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NomNomNom posted:Before you go smashing! That looks like a sliding window. See if you can just lift the two panes (window units) out of the track. I bet you can get them out of the frame, and then access the screws that hold the frame to the wall. New construction windows aren't installed like that in my experience, but yeah....that would be great. More likely they need to cut through the nailing flange all the way around the edges of the window outisde. This is why I said new construction would be "easier". With old construction you're likely not removing screws, but having to cut through nails. At least around here and in my experience.
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Dec 2, 2021 02:52
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Vim Fuego posted:Point a leaf blower at it to supercharge that bitch Make sure it's an electric leaf blower or the exhaust in the stream doesn't help as much as you'd think.
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Dec 2, 2021 03:03
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Maybe I’m an idiot but what’s wrong with that window? Are you going to replace it with another of the same size? I’m still learning about what makes a good vs. garbage window.
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Dec 2, 2021 06:56
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Take down the wall further and put in a floor to ceiling window to assert dominance over your neighbors while showering.
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Dec 2, 2021 15:33
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My house is a 20 year old tract builder house that was owned by someone who bought it new and didn't maintain a single thing in that time, so we get to fix everything. The windows at that time were dual pane aluminum, they are extremely crappy, the seal between the panes failed long long ago, the sliding action isn't smooth, etc. Yeah I'm not reframing anything just putting in a reasonable modern replacement with good sealing that is going to have better thermal properties, be quieter, feel and look nicer. And yes I believe all the old windows are/were nail flange. This is one of 2 original windows left in the house but the other one is more straightforward.
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Dec 2, 2021 17:19
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I live in a generally Groverhaus kinda locale that isn't watching homeowners like a hawk. I want to start renovating, but the basement was roughed in with framing/drywall/electrical when I bought it. There's various things that I've caught that are subtly not to code, as well as obviously not to code, which likely means there's others that I'm not even seeing (not being a serious DIY type yet). Basically it was the Absentee Landlord Homeowner Special for a number of years and I'm looking to try and start fixing it up properly. The thing is, I don't know how anal-retentive they're going to be about it if I have them walk down into the basement to inspect X and they see a bunch of poo poo roughed in that may never have been permitted in the first place. And long term I'd eventually maybe like to get the basement furnished properly so I can enjoy it in various respects. How the gently caress do I start digging myself out of this hole? Permit search first, and when it comes back empty then what? Apply for permits for the framing the previous guy did, tear out the obvious permit violations in the electrical department, then have the framing inspected and go around? Does drywall "go bad" absent moisture? I'm not saying there's not moisture, I doubt the tenants had a dehumidifier in the basement, but is it problematic in itself to have unpainted drywall sitting around for a while? Should I consider tearing the drywall off and redoing that/some of the framing? I'm not even sure it was done right in the first place, like my dad has commented that "they left obvious giant seams in the drywall" such that I'm not sure if it was even done right in the first place to begin with let alone moisture. Once we get the obvious code violations and the drywall out of the way, I can start moving forward with the actual improvements. I need a new water softener and the old one is too close to the electrical panel anyway (the water filter sprays right onto an electrical receptacle wire tied to a concrete mount, excellent work there, fortunately it's for the sprinklers that don't work and so the receptacle isn't energized). The obvious place to move it is across the utility bay from where it currently is - obviously that will require re-piping and on the end of the bay I want to run a triple-filter system with heavy-duty filters to take care of the water here, because it's not great, they didn't drill super deep wells and it's kinda silty not-great water plus extremely hard. Possibly an iron remover stage after the water softener. I'd also like to get a natural gas standby generator installed with a proper transfer panel/etc. This requires a land-use permit in my area, which requires a survey with property and foliage and underground penetrations marked, so I'm looking at maybe trying to get it