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FISHMANPET posted:I mean, the conversation before was basically that people like me should be tried for war crimes at the Hauge. And just in general, people who care about windows care A LOT about windows. And because of that, any information they have is shared with the assumption that you are also obsessed with windows. Maybe there is some relatively easy work I could do to them, but it always feels like I'm a criminal for not caring that much about my windows. Eh, I’m not even there. I don’t like my vinyl windows primarily because they’re low quality- we’ve had to replace the balances on pretty much all of them, and they’re still drafty. I am upset that major pieces of architectural detailing were removed or covered- namely the front stained glass windows and the decorative shingles/woodwork. My house was a somewhat standard plan- our street of 8 houses has four like it, and four in a slightly different style. It’s not an architectural marvel, but there were pieces that made it pretty and a lil special that got ripped out on the cheap (likely as a scummy contractor ‘special’) and I don’t like that. But I’m not upset enough to get the windows fully restored, that’s for sure.
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Feb 8, 2022 16:58
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PainterofCrap posted:I restored the wood double-hung windows in my 1930 It rules that you trash picked the windows. I sometimes wonder if I could get in contact with some of the companies who do replacement windows and get permission to pick through the old window trash and grab old hardware. It's basically impossible to find actual brass window latches without paying through the nose for restoration hardware and my fiance is determined that we're going to keep as much actual brass in the house as possible.
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Feb 8, 2022 17:02
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Queen Victorian posted:Well dammit. My relatives just put their farm under conservation easement as part of a massive greenbelt around a lake system up north. Hopefully all that lasts for a while. This is the nature of conservation, not some failure of government or society. If you want to not cut down a tree, you have to have something in place keeping people from cutting it down. As long as there are people, someone's going to want to cut the tree down. If you take a shift conserving the tree, that's all you can do. Gotta make peace with it
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Feb 8, 2022 17:07
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Threads like these always develop little cliques of 3 or 4 people around super specific elements and the language tends to sharpen after a while. I don't think it's necessarily meant fully literally, but I also think some pushback is also healthy. Everyone ultimately has their own takes on form vs function and form and function.
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Feb 8, 2022 17:48
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FISHMANPET posted:We have storm windows on the outside, which are about a million times uglier than even the ugliest vinyl window. And they're a pain in the rear end to use too. Meanwhile a new window... just works. I don't need accessories or dozens of hours of maintenance standing on ladders on the second floor every year, it's just a window that opens and closes and has a screen and works. Here they just put the storm windows on the inside.
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Feb 8, 2022 18:40
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My house has had an extension built at the back of it from the previous owners. It's a living room now. But it is noticeably colder than the room attached to it, which is part of the original house. How can I go about to see where the cold is coming from? Is there a list of things to check for? The sliding doors leading to the balcony are double pane, the electrical outlets have had little insulation put in behind the face plates.
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Feb 8, 2022 18:41
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bobmarleysghost posted:My house has had an extension built at the back of it from the previous owners. It's a living room now. The absolute easiest way is to buy/rent a FLIR camera. I used mine all the time for things like this.
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Feb 8, 2022 18:44
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Motronic posted:The absolute easiest way is to buy/rent a FLIR camera. I used mine all the time for things like this. Right, renting one would be a good idea.
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Feb 8, 2022 19:02
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Almost done getting our HVAC and water heater done. Subcontracted crew was also here today installing the new chimney liner. Surprise, they say the chimney needs work!   Quoted about $1,000 to fix because the cap is larger, he says. It does pretty obviously have a water problem, but is this urgent and/or $1,000-worth? I am but a humble idiot who didn't know houses without a fireplace could have chimneys until I bought one.
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Feb 8, 2022 19:21
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What is that chimney for if not a fireplace? A furnace?
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Feb 8, 2022 19:24
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MetaJew posted:What is that chimney for if not a fireplace? A furnace? Natural gas furnace, yeah.
