Home Improvement - Undoing Previous Owners "Landlord" Specials

[alicestevens]

My friend, who is a roofer, insists that if I apply a silicone roof system—starting with a primer layer, followed by a layer of silicone coating, and repeating the process a second time—it will be flexible enough and durable for a long time. He’s confident that this method would waterproof a planked deck and keep it water-tight for many years. I plan to check with Saratoga roofing co https://saratogaroofingco.com/ as well, since they did our roof repairs last time, but I’m curious to hear your thoughts on this

 

[state of hockey]

Dishwasher stopped working. It would fill, heat, and drain as it usually would, but no spraying. Figured the motor was dead. YouTube University said there may be some gunk screwing up the works and showed me how to take it apart to check. Didn’t really find anything, but rinsed some components that looked a little gunky off. Put it back together to check one last time before ordering a new motor. Works fine.

Growing up is realizing that a lot of the times your dad fixed something he had no idea what he did to get it going again.

Ah well. At least I found a way to rip the motor out without pulling the whole unit out if it goes out again. (Not what I did today, unfortunately. Took doing it the long way to discover the short way)

 

[dxmnkd316]

Dishwasher stopped working. It would fill, heat, and drain as it usually would, but no spraying. Figured the motor was dead. YouTube University said there may be some gunk screwing up the works and showed me how to take it apart to check. Didn’t really find anything, but rinsed some components that looked a little gunky off. Put it back together to check one last time before ordering a new motor. Works fine.

Growing up is realizing that a lot of the times your dad fixed something he had no idea what he did to get it going again.

Ah well. At least I found a way to rip the motor out without pulling the whole unit out if it goes out again. (Not what I did today, unfortunately. Took doing it the long way to discover the short way)

Highly recommend finding a dishwasher cleaner (and if necessary, descaler) recommended by your manufacturer.

We run them a couple times a year.

 

[ScoobyDoo]

My home is testing at 7-10 pCi/L for Radon. Recommendation to put a mitigation system in is much less than that. My Trumpaholic neighbor who almost punched me out because I dared suggest getting the Covid vaccine was a good idea says Radon is a scam.

So, what would you do? Radon is the second leading cause of lung cancer. At least that's what all the scientists that are getting fired say. Get it fixed, just let it go and if you get lung cancer say it was God's will and move on?

 

[walrus]

very common problem in Maine, Do you have municipal water or a well?

 

[ScoobyDoo]

We have municipal water.

 

[walrus]

We have municipal water.

Do you have full basement? On a new home they run perforated pipes under concrete and vent with a fan to the roof line. Not sure what they do on existing buildings but sealing and venting inside air is what I would guess. Air to air heat exchanger in your climate some how piped thru the house would be a good guess. Well water requires what they call a bubbler, they have an indoor tank that they aerate to release radon from water and vent outdoors

 

[ScoobyDoo]

Do you have full basement? On a new home they run perforated pipes under concrete and vent with a fan to the roof line. Not sure what they do on existing buildings but sealing and venting inside air is what I would guess. Air to air heat exchanger in your climate some how piped thru the house would be a good guess. Well water requires what they call a bubbler, they have an indoor tank that they aerate to release radon from water and vent outdoors

I am aware of the fixes available. All good.

The point was my neighbor says its a hoax. So, if you do what you are saying are you paying off a hoax?

 

[walrus]

I am aware of the fixes available. All good.

The point was my neighbor says its a hoax. So, if you do what you are saying are you paying off a hoax?

Its not a hoax, I could give 2 shits about what some idiot neighbor thinks.

 

[ScoobyDoo]

I'll put you down as "not a hoax".

 

[state of hockey]

I’d have loved to not put the money into a mitigation system when we were selling a house years ago, but because it’s not hoax we did.

 

[St. Clown]

My home is testing at 7-10 pCi/L for Radon. Recommendation to put a mitigation system in is much less than that. My Trumpaholic neighbor who almost punched me out because I dared suggest getting the Covid vaccine was a good idea says Radon is a scam.

So, what would you do? Radon is the second leading cause of lung cancer. At least that's what all the scientists that are getting fired say. Get it fixed, just let it go and if you get lung cancer say it was God's will and move on?

