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AHH F/UGH posted:They're not that bad, honestly. Just need to be cleaned new paint coat and some new hardware. Regardless, new cabinets would be going way overbudget and we're already basically at the end of our finances with the carpet, paint, baseboards, bathroom, the last two of which I didn't expect to have to do. Are you living in this house? Cause you seem to have been glossing over the many posts about how difficult it is to get cat and rat piss out of walls and floors and how you need to be tearing out the drywall while wringing your hands over the cost of a $27 enzyme cleaner. This does not bode well for the future. Also your comment about buying countertops "out of pocket". Where else would that money come from? And if you're concerned about a $27 cleaner... then I'm not sure what you expect other basic maintenance costs to be. What I’m saying is make a thread because this has a lot of potential. From how you’ve described the house (condition, price, the fact that it’s condition likely killed someone) it seems like it needs a gut and you’re settling for tearing out carpet and throwing down a single jug of cleaner. This isn't going to end well for either you and your family if you're living there, or whoever you end up selling this to. (To give some personal perspective, too: I recently bought a house that was extremely well maintained by its previous owner with mostly new major fixtures, particularly for a house of its age. Even with all that, so far in two months of ownership I have spent: $120 for furnace check and yearly maintenance, at least $100 on miscellaneous repairs for things breaking, $240 on some plumbing work, and spent $130 getting my fridge repaired today. Also have a quote for $700 in preventive termite treatment -- something we'll probably do in the next 6 mos. to a year.) Upgrade fucked around with this message at 02:59 on Dec 3, 2021 |
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Dec 3, 2021 00:59
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This is a very good summary and the correct advice.
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Dec 3, 2021 02:19
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Butcherblock counters can be amazing indoors. Unless you're putting a marine finish on it and maintaining it often, wood counters + outside is going to equal pain. The sun alone is going to be hell on any finish, and the pergola's not going to help. Definitely go quartz or stainless for the indoor-outdoor countertop.
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Dec 3, 2021 03:54
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Also to add if you decide the house is too gross for you and the solution is to rent it out lol I hope you have a really good attorney.
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Dec 3, 2021 04:12
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Upgrade posted:Are you living in this house? Cause you seem to have been glossing over the many posts about how difficult it is to get cat and rat piss out of walls and floors and how you need to be tearing out the drywall while wringing your hands over the cost of a $27 enzyme cleaner. This does not bode well for the future. Also your comment about buying countertops "out of pocket". Where else would that money come from? And if you're concerned about a $27 cleaner... then I'm not sure what you expect other basic maintenance costs to be. The countertops are coming from my savings, the rest is coming from financing I got to buy and upgrade/fix the house to make it livable. It's really not as simple as how you describe it at all (throw down some juice and carpet it and call it good!) and believe me, there's no wishful thinking about how difficult it will be to get the smell out, but that's a step-by-step process of "try this, if it works great, it if doesn't go deeper into sanding/drywall ripping/joist ripping" so there's not much point in going insane gung-ho gutting until it's actually warranted. I'm not glossing over anything and I do read what people say, but we're not at the point yet of blowing it all up. I mentioned before but the house is not very damaged, it's just really dirty and gross. I'm going to hope for the best regardless but I'll keep it real, don't worry. We still have a budget that we have to work within, though and there's really no way around that part. After just getting the carpet and padding out, the place smells waaaaay loving better now. The scoffing at a $27 jug of cleaner is just any liquid that costs $27 for a jug better truly be some magical poo poo that works because I'd really not like to spend that much money on something that ends up just being useless or a scam. For what it's worth, we're getting professional crawlspace guy to come by on Saturday to do a full top-to-bottom inspection on the crawlspace and floors and give recommendations. I'm making videos of every day of the work we do and I'll stich it together at the end so people can either eat crow or laugh at my pathetic boner. Either way it'll be entertaining.
