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That Works posted:My house was built in 2004 and seems to be of quality construction (according to our home inspector). Asbestos got phased out of p much everything well before then right? Yes.
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Jan 17, 2020 23:46
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Sirotan posted:I might be willing to start putting out poison at some point but the glue traps are just way too horrible. I hate to even think about making the poor things bleed out or whatever other horrible ways they would die with the poison. I used to just use snap traps but I'd be catching a couple of mice every week all winter. The pest control company that treats and inspects for termites and carpenter ants here has taken over for mouse control as well and they use bait stations with blocks of poison in addition to traps of both kinds (snap and glue), as well as adding some exclusion products to gaps around the house. Supposedly the bait action is that they get super thirsty and dehydrated and die from that, so it's not as awful as what people imagine, although it's still a poison. It does seem to be effective, they're rarely caught in traps any more and they put new bait in every 3-6 months as needed. The mice have destroyed a lot of stuff in the basement and built nests in cars on more than one occasion which is always terrible to get rid of, damaging, and potentially a health hazard. The mice chewed the corner off a new garage door install to get in and the attempts at stopping them from entering there with exclusion products have had little success since it needs to be a flexible interface between the door and wall. I'm thinking about 3d printing some kind of pin and receptacle device that would provide a better seal when the door was lowered to block it up when closed but haven't decided on a shape or material, since they like to chew regular plastic. Maybe some metal fill, maybe just coating the resulting product in copper wool.
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Feb 18, 2020 20:04
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Steve French posted:On the subject of rodents, I was just in our crawl space this weekend doing some coax rearranging, and noticed 3 dead mice. I'm pretty sure but not positive that they're all new since I moved in (2 months ago), since I'd been in the same areas before and didn't notice them a number of weeks ago. I've got no poison or traps, so not sure what would have killed them aside from starvation (though I sorta doubt that my house would actually be that impervious to them finding food, but perhaps!). Sometimes they'll try to eat each other or insects might've gotten to them a bit. It's hard to be certain because they're very small and seem to desiccate pretty quickly. One of your neighbors might have bait boxes out since it takes the mice some time to die from that, or they may have died from natural causes. If you only moved in two months ago perhaps the previous owner has bait/poison down somewhere. Keep an eye out for black boxes in corners or under the sink(s).
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Feb 18, 2020 21:56
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BeastOfExmoor posted:My dishwasher went belly up at just the wrong time. I'd hoped I could fix it with a replacement part of finding some clog somewhere, but I'm out of options. I can't speak to the flooring itself, afaik the coating that adheres tile or whatever to the floor should stop water if it coats the whole thing. However you could get a pan or tray to put under the dishwasher if it fits appropriately: https://smile.amazon.com/s?k=dishwasher+tray
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Mar 30, 2020 21:18
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mr.belowaverage posted:Good lord, these are $135 a piece on the Canadian site. Shipping may be slower but there's a lot of them on ebay for $10-20. If they look the same they're almost certainly made in the same factory. example: https://www.ebay.com/itm/LED-Garage...4oAAOSwR-9d-iIm Canadian ebay: https://www.ebay.ca/itm/10000LM-E27-High-Bright-LED-Garage-Light-Deformable-Ceiling-Light-Workshop-Lamp/372901307097 There's tons of sellers so those are just example links.
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Apr 18, 2020 23:20
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Sirotan posted:
Yeah there's some lamps around from my grandparents that have different colored lamp oil. They're mostly clear glass so I guess the colors made them more decorative.
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May 11, 2020 01:45
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MetaJew posted:Wasn't the coloring to indicate that it wasn't being used for automotive/ICEs and thus not taxed or taxed in a certain way? Kind of like farm diesel? Home heating oil is pink, but is the same as diesel fuel. If you use it in a vehicle and get caught I believe there are fines.
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May 11, 2020 03:41
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actionjackson posted:Is there any easy to way to just lightly dim LED overhead lights? I saw there's something you can buy on amazon (pass). I have a set of four LEDs in a row for my kitchen on the ceiling, that are about the size of a half-dollar. I was thinking maybe that material you stick on out of the place windows for privacy with the little bubbles on it. I forget what it's called but you buy it in a very thin sheet. Stickers like lightdims are mostly for low power LEDs like the annoying blue ones on electronic devices that are using less than a watt usually. If your kitchen ones are LED lights they might get a bit hot for just a sticker to cover and you may want to consider an electronic method to dim them. There are electronic dimmers for both mains and low voltage LED lighting but you need to pick the right one for your setup.
