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Alarbus posted:We had just bought the house and I swapped two of the toilets. I have no idea why the sellers were making GBS threads out hair. Some of that may have been squeezed-out wax from the wax ring on installation. I took advice to use an extra-thick wax ring when I replaced my toilet with a Kohler Cimmaron that was advertised to flush a bucket of golf balls. I had also replaced the entire stack with 4” schedule 40, so was mystified when the toilet would clog at random. I eventually got disgusted with the thing & replaced it with a Gerber Avalanche. When I pulled the Kohler there was this enormous turd-shaped thing that turned out to be excess wax, somehow caught in hair, so it dangled in the waste line for years. PainterofCrap fucked around with this message at 13:49 on May 10, 2022 |
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May 9, 2022 17:42
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Keep that thunder jug!
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May 10, 2022 14:55
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Verman posted:Came home from a week in Costa Rica to a furnace that won't start up. The inducer motor starts but nothing else happens after that. Ignitor never lights, gas never kicks on etc. ... This happened to my Goodman. It would try to start & cycle off. In my case, it was the ignitor.
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May 11, 2022 03:45
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Verman posted:
Change out the ignitor. It should come on.
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May 12, 2022 01:38
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timepenguin posted:You should be able to find someone to say do just 1 room but I don’t know price wise how someone would charge for a small job vs taking on big jobs... I deal with this all of the time. Not just painting, but just about any trade will have a baseline figure that they will charge because whether it's a 120-SF room, or a 3500-SF house, they still have to bring the dog & pony show to your house to set-up. So quotes for say, a bathroom are not scaleable to your 1000-SF finished basement; the small jobs will also seem hideously expensive. If you can get them to do a larger scope of work, the cost gets more reasonable-looking. The other issue is that many contractors prefer large-scope jobs; they make more money on them; so it can be difficult to find anyone to paint your bathroom, or re-trim one door, etc. If you are getting astronomically-high quotes, the contractor may be telling you that they really don't want the job.
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May 13, 2022 03:01
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This is going to be fun. Brewerytown and West Philly could see major tax spikes after the new property reassessment https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/p...appy/ar-AAX4XMH 
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May 13, 2022 17:17
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Replaced my scratch-built catio - the unfinished wood was getting gnarly - with this knock-down kit from the mail-order Evil Empire. Kit was about $75 more than the materials cost of building one from scratch. It was designed to roll around and had doors. I ditched the doors & wheels. Dorian is still figuring it out, the other five are even more wary & no one has elected to try the higher floors yet. 
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May 13, 2022 19:27
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MrLogan posted:Link, please. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08JLJKLF8?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_dt_b_asin_title
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May 14, 2022 02:29
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Are you using some kind of steamer? That was extremely cathartic, thank you! When we closed on our house in May 1992, we had two weeks left on our lease. Wallpaper in every room; we were lucky that, except for the bathroom (had six layers. It was literally a bath room, with no shower, until some point in the late '50s, so there was paper under the glued-on metal tile  around the tub) and the dining room (nasty-rear end flocked/felt wallpaper, originally green, now baby-poo poo brown). It took three people three days to scrape down the dining room with paint scrapers, razors, and assorted implements of destruction. I had to go back & deal with major gouges in the plaster before we could prime it 2,000 times + top-coats. Sixty-year-old plaster is thirsty - took an entire gallon of primer for the walls of a 12x14 room.
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May 19, 2022 03:34
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I've seen gutters made out of cedar plank. Cool, but they still rot - just take a lot longer.
