Home Remodel: Do, Don'ts, Advice

[Alpinord]

absolutely, it doesn't work otherwise

....and possibly with less headaches and wasted time which could be applied elsewhere. And for the owner, a better valued and more useful property. As Buffet stated: "Price is what you pay. Value is what you get."

A major cost factor, source of frustration and reason for not being able to find anyone come springtime, is the normal tendency for owners to sit on their hands in the fall and winter when things are slower, then wait until spring to pull the trigger....all at the same time.....expecting everyone who are now super busy, to jump.

[Adolf Allerbush]

I hope this is an easy question. Plugging in some night lights yesterday, I noticed the plug that is part of the Jacuzzi tub timer was super dim??? The Jacuzzi motor no longer works. Is there something in common with these two issues that an electrician could possibly fix for not all the cash in my wallet? Hoping not enough power is going to the timer for some silly reason and if replaced, boom, the Jacuzzi motor works again. That would make the wife very happy.

I'm no electrician but we had a similar issue. What was happening is that over time one of the hot wires had shimmied out of the back of the outlet a little bit and I think it was arching which was rendering all power on that circuit to be jacked up. Do you have any other outlets on that circuit? It sounds like you have this outlet you're using and then a jacuzzi motor. Maybe I'm misunderstanding the issue, but if not I would shut the power off at your box, pull out the outlet, check the wiring and I'd probably just replace the outlet to be sure. See if that helps.

[RootSkier]

Freddy, stair and landing railings are probably the most classically fucked design.

Are you suggesting that people framing stairs should think about what the fuck they are doing? Sounds optimistic.

[liv2ski]

I'm no electrician but we had a similar issue. What was happening is that over time one of the hot wires had shimmied out of the back of the outlet a little bit and I think it was arching which was rendering all power on that circuit to be jacked up. Do you have any other outlets on that circuit? It sounds like you have this outlet you're using and then a jacuzzi motor. Maybe I'm misunderstanding the issue, but if not I would shut the power off at your box, pull out the outlet, check the wiring and I'd probably just replace the outlet to be sure. See if that helps.

I will give it a try. Thanks for your two cents.

[fastfred]

Why do you hate your life Fred? I've been doing this shit ( contractor) for getting close to 30 years. It beats the fuck out a working in some office and you know it. Now quit bitching and turn to phone off on the weekend.
Rube Goldberg inspired drawings equal profit.

I hate my life because it didn't turn out like it was suppose to
instead I'm stuck living in a ski town, two decades flew by, don't ask my to live in the real world, that sounds horrible
contracting is the worst job out there, I feel like rodney dangerfield getting no respect
but yeah, I had lunch at whole foods today and looked at milf's in yoga pants
I regularly get to tell people to fuck off
and this is the internet, so don't belive anything, don't belive a word I say either

[skiballs]

^ that is depressing, vibes.

[liv2ski]

^^^^ No it isn't. Lunch at WF and staring at MILFs in yoga pants is not bad. Try being some poor asshole picking up trash cans for a living. That sucks.

[criscam]

I assume this belongs here...
building a pergola on the back patio. pouring footings for the posts to sit on and will set the post anchors in concrete. should I use adjustable post anchors (ie the kind that sits on a nut that can be adjusted/raised)? i guess a little concerned about settling or heaving of the footings down the road. (fwiw footings will be 10" form tubes about 30" deep)

[::: :::]

I assume this belongs here...
building a pergola on the back patio. pouring footings for the posts to sit on and will set the post anchors in concrete. should I use adjustable post anchors (ie the kind that sits on a nut that can be adjusted/raised)? i guess a little concerned about settling or heaving of the footings down the road. (fwiw footings will be 10" form tubes about 30" deep)

Adjustable base plates are not really for adjusting after the structure is in place; more for leveling prior to framing install

The best you can do to avoid settling or heaving

Get to down to consolidated soil or bedrock
Get bottom of footing below frost line no matter what
Put 4” compacted gravel base in at bottom of footing

Alternately, you could connect the footings & reinforce them w/ rebar to keep them together (but that seems like overkill)

[criscam]

Adjustable base plates are not really for adjusting after the structure is in place; more for leveling prior to framing install

The best you can do to avoid settling or heaving

Get to down to consolidated soil or bedrock
Get bottom of footing below frost line no matter what
Put 4” compacted gravel base in at bottom of footing

Alternately, you could connect the footings & reinforce them w/ rebar to keep them together (but that seems like overkill)

thx. makes sense. guess i'll prob go a little deeper on the footings to be safe.

[zion zig zag]

I've got a nearly 100 year old detached garage that is literally crumbling and needs to be replaced. Single car, somewhere around 400 square feet I'm guessing, I'd like to go bigger. Building inspectors tell me that anything 600 sq feet or less can be monolithic slab (I could have the terms wrong?) and that over 600 sq feet requires footings 30" deep and adds substantial cost. What does substantial cost mean? Do I want to go deeper footings anyway for long term?

Anything else I should know or ask for? What kinds of things would be nice to have in a garage that I may not think of?

[mcphee]

I've got a nearly 100 year old detached garage that is literally crumbling and needs to be replaced. Single car, somewhere around 400 square feet I'm guessing, I'd like to go bigger. Building inspectors tell me that anything 600 sq feet or less can be monolithic slab (I could have the terms wrong?) and that over 600 sq feet requires footings 30" deep and adds substantial cost. What does substantial cost mean? Do I want to go deeper footings anyway for long term?

Anything else I should know or ask for? What kinds of things would be nice to have in a garage that I may not think of?

