The Home Ownership Thread

[mike1445]

The problem with mom & pop shops are that they're mostly worthless unless your name is Jed and you've lived in Anytown, America your whole life. Otherwise, they tend to treat you like ****.

who hurt you?

 

[Ataturk]

You really don't need to till the yard for warm season grasses. Wait until it warms up and the weeds sprout, then roundup the whole yard, cut it as low as possible, level it out (scrape the high spots, fill the low spots), and toss the sod right on top.

 

[idfnl]



This is correct. I also was a landscaper in college.

Really, because other than the thin layer of soil that came with it, what you are putting it on is not the same and neither are the light/water conditions. I'd agree what you say is partially true, but there is still variance in the eventual spot it lands. I always believed sod was fast and convenient, but not really the best alternative.

Hey, but then again I was never a landscaper in college.

 

[Ataturk]

He lives in Alabama. The major southern grasses (except bermuda, I guess) can't (St. Augustine) or shouldn't (Centipede) be grown from seed.

 

[upthewazzu]

Hey, but then again I was never a landscaper in college.

Hey, it's been pretty useful for me as a homeowner with an in ground sprink system. When my neighbors tell me what they pay the local landscaping companies for little maintenance calls I cringe. It's also funny to hear my neighbors ask me how much time I spent on my lawn, which aside from mowing and edging is almost none.

 

[idfnl]



Hey, it's been pretty useful for me as a homeowner with an in ground sprink system. When my neighbors tell me what they pay the local landscaping companies for little maintenance calls I cringe. It's also funny to hear my neighbors ask me how much time I spent on my lawn, which aside from mowing and edging is almost none.

I do wish I knew more but I actually don't have much patience for it. My gardener does a nice job except when he tries to phony cut the grass after 2 weeks of no rain in the middle of summer. I've trained him out of it by shooing him away a few times. He doesn't like it but I bring him clients.

 

[Mr Herbert]

where i live a sod is a derogatory term for someone who engages in ********. took me a while to figure out what you were all discussing.

 

[upthewazzu]

where i live a sod is a derogatory term for someone who engages in ********. took me a while to figure out what you were all discussing.

We're talking about ********, what are you talking about?

 

[brokencycle]



How expensive is it to have sod put down? I've been pretty negligent with yard maintenance and now there's nothing in my backyard that is identifiable as grass. The front yard isn't AS terrible but it's still not great. Does anybody have any estimate on price per square foot?

I was going to do sod, because when we bought our house our backyard was in about the shape you mentioned. My wife and I just sprayed kill all vegetation spray everywhere. Did two to three rounds of it. Then we tilled the whole back yard and leveled it. After that, we laid down seed and fertilizer and covered with straw. We did this in about October, and it started coming in beautifully before winter. We'll see how it is come spring.

All in all, it cost us maybe $250 and a weekend of time.

 

[yerfdog]

Last I checked, tankless water heaters took a decade or more (often two decades) to pay for themselves. But in the meantime you get to enjoy water that's not consistently hot and doesn't flow enough to shower while washing dishes. A guy I know swears by them--but he has three in his house.

Around here the attics are so damn hot most of the year, water heaters don't have much work to do to keep their tanks hot.

You only run out of hot water when you have a water tank to draw water from. Tankless water heaters by design cannot run out of hot water, unless of course they are broken and need replacement.
Tankless heaters also heat the house if you have water heating system like I do. No variation in water pressure or water temperature with tankless heaters.

lol, I spent over a month in a house with a tankless heater last year. Every morning when I took a shower I had to wait 3+ minutes for hot water, then the heat would cut out without warning right when I had shampoo in my hair. This happened with the kitchen faucet as well.

 

[Ataturk]

Oh, yeah, I looked at some of those tankless heaters. They are rated by gallons per minute. Sounds reasonable, but it's a measure of how much water they can increase by thirty-five degrees f per minute. That's a damned joke.

My (real) water heaters are rated by how many gallons they can heat by 100 degrees...

 

[brokencycle]



Oh, yeah, I looked at some of those tankless heaters. They are rated by gallons per minute. Sounds reasonable, but it's a measure of how much water they can increase by thirty-five degrees f per minute. That's a damned joke.

My (real) water heaters are rated by how many gallons they can heat by 100 degrees...

I've considered putting heated floors in at least the bathrooms, and I figured a water based system is the most cost effective. Do you think a tankless makes sense? Should I just hook up to my standard heater? Or just go electric?

The reason I hesitate on electric, is my basement has a couple baseboard heaters that can easily add $50-100/mo in electricity based on usage.

 

[Harold falcon]



I've considered putting heated floors in at least the bathrooms, and I figured a water based system is the most cost effective. Do you think a tankless makes sense? Should I just hook up to my standard heater? Or just go electric?

The reason I hesitate on electric, is my basement has a couple baseboard heaters that can easily add $50-100/mo in electricity based on usage.

I installed an electric heated floor in my bathroom. Best thing I ever did. It's warm as all get out, and unlike a baseboard (which I had previously as well) I can set it on a timer so it warms up nice in the morning but cools off the rest of the day. Probably cut the electric usage in that room by 1/3.

But the warm floor on a cold morning can't be beat.

 

[Douglas]



I've considered putting heated floors in at least the bathrooms, and I figured a water based system is the most cost effective. Do you think a tankless makes sense? Should I just hook up to my standard heater? Or just go electric?

The reason I hesitate on electric, is my basement has a couple baseboard heaters that can easily add $50-100/mo in electricity based on usage.

Radiant heat in your floors, even in a water system, wouldn't use your water heater, it would use your boiler. Using a tankless heater for your floors would seem crazy, crazy wasteful.

 

[brokencycle]

I installed an electric heated floor in my bathroom. Best thing I ever did. It's warm as all get out, and unlike a baseboard (which I had previously as well) I can set it on a timer so it warms up nice in the morning but cools off the rest of the day. Probably cut the electric usage in that room by 1/3.

But the warm floor on a cold morning can't be beat.

That's what I'm thinking. A nice warm floor in the bathroom would be great. I might do it in the basement too, or maybe when I redo the basement I'll have the central air/heat piped in to the room.

Radiant heat in your floors, even in a water system, wouldn't use your water heater, it would use your boiler. Using a tankless heater for your floors would seem crazy, crazy wasteful.

Good to know.