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Yeah I'm normally in favor of being humane, but I draw the line at rodent infestations. IDK how "catch and release" would not just transfer the mice to a different house, unless I lived a mile a way from anybody else. And there's certainly no shortage of the buggers anyway. I've been fortunate enough to catch them early with glue traps each time this comes up. It's become a nightly ritual, but I can't argue with the results. Never seems to get past the point of one mouse every 6 months. Sure, my son is under the impression that I "threw Mickey Mouse in the trash can", but we'll deal with that in therapy
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Feb 18, 2020 19:24
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The cats do wonders for keeping them (and some bugs) out of the house but the garage... oh man the garage. We get a reminder never to leave poo poo in the garage overnight on a pretty regular basis. The garage door itself is where it seems like they are able to get in. The gasket that touches the ground is easy enough for them to push through and I've seen some tracks indicating at least that as a route of entry. I'd be more proactive about it if we stored foodstuffs out there (we don't intentionally) but also I don't want to by accident kill any of the chipmunks in the backyard because they are adorable and I love them.
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Feb 18, 2020 19:34
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I might be willing to start putting out poison at some point but the glue traps are just way too horrible. I hate to even think about making the poor things bleed out or whatever other horrible ways they would die with the poison. Ugh I hate this.
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Feb 18, 2020 19:34
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I personally can't do poison, we've got a lot of raptors in the area and secondary poisoning of birds of prey is an issue. You're probably on the right track, just keep baiting snap traps, clean debris from around the building, fill holes as you see them, keep potential food and bedding material inaccessible, sanitize feces you find to minimize any inviting scent. You can also try getting some fox/wolf/coyote urine granules and scattering around the perimeter, I haven't tried that one myself but I've been told that the smell is repellant to small rodents and raccoons.
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Feb 18, 2020 19:50
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I’d stay away from poison if you can. The only thing worse than dealing with a dead (or sadly not quite dead) mouse in some sort of trap is having to smell it for a week when it dies inside the wall from poison. I’ve found the glue traps pretty effective if you can find whatever route they are taking from point A to point B. It seems like if one gets caught, their friends come to investigate and get caught too. They are less humane than the snap traps, but I’ve turned into a heartless bastard in my war on rodents.
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Feb 18, 2020 19:55
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if it makes you feel any better, mice are a heavily r-selected species and violent death is essentially baked into their genetics. they're not designed to live long lives and die of old age.
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Feb 18, 2020 19:57
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I've never had to deal with repelling an infestation but as a former member of Rat Crew I can confirm that if rodents survive predation and respiratory infection for a year or so they start to explode in tumours. If they survive that then their spine stops working and they can't walk. So, yeah, not exactly gened up for longevity.
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Feb 18, 2020 20:01
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I am thankful every day for the feral cat colony near our house.
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Feb 18, 2020 20:03
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Sirotan posted:I might be willing to start putting out poison at some point but the glue traps are just way too horrible. I hate to even think about making the poor things bleed out or whatever other horrible ways they would die with the poison. I used to just use snap traps but I'd be catching a couple of mice every week all winter. The pest control company that treats and inspects for termites and carpenter ants here has taken over for mouse control as well and they use bait stations with blocks of poison in addition to traps of both kinds (snap and glue), as well as adding some exclusion products to gaps around the house. Supposedly the bait action is that they get super thirsty and dehydrated and die from that, so it's not as awful as what people imagine, although it's still a poison. It does seem to be effective, they're rarely caught in traps any more and they put new bait in every 3-6 months as needed. The mice have destroyed a lot of stuff in the basement and built nests in cars on more than one occasion which is always terrible to get rid of, damaging, and potentially a health hazard. The mice chewed the corner off a new garage door install to get in and the attempts at stopping them from entering there with exclusion products have had little success since it needs to be a flexible interface between the door and wall. I'm thinking about 3d printing some kind of pin and receptacle device that would provide a better seal when the door was lowered to block it up when closed but haven't decided on a shape or material, since they like to chew regular plastic. Maybe some metal fill, maybe just coating the resulting product in copper wool.
