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NancyPants posted:Maybe something to insulate the tanks would be a better idea? What a lot of energy to use just heating toilet water so the tanks don't sweat. This. Line the tank with foam.
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Aug 27, 2013 21:37
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Install some flow-through fans and some copper piping, and run that super cold well water through it. Yay, now you have AC!
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Aug 28, 2013 06:28
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Just finished fixing a 5 year old roof that had a peak that was shingled like this. . .  Hmmm, I wonder why there was extensive rot and water damage?
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Aug 28, 2013 15:13
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I can't possibly guess, but can anyone figure out why there were water issues in the stairwell under this vent stack? It had been like that for years. I reported it to my landlady (this was in ~2009, when I still rented) and she told me she'd paid eleven thousand dollars for the roof on the house a few years back.
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Aug 28, 2013 15:22
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Blistex posted:Just finished fixing a 5 year old roof that had a peak that was shingled like this. . . I hope someone got (successfully) sued for that.
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Aug 28, 2013 18:38
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Detroit Q. Spider posted:I hope someone got (successfully) sued for that. Probably not. Anyone who builds (or allows people under them to build) that poorly is typically long out of business before the damage is done. This is calculated......it's just too easy to form a new corp every few years and the liability doesn't follow the GCs licensure. That's something that needs to be fixed.
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Aug 28, 2013 22:16
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Trying to get some repeat business with a guaranteed future roof leak. There are good roofers and bad roofers. I had to get involved with the roof replacement on my parent's house that they are trying to sell. They replaced the roof and it leaks when it rains because the idiots didn't do the flashing around the chimney correctly. Finally got them out there to take a look and they tried to say it looks good, must be the plumbing leaking. I got on the roof with the guy and had to point out the gap and he played the "I didn't see that" card. This guy actually went to his truck and grabbed caulk because he was going to use that to fill the gap instead of removing the flashing and doing it correctly. Finally, after threatening a lawsuit, he sent a crew out to fix the chimney flashing. I supervised those idiots to make sure they did it right. People kill me sometimes. It wouldn't have taken them an extra 5 minutes and less that $20 worth of materials to do the job right the first time. Have some drat pride in your work.
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Aug 28, 2013 22:24
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I used to know a guy who wired up home theaters and structured audio. While it's not as critical as a roof, he just did legendarily lovely work...I mean tangled up, disorganized, and just generally useless. Of course why people chose him when he didn't have a storefront or inventory to show (wait, I know why: he worked cheap). Naturally once he had the cash he would vanish. No support at all. In fact our company had to go behind and re-work a lot of poo poo (no complaints about the money from us of course). The kicker is that he was doing all of this shady, sloppy work for like two decades last I knew. It wasn't as though he was operating in a huge community so I have no idea how he hadn't been put out of business years ago. Kind of a shame, he was just too short sighted to build a real business since his MO was to do the quick and dirty.
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Aug 28, 2013 22:33
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ShadowStalker posted:Trying to get some repeat business with a guaranteed future roof leak. My dad owns a roofing company. It's been in business for 28 years now. There is no touching the hate he has for lovely, fly-by-night roofers that pop up and disappear all the time--it's him that has to deal with everyone starting out suspicious and paranoid after getting burned. I imagine decent auto mechanics have the same peeve.
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Aug 29, 2013 06:08
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There is a house that was on my old daily commute. At one point, I noticed it got a brand new roof. I didn't think much of it, because why would I, but I tend to notice these things. I also noticed that it started to look a little rough after a few months. It was sort of fading out, or wearing down. I watched in fascinated horror over the next year or so as the brand new roof literally disintegrated, re-exposing the previous roof below it. By the time I moved, at most 2 years after the new roof was installed, there was only trace evidence that a new roof was ever put on. I really have no idea what in the gently caress could have happened with that, and I was really dying to ask the owners, but I thought that might be incredibly rude and I didn't want to salt their wounds. My best guess is that it was just extremely, ridiculously cheap, possibly altogether fake material.
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Aug 29, 2013 16:24
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Detroit Q. Spider posted:I hope someone got (successfully) sued for that. They paid a guy to do their roof because he said he could do it cheap. . . nuff said.
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Aug 29, 2013 16:27
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A while back the neighbor had the (three-story)house reroofed with a third layer of shingles. Which is by code in itself and he thought he'd save money apparently, but the contractors were dumb and used nails that were too short. So when we got some good strong winds the shingles started pulling up and blowing off the house. He ended up having to have everything pulled up and replaced.
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Aug 29, 2013 17:37
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Blistex posted:They paid a guy to do their roof because he said he could do it cheap. . . nuff said. Not to victim-blame, because the allure of saving money is strong...but if their main selling point is "cheap"...
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Aug 29, 2013 19:25
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That reminds me that my parents just signed a contract to get new windows installed. Some guy just came up to their door and offered to install some windows. Initially they passed but they left their contact info with the guy. He called back a couple days later and knocked 50% off if they agreed to put signs up on their house and do a YouTube testimonial for the company. They mentioned they also do a variety of work such as tiling, painting, solar install and sprinkler repair. I'm dying to see how this turns out.
