Good-Natured Filth posted:

I have a carpenter bee problem in my porch stairs. My porch is concrete, but the stairs are wood. The bees get up underneath the stairs and bore in. The wood itself is stained and sealed, but they don't seem to mind. Last Fall, I sprayed carpenter bee insecticide like crazy and plugged all the holes they made and hoped that it would be solved. It's gotten warmer recently, and I happened to be looking underneath the stairs and noticed a couple new holes were bored out. I'm assuming this is not a good sign.

To add to the problem, we live near a woods and there are a bunch of woodpeckers around. The woodpeckers love to come to our stairs to get at the bee larvae. The underside of my stairs looks like Swiss cheese at this point, and I'm worried it's affecting the structural integrity, and I'll have to replace the stairs entirely with a metal set or something less bee / woodpecker prone.

Anybody have experience destroying carpenter bees?

GWBBQ posted:

I'm not sure I would call woodpeckers adorable; at least the Migratory Bird Act doesn't say poo poo about scaring them away with a Super Soaker.

Jerk McJerkface posted:

I had them come out last night. Quote was 15k for a high velocity a/c and entirely redo the insulation in the attic. It's a 1100sqft cape cod with a finished attic, so they are just redoing the insulation in the knee wall recesses.

It breaks out to 10k for the a/c and 5k for the insulation. If I do it all I can get 2k in rebates bringing the job to 13. I can then get a 0% seven year loan on 10k. For reference a 5 unit ductless minisplit AC was 12 for the AC.

I think it's a little expensive but they are so highly recommended it seems reasonable.

I have another guy coming next Friday from a different company for a second quote. I need to find a third guy and get one more.

Jerk McJerkface posted:

He recommended I just go ductless in the whole house. I don't mind the size, and the wall space is available, so I don't see why not. I'm waiting on pricing, but it seems it'll be in the ballpark of the other guy (10-12k) but they don't need me to also do the insulation at 5k (!!!!) to get 0% financing for a few years.

H110Hawk posted:

What all needs doing to bring your insulation up to rebate levels? To give you an idea, our got insulation blown in to R-38 + our exterior walls to R-13 on a 1250 sqft house for a total of $4,650. This was in east los angeles county, so it's not like labor is magically half as expensive.

baquerd posted:

Super-mild winter by me this year, only ran my snow blower twice. Should I still change the oil over such light usage?

OSU_Matthew posted:

I've got a similar problem with my neighbors, their house is a shihole and is infested every spring and I'm worried the bees will fund their way across the alley to my place. I haven't found any better way than building a carpenter bee trap, but I'd be curious if anyone else has an idea

PainterofCrap posted:

I haven't changed the oil in mine in nine years. Still mostly clear.


Nail up a sacrificial layer of cedar, or a couple of 2x4s. Don't kill carpenter bees.

Jerk McJerkface posted:

Almost nothing, there's knee walls along each side of the roof (cape code with finished upstairs) that are maybe 30 feet long and eight foot slanted. The first company quoted me $5840 (!!!!) to pull out the old visible insulation and replace it along with the venting under it. Removal of the old insulation was $840 (!!!) which I can do myself and save the money.

The issue for the NJ Rebate is two fold:

1) that it must be done as part of a job that improves the SEER rating to a certain level, and they have a computer simulation that you have to plug the data into and it reports the savings. The A/C and the insulation are enough to hit this level and get 2k in rebates and 7 year 0% financing for 10k.
2) the work must be done by a licensed and registered contractor that is enrolled and certified in their energy program. Meaning the entire improvement has to be done by them so I can't do it myself. If I do the insulation myself, and they do the A/C, it's not enough to get the rebate and the financing.

quote:

The second contractor that came today told me that NJ rebates aren't that simple and they require a lot of paperwork and you have to use specific equipment that ends up being so much more expensive you lose the entire rebate in markups.

