Home Improvement Today?

Yesterday I paid $649.43 total to have my downspout pipes FROM the house and the shop video inspected and located. There are a couple breaks, one is 3'7" down right under a sidewalk (poured in 2021) and the other is perpendicular to that from the shop around 5 feet away from the first mentioned break, supposedly 2'6" down (which may or may not compute as they are both down slope)

The beef is the water backs up at footing at the corner of my house. I have tried routing it out with my pressure washer and special hose but no luck.

So the result of all this I have contacted an excavating company. Gonna be the big dig.

 

I would have used that as an excuse to buy a borescope. Almost $650 would have bought a pretty good one...

 

No kidding.

 

Actually her idea. I don't mind the carpet honestly, but the youngest little shit of a cat found one thread to play with and we all know what happened there.

I might do the carpet runner thing if it turns out to be too slick.

 

Curious if, now that you know the location, you can re-route? Just chop that stuff out of the loop and find a different path downhill/downstream which bypasses that mess? Or you have to cross the sidewalk at some point and hence you're f'd no matter what?

 

So, we had an old dog and wood stairs when my wife moved in. Well, two old dogs. And then two new kids. She threw some stick-on office-carpet style pads on alternate stairs, skipping the landings. It solved any traction concerns for little feet and animal feet. I didn't love the look but it was better than a runner which trashes the wood and ends up yucky yucky yuckertons.

Presumably you could peel and sand/refinish as well, but we left them when we vacated, not sure what the current tenants have done. I stopped noticing after a while, it wound up being a reasonable compromise.

 

We'll have to play it by ear on the slickness of the steps. This will be a couple month away project.

As far as saving the old step treads. More than likely not happening. I peeled back the carpet and they had removed some old floor tile and just added a ton of carpet glue. House was built in 1965 so that was probably some asbestos glue/tile on there. I breath in enough crap at work, not gonna risk it. I'm an impatient person anyways so all the scraping would be half-assed twords the middle and be a total crap show at the end

 

You gonna make any money on it?

 

Oh, I meant after replacing the treads with nice wood treads, sticking on the crappy carpet stuff, it feels insulting but it doesn't really destroy all that work. That was the tough part for me.

For sure gut the old s and start fresh, no question there at all, heck, do the stringers if they aren't perfect and you can stomach the cost. Nothing like having a really solid set of stairs to go up/down, it's insane how much those get used in a day.

 

If the market holds for a little bit I do. Right now about $30K plus...

 

Can't do anything too nice, that would not gee-hah with the look of the house

The current treads are just some 1x10 pine. I'll find some nice clear pine to use. Little bit soft, but we don't abuse the steps that much. Several coats of some satin spar varnish though to lessen scratches from all the pets. I'll probably spray them with my HVLP gun.

 

I have to cross under the sidewalk indeed.

I have zero true idea where on my property the drain pipe terminates. I am willing to bet there is no designed drain as these things tend toward the 1/2 assed. I can reconnect to a good part of 4" PVC then run it out.....and maybe make a nice rock drain down hill. That could perc to it's max and if it blows out the top of that drain? No worries.

 

Some idea of the layout

 

Major block/break to drain pipe is under right green dot in bottom picture. 3 1/2 feet down. My pressure washer blasts by it but drain still doesn't run.

Top picture is where the pipe runs meet, more or less. One from shop by the gate in other pic and one from under sidewalk.

 

damn son , average camera scope and power wash costs me about $400 CDN here

 

@Pablo8 I heard @kmorgan3 likes to dig trenches.

I'd personally be willing to come by and sledgehammer that one section of sidewalk if you do the concrete saw renting and cutting. Looks like it'd re-pour OK if you got the ground compacted well underneath it.

 

Lucky even to get someone to show up here in Whatcom. You could make beaucoup bux serving both sides of the border.

 

Hope to fix/re-run without busting concrete.

Do you have a backhoe? Where are you located?

 

No, no ho's

I suspect if you dig under that section it'll likely crack eventually, so hard to compact it after tunneling.

I would do hand shovels myself, doesn't seem backhoe worthy but I guess your lawn isn't something you're worried about tearing up. I just like doing excessively stupid hard work the hard way

I can see Mt. Hood from my street so I assume we're within driving distance, 97034