Thanks for the recommendation, I’ve ordered the 22 foot version of this.
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Yeah, looks like somebody needed to get into that wall for something important and the other side wasn’t an option. I doubt there’s anything salvageable there and you should plan on a new surround.
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Cool we’re setting up a couple if extra planter boxes this year. We buy the prefab ones from the hardware store though.
Doing some flooring research.
We have some young kids and two un housebroken dogs. We have two stories. 2nd story is all carpet. Bottom story is carpet in the master BD, living room and dinning room, tile everywhere else.
We’re still kind of open to what we want. We’ve kind of aiming towards a wood look on the bottom floor. We kind of ruled out hardwood because of the kids and dogs. My wife is leaning towards vinyl because it’s easy to repair in case of spills and dog accidents and the look seems ok. I’m leaning towards tile, either a wood look on the living areas and more traditional tile in the bathrooms or maybe a tile look throughout the whole house.
Are there any hard strikes against vinyl? I had seen something along the lines that it doesn’t add value to the house, while tile does, but the look of vinyl seemed ok to me.
Any experience with wood looking tile? Ok or should we just go for traditional tile look?
Is the dog and kid issue not as big of a deal for hardwood as it’s been made out to be?
I dont know, whsts the fear? Scratches?
Scratches from dog nails and kids dropping and throwing things. Moisture from kids spilling things and dog pee
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Personally I find my floors are pretty resilient. They’re more scuffed up from furniture than the dog.
I dont know if modern treated hard wood is that susceptible to moisture, ours run all the way into our kitchen and its holding up.
We’ve hardwood and a kid and a cat. It get’s scratched, but it got scratched when we didn’t have a kid as well and I don’t think the cat is much of a contributor. They’re pretty common here and the wisdon is if you care about scratches you’ll go mad whatever. It still looks absolutely fine overall to us (5 years since it was stained + varnished).
The guy who did our floor said the only problem with water is if you left pools of it sitting for a while, just a normal spill is no issue at all. Obviously the former could happen, but we figure if it does then we’ll have problems no matter what.
When you say vinyl I assume you mean vinyl tiles since sheet vinyl isn’t repairable at all. They’re certainly durable and easy to maintain and that’s why they are so frequently used in retail stores and commercial buildings. Downside is your floor looks like a supermarket or office park. If you decide to sell it’s going to be a mark against for buyers.
If you go tile I’d strongly suggest a more traditional look. I think the fake wood tile plank thing is weird and dumb and is going to age like milk. A tile floor should last decades. Plan accordingly. Tile in living rooms and bedrooms is unlikely to be desirable to any future buyers.
Wood will definitely show wear and tear with kids and dogs, but a good, real wood floor can be refinished at least a few times. Most people get their floors redone every 20 years-ish. It’s also pretty common to get them redone as soon as the kids are off to college. Wood will add the most value by far.
Have you considered floating laminate? They can be very inexpensive, are easy to maintain, and easy to replace when they go to shit.
Also, a non negligible % of our hardwood floors is covered by rugs.
It might be better to start with how long you expect to be in the house, what sort of lifespan you expect from the floor, and whether or not resale value is important.
Time to be in the house: 10- 20 years
Lifespan: Probably the same if not longer
Resale value: Yes, we plan to move at some point
That’s a time frame where whatever you put down is going to be showing its age and need to be refinished or replaced, with the possible exception of tile, which at that point might be very dated and unfashionable anyway.
Since your biggest concern seems to be maintenance with kids and pets, I’d suggest mid-grade laminate or vinyl with no expectations of longevity beyond what you mentioned. Get whatever you and the family enjoy looking at the most and don’t sweat what somebody in the future might think. Let the next owner splurge on high end hardwood if they want it.
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We have hardwood everywhere on our main level, the dogs defintely scratch it up but it still looks fine. Have had dog pee and kitchen spills all over it and don’t notice any issues from those.
