I sort of have the same setup. The washer and dryer are in a glorified double wide closet. There are two racks above everything. I don't actually store clothes there though, just the extra packs of toilet paper really. I've never had an issue with mustiness or anything. I just leave the doors open while I'm running the machines, and that should be more than enough.
"The sausage of Green Earth explodes with flavor like the cannon of culinary delight."
We bought our house a little over a year ago. It's a new build, although we weren't involved in the design or construction.
The HVAC broke six months in. We've been working with the seller's (i.e., builder's) HVAC contractor to try and get it fixed for eight months now, and it's still broken. The contractor is the flakiest person alive. He's unresponsive to texts until we've sent a dozen messages begging for a response. He then sets a date when he'll come to the house and then no-shows. We badger him for an explanation, and he says he hurt his knee, or he got t-boned (twice), or he has influenza (four times). Always some sort of bullshit excuse. For eight months! That's a full winter without heat and nearly a full summer without AC.
Part of the problem is he seems to have made some progress over the eight months. He's fully dissambled our units and removed their circuit boards and compressors. He brought a Daikin rep to the site to verify that we qualify for parts replacements. He's done an acid test or something. It's been so much fucking work getting him out here for each of these steps, but he's close now, we think. But he won't finish the fucking job. And it's so fucking hot.
We haven't paid him anything yet. We have a parts warranty covering the materials, and he's supposed to be going through the builder for labor.
What do I do here? Eight months is insane for an HVAC repair, right? Do I bite the bullet and find a new contractor and restart the clock on what might be a new eight-month saga to get this fixed, which will inevitably be a new pain in the ass given our units are half-disassembled with their circuit boards and compressors removed and there's already a Daikin parts claim in progress?
Or is there any way I can just coerce this contractor to finish this fucking job?
At this point in the process many owners end up calling a law firm that specializes in construction defect claims. There's no guarantee the problem will be fixed in a timely manner when a lawsuit is involved, but the contractor will at least be notified, have to respond, and in some states there is a process (like SB800 in Colorado) that mandates a certain period where the contractor is allowed to make repairs. Meaning the owner might at least get the contractor's attention and a response.
I'm not saying this is the best option, construction defect litigation is long and sometimes fruitless but it is an option, but sometimes a letter from a lawyer is enough to light a fire under a contractor's ass. I'll add I'm not a lawyer and i'm not handing out legal advice.
Has anyone here filed burglary related home insurance claims before? I'm wondering if like all other insurance this is going to be a worthless load of horseshit and I wont get anything out of it.
My parents filed a claim when some kids stole our lawn tractor, our bicycles, and the change out of my dad’s truck. Their insurance paid to replace the tractor, as I recall. The bikes were all garage sale specials, though, so I don’t remember what came of that. That is adjacent knowledge, so not sure how helpful.
Edit: they did have to file a police report, so there’s that.
Has anyone here filed burglary related home insurance claims before? I'm wondering if like all other insurance this is going to be a worthless load of horseshit and I wont get anything out of it.
On rental insurance yes. But the process is kind of shit. Cause they ask you what was stolen, then make you figure out the replacement value (if you have replacement value) of each item and scrutinize it. So unless it’s something like someone stole your TV or riding lawnmower or something obvious. It’s a pain in the ass to capture everything.
Has anyone here filed burglary related home insurance claims before? I'm wondering if like all other insurance this is going to be a worthless load of horseshit and I wont get anything out of it.
On rental insurance yes. But the process is kind of shit. Cause they ask you what was stolen, then make you figure out the replacement value (if you have replacement value) of each item and scrutinize it. So unless it’s something like someone stole your TV or riding lawnmower or something obvious. It’s a pain in the ass to capture everything.
Thankfully / unthankfully almost everything they stole was easily to identify and value like a ukulele, headphones, a switch etc.
It was honestly kind of baffling what they took and what they didn't...like passports and social security cards but not the TV or any of the art on the walls.
A stolen identity is worth a lot more than a TV. Get your credit frozen ASAP, sign up for credit monitoring, the whole 9 yards.
