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GoGoGadgetChris posted:
I would argue it's the same as before, very low.
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Oct 8, 2020 01:52
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OSU_Matthew posted:Y’all leaving your porch lights on 24x7 are contributing to light pollution, stahp Get hosed; my front lawn is best off looking like JFK airport hosed a christmas tree; if you don't cast a shadow my lights aren't working right You keep your dark-rear end house looking like the crack house at the end of the street, I know which house is going to get cased first
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Oct 8, 2020 02:19
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NomNomNom posted:So do people just pay for a new roof out of pocket? Pray for a hail storm? I've started getting quotes and they've been eye watering: ~20k for stripping the two courses of shingles, new sheathing, reshingle, new gutters. Why are they replacing the sheathing and the gutters?
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Oct 8, 2020 02:48
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OSU_Matthew posted:I like doorbell cams. If you get ring, you can opt out of the police being able to access your footage. Suuuuuuure you can. Also, the police only ever follow the law and never lie
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Oct 8, 2020 03:11
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Academician Nomad posted:Suuuuuuure you can. Also, the police only ever follow the law and never lie I mean, yeah, so long as we ignore the daily confirmation of that in the headlines, ~ostensibly~ the feature can be disabled. That being said, when your concern is grand theft auto, I don’t think that nebulous concerns of police misconduct of your front door footage is the most important consideration. What does concern me though, is the general awareness that today these systems are providing advance notice to people of no-knock
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Oct 8, 2020 03:41
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My Ring floodlight is mainly just a wildlife camera The cops in this city refuse to accept video as evidence, full stop, but they also refuse to investigate property crimes so it's kind of moot
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Oct 8, 2020 04:30
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Our contractor for our home remodel was supposed to be starting this month but he dropped off the map last month after having to evacuate for a few days due to wildfires. We tried to keep in touch with him but even after his neighborhood, which didn't burn down, opened he was still silent until this week.now he is sending me a list from a Home Depo cabinet sales lady asking me to fill out all the dimensions of the appliances we bought (somewhere else). I already gave hin all the spec sheets. If I wanted to do this I would have just gone to Home Depot myself.
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Oct 8, 2020 06:15
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Hadlock posted:Get hosed; my front lawn is best off looking like JFK airport hosed a christmas tree; if you don't cast a shadow my lights aren't working right
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Oct 8, 2020 10:22
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A couple insights for those following along There is a school of thought that extra light makes it easier to break in on a criminal who then wouldn't have to use a flashlight your neighbor might see. Metal roofs make it hard to put out fires and can be loud as hell if your attic is under insulated. I've heard some fire depts just try and keep your neighbors from going up because you can't get water in that way. (White roofs are a minor help where it's hot but most people don't like them.) Those driveway bollards don't prevent them from driving on the grass.
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Oct 8, 2020 10:49
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We have flood lights around the whole perimeter that are on a mechanical timer that go on from dusk until about 10:30. Except for when the little metal clips fall off and then I get up at 5 and the lights are on and I wonder if the neighbors are like "oh those jackasses". That's great just for general lighting the property at night, but then after that we have a a really dim security light that is on all night right above our shed and cars that goes bright for motion detection. We also have Arlo Pro 3s above our front door and side door that turn a flood light on and record video when motion is detected. Seems to work well. I don't know if Arlo (netgear) is doing anything unethical with the data but I've enjoyed the ease of management.
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Oct 8, 2020 10:53
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I think wanting the camera was just reaction to what just happened. It really won't do much and I'm against surveillance state stuff. Just going to get a motion sensor floodlight and maybe if I feel like it throw up a dummy camera or 2.
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Oct 8, 2020 11:10
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Quaint Quail Quilt posted:Metal roofs make it hard to put out fires and can be loud as hell if your attic is under insulated. I've heard some fire depts just try and keep your neighbors from going up because you can't get water in that way. (White roofs are a minor help where it's hot but most people don't like them.)
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Oct 8, 2020 11:55
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Dik Hz posted:Pardon my naivete, but if the fire department is putting out a fire via your roof being gone, isn't your house a complete loss at that point already? Perhaps, structurally speaking, but there may be places the fire hasn't yet spread to, and said parts may contain irreplaceable valuables. I mean it's unlikely, but I feel like it's still better for the house to be 95% burned out rather than 100%.
