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Yeah I think we're all trying to help you here. Internet wisdom isn't always terrible It sounds like the refrigerant condenser line from the AC unit outside the house, there's a hole in your wall that the line goes in, and the gap is filled with expanding foam insulation, which, right absolutely, the rats will just chew right through that.... If there's a reason to do so. Buy that sounds like the hole is just open to the outside right now, which is how/why they are getting in. And even then, you ought to be able to mount a tight fitting plywood plate over the foam to provide a mechanical barrier to the foam to prevent chewing. Metal flashing and some tin snips might be better, hard to say That's what I'm imagining, anyways. Photos, like everyone else has said, will help tremendously.
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Oct 13, 2020 07:02
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Your rat problems sound pretty crazy. I lived in SoCal for 5 or 6 years in San Diego and then LA and don't remember seeing many rats except desert rat-ish critters in the more proper desert places. I guess also a few times closing out bars in more downtown LA but LA is just a lovely city in general. I will only say beware of ductless heating salesmen. Since it's so expensive here in Seattle I took an absurd number of quotes before I replaced my heater and its anecdotal but the ductless guys were consistently the pushiest and the worst about trying to upsell (I also had ducts already and I didn't start out looking for ductless). They were promising anything so I could see them pushing ductless as a rat solution.
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Oct 13, 2020 07:20
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FuzzySlippers posted:Your rat problems sound pretty crazy. I lived in SoCal for 5 or 6 years in San Diego and then LA and don't remember seeing many rats except desert rat-ish critters in the more proper desert places. I guess also a few times closing out bars in more downtown LA but LA is just a lovely city in general. Yeah, I understand that y'all are just trying to give suggestions. No problem. I don't want to make it sound like I'm living in some rat infested hell-hole. The first house we rented when we first moved here had rodent issues (that were still only a minor inconvenience in the grand scheme of things), but that was partially because we were not the owners, and the landlords were nice but completely unsure about how to maintain a rental house. The house we bought honestly doesn't have rodent issues 99% of the time. We lived here for a year before I even became aware of the rat droppings in the attic, and it wasn't until we looked under the house that we even saw the ripped ducts. In fact, we never saw any rodents during the first incident, just the duct damage which could have happened before we even bought the place. The fact that the first exterminator never trapped a rat, and none of my traps caught anything basically seemed to confirm that the barriers were solid and we didn't have an issue. This is actually the first time since we bought the place that we actually caught rats live in-action. I think the type of house also determines how prevalent the rats are. This entire section of the city is 100+ year bungalows that have slowly been renovated and had additions plopped on over the last century, but Riverside was not a very rich city so most of the residents in this area were not up-keeping them very well. AC ducts are sitting on soil in crawlspaces that can barely fit a human, or units are sitting on roofs with barely a brace to stop them from rolling off in the next quake. Termite damage is prevalent if not actively occurring on exposed wooden surfaces, and knob and tube wiring hides under spray in attic insulation from 1965. Now everyone working in LA needs housing so prices on these places shot up, and these places that were kind of haphazardly renovated up to the 21st century are now worth half a mil minimum after the owners slap on some quick flip renovations that cover up the rotted subfloor and 1,000 tiny entrances for bugs and rodents. There are more modern homes, but they are all far from the center of town, behind gates w/ HOAs, and have hilariously tiny yards and go for $700k or more. There are really nice older homes as well, but those are $1.1 million. We spent a long time rejecting houses before we settled on this one, and so far it appears to have been well maintained by an owner that lived in it for something like 50 years, but it's still a 100 year old bungalow that had additional bedrooms plopped on and all kinds of weird engineering decisions as each new addition had to be ad-hoc added onto the previous. FuzzySlippers posted:I will only say beware of ductless heating salesmen. Since it's so expensive here in Seattle I took an absurd number of quotes before I replaced my heater and its anecdotal but the ductless guys were consistently the pushiest and the worst about trying to upsell (I also had ducts already and I didn't start out looking for ductless). They were promising anything so I could see them pushing ductless as a rat solution. It's not a ductless sales company. They are a local HVAC business that has been my go-to contractors since I bought the place. They're well recommended and keep meticulous records of their work (which they forward to me), and give discounts if I keep using them since they don't have to deal with some other guy loving up their work between calls, and keep records of all the manufacturer warranties for our system and just make the replacement calls when poo poo breaks without us needing to dig things up ourselves. Our system has remained in perfect working order through two incredibly lovely SoCal summers, while lots of other people's systems fail when it hits 110+, so at this point I trust them. They suggested ductless as one of a couple of different options, and quoted me all 3, so they weren't pushing one over the other. Anonymous Zebra fucked around with this message at 08:07 on Oct 13, 2020 |
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Oct 13, 2020 07:55
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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 from 1997 I wouldn't even bother trying to fix it unless it's a Sub Zero or something. I source appliance parts for work and any kind of "regular" brand of fridge generally only has parts available for about 10 years, sometimes less, depending on the amount of electronics it has. If this is just a beer fridge or w/e just find something on sale at your preferred big box store, it'll be cheaper than paying someone to come out to tell you "sorry I can't get parts for this".
