This Old #%&@*$ House

A storm blew through here this morning taking out our power.

The good news is that our whole-house generator kicked in and we're still powered up.

The bad news is that the downstairs air conditioning and the external outlets (that power the hurricane shutters and the gas hot water heater) are not wired into the panel powered by the generator.

The good news is that we just happened to have the electrician in installing some lights so were able to talk to him about it.

Moggy wrote:

A storm blew through here this morning taking out our power.

The good news is that our whole-house generator kicked in and we're still powered up.

The bad news is that the downstairs air conditioning and the external outlets (that power the hurricane shutters and the gas hot water heater) are not wired into the panel powered by the generator.

The good news is that we just happened to have the electrician in installing some lights so were able to talk to him about it.

How was the frogurt?

lunchbox12682 wrote:
Moggy wrote:

A storm blew through here this morning taking out our power.

The good news is that our whole-house generator kicked in and we're still powered up.

The bad news is that the downstairs air conditioning and the external outlets (that power the hurricane shutters and the gas hot water heater) are not wired into the panel powered by the generator.

The good news is that we just happened to have the electrician in installing some lights so were able to talk to him about it.

How was the frogurt?

I have no idea what you're talking about. Looked up in Urban Dictionary and *still* have no idea. I must be old.

Moggy wrote:
lunchbox12682 wrote:
Moggy wrote:

A storm blew through here this morning taking out our power.

The good news is that our whole-house generator kicked in and we're still powered up.

The bad news is that the downstairs air conditioning and the external outlets (that power the hurricane shutters and the gas hot water heater) are not wired into the panel powered by the generator.

The good news is that we just happened to have the electrician in installing some lights so were able to talk to him about it.

How was the frogurt?

I have no idea what you're talking about. Looked up in Urban Dictionary and *still* have no idea. I must be old.

It was a Simpsons bit that goes back and forth with good news and bad news.
I'm not as clever as I think I am.

lunchbox12682 wrote:

It was a Simpsons bit that goes back and forth with good news and bad news.
I'm not as clever as I think I am.

OK, got it!

Just glad it wasn't some obscure reference to the 3rd definition from Urban Dictionary

In a couple of hours heading out to try to unclog my septic line from the house with a hose. Pretty sure there is a crack or a joint has become disconnected. The pipe entering the tank is canted upward slightly which is a bad sign, and signs of sediment in the line.

Moggy wrote:
lunchbox12682 wrote:
Moggy wrote:

A storm blew through here this morning taking out our power.

The good news is that our whole-house generator kicked in and we're still powered up.

The bad news is that the downstairs air conditioning and the external outlets (that power the hurricane shutters and the gas hot water heater) are not wired into the panel powered by the generator.

The good news is that we just happened to have the electrician in installing some lights so were able to talk to him about it.

How was the frogurt?

I have no idea what you're talking about. Looked up in Urban Dictionary and *still* have no idea. I must be old.

IMAGE(https://i.stack.imgur.com/nGMrD.gif)

Ordered life proof flooring from Home Depot that I will be doing the install on May 1st to have it delivered to store, free delivery. It arrives at store May 8th, web site says expect it to be ready for pick up 5/13. 5/15, website still says 5/13, call and get told they haven't "picked it" yet and that they are swamped with online orders, meaning still on a trailer at the store or on a pallet somewhere in their receiving area. 5/18, website still says expect it to be ready 5/13.

On top of that, still need to fill in some of the dips in the 60 year old cement floor, sigh.

FlamingPeasant wrote:

In a couple of hours heading out to try to unclog my septic line from the house with a hose.

Oof, Godspeed! Hopefully you caught it before there was a big mess.

Oh, and latest step completed in operation: basement redeux....new ceiling tiles and new light fixtures(replaced the flourescent shop lights with dropin/ceiling tile led panels.

