What home improvement work did you do today?

I don't have pics but I replaced 2 ceiling lights. One in the living room, one in the dining room. The living room light had a bad ballast so I figured if I'm replacing one, might as well replace both. Put up a new light in the hallway as well. Was just in a ceiling light changing mood I guess.

 

Put wire mesh underground to try and stop the rodents from making more tunnels to get into my under patio storage

 

Spent $250ish on this and fancy dirt so the wife can try to grow $20 of shit that will more than likely rot before eating.

 

Lol,but that looks pretty damn good and hey,if she does grow and harvest it's waaay better than any store.

 

I see you've already got a fair amount of built-in going. Still, I'll tell you since it's not already too late: My biggest regret with our basement is not installing some kind of liner on the floor or, at minimum, rolling a sealer on the floor. Any sealer to prevent moisture from coming up.

Mind you, our slab is only 22 years old, and I know 100% the builder properly lined the earth with thick-mil plastic liner before pouring the slab. But even with the concrete sitting on the liner, we still manage to get a fair amount of vapor transfer through the floor, and if I'd just put even a basic liner or coating down on the floor BEFORE we built out the basement, it would've made a fucking world of difference. And I know this because I warned our next door neighbors, and their basement usually hovers around 10%-15% less humidity than ours. Same builder, same floor plan. It wouldn't be a problem, but once you start teetering in the 55%-60% relative humidity, mold/mildew starts to spore and/or come to life. It fucked up every piece of wooden furniture we had down there, until I finally broke down and installed a portable dehumidifier to take the edge off.

May not apply to you/your climate, but tossing it out there anyway, because, hell I wish someone woulda mentioned it to me.

 

Yep, nothing like homegrown.

 

Dang vermin!!! I hope that does the trick. Pretty effective I've heard.

 

Thank you for the heads up it is much appreciated!
Yeah, here in N.E. & living on a 120 mile long peninsula, traditionally from mid June~August the humidity can be uncomfortable and upwards of 80+%.
Our basement is pretty cool in the summer months but it gets dank and stale,1/4 of the basement had thin commercial carpet so I pulled it up and the thin layer of foam backing was riddled with black and green mold

So I needless to say I removed it all and bleached the floor and removed all of the sheet rock.
That 1/4 portion of the basement is livable and is my better half's work out area,I ended up installing a TV and one of those interactive work out thingy things for boxing,poladies and made her a chin up bar out of 3/4" blk pipe.
For the floor I put down interlocking 1/2" gym flooring and as you can see the room is congested as of now but when the shelving gets done I can put a lot of the stuff that's on the floor in its new designation & then move on over to the other half of the basement.....

So anyway and back on track with the mold,dank and stale air, I put a de humidifier and set it for 55% it has auto start so if power is lost it will pick up where it left off,which is key.Its perched on top of the washer with an isolation pad and gravity drains to a condensate pump which discharges into the washer stand pipe.

So the basement has been getting a lot of love over the winter pulled out all of the 1/2" copper piping hot/cold lines and replaced with 3/4" and insulated, the hot water line runs all the way back the the hot water tank to meet a re circulation pump that is fed by an aqua stat,insulated the basement envelope and ceiling with R30.
As Spring is FINALLY sprung am just about ready to rotate the indoor tools for the fishing rods hit the surf and waters for some feeeeeeshing

Sorry for the long rant but I'm so done with winter.

 

Thats a huge amount of work. I bet you feel a lot better about being down there now tho! Nice job.

 

Lol,for the longest time it has always been referred to as the Dungeon.
Thanks for the compliment man,I think I will pick away on rainy weekends

 

Similar situation here. Downsized my basement shop to build a gym for the missus, wired it up w/pretty solid audio (Bose 201 IV up high, a 12" downfiring sub, Sony bluetooth head, Apple TV, 60" LG LCD), and added a bathroom. I ended up throwing the humidifier in my shop (last door on right) and direct-plumbing it to the cap of the cleanout for the bathroom (1st door on right) with a vinyl P-trap of sorts so it can run any time it needs, and not let sewer gasses back up. Doors on left are storage (with chest freezer) and HVAC+WH.

