Home Zone: I see a baseboard and I want it painted black.

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Hobbies, Crafts, & Houses > Home Zone: I see a baseboard and I want it painted black.

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BigFactory: Sep 17, 2002

just another posted:

The electrician was poking around the ceiling earlier and found a spot he was concerned might contain asbestos. Older house so no surprise there. But I went to take a look at the spot after work, and underneath the ceiling tile, between the upstairs and downstairs, are wooden slats over something that has a hard outer shell. I'm thinking the slats are just to hold up the ceiling tile, so maybe it's just a facade over an old plaster ceiling

On the other hand, something tipped off the electrician to make him think asbestos. I didn't get the details from him because I was at work when he called.

Any idea what that might be? Was insulation with a hard or plastered shell a thing?

e.
Some pictures:

I'll keep my fingers crossed that it's just the old ceiling.

If that�s a painted cement board panel above the drop ceiling, then sure it�s very suspect. If not it�s no more suspect than any building material used before 1982 or so.

And if it is asbestos and it�s not in some kind of deteriorated state or you have to remove it to do the electrical work, then just leave it there. It�s not radioactive.

# ¿ Jun 16, 2018 19:00

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# ¿ Apr 23, 2024 13:22

BigFactory: Sep 17, 2002

Hubis posted:

My God, how did anyone ever demo anything before sawzalls?

Adzes work well.

# ¿ Jun 16, 2018 22:25

BigFactory: Sep 17, 2002

I was going to say open a hole in the roof to get some birds nesting in there

# ¿ Jul 1, 2018 02:44

BigFactory: Sep 17, 2002

Breakfast Feud posted:

More like wood shavings, kind of like what comes off a planer mixed in with just sawdust. I've read shop vacs are for poo poo in this case because the inlet pipe is too small. A leaf vac has a 4" inlet pipe.

Not a bad idea, get the bulk of it with a shovel then suck out the rest. There's literally no one in my town here that would do just the removal aspect. I'd have to pay for removal and immediately re-insulate, which I don't want cos I'm rewiring this whole place and want the attic empty. The last time I tried to hire an insulation contractor to do only part of a job I got told to go gently caress myself and that what I was doing would never work.

I might experiment with venting the exhaust from the vac out of the attic. I'm not too fussed about filling up the bags really quick, I'm probably going to bring a poo poo ton of contractor bags, empty the vac into the bags and stack them all in the attic until I'm done. I'll be renting a dumpster and I'm going to use it as an excuse to get rid of my ancient, rotting lean-to shed. The vac, dumpster and a new shed is still under $800 so it beats the gently caress out of hiring someone.

Get a big compressor and a venturi nozzle and pipe it straight into the dumpster

# ¿ Jul 2, 2018 14:42

BigFactory: Sep 17, 2002

BadSamaritan posted:

Okay so a home project just changed in scope.

We had some carpet in an eventual bedroom that we didn't like. So we decided to do the easy thing and buy some okay pergo laminate to replace it. We ripped up the carpet today, saw the expected faded dark grey (with pink, yellow, and mint stripes) vinyl tile underneath. But then we saw the area where a couple tiles came up and looked. And there's original late 1800's thick hardwood plank flooring underneath the tile adhesive, most likely in all three bedrooms of the house. We would prefer that over the pergo.

Does anyone have experience in restoring hardwood from really stupid decisions by previous homeowners? It doesn't seem like there is a lot of damage besides the adhesive (although who knows what lurks beneath the remaining 2/3 of the vinyl). If it's too far gone we can still do the laminate, but I don't want to pass up the much nicer material if I can help it.

That�s almost certainly asbestos tile and/or mastic.

# ¿ Jul 16, 2018 12:15

BigFactory: Sep 17, 2002

BadSamaritan posted:

We were worried about this too! We were able to find an old package wrapper from the late 80�s (manf. 1987) under the basement steps, so they�re likely past the asbestos cut-off date. Unfortunately a few of the other rooms in this house have old chip-print sheet vinyl under carpet- hopefully the master bedroom is not this case.

Either way, for the rest of the demo we�re planning on suiting up appropriately.

If they�re 6�x6� or especially 9�x9� tiles they�re vinyl asbestos tiles. If they�re 12x12s they might not be. Find an asbestos testing lab near you, put a sample of each kind of tile in a ziplock bag, and scrape samples of the black mastic into separate bags, label them so you know which style is which. For 20 bucks you�ll know whether you have a problem or not. �Suiting up� is useless if you�re contaminating your entire house with fibers, not to mention exposing people who handle the waste after you.

