I'll probably give it a shot. Costco has a great return policy.

[Edited on June 14, 2016 at 12:58 PM. Reason : logo looks really similar to the HVAC company]

6/14/2016 12:57:49 PM

get you some grindage, dawg.

6/14/2016 2:00:19 PM

hell i'll take anything over my current setup:

6/14/2016 2:13:21 PM

American Standard HVAC units are rebadged Trane units. Made in the same factory. Both brands are owned my Ingersoll Rand.

6/14/2016 3:43:53 PM

i agree with the wasteking being legit.

6/14/2016 4:24:24 PM

^^ Aye theres really only like 3 factory groups for HVAC. Everything is under one of 3. Carrier has like half a dozen names, Trane has I think 3 or 4 brands. I recently got a different-name Carrier (Tempstar) for half the price of the same system with the Carrier logo on it.

6/14/2016 9:16:05 PM

Trane, Carrier, Goodman, Rheem, and Lennox are the biggest ones. There are some others.

6/15/2016 7:50:06 AM

Closing monday!!

6/18/2016 8:56:07 PM

Joined the club!

6/20/2016 8:19:03 PM

Congrats!

6/20/2016 11:03:20 PM

Thanks. My wife is very pleased with the house. She saw it for the first time yesterday, during the closing walk-through.

It's not perfect, and there are some things that we are going to change, but for now, it's great. The biggest stress I have is how to fix the hole in the drywall behind the washer and dryer. Our household goods get here on Monday, and a washer and dryer already exist, and the Laundry closet is not in a great place (difficult to get them both out to get into the closet). I think I'm going to wait until our stuff is here, then work on taking a few days off of doing laundry and getting a guy my buyer's agent recommends to come in and patch it up.

The countertop is all pink granite, which is awesome, but the outlets are the old, cracked, dirty white ones. I'm going to take some time and swap out a few of those at a time for some brushed steel.

The kitchen appliances are all original to the house (built in 2001), so faded cream and dirty. I'm going to save some money and wait for a good sale on a set, except I think I want to get an induction range. (anybody have any experience with them? I have a TON of cast iron, so cookware won't be a problem)

The A/C and HWH are a few years old (3-4), so I think they are good for a while.

The floor is all tile, and I think some of it could use re-grouting, so I'll have to figure that out, but the previous owners left a ton of spare tiles and grout in the garage (as well as a nice workbench).

When the light is better tomorrow, I'll probably take a few pics for you all.

6/21/2016 9:27:55 PM

I used some sand caulk to fix some busted pieces of grout. I am sure it isn't the right way to do things but it worked fine in my case. I figured the flexibility would help since the floor being unlevel was the reason it busted. We were gonna replace the floor anyway down the road, had we not sold it.

6/21/2016 11:57:29 PM

congrats kdogg(c)!!!

6/22/2016 9:37:08 AM

Dodged a bullet last week. The thunderstorms that came through on Thursday night coincided with a "historic wind event" in this area. Basically a freak phenomenon of 70+ MPH straight line winds. The north side of Richmond caught the worst of it--trees down all over the place. One street in my neighborhood had 5 massive trees across the road in 3 blocks. Cars smashed by falling trees, houses damaged. About a half mile from me, a 115 year old Victorian mansion had its roof and porch demolished and its turret amputated by a 175 year old oak. The owners had just finished a complete restoration that took 12 years... Time to start again, though to their credit they've already got repairs underway.

I was without power for 3.5 days, but the only damage to the house is the loss of a piece of siding off the shed dormer in back, and a chimney cap disappearing. (We found the siding but that chimney cap is just flat gone.) Could have been a whole lot worse.

6/23/2016 12:57:14 AM

Glad it wasn't worse for you. We had a similar Derecho in 2012.

Being on the southside, we really dodged the worst of it. I lost one smaller tree which I wanted to remove anyway, so no harm done.

6/24/2016 10:46:16 AM

^^ I live in Lynchburg and lost a couple small trees last week. Just heavy rain and winds causing these immature trees to shift in the wet soil. We had some huge golf ball sized hail that hit the house on Thursday too. Time to check the roof.

The pictures of the flooding in WV are

[Edited on June 26, 2016 at 12:43 AM. Reason : Xh]

6/26/2016 12:42:41 AM

Before:



After:




[Edited on June 26, 2016 at 7:56 PM. Reason : test]

6/26/2016 7:56:13 PM

my garage door opener (original issue circa ~93) finally gave out and tore up the sprockets and sheered some bolts on the way out. spent all damn day getting the old one out and installing a new belt drive unit. I have to say belt driive is totally worth it. I can't even hear it inside the house now

6/26/2016 9:37:35 PM

^^ nice job!