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Feb 8, 2022 19:34
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"A chimney without a fireplace only exhausts money" -Confuscious, probably
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Feb 8, 2022 19:42
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Any chimney fix for only $1k seems like a deal to me. That shits always expensive. Also Window World crew here, I also like having newer windows that just work. These newer windows are very Musrardayonaisse https://youtu.be/mRntutn8udw
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Feb 8, 2022 19:50
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Danhenge posted:Repairing old windows is not that difficult. Particularly if you don't set out to try and safely strip off as much of the old lead paint like I'm trying to do with my windows. If you focus on encapsulating lead paint, then the effort is mostly in the reglazing the windows and reroping the sash weights every few decades. You can go a little bit beyond that and use some sort of epoxy wood stiffener and add pins to the joints to help keep the window in square. If you get a little crazier, you can add interlocking zinc weather-stripping to the sides of your windows and replaceable rubber gaskets to the top, bottom, and meeting stops. The last isn't necessary, but it gets you a lot closer to the R value of brand new replacement windows. This is a very good post. I dug around in my photos and found one that I think exemplifies the argument against old windows in favor of vinyl (and it shows why you shouldn't buy a duplex unless you buy the entire structure):  Of course vinyl wins when the original is rotten to the point of literally falling apart and completely irredeemable. I'm guessing this is what "old window" means to some folks here. Perfectly understandable because it happens a lot - I think people don't realize that you have to maintain/paint them periodically and that the maintenance and even basic repairs are not terribly difficult. For example, my husband and I went from broken old windows and not knowing how to fix them to not-broken operational windows in a few hours and a couple trips to the hardware store. Anyways, here are the type of old windows I'm always talking about and what I want for my house:   These windows are either original and fully restored/lovingly maintained or replicas no doubt by that local millwork shop. Both these houses have period correct color schemes with the frames and sashes painted different colors. These houses look ageless - there's a harmony and cohesion about them in that all aspects of them are of the same era. And there's a cleanness to the wood sashes that you can't easily get from extruded vinyl or aluminum. Fun fact: that first picture with the rotten window and the perfect green-trimmed Victorian are just a few blocks from each other. My neighborhood has the entire spectrum of window types, qualities, and conditions, which is very handy for me to observe and gain insight. Here's an example of white vinyl done well:  This house uses white trim to match the windows so they blend in and don't look out of place. This is a wooden house so it has the advantage of actually having window trim to paint white. A minor downside for these folks is that they've got to keep the white trim if they don't want the windows to stand out as being stark white vinyl. Also noting that this house actually does shutters right - they are on hinges and positioned and sized correctly. The vinyl windows in this house are fine:  Not as blended in as with the previous house, but overall quite inoffensive. Would have been better in a darker color that could be incorporated into the color scheme. If this was my house, replacing the vinyl with wood would be on my list but extremely low priority. Here's my house:  I have a mix of cheap lovely vinyl windows (some of which are draftier than the originals), a couple good vinyl windows (including at least one custom Pella), and original windows, most of which are in good condition, a couple of which are rotten and need full replacement (the little arched ones). You can see its past glory in the gable decoration, but the vinyl windows plus blocky vinyl casing that is almost certainly covering up the real trim make it look kinda sad and diminished and a bit cheap feeling. ....but not as sad and diminished as one of its doppelgängers down the street:  Also has cheapshit vinyl windows, but doesn't have the original gable trim to visually counteract the windows so it looks extra sad. Also note the rectangular window in the arched frame. That happens A LOT and it always looks super bad. This house has since been sold and the new owner seems to be fixing it up. And lastly, here's an example of my least favorite type of vinyl window:  I very much hate the look of those fake little plastic grilles and the low effort fake divided light look they create. They look bad from the outside, they look bad from the inside, and they just look bad. And not to mention, completely stylistically inappropriate for this particular area. Those windows were never originally nine over nine or eight over eight or six over six, they were all one over one, which look way better in vinyl so I don't get why the inset grilles seem to be popular. True divided light is expensive as gently caress, especially in double paned, so at the very least, and only if the style/period of your house requires it, get the good kind of simulated divided light with the real mullions on the outside of the glass so that there's a sense of dimension. Otherwise, one over ones are fine and will look better because there is no superfluous fakery.
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Feb 8, 2022 19:58
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Queen Victorian posted:This is a very good post. Thanks! Those are good photos. I am not totally opposed to replacement windows. But I think they're only an obvious good choice when you're not super worried about the cost-savings element and can afford the higher end windows that will actually last. Even then, you'll find notifications like this one for high quality Pella windows: quote:Argon. The other case that it might be an obvious good choice is if there's really no one in your immediate area who does good work on windows. From an economic perspective, total cost savings is just not as obvious for your average replacement window as the window vendors would like you to believe. From an environmental perspective, the replacement windows seem like they are probably worse. You're throwing away wood that is likely literally irreplaceable in your lifetime, and in the longer-term you're contributing to plastic waste. Extra emissions to heat and cool your home aren't awesome, but with an ongoing shift to renewable energies, that will become less of a concern, and then we're back the economic argument.
