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therobit posted:They are probably talking about the cords being cut. That’s what I figured, but I couldn’t resist being pedantic about it. quote:Well fitted storm windows will give you efficiency almost equivalent to brand new vinyl windows. Although, they do mean you can't open the window for air in the winter and then in the spring you need to change them out for screens. I still probably wouldn't replace a whole house of windows if I could avoid it. We’re considering storm panes for the northern-facing windows because those get brutalized the most during the winter and that’s where all the wind and drafts come from. Also I’ve found evidence that our front entrance used to have outer storm or screen doors so that’ll be another thing to look into (front entrance is a big source of draftiness despite being a vestibule with two layers of door, but mostly just needs new weatherstripping). But yeah, I’ve done a bunch of research on improving energy efficiency in my old house, and mass replacement of windows is pretty much the worst ROI. Yes, you will save energy and your house will be more comfortable, but new windows are so expensive that they’ll never pay for themselves before they need to be replaced again. Adding/redoing insulation is a much better ROI because it’s way cheaper than new windows and most old houses had jackshit for insulation so you get huge gains there.
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Nov 9, 2020 19:41
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Queen Victorian posted:I’ve done a bunch of research on improving energy efficiency in my old house, and mass replacement of windows is pretty much the worst ROI. Yeah, a top of the line replacement window or door spray foamed in, will make your house airtight to a degree, and that's great, but if your walls and attic or the sill of your crawlspace/basement are under-insulated or leaky, that's worse. Apparently where the walls meet the foundation are notoriously leaky on most houses and I've compared bills from attic insulation jobs and it helps a lot. Tauton's build like a pro series seems good, I own their insulating book. One time someone balked at a $2000+ door and we straight up told them they could just put in 5-10 cheaper doors over the years for the same price if needed and consider their age, and they appreciated the advice. Another anecdote: when my old land lady replaced our old painted shut windows with cheapo vinyl, our bills went up, but at least we could escape easier in a fire! Quaint Quail Quilt fucked around with this message at 22:04 on Nov 9, 2020 |
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Nov 9, 2020 22:02
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therobit posted:Well fitted storm windows will give you efficiency almost equivalent to brand new vinyl windows. They really won't. I grew up in houses with those and there is no comparison to even the lowest of low end modern double pane windows. Also, one of the biggest losses is AROUND the windows. With old style windows that have counterweights you can't do what is considered best practice for air sealing and insulating a window: finishing with low ex spray foam before installing the trim.
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Nov 9, 2020 22:11
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The newer ones at least offer similar performance according to the Department of Energy
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Nov 10, 2020 05:42
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I was just logging expenses and apparently I spent $100 fixing my drafty back door, including a far too expensive pry bar. That'll never pay off, but it's nice not to have a cold spot by the kitchen table. Someday I'll replace the aluminum windows on the second floor, that the glass units have all failed on. It won't ever pay off, but it'll be nice just to make the bedrooms a little more comfortable and quieter. The main cost right now is that someone is at home all day and we don't let the heat drop mid day.
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Nov 10, 2020 06:27
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I'm replacing a bunch of painted shut wooden single glazed windows in my place right now, and the main driver for me isn't really the added thermal insulation, it's the soundproofing. Modern uPVC double glazing is far better at dampening traffic noise.
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Nov 10, 2020 12:20
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Welp. Hired a recommended pest control person to help with the roach issue we've been having. They suggested a outdoor treatment of "Talstar P" ( https://www.domyown.com/talstar-professional-insecticide-p-97.html ) "to the outside edge of the house and into the crawl space vents". I asked if they needed to get into the crawl space - nope. We told them (and they saw) we have small children who play in the yard and such so we need to make sure things are safe. No problem. He goes off to do his thing, and I look outside to see him carpet bombing all edges of our grass, patio, sidewalks, etc which is covered in childrens toys. This was well away from the described area of work, which we were very clear on in person. The toys got wet. How big of a deal is this? We have a 1 and 4 year old, so it's not like I can say "don't eat the grass" to the 1 year old. It's various materials - sidewalk chalk, metal, rubber, and plastics on scooters/tricycle/bicycle (all three!). I assume the chalk is just trash now, can the other things be cleaned with soap and water? I am pretty sure they didn't hit our fruit trees but it's really hard to know, I wasn't standing there staring at him the whole time.
