100 gallons is pretty small isn’t it? I feel like the ones I see in the country are way bigger than 100 gallons.

based on a quick search those look to maybe 3x2 tanks? id guess ours was 5x2 and was only used for stove/oven. maybe 100-120 a year to be refilled. if it was used for heating the house, id imagine thats super small

100 gallons seems way small. Our propane tank is 500 gallons and appears to be the customary size from what I've observed.

Maybe they put only 100 gallons into a larger tank??? There should be a gauge on the tank to display gallons or percentage full.

Pretty sure they filled it up but I'll go check later. Last time it was serviced was October, where it was presumably topped off, put 74 gallons in then. This time was like 95+.

So, yeah, that only gets us about 4 months.. at least in the winter. I'd look into outright buying a tank, but they are doing a bunch of development up here so it seems like natural gas may be on the way.

I also ran out of propane last fall/winter, filled in October and on auto fill, it was just colder than usual through that time frame so I'm betting a lot of estimates got messed up.

I have a 100 gallon tank but propane is our backup heat to a heat pump. We probably go through 300 gallons a year or so. If it was our primary heat it would run out way too soon, 1000 gallon buried tanks are more common for using propane as primary.

Seems like cranking the temp up for a number of hours will kill the bacteria that are causing the hydrogen sulfide smell: https://www.capitalgazette.com/cg-on...730-story.html .

Loden: Thanks, but it was the low propane triggering it, which is why I was smelling it only when the water heater was running.

Both our heat pump and air circulator are 19 years old. I imagine it's about replacement time, given typical lifespans -- probably going to kick the bucket any day now. Plus, the heat pump is loud as hell to boot.

Looking for opinions about work on a patio.

The gf bought this house not too long ago and pretty soon after she moved in we started to notice a slope in the patio so it is now tilting towards the house. The slope is significant enough that puddles form against the house when it rains. There are also 2 small sets of stairs (2 steps each) that are pulling away from the house because of the tilt. It's only a few millimeters right now but it's certainly noticable.

Not sure if this is relevant but the patio was created as part of a large renovation about 15-20 years ago that added an extension to the back of the house which included the patio.

The patio is concrete with blue stone covering the surface. I can take some pics tomorrow if that would help.

Anyway. We've had a few contractors come and they seem to have a couple of different approaches as to what to do. The first group wants to pull up all the blue stone at the same time, pour an entirely new concrete surface, with the correct slope ofc, then re-lay the old stone. The old stone is in excellent shape btw with no cracked or broken slabs anywhere.

The second group wants to pull up some stone one small section at a time. They would then pour new concrete in that section, lay the old stone back down, and then move on to the next section. The arguement for this approach is to ensure the stone goes back the way it was originally. The concern is that if we pulled up all the stone at once, we may not get it to fit again.

The priority is to get water moving away from the house, but I'm not sure which of these approaches is best. Any ideas? And any questions I should be asking?

Thank you in advance

I'm unclear on something.

When she bought the house, it sounds like the slope was not there or not noticeable and now the slope is very noticeable. Is this correct?

If that's that case, I'd want to know why my patio is settling at an uneven rate before I add a bunch more weight to the area. Your problem could be as simple as removing the concrete stones, level and compacting correctly and replace stones.

I am guessing they just didn't notice the slope until after living there and seeing the water puddle up when it finally rained enough. Of the two options you listed, I would certainly think it would be best to pull all the stones up and do the new concrete all at once.

Do you know who laid the patio originally/if there's any sort of warranty?

the reason why i'm confused is because the home inspector should have picked up on it because that is literally his/her job. water flowing towards a structure with no relief once it gets there is a major item that needs fixing. which leads me to believe it is a newer problem.

if the home inspector missed it, well, that just lends credence as to why one should get a top notch home inspector. if it did exist prior to purchase of the house, this is a major problem that the previous home owner should have been responsible for, whether it is fixing it themselves or giving OP's gf $$$ off the purchase price to fix after she takes ownership

additionally, what did the HI say about the stairs pulling away from the house? that's a legit item too that should have been addressed.

