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ElCondemn posted:Agreed, I upgraded to a tankless water heater and it’s one of the best upgrades I’ve ever made. However, even though there were rebates and tax deductions it hasn’t paid for itself yet, but totally worth it. It's also worth thinking about timing this work with anything else major that might need doing to the house. Walls and floors coming up is a good / the only time to do various things you might be planning, and much better to do them all in one shot if it's manageable.
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May 10, 2018 17:00
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I apologize if this has been discussed in the past, but does anyone have suggestions for reference books that would discuss proper deck and awning construction? I have a brick veneer house and I’m looking to build a lean-to wood awning branching off my brick house to cover a poured concrete patio and act as a storage area / cat playhouse / greenhouse if I can find clear plastic roofing that doesn’t look like rear end. I’m also looking to eventually replace the death trap of a deck the weird prior owners left sitting out there, which I may post in the crappy construction tales thread once I start digging into it. It’s pretty terrifying because, as mentioned before, it’s a brick veneer house and I’m able to shake the goddamned deck and posts by jiggling the railing. 
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May 10, 2018 17:22
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Anyone know any good channels on YouTube / sites that aren't just ad-articles on around the house DIY that shows how to do things by the book?
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May 10, 2018 18:06
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MrOnBicycle posted:Anyone know any good channels on YouTube / sites that aren't just ad-articles on around the house DIY that shows how to do things by the book? In general, Ask This Old Houses's Youtube channel is pretty good, I feel. As long as you're able to tolerate a bunch of 50-something year old men's Boston accents.
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May 10, 2018 18:19
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Vapour barrier in the crawl space: is partial coverage better than no coverage at all? We're built on a slope and the crawl space gets impossibly narrow at one end, so I was going to cover up as much as I could and leave the rest. I just wanted to make sure that partial coverage wouldn't have some ill effect I'm not anticipating.
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May 10, 2018 19:12
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DrBouvenstein posted:As long as you're able to tolerate a bunch of 50-something year old men's Boston accents. This is a feature, not a bug. Tommy and Richard are a delight, and I'll fight anyone that says otherwise! Kevin has the most punchable face, with a personality to match. He's also useless, while trying to act like he knows what he's talking about. I can't stand him.
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May 10, 2018 20:45
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just another posted:Vapour barrier in the crawl space: is partial coverage better than no coverage at all? Partial coverage is definitely better than no coverage. If you play it right maybe you can push a roll hard plus poke it with a long pole to unroll it further into the narrow space to increase your coverage though.
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May 10, 2018 20:48
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SouthShoreSamurai posted:This is a feature, not a bug. Tommy and Richard are a delight, and I'll fight anyone that says otherwise!  It really makes me wonder how the old Bob Villa episodes felt by comparison.
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May 10, 2018 21:43
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Hubis posted:
I've been watching TOH since I was a kid so I've seen all three hosts. Bob Villa's ego was on display every single time he was on screen, Steve Thomas was pretty okay (and my favorite host), and Kevin O'Connor is just sorta meh. I don't think he's inherently punchable but he's definitely a bit overeager. Tommy and Richard are great but the best part of TOH has always been Norm. I was so sad when New Yankee Workshop ended.
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May 10, 2018 22:40
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MrOnBicycle posted:Anyone know any good channels on YouTube / sites that aren't just ad-articles on around the house DIY that shows how to do things by the book? I recently subscribed to this one - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnorhjQR4zJkT7AVNhu395Q/featured
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May 10, 2018 23:15
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1. That new house in the rear-middle got the scaffolding off and the siding is ugly enough to make the lime green house feel plain. (Wait til you see the front!) 2. It's time to clean/repaint the prefab office in the middle. The 20-year-old paint comes off on your hands like chalk, I dunno what that's called in English. Will renting a high-pressure water sprayer be enough, or do I need something else? What color would look good with the aluminum windows?
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May 11, 2018 00:40
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My simple project of replacing the carpet with vinyl flooring just got a whole lot more interesting:
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May 11, 2018 01:46
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Ewww My in-law's porch roof is rotting off from a busted gutter. The whole front of the house is getting redone. That mud is the interior wall of a bedroom. Winter is cold and summer is hot.
