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Hubis posted:Well this happened on the PO's watch -- the lawyer just pointed it out to us at closing -- so we are just kind of living with it. Based on their comments at the time, though, the POs definitely had a similar reaction as you. The neighboring lot is lower, and there's a retaining wall along the property line that the fence is built on top of. Apparently at some point it began sinking/collapsing due to the grading they were doing (or something) and they had to fight with the contractor to pay for rebuilding it and the fence, with this as the result. It's as much that after a year of working on my house any sort of conflict or house-related problem triggers my fight or flight because I'm running at 98% House Bullshit Capacity at all times. Apparently the thought of a boundary dispute does the trick.
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Jan 9, 2018 22:43
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Hubis posted:I am honestly more annoyed at the flood lights they have on their 2nd story that lights up not only their postage-stamp yard but also the backside of our house whenever a squirrel wanders through the lot. Not recommended, but very effective: a wrist rocket with glass marbles. (The glass marbles tend to leave less clues as to what has happened then a steel ball or pellet and cause less damage if you miss.)
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Jan 11, 2018 00:52
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Not sure if this is the right place for this stuff, sorry if its not. i built an outdoor projector screen frame out of 3/4th pvc. I want to be able to mount it in my garage wall then easily remove it when i need to bring it back outside in my backyard. Do you guys have any suggestions as for what hook/mount/bubble gum to use on my wall to accomplish this? Thanks!
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Jan 11, 2018 16:27
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Getimmaaw posted:Not sure if this is the right place for this stuff, sorry if its not. i built an outdoor projector screen frame out of 3/4th pvc. I want to be able to mount it in my garage wall then easily remove it when i need to bring it back outside in my backyard. Do you guys have any suggestions as for what hook/mount/bubble gum to use on my wall to accomplish this? Thanks! Screw in some eyelets to the top post, screw in hooks to your studs, rescrew the eyelets into the pvc because you forgot to measure, hang. There is a section at home depot of light duty but rated eyelets and matching hooks. Use the same eyelets to hang it outside.
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Jan 11, 2018 16:45
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H110Hawk posted:Screw in some eyelets to the top post, screw in hooks to your studs, rescrew the eyelets into the pvc because you forgot to measure, hang. There is a section at home depot of light duty but rated eyelets and matching hooks. Use the same eyelets to hang it outside. Thanks, I will try that in the garage.
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Jan 11, 2018 17:23
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Getimmaaw posted:Thanks, I will try that in the garage. I had a change of heart. Use eyelet bolts, a nut, washer, and some blue loctite. I worry the screw in type would back out of PVC. Same section, little more drilling.
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Jan 11, 2018 21:55
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Well, I had four old windows renovated in a room that needed some lead abatement and repainting anyway. I considered just replacing the windows, but a) I didn't want to lose some light by just replacing inside the frame; b) I didn't want to lose all of the original trim by going full-frame replacement; c) since there are triple-track aluminum storm windows the energy savings would be minimal; and d) if possible I'd like to keep as much of the house original as possible. (There are other reasons, but those require more explanation.) Anyway, the windows look great, but I noticed that they're a bit more rattly, and I noted surrounding gaps that weren't there before. I first noted that that they did not replace the flanged weatherstripping that mates with the groove in the bottom of the lower sash. I e-mailed the guy and he was nice about saying he'll get someone out here next Wednesday to take a look at and correct the issue. Whatever -- that's easy, you can buy that stuff everywhere. I noted after that, though, that the meeting rails on the old windows also had interlocking weatherstripping. It should look and work something like this:  At first I thought they removed it, but on closer inspection it's still there -- the new parting bead was pushing the windows too far apart for the flanges to interconnect. Over the phone, the guy said that didn't make sense, since the groove was already cut for the parting bead. Well, I looked closer, and my old parting bead, which appears to be made out of zinc, also interlocks with some zinc strips on the outside edges of the sashes. I cannot find any place that sells the stuff. I can't even find any good examples of it online. It looks like this at the bottom of another window:  It looks like this at the top (how it interlocks with the sash is visible here):  My best guess at what it looks like in cross-section is this, with a nail driven down the center to hold it:  So you can see how a full-width parting bead would push the sashes apart and not let them interlock, plus how lacking this would allow more side air leak and slop in the side by side movement. But like I said, I can't find this stuff anywhere. Accurate Metal Weatherstrip Company seems to come close but no cigar. Sweet's Catalogue of Building Construction seems to reference some now-defunct companies. The guy acted like I had four heads when I said that the other windows had zinc parting beads even though his guys disassembled the freaking windows. So: does anyone have any freaking idea what can be done here? Will they have to disassemble the windows and replace this stuff with plastic parting seals? Is this available somewhere that I just can't find? I figure that at the very least Painter of Crap must have seen this stuff, since my house is just outside Philadelphia and was constructed at the same time as every other stone Colonial in Mt/ Airy and Chestnut Hill.
