Home Improvement

mkopec

mkopec

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They just dont build shit like they used to. Its a throw away society these days. But I do have an LG fridge and its solid. Guy delivering it told me they rarely get LGs go bad, since he is the service crew that picks them up too. So IDK. My mom has a Kenmore stainles steel (even inside) and its been solid for the last 7-8 yrs.

The one that I have in my house right now is a GE, its been here since we bought it about 8 yrs ago, and im sure its older than that and it still works good, put a load through it every day.

But thats the thing man, its a crap shoot. You could get a GE, Kenmore, LG, Samsung, tomorrow and it could only last a year before crapping out.
 
Joeboo

Joeboo

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Jalynfane said:
Appliance question:

Not sure if a new thread to start or use this area. Do any of you have experience with a good, quality cabinet dishwasher? We have replaced ours twice in 7 years now and it is driving me insane. Current one is an LG, which I will never buy another LG product again.

I am looking for one that will last me 10+ years at least. Too bad they don't make Kenmore anymore like they used to. I am not looking for low price or anything, I don't mind saving and buying stuff that costs, as long as it lasts.
Click to expand...

Samsung dishwashers suck, I know multiple people who have bought $1000 Samsung models only to have them last less than 5 years(my father went through 3 in 8 years, luckily they kept crapping out before his 3 year extended warranty was up). I currently have/had and LG, but it's needed several repairs already and it's only ~7 years old, I probably won't buy an LG again.

The most universally well-reviewed Dishwashers tend to be Bosch(the 500 series and up) and then Kitchenaid/Miele. Basically with all 3 of those brands though, if you buy their entry-level washer that is only $500-$600, its crap just like every other dishwasher out there. You really have to get up into the $800+ models to have any decent chance of the thing lasting you a decade.

So tl;dr every dishwasher in the ~500 range is shit, Korean dishwashers at any price point are shit, and those good brands are only good once you start getting to prices near a grand.
 
Jalynfane

Jalynfane

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What would a landlord with 150 units buy I wonder? Would they buy something that lasts because they don't want to replace them all?
 
Ryanz

Ryanz

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I know someone who works at Best Buy that says don't buy Samsung. They have the most returns/problems.
 
Siliconemelons

Siliconemelons

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Bosch Dishwashers.

or cheapest you can find... cheaper are either going to fail maybe 10-20% sooner than high end, or last forever (typically less gadgetry on appliances = longer life if they make it over the 1-2year hump)
 
Soygen

Soygen

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So after speaking with the bamboo flooring mfg, they recommend against putting the cabinets on top of the floor if you're floating it(which I am). If it's nailed down, they say it's fine. Appliances are no problem, though.
 
P

Picasso3

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Got my butcherblock top, plates, and legs. The legs are green mill sawn white oak, put end grain sealer on them and will prob let them hang out for a few months and then saw them down to 4x3 or 3x3.

I'd say this will end up weighing about 250 lbs.... i have an extra ft on each leg to make a angle brace for the leg if need be.
Ol10WtZ.jpg
 
Joeboo

Joeboo

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Now I know why people over-pay for big remodeling companies to remodel their homes

Someone needs to be a full-time project manager, because people in this industry are completely inept.

our contractor goes to pick up our tile yesterday that we purchased a month ago, and the tile shop has been holding for us until our vanity was finished as well

We were supposed to get(and paid for, clearly on our invoice)

6 boxes of the tile for our shower w/ 1 box of bullnose
3 boxes of floor tile w/ 1 box of bullnose
3 bags of grout
3 containers of caulk

What we actually received:
6 boxes of the tile for our shower, and 1 box of bullnose with 1/3 of the tiles missing (only 17 of 24 tiles in box)
3 boxes of floor tile, with 1 additional random box of completely different floor tile (no bullnose)
2 bags of correct grout, 1 bag of a totally different color
zero caulk

Jesus christ, how hard is that? We paid for a list of items, the store has a record(i would assume) of us paying for that, how about they check that what they are loading in my contractors truck actually matches what we paid for?

