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Dazerbeams posted:My house came with a satellite dish that has remained unused for the past few years and will continue to be so for the foreseeable future. Should I bother removing it or just leave it be? I was going to do this but then I saw how encased in sealant the bolts were and decided I didn't want to ruin my roof - I'll have ours taken down in 10 years when we need a new roof
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Oct 3, 2019 12:59
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On the topic of roofs, we have a fairly standard bungalow style house, about 2400 sq ft. We'll likely have to replace our roof in the next few years. How much should we be budgeting? $20-30kish?
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Oct 3, 2019 13:56
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Dazerbeams posted:My house came with a satellite dish that has remained unused for the past few years and will continue to be so for the foreseeable future. Should I bother removing it or just leave it be?
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Oct 3, 2019 15:42
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Residency Evil posted:On the topic of roofs, we have a fairly standard bungalow style house, about 2400 sq ft. We'll likely have to replace our roof in the next few years. How much should we be budgeting? $20-30kish? The pro move is wait until a hail storm and replace it for the cost of your deductible. Otherwise, it's hugely dependent on area. My parents paid something like $15k over 10 years ago in Vermont, but only paid $8k in South Carolina 3 years ago, and it's not half the size.
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Oct 3, 2019 16:01
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check your insurance, some do full coverage for a new roof, others do diminished value coverage based on the age of the roof but my parents and their neighbors both just got brand new roofs for $1k each that way so yeah definitely think about that option
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Oct 3, 2019 16:10
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You guys are just joking right?  This isn't a legit thing?
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Oct 3, 2019 16:11
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Residency Evil posted:You guys are just joking right? I've got a roofing company coming tomorrow, my neighborhood has like eight new roofs going up this month. I'm off exit 31 on 476. Apparently an area near us REALLY got hit. Also, the shingles in our area were recalled, so most insurance companies authorize a whole new roof rather than patchworking it.
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Oct 3, 2019 16:17
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Residency Evil posted:You guys are just joking right? My parents and friends both just got new roofs for $1k each, deductible I checked my policy and we have the depreciated value thing so I'll probably be changing policies soon.
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Oct 3, 2019 16:25
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What's the trick to that whole insurance roof replacement thing? I've heard all sorts of horror stories about out of town roofers doing poo poo jobs and then ducking out after insurance denies the claim. I'm also terrified of my rates being jacked up due to making a claim for the roof. Our subdivision is 20 years old, and our house has the original roof, and every goddamn neighbor has replaced theirs in the last 2 years, which makes me think we're missing out. We don't have any leaks yet, but I know the day is coming. After every drat storm we get a pile of roofers coming through knocking on doors. Haven't had anything recent enough to even attempt a claim, but we're budgeting about $12k in the next few years for this... some of the numbers you guys are throwing out are making me think we ought to go the insurance route.
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Oct 3, 2019 16:36
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Residency Evil posted:You guys are just joking right? Oh it's 100% a thing and all the fraud that goes with it. You will likely have someone come to your door to offer it to you after a big storm.
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Oct 3, 2019 16:37
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There are tons of shady fly by night roofing companies that do terrible work. I guess check with your neighbors?
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Oct 4, 2019 01:30
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Dazerbeams posted:My house came with a satellite dish that has remained unused for the past few years and will continue to be so for the foreseeable future. Should I bother removing it or just leave it be? You can take the dish part off the mounting bracket. Hucking it off the roof is a lot of fun I didn't bother removing the bracket because I would've had to fill the penetrations
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Oct 4, 2019 01:50
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Yeah I hate how they look and I'd pull all but the mounting bracket. I think it'll just leave a short base.
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Oct 4, 2019 02:28
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StormDrain posted:Yeah I hate how they look and I'd pull all but the mounting bracket. I think it'll just leave a short base. If you ever “cut the cord” you can use the base to hold an antenna and reuse the coax.
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Oct 4, 2019 02:36
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howdoesishotweb posted:Mine reverses at the bottom randomly despite numerous adjustments. At 26 years old, gently caress it I’m replacing it with something quieter. Disconnect it from the opener and try to operate the door manually. So many "garage door opener" problems like this are actually just garage door problems.
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Oct 5, 2019 00:56
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I'm looking to switch from an electric range to a gas range. Since it's already wired 220v, I could just as easily get a dual fuel unit. But they are so expensive, and not a lot of selection, although it seems like the ones out there are pretty high quality. Should I buy a very nice gas range or a lower tier dual fuel? Ive never had a gas oven so I have no idea what the difference is like in cooking with them. It's either like a $1600 gas or $2000 dual.
