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Hadlock posted:From what I can tell 90% of what little cellulose insulation still exists, my guess is that 2-3 shop vac loads would make quick work of it. There's so little I had to double check the report to confirm what I was looking at was even insulation. I'm thinking I can just toss the fiberglass over top the cellulose I suppose I could deck over the insulation like my above garage storage area, but I suppose I'll remove the fiberglass and shoot loads of cellulose in the attic. I don't need access to it. I wonder how much weight the drywall would hold? Blowing in 18 inches (before it settled) in an old home of mine slashed my energy bill quite a bit.
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Apr 10, 2023 21:19
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Bwee posted:Any thoughts on the best way to deal with pooling water? We had a ton of rain last week and our backyard looked like this. It's dry now but clearly this is an issue. The grass in the backyard is ehh and there are several dead spots, but I'd like to deal with the pooling first before I deal with reseeding or resoding. Regarding the 'add an inch of sand' option - Is your soil clay? There are three schools of thought on adding sand to clay - It will make the problem worse, because sand + clay = adobe bricks - It will not do anything, because you would need a 1:1 ratio and you're not going to till a foot of sand into your topsoil - It will solve the problem I don't have an opinion of my own, but it is fiercely debated! Although heads up that sometimes it simply can't be solved. I live at the bottom of a hill, on top of a spring, and so my 'lawn' has standing water on it from October to June each year. Keep meaning to find a clay-loving bog-dweller to at least have a happy plant back there...
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Apr 10, 2023 21:25
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Poldarn posted:After 12 years of owning a house, I'm selling it and going back to renting. We keep it fairly clean, but I'm getting it ready for viewings which is stressfull. brugroffil posted:How hot is your local market? Might not matter at all! Not only this but, have you done the math on how much you would get for renting out your house? Not that you would likely make enough profit to cover the rent for your new place but if you bought your house 12 years ago you likely got it for a magical price at a somewhat magical rate (but not quite 2020 rates) that could be a permanent source of monthly income. The American dream is dead.
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Apr 10, 2023 21:35
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GoGoGadgetChris posted:Although heads up that sometimes it simply can't be solved. I live at the bottom of a hill, on top of a spring, and so my 'lawn' has standing water on it from October to June each year. Keep meaning to find a clay-loving bog-dweller to at least have a happy plant back there... Do you have the mega mosquitos that come with standing water?
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Apr 10, 2023 22:02
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FISHMANPET posted:My mom just got her gas water heater replaced with an electric water heater. Not a hybrid heat-pump/electric, just old fashioned electric. The plumbers she talked to said the hybrid was "too complicated" and gave her outrageous quotes for it compared to a regular electric. And then they didn't really even know what they were talking about, the told her that she should get her electrician to install "a plug for an electric water heater" but electric water heaters don't plug in, they're hard wired directly. My experience with anyone that works on water heaters as a profession is that they are forced to do it because they are too stupid to do anything else.
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Apr 10, 2023 22:28
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I think we've had washer chat in here before, but if another thread would be more appropriate, let me know. Looking to replace my washer - it's in a basement with a smallish doorway, so size is a constraint. Does anyone have experience\thoughts on these? I'm trying to keep them as dumb and cheap as possible, but hoping for quality build. The last one definitely isn't cheap, but it seems the most similar to a Maytag I had in my last place that I really liked (and sadly couldn't take with me), so thought I'd throw it in the mix. The pet filter thing seems to have mixed results, so probably more of a gimmick, but if it also means that other parts are upgraded vs the budget Maytag model linked below, then I'd consider it. 1. GE GTW465ASNWW 2. LG WT7155CW 3. Maytag MVW4505MW 4. Maytag MVW6500MW
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Apr 10, 2023 23:28
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GoGoGadgetChris posted:debated! The correct solution in your situation is to excavate and install a 10' deep koi pond
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Apr 10, 2023 23:47
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The Dave posted:Not only this but, have you done the math on how much you would get for renting out your house? Not that you would likely make enough profit to cover the rent for your new place but if you bought your house 12 years ago you likely got it for a magical price at a somewhat magical rate (but not quite 2020 rates) that could be a permanent source of monthly income. #1: I'm  , although our market is just as hosed.#2: My house turned 100 this year. I don't trust renters to maintain it like I have, and I hate living here not knowing what is going to break next. #2a: I've spent 10's of thousand of $$ fixing and replacing things. The windows are next and the slab in my garage is heaving, I want that to be someone else's problem. #3: By "renting" I'm moving into the duplex my dad owns. I'm paying him a nominal fee and I can help take care of him as he gets older. I will then eventually inherit both sides. Sorry if that's a little e/n. But what I really want to know is, what do people recommend for dusting the interior of a building? I'll take general deep-cleaning tips too. We've been steam cleaning things and it sucks.
