I'll do it if you live close enough...It'd be a few weeks before I could pick up my tools though

3/7/2012 3:23:33 PM

tempting but I need this done by next Friday if possible.

3/7/2012 3:29:40 PM

Possible plumbing problem:



So it's hard to see it in this picture because I cleaned up most of the mess...however...

Last weekend I did a deep clean of my kitchen (cleaned up the clutter and got into the nooks and crannies and did some good cleaning). There was definitely a lot of shit going on under the sink that I had to organize. And when I did, I found a leak in my PVC piping. If you look at the picture, on the right upper side of the "U" part where the two pipes connect, I had a ton of black gunk. Apparently it was leaking because the Trader Joe's paper bags I had beneath it were wet and moldy with some gunk as well.

So I cleaned up the gunk and threw out all the moldy paper bags and scrubbed the wood beneath it and put a tupperware container beneath the pipe. While it hasn't collected a ton of water, there has been some continued leaking.

I have absolutely zero plumbing knowledge unless it's basic garbage disposal problems or toilet issues. But there are no cracks and the connecting part with the tubes is ridiculously tight. What's the easy fix here? Is there a sealant I can buy? I don't want to pay a plumber a couple hundred bucks to do something easy...but at the same time, I don't want to be fucking with the pipes and all of a sudden have an in-kitchen pool.

What say you?

3/8/2012 9:21:47 AM

That's a sink outflow, right?

The only water in it is gonna be the amount in the trap (the u-shaped part) at a lower elevation than the bottom of the 90-degree elbow on it. Put a casserole dish or something under it and loosen everything up. You'll get a few cups worth of water to catch. Those parts work by screwing a PVC nut down to a flared flange or flared washer. You'll see what I mean if you take it apart.

If the vertical PVC drain goes up to another fixture in your house (like a bathroom sink upstairs over the kitchen) just don't use it while you are working.


Disconnect the parts completely and clean them all off, and then clean all the pieces and parts, and then hook them back up. Tighten everything finger-tight, and try to get everything lined up square and flush. Then go back and tighten everything evenly until it's solid. If you over-turn one of those PVC connection you can pull something out-of-square or warp a piece enough to let water escape, which is what I suspect happened.

I might have made it sound hard, but it's really not that difficult. Some internal flared washer might have cracked to start the leak, especially if you or the previous owner saw the leak and cranked the connection really tight to try and fix it. Lowe's or HD or ACE will have any replacement part you might need for a few bucks.

Putting sealant in is a hard way to fix it, because the connections work by compressing the parts together and it just squeezes the sealant out of the connection.

3/8/2012 9:53:31 AM

There should be a compression ring/washer between the nut and the flange of the male threaded section. I'd loosen the nuts and take out the P-trap section (the u shaped thing) and see if those compression rings are in good condition.

A replacement P-trap with new washers and nuts is only like 5 bucks at Lowe's. It's worth a shot.

Just a word of warning though, there will be water in the u-shaped section when you remove it, and that trapped water is what blocks sewer gas from venting up through the pipes into the house (that's why we use p-traps), so when/if you remove it, it may start to stink pretty bad, that's normal, just be ready to work fast or temporarily plug it.

3/8/2012 9:56:15 AM

Thought my garbage disposal broke yesterday, but it had just came unplugged.

3/8/2012 10:26:04 AM

^^

Sweet. Those sound like pretty simple fixes. I'll try that out when I get home today (leave early to watch the ACC tournament I mean).

Everything under there is fairly new (1.5 years old), so it shouldn't be too bad.

3/8/2012 10:44:51 AM

Cut the water off to ensure that you don't use the faucet while everything is dismantled. It's easy to do

3/8/2012 7:39:31 PM

A mouse seems to have just tried to move into my house tonight. Saw the little bastard earlier, no idea where he's hiding now. Time to put out that delicious peanutbutter trap the foolish little bastards fall for every time.

