How bad is it to have a willow tree in your backyard?
My grandparents had 2 really beautiful willows on their back lot that they eventually cut down due to invasive species. However I know their roots go everywhere..
I am looking to buy my first house and this place is basically excellent(down the street from a good friend, well within my price range, neighbor only on one side, conservation lands surrounding, and a nice 3 seasons room to serve s a catio) but a willow not far from the house in the backyard. I know if the root hit the septic its bad times, anyone have any experience with this?
@Alexandier are you concerned about the roots getting to septic tank? In the UK we have a Root Protection Zone/Area which as a rule of thumb is the area could should have from features. There'll be a US equivalent (I assume you're in the US) I'm sure, you may want to get someone to take a proper look.
This bit may be useful to give you a general idea :
Root Protection Area is defined as a layout design tool indicating the minimum area around a tree deemed to contain sufficient roots and rooting volume to maintain the tree’s viability, and where the protection of the roots and soil structure is treated as a priority.
How is a root protection area calculated?
The British Standard 5837, RPA is calculated by multiplying the diameter of the tree at breast height in meters by 12 but is capped as an area with a radius of 15m.
How far do roots spread? There has been very little research into the extent of root systems but it is clear that they extend well beyond the crown drip line (Perry, 1982) and maybe as much as seven times the crown area or 2.5 times the crown radius.
Tree roots are primarily in the top 30cms because further down in the soil, oxygen becomes more limiting and roots need to respire. Unfortunately, the area does not usually take into account the extent of the mycorrhizal (fungus-root) fungi directly associated with the fine roots.
Ah ha, it was the album image that was jacking everything up, thanks Bowen!
Spoilered for gigantic, cause new camera I suppose.
Anyhow my cherry blossoms are currently blooming, and the weather decided exactly one day of sunshine during their ten days of blooming was enough, so thought y'all might want to see.
I've been pleasantly surprised to discover that a bunch more of my back yard where the grass was patchy because of shade has transitioned over to moss, I couldn't be happier. The less mowing I have to do, the better.
Peen on
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MichaelLCIn what furnace was thy brain?ChicagoRegistered Userregular
We hired a guy to "power rake" our lawn, along with some basic spring cleanup. He said he will reseed any bare patches.
I assume the flipper guy we bought from just mowed and left the clippings, as the thatch is really thick so honestly there's not much more damage this guy can do.
Anyone else get power raked? How much of a difference should I expect?
Wait, mowing and leaving the clippings is bad?
I assumed that using a mulching mower made it ok.
Maybe that is why my lawn is perennially shitty.
Well the guy I'm talking about most certainly did not mulch. They likely just mowed it as short as possible as infrequently as possible while they flipped the place.
I can reach down and pull clumps of mostly dead grass out if my lawn, even after that power raking.
"So you've removed all the flashing from around the skylights, what happens when it rains?"
"Oh, it'll be fine. The felt is waterproof and we've butted it up to the frames"
Right
Luckily the actual owner of the roofing company came back from holiday over the weekend so I got him to come out whilst it was still pouring through and he stopped most of the water getting in. He also went mad about what state they'd left the loft in so he's going to be getting them to tidy up today once they've made it properly watertight.
The one about the fucking space hairdresser and the cowboy. He's got a tinfoil pal and a pedal bin
I mean.... "soon". We're supposed to get snow this week. But like, its on the horizon.
I legit was super happy when I bought my lawnmower. It was one of those "okay, now I'm an adult" moments. Again, have had some of those moments since, but it was nice.
I've been considering the Ring over the Nest equivalent as it runs off batteries so you don't have to worry about running a feed to your front door.
For me it's going to be because my office currently is right at the back of the house on the upper floor, so when someone rings the doorbell I have to literally drop what I'm doing and run full-pelt down the corridor, down the stairs, grab keys off the hook and get into the porch to open the front door. At some point I'll be moving up another level just to add to the journey time. But my idea was with some sort of smart doorbell you can at least see who's there before you bother, or at the very least transmit a "I'll be there soon" message to stop them wandering off before you even get there.
The one about the fucking space hairdresser and the cowboy. He's got a tinfoil pal and a pedal bin
The main thing I'd be concerned about with any internet connected video device is how private the camera feed actually is - there are some IoT cameras out there that basically just feed constantly to an unsecured/unauthorised location, so if someone knows the URL they can just connect to it and see what's going on. There's a website called Shodan that goes about and scans the internet for all the 'things' that are discoverable this way.
