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Recommendations for electric mower/trimmer? I’m looking at the Greenworks 40v line but the number of different confirmations is overwhelming.
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Jun 7, 2022 21:11
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I've had the Black and Decker Mower/Blower/Trimmer trifecta with 3 60v batteries and it's been fine for over 3 years now. I'll move over to the Makita stuff next when they die since I have their chainsaw/hedge trimmer/drills/saws.
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Jun 7, 2022 22:22
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Extremely happy with my EGO self-propelled mower. Last year I also got their leaf blower and snow blower, which are excellent as well.
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Jun 7, 2022 22:30
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e: meant to post this in the DIY forum. I'll move it there. Relevant to this thread, my mortgage servicer sent me an email telling me that my ancient condo that I bought at what I thought was the top of the market has doubled in value in 3 years. Whatever algorithm they're using is obviously wrong, but I thought it was really stupid and funny. El Mero Mero fucked around with this message at 22:35 on Jun 7, 2022 |
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Jun 7, 2022 22:31
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Harriet Carker posted:Recommendations for electric mower/trimmer? I’m looking at the Greenworks 40v line but the number of different confirmations is overwhelming. I'm happy with greenworks 40v trimmer and a push mower. Also happy with the greenwork 40v blower.
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Jun 7, 2022 23:24
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Upgrade posted:I'm happy with greenworks 40v trimmer and a push mower. Also happy with the greenwork 40v blower. Which one? The varieties on Amazon are endless even in the 40v line.
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Jun 7, 2022 23:37
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I've been very happy with the DeWalt 40v trimmer. Was not impressed by the DeWalt 40v mower, partially because the prior owners pampered the poo poo out of the lawn and despite my mistreatment it's still healthier than all the neighbors. It didn't have enough oomph to get through the grass jungle.
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Jun 8, 2022 00:05
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Bunny update: They're still alive and occasionally wandering out of the burrow. That is all.
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Jun 8, 2022 01:10
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DaveSauce posted:Bunny update: Thanks for the update please don’t cease, those are some healthy lookin buns
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Jun 8, 2022 01:17
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Harriet Carker posted:Recommendations for electric mower/trimmer? I’m looking at the Greenworks 40v line but the number of different confirmations is overwhelming. Not comedy option: push reel mower Really enjoying mine so far. I think I listed the model I have two or three pages back
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Jun 8, 2022 01:25
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I have a smallish city yard so I got a plugin black and decker mower. it works.
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Jun 8, 2022 01:25
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Hadlock posted:Not comedy option: push reel mower I enjoy mine as well.
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Jun 8, 2022 01:27
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Just got a quote for refinishing my places 130 year old hardwood floors + stairs. 2200 sq ft, $15,000 - definitely more than I was expecting, but the contractor is highly recommended and is available when I need the work done. Does that seem vaguely reasonable for a large city market?
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Jun 10, 2022 14:57
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That seems high, before selling my old place with hardwood floors 1000sqft was $3000.
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Jun 10, 2022 16:06
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$3000 per 1000 sq ft is about what I was quoted many moons ago Even at inflated contractor prices $15k sounds steep
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Jun 10, 2022 16:22
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Yeah, it feels high, I was expecting more like 6-8k... it is going to take them two weeks, and they are harder than average to refinish (since they didn't really design floors to be refinished 100+ years ago), but yeah
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Jun 10, 2022 17:17
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My wife and I DIYed about 1000 square feet, with no experience, for about $600 in costs, in 1999. It was a big messy difficult job that I wouldn't want to do again, but I absolutely would to avoid a $5k+ price tag.
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Jun 10, 2022 18:06
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The more I think about refinishing my hardwood floors, the more I think about buying some rugs.
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Jun 10, 2022 18:06
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Leperflesh posted:My wife and I DIYed about 1000 square feet, with no experience, for about $600 in costs, in 1999. It was a big messy difficult job that I wouldn't want to do again, but I absolutely would to avoid a $5k+ price tag. Same, except 850sqft and 2019 and it was mostly by myself. Think I spent about $500. It sucked a lot, two weeks of evenings and weekends of backbreaking work, some of which I had to redo because I was learning as I went. I was miserable and was pretty sure I had made the worst possibly decision in buying a fixer upper. Floors turned out amazing though. I'd probably consider spending the $15k though unless you've got several really really terrific friends, or an entire month off work and the ability to empty every single thing out of your house.
