|
Ideally you shouldn't leave a loaded trailer sitting on its tires in one spot for half a year anyway, that's a pathway to flat spots for the trailer's tires, assuming it's a smaller trailer with two tires and 1200lbs of boat is significant load for it. Even absent that, getting it up off the tires is just the best solution for storage. Better to jack the thing up and put it on jackstands, and those jackstands need something better than gravel beneath them, so I'd be thinking concrete pad or at least scraps of plywood under each stand.
|
#
¿
May 18, 2022 18:40
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 14, 2024 22:39 |
|
|
Plaster & lathe walls you're doing more than just tearing off plaster, yeah. Also, a lot of folks are comfortable DIYing a decent paint job, but are not comfortable DIYing the hang/tape/mud/sand/mud/sand process of drywall to a quality finish.
|
|
#
¿
May 19, 2022 16:48
|
|
|
Yes, absolutely. It's not a guarantee there's lead, you can't tell unless you test, but it's possible. Depending on the splodges, you might be able to scrape chunks off for disposal which would be quite safe, vs. turning them into dust. A chemical stripper could also help with that. Lead in solid form that you don't eat or breathe is totally safe, they still make roofs out of it all over europe for example. You just need to keep it out of your body and your soil/groundwater.
|
|
#
¿
May 19, 2022 17:29
|
|
|
Arsenic Lupin posted:Thank you. Are chemical strippers still useful now that they've stripped out the possibly-fatal ingredient? Oh absolutely. I quite like citristrip, it smells nice, but there's a lot of options. You can even strip acrylic paint with undiluted simple green. By the way, never clean your acrylic paint surfaces with simple green, lol. This is why the paint on all my interior window sills looks like poo poo now. Even diluted 10:1, it's been gradually loosening the paint and now they all need to be re-painted. Leperflesh fucked around with this message at 19:54 on May 19, 2022 |
|
#
¿
May 19, 2022 19:51
|
|
|
Also if the floor is older, the wood may be difficult or impossible to match, the stain may be difficult or impossible to match, the thickness of the planks may be wrong so they have to be sanded down, etc. One trick to deal with several of those issues is to steal boards from an inconspicuous area (a closet for example) and then just replace the boards in the closet with whatever. This is, of course, more labor.
|
|
#
¿
May 27, 2022 17:48
|
|
|
I'd get that painter's tape peeled pronto. The longer you leave it, the more likely it is to rip up a ragged edge of paint along with it... and the sun accelerates that process. It's best to peel it after the paint has had an hour or so to dry and no longer. If the paint is still soft and tacky, that's the ideal time - you won't splatter paint, but you'll also not rip a ragged line. https://tapemanblue.com/blogs/tips-tricks/how-to-remove-tape-after-painting
|
|
#
¿
Jun 2, 2022 20:22
|
|
|
A lot of gutters clog because they're pitched too shallow, so all the little bits settle out when it's only raining lightly and then all try to flush at once when it finally rains heavily. Gutter guards won't really fix that if it's tiny bits of stuff, grains of roof asphalt, etc. But if you have properly pitched gutters and your problem is leaves, yeah they help. You still should clean out your gutters at least annually but it helps.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 4, 2022 00:33
|
|
|
My wife and I DIYed about 1000 square feet, with no experience, for about $600 in costs, in 1999. It was a big messy difficult job that I wouldn't want to do again, but I absolutely would to avoid a $5k+ price tag.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 10, 2022 18:06
|
|
|
I learned some good tips. Don't be afraid of the drum sander. Yes, it'll instantly make a divot if you stop moving but don't lift. BUT, the big pad sander is loving useless, so is the big orbital sander, you'll go through a hundred sheets of expensive sandpaper and several hours more work doing what the drum sander accomplishes in a single pass. Just... start in the least conspicuous place and assume you'll leave a couple divots there. Also don't try to sand the baseboards in-place. Pry them off, set up a big solid elevated table, and sand them on the table. You want the house completely empty while you're sanding. You need to wear a respirator, not just a dust mask, unless you can get your dust mask to fit really tightly. Don't try to do this in the summer heat. Invest in a big shop vac and some huge fans and work with every door and window open