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RE: lawns and pre-emergents, what about corn gluten? My dad seemed to have good success with that years ago, and I was considering using that on my lawn next year (weather sucked here and we missed the window).
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Apr 14, 2018 02:50
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LogisticEarth posted:RE: lawns and pre-emergents, what about corn gluten? My dad seemed to have good success with that years ago, and I was considering using that on my lawn next year (weather sucked here and we missed the window). I don't know too much about the means of action but it's definitely A Thing and if he's getting good results then they might be worth a try. It's more timing sensitive (shorter protection window, more succeptible to washing out with rain) and isn't quite as successful with a single application, but if you are willing to spend the time/money reapplying it seems like it works for people. It is also a 10-0-0 fertilizer, but you don't really want nitrogen at the time you put down a PE (encouraging top growth when you'd like to be pushing down roots) but that's organic nitrogen so it would probably not really release until later into the season anyways.
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Apr 14, 2018 03:15
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Hubis posted:. Yeah I liked that aspect, since after I get the weeds figured out and maybe do some overseeding, I really need to build up the organic matter of my soil. I'm debating about going the white clover route or just relying on mulching clippings and occasional fertilizing. I have some background as part of my job involves manure management on pasture and cropland, so I'm trying to apply as much of that knowledge to lawns. I think my neighbors look at me funny because I cut to 4", when everyone else pretty much scalps the lawn. My one neighbor was out mowing today, and the grass has barely come out of dormancy yet. Ideally, I'm hoping to minimize some of the lawn in the backyard, grow some songbird habitat, and set up a veggie garden with raised beds. But out front I will probably keep up appearances with the lawn.
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Apr 14, 2018 21:49
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LogisticEarth posted:I think my neighbors look at me funny because I cut to 4", when everyone else pretty much scalps the lawn. And this is why their lawns look like poo poo or they have to have chemlawn come out every 6 week + irrigate. Edit: I'm sorry, TruGreen. Because chemicals are scary and green is good. All it takes is repainting the truck.
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Apr 14, 2018 22:17
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LogisticEarth posted:Yeah I liked that aspect, since after I get the weeds figured out and maybe do some overseeding, I really need to build up the organic matter of my soil. I'm debating about going the white clover route or just relying on mulching clippings and occasional fertilizing. Seed Super Store carries Micro Clover Seeds which might be an interesting alternative/addition as well. Smaller clover that blends in better with a lawn but keeps all that nitrogen-fixing goodness. Their custom seed blends are also a good resource if you plan on overseeding. For organic matter, the video series I linked earlier is really heavy on using Milorganite -- solid waste treatment byproducts from Milwaukee kilned at 1200'F to produce a 6-4-0 fertilizer with a ton of organic carbon and like 3% iron which gives your grass a nice dark blue-green color. You could use it almost exclusively (once you have a healthy soil ecology to facilitate the nitrogen metabolism) but you will need to find a supplement for Potassium at some point. Ringer Lawn Restore is another organic fertilizer that is 10-0-6, so you can alternate that with the Milorganite as needed to balance your nutrients.
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Apr 15, 2018 02:22
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Replacing my fence this summer, and I'm trying to find the pros/cons of wood vs. vinyl, anyone have some links or advice? Been leaning towards wood by default.
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Apr 15, 2018 09:41
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Look for local Milorganite equivalents as well. In Mass we have the same thing from our local water treatment plant for $4/bag (you pick it up locally) vs $12/bag for Milorganite.
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Apr 15, 2018 11:19
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meat police posted:Replacing my fence this summer, and I'm trying to find the pros/cons of wood vs. vinyl, anyone have some links or advice? Been leaning towards wood by default. We just replaced our wood fence with vinyl Wood is the cheapest option to install but needs a fair amount of upkeep: periodic repainting, occasional post replacement (which is a big pain in the rear end as you probably know), and within ~10-20 years you'll need to replace the entire thing again (when this occurs will have a lot to do with what kind of wood the fence is made out of, your climate, and the types of insects endemic to your area; maybe on that time scale it won't be your problem anymore). On our neighbor's side of the fence he was having to strip and rerestain his entire side every 2 years, despite our climate being dry and relatively easy on wood. Vinyl lasts a lot longer and requires almost no maintenance (sometimes you may want to host dirt off of it). It costs a tiny bit more to install and looks like plastic, if you care about that. We went with vinyl; the appearance looks good to me and I wanted something as low-effort as possible that would also last a long time. Replacing posts is lovely break-breaking work and not something that I want to do until the rest of the fence is basically falling apart. Our area is prone to termites and carpenter ants, and both had gotten into various parts of the fence at one point or another, but I won't ever have to deal with that again with a vinyl fence.