# ¿ Jul 16, 2018 12:37

BigFactory: Sep 17, 2002

keep it down up there! posted:

I just had my deck pressure washed and sanded and had all the old grey removed. I want to apply a new stain/sealer. Are there any good combo brands or would I be better off staining then sealing after?

I was hoping to do it in 1 go if possible as I have dogs and their only access to the grass is from the deck, so it would be ideal to limit the time they can't access it. Not that I'm against just walking them, but one is a puppy and has to go out often during the night still.

Edit: Right now Im looking at one of these. Any thoughts?

I haven�t used the deck sealants but I hate Behr paint with a passion. Does Home Depot carry other brands?

# ¿ Jul 21, 2018 11:48

BigFactory: Sep 17, 2002

red19fire posted:

Is there a thread for solar panel discussion, or can someone point me in the direction of an informational site that isn't run by some scammy-sounding solar leasing company? My house faces south/south west and gets about 8-10 hours of sunlight a day, I'm mainly curious if solar panels are a viable investment, if I'll save that much money. Like can I buy the panels and have an electrician install them and set up the system, or do you *have* to use one of these dime a dozen solar companies?

Any electrician that knows what they�re doing should be able to wire you up. It gets more complicated if you want battery systems or things like that. And you still would want to use an electrician you trust or one who has some knowledge of solar.

First step is to reach out to your power company and make sure they buy back electricity. If they don�t, or if the rate is low, you probably would be making a bad investment.

Next, you may want to reach out to a solar city type company and see what the deal is. Typically what happens is that you trade your roof real estate for cheaper electric bills. They keep the RECs and any profit over what you agree to. But since you lease the panels, it�s a pretty low cost way to get in. (At least this is how it worked when I looked into it a few years ago)

ROI on a full solar array can be a long rear end time, like 10 years +. Leasing might be what you actually want.

# ¿ Aug 9, 2018 23:18

BigFactory: Sep 17, 2002

Ebola Dog posted:

From what I understand solar water heating systems have a much better ROI than solar electricity panels so might be worth looking into that as well.

Yeah, passive solar is slick. PV is a lot riskier.

# ¿ Aug 10, 2018 10:27

BigFactory: Sep 17, 2002

autism ZX spectrum posted:

What sort of climates is a setup like that good for? I think about doing that kind of poo poo a lot, but I don't think they'd be effective at all at temperatures below -20 C

Are you talking sustained daytime temps of -20 year round? Maybe think about moving.

# ¿ Aug 11, 2018 03:26

BigFactory: Sep 17, 2002

autism ZX spectrum posted:

LOL no it's not that bad. What I mean is there are maybe 3-4 months in a year where that system would be useful here because it's cold but not freezing. In the winter when you'd need it most it's cold enough for passive solar to not work. It doesn't make sense to install any passive systems here as a retrofit because you'd never break even monetarily. There's no way to heat a (regular) house at those temps without electric/natural gas heating as far as I know.

You�re not heating your home exclusively with a passive solar system. You�re preheating your water before it gets to your boiler so it has a few degrees less to heat it up to temperature (or many degrees less in the summer). It saves energy.

You would be better off with geothermal heating in your area, perhaps.

# ¿ Aug 11, 2018 16:24

BigFactory: Sep 17, 2002

autism ZX spectrum posted:

-25 is the average here, a few months it definitely dips lower. There's like, 6 hours of sunlight too and it really isn't at ideal angles. I really would like to see a breakdown of efficiency losses from frost buildup/snow buildup on the tubes and the effects it has on the sun's light.

My biggest gripe is that I don't think I'd ever recover the costs. If I built a house with passive solar pre-heating worked into the costs it would be a different story. Unless I can move exclusively to solar it makes more economic sense to just ration the existing electric/gas energy I have and invest in better insulation.

I just rewired my house and I thought about moving to solar for lighting and other low-draw stuff but after moving to LED bulbs the added cost of batteries and panels just doesn't make sense. If I were to replace my boiler now it would be way cheaper to just get the same gas unit, save a pile of money not installing passive heating and then just pay more in energy costs.

Should really be subsidies for this poo poo, honestly.

Maybe humans were not cut out to live above the Arctic circle?

