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Those floors look amazing and you're a champ.
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Nov 12, 2019 21:45
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Sirotan posted:sexy floors That looks amazing dude. I was considering refinishing the floors at my place myself but ultimately let a contractor do it. Didn't seem all that difficult honestly, the hardest parts seem to be keeping the sanding and poly level. That true?
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Nov 12, 2019 21:56
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totalnewbie posted:Those floors look amazing and you're a champ. Thanks!! Lil Peeler posted:That looks amazing dude. I was considering refinishing the floors at my place myself but ultimately let a contractor do it. Didn't seem all that difficult honestly, the hardest parts seem to be keeping the sanding and poly level. That true? Thank you. You may want to click the ole ? and read back on my handful of posts in this thread, because I've documented a lot of my saga. It was a lot of work, at every single stage. Sanding was the most difficult and time consuming part of the entire process. I went in thinking the drum sander was the scariest part of the whole job but that was relatively easy to use and I mastered it quickly, compared to the edge sander which was hard to control and meant hours and hours bending over and working on your knees. Putting down the poly was quick and easy but I should have thinned it out slightly to ensure it went on thinner and did not trap bubbles in it before it dried. My total costs came out to a bit over $800 for 700sqft of floor. I have definitely learned a lot from my mistakes but I'm not sure I would want to do this again. The house is a fixer upper and saving money on the floors is great because it means I can complete other projects but it took me 3 weeks and sucked every step of the way. I can't imagine how miserable it would have been had the house been occupied.
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Nov 12, 2019 22:28
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Sirotan posted:I have definitely learned a lot from my mistakes but I'm not sure I would want to do this again. Let me know if you ever change your mind :P Regarding the poly: did you see any instructions online that said to thin it? And how many layers of what did you end up putting down total, in the end? I think I can figure it out going back through your posts but you started over in some places, didn't you? totalnewbie fucked around with this message at 00:44 on Nov 13, 2019 |
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Nov 12, 2019 22:36
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Sirotan posted:Here is my last update on flooring: they turned out good! 
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Nov 12, 2019 22:47
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Your floors look great but your description of the process has 100% convinced me to pay someone else to do mine when the time comes. So... thanks? and congrats on your nice looking job!
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Nov 12, 2019 23:44
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totalnewbie posted:Let me know if you ever change your mind. I used this: https://www.rustoleum.com/product-catalog/consumer-brands/varathane/premium-floor-finish and the can specially says not to thin it. However, I read plenty of general advice that said starting with a thin coat was best and not to overwork the poly. I intended on three coats total but the third coat went on really thick and was difficult to work. Three days later I came back to the house and found it turned out like poo poo. I did a lot of reading to figure out how to fix my gently caress up but I think it's this dude's video that got me on the right path: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCMeTnA_bq4 (I don't know that his idea of putting a coat of water-based poly on top of oil-based is a good idea but the water-based is more viscous.) Ultimately, there are four coats of oil-based after I sanded and reapplied in two stages. That Works posted:Your floors look great but your description of the process has 100% convinced me to pay someone else to do mine when the time comes. Obviously this project is totally doable since I had never done it before and in the end it did turn out great. But it sucks a lot and is logistically difficult/impossible if you are living there at the time. Not to mention the fumes from the urethane are extremely harsh and even with a respirator it was burning my eyes, I would not stay overnight in a home where this poo poo is curing. If you have a single room to refinish then mayyyybbbeeeee go for it?? A whole house though just save up the $$$ and hire pros.
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Nov 13, 2019 00:50
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Elder Postsman posted:Tomorrow I'm starting on a bathroom update. Replacing the floor and sink + vanity. Our bathroom is laid out approximately like this Got the toilet, sink + cabinet, and old flooring all out today. A pox upon the previous owners who decided on those awful stick-on floor tiles. One potential issue with installing the new floor is that there's a bit of a low spot behind the toilet. Is there a way to deal with it that isn't self-leveling compound? Do I need to deal with it?
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Nov 13, 2019 01:35
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Elder Postsman posted:Got the toilet, sink + cabinet, and old flooring all out today. A pox upon the previous owners who decided on those awful stick-on floor tiles. I guess if you dont do anything it will keep any spillage contained...
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Nov 13, 2019 04:01
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knox_harrington posted:Feeling very chastened about my screw based knowledge rn. I will buy a torx screwdriver when the shops can manage to be open. SCREW UPDATE I bought new screwdrivers and came up to the house. On arrival it turns out I've left both the screws and screwdrivers back in the city. FML. I've now bought more pozidrive screws. Additional screw question: do I need to use any specific type for the outdoor lights? Stainless or anything? I'm quite keen to get them up. The light fittings will just attached to the wood siding.
