you got this summer to shop around for a contractor quote, although a couple more shards will probably fall off.
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Do you still need that chimney? If you have a newer furnace it probably direct vents out the side of the house.
Either way, it’s not in danger of collapsing anytime soon, but VFS is right and sometime this year is probably wise. You’ll eventually get leaks that can’t be easily seen before they cause significant damage.
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So here’s my situation. I had some recessed lights installed a few months ago. They were put in by a dude who has installed approximately 50 recessed lights in my house over the years. He’s not a licensed electrician, but I think he does a good job. Everything has worked fine except for this one thing.
One set of recessed lights flickers occasionally. It seems to only happen at night and even then only after about 3-4 hrs of continuous use. It generally happens when we are watching TV (which might be on the same circuit). However, it only happens if the lights have been on continuously for a long time (we haven’t tried keeping lights on during the day for long periods to reproduce it, but maybe we will try it).
Also the flickering seems to resolve if the lights are turned off for about 30-60 min. For example yesterday we noticed a flicker, turned them off and on and they still flickered, so we just turned them off, watch one episode of Boba Fett, and then turned them back on and it was fine.
Lights are connected to a compatible dimmer (according to specs from manufacturer).
Any ideas what is happening here?
Are they 12v lights connected to the same transformer? If so you might need to replace the transformer.
It’s these lights:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01MYNVGVM/
Not sure what a “transformer” is in this context
Do you have a conventional switch handy, and the know-how to swap the dimmer switch to a conventional? At the very least, it’s not a tough job to swap out the dimmer to see if it’s something there. I’m not really an expert, but it seems at least in the realm of possibility that the flickering is something wrong with the dimmer switch and not the lights.
The other thing I should have mentioned is that everything was working 100% fine for 3 months until about a month ago. Otherwise, I’d have suspected the dimmer immediately.
Here’s another funny thing. Wife noticed that it seems to only happen when we turn the air conditioning on. This makes sense, since we haven’t really been using a/c until about a month ago as there has been no need. And that is when we first noticed the problem. There were no problems before that (they were installed in Feb).
So we tested it out last night by turning the a/c off. Flickering stopped after switching the lights off for less than one min (normally that doesn’t work). However after about 15 min of a/c off, flickering started again. Not sure if that is some weird coincidence. Might test again today to see if they really is some connection between these two things.
A/C is central and on a different circuit (obv).
I would also troubleshoot the dimmer. IME with LED lights that claim to be dimmer compatible, very often they are not.
But would you expect it to work perfectly for 3 months and then suddenly go bad. And in this way? Fine for a few hours and only then flickers. I’ll probably do lights first as they are the easiest to replace, then dimmer, then cans. So Dimmer is on the list of suspects, but I just really doubt it.
If nothing else, the dimmer is a moving part that I would expect to fail before something in the LED circuitry.
That is plausible. I think the biggest argument for dimmer is that it is happening to all the lights. Unless there is a reason why a fault in one light would cause all of them to flicker (which there may be).
I’m getting my chimney rebuilt. Here’s what it looks like now. My whole house and the chimney on the other side of the roof are this color brick
They’ve started taking it down. Dude just told me “They haven’t any bricks of the style I chose for you. Closest that they have are only in red.” I don’t want a red chimney on my blonde brick house. WTF do I do?
seems sus that they wouldn’t be able to source that type of brick. doesn’t seem to be a particularly unusual color. not sure where you live, but if there are regulations on facade repairs for apartment buildings maybe check with firms that do that type of work since they would need to be able to match existing brick colors.
My suppliers are still behind on production, ever since covid. I will see what I can come up with
Wish he would have figured that out before starting the work
You say, “lol you can’t seriously expect me to be ok with red bricks on this house. Try harder.”
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Thanks. Here’s my house now
His crew guy said they’re picking up materials tomorrow morning but of course they’ll get my approval first. Not sure what I do if he’s like, sorry, I tried but red or concrete bricks are your only options. It’s not like I can just leave things like this and tell him to fuck off while I try to find someone to finish the job. Like how long can I leave my chimney like that? But I also don’t want a red chimney.
I’d wait until morning and see what they come up with. The opening and flue can be secured temporarily, and I’d expect this guy to do so if he had to wait a couple weeks for the right ones to come in. This isn’t some unheard of site condition he can’t work around, and I’d be really shocked if he said “take the red or I walk away and leave a hole in your roof”. If he starts taking the conversation in that direction I would start talking about things like lawsuits and formal complaints to licensing boards, and I would mean it. You’re also probably covered by your insurance policy if he does walk.
In general, I’d be polite but firm that red was unacceptable unless there really is some sort of long-term global tan brick shortage. And I’d have to confirm that myself before I accepted it.
As a final thought, this guy really doesn’t have any valid excuses. We’re 2+ years into supply chain chaos. Absolutely everybody in the trades knows you need to confirm availability and lead times before doing anything these days.
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big red chimney
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