# ¿ Aug 11, 2018 17:57

BigFactory: Sep 17, 2002

autism ZX spectrum posted:

I mean, we have summer, but it's short usually. June/July/August get into the 20s reliably but everything else varies. There's not enough moderate temperature to justify doing passive heating, because it'll likely only be used for the 2 cooler but not cold months around summer so it would be a decades long process for anything to pay for itself. If there were any passive cooling solutions that didn't rely on evaporation that might be useful but LOL.

Geothermal is for you.

# ¿ Aug 15, 2018 01:56

BigFactory: Sep 17, 2002

autism ZX spectrum posted:

My understanding is that you either need a sizeable lot to lay it out lengthwise or you have to install it vertically. I've got a small lot not too far from the river, there's a poo poo ton of groundwater and the earth is mostly clay and sand, no idea how that impact heat transfer (if at all).

Talk to a contractor.

# ¿ Aug 15, 2018 14:35

BigFactory: Sep 17, 2002

leftist heap posted:

So if getting a quote from a roofer is like pulling teeth, that's probably a bad sign right? Other roofers got back to me within 2 days, and this other one has taken multiple calls and still nothing. It's a shame cause I like the guy and he came on a recommendation, but delaying multiple times just on the quote makes me super wary. In the meantime another company not only gave me an immediate quote, but called me back to see if I had any questions on it.

Yes

# ¿ Sep 14, 2018 22:32

BigFactory: Sep 17, 2002

If you don�t care wha it looks like, there�s heavy vinyl flooring that you just cut and it lays flat. If the room is really 10x20 you might not even have to cut it really. You just kinda lay it down, doesn�t need glue.

# ¿ Oct 26, 2018 01:23

BigFactory: Sep 17, 2002

That�s probably all of 40 years old, right?

# ¿ Nov 4, 2018 00:38

BigFactory: Sep 17, 2002

Fallom posted:

I wouldn't be surprised given how thick the paint is on all of the covers. I'm thinking the easiest thing to do would probably be to find a cap approximately the same size and chop it up with a dremel to fit.

Or scour eBay, or buy some kind of standard cover that kind of fits and swap them around until the weird one is in the least obvious place.

# ¿ Nov 4, 2018 21:32

BigFactory: Sep 17, 2002

totalnewbie posted:

I have a real fireplace. It has a single chain.

I pulled the chain down, heard a thump from the flue, and the chain is designed to be held in place while pulled down.

I'm pretty sure I've closed the flue - did I get that right?

Light a fire. You�ll be able to tell in about 5 minutes. (Don�t do this).

# ¿ Dec 26, 2018 00:25

BigFactory: Sep 17, 2002

The one place I lived with a working fireplace I remember I could just kinda reach up there and feel the flu damper. It wasn't that far up. It might be the same way with yours.

# ¿ Dec 26, 2018 17:11

BigFactory: Sep 17, 2002

Get a firewood splitter for 100$ on amazon and a sledgehammer

You definitely don�t want to chainsaw half a cord of wood the long way. That sounds kinda dangerous unless you have an awesome jig to hold the wood in.

# ¿ Dec 31, 2018 02:07

BigFactory: Sep 17, 2002

Slugworth posted:

Sounds like he needs to cut it shorter, not split it. Cheap chainsaw seems like the best solution.

(Unless I'm totally misreading it, but I cant imagine he's feeding a stove 14-20" diameter logs.)

That�s what I thought at first too, but he said it�s too wide, not too long?

# ¿ Dec 31, 2018 02:58

BigFactory: Sep 17, 2002

SetPhazers2Funk posted:

Anyone ever had to deal with buying/selling a house with an illegal bathroom? We're looking at buying a house in New York state (Westchester County, not NYC) and while the house is great, someone at some point (judging from the decor, 30+ years ago) put in an unpermitted full bathroom in the basement. My preference would be to leave the bathroom alone, but it's likely that the bank appraiser will flag it as part of their review, and I don't want to wear the risk of having to spend thousands of dollars to fix what should be the seller's problem. I'm assuming that the actual mechanics of the bathroom are fine, if there's something actually wrong and unfixable then it'll be coming out permit or no permit.

