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H110Hawk posted:Wet your finger with water if you're going to do any smoothing, or wet your paper towel. Makes it flow without sticking as much. Get on it immediately so that the caulk isn't at all set. Wet your finger or glove with dawn dish soap. We have to seal poo poo with silicone at my job and one of the old timers showed me that trick, the silicon won't stick to your finger at all and you can get perfect lines.
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Sep 14, 2021 14:09
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What I've learned from owning a home so far is that all previous owners are trash, and also Dawn soap is a magical elixir
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Sep 14, 2021 15:51
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please knock Mom! posted:My tado thermometer switches to away mode when I'm out of the home, which triggers the following: My wife and mother-in-law are home all day so half the magic IoT poo poo like this doesn't apply to me, it's a real bummer. I want cool robots going off when I leave the house but instead they're on a normal boring schedule
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Sep 14, 2021 16:00
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Source4Leko posted:Wet your finger or glove with dawn dish soap. We have to seal poo poo with silicone at my job and one of the old timers showed me that trick, the silicon won't stick to your finger at all and you can get perfect lines. My dad told me to wet my pinky in my mouth to finish regular caulk around windows. Doesn’t taste too bad.
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Sep 14, 2021 17:20
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Stupid question time What is this thing called? I need to try and put in a new one because my GFCI attached to it immediately trips. I used it for a sawzall and it worked great one day, then I had some fence post holes dug by some yoyos and the next day I tried to use the sawzall it worked for a second and then tripped it. Every since then every time I reset the GFCI it trips, and all the outdoor outlets and upstairs bathrooms are on the same circuit   "Outdoor outlet" brings up a lot of results of various things
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Sep 16, 2021 00:02
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Smugworth posted:Stupid question time I'm assuming you're asking about the cover plate/outlet cover that snapped off. First of all, you won't find one of those because they aren't code legal anymore and for a while now. All outdoor outlets need to have in use covers now. So you're looking for "2 gang in use cover". It will be something like this: https://www.homedepot.com/p/TAYMAC-2-Gang-Weatherproof-Extra-Duty-In-Use-Cover-MX6200/205328823 Secondly, you very likely have more issues than just the cover, but it could be as simple as water in that outlet. You probably want to replace both outlets while you're at at it. I assume the GFCI you are resetting is your GFCI breaker or something in the house, and if so standard outlets will be fine behind a proper in use cover. But it could be more than that. Depends on where these fence posts were being drilled and if they hit the line to that outlet of course.
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Sep 16, 2021 00:15
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Yea, the box has been there a long time, and I broke the cover with the mower this season so I'm thinking water seepage. I'm going to go ahead and replace the whole box, I just thought maybe there'd be a whole all in one box I could buy. Thanks for the tip on the cover, I'm hoping once I replace the box it will fix things before trying to troubleshoot if the fencers hit a line (not likely, but quite the coincidence, so who the hell knows).
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Sep 16, 2021 00:49
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Quick project to install a screw-in baby gate turned into a new circular saw, chisel set, and shop vac due to inconvenient stud and hand rail placement.
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Sep 16, 2021 01:52
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Smugworth posted:Yea, the box has been there a long time, and I broke the cover with the mower this season so I'm thinking water seepage. I'm going to go ahead and replace the whole box, I just thought maybe there'd be a whole all in one box I could buy. Thanks for the tip on the cover, I'm hoping once I replace the box it will fix things before trying to troubleshoot if the fencers hit a line (not likely, but quite the coincidence, so who the hell knows). No reason to replace the entire box unless it's damaged. Those things don't even come together (the in use face plate and the box). It's all just pieces parts. I'd start by turning off the power and taking the face plate off and removing the outlets. See what you see. Probably everything else is fine and you just need to go get an in use cover and two new outlets. You'll be finished with this for like $20. Also, with how old that must be.....the gasket (that comes with the cover) might be leaking into the box as well. But your new in use cover will come with a new gasket so all will be good.
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Sep 16, 2021 02:25
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Any tips on picking a contractor for a larger exterior renovation job? This will be our first big job on our house- residing, any needed carpentry work, and roof (and probably the gutters because at that point why the hell not). We’ve done our share of mid-size jobs, but this will be the first one we’ll need a general contractor/exterior renovator for and I’m feeling a bit paralyzed about picking who we’ll work with. Beyond getting recommendations from the local facebook group (no neighbors have anyone to suggest) and reading reviews I’m kind of at a loss. Ultimately it feels like it comes down to a gut check and ughhh.