TooMuchAbstraction posted:

When I bought my house, my dad helped me replace the hot water heater. We put the new one up, it's properly strapped and secured, but his approach to the emergency vent pipe was to just slap some PVC on there so that it would drain to the floor instead of spraying scalding water at eye level. I didn't think much of this at the time, but I recently had a plumber on-site for an unrelated job and, while they approved of most of the installation, they pointed out that any inspector would take one look at that PVC and require it be replaced with metal pipe that properly drained to the outdoors.

Well hell, I can solder copper pipe. I fixed it today, but I'm not super-familiar with this particular domain so I was hoping to get someone more experienced to spot-check me.


(Click for fullsize)

On the left it goes up to a 3/4" threaded fitting that's screwed into the emergency vent fitting on the hot water heater, with plumber's tape. On the right, it goes out through the wall and vents to the outdoors (at a place that slopes away from the house, even). The pipe slopes downwards or is flat at all points. All fittings are soldered. I caulked the hole in the wall around the pipe.

Things I'm not sure about :

• You'd have to cut the pipe to replace the hot water heater. That feels weird. Are you supposed to use some kind of flexible cable, or a reverse-threaded nipple, or something? I mean, it doesn't bother me much because I'm perfectly capable of cutting the pipe if I need to replace the heater, it just seems like my solution isn't as elegant as it ought to be.
  
• Is there some kind of cap I should have on the outdoor section of the pipe? I'm imagining bugs crawling up the pipe and clogging it. But maybe I'm just being paranoid. Obviously any cap would need to come off automatically if the emergency vent were used.

Here's hoping I don't end up in crappy construction tales!

devicenull posted:

That pretty much matches what's listed on the program's site: http://www.njcleanenergy.com/residential/programs/home-performance-energy-star/frequently-asked-questions#participatingcontractor http://www.njcleanenergy.com/residential/programs/home-performance-energy-star/benefits-and-incentives http://www.njcleanenergy.com/files/...7_01_16%20FINAL(1).pdf


There's no real indication that you have to use specific equipment for it, it just has to meet specific efficiency requirements (see PDF linked before). Maybe there's a requirement that isn't listed on the site?

I guess if you don't need a bunch of insulation, the NJ rebate program might not make a whole lot of sense. We have an attic with insulation varying between R-1 and R-7, so adding insulation is going to be a big help to comfort/energy bills.

Motronic posted:

If you're under the IRC that's totally not correct - T&P valves need to be air gapped near the unit. Most typically you just run a piece of straight copper to a couple inches above the pan. Maybe other codes treat this differently.

Motronic posted:

If you're under the IRC that's totally not correct - T&P valves need to be air gapped near the unit. Most typically you just run a piece of straight copper to a couple inches above the pan. Maybe other codes treat this differently.

quote:

Relief valves located inside a building shall be provided with a drain, not smaller than the relief valve outlet, of galvanized steel, hard-drawn copper piping and fittings, CPVC or listed relief valve drain tube with fittings that will not reduce the internal bore of the pipe or tubing (straight lengths as opposed to coils) and shall extend from the valve to the outside of the building, with the end of the pipe not more than two feet nor less than six inches above ground or the flood level of the area receiving the discharge and pointing downward. Such drains shall be permitted to terminate at other approved locations. Relief valve drains shall not terminate in a building’s crawl space. No part of such drain pipe shall be trapped or subject to freezing. The terminal end of the drain pipe shall not be threaded.(2010 CPC 608.5)

Discharge from a relief valve into a water heater pan shall be prohibited. (2010 CPC 508.5)

Bobulus posted:

Hey. So I bought a house last year, and recently I discovered a leak in my roof. A cursory inspection makes it seem like the rest of the roof is fine, but this one area is water weakened or something. TL;DR, I need to repair it from the outside myself, because I don't think I can afford to pay someone to do it, but I've never done this before, so any guides would be useful.

