Home Improvement

“Hey Bard, I missed your post from above.

Yes, father does know best, he suggested oil for the cabinets and latex for the walls.”

““Hey Bard, I missed your post from above.

Yes, father does know best, he suggested oil for the cabinets and latex for the walls.”
Wounded Knee
1:15:20 PM
4/05/07

Yeah, those old farts have learned a thing or two since they've been around so long. I still call my dad for advice even though I am a married 33 year old man with two kids of his own. Turns out my father-in-law knows even more about cars and home improvements than my father does, so I usually poll them both.”

“Stick with oil based for cabinetry, for toughness and because latex has a tendency to peel off of an oil substrate.”

“You should probably scuff any gloss from the blue before you prime.”

“Yep and yep. Not that I doubted my father or any of you here, but I phoned an expert at the local paint store (mainly because I don't trust the so called experts at the Lowes)

First scuff the cabinets up with low grit sandpaper (thanks pepsi) then clean with denatured alcohol. Prime then paint with oil base.

Walls - prime and paint with latex. Gotta get the majority of this done this weekend. Then the new cabinets, countertop and dishwasher come in. OH, forgot to move the stove and fridge out for new floor being laid (he he he he) on the 14th.

Should have just torched the house”

“Is anyone here familiar with grout replacement? There's currently a non English speaking guy downstairs who is simply wiping a new later of grout over the (just installed a few months ago)existing grout that was A) the wrong color and B) too much was removed creating rather painful seams between tiles. This doesn't sound right to me. A company rep said something about removing all of the grout first. I'm going to keep an eye on this right now.”

“uhoh....”

“These guys think I'm an ignorant moron or something? I've already spoken to a warranty rep at their office regarding what they are doing. I'm not happy at all.”

“They should be removing the old grout.”

“If possible take photos.”

“I've installed my own paver, basement & bathroom tiles. It's been many years now & it's still good. Can't say I'm anywhere near an expert but better then some pro jobs I've seen.

I would imagine it's a tough job of grout removal & replacement. (I'd check all tiles for damage before I signed off on the job.)If I was going to replace it, I'd want to remove enough to give the new stuff enough surface to adhere to. Don't think it would have to be "all", but that's probably better.

I like "WIDE" grout, but that's a pain to do so I've gone back to the aprx 1/4".

Removal is the hard part. Leveling it to the desired level (& cleaning off excess) is just done with a sponge.

You have to seal it at some point & that could darken or change the color too.

I've seen both ends of the spectrum of the "non-english" speaking types. I've seen minority company's tackle big jobs that they had no business going near & I've seen some "old world craftsmanship".”

“Nothing "old world" about these guys.

I've done plenty of tile and grout work too. These guys' managers have already heard I'm not satisfied. If course I was put on hold and then given a "I'll call you back" by the office.”

“They make electric grout routers that make the job a lot easier.”

“you don't hire mexicans if you have an electric grout router.”

“I gave $3,300 to Lowes over a month ago to have some kitchen work done (new cabinets, dishwasher installation, countertop) and as of yesterday, I went ape #&%!$ because of numerous #&%!$ ups.

First, having scheduled a seperate floor company to come out as well as the guys doing the work from lowes, the date when our countertops changed 3 times, yes, that was 3! This created a ripple causing me to reschedule the installation 3 different times.

The third time I heard, "your countertops and not ready" , I exploded.

Finally, we got the date of 4/18 as to when everything would be delivered. The install guys from Lowes should have installed my new dishwashed and cabinets and countertop today.

This did not happen because one piece of the countertop had a giant scratch in it and one end looked like it was dropped. That plus, we did not get the brand new dishwasher we ordered.

Again I exploded. I asked to talk with the person that scheduled us for all this stuff. Looking back at what I said to her, I am not very proud of myself. I couldn't help it though, I just snapped.


Time to start all over again...and get drunk this weekend!”

“This is warranty work by the company that originally installed all of this garbage. If I have to go back and do this work myself to be satisfied then I'm getting a #&%!$ing refund out of these chumps.”

“YIKES! WK, that really sucks. I bet Barbie was pissed too!

(Btw, did you ever dispose of those carrots?)

TB, thats whats wrong with this country, people hireing cheap labor that is not well schooled in how to do what needs to be done while more expirienced people get the shaft because the companies can pay someone cheeper to do the job.”

“"You get what you pay for" is a great catch phrase, but it isn't really true. Maybe it should be, "you get what you biotch for if you have enough patience"”

“Grrrrr

on effing hold again.. they're still not doing what they said they would.”

“That's why I like doing my own work. 90% of the time it's much cheaper & when it wasn't, I've gained skills.

