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Gin_Rummy posted:What makes you say that? Why would the positioning of the sprinklers need to change if my yard is made more level? You said regrading. If you legitimately need what would be considered regrading surely some of the sprinklers (and potentially lines) are either too low or too high for what the final grade will be.
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Sep 19, 2018 18:30
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Fill in the low spots with sand over the course of a couple weeks.
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Sep 19, 2018 18:33
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Aerate the lawn and rake the spoils to low spots, bonus that the high spots will settle with compaction. Also do the sand thing.
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Sep 20, 2018 02:22
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Dumb question - can you still do the sand thing if the sprinkler box is in the low spot? Or do I need to pull that completely out?
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Sep 20, 2018 03:37
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Dango Bango posted:Dumb question - can you still do the sand thing if the sprinkler box is in the low spot? Or do I need to pull that completely out? Dig it up and raise the box to the right elevation. It’s only a 5 sides cover. Like a good mimosa, it’s bottomless.
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Sep 20, 2018 04:17
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So what's the thoughts ducted vs ductless heat pumps? We already have ducts and Google seems to say we should obviously stick with a ducted central heater then, but 2 of the 4 estimates I've gotten so far have been hard selling ductless.
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Sep 20, 2018 04:39
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FuzzySlippers posted:So what's the thoughts ducted vs ductless heat pumps? We already have ducts and Google seems to say we should obviously stick with a ducted central heater then, but 2 of the 4 estimates I've gotten so far have been hard selling ductless. Well the ductless give you more individual room control, but higher long-term maintenance and noise I think. Also your duct system could be crap. Also do you want to look at those dump ductless things al the time?
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Sep 20, 2018 11:32
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StormDrain posted:Aerate the lawn and rake the spoils to low spots, bonus that the high spots will settle with compaction. Also do the sand thing. Will this solve my 70% weeds problem too?
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Sep 20, 2018 15:51
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Gin_Rummy posted:Will this solve my 70% weeds problem too? No. If they are broadleaf you can apply 2,4D, wait for them to die and then reseed. If it's garbage crabgrass you need to burn the whole lawn down (chemically with something like Roundup or by solarizing - black plastic all over it until it dies) then reseed.
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Sep 20, 2018 16:15
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I have probably 30% crabgrass in my backyard. My plan is to reseed soon, use pre-emergent weed killer/fertilizer in the spring. Is this gonna work or am I wasting my money?
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Sep 20, 2018 20:12
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howdoesishotweb posted:I have probably 30% crabgrass in my backyard. My plan is to reseed soon, use pre-emergent weed killer/fertilizer in the spring. Is this gonna work or am I wasting my money? Are you going to burn down the crabgrass first with glyphosate (roundup), give it a week or two, then scratch that area up with a rake, core aerate the whole yard and then overseed? If so, that's a good plan. The pre-emergent in the spring might be a bit soon, as your new grass will likely still be spreading/you may want to seed more in the spring. But 2,4D will work to keep the broadleaf out until the grass is well established. Fertilization depends on what you need. You should send soil samples from around the yard to your county ag extension office and they will tell you exactly what and how much to put down.
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Sep 20, 2018 21:21
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Crabgrass has already seeded and is starting to die a little. I don’t mind roundup-ing everything and aerating. It would be a lot to rake up but I guess I could. Should I rent a motorized aerator from Home Depot? Like $63
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Sep 20, 2018 21:40
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howdoesishotweb posted:Should I rent a motorized aerator from Home Depot? Like $63 Yes. The non-motorized ones are torture devices.
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Sep 20, 2018 21:51
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Elephanthead posted:Well the ductless give you more individual room control, but higher long-term maintenance and noise I think. Also your duct system could be crap. Also do you want to look at those dump ductless things al the time? Yeah our ducts kinda suck since we have only one return but seems fine otherwise. The proposed ductless system would have only 1 wall unit downstairs and the upstairs all supplied via a system in the attic with mini ducts to the rooms. Though the ductless estimates have all been higher so it seems unlikely I'd actually save money except in the very long term and meanwhile I have the extra ductless bother. FuzzySlippers fucked around with this message at 23:26 on Sep 20, 2018 |
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Sep 20, 2018 22:41
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So, it’s been pretty rainy here today. Any ideas on what I can do about this?  If you can’t tell, the first picture is from the exterior of the house looking down at the basement window. The second picture is from in the basement where you can see the water built up several inches, pouring into my basement from around the window. Fortunately, the water is all flowing toward a floor drain, but who knows how long it’ll be until that overflows. I had one of those plastic covers over the thingy on the outside, but for some reason, the water still built up. Buying a house was the stupidest thing I’ve ever done. 
