Having to redo all the trim up in the loft, I really didn't want to have to manually nail everything, and I was reluctant to drag the compressor and hose and pneumatic finish nailer up 3 flights of stairs for it and listen to that thing run all day while getting the hose hung up on everything so I went to look at the gas operated Paslode finish nailers. Which they don't seem to make or at least Home Depot doesn't carry, they only had the full size framing nailers, and the battery operated finish ones were four hundred dollars... Then I discovered Milwaukee makes one.
And it's awesome. About 500 nails on the smallest battery size. And it was half the price of the Paslode ones, since I'm already invested in the Milwaukee ecosystem and have a bunch of batteries. And since it's a 15 gauge nailer it shoots a legit round nail with a real head instead of the clipped kind, so it has more holding power. Now I need more stuff to nail.
Having to redo all the trim up in the loft, I really didn't want to have to manually nail everything, and I was reluctant to drag the compressor and hose and pneumatic finish nailer up 3 flights of stairs for it and listen to that thing run all day while getting the hose hung up on everything so I went to look at the gas operated Paslode finish nailers. Which they don't seem to make or at least Home Depot doesn't carry, they only had the full size framing nailers, and the battery operated finish ones were four hundred dollars... Then I discovered Milwaukee makes one.
And it's awesome. About 500 nails on the smallest battery size. And it was half the price of the Paslode ones, since I'm already invested in the Milwaukee ecosystem and have a bunch of batteries. And since it's a 15 gauge nailer it shoots a legit round nail with a real head instead of the clipped kind, so it has more holding power. Now I need more stuff to nail.
Be sure to keep your trigger finger on Safe there, cowboy.
Anyone have any experience with electric radiant floor heat underneath carpeting?
Background: first and second floor are steam radiators with laminate/hardwood flooring but finished attic is carpeted with an electric heater.
More permanent then a space heater as it is mounted and also looks similar to a hotwater baseboard with its own thermostat/switch across the room.
The carpet is old and fairly beat up so if we're going to rip it up I was wondering if we could also replace the heater with something that hopefully is safer and works a hell of a lot better.
RedTide#1907 on Battle.net
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Anyone have any experience with electric radiant floor heat underneath carpeting?
Background: first and second floor are steam radiators with laminate/hardwood flooring but finished attic is carpeted with an electric heater.
More permanent then a space heater as it is mounted and also looks similar to a hotwater baseboard with its own thermostat/switch across the room.
The carpet is old and fairly beat up so if we're going to rip it up I was wondering if we could also replace the heater with something that hopefully is safer and works a hell of a lot better.
Is that just an electric baseboard heater? If so, I don't think there's any real safety issues unless it's really old, or there's something wrong with it. (The Seattle area uses those everywhere; they're fine.) You're also not going to get an increase in efficiency, as all electric heaters are 100% efficient at turning electricity into heat. The only way to get more heat is to increase the wattage, which probably means installing better wiring, as most electric heaters are the largest allowable for the circuit. (Better insulation might be a better choice.)
Anyone have any experience with electric radiant floor heat underneath carpeting?
Background: first and second floor are steam radiators with laminate/hardwood flooring but finished attic is carpeted with an electric heater.
More permanent then a space heater as it is mounted and also looks similar to a hotwater baseboard with its own thermostat/switch across the room.
The carpet is old and fairly beat up so if we're going to rip it up I was wondering if we could also replace the heater with something that hopefully is safer and works a hell of a lot better.
Is that just an electric baseboard heater? If so, I don't think there's any real safety issues unless it's really old, or there's something wrong with it. (The Seattle area uses those everywhere; they're fine.) You're also not going to get an increase in efficiency, as all electric heaters are 100% efficient at turning electricity into heat. The only way to get more heat is to increase the wattage, which probably means installing better wiring, as most electric heaters are the largest allowable for the circuit. (Better insulation might be a better choice.)
It's about three feet long, old and never really worked great. It's a fairly big room and having your only heat source in the far corner both dictates too much furniture layout.