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Sep 16, 2021 14:55
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BadSamaritan posted:Any tips on picking a contractor for a larger exterior renovation job? I found a couple contractors via Yelp. I know their search engine is biased but a couple benefits of Yelp are that 1) there's user reviews (but take these with a grain of salt), 2) there's pictures of their actual work they have done and 3) you can message people who left reviews and get feedback. response rate is pretty low but it's good for trying to get an actual, honest recommendation of their work. I've had a couple people message me from review I left for a fireplace and a concrete pour job and I gave them honest feedback.
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Sep 16, 2021 16:19
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Have you checked NextDoor? At least in our neighborhood and general vicinity, it seems like half the activity is asking for/sharing recommendations on contractors, repairmen, and domestic help. You can tap into surrounding neighborhoods also, which expands your search radius quite a bit. There's also the old fashioned method of seeing some work you like on another house and knocking on their door and asking about it and who did the work (my parents got this A LOT following a major renovation on the family home when I was a kid).
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Sep 16, 2021 16:26
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OK so I ordered a bathroom ceiling fan that, by the measurements, will BARELY fit where it needs to go. Some idiot decided that they'd box the fan in by running a 2x4 with some wire on one side, and on the other side a PVC pipe for what I presume is the vent stack: Anyhow, I'm 90% sure the fan I bought will fit. But that's neither here nor there. The real question is this POS duct:  Should I do something about that? I'm not about to get up on the roof to swap out the vent (or else I would have upgraded to 6" ducting and bought the exhaust fan I really wanted), and I have no interest in running rigid duct (I mean, I do, but I really don't want to tackle that with this project). My initial thought is to buy a 90, but I feel like gravity on the hose will pull on the tape and eventually break loose, leaving me to vent humid bathroom air directly in to my attic. I could run rigid duct down to the joists with another 90 (or probably angle it at 45) to bring it horizontal and fix that, but this gets in to me installing a bunch of rigid duct, which I'm trying to avoid. Is there some sort of strain relief or something I can put on there to keep that corner from buckling? I'm assuming that this is absolutely killing my airflow. Or should I just not touch it and install the new fan with as little disruption as possible? DaveSauce fucked around with this message at 18:49 on Sep 16, 2021 |
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Sep 16, 2021 18:37
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Pretty sure that duct should be insulated since it's in your unconditioned attic space. I'd just use some strapping to help hold the bend up better, it doesn't need to look nice.
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Sep 16, 2021 19:06
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NomNomNom posted:Pretty sure that duct should be insulated since it's in your unconditioned attic space. I'd just use some strapping to help hold the bend up better, it doesn't need to look nice. Would strapping work? I feel like this would just move the problem to where the strapping is. In my head I was thinking of like a thin sheet metal or plastic form or something to give it a gentle curve rather than a sharp corner. And yeah, this house was built in 1999... not sure if insulated duct was code then, but the other bathroom vent duct is also uninsulated. It's metal, but looks like flexible dryer duct or something. edit: that said, insulated duct would probably be strong enough not to fold like this cheap crap, so I supposed that could be a solution. DaveSauce fucked around with this message at 19:19 on Sep 16, 2021 |
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Sep 16, 2021 19:17
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My loan servicer just called me, asking if I'd be interested in a refi. We bought in 2011 at $312k, 4% APR. Did a cash-out 15-year in Jan '20 for $216k, 3.375% APR, to help pay for our kitchen reno. We've done extra principal payments all along so we're now at $181k. They said they could do 2.5%, waive origination fees, give a $700 lender credit, and do a net escrow move since we'd be staying with them. Current P&I is around $1500, the rough new payment would be $1200-$1300. They think closing fees would be around $1200 for title, and I'm mentally adding another $1000 to that just because closing costs always go up. This seems like a no-brainer, even having spent closing costs in Jan '20, but there HAS to be a catch. There always is one, especially for inbound cold calls. I wasn't thinking about doing a refi, and we're not in a crunch. Of course I wouldn't turn down extra cash - more for the HSA or Roth 401k. Anyone ever do a same-servicer refi like this before? MJP fucked around with this message at 20:09 on Sep 16, 2021 |
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Sep 16, 2021 20:02
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I did one with my last house. It was really smooth, they sent someone to my house with a stack of paperwork, I skipped a months mortgage payment, and that was pretty much it. I started making the lower payment. They left the length the same so the new mortgage was like 24 years 6 months. I don't recall putting anything into the deal at all.