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Feb 18, 2020 20:04
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On the subject of rodents, I was just in our crawl space this weekend doing some coax rearranging, and noticed 3 dead mice. I'm pretty sure but not positive that they're all new since I moved in (2 months ago), since I'd been in the same areas before and didn't notice them a number of weeks ago. I've got no poison or traps, so not sure what would have killed them aside from starvation (though I sorta doubt that my house would actually be that impervious to them finding food, but perhaps!). The thing that caught my eye was that they were in various states of decay; one looked almost like it could have been alive, the next looked like it had possibly been nibbled on by another critter (caved in skull) and the last was curled up and almost like it had been half digested by something. I can't imagine what, or how, though. For anyone who feels like looking at some dead mice and taking guesses at what might have happened to them, I'd appreciate any insight, idle guesses, or wild speculation https://imgur.com/a/RwZtyYK
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Feb 18, 2020 21:47
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Steve French posted:On the subject of rodents, I was just in our crawl space this weekend doing some coax rearranging, and noticed 3 dead mice. I'm pretty sure but not positive that they're all new since I moved in (2 months ago), since I'd been in the same areas before and didn't notice them a number of weeks ago. I've got no poison or traps, so not sure what would have killed them aside from starvation (though I sorta doubt that my house would actually be that impervious to them finding food, but perhaps!). Sometimes they'll try to eat each other or insects might've gotten to them a bit. It's hard to be certain because they're very small and seem to desiccate pretty quickly. One of your neighbors might have bait boxes out since it takes the mice some time to die from that, or they may have died from natural causes. If you only moved in two months ago perhaps the previous owner has bait/poison down somewhere. Keep an eye out for black boxes in corners or under the sink(s).
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Feb 18, 2020 21:56
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Sirotan posted:I might be willing to start putting out poison at some point but the glue traps are just way too horrible. I hate to even think about making the poor things bleed out or whatever other horrible ways they would die with the poison. I had a mouse issue in my garage when I moved into my house 6 years ago. I found the hole they were using to get in, it was in a wall shared with the unit next door. I blocked it with an old car battery. Never saw another mouse, and I fearlessly store all sorts of yummy birdseed in the garage now.
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Feb 18, 2020 22:47
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The Wonder Weapon posted:The floating shelf metal bracket was the first thing I thought of. The only real concern I have is drilling the holes into the back of it perfectly straight. Even moreso because the front face will be live edge, ie not flat. Which means I can't stand the mantle on its front face and drill straight down, I have to do it parallel to the floor. Bought the wood I'm going to use for the mantle. Being cut now!  I'll end up with a 7' section left over. I'm hoping to turn the spare half into a series of matching shelves eventually, although it would also make a great matching coffee table in the same room as the fireplace.
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Feb 18, 2020 23:48
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It's never too late to become a cat lady.
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Feb 19, 2020 00:43
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Kaiser Schnitzel posted:I’d stay away from poison if you can. The only thing worse than dealing with a dead (or sadly not quite dead) mouse in some sort of trap is having to smell it for a week when it dies inside the wall from poison. Seconding don't use poison. If you don't want to cycle snap traps, and don't want the Automatic trap, you can always use a tin cat - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00004RAMU/ref=cm_sw_r_other_apa_i_QzAtEbB7SEBZM Technically humane, but you can use it to drown, and if you're feeling especially brutal, bait it once and ignore it for a month. It'll become self baiting, as they'll go cannibal.
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Feb 19, 2020 22:22
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The Wonder Weapon posted:Bought the wood I'm going to use for the mantle. Being cut now! New mantle about to be sanded (ended up with blisters on both thumbs) 
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Feb 21, 2020 15:33
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My furnace broke. Waiting on a service tech but it's getting cold in here. 
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Feb 22, 2020 17:56
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Any tips on finding and working with contractors? I bought a place recently and there are a few oddjobs I don't want to deal with and/or aren't qualified to deal with. I'll definitely need an electrician for part of it, some drywall repair, and someone to hang a glass shower door. It's a whole series of little projects that need different skills, so I'm not quite sure who to contact first. Should I be getting multiple bids for everything? Buying materials myself to avoid their markup? Find one decent main contractor and let him/her sub the rest out?
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Feb 23, 2020 01:03
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You could try thumbtack and see what quotes you get. Contractors for small jobs like that are hard to find-- at least in Austin where real estate and construction is booming.
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Feb 23, 2020 01:54
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Anybody who’s good is too busy to call you back, and anybody who can give you a bid this week is either awful or expensive. Ask your friends and neighbors. That’s the only way I’ve ever found good people.
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Feb 23, 2020 03:04
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When I get quotes for 6-hour odd job kind of stuff they tend to be super high because general contractors want week-long bathroom gut gigs so they overquote me on the off chance I'll say yes. Otherwise they dodge the job.
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Feb 23, 2020 04:20
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mutata posted:When I get quotes for 6-hour odd job kind of stuff they tend to be super high because general contractors want week-long bathroom gut gigs so they overquote me on the off chance I'll say yes. Otherwise they dodge the job. That's exactly what I'm afraid of. Are contractors so specialized that I couldn't combine all that work to get to a decent sized project?
