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Contractors that don’t communicate or listen to anything you say are a huge pain in the rear end.
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Jun 4, 2019 22:37
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Leperflesh posted:Just FYI, car jackstands will sink right into asphalt, especially on a warm day. If you want a spot for working on a car, you might consider concrete. This is very true. Concrete is the Most Right answer for driveways.
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Jun 4, 2019 23:13
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So if I'm planning on doing three things: 1. Wallpaper removal & subsequent drywall repair 2. Carpet removal & new flooring/trim installation 3. Painting the walls Is there a definite must-do order to them? Maybe wallpaper->floors->paint so that the existing floors take the hit, and the new trim is in place before paint? I'm new to home improvement so I want to make sure I don't have to re-do steps.
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Jun 5, 2019 00:11
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GoGoGadgetChris posted:So if I'm planning on doing three things: If you do paint before you care about the flooring you don't have to care as much about splatter and spills. You could even do the paint before the carpet goes, and roll the trim pieces outside before installation. There might be something obvious I'm missing there.
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Jun 5, 2019 01:08
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GoGoGadgetChris posted:So if I'm planning on doing three things: Flooring guys will tell you to do the walls last so they don't have to worry that much about dinging up the walls when installing, but really flooring should be last. With wallpaper removal, you're often using copious amounts of water so consider that when deciding on what you do with your flooring.
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Jun 5, 2019 02:41
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eig posted:Krud Kutter for both. You can get at Home Depot and it's non toxic! Just picked up a new bottle and it cleaned the nasty grease buildup on the microwave hood in one pass. 10/10 thanks for the recommendation.
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Jun 5, 2019 04:59
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House built 1981,  What is this thing on the wall screwed in to an outlet? It's sitting where the fridge should go and pushes the fridge like 3" into the room  The water line to the fridge looks like poo poo. Should I have a plumber come out and update this?
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Jun 5, 2019 08:05
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The transformer looks a bit like what I unplugged that was powering an old alarm system from the 80s. They used phone cable to run all the stuff here (mostly window and door sensors) including the low voltage side of the transformer. It could be any small electrical thing, though.
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Jun 5, 2019 08:32
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Rexxed posted:The transformer looks a bit like what I unplugged that was powering an old alarm system from the 80s. They used phone cable to run all the stuff here (mostly window and door sensors) including the low voltage side of the transformer. It could be any small electrical thing, though. The house does have an extremely 80s looking alarm panel in another room. Should I get a professional involved or just unscrew it and unplug it? I'm worried the alarm system will start freaking out.
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Jun 5, 2019 08:50
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GoGoGadgetChris posted:The house does have an extremely 80s looking alarm panel in another room. Should I get a professional involved or just unscrew it and unplug it? I'm worried the alarm system will start freaking out. I'd just unplug it if you're not using it. Check the panel for lights before and after, when I unhooked the two transformers I found (in an outlet the installers added onto some circuit and put up into the joists in the basement with no labels), I just checked what turned off. On the system here I traced one cable to power for a motion sensor that had been on for who knows how long and one to the front hallway alarm panel which had a couple of LEDs on before I unplugged it and no LEDs on afterwards. Other things run with weird old transformers would be stuff like the door bell, although I haven't messed with mine at all. There's kits to replace a lot of the guts of old systems that mostly just re-use the sensors but I haven't looked too deeply into that because I've got cameras set up now.
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Jun 5, 2019 09:06
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GoGoGadgetChris posted:
This is one of those "tap into to water line by poking a hole in it" fixtures that the guys on This Old House always say are terrible and you should have replaced. So I'd probably say yes, have it replaced.
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Jun 5, 2019 10:53
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 Got a leaky faucet. I think the valve is cracked. The faucet seems kinda stuck. Is the best way to remove it to get two wrenches and twist in opposite directions?
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Jun 5, 2019 11:39
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Steve Yun posted:
PB Blaster bath + letting it sit for a day and then wrenching it should pull it right off.
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Jun 5, 2019 13:27
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GoGoGadgetChris posted:
Jfc - so close to doing it right, yet they didn't. Yes, get rid of the saddle valve. They can solder on the correct one right there.
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Jun 5, 2019 13:54
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StormDrain posted:Just picked up a new bottle and it cleaned the nasty grease buildup on the microwave hood in one pass. 10/10 thanks for the recommendation.
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Jun 5, 2019 15:06
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Motronic posted:Jfc - so close to doing it right, yet they didn't. I'm seriously kind of impressed at this. I just bought a new one to rob for parts to fix one leaking from the valve and it's the same cost as a quarter turn valve. . Must have been roughed in but the house didn't have a fridge with water so they just left it unfinished until the fridge was replaced and they added that to the stub. GGGC if you are calling a plumber spend the extra dough and have an icemaker box put in the wall with a hammer arrestor. You'll get the fridge closer to the wall without any banging when the valve shuts.