The Ring I don't know much about so this isn't a direct dig at them, just in general.
pimento on
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CambiataCommander ShepardThe likes of which even GAWD has never seenRegistered Userregular
Just keep in mind that with both Nest and the Amazon ring camera, you have to pay a monthly subscription for it to actually be usable.
"If you divide the whole world into just enemies and friends, you'll end up destroying everything" --Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind
Posts like the one I'm making now is why I'm thankful for this site, because I feel so dumb I don't know if I could ask this in person to anyone.
So I went to hang a shelf in my basement. I had anchors for the screws and went drilling like I always have. Left side, all set. Right side, I hit a wall. I was like, what the hell drill. So I forced it a bit. I made progress and got the hole a bit deeper. Then it hit me.
Oh shit. Studs. I've heard of these.
I pulled the drill out and saw the end didn't have drywall, but wood on it. Fuck.
So I called my wife and she freaked out. We're both just standing there being like FUCK I drilled into a STUD before we both were like WHAT DOES THAT MEAN.
She was worried I drilled into a pipe (we were above the washer), and I was worried I drilled into wires (we were sorta above an outlet). But we tested everything, ran a load of laundry...and all seems totally fine...?
So...should I be worried? What's it mean when you drill into a stud? Is my house going to collapse?
Here's the shelf side that I had resistance drilling. You can see the outlet off to the right, which I believe is dead center of the stud (maybe!?)
So...how bad is this and what does it mean if I drill into a stud.
Also I've ordered a stud finder.
mxmarks on
PSN: mxmarks - WiiU: mxmarks - twitter: @ MikesPS4 - twitch.tv/mxmarks - "Yes, mxmarks is the King of Queens" - Unbreakable Vow
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MichaelLCIn what furnace was thy brain?ChicagoRegistered Userregular
You generally want to use studs when available.
Did you just drill the pilot hole, or the one for the anchors? For studs, you just still a small hole then screw the screw right into the wood.
You actually sorta want to anchor heavy things into the studs intentionally rather than just use the dry wall.
Also that outlet is not gonna be in the middle of the stud. The stud will be just to the side of it on one side because you mount electrical boxes to studs. Since you hit wood it will probably be the shelf side of it.
Better than drilling into a wall cavity where pipes or conduit might be chilling out. Wires are typically stapled to studs, so if there's an outlet below you typically the wires follow up along the side of the stud (though not always).
If you can do it, you always want to anchor things like shelves or whatever to the studs themselves. Light things like picture frames or shelves with light knickknacks can be put into drywall with anchors though.
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
I used my stud finder today (also if @Moriveth makes ONE MORE JOKE about a stud finder he's gonna be served) to find studs to anchor our bookshelves to!
Now we need not fear any bookshelves falling onto the kids should one of them be silly enough to try and use one as a ladder.
Over the past two days I have assembled three beds, a sofa, a tv console, my desk, a set of drawers and now I have started on the first of three dressers.
GEEZ those three dressers took like, almost an entire day.
But I got those done, as well as another four shelving units!
Yesterday the roofers bought 30 bags with them to bag up the debris in the loft so that when the final section is cleared of tiles the rubbish can be passed through the gaps and out into the skip.
30 bags wasn't enough
But at least it's looking tidy up there. The colour difference between the felt is where they've put the new tiles on vs where the sun just shines through the blue felt.
The good thing about having skylights is being able to pop them open and take a closer look at what they've done without resorting to climbing the scaffolding. I.. don't think that's supposed to be there, though.
The one about the fucking space hairdresser and the cowboy. He's got a tinfoil pal and a pedal bin
Thanks all for the stud advice (har har har). It's crazy how I feel old and am like how do I not know this stuff yet. Sigh.
The shelf is fine - it's super light. Im an idiot so its got drywall anchors AND is in a stud so that's dumb but oh well. It doesn't actively harm anything and lesson learned.
I can now have my laundry detergent and dryer sheets above the machines and that's all that matters.
On to the next project! (project currently undecided)
PSN: mxmarks - WiiU: mxmarks - twitter: @ MikesPS4 - twitch.tv/mxmarks - "Yes, mxmarks is the King of Queens" - Unbreakable Vow
It's really strange to me that they drape the sheeting like that and don't have something like plywood underneath those mounting ribs.
It's unnecessary, that's why. The felting is there as a breathable membrane to stop the wind whipping through and taking tiles off. It's not there to support anything, really. Plywood would be something that if there was some form of water ingress (and there will always be some no matter how miniscule) then it would start to rot away and would then put the rafters in danger. You usually leave a 25-50mm gap between the underside of the felt and then any insulation to provide a moisture barrier.
