Home chat 1.0

[wap]

It’s been exceedingly stressful

The deck is 2 years old and was a selling point of the house. It looked great when we moved in. Now boards are actually rotting and many have warped. It looks like total shit.

Every “upgrade” the prior owners did caused major damage to the home.

Any way to temporarily separate the deck from the house, repair the wall as necessary, then reattach the deck properly and replace the warped/rotting boards, so you don't have to demo the whole thing and rebuild it from scratch? Or is that just too much work and not worth it...?

[MrH42]

It’s been exceedingly stressful

The deck is 2 years old and was a selling point of the house. It looked great when we moved in. Now boards are actually rotting and many have warped. It looks like total shit.

Every “upgrade” the prior owners did caused major damage to the home.

This is the case with almost every house I think.

My last house I was in for nearly 9 years. Took a long time to fix a lot of things, but it was in a pretty habitable state by the time I left. The original construction was really cheap, but I fixed a lot of the main problems. I feel like I just started over again. And now, this house is so much bigger, every project is much more expensive and takes longer to do. The previous owners were too broke to be home owners. They neglected everything, and now I'm paying the price.

A little over a week ago, right before going on vacation, found a puddle in the basement. Wiped it up, didn't have time to mess with it. It was coming from the air handler. I thought the humidifier was leaking. Just put a fan on high to keep it dry while we were gone.

I went to dig into the humidifier...it was fine. Turns out the AC condensation PVC piping was clogged. It's like a maze, running from the coils to the drain in the floor. I opened it up and just endless water/sediment/rust poured out. Ended up hooking the shop vac to it and pulled out over a gallon probably. Cut out big portion of the PVC and rebuilt it all.

Glad that's over. Onto the next 50 projects waiting to be done.

[Johnny_P]

It’s been exceedingly stressful

The deck is 2 years old and was a selling point of the house. It looked great when we moved in. Now boards are actually rotting and many have warped. It looks like total shit.

Every “upgrade” the prior owners did caused major damage to the home.

Any way to temporarily separate the deck from the house, repair the wall as necessary, then reattach the deck properly and replace the warped/rotting boards, so you don't have to demo the whole thing and rebuild it from scratch? Or is that just too much work and not worth it...?

It needs to be rebuilt with appropriate wood, or engineered wood, and gapped construction to allow air flow to dry stuff out underneath it. Tongue and groove decks are moronic at best.

[Johnny_P]

It’s been exceedingly stressful

The deck is 2 years old and was a selling point of the house. It looked great when we moved in. Now boards are actually rotting and many have warped. It looks like total shit.

Every “upgrade” the prior owners did caused major damage to the home.

This is the case with almost every house I think.

My last house I was in for nearly 9 years. Took a long time to fix a lot of things, but it was in a pretty habitable state by the time I left. The original construction was really cheap, but I fixed a lot of the main problems. I feel like I just started over again. And now, this house is so much bigger, every project is much more expensive and takes longer to do. The previous owners were too broke to be home owners. They neglected everything, and now I'm paying the price.

A little over a week ago, right before going on vacation, found a puddle in the basement. Wiped it up, didn't have time to mess with it. It was coming from the air handler. I thought the humidifier was leaking. Just put a fan on high to keep it dry while we were gone.

I went to dig into the humidifier...it was fine. Turns out the AC condensation PVC piping was clogged. It's like a maze, running from the coils to the drain in the floor. I opened it up and just endless water/sediment/rust poured out. Ended up hooking the shop vac to it and pulled out over a gallon probably. Cut out big portion of the PVC and rebuilt it all.

Glad that's over. Onto the next 50 projects waiting to be done.

HVAC condensate can be pretty nasty stuff and I’ve seen pipes basically melted from it. Fortunately PVC is pretty easy to work with but either way that’s an annoying project.

[Desertbreh]

I'm five months into 2024 after dropping $100K in the last two years on a new roof, new HVAC, new Pool Equipment and Tile and solar and so far no capital outlays. Wish me luck.

