The Home Improvement Thread. Successes and Failures

[burd]

We've got soffit vents already. The house used to have an attic circulator. I'm going to have them remove that penetration if they can.

Soffit vents are there to allow air in (other than gable ends); Does your roof have anything other than the circulator setup to allow air out? Ridge vents?

[dxmnkd316]

Soffit vents are there to allow air in (other than gable ends); Does your roof have anything other than the circulator setup to allow air out? Ridge vents?

i believe so. I think it's got ridge cents on the backside. Haven't really thought about it

the circulator was removed from service when the central air was put in.

[burd]

i believe so. I think it's got ridge cents on the backside. Haven't really thought about it

the circulator was removed from service when the central air was put in.

We’ll congrats on getting the new roof. That’s no minor upgrade.

[dxmnkd316]

Weâ??ll congrats on getting the new roof. Thatâ??s no minor upgrade.

thanks!
Especially since they look to be architectural 30-years that are about 22 years old.

They were looking to be about due for a replacement. Like getting a 10k-15k bonus.

[Deutsche Gopher Fan]

thanks!
Especially since they look to be architectural 30-years that are about 22 years old.

They were looking to be about due for a replacement. Like getting a 10k-15k bonus.

Hopefully you don’t need to claim anything else big in the near future.

I was fine paying for my roof vs waiting for a storm. My old roof was so bad I doubt my insurance would have covered a ton.

much of my area saw premiums go up a lot this year while mine didn’t. I know my insurance score is through the roof with basically zero claims and a credit score around 840.

[joecct]

Last fall we got the area under our deck finished with a patio. We dug down enough to create a 78" headroom (I'm 6'2"). However rain water was coming down thru the deck planking gaps (as small as they are). The deck, btw, is 19x12.

We investigated some commercial solutions and the parts were $2,500+ plus labor.

My beloved bride and I thought about it for a bit and came up with a solution: Solid soffit panels and f channels all from home depot.

We sloped the f channels 2" for the run and trimmed the panels to fit the gaps between the joists.

We marked the slope using chalk string and put finishing nails along the line to get the channels in the right spot and correct slope. Plus the nails acted as support for the f channels as I screwed them in.

Just had a downpour and it looks like it worked. We're dry underneath.

Parts:

Ply Gem 0.75 in. x 1/2 in. x 12.6 ft. White F-Channel
https://www.homedepot.com/p/Ply-Gem-...404H/202666303
SKU# 202666303

Ply Gem 12.75 in x 0.5 in Rectangular Triple 4 in. Economy Solid Vinyl Soffit - Non-Ventilated
https://www.homedepot.com/p/Ply-Gem-...N04H/202666272
SKU# 202666272

Ran us $900 or so including delivery.

Next: gutters to capture the runoff and direct it away from the house.

[burd]

Last fall we got the area under our deck finished with a patio. We dug down enough to create a 78" headroom (I'm 6'2"). However rain water was coming down thru the deck planking gaps (as small as they are). The deck, btw, is 19x12.

We investigated some commercial solutions and the parts were $2,500+ plus labor.

My beloved bride and I thought about it for a bit and came up with a solution: Solid soffit panels and f channels all from home depot.

We sloped the f channels 2" for the run and trimmed the panels to fit the gaps between the joists.

We marked the slope using chalk string and put finishing nails along the line to get the channels in the right spot and correct slope. Plus the nails acted as support for the f channels as I screwed them in.

Just had a downpour and it looks like it worked. We're dry underneath.

Parts:

Ply Gem 0.75 in. x 1/2 in. x 12.6 ft. White F-Channel
https://www.homedepot.com/p/Ply-Gem-...404H/202666303
SKU# 202666303

Ply Gem 12.75 in x 0.5 in Rectangular Triple 4 in. Economy Solid Vinyl Soffit - Non-Ventilated
https://www.homedepot.com/p/Ply-Gem-...N04H/202666272
SKU# 202666272

Ran us $900 or so including delivery.

Next: gutters to capture the runoff and direct it away from the house.

Good for you and Mrs. joe. Using your collective brain and going for it.

[dxmnkd316]

That's pretty slick. Might have to think about something g similar for ours when we have it done

[Swansong]

That sounds like an ingenious way to fix a super frustrating problem.