Googling around, it's unclear exactly what steps would need to be taken to make it pass the minimum requirements necessary to be decommissioned. One approach seems to be shutting off all of the relevant pipes, and then uninstalling the toilet, sink fixtures, and shower head and door. Then you put a bunch of boxes in the room and claim it as a storage room. I/the seller could do this without a plumber in a few hours, and would seem to be the path of least resistance. The local code resources that I can find online are delightfully unclear as to what I would need to do short of tearing the room down to the studs, which I am loathe to do given the expense and the fact that I'm personally fine with having at least a sink in that room.

I realize that nobody's going to be able to give me a definitive answer here, but would be curious if someone had dealt with a similar situation.

How do you know it was un permitted?

# ¿ Feb 12, 2019 05:34

BigFactory: Sep 17, 2002

TheManWithNoName posted:

I have a really crappy gate into my front yard, it�s wide and heavy and sags no matter what I do. I�d like to replace and upgrade it, possibly by putting in a couple of brick pillars (that match the brick on our house) with a lighter gate in between. Is brickwork fairly easy to DIY with no experience? I have done some light tiling and concrete work but never bricks.

There�s nothing like incredibly difficult about it, but I wouldn�t make my first job the first thing everyone sees when they come to my house either. At least one of them is probably going to look fugly. The 2nd might be better.

# ¿ Mar 3, 2019 19:35

BigFactory: Sep 17, 2002

Discharging into a storm drain without a permit could be a local, state or federal violation depending where that storm drain goes. If you care you might want to do some research first.

# ¿ Mar 10, 2019 02:28

BigFactory: Sep 17, 2002

The Wonder Weapon posted:

Yesterday after mowing my new lawn for the first time (and my first time on a riding lawnmower, a sequence which felt deserving of having been humorously portrayed by Tom Hanks in an 80s-era comedy), I was chatting with my neighbor. He asked how I was planning on taking care of the lawn "past the bushes," and recommended I just let it go, since it was so far away, and why bother. I responded that that wasn't our yard, and that it belonged to the city, as it adjoins a public baseball diamond/park. He insisted it was ours. We went inside to investigate, and it turns out, we had received the search & survey that very day, and just hadn't opened the mail yet. Lo and behold, it turns out he was right.

Our neighbor casually mentioned our yard is 200 feet longer than we were told by the real estate agent, bringing the total length of our backyard to something like 95 meters. (Just under 80 feet wide.)

I have absolutely no idea what to do with this space. This isn't the country for pete's sake, we're in Buffalo! Considerations so far have been building a giant wooden fort for future children, or putting in a stable and giving pony rides on the weekend. I've also considered building a massive trebuchet to try and shoot things at the houses across the river.

If you mow it it�s going to make your neighbor feel like poo poo cause he probably lets his wasteland get weedy.

# ¿ May 22, 2019 23:34

BigFactory: Sep 17, 2002

The Wonder Weapon posted:

That sounds a bit annoying.

If I wanted to do something other than wood, what would my options be? Aside from metal plates, are there faux wood vinyl planks or something? Using a plastic would also cut down on the weight, which I'm all about. I'm not even sure what to search for here.

Why don�t you just get an invisible fence if it�s only to keep dogs in?

BigFactory fucked around with this message at 03:55 on Jun 7, 2019

# ¿ Jun 7, 2019 03:39

BigFactory: Sep 17, 2002

Spring Heeled Jack posted:

So I have a beige-ish color granite countertop in my kitchen. It looks super boring/not great against the white cabinets.

Is there any sort of treatment that I can use on the granite to darken it? Ideally I�d like to replace it with something in a dark grey in the future, but spending $$$ on an otherwise fine counter isn�t in the cards right now.

Paint your cabinets.

# ¿ Jul 6, 2019 11:42

BigFactory: Sep 17, 2002

The Dave posted:

Wait you're holding up a ceiling fan with screws fastened to the plaster?

That has to be a joke

# ¿ Jul 10, 2019 12:26

BigFactory: Sep 17, 2002

DrBouvenstein posted:

Looking to get a new washer+dryer set for my house (close in two days.)

There is a washer already there, but it's an old top-loader, not sure of age or quality...it's whatever the appliance version of "contractor grade" is. No dryer...the PO is an older woman in a care home, so I think someone from her family took the dryer...or it busted and they didn't replace it since she no longer lives there.

Either way, it seems I'm on the last days of Labor Day sales, so might as well try to take advantage of them?

As implied, I prefer front loader washer, and dryer needs to be electric.