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Gabriel_Pitt(effective against Russian warships)Registered Userregular
*sigh* So not the first water heater question here, but I'm a special little flower so I need answers just for my own situation...
So got home late today and the first thing I noticed was 'hey, is that the sump pump I keep hearing going off?' I got to check, and wow, water is running out of the bottom of the water heater! My one bit of good luck is that it seems to have drained almost entirely into the sump pump, so no additional water damage to the basement...
But now I'm hoping for people's opinions on what's state of the art in new water heaters? The busted one is a fifty gallon, natural gas heated tank, and my inclination is to go for a reasonably priced 50 gallon natural gas replacement. Anything else I should really take this oppurtunity to consider?
*sigh* So not the first water heater question here, but I'm a special little flower so I need answers just for my own situation...
So got home late today and the first thing I noticed was 'hey, is that the sump pump I keep hearing going off?' I got to check, and wow, water is running out of the bottom of the water heater! My one bit of good luck is that it seems to have drained almost entirely into the sump pump, so no additional water damage to the basement...
But now I'm hoping for people's opinions on what's state of the art in new water heaters? The busted one is a fifty gallon, natural gas heated tank, and my inclination is to go for a reasonably priced 50 gallon natural gas replacement. Anything else I should really take this oppurtunity to consider?
Heat pump hot water heaters are expensive but they truly are incredibly efficient.
If I had natural gas though, I don't know why you wouldn't just put in a continuous hot water system instead (smaller unit, doesn't need to store water so no real risk of leaks - my parents one has been going solid for 20+ years).
electricitylikesme on
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Gabriel_Pitt(effective against Russian warships)Registered Userregular
I've loved continuous heaters since my apartments in Japan showed me the light, but there's also the temptation to go 'fuck it, same thing, just newer, git it done.' Heat pump probably isn't too practical for my setup, but when I talk to the home systems people tomorrow, I'll see what the options are for a continuous heater.
Has anyone here filed burglary related home insurance claims before? I'm wondering if like all other insurance this is going to be a worthless load of horseshit and I wont get anything out of it.
On rental insurance yes. But the process is kind of shit. Cause they ask you what was stolen, then make you figure out the replacement value (if you have replacement value) of each item and scrutinize it. So unless it’s something like someone stole your TV or riding lawnmower or something obvious. It’s a pain in the ass to capture everything.
Thankfully / unthankfully almost everything they stole was easily to identify and value like a ukulele, headphones, a switch etc.
It was honestly kind of baffling what they took and what they didn't...like passports and social security cards but not the TV or any of the art on the walls.
So it depends on the burglary and their aims.
Your place wasn't targeted by a burglar crew / cleaned out professionally if they left valuable electronics with $300+ resale value.
If identity and such was stolen identity theft may have been the purpose so get all that cancelled and locked down immediately.
Most likely it was some dumbass rando smash and grab. They grabbed ID / documents hoping to pick up wallets and credit cards but probably won't do much with them or know how to do more than spend a few hundred or thousand dollars in a few days and dump them.
Either way cancel everything, reset everything, if it's worth insurance deductible file a claim.
A stolen identity is worth a lot more than a TV. Get your credit frozen ASAP, sign up for credit monitoring, the whole 9 yards.
to add on to this because its 1000% true, you should go to each of the 3 and do it for FREE. you do not have to pay for anything to put a freeze on your credit. all of them have terrible gimmick web pages that make it seem like you have to pay money. https://www.transunion.com/ https://www.equifax.com/ https://www.experian.com/
A stolen identity is worth a lot more than a TV. Get your credit frozen ASAP, sign up for credit monitoring, the whole 9 yards.
to add on to this because its 1000% true, you should go to each of the 3 and do it for FREE. you do not have to pay for anything to put a freeze on your credit. all of them have terrible gimmick web pages that make it seem like you have to pay money. https://www.transunion.com/ https://www.equifax.com/ https://www.experian.com/
They make it the worst possible experience. I had to thaw my credit for a week for my HVAC.
