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El Mero Mero posted:There was a place nearby that sold recently. Absolutely gorgeous home from the 1940s that just had tons of redwood and built-ins and elaborate inlays everywhere. It was in great condition and just a stunning place. It sold for like 3.5 million earlier this year and I was going past it recently and contractors had taken it to the studs inside and gutted the whole thing. My neighbor, who is now a lead carpenter/manager with a house-flipping company,. and I have been friends & neighbors for 27-years. He has helped & advised me on numerous projects (including the garage build started in 2004) and I, him. We have exactly the same houses: bungalows built in 1930. He is very, very good. We have fundamentally different approaches to home renovation. I restore & maintain mine (except mechanicals & electric) as close to what it was when we bought it in 1992: I kept & completely restored the original double-hung windows. The kitchen cabinets are from 1950. The walls are all plaster & lath, even mostly in the bath - that room I did have to re-do since it was built as a bath only, with wallpaper down to the tub, and was poorly converted to a shower in the mid-1950s; I tore off only as much plaster as necessary to install cement board & ceramic tile. Ken, on the other hand, thinks I'm insane. His approach is to tear out everything, since who the gently caress knows what's been done/repaired since 1930, and going back with new framing in, you know exactly what you're dealing with, all of the walls will be plumb & true, easier to replace all of the plumbing & wiring, etc. It's the approach that almost every carpenter & contractor takes when given the opportunity. Spending hours to workshop your way out of a weird & unique build or framing problem is time, and therefore money wasted when an hour or two of demo by the cheapest newbies will give you a clean slate. To me, it borders on criminal in homes such as the one you are describing, but artisans are few & far between, and this is a money game. For me time is cheap, so consequently it's cheaper for me to restore. Also a lot more fun & rewarding. I've tried to estimate how much money we've saved by doing everything ourselves. It's upwards of $80K by now, and I'm sure I'm forgetting a bunch of things that were small & quick to me that would have cost $300-$500 to have someone come in & do. PainterofCrap fucked around with this message at 15:11 on Nov 10, 2022 |
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Nov 10, 2022 15:07
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PainterofCrap posted:His approach is to tear out everything, since who the gently caress knows what's been done/repaired since 1930, and going back with new framing in, you know exactly what you're dealing with, all of the walls will be plumb & true, easier to replace all of the plumbing & wiring, etc. It's the approach that almost every carpenter & contractor takes when given the opportunity. Spending hours to workshop your way out of a weird & unique build or framing problem is time, and therefore money wasted when an hour or two of demo by the cheapest newbies will give you a clean slate. This is the approach most of the carpenters I know take as well. They can be paid to do better, but they'd prefer this way and do that in their own homes. It's a joke about one of them that no matter what you ask them about the answer is "tear it down and start over". Then you have a few carpenters and masons around here who are drat near privately employed by a couple of people with old river stone farm houses and you have zero chance of getting them to work for you because they are too busy reproducing 1700s windows but thick enough to triple glaze without changing the look too much......
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Nov 10, 2022 15:15
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I need a sanity check. I'm putting a woodstove into a masonry chimney with clay flue. Chimney inspection people say the clay flue is in good shape, no issues. Stove people say the clay flue is cool, no issues. Contractor who is advising the process says the clay flue is cool per code, no issues. But every fireplace supply website talks about how I need a stainless chimney liner so my house doesn't burn down. Am I being scaremongered into something I don't need?
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Nov 10, 2022 15:21
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Yooper posted:I need a sanity check. I'm putting a woodstove into a masonry chimney with clay flue. Chimney inspection people say the clay flue is in good shape, no issues. Stove people say the clay flue is cool, no issues. Contractor who is advising the process says the clay flue is cool per code, no issues. But every fireplace supply website talks about how I need a stainless chimney liner so my house doesn't burn down. Yes and no. Install it now or install it later - the clay won't last forever but we've been using it for a real long time before stainless liners were a thing. The nice thing about stainless liners is that they're liners that can be installed after the fact. In ye olden days failing clay/mortar meant tearing down the chimney and starting over. If you've got multiple trades who've looked at this, and especially if the chimney people put a camera down there after cleaning.......sounds like it has plenty of life left in it.