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Jun 10, 2022 18:52
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I learned some good tips. Don't be afraid of the drum sander. Yes, it'll instantly make a divot if you stop moving but don't lift. BUT, the big pad sander is loving useless, so is the big orbital sander, you'll go through a hundred sheets of expensive sandpaper and several hours more work doing what the drum sander accomplishes in a single pass. Just... start in the least conspicuous place and assume you'll leave a couple divots there. Also don't try to sand the baseboards in-place. Pry them off, set up a big solid elevated table, and sand them on the table. You want the house completely empty while you're sanding. You need to wear a respirator, not just a dust mask, unless you can get your dust mask to fit really tightly. Don't try to do this in the summer heat. Invest in a big shop vac and some huge fans and work with every door and window open and as much airflow as you can manage. Seriously, pay attention to proper PPE from the outset, please. Lastly, you will have to do corners and awkward spots by hand, on your knees, using a belt sander or even a little random orbital with a pointy bit. This is the worst part. The sanding is 80% of the work. Staining isn't that hard, just go with the grain and try not to overlap. We did polyurethane finish, which again must be done with respirators on, the trick is to not go too thick or too thin, you want three consistent coats and ideally buff after although that's not strictly required. It's... a lot, yeah. For us, it was worth it, since we'd just emptied our accounts to buy the place. We would have had to borrow the money to do the floors and we were already really worried about other deferred maintenance costs. But as house DIY goes, it's one of the more laborious and time consuming ones for sure.
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Jun 10, 2022 19:20
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Edge sanding was the most miserable part, made all the more miserable because the sander I rented from HD was a piece of poo poo. Spend money on some good quality knee pads, they are essential. Biggest issue I ran into was bubbles in my last coat of poly. It was just going on way too thick, and it was drying before the air could make its way to the top of the coat. I had to sand every single room by hand with a lovely pad sander and redo the final coat after I mixed in a small amount of mineral oil to thin it. Went on great after that. My only regret is not having enough time to try to bleach out a large stain in one of the bedrooms from a prior roof leak. It all took way longer than I anticipated and I had the movers lined up and ran out of time before I had to get all my poo poo into the house. It is under a desk so less noticeable now but still bugs me. I too DIY'd because I had just closed on the place and was somewhat broke. I learned a ton and definitely think I could do the job faster and more efficiently a second time, but I hope there is never a second time.
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Jun 10, 2022 19:34
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We really lucked out by having a friend refer this Vietnamese family to us that used to make boats when they lived over there. They came in, got a ton of work done very quickly, were pretty successful in closing off the rest of the house from airflow and thus sand, and were even able to patch in repairs seamlessly. They would have been impossible to find otherwise because they did no advertising. Was also quite amusing to come home from work and have a 70-80 shirtless Vietnamese man smoking a cigarette on your porch.
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Jun 10, 2022 20:44
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I installed and finished hardwood flooring for the better part of my 20's for mostly high end custom homes (regularly would bill for over $100K for one project) and I would tell DYIers that you can easily install a hardwood floor but leave the finishing to the pros. You can do it on your own but the end result my not be the same as if a professional did it plus certain finishes are hard to get if you're not a contractor. I refinished the 700 sq. ft. of hardwood in our new house about a month ago and it took me three days including the sealer coat and 3 top coats. I was able to do it so quickly because I have years of experience and used a waterborne finish that only takes 2 hours to dry between coats. First time I ever did a matte finish and really love the way it turned out! Depending on how many tread and risers are in your house $15K to me sounds semi-reasonable to me for that square footage and a quality crew. Stairs are an absolute beast, risers can be really difficult to sand down to raw wood, we generally would use stripper and scrapers to get them cleaned off. Feel free to ask me any questions you all might have about finishing floors, I've been out of the game for a long time but would be happy to help where I can.