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Jan 13, 2018 16:43
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Dear Homespergin' Thread: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6evRox3F_XY sperg harder.
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Jan 14, 2018 14:50
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So he reinvented underfloor heating?
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Jan 14, 2018 15:01
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Jaded Burnout posted:So he reinvented underfloor heating? Yeah, except hardened against freezing (glycol solution), and over a ridiculously massive area. This kind of system is (as I understand it) used to heat swimming pools and clear runways. Anyways, imagine if you were doing a home walkthrough and ran into this in the garage.
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Jan 14, 2018 15:31
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Hubis posted:Yeah, except hardened against freezing (glycol solution), and over a ridiculously massive area. This kind of system is (as I understand it) used to heat swimming pools and clear runways. He's definitely taken it to an extreme, for sure. I do walk into it every day though:  My question is; would it be cheaper to hire someone to clear your drive on contract?
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Jan 14, 2018 15:39
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Got this in the mail regarding IKEA surveys. Anyone know if it's legit, or receive the same notice? http://www.xpotcpasettlement.com/
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Jan 14, 2018 19:21
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Pollyanna posted:Got this in the mail regarding IKEA surveys. Anyone know if it's legit, or receive the same notice? https://classactionwallet.com/claim-up-to-263-xpo-logistics-ikea-post-delivery-survey-call-class-action-settlement/
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Jan 14, 2018 21:51
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Jaded Burnout posted:He's definitely taken it to an extreme, for sure. I do walk into it every day though: My driveway costs about 75 bucks to clear each time. A heated driveway -- electric or hydronic -- wouldn't pay for itself in financial terms, but would keep my driveway clear when I wanted it clear, instead of loaded with eight inches of snow until they show up. If a storm system dumps two feet, I'm paying for MULTIPLE clearings, too. So I don't use them anymore, and bought a snowblower. When I build my garage and redo the driveway, I very well might put in some electric melters. Not for the full driveway, but two tracks down the incline, one patch in front of the garage and one where the city plows block it.
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Jan 15, 2018 01:05
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Hubis posted:Dear Homespergin' Thread: This bugs me from an energy use/environmental perspective. Definitely not the way to go as a species.
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Jan 15, 2018 07:16
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My parents have got a NIBE air to water heat pump in their 1970s home, replaced a wood and oil combo boiler, it works great they say, very little power draw to keep the house warm. But apparently most british houses are less insulated than my parents old house which is hardly a paragon of efficiency, and this in the mild UK climate to boot, those must be some leaky houses y'all are building there if my parents place is doing fine in much harsher conditions. http://www.bbc.com/news/business-19511637
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Jan 15, 2018 08:35
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British housing is by and large loving terrible. Most old houses are terrible leaky draughty thin-walled garbage with no insulation, most new houses are terrible leaky draughty lowest-bidder bare-minimum-or-worse garbage. We moved into a house built early 2000's that had a plaque proudly proclaiming it's energy efficiency. I took about 25% of my heating bill with half a dozen tubes of caulk. E: the government pushing to lower restrictions to increase the number of houses built coupled with profit being found in larger houses means the small cheap houses people most need are not being replaced so poors are stuck in houses that cost a fortune to heat. 