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Jun 5, 2019 15:16
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GoGoGadgetChris posted:The house does have an extremely 80s looking alarm panel in another room. Should I get a professional involved or just unscrew it and unplug it? I'm worried the alarm system will start freaking out. Your alarm panel may/will have a battery inside it. Pull the battery then pull that transformer. If the siren goes off plug your ears and check the panel for power. It could technically also be a doorbell or something but unlikely. Recycle the battery at any place that accepts lead acid batteries. In California that is any place which sells them, I don't know how Oregonian's handle it. Might take a moment of convincing at the counter, but "I don't want a core refund can you just toss it in the stack to be recycled" has worked for me every time.
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Jun 5, 2019 16:41
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StormDrain posted:
This seems like a good plan. They'll probably have to open the wall up, right? The area for the fridge is 37.5 wide, 70.5 high, and the counter is 25 inches deep from the wall. Very shallow. I'll need a counter depth fridge that's what, at least 27 inches deep excluding doors, so they can open? Will a 36 x 69 (nice) fridge fit in the 37.5 by 70.5 space or is it important to have more room than that?
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Jun 5, 2019 18:45
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The box will require opening the wall since it's sunk in there. It's possible they would have to open the wall to remove that nipple anyway. It's also possible they could mount the box there after opening the wall so you won't be left with any damage to repair.
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Jun 5, 2019 18:58
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Get a regular depth fridge. I don't understand why anyone gets a shallow one if they don't have to, and it doesn't look like you have to from that picture. Fridges deeper than he counter are very common in American kitchens. A 36x69 should fit, plus you're open on one side, so there's no risk of the door not working.
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Jun 5, 2019 19:05
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I probably bought way too much fridge when i got mine, it is very large.
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Jun 5, 2019 20:34
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100 HOGS AGREE posted:I probably bought way too much fridge when i got mine, it is very large. Things that can never be too large: bank account balance, sheds, garages, basements, and refrigerators.
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Jun 6, 2019 01:41
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opengl128 posted:I know this is probably somewhat location specific, but can anyone give me an idea if this is reasonable for some driveway work? opengl128 posted:Just took some better pics. The plot thickens. I had two more guys out. They both noticed something the first guy overlooked, which is this is a thin asphalt layer on top of the original concrete driveway (you can see this in 2 of the close ups of the damage up from here.. The first $4100ish estimate seems to assume its a full asphalt driveway with proper stone under it, that they would touch up as needed and smooth/grade before putting down new asphalt. But no, its a concrete pad. One of the guys estimated $7200 for a full demo of the drive, break up and haul away all asphalt, concrete, and excavate to get down to the right level to lay/compact 6 inches of stone before laying 2+2 of asphalt. The other guy seems to think a less drastic approach is possible, where he's repair the cracks in the existing top coat, dig/stone/asphalt the new expanded area, and give the whole driveway a fresh seal coat to blend it all together. He's also separately gonna quote me for a full replacement. Assuming full replacement is going to be floating around that $7000 area, I'm tempted go with the select repair/patch/epand/top coat option. Option D is the other idea someone had, just dig up the plants and fill in with pavers or bricks. Still considering that. opengl fucked around with this message at 13:18 on Jun 6, 2019 |
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Jun 6, 2019 06:01
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opengl128 posted:The plot thickens. I had two more guys out. They both noticed something the first guy overlooked, which is this is a thin asphalt layer on top of the original concrete driveway (you can see this in 2 of the close ups of the damage up from here.. I saw that originally, and thought it must surely just be a botched repair job since you had someone out there actually looking at it and discounted it as such. Looks like the existing driveway is WIDER than the pad and that's showing in the sections where it's sunken on the sides (no prep "pancake" that I mentioned earlier). I'd definitely go with removing the asphalt up to the pad, dig + properly prep with stone in those areas and the expanded sections, base coat to existing driveway level, then top coat. (other guy less drastic plan). I mean, I don't see a lost of shifting in the middle, so the concrete pad is probably fine. And probably better than fresh stone.
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Jun 6, 2019 16:11
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So we've hit our first major snag as first-time Said utility room holds a gas furnace (old but functioning), a gas water heater and the washer/dryer connections. It's a roughly 8'x10' space connected to the small awkward bedroom by a fully sealed door, and the venting/positioning in it is hilariously not up to code. The guy Home Depot sent out as part of their water heater install package told us that our options are lovely if we want to bring the space back up to code. One, we get someone out to break through the concrete wall and install either a direct vent or a power vent to the outside (expensive, and actually impossible wrt the second option, as a power vent can't be next to the tiny window that is in the room). Two, we change to an electric water heater and hire an electrician to route enough power down to the utility room. Adds around $800-$1000 on top of the water heater install cost. The other option is to do what the last owners may have done, and buy a gas heater and have someone install it in the same place as the current one without pulling a permit. I'm leery of doing this partly because of the insurance implications, and partly because the small room isn't the only problem with the positioning of the heater. There's sewer pipes and furnace venting between the heater and the wall, so the current tank isn't properly strapped to the wall, and where we are has earthquake risk so we need that taken care of. We don't know how much money is sensible to put into fixing this. Does anyone have experience puzzling through poo poo like this? We're in the Seattle area, and the house is just moderately old for the area (1942), and is in otherwise good condition. Old owners already decommissioned the knob and tube and did a plumbing overhaul, as far as we can tell.