[MrH42]

I'm five months into 2024 after dropping $100K in the last two years on a new roof, new HVAC, new Pool Equipment and Tile and solar and so far no capital outlays. Wish me luck.

[MrH42]

I'm five months into 2024 after dropping $100K in the last two years on a new roof, new HVAC, new Pool Equipment and Tile and solar and so far no capital outlays. Wish me luck.

[Desertbreh]

I'm five months into 2024 after dropping $100K in the last two years on a new roof, new HVAC, new Pool Equipment and Tile and solar and so far no capital outlays. Wish me luck.

When it rained it poured.

[MrH42]

When it rained it poured.

How are you doing this without laying out any money?

[Desertbreh]

When it rained it poured.

How are you doing this without laying out any money?

In 2022-2023 I outlayed $100K on the major shit listed above. So far this year, no major expenses.

[MrH42]

How are you doing this without laying out any money?

In 2022-2023 I outlayed $100K on the major shit listed above. So far this year, no major expenses.

I am the dumb and can't read.

[Desertbreh]

In 2022-2023 I outlayed $100K on the major shit listed above. So far this year, no major expenses.

I am the dumb and can't read.

It happens to the best of us.

[Johnny_P]

Confirmed leak on downstairs unit on the cooling coil. Needs a new coil or a repair attempt. So that’s a full vac out and refill. $4,500.

Upstairs unit is 2 lb low on refrigerant. So we are going to re charge it and add dye to find a leak if there is one. $1,370 for that.

We will just do the re charge today. And look at replacing the downstairs unit.

Fucking hell.

[golftdibrad1]

Confirmed leak on downstairs unit on the cooling coil. Needs a new coil or a repair attempt. So that’s a full vac out and refill. $4,500.

Upstairs unit is 2 lb low on refrigerant. So we are going to re charge it and add dye to find a leak if there is one. $1,370 for that.

We will just do the re charge today. And look at replacing the downstairs unit.

Fucking hell.

downstairs seems a little high but reasonable.

2lbs of r22 and some dye for 1400 is ROBBERY you should be paying 200 a pound tops, plus 100-150 service call and trivial amount for the dye.

[Johnny_P]

Confirmed leak on downstairs unit on the cooling coil. Needs a new coil or a repair attempt. So that’s a full vac out and refill. $4,500.

Upstairs unit is 2 lb low on refrigerant. So we are going to re charge it and add dye to find a leak if there is one. $1,370 for that.

We will just do the re charge today. And look at replacing the downstairs unit.

Fucking hell.

downstairs seems a little high but reasonable.

2lbs of r22 and some dye for 1400 is ROBBERY you should be paying 200 a pound tops, plus 100-150 service call and trivial amount for the dye.

It is what it is. This is the recent state of affairs with contractors. The starting price for anything is $1k. I found a good plumber that’s not raping me but it will take a while to find everyone else.

[Johnny_P]

So the guys that repaired the upstairs system quoted replacement of the downstairs system.

$15,000 for just the outside unit with the compressor. Keep the 30yo air handler that’s likely leaking.

How does this compare?

Quote #1 was $30k
-2 air handlers
-2 outside coils, one of which was a heat pump
-1 furnace for first floor unit
-1 99% efficient water heater
-Replacement of the fallen air duct in knee wall

Quote #2 was also $30k
Similar to #1 but no water heater and no duct repair

Quote #3 was $42k
-2 air handlers
-1 outdoor unit, a variable speed multi zone heat pump
-1 furnace
-replacement and re sizing duct work in knee wall
-2 smart thermostats

Home ownership sucks

[coogles]

So the guys that repaired the upstairs system quoted replacement of the downstairs system.

$15,000 for just the outside unit with the compressor. Keep the 30yo air handler that’s likely leaking.

Holy hell.

We did our whole system - 4 ton variable AC unit and a two stage, highly efficient furnace - for about $13k.

[Johnny_P]

So the guys that repaired the upstairs system quoted replacement of the downstairs system.

$15,000 for just the outside unit with the compressor. Keep the 30yo air handler that’s likely leaking.

