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No loving way I’d sign variable rate on anything right now. There’s only one direction rates can go from where they are and I’d be afraid of getting into bad waters if rates get hiked.
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Jan 8, 2022 20:22
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Cyrano4747 posted:No loving way I’d sign variable rate on anything right now. There’s only one direction rates can go from where they are and I’d be afraid of getting into bad waters if rates get hiked. I think it's OK as long as there's a cap on the variability. We got a variable rate one 6 months ago, it was 25 years 1.55 variable, capped at 2.05, vs 1.85 fixed. Only other difference was that the fixed had early repayment fees whereas the variable was free, and we'd quite like to refinance in the next year or so as we had to go to a rather expensive specialist lender since we didn't have an in country work history. We also thought that rates were only going up but if anything they're down a touch! But yeah without a low cap it could get dicey.
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Jan 8, 2022 20:35
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Nothing says excitement like the banister bracket breaking in half while you're using it. Off to the hardware store! 
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Jan 8, 2022 22:23
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Cyrano4747 posted:No loving way I’d sign variable rate on anything right now. There’s only one direction rates can go from where they are and I’d be afraid of getting into bad waters if rates get hiked. the rate is 3.65 initial, capped at like 18. But most of it is going to be paid of by the end of the year. People in either this thread or another finance one all said do a HELOC instead of a home equity loan. A home equity loan would be a fixed rate, but it's not clear to me whether you can pay it off early, which I want to do. the application document says "Principal Reduction During the draw period, the minimum payment may not fully repay the principal balance outstanding on your line of credit." quote:Minimum Payment the only fees listed after that are for closing it within 30 days. so I'm reading it as if I take option C, I have to pay at least 2%, but I don't see anything about not being able to pay more than that. actionjackson fucked around with this message at 23:11 on Jan 8, 2022 |
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Jan 8, 2022 22:38
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actionjackson posted:I can only get variable for a HELOC, but I can get fixed on a regular home equity loan. My credit union does a HELOC combo which functions kind of like both - I can do a zero or partial draw on it rather than getting all the funds at once (which I prefer in my case) but still has the fixed rate.
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Jan 9, 2022 00:17
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Out of curiosity, how would you go about fixing the poop garden thing? Drain and excavate the old one, build a 24" high retaining wall (enclosed, raised area), install new system inside of retaining wall, fill retaining wall? Enjoy swampy poop water around retaining wall?
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Jan 9, 2022 02:37
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You dig trenches and have pipes with holes let the poop water drain into the soil you hope. The soil will somewhat purify the poop water with microbes that like poop. I don’t know how this works if your back yard is the water table
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Jan 9, 2022 02:46
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When I had the leech field replaced at my last home when discussing how to deal with the water table, my home was near a creek, the answer was to build it above the ground and if needed use a lift pump to move waste out from the home. It wasn’t needed but I am sure that is fun when the pump dies.
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Jan 9, 2022 03:20
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Yeah I saw the groverhouse photos where they're digging trenches and the following day they're canals Sounds like his water table is 16-24 inches below the ground during the rainy season, 48-72 inches during the dry season? I dunno I'm no sewage expert. Presumably the county didn't require a perk test, or at least, a less stringent one 40 years ago Building up an area above ground would allow the system to perkolate into the surrounding ground/water table, presumably, but you'd end up with a "wet spot"/swampy moat around the retaining wall. I guess if you build a large enough retaining wall, eventually the area under the retaining wall will exceed the swampy area created by the new tank
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Jan 9, 2022 03:20
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BigPaddy posted:When I had the leech field replaced at my last home when discussing how to deal with the water table, my home was near a creek, the answer was to build it above the ground and if needed use a lift pump to move waste out from the home. It wasn’t needed but I am sure that is fun when the pump dies. My system is like this. The only real extra is that my septic tank is a 3 chamber deal, with a pump in the 3rd chamber. Replacing the pump isn't that big of a deal - just pump down the tank enough that it's not overflowing into the pump chamber, pump out the pump chamber, and replace the pump. It's not unusual for these pumps to last a long time without any real maintenance, because the 3rd chamber is free of debris / floaters / toilet paper etc, which is what's hell on pumps in general (even solids handling pumps). The tank has a high level switch in it which will alarm if the pump fails. Also, raised beds don't require a retaining wall at all, it's just a big earth mound with gently sloped sides.
