We get a lot of people coming by to pick up free stuff on trash day in my neighborhood - people leave stuff out for that purpose - but I can't imagine an old ugly carpet would get picked up.

You'd be shocked. It doesn't even have to be trash day. Every time I've posted a "curb alert" on Craigslist, the stuff has been gone within two hours. Everything from an old kitchen sink, random sized storm windows, to a bunch of chicken wire and 2x4s from a rabbit hutch I took down.

The carpet is in good shape, though it is hideously ugly. I'm pretty confident that someone will take it.

For the water main, you could look at having the lead pipe lined to seal out the lead. This place seems to do it, and maybe even for residential.
https://www.nuflowtech.com/how-nu-flow-works/

I thought I had to replace mine as part of an addition, so I rented a ditch witch for $300 that dug a 30" deep, 40 foot long trench from my house to the meter in about an hour, so if you get a cheap guy for that part or do it yourself, and just have a plumber for the harder part, it's way closer to a $1,000 - $1,500 problem. I ended up not having to do it in the end, but I'd go with digging next to the old pipe if you can.

I later found out there are also methods where they replace the old pipe by running a pipe splitting drill bit down the old pipe that pulls the new pipe with it. That saves you having to dig up the yard, but not sure you'd be able to do that with lead, and I don't know what it costs.

Regarding pool care, troublefreepool.com has been an awesome resource that I highly recommend for anybody taking care of their own pool.

Finally found my ideal plot of land for my mountain getaway, but adventuring into the lands of new home construction. It's not really a remote site (in a 15k person town and near a 30k person town), just up.

Thoughts on effective questions to ask 1) Potential contractors and 2) their references as I get into the next phase? Struggling on how to suss out things from them directly. Might try and talk to the local lumber guys (Lowes/84 lumber)? Any thoughts/comments/experiences are appreciated.

Here's what I've got for their references.
Did they meet schedule?
Were you satisfied with communication?
Was change order process fair?
Did they nickel and dime?
Were they helpful in solving problems?
How were their on site crew to work with?
Was the punch list taken care of in a timely manner?
Do they resolve warranty issues promptly?
What is your overall thought on their quality and workmanship?

Those seem like reasonable questions. Find out from the contractors who you will be directly dealing with over the course of the project. Is it the person you're currently meeting with or somebody else? In a small company it might be the owner who is also the guy running the crew day to day. In a larger company it could be almost anybody depending on how they like to delegate things, from an experienced builder to a designer to some sales schmuck. Whoever it is, you want to have a good working relationship with that person.

Nobody from a big box home improvement store is going to know a damn thing about who's a good builder. Those places are staffed by low-wage retail workers selling to homeowners and weekend warriors.

Berge,

a few additions to the list

were all changes in project cost clearly communicated and approved prior to the work, or did they ask for surprise changes along the way after the work was installed?

were the cost of changes clearly documented/itemized when they were presented to the client? i.e. labor costs, material costs, premium time, markup, overhead & profit

if the drawings or design intent was unclear, did they raise questions prior to installing the work or did they just make their best guess and hope nobody called them on it later?

i suggest clearly establishing the level of quality and craftsmanship you're looking for prior to any contractor providing a price/bid.

if you have past references for them, i also suggest trying to have both the potential contractor and former client walk you through a past project at the same time. ask them what they think were the biggest successes...and biggest challenges...and what they would have done better or differently if they had to do it again. the contractor that gives you straight, honest answers to those questions without a lot of bull**** is most likely the one you want to work with.

Concur about this...and saves a ton of money over going to the local pool supply place and listening to their never-ending claims of needing yet another chemical to add.

I am a firm believer in the 3B school of pool maintenance...

Appreciate the thoughts/help guys.

+1. I think I learned about that site from this thread long ago. My pool is drained right now awaiting new plaster, but I think I was making three trips per month to the pool supply store for 4-gal crates of chlorine, and that was pretty much all I needed to keep the pool in order. Test kits are easy to use.

Get a pool cover to save a ton on your water bill. I think I was losing 1.5-2 inches every day to evaporation beforehand. The pool cover also holds in heat.

Ok so, starting to get quotes for renovations for the house I bought (have not closed yet) and the first quote seems very high. Since a fair number of people either are in industry, or have done major work in their homes, I thought I'd just sort of post here to see if I'm crazy.

We didn't ask him to get into actual design drawing or anything, and just wanted to know estimates so that we could know if we had any reason to potentially continue with the specific contractor. The major things we're considering right now are:

1. There's a room in the basement previously used as a workshop ~13x12. We'd like to convert it to a guest bedroom. It's currently pretty raw space with a non-bedroom viable window.

2. There's a laundry area adjacent to that room ~18x11 that has unfinished floors generally is pretty gross. We'd love to have it be a less gross laundry room.

3. Theres a central support beam in the already-finished part of the basement that somewhat severely limits the places one can position furniture in the room. We at least thought we should get a quote on changing this and getting a new, longer beam put in (as seen in a project someone posted up thread).

4. There's some idea of reconfiguring the staircase down from the main floor, since it's still an original "these are basement" winding, overly steep, drops you off 18" from the wall kind of stairs.