cakesmith handyman fucked around with this message at 09:16 on Jan 15, 2018 |
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Jan 15, 2018 09:11
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cakesmith handyman posted:British housing is by and large loving terrible. Most old houses are terrible leaky draughty thin-walled garbage with no insulation, most new houses are terrible leaky draughty lowest-bidder bare-minimum-or-worse garbage. All of this, and also it's the "snow in California" effect; we have a mild climate so there isn't a focus on energy efficiency like there is in colder regions. It doesn't have as much value, and despite unusual cases like the one you posted, most of the time it's hard to make your money back in energy savings. When my house was built it was heated by 5 open fires and nothing else. Get all those going and you probably don't *want* insulation when it's only -3ºC outside. UK houses focus on keeping the rain out.
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Jan 15, 2018 09:41
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Anyone know anything about countertops? Going between Lowes and Home Depot trying to figure out the best deal for a place I'm fixing to rent. They got some "solid surface" epoxy stuff that is $32/sqft installed, and I guess they can do the the sink and backsplash seamlessly with that because it can be thermoformed or something. Lowes has quartz for $49/sqft which looks nicer and is more indestructable, but price.
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Jan 18, 2018 21:15
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Zero VGS posted:Anyone know anything about countertops? Going between Lowes and Home Depot trying to figure out the best deal for a place I'm fixing to rent. They got some "solid surface" epoxy stuff that is $32/sqft installed, and I guess they can do the the sink and backsplash seamlessly with that because it can be thermoformed or something. Lowes has quartz for $49/sqft which looks nicer and is more indestructable, but price.
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Jan 18, 2018 21:51
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In my experience, if it's a rental get the garbage formica over particle board and learn to install it yourself. Whatever you put in will get wrecked up and getting the damages back from a tenant is not worth the hassle. Unless it's a real fancy place and the rest of the kitchen is already real fancy with a rental market that will pay for the luxury.
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Jan 18, 2018 23:28
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Bibendum posted:In my experience, if it's a rental get the garbage formica over particle board and learn to install it yourself. Whatever you put in will get wrecked up and getting the damages back from a tenant is not worth the hassle. Unless it's a real fancy place and the rest of the kitchen is already real fancy with a rental market that will pay for the luxury. I was going to suggest this also. Having bought and installed the cheapest of cheap recently it's not at all difficult if you have a pencil and a jigsaw. But maybe a nice kitchen garners additional rent.
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Jan 18, 2018 23:47
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Jaded Burnout posted:I was going to suggest this also. Having bought and installed the cheapest of cheap recently it's not at all difficult if you have a pencil and a jigsaw. But maybe a nice kitchen garners additional rent. I need to do the kitchen in my house shortly and its a Semi in Stoke so I'm probably going to go for one step above the cheapest. There are 2 corners in my worktop. I assume that there is a jig I can buy to cut the corners properly as it isn't just straight lines and I will need to use a router to cut out the bottom bits to clamp it?. Has anybody done this themselves and ended up with it looking good? I'd leave the current stuff in if i could but its got big holes in it where I've removed pipes and a water meter and I need to replace some of the units due to water damage so it will probably disintegrate once I start touching it. I've only done straight joints before and butchered out a sink hole in my utility room. I had a poo poo jigsaw with the wrong blades and it didn't work as well as I would like the actual kitchen to end up! If you used that really cheap thin grey worktop in your temporary kitchen it will warp where you don't have it supported for more than 600mm. Mine has gone in the 1200mm gap where I have my washer and dryer.
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Jan 19, 2018 00:24
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Bibendum posted:In my experience, if it's a rental get the garbage formica over particle board and learn to install it yourself. Whatever you put in will get wrecked up and getting the damages back from a tenant is not worth the hassle. Unless it's a real fancy place and the rest of the kitchen is already real fancy with a rental market that will pay for the luxury. Yeah it's a higher-end rental, Formica would be too tacky even though I'm fine using it for myself. I think we're leaving towards quartz, it's $500 more from the outset but it seems indestructible and no one regrets getting it.
