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I have one of those solid beech desktops you used to be able to get at IKEA and I love it.
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Oct 31, 2022 18:57
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I think sometimes people believe Ikea furniture is broken when it's actually just loose. Those weird round things that you turn with a screwdriver to like pull and grab on to hold pieces together loosen over time but they seem to tighten up just fine. I have a birch (or just birch-finished) dining table that a friend bought in Texas, gave to me, and then my wife and I moved it 1000 miles and between two additional rentals before we bought our house and it's fine with occasional tightening. Same deal for my Malm and the platform bed frame. There's also just the element of, if you take it apart and you don't have the directions anymore after you move it, you might not do a great job putting it tgoether.
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Oct 31, 2022 19:00
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I have a lovely vertical 5-drawer pine dresser from Walmart that I purchased 19 years ago when I was a broke rear end college student, and somehow it has survived at last 10-11 moves with minimal impact. I figure once it someday does go out, I'll replace it, but until then, why throw it out? My wife and I also picked up a pine king sized bed and dresser from Ikea 7 years ago, and besides the lovely metal frame and worn out slats, they've held up well. It seems like one of the key features that I've noticed is that the furniture that holds up well in terms of re-assembly/moving/etc., also has either metal inserts for screws, cams, etc., so that it's not depending on screw-to-wood threading during each disassemble/reassemble.
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Oct 31, 2022 19:05
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i'm a total slut for aesthetics so I guess I'm kind of biased 
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Oct 31, 2022 19:58
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We’ve had ikea pieces that we kept for 13-15 year range, but those required structural reinforcement. Our Malm dressers we had for 13 years, but eventually the drawer bottoms sagged so I had to reinforce the drawer them. We left them on the curb when we moved last fall because they wouldn’t work in our new space. The $800 couch we bought in 2008 started sagging after about 3 years. I opened up the bottom and put in some structural reinforcements on the frame and it lasted until we got a replacement this summer. Our kids were not kind to the leather, so it was repaired by duct tape while we waited 8 months for our replacement to arrive.
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Oct 31, 2022 20:18
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DaveSauce posted:"Why would I pay $1,000 for a solid wood Amish built table? This table from Ikea is $300 and does literally the same thing!" I know what you’re getting at but this hypothetical made me chuckle. Whats really a better deal, spending 1000 bucks now on a single table, or spending about that much on 30 years of IKEA tables? Thirty years of changing needs, opportunity to change styles, less worry about wear and tear, Ikea’s sounding pretty good!
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Oct 31, 2022 20:34
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i think 1800 (maybe 2200 now ith inflation) is probably a good minimum for a high quality, standard size fabric sofa. obviously leather will be a lot more I had a sectional from dania before this which was 800 (should have been a red flag) and the fabric was pretty much crap. you want to look for 30k double rubs (lol) minimum ohhyeah posted:I know what you’re getting at but this hypothetical made me chuckle. Whats really a better deal, spending 1000 bucks now on a single table, or spending about that much on 30 years of IKEA tables? Thirty years of changing needs, opportunity to change styles, less worry about wear and tear, Ikea’s sounding pretty good! probably depends on if you have any moral qualms with the increased resource usage and consumption from doing so actionjackson fucked around with this message at 20:54 on Oct 31, 2022 |
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Oct 31, 2022 20:39
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Plywood is gonna be the best quality material for any budget furniture. It has excellent strength and stability. Solid wood has a better rep, but you're not going to see solid wood construction in budget furniture that's worth a drat. MDF, particle board, melamine, etc are all way worse: weaker, heavier, and less durable. But they're cheap and easy to shape, and there's plenty of uses where they're fine because their weaknesses aren't relevant. Source: am a woodworker.
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Oct 31, 2022 22:08
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actionjackson posted:i think 1800 (maybe 2200 now ith inflation) is probably a good minimum for a high quality, standard size fabric sofa. obviously leather will be a lot more FWIW, I hope my post didn't come off as judgemental. I definitely recognize/understand the differences in furniture quality and such. Long-term we'll probably eventually replace our hodgepodge assortment of furniture with nicer sets that meets our tastes and long-term goal to keep, but with a couple of young kids, the cheap poo poo we already have suffices given I bet at least half of it will get destroyed by said young kids! (Plus, said funds for nice furniture does go toward nice furniture, except it's going toward the kid's furniture, since Green Guard Gold/etc. certified furniture is pretty freaking expensive, not to mention the "healthy" mattresses for them, etc.)