His estimate:

Demo and hauling: $3000

Plumbing for laundry area: $575

Frame new walls for bedroom and laundry room. Remove and replace window. Frame soffit around a random beam: $4000

Electric (outlets, recessed lights, switches, a baseboard heater, smoke detector, carbon monoxide, and upgrade electrical panel - we don't think this is necessary and were told that the panel was sufficient for lots of expansion during our inspection?): $3000

Remove the beam: $12000

Drywall (patch for beam stuff, stairwell, all new for bed and laundry): $4000

Fix floor where beam was (tile): $850

Basement insulation (just for bed and laundry external walls $2000

Paint (includes paint!): $3000

Trim carpentry (apparently 5 new doors?!): $4000

Laundry cabinets: $3000 (LOLOL?)

Laundry countertops: $800 (LOL? I was seriously planning to think Ikea here for cabinets)

Sink and faucet: $300

Laundry area floor tile: $10/sqft - $2000
Laundry area tile install: $1600

Basement stairs: $3600

Bedroom flooring not included: $0

So something like $47000 + $7000 in management fees.

If we throw out the $12000 for the beam (and $1800 management for that) that brings it down from $54000 to $40200. But that still seems outlandish kind of line by line?

I'll follow up a bit later with a breakdown of his quote for $200k to put in a dormer on one side of the house, and build new stairs up, and add a master suite + extra space (possibly technically a bedroom). All the other research I'd seen said to expect closer to $130k, so I'm feeling like he's just not the right guy for me?

Ya seems out of control, he is probably just very busy

get a couple of more quotes and compare?

Sucker quote, he's wanting to see if you'll take it.

I can't remember where you live, but unless we're talking extremely high end fixtures and finish, that's about a 30% profit margin.

Most of them seem high to me, but none of them seem outrageously high. I mean, $50k for a fairly substantial remodel that includes moving a major structural beam isn't crazy town. But yeah, get a second (& third) opinion. You can probably do better.

In the process of a bathroom remodel, and I'm thinking having a heated towel rack installed. Anyone have any thoughts on that? Pros, cons, etc.

when i was still in hs my mom bought a house, it was like 10k to have the basement finished very simply; drywall and linoleum floor (deny any possible radon) already had framing and electrical/cable laid in and a walkout door installed. definitely get more numbers. 250k in reno sounds pretty steep depending on the house and where. cant you come near that to rebuild with a foundation and everything already?

they seem pretty cheap but do they actually work well? on all the time or do you just turn it on before you get in? doubt its something i'd ever bother with tho, even when its cold, a hot shower heats the room up enough to not be freezing after.

Yeah it's not really a cost issue. It's more of a "Does it really improve the quality of your life that much". Also I've read reports of people accidentally touching the bar when it's on and getting a very minor burn.

It's normally not on all the time. I think I'd put it on a timer switch. That way I could turn it on and not have to worry about turning it off.

Get in-floor heating and leave your towels on the floor

I'm a weirdo so dislike warm towels and warm floors in bathrooms. The second I'm not in the shower anymore I don't want to feel warmer than room temperature, or I feel like I'm going to be sweaty before I get dressed and who wants that?

That said, I realize that I'm in a minority here. For most people it seems like the sort of thing that could be pretty great if it were aligned with some minor home automation. Set alarm, and your coffee machine, towel warmer, lights, shades, and Spotify all cue up for times synced to the alarm time? Sounds pretty great.

Thanks for the quick feedback on the quote. I'm definitely getting more quotes, but since this was a personal reference I was a bit taken back by feeling that it was 20%+ high.

Current thinking is that before we move in, the important stuff to handle is: asbestos, paint+floor+carpet for main floor of house. Other stuff is either minor enough to be handled when we are in or major but doesn't disrupt the usability of the main floor. So less stress to get a bunch of quotes before closing.

Already doing heated floors.

While we're playing the "does this quote sound reasonable" game, how's this bathroom expansion and remodel sound?

- Remove 8ft non-load bearing wall and 2-sink vanity
- Add 10ft non-load bearing wall (thus turning the master bath and hot tub room into a much larger master bath and a hallway to the master bedroom)
- Remove horrible red wall tile, replace with new drywall and paint
- Remove and replace 600sf of floor tile
- Install new 2-sink vanity (will require plumbing work to move it)
- Build garden tub enclosure, plumb and install tub
- Build glass shower
- Enclose WC

Grand total (nothing broken down by line item) $40,500.

Sounds like i need to get in that line of work professionally.

Almost sounds exactly like a friends parents situation.


Only difference is the amount of tile installed.

600 sq feets of tile for a bath is a lot of tile .

But anyway, he paid 20k for his remodel, I could have done it in half the time for half the money and felt like i ripped him off.

But there again, cost of materials has to be factored in.
Maybe he wants top of the line fixtures and materials.

Yeah, it's going to be a huge bathroom. Approx 9ft by 18ft, with a hallway along side that also needs new tile.

Not looking at top of the line, but not rental quality either. $2.60sf tile, mid-range fixtures, etc.

Sounds to me like citanul is getting a whole lot more work done for the same price.