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Jun 6, 2019 16:30
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Did your inspector not catch this? Also, has anyone mentioned a tankless heater? They have low temp exhaust that can be vented with PVC. Depending on the layout this easier exhaust routing may be cheaper overall, even though there will be a bunch of other things that need doing for the tankless conversion.
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Jun 6, 2019 16:39
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Motronic posted:Looks like the existing driveway is WIDER than the pad and that's showing in the sections where it's sunken on the sides (no prep "pancake" that I mentioned earlier). That's exactly what's going on. No idea how the first guy missed that. Majority of the driveway is over the original concrete pad, and other than those two broken away areas is in largely good shape. Just a few minor cracks from what I assume is movement of the pad at expansion joints. The sunken in part is where they laid extra asphalt right on top of the dirt. Appreciate the input. Still waiting for a couple more estimates and opinions. But digging up the whole thing for $7k ain't gonna happen. The second guy seemed convinced he'd be able to dig for the new expansion, repair the holes and sealcoat the lot to match without tearing up the existing asphalt. Gonna get some more opinions on that one.
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Jun 6, 2019 16:44
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opengl128 posted:Just a few minor cracks from what I assume is movement of the pad at expansion joints. And that may be a problem that continues to happen, but if you keep on top of crack filling and sealing the new driveway it's going to be fine. If you let the cracks go over a winter (assuming you live somewhere that is freezes based on that cracking) then yeah, it will look like that again. It should be pretty minor periodic maintenance if it occurs.
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Jun 6, 2019 16:47
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opengl128 posted:The other guy seems to think a less drastic approach is possible, where he's repair the cracks in the existing top coat, dig/stone/asphalt the new expanded area, and give the whole driveway a fresh seal coat to blend it all together. I'm not an expert here as I've only seen a few asphalt jobs as a bystander like my work's parking lot or neighborhood streets. All the jobs claimed they would blend with old work and smooth everything out but I think it depends on the prep work. I think seal coat is almost as thin as paint and will show all blemishes. For my work's lot, they filled cracks with tar and did a top seal and it looks like they just painted everything black. The tar strips make it look very ugly. The streets look smooth because they dug down and rebuilt the surface. If your guy is just going to add a new pad next to old and seal everything at once, I'd save the money and build a pad from bricks or pavers as I'd think they'd have the same curb appeal.
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Jun 6, 2019 19:26
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Motronic posted:Did your inspector not catch this? No, our inspector mentioned nothing about the tank + furnace configuration not being up to code. He called out the vent piping being a T-connector and the tank being old & needing replacement, and didn't do more than a cursory look at the furnace since the gas valve for it was leaking at the time. The gas company came out and fixed the valve and replaced the T-connector before the sale went through. They mentioned air intake issues on their report and recommended we get spring hinges on the door between the utility room & tiny bedroom. Re tankless, we hadn't even considered that since it's way more expensive than just sticking in a new heater. Now that a new heater is looking to require more work, we will definitely look into tankless as well.
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Jun 6, 2019 20:42
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GoGoGadgetChris posted:
StormDrain posted:
 Ta da! Also ongoing,  I agreed to pay a painter a specific hourly rate for 3 people. They sent two, arrived an hour late, left an hour early, and took an hour lunch. They're extremely fired
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Jun 8, 2019 00:19
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God drat you took to that suggestion like an overpriced luxury compact sportscar. Looks sharp. Should have put a hammer arrestor on it but it is still much nicer and added value.
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Jun 8, 2019 01:35
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Ugh, wallpaper. Good luck to you
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Jun 8, 2019 03:43
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QuarkJets posted:Ugh, wallpaper. Good luck to you Seriously. It's a bitch. They didn't prime the wall and just glued the wallpaper (two layers) directly to the drywall. My painter says he can scrap the removal and just oil prime over it and texture to make it invisible. Anyone had experience with that? If it works, that would prevent me from having to repair all the drywall!
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Jun 8, 2019 17:50
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For what it would cost to pay people to remove all that wallpaper, you could probably just tear out all the drywall yourself replace it and pay someone to come do the tape/mud.
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Jun 10, 2019 14:08
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Covering up wallpaper with heavily textured paint ain’t exactly the brightest move
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Jun 10, 2019 14:34
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Fallom posted:Covering up wallpaper with heavily textured paint ain’t exactly the brightest move And yet I'm pretty sure that's what my PO did in the bedrooms
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Jun 10, 2019 15:11
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Did I already say just put new wallpaper on top? It looks nice.
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Jun 10, 2019 16:28
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Buy a steamer and one of those scoring tools and remove it yourself? Sure it's not the most fun thing to do but, it's just wallpaper...
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Jun 10, 2019 16:31
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It's two layers directly applied to the drywall, so just removing the wallpaper from 3 bedrooms is expected to cost about $7,000, and then I need to do a mix of new drywall and drywall repair. Wallpaper removal in three bedrooms and a freshly painted entire interior of a 2,900 SF house is going to cost me about $20,000, yowch
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Jun 10, 2019 19:48
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