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Oct 31, 2022 22:23
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I'm building a floating (~illusion oooooh~) bedframe out of construction grade pine and it's coming along pretty good (I picked some particularly dense/low knot stuff). I'll post some pictures, but this slatted DIY bed frame is sturdier than any IKEA poo poo I bought and it's made out of soft woods I bought for about $60 (various 2x4s, some 2x6s, and one 4x4 I'm using for legs). I'm building up my tools to be able to do basic carpentry work. I've got miter saw, circular saw, all kinds drivers, orbital sander...next on my list I'd like is a jig saw. I'm terrified of table saws so I'm avoiding them as long as possible. I plan on building a bunch of shelving, and considering doing a french cleat wall in my living room for some cool modular/changeable shelving. All this stuff gives me a huge sense of satisfaction after working desk jobs for the past 15+ years. ceebee fucked around with this message at 22:47 on Oct 31, 2022 |
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Oct 31, 2022 22:45
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So how concerned should I be that this just exploded out of the side of my foundation?
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Oct 31, 2022 23:54
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I mean, nothing particularly good ever starts this way but that doesn't look completely tragic, just confusing. It's not like that's a pre tensioning thing that's going to impact structural stability.....it's in what appear to be PVC pipe and I really want to know what's on the other side. Is that a basement? Crawlspace? Can you get in there and show us?
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Oct 31, 2022 23:58
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Nope that is just the foundation of a single story house. No basement or any way to get to the other side. Edit here is a closer pic 
Zil fucked around with this message at 00:08 on Nov 1, 2022 |
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Nov 1, 2022 00:01
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Nov 1, 2022 00:06
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Zil posted:Nope that is just the foundation of a single story house. No basement or any way to get to the other side. Is your breaker panel somewhere near there? Because it looks like an abandoned ground that someone shouldn't have abandoned and then hastily parged over at some point during a remodel or flip. E: that closer picture is more concerning yikes. That looks like it might actually be part of a pretensioned slab. Gonna need to know a LOT more to have any further opinion here.
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Nov 1, 2022 00:09
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ceebee posted:I'm building a floating (~illusion oooooh~) bedframe out of construction grade pine and it's coming along pretty good (I picked some particularly dense/low knot stuff). I'll post some pictures, but this slatted DIY bed frame is sturdier than any IKEA poo poo I bought and it's made out of soft woods I bought for about $60 (various 2x4s, some 2x6s, and one 4x4 I'm using for legs). I'm building up my tools to be able to do basic carpentry work. I've got miter saw, circular saw, all kinds drivers, orbital sander...next on my list I'd like is a jig saw. I'm terrified of table saws so I'm avoiding them as long as possible. If you aren't already, I recommend following the woodworking thread. And table saws are absolutely optional; I don't have one and I've always been able to work around it.
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Nov 1, 2022 00:26
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Motronic posted:Is your breaker panel somewhere near there? Because it looks like an abandoned ground that someone shouldn't have abandoned and then hastily parged over at some point during a remodel or flip. House completed construction in early 1999 but we bought the house in 2012 knowing it had foundation issues that had been repaired by a local foundation repair company. They gave us a lifetime warranty on their work, but I'm scared that this isn't going to be covered by that warranty. It did shake the house a bit when it went. So yeah, I think it is most likely a tension wire.
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Nov 1, 2022 00:32
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Zil posted:House It did shake the house a bit when it went. So yeah, I think it is most likely a tension wire. 
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Nov 1, 2022 00:54
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SourKraut posted:FWIW, I hope my post didn't come off as judgemental. I definitely recognize/understand the differences in furniture quality and such. Long-term we'll probably eventually replace our hodgepodge assortment of furniture with nicer sets that meets our tastes and long-term goal to keep, but with a couple of young kids, the cheap poo poo we already have suffices given I bet at least half of it will get destroyed by said young kids! oh no that's fine. i don't have kids so it's much easier :p
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Nov 1, 2022 01:00
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TooMuchAbstraction posted:If you aren't already, I recommend following the woodworking thread. And table saws are absolutely optional; I don't have one and I've always been able to work around it.
