Home Repairs

rass · Post by **rass** » Sun Oct 11, 2015 3:41 pm

YouTube is a fantastic resource for videos that let you know you'd be completely over your head if you try a project yourself, which is a nice gateway to acceptance of the necessity of throwing hundreds of dollars at a problem to make it just go away. This week's project: removing and replacing shitty broken attic stairs.

Pruitt · Post by **Pruitt** » Sun Oct 11, 2015 3:49 pm

YouTube has saved me money and done wonders for my manhood by hosting videos that allowed me to do those manly things.

rass · Post by **rass** » Sun Oct 11, 2015 4:12 pm

Yeah, it's gone that way occasionally. But I'm also happy to have some backup when my pride starts to fuck with me.

Pruitt · Post by **Pruitt** » Sun Oct 11, 2015 4:56 pm

Oh don't misunderstand. I NEED those videos.

The Sybian · Post by **The Sybian** » Sun Oct 11, 2015 7:27 pm

rass wrote:Yeah, it's gone that way occasionally. But I'm also happy to have some backup when my pride starts to fuck with me.

Yep. Much worse to find out the job is too hard after you fuck up and make the problem worse/more expensive to fix, or get bitched at because whatever you fucked with went from working, but not optimally, to not working at all.

Post by **Shirley** » Sun Oct 11, 2015 8:48 pm

rass wrote:YouTube is a fantastic resource for videos that let you know you'd be completely over your head if you try a project yourself, which is a nice gateway to acceptance of the necessity of throwing hundreds of dollars at a problem to make it just go away. This week's project: removing and replacing shitty broken attic stairs.

Absolutely. It was YouTube that convinced me to go ahead and call someone else to fix my dryer a couple of days ago.

Brontoburglar · Post by **Brontoburglar** » Tue Nov 24, 2015 12:31 pm

Kitchen drain is slow/stucl. Anyone have any hand auger tricks? I have one of those and am going to try it as the three different liquid plumbing materials haven't worked.

I don't want to call a plumber. I can buy a machine auger (which is what they'd use) for 1-2x what I'd pay to get my drain cleaned. seems like it'd be worth it if I had to go that route as it'd pay for itself with two uses (and could have my parents use it when they need it)

A_B · Post by **A_B** » Tue Nov 24, 2015 12:42 pm

Brontoburglar wrote:Kitchen drain is slow/stucl. Anyone have any hand auger tricks? I have one of those and am going to try it as the three different liquid plumbing materials haven't worked.

I don't want to call a plumber. I can buy a machine auger (which is what they'd use) for 1-2x what I'd pay to get my drain cleaned. seems like it'd be worth it if I had to go that route as it'd pay for itself with two uses (and could have my parents use it when they need it)

I have an augur that attaches to my drill and gets a little more power that way. But yes, I have used a hand augur, and while it's worth a shot, if you didn't have any luck with liquid solutions, you might have something bigger than a hand augur will help with.

Main thing with augurs is just be patient and really work it around in there. You're definitely going to have a hard time dealing with the trap, but nothing you can't perservere through.

phxgators · Post by **phxgators** » Tue Nov 24, 2015 1:32 pm

Have you tried a sink plunger? http://www.homedepot.com/p/PlumbCraft-M ... /202192845

Very cheap option that is worth a shot. I've used one a couple of times on a clogged disposal, worked wonders.

Brontoburglar · Post by **Brontoburglar** » Tue Nov 24, 2015 1:42 pm

I tried a toilet plunger to no avail.

I like the auger on the drill option. I bet I could find that at Lowe's.

BSF21 · Post by **BSF21** » Tue Nov 24, 2015 1:46 pm

Brontoburglar wrote:I tried a toilet plunger to no avail.

I like the auger on the drill option. I bet I could find that at Lowe's.

Any reason it could be hair? Toby, former resident, current bangee? One of these is also a cheap option to rule out before you go total rotorooter:

http://www.homedepot.com/p/BrassCraft-Z ... lsrc=aw.ds

Brontoburglar · Post by **Brontoburglar** » Tue Nov 24, 2015 1:56 pm

Given that it's the kitchen sink, I'm extremely doubtful it's hair. Dog is too big for a sink bath.

BSF21 · Post by **BSF21** » Tue Nov 24, 2015 2:04 pm

Brontoburglar wrote:Given that it's the kitchen sink, I'm extremely doubtful it's hair. Dog is too big for a sink bath.

