The Home Improvement Thread. Successes and Failures

[aparch]

Alas, it was the compressor, so will start getting quotes for a new system. This is a fun charge to move up a couple years in the home maintenance rotation.

Well $#!%, I was rooting for your system to just need an easy fix because I fear mine is shortly behind yours with similar symptoms.

Not looking forward to replacing it because that means a new furnace as well. Our house has hydro-heat where in the winter it takes the hot water from the HW heater and warms up the furnace, and a traditional forced air blower pushes that warm air through the house. The water is then looped back to the HWH to get warmed back up.

In summer, we manually turn the Loop to the furnace valve shut and then turn the AC on.

Wife and I woke up to it blowing warm air one day late last summer. Had a hard start kit put on and its worked okay since (with some hiccups), but I fear it's acting up again and can smell the savings account we have.

[dxmnkd316]

Well $#!%, I was rooting for your system to just need an easy fix because I fear mine is shortly behind yours with similar symptoms.

Not looking forward to replacing it because that means a new furnace as well. Our house has hydro-heat where in the winter it takes the hot water from the HW heater and warms up the furnace, and a traditional forced air blower pushes that warm air through the house. The water is then looped back to the HWH to get warmed back up.

In summer, we manually turn the Loop to the furnace valve shut and then turn the AC on.

Wife and I woke up to it blowing warm air one day late last summer. Had a hard start kit put on and its worked okay since (with some hiccups), but I fear it's acting up again and can smell the savings account we have.

:-(

[dxmnkd316]

Goddamn am I proud of us this week. Finished our front garden, finished our native garden, put in a drip irrigation system, and tonight I spent the whole evening under the sink replacing the faucet. But it works! And no leaks (yet)!

We replaced ol' reliable


with a new Delta. Much deliberation between designs and features. Ended up going with Delta for two reasons:

1. The Brilliance stainless finish. From what I've read, it's damn near indestructible. Moen only had spot free stainless, which I didn't want. That's a powder coat vs the PVD of the brilliance. Much much much more durable.

2. The magnet hold system. For the life of me I have no idea why moen doesn't have this. We would have bought a Moen and overlooked the finish if it weren't for the lack of a magnet. Everything I've read about Moen and their warranty is rock solid. But, like all men of a certain age, I don't want a saggy spray head after a few years.

[burd]

Goddamn am I proud of us this week. Finished our front garden, finished our native garden, put in a drip irrigation system, and tonight I spent the whole evening under the sink replacing the faucet. But it works! And no leaks (yet)!

We replaced ol' reliable


with a new Delta. Much deliberation between designs and features. Ended up going with Delta for two reasons:

1. The Brilliance stainless finish. From what I've read, it's damn near indestructible. Moen only had spot free stainless, which I didn't want. That's a powder coat vs the PVD of the brilliance. Much much much more durable.

2. The magnet hold system. For the life of me I have no idea why moen doesn't have this. We would have bought a Moen and overlooked the finish if it weren't for the lack of a magnet. Everything I've read about Moen and their warranty is rock solid. But, like all men of a certain age, I don't want a saggy spray head after a few years.

Delta makes a good faucet; just make sure you follow the instructions on the ZIN adjustment, or you may pay a price later.

[dxmnkd316]

Delta makes a good faucet; just make sure you follow the instructions on the ZIN adjustment, or you may pay a price later.

The instructions were some of the absolute worst I've ever come across in my entire life. They were astonishingly bad.

perhaps this is one of those good subtle burd jokes that flew over my head. But what is the ZIN adjustment?

[St. Clown]

I had to redo the caulk in the main bath. Fundamentally, re-caulking a bath is easy. I’m terms of execution, I can never run my beads at the right pace. I either go too slow and end up with a ton of excess or too slow to then leave gaps. I hate it.

[dxmnkd316]

I had to redo the caulk in the main bath. Fundamentally, re-caulking a bath is easy. I’m terms of execution, I can never run my beads at the right pace. I either go too slow and end up with a ton of excess or too slow to then leave gaps. I hate it.

Did you use one of those uhhh caulk edgers?

[burd]

The instructions were some of the absolute worst I've ever come across in my entire life. They were astonishingly bad.

perhaps this is one of those good subtle burd jokes that flew over my head. But what is the ZIN adjustment?

Just giving you grief, dx, for taking a shot at those of us with sagging spray heads. (And there are solutions for that available on Amazon, btw).

[St. Clown]

Did you use one of those uhhh caulk edgers?

I put down painters tape to cover potential messes. Otherwise, I used a standard tube of bathroom silicone caulk, a caulk gun, and then I took a damp paper towel over my index finger to then smooth the beads. It’s just such a mess to deal with it all. And now I’m watching for shrinkage of the caulk to make sure the gaps are correctly sealed.

[aparch]

A plastic spoon will do the same as an edger, and I have done just that when sealing up a couple areas on the house we bought.

