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Bioshuffle posted:That makes sense. Will the extra 1 peak horsepower play a factor at all? If it's peak horsepower, it means it shouldn't matter too much, right? I wouldn't mind the additional dimensions if it meant more suction power. Does more HP = more suction? Hopefully someone who is well versed in vac can educate me on this. Looks like the 14G is 5 pounds heavier than the 12G. Well the marketing department has every number on their keyboard and... Don't worry about HP - any amount of suck is going to suck up whatever you want.
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Jul 31, 2020 16:23
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tater_salad posted:You should buy him lunch and if he refused send him a gift card or whatever yo something he likes. This way he'll keep wanting to help you. I do mechanic work for my friends and the ones that are like thanks man and gimme a handshake I really only want to do easy stuff for. The ones that hand me a gift card I'll work on more bullshit stuff for. A $50 gift card is a drop in the bucket compared to the extra $400 a shop will charge you to do brakes and it's a nice gesture. honda whisperer posted:Or scotch/beer etc. Just depends on if you know what he's into. That's a great idea. He doesn't drink but maybe I'll get him like a $50 steam card because he LIVES for video games.
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Jul 31, 2020 16:25
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Elem7 posted:If this is more than an occasional thing for you, get a dust deputy, they're cheap and will save you from having to replace $20 filters constantly. I just buy these... those ensure that most of the dust doesn't even get to the filter itself. They also make it easy to empty the vacuum. Downside is they don't like getting wet.
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Jul 31, 2020 16:29
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It's mostly an occasional thing probably less than it'd be to get a DD at a hundred bux then gently caress around sticking it on a bucket.
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Jul 31, 2020 23:24
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Bleh I meant the one they have at Home Depot https://www.homedepot.com/p/Dustopper-High-Efficiency-Dust-Separator-12-in-Dia-with-2-5-in-Hose-36-in-Long-HD12/302643445 It's only $50 not on sale and works just as well.
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Aug 1, 2020 01:07
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Oh my poo poo. I just found out the previous owners used painted over wallpaper. This should be removed, right? https://imgur.com/a/Pp5CBzE
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Aug 1, 2020 18:36
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Bioshuffle posted:Oh my poo poo. I just found out the previous owners used painted over wallpaper. This should be removed, right? This might be controversial. Tear down the room to bare studs, call a drywaller and have the room redone. Bonus if you want to add or move outlets, replace or add insulation. You can lose the popcorn ceiling while you're at it, provided it's not asbestos.
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Aug 1, 2020 18:48
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StormDrain posted:This might be controversial. Tear down the room to bare studs, call a drywaller and have the room redone. Bonus if you want to add or move outlets, replace or add insulation. You can lose the popcorn ceiling while you're at it, provided it's not asbestos. But that's like, way too much money. This is only in the master bathroom. Can this be DIYed? The home was built in 1988, do I need to be worried about asbestos? https://imgur.com/a/tUglFZS
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Aug 1, 2020 18:59
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Bioshuffle posted:But that's like, way too much money. This is only in the master bathroom. Can this be DIYed? Probably not asbestos but only a test can confirm. I'll concede that it is money, I don't know how much since it's very regional. In the end it would be a lot faster and provide a high quality and consistent wall finish. You will be peeling paper forever, and touching up drywall after. I hate taping drywall and I would still get a buddy and knock it out before I peeled wallpaper. Giving it more thought I would self perform: demo, rewire it to match my furniture and code, put proper backing in for my TV, consider accent lighting, all new insulation, hang drywall and hire out the tape and finish.
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Aug 1, 2020 19:22
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Storm's right about the finish being a real hassle and very hard to do well. You absolutely can DIY it. It would save a decent chunk of change. But it will be harder and messier than you think it will be. It will also take much longer than you think. Source: wife decided she couldn't live with the popcorn ceilings AFTER we bought the place. She peeled and skim coated the entire thing. Hellworld.
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Aug 1, 2020 21:16
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Renovation costs scale in a weird way. I have a 3,000 SF four bedroom house. Renovating the kitchen and two bathrooms is about 80% of the cost of gutting the entire house to the studs and rebuilding
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Aug 1, 2020 21:41
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1988 would be pretty late for asbestos materials but if you're concerned you can do mail in tests for like $50, which seems like a good investment to avoid lifelong or life ending disease.
