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In Australia we just deliberately burn sections of the bush in late autumn to reduce the fuel load. It doesn’t always prevent massive fires from wiping out houses but we don’t tend to have many deaths attached. Our guys tend to head over and help out in the US and Canada when poo poo goes bad.
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Oct 21, 2018 20:09
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Yes, there's prescribed burns in CA as well. This isn't a new concept.
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Oct 21, 2018 21:02
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I'm a pretty big fan of controlled/prescribed burns. They benefit by making less fuel for a fire and also putting nutrients back in the soil. They also kill the poo poo out of things like ticks, which can carry lyme disease and such.
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Oct 21, 2018 21:53
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Controlled burns are good, but they’re not a panacea. With a warming climate, it will become increasingly hard to control brush fires.
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Oct 21, 2018 21:58
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Substantial portions of what little remains of california's forests have been colonized by low-density housing, which prevents some of the burning we would really be better off doing. But a lot of the deadly fires are in lightly-treed grass and brush country like the wine country fires, too. Drought makes things worse, and somewhat ironically, so does the late wet springs we seem to be having more now, which promote more growth of grass and shrubs that fuel late summer fires.
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Oct 21, 2018 22:13
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Wildfires are only a problem if you're a literal imbecile and live in the wild.
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Oct 21, 2018 22:18
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God why do I ever click on the posts?
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Oct 21, 2018 22:26
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So what this thread is saying is take your candles to the forest?
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Oct 21, 2018 23:59
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FCKGW posted:Yes, there's prescribed burns in CA as well. This isn't a new concept. But do you have animals who have evolved to spread bush fires?
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Oct 22, 2018 05:01
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Yeah, but it's considered rude nowadays to call cigarette smokers "animals."
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Oct 22, 2018 11:44
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There was a 99 Invisible podcast episode about wildfires and how construction can stop housing burning down. https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/built-to-burn/
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Oct 22, 2018 11:58
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Dirt Road Junglist posted:My ex had 23 acres in upstate New York. He had a pond stocked with fish (the previous owner had been a competitive fisherman), an orchard with enough apple trees to brew a significant amount of cider every year, more assorted fruit trees, grape vines, and room for a garden plot. He let locals hunt on his land as long as they gave him part of the processed meat. I don't know the sq ft on the house, but it was big enough that his then-wife had a jewelry studio and he had a music studio, and people would come up to stay and work on music with him for weeks on end. Your ex sounds pretty cool tbh.
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Oct 22, 2018 11:59
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Sloppy posted:I'll take 'owner-designed home' for 4.5 million, Alex. I'm the viking longship mural painted over a wall that changes angles multiple times. deoju fucked around with this message at 13:31 on Oct 22, 2018 |
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Oct 22, 2018 13:17
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There's a recall on exploding toilets. You can't make this stuff up.
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Oct 22, 2018 16:13
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No, but our private utility companies have!
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Oct 22, 2018 18:22
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You guys are going to love this. My friend has an older (1955) house that was added on to in the '70s by a moron. There's all sorts of issues, but today, we're going to be dealing with the roof. It's needed a roof for a long time - I've helped him put tarps up to stave off leaking until time and money aligned to do what needed to be done, the least of which is re-shingling, and whatever decking repairs need to be made. With the recent rains here in N. TX, that became NOW. It started raining in his bathroom. We're going to do a section at a time - I work weekdays, and so does he, and neither of us can afford to take time off, though he'll take a couple days as needed. I'm along because a) he helped me out in a big way building my shed, and b) I'm going to need to do my own roof before too long, and need the experience, and hopefully his help. The task for this weekend was to remove the most leaking section, on the original part of the house. He got a shingle ripper that actually worked pretty great. However, we discovered shortly that, as far as we could tell, the house had never had any old shingles removed. There were four layers of shingles - more at the peak of course, due to the ridge shingles:  We also discovered that the roof on one slope had been repaired, and they just laid the repair deckin over the existing shingles:  One one end the PO built a dormer to have a vaulted ceiling in the entry, and di the same thing - new decking, and presumably structure, over the existing shingles (3-layers plus ridge, at that point:)   And, if you look closely at that far end, the "new" decking doesn't even actually go all the way to the ridge:  Unfortunately, he doesn't have the time or money to fix this properly just right now, even to just remove that decking, strip the shingles under it, and put up a new piece. Reality sucks. For one thing, there's no telling what horrors are under there. So, we just hacked the shingles off in plane with the decking:     This is the right end of that triangle:  ...yeah. Both of us really wanted to tear into this, but more rain is on the way, so it's just going to get peel and seal over the joint, proper heavy felt over everything, and then decent 20-year shingles over it. We'll have to come back later, at some point when he is more financially secure. Priority right now is getting it dry in the house. Dipshit PO id the same stupid poo poo on the "L" addition to the house:   Also note that water has been pooling there under the shingles. The last roofing job was done competently. Water wasn't pooling on top in the valley - there was good overlap and flashing in there. It's just age and all the underlying problems. This is looking at the roof standing about where the last picture is. A couple of unused vent stacks have been removed (the smaller round and square holes) and a couple of major rotted out spots.   Majority of the original decking is in decent shape, other than 5 billion nail holes. 3/4" x 12" x 10' planking. We'll repair the bad sections with 3/4 plywood decking then felt that side. Rain comes Wednesday. Once that goes away, we'll do the other slope of that section. Can't wait to see what's on that side. Go drat I hate lazy previous owners. Did I mention that he has raccoons in the attic, too?