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May 11, 2018 02:23
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Gutter rot!
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May 11, 2018 05:49
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Thanks for the tips guys. Watched a few TOH videos about plumbing, pretty short and concise but loaded with information. Going to check out Home RenoVision as well.
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May 11, 2018 07:15
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I made an offer on a home, about a year ago, from one of those large builders that lets you customize some, but not all of the stuff.The house was supposed to be finished in late December with a close date of early January. There were tons of problems, they changed the height/grade of the lot by 4 feet, they had left out windows and framing, damaged the bathtub, left out closets, and all sorts of other things. Well, they are finally *almost* done. They are doing the paint touch up and final cleaning this weekend and I get to close on Monday. I can not tell you how relieved I am. Having this house built was a very stressful experience. I will include some nice pictures later. Anyway, that's my story!
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May 12, 2018 18:43
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Have you paid for a home inspector to inspect the property from top to bottom? Not one recommended by your builder.
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May 12, 2018 19:02
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HycoCam posted:Have you paid for a home inspector to inspect the property from top to bottom? Not one recommended by your builder. I actually work with a lot of (licensed) tradesmen and folks who have built their own houses or have a lot of construction experience, so I have had them over to look at things during the building process, as it relates to their appropriate skill. I visited the job site almost daily during construction. So I feel like we have a very good scope of the building inside and out, in addition to taking something like 900 photos. We were able to identify a lot of the problems and have them corrected on the spot, which saved a lot of time opposed to us waiting till the end. I even had a flooring/carpet expert come in to take a look. If I was not able to attend to the house during the construction process I would most definitely hire a home inspector, but in this case I feel pretty confident about the collective brain trust I was able to assemble.
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May 12, 2018 20:06
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Enos Cabell posted:My simple project of replacing the carpet with vinyl flooring just got a whole lot more interesting: 
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May 13, 2018 19:14
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Omg my inlaws front porch gutter... was clogged from ground to ceiling with 40 years of gunk and crud. The vertical pipe was completely stuffed, and when removed, black filthy water of unknowable age and quantity poured out of the pipe and eaves. The workman got covered in sludge and went home to change.  We were later told that it's a very common problem with older houses!
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May 13, 2018 22:58
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I was really hoping to be able to tackle this problem myself, but once I got more of the window exposed I realized it was completely screwed. Fortunately the damage was contained to the area just under the window. Unfortunately it's the largest window in the house, and I don't trust myself to install a $1500 six foot tall window on the second story. Unfortunately part two, it's a unique enough shape that it will need to be custom ordered and lead time will be at least 30 days. Fun!
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May 14, 2018 22:06
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Enos Cabell posted:I was really hoping to be able to tackle this problem myself, but once I got more of the window exposed I realized it was completely screwed. Fortunately the damage was contained to the area just under the window. Unfortunately it's the largest window in the house, and I don't trust myself to install a $1500 six foot tall window on the second story. Unfortunately part two, it's a unique enough shape that it will need to be custom ordered and lead time will be at least 30 days. Fun! So let me get this right: you have a 6' window on the second story with a lower clearance of what, 8 inches or so? That's like a Groverhaus-level bad idea. What if someone trips and goes headfirst through it?
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May 15, 2018 02:07
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SubponticatePoster posted:
I meant to say five foot, and it's a split level so more like 1.5 stories I suppose but yeah point stands lol. The replacement will be tempered glass at least.
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May 15, 2018 02:27
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Enos Cabell posted:I meant to say five foot, and it's a split level so more like 1.5 stories I suppose but yeah point stands lol. The replacement will be tempered glass at least.
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May 15, 2018 02:39
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It's not really in a high traffic area, and frankly it would make the front of the house look really strange if it were smaller.
