What home improvement work did you do today?

Indeed. I told him he can start his tool collection now. A homeowner can never have enough tools.

 

Added some Amazon solar powered deck lighting, and they were A LOT cheaper than the treks ones or any of the ones I found at HD or Lowes!!

 

Yes, ask @TaquitoBandito about that

 

Not my home, but..

My neighbor came over last night and asked if $1800 was too much to re-set some bricks on her chimney. After a look, yes.. yes, it was.

Took care of the whole job in about 2.5 hours for just under $100.

A total of eight bricks wereloose/had already fallen off.



I’m not a mason, but I think it turned out well-ish…

 

To each their own (no) but single mom, no clue about house maintenance stuff. It was worth helping regardless.

 

I couldn’t tell you which ones you fixed, so that’s a complement

 

You need to change your name tag to "Dick" because that would be funny.

 

that’s an incredible compliment.
It was the bottom 8 on the slanted part.

 

His son is going to get really good at home repair. But it's completely worth it.

 

I’m on my phone, but still - good work

 

Sharpened all the knives in the house today.

 

Very kind of you to help her out!!

-T

 

Expecting trouble?

 

This brings back bad memories. When I did mine I gutted all the way to the floor joists due to years of leaky tubs and toilets. I found an abandoned window behind my shower wall with sketchy "framing reinforcement".

 

Metal roof installation started on Friday. Bought some exterior paint at Lowes yesterday. Paint prices have definitely gone up.

 

I ordered foam gun from Amazon (I let @Fotnot borrow my last one and it came back crusty and covered in glitter) and used it with some Dawn dish detergent to clean my outside AC units. Surprisingly it removed a lot of honeydew residue from the huge aphid outbreak we had last summer. When/if the temps ever cool down I'll go out there and scrub the units.

 

Crusty part.....sorry
Glitter part......Tom (@ToyoMafia )

Good deal on cleaning them up. Seems so easy to neglect them. I've considered the foaming method but never have. Just rinse out/off 1-2 times a year

 

I had the AC guy out earlier in the week because I was smelling a faint, sweet musty smell upstairs and I was worried we were having a refrigerant leak. He checked everything out and things were fine. He knows I try to stay on top of maintenance stuff so he told me I should get a foam gun with some regular Dawn dish detergent and spray the outside units a few times a year. Something about the PH balance in the Dawn dish soap is perfect for cleaning (once the science talk starts, I just start nodding like I understand and listen for my name).

As far as the smell, it'd been 105 for over a week so I think it's just a new old house smell. Probably letting me know the dead rats in the walls have fully cooked.

 

Next time disconnect power, and pull the fans on top. Technically you want to push all the dirt from the direction it came from, and second your not getting full penetration of the water and cleaner with the side panels on when spraying from the outside in. Water is usually enough to get it nice and clean, but I keep seeing people using dish soap, which I see no issue with either.
As far as the musty smell, I would open the indoor units and clean the drain pans with hot hot water, and use some of that ice machine sanitizer down the drain lines(stick a vacuum outside and let a bunch of water down the drains) if you have a condensate pump, pull it and clean it out.

 

Thank you my friend.

 

They also have “no rinse evap foaming spay” that I like to use on the indoor coils, if you can get to the intake side of the coil is best to spray(sometimes the blower is in the way) there and use a light brush to pull anything off the coil, it’s harder to rinse the right direction on the indoor vs outdoor coil, but you want the cleaner to hit the dirty side of the indoor coil for best results, then gently vacuum the coil free of dirt/hair buildup.
There are also pricey UV lights that can be installed to combat mildew smells, I’ve never used one but supposedly they work good(bulbs need to be replaced yearly usually)

 

Thanks - we had the dirty dog smell at our old house and had the lights installed. They didn’t work well for that. Coincidentally, the smell started after we had one of the $99 duct cleaning people come out. This smell shows up in the heat of the day and seems to taper off at night so I’m thinking it’s the house trying to breathe.

 

Spent bits of the weekend freeing up some space in my beaker panel, which has been on the to do list for quite some time but was shunted to the top by the appearance of a hot tub on my patio. One of the things previously delaying a start was the fact that my breaker panel is from the 70's and looks dubious enough that I was worried that once I made a start in there I wouldn't be done with the house electrics for another 3 months.

US electrics are somewhat different from the UK, so stick me in the middle of a 240v ring main and I'm happy as a pig in shit, this 2 phase 220v malarkey scares the crap out of me, especially as most of the property is wired with cable that hasn't got a ground wire and isn't in metal conduit.

Anyhows, I now have two spare 30a double pole breakers, a heap of old 6 gauge cable, a new 220v 50a double pole breaker, 50' of 6/3 with ground wire properly routed and clipped up, a 220v 50a GFCI disconnect box and a fucking great hole in my bank balance - that was another reason for doing it myself, the sparky quoted me mad money to do the job. The materials cost me less $600, his quote was $1800 on what I estimated was a maximum two hour job for him, which struck me as a bit steep...especially as one of the 30a breakers was already on a disconnect circuit, so he already had a free way in the panel.

 

Yeah, UK electrics cost me a shaver charger. Give me 120VAC anytime.

 

Had the driveway and walk finished the other day, and it looks a whole lot better than before. I’ve been spraying it with water to keep moisture in the Concrete as it helps with the cure and final strength of the material. A few photos. I had to u cover a few sprinklers but no broken ones were found. Glad it’s over.

 

I discovered the demo guys removed the tile from the floor and walls, but left the mortar on the floor. We spent about two hours removing the mortar and the backer board from the floor. Then found the floor around the toilet was soft. The bathroom had been remodeled in 1996. Replace the floor around the toilet. The next issue is the exterior wall that the bathtub goes against slopes from the 10' ceiling down to the floor 1 1/2" and is plaster on brick. No vapor barrier. next Saturday we will frame that wall with vapor barrier and insulation and move the bathtub and toilet drains over 1 1/2". Good access from the basement below the bathroom. I found a hot wire with wire nuts behind the drywall behind the toilet and we could not find where it came from or what it was used for in the past. I will see if and what breaker turns it off next Saturday.