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May 18, 2020 21:48
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Sirotan posted:The mole game has...escalated Shawn Woods of Mousetrap Monday has about 8 videos on mole catching. The victor mole trap looks like what you had in your garage. One is even a live trap: https://www.youtube.com/user/historichunter/search?query=mole Howtolou does a live catch with a dangerously homebrewed detector and a shovel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLT4dkesd_g There's also always the UNDERGROUND EXTERMINATOR if you want to kill your moles with automotive exhaust: https://smile.amazon.com/Underground-Exterminator-Kills-Gophers-Groundhogs/dp/B0000BYDPE
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Jun 17, 2020 04:13
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Ashcans posted:What do people recommend for mouse poison? I bought the Tomcat stations on impulse when I realized we had a mouse, but he seems to have zero interest in those fat green log things. Anyone have advice on what might work better? Content warning, these Mousetrap Monday videos contain dead mice. I've used these: https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B00KGVCK42/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpKe4Dt-Ig4 and these: https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B01FROLO12/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGXQhwfRDU8 Bait them with peanut butter. The former is my preferred over the latter because it almost always hits them on the head or neck instead of sometimes catching a leg or something as they jump away, and they have to push up on the trigger instead of down so it's harder to set off by accident.
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Sep 6, 2020 05:35
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MetaJew posted:We are cleaning up my mom's house to try and get it on the market and I'm going through old toys, and I have no idea of any of these should try to be sold to collectors or just don't bother wasting time and putting it in the donate pile. I tend to look things up on ebay to see if there's a market for what I have and what condition its in. I also make sure to check completed auctions to be certain that the thing that's "worth $500" isn't just one guy buying them all at 20 and marking them up to try to make a market from old stuff. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Britains_Deetail https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2499334.m570.l1313&_nkw=deetail&_sacat=2638 For a general rule it's good to make three categories, keep, give away (or sell), and trash. For the stuff you're keeping some plastic storage bins are a good idea. Give away or sell could go in cardboard boxes, trash into trash bags. Since my mother passed away we try to work on her stuff a little at a time with all of that in mind.
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Sep 7, 2020 08:35
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Deviant posted:every time i touch something it gets worse. I tried to unclog a slow drain with the "turbo snake" as seen on tv. The old galvanized drain pipe is obviously paper thin at this point and I managed to bust right through the bottom of the p-trap with a tiny flexible wire mini snake thing. I think all the 60 year old galvanized is coming out and PVC is going in. If I hadn't touched it, it might've held on a bit longer!
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Nov 7, 2020 08:48
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Spring Heeled Jack posted:How does everyone feel on ‘replacement’ vs non-replacement style windows? Any particular brands to stay away from? My father got anderson for one house and pella for the other (get quotes from everyone because at each location one brand was significantly cheaper). The windows and sliding doors themselves have made a huge difference in heating and cooling since the old aluminum sliding doors and wood windows that were hard to open were terrible. The only real downside is that the replacements are made to fit inside the existing area so you lose a little space around the outside. For example, the original sliding doors at ground level had the tracks right at ground level. Now there is a raised thing to step over with the track on it. That said the old door would let small insects underneath and the small rise has curbed this considerably.
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Jan 7, 2021 20:59
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Spring Heeled Jack posted:That’s the only real downside I’ve heard about RE replacement windows (losing window space around the frame) but my windows are fairly large as-is so I probably wouldn’t mind too much. I'm not certain, but averaged out it's in the ballpark of 2k per thing. There's a ton of variation in the installs though, because some were standard house windows from the 60s, some were sliding glass doors, and some are super big custom windows he had made for himself in the 70s that were lexan or whatever (in the city, so they couldn't have a brick thrown through them). IIRC the three story house in the city (with some extra big ground floor windows) would've been about 15 windows for $30K. The suburban house with five sliding glass doors, 10 or so normal sized windows and three or four tiny basement windows was around $50K. It's been a few years so I don't know what the exact cost per was, but I suspect the normal sized windows are much less than 2k and the extra big ones and sliding glass doors are probably more.
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Jan 8, 2021 02:27
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Cpt_Obvious posted:So, a neighbor just had their car stolen right out of their driveway and I was wondering if this is the place to ask about home security cameras and the like. Does anyone have any preferred models or brands that they like? I want one to cover my driveway and one to cover my front porch for deliveries. I don't want a full home security system, just cameras that preferably aren't connected directly to google or amazon (that poo poo weirds me out). OSU_Matthew's advice is good, and there's also a Home Automation and Security thread if you want to see what some other folks have done or get more advice.
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Jan 18, 2021 06:25
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Steve French posted:What are folks thoughts on humidifiers? We are working with an architect on a whole house remodel, and met with an HVAC contractor today to look at our current setup and inform options moving forward. The option to add a humidifier onto the forced air system was brought up. We've got one on our system. In NJ it's used only in the winter since the summers are humid. I think the upsides are that it's more comfortable to live with 40% humidity to avoid scratchy skin and chapped lips. The downsides for us are that it drips water down a pad and the hard water here clogs the pad up with white mineral crust so it needs to be switched out fairly often (twice a year, but since it's only used in the cold I only change it in the Fall usually). The water flows through the pad and then is piped out to the condensate pump that usually empties the condensation from the heating oil combustion through a tube in the wall (same opening in the wall that the AC lines travel through). The last couple of winters have been cold enough for that small tube to freeze outdoors and the pump's reservoir has overflowed making me need to get a little tube on there to pump it into a container I usually use for a dehumidifier in the summer which is actually happening right now. I'm sure the humidifier add to the amount of water I have to empty out but it's maybe 3 gallons a day so it's not too bad. I've had the dehumidifier collect more than that in a day before. Anyway small nuisance issues aside, I think it's worthwhile. It's probably not only beneficial for humans but also all of the materials in the house that might prefer to not have extremely low humidity over time like wood. edit: there's a lot of articles online about low humidity affecting hardwood floors that are possibly relevant. The humidifier units themselves are under $200 but the install will include plumbing a little water line to it and making sure it can drain to something so I'm sure that all adds to the cost. Rexxed fucked around with this message at 04:21 on Feb 20, 2021 |
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Feb 20, 2021 04:17
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SpartanIvy posted:Me sowing asbestos without protection: haha gently caress yeah!!!! My dad: "make sure you wear a dust mask and try not to break up those tiles while you scrape them off the concrete slab." Me, twenty years later: "huh, I bet that was all asbestos tile, my dad's an rear end in a top hat."
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Mar 6, 2021 18:04
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eddiewalker posted:How do the “I want to buy your house sight-unseen” cold callers usually get phone numbers? I'm not 100% sure but I regularly get texts to my cell phone from people looking to buy the house but they address me as my father. The only place I can think of that we used my cell phone number and his name (and this started immediately after) was my mother's death certificate at the funeral home so I'd imagine there's some public records they prune through that involve importing any data from that. They're vultures.
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Apr 22, 2021 02:25
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mutata posted:Don't get me wrong, I want all of the cool tech poo poo. I thought we were headed for the singularity at one point. In the past 7-8 years though, I've seen all of the stuff that I used to get hyped about come to pass but in the stupidest, most destructive, laziest, most unethical ways possible and now I, the techiest nerd in my family, am trying to convince my friends and family to delete their social media accounts and going out of my way to buy dumb-devices. https://twitter.com/ppathole/status/1116670170980859905 In reality tech workers loving hate printers but it's still funny.
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Apr 29, 2021 20:16
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Sirotan posted:Anybody got one of these ladder stabilizers for their extension ladder: https://www.homedepot.com/p/Werner-Quick-Click-Ladder-Stabilizer-AC78/100658388 ? It helps a bit, I have one for the little giant ladder I got a while back. They describe it as more of a stand off to keep the top of the ladder off the wall you're putting it up against and it's good for that. The extra width where it touches does also keep the ladder from twisting a bit if you have to reach over to one side or the other. I'd consider that and some kind of ladder platform for your painting stuff if you can get one that will work with your ladder before you start your job.
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Aug 14, 2021 06:06
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Imagine having GFCI outlets.
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Dec 28, 2021 21:22
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If the people in the snow on the other side of the wall offer you turkish delight turn them down.
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Feb 23, 2022 05:12
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emocrat posted:I got a guy coming in about 4 hours to talk to me about replacement windows. I don't know anything about replacement windows, so what are some things to keep in mind? They basically build them to fit inside the frames of the current windows so you lose a little bit of window space. The big ones cost more than the normal sized ones. My father paid around 30k for six sliding glass doors and 13 windows, but one window was a single large pane and three were tiny sliders for the basement. The regular windows were around 1k, less for the small ones, more for the big one, and I'm guesstimating (because I didn't look at the total breakdown personally) that the sliding glass doors were half of the total cost. They're a ton easier to use than the terrible old wood windows in the house and have helped with indoor temperature since the old sliding glass doors were aluminum and barely sealed. edit: also he got estimates from both Anderson and Pella. He was looking at getting windows done at two houses. At one house Anderson was a lot less than Pella, at the other house it was the opposite. It's definitely worth getting more than one estimate since 30k vs. 50k for the same job is pretty big. Rexxed fucked around with this message at 14:27 on Apr 12, 2022 |
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Apr 12, 2022 14:25
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unlimited shrimp posted:Probably not the right thread but maybe, who knows. You can kind of run whatever you want with a motor like that, it's general purpose. It does say "pulley code: pool pump" on the catalog page you linked, so they're probably commonly put into those. That also fits with it being 2 horsepower since there's listings for 2HP pool pumps at home depot that look like they might include a motor like that: https://www.homedepot.com/p/XtremepowerUS-High-Flo-2-0-HP-Dual-Speed-Pool-Pump-for-In-Above-Ground-230V-5280-GPH-75039-H2/320095470 He might have been using a pool pump to move the water and had that on hand to replace the motor if it died at some point.
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May 15, 2022 10:33
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falz posted:Ok so finishing up long overdue bathroom Reno. I bought 8ft tall shower curtains and we'll they sure are. They're too long and the rod is all the way up. Seems like you can either hem it up by sewing or some of the adhesive alternatives or see if you can get shorter rings, but it doesn't feel like there's going to be quite enough rise to handle that since most of them hang the curtain from the bottom. When you get the shower curtain liner they're usually plastic and easier to trim if you need to.
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May 19, 2022 00:26
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MetaJew posted:I am pretty sure rodents have gotten into my attic or are currently in my attic. My house in this photo is L-shaped with the garage coming out, perpendicular to the front door and there is a valley where the two roof slopes meet under this stupid eave from the front entry way roof. (I swear if I had the money I would hire an architect to build me a house with a roof that makes sense among a lot of other stupid things about this 1990s builder-grade house.) Yeah I'd start with pest control companies, but definitely ask if they'll try to patch the entryways. Usually they'll do some small stuff like jamming exclusion material into holes, but they don't typically do repairs to the structure and will tell you to get a contractor for that. It may also be a process of them working to trap and then exclude, depending on what's up there. Mice are different than raccoons or squirrels for example. Best to get someone out to take a look first. Some pest control places want you to be on a subscription but others are good for just one job even if it takes a couple of visits.
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May 28, 2022 08:10
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NomNomNom posted:Ordered windows and a new door 5 months ago. Installer said they would call and schedule a time to put them in, they did and we agreed on tomorrow (Saturday). You got the dude with the 6 pouch tool belt. That's how you know he means business.
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Jun 17, 2022 20:38
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BonoMan posted:Just learning of something called a Cave Cricket. Opened the storeroom in our portico in the new house and there were about 50-75 of them all over the walls. Haha, yeah, there's always a few that live in the unfinished basement here. I sometimes mistake them for the chonky house spiders I get here and get a fright but the crickets are pretty chill. I do try to remove them and boy are they big and jumpy.
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Aug 7, 2022 00:22
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We replaced an electric coil stovetop with induction here in around 2010 or 2011 and it's been really nice. Did need some new pots and pans but some worked and I don't even remember what the Emeril stainless steel set cost but it wasn't crazy. I like having a big glass surface to put stuff on when I'm not using the stove, and you can wipe it clean.
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Aug 8, 2022 18:54
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SkunkDuster posted:Crap...forgot to add the picture: 3d print the weird shaped trim piece.
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Oct 6, 2022 06:12
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Project Farm did a cordless vacuum specific video just recently. His synopsis of best from the models he tested with his categories is at around 21:00 in the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTkUNwBo9Ao We've been using a refurbished dyson ball for like 10 years. It's corded and I think it was around $220 on ebay. Other than buying a new filter once (since someone didn't clean it ever) it's been pretty solid.
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Oct 10, 2022 21:48
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BonoMan posted:Have a frozen spigot question. I'm not sure how your setup works but the main danger of water freezing is that it expands and is trapped and breaks stuff since ice has more volume than water. If the water main is turned off completely I'd leave the outside faucets turned to open and put on the covers. The idea being that any water trapped that freezes will not be a full pipe or trapped against the valve to break it if it expands. Here we have a shutoff a couple of feet inside the basement and we turn that off and then open the exterior faucet and leave it like that all winter since the pipe itself being cold/freezing with no water trapped in it is fine.
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Dec 24, 2022 19:52
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Admiral Joeslop posted:
RGB LED strip so you can  out the room. Leave it blinking red or bonk the rainbow.https://www.amazon.com/Changing-Control-Lighting-Flexible-Decoration/dp/B09V366BDY/
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Apr 9, 2023 05:25
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Steve French posted:Insulation question: my house has almost entirely cathedral ceilings, except over the two (adjacent) bathrooms, where there's a small attic. The insulation problem is manifested clearly in this photo: I don't have specific advice about your problem but one thing that's letting that insulation sag down is that normally you'd fold out the paper on the edges (where it's doubled up) and then staple that to the wood on either side. It's just hanging down all wonky in your photos and doesn't seem to be folded out there, like someone just stuffed the fiberglass up there and figured it was good enough. With the paper out it helps make it harder for air to get in between the wood and fiberglass and make gaps. Whether you want to actually insulate the top roof is a different question that other goons will have better advice for. In our roof the ceiling of the house is insulated but not the top roof itself. This keeps the attic as unconditioned space. Either way you go it's just sagging out of those joists so pretty much anything would be better. I'd probably figure out what the rest of the attic is set up like and copy it.
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Nov 30, 2023 19:07
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PainterofCrap posted:Anecdote: We had a Panasonic Genius microwave that lasted over 20-years. We've also got a Panasonic that I like: https://www.amazon.com/Panasonic-Microwave-NN-SN766S-Countertop-Technology/dp/B01DEWZWFS/ This one's pretty big but they have a lot of models. It works great, had it a few years now. Our previous Panasonic died after ten years or so but it was because my dad was microwaving empty plates to heat them up, which is specifically recommended against, there needs to be something in there to absorb the energy. You could microwave some plates to heat them but you'd want to put some water in with them or something.
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Jan 15, 2024 01:43
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GlyphGryph posted:So, painting advice. I marked off an area I wanted to paint with blue painting tape. Area I painted looks great! Area I put the tape, though... yikes, it pulled off a bunch of paint with it when I came off. Is painters tape not supposed to go on paint? It can but it depends on the kind of painter's tape and the durability of the paint you're putting it on. It sounds like maybe the existing paint isn't in good shape if you can peel it off with tape. I've seen some folks rub the sticky side of tape across their jeans to lessen the adhesion it will have if they're concerned about it pulling up old paint, but there's also different kinds of tape if the surface is delicate like this: https://www.amazon.com/Scotch-Damage-Free-Resistant-Solvent-Free-2080EL-24E/dp/B000BQWD12/
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Mar 8, 2024 00:45
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Warbird posted:I just had something super strange happen and I'm not sure what to make of it. I was just sitting here in my nook piddling around on the PC and we lost power, but only apparently for this power circuit. The rest of the house retained power and this room got it back as well after a few seconds. I wasn't doing anything interesting at the time so I don't think it was a power draw issue; I've never seen something like this before. It could be something with the breaker but one time I had an issue here where one phase (one big copper incoming line) was damaged and we'd get brownouts down to like 90V but only on a few circuits. Had to get an electrician in to replace the wiring from the street to the breaker box, he found one of the phase wires was damaged. A few years later we had some circuits droop and others not droop and it was a similar issue but with the screwed down connection on the electrical wires from the pole to the house. The electrician had us call the power company who came out and replaced the screwed down connectors with crimp connectors. I don't know more technical terms than that but I'd definitely keep an eye on it and if it happens again post in the wiring help thread who will have better advice for tracking it down. I suppose it could be a GFCI thing, I have no experience with those.
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Apr 11, 2024 10:33
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