Home Improvement Today?

I'm worried since my controller cutout and the pump froze. My pool has a controller to run the pump and salt cell. It's supposed to run the pump constantly to keep things from freezing when the air temp gets low enough. I went out back yesterday evening and noticed that the pump wasn't running. The controller had power but wasn't on. I direct wired the pump, but it was already frozen. I got the pump thawed out by pouring in hot water the pump. Unfortunately, there's an ice blockage somewhere else (probablythe filter), so I just killed the power.

I'm hoping things don't get too screwed up, or if they do that it's covered under my home insurance.

 

I live in California. I’m actually now in the Central Valley of California as we moved from the Bay Area and I never updated my profile. My neighbors have a very tropical backyard consisting of birds of paradise, bamboo, palms, etc..

 

Are there any 110v garage heaters similar to the 240v style that anyone knows about? Or am i better off just figuring out how to get a 240v panel?

 

I was looking at your pics yesterday and was wondering if that bamboo was invading your back yard.

 

It sure is. I spent several hours back there digging and cutting roots out that we’re pushing up on the old fence. That’s just the RV parking area. We have another 75 feet of shared fence that the bamboo goes all along that is a huge pain in the ass. It has completely ruined the existing fence. It is beautiful and provides a wonderful “privacy screen,” but it is extremely invasive.

Unfortunately, there isn’t much we can do about it at this point and they are great neighbors to have. They are an elderly couple that watches our dogs and cat while on vacation, water our plants, and have dinner with at least once a month (pre-covid).

 

Yeah, that's pretty much what I was expecting you to answer but getting along with them is worth the extra work. Just enjoy the privacy screen. I deal with the same thing but different trees. My neighbors are awesome so I just grin and bare it. He did help me recently by cutting down a huge branch of a California Pepper tree that was 8" round and hanging 20' over our yard. It made great shade but was very messy. I handed him my chainsaw and he cut it off on his side of the property.

 

Yes, it’s kind of a win-lose situation. We don’t have any trees in our backyard, yet both houses on each side have tons of trees that overhang into our yard and drop massive amounts of leaves into the pool. It’s my fault for not covering it all the time. We get the shade and beautiful greenery from the trees but have to deal with the leaves. Oh well, it is what it is!

 

I know what we’ll be doing this year...

 

ouch

 

I crawled under my house to pipe in a hybrid water heater into the laundry room, removing the natural gas heater in the detached garage (read 15-20 seconds until hot water in the winter due to underground pipes), and discovered that I get about 1" of water in the front, right part of the crawl space in heavy, extended rain. We have a little standing water in the back yard after rains and the front yard is squishy. This caused me to go into panic mode when I looked up and saw white mold on the paper of the insulation (recently installed before they put the house up for sale to me about a year ago, I think I know why now), causing me a little anxiety. I immediately planned and started a Henry French drain, I now know there is clay under ~3" dark soil earth. I'm going with perforated PVC and #57 stone. Work and concrete under my asphalt halted the project until this afternoon, I will have to rent a concrete saw to install the channel drain. I paid $850 for 20 tons of #57 stone and rented a tractor with backhoe from Home Depot to do the digging. Pics to come later.

 

Damn, that sounds like a whole lot of labor that isn’t very fun. Good luck.

 

What part of "rented a backhoe" doesn't sound fun to you?????

 

I hate to say it but you’ll want to pull that moldy insulation to see the status of your joists/subfloor
Then pull the rest of it and glue/attach 2” XPS foam board to your crawl space walls
Fiberglass in floor joist cavities is no bueno in most cases

Is there a vapor barrier (sheet of plastic lol) on your crawlspace floor?

 

B/c if you are at the point of renting a backhoe, there will be bigger issues. Almost like I’ve seen this happen before. I hope his project turns out better than my buddy’s did.

 

Hopefully they called the "call before you dig" and have stuff marked

 

811 Before you dig!

 

Shhhh…. that's negative thinking, Moriarty!

 

Will be relocating to the Phoenix area from Omaha, I have family there which helps but obviously they are biased, wanted some opinions from people here on what to look for/areas for homes. budget is fairly decent, mid 400's, need at least a 4 bedroom for my kids and wife and I to be able to work from home when necessary. The biggest change will be moving to an area that does not have basements for storage, we don't have much for clutter, but currently have an 1100 sqft basement, so that will be some lost space that will need some getting used to. What parts of town are good areas to consider? we've looked a lot at the Queen Creek/Gilbert area as it seems to be growing rapidly there. Thoughts to consider on what to look for in the house when there and looking?

 

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/moving-to-arizona-visit-this-thread.69389/

 

outstanding, thank you