A rant on working in the attic

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Greg_Lewis
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A rant on working in the attic

Post by Greg_Lewis »

Why must it be like this? There is never a project that involves climbing up in the attic wherein you manage to take all the needed tools with you on the first trip. You could drag the entire rollaway up there and you would still have to climb down to get some tool that lives in the rarely used tool cabinet, and even then you’d need a tool you don’t own or can’t find and have to make a special trip to the hardware store to get it. And, of course, the attic in question is not a finished one wherein you can stand up and walk around. No. This is one wherein you have to jump from one truss to the other avoiding stepping on the drywall and falling through (which I have done previously), stirring up volumes of dust and insulation, and fumbling with a headlamp because the string of worklights you put up there years ago are on the same circuit you are working on and therefore are not working.

Why? Why is it always like this? Why is there never a simple, single, trip to the attic?

This project involved running a single conductor from the upper box in the photo below to the lower on on the right. The upper box is from a former smoke alarm (replaced with a whole house system) and the lower box is for the whole house fan. Simple. Just drop the wire down from the attic to the upper box and then drop the other end down to the lower box. Yes? HA!!! And of course, you can't go straight from one to the other because (a) there is a stud in the way about halfway between and (b) there already is a wire running between them so the holes in the attic are already there. But wait, there's more! After the fifth trip to the attic you discover the holes are only big enough for the existing wire, so it has to be pulled out and the holes enlarged. Then the existing wire has to be re-threaded through, the stripped ends snagging on the various impediments on the way down.
IMG_0292.JPG


Eight separate trips to the detached building that is my workshop and home of my tools in order to fetch the needed implements. And six trips up into the attic. Fortunately the access hatch was only about eight feet from where I needed to be above the boxes. And much fighting and fishing to get the wire from inside the drywall through the boxes.

And you can see in the photo below the 21 tools I needed for this simple project of running a single conductor from one box to the other:
IMG_0294.JPG

-Step ladder
-Headlamp
-Dust mask
-Continuity tester
-Two pick thingies for trying to pull the wire into the boxes
-Flashlight
-Wire strippers
-3 nut drivers
-Cordless drill with spade bit
-Motor tool with extension cord
-Electrician’s pliers
-Five screwdrivers
-Two needle nose pliers

and about two hours of fussing and cussing.

And I was out of beer.
:x :x :x
Greg Lewis, Prop.
Eyeball Engineering — Home of the dull toolbit.
Our motto: "That looks about right."
Celebrating 35 years of turning perfectly good metal into bits of useless scrap.
SteveM
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Re: A rant on working in the attic

Post by SteveM »

My old house was a cape.

I kept a pretty substantial tool box in the kitchen and in the upstairs hall closet.

My knees can only do so many stairs in a day, and having to do four (or worse in my dad's house - six) just to get a tool.

Steve
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Harold_V
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Re: A rant on working in the attic

Post by Harold_V »

Seems about average, Greg. Doesn't seem to matter how well one plans, there's always a few things missed, but congratulations on your success.

I had to do some serious work in the attic of my shop when I installed the cooling system for the induction furnace. I installed supports so I could place plywood crawl areas, because the insulation is too deep to use the trusses as a walkway. The supports were nailed to the cross members of the trusses. I had the misfortune to roll off one of them, landing between two trusses. A couple of previously installed 2 x 4's (on top of the truss bottom chord) saved me from falling through to the floor, 12' below.

I hate working in the attic.

H
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Steggy
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Re: A rant on working in the attic

Post by Steggy »

Greg_Lewis wrote: Sat Jun 11, 2022 10:08 pmThis is one wherein you have to jump from one truss to the other avoiding stepping on the drywall and falling through...

You won’t fall through if you are careful to straddle the ceiling joists. :D
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Music isn’t at all difficult.  All you gotta do is play the right notes at the right time!  :D
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NP317
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Re: A rant on working in the attic

Post by NP317 »

Greg:
You have my sympathies!
For next time, here's my now favorite headlamp to use:

https://smile.amazon.com/Flashlight-Rec ... 176&sr=8-9

Glad you are still intact.
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ctwo
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Re: A rant on working in the attic

Post by ctwo »

If you did it more often you could probably whittle it down to just three trips... How hot was it up there? I never thought climbing back down to a 100F house would feel refreshing. You can hop, much less stand, in your attic? Here, the rafters have crossmembers that are about 4 inches lower than my back side when kneeling on the ceiling joists, without kneepads as they just get in the way. I am tempted to floor some of it and leave a creaper up there.
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Wolfgang
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Re: A rant on working in the attic

Post by Wolfgang »

Back in 1976 we bought our first house and, of course, it needed updating and repairs. Lots of repairs!
In due course my wife wanted a new kitchen sink faucet, one of those new-fangled single lever types.

She picked the one she liked and we drug it home. In the installation instructions it was claimed "no tools required"!

Right! I swear I had half my hand tools and soldering equipment, including a 20 lb propane tank, in the kitchen by the time the job was done (to the full satisfaction of the concerned)! "No tools" my butt.

The positive effect though was that it drove home to my wife the importance of a well-equipped work shop, and she never questioned the need for a new tool.

Oooops, the title reads working in the attic. Just got carried away:-))
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Greg_Lewis
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Re: A rant on working in the attic

Post by Greg_Lewis »

Wolfgang wrote: Sat Dec 24, 2022 7:23 pm ....
Oooops, the title reads working in the attic. Just got carried away:-))
Wolfgang, it doesn't matter where you are working. No matter how many tools you bring, you will not have all that you need. I just recently did a servicing on what probably is the same single-lever faucet you have (hate those things) and I must have made 10 trips to my detached shop. You know that thing about walking 10,000 steps per day? Easy. Just clean and lube the front door deadbolt or replace a faucet washer and you've got it.
Greg Lewis, Prop.
Eyeball Engineering — Home of the dull toolbit.
Our motto: "That looks about right."
Celebrating 35 years of turning perfectly good metal into bits of useless scrap.
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Steggy
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Re: A rant on working in the attic

Post by Steggy »

Greg_Lewis wrote: Sat Dec 24, 2022 7:37 pm
Wolfgang wrote: Sat Dec 24, 2022 7:23 pm ....
Oooops, the title reads working in the attic. Just got carried away:-))
Wolfgang, it doesn't matter where you are working. No matter how many tools you bring, you will not have all that you need.

Furthermore, it will turn out that half the tools you do bring along end up not being useful for the job at hand.
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Music isn’t at all difficult.  All you gotta do is play the right notes at the right time!  :D
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