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May 20, 2022 03:55
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Hadlock posted:I do not have a truck/don't have access to one, but I do have an alarmingly big trunk and not afraid to lash the trunk lid closed to make something fit for the three mile trip to the garage Excellent option. Was gifted these by my son & daughter-in-law two years ago. Wish I'd gotten them sooner instead of fumbling around for too many years.  Get the 2-piece magnetic paper towel holder. Also a strip magnet to hold hammers & a flatbar on the side. Yes, I printed paper labels for the drawer pulls PainterofCrap fucked around with this message at 03:02 on May 22, 2022 |
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May 22, 2022 02:59
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Are you referring to the sill plate - which spans the actual door opening, or the sheet steel in front, over the OSB subfloor? Because that steel plate should not be there; the only reason I can think of that it is there is to cover an area of collapsed OSB subfloor, which is typically where it fails because that’s where most folks instinctively plant their foot when going through the doorway. I replaced a few soft spots in my brother-in-law’s portable house because of this, though that was bellyboard…OSB is not a whole lot better… I’d pull the steel plate and see what the hell is going on under there. It’ll never be easier to cut it out & replace the section (across the joists) with a piece of plywood. incidentally, the threshold / sill plate is supposed to be installed over the subfloor and whatever floor finish you install…it should sit proud of the floor level. Yours looks oddly recessed. You want the subfloor to be relatively even on both sides of the doorway. E: you’d also have to notch out the bottom 1/4” - 1/2” of the door stop, above the floor level, On both sides of the opening, so that the threshold can be slipped in underneath it. May have to trim the bottom of the door slab as well. PainterofCrap fucked around with this message at 21:26 on May 23, 2022 |
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May 23, 2022 21:21
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Typical arc: *claim submitted for roof* Ins Co: We sent out an adjuster who never got up on the roof but took amazing photos. That roof is all wear & tear damage. There's no wind or hail damage. (option 1: sends a denial letter. Proceed directly to court) *submits his own roofer's report & estimate, with photos from the roof & a short video showing the potato-chip nature of the shingles* says right here that a bunch of shingles were damaged by wind/hail and that the roof won't pass a brittle test & thus needs to be completely replaced! Hmmm. OK. Now that we actually sent out a roofer, you have 186-damaged shingles. Here's our estimate to replace them. Uh, you missed the part where my roofer says that the shingles are too brittle to take being bent for such a repair. Also, he wants to know who the gently caress would replace 186-shingles. well, our guy says it can be done. So gently caress off.*appraisal ensues* OK, we'll pay to replace the front slope, and use salvaged shingle* to repair the rear slope!*litigation ensues* * not really A Thing, but some companies will try it PainterofCrap fucked around with this message at 17:54 on May 24, 2022 |
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May 24, 2022 17:00
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That's why we do a brittle test: In such case, you don't even attempt it, you just write to replace the affected slope(s) . Doesn't stop some companies from continuing to strenuously gently caress that chicken.
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May 24, 2022 17:53
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Deviant posted:are you me? we're now collecting depositions for the ongoing litigation and they're making offers to get me to go away, whereas i am making demands to go away. Well, if you have a public adjuster, they'll just take a percentage of your estimate as their fee. (I am not a fan of PAs.) Be sure you get the percentage in writing (unless you're in Delaware, in which case it's capped at 10%). I've seen fees as high as 60% (which is egregious, even for PAs, but hey, if there's no law against it & the insured doesn't read the contract...) At least the lawyer will make a demand including some amount as a punishment for your insurer being such idiots, which should cover most of his contingency fee.