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Oct 13, 2020 15:27
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Anonymous Zebra posted:Yeah, I understand that y'all are just trying to give suggestions. No problem. I don't want to make it sound like I'm living in some rat infested hell-hole, but Riverside Really buried the lede there. 
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Oct 13, 2020 15:41
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Anonymous Zebra posted: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. Post pictures of THAT thing. It sounds like you have a package unit, but you don't have the vocabulary to describe that or your problem.
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Oct 13, 2020 15:59
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H110Hawk posted:Really buried the lede there. I'd say you made the sickest burn, but I'm already in Riverside so I can't feel the flame anymore.
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Oct 13, 2020 17:25
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That HVAC guy is absolutely trying to sell you on ductless. I don't care how much you trust them or how recommended they are lol. Ductless is not going to solve your problems. What are they going to do to seal the existing HVAC line entry point when they install ductless? It would surely cost less to have someone remove the HVAC line, fully seal the entry point, and move it to somewhere that can be rat-proofed more easily.
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Oct 13, 2020 19:10
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My septic tank just collapsed on itself, thanks dad for your massive shits and poor maintenance. I have just had this dropped on me, how much is a new septic tank + leech field gonna cost?
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Oct 13, 2020 19:34
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Gaj posted:My septic tank just collapsed on itself, thanks dad for your massive shits and poor maintenance. I have just had this dropped on me, how much is a new septic tank + leech field gonna cost? $25,000 and up. Why do you think you need a new leech field? And if you do, do you have somewhere else with friable soil to put it? Because most people don't and are going to sand mounds now. So $35,000+. On the other hand if all that's happened here is your septic box has rotted out, replacing it with a 2 chamber plastic box is well under $10k. This would have nothing to do with your dad's shits and everything to do with your water pH. Blown leech field is most often a maintenance problem. And can sometimes be corrected by fixing/replacing the septic box and jetting the runners in the field.
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Oct 13, 2020 19:42
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Gaj posted:My septic tank just collapsed on itself, thanks dad for your massive shits and poor maintenance. I have just had this dropped on me, how much is a new septic tank + leech field gonna cost? Probably over 5 figures. 12K to 15K is about average in my area, but the local county requires traditional systems to be converted to aerobic now. If you can get away with a traditional system it might be a little less but I'll be surprised if you get it done for under 10K. Up to 20K isn't unheard of in my area, but we're sitting on limestone so it can be a lot of labor anytime you dig around here. For instance a basic play/splash swimming pool around here runs 50-60K due to the extra digging costs. Get local recommendations and quote the job out to multiple companies. edit: Costs are probably regional.