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Feb 8, 2022 20:22
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Sous Videodrome posted:And I'm finishing the exterior wall. When I moved in I demo'd the basement because the PO had a rat infestation. I cleaned all the rat turds out, and basically just left it. This wall is kind of an odd setup. There's a poured concrete knee wall, then a framed and insulated wall above it. Due to to remodel work by successive PO's, the interior wall is essentially a double wall. Hahaha! gently caress drywall! Before:  After:  I installed the lights last night. Gonna do the window sills this weekend. After that just a few finishing touches like the outlet covers and the baseboard trim, then I can move the gym back in.
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Feb 8, 2022 20:59
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So I looked at all those pictures and I was like "meh" which is fine. Anyway here's the side of my house:  Maybe that explains some of my "meh" ness. The bottom right has the stained glass side windows, but otherwise, it's pretty hard to tell from the outside what's original and what's vinyl, because that white aluminum trim just overwhelms everything. And then there's the vinyl siding on top. What's under there is just boring white wood siding, nothing worth writing home for. Maybe I'm in a better situation on the inside though. On the inside, all the wood windows are stained wood (and the exterior part of the window is painted white, so I'd want to test that for lead). I know at some point in the history of the house the woodwork was all refinished and the insides of the windows look like maybe they were refinished at the same time. I'm sure most of my problems with the windows could be dealt with by doing some maintenance, I'm just not sure where to start. Is there some kind of... book or something that goes into it? I don't care enough to do a perfect restoration but I just want to make them more functional, less drafty, etc. And I'm handy enough I could probably do it myself, if I just knew what to do.
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Feb 8, 2022 21:13
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Danhenge's thread is a good start: https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3976628
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Feb 8, 2022 21:15
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FISHMANPET posted:So I looked at all those pictures and I was like "meh" which is fine. Under the circumstances I can see why you might not be that excited about the wood windows, since so much of the original is covered at this point. Motronic posted:Danhenge's thread is a good start: https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3976628 Like I said, I'm trying to remediate the lead as much as possible because I'm a crazy person. Rather than using an IR heat source to remove the glazing, you can probably use steam. I don't have any experience with it, but Scott Sidler at Craftsman Blog talks about it and might have a video somewhere. It has the advantage of wetting the exterior paint where you're peeling the old glazing off, so you keep the lead dust down. To be maximally safe you're still going to want to vacuum everything up. Technically you should use a HEPA vac but for most people who don't do lead remediation work on the regular, you can probably get away with using a shop vac with a hepa/drywall filter to suck up any dust and paint debris you make in the process. Book-wise, you can look at Scott's book: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07NHH1523/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1. I think "old windows in depth" is a misnomer, it's really "old windows in moderate detail." My main man Bob Yapp, who taught the bootcamp where I learned most of what I know, also contribute to the Window Preservation Standards. I haven't read it, so I can't speak to how accessible it is, but I imagine it's rather complete: https://www.amazon.com/Window-Prese...ext=Robert+Yapp. If you're anywhere near Hannibal, MO and you have a spare weekend, Bob's classes are cheap for the money. You get to use a lot of tools and resources that would add up to way more than tuition, and decide if it's all really for you: https://bobyapp.com/workshops/ Edit: Re-reading your post in more detail, if you test that exterior paint and it's all lead-free you could just use a regular heat gun on low to heat up and remove the glazing. Danhenge fucked around with this message at 21:42 on Feb 8, 2022 |
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Feb 8, 2022 21:34
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FISHMANPET posted:So I looked at all those pictures and I was like "meh" which is fine. If your goal is to fix the windows, I second Danhenge's thread. If your goal (or one of your goals) is to make the exterior of the house look better in general, I think you'll get way more bang for your buck by fixing the casing first. Having well-proportioned casings with all the right pieces (header, drip cap/cornice, sill, apron) would be a much more impactful improvement than doing anything to the windows or storms right now. Also can you remove the comically oversized covering for that conduit? I honestly think it would look less bad with the much smaller and less visually overwhelming bare piping, or a much smaller covering. The side of my house is riddled with conduits so I feel you there. If you want to learn more about window casing, here's a blog post in which Old House Guy spends many words nerding out about it and window design in general: https://www.oldhouseguy.com/window-designs/. To note, this guy is neurotic about old windows and any shittalk I've dished out about vinyl windows here is nothing in comparison. That said, he makes pretty astute observations about why something looks bad or good and explaining with photographic examples. His articles are better for gaining background knowledge and learning the terminology and what to look out for, less so for actually how to fix poo poo yourself.