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May 25, 2022 03:36
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I bought a lot in southern NJ, in a neighborhood; lot is 75’x100’. And has never been developed. I paid $25k for it
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May 30, 2022 01:37
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Alarbus posted:My Uncle did that in south NJ too, spot next to him in the cul de sac. ... Hadlock posted:Dual lots probably own... My future daughter-in-law & my son bought the house next to the lot a couple years ago. It was originally part of the property, but was sub-divided around 2007 during the housing bubble. The vagaries of the market kept it from being developed / a house being built on it. It was for sale for $90K in 2020; the neighborhood was bummed that it was going to be built on. The owner was a real-estate holding/management company; it appears that they were going to build a house on it when COVID hit & their rental income stream dried up. Vagaries of the market again - too expensive to build & the holding co. started selling assets to generate cash. I offered $15K for it initially against a $75K demand. My wife & I bought our place in 1992 and it included the 75x100 lot next door. Nothing beats having a good-sized yard; I've planted a number of trees, including a DED-resistant elm, which is now 21-years old & pushing fifty feet. I wanted the same for my kids. Difference is, this is a neglected lot; tons of deadfall, weird humps of god-knows-what, overgrown poo poo everywhere. Going to be a job to tame it. Then, it's trees & maybe a few birdhouses, a bat house, and, if I can get the township's approval, set it up as a wildflower meadow / bird fly-way
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May 30, 2022 15:09
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DaveSauce posted:Yeah we got a poo poo ton of rabbits around here. Been 6 years and this is the first time we've found babies. I'm sure they're everywhere, just not usually so close to the house. BonerGhost posted:Rabbits have less of a survival strategy and more of a breeding strategy. Years ago, when I still let my cats out, the one cat caught a bunny & brought it in the house. Turned it back outside, where he was caught again & had one of his ears mangled. I took him about a half-mile away & turned the dumb fucker loose. PainterofCrap fucked around with this message at 14:13 on Jun 3, 2022 |
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Jun 3, 2022 14:10
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Epitope posted:This is my fuckin house now  
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Jun 5, 2022 14:06
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Sundae posted:How the gently caress do I get rid of an old refrigerator in the bay area? Put it on the curb with a sign that says "$500, please call (number)." It'll be gone once the sun sets. Sirotan posted:Old fridges go to live out the rest of their lives in the garage where they store cans of beer and excess frozen meat. Yup.  1939 GE.
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Jun 15, 2022 03:12
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Tremors posted:Have I ever mentioned how much I love home ownership? It's super great! Sorry I'm late. Neighbor is not legally liable unless the tree was a known hazard, you were aware of the hazard, and informed the neighbor of the hazard & to remove the tree, and that they failed to act in a timely fashion. Trees are like referees in a football game, they are 'owned' by no one, although whoever owns the land they're growing on has to maintain them (codes vary). It's a covered loss to the house (the garage is attached to the house, so it falls under the Dwelling coverage). The garage needs to be stabilized and tarped. The garage is a total loss. Hopefully, the house itself is unaffected and you can stay there. The engineer will address this. The insurance will cover removing the tree from the structures far enough to make repairs, but will pay only up to $500 for the debris removal afterwards.
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Jun 15, 2022 15:56
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Motronic posted:Nice. I'm glad it's moving along for you. Even if it's not "technically" necessary you should expect some manner of reasonably prompt service to remediate this.....it's kinda what you're paying your insurance premiums for. This. My name is associated with my profession, and I’d rather it not be shouted profanely around a bar (or courtroom).
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Jun 17, 2022 00:22
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Beef Of Ages posted:Alternatively, you can search for poo poo online with pictures to get ideas of what you like and then, inevitably, talk to a contractor and find out exactly why you can't have what you like (cost, material, etc.). Beyond that, a good contractor can also help with permitting and things of that nature. I paid for contractors to pour the footings & pad, and to install the roof. The rest I did myself. Total cost by 2006 was about $30K. I did get a contractor's bid - for $75,000. In 2004.  This was the drawing approved by the township. I had to have a zoning hearing to get a variance to put my back wall 3' from the property line instead of 6' (even though the original garage was like 6-inches from the line...) The measurements show where I had to sink hurricane bolts in the slab.    
PainterofCrap fucked around with this message at 15:49 on Jun 18, 2022 |
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Jun 18, 2022 15:47
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Verman posted:Cross posted from a few different threads, but I finished my modular work bench idea. Now I need to clean my garage and configure new homes for things so that I can put it in place. Its only a single stall garage so I don't have a ton of room but its long so the mobility is a huge benefit. I'm going to buy some hard board and enclose them on three sides to help keep whatever is being stored inside, clean. I think I'm also going to build a shelf in one or two of them. NICE
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Jun 21, 2022 01:29
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Can you run your HVAC fan with the A/C off? It may help to circulate air throughout the house.
