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Fallom posted:Pretty easily fixed by replacing the outlet for $2 and making sure the insulation is intact on the wires, they're spaced out well, and there's no debris in the box. Every box I've ever been in has been stuffed to bursting with extra lengths of wire and full of paint and drywall debris. Is it actually a good idea to trim some excess wire off in situations like that for tidier boxes?
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Oct 19, 2018 06:15
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Is your dishwasher's body plastic? As far as I know the biggest difference between cheap loud models and more expensive models is the fact the latter are typically metal bodied. I replaced a "premium" but broken GE steel model with a bottom of the barrel plastic frigidaire model and while the GE did come with some external foam insulation frankly I can't see how it did much given its loose coverage. I did go ahead and make use of that loose foam insulation though and even then the difference in sound was laughable, good god that frigidaire was loud. PS don't buy a GE dishwasher... or a $250 dishwasher unless you're like me and literally under contract to buy a new house when your dishwasher breaks on you.
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Dec 5, 2018 10:05
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I'd actually suggest avoiding GE dishwashers based off my own experience. Bought a $550 model that at 13 months, right after the ridiculously short 1 year warranty expired, died to the tune of $250 in parts + labor on top of $100 spent diagnosing it. I chucked the piece of junk. Honestly I don't think it even did that good a job cleaning dishes though it was very quiet.
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Aug 14, 2019 20:05
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eddiewalker posted:I know LEDs are supposed to outlive style trends, but I hate the idea of replacing entire fixtures because their “bulbs” burned out. Yah this really bothers me about hallway lights in particular, I've got a lot of boob lights that need to be replaced, what happens if I replace them with a fix LED style fixture and one fails prematurely after only a year and its been discontinued? I have one mismatched fixture for 10 years or I have to spend hundreds replacing all of them again and hope against a repeat? Sure LED lights SHOULD last for a very long time but I'm sure I'm not the only one who has had a few fail prematurely. I feel like the only option may be to buy a few spares to keep in a closet somewhere just in case. The whole thing just feels like a bad idea. Unfortunately when I look at flush mount options it often seems like the choices that use traditional bulbs are mostly just different themes on boob lights, with or without the nipple, and all the nicer contemporary fixtures are either integrated LEDs or incandescent style fixtures that don't look right with LED bulbs and screw using 120w for a single hallway light in 2020. Makes it very tempting to just do recessed lighting everywhere.
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Jan 18, 2020 21:25
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If you're replacing an old faucet the biggest pain is going to be removing the old one, not installing a new one, the latter is one of the easiest things you can DIY and with a modern faucet just consists of hand threading a large nut then tightening a few screws. When it comes to removing the old faucetjust remember to ask yourself 2 questions. Do I actually care what happens to this thing? Do I own power tools? You can spend hours trying to get some gunked up old proprietary nut off while you play twister under a cabinet, running back and forth from the store to try different plumbing tools, or you can just sawzall(or grind) through the top piece in 10 seconds and watch all the guts and mounting hardware drop free leaving you an open hole to install the new kit. My first kitchen replacement, done in a hurry when the old one went bad, sucked and included at least 3 hardware store trips, the second one couldn't of been easier.
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Apr 26, 2020 18:56
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When we moved into our current house we had a built-in microwave that had to be replaced, didn't work. It was literally the smallest microwave I've ever seen, something like .4 cubic feet, the actual space it went into wasn't to small but for whatever reason it had a large surround of vented faceplates, don't know why a 600 watt microwave would need that, 80s tech or not. I found some drop-in replacements online but they were $300, for an absurdly small microwave. After removing the face plates the space still didn't have the depth for a bigger microwave BUT it was perfect for a toaster oven so now we have a counter top microwave and a toaster oven fitted into the old built-in space.
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May 27, 2020 08:00
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I've never been in a house that doesn't have an electric 240v dryer outlet, gas hookup available or not. Like Daslog I don't don't see a gas hookup there but, if you have one, it'll likely be coming out at the floor and that has a good chunk of the floor cropped out in the corner the dryer is meant to go. It's possible you have a gas hookup there but if you don't really care either way and just want to make sure you can use whatever dryer you bought, sure go electric.
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Aug 1, 2020 03:26
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Personally we went keyless with Yale Assure Smartlocks, the stripped down model that's missing the wireless module and which doesn't even have a keyhole. After seeing how easy most conventional locks can be bypassed I figured a keyhole was just a liability and it does mean there's no backup if the battery dies but A. it warns you soon as the battery gets low, and B. we have other exterior doors with the same lock but batteries changed at different times even if we somehow miss it. I'm sure they messed up something when they made them so some silly vulnerability exists but it'd hopefully be obscure enough that it doesn't matter barring specifically being targeted which is even more unlikely than being casually targeted.
