Looking great

Thanks Larry

Well, at least the rain gods were nice to me. Three days in the last week rainstorms fell apart just a couple of miles from my house. But, today....

Great read, how´s the roof holding up¿?

thx

We didn't really get enough to give it a good test, but those guys were pros. I'm not concerned at all.

There's always something.

The electric panel is attached to the side of the house and it pretty much needs to come off. I shot some emails to different electricians. Here is one response.

"I showed the information to the master electrician and he laid it out like this.

Because we are dealing with the main meter, we will need to get a permit and have Austin Energy (or whoever your electricity provider is) come turn off the power first thing in the morning (approx. 8am) so we'll be able to move it, reinstall it, the city inspects it and AE turns it back on by 1pm same-day. The siding would need to be done within maybe 2 hours so we'd have time to get the panel remounted in the new spot. It has to be done in the morning so you will not be without power overnight. As you can tell, this will require a ton of coordination on both our part and the siding crew.

He gave a roundabout price of $1,200 for the project, which includes all labor, materials, and permitting. Pulling a permit and approval form requires about 24-48 hours to process, and if we're dealing with AE, it could be about 2 weeks before they are available to come out for the shutoff - that is unfortunately dependent on AE and is outside of our control. Once the schedule is set, we will need a non-refundable deposit of $250 for the permit, and the balance will be due the day the job is done. We also may come out the day before to do minor prep work to make shutoff day easier.

I hope this provides enough information on the scope of the project, and if you have any questions you can call our office or call the electrician directly at the numbers below.


Thanks"

I was pretty much set on getting the pre-painted hardi siding. However, I stumbled onto a thread on some forum somewhere that talked about this.

One of the issues is matching the color with paint. Hardie sells touch-up paint but apparently, based on numerous responses, it doesn't match perfectly. I think it might have something to do with how they apply the paint on the pre-painted "boards". I don't think you can match the process by just hand painting.

The other matching issue is that I'll need to re-paint my garage to match. This is probably less of a problem since it is detached but I'll have to buy paint no matter what.

And, if you aren't familiar with the product, it chips pretty easily. A lot of folks said if you aren't super careful installing it, you'll see little chips everywhere.

The other issue is if you have to replace some completely, or you don't order enough. Everything will have to be special ordered as opposed to running down to Lowe's to get a piece or 2.

So, I'm strongly leaning towards just getting the primed hardi and painting it. I couldn't find the color I really wanted anyways so maybe this isn't horrible.

Hmm... Second electric bid came in at $2700. Seems like a big gap between the two.

I showed the pictures itt to the boy, and now he keeps building "mr boat's house" out of duplo and then hammering it to pieces again.

I've been chuckling about this for a half hour.

Tell him not to overdo it!

Need a little advice.

You'd think gutters would be a no-brainer but of course I'm overanalyzing everything.

Some folks say that the back of the gutter should be underneath the drip edge to prevent any water from seeping between the gutter and the fascia. Makes sense.

Most of the instructions say to drop the gutter 1/4 to 1/2 inch per 10 feet towards the drain. Makes sense too.

I bought gutter hangers that are similar (not exactly the same) to this. I wanted to be able to put the hangers up first and put the gutter in later.



So, my problem is getting the hanger under the drip edge. There's a little clip that goes on the part attached to the fascia and the drip edge would cover up this part.

So, I guess I have a few questions.

1) How important is it to have the gutter under the drip edge? It looks like the shinglers have about 1/2 to 3/4 inch of the shingle hanging over. Maybe put the the gutter below the drip edge. So, the top of the gutter would be about 2 or more inches below the shingles.

2) I thought about getting the tin snips out and clipping the small area of the drip edge where the top each hanger goes and coming back and caulking around it. I think this would allow the rest of the gutter to slip under the drip edge.

3) Putting the gutter up high, almost against the shingles. Like, over the drip edge.

I'm sort of leaning towards 2 but would like some input.

Ugh, yeah. Rain coming off the roof, especially at the shingle seams, wants to hug the edge and shoot straight back to the fascia and behind the gutter. It's infuriating as hell.

You can try 2 or 3, or just jam a piece of window cap or something similar under the drip edge to get the water past the gap and into the gutter. Or better yet, just put it up where it fits and stick a hose on the roof. If it drains ok, great. If not, then go for the window cap.

I don't think slanting the gutter is important. Unless you have huge dips in it, 99.9% of it will drain out on its own. Seems silly to have something crooked on your house to get rid of that last 1/8" of water. If you're worried about mosquitoes, toss one of those toilet bleach tablets in it every spring or something.