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Oct 22, 2018 18:53
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Darchangel posted:
It's nice to have pests
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Oct 22, 2018 19:03
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Jusupov posted:It's nice to have pests I was expecting an L under there
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Oct 22, 2018 19:09
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My landlord's entire basement is ruined because 30 years ago some electrical contractor he hired when they moved into their house upgraded a panel and bent a water pipe to fit the new panel in. The bent/pinched pipe finally burst and filled his nicely finished basement about a meter deep in water quietly overnight. The panel and leak weren't even in the basement, they were on the main floor and the water also filled up basement ceiling before exploding through the ceiling's drywall.
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Oct 22, 2018 19:10
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Darchangel posted:You guys are going to love this. On the plus side, you can count the rings and see how old the house is.
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Oct 22, 2018 19:29
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It was like roofing archeology.
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Oct 22, 2018 20:15
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Try not to kick up too much dust. The 50s to 70s shingles probably contain asbestos. 
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Oct 22, 2018 21:15
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Speaking of poo poo repair guys, the toilet in the master bath of the house I live in would randomly flush every 6 hours or so. I diagnosed it early on as a slow leak that would eventually trigger the float to refill the tank, but nothing came of it until we decided to sell the house and I started fixing poo poo. Turns out the flapper was the correct diameter, but the posts holding it in place were about a half inch too short, so it would never seal. Couple of bucks at Home Despot and 5 minutes worth of work and it's back to normal. Now, why the hell was there an ill fitting flapper in the first place? We were blaming it on the previous tenant, but then my ex remembered that he'd had to call a plumber to fix the toilet when the plastic handle cracked, and the plumber had replaced all the internals. THANKS lovely PLUMBER. I'm apparently a better plumber than you, and I literally figured out how to fix toilet guts by looking in the tank and saying, "Welp, I bet that thing moves that other thing, and if I get a new one of those doohickeys over there, it should work." (It totally worked.) Facebook Aunt posted:Try not to kick up too much dust. The 50s to 70s shingles probably contain asbestos. At least if it's wet, it's not airborne!
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Oct 22, 2018 23:26
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Darchangel posted:This is looking at the roof standing about where the last picture is. A couple of unused vent stacks have been removed (the smaller round and square holes) and a couple of major rotted out spots. Those shingles suck rear end, but I think he also needs to consider the relationship between that massive tree and the rotted boards.
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Oct 22, 2018 23:34
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As a dweller of Hurricania, USA, that giant limb sitting over a roof is horrifying to me.
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Oct 22, 2018 23:41
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Fender Anarchist posted:As a dweller of Hurricania, USA, that giant limb sitting over a roof is horrifying to me. Even in the Midwest, that makes me feel pretty uncomfortable. We get tornadoes and ice storms that bring down limbs, not to mention the gutter clogs.
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Oct 23, 2018 00:01
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That tree is like a little baby.
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Oct 23, 2018 00:03
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My house is 120 years old. When we had the roof replaced about 8 years ago we found out there were as many as *five* layers of roofing in some places. A number of the supports in the attic had snapped from the load.