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Aug 16, 2020 00:40
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There should be caulking not grout wherever there's a transition from one face to another including horizontal transitions not just the vertical corners. Any grout joint is subject to cracking due to the natural movement of the structure. We lost nearly our entire laundry room ceiling when the grout line at a vertical to horizontal transition cracked. Shower head was spraying right at the crack and cascading down the back of the cement board wall, which we could see after the ceiling below collapsed.
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Aug 19, 2020 01:35
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Those cheap units which are everywhere and look near identical are pretty crap to use. Short hoses, short cords, laughably unstable so they constantly fall over and tangle up, the motors have a habit of either not cutting on when the trigger is pressed or cutting off in the middle of spraying, and of course poor power unless you use a near useless 0 degree nozzle or get within inches of whatever you're spraying with a 15 degree nozzle. Sure get the HF if you really want the cheapest possible solution but I don't regret buying a beefier $300 Greenworks unit with a brushless motor that stays on 100% of the time and is built more like that Ryobi and gas units are.
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Aug 27, 2020 00:22
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They make snow blowers that mount to the front of lawn tractors, that's what I assumed was being suggested, not a plow. If you want a small plow vehicle an ATV is a much better choice but unless that happens to be a hobby of yours is otherwise useless. If you really get that much snow, and that's a crap ton of snow, I'm not sure either option above is going to be adequate anyways, at a certain depth many methods just stop working well, the small plows and snow blowers the above use don't work well once you get past 2' of snow. I live in the north and don't know if I've ever had to clear 3+ feet of snow even once personally and few people live where that could be called "common", you're probably best off doing what others nearby in the same conditions have been doing.
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Sep 23, 2020 22:09
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Motronic posted:Exterior walls in places that actually require insulation based on the regional climate are at least 2x6. A lot of older houses will still have 2x4 walls even in the north, 2x6 didn't become code until the mid 80s most places, to my knowledge, and they're still the minimum code now. My house was built in 1980 and unfortunately, they didn't opt for 2x6's. I figure if we decide to stay here long term at some point I'm going to have to have the house re-sheathed anyways, since we have T1-11 as both our siding and our sheathing, and we'll add some rigid insulation over the studs when we do. So far our T1-11 seems to be holding up fine at least.
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Oct 9, 2020 02:50
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H110Hawk posted:Ryobi cordless jigsaw was a mistake. Definitely get the corded one if you do more than chop out a bit of wall. Jig... Jigsaw? Wall? Do you mean Sawzall/reciprocating saw? You could use a Jigsaw to cut drywall I guess but I can't imagine doing much more than a small hole with one, I've never used a Jigsaw enough to run out the battery. I have Ryobi's brushless Jigsaw and Recip saw, the Jigsaw is fine for what it is, I only do small operations with it. The Recip is the only brushless tool of theirs I've really been disappointed in, cuts like crap, vibrates like crazy.
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Oct 9, 2020 07:28
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My PO put Rinnai wall units like the one below in my 2 garages and while they're not what I would've picked due to losing some floor space they do a pretty good job and are a lot quieter than the typical ceiling mount garage heaters I'm used to. I don't know about this specific model, but the ones I have can be mounted on the wall up off the floor if that's a concern, something I wish the PO would've had done in my case. https://www.homedepot.com/p/Rinnai-EnergySaver-21-500-BTU-Vented-Natural-Gas-Furnace-EX22CTWN/306653481 I have the size up from that but my garages are both 600 square feet, I'm in Alaska, and frankly I'm not sure actually need to be as big as they are. I even use one of them in a similar manner as you're talking about as that "garage" is a semi finished home office/workout room/shop, leaving it at 50 degrees overnight and when I'm at work but then bringing up to something more comfortable when I'm home which only takes minutes with a 30k BTU unit.
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Nov 14, 2020 19:42
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Do you really not have a tilt sensor on your garage door? Ima take a guess and say you're the sort whose garage contents is worth almost as much as the rest of the contents of your house and you'd rather it didn't walk away.Hed posted:How do you guys determine if the house has an automatic alarm system? Where I live you have to register your system with the city if you want actual emergency service response. Also generally those systems come with stickers and signs advertising the system in the hope that random thieves gently caress off to an easier target instead of breaking a window, some people just buy the signs and skip actually getting the system.
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Dec 21, 2020 06:19
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Would you mind sharing what region that is or what the average home value is? Be nice to get an idea what the cost of living is where you did that project.