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May 15, 2018 03:06
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Does the top of the window look worse than the bottom? Nothing about the picture seems to suggest you need to do anything with the window. It appears you only need to replace the sheathing and small section of a 2x4 on the jack stud. (The king stud is the outside 2x4 and the jack stud is the one that looks like it rotted down to nothing.) Jab an ice pick or a flat bladed screwdriver into the wood you are worried is rotted. If the board is spongy enough to hold the screwdriver you're going to want to replace it. The sole plate (bottom board along the floor) looks like it has some damage but is solid for the most part? Do you have a zip tool? (https://www.thespruce.com/zip-tool-for-remove-vinyl-siding-1824719) Loosen the siding around the rotted sheathing. Cut back the rotted sheathing to the center of the closest studs. Cut three short 2x4's that will fit in the rotted area under the window. Slide two of the 2x4's into the cavity--they should fit snuggly. Put one in the middle and one a few inches away from the rotted stud--leaving enough room to get your sawzall in there. Don't worry about nailing the 2x4s. Cut out the bad 2x4 flush with the sill plate. Cut a replacement 2x4 to fit super snug. Remove the temporary 2x4's and nail the repaired 2x4 in place. Cut a replacement piece of sheathing to match what was removed. Nail it in place. Staple some Tyvek over the sheathing and tape the seams. Will take a few hours with the siding being the biggest pain to deal with--but a lot easier than pulling out the window. Unless there is damage not shown. e: I'm thinking you won't need house wrap tape--looking again there doesn't seem to be any house wrap. HycoCam fucked around with this message at 06:14 on May 15, 2018 |
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May 15, 2018 06:02
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Thanks HycoCam, that was pretty much exactly my plan of action at first. Sadly, once I started cutting out the 2x4 underneath it revealed that the bottom plate of the window itself had rotted away. You can actually stick your hand up in it and feel the bottom edge of the glass.
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May 15, 2018 13:19
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This thread seems like a good place for this question, let me know if it's not. Intensely stupid question incoming from a first-time homeowner. My wife and I just bought a condo. Closing was yesterday morning; went in last night and ate pizza on the floor etc, good time was had by all. Moving in on June 10th. In the meantime, I have been finally paying attention to stuff like outlet placement. This is my first time owning a home, so I don't really know how a lot of stuff works. I'm getting that putting an outlet into a wall usually costs a couple hundred bucks, no big, drop in the bucket compared to what the place cost to buy, etc. But what's the deal with coax and Ethernet? Like, ok, so, as I have discovered since the final walkthrough (the first time we'd seen the place without all the sellers' stuff inside), the condo as we have purchased it has coax strung up on the ceiling of the basement and poking up through the floor at a few key points where the sellers had their TVs etc. Seems kind of ghetto, but if it works it works. But, we're cord-cutters, so coax is less important to me than Ethernet. And the place where I want to put my computer desk (which is where our modem and router will go) does not have a coax hookup either in the wall or poking out of the floor. Question number 1 is, if I want to get a coax hookup in a place where there is not one right now, preferably coming out of a wall outlet thing like a grownup (but I'll settle for the floor-hole if I have to), is that the kind of thing that is covered by my "free installation" when we get the Internet first set up, or would I have to separately hire an electrician to route the cable around through the walls for me? How much would that run? Question number 2 is, what would be the best way for me to get Internet from our router to where our TV will be set up in another room? I'm probably gonna set up a network switch there so everything that needs Internet can get some, but I need to get some Ethernet cable over there first. Is there an accepted way to set that up, or should I just copy what the sellers did with their coax and run it along the basement ceiling and through holes in the floor? Alternately, this is the kind of thing I should probably know the answer to, but, what if I bought, like, a second modem and used that with the existing coax hookup as an Internet source for all of the stuff around our TV, while the existing modem handles my computer and the WiFi? Is that a thing that is done? I've certainly never lived in a multiple-modem household but I still thought it was worth asking. In our current 1BR apartment our TV and my desk are about 5 feet away from each other by necessity so this is a non-issue, but the new place has, like, actual rooms and stuff
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May 16, 2018 15:44
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SubponticatePoster posted:
This is fairly common in Raised Ranch style homes where A/C isn't as common. Large floor to ceiling windows allows for better airflow and lighting. Also do you live in a padded room? I grew up with floor to ceiling windows and nobody fell through one. You have to be pretty loving stupid to fall through a window.
