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Seems cost effective to just get decent insurance
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Mar 11, 2017 06:27
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Droo posted:I like to use this exact same argument against electricity, plumbing, and horseless carriages. Having to smell cooked food in a home does not seem quite on the same level. People act horrified at the idea. Putting a splatter guard over your pans is a cheap way to deal with grease that I don't see mentioned much.
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Apr 5, 2017 05:56
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Has anybody gotten their dirt floor crawl space encapsulated? I had an estimate done with a quote of $3,000-4,000 to cover 900sqft and that seemed pretty insane. Since all I care about is setting up a moisture barrier I was considering doing it myself with some plastic sheeting but I don't know if there's some other aspect to it that I'm missing.
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Apr 10, 2017 17:57
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TooMuchAbstraction posted:Have you been into your crawlspace before? How much room to move is there? The ones I've been in have had maybe a couple of feet of clearance above my head, and I would really not relish the thought of trying to crawl around in one, on bare dirt and rocks, with just portable lamps for illumination, trying to maneuver a big, unwieldy sheet of plastic and a stapler. If they're leveling the dirt floor and turning it into a usable space I could believe it. These guys were talking about 20 mil+ thick plastic sheeting covering the floor and going 4ft up the wall with an under layer with little water channels so you could use the crawlspace as a clean storage area. I'll call around some more and see what a basic set it & forget it solution looks like. Thesaurus posted:Is encapsulation the same as just the plastic vapor barrier on the ground/walls? I'm in Colorado so moisture isn't really *that* much of an issue. The whole area is pretty high in radon but my place is literally just across the threshold of 4 pCi/L (at 4.1) so I'm wondering if this could help nudge me under. Tiny Timbs fucked around with this message at 05:33 on Apr 11, 2017 |
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Apr 11, 2017 05:30
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Fancy_Lad posted:At what point does one decide to replace their HVAC system rather than keep repairing it? I'm going to put some flexseal on my rusted-out swamp cooler to see if i can get another year out of it
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May 20, 2017 05:42
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Sab0921 posted:Next step for home ownership - turns out the cable and ethernet wiring just kind of terminate in the crawl space (no patch panel or anything of the sort). So it's wired for Cat5 and Co-Ax - but there is no terminal for either actually inside the freaking house. How do you go about remedying that situation so I can get Internet hooked up - seemingly leaving it hanging outside is not likely the best option here. Seems like a good opportunity to come up with your own setup since you already have it in one place. One of the previous owners of my house installed ~8 different coax jacks in various rooms on different levels by running the cable outside and along the roof and drilling into the house through the brick wall.
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May 24, 2017 01:30
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I put my cat in the fridge before I leave for work
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Jun 7, 2017 23:02
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Tricky Ed posted:Be really, really, really, really, really careful here, is all I can say. My parents tried to have a deck over a flat roof and it constantly leaked everywhere the membrane was pierced. The third time they tried rebuilding it they finally used "pitch cups," where every support post sat in a literal cup of pitch, trying to keep water out of the holes. That kind of worked for a while. Speaking of holes in the roof, what's the preferred method for fixing up the holes left by removing a satellite dish? I've left the eyesore up because I don't want to deal with leaks but I'm aching to get rid of it.
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Jun 25, 2017 15:55
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TheWevel posted:Take the pole and dish off the shoe that's bolted to your roof. Leave the shoe. That's what I did...you can't really tell it's there. There were three other empty mounts on the roof  Easy enough to take off the dish and toss it in to the yard, though. I also managed to make a dent in the rat's nest of coax the previous owner had set up.
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Jun 26, 2017 03:09
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Are combination utility sinks/vanities much of a thing? I found a couple on Wayfair but they don't seem too common elsewhere. Is it a dumb idea to get one to put in a 1 3/4 bath + washroom in the basement?
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Jul 7, 2017 02:41
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minivanmegafun posted:That sounds like an application for a vintage farmhouse sink to me. I'm open to it but I've mostly seen those installed in kitchens. I'm kind of tight on space in the area so I need something that's basically just wide enough to hold a standard bathroom sink, but deeper and with a tall faucet without looking like your standard plastic mop tub.
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Jul 7, 2017 05:24
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Not having to deal with a loving landlord is worth approximately $9,000/mo.