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Feb 20, 2021 07:19
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Depending on how access is back there you may want to look into renting a track loader/Bobcat. It's not necessarily that expensive, and just about anyone can do it. That will at least make the digging process fairly labor free. If you're lucky you may even be able to rent one with a flip screening bucket which will do the whole job for you depending on how sandy your soil is.
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Mar 30, 2021 03:59
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Motronic posted:Hydroseeding is typically a solution for bulk seeding in places people don't care about. The sides of roads. A pile of dirt that needs erosion control. We use to refer to it as "hydroweed" due to the poor quality of seeds used. I'm curious what else did you do for this? My lawn could really use some thickening up but there's over an acre of it, some of its at up to an 18 degree incline, and there's a variability in when all the snow will melt of like a month. I've got no problem walking a spreader around distributing seed but doing a lot of the other typical prep work isn't something I'm inclined to spend many, many, many hours over multiple weekends doing with rental equipment and the lawn isn't in such a condition I'm inclined to pay $*,000 to a landscaper or to buy my own tractor attachments I may only use a couple times. I wonder if spending a few hundred on seeds and spreading them around is a waste of time if the only other thing I'm going to be able to do is do light waterings via sprinkler every few days.
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Apr 11, 2021 19:43
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Yah aerating is the biggest thing I had in mind under preparation, all I've seen for rent locally are small walk behinds and I do have a tractor similar to yours but don't know that I can justify $2k on a 3-point aerator and haven't seen those for rent locally. Aside from that the other big issue was the lack of irrigation meaning I'd be watering each area every few days at best during the week.
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Apr 11, 2021 21:02
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For what it's worth when I moved into my current house the water pressure situation drove me nuts and instead of spending thousands on an expensive constant pressure pump I decided to try solving it with a cycle stop valve about a year ago and so far so good, I have a consistent 65 PSI of pressure while running a conventional fixed speed jet pump. I don't really think I'd recommend this route in your situation vs going with the more accepted solution for a few thousand more if it's just going to disappear into a new build mortgage payment, but for anyone else reading this who'd be out of pocket it's a cheaper option you don't see pump manufacturers talk about for obvious reasons.
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Apr 24, 2021 06:48
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My POs put in a second full water heater when they remodeled the master bath with a large air soaker tub, going to be honest, I don't understand it. Why install 2 50 gallon water heaters when you can pick up a 100 commercial unit at regular ol' Lowsdepot? When I looked shortly after buying our house it looked like the price was a wash for a lot simpler solution. That might not be the case now because of COVID though.
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Dec 14, 2021 04:49
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papa horny michael posted:The Andersen windows in this house are about 12 years since install. Are they worth replacing? They're so annoying. You've never priced out a window replacement have you? It's $$$ and no, almost certainly not worth changing out 12 year old windows, especially Andersen's which say what you will about their sales tactics are considered to be very good windows as far as I'm aware. Out of curiosity what's so annoying about them?
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Jun 17, 2022 17:51
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The low skill option that's not a saddle valve is cutting into an existing run of pipe, and putting in a either a Sharkbite T + 1/4 stop valve or a combination fitting like the one below. https://www.homedepot.com/p/SharkBi...4983A/206356284 Minimum tools required would be pipe cutter, something to ream and deburr the cut pipe, and adjustable wrenches for the actual compression fitting for the 1/4 line. Sharkbite fittings have been around a long time now and are reliable as long as you make sure you've got a square reamed/deburred cut and you seat the fitting fully.
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Jul 21, 2022 22:09
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My cabinets are not soft closing and in fact require an extra hard shove to close and jerk to open because I purposefully installed extra high tension brass latches. This was in response to a 7.1 earthquake a month after we moved in sending half our kitchenware crashing to the ground. I wonder how well push-to-open and soft close mechanisms resist being flung open during something like that.
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Jul 27, 2022 00:28
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If you want to splurge a bit more there're options like the one below that attach to a sweeper so you don't need to pick up everything you're pulling out by hand. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09H9H2M3S I'm still kind of torn on mine, its definitely easier just dragging behind as you ride than the alternative but even with multiple passes it doesn't pull out the shockingly huge masses powered dethatchers do.
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Aug 27, 2022 07:05
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Since it sounds like you've removed any possibility there's a blockage between that drain and where it meets the rest of the drains in the house, and none of them are having a problem, I think that only leaves one possibility, it's not vented properly. Since you said it didn't always do this I assume its not as simple as there is no vent so its probably been clogged, either by physical damage or wildlife nesting in it from the outside. Try to identify where that vent exits your home and start investigating from there.