And then one of them is going to aggressively spam you a day later.
amateurhourOne day I'll be professionalhourThe woods somewhere in TennesseeRegistered Userregular
Dood I don't remember where you live but one thing to consider is that in certain areas (college towns and the like) burglars will come back to the same location if they think it's an easy in.
Just something to consider if you're changing any locks or getting additional security.
Dood I don't remember where you live but one thing to consider is that in certain areas (college towns and the like) burglars will come back to the same location if they think it's an easy in.
Just something to consider if you're changing any locks or getting additional security.
You mean like not leaving a window fully open over night? I'm on it.
It was very obviously a crime of opportunity...and clearly they didn't think most of my shit was worth stealing lol.
Dood I don't remember where you live but one thing to consider is that in certain areas (college towns and the like) burglars will come back to the same location if they think it's an easy in.
Just something to consider if you're changing any locks or getting additional security.
You mean like not leaving a window fully open over night? I'm on it.
It was very obviously a crime of opportunity...and clearly they didn't think most of my shit was worth stealing lol.
I just meant you might want to look into those window guards so they can't open from the outside or one of those little things that goes against a door so it won't open. Little stuff like that can go a long way if someone walks by and tries a door or window. You prolly have it covered though.
Also it's worth setting up logins with all three because managing the freezes is much easier. Keep copies of your freeze codes in a safe.
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thatassemblyguyJanitor of Technical Debt.Registered Userregular
Had a surprise plumbing issue today.
Thankfully it was just the irrigation system which I can shut off at the main since I zero-scaped early on. It seems to have been leaking for a bit, but narrowed down to just this week.
The knob that controls the underlying diaphragm seems to have broke/cannot hold a seal. Sadly, no luck at Lowes getting a replacement as it looks like all of the similar valves have removed that particular knob and there are only replacements for diaphragm, solenoid, or entire unit.
Home-ownership. It's sometimes really fun.
+3
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amateurhourOne day I'll be professionalhourThe woods somewhere in TennesseeRegistered Userregular
Wires in water, the REAL danger noodles
are YOU on the beer list?
+14
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thatassemblyguyJanitor of Technical Debt.Registered Userregular
Currently discussing a multizone split unit/heat pump for the second floor. The retrofitted forced air does shit all through floor vents and most of the runs upstairs are via the external walls.
I don't think a flow balance will really solved the problem. We were considering a mini split for our sunroom as well so I may start fielding options in the next 1-2 months.
Not that we have the funds. We're finishing off summer camp payments and we bought a car in March.
Also if anyone is in the market for one, the Bosch 800 series dishwashers are about $300 off at HD right now.
Thankfully it was just the irrigation system which I can shut off at the main since I zero-scaped early on. It seems to have been leaking for a bit, but narrowed down to just this week.
The knob that controls the underlying diaphragm seems to have broke/cannot hold a seal. Sadly, no luck at Lowes getting a replacement as it looks like all of the similar valves have removed that particular knob and there are only replacements for diaphragm, solenoid, or entire unit.
Home-ownership. It's sometimes really fun.
For the cracked valve, if you find what manufacturer it is and what size pipe fittings it's for, even if they don't make your exact model any more that doesn't really matter, just see if they have an entire replacement valve that has the same square screw hole pattern for the cover. If the leak is only from the top cover/purge screw, you can just remove 4 screws and replace the valve's entire upper cover without needing to cut out and re-plumb the entire valve. I had to do this very thing on my own system this spring.
If the system is off, there's no danger at all. It's also a low voltage system plus the wires are a better conductor than the water is, so the system will work fine for some time under water like that. At least until corrosion makes the connections unreliable.
SiliconStew on
Just remember that half the people you meet are below average intelligence.
Two years ago I had to completely replace and retrofit the innerds of the top tank of a toilet. With absolutely no clue at all what I was doing.
