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This is probably pushing the edge of DIY, but all the same. We had a big storm through this morning, it wasn't long but it was windy and dumped buckets on us for an hour. We actually had a tornado warning so I took the kids to the basement to chill. When we came back up I found that part of the porch roof had failed and fallen in. It looks like we probably had some earlier water infiltration (probably from the generally stormy summer if nothing else) that had softened the pressboard panels that comprise the bottom of the porch roof, this rain was enough to collapse some, they hit the vinyl ceiling and that fell down. So right now I have 1/ a porch roof that is definitely leaking, and 2/ a big wet hole in the bottom. I've already taken a load of pictures and contacted our insurance, but I'm trying to figure out what the best thing to do as immediate remediation is. I'm thinking trying to get a tarp over the roof to prevent more water going through? Should I pull off the remaining vinyl to expose whatever else is wrong and try and let things dry out? I am definitely going to be calling around for a professional to repair/replace this, but who knows when they'll actually get out here and do it and 'just leave it' seems like not the right choice.
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Aug 18, 2023 18:08
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| # ¿ May 20, 2024 23:38 |
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Thanks for the advice, I'll see if I can find someone who can come out to deal with that much today - fortunately the rain has stopped and it looks like we'll have a few days dry.
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Aug 18, 2023 19:12
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The two cheapest/easiest fixes would be: 1/ see if you can replace them with slightly larger screws that can grip in the expanded hole and 2/ stuff the hole with wood glue and toothpicks to bulk out the gap, screw it down, wait for everything to try. Neither of these will fix this long term, if regular wear caused it you can expect it to be back again after a while but they're straightforward. Maybe someone will have a more durable fix!
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Oct 3, 2023 23:56
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Yea you don’t open those because they are supposed to be filled with gas and if the seal goes you replace them. Having said that, if you look around you might find a old dude running a glazier shop that looks like it’s been there since the 1920s who will figure it out for you if possible. We had one pane of a window broken and couldn’t find a replacement sash so had it repaired this way. It’s not ideal but it’s ok.
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Oct 11, 2023 14:51
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Basically you dig a hole in your basement, with gutters to carry water into it from the other areas. Then you put a pump in there and pump the water out to somewhere it will go away. If it works this means you just have some water in the hole that is being regularly/continually removed instead of standing water all over the place. Was the basement finished? Wallpaper sounds like it was. You’ll want to make sure you know want damage the standing water may have done and remove anything that will get moldy.
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Dec 14, 2023 02:01
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It's also a matter of local resources and skills. The US historically (and still) has easy and plentiful access to lumber, so it makes sense to build lots of houses that way. You can build a very storm-resistant house from wood if you want to pay for the quality, although I think it will always fall short of good concrete. I grew up in Kenya where there is very little in the way of dangerous weather and natural disaster to threaten your home, but wood construction is not the norm because domestic lumber is scarce and you end up having to import a lot of wood, making it expensive. Instead a lot of home construction is done using quarried stone, which is one of the durable traditional methods, or concrete blocks and poured concrete, which is the modern version. A stone or concrete home also has good enough inherent insulation to be quite comfortable in most of Kenya without heating or AC, especially if designed and laid out with that in mind. When I moved to the US I was also very confused by the fact that you could basically just poke holes into the wall and didn't need to break out a masonry bit to mount things. Also concerned because you could accidentally break your interior walls just by throwing a door open too hard! It did make all those scenes in movies where people punch into a wall or throw someone and it cracks make a lot more sense though. I was overall more worried by how often Americas had big glass sliding doors or windows, because every house I had seen growing up had steel barring.
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Jan 29, 2024 15:12
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Cosmik Debris posted:Why do people think masonry/concrete homes are well insulated? Unless you put a poo poo ton of insulation over it, those materials loving suck for having too much heat transfer. Wood is much better for that purpose. Sorry if I wasn't clear. I didn't mean that stone/concrete is a good insulator compared to other stuff, I meant that it is good enough for the climate, so there isn't any motivation to use better insulating materials instead. People just throw up the construction and it's fine without additional layers of sheathing or whatever you do for stone, so there's no pressure to switch materials to get better habitability. Even though it is at the equator, a lot of Kenya is quite mild because of the elevation. Nairobi typically sees around 45F at the coldest (overnight in the 'winter') and 85F in the summer. Obviously you get more variation country-wide, but in general you only see decorative fireplaces and AC is usually limited to hotels or places that cater to visitors. The only real challenge can be heat in the summer, but you can solve that with just laying out buildings to circulate air, even at the coast where the humidity gets much higher. I don't know why the Swiss are using it, though.
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Jan 29, 2024 17:00
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We got an IKEA bookshelf for my 12 year old this weekend, and after we moved the packs into their room they started putting it together on their own. When I checked in on them I noticed they had gotten past a step (setting some pegs) that required a hammer, one of the tools that the kit did not provide and they didn't have on hand. I asked them what they had done and they had just reversed the screwdriver and bashed them in with the handle. I immediately thought of this thread title. Anyway they're in charge of renovations now, they're going to leave some great work for the future owners I can tell.
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Feb 5, 2024 04:44
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Probably late in the process, but I think this is why a lot of small structures like coops and sheds have roofs with a single slope, rather than peaked (gabled?) because it's a lot easier to just build the front wall somewhat higher and lay flat boards across.
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Apr 8, 2024 15:00
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I hate to break this to you but a cat will climb any fence you can reasonably construct. Plugging holes might make it marginally harder.
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Apr 18, 2024 16:25
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A MIRACLE posted:I thought they were brought to california as pets and escaped They are not native to the west coast and are considered an invasive species in Oregon and maybe California. They originally ranged through central America and the Southeast US but were introduced to the west coast by people.
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Apr 19, 2024 16:21
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I don't like that solution much just because it gives you a single-use piece of furniture/rack. Even if it works well for those bins, what if you have stuff you want to store that doesn't fit in one of the bins? What if you crack a few bins and then find out that the style has changed or gone out of production and new bins don't quite fit? It's only slightly more to just make some shelves that hold the bins in virtually the same way, but will also hold anything else and be versatile into the future as well. We have a dozen or so of the same bins and just use standard metal shelving to hold them.
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Apr 20, 2024 00:55
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| # ¿ May 20, 2024 23:38 |
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I am sure someone smarter will be along shortly, but attics are normally intended to allow the passage of air. If you put down a bunch of insulation, you may have inadvertently covered over the roof vents that are sometimes along the eaves. These are basically just little intended gaps that let air into the attic, but if you didn't have much insulation they may not have extended far. You can get baffles that attach to let the airflow get past your insulation layer. 
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Apr 30, 2024 15:59
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