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Nov 1, 2022 02:25
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Zil posted:House completed construction in early 1999 but we bought the house in 2012 knowing it had foundation issues that had been repaired by a local foundation repair company. They gave us a lifetime warranty on their work, but I'm scared that this isn't going to be covered by that warranty. Texas area? Only place i know that uses pretensioned concrete slabs Anyways yeah sounds like you know what it is. Best of luck e:. there's a hairline crack above the wire, is there one below as well? BIG-DICK-BUTT-FUCK fucked around with this message at 02:47 on Nov 1, 2022 |
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Nov 1, 2022 02:43
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That's a broken post-tension cable in your foundation. I'd call a foundation engineer and reach out to the foundation company that did the repairs. Do you live in an area with expansive soil? I'm assuming you do with the house having previous foundation work.
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Nov 1, 2022 16:58
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BIG-DICK-BUTT-gently caress posted:Texas area? Only place i know that uses pretensioned concrete slabs Yeah Texas and I can't see a crack below. skipdogg posted:That's a broken post-tension cable in your foundation. I'd call a foundation engineer and reach out to the foundation company that did the repairs. Do you live in an area with expansive soil? I'm assuming you do with the house having previous foundation work. Yeah I have an engineer coming out today or tomorrow to take a look. The company that did the previous foundation work only does leveling.
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Nov 1, 2022 19:19
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Zil posted:The company that did the previous foundation work only does leveling. Sure but gently caress it you said you have a warranty for their work right? Make them come out and reject you before you shut the door on yourself.
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Nov 1, 2022 19:57
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So, opinions on the internet seem to vary about this question. I’d like to get crown installed in my upstairs bathroom to help clean up the look and hide some flaws. Some people say hardwood crown over a shower footprint is never ok, and others say so long as it’s sealed up good including the cuts you’ll be fine. Ceiling is two feet above the tub surround so it’s not going to be getting splashed on outside of freak accidents. If I went ahead with this I’d buy some oak crown and finish it myself, then have someone else put it up.
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Nov 1, 2022 21:14
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The Dave posted:Sure but gently caress it you said you have a warranty for their work right? Make them come out and reject you before you shut the door on yourself. Oh no, I talked to them first. They are the ones that gave me the engineers number.
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Nov 1, 2022 21:46
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Casimir Radon posted:So, opinions on the internet seem to vary about this question. I’d like to get crown installed in my upstairs bathroom to help clean up the look and hide some flaws. Some people say hardwood crown over a shower footprint is never ok, and others say so long as it’s sealed up good including the cuts you’ll be fine. Ceiling is two feet above the tub surround so it’s not going to be getting splashed on outside of freak accidents. If I went ahead with this I’d buy some oak crown and finish it myself, then have someone else put it up. I have pine cove / crown in my bathroom. Over the shower. Eleven years now, no issues. It’s primed twice & has 2-coats of gloss white over that. If you’re going natural finish, get the best spar varnish-type product and coat/steel wool it at least 3-times before cutting & installing.
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Nov 2, 2022 00:24
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Zil posted:House completed construction in early 1999 but we bought the house in 2012 knowing it had foundation issues that had been repaired by a local foundation repair company. They gave us a lifetime warranty on their work, but I'm scared that this isn't going to be covered by that warranty. If you felt the house shake, then it's probably worth inspecting as much of the floor that you can see as possible. Sometimes when these rupture, they actually release enough stored energy to effectively knock themselves through the concrete slab and become visible (either above or below the slab). BIG-DICK-BUTT-gently caress posted:Texas area? Only place i know that uses pretensioned concrete slabs Post-tensioned slabs are being used by tract home builders all over the country, unfortunately. I've known people who have had homes built in Florida, Georgia, Colorado, California, and here in Arizona who have post-tensioned slabs. It's loving ridiculous, because the QA/QC that goes into the overall process is typically poo poo, and so it really is a relatively short-term ticking time bomb for a lot of people.