Today I had to do the same exact thing to the other toilet. Only now I have some actual experience and it was a whole lot easier. Well, technically easier. Today's complication is that the toilet shutoff valve is broken. At first it would never turn all the way off. But I was able to slowly wiggle it and get it to spin more. ...And more and more and more. Still doesn't turn off, it just loops from almost off to fully on again. I do not know if I am remotely brave enough to try and fix that by myself. It's also a plastic pipe, not copper. So I don't know what you use instead of solder. Either way, the real fun was going full nuclear and shutting all the water off. Then at the end when the moment of truth arrived... lay down an enormous amount of towels by the toilet, run to the shutoff valve, then book it back to the bathroom to make sure nothing is catastrophically flooding.
Real bothersome that rust and poo have the same colour scheme. Had to keep telling myself no, actual waste never touches this half of a toilet.
"The sausage of Green Earth explodes with flavor like the cannon of culinary delight."
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thatassemblyguyJanitor of Technical Debt.Registered Userregular
For the cracked valve, if you find what manufacturer it is and what size pipe fittings it's for, even if they don't make your exact model any more that doesn't really matter, just see if they have an entire replacement valve that has the same square screw hole pattern for the cover. If the leak is only from the top cover/purge screw, you can just remove 4 screws and replace the valve's entire upper cover without needing to cut out and re-plumb the entire valve. I had to do this very thing on my own system this spring.
yah, I'll have to do a re-do of the diaphragm+solenoid+top cover at best, or a complete replace of those plus the main housing at worst. The hope was that the valve that's in the center (just above the solenoid in the photo) was a simple part that I could buy for a dollar or less today.
Just gonna leave the main water off for now because I wasn't watering the yard anyway, so this point of failure was just an annoyance/waste of water.
Two years ago I had to completely replace and retrofit the innerds of the top tank of a toilet. With absolutely no clue at all what I was doing.
Today I had to do the same exact thing to the other toilet. Only now I have some actual experience and it was a whole lot easier. Well, technically easier. Today's complication is that the toilet shutoff valve is broken. At first it would never turn all the way off. But I was able to slowly wiggle it and get it to spin more. ...And more and more and more. Still doesn't turn off, it just loops from almost off to fully on again. I do not know if I am remotely brave enough to try and fix that by myself. It's also a plastic pipe, not copper. So I don't know what you use instead of solder. Either way, the real fun was going full nuclear and shutting all the water off. Then at the end when the moment of truth arrived... lay down an enormous amount of towels by the toilet, run to the shutoff valve, then book it back to the bathroom to make sure nothing is catastrophically flooding.
Real bothersome that rust and poo have the same colour scheme. Had to keep telling myself no, actual waste never touches this half of a toilet.
I....don't know if it's code compliant to have nonmetal pipe at the toilet. Unless it's PEX. But with PEX, the full valve assembly is still all metal.
Do future you a favor and put in ball valves that only have to turn 90 degrees once to shut off instead of those Goddamn oval handled offences to nature.
Technically the oval handled ones are just fine if they get exercise regularly, but none of us do that.
My toilet supply stub outs are CPVC, you can also get sharkbite valves so it just slips on the end without needing to do solder or wait for solvent to dry.
Turns out when I took down the old deck next to the old filled in pool, what was actually going on was that someone had demolished the side of the pool, then filled it with dirt, so the pool skin was now the only thing resisting many tons of dirt and also had rusted right through. So the deck was probably actually structurally vital...but also in no way designed for this.
Oh and also at some point a separate garden was built on top of this, but that was sitting on the collapsing pool liner, so a lot more direct and timber was sitting over literally nothing except leaning sideways against the deck - which I was taking apart because it was also rotting and falling apart and was disturbingly wobbly and not really attached to stuff.
Long story short, I spent a lot of time digging out those garden beds to remove enough soil so I could safely dismantle the deck, the garden sleepers and generally stop wood making crackly sounds and moving when I walked over the garden.
I am not kidding: at this point I'm considering excavating the entire garden (filled in pool) and converting the whole thing into an underground bunker because why the fuck not, I'm going to have to dig out so much of this thing to start with.
Yes, my two neighbors in this three-building construction are also having the same HVAC issue. The contractor's working on all three houses, and we take turns texting this guy to keep the pressure up to get him to show.
We are all actually suing the builder/seller for an unrelated reason... that means the builder/seller is totally unresponsive to us, but it also means we have a running tally of expenses we're trying to claw back from the builder/seller onto which we can add these HVAC labor costs.
