When I have this problem it’s always a dirty flame sensor (i think it’s called that?). It’s a metal rod that makes sure the furnace has fired, if it’s bad it won’t detect fire and the furnace will shut down so it doesn’t spew gas all over the house. I pull it out, give it a quick cleaning and I’m good to go. Usually do this once or twice a year
i would say just have the realtor tell potential buyers you will pay to have it fixed for the sale if thats a sticking point.
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Yea i gotcha, i think you could probably setup some kinda inspection to prove its good, once they are serious about buying, but not 100% sure how to go about that
Potential water leak is likely to be a complete deal breaker for some people, not just something for which they knock a little off the price. Pay someone to fix it imo.
(I mean plumber and sheetrock)
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That’s what I would do. Even if sheetrock looks professional with no signs of leakage, I’d still be concerned that you have repeat realtors who have already seen the leak and are wondering whether it’s been sufficiently addressed. Plus, I’m not sure what duties your own realtor (if you’re using one) might have in discussing it.
I’m not a pro, just a random homeowner who would probably not consider buying a house with a known leak. Because I am a fearful wimp.
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I bought a house with a leaking roof that was covered up by the previous owner and not disclosed so fuck water leaks
I would just tell them it’s been fixed and see what happens. If you don’t start getting offers immediately in this market, and there are no other problems or negative feedback, then you know you will have to address it more formally.
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Ok I have a laughable home maintenance question for you guys but you may know.
Simple problem - my faucet is sticky. See following photos.
To turn the water on you have to move the little handle to the right. It used to be very smooth but now is sticky. This was installed 7 years ago.
Does anybody know what these faucets look like inside? I don’t know the exact shape and nature of the mechanism but I also don’t really want to take it apart. Should I just drop some oil in there and see if that fixes it?
Squirting some oil in there might work. If not you’ll have to pull it apart to clean and re-grease it. That’s usually not too bad a job. Just take your time and keep track of what goes where. It’s probably about a half dozen pieces and should take maybe 30 minutes tops.
eta: I’m assuming the sticky lever part is isolated enough from the actual valves that you don’t need to shut off the water. If that’s not the case, call a plumber.
Ok, so here is my new problem. We had a ton of remodeling done and while it’s been about 98% done, there are a few odd things that needed to get taken care of before our final inspection by the city. Apparently, to sign off, they have to check the whole house (not just what we remodeled)
So the kitchen and bathrooms we remodeled were all fine, but apparently we failed because we did not have enough smoke and carbon monoxide detectors in the house. Apparently the new requirements (starting 2020) state that we have to have at least one CO monitor per floor and one smoke detector in each main hallway and in each bedroom. They also have to be interconnected.
The plan is to just get a bunch of these things and call the inspector back. However, my wife finds smoke detectors to be an eyesore and annoying in general because they start beeping for low batteries and such at the wrong times, so she wants most of them off as soon as the inspection is over.
I’m planning on just securing them with Velcro for easy removal. Is there any reason they have to be secured with screws?
This is a solar power question, so, sorry for the atting @microbet, but you’re the resident expert.
My girlfriend and I are planning to build a new detached garage on her house’s lot, and I’m wondering if we should seriously consider adding a solar installation to the design. Basically the idea appeals to me for environmental reasons, and the money savings on electricity sounds nice, but I’m not sure if it “pencils out.”
A few details that we’re working with at this point… We’re in the Seattle area. The garage will likely be in the neighborhood of 20’ x 24’, with what I think of as a “regular” sloped roof. One of the roof faces will face south. It will get direct sunlight (when it’s not cloudy) in the mid-day, but there are trees to the east and west so in the mornings and evenings it would likely be somewhat to mostly shaded.
I don’t know what kind of incentives exist here from the government(s) and/or utilities, so I’ll need to look into that. Also don’t know if the local electricity provider allows “net-metering” (I think that’s what it’s called when you sell power back to the utility).
Another question on this is, if we want to have solar, and it makes some kind of sense fiscally, would it be a big mistake to not do it now? Or can we retrofit it later without it being a lot of extra cost? Or is there some in-between, like building in the wiring and other parts (?) now and adding the panels and utility hookup later?
Anyway, I’m pretty ignorant about this so any pointers would be appreciated.
The detectors mount to a bracket and can be easily removed from it by rotating 45 degrees. Wouldn’t half of a velcro strip be much more of an eyesore than an empty bracket?
Low battery beeps aren’t a thing anymore. New units are completely sealed with a non-replaceable 10 year internal battery. They’re also really expensive, so brace yourself for sticker shock.
Either the half velcro strip or bracket would also be removed. The plan is to remove them completely, never to return. We’ve already got smoke detectors outside each bedroom. But now they have to be inside and interconnected.
Velcro might take some paint off
Screws in the ceiling would require minor drywall repair and paint.
Latter option seems a bit harder than former.
You should definitely do something to allow for solar now if it’s a possibility. That could be just an appropriate subpanel in the garage or an empty conduit run to the garage. Probably there is net metering. It probably pencils out, even in Seattle, if you get a good price on the solar.
I’m absolutely happy helping you out. Like send me the plans for the garage (even if just a little sketch), copies of your utility bill, and pictures including the main service panel and I’ll be able to be more help. Or post more itt, whichever. PM me if you want my email address.
There’s a federal tax credit. It’s 26% this year. Next year it goes down to 22% and goes down every year for like 4 years before going away.
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It takes 5 seconds to spackle a screw hole.
You clearly have no idea how lazy and incompetent I am.
I won’t be installing or doing the fixing either. I’m going to pay a handyman to do that. I just need to buy the materials. I guess I’ll just go with screws if there is no real difference in difficulty.
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I’m just curious as to how this would affect your insurance claim if you were unfortunate to have a fire? I would have thought you wouldn’t be covered.
Good question. We do have plenty of smoke detectors, they’re just not in the right place according to the newest guidelines (nor are the interconnected). If we’d completed the inspection last year, what we had would have been fine.
So anyone who didn’t do any sort of renovating would have a setup that is probably similar to what we have. I doubt their claims would be denied because they failed to be aware of new building codes and didn’t follow them.
Also I haven read our policy in ages, but I think it says something about smoke alarms too, but their requirement is much lower.
Cut it below the plug and go buy another plug from the hardware store
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Aside from JohnnyT there was someone else here who recently sliced their hand open I think. It was you wasn’t it?
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