But what I'm finding is, if I'd just coated (or even laid moistureblock sheeting) the floor before adding the LVP like I helped our friends next door do, we wouldn't even need a humidifier, the majority of our moisture is coming up from the floor (walls are mostly coated). Hindsight is 20/20, wish I could go back now and do it all over, but I let my impatience get the better of me.

Speakers look off-center here; originally had a 52" TV and it was perfectly centered. Was too lazy to re-drill my mount, and she likes it better favoring the bike to she can watch Peloton in front of her while riding.

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Wow you fucking nailed it for sure man!
I can can still do the floor except where the existing shelves and new are,pulling up the interlocking floor won't be hard but putting them back will be a bitch...
I will take ypur suggestion and do 3/4 of it this summer and do the Misses in the fall or winter.

Oh for ypur PVC stand pipe during the winter months the P trap can dry up/evaporate just put a tablespoon of veggie or olive oil in it that film will stop the water from evaporating.

 

Went to check this morning and they made new tunnels that started right where the wire mesh stopped. Very frustrating.

 

This may work for a bit or untill it rains

 

We just finished our 2nd winter with this setup, and it's worked like a champ w/o drying up, and the water hasn't gotten nasty yet either. Had to cobble a couple of adapters together to get the correct threading for that barb fitting, it's not pretty but the dehumidifier obscures it and it's in my shop area, so hardly anyone ever goes in there except me. The kids (for now) always ask before getting into tools and such because they know I'll find it in 5 seconds, it'll take them 5 hours.

Hard to tell, but there's about 4-6" of rise and fall in that hose over roughly 36" total length (that's probably about 16" long channel of water). It'd take a lot of evap to clear it out.

I can't remember if I asked for advice on how to handle this situation or not. I just know I was at a loss, so I went to the plumbing section of Big Orange (HD), and that there is what I came up with. Ran a straight hose on the first iteration and found out really quick ("WTF?! Why does it smell like HUMAN SHIT in here?!") a psuedo-Ptrap was needed.

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I feel like mice get used to that stuff. Wolf piss is the way to go. It scares EVERYTHING that is alive, away from where you are. It's the only way we can keep beavers from our pond after decades of different attempts. People think it's weird, but it WORKS.

@justcuz https://www.predatorpeestore.com/wolfpee-16-oz-scenttag-super-saver-combo_moreinfo.html It smells sorta strong, so you only wanna do some quick sprays, but for a rodent, that's all it should take. The smell also goes away like a normal dog piss after it dries up. And yes like Blufin says with the other stuff, will have to do a small reapplication after rain. But I don't think you will need much at all to solve this problem.

 

Looks like Bobcat urine is what they suggest for mice. They have a "pick your pest" page you can figure out what you should use.

https://www.predatorpeestore.com/mice-problems-bobcat-urine.html

I'm actually going to order some of the flakes for the mole and voles around our garden. The poison works but I'd prefer they just go live in the fucking woods. Got a couple pellets for the car too. They've mostly stayed out lately with the mesh defence in the engine bay, but can't hurt.

 

Huh. Who knew. I like to put alka-seltzer tabs into the holes where varmint tunneling activity is occurring.

 

Round 2. put wire mesh under the cement blocks

 

Funny as hell and I can identify!!

 

Unfortunately, they are survivors..

 

Dammit!! May have to put traps down.

 

Even if you put traps down, just like ants, rodents can smell where other rodents have been and tend to follow the trail. You'll probably end up with a few waves of death before the waves subside a little.

 

I lived in a house once that was just one big mouse nest. I'd trap a dozen, then another dozen. The stragglers were targets for my blowgun.....
Finally weeded them all out. Then moved.

 

Those with high ceilings, how are you guys painting up there?? Besides hiring. Got an airless sprayer and the wife wants a color change. Celings are about 25-30ft high.

I'm looking at renting scaffolding, if not availble, then buy and return

 

Not that you were asking me directly but a painters pole is what I've used for various high things. Not sure you want to rig a sprayer to the end of a pole....but....

 

Scaffold and roll it. Spray if it’s new and no flooring or furniture anywhere near. Spraying is fast and easy, but messy.

 

Scaffold and roll it is...

 

Interior? Long ass extension ladder. Gotta cut in the ceiling/wall. I've never sprayed indoors when a house has been occupied/furnished

 

Yeah, I'll have to clear out all the furniture.. Sprayer does make a huge mess to clean up afterwards...