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Official Pit Home Improvement/DIY thread

ImTheCaptain said:
ah, i thought that was a gas line or something. Boy that seems like a functional but hackneyed way to do it. Saved a ton, I'm sure. Question i would have is whether or not the radiators functional in the garage? i have a large bank in my garage (home was built in '61) but it seems like they were cut off from the circuit at some point.

All that said, I have an insulated supply line (for an exterior faucet) and never had a problem, the garage usually hangs out around the mid 40's even in winter unless someone leaves the garage door open.
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We tested the radiator out there at the time of the inspection and it works. But yeah, little bit of a bummer that they took what seems to be a pretty big shortcut for an upgrade in an otherwise well constructed place. But as long as it's not going to cause any major problems I won't lose sleep over it.
 
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tiltdeac said:
We tested the radiator out there at the time of the inspection and it works. But yeah, little bit of a bummer that they took what seems to be a pretty big shortcut for an upgrade in an otherwise well constructed place. But as long as it's going to cause any major problems I won't lose sleep over it.
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Only additional issue might be getting hot water to the bath in winter. But that will depend on how cold it gets in the garage during winters.
 
DeaconCav06 said:
The stove is along the outside edge of the wall so I’m assuming it will involve trenching the yard.
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I also learned that the water heater in the garage and the heater in the attic are gas. This should make it easier or no?
 
As an update for my quartz sill question from last week, I'd like to add that it's very likely we're going to tear out all of our shower/bath tiles to redo them. I'll provide 2 examples of some questionable/bad work but I'm not going to post a ton of pics.

198BnWooPMGW05u2XTg9V2OfbyJpWd09RPechvAJfLzz-9TtkGc6CUKj7KwNB2r_-EFgaptu6Ntvr1BOzZqpR1rTgL0f9pchb2usIkKDLo3zkqxx4LlLmlWMtwE1xKdj-h26WTj-0ghwOrq7CR2HAWaH7PyzdusQbE0ZW02p7y_5Ul0wzolJGhNoziOujb_8gTfKIx-3kiQIQbhCAFpl5-pusKRXuVw50YAAC6t9PeBP8JBKx4ipIZmM42mnT_09uUVQe-_v6MLa8DRByj8DT3X2NE4R15v3_FAOcd1Pcdw1LfQK1g59xVfzzWkH6gS6sNdsK5iAsM65VTRD51Ke93PQ3ur262DlRbgQRg6y0-Jh_jhMfB5zOrPHebYvRiT_CbQfjehzHi6HnaqYf8EzUEwjG7FS7Gbc2jIQZG-8F-P7-nDiDhlGUB3N_T8GMcRQsxIOkl80M6k_cKcnizo2_CrkmA47LnuSRIwXNy9v6mI4l1JdGfFMlAbQU4-fnE_2APtxFek-Fpj9XYK7yLXxlZTe9Fbz7k9N06RvU7OxBdft2x9wMRhbSBUnlXPF6RZhkDLdWkJ3PKoxK6WECJK8Bu5n0ssSDyJ1x0JQI_K251Xy6wYgZ_ut4w1iu25V3ianJTXLxdeeAdaxOga4oPboI65ZAvTkkfs=w796-h597-no

Look at the super skinny tile running from the top right corner to the left. It just stops and then they filled the rest with grout.

--DIpoUEfj5R_LfX-ENSNXqIrJazj7h2qK4bgLrT4WvtqDIJbae5ISsVheEbjBSx7a0q0bxVc2RLTsdLx8m4PVReNNN6svt0yapBTIhj5cCEktDUjOsRNEMtMJenHQiTWfP-WmXC0ODxsF9HupPABhBRQjRB0zbadsq-iZgN6loYxyiGWjjHpWMk_O1MNVKLhLmvj9u5yBvFpY3Yh9en-HU5VtZotXAoJo7P9mSP8-5eC5xv-5a3p5Cw-Yp55Z9kwGFZFi9UehjjVOrp663TAjhAxjYvxUREGSUrFZ7Wf1fi1GREJp4acoWiWXOdrQecsUMyhOLZFoW3PbkVjWxpwG5rshPrgYRtITaoyYfbO4bwk4jkIZJTWX3IZudnkFZT_5X-eNyUiMe4nxzaxJiGciF7NQAOZz1TOSj2d9tHYBS614cuE0eepuAHyYFAd0wsScdG7Vwr5dZOH01tpxbfHwbWLqSPXzPaUJYHZgs8uFKMBjU7LtwFtusoBzxM8UVgjKugW7ST5UYWblw09XNFpbmNlt6RL2j7Sahgq2KfUAugLBbfYAL4uH9XyCn2eLttAhSuNKHwch6HSn4LqCEtNIuunsZ6lZEIydDLpRYYyT_gKHv6r8_J97iYD2g-YOBT-djasxDwk87T1prvsK4B9fwwBIqZ4Vk=w448-h597-no

