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Anybody have experience replacing copper plumbing with pex? I've got a short run in my basement (goes to the washer/sink) that will have to be temporarily removed when some foundation work occurs. Thinking about cutting it off myself and then reinstalling pex so that I won't need to call a plumber or do a bunch of soldering. I haven't closed on the house yet so I don't have a ton of specifics yet but would be a less than 10ft run I think, unless I end up moving the washing machine. Seems really straightforward, am I missing some glaringly obvious drawbacks???
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Oct 3, 2019 17:04
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SpartanIvy posted:I have a friend of a friend who had a crimp ring break on them and flood their house. I think you're safer from that kind of catastrophic failure with uponor simply because of the physics behind it. Well that's not very cool. I think the uponor style is what I've seen demo'd on This Old House a bunch, wonder if I can rent the heat gun thingy for that vs having to buy one...
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Oct 3, 2019 18:59
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H110Hawk posted:Why not just close Jan 31? There's a lot more risk for the sellers in that situation (you'll find something better, you'll get hit by a bus, etc), so in some seller's markers you may not be able to force this without losing the house. At least, that's what was told to me by my agent when I put an offer on a house where the sellers also didn't want to move out right away. (I didn't get it.) If OP isn't in a strong sellers market tho yeah they should push for that.
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Oct 18, 2019 11:28
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I've just spent two days prepping to refinish the floors in my new house and will be buying all the supplies tomorrow morning. To anyone else that's done this: oil vs water based polyurethane, which one did you pick and why?
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Oct 24, 2019 23:13
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After a bunch of reading last night I decided to go with an oil-based poly because: -It needs less total coats vs water-based -Seems to be more durable? -Found some sites saying I'd need to recoat in two years if I used water-based and gently caress that -I can leave the house empty for a few days because I'm not living there yet -I don't care if it's smelly for a while Specifically this one: https://www.homedepot.com/p/Varathane-1-gal-Clear-Satin-Oil-Based-Floor-Finish-Polyurethane-130231/100192334
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Oct 25, 2019 12:44
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Yeah I read suggestions that your first coat should be really thin and then you get progressively thicker with each coat. I would think that's because it makes it easier to spread when you're laying down that base coat?? Guess I'll find out soon...
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Oct 25, 2019 12:50
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Welp this is miserable and next time I will pay someone else to do it. :x
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Oct 25, 2019 22:17
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I think the edge sander I rented is totally hosed which is what is making the process so incredibly miserable. Going to rent a second edge sander, from a different manufacturer, tomorrow to confirm. I'm sure they will look great when it's done but fuckkkkkkkkkk it's a lot of work. I can't even imagine how long this would have taken if I'd gotten the square pad sander as I had originally planned on.
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Oct 26, 2019 01:53
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null_pointer posted:I feel like I should have warned you not to DIY floors but you were so gung ho about it and I didn't want to be a downer and here you are, praying for death Well to be honest I did not what to spend what little cash on hand I've got to pay someone to do what I just did so I'd have probably run headlong into this project even if you had warned me. Also pro tip for anyone else in the future: if you're renting an edge sander from Home Depot, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD make sure it's the Clark model and not the Hiretech. I had to drive to another HD the next town over to find one, but it was a night-and-day difference in terms of usability and sanding efficiency. I thought for sure it was my technique or the floors until I rented the Clark and found that nope, the Hiretech just sucks and/or this specific one is hosed up somehow. When I returned it and relayed my experiences, the tool guy was kind of a dick to me and wanted to argue about it, which was super awesome. For my troubles he gave me 10% off (a whole $4). Even IF it had been working correctly (I think the pad surface was not level), it's heavier than the Clark and you have to hold down the On button with your right thumb the entire time you're using it suckkkkkkkksssssssssss. I still have to vacuum and prep to put down the poly.  Edit: And also hand sand all the places the edge sander did not reach. At least I spent two days removing all the trim before I sanded...