Holy hell.

We did our whole system - 4 ton variable AC unit and a two stage, highly efficient furnace - for about $13k.

Yep nobody is quoting anything reasonable.

[coogles]

Holy hell.

We did our whole system - 4 ton variable AC unit and a two stage, highly efficient furnace - for about $13k.

Yep nobody is quoting anything reasonable.

We saw a bit of that when we had to replace our system. The company we went with is the same one we've had doing our biannual services since we bought our first house in 2010. They're a smallish company and have always been honest and fair as far as we can tell. Back in maybe 2013 or so, our outdoor A/C unit stopped working and we had them out. After doing some testing they found a resistor in the unit had gone bad, which they replaced. I don't remember the exact cost but I do remember being absolutely shocked at how little it was. I have a friend of a friend who's an electrician who I told about this and he said something like "Never leave them. I can't believe they didn't try to sell you a new system."

When we bought our current house in 2019 it still had the original system in it from 1999. Over this last winter the heat exchanger got a crack in it (which the tech showed me on camera), and so we started working on getting quotes. Our usual company gave us that quote for $13.5k, and we had one other out just to sense check what we'd received.

Their first quote was for...$30k. It was basically the same specs and what we ended up getting but for more than double the price. Their cheapest quote was for I think $12k, and that was for a single stage furnace and A/C from Goodman, which I swear any time I've ever seen a Goodman unit outside a home, if it's on, it sounds like it's shaking itself to pieces. And this place seemingly has a great reputation, they're locally owned, but they are fucking shysters.

[Johnny_P]

AC system is installed.
Downstairs is a 2 stage Trane furnace and Mitsubishi heat pump / cooling coil. Upstairs is a Mitsubishi air handler heat pump. Outside is a Mitsubishi hyper heat compressor.

Downstairs works great. Actually the fan needs to be turned down since it’s blowing gale force winds.

Upstairs is unable to cool the house. It was on for 3 hours and dropped temp from 86 to 84. Now, 24 hours later, it’s at 80 when it’s 81 outside.

Air registers upstairs are blowing damn near no air at all. Technician said he put the fan up all the way. They did an absolute shit job transitioning the new air handler to the existing duct work and there’s so much air blowing into the knee wall that it’s actually cool in there but not elsewhere in 2nd or 3rd floors. One air register is blowing no air since they kinked the flex duct. My son’s room is getting less air than it did before. There’s no way this will heat the house in the winter. None.

They scheduled 3 days. It took them 4. While installing the new furnace exhaust they broke a foundation stone clear out of the foundation. Their drill fell and shattered the top of my washing machine. The stone shattered the slop sink. The sink has been replaced. I can’t do laundry until Monday when the new washer comes in. They filled the foundation hole with spray foam.

The old units they demoed, the foundation penetrations are not closed up.

This is fucking bullshit.

[wap]

Fucking hell man. So sorry this shit is happening to you. Don't let these assholes get away with this.

[Johnny_P]

Turns out a supply line popped off its collar on the main duct trunk line. So it’s just an open hole to the knee wall. That might account for a bunch of the issues. They’re coming today to measure up for a new transition duct and look at this collar. Supposedly they’ll attempt to fix it Friday.

The new air handler is rated at a lower flow rate (CFM) than the old one though. So I have my doubts that this will completely fix it. I apparently missed that when I was reviewing everything. Not something I thought I’d need to check really since we told them we had an airflow issue and wanted something stronger…

[wap]

Fingers crossed it gets fixed to your expectations.

[Johnny_P]

So the ac company made some changes. The service guy said I might need to add a supply duct to the 3rd floor and modify a return on the second floor. He said he thinks the duct work is probably undersized.

Had another 95 degree day. The 3rd floor would barely stay at 85f with the unit running full blast.

AC company’s official stance? It’s sized right, your house just sucks. You need to insulate the 3rd floor and replace duct work.

Not sure what to do from here. They’re essentially washing their hands of this.

[wap]

Is the 3rd floor not insulated now?