IMAGE(https://scontent.ffcm1-2.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/96773156_10224426191549395_1371217409314127872_o.jpg?_nc_cat=102&_nc_sid=110474&_nc_ohc=AwWKB8wzhewAX8PdJy4&_nc_ht=scontent.ffcm1-2.fna&oh=1b4bbf6c3cb96e2ac51bd2a3a7c683e2&oe=5EE80822)

Pinkerton wrote:
FlamingPeasant wrote:

In a couple of hours heading out to try to unclog my septic line from the house with a hose.

Oof, Godspeed! Hopefully you caught it before there was a big mess.

No mess, but I'm nervous. Line has clay in it and appears to be broken or disconnected based on what I can feel/hear when I send the snake up. Everything is still draining and flushing in the house, but I'm not sure where it is going. Septic company is coming out hopefully tomorrow with a mini excavator to see what's what.

FlamingPeasant wrote:
Pinkerton wrote:
FlamingPeasant wrote:

In a couple of hours heading out to try to unclog my septic line from the house with a hose.

Oof, Godspeed! Hopefully you caught it before there was a big mess.

No mess, but I'm nervous. Line has clay in it and appears to be broken or disconnected based on what I can feel/hear when I send the snake up. Everything is still draining and flushing in the house, but I'm not sure where it is going. Septic company is coming out hopefully tomorrow with a mini excavator to see what's what.

We had tree roots grow through our septic line at the family cabin. Not sure how you prevent that and still enjoy shade on your property.

JLS wrote:

We had tree roots grow through our septic line at the family cabin. Not sure how you prevent that and still enjoy shade on your property.

I have to get my clay line augered out every couple of years. As long as the joints remain intact, it's fine as the clay itself last eternally but it needs regular maintenance. Doing that and getting it camera inspected at the same time is still way cheaper than a replacement.

JLS wrote:
FlamingPeasant wrote:
Pinkerton wrote:
FlamingPeasant wrote:

In a couple of hours heading out to try to unclog my septic line from the house with a hose.

Oof, Godspeed! Hopefully you caught it before there was a big mess.

No mess, but I'm nervous. Line has clay in it and appears to be broken or disconnected based on what I can feel/hear when I send the snake up. Everything is still draining and flushing in the house, but I'm not sure where it is going. Septic company is coming out hopefully tomorrow with a mini excavator to see what's what.

We had tree roots grow through our septic line at the family cabin. Not sure how you prevent that and still enjoy shade on your property.

Tough to prevent with old clay piping BUT there are systems that can reline pipe without digging it up.

Anyone here have experience with DIY landscaping? Have some issues that are gifts from previous owners.

A big part of my backyard is a soil/sand mix that landscapers have told me would need to be excavated and replaced with loam to grow grass. Another part is a sandpit that used to have and above-ground pool on it and is now an eyesore due to weeds.

I’m considering making a rock garden out of the sandpit. I would guess that a thorough weeding and some landscaper fabric would give me a blank slate, and I could put down some mulch in the short term while I figure out the rock design I want.

For the soil/sand part my wife wants a grass lawn for the toddler. Would GroTrax be an option? They say it’s guaranteed to grow in whatever, but I’m skeptical.

karmajay wrote:
JLS wrote:
FlamingPeasant wrote:
Pinkerton wrote:
FlamingPeasant wrote:

In a couple of hours heading out to try to unclog my septic line from the house with a hose.

Oof, Godspeed! Hopefully you caught it before there was a big mess.

No mess, but I'm nervous. Line has clay in it and appears to be broken or disconnected based on what I can feel/hear when I send the snake up. Everything is still draining and flushing in the house, but I'm not sure where it is going. Septic company is coming out hopefully tomorrow with a mini excavator to see what's what.

We had tree roots grow through our septic line at the family cabin. Not sure how you prevent that and still enjoy shade on your property.

Tough to prevent with old clay piping BUT there are systems that can reline pipe without digging it up.

$1700 later it's all set. The line into the tank was a 4' pvc section connected to an angled joint that connected to another length that connected to a clay pipe. The first joint was the issue. Barely any adhesive was used on it and soil had compacted/eroded underneath it. The joint kept angling down and eventually disconnected. Had the septic company out, they excavated everything with a mini excavator, filled under the line with gravel, and reglued everything.

