from the better-lilo-when-parents-find-out dept.
The Daily Mail reports that teenagers combating a 34°C heatwave have converted a living room into a swimming pool. Commentators note that it could be dangerous move for many reasons:
As well as posts congratulating the boys' creative way of keeping cool in the summer heat, there were others who branded them 'idiots'.
'The water is about half a metre high, which means it is about half a ton for every square metre. I wonder if their neighbours will gather altogether to give them a good lesson?,' one said.
'I hope the electric plugs are way above the water level,' another added, while a third person said: 'I hope they cut their nails really well before going inside...what if they break the film.'
Regardless, the pictures are funnier than the hottub Cadillac.
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The Daily Mail, Yahoo News and HackADay report that:
A couple of car enthusiasts from Los Angeles have come up with an ingenious way to car pool by converting a classic car into a hot tub.
Phil Weicker and Duncan Forster have spent nearly six years converting a 1969 Cadillac Coupe DeVille into a hot tub on wheels.
The car's original V8 engine is used to keep the water the perfect temperature, and watertight steering systems have been installed.
The guys intend to set a land speed record. Commentators note that hills should be avoided. However, given the that hottub car doesn't have seats or seatbelts, it isn't road-legal.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 02 2014, @06:39AM
Is it
* Ukranian or Russian
* 34C [sic] or 36C [sic]?
The pics were funny if pretty crazy though.
(Score: 3, Funny) by wonkey_monkey on Saturday August 02 2014, @10:20AM
Ukraine, Russia. It's all the same thing, right? It's not like anyone'll get mad at you for mixing those two up.
systemd is Roko's Basilisk
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 04 2014, @08:10PM
Not the 34C I was hoping for.
(Score: 5, Funny) by bucc5062 on Saturday August 02 2014, @12:31PM
Cooling off: With temperatures reaching an uncomfortable 36C outside, the unnamed boys used only 'polyethylene film and tape' to transform their carpeted lounge into a swimming pool several feet deep
Best caption. Several feet deep so those kids must be...giants? Later I read @ half a meter which makes more sense. In Ukraine, they can spin with the best of them. I also wondered how they would remove all this water before their parents got home from that rare dinner out. It will be hell to pay when they open the door....oh wait...now I see how they'll drain the living room.
Humans...very creative, very stupid, a mess when put together.
The more things change, the more they look the same
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 02 2014, @12:40PM
if you add some bleach it will keep longer ...
as for draining that's easy. get a looong hose fill it with water, plug one end into the "pool" and the other end into the toilet bowl. maybe need to push it down alot. important that the toilet-bowl end is lower then the "pool" floor.
have fun!
(Score: 2) by carguy on Saturday August 02 2014, @02:31PM
The "reverse" also works -- a sheet of plastic on top of a swimming pool makes a waterbed. Just keep the edges of the sheet above water level if you want to stay dry.
(Score: 1) by caffeinated bacon on Saturday August 02 2014, @03:54PM
Too much hassle, get a short hose and stick one end out the window and the other in the pool.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 02 2014, @02:36PM
Living rooms are designed to have a load capacity of about 40-50 psf (can't remember exactly) and this water depth is just over 100 psf. So, good luck with that. Jump up and down a few times and they may end up in the basement.
I remember when landlords complained about waterbeds and they were only about 30-40 psf over the size of the bed, not the whole room.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 02 2014, @06:59PM
It depends on construction methods of course. Modern stick houses and office buildings are 50 psf however 200 psf is considered normal for older homes with plaster walls, lathe, and all that. Even relatively light concrete structures that can be found in dorms and apartment complexes can often handle 1000 psf. These high numbers are reached because the original building was made by a conservative architect with no structural engineer involved. The most standout case was an old abandoned two-story elementary school that was built in the '20's. A structural engineer came in to verify the building was safe and he calculated the second floor (but oddly not the main floor over a basement) as being 10,000 psf. It was built just like wooden structures of the time except contained steel beams and reinforced concrete slabs instead of lumber and board construction.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 03 2014, @07:07PM
Sounds like BS. Or you'd have more obese people falling through floors.
The amount of water they have is probably the equivalent of 5-10 fat americans. And the weight is spread out not concentrated to a few foot-sized areas.
Should probably be illegal to build a living room that can't handle a few obese people that aren't jumping up and down[1].
[1] Especially if they synchronize their jumps - most living rooms aren't designed to have many people jumping up and down together to music. So a rave party in your living room is more likely to break stuff than kids swimming in a living room pool.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Covalent on Sunday August 03 2014, @04:43AM
OK, the weight problem has been pretty well hashed out. Obviously a collapse into the basement would be the worst case scenario. But there are many more likely problems:
1. The film leaks and water slowly impregnates pretty much everything underneath the plastic. This is particularly problematic for drywall, carpeting, electrical, padding...hell, it's problematic for everything.
2. Someone already mentioned bleach, but yeah, this water is gonna be funky.
3. Drainage. The hose into the toilet / out the window will NOT work well. Reason? It will only work until the water depth is less than the diameter of the mouth of the hose (usually 1 inch in the US, probably 2.54cm in Europe...haha). After that suction will be lost and you'll be left with 1/12 ft. x 10ft x 10ft (guesses) = about 8 cubic feet of water. This is almost 500 pounds of water, so you're not balling up the plastic like a bag and carrying it out. How do you get rid of it? Millions of sponges?
You can't rationally argue somebody out of a position they didn't rationally get into.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by VLM on Sunday August 03 2014, @11:56AM
Settling and cracking issues will set in well before the whole works lands in the basement.
Depending on construction quality, etc. All you need to do is crack "a" joist and there will be enough deflection to break plaster, etc, even if the whole works doesn't land in the basement.
Damn plumbers really butcher the carpentry sometimes. Or rephrased, some architects think the wifi equivalent of plumbing exists so the plumbers have to butcher the framework sometimes. Ditto the HVAC guys.
My suspicion is before they end up in the basement, the whole works will drain thru a HVAC duct or a small collapsed hole due to plumbing structural modifications.