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Leperflesh posted:Make sure your raised bed is made of something that won't leach anything into the soil you're growing food in. For example, most pressure-treated wood is not suitable for growing food. So is most paint, a lot of different wood stains, etc. If you're just growing flowers then w/e of course. If you're not going out of your way to find direct burial rated arsenic treated wood, pressure treated wood is fine. The modern ACQ and Copper Azole treatments aren't a health hazard at moderate consumption levels. They aren't that good for the plants themselves if they're exposed, but 'rot-resistant' woods like Cedar are just naturally impregnated with biocidal compounds so they aren't any better in that aspect (it's not really a problem for either, since not much of it leaches).
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May 5, 2016 22:18
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VendaGoat posted:Planted my tomatoes today. Planted my strawberries! I just hope I can keep the deer from eating them all this year.
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May 6, 2016 17:58
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QuarkJets posted:You could hypothetically use an IR camera but that's really only going to work for interior walls, where it doesn't really matter That's backwards, it will only really work for exterior walls (or walls with a substantial temperature difference across them, if you want to be pedantic - which I do). You can do it with an IR thermometer too, though it will be more work.
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May 8, 2016 17:32
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Okay, yeah, in mild weather it will be harder to induce a sufficient gradient. Yard Chat: I wish I knew what magic the PO did to keep poo poo in order. Was he really cleaning out that gutter after every single rain? And my yard is being accosted by a horde of chipmunks and moles, how were they kept at bay!? And the woodpeckers... they've put at least a dozen holes in my siding in over the past two years but there's no evidence of any holes or repairs from the 20 years before that, what am I doing wrong!?
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May 8, 2016 23:46
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The PO did leave me this pole with a bristle thing on the end, which I'm guessing was for clearing that gutter that constantly clogs... but I haven't figured out a way to actually use it to do that.
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May 9, 2016 00:52
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Bozart posted:You may have some insects behind your walls. It might be a good idea to hire an exterminator. I'd be looking out for carpenter bees in particular. It's probably the box elder bugs that swarm the area every fall. But did the PO get the house sprayed every single year? Or did he just cast a magical ward against woodpeckers? QuarkJets posted:Our PO left us half-full paint buckets (with legible color codes), we were thankful for that. Plus the original manuals for all of the appliances I got all that, plus a sticky note explaining why the mystery light switch didn't do anything and the phone number of the guy who plowed their driveway  (good thing too, because they didn't tell him they moved)
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May 9, 2016 05:43
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Kritzkrieg Kop posted:I keep reading and hearing about how a sunroom is a bad investment and a bad idea, especially for resale value. I don't know what the actual difference is between a "sunroom" and a "solarium", but it seems like solariums involve more glass than sunrooms, in which case they'd be less insulated and more expensive to build, making them an even worse "investment" than sunrooms. They don't turn away buyers, they just don't make buyers want to pay $40k more for your house.
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May 20, 2016 00:49
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Frinkahedron posted:I have a birds nest above one of my porch lights right where it meets the wall. I'm afraid to move it because it's little birds season, but I don't want these rear end in a top hat birds messing with my walls, do I just wait them out until the winter then take down the nest? If the nest is empty (no eggs, no babies in it), it's generally okay to remove it, though if it belonged to a species that has more than one brood a year it may prevent them from raising additional broods. OSU_Matthew posted:I don't think most animals are so dumb that they abandon their children, even if they smell a bit funky. This bird was pretty smart at any rate, it was watching me like a hawk from different spots. I just hope it found where I put the nest You're right, but animals can be so dumb as to fail to recognize their children. The bird doesn't know its nest by smell, it knows it by location. It is possible that it understood what you were doing and followed it, but most likely it thinks that nest in the tree is a different nest.
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May 24, 2016 17:35
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ijii posted:I just want to add, anybody looking for a house, if possible get a house where the e. coil is located not in the attic. Seems to me this poo poo design is to make more living space, but in the end it creates a big hassle when the drat AC fails. In my case, if the expert is to be trusted, is just the outside compressor, but I'd feel a lot better just checking the e.coil myself without having to crawl into a 4ft. crawl space that is +110F inside with no airflow. Don't even get me started on attic air handlers. You pay a huge penalty in efficiency and equipment sizing, have to worry about condensate drains freezing... FCKGW posted:Might I suggest having e.coli located no where in the house? Since this rule would be incompatible with actually inhabiting your house, I would not recommend following it.
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Jun 9, 2016 22:16
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QuarkJets posted:I used to live with a 2nd floor front-loading washer and it was loud as gently caress, the vibration could be heard everywhere in the house. Apparently most of the manufacturers recommend against putting one on the second floor for this reason. I have a front load washer on my first floor, over basement space. No noise or vibration complaints, it's usually less noisy than most top loaders I've used.