6/27/2016 9:19:21 AM

thanks...forget hiring someone! I'm going to figure this out myself!

6/27/2016 10:54:52 AM

I like that sand caulk thing. The wife and I were thinking it was going to be a pain to remove the old grout and put the new in.

Also, ceiling is all popcorn.

7/3/2016 9:03:45 PM

So my house has a rip rap drainage ditch on the side that allows water from the street/yards to drain into the creek behind my house. There used to be a lot of trees and I think the previous owner just blew leaves into the ditch (plus kids may have used the rocks to create dams). The two big storms last week overflowed the ditch and water started flooding through my yard. Last evening I dug out the first third of the ditch to try and allow more water to go through the ditch.

Any chance the county comes to do maintenance on this? Apparently a utilities company came through 15 years ago and messed up the rocks which may have contributed to the issue (they moved the rocks but didn't put them back appropriately).

First two snakes I saw were harmless, but then about 8:30 I uncovered a large copperhead! My heart definitely skipped a beat. I let it slither to another hiding spot because I had a previous issue with mice and would rather have the snakes eating mice than mice finding new ways to get in my crawlspace.

7/4/2016 9:44:50 AM

i would try and see if the city will do it

7/4/2016 2:37:20 PM

I am in the county, I didn't know if they kept up with this type of maintenance

7/4/2016 4:11:49 PM

If it's in a drainage easement, then the county should do maintenance on it (or the HOA, whomever has options on the easement.

7/4/2016 8:59:12 PM

just found this, looks like get my shovel out again this weekend.

Quote :

"Who is responsible for the cost to repair a drainage easement? The property owner is ultimately responsible, unless responsibility is explicitly assigned to another party (i.e.: builder, former property owner, etc.) in a signed legal contract/document. Who is responsible for maintaining drainage easements? Individual property owners are responsible for the maintenance of any portion of a recorded drainage easement that is located on their property. For example, if a 20' drainage easement is located straight down a property line, each property owner is responsible for the 10' of the easement that is on his or her property. "

http://www.wakegov.com/water/stormwater/pages/faqs.aspx

7/4/2016 11:33:40 PM

Reading more, even in the city the homeowner is responsible for the easement. The city is only responsible for the sewer, not the easement itself.

My old house had a drainage easement with a sewer line, and they came out yearly for inspections. They even brought in machinery one year to clear away mulch and dirt from around the manhole cover in the back of my property. They never touched anything else in the easement (even though technically part of my retaining wall was in the easement and my neighbor had built a bridge over it).

I looked up the maps/deeds of my property online, and it is supposed to be a 30' easement. I cleared out a decent amount, but no way in hell could this be classified as a 30' drainage/sewer easement. I guess if they ever decide to run the sewer line here, they'll be digging everything up.

7/5/2016 12:11:03 AM

Well damn, that's bullshit.

7/5/2016 6:54:46 AM

That's in reference to the easement. The county is still responsible for ensuring proper function of the drainage feature. And you're confusing easements. This has nothing to do with sanitary sewer. It's a drainage easement for drainage only; e.g. a ditch or storm drain.

7/5/2016 9:41:27 AM

You are right, I think I may be confused.

The link I posted above and the Drainage Responsibility Guide from the City (http://www.raleighnc.gov/content/PWksStormwater/Documents/DrainageBrochures/DrainageGuide.pdf) seem to make it clear that the drainage is my responsibility (even though I am not in the city limits).

The city says:

Quote :

"DRAINAGE EASEMENTS Easements are designated on the recorded subdivision plat and recorded with the Wake County Register of Deeds at the time the subdivision is created. Private drainage easements are required to identify the intended path of stormwater runoff conveyance, to protect the system from obstruction and to allow access for maintenance. The City of Raleigh does not maintain drainage easements beyond the street right-of-way unless specifically designated to be a City of Raleigh drainage easement. Often private drainage easements overlap with City of Raleigh sanitary sewer easements. Athough the City of Raleigh Public Utility Department maintains the sewer line located is such an easement, the drainage structure or conveyance is still the responsibility of the property owner."

However, looking at the Wake County Stormwater Document (http://www.wakegov.com/water/stormwater/management/Documents/Final%20SW%20Design%20Manual%20(for%20distribution).pdf), it seems like whoever is listed on the plat is responsible:

Quote :

"2.9 Post-Construction Maintenance Stormwater improvements shall be maintained by the entities identified on the record plat, owner’s association document, and/or maintenance plan and agreement or the life of the project. The maintenance agreement outlines requirements for maintenance. Per the stormwater agreement, the parties responsible for maintenance of stormwater improvements agree to inspect and maintain these devices. In addition to regular maintenance, an annual inspection of each device is required. The responsible party shall submit an inspection report to the County each year."