The attic is knee walled out and fairly well insulated too (you can see it's rolled stuff from the 90s or so) since they were thorough to the point of insulating the hatches to the crawl spaces.
Besides if be ripping up the carpet anyway, having someone come do some electrical work and lay the pads down doesn't seem like a huge ask.
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If you want to heat the whole room with under floor heat, you're going to be fighting the R value of the padding and carpet. Also the systems that install under carpet are temperature limited more than systems installed under wood or vinyl to prevent melting or burning, so while you'll have warm carpet, it really doesn't heat the whole room well.
Anyone have any experience with electric radiant floor heat underneath carpeting?
Background: first and second floor are steam radiators with laminate/hardwood flooring but finished attic is carpeted with an electric heater.
More permanent then a space heater as it is mounted and also looks similar to a hotwater baseboard with its own thermostat/switch across the room.
The carpet is old and fairly beat up so if we're going to rip it up I was wondering if we could also replace the heater with something that hopefully is safer and works a hell of a lot better.
Is that just an electric baseboard heater? If so, I don't think there's any real safety issues unless it's really old, or there's something wrong with it. (The Seattle area uses those everywhere; they're fine.) You're also not going to get an increase in efficiency, as all electric heaters are 100% efficient at turning electricity into heat. The only way to get more heat is to increase the wattage, which probably means installing better wiring, as most electric heaters are the largest allowable for the circuit. (Better insulation might be a better choice.)
It's about three feet long, old and never really worked great. It's a fairly big room and having your only heat source in the far corner both dictates too much furniture layout.
The attic is knee walled out and fairly well insulated too (you can see it's rolled stuff from the 90s or so) since they were thorough to the point of insulating the hatches to the crawl spaces.
Besides if be ripping up the carpet anyway, having someone come do some electrical work and lay the pads down doesn't seem like a huge ask.
Do you know which breaker the baseboard is on? My suspicion is that it's on the same 120V 20A circuit as the attic outlets, which doesn't give it much actual power to work with compared to a dedicated 240V circuit, leaving it underpowered. (Also, the heater might have a sticker showing the wattage. It would be helpful to know that as well.) Repositioning the heat source can help, but there's only so many watts you can get out of a 120V circuit.
Well between what you two just said I'm back at square one because I don't have a fucking clue as to what to do
Step 1: see how much power you can use. There's a possibility the heater is simply underpowered for some stupid reason. Do this by determining the wattage of the heater, and figure out which circuit it's on.
I was under the impression that the radiant systems were more efficient due to the distributed nature - no need to mechanically spread the heat, and no tendency to allow the warm air to blob to the ceiling and transfer more rapidly across it due to the higher temperature.
Well between what you two just said I'm back at square one because I don't have a fucking clue as to what to do
I'm just saying it's an option, not necessarily the best option, but you could set up a standalone heat pump unit. My good friend from college had success using one to heat and cool his daughter's attic bedroom. He liked it so much that he added a 3-unit system to their new house (which has hot water heat and no A/C).
Yep, your best option is probably to look at a ductless heat pump or ductless AC/Heat Pump combo (usually they come as a combo unit). Bonus is it would probably work better at cooling in the summer than whatever window unit your probably already using. Or if you're looking to add AC to your whole place, up it to a larger mini-split system so you can get the AC head units on your first floor as well.
There's a small metal square cover in my garden, that when it's lifted, you get access to a pipe that takes what you flush from the toilet to the sewer. There's a hole in it, and stones have been getting in and blocking it. Is this going to be an expensive job to fix as I don't have to the skills to fix it myself.
There's a small metal square cover in my garden, that when it's lifted, you get access to a pipe that takes what you flush from the toilet to the sewer. There's a hole in it, and stones have been getting in and blocking it. Is this going to be an expensive job to fix as I don't have to the skills to fix it myself.
Sounds like you just need a new cover on the pipe cleanout. Should be straightforward. Now, whether someone needs to remove the stones and other material causing the blockage first; that could take some time and so you may end up paying for extra (but needed) labor.
