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I'm looking for some advice for how to go about this. As posted in the Seattle thread a big drat tree fell on my house: More Photos Here The insurance says to get estimates from general contractors since it is going to take a variety of specialists to fix everything (carpenters, drywall, roofing, etc). Their adjustor said he would approve a certain percentage over the expected repair cost because of the additional cost from having someone coordinate everything. I have fixed some of my own plumbing problems and a variety of small house projects, but my actual knowledge of construction is zero and I've never had a big insurance claim or had to hire anywhere near a contractor for this much money so everything is pretty intimidating. So far I've contracted a couple dozen general contractors and have gotten zero estimates. Either they don't respond, say they are too busy, or just fail to show up for their appointment. Around here is a construction boom and supposedly a ton of people have been remodeling since covid started so that is probably complicating things. I also presume remodeling work is far more profitable. Should I keep contacting general contractors until I can actually get estimates? Is there a different search term I should be using for who I need? Maybe I should start trying to get the work done by individual contractors? Any advice appreciated. edit: also, I wanted to bring someone out to confirm the house structure isn't hosed in some obscure way. I contacted some "structural engineers" on Yelp and the 1 response so far said it would be $1800 (!!) for an inspection and report. I'm hoping the price is lower for some of the other companies but am I contacting the right kind of companies? I dunno if my insurance would just shrug and pay that FuzzySlippers fucked around with this message at 23:44 on Jul 27, 2021 |
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Jul 27, 2021 22:50
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Sorry if it wasn't clear we already got the tree off and taped by a roofer. The pictures with white backing behind the broken bits in the album is the tarp. That picture is just the more dramatic that shows this isn't just a roofing job. It's now to the rebuild phase. It seems to be completely safe to live in and luckily (?) we are in a very dry season here. Our adjuster had no recommendations and the insurance agent is somewhere back East. Insurance (homesite) has been free with money so far but they have no local presence and our assigned case guy barely ever answers emails or the phone. The tree fell on the 14th and the only visit was 1 time by a contracted adjuster 5 days later who was around for like half an hour. So far we get any money we request but we're on our own otherwise. I'll try some searches for reconstruction/restoration (searching "repair" definitely just gets handymen). Local Belfor on Yelp has pretty terrible reviews and Paul Davis isn't much better. I might still reach out just to get *some* estimates. I should say I have gotten one estimate. The guy who removed the tree from the house had a buddy who came and gave me a hand written proposal. It was on a generic "proposal" sheet with some pretty hard to read scribbles that said he would do it all for $17,000. He looked about a hundred years old and seemed to have been drinking for most of it and he said he'd give me back $1000 in cash from the insurance payout. Thanks Painter and I'll PM you. Just curious, why the no public adjuster? I hadn't been planning on it (I could only find 1 in the whole Seattle area with positive reviews on Yelp) but I actually got in a big argument with my father in-law who said we were absolutely gullible fools unless we got a public adjuster. Since we haven't had a disagreement with insurance on payout so far it seemed a bit early to go get someone to fight for a bigger payout anyway.
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Jul 28, 2021 00:49
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Tezer posted:Also - nearly all the trees in your photos should be evaluated by an arborist. You have some very old trees located very close to your home, and one of them has already given up the ghost. I'm more risk adverse than a lot of people, and I would remove every tree I can see in the first picture located behind your home just based on height and proximity, even before we start talking about health. We have an accredited sciencey arborist coming to check all the trees on the property next week. The one that fell was actually alive and green (and all the trees were given a visual okay years ago) and it fell on a cloudless calm day. The guy who did the removal said it had root rot so the fear is something subtle that could be in other trees. The removal guy wandered around and said the trees looked alright but admitted he probably wouldn't have seen the fallen tree as a danger and despite being an old crusty tree guy he's no arborist. The science tree guy is bringing instruments that can check the roots and be very thorough. Though the removal guy also found the tree had a pipe embedded in it 60-80 ft up. I don't know anything about trees but looking through the rings of sections below you could see it had left a mark on the tree's growth after it for a while. I have no clue why you'd stick a pipe like it in the tree (you aren't getting syrup from it or whatever) but since it was so high up the removal guy thought it must've been decades ago possibly before our house was built in 81. He doubted he could've seen the pipe from the ground. So if the arborist think it did eventually help the tree fall we'll see if he thinks we need people climbing the other trees or whatever to look for more. Removal of all the trees would definitely not be in the cards. We have over a dozen 100+ ft trees near the house. We are actually in a neighborhood of hundreds of giant trees so this isn't an otherwise flat suburban expanse. Even if I removed all my giant trees (which I'm told is several thousand a pop at this size and insurance won't cover it) I'd still be in range of dozens more off my property as its not that big. As crazy as it sounds I wouldn't want to remove them anyway. The tree basically fell on me (I was sitting directly in the path and the drywall even cracked above me) but so it goes. I grew up in the flat wastelands of Oklahoma and I love living in a neighborhood still in the city but that feels more like a forest. These big trees around here aren't falling all the time so if it actually happened to us again even after getting the all clear from the arborist then I guess we're just that lucky.