So now my wife is taking a sick day from work to sort out this mess because tiling starts first thing Monday morning and we need the tile TODAY. There's another couple hundred bucks down the tube (my wife is hourly at her job)
 
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Zapatta

Zapatta

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Joeboo said:
Now I know why people over-pay for big remodeling companies to remodel their homes

Someone needs to be a full-time project manager, because people in this industry are completely inept.

our contractor goes to pick up our tile yesterday that we purchased a month ago, and the tile shop has been holding for us until our vanity was finished as well

We were supposed to get(and paid for, clearly on our invoice)

6 boxes of the tile for our shower w/ 1 box of bullnose
3 boxes of floor tile w/ 1 box of bullnose
3 bags of grout
3 containers of caulk

What we actually received:
6 boxes of the tile for our shower, and 1 box of bullnose with 1/3 of the tiles missing (only 17 of 24 tiles in box)
3 boxes of floor tile, with 1 additional random box of completely different floor tile (no bullnose)
2 bags of correct grout, 1 bag of a totally different color
zero caulk

Jesus christ, how hard is that? We paid for a list of items, the store has a record(i would assume) of us paying for that, how about they check that what they are loading in my contractors truck actually matches what we paid for?

So now my wife is taking a sick day from work to sort out this mess because tiling starts first thing Monday morning and we need the tile TODAY. There's another couple hundred bucks down the tube (my wife is hourly at her job)
Click to expand...

The tard loading the truck is a minimum wage ex-con who was handed a ticket and pulled stuff from the piles while plotting how to kill his boss, he's basically a human forklift , the contractor who picked it up and signed for it without checking what the fuck he was signing for is the idiot to blame. I check every single sheet, piece of lumber, sack or box of material I get pulled from a warehouse, shit is always getting damaged and goes unnoticed, they move way too much of it. They don't care if you say " pull me a different one this bag is ripped, sheet is scratched, that box is opened, etc. ", in fact they expect it and toss it in a mark down pile right then and there.

Your contractor was probably hung over, most are.
 
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Zapatta

Zapatta

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Xadion said:
Bosch Dishwashers.
Click to expand...

I second that.

As for appliances in general, a repair guy I trust tells me everything is garbage now and all comes from the same 3 factories no matter how it is branded. He says 75% of his outcalls are to tell the customer 'fixing it will be more expensive than buying a new one, that will be $50, kthnxbye". I asked him about investing in high end stuff Sub-Zero / Viking etc. and he says everyones quality went downhill, high end stuff just cost more to replace. Thanx China!

This is the newer version of the old Samurai Appliance Repair Forum Appliantology.org - A Master Samurai Tech Appliance Repair Dojo, I can vouch for the old site - free, made money selling parts, (was around for 15 yrs) haven't looked thru the new version - looks like they have paywall on some stuff?, was a good resource, trained techs reply to threads and you can DL service manuals for a ton of stuff free. If you are handy and mechanically inclined you can save many hundreds of bucks.

Edit: looks like they are on Youtube now as well SamuraiRepairman
 
Last edited:
Joeboo

Joeboo

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Joeboo said:
Now I know why people over-pay for big remodeling companies to remodel their homes

Someone needs to be a full-time project manager, because people in this industry are completely inept.

our contractor goes to pick up our tile yesterday that we purchased a month ago, and the tile shop has been holding for us until our vanity was finished as well

We were supposed to get(and paid for, clearly on our invoice)

6 boxes of the tile for our shower w/ 1 box of bullnose
3 boxes of floor tile w/ 1 box of bullnose
3 bags of grout
3 containers of caulk

What we actually received:
6 boxes of the tile for our shower, and 1 box of bullnose with 1/3 of the tiles missing (only 17 of 24 tiles in box)
3 boxes of floor tile, with 1 additional random box of completely different floor tile (no bullnose)
2 bags of correct grout, 1 bag of a totally different color
zero caulk

Jesus christ, how hard is that? We paid for a list of items, the store has a record(i would assume) of us paying for that, how about they check that what they are loading in my contractors truck actually matches what we paid for?