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Aug 30, 2013 08:06
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FCKGW posted:That reminds me that my parents just signed a contract to get new windows installed. Some guy just came up to their door and offered to install some windows. Initially they passed but they left their contact info with the guy. He called back a couple days later and knocked 50% off if they agreed to put signs up on their house and do a YouTube testimonial for the company. They mentioned they also do a variety of work such as tiling, painting, solar install and sprinkler repair. Oh boy, my dad got conned into buying $3000 worth of lovely fill dirt for the driveway by some guy walking around door to door just like that. And like $400 worth of really bad low-quality meat. Who the hell buys meat from some guy who just drives a meat truck to your house and asks if you want any? What the hell dad 
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Aug 30, 2013 17:03
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My parents have exceptional luck with door to door salesmen. They have a full set of furniture they got on the spot from some guys driving around the neighborhood selling it out of a truck, and it seems to be good stuff. And they had their driveway redone by another set of door to door guys, and it seems to be a good job - and those same guys stiffed one of our neighbors and took off without finishing.
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Aug 30, 2013 17:49
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Rotten Red Rod posted:They have a full set of furniture they got on the spot from some guys driving around the neighborhood selling it out of a truck, and it seems to be good stuff.
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Aug 30, 2013 18:53
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grover posted:Of course it's good- they stole it from a very nice house.
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Aug 30, 2013 19:01
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Fabulous wiring job by a contractor we fired Who needs electrical codes and staples and boxes when you can just leave your splices hanging?
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Sep 11, 2013 20:24
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I think you forgot the dickish air quotes around "contractor" 
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Sep 11, 2013 20:29
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I do inspections of houses for insurance companies, and one I did the other day is... well. The insurer that covers this structure allows a maximum of two major and three minor hazards, and there are two hazards that are ABSOLUTE SHOWSTOPPERS which means nope gently caress you, policy cancelled, get out. This house had five major, seven minor, and BOTH showstoppers. The best one was the second floor door that opened into space. That wouldn't have been so bad, except right under it was a bunch of broken concrete pilings with rusty rebar sticking up out of it. That's right next to the sinkhole. Did I mention the sinkhole? There was a sinkhole. Judging by its.. contents, it has seen heavy use as a toilet by stray animals and the occasional person. I'm pretty sure they're not going to be happy with merely cancelling the policy, but may call in an airstrike.
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Sep 23, 2013 07:08
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Is the door-into-nowhere thing one of the showstoppers? And if it is, what the hell is the other one?
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Sep 23, 2013 10:38
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Heresiarch posted:Is the door-into-nowhere thing one of the showstoppers? And if it is, what the hell is the other one? It's a showstopper because of the rebar and feces down below. If it was just your every day drop onto the floor below, it would be a simple minor hazard. Just put a warning sticker on the door.
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Sep 23, 2013 12:46
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DNova posted:It's a showstopper because of the rebar and feces down below. If it was just your every day drop onto the floor below, it would be a simple minor hazard. Just put a warning sticker on the door. Showstopper #1: Hellraiser-esque deadly man trap Showstopper #2: Shower lacks anti-skid floor coating I'd be curious in hearing more (anonymized as necessary) details about the failings.
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Sep 23, 2013 15:07
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 Found in my house when I tore up a floor I was planning on demolishing. What happened: It's an old house, obviously. A balloon framed old house, old enough that people were still thinking "16 inch centers?! whaaaat? WHO CARES" and putting studs on whatever the gently caress centers they wanted to. So they framed the living room. One wall the studs start at one end, the opposite wall they start at the other end, and there is a window in the middle that throws things off. Then they went to frame the floor joists and realized they had a Problem. Namely, with balloon construction, the studs at each end weren't opposite each other... So they slapped a 1x6 board on the top of the living room wall studs, inset into notches so the plaster would still cover it. Then notched the joists (either because they were drunk and got the level different at each end, or because they thought it would keep the joists from sliding in and out of the wall and improve its structural rigidity somehow... not sure which) and slapped a few nails in, then put the floor down over it. God loving drat I want to kill the mongoloids who built and maintained this place.
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Sep 23, 2013 16:48
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Door to nowhere was one, the other was 'vacant for more than one year'.
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Sep 23, 2013 17:53
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PopeCrunch posted:Door to nowhere was one, the other was 'vacant for more than one year'. That's kind of boring. I was hoping for something like "light fixtures full of water" or maybe something involving dangerous wildlife.
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Sep 24, 2013 18:23
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"Light fixture full of dangerous wildlife."
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Sep 24, 2013 18:31
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Bad Munki posted:"Light fixture full of dangerous wildlife." "Sir, I am afraid we cannot continue your policy. Your chandelier is full of moose."
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Sep 24, 2013 18:38
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This was just an exterior inspection, the interiors have a few more showstoppers. I shudder to think of what monstrosities squat inside that accursed building. And yesterday I inspected a house that is being devoured by its own basement. There's a slab over the basement (bad idea) on the front half of the house, and it's cracked and broken through in spots. The flower bed is now ON TOP OF the water heater (!!!) and the entryway creaked ominously when I knocked on the door. You and I and anyone who could even generously be described as sane would treat that as a 'leave now and never return' thing, but nope it was inhabited.What IS it with this city.