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Jul 28, 2021 21:49
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So I've finally gotten some estimates but one of the companies that turned up didn't give an explicit estimate. Their pitch is that rather than be contracted to build/repair/etc specific things they would want me to sign a contract that made them the "contractor of choice" and empower them to speak directly to insurance. Then they'd perform their own assessment, structural report, etc and negotiate with the insurance to get sufficient payout for the work and potentially additional work. I guess kinda like a public adjustor? This sound dodgy to me, but the guys were nice enough and eager to answer questions. Is this an actual thing? I'm getting flack from my father in law that this is the kind of thing I should be doing rather than all my effort cluelessly talking to contractors
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Aug 13, 2021 05:43
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Thanks for the replies. The in laws aggro I'm getting makes navigating this worse. As it is I'm also trying to sort through the permit process for a problem tree removal that is extensive because it's on a protected slope and the people who don't live here are confused why I can't just go chop down a 100ft+ tree myself in a dense neighborhood with aggressive tree protection. To make matters worse it turns out it isn't even on my property and is on a slim thin property wedged between me and the back neighbors which ends in a mobile home. Apparently the owner is a bit of a hermit and the neighbors go years without seeing him. I've left a couple notes and a letter in his mailbox. This is going to be more fun.
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Aug 13, 2021 21:10
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Motronic posted:The tree IS on your property. At least part/most of it. Which makes it YOUR PROBLEM to deal with (the portion that is on your property anyway). If your insurance company decides the tree was dead/diseased/otherwise a hazard that should have been taken care of previously they will go after the neighbor/their insurance provider. No this doesn't have anything to do with the tree that fell on the house and was removed weeks ago. We had a risk assessment arborist come in and he identified another tree that needs to be removed because it's a probable hazard. Quite a bit of the canopy is over my property and if it fell it'd be on me but per the city ownership is about the trunk which is definitely his.
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Aug 13, 2021 21:51
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Motronic posted:Forward the report to your insurance company. This is their problem. Nope I've argued with them but they said until it falls on something it's my problem. Again this is not about whose fault was the tree that fell, I don't care, but removing a new tree.
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Aug 13, 2021 21:58
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Motronic posted:You've notified them. The only other thing you can do is notify the property owner's insurer. No argument on the insurance. edit: lol I literally just had a contractor call me and apologize but they don't want to bid the job. I sent them my insurance adjustor's report and they said it's such a low ball mess they don't want to get involved. FuzzySlippers fucked around with this message at 22:53 on Aug 13, 2021 |
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Aug 13, 2021 22:38
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Sirotan posted:Top-down/bottom-up light filtering shades, imho. You can have them blocking the bottom portion of the window and open at the top giving you privacy but still plenty of light. Those look pretty cool. How well would they stand up to cats loving around with them?
