Home Improvement/Remodel Thread

[minutemancl]

My furnace is out of commission for probably another day while we wait for the part to come in that is needed to fix it. It's supposed to get briefly just below freezing tonight (around 30°), and I don't want to get any burst pipes. Its gonna be about 45° all day today. Am I mostly alright for just one night, as long as it gets fixed tomorrow? I have a few space heaters going today in rooms we'll be in, so we won't have no heat source. 

[Heimdallr]

9 hours ago, minutemancl said:

My furnace is out of commission for probably another day while we wait for the part to come in that is needed to fix it. It's supposed to get briefly just below freezing tonight (around 30°), and I don't want to get any burst pipes. Its gonna be about 45° all day today. Am I mostly alright for just one night, as long as it gets fixed tomorrow? I have a few space heaters going today in rooms we'll be in, so we won't have no heat source. 

An overnight low of 30 is nothing to worry about. 

[Tugboat]

17 hours ago, minutemancl said:

My furnace is out of commission for probably another day while we wait for the part to come in that is needed to fix it. It's supposed to get briefly just below freezing tonight (around 30°), and I don't want to get any burst pipes. Its gonna be about 45° all day today. Am I mostly alright for just one night, as long as it gets fixed tomorrow? I have a few space heaters going today in rooms we'll be in, so we won't have no heat source. 

 

I'm glad that the temperature was something that should generally be just fine for you, and hopefully you had water running relatively frequently (keeping water running is an good antifreeze desperation tactic).  Science says water doesn't freeze as good if it's running because momentum equals energy and that equals heat. 

But i also wish i'd been able to chime in earlier.  Also, furnace going out in winter is the ******* worst.  But that's generally when they go out.  Preemptive is best, but unless you know the place...it's hard to know and hear the signs.  Even then, Murphy's Law applies.

 

For future reference, you should locate the places where you've got plumbing with thermal exposure and particularly locate where that water line comes in to begin with.  Those are the key places to hit with space heaters.  Might not be comfy, but you've gotta prioritize water lines that might have exposure.  Heavy blankets at night lol.

 

Most modern houses will have lines coming in well below frost line which means they're absolutely fine.  But if you've got outbuildings with water supply or anything, that's a priority too.  If you've got a real old house, it's worth looking at how deep your water line comes in, and heating if it's above...whatever your modern local frost line is.

idk where you are...but it could be anywhere from 0" to 8'.  You can easily google that frost line though and figure where you sit.

[minutemancl]

56 minutes ago, Tugboat said:

 

I'm glad that the temperature was something that should generally be just fine for you, and hopefully you had water running relatively frequently (keeping water running is an good antifreeze desperation tactic).  Science says water doesn't freeze as good if it's running because momentum equals energy and that equals heat. 

But i also wish i'd been able to chime in earlier.  Also, furnace going out in winter is the ******* worst.  But that's generally when they go out.  Preemptive is best, but unless you know the place...it's hard to know and hear the signs.  Even then, Murphy's Law applies.

 

For future reference, you should locate the places where you've got plumbing with thermal exposure and particularly locate where that water line comes in to begin with.  Those are the key places to hit with space heaters.  Might not be comfy, but you've gotta prioritize water lines that might have exposure.  Heavy blankets at night lol.

 

Most modern houses will have lines coming in well below frost line which means they're absolutely fine.  But if you've got outbuildings with water supply or anything, that's a priority too.  If you've got a real old house, it's worth looking at how deep your water line comes in, and heating if it's above...whatever your modern local frost line is.

idk where you are...but it could be anywhere from 0" to 8'.  You can easily google that frost line though and figure where you sit.

Thanks man. Honestly, the company we pay for regular maintenance kind of screwed us. A series of missteps from them has them now having to pay for their own mistake here, while I pay for it by having to be in a cold house for a few days.

I checked all the water supply lines yesterday; all runs coming from/leading to outside are super short, and all water supply pipes that aren't in the walls of the house aboveground are insulated in the basement belowground. Not sure where the frost line is where I'm at, but I'm pretty confident I'm not in any serious trouble so long as it gets fixed soon. The house is still at about 55 degrees right now, and the basement is somehow even warmer than that.