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May 16, 2018 15:55
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loquacius posted:Question number 1 is, if I want to get a coax hookup in a place where there is not one right now, preferably coming out of a wall outlet thing like a grownup (but I'll settle for the floor-hole if I have to), is that the kind of thing that is covered by my "free installation" when we get the Internet first set up Not sure about this one. My instinct would be no, but that's based on usual installation in the UK which is "we'll get it working to the point where it enters your house, good luck from there". I'd chat with someone from your cable company on this. loquacius posted:or would I have to separately hire an electrician to route the cable around through the walls for me? How much would that run? You don't strictly need a sparky to run wires for you vs some other handyman though it's often who you go to because they have lots of experience running cables. Sorry I don't know prices in the US but in the UK I'd expect £200/day for labour plus materials. loquacius posted:Question number 2 is, what would be the best way for me to get Internet from our router to where our TV will be set up in another room? I'm probably gonna set up a network switch there so everything that needs Internet can get some, but I need to get some Ethernet cable over there first. Is there an accepted way to set that up, or should I just copy what the sellers did with their coax and run it along the basement ceiling and through holes in the floor? This depends entirely on how your house is put together and how much you're willing to tear it apart. If you have uninsulated stud walls then the usual approach is to run them in the attic and drop them down in between the studs (the insulation isn't a problem, it just gets in the way). The approach taken by the PO to run them in the basement is basically the inverse of this. When you say "along the basement ceiling" do you mean literally attached to a finished ceiling or is it unfinished? If the latter then that's fine, maybe finish the ceiling once you've run your cables. If the former, how much do you fancy redoing that ceiling, vs how much do you dislike the cables? You can run trunking to make it less unsightly, or cut holes and push cable then patch them, or rip the whole lot down, run all your "drops", then redo the ceiling. loquacius posted:Alternately, this is the kind of thing I should probably know the answer to, but, what if I bought, like, a second modem and used that with the existing coax hookup as an Internet source for all of the stuff around our TV, while the existing modem handles my computer and the WiFi? Is that a thing that is done? I've certainly never lived in a multiple-modem household but I still thought it was worth asking. I don't know how cable internet works specifically but if it's anything like phone internet then this won't work. Be careful not to mix up the words "modem" and "router", generally you can only have one modem but multiple routers. Might also be worth seeing how much you can get away with wifi or power line adapters.
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May 16, 2018 16:05
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loquacius posted:This thread seems like a good place for this question, let me know if it's not. Intensely stupid question incoming from a first-time homeowner. Typically the free installation for home internet service includes the provider placing a converter box and connecting that to your coax hook ups. Usually no work or cable routing inside the house/condo is provided. The cost to have coax run is roughly the same as the cost to have a new circuit added. Depending on how difficult it is to run, you could be looking at between 100-300 per outlet you want to add. For question 2, I would just put everything on WiFi. Most Wifi connections are capable of exceeding the speed you are given by the cable company, so unless there are some things that are interfering with the signal, I would go with wifi.
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May 16, 2018 16:07
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I have FIOS in the Boston area- the installer asked if I wanted the cord to come out of the basement an any particular place. I was happy to have it come out into a cabinet where the old one already did, but he was willing to drill a hole up in another spot for me. He definitely wouldn’t have installed a real box or outlet setup, and I kiiiiind of got the impression he was just good and chill and it wasn’t required of him to ask. So, maybe you can get the cord to a chosen corner for free but probably not anything else.
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May 16, 2018 16:18
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Also if you slip the cable guy 50 bucks he'll give you all the channels for free.
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May 16, 2018 16:28
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BadSamaritan posted:I have FIOS in the Boston area- the installer asked if I wanted the cord to come out of the basement an any particular place. I was happy to have it come out into a cabinet where the old one already did, but he was willing to drill a hole up in another spot for me. Alright, thanks guys. I'm also in the Boston area and am gonna get RCN; my plan for now will be to ask them if they can put coax where I want it and ask an electrician otherwise, try using WiFi for my TV poo poo for a little while, and replace that one coax cable being strung along the (unfinished) basement ceiling with Ethernet my own drat self if that doesn't work out for me. Thanks again for the advice, all!