Details:

- The rest of the roof seems sound. I've walked all over it, installing an antenna and cleaning the gutters. But there was one spot that, as soon as I stepped on it, shifted under me, and the shingles immediately sunk. Now there's a depression up there that water can pool in.
- This area was apparently a problem in the past, because directly under it, I found a cracked area of the ceiling (now that the shingles are depressed there, that crack has started leaking again. It wasn't when I moved in last year)
- I attempted to fix it from inside the attic (basically, push the shingles back into place, then patch the hole in the plywood with some new wood), but the roof is sloped and the hole happens to be in an area where the roof and the attic floor are less than a foot apart. I can't reach it to do anything to it. To even see the hole was a huge pain.
- The roof is about seven years old (there was a big hail storm here back in 2009 and apparently a lot of roofs got replaced).
- The house itself was built in the early 60s.
- The shingles around the water-damaged area don't seem to be tarred down as well as other areas of the roof. I'm no expert, so I don't know if the water damage caused the loose shingles, or the loose shingles caused the water damage.

Jerk McJerkface posted:

Maybe I wasn't accurate but it wasn't that it had to be a certain brand but that it needs to be certified to meet a certain energy efficiency​ which ends up costing more than the rebates anyways. My energy bills is around 200 a month so if I have 15% more efficiency it'd take like six years for it to pay for itself saving only $30 a month. Is that worth spending 5k more on the install? Not really to me since I don't plan on living in this house for that long.

I need maybe twenty feet long by five feet high of insulation replaced. I don't see that costing me five grand so there's no sense in pursuing the rebate to save two but still have to spend three.

TooMuchAbstraction posted:

So it sounds like the code where I am doesn't match the code you're familiar with.

FogHelmut posted:

I need to cut some cement bricks I'm using for a small paving project. I've been using a brick set chisel to cut some of them, but it's not working when trying to cut lengthwise.

Should I get a masonry blade for my circular saw? Or should I pick up that angle grinder I've been eyeballing for a while now?

Or are neither of those reasonable?

TooMuchAbstraction posted:

I've cut through cement sidewalk with a cement blade in my circular saw. It's not a huge deal. Just don't take off too much at a time, and wear goggles, hearing protection, and a breathing mask. You'll kick up a lot of dust.

Jerk McJerkface posted:

Maybe have someone spray it with a hose while you cut? Just keep the cord out the way and make sure it's connected to a GFCI outlet.

polyfractal posted:

polyfractal posted:

Is this a valid idea from a construction point of view? Would I need to treat it like a real foundation with a footer, slab, etc? Or because it's so shallow could I get away with something simpler, like just concrete blocks and maybe crushed gravel "floor"?

Qwijib0 posted:

Your biggest problem will be drainage. if you live in a relatively dry area, then yeah I think the idea is plausible. if you don't, you might need a dry well next to it to drain into.

Safety Dance posted:

I wonder if you could get away with pouring a 3'x3' slab, bolting the telescope to that, and building a doghouse-shaped-object with a flip-away roof around it.

polyfractal posted:

A simple shed is definitely a valid option, and should still be pretty small. I'll do some measuring and see how small I could realistically make it. My main hesitation was mainly from aesthetics due to the location: our house sits at the back of the property near some trees, which makes the backyard tough to use with a scope due to poor sky view. The front yard along one of the property lines would make a much better location... but then it becomes an eyesore issue with the neighbors

Jerk McJerkface posted:

Another option would be to put a door or window on your house that the telescope was large enough to fit out and put a sliding platform inside your house that slides out with the telescope on it. Something like one of those under the sink garbage cans that the door of the cabinet attaches too and the whole deal slides out.

socketwrencher posted:

Folks down the street built a TARDIS on their roof.

Also cool is that on that corner various neighbors have built a multi-denominational community shrine.

Lots of creative ways to go.

kid sinister posted:

That's one way to build a belfry woops, cupola.

TooMuchAbstraction posted:

I've cut through cement sidewalk with a cement blade in my circular saw. It's not a huge deal. Just don't take off too much at a time, and wear goggles, hearing protection, and a breathing mask. You'll kick up a lot of dust.

socketwrencher posted:

Ha- yeah they also have the hull of an old wooden ship in the backyard where they hang out and watch movies that are projected onto the side of the house.