3/9/2012 8:59:42 PM

^ We have a mouse too. Fucker came out of my closet as I was getting dressed yesterday Damned cats just sat and looked at it. wtf good are cats if they won't even chase mice

3/12/2012 3:44:07 PM

I had to go on vacation the day after I made that post. I didn't catch the mouse that night, and now there's little poop pellets all over the house. This mouse is going to get chucked in the woods if I manage to catch it.

3/14/2012 7:56:54 PM

I have a flowerbed that I want to plant different types of flowers so that I have flowers year round. Anyone know what type of flower should I plant?

3/15/2012 10:40:39 AM

^ Aren't you in Florida? Climate is a big factor. If you don't get many frosts, then that broadens your selection. There's a gardening thread in The Lounge where you would get better feedback.

I've personally found that gardens look a lot better with seasonal flowers. And it's not as difficult as one might think to switch plants and flowers out with the seasons.

3/15/2012 10:49:26 AM

Upstairs A/C is busted. Earliest appt is two weeks out.

3/15/2012 10:56:43 AM

^ Really?? Two weeks? You can't get someone to come sooner than that? Anytime I've had AC/Heating problems, they can either get there the same day or the next morning.

I mean, since it's not summer and not an emergency, I can see no need to rush...but 2 weeks seems a bit much.

3/15/2012 11:09:50 AM

Agreed. Find someone else to look at it.

3/15/2012 1:03:47 PM

^^^ Chech who makes your AC and then check the manufacturer's website for service techs near you.

3/15/2012 2:25:17 PM

I want to xeriscape the crap out of our yard over the next few years. Any suggestions on a variety of grasses and shrubs to use? I'm looking for some that will be foundation planters (running down the sides of our house) as well as to plant in new beds I'll be putting up around the yard.

Low maintenance and drought tolerant are tops here. I'd prefer they weren't ugly but I'm also not looking for a really nice picturesque setup either. My yard has been a project (if any of you remember) that had NOTHING in it when we moved in so anything will be better than where we started.

I've slowly been building up the grass around the yard via sod and seed and now I want to start carving out the areas where I don't want to worry about actually taking care of grass. I am planning some gravel walkways leading to some different mulched beds with a mixture of some hardwoods and evergreens and then lots of low-maintenance shrubs and grasses.

What say you Tdub lawn experts?

3/15/2012 2:52:42 PM

Does anyone know a good way to find exact property lines for building a fence? (or have a suggestion of a company that would come out and find it? I don't need a complete survey done... just one property line)

3/19/2012 12:20:08 PM

you can try to find the property corners/markers... if any were actually left/aren't buried deeply. You can probably get a copy of the survey from the county to help, but in most cases, I think you'll need a surveyor.

In fact, if you're building a fence and know you'll be close (or somewhat close) to the property lines, then you might as well get it surveyed now so you aren't fucked later. it's worth it.

[Edited on March 19, 2012 at 1:37 PM. Reason : .]

3/19/2012 1:36:00 PM

yes. if you're doing a fence I think it's probably better to just use the survey. Those property markers can be moved fairly easily and the drawings and documents from the county usually say they don't replace the need for a survey for new work etc.

Definitely better to get it done now than to pay for the work and then get screwed later if someone challenges it.

3/19/2012 1:38:57 PM

how would you look for the markers? Are they metal or wood? metal detector?

3/19/2012 8:50:58 PM

I don't recall if NC requires property corners to be left in place and their composition. I still recommend a survey though.

You can start with your county's GIS website to get the property line/corner locations and measure from structures (house/driveway/etc.) to the lines/corners.

Then go out with a metal detector and look for the corner markers (hoping they're present and metal).

I guess this is a good/cheap way to start.

3/19/2012 9:14:03 PM

shitters full

anyone know a cheap septic pumping company?

3/20/2012 9:28:15 AM

right now i'm looking at our front yard. due to the ridiculous amount of acorns this fall and our saying "fuck it...let the squirrels get em" after growing tired of raking them up, we have quite the number of little trees sprouting throughout our grass.

lesson learned. get all those bitches up b/c now we're going to be picking out little trees and hopefully as much of the root as possible.

i'm gonna throw the little guy in his wagon today and start plucking these little guys as we desperately need to mow. (or not since it's still raining)

[Edited on March 20, 2012 at 9:44 AM. Reason : ]

[Edited on March 20, 2012 at 10:10 AM. Reason : ]

3/20/2012 9:43:32 AM

^ no reason, one mow and they will die.