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Oct 13, 2020 19:47
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leftist heap posted:It would surely cost less to have someone remove the HVAC line, fully seal the entry point, and move it to somewhere that can be rat-proofed more easily. This was discussed. I asked whether moving the ductwork to my attic would be a possibility. Currently the ducts sit only slightly above the soil because that's just how much space there is in the crawlspace, so rodents don't need to even stand up to walk right into them. The guy went into my attic and said it would take an act of God to put ducts up there. There are no other spots on the ground floor to move the HVAC unit as I'm up against neighbors on almost every side or have porches and decks on my front and back yards. I'll take some pictures, but as I mentioned before, these homes were not designed to have lots of space for central air or heating.
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Oct 13, 2020 19:53
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Anonymous Zebra posted:This was discussed. I asked whether moving the ductwork to my attic would be a possibility. Currently the ducts sit only slightly above the soil because that's just how much space there is in the crawlspace, so rodents don't need to even stand up to walk right into them. The guy went into my attic and said it would take an act of God to put ducts up there. There are no other spots on the ground floor to move the HVAC unit as I'm up against neighbors on almost every side or have porches and decks on my front and back yards. I'll take some pictures, but as I mentioned before, these homes were not designed to have lots of space for central air or heating. Roof top mounted unit?
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Oct 13, 2020 20:33
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What if the house moved.. so that rats never know where it was?
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Oct 13, 2020 20:52
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ooo it's just like that one Disney & Pixar movie!
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Oct 13, 2020 20:56
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Ratatouille!
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Oct 13, 2020 20:56
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MrLogan posted:Roof top mounted unit? Unless I'm misunderstanding you, that would put the ducts in the attic? That was considered a no-go by the HVAC guy, and I kind of understand why. Otherwise putting the unit on the roof would not change anything as it still needs to enter at the crawlspace. Oh, guess I should note, only the original footprint of the home has an attic. The additions have no attic, which is why the HVAC is in the crawlspace (since that let's it access all the rooms in the house).
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Oct 13, 2020 21:06
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I’m dying to see this non-ratproofable vent
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Oct 14, 2020 01:44
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Okay, finally got some time on the computer. I took a few pictures to show what it looks like and I'll try to explain what assorted people have told me as they've checked this out. First, this is an older picture I found on my phone from 2019, before the rat-proofing. I'm including it because it's easiest to see where the wall and unit meet in this shot. The rodents are slipping in under that shadowed area where the unit is meeting the wall.  Here a pic from today that I'm just including to show how close I am to my neighbors and how there really isn't space to move the unit.  This is the mesh the first exterminator used to "seal off" the area. I actually went and added bricks to the bottom of this at one point, but the rodents literally just dug a tunnel in the dirt underneath the mesh and the bricks. As you'll see in a moment there is also several other ways for them to get under the AC unit without needing to go this way...You may also notice a latch up on the metal. This area is the door to where we change out the filter every month. So I can't put foam down here because I need to be able to open and close this door to change out the filter. Just as a reminder, this unit is the AC and the furnace, there is no furnace in the house and thus no other place to put in the filter.   Just a close up to show that the mesh is against the dirt and can easily be dug under.  The other side. The brick on the side there was against the mesh where it meets the unit. A closer look shows where I found they literally have dug underneath where the brick was.   But all of that is moot because the whole unit is sitting up on these blocks, and rodents can just walk right under it and through the wall. This was why the second exterminator said not to even bother with that mesh on the side, because they were just going to walk underneath the unit.   My neighbor's HVAC unit in comparison. His unit is on the ground, and where the duct meets the wall there is a wooden frame that is above ground level (not pictured). In contrast, my duct is literally hugging the ground at the entrance into the crawlspace because it's literally as tall as the clearance in my crawlspace.  This is just a picture of what the entrances to my crawlspace look like. Where the outside ducts meets the house is somewhat similar but I can't get a good picture since it's under that metal duct and behind the mesh. The area is a lot less roughly cut, but the space around the duct is that rubber seal(?) you see around the other parts. The rodents basically chewed through it in different spots, and are getting in through there.  The inside of the crawlspace is something else, and I cannot get a picture of it because I literally cannot get myself there. Like I mentioned, the hard metal duct itself is literally as tall as the crawlspace before becoming the more flexible ducting that makes up our system (and which is above the ground just barely). There are wooden joists on either side of the metal duct which makes the area completely unreachable by a human adult. In fact, you can see that the plumber that installed our water softener originally had intended to put the copper pipes in the crawlspace, but had to put them on the outside of the house because the duct/joists literally are a barrier that cuts that portion of the crawlspace in two. I'm mentioning this to head off the "seal it from the inside" suggestions ahead of time.
