Home Improvement

Picasso_sl said:

Engineers always plan for worst case. What if you are on vacation and you have Tuco come water your plants?

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I had not counted the Tuco factor.

Had a bad wind storm a few shingles from one section of my roof blew off (random tabs). Should I just got up there and replace them? Seems easy enough.

Nah. If it's just a few shingles go up and do it yourself. Don't claim the small shit. It's easy to replace a few shingles.

Seems fine and I'm selling in a couple months, so I'll prob just fix myself. Just got done dealing with the insurance company after they denied a claim on my basement wall collapsing. Luckily I got most of the costs reimbursed but took a lot of bitching and certified letters.

I bought this house without a clue when I was 23 and I've basically spent the past 6 years upgrading and fixing shit. Happy for the experiences but tired of the headaches. Time to upgrade.

I bought a rental house a few months ago that needed a ton of work. The curb appeal was pretty terrible. Rather than try to salvage the existing concrete steps or remove them, I decided to build a deck over the top of them. It was my first time building any sort of deck, but it turned out pretty good. It was a bit extra expense, but I used Redwood on the framing and all exterior facing boards and then Home Depot's Trex decking for the top surface. It should last, hopefully my entire lifetime.

This was just one of about 20 major projects that had to be completed on the house.

Wow, dresses that right up! Nice work.

Oh, we've finished working on our house and the realtor did this 3D model thing. It's pretty cool. Here's our house (you can walk around just like you would with google maps street view)

Matterport 3D Showcase

I bought the house for $198k and I'm selling it (have a buyer) for $230k with zero realtor fees. Just a lawyer to do the paperwork. It's a nice trade off, but I've done a TON of work to the place over the years.

We've lived there 8 years. New heat pump system ($7500), new replacement windows and sliding door ($8000), new siding ($6800), new roof ($3000), Installed an attic fan and flooring in the attic ($750), Water Softener & Whole House water filter system ($2000), I built the new deck and a shed (~$3500). Fence around the back yard when we first moved in ($2500). So much work and money on this place. I love this house, but I'm going to enjoy the new life in Hawaii.

Okay, need an opinion, I'm making a gravel pad in my backyard to place a shed on. Should I just throw the gravel right on top of the sod, or should I rip the sod out first? My fear is that if the grass is there it won't all settle evenly as the grass dies/rots?

Couple of pics, the ground is not level so I had to build up a little bit of a retaining wall:

Picasso_sl said:

Just to clarify I was saying if your roof is nearing the end of its life call and say it got all fucked up in a big storm and give them hell if they want to just replace 3 shingles because they won't match or something.

Negotiate hard to make your house great again

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Does that actually work? I had a bunch of shingles blow off back in January. Well, when I got up there to replace them I realized that my roof is probably on its last few years. It'd be awesome if the next time it was windy I got insurance to cover most of the replacement cost.

Take the turf out, rake it level, put landscape fabric under the gravel. Easy enough.

My parents were needing a new roof in a few years. Adjuster came out after a hail storm checking all roofs in the neighborhood they covered. They got a new roof out of it. They said they were pretty sure it was was like that before the hail storm and mom looked at it when they bought the house. She should know since she worked for a roofing company and roofing supply house for decades.

I had some construction done at my house and lost a 7'x3' section of my concrete walkway. I've never poured a slab before, debating whether I should just do it myself or pay someone. I feel like that's a lot of cement and I would need a mixer which makes me lean towards hiring someone. What do you guys think ?