Home Improvement/Remodel Thread

[SimsZilla]

so with warmer weather coming in michigan, how should i prep my lawn / over seed? I havent really dont much with my lawn since i bought the house two years ago (ive done everything else, but now this summer i dont have many projects so i want to focus on my yard). 

im thinking of doing that scotts 4 part prep stuff for the year, the spring/summer/fall/winter fertilizer but im not sure yet. and what kind of grass seed? i have one area that is SUPER shady, but the rest is really sunny. my yard isnt very big, but i know i want to aerate the lawn this year too. i want a nice thick lawn. any recommendations?

[VikeManDan]

23 hours ago, SimsZilla said:

so with warmer weather coming in michigan, how should i prep my lawn / over seed? I havent really dont much with my lawn since i bought the house two years ago (ive done everything else, but now this summer i dont have many projects so i want to focus on my yard). 

im thinking of doing that scotts 4 part prep stuff for the year, the spring/summer/fall/winter fertilizer but im not sure yet. and what kind of grass seed? i have one area that is SUPER shady, but the rest is really sunny. my yard isnt very big, but i know i want to aerate the lawn this year too. i want a nice thick lawn. any recommendations?

I actually hired a service. I used TruGreen, it was a little spendy but we'll see how the results turn out.

They ended up over seeding way later than I had hoped last fall.

[The Gnat]

Who wants to help brainstorm an ideas with me:

 

Here's the situation - The neighbors house is up slightly higher than our house, so there is a little bit of a grade from their house to our house. Wouldn't be a huge issue, but for the fact that our house is very close to the fence on that side, so we have house - sidewalk - 4" of space - chain link fence. I'm trying to figure out a way to stop water from snow/rain/ice from running into my yard, across the sidewalk and seeping into the basement. I have created a little ditch as well as I can to help with rain, but right now with snow were getting a little water seeping in. There are also a few trees in the fence as well making things more interesting.

[gopherwrestler]

1 hour ago, The Gnat said:

Who wants to help brainstorm an ideas with me:

 

Here's the situation - The neighbors house is up slightly higher than our house, so there is a little bit of a grade from their house to our house. Wouldn't be a huge issue, but for the fact that our house is very close to the fence on that side, so we have house - sidewalk - 4" of space - chain link fence. I'm trying to figure out a way to stop water from snow/rain/ice from running into my yard, across the sidewalk and seeping into the basement. I have created a little ditch as well as I can to help with rain, but right now with snow were getting a little water seeping in. There are also a few trees in the fence as well making things more interesting.

Hard to tell you without actually seeing it and knowing where your water runs, or where the rest of your yard drains.

but like I basically tell everyone, tile around your basement, and blackjack your walls, if you need an outside sump pump it’s easy enough with a standup pipe and just having the water drain to where the water can get away...... 

 

If you don’t have windows in your basement on that side you could also add more dirt up alongside your house and get the water to drain back towards the sidewalk.

 

 

[The Gnat]

1 minute ago, gopherwrestler said:

If you don’t have windows in your basement on that side you could also add more dirt up alongside your house and get the water to drain back towards the sidewalk.

That's part of the issue, while there are windows, the sidewalk butts right up to the house so, there's a bit of a gap from shifting, but mainly a 1/2" width at the widest. I've sealed off most of that.

 

Drainage around the house is from neighbors house towards ours, and then back to front. So with how the house is standing, east to west and north to south with the neighbor being on the north.

[gopherwrestler]

5 minutes ago, The Gnat said:

That's part of the issue, while there are windows, the sidewalk butts right up to the house so, there's a bit of a gap from shifting, but mainly a 1/2" width at the widest. I've sealed off most of that.

 

Drainage around the house is from neighbors house towards ours, and then back to front. So with how the house is standing, east to west and north to south with the neighbor being on the north.

Well you could rip out the sidewalk and build a gutter (just a concrete ditch) along side you house and just make your sidewalk a little slimmer.