[Scarlet]

I have a heat pump in my unit for both heat and A/C. Turned the A/C on for a bit last night as it was so muggy and I had been away for a couple of days. After I shut it off, I heard water dripping. It was coming out of the pipe under the heat pump. It had happened once before about a year and a half ago and wasn't a big deal. This, though, hasn't stopped since last night. Soaked thru two large towels. I finally put a bucket under it around 10am, it's filled up twice since then.

Called for service, guy just left. He said this isn't an issue with my heat pump (thank God), that there is something below me, either the unit under me or in the parking garage, that is clogged and is backing up water into my heat pump. Called the management company, she is calling the building's person to come here. I'm hoping it's today as I don't want to have to get up every two hours to dump out a fill bucket of water. The unit below has been having issue with her heat pump for a while. It leaks into the pool area. Just pours out of it. This is on the management company to fix. I have a feeling they've been lollygagging around the past year or so but now that it's affecting my unit, they'll probably have to do something. The main contact at the management company likes me. I called and as soon as I said it was me she "Uh oh! What's wrong? You usually email!!" so I'm hoping she is jumping all over this.

Thankfully working from home today (and tomorrow) so I said they can come any time. My question to you is this - the rug on the floor under the heat pump is soaked. If I need to replace and fix the floor and the wall, which is wet and water stained, I should call my insurance company to come in to get an estimate and the management company should pay for that, right?

[Spartanforlife4]

Is this a rental, or a situation where you own the unit but there’s still a management company for maintenance? And how nice is the company?

I had an apartment with a non-usable fireplace. At the time it was built they were legal, but the city had since put in an ordinance that didn’t allow them to be used to multi-unit buildings anymore. But, just because it isn’t used doesn’t mean the maintenance problems don’t go away. After a few particularly bad rain storms we notice some brown staining on the ceiling in the extra bedroom in the little alcove cutout where the chimney ran. Call maintenance, they come out, say they’ll fix it. All they actually do is paint it over. We have a few more torrential downpours and after awhile you can literally see ceiling start to sink. It looks like someone put a large mixing bowl in the ceiling and they plastered around it. Call maintenance, they come out, say they’ll fix it. And they do to their credit this time. They cut out the bad plaster and patch it and paint it and it looks fine. Well, awhile later we get some more rain and the staining starts to come back. Despite all this leaking, to the point the ceiling was caving in, they apparently never went on the roof to check if everything was good and proper with the chimney. By this point we were already packing to move on to the next place, so who knows if they ever got that fixed correctly or if they’re going to be in an endless loop of painting and patching.

Anyway, going back to my original questions. While I lived at that place they got bought by a conglomerate maintenance company and it became the typical nickel and dime operation. There was no way I was going to put a claim on my insurance and try to get them to reimburse. The reason I ask if it’s a rental or you own is because I’m not sure what factors change if you happen to own it, but if it’s just a standard rental I would be putting the onus on them to fix it. Plus, I I’m not sure if this would even be related to your rental policy unless you’re trying to get reimbursed for the rug, since anything structural should still go through the landlord’s insurance. Unless you feel like you’re in immediate danger from mold or legitimate structural damage I would have maintenance look at it first before trying to spending anything out of pocket.

[Scarlet]

It's a condo. I own the unit. The management company sent their sewer and drain company to look at it. There's a pipe in the closet where the heat pump is and connects to. Guy drilled a hole in it, snaked it, and removed the blockage. The pipe where the blockage was is not part of my responsibility, it's part of the building's drainage. The damage to my unit was caused by this blockage. It's not extensive by any means. I'm happy if they agree to come in and fix using their people. It's a closet. My biggest issue is not having mold set in.

[SJHovey]

It's a condo. I own the unit. The management company sent their sewer and drain company to look at it. There's a pipe in the closet where the heat pump is and connects to. Guy drilled a hole in it, snaked it, and removed the blockage. The pipe where the blockage was is not part of my responsibility, it's part of the building's drainage. The damage to my unit was caused by this blockage. It's not extensive by any means. I'm happy if they agree to come in and fix using their people. It's a closet. My biggest issue is not having mold set in.

I would definitely talk to the management company about it. Frequently in condos the mechanical and plumbing systems that service the entire building are considered common areas, and are the responsibility of the association to repair and maintain. It's also pretty frequent that if those "common" facilities fail and cause damage to an individual unit, it will either be the association's responsibility to repair that unit, or at a minimum they can submit it to their insurance.

[St. Clown]

I would definitely talk to the management company about it. Frequently in condos the mechanical and plumbing systems that service the entire building are considered common areas, and are the responsibility of the association to repair and maintain. It's also pretty frequent that if those "common" facilities fail and cause damage to an individual unit, it will either be the association's responsibility to repair that unit, or at a minimum they can submit it to their insurance.

When I owned my townhome, the association had to fix an issue that was causing water infiltration into my basement, but I had to then fix the crack in the basement floor myself.

Just adding my experience.