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Y'all lazy. 
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Jun 24, 2016 14:02
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Hey that's the one we have too! Love it. 
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Jun 24, 2016 14:06
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I did a lot of research into buying that same Scott's reel mower. Unfortunately we have thick, fast-growing St. Augustine grass in our yard, and it needs to be mowed high (like 3.5 to 4 inches) and those mowers have difficulty with that. Plus, I need a trimmer/edger and blower, anyway, and was always planning on battery powered. Now all of my lawn equipment runs off the same two, interchangeable batteries and it's pretty great.
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Jun 24, 2016 15:05
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Celador posted:I did a lot of research into buying that same Scott's reel mower. Unfortunately we have thick, fast-growing St. Augustine grass in our yard, and it needs to be mowed high (like 3.5 to 4 inches) and those mowers have difficulty with that. Plus, I need a trimmer/edger and blower, anyway, and was always planning on battery powered. Now all of my lawn equipment runs off the same two, interchangeable batteries and it's pretty great. That particular one can mow high, but yeah, you can't let the grass grow very high when you mow or it doesn't do a very good job. It also requires a certain amount of fitness and strength to push with the amount of force necessary to shear the grass cleanly. We do use battery powered edger/blower, not that any of this matters because we also hire gardeners. 
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Jun 24, 2016 15:11
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Leviathan Song posted:They're simpler, lighter, Nope, neither of these are true. If you really hate having to use an electric cord then fine, that's personal preference, but gas mowers are most definitely not simpler or lighter. They might be comparable to battery-powered mowers, but certainly not the corded kind Case in point: Leviathan Song posted:As long as you sharpen the blades and change the oil once in a while it last forever. You've got three things to regularly worry about here: keeping it gassed up, changing the oil, and keeping the blade sharp. With electric mowers you only need to worry about the blade. My electric motor is also a lot quieter than my old gas mower.
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Jun 25, 2016 02:02
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I'm just sad I have absolutely no reason to justify buying one of those sweet robot mowers.
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Jun 25, 2016 02:26
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Re: mower chat. I love my Ego mower. It's quiet, it works, and there's minimal fuss involved, especially compared to every gas mower I've ever used. My only complaint is that it seems like Home Depot is trying to focus on their Ryobi brand instead of Ego, which is annoying, because I've heard middling things about the Ryobi line and nothing but good things about Ego.
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Jun 25, 2016 17:47
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Axiem posted:Re: mower chat. drat. Electric sounds pretty tempting until you see the prices and realize you also probably have to buy $100+ batteries ever few years. Gas is loud, but i change the oil once a year and use about 3gal of gas a year. BeastOfExmoor fucked around with this message at 05:54 on Jun 26, 2016 |
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Jun 26, 2016 05:50
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I have this engine in my gas mower, no oil changes needed: https://www.briggsandstratton.com/na/en_us/campaigns/just-check-and-add.html
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Jun 26, 2016 13:35
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baquerd posted:I have this engine in my gas mower, no oil changes needed: https://www.briggsandstratton.com/na/en_us/campaigns/just-check-and-add.html How often do you have to add oil?
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Jun 26, 2016 16:35
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Sperg Victorious posted:How often do you have to add oil? I haven't yet heading into a second season. Oil looks clean and it's staying up to the full marker so far.
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Jun 26, 2016 21:08
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We close on our house in a few weeks and there's a few rooms with carpet we want to pull up and replace before we get fully moved in. Has anyone ever put down the floating vinyl plank flooring? Either the Smartcore from Lowes http://www.lowes.com/pd/SMARTCORE-by-Natural-Floors-12-Piece-5-in-x-48-in-Stillwater-Locking-Oak-Luxury-Commercial-Vinyl-Planks/50076953 or Allure Ultra from Home Depot http://www.homedepot.com/p/TrafficM...66415/202852209 It's going in our master bedroom and my office/game room so we didn't want to go super expensive but wanted the wood plank look. Looks like we could do both room for about $3-400/room with us doing the install. I got a quote of almost $1200 to install the real tile wood planks so that's way above what we wanted to spend.
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Jun 26, 2016 22:11
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I've never installed wood flooring but as long as you have the carpet ripped out I suggest you put several hundred screws through the floor boards into the joists to stop them from warping/creaking and squeaking in the future.
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Jun 26, 2016 22:15
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Droo posted:I've never installed wood flooring but as long as you have the carpet ripped out I suggest you put several hundred screws through the floor boards into the joists to stop them from warping/creaking and squeaking in the future. Sorry, should have mentioned. I'm in florida and it's a one story house, so it'll be going directly on top of the concrete foundation.
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Jun 26, 2016 22:18
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mattfl posted:Has anyone ever put down the floating vinyl plank flooring?
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Jun 26, 2016 22:24
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I should at least put in my 2 cents that my middle of the line green works corded mower died after 15 months of bermudagrass in Texas. It smelled like electrical fire, worked at a lower capacity for an hour, then kaput. I haven't bothered with the warranty given the costs involved and shipping a mower sounds ridiculous.
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Jun 26, 2016 22:40
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Andy Dufresne posted:I should at least put in my 2 cents that my middle of the line green works corded mower died after 15 months of bermudagrass in Texas. It smelled like electrical fire, worked at a lower capacity for an hour, then kaput. I haven't bothered with the warranty given the costs involved and shipping a mower sounds ridiculous. I've been running a middle of the line greenworks corded mower in Texas for a couple of years and had no issues. I didn't want to gently caress with storing a combustion engine and gas and oil and whatnot. Worst part is that the Mexicans always laugh at me. To be fair, I first saw an Asian man using a corded mower, and I laughed.
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Jun 27, 2016 00:10
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Axiem posted:Re: mower chat. There is really only one option if you want a truly  mowing experience
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Jun 27, 2016 02:28
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litany of gulps posted:I've been running a middle of the line greenworks corded mower in Texas for a couple of years and had no issues. I didn't want to gently caress with storing a combustion engine and gas and oil and whatnot. Worst part is that the Mexicans always laugh at me. To be fair, I first saw an Asian man using a corded mower, and I laughed. No poo poo, my neighbor's lawn crew interrupted me while I was mowing with my headphones on to give me their card. Not my best day.
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Jun 27, 2016 03:37
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mattfl posted:We close on our house in a few weeks and there's a few rooms with carpet we want to pull up and replace before we get fully moved in. Before you order these you should get some samples from BuildDirect. The samples are free and the price/quality was better on some of the ones we tried than the Allure Ultra samples we picked up.
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Jun 27, 2016 12:42
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mattfl posted:Sorry, should have mentioned. I'm in florida and it's a one story house, so it'll be going directly on top of the concrete foundation. If it's level I believe all you have to do is put down a vapor barrier and then put the planks down. Cutting the ends is really easy with a chop saw, and still pretty easy with a circular saw. Cutting the last row to fit is really the only somewhat complicated part.
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Jun 27, 2016 12:59
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BeastOfExmoor posted:drat. Electric sounds pretty tempting until you see the prices and realize you also probably have to buy $100+ batteries ever few years. Gas is loud, but i change the oil once a year and use about 3gal of gas a year. While I've only had my ego setup for about a year, my Ryobi tools are also a lithium setup and I've had those batteries for something like 7 years now with no issues so far. The lithium sets have lasted me far, far longer than any of the nicd or nimh stuff I had before so far.
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Jun 27, 2016 13:35
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Hashtag Banterzone posted:If it's level I believe all you have to do is put down a vapor barrier and then put the planks down. Cutting the ends is really easy with a chop saw, and still pretty easy with a circular saw. Cutting the last row to fit is really the only somewhat complicated part. Yep, did this myself in my living room/dining area/entry way a few years ago. It was about 800 square foot and it took all of Saturday and some of Sunday to finish up everything. I recommend using the spacers on the wall you're pounding up against, and buy the recommended tool as it saves you so much time and effort getting everything together tightly. Put down vapor barrier and get to work. Closets, doorways, etc. require some thought but it was relatively easy overall. Put a fresh blade on your chop saw, too.
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Jun 27, 2016 13:46
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Anyone want to school me in drip systems?Andy Dufresne posted:I should at least put in my 2 cents that my middle of the line green works corded mower died after 15 months of bermudagrass in Texas. It smelled like electrical fire, worked at a lower capacity for an hour, then kaput. I haven't bothered with the warranty given the costs involved and shipping a mower sounds ridiculous.
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Jun 27, 2016 17:04
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SiGmA_X posted:Anyone want to school me in drip systems? What do you want to know? I have a drip line for my planters in my years.
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Jun 27, 2016 17:25
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My house has a drip system all around the yard but the device (filter? I dunno) was broken when I bought the house so I've never used it. I'm not sure what purpose the device had. It was about the size of a 20 oz soda bottle though. If a drip system has been unused for five years, is it still viable?
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Jun 27, 2016 19:03
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What are the odds that a sprinkler system that possibly hasn't seen (consistent) use/maintenance in years would have zero issues with it? My brother and I bought a house in February, and haven't even messed with it yet, for a few reasons. To add to mower chat, I did some research and ended up splurging a bit on a Honda, and have been nothing but thrilled with it; easily the best mower I've ever used. Our lot is a little under half an acre, but putting on headphones and getting out there with that doesn't even seem a chore to me, really.
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Jun 27, 2016 19:36
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Buy a used rider on Craigslist for $300, change the blades and stay fat. People sell them when they move all the time.
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Jun 27, 2016 20:05
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FCKGW posted:What do you want to know? I have a drip line for my planters in my years. Maybe I'll find this all in the Rainbird system guide. I will take a peek tonight but goons always have an opinion!
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Jun 27, 2016 20:10
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Kastivich posted:Before you order these you should get some samples from BuildDirect. The samples are free and the price/quality was better on some of the ones we tried than the Allure Ultra samples we picked up. Thanks for this! Ordering a bunch of samples now.
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Jun 27, 2016 21:54
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FakePoet posted:What are the odds that a sprinkler system that possibly hasn't seen (consistent) use/maintenance in years would have zero issues with it? My brother and I bought a house in February, and haven't even messed with it yet, for a few reasons.
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Jun 28, 2016 05:59
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litany of gulps posted:I've been running a middle of the line greenworks corded mower in Texas for a couple of years and had no issues. I didn't want to gently caress with storing a combustion engine and gas and oil and whatnot. Worst part is that the Mexicans always laugh at me. To be fair, I first saw an Asian man using a corded mower, and I laughed. Why did you laugh? Why do those other guys laugh? Is this some "don't want to look like I'm vacuuming the lawn" misogyny thing? FakePoet posted:What are the odds that a sprinkler system that possibly hasn't seen (consistent) use/maintenance in years would have zero issues with it? My brother and I bought a house in February, and haven't even messed with it yet, for a few reasons. By "haven't messed with" you mean that the system is running but you just haven't played with any of it yet? There's a decent chance that everything is fine, maybe one or more of the valves are leaky but that's easy to detect and fix if you just look/feel around the thing. It's unlikely that you have any underground leaks and I'm not even really sure how you'd check for such a thing other than by leaving the system off for awhile and seeing which parts go brown and which parts don't (the still-green parts would have leaky pipes under them) SiGmA_X posted:Brand suggestions, drip main line sizing for how many 1/4 lines, etc. I've never bothered actually thinking too carefully about the design of my drip system, but I can tell you that I buy all of my drip irrigation parts at Home Depot in separate pieces. I'm pretty sure they're all RainBird anyway, and if you buy one of the drip irrigation kits then you wind up paying more overall than if you had bought the pieces individually. I've got a 2-outlet watering timer, a pressure regulator on each outlet, and then I run 1/2 inch pipe to the watering boxes that need watering and 1/4 inch tubing off of that wherever drippers or soak hoses are needed. I don't really care for the 1/4 inch soak hoses that Home Depot has, they have this lovely coarse texture and they look kind of ugly compared to the normal 1/4 inch hoses; I've been slowly replacing my soak hoses with actual drippers.
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Jun 28, 2016 07:45
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QuarkJets posted:Why did you laugh? Why do those other guys laugh? Is this some "don't want to look like I'm vacuuming the lawn" misogyny thing? I think this is an easy answer. Texas.
