Home Improvement Thread

[skullman80]

Yeah that's the going rate these days if not more.

[meow]

Kid thinking “small pipe go in big pipe” checks out

[NTP66]

Definitely pays to know people - especially in the HVAC industry.

[DigitalGypsy66]

My boss paid around that for his house - 2500 square foot, 16 seer, new duct work, etc. I paid a little less than that in 2018.

[NTP66]

The guys just finished sealing my driveway when my neighbor comes outside. A few minutes later, they walk across the street and start sealing his driveway. I wonder how much business they get like this.

[meow]

I bet my power washing guy gets at least half his income from that.

[DigitalGypsy66]

Oh yeah. The guy who put up our gutters went and did two neighbor's houses that same afternoon - all new houses, no gutters. Really cool equipment they use. Giant reels of metal gutters with a shaping/cutting machine in the back of a van, and since we live in a development with the same 6-7 floorplans, they can spit out all of the gutter pieces in a few minutes. About an hour to hang all of it.

[mac5155]

My buddy has a side business making seamless gutters. He does well, and doesn't even hang them. Just a truck and a machine. I think he said it's like $3.25 a foot for gutter.

[NTP66]

I've seen the seamless gutter stuff in action, and it's pretty cool how quickly they can make everything. Literally minutes from getting the measurements and they're being installed.

Conversely, I've seen This Old House do wooden gutters before, and it looks like they spend an entire day on the fabrication and waterproofing.

[mac5155]

Yep, as long as you have measurements it's mere minutes. I've rode with him once on a job and it's super slick. He has it down really good how many he can get out of a roll of coil.

[count2infinity]

Took Friday and all of next week off... going to:

-Paint the front door
-Power wash our fence and front porch
-Rip out the old deck and replace with Trex
-Paint our Bilco doors
-Build 4 new raised beds
-Expand a few flower beds
-Cut down a dead/dying crab apple tree
-Plant a new fruit tree
-Mulch everything (about 4 cubic yards worth)

Gonna be a fun week.

So far so good.

[count2infinity]

Today was deck demo day. The trex is getting delivered tomorrow. I took a peek under the deck and thought everything looked alright so all we’d have to do is rip up the old deck boards and put down the composite. No such luck. The 2x10s were in rough shape. Most of them split in spots. Lots of rot. Had to rip the whole thing up. Start the rebuild from scratch tomorrow.

[mac5155]

Trex needs to be on 12 inch centers anyway. I'd bet your old deck was on 16s

[count2infinity]

The trex we got is good on 16s. But yes. It was 16s and we’re going 12s.

[mac5155]

Oh yeah, I guess it does depend on how you Install it also. Regardless you're better off doing 12s.

[dodint]

Does anyone know what it would cost to have a plumber come by and move my water heater from one side of the basement to the other, then redo the affected water lines?

My house has laughably small 1/4" copper pipes that run under the basement concrete and back up to the first level. That means by the time the water gets to the shower it's lukewarm to cold. We want to prioritize warm water to the bathroom and also free up that basement room for something else, hence moving the heater. Then the shorter runs, probably with pex, that run under the first level instead of the basement floor, ought to deliver hot enough water to the kitchen.

[mac5155]

That's most likely the best option, but have you heard of hot water recirculation pumps?

https://www.lowes.com/pd/Watts-HRWS-Uni ... lsrc=aw.ds

My guess is under $1k

[dodint]

I know that's what hotels use but hadn't considered it in a residential application.

I want to turn that room into a theater/game room so the water heater needs to move either way.

[NTP66]

I was going to say, re-circulation pumps are designed for this, and they make some that are installed directly at the sink location. I think your need is a little too specific to guestimate a cost on, though. I paid $250 back in the day for next-day plumbing services to fix a cut drain and re-route some pex, so I'd imagine that what you're looking to do would cost at least double that - more if it's a gas water heater and he has to extend the gas line, too. If it's an electric, chances are he won't want to simply install a junction box at the current location so that you can run more romex to the final location (I wouldn't do that, either), so you'd have to run a new line from your panel.

[NTP66]

My BIL just showed up with the new HVAC equipment, and the 2-stage condenser I bought is the size of a Mini Cooper.

[NTP66]

My BIL just showed up with the new HVAC equipment, and the 2-stage condenser I bought is the size of a Mini Cooper.

The old one looks like something the new one **** out. The hilarious part is that it’s mostly for airflow, since 75% of the cabinet is open/empty.

[meow]

It’s supposed to go on the pad

[NTP66]

No worries, it’s on the perfectly pitched pad now. Been raining all day, and you’d think the soil would be a little wetter/softer. Nope. It was a **** chore digging that out.

[NTP66]

Looking at my beestat data, stage 1 cooling is handling 95% of the cooling right now, with stage 2 kicking in for a short period of time to bring the temp back within my set delta (2°F), letting stage 1 finish off the cooling cycle, just as it should be doing. I'm using reverse staging to allow this to happen. Time will tell just how much of a financial benefit we'll see from this on our Peco bills, but the house should have better humidity control and generally be more comfortable.

[meow]

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.