If you recall from previous articles, I could not simply install a traditional vent register as it would not fit inside the vent opening in the ceiling. And, using a vent register which is traditionally used for a cold air return did not provide any area inside the vent opening with which I could secure it.

So, I went back to the solution used before, that being to cut a piece of wood and place it inside the ends of the vent opening in the ceiling. This would then allow me to screw a hole in these pieces of wood which I could use to secure the vent cover.

One problem; only one end was sufficiently flat for me to insert a piece of wood, which I did from the picture above. The other end was not flat at all and I was not able to insert a second piece of wood. You can see it sticking out on the right side of the picture below.

Remember the inverted pieces of metallic duct tape which I had placed on the inside between the metallic vent boot and the wooden frame in the ceiling? Well, I thought that perhaps I had placed a sufficient amount of this at this other end such that it could possible hold the screw at that end of the vent cover. 

Well sort of. The air vent cover at the one end with the piece of wood was fully secured while the other end, the one not sufficiently flat to insert a piece of wood, was not securely held in place; there was about a 1/4 to a 1/2 inch gap between that end of the vent register and the ceiling vent opening.

In trying to achieve energy savings and be able to prevent heated air in the winter from going into this unused room, this would not be the answer.

Now what?

However, remember, the edges of the vent boot were rough and sharp, sufficiently sharp I felt that over time they might cut through one or two applications of the duct tape.

So, I first used two layers of the duct tape over the one side which had a finished, or smooth, edge, as shown on the right side of the picture below.

Next, after bending back as much as possible the unfinished edges of the other three sides of the vent boot, I decided to put several pieces of the duct tape, inversly rolled between the wooded vent frame and the metalic vent boot.

This was for a few purposes.

First, of course it would fill most of the space between the metalic vent boot and the wooden frame.

Second, it would reduce the amount of the sharp edges of the boot which would be exposed to the covering duct tape to reduce the likelihood of damage.

In the picture above you can see the finished product wherein I had then applied the metallic duct tape to the outside of the metallic boot.

So, what’s next? Simply reinstall the vent register and we’re done, right? Nope.

So, what was the best solution, other than ripping out the drywall around the ceiling vent, installing a new vent duct boot, etc. which I was not prepared to do. However, since this room was used very rarely … in fact we affectionately called it the boyfriend room … we used a vent blocker on the register to prevent heated air in the winter from entering the unused room. Having large air leaks prevented the vent blocker from doing much if the  heated air could simply escape through the large spaces between the unfinished vent boot and the register, as shown in yesterday’s article.

At first I thought about what Vasile had recommended to me last year, that being using insulating foam. I had received two different sealant foams from DAP late last year.

The first one, DAPtex, in the picture above, indicated on the product label that it could be used to seal vents and that it could be applied at temperatures between 45 and 105 degrees Fahrenheit. It did not say the maximum temperature to which it could be exposed. I used it to seal the gaps in the door frame of our cold cellar door. However, this concerned me, because as I showed last year my solar air heater was generating air exceeding at times 140 degrees Fahrenheit, which would be at least similar to heated air which would come through this ceiling vent from the furnace. Therefore, I decided not to use the DAPtex foam sealant product.

The second available product was DAP Kwik Foam, which was a polyurethane sealant, shown in the picture below:

For this second sealant, the product label indicated it should be applied at a temperature between 65 and 80 degrees Fahrenheit. It also indicated to not expose to heat exceeding 120 degrees Fahrenheit. So, based on the information on the product label I decided as well to not use this sealant product to seal the gaps between the rough edges of the air vent’s boot in our basement ceiling.

I could not find through some Internet searches a sealant with which I was satisfied. So, I went to Plan B.

What is used to seal duct work? Well, duct tape, right?

In looking around my basement work-area (who knew one day I would have a basement work area ), I found a partially used role of Polyken 260-17 Foilmastic sealing duct tape. Right on the exterior it indicated a maximum temperature of 200 degrees Fahrenheit.

Looks like I found my solution to sealing the air leaks in that basement room’s ceiling vent.

However, as you can tell from the picture above, the edges of the vent boot are very rough and sharp, sufficient to cut through any type of duct tape over time.

The issue I was having was that due to the poor installation of the vent by the prior owners (not that I am an experienced basement finishing expert myself … which I am not ), I was having a hard time installing a vent cover or register. The opening was constructed such that I could not fit into it a standard vent register. As well, there was nothing for the screws of any vent register to use to hold the register up in the ceiling.