Tiny slivers of tile meeting each other in the corner.

Our builder said it's a matter of preference (the 2nd pic), but literally everyone we've asked, including a TON of people/"professionals" on Houzz say it's not just sloppy, it's just straight up bad. So we'd better not have to pay for this!

And in case anyone was wondering (if it wasn't kind of obvious from the kitchen pic a couple weeks back), this is not a low cost home. But even if it were, this is bad work!
 
Wow yeah, why they didn’t start the tile from the corner and work out from there instead of laying towards the corner?
 
06deacon said:
Wow yeah, why they didn’t start the tile from the corner and work out from there instead of laying towards the corner?
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well and even if they did that, if they got to a corner and realized it was going to be a tiny sliver, they should have adjusted with a 3/4 tile to start with or something. More cuts for them >>> shoddy workmanship to cover laziness
 
lbE08 said:
well and even if they did that, if they got to a corner and realized it was going to be a tiny sliver, they should have adjusted with a 3/4 tile to start with or something. More cuts for them >>> shoddy workmanship to cover laziness
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They kind of started centered mostly on the niches in our walls, which every shower has. So generally there's a grout seam up the very center of the wall, but the tiles end up with bad spacing at the corners when doing this. Maybe they started the "right" way, but they should've at LEAST stopped and said "this is going to be weird" before finishing it out like this. We're going to switch to a 1/3 overlay that I'm going to draw up myself in CAD to make sure it looks right. But of course get confirmations it'll look right since I'm not a tile installer. But these guys are?!

For the ceiling (first pic), they started with a whole tile at the opposite side and ended up here. Should've started in the middle to make sure you don't end up with that crap.
 
Also interesting that those arrows all start from the same place, like that's the axis of somthing.
 
spiffylubes said:
They kind of started centered mostly on the niches in our walls, which every shower has. So generally there's a grout seam up the very center of the wall, but the tiles end up with bad spacing at the corners when doing this. Maybe they started the "right" way, but they should've at LEAST stopped and said "this is going to be weird" before finishing it out like this. We're going to switch to a 1/3 overlay that I'm going to draw up myself in CAD to make sure it looks right. But of course get confirmations it'll look right since I'm not a tile installer. But these guys are?!

For the ceiling (first pic), they started with a whole tile at the opposite side and ended up here. Should've started in the middle to make sure you don't end up with that crap.
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Good tile work should either have a seam in the middle or a whole tile in the middle. Whatever is needed to avoid the little pieces at the ends and in the corners. Good tile setters know this. That way the corners should have a piece that is slightly over half a tile.
 
Deaconblue said:
Good tile work should either have a seam in the middle or a whole tile in the middle. Whatever is needed to avoid the little pieces at the ends and in the corners. Good tile setters know this. That way the corners should have a piece that is slightly over half a tile.
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Well, it does depend a bit on tile size vs. wall width. We won't be able to get a half tile into every corner, but I can get at least 1/3 of a tile.

The good news is the builder agreed that all of the bathrooms should be retiled. He owes me dad for helping his daughter get into UVA a couple years back, and I think that might have influenced this some. Also, his project manager/designer/selection helping lady was very much on our side too, which probably helped us too. Now we just need to make sure they do it the way I tell them to and don't scratch up our hardwoods moving a ton of new tile, since the floors will now be done before the tile is redone.
 
Wife and I are moving to the greater Huntsville alabama area. Place we bought is a bit older and thus has foundation vents and what looks like an indoor dehumidifier in the crawl space. There is heavy plastic on the ground and partly up the walls. I'm considering a commercial grade dehumidifier and closing the foundation vents. Is this enough or do we need to fully encapsulate by sealing vents and installing drain to daylight? I'm very sold on a dry crawlspace. But don't want to try and dehumidify the outdoors.
 