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Jun 22, 2022 01:02
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Verman posted:If this isn't the most honest revelation that I can relate to. The older I get, the more people I meet that have zero mechanical instinct. I'll do something very small and they'll say "OMG that's crazy how did you know how to do that?" It literally couldn't be easier now a day. We have YouTube, Internet forums, and a multitude of hardware stores at our disposal. ... I'm sure I've written this before, but this describes me to a T. We spent just about every dime we had and over-extended our credit to buy this house in 1992. Problems immediately cropped up, as they would in a house not lived in for three years and sold 'as-is.' Hiring a contractor, plumber or electrician simply was not an option - that took care of any reservations I may have had, and commitment was not optional if we wanted to bathe in hot & cold running water that didn't drain into the basement. Thirty years later, probably one of the only things that has kept me sane through this country's mental & moral decline into banana-republic status is the therapeutic effects of repairing and restoring all manner of things - vehicles, appliances, buildings; to make sound and beautiful the neglected and broken.  (building the garage, 2004) I had no way of knowing whether or not my son would be inclined to do any of this. You just can't know, but early signs with Duplo & LEGO were encouraging. I turned him loose on my workbench and tools, with only minimal guidance and maximum encouragement, the ghost of my overbearing perfectionist father guiding me in what not to do. Soon, he was making potato cannons and home-made compressed-air guns, and at 13 was trying to melt and cut bottle glass (after I required sufficient protection and supervision). His first car was a '68 VW that we completely rebuilt from a '70, and he picked up the mechanical stuff right away. Two years ago we swapped out the blown engine on his beloved '01 Accord  The glass thing stuck with him. After figuring out college was not for him, he - completely on his own, and unknown to his parents - researched getting certified as a scientific glassblower/lamp-worker, including funding it through his job (that offered very generous tuition reimbursement) He's now five years into making custom scientific apparatus - including pieces for a NASA ISS experiment - and loving it.  He is currently turning a shed at his house into his home lamp-working studio. The kids are alright, if shown a direction & given support and room.
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Jun 23, 2022 16:04
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It’s a light sensor, wired to one or both receptacles.
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Jun 26, 2022 00:41
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Put a piece of electrical or duct tape over the sensor. That should trigger it. Or plug a lamp in there & see if it’s on later tonight.
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Jun 26, 2022 01:44
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sporkstand posted:I recently got a quote for a solar system and the price quoted to me seemed a bit on the high side so I asked for an itemized breakdown of the costs. After some back and forth with the sales dude's manager he presented me with this: Your instinct to be nervous when you're getting snowed is a good one. As an adjuster I've gone through similar hijinks with solar companies after, say, a tree falls on the house, damaging the roof. Now we have to get the solar panels off to get to the roof, and guess what, the installer is based in California or Arizona, not New Jersey, and they farm out the franchises & installs to anyone with a pulse, no fear of heights, a screwdriver, and a pickup truck. I gather that there's some bizarre profit-sharing deal where the company ships the hardware to the local 'experts' (the aforementioned college kids) with some kind of fee to them, and what they can soak the homeowner for is all cheddar above that. Which explains why no one at these companies (when you can reach an actual human being) will tell you what the individual components cost them, what they are actually charging you for them, and how much labor is required to install them properly, etc. I got a price from a local roofer to remove & reset solar panels at $100 each. The solar folks warned that anyone else touching the panels would void the warranty. Out of the other side of their mouth, they no longer had any local franchisees, nor would they quote a per-panel rate. This reminds me of when, pre-internet, my wife called in a Colorado Prime salesman to persuade us to buy their delicious meat/poultry/seafood items by mail order. I gotta give him credit, the guy was good & he was smooth: I asked in about ten different ways what their pound price was for the various cuts of meat they were offering and, over 90-minutes, he managed to not only not answer directly, but also not look like a mendacious rear end in a top hat while doing it. It was fascinating, like watching Fox give the 50-solutions to mass shooting that don't involve addressing the issue directly. tl/dr: the good news is: you're smart enough to see BS. The bad news: almost all solar companies work this way, so good luck getting a direct, sane, time & material estimate. PainterofCrap fucked around with this message at 01:04 on Jun 28, 2022 |
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Jun 27, 2022 22:41
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poo poo, it's not even the cost/benefit; they're duplicitious assholes straight out of the gate. Look, were I 30 or under right now, I would give serious thought to doing it even if my power bill didn't drop all that much. Every little bit helps. First thing I'd do is price it for to get all of the components myself & homebrew it. At least I'd have a solid number... PainterofCrap fucked around with this message at 01:25 on Jun 28, 2022 |
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Jun 28, 2022 01:23
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Harriet Carker posted:Thank you - this seems plausible. Interestingly, the screws in one of the garage door hinges all popped out yesterday. Wonder if it’s related. You have a poltergeist. Nuke it from orbit & go live in a refrigerator carton under the nearest bridge.
