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Here's how my not awesome Thumbtack dot come experience is so far, goal is to just install a tub surround that i already have in the garage. 1) On website, it shows bathroom remodel type people. cool, pick one and type a message. Message is very specific and says i just need this one thing done, links to the part number even. 2) this of course forces account creation on thumbtack, including phone # and email. 3) I get an email from the org via thumbtack that just says 'whats your email and phone number'. 4) respond to message with this info but also note that this was in thumbtack and they should have it already. 5) Get a voicemail that just says 'hey calling about what looks like uhhhm a bathroom remodel? give me a call back' Yeah so I fully expected this modern ish website to get me to a spot where, via email / on the site, i got a ballpark quote. This is no different than cold calling someone in the yellow pages, assuming that still exists. YMMV?
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May 2, 2022 16:25
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FWIW I've never heard of Thumbtack, I have only heard of TaskRabbit for the same purpose which seems significantly more popular. The biggest issue I see with TaskRabbit is the vast majority of pros on the app are not an LLC, are one-man-bands, and do not have insurance or licensing that may be required by your jurisdiction. So I only use them for minor things, which tend to be things that I am capable of myself but am OK hiring out. Maybe thumbtack is different in that respect as an advantage. Do you have a real estate agent in your network or any other tradey you have worked with before? They may have valuable recommendations for other trades or handypeople in addition to what you can find on these apps. Also check Yelp but Yelp is not going to be helpful for finding cheap handypeople.
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May 2, 2022 16:45
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It's a general computer problem that most people will not read more than like the first sentence of any message, if that. I had some extremely frustrating experiences with asking questions and requesting quotes via email; I'd get responses that very obviously revealed that the writer had indeed not read more than the first line or so. I've tried to change my writing style to be extremely brief and to the point, with as little detail as possible, and asking no more than one question per message, and it seems to at least help somewhat. It goes against a long ingrained habit of always providing a lot of detail when asking questions on the internet, but it simply does not work with a lot of people because they'll never actually read any of that. You can't solve that with a webapp.
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May 2, 2022 16:49
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falz posted:Here's how my not awesome Thumbtack dot come experience is so far, goal is to just install a tub surround that i already have in the garage. have you tried going to your local hardware store and asking for a referral? that's what I've done
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May 2, 2022 18:31
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falz posted:Here's how my not awesome Thumbtack dot come experience is so far, goal is to just install a tub surround that i already have in the garage. My experience with a similar service (homeadvisor) was pretty much the same. Contractors will do anything to not touch a computer.
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May 2, 2022 18:57
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I agree the issue is with the person on the other end. I've been buying some stuff on facebook marketplace lately. I'll send a message like "hey I love your ___! Can I ask the dimensions? I can pick up, what days will work for you?" and I inevitably get the response "Yes, it's still available"
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May 2, 2022 19:16
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i like nice words
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Anne Whateley posted:I agree the issue is with the person on the other end. I've been buying some stuff on facebook marketplace lately. I'll send a message like "hey I love your ___! Can I ask the dimensions? I can pick up, what days will work for you?" and I inevitably get the response "Yes, it's still available" I run into this all the time. It's even worse trying to sell something. It makes my blood boil how difficult people make what should be a simple transaction.
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May 2, 2022 19:24
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I was visiting my dad while he listed some stuff on Facebook Marketplace and he was annoyed that like 2 minutes after posting he was getting character-for-character identical messages asking "Is this still available" ("Of course it's still available, I just loving posted it!") and I realized that Facebook was steering people into asking that question by making it a single button to press to send that identical message. I wonder if it's doing the same for the seller, making it really easy to respond with that boilerplate message, to the point where it's so easy that some people that aren't as technically savvy don't realize they're even capable of responding with anything other than that suggested boilerplate.
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May 2, 2022 20:37
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Yeah their interface is terrible. If you are browsing and click on an item listing it automatically opens messenger and populates with the "is this still available?", and it would be super easy to hit send without even realizing you'd done it. So as a seller you get hit with a ton of those messages that people didn't mean to send and aren't going to respond to.