I'm not sure this qualifies as a home ownership question but I know there are a lot of smart handy dudes ITT so here goes:

I am planning on making a 4 foot by 4 foot dart board and putting it in my garage. I am currently between 7 layer 3/4 inch thick plywood and 3/4 inch thick homasoat board, but am looking for advice ITT as to which or maybe even a recommendation for some other board I haven't thought about yet. Keep in mind this board is going to get hit with a bunch of darts and I want it to hold up for years to come and I also bought really thin metal wiring that I plan to staple to it. I also have 1/4" thick cork board that is 4ftx8ft but I don't think it is tight enough cork to hold up to the beating the darts will deliver.

I also need 2 other boards that are 8+ feet long that can cover 2 windows in my garage and that will preferably hold a dart that misses the board (as opposed to stopping a dart and letting it fall to a harder floor).

random YouTube I watched 15 seconds of but will give you an idea about the darts and the board:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7AuhP3tCbw

CLIFFS:
1. what type of board should i use for a 4x4 dart board I am building?
2. what type of 8+' board should i use to hang over my windows to protect them and the darts from each other?

Darts don't penetrate deeply. 3/4 inch ply is way beefier than you need. As for the boards you wanting darts to stick in, go with a soft wood like pine or fir. That's kind of over the top too, though. Heavy curtains should be fine if it's just a catcher for errant throws.

This is what happened.

This is what we're thinking too but just not 100% sure.

We have the architectural drawings but I don't think we know who the contractors were. Given how long ago this work was done I'm not sure it would still be under any warranty but I'll see if I can find out. This idea didn't come to mind.

And this is what happened too. The inspector didn't catch it so I'm not sure if it happened after she arrived. And at this point I don't think we have any recourse with the inspector and so I guess it goes into the live-and-learn category of things that happen.

This is no small expense and so right now I'm trying to see how to best move forward.

Thanks again for the feedback. Any other ideas are appreciated.

Out of those 2 specific options, doing a leveling layer of concrete at once is preferable.

Take this with a grain of salt since I haven't seen the issue but I'd want to figure out the settlement issue and would prefer to rip the original concrete out and figure out what's going on. Concrete is relatively cheap, so having to reinstall it shouldn't be too much of an expense. The bigger concern on my mind is there is no way to ensure that leveling the patio will work long term, it could be a solution that only works for X number of years, then it settles more and your in the same boat. If your gf is gonna be out of the house in like 3 years though, I wouldn't bother and just do the quick fix


Re: stairs coming away from the house, did the HI miss that too?

What’s the go to for wood floor polish these days?

I was gonna pickup Bona, but enough horror reviews around interwebs has me gunshy

Thx

What's the finish on your floor? Bona good if polyurethane, imo. Lemon oil if just stained.

not a pro or a contractor but i find it pretty hard to believe something that has been there for 15-20 years happened to move a noticeable amount in the "not too long" she's had the house

I use Bona, never had an issue with it

this is effectively what happens when a water/sewer pipes develop a crack in it. it will slowly take the fill away while the crack slowly grows. the ground above the removed fill slowly sinks, if it even sinks at all. eventually the crack loses enough of its strength to hold the external forces loading it and a catastrophic failure happens in the pipe and major shifting of the existing ground above.

do i think that's what happened here, probably not. but as i've said twice now, i'd want to know what is going on underneath the existing concrete.

So the patio is a slab and have stone on top? Is it attached with thinset or are the laid down like pavers? If thinset, how is the contractor going to save them when getting them up?

Re the patio, this sounds like the exact application mud jacking was made for.

Google/YouTube that, might be the cheapest option. They can pull a couple pavers, drill a couple holes and jack the pad, then replace the couple pavers.

Basically this;

https://youtu.be/ppHT0YJsuZo

Doing my roof this year. Wife wants solar.

Total worth it, or LOL? In sunny california.

Trying to sell my house

We found out there is an oil tank in my front yard (we bought in 2012, had no knowledge of it). It was filled with sand in 1994.

Still attempting to contact town inspector to determine if what was done is still to code. We got a letter from the town that said when it was filled, it was ok, but that was 25 years ago

Our realtor is telling us that we need to remove it because mortgage companies won't underwrite the house and insurance companies won't insure it. Any idea if this is true?

Ultimately attempting to avoid removing the tank myself