yeah, ive had my heater break a few times in wisconsin. that shit only happens when there's 3 ft of snow on the ground and it is 0 degrees outside.

1/9/2017 3:32:09 PM

Heats out again. Condensate line freezes from the outside drain to somewhere inside despite my best efforts.

1/9/2017 4:27:07 PM

I, too, had a heater break down on me. But it started working again around 9:30 this morning. I'm moving in May and hoping it'll hold out until then.

1/10/2017 2:34:41 PM

So I just recently had a new HVAC unit installed in my house, a Dual-Fuel unit (Propane/electric) with all new duct work. Total cost was around $8k, which was neither the lowest nor the highest of the quotes we got. The company we used came highly recommended by several contractor buddies of mine. But there have been some "bumps in the road" during and since the install.

1. I have a large chest freezer plugged in outside under my carport. During the installation the workers unplugged it so they could plug up a microwave to heat up their lunch. They forgot to plug it back, and I didn't notice it until a week later. Lost a bunch of meat and prepared meals. Let it slide because the company reimbursed me for the lost food, but it still kinda irked me.

2. Noticed that the new thermostat they hung was pretty loose on the wall. Gave it a little tug and the whole thing pulled out. They had hung it with tiny screws and no drywall anchors. I fixed that one myself, but for $8k I'd think they wouldn't cut corners like that.

3. Noticed this past week that it wasn't getting as warm in the bedroom as it does in the rest of the house. We keep the vents closed in the bedroom anyway because we like it cold when we sleep, but this was colder than normal. Popped the vent cover off of one of the vents in the bedroom and I saw the ground in my crawl space. They never ran a duct to that vent at all. They came out immediately when I called them and fixed it, but again for $8k I wouldn't expect these types of mistakes.

1/10/2017 5:34:41 PM

Would you recommend them to others? I seem to remember you also live in the W-S area. Our HVAC was installed in '99, so it's reaching the last of its years---though still doing fine as long as you change filters/clean the drain pipe.

Also considering installing windows along our screened in porch and adding a garage/new driveway, if you have any good recommendations.

1/11/2017 11:55:25 AM

I'm in Whitsett and the company is out of Burlington, but I assume they cover Winston. I would recommend them simply because even though mistakes were made, they were fixed promptly without any hassles. As for the windows, a really good friend of mine owns a large construction/renovation company out this way. They did our remodel a few years ago and I highly recommend them. They do it all.

PM Sent

[Edited on January 11, 2017 at 2:52 PM. Reason : A]

1/11/2017 2:52:01 PM

Thought AT&T was installing fiber back in March. The crew didn't complete the neighborhood and I didn't see them for months. I got tired of my DSLow internet, so I relented and called TWC to get their 100Mbps service. A few days before TWC did the bury / drop (I have never had Coax connected to the house), AT&T crews show back up and complete the fiber install Part of my neighborhood has fiber service, but mine's not active yet.

Well, the damn TWC contractor didn't do a utility locate and ended up cutting my phone (DSLow) line in multiple places. The AT&T tech that repaired my phone line said my fiber service should be available soon. When I left for work today, AT&T fiber crews were working on the previously installed main box to my neighborhood, so I've got the feeling fiber will be available really soon. After I've already bought a new modem / router and paid for TWC

1/16/2017 3:02:19 PM

i wish i had so many options. been tethering off my phone for 4 years or so.

1/16/2017 9:06:40 PM

My home was built in 2014, but the top layer of my driveway is starting to flake off. I don't use rock salt or anything on it (live in VA) so I don't know what the deal is. It's getting bad now. Our home is at the end of a cul de sac at the bottom of our neighborhood so we get a lot of water running down the driveway. I somewhat wonder if salt used on the roads and maybe by neighbors is eroding the driveway.

Anyone have any experience with this?

1/23/2017 4:58:49 PM

top layer? asphalt driveway?

1/24/2017 10:56:20 AM

^probably means the concrete surface is flaking off. I don't think salts cause this, so it could be contractor error (adding too much water to the mix, watering the surface excessively prior to curing). Salts causing pitting, if I am remembering material science correctly. Other chemicals can cause flaking though.

1/24/2017 3:44:01 PM

they probably vibrated it too much when they poured it and all the fines ended up on top

1/24/2017 7:09:08 PM

Handle on over-the-range microwave has broken off. Minor, but with a 10ish year old matching set of kitchen appliances it seems like a silly reason to have to replace them all, though it's proven hard to find just another microwave in the weird off-white of the other appliances.