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Apr 11, 2023 00:44
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Since you're in Canada (me too), just get your agent to do it and pay for it. They'll gladly also pay for painters and stagers (rental furniture) and all that crap. Even storage of your excess stuff. Seriously, you don't need to do anything more at this point since the market is thermo nuclear hot up here and is desperate for listings. Just find a good real estate lawyer and agent and sit back and relax.
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Apr 11, 2023 01:08
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The Dave posted:Not only this but, have you done the math on how much you would get for renting out your house? Not that you would likely make enough profit to cover the rent for your new place but if you bought your house 12 years ago you likely got it for a magical price at a somewhat magical rate (but not quite 2020 rates) that could be a permanent source of monthly income. I'm with Dave here I'd go landlord if you have anywhere near 20% equity right now. Not that I endorse the lifestyle but simply as a sound financial decision. Sitting on an inflation protected asset right now is not a terrible idea. If you're anywhere near a metro area, the big ticket items will be the next guys problem in 10-15 years when it makes sense to sell When is your weird Canadian mandated ARM expire? I wouldn't look to sell a day before that
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Apr 11, 2023 01:39
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FISHMANPET posted:My mom just got her gas water heater replaced with an electric water heater. Not a hybrid heat-pump/electric, just old fashioned electric. The plumbers she talked to said the hybrid was "too complicated" and gave her outrageous quotes for it compared to a regular electric. And then they didn't really even know what they were talking about, the told her that she should get her electrician to install "a plug for an electric water heater" but electric water heaters don't plug in, they're hard wired directly. Our gas water heater is at the end of its lifespan and we're debating whether to drop $2700 on another one or convert to a tankless for $7700. Did you do any pros and cons?
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Apr 11, 2023 02:04
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We may be moving soon and we own our 3-year-old house outright. Any suggestions for what to read up on renting to tenants? We'd be moving to another state if we do move.
LLSix fucked around with this message at 02:09 on Apr 11, 2023 |
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Apr 11, 2023 02:07
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DTaeKim posted:Our gas water heater is at the end of its lifespan and we're debating whether to drop $2700 on another one or convert to a tankless for $7700. Did you do any pros and cons? Don't go tankless.
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Apr 11, 2023 02:43
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unknown posted:Since you're in Canada (me too), just get your agent to do it and pay for it. They'll gladly also pay for painters and stagers (rental furniture) and all that crap. Even storage of your excess stuff. Hold up, you're saying that a rental agent will replace my windows and falling-down garage? I'm pretty sure you have to pay for repairs to the house that you own, even if you rent it out through an agency.
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Apr 11, 2023 02:52
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Lol I'm in Minnesota where tap water gets to below 40°, tankless is not the way to go (for us, at least).
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Apr 11, 2023 03:31
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Yeah we're in Chicago. So cold weather environment is a net negative?
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Apr 11, 2023 03:45
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Poldarn posted:Hold up, you're saying that a rental agent will replace my windows and falling-down garage? I'm pretty sure you have to pay for repairs to the house that you own, even if you rent it out through an agency. No, I meant if you were selling it. Once you've made that decision, you basically don't have to do a thing. Agents are desperate for listings and will absorb almost all costs to make the place nice for selling at max price. If you want to be a landlord... That's different, it helps to be a handyman. Or you find one that you pay. And you do the updates before tenants move in because it's a pita to increase rents to pay for renovations.
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Apr 11, 2023 04:01
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PainterofCrap posted:Don't go tankless.
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Apr 11, 2023 04:23
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In the continuing saga of "our mailboxes are being broken into," the HOA has informed us that the outgoing mail is being stolen too, not just the incoming. The postmaster's recommendation is to stop receiving or sending mail at home, and to instead drive to the post office and put mail holds to pick up all our stuff there. It is the responsibility of our HOA to replace all the boxes, which means it'll likely get voted down by the current crop of cheap fucks who seem to live here. Also, per the HOA, the homeless guy who forced his way into in one of the building's utility closets and currently lives there has now accomplished one of my life dreams, which is to assault a PG&E employee.
