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We just bought a place with a basement, and wanted to get recommendations on 1) keeping the basement dry, and 2) basement storage of soft goods (tents, sleeping bags, camp chairs, backpacks, suitcases). The basement doesn’t seem to have any issues with moisture, and our inspector, realtor, and someone we hired for some small repairs prior to our move in all commented that the basement was very dry.
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Aug 26, 2021 02:01
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| # ¿ May 19, 2024 17:53 |
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Thanks for the input all. Motronic posted:Depends on where you live, the exact soil type, what kind of perimeter or other drains you have, your landscaping/slope to house, how well your gutters discharge from the house......... I’m in the Boston area, the city’s map says “Urban Land, Wet Substratum” for soil type, the slope to house is flat, all gutters drain at least 6 feet from the foundation, we haven’t moved in yet so I haven’t seen them in action. I’m not sure about perimeter drains, something to look into. Once we’re in and have some rain I’ll have a better idea of what the baseline is. Nitrousoxide posted:Some stuff you can do for cheap is: Thanks. tater_salad posted:#1 is huge. You can build some Nice quality 8' 2x4 & OSB shelves somewhat easily for somewhere around $120 I overbuilt mine they can probably hold several adults.. I don’t think I have the skill set to handle this yet… I’m moving from an apartment with minimal tools and experience. StormDrain posted:And for about 170 you can get a big heavy duty shelving unit from Costco, and for $80 a smaller one that is a better cost per square footage of shelf. It's not as nice, but you can put them together quickly and adjust as needed. I have a lot of them, 6-8, I've lost count. Are the cheaper units sturdy? I saw them last time I was at Costco, and was planning on picking a few up.
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Aug 27, 2021 00:41
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gp2k posted:Waking up at 1am overwhelmed with worry and doubt and unable to get back to sleep until 5am is a normal part of the process.... right?? Yeah, we closed earlier this month, and I had many night like this.
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Aug 29, 2021 20:42
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Does anyone here use a mechanical reel mower? Are they a pain to use? The yard at our new place is too small to justify anything else.
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Sep 11, 2021 21:55
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Thanks all, sounds like I’ll go with one. The yard is probably around 300 ft^2, so anything else would be overkill.
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Sep 12, 2021 01:35
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I have an electrical annoyance that I want to address if it’s an easy fix. There are switches at the top and bottom of our basement stairs that both control one light in the basement, and one light at the top of the basement stairs. The switch at the bottom of the stairs also controls an outlet at the top of the stairs, this outlet is not controlled by the switch at the top. I would prefer this outlet to be unswitched since we keep our stick vac plugged in there to charge. Taking off the front plates of both switches, there’s only one set of wires coming into each (black/red/white/ground), the outlet has two sets of wires, one coming in from below, one from above. Based on this description is there anything obvious to try to decouple the outlet from the switch without having to mess around behind the drywall? I have no experience with wiring, so I’m not sure if there’s something obvious that I’m missing. I’d prefer not to have a permanent piece of tape over the bottom switch.
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Sep 30, 2021 20:28
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StormDrain posted:I love these riddles. Did you take the switches out of the boxes? Are there any other wires coming into either box? Thanks. I haven’t taken the switches out, only pulled the plates off and looked in with a flashlight. The permutations are below. TD, BD: Light off, outlet on TU, BD: light on, outlet on TD, BU: light on, outlet off TU, BU: light off, outlet off I guess a permanent piece of tape it is then. EPICAC fucked around with this message at 22:31 on Sep 30, 2021 |
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Sep 30, 2021 22:29
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Any recommendations for removal/control of moss and lichen growth on roofs? We have a small low angle roof above apart of the structure with a first floor only footprint. There’s some growth there since it’s in the shade most of the time. Preferably something that I could do myself.
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Oct 13, 2021 20:11
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We’ve been paralyzed trying to pick out a solid wood dresser because we have an awkward turn in our stairs. Is there a good way to figure out if something will make it up stairs? We have the dimensions of the largest piece of furniture that made it up without disassembly, but all of the dressers we’ve looked at are larger in at least one dimension. Alternatively, are there any places out there that make nice high-quality flat pack furniture, or is that an oxymoron?
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Oct 21, 2021 00:25
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Thanks for the suggestions all. Sounds like a trip to the hardware store this weekend.
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Oct 21, 2021 01:59
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How difficult is it to ground a gas system? I don’t see any indication (clamps and ground wires) that our gas system is grounded from where the black iron pipes enter from the basement wall to where the 3 CSST lines disappear to their respective appliances. From reading online/watching YouTube videos it seems pretty straightforward. Minimally, put a clamp on the (sanded?) iron pipe after the meter, and run a 6 gauge copper wire from the clamp to the ground bar in the panel. Some videos suggested that it’s also good to connect a clamp to each of the CSST line nuts, and run the same ground wire through those clamps. In theory this all seems straightforward, and like something I could handle. However, I’m not sure if there are steps/considerations that aren’t mentioned in the video like routing the ground wire past all of the other stuff like other wires/HVAC ducts, and actually routing it into the box and attaching to the ground bar (lots of research needed here since I’ve never done anything in the panel before). Is this something that a homeowner could reasonably do, or should I hire a professional? EPICAC fucked around with this message at 19:54 on Nov 2, 2021 |
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Nov 2, 2021 19:44
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Pilfered Pallbearers posted:Anyone know anything about fridges? Sounds like an issue we had with a fridge back when we were renting. A piece of the internal styrofoam insulation had come off and blocked the fan that circulated cold air from the freezer into the fridge.