3/20/2012 10:23:49 AM

^

Quote :

"I want to xeriscape the crap out of our yard over the next few years. Any suggestions on a variety of grasses and shrubs to use? I'm looking for some that will be foundation planters (running down the sides of our house) as well as to plant in new beds I'll be putting up around the yard. Low maintenance and drought tolerant are tops here. I'd prefer they weren't ugly but I'm also not looking for a really nice picturesque setup either. My yard has been a project (if any of you remember) that had NOTHING in it when we moved in so anything will be better than where we started. "

I recommend first getting your soil tested for free by the ag extension. Then take the test results and lots of pictures of the area you're working on over to Niche Gardens in Chapel Hill. They specialize in native plants and can also give you lots of suggestions on non-native and also non-invasive drought-resistant plants. I had them help me out with a funky area of my yard that gets crappy light and soil drainage. They were able to give me tons of suggestions based on the photos and soil information.

[Edited on March 20, 2012 at 11:14 AM. Reason : a]

3/20/2012 11:09:37 AM

my new gutters are amazing

except for two places where two slopes in the roof meet, I am trying to decide if there is any hope for the gutter guards in that area... :/

3/20/2012 11:12:46 AM

Seriously? No worry about the roots? Cause that's fabulous news!

3/20/2012 11:13:22 AM

I mean even if a few did somehow manage to survive the first mowing they won't survive the second. Trees don't like getting mowed down lol.

3/20/2012 11:14:58 AM

I get a few of those and I usually just mow them as well. So far so good. I think they are so young that they are pretty fragile and mowing them will just kill them outright without any worry of what is left behind.

If they come back next year twice as strong you can blame TWW :p

[Edited on March 20, 2012 at 11:15 AM. Reason : ]

3/20/2012 11:15:11 AM

First lawn ignorance here

This is very exciting though cause there's prolly a hundred little trees out there lol

3/20/2012 11:19:08 AM

says the tree murderer

3/20/2012 11:24:55 AM

got the appraisal back for the house, $200k more than what I paid for it 2 years ago.

3/20/2012 11:53:19 AM

God damn. Where do you live?

3/20/2012 1:34:21 PM

I think he bought a really cheap house in Florida (possibly a short sale/foreclosure).

Isn't that pretty much one of the worst housing market states?? Along with Arizona?? (I'm just pulling that out of the air).

So just because it's appraised for that much, doesn't exactly mean you are going to be able to sell it for close to that.

3/20/2012 2:18:13 PM

FL, got a foreclosure place on the water for the cheap (relatively). Now, I'm just playing with house money.

^I do realize that. The part of FL I live in didn't get hit as hard with the recession, especially waterfront properties. I'm not planning to sell anytime soon, just good to know that I got a good deal. With that said, I was able to do a $150k cash out refinance @2.875%. Still trying to figure out whether to buy more properties or put them in Apple stock.

[Edited on March 20, 2012 at 2:22 PM. Reason : .]

[Edited on March 20, 2012 at 2:24 PM. Reason : .]

3/20/2012 2:18:43 PM

I'm (hopefully) about to be in a similar situation. I bought at essentially the lottery ticket moment for the market in my area, the absolute rock bottom price and then some. You can feel/see the upswing as buyers are starting to discover the neighborhood a year later, and there are quite a few remodels/flips that are causing my property value to skyrocket, although really it's just a regression back to the mean or normal. Even with the margin of error on Zillow, I walked in to about $50k in instant value/equity on my place in one year. I too am doing a re-fi at 3.25%, and the appraisal should be in the next week or two, so we will see how accurate the Zillow estimates are. It's certainly higher than what I purchased it for, as it appraised for about $20k higher than the purchase price initially.

