Quote :

"I've found the stench from a dead rodent only lasts a day or two. I've set some poison traps in the attic and we've had a few die up there or in our walls. The smell isn't that bad and doesn't last that long. Just do it."

I'm starting to think now that maybe the mouse escaped to the crawl space under my house or somehow got outside. None of the traps have been sprung yet and I haven't seen/heard/smelled any evidence of it anywhere. I figured it would have to get hungry after a day or two and go towards the traps since they smell like food, but who knows.

10/18/2016 10:22:10 AM

Or it's got a cozy little spot with all types of food droppings to hold him over for a while.

10/18/2016 12:17:31 PM

Food doesn't really fall behind the counter...

10/18/2016 1:21:15 PM

Anyone have any experience with getting a permit to put up a fence?

We put in for the permit on the Raleigh next day permitting address last Thursday and they still haven't even started processing it as of my last call today. Work is supposed to begin this Thursday. Anyone have any experiences or trouble in the past?

10/18/2016 4:46:47 PM

Didn't know COR require permits for fences.

10/18/2016 6:19:51 PM

permit for a fence...SMH

10/19/2016 10:57:49 AM

I dont think you need a permit unless your fence is over 6 feet tall.

10/19/2016 12:39:12 PM

good fences make good neighbors

this makes it look like any fence: https://www.raleighnc.gov/business/content/PlanDev/Articles/DevServ/Fences.html

10/19/2016 1:15:08 PM

that must be relatively recent, or at least wasn't the case in 2003. I definitely didn't have to get a permit when I put a fence up when I lived in Raleigh.

10/19/2016 2:12:08 PM

Might be making a move in the next 6-9 months. It'll be the 6th move for me in less than 14 years with my company. Not excited about the idea of packing up and prepping the house to sale, but our relocation package is $Texas and we come out with more equity in the next home every time.

Anyway I'm curious if you guys believe all the shit on HGTV where they sugar coat the hell out of a house and add $20-30-40k to the selling price. I guess that might work on homes going for $700k or whatever, but I don't see it with our $400k home. We've never had trouble selling any of our prior 3 homes just doing the normal stuff like painting and decluttering.

I'm really on the fence about putting $10k to do some flooring and maybe something like a new backsplash on our current home in order to try and get a better price. New homes in the neighborhood without finished basements like ours and otherwise similar specs in terms of BR/BA are going for upper $400s. Our home was built in summer 2014 for reference.

10/19/2016 7:03:04 PM

Update on the fence.

Officially CoR requires a permit and you could get fined for putting one up without one, but from what I hear chances of that are super low and it doesn't seem to be a big deal. The issue comes if you try to sell a place with a fence and the permit was never completed you could have to take care of it then and it's just one more thing that could hold up the process and become a headache so might as well do it ahead of time.

So despite submitting it under the one day permitting for small projects last Thursday, as of today we still don't have the approved permit despite being told by the processor twice that all the info provided was fine and it would be handled by the end of the day on two separate days.

10/20/2016 10:04:02 AM

Has anyone replaced any windows?

The house is 16 years old and about half of the windows don't open properly. They are super heavy and I think the cycling in the past has shot their springs and latches. The screens are also cracking.

Does anyone know about how much per window it costs? I'm not thinking about buying them and installing them myself.

Thanks.

previous window thread is 6 years old

10/21/2016 2:12:24 PM

replaced original 1973 windows ~2 years ago and paid just a bit over $300 per window through Home Depot - 20yr warranty that is transferable to next owner - i think we had 34 windows

10/21/2016 3:59:29 PM

Thanks!

10/22/2016 7:28:11 AM

Has anyone had/seen water damage on laminate flooring? I'm trying to decide between some new Pergo product that was some water guard feature, versus some cheaper laminate, as I'm got [old] dogs and a fish tank and am wondering how easy it is to mess the stuff up.

10/26/2016 12:41:05 PM

Laminate and water don't mix. Like, at all. It'll show damage/warping faster than pretty much any other floor.

10/26/2016 4:40:40 PM

^^^^What brand window did you go with?