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Feb 8, 2023 06:19
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PerniciousKnid posted:Well it turns out that not only is all the shed roof's plywood rotten (probably not related directly to the tree) but also the rafters were done wrong (probably diy by the previous owner) and so it needs to be propped up with 2x4s so it's not sitting directly on the wall (or something, I don't really understand and I slept 4 hours last night). This is from a few days ago but I've got to ask, what kind of shed is this that a repair is $10k? Is this more of a small workshop/detached garage? For $10k you could have anywhere from 2 to 6 more sheds of typical size built! Elem7 fucked around with this message at 18:07 on Mar 2, 2023 |
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Mar 2, 2023 17:41
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Good time to point out, you don't just have to use a "home inspector." When I bought my current house I had a house inspector come out and he was... okay, but I also had an actual roofer come out to look at the roof and a plumber/HVAC guy out. The roofer found some minor issues but our contract was technically "as-is, no repairs to be made" so it was just informing us about some future projects, and reassuring me we weren't looking at an immediate $15k new roof. The plumber on the other hand discovered the 40 year old furnace was holed and leaking, and that the sellers did fix regardless of our contract given the seriousness. I think we paid an extra $300 between the 2 of them and saved $5k over the furnace issue.
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Mar 14, 2023 23:16
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That's definitely not the case here and seems like an utterly ridiculous law with an absurd justification, nevermind actual lawyers rarely get involved with most negotiations surrounding inspection contingencies around here, AFAIK. For one like any other time major issues are found second opinions can be sought out and multiple bids from different companies solicited for. Second, I don't know how that meshes with disclosure requirements which do not have a stipulation you only need to disclose issues discovered by an "official" home inspector. In the case of the furnace in my situation the company who did the inspection did not do the work, they didn't even bid on it because the old furnace was an unusual old oil burner converted to natural gas that required more sheet metal work than they typically do. The seller didn't even try to wiggle out of paying for a new furnace despite the "as-is" contract since they risked the gas meter being red tagged and would need to disclose the issue to any other prospective buyers if we backed out, regardless of who did the inspection. (Yes we'd of likely lost our earnest money if we did back out but it was a similar amount to the cost of repairs and in our area, pre-pandemic, the sellers would've come out worse if things went that way) Also my home inspector didn't miss the furnace issue, scheduling lead to him coming out after it'd already been discovered, but its very unlikely he would've found the issue which wasn't that the furnace was 40 years old, which I don't consider actionable.
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Mar 16, 2023 17:07
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Hed posted:I used this adapter recently for the same purpose and it's great, UL-listed, and I have no issues getting it from HD. I wouldn't have any issues with using that adapter from Southwire but it does require that your existing oven outlet is a 50amp 4-wire 240v setup, not all houses are going to have that for an electric range, mine for instance had a 30amp 3-wire setup originally. If it doesn't match its still an easy fix but it involves working in the breaker panel which for many people is the "call an electrician" line. Definitely slide out your existing oven if you haven't and confirm what's there.
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May 6, 2023 01:13
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We had a transfer switch installed so I could use a portable generator to power our house in our 3rd year of ownership because the first 2 years featured a lot of wind storms where we lost power, the second winter alone there were 8 different instances of 2-16 hour outages, always when I was off from work and home alone too. Naturally after having the switch installed we've only had 1 outage lasting longer than half an hour since, I suspect all my areas faulty transformers blew in those first 2 years... A proper standby generator with automatic switch is going to run $10k+ but a simple transfer switch between your meter and main panel with a plug for a generator + a portable generator is as little as a 5th of that. If you do the latter you control what loads you're powering by flipping breakers in your main box, obviously you do that before you power on the generator.
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Jun 17, 2023 20:25
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actionjackson posted:Hunter Douglas is always going to be the best imo. They will typically send someone to do a free consult so nothing to lose Can't say I agree, between 2 houses we've had to deal with 3 different sets of those with the most recent being bought in 2019 and they've all had terrible battery life, even with $20 of lithium's installed in each one. The first 2 sets were installed by PO and from the late 00's. This 3rd set we bought because we stupidly believed the salesman that "oh yah those old ones were terrible but they're much better now!"
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Jul 16, 2023 01:13
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Yah sure, a wired motorized blind would be better but that's not a minor thing to add outside of new construction or major renovations. Unfortunately my experience with battery powered ones has been very poor, but I'd still rather have them than a 10 foot long cord hanging down from a second story window. If I ever do get the chance to build or at least gut a house I already planned to go wired, ideally with exterior rolling metal shutters.