So I've been looking at houses for a bit, I found one that I like a lot. Now I need to get pre-qualified - I got a pre-approval from a place but didn't put a ton of thought into it at the time. Does anyone have advice for how to pick a lender beyond just looking at rates? Or does the rest not matter a ton? I've got pretty good credit so I'm not too worried about actually being approved wherever.
So I've been looking at houses for a bit, I found one that I like a lot. Now I need to get pre-qualified - I got a pre-approval from a place but didn't put a ton of thought into it at the time. Does anyone have advice for how to pick a lender beyond just looking at rates? Or does the rest not matter a ton? I've got pretty good credit so I'm not too worried about actually being approved wherever.
They probably are all about the same on rates so it's more about reputation and how fast they can make everything happen.
Another thing to look at is the lender's servicing rate - whether or not they service their own loans or package them up and sell them to a loan servicing company.
I vastly prefer dealing with banks / etc. that act as their own servicers.
Don't use Wells Fargo is my only advice. When it flooded here in 2016, the people I knew/knew of with Wells Fargo mortgages had nothing but hassle trying to get their insurance money released to them to pay contractors, etc. Like months of hassle, not days or weeks.
Should I hit up my local credit union and talk to a loan officer there? I don't really know like, what order to go about doing stuff for a first house. Gonna start looking at houses with some friends starting in like a week or so and get a feel for the sort of things I'd want in a house and what's available in the area.
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That_GuyI don't wanna be that guyRegistered Userregular
I recommend going with a small independent mortgage broker, even if they will be sending it along to a servicing company. My guy bought his franchise from fairway.
like, that first house costs two and a half times what I paid for mine, and my house is slightly bigger
Welcome to the repercussions of Proposition 13. Because of the state forbidding reassessment of homes except on transfer, this encourages people to hold onto houses for longer than they would otherwise, because of that tax rate. Which has had all sorts of "fun" knock on effects.
The only thing I could think of with that 1/1 is that maybe it's on an R2 lot so you can build a duplex on it which would immediately be a 1mil+ property.
Woo, contacted a realtor about a house I saw online. Got a viewing setup for Saturday. He pointed me in the direction of someone to get pre-approved for a mortgage. I've been asking around for who might be a good mortgage broker in the area and the realtor said he'd recommend me a few, too, but idk how trustworthy that is. How did you guys end up settling on a mortgage broker or lender? Just shopping around locally?
Anyway, pretty pumped about the place I'm looking at. It's in the price range I was looking at, but might be more than I can get approved for.
I wound up going with the local bank my parents used, mainly because of them being local and keeping their mortgages, and because they treated my parents well.
That 2nd one is funny because that's a quite serviceable starter home. Unfortunately it should have a starter home's price, not one inflated because you could build a 8 bedroom 3 story house on that lot.
not a doctor, not a lawyer, examples I use may not be fully researched so don't take out of context plz, don't @ me
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That_GuyI don't wanna be that guyRegistered Userregular
God, that 2nd house is pending sale. I really hope the final price is WAY WAY under asking. It's probably going to be over, though.
like, that first house costs two and a half times what I paid for mine, and my house is slightly bigger
Welcome to the repercussions of Proposition 13. Because of the state forbidding reassessment of homes except on transfer, this encourages people to hold onto houses for longer than they would otherwise, because of that tax rate. Which has had all sorts of "fun" knock on effects.
Wait, what? Does the government not asses property values yearly there? It's how we do it in BC, but I never considered if other places would do it differently.
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Guess there's a trip up a ladder with a nail gun and a tube of roofing tar in my near future.
And it's awesome. About 500 nails on the smallest battery size. And it was half the price of the Paslode ones, since I'm already invested in the Milwaukee ecosystem and have a bunch of batteries. And since it's a 15 gauge nailer it shoots a legit round nail with a real head instead of the clipped kind, so it has more holding power. Now I need more stuff to nail.
(Srsly though that's pretty cool)
Be sure to keep your trigger finger on Safe there, cowboy.