The only time you'd have plywood under a roof is if you were putting a bitumen coating on top to give it an impermeable barrier. The "flat" roof on the outhouse was done like this -- everything else just gets the felt draped over as it's doing the job of the plywood.
The one about the fucking space hairdresser and the cowboy. He's got a tinfoil pal and a pedal bin
Yeah it's just a difference between US and UK I assume. We'd put plywood over the rafters and cover it with an impermeable membrane then shingle/slate/metal roof it up.
It's slightly different in the south where there's less driving rain and freezing snow/ice-dams though.
Just weird!
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
Thanks all for the stud advice (har har har). It's crazy how I feel old and am like how do I not know this stuff yet. Sigh.
The shelf is fine - it's super light. Im an idiot so its got drywall anchors AND is in a stud so that's dumb but oh well. It doesn't actively harm anything and lesson learned.
I can now have my laundry detergent and dryer sheets above the machines and that's all that matters.
On to the next project! (project currently undecided)
I highly recommend this old house youtube channel. Just start watching them randomly as you have time. Also studs run up and down, but there are beams that cover the gap between studs.
A lot of stuff on the house is kind of scary because it's all finished and unfinishing something can be a scary prospect.
Whew, it was a struggle with a surprising number of extensions and emails from lawyers, but the P&S is signed! I've got some repairs to take care of and a bunch of my crap to move out, but that's some progress! I've made a ton of cosmetic and infrastructure improvements to the place over the last 5 years, so it's nice to see that it's (knock on wood) going to pay off. I think the next deadline is for the buyer to secure financing, so I'll start low-key worrying about that now
I unpacked (and subsequently repacked a bunch of) our board games yesterday
Damn that was exhausting. Carrying the boxes up the stairs really shed some light on how out of shape I am.
I got winded doing something the other day... I really need to not let myself stop exercising in the winter but it's such a hassle to do it around here and I hate going to the gym.
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
KakodaimonosCode fondlerHelping the 1% get richerRegistered Userregular
Sewage or water?
It can be a few hundred to a few thousand dollars depending on whether you need to drop an entire new line back to the mains or if you can just dig in and repair the break.
Posts
Yeah it's still a pain because phones aren't really meant for this level of productivity (I don't envy people who try).
Posting the album link should be good enough, though (don't try to add the album link as the image that doesn't work).
@Alexandier are you concerned about the roots getting to septic tank? In the UK we have a Root Protection Zone/Area which as a rule of thumb is the area could should have from features. There'll be a US equivalent (I assume you're in the US) I'm sure, you may want to get someone to take a proper look.
https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/blog/2017/09/root-protection-order/
This bit may be useful to give you a general idea :
Spoilered for gigantic, cause new camera I suppose.
Anyhow my cherry blossoms are currently blooming, and the weather decided exactly one day of sunshine during their ten days of blooming was enough, so thought y'all might want to see.
Well the guy I'm talking about most certainly did not mulch. They likely just mowed it as short as possible as infrequently as possible while they flipped the place.
I can reach down and pull clumps of mostly dead grass out if my lawn, even after that power raking.
"Oh, it'll be fine. The felt is waterproof and we've butted it up to the frames"
Right
Luckily the actual owner of the roofing company came back from holiday over the weekend so I got him to come out whilst it was still pouring through and he stopped most of the water getting in. He also went mad about what state they'd left the loft in so he's going to be getting them to tidy up today once they've made it properly watertight.
I mean.... "soon". We're supposed to get snow this week. But like, its on the horizon.
I legit was super happy when I bought my lawnmower. It was one of those "okay, now I'm an adult" moments. Again, have had some of those moments since, but it was nice.
PSN : Bolthorn
Anyway I was walking through Best Buy the other day to look at appliances, and this doorbell caught my eye
https://www.amazon.com/Ring-8VR1S7-0EU0-Video-Doorbell-2/dp/B072QLXK2T
I’d never put an IOT deadbolt or keypad on my door, but this seems pretty harmless to me? What are your thoughts?
For me it's going to be because my office currently is right at the back of the house on the upper floor, so when someone rings the doorbell I have to literally drop what I'm doing and run full-pelt down the corridor, down the stairs, grab keys off the hook and get into the porch to open the front door. At some point I'll be moving up another level just to add to the journey time. But my idea was with some sort of smart doorbell you can at least see who's there before you bother, or at the very least transmit a "I'll be there soon" message to stop them wandering off before you even get there.
