Official Pit Home Improvement/DIY thread

[tsywake]

the water heater in the house I am buying is like 30 years old. I need to decide if I should ask for the sellers to replace it or for us to renegotiate so I can have more money to replace it, or expect that it dies soon and let the home warranty replace it

Go tankless! It'll be money well spent.

[RollTheQuad06]

Go tankless! It'll be money well spent.

I've considered it, but tankless is so much more expensive.

[TWDeac]

We have an almost brand new water heater, but our furnace is almost 30 years old. Luckily, it's fairly small, so even if it does break, it won't be that expensive to replace.

[tsywake]

I've considered it, but tankless is so much more expensive.

They're about 3x as much, but you'll recoup that in energy savings in just a couple years. Mine is only 5 years old and its more than paid for itself.

[RollTheQuad06]

They're about 3x as much, but you'll recoup that in energy savings in just a couple years. Mine is only 5 years old and its more than paid for itself.

if it is a purchase next year or something, I might be able to do tankless, but if the current one dies soon then I will just need to go the cheaper route.

[lbE08]

I've considered it, but tankless is so much more expensive.

you're buying a house. gotta think long-term.

[HeltonCreek]

I didn't do a home warranty with my house and don't even think one was offered. It's only 12 years old and had a very thorough inspection so I know what to expect.

[2&2 Slider To Leyritz]

Over the past few years I designed and built over 3,000 square feet of decks at varying elevations both connected to and disconnected from my house, including a series of platforms and stairs that drops 110 feet at a 50-degree angle down the hill in my backyard. I hand-mixed and dug all of the over 60 concrete footings and, given the positioning of a lot of the footings, would have to tie the wheelbarrow to two trees while I mixed so that it wouldn't roll down the hill. But I did myself what several contractors told me would cost between $60k - $80k to have built (after the standard "you want to build what?" response), which was more satisfying than anything I've ever done at my actual job. Plus, I think I built it better than someone else would have. I will say that the vast majority of it was built before we had a kid. No way I could find the time or have the permission to do that now.

One of the sections has an angled railing with aluminum frame and glass panels, which is the hardest thing I've ever had to build. I had to cut the aluminum frame pieces from 20-foot sections and, unlike working with wood, the compound mitre cuts on the aluminum had to be perfect to hold the glass so that it would fit in. It took me about 2 months of nights and weekends just for that railing.

For the most fun project, last summer I designed and built a drive-on double jet ski ramp for about 1/3 of the price of the pre-fab plastic ones. I've had several people ask me to either build one for them or sell them the design, but now that I've used it I want to tweak it a little this spring to make some improvements.

[TWDeac]

Over the past few years I designed and built over 3,000 square feet of decks at varying elevations both connected to and disconnected from my house, including a series of platforms and stairs that drops 110 feet at a 50-degree angle down the hill in my backyard. I hand-mixed and dug all of the over 60 concrete footings and, given the positioning of a lot of the footings, would have to tie the wheelbarrow to two trees while I mixed so that it wouldn't roll down the hill. But I did myself what several contractors told me would cost between $60k - $80k to have built (after the standard "you want to build what?" response), which was more satisfying than anything I've ever done at my actual job. Plus, I think I built it better than someone else would have. I will say that the vast majority of it was built before we had a kid. No way I could find the time or have the permission to do that now.

One of the sections has an angled railing with aluminum frame and glass panels, which is the hardest thing I've ever had to build. I had to cut the aluminum frame pieces from 20-foot sections and, unlike working with wood, the compound mitre cuts on the aluminum had to be perfect to hold the glass so that it would fit in. It took me about 2 months of nights and weekends just for that railing.

For the most fun project, last summer I designed and built a drive-on double jet ski ramp for about 1/3 of the price of the pre-fab plastic ones. I've had several people ask me to either build one for them or sell them the design, but now that I've used it I want to tweak it a little this spring to make some improvements.

This sounds awesome. Any pics?

[tsywake]

This sounds awesome. Any pics?

Yeah, I think I remember you talking about it a while back. I'd love to see the finished results of the decks.

[dot com]

Getting a new A/C unit next week. Spent $4,850 on a Lennox Elite something or other. Includes HVAC installation/integration (already replaced the furnace two years ago) and cleaning. Comes with a 10 year warranty, one year free maintenance ($90/year going forward).
No way was I going to install that myself, but did I get ripped off?

That's not terrible, depending on the size of the unit. We have two systems, the gas furnace / heat pump combo one was $9000 to replace, and the plain upstairs heat pump was $3600. Both are high efficiency, Carrier and Trane respectively. The year free maintenance is pretty much them coming out once, looking at it and saying "yup, still like new".

[2&2 Slider To Leyritz]

Yeah, I think I remember you talking about it a while back. I'd love to see the finished results of the decks.

Yeah, how do I upload pics from a harddrive or phone?

[tsywake]

Yeah, how do I upload pics from a harddrive or phone?

You can either host them online on a site like Facebook or tinypic and then just drag them over, or you can go into the advanced reply and go under "manage attachments" underneath the reply box to upload them. Or you can email them to me at ogbpitboss(at)gmail.com and I'll upload them for you.

[2&2 Slider To Leyritz]

Stairs 2.jpgStairs.jpgDeck.jpgRamp.jpgStairs 2.jpgStairs.jpgDeck.jpgRamp.jpg

Okay, hopefully this works. Not a great pic of the deck on the house, but it is the best that I have on my phone. You can kind of see the railing in the background. That side of the deck is about 12 feet off the ground at one end, so there is a stone retaining wall about 8 feet of it and then I put some plants in between the top of the wall and the bottom of the deck.

TSY: feel free to edit so that the pics appear in the post instead of as attachments.

[TWDeac]

Very cool, 2&2.

[2&2 Slider To Leyritz]

Dammit, I don't know what I did, but they disappeared.

[DeacHoops]

Dammit, I don't know what I did, but they disappeared.

they're still there! they're just kind of all jammed together

[TWDeac]

[2&2 Slider To Leyritz]

There you go, thanks.

[tsywake]

That's awesome, and very similar to what I hope to do in a few years. I've got a pretty massive hill down to the river that I'd like to put some steps on.



I've been working to clear out 1/3 of the trees for a better view, and then I'll be ready to start working on some steps.