Don't tell the S.O.S. Alliance I suggested that.

Yeah, I like that idea. I'll just put it where it looks good and deal with it if there are issues.

I was thinking the same thing about the slanting thing. It would bug the heck out of me every time I looked at it. I've never noticed it on any other roofs. Sometimes those internet DIY folks want you to do some goofy stuff.

thanks

Oh the humanity!

Foundation guys came. Not good.

Here's where things are ok.

I think they are putting an entire row of piers where this one is.



And another row here where the front door is



But, this driveway area is a frickin' mess. That brown stuff you see laying around is what used to be the bottom plate and studs that at one time were holding up this part of the house.



Here's the side. We haven't quite figured out what is going on. There is a pier here but then there is a slab. We don't know what is sitting on what. I put a floor in in this corner and I distinctly remember hanging joists on beams but when I say this it confuses the foundation guy. So, I'll meet him Wednesday to try to figure out what the heck is going on here.

No doubt this will be $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ I didn't budget for. Ugh.

How the hell am I going to replace that bottom plate?

The span is about 11 ft. There are anchor bolts. The entire bottom plate is bad.

Ouch.

Maybe you can do the plate in sections in between each bolt, dig out the rotten and hammer in new pressure treated, a few feet at a time. Then, um... rig up some sort of really big washer or something on the bolt? Either that or cut the bolts off and drill in new ones.

idk, just spitballing and I can't see the whole thing, but I'd probably try something along those lines.

Oh wait, that thing isn't on a slab, is it? I didn't look carefully. It's 11 feet between supports?

Double ouch. You need to temporarily support that entire end of the building while you cut it out. That means digging under the house with a bunch of jacks and 4x4s and crap.

No, it's sitting on a slab. But it's a driveway slab, not a foundation slab.

But that's another issue. That slab is sinking as well and will need to be jacked up.

But yeah, I'm thinking along the lines of replacing sections at a time.

The foundation guy told his workers to stop until we talked. He'll be by Wednesday.

And now it's raining.

After obsessing about this all night, I don't think this is going to be horrible.

First of all, I keep thinking the foundation guys are wrong about what's going on. I believe that the right and left side of this area are pier and beam. The foundation guys think the right wall sits on the slab but I don't think so.

I believe the front area (shown in the picture) is the only part of the house that is framed directly on a slab.

So far I can't find a rental place that sells jacks (are they called joist jacks?) that will do the job, but Lowe's has them for about $50. I think I can do this with one. (but what do you do with a used joist jack?). I believe I can get away with replacing enough bottom plate to cover 2 anchor bolts at a time. That should be enough.

Of course, the bigger issue is drainage but I'll deal with that later.

I think I can, I think I can, I think I can........

aye aye aye

So, we got a better look at the foundation around the part of the house where the driveway is/was.

Apparently there were piers along the side of the house. Every foundation person that looked at this were sure this wasn't the case.

So, what someone did is pour a driveway slab up to the bottom of the beam(s) that sit on the piers in that area. Then, they framed the now crumbling wall on that slab. The problem is the piers have since sort of sunk so they aren't really holding anything up. The slab they poured (after the fact) seems to be.

Some of this explanation will make more sense with pics. It's interesting to see what the ended up doing.

First, some pics of the other parts of the house.







Now, here's the side where they poured the slab around the existing piers.



They had another problem to deal with. The part of the house above the slab is so close to the slab they couldn't get to anything. Soooo, they lifted the entire house up (permanently). Take a look at the 4" drain pipe.



But, there are still problems. The span there is about 11ft. There is a wall about 10 ft. back that supports part of the roof. That whole area is sagging now that they lifted everything else up.

So, they are going to put a beam in the middle of that span that will have shims sitting on the concrete. It's sort of a hokey solution but there's not much else they can do.

The owner then talked to me about all of the rest of the piers. They are just piers sitting in the dirt. There isn't any base at all. So, the house will probably always have some sort of issues. He wanted to replace every pier but I pretty much nixed that idea. That would at least double the original estimate and I just don't think it is worth it. We pretty much have to replace the ones along the side next to the slab (4 I think) and his guy said there was one more wobbly one which I agreed to replace. The rest are staying.

He also suggested that the concrete slab is likely to shift as well. Oh well.

No matter what, this is gonna cost more than the original estimate. I can't hate on this guy because he thought what every other guy thought. Still painful.

Here's a pic of the owner and another pic of the crew.

Sorry I've been missing this blog. I'm a general and electrical contractor. I pretty much only do solar, but we do a fair amount of service upgrades along with that.

