Home Remodel: Do, Don'ts, Advice

[mattig]

I have a heat pump here in PDX. Seems to pencil when temps are over 40. Mid-range model though. (dual fuel, so nat gas in the winter)

[toast2266]

We'll occasionally get temperatures in the teens (fahrenheit), and a buddy with admittedly an older heat pump has said they need supplemental heat during those cold spells. We also were out in eastern Washington over the holidays, with temps around zero, and the heat pump in our condo was definitely not keeping up. Were those just improperly sized / specced heat pumps?

We have a ducted heat pump that has an electric furnace built into it as a backup. If the heat pump can't keep up, the electric furnace kicks on (which is expensive to run, but it's just a backup). This is our second winter with the system, and we've had a couple of weeks where overnight temps were around -10F. The backup hasn't kicked on yet - the heat pump has handled it just fine.

Not sure what brand ours is, but it's nothing particularly fancy.

[riser4]

Why does everyone want open floor plans? For example, why do I want to hear the dishwasher being emptied while I watch a movie? Why do I want everyone to hear me in the dining room when I do a work call on speaker? Might as well knock down the bathroom walls so I can hear everyone take a dump while i eat, too. I'd rather have a chance to be alone when i need to be. And I'd prefer people walk to me to talk instead of yelling across the house because they can see me.

This. All of it.

[nickwm21]

Meh - Open floor plans are ideal when done right. Just like open office, people take it too far. Specifically the main hangout, kitchen, and dining should be in one open space. WITH NO TV, but a good sound system.


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[ill-advised strategy]

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Update your passwords, be wary in gear swap, report suspect activity!

[dan_pdx]

Meh - Open floor plans are ideal when done right. Just like open office, people take it too far. Specifically the main hangout, kitchen, and dining should be in one open space. WITH NO TV, but a good sound system.

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Two thumbs up for including the "no TV" bit. All those TVs over the fireplace just make me shake my head.

[RockinB]

Quick question for the tile masters in this group. One of the bathrooms in my house was unfinished and on a slab that I sealed with Euclid Diamond Clear. I’m going to lay some ceramic tile in there now and am getting differing advice from people on how to prep the floor and what thin set to use. One guy told me I need to grind all the sealer off before I start and another said I would be fine if I laid directly on the sealed concrete if I used Laticrete 254 Platinum. He said to do a skim coat and let it dry and then trowel and set tile.

I really want to trust the second guy since I don’t want to fill my damn house with concrete dust at this point in the game.

Any advice on what to do?

[RootSkier]

Yes, ask/search on the tile forums at https://www.johnbridge.com/vbulletin...isplay.php?f=1,
where there is a CRAZY amount of expertise and advice available.

[Idyllwild]

Got a stone paver project happening this weekend. Site prepped and gravel to be compacted tomorrow with a Home Depot rental. I’ve got my string lines laid out and leveler strings set.

The plan:

2 inches gravel, compact, water, 2 more, water compact, sleep.

Next day- compact/water. Let dry. 1 inch paver sand, use leveler with pipe to spread, place pavers, use poly sand to put in between joints Push room and leaf blower to clean.

Any favorites for polymeric sand to put in the joints?

General advise not to Screw up?

[bagtagley]

I have to replace our water heater. We’re electric only here. What’s the latest on tankless? Should I be considering one?

[Mustonen]

I’d go tankless if for some reason that made more sense. Point of use, limited space, limited use, etc.

We recently had to replace our hot water heater, and didn’t spend too much time considering a tankless system mostly because I have three teenagers in the house and we use a ton of hot water.

[oldnew_guy]

I’d go tankless if for some reason that made more sense. Point of use, limited space, limited use, etc.

We recently had to replace our hot water heater, and didn’t spend too much time considering a tankless system mostly because I have three teenagers in the house and we use a ton of hot water.

This right here is why they often don’t save money. Endless hot water = increased consumption.

Supposedly heat pump electric is the best value over time if you consider install, purchase and running costs.

[dan_pdx]

We replaced a hot water heater maybe 8 years ago and the plumber said it was roughly a wash - over its operating life, the saving on operating a tankless water heater covers the higher purchase and installation costs. Only issue is you pay all that money up front.

IDK, that was 8 years ago so things may have changed. I've been trying to buy a house for like a year and I've been seeing them a fair amount in new builds, and as replacements in old builds where they solve a limited space problem.

[Core Shot]

Tankless Nat gas is cool.

Tankless electric is a joke for a house you live in.
A weekend ski house might make sense.
But a year round house with electric hot water just insulate the fuck outta that heater and call it good.

[Supermoon]

We just replaced our water heater and our plumber, and the water heater guy, said it wasn't really worth it for our 1700 ft house. Put in a new 50 gal tank and called it good. Apparently the new ones recycle so much faster, too.

YMMV since we are really only doing a couple showers at a time

[climberevan]

I regularly try and fail to convince clients not to get tankless water heaters. I ordered another one yesterday, though, because people like to take 45 minute showers, I guess. The Navien unit and valves etc was over $2k. I usually tell people it's about $3500 total to install one.

I put a regular ones in my own properties and keep showers reasonable.

[californiagrown]

Got a stone paver project happening this weekend. Site prepped and gravel to be compacted tomorrow with a Home Depot rental. I’ve got my string lines laid out and leveler strings set.

The plan:

2 inches gravel, compact, water, 2 more, water compact, sleep.