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Feb 8, 2022 22:03
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Yeah my house is old but there's nothing really spectacular about it. It's pretty basic lower middle class housing, I suspect targeting railway workers since a couple blocks away was a huge rail yard in the city. The woodwork inside is beautiful and I'd go out of my way to salvage that, but that's mostly just because it's old wood, not because it was done in any spectacular style. I just got lucky that the house was solidly built and owned by the same family since the end of WWII. They took good enough care of everything but there's no real "former glory" to restore it to or anything.
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Feb 8, 2022 22:06
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Phil Moscowitz posted:Based on recommendations from this thread, when I had a partial gut renovation going last year I put in rockwool and I am very happy I did, for soundproofing alone. For the first half of this sentence I thought I was in the Medical Stories thread and was very confused.
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Feb 8, 2022 22:11
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FISHMANPET posted:Yeah my house is old but there's nothing really spectacular about it. It's pretty basic lower middle class housing, I suspect targeting railway workers since a couple blocks away was a huge rail yard in the city. The woodwork inside is beautiful and I'd go out of my way to salvage that, but that's mostly just because it's old wood, not because it was done in any spectacular style. I just got lucky that the house was solidly built and owned by the same family since the end of WWII. They took good enough care of everything but there's no real "former glory" to restore it to or anything. One of the houses we looked at was kind of like this. It was in a historically blue collar neighborhood (not far from the steel mill on the river) and was a spot-on example of vernacular Victorian. The exterior was very plain - simple trim and window casings, plain aluminum siding (later addition that covered or replaced probably similarly plain wooden siding), a cute but simple porch, and no fancy windows. The interior was exquisite and absolutely charming though - lots of lovely woodwork and built-ins everywhere, like leaded glass cabinets in the dining room and a cute bench in the foyer. It felt very down to earth and homey. The house we ended up with was most definitely intended for middle management bourgeoisie. It's a cookie cutter house with pine woodwork painted to look like quarter sawn oak and overall tries very hard (and mostly succeeds) at punching above its weight in terms of fanciness. It's not full-blown high style like some of the robber baron houses, but it's not vernacular either. I intend to help it become the guest-impressing social-climber fancy house it wants to be. The blue collar house was like $50k more expensive, funnily enough.
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Feb 8, 2022 22:42
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How should I deal with a smelly sump pit? The pump never runs (good) but there's a few inches of stagnant water in there that always smells like cat piss (bad). We've been putting bleach in it when it gets too smelly but unless we constantly do it the cat eventually gets a whiff and starts pissing on the cover. Should I try sucking the water out with a shop vac and leaving it dry? Should I run water through it regularly along with the bleach?
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Feb 8, 2022 22:46
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Tiny Timbs posted:How should I deal with a smelly sump pit? The pump never runs (good) but there's a few inches of stagnant water in there that always smells like cat piss (bad). Put a cover on it?
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Feb 8, 2022 23:01
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Maybe dump a bucket of just water in once a month. Bleach doesn't last forever and causes it's own issues. You also get to test that the pump still works. Also maybe it's good for the pump to run occasionally, I think that's true of some motors
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Feb 8, 2022 23:50
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First full month of being in my house (~2100 sqft, detached, 1 story, tx) and my electric consumption was 250 kwh. Found a way to see last 24 mos of meter readings and PO was using 1100 kwh for the same period. In summer months they were using 3000 kwh/month. Gas for heat so I can't fathom wtf they doing to use that much juice in winter. (Must be the new vinyl windows, hyuk) Reminds me of the house we almost bought in the desert with a huge green lawn, they were spending 1k/month on water in summer keeping it alive.