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Apr 16, 2018 00:29
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Thanks. My folks seem to enjoy their vinyl so I might have to go that route, less maintenance is always better imho. Now to keep this current wood one from imploding until I can get some estimates.
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Apr 16, 2018 01:45
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It's super expensive, but I'm not putting up a fence until I can afford to do it in metal. For all the reasons listed up there ^^^
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Apr 16, 2018 14:24
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We got 24 hours of torrential rain and our sump pump-less, normally bone dry basement ended up with six inches of water, probably from the water table just getting hammered. Could have been a hell of a lot worse; it's a concrete floor with stone/plaster foundation walls, and almost nothing was down there (except my hockey gear  ). Got a Servpro crew to pump it out and they've said that outside of throwing down some antimicrobial, it's probably fine to just let it air out and keep a fan down there for a couple days and monitor for mold.Of course we don't have flood insurance and now we get to pay to get a sump pump installed that probably will never turn on. Though with how the weather is getting crazier, it's probably for the best anyway.
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Apr 17, 2018 16:47
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We just bought a house, and the home inspection turned up vermiculite in the attic for insulation (it's a New England colonial from 1926). Luckily, the attic is hard to access, and unlivable up there, so most likely we will not be using it for storage. I guess vermiculite is all tainted and full of asbestos. Everything I read online says that this poo poo is vile and will kill you instantly. I'm most likely going to get a contractor to vacuum it all up, and then lay down some "pink stuff" insulation. Will that be enough? Do I even need to worry about this poo poo if I won't be storing anything up in the attic? Has anyone had to deal with this before? Thanks!
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Apr 18, 2018 22:04
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BoyBlunder posted:We just bought a house, and the home inspection turned up vermiculite in the attic for insulation (it's a New England colonial from 1926). Luckily, the attic is hard to access, and unlivable up there, so most likely we will not be using it for storage. I guess vermiculite is all tainted and full of asbestos. As with all asbestos: If you don't touch it, it's fine. What this means is you can either just ignore it and make sure you have good air sealing between you and the attic, then anytime you go up there wear a respirator and ratty clothes that you put directly into the washing machine. Or you can abate it / remove it and be done with it forever. I would just blow in cellulose to replace it, it's idiot proof. Good news on my home front, the shower drains again.  These things are so great for the general purpose shower hair monster: https://www.homedepot.com/p/Zip-It-Bath-and-Sink-Hair-Snare-BC00400/100665735
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Apr 18, 2018 22:47
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H110Hawk posted:anytime you go up there wear a respirator and ratty clothes that you put directly into the washing machine. Would that actually suffice for removing/destroying asbestos fibers? Seems a little too easy.
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Apr 19, 2018 01:15
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TooMuchAbstraction posted:Would that actually suffice for removing/destroying asbestos fibers? Seems a little too easy. Got me but don't roll around in the stuff and they should just be on the surface of your clothes. They largely impregnate into your lungs because it's soft and gooey in there as I understand it.
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Apr 19, 2018 02:23
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BoyBlunder posted:We just bought a house, and the home inspection turned up vermiculite in the attic for insulation (it's a New England colonial from 1926). Luckily, the attic is hard to access, and unlivable up there, so most likely we will not be using it for storage. I guess vermiculite is all tainted and full of asbestos. Not all vermiculite is contaminated with asbestos. Both asbestos and vermiculite are mined minerals, and the latter are still produced and sold. However, some prominent vermiculite mines were found to have naturally occurring asbestos. Nowadays they test for "clean" vermiculite, but it's kind of gotten a bad name. I think you can test for it with standard abestos kits, so before hiring an expensive remediation, you might want to see if the stuff you have is actually bad.
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Apr 19, 2018 11:20
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LogisticEarth posted:Not all vermiculite is contaminated with asbestos. Both asbestos and vermiculite are mined minerals, and the latter are still produced and sold. However, some prominent vermiculite mines were found to have naturally occurring asbestos. Nowadays they test for "clean" vermiculite, but it's kind of gotten a bad name. It was my understanding that even "clean" vermiculite is still a lung irritant, hence why you see people mixing potting soil wearing dust masks.
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Apr 19, 2018 13:21
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LogisticEarth posted:I think you can test for it with standard abestos kits, so before hiring an expensive remediation, you might want to see if the stuff you have is actually bad. Yeah - you can test for it - but I'm guessing it would require multiple tests from different points of the attic where the vermiculite is sitting, right?