Cormack fucked around with this message at 22:48 on Aug 1, 2020 |
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Aug 1, 2020 22:22
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GoGoGadgetChris posted:Renovation costs scale in a weird way. I have a 3,000 SF four bedroom house. Renovating the kitchen and two bathrooms is about 80% of the cost of gutting the entire house to the studs and rebuilding Go ahead and plumb sinks and tile every room with appliances and cabinets, you can even this out
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Aug 1, 2020 23:26
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I just want the wallpaper gone. I don't care about the popcorn ceilings. I may rent a wallpaper steamer.
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Aug 2, 2020 03:33
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Bioshuffle posted:I just want the wallpaper gone. I don't care about the popcorn ceilings. You misspelled demolition hammer.
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Aug 2, 2020 05:34
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H110Hawk posted:You misspelled demolition hammer. You misspelled crane with wrecking ball.
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Aug 2, 2020 05:47
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I always just used a bucket of hot water, a sponge, and a plastic scraper.  (It also took me all loving weekend to do a single room. Thanks, parents, for the wonderful chores.  )
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Aug 2, 2020 05:49
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For the walls just take a long and really hot shower and get the room all hot and steamy and then go to town with a putty knife and see what comes off. Then you can look into sprays and ways to score the paper that’s left, though sometimes soapy water works just as well. The ceiling are a whole other ballgame we don’t have to discuss. The walls won’t necessarily be a fun job but it’s just elbow grease assuming the walls are in good shape and the layer of paint isn’t going to make it extremely more difficult than a normal wallpaper removal.
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Aug 2, 2020 12:20
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The Dave posted:For the walls just take a long and really hot shower and get the room all hot and steamy and then go to town with a putty knife and see what comes off. Then you can look into sprays and ways to score the paper that’s left, though sometimes soapy water works just as well. That is a really good suggestion. I'm on a short schedule, with about a week and a half until move in, so I'll rent a steamer on the way there today. I'll run the shower first and hopefully that will allow me to scrape off the little crevice above the shower stall. Sundae posted:I always just used a bucket of hot water, a sponge, and a plastic scraper. So, a plastic scraper instead of the metal ones? I noticed they were using a metal one in most of the videos I found.
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Aug 2, 2020 13:17
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Hey all. So I really boned myself. Long story short, I got a new spreader and went to do some weed and feed in the front yard. After the first column of grass I realized I forgot to adjust the spread amount. I corrected it for the rest of the lawn, buttttttt I'm lazy and didn't do anything with the area I'd already messed up. As expected, this killed that part of the lawn. At this point of the summer, is there anything I can do to revive it? Or recommendations for what to do for fall treatment? It might be a little difficult, but if you look carefully you can see where I was spreading too much. 
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Aug 2, 2020 14:12
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H110Hawk posted:If it's out of alignment or the spring ( This stuff is fantastic, and there’s enough there practically for the entire time you live in the home. It really doesn’t take much.
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Aug 2, 2020 14:39
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) needs calibration those guys are worth their weight in gold. Once it's fixed up, get a can of white lithium spray and twiceish plus or minus 6 months a year give every moving part a little spritz. Rollers, chain, track, hinges. Little dab will do yah. Wipe out any crud with a shop towel and toss it, lithium is gross.
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MrYenko posted:This stuff is fantastic, and there’s enough there practically for the entire time you live in the home. It really doesn’t take much. Yup. The can is generally right next to the white lithium. I assume they are roughly the same, or that the garage specific one has some solvents in it to try and knock out some crud? I went with the stuff that just said white lithium so I can more confidently use it elsewhere but it wouldn't surprise me if it was literally the same contents in a different wrapper so people would know what to buy. Emphasis on the "that can will last you until you have to figure out what the brand is called a decade+ later."
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Aug 2, 2020 16:28
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Any ideas for how to patch an active groundwater leak in a pipe sleeve through the foundation? This is maybe 4 feet below ground level. You can kind of see the stream between my attempt at spray foam and where I cut away the insulation.  I’ve tried the spray foam and 3M 5200 marine adhesive, neither work well since it’s too wet. I’m thinking I have two options - 1) find a way to plug it, clean/dry the area, then use caulk/spray foam/marine adhesive to patch it over 2) Dig out on the other side and patch the external facing concrete. This is probably the right way, but I don’t have the right tools and I’m guessing it could cost at least $1k. Plus this means tearing out my bushes in front. Anything else?
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Aug 2, 2020 20:47
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I used this in a similar situation and it seems to have held up: https://www.quikrete.com/productlines/hydraulicwaterstopcement.asp
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Aug 2, 2020 20:57
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So, ugh, this probably isn't great, huh   In the storage room of the condo I just bought, after moving a bunch of shelving. I'm guessing this is "get a contractor" type situation, not "ehh it seems to have been this way for a long time and no obvious damage"?