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Aug 24, 2021 01:04
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So how do people feel about various types of not wood but wood looking floor? My wife got very keen on ceramic wood look tiles but they do seem to have a lot of downsides (cold, hard, expensive). I've seen laminates that look pretty good. (We're replacing carpets with nothing underneath and actual wood isn't an option for a lot of reasons)
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Sep 30, 2021 23:38
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Anyone put down lvp flooring themselves? It doesn't look too bad but the quotes I've gotten are rough for the install though that may be just Seattle prices
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Oct 25, 2021 01:51
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Thanks for the responses on the flooring! This looks like it won't be too bad. I had another question: anyone installed a bathtub heater or a tankless just for a bathtub? We've got a reasonably sized water heater but it can barely keep up with my wife's current bath and she is wanting a larger one. Since the water heater is electric it seems better to get something to specifically help heat her bath rather than upgrade the entire house's water heater. I did find some bathtubs with heaters built in but couldn't find one that suited her other needs or fit in the space.
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Oct 27, 2021 07:27
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Thanks all I'll try to adjust the settings.falz posted:I can't imagine how expensive electric water heaters are in general, and then tacking on yet another electric heater for one tub? I wish I could get gas into the house for less than tens of thousands. As it is we're electric everything
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Oct 27, 2021 18:50
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falz posted:What general region is this? Just curious. Seattle. I don't think it's rare as our old rental house had gas but just not the street we bought a house on. If we didn't have a lot of renters near by I might try to coordinate something.
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Oct 27, 2021 19:09
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B-Nasty posted:The specific heat of water in its liquid phase is the same, no matter the temperature. In fact, the energy required to raise 1 gram of water 1C (no matter the starting point) is how we define a calorie. In practice, the heat loss of hotter water through the insulated tank would be higher, so there would be theoretical advantages to keeping the temp lower and mixing warmer water. However, you don't want warm water, or rather don't care, for many uses like toilets, so that would be wasted. That's neat. With the cost of labor around here I assume the installation would be insane though. I've done a little plumbing (installed a couple sinks, disposal, instant hot taps, etc) but this seems like professional territory.
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Oct 27, 2021 22:04
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I always just used whatever microwave was in any place I rented or none if it didn't come with one since I wasn't a fan of microwaves, but when we were buying other appliances after we bought this house I grabbed somewhat randomly an LG microwave too (I think it was the top wirecutter pick at that time). I think it was like $150ish. It's been fantastic. It has a bunch of auto reheat settings that actually work. Instead of ending up with cold spots or overcooking poo poo so it explodes everywhere, you can just set the auto heat and it actually just heats it up. Definitely worth the money and its never had a problem.
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Nov 1, 2021 21:23
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When we looked into solar it was a pretty terrible idea. Crazy amounts of money and even with the expensive power here it'd be 20 or 30 years to break even on the install much less the maintenance. I believe that was also without any storage. I think there used to be a lot of tax credits that people were chasing but that doesn't seem as much of a thing anymore. Make sure you get multiple estimates of how suitable your actual house's position is for solar also.
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Nov 2, 2021 02:13
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Mine is $1200ish but I'm sure that's about to go up after these tree repairs are done. We are up to $85k and still not done.
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Nov 2, 2021 20:48
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FISHMANPET posted:I'm building an outdoor cat shelter, and I'm going to shingle the roof
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Nov 23, 2021 23:39
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May 22 is a hell of a lead time. I'd have trouble dropping that much money so far ahead. That said in my area you definitely have to pay 50% up front to get any contractors to do anything over a couple thousand.
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Dec 3, 2021 22:51
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So it seems like without gas a tankless water heater isn't worth it compared to a heat pump tank heater especially if you use a lot of water?
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Jan 5, 2022 01:46
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Anyone know of a disposal that's shorter than the Badger 500 Standard Series at 11.5"? I underestimated the crazy depth of the new sink (it's like a small bathtub) so my current definitely won't fit and it's gonna be tight getting any kind of disposal in there. So shorter the better.
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Jan 5, 2022 23:35
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Any suggestions for low voltage under cabinet LED lighting that can color change? We're having our kitchen redone and the electrician just got back to me on the cost for it and he said $1400 (!) just for materials on the lighting which seems completely insane to me considering it's like a bit less than 20 ft of lighting. I'm finding a lot of random options at HD or online stuff that runs a couple hundred dollars at most.