Two things which came out of that experience.

First, I was given a great idea on how to install the heating vent register by my local Home Hardware store based on the sales associate’s own experience.

Second, as Vasile, a long time visitor to DailyHomeRenoTips.com, pointed out, I still had air leaks because I neglected to address the rough metal at the end of the vent duct.

Life has a way of interrupting the best laid plans.

It took me until a few weeks ago to attempt to address those air leaks.

To put the situation into context, below is a picture of the current situation.

You can see that I used a vent cover typically used for a cold air return rather than a register used for a heating duct.

In the second picture, directly above, you can see the opening that I have to work with. Look how much space exists on the lower part of the picture between the rough edge of the vent boot and the vent frame built between the ceiling joints and the drywall. Wow.

And, in this third picture (above) is again the same opening but showing how much space is between again, the very rough end of the metal bent boot and the vent wooden vent frame.

Two things are working against me here, because it is a drywall ceiling. I loath drywall ceilings in basements. If you have a water leak of any type, to fix it you have to break the drywall in the ceiling and then spend lots of time as well as effort repairing the broken drywall. As well, you have to rely on whoever installed the drywall in the ceiling that they first sealed all of the ducts to prevent air leakage of hot air from the furnace (in the winter) and cooled air from the central air conditioner (in the summer) to not waste electricity, natural gas and / or home heating oil and cost you money through higher utility bills.

It you are concerned with energy savings on your heating and electrical utility bills at all, you will use a drop ceiling in your basement.

First, I am not about to break the drywall and repair the shoddy workmanship.

Second, because of this, I cannot get any leverage to fix the shoddy finishing of the vent boot edges.

I have to come up with another solution to stop the large air leaks costing me money.

The picture below is were we left things yesterday. The hot water handle’s cover, screw, the handle itself, the cartridge nut and the defective cartridge itself have all now been removed.

Remember, before doing any of the above, two required steps must first be done.

1. Turn of the water leading to the faucet by using the (hopefully) shut off valve under the sink or, if one does not exist as was our case, turn off the water to the entire house.

2. Place the stopper in the sink’s drain (which you can see in the lower part of the above picture) so none of the above parts can slip through your fingers and, well, down the drain.

Now, installing the cartridge is pretty easy and can be done by hand. Simply place it back into the  brass cartridge stem, pushing down sufficiently so it goes all the way therein.

However, I know the above picture is a little blurry, however focus on the upper right of the brass cartridge stem. What you need to understand is that there is a notch in the top of the brass cartridge stem on the side facing the faucet. As well, what is not totally apparent (at least it was not obvious to me initially) is that there is a contrasting notch in the cartridge. What you should be able (hopefully) to make out in the above picture is that the notch which sticks out just a little in the cartridge needs to fit into the groove, or contrasting notch, in the top of the brass cartridge stem.

Once this is accomplished, then you can go in reverse order to replace all the parts of the hot water handle back in place. Start with the cartridge nut, turning it clockwise. Then place the hot water handle back on top, followed by replacing the handle screw, seen in the picture below, also in a clockwise direction. The inside of the handle will only fit one way on top of the cartridge.

Lastly, place the handle cover by hand back onto the top of the hot water handle.

Then for the test. First, remove the stopper from the sink’s drain. Then turn, partially, back on the water shut off valve. Then slowly turn on both the hot and cold water of the faucet.

Success?

Yes!

Then turn back on full the water shutoff valve and test one more time.

In all, the steps from the prior article and the above took about 20 minutes, not including of course the trip to the store, time at the store, and so on.

So, hopefully our experience with replacing the cartridge in the hot water handle of the Moen faucet will help you should you encounter  a similar situation in your own home.

The dripping hot water from the faucet is not helping my energy savings efforts; it must be stopped.

Using the instructions provided in the package containing the replacement cartridge, here are the steps I performed.

First, to turn of the the water before disassembling the faucet handle. As mentioned earlier, this sink did not have a water shut off for the faucet, so I had to turn off the water to the entire house from the main line in the basement.

Next, turn on both the hot and cold water to ensure that you actually did shut off the water!

Next, what I should have done and what you should also do before you start is to put the stopper in the sink’s drain. This was not written on the instructions and I did not do this until I almost lost one of the hot water handle’s parts literally down the drain!

Next, take the utility knife and carefully remove the handle cover on top of the hot water handle.

It does not matter for this particular faucet if you do this on the outside or inside of the red ring in the above picture. Just be careful to not scratch the surface. If you have a sharp flat screwdriver with a thin head you could try this instead of the utility knife.