When I read the plat, I don't really understand exactly what it is saying. Looks like the development was responsible for drainage until NCDOT took over, but then in the second paragraph it says:

Quote :

"any dedication of easements for storm drainage are not made to the City of Raleigh but are irrevocably made to the subsequent owners of any and all properties...and then refers to Storm Drainage Policy"

The City of Raleigh Storm Drainage Policy (https://www.raleighnc.gov/content/PWksStormwater/Documents/City%20Storm%20Drainage%20Policy%20Resolution%202010-128.pdf) then specifies that city only responds to issues when "water from public lands contribute to the problem" (I guess the road counts here) and "projects involving severe erosion, street flooding or structural flooding will be considered for City assistance" (this is borderline since the water didn't touch my house or air conditioner, but I don't want to find out if this is possible when dealing with a hurricane situation). The city then will pay for 85% of the least cost solution to the problem. That means my neighbor and I would theoretically split the 15% since they are responsible for half the ditch but I probably wouldn't push the issue since I am the once concerned about this.

I don't know how I find out if the ditch is inspected yearly (like indicated in the plat) or where else I should investigate. But it sounds like this is my responsibility unless I want to fight the city (even though I am in the county?).

^ and for what its worth, this is a sanitary sewer easement (like it says on the map) although there is no sewer in my neighborhood right now.

[Edited on July 5, 2016 at 12:08 PM. Reason : ]

7/5/2016 11:41:40 AM

Well, the part I cleared out seems to be doing better (we had some rain last night)



But the rest needs to be cleared out apparently (see the water running next to the ditch?). Clearing out in the woods will be interesting as it is major snake country down there.

7/6/2016 9:20:36 AM

Ok,I thought you said it was a drainage easement. It can be both or either. If you're in the county, then you'd have to contact the county, not the city. However, if it is not having actual impacts (eg flooding structures or causing major erosion), the county won't touch it. And yes, the drainage must come from public lands, such as the road, assuming it's a state/city road. Though I'm not sure how this is set up and how it works with Wake County as far as it being a sewer and not drainage easement. Normally, if there is a drainage feature, I thought there was a drainage easement as well, and if not, then the county won't touch it.

I don't know that clearing the ditch in the woods is worth your time. It's not causing problems in your yard. Unless you just really want to keep it in the ditch in the woods, I wouldn't worry about it for now.

It's tough to tell from the pictures, but either the ditch has a lot of built up sediment or it was poorly formed to begin with (has very little depth/poorly defined channel). How is the water getting out of the ditch? The first picture doesn't seem to show any water outside of it; though I'm guessing the lack of grass just outside of the riprap means it does get out of the ditch fairly often. Unless you've been killing/disturbing the grass.

Is there riprap within the channel, or just the sides? I'm not sure what you're doing to clean it out, but be careful that you don't create an erosion problem by disturbing the underlying soil.

I would call the county and explain the issue and what you can / can't do, if they would make a site visit for recommendations, and if they would ever consider maintenance and under what conditions. Cost-sharing is pretty common, though not always the case.

[Edited on July 6, 2016 at 10:17 AM. Reason : .]

7/6/2016 10:08:32 AM

It is both drainage and sewer easement.

There is rip rap in the ditch, it is just buried under sediment (which is part of the issue). The other part of the issue is that the ditch was not well formed and the stone was practically level instead of a formed ditch (apparently a utility company came through, dug up the stone, and then placed it back poorly according to my neighbor).

The ditch is flooding because of all the shit in it. My lot used to be heavily forested before I had trees cut down. The ditch also used to be overgrown with weeds, vines, and lord knows what else. I killed all the plants on my half of the ditch (and whatever I could reach in the middle). The rip rap was irregularly placed, and effectively caused dams throughout the ditch. These dams also collected branches and leaves causing flooding along the ditch.

Once I cleared out the weeds, you could actually see what was happening in the ditch. The water was not moving quickly and at multiple locations would actually overflow the walls of the ditch and come into my yard.

What I did last week was to remove all branches, sticks, leaves, and remaining weeds in the middle of the ditch. I also moved the stones sitting in the middle of the ditch (acting as dams) to the side. There is still stone in the ditch, it is just covered in mud and dirt (most of the stone in the pictures are ones that I moved, the rest of the stone is impacted into the dirt both in the ditch and into the "dead grass" area). I am hoping that some good rains will clear some of this mud out. This weekend I am going to clear the remaining sticks/leaves out of the ditch to prevent the dams from forming further down the ditch.