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Sep 20, 2018 23:39
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Do you have a sump pump?
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Sep 20, 2018 23:48
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HEY NONG MAN posted:Do you have a sump pump? Ultimately, the problem is that the drainage in my backyard is terrible, and in certain spots near a landscaped portion, water pools near the house. I’m sure that won’t cost thousands of dollars to fix, though, right?
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Sep 20, 2018 23:51
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I think they’re called window wells and it’s kind of tragic in this case. A sump pump to clear the water away from your house is what would solve this.
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Sep 20, 2018 23:56
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Realtalk: If you are a single person of modest means who works full time there is absolutely no reason to buy a house or own property at all. You might think that even though you’re single and work 50+ hours per week that you have the time, money, and perseverance to make it work. You do not. It will destroy you. If you have a spouse and/or kids who can help shoulder some of the burden, then maybe — MAYBE — it’s worthwhile. But even then, I’d advise against it. This comes the week after I paid about $4,000 to have my lawn renovated because Japanese beetle grubs literally devoured every blade of grass on my property. Sorry, I’m just a little upset is all. I’m gonna go eat some ice cream. 
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Sep 21, 2018 00:04
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If you're single and own a house then hopefully you also really like having room mates but lol still a bad choice
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Sep 21, 2018 00:51
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Your houses drainage system should be draining that water away unless you are in Carolina then it was not designed for that much water. Cross your fingers the basement doesn't cave in.
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Sep 21, 2018 01:21
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RoboCop 3 posted:So, it’s been pretty rainy here today. Any ideas on what I can do about this? So here's how this is supposed to work. There should be a pipe from the window well that is connected with the "drain tile" (more permeable pipe) that run around the underground footings of your house on the outside. At one or more spots that drain tile is typically tied into sump pits inside your house (already saw you don't have a sump pump so it's not that). When you have that arrangement you unintuitively invite this water inside so you can pump it back out further away from the house. Depending on age and grade you may have that drain tile ties into a pipe that just goes out into your yard. Let's hope for this in your situation. Have you found anything like that? Because if you have it this could be a simple clog that needs to be cleared. If you don't have proper drain tile/it's all collapsed/nobody built this place right to begin with thing start to get expensive and really "diggy" to fix the problem.
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Sep 21, 2018 01:23
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howdoesishotweb posted:I have probably 30% crabgrass in my backyard. My plan is to reseed soon, use pre-emergent weed killer/fertilizer in the spring. Is this gonna work or am I wasting my money? Cool Season or Warm Season lawn? For coool season this is the Best Practice, yeah. Seeding is really a "get out what you put into it" endeavor. You can just throw grass seed around and let nature take its course and it will help, but if you: - Prepare the soil properly (dethatch and scarify -- aeration is good but unrelated to overseeding) - Set the seed properly (ensure good seed/soil contact by rolling/raking it in) - Mulch appropriately (protect seed, maintain moisture, prevent washout -- 1/4" of peat moss is great for this) - Water appropriately (lightly but constantly -- like 2-4x quick waterings a day for the first 2-4 weeks) - Fertilize appropriately (use a good starter fert and don't burn it -- Scotts Starter with Weed Preventer is a good rec as it hass a grass-safe herbicide in it that will keep down winter weeds while your grass grows in) You will see way higher germination rates and way healthier grass on the other side. So no, definitely not wasting your money, especially since it sounds like you are investing some effort into it. For the spring, you will want multiple overlapping pre-emergent applications. Something with Dithiopyr in early/mid March, then Prodiamine in May. Plan on overseeding again next fall, but it should be more a matter of thickening things up rather than filling in bare patches. Motronic posted:Are you going to burn down the crabgrass first with glyphosate (roundup), give it a week or two, then scratch that area up with a rake, core aerate the whole yard and then overseed? If so, that's a good plan. The pre-emergents only really affect seed germination, not spreading/tillering. It won't do anything to harm new grass (at least not grass that was seeded last fall). It WILL prevent you from over-seeding; however, the way pre-emergents work is by creating a layer of chemical near the surface of the soil where seeds sit at concentrations that will prevent them from setting roots. If this layer is disturbed, the pre-emergent is no longer effective. One trick is to apply pre-emergent and then just use a rake/tiller/garden weasel if you find bare spots to chop up the top half-inch or so. Alternatively, you can just not put pre-emergent in those areas. In any case, spring seeding is generally recommended against. It CAN work, but for cool season grasses it will often just *seem* like it took, only to have the grass die off later due to fungal infection during the wetness of spring or during the heat of sumer. Seeding in late summer/early fall gives the grass a whole lot more time to set deeper roots. My thinking is that if you've got bare spots in the spring then you might as well put grass seed down to at least give the weeds some competition, but I would not adjust my plans around spring seeding -- just hope for the best and expect