All Forum Posts by: Account Closed

Where's the beef?

Welcome to the community!  You will benefit in experience quickly from the deep resources here.  Enjoy and learn!

If the grading is not a cost effective solution, a sump pump is a good choice.  Baring an electrical issue or bad pump you could have the matter concluded for around $400 possibly.

Thanks for the podcast.  Your research was very thorough and enlightening!  I'm there most every day and still learned much about my own city.

They almost fall off the trees if you watch closely! I find them everywhere. Lowes, Home Depot, the dump, the gas station etc. Depends what you are looking for though. There are two camps I've found. Lump sum contractors and one's that like it by the hour. Some like to get jobs and move on and others want to stick around. If you want on time and great service you pay a bit more for the quality person with a nice truck and professional approach. For that you may want to go toward Angies list or yelp sources to have some prescreening. Word of mouth may be the best approach if you are linked up with your local REI group. Pot luck is available on Craig's list of course... but it take a bit of sorting out.

I'm not an electrician...but have heard there are ways to hook a generator up and feed the house via the panel as a backup power source.  I would not do it myself, but have an electrician do it for me.  I'm very careful with electrical personally.

You are welcome!  Again though...be safe when you start up the electrical there.  If they beat up the walls, it can jar the electrical in strange places and cause serious issues.  Look at the holes and see if the electrical was impacted as a safety precaution.

It's not unusual for a meter to be missing on forecloseures particularly.    The bad sign may be that the house is in an area that is subject to copper theft.  I've witnessed a large decrease in that activity over the last few years locally.  It's unusual that they are messing with the large wires as they more typically take the wires after the main panel. They may have started a strip job and got interrupted. The cut wire may require a licenced electrician registered with the code enforcement issue a permit and complete the fix to the wire assuming it is on your side of the weatherhead on the roof.  It could be a simple fix to replace the wire, but they charge a bit more than you would expect.  Where I'm located,  the power company maintains the line leading up to the weatherhead.  The weather head and the wire going to the main panel are the property owner's responsibility.  General trend of utilities here has been to expand the work required by property owners.  You could talk to a good local electrician and get an idea of the rough cost.  Only certain contractors can issue permits.  The code department likely publishes their names on their website.  Watch out for those big wires if they are connected at the pole by the street and are hot! Safety first.

@Bob Ritner 

Welcome to BP!  I recently joined and am overwhelmed at the resources available litterally at your fingertips.  I've met some great people and learned some a lot in just a couple months.  Even old dogs can learn new tricks!  Good luck with all your pursuits.

Hi Taylor,

I have two SFHs that are directly in Bates-Hendricks that are available for purchase.  I will PM you with details later today.

George Helms