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Nov 10, 2022 15:24
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Motronic posted:Yes and no. Install it now or install it later - the clay won't last forever but we've been using it for a real long time before stainless liners were a thing. Cool, thanks! The chimney interior looks great, like a slight dark patina with solid joints. I'm going to rappel down a GoPro today and get a look for myself.
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Nov 10, 2022 15:32
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Speaking of chimneys....   So lots of rain and high winds the last day here, and I go down into my basement to find water leaking around the chimney stack. Sump pump is still working fine, drain tile all around the perimeter of the house except for this spot right near the chimney. Some of the bricks almost seem soft and its easy to crumble. Am I super hosed here? Or just regular hosed? My fear is that all of that is going to have to be redone to support the weight of the chimney and not have it collapse. Or if Im lucky it needs to be waterproofed in some way. I am tired of fixing and paying out the rear end to fix stuff in my supposedly move in ready, needs no immediate work, house.
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Nov 10, 2022 18:12
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Looks like a lot do water staining on that brick
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Nov 10, 2022 18:16
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Upgrade posted:Looks like a lot do water staining on that brick I would agree, not an expert but that brick looks like it's been intermittently wet for years and years. I would recommend having a mason and/or roofer take a look unless anybody has other better suggestions. Not relevant but is this functional for anything in the basement, or just cleaning it out? I have no idea what the hatch and crumbling hole are for.
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Nov 10, 2022 22:53
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Also what’s the situation with the top of the chimney? Capped? How’s the brick work? Needs repointing? Was the house sold with an as is chimney clause?
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Nov 10, 2022 23:20
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That chimney doesn't look like it's doing much except absorbing water. Anything exhaust out of it?
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Nov 11, 2022 01:31
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BaseballPCHiker posted:Speaking of chimneys.... The interior is what matters most and no matter what I'd pay to get a cap put on it just to stop ongoing water intrusion from rain. If you've had water running down the interior for years it might be something that needs reinforcement and if that chimney is structural you need a structural engineer to come tell you how hosed/not hosed things are. Looking at the base or exterior really isn't sufficient to tell.
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Nov 11, 2022 01:49
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Inner Light posted:I would agree, not an expert but that brick looks like it's been intermittently wet for years and years. I would recommend having a mason and/or roofer take a look unless anybody has other better suggestions. Yeah trying to get a mason out here to look at it. That will probably take me months. I think those hatches were just to clean out the chimney no functional use today. Upgrade posted:Also what’s the situation with the top of the chimney? Capped? How’s the brick work? Needs repointing? Was the house sold with an as is chimney clause? The house was sold as it. Not a capped chimney, though there is some basic rain covering. Our home inspector said it appeared to be fine, but he's a generalist so who knows for sure. bort posted:That chimney doesn't look like it's doing much except absorbing water. Anything exhaust out of it? There is a gas insert on the first floor that still exhausts out of it. El Mero Mero posted:The interior is what matters most and no matter what I'd pay to get a cap put on it just to stop ongoing water intrusion from rain. I just bought the place about 6 months ago, so I cant say for certain how long its possibly leaked. The previous owners had a drain tile and sump pump system installed a few years ago that goes all around the house except for this one spot. After years of dealing with a lovely wet basement in my previous house I'm ready to just throw a lot of money at this problem to be done with basement issues for a while.
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Nov 11, 2022 02:51
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Oh boy some water spots on the ceiling after a very very very bad storm. This will be fun! The PO out in the roof three years ago, so we’ll see what the warranty deal is. And there’s always insurance… will go on the roof and see later today
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Nov 13, 2022 16:12
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Ok I don’t know what the gently caress. So we had a horrible storm on Friday - think multiple tornadoes, etc Last night I noticed this on the ceiling  There’s one small spot and two very very small spots. They don’t feel wet, just just cold. The dark spots - the lighter spots are a lens smudge.  Go on the roof.. and nothing. This is the same spot. What the gently caress? Obviously calling roofers tomorrow, but what could this be? There’s no attic and it’s the same spots.