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Feb 23, 2020 05:25
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I think it depends on the job and your market, but here's some tips from my experience: - Find personal recommendations - Be flexible on timing and tell them so during the quote; often they'll have a day come up free and are happy to fill that time with smaller jobs. - Make the job as straight forward as possible for them; if there's fiddly poo poo that you can do yourself then do it yourself, and leave the tough or skilled work to them, e.g. I reduced quotes on some plastering work from £1300 to £350 by doing the boarding myself - Ask them whether they'd prefer to provide the materials or have them provided; this again falls under making life easier for them. Painters I find prefer you to supply your own paint. - Be aware that a contractor who decides they don't want your job may try to be polite about it by quoting an absurdly high number. Multiple contractors might do this! Ask them to clarify the quote, as there may be some part of it they don't want to do. e.g. I was quoted a large amount by a roofer doing some drainage work because part of it was underground and he didn't like doing groundworks. I took those on myself and he was much happier to provide a smaller quote. - Getting a handyman-level worker can help with a bunch of disparate "I have no idea what I'm doing" little jobs, but the quality of each job will by nature not be as high as with a specialist. This is broadly true of all jack-of-all-trades workers. - Going to a firm with multiple employees can help too as they'll have more people to shuffle around and pick up odd jobs, but there will be overheads. - Drop by the fix-it-fast thread, there may be some of the jobs you could do yourself.
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Feb 23, 2020 10:05
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oXDemosthenesXo posted:Any tips on finding and working with contractors?
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Feb 23, 2020 13:48
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The gas valve in my 7yr old furnace died early Saturday morning. Just one of the four main components of a gas-fired furnace so you know, NBD. Of course it was a special order part and the tech didn't have one on his truck. No heat until Monday!! On the upside, it appears the home warranty that the sellers included is not completely worthless after all. I'll be spending $100 to fix this vs $765. Yay?
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Feb 23, 2020 14:34
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Thanks everyone for the advice RE:contractors. The electrical work is to (hopefully) add an outlet or two and more lighting to my garage. There are only 2 outlets in there right now, and only one is really useful for the small shop space I want to set up. The lighting is equally bad, there's a single bulb socket in the space right now so it needs 2-3x the current amount of light, and spread out from the single point its at. There's only a 15A breaker for the whole garage so I first need to figure out how much I can actually add without overloading it. Alot of the rest of the stuff does sound like handyman work that really I could do myself. I'll stop being lazy and pop into the Fix It thread soon.
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Feb 23, 2020 19:57
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oXDemosthenesXo posted:The electrical work is to (hopefully) add an outlet or two and more lighting to my garage. There are only 2 outlets in there right now, and only one is really useful for the small shop space I want to set up. The lighting is equally bad, there's a single bulb socket in the space right now so it needs 2-3x the current amount of light, and spread out from the single point its at. There's only a 15A breaker for the whole garage so I first need to figure out how much I can actually add without overloading it. Is there drywall and insulation in the garage? There is another thread for electrical work which could get you going if you're feeling frisky. If its modern wiring and no insulation or especially no drywall it's mostly just time consuming and callous forming with $150ish in specialized tools you need. If you aren't comfortable with the termination work you can likely get that happy medium JB talks about above by fishing the wire where it needs to go and having a handyman terminate it for you as that is the PITA part. Seconding the be flexible advice. If you have the ability to be flexible in your timeline let them know that - especially if you can be available for same-day calls. If they get rained out of another job (for whatever reason - cancellation, half the crew couldn't stomach their hangovers, etc) you might wind up with having 2 people calling you at 10am asking if they could drop by and bang it out. For example, I had a tiny drywall job I wanted done by the "good" company which I thankfully live 1.5 miles away from their dispatch. Talking to them on the phone and knowing there was a few hundred dollar job minimum, sending them pictures of the job + a picture of a tape measure showing the exact depth of the drywall so they weren't sending someone to quote the job in advance got them out there a few days later when something got delayed on another job.
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Feb 23, 2020 20:10
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I've come to the decision that I will likely be removing my lovely "Bath Fitters" (or whoever installed it) tub liner this weekend. I re-did the caulking between the tub liner and the singe-piece wall liner above it on Sunday, and after removing the old stuff, it was clear water had been getting in there between the liner and old tub; who knows for how long. Looked up to see if there was any non-destructive way to remove it and...nope. Pretty much just have to go at it with an oscillating multi tool to cut it into sections, then just pry them up and hope they didn't go batshit crazy with the glue...and then try not to kill myself with solvents to remove the glue residue on the original tub underneath. I was contemplating just doing it then and there, but then I realized I didn't want to potentially be without my only tub/shower come Monday morning if there's a serious underlying issue. At least if I do it first thing this Saturday, I have as much time as I can get to make sure I have a working tub a week from now so I can go to work fresh-as-a-daisy. Now I just have to hope that whatever caused them to decide on a tub liner in the first place is a very minor issue, like just an ugly colored tub or (at worst) just needs a re-glazing, cause I am not in the mood to have to replace a whole loving tub.