Solid point. I'm just a big fan of exhausting the 2.50 option before jumping to a power auger, but it sounds like that might be what you need to do. Is there a disposal involved here or just a drain line?

A_B · Post by **A_B** » Tue Nov 24, 2015 2:15 pm

My drill auger only cost like $10. It's a dual hand/drill.

Similar to this for 12.99

http://www.harborfreight.com/25-ft-drai ... 66262.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Rush2112 · Post by **Rush2112** » Tue Nov 24, 2015 2:15 pm

Got a big pail?

Take the the trap off.

I had to rebuild my whole undersink system because the yahoo who built the the original didn't have a big enough drain before the trap to have it drain correctly. Would clog all the time. Rebuilt it with proper angles and all that, and been working great since.

Brontoburglar · Post by **Brontoburglar** » Tue Nov 24, 2015 2:18 pm

I just realized that I could attach the auger I had to the drill. But of course my drill batteries are dead. Charging now.

BSF21 · Post by **BSF21** » Tue Nov 24, 2015 2:22 pm

To piggyback off AB, and this is just my .02 -- I've never had a good experience with anything I've ever bought from Harbor Freight.

A_B · Post by **A_B** » Tue Nov 24, 2015 2:29 pm

BSF21 wrote:To piggyback off AB, and this is just my .02 -- I've never had a good experience with anything I've ever bought from Harbor Freight.

Well, i got mine at lowes but that was the best picture I could find.

BSF21 · Post by **BSF21** » Tue Nov 24, 2015 2:30 pm

A_B wrote:
BSF21 wrote:To piggyback off AB, and this is just my .02 -- I've never had a good experience with anything I've ever bought from Harbor Freight.
Well, i got mine at lowes but that was the best picture I could find.

I figured. Just a caveat emptor from a burned customer.

A_B · Post by **A_B** » Tue Nov 24, 2015 2:36 pm

Also, the key is to shove the snake in there as far as you can before you really put the power to it!

Post by **Sabo** » Tue Nov 24, 2015 3:22 pm

We've had a slow kitchen drain multiple times (including right now), and we've always had to call a plumber to do it because my hand auger is too short to reach the clog.

Whatever you do, don't use liquid drain cleaners. If you have metal pipes they can cause them to corrode faster, and if you have PVC pipes the liquid causes the plastic pipes to soften and eventually weaken and cause a leak.

A_B · Post by **A_B** » Tue Nov 24, 2015 3:25 pm

Sabo wrote:We've had a slow kitchen drain multiple times (including right now), and we've always had to call a plumber to do it because my hand auger is too short to reach the clog.

Whatever you do, don't use liquid drain cleaners. If you have metal pipes they can cause them to corrode faster, and if you have PVC pipes the liquid causes the plastic pipes to soften and eventually weaken and cause a leak.

For slow drains I've heard they are OK, but for complete clogs they are a no-go. And this is on newer homes, I think the old metal pipes thing still matters. You get a different answer form everyone you ask.

Brontoburglar · Post by **Brontoburglar** » Tue Nov 24, 2015 3:27 pm

Sabo wrote:We've had a slow kitchen drain multiple times (including right now), and we've always had to call a plumber to do it because my hand auger is too short to reach the clog.

Whatever you do, don't use liquid drain cleaners. If you have metal pipes they can cause them to corrode faster, and if you have PVC pipes the liquid causes the plastic pipes to soften and eventually weaken and cause a leak.

Oh, I totally used liquid drain cleaner.

But I *think* it's now clear. Should have totally live swamped it.

Brontoburglar · Post by **Brontoburglar** » Tue Nov 24, 2015 3:41 pm

I said totally two too many times there

A_B · Post by **A_B** » Tue Jan 05, 2016 11:39 am

FUCK FRIGIDAIRE.

Two appliance that absolutely blow goats. Dishwasher finally gave out. And this repair is listed about 100 times when you google it, and it apparently fails again after repair. So bit a big fucking bullet and bought a new dishwasher instead of paying $200 to have it fixed only to have to do it again in another 18 months.

Fridge works, but the ice dispenser isn't for shit. And it's a feature my family uses the shit out of. FUCK FRIGIDAIRE.

Post by **Sabo** » Tue Jan 05, 2016 11:50 am

A_B wrote:FUCK FRIGIDAIRE.

Two appliance that absolutely blow goats. Dishwasher finally gave out. And this repair is listed about 100 times when you google it, and it apparently fails again after repair. So bit a big fucking bullet and bought a new dishwasher instead of paying $200 to have it fixed only to have to do it again in another 18 months.