The expensive part is the tools. I probably have 75 power tools. I rented a full sized jackhammer last week (nice but it's $1,200) The trencher I bought this month cost $3,000 plus tax & shipping. Cost me another $100 for the tractor trailers liftgate.(have a little trouble shouldering 1200#'s - must be getting old) & $40 (tip) for the driver who earned it.

The plus side is that I enjoy working & in demand. I might do it professionally when I retire from the state, but I'm not good at "billing".

I do all my own carpentry, welding, roofing, siding, electrical, plumbing, tile, furniture building, wire crafts, masonary etc. Haven't installed Kit cabs yet. (have to build them from scratch first)”

“Ouch! You guys need to watch the show "Holmes on Homes" on the DIY channel. Treebait, are you sure your grout was cracking due to excessive removal after installation, or maybe your subfloor is not installed properly.

As a rule of thumb, anytime I need work done on my house, I call one of the union guys I represent to do the job, or try to find an out of work union guy to do the work. When you hire a company like Lowes, you'll NEVER get the same quality. They pay thier contractors crap, which in turn generally creates an "I don't care" attitude from the contractor.

When you hire a union guy, they have advanced training, ask Birch, he's been thru extensive training to become the electrician he is. The Lowes folks just hire the cheapest people around, who don't provide much quality if you ask me.

Good luck with the tiles and countertop!

BTW - Check out Angie's List for reviews on contractor services.”

“I don't recall him saying it "cracked" for an additional subfloor. I heard him say he didn't like the color.”

“My uncle (a contractor) started rip-off on our place three days ago, two weeks late. Getting the whole outside ripped off, more insulation added, new sheathing, new siding. Got new gutters and garage door last year. He says he'll be done before he has another big job in Boston in May, but at the rate he's going I doubt it.”

“Our house is going on the market in 6 weeks. Our dishwasher broke. The part that broke is $170.00. The repair guy, who is someone I trust, said that he'd never seen that part break on that dishwasher. I also get to put a new coil in our HVAC and a new front door. I guess spending $2500 to get the house on the market isn't the end of the world, but I'd better get that dang money back.

The foundation for our new house goes in today. Yayyyy!”

“The grout isn't cracked it's just a #&%!$ty installation. It is tile installed by the builder on a slab. Frickin easy as hell install and they managed to screw it up on many levels.

When regrouting tile you are supposed to remove at least an eighth of an inch of the old grout. All of it if the existing grout is cracked.

Dayhiker- Coolness. Take lots of photos.”

“I'm taking a photo from 2 different vantage points each time I go out there so that I can have a time lapse thing at the end. Geeky, yes, but I think it will be neat.

I'm inspecting the rebar around lunch and then they'll pour away. He's asking lots of structural questions which is good. He's wanted to do a few things the normal way in residential that I've balked at. Lots of the typical stuff they get to do doesn't come close to meeting the code for non residential. That has always baffled me. Gravity and wind don't know or care or if the building they're acting on is a house or a commercial building.

Also last night we're walking around at the basement level and Reece grabs his tummy and goes, "Mommy my tummy doesn't YACKKKKKKKKK" We met out at the site since I had Emma at soccer practice. She informed me that he wasn't getting in the van with the baby and had to ride home with me. I keep a rain coat in the truck and made him put it in his lap for the drive!”

“I would say the difference between residential and commercial is that more people are gonna die if its commercial than if its residential. Cost/benefit doncha know”

“True, but I know several foundation contractors that make an excellent living fixing all of the residential market screwups. I'm sure the contractor thinks I'm being too conservative. OTOH, I've seen some major, major foundation problems over the years and it's always stupid stuff. You can spend 2k on real waterproofing now or pay 40k later to dig up the whole front of your basement to install it later. You can put concrete and rebar in your basement wall now or you can pay someone to install steel columns at about 4' o.c. later. Just stupid, stupid stuff that doesn't cost much more. Another contrator friend is brining me 20 sheets of the heavy gauge slab reinforcing that he had leftover. They don't normall put that in houses, but don't understand why they get bad cracks in the slabs. It's only $500 for the whole freaking house. I think I need to step off my soapbox.

What the hell, I'll step back on... the reason I don't do residential design is that for every $1 you pay your prof liability insurance company they pay $7 out on residential work. Insurance rates are dramitically higher if you over 5% of your revenue comes from residential or condos. The reason is partly the type of construction and partly that people are emotionally tied to their homes. You get pissed at a crack at your house but don't give a crap if it's at your office. Gross overgeneralization over.”

“dude, I am not disagreeing with you, I am just stating my opinion why the rules are different.

