This Old #%&@*$ House

T-Prime wrote:

I wonder if the reason for that is regional, and/or related to licensing and certification?

Probably both. There are some limit on what an inspector can do too. Mine said upfront he won't try to estimate repair costs for problems because he's not allowed to really look into what's causing it. He can visually inspect and turn things on or off but that's it. Something that might look like an easy fix could turn into a huge problem if there were other underlying issues.
We went with one recommended by our realtor, but she was our realtor, not the sellers. We'd been looking at houses with her for over 6 months, so at that points we trusted her opinion and never felt like she'd recommend a hack just to make a sale.

Our inspector was totally useless this time around. We used the one suggested by our realtor and the one question I asked him to check, "Is the plumbing CPVC or Pex?" came back as, "Pex" so I thought we were good. Nope! Turns out he only looked in one of the bathrooms and saw Pex sticking out and said it was good.

A simple look in the walk-in attic and I saw it was all CPVC...

A hundred other simple things were missed, too.

The inspector we used for the house before this one was great, though. He found a bunch of things that needed to be changed, flagged all the outlets that were switched and put color-coded tags to their corresponding switch!

Crazy difference!

Inspectors are just a slightly different flavor of contractors.

Some are crap, some are amazing and as with any tradespeople, canvas your local friends for personal recommendations.

Yeah I should have mentioned the two opposite experiences I had were for houses in the same neighborhood. We just moved to a larger house in the same development.

Being in real estate and seeing a recent inspection come back that comes to mind. Some inspectors do know electrical. But most inspectors are out there to find as many things as possible to make it look like they are earning your money. In the 4 inspections I've seen in the last year, they were all 40-80 pages long, and contained everything from sticky drawers to structural and electrical issues, albeit with some general fluff, and sometimes a bit of repetition.

So I've been looking into repainting my old 1900 home exterior since it's starting to peel and flake in spots. I had an inspector come out since there was a high possibility that there was lead paint and indeed there was some in the trim (soffit & fausa) and the porch beams/posts. Most painting companies that I've tried contacting don't want to take any precautions even though the paint is failing in some areas.

I did find one who is lead certified and would take all the precautions recommended by the EPA but they mentioned just using Sherman Williams duration paint to encapsulate it after removing the parts that are bad. They also mention using a multi-surface/wood primer. Would that really be enough?

I thought about just going the DIY route since my step dad offered to help but he's firmly in the lead is not a big deal at all camp. When I mentioned the bare minimum of putting down sheeting to catch the debris, he rejected that and thought just vacuuming it up afterwards would be enough. Anyways, any advice would be much appreciated.

Any recommendations on deck staining? Just looking for a simple light color that's going to hold up for a few years.

Our back stairs have been upgraded from total deathtrap to partial deathtrap.

IMAGE(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51627160240_d48bfcd5d3_z.jpg)

Quintin_Stone wrote:

Our back stairs have been upgraded from total deathtrap to partial deathtrap.

IMAGE(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51627160240_d48bfcd5d3_z.jpg)

This issue could have been resolved much sooner if you would have just built the zip line in your back yard like I advised years ago...

It's on the list!

I have a new appreciation for Torx bit screws. It took some work to get at some of the old screws, but once I did and once I cleaned out the heads, I was able to extract them all. If they were Phillips head I probably would have stripped half of them.

Big summer project now about 90% complete.

We went from this:
IMAGE(https://i.ibb.co/TRpjsHY/20210403-094754.jpg)
IMAGE(https://i.ibb.co/TcXK5fH/20210403-094836.jpg)

To this:
IMAGE(https://i.ibb.co/PWsBxqm/20211010-130002.jpg)
IMAGE(https://i.ibb.co/9hGkDFW/20211010-125939.jpg)

All that's left are the fire pit, a few chairs and the movie screen.

Nice!

We got rid of all of our grass in the front and back yards and love it.

We put in fake grass around the pool. You honestly can't tell the difference.

Mao, that's gorgeous!

Our backyard was so nice when we moved in. The old owners enjoyed gardening. We do not. But what really f*cked up our backyard is the draining ditch on the edge of the property keeps getting clogged and our yard turns into a pool any time it rains.

Quintin_Stone wrote:

I have a new appreciation for Torx bit screws. It took some work to get at some of the old screws, but once I did and once I cleaned out the heads, I was able to extract them all. If they were Phillips head I probably would have stripped half of them.

For real, I won't buy anything except torx head screws unless there's absolutely no other option. I've also decided that GRK screws are worth the higher price than the similar-looking but cheaper brand at Home Depot. The cheaper ones just don't go in nearly as nice. Making Philips head screws the standard in the US is the second best reason to intensely dislike Henry Ford, behind being a Nazi.

Chaz wrote:

Making Philips head screws the standard in the US is the second best reason to intensely dislike Henry Ford, behind being a Nazi.

In Ford's defense, Torx screws weren't invented until 20 years after his death.

And Phillips was the first cruciform drive head to be invented, and the only one available to Ford at the time, so as an alternative to a slot headed screw, I hope we can all get onboard with them being far superior to the alternative.

