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Quick window question: What all is involved in window replacement? I'm talking about professional installation here. Do they just swap out the sashes/casing? Or are they doing a whole bunch of wood work with the frame/sill/whatnot? I'm expecting the latter, but I don't know. We're expecting to need some amount of trim work/replacement due to rot, and also hoping for some inspection of the surrounding frame to make sure water intrusion hasn't caused any issues. I guess I just don't know at what point the "window" stops.
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May 4, 2023 13:42
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The kitchen, living room, master bath are immaculate. The furnace and laundry facilities uh, leave a lot to be desired. It's very obvious which projects the wife was in charge of, and which projects the husband decided to work on himself. The deck was extended, looks like about 15 years ago and has some questionable structural decisions as well but feels solid enough for now
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May 4, 2023 13:58
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DaveSauce posted:Quick window question: I got some windows replaced last year and can answer this- It depends on what you need to have done. the company I worked with would have replaced the sill and trim and frame and etc if they needed to at an extra cost. We didn't need it so we had just the windows and a sliding door replaced. 4 windows and a door were all done in one day by a 2 man crew and they basically just went one by one popping out the existing windows and popping the new ones in. I didn't watch every window closely but I'm pretty sure they kept most of the original flashing and casing in place. Before this was done they came over several times and inspected the sills/ frames/ etc to be sure additional work or materials weren't needed and to double check all measurements. In one day I went from lovely windows that had a breeze going through them to great windows that keep the house toasty warm in winter. A+ would pay to have someone put in new windows again. Edit: The only thing I had to do was take down any curtains, blinds, or anything on the walls within 6 inches of the windows on install day.
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May 4, 2023 15:49
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Hadlock posted:On a scale of one to hosed where does this HVAC sit. My garage is nearly as warm as my house when the heat is on What’s not working/is the problem? Appears that the unit is a retrofit to existing ductwork. The build looks fine beyond the messy duct runs. The galv is indeed your flue. There also appears to be a removable hatch on the top of that return box to access the filter.
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May 4, 2023 17:01
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Missing a drip leg on the gas line?
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May 4, 2023 17:16
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Tristesse posted:I got some windows replaced last year and can answer this- It depends on what you need to have done. the company I worked with would have replaced the sill and trim and frame and etc if they needed to at an extra cost. We didn't need it so we had just the windows and a sliding door replaced. 4 windows and a door were all done in one day by a 2 man crew and they basically just went one by one popping out the existing windows and popping the new ones in. I didn't watch every window closely but I'm pretty sure they kept most of the original flashing and casing in place. Basically the same for me - they removed the old flashing, swapped the window, foamed the gaps and installed new flashing on the outside (and caulked the edges). ~30min a piece with 2 guys. Looks much nicer. The door was "brick-to-brick", so they ripped out the old door, then cut out the wood framing and rebuilt that completely, then hung the door, installed the lock and handle (fyi, new doors don't come with one!), and replaced the flashing. Nice to have a door that closes properly.
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May 4, 2023 17:28
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I just received my property value notice for tax purposes, any tips on disputing it? It's a pretty huge jump this year about 1/3.
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May 4, 2023 19:16
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StormDrain posted:I just received my property value notice for tax purposes, any tips on disputing it? It's a pretty huge jump this year about 1/3. Why is the value wrong?
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May 4, 2023 19:58
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Upgrade posted:Why is the value wrong? Because it’s too high!
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May 4, 2023 20:09
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Upgrade posted:Why is the value wrong? I'm not sure where this question is leading but I don't think it's relevant to my question.