Fridge works, but the ice dispenser isn't for shit. And it's a feature my family uses the shit out of. FUCK FRIGIDAIRE.

So far, we're very happy with the GE appliances we bought for our kitchen remodel. They have a pretty good repair history according to Consumer Reports, too.

The Sybian · Post by **The Sybian** » Tue Jan 05, 2016 11:50 am

Brontoburglar wrote:
Sabo wrote:We've had a slow kitchen drain multiple times (including right now), and we've always had to call a plumber to do it because my hand auger is too short to reach the clog.

Whatever you do, don't use liquid drain cleaners. If you have metal pipes they can cause them to corrode faster, and if you have PVC pipes the liquid causes the plastic pipes to soften and eventually weaken and cause a leak.
Oh, I totally used liquid drain cleaner.

But I *think* it's now clear. Should have totally live swamped it.

Late to the party, but don't use liquid drain cleaner on metal pipes. It is supposed to be ok on pvc, but who knows. I've had success using bacterial drain cleaners on slow drains. You put the powder in warm water and shake it up to activate the bacteria, and it eats hair, grease and other organic matter that may be stuck. The shower gets clogged with wife's hair, the bathroom sink builds up toothpaste and my beard shavings. The bacteria takes care of both. If the drain is really slow, you may need to pour the bacteria 2 or 3 days to get it running, and you need to wait 8 hours before using the drain. It's supposed to be used regularly to prevent clogs from staring, but I never think to use it until the drain starts running slow.

sancarlos · Post by **sancarlos** » Thu Jan 14, 2016 12:50 pm

So, this seems a good place to vent. For the past couple months, we've had a big landscaping job going on. Finally finished it in mid-December. Went on a two-week driving trip to New Mexico/Arizona for the holidays, so we hadn't even had a chance to enjoy the new backyard, yet. The trip was great for the most part (aside from usual family drama), but... we received a phone call from a neighbor while we were gone. One day, we had a massive rainstorm. Wouldn't have been a bad thing normally - as part of the landscaping, we put in a nice big dry well that handled the rain just fine. But, the problem was this: A sewer main run across all the backyards of the homes on our street, right near the back property line. And, a manhole is in our backyard. Somehow, the old pipeline got clogged, although rainfall shouldn't matter to a sanitary sewer line. But, apparently some folks upstream have tapped their gutters into their sewer laterals, and leaves may have clogged it, or tree roots maybe, or the city's uncloggers may have fucked things up, themselves. But, regardless of the cause, the end result was that the manhole cover blew off and filthy water and shit (literally) went into our new backyard (and the neighbor's).

Luckily the city got right on it and my wife and has been on them like a pit bull every day ever since. They pumped out and cleaned up all the obvious stuff right away while we were gone, and we've had remediation workers here, regularly, plus having the city regularly pumping out the drywall (the rains haven't let up much). Finally, they have it all pretty much cleaned up. But a tiny bit got into the crawl space, so that is still getting remediated. They are still putting in new soil everywhere and dehumidifying/circulating the air in the crawl space. We are fighting with the city to have soil testing done to prove it is all fixed. It's all been exhausting.

Nonlinear FC · Post by **Nonlinear FC** » Thu Jan 14, 2016 1:34 pm

This is kind of in my area of (public relations level of knowledge) expertise. You are right that sanitary sewer systems are supposed to be closed, but you describe is pretty common. Folks with a little bit of plumbing know-how are constantly fucking with the sewer pipes, hooking things up illegally to get around county/city ordinances. Like grease traps from mom-and-pop food establishments. We call that "inflow."

The other thing is that when the rain is really heavy it can cause infiltration, where water enters the system through leaky joints or old/cracked pipes. This extra volume can overwhelm pipes (6" pipe is set for your 'hood, but the volume during heavy rain requires an 8" pipe... stuff like that.)

Sorry, not really helpful, other than to say you should really press the city to look at the INI (inflow and infiltration) issues once they've dealt with all of your claims on your property. This is going to happen again, unless they get to the bottom of what caused this one.

howard · Post by **howard** » Thu Jan 14, 2016 1:35 pm

wow, what a mess.

Post by **Shirley** » Thu Jan 14, 2016 2:00 pm

howard wrote:wow, what a mess.

Yeah, that's shitty.