[Tugboat]

42 minutes ago, minutemancl said:

Thanks man. Honestly, the company we pay for regular maintenance kind of screwed us. A series of missteps from them has them now having to pay for their own mistake here, while I pay for it by having to be in a cold house for a few days.

I checked all the water supply lines yesterday; all runs coming from/leading to outside are super short, and all water supply pipes that aren't in the walls of the house aboveground are insulated in the basement belowground. Not sure where the frost line is where I'm at, but I'm pretty confident I'm not in any serious trouble so long as it gets fixed soon. The house is still at about 55 degrees right now, and the basement is somehow even warmer than that.

 

Yeah.  It kind of sounds like your "maintenance company" just wasted a bunch of your money tbh.  I'm not even really familiar with what that entails, not really a thing here.  But failing furnace is probably something.  lol.

 

Should really only have one main water supply line, normally.  It'll be out the bottom of your house.  Unless it's real old and huge.  But again, should be buried deep enough and with enough pressure to not worry if it's done to any modern standards most of the time unless it's super old.  I'd say it runs right into your hot water tank if you trace it, but you might be somewhere weird like Cali or Florida where you don't have basements.  Hot climates do weird stuff, for...reasons.  Sewer should be the other one, going out.  Hopefully.

 

Not trying to be condescending, but...

 

You work out from there...the thing i'd be most concerned about heating, are water lines that are run anywhere near the "outside walls" of the house".  It's bad form, but a ton of houses have it somewhere.  Old houses are much better about this, ironically.  But you also mentioned insulated walls.  Which walls are exposed to the most prevailing climate cold?   Which water lines are actually run up through those walls?  Those shouldn't be there, but if they are...heat rooms affected by that first.

 

If you ain't got none, they did it right.  So do a little jig.  It's mandatory.

Edited January 2 by Tugboat

[minutemancl]

7 minutes ago, Tugboat said:

Yeah.  It kind of sounds like your "maintenance company" just wasted a bunch of your money tbh.  I'm not even really familiar with what that entails, not really a thing here.  But failing furnace is probably something.  lol.

They wasted their own money lol. I'm on a plan with them where I pay a fixed monthly rate and don't pay anything else out of pocket if/when they ever have to come out for any repairs. That's exactly why I'm not too concerned with looking over their work or anything. It's their fault it broke, so the worst I have to deal with is a cold house. I'm sending the wife and kid to stay with the in-laws tonight if it takes until tomorrow to fix so they don't have to deal with it.

Quote

Should really only have one main water supply line, normally.  It'll be out the bottom of your house.  Unless it's real old and huge.  But again, should be buried deep enough and with enough pressure to not worry if it's done to any modern standards most of the time unless it's super old.  I'd say it runs right into your hot water tank if you trace it, but you might be somewhere weird like Cali or Florida where you don't have basements.  Hot climates do weird stuff, for...reasons.  Sewer should be the other one, going out.  Hopefully.

 

Not trying to be condescending, but...

 

You work out from there...the thing i'd be most concerned about heating, are water lines that are run anywhere near the "outside walls" of the house".  It's bad form, but a ton of houses have it somewhere.  Old houses are much better about this, ironically.  But you also mentioned insulated walls.  Which walls are exposed to the most prevailing climate cold?   Which water lines are actually run up through those walls?  Those shouldn't be there, but if they are...heat rooms affected by that first.

 

If you ain't got none, they did it right.  So do a little jig.  It's mandatory.

Yup, I've checked all of this. We're all good. House is old, so we must be one of those old houses that did it right. No water supplies up through any external walls.

[Tugboat]

46 minutes ago, minutemancl said:

They wasted their own money lol. I'm on a plan with them where I pay a fixed monthly rate and don't pay anything else out of pocket if/when they ever have to come out for any repairs. That's exactly why I'm not too concerned with looking over their work or anything. It's their fault it broke, so the worst I have to deal with is a cold house. I'm sending the wife and kid to stay with the in-laws tonight if it takes until tomorrow to fix so they don't have to deal with it.