Jonman wrote:
Chaz wrote:

Making Philips head screws the standard in the US is the second best reason to intensely dislike Henry Ford, behind being a Nazi.

In Ford's defense, Torx screws weren't invented until 20 years after his death.

And Phillips was the first cruciform drive head to be invented, and the only one available to Ford at the time, so as an alternative to a slot headed screw, I hope we can all get onboard with them being far superior to the alternative.

Except that the also-superior square/Robertson drive screws were around, but Ford wanted them all to himself, because he was a bastard:

Wikipedia wrote:

The Fisher Body company, which made the car bodies for the Ford Motor Company, was one of Robertson's first customers and used over 700 Robertson screws in its Model T car. Henry Ford, after finding that the screw saved him about 2 hours of work for each car, attempted to get an exclusive licence for the use and manufacture of the Robertson screw in the US. He was turned down by Robertson who felt it was not in his best interest and shortly after that, Ford found that Henry F. Phillips had invented another kind of socket screw and had no such reservations.

I'm now in the part of the "owning an old house" life where I'm just hoping the rust keeping my old cast iron pipes intact don't shake around too much to make an actual hole (and therefore leak.)

I had a real bad clog last week, and no amount of vinegar-and-baking soda trick, a plunger, or hot water would fix the problem. I'm also scared of doing Draino on old pipes, so I called my trusted general contractor. He was in and out in 10 minutes, fixing the clog all the way to the main stack with apparently a better drum auger than I have... but he said he just made the pipe somewhat unrestricted. He did not clean the pipe since the house was built in the 40s, and you don't want to rock the hornet's nest too much.

Fun times :/

I love ticking time bombs.

Chairman_Mao wrote:

Big summer project now about 90% complete.

To this:
IMAGE(https://i.ibb.co/PWsBxqm/20211010-130002.jpg)
IMAGE(https://i.ibb.co/9hGkDFW/20211010-125939.jpg)

All that's left are the fire pit, a few chairs and the movie screen.

I'd love to hear more about what type of plants are in that new landscaping! Thanks!

Thanks all, we were surprised how close the project came out looking against the plan. We really lucked out on the contractor we hired and his team's availability.

Karma, the plants you see are as follows:

1. Bamboo in the Corten containers: Fargezia robusta. Should grow 8-10 feet from the container height.

2. Middle section behind the grass: Daphne "eternal fragrance" will get about 2-3 feet tall.

3. Japanese maple: Sango kaku. Can get 20-25 ft high, but we want to keep ours on the lower end of that.

4. Patio area: ilex. They get tall and stay pretty skinny.

Mao that looks amazing, and it totally reminded me of a British TV show with Monty Don called Big Dreams, Small Spaces. Great show if you get a chance to check it out. It's all about taking a small backyard just like yours and doing the most you can with it.

Chaz wrote:

For real, I won't buy anything except torx head screws unless there's absolutely no other option.

Seriously, go Robertson (unless y’all don’t have them down there).

Ok, fireplace-havers, a question for you:

I live in a 100+ year-old house with a massive fireplace in the living room. It is not used. This is a rental property, and not only do I have no interest in starting a fire in there, but I know our landlord, and can guarantee that chimney has never been properly maintained. During the winter, the first floor gets unbearably cold, hovering around 57° F all season. I want to try blocking the flue, as I suspect a good deal of that cold air is finding its way in through this chimney, but I have read various things on the internet that completely blocking it could be bad. The thing is, it doesn't just open into the living room, it also opens into the basement, and the hot water heater vents out of the chimney, as well.

I'm not sure exactly how it all works - but the basics I have read say that you need at least a small opening to allow air through so that condensation doesn't build up inside the chimney. Is the hot water heater vent in the basement sufficient to make sure that doesn't happen, and I'm in the clear to block the first floor fireplace entirely? Or should I still stick a piece of PVC pipe or something in there, so there is a path for some air movement out of the fireplace?

For the record, I intend to use an inflatable bag type of blocker - I can't find any kind of flue lever to just be able to make an adjustment.

I cover fireplaces with a sheet of plexiglass in front of them for exactly that reason. If it is getting that cold are you sure the flue is even closed? Look up there with a flashlight?

If the chimney is used to vent any gas appliances do not block the flue or even restrict it. Serious carbon monoxide safety issue. Not worth the risk.

Heretk wrote:

If the chimney is used to vent any gas appliances do not block the flue or even restrict it. Serious carbon monoxide safety issue. Not worth the risk.

Even if I just close off the part in the living room? I'm not talking about shoving this thing way up into the chimney, I just want the part that vents into the first floor to be closed off.

NSMike wrote:
Heretk wrote:

If the chimney is used to vent any gas appliances do not block the flue or even restrict it. Serious carbon monoxide safety issue. Not worth the risk.

Even if I just close off the part in the living room? I'm not talking about shoving this thing way up into the chimney, I just want the part that vents into the first floor to be closed off.

Do you have a gas stove without a exhaust hood (that actually vents to outside) on that floor?