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May 2, 2022 20:46
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On the train one day I sat next to a normie who was browsing Marketplace. Every item she was interested in she would tap through and send the default "is this available" message.
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May 3, 2022 02:32
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Yeah it absolutely is a boilerplate response on the seller's side, too. But like, even if you hit that first...answer the questions? How do you see this working?
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May 3, 2022 02:38
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~Coxy posted:On the train one day I sat next to a normie who was browsing Marketplace.
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May 3, 2022 02:39
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Sous Videodrome posted:Hello thread, PainterofCrap posted:The rim joist is there to help maintain the orientation of your load-bearing floor joists. It, in & of itself, is not a load-bearing member, and that is borne out in your photos: the joists are sitting on the sill plate. The rim joist is not. NomNomNom posted:Whatever you do brace the drill on the floor above or something, because when that hole saw binds it will break your wrist or throw you off the ladder. Thanks. Right now I'm inclined to cut the 6" hole. Going through the closet would involve dislocating some radiant heat pipes, which I'll have to peel back the silver bubble insulation to figure out how involved that is. The rim joist is a straight, unobstructed shot to the outside. But does anyone else have an opinion on this? Or a good place to post it for advice/get more eyes on it? Reddit DIY? Or if you know of a good builder/diy forum, that'd be appreciated.
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May 3, 2022 03:32
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Maybe stack exchange? A "should I make this cut?" forum would be something. Theres a guy in the biz fin discord posting pics of his rim joist half rotted away, and his house is still standing
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May 3, 2022 14:55
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SpartanIvy posted:I run into this all the time. It's even worse trying to sell something. It makes my blood boil how difficult people make what should be a simple transaction. i know ur post says $300 firm but will you take $75
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May 3, 2022 15:06
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tracecomplete posted:i know ur post says $300 firm but will you take $75 I tried buying a few niche parts from a guy the other day that has had them listed for 12 weeks at $99 and the description is just a list of the parts with no indication he was trying to sell them individually or anything. I told him I'd buy the set and he basically replied "I know the listing says $99 but I want $175 for it all". Enjoy waiting another 3+ months for a prospective buyer I guess.  At least he updated the listing price to be accurate to his desires after our discussion.
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May 3, 2022 15:11
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On the topic of FB Marketplace crap, so there is one FB group that doesn't seem to have this issue, but there's a catch - everything is intended to be a gift. So I'm in what I would call an extremely local (small subsection of my town, which is a suburb of a not huge town) group, and those that seem to be in here ARENT the type that expect/want free delivery on everything and everyone seems super nice. The catch is that its intended to be free, so you wont make money. I'd rather do that in 90% of the cases than make $20 to deal with some dickhead. It's generally this or donate to Habitat ReStore for most things i'm shedding. YMMV. My group even has a google with an area blocked off to the street that you must be in to be in the group. https://buynothingproject.org/find-a-group/
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May 3, 2022 17:36
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I've got a purchase of both a stove and an outdoor grill on the semi-near horizon. I was leaning towards gas for both - gas oven, and a grill with natural gas lines that connect directly to your house (no propane tanks necessary). I've been hearing rumblings that going this route may not be wise, from a few perspectives. One, that natural gas prices may rise dramatically in the nearish future (I was reading all this before the Ukraine situation too), and two, that at this point it's not environmentally conscious to buy natural gas devices any longer. The latter point doesn't bother me too much (since climate change isn't something solved at an individual level), but potentially spending a combined $3,000 on gas appliances two years before natural gas sees a 10x in price does have me feeling some trepidation. I see also that there are areas of the country that are banning natural gas in new builds now, which adds to this concern. What's the sentiment among you all? The Wonder Weapon fucked around with this message at 19:51 on May 3, 2022 |
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May 3, 2022 19:31
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I just got my home inspection report (waived inspection to close, got inspection post-close). I am a dummy when it comes to house things and want to talk it over with someone knowledgeable about prioritizing fixes and estimating costs, but I'm not sure who to talk to. Would anyone in this thread be willing to go over it with me sometime? Is this something I should just find a handyman for and sit down with them? I'm a little worried about any professional I contact playing up the importance of certain things. It feels a little but like when I take my car to the mechanic.