and as much airflow as you can manage. Seriously, pay attention to proper PPE from the outset, please. Lastly, you will have to do corners and awkward spots by hand, on your knees, using a belt sander or even a little random orbital with a pointy bit. This is the worst part. The sanding is 80% of the work. Staining isn't that hard, just go with the grain and try not to overlap. We did polyurethane finish, which again must be done with respirators on, the trick is to not go too thick or too thin, you want three consistent coats and ideally buff after although that's not strictly required. It's... a lot, yeah. For us, it was worth it, since we'd just emptied our accounts to buy the place. We would have had to borrow the money to do the floors and we were already really worried about other deferred maintenance costs. But as house DIY goes, it's one of the more laborious and time consuming ones for sure.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 10, 2022 19:20
|
|
|
Sundae posted:Let me try this, actually. I didn't call Home Depot. I did try Junk King, who quoted me $800 back when stairs were involved. Had no intention of dealing with that. Usually the deal is, they take away the old fridge when you buy a new fridge. Maybe you can buy a new freezer, have it installed in your garage (you needed one anyway, right?) and get rid of the old trashed one as part of the deal?
|
|
#
¿
Jun 14, 2022 23:37
|
|
|
Hadlock posted:Me: why would you pay someone to steal three years worth of firewood from your driveway?! Me: why would you burn all that wood when you could rig up an alaskan mill, mill it, sticker it, and have some lovely "free" wood for projects for years?
|
|
#
¿
Jun 15, 2022 17:05
|
|
|
I have a mature eastern sycamore in my front yard. It does drop some leaves throughout most of the year, but also, trees actually belong here and our weirdly sterile, manicured domiciles don't, so I don't have a lot of sympathy either. If you want your little plot of house and land to resemble an english manor-house, you can employ a small army of gardeners as they did; or you could accept that it's normal and natural to have some leaves around on the ground and just deal with the accumulations occasionally. Sycamores are riparian-adapted, their roots seek water, mine sticks some fine roots into my sewer line so I have to get it cleaned out every couple or three years. It was planted directly over the sewer line, lol. Also I'm in California and we have a very lovely native sycamore species, but they planted an eastern one anyway. There's a bunch in my neighborhood so I think it was something they did in the whole development back when it was put up in 1957-8. They're very common landscaping trees though, so it's not like they planted something crazy in their yard. If they keep it reasonably watered it'll be a nice shade tree for decades to come. Anyway, I digress: that tree was, by your own admittance, there when you moved into this house. It's likely that he owners of the tree's only legal responsibility is to keep it from falling on you or dropping limbs on your stuff. Depending on your local laws you may or may not have the right to have them prune it back to the property line, but it sounds like you actually hated them doing that? Regardless, there is nothing they can do short of completely removing the tree that will prevent it from dropping leaves on your property and you will need to just get used to that idea, or sell your house and move. Even if they cut it back severely, and they absolutely should not do that to a healthy tree, it will grow new limbs and be back to dumping leaves everywhere in a couple or three years. But like I said, unless the tree is rotting or sick or something, they should not pollard it or severely prune it and the best you could really hope for is like a 10% reduction in leaf fall.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 23, 2022 03:07
|
|
|
PainterofCrap posted:The kids are alright, if shown a direction & given support and room. This is wholesome as gently caress. Your son seems like a cool kid. Thank you for sharing that, seriously! I grew up in two families (joint custody), in one nobody really did anything handy themselves and in the other my mom grew up poor and my stepdad was a pipefitter and motorcycle enthusiast. So I kinda saw both ways of living and I went hard for the handy side. I was taking apart stuff as an adolescent, radios and whatnot, had my lego and my erector sets, asked for things for christmas like soldering irons and chemistry sets. I did not wind up doing that sort of thing as a career, but I used our own AI forum here to