Sirotan fucked around with this message at 17:51 on Oct 28, 2019 |
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Oct 28, 2019 17:46
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I mean if you just wanna do that one room and the hallway I'm sure you could get the sanding done in one day. There are also some types of polyurethane that you can put down three coats in a day with no sanding in between. For tool rental you'd be looking at ~$200 and probably less than $100 for the finish and painting supplies if you don't have any. It will suck and your home will get filled with dust and be generally disrupted for a weekend but I think it's doable if your heart is set on it. Probably cheaper than putting down new carpet too.
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Oct 29, 2019 15:08
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Sirotan posted:It will suck. Hey I never claimed otherwise 
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Oct 29, 2019 17:01
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H110Hawk posted:In the end shop vac it all up, toss a HEPA bag+filter in there and you don't even have to wonder about super-fine dust. These projects never take as long as you think if you dedicate whole days to them, wake up on time, and get to work. Hard disagree on both of these points, especially if you end up using the orbital sander. It will also take you longer than you thought if you have never done this before. Trust me I know. Also make sure you turn off your furnace if it's forced air during this process, to limit the dust flying around.
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Oct 29, 2019 18:35
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The napkin math figure I saw most often was $4/sqft. I didn't get any quotes myself but a local company advertised $1.25/sqft for "resurfacing" only.
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Oct 30, 2019 00:03
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Ok finally took back all the sanding belts I did not end up using, so here is what I've spent (so far) to refinish ~700sqft: Drum sander and edge sander rental: $259.58 (2x24hr rental on both) Sanding belts and pads: $80.96 Two gallons oil-based polyurethane: $97.05 (it's possible I'll end up needing more) Other supplies (paint trays, brush, lambswool applicator, sandpaper sheets for hand sanding): $101.34 Total: $538.95
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Oct 30, 2019 03:14
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DrBouvenstein posted:So you just used the drum sander between coats? I've seen some sites/videos that recommend a floor buffer but I'd like to avoid renting a third item for another $100/$125. DrBouvenstein posted:That black spot on the right is the worst of them, but there's a couple like that. I assume they're deeper than I'll sand, so is just some wood bleach the go-to? I haven't put the poly down yet but my plan was to use a pad sander on a pole and just lightly hand sand with 220grit between coats. I'm trying some hydrogen peroxide on my dark stain, just did one coat tonight and will check in it tomorrow. So I drove over to my house tonight to start some hand sanding and what do I find but a goddamn water stain in the middle of my living room on my freshly sanded floors. Day 12 of home ownership: I discovered a roof leak. 
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Oct 31, 2019 01:54
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totalnewbie posted:
Thankfully, It cost me $0. Roof has a 10 year free-service warranty (and 30 years on the shingles) and was installed in 2015. A guy from the installation company was out within 3 hours of my call and found the issue almost immediately. It was absolutely pouring and he didn't have my specific kind of shingles with him, so he put in some temporary fixes and will be back with a permanent solution when the weather is better. He also found some poo poo that needs to be repaired on my chimney cap which my inspector missed, as we found that was leaking inside the house too. :/ Overall, one of the best contractor experiences I think I've had ever. I spent the evening sanding out the water stain in the living room. It looks a lot better and I'm feeling way less stressed now. I think this leak has been going on for a while, guess I'm glad I found it now before I had all my poo poo moved into the house.
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Nov 1, 2019 00:25
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Fireman's pole or a slide would be a quicker install, op.
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Nov 3, 2019 15:17
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Just finished putting down the third coat of poly on my floors and even though I was wearing a respirator I'm fairly sure my IQ has dropped 10 points this weekend from the fumes. There were a lot of bubbles left over from the second coat that I don't know how I could have prevented. Oh well. It's done. Had to get two more gallons of poly so final cost is gonna end up being ~$650.