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May 3, 2022 19:39
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I wouldn't be too concerned about natural gas prices skyrocketing because a stove and grill use pretty little of it compared to something like a furnace or water heater. I would be concerned about air quality though. If you want to use an indoor gas stove you need a vent hood or other outdoor ventilation because the combusted gas byproducts will make the air in your home feel lovely. Gas appliances have their days numbered, just like gas vehicles do, but how long is the question. And the answer will be extremely specific to your location and situation. I think I read that some countries are on a 30 year plan to phase out natural gas utilities. This will almost certainly be accomplished by raising prices so when people have to upgrade they switch to electrical alternatives. If you want to truly future price proof yourself, get an induction stove with an electric oven and a propane grill for outside. Cheapish electricity ain't going away and propane will be around far longer than natural gas utilities. I say all this as someone with a natural gas stove, water heater, furnace, and outdoor fire pit who loves them. SpartanIvy fucked around with this message at 19:45 on May 3, 2022 |
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May 3, 2022 19:43
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falz posted:On the topic of FB Marketplace crap, so there is one FB group that doesn't seem to have this issue, but there's a catch - everything is intended to be a gift. Buy nothing groups are amazing and a nice way to give back to your neighborhood but the ones local to me (Brooklyn) are rife with people who really want to monopolize your time. You end up chasing a lot of messages about "can I come by at 9:30-9:35pm Monday or 7am Sunday?" and a huge amount of people just flake because it's free. Lots of people here who want to get rid of nicer things will put a token $20 or $40 out because people become much more respectful of your schedule.
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May 3, 2022 19:58
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theflyingexecutive posted:Buy nothing groups are amazing and a nice way to give back to your neighborhood but the ones local to me (Brooklyn) are rife with people who really want to monopolize your time. You end up chasing a lot of messages about "can I come by at 9:30-9:35pm Monday or 7am Sunday?" and a huge amount of people just flake because it's free. Lots of people here who want to get rid of nicer things will put a token $20 or $40 out because people become much more respectful of your schedule. Unrelated, here's the latest in bathroom trends: https://www.theonion.com/modern-bathroom-sink-just-puddle-on-granite-slab-1848870470
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May 3, 2022 20:17
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Our Buy Nothing group is pretty small, I think ~3,000 people, where as the big county yardsale groups are more around ~50k. Often my wife will post niche things and get no responses and then I post them to the broad yardsale group and while I have to filter out all the "Is this still available" autocompletes, I do eventually get rid of the item.
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May 3, 2022 21:30
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From my thread, probably of interest here too.Motronic posted:Check valve on the well is bad, so it needs to come up. It's also a 30 year old pump, so may as well just do the whole thing.
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May 3, 2022 22:12
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Motronic posted:From my thread, probably of interest here too. loving. Gary. Indeed.
