Home Improvement Thread

Postby **mac5155** » Mon May 22, 2023 11:37 am

Proposal for a "NTP66s thread of HVAC posts" anyone?

Postby **NTP66** » Mon May 22, 2023 11:39 am

Not sure that stuff shouldn't fall into the home improvement umbrella. Plus, I like megathreads like this.

Postby **shafnutz05** » Mon May 22, 2023 12:26 pm

Today is our only scheduled day without some kid sport activity this month so I power washed the drive way. Looks like brand new concrete.

Good call. I cleaned up the deck, organized the 150 plants, and power washed last week. It looks so much better.

Need to do the front walk now that you mention it.

Postby **CBear3** » Mon May 22, 2023 1:08 pm

I had a 8-12 window on Saturday, so cleaning and reorganizing the garage, disposing of used oil/antifreeze, and the first round of patching a 2'x2' hole in my living room ceiling. I think the next time I'll have a moment is June 3rd.

Postby **DigitalGypsy66** » Mon May 22, 2023 2:05 pm

I've put down 40 bags of mulch this morning and will need 3x that to finish. Ugh. I'm going to get my children involved with the rest.

Postby **King Colby** » Mon May 22, 2023 2:13 pm

Why didn't you just order a dump truck considering that's like 5 yards worth

Postby **DigitalGypsy66** » Tue May 23, 2023 9:16 am

I figured I would work 20-25 bags at a time, at my own pace. I did the truckload thing before and I felt rushed to move it out of my driveway/off the lawn. Probably cheaper to do it that way, but a lot more concentrated work.

Postby **Nuge** » Tue May 23, 2023 10:36 am

I would hate the tediousness of opening all of those bags and moving them individually. Give me a big pile and a wheelbarrow.

Postby **NTP66** » Tue May 23, 2023 10:41 am

Better yet, pay somebody else to do that grunt work.

Postby **dodint** » Tue May 23, 2023 10:41 am

Had a similar discussion this morning. We're starting my garage refurb project with concreting the floor. It's dirt now. The floor has to be different depths in different parts because we're adding a lift to one of the bays. I suggested we pour the reinforcement pad for the lift by hand since it has to be done in two parts. Off-the-cuff calculations says we'll need about 60 bags of concrete to do that. Yawr.

Postby **DigitalGypsy66** » Tue May 23, 2023 11:19 am

Yeah, I'm getting the teenaged free loaders involved moving forward. And yes, opening the bags sucks.

Postby **mac5155** » Tue May 23, 2023 3:12 pm

There are 2 cu ft per bag of mulch. so 14 bags per cu yd. Home Depot has 5/$10 this weekend. So you're looking at about $28 a cu yd with bags. I think that's about the same price as dump trucks. The bags are tedious, sure. But shoveling it 2-3 times is also.

Postby **shafnutz05** » Tue May 23, 2023 5:44 pm

There are 2 cu ft per bag of mulch. so 14 bags per cu yd. Home Depot has 5/$10 this weekend. So you're looking at about $28 a cu yd with bags. I think that's about the same price as dump trucks. The bags are tedious, sure. But shoveling it 2-3 times is also.

My neighbor and I had this same argument. I told him he was insane driving to HD six times and ripping open 140 bags of mulch to "save money"

Postby **meow** » Tue May 23, 2023 5:49 pm

buying a dump's worth of mulch is most likely buying from a local business owner and not giving your money to a big box store. that's why I do it.

Postby **mac5155** » Tue May 23, 2023 7:30 pm

I haven't a dog in the fight, I spent the money and did decorative slate everywhere instead of mulch lol. I'm just saying, both are tedious and about the same price.

Postby **DigitalGypsy66** » Tue May 23, 2023 8:12 pm

I was pleased to find out that the mulch is bagged/marketed by a company 20 minutes away fwiw.

Postby **meow** » Tue May 23, 2023 8:50 pm

You’re lucky

Postby **robbiestoupe** » Tue May 23, 2023 8:55 pm

My back thanks me that I don’t even bother to mulch. The weeds thank me too but idgaf

Postby **NTP66** » Wed May 24, 2023 9:44 am

Welp, time to look for a new electricity supplier, with my current contract ending. Just in time to get ahead of PECO's 6% rate bump next week to $0.10312/kWh. Looks like the best rate I can find is $0.07450 for a 12 month contract with Shipley. That'll work.

Postby **shafnutz05** » Wed May 24, 2023 11:39 am

Welp, time to look for a new electricity supplier, with my current contract ending. Just in time to get ahead of PECO's 6% rate bump next week to $0.10312/kWh. Looks like the best rate I can find is $0.07450 for a 12 month contract with Shipley. That'll work.

I really need to get around to this. What's the best place to start?

Postby **NTP66** » Wed May 24, 2023 11:41 am

Welp, time to look for a new electricity supplier, with my current contract ending. Just in time to get ahead of PECO's 6% rate bump next week to $0.10312/kWh. Looks like the best rate I can find is $0.07450 for a 12 month contract with Shipley. That'll work.
I really need to get around to this. What's the best place to start?

https://www.papowerswitch.com is your one stop shop for this. Don't bother looking elsewhere.

Postby **dodint** » Fri May 26, 2023 1:06 pm

My wife and I got into a lively discussion yesterday. She's hiring a painter to paint the ceiling we had repaired earlier in the year. The plaster guys that did the work bid the job as a one-day job, which we liked because it was a few days before Christmas and we had to completely empty the room. Fast-forward to the now times and my wife is pissed off. The plaster guys didn't come back and sand the surface after it dried, and the painters say that they are not responsible for that.

Honestly, looking at the ceiling I can't see that it's rough at all but my wife thinks it needs to be sanded before it can be painted.

Who should be doing this? I've never heard of painters that don't want to prep. In the automotive world it's the other way around, painters insist on prepping because the quality of the job is directly tied to the quality of prep.

Postby **meow** » Fri May 26, 2023 1:25 pm

I would probably sand it myself because this sounds like a lose lose situation where you get the run around from both parties and get no where

Postby **NTP66** » Fri May 26, 2023 1:27 pm

I would probably sand it myself because this sounds like a lose lose situation where you get the run around from both parties and get no where

Agreed. Though, if the painters are too lazy to sand, it makes me wonder what other corners they may cut.

Postby **dodint** » Fri May 26, 2023 1:39 pm

She claims she's on her fourth painter, the first three saying no because of the sanding. These are all phone conversations. I think she's overstating the roughness of the surface. To me it looks exactly like the rest of the ceiling, just a different shade of white.

Most likely we end up doing it ourselves, it's a small room.