drone surveyed, which I should do anyway. I'd like to put at least one (possibly two, while it's all torn apart) 230V circuit in the garage for I'm also thinking semi-seriously about laying copper pipe for compressed air while it's all torn apart. So, I have a sprinkler system, once I bring that back up (yep surprise I have no idea what shape it's in so I assume broken) it costs like $80 a year to get it blown out, it doesn't take that many years to amortize an air receiver tank or just a straight up Big Compressor. I'd like to just have hardwired compressed air in the garage, and if I've got it all torn apart anyway, I might as well lay the vertical segment of the pipe and bring it up and over the garage, and I have a hose reel I could put on the garage ceiling for tires/tools/etc. I'd also kinda like to lay another pipe over to my workshop area I'm building at the other end of the house and again pull it down and give myself some taps for compressed-air tools/etc. Once that's all done, I can lay in insulation and drywall and get the garage itself buttoned up, and then epoxy all the floors (or does epoxy come first?) so it's not a loving dust pit 24/7 and doesn't get cold enough to shatter beer bottles during the depths of the Polar Vortexes we will undoubtedly endure in the next couple decades. Other than that, sustainable region, high point of the terrain so no flooding, no problems there. And it'll be something interesting to work on with my dad when he retires, he's an electrician so he's done all this before and he's handy in all the ways I'm not so that'll be good to pick up, I'm not doing this all alone. Yes, I know the siding sucks too, that's on the list as well. anyway so if you managed to read through all that poo poo and still manage to have useful suggestions, spot the code violations and here's the free space. Here's the groverhaus before pictures. Paul MaudDib fucked around with this message at 09:58 on Dec 3, 2021 |
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Dec 3, 2021 09:48
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I like the theory that if you wind Romex upon itself enough, it'll be self-supporting. meatpimp fucked around with this message at 14:45 on Dec 3, 2021 |
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Dec 3, 2021 14:33
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EVERYWHERE 
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What’s the thread consensus on under-sink water filters? Worth it? Any recommendations?
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Dec 3, 2021 15:10
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Phil Moscowitz posted:What’s the thread consensus on under-sink water filters? Worth it? Any recommendations? I have this question too, and for now I need one that doesn't require its own faucet. I was using the Wirecutter as a starting point and am looking at this one: https://www.aquasana.com/under-sink-water-filters/claryum-direct-connect-100329886.html The water here is very good but I am still sensitive to chlorine and some other off notes in the tap water. I'm just tired of refilling the Pur container in the fridge, and my fridge doesn't have a water dispenser.
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Dec 3, 2021 15:45
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I've used the iSpring RO system for a few years now. Simple enough to install and it fit under my sink at least.
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Dec 3, 2021 15:48
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Phil Moscowitz posted:What’s the thread consensus on under-sink water filters? Worth it? Any recommendations? I'm a big fan. Easy to install and even the simple 2-stage mechanical ones do a very good job for lead, particulates, cysts, etc. I used to live with a lead service line and I tested my water before and after a 2-stage mechanical under-sink filter, lead went from 5 micrograms/L to non-detectable. It also gives me piece of mind given the frequency of after the fact "oops we had low pressure, retroactive boil water advisory dating to yesterday" events. (To be clear they are not rated for this purpose, but they do a decent job anyway at it; if I find out after the fact about a boil water advisory, it's nice to know that my family was drinking filtered water all along anyway). If you can get a consumer reports login (local library?) their water filter guide is very useful. I have the AquaPure DWS-1000, it was pretty cheap and does well at all the important stuff.
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Dec 3, 2021 18:22
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I need some advice on contractor negotiation. I've decided to use a contractor that has done siding and windows for a bunch of houses in my neighborhood to do my house. Their schedule is booked until May 2022 and the quote is ~$31,000. They're asking for 50% down, which seems absolutely outrageous for a 6 month lead time. I've always heard people say to never put that kind of money down, but I do not know how to negotiate it. My consideration was maybe offering 5-10% down as "good faith" and maybe paying materials fees when they are delivered to my house. Any advice would be appreciated.