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May 3, 2022 22:30
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EVERYWHERE 
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I'm scrambling to move into a house from an apartment. I've spent the last two months de-hoarding, cleaning up the mess of a yard, ripping out piss soaked carpet, cleaning up crystallized piss off of concrete flooring, killing brown recluses, repairing drywall, painting, etc, etc; I'm due to move out of my apartment in about 25 days and the last big job I have is replacing the floors. We're planning on doing some of the house in laminate but willing to wait a bit on those parts and live with concrete + area rugs. the bedrooms are going to be carpeted however and we really need to get that done before we move in, as the existing carpet is hazardous to health. We have very limited available credit and pretty limited cash reserves so I'm trying to do this as cheaply and efficiently as possible. I've got pretty limited access to financing options right now so we had Home Depot come out and do measurements just to see what they came back with, and they wanted 25% more carpet and padding than I have square feet of room to carpet. This seems like an absolutely unreal amount of waste. Is Home Depot loving with me here, or am I way underestimating how much carpet I'm actually going to need for this house? My plan B here was buying carpet remnants and DIY-ing it but I'm worried I'm just going to waste a lot of money on an unworkable project because I didn't know anything about carpet Mirthless fucked around with this message at 23:38 on May 3, 2022 |
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May 3, 2022 23:36
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SpartanIvy posted:I wouldn't be too concerned about natural gas prices skyrocketing because a stove and grill use pretty little of it compared to something like a furnace or water heater. Yeah, as someone with just a gas furnace and a gas stove, during the hot months I barely ever pay over the minimum bill for gas, and we cook 3-4 nights a week.
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May 3, 2022 23:46
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Mirthless posted:I'm scrambling to move into a house from an apartment. I've spent the last two months de-hoarding, cleaning up the mess of a yard, ripping out piss soaked carpet, cleaning up crystallized piss off of concrete flooring, killing brown recluses, repairing drywall, painting, etc, etc; I'm due to move out of my apartment in about 25 days and the last big job I have is replacing the floors. We're planning on doing some of the house in laminate but willing to wait a bit on those parts and live with concrete + area rugs. the bedrooms are going to be carpeted however and we really need to get that done before we move in, as the existing carpet is hazardous to health. Most carpet comes in rolls that are like 12 or 15 feet wide. 25% waste doesn’t seem unreasonable depending on your room sizes.
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May 3, 2022 23:56
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Harriet Carker posted:I just got my home inspection report (waived inspection to close, got inspection post-close). I am a dummy when it comes to house things and want to talk it over with someone knowledgeable about prioritizing fixes and estimating costs, but I'm not sure who to talk to. Would anyone in this thread be willing to go over it with me sometime? Is this something I should just find a handyman for and sit down with them? I'm a little worried about any professional I contact playing up the importance of certain things. It feels a little but like when I take my car to the mechanic. I'll look at it. PM me. Motronic posted:From my thread, probably of interest here too. gently caress me. Sorry. Mirthless posted:I'm scrambling to move into a house from an apartment. ... For the love of god, do not use Home Depot. They will overcharge the gently caress out of you and probably screw up the job to boot. Having said that: a certain amount of carpet waste is normal. Carpet comes in 12' and 15' wide rolls. Depending on how your room dimensions fall outside of 12" or 15' the waste can be considerable. Less waste is possible, but far more cuts = far more seams. Go to literally any other flooring company. Try to get a couple quotes ASIDE from HD.
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May 4, 2022 00:36
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I used to keep a list of people I'd called and the date with '"left message". Today I rejiggered the journal. Each repair/maintenance person I need to call gets one line with the contact info, then three blank lines below for me to write in 5/3, 5/10, 5/19 ... because just leaving a message ain't worth poo poo. I did find out today that the person who'd promised me in November she'd have a slot to reupholster my chairs in January now has ten other projects ahead of me and is working slowly because of illness. Sent off an email to a guy I found on Nextdoor.
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May 4, 2022 03:11
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This morning in homeownership: hot water tank sprang a leak from the bottom of the tank overnight
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May 4, 2022 13:06
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The Slack Lagoon posted:This morning in homeownership: hot water tank sprang a leak from the bottom of the tank overnight I had this happen 2 weeks ago and it turned out to just be the drain value. Not too hard of a job to replace that. It was at that point I learned my water heater was 13 years old, not 16 like I thought from reading the label. It's maintenance history was a mystery to me when I moved in so I figured I'd just leave it alone until it died. Since I had to drain it and it was still fine after, I figured I'd replace the anode rod too. Problem is I can't get it out.