It's possible he's worried he won't get paid by the builder, although we haven't heard him say that. Either way, I'm thinking we'll tell the contractor we'll pay for the labor ourselves if he expedites this.
This really sucks and I hope it works out for you. We were lucky enough to talk to a few folks with inside knowledge of the builders in the area so we were able to pick one of the good ones. They all mentioned 2 builders in particular to stay away from, where they go as cheap on materials and labor as possible, spending the extra money on large legal teams to combat all the lawsuits they see. But sadly since we're in a major city, inventory sucks, so folks don't have much of a choice.
Did you know as an adult all you need is a driver's license and credit card, and for less than $1k / week you can have an excavator delivered to do whatever you want no questions asked?
And nobody will ever ask or care as long as you return it unbroken and mostly clean with a full tank of gas / diesel.
It was wild learning this is something you can just rent over the phone and have dropped off the next day. It's easier than renting a car!
How do you get it gas? Drive to the station with it?
Medium sized ones, like a tractor loader / excavator will usually run most of a workday on a 5 gallon can of diesel. It basically idles running the hydraulic pump if you are using the excavator and not driving around.
Edit - I think I used like 7-8 gallons on the 10 hour day I was mostly driving the tractor and using the loader as opposed to parking with the outriggers and excavating.
Edit2 - also pro tip if you ever partially roll one and get it stuck but it's still running, you can use the excavator and loader to crab walk you out of the shit before you have to make a very embarassing call to a tow truck or extraction service. This may be dumb and bad or dangerous advice for the record.
Added another two Billy bookshelves from ikea to the growing wall of books. There’s enough room for one more narrow shelf, or a tall plant/some other bit of decor, but otherwise I’ve got a full stretch of the wall covered now. Will need to tweak the wall anchors bit for alignment before I move forward with my fake built-in look, but a quick demo with some stick on molding between the shelves actually looked really nice.
Probably won’t go too insane with this, but I think a bit of crown molding and wrapping baseboard around the fronts will go a long way. This has been a pretty satisfying little project to build on every few months, though I’ve got all of two inches of space between the extended bookshelf tops and the ceiling, so my hands are a mess from screwing in the wall anchors.
We did this exact thing a while ago, it was pretty easy. Before:
After:
Long delay, but: That looks great, thanks for sharing. I’ve made the mistake(?) of not lifting the shelves off the ground and having a lack of uniform separation between units (just jammed as closely together as possible), but I think it should just about work out to fill one wall with one more of the narrow shelving units. I did a little test using those adhesive vinyl molding strips to seal the gap between units and it looked surprisingly good, but it bugs me to spend like $100 bucks on those strips when $20 of trim would probably accomplish the same thing for a few hours of extra work and hold up better. Especially if I’m going to be cutting baseboard and crown molding anyway.
Since I posted this way back, I’ve now caved and bought all the units for the opposite wall to install next long weekend. I figured out how to handle the shelves covering vents in an aesthetically satisfying fashion (cut out the back of the bottom shelves, install some kind of complementary-colored mesh/grating at the front to allow and conceal ventilation), so when I get all these units in it’ll be time to think about how to give them the proper built-in look.
Actually, on further consideration, I don’t think I’ve cracked this vent/wall register issue after all. I think the right answer would be rerouting them entirely to elsewhere in the room, but that’s not something I’m interested in doing myself. Never touched HVAC stuff, I fucking hate working with drywall, and I don’t want to add another 500+ bucks to this project right now.
I’ve found these (https://toekickductor.com/product/toe-ductor-wall-vent-kits/ ) Toe Kick Ductor kits that essentially serve to extend the vent out, and I could probably make that work, but they’re $70 a pop and there’s a risk there might not be enough space behind the bookshelves to run the ducting. Main issue is the vent and return registers are in a corner, very close to each other (side by side studs), and the way the Billy shelf corner connectors work, there’s some pretty narrow gaps. Might be doing some experiments this weekend.
You can't fuck anything up when you work with ventilation in a room. It's literally a hole in the floor for air to flow through.