learn how to work on my truck, and when we bought this house in 2009 as a foreclosed fixer-upper with a lot of accumulated neglect there was no question in our minds but that we'd be DIYing almost everything. No, we had no idea how to refinish floors or sweat copper pipe, but all that was really necessary was having confidence that we could learn, that even if we made mistakes (and we did) they'd still be a lot less expensive than hiring pros (they were) and that there would be people willing to answer questions or give us direction if we asked (there always were). Goons have been the best resource ever. Better even than the plethora of youtube videos out there nowadays. There's always a goon with expertise willing to share it for free.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 23, 2022 19:06
|
|
|
Looks like it's a matter of moving a bit of insulation aside, unless it's blocked off to the right of what's shown in the above pic.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 25, 2022 01:04
|
|
|
My guess is the top of the foundation walls isn't perfectly flat and they used shims so the sill plate would actually sit flat, but it's weird they didn't cut off the parts of the shim that are sticking out so that could be a bad guess. Also yes, you can go right through the beam that pipe is going through, as long as you leave enough of the wood intact that it retains sufficient strength. So don't completely saw through the beam, and if it looks like it's already pretty compromised you can move over a bit to the next span between the ceiling joists. e. yeah what he said. I guess it's the rim joist and not a sill plate?
|
|
#
¿
Jun 25, 2022 01:20
|
|
|
I feel like in the next 10 years, when we will have to replace our roof (it's not leaking but it is probably about done) I'll look into self-install solar. I'm willing to hire an actual electrician but not one of these solar companies. e. I also don't want to wind up trying to sell this house with a lien on it from a solar company that the buyers would have to pay off or assume.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 28, 2022 18:38
|
|
|
Harriet Carker posted:Here’s a thinker: I play Dance Dance Revolution. Until today, my pads were totally level with the floor on all four corners. As far as I can tell nothing changed but now the left pad is uneven - one of the corners doesn’t touch the ground. The same thing happens in that spot when I switch the pads. There are other places in the garage where it’s totally flat. What's the floor made of? What are the pads made of?
|
|
#
¿
Jun 29, 2022 00:55
|
|
|
It looks like the pad is running over that crack in the concrete? There could be a little movement in the soil under the concrete, especially if it's clay which gives up or absorbs moisture seasonally. That may also be the reason for the crack. A small amount of movement seasonally is not cause for great concern, but if any cracks open to 1/4" or larger, if you get windows popping out, doors that won't open/close any more, signs of moisture intrusion, anything like that, then you should get a consult with a foundation specialist. Wood absorbs and gives up moisture and changes its shape too. If there's wood in the pad, it could be stretching or contracting a little seasonally too.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 29, 2022 01:12
|
|
|
Chad Sexington posted:I am awful at estimating size, but at least 60 feet I'd wager? Diameter at ground level is a good 5 feet, so it's a chonker. See if you can find anyone who wants to harvest that white oak. Don't expect to actually make money on it, it'd be some small-time operator perhaps with a portable sawmill, but good clear white oak is worth like $5-$10 per board foot milled, so maybe a couple bucks per board foot as a whole log. A large tree may have 10k board feet of wood. A real lumber outfit doesn't bother with one-offs, they harvest at scale, but there are some outfits interested in salvaging individual trees when the wood is valuable rather than see it get mulched, because this is sustainable/ethically harvested wood. At the very least, it'd be great if you can have your arborist/tree remover cut logs at least 4' long, and then find a local mill interested in taking them for free, rather than paying a tree remover a line-item to have them mulched.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 29, 2022 21:35
|
|
|
That is simultaneously nice of him, and also gives you at least some clue as to how much margin is built into his first quote.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 29, 2022 22:12
|
|
|
