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i wanna hear more about you having to fight raccoons to get at your xmas tchotchkes or whatever
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Oct 16, 2020 23:03
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I do have a groundhog digging up the foundations of the back deck but besides that no Man VS Beast stories here.H110Hawk posted:It will probably work unless there is some material change or degradation from last winter. Sorry no pictures, cant get to house easily right now. When you mean material change are you referring to the tarp or roof? The roof will leak if not attended too but its definitely one of those problems where when you start working on it, it will expand exponentially in cost and scale. I dont think I have time to get the whole roof redone by winter. Side question: Is this the right place to ask about residential water purification? Actual house uses a well and welp we bought cheap land by an old dump so god knows how much mercury and CFC's are still leaking down. Im in the process of getting the water tested but just incase Im planning to have some purification system put in. Last comprehensive water analysis was done in the 80s and everything was present, just in very small amounts. Anyone have directions on where I should go for answers? Gaj fucked around with this message at 00:29 on Oct 17, 2020 |
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Oct 17, 2020 00:26
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Gaj posted:I do have a groundhog digging up the foundations of the back deck but besides that no Man VS Beast stories here. Hoo boy... purifying heavy metals ain’t no easy task for a home filtration system. That’s why flint is getting their entire plumbing infrastructure ripped out and replaced, because it’s tough to filter that at the tap. Whole home filtration is more for stuff like sulfur and chlorine, using activated charcoal to draw out impurities (activated charcoal has a very high surface area which causes poo poo to stick to it). Definitely see what your water test says... this question probably needs a real professional to answer. Viruses and bacteria are super easy to filter, metals not so much. It’s why I can’t treat water backpacking near old mines, because of arsenic and heavy metals runoff.
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Oct 17, 2020 04:09
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OSU_Matthew posted:Hoo boy... purifying heavy metals ain’t no easy task for a home filtration system. That’s why flint is getting their entire plumbing infrastructure ripped out and replaced, because it’s tough to filter that at the tap. My sister in law works for the EPA in the water quality division and has for a long time. What I have learned from this is both what you said and 'always email her the water report".
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Oct 17, 2020 04:48
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Hi friendly lock dude: The lowest quality locks are going to be Kwikset, and those are often sold at home depot. Around the same tier is Schlage. Schlage locks are safer than Kwikset, but the build quality is going to be closer to builder grade. Then you have Baldwin and Emtek. With Baldwin, you should stay away from the non-Reserve and Estate models (as they have been recently trying to pawn off low quality locks at Home Depot). Almost everything Emtek produces is decently high quality. Beyond that then you have some special designer brands like Ashley Norton where the build quality is outstanding and the locks may be slightly better than Baldwin and Emtek, but nobody will really care as the former two brands already feel luxury and are made out of real brass.
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Oct 17, 2020 05:51
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OSU_Matthew posted:Hoo boy... purifying heavy metals ain’t no easy task for a home filtration system. That’s why flint is getting their entire plumbing infrastructure ripped out and replaced, because it’s tough to filter that at the tap. Ok so I should get the water test processed, possibly twice, and see what heavy metals Im dealing with before I go looking for any purifier systems. If its just chemicals like CFC or teflon than it should be possible to get a system to clean it out?
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Oct 17, 2020 06:50
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After buying a shitton of Honeywell/Jasco Zwave dimmers they + my Lithonia ILED wafers do some really hosed up ringing around 30% and 80-90% brightness. It looks like a rave when I turn everything on. I guess I’m going to have to throw them out and get Lutron  Seriously is there any place I can resell these. Edit: before I go crazy, are there any additional settings on the Zwave side of things like capping the brightness to 70% or something. I haven’t paired them yet. Hed fucked around with this message at 02:04 on Oct 18, 2020 |
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Oct 18, 2020 02:01
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Hed posted:After buying a shitton of Honeywell/Jasco Zwave dimmers they + my Lithonia ILED wafers do some really hosed up ringing around 30% and 80-90% brightness. I just RMA'd some z-wave dimmers because they are trash with LEDs. I knew better, but I decided to give it a whirl anyway. From now on, I'm sticking to my guns: smart switches for LEDs only the relay (click/click) on/off type, no dimmers. For dimmers, I'll bend over and pay the $30 for Lutron Divas.
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Oct 18, 2020 02:33
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Hed posted:After buying a shitton of Honeywell/Jasco Zwave dimmers they + my Lithonia ILED wafers do some really hosed up ringing around 30% and 80-90% brightness. It looks like a rave when I turn everything on. Can't return them? Or force an rma? Otherwise Facebook marketplace.
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Oct 18, 2020 03:21
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So I’m a city boy who’s lived in apartments my entire life, my wife came into some money and we bought a house in Big Bear CA <mountain town>. The house is a meager 900 square feet on a 6000 square lot. We also recently got a 4 month old puppy, so we called up a contractor to get a quote for a fence. Nothing huge, 14 feet from the front of the house to our neighbors fence up front, 34 feet along the back and another 14 to the deck. 6 feet tall cedar with 2 4 foot gates, they quoted us at $6800. The wife then called up her aunt who has lived up here the last 15 years and her handy man husband, he did the math and just material he said 1,600 and we’d just build it ourselves. So my question what’s the best way to dig post holes as the entire property 2 inches down is straight hand sized rocks and I’m going to be the one that has to dig them all out.
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Oct 18, 2020 08:07
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This is why you're paying 6800 for a pro. It's not the fencing part it's the difficulty with digging. Digging through rock sucks I'd recommend renting a trailer hitch mounted auger at minimum so you can get the holes dug.
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Oct 18, 2020 11:00
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Deviant posted:as a child i thought my father was good at household handyman tasks because he and by extension his father had come from an earlier time, before the pervasiveness of computers, etc. This post hit me. I realized the same thing about my dad not too long ago. He was winging it. I am winging it. We're all winging it. Glad the wall got fixed.
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Oct 18, 2020 12:38
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he1ixx posted:This post hit me. I realized the same thing about my dad not too long ago. He was winging it. I am winging it. We're all winging it.
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Oct 18, 2020 12:44
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he1ixx posted:This post hit me. I realized the same thing about my dad not too long ago. He was winging it. I am winging it. We're all winging it. Every project I tackle I run into horrible poo poo from 120 years of previous owners. Cumulatively I have probably done more to this house than all of them combined. It warms the cockles of my heart to think that someone will be cursing my name in 120 years  a sexual elk posted:So I’m a city boy who’s lived in apartments my entire life, my wife came into some money and we bought a house in Big Bear CA <mountain town>. The house is a meager 900 square feet on a 6000 square lot. We also recently got a 4 month old puppy, so we called up a contractor to get a quote for a fence. Nothing huge, 14 feet from the front of the house to our neighbors fence up front, 34 feet along the back and another 14 to the deck. 6 feet tall cedar with 2 4 foot gates, they quoted us at $6800. The wife then called up her aunt who has lived up here the last 15 years and her handy man husband, he did the math and just material he said 1,600 and we’d just build it ourselves. So my question what’s the best way to dig post holes as the entire property 2 inches down is straight hand sized rocks and I’m going to be the one that has to dig them all out. https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3897027&perpage=40&noseen=1 Lessons learned: Digging holes really sucks. Just pay someone else to do it for you. Eventually managed to get the first 3/4 of holes in with a tow behind auger, but even that wasn’t easy. You need something with upward/downward pressure to clear rocks, bobcat with auger is the answer. Also I planned holes every 8’ but cumulative error of losing an inch on each one meant that six holes in I had to widen everything after. Sounds like you don’t have a lot to do, so shouldn’t be as hateful as mine was. Just be aware it is hard work, especially digging in debris. I underestimated that greatly, even with multiple auger rentals. Root Assassin tile shovel + clamshell posthole digger works great in clean soil. Tag team loosening the soil and clearing the hole. You’ll need fence post levels, and a long level for the top. Post hole foam works awesome instead of messing with quikreke, will probably also make replacement easier when your wood rots out. Materials shortages with covid suck. Took months to finally get all the materials. Get your permits, call 811, run your strings, etc. And even when you do everything 100% by the book, expect that the dingus surveying the house two doors down is going to come by, yank up your survey pins because they decided they made a mistake seven years ago, and shift everything over so your fence is now encroaching on your neighbors property and your new driveway is in limbo. 
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Oct 18, 2020 14:51
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Hed posted:After buying a shitton of Honeywell/Jasco Zwave dimmers they + my Lithonia ILED wafers do some really hosed up ringing around 30% and 80-90% brightness. It looks like a rave when I turn everything on. Very strange. That's all I use in my house (Honeywell zwave dimmers) and haven't had a problem with multiple different LEDs. Of course I tend to buy things like Soraa bulbs.
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Oct 18, 2020 16:38
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Motronic posted:Very strange. That's all I use in my house (Honeywell zwave dimmers) and haven't had a problem with multiple different LEDs. Of course I tend to buy things like Soraa bulbs. I also have almost entirely Jasco-based dimmers. Mine are seemingly both bulb- and fixture-specific. I can dim the same LEDs in a lamp but not in whatever mess of an 8-bulb fixture exists in my bathroom. I had to go back to a switch for that circuit because the dimmer made an incredibly loud buzzing noise whenever it was on. As far as I know you can't set a max/minimum intensity at the hardware level, just the ramp speed for remote/local dimming. On that note, are there any good no-neutral wire Z-wave dimmers? I have one that functions (Innovelli I think) but it is weirdly slow to respond to either remote or local control and the dimming is not at all smooth.
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Oct 18, 2020 16:55
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OSU_Matthew posted:Every project I tackle I run into horrible poo poo from 120 years of previous owners. Cumulatively I have probably done more to this house than all of them combined. It warms the cockles of my heart to think that someone will be cursing my name in 120 years Me, every time I fix something in my house.
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Oct 18, 2020 17:53
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I got this unsolicited email from a person who rents out their condo in my building. there are also 11 townhomes rented, and the association had not been following the governing documents which stated that this wasn't actually allowed. So now due to some pressure from homeowners who actually lived here and asked the board to enforce it's owning governing documents, they hired a property law lawyer who unsurprisingly said "you have to follow the rules, even if people have ignored them until now." they are giving them until late next year before the fines start - there's no retroactive punishment. i basically told her to gently caress off haha My favorite part is probably "oh no there will be many vacant units" when this is literally the best time to sell a home in the history of the twin cities (the median home price a few months ago just hit 300k, which is a record). quote:
actionjackson fucked around with this message at 01:25 on Oct 19, 2020 |
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Oct 19, 2020 00:55
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Gaj posted:Sorry no pictures, cant get to house easily right now. When you mean material change are you referring to the tarp or roof? The roof will leak if not attended too but its definitely one of those problems where when you start working on it, it will expand exponentially in cost and scale. I dont think I have time to get the whole roof redone by winter. I meant "what has changed since last winter" not materials like wood or vinyl or whatever. I realize how that was a confusing way to write it now, oops. Unless the thing looks like it's about to collapse or has degraded severely in the past 12 months I would just tarp it.
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Oct 19, 2020 18:10
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Oh, the only thing that has changed is now massive leaking, and the bungalow itself is filled with family memorabilia. I think Imma just go with tarp because the bungalow itself is such a loving shitfuck wreck. The foundation is just cinderblocks mortared directly to the bedrock, no prepping. The crawlspace pools water since again, not a real foundation. Theres no moisture barrier. The house has been hit by a backhoe, and a car so its slooowly falling apart. Fun side story. The bungalow is such a poo poo shack that the lighting in the kitchen can only be turned on via code. As in to turn on all lights via 6 switches you need to flip 1,2,3,5,1,3,6. You can turn on the lights connected to switch 4 using other switches. Gaj fucked around with this message at 03:10 on Oct 20, 2020 |
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Oct 20, 2020 02:55
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Gaj posted:Oh, the only thing that has changed is now massive leaking, and the bungalow itself is filled with family memorabilia. I think Imma just go with tarp because the bungalow itself is such a loving shitfuck wreck. I think your problem is that this isn’t a bungalow, its 90s cd adventure game
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Oct 20, 2020 03:13
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Gaj posted:Fun side story. The bungalow is such a poo poo shack that the lighting in the kitchen can only be turned on via code. As in to turn on all lights via 6 switches you need to flip 1,2,3,5,1,3,6. You can turn on the lights connected to switch 4 using other switches. This is amazing. Someone doesn't know what 3 or 4 way switches are when they were installing.
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Oct 20, 2020 03:16
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Only the finest Ukrainian handymen and DIY work ethic went into it. Oh that kitchen? Its an extension that was ADDED by my family when they bought it.
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Oct 20, 2020 03:29
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Gaj posted:Only the finest Ukrainian handymen and DIY work ethic went into it. Oh that kitchen? Its an extension that was ADDED by my family when they bought it. You wouldn't be interested in pulling the cover off or anything and taking a picture of the insides would you? You know, for 
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Oct 20, 2020 04:05
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Once I can confirm the existence of a circuit break, yeah sure.
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Oct 20, 2020 04:10
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PCjr sidecar posted:I think your problem is that this isn’t a bungalow, its 90s cd adventure game If you need to turn this into a profitable venture, don't rent it out on AirBNB. Instead, rent it out as a puzzle room.
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Oct 20, 2020 04:44
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And yall think Japan is weird for bulldozing old trash labyrinth houses and rebuilding new…
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Oct 20, 2020 12:38
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I've never owned a home with a working fireplace before. How mandatory are fire log racks? I don't plan on storing firewood long term, and will probably burn it a handful of times. Can I get away with just laying down some tarp on the garage or something? I know termites are a huge concern, but I have termite traps around the perimeter of the house.
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Oct 20, 2020 13:57
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bulldoze your thirteen-ghosts-rear end-house
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Oct 20, 2020 14:12
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Had a home warranty until Saturday. Today my furnace isn't working. Dammit.
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Oct 20, 2020 14:56
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Bioshuffle posted:I've never owned a home with a working fireplace before. How mandatory are fire log racks? I don't plan on storing firewood long term, and will probably burn it a handful of times. Can I get away with just laying down some tarp on the garage or something? Get it up off the ground. Termites can and do chew through concrete.
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Oct 20, 2020 15:30
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i have learned of a creature more terrifying than previous owner. previous owner's wife. also i think the bathtub clog i just pulled out called me a racial slur.
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Oct 20, 2020 16:24
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Are there any blogs or anything that talk about sprucing up older cookie-cutter suburban houses? There's lots of houses like this in my area and they're all ugly but affordable:   Someone must have good ideas to make them look interesting if not attractive.
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Oct 20, 2020 16:32
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I really don't think there's any way to make a 70s split level attractive because it's basic shape screams "70s tract house". Also, part of their affordability stems not only from their ugliness but the fact that they are just worn out. I bet there's not a single room you could walk through in any of them where the floor doesn't squeak, and probably half of them actually bounce. They're not quite old enough to expect that they've been fully remodeled and certainly not had an electrical service upgrade, so you're looking at a bunch of worn out poo poo and a stab-loc panel with 60 or 100 amp service. In general, you're looking at pretty ugly, dated floor plan (that can't be fixed without a bulldozer), worn out, near end of life everything. If that doesn't bother you and you pay an appropriate price that could be a good deal on a house. But don't buy one for what you think you can turn it into. Because they're not worth enough to gut and remodel (you're better off knocking it down and building new) so they're always gonna be what they're gonna be.
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Oct 20, 2020 16:57
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And 2 wires to every ceiling fan with no realistic way to fish a new 3 wire romex through. Thank god for remote controlled ceiling fans.
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Oct 20, 2020 17:00
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Motronic posted:Also, part of their affordability stems not only from their ugliness but the fact that they are just worn out. I bet there's not a single room you could walk through in any of them where the floor doesn't squeak, and probably half of them actually bounce. Motronic posted:In general, you're looking at pretty ugly, dated floor plan (that can't be fixed without a bulldozer), worn out, near end of life everything. If that doesn't bother you and you pay an appropriate price that could be a good deal on a house. But don't buy one for what you think you can turn it into. Because they're not worth enough to gut and remodel (you're better off knocking it down and building new) so they're always gonna be what they're gonna be. Some of the old houses are nice, either renovated or priced low enough justify mortgaging renos. But there aren't many and you pay a big premium if you don't want to be in the rougher neighborhoods. unlimited shrimp fucked around with this message at 17:12 on Oct 20, 2020 |
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Oct 20, 2020 17:06
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unlimited shrimp posted:Are there any blogs or anything that talk about sprucing up older cookie-cutter suburban houses? New modern color palette, paint, roof, fixtures, door/door color, windows, region-appropriate landscaping, window boxes, brick paint or whitewash, garage door, gable vents, etc all go a LONG way with these things. You'll never remove the look of what they are unless you strip it down to sheathing and install a new facade entirely, but they can be updated and cleaned up and painted to look ok for what they are.
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Oct 20, 2020 17:21
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unlimited shrimp posted:Maybe a dumb question but how does a formerly sturdy floor come to be bouncy over time? I understand why it might sag but how does that turn in to flex & bounce. Because they weren't all that sturdy to begin with, and relied on the subfloor being properly attached to the joists. The best way to do this well these days is "glued and screwed" - construction adhesive plus epoxy coated screws. What they did back then were use plain or maybe galvanized nails, maybe ring shank if you were lucky, and not all that many of them. So they've loosened and/or corroded over time, the subfloor is no longer properly attached, and the joists haven't been kept from racking for a long time, causing other damage including how they are attached to the ledger - or possibly you just have one or more of them cracked because of the lovely fast growth pine they used in those places back in the day. So again, it's just a bunch of worn out poo poo. These places, like most tract houses ever and to this day, are built with the least amount of the cheapest material possible to make it thought the building inspection/certificate of occupancy and the state mandated warranty period. Is should be absolutely zero surprise that homes constructed this way are approaching teardown level problems at 50 years old. Motronic fucked around with this message at 17:40 on Oct 20, 2020 |
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Oct 20, 2020 17:37
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If you're lucky it's on a slab, which means the first floor doesn't have anywhere to bounce. Hopefully. If you don't have an HOA go hog wild. This isn't to say that they aren't houses with fine bones, but expect a lot of stuff to be aging out - both in look and function. Kinda like how 1940/50's houses all need new pipes, these houses are coming up on that too. Same with the electric system. They might still have an old tank-like HVAC system that is so inefficient that it actually pays off to replace them with modern stuff in a short period of time. H110Hawk fucked around with this message at 17:47 on Oct 20, 2020 |
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Oct 20, 2020 17:41
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Motronic posted:Because they weren't all that sturdy to begin with, and relied on the subfloor being properly attached to the joists. The best way to do this well these days is "glued and screwed" - construction adhesive plus epoxy coated screws. What they did back then were use plain or maybe galvanized nails, maybe ring shank if you were lucky, and not all that many of them. So they've loosened and/or corroded over time, the subfloor is no longer properly attached, and the joists haven't been kept from racking for a long time, causing other damage including how they are attached to the ledger - or possibly you just have one or more of them cracked because of the lovely fast growth pine they used in those places back in the day. Cool, thanks for the info.
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Oct 20, 2020 17:44
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