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Dec 3, 2021 04:42
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AHH F/UGH posted:The countertops are coming from my savings, the rest is coming from financing I got to buy and upgrade/fix the house to make it livable. It's really not as simple as how you describe it at all (throw down some juice and carpet it and call it good!) and believe me, there's no wishful thinking about how difficult it will be to get the smell out, but that's a step-by-step process of "try this, if it works great, it if doesn't go deeper into sanding/drywall ripping/joist ripping" so there's not much point in going insane gung-ho gutting until it's actually warranted. I'm not glossing over anything and I do read what people say, but we're not at the point yet of blowing it all up. I mentioned before but the house is not very damaged, it's just really dirty and gross. I'm going to hope for the best regardless but I'll keep it real, don't worry. We still have a budget that we have to work within, though and there's really no way around that part. After just getting the carpet and padding out, the place smells waaaaay loving better now. I'm glad you're taking things seriously, and maybe I'm cynical and a jerk, but this is what I'm talking about : quote:get the smell out, but that's a step-by-step process of "try this, if it works great, it if doesn't go deeper into sanding/drywall ripping/joist ripping" so there's not much point in going insane gung-ho gutting until it's actually warranted. I'm not glossing over anything and I do read what people say, but we're not at the point yet of blowing it all up. I mentioned before but the house is not very damaged, it's just really dirty and gross. What people are saying is that the issue isn't the smell, the smell is a symptom of deeper problems - and judging if things are fixed isn't 'is the smell temporarily gone'. From everything you have posted the type of cleanup you need to make that house safe and habitable is extensive, challenging, and expensive, and an incremental approach from amateurs seems like the last thing you'd want to try. How are you judging whats good enough? Have you brought in anyone to do mold assessment? Pest control? And good enough isn't "looks pretty" its "is this safe for me and my family to live in without getting sick." That's pretty high stakes! These are not cosmetic challenges. This is more than cleaning. And if you don't know exactly what's needed to fix these issues and make the house safe, how do you have a budget? From the fact that you're doing the work yourself, my guess is you're on a pretty tight budget - and in my eyes going into a project where there's a question about what needs to be done, and the answer to that question is tens of thousands of dollars difference, you really need to be in a position where that money doesn't matter to you because you can't have a budget. It just sounds like trouble that's going to end badly. And, for the love of God, if theres any question about the environment in that house, do not try to rent it out. You are going to get impossibly, absolutely hosed. I hope I'm wrong about the situation and it works out. But reading your post gives me second degree anxiety because of all the unknowns that are absolutely ruinous. Edit: Also, have you had any of the basic systems in the house assessed? Did you get an inspection? Check for termites? As the roof ok? I can't imagine in a house where there's literally ankle high piles of rat poo poo that anyone has been doing HVAC maintenance or maintaining the roof. Houses which aren't maintained fall apart, quickly. Upgrade fucked around with this message at 05:51 on Dec 3, 2021 |
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Dec 3, 2021 05:13
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I have nothing positive to say about your refit, but I'm rooting for you I'd also bookmark any thread you created about it, so hard
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Dec 3, 2021 05:42
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Upgrade posted:I'm glad you're taking things seriously, and maybe I'm cynical and a jerk, but this is what I'm talking about : To the last questions - Yes, yes, that's part of what the guy on Saturday is doing, mossy in corners but less than 5 years old so probably fine with some zinc and a broom. Luckily this house had ductless A/C installed two years ago so there's no HVAC system beyond that. As for maintenance, that's one of the weird things about the house. It had ductless A/C installed two years ago, was painted 4 years ago, new roof 5 years ago. There's been plenty of stuff done to it, and that's why we suspect the rat/mouse turd problem might only have gotten really bad towards the end of the previous owner's life when she lost a lot of mobility and was using a walker to get around and whatnot. We'll never know but it's just a theory. And as for renting it out, I'm not really serious about that. I'll probably ride-or-die this place and do what needs to be done to get it right, but we need to get it habitable and moved in at some point considering we can't pay mortgage on a house we don't live in AND pay rent on our apartment at the same time for months and months past when we expected to move. As to what constitutes "good enough", for the floors at least, is basically where we can't smell any of that pissleather/ammonia smell anymore and we're sure any wet or dry rot has been fixed. I'd rather have it not smell like rat turd and piss than just put down pretty carpet, trust me. I'm not trying to be defensive or flippant or something and I hope it doesn't come off like that. It's not wrong that people are anxious and pessimistic considering this is the house thread and I've been talking about how turdy the place was but I'm still confident that everything will get fixed and sorted correctly in the end, but I'm also not going to gut this house and spends months and months and a ton of money that I don't have and go scorched earth or something when there's probably no need. As I said before, the house isn't damaged, just gross and dirty.
