Home Improvement

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Draegan_sl

2 Minutes Hate
10,034
3
Draegan did you fab all that wood yourself, or was it some prefab kit?
It's all stock wood, I think I made a list somewhere.

The trim along the floor and the casing around the doors/window is 1x6 pine. The verts/horiz wood on the walls are 1/2 x 4. Then you have flat backed crown on top of the 1/2x4 going along the top. It all came in various lengths 8-14 feet.

All you need is a lot of time and a single bevel chop saw. Also be good with measuring things. A laser level helps too.

I have a local lumber yard that I used that has all the trim pieces and I put a bunch of stuff together in the design.
 

Noodleface

A Mod Real Quick
38,279
15,112
Getting the ductless AC units installed this weekend by my two brother-in-laws. $3500 in parts for one side of the house (bigger unit downstairs), labor is pizza and beer. They do this professionally so I'm happy with that. They won't accept any money.

We'll do the other side of the house next year.. maybe..
 

Springbok

Karen
<Gold Donor>
9,394
13,926
So I came home last night to the smell of burning rubber/plastic emanating from my ceiling. Had it pinpointed to a retaining wall in the living room and kind of freaked out (thinking the fucking insulation/attic caught on fire or something). Crawled up into the attic - nothing. Nothing seemed warm, no smoke, just a strong smell of something burning. Spend hours researching while the old lady is begging me to call the fucking fire department (for no fire) - turns out it was a god-damned CFL bulb in one of our floor lamps - after reading about it, that seems fairly common. So LED/incandescent it is.
 

Eomer

Trakanon Raider
5,472
272
My brother in-law does a lot of boiler stuff with copper lines for very high end clients. Often times they'll have him rip out everything and completely redo it all. He asks them if they want it and when they say no he plops it at the end of their driveway. Says it is gone by the time he's done every single time.

One day he took some home for a project he was doing and put it at the top of a very long driveway, it was gone by the morning. It wasn't even visible by the road.

It's almost like there are copper pipe goblins
Cast iron goes for something like $0.50 a pound at scrap yards, I think. Maybe a bit less. Copper $2-3 at least. It doesn't take much of either for there to be $50 or $100 sitting there. We have pretty huge problems with that shit being stolen from job sites.

NoodleAnus_sl said:
He works for a company that forbids it.
Weird, I wonder why. I love me my several thousand dollar pile of petty cash from scrap metal.
 

mkopec

<Gold Donor>
26,238
39,962
LOL, here around Detroit its a huge problem. Fuckers will go into abandoned homes or old warehouses, etc, and snatch up all the copper. Shit, they are even known to try and take copper from old street lights, its bad. I think they just passed laws against scrappers accepting that shit and not documenting it or something here in Michigan.
 

Joeboo

Molten Core Raider
8,157
140
That's pretty much everywhere. The restaurant across the street from my office (mom & pop pizza place) has had their commercial air conditioner ripped open and all the copper pulled out of it 3 times in the last 2 years. Its on the goddamn roof of the strip-mall, but people still get to it somehow. They probably get like $50 worth of copper and ruin a $5000+ AC unit in the process.

I'm in insurance, and that is also our #1 claim on vacant homes, people going in and ripping out all the copper wiring. Heck, the houses don't even have to be vacant, we've had it happen on new construction builds when workers are even there every single day to check on it. someone comes in at night and steals all the copper. You have to get a LOT of copper wire to add up to a decent weight. Pipes would be one thing, but wiring has to be pretty dumb to steal, so much work for so little money.
 

lurkingdirk

AssHat Taint
<Medals Crew>
46,750
215,328
The city I'm in committed to pulling down 1,000 vacant homes in the next year, and they let people bid on going in first and pulling out copper piping and wiring. People are making good money scrapping for a living.
 

Borzak

Bronze Baron of the Realm
25,486
33,253
The city I'm in committed to pulling down 1,000 vacant homes in the next year, and they let people bid on going in first and pulling out copper piping and wiring. People are making good money scrapping for a living.
I'm suprised they have copper in them being vacant. That includes wire, they'll normally grab the copper pipe and the wire, then they burn the wire to get the insulation off of it and take it to the scrap yard.

I run into them a lot because when they can't find a place to rip stuff out of they stop by our office/shop and ask if they can haul off our stuff. It's a steel fab shop and 98% of it is steel and we sell it off at least every other week. But the same numbnuts come by every few days and ask.
 

Noodleface

A Mod Real Quick
38,279
15,112
Got my AC units installed. They're Mitsubishi head units and the outdoor compressor unit, really nice. $3600 parts, $25 labor (pizza). Brother-in-law worked from 10AM to midnight to get it done in one day.

These things are super quiet (even the outdoor unit). Thankfully, we have extremely thick (after drilling them out and seeing) walls with really good insulation. The problem was when the house got hot it stayed hot no matter what. These units take care of that. I was worried a single unit wouldn't be able to keep the living room and kitchen cool but it did no problem.

The coolest part is the thermostat is a little remote too, so you can move it around the room to find the best location.

10/10 would purchase again. Was told if we booked an actual contractor the price would've been about $7000.

Really nice, I'll post some pics later.
 

Oldbased

> Than U
28,437
67,426
Interested in a better review after using it more. I get asked all the time by homeowners about those Mitsubishi units but I have little experience with them.
 

Remit_sl

shitlord
521
-1
Im hopefully going to get some quotes this week on a heat pump. We have a forced air system that used to have a heat pump, but they crimped the lines on the coil and tore out the tubes and pump. Electrical is still wired outside, so hopefully we can save some money there. There is still a concrete slab in place from the old unit as well. The old line route should be easily fished for new lines too.

We shall see... probably wont do it if its north of $4k.
 

Noodleface

A Mod Real Quick
38,279
15,112
Interested in a better review after using it more. I get asked all the time by homeowners about those Mitsubishi units but I have little experience with them.
I can write up a thorough review later, was a pretty busy weekend with a housewarming get together going on.
 

Picasso3

Silver Baronet of the Realm
11,333
5,322
I always thought those are a half ass solution but the hvac guys at work spec them lots on smaller deals
 

The Master

Bronze Squire
2,084
2
I always thought those are a half ass solution but the hvac guys at work spec them lots on smaller deals
You lose a lot of efficiency with ducts. You lose a lot of efficiency doing the whole house, when you could be doing part of the house (and only the part you're using). They have timers, so you have a set schedule you can turn them up/down in advance. They have min/max temp settings, so no part of your house will ever got to warm or to cold. And they are powerful enough that they can change a room by several degrees in 10-15 minutes. My power bill is almost $100 less than my neighbors (granted I have all HE appliances and LED lights, but I also have a few computers running all the time, etc). This is without yet getting my attic reinsulated because I had to have the old crap vacuumed out so I could redo the electrical without crawling around in it.