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Jun 10, 2022 21:13
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Love that the PO had the HVAC people put in 4 damper systems for the 4 upstairs rooms even though they’re all wired to the same thermostat. 4 points of failure couldn’t be worse than 1.
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Jun 10, 2022 21:14
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raggedphoto posted:I installed and finished hardwood flooring for the better part of my 20's for mostly high end custom homes (regularly would bill for over $100K for one project) and I would tell DYIers that you can easily install a hardwood floor but leave the finishing to the pros. You can do it on your own but the end result my not be the same as if a professional did it plus certain finishes are hard to get if you're not a contractor. It's a 3 story house, and the contractor is highly recommended. I don't mind paying $15k if that is what it costs to get it done right - it's an old, old house, with original floors, and we want to return it to it's original glory if we can. It is just higher than I expected
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Jun 10, 2022 21:28
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Thom Yorke raps posted:It's a 3 story house, and the contractor is highly recommended. I don't mind paying $15k if that is what it costs to get it done right - it's an old, old house, with original floors, and we want to return it to it's original glory if we can. It is just higher than I expected I love old floors, have you given any thought about finishes yet, like a more traditional wax finish?
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Jun 10, 2022 21:59
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How difficult is it to upgrade a single vanity to a double vanity? Our master bath only has a single vanity with a 54” wide counter. My wife and I want separate sinks. Looking online it seems we’ll be limited to 48” double vanities due to our limited space (the current vanity is in between the door and the toilet). The only big issue I’m seeing is the plumbing. It’s currently plumbed for one sink and we’d need it plumbed for two. Im not comfortable with copper or plumbing with the exception of toilets at the moment. Would it be as “easy” as having a plumber just come in and basically split the pipe work in two directions? Would permits need done? Sorry-brand new homeowner and I have no clue how this works. House was built in 1988. We’d ideally like to have a separate electric outlet installed but not necessary.
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Jun 11, 2022 01:53
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My upper floor gets way too hot, so now am paying 6500 to replace the lovely 90s single pane windows with doublepane and paint the roof white. Hopefully that will be enough to keep it cool.
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Jun 11, 2022 01:57
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nwin posted:How difficult is it to upgrade a single vanity to a double vanity? When we bought our house last year the upstairs bathroom (which we treat as our master) had a single vanity and there was exactly 54.25 inches to work with. The only thing I found after exhaustive searching was this: https://www.wayfair.com/home-improvement/pdp/breakwater-bay-malakai-54-double-bathroom-vanity-set-w003262292.html. We like it, but had to make the plumbing changes to make it all work. It was straightforward and the plumber did it in about an hour. No permit was required where we live because it wasn't a major change. The only issue we had was getting the drat thing upstairs because it is heavy as balls. They only sent two dudes; additional dudes were required. Took them about two weeks to get that organized. Beef Of Ages fucked around with this message at 14:49 on Jun 11, 2022 |
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Jun 11, 2022 14:45
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Thom Yorke raps posted:It's a 3 story house, and the contractor is highly recommended. I don't mind paying $15k if that is what it costs to get it done right - it's an old, old house, with original floors, and we want to return it to it's original glory if we can. It is just higher than I expected Whatever you decide to get done, I would love to see a before and after. I also have an old, old house, quite a bit older than yours even, with original hardwood flooring in about 70% of it I love the floors and everyone who comes over comments on them, but they are badly in need of some love. I’m afraid of letting the wrong person touch them because they’re basically irreplaceable.
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Jun 11, 2022 22:58
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I bought a pressure washer and had an absolute blast today. Cleaned spider webs and egg sacks off the eaves, blew moss off the gutters, made the deck look brand new, and soaked the garage floor with soap and went to town. It was messy and fun and so very satisfying!