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Jan 18, 2022 23:29
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Motronic posted:Ask for line items to that cost. Maybe it's a few hundred bucks in parts, but it's going to be a major hassle to run power to a switch box. Maybe it's also a major hassle to properly install them in a professional manner on your cabinets. Naw that was *just* material costs. The labor was entirely different. That's why the no color change lights were $650 and the color change were $1400. Their labor costs have been reasonable so far but I just can't wrap my head around a small bit of lighting that expensive. Also worth noting they have already run low voltage to all the spots needed for lighting this is just sorting out exactly what kind of lighting is going there. They had said previously they were going to get back to me on the cost of their lighting options and I was assuming it'd be a bit over big box but not to this degree. FuzzySlippers fucked around with this message at 01:46 on Jan 19, 2022 |
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Jan 19, 2022 01:37
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We got a small home equity loan to finish our renovations and holy crap we've been buried in scam letters about insurance for the loan. Like dozens of often scary looking like government or past due letters with almost the same wording about the dumb insurance that want to sell us. Sometimes the letters make it seem like we have to get the insurance. What a dumb thing our loan is public information I guess so they can hound us.
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Feb 6, 2022 01:20
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So my unfinished garage had a corner workbench area with some very old plywood walls and plywood tabletops that were in rough shape (it also had a lot of weird crap screwed on by successive generations of owners). I removed the extras and plywood so it is back to just the structure. That seems pretty solid so was just going to add some fresh plywood to cover and call it complete. Before I did I was just curious if there was anything about it I should change or improve before the structure is covered again. A sanity check I guess? Even though they feel solid as is it seems like some extra horizontal 2x4s on the walls would be proper to add. 
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Apr 22, 2024 01:12
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Two stack plywood is the plan. I’ve seen recommendations for more but the benches are connected to the wall so I don’t think it needs any extra weight from the top. I also don’t use any fancy hand tools so I think two will do it. The dust port idea is interesting. I’ve wanted to figure out a better dust handling system, but it seems like collectors are pretty pricey. There was a cheaper harbor freight unit I’ve seen recommended but they don’t seem to sell it anymore. Right now I just have a shop vac. I could setup the pipes for later use at least. More outlets would be good as I have some dumb rear end extensions going for power tools. I’ve swapped out outlets but never added a new one. With the absurd cost of electricians around here I suppose I need to figure out how it’s done. FuzzySlippers fucked around with this message at 08:06 on Apr 22, 2024 |
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Apr 22, 2024 08:00
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Actually if I stuck some insulation between the boards how far is this from half rear end finishing that garage wall? Around the corner is more concrete slab/wall/whatever I could throw down some more boards and more insulation  Would that make it a bit less drafty in there? Not sure if I should have some kinda plastic barrier in front of the concrete since behind this wall is earth (I'm on a slope so just this side). Not sure what I'm supposed to do with these big rear end bolts in the wall either if I was trying to do this more properly.  Previous owner just bent them out of the way when he put in those boards. I'm also not sure how one would handle the exterior wall with the window since it's like half framed and half concrete. Here's the transition point.  The wall towards the inside of the house is drywall. Edit: actually i think the wall bolts are something for pouring concrete. They come off with a bit of wiggling so I don’t think they are important FuzzySlippers fucked around with this message at 22:55 on Apr 22, 2024 |
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Apr 22, 2024 22:32
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In my garage if I frame/drywall the concrete wall and drywall the ceiling you can see where along the top of the concrete wall there will end up a little empty tunnel behind the frame/drywall and below the ceiling. Anything wrong with that? I figure that could be used in the future if I need to run any more wire. I've found references to that being called a 'raceway' but I'm not sure if I'm supposed to like line it in anything if used that way. Maybe cut a couple access points in the drywall? Some kinda spacers for any romex running through it?
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Apr 24, 2024 20:04
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I hate painting so I expect it’ll be just bare drywall for a while. I don’t really know what I want to do with it but half the garage is already drywall (facing the interior) so I figure getting that uniform is a good place to start. Actually want I want is some lovely wood paneling everywhere because I’m nostalgic about dark mildewy old basements/garages but everyone else would hate it. The reaction from visitors when they found out I added wood paneling would be pretty funny
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Apr 25, 2024 00:55
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I can see why you would want to mount it down there because when I lived in an apt with a TV mounted above a fireplace in the more usual position to do so (like where the white mantel is in your pic) I didn't like it since the angle was hard on the neck (my wife didn't mind as much but she also wanted it there in the first place). Wouldn't the TV be blocking those vents in your pic? I would assume those have some function to it, but I don't know much about gas fireplaces.