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Nov 2, 2022 06:29
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Whatheck you got giant wires ready to snap under your house?!
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Nov 2, 2022 11:55
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SourKraut posted:If you felt the house shake, then it's probably worth inspecting as much of the floor that you can see as possible. Sometimes when these rupture, they actually release enough stored energy to effectively knock themselves through the concrete slab and become visible (either above or below the slab). Really?? I thought it was just Texas that had the "dynamic" soil conditions necessitating the use of the pt slabs. I figured you wouldn't go to the trouble if it wasnt absolutely necessary, but I have little knowledge of building practices in the south in general. Interesting info
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Nov 2, 2022 11:56
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can someone who is good at buildings explain why post-tensioned slabs are necessary in (I gather) areas with lovely soil, and why one might decide to do it's best impression of a warner brothers cartoon bedspring? I gather from looking at this and reading between the lines that post-tensioned slabs are more rigid and resist cracking/buckling if you have heave-prone soil, which would normally cause foundation damage. Do I have that right? So what causes one to just poop a rod? Poorly constructed? What's the mitigation look like for something like this?
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Nov 2, 2022 13:14
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I found a used spiral staircase for sale at a local ReStore-esque place: Only $1000!  If only I had a spare $1000 lying around...and a place/reason for it...
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Nov 2, 2022 14:49
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Can anyone recommend me a good workbench? Looking for about 60-72" wide, storage below, and shelves or cabinets up top in addition to the usual rear board. Price isn't an object as long as it's a good value.
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Nov 2, 2022 15:50
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Deviant posted:Can anyone recommend me a good workbench? Looking for about 60-72" wide, storage below, and shelves or cabinets up top in addition to the usual rear board. Price isn't an object as long as it's a good value. Lista if you have deep pockets. I've got one that was surplus out of a machine shop and it's really great.
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Nov 2, 2022 16:06
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Cyrano4747 posted:
I'll let you know once the engineer gets back with me.
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Nov 2, 2022 18:25
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Sous Videodrome posted:I just got quoted $14.5k for tiling a bathroom floor, installing a shower curb and shower pan, and tiling the shower floor and walls. The shower is 3x6.5 ft and the bathroom is pretty small. Second quote came back, it's $14,500 just for labor and materials, no tile included. JFC I didn't want to DIY this, but I'm starting to want to. $4k in materials, I think I have all the tools. Ughhh I'm going to reach out to more tile companies. I think I can maybe bring the cost down to a reasonable level by doing the prep work myself. If I install a kerdi shower pan, walls, waterproofing, and self-level the floor, are tile installers willing to work on surfaces they didn't prepare? Because if I can just pay someone to install the tile properly that's totally worth it. Sous Videodrome fucked around with this message at 20:41 on Nov 2, 2022 |
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Nov 2, 2022 20:28
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Sous Videodrome posted:Second quote came back, it's $14,500 just for labor and materials, no tile included. JFC I bet they'd be happy to work on a surface they didn't prepare because that also means they probably won't warranty the work and therefore will just rush through it to get it done, not worrying about what will happen to it in 5 years time.
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Nov 2, 2022 21:20
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Laying the tile is probably the easy part of that job if you're skilled enough to do all the prep and build out the enclosure.
