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Maybe contractors are just quitting en masse because of how difficult it is to make a living these days.
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Apr 6, 2022 16:13
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Pollyanna posted:Maybe contractors are just quitting en masse because of how difficult it is to make a living these days. Honestly I feel like this is the golden era of being a contractor.
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Apr 6, 2022 16:34
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I suspect it's more to do with them aggressively never ever wearing masks even during the really bad phases of the pandemic, then getting sick and possibly long covid. If just say, 5% of the contractors in an area stop working due to long covid or death, then it's hilariously great for all of the rest of them. They can quote high prices, not do small jobs, work less for the same amount of money, etc etc.
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Apr 6, 2022 17:08
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When I bought my house, local contractors were already driving 1.5 hours each way to take advantage of the well publicized housing boom in a nearby city. That was 3 years ago, so I’d imagine it’s even worse now.
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Apr 6, 2022 17:13
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In the SF bay area there's an absolutely absurd shortage of contractors, but it's because we're in a massive housing and remodeling boom, not because they're all sick or dead or retired or whatever. Combined with supply chain shortages, costs have skyrocketed, but a lot of those costs are profits because a decent contractor can basically pick and choose what jobs they want to do, and charge whatever they want for them... and even really lovely contractors have no shortage of work.
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Apr 6, 2022 18:45
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I got a roofer signed on, work supposed to start next month. Every interaction I feel a mix of nervous excitement, like a 3rd date- don't gently caress this up, don't scare them off
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Apr 6, 2022 19:08
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My contractor wants to propose some more work for my project but it will involve making some cuts in the ceiling of that room to see where plumbing is. He said he'll tape the removed sections of drywall back in place when finished but there will be "visible cut lines". Obviously I need to get them to agree that they will return it to pre-cut condition if I don't move forward with that added scope, but what phrasing should I use? Retexture & repaint?
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Apr 6, 2022 19:13
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Patch, mud, sand, prime, and paint.
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Apr 6, 2022 19:14
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Leperflesh posted:Patch, mud, sand, prime, and paint. Thanks Leperflesh! And what do I say when he laughs hysterically ??? (fingers crossed he's cool about this...)
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Apr 6, 2022 19:18
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GoGoGadgetChris posted:Thanks Leperflesh! And what do I say when he laughs hysterically ??? (fingers crossed he's cool about this...) "I'll hire a handyman to do this simple, routine job, if you can't do it yourself. I expect you to cut $500 out of your fees to cover that expense." (And then you pay a handyman half that much to do the job.) As a homeowner I've done this myself using home depot kits. It's pretty straightforward. Cutting into the drywall is super common for a bunch of tasks, including wiring and plumbing jobs, insulation inspection, pest inspection, all kinds of poo poo. Doing it directly overhead on the ceiling is a pain in the rear end and I'd rather not do that myself, but if it meant saving a thousand dollars, you bet your rear end I'd be up there on a ladder bitching about my sore shoulder and getting gypsum dust in my hair anyway. e. Given you're doing a much bigger job anyway, I think it's extremely likely that your contractor will already be scheduling a drywall crew at some point: maybe just leave the taped-in-place patch until that crew shows up and have them do it as part of their work?
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Apr 6, 2022 19:40
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GoGoGadgetChris posted:My contractor wants to propose some more work for my project but it will involve making some cuts in the ceiling of that room to see where plumbing is. He said he'll tape the removed sections of drywall back in place when finished but there will be "visible cut lines". Use one of those flexible fish eye camera things. Inspection camera, 20 bucks hooks to a phone
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Apr 7, 2022 02:42
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Always hire real licensed, bonded and insured professionals for trees with consequences. https://www.kiro7.com/news/local/botched-tree-removal-job-destroys-bellevue-home/2JUS7FCYWVFVZNXJC5V5UJM7YI/?outputType=amp For those unfamiliar, Bellevue is a city/suburb outside of Seattle whose avg home price is $1.5m and notoriously nimby. The neighbor had no clue what was even happening next door when the tree crashed through. His wife usually works in the room the tree landed in. This guy likely just bought his neighbor a new $2m house trying to save $3k by hiring some rando to take down a 3' thick, 150' high Douglas fir. I would love to hear the phone call this guy is going to make to his insurance company and the laughter they'll probably give when he asks if he's covered. I have to believe his neighbor is going to sue the poo poo out of him and will likely be without a house for a year, longer if it needs to be completely rebuilt, given the labor shortage right now.