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May 4, 2023 20:10
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StormDrain posted:I'm not sure where this question is leading but I don't think it's relevant to my question. The county assessor is going to ask you that question as soon as you start the dispute process, so it's important to start making a case! Find some sale comps, review the Marshall and swift cost schedules, etc
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May 4, 2023 20:15
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DaveSauce posted:Quick window question: They'll cut or remove as much of the old window as possible if not the whole thing so you get the most glass space, foam around the outside and redo the trim usually on the exterior with bent aluminum trim coil, an L shaped material that snaps into the replacement frame or rarely brickmould or synthetic brickmould. If you are putting bent aluminum over the exterior you don't really have to replace all the exterior trim wood and restore it, just cut out rot, add filler pieces and cover it all in aluminum. Most times we didn't bother with the interior trim unless they wanted us to, you can slap the window up to it, spruce it up a bit if needed and caulk to it. Most wood windows you sawsall a little 1/2" to 3/4" strip off and that lets you remove the sashes easy, on aluminum you cut the frame somewhere and then bend it out. Edit: Windows generally set inside a pocket of interior and exterior trim like so [w] Quaint Quail Quilt fucked around with this message at 20:27 on May 4, 2023 |
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May 4, 2023 20:23
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StormDrain posted:I just received my property value notice for tax purposes, any tips on disputing it? It's a pretty huge jump this year about 1/3. Have you considered just working yourself to the bone right up until the moment of death There's a whole lot I don't like about California, but I do like being able to calculate out my property taxes to the cent seven decades out for planning purposes, and probably getting change back on that budget Not sure if we can go fully off grid solar here but between fixed cost of solar install and property taxes, might have some control over my monthly expenses Hadlock fucked around with this message at 20:38 on May 4, 2023 |
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May 4, 2023 20:34
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StormDrain posted:I'm not sure where this question is leading but I don't think it's relevant to my question. You can find the resources to dispute it through your county or state web site, but the OP's question is what you'll have to wind up answering. Everywhere that I've lived the property tax assessment tends to come in noticeably lower than the prices that homes actually sell for, so disputes are easy to reject. But if it's on the edge of that range and you can make a compelling case that it's too high? Then you've got a shot
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May 4, 2023 21:08
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I had minor basement flooding over the weekend. The water coming in was slow enough that I could mop before it touched anything. I did notice that it was flowing away from my sump pit(back corner of basement). I do not have a french drain and installing one is not in my budget at the moment. Is it silly to think laying a couple rows of quick dams or something else (rubber water thresholds used for the bathroom?) a couple of inches from the wall to forma. canal to the pit be OK? Open to any ideas, thanks. 
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May 4, 2023 21:18
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Make sure dirt mulch etc on the outside isn't higher than the top of the foundation.
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May 4, 2023 21:28
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StormDrain posted:I'm not sure where this question is leading but I don't think it's relevant to my question. It’s entirely relevant. I went through this process and my case was that similar homes to mine had lower assessments, and had to present specific examples. Is your property tax assessment different than other, similar homes? How does this compare to sales prices? Your argument isn’t “it’s too high!” it’s “the assessed value is wrong because these specific homes [reasons why you chose these homes] are assessed/sold at x which means by assessment should be y.” You can base this off of condition, square footage, or rooms. I got 50k knocked off. Upgrade fucked around with this message at 21:55 on May 4, 2023 |
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May 4, 2023 21:52
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I'm not super happy about my most recent appraisal, but I can't really argue or protest it. By law the county assessor (here in TX anyway) has to assess the house at market value, and in my area where there's a bunch of similar tract home construction it's pretty easy to calculate. When the same size home from the same builder is selling down the street in the 480's and the county tells me my house is 458K, I can't really protest that value. The comps don't support it. I paid 350 5 years ago, so it sucks and yeah I pay more in property taxes, but I don't really have a case to protest the value. Especially with the market cooling off in the last few months a bit. There's a similar house listed for 455K right now and it's not selling, so I don't really think market value is 458K. I could probably sell in the 430's if I needed to, but I can't provide evidence right now to protest the value.
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May 4, 2023 22:17
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StormDrain posted:I just received my property value notice for tax purposes, any tips on disputing it? It's a pretty huge jump this year about 1/3. Ours/neighbors’ went up 57 loving percent. City is up in arms. Residency Evil fucked around with this message at 04:28 on May 5, 2023 |
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May 5, 2023 04:22
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StormDrain posted:I'm not sure where this question is leading but I don't think it's relevant to my question. genuinely lol'd
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May 5, 2023 04:31
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Upgrade posted:It’s entirely relevant. I went through this process and my case was that similar homes to mine had lower assessments, and had to present specific examples. Is your property tax assessment different than other, similar homes? How does this compare to sales prices? Your argument isn’t “it’s too high!” it’s “the assessed value is wrong because these specific homes [reasons why you chose these homes] are assessed/sold at x which means by assessment should be y.” You can base this off of condition, square footage, or rooms. Thanks! I was a bit short earlier, I had a feeling it was a setup to call me a tax dodger or some thing along those lines since it was just a single sentence response and generally people expound upon their advice and motivation here. I do think it's high and in the past it's usually way under what the market value is by design (14 years of home ownership in this county) , this year its close to market. Based on current interest rates and my foundation issues that were repaired (and permitted!) I think I can make a good argument to knock the value down. They include info on the sheet on how to dispute it and it looks like Colorado state legislature is trying to do something for relief too but I haven't read much or hope much for it.