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Sep 16, 2021 20:28
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Yeah we did a refi last year with the same bank the mortgage was already at and there was no catch, we lost around a full percent and we're just paying less now, it was incredibly smooth.
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Sep 16, 2021 20:42
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DaveSauce posted:Would strapping work? I feel like this would just move the problem to where the strapping is. In my head I was thinking of like a thin sheet metal or plastic form or something to give it a gentle curve rather than a sharp corner. Put a rigid 90 on there, and then just replace with insulated duct (and strap it up as necessary). Also put some screws through the duct into the metal, and make sure you're using foil tape (which won't really pull off/decay like "duck tape" will)
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Sep 16, 2021 21:28
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devicenull posted:Put a rigid 90 on there, and then just replace with insulated duct (and strap it up as necessary). Also put some screws through the duct into the metal, and make sure you're using foil tape (which won't really pull off/decay like "duck tape" will) I'll add a 90 to the list. I know that you don't use actual duct tape on ducts, but even so I've read that if the foil tape isn't applied just right it can still come loose over time. Was planning on using some clamps or zip ties as a back-up, just in case. Also, does the rigid 90 need to be insulated? I would guess that insulated flex is a step up, if nothing else, but this is turning in to a bit more effort than I expected, so what's a little more I guess!
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Sep 17, 2021 12:09
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If you don't buy the cheap poo poo foil tape that tape will *never* come off unless something/someone else pulls it off.
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Sep 17, 2021 12:19
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Speaking of ducting, my central air ducts in my basement seem to chill the basement a lot. Should I wrap them with insulation in order to keep the air cold as it goes through the ducts or is that not a thing?
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Sep 17, 2021 13:41
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It is a thing, pain in the rear end to do once the ductwork is already hanging from the joists. I take it this is a basement you do not regularly use or want to be conditioned?
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Sep 17, 2021 14:19
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MJP posted:Speaking of ducting, my central air ducts in my basement seem to chill the basement a lot. Should I wrap them with insulation in order to keep the air cold as it goes through the ducts or is that not a thing? If they're losing air into the basement then you have to seal them with foil tape or that goop. If it's just radiantly cooling, then yes insulation will help.
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Sep 17, 2021 14:34
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GEMorris posted:It is a thing, pain in the rear end to do once the ductwork is already hanging from the joists. I take it this is a basement you do not regularly use or want to be conditioned? It's an unfinished basement that we use for laundry, storage, and scale model hobby stuff. It's REALLY cool in the summer and room temperature in the winter. If I do this, do I just need to buy insulation from wherever, cut it to fit, wrap it around the duct, seal in place with foil or duct tape, repeat for the basement ducting in question? Also, fully unrelated: the same-servicer refi mentioned that I could skip doing escrow if I wanted, and just pay taxes directly. I have no objection doing this and can easily set aside enough to cover taxes. I'll never have one of those stupid escrow analysis things that say I suddenly need to send the servicer $1000 because some obscure calculation during X or Y didn't work out. Any disadvantage or Things To Know about not using escrow?
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Sep 17, 2021 17:36
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MJP posted:It's an unfinished basement that we use for laundry, storage, and scale model hobby stuff. It's REALLY cool in the summer and room temperature in the winter. How humid is it in the basement in the summer? The same (cool) temperature can feel much colder if it's more humid. Opening up the AC vents in our basement actually made it feel warmer this past summer, because it dropped the humidity by about 10-15%.
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Sep 17, 2021 17:43
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Insurrectum posted:How humid is it in the basement in the summer? The same (cool) temperature can feel much colder if it's more humid. We have a dehumidifier, it's set at 55% and runs fairly constantly in the summer. There's mad condensation on the ductwork when the AC is going in the summer, too. My concern is mostly that we get the cold air into the house rather than warm up in the basement, thus making us run the AC more.