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Nov 2, 2022 21:47
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BIG-DICK-BUTT-gently caress posted:Really?? I thought it was just Texas that had the "dynamic" soil conditions necessitating the use of the pt slabs. I figured you wouldn't go to the trouble if it wasnt absolutely necessary, but I have little knowledge of building practices in the south in general. Interesting info No, it's the mass home builders realizing that they can save (a small amount of) money on the material and labor costs for the home construction, and so trying to push it wherever they possibly can. Pretty much any new home construction that isn't looking to do a basement or crawl space and would simply be slab-on-grade, will likely start seeing PT slabs used. When it comes to soil conditions, most tract homes aren't nearly large enough to where a PT slab is any type of justification over traditional CIP slabs with rebar. The problem is that the tract builders do such a lovely job on subgrade preparation, that they're trying to use them to alleviate potential settlement problems due to their lovely prep, so they're thinking about the 3- or 5-year warranty periods where they have to come back and address drywall cracks due to settling. Even if you get compaction to 100%, you're probably going to still see a few % of consolidation over the next several years, even for good subgrade prep. If the tract builder's sub did a good job, they would set the foundation area elevation to be equal on native soils, then provide fill and compact as needed. This would mean that even if you get consolidation, it'll consolidate relatively uniformly and let the house settle evenly, which a traditional bar mat slab can easily handle. Instead, they come in and hit their target grade elevations as fast as they can, do a poor job with any fill compaction, don't establish equal elevations on native, etc., so that if they do a rebar traditional slab, you'll see potential differential settlement at the construction joints, etc. which is the source of the ugly (but usually cosmetic) cracks. So for the tract builders, if they can potentially reduce/eliminate CJs, EJs, etc., reduce cracking due to settlement, reduce the overall dimensions of the slab (inches in each dimensions for the slab, though this results in probably a few cubic yards of material), and then much less structural steel rebar... why wouldn't you? Once the necessary grade prep is complete, easily over half the time to actually pour a traditional home slab is probably in the rebar mat preparation, so I'm sure everyone can imagine why tract builders would prefer to just run maybe two dozen PVC conduit through the slab with grease and stranded tension cable versus the hundreds of rebar that has to be placed, cut, tie wire'd, etc. So overall, they're cutting out significant rebar quantity and probably a few weeks of labor from a couple of metal workers, by going to a PT slab. I can't say off hand what the $ savings is, but I've heard it's usually several hundred dollars in the recent years. Cyrano4747 posted:can someone who is good at buildings explain why post-tensioned slabs are necessary in (I gather) areas with lovely soil, and why one might decide to do it's best impression of a warner brothers cartoon bedspring? And while there are definitely times where this is the best, or only, approach, for typical home construction, any situation that might warrant a PT slab, can be addressed with a traditional slab, simply by increasing rebar size and/or adding more rebar (whether at closer spacing, greater size at CJs/EJs, etc). It's just that this would cost more money and involve more labor, and, well, people want their new pretty home to also be as cheap as possible. Nevermind that a traditional slab allows you to do all kinds of stupid poo poo later on without any worry about compromising the slab much beyond the immediate area, because you can always replace damaged rebar with new rebar relatively easily. In terms of what causes a tension wire to break, it's usually due to either how the conduit/wire position ended up when the slab was poured, or often just due to material defect and/or corrosion. Usually the conduit is supposed to be completely filled with grease or other hydrophobic compound, to prevent water and other contaminants from causing to get corrosion. When the wire is ultimately tensioned and cut, it's supposed to be well packed and sealed with suitable grouts and hydrophobic materials, but the quality of the final completion process is very dependent on field staff experience, expertise, attention to detail, etc., so... yeah, it often is poorly done, and water starts making its way into the amchor points long-term. gently caress PT slabs for homes.
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Nov 2, 2022 21:51
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I'm a little upset at Delta...they lied about the compatibility of their bath faucet...sort of. All the info I found told me that the new Delta bath faucet/handle/shower set I got would fit my existing rough-in, since I have no desire (or means, really) to try and replace it. When I went to try and swap it out yesterday, it seems they sort of stretched the truth. They changed styles of cartridge/rough-in. On the left is the old one (what I have) on the right is the new one:  Now, I CAN just buy a new RP19804 cartridge...that will fit my rough-in, and it can be used on the new faucet handle. But now that's an extra $60 (or like $20 if I buy this off-brand knockoff from Wal-Mart...which I will NOT do, not trusting off-brand plumbing inside the wall where I can't easily tell if it's leaking...) and now I have a useless new cartridge that I can't use that came with the set. Maybe if I did better research, I'd have known this...but I literally just looked up my old model and the Delta website said the line I got is compatible. Which again...it sort of is, provided you buy the critical piece of hardware that literally connects it all together! So more research wouldn't even have helped, other than I would have had the cartridge I needed at the time I tried to do the swap, I'd still have tp spend the money...as far as I can tell, I can't order a new Delta set with the old-style of cartridge.
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Nov 3, 2022 15:41
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