All Forum Posts by: Bob H.

@Chris Sukala, in the Austin area I think HD used to say you could get 5% off for using your HD credit card, but only if you ask for the discount -- begging for it, as you put it. I never did like that on routine small purchases, because the cashiers did not all seem to know about it and it always made me wonder if the cashiers would think I was being cheap and causing them trouble. Recently, though, an HD guy in Fort Collins, CO, told me the 5% is now only on paint. I've never understood the mysterious distinction between regular rewards and paint rewards. Can you clarify?

@Nicole A., did you ever resolve this? I'm thinking it's the humidifier, as @Nathan Renner suggested. I just bought a house in Colorado, which is the first I've owned that had a humidifier. This thing is ridiculous. There's a constant drip of wasted water going down a floor drain in the basement.

The house was built in 2000, but the design of the humidifier seems like something from the '50s. You would think that, long before 2000, manufacturers would have come up with a device that would consume only the water that got released into the air.

My home inspector suggested having the furnace serviced, so I had a guy here this week who was mostly sales and not much service. He turned up the humidifier from about 15% to 35%. That made the problem worse. I've turned it off for now.

@Account Closed, for Loveland and other Northern Colorado markets, check out jamesorr.com. James is a broker and data geek who has an amazing number of charts on his website. He also has weekly classes you can find at http://www.meetup.com/Northern-Colorado-Real-Estate-Investor-Group.

I bought a house in Fort Collins, CO, with a three-car garage that the seller used to work on old cars. It has lot of oil stains on the garage floor and smells like solvents.

I tried a couple of cleaners with a pressure washer, and they had little effect. Do you have suggestions?

A neighbor suggested TSP, which sounds reasonable.

Eventually I might coat the floor with an epoxy paint, but that probably has to wait for warmer weather, and I need to make progress on the stains if I expect the paint to stick.

It would be good to hear about cities' efforts to ban short-term rentals, as Austin just did for non-owner-occupied houses, and any investors' efforts to fight back against regulators.

I think it's galvanized steel that has rusted through from years of being clogged up and not draining standing water.

I am in the process of buying a house in Fort Collins, CO. The house was built in 2000. I found this debris next to the frame of the back door to the garage. The other side of the frame, while equally in need of paint, did not have the debris. 

I probed the wood underneath the frame with a car key. It felt pretty solid, but later when my home inspector (not a pest inspector) probed with a pocket knife, he was able to dig out a little bit of wood.

I looked for mud tunnels on the outside of the foundation and in accessible areas of the garage and basement. I did not find any.

What do you think caused this? Termites? Carpenter ants?

@Bill S., I suspected that the concrete work was substandard but did not know why. Thanks.

I am planning to buy a house in Colorado that has a driveway with some significant surface deterioration, apparently from excessive use of salts to melt snow. Other driveways in the neighborhood have the same problem to a lesser extent. The structure seems sound; the driveway is only 15 years old.

Do you have any experience with Quikrete Concrete Resurfacer or a similar product? I am particularly interested in how well the new surface holds up over time.

Read the full text of the warranties from the manufacturer and installer. If they're vague, you are left with the interpretations suggested here. If they're specific, that should answer the question about coverage.