I'm awaiting a quote to fix my sagging deck (I'm just going to get as much mileage out of that pun as humanly possible). The sag is where one of the support boards joins the foundation - it is no longer attached in one area. Hopefully it isn't rotted out and can simply be re-attached. My dude warned me that a quote will be a wide range: it could be anywhere from 3 hours to 3 days. But, it has to be fixed.

In good news, now that I have external power, I was able to hang all the little bistro lights around my patio/fire pit area. Finally looking good!


In lame as hell news, my next door neighbor used to burn her fire pit at least once a week, but a new person moved in behind her house and called 911 the first time she used it this season (he didn't like the smoke, which I honestly didn't even notice). Open fires are illegal in this city (cooking fires ok), so her keeping a grate there made the fire department satisfied, but now she's all paranoid about the busybody. My fire pit is a smokeless one and is blocked from view from that neighbor, so I hope I'm ok. I told the good neighbor to come by any time she sees us out.

[dxmnkd316]

bad neighbors can ruin everything.


In unrelated home improvement news, I'm really really enjoying the Home Assistant i've loaded onto the Raspberry Pi. Excellent community support. The HA environment is pretty slick. You can load in tons of sensors, automations, and integrations. Plus the sensors you can buy are starting to get UL approvals so you can start to use them in electrical installs. all without needing to send anything to an outside cloud.

Learning a lot about APIs as well. Which I've played around with before, but never really in any useful way. It's looking more and more like I can finally make the weather app of my dreams. *swoon*

I've also managed to add my decade-old plasma and receiver into iOS so that it looks like it's natively supported by Homekit. Which is ****ing rad. I built an automated data logger for my smoker for $25 plus the cost of the temperature probes I already owned.


In only very tangentially related to home improvement news, the baby squirrels are out and running around the yard. Very entertaining. There's at least five of them. They've spent the last hour and a half chasing each other in a line like something out of Benny Hill. Then they scatter around the backyards until one starts running and yakkety sax starts playing again.

[joecct]

Update on the under deck project. Water was staying in the soffits after the rain. Looks like the 2" drop was insufficient so we dropped the far end another ~4" (basically right above the joist hanger). That ought to get the water down and out.

Also had minor leakage between a few f channels and the joists. May have to tape that but we'll wait until the next rain (mid week).

Next is to run power from the basement out to under the deck for 2 outlets and maybe a couple of fans for air movement. Flexible conduit or rigid?

BTW, previous owner ran power for a stairway light. No junction box outside, just 3 wire nuts. How Vinnie Boon Bots, ace house inspector, missed that is another black mark on his company.

[walrus]

Update on the under deck project. Water was staying in the soffits after the rain. Looks like the 2" drop was insufficient so we dropped the far end another ~4" (basically right above the joist hanger). That ought to get the water down and out.

Also had minor leakage between a few f channels and the joists. May have to tape that but we'll wait until the next rain (mid week).

Next is to run power from the basement out to under the deck for 2 outlets and maybe a couple of fans for air movement. Flexible conduit or rigid?

BTW, previous owner ran power for a stairway light. No junction box outside, just 3 wire nuts. How Vinnie Boon Bots, ace house inspector, missed that is another black mark on his company.

Under the deck is a wet location, I'd use PVC. Rigid is a specific type of conduit, galvanized steel, threaded connections. Also you can't use romex in pipe outdoors as conduit outdoors is a wet location. Have to use in use covers on boxes for receptacles and GFCIs . Hire an electrician.

[dxmnkd316]

Finished the front face of the block wall for our native and "native-adjacent" garden in front. **** clay.
Anyways, it looks great. And we bought a bunch of native cardinal flower to add to it.

They had a native plant sale at the fire department today. Holy god. I'm glad we got there early. Madhouse. Great selection though. Relatively cheap. got a bunch of different milkweed for our butterfly garden we're putting in back. Going to look incredible.

[anygreen]

Spent the whole evening yesterday trying to fix back the security camera.
Huge fail. AT the end google nest customer service was kind enough to help me with the issue.
And that is the place i found their contacts. Maybe will be helpful for someone else.

[Swansong]

I still can't believe we don't have a "report post" function for sales bots like that