Yup, I've checked all of this. We're all good. House is old, so we must be one of those old houses that did it right. No water supplies up through any external walls.

Nice.  I've never even heard of insurance working in that minimal sort of way, but it's awesome you've got somewhere local to stash you family.

 

Even with no lines on external walls, i, as a clinically paranoid persons, would have those hot water valves open even just a little bit on a bunch of taps. Part cold part hot water tank.  Just to make sure nothing ****s up.  Idk what your water bill looks like.  But your construction bill looks worse if it goes sideways.  Probably.  idk.

[minutemancl]

4 minutes ago, Tugboat said:

Nice.  I've never even heard of insurance working in that minimal sort of way, but it's awesome you've got somewhere local to stash you family.

 

Even with no lines on external walls, i, as a clinically paranoid persons, would have those hot water valves open even just a little bit on a bunch of taps. Part cold part hot water tank.  Just to make sure nothing ****s up.  Idk what your water bill looks like.  But your construction bill looks worse if it goes sideways.  Probably.  idk.

If it were going to take any longer to get fixed, I'd have them open right now. I just got a call though that it's going to get fixed later today, so I'm not as concerned anymore.

[Tugboat]

15 minutes ago, minutemancl said:

If it were going to take any longer to get fixed, I'd have them open right now. I just got a call though that it's going to get fixed later today, so I'm not as concerned anymore.

The best news you can get, is..."it'll get fixed today".  That's beyond the gold-standard.

 

 

Now you wait for the Van?

 

Best of luck and most Warm feelings.

[Heimdallr]

Just got a quote to replace 2 awning style windows (~28"x28") and a sliding glass patio door, and it came out to $7500. Reasonable? The manufacturer/brand is Walsh (Tundra 6000). Lifetime warranty on everything, including glass breakage + 10 years to whoever we sell the house to.

[minutemancl]

On 8/25/2023 at 12:13 PM, minutemancl said:

So we have water that comes in through the top of a window. Someone came out for an estimate and found that the back of our house is lacking tyvek and the window is not flashed correctly. They are going to take off the existing siding, tyvek the back of the house, flash and tape the window correctly, then put the siding back on so we no longer get leaks. Does $6k sound look a reasonable estimate for this? It was much higher than I was expecting. This same company came and did a whole new flat roof for us for less than that last year.

Yeah, thank god I didn't go through with this. And thank god I didn't go with the 2nd company I talked with either. This second company was going around soliciting offering free quotes (I'll never entertain guys doing this ever again). Took them up on their offer and got visited by the pushiest, most ill-informed salesman I've ever had the displeasure of talking to. He tried saying wood knots coming through the white paint on the interior window trim was water damage. Told me all my windows were improperly installed and offered to replace them all for 50k. Then when my wife and I tried to push him to finish his pitch quicker because our kid had to go to bed, he still took forever. He wasn't even an installer! Just a salesman! All I wanted was someone to come out and replace my leaky window. I'll never recommend that company to anyone.

I finally had enough and talked to a family friend who does windows and doors. Came out to the house, found the actual root cause of the problem in about 15 minutes, and said he'd get me on the books soon to come fix it. It is essentially just a flashing issue. Honest, direct, listened to what we wanted/needed, and most importantly, he was correct. It sucks that you have to know somebody personally to get an honest job done sometimes.

[Tugboat]

On 1/3/2024 at 7:16 PM, Heimdallr said:

Just got a quote to replace 2 awning style windows (~28"x28") and a sliding glass patio door, and it came out to $7500. Reasonable? The manufacturer/brand is Walsh (Tundra 6000). Lifetime warranty on everything, including glass breakage + 10 years to whoever we sell the house to.

 

Never heard of 'em.  But they could be a really solid regional brand, or America brand that i haven't heard of.  Or they could be crap.

I'd just get a quote on what it costs for something like Pella or Loewen windows and see how it compares as a solid baseline for a good window.  That'll probably tell you a lot one way or the other.