I had a radon mitigation system installed when I bought my house back in 2020. The house was built in 1954. Not getting cancer seemed like a good idea to me.

 

[dxmnkd316]

7-10 is quite high. I would be looking sooner rather than later.

Our home stays below 2 for long term averages. But we’re still debating it because some days it does get above the action level of 4. Peace of mind is worth a hell of a lot in this case.

Edit: I should mention I own two continuous radon detectors. I integrated them with home assistant and I get texts above 2 pCi/L so I can open windows and/or turn on exhaust fans.

Edit 2: most mitigation systems run off the sump pit in this area. Usually $2-3k depending on the complexity of the run.

 

[ScoobyDoo]

Getting quotes now on radon mitigation. I have another question about my home. We've lived here for 30 years. We have a Sump down the basement. It has flooded ONCE in the entire time we have lived here. We do not have a Sump Pump, or a line that runs from the Sump to drain the water outside. Do we need one? We do not think so but were curious. Would it come up during sale if we were to try moving?

 

[dxmnkd316]

Getting quotes now on radon mitigation. I have another question about my home. We've lived here for 30 years. We have a Sump down the basement. It has flooded ONCE in the entire time we have lived here. We do not have a Sump Pump, or a line that runs from the Sump to drain the water outside. Do we need one? We do not think so but were curious. Would it come up during sale if we were to try moving?

By code I do not believe you do not need one. IIRC, code only requires a pit on new construction but maybe that’s changed.

I don’t think it’s likely to come up during sale. It might be mentioned as a line item in the inspection but honestly, you have good evidence of relatively low risk. Especially if it hasn’t been recent. Worst case, you could toss in a partial allowance and negotiate that way.

Most of the time good gutters take care of the issue.

But if you want to run one, it will likely be on par with a mitigation system depending on sump location and ease of routing.

 

[ScoobyDoo]

Ok, the ordinance only refers to not pumping the water into the sewer. I'm not pumping the water into anything. And I have good gutters, and likely getting better gutters within the next year. Thanks for the response.

 

[Russell Jaslow]

Getting quotes now on radon mitigation. I have another question about my home. We've lived here for 30 years. We have a Sump down the basement. It has flooded ONCE in the entire time we have lived here. We do not have a Sump Pump, or a line that runs from the Sump to drain the water outside. Do we need one? We do not think so but were curious. Would it come up during sale if we were to try moving?

Interesting. If we didn't have a sump pump, my basement would flood all the time. Back in 1994 when Rochester was hit with a major ice storm, and we lost power for eight days, I needed to buy a generator in order to keep the sump pump going, because it was within an inch or less of overflowing by the time I hooked it up.

 

[ScoobyDoo]

Interesting. If we didn't have a sump pump, my basement would flood all the time. Back in 1994 when Rochester was hit with a major ice storm, and we lost power for eight days, I needed to buy a generator in order to keep the sump pump going, because it was within an inch or less of overflowing by the time I hooked it up.

Our neighbor, literally right next door has that issue. We sit a little higher than they do and have a basement, they just have a crawl space.

 

[dxmnkd316]

Almost done with the nursery painting. Today I started the “scene” behind where the crib is going. Very simple, cartoon mountains. It looks absolutely fantastic before we’ve even done the snow caps, moon, and stars.

Touched up the other walls earlier today. I am so happy we went with flat/matte. Touch-ups are virtually invisible. Sure they’ll show scuffs more, but like, so what? I’m confident we’ll get dings and gouges and those are harder to deal with when you start to get into eggshell.

Anyways, everything is coming together nicely. I installed a modular closet system in both the nursery and spare bed since we don’t need hanging space in either. My god what a difference. Going to work perfectly.

 

[dxmnkd316]

Holy hell. I didn’t realize Romex got so expensive. Home Depot wants $65 for like 25 feet of 14/3. That’s insane.

There has to be a better price.

Edit: looks like this is some “premium” option. I have no effing idea why you’d want “premium” Romex outside of armored cable.

Edit 2: looks like I can get it closer to $1/ft or under if I get the standard jacket and buy 100’. Wife tells me I can’t get the 250 ft for $125. But I think I can convince her. Like, 2.5x for 20% more.