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Nov 13, 2022 16:51
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Check around the flashing, under the soffits, etc. If it was really high winds and driving rain some could have gotten forced up somewhere. There are a lot of assumptions that boil down to "rain will come from the sky" so if it's getting blown in from the horizontal you can see weird poo poo. If it was a truly crazy storm I might not freak out too much as long as it didn't happen again in a normal hard rainfall. Is there any non-destructive way you can get up there and see the underside of the roof to check for moisture? Attic etc?
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Nov 13, 2022 16:57
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Cyrano4747 posted:Check around the flashing, under the soffits, etc. If it was really high winds and driving rain some could have gotten forced up somewhere. There are a lot of assumptions that boil down to "rain will come from the sky" so if it's getting blown in from the horizontal you can see weird poo poo. No attic. It’s a lofted ceiling so that surface with the water spots is literally 6 inches under the roof. Never had water come in before in that area. My wife was the one who went up on the 17 ft ladder to check, and according to her it isn’t wet or soft, just cold. It took about 36 hours to first appear. It’s a TPO roof bordered by parapets, so the roof material extends over the parapet and is flashed there. I don’t see anything visibly wrong with any of the flashing, the brick mortar, or anything else. Upgrade fucked around with this message at 17:18 on Nov 13, 2022 |
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Nov 13, 2022 17:13
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Motronic posted:So I had the same issues with my new fridge. The stupid rear end saddle valve and 1/4" copper install finally started leaking so I replaced it with 1/2" PEX to a box behind the fridge and the difference is absolutely massive. Easily twice as fast. Got any recommendations for a link to tools I’d need for all of this? I was poking around Home Depot today and it seems like cutters for the pex and the tubing and a soldering torch and all that stuff would easily go $150+ but it’d be good to buy this stuff once so I could have it for future repairs.
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Nov 13, 2022 17:16
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nwin posted:Got any recommendations for a link to tools I’d need for all of this? I was poking around Home Depot today and it seems like cutters for the pex and the tubing and a soldering torch and all that stuff would easily go $150+ but it’d be good to buy this stuff once so I could have it for future repairs. Just my pex crimper is more than $150. I have this one: https://www.supplyhouse.com/Watts-0651060-PEX-Ratchet-Clamp-Tool-w-Holster I feel like the one tool you absolutely can't cheap out on is the one that makes the actual connections for the plumbing system you're using. I've also got this tubing cutter which is only $23 because it's not like I'm gonna wear it out and even if I was going to I'd just buy them in 4 packs: https://www.supplyhouse.com/Wirsbo-Uponor-E6081128-Tube-Cutter-plastic-up-to-1-PEX-2165000-p Torch, deburrer, copper tubing cutter.....yeah, that poo poo adds up. Fast. That's part of the whole DIY thing. It gets cheaper as you go along. If it's gonna be a one off thing you have to think hard about whether its worth doing yourself and/or if you have a tool rental place nearby that has what you need.
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Nov 13, 2022 17:24
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Upgrade posted:Ok I don’t know what the gently caress. Make sure those patches are tight all the way around their perimeters. What is that bump-out structure? Looks like a chimney. If you can see the top, check there. The roof appears to be in generally good condition. You might need to apply some roof tar or cold patch somewhere. Flat roofs are generally not an issue with wind-driven water, but as noted by Cyrano4747, the parapet wall caps & other metalwork can be affected. Unless you have more severe roof damage caused by wind, the spots that you do have are not worth reporting as this damage, while covered, will not exceed the deductible.
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Nov 13, 2022 18:34
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PainterofCrap posted:Make sure those patches are tight all the way around their perimeters. No peeling in any patches. Bump out is a chimney, no sign of any damage of anything loose on the chimney, and all of the chimney brick was just repointed. The roof membrane goes halfway up the chimney and the chimney is capped. I can’t see anything wrong with the flashing - but I don’t have a 40 fit ladder to get up close. I did lean over the parapet and everything looked good. I guess next step is to call some roofers, see if they can find anything, and if not chalk it up to a freak storm and fix the water damage?