So now my wife is taking a sick day from work to sort out this mess because tiling starts first thing Monday morning and we need the tile TODAY. There's another couple hundred bucks down the tube (my wife is hourly at her job)
Click to expand...

Update -

Wife got everything sorted out Friday after taking the day off. Exchanged floor tile for correct stuff(had to drive an hour across town to get it, but whatever) They had the rest of our shower tile in their local warehouse, said they would pull it and deliver it on Saturday morning, since our tile guy was showing up at 8am Monday(today) to start tiling.

Saturday morning rolls around...no tile delivery. We call the company and after talking to 3 different people they figure out that instead of delivering to our house, they delivered to their store NEAR our house. Whatever, I can go get it.

Go to pick it up, and its the wrong tile. After calling back to the warehouse, they don't have the rest of the correct tile in stock and its 2-3 weeks to order it. We need it in 2 days. So we have to return ALL of the tile since we only have about 80% of what we need, and then spend all day Saturday driving all over town trying to find a store that has enough quantity of something we like to purchase it on the spot.

We end up finally finding something Saturday, but it cost us twice as much, and we don't like it quite as much. My wife actually broke down and started crying when we got to the store Saturday morning only to see that it was the wrong tile and they didn't have the correct kind.

Fucking hell.
 
P

Picasso3

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For and steel fabricators out there:

I have a 110 arc welder that's like 100 bucks. I'm interested in making some parts for furniture. Do you think I can pick up welding well enough to do this with my shit welder? I'd say there won't be anything thicker than a quarter. How long would it take fucking around in a basement with no mentoring to do a decent job? I like taking on new shit but don't want to completely waste my time.

@Borzak
 
Blazin

Blazin

Creative Title
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Picasso3 said:
For and steel fabricators out there:

I have a 110 arc welder that's like 100 bucks. I'm interested in making some parts for furniture. Do you think I can pick up welding well enough to do this with my shit welder? I'd say there won't be anything thicker than a quarter. How long would it take fucking around in a basement with no mentoring to do a decent job? I like taking on new shit but don't want to completely waste my time.

@Borzak
Click to expand...

you can somewhat make up for the lack of skill by spending hours cleaning up your welds, doesn't hurt to try to just do 10' of straight welds and see if you can improve. Some great youtube videos out there, are you really good with a caulk gun? Closest thing I can think of in regards to hand eye skill. If you get into it though I would definitely look for a better welder miller makes some great portable units
 
Jalynfane

Jalynfane

Phank 2002
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563
Re: Dishwashers

I spent a day reading horror stories about Warranties/Home Depot/Lowe's service programs and appliance repair. I was truly scared making the call to get our LG dishwasher repaired. There was certainly a bunhch of information online that suggested I was going to be in for a hell of a time.

The Good:
I made the first call to the warranty program at 0958 Pacific and was done at 1004 with an appointment on Saturday for a tech (LG Electronics, yay the manufacturer) to come out. This was Thursday, so 2 days was not an issue for me. Hand washing dishes is not fun, but I chose to do it since 14 year olds are retarded and it was not worth the fight it would have ended up. On Friday, the next day, I got a shipment to the house from the tech that was assigned to fix it. It was a bunch of replacement parts based on the error code I had given to the appointment setter on the phone Thursday.

Saturday, the tech calls during the time scheduled, 0800 to 1200, and lets me know when he is about 30 minutes out. He shows up on time from that, shows me ID and asks to come in and take a look. He starts asking for access to under the cabinet, and I let him know that when I installed the dishwasher, I used longer tubes and supplies so we can just unscrew the unit and pull it out, instead of having to disconnect hoses and shut water off. He was eternally grateful this foresight had occurred and let me know it is rare. He checked some things, pulled off a sensor that has a float in it and cleaned it out. It seems the float gets stuck in the open position often with gunk and tells the machine it has enough water to run, when it really has 40% needed. So the motor gets hot w/o water to cool it, and burns out. We went over a clean cycle, which he says folks often don't see in the manual as they get a few pages into the 120 page manual and say fuck it. A coffee cup full of white vinegar every week in the top rack will keep the unit going "forever".

