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GoGoGadgetChris posted:Aw man, my kitchenaid dishwasher (mfg 2007) seems to have well and truly croaked. I even replaced its fuse and it's still an inert chunk of plastic.  Welcome to the Bosch cult.
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Nov 19, 2020 04:13
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H110Hawk posted:
Now let's see if he follows me to the Bosch Benchmark club to have that sweet sweet totally nerdy and not useful at all countdown timer projected on the floor. (and honestly that whatever tech they got from the Thermador acquisition really does make things dry well.......I think it's still only in the benchmarks)
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Nov 19, 2020 04:19
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GoGoGadgetChris posted:Aw man, my kitchenaid dishwasher (mfg 2007) seems to have well and truly croaked. I even replaced its fuse and it's still an inert chunk of plastic. I've done this and it took me a while to realize how dumb of a move it is. Why do you think the fuse popped? It was just old or something? It broke because there's a other problem down the line, the broken fuse is a symptom. If it's similar to the dishwasher I had, from the same year range and brand, it's... Not well made. I replaced the pump once when it made noise and moved away from it. Probably dead by now.
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Nov 19, 2020 04:25
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Cyrano4747 posted:My understanding from talking to family who are in a similar situation to you (just bought want to renovate before move in) is that any kind of construction costs are loving insane right now. It looks like everyone has more work than they can do and are just handing out gently caress you quotes because, hey, if this person is actually willing to drop 75k on a 25k job whatever we’ll make time. We haven't changed our pricing at all. We've cut back on our sales outreach and are relying on repeat customers and direct referrals to help cut down the amount of inbound work coming in. I work for a general contractor in the midwest. Some of our customers have worked with us for decades, why would we try and gouge them? DaveSauce posted:Already happy with price and committed, but payment terms are the last thing to nail down. We've already sent the down payment, but they're asking: That looks fine for a payment schedule, if a little busy. I typically ask for 20-30% up front and don't have a permit billing event - every billing event costs a couple hundred bucks in administrative time, so I try to have only two on projects under $50k. Downpayment and substantial completion. Substantial completion for me means all permits passed, occupation allowed. Regarding lien waivers, i do them for bank projects which require them. Otherwise, I don't bother - when we explain to a client that the cost to collect them from every eligible subcontractor at every billing event will just be extra administrative costs they need to pay, the client usually decides it's not as important as they once thought. That said - it's all about trust. The owners of the company I work for are well known in the community, most of our work is referral based, and I bet about half of our customers know the home address of our leadership team (we all live in the communities we work in).
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Nov 19, 2020 05:04
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Motronic posted:Now let's see if he follows me to the Bosch Benchmark club to have that sweet sweet totally nerdy and not useful at all countdown timer projected on the floor. (and honestly that whatever tech they got from the Thermador acquisition really does make things dry well.......I think it's still only in the benchmarks) yeah, I have a Thermador and that dry thing does work really well. along with the nerdy countdown timer.
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Nov 19, 2020 08:24
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Literally had my finger over the "checkout" button and the dishwasher sprang to life out of nowhere. It knows...