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Nov 17, 2021 01:57
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I have a couple of wires that I’m trying to ID, that don’t seem to do anything anymore. The first is a bundled wire with very thin red, black, green, and yellow wires. The sheathing is a light brown color. It looks sort of like the wires that control the HVAC system, but there’s no involvement. The wire ends in the basement, unconnected to anything then runs up the main cable run to somewhere. The second is bundled red, white, and black wires with a dark brown sheath. This pokes out of a hole in the drywall in our 2nd floor hallway, and is covered by a blank wall plate. I have no idea where the other end is.
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Dec 13, 2021 03:17
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Our place had some of the standard basement stuff, old paint, brushes, lightbulbs, a beat to hell kitchen table that’s seen duty as a workbench. The tenants that the PO was renting to left a couple of snow shovels when they moved out. The most notable find was this receipt that I found in a hole in the chimney brickwork in the basement. The address is a couple blocks away, and is now a convenience store. No date, but I’m sure I could get a rough idea based on prices.  When the tenants moved out they pointed me to a “box of paint,” when I opened it I thought that “Mashed Potatoes” was a weird name for a paint color. Turns out it wasn’t paint, but a stock of Patriot’s Pantry food. The receipt in the box was from 2018, and was ordered by a previous tenant. 
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Jan 17, 2022 20:25
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Do people generally find google ratings reliable for plumbers/electricians/etc? I need to find a plumber to diagnose and fix a slow leak in a toilet, and this is my time needing to hire someone to fix something as a homeowner. My guess is it’s an issue with the O-ring, but what do I know? What’s a reasonable estimate to get something like that replaced in the Boston area?
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Jan 18, 2022 22:23
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I immediately recognized this from my grandparents’ house growing up. My wife also recognized it as the tile in the kitchen of her family’s cabin.
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Jan 19, 2022 22:58
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When we bought our condo we waived inspection contingency, but we walked through with an inspector before we submitted an offer. It wasn’t a full inspection, but enough to make us comfortable putting in an offer. As for appraisal, our realtor put in a clause that we would cover the first $25k of any appraisal shortfall. This actually helped us out a lot, as we had a fairly large shortfall (the neighboring condo was listed at the same and had a cash offer, so was much closer to list than our offer). When the appraisal came in we countered with appraisal + $25k, and the seller came down significantly.
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Apr 15, 2022 17:46
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Agree, when my servicing was switched to chase is was very smooth. I already had a credit card with them, and when I logged onto my account my mortgage was there with no action required on my part.
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May 3, 2022 03:30
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nwin posted:Rigging a tube from the dehumidifier to outside for drainage. Do you have any existing condensate pumps in your basement? We have one that collects condensate from the HVAC air handler and one that collects from our boiler (they’re actually daisy chained) the downstream one is connected to our waste pipes (I think, maybe it drains outside I can’t really tell from what I have visibility to). I ran our dehumidifier’s hose into an empty slot on one of those. EPICAC fucked around with this message at 18:21 on Jun 17, 2022 |
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Jun 17, 2022 18:18
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Kefit posted:The fridge at the townhouse I'm buying appears to be working fine, but the serial number indicates that it was manufactured in 2007. Should I be looking into replacing it? I'm not sure if 15 years is actually worryingly old for a fridge, but if it does fail then it's the kind of thing I'd need to replace asap with little regard for cost or preferences. I’ve had that same question. All of the appliances in the place we bought last year date to a 2007 gut reno. KitchenAid fridge, oven/stove, and dishwasher, and Frigidaire washer dryer. All seem to be functioning fine, but not sure if it’s worth it to fix the small annoyances like broken bits on the dishwasher rack and nonfunctional ice maker.
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Sep 20, 2022 21:39
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spf3million posted:I did not. Is that claim-worthy? My grandmother was getting similarly aged roof replaced last year. The roofer she called came out, found some old hail damage, and advised that she call her insurance. Insurance ended up paying to replace.
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Mar 25, 2023 20:01
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Verman posted:The troops that hit up my local grocery store are literally printing money. They need to wise up and hit the dispensaries. Here there are troops that set up in the subway stations that get heavy afternoon commuter foot traffic.
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Sep 18, 2023 21:31
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We’ve had a Dyson stick vac for about 10 years, and have been happy with it. I buy that it’s a so-so vacuum, but the convenience of the form factor in our small space is more useful than a better vacuum. We mainly use it on the hardwood floors in the kitchen/dining area and living room to clean up after the kids who spread crumbs everywhere. Having something that lives at the top of the basement stairs and is easily accessible for the nightly vacuum is the biggest consideration. Having a better vacuum for the one carpeted room in the house isn’t worth it to us.
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Feb 26, 2024 23:48
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| # ¿ May 19, 2024 17:53 |
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I need to replace a few deck planks (1x6). Is there a best type of wood for this? I assume it needs to be pressure treated, and would therefore need to dry before I can paint it to match the rest of the deck. As for drying, is it best to install and let it dry outdoors, or can buy it now and store it in my basement to dry (dehumidifier usually keeps at an RH of 40%) until it’s warmer out? If I dried for a bit without installing is warping a concern?
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Mar 2, 2024 04:33
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