Home Improvement/Repair Questions
- Thread starter knight1fox3
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knight1fox3
Jedi MASTER & Friend of Capt. Solo
Road Guy
Well-known member
weekend ahead of cleaning house, getting basement ready for guests, yard work and tons of other BS for out of town visitors for the kids graduation next week.. going to be fun- 
cant decide if I just want to delegate all the work items directly or get the chore wheel out for the kids to do "their part"?
cant decide if I just want to delegate all the work items directly or get the chore wheel out for the kids to do "their part"?
matt267 PE
"1000000 warning points" Club Member
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Are you letting your wife out of the kitchen to help clean the rest of the house?weekend ahead of cleaning house, getting basement ready for guests, yard work and tons of other BS for out of town visitors for the kids graduation next week.. going to be fun-
jeb6294
Well-known member
Anyone done the vinyl tile squares...the ones that look like real stone tiles? Not that I can't do real tile, but I'd like to replace the parquet floor in the kitchen and by the time you do thinset and backer board and mortar and tile, the floor would be an inch higher. Vinyl looks pretty easy to install and can go right on the subfloor after some primer. They've got stuff that has a little thickness to it and you can grout.
wilheldp_PE
PE, LEED AP, SPAM KING
If you're going with vinyl in a kitchen, I recommend sheet vinyl over the tiles. With potential splashing water and mopping, I would want to minimize joints in the vinyl. I just helped them replace a huge section of flooring at the golf course where drips from the ice and soft drink machines had pretty much rotted the floor completely through cracks in the vinyl tiles.
Road Guy
Well-known member
I would be inclined to remove the parquet floor and put in tile so that it would be good "forever" & you should also be able to install the tile right over the parquet without wonder board - but that still going to add at around half an inch.
jeb6294
Well-known member
The parquet definitely needs to come out no matter what...it looks really bad. If the area under the sink is any indication, there's some pretty hideous linoleum underneath that too. It looks like the vinyl tile that is groutable would be pretty similar in thickness which would minimize all the issues with transitions between rooms. And while real tile would be nice, there's a lot more labor involved and it ends up being a lot more expensive by the time you figure in the cost of backer board, joint tape, thin set, etc.
snickerd3
Taking suggestions
Gotta put this in!!! we found it under the wilsonart tiles in the kitchen
Master slacker
Something awesome.
Time for me to vent and let some of it out. This past weekend I ripped out (demo if you will) our 400+ sq. ft back deck. Not too much fun with the 90+ F heat and high humidity. "Why did you rip up your deck?" you ask? Well, lemme explain the ways...
The deck was nice looking, but boards are needing replacement and it was built quickly via ledger board and surely with no inspector. There was no flashing, no barrier, no nothing to prevent rain / water from getting behind the ledger board and onto the sill beam. Back door (kitchen) has a spot on the floor where the brick paver tile had busted. Being a pier and beam house, the wood subfloor had gotten wet, stayed wet, and rotted over unknown number of years. If the subfloor was rotted, the beams are rotten. I had seen this coming for a long time, but couldn't fathom spending that kind of money to fix. Maybe it'll fix itself. Down the road the can got kicked until a month or two ago.
Before we step through the floor, I decide it's time to fix the house. Must replace one beam, one rim joist, and sister three other joists. Who needs money anyway? But to do the work, the contractor must get access to the area of work... gotta remove the deck five feet from the house. Well, shit, I can't just cut it off and Lego it back together. F it. Rip it all out. But... this deck also keeps the animals in the yard. If this comes down, the animals will run down the driveway and be on the loose. F
I must build a driveway gate / fence to keep the animals in the yard. But the existing 80 year old driveway is fractured from tree roots underneath and a gate would never clear the peaks made in the driveway and, if it did, there would be much too much room beneath that the animals would go under. F. Must rip up the driveway and pour a new one. Again, who needs money?
The deck was nice looking, but boards are needing replacement and it was built quickly via ledger board and surely with no inspector. There was no flashing, no barrier, no nothing to prevent rain / water from getting behind the ledger board and onto the sill beam. Back door (kitchen) has a spot on the floor where the brick paver tile had busted. Being a pier and beam house, the wood subfloor had gotten wet, stayed wet, and rotted over unknown number of years. If the subfloor was rotted, the beams are rotten. I had seen this coming for a long time, but couldn't fathom spending that kind of money to fix. Maybe it'll fix itself. Down the road the can got kicked until a month or two ago.
Before we step through the floor, I decide it's time to fix the house. Must replace one beam, one rim joist, and sister three other joists. Who needs money anyway? But to do the work, the contractor must get access to the area of work... gotta remove the deck five feet from the house. Well, shit, I can't just cut it off and Lego it back together. F it. Rip it all out. But... this deck also keeps the animals in the yard. If this comes down, the animals will run down the driveway and be on the loose. F
I must build a driveway gate / fence to keep the animals in the yard. But the existing 80 year old driveway is fractured from tree roots underneath and a gate would never clear the peaks made in the driveway and, if it did, there would be much too much room beneath that the animals would go under. F. Must rip up the driveway and pour a new one. Again, who needs money?