to fix it next fall. If you are dealing with crabgrass, look for the 2,4-D with Quinclorac -- it's significantly more effective against crabgrass and other grassy weeds. howdoesishotweb posted:Crabgrass has already seeded and is starting to die a little. I don’t mind roundup-ing everything and aerating. It would be a lot to rake up but I guess I could. Get a motorized one. Get a friend with a truck (or rent the truck from HD too) -- there's no way you'll get it into the back of a SUV. Make sure you get a "core" or "plug" aerator (with hollow metal tubes or "spoons"), NOT a "spike" aerator. Like I alluded to before, consider a dethatcher/scarifier/power rake as well. Rent them both in the same weekend -- it will be a workout but you will open up the top of the soil so your seed and water/nutrients can really get down too the dirt more reliably. If I had too pick one, the dethatcher/power rake is way more important for seeding. Core aeration is primarily about opening up channels deep into the soil while preserving the existing grass, not prepping the surface (which is what you want too do while seeding). Hubis fucked around with this message at 03:43 on Sep 21, 2018 |
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Sep 21, 2018 03:40
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Motronic posted:So here's how this is supposed to work. There should be a pipe from the window well that is connected with the "drain tile" (more permeable pipe) that run around the underground footings of your house on the outside. At one or more spots that drain tile is typically tied into sump pits inside your house (already saw you don't have a sump pump so it's not that). When you have that arrangement you unintuitively invite this water inside so you can pump it back out further away from the house. Over the years I’ve owned this pile of poo poo house, I’ve come to the conclusion that the problems are a mix of “nobody built this place right to begin with” and an astounding degree of neglect and ignorance from the previous owners (not that I’m in any position to call anyone ignorant regarding home maintenance/care). I realize that I can only blame myself for all this, but I would like to find the home inspector and throw him feet first into a wood chipper. It looks like installation of a footing drain, sump pump, and all the other requirements of an exterior waterproofing solution can cost anywhere from $5,000 to $15,000. 
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Sep 21, 2018 03:50
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RoboCop 3 posted:Realtalk: If you are a single person of modest means who works full time there is absolutely no reason to buy a house or own property at all. You might think that even though you’re single and work 50+ hours per week that you have the time, money, and perseverance to make it work. My coworkers all have 3000sqft+ McMansions and live paycheck to paycheck and it just seems like an insane lifestyle to me. My place is a 1700sqft home from the 1960s and I feel like my fiancee and I can barely keep up with it.
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Sep 21, 2018 05:09
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Yeah like I live alone these renovation projects are killing me I only even get anything done when someone is here helping me. it's more the motivating factor than anything else. I hate it I feel like I can't have company over until I get this done.
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Sep 21, 2018 12:39
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Can't wait for the solar panels to go up. Just look at this completely ridiculous economic calculation! It's even inflation adjusted. The reason it is this amazingly good is due to government incentives. It'd be 15 years or so to break even w/o incentives.  År=Year Viktat Elpris=Weighted electricity price Produktion solel=...I think you can figure this one out. Årlig=Annual Avkastning=Rate of return Kvar på=Left until break even kr=SEK
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Sep 21, 2018 12:56
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I live in a state that's already powered by more than 40% renewable energy and I still want panels on my house. It doesn't help that like 8 houses in my neighborhood have installations up.
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Sep 21, 2018 13:05
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Potrzebie posted:Can't wait for the solar panels to go up. Just look at this completely ridiculous economic calculation! It's even inflation adjusted. The reason it is this amazingly good is due to government incentives. It'd be 15 years or so to break even w/o incentives. In the states it's a bit of a risky play. You're one utility rate case away from having the tariff change on you and upend the financial model. The current rates are overly generous so I suspect there's a correction coming in my state.
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Sep 21, 2018 13:28
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My province is mostly renewable hydroelectric, and we get little sunlight for 8 months of the year. I can’t imagine it would be worthwhile here.
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Sep 21, 2018 13:38
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TraderStav posted:In the states it's a bit of a risky play. You're one utility rate case away from having the tariff change on you and upend the financial model. The current rates are overly generous so I suspect there's a correction coming in my state. At least here in Sweden, the rate the electicity co will pay you to feed solar into the system is basically [current Evis; Sweden is mostly hydro and far north. What happens when you have dark winters is this:  Green is production, blue consumtion. Potrzebie fucked around with this message at 14:16 on Sep 21, 2018 |
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Sep 21, 2018 13:49
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Potrzebie posted:At least here in Sweden, the rate the electicity co will pay you to feed solar into the system is basically [current utility price]*[1+efficiency loss in the system]. So our surplus will track the going rate. You guys should build giant reservoirs in the mountains, and use all that summer Surplus to store potential energy by pumping it up hill!