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Jul 17, 2023 18:38
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Honest question, has anyone actually had the lower end faucets from Lowesdepot catastrophically fail on them in under 10 years? I could be wrong but it just seems like a class of product that it in my personal experience isn't failing in a way that requires replacement in a timeline that's not measured in decades. Could just be lucky I guess. Every faucet I've replaced has been for aesthetic or functional reasons except for one instance where my in-laws got a faucet that failed immediately out of the box. One bit of advice I have for removing an old kitchen faucet is if the lock nut is giving you even the little bit of a fight, consider where or not it'd be easier to just take a reciprocating saw to it, just make sure to put down some plastic to contain the metal bits. First kitchen faucet I ever replaced took hours and involved 3 trips to the store for different tools to try and fight it loose in the tight confines, the second one took 5 minutes when I realized I don't care if the old faucet comes out in pieces, just cut halfway through it above the counter and everything falls loose.
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Aug 7, 2023 22:21
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LPL has had videos where he has supposedly been sent locks by actual lock smiths that they claim are unpickable and he had no problem getting into them at all. Obviously there's not likely any competition lock pickers going around trying to break into houses though so not super relevant. I've mentioned this before in the thread but personally I changed all my locks to Yale digital models with no key holes at all and no wireless module installed. Only key I typically carry is my mail key, and no need to worry about locking myself out somehow.
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Aug 17, 2023 17:09
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Ham Equity posted:Do those fail open or closed when the battery runs out? How hard are they to bypass without knowing the code? How hard are they to install? The first one I bought could lock you out if the battery died theoretically but it gives you an audible warning when the battery starts to get low in the form of spoken speech. "Battery is low, replace soon" not just beep-beep-beep or something. Also the batteries last a long time, I got it in like 2015 and have only replaced them twice. The other 3 slightly newer ones I have that all applies and in addition they have 2 contacts on the bottom for a 9-volt battery to provide temporary power. For bypassing, I don't honestly know. We have 8+ digit codes set on them and there is an optional lockout so brute forcing the code isn't super likely/not possible, long as you don't leave an obvious Cheeto dust pattern. Bypassing physically ala LPL? No idea, I haven't tried to tear them apart and figure that out, I would be surprised if its totally impossible but there's no obvious glaring way to disengage the lock and also exert enough force to turn the shaft which isn't visible on the exterior side. They're as easy to install as any regular deadbolt, so not very.
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Aug 17, 2023 23:16
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H110Hawk posted:The Samsung locks have mandatory random 3 digit code before you put in your code. Does yours offer this? This is to prevent the greasy fingers problem. Looking online at the manual, nope, doesn't look like ours have that feature. Not super concerned for us personally because my wife and I have different codes and no repeating numbers, mostly a coincidence, but it should mitigate that risk, the keypad surface is also pretty easy to wipe clean with the back of a sleeve if needs be. The cheeto dust remark was mostly a joke, but I never liked some of the cheap digital locks I've seen where there's only 5 buttons(1-2,3-4,5-6, etc) and 4 digits pins which seemed like they'd be super easy for some kid to break into.
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Aug 18, 2023 02:45
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devmd01 posted:Took the downstairs bathroom fan out as I’m installing a light over the shower and the exhaust tube wasn’t connected. Because they used duct tape in the original construction. I'm sorry all I can see is the worst drywall texture short of full popcorn I've ever seen... maybe worse than popcorn.
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Sep 20, 2023 05:16
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The term you'll see at the hardware store is "old work" box, Old in this case meaning you're working on an existing finished wall as opposed to a "new work" box where you have direct access to the studs because the wall you're dealing with is new and not skinned in drywall yet. Since you'd be installing it next to a stud you may want to look into a different type of old work box that includes the ability to screw into an adjacent stud for a sturdier connection, here's an example from Home Depot. (this specific box you can break off the extra tab and just use the internal screws minimizing the amount of drywall work to be done. https://www.homedepot.com/p/Southwire-Smart-Box-1-Gang-Multi-Mount-Adjustable-Depth-Device-Box-MSBMMT1G/203343441 If you are hoping to replace that box without drywall work the hardest part is not going to be installing a new-old work box, it's going to be removing the old one which assuming it is a new work box means it's nailed to a stud and those nails aren't accessible without cutting the drywall. Personally for me this definitely falls under the "not worth it" category of home repair, as long as you can get an oversized screw to hold there're probably better uses of your time.
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Sep 26, 2023 18:32
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That's a great price if they're doing a decent job, where I'm at that'd be an okay price for 3'' of asphalt... probably more right now with oil prices.
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Sep 30, 2023 00:40
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