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Oct 14, 2020 04:20
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This is pretty cool, I really do want us to solve the problem for the goon. I don't have any idea what to do but I hope someone does.
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Oct 14, 2020 04:42
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Have you considered filling your crawlspace with feral cats?
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Oct 14, 2020 04:44
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All of that looks pretty messy but it still seems like it ought to be ratproofable for under $14k. I think it's still a little unclear just where exactly they are getting into the house. I assume underneath the duct somewhere is a hole in the wall that they're getting through? I think I'd want to excavate under that duct a bunch and take a look at everything going on around where that duct enters the house to start with. It's not really surprising that exterminators don't want to gently caress around with that.
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Oct 14, 2020 05:05
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For contractors, what's possible is what resolves the equation profit>effort+time as true. If something takes a lot of time they're going to say just buy a new unit which lowers their effort and time spent for greater profit. I think what we're seeing is ratproofable without too much effort, but certainly more than makes sense for a contractor. You on the other hand have the two most powerful tools a homeowner can weild, time and spite. First, I would get more heavy duty rat-proof galvanized chicken wire, and install it like they recommend for a shed. Here's a crappy video example https://youtu.be/5iQdBPF0POg For the area between the pavers and blocks it's sitting on, I would get a hammer and chisel, break additional pavers to fill in all the gaps around the base of it, and then mix up some mortar and mortar the pavers together and the box to the ground. Then also put chicken wire under the ground like above all the way around so they don't dug under it. You might also consider digging out all the dirt around it and pouring a few bags of concrete all around the base of it. Certainly more of a permanent solution that might affect hvac replacement down the line, but it would be bomb proof. E: my way is the cheapskate way and the recommendations below are superior. If you do it the cheap way, absolutely have everything fixed properly when your old unit dies and has to be replaced anyway. SpartanIvy fucked around with this message at 05:52 on Oct 14, 2020 |
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Oct 14, 2020 05:30
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leftist heap posted:All of that looks pretty messy but it still seems like it ought to be ratproofable for under $14k. It is, and that is as I suspected a package unit. And it's not sitting on a proper concrete pad to begin with. leftist heap posted:I think it's still a little unclear just where exactly they are getting into the house. I assume underneath the duct somewhere is a hole in the wall that they're getting through? I think I'd want to excavate under that duct a bunch and take a look at everything going on around where that duct enters the house to start with. It's not unclear at all to me. We go back to not talking to the right trades. This person need a real good GC/contractor. Not someone who is "an exterminator" or "an HVAC person". This is a building deficiency that is exacerbated by a trade install plus some other stuff.