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Dec 3, 2021 20:53
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MetaJew posted:I need some advice on contractor negotiation. I've decided to use a contractor that has done siding and windows for a bunch of houses in my neighborhood to do my house. Ask your neighbors how much they put down as a deposit. Siding and window replacement (especially if everything is pre-finished) has a lot of money wrapped up in materials, and it all needs to be pre-ordered. I work for a general contractor and I would never put myself at risk on ordering custom materials like windows without being 100% covered on the cost if the customer changes their mind. So, to me, 50% seems reasonable and probably what I would ask for on a $31,000 job like yours. If a customer understood that I was putting a lot of money at risk ordering custom materials and they told me they would only give me 5-10% up front as "good faith" I would wonder whether we have the same definition of "good faith". That said, your locality might have a law governing maximum home contractor down payments. Maine, for example, is 1/3rd of project cost for "home construction contracts". EDIT: Of my subcontractors that require downpayments, they all require 50% except for one that typically asks for 1/3rd. Of course, every market is different. Tezer fucked around with this message at 21:22 on Dec 3, 2021 |
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Dec 3, 2021 21:20
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That's a fair take, but I've been burned once before where I paid for work and then the contractor disappeared on me. This is a bigger operation but i still don't want to gamble that kind of money. If they were going to begin work in 1-2 months, my feelings might be a little different. Given the number of jobs they're doing they should have the cash flow to order those materials and I would be fine to pay them upon delivery, but it feels risky otherwise.
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Dec 3, 2021 21:27
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MetaJew posted:I've decided to use a contractor that has done siding and windows for a bunch of houses in my neighborhood to do my house. Go talk to your neighbors. If they had a positive experience, chances are you will. Feel free to ask your contractor if you can put down 5% instead of 50%, but be prepared to take 'no' as an answer. My window supplier has a 24 week lead time and requires 50% down to enter their production queue, I wouldn't float that for a client.
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Dec 3, 2021 21:40
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Maybe ask them how far in advance they are actually paying for the materials and give them say 10% now and then in 3 months (for example) pay them the other 40% as that's when they are placing the order. edit: 24 week lead time, so yeah if that's the case for OP, seems like you'd have to pay up
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Dec 3, 2021 22:17
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Ask if you can do 100% materials cost maybe as a compromise? Be warned that you might be in for a surprise, materials are shockingly expensive. Is your quote broken out into materials vs labor? I would not offer them below 25%. I feel like 5% would be rude. Either way, Nthing what Tezer said, if you got this name as word of mouth from your neighbors plural then they want to keep that train going. Expect to have a similar experience to your neighbors - pro's and con's - to keep the referral train going for June 2022's books.
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Dec 3, 2021 22:22
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I paid 50% of the minisplit install and it was nerve-wracking until they finally scheduled the work. Now I'm a day short of the 2-week window in which they said the electrician would do the service upgrade, and I'm pretty chill about it because they've already finished most of the job. So I totally get why you wouldn't want to front 50% on a promise. But after 8 months of trying to find anyone at all to even to agree to do the work, I felt like I didn't have any other options. You might be in a similar situation.
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Dec 3, 2021 22:27
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May 22 is a hell of a lead time. I'd have trouble dropping that much money so far ahead. That said in my area you definitely have to pay 50% up front to get any contractors to do anything over a couple thousand.
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Dec 3, 2021 22:51
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FuzzySlippers posted:May 22 is a hell of a lead time. I'd have trouble dropping that much money so far ahead. That said in my area you definitely have to pay 50% up front to get any contractors to do anything over a couple thousand.
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Dec 4, 2021 00:36
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I'm looking to do a bit of a remodel that will involve a new kitchen. I'm looking at cabinet options. IKEA offerings look flimsier than what I have now so that's out. Other than Lowes/Depot and random local kitchen remodel places, are there other options I should be looking at?
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Dec 4, 2021 06:32
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Unless you're willing to spring for solid wood faced cabinets, I urge you to reconsider Ikea. They are by far the least expensive and most flexible cabinet system out there. If you think their fronts look cheap there are outside options like Semi Hand Made that offer nicer fronts. A cabinet is a cabinet, up to you if you're willing to pay $300+ for a glorified box. Melamine and particle board is plenty strong enough.