re: wasps, before you go nuclear with hosing down your property with wasp poison (which maybe also kills bees, or just affects them, plus other pollinators, we're really loving up our beneficial insects everywhere these days) just try hanging up a few wasp traps here and there. At our house it mostly keeps them at bay, and we get the rest of the job done by knocking down any nests we find. Also poison is completely unnecessary if you have direct line of sight on any insect, you can kill them all with soapy water. The soap acts as a surfactant so the water invades their pores and they suffocate. Poison is for killing bugs that are vaguely "around" but not actually present, e.g. termites, ants, poo poo that burrows around underground somewhere. Re: mosquitos, definitely check your city or county for a mosquito abatement program, they may be able to help out for free.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 13, 2022 20:16
|
|
|
GoGoGadgetChris posted:The whole point is to have FEWER bugs in the yard goddamnit thank you I knew it would come to this 
|
|
#
¿
Jul 13, 2022 22:01
|
|
|
Toaster Beef posted:I've pretty much given up on ever truly getting rid of the tiny black ants around our house. They'll show up inside now and then, but we're very good about keeping our food sealed up and such so they mostly just wander around rather than actually going after anything (and they're killed on sight). They're everywhere outside, though. Base of every bush and tree, loving around in the shed, they're all over the place. The whole town is beset by 'em, so there's no point in going after them in our yard. California is one giant ant's nest, but we've kept them out of our house for a decade by ringing the place with a little pile of diatomaceous earth. It's sharp grains at a microscopic level, bugs can't walk across it because it slices up their little carapaces. Bonus advantage, it's nontoxic (but don't inhale it) and cheap. If the ants are tunneling under the ground and coming up from beneath the house this doesn't really work tho.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 13, 2022 22:46
|
|
|
Also it regularly snows in Denver, I think it's colder there than in Seattle during the winter yeah? It sounds to me like there's something of a gray area. Some folks wouldn't want to experience even just 2 or 3 days all winter where their heat pump couldn't keep up and they'd have to resort to electric heaters or something, and other folks would be fine with that... but then as you get into progressively colder climates, you have more and more days per year where the heat pump couldn't really keep up and at some point basically everyone needs to have a proper backup. Where exactly to draw that line is a personal preference?
|
|
#
¿
Jul 15, 2022 21:59
|
|
|
Bleach is not an effective mold remediation product on semi-porous or porous surfaces. Bleach kills mold on contact but does not soak in well and it neutralizes in hours. Try Concrobium.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 19, 2022 22:43
|
|
|
Yes? Paint stripper and media blasters exist. If they have to they can grind off the top eighth inch of the brick. gently caress it. (Actually it's total bullshit that some board or anyone else should have a say in what color your house is, ugh. But the brick-painters should get lots of angry glares and passive-aggressive comments at the annual block party!)
|
|
#
¿
Jul 21, 2022 00:25
|
|
|
raggedphoto posted:Happy you found the issue but WTF was the PO thinking? LOL like 80% of the time it's literally "one of the trades wasn't done yet" + "the drywallers showed up and drywalled over everything and did not care if the other trades had finished their work first" There's a possibility that was intentional like someone thought it would be fine, but I think most of the time poo poo like this is due to poor management of the subcontractors, who are notorious for not showing up on the day they said they would, throwing all dependencies into chaos
|
|
#
¿
Jul 28, 2022 02:30
|
|
|
Also figure out where they're getting into the garage and seal that up. Even if you kill one, if there's a rat hole more will keep coming in.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 28, 2022 21:22
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 14, 2024 22:39 |
|
|
Hadlock posted:Lol yeah the bottoms of those doors are torn to poo poo, that'd be my first place to start. look at it this way: fixing up that garage so it doesn't further decay is a good idea regardless, and as a bonus if you're thorough you might also eventually save your car from being eaten.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 29, 2022 04:07
|
|