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Nov 10, 2020 19:51
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I think you're overestimating the effectiveness of insecticide on humans, but your concern is understandable. Read through the label on domyown to see their own warnings. I looked through it and it looks like most of it is in regards to consuming it directly, or direct application to pets and crops. Once the spray dries you're good to go and it's pet and child safe for the most part. You should try to avoid eating things covered by it as much as possible, obviously. I would wash the toys off with soap and hot water and some scrubbing and try to keep your kids from eating grass and licking the sidewalk. You could also mow your grass lower to reduce the amount of grass available to eat. I use Talstar P and a few other pesticides and my dumb dog ate some grass after a recent application had dried and she didn't have any adverse affects I could notice. She weighs 30 pounds for reference. In any case I would buy a 2-5 gallon sprayer and do your next application yourself so you don't run into this again. It's not hard and you can avoid areas you know your family spends time on.
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Nov 10, 2020 20:16
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H110Hawk posted:How big of a deal is this? Talstar P is one of the most commonly used pesticides. It's a neurotoxin and quite nasty when wet. Cats lack the enzymes in their livers to process it, but most other mammals are fine. Once it's dry it's largely inert to anything other than bugs. I agree with SpartanIvy - for both your own peace of mind and cost, just do this yourself. That way you know you're not spraying things that, even while it should be fine, you don't want getting sprayed.
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Nov 10, 2020 23:06
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Thank you both. I was just trying to set my bearings because I legitimately didn't know. We washed off the toys and ironically the gardeners came an hour later and mowed down the grass. We tossed the permeable stuff since stopping the baby from eating it is never going to happen and it's like $10 total in stuff, easy peace of mind. I was furious that he did a ton of area that wasn't described, definitely mowing down the substantial bee population we used to have on our flowering native garden. He then had the audacity to say "well the toys were in the way" basically, when no one said "hey please pickup those toys, they're going to get sprayed" (10' away from the area to be treated, which the label says 3' up 2' out from the base of the house. I asked about the fruit trees and he said he didn't get to that area because I stopped him. The SDS specifically says not to spray fruit bearing trees for consumption that season. I presume our sandbox also would have been sprayed. The whole point in hiring someone is so it gets done. Next you're going to tell me to mow my postage stamp sized lawn or scrub my own toilet. 
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Nov 11, 2020 01:26
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There's two options in home ownership. Do it yourself and have only yourself to blame when it's wrong, or pay someone else to do it wrong for you.
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Nov 11, 2020 01:36
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StormDrain posted:There's two options in home ownership. Do it yourself and have only yourself to blame when it's wrong, or pay someone else to do it wrong for you. I need this crocheted and hanging in my living room Also for me homeownership is buying $300 of tools to avoid paying someone $100 to do a $30 job.
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Nov 11, 2020 01:42
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H110Hawk posted:He then had the audacity to say "well the toys were in the way" basically, when no one said "hey please pickup those toys, they're going to get sprayed" (10' away from the area to be treated, which the label says 3' up 2' out from the base of the house. Okay, lemmie tell you about how this works. I just had to re-cert for my pesticide license last year. The testing class was mostly a bunch of dudes from exterminators and pesticide companies that were obviously still hung over and/or needing their next fix. From the chatter, a significant number of them were on at least their second attempt. Even taking pesticides and licensure out of the mix, you can't get a "landscaper" (the kind that basically just mow grass) to get off their riding mower to not run over dog/kids toys. As hard as i tried back in the day when i was a landscaper I could not reliable hire people who would act appropriately because you simply can't charge enough to get good help and still be profitable. It was all so much better when it was just a 2-man show, me and my buddy who started it. But again, you can't really make enough money that way so you have to scale when you're not doing this as a high school side job anymore.
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Nov 11, 2020 02:06
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SpartanIvy posted:I need this crocheted and hanging in my living room
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Nov 11, 2020 02:28
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Motronic posted:Okay, lemmie tell you about how this works. I just had to re-cert for my pesticide license last year. The testing class was mostly a bunch of dudes from exterminators and pesticide companies that were obviously still hung over and/or needing their next fix. From the chatter, a significant number of them were on at least their second attempt. Oh I know, this guy didn't give 2 shits and definitely was hung over. It was a dedicated pest control company, local, well reviewed, etc. Our mow-and-blow guys are really good about moving the toys but also the worst thing that happens is there is sometimes a hilarious patch of grass that is 6" tall because it hasn't been mowed due to the toy-pile landing there. They also don't string-trim down our just recently flowered plants, trim them at the right time of the year, etc. It blows my mind the value we get for the money paid.