Next day- compact/water. Let dry. 1 inch paver sand, use leveler with pipe to spread, place pavers, use poly sand to put in between joints Push room and leaf blower to clean.

Any favorites for polymeric sand to put in the joints?

General advise not to Screw up?

Make sure you are a perfectionist with the borders, and get that done near perfect. Slope, level, straight, etc. Make sure you excavate down to solid supportive soil- do not put base down on muddy clay or organics.

Spend more time than you want to grading and leveling the base, same with screeing the sand. Spend the time getting it right, or spend the time later trying to unfuck lumpy looking pavers.

If I was to do my patio again, I'd use a bunch of left over scree sand to fill the cracks up halfway, and then polymeric sand the rest. I used a metric fuckton of polymeric sand that will now make it super difficult to replace/adjust pavers in the future.

I let my FIL help set my border blocks, and he rush jobbed it, and it shows where he did work vs. where I did.


Are you doing a patio, or pathway? How are you securing the borders?

[plugboots]

Our Rinnai gas tankless has worked great for the ~13 years we’ve had it. Why are they bad?


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[old goat]

A friend of ours who's a LEED certified architect is not a fan. He doesn't think they save significant energy compared to new energy efficient tanks. Way back in the day I looked into electric tankless and found they did not have enough heating capacity. That may have changed. We do have a tankless--mainly so everyone can take a shower after skiing or hiking, when we have guests. The big downside is the time to get hot water, especially in the kitchen, which is at the diagonally opposite end of the house from the water heater. Recirculating seems to negate the small energy savings of tankless. I have considered an under-the-sink small tank unit in the kitchen but not much room.

[Mustonen]

Our Rinnai gas tankless has worked great for the ~13 years we’ve had it. Why are they bad?


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From my own personal experience, there’s a little bit more going on. Had a Rinnai tankless and it worked OK, until it didn’t. Takes a lot of energy in short bursts. More sensitive to water issues. Takes a while to get the hot water. Capacity can be a problem.

I’m no expert, though I’ve fucked around with hot water heaters more than most non-plumbers, but I’d say it’s not that they’re bad, just that the juice isn’t worth the squeeze. Hot water is something that you really just want to work all the time, particularly when you have kids/wimmins. If the efficiency gains aren’t significant (they aren’t, for my use case) I’m not sure why you’d bother.

Except that hot water tanks are super gross after 20 years.

[Idyllwild]

Make sure you are a perfectionist with the borders, and get that done near perfect. Slope, level, straight, etc. Make sure you excavate down to solid supportive soil- do not put base down on muddy clay or organics.

Spend more time than you want to grading and leveling the base, same with screeing the sand. Spend the time getting it right, or spend the time later trying to unfuck lumpy looking pavers.

If I was to do my patio again, I'd use a bunch of left over scree sand to fill the cracks up halfway, and then polymeric sand the rest. I used a metric fuckton of polymeric sand that will now make it super difficult to replace/adjust pavers in the future.

I let my FIL help set my border blocks, and he rush jobbed it, and it shows where he did work vs. where I did.


Are you doing a patio, or pathway? How are you securing the borders?

5x28 small patio extension.

Border is my fence posts. Seems like a bad idea- prob should set in concrete?

[plugboots]

When we did the remodel and put in the Rinnai, the house was going to be a part-time place, so it made sense. Also, we have a solar system, and the idea was the Rinnai would be the fill-in. We’re happy it’s worked fine as a water heater in what’s become our full-time residence. I like that it takes up much less space, but it’s kinda noisy. If we did the remodel now, I’m not sure we wouldn’t do the same thing.


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[sirbumpsalot]

5x28 small patio extension.

Border is my fence posts. Seems like a bad idea- prob should set in concrete?

Suggest border with these:

https://www.homedepot.com/p/ProFlex-...0-HD/203706944

[californiagrown]

Suggest border with these:

https://www.homedepot.com/p/ProFlex-...0-HD/203706944

Yep I used those to border my retaining wall blocks, which were the border of my patio. Stake them in with rebar... HD sells 12" lengths of rebar cheap, or you can buy and cut your own cheaper. Grass will grow right over the top and hide the border nicely.

[Boissal]

OK experts, here's a project I've been mulling over for some time. Ms Boissal and I live in a 1200 sq ft house that works well for us but is absolutely full to the gills. We have 3 bedrooms but only 1 actually sleeps people, the 2nd is a guest room/office/cat lair and the 3rd is floor to ceiling gear. There's no basement, just a shitty crawl space, and the attic is a bitch to get into. No garage either but a super deep car port partially occupied by a shed (pic below). We've built another shed and have a giant plastic storage thing for all the yard stuff but that's barely enough to get by.

Been looking at houses a while now but the prices are so idiotic that I've been toying with the idea of a big project to gain storage. How about enclosing the whole carport, removing the shed in there, and end up with a 1 car garage with 10x the storage we have now? The footprint of the concrete pad is 27x14 so a decent amount of space. Roof is already in place. We'd need to frame above the existing short wall as well as the front and the back. Electrical is already in the attic. No need to insulate. Water infiltration can be an issue if it rains/snows the right way. Obviously the giant glass door that currently allows passage from kitchen to carport would need to become a regular and we'd probably have to wall the window into the living room (I don't want to look inside my own storage unit)

Is it the dumbest thing anyone's ever thought? I'd hire someone to deal with the bulk of this since it's beyond me, am I failing to grasp the scope of the work and getting into a 2 year $100k thing?