Though, like the poster above, I won't be able to do anything with it for a few more years. There is another round of development/infrastructure headed to the neighborhood within the coming year that should slingshot prices up again. I'm hoping to at least turn some of the price differential into a larger downpayment on a bigger place in the same area via a line of credit so that I can catch some of the impending increased value before it starts leveling off again. My current place will rent for several hundred dollars over what I pay in my mortgage as well, as evidenced by the recent successes by my neighbors in the building who have moved out. Hopefully the bank will let me play with some of the equity even if I can't sell, and don't really want to either.

[Edited on March 20, 2012 at 2:30 PM. Reason : .]

3/20/2012 2:27:33 PM

Quote :

"Isn't that pretty much one of the worst housing market states?? Along with Arizona?? (I'm just pulling that out of the air)."

GA is actually also really bad overall. Certainly not in like, Atlanta, but they have a big foreclosure problem. AZ, NV, and FL are the worst though.

3/20/2012 3:18:28 PM

Pursuant to what I just posted, what are our thoughts on 203k loans? Was out for a run and realized a house down the street has been boarded up/vacant over the winter. Would be interested in redoing it. I have several contractor friends in the area who do quality, competitively priced work.

3/20/2012 6:43:04 PM

Quote :

"First lawn ignorance here This is very exciting though cause there's prolly a hundred little trees out there lol"

i was totally worried about that the first time, but soon my worries slowly turned to crabgrass. Lawn maintenance is the biggest bitch of home ownership.

3/21/2012 11:03:46 AM

^^ actually more pursuant to my question is, if the tax records don't lead anywhere, what's the next best way to go about tracking down a vacant home if it's still owned by the owner? ask neighbors? hire an investigator?

3/21/2012 1:02:58 PM

nevermind. internets for the win.

3/21/2012 1:48:50 PM

Yeah Wake County iMaps should tell you who the current owners are. As for the 203k, we were originally going to do one of those when getting ready to buy a foreclosure. Only thing that seemed to be a bitch about it was a HUD inspector had to come in and sign off on the work you and the contractor planned on doing.

3/21/2012 2:54:43 PM

Thanks, but I live in Washington, DC.

From what I can tell, the only downside is that it can take a little while for the process, both the paperwork/closing and the construction obviously. The good thing is that I live at the other end of this block and am comfortable where I currently live. So I have all the time in the world.

[Edited on March 21, 2012 at 3:01 PM. Reason : .]

3/21/2012 2:59:53 PM

The fucking lawn is draining for shit. I've got multiple spots where it's still soggy from the rains yesterday/this morning.

I'm betting it hasn't been aerated in god knows how long and am going to aerate the problem spots/surrounding areas to see if that helps.

I have plans for a french drain, but that's a bit in the future.

Any ideas?

3/21/2012 4:17:40 PM

i have a 4' tall chain link fence around my yard. my neighbor's 3 jack russells are driving me batshit crazy. one of them barks at my dogs and/or cat, the 2nd barks at us, & the 3rd barks at the 2nd one while she runs around barking. it's deafening & makes it miserable outside. any ideas on what i can put up on the fence to block their view? i've got a span of about 40' or so to cover. those little strips you weave thru the fence would be a giant pain & wouldn't block their vision enough.

3/21/2012 4:18:55 PM

Landscaping question. Yard slopes from the road to the house and from right to left (if you're looking from the road). We're putting edging blocks outside our flower bed in front. The slope from right to left is gentle. Maybe 1' / 40'. What's the best way to deal with that? Just laying some crushed rock and tamping it down? Main concern is when it rains heavy, some of our mulch washes down that way and we're trying to keep it out of the yard.

3/22/2012 8:25:21 AM

Is it just one layer of blocks, or is it multiple (a.k.a. a wall)? If it's multiple, then you can use some plastic or landscaping fabric as a liner on the back side of the block to keep mulch and dirt from washing through the gaps b/t the blocks. Lay the plastic down a couple of feed under the mulch, then turn 90 degrees upward and run along the back of the blocks, then fold under your top layer of blocks, using the cap blocks to hold it in place.

3/22/2012 8:50:56 AM

Nah, this is just one layer, sort of a border.

3/22/2012 9:07:08 AM