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Jul 8, 2016 18:47
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Rurutia posted:Probably fear mongering then cause I kept hearing about how it was a fire hazard and we were going to burn the house down around our baby. Annually, clothes dryers cause an average of 15,500 fires, killing about 30 people and causing $200 million of property damage. That's not a whole lot (only about 4% of house fires), and your dryer has a safety that's intended to shut it off before it catches fire if it's clogged, so it's not like going more than 6 months without cleaning your duct is certain doom. But it's also not a whole lot of work and keeps your dryer running properly so it's not something you should ignore. Yearly is a reasonable default interval, but how quickly you accumulate lint depends on your ducts, your dryer, and what you are washing. If you didn't get much lint when you cleaned it, then that's good and you don't need to worry about cleaning it frequently. It would still be a good idea to clean somewhat regularly in case something goes wrong (like an animal crawling in and dying).
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Jul 12, 2016 03:50
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Droo posted:Yeah, my understanding of the ideal attic situation is that it should be exactly the same temperature in your attic as it is outside at all times. That is both not really feasible (the roof surface absorbs quite significant amounts of energy in sunlight), and not the actual problem. A better "simple" rule (for cold climates) would that any moisture sensitive material that gets colder than the interior dew point in winter needs to be able to get some airflow to dry out.
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Jul 28, 2016 18:29
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Bozart posted:So we're about 20 years into a water heater that should last 10-15. Anyone have a recommendation for where to go and what kind to get? (Electric) If you're DIYing it, you can just get it from a big box store (and even if you aren't, big box store installation service may be acceptable). If efficiency is important and you use a lot of hot water, a "hybrid" heat pump water heater can have a good payback, particularly in hotter climates (downside is they are relatively noisy). Otherwise, if you want to invest in durability, you can get a Rheem Marathon water heater (which have plastic tanks that won't corrode). And if you don't want that either, then they're all pretty much the same and it doesn't much matter.
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Aug 1, 2016 22:54
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If you've got carpet and furry animals, I highly recommend this eureka. I got it because my Miele's brushroll was constantly clogging with dog hair (like, I'd have to clean it out once or twice per room), so I figured the self cleaning brushroll would make things easier. Turns out I don't even need the brushroll clean with it and it pulls absurd amounts of dog hair out of my carpets.
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Aug 4, 2016 17:02
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GameCube posted:I have four goddamn cats, so I might buy this. My old vacuum is a Eureka though and it's kind of lovely, but I didn't maintain it at all. Now that I'm a grown adult I'm going to have to learn how to maintain poo poo. My first vacuum (~10 years ago) was a Eureka and it was an absolute turd. So I was nervous about getting this one, but chanced it out of desperation. It's performance exceeded not just my expectations, but my hopes and pulls up far more than I thought possible.
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Aug 4, 2016 20:16
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LawfulWaffle posted:So I'm a recent homeowner and I've, uh, I've never mowed a lawn before. How much does having your neighbor's cuttings wind up on your side of the property upset you? I'd rather not bag the cuttings, but I also have a vague idea of "lawnwork" and I'm nervous about coming off as an inconsiderate neighbor so soon after moving in. I was kind of excited about finally having a lawn to take care of, but as the weekend approaches I'm filled with the same dread someone might have before going on stage to demonstrate something they've never done before. Get a mulching mower/blade, so that there aren't any piles of cuttings to worry about. Set your mowing height as high as it will go (~4"), most people cut their lawns way too short and it really hurts the grass.
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Aug 4, 2016 20:19
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HiHo ChiRho posted:Oh poo poo I bought a short sale that just blew all the leaves to the edges of the property. From the 9 years they had the house and then a year of vacancy. I have sections where I have to shovel up soggy cardboard thick leaves. The best thing to do with leaves is just mow over them. Mulches them into tiny little pieces that will decay much faster than whole leaves; it's good for your lawn and it's not much work. daggerdragon posted:What type of floor(s) do you use your Scooba on? I have laminate through the whole house and laminate generally doesn't like liquid, so I've held off on seriously considering one. My Roomba Jeeves, on the other hand, is the hardest-working person in this house. I've tried two Scooba models and not been particularly satisfied with either. Steam mops seem to be the best option right available right now; not much more work than vacuuming and they get the job done well. Just make sure you use distilled water.
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Aug 7, 2016 19:37
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GameCube posted:e: One thing I just remembered that article left out is that if your body completes the circuit back to the outlet, the GFCI won't (might not?) trip. If you complete a circuit with your body hot to neutral, then no, a GFCI won't trip (nor will an AFCI, or anything else, since it's effectively impossible to distinguish between your body and a device that is intended to have electricity flow through it); this is not related to whether or not you are using it to provide psuedo-grounded outlets. It just means that bathing with your toaster is a bad idea even if it is plugged into a GFCI protected outlet.
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Aug 12, 2016 18:33
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"Most likely" is exactly it. GFCI makes it significantly less likely that your toaster bath will be fatal, it's just far from a guarantee.
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Aug 12, 2016 19:56
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Oh, I got ya. Yeah, some scenarios where you'd just trip a breaker with a grounded outlet will instead present at least some possibility of a hot to neutral electrocution.
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Aug 12, 2016 23:57
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| # ¿ Apr 29, 2024 07:31 |
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I like my UPB dimmer switches. Even if you don't set them up with a home automation system, you can reprogram what they do with single and double taps. Kind of expensive, though.
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Aug 18, 2016 18:26
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