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Dec 3, 2021 07:13
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Have we ever seen photos of the rat/cat turd palace? I'm genuinely curious how bad it was before. I'm curious. Then again, curiosity killed the cat ... but maybe that was the hantavirus. Maybe rats had the last laugh.
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Dec 3, 2021 07:44
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Verman posted:Have we ever seen photos of the rat/cat turd palace? I'm genuinely curious how bad it was before. I'm curious. Here's a preview. All the little black rice grains are actually turds. It was like that basically in every room. If you look at 0:30 I think you can see a legendary 6-linker turd https://imgur.com/a/K1wOLi7
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Dec 3, 2021 09:49
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This is the stuff of my nightmares ever since I pulled down a drop ceiling tile two weeks into home ownership and had a rain of mouse poo poo fall on me. It does get better, with lots of trash bags, hard work, and bleach.
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Dec 3, 2021 12:49
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Something else to note about stuff like cat piss soaked dry wall is that even if you're only worried about smell, it can come back down the road. Basically if the crud is soaked in and you successfully treat the surface, it can leach back out. I'll let someone with experience dealing with it talk to the issue, but my understanding is that on things you really don't want to replace (e.g. studs) the answer is to both clean the gently caress out of it then use another product to seal what remains inside. From where I sit in the comfort of my not-cat-piss soaked posting lair it sounds like you might end up costing yourself more in the long run, both in terms of money and effort. If we're just talking about affected dry wall, well, dry wall isn't cheap but it's also not expensive. If I hypothetically owned a cat piss room I think my first step would be to take off all the drywall a good 4 feet up from the floor, dumpster it, and replace it. It's one of those things where I suspect that long term that's going to be cheaper than incremental approaches.
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Dec 3, 2021 13:55
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H110Hawk posted:You didn't need to pay a second time, the original one was in force this whole time. Sorry for your loss. Wait really? I need to read it but I never considered that would be the case. I guess since I bought title insurance for us originally it doesn’t matter that we are buying out the loan and replacing it with a new one. That sort of makes sense now that I think about it.
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Dec 3, 2021 14:02
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The refi company would want their own title insurance though in theory. Does your state bundle them together?
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I'm on team reno ghost. You got this babyUpgrade posted:post gives me second degree anxiety because of all the unknowns that are absolutely ruinous. I think I'm becoming addicted to this feeling. Home ownership is a disease
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Dec 3, 2021 14:09
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StormDrain posted:If it's really wet in there, I would take the covers off, blow them again, and leave the covers off for a while while they air dry. And if they didn't work that night I would replace every one of them. I assume most of the exterior ones are just simple outlet devices that cost a couple dollars and you only have a few of them. GFCI is holding as of this morning. I'll give it a few more hours before I plug things back in, but I have hope  It's literally just 2 basic-rear end receptacles. The only issue I have with replacing them is the time/effort involved and hoping that I don't screw up caulking on this go and make things worse. I mean, it's not a big deal I know, but with 2 small kids finding time for this on a weekend with the bazillion other household chores is challenging. Frankly I should replace them anyhow because I somehow totally blanked and bought 20A receptacles (it's a 15A circuit). I think I was on autopilot and grabbed the first WR I found and didn't even notice until well after I installed them.