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Apr 19, 2018 15:50
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My neighbor painted their fence with a sprayer and now I have lines of brown paint on my stone ground coverings. Anyone know of an easy way to get rid of this or am I going to have to try and get my neighbor to pay to get it fixed? They are flipping the house otherwise I might not make a big deal out of it to a permanent neighbor.
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Apr 19, 2018 17:59
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Depends on the type of paint but you can try some paint stripper.
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Apr 19, 2018 18:01
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As with most surface treatments, test it somewhere inconspicuous first. I don't think paint stripper is likely to affect your stones, but it'd be good to know in advance if it does.
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Apr 19, 2018 18:05
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Yeah especially something like citrustrip should be pretty benign to rocks. There are some chemically reactive minerals out there, like carbonates or highly ferric rocks (red lava rock might change color) but those stones are definitely not lava rock and don't look like carbonates or even limestone to me. I doubt you'll see any staining. I'd smear some citrustrip on there, let it sit for the prescribed amount of time, then scrub with a disposable brush and rinse. It'll probably come off fine.
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Apr 19, 2018 18:17
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dalstrs posted:My neighbor painted their fence with a sprayer and now I have lines of brown paint on my stone ground coverings. Anyone know of an easy way to get rid of this or am I going to have to try and get my neighbor to pay to get it fixed? Just flip the stones over? Not sure how large those are or how many you'd have to do, but that seems like the easiest and cheapest solution.
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Apr 19, 2018 18:23
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Leperflesh posted:Yeah especially something like citrustrip should be pretty benign to rocks. There are some chemically reactive minerals out there, like carbonates or highly ferric rocks (red lava rock might change color) but those stones are definitely not lava rock and don't look like carbonates or even limestone to me. I doubt you'll see any staining. Yeah, I bet a wire brush/some sandpaper would go a long way to removing it, especially combined with some kind of light solvent.
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Apr 19, 2018 19:42
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Go tell the flipper he’s a dickbag and you want him to have one of his guys come scrape the paint off of your stones because that is 100% bullshit. But say it nicer maybe. Don’t open with the dickbag line I guess.
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Apr 19, 2018 19:46
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HEY NONG MAN posted:Go tell the flipper he’s a dickbag and you want him to have one of his guys come scrape the paint off of your stones because that is 100% bullshit. This is the plan, but I wanted to know how much effort I would have to put in to fix it in case I meet resistance from him.
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Apr 19, 2018 21:30
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yeah don't call him a dickbag shithead works though
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Apr 20, 2018 01:23
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Pressure washer would be my first step there. Might not work, but no harm in trying.
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Apr 20, 2018 01:28
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The first step is suing his rear end and putting a lien on his house so it never sells and you can be enemies forever, after leaving a poop on his porch.
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Apr 20, 2018 02:04
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Riller posted:Just flip the stones over? Not sure how large those are or how many you'd have to do, but that seems like the easiest and cheapest solution.  Come on, this is the homeownership thread. Everything has to be as complicated and terrible as possible.
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Apr 20, 2018 02:26
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TheWevel posted:
he should make his neighbor come over and flip over the stones for him, imo. While he watches.
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Apr 20, 2018 03:29
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“I SAID DO IT SLOWER. NOW LOOK BACK AT ME LIKE YOU’RE ASHAMED BUT ALSO PLAYFULLY.”
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Apr 20, 2018 03:42
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z0331 posted:We got 24 hours of torrential rain and our sump pump-less, normally bone dry basement ended up with six inches of water, probably from the water table just getting hammered. Yeah, we had a hurricane come up the coast and we got a few inches in our (crapily) finished basement. Dried it up and checked with the neighbors that have lived here their whole lives. Said they've never had water, this was the first time. Second time was a few years later it was worse, they said it was a storm of the century. We had to tear out down to the concrete walls but this time we installed a french drain and sump pump. It's only kicked on once or twice since but it freaks me out to sit and watch the water table come up into the sump pit. So yeah, things have gotten worse. Put the sump in if you can afford it, its worth the peace of mind.
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Apr 22, 2018 05:22
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tomapot posted:Yeah, we had a hurricane come up the coast and we got a few inches in our (crapily) finished basement. Dried it up and checked with the neighbors that have lived here their whole lives. Said they've never had water, this was the first time. Second time was a few years later it was worse, they said it was a storm of the century. We had to tear out down to the concrete walls but this time we installed a french drain and sump pump. It's only kicked on once or twice since but it freaks me out to sit and watch the water table come up into the sump pit. So yeah, things have gotten worse. Put the sump in if you can afford it, its worth the peace of mind. Did you get an above-floor (not sure what the term might be) pump or did you pay to have a hole dug and the pump placed below ground level? I really don't want to pay what would probably be like $1,500 at least for a full job but it would be nice to not even have to worry about the floor getting wet. But, it is just concrete, so it's probably not worth it.