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Apr 7, 2022 05:26
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Verman posted:Always hire real licensed, bonded and insured professionals for trees with consequences. It depends on state and would be a technical question, but it all would depend on if the homeowner's policy language requires work to be done by qualified insured professionals. If it doesn't, then homeowner's might cover it. The saying is usually that insurance covers stupidity. Doesn't really matter since even if it is covered it will go far above policy liability max. poo poo sandwich for everybody involved. The only hope is for the 'tree service' company to have insurance worth anything. Inner Light fucked around with this message at 05:37 on Apr 7, 2022 |
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Apr 7, 2022 05:34
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Inner Light posted:The only hope is for the 'tree service' company to have insurance worth anything. Narrator: they didn't. Owner mentioned that he wasn't even sure if the guy was licensed.
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Apr 7, 2022 05:41
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Home Ownership: When you were partying I was studying TREELAW.
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Apr 7, 2022 13:46
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Do never buy everyone, noticed my GE dishwasher original to this 2002 build condo is leaking onto the engineered wood flooring. Gonna first try to go through the hellworld of a home warranty bought by POs, hopefully they replace the thing instead of band-aiding it (pretty sure it will be a band-aid). If they give me any choice or if I replace it somehow, what is the thread consensus on the Bosch to get in 2022? I assume Bosch is still king if it is in stock.
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Apr 8, 2022 04:59
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800 series. Done. But I'm more worried about your floor (and the availability of an 800 series).
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Apr 8, 2022 05:15
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Motronic posted:800 series. Done. https://www.abt.com/Bosch-800-Series-24-Stainless-Steel-Pocket-Handle-Dishwasher-SHPM78Z55N/p/137647.html  Back-Ordered, Expected: Unknown I wonder if there is anything 2nd best that will be in stock :-/ Not sure how screwed the floor is until I get an appliance person here to help me pull the thing out and look underneath.
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Apr 8, 2022 05:26
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Inner Light posted:I wonder if there is anything 2nd best that will be in stock :-/ I can highly recommend the benchmark series, but that's gonna be a few hundred more and probably just as unavailable if not more. Hope someone else has some suggestions. Or it could be as simple as the (using technical terms here because I don't remember specifics) "big gasket" on the bottom of the tub on the GEs I've dealt with just needs replacing.........while you wait for your 800 series to come in.
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Apr 8, 2022 05:40
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Blindeye posted:I get you. I just got quoted $2,500 to do a simple water heater replacement and an eye-watering $15,000 to replace my central air/electric furnace with a heat pump unit. It's a quote so high our city's energy loan program designed to cover the cost of such jobs...can't cover the cost of it. My water heater + power blower replacement last year cost $2,500 after permits, so yep, sounds about right. 
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Apr 8, 2022 06:59
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Are there any good fridges? Looks like my compressor the compressor is starting to go on mine.
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Apr 8, 2022 07:05
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There are no good fridges, there are just varying degrees of bad fridges. Unless you feel like dropping new car money on one.
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Apr 8, 2022 14:27
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It would be great if the insulated box and compressor parts could be split up. For whatever reason you can't do this in domestic fridges, but for boats it's how they've always done it
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Apr 8, 2022 16:40
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Big Ice ruined it for everyone
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Apr 8, 2022 16:43
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Hadlock posted:It would be great if the insulated box and compressor parts could be split up. For whatever reason you can't do this in domestic fridges There are some custom order subzeros that let you do this. But at that point you're into "new car money".
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Apr 8, 2022 16:51
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GoGoGadgetChris posted:$28k for three 85 foot lengths, and two gates! Maybe try getting a couple different bid dude IDK. Or if you’re in a gambling mood go down to the day laborer site on MLK and ask for people that know how to build a fenced. You will need to borrow a pickup to transport people and materials though.
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Apr 8, 2022 17:14
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GoGoGadgetChris posted:$28k for three 85 foot lengths, and two gates! I got quoted 6750 for 1 100ft length and zero gates, I'll likely be paying someone 200 bux to come and drill the holes and put up my own. 5x the material costs is a bit past my "pay someone to do it" tolerance.
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Apr 8, 2022 19:12
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You can get a bobcat with a post hole screw rented and delivered at that price yikes. 28k guy could buy the bobcat
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Apr 9, 2022 02:33
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Elephanthead posted:You can get a bobcat with a post hole screw rented and delivered at that price yikes. 28k guy could buy the bobcat I get your point, but $28k doesn't buy much of a bobcat anymore (like everything else) and it sure as poo poo won't come with anything other than a bent up rusted out bucket. The miniex I bought just before all this poo poo happened is the "best performing asset" I own, including my house. It's nuts out there. And the contractor pricing reflects it.