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May 16, 2018 16:29
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Keep in mind that the ethernet cable is governed by the NEC. While it is unlikely that that will change how you implement you ethernet cables, here is the applicable text, just as an FYI. National Electrical Code 2014 Chapter 8 Communications Systems Article 800 Communications Circuits I. General 800.24 Mechanical Execution of Work. Communications circuits and equipment shall be installed in a neat and workmanlike manner. Cables installed exposed on the surface of ceilings and sidewalls shall be supported by the building structure in such a manner that the cable will not be damaged by normal building use. Such cables shall be secured by hardware, including straps, staples, cable ties, hangers, or similar fittings designed and installed so as not to damage the cable. The installation shall also conform to 300.4(D) and 300.11. Chapter 3 Wiring Methods and Materials Article 300 Wiring Methods I. General Requirements 300.4 Protection Against Physical Damage. (D) Cables and Raceways Parallel to Framing Members and Furring Strips. In both exposed and concealed locations, where a cable- or raceway-type wiring method is installed parallel to framing members, such as joists, rafters, or studs, or is installed parallel to furring strips, the cable or raceway shall be installed and supported so that the nearest outside surface of the cable or raceway is not less than 32 mm (11⁄4 in.) from the nearest edge of the framing member or furring strips where nails or screws are likely to penetrate. Where this distance cannot be maintained, the cable or raceway shall be protected from penetration by nails or screws by a steel plate, sleeve, or equivalent at least 1.6 mm (1⁄16 in.) thick. 300.11 Securing and Supporting. Please see NEC for full text
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May 16, 2018 16:41
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loquacius posted:Alternately, this is the kind of thing I should probably know the answer to, but, what if I bought, like, a second modem and used that with the existing coax hookup as an Internet source for all of the stuff around our TV, while the existing modem handles my computer and the WiFi? Is that a thing that is done? I've certainly never lived in a multiple-modem household but I still thought it was worth asking. You're looking to setup a MoCA network, not a "second modem" (aka second internet connection.) Overall think long and hard about how much you care that the wire is poking up out of the floor vs what you will actually be able to see once you've moved in to the place. Does the modem and router have to live right next to your computer? Could the modem be in some random place and you just string ethernet to your router? Seconding the "be nice and tip well" to the installer and you will get more than the bare minimum. Keep water bottles in your fridge if you're in a hot climate and just hand them one. I got a hole-to-hole ethernet cable strung under my house because the install was literally already done but Frontier insisted on dispatching someone.
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May 16, 2018 16:53
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H110Hawk posted:You're looking to setup a MoCA network, not a "second modem" (aka second internet connection.) This term right here might have solved the entirety of my entertainment-center problem, thanks  Honestly I might just drill the drat basement hole myself to get some coax where I need it, unless someone successfully convinces me I'm being an idiot
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May 16, 2018 17:23
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If it's not visible, go nuts. I have a media closet, but it sucks for wifi, so the line in from the ISP comes into there and into a modem, from the modem, an ethernet cable goes from the closet, into my basement, to another side of my house, and up the floor where you can't see it under a baseboard and behind a buffet where my router lives and is a better location to broadcast the wifi signal from. I also agree that you should just try seeing how your TV/boxes perform on just wifi before determining they need to be hardwired.
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May 16, 2018 17:37
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loquacius posted:This term right here might have solved the entirety of my entertainment-center problem, thanks Coaxial cable is a pain to work with, unless you really super duper want the cable right there I would try pulling cat6 (or 5, 5e, 6a, nothing matters and I don't care) where you want it.
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May 16, 2018 17:45
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JEEVES420 posted:This is fairly common in Raised Ranch style homes where A/C isn't as common. Large floor to ceiling windows allows for better airflow and lighting.
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May 16, 2018 22:07
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