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Nov 4, 2019 02:51
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Jaded Burnout posted:Were you using water-based or VOC? 450 VOCs babyyy https://www.homedepot.com/p/Varathane-1-gal-Clear-Satin-Oil-Based-Floor-Finish-Polyurethane-130231/100192334 yeah my eyes are still kinda burning
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Nov 4, 2019 15:08
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I've got a huge stump (10' tall, probably 12' in diameter) in my new yard that is way too big for me to try to remove myself, which makes me sad because I'll have to pay someone to do it and will miss out on a stump grinder rental. I did briefly consider other fun ways of getting rid of it, like starting a fire right at its center, but it's super close to the house and I'd probably regret it... 
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Nov 5, 2019 03:58
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Err my bad, I meant to say 12' in circumference but honestly it could even be bigger, I've not actually measured it, but it's way too huge for me to try to whack at it with a chainsaw myself. No clue what kind of tree it was, looks to have been cut down years ago because the stump is rotting and appears to be the home of termites or carpenter ants or a similar type of wood-eating insect now. It's also about 6' from the house which is why it's gotta go. Just one of about a million things that I can't believe the previous owner or his family didn't bother to take care of in the last decade+
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Nov 5, 2019 05:34
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MetaJew posted:If it is 12 feet in diameter, you need to contact a mobile lumber mill and slab that up! It's gross and rotted and I don't think I can do anything cool with it at all. 
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Nov 5, 2019 15:26
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Stopped by my house for the first time since I put on the last coat of poly. So. Many. Bubbles. Looks like I'll be sanding it and putting on another coat tomorrow after work. 
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Nov 7, 2019 00:54
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I think my problem was the viscosity of the urethane. Putting it down it had the consistency of honey-very thick and hard to spread. I think it just dried so fast there was no time for bubbles to escape. I'm going to thin it with some mineral spirits and just apply a coat to a single room after I sand it tonight, to see what kind of results I get. I don't really know how I'm getting bubbles into the poly on the first place though, maybe my technique sucks or the lambswool pad I was using wasn't great. Worst case scenario I can do a final coat by hand with a flat brush, which will take a bunch more time but should not produce any bubbles I guess??
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Nov 7, 2019 12:26
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Had the heat set to 70 while doing the last two coats, I could probably bump it up a bit but I don't feel like it's going to make a huge difference.
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Nov 7, 2019 13:12
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Lambswool pad on a pole and a 3" flat bristle brush for the places the pad can't reach.
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Nov 7, 2019 14:49
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I'm at the house now and just finished sanding one of the bedrooms. When I wipe it down with mineral spirits, it looks really nice and smooth. Now that I'm staring at it, I can see my brush strokes still visible in places, especially where I had to go in at an angle. I think thinning it will really help.
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Nov 8, 2019 00:18
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I can accept less than perfect but even my half blind mother could see it looked like poo poo. Put down another coat on one room + a hallway. Thinning it with mineral spirits made a huge difference. I'll stop by tomorrow afternoon and see how it looks.
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Nov 8, 2019 04:55
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Checked on my floors a bit ago, my test room isn't perfect but it's incredibly smooth and flat. Hail satan. I'll finish up the rest on Sunday and hopefully that's the last floor work I'll have to do before I move in.
Sirotan fucked around with this message at 02:47 on Nov 9, 2019 |
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Nov 9, 2019 02:43
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After all the bullshit I've gone through to refinish the hardwood on the first floor of my new house you better fuckin' believe the second floor is getting carpet whenever I finally get around to fixing that up. Finished my last (it's the last one no matter how it comes out) coat of poly yesterday. Briefly stopped by about 4 hours later and it wasn't feeling as smooth as my test room the other day but idgaf at this point. Moving in on Saturday. Here's a couple pics from last week: lovely results after the third coat:   Sanding   Test room, one day after putting down a very thin fourth coat:  
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Nov 11, 2019 17:55
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Jaded Burnout posted:I know this feeling. The last photos look nice though. Thanks. That room did turn out really well, no bubbles and it's very smooth. Certainly not perfect but you have to have your face about an inch from the surface to see most of the issues. I'm considering it a win. Did the rest of it yesterday and had all kinds of problems. Bought a new gallon of poly and it was just full of sediment, so I had to strain it. Didn't need to do this for the previous four. And even though I added mineral spirits to thin it in the same amount as my test room, it just didn't go on as easily or thinly. When I went back last night it was still very wet, but I ran my hand over the surface of a couple drier spots and could feel very very tiny raised bubbles here and there. This sucks but its also waaaaaaaay better than the results I had after the previous application, and these little spots were really not visible. And now in a couple days I'm going to cover it all entirely with ram board and probably won't see it again for weeks. 