I remember a house I installed a HVAC system in before I went back to college. They forgot the waterproofing for the slab. It was so bad that if you left your shoes on the floor over night they would be mildewed in the morning.”

“Yeah, I realized what you were saying. I wasn't directing the rant at you.”

“Ok, question for the home builders out there. My contractor is extending my exterior 2 X 4's so we can get an extra layer of insulation under new sheathing. It will move me from R-13 insulation to R-26, the recommended level of wall insulation for my area. The only cost-effective way he says he can get the extra layer up is to staple it on from the outside, backing facing out. Unbacked would have issues keeping it in place. So I told him to slash open the backing in long diagonal slices after its stapled up to allow moisture to migrate. The new sheathing going over it is standard plywood, then Tyvek, then new siding.

Its not as perfect as putting up unbacked insulation but should still allow for good moisture flow, right? Thoughts?”

“Don't slice your vapor barrier. Email arclite and he can give you more info than you ever imagined on this.”

“They do make an insulation wrpped in a vapor permeable plastic. We added it in the attic on top of what was in place (and already had a vapor barrier). I don't know if there is something comparable that would work in the walls.”

“Well the idea of the whole system, from what I've read, is you put the backing up against the warm side of the wall system (even says this on the insulation), and there shouldn't be a vapor barrier from that point outward. Theoretically it should all be unbacked, which is easy to do when you lay down more insulation in an attic. Leaving the backing intact on the new insulation - with the new backing now facing the cold outside of the wall - will cause condensation inside that new barrier and will quickly saturate the insulation since it has nowhere to escape. Normally it would travel outward through the plywood and then through the Tyvek. I'll list the layers below that I have. I'm not talking about slicing the original barrier that's against the drywall.

Violin- wish he had known about that but all of the insulation is sitting on pallets in my yard so we have to go with what we have.

drywall/backing/insulation/new insulation/new backing(sliced)/plywood/Tyvek/siding”

“Ahhh, thought you were slicing your vapor barrier. Nevermind.”

“ALBANY -- The key prosecution witness in the Houghtaling family insurance fraud case finally took the stand Thursday, detailing an alleged scam to crash a rental truck into one of their homes to claim enough insurance money to renovate the kitchen.
[...]
On trial are Frank Houghtaling, 32; his brother, Joseph, 36; their wives, Renee and Rhonda Houghtaling, who are 34-year-old twins; the Houghtalings' mother, Donna Houghtaling, 58; and her daughter, Brenda Warner, 38.

The family is accused of staging 23 crashes to collect insurance money.
[...]

http://timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=584503&category=ALBANY&BCCode=LOCAL&newsdate=4/27/2007”

“catshiker--

Are you for hire?”

“The weekend project for this week was a tile backsplash. Tomorrow night I'll grout it.

Progress photos.
Start:


And done laying the tile:
”

“Grouting sucks! Nice work HPM!”

“Very nice. That'll look really good with what appears to be granite and cherry.”

“Hey Buddha Bear, I have a great tip for grouting, so to speak. Use a pastry or frosting bag with a medium round tip. Much less messy that way.”

“niiiice hpm - I'll definately do that on the next project!”

“There are even grout guns that mount to an electric drill you can get, but you still need to use a float to level and smooth it all out.”

“Ah, no tiling in our future. G just went out to purchase our new sliding glass door and drywall. I'm so nervous about his drywall abilities....the soffet (sp??) is going next month. I'm not looking forward to not having a kitchen for a few months....”

“Just cook backpacker or carcamper style!”

“The kitchen in 90% complete.

Ran new electric and water to dishwasher last week and installed new floor cabinets this past weekend. Should be getting a call today or tomorrow from Home Depot about the new countertops. I have a few areas to touch up with paint, but for the most part, my job is done.”

“Coolness.


Feels good getting stuff like that done, doesn't it?”

“You betcha! Especially since we originally paid Lowes to do all the work back in March. They could not seem to keep up their end of the deal, so I calcelled the contract and did most of the work myself.

For once in my life, I was willing to pay for these services. I ended up saving close to 2K which I will spend on something else.”

“I peeled wallpaper most of the weekend. Our half bath is getting repainted before we put the house on the market. Damn cheap wallpaper...it's a half bath for crying out loud. We still don't have all the paper off that thing. We're repainting the kitchen, half bath, and laundry room, replacing the front door with a stained fiberglass one, new AC coil is being installed today, and new exterior light fixtures. The house goes in the local sales mag 6/5, the mag comes out 6/24 or so, and we list 6/15.”

“Niiiice WK......

DH - where ya movin to?

It's day 5 of the paint the house/get a tan athon here in C-Town. Garage, Sleeper Porch, Front of House - done, no beestings yet.

Happy Working”