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May 4, 2022 13:20
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The Wonder Weapon posted:I've got a purchase of both a stove and an outdoor grill on the semi-near horizon. I was leaning towards gas for both - gas oven, and a grill with natural gas lines that connect directly to your house (no propane tanks necessary). I've been hearing rumblings that going this route may not be wise, from a few perspectives. One, that natural gas prices may rise dramatically in the nearish future (I was reading all this before the Ukraine situation too), and two, that at this point it's not environmentally conscious to buy natural gas devices any longer. The latter point doesn't bother me too much (since climate change isn't something solved at an individual level), but potentially spending a combined $3,000 on gas appliances two years before natural gas sees a 10x in price does have me feeling some trepidation. I see also that there are areas of the country that are banning natural gas in new builds now, which adds to this concern. Where I live, gas is the fuel source for the vast majority of electricity being made. This time of year, home gas usage is limited other than cooking a few times a week which is absolutely nothing compared to running your furnace for heating. I also prefer gas for clothes dryers but I am on electric as getting gas to my 2nd storey in our home would have been a pain in the dick. I doubt it will become 10x the price anytime in the foreseeable future (and if it does, electricity will likely track in a significant way) but, who knows what the future will bring.
slidebite fucked around with this message at 16:18 on May 4, 2022 |
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May 4, 2022 15:30
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The Wonder Weapon posted:I've got a purchase of both a stove and an outdoor grill on the semi-near horizon. I was leaning towards gas for both - gas oven, and a grill with natural gas lines that connect directly to your house (no propane tanks necessary). I've been hearing rumblings that going this route may not be wise, from a few perspectives. One, that natural gas prices may rise dramatically in the nearish future (I was reading all this before the Ukraine situation too), and two, that at this point it's not environmentally conscious to buy natural gas devices any longer. The latter point doesn't bother me too much (since climate change isn't something solved at an individual level), but potentially spending a combined $3,000 on gas appliances two years before natural gas sees a 10x in price does have me feeling some trepidation. I see also that there are areas of the country that are banning natural gas in new builds now, which adds to this concern. I'll 2nd slidebite, a great deal of powergen is NG so you're kind of stuck. And guess where propane comes from? Natural gas / crude refining. If you go back a decade or so there was a huge boom in NG production, which through a lot of geopolitical fuckery was made not cost effective. If the price of NG spikes, then all of those operations in North Dakota and Oklahoma etc. will become profitable again. There is a ton of capacity and I just don't see a 10X spike as reasonable. So I'd err on the side of convenience. The environmental side of things is a different conversation. I'm seeing a lot of pellet grills and smokers for sale lately but it just seems like a way to get folks to buy another consumable.
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May 4, 2022 16:13
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Not only did they help sink a section of my front walkway, I noticed chipmunks have started tunneling under my ac condenser pad. How do I effectively remove these things? I've read trap and release is basically a death sentence anyway so I'm fine with lethal solutions, just not poison as I have two dogs. I tried some can of repellent dust but they don't seem to care about that.
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May 4, 2022 16:26
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PainterofCrap posted:I'll look at it. PM me. Yeah, after circling around to some family I've secured the best sort of financing there is ("I'll pay ya back! honest!") so now I'm gonna look around locally to see if I can get a better quote. The main issue i was having with the amount of waste is that the rooms I need carpeted are (going off rough memory here, I think there's some .5s I'm missing somewhere) 12.5x10, 12.5x10 and 12x15, and three closets: 2x5, 2x5, 5x6. The rooms don't have any complicated geometry or stairs or anything. I know the closets are complicating things but I feel like they could have made up the closet space on the leftovers from any of the three rooms? I've got 441 square feet of carpet to replace, and they quoted me 543. (exactly enough to keep me from selecting pre-measured 270ft rolls of padding material, which seemed deliberate tbh? the bulk rolls seem to be way cheaper relative to their weight but I would have had to to waste 250ft of padding) All that said, I will try to reign in my expectations a bit on waste with the next guy, I think part of the problem is just how opaque and pushy the Depot people were with me, they really wanted to make the sale but didn't want to do any of the work. Nobody could explain their promotions or how their process worked and they didn't even have carpet samples. Mirthless fucked around with this message at 16:45 on May 4, 2022 |
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May 4, 2022 16:32
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Yooper posted:I'm seeing a lot of pellet grills and smokers for sale lately but it just seems like a way to get folks to buy another consumable. Pellets used to be a way to do value-added for otherwise wasted product from the lumber industry and tbf it was a reasonable idea. Now the waste product is incredibly sought after on its own right. Pellets have seen major price increases year over year no real way to slow it down.