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Sep 21, 2018 14:08
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The issue here is not only the northern latitude but also the fact that for most of the year it’s cloudy. In other parts of the province that get more sun it might pay off sooner.
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Sep 21, 2018 14:24
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 Both our beam fixing/upgrades and swale install are happening on Tuesday. The swale at least is a month or so ahead of what they anticipated. (We originally were going with a french drain, but for only twice the price ($2500) they suggested a swale would be a more appropriate and permanent solution to the grading issues.) Sucks to be our neighbors, as this is technically all in our property, but that side of the garage is shared into their yard so they are getting 100% of the eyesore. We also wrote them a thank you note (with a thank you check) that uses the shamelessly bad pun: "Thanks for being such swale neighbors!" Second HVAC contractor is coming by to give a bid on another mini-split for my future office.
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Sep 21, 2018 18:46
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We're doing some work on the house and as part of that installing a hood over the stove. Previously there was a light there so I knew there was power. The installer tried on Friday but couldn't find the correct breaker for the wire. That seemed weird to me since I had a new box installed a couple of years ago and the electrician diligently noted everything as expected. I go to the basement and turn off breakers for the kitchen and hearing me toggle them, he says "Nope" after each one. I end up turning everything off on the first floor and still power to that wire. All that is left are second story and basement lights. I flick off the basement lights, leaving me in the dark and hear "Yep!"
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Oct 1, 2018 15:49
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Anyone got any tips on getting rid of and preventing future creaks/squeaks/etc. I have done a bit of research and just watched this "Why is it happend and how to fix it" video and just wondered if anyone had any other experience or advice. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TC-sUmqgn6I We'll be getting rid of the carpet and putting in hardwood. The floor is supported by 2x4 trusses rather than conventional 2xWhatevers or those I beams. So the 4" being exposed should make it pretty easy to drill in and hit the joists compared to only having the 2" side exposed. We don't really have any squeaks but a fair amount of more "crack" type noise. Was planning on spot treating any currently noisy areas but maybe also putting in screws every 2' or something as a preventative measure since once the new floor goes in it likely won't ever be going anywhere.
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Oct 4, 2018 18:07
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In my quest to eliminate cracks and squeaks from my house I think I've pinpointed that most cracks are caused by wood and sheetrock sliding on loose nails and squeaks are caused by subloor/floor looseness. Screws should fix the first, shims, screws, and adhesives fix the latter.
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Oct 5, 2018 00:00
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veiled boner fuel posted:Anyone got any tips on getting rid of and preventing future creaks/squeaks/etc. I have done a bit of research and just watched this "Why is it happend and how to fix it" video and just wondered if anyone had any other experience or advice. I did that on the whole second floor of my old house when I got new carpeting. It was about 30 years old at the time and had significant movement as you walked around. Pulled the old carpet up, pulled out all the hundreds and thousands of staples they used to hold the old carpet padding in place so the wood was all clean, and then sunk a couple hundred screws through the floor into the beams before having the new carpet installed. It worked well and I never noticed the problem again after it was all done. I remember reading about some kind of powder you could put down where the floor boards meet up (I guess the edges rubbing can also cause squeaks) but I didn't do that.
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Oct 5, 2018 00:03
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New homeownershit achievement unlocked: BEDBUGS! gently caress everything, we have bedbugs. Shoulda ripped out all the grody carpeting the second after closing, but we didn't because we were dumbasses. Ever since we moved in, husband had allegedly been accosted by mosquitoes every night (but not me, because they don't like me that much, even though I'd get bitten plenty when outside). We removed sources of standing water outside and sealed off openings into the house, even got one of those UV light mosquito traps... no good, any of it. We both did more research, and it seemed our problem was either fleas or bed bugs, not mosquitoes. Then tonight we found a live bedbug on the box spring. Calling the exterminator when they open tomorrow. What scares me is that I have no reaction whatsoever to bedbug bites (there's no way they're not biting me also - even mosquitoes bite me). If it weren't for my husband waking up every morning with new red bites everywhere, then I would literally never know and the infestation would just persist and get worse and worse.
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Oct 5, 2018 02:21
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Queen Victorian posted:New homeownershit achievement unlocked: BEDBUGS! If a person has bedbugs they don’t see and don’t react to, do they have a problem at all? I was the non reactive person when we had them, and it took months for me to be able to laugh about it. It is so freaky! Fortunately my wife made us act quick and the pest control guy eradicated them. We disposed of the mattress and spring.
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Oct 5, 2018 03:15
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