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Jun 12, 2022 03:46
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Decided to execute on our plan to rip out our original to the 50’s screened in porch that was sagging in some areas and pulling the whole thing off square which made it kind of an eyesore. We worked under the assumption that we wouldn’t need to replace the posts because that would suck, and it’s probably only the fascia on the post that’s rotted and if the post isn’t too bad then we’d save the hassle and just frame stuff around it. Well, when we ripped out the knee wall we were able to poke right though the rotted fascia board at the bottom to discover it wasn’t a covering on a post…it was the post and both pillars were half rotten hollow squares. Probably could’ve knocked out both support posts with a well placed kick. One handy father in law with an random jack, and now we have actual 6x6 posts supporting our roof now!  
meanolmrcloud fucked around with this message at 04:25 on Jun 12, 2022 |
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Jun 12, 2022 04:21
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Almost a year into home ownership, hurray! Remaining projects for the summer: hire a second masonry company to repoint a section near the top of the roof; figure out if we want to do anything with our garage roof and how long we want the 'solution' to last (3-5 years or 20 years); figure out if we need anything done to the gutters/downspout to help manage water better; get back deck steps worked on (handyman will start next week, this is inexpensive); find someone to refinish the floors in our bottom unit; find someone to knock out a wall in the bottom unit. Fortunately the last two aren't something I'm paying for. Upgrade fucked around with this message at 04:29 on Jun 12, 2022 |
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Jun 12, 2022 04:22
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I took the cast iron tub we found to the recycling center today. I also brought a few random pieces of metal, and I found the original (steel) screen door in a bunch of vines on the edge of our property. 480 lbs. Felt good. Verman fucked around with this message at 21:30 on Jun 12, 2022 |
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Jun 12, 2022 09:15
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meanolmrcloud posted:Decided to execute on our plan to rip out our original to the 50’s screened in porch that was sagging in some areas and pulling the whole thing off square which made it kind of an eyesore. We worked under the assumption that we wouldn’t need to replace the posts because that would suck, and it’s probably only the fascia on the post that’s rotted and if the post isn’t too bad then we’d save the hassle and just frame stuff around it. This is a real victory right here.
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Jun 12, 2022 12:11
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If poo poo is sagging always assume you need to replace the post.
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Jun 12, 2022 13:55
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Most houses on my block have a porch like this. some have built out the room (like you can see in one pic) but most have the original structure up, and if our was, they are all likely supported by this. I guess it hadn’t fallen down, so it’s not absolutely wrong, but yikes. 
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Jun 12, 2022 17:13
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I need appliance thoughts. The stove that came with our house has a wildly unreliable oven thermostat. It isn't predictably wrong; you can't just say "add 20 degrees". There is apparently only one appliance repairman in the area, and he isn't returning calls. I am not going to try to repair an electrical appliance starting from zero knowledge/experience. I'm starting to research new stoves as a backup. Gas is not an option, because of the layout of the house and the cost of propane. Of electric stoves: Induction is not an option, because we have many expensive-to-replace old pots that don't pass the magnet test. We also cook a lot with cast iron, which will scratch the top. Running a 50 amp circuit would be a royal pain in the rear end. Coil-tops are so obsolete that only the lowest-end models are even available. Smoothtop ceramic has me worried because: See above re cooking with cast iron I've read that it isn't necessarily compatible with enamelware (?!?!?) and with pans with a painted surface, because the paint may melt and attach itself to the top Scratches in general Dropping something and breaking the top. Do any of you folks have smoothtops? How have they worked for you with cast iron in particular? Is there another option I haven't considered? e: Oh, crap, apparently you can't use aluminum or copper on smoothtops? SHOOT. ME. NOW. Arsenic Lupin fucked around with this message at 18:07 on Jun 12, 2022 |
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Jun 12, 2022 18:04
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I live in the boonies / a weird vortex area so weather is all over the place is there a fancy pants weather station out there that'll accurately display my local weather / rain chances etc? I don't know anything about weather stations really (or weather)
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Jun 12, 2022 19:05
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Harriet Carker posted:Recommendations for electric mower/trimmer? I’m looking at the Greenworks 40v line but the number of different confirmations is overwhelming. I have a Makita mower and its terrific. They're expensive but you get what you pay for.
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Jun 12, 2022 19:10
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