Background: first and second floor are steam radiators with laminate/hardwood flooring but finished attic is carpeted with an electric heater.
More permanent then a space heater as it is mounted and also looks similar to a hotwater baseboard with its own thermostat/switch across the room.
The carpet is old and fairly beat up so if we're going to rip it up I was wondering if we could also replace the heater with something that hopefully is safer and works a hell of a lot better.
Come Overwatch with meeeee
Is that just an electric baseboard heater? If so, I don't think there's any real safety issues unless it's really old, or there's something wrong with it. (The Seattle area uses those everywhere; they're fine.) You're also not going to get an increase in efficiency, as all electric heaters are 100% efficient at turning electricity into heat. The only way to get more heat is to increase the wattage, which probably means installing better wiring, as most electric heaters are the largest allowable for the circuit. (Better insulation might be a better choice.)
It's about three feet long, old and never really worked great. It's a fairly big room and having your only heat source in the far corner both dictates too much furniture layout.
The attic is knee walled out and fairly well insulated too (you can see it's rolled stuff from the 90s or so) since they were thorough to the point of insulating the hatches to the crawl spaces.
Besides if be ripping up the carpet anyway, having someone come do some electrical work and lay the pads down doesn't seem like a huge ask.
Come Overwatch with meeeee
Do you know which breaker the baseboard is on? My suspicion is that it's on the same 120V 20A circuit as the attic outlets, which doesn't give it much actual power to work with compared to a dedicated 240V circuit, leaving it underpowered. (Also, the heater might have a sticker showing the wattage. It would be helpful to know that as well.) Repositioning the heat source can help, but there's only so many watts you can get out of a 120V circuit.
Come Overwatch with meeeee
Step 1: see how much power you can use. There's a possibility the heater is simply underpowered for some stupid reason. Do this by determining the wattage of the heater, and figure out which circuit it's on.
I'm just saying it's an option, not necessarily the best option, but you could set up a standalone heat pump unit. My good friend from college had success using one to heat and cool his daughter's attic bedroom. He liked it so much that he added a 3-unit system to their new house (which has hot water heat and no A/C).
Sounds like you just need a new cover on the pipe cleanout. Should be straightforward. Now, whether someone needs to remove the stones and other material causing the blockage first; that could take some time and so you may end up paying for extra (but needed) labor.
They probably are all about the same on rates so it's more about reputation and how fast they can make everything happen.
I vastly prefer dealing with banks / etc. that act as their own servicers.
Steam: Elvenshae // PSN: Elvenshae // WotC: Elvenshae
Wilds of Aladrion: [https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/comment/43159014/#Comment_43159014]Ellandryn[/url]
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We went through an independent broker 7 years ago and our mortgage ended up getting sold
...to Wells Fargo.
We haven't had issues so far and the rate is now too good for other banks to at least match if we attempt a refi.
I'm still not completely comfortable with it.
https://www.redfin.com/CA/Signal-Hill/2073-Stanley-Ave-90755/home/7575472
and for a laugh, holy shit:
https://www.redfin.com/CA/Redondo-Beach/18530-Mansel-Ave-90278/home/6573666
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good god, california is nuts
like, that first house costs two and a half times what I paid for mine, and my house is slightly bigger
I may never stop laughing.
Welcome to the repercussions of Proposition 13. Because of the state forbidding reassessment of homes except on transfer, this encourages people to hold onto houses for longer than they would otherwise, because of that tax rate. Which has had all sorts of "fun" knock on effects.
Anyway, pretty pumped about the place I'm looking at. It's in the price range I was looking at, but might be more than I can get approved for.
GREAT STARTER HOME OR BUILD YOUR DREAM HOME
649,000 for a shack is not a great starter home you goober
Yes you can actually start lowballing them.
That 2nd one is funny because that's a quite serviceable starter home. Unfortunately it should have a starter home's price, not one inflated because you could build a 8 bedroom 3 story house on that lot.
Wait, what? Does the government not asses property values yearly there? It's how we do it in BC, but I never considered if other places would do it differently.