The biggest thing I’ve noticed with wood is during the winter when it’s cold as fuck here and we have to keep the indoor humidity low the planks shrink a little. Also the dogs toenails are loud when they’re walking
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I would say zz’s advice is pretty good, but if you think you’d like having hardwood yourself for that period, it can be refinished. Or the new owners will be able to refinish it. And 15 or 20 years on your hardwood floors will probably look fine with a few scratches while a laminate might look pretty bad. Harwood floors in my house are 70 years old have had at least two generations of kids and dogs and have been refinished once afaik (about 20 years ago) - look fine to me, but there are some scratches and discolorations.
Of course price matters.
Ok, drainage question. Here is a badly-scaled version of the setting:
The issue relates to downspouts coming from the gutters. There are 3 of them:
- Downspout #1 is on the left side of the garage when facing the front of the house. Gutter is one story up.
- Downspout #2 is on the right side of the garage, gutter one story up.
- Downspout #3 is on the back of the house, two stories up.
It used to be the case that water from #2 would go via an underground PVC pipe to the street curb. But there is a large tree at the curb, and the root system completely crushed the end of that pipe. So the water backed up and started gushing out of downspout #2 at one of the joints. This was terrifying, because I am deathly afraid of water near the foundation of the house.
This was fixed by laying a new underground pipe in the front yard, running to the curb, and tying in both spouts #1 and #2. (I am not sure how #1 was tied in previously. I am an idiot - you do not need to point this out.) So #2 goes to the ground, runs parallel under the mulch, then goes down to the curb. (House is elevated, so the front yard is sloped down.) Now it looks like this:
The old pipe is just sitting in the ground still.
Here is the problem. Apparently #3 (in the back) was tied in to the original pipe running down the front yard. I didn’t realize this; I thought it was going down the backyard. (Again, you do not need to tell me that I’m an idiot or that the people who “fixed” the original problem should have addressed this; my wife has already made this clear.) So it turns out that we need a new drainage path for spout #3. These are the two options we were presented:
Option 1: Keep the downspout running under the driveway towards the front yard, run a diagonal line to join the existing (newish) pipe. Like this:
Option 2: Install a new pipe from spout #3 down the backyard to a catch basin(?) on the other side of our property line. This would involve drilling into the concrete catch basin. The backyard slopes downward. The distance would be around 60-70 feet:
Neither of these two options sounds particularly good to me.
What I’m wondering is this: Why can’t we just tie spout #3 to spout #2, right at the driveway, like this:
This seems like it would be least disruptive. The guy who was here seemed disinclined to take this approach, and here’s my understanding of his logic: You can’t have the pipe flowing at a flat level for too much length, because the longer you have a non-graded run, the less likely it is that the water will drain. So if you have water traveling level from spout #3 to #2 (about 30 feet?) and then again level from #2 to #1 (20 feet?), the water just won’t drain.
I have no idea if this is true or not. But spout #3 was already traveling the 30 feet flat before all this mess, presumably without a problem. In any event, I have no idea what to do. Someone help me. Additional factors:
- We have an underground irrigation system, so I have a preference not to lay additional pipe and risk cutting into that system. (When we bought the house, I thought I’d love an irrigation system. I hate it with a passion.)
- We have an estimate of $1,700 for option 2 and $900 for option 1. No estimate for option 3. The difference in cost is not a factor here.
- I am an idiot, so please act as if you’re speaking to a 5 year old.
Thanks!
Edit: Oops, flipped the quoted price of options 1 and 2. Going down the backyard is more expensive. Difference in cost is still not a factor.
I have no special expertise here.
I already liked option 2 the best even before I saw it was cheaper. Seems less like putting all your eggs in one basket. Putting less water through flat sections seems good (either option 1 or option 3). Also it makes you less of an idiot since you aren’t opening up the front yard twice.
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personally i’m more in favor of spilling onto backyard or catching in a barrel, rather than to sewer in the road. catch basin seems like a good idea.