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Sep 17, 2021 19:00
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DaveSauce posted:Is there some sort of strain relief or something I can put on there to keep that corner from buckling? I'm assuming that this is absolutely killing my airflow. Or should I just not touch it and install the new fan with as little disruption as possible? Here's a support that makes a smooth elbow in your flexible ducting: https://www.comfortfirstproducts.com/product/flexright-flexible-duct-elbow-supports-copy/ Also if you want to never worry about tape, just get some metal hose clamps made for dryer hose. They're cheap.
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Sep 17, 2021 21:20
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DaveSauce posted:I'll add a 90 to the list. I know that you don't use actual duct tape on ducts, but even so I've read that if the foil tape isn't applied just right it can still come loose over time. Was planning on using some clamps or zip ties as a back-up, just in case. You'll probably have enough spare insulation on the end of the ducting to cover up the 90. I don't really think an insulated 90 is a thing that's easy to find. MJP posted:We have a dehumidifier, it's set at 55% and runs fairly constantly in the summer. There's mad condensation on the ductwork when the AC is going in the summer, too. Before you think about insulating, you want to air seal all the ducts (these are not the same things). Get some mastic, the shittiest paint brush you can find, and a box of gloves. Cover every joint in the ductwork with mastic. (note: don't use this on any exhaust vents that get hot) It'll eventually set up so that it's not so sticky, but this will take awhile. Bonus tip: store the paintbrush in with the mastic so you don't have to keep buying new ones. There is a 100% chance the brush is going to be completely covered in mastic anyway, so no real need to keep it clean. Remember, the bigger the glob the better the job! You could use foil tape, but in my experience it's a huge pain in the rear end.
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Sep 17, 2021 22:43
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Can anyone identify what this is? They all just showed up overnight, looks like hundreds of little spots like this. Seems to be like webbing but i'm not sure. In Missouri if that helps identify https://imgur.com/vVWrJK4 https://imgur.com/E1B733w
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Sep 17, 2021 23:03
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devicenull posted:You'll probably have enough spare insulation on the end of the ducting to cover up the 90. I don't really think an insulated 90 is a thing that's easy to find. Yeah I was thinking about doing that a bit after I posted. It's about a 15' run of duct, and looks like the duct comes in 25' lengths, so I'll have plenty to go around. I didn't see insulated rigid duct, but I saw plenty of options for adding insulation to ducts. But the stuff that comes with the flex should be more than sufficient to use on the 90.
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Sep 18, 2021 01:45
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BadSamaritan posted:Any tips on picking a contractor for a larger exterior renovation job? Same question but for work where the quality isn't immediately apparent. In our case, I'm looking for a mason to repoint some bits of the foundation and beyond looking for a thoroughly filled foundation in pics, I'm not quite sure how to judge whether the work is any good.
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Sep 18, 2021 15:51
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Does anyone have advice on shopping for ovens? Ours is pretty obviously on its way out and it's a piece of poo poo anyways. If I'm reading the serial right it's also a 14 year old piece of poo poo, so we're not going to bother trying to fix it. We went around and looked at a few stores just to see what's around and frankly it was all confusing as hell to me. There is loving zero information about them, either in the stores or on the websites. Best buy wanted us to scan a QR code to look at the specs on their website, but the website info was also lacking. In particular, we do a lot of baking so it's important to know how hot it will get. A few years back we had an apartment with a really lovely oven that only went up to 425 or 450, for example. The one we've got now is crap but goes up to 525, which is good for breads. We want something that will at least hit 500, but amazingly zero ovens we've looked at list the max temperature. The guy at best buy just shrugged and said that we'd have to plug it in to see that and he can't do that. I was flipping through manuals in the store and they didn't seem to list it either. I think it's nuts that I can look up what factory in Taiwan made my RAM but somehow I can't get basic specs on an oven. Anyways, that gripe aside, what are the brands to avoid? We're mostly looking at LG, Samsung, and GE (because that's what was available) electric models in the ~$800-1100 price range. I've got a weird mental knee jerk reaction that says GE is poo poo, but I might also be remembering a relative complaining about something in the 90s so I dunno. Googling this is not helping. Any good resources that are trustworthy? Mostly I'm just finding clickbait Top 10 Worst Appliance type things, and they're all contradictory to the point where two back to back said that Samsung was awful, always buy GE and then GE is awful, always buy Samsung. If there's a better thread for this point me at it. I just want to be able to make a halfway informed decision about this and it's maddening how garbage the info out there seems to be. If you all need any other info from me I'm happy to help.
