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So, the air exchange in our tenants unit has no AC filter, and I don't think I can fit one in (the lip is too shallow for even an inch). Huh. Is there anywhere else this could be located? I checked the actual furnace and don't see anything. I guess I could try to cut one down to fit.
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Oct 14, 2021 00:08
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My unit had a slot behind a hidden panel If you pull down the manual from the manufacturers website, does it specify where
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Oct 14, 2021 01:05
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Some systems in smaller units have only a single cold air intake and the filter is behind the grate for that.
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Oct 14, 2021 04:18
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therobit posted:Some systems in smaller units have only a single cold air intake and the filter is behind the grate for that. Yeah, that's how every place I ever rented worked. You're looking for maybe a 2'x2' grate somewhere in a hallway or possibly a closet if it's as bad as my last apartment.
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Oct 14, 2021 14:04
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HVAC systems have 2 options for filters that I've seen: in a central return line (on a wall or ceiling somewhere), or somewhere on/inside the unit. Our downstairs zone has a big 20x20 return in the wall, and our upstairs zone has 2x 14x20 returns in the ceiling. If each room has its own return duct, then your filter will be on/in the unit somewhere and you'll have to check the manual. If each room only has supply ducts, then you're looking for a big grate in the wall/ceiling.
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Oct 14, 2021 14:16
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Yea I know that, the grate in the wall has no space for a filter, which is confusing to me =/ Each room has a single duct. I might try to cut one down in width so it'll fit, but the grate doesn't seem like it was ever intended to be removed. To the manual!
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Oct 14, 2021 14:20
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Post pictures? That doesn't make any sense. I've never seen a BIG grate that doesn't open to hold a filter, but I haven't seen them all so I dunno. So actually thinking about it, there's a 3rd possibility: does that return grate lead to a room/closet that contains the HVAC unit? That's how some apartments I've lived in were configured... there was a mechanical closet with a grate/louvers on the door and the filter was on the HVAC unit itself. Cutting a filter down isn't the answer... a standard sized filter should fit wherever it's supposed to fit.
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Oct 14, 2021 14:49
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Gotta love it, refi underwriters wanted more info and asked for it a week before anticipated closing. Got it back to them same day aaaaaaand anticipated closing date got pushed back. Once to the 21st (two days past the lock expiring on the 19th) and now again to the 25th. This is with our current lender/servicer. I'm still stunned that they can't just treat this as an internal paperwork check - fine, we get the appraisal, but just check that against the internal paperwork, make us cough up for title, make the changes on their back end, and charge us a different payment. The originator says that we won't have to pay a fee to extend the lock since we're on the record of providing everything they asked for in timely order but who wants to bet that we're gonna close two months late because COVID and resulting supply chain/economic points?
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Oct 15, 2021 17:01
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Anyone buy replacement screens lately? How much should I expect to pay? Thoughts on third parties vs OEM screens from Pella?
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Oct 16, 2021 01:51
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I had 7 made up by a guy when I moved in. I paid like $300 and I thought that was fair.
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Oct 16, 2021 01:58
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Dik Hz posted:Anyone buy replacement screens lately? How much should I expect to pay? Thoughts on third parties vs OEM screens from Pella? Our place needed four screens replaced and I found a guy on Thumbtack who charged $125 in labor (including drive time) and about $40 in materials I bought from Home Depot and Menards. They're functional and don't look awful. 🤷
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Oct 16, 2021 11:38
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Zarin posted:Basically, I'm interested in what brands and/or places to look for large rolling toolboxes that are a good quality:cost ratio; that is to say, A Good Value. Just wanted to come full-circle with this here since I got a lot of good advice in the thread. I checked out Home Depot (Husky brand), Menard's (MasterBuilt iirc), and Harbor Freight (US General). I poked my nose into Costco and didn't see anything. I'm not sure if I'm surprised or not, but Husky seems to be the clear winner here. The pricepoint on those seems significantly lower than even the Harbor Freight brand in the two sizes that really interest me, and they feel really well-made. I may try and find a Lowe's on the way to HD tomorrow to see if they have anything that compares, but it's pretty likely I'll end up picking up either the 36" wide or 41" wide Husky one. The 36" probably makes more sense for my current living space, but it's red and I can probably find plenty of stuff to put in the 41". (https://www.homedepot.com/p/Husky-4...roduct-overview) Thanks thread 
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Oct 17, 2021 01:31
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BigHead fucked around with this message at 07:14 on Nov 17, 2021 |
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Oct 17, 2021 02:19
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Zarin posted:Just wanted to come full-circle with this here since I got a lot of good advice in the thread. I checked out Home Depot (Husky brand), Menard's (MasterBuilt iirc), and Harbor Freight (US General). I poked my nose into Costco and didn't see anything. I got a used husky 36" back in ~2007 and it massively outclasses my Craftsman box (which was worse than HF U.S. General at the time). Man I'm old. Happy with it tho.