BSF21 · Post by **BSF21** » Thu Jan 14, 2016 3:02 pm

Nonlinear FC wrote:This is kind of in my area of (public relations level of knowledge) expertise. You are right that sanitary sewer systems are supposed to be closed, but you describe is pretty common. Folks with a little bit of plumbing know-how are constantly fucking with the sewer pipes, hooking things up illegally to get around county/city ordinances. Like grease traps from mom-and-pop food establishments. We call that "inflow."

The other thing is that when the rain is really heavy it can cause infiltration, where water enters the system through leaky joints or old/cracked pipes. This extra volume can overwhelm pipes (6" pipe is set for your 'hood, but the volume during heavy rain requires an 8" pipe... stuff like that.)

Sorry, not really helpful, other than to say you should really press the city to look at the INI (inflow and infiltration) issues once they've dealt with all of your claims on your property. This is going to happen again, unless they get to the bottom of what caused this one.

Now tell them some horror stories about places with improper backflow prevention and their water supply :)

rass · Post by **rass** » Tue Feb 23, 2016 10:04 am

Our home/mortgage insurance company sent an inspector out to check out the exterior of our house, and came back with a couple of spots where the roof appears to be buckling, as per:

The one spot I could get to without taking my life into my hands does appear to be not just the shingles. The wood beneath is coming up, though I can't 100% tell if it is rotting or not. We haven't had any indication of leaks inside, and the one spot I could sort of inspect from inside the attic didn't appear to have been wet recently, either. Regardless, the insurer insists we get it fixed ASAP.

We bought the house 12 years ago, and were told at the time (but I can't remember if we got receipts to back that up) that the roof had been redone recently, so figure it's around 15 years old?

Any chance something like this can be fixed without completely redoing the roof? Any advice on what else to look for, or what to ask the contractor we have come take a look to make sure he doesn't just milk us for all he can?

A_B · Post by **A_B** » Tue Feb 23, 2016 10:10 am

I fixed a spot similar to that on my mom's house. It was actively leaking inside as well. A decent contractor can probably spot fix that, but a 15 year old roof is getting close to the point of replacement, typically.

rass · Post by **rass** » Tue Feb 23, 2016 11:22 am

rass · Post by **rass** » Sat Feb 27, 2016 3:24 pm

Getting the whole roof redone. It came out a couple thousand less than our initial guesses, so found money? Yay?

DSafetyGuy · Post by **DSafetyGuy** » Sat Feb 27, 2016 8:28 pm

rass wrote:Getting the whole roof redone. It came out a couple thousand less than our initial guesses, so found money? Yay?

We had ours re-done last year in the middle of October. It rained multiple times during the day, including once hard enough that everyone on the crew took an early lunch. I was not happy about that. I was also not happy about finding a four-inch long string of nails mixed in with the leaves while raking.

Rush2112 · Post by **Rush2112** » Sun Feb 28, 2016 10:26 pm

Had to replace the over the range microwave. What a pain in the ass. They are all the same size basically but don't have the same bracket shape or support bolts. They give you a drilling template for the support bolts, but of course they aren't exact and we had to drill 3-4 times to get the dame bolts to screw in.

Also had to take the first layer of backsplash tiles off. If I lived in a hurricane or tornado area I'd want my hose made out of the shit. Took repeated blows from a hammer to simply shatter the crap, which still stuck in place.

A_B · Post by **A_B** » Sun Feb 28, 2016 10:41 pm

Happened with my brother in law too. Nothing ever works like it should.

Pruitt · Post by **Pruitt** » Mon Feb 29, 2016 6:13 am

DSafetyGuy wrote:
rass wrote:Getting the whole roof redone. It came out a couple thousand less than our initial guesses, so found money? Yay?
We had ours re-done last year in the middle of October. It rained multiple times during the day, including once hard enough that everyone on the crew took an early lunch. I was not happy about that. I was also not happy about finding a four-inch long string of nails mixed in with the leaves while raking.

We had our roof done about a decade ago, and I was finding those long nails in my shrubs and lawn for a year or so.

Crew was so bad that when they were finishing, one of the guys simply tossed one of his tools - the thing that looks like a hammer with a sharp end - off the roof towards where they were stacking their stuff.

The thing hit one of the crew guys who went down and started bleeding from the head. We called for an ambulance and the cops also showed up and questioned the crew for a while. Injured guy went for stitches, but the cops were here for a hell of a lot longer than when my car was stolen off the driveway.

Good times.