10/27/2016 8:34:33 AM

^^^you might as well spring for the best stuff you can...After all, it'll probably be there for a good long while, so you want to last as long as possible.

anybody had any experience with trying to match new vinyl siding to old (room addition)? I know it's not going to be perfect, but there are two shades that come close. "Linen" is really close (to the point that it would be difficult to tell the difference if you weren't trying to) and "almond" is fairly close, but noticeably a bit darker. The contractor recommended the almond, with the reasoning that the UV will eventually fade it out to pretty much match the existing stuff. I'm leaning toward going with the one that matches more closely now, but I'm torn.

10/27/2016 9:34:42 AM

^4 we had extensive water damage on our laminate floors at our old house just a few weeks after having them installed. this was due to a busted pipe in the wall. where the floor should be smooth and seamless, you would see every edge of each board as the edges curled up. it's pretty noticeable when it happens. ended up getting the damaged portion ripped up and reinstalled. that sucked...

10/27/2016 3:21:05 PM

My Kenmore dishwasher is not fully draining after a cycle. I can hit the drain button and it will drain the rest of the remaining water. So it's not a pump / hose issue. The water level has been below the float, so it's not that. Which means there must be an issue in the controller, or if it has a separate timer, the timer, right? I guess the dishwasher should know the amount of time to run the discharge pump from the time the float is inactivated?

10/28/2016 9:16:00 AM

^^^ vinyl siding does fade a noticeable amount. I removed the front banister on my porch and you could clearly see where each spindle was (because the spindles shaded the siding). Even with the noticeable difference, you could only really tell if you were looking for it. This was siding that had been installed for 15 years before removing the banister. I wouldn't stress too much about it. If the new room gets a lot of direct sun, then maybe go with the darker, if it doesn't get as much sun, go with the lighter.

^ Sounds like you may need to call a repair man. The forums for the products usually have a lot of good information too if you feel like digging through them. I have almost always been able to troubleshoot my appliances using forums, but it can take a full day of scanning the internet and trying things out before fixing it.

10/30/2016 10:13:57 AM

^^ I know a guy who did a good job on my dishwasher. PM me for his info if you need it.

10/31/2016 2:39:37 PM

Quote :

"Laminate and water don't mix. Like, at all. It'll show damage/warping faster than pretty much any other floor."

No joke, see: My entire living room floor right now.

I think I'm going to replace this with tile. I have a concrete floor under the laminate, so it should be straightforward to fix up. The issue is this building *will* leak again, so I need to pick stuff that is more water-resilient than some garbage wood-look laminate. Tile won't feel as "warm" under-foot but I intend to buy some more rugs.

11/10/2016 9:27:41 PM

goddamn leaky chimney....I can't find the source of the leak!!! argh!!!!

11/11/2016 2:15:53 PM

^^^3. Thanks. It seems to be working properly now, but if it gets out of line, I may need your guy.

11/15/2016 2:35:28 PM

blower motor just went out on the HVAC and the wife's due date is Friday

fml

11/15/2016 10:47:54 PM

cost me like $350 with an A/C company last time I had mine replaced. that was like 4 years ago tho. good luck!

11/16/2016 9:21:28 AM

^Thank's for the reference, was trying to get a ballpark on the cost.

Put in with the home warranty but don't know if I can wait for that plus they keep sending out such shitty contractors that I don't know that it's worth the savings in some cases.

11/16/2016 10:57:05 AM

A monkey could replace a blower motor.

11/16/2016 12:06:25 PM

tree branch impaled roof

11/16/2016 12:53:55 PM

Quote :

"Put in with the home warranty but don't know if I can wait for that plus they keep sending out such shitty contractors that I don't know that it's worth the savings in some cases."

Just keep worrying the shit out of them. They send it out to the lowest bidder and many contractors do not pick up their jobs when they are busy with better paying jobs. They can find someone if they try.

11/16/2016 12:54:58 PM

Closed on my first house yesterday.......moving sucks!!! But so glad I can finally post in this thread(hopefully not too often)

11/20/2016 12:12:03 AM

^congratulations, wawawebsite.

11/21/2016 8:43:28 AM

'grats website!

11/21/2016 11:53:25 AM

How hard is it to replace the gasket on a refridgerator door? I have a two door side by side fridge, and one side has this long rectangular "flap" that closes and gives both doors something to seal against.