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Apr 9, 2022 02:36
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recommendations for a washer/dryer given that my s/o refuses to bite the bullet and go SPEED QUEEN? gas dryer fyi
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Apr 9, 2022 05:47
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I've worked in appliance repair for the last uhhh 15 years or so and I used to have a lot of specific capital-o Opinions about what's good and what's bad, but now honestly I've realized they're all pretty much the same. Just buy what you like and can afford and, most importantly, buy something that sells a lot so that if something does break the parts are easy to come by. FWIW I did a full-gut reno of my house a couple years ago and I ended up buying mid range Whirlpool brands for my kitchen and laundry. The laundry is an Amana set, they were a good price and all the parts in them are in a lot of other models so they'll be readily available if something craps out. The models are NFW5800 and YNED5800 if you wanted to google it. I mean... all that said, I STILL wouldn't buy any gd Samsung appliances for my house. But a lot of people do, if they didn't I probably wouldn't have a job any more. 🙃
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Apr 9, 2022 16:02
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DELETE CASCADE posted:recommendations for a washer/dryer given that my s/o refuses to bite the bullet and go SPEED QUEEN? gas dryer fyi SPEED QUEEN electric dryer and top load washer.
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Apr 9, 2022 16:21
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best buy had a bosch 800 shipped within 2 days fwiwMotronic posted:I can highly recommend the benchmark series, but that's gonna be a few hundred more and probably just as unavailable if not more. i got an 800 because my GE kept leaking even after changing the big gasket.
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Apr 9, 2022 16:53
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DELETE CASCADE posted:recommendations for a washer/dryer given that my s/o refuses to bite the bullet and go SPEED QUEEN? gas dryer fyi I'll 2nd Speed Queen. I have a top load washer and it just works. When my dryer finally dies I'll replace it with an electric Speed Queen dryer.
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Apr 9, 2022 20:36
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  DIYed a hero today. At least I didn’t get heat exhaustion digging out this downspout pipe like I did working on the last one.
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Apr 9, 2022 22:49
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This may be more of a business/finance question, but since it's home specific I figured I'd ask here. We finally ready to move on to some big "wants" on our place after fixing everything that needed to be, and I'm trying to see what options are available to finance it that are actually not terrible ideas. Looking to do a ton of stuff like roof, solar, landscaping, exterior refinishing, etc that we'd like to get done this year. We have money to cover it, but would be pulling it out of mutual funds which are down this year and have tax implications, but could have cash next year. Part of getting it done now is just to finally be done with it after two years of living in the middle of renovations, but some are necessary to get ahead of NEM changes for solar plans. Do specific loan programs exist for something like this that aren't going to be predatory or grossly ripping us off (I'm thinking like your stereotypical used car loans)? Ideally I'm thinking we could get a loan for the amount, and instead of paying off over a 60 month term or whatever just pay it early over the next year. Is there a catch I'm missing? Could we just walk into any bank and ask for a loan?
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Apr 10, 2022 17:53
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If there aren't specific (used to be 0% financing) loans available for things like solar you're probably looking for a HELOC for all of it. I get the whole "wanting to get things done", but I hope you understand you'll be paying a premium in interest (as rates are going up), materials and labor. We're nowhere close to out the other side of supply chain woes, housing shortages, and labor shortages. All of my major projects are on hold indefinitely.
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Apr 10, 2022 17:58
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Motronic posted:If there aren't specific (used to be 0% financing) loans available for things like solar you're probably looking for a HELOC for all of it. Is a HELOC the best way to go about a necessary repair that exceeds cash on hand? I've got a good savings and a 5 digit emergency fund, but roofs arent cheap. Talking theory here, but it does need doing at some point and the lawsuit is moving at the speed of paperwork.
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Apr 10, 2022 18:22
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Motronic posted:If there aren't specific (used to be 0% financing) loans available for things like solar you're probably looking for a HELOC for all of it. Thanks. Totally understand we're paying a premium for convenience with materials/labor at what it is (and have been for the past couple years), I was just hoping there was a way to way to finance without additional premiums (that 0% financing would have been perfect). I was envisioning just an early payoff to minimize the interest but we'll strategize more once we get all the quotes in and see what we can maybe put off; it would've just been perfect if we could just pay out over the year.
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Apr 10, 2022 19:36
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Deviant posted:Is a HELOC the best way to go about a necessary repair that exceeds cash on hand? Situations vary of course, but for most people looking at major home repairs or remodels your home is likely the only asset you can borrow against - at least it's equity. Secured loans are much less expensive than unsecured loans. So that is typically going to make a HELOC the least expensive way to borrow that is flexible. If you have a well known fixed price job to do to your home your MAY get a better rate with a second mortgage. Less flexibility, but you still get the check you were looking for. Not sure there are any other reasonable ways to get a secured loan against your house.
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Apr 10, 2022 19:43
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