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Oct 5, 2019 20:08
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Do you bake a lot? Like cakes, cookies, especially? If so you probably want a dual fuel. Gas ovens heat up real fast but most I've used have hot/cold spots and tend to have pretty wildly varying temperatures. If your use case is throwing the occasional hunk of meat in there whatever.
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Oct 5, 2019 20:13
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Mostly homemade pizza. I've been surprised with how quickly this electric oven I have now heats up so I'm on board with the dual models. I usually make cakes and cookies around the holidays but it's not often. I already spend a lot on tools that I use intermittently so why not spring the extra few hundred on a stove right?
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Oct 5, 2019 20:17
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I think I've read electric ovens are slightly more efficient in that there is moisture generated when you burn natural gas but I personally would not buy one. More expensive and more things to go wrong and I'm not a prolific baker. Plus I prefer to broil with gas. Warm/cold spots in ovens are an issue no matter what type of fuel you're using, buy something with a convection function/fan if that is a concern (but this is standard in most of them these days). Sirotan fucked around with this message at 20:20 on Oct 5, 2019 |
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Oct 5, 2019 20:17
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Sirotan posted:I think I've read electric ovens are slightly more efficient in that there is moisture generated when you burn natural gas but I personally would not buy one. More expensive and more things to go wrong and I'm not a prolific baker. Plus I prefer to broil with gas. You also lose a ton of heat out of the top of a gas oven because they have to vent exhaust gas. This means that your house heats up a lot more and you will occasionally burn yourself on something you left on the back of the stove. Electrics can seal all of that up much more. Gas is likely cheaper to operate as well. We have no problem baking in our gas as long as convection is on. When we buy a new one I doubt we will upgrade and my wife is a prolific baker.
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Oct 5, 2019 20:51
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Stupid question of the day - I have a number of trees in my yard and the branches have grown out of control. Is there anything I should be aware of, or can I just trim away and cut off some branches close to the ground?
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Oct 5, 2019 23:40
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Yesterday I found myself conscripted into the anti-armadillo army after suffering a devastating first strike on my lawn. Hopefully we can win this hellwar during my lifetime.
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Oct 6, 2019 22:37
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I hope the armadillos win and poo poo all over your dumb face, armadillos rule
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Oct 7, 2019 00:15
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Armadillos can poo poo anywhere they want as long as they aren’t digging up my yard, thems the breaks
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Oct 7, 2019 00:55
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QuarkJets posted:I hope the armadillos win and poo poo all over your dumb face, armadillos rule 
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Oct 7, 2019 13:42
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Armadillos are the only animal that carry leprosy and can transmit it to humans, so watch out that war could get nasty.
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Oct 7, 2019 14:05
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Update: I retract my initial hostility to armadillos after new scatological evidence was discovered at the scene of a second attack. Suspicion is now shifted to skunks or raccoons as the perpetrators.
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Oct 8, 2019 15:24
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that's different, raccoons can get hosed forever and I can give you some suggestions on traps that making turning them into rugs much easier.
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Oct 10, 2019 13:13
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Medullah posted:Stupid question of the day - I have a number of trees in my yard and the branches have grown out of control. Is there anything I should be aware of, or can I just trim away and cut off some branches close to the ground? Chop away! Just don't let it take revenge and slap you down like an ant, limbs can be loving heavy
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Oct 10, 2019 23:34
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Winter is the best time to prune trees because that's when trees are dormant so you'll inflict the leaat amount of damage to them. Late fall is also a good time to do it, just don't wait until spring.
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Oct 10, 2019 23:43
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Sirotan posted:Winter is the best time to prune trees because that's when trees are dormant so you'll inflict the leaat amount of damage to them. Late fall is also a good time to do it, just don't wait until spring. This is pretty much not universally accepted advice at all. It makes sense in some areas with very heavy summer pest/disease issues, but pruning basically signals a plant to grow. This means bringing sap up, etc. Not something you want happening in a lot of climates in the winter time. I don't think there is a universally accepted answer here, but more generally accepted ones per region/climate. And the type of tree bring pruned matters - some are more likely to have issues with either winter pruning or getting diseased from summer pruning. In general, if it's a big healthy tree you can just send it whenever.