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Oct 17, 2021 02:36
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BigHead posted:Quoting myself after I got a lot of good advice from the thread. Can you get a pump in there yourself to at least get the current water out? I'd be concerned about leaving that much water under your house
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Oct 17, 2021 16:04
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I know a guy who's basement flooded when our who area got historic amounts of water and pumped his basement out with a 15 dollar fountain pump. Took 2 days and wasn't ideal but was still a week faster than he would have been able to pay anyone to do.
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Oct 17, 2021 16:14
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Cheap electric pumps you can hook a garden hose to are easy to come by. I have one in a bucket in the basement along with the necessary hoses for flushing my tankless water heater annually, but it’s nice to have a tertiary backup to the primary + battery backup sumps. Utility power in our area is thankfully incredibly stable, we’ve had only a handful of outages in the decade+ of living in our neighborhood.
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Oct 18, 2021 21:21
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My husband and I are in the process of buying our first (and hopefully only) house. We've rented our whole lives, now in our early 40s, and trying to learn and absorb as much as we can. One question we have is, are service plans from companies that do electric/plumbing/HVAC worth it? The place we're buying will need repairs and replacement on various things over the next few years: update the electrical panel, new water heater, new boiler, radiant floor heating system servicing, among others, along with general regular servicing.
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Oct 20, 2021 05:42
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I have one from a furnace company and another from a plumbing company. The furnace one pays for itself, I get a complimentary tune-up and duct cleaning every year. To pay for those on their own would cost more than the total membership fees over the year. The plumbing one I have because my pipes suck and something breaks every 8 months, so the discount I get on repairs is worth it.
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Oct 20, 2021 13:10
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Involuntary Sparkle posted:My husband and I are in the process of buying our first (and hopefully only) house. We've rented our whole lives, now in our early 40s, and trying to learn and absorb as much as we can. I would not pay for a service plan for new poo poo. It's just like Bestbuy insurance etc, you pay them $500 for 3 years worth of service they come in once a year and give you a $70 service.. most of which is easy enough for a handy homeowner to do. for Hvac, buy a 6 pack of filters, and a hose to spray off the AC once every spring. Yes it's a known upfront cost but I'd say nah just learn to do it yourself on your YouTube. edit: it all depends on what they provide if it's 500bux for 3 years of filter changes / coil cleanings meh. tater_salad fucked around with this message at 13:23 on Oct 20, 2021 |
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Oct 20, 2021 13:19
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For the HVAC service contract: it may be required to maintain any equipment warranty. For AC/furnaces that offer a long parts warranty, they almost always require at least yearly service by a 'licensed contractor' for the warranty to remain valid.
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Oct 20, 2021 13:47
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HVAC seems worth it to us. We pay $270/year for 2 zones, and that gets us 2 tune-ups (one heating in fall, one cooling in spring). I could do a lot of the cleaning stuff I'm sure, but they do more advanced stuff like pressure/charge checks and whatnot. That's all we do, though. Can't imagine any electrical or plumbing stuff, but we have a ~20 year old house so there's no real issues there (yet). Kind of separate, but if you're in an area that has termites, regular service/inspection is a must, and a termite warranty is something you'll want to check in to as well.
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Oct 20, 2021 14:26
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Ok, appreciate the help so far - we haven't closed yet so not sure what existing service/warranties are. Hoping we get more information after closing. House was built in the 1950s (relatively new for here) and we're in Seattle.tater_salad posted:I would not pay for a service plan for new poo poo. It's just like Bestbuy insurance etc, you pay them $500 for 3 years worth of service they come in once a year and give you a $70 service.. most of which is easy enough for a handy homeowner to do. for Hvac, buy a 6 pack of filters, and a hose to spray off the AC once every spring. Yes it's a known upfront cost but I'd say nah just learn to do it yourself on your YouTube. Oh, this stuff is *definitely* not new. It's all near/at end of life, so we're trying to get an idea of how much we're going to need to budget, along with wanting to set up additional immediate inspection/repairs. No AC, no furnace, no filters. There's a boiler and a hydronic radiant floor system.
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Oct 20, 2021 14:26
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Guess I misread that you were replacing a lot of that stuff.
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Oct 20, 2021 15:51
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Saw this in the OSHA thread and it made me think of this thread. Enjoy! https://va.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_r118nksBw01r0uzl6.mp4
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Oct 20, 2021 15:52
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idiot
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Oct 20, 2021 15:57
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I'd go the opposite way on the service plan for end-of-life equipment. You know what they're going to tell you? It's ready to be replaced. It's certainly worth an inspection but even then an inspection can only tell you the state of the equipment right then. An inspection or even routine service checks aren't going to be able to tell if a refrigerant coil is about to pop a leak from internal corrosion, or if the fan bearings that feel smooth today are going to start squealing tomorrow.