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Nov 13, 2022 18:45
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Motronic, what are your thoughts on Pex crimp vs clamp? I'm familiar enough with the crimp clamps, but the house as currently plumbed is using Uponor PexB and the crimp sleeves. We're planning to start working on our unfinished space, which will involve a roughed-in bath and adding a sink in the garage while all the plumbing is currently easily accessible. I've worked with plenty of copper and pvc/abs plumbing, but never with Pex. I'm willing to buy whatever tools are going to make the work easier.
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Nov 13, 2022 18:50
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PitViper posted:Motronic, what are your thoughts on Pex crimp vs clamp? I'm familiar enough with the crimp clamps, but the house as currently plumbed is using Uponor PexB and the crimp sleeves. We're planning to start working on our unfinished space, which will involve a roughed-in bath and adding a sink in the garage while all the plumbing is currently easily accessible. I asked this very question in the plumbing thread to take the temperature of actual dot-it-every day tradies before I bought those crimpers/clamp tool and you see what I ended up with..... My previous pex experience was with the crimp rings and those worked great but they were expensive and the tool was so loving huge it made it a problem to get into tight spaces (dunno if there are new ones but this was basically a ser of bolt cutters with pex ring jaws in various sizes). The clamp tool I bought is fairly small and can be used one handed. It's a huge freaking upgrade from the old school stuff. No changing jaws when you change sizes - all the clamps take the same tool up to like 1". As I understand it, pros banging out entire houses all the time prefer the expansion stuff because its real fast but also requires real expensive tools. Not a good repair type solution. I also don't know how much I trust plastic memory to hold water.
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Nov 13, 2022 19:06
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Thanks for the info. I felt like the clamps might be a better fit for my plans, and I've used them in automotive and pneumatic applications plenty without issue. Plus they do seem easier to work with than the crimp rings and big crimp tool. Plus I'm the crazy kind of person who's going to leave an access panel behind the vanity anyway to be able to get back to the in-wall connections if it's needed in the future without smashing out drywall.
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Nov 13, 2022 20:17
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Motronic posted:I also don't know how much I trust plastic memory to hold water. I have some PEX in my garage, sort of a test run, and a surface run out to my wife's herb garden that has a little UV protection. I do have some Sharkbites in my plumbing bag in case of a dire emergency. But I'm old, and have seen the trades go through CPVC water lines as well as polybutylene. I'm sticking with copper & sweat.
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Nov 14, 2022 03:00
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Home Ownership: I'm sticking with copper & sweat
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Nov 14, 2022 03:22
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PainterofCrap posted:I have some PEX in my garage, sort of a test run, and a surface run out to my wife's herb garden that has a little UV protection. I just went through the same thought. I'm about to embark on a remodel for my shower and the copper has worked for 50 years. The sweat copper I put in for the washer works great too. I'm going to use the shower for a long time, it's not worth saving even a days worth of work to plumb it.
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Nov 14, 2022 03:45
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Upgrade posted:No attic. It’s a lofted ceiling so that surface with the water spots is literally 6 inches under the roof. Never had water come in before in that area. My wife was the one who went up on the 17 ft ladder to check, and according to her it isn’t wet or soft, just cold.
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Nov 14, 2022 11:45
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moana posted:Just an interesting aside: It's really hard to determine wetness because our bodies don't have wetness sensors Yeah sure whatever you say, Ben Shapiro
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Nov 15, 2022 09:22
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So we are at grandma's house. She's going to be babysitting for two weeks next month. There is an enormous oak tree in the back yard, and one of the larger branches stretches over the midpoint of the back yard. This is kind of the ideal swing location as it's a good 15 feet from the edge of the fence, and the branch is about 30' off the ground so you get that nice slow, wide swinging arc. The tree itself is an oak tree the base is a good 3' in diameter so it would qualify as stout. Side view  View from below  A lot of these tutorials say insane things like "drill a hole through the branch and install an eye bolt" that seems like an excellent way to kill the branch in a couple of years, also waving a 14" drill bit around 30' off the ground seems crazy. So googling for the right answer was attempted and I'm not finding good solutions here I've seen a bunch of swings where the rope was run through old fire hose as a chafe sleeve and then hung down. Are these blogs suggesting the bolt method because you can't trust random people to tie correct knots or what Once I've got the two loops on the branch it would be a set of stainless swivels and some variety of rope and swing. I want to do a traditional oak plank but one of the neighbors has this ring thing with netting that looks popular TL;DR what's the correct way to do a Swing Thing in a big oak tree
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Nov 18, 2022 18:19
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I don't know what the proper way to hang a swing is, but I will say that in your shoes I'd test the poo poo out of it with adult weight before letting a kid on it. I really don't trust trees branches in general to not come off with weight on them, and I don't trust oak trees specifically because of how often they seem to shed branches.
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Nov 18, 2022 18:22
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Stranded wire rope with heavy rubber tubing (hose) where it wraps the limb; wire rope clamps to secure it a few inches below the limb (i.e. don’t clamp it tight to the limb). Either wire rope all the way down, or switch to chain, then maybe hemp rope for the last few feet, looped & clamped to swivels at the transition points
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Nov 18, 2022 18:25
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Anyone familiar with pricing on pool equipment repairs? Need to replace our pool timer box thingy (poo poo is old with burnt wiring everywhere... started smoking/crackling) and received a quote for $600 for replacing/rewriting the junction box and timer box. That seems.. okay? The timer itself seems to be about $150 so the rest for miscellaneous supplies and labor.
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Nov 20, 2022 01:47
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Pool repairs usually carry "you can afford a pool" tax. What kind of timer is it? If it's the standard Intermatic timer you can buy just the mechanism and replace that only. Got any pics?
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Nov 20, 2022 06:27
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Not sure if this is the right thread or not but I figure someone probably knows. How hard is it to install a whole home humidifier yourself? I'm looking at the units and the installation kits and they look fairly straightforward as long as you have power and water/drain right at the furnace itself, the units aren't that expensive but I'm assuming labor could get pretty pricey if I don't feel like taking it on myself.
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Nov 20, 2022 20:03
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cr0y posted:Not sure if this is the right thread or not but I figure someone probably knows. What kind of humidifier? Evaporative (they are poo poo) or steam? What SPECIFIC one? For how large of a home? On what kind of furnace? Installed where with how much access around it? All of these things impact the difficulty of installation. Any reputable brand/model should have an install sheet available that will list things like the distance from the heating source you need to install the humidifier into the duct and how much duct you need after that. If any of this is difficult to access or there simply isn't enough length you have a whole new set of problems.
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Nov 20, 2022 20:19
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I installed an aprilaire 600 on my forced air natural gas furnace last winter. It was probably 3 hours all total. I did the plumbing first one day and the duct and electrical work a second. A pro would take half the time, maybe. DO NOT USE A SADDLE VALVE
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Nov 20, 2022 20:26
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Qwijib0 posted:Pool repairs usually carry "you can afford a pool" tax. What kind of timer is it? If it's the standard Intermatic timer you can buy just the mechanism and replace that only. Got any pics? Yea it's just a standard timer mechanism but it's not in great shape (esp the wiring). 
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Nov 20, 2022 21:59
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That entire box needs to be replaced with an appropriate weather sealed enclosure. Replacing just those (very standard intermec) timers is only buying a little bit of time. There is nothing pool specific about any of that. Any electrician could do it. $600 seems just fine for that work.
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Nov 20, 2022 22:09
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Yea was definitely planning on going through with the replacement/repair. Thanks for the price check!
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Nov 20, 2022 23:04
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Is it anywhere near acceptable to have a literal smoking sparking 120V? rusted collapsing electrical box attached to a wooden structure? I'm glad you're still here with us. Though I assume what it's attached to is a shed or something and not occupied.
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Nov 20, 2022 23:22
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