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Sep 18, 2021 16:52
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I'm cutting holes in my walls to have some new outlets installed. Should I be concerned about asbestos in the plaster? House was built in 1937, we assume the lath/metal wire/plaster is all original. 
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Sep 18, 2021 16:56
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spf3million posted:I'm cutting holes in my walls to have some new outlets installed. Should I be concerned about asbestos in the plaster? House was built in 1937, we assume the lath/metal wire/plaster is all original. Yes, you should probably get it tested. From what I've read It's not super common in plaster but is known to have been used in some plaster joint compound as well as like, plaster used to make ceiling medallions and such. I still need to drop off a sample of my wall because I only learned this fact after doing quite a bit of wall repair. 
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Sep 18, 2021 17:15
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spf3million posted:I'm cutting holes in my walls to have some new outlets installed. Should I be concerned about asbestos in the plaster? House was built in 1937, we assume the lath/metal wire/plaster is all original. I would presume that is asbestos. If you're doing like 4 holes then just make sure you are wearing long clothes and an n95. If you have a hepa vacuum use that while cutting. Spray down dust with water and wipe it up. Wash clothes immediately when done. (Strip into the washer if that's available.) Kinda like lead, as an adult a little bit isn't going to hurt you materially, but the effects are additive. If you have children they should go play outside until you have cleaned up the dust. If your vacuum isn't hepa, do NOT use it.
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Sep 18, 2021 17:49
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Cyrano4747 posted:Does anyone have advice on shopping for ovens? Ours is pretty obviously on its way out and it's a piece of poo poo anyways. If I'm reading the serial right it's also a 14 year old piece of poo poo, so we're not going to bother trying to fix it. GE doesn’t make appliances anymore. quote:
Honestly I’d try to find a locally owned appliance shop with a knowledgeable staff you can ask your specific questions too. They’ll know the answers. I hate my whirlpool oven. It cooks very unevenly and if it wasn’t like 3500+ to replace my wall oven/micro combo I’d get rid of it. Personally I like Frigidaire right now as a mass market appliance company. They’re owned by Electrolux.
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Sep 18, 2021 18:36
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skipdogg posted:GE doesn’t make appliances anymore. Not much of an option where we are, unfortunately. We'd be talking an hour-ish drive to find someplace that isn't home depot, best buy, costco, etc.
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Sep 18, 2021 18:45
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I have a GE electric range/oven I bought like 2 years ago for about $800 and it’s been perfectly fine. It was a fairly quick decision because we moved into a house and the current oven burners didn’t work and it would shut off if it preheated past 350. I feel like all the major brands are about the same at this point in terms of quality (probably excluding Samsung), unless you start getting a little spendier. Every major appliance purchase I shell out $10 for a month sub to consumer reports to see what’s up, and it’s always like 100 appliances they have ratings between 78-73, so it really seems negligible outside of what features you want.
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Sep 18, 2021 18:47
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Cyrano4747 posted:Does anyone have advice on shopping for ovens? Ours is pretty obviously on its way out and it's a piece of poo poo anyways. If I'm reading the serial right it's also a 14 year old piece of poo poo, so we're not going to bother trying to fix it. skipdogg posted:Honestly I’d try to find a locally owned appliance shop with a knowledgeable staff you can ask your specific questions too. They’ll know the answers. Yep, go to a local appliance dealer and let them help you. We went to our local place for our washer and dryer and found it to be an excellent buying experience - way more options than whatever the big box stores had in stock with super helpful and knowledgeable staff. A friend of ours was looking for a specific Bosch model and bitched about the bullshit he was going through trying to get ahold of it on his own and we told him to go to the place and he did and they had what he wanted it and got (correctly and competently) installed a couple days later. Turns out his parents have had an account for decades and that's where all the appliances he'd grown up with had come from.
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Sep 18, 2021 18:52
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