One day the stars aligned and I closed it just right so that this flap caught the gasket on the other door and ripped a tear in the seal. So now I've got this:



I've looked up easy repairs online, and the closest I found was using silicone caulk to seal it. I've tried that a few times, and it will last about a week before it starts to peel off and not hold.

I don't know if air is leaking out of the seal, but I would assume it is.

Am I going to have to remove the fridge door to get a new gasket on there? What a pain in the ass...

11/27/2016 11:40:04 PM

pretty easy to change. watch a youtube video or something. you usually have to take the door off, but that only takes a minute or two.

11/28/2016 12:29:07 AM

Ugh, just paid Roto Rooter to come clean out our clogged sewer pipe. Our house was built in the early 40s and piping inside the house is cast iron. Got them to feed a camera through the line and the cast iron pipe is fine. However, about 5 feet outside of the house to the main line, the piping is terracotta and has roots growing through at each break in the pipe (guessing where the concrete has cracked). Still has some roots in a few of the breaks, but it's relatively clear now. Estimate to replace the line and cut down a maple tree and shrubs/bushes would be roughly $7800 Apparently it's possible homeowner's insurance could cover some of the cost, so will be looking into that to see if it's worth doing sooner than later.

My co-worker said I could buy stuff like copper sulfate and/or foaming root killer to flush the system every few months and keep the root growth at bay. Also considering buying my own auger to run through the line when I need it, since it'd be cheaper in the long run if I have to keep getting the line cleaned out.

11/29/2016 10:21:12 AM

My question has always been if there are cracks for roots to grow in and you kill off the roots then doesnt that just leave cracks... which then allow sewage to seep out of your pipes?

11/29/2016 10:27:57 AM

Might as well replace that terracotta pipe. Nothing but trouble.

11/29/2016 2:33:19 PM

Yeah I know it's inevitable, but I was hoping to keep kicking the can down the road.

Sucks that they'll have to dig down like 8 ft to do it (after removing the tree/shrubs/bushes). The tree is a maple and I hear they are a bitch with their root system, I guess it'll just get worse over time as the tree grows.

11/29/2016 3:10:28 PM

I lived in my house for 2 weeks before I had to replace my entire mainline.

12/6/2016 9:32:13 AM

Fucking termites

12/6/2016 4:58:27 PM

Fucking termites

12/6/2016 4:58:27 PM

the copper sulfate flushed down the toilet works if you do it often enough

i have always been told that you should bury bare copper wire along with your septic lines to keep tree roots away. i'm not sure if that actually works, though.

12/6/2016 9:58:40 PM

Downstairs heating unit just died. And I don't mean the fan isn't blowing, or it's blowing cool air.

The entire house filled with the horrible smell of an electrical burn, and the thermostat is now dead as a door nail.



This couldn't have happened while it was 70 degrees last week. No. It happens the day before the high is supposed to be in the 40's.

12/29/2016 12:04:59 PM

Quote :

"I think I'm going to replace this with tile. I have a concrete floor under the laminate, so it should be straightforward to fix up. The issue is this building *will* leak again, so I need to pick stuff that is more water-resilient than some garbage wood-look laminate. Tile won't feel as "warm" under-foot but I intend to buy some more rugs. "

LVT sounds like a perfect option for this

12/29/2016 12:33:05 PM

I don't see the LVT being damaged by any future leak but keep in mind that water may cause the glue to fail and the flooring may start to bubble up. At least that's what happened in my kitchen when the dishwasher leaked.

I'd plan on something that is fairly resilient but also pretty easy/cheap to replace. One good thing about the LVT is if you have extra and only a section gets damaged you can replace just that portion.

12/29/2016 2:05:07 PM

Any recommendation for an home insurance agent in GA?

12/29/2016 6:50:18 PM

Hot water heater started leaking yesterday. Fortunately it is located in the laundry room which is on a concrete slab rather than wood flooring so no water damage, but still a pain in the ass to get the heater fixed/replaced.

1/5/2017 9:13:36 AM

Haha. It is going to be zero this weekend.

And I got no downstairs heat.

1/6/2017 8:05:57 AM