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Feb 24, 2020 15:30
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H110Hawk posted:Seconding the be flexible advice. If you have the ability to be flexible in your timeline let them know that - especially if you can be available for same-day calls. If they get rained out of another job (for whatever reason - cancellation, half the crew couldn't stomach their hangovers, etc) you might wind up with having 2 people calling you at 10am asking if they could drop by and bang it out. For example, I had a tiny drywall job I wanted done by the "good" company which I thankfully live 1.5 miles away from their dispatch. Talking to them on the phone and knowing there was a few hundred dollar job minimum, sending them pictures of the job + a picture of a tape measure showing the exact depth of the drywall so they weren't sending someone to quote the job in advance got them out there a few days later when something got delayed on another job. Thirding the be flexible advice. I needed to get my driveway redone. Got a contractor, agreed to the quote on a Friday, and scheduled it a month or so out. Got a call the very next Monday "Hey we can do it today if you want, you available?" Turns out they showed up at another job expecting to pour a basement and found out the hole hadn't even been dug yet. So he had three guys that were expecting to get paid to work that day and no work to do.
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Feb 24, 2020 17:15
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The furnace techs my home warranty required me to use finally showed up. Naturally my furnace fired up just fine the very first time. But they are replacing the part anyway based solely on my telling them what another tech diagnosed and not by doing any sort of independent troubleshooting. I'm sure this will all be totally fine. This + learning my property taxes are going way up = me having a bit of a moment rn 
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Feb 24, 2020 17:17
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Sirotan posted:The furnace techs my home warranty required me to use finally showed up. Naturally my furnace fired up just fine the very first time. But they are replacing the part anyway based solely on my telling them what another tech diagnosed and not by doing any sort of independent troubleshooting. I'm sure this will all be totally fine. I'm debating if home warranty is even worth it because the contractors they give you are the dirt worst
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Feb 24, 2020 17:35
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Dango Bango posted:I'm debating if home warranty is even worth it because the contractors they give you are the dirt worst They finished and left in under an hour. It was a teenager doing most of the work and an older guy supervising. I opened up the front panel after they left to make sure it looked ok and other than a messy wiring harness it's fine. They barely said a word to me the entire time, took my $100 deductible and left. Weird as gently caress. Just glad I have heat again. This experience was probably still worth saving $600 tho
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Feb 24, 2020 17:55
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You could have picked a worse February weekend to have furnace issues, though.
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Feb 24, 2020 17:57
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totalnewbie posted:You could have picked a worse February weekend to have furnace issues, though. While true, it was really starting to suck today.
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Feb 24, 2020 18:35
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Sirotan posted:While true, it was really starting to suck today. Few years ago my heating died in a rental place over the middle of one of the UK's worst winters, and it took 3 weeks to get it fixed. I spent the evenings under a duvet on the sofa playing mass effect 2 and slept in a coat and hat.
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Feb 24, 2020 19:07
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Jaded Burnout posted:Few years ago my heating died in a rental place over the middle of one of the UK's worst winters, and it took 3 weeks to get it fixed. That really blows. Was that due to landlord incompetence/laziness or just the scope of work needing to be done? I hope you received some kind of reparations.
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Feb 24, 2020 20:13
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Sirotan posted:That really blows. Was that due to landlord incompetence/laziness or just the scope of work needing to be done? I hope you received some kind of reparations. Unsure. The landlord was a nice guy, his handyman was a bit of a dick, hard to say. I was a bit naive at the time or I would've pressed harder.
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Feb 24, 2020 20:26
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Foundation work prior to cocnrete pour tomorrow. Inspector already OK'd. https://imgur.com/a/xRrVP3f
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Feb 25, 2020 02:52
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Sirotan posted:They finished and left in under an hour. It was a teenager doing most of the work and an older guy supervising. I opened up the front panel after they left to make sure it looked ok and other than a messy wiring harness it's fine. They barely said a word to me the entire time, took my $100 deductible and left. Weird as gently caress. Just glad I have heat again. Probably true. My home warranty experience was paying $75 for a guy to come out, act like he was looking at something for 10 minutes, then going "no clean out. not covered." Then his boss called immediately after to try to sell me on them installing clean outs 
Dango Bango fucked around with this message at 04:13 on Feb 25, 2020 |
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Feb 25, 2020 04:09
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ntan1 posted:Foundation work prior to cocnrete pour tomorrow. Inspector already OK'd. Big stuff!!!
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Feb 25, 2020 04:30
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