Wednesday, July 05, 2006
Bracing myself
I got the ceiling fan installed without electrocuting myself, or anyone else for that matter. It was a bugger though. You need to install a ceiling fan brace to hold up the fan. It's basically a metal bar that spans two joists in the ceiling. They are expandable, generally from 16 inches to 24 inches. Old houses in the US tend to have joists 16 inches apart and new houses 24 inches (I'm guessing to save money). We have an old house, so the joists are 16 inches apart. With one exception. The two joists either side of the ceiling fan site? 13.5 inches apart... Fortunately, I found a brace that started at 13 inches and could be expanded to 24. Of course it took a trip to two large home improvement stores, opening the boxes to about six different braces and measuring them. And I forgot to take a tape measure, so I had to wander the aisles looking for one, or a ruler, carrying boxes of various braces... Still, I got it done. And it works. Doesn't even wobble when on high speed. Much.
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3 comments:
I can feel a decapitation coming up......:-)
You could prove an urban myth
Actually, I saw an episode of a show called "Myth Busters" where they tested that one. Even with an industrial fan on the highest setting and sharpened blades, it didn't work. They managed to do a lot of damage to the test dummy, but couldn't decapitate it. You have to wonder about the people who produce a TV series devoted entirely to testing that kind of thing...
Sounds like a fun job actually.
And the producers are Australian.....scary isn't it!!!
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