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Oct 8, 2020 12:00
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DaveSauce posted:Perhaps, structurally speaking, but there may be places the fire hasn't yet spread to, and said parts may contain irreplaceable valuables. Isn’t one of the major drivers of structure fires near wildfires floating embers nesting in the eaves? So with a metal roof and redesigning the materials used in the eaves, and can prevent most wildfires from burning down your home if you’re not in the direct path. Granted not a concern unless you live in a susceptible area, but fire risk can go both ways I’d think
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Oct 8, 2020 13:45
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OSU_Matthew posted:Isn’t one of the major drivers of structure fires near wildfires floating embers nesting in the eaves? So with a metal roof and redesigning the materials used in the eaves, and can prevent most wildfires from burning down your home if you’re not in the direct path. They also suck into your soffit vents, which is why boron treated insulation is important. Around here about 20 years ago everyone with a cedar shake roof stopped being able to get homeowners insurance because they are such an extreme fire risk at whatever age they were up to (30 or 40 years at that point.) Whole blocks of houses were built every-other-one with cedar, ours was fortunately the clay tile option. You were not allowed to re-roof with natural cedar, it had to be something fire resistant. The super rich folks put up some faux cedar tiles, everyone else got the usual comp shingles.
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Oct 8, 2020 15:13
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Anyone have a recommendation for a solid indoor air quality monitor? We have a cat who's had a problem with coughing and we think we've done everything to purify his environment and so we've been trying to get him used to an inhaler (which is going about as well as you'd expect). I didn't even think about indoor air quality monitor until someone mentioned it in another thread and It'd be great to have some way to check our work that indoor air quality is actually okay.
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Oct 10, 2020 01:52
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FuzzySlippers posted:Anyone have a recommendation for a solid indoor air quality monitor? Purple Air? I'm assuming you either don't live on the west coast, or you've been living under a rock the last 8 weeks
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Oct 10, 2020 14:31
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Ughhh. Unfortunate but perhaps not surprising that none of the spray foam quote guys mentioned that the city won't count it as a vapour if it isn't 2" thick everywhere. My existing framing isn't far enough off the wall, so it looks like I'll need to put up the barrier on top of spray foam.
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Oct 10, 2020 14:39
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My basement fridge doesn't seem to be cooling anymore. It's from 1997 and it worked totally fine when we moved in 2 months ago. It seems like the freon evaporated...it was a steady decline in cooling over a few weeks. It sounds like the compressor is working since it's running all the time. Also, wasn't there a DIY forum?
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Oct 10, 2020 15:27
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Probably a bad gasket somewhere, needs new gasket, might be able to get away with refilling the refrigerant for a couple more years if it's a slow leak
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Oct 10, 2020 15:30
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TheWevel posted:My basement fridge doesn't seem to be cooling anymore. It's from 1997 and it worked totally fine when we moved in 2 months ago. It seems like the freon evaporated...it was a steady decline in cooling over a few weeks. It sounds like the compressor is working since it's running all the time. Also, wasn't there a DIY forum? Get a new fridge that's more energy efficient.
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Oct 10, 2020 16:12
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DIY is currently called The Bone Depot.
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Oct 10, 2020 16:24
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TheWevel posted:My basement fridge doesn't seem to be cooling anymore. It's from 1997 and it worked totally fine when we moved in 2 months ago. It seems like the freon evaporated...it was a steady decline in cooling over a few weeks. It sounds like the compressor is working since it's running all the time. Also, wasn't there a DIY forum? If it's truly freon it's probably cheaper to buy a new cheapest fridge at Lowes than have anyone repair it. Does the plate say r-22?
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Oct 10, 2020 19:37
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Hadlock posted:Purple Air? I'm assuming you either don't live on the west coast, or you've been living under a rock the last 8 weeks He's been coughing for over 6 months so unfortunately I can't blame it on anything recent. That looks a little more elaborate than a device looking at dust/mold/whatever in the air that I have any control over.
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Oct 10, 2020 23:26
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I have a question about ductless heating/cooling systems. Please point me to any other threads that might cover this if the information I'm looking for is too specific. So, for those who may recall, last year I was dealing with rodents in my attic and rodents in my crawlspace who had eaten through my HVAC ducts and were making appearances in my floor vents (they never got past the vents), and I was trying to find a rodent-proofing and extermination company that didn't set off my scam alarm and I also may have made a paragraph-long rant about being physically unable to locate good contractors that wouldn't fit in the thread title. In any case, I eventually had a company rodent proof my home, had all my ducts repaired and now a year later rodents are back in my ductwork and attic and FML. The new exterminator I called basically said, "LOL, I can set traps on a subscription basis but it's impossible to rodent-proof your crawlspace because they can just walk in where your HVAC enters the crawlspace." And he has proceeded to catch rats and mice there for like 4 weeks straight without any slowdown. I called up my HVAC company (who are actually really good so far) to ask if I could get all my ducts replaced with something with more sturdiness than wet paper, and he tells me that rats can basically tear through just about any material he could put down there, and that I should just replace the whole thing with a ductless system. He measures the house, takes pictures, and a few days letter comes back with a quote of $14k. That seems high based on my own research, but it would not kill me and if it loving means I don't need to ever deal with rodents in this manner ever again (I'd still have traps set to stop them), then I'm all for it. So how dependable are these systems. I'd hate to literally remove a functional HVAC system, only to try and sell a house with some crazy system that no one recognizes and doesn't work. Can one of these "heads" really cool a whole room? How do they work? Are they just some weird trendy thing meant for cooling a place that normally would have a window unit, or can these replace central air systems completely?
