^

^^just some thick plastic laid down should work. no need to really secure it. You could use landscaping staples if you wanted though. don't try to completely seal off around the edges - there has to be some breathing room, from what I'm told.

Vapor barrier is required on crawl space foundations (code), so I'd certainly add it.

[Edited on September 10, 2012 at 1:11 PM. Reason : .]

9/10/2012 1:11:20 PM

^ not even sure if not securing it passes NC residential codes these days. I don't know though as I do nothing with vapor barriers or residential work.

However, my advice would be to make sure you are using an appropriate 6-mil vapor barrier material first off. Any seams I would overlap by 12" if possible and seal with mastic tape. At the edge of the foundation walls, bring the barrier up the walls about ~6" and then tape AND mechanically fasten.

[Edited on September 10, 2012 at 2:05 PM. Reason : ]

9/10/2012 2:04:06 PM

Going to have to take out and replace some of my siding. Water has gotten through some cracks and completely soaked and ruined some pieces (which caused the leaks of course). Just going to reseal the places that don't seem as bad (or else I'd be replacing about half the siding on one side of the house).

Bleh.

And a big "fuck you" to the original contractor and his crew who seem to have done a shoddy job on some areas of the house. Although I guess you can attribute some of it to the inordinate amount of rain we've gotten this year.

9/10/2012 3:17:54 PM

^ still, that's no excuse. Especially in a climate like yours.

9/10/2012 3:32:23 PM

I feel dumb asking this since I'm an attorney and should know the answer, but this is definitely not my area of expertise...

But can I sue the contractor for shoddy work or inspector for not catching this? It seems most likely that they poorly caulked or just didn't caulk at all some places where the wooden boards met on the siding. That's how the water seeped through.

Or should any of my insurance cover this? I think this will be running me around $3K.

[Edited on September 10, 2012 at 3:43 PM. Reason : .]

9/10/2012 3:42:19 PM

not sure of the full answer to your question, but my insurance didn't cover any leaks with wood rot as they are supposed to be detected early. assholes.

9/10/2012 3:52:46 PM

Yeah...I figure I'm kinda SOL. If it was a sum near $10k and over, I would be a little more up in arms about it.

But the contractor was also the seller. So he didn't build the house for me and no one lived in it before I moved in, so it's hard to say that they should have disclosed something that they probably didn't know about.

I worked on a case where an inspector missed something pretty big (what they missed was small, but that small thing turned into $30k worth of damage) and found out that it's very difficult to make them liable...especially with something like this.

Ugh...not happy about dropping this change right now.

9/10/2012 4:54:09 PM

^damn that sucks...sorry dude.

Mine isnt that bad, but a pulley sheered off of my garage door last night so I get to rig that up tomorrow with some drilling and bolts. I am hoping I can avoid having to get new tracks installed.

9/10/2012 8:00:17 PM

To give this thread some slightly more positive updates, the grouting & caulking went fairly well so that's one finishing touch out of the way. Slightly closer to renting!

9/10/2012 10:52:08 PM

5^pretty sure not

I know you can't do anything to an inspector. The only time the builder gets involved is if you're still under their 1/5 or 2/10 warranty and even then most contractors will be hard to contact since you're making a claim.

Insurance sometimes pays for weird things like this, but it's all policy and insurance company related so I've got nothing for you there.

[Edited on September 11, 2012 at 8:52 AM. Reason : ..]

9/11/2012 8:49:57 AM

I'm going to send a sympathy email to the contractor/seller to see if he'll split the costs. His mom lives across the street so we converse every couple months when he stops by and we've been very friendly throughout the whole process. He requested and I wrote a really bad-ass review for his pressure washing business a few months back as well. So we'll see what happens...but I'm not holding my breath.

9/11/2012 9:04:31 AM

^ a little different than a standalone place, but my building ran into a $12k issue with an improperly installed valve at the drain pipe that dumps sewage from our building into the sewer allowing water to enter back in during heavy rain. we sued the original subcontractor that did the actual installation and they settled and i think we got most of the cost of repair paid for.

9/11/2012 12:31:31 PM

is he licensed? i have general liability and workers comp insurance certificates from all of my subs. i am audited every year for them. if i was to be sued over a foundation failing It would be passed off to my foundation subcontractor.

for some reason i feel like i remember the GC on your house reminding me of the shoddy GCs redoing my old neighborhood. i cant remember why though

you can thank the "flip this house" tv shows for these guys...

the guy next door to my old house had his framer installing toilets... LOL.

[Edited on September 11, 2012 at 6:53 PM. Reason : he wasn't licensed ]

9/11/2012 6:51:59 PM

^ I think we had the guy doing our tile install the kitchen sink and hook it up. Yeah I wasn't calling any shots 4-5 years ago when this house was first getting its makeover.

9/11/2012 7:40:33 PM

Yeah, I talked to a good friend of mine today who does construction law, and I think I'm going to push a little more on this situation. In South Carolina you give them a "right to cure", which is essentially giving them 30 days to fix their shit or you can file suit. And he's licensed, so he has insurance which could pay this off.

I'll try the nice guy route, then the, "I really don't want to take this the legal route", and finally the, "you forced my hand".

9/12/2012 12:06:25 AM

So I have currently have a shower in my master which is just the plastic pieces grouted together.

Anyone have a [very] rough ballpark on how much a basic tiled shower w/ glass door would run and any good references for the work?

9/12/2012 11:28:58 AM

The incompetence of order fulfillment and delivery employees at Sears

Really, how hard is it to put together an order made weeks ago and deliver it when promised?

9/13/2012 10:04:39 AM

Just got my utilities bill. Apparently I somehow used 7000 gallons more water this month than normal. I found this quite odd since my fiance was out of town most of the month and I take very quick showers, wash dishes by hand, and only did laundry maybe twice.

Of course I had the running toilet that I mentioned on the last page, but I figured that since I manually fixed it every time I heard it running, I was fine. Nope, I was wrong. It was silently running the hole time. The rubber flapper, although blocking off the majority of the water was still letting some in silently the whole time. Even after replacing it a few days ago, I went out to check the water meter just now and the dial is spinning even with the new flapper. After shutting the water off to the toilet it stopped so I guess now I need to get some kind of sealant to put on the new flapper to give it a tighter seal.

So yeah, that's a waste of $80 for all that water I never used.

[Edited on September 13, 2012 at 8:30 PM. Reason : ]

9/13/2012 8:30:30 PM

I had a leaky toilet I tried to fix with flappers then valve seats then and toyed with the idea the stem that links the flapper/seat to the toilet. As this toilet was some single bowl/tank bullshit design from 10 years ago I notice the weld between the bowl and tank has failed and decide to replace the damn thing for 200 bucks. The next thing I know Im down to studs and into a full master bath reno.

9/13/2012 8:39:36 PM

Phew. Estimate for repairing and replacing the siding came in at $1,450. About half what I expected...although there is a chance he finds some bad wood (*snicker) up higher on the house that we just used the "eye test" on.

Just sent my seller/contractor an email requesting he cover those repairs as well as help pay for repainting the back side of the house where the paint is already peeling heavily...so we'll see what happens. The paint job is going to cost $1,250. Contractor used some cheap, shitty paint that is not holding up against a good amount of direct sunlight.

9/14/2012 10:46:51 AM

Quote :

"So I have currently have a shower in my master which is just the plastic pieces grouted together. Anyone have a [very] rough ballpark on how much a basic tiled shower w/ glass door would run and any good references for the work?"

Tiling labor: $400-$800 (including a shower base) depending on the size of your tile
Tile material: $7-$15 per square foot for basic
Fixtures: $500 (for basic, assuming you need to buy new valve assemblies as well, which you should)
Glass Door: $650 (if using custom glass)
Plumbing: $250 (assuming only the most basic work)

Our custom shower alone was well over 7k completed.

[Edited on September 14, 2012 at 2:26 PM. Reason : .]

9/14/2012 2:25:55 PM

Closed!

9/14/2012 11:27:38 PM

You can easily do under 7 to15 a sqft for materials for tile. We're doing the tile ourselves so that helps a lot.

9/15/2012 9:00:25 AM

I'm still planning my full bath reno, half bath is almost done. i wish standard shower enclosures would come a little bit larger. I'm looking to sell my house next year, so I'm going to put in another "cheap" shower enclosure because the price difference is like 3-4k, but I'm thinking about tiling the backsplash, but I want to use a molded base. every set of base and door I've found is about 5-6 inches narrower than the space we have for it, though.

My crazy idea was to build a 6" wall to attach the short end of an L-shaped glass enclosure and make a low tile shelf on the wall to span the gap between the molded base and the wall. I guess I should go all the way and tile the bottom instead of trying to work in a molded piece, but a) they're cheap and b) tile is slick and harder to clean.


anyone got a magical suggestion?

9/16/2012 10:20:38 AM

Textured tile and urethane grout, but that won't help with the cheap part.

9/16/2012 12:40:47 PM

Got some water pooled in the soft air duct between my upstairs and downstairs floor. Dripped for a while on the drop ceiling last week, evidently.

Anyone had that happen before? Going to call an HVAC person out tomorrow. Ugh.

9/16/2012 11:19:23 PM

In a predicament. Had a walk-through of my problems with the original contractor this morning. He pointed out that every wooden board on the siding that I was having trouble with, was the old siding that the Charleston Board of Architectural Review made him using when constructing the house.

If you've never lived in Charleston (and mainly downtown), it's hard to explain how anal the B.A.R is. They have an extremely strict set of guidelines you have to follow when building, restoring, repairing, and adding on to your house downtown. One of the main things is that if you have any materials that are still useable, they have to be used. In this case, they made my contractor use as much of the old wood that he could, and that wood is now failing and causing the leak in my house.

Now I'm trying to figure out if it's worth it to sue the B.A.R. My contractor was pushing for it. He understands the necessity of what they do, but says there are a lot of things that take it too far. One example is what happened in my case and there are others such as you can't have double-paned windows when restoring an old house...because the old houses didn't have them. So you're losing efficiency in heating and cooling the house for the sake of "historical preservation." The B.A.R. is like a ridiculously overbearing HOA.

Not too happy about having to drop $1,500 because the B.A.R. made my contractor use some old wood.

9/17/2012 10:41:07 AM

I would definitely look into it. The whole double-paned window thing is stupid too; I remember you talking about that when you were building. I completely understand wanting to preserve old architecture and restore old buildings because I also love that sort of stuff but some people just take it too far. They need to weigh options and pick and choose which items to enforce and which ones make sense to allow people to change.

I actually just said this on a design forum today, but the best renovations to old buildings when they are being renovated or re-purposed for human occupation is generally a mix of old and new. Keep the big picture items that give the house it's character but make changes where it makes sense (like improving thermal efficiency).

[Edited on September 17, 2012 at 11:19 AM. Reason : ]

9/17/2012 11:06:30 AM

^^ $1500 is nothing. The contractor that built my house six years ago did such an insanely horrible job, that I'm $10k in wood / roof / etc. repairs to stop leaks and repair rot.

But, I do feel for you. It sucks mega wang. I feel like I'm in a never ending nightmare due to shoddy workmanship prior to my ownership.

I already crossed off used car buying years ago because I didn't want the potential baggage of someone else's abuse. Now, I wish I could afford to never buy a used home again either.

[Edited on September 17, 2012 at 2:59 PM. Reason : .]

9/17/2012 2:58:37 PM

Haha, the custom "matched" paint I got isn't perfect. Ahah... Ahhhh...

Balls. They have four different colors of homespun linen they can make you at Lowe's, but none of them are the homespun linen color you could get 4 years ago. Whatever, this house is just renting out so it'll just have to look a little patchy. It's not like the paint job we put up to begin with was aces as I really look into it. :/

9/18/2012 12:16:55 AM

Quote :

"But, I do feel for you. It sucks mega wang. I feel like I'm in a never ending nightmare due to shoddy workmanship prior to my ownership."

I haven't had any problems I'd call a "nightmare", but I generally feel the same way about the work around my house. The previous owner had some shitty jacklegs that she used for everything and it seems that they were either taking advantage of her or were willfully ignorant. Probably the most dangerous thing I've found were bad wiring jobs where they literally stapled the wires with a staple gun; through the sheathing of the wire and with staples hitting the actual copper. It's like they didn't know how 'lectricity works.

9/18/2012 9:05:47 AM

^yikes. Yeah, I definitely agree that it is not worth cutting corners or taking risks with the shady cheap crew. I've done that once and regretted it. Luckily no huge problems but I'm much more picky since. Sometimes it simply means you can't "afford" (iow it's not within the budget you set for yourself) a project you wanted to do right now, but it's better to accept that and save a little more than go with the low-bidder just because you wanted to get it done.

In other news, hopefully it won't be much of a woe but we placed our order for our prefinished floor today. Installation should be the week of Oct 8th. Time to rip up carpets and move tons of furniture around in a few weeks. Total install cost (all material, tax, some flooring removal and their install labor) will be less than $7 a square foot which isn't bad since the product itself is $4.59/ft². I was trying to keep the product <$4/ft² but we didn't find anything we absolutely loved in that price range and even though the product is the most expensive part, I'd rather pay slightly more for something we love than cheap out on something we like and still drop 90% of what we would have spent anyway.

Getting ~850 ft² done. Basically doing the entire downstairs except for the 1st floor office/guest bedroom.

[Edited on September 18, 2012 at 11:06 AM. Reason : ]

9/18/2012 10:57:20 AM

Best place to get fire extinguishers? Lowe's? Type?

[Edited on September 18, 2012 at 11:02 AM. Reason : .]

9/18/2012 11:01:46 AM

They've got some smaller, inexpensive kitchen extinguishers that would probably work for most things except maybe grease fires.

9/18/2012 6:51:21 PM

i just bought a fire extinguisher for just under $20 at Lowe's. The one I had before was used to put out a grease fire in the kitchen. You can also get them refilled (somewhere on 401 South).

9/19/2012 3:03:20 PM

Quote :

"In a predicament. Had a walk-through of my problems with the original contractor this morning. He pointed out that every wooden board on the siding that I was having trouble with, was the old siding that the Charleston Board of Architectural Review made him using when constructing the house. If you've never lived in Charleston (and mainly downtown), it's hard to explain how anal the B.A.R is. They have an extremely strict set of guidelines you have to follow when building, restoring, repairing, and adding on to your house downtown. One of the main things is that if you have any materials that are still useable, they have to be used. In this case, they made my contractor use as much of the old wood that he could, and that wood is now failing and causing the leak in my house. Now I'm trying to figure out if it's worth it to sue the B.A.R. My contractor was pushing for it. He understands the necessity of what they do, but says there are a lot of things that take it too far. One example is what happened in my case and there are others such as you can't have double-paned windows when restoring an old house...because the old houses didn't have them. So you're losing efficiency in heating and cooling the house for the sake of "historical preservation." The B.A.R. is like a ridiculously overbearing HOA. Not too happy about having to drop $1,500 because the B.A.R. made my contractor use some old wood. "

I'd ask the B.A.R. who deems the material "usable" and then go from there. If GC makes the call it Seems he has 2 scenarios...

1. Use old siding because B.A.R tells me to and I save money... If something goes wrong I blame it on them.

2. Put new siding on to replace wood that is no longer usable.

It seems to me that it wouldn't be hard to distinguish the difference between good material and bad material.

If the B.A.R. comes out to the site and says you have to use boards A,B,C, etc then I'd send them a letter...

9/19/2012 10:09:51 PM

ttt

9/20/2012 6:14:16 AM

Eugh, one of the three chords on my blinds broke so I'm unable to open/close the rightmost third of the blinds. Any ideas for an easy fix?

9/22/2012 7:03:19 PM

Ha

My friends and I discussed aversion to jam bands just last night. But, to be fair, we wouldn't even consider listening to Dave Mathews anymore.

9/22/2012 7:29:47 PM

http://thewolfweb.com/message_topic.aspx?topic=508708&page=12

9/22/2012 7:37:48 PM

^^^ Well, if you could figure out where the broken portion is in the top of the blinds you could tie it back together. Can you see into the mechanical bits of the blinds in the top to try to tie on a new/existing string?

9/23/2012 12:18:38 PM

Yeah, would any kind of string work?
May just swap it out with the bedroom blinds since the curtains are always closed in there.

9/23/2012 1:57:15 PM

If you can feed it through the blinds you may be able to replace the entire string. The bottom of the blinds usually has a little cap holding each of the strings in place, which if you remove will allow you to remove the damaged string. With a lot of patience I imagine you could feed a new one throughout the entire thing and while it won't match the others it'll work. I'd also suggest using a nylon string if you can find one. Burn the string with a lighter once you get it to length to seal the end and to keep it from fraying.

9/23/2012 5:45:17 PM

Cool. Thx.

9/23/2012 7:07:34 PM

We've only been in our house for a little over 2 years but I'm debating considering a refinance. Our loan is 30 years at 4.875. I wasn't going to bother even considering it but things have gotten so low that it really might be worth it (~$170 monthly difference based on the original rate and original loan amount compared to 3.5% at the current loan value).

I was planning to start paying an extra $500 a month starting in November of this year to start our goal of paying it off in 15 years, but maybe it would be worth putting that off a few months and using some of that money to refi?

9/24/2012 12:28:19 PM

why don't you just refinance to 15 year if you're gonna try to pay it off early?

9/24/2012 12:47:53 PM

I could, but I like the flexibility in having the option to pay less if we needed. I know that probably sounds stupid but that's why we went with a 30 year in the first place even though I planned to pay it off in 15.

The way I view it, it's financially better than paying a 30 year loan for 30 years but not quite as financially good for us as going with the 15 year. However, if we ever lost our jobs or had some other hardship, we could dial our mortgage payment back to a lower minimum temporarily (or for as long as we needed)

[Edited on September 24, 2012 at 1:22 PM. Reason : ]

9/24/2012 1:21:27 PM

You could probably refi at 3.875 for 30 years.

9/24/2012 2:28:21 PM

Pretty sure the moron who pulled coax in my house looped two outlets together... can't find the ends anywhere.

And instead of just dropping coax into the crawlspace at each outlet, the guy ran 3 into the attic and 1 main down to the crawl space; dropped a separate room into the crawl space, and then likely looped the two others.

[Edited on September 24, 2012 at 2:45 PM. Reason : .]

9/24/2012 2:44:29 PM

my shitter is backing up

9/24/2012 10:49:27 PM