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Apr 23, 2018 14:34
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I think I want to build a shed in my back yard. The existing one is one of those metal Tuff Sheds that is probably 15 years old. It was sited between two trees that have grown so much that they're squeezing the thing between them. The floor is also rotting out and I can see daylight through multiple seams in the sides. Anyone ever build one themselves? I can build a shed under 200 sq ft and under 10' average roof height without a permit and it looks like the minimum setback is 3 feet. I was thinking it would be nice to run electrical out to it for lighting and a couple of outlets as well.
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Apr 24, 2018 19:19
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Economic Sinkhole posted:I think I want to build a shed in my back yard. The existing one is one of those metal Tuff Sheds that is probably 15 years old. It was sited between two trees that have grown so much that they're squeezing the thing between them. The floor is also rotting out and I can see daylight through multiple seams in the sides. Anyone ever build one themselves? I can build a shed under 200 sq ft and under 10' average roof height without a permit and it looks like the minimum setback is 3 feet. I was thinking it would be nice to run electrical out to it for lighting and a couple of outlets as well. Yep, I did this. A bit bigger than what you're talking about -- it's 384 square feet and I think the height limit was 12' in my area, I'm a few inches below it whatever it is. My main advice would be, don't be too scared by the permitting process. Yes, it adds cost, but in my case that was an extra $500 on top of the ~$20-25k I spent on the building*. And with a permit you have a lot more freedom in how big to make the structure, though you are of course still constrained by the building code. Plus, if you gently caress up there's decent odds that the inspector will notice and correct you before you kill anyone. Otherwise, there's no big secrets to construction. You can find plenty of books that will tell you how things go together, and most of the rest of it is just hard work and dedication. The only things I didn't do solo on my build were the concrete pour (done entirely by hired contractors), pulling cables through conduit for the electrical hookup (assisted by an electrician), and the main panel hookup for those wires (done entirely by the electrician). * I didn't track my expenses super-carefully, but IIRC it broke down something like $12k for the concrete slab, $6-8k for all materials, $2k or so for tools. I bought a miter saw, air compressor, nailer, two ladders, oscillating multitool, and a whole bunch of other stuff, and it all came in handy. In fact I probably should have bought more tools since there were some things I did by hand that the right tool could have really helped with.
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Apr 24, 2018 20:45
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devmd01 posted:I really wanna know how the gently caress ants are on the counter by the stove (which is practically in the middle of the house) without any clear trails leading outside. Time to do the spring spraying outside and in the crawl space! Already hosed down the kitchen perimeter and they’re still showing up, wtf. I bought this death chemical Bifen I/T which was recommended to me by a exterminator and it worked great for me. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00C4Y286O/
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Apr 24, 2018 22:15
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z0331 posted:Did you get an above-floor (not sure what the term might be) pump or did you pay to have a hole dug and the pump placed below ground level? I really don't want to pay what would probably be like $1,500 at least for a full job but it would be nice to not even have to worry about the floor getting wet. But, it is just concrete, so it's probably not worth it. We got the below-grade french drain and pump, it was/is a finished basement so we didn't want to worry about it again. Basically like this system, 
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Apr 24, 2018 23:21
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How close is too close to plant trees near a gas line? I want to put some small trees and shrubs along my property line, but there's a gas line about 5 feet away from the property line.
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Apr 25, 2018 13:37
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tomapot posted:We got the below-grade french drain and pump, it was/is a finished basement so we didn't want to worry about it again. Basically like this system, We were quoted $2,200 for a sump pump install that would drain any water that accumulated. Or $8-9,000 for that plus a trench all around the walls with french drains and piping to make sure water never made it to the floor. The guys who came said that it looked like a) this had happened before and the water is coming in through the foundation walls, and b) that the current concrete slab looks like it was poured on top of an older slab and specifically graded at a slope so that water would collect on one side, which has an old pipe that is likely what they used to drain water out of the basement. It's currently sealed, but he was like "you could probably just hit with a hammer a couple times and open it up and drain water out." So I guess that's the short-term, free solution. The other cheap option is to buy a portable sump pump and then run a hose outside somewhere if it starts to accumulate.
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Apr 25, 2018 15:37
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