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Nov 11, 2020 02:29
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The new title is fabulous.
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Nov 11, 2020 02:32
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H110Hawk posted:Oh I know, this guy didn't give 2 shits and definitely was hung over. It was a dedicated pest control company, local, well reviewed, etc. Our mow-and-blow guys are really good about moving the toys but also the worst thing that happens is there is sometimes a hilarious patch of grass that is 6" tall because it hasn't been mowed due to the toy-pile landing there. They also don't string-trim down our just recently flowered plants, trim them at the right time of the year, etc. It blows my mind the value we get for the money paid. Then you have gotten lucky with the mow and blow guys available to you. I tried to keep some semblance of that with the crews we ran. I just keep my own cabinet full of scary poo poo. Note the Talstar P right up front. 
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Nov 11, 2020 02:36
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Motronic posted:Then you have gotten lucky with the mow and blow guys available to you. It is luck, these are the third ones or so. The previous ones couldn't even do extra hourly work even with the usual "ask three times, hope it gets done once" understanding of quality. "Yo, sell me a truckload of redwood mulch, and charge me for a trip to spread it around" was apparently a bridge too far. I just want to trade money for goods and services. 
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Nov 11, 2020 02:42
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H110Hawk posted:I just want to trade money for goods and services. StormDrain posted:There's two options in home ownership. Do it yourself and have only yourself to blame when it's wrong, or pay someone else to do it wrong for you. This is my excuse to have a fleet of equipment and a dump trailer.
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Nov 11, 2020 03:05
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Motronic posted:This is my excuse to have a fleet of equipment and a dump trailer. Please be careful not to ever let your or anyone else's wife learn this information. The results for men in America would be dire.
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Nov 11, 2020 04:05
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therobit posted:Please be careful not to ever let your or anyone else's wife learn this information. The results for men in America would be dire. Sorry, but she knows and plays along. I can ask her not to tell anyone else.
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Nov 11, 2020 04:18
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Motronic posted:This is my excuse to have a fleet of equipment and a dump trailer. How do you feel about driving west 30-40 minutes? There's a few other goons here, and I homebrew enough beer to cover all of us.
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Nov 11, 2020 04:25
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Motronic posted:This is my excuse to have a fleet of equipment and a dump trailer. It's a solid justification. I was daydreaming about renting a tractor to grade the 15' strip on the side of my house for a while today. Maybe I'll do it this spring.
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Nov 11, 2020 06:10
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Queen Victorian posted:PS: how do you break a counterweight? They are just hunks of iron. It’s been a few years since I last ripped one out, but I think the mechanism in mine is something more akin to a tape balance than a pulley counterweight. But that got knackered all good and proper just by lifting the window one day, and by the time I got the trim out it was just as easy to replace the whole jeezless thing. Several of the upstairs windows are similarly putzed but I hate ladders, so someone else is gonna hafta eventually replace those for me. It’s not even an easily replaceable balance, it’s built into the frame if I recall correctly.
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Nov 11, 2020 06:17
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On the subject of mulch: Is there any way to avoid weird bullshit? PO had pine straw that hadn't been replenished in forever, so we replaced it with mulch. Worked fine for a while, we were buying bags of the dyed crap at the hardware store. Occasionally had some slime fungus, but very rare. Had the whole front and side re-landscaped last spring, and gently caress me. They mulched everything, about 9 cubic yards worth. First issue: a poo poo-ton of box elder bugs. I mean, they're not harmful, but they were goddamn everywhere. Exterminator took care of them a while ago. Second issue, mold/fungus like we've never seen. Slime mold in a few spots, but that goes away. The main issue is artillery fungus... didn't know what it was until it had spread out of control, now takes up about 70% of 2 of the large beds, definitely have some spores on the siding. Also had some strange phallus-looking fungus in one area. Gray top with a red/orange shaft. Attracts tons of flies. Google tells me that this is Phallus rubicundus. Is bagged mulch the only way to avoid this sort of issue? Or is this a crapshoot no matter what?
