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Home Improvement/Remodel Thread


smetana34

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Time to work on the lawn for this year. Don't have much reseeding to do, but with the plumbing issues we had and where they had to dig for those, I need to fill in more dirt and then reseed that. I'm thinking for reseeding I'm going to get some of those straw rolls with seeds and use that since it's on a small slope just to keep the grass from all washing into the sidewalk.

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  • 2 weeks later...

This years outdoor project, besides getting grass to fill in better will be taking down a few smaller trees in the backyard. We have room to park one car in back plus one in the garage, however, during the winter the garage is full of stuff, so we want to get room in back to park both cars, and that  means taking down some trees. "Thankfully" we have power lines running through some of the trees which Excel should trim back for us and then we can deal with the rest ourselves.

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2 hours ago, The Gnat said:

This years outdoor project, besides getting grass to fill in better will be taking down a few smaller trees in the backyard. We have room to park one car in back plus one in the garage, however, during the winter the garage is full of stuff, so we want to get room in back to park both cars, and that  means taking down some trees. "Thankfully" we have power lines running through some of the trees which Excel should trim back for us and then we can deal with the rest ourselves.

Lucky you've got the power lines. We had 2 fairly large trees we needed taken out that I could not handle myself so had to bring someone in.

Reseeded around half of my yard about 3-4 weeks ago and hit a few of the thinner spots with some more seed last week. Really filling in nicely and should be ready for the first mow of the new stuff here in another couple of weeks.

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3 minutes ago, tntitans4life17 said:

Lucky you've got the power lines. We had 2 fairly large trees we needed taken out that I could not handle myself so had to bring someone in.

Yeah, if they deal with either removing them or clearing them out some so that they aren't next to the lines anymore, the trees are small enough that I and a few friends can take them down ourselves. Thankfully I have a friend who worked out a winery for a while and took down quite a number of trees for them piece by piece, so we have someone with experience doing so, and who really likes to do so.

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So I have a question.

My house is on a pretty steep hill. On the back of the house is a little porch. This porch is sitting on a big pile of earth that is all held in with railroad ties. The ties are starting to rot. I am looking for someone to come and check if this can be propped up and fixed. What I kind of wanted was to just rip out all the junk under the porch while the porch was braced up and put it on beams like a normal deck. What kind of professional would everyone recommend? A contractor? A foundation guy? I'm very new to home ownership. 

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Actually found on the power companies website just before I called them, because they didn't lay out the information clearly. They'll de-power the lines to the houses while the trees are being taken down, not trim them back. Thankfully, they are still short-ish trees. Wish the old owners of the house would have actually trimmed back trees or done anything useful to the outside ever.

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4 hours ago, MOSteelers56 said:

So I have a question.

My house is on a pretty steep hill. On the back of the house is a little porch. This porch is sitting on a big pile of earth that is all held in with railroad ties. The ties are starting to rot. I am looking for someone to come and check if this can be propped up and fixed. What I kind of wanted was to just rip out all the junk under the porch while the porch was braced up and put it on beams like a normal deck. What kind of professional would everyone recommend? A contractor? A foundation guy? I'm very new to home ownership. 

I'd call an engineer to see what they suggest. They can suggest whether they think it'll need support beams (ala a deck) or a foundation pour.

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6 hours ago, kgarrett12486 said:

I'd call an engineer to see what they suggest. They can suggest whether they think it'll need support beams (ala a deck) or a foundation pour.

my goodness, don't call an engineer! sorry, but they will overkill what's needed by about a factor of three and charge you an easy $5000.

just need to find a general contractor willing to take on the project and he will hire additional subcontractors if needed.

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10 hours ago, vike daddy said:

my goodness, don't call an engineer! sorry, but they will overkill what's needed by about a factor of three and charge you an easy $5000.

just need to find a general contractor willing to take on the project and he will hire additional subcontractors if needed.

I had one come out to address grading my slope on my yard for drainage and water retention. He charged me a flat rate of $200 to survey and advise. Basically, charged me for his time and the report.

There are reasonable ones out there just for this specific kind of thing.

I'd be more leery of hiring a random GC if you don't know one...

Just my opinion though. My father in law is a GC and he tells me horror stories of work he picks up all the time where homeowner hired someone who claimed to be a GC and had expertise/subcontractors for the work needed, but turned out not so much and he had to come in and fix...

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On 5/17/2018 at 11:59 PM, vike daddy said:

my goodness, don't call an engineer! sorry, but they will overkill what's needed by about a factor of three and charge you an easy $5000.

just need to find a general contractor willing to take on the project and he will hire additional subcontractors if needed.

That hurts VD.

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2 hours ago, theJ said:

That hurts VD.

it's true though, i see it over and over. the engineer will not feel connected the project, personally invested in it. he/she will have a few hours of contact with the entire process and so to protect their own liability will over engineer the needs of the situation. which costs extra bucks.

common sense will be enough to dictate what the situation requires, and the contractor can still exceed that by 50% if he wants to.

 

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2 hours ago, vike daddy said:

Ouch.

how you feel when others do that to you?

 

You don’t let them.... been screwed over in my life. But if someone would want me to come over for something that simple I will charge them my price per hour. I could be doing something that’s worth my time 

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