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Jan 9, 2022 03:40
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actionjackson posted:the rate is 3.65 initial, capped at like 18. But most of it is going to be paid of by the end of the year. People in either this thread or another finance one all said do a HELOC instead of a home equity loan. A home equity loan would be a fixed rate, but it's not clear to me whether you can pay it off early, which I want to do. Heloc is a line of credit always available - think of it like a credit card. There's a minimum payment when you use it, but you can pay it all back tomorrow if you win the lottery (ie: no max). Then it's there waiting for you to use it again. Let's say your limit is $10k, you can pull out 3k for something and $1k for something else, pay back $1.5k (net owing $2.5k) spend $7k (now net $9.5k), win the lottery scratch and pay it all off. All in a couple of days. Your interest is calculated at a daily rate, so at the end of the month you'd owe like $20 or less for that usage. This is why people like helocs.
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Jan 9, 2022 08:48
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unknown posted:Heloc is a line of credit always available - think of it like a credit card. There's a minimum payment when you use it, but you can pay it all back tomorrow if you win the lottery (ie: no max). Then it's there waiting for you to use it again. What’s the advantage over a credit card? With a CC I can get a fat limit but the interest is high if I only make the minimum payment. Is heloc like lower interest which makes it more attractive?
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Jan 9, 2022 10:38
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If you buy your house for $100,000 when you're 30 with 20% down, and after 10 years you'd paid off $20,000 of the principle ($40,000 equity on the original value), but you got promoted to Senior Basket Weaver which pays 25% more than what you were making 10 years ago, and you realized your kitchen would look awesome with granite countertops, and while we're at it, let's replace the deck off the kitchen so we can entertain guests and show off our new kitchen remodel. Kitchen remodel is $25,000 and a new deck is $15,000. BUT in the last 10 years your house appreciated from $100,000 to $150,000, and you only owe $60,000 on the house. With a HELOC you can borrow up to $67,500 ((home value * .85) - what you owe the bank) with your home as collateral. So now you can borrow against the current market value of your house for the $40,000 to remodel the kitchen and the deck, and only pay like, 4% APR for it. In a lot of cases you can do an interest only HELOC for 10 years and then just pay it off when you sell the house if you plan to move but you want to enjoy the kitchen + deck until you move. That's like, I dunno, $170 a month or something. You can remodel your kitchen + deck for about what you pay for the mega premium cable TV channel pack Another use of a HELOC is getting one up front, to buy a condo in a HCOL like Seattle, SF or NYC where you put down 10% on a million dollar condo, and get a preemptive HELOC for the other 5% to qualify for a 15% down mortgage, assuming you go through a kickin' rad loan originator, rather than apply for a loan through a bank Hadlock fucked around with this message at 11:25 on Jan 9, 2022 |
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Jan 9, 2022 11:17
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Inner Light posted:What’s the advantage over a credit card? With a CC I can get a fat limit but the interest is high if I only make the minimum payment. Is heloc like lower interest which makes it more attractive? What hadloc said, but fundamentally, you're right, it's like a low interest credit card. Also once you've owned your house for a while and the value increases (and the mortgage decreases), people will redo the heloc and get even higher limits. It's not unheard of for people to have $200k+ limits. (this leads to people buying another house with that credit limit and doing the rinse and repeat and then eventually a housing crisis).
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Jan 9, 2022 15:23
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I use my heloc to put an all cash offer on my next house. I then pay it off when the old house sells and get a new heloc on the new house. In the before times this is how I could get banked owns that needed things that kill mortgages like they stole the furnace or toilets.
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Jan 9, 2022 16:58
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I was helping the cabinetry/carpentry guy the whole time so I'm sure of the work quality, and he helped with another renovation we worked on previously and we were really happy. Good younger guy who shows up on time, sober, seems to be mentally well. The painter is a guy who has painted my Dad's house three times and is a local craftsman/solo operation. We know his caliber and I'm already impressed with how thorough he's been in just the prep work alone. Pretty happy I didn't go with the first guy who bid on this project's random team of questionably legal immigrant labor that said they could have the whole house painted in 5 days.
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Jan 10, 2022 03:42
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What are good brands/models for indoor air quality monitors? Mostly looking for something that measures carbon dioxide, but temp/humidity/etc. is also good as well. Just some sort of gadget that sits on the desk; it seems that most of the things I find when Googling are handheld devices for HSE professionals on a factory floor, which is way overkill for my needs of "hmm, is it stuffy in here, should I open a window?"