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Jul 9, 2017 04:47
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TooMuchAbstraction posted:I'm talking purely in terms of aesthetics. I like having a neighborhood where people can have projects strewn around their property, while the typical HOA neighborhood feels lifeless in comparison. I agree with you there. City ordnances should be the tool used to take care of egregious offenses, not little neighborhood fiefdoms run by the people with sufficient lack of employment to attend all the Tuesday @ 10am meetings. Tiny Timbs fucked around with this message at 21:03 on Jul 9, 2017 |
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Jul 9, 2017 21:00
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Fixing wooden slat blinds has got to be one of the most insanely frustrating things I've ever done. So drat fiddly and even the new plastic replacement drum cradles I bought would break if you so much as breathed on them The worst part is that I still need to replace some of the string ladders, pull cords and mounting brackets. It'd probably be worth it just to get some new blinds made. Tiny Timbs fucked around with this message at 05:00 on Jul 12, 2017 |
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Jul 12, 2017 04:58
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baquerd posted:Feeling like redecorating? Consider child mannequins bolted to the ceilings! Of course, you can keep your other mannequins on the ground too, in every single floor and room. So the square footage is a factor but that house looks like it's in the middle of loving nowhere. Is super long distance exurb property in Texas really that valuable?
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Jul 21, 2017 01:23
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Is it worth taking up peel-and-stick faux hardwood vinyl before putting real hardwood/pergo down?
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Jul 21, 2017 01:27
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Is there really any issue with cutting out all the wires and removing the boxes yourself? I have a whole rat's nest of telephone and alarm system wiring on the backside of my house that I want to remove.
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Jul 31, 2017 01:36
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Motronic posted:This is a very specific design decision and you need to know how it was constructed or you will have disastrous consequences. "Conditioned craw space" is not normal, but the can be converted (or built) to be that way. Every single "basement rehab" contractor is pushing that for old homes. I got a quote of $3-4,000 to encapsulate my crawl space and closing it off was part of the deal. At the moment I just don't think it's worth that kind of money to make a 3-foot vertical space feel clean and livable (and mitigate the radon levels that are just barely over the 4.0 threshold).
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Aug 15, 2017 02:03
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devicenull posted:4.0 is like the mitigate now threshold, they still suggest mitigating over 2.0. Interesting. I'm in Colorado, which is a radon-heavy state. I see a lot of people talking about buying houses with 16.0! I'll address mine eventually but it doesn't seem like much of an emergency. I just started digging up the floor in my basement to replace it with vinyl floorboards and good god is it bad. Two layers of peel-and-stick over some kind of weird plastic abomination that must be 40-50 years old. 
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Aug 15, 2017 04:52
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buffbus posted:There's a good chance that stuff contains asbestos. Might want to at least get a testing kit before tearing it all up. Yikes. I thought that was limited to square tiles? The peel-and-stick is relatively new and the thick sheet under it is pure plastic with a design printed on top, not actually linoleum like I thought.
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Aug 16, 2017 02:12
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LogisticEarth posted:Asbestos was in so many products it's mind boggling. Sheet flooring definitely was one of them, as well as the mastic. Are you sure it's plastic? I'm not sure I've seen flooring like that. Ok, caution prevails. I tore up some more of the floor tonight but I'm going to cut it out and see what the test kit says.
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Aug 16, 2017 02:51
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Hubis posted:Now in reality, if you're a homeowner and not working in an industry with constant exposure (like construction/demolition, shipbuilding, etc.) the % chance of an increase in negative consequences is fairly minimal unless you go real stupid with it. For floor tiles you could probably get away with flooding the area (to suppress dust and soften the mastic) and then fairly carefully pry up the tiles and scrape off any goop. But "you could probably get away with it" situations are exactly why things like OSHA exist -- and honestly in my opinion abatement isn't so expensive that it's not easily worth the peace of mind. So out of curiosity, what is this stuff exactly? It has no paper backing or glue under it and doesn't actually seem like it's vinyl sheeting, but it does look like it could've been placed around when the house was made in 1962. 