[Kiwibrown]

Redoing my whole garden on a 950sqm section. I have done most of the front, ripped out some small trees and replacing it with grass and tussocks. 

Had a tree in the back yard that had died, paid someone to cut it down and I split all the wood, felt super manly after chopping it all, it is a really satisfying job. 

I want to make the whole yard easier to manage and set up to grow our own vegetables and fruit. Going to put weed mat down with wood chips. And then we have planted feijoa, lemon, crab apples, and peach trees. 

We have two Vegas plots and probably need another.

[BobbyPhil1781]

Wife bought new front porch lights. Unfortunately the back plate of our current lights are 5.5", these are roughly 4.75". What product can we use to fix this? Vinyl siding that has a circular cut out but the new back plates are rectangular.  I googled but apparently am not using the appropriate jargon.

[theJ]

3 hours ago, JTagg7754 said:

Wife bought new front porch lights. Unfortunately the back plate of our current lights are 5.5", these are roughly 4.75". What product can we use to fix this? Vinyl siding that has a circular cut out but the new back plates are rectangular.  I googled but apparently am not using the appropriate jargon.

Can you reuse the old backplate? Maybe sand it/paint it to match. 

[BobbyPhil1781]

24 minutes ago, theJ said:

Can you reuse the old backplate? Maybe sand it/paint it to match. 

Hadn't thought about that. It's chrome and these are black so I'll have you see if that's possible. It might look odd bc the new fixtures are large and rectangular while the old are compact and rounded. It's certainly an option if there's not a product on the market made for these situations

[theJ]

9 minutes ago, JTagg7754 said:

Hadn't thought about that. It's chrome and these are black so I'll have you see if that's possible. It might look odd bc the new fixtures are large and rectangular while the old are compact and rounded. It's certainly an option if there's not a product on the market made for these situations

Did a bit of googling. You need a mounting kit or mounting block. Found a bunch on Amazon. 

EDIT: Exterior light mounting kit. If that wasn't obvious. 

[BobbyPhil1781]

40 minutes ago, theJ said:

Did a bit of googling. You need a mounting kit or mounting block. Found a bunch on Amazon. 

EDIT: Exterior light mounting kit. If that wasn't obvious. 

Not sure how I missed this but I'll look into it, thanks!! Spent 20 minutes looking at crap earlier. 

[theJ]

Found water in my crawl space after a heavy rain the other day.  Debating whether it's a sign of something bad, or just because the water had no where else to go.  No pipe leaks, no cracks in foundation that i could see.  No sign of mold.  The grading around the house is pretty good.

Best i can tell, the ground was still frozen due to recent temperatures, and the water just went where it could.  On either side of the house are ditches that are still full of standing water.

But all my attempts at googling the situation just yield "zomg you're going to die of mold and floor rot and you should basically burn the house or spend 20k on waterproofing".

Anyone have a more reasoned and thoughtful answer?

[vike daddy]

20 minutes ago, theJ said:

Found water in my crawl space after a heavy rain the other day.  Debating whether it's a sign of something bad, or just because the water had no where else to go.  No pipe leaks, no cracks in foundation that i could see.  No sign of mold.  The grading around the house is pretty good.

Best i can tell, the ground was still frozen due to recent temperatures, and the water just went where it could.  On either side of the house are ditches that are still full of standing water.

But all my attempts at googling the situation just yield "zomg you're going to die of mold and floor rot and you should basically burn the house or spend 20k on waterproofing".

Anyone have a more reasoned and thoughtful answer?

i think you have it right here:

Best i can tell, the ground was still frozen due to recent temperatures, and the water just went where it could.

[theJ]

5 minutes ago, vike daddy said:

i think you have it right here:

Best i can tell, the ground was still frozen due to recent temperatures, and the water just went where it could.

Thanks.  This is especially important as the house we are in the midst of purchasing also had water in the crawl.  Appears to be the same problem, but it's being professionally inspected today.

Do you think it's necessary to take extra steps to mitigate the water penetration (such a drain system or sump pump)?  Or just write it off as a problem that happens every couple of years and forget about it?