Kid was great, had it fixed fast and could not have asked for a better warranty experience, definitely 10/10.

The Bad:
He told me that he usually just does the 1 year warranty stuff from LG, him and 1 other guy handle Oregon. Since he had an opening, he got the call, and had the stuff shipped based on the error code. What happens, he said, is that the bad reviews online are usually because a 3rd party service carrier got called to fix it, and they are either not the brightest techs and make a mistake, or they are rock stars, but they are so over scheduled and have huge quotas that they have to try and have a fix before they show up on site. If they guess wrong and don't fix the right issue, you get put in a "return for additional service" queue that sucks more than Belladonna.

Anyway, TL;DR, experience was good, will continue to own the LG washer and other appliances, should the need for service arise, make sure the people setting the appointments know that you want the manufacturer service team and not a 3rd party, unless you know or are good with 3rd party.
 
K

Kinner

Clear eyes. Full Hearts. Can't lose.
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Jalynfane said:
Re: Dishwashers

I spent a day reading horror stories about Warranties/Home Depot/Lowe's service programs and appliance repair. I was truly scared making the call to get our LG dishwasher repaired. There was certainly a bunhch of information online that suggested I was going to be in for a hell of a time.

The Good:
I made the first call to the warranty program at 0958 Pacific and was done at 1004 with an appointment on Saturday for a tech (LG Electronics, yay the manufacturer) to come out. This was Thursday, so 2 days was not an issue for me. Hand washing dishes is not fun, but I chose to do it since 14 year olds are retarded and it was not worth the fight it would have ended up. On Friday, the next day, I got a shipment to the house from the tech that was assigned to fix it. It was a bunch of replacement parts based on the error code I had given to the appointment setter on the phone Thursday.

Saturday, the tech calls during the time scheduled, 0800 to 1200, and lets me know when he is about 30 minutes out. He shows up on time from that, shows me ID and asks to come in and take a look. He starts asking for access to under the cabinet, and I let him know that when I installed the dishwasher, I used longer tubes and supplies so we can just unscrew the unit and pull it out, instead of having to disconnect hoses and shut water off. He was eternally grateful this foresight had occurred and let me know it is rare. He checked some things, pulled off a sensor that has a float in it and cleaned it out. It seems the float gets stuck in the open position often with gunk and tells the machine it has enough water to run, when it really has 40% needed. So the motor gets hot w/o water to cool it, and burns out. We went over a clean cycle, which he says folks often don't see in the manual as they get a few pages into the 120 page manual and say fuck it. A coffee cup full of white vinegar every week in the top rack will keep the unit going "forever".

Kid was great, had it fixed fast and could not have asked for a better warranty experience, definitely 10/10.

The Bad:
He told me that he usually just does the 1 year warranty stuff from LG, him and 1 other guy handle Oregon. Since he had an opening, he got the call, and had the stuff shipped based on the error code. What happens, he said, is that the bad reviews online are usually because a 3rd party service carrier got called to fix it, and they are either not the brightest techs and make a mistake, or they are rock stars, but they are so over scheduled and have huge quotas that they have to try and have a fix before they show up on site. If they guess wrong and don't fix the right issue, you get put in a "return for additional service" queue that sucks more than Belladonna.

Anyway, TL;DR, experience was good, will continue to own the LG washer and other appliances, should the need for service arise, make sure the people setting the appointments know that you want the manufacturer service team and not a 3rd party, unless you know or are good with 3rd party.
Click to expand...

I was told the same thing Time Warner Cable. Always ask for a Time Warner employee not a third-party contractor and you get a lot better service and I have found that to be the case.
 
Dandai

Dandai

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I've been planning on renovating my lawn since late winter/early spring this year. I live in North Carolina, which is in a "transition" zone (the climate can support both warm and cool season grasses). The turf in my lawn is mostly bermuda grass, but the lawn itself is mostly weeds (I dubbed it, The Salad Bar).