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Aug 16, 2017 23:10
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LogisticEarth posted:Honestly, that looks like old vinyl sheet flooring? It's hard to tell from the photo. Not all sheet flooring had paper backing, and I'm confused about you saying there's no glue, since it looks like there's black mastic on the subfloor right there in your photo. Huh, ok. I wasn't sure what that was since the subfloor is completely bone dry and the floor is not adhered to it. Tiny Timbs fucked around with this message at 16:08 on Aug 17, 2017 |
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Aug 17, 2017 16:00
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TheGreasyStrangler posted:So out of curiosity, what is this stuff exactly? It has no paper backing or glue under it and doesn't actually seem like it's vinyl sheeting, but it does look like it could've been placed around when the house was made in 1962. Test came back today, no asbestos 
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Aug 24, 2017 04:06
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Good-Natured Filth posted:Do you tip contractors that are doing work for you? I have some guys putting in a patio, and they've been doing a very good job quickly. But I'm paying them what seems to be a sizable amount of money (comparable to other quotes I received, but had I done it myself, it wouldn't have cost nearly as much - just a lot of time and back pain). I'm not sure what the etiquette is. I've grown up tipping some service people, but not all. You give contractors food and drinks, not tips.
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Sep 20, 2017 01:16
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Leperflesh posted:glad all my fire extinguishers are like 30 years old Just checked mine and it's a General that was last inspected in 1998, lol. Some Googling tells me that as long as the indicator is in the green and all the nozzle pieces look intact I can just hang on to it.
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Nov 7, 2017 02:26
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I think they're easy as long as what you find when you remove the old one isn't a hell cavity filled with mismatched wood screws and chewing gum
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Dec 12, 2017 01:30
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brugroffil posted:I'm enjoying this season on This Old House where they keep mentioning a "tight budget" on a project that includes a completely new kitchen including a six foot bump out, a new front porch, building a whole new master suite on the second story including custom tiles in the bathroom, oh and a huge new garage with a whole apartment. That has to be $250k. Every HGTV show is “The 24 year old husband has a part time job collecting house spiders and the 23 year old wife does an hour a week of substitute teaching. Their budget is only $800,000 so we have to make this work!” Just once I’d like to see the Property Brothers do some work for poor people instead of trust fund babies.
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Jan 6, 2018 21:10
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Hubis posted:One or two seasons ago TOH did a restoration of a reclaimed vacant in a Detroit suburb that was really good. That's exactly what I'm looking for. I might have to go track that down.
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Jan 7, 2018 01:20
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veiled boner fuel posted:Why is the gap 6”? Seems large enough to make a threshold look silly. Maybe tile would work better.
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Jan 18, 2018 22:28
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*Nazi flag, Gadsden flag, brodozer* Have you considered asking his neighbors to pitch in some cash for your down payment?
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Jan 30, 2018 03:31
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A guy at Ace Hardware called me a "friggin dumb crap" when I dropped a gallon of paint so please don't ever shop there!!!!
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Jan 31, 2018 01:03
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Be sure to budget for when all the horse's hair falls out because somebody breathed on it wrong
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Mar 2, 2018 01:53
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Elephanthead posted:The thermostat really just passes current if the temperature is not high enough. Not sure how one could not be compatible unless you have some vacuum operated oddity. Apparently the way it draws power can cause heaters to short cycle but I've been running mine with a 2-wire heat-only config for two winters now and everything's been fine.
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Mar 8, 2018 02:12
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Does anybody know what the state of the art is for evaporative (swamp) cooler controllers? I get by ok with the classic "High/Low Cool" dial but it would be cool to replace it with something a little more intelligent. Amazon doesn't have a whole lot of options.
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May 18, 2018 04:17
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As long as it's not required for a warranty I wouldn't spend the money on contractor inspections of things I can look out for myself. HVAC specialists, in particular, have a reputation for concluding that you need to replace your whole system when nothing's wrong. I got new homeowner nerves about my home's boiler system and the HVAC guy said it wasn't worth doing more than a visual check since the boiler was "only" 10 years old and I wasn't experiencing any issues. He showed me what to keep an eye on. Tiny Timbs fucked around with this message at 01:51 on May 24, 2018 |
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May 24, 2018 01:49
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HOAs don’t trump city ordinances and my city limits the amount of sprinkler/watering time we can use So that might be an out
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Jun 12, 2018 20:32
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You can get a home inspector with the right equipment to run a camera down the line and give you a guess. Make sure to get a copy of the video so you can shop it around for quotes. Tiny Timbs fucked around with this message at 01:17 on Jun 13, 2018 |
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Jun 13, 2018 01:13
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I got homeowner's insurance through USAA and all I did was click some buttons on a web form. There's companies that send out inspectors and give you ultimatums?
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Jun 24, 2018 05:27
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Investigated a wobbly fan today and it turns out that one of the previous owners installed it with a lighting box just kind of wedged into the drywall 
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Jul 17, 2018 02:56
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