Installation is still going to be a big part of the cost.  So at that point, you might as well make sure you're getting quality.  Do it once, do it right or whatever.  But i have no idea.  There are a few companies here who do solid custom work that nobody elsewhere would have heard of.  Windows is almost one of the last few bastions of real local North American production...probably because shipping glass is...inconvenient.  lol.

 

Awning windows at that size, i'm guessing basement windows?  Those are a complicated pain in the *** especially if below grade.  So installation can be pricey.  Sliders are annoying too.  But really, just shop around and see what sort of range of estimates you get.  It's promising that they'll tell you up front what windows they're installing...but it could also be marketing.  There are a lot of real bad windows installed that people think are good because the brand spent more on advertising than making windows.

 

Those warranties, you've also really gotta read the fine print too.

[Tugboat]

On 1/4/2024 at 7:31 AM, minutemancl said:

Yeah, thank god I didn't go through with this. And thank god I didn't go with the 2nd company I talked with either. This second company was going around soliciting offering free quotes (I'll never entertain guys doing this ever again). Took them up on their offer and got visited by the pushiest, most ill-informed salesman I've ever had the displeasure of talking to. He tried saying wood knots coming through the white paint on the interior window trim was water damage. Told me all my windows were improperly installed and offered to replace them all for 50k. Then when my wife and I tried to push him to finish his pitch quicker because our kid had to go to bed, he still took forever. He wasn't even an installer! Just a salesman! All I wanted was someone to come out and replace my leaky window. I'll never recommend that company to anyone.

I finally had enough and talked to a family friend who does windows and doors. Came out to the house, found the actual root cause of the problem in about 15 minutes, and said he'd get me on the books soon to come fix it. It is essentially just a flashing issue. Honest, direct, listened to what we wanted/needed, and most importantly, he was correct. It sucks that you have to know somebody personally to get an honest job done sometimes.

 

Really curious how this all turns out.  Vaguely recall your initial foray into the whole thing and it seeming kind of ridiculous where they wanted to tear the entire siding and everything off the house and redo, but i'm not sure if i gave you good or bad advice.  Anyway.  Glad it sounds like you've got someone who is going to just do it properly, and without taking you for a ride on extras.

 

My general approach is, anyone soliciting things directly to consumers is a scam artist or selling a cheap product.  That's not really the way to go about it if you're a real professional organization with a quality product.  There's a whole sideshow circus devoted to that stuff for building products, where quality producers will want to forge relationships with builders not just rip off a few consumers.  Also true of "seafood distributors" i think.

But it's definitely a sad state of affairs where, across so many facets of life now, if you want something done right...you've either gotta know someone with expertise, or become a pseudo-expert yourself.  Which is also super risky.

 

Heck...you try to buy a gift card for someone at Christmas these days, and the poor cashier doesn't have a clue what they're doing.  You have to read the "failed" on the print out they hand you to explain to them that it didn't activate.

Not their fault at all, but it's just a product of where nobody really knows what they're doing anymore.  But it's an epidemic these days that is a whole other diatribe probably for a different thread...

 

 

Anyway...would definitely be curious to see some pictures or descriptions of what the flashing issue ended up being.  If it's the weather flashing, cap flashing, the whole kit and kaboodle, or something else.  If they end up having to pull the windows or not.  Always trying to learn.

[RaidersAreOne]

Does anyone have those shelves that hang from your garage roof? We have an unfinished basement but I hate how cluttered it is. I want to eventually make the downstairs a capable hang out room (Even if unfinished), so a lot of our Christmas decorations/keepsakes/etc. need to go somewhere else.

Thoughts?

 

[vike daddy]

On 1/17/2024 at 11:38 AM, RaidersAreOne said:

Does anyone have those shelves that hang from your garage roof? We have an unfinished basement but I hate how cluttered it is. I want to eventually make the downstairs a capable hang out room (Even if unfinished), so a lot of our Christmas decorations/keepsakes/etc. need to go somewhere else.

Thoughts?

Bats and vampires love them.

But seriously though... Storage design comes down to the items you intend to store. Are they seasonal things like Christmas decorations that you only need limited access to? Because of you're going to move stuff on and off the shelving regularly, you don't want a ceiling mounted system.