Once some of the dirt clears out, I will reassess the ditch and figure out where to redeploy the stones. I will probably clear out the ditch towards the bottom of the hill in the woods so I can be sure the water is making its way to the creek and not dumping into the lower part of my property where it flattens out and creating a swamp.

[Edited on July 6, 2016 at 12:18 PM. Reason : ]

7/6/2016 12:16:36 PM

Ah. ok. I'd bet it will clear out fairly well now, especially if you continue to do a little more sediment removal. The vegetation was likely trapping a lot of debris, slowing down the water, and letting sediments settle out. With all of that gone and the velocity now higher, the sediments will likely be picked up and transported downstream (to the next flat area - which appears could be your woods). Just keep an eye on this since you don't want but so much sediment removal (erosion). You may have to put riprap back in the center of the channel.

If I were doing this my short-term plan would be to get the ditch working well enough for now. Longer-term:

- Start from the bottom of the ditch and work your way upstream
- Remove all riprap/rocks
- Form a defined channel via shoveling out some soil (be careful to not make the side slopes too steep)
- Line ditch with heavy duty landscape fabric, using fabric pins every 3' in all directions (fabric should overlap from uphill to downhill so flow can't pick it up; overlap at least 12").
- Hand-place 80% NCDOT Class A / 20% Class B riprap in the ditch, covering all of the fabric, including overlapping the fabric/ground on both sides of the ditch. You shouldn't be able to see fabric through the riprap. Use smaller pieces of riprap to fill in-between larger stones. Don't exactly place the stones - it's generally better to drop them in place and wiggle them if needed. You want to create a rough surface, not a smooth stone pathway. A key point here is that you want your ditch deeper than the height of the riprap in the bottom of the ditch. So for Class A riprap you want at least a 12" deep channel because the riprap will eat up at least 6" of that depth. Class B riprap is 12" so you want 18"-24" of depth, minimum.

Anywho, it sounds like you've got a handle on this and are being smart with it. If you want any further advice from someone familiar with this kind of work, shoot me a PM. I'd probably need to see it in person to say any more.

[Edited on July 6, 2016 at 1:50 PM. Reason : .]

7/6/2016 1:40:03 PM

More HOA woes.

The grass in the front of my townhouse was missing and they would just put mulch down so I put in a work order to have sod laid.

It got laid and I watered it every day twice a day...

Now the HOA is charging me for the sod saying that it damaged the sod because I left items laying on it.
The sprinkler was the only thing laying on it...

Now they're assessing $125 fine. The grass is growing but somewhat dead considering they put it down in the heat of summer.

Any advice?

I plan to appeal it since the board are the ones that made the decision.

Again I hate HOAs

7/6/2016 3:02:59 PM

^^ thanks for advice, I really appreciate it

^ I would appeal, take pictures, and try to talk to someone on the phone about the issues. My hoa is voluntary and doesn't do anything, so I don't have any specific advice. My dad lives on a lake with a trail around it. He and his neighbor contacted the HOA to allow a tree contractor to bring a bobcat around the trail to cut down trees. The tree contractor did not put down straw/seed after running the bobcat, so the HOA charged my dad's neighbor $700 for the straw, seed, and to replace a tree that was on the easement that was damaged when the other trees were taken down. Before the HOA did anything, my dad was working with the tree contractor to come back (and also offered to put straw/seed down himself). The HOA never responded to any of my dad's requests, so when they sent the bill, my dad tried to talk directly to the board members of the HOA (his other next door neighbor and a guy that lives across the lake). Neither answered the door, or responded to his phone calls. To my knowledge the $700 bill has not been paid (certainly not by my dad), and they have received no other notices. This was 8 months ago. It sucks when HOAs hide behind mailed notices and don't work with the constituents about issues. It just reinforces the stereotype that HOAs are run by busybodies on a power trip.

[Edited on July 6, 2016 at 4:13 PM. Reason : ]

7/6/2016 4:12:20 PM

Anyone got any painters they recommend? Seems really hard to get a callback or someone to schedule when they say they will.

7/7/2016 8:41:45 PM

I just had our exterior painted.

Cost approx. 3800. Our house is around 2300 sq ft, with some really tall sides. The guys had to use scaffolding to paint most of the upper part of the house. We used Sherwin Williams Duration paint for the siding, which is their second from the top in terms of durability. The painter can get it for 47/gallon. We used high-gloss for the trim.

Total of 12 gallons siding paint for the house and the shed
5 gallons of high gloss white for the trim
and one gallon of gloss black for the doors and shutters.