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May 5, 2023 05:46
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StormDrain posted:Based on current interest rates Not sure how that's relevant to market value. It hasn't seemed to do a whole lot to the housing market in general other than slow it down, not really reduce prices. StormDrain posted:and my foundation issues that were repaired (and permitted!) If you're trying to get a lower valuation you need to be arguing that your house is in WORSE condition, not better. Your argum,ent here is akin to "that 1500 sq ft addition I put on cost so much money! The value of the house is so much lower because I had to do all that work for <insert your logic here - I'm lost>".
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May 6, 2023 16:50
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there is generally no legal provision in property tax assessment that the tax must lag market rate by X% - the only way you are going to get your tax assessment reduced is by showing that your tax assessment is too high compared to other homes that are comparable. for example, I found three homes of the same size and number of rooms that were assessed at less per sqft than mine and sent them to the assessors office with an ask to match that price - they partially agreed by lowering my assessment, but also told me that because my house was in better condition it was still worth more. nothing else matters.
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May 6, 2023 17:20
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I feel like in the past Colorado has been assessed at significantly less than market rates. At least since I've owned a house. But goddamn, this year they came right in on it exactly. I don't really have much of a leg to stand on if it is what I would expect to sell it at! My argument is just "uhhh didn't this used to always be like 20-30% less than market??"
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May 6, 2023 17:25
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Has anyone tried PoolRX+. About $55 for a one year treatment Both the company and the EPA say that you can run your pool with it with just 0.5ppm chlorine instead of the suggested 1.0-3ppm 1) this seems like it'll pay for itself just from annual chlorine cost alone given modern chlorine costs 2) not dumping an absolute gently caress ton of chlorine in the pool seems like it will avoid dumping a bunch of accessory chemicals, "shock" etc into the pool which gets you into a treadmill of tuning the water chemistry 3) 0.5ppm chlorine is way less crap in your eyes/clothes etc, the water will feel like water and not a vat of chemicals
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May 7, 2023 07:20
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I read a lot of bad reviews ~a decade ago when I was looking at using PoolRx for a hot tub. The short of it is that you're still adding a lot of chemicals to your pool, everything else that you need for routine pool maintenance is still in play (including a fuckload of chlorine), you've just replaced some of the chlorine with a bunch of copper and silver in your water. It turns out that maintaining the right mix of copper and silver (which are not often on a standard test strip) relative to your chlorine is a lot more challenging that you might think, and it's easy to wind up with either unsanitary water or expensive to remove stains caused by having too much of these metals. It's also worth considering that PoolRx is certified as an algaecide but not certified as a sanitizer, so people are at greater risk of transferring illnesses to each other - commercial pools are required to use copious amounts of chlorine for this reason specifically If you're willing to spend a lot of extra time learning about the chemistry and testing your water for the ideal mix of things then maybe you could save a few bucks, but I wouldn't recommend it. If your water feels like a vat of chemicals then this product probably won't help. That feeling (as well as chlorine smell) comes from combined chlorine, which is the byproduct of free chlorine (what you add to the water) breaking down poo poo that's growing in your water. Ideally you have very little combined chlorine; if your free chlorine is in the right range then there's very little opportunity for stuff to grow. If there's too little free chlorine then algae and other poo poo begins to multiply and the quantity of free chlorine isn't enough to completely eradicate it, creating gross pool smell and a cycle of having to constantly top off the chlorine levels. This places you on the road to unsanitary water and a huge chlorine bill. In other words, high combined chlorine is a sign that something has gone wrong and you need to slam the reset button, meaning you should go through the process of shocking the pool. From there, if the free chlorine levels are consistently in the recommended range then you will never need to shock the pool again and your water won't get that gross chlorine smell/feel. The actual maintenance of pool chemistry isn't hard, you just need to regularly test the water (at least weekly) and top off anything that's low while being extra diligent about the free chlorine level, since that's what keeps the water clean, sanitary, and overall looking nice. Most of the time you're just adding a little chlorine on a schedule.