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Aug 2, 2020 21:17
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Academician Nomad posted:So, ugh, this probably isn't great, huh Dude. Please tag that with NMS tags next time.
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Aug 2, 2020 21:21
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ChineseBuffet posted:I used this in a similar situation and it seems to have held up: https://www.quikrete.com/productlines/hydraulicwaterstopcement.asp Absolutely. That stuff works wonders and cures when wet. To make it work, more of the existing stuff around the pip may need to be removed so you can get a good plug of that stuff in there. Academician Nomad posted:So, ugh, this probably isn't great, huh Looks like the basement is very old to the point of having rubble walls, with brick above that. It's not the end of the world, but yeah, you should get a vontractor out that knows how to deal with 1800s construction to fix that and inspect the rest.
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Aug 2, 2020 22:22
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Any tips for finding a reputable alarm installer who can design/install/etc a whole house alarm? Googling mostly returns random places that have ~no web presence or any indication they exist at all besides the entry in google places... which makes trying to determine if they're any good kind of hard. If it matters this is out in the Philadelphia burbs/exurbs.
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Aug 3, 2020 03:28
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Comrade Gritty posted:Any tips for finding a reputable alarm installer who can design/install/etc a whole house alarm? Googling mostly returns random places that have ~no web presence or any indication they exist at all besides the entry in google places... which makes trying to determine if they're any good kind of hard. If it matters this is out in the Philadelphia burbs/exurbs. If you know anyone who works in the courthouse, they can ask for you if you don't know any cops.
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Aug 3, 2020 04:50
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We recently bought our first place! We know we have a bunch of things to do, so I'm sure I'll be asking for advice here. I had 2 things to first ask about : 1) The kitchen sink is incredibly shallow and has 2 compartments. We want to replace it with a deeper single basin sink. Is this the job of a handyman or a plumber? 2) We found in the garage (and side of the house) some screens. It's getting noticeably hot, especially upstairs, where we want to put these in but we can't figure out how. The below image shows the clips we found in some of the windows although most look to have had the longer piece snap off. It looks like windows should have 2 top and two bottom clips per screen. The screen frames themselves are just aluminum framed and don't have anything protruding from the frame like in the 'install a window screen' videos I looked at to try and figure this out. The best we've been able to do is get them wedged into the top clips and then if we somehow get them to rest against the bottom clips, it feels very easy for our cats to bust through still. If we then get them into the top+bottom clips, they seem super loose and the screen falls down and isn't in the top clips at all and has a few mm gap between the top of the opening and the top of the screen. It feels like this shouldn't be so complicated...  
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Aug 3, 2020 14:49
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Oh my poo poo. One minute we're closing and getting keys. The next we're talking about what color we want to paint the bathroom. I spot a little peel in the corner in the back and now this. https://imgur.com/a/F5zgn5t My plan is to attack as much as I can with a rag and soap and hot water, after which point I will fix up the damaged part of the drywall, and hopefully we'll have a new clean wall to work with. The wallpaper would have been fine, but this one had this God awful exaggerated texture like Freddy Kruger's skin. On the bright side, I learned that the bathroom mirrors had been held up by two really flimsy nails. And they didn't use any drywall tape when patching some holes.
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Aug 3, 2020 16:22
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We refi'd at 3.375% on a 15-year loan back in January, our out-of-pocket closing costs were around $2300. It seems like rates are tanking and it might be a good idea to refi again. Chase's credit-score-ish feature says I'm a 780, and the only issue is that I've had 4 inquiries since 6/2019. It seems like I should go for it if I can get it between 2.5 and 2.8% - should I take a shot or wait a few more months for one of those inquiries to drop off the report?
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Aug 3, 2020 16:54
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Comrade Gritty posted:Any tips for finding a reputable alarm installer who can design/install/etc a whole house alarm? Googling mostly returns random places that have ~no web presence or any indication they exist at all besides the entry in google places... which makes trying to determine if they're any good kind of hard. If it matters this is out in the Philadelphia burbs/exurbs. If you're on the north side of the suburbs/exurbs you're probably looking for Holicong. No web presence is kinda typical for places like that. I Agree with Dick Hz and will add: firemen also. They all deal with these alarm companies all the time.