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Sep 24, 2013 18:55
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My friend just moved into a fancy beach-front apartment in a converted house. The very first thing I noticed was a huge soft spot in the floor which she says is just the laminate, but it's wayyy too move movement for just badly laid flooring. The wood all around the door is rotting too. But the main thing is that the entire living room is on a slant. Not a slight "oh hey is this floor totally level? Let's place a ball to find out!" but a full on visible to the naked eye lean. It looks like when the place was converted into apartments they made about a 10' addition. The house is built on a cliff/hill on the ocean so this entire portion of the house is over-hanging and has some boat and bbq storage under it. Not only that but the whole place is wierd. There's 5 huge floor to ceiling windows but they aren't quite spaced perfectly, then a 5th window that is of a totally different style and higher up than the others. That's just ascetics though. I went outside to check out the big 6x6 posts holding up the addition. The posts are just sitting on little pre-cast concrete footings just sitting loose on an old concrete patio. Those then go up and have some big beams holding up the addition, which go back and don't really connect with the house, they just sort of sit on top of the old foundation. Where the posts meet the beam there's a good 1" of space because the beams are coming down on such an angle. A similar amount of space exists where there beams "connect" with the house. When inside the house the full-height windows combined with the very noticeable slant towards the ocean makes one feel that they're going to just slide down the floor and fall out into the ocean. I'm almost entirely sure the addition will fall off and roll down the cliff into the sea at the next medium sized earthquake. I should take some pictures next time I'm there because it's pretty amazing.
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Sep 24, 2013 19:11
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Baronjutter posted:That's just ascetics though. Huh...and here I thought they just stuck to fasting and self-flagellation.
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Sep 24, 2013 19:20
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Detroit Q. Spider posted:Huh...and here I thought they just stuck to fasting and self-flagellation. They build terrible additions too! (drat you auto-correct)
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Sep 24, 2013 19:26
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A couple of years ago, my parents decided the balcony on their back porch needed replacing. It was only about 15 years old at that point, but was really starting to sag in the middle. For some reason, the contractor had also used untreated boards to floor the deck, and the boards were beginning to warp and form gaps in the floor. That's some evidence the contractor was kind of crappy, and we've found some fun stuff after the construction like how-to wiring books in one of the bathrooms. Cutting corners seemed to be the rule of the day while the house was being built. Anyway, after we'd pulled the boards off the porch, we found stuff like this:        
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Sep 25, 2013 01:32
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Venusian Weasel posted:A couple of years ago, my parents decided the balcony on their back porch needed replacing. It was only about 15 years old at that point, but was really starting to sag in the middle. For some reason, the contractor had also used untreated boards to floor the deck, and the boards were beginning to warp and form gaps in the floor. That's some evidence the contractor was kind of crappy, and we've found some fun stuff after the construction like how-to wiring books in one of the bathrooms. Cutting corners seemed to be the rule of the day while the house was being built. Dear lord. I'm pretty amateur at woodworking, but I'm pretty sure I could build a better deck than that without a problem. Did that guy do any planning at all or just kind of eyeball it and start chopping poo poo out of the worst wood he could find while hoping for the best?
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Sep 25, 2013 01:47
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Holy poo poo, and I thought I had it bad! I'm surprised that deck lasted at all.
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Sep 25, 2013 01:50
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Boat posted:Dear lord. I'm pretty amateur at woodworking, but I'm pretty sure I could build a better deck than that without a problem. Did that guy do any planning at all or just kind of eyeball it and start chopping poo poo out of the worst wood he could find while hoping for the best? Not really sure. I was only 5 at the time it was built. I would assume so, gotta save that budget for pocket money! EDIT: I asked my parents about the porch and they said that it was the very last thing to get built. So yeah, probably using leftover and miscut boards from other parts of the house. Venusian Weasel fucked around with this message at 09:00 on Sep 25, 2013 |
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Sep 25, 2013 01:53
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Give your parents a hug for surviving as long as they have.
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Sep 25, 2013 01:54
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Baronjutter posted:But the main thing is that the entire living room is on a slant. Not a slight "oh hey is this floor totally level? Let's place a ball to find out!" but a full on visible to the naked eye lean. It looks like when the place was converted into apartments they made about a 10' addition. The house is built on a cliff/hill on the ocean so this entire portion of the house is over-hanging and has some boat and bbq storage under it. Not only that but the whole place is wierd. There's 5 huge floor to ceiling windows but they aren't quite spaced perfectly, then a 5th window that is of a totally different style and higher up than the others. That's just ascetics though. This room sounds like it was previously a porch that was then enclosed, the slant is so that rainwater runs off. Maybe.
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Sep 25, 2013 03:23
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McSnatch posted:This room sounds like it was previously a porch that was then enclosed, the slant is so that rainwater runs off. Maybe. Nah you could actually see where nails had been pulled away from the wall and everything was angled. Like it was built straight but then settled, probably because the footings were poo poo.
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Sep 25, 2013 04:19
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