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Apr 11, 2023 05:57
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unknown posted:No, I meant if you were selling it. Once you've made that decision, you basically don't have to do a thing. Agents are desperate for listings and will absorb almost all costs to make the place nice for selling at max price. Ah, gotcha. Yeah, the guy I'm approaching uses a professional photographer for staging and I guess I'll find out what else.
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Apr 11, 2023 06:14
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Hadlock posted:The correct solution in your situation is to excavate and install a 10' deep koi pond Drainage ponds are a very real feature of a lot of parts of the southeast that are naturally swampy. Edit: Wait, you live in NC don't you? You probably already know this.
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Apr 11, 2023 12:59
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moana posted:Why? They require more maintenance than tanks - flushing & cleaning at least annually. They cost a ton more to install, require a higher-gauge power run (if electric) and tend not to last as long as a tank. They are not a cost savings on fuel. What they're perfect for is a rental property that you are only in a few times a year
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Apr 11, 2023 16:23
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PainterofCrap posted:They require more maintenance than tanks - flushing & cleaning at least annually. They cost a ton more to install, require a higher-gauge power run (if electric) and tend not to last as long as a tank. I'm not going to comment on whether tanks or tankless is better, but you should be flushing your tanks annually as well.
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Apr 11, 2023 16:36
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FISHMANPET posted:My mom just got her gas water heater replaced with an electric water heater. Not a hybrid heat-pump/electric, just old fashioned electric. The plumbers she talked to said the hybrid was "too complicated" and gave her outrageous quotes for it compared to a regular electric. And then they didn't really even know what they were talking about, the told her that she should get her electrician to install "a plug for an electric water heater" but electric water heaters don't plug in, they're hard wired directly. Wow, that's dumb. My local utility does a huge rebate for installing a heat pump water heater, and has a list of contractors that they are partnered with to do it. I think our total installed cost after rebate was like $800? for our garage ADU and the estimated yearly operating cost is like $50. Going to do my house next and that will be my last gas device gone (other than the furnace, which we haven't used since putting in minisplits 3 years ago). Speaking of, what's the best way to remove gas service? Just demo all lines back to the meter? Does it take any sort of specialized trade or could the water heater installers do it?
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Apr 11, 2023 16:52
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Sloppy posted:
Call the gas company and have them remove your meter and cap the line
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Apr 11, 2023 18:23
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PainterofCrap posted:They require more maintenance than tanks - flushing & cleaning at least annually. They cost a ton more to install, require a higher-gauge power run (if electric) and tend not to last as long as a tank.
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Apr 11, 2023 19:21
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moana posted:So it's just the space savings that people are in it for? I like our tank as a backup water supply but my husband mentioned possibly switching to tankless when ours goes and I haven't really looked into it much. Thanks for pointing out the issues. My in-laws have it and at their house at least it's pretty nice. Their old water tank used to run out all the time if a bunch of people were there (say, all their kids and their spouses visiting for a holiday) taking showers etc. The current tankless setup can get overwhelmed if you're trying to draw too much hot water at once, but their system is big enough that iirc it's like three people showering at the same time. I know you can do two. That's the big trade off as I understand it in day to day use (not commenting on maintenance etc). With a tank you have greater surge ability so you can have three people showering while doing laundry and dishes if you want, but when the tank runs out it's loving out. You can overwhelm a tankless system and just end up pissing lukewarm water on everyone, but you can run hot water more or less indefinitely if you stay inside its limits. In their specific case I prefer it because I'd rather just wait a half hour for some people to finish showers and then grab mine instead of waking up last and finding the hot water's just loving done for the couple of hours it took the old tank to heat up.
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Apr 11, 2023 19:34
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Tankless is pretty cool if it works out in your area. The biggest issue to me is the ability of the tankless heater to raise the temperature of the incoming water. If you live somewhere cold, the water might be coming out 40 degrees, and the highest "rise" I've seen on a tankless is 60 degrees at a lower flowrate. There's charts the manufacturers provide on how fast it can heat water at different flow rates. The solution for that is to run 2 tankless water heaters in tandem. Not much an issue for someone like me in San Antonio where natural gas is cheap and the groundwater doesn't get very cold. I don't currently have one, I have a big 75 gallon natural gas tank right now. They do need to be flushed at least annually, probably more often if your water is really hard. If you have hard water though definitely get a softener.
