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Fuck Bob Vila... the Home Repair Thread

Discussion in 'Permanent Threads' started by Nettdata, Jan 16, 2010.

  1. gamecocks

    gamecocks
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    Thanks y'all. Sounds like a semi frustrating afternoon but doable. Parts already here.
     
  2. wexton

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    20170912_174138.jpg


    20170912_192917.jpg

    Never ending fucking story of this house. As you can see, when they built the retaining wall they built it not at the end of the house put 1.5' back right up against the siding. So you know putting an extra piece of ply wood and paper is going to back all the difference.
     
  3. Crown Royal

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    Just call me Topher

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    Don't you love it when you find out the previous owners hired vandals to renovate your home?

    When we bought this house the only room that wasn't finished was the laundry room, although it had a drop ceiling like the rest of the basement. When I decided to finish the laundry roomI had to disconnect the wall fasteners for the drop ceiling. So I unscrew the first one, and I instantly find out that was the only screw holding that entire corner of the fucking room up.

    The ceiling came right down on my head, twisting its thin aluminum joists in the process which took forever for me to bang back into their memory position (viva la ball-peen). I was not happy. I never liked drop ceilings in the first place. They're ugly and it freaks me out what could be in there.
     
  4. TheDiminished

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    Follow up on this - Termidor works fucking wonders. I mixed 1.2 oz into a gallon sprayer of water, and laid a perimeter around the house, spraying where the concrete foundation meets the vinyl siding, and a foot out from it in the dirt.

    Two days later, I have yet to see one single fucking ant on the outside of the house, and I'm seeing one or two occasionally on the inside (will use baits for this). Termidor is some goddamn miracle bug death spray. $80 USD for a 20oz bottle, but as effective as this is, and comparing it to the $200 any local exterminator is charging for the same thing, it's well worth it.
     
  5. AFHokie

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    Nothing like having a major appliance shit itself the day you leave for a multi-week work trip. The other half troubleshot it and the fix is a new control panel that goes for about $300. It's a 20+yr old dishwasher, (came with the condo) so I figured its not worth the pain of fixing and you'd think in a major city, at least one store selling appliances could deliver & install a new dishwasher inside of three weeks before I returned...well, apparently not, so my welcome home gift is picking up and installing a new dishwasher on Saturday when I get home.
     
  6. TheDiminished

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    Been in my house a couple months now, and so far it’s been awesome. Noticed a small diagonal crack in the drywall on the wall separating the master bedroom from master bathroom on both sides. I figured it was house settling (was built in ‘01) over the years. I’m not sure if I’m being OCD about this, or if the crack is actually spreading, but it seems noticeable enough that I should do something about it, or at least find out what’s going on.

    House has 9 foot high ceilings throughout, single story home. No cracking around any other doors in the home. This crack shown is from inside the master bathroom, the master bedroom wall has a similar crack (albeit smaller), in almost the same spot, and traveling in the same direction.

    Anyone have any advice on how to approach this?
     

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  7. Flat_Rate

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    Mark the end of the crack with a pencil and give it a few weeks to see if it gets longer.

    If it doesn’t it’s most likely some settling, drywall compound and fresh paint will fix it up.
     
  8. Rush-O-Matic

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    Is your house slab-on-grade or does it have a crawl space?

    If the previous owner painted over that crack and it's appeared in a couple months, and it's due to a type of settlement, as Flat Rate suggests, you can spackle and paint again. If it cracks in exactly the same spot, that will be useful to know as to how to proceed - and I would expect that more in a slab-on-grade house.
     
  9. Nettdata

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    It could also potentially be a result of water damage, or improper support. I say that only because you're saying it's in the master bathroom. If the tub doesn't have proper floor support, or the moisture control isn't correct, it could be rotting a bit and therefore sagging, resulting in that same kind of cracking.

    You might want to keep an eye out for any moisture showing up where it's not supposed to be... if you can, maybe crawl under it and see if there's anything leaking or other signs of ugliness underneath, structural or otherwise.
     
  10. TheDiminished

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    House does have a crawl space, easily accessible through the master closet through the master bathroom. Gonna try the pencil thing and see if it moves.

    Is settling of the house normal after 16 years?
     
  11. TheDiminished

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    The bathroom doesn’t have a tub, only shower, and the wall in question is on the completely opposite side of the bathroom than the shower. Crawlspace is easy to get to, so it’d be easy to check out. The house just had an inspection before closing in July, and there was no leaking problems anywhere near the wall then.
     
  12. Nettdata

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    Which means it could have more leverage if something was leaking and weakening things under it.

    I'd still crawl under it and take a look, if you can... a LOT of home inspectors don't like to get dirty, and I've seen more bad ones than good ones. (My parents were real estate agents and property managers for 30+ years... I've seen some fucked up stuff when it came to home inspectors).
     
  13. TheDiminished

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    Worth a look for sure. They definitely went underneath the house, and took a shit ton of pictures. Found a small patch of insulation loose underneath the house, and the master shower drain needed resealed (nothing major at the time, and pretty far from the wall, but was fixed). They seemed fairly thorough based on the pictures and inspection book I received. For sure gonna look under the house later today though.
     
  14. GTE

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    I lived about a mile from a pretty good sized river and depending on if we're in a drought or not, I'd have quite a bit of shifting. Even with "Normal" weather, the ground will shift a bit. The latch on my gate had two sets of holes, one for the rainy season (winter) and another set of holes about 3/8" over for the summer season. When we put the house on the market we put all new carpet in. I checked every room for cracks and one bedroom had a hairline crack in the concrete and that was it. House was built in 1979.
     
  15. Nettdata

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    So I just ran across this guy's YouTube channel.

    This dude is damn interesting when it comes to tools and building. You can tell he's a pro who's been doing it forever.

    I learned a shit-ton from just this one video:



    Excuse me while I head out to the shop to cut my leg off and poke out an eye.
     
  16. Juice

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    Aside from having a plumber come do it, does anyone have any ideas of how I can increase water pressure in my shower? The three shower on the same floor is fine. We had a new furnace/boiler put in 2 weeks and ago and the flow in this particular one is low.
     
  17. Rush-O-Matic

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    Might need more info . . . Was the shower fine before you had the new water heater put in? If so, the installation could've cause some of the mineral deposits to clog in the head. Did you take it off and clean it? You can also remove the flow restrictor (or drill a hole in it), if it's a newer head. (It's usually blue.) Do you have the same shower heads in both places? Do you have a pressure regulator where the water line enters the house? New construction (less than 20 years) or old construction?
     
  18. Juice

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    House is 30 years old. Haven’t cleaned it yet, but I can, different shower heads, the other one is a brand new efficifiency shower head installed by the energy auditors. Flow was low before, but is definitely a bit lower now.
     
  19. wexton

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    The efficifiency ones always knock the pressure down. Most the time you can take the shower head apart and remove the little restrictor.
     
  20. GTE

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    My buddy Newman can hook you up with a black market Yugoslavian Commando 450. Originally used by the circus to wash elephants.