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Oct 20, 2021 16:24
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Death to Arborvitae
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Oct 20, 2021 16:25
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tater_salad posted:idiot Maybe that's what he was trying to do, smart guy
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Oct 20, 2021 16:42
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Involuntary Sparkle posted:Ok, appreciate the help so far - we haven't closed yet so not sure what existing service/warranties are. Hoping we get more information after closing. House was built in the 1950s (relatively new for here) and we're in Seattle. Hey there fellow Seattle 1950s house haver.
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Oct 20, 2021 17:10
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Sirotan posted:Death to Arborvitae Get out of here! They're great, minimal maintenance hedges. The only downside is that I can't use them, because our deer (over)population turns them into lollypop-looking sad sticks.
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Oct 20, 2021 17:15
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IOwnCalculus posted:I'd go the opposite way on the service plan for end-of-life equipment. You know what they're going to tell you? It's ready to be replaced. Thanks - I was going to check with them to see if the discount they offer includes discounts on installation of new equipment, that's where we were hoping to potentially find savings. Not sure if that's a thing. We were happy about the radiant floor heating until I noticed in the inspection that it mentioned being near end-of-life (hoping it's just the boiler part of it, since we know that's at 20 years, and that the piping can last for a while longer), now we're a little nervous. This whole house-buying thing has been dumb and we feel dumb for doing it but excited too. Verman posted:Hey there fellow Seattle 1950s house haver.  congrats! I saw the picture of the ceilings you posted and they're gorgeous.
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Oct 20, 2021 17:25
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Had our heating inspected and tuned yesterday by a guy we trust.  “Well it looks good! Doesn’t need replacement in the near future but it’ll cost a bunch when it does!”
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Oct 20, 2021 18:30
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Is there a resource to find out what requires a permit on a specific city/state? I just had a bunch of electrical work done, like replacing my entire box, and am wondering if I hosed up by not getting a permit? Or is that usually done by the contractors?
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Oct 20, 2021 19:53
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Call your permit office is the quickest way. They should be able to answer pretty quickly. Google the right words and you'll probably find one of the bigger cities/counties in your state that has it all laid out on a page. If you're lucky it'll be your city/county. If not, it's going to be ballpark but not exact because your city/county might have different rules. Usually the person doing the work is required to pull the proper permits, so if you had a contractor do the work then it's their gently caress up, not yours (edit: though you still might end up with unpermitted work, which is ultimately your problem). Occasionally cities/counties/states will allow licensed individuals to do certain work without a permit, though, so that may be why no permit was pulled. If the replacement was a like-for-like swap, then it MIGHT be OK as well. But if it's a different size then a permit is probably required. edit: so to be sure, they may have pulled a permit and never told you. Particularly with COVID, it may have been a 100% electronic process with an inspection done over Zoom or something. You may have never known about it. edit again: You SHOULD be able to look this up online. Most places have online permit searches available and it's pretty easy to see what happened. If you call the permit office and they say that the work definitely required a permit, you could also ask them how to find out if it was actually permitted or not... they can either look it up for you, or they can tell you how to find out. DaveSauce fucked around with this message at 20:32 on Oct 20, 2021 |
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Oct 20, 2021 20:23
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We’ve been paralyzed trying to pick out a solid wood dresser because we have an awkward turn in our stairs. Is there a good way to figure out if something will make it up stairs? We have the dimensions of the largest piece of furniture that made it up without disassembly, but all of the dressers we’ve looked at are larger in at least one dimension. Alternatively, are there any places out there that make nice high-quality flat pack furniture, or is that an oxymoron?
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Oct 21, 2021 00:25
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EPICAC posted:We’ve been paralyzed trying to pick out a solid wood dresser because we have an awkward turn in our stairs. Hey I had/have a similar problem! We actually made a scrap wood mock-up- 3 cut to length balsa-ish pieces basically creating a box corner. We basically switched over to a chest of drawers as those had more workable dimensions and storage layouts within our limits. If we had more money I might’ve considered a custom built in with drawers but lol nope. Ikea is about as good as it gets for flatpack as far as I can tell. I get a little jealous of homeowners with 36” wide doors and stairs that just, like, go up to the second floor sometimes.
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Oct 21, 2021 00:55
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Yeah 12 pieces of 2x2 pine from the hardware store screwed together ought to do it. I haven't checked lately but pre pandemic an 8' 2x2 was $0.99 or maybe $1.19. might need a 13th piece for a diagonal support or two
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Oct 21, 2021 01:12
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What works well for making large models is a sheet of hard Styrofoam insulation. Easy to cut and weighs almost nothing and generally like $10 for the cheaper item.
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Oct 21, 2021 01:36
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Thanks for the suggestions all. Sounds like a trip to the hardware store this weekend.
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Oct 21, 2021 01:59
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