Making some assumptions on which is return and which is vent, you can use wood to make a duct to move air from the wall through the bookcase. You want to minimize the volume under the shelf because the air will fill it before it flows into the room.
For the return, measure the opening location and size, go slightly bigger so you have some slop, then install a new cover in the shelf. You don't need to seal the area between the shelf and the return because the return will pull air from wherever it can. You can paint the cover to match your shelf.
The return doesn't need to stay fully unblocked, and the air pull won't suck anything onto the register that's heavier than a few sheets of paper.
Hopefully this helps. I can try to give you some more tips as needed. I've done quite a few mods to vents as we've lived in this house and I built my own runout/extension for a floor vent in our kitchen that had a cabinet built over it. (I built the extension before the cabinets went in)
You can't fuck anything up when you work with ventilation in a room. It's literally a hole in the floor for air to flow through.
I'd say the only mistake was done when the house was built, so not much to be done about now without excessive work. They shouldn't have put the vent and return right next to each other as that doesn't promote air circulation to provide more even temperatures in the room.
SiliconStew on
Just remember that half the people you meet are below average intelligence.
My mistake on that, actually, it’s two side-by-side returns, which I didn’t know was a thing. Might be a stroke of luck though if that’s more forgiving for than a vent for airflow. My original plan might still work (leaving the bottom shelves backless, installing some painted drainage panels or something comparable to fit), I’m thinking, so long as the registers can be accessed for occasional dusting without it being a complete pain in the ass.
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At this point in the process many owners end up calling a law firm that specializes in construction defect claims. There's no guarantee the problem will be fixed in a timely manner when a lawsuit is involved, but the contractor will at least be notified, have to respond, and in some states there is a process (like SB800 in Colorado) that mandates a certain period where the contractor is allowed to make repairs. Meaning the owner might at least get the contractor's attention and a response.
I'm not saying this is the best option, construction defect litigation is long and sometimes fruitless but it is an option, but sometimes a letter from a lawyer is enough to light a fire under a contractor's ass. I'll add I'm not a lawyer and i'm not handing out legal advice.
Edit: they did have to file a police report, so there’s that.
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Thankfully / unthankfully almost everything they stole was easily to identify and value like a ukulele, headphones, a switch etc.
It was honestly kind of baffling what they took and what they didn't...like passports and social security cards but not the TV or any of the art on the walls.
So got home late today and the first thing I noticed was 'hey, is that the sump pump I keep hearing going off?' I got to check, and wow, water is running out of the bottom of the water heater! My one bit of good luck is that it seems to have drained almost entirely into the sump pump, so no additional water damage to the basement...
But now I'm hoping for people's opinions on what's state of the art in new water heaters? The busted one is a fifty gallon, natural gas heated tank, and my inclination is to go for a reasonably priced 50 gallon natural gas replacement. Anything else I should really take this oppurtunity to consider?
Heat pump hot water heaters are expensive but they truly are incredibly efficient.
If I had natural gas though, I don't know why you wouldn't just put in a continuous hot water system instead (smaller unit, doesn't need to store water so no real risk of leaks - my parents one has been going solid for 20+ years).
So it depends on the burglary and their aims.
Your place wasn't targeted by a burglar crew / cleaned out professionally if they left valuable electronics with $300+ resale value.
If identity and such was stolen identity theft may have been the purpose so get all that cancelled and locked down immediately.
Most likely it was some dumbass rando smash and grab. They grabbed ID / documents hoping to pick up wallets and credit cards but probably won't do much with them or know how to do more than spend a few hundred or thousand dollars in a few days and dump them.
Either way cancel everything, reset everything, if it's worth insurance deductible file a claim.
https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/passports/have-passport/lost-stolen.html
to add on to this because its 1000% true, you should go to each of the 3 and do it for FREE. you do not have to pay for anything to put a freeze on your credit. all of them have terrible gimmick web pages that make it seem like you have to pay money.
https://www.transunion.com/
https://www.equifax.com/
https://www.experian.com/
Blizzard: Pailryder#1101
GoG: https://www.gog.com/u/pailryder
And then one of them is going to aggressively spam you a day later.