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Jan 10, 2022 17:28
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Zarin posted:What are good brands/models for indoor air quality monitors? Mostly looking for something that measures carbon dioxide, but temp/humidity/etc. is also good as well. Just some sort of gadget that sits on the desk; it seems that most of the things I find when Googling are handheld devices for HSE professionals on a factory floor, which is way overkill for my needs of "hmm, is it stuffy in here, should I open a window?" I got this one a couple months back and to mostly measure carbon dioxide levels have been happy with it: https://www.amazon.com/Hydrofarm-Autopilot-Desktop-Monitor-Logger/dp/B01FYWU2IS But if I hadn't already bought a radon detector which set me back ~$120, I would have bought this: https://www.airthings.com/view-plus
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Jan 10, 2022 18:34
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So does concrete really need a full 28 days to set before driving a car over it twice/day?
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Jan 10, 2022 23:26
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Residency Evil posted:So does concrete really need a full 28 days to set before driving a car over it twice/day? If you want the warranty/a leg to stand on with your contractor if something happens, yes. 28 days is the average for it to cure to 50% strength.
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Jan 10, 2022 23:36
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Motronic posted:If you want the warranty/a leg to stand on with your contractor if something happens, yes. This is incorrect. The 28 day strength is the design strength of type I Portland cement. Most reach 50% strength by 7 days. It may gain ~20% more strength after 28 days but this strength takes months to years to develop (flattening curve) and is not credited in a concrete design. Many road pavings will instead use a type III cement which reaches design strength in 7 days and is set up in 3 days, specifically because closing roads for a week or more is... generally bad. Always base it on what your contractor warranty recommended, though.
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Jan 10, 2022 23:43
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Blindeye posted:This is incorrect. The 28 day strength is the design strength of type I Portland cement. Most reach 50% strength by 7 days. Yeah I got that turned around. But the warranty/what is expected from a resi concrete job is 28 days because: Blindeye posted:Always base it on what your contractor warranty recommended, though.
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Jan 10, 2022 23:48
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Motronic posted:Yeah I got that turned around. But the warranty/what is expected from a resi concrete job is 28 days because: As a civil engineer who does commercial work that's surprising. Normally for 28 day concrete you are moving on after 7 days because the design accounts gor the needed "construction strength"
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Jan 11, 2022 00:01
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Is it that surprising that a consumer level warranty mandates an extreme level of care that many individuals will not bother with? For example dumpster fire worthless home warranties will require yearly service for HVAC or they will deny the claim. All that being said, I would just deal with the hassle of going by the letter of the warranty, even if civil engineering principles disagree with it. Inner Light fucked around with this message at 00:05 on Jan 11, 2022 |
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Jan 11, 2022 00:03
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Blindeye posted:As a civil engineer who does commercial work that's surprising. Normally for 28 day concrete you are moving on after 7 days because the design accounts gor the needed "construction strength" When I say resi crete job I'm talking about garage slabs like what RE just got done. That's always been the thing, at least around here. Nobody's waiting 28 days to build on poured footings and depending on height nobody's waiting even 7 days for ICF courses.
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Jan 11, 2022 00:05
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Residency Evil posted:So does concrete really need a full 28 days to set before driving a car over it twice/day? Hey doc do I really have to take all my courses of chemo? I mean the first couple should get it right? If the professional you hired to do the job says wait 28 days I’d wait the 28 days.
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Jan 11, 2022 00:17
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Blindeye posted:As a civil engineer who does commercial work that's surprising. Normally for 28 day concrete you are moving on after 7 days because the design accounts gor the needed "construction strength" Motronic posted:When I say resi crete job I'm talking about garage slabs like what RE just got done. That's always been the thing, at least around here. Thanks guys. So to be clear, in "real construction" no one actually waits the full 28 days, but I should wait the full 28 days to drive a car over it twice/day to ensure I get full warranty protection, correct?
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Jan 11, 2022 00:18
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Archer.gif _____ / Do you want unnecessary cracks in your brand new garage with white epoxy floors? Because that's how you get unnecessary cracks in your brand new garage floor Sure it's 5000psi concrete, I just, no
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Jan 11, 2022 00:24
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Residency Evil posted:Thanks guys. So to be clear, in "real construction" no one actually waits the full 28 days, but I should wait the full 28 days to drive a car over it twice/day to ensure I get full warranty protection, correct? Ask your contractor, every blend can be different so we can only give generic answers. Hopefully your contractor is knowledgeable enough to give a coherent correct reply, or look at warranty paperwork?
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Jan 11, 2022 00:25
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My contractor said 28 days, I'm going to go with 28 days for the warranty. But presumably that's also very generic advice. I'm not talking about putting a lift on this concrete or building the next leaning tower of Pisa: it's a piece of concrete slab that will support two car wheels at a time as it's driven over on the way to the actual garage. Sounds like a civil engineer here says it's probably ok sooner?