- Demo bad driveway and repour - Done
- Rip up old driveway brick pavers and replace with gravel - Done
- Make new fence and gate for driveway - Done
- Demo old deck to allow for foundation repair - Done
- Repair foundation - Next week
Master slacker
Something awesome.
I contracted out the driveway. As much as I would enjoy renting a Bobcat and tearing up the old eye sore, I think I got a bargain out of my contractor. All work was done in one day and I didn't have to worry about anything but swiping my CC. That was $2300.
Once that was all cured, I ripped out the rest of the brick pavers bordering the driveway. The ones right next to the driveway had already been removed for the the forms to be set. I'm sure they all looked good when installed, but after 80 years of service, they looked gnarly. Then I filled all the holes (I'm good at that) that remained, put down a crushed stone base, and bagged Lowes gravel on top. There are a few low spots I need to touch up, but that can be done later.
The gate and fence I did myself, as well. Was my first time doing both and I think I did a damn fine job. The neighbors like it and Mrs MS loves it. I didn't think to ever-so-slightly lean the terminal posts out so that the weight of the gate would pull it plumb, but only I can see the slight imperfection because I know about it... Aside from the posts, it's all cedar. The dog now has Street TV.
Deck demo was mostly me, but my dad and a good friend came out to help play "Break Stuff". You never really know how much wood is in a deck until you have to haul it from the back yard to the street. That part was all me. I don't skip leg day. I also did a quick-n-dirty grading of the dirt that remained as I discovered the deck area was sloped towards the house. We can't have that, now can we? Also have 10 concreted posts to pull up. Something else that can be done later.
I'm swiping what's left of my card for the foundation work. That should all be complete in one day to the tune of a cool 4 G's. Once that's done, though, I'll be putting in a good number of jacks under the house to eliminate some soft spots and raise a few others. Slow and steady...
If the work needs to be done, I'm doing it now and putting it behind me. Pay once, cry once.
Once that was all cured, I ripped out the rest of the brick pavers bordering the driveway. The ones right next to the driveway had already been removed for the the forms to be set. I'm sure they all looked good when installed, but after 80 years of service, they looked gnarly. Then I filled all the holes (I'm good at that) that remained, put down a crushed stone base, and bagged Lowes gravel on top. There are a few low spots I need to touch up, but that can be done later.
The gate and fence I did myself, as well. Was my first time doing both and I think I did a damn fine job. The neighbors like it and Mrs MS loves it. I didn't think to ever-so-slightly lean the terminal posts out so that the weight of the gate would pull it plumb, but only I can see the slight imperfection because I know about it... Aside from the posts, it's all cedar. The dog now has Street TV.
Deck demo was mostly me, but my dad and a good friend came out to help play "Break Stuff". You never really know how much wood is in a deck until you have to haul it from the back yard to the street. That part was all me. I don't skip leg day. I also did a quick-n-dirty grading of the dirt that remained as I discovered the deck area was sloped towards the house. We can't have that, now can we? Also have 10 concreted posts to pull up. Something else that can be done later.
I'm swiping what's left of my card for the foundation work. That should all be complete in one day to the tune of a cool 4 G's. Once that's done, though, I'll be putting in a good number of jacks under the house to eliminate some soft spots and raise a few others. Slow and steady...
If the work needs to be done, I'm doing it now and putting it behind me. Pay once, cry once.
sounds cheap. I'm having someone gut and redo one bathroom and I got an estimate for $28k (not including fixtures/tile) but including upgraded power to the house (going from 100Amp to 200Amp and installation of new kitchen counters and backsplash. He's on the high side but he does excellent work. Two other estimates were at lest $20k with no electrical or kitchen.
Road Guy
Well-known member
how much for just the bathroom? - albeit probably smaller my basement bathroom I figured cost me $ 4grand doing most of it myself. Price to (pay someone to) finish it was around $10 grand.. we are defin in the wrong business!
youngmotivatedengineer
Well-known member
youngmotivatedengineer
Well-known member
How big of a bathroom? 20k to gut and redo seems high if it's not including fixtures or materials.
Road Guy
Well-known member
I wasted a few hours messing with my sprinkler problem / leak - see my terrific drawing (failed to get a pic)
I determined that in the area where the leak is the lines don't get enough water pressure to run the sprinklers (i.e. I cant make them "pop up" when the valve is turned on manually) - nor do they pop up when running the normal sprinkler mode.
I am assuming this means somewhere there is a leak in the vicinity where the pond is? (red area on map)?
Guess the only thing to do is just dig up the line from the valve starting where the pond is and see if I can find the leak?
I determined that in the area where the leak is the lines don't get enough water pressure to run the sprinklers (i.e. I cant make them "pop up" when the valve is turned on manually) - nor do they pop up when running the normal sprinkler mode.
I am assuming this means somewhere there is a leak in the vicinity where the pond is? (red area on map)?
Guess the only thing to do is just dig up the line from the valve starting where the pond is and see if I can find the leak?
