What home improvement work did you do today?

You can come on down and "Grab a few" ...

It is "Mating season" and they will travel anywhere the "Scent" brings them , car ports, golf courses, swimming pools and of course Dog


park enclosures

 

Drank to much with my sister and brother in law last night. Went to the burnet bluebonnet festival today. Didn’t dress appropriately (weather station lied). Spent way to much on a hoodie. Drank a bottle and a third of wine. Been a great day with family.

 

Well done improving your home I guess.

 

Continuation of mold remediation work in the garage attic. In summary, removed old insulation in the affected area, then they dried it out. The. Treated it twice with industrial Clorox and a chemical, dried it out, and then checked. Moisture on wood in attic still. Dry out again. Still have moisture. Run fans for weeks…. Convince builder that vents or roof was leaking…..Roofer comes and inspects roof…. No leaks. Still wet wood and Sheetrock on garage. Roofed comes out to inspect after disassemble of ridge vents in that area. Roofer says no leaks on roof side. Meanwhile I have installed a temp and humidity sensor in the garage attic months ago. I did not realize how good that was an idea. That and my Klein humidsensor for materials was a great idea. It seems like it’s drying out finally with the vents replaced with new ones. Meanwhile they decide to add two power vents in the attic. Installing the vents and electrical takes them two days. Not sure if power vents were needed but it was their plan as part of the vent repair/replacement. Of course now with the vents on it socks the moist outside air in…. AND the fans have a hum. Wife is not happy, I’m not happy. I turn the fans off. The mold remediation people come back to get their portable fans that were left in the attic. They find some small areas. They come out and do treatments on the areas. They say it’s dry and looking good. I get them to take some photos of the fans as I have some ideas to look for from the Power fan company. I go up into the attic and eyeball one fan and see the fan bracket is hitting the wood. It sends the vibration into the house structural components. Next is to get fans’ installer to fix, next week. No plans to use fans except when it get hot or excessive humidity, and I think the humidity moisture problem is solved. Once the fans get fixed we can get insulation blown back into that attic area.

 

Guess he needed to reach out and get something off his mind. Idk ‍

 

What a fucking nightmare

 

We started building a house in 2018, while in the middle of renovating the current shit hole. Burned myself out and between crazy shit at work, age catching up, heath issues, life issues, etc, not much has been done in a few years. The new house was put on hold when it was about 80% done. The builder was shady (super long story) and we locked them out and stopped work. It sat in court for 3 yrs during the wonderful COVID excuse years I couldn't work on it and ultimately we settled on both parties cutting their loses and walking away. Which is what we offered in the beginning and they just waisted a bunch of attorney fees for everyone.
Anyway, all that to say: we're not finishing the current old house, just selling it as is and using whatever profit to fix up the new house. Which I should start back up on soon, now that the weather is breaking and court shit is settled. I have enough to do that, I should be able to keep this thread pretty busy.
Speaking of sumps,.....we got a good deal on a large rural property because it sits in an ancient lake bed and flood zone. I did a 4' basement, rather than 8-9'. Neighbor around the corner built his house in the 90s and dug down for a full basement and he said he's got 2 sump pumps that basically run constantly. I built the pad up to get out of the flood zone and then just dug down deep enough for a 4' basement (crawlspace, but full concrete like a normal basement). I'm just above the water table and my sump barely runs. Even the engineer said I might as well just build a full basement since my pad was a over the flood zone and I was cleared for it. I said everyone was nuts. Not only was it another $12k in concrete,...but why would I build a 3' high pad,.....then dig down 10',....way below the water table and have to run sumps constantly? Call me crazy, I guess.
I decided to build a large attic space for extra space, rather than a big basement. Plus, it can be finished off for extra living space later on.
Anyway, that was a long story. Headed out there today to check on things and make lists.