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Oct 10, 2019 23:57
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So I've encountered an issue under my home and I'm curious what the order of operations should be here. This week we finally had a termite company come by and treat the whole house for termites. This included work under the house in the crawlspace where they treated the soil and foundation. This made the crawlspace smell kind of nasty, and a day later I was able to smell that odor in in a couple of my HVAC vents. I had a suspicion, so I opened up the crawlspace and was able quite easily locate a hole in the flexible ducting of our HVAC under the house. I should mention at this point that ALL of the HVAC ducting is flexible, which is a turd sandwich left behind by the previous owners. The hole is almost certainly chewed by a rodent, and I'm smelling the crawlspace because air is getting into the ductwork when it's not pressurized when the HVAC system is off. So I clearly have several issues here. The presence of rodents in my crawlspace, at least one hole in my ductwork, and a nasty smell in some rooms of my house because of the previous two issues. So who should I be calling to fix this? My initial thought is a rodent removal and proofing company, but I also might want call an AC company. This is obviously an issue that has happened before, because I can see loving duct tape on parts of the ductwork, which makes me think that those are other holes. Should I just get all this flexible ducting torn out and replaced with metal ducting?
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Oct 11, 2019 19:40
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*flex seal GIF* But seriously duct tape is probably a good solution for the time being. Take care of the rodent issue before trying to fix their damage. Figure out where or how they're getting into your crawlspace, and seal it up. Set a bunch of traps to kill any you can. If you swap out the ductwork first, they could tear or eat into the insulation and you'd still have problems.
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Oct 11, 2019 20:01
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Anonymous Zebra posted:So I've encountered an issue under my home and I'm curious what the order of operations should be here. Call the termite company and ask them how toxic to humans that stuff is, and if the smell is the poison in your house. I'm no exterminator but that's my first concern. How much PPE did the person wear treating your house?
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Oct 11, 2019 20:23
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H110Hawk posted:Call the termite company and ask them how toxic to humans that stuff is, and if the smell is the poison in your house. I'm no exterminator but that's my first concern. How much PPE did the person wear treating your house? I know what chemicals they used, and they are not toxic to humans or pets, they just have an odor that takes awhile to dissipate. The crawlspace will just take longer to dissipate because there is little airflow.
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Oct 11, 2019 21:46
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SpartanIvy posted:*flex seal GIF* I'd agree with this. Get a temporary patch on the hole right away, then deal with the rodents, then figure out a more permanent solution to the ductwork. The thing about rodents is that once they have a way into your ductwork, they can use that as ingress to your house, with all of the problems and risks that come with them.
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Oct 11, 2019 23:34
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So would I call my AC company to patch the ducts or is that something a rodent proofing company would do? I can probably duct tape the one hole I can see, but there are potentially more holes and our crawlspace is an absolute labyrinth that I am not capable of going into myself. Unfortunately, the way the previous owners had the ductwork installed, essentially subdivided the crawlspace up, so there are actually six entrances into it around the house, all of which need to be used to access all locations...This is why I'm not just grabbing some tape and doing it myself.
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Oct 12, 2019 00:28
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Anonymous Zebra posted:So would I call my AC company to patch the ducts or is that something a rodent proofing company would do? I can probably duct tape the one hole I can see, but there are potentially more holes and our crawlspace is an absolute labyrinth that I am not capable of going into myself. I am no expert on ductwork, so grain of salt and all that, but I'd start by getting someone to scope the ductwork, since what you emphatically wouldn't want is to put a patch on and then discover that you've sealed a nest of hungry rats (or some dead ones) inside your ducts  You could explain your concern to them, and depending on what their cameras show you, you'll know which step comes next.