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Nov 11, 2019 18:31
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pmchem posted:There are no obvious problems with the floors, foundation, etc. But, is this weird? As a buyer, how worried should I be about those ~2 year old black supports? Who would you even have inspect them, the general inspector, or..? And is this the sort of thing that some places require permits for? Yeaaahhhhhhh you should not have to install lally columns for squeaky floors. I would certainly be worried about that. You should absolutely bring in a structural engineer for an inspection (and see if the sellers will pay for it) if you're interested in buying this place. Don't rely on just a general inspector to give you reliable info about this.
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Nov 12, 2019 00:58
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Here is my last update on flooring: they turned out good! A couple tiny bits of crud that was either in the poly or got onto the surface while I was applying it, and some tiny tiny bubbles here and there. 98% of it looks excellent, and the other 2% no one but me will notice. It is extremely difficult to really photograph what the finish looks like, mostly because the house has basically no lights in it right now besides my shop light, but here are some final pics:   
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Nov 12, 2019 20:38
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totalnewbie posted:Those floors look amazing and you're a champ. Thanks!! Lil Peeler posted:That looks amazing dude. I was considering refinishing the floors at my place myself but ultimately let a contractor do it. Didn't seem all that difficult honestly, the hardest parts seem to be keeping the sanding and poly level. That true? Thank you. You may want to click the ole ? and read back on my handful of posts in this thread, because I've documented a lot of my saga. It was a lot of work, at every single stage. Sanding was the most difficult and time consuming part of the entire process. I went in thinking the drum sander was the scariest part of the whole job but that was relatively easy to use and I mastered it quickly, compared to the edge sander which was hard to control and meant hours and hours bending over and working on your knees. Putting down the poly was quick and easy but I should have thinned it out slightly to ensure it went on thinner and did not trap bubbles in it before it dried. My total costs came out to a bit over $800 for 700sqft of floor. I have definitely learned a lot from my mistakes but I'm not sure I would want to do this again. The house is a fixer upper and saving money on the floors is great because it means I can complete other projects but it took me 3 weeks and sucked every step of the way. I can't imagine how miserable it would have been had the house been occupied.
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Nov 12, 2019 22:28
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totalnewbie posted:Let me know if you ever change your mind. I used this: https://www.rustoleum.com/product-catalog/consumer-brands/varathane/premium-floor-finish and the can specially says not to thin it. However, I read plenty of general advice that said starting with a thin coat was best and not to overwork the poly. I intended on three coats total but the third coat went on really thick and was difficult to work. Three days later I came back to the house and found it turned out like poo poo. I did a lot of reading to figure out how to fix my gently caress up but I think it's this dude's video that got me on the right path: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCMeTnA_bq4 (I don't know that his idea of putting a coat of water-based poly on top of oil-based is a good idea but the water-based is more viscous.) Ultimately, there are four coats of oil-based after I sanded and reapplied in two stages. That Works posted:Your floors look great but your description of the process has 100% convinced me to pay someone else to do mine when the time comes. Obviously this project is totally doable since I had never done it before and in the end it did turn out great. But it sucks a lot and is logistically difficult/impossible if you are living there at the time. Not to mention the fumes from the urethane are extremely harsh and even with a respirator it was burning my eyes, I would not stay overnight in a home where this poo poo is curing. If you have a single room to refinish then mayyyybbbeeeee go for it?? A whole house though just save up the $$$ and hire pros.