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Dec 4, 2021 13:04
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NomNomNom posted:Unless you're willing to spring for solid wood faced cabinets, I urge you to reconsider Ikea. They are by far the least expensive and most flexible cabinet system out there. If you think their fronts look cheap there are outside options like Semi Hand Made that offer nicer fronts. What is a house, but a glorified box 
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Dec 4, 2021 13:17
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Seconding IKEA with nice fronts. We’re adding a small kitchenette (3 boxes) as part of refinishing our basement. I got semi handmade samples and was impressed with the options. The only issue with IKEA is stock. Had to reconfigure our plans a few times because certain sizes would say in stock online but at checkout would suddenly be unavailable to ship. Our plans are very small and we still ended up having to place 3 separate orders to get it all. If you want to really nerd out on cabinetry, flush inset cabinetry from Jean Stoffer and deVOL kitchens are incredible. But $$$$$.
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Dec 4, 2021 13:52
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Wanderless posted:I'm looking to do a bit of a remodel that will involve a new kitchen. I'm looking at cabinet options. IKEA offerings look flimsier than what I have now so that's out. Other than Lowes/Depot and random local kitchen remodel places, are there other options I should be looking at? Kitchen cabinets are a racket. The listed prices are super inflated, but they'll give you a huge discount. We remodeled our kitchen last year, after a lot of shopping. There are basically 3 levels -- bare bones in-stock from big box stores, semi-custom from big box stores or independent dealers, or full custom. In our case, we never considered bare bones and went with a mid-level semi-custom from KraftMaid. The discount from their published price ended up being about 48%, but still came to over $25k just in cabinets, not installation. As poster above said -- particle board is fine. Plywood is an upgrade. I went mostly plywood, a couple middle boxes particle board, because you literally cannot tell. The devil is in the details... you get the box layout and prices, but then there's starter molding, and crown molding, and light rail, and applied panels, and you have to figure out under cabinet lighting, and hardware, etc. It was fun, but a lot of stress.
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Dec 4, 2021 15:15
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Wanderless posted:I'm looking to do a bit of a remodel that will involve a new kitchen. I'm looking at cabinet options. IKEA offerings look flimsier than what I have now so that's out. Other than Lowes/Depot and random local kitchen remodel places, are there other options I should be looking at? I would urge you to look at flat pack ready to assemble options. Searching rta cabinets should get you a lot of options. I can't recommend a specific source as it's been 10 years since I did it, but I have built a kitchen for myself with these type of cabinets and was very happy with it. Pay attention to the specifics of what you choose but you should be able to get the cabinets made from high quality ply with real wood doors and fronts. They come with hinges and such, you would buy handles and pulls separately. The catch of course is that you assemble them yourself, but in my experience it is straight forward and simple if you are reasonably handy.
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Dec 4, 2021 15:58
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I just renovated and the cabinet place told us 4-6 weeks lead which actually ended up being 10 weeks. So keep that in mind.
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Dec 4, 2021 16:16
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We just had our laundry room done. We used ikea cabinets for most of the cabinets, but used plywood to build an enclosure for the washer and dryer, to put a countertop over them. Ikea doesn't have cabinet sides big enough for that. Paint match to the ikea finish is dead on. You can't tell them apart.
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Dec 4, 2021 16:24
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We just bought our house and the previous owners had put in an IKEA kitchen and we're honestly very pleased with it so far. It looks great (it's approximately 5 years old too) and we've already been able to make a few minor changes because of how modular it is. If/when we remodel in the future we're definitely going to look at IKEA first.
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Dec 4, 2021 17:23
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meatpimp posted:As poster above said -- particle board is fine. Plywood is an upgrade. I went mostly plywood, a couple middle boxes particle board, because you literally cannot tell. Particle board is fine everywhere other than the bottom of a sink cabinet. You should insist on plywood or solid wood there and if you can not get it replace it yourself before install. I've seen too many sink cabinets with particle board bottoms warped/destroyed from a simple, easily repairable plumbing problem to not bring this up whenever cabinets are discussed.
