero fatalities. Damned good.

    You know what feels better? Not having 6.8 earthquakes.



  • @Polygeekery said:

    You know what feels better? Not having 6.8 earthquakes.

    You know what feels better? Having access to cheap, quality, Thai food. Suck that one down, Midwesterner.

    Why don't you just live in a sensory deprivation tank and remove all stimulus from your long boring-ass Pad Thai-deprived life?


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    There is a great Thai place close to my house. Suck it @blakeyrat. ;-)



  • I can't hear you over the sound of all this Vietnamese Pho I'm eating.

    Seriously. I'm a really sloppy eater. I'm slurping the shit out of this spoon.


  • kills Dumbledore

    You know what feels better? Living in a sensible country where you can get a decent cup of tea



  • We don't need tea; we perfected coffee.


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    @blakeyrat said:

    I can't hear you over the sound of all this Vietnamese Pho I'm eating.

    We have one of those restaurants also. The Midwest is not quite the barren cultural wasteland that you think it is...



  • @Polygeekery said:

    The Midwest is not quite the barren cultural wasteland that you think it is...

    ETFY. At least my experiences going to school there were pretty close to what blakey's points are.



  • The Midwest does have ethnic restaurants. Whether they are any good is a different question. The worst Chinese food I've ever had was at a restaurant in Kentucky that was considered quite good by the locals. (Kung pao chicken should taste like something besides soy sauce.)


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    It gets better all the time. The city that I live in is quite diverse. The small town that I grew up in is a cultural shithole. In the Midwest, when you leave metropolitan areas it gets "dueling banjos" pretty quickly.


  • BINNED

    You know what sucks even less? Living in a country where traditional cuisine is good enough that you don't have to fight over who has access to best foreign cuisine restaurants :P


  • kills Dumbledore

    What is Croat cuisine? Potatoes?


  • BINNED

    @Jaloopa said:

    Potatoes?

    What do I look like, a leprechaun?


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    @Jaloopa said:

    What is Croat Irish cuisine? Potatoes?

    At least that was what I thought of...


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    @Onyx said:

    What do I look like, a leprechaun?

    Great minds and all that...



  • @Jaloopa said:

    Living in a sensible country where you can get a decent cup of tea

    You can get a decent cup of tea in the US. They are sadly uncommon, however. Even in tea houses, heaven forbid they use boiling water to brew the tea, because somebody might injure itself.


  • kills Dumbledore

    I was thinking of Latvians, sorry



  • @blakeyrat said:

    I'm slurping the shit out of this spoon.

    Eww. Did not need to know that.


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