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Nov 13, 2019 00:50
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Today I'm finally moving into my new house. Within 5min of the movers being here, they dropped a heavy item directly into the floor and gouged it. The good news: it's not my laboriously refinished floor. The bad news: it's my mom's brand new wood floor. :x I paid for the upgraded insurance coverage so hopefully this will get covered 
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Nov 16, 2019 17:39
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Spring Heeled Jack posted:Hey floorchat, does anyone had any suggestions for a good brand/line of floor poly? I’m not particular between oil and water base and this is for two bedrooms and a hallway. I’m doing a sand and coat of the existing floor to keep the existing patina. You should probably read my post half a page up but I used this: https://www.rustoleum.com/product-catalog/consumer-brands/varathane/premium-floor-finish in satin. Edit: ok fine then, a page ago 
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Nov 18, 2019 01:30
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Hey thread, let's chat exterior lighting. At night around my house it is absolutely pitch black. Since it is winter in Michigan that means when I get home at 5pm it is a struggle to even get my keys into the lock because I can't see poo poo. I've got a light above my side door that until yesterday I assumed was dead. Last night I got home and it turned on as I drove up, and then this morning when I fiddled with the switch it turned on and stayed on. I have now learned that it is (possibly) one of these motion sensing lights that turns from manual to motion sensing mode if you toggle the switch off for 1 second. Yay? Anyhoo, the thing is hideous so even though I now know it does actually work I'd kinda like to replace it. Here is my quandary: I'm thinking about some kind of dusk-to-dawn light there instead of motion sensing. The neighbor's house is about 20ft away and there are 4 windows facing that light. I've only been in the house for 3 days now but it seems like they keep their blinds drawn 100% of the time on those windows. How much of an rear end in a top hat am I if I install a light there that is now on all night long? Next question: what do y'all do for lighting at the front of your houses? Seems like there are a lot of people in my neighborhood that leave an exterior light on at the front of their homes until I-don't-know-o'clock. It looks nice and homey. Trying to decide if I'd do a dusk-to-dawn light here as well or maybe get a light timer switch??
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Nov 19, 2019 15:12
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Yeah I don't think I want something super bright on the side of the house, just something to light up the doorway and maybe some of the driveway on either side of the door (driveway is directly next to the house). Installing a garage door today so starting tonight I'll be parking my car in the garage and then walking a bit of a ways to the house. With no lights on the garage or side of the house and it being dark as poo poo at 5pm, I want to get some lights up pretty quick. I think ideally for these two spots I'd like some kind of motion sensing/timer combo, especially for the garage since it is detached and I don't know how else I could control the lights there from the house unless I wanted to get into some smart switches/wireless controllers. I live in a historic district and they do have guidelines for light temps and shielding, but even without all that I don't want to create unnecessary light pollution or annoy anyone, I just want to feel safe around the house at night.
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Nov 19, 2019 17:23
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knox_harrington posted:I think I'd be quite pissed off if a neighbour installed floodlights that shone 24/7 straight into my windows, particularly out in the countryside. Your light would not actually be allowed in my neighborhood, as the top of it is unsheilded! I don't think solar-powered path lighting is going to be enough light for my needs here. Currently thinking about going with this one: https://www.homedepot.com/p/Heath-Zenith-Shaker-Cove-Mission-150-Black-Motion-Sensing-Outdoor-Wall-Lantern-Sconce-HZ-4135-BK/205958446 which has a motion sensor, but also has a setting that allows it to come on after dusk for 3 hours, 6 hours, or until dawn at 1/4th of the brightness, but will still turn on to full brightness if it senses motion. And I can still override these settings by turning the light switch off for 1-2 seconds. Also I tried to observe my neighbors a bit closer last night, next door neighbor leaves their porch light on all night and someone across the way had theirs on for about 4 hours after dusk. Seems to be about 1/3rd on the street leave something on all night. Edit: there are just so many lighting choices, jesus. Maybe I need to just go all in on a smart lighting system since I'll be replacing almost all of the lighting in the house from this point on anyway: https://www.bestbuy.com/site/philips-hue-outdoor-motion-sensor-black-and-white/6326655.p Sirotan fucked around with this message at 16:22 on Nov 20, 2019 |
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Nov 20, 2019 14:26
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