The two main guys are teachers who paint in the summers, and they have a few other guys that come out and help. They don't spray, they roll and brush. I'm very happy with the results. Also did a good job with the caulking.

They probably take more time than regular contractors, and I was ok with that. They were here from Tuesday to Sunday.

PM me if you would like some pictures or their contact info. I think they're already booked for the rest of the summer, but they'll make arrangements to paint in the fall as well. One of the guys is retired, so he can paint whenever.

But if you're looking for someone to come out and have it done in 2 days, these guys aren't for you. Also, I did notice a few runs in spots, but I'm not too concerned, because there isn't much. I'm not sure if he gave me a deal or not, because the guy lives in our neighborhood, but he's painted many of the houses out here (interior and exterior) and everyone I've talked to has recommended him.

Oh and that price also includes quite a bit of rot that they had to replace around the corners and edges, as well as replacing a few planks of hardiboard.

[Edited on July 11, 2016 at 9:07 AM. Reason : adss]

7/11/2016 9:06:23 AM

Thinking about paying for a fence. Any advice?

7/12/2016 12:36:29 AM

Roots. In my main sewer line. Caused 2 backups within a month (thankfully the carpet didn't get wet the first time and only a small area the second), had a guy do a video inspection, root city down there.

Long story short they're probably going to have to replace the line. Which is 6 feet down at the house and over 9 feet down at the street. This is not going to be cheap.

7/12/2016 12:48:44 AM

^^^ That is a very good price, even if that's just labor. If that includes the paint then that's pretty ridiculously cheap. Either that or my own painter (I'm a contractor) fleeced me on my own house..

7/12/2016 4:47:04 PM

The 3800 included the paint. Total charge for labor was 3050.

[Edited on July 13, 2016 at 7:37 AM. Reason : I'm very pleased, would recommend to anyone in Wake or the surrounding counties]

7/13/2016 7:36:23 AM

^^^ I had to have our main line replaced 2 weeks after move in.(shitty inspector) It ran from my house 25 FT through our neighbors yard about 75FT to the other street. I was not fucking happy but at least I will never have to replace that again. I have a clean out every 25 FT running through my neighbors yard.

7/13/2016 9:12:55 AM

Siding on the house is getting a little funky, as is the patio. Any pressure washer recommendations?

7/13/2016 9:21:36 AM

Noticed a few more cracks around door frames. Had a foundation specialist look at it. Good news is that it isn't a foundation issue. Bad news is that it will still cost ~$6000 to fix .

7/13/2016 11:45:18 AM

What was the fix? I ask because we have a few of those door frame cracks as well.

7/13/2016 1:54:04 PM

Almost everyone does. I wouldn't spend the money unless it is an actual PROBLEM. In most cases, you can pull off the sheet rock, relay, and you won't have another crack for many years (the stress gets reset when you do this).

7/14/2016 9:32:35 AM

My house issues are mostly due to shitty construction. The previous homeowners cut corners EVERYWHERE (very evident in all of the various minor repairs I've done to the house myself). At some point in the past 20 years a room was added to the house and a wall was moved. The bracing under the new wall wasn't done correctly. On top of that, the caulking in the master bathroom in the [tile] shower was half-assed resulting in some moisture seeping into the crawlspace. Moisture was absorbed by the wood which made it soft/rotten over who knows how long. All of this combined is causing the center portion of my house to sag a bit.

The recommended repair was taking out the old/rotten beams, putting new ones in the correct location, and putting some special lifting jack things under the house to raise the sagging portion. Also recommended a few moisture control things under the house to make sure any moisture that gets in won't negatively affect the support structures anymore. I'm gonna recaulk the tile in the shower myself.

CarZin, although not a structural problem yet, it is likely that within the next few years it could become one so its either $6k now or upwards of $10k sometime down the road. At least it isn't an actual foundation problem. Drainage and ground shifting doesn't seem to be an issue so at least I don't have to worry about the negative stigma associated with foundation problems whenever I sell the house.

7/14/2016 10:15:40 AM

Ah, OK. That clears it up. I was wondering how $6k could not be a foundation issue.

Moisture sucks, and it doesn't get better if you leave it alone. Fixing a sagging house also can have other benefits. My sister just had some extra supports put under her house and all her doors now work a lot better (the original fix was just to adjust a low spot in the floor for when she got new wood flooring).

I would get the problems fixed, but I also take good care of my houses and don't let problems get worse.

7/14/2016 1:04:30 PM

when you decide to build a pool, make sure you know how fucking expensive the landscaping is

7/15/2016 12:12:46 PM