Home Improvement/Repair Questions

Professional Engineer & PE Exam Forum

Help Support Professional Engineer & PE Exam Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Had heard part of it is a supply/demand issue. With housing going nuts, builders are trying to crank out houses as fast as they can. Also heard that people were using the pandemic as an excuse to do more renovating.
 
Blah. Got quotes today for the windows and the patio pavilion. The windows aren't too bad, sliding patio door, huge living room window, 4- ~4'x5' sliding windows, and 2'x3' window all install for about $6k. But the patio without the concrete is about almost the same price as the Morton bldg quote WITH concrete. might need to have the morton folks give us an updated $, since that was from last fall.
 
Blah. Got quotes today for the windows and the patio pavilion. The windows aren't too bad, sliding patio door, huge living room window, 4- ~4'x5' sliding windows, and 2'x3' window all install for about $6k. But the patio without the concrete is about almost the same price as the Morton bldg quote WITH concrete. might need to have the morton folks give us an updated $, since that was from last fall.
Definitely do that. I was searching into metal buildings on the basis that I was going to have to build something if I bought a house, and almost every single one of them had a major jump in pricing after January 1st. However, that was more to do with steel pricing than concrete. Windows don't sound bad, standard 2x3 window replacement here runs around $500 ea.
 
Not home related, but I was talking with a shop about ordering a cap/topper for my truck. He said the prices are the same, but the delivery is a wild card. Supposedly, the cap manufacturers don't really know when they will get fiberglass from the fiberglass factory, so delivery is anywhere from 1 to 3 months.

I saw yesterday that in fall 2009 it was $165 per 1000 board feet of lumber. A year ago it was $330. Today it is $1300 and rising.
 
Not home related, but I was talking with a shop about ordering a cap/topper for my truck. He said the prices are the same, but the delivery is a wild card. Supposedly, the cap manufacturers don't really know when they will get fiberglass from the fiberglass factory, so delivery is anywhere from 1 to 3 months.

I saw yesterday that in fall 2009 it was $165 per 1000 board feet of lumber. A year ago it was $330. Today it is $1300 and rising.
Even paper goods. There is a company out of GA who manufacturers and sells aluminum extrusions for race car wings and similar metal parts. Zero issues getting the materials to manufacture, but he's got a huge stockpile of orders sitting there because he can't get the cardboard to package and ship them.
 
Same with ammo.
It's starting to get a bit better here. Local shop is getting more in which is starting to bring prices back down from the stratosphere, i.e. 5.56 was $18/box a few weeks ago, but now it's down to $11.

Watched a report on YT about Remington ramping back up so it's going to keep getting better.
 
Had heard part of it is a supply/demand issue. With housing going nuts, builders are trying to crank out houses as fast as they can. Also heard that people were using the pandemic as an excuse to do more renovating.
My dad has a firewood and logging business, after a conversation during my normal Monday staff meeting about material costs I reached out to him to see what he's seeing on his end. He primarily sells hardwood into firewood and the rest goes to pulp (paper), but he sells to the area sawmills when he's on an applicable lot with good pine. He said there has been no price increases, or in other words the mills don't need or want more wood. He also said there wasn't any quotas though too (limits on what you can bring to the mill- saw mill or pulp mill, so wood cutters are happy with that. He claimed saw mills were shutdown, but I don't know if that's true.

It seems the industry found a sweet spot- produce just enough to keep the price high and money coming in the door, but not need more and have to incentivize the companies providing the trees by paying more.
 
Blah the morton folks basically said they can't get materials so they aren't taking on more work. so if we want to get the patio done this year we are going to have to pay $$$
 
Repairs on the house are finally underway. I'm not impressed by the drywall work thus far, but it is progress.

Most recently, I've been surprised by the lack of proper box cutting. The holes are 3 times the size of the box and they say they'll fill it with mud. Um, no, you're replacing the sheet and cutting out the box to the proper size as the next EQ is going to crack all that extra mud and let it fall onto the floor.
 
I've had similar issues in the past. I wired my previous garage to the nines, and the self proclaimed know-it-all sheetrocker just screwed the panels on and came back with a rotory tool to buzz out the boxes. His method pushed my boxes back so they weren't flush and over buzzed the holes, which I had to have the tap and mud expert fix. He even missed a couple that I knew were there and had to point them out. Fired his stupid ass that same day.
 
I hear you PB, I've experienced the same thing with a few boxes getting covered. They hid them under the insulation & VB and then questioned why the room was going to be so dark. Thankfully they were all caught before mud & tape showed up.

The GC has been doing most of the drywall installation themselves as the drywall sub was unavailable. I have already told them if they don't have the experience to do it, then to wait until the sub is available.

Between this and constantly leaving the doors / gate unlocked, I'm plenty busy having to babysit on top of keeping up with my everyday duties.
 
You know, the wife and I were just talking about this the other day... why is so damned hard to find someone who cares about providing quality service anymore. When you do find it, it's few and far between, and you pay for it. It seems like these kids these days don't give a damn. I can't wait for retirement and a cane.
1620409856990.png
 
You know, the wife and I were just talking about this the other day... why is so damned hard to find someone who cares about providing quality service anymore. When you do find it, it's few and far between, and you pay for it. It seems like these kids these days don't give a damn. I can't wait for retirement and a cane.
View attachment 21762

This is exactly why I do most of my work myself, provided I can. I refuse to pay someone to do something that I am capable of. With that said, I'm in the process of finishing my basement. Did all the framing, electrical and drywall myself. I paid some one to mud, tape and sand. I will do this EVERY time. I do not have the patience nor the skill to do it properly, at least on a large scale. Small repair/rooms that aren't "seen" no problem. But a roughly 1,000 SF room with a bunch of corners...shut up and take my money Mr. Mudman.
 
Edit - regarding cutting in of electrical boxes...They do realize there are attachments for oscillating/rotary tools that are literally the size of standard boxes with teeth to cut the proper hole every time? BUT....YOLO. I like the Rotozip. The thrill of a possible runaway while cutting just get's my blood pumping...Yes, I had a couple holes get away from me this time around...
 
I paid some one to mud, tape and sand. I will do this EVERY time. I do not have the patience nor the skill to do it properly, at least on a large scale. Small repair/rooms that aren't "seen" no problem. But a roughly 1,000 SF room with a bunch of corners...shut up and take my money Mr. Mudman.
This
 
Yay, I got to replace a dishwasher this weekend. The old one hasn't worked that great since we moved in, and I've tried pretty much every service/maintenance youtube video I found to try and make it function better. Obligatory multiple trips to big orange and it's now installed, sans the granite grabber under-counter mounts I need to pickup. Had to replace a couple multi-turn angle stops (found to be badly calcified) and got to run R&D on electrical panel tagging (old DW was hardwired, new was plug-in) so it turned out to be a slightly bigger project than just a plug and play.
 
My wife (also an engineer) decided we need to rebuild the master bedroom closet. This is turning into an engineering/design nightmare. There are too many options. We were literally measuring hanging pants and shirts last night. She had a layout done on paper but that didn't make as much sense once we demo'd everything out. I think it will be easier to remove the door and drywall over and live with the chaos that has become the master bedroom.

But I got a router out of the deal...
 
Back
Top