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Jun 28, 2016 18:46
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So I bought my house a few years ago for $240k with a $228k note. Over the last two years, the principal of the loan has reduced to $218,000, while the (Zillow) estimated value of the home has increased to approximately $298,000. Assuming that estimated value is accurate - I know an actual appraisal would be needed - that should put me at a 73% LTV, which should allow me to discharge the PMI, correct? I've written into my loan servicing company regarding discharging the PMI via email, but wanted to make sure I understood everything correctly before trying to go forward.
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Jun 28, 2016 22:37
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a shameful boehner posted:So I bought my house a few years ago for $240k with a $228k note. Over the last two years, the principal of the loan has reduced to $218,000, while the (Zillow) estimated value of the home has increased to approximately $298,000. Yes, and this is exactly what I did. You will have to pay for an appraisal, and probably the bank will want to pick out who does it. note that Zillow can be wildly inaccurate with its "zestimate" algorithm, which seems to be really stupid. For example mine tends to account for sales of nearby apartments as if they were SFHs and that can pull down estimates in my neighborhood during winter, when fewer houses sell. Meanwhile a house on a corner lot with a much bigger yard sold recently and pulled up all the values in my neighborhood, even those with normal-sized lots.
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Jun 28, 2016 23:36
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I'm in the Denver metro area, so I'm inclined to believe the Zestimate algorithm in most cases  Thanks for confirming, though, I'll see what the bank has to say and go from there.
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Jun 28, 2016 23:49
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mattfl posted:We close on our house in a few weeks and there's a few rooms with carpet we want to pull up and replace before we get fully moved in. fwiw I had the 7.5 x 47 Allure Ultra planks installed in my office last year and I'm pretty happy with it. The durability and lack of upkeep it requires is pretty rad. I'll be doing my house in this poo poo sometime this year maybe?
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Jun 29, 2016 00:08
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I think the one criteria anyone should ever have when buying a house is "do I want to die in this house?". Of old age though, not like, a murder suicide or something. I just bought my 2nd house two weeks ago and cut my mortgage debt by about $80k while slashing 7 years off the term and ridding myself of PMI forever. That's all great, and the house in general is not in bad shape, however my 1st house was in part so much more expensive because everything was done so even though I'm saving about $700/month on the mortgage I have to do a bunch of crap, though none of it actually even counts as a "major" renovation really. It's not just the gigantic fountain of money you explode from your rear end doing any sort of renovations, it's the endlessness of getting all the quotes, scheduling, remembering everything etc. It's an 1150 sq. ft. house and I just got quoted $15k to replace all the windows and both front and back doors on the first floor.  That's fairly reasonable for 13 windows and 2 doors + storm doors, but still, do never buy.
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Jun 29, 2016 01:20
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Eh, I bought a $190k 1200 sq ft, 130 year old house that needs $70k+ worth of work, though I plan to spread that out over five years. This year so far is $8k in replacing the roof on the covered back porch and replacing a dilapidated front wood stairway/porch/wheelchair lift combo with a nice solid steel one, as well as replacing the breaker box and painting the front aluminum siding. We're trying to decide what else we want to try to get done this year, most likely will be adding a couple baseboard heaters to try to prevent pipe freezing next winter, insulate the attic, and maybe add a stairway between the two floors (historically this place was a 2-unit cottage, we're turning it into an SFH). The big expensive things are going to be adding traditional HVAC ducting, a modern furnace and AC, and tearing all the walls down and redoing all the infra. In other news it's in a nice quiet neighborhood across from a church and minutes from the Chicago Loop and close to the ‘L’ so I think the garage might be a loss, I really need to get someone in to look at it. do not consider doing this unless you have another person on board willing to pick up a paintbrush/hammer/drill/saw, have a good general contractor, and do not have kids my GC is the smart one, he refuses to buy a house and continues to rent
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Jun 29, 2016 01:29
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School district is appealing our property since we bought it last year. Anyone have experience with lawyering up in this situation?
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Jun 29, 2016 16:33
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