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Apr 11, 2023 19:56
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I'm finding out that there are a lot of people who don't realize you're supposed to flush a tanked water heater annually as well. If anything, a tankless water heater is easier to flush than a tanked heater, since you don't need to drain 30 to 80 gallons to do it. I have a tank heater now but will almost certainly switch to a gas tankless when it eventually craps out and Rheem stops sending me parts.
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Apr 11, 2023 21:56
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SpartanIvy posted:I'm finding out that there are a lot of people who don't realize you're supposed to flush a tanked water heater annually as well. My basic tip that someone hopefully will find helpful is to write on the heater with a sharpie when it was installed and sign it off annually when you flush it. I did the same for the anode rod replacement.
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Apr 11, 2023 22:38
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moana posted:So it's just the space savings that people are in it for? I like our tank as a backup water supply but my husband mentioned possibly switching to tankless when ours goes and I haven't really looked into it much. Thanks for pointing out the issues. You never run out of hot water and it has energy savings because you aren't keeping a huge tank of water hot all the time. Properly maintained, they last just as long as tanked (lol that guy isn't flushing his tanked water cooler). They cost more up front but then are better in almost every way. It's like buying a Toyota instead of a Mitsubishi.
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Apr 11, 2023 22:46
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Cyrano4747 posted:Edit: Wait, you live in NC don't you? You probably already know this. We got the "clear to close" on a house in norcal about 2 hours ago and the movers + new daycare are already booked 
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Apr 11, 2023 22:57
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I have never completely flushed my water heater. A couple times a year, I drain between & a pint to a half=gallon until it runs clear,
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Apr 12, 2023 01:24
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What if instead of 'flushing your water heater' you simply 'take 25 minute hot showers every day'?? Empty is empty, yeah?
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Apr 12, 2023 01:28
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PainterofCrap posted:I have never completely flushed my water heater. A couple times a year, I drain between & a pint to a half=gallon until it runs clear, Do you top off with regular antifreeze after
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Apr 12, 2023 01:33
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GoGoGadgetChris posted:What if instead of 'flushing your water heater' you simply 'take 25 minute hot showers every day'?? Empty is empty, yeah? i have this same question except unironicalluy
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Apr 12, 2023 04:17
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Sediment can build up and will be at the bottom of the water heater, while the hot water you use comes out of the top. Draining involves opening the valves at the bottom and letting it run out that way, so all the sediment comes out with it. General advice is once per year. If you want to make it easy on yourself you can attach a little connector (just search Amazon for a kit) that allows you to hook up a hose to make draining much easier. I have a drain right next to mine that goes to the crock with the sump pump in the basement so it is super easy for me.
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Apr 12, 2023 04:25
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skipdogg posted:Tankless is pretty cool if it works out in your area. The biggest issue to me is the ability of the tankless heater to raise the temperature of the incoming water. If you live somewhere cold, the water might be coming out 40 degrees, and the highest "rise" I've seen on a tankless is 60 degrees at a lower flowrate. There's charts the manufacturers provide on how fast it can heat water at different flow rates. The solution for that is to run 2 tankless water heaters in tandem. The tap water temperature is what kills it in Minnesota. I don't remember the specifics, but I talked to a plumber about it when he was replacing a part on my water heater. Basically, you could get a unit that would work with our cold tap water (I've measured it as cold as 37 in the winter, we get it straight from the Mississippi), but you need a massive gas supply, to the point where I would need to get all new lines run by the gas company. And I hear tankless electric needs like multiple 240v breakers to actually get enough juice. Anyways, I'm planning on replacing my gas tank heater with a heat pump tank "soon".
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Apr 12, 2023 04:58
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If you've ever seen the inside of a water tank (you should sometime it's cool) you'll know that most of the sediment won't come out when you drain the tank, if you hire a contractor they'll probably try to agitate it somehow. If you drain the tank and then briefly open the water inlet valve that'll at least knock some of it around, you should notice more stuff coming out of the drain valve. Others will bring specialized hardware to further agitate and break up the sediment, for instance there's this thing that's basically a combination auger+agitator
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Apr 12, 2023 05:03
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Lol at annual tankless maintenance being a burden, it is super easy and takes two short hoses, a pump, and a bucket. Annual cost is five gallons of vinegar from Costco, really breaking the bank there.
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Apr 12, 2023 11:00
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