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May 4, 2022 16:42
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I'm in the great white north (Minnesota) so I've currently got gas for my boiler, water heater, dryer, and stove. Our gas stove is like 20+ years old and was probably cheap when it was first purchased, so it's probably our next appliance upgrade. I'm really trying to convince the Mrs to switch to Induction. My understanding is that for the oven part, electric is objectively better than gas (burning gas introduces additional moisture into the oven?). And once you've gotten cookware that works with induction, I'm not sure what the downsides actually are compared to gas (well, I can't put a poblano pepper directly over the open flame to roast it like I see on cooking shows). The upsides to me are less gas combustion in the house, which does have negative health side effects (even with ventilation, which we have), easier to clean (a smooth glass surface vs all the nooks and cranny of a gas range), and I'll admit the hippie-liberal instinct to burn fewer fossil fuels*. Plus I think it's cool! Cooking with magnets! I actually bought a countertop induction plate, and I've been amazed at how well it performs, and it can only go up to 1800 watts of power. If/when I replace my water heater I'm not sure if I'll go with electric or gas, but gas is surely more common around here. And while I have electric Air Source Heat Pumps for AC and they can provide some heating, there's really currently no substitute for burning gas for heating during a cold winter, so regardless of what stove I get, there will still be plenty of gas being used in the house. *This is obviously complicated and highly dependent on how electricity is generated in your area. The rise of NG-fueled power plants has matched the rise of wind and solar, because it provides baseline power more cheaply and with less pollution than coal. Odds of nuclear generation being stood up to provide that baseline are low, though in my area apparently 30% of the power we get now is from nuclear. The price of wind and solar keep dropping, so probably more and more power will be generated there, but there will still be natural gas for peak times. I'm not sure how the efficiency works out for burning natural gas at a large efficient central plant to power an induction stove vs me burning natural gas directly, but pollution can be easier to deal with when it comes from a central source rather than lots and lots of little points, plus it's easy to reduce fossil fuel usage generally when it's a few large plants that need to be replaced rather than lots and lots of individual home appliances. I can also pay a little extra to the utility company to exclusively use wind power, and my house has really good southern exposure that would make it a great candidate for rooftop solar, which also tip the scale personally into electric vs gas appliances.
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May 4, 2022 17:01
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Arsenic Lupin posted:I used to keep a list of people I'd called and the date with '"left message". Today I rejiggered the journal. Each repair/maintenance person I need to call gets one line with the contact info, then three blank lines below for me to write in 5/3, 5/10, 5/19 ... because just leaving a message ain't worth poo poo. That's a good tip, but also, drat, can I hire someone to do all this? Maybe they can pay the mortgage too
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May 4, 2022 17:10
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Sirotan posted:I had this happen 2 weeks ago and it turned out to just be the drain value. Not too hard of a job to replace that. It was at that point I learned my water heater was 13 years old, not 16 like I thought from reading the label. It's maintenance history was a mystery to me when I moved in so I figured I'd just leave it alone until it died. Since I had to drain it and it was still fine after, I figured I'd replace the anode rod too. Problem is I can't get it out. Mine was rusted out. Was ableto get a plumber to do a swap, and cost seemed reasonable, especially for same day.
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May 4, 2022 20:21
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