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Jan 19, 2018 02:19
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Tomarse posted:I need to do the kitchen in my house shortly and its a Semi in Stoke so I'm probably going to go for one step above the cheapest. There are 2 corners in my worktop. I assume that there is a jig I can buy to cut the corners properly as it isn't just straight lines and I will need to use a router to cut out the bottom bits to clamp it?. Has anybody done this themselves and ended up with it looking good? I should be able to lend you my dad's worktop router jig, my brother and I used it for the house in Walsall and even when we hosed up the recesses underneath it still worked well enough to look better than half the kitchens I've been in. I've also done a 2.1m run of (38mm) worktop supported at the sides and rear, nothing in front, it didn't sag appreciable. No idea what the 22mm stuff would be like.
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Jan 19, 2018 11:11
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cakesmith handyman posted:I should be able to lend you my dad's worktop router jig, my brother and I used it for the house in Walsall and even when we hosed up the recesses underneath it still worked well enough to look better than half the kitchens I've been in. Cheers that would be great! I'm aiming to hit it sometime over the next 2 months. Got to get the gas pipe for the cooker moved first (I have been strugging to get any gas fitter to actually show up for a small job!). I guess I probably need to buy that router that i have had on my wish list for ever too.. I think it is 28 or 30mm worktop which I am sure was £20 or £25 per length in Wickes. It didnt even have any weight on it when it warped (though it is in a cold and slightly damp extension). I should have put a support inbetween the washer and dryer.
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Jan 19, 2018 11:23
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Previous owners of my house: appliance waste water pipe leaking? gaffa tape. power socket smashed? gaffa tape. Bathroom light attached to ceiling with? Gaffa tape. I swear every loving thing in this house that they have touched has turned to poo poo like some demented reverse midas. All bolts removed from bathroom door locks. Locks themselves screwed into bits of hardboard which are themselves nailed into the doorframe. Toilet bowl not bolted to the floor, and no flange on the waste pipe so you can smell the sweet, sweet sewer anywhere in the ground floor. 4x3's used to span the garage roof when literally ANY span table will tell you to use at least 8x4s (as such, the garage roof is bowed down significantly.
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Jan 19, 2018 11:29
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Southern Heel posted:Previous owners of my house: appliance waste water pipe leaking? gaffa tape. power socket smashed? gaffa tape. Bathroom light attached to ceiling with? Gaffa tape.
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Jan 20, 2018 02:05
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I've got a problem that I thought was going to be easy but it's turning out weird. Master bedroom is carpeted, master bathroom is tile. Shower is next to the door, with about three square feet of space between it and the door; if it were dwarf fortress the layout would be, like, STT WDW CCC S=shower T=tile W=wall D=door C=Carpet About two weeks ago (during the big freeze) the central carpet section by the door got sodden, like, soaking sopping wet. No other moisture through the wall on either side. 1st night: With a lot of towels and a blow dryer we dried out the carpet and stopped using the bathroom completely. Put towels down over the carpet spot. Day 2: carpet was wet again. Wife went under the house and looked with a flashlight and saw wet insulation and boards beneath the bathroom. Called a plumber. Day 3: plumber crawled around under the house and ran water and looked for leaks etc. Didn't find anything. Did see water, but didn't see leak streaks or marks, didn't see any signs of actual leaks. Advice plumber gave: water might be coming down through the tiles, let it all dry out for a few days, get a bath mat etc. We use the other bathroom for a week or so. Yesterday, wife takes shower in master bathroom. Tonight, carpet patch is sodden again. Any thoughts? I'm wondering if maybe the shower is leaking but only when there's the weight of a person in it?
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Jan 20, 2018 03:07
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Pictures may be useful here. What type of shower do you have? If it's a tub style you could try max filling it and then get under the house and look for leaks again. How bad does the water damage look underneath? If your subfloor is rotting out you may need to rip up all the time anyway which may help with diagnosis.
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Jan 20, 2018 03:28
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SubponticatePoster posted:I hope they paid you to take it. Like, how did the toilet pass inspection? It's something I'm actually pursuing with the surveyor, they said the garage was quote 'in fair condition' and the roof was 'in fair condition', and yet the roof has a >6" sag in the middle and leaks like a bitch. I don't know if I can get any legal recompense out of it, but that's the whole bloody point of an inspection, isn't it?! There are many other small things (such as the hilariously out of date wiring, missing planning permissions, etc.) which they have caveated against in their T&C's/etc. but I'm pretty sure the garage is cause for action. Any advice on that?
