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numberthirty wrote: Sun Jan 30, 2022 10:36 pm On clay pipe in the yard...

The tree in my brother's front yard destroyed his line out in front of the house. Sounds something like what was described here.

While the money was no joke for him to have his front yard dug up and the line replaced?

Having a "Clean Out..." access point in his yard instead of them having to go out through his drain?

It is pretty impressive from a "Saves some on the little headaches..." angle.

Yes, pro-top: if any noobs are shopping for a new home, and is terrified by these invasive tree root plumbing concerns....if you see a white PVC plug sticking out of the front lawn that means that the traditional clay drain line has already been modernized with easy clean out access and relatively indestructible plastic.

That said usually every other year roto-rootering can usually allay the problem, but FMs seem to be overwhelmingly unfortunate in this regard.

zorg wrote: Mon Jan 31, 2022 7:25 am That said usually every other year roto-rootering can usually allay the problem

Yes, this worked well enough for us.

Unfortunately, when you buy an (old) house, they don't give you a frickin' manual, so I didn't know about this. When the damn thing backed up for the first time, I was wondering what circle of Hell we had just entered, and my wife was freaking out that we were all going to drown in our own shit.

It would have been good to have known about that beforehand...

Adam P wrote: Sun Jan 30, 2022 10:06 pm Our house is about 50 years old and has wooden T1-11 panel siding that needs to be painted every few years. The time is well past due, and there are enough spots that have decayed and would need patched or replaced, that we are replacing all of the siding this spring. Should be about $50k for the pleasure…can’t wait.

I don't know any detail about your climate or construction but if it were my house (drafty/cold winters) there are some insulation and especially caulking/sealing at sill plate and penetrations, details I'd have in mind to be addressed at the same time.

I'd do hardyboard/cement type thing if could be in budget, vinyl looks better on a turntable, enamled steel shingles look cool but beaucoup bux$ as steel may be 100% more cost than in the olden times. masonry cladding could be nice, but not at all cheep or easy and it's phony/non structureal

I insulated the loft in our 140 year old house the weekend before last. What an absolutely horrible thing it is to do, from humping 15 huge rolls of insulation up a ladder, clearing all the shit out the way, cutting the roll to size. Sweaty, itchy, dirty horrible job. Made an instant impact on the warmth in the house though, but fuck me, glad I only have to do it once.

Nico Adie wrote: Mon Jan 31, 2022 9:15 am I insulated the loft in our 140 year old house the weekend before last. What an absolutely horrible thing it is to do, from humping 15 huge rolls of insulation up a ladder, clearing all the shit out the way, cutting the roll to size. Sweaty, itchy, dirty horrible job. Made an instant impact on the warmth in the house though, but fuck me, glad I only have to do it once.

Yep, did that once too, sucked. The only smart think I did was doing it in December, it would have been unbearable attempting that even in moderate warmth.

ErickC wrote: Sun Jan 30, 2022 10:15 pm Dumb question, but how does selling a home work? I am planning on moving to Rochester this summer to be closer to work, and my brother wants to take the house. I don't need to make a profit so I was planning on selling it to him for the amount left on the mortgage at that time plus whatever taxes and fees I incur so that I end up neither really making or spending any money on it. And he's already living here anyway... so, uhm, I've been wondering what the first steps would be, basically.

You could just do a quitclaim. Pay a real estate lawyer a couple hundred bucks to do the paperwork if you don't want to do it yourself.

I know he is family, but It's probably a smart idea to write up a little contract about the sale so that the transaction and payment are clear, even if it's not notarized. Many years from now, the ownership of the property could come under question if someone dies or gets divorced or relationships change, etc.

Also, it could be used to help clear up any tax questions in the future as well.

Has anyone ever tried combining two condos before? The condo next to ours--a mirror image of our layout--is on the market for cheap. The HOA has preliminarily approved the combination of the two. A contractor quoted me a little under 10k to draw up some plans, knock down the wall between the two living rooms, install a header beam and patch up the floors. Our real estate agent is iffy on the situation from a resale perspective and recommends putting them back to two separate units when we go to sell, which I don't really want to do. I'm okay taking the financial risk on a weird 3 bedroom layout because, well, I'm doing this to live in for a while and not make a profit but I am trying to weed out any major gotchas that might make this a stupid thing to do.

scrotescape wrote: Mon Jan 31, 2022 8:28 am I don't know any detail about your climate or construction but if it were my house (drafty/cold winters) there are some insulation and especially caulking/sealing at sill plate and penetrations, details I'd have in mind to be addressed at the same time.

I'd do hardyboard/cement type thing if could be in budget, vinyl looks better on a turntable, enamled steel shingles look cool but beaucoup bux$ as steel may be 100% more cost than in the olden times. masonry cladding could be nice, but not at all cheep or easy and it's phony/non structureal

Semi-rural Cleveland east suburbs, so rainy springs, humid summers, gorgeous falls, cold winters with lake effect snow.

We are doing Hardy board for sure. Our property is on a public golf course and the house gets hit by golf balls all summer long.

We’re also replacing a couple of old drafty sliding glass doors with banks of picture windows. That factors into the cost as well, but it is still by far the largest home expenditure we’ve undertaken. I’m happy to be doing it though, because it’s a necessity and it should look 100x better.

zorg wrote: Mon Jan 31, 2022 7:25 am...

That said usually every other year roto-rootering can usually allay the problem, but FMs seem to be overwhelmingly unfortunate in this regard.

Line is cleaned out.

That said, there is a piece knocked out of the top of the clay line in one spot and it is seemingly settling into a soft "U..." shape out towards the street.

The suggestion was dig up/replace before it becomes a situation where either of those issues fail to a degree where there is no other option but to dig them up and replace them.

Not as bad as I suspected that it might be, but still a bit of a kick in the shin.

zorg wrote: Mon Jan 31, 2022 7:25 am

numberthirty wrote: Sun Jan 30, 2022 10:36 pm On clay pipe in the yard...

The tree in my brother's front yard destroyed his line out in front of the house. Sounds something like what was described here.

While the money was no joke for him to have his front yard dug up and the line replaced?

Having a "Clean Out..." access point in his yard instead of them having to go out through his drain?

It is pretty impressive from a "Saves some on the little headaches..." angle.

Yes, pro-top: if any noobs are shopping for a new home, and is terrified by these invasive tree root plumbing concerns....if you see a white PVC plug sticking out of the front lawn that means that the traditional clay drain line has already been modernized with easy clean out access and relatively indestructible plastic.

That said usually every other year roto-rootering can usually allay the problem, but FMs seem to be overwhelmingly unfortunate in this regard.

Another thing you can do in many places is look up local construction permits online and see how many of your prospective neighbors have had their sewer laterals replaced lately.

Our whole neighborhood was slapped up in about 1952, and an awful lot of sewer line replacements occur every year. Standard procedure is to abandon the old line (which goes under the slab in most cases) and run a modern PVC replacement beside the house in an unpaved strip of land. There's still some destruction of the bathroom floor, but at least it's not the entire hallway.

Some cities (Like Berkeley, CA) require sewer lateral inspections and certificates before deeds can be transferred. That seems pretty sensible, really.