Definitely had the vibe of kids or tweakers...
Like who takes green chartruese, a nintendo 64 and a ukulele but leaves a framed Shepard Fairey on the wall.
Just something to consider if you're changing any locks or getting additional security.
You mean like not leaving a window fully open over night? I'm on it.
It was very obviously a crime of opportunity...and clearly they didn't think most of my shit was worth stealing lol.
I just meant you might want to look into those window guards so they can't open from the outside or one of those little things that goes against a door so it won't open. Little stuff like that can go a long way if someone walks by and tries a door or window. You prolly have it covered though.
A Freeze and a Lock are 2 different things . You want the Freeze.
https://clark.com/credit/credit-freeze-and-thaw-guide/
That guide is regularly updated
Also it's worth setting up logins with all three because managing the freezes is much easier. Keep copies of your freeze codes in a safe.
Thankfully it was just the irrigation system which I can shut off at the main since I zero-scaped early on. It seems to have been leaking for a bit, but narrowed down to just this week.
The knob that controls the underlying diaphragm seems to have broke/cannot hold a seal. Sadly, no luck at Lowes getting a replacement as it looks like all of the similar valves have removed that particular knob and there are only replacements for diaphragm, solenoid, or entire unit.
Home-ownership. It's sometimes really fun.
It was definitely a heroic moment for my wet/dry vacuum earlier this morning.
I don't think a flow balance will really solved the problem. We were considering a mini split for our sunroom as well so I may start fielding options in the next 1-2 months.
Not that we have the funds. We're finishing off summer camp payments and we bought a car in March.
Also if anyone is in the market for one, the Bosch 800 series dishwashers are about $300 off at HD right now.
For the cracked valve, if you find what manufacturer it is and what size pipe fittings it's for, even if they don't make your exact model any more that doesn't really matter, just see if they have an entire replacement valve that has the same square screw hole pattern for the cover. If the leak is only from the top cover/purge screw, you can just remove 4 screws and replace the valve's entire upper cover without needing to cut out and re-plumb the entire valve. I had to do this very thing on my own system this spring.
If the system is off, there's no danger at all. It's also a low voltage system plus the wires are a better conductor than the water is, so the system will work fine for some time under water like that. At least until corrosion makes the connections unreliable.
Today I had to do the same exact thing to the other toilet. Only now I have some actual experience and it was a whole lot easier. Well, technically easier. Today's complication is that the toilet shutoff valve is broken. At first it would never turn all the way off. But I was able to slowly wiggle it and get it to spin more. ...And more and more and more. Still doesn't turn off, it just loops from almost off to fully on again. I do not know if I am remotely brave enough to try and fix that by myself. It's also a plastic pipe, not copper. So I don't know what you use instead of solder. Either way, the real fun was going full nuclear and shutting all the water off. Then at the end when the moment of truth arrived... lay down an enormous amount of towels by the toilet, run to the shutoff valve, then book it back to the bathroom to make sure nothing is catastrophically flooding.
Real bothersome that rust and poo have the same colour scheme. Had to keep telling myself no, actual waste never touches this half of a toilet.
yah, I'll have to do a re-do of the diaphragm+solenoid+top cover at best, or a complete replace of those plus the main housing at worst. The hope was that the valve that's in the center (just above the solenoid in the photo) was a simple part that I could buy for a dollar or less today.
Just gonna leave the main water off for now because I wasn't watering the yard anyway, so this point of failure was just an annoyance/waste of water.
I....don't know if it's code compliant to have nonmetal pipe at the toilet. Unless it's PEX. But with PEX, the full valve assembly is still all metal.
Do future you a favor and put in ball valves that only have to turn 90 degrees once to shut off instead of those Goddamn oval handled offences to nature.
Technically the oval handled ones are just fine if they get exercise regularly, but none of us do that.
Oh and also at some point a separate garden was built on top of this, but that was sitting on the collapsing pool liner, so a lot more direct and timber was sitting over literally nothing except leaning sideways against the deck - which I was taking apart because it was also rotting and falling apart and was disturbingly wobbly and not really attached to stuff.