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Jun 29, 2022 03:46
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What you may be missing is: good airflow. I installed central A/C in my house about ten years ago. Did the tonnage calculations & had them verified by a refrigeration mechanic. House is 90-years old, all plaster walls, and originally was heated with a coal gravity furnace, updated to gas forced-air in the 1950s. Never had A/C until I installed it. There is only one massive return in a small hallway and the registers are all at the floor. This works fine for heat, but for A/C you at least should have a return in every room with a door (really, every room) and, in a perfect world, registers as high up as they can be for A/C. So I have the same issue: on the hotter days here in south Jersey (near Phila) if I can get it down to 78-degrees F, that's as good as it gets. I've had the A/C running for two weeks straight, 24/7, to keep it under 80F. If it didn't do such a great job drying the air (which was the primary reason for the invention of "air conditioning") it would be pointless on the hottest days. My neighbors beside me & across the street have exactly the same homes (my block was allegedly built by the WPA to provide low-income housing for homeless squatters on the Woodbury Creek during the Depression); they have both shelled their interiors and thus installed multiple-level registers and returns, and their HVAC does a far better job of cooling their homes into the 60s.
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Jul 3, 2022 15:43
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Grumpwagon posted:I have basically this same problem. What is "shell[ing] their interior?" I'm assuming just some sort of wall insulation, but I couldn't find anything googling (just a lot of results for how to use seashells as decor). They removed all of the interior surfaces down to the framing, replaced it all with drywall.
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Jul 4, 2022 15:56
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Epitope posted:
I would cut back the battens half-way up, and the trim boards at the bottom, and add a pair of vertical trims that butt to the sides of the bottom trim.
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Jul 5, 2022 15:08
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nwin posted:I got up on the roof but didn’t feel at all safe getting down low enough to scoop the stuff out. If I had a solid foundation about 6’ high I could put the ladder on top of that, but that screams “OSHA” thread to me and it’s definitely not a great idea. Scissor lift Bucket lift Hire someone. That's a killing height. Gutter guards only slow the problem down, and are an stone bitch to clean out when they do, inevitably, fill up. I have the foam blocks mentioned previously. I get up on a ladder (1-story, 12') and hit 'em with a power washer. And yes, during really heavy & long downpours, the water just runs over them, but that is a seldom occurrence so not an issue for me.
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Jul 6, 2022 16:27
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I'm too old & fat to get up there to see if the gutters need cleaning. https://i.imgur.com/wTxrjGp.mp4 This was early fall, no wind, 2017. They ain't full; the gutters have the foam blocks in them. A fair breeze will blow most of these off (the prop-wash blows some, but you have to get close, & the Mavic's not real great about sensing the roof deck & will prop-strike), but some will get stuck up there, so I get up there & clean em off every few years.
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Jul 7, 2022 02:25
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Every new job is daunting & difficult until afterwards. It’s getting started.
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Jul 8, 2022 03:32
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That only drops when the hidden switch in the kitchen activates the Budweiser coke-cutting mirror & straw dispenser
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Jul 10, 2022 02:41
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I live in New Jersey, in a swamp that was drained in the 1920s, less than a mile from the Delaware River. I have creeks & (wet) swamps all around me. The mosquitos are heinious, and I've thought about having the yard sprayed, but I really can't see what good it would do unless they laid down DDT with aircraft.
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Jul 13, 2022 01:44
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Ja my neighbors house with the 1940s garage & a bar out the back had sinks & a urinal that ran along through a 3” galvanized pipe about a foot underground and just…stopped about six feet away from the bar. No French drain or nothin’
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Jul 14, 2022 02:11
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