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Nov 13, 2019 16:33
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knox_harrington posted:SCREW UPDATE I bought new screwdrivers and came up to the house. On arrival it turns out I've left both the screws and screwdrivers back in the city. FML. I've now bought more pozidrive screws. lol. You screwed yourself. knox_harrington posted:Additional screw question: do I need to use any specific type for the outdoor lights? Stainless or anything? I'm quite keen to get them up. The light fittings will just attached to the wood siding. You could use stainless steel, but you can also get zinc plated / galvanised, whichever's cheapest.
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Nov 13, 2019 17:01
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Paid the privilege to have someone tell me “hes’s dead, Jim” for my washing machine. It came with the house, so I’m not too broken up about it. There’s a speed queen dealer relatively close by, I’m just trying to convince the wife.
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Nov 14, 2019 12:32
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devmd01 posted:There’s a speed queen dealer relatively close by, I’m just trying to convince the wife. That's great and all but what's it got to do with the washing machine
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Nov 14, 2019 14:43
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The Wonder Weapon posted:That's great and all but what's it got to do with the washing machine And why's he trying to convince the dishwasher?
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Nov 14, 2019 14:50
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devmd01 posted:Paid the privilege to have someone tell me “hes’s dead, Jim” for my washing machine. It came with the house, so I’m not too broken up about it. There’s a speed queen dealer relatively close by, I’m just trying to convince the wife. The newest models in CR testing are only excellent in projected longevity, but have poor actual performance (except the low-end TC5, which only has a 3 year warranty).
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Nov 14, 2019 14:55
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knox_harrington posted:SCREW UPDATE I bought new screwdrivers and came up to the house. On arrival it turns out I've left both the screws and screwdrivers back in the city. FML. I've now bought more pozidrive screws. I used to make fiun of my dad for having reading glasses in every room of the house, now I'm doing the same thing with tape measures.
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Nov 14, 2019 14:56
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The Wonder Weapon posted:That's great and all but what's it got to do with the washing machine Jaded Burnout posted:And why's he trying to convince the dishwasher? lmao
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Nov 14, 2019 16:01
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Nevets posted:I used to make fiun of my dad for having reading glasses in every room of the house, now I'm doing the same thing with tape measures. Just get a long cloth tape measure and wear it like a bandolier.
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Nov 14, 2019 16:23
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If I'm going to wear a bandoleer I'm going to get a real one and stuff it full of torx bits and allen keys and sockets and snickers.
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Nov 14, 2019 20:46
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Got my floors installed. It was a really easy install, I’m a fan of this luxury vinyl tile stuff now.  Tomorrow: putting down the quarter round and reinstalling the toilet. Maybe picking out a sink finally.
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Nov 15, 2019 00:15
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So I discovered that the reason our big front room heats and cools so unevenly compared to our master bedroom is because some moron unhooked two of the vents and placed flooring over them. How much of a bitch is it gonna be to cut through the floor to the vent boot and then hook the vents back up to the rest of the system?
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Nov 15, 2019 00:34
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tehllama posted:So I discovered that the reason our big front room heats and cools so unevenly compared to our master bedroom is because some moron unhooked two of the vents and placed flooring over them. How much of a bitch is it gonna be to cut through the floor to the vent boot and then hook the vents back up to the rest of the system? That's an entirely unanswerable question. Do you have access to the vents from below? If so, how? (crawl space, basement, basement with some sort of ceiling in it) How were they disconnected? What is the floor made out of?
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Nov 15, 2019 00:35
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Motronic posted:That's an entirely unanswerable question. Yes, I have access to them via the crawlspace. The floor is hardwood. The ducts running to the vent boot was completely removed, the boot was left in place but covered with flooring.
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Nov 15, 2019 00:56
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tehllama posted:Yes, I have access to them via the crawlspace. The floor is hardwood. The ducts running to the vent boot was completely removed, the boot was left in place but covered with flooring. Sounds like a drill, a jigsaw, some flex duct (maybe some collars depending on how it was disconnected) some grates and you'll be able to figure out if it works well enough or not. You'll still need huge zip ties and aluminum tape for the flex duct and other things to hang them in the crawlspace, but you get the idea.
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Nov 15, 2019 01:13
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Well that doesn't sound that bad. Guess I have a weekend project!