 

It’s a beautiful home now that we have ironed out the problems. We still have a few pending items 14 months after moving in. Builders had a hard time getting/keeping workers during the pandemic. That and the supply chain was all f¥€£Ed up during the build. We made the mistake of not having an inspection before and 6 months after moving in. The inspector said to wait till the 11th month for the final inspection and after the rains started…. We knew the builder had work crews who are low bidders, but the materials they use and house designs were better in our opinion than the other large builders in the area. I must admit they have been responsive in most of our house corrections. I’ve been diligent in documenting everything and getting my reports to the National and local warranty people. We have spent a lot of our own money improving the drainage and keeping water away from our foundation/ crawl space to our liking. We do have a French drain system put in by the builder outside at the bottom of all the foundation, it barely has much water coming out of it when it rains hard. We have French drains around the perimeter and on the property diverting the water. There are disadvantages to living on a sloped yard, but we can use gravity to our advantage. Edit: Note, we don’t have any sump pumps. All (except one) of our rood drains are now routed away from the house to a French/trench drain system.

 

I could tell it again in case you forgot any of it. Should only take a few hours to type it up.

 

Moms got hot water now! Just need to patch the drywall at the vent stack and for the drain line.

 

I figured I'd join a different site now that I have a Tundra again. No one here knows I'm an asshole.

 

That looks a lot like the Rinnai we had in our home in Vegas...

We had a Bosch unit before that, and it was such a PITA!!! Stupid thing was constantly throwing error codes You get undressed turn the water on getting ready to jump into the shower, step in and to a hot shower then almost instantly all cold water ; throw a towel on; walk to the other side of the house; pop into the utility room; and reset the stupid thing (standing there waiting to make sure it reset properly while you were dripping wet); walk back to the master bath on the other side of the house; get in and finally enjoy a hot shower.

Even w/a few service calls from a Bosch tech, they could never figure it what was triggering the codes and refused to replace it under warranty.

Tore it out after about 2 years of frustration and replaced it w/a Rinnai. Was in that house for another 5-6 years and not one error code or problem w/the Rinnai

I've you've never had one, you'll love it!!!!!

 

I vote a lazy pool that doubles as a speed skating rink for 11.5 months out of the year.

 

Was it a "Bluebonnet" hoody though? Totally worth it.

 

Yep it’s a rinnai unit, it wasn’t the straight forward install that I’ve done before. We will definitely put one in our house this year but probably a Navian unit(stainless boiler vs copper)

 

Almost 17 years for our Rinnai and still going strong. The Bosch we installed during construction didn’t last long enough to commission it. Never could get it to fire off correctly.

 

Do you or get it serviced? I know the flush thing with the chemical isn’t that hard, just wondering if anyone actually does it?

 

When my controller throws the “LC” code (Lime condition - reduced flow due to mineral build up), I’ll reset the unit and then do a flush as soon after as I can. I built my own little flushing rig that uses a circulating pump and a piece of stainless pipe big enough to basically hold ~5 gallons of distilled vinegar.

Early on, I would have to do it about every year, but the last several times it’s been about 18-24 months apart.

 

I might know a guy that can give you some of the recommended chemical

 

I'm sure they will figure it out on their own, sooner than later. But I'd like to get a few questions answered before I get kicked outta here. Like, biggest tires I can fit without rubbing, why my truck gets shitty gas mileage, etc.

 

The hood, up and painted. Backsplash, deco tile done. Under cabinet lights next, along with 2000 more sf of Saltillo tile.

 

My brother came up for Easter so I put him to work, we painted some cheap "maintenance paint" from the blue store onto the walls and ceiling. $40 for 5 gallons! Thick flat white interior latex, covered pretty well, even the OSB around the overhead door looked good for 2 coats no primer! Now to just move all my junk over and finish the last bay and the attic hatch that I forgot to pull down. Thinking about buying some nicer steel cabinets to hang over the workbench too, the plastic ones that came with the house feel like kids toys.

 

Ours is hard piped right into the street sewer system, not the sanitary sewer system.