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Oct 12, 2020 23:52
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Ooooo....kay.....so there is an HVAC thread but I don't think that's what you actually need. If the problem is that rats are getting into the ducts in your attic and you remove the ducts with a different style of HVAC.....you still have rats in your attic.
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Oct 13, 2020 00:01
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You need the Heating, Ventilation, And Cats thread. But seriously. Find holes, fill holes with material they can't chew through. In your home make sure they can't get to any food or anything. Set and clear traps yourself. You will eventually win the battle if you keep that all up. You want to make your home inaccessible and inhospitable as possible. SpartanIvy fucked around with this message at 00:13 on Oct 13, 2020 |
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Oct 13, 2020 00:11
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Motronic posted:Ooooo....kay.....so there is an HVAC thread but I don't think that's what you actually need. Yes, I'm aware of that. I've been trapping and baiting for them since last year and have had active pest control subscriptions to control the rodents. The problem unfortunately is not really the attic, but the crawlspace. The roof and attic are really tightly sealed at this point, the original rodent proofing company and the new guys have both confirmed that nothing is entering the home from up there. What is happening is that they are getting into the crawlspace and from there they can apparently climb up through voids in the walls into the attic. The crawlspace is also really tightly sealed, EXCEPT for around where the HVAC enters the crawlspace. It's hard to describe this, but there really isn't a way to seal it without the rats digging right around it. The first guy basically wrapped the area in steel wool, hardware cloth, and foam but there are spots he couldn't do anything about because it would block the access to the guts of the HVAC unit (it is a furnace and condenser all in one). Because of that you can literally see the route that the rodents have managed to take right into the crawlspace and then immediately into my ducts. The basic plan is to simply take the HVAC out of the equation. With a ductless system the HVAC guys would remove that big rear end unit and seal the opening it goes through into the crawlspace thus removing the one spot they are obviously getting in at, AND it would prevent the random rogue rodent from causing $3k in ductwork damage by chewing into them. You have to remember that this is a house in SoCal that was built 100 years ago. It's kind of a new experience for me since I've previously owned homes in NJ and PA and those places didn't even have central air (or crawlspaces!). The place was obviously not ideally built for ducts or even for people to easily be able to access the attic or crawlspace. SoCal also has a poo poo ton of rodents. Like, I talk to people here and they are like, "Yeah, rats just wander under the houses when it hits 120F and will go right for your ducts because they are cool.". Everyone has fruit trees that are fruiting year-round, and the weather stays nice enough in winter that wild animal populations (rodents, varmints, cats and dogs) just stay at high levels year round, so it's basically an eternal battle. SpartanIvy posted:You need the Heating, Ventilation, And Cats thread. The problem is not an infestation, the exterminator has said that he sees no signs that these aren't rodents that are wandering in from outside (and immediately getting caught in the traps) and that there do not appear to be signs of nests or families in our attic or crawlspace (and there are NO signs of them actually entering our living space). The problem as I mention above is it just takes ONE to miss the traps and eat it's way into the ducts. The ducts are cool in summer and warm in winter, and the rodents go right for them. They might only spend a short while in there, and then exit right into a trap, but by then the damage is done. Our baits and trapping are keeping them under control, but basically even one getting into the crawlspace is enough to gently caress me.
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Oct 13, 2020 01:25
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Speaking of HVAC I got quoted $~15k to replace 2 gas furnaces and 2 AC units. That seems pretty reasonable for higher end Lennox stuff, right? 15k is the middle of the road option with variable speed furnace/air handlers and and single stage 2.5/3 ton outdoor units. The price for dual stage A/C 3 ton units was $~19k, furnaces will be the same. Just the furnaces/air handlers would be $~7500. I'm at a crossroads here. My furnaces are originally from 1996 (when the house was built) and I knew I was going to have to replace them but the tech looked at them today and they're a lot worse than I thought. The AC units outside were replaced in 04 and 06 but I feel like it's probably better just to bend over and get it all done now. Is a single stage AC fine for an Atlanta climate? Does dual stage even matter? From what I could infer from the sales guy the main benefit is having a variable speed air handler since it can ramp up and down with demand. If the cooling capacity is fixed it will still work fine, the dual stage cooling is a "nice to have".