I would prefer it NOT to have too many smart features, like wifi/Alexa enabled or anything like that, but decent enough clothes washing and drying options that are more than just "hot or cold water, hot or medium dry" like my last place.

Why do you want a front load washer?

# ¿ Sep 9, 2019 19:16

BigFactory: Sep 17, 2002

The Dave posted:

Probably because they�re better.

They can be I guess. They also get nasty and smell bad and are expensive especially if they break.

# ¿ Sep 9, 2019 20:35

BigFactory: Sep 17, 2002

mcgreenvegtables posted:

I need to patch in some replacement red oak strip flooring. Totally standard material, but all I can find are 20+sqft bundles, which is way more than I need. Is there a way to buy smaller quantities? I noticed they sell tongue and groove fir boards by the foot at Home Depot but I haven't seen oak floorboards that way.

Maybe you have already done this, but branch out from Home Depot if you can. If there�s a builders supply store or lumber yard in your area, check with them. Even a sawmill. I know some of the small sawmills in my area got really busy last spring cutting planks when plywood was so expensive. They probably wouldn�t kiln dry and T&G flooring on site, but might be able to tell you where to go.

# ¿ Aug 11, 2021 11:07

BigFactory: Sep 17, 2002

Johnny Truant posted:

Speaking of fireplaces, I have a question regarding mine, pictured here:

My wonderful POs, in their cheap and garbage wisdom, have a fireplace... front? that is not the proper size. (I don't know the term for it - the actual metal insert pictured above)

Closer photo:

This leaves a good 2" gap, that I can handily for my fingers into and just reach around into the fireplace. Is this... awful? We're hoping to use the fireplace this winter, so I'll be calling a chimney company to inspect it, but I dunno if this is something I can buy the insert for and install myself, or if I should have the chimney people assess.

Is that an electric insert? If not then it doesn�t look right.

# ¿ Aug 17, 2021 17:55

BigFactory: Sep 17, 2002

Mice carry Lyme disease and transmit it to ticks, too. Snakes are better than mice.

# ¿ Aug 17, 2021 19:26

BigFactory: Sep 17, 2002

I don�t want to say that I wish I had a lot more snakes in my yard, but I definitely want fewer mice and ticks

Ball Tazeman posted:

We don�t have rattlesnakes here and it was just a little garden snake. I used to have pet snakes so they don�t bother me and as long as it doesn�t get in to the house, it�s a win win situation. I guess I�ll leave him alone for now??? Do they typically get in to houses?

I find snakeskins in my garage sometimes but I�ve never found them in the basement or living spaces.

# ¿ Aug 17, 2021 19:30

BigFactory: Sep 17, 2002

The Saucer Hovers posted:

my mil has a bidet with a...dryer? anyway i never use it because it just blows poo air all over and makes the bathroom stanky

I think you�re doing this wrong

# ¿ Aug 20, 2021 17:08

BigFactory: Sep 17, 2002

�Hang on a sec, just using the bidet dryer to crust the poop onto my rear end. Whew, it sure stinks in here!�

# ¿ Aug 20, 2021 17:09

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# ¿ Apr 23, 2024 13:22

BigFactory: Sep 17, 2002

PageMaster posted:

or you can sit and never have to even open your eyes.

This is the way to do it. Just settle down and relax. What do you need all that standing around for, it�s late. Take a breather, you earned it.

# ¿ Aug 20, 2021 20:36

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Hobbies, Crafts, & Houses > Home Zone: I see a baseboard and I want it painted black.

«‹›4 »

just another posted:

Hubis posted:

Breakfast Feud posted:

BadSamaritan posted:

BadSamaritan posted:

keep it down up there! posted:

red19fire posted:

Ebola Dog posted:

autism ZX spectrum posted:

autism ZX spectrum posted:

autism ZX spectrum posted:

autism ZX spectrum posted:

autism ZX spectrum posted:

leftist heap posted:

Fallom posted:

totalnewbie posted:

Slugworth posted:

SetPhazers2Funk posted:

TheManWithNoName posted:

The Wonder Weapon posted:

The Wonder Weapon posted:

Spring Heeled Jack posted:

The Dave posted:

DrBouvenstein posted:

The Dave posted:

mcgreenvegtables posted:

other people posted:

other people posted:

Johnny Truant posted:

Ball Tazeman posted:

The Saucer Hovers posted:

PageMaster posted: