Home Zone: I see a baseboard and I want it painted black.

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Hobbies, Crafts, & Houses > Home Zone: I see a baseboard and I want it painted black.

Trillian: Sep 14, 2003

I just put wallpaper in one room of my house because it was an easy way to hide the cracks in the 100-year-old plaster walls. I can't really imagine choosing it over paint if the walls are new, though.

I used this 3d pattern, which is pretty cool-looking in person, but I am afraid it's going to damage easily.

# ¿ Jun 7, 2016 22:29

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# ¿ May 4, 2024 00:56

Trillian: Sep 14, 2003

The Wonder Weapon posted:

Sorry to distract from Vermont House chat. Quick note though: Heady Topper is from Stowe. It's not my favorite IPA, and I'd consider it overrated at this point, but it's unlikely you'll ever be upset to crack one of those open. My wife's cousin lives in Vermont and I ask her to bring me some every time she comes down.

I'm in Buffalo, so our flora is robust and verdant for the most part. I'm also adverse to hiring regular gardeners. Feels sort of like a loss of equity, in the same way renting is, if that makes sense? Like, rather than pay gardeners, I'd rather convert the lawn/garden to something low maintenance I can handle on my own. Also, point taken from a few of you about the glyphosate. I've never known anything about it other than "there's stuff called roundup, and it kills things"

I'm softening on it not needing to be turf, just so long as it's something that won't develop a mountain of weeds when I turn around.

How about this for a containment strategy?
-Cut down all the growth with a brush cutter
-Till soil with rented machine
-Lay down landscape fabric over the soil
-Cover fabric with mulch

I'll end up with a fresh mulch bed instead of what I've got now, and I can go back and plant whatever as I see fit. Would this strategy prevent weeds from growing in those areas?

I'm just across the border, and you can definitely have gardens here that don't require more maintenance than a lawn. Native plants, or things like sedums or hostas, do fine without much watering once they've gotten established. If they're densely planted, they'll squeeze out most weeds once they fill in. Lots of easy-care perennials can be acquired cheaply or free, too.

# ¿ Jul 8, 2020 22:26

Trillian: Sep 14, 2003

Jaded Burnout posted:

Perhaps there's a difference in market, but if a "tankless heater" is what we'd call a "combi boiler" then you don't have to worry about airflow because it draws air in from the same flue it exhausts from (but, you know, safely).

Something like this:
https://www.worcester-bosch.co.uk/professional/products/boilers/greenstar-cdi-compact

They cost about $1500 for a beefy top of the line brand with loads of capacity. I run two bathrooms and 200sqm of underfloor heating off mine.

Combi boilers are pretty rare in North America. I have one and it's really hard to get it repaired because a lot of HVAC guys have never seen one before.

# ¿ Aug 4, 2020 20:43

Trillian: Sep 14, 2003

Wallet posted:

You can't prevent weeds, not entirely. If there's unoccupied real estate on the ground where the sun shines and it isn't covered in something impenetrable plants are going to show up. If you want no weeds you're going to have to do some weeding now and then (you really want to get weeds out of the ground before they flower and make more of themselves, though if they're in your lawn anyway it matters less).

There are things you can do to make it so you have to weed a lot less. One is to make use of the unoccupied space. The only difference between a weed and any other plant is that you don't want it where it is. I don't know where you are in the country but there are a huge variety of groundcovers for a huge variety of conditions that will look nice and give your weeds enough competition to slow them down.

Reapplying mulch at the right parts of the year will also help by burying the weed seeds so they don't germinate. Around here I apply mulch in early spring and early summer. If you're getting a lot of summer weeds then fresh mulch in the mid to late spring should slow them down.

You'll find people advocating for weed fabric but in my experience it's not a good solution (if it's heavy enough to be effective the first year it's doing unpleasant things to your soil, and it tends to degrade pretty quickly).

There's also herbicides but short of truly noxious weeds I wouldn't advocate for using them for this kind of thing unless you're going to spot apply them and at that point you may as well just pull the weeds.

This is all good advice. I have easy-care perennials around my trees, and for me weeding is basically an early spring activity. Once my plants are up, the weeds are squeezed out. Just be careful around the tree roots when you plant.

If you do consider herbicides definitely do not use the one linked above.

# ¿ Sep 26, 2021 23:22

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