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Feb 9, 2022 00:22
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Infinotize posted:First full month of being in my house (~2100 sqft, detached, 1 story, tx) and my electric consumption was 250 kwh. Found a way to see last 24 mos of meter readings and PO was using 1100 kwh for the same period. In summer months they were using 3000 kwh/month. Gas for heat so I can't fathom wtf they doing to use that much juice in winter. (Must be the new vinyl windows, hyuk) Did they have a grow operation going?
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Feb 9, 2022 00:33
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BigFactory posted:Did they have a grow operation going? First thought was it had to be crypto mining
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Feb 9, 2022 00:44
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My chest freezer arrived and it fits the space I measured it to fit!  (It's in a doored alcove carved into the back of the outside of house that's used to store things, and yes, the freezer is garage-rated.) I had ordered the darn thing in August. Costco run ahoy!
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Feb 9, 2022 20:32
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Arsenic Lupin posted:My chest freezer arrived and it fits the space I measured it to fit! Nice chest freezers are good, we had to wait for around 6 months for ours, was the first thing we ordered when I bought a house. It's full of 1/4 of a cow and all kinds of foods, it's nice to not only have the fridge drawer.
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Feb 9, 2022 20:34
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Not only that, but chest freezers do not have a defrost cycle, so your frozen stuff doesn't get FUBARed from being warmed a little like it does in the refrigerator freezer
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Feb 10, 2022 01:14
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This is a dumb question but I'm really struggling to get a definitive answer on things. Can a ceiling fan w/ light that comes with a remote control be wired into a hard wired wall switch as well?
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Feb 10, 2022 20:10
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ScooterMcTiny posted:This is a dumb question but I'm really struggling to get a definitive answer on things. Can a ceiling fan w/ light that comes with a remote control be wired into a hard wired wall switch as well? Yes.
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Feb 10, 2022 20:12
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ScooterMcTiny posted:This is a dumb question but I'm really struggling to get a definitive answer on things. Can a ceiling fan w/ light that comes with a remote control be wired into a hard wired wall switch as well? Yes. At it simplest, and you absolutely want at least this, you just put a single switch for the fan. When it's off the fan and lights are off. When it's on the remote works and (probably) goes back to it's last setting you chose with the remote. When there's a brownout or whatever and the remote receiver no longer works and you can't turn off the fan you'll probably "fix" it by flipping the switch off and back on again. Some models also allow various types of meaningful hardwired switching and speed control while still working with their remote. This gets into features of specific products.
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Feb 10, 2022 20:23
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Motronic posted:Yes. At it simplest, and you absolutely want at least this, you just put a single switch for the fan. When it's off the fan and lights are off. When it's on the remote works and (probably) goes back to it's last setting you chose with the remote. When there's a brownout or whatever and the remote receiver no longer works and you can't turn off the fan you'll probably "fix" it by flipping the switch off and back on again. Oh fascinating. Yea, I would have a wall switch for light, and a separate wall switch for fan control. Is this standard, or do I need to hunt for compatible models? I've tried reading installation instructions for some of them that come with remotes, and it's a bit unclear.
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Feb 10, 2022 20:35
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Exactly how screwed am I if my jetted tub has a leak and there is no access panel? I filled the tub the other day and found a healthy leak underneath it in the basement. This is in a contractor-special grade addition to a 1960 construction. Can I just fit caps on the jets if the leak is from the plumbing in there? I don't care about losing the functionality. Pics including the little access I can get from underneath. I'm unable to locate the source of the leak... https://imgur.com/a/dj6JvgB
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Feb 10, 2022 21:02
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Is there enough room in that service hole under it to stick a snake camera in to look around? They sell them on amazon or whatever to inspect insides of walls or whatever. could at least clue you in as to which one to plug or which side to tear off.
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Feb 10, 2022 21:10
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Got squirrels in my walls. Any best ways to get rid of them?
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Feb 10, 2022 21:20
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How much of a difference does a light colored roof vs a dark colored roof for energy efficiency in Not Arizona? We’re getting a new roof in the spring but all the light roofs look really meh on our old Mansard roof house. We’re in New England, so we’re not cranking the AC much and there are no energy rebates, but if I’m going to save  on cooling I might compromise my sense of aesthetics. Not seeing much other than ‘it’s better!’ from people who want to sell me roofing materials. Is this something that only really makes a noticeable difference with intense, year round sun?
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Feb 10, 2022 21:21
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