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Aug 3, 2020 17:03
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Bioshuffle posted:Oh my poo poo. One minute we're closing and getting keys. The next we're talking about what color we want to paint the bathroom. I spot a little peel in the corner in the back and now this. You misery is my comedy and I want you to know I am cracking up at this. Goon speed intrepid new home owner! MJP posted:We refi'd at 3.375% on a 15-year loan back in January, our out-of-pocket closing costs were around $2300. It seems like rates are tanking and it might be a good idea to refi again. Chase's credit-score-ish feature says I'm a 780, and the only issue is that I've had 4 inquiries since 6/2019. $2300 more dollars puts you at basically $4600. I wouldn't do it again "just" to lose less than a whole %, doubly so on a 15 year.
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Aug 3, 2020 17:14
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I don't think the "refi if you save 1%" rule really applies anymore since rates are so low. Look at the total amount of interest saved. Dropping from 5% to 4% is a 20% drop in interest rate. Dropping from 3.75% to 3% is also a 20% drop. The lower you go, the more each 1/8th of a point matters. Dropping from 3.375% to 2.5% is a ~25% drop in interest. Just my opinion on how to value the decreases in the current rate environment. H110Hawk posted:You misery is my comedy and I want you to know I am cracking up at this. Goon speed intrepid new home owner! Why would you include his previous refi costs in the cost to refi again?
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Aug 3, 2020 18:45
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MrLogan posted:I don't think the "refi if you save 1%" rule really applies anymore since rates are so low. Look at the total amount of interest saved. The "percent drop in interest" is an interesting number psychologically, and it does put the standard "save 1%" advice into perspective, but it doesn't actually make any difference in your finances. The only part that matters is the dollars that you spend, or don't, and equity that you get, or don't. How long does it actually take to make back the refinancing costs? If someone offers you a no-cost refinancing at a lower rate, take it, even if it's only 1/8-point, whether you're at 2% interest or 20% (ignoring intangibles like whether you like your banking relationships as they are, or whether there are commitments that limit your ability to make other moves, etc). If someone offers you a $2300 refinancing, you should look at how long it's going to take you to save $2300 in interest, especially vs. just dropping your money in as an extra principal payment up front. For example, let's say you have a $230,000, 15-year mortgage, and you can spend $2300 on refinancing a 3.375% mortgage, or throw it into principal. In either case you continue making payments as if you were at 3.375%. Refinancing that is a pretty good deal! At 2.5% you make back your bonus principal in about 15 months, at 2.8% in 19. As long as you're not planning to move right now (and if you are, why did you buy the house?), it's a sound investment if you've got the cash. BUT, if you take the same "percent drop in interest" as 3.375%-to-2.5%, from 1% to 0.741%, then your $2300 fee doesn't pay off until month 56. The "percent drop in interest" from 3.375%-to-2.8%, from 1% to 0.83% then it doesn't pay off until month 67. If you just pocket the few extra dollars a month instead of putting them back into the mortgage, the numbers get pushed out a bit. You break even faster on smaller percentage-of-mortgage fees, slower on larger ones. If you sell before you break even, you lose the bet. Those are the only numbers that matter. Cassius Belli fucked around with this message at 21:47 on Aug 3, 2020 |
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Aug 3, 2020 21:18
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Woooo, the structural engineer says that all my various cracks and bulges near the ceilings are due to my support beams moving up and down slightly as the clay soil expands and contracts. No foundation issues and we are cleared to do some reno work  I have a 39-year old cedar shake roof that I can probably get away with spot repair for the next 3 years, but probably going to do Windows, the back Patio, and a small area of siding next to the patio that has dry rot. Not the sexiest projects of all time but they'll feel good to get done!
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Aug 3, 2020 23:32
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Dik Hz posted:If you have any cop friends, ask them. They'll know. Motronic posted:If you're on the north side of the suburbs/exurbs you're probably looking for Holicong. Thanks! I'll ask around, and will likely check with Holicong as well. I might be *just* outside their service area though so we'll see! (The stated cities are like 8? maybe 10? minute drives from me, but technically in a different county, so no idea how they count that. Doesn't hurt to ask them!).
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Aug 3, 2020 23:59
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Comrade Gritty posted:will likely check with Holicong as well. I might be *just* outside their service area They've been around forever and will likely know who to send you to if you are adjacent to their service area.
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Aug 4, 2020 01:58
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Probably the most frustrating thing about selling a house is fixing all the poo poo that the inspection uncovers that you should have fixed years earlier so that you could enjoy it. I just fixed a window that wouldn't lock, took about 30 minutes to figure it out and 10 seconds to fix. When I moved in 14 years ago I put a stick in the frame to keep it from opening.
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Aug 5, 2020 15:47
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