My hope is to be able to grow turf type tall fescue since it never really goes dormant here (if properly irrigated). The challenge is that bermuda grass, especially well established bermuda in lawns, is a notoriously difficult plant to control/kill.

Last Sunday I did my first round of 41% glyphosate. I applied it using a pump sprayer with a fan tip nozzle and coating everything til wet. I didn't get started until early evening so it was hard to see what was thoroughly wet and what merely got misted. Also, my experience with a pump sprayer at the time was pretty much none, and I was struggling to get a consistent stream (turns out you want to be very careful to not let any particles into the tank...).

LOSzBbK.jpg


In spite of taking the time to measure the lawn, calculate how much product the sprayer puts out (1/2 gal per 2.5 min btw), and how many tank fills it would take per section of the lawn, the sprayer malfunctions and late hour sent me into "Fuck it, I know I'll have to do this twice anyway" mode. I definitely didn't spray the recommended rate of 1 gallon per 300 sq ft. Also, in hindsight I should've mowed down to 2.5 inches so that more spray could reach the leaves lower in the "canopy."

--------------------------

I mowed yesterday to about 2.5 inches and watered about 1/2 an inch. Around noon today I applied round 2 of the glyphosate. As you can see there were still quite a few green areas. Because bermuda has a rhizome, I always knew I'd need to spray at least twice to fully kill it. It's looking like I should plan to spray a third time (though much more targeted and not a blanket application). I'll water every other day to encourage growth and hopefully whatever comes back green will die off for good after round 3.

GfTjiCE.jpg
 
lurkingdirk

lurkingdirk

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Dandai said:
I've been planning on renovating my lawn since late winter/early spring this year. I live in North Carolina, which is in a "transition" zone (the climate can support both warm and cool season grasses). The turf in my lawn is mostly bermuda grass, but the lawn itself is mostly weeds (I dubbed it, The Salad Bar).

My hope is to be able to grow turf type tall fescue since it never really goes dormant here (if properly irrigated). The challenge is that bermuda grass, especially well established bermuda in lawns, is a notoriously difficult plant to control/kill.

Last Sunday I did my first round of 41% glyphosate. I applied it using a pump sprayer with a fan tip nozzle and coating everything til wet. I didn't get started until early evening so it was hard to see what was thoroughly wet and what merely got misted. Also, my experience with a pump sprayer at the time was pretty much none, and I was struggling to get a consistent stream (turns out you want to be very careful to not let any particles into the tank...).

View attachment 3529

In spite of taking the time to measure the lawn, calculate how much product the sprayer puts out (1/2 gal per 2.5 min btw), and how many tank fills it would take per section of the lawn, the sprayer malfunctions and late hour sent me into "Fuck it, I know I'll have to do this twice anyway" mode. I definitely didn't spray the recommended rate of 1 gallon per 300 sq ft. Also, in hindsight I should've mowed down to 2.5 inches so that more spray could reach the leaves lower in the "canopy."

--------------------------

I mowed yesterday to about 2.5 inches and watered about 1/2 an inch. Around noon today I applied round 2 of the glyphosate. As you can see there were still quite a few green areas. Because bermuda has a rhizome, I always knew I'd need to spray at least twice to fully kill it. It's looking like I should plan to spray a third time (though much more targeted and not a blanket application). I'll water every other day to encourage growth and hopefully whatever comes back green will die off for good after round 3.

View attachment 3530
Click to expand...

You will want to think about a new roof pretty soon.

And as to putting cabinets on top of floors - oh holy mother of god, please don't do it. Cabinets first. Always. Try doing a renovation when someone put shit on top of the floor, what a pain in the ass. If you are ever doing a renovation substantial enough to move cabinets, you're going to be doing the floor, too.

However, you will want to redo the floor long before you want to change cabinets. Try cutting that shit close enough when the cabinets are sitting on top.

Don't put your flooring in first. It's more work, but it's the right thing to do.
 
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