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Oct 12, 2019 01:32
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I'm becoming more and more upset dealing with contractors and in trying to keep my home in working order, and I just need to vent. Please feel free to ignore this post if you don't want to see a random goon bitching. I read this thread, the crappy construction thread, and read a number of the books that have been recommended across these threads. I'm trying to make sure that I have enough information to know what is wrong, and can at least recognize the vocabulary of different home maintenance topics. But I know that I'm not qualified to do most work on my home, and I don't particularly want to do a lovely job taking the cheap route either DIY shoddy work, or hiring unlicensed guys out of the Home Depot parking lot. I've made every attempt to hire licensed & bonded contractors whose license fits the job and whose companies are well established and seemingly reputable. For every job I've researched many companies, called a subset, compared quotes, researched what they suggested, and resisted going for the cheapest quote unless I felt they were offering a comparable service to the more expensive quotes. I've basically tried my best to not have lovely work done in my home, but it's all just completely pointless because I always discover a new way each company or contractor hosed things up along the way. I started by getting my old roof replaced. Prices were all over the place but I picked an established company that offered a guarantee through the roofing material maker (GAF), so even if their company went tits up GAF would still pay for defects in how it was installed. I guess they did a good job, who really knows...except when I had the gas company come by to check for a natural gas leak we discovered that they had basically moved the carbon monoxide vent tubes off the water heater and CO was just building up in the water heater closest and kind of just going...somewhere? Had to turn off the water heater and emergency call a plumber to reset the vent tube and relight the pilot. The roofing company suggested an insulation company to remove our ancient, badly laid blown-in insulation with new bats. We were doing this because we intended to install a whole house fan and blown insulation apparently gets...blown around when there is a giant fan in the attic. That company, again, appeared reputable and did the job at the same time the roofers were working. Everything seemed fine, but apparently they never bothered rodent proofing the attic so now all of that insulation is covered in rat urine and likely needs to be ripped out. The also apparently overcharged us severely for the quality and amount of insulation that they ended up using... My loving shower pan was leaking into the subfloor and we needed to demo the shower (I posted about this in this thread awhile back). Since the shower is getting torn up, we figure why not remodel the whole bathroom since it's not that large anyway. I spent months calling places until I settle on a General Contractor who does bathroom remodels. His company seems legit, his quote was in the middle of the range, he got along really well with my wife and I. I figure we're good...It takes him 4 weeks to finish the remodel. Two days of demo, less than a day to replace the old water and termite damaged subfloor boards (I never even saw this happen because it was done so fast), and maybe 4 days to lay out the material the shower and floor tiles will be attached to. Then 3 whole weeks to tile the floor and shower. I've asked around, and this amount of time seems insane. The bathroom we remodeled is tiny. It has a toilet and a shower. The end product looks shoddy as hell and I sometimes shake my head looking at my shower because someone is going to think it's DIY in however many years it takes me to sell this place. The termite guys come to inspect my place. They find the bathroom remodelers just left stuff in the crawlspace under the bathroom. Just boxes, and drink bottles and other junk....As far as I know the termite guys did a good job. We'll see if any gently caress-ups on their part become apparent over the coming months. So now we're at present day. There is at least one hole in my AC ducting. I know there is a rodent in there. A guy visits my home today. He is a licensed GC from an insulation and rodent-proofing company. His company is very new (no Yelp/Angies List/HomeAdvisor reviews), but I figure why not just a free inspection while I'm home on Sunday anyway. At minimum I should get some idea of what needs to be done. He shows up and doesn't go under the house. He just looks through the entrances to the crawlspace. Am I crazy here, or shouldn't a crawlspace and attic company be willing to go under the house to inspect? Anyway, he really wants to go into the attic (even though that's not my priority). He goes up there, takes lots of video and pictures. Basically shows that a lot of my new insulation is rodent-piss soaked and says it needs to go. Also shows that the only rodent proofing up there was somebody jamming a blind (like a literal window blind) into cracks to the outside wall and so rodents have been able to go in and out without any hindrance. For the crawlspace he suggests completely closing it off (WTF?) including closing all vents and entrances and surrounding the whole crawlspace with a vapor barrier (in SoCal?) and install floor insulation. Tells me that whole house fans are bad (wrong!) and that I should be making sure no air is going into my crawlspace or attic. So this guy is nuts right? All of my piping, sewer, and HVAC ductwork is under the house. Conduit to outside electrical sockets are under the house. Why would anyone literally seal up their crawlspace?! A whole house fan is great in SoCal when it cools off at night and I can cool my attic down from 120F back down to 75 and cool my house as well. My 1940's house doesn't have wall insulation and still has single-pane windows, so it's not like closing off my crawlspace and attic is going to do poo poo about temperature controlling my house. Meanwhile, all I wanted was a guy to count how many freaking holes there were in my ductwork and tell me how to fix that and rodent proof the drat house! Okay, done venting. I'm the designated contractor-searcher in my house, so all of this poo poo has been on me, but it seems like no matter how hard I prep, absolutely no contractor is trust-worthy.
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Oct 14, 2019 08:15
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Ugh, good morning, fridge is broken.
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Oct 14, 2019 10:57
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