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Dec 3, 2021 14:29
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I'd rather clean up cat piss and mouse poo poo than dealing with a smoker house. That video AHH F/UGH posted looked fine, that carpet is downright new compared to some of the poo poo I tore out of my own place when I bought it. AHH F/UGH please post more pics, I desperately want to see the rest of this place. Thx v much
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Dec 3, 2021 14:47
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Cyrano4747 posted:Something else to note about stuff like cat piss soaked dry wall is that even if you're only worried about smell, it can come back down the road. Basically if the crud is soaked in and you successfully treat the surface, it can leach back out. I'll let someone with experience dealing with it talk to the issue, but my understanding is that on things you really don't want to replace (e.g. studs) the answer is to both clean the gently caress out of it then use another product to seal what remains inside. This is basically the post I was going to make. I've been in incorrectly repaired homes before. Once the smell of new paint wears off and you get a couple hot days the owner starts getting a sinking feeling about things. And eventually in these cases called out the company I used to work for, which primarily repaired fire damaged homes. Not only did we clean the hell out of everything, but everything like drywall was removed. And structural wood sealed with gallons and gallons of products like OG Oil Kilz. Basement/garage floors epoxied......the whole deal. Because that smell keeps on coming back if you don't. It might not be right away, but it will come back if this is done wrong. And fixing it properly looks a lot like gutting the place. So all previous half measures are wasted time and money that get torn out. This is not a DIY job/evaluation. People who do this have been doing it for years and have tons of experience on what can stay, what can stay and needs to be treated, and what has to go in a dumpster. Even with having woked for a place that does this, I wouldn't feel qualified to make some of those judgements on my own and would call someone like that out for an eval regularly as things proceed to make "keep/treat/replace" type decisions.
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Dec 3, 2021 16:38
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Is epoxy the way to go for cat piss and concrete floors? Our cats have hit a few spots in the basement pretty regularly, to the point where the floor paint is pealing up. My eventual plan was to scrub and hit it with something like Nature's Miracle, then finally just epoxy the drat thing as a "sealer" to keep any odor already in the concrete from getting out, and keep anything more from getting in, sounds like maybe my intuition was correct.
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Dec 3, 2021 17:39
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I'd like to throw out some hard-learned advice to AHH F/UGH regarding the drywall and renovation in general. It's way harder to try and patch stuff like drywall / hardwoods molding up than just tear it all out and start new. The whole "cut out the bottom 24" of drywall and tie in? Yeahhhhh I'd just tear it all out, put up blue board and get a plasterer out there to put down veneer. The blue board is real easy for anyone to put up and the veneer holds up better than drywall. This will also give you easy access to the insulation /electrical so you can resolve issues now rather than going digging later. Your time is worth money and if there is one thing that sucks it's doin work over or undoing it because it seemed easier at the time. The old adage of "buy once cry once" holds true for home renovations as well as for tools.
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Dec 3, 2021 18:06
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AHH F/UGH posted:As to what constitutes "good enough", for the floors at least, is basically where we can't smell any of that pissleather/ammonia smell anymore and we're sure any wet or dry rot has been fixed. I'd rather have it not smell like rat turd and piss than just put down pretty carpet, trust me.
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Dec 3, 2021 18:18
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I had a kitten piss in a small passageway next to the gas wall heater. Thank god it wasn't our house. I cleaned it, used nature's miracle, cleaned the wall and the carpet a bunch, but any time we had a hot day you could smell that cat piss again, years later.
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Dec 3, 2021 18:23
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What happens with cat piss that makes it so ruinous? Letting it sit for 24+ hours? I've had cats miss the litterbox but I just clean it up right after. I've definitely never had to go a gut remodel...
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Dec 3, 2021 18:29
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GoGoGadgetChris posted:What happens with cat piss that makes it so ruinous? Letting it sit for 24+ hours? I've had cats miss the litterbox but I just clean it up right after. I've definitely never had to go a gut remodel... You don't have to worry about cat piss ruining impermeable surfaces (although hardwood can be ruined if it sits long enough, and grout can absorb some piss if you let it sit long enough), it's anything that absorbs liquid that cat piss will ruin forever. Cat pees repeatedly on drywall? Ruined forever. Cat pisses once on couch? Ruined forever. Cat pisses on MDF furniture and it seeps into wood? Ruined forever. I speak from personal experience (I'm not buying any nice furniture until my wife's cat crosses the rainbow bridge, because her cat loves peeing on soft surfaces even though she has two litter boxes that are cleaned daily).