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Oct 14, 2020 05:34
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Oh wow, so not only is your condenser outside, but the blower and everything sits directly on the ground? What used to sit on that AC sized foundation right next to it? That installation looks like absolute dogshit, what sits above that unfinished hole in the wall inside the house? I can't imagine that meets code, looks like somebody's drunk grandpa did it, rather than doing it right. The reason nobody wants to fix it for you is it's probably unpermitted modifications to the wall/foundation that were cleverly hidden before you bought it Seems like, 1) rotate the condenser unit 90 degrees and put it on that concrete slab so you have room to work and run a new stretch of vent, 2) seal up that hole and start over 3) cut a new, clean hole that is the correct size 4) pour a new 2" deep slab, a little wider than your vents, from the AC unit to the hole so you have a flat surface to seal to (probably 3-6 bags of $0.99 concrete) 5) extend/replace the vent from the AC unit's new position to the house, along the new concrete foundation you just poured 6) install flashing from the AC unit to the vent, insulate it, seal everything with aluminum outdoor grade, real "ducting tape" 7) install flashing from the house to the vent, then seal everything with that tape TL;DR move unit 3 feet away from the hole Pour concrete between the unit and the hole Get rid of anything where your AC system is coming in contact with the ground* Add more vent tubing Do a proper flashing job against the new vent tubing *Holy poo poo why is everything sitting on the dirt,  Moving the unit onto the existing pad should take an hour, additional venting ought to be less than$100, concrete and forms, along with digging down 3" to pour the base couldn't be more than $1000.... Fixing that abortion of a hole in the side of your house might cost you $2000? More? Looks like somebody took a pickaxe to it under cover of darkness Once everything is sitting on concrete you can seal aluminum flashing to it with glue and rats can't dig under/through the concrete/metal Your whole setup looks like a temporary job that somebody would hack together for burning man, not a permanent install Hadlock fucked around with this message at 05:50 on Oct 14, 2020 |
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Oct 14, 2020 05:45
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Woah it's pretty close to how I imagined it. Personally, I'd fix it long before I considered dropping $14k on split systems. My idea, have the unit removed, pour a concrete slab there up to the edge of the house and under the duct area, about a foot larger than the footprint of the unit. Place the unit on top. If there are any necessary gaps for leveling or mounting, surround it with a frame of angle iron. Even things like the hole around the gas entrance (I'm assuming that's what I see in one pic) are easily wrapped in 16ga sheet metal, far thicker than the ductwork and likely thicker than the unit itself is made of. The real cheapskate way that I would probably have done by now, just dig up and remove soil from around the duct and pour flowable grout or concrete depending on how much space there is, all around and underneath. Then a few sticks of 2x2 angle at the base of the unit.
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Oct 14, 2020 05:48
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Yeah pouring a Find a real AC company, I'm stunned you think that their records are worth keeping them as somebody who you would trust. More likely they don't want anybody else to see the dogshit work they did and call the city inspector, who would make them Do It Right at no cost to you. Is it legal to have 120v HVAC units sitting on the ground in California? That install would not pass code in Texas in a million years
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Oct 14, 2020 05:55
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Is it just me or does that hvac unit also partly sit on your neighbors lot as well?
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Oct 14, 2020 06:16
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skipdogg posted:Is it just me or does that hvac unit also partly sit on your neighbors lot as well? I'm reading through everything else you guys said, but I'll respond to this one first because it's easy. His HVAC is actually on my lot. Survey shows that their house is basically sitting at the edge of their property line with basically an inch of space from their wall. Basically everything in that little alley yard is mine, but at some point in the distant past they must have handshook with previous owners to get their own AC in there. I'm not going to be a shithead with them because I know they have no space for an HVAC anywhere else on their property unless they move it onto their roof (which may be as difficult as it would be for our place since all these houses are the same age). Hadlock posted:Yeah pouring a They didn't do this work. This system was installed in 2012 I believe. The signed permits for the install are on file in the city records, and I have seen the online copies of them. One of the things that drew me to this house was the meticulous construction records the previous owner of 50 years kept, including blue prints and copies of permits for all the renovations. Riverside homes are rife with "additions" and "renovations" put together fast and cheap without permitting, so finding a home that was well maintained and with all work being permitted was actually kind of a godsend. That being said, the company I use (not the ones that installed) absolutely mentioned that the HVAC unit was not right for the home it was attached too. The guy guessed that the old woman who lived there before (after her husband died) got upsold by someone into buying this unit. I THINK the concrete pad next to the existing unit might have been where an old unit was, but I don't know. What I know is that the unit is too big for the size of the ducts, so essentially the blower will eventually blow itself out much sooner than it should. Hadlock posted:That installation looks like absolute dogshit, what sits above that unfinished hole in the wall inside the house? I can't imagine that meets code, looks like somebody's drunk grandpa did it, rather than doing it right. The reason nobody wants to fix it for you is it's probably unpermitted modifications to the wall/foundation that were cleverly hidden before you bought it That hole is just punched through stucco. There is no wood or foundation actually being removed. It certainly looked rough to me, but both our home inspector (who absolutely poo poo on the two previous homes we had shown him), and the foundation engineer we hired said that the structure of the home looked fine and that no one had damaged the foundation. We hired a foundation engineer ($500 for the inspection) due to stuff we saw in previous homes where the foundations were hosed or termite ridden so that was a #1 thing for us check out. I'll keep reading everyone's posts and respond, but I just wanted to mention that we've been dissatisfied with the HVAC system since we moved in. While it's running as best it can, it literally cannot keep the house cool due to the sprawling nature of the house (single story). We got a whole house fan installed for this reason, as it lets us cool the whole house at night without needing to run that thing all the time. EDIT: I DID tell y'all that the HVAC was a loving mess, so don't say I didn't warn you.
Anonymous Zebra fucked around with this message at 07:07 on Oct 14, 2020 |
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Oct 14, 2020 07:05
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I'm just going to double post instead of editing even more new quotes into the previous post. So the short summary of the responses seems to be to move that whole unit off from the wall, turn it 90 degrees and then basically pave the whole path that the vent will take into the house? That makes sense, and yes, having open dirt ground is part of the problem when it comes to sealing the house from rodents. In that area I could not photograph there were attempts to seal the bottom of that vent, but if you can picture the sealing method (foam, steel wool, flashing) then you can picture that it can only be flush with the ground which rodents can then move out of the way by digging. All the other crawlspace entrances, vents, etc, are above the ground so sealing them up was easy. I can now see how that whole area needs to be concrete, so thanks for that. Honestly, all the HVAC units look just like this when I checked out different houses. Even my neighbors is sitting right on the ground. The other place they seem to get put is on roofs, and my home inspector basically said that 9 out of 10 of those are not braced correctly and are going to slide off in the next big quake. If I'm moving that whole unit, sealing the entrance and building a new entrance, then I might as well consider different HVAC solutions altogether. The unit is oversized for the duct size, drinks a huge amount of electricity when it's on, and the ducts are basically just sitting on the soil. This doesn't even take into account that there are no zones for the home and the only thermostat is on the opposite side of the house from the bedrooms. The whole thing is a mess, and not what I would have picked if it had been installed when I actually lived here. As I mentioned before, I've never had a central air system in any of my previous homes. In NJ and PA our heat was radiant, and it never got hot enough in summer to need more than a window unit and a whole house fan in the attic. So basically we didn't know what questions to ask when looking at that thing. I've also never owned crawlspaces, so really gently caress those things, but that was the only option for the homes here. So basically, I feel like I have two issues. 1) There is a way for rodents to enter my crawlspace, and 2) The HVAC install is kind of a loving mess (it's permitted and inspected, so who the hell knows how that happened). I feel like the rodent issue is pretty easily solved by getting that HVAC connection fixed [somehow], and that right now the bait traps will serve as a stopgap until I get (2) fixed. So the real question is, should I try to re-jigger what's already there, or should I just flip the table over and consider a new HVAC plan that makes sense and is well thought out. I know I need to go to the HVAC thread at some point to start asking these questions, and posting those pictures! I know I was balking at $14k, but in general my wife and I are willing to pay good money for quality service, so don't just tell me something because it's the cheap option because I have the cash to afford it if done right. Anonymous Zebra fucked around with this message at 08:42 on Oct 14, 2020 |
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Oct 14, 2020 08:39
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I've never been in a single family home that had zones for a forced air system. I guess I just have other priorities for $14k than you. I'd seal that opening with grout or concrete and angle iron.
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Oct 14, 2020 15:09
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The unit you have looks like it was salvaged off the roof of a restaurant or dentists office or something The right way to do it would be to buy a Trane brand 1.5 ton (or whatever is sized correctly for your house) condenser unit, then buy a combo ac/furnace and stick that in your mechanical closet and/or garage, or in the roof, and then run the condenser line (which is drilled with a 1.5" drill bit, and you run a 1.25" pipe through the hole, squirt it with some foam for good measure, no rat will chew it fit through that, especially 12" off the ground) through the wall to the combo ac/furnace, and then have the combo unit feed the ducting. In older homes with AC retrofit it's not uncommon to run it along the ceiling along one corner and then drywall/paint over it. Oh, and put the condenser on a concrete slab I wouldn't look into multi zone AC unless your house is at least 3,500 sq ft, not worth it. If you have one room that gets excessively warm (western exposure living room with lots of windows, no trees) that would be a good candidate for a single install of a ventless AC unit. 3500 is the bare minimum, but realistically you need like 4200 sq ft with a bunch of unused bedrooms/bathrooms for that to be worth it My friend growing up had two AC systems, the primary cooled the whole house and master bedroom, and then the secondary cooled the other three bedrooms (~600 sq ft including bathrooms). Once their kids moved out, they would keep the kids bedrooms at 82F or whatever and the rest of the house at 73F Hadlock fucked around with this message at 15:26 on Oct 14, 2020 |
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Oct 14, 2020 15:23
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What kind of air filtration/purification system do you guys have? I was looking into a beam of light, and I have tons of dust floating around. I also have pets, so I'd like a stand alone system in the living room to help filter some of that out. I read that UV lights are a gimmick and so is the antibacterial filters. I even saw a thing where you cma tape a hepa filter to a box fan and get results. I don't want that because it's ugly. What do you guys use in your home?
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Oct 14, 2020 15:59
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We've bought three so far This https://www.amazon.com/Honeywell-50250-S-True-HEPA-Purifier/dp/B00007E7RY/ We got this one because it has a mechanical switch and we could put it on an automated timer for three hours every night, but it's ugly and takes up a lot of floor space. It lives at my mother in law's house now This Ugggh not going to look it up, but it has a glowing blue led stripe like a blue cylon  and the air shoots out to one side, and the air flow kind of sucks, we only recently pulled it out of storage due to wildfiresThis one I don't hate: https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B07HMMM8LH The air flow is really good, the air shoots out straight ahead (most shoot out at an angle) uses the same C-1 and F-1 standard HEPA filters as above. Also no bright lights etc to annoy you at night UV C does kill covid19 instantly, so it's not a total gimmick right now, but otherwise yeah it's useless If it died tomorrow I'd buy another one. It's not super gimmicky, is relatively quiet and just works. And the handle on top is really nice If you're going to get an air filter, get a roomba too, pets create an unholy amount of dust, dogs in particular. Eufy makes a pretty acceptable roomba knock off for not a lot of money Also also, the air filter will only filter the air within about 9 square feet of the filter, get something like a vornado 660 to fully circulate the air https://www.amazon.com/Vornado-CR1-0121-06-Large-Whole-Circulator/dp/B0025QKUE8/ We have one in almost every room now and they're loving amazing, even on the lowest setting, and they're dead quiet
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Oct 14, 2020 16:19
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I bought an ugly as sin Austin Air healthmate from Nordicpure using some random promo code I Googled. (First time that's ever worked for me.) On low it is quiet enough to sleep with. I also had a trane 5" filter installed in my ducts. It's like merv 11? When we were doing renovations which involved a lot of plaster work I bought a box of 10x10x2 high merv filters from Nordicpure and taped them to cheap box fans to clear the air of dust. Ugly and loud but pulled a lot of dust out of the air.
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Oct 14, 2020 16:37
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Hadlock posted:We've bought three so far Due to owning cats who have a propensity for eating too fast and throwing it all up or randomly coughing out hairballs, robot vacuums aren't an option for me, unfortunately. Once my hand me down upright vacuum dies, I will probably upgrade to a canister vacuum like a Miele. I'm kind of kicking myself for not buying one when I was doing a lot of drywalling and sanding, but better late than never?