Here's the inside of a 24'x24' (576 sq ft) for reference. Easily fits 2 vehicles with decent room on the back wall and side wall for workspace





As far as nice things to have in the garage, I could go on for hours. My advice right now is put more lighting in than you think you'll need and get 200 amp service with a couple or more 220V outlets.

[old goat]

If you do a lot of work in your garage and can afford it some kind of heat and insulation are nice. I have dust collection in mine but that's probably a little overkill for most people.

[::: :::]

I've got a nearly 100 year old detached garage that is literally crumbling and needs to be replaced. Single car, somewhere around 400 square feet I'm guessing, I'd like to go bigger. Building inspectors tell me that anything 600 sq feet or less can be monolithic slab (I could have the terms wrong?) and that over 600 sq feet requires footings 30" deep and adds substantial cost. What does substantial cost mean? Do I want to go deeper footings anyway for long term?

Anything else I should know or ask for? What kinds of things would be nice to have in a garage that I may not think of?

is it in the best location? (double check development standards to make sure it's not in a setback)
how does it connect to the house?
(you said detached, but is it easy to get to? consider people access, car access, security)

definitely insulate, even if you don't heat it...glass fiber insulation is cheap relatively speaking & remember the garage door if insulating
consider drywall + taped joints (paint optional) [don't drywall w/out insul; you'll kick yourself later]
not cheap: if you can insulate the roof above the deck w/ rigid insul, then you can have a usable attic space
"attic" trusses for storage (uninsulated or in the ideal insulated version abv)
elec sub panel, outlets @ 44" above the floor around the perimeter
hot water?
10' top plate? (for more storage; maneuvering lumber inside on a cold day; or a future climbing wall...)
north facing skylights? (for daylight & less reason to turn a light on) or windows?

[cravenmorhead]

The garage I'm currently building in my head has electrical infrastructure for a future electric car, and is kicked out enough on the sides that I can walk and install a rubbermaid tub storage system along side the vehicles, with a work bench at the back.

[zion zig zag]

Good ideas.....writing this stuff down.

[Foggy_Goggles]

Kev, me more later but I would start with getting a base line budget from https://sutherlands.com/garage-packages down in Salt Lake. Their packages are quality (or were 5 years ago). They probably have a pretty good contractor referal network. Friends of mine had a garage framed around 9th and 9th a couple of years ago. They were happy with whomever they used.

[zion zig zag]

^^^I’ll get in touch with them, it’d be awesome to get some builder recs. I’m ready to go on this thing soon. Just got home and snapped a few photos of the current garage.

Looking down the driveway, I’m thinking I could go about 8 feet wider to lookers right:


Hard to tell from the photo but the driveway is long single width and goes under Porte cochere. So wouldn’t ever park more than one car in there.


And then from my back porch. You can see that this east side is partially below grade. It’d be awesome if I could get rid of that old pool house and combine it into one new place. But all of the pool stuff is piped into there through slab so I’m not sure how expensive that’d be.

[liv2ski]

Tile setting jong here with a bunch of time on my hands. Am I outta my mind to even consider ripping out the old bathroom tile (floor and shower) and the doing the tile work myself? Room is about 6ft wide and likely 10 ft deep. Watching videos on You Tube, I think I could do it.

[old goat]

Tile setting jong here with a bunch of time on my hands. Am I outta my mind to even consider ripping out the old bathroom tile (floor and shower) and the doing the tile work myself? Room is about 6ft wide and likely 10 ft deep. Watching videos on You Tube, I think I could do it.

my wife has tiled at least 3 bathrooms==taught herself and they all turned out very well. A pro could tell a diyer did it but the average person couldn't. She's very patient and very careful. It seems to be all in the layout.

[MontuckyFried]

Tile setting jong here with a bunch of time on my hands. Am I outta my mind to even consider ripping out the old bathroom tile (floor and shower) and the doing the tile work myself? Room is about 6ft wide and likely 10 ft deep. Watching videos on You Tube, I think I could do it.

Totally! It's honestly not that hard. I'm with ya, though. Rip out everything down to the bones and start from scratch. The key is patience. I'm a total tile jong myself, but when comparing my own work to many "pros", I feel my product has been superior. Whereas they're under the gun to get a job done ASAP (getting paid by the foot!), I am a perfectionist. I will reset a tile a dozen times if I have to. Now it actually drives me nuts to see the tile in every new place I'm in because I'm analyzing it and seeing all the wonky lines, stupid layouts, uneven tiles, lousy cuts (like around door trim or baseboards instead of underneath), etc.

Last home of mine, the tile the builder put in didn't last 10 years. Started falling off the sides, pulling up randomly, mortar and grout failing everywhere. Total crap job. You know it's bad when you can pull all the tiles by hand without even needing gloves. Haha. I ripped it all out to the subfloor and re-did it. Gorgeous product in the end that smokes anything I've seen in a new home.

THAT SAID, be aware that there are some clowns on YouTube that give awful advice. A lot of good advice out there too, but you really have to sift through a lot to figure out what's best overall. That, and you should honestly ask here. There's a few good threads already on the subject believe (I could be one of them). There's a TON of great experience in this forum. Some pretty skilled mofos around here.

[fastfred]

tile is best set with a cooler of Budweiser and plenty of smoke breaks

[Dee Hubbs]

Tile advice would be to spend a bit extra on a quality system like Schluter. They have any product you need and really good instructional videos.
I’m about to pull the trigger (sledge hammer) on our tiled shower.

[MontuckyFried]

Tile advice would be to spend a bit extra on a quality system like Schluter. They have any product you need and really good instructional videos.

x 2!!!

I did my last tile job using the full system all the way around. NEVER going back to that cement board crap ever again. Totally worth the extra couple bucks.


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[liv2ski]

^^^ Austin, clue me in as to what you guys are discussing exactly. Thanks