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Oct 13, 2020 01:32
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Anonymous Zebra posted:It's hard to describe this Then take lots of pictures. Because it sounds like you have no idea what you're looking at and have only talked to a bunch of lovely contractors who see whatever it is that they do as the hammer and every problem is a nail.
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Oct 13, 2020 01:45
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Anonymous Zebra posted:I called up my HVAC company (who are actually really good so far) to ask if I could get all my ducts replaced with something with more sturdiness than wet paper, and he tells me that rats can basically tear through just about any material he could put down there, and that I should just replace the whole thing with a ductless system. He measures the house, takes pictures, and a few days letter comes back with a quote of $14k. A whole home ductless split system sounds about right at $14k assuming it's a major name brand (Lennox, Fujitsu, Mitsubishi for example). There is a lot of labor there. This ignores the key fact of: why can no one seem to prevent rats from getting into your home, and why is ductless going to change that? As Motronic said: Take a bunch of pictures, show us. It's way easier than what 8 different goons have going in their minds eye based on your descriptions. For example, I live in Southern California in a raised foundation home and do not have rats in my crawlspace. My house is only 1947 but my buddy with his ~1900 house doesn't either.
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Oct 13, 2020 02:43
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Motronic posted:Then take lots of pictures. Because it sounds like you have no idea what you're looking at and have only talked to a bunch of lovely contractors who see whatever it is that they do as the hammer and every problem is a nail. As a veteran rodent fighter who has dealt with infestations in his own house, I agree with this. I cannot imagine there is literally no way to seal this. If it's a question of access build a solid door. If it's a large gap cover it with something hard. If it's a small gap steel wool impregnated with Great Stuff anti-rodent foam.
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Oct 13, 2020 02:46
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You still need to solve the rats problem first before fixing the AC. Find their food and water supply(ies), and get rid of those, talk to your neighbors etc You got a super high quote from the ventless guy because he can tell you think the ventless ac is going to magically solve your rats problem fake edit: do you want to solve the rats problem, or do you just want to not see them?
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Oct 13, 2020 04:07
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I'll take pictures of the area tomorrow when it's light. I am trying to solving the rat problem, I'm not ignoring it. The problem is not some huge infestation, it's individuals entering the crawlspace and 99% of the time getting immediately killed by traps. The house we rented when we first moved here was an actual infestation, the attic was huge piles of rat feces, you could hear scratching and crawling in the walls, and that was with the landlords using an exterminator. The issue with that place was that it wasn't rodent-proofed so no amount of trapping would stop new ones from coming in. That is not happening in our home. We hear no scratching, the attic has only a few sporadic turds indicating that an individual passed through, and there are no indications of rodents actually inhabiting the home anywhere. We actively had our home rodent proofed, and have an exterminator with outside bait stations, and traps at all entrances to our crawlspace and attic with many traps concentrated at the HVAC entry. I don't really know how I can remove food, since it's not like there is food in my crawlspace or attic. Every yard in my neighborhood is fruit trees, and even though we remove all dropped fruit in our yard, there is still every other yard and also rodents mostly eat fruit up on the branches anyway. No branches overhang our roof, nor is there rotting fruit on there (indication that rats are dragging food up there). They aren't entering people's crawlspace to eat, they are running in there because it's 100+F and the crawlspaces are like cool caves during the day. Then in winter they go under there to stay warm and make babies. The entire space is covered in traps, but there is an unlimited number of rats just chilling in the trees and storm drains, so it's not like they are ever going to stop trying to get in there. EDIT: I know where my parents live in Florida, that fruit trees are expressedly banned, likely for the reasons I'm encountering here. Anonymous Zebra fucked around with this message at 04:37 on Oct 13, 2020 |
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Oct 13, 2020 04:34
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Hadlock posted:You still need to solve the rats problem first before fixing the AC. Find their food and water supply(ies), and get rid of those, talk to your neighbors etc Yeah, check your neighbors. My grandmother had a similar issue with rats coming in from outside. Turns out her neighbor loved to feed the squirrels. Know what else likes to eat the nuts etc that she was leaving in literal piles on her lawn?
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Oct 13, 2020 04:43
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I think a lot of us who enjoy this thread see houses as a collection of parts that configurable in the right ways and there's no problem that can't be engineered out. Sometimes it's a huge hassle and it may be worth leaving it or different approaches. Rats entering through a known point of entry sounds extremely solvable to me. And I'd spend a lot over scrapping my working hvac system. Whoever said mind's eye has it right. I bet we have some wild visions of how this looks.