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Oct 14, 2020 16:42
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That one looks fine, just looks like a fancy box fan with an air filter Me personally, I'd get two of my tower models I, too, have barfy cats, the roomba isn't damaged by cat barf or hairballs Roomba now sells a line of mops, we just got a braava but we haven't tested it out yet as we're still rearranging furniture in the house Strong recommend on the roomba, that was life changing as an owner of two cats. Pet owners are the number 1 buyers of roombas. Air filters fix the symptoms of dust, but roombas actually solve the root problem.
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Oct 14, 2020 16:50
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Hadlock posted:That one looks fine, just looks like a fancy box fan with an air filter My fear is that the roomba will spread the barf out all over the hardwood floors and smear it into the crevices. I've seen pictures of roomba spreading fecal matter and vomit all over the room. Have they fixed that issue with advanced sensor or anything of the sort?
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Oct 14, 2020 16:58
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Hadlock posted:The unit you have looks like it was salvaged off the roof of a restaurant or dentists office or something An interesting assessment, but the serial number and information in the permit indicate it was brand new when installed. It was new enough that when a part failed last year, it was still under warranty and I got the new part installed for free. Hadlock posted:I wouldn't look into multi zone AC unless your house is at least 3,500 sq ft, not worth it. If you have one room that gets excessively warm (western exposure living room with lots of windows, no trees) that would be a good candidate for a single install of a ventless AC unit. 3500 is the bare minimum, but realistically you need like 4200 sq ft with a bunch of unused bedrooms/bathrooms for that to be worth it Okay, thanks for this. No the house is not 3,500 sq ft., it's just spread out in a way that not all the rooms cool/heat equally and the thermostat is far enough away that its hard to balance it all out. I wasn't sure if "zones" was the correct word to use here. Installing a ductless system in a few rooms to run at night while the main system is off is definitely an idea I'll put on the list. Setting up a completely second AC system is probably out of the question though, since there is no other yard space for a second unit. Hadlock posted:The right way to do it would be to buy a Trane brand 1.5 ton (or whatever is sized correctly for your house) condenser unit, then buy a combo ac/furnace and stick that in your mechanical closet and/or garage, or in the roof, and then run the condenser line (which is drilled with a 1.5" drill bit, and you run a 1.25" pipe through the hole, squirt it with some foam for good measure, no rat will chew it fit through that, especially 12" off the ground) through the wall to the combo ac/furnace, and then have the combo unit feed the ducting. In older homes with AC retrofit it's not uncommon to run it along the ceiling along one corner and then drywall/paint over it. Okay, so I'm having trouble picturing this, mostly because I have no experience with central air. The first thing I'll poo poo here is sticking anything in a mechanical closet in the home or in the garage. The only closets in my house are in the bedrooms. There are no other closets for furnaces, or anything else anywhere in the house. There are lots of cabinets and shelving units for holding things, but no closets. Besides our HVAC unit being completely outside, you can also see that our water softener is outside. Around the corner a little ways is also our water heater tank (inside a little protected outside closet). Our washer and dryer are also not even inside our main house, they are in our garage, which is actually detached and set back a ways from the home. That might seem a little silly, but lots of these houses that tried to put their laundry inside the homes just ended up wasting precious living space making the houses more cramped. The garage itself is pretty nice, and we'll probably eventually make it a (fully up to code and permitted) in-law suite since it already has electric, water, and sewer connections, and walking out there to do our laundry isn't a big deal. But it does mean that the garage is not connected to the house in a manner that would allow us to use it for furnaces/AC. I'll have to look into putting something on the roof. All I know is that is super not recommended here because of the quakes, but there might be a safe way of doing it, however I also might run into the city just saying, "Nope" when it comes to getting permits for that. So you're suggesting that ductwork be below the ceiling to our rooms and then just covered by drywall? I'll keep that in mind, but I'm not sure that would look very nice in some of the additions with no attic.
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Oct 14, 2020 17:14
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I really don't think you need to take such extreme measures. It defies belief that that ductwork entry point cannot be sealed with a bit of leg work.
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Oct 14, 2020 18:52
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