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May 7, 2023 09:29
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In an ideal case you're slowly sanitizing the pool and adding just the right amount of chlorine as it is consumed or burned off by the sun. Even with "easy pool rx" you're going to be at 3-4ppm some days when you top off with liquid unless you're out there every day to modulate much closer to 1 or you're going to need to flush the pool every 5 years or less when the CYA in the tablets builds up to the point that you need more free chlorine in the pool. It actually takes quite a bit of free chlorine to get to "chlorine pool" levels of discomfort and smell. I run my salt pool between 3-4 and as long as there's .2pmm or less combined, it doesn't bother my eyes at all-- the other part of that is keeping the pH in the 7.5-7.6 range and then whether or not you have a salt cell, the saltier water feels better. The other path to take that I've read about (and maybe you have too) is a stenner pump to dribble the chlorine in, which also would let you stay much closer to the low end of an acceptable range since you're constantly adding sanitizer. I suspect the salt cell is going to be cheaper in the long run even with its up front cost than a stenner, though when you add the chlorine/bleach cost.
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May 8, 2023 14:00
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Cool, I met my next door neighbor. She's about 80 years old and gives off a cranky white haired racist Karen vibe. My wife and daughter are noticeably not white. She told me to turn off my side yard light. I peeked over the 6' fence and I guess it shines in her 16" wide bathroom window 40' away She told me three times in five minutes that she had been living there for 40 years. I can tell she's mentally all there and we're going to be best friends. Qwijib0 posted:It actually takes quite a bit of free chlorine to get to "chlorine pool" levels of discomfort and smell. I run my salt pool between 3-4 and as long as there's .2pmm or less combined, it doesn't bother my eyes at all-- the other part of that is keeping the pH in the 7.5-7.6 range I've only had the pool for about 2 weeks and it's been in the upper 50s partly overcast so my mental calibration hasn't happened yet. I added half a bottle of Clorox (5.7% chlorine) and that raised it up to 0.92ppm which is close enough given the weather right now, or something Anyways, why keep it at 3-4ppm? Just in case you forget to add chlorine, or your salt cell dies and you forget? Or did having a bunch of swimmers in there eat up all the chlorine and you need to add more? Or maybe it's just "chlorine doesn't bother me and it's better safe than sorry on getting a green pool full of algae" Hadlock fucked around with this message at 20:17 on May 8, 2023 |
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May 8, 2023 20:14
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Hadlock posted:Anyways, why keep it at 3-4ppm? Just in case you forget to add chlorine, or your salt cell dies and you forget? Or did having a bunch of swimmers in there eat up all the chlorine and you need to add more? Or maybe it's just "chlorine doesn't bother me and it's better safe than sorry on getting a green pool full of algae" "reserve" for bather load, yeah-- at 3ppm I''l still have _some_ after swimming. If I kept it at 1-2, there's nothing left if we're in it a lot over a weekend, and like I mentioned, even at those levels it's not "chloriney" so I find it's a nice balance.