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Nov 19, 2020 08:35
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Goddamn HOA. It's been over 2 weeks since I submitted for approval to replace our roof, and there's absolutely no movement whatsoever. I'm reminded of this because on Tuesday the GC delivered the roof materials, even though he knows we're still waiting on the HOA... turned out to be a paperwork mix-up, and they cleaned them up, but it was quite a surprise to leave to pick the kids up from day care and come back to a driveway full of shingles. I suspect the delay is coming from the management company. They're smack dab in the middle; everything has to go through them and then through their stupid web portal. When I asked for a status update the other day they flat out told me, "we haven't heard anything from the architectural committee, but they have 30 days to decide, so wait longer." The HOA has, in the past, been extremely responsive to requests and questions. I'd piss and moan more, but in a week or two I'll need to submit for approval on the porch/deck, so I'd rather save any goodwill I may have for that process. Same reason I didn't just say gently caress it and tell the GC to do the work anyhow. If we didn't have the porch/deck coming up, I'd have taken the "beg forgiveness" route... guaranteed less than half the roofs that went up around here got approval. GoGoGadgetChris posted:Aw man, my kitchenaid dishwasher (mfg 2007) seems to have well and truly croaked. I even replaced its fuse and it's still an inert chunk of plastic. A few years ago I was taking a week-long training class for work, and during a break the instructor was talking about his restaurant style dishwasher he had installed in his home, and I honestly considered it to be not an awful idea. I've used them before, that was my first job when I was a teenager... the cycle time is like 2-3 minutes for a full wash, so as long as you have the right detergent dispensers you can blow through a day's worth of dishes in a few minutes and then let them air dry overnight. So, you know, that's an option. Tezer posted:That looks fine for a payment schedule, if a little busy. I typically ask for 20-30% up front and don't have a permit billing event - every billing event costs a couple hundred bucks in administrative time, so I try to have only two on projects under $50k. Downpayment and substantial completion. Yeah this is what they came up with on their own. Frankly when we talked contract, they had it initially as 10% down and balance on completion. I told them I didn't think they intended that, and they came back with the 10/20/20/20/30 without me doing any more than asking for clarification. Tezer posted:Regarding lien waivers, i do them for bank projects which require them. Otherwise, I don't bother - when we explain to a client that the cost to collect them from every eligible subcontractor at every billing event will just be extra administrative costs they need to pay, the client usually decides it's not as important as they once thought. My biggest concern isn't necessarily the GC intentionally screwing a sub on purpose, but something happening where a sub decides they deserve more for whatever reason... dispute over terms, work quality, whatever. So not necessarily anyone intentionally trying to milk the project (GC or sub), but someone who feels wronged (rightfully or not) and trying to make sure they get paid. I'm sure a good GC would smooth that over at their own expense, but I wouldn't expect them to bend overbackwards to please a demanding sub on my behalf. So it's less of a trust issue than a "what if" issue, I guess. For a $40k project it seems wise to take relatively simple precautions. I'm only asking the GC for a waiver anyhow, not one from all the subs, so I would expect any GC who is trustworthy would have no issue doing it.
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Nov 19, 2020 13:56
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Motronic posted:Now let's see if he follows me to the Bosch Benchmark club to have that sweet sweet totally nerdy and not useful at all countdown timer projected on the floor. (and honestly that whatever tech they got from the Thermador acquisition really does make things dry well.......I think it's still only in the benchmarks) The crystal dry thing is on the 800s now, no projection timer though.
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Nov 19, 2020 14:15
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Tezer posted:We haven't changed our pricing at all. We've cut back on our sales outreach and are relying on repeat customers and direct referrals to help cut down the amount of inbound work coming in. I work for a general contractor in the midwest. Some of our customers have worked with us for decades, why would we try and gouge them? It sounds like you’re an ethical person working in a small community where you depend on lots of repeat business. The anecdotal experience I’ve been exposed to from family and friends is all in densely populated areas where they aren’t able to rely on recommendations and likely won’t be using the same contractor any time soon - it’s not like full bathroom remodels are an annual expense. As for why would someone gouge? Because they’re not as ethical as you or as dependent on repeat business. Anecdotes and data etc but everyone I know who is doing remodels /major work has been either paying out the nose or punting until next year because of the costs looking nuts. Again, none of these are small communities where everyone knows each other. They’re major cities, suburbs in large metro areas, etc.
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Nov 19, 2020 15:25
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One of the perks of the GC we use is that most of their work is by direct employees. This was also some of the drawbacks when they were out of their depth. (cat 6 ethernet, hvac minisplit)
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Nov 19, 2020 15:52
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PCjr sidecar posted:The crystal dry thing is on the 800s now, no projection timer though. Oh nice. Honestly that's the important bit. The countdown timer is really unnecessary.
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Nov 19, 2020 17:44
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Motronic posted:Oh nice. Honestly that's the important bit. The countdown timer is really unnecessary. I wish that my scrub tier bosch would turn itself off after it runs. There's been several time I've needed to re-dry dishes after some kid leans against the counter and hits the start button again.
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Nov 19, 2020 17:49
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tater_salad posted:I wish that my scrub tier bosch would turn itself off after it runs. There's been several time I've needed to re-dry dishes after some kid leans against the counter and hits the start button again. The one I've got has controls on the top of the door. I thought you could get all of their models that way?