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Dec 3, 2021 18:45
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Arsenic Lupin posted:I'm going to join the well squad and point out that "can't smell" is not in the same neighborhood as "safe". Is there something unsafe here? Getting the rodents out is a safety concern, but that's pretty different than gutting drywall to make sure it's not stinky, ya? Unless like, becoming nose blind to stink means you won't catch a future rodent problem, or something?
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Dec 3, 2021 19:00
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FISHMANPET posted:Is epoxy the way to go for cat piss and concrete floors? Our cats have hit a few spots in the basement pretty regularly, to the point where the floor paint is pealing up. My eventual plan was to scrub and hit it with something like Nature's Miracle, then finally just epoxy the drat thing as a "sealer" to keep any odor already in the concrete from getting out, and keep anything more from getting in, sounds like maybe my intuition was correct. I've had good luck with just enzyme cleaners. Like literally full strength pour it on the spot(s) ever few days for a week or so. I think a lot of it comes down to the concrete mix and how much has soaked in. But proper prep+epoxy is gonna seal that away forever and prevent it from being a problem if it gets pissed on again.
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Dec 3, 2021 19:05
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Epitope posted:Is there something unsafe here? Getting the rodents out is a safety concern, but that's pretty different than gutting drywall to make sure it's not stinky, ya? Unless like, becoming nose blind to stink means you won't catch a future rodent problem, or something? Yes. Rodent leavings (and to a lesser extent cat leavings) can have very seriously health concerns, especially for children. https://www.cdc.gov/hantavirus/hps/transmission.html
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Dec 3, 2021 20:14
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I would also worry about whether the rats or mice had gotten into the walls and chewed on electric cable. It's a serious problem with cars nowadays. Apparently part of the problem is that modern car wiring's insulation is soy-based, but even so.
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Dec 3, 2021 20:17
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Arsenic Lupin posted:I would also worry about whether the rats or mice had gotten into the walls and chewed on electric cable. It's a serious problem with cars nowadays. Apparently part of the problem is that modern car wiring's insulation is soy-based, but even so. Just learned this last month when I had to replace $2,400 worth of wiring in my Subaru At least it had the decency to die from it
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Dec 3, 2021 20:20
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I think hantaviruses only survive a couple days to a week outside of the body, even in rat feces, similar to covid etc Assuming the rat infestation has been 100% dealt with, in theory should be virus free within two or three weeks time Flea eggs can last a long time if not disturbed or fogged and I guess pass disease not sure though I'd still be tempted to get an air filter with UV thing and have it on in whatever room I was tearing apart, could still have fungal or bacterial spores in the carpet
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Dec 3, 2021 20:24
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Am I reading that CDC site wrong, or is Hantavirus extremely rare, especially on the East Coast? https://www.cdc.gov/hantavirus/surveillance/index.htmlquote:As of the end of 2019*, 816 cases of hantavirus disease were reported in the United States since surveillance began in 1993. These were all laboratory-confirmed cases and included HPS and non-pulmonary hantavirus infection. Granted, super fatal and you definitely want to not just be dealing with rodent droppings anyway while unprotected, but I was shocked to see that it's so low.
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Dec 3, 2021 21:05
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Even rat droppings aside I'd be worried about, well, everything else that having a house soaked in cat piss is going to imply about how well it was maintained and how much the PO was worried about water intrusion etc. Like, if poo poo was so bad that the owner was living with cat piss spraying up their walls I'd want the dry wall off entirely just to make sure for myself that there wasn't a literal rat's nest surrounding an electrical junction or some ungodly mold problem etc. It's like seeing a friend who's got track marks. The obvious issue is probably just the tip of the iceberg and is a huge red flag that there is a LOT of other problems you're not seeing beyond the major thing that you're dealing with immediately.