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Oct 13, 2020 04:49
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Anonymous Zebra posted:More rats Are you hiring out 100% of the work? That might be the problem. I'm probably wrong, but the way you're phrasing things, it sounds like you're hiring contractors to come up with solutions and then paying them to do the work. Sometimes if you want it done right, you need to do it yourself. Looking forward to those photos
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Oct 13, 2020 05:13
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Hadlock posted:Are you hiring out 100% of the work? That might be the problem. I'm probably wrong, but the way you're phrasing things, it sounds like you're hiring contractors to come up with solutions and then paying them to do the work. Sometimes if you want it done right, you need to do it yourself. The order of events was that my wife and I noticed signs of termites in some places in the home, so we had a full home termite inspection. That was pretty straightforward, but the inspector commented to me that there were some rodent droppings in the attic, and since I had re-insulated the attic shortly after we moved in, I knew they couldn't be that old. So I went and got quotes from companies that were combo rat-proofing, attic/crawlspace cleaning, and exterminators which was what led to my original post a year ago where I realized they were all scumbags. I ultimately hired just a straight local rodent-control company that set traps and rat-proofed areas in the attic and crawlspace that seemed to be entryways. I was dissatisfied with the amount of work that they guy did for the price I paid, so I went back and added more hardware cloth, steel wool, and even laid down some extra cement around the doors to the crawlspace so that the doors were flush with the edges with no cracks. The area around the HVAC unit was difficult though, but at the time seemed sealed enough (LOL). That company kept traps there for about two months, but didn't catch poo poo, so I then had my HVAC company fix all of our ducts. One of the normal exterminator companies that had come to quote me (but ultimately told me I didn't need their service) told me where to set up traps in my crawlspace and attic, and so I've been doing that myself in the interim. It was a husband-wife team, and they basically showed me around the attic and crawlspace and explained how they could tell that it wasn't an active major infestation, but just random rodents passing through. They were also the ones to show me where branches needed to be cut and how fruit trees could be used as a food source. Things were relatively quiet since then. Just recently, one of the traps in the crawlspace caught a rat, and then within a day of me finding this (I check on Saturdays usually) the ducts had been breached, so it absolutely happens that quickly. This time I just called a local pest company that basically no one has anything bad to say about and was recommended by lots of people I know, and had their guy come over. He was the one that confirmed that most of the house was sealed basically as well as it could be, but that they were likely slipping through the HVAC connection. He set up bait stations and more traps to try and see how bad it was, but it's (again) mostly rats coming in and out and not nesting or lingering. He also said to just call my HVAC company and have them re-do the connection so it's more sealed, but they too indicated that they couldn't see a way to do that. I've heard the phrase "Rats will just chew right through that" multiple times from multiple people now. I've only lived in SoCal for 4 years at this point, and there are some things that seem pretty wild to me compared to my more temperate weathered homelands. The constant termite infestations, hoards of never ending spiders on every building surface that doesn't get touched once a day, and the rats are three of those things. To give you a sense for how many loving rats there are here, in that rental house we lived in (which was nowhere NEAR the house we bought) rats appeared multiple times in our toilets. They weren't falling in either, they were swimming up the sewer lines and then getting trapped in the bowl. I literally had to look that up on Google because I'd never heard of it before, but apparently it's a thing that can just happen, and it happened 4 times in a year's span. The thing to remember is that the city's sewer and stormwater systems are essentially just giant Morlock tunnels for raccoons, skunks, and rats. Especially the stormwater drains, since those are literally bone dry for 9 months of the year, but large enough to accommodate the torrential flash-flood downpours that SoCal gets. One of the reasons that I'm hiring other people to do this, is because the attic and crawlspace are basically inaccessible to me. There is basically no clearance in either of them, and I'm not flexible or spry enough to crawl more than a few feet before I'm basically blocked off by something or getting stuck trying to crawl under a beam or pipe. Anonymous Zebra fucked around with this message at 05:50 on Oct 13, 2020 |
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Oct 13, 2020 05:45
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Well there's always arson
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Oct 13, 2020 05:48
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Just to be clear were not trying to beat you up. We want to help you. Your AC setup sounds maybe different than what I'm used to, and whoever suggested you should post pictures is right in that it would help us help you out. I bet we could collectively engineer a solution to seal up whatever you've got got going on and save you thousands of dollars. Most of us have dealt with rodents in one capacity or another.
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Oct 13, 2020 05:58
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