1/25/2017 5:26:26 PM

^mine is cracking. plastics don't do well above a heat source like that.

1/25/2017 6:42:50 PM

^^ have you tried contacting the manufacturer for a replacement handle?

1/25/2017 11:31:11 PM

So I noticed last Thursday night a weird noise coming from my utility room, which turned out to be the sump pump. Normally it flushes every so often and goes quiet, this time it was making a constant low hum and the water level was rising in the well, plus the water was hot (probably from the pump running constantly). It's part of a B-Dry basement waterproofing system so I called them and was told that the pump was probably still in warranty, but they could take up to 48 business hours (six days??) to get in touch to schedule a service call/repair. So I've spent the weekend periodically sucking up water out of the sump well with a shop-vac and dumping it in the downstairs sink. Not much fun.

There is a backup pump on a UPS that's supposed to trip if the power goes out. Just occurred to me yesterday (durrr) that if I unplug the UPS from the wall, then it should fail over to the backup pump. Of course, since I realized this, the well has ceased to fill up and I haven't been able to test that. Once last night's rain filters down I'll probably have all the chance I need.

Hopefully this won't be expensive due to warranty, but it's still been highly annoying.

1/30/2017 11:45:19 AM

go buy a cheap sump pump from lowe's with an auto float and just run a garden hose to drain

1/30/2017 12:19:31 PM

yeah, dude. they're like $75 at harbor freight. take a 20% off coupon.

1/30/2017 5:12:28 PM

If for some reason the B-Dry folks won't honor the warranty, then that's an option. I've made it this far and haven't had to use the shop-vac today (yet!) since yesterday's precip was minimal.

1/31/2017 1:01:25 AM

The verdict, for the 0 of you who were curious, is bad check valve. The service guy was somewhat confused as to this occurrence as they normally don't go bad. But replacing the valve let the pump evacuate the well and all was, well, well again.

2/2/2017 9:56:28 PM

Plumbing company cut my ATT gigapower line down the street... didnt bother to tell anyone. I had to walk down and see for myself after I couldnt get my internet to work for an hour or two last night when I got home.

2/3/2017 10:01:06 AM

^^niceeeee

2/3/2017 10:59:12 AM

Not really a woe, but I'm planning on planting some new shrubs and trees in the spring.

Is anyone able to recommend a nearby nursery or one worth taking a quick road trip to visit?

[Edited on February 8, 2017 at 9:45 AM. Reason : ]

2/8/2017 9:44:24 AM

Broadwell's is a good place to get stuff at a good price if you know what you want. You drive your truck through the field and just load up the car with pots and they charge per pot when you exit. If you don't know what you want or can't recognize different varietals it could be challenging.

You could always checkout Norwood to get an idea what you want or pick up specialty items (or if you are not buying 20 of something) and then head to Broadwell's to get the bulk items.

2/8/2017 11:18:42 AM

Thanks! Norwood looks like a good place to start.

2/8/2017 4:28:04 PM

Considering buying a property to use as a rental home.

Only issue is that it's likely in a flood zone...anyone had experience on how much that can be each year?

Hurricane MAtthew it only got under the house no actual interior damage that I'm aware of.

2/9/2017 2:02:51 PM

i'd stay away from it. dealing with flood damage/insurance is rough. and expensive.

2/9/2017 2:47:42 PM

I feel sick. We had a full price offer on our house Sunday night. We were estatic, told a bunch of friends, family, and coworkers (lesson learned). There were some minor things in the offer that needed to be corrected and we sent them back to them on Monday at lunch. So I am eagerly waiting an updated offer to sign all day. Last night they respond saying they are withdrawing their offer because they expected a quicker response on a full price offer. The offer said nothing about needing a quick response and had no deadline. We are pretty devastated right now. We had started pulling out all of our stuff to pack and now we have to put it all back to get ready for showings.

[Edited on February 14, 2017 at 8:32 AM. Reason : .]

2/14/2017 8:31:44 AM

sounds like they didn't want the house and found a way out.

2/14/2017 8:40:58 AM

^^sounds like they were flaky anyways. how long you been on the market?

2/14/2017 10:53:41 AM

90ish days. We chose the wrong time to list (Right before Thanksgiving) but we priced aggressively and were hoping to hit the first weekend. We had interest but no offers. Then the holiday season was dead as expected.

