Sunday, August 17, 2014

Project: Laundry Room - Part 2

Before

This is how the area looks like before anything is done to it. As you can see, there is a power outlet but no water inlet or outlet. The storage water heater is mounted on the top left and it comes with a release outlet as well which the previous owner simply connects a hose to and let it run loose on the floor to the opposite side of the room where the drainage hole is.



Piping - Drainage

Not a tough job actually. Since this is a drainage pipe with no pressure, there isn't a need to glue the pipe together. Simply joining them with L-joints were sufficient. All I need to do is cut them to size.

Items required - PVC pipes, joints
Tools required - saw

This is end result.






Piping - Inlet

What I need to do is to cut the existing inlet piping for the water heater and install a T-joint in between (circled red in the picture below) which will then add an additional inlet for the washer. The pipe will then run horizontally on top of the heater before going vertically down at the back of the heater (along the blue line) where a tap will be connected at the end.


This is not a really a tough job but made difficult due to limited access, especially when joining the new horizontal and vertical pipe to the L-joint at the back of the heater. Luckily the existing pipes that I need to cut is in front of the heater and easily accessible to be worked on.

Items required - copper pipes, white tape, pipe head, 2x L-joint, 1x T-joint
Tools required - pipe cutter, spanner

This is the end result.


Electrical source

There is already a power source nearby. All I need to do is to tap from it and have 3 additional power sockets - one for washer, dryer and iron each.

However, after much thought, I decided that a high quality extension placed at the end of the table just under the existing power point will suffice. No work needed here.

Woodwork

After taking the actual measurement, I had to make some changes to the initial design as there isn't enough space left for a base cabinet after both the washer and dryer is placed side by side. The size of the wall cabinet had to be reduced too due to the ventilation window as well as the huge storage water heater mounted around the same area.

Since not even the smallest 30 cm wide base cabinet can fit, therefore it will be just the worktop for the base. For the worktop, I decided to get a 126 cm in length instead of anything longer and save the hassle of having to cut it later on. I can then mount them on 3 sides with the fourth resting on a spacer above the dryer. As there will not be much weight on the worktop, it should be strong enough.

All Ikea worktop except Pragel will do and I decided to go with Fyndig because it is the most cost effective for the type of usage.

Unfortunately the Fyndig wor top is temporarily out of stock so I got an as-is table top instead. Once the Fyndig is in stock, I will replace it with the worktop and use the table top for other purpose.

For the wall cabinet, the maximum size I can go with is 90 cm x 70 cm. As 30 cm is the smallest door width available, it will be 3 doors then. A small door helps in a constrained space when opened.

Item required - wall cabinet, worktop, mounting brackets.
Tools required - drill, screwdriver.

This is the end result.



Tuesday, August 5, 2014

Project: Laundry Room - Part 1

The previous owner placed their washer and dryer stacked up at the entrance of the service yard because it is within the vicinity of the drainage hole. Since there are also two huge drainage pipes running down vertically around the same vicinity, the appliances are not able to be placed to the wall and hence jutting out.

Due to this, the area looks cramped and blocks light from the service yard windows to the kitchen. At the same time, valuable space behind the appliances is wasted.

After reviewing the area, I decided to instead place my washer and dryer on the other side of the wall since it is a recess area due to the beam wall on the right side of the area

This recess area will fit both appliances nicely and put them out of the way hence clearing up the space and brighten up the area as well as the kitchen.

However, before that can happen I will need to do some preparation.

1. Piping (drainage)

I will need to extend the drainage pipe across the room. If I were renovating the floor, I would have this done under the tiles but since I am not I will have to do it on the floor which will be unsightly if not done right. 

To make it look neater, I will lay them around the room under the windows. That is the best that can be done considering the situation.

Components required - PVC pipes, joins.

Tools required - saw, glue.

2. Piping (inlet)

Lucky me the water heater is located just above therefore I will be able to tap from there and extend the additional inlet piping down to the washer below.

Components required - Copper piping, 3 way joins, valve.
Tool required - spanner, cutter.

3. Electrical

Currently there are no electrical points around the area so I will need to tap from another source.

The best source will be where the previous owner plugged in both their washer and dryer as that point will no longer be needed hence there should be no risk of overloading. I practically shift the points without actually physically shifting it.

Components required  - electrical wires, PVC casing, wall nails and a 3 face plate for an iron, dryer and washer.

Tools required - hammer, drill, screwdriver, test pen.

4. Woodwork

I decided not to stack the appliances up and will instead place them side by side. I will then add a worktop on top of the appliances, which will be used for ironing. At the same, I will also add storage space for our laundry needs like detergents etc as well as storage for our bedding and curtains etc.

Below are the components needed.

- 1.5 m worktop, which is the length of the area, wall to wall.

- 30 cm base cabinet, which is the space left after subtracting the length of the washer and dryer placed side by side

- 1.5 m wall cabinet, which is the length of the area, wall to wall. The height of the cabinets will be determined by the ventilation window for the bathroom on the other side of the wall.

I have asked for quotations for the above and it is just too costly. The cost for the worktop alone can get me the full complete set with top and bottom cabinets from Ikea.

No doubt the Ikea cabinets are made of particleboard or MDF which is not as good as plywood but with correct usage, I think it should last me a few years before I need to have it changed. Furthermore, the dimensions fits my requirements nicely.. The only component I will need to modify is the worktop which do not come in the size I need.

When done, the final unit will look something like this.







Switching Network Category in Windows 2012 R2

Seriously, it is annoying when the rights to change it is taken away from you.

Credit to Charlie Russel, you can change it using Powershell

First, find out what is the InterfaceIndex of the NIC that you are planning to modify:
Get-NetConnectionProfile

It will return something similar as below

Name : Unidentified network
InterfaceAlias : vEthernet (Local-10)
InterfaceIndex : 18
NetworkCategory : Public
IPv4Connectivity : LocalNetwork
IPv6Connectivity : LocalNetwork

Once you found the InterfaceIndex, you can use the command below.
Set-NetConnectionProfile  -InterfaceIndex 18 -NetworkCategory Private