The Ring I don't know much about so this isn't a direct dig at them, just in general.
So I went to hang a shelf in my basement. I had anchors for the screws and went drilling like I always have. Left side, all set. Right side, I hit a wall. I was like, what the hell drill. So I forced it a bit. I made progress and got the hole a bit deeper. Then it hit me.
Oh shit. Studs. I've heard of these.
I pulled the drill out and saw the end didn't have drywall, but wood on it. Fuck.
So I called my wife and she freaked out. We're both just standing there being like FUCK I drilled into a STUD before we both were like WHAT DOES THAT MEAN.
She was worried I drilled into a pipe (we were above the washer), and I was worried I drilled into wires (we were sorta above an outlet). But we tested everything, ran a load of laundry...and all seems totally fine...?
So...should I be worried? What's it mean when you drill into a stud? Is my house going to collapse?
Here's the shelf side that I had resistance drilling. You can see the outlet off to the right, which I believe is dead center of the stud (maybe!?)
So...how bad is this and what does it mean if I drill into a stud.
Also I've ordered a stud finder.
Did you just drill the pilot hole, or the one for the anchors? For studs, you just still a small hole then screw the screw right into the wood.
You actually sorta want to anchor heavy things into the studs intentionally rather than just use the dry wall.
Also that outlet is not gonna be in the middle of the stud. The stud will be just to the side of it on one side because you mount electrical boxes to studs. Since you hit wood it will probably be the shelf side of it.
Better than drilling into a wall cavity where pipes or conduit might be chilling out. Wires are typically stapled to studs, so if there's an outlet below you typically the wires follow up along the side of the stud (though not always).
If you can do it, you always want to anchor things like shelves or whatever to the studs themselves. Light things like picture frames or shelves with light knickknacks can be put into drywall with anchors though.
Now we need not fear any bookshelves falling onto the kids should one of them be silly enough to try and use one as a ladder.
EDIT:
GEEZ those three dressers took like, almost an entire day.
But I got those done, as well as another four shelving units!
Someone give me a hand massage please.
Have you seen The Rock? Dude’s ripped!
30 bags wasn't enough
But at least it's looking tidy up there. The colour difference between the felt is where they've put the new tiles on vs where the sun just shines through the blue felt.
The good thing about having skylights is being able to pop them open and take a closer look at what they've done without resorting to climbing the scaffolding. I.. don't think that's supposed to be there, though.
The shelf is fine - it's super light. Im an idiot so its got drywall anchors AND is in a stud so that's dumb but oh well. It doesn't actively harm anything and lesson learned.
I can now have my laundry detergent and dryer sheets above the machines and that's all that matters.
On to the next project! (project currently undecided)
It's unnecessary, that's why. The felting is there as a breathable membrane to stop the wind whipping through and taking tiles off. It's not there to support anything, really. Plywood would be something that if there was some form of water ingress (and there will always be some no matter how miniscule) then it would start to rot away and would then put the rafters in danger. You usually leave a 25-50mm gap between the underside of the felt and then any insulation to provide a moisture barrier.
The only time you'd have plywood under a roof is if you were putting a bitumen coating on top to give it an impermeable barrier. The "flat" roof on the outhouse was done like this -- everything else just gets the felt draped over as it's doing the job of the plywood.
It's slightly different in the south where there's less driving rain and freezing snow/ice-dams though.
Just weird!
I highly recommend this old house youtube channel. Just start watching them randomly as you have time. Also studs run up and down, but there are beams that cover the gap between studs.
A lot of stuff on the house is kind of scary because it's all finished and unfinishing something can be a scary prospect.
After earnest money, inspection, appraisal and now final closing costs, my bank account is a lot lighter.
But i'm super excited and have barely packed anything. Gonna be so much crap donated or tossed out
Damn that was exhausting. Carrying the boxes up the stairs really shed some light on how out of shape I am.
I got winded doing something the other day... I really need to not let myself stop exercising in the winter but it's such a hassle to do it around here and I hate going to the gym.
Fuuuuuuuucccccccccck
This seems like it'll be expensive
It can be a few hundred to a few thousand dollars depending on whether you need to drop an entire new line back to the mains or if you can just dig in and repair the break.
I found the pipe and a hole in said pipe
It's weird. It's about a half inch in diameter. Perfectly round. No roots nearby, no nothing. That makes me very concerned about the rest of the line
Origin ID: Discgolfer27
Untappd ID: Discgolfer1981
not copper or lead
Edit:
Is it ceramic or cast iron?
It was seeping an awful amount to be a drain tile