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Dec 4, 2021 19:07
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Involuntary Sparkle posted:We just bought our house and the previous owners had put in an IKEA kitchen and we're honestly very pleased with it so far. It looks great (it's approximately 5 years old too) and we've already been able to make a few minor changes because of how modular it is. If/when we remodel in the future we're definitely going to look at IKEA first. Our old place had an Ikea kitchen and it was great. Especially nice because Ikea sells drawer/cabinet organization designed to exactly fit their kitchen stuff
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Dec 4, 2021 19:23
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Motronic posted:Particle board is fine everywhere other than the bottom of a sink cabinet. You should insist on plywood or solid wood there and if you can not get it replace it yourself before install. I mean not to mention just splashing and spills. Our under sink cabinet is significantly more water damaged than anything else in the kitchen. Whatever cheap but wood venear that's in it is warping and cracking.
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Dec 4, 2021 20:09
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Wanderless posted:I'm looking to do a bit of a remodel that will involve a new kitchen. I'm looking at cabinet options. IKEA offerings look flimsier than what I have now so that's out. Other than Lowes/Depot and random local kitchen remodel places, are there other options I should be looking at? We went with cabinets.com and are quite happy with the quality.
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Dec 4, 2021 20:21
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H110Hawk posted:I mean not to mention just splashing and spills. Our under sink cabinet is significantly more water damaged than anything else in the kitchen. Whatever cheap but wood venear that's in it is warping and cracking. I thought this too and then I had a leak under the sink (the ptrap fitting came unscrewed). Admittedly we caught it pretty fast, but there was no permanent damage to the particle board. The melamine coating seems pretty impervious.
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Dec 4, 2021 20:41
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I just found out that these exist, and I am happy as a clam. We have an old (at least 1960s) set of cabinets with a solid poured-stone top that would be Hell to modify. This would let us get use out of the space currently wasted in the blind cabinet without replacing the cabinets. I am also looking very, very covetously at this because our sole pantry is a set of wooden shelves in what used to be the back porch, and we need to get out of the things-lost-in-the-back trap.
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Dec 4, 2021 20:41
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NomNomNom posted:I thought this too and then I had a leak under the sink (the ptrap fitting came unscrewed). Admittedly we caught it pretty fast, but there was no permanent damage to the particle board. The melamine coating seems pretty impervious.
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Dec 4, 2021 20:44
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NomNomNom posted:I thought this too and then I had a leak under the sink (the ptrap fitting came unscrewed). Admittedly we caught it pretty fast, but there was no permanent damage to the particle board. The melamine coating seems pretty impervious. Yes, if you catch and clean it up right away it's fine. If you have something dripping for a week before you figure it out it's not going to be fine. It will get right into the end "grain" where the coating stops and start swelling it up from the sides.
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Dec 4, 2021 21:39
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Arsenic Lupin posted:I just found out that these exist, and I am happy as a clam. We have an old (at least 1960s) set of cabinets with a solid poured-stone top that would be Hell to modify. This would let us get use out of the space currently wasted in the blind cabinet without replacing the cabinets. Rev-a-shelf makes nice stuff. We’ve got a couple of their waste container units and they were easy to install and are durable. Might want to try their site, http://www.rev-a-shelf.com I signed up for their email list and they send out deals once in awhile.
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Dec 5, 2021 00:30
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MarxCarl posted:Rev-a-shelf makes nice stuff. We’ve got a couple of their waste container units and they were easy to install and are durable. Might want to try their site, http://www.rev-a-shelf.com I signed up for their email list and they send out deals once in awhile. Seconding the rev-a-shelfery. All my cabinets have double-stack drawers from them. They're not cheap but they're reasonably well-made.
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Dec 5, 2021 00:47
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Anybody swap out their existing cabinet and drawer slides with the slow closing hinges/ slides? I'm assuming it's a 1 for 1 swap if the bolt patterns are similar or the same?
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Dec 5, 2021 01:53
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