All Forum Posts by: Don Meinke

'here' which is 100 miles plus distance to compare the three.  At our local town where there is ONLY one of those stores,,,Menards,,,its a no brainer.  Local hardware stores are like 3 to 4 times the price.

But 100 miles away Menards holds the edge if you count up number of skus available,,they have like 3 to 4 times the stock HD has.  Take a common plumbing fitting and compare prices,,,Mennards is less than half.  Lowes had things others dont,,,like Roxal insulation if you order it.  Also will sell blem and damage pieces cheaper and more often than others.

If you have to drive 10 miles across town for small items its time and closest first.  if your buying larger volumes and job lots,,,shop cause they all can work with you.

Copper sulfate is the chemical that is BLUE in color and helps greatly in tree root growth nongrowth.  MIGHT be able to buy pure on epay,,never tried.

Replacing the pipe  with heavy wall 4 " PVC would be normal here.  Yes the clay tile was a problem for roots.  the roots seek water and break what they have to as they grow from hair size to huge size.  Not sure if clay tile even used mortar between them.

As to digging it, if you do it by hand its a bigger project than you think.  HERE if you go thru the city terrace you have to have a city tamp back.  Usually have to cut some street which is not cheap either.  Doesnt cost much to find out where the main is your running to.  Other side of the street,middle of street,your side of street,,,BIG difference.

One suggestion I havent seen mentioned yet,,is to have a camera inspect this pipe and it may answer all questions.  If pipe is broken for a stretch its a replace,one small spot of roots might try the chem for a year and re look at it with camera.  Usually we use a root cutter,rooter, here and its good for about 3-5 years.  Menard(located in aisle 28 ) and all the big box stores have the pro heavy motorized rooters if you have several older homes,large trees, and somebody willing to run it!!!

I question of the day is,,,How was the paper put up there to start with?  IF it was ''sized' ( a special undercoating) it will come off the wall readily,,if not all bets are off.

Is there an inconspicuous spot to see how it was installed.  Is it paper backed or a type of slick or foil type?  those are harder.  Use a scoring tool and a hot wet wash cloth/sponge, it may come right off.

Once you find a easy way get a crew of friends family and who ever else you can,,,rent a steamer if necessary and do it yourself.  What your contractor is saying he really doesnt want to do it.  IF it is a real bugger, comes off in small piees and fights you every square inch,,,and trim doesnt allow the 1/4" growth in depth,,,then MAYBE, JUST MAYBE, cut the drywall off the wall and redrywall from scratch.  It gives you the added chance to add and or replace electric and plumbing lines.  If there is old plumbing in any of those walls the answer is easy,,,always replace.  If replacing drywall then saving trim is questionable.  If you do take trim off and reuse,,,pull the nails thru the back side.  Otherwise it will tear up and ruin if removed thru front.  A pinchers or vice grips works best!!

careful when sanding.  The glue and crap is going to sand hard, and once you drop thru that the pine will be pretty soft.  So gouging is a valid concern.  "IF" you can use an adhesive remover as messy as it is may benifit the overall project and have easier sanding,,,and more consistant sanding.  Some soft wood flooring like that has huge groove marks just from wear in the high wear areas,,,,like stair treads,,,,walkways etc.

As nice as this all sounds maybe the best solution to this soft basic underlayment would be a laminate overlay,or even real hardwood over top.  Reason I say that is your repair holes go away.  IF your looking for that pine look then repairing and refinish is best route.

MOST of those type floors were found in second story bedroom areas, is yours? Or floored attics (maybe finished off after the fact later)

Just took out my first chimney this year.  I knew there was alot of bricks in a chimney but they really add up.

I took the above the roof off and threw on the ground/trailer(sorta hard on trailer floors).  Side note,,,,be careful of old metal flashing on roof.  Dont ask me how I know,,,but,,,its sharp and likes to punch holes in your under side of your forearm.  I found out blood can squirt in a pencil size stream constantly from such a leak.  The solid stream jumped out there a foot no matter which way I held it.  anyway crawled down off the steep roof,,,was all by myself,,,and drenched the ladder and roof.  Neighbor came running with a towel,,,put pressure on it and it stopped quite quickly.  Patched it up best I could with one hand,,,not very good,,,and crawled back up roof to finish.

This one story house has 9 foot ceilings so longer ladder crawl for each set of 2 5 gallon buckets of bricks,,,carried out and dumped in trailer outside.  LOTS AND LOTS of buckets full and trips for me and my two friends,,,me,myself, and I.

Okay back to your situation.  IF , big IF, the rest of the bricks or mortar is questionable,,,take it all down all the way and make it a one time mess.  Find the least obvious route to access the main living floors and cut wall,,,take out all bricks from that side,,,make it into a storage closet type thing and  put new heaters with duct work out sidewalls OR electric heaters with no ducts.  Would a tankless heater work in your house?

IF you put a metal flue up for the water heaters only probably only has to be 4 or 5 inch type B.  That cost is pretty high.  But putting in a flue liner is only temparary tho,,,they dont last forever and your right back where you were.  Like I said if your top brick looks like that your bottom brick or mortar isnt much better.

The other positive in getting rid of all chimneys is they are open and flueing heat out of the dwelling 24/7,,,which is akin to leaving the doors and windows open.  Only thing worse is a fireplace!!!!

And if you have access to all that good help,,,its a no brainer.

I am sure that this varies state to state. 'Here' you give a x amount of days notice to last known address,,,after that you do with it what you want.  Have to watch out for abandoned property rules tho,,,that goes to the state for future reclaim by last owners.

Its good your seeking legal advice because this is the place you dont want to leave home without it!!.

"IF" this stuff has value,which it sounds like it does,,,I would find someplace to store it for a few months.(or up to a year)  EVEN tho the law says you dont have to,,,guys like this have a way of showing up someplace down the road and saying its mine,,,even if legally not!!!  THOSE type people no sense ticking off cause they have no qualms of going back to where they were from.

"MY" problem is 'here' you can not hire a decent person to do anything for me.  I am not overly picky but discuss HOW things are to be done,,,quality of work,,,EVERY time I hire someone to do something it is screwed up and not completed as asked to do.  OR deliberately changed and said ,,,thats how I want to do it and thats good enough.  If I have to redo all their screw ups I might as well do it myself and take the extra time.  The last guy I paid TWICE to do as I asked,,,paid all his time plus all materials,,,and It still is all screwed up and requires MY repairs just to be serviceable.  I hired him because it was a steep pitched roof and I am too old to spend much time,,,and what little time I did couldnt even keep my shoes on my feet.

My favorite saying is,,,if you cant do it yourself does it really need doing??  I guess I except such things as drywall texture, wiring hook up in box,hvac installs,  AND you have to watch them like a hawk so they dont shortcut their jobs.

DIY= priceless

Yes too small can be a problem.  As said try other banks preferably local ones and not so much the big chains.

Another source of lending might be a local credit union.

Are you going to rehab these?  Can you force the values up and then refinance with large enough amounts? (still keeping in reason, numbers wise.?)

would think egress windows at the very least,,,plus watch out for zoning