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Nov 19, 2020 17:53
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this one came with the house.. the buttons are on the front top of the door, the start button is easily pressed when one of my little-uns comes in to the kitchen to talk or grab some water and brushes against the counter / start button on their way by.
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Nov 19, 2020 17:57
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tater_salad posted:this one came with the house.. the buttons are on the front top of the door, the start button is easily pressed when one of my little-uns comes in to the kitchen to talk or grab some water and brushes against the counter / start button on their way by. Ugh. Grab the manual online. Some of them have a 2-button combo to lock the controls. You could start it and lock the controls so that it would be almost impossible to unlock by brushing along it or even with actual trying by a kid.
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Nov 19, 2020 18:01
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Motronic posted:Ugh. Grab the manual online. Some of them have a 2-button combo to lock the controls. You could start it and lock the controls so that it would be almost impossible to unlock by brushing along it or even with actual trying by a kid. Thanks, I'll look I might have even been left the manual from the PO.. it's in my drawer of books.;
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Nov 19, 2020 18:04
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tater_salad posted:Thanks, I'll look I might have even been left the manual from the PO.. it's in my drawer of books.; There is a whole subset of configuration one of which is time it stays on after a cycle on mine. I set that as low as possible because why do I want it "on" when it's not configured to run? It's in "hidden" menus and clearly documented in the manual.
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Nov 19, 2020 18:44
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DaveSauce posted:My biggest concern isn't necessarily the GC intentionally screwing a sub on purpose, but something happening where a sub decides they deserve more for whatever reason... dispute over terms, work quality, whatever. So not necessarily anyone intentionally trying to milk the project (GC or sub), but someone who feels wronged (rightfully or not) and trying to make sure they get paid. I'm sure a good GC would smooth that over at their own expense, but I wouldn't expect them to bend overbackwards to please a demanding sub on my behalf. Got it - I'd have no problem signing a lien waiver as the GC. It's 10 minutes to open the template, update the project info, and sign. So that is a totally reasonable ask. It's the subcontractor lien waivers that add real billable time. Still a totally reasonable ask, but one that comes with a cost. Cyrano4747 posted:Anecdotes and data etc but everyone I know who is doing remodels /major work has been either paying out the nose or punting until next year because of the costs looking nuts. Again, none of these are small communities where everyone knows each other. They’re major cities, suburbs in large metro areas, etc. I guess this is the mindset I'm trying to push back on. This worldview (whether based on anecdotes or not) requires the belief that all or the majority or a significant portion of contractors are unethical and gouging clients either as a permanent business mindset or as a reaction to current sales intensity related to COVID. It's a really negative mindset that sets contractors and clients up as adversaries instead of collaborators. If you only encounter anecdotes about how contractors are unethical and gouging, it may be a reflection of your peer group more than it is of the industry. Why is everyone you encounter working with unethical contractors? The city I live in is large enough (500k+ in the MSA) that no one knows everyone. However, people I work for know me, because word gets around that we can be trusted to do good work. I ran into the same situation in the last two markets I worked in (650k+ MSA and 4.8MM+ MSA). Every city has many good and ethical contractors, if everyone you know only works with unethical contractors they are not the right people to ask for recommendations. I'm happy to see if I know someone in your city if you want to PM me. I mostly know people in the Northeast and a bit in the Midwest.
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Nov 19, 2020 18:45
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Tezer posted:I guess this is the mindset I'm trying to push back on. This worldview (whether based on anecdotes or not) requires the belief that all or the majority or a significant portion of contractors are unethical and gouging clients either as a permanent business mindset or as a reaction to current sales intensity related to COVID. It's a really negative mindset that sets contractors and clients up as adversaries instead of collaborators. If you only encounter anecdotes about how contractors are unethical and gouging, it may be a reflection of your peer group more than it is of the industry. Why is everyone you encounter working with unethical contractors? I mean if 90% of contractors are good actors, but now they're getting slammed with business, they won't be available for the next few months or longer. That leaves just the "bad" actors available, however a small %. I have a relationship with a great plumber and electrician, and it's weeks to months before they can get to projects we'd like. A great GC we know came to look at a couple smaller projects we want and just never sent a quote, I assume because it's not worth his time right now.