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Jan 20, 2018 09:48
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:I've got a problem that I thought was going to be easy but it's turning out weird. Gonna go with: The grout is starting to crack around the edges, and the builder didn't use cement board under the tile. Despite the fact that I ran every faucet in the house three times and had no issues, the master bath leaked into the kitchen during the first shower. Ultimately what we did was use an oscillating tool to cut out all of the grout, and re-grouted with three-part epoxy grout. It's been good for about three years so far.
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Jan 20, 2018 13:21
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Southern Heel posted:Any advice on that? Personally I'd spend less effort and heartache re-roofing the garage, it'd be over sooner. Legally I don't know, I've luckily never needed to find out. Good luck.
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Jan 20, 2018 13:48
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electrician moved my socket from waist high, to just above the skirting board. The original spot however, has the wires cut roughly flush with the wall. The cable is not live (obviously) and is roughly flush with the wall, but it's going to be a right mare to plaster over. I was thinking of using edge cutters to snip it below the surface, then using PVA to smooth down the corners of the cut wallpaper, and THEN using filler:
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Jan 21, 2018 13:04
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Could you remove a bit more and fill it with a board of appropriate thickness? Then you're just filling the gap around the edge. Maybe not appropriate for this situation but my filler toolkit is spray foam for large gaps, coarse filler for 20mm or less, then finish up with 2mm filler and sanding.
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Jan 21, 2018 13:18
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Southern Heel posted:electrician moved my socket from waist high, to just above the skirting board. The original spot however, has the wires cut roughly flush with the wall. The cable is not live (obviously) and is roughly flush with the wall, but it's going to be a right mare to plaster over. I was thinking of using edge cutters to snip it below the surface, then using PVA to smooth down the corners of the cut wallpaper, and THEN using filler: Can you not just poke them back into the wall? You may also be able to just mash the wire back into the wall with a flat chisel and or hammer enough to let you filler over it. I am lazy so would probably just try and cut it back as much as possible and either knock it in or enlarge the hole slightly in order to chop it out more completely. Fillering is easy. You could probably get away without the PVA, Just sand the rough edge down carefully and then the filler and then the paint you put over the top will hold the paper down enough. If you do use PVA then use as little as possible as blobs of PVA are bastards to sand and you will probably damage the edge more when sanding the filler because of the transition from soft filler to PVA. Tomarse fucked around with this message at 13:27 on Jan 21, 2018 |
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Jan 21, 2018 13:24
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tetrapyloctomy posted:Gonna go with: The grout is starting to crack around the edges, and the builder didn't use cement board under the tile. Despite the fact that I ran every faucet in the house three times and had no issues, the master bath leaked into the kitchen during the first shower. Ultimately what we did was use an oscillating tool to cut out all of the grout, and re-grouted with three-part epoxy grout. It's been good for about three years so far. tangy yet delightful posted:Pictures may be useful here. Update: Water damage doesn't look TOO bad underneath and we at least don't see any rotting. It's hard to take pictures due to low light and weird angles in the crawlspace. Shower is a one-person prefab stall unit, not tile. We did some more testing (this time involving one person taking a shower while the other person went under the house) and from what we can tell, the leak is caused by running the shower WITH the weight of a person inside it; run the water with no person, no leak, person steps in, leak. It's a stall shower not a tub shower so I'm guessing something in the fiberglass underpinnings of the stall has given way over time maybe? Gonna call the plumber back out and have him take another look to confirm. Hieronymous Alloy fucked around with this message at 20:25 on Jan 21, 2018 |
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Jan 21, 2018 20:16
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:Update: Bad seal/mechanical connection around the drain?
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Jan 21, 2018 21:04
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Gremlins.
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Jan 21, 2018 21:45
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I have started to build an internal stud wall to break up my open plan downstairs and this framing nonsense is a bit harder than it looks, especially if you want it done right. Plunge saw through the laminate was nerve wracking 
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Jan 21, 2018 23:48
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