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Jan 11, 2022 00:31
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Residency Evil posted:Thanks guys. So to be clear, in "real construction" no one actually waits the full 28 days, but I should wait the full 28 days to drive a car over it twice/day to ensure I get full warranty protection, correct? Yes just wait. https://theconstructor.org/concrete/concrete-compressive-strength-variation-with-time/5933/ If you don't care about the warranty... Just drive on it whenever. It's a slab on soil, with a rubber tire car, it's fine in like 3 days, really fine in a week, nearly perfect in two weeks. It's going to crack and probably heave in a decade unless they removed a lot of soil underneath and replaced it with gravel, assuming you get the bentonite clay soil that I encounter nearly everywhere in Denver and the front range. My garage has a 4" in 6 feet slope in one corner. Structural slabs with post tension seems to be the best solution for slab on grade here,
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Jan 11, 2022 00:33
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Residency Evil posted:My contractor said 28 days, I'm going to go with 28 days for the warranty. But presumably that's also very generic advice. I'm not talking about putting a lift on this concrete or building the next leaning tower of Pisa: it's a piece of concrete slab that will support two car wheels at a time as it's driven over on the way to the actual garage. Sounds like a civil engineer here says it's probably ok sooner? Oh yeah it's a driveway? Amazon is going to have a truck there tomorrow to turn around on it and crack the poo poo out of it.
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Jan 11, 2022 00:35
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StormDrain posted:Oh yeah it's a driveway? Amazon is going to have a truck there tomorrow to turn around on it and crack the poo poo out of it. Hah I had the exact same thought. Might as well set up a camera so I can capture the moment.
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Jan 11, 2022 00:36
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Residency Evil posted:Hah I had the exact same thought. Might as well set up a camera so I can capture the moment. Don’t worry they are really third party contractors that Amazon pays so little they can’t afford insurance
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Jan 11, 2022 00:45
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Elephanthead posted:Don’t worry they are really third party contractors that Amazon pays so little they can’t afford insurance Oh I just meant so that I can know the day that I can use the driveway.
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Jan 11, 2022 00:49
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Sirotan posted:I got this one a couple months back and to mostly measure carbon dioxide levels have been happy with it: https://www.amazon.com/Hydrofarm-Autopilot-Desktop-Monitor-Logger/dp/B01FYWU2IS Funny, I just had one of these delivered today. It seems to be working great, telling me I'm about to spend a lot more improving my mechanical ventilation. CO2 at 2400, down to 800 when I opened a window
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Jan 11, 2022 06:30
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Sloppy posted:Funny, I just had one of these delivered today. It seems to be working great, telling me I'm about to spend a lot more improving my mechanical ventilation. CO2 at 2400, down to 800 when I opened a window . . . in your greenhouse, right?
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Jan 11, 2022 07:05
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2400 seems really high? CO2 level can be used as a proxy for air cycles per hour in an office, I forget but like 500ppm is on par with 10 changes per hour or something; useful if you're forced to go back into the office during a respiratory viral epidemic etc Anyways researched this a bit, I can't find a consumer grade device for under $300 from a western brand I've heard of, seems like they all come from China and every single one of them has the full gamut of reviews I guess as long as it always reports ~400 when you take it outside, it's fine? At least when I want a high quality temp sensor I can pull out my credit card and buy a fluke or uei device and have a reasonable level of confidence, I can't find something similar for CO2. Worse is that Amazon and Google think they're smarter than you and serve up carbon monoxide sensors
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Jan 11, 2022 13:30
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Sloppy posted:Funny, I just had one of these delivered today. It seems to be working great, telling me I'm about to spend a lot more improving my mechanical ventilation. CO2 at 2400, down to 800 when I opened a window Wow, yikes. Yeah owning this thing has been enlightening, I thought for sure my 81 year old house would be too leaky to ever need to worry about make-up air but turns out it's better sealed than I thought. It hovers around 600-700 in the winter when the furnace is running, but in the summer it would get to 1300. Opening a window obviously helps but I have to figure out some strategy for this or bite the bullet and install an HRV.
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Jan 11, 2022 13:42
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Apparently if you wrap "carbon dioxide" in quotes you get better results. I was able to find this device from Honeywell for $275 with a one year warranty but no claims to accuracy in the manual or spec sheet https://www.honeywellstore.com/store/products/transmission-risk-air-quality-monitor-htram-v2-w.htm Paying $60 for a sensor from China seems low but I guess if it's helping you solve the ventilation issue that's great value
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Jan 11, 2022 13:54
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