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Apr 25, 2024 20:51
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My wife had the same idea but a little research about the pros/cons of actual hardwood vs the better quality lvp wood imitation got her to switch to that idea. I did all the work myself and it was tedious but not particularly difficult. That was a couple years ago and it’s worked out well. My issue with real wood floors was the extra expense and more difficult maintenance. I like that I don’t have to think about any special handling for these floors. Proper wood certainly has a certain cool vibe but not worth the extra effort to me at least
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Apr 29, 2024 05:32
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So my garage finishing project looks a little harder. The state of the garage is that walls and ceiling facing the interior are insulated with unpainted drywall, the back walls are on a slope and were just bare concrete, and the exterior wall had rough mix of osb/cheap drywall that had some old water damage and no insulation. Now the only time we've ever seen any moisture issues in the garage is when I had life problems and let the concrete slope area right up against the garage back wall get completely covered in leaves/tree poo poo and after a bad rain we had a little water seep into the garage where the old water damage was. I cleaned everything up and the problem never repeated. Currently everything is bone dry despite raining a lot lately. We don't know the story behind the old water damage if there is anything else to it. When I pulled off all the old drywall I found more water damage than I expected.  So I have some wood to replace at least. Is there supposed to be something between the framing wood and presumably the exterior siding besides that thin rotted wood? Feels like there should be something sealing it but google isn't clear on that. I dunno what the scrap of yellow foam is from either. Here's a whole album of pictures of the garage if people are curious. Any suggestions on what I should do besides replace the wood there? Anything to stay extra dry in the future? Since this is the PNW moisture is a constant. Eventually I also want to come up with better water handling from the exterior side, but not sure how since it's all concrete and is already properly sloped to drain. Something like a ground gutter?
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Apr 29, 2024 08:44
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The fancier lvp we got is pretty comparable to standard wood floors to me and people ask if its real wood  I can imagine someone more wood knowledgeable would spot it instantly and it doesn't compare to like renovation show fancier wood floors. When I've had old wood floors (I can't speak to something brand new with any potential scienced up changes the last decade or two) there are a lot of things that can stain, scratch, or damage it that the lvp floors shrug off. I just want my floors to floor I don't want to think about them. Like dealing with cat pee on a wood floor sucked, but it cleans up fine on lvp (we had an ancient cat where this was frequently an issue and she managed to stain the old kitchen wood floors that I never got around to fixing before it was replaced). My ideal home would be more rural with an older wood vibe and there I could see wanting to have some nice proper wood floors, but not worth the bother on this standard suburban home.Horatius Bonar posted:That scrap of foam might be spray foam from an attempted fix. The foam is more like a kitchen sponge than any old spray foam I've seen (there are lots of spots where they did go nuts with spray foam). I dunno if they ever made any kind of weird insulation like that. It seems like any form of weather barrier should be installed from the outside so I guess for now I can ignore it and repair the framing. The exterior issues can be a whole different project since it isn't currently a problem.
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Apr 29, 2024 21:53
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Interior doors aren’t too bad. Exterior doors can be a pain due to how everything has to be just right, but a screen door can be half assed since it obviously isn’t air tight by its nature. My parent’s rental is old and weird sized on everything and I just bought a screen door slightly bigger and cut it down enough to fit
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May 1, 2024 04:43
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| # ¿ May 7, 2024 21:38 |
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Plumbing concepts are fairly straightforward so making sure your work doesn't flood your house isn't that difficult in common tasks. I've installed toilets, put it in plumbing at a new spot, new sinks, etc without ever feeling overwhelmed by it. I probably wouldn't tackle any sewer related work myself. The only time I've ever been hip deep in a project and regretted not hiring someone was when we got the okay to replace the toilet at my parent's rental with a handicap toilet (not great throwing away money as it is on rental improvements but when they need something and will never again own their own house so it goes) once we got everything apart I found the toilet had a godawful mess of lead situation that took hours to deal with.
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May 6, 2024 20:36
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