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Nov 19, 2020 18:50
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Tezer posted:I guess this is the mindset I'm trying to push back on. This worldview (whether based on anecdotes or not) requires the belief that all or the majority or a significant portion of contractors are unethical and gouging clients either as a permanent business mindset or as a reaction to current sales intensity related to COVID. It's a really negative mindset that sets contractors and clients up as adversaries instead of collaborators. If you only encounter anecdotes about how contractors are unethical and gouging, it may be a reflection of your peer group more than it is of the industry. Why is everyone you encounter working with unethical contractors? "Responding to the basic economic theory of supply and demand" is not the same thing as "unethical and gouging clients." Their costs are up for materials, their time is more in demand, therefore in a rational market they can charge more. That is what bulk of what you are seeing happening. It's just like charging more for an out of business hours emergency or rush job.
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Nov 19, 2020 18:56
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Tezer posted:Got it - I'd have no problem signing a lien waiver as the GC. It's 10 minutes to open the template, update the project info, and sign. So that is a totally reasonable ask. It's not that I don't trust you, or the vendors that come into my house, but like an HOA I'm not hot on liens against my title. "One bad apple spoils the bunch" is the phrase, and I don't necessarily know that some accounting mistake isn't going to land me in a world of pain. No one expects their GC or Sub to gently caress them over, but just like you should really spell out all expectations in the contract I make it clear up front that I'm going expect lien waivers or releases (depending). I wouldn't hire you if I expected you to make my life hell. In one case I've accepted a "paid in full" invoice from the sub when I was just standing there with both parties. It sort of falls into the same category as checking that you're license, bonded, and insured to me. It keeps everyone honest, it protects both parties from litigation, it helps make sure everyone is on the same page. P&O is a line item for a reason. Everyone's got to make a living.
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Nov 19, 2020 18:58
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My last dishwasher, a Bosch, has been the only thing to wash off the patina off my tea mug. As soon as we've saved enough I'm buying one for this house.
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Nov 19, 2020 19:36
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Man roofers around here(central fla) do not gently caress around. I took this picture(well my neighbor took it for me) this morning. They got to this point yesterday. Old roof off, new drip edge/felt/undermat(whatever that blue stuff is called) on.  Took them 6 hours today to put the new roof back on.  Only thing left for them to do is come put my gutters back on which I'm told is a 2-3 week wait so we'll see. Now that the new roof is on, the whole house is getting painted. My brother owns a remodeling business and has the paint gun so we're gonna do it ourselves.
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Nov 20, 2020 22:17
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Something about the way the new shingles are laying makes me uncomfortable. It looks like the underlayment wasn't properly smoothed/stretched but I'm not familiar with the material they were using.
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Nov 20, 2020 23:00
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Motronic posted:Something about the way the new shingles are laying makes me uncomfortable. It looks like the underlayment wasn't properly smoothed/stretched but I'm not familiar with the material they were using. My neighbor mentioned that too and he just had his roof done by the same company using the same materials and said his looked like that for a few days until it settled out flat. I’ll mention it to my contractor though.
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Nov 20, 2020 23:03
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mattfl posted:My neighbor mentioned that too and he just had his roof done by the same company using the same materials and said his looked like that for a few days until it settled out flat. Like I said, I don't know that material so that could absolutely be the case.
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Nov 20, 2020 23:06
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Where are the vents??
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Nov 20, 2020 23:44
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GoGoGadgetChris posted:Where are the vents??
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Nov 20, 2020 23:50
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SpartanIvy posted:Everything vents into the attic! Nice! I am in theory getting a new roof pretty soon and I'm much more excited about it than I thought I would be. A new roof looks so good I highly doubt the Presidential Shingle lasts nearly as long as they claim but it's gonna look poppin' fresh
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Nov 20, 2020 23:53
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I got a new roof earlier this year and it does rock. I'm looking forward to hanging Christmas lights and having considerably more traction when down by the edge.
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Nov 20, 2020 23:56
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About to leave our honeymoon shindig and see what the house is looking like. Supposedly the reno is 99% done!
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Nov 21, 2020 19:49
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Last week I had a plumber fix a leak at our water meter. Today I discovered a babbling brook at the service entrance to our house. Kill me. Also this is what led to me discovering the babbling brook: 
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Nov 22, 2020 05:12
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Update: Turned the water off last night and went out there this morning to dig around the foundation where the water comes in. Turned the water back on to get an idea of how bad it was and a 6 ft jet stream of water is coming out. Awesome.