This past weekend we had 4 showings on Sunday and one for Monday. We had another showing on Sunday to get cancelled because of a family emergency. They were a repeat showing who already said they loved the house. After we announced we had an offer, the Monday showing cancelled. Luckily they just now rescheduled for tomorrow. I'm hoping the other couple schedules again too.

Good thing is we are not desperate and can just say fuck it and stay if we want. We've had like 30 showings and the market is picking up so I think it will work out but that was still a kick to the gut.

^And yeah it might be a good thing. They had only offered $500 due diligence so could have easily backed out down the road.

[Edited on February 14, 2017 at 11:03 AM. Reason : .]

2/14/2017 11:01:00 AM

where you at? raleigh? real estate in general picks up in the spring. I guess that tax money, good weather, and blooming landscaping combine into a desire to buy.

2/14/2017 3:07:07 PM

Franklinton/Youngsville - Our address is Franklinton but we are closer to Youngsville. Right across the road from our development are Youngsville addresses.

2/14/2017 4:47:16 PM

scotieb24, was this a direct offer or through a realtor? If the latter, you might want to let them know that no such time expectation was communicated. I reamed mine when I bought because some stuff was not communicated properly. I know they also did some reaming on a few sellers agents we talked with for similar issues.

Trying to drive a hole through a stud is hard, when you dont know how many layers of studs there are. Running some new wiring through the house, what I thought was a double layer, keeps on going... So much for a nice easy run for this one segment that ive 75% access to everywhere it needs to go, including both sides of this stud.

2/20/2017 9:30:03 PM

^It was through a realtor and no time expectation was communicated. Our realtor went back and forth with theirs and their realtor openly admitted his clients were difficult to work with.

And lol, I started reading your second paragraph as a continuation of the same topic. I thought you were trying to make a metaphor. I got about halfway through it before I realized it was something completely separate.

[Edited on February 22, 2017 at 8:59 AM. Reason : .]

2/22/2017 8:59:39 AM

^ I did the exact same

2/22/2017 5:04:33 PM

Anybody have a good tree guy/company?

2/24/2017 11:09:49 AM

when it comes to tree companies make sure they have liability insurance AND in my school of thought it's best to go with the guy with the biggest/nicest equipment (not pickup)

2/24/2017 6:54:01 PM

For sure. Licensed bonded insured etc. I'm not interested in some guy and his buddy who cut down 50 ft pine trees adjacent to my house in their off hours.

2/25/2017 1:07:28 AM

Does anyone have a recommendation for someone to hang drywall for cheap? I have about 15 boards worth to hang in my garage.

2/26/2017 7:40:06 PM

Update: We got another full price offer yesterday and are now under contract! We also signed with the builder on Thursday to build our new house. Will take about 6 months to complete.

2/26/2017 11:38:17 PM

Quote :

"Anybody have a good tree guy/company?"

Bartlett is good people and does a great job.

https://www.bartlett.com/

2/27/2017 4:10:47 PM

^^sweet! GLWS!!!!

[Edited on February 27, 2017 at 5:11 PM. Reason : ]

2/27/2017 5:11:27 PM

It freaking happened again Buyer's sell fell through and they had to back out. We've already packed 70% of our stuff into storage lockers. This is so fucking frustrating.

3/6/2017 3:23:06 PM

so much wind recently. found a HUGE hunk of shingles in my yard. I couldn't see any bare spots on the roof, so it might be my neighbors, but it still sucks to have to check.

3/9/2017 2:17:58 PM

^^ Why did they back out this time?

3/12/2017 2:59:16 PM

Their sale fell through. Said they couldn't come to an agreement. I'm guessing the inspection indicated some problems that they wouldn't agree to fix. I don't know. We've had 5 showings in the last 4 days though. One of them scheduled another visit this morning but had to cancelled because their kids were sick. So we are still getting a lot of interest.

Best thing is we have time so we can stick to our asking price. House should be done in 4 to 6 months and we don't have to sell it until then.

3/12/2017 9:21:58 PM

just found out we have a "active" Powder Post Beetle in our crawl space. All insulation has to be removed to treat the wood.

3/21/2017 10:34:26 AM

lol just got a quote for 2500 bones to remove and replace the insulation. This doesnt include the treatment.

looks like daddy is getting dirty.

3/22/2017 4:36:57 PM

I'm sick of my contractor grade thermostat(s). Is Nest the way to go these days?

3/23/2017 7:18:56 AM