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Oct 23, 2018 00:13
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ICMB posted:My house is 120 years old. When we had the roof replaced about 8 years ago we found out there were as many as *five* layers of roofing in some places. A number of the supports in the attic had snapped from the load. Oh god. Don't you feel great knowing that your family slept under that?
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Oct 23, 2018 00:16
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How have you guys not figured out how to build a decent roof yet? I swear no one else in the first world has the issue of having to regularly replace their whole roof.
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Oct 23, 2018 08:38
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cakesmith handyman posted:How have you guys not figured out how to build a decent roof yet? I swear no one else in the first world has the issue of having to regularly replace their whole roof. Japan
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Oct 23, 2018 08:41
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Clay tiles are the standard here. Occasionally you have to replace a tile.
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Oct 23, 2018 08:46
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cakesmith handyman posted:How have you guys not figured out how to build a decent roof yet? I swear no one else in the first world has the issue of having to regularly replace their whole roof. My asphalt-shingle roof was installed in 1985, hasn't leaked yet (but soon...) Switzerland 
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Oct 23, 2018 10:09
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Platystemon posted:Japan They throw the whole house away, I'm not defending that.
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Oct 23, 2018 11:15
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Obviously go for a sod roof. It can be done very cheaply with local materials (other than the sheeting and waterproof membrane) depending on the level of insulation you want and it's got a number of very nice benefits. If you do it right, almost maintenance free, proven technique that in some cases may last many decades if not centuries.
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Oct 23, 2018 11:49
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I've heard that a lead roof can be good for four or five hundred years, at which point you pull the lead off, melt it down, remake the tiles/panels, and put it back on for another five hundred years. I also loved all the awesome thatched roofs in Denmark. Those last like 50 years, which is certainly longer than the intended lifespan of asphalt roofs. We looked and some older houses with original clay tile roofs. They'd last a long time, but would require lots of regular inspection and spot maintenance to keep in good shape. My husband wants a slate roof on our Victorian, once the (currently pretty new and good) asphalt roof needs replacing. I'm guessing this house originally had a wood shingle or slate roof (I did find random shards of slate buried in the yard, including a tile piece with holes in it). Re: morning yard work: Our house is overall better than our apartment for yard work noise EXCEPT the neighbor (a landlord - house is a rental) has his yard guy come at like 8am on Sunday. Yard is tiny and simple so he's gone again pretty quickly, but holy poo poo what's so hard about coming on a weekday or an hour or two later on the weekend?
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Oct 23, 2018 13:48
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cakesmith handyman posted:How have you guys not figured out how to build a decent roof yet? I swear no one else in the first world has the issue of having to regularly replace their whole roof. We have some amazing metal roofs that will last 60+ years with zero maintenance, but they have a certain "aesthetic" that most people don't like (though that's getting better), and they can be noisy in rain. However, I think the biggest reason they're not popular is that you will pay a good chunk more for a metal over standard asphalt shingles. Considering on average Americans spend less than 10 years in any one house, why pay for something that you won't be around to care about. It's not like someone will pay more for your house *because* it has a metal roof. It's a lot like how everybody gripes about how washing machines only last 10 years, but they skip right over the expensive, professional Miele machine and buy the $400 LG at Home Depot.
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Oct 23, 2018 13:57
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Sam Vimes' Boots Theory of Economics also factors in there.
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Oct 23, 2018 14:09
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Queen Victorian posted:I've heard that a lead roof can be good for four or five hundred years, at which point you pull the lead off, melt it down, remake the tiles/panels, and put it back on for another five hundred years. Bonus: radiation shield!!
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Oct 23, 2018 14:10
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Lemniscate Blue posted:Sam Vimes' Boots Theory of Economics also factors in there. Except I'd argue that the price/quality tradeoff actually skews towards favoring the cheap item. The expensive, premium item is usually made only slightly better than the ultra cheap one, but due to brand recognition/reputation, it's actually able to fetch a price that is detached (too high) from the actual value added over the cheap item. There have been numerous items I've bought recently where I compared to a premium option and figured I could literally use the cheap item for the warranty period (X) and throw it out 3 times over to compare to the premium item's price. In most cases, I was hard pressed to believe, and the warranty did not support, that the premium item would last X*3 as long. This is obviously not the full story with something like an appliance, because it's a pain in the rear end to have one break down unexpectedly and have to have it delivered/installed.
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Oct 23, 2018 14:21
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