I know two people who work at UAH if you need some local contacts.
 
BacktoBack said:
Wife and I are moving to the greater Huntsville alabama area. Place we bought is a bit older and thus has foundation vents and what looks like an indoor dehumidifier in the crawl space. There is heavy plastic on the ground and partly up the walls. I'm considering a commercial grade dehumidifier and closing the foundation vents. Is this enough or do we need to fully encapsulate by sealing vents and installing drain to daylight? I'm very sold on a dry crawlspace. But don't want to try and dehumidify the outdoors.
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Do you have hardwood floors? If so, are they buckled? If you have hardwoods and they are fine, I wouldn’t do anything immediately. The prior owner’s fix might already be overkill for anything that might be going on with the house.

FWIW, the floors in the cabin I bough a few years back were so badly warped I thought I would need to tear them out and start over. Instead, I did a half-ass job putting heavy plastic in the crawl space. The floors quickly flattened and I have not needed to do anything since.
 
AMCDeac said:
Do you have hardwood floors? If so, are they buckled? If you have hardwoods and they are fine, I wouldn’t do anything immediately. The prior owner’s fix might already be overkill for anything that might be going on with the house.

FWIW, the floors in the cabin I bough a few years back were so badly warped I thought I would need to tear them out and start over. Instead, I did a half-ass job putting heavy plastic in the crawl space. The floors quickly flattened and I have not needed to do anything since.
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Had the same kind of setup in a house, I’d be more concerned with mold than the hardwoods buckling. It’s fine if you never plan to use a central AC but open vents were never designed for such a huge change in temperature. In the summer the relative humidity will almost always be 100% in the crawlspace as the humid air enters and hits the AC cooled flooring. Moisture plus dark plus warm equals mold.

Every single crawlspace person will try to up sell you on going overboard for like $6-$10,000 sealing the thing, adding a bunch of other stuff you don’t need. The vapor barrier in place, plus a crawlspace designed dehumidifier ($900-$1000), and sealing the vents will solve probably any and all future problems. The difficulty is finding someone willing to do just the minimum and not go full on make your crawlspace livable, also can do it yourself over one weekend, it’s not hard.
 
Louis Gossett Jr said:
Had the same kind of setup in a house, I’d be more concerned with mold than the hardwoods buckling. It’s fine if you never plan to use a central AC but open vents were never designed for such a huge change in temperature. In the summer the relative humidity will almost always be 100% in the crawlspace as the humid air enters and hits the AC cooled flooring. Moisture plus dark plus warm equals mold.

Every single crawlspace person will try to up sell you on going overboard for like $6-$10,000 sealing the thing, adding a bunch of other stuff you don’t need. The vapor barrier in place, plus a crawlspace designed dehumidifier ($900-$1000), and sealing the vents will solve probably any and all future problems. The difficulty is finding someone willing to do just the minimum and not go full on make your crawlspace livable, also can do it yourself over one weekend, it’s not hard.
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Good info. Our current house is newer. No foundation vents. Santa fe commercial dehumidifier. Dry as a bone. I worry about mold living in Alabama. Ton of humidity and foundation vents seems like a setup for trouble. And I think I can manage the fix myself. Just might wait till the fall when the crawlspace isn't a million degrees
 
Anyone have a good app for taking photos or video of a room and converting it to a schematic/blueprint? I'm trying to design a laundry/mudroom and have zero talent for this. Room is fairly square and has some existing built ins and a closet that I'm at least initially trying to keep, but it's making it hard for me to sort of visualize what the best options for layout might be.
 
If you have an iPhone, check out the AR category in the App Store. There are a couple options there.
 
So our new house has a 1" water/sewer meter. Our current home has a 5/8" meter. The minimum charge for larger meter is another ~$20/month (for both water/sewer).

I'm not sure why they went larger. It's a larger home for the era 1960, but still only two full and two half baths plus laundry/kitchen stuff. I've lived for 5 years with a similar house with the smaller meter.

Am I missing something? I'm thinking of having it switched down to the smaller meter size to save the $250/year. Am I going to regret that? I guess i can always change back if our pressure sucks?
 
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