Glad to have it repaired without spending crazy money.

Blind_Evil wrote:

Anyone here have experience with DIY landscaping? Have some issues that are gifts from previous owners.

A big part of my backyard is a soil/sand mix that landscapers have told me would need to be excavated and replaced with loam to grow grass. Another part is a sandpit that used to have and above-ground pool on it and is now an eyesore due to weeds.

I’m considering making a rock garden out of the sandpit. I would guess that a thorough weeding and some landscaper fabric would give me a blank slate, and I could put down some mulch in the short term while I figure out the rock design I want.

For the soil/sand part my wife wants a grass lawn for the toddler. Would GroTrax be an option? They say it’s guaranteed to grow in whatever, but I’m skeptical.

You could put loam on top of the soil/sand where you want the grass? Would raise it up though.

And after 2 weeks and 3 calls I finally got my flooring from Home Depot.

Nothing like life to kick you in the shins when you think you are making progress. Went to start cleaning all my mess from previous projects in the basement up so I could start installing flooring. Found we have water in the corner where they did not install drain tile a couple years ago. So now we have to have someone come out and install drain tile in the rest of the basement.

I went downstairs in our half-finished basement last weekend to find wet carpet in one corner right by a walk-out French door. We've always had water issues in our basement but never in the part that we finished. Did some investigating and found that the bottom 5-6 inches of one side of the door jamb/frame was soaking wet and rotted out. After 3 days and $950 to have the carpet professionally dried and cleaned, a couple of days replacing carpet pad, and another couple of days cutting out rotten wood and replacing with new lumber and making some ground-level grade adjustments, I am worn out. Just in time for another round of thunderstorms to start up this afternoon to see if all of this work was effective. I $#%@ hate water problems in the house.

Question for everyone. I have a linoleum floor I am taking off. I have spent the last few weeks chipping away at this project. I used an oscillating scraper tool to peel off the floor and also scrape up the adhesive.

I have finally finished removing the old floor. The subfloor has been cleaned down to the wood but there is tack left to the floor adhesive residue however barely any. Will this be good enough to lay down new glue down vinyl plank floor with pad backing?

It is a hot subject online with no clear direction. The glue would not be any older than 1992 and I believe it has been replaced since then. I'd prefer not to pry up the top layer of subfloor and replace to get a full clean surface but if this will be what must be done I'd like to know now.

How thick is the residue? If it is basically flat and doesn't cover much I think you'll be fine. If it is thick enough that your boards won't lay flat naturally then you'll have a problem.

It's flat just tacky and couldn't tell if I was going to have issues.

Sigh, more water in my basement this morning. Company that did the draintile in the rest of the basement can't come out to give us a quote till Friday at 1. So while it continues to rain, I get to clean up the mess every day since I am wfh and my wife has to go into the office.

Rainsmercy wrote:

Sigh, more water in my basement this morning. Company that did the draintile in the rest of the basement can't come out to give us a quote till Friday at 1. So while it continues to rain, I get to clean up the mess every day since I am wfh and my wife has to go into the office.

Sucks. And...

Name doesn't check out.

-BEP

bepnewt wrote:

Name doesn't check out.

-BEP

I also go by Stormspain or Stormy in some places......

They were able to come out last night at 6 and give us an estimate. $4100 for 46 feet of work, take a day and a half to do work(digging/installing first day, cement second half day). They are booked through August currently but have put us on a list in case someone cancels which they have seen a lot due to the Corona virus.

sorry to hear. Need any drywall done?

Hobear wrote:

sorry to hear. Need any drywall done?

Nah, we're good thanks We only have to remove the baseboard, so I'll do that this weekend so we will be ready for in case they get us in early.

What metro area are you in, Hobear?

Twin Cities, MN however I'd travel for Drywall lol. You know...when not in pandemic.