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Dec 3, 2021 21:14
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Hadlock posted:Very long story but short version is that all of the windows in my (condo) building have 3M ceramic solar heat film applied to all the windows, it is really impressive stuff. It's not cheap but it is probably the best heat coating money can buy. The downside is that light transmission at night is really low so the sun "sets" 20 min earlier for us than it should We had a guy come out and do all our windows, and the price was ~$700 IIRC
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Dec 4, 2021 02:10
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That enzyme cleaner is actually magic. It doesn't smell at all like cat piss in the house anymore - it smells like nothing at all. We're still going to hit it again tomorrow. When I ran our shop vac, it blew out a nice fragrant blast the old rat turd/cat piss smell through its filter so I was reminded of how the place smelled a few weeks ago when we started. Today we got all the vinyl flooring ripped up out of the entryway, kitchen and bathroom, only to discover... more vinyl. And then under that, even MORE vinyl flooring. It's like when the house was renovated in the past they just slapped new flooring on top of the old poo poo without ripping out the previous stuff. The vinyl came up pretty easily except in some areas where the sticky backing peeled off from the main chunk of vinyl but that should be easy enough to rip off. Pulling up vinyl sucks rear end because there's nothing to really grab on to, so I started using a pair of channel lock pliers to rip it out which helped a lot. Thank god it didn't come out in tiny little chunks or something. I'd like to just get a huge disc sander that people use for refinishing hard wood floors to scrape off all the little pieces of leftover sticky backing so that I don't have to crawl around scraping off little tiny flush pieces with a putty knife. I'm considering just sanding and refinishing the front door instead of getting a new one. It's a really nice door actually, a full wood slab, but it's got cat stains on the outside of it. Tomorrow is removing the old glass shower door and interior doors. Then, next week we can finally being the actual real deep cleaning and prep work. There looks to be some soft spots behind the toilet and washer/dry area that might need replacing as well. The crawlspace guy I've got coming out next week is going to do a full inspection and take photos and give some recommendations. Does anyone know how hard/easy it is to get new appliances right now? I'd like to at least get the refrigerator coming ASAP so that we have that ready if there's some kind of supply chain problems with that stuff.
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Dec 5, 2021 02:53
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AHH F/UGH posted:
I you need new appliances order them right now. We got a new stove a while ago because ours was clearly on the way out and it took about a month and a half. Nothing fancy, either, just a bog standard mid-grade electric stove/oven from Home Depot.
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Dec 5, 2021 03:45
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AHH F/UGH posted:Does anyone know how hard/easy it is to get new appliances right now? I'd like to at least get the refrigerator coming ASAP so that we have that ready if there's some kind of supply chain problems with that stuff.
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Dec 5, 2021 04:57
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So buy a refrigerator from the Home Depot that they have in stock. Got it.
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Dec 5, 2021 06:32
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AHH F/UGH posted:So buy a refrigerator from the Home Depot that they have in stock. Got it. The one we got a month and a half later was “in stock.” I presume it was in a warehouse somewhere in the region and it took a while to get it on a truck or something.
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Dec 5, 2021 06:35
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Cyrano4747 posted:I you need new appliances order them right now. Ugh. I've been trying to get my wife to go to the store to order a dishwasher for months. She's the one who wants a new one, but I guess only enough to complain about the one we have, not enough to prioritize making time to shop. I don't think she has any idea how bad the wait will be. Especially since she probably wants a Bosch or Miele.
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Dec 5, 2021 12:16
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AHH F/UGH posted:So buy a refrigerator from the Home Depot that they have in stock. Got it. Yeah, Home Depot stock is centralized so they don't always have stuff. Consider local appliance/furniture stores that maintain their own local stock.
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Dec 5, 2021 15:10
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Uterine Lineup posted:…The alternative is we using the same quartz that we are using on the island for the counters but for money reasons I was hoping I could make butcher block work. "Tricky Ed" posted:…Definitely go quartz or stainless for the indoor-outdoor countertop. There’s your solution. Swap the island quartz for the countertop, and do the island in butcher block. You may have more linear feet of regular counter, so it’ll cost a bit more now, but the island could be wider and wood scales easily if you want it wider. Plus, no (extra) maintenance desperately trying to keep the outside wood fresh looking and food safe.
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Dec 5, 2021 15:31
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