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May 8, 2023 20:30
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Just shock it after everyone leaves 
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May 8, 2023 21:15
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So the mover just left Reassembled all my wood furniture with a cordless impact gun "the hole was stripped when I got here  "There's an entire baggie of ~M8 bolts just hanging out in a box My dining room table sways precariously When he left our house in NC we didn't do any inventory, and he refused to do any inventory when we arrived. Was in a big rush to get me packed up. They put a sticker on every box/item and have a corresponding list with numbers, a brief description of what was in it, pretty straightforward, works beautifully Literally shouted at me until I signed his paperwork, "signed under duress". What a disaster. Will sort this out in the morning. Apparently he had a box or something to deliver to someone else and didn't even arrive at my house until 1:30pm, I'd been up since about 6am waiting for them to arrive. What a disaster. Sounds like the mover has an appointment to pick up stuff in San Diego next or something so it doesn't matter how lovely a job he does here There's more, like they didn't put a couch in an upstairs room so I have two in my living room now, one of which they lost the legs to. I could go on The previous driver we had was also from Allied, the inventory went perfect, both on pickup and drop off, and we did a final check on everything and found every box even that one box at the bottom of the pile. I guess I just got their worst driver or something. Really glad we paid extra for the "full value" insurance, this claim is going to be wild
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May 9, 2023 05:38
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Sorry that happened. Haven’t heard a more perfect use case for a fat full claim (although insurance is for profit, they’re gonna wring you though I hope you get close to whole), what a jerk. To state obvious I am assuming what you signed does not have language attempting to remove liability / sign full acceptance of condition, even if it may not affect a claim. If it did have that language, and I saw what you saw beforehand, I probably would have refused to sign although can’t say for sure what I would do with a stranger adult raising their voice who also knows where I live. Inner Light fucked around with this message at 06:10 on May 9, 2023 |
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May 9, 2023 06:05
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I refused to sign saying I didn't understand what I was signing, then read the paragraph lined in a red box that basically said what I was asking about "so signing this means everything arrived and is in good condition? We haven't done a walk through and there's no inventory" and finally I read aloud the text in the box something to the effect of "do not sign this until you've inspected everything and verified everything is here" he got really mad when I did that. I ended up signing "signed under duress" and then initialed it which, I'm not a lawyer but I believe holds some legal weight Tried calling the company's hotline but of course 7pm Pacific their call center is closed, with no after hours support I think, probably less than $2000 worth of stuff is straight up missing, I have no idea what is damaged although one table and bench set has a giant scrape All that is fine it's insured I guess but guy was absolutely bellowing at me I just wanted him out of my house. When you get in an argument at a shop you can just leave. Not a lot of options when the guy is in your kitchen Inner Light posted:To state obvious I am assuming what you signed does not have language attempting to remove liability / sign full acceptance of condition, Pretty much exactly what I ended up signing "signed under duress" A quick Google seems to mainly talk about what is considered duress, not what happens when you explicitly write it on the contract. Should be interesting I'm gonna go drink a beer and go to sleep and worry about this tomorrow Hadlock fucked around with this message at 06:34 on May 9, 2023 |
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May 9, 2023 06:32
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Hadlock posted:So the mover just left We dealt with the same in our last move. The mover was some piece of poo poo who yelled at my wife and tried to get her to skip all the inventory. We came out ahead with the insurance claim but the company insisted on sending out artisanal craftsmen to evaluate the damage to our $30 ikea shelves. I hope they charged a fortune for their time.
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May 9, 2023 13:54
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Hadlock posted:So the mover just left Good loving grief that's insane. What an awful job they did. Good luck with the insurance.
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May 9, 2023 14:38
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Has stuff like that gotten worse since the pandemic or has it just always been bad? It's to the point where I'm just terrified at the prospect of actually hiring anyone to do anything because the odds of just getting yanked around forever or getting someone terrible like that seems so high that I might as well just figure out how to do it myself, whatever it is.
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May 9, 2023 15:41
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FISHMANPET posted:Has stuff like that gotten worse since the pandemic or has it just always been bad? It's to the point where I'm just terrified at the prospect of actually hiring anyone to do anything because the odds of just getting yanked around forever or getting someone terrible like that seems so high that I might as well just figure out how to do it myself, whatever it is. Nah even before the pandemic you were lucky if they didn’t just take your stuff to a storage locker and demand double to give it back to you. The moving business is full of fly-by-night companies and families moving cross country are super vulnerable to scams.
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May 9, 2023 15:50
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FISHMANPET posted:Has stuff like that gotten worse since the pandemic or has it just always been bad? It's to the point where I'm just terrified at the prospect of actually hiring anyone to do anything because the odds of just getting yanked around forever or getting someone terrible like that seems so high that I might as well just figure out how to do it myself, whatever it is. This was a big plus for us on packing everything up ourselves with a Pods pod. They don't get a key to it so things won't go missing, and if anything is damaged it's because we hosed it up ourselves.
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May 9, 2023 16:11
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Movers have always been terrible. There’s one good company where I live and they’re always booked out months in advance because of it. They’re great though, they just charge by the quarter hour.
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May 9, 2023 16:42
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Growing up we moved a couple of times for my parents' work, but it was for the same company and so they hired relocation costs, so we always got like the Rolls Royce package from Allied, and we only ever moved like 45 minutes away at a time so it was likely the same company/crew loading and unloading the truck. After they left the company we just U-hauled everything ourselves. Anyway, I'm glad that I'm going to die in this house, so moving will never be a concern for me.
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May 9, 2023 16:44
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