Next, using a Phillips screwdriver, unscrew (counter clockwise) the screw which is holding down the hot water handle to the faucet, as shown in the above picture.

Once the screw is removed from the handle, the handle cover itself simply comes right off by lifting it up.

Once the handle is removed, you can see both the top of the defective cartridge as well as the large cartridge nut. To remove the cartridge nut, I used the wrench again going counter clockwise. After about a full turn or so using the wrench, I was able to simply turn the cartridge nut with my fingers the rest of the way.

The next task was to remove the defective cartridge. For this task, I needed the pair of pliers you see in the picture below.

It does lift straight up but because of the cartridge’s shape, I was not able to grasp it sufficiently tightly with my fingers, hence the use of the pliers.

OK, now what? Well, the remaining set of steps is not simply to reverse the above tasks. Almost, but not quite.

Select the following link to go through the steps to replace the now removed defective cartridge with its replacement.

So, the next day off I go to Home Depot to buy a replacement for the inexpensive, although only two year old, faucet.

Since I had replaced (with some help) a sink and faucet in one of our bathrooms over a year ago, and since this faucet was installed only two years ago, I was pretty confident all I would need to do would be to remove and basically drop in the identical replacement faucet.

While at the store, I found an associate who I had dealt with a while back on something else and remembered that he seemed to know what he was talking about.

When I explained to him the issue, and showed him a print out I had made showing the same faucet from their web site which I was looking to purchase, he said there was a simpler and less costly solution, although he was perfectly willing to sell me the new faucet if I wanted.

He described the steps needed to simply replace the cartridge which resided in the hot water handle (on the left in the picture above). It sounded similar to the steps I read about on an Internet forum. I explained to him that I was not a plumber and that what are simple home maintenance tasks to some are very challenging (and frustrating) for me.

He then said that there was no charge for the replacement cartridge as it is Moen’s policy. I did not know that. I asked him to repeat it to make sure I heard it correctly.

He also said that the package containing the replacement cartridge contained installation instructions for me to follow.

This option was sounding better, at least sufficiently good for me to give it a try.

He then took me to the faucet display and we found the exact laundry faucet which was giving us the problem and took the time to take it apart right there and then. With that visual demonstration (as I am a visual type of person), I started to believe that I could do it with that visual help.

So, off I went to attempt to disassemble the hot water handle of the Moen faucet, install the replacement cartridge and reassemble to see if it would solve the leaking hot water.

Here are the tools I would need to do the job and yes, I did need all four of them:

To continue, simply select this link to see how we start to disassemble the hot water handle of the Moen laundry faucet.

Seriously, what do you think that little cartridge I have resting on my home office table is actually called or what it does?

Nothing like a good home maintenance trivia question to start the day, right?

If you answered “Why a Moen 1224B Cartridge for two-handle faucets of course.”, you would be incorrect.

If you answered ”A Moen 1224B Cartridge for two-handle faucets which malfunctioned to cause a hot water drip which could not be stopped on New Year’s day within your Moen laundry faucet.”, you would be correct.

We wrote a few days ago about the heating element in our five year old Whirlpool Duet dryer stopping to work on Christmas Eve. This time, it was New Years Eve when Cath was using the faucet in our laundry room. A few minutes later she came to me and said that she could not turn off the hot water.

Neither could I.

I’m thinking of not recognizing ‘eve’ type of days any more.

Not being a plumber by trade or having much plumbing experience, a few thoughts when through my mind. The first one was to use the hot water shut off valved underneath the sink so we would not be wasting not only clean water (which is rapidly becoming a scarce resource) but heated water at that (to cost me money to heat the water which was simply going down the drain).

When I looked under the sink, I see that the contractor we had installed the laundry room sink the easy way (for him), that being with no shut off for the hot or cold lines for the laundry room sink’s faucet.

Ugh.

I spent a good 30 minutes in the basement (as the laundry room is on the main floor of our home) but could not find the shut off valves for the faucet. This meant that the only way to turn the water off at the faucet was to turn of the water for the entire house.

After playing with the faucet, I was able to get the leak down to a slow drip, as shown in the above picture of the faucet leak and as show in the picture below:

Now, the faucet itself is not expensive. We purchased it at Home Depot a couple of years ago and what do you know but I was able to find it again. It currently retails for around $55.

I performed some Internet searches and  found some chat forums  and learned two things. First, apparently it is not uncommon for this situation to occur and when it does it seemed that most of the times it was with the hot, not the cold, water.