Long story short, I spent a lot of time digging out those garden beds to remove enough soil so I could safely dismantle the deck, the garden sleepers and generally stop wood making crackly sounds and moving when I walked over the garden.
I am not kidding: at this point I'm considering excavating the entire garden (filled in pool) and converting the whole thing into an underground bunker because why the fuck not, I'm going to have to dig out so much of this thing to start with.
This really sucks and I hope it works out for you. We were lucky enough to talk to a few folks with inside knowledge of the builders in the area so we were able to pick one of the good ones. They all mentioned 2 builders in particular to stay away from, where they go as cheap on materials and labor as possible, spending the extra money on large legal teams to combat all the lawsuits they see. But sadly since we're in a major city, inventory sucks, so folks don't have much of a choice.
Did you know as an adult all you need is a driver's license and credit card, and for less than $1k / week you can have an excavator delivered to do whatever you want no questions asked?
And nobody will ever ask or care as long as you return it unbroken and mostly clean with a full tank of gas / diesel.
It was wild learning this is something you can just rent over the phone and have dropped off the next day. It's easier than renting a car!
Medium sized ones, like a tractor loader / excavator will usually run most of a workday on a 5 gallon can of diesel. It basically idles running the hydraulic pump if you are using the excavator and not driving around.
Edit - I think I used like 7-8 gallons on the 10 hour day I was mostly driving the tractor and using the loader as opposed to parking with the outriggers and excavating.
Edit2 - also pro tip if you ever partially roll one and get it stuck but it's still running, you can use the excavator and loader to crab walk you out of the shit before you have to make a very embarassing call to a tow truck or extraction service. This may be dumb and bad or dangerous advice for the record.
Long delay, but: That looks great, thanks for sharing. I’ve made the mistake(?) of not lifting the shelves off the ground and having a lack of uniform separation between units (just jammed as closely together as possible), but I think it should just about work out to fill one wall with one more of the narrow shelving units. I did a little test using those adhesive vinyl molding strips to seal the gap between units and it looked surprisingly good, but it bugs me to spend like $100 bucks on those strips when $20 of trim would probably accomplish the same thing for a few hours of extra work and hold up better. Especially if I’m going to be cutting baseboard and crown molding anyway.
Since I posted this way back, I’ve now caved and bought all the units for the opposite wall to install next long weekend. I figured out how to handle the shelves covering vents in an aesthetically satisfying fashion (cut out the back of the bottom shelves, install some kind of complementary-colored mesh/grating at the front to allow and conceal ventilation), so when I get all these units in it’ll be time to think about how to give them the proper built-in look.
I’ve found these (https://toekickductor.com/product/toe-ductor-wall-vent-kits/ ) Toe Kick Ductor kits that essentially serve to extend the vent out, and I could probably make that work, but they’re $70 a pop and there’s a risk there might not be enough space behind the bookshelves to run the ducting. Main issue is the vent and return registers are in a corner, very close to each other (side by side studs), and the way the Billy shelf corner connectors work, there’s some pretty narrow gaps. Might be doing some experiments this weekend.
Making some assumptions on which is return and which is vent, you can use wood to make a duct to move air from the wall through the bookcase. You want to minimize the volume under the shelf because the air will fill it before it flows into the room.
For the return, measure the opening location and size, go slightly bigger so you have some slop, then install a new cover in the shelf. You don't need to seal the area between the shelf and the return because the return will pull air from wherever it can. You can paint the cover to match your shelf.
The return doesn't need to stay fully unblocked, and the air pull won't suck anything onto the register that's heavier than a few sheets of paper.
Hopefully this helps. I can try to give you some more tips as needed. I've done quite a few mods to vents as we've lived in this house and I built my own runout/extension for a floor vent in our kitchen that had a cabinet built over it. (I built the extension before the cabinets went in)
I'd say the only mistake was done when the house was built, so not much to be done about now without excessive work. They shouldn't have put the vent and return right next to each other as that doesn't promote air circulation to provide more even temperatures in the room.