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Nov 15, 2019 01:22
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tehllama posted:Well that doesn't sound that bad. Guess I have a weekend project! Try it out. What may be off is your air balance after that, so you'll have to play with any dampers you have on the system or in the grates to make sure all of your rooms are still getting the right amount of air. It can be a precision thing where you bring someone in with an anemometer or you can just dick with it every once in a while for a few days/weeks until it works right.
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Nov 15, 2019 01:44
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Not sure if this is the best thread, but seems reasonably appropriate. I wanted to get a read on a permitting situation on a garage/carport roof repair permitting debacle I've found myself in. I own a house on an upslope lot, built originally in I think the 30s or 40s then expanded in the 60s. There's a detached 1 car garage/carport that's just off the sidewalk, walls on sides and rear are concrete, mostly below grade with maybe 3-4 feet sticking up above a retaining wall at the front. Flat roof. The roof surface was deteriorated, not water tight, and there was some rot in the boards under the surface and in the framing (all totally visible / exposed from inside the garage). No door on it, nor any electricity. I wanted to repair the roof, with an eye towards eventually getting some electricity and a door on it, but was on a budget so just wanted to start with the repair since I knew it was only going to get worse over time. I got a few quotes from local contractors to replace the surface and repair the rot, one eventually came out. I was around when they started the tear off and met with the inspector for the initial permitting, and everything seemed to be in order for what they planned. The following week, when the city inspector (different guy, I think, but I wasn't around) came back after the tear down and when they'd started repairing the boards and framing, told them they needed a framing permit and stopped the work. The contractor tried to get that permit, but was told they needed drawings, and he didn't have anyone to do that, and made some vague references that the city wanted them to drill into the concrete and add some epoxied bolts to the framing and that's not something they'd do either. At this point they pretty much abandoned the job and stopped communicating (longer story but gently caress those guys). I've got someone else working on it now, who thinks they may want engineering done for it (I wouldn't be surprised now, they also wanted engineering done for a decking replacement project I did earlier). He met with the inspector from the city today who said that we'll need to add wiring to it, with lighting, outlets, and a finished door. This is following a pattern of escalating requirements, and pretty frustrating. Does this seem unreasonable or pretty standard to others? I'm really frustrated that this all came up (in multiple stages) after they let work start on the initial project. (If it's really required to have a door and lighting and outlets, how on earth would they have not known that from the get go?) Not only does it seem like an excessive requirement for a repair job, but more annoyingly I don't know why the requirement wasn't laid out from the beginning. If I'd known up front, I would have put it off until I had the budget and time to dedicate to a larger project. Am I crazy/unreasonable here? Is anyone familiar with any relevant code (I'm in CA) that dictates that this work would have to be done for a roof repair/replacement, or that the garage/carport would be required to have power and a door? Is this sort of fluctuating requirements poo poo typical?
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Nov 15, 2019 04:59
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Steve French posted:Not sure if this is the best thread, but seems reasonably appropriate. You need to find pictures of what it looked like before and go have a talk with the city planning department. Tell them how you were trying to do a "remove and replace" to fix the rot, and it seems like every time someone talks to you more requirements have been added and now you can't afford to do it. Emphasize how you hired a licensed contractor who got a permit (where is this permit? What does say, exactly?) and now after the remove portion you're being asked for a bunch of extra stuff. They may well still require it to be engineered, but hopefully this will turn out to be a a case of someone thought your carport was a garage and forcing you to current code for it. You will want to explain how it's a carport, no door, but you might want to add one at a future date, with a future permit, and future savings to do all the other code upgrades.
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Nov 15, 2019 05:14
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knox_harrington posted:Luckily the instruction book for my central heating is 128 pages long (and in French) so I have something to occupy me. I'm slightly regretting that I didn't take up the offer by the estate agent to show me how the heating works.  Snowmageddon forecast for this weekend.