Have you had the electrical done yet? If not, what size is your service? I think I saw that it was overhead. You should post some more pics of that.

Prices vary a ton. In SoCal anyway, you could pay $4500 for an easy service upgrade and that guy might just hire someone else to do it for $1200.

--

My main advice so far is take it easy. You know this, but you get to the point where you're worn out and that doesn't feel bad, but if you go past that it hurts. That and don't have a nail gun accident. There's a nail gun accident thread on a contractor forum I'm on and it's not pretty.

He micro. I think I remember you from the, well, micro forum maybe? I started out my 2p2 "career" there. I've seen you post somewhere.

Anyway, thanks

I shot myself once. Not bad. I was holding the other side of the board and the nail went through and hit me. Wasn't horrible but wasn't nice either.

That new Hitachi has some sort of different safety mechanism. It's like if you don't set it down right and jiggles or something you have to lift it up and set it down again.

Here's some pics of my service panel. I couldn't get it all in one shot so I went from the bottom up.

Well, the hits just keep coming.

The foundation guy called me at around noon. As you may remember, they raised that front part about 4" and broke (well sawed off) the drain pipe there.

So, he calls me and says. "we've finished leveling the house, but your french doors don't close anymore". Great. Then he says "oh, and we broke your other drain pipe". Geez, so now I have no toilet or shower. Well, I guess I do if I want the water to just go on the ground. I gave him a little chewing about this. It's not so much that it happened, but I think he should have told me in advance this might happen so I can get a plumber lined up.

A little background. When I first attempted to remodel the house (all the interior) I once again tried to do it all myself. There are 3 things I learned that I'm not very good at. For some reason one of them is hanging doors. I get the concept but, sheesh. The second is drainage. I did all the plumbing for the water coming in. Easy peasy. But for some reason tying all the drain pipes properly just baffles me. The third by the one is sheetrock. I refuse to touch it.

Anyways, so now I all the sudden have 2 of the things I suck at to do basically today. I decided to give in and call a plumber for the drain stuff. $700. Just shoot me. I spent the last 4 hours working on the french doors. I'll make another post about that.

The good news is the AC inspector came and passed it. One more checkbox off my list.

The plumber said that, not only is there a break, but a bunch are bound. He's gonna redo that whole master bath. In fact, here's here now pulling the toilet out.

Plumber trucks.



Plumbers. You may not see it well from this pic, but there's a thin one and a fat one (standing). Haven't seen the fat one do anything yet. Thin one doing all the work.

So, I figured the french doors would be just like a door only twice as big? I figured they were shimmed and the frame screwed into the studs. So, I pull some screws out around the frame. Frame won't budge. I figure I probably gotta take some shims out which required me to pull all the sheetrock off around the door. Only I did that and there ain't no shims.

Hmm... The door frame is wood with a metal frame around that. The metal frame appears to have a lip. Surely they haven't nailed that lip to the studs from the outside. This would force me to remove all the siding around the door. I start trying to pull a piece or 2 to see what's under only crap that siding doesn't want to pull up. I resort to the old circular saw to saw around the door. After getting a few pieces off I find that, yes, they nailed the damn door to the outside of the studs. So, I saw all around to get all of the siding away so I can get screws and nails out.

I did dodge a bullet, though. When I was sawing I missed an electrical wire by about 1/4". At least one thing didn't go wrong.

Finally I do this, but I can't really get this thing right with the doors on, so I remove the doors. Glass french doors are ****ing heavy.

Anyways, I finally got them sort of right. They open and close but I would really like to have done a little better job. There's a bit of a gap between them (not the gap you see in the pic - they are open there). Oh well. At least I can close them.

This is a dark pic. But if you look above the door on the right you see a little spec of light. That's because there is no sheetrock on the inside and no siding on the outside.



Here's the outside.



Oh, and while I was doing it, I was trying to unscrew a screw I had just screwed in. Only it was stripped. I couldn't figure out how this could be because, well, I didn't strip it.

Turns out I broke the screwdriver bit. Never seen this before.

So, the foundation guys did this. If you recall, these studs were sitting on the concrete - well, what was left of them. They put in a joist to hold them up. I like it.



However....................

Check out what they used for a shim here. They found a piece of my hardi fascia laying around. I quizzed the guy on this and he assured me it was very strong.

I dunno.



See how much they raised this side. No wonder everything cracked.



I think I'm gonna have a lot to say to this guy when everything is done. And, I'll be writing it all up on Angie's list. That's his big advertising ploy - his rating on Angie's list.