What home improvement work did you do today?

The siding on the house had reached max fail. After z27 years I was forced to reside the house since LP no longer made the triple 4 that was used in 1998.

I won’t go into all the bad and the issues found but needless say the house now has sheathing house wrap flashing tape and new siding

here’s the after pics.

late June early July from start to finish.
5 days to remove and replace the siding
Then 2 weeks later 2 days to paint.

 

It looks great and should be good for a long time.
I have to do this soon. I am not looking forward to it, but I knew this when we bought the house. I'm still trying to figure out a strategy on how I'm going to approach it by myself.

 

No.
No frost free spigot.
No way to drain it or bleed it back to an area that does not freeze.
How the inspector let it fly, right?
Same with the water heater and no "catch pan" under it which is required (and also pretty useless).
Poorest county in MI, who knows who they have doing inspections.
Cannot complain too loud, besides a couple things this place is awfully nice.

 

I hope it last another 20 at least.

The north wall is where I had the most problems, once the old was off and we got a closer look at everything I think we were able to ID the issue and hopefully resolved it, we shall see.

I used LP smartside 8in x 12ft, since thats what we stock and after bid room I got for $6 per stick. 16ft sticks in the 8in would have been special order and costs a lot more.

I had a tight budget to get this done, went over some which I figured I would, used a lot more nails than I thought LOl.

Key to making this last is to repaint every 5 years. Paint quality has gone down hill for all brands, while prices have increased.

 

I would have thought of trying to use some pipe heat wire. It comes in different lengths, 6 ft in this photo. No filament to burn out like light bulb.
In our last house, I had to replace my copper pipe section after it froze and burst, the hose bib was freeze type but the garage and pipe was not insulated in that section. I replaced the bib also at that time. I used a long one so it went all the way up the wall of the garage. Plugged it in for the winter months.

 

I've used dozens of those at my former place of work and they work great. Problem is all I have to wrap it around is the stubby little bib. The pipe is buried in the wall behind steel siding, that is glued permanently to the 6" of closed cell foam. I'm trying to go the least invasive first, and I think the bulbs put out quite a bit more warmth. I guess we're gonna find out

 

The decision I have to make is do I spend the extra money and use Hardi Plank siding or just use traditional wood siding. There's a good chance I could get a break on my fire insurance if I use the Hardi Plank, but no guarantees. Fire insurance is what is killing everyone around here. The house we were in escrow on before this one was $1k/month just for fire insurance. I'm glad we walked away from it and bought this one instead.

 

I have these in a few places at our business. Since using them, no more issues! It just takes a little frozen section to slowly build up until POP.

 

Well, if that's the case, I better leave the anode alone in our 52-year-old water heater.

Yes, you read that correctly.

 

I would, that a if it ain't broke age.

 

Hey all,
Bought myself a nice lil Milwaukee sprayer after letting Terminex go a few months back. Been noticing lots of spider webs popping up everywhere now and found a fresh mound of what I think to be giant carpenter ants in the backyard.
Anyways, what are you all using for insecticide? I bought one gallon of Ortho home defense and went through that too quick. I diluted it with 1/2 gallon water just to get a little more out of it.
I found this concentrate on Amazon that should provide more quantity for not as much money.

$29 Atticus Talak 7.9% Indoor/Outdoor Insect Control - Bifenthrin Concentrate (32 Ounce)

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C1Q39Q9R

What do y'all think? Really I'm just looking to maybe spray the perimeter of my house every other week maybe and not spend a lot of money on these 1 gallon jugs for $10ea.
Thanks!

 

Look at diy pest control. I think that's correct.
You can search by pest. I get rat baits and roach spray from them. Not too expensive and our guy that crawels under the house once a year recommended them. I get the same rat baits he uses.

 

I use Home Defense twice a year, always had good results.

 

Just a tid bit of ant control stuff. Recently found a huge red ant colony about25 yards from the house. I mixed up a good batch of sugar and straight borax (and warm water) and dumped it IN, and Around their holes.
All activity and sign of them (about a week and a half now) disappeared! I'm still amazed. I'll report back if they just went into survival mode and come back later.

 

We battle fire ants out here, those bastards are tough. Think you got the mound killed, HA give it a week, 2 more will pop up.

Tuesday I poisoned 5 mounds. The appear after rain, which we had a decent amount of over the few days prior.

 

Yeah, I'll wait to make the final call on how affective it was, initially looked good
Here's another one. Gnats in the shop. Wife made up some traps... banana and some apple cider vinegar, liquid dish soap.
They weren't doing that good, then I noticed this one morning in my coffee cup in the shop.
(I know damn right I've drank a bunch of them now )


So we just went to open top containers with coffee... go figure.

 

Thanks for the responses!
I sprayed the top of the mound with a bit of the Ortho and poured maybe a good pint of it into the hole but I doubt that will do anything long term. They just seemed pissed when I did that. I ordered a couple of the Terro baits so I'll give that a shot. I ordered that concentrate I linked above for spraying the perimeter of the house so we'll see if that works. I'm hoping I can get several gallons from it.

 

For red ants I use Bifenthrin granules and treat the whole yard... Haven't had any red ants for years... And here in Fl they are everywhere and a big PIA ...

For black ants/spiders in and around the house I use Bifren 7.9 .. It's about the same thing as the granules only in liquid form... only uses 1oz per gallon of water...

 

Replaced my Wayne Doltan springs. One snapped.

 

Don't have a garage so had to look that one up.

What causes it to snap like that? Just age? Looks in good shape besides the break and pretty thick metal.

 

Those are rated for 10,000 cycles but yes, age of the spring and how often it opens and just weaker than the standard stuff. There are some neighbors of mine that rarely ever use their garage for car parking as it is only for storage. We actually park one of our cars in there.

The house is 16 yrs old, so I guess that's not too bad. Cost was $130 for parts. I watched a bunch of videos as this was my first attempt at doing garage springs. I was going to call the garage service to come in to look at it but I think at the end it would been at least $400 to $500 at the minimum. That most will want to try to upsell you and convert it to the standard typical springs which would cost more money like $1,500 for the conversion. I like to do it so I can learn and save money. If it last another 10 to 15 years that would be fine. We open and close the garage multiple times a day.

 

Closed the pool for the season

 

Cleaned up the shop, put some shelves up, hooks up, and hung some old pro shocks up on my work bench after clearing it off.

 

I may in the future, but no immediate plans. I've spent enough for the next couple years haha

 

It'll have water ran to it later with a small tankless water heater.
Luckily the shade it gives in the afternoon makes it nice to wash the vehicles near without getting blasted by the sun

 

Planted a 8 foot willow oak and did a bunch of organizing and cleanup in the garages.

My goal is to get at least one more vehicle under a roof, and ultimately I want my SR5 in a garage.

My wife Maggie next to the Oak. The tree is a memorial for my Father, who passed in March 2024.

Maggie is 5'10" for scale.