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Nov 15, 2019 09:27
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knox_harrington posted:I'm slightly regretting that I didn't take up the offer by the estate agent to show me how the heating works.  In heating-related news, I finally replaced my water heater's elements last night. The tank was taking FOREVER to drain for some reason, and then I realized I was a stupid moron, with an ugly face, and a big butt, and my butt smells, and I like to kiss my own butt...because I had the hot water outlet CLOSED so the drat thing was pulling a vacuum on itself. Once I opened that it went a little faster, then opened a faucet on full hot and it went even faster, but still not as fast as it should, so I manually opened the pressure relief valve and I heard it suck in a lot of air and it was finally going at a good clip. Though since it's a modern style, I had to hold it open the whole time to keep the flow high, but only for a few minutes until it got below the level of the first element. Then I was able to remove that and the hole it left allowed the tank to finish draining so I could replace the bottom element. I'm not surprised it never felt like enough hot water...in addition to the elements having the amount of crud/corrosion I expected, they were both 3500W/208V (seems like an odd voltage...) when the unit calls for 4500W/240V, which is what I installed. Although my only test so far was a shower this morning, it already seems better. I shower fast, typically ten minutes or so if I''m NOT purposely going fast, and before this morning even by ten minutes I was OUT of hot water. This time I could tell that it hadn't started to cool off at all. The real test will be when my girlfriend visits and takes a longer shower to wash her hair fully, or if one of us takes a bath. No lie, last weekend I took a bath (because I'm a fancy boy) and had to legit top off the tub with a large pot of water I boiled on my stove. Freakin' 19th century living over here. DrBouvenstein fucked around with this message at 18:17 on Nov 15, 2019 |
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Nov 15, 2019 16:19
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Nevets posted:If I'm going to wear a bandoleer I'm going to get a real one and stuff it full of torx bits and allen keys and sockets and snickers. This. Absolutely, this.
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Nov 16, 2019 17:17
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Today I'm finally moving into my new house. Within 5min of the movers being here, they dropped a heavy item directly into the floor and gouged it. The good news: it's not my laboriously refinished floor. The bad news: it's my mom's brand new wood floor. :x I paid for the upgraded insurance coverage so hopefully this will get covered 
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Nov 16, 2019 17:39
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There's a kind of storage unit inside the entrance to my new place made from pine and unfinished. I gave it a coat of something like Danish Oil https://www.remmers.com/de/holzfarb...000000000066803 gently caress me that stuff is toxic. I ended up fitting an exterior light to escape the fumes (it's - 5C today, not enjoyable doing electrical stuff). Looks great though.  How many coats do I need to do? Sand down in between?
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Nov 16, 2019 20:22
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Hey floorchat, does anyone had any suggestions for a good brand/line of floor poly? I’m not particular between oil and water base and this is for two bedrooms and a hallway. I’m doing a sand and coat of the existing floor to keep the existing patina.
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Nov 17, 2019 17:14
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Don't make the mistake I did with my satin floor poly where I forgot to stir/shake the jug before applying it and now two rooms in my house have glossy floors and the rest of the house has satin floors. Edit: autocorrect MetaJew fucked around with this message at 23:49 on Nov 17, 2019 |
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Nov 17, 2019 21:13
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MetaJew posted:Don't make the mistake I did with my satin floor poly where I forgot to stir/shake the jug before applying it and now two rooms in my house have glossy floors and the rest of the house has saying floors. Oh no. You only want that in the rooms you're sat in.
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Nov 17, 2019 21:23
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MetaJew posted:Don't make the mistake I did with my satin floor poly where I forgot to stir/shake the jug before applying it and now two rooms in my house have glossy floors and the rest of the house has saying floors. I hate talking floors. It makes hiding the bodies so much harder.
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Nov 17, 2019 22:10
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I'm going through and trying to winterize my old windows. I stepped outside to look at recaulking the exterior, and I can't seem to find where they actually have caulking applied. There's a thin line at the bottom of the window frame, but there doesn't appear to be anything on the rest of the edges. Here's a photo of where the window frame is fitted into the vinyl siding. The horizontal siding is tucked behind that vertical trim, and there's nothing else going on in that crack. If I pull at the siding a little I can see the insulation behind the siding. Are the gaps where the horizontal siding meets the vertical tab supposed to be sealed? 
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Nov 18, 2019 00:30
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Vinyl siding is designed to drip through and shed water itself when properly installed. The gap from the siding to the j-channel is for expansion. If you caulk that, it’ll buckle up in the sun. Your house probably had wood siding originally, then was wrapped in 1/8”ish fan-fold foam sheet insulation, then the vinyl siding was nailed to that. The fan-fold is closed cell foam that doesn’t care about getting wet. If water blows past, it should migrate down and out weep holes. If there were any gaping holes in the wood siding before, hopefully the installers patched them up because “after vinyl siding” isn’t really an option for external air sealing.
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Nov 18, 2019 00:42
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eddiewalker posted:Vinyl siding is designed to drip through and shed water itself when properly installed. Ok, so I should not be applying caulking to that gap. Good to know. Thanks.
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Nov 18, 2019 01:11
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