Home Improvement/Repair Questions

[youngmotivatedengineer]

If a contractor can't determine if a wall can be removed, they have no business working on your house.

The final determination will have to be made once you open the walls and ceiling ( or go in attic if it's a ranch). Contractor should have a good idea, but you never know for sure until you get framing exposed. Doing foundation plans for house's in flood zone, I've seen some crazy stuff once they opened walls. One house had a rear addition that started to pull away from the main house when they started to lift the house. It turns out the only thing that was connecting addition to the original house was the interior sheet rock and roof flashing. 

 

[Master slacker]

HFS deck-building supplies can sure add up.  Didn't know material cost that much for a relatively small deck.  :blink2:

 

[youngmotivatedengineer]

HFS deck-building supplies can sure add up.  Didn't know material cost that much for a relatively small deck.  :blink2:

When I built my mom's deck, it wasn't so much the lumber as it was all the metal connectors required. The vinyl railings also add up pretty quick. 

 

[YMZ PE]

I just replaced the bypass valve on my water softener so now we have soft water and no leaks! I did the repairs close to midnight because that's how intolerably hot it's been here. The old rubber O rings were warped and dirty so I made sure to lube the dickens out of the new ones. Inserting the new valve was a smooth process other than my getting sprayed in the face due to inadequately screwing the flex hoses onto the new nipples. And yes I'm posting this with deliberate phrasing solely to cajole @csb out of the woodwork.

 

[Ble_PE]

I just replaced the bypass valve on my water softener so now we have soft water and no leaks! I did the repairs close to midnight because that's how intolerably hot it's been here. The old rubber O rings were warped and dirty so I made sure to lube the dickens out of the new ones. Inserting the new valve was a smooth process other than my getting sprayed in the face due to inadequately screwing the flex hoses onto the new nipples. And yes I'm posting this with deliberate phrasing solely to cajole @csb out of the woodwork.

 

[jeb6294]

I just replaced the bypass valve on my water softener so now we have soft water and no leaks! I did the repairs close to midnight because that's how intolerably hot it's been here. The old rubber O rings were warped and dirty so I made sure to lube the ****ens out of the new ones. Inserting the new valve was a smooth process other than my getting sprayed in the face due to inadequately screwing the flex hoses onto the new nipples. And yes I'm posting this with deliberate phrasing solely to cajole @csb out of the woodwork.

That is some guts posting something like that on here.

 

[Road Guy]

did you have to use the nipple clamps?

 

[Road Guy]

The wife pointed out that I failed to install a linen closet (for sheets and towels I guess) when I did the basement - there was an area under the stairs I was going to paint the floor and hang some shelves- apparently that wasn’t good enough so over the last few weeks scrapped together some leftover tile and put in a “nicer” linen closet than I had previously envisioned - you can see my reasoning with the plumbing down drain in the way and all... but just easier to “smile and wave boys smile and wave”.....

Shelving not yet fully installed - waiting on her to sign the change order

 

[Road Guy]

and yes that's just 1X6 for baseboard, trying to use up scraps where I can! (actually think it doesn't look bad, just need to finish caulking it)

 

[matt267 PE]

The wife pointed out that I failed to install a linen closet (for sheets and tepees I guess) when I did the basement - there was an area under the stairs I was going to paint the floor and hang some shelves- apparently that wasn’t good enough so over the last few weeks scrapped together some leftover tile and put in a “nicer” linen closet than I had previously envisioned - you can see my reasoning with the plumbing down drain in the way and all... but just easier to “smile and wave boys smile and wave”.....

Shelving not yet fully installed - waiting on her to sign the change order

That's an odd looking stripper pole.

 

[Road Guy]

its just for closet dancing

 

[jeb6294]

:huh:   Sorry, but we are going to have to revoke your Engineering card....

 

[Road Guy]

couldn't decide whether to box out the pre existing utility conflict with a square pattern or make them diagonal so I did one set of each

- actually was down to the last piece of tile and it already had the miter cut so I just went with it...

 

[tj_PE]

my whole house has 1x8 trim so that's what i put in my laundry too. i'm a fan of simple and clean! 

 

[Road Guy]

we have to do floating floors here and to cover the gap you need at least 5 IN trim- which gets expensive - the 1 BY material is about half the cost & I agree it looks better over tile and hardwood flooring

 

[NJmike PE]

so this weekend I decided to FINALLY install a whole house filtration system for my potable water, after living here for 12 years. I have a well and regularly get sediment in my appliances which needs to be cleaned out. But the kicker was a few weeks back when my water pressure really started to drop and I started seeing discolor in the water out of my faucet. 

so I decided to start investigating the problem, flushing my water heater, flushing my pressure tank. I cleared out much of the sediment, but realized it wouldn't really go away until I filtered the system. I bought 2 filters and created a two-stage filter system. that said, friday night I decided to check the pressure in the bladder of the pressure tank and adjust as necessary. I realized that the bladder was empty, so I hooked it up to my compressor and inflated it to 28 psi (30/50 pressure switch). turned the water back on and check the system. after about 3 mins of good water pressure, it ran dry. not more water. I started freaking, not sure what the problem was. I knew what I had done to change the system, but I couldn't figure out how it negatively affected it. after about 90 mins of screwing around with it, which including breaking off the drain valve from the well tee, replacing it as well as the pressure gauge which was broken, I realized that the pressure switch would kick on when manually, and would kick off at the high end, but would not kick on at the low pressure. turns out the switch was bad, and the tubing leading up to it was clogged solid with sediment, stopping water flow from kicking on/off properly. I started the job at 5 pm and finished around 9:30 that night. 

Saturday, the filter went together and on-line without flaw.

 

[Ramnares P.E.]

Driveway is starting to crack, some places are worse than others, and I've started looking around for repaving quotes.  I'd prefer to have the existing torn up and completely redone unless there's a good reason why I should go with recoating.  The surface is 440' x 11'.  I've gotten a couple quotes which seem awfully high.  Any idea what's reasonable $$/sq. ft for paving with blacktop?  No fancy brick trims etc.

 

[Road Guy]

asphalt is usually paid by the ton, so for that area (540 SY) - if you went with 3 IN then that would be around 30 tons (110 LBS/SY)- say you went with a higher cost of asphalt at $100/ ton that would be around $3grand? The smaller guys should be used to dealing with it, but it is a lot of equipment to bring in for a small job so there are going to be some other costs involved I would suspect?

You may see if you could get someone to do some full depth patches of areas - where they cut out the bad spots with a small milling machine and replace - but like a regular road if what's below the pavement is no good, then the problem just repeats itself in a few years - but most homeowners are not going to want to deal with properly prepping the subgrade ($$$)

 

[Ramnares P.E.]

That's ^ about what I was thinking ball park.

I got two quotes - $13, 200 and the second, $12, 500  :Failed:

 

[willsee]

That's ^ about what I was thinking ball park.

I got two quotes - $13, 200 and the second, $12, 500  :Failed:

I just had 1-1/2" overlay on 850 sqft for $1,675