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Nov 22, 2020 15:34
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The police showed up an hour ago with three tow trucks. They appear to be repo'ing all of my neighbor's cars and (possibly?) serving eviction papers. 
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Nov 25, 2020 03:04
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We moved in at the start of the month to a place heated by hot water radiators via an oil burner. Yesterday the boiler stopped firing up so we had a guy out, and he figured out the aquastat is a mess so the boiler was heating too much until it eventually just stopped because it was full of steam. Got it sorted, it fires up now, I learned a lot about my boiler. The aquastat is currently set to a high of 140 to give a measured high of 180 which is obviously cool and good. Today we don't have any heat in the baseboards upstairs. We do have hot water in the bathrooms up there, though, as well as heat downstairs. I've spent all day so far troubleshooting it with no luck. Upstairs is its own heating zone so it could be anything between the thermostat, zone valves, pressure issues, or maybe something else I haven't thought of because I don't actually know anything about heating systems. They haven't returned my call and my partner is getting very antsy. I love this place and also want to die. BRAKE FOR MOOSE fucked around with this message at 20:13 on Nov 25, 2020 |
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Nov 25, 2020 20:11
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BRAKE FOR MOOSE posted:We moved in at the start of the month to a place heated by hot water radiators via an oil burner. Yesterday the boiler stopped firing up so we had a guy out, and he figured out the aquastat is a mess so the boiler was heating too much until it eventually just stopped because it was full of steam. Got it sorted, it fires up now, I learned a lot about my boiler. The aquastat is currently set to a high of 140 to give a measured high of 180 which is obviously cool and good. Have you checked the psi on the boiler? If it’s low you might need to force more water into the system (while bleeding the highest altitude radiator). Also check to see if the bottoms of the radiators are warm but not the tops - this is low pressure and too much air. For reference, we keep our system at around 18-20psi (for a larger three story house). Or if psi is good and there’s not excess air, it could be another system at fault. I don’t know because our radiator system is dead simple and single zone with a dumb boiler and a dumb analog thermostat. If you have hot water upstairs, that doesn’t necessarily mean anything because radiators are their own closed systems and don’t have anything to do with the water heater and its respective plumbing.
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Nov 25, 2020 20:36
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BRAKE FOR MOOSE posted:We moved in at the start of the month to a place heated by hot water radiators via an oil burner. Yesterday the boiler stopped firing up so we had a guy out, and he figured out the aquastat is a mess so the boiler was heating too much until it eventually just stopped because it was full of steam. Got it sorted, it fires up now, I learned a lot about my boiler. The aquastat is currently set to a high of 140 to give a measured high of 180 which is obviously cool and good. Do you have an autofill valve? Is it open? Is the system bled properly regardless of that? If things were turning to steam I'd definitely be bleeding/filling that system after correcting the problem to avoid exactly the symptoms you are describing now.
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Nov 25, 2020 20:37
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Queen Victorian posted:Have you checked the psi on the boiler? If it’s low you might need to force more water into the system (while bleeding the highest altitude radiator). Also check to see if the bottoms of the radiators are warm but not the tops - this is low pressure and too much air. For reference, we keep our system at around 18-20psi (for a larger three story house). Pressure looks fine after yesterday. It's at 22-25 psi and I bled the only radiator with a valve to do so and just got water. The pipes are all cold. I wasn't bleeding while filling, though... Motronic posted:Do you have an autofill valve? Is it open? Is the system bled properly regardless of that? I am not really sure. I have no idea what I'm doing! Water inlet on the left, I believe.  Guy yesterday was purging steam through the valve on the bottom left until it was cleared.
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Nov 25, 2020 21:03
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BRAKE FOR MOOSE posted:Guy yesterday was purging steam through the valve on the bottom left until it was cleared. This was YESTERDAY? Don't touch anything. Call them back and tell them they've not completed the job.
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Nov 25, 2020 21:08
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Motronic posted:This was YESTERDAY? Yeah, it'd great if they picked up their drat phone. 
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Nov 25, 2020 22:34
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