Second, a few of the forum members tried to describe that it was possible purchase a part which resides within the hot water handle, take the handle apart, install the new part, put the handle back together again and the leak would be stopped.

For $55, I have to be honest. Why not just buy the same or similar model and replace the whole darn thing? As I am not, as mentioned, a plumber, I had visions of water spewing out all over the place after my feeble attempt to take apart and put back together again the hot water handle. Yikes!

A trip to Home Dept was in store for the next day.

What I learned surprised me and may surprise you.

To continue to the next article in this series, simply select this link to Moen Laudry Faucet Leak Repair.

I had found a 2 in 1 plastic air vent register which contained a built in deflector that would seem to meet our need, containing a middle component which would allow the air to optionally be directed towards one side of the unit.

The installation actually took less time than I had thought, about 10 minutes or so. It was one of those home maintenance tasks which was quite rare for me in that everything went well the first time.

I first confirmed that the 3 in by 10 inch register was the same size as the existing register.

Next, I unscrewed the screws at either end of the existing air register.

I then brought both the current and the new air registers into my home workshop to measure where I should place the holes at either end of the new register so they would be in the identical position to those in the old register, which would allow me to use the existing holes in the drop ceiling tile, shown below once I removed the old grey register. If you look very closely at the picture below, you can see the srew holes about 1/2 inch from the edge of either end of the vent opening.

To my pleasant surprise, the new register had indentations for the holes at either end in the identical place to the holes drilled into the old grey unit. If you look closely in the picture immediately below you can see the old (grey) register with the previously drilled hole underneath the new (white) pop up air register with the indentation for the hold to be drilled in the identical area.

Aren’t standards a wonderful thing when it comes to home renovation or home maintenance products?  

As I have come to learn, pretty much all plastic air registers either have the holes pre-drilled in the metal units (which means that these registers are to be used on the wall or in the ceiling) or indentations in the standard place on the underside of the plastic units (giving its purchaser the option to drill the hole if to be used in the ceiling or to not drill the holes where the unit is to simply be placed on a floor vent opening).

So, I then I drilled the hole at either end of the new pup up air register. This was followed by my easily placing the unit into the existing vent opening within the drop ceiling tile and manually inserted the same screws which were used to hold up the old air register.

I then pulled down the middle insert of the air register to cause the heated air from the solar air collector to flow towards the opening containing the stairs from the basement up to the main floor.

I’m quite pleased with this type of directional air vent. I had not seen it anywhere previously and it works very nicely. It also is not visually obtrusive, no more in my opinion than the prior air register.

So, next time if you have the need to direct the air coming out from a heating or cooling vent you might consider this type of directional air register if it meets your needs. Hopefully this will help us and help you in your home energy savings efforts.

When our daughter would be home from attending university, we would use the air heated by the sun to help heat her basement bedroom. On those occasions, which was most of the time, when she was away at college, we wanted the air to help heat the rest of the basement and possibly rise up to the main floor.

If you look at the picture above, you will notice a grey coloured air register or air vent in the ceiling to the right of the door to the stairs leading from the basement to the main floor of our home. We would close the air register when our daughter was home to cause the air to flow into the ceiling vent in her bedroom, whereas when she was away we would open this same air vent (while closing the register in her bedroom) to cause the air from the solar air heater to heat this area of the basement and hopefully find its way up the stairs (hot air rises).

After the winter, I was thinking that we might improve the amount of the solar heated air which actually rose to the main floor if I could install an air deflector onto the existing ceiling’s register.

What I found instead at Home Depot was a 2 in 1 Pop Up Register from Imperial, good for either a floor or ceiling air vent, as shown below.

Like the existing air register, it was made of light weight plastic which allowed it to be placed within a drop ceiling simply using two screws, one at either end, inserted into the drop ceiling tile.

This directional air vent register had the middle component which could be pulled out to deflect the air to flow out to one side or, alternatively, leave the middle component residing within the register to continue to have the air to vent straight out.

When the middle was pulled out on one side, it remained in position through the use of two small pins as well as small bumps along either side.

As well, this register had a sliding component which could be used to stop the air flow altogether (when the middle component was fully within the unit) just like our existing register. If we didn’t have a way to continue to direct the air flow into her bedroom, our energy savings effort would be for not when she is home as she would turn on the portable electric heater when not sufficiently warm.

How was the installation?

Select this link to the second part of this short home maintenance series, Drop Ceiling Air Register Installation.