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Nov 11, 2020 13:09
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DaveSauce posted:On the subject of mulch: The fungi suggests more of a moisture problem, which is basically just too much mulch. Both the stinkhorn and the artillery fungus are more unsightly and gross than dangerous. I had stinkhorns in my garden this year and I thought they were fascinating... at least as far as mushrooms shaped like a slimy dog dick that smell so bad they attract flies go. Chad Sexington fucked around with this message at 16:29 on Nov 11, 2020 |
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Nov 11, 2020 16:26
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Chad Sexington posted:The fungi suggests more of a moisture problem, which is basically just too much mulch. Both the stinkhorn and the artillery fungus are more unsightly and gross than dangerous. Interesting. I figured we always went overboard with the bagged stuff, and that the landscaper was more likely to put an appropriate amount down. I had assumed that the fungus, like the bugs, came in with the bulk mulch since we never had issue with them before. The stinkhorns are cool looking, at least the ones that are brightly colored. Just the other day we found a couple in a different bed, but they were more olive drab colored, like someone had planted a cheap dildo. But the artillery fungus, from what I've read, can really do a number on siding. The spores are apparently really hard to remove, so I'd like to avoid this in the future.
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Nov 11, 2020 16:44
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Residency Evil posted:gently caress. Our shower is leaking in to our living room again. Last time, it was an issue with the caulking around the shower door, which I fixed myself after we had a plumber come out and water mitigation people come out and make sure there wasn't a more serious leak. I also ended up recaulking the bottom part of our shower completely after that. We were planning on repainting our living room to fix the water damage, but should my first step in this case be to hire someone to do a very good/thorough job of resealing the shower completely? quote:Here's the quote I got: Shower resealed, no more leak! Apparently I'm a lovely DIY shower resealer.
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Nov 11, 2020 16:48
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what'd you do about the water damage or mold in/above your living room ceiling?
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Nov 11, 2020 17:00
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pmchem posted:what'd you do about the water damage or mold in/above your living room ceiling? Water mitigation guy said it was a recent thing/didn't find moisture in the ceiling, so hopefully minimal/no mold. Going to have to repaint the ceiling/living room/dining room.
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Nov 11, 2020 17:14
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Alarbus posted:How do you feel about driving west 30-40 minutes? There's a few other goons here, and I homebrew enough beer to cover all of us. That's just what we need - a goon meet with heavy equipment and beer.
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Nov 11, 2020 17:20
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Motronic posted:That's just what we need - a goon meet with heavy equipment and beer. That sounds 10x better than any previous goon meet I've been to.
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Nov 11, 2020 17:22
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 +  +  = 
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Nov 11, 2020 17:31
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My main issue with Bifenthrin is that it only lasts 1.5 months once sprayed 
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Nov 11, 2020 18:19
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Saw this in TFR’s deals thread and thought of you homeowners:Henrik Zetterberg posted:Pretty wild sale going on for tools at Home Depot:
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Nov 11, 2020 19:10
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That's no more significant than any other Black Friday discount that's often seen, but it's worth checking out if you do need more tools 
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Nov 11, 2020 22:58
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Bought a little giant multi ladder based off remembering people talk about it in this thread, plus it being on sale at Home Depot. Works pretty well, pretty happy with it being my only ladder.
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Nov 14, 2020 23:11
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I have one that I like too, great for when you need an uneven ladder like stairs or a slope, and a nice compact extension ladder too. Heavy though. I usually still grab the 6ft fiberglass ladder for around the house.
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Nov 15, 2020 03:29
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DaveSauce posted:On the subject of mulch: You can buy properly prepared bulk mulch that has cooked long enough to kill everything inside and attached to it. It gets hot enough to catch itself on fire. That said, rocks last forever if you don't care about keeping bulbs warm or fertilizing trees.
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Nov 16, 2020 22:01
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Imagine three switches If the stair light is on and the entry light is off, turning on the porch light works. If the stair light is off and the entry light is on, turning on the porch light works. If both stairs and entry are on, turning on the porch light doesn't work. If the porch light is flipped to on (even if it doesn't work) and you turn off one of the other two that are on, the porch light turns on. If the porch light is already on and you turn on the other two, the porch light stays on and the others work too. If you turn off the porch light from that state and then try to turn it back on, it won't turn on until you turn off one of the other two. Now I just need to figure out how to get this cabbage and goat across the river and I'll finally have my electrical problems sorted.
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Nov 17, 2020 03:04
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