Home Improvement Today?

Word on 'wall thickness not being typical' lol. I have been trying to stick with 4" flat pine trim but it doesn't quite conform to walls so I am doing a lot of re-mudding to even out that cool wavyness they were putting into straight walls in the 60's. Thinking of switching to MDF to speed things up. CA glue would be perfect to lock the mitered corners before forcing it to lay mostly flat then hide what you can with caulking.

 

You make a good argument to ditch paint grade and do stain grade trim and doors given paint grade takes forever to get straight anyway.

 

paint grade trim takes me about 1/4 the time to install than stain grade trim , maybe even less

 

Can we talk about the fire truck bed?

 

you want one for yourself?

 

Same. I can get done with paint grade pretty quick. Last week I wrapped and cased 10 windows with MDF in a day. If that was stain grade I'd still be there.

 

having a leaf guard company coming by today for an estimate. https://www.leaffilter.com/

Anyone use this brand or type of gutter/ leaf guard?

 

I need to replace 2 (large, fixed) windows in my house. The existing ones are wood, with dual pane glass. They are decent but not great builder grade window.

I am considering replacing them with a high grade window, such as Anderson. Unfortunately, Anderson windows are quite expensive. Are they really worth the cost?

Does anyone have any recommendations for other brands of decent windows?

Thanks.

 

Pella? Home depot and lowes sells custom windows too

 

I'm in the middle of adding gutter guards right now. I looked at many options but wanted something I could do myself and was reasonably priced. I ended up getting these from Costco. I got the gutter on the front of the house done and it was an easy install. I ran the hose at full on the roof to test and if took it without issue. I don't know anyone who's used the type of guards in your post, but it will be interesting to hear from someone who has and how much they quote you.

EasyOn Gutterguard 5” Version - 100’ | Costco

 

We redid our house with Anderson 100 series windows and we’re happy with them. Basically a fiber/sawdust material.

 

A buddy installs the leaffilter.com product you linked and I have a sample somewhere. It is really well made and my first thought was this looks too nice to hide on the roof. He says the fine SS screen does avoid clogging and he says it is his favorite solution of you have a clogging problem up there to solve.

I took a hose to simulate rain through it and it seemed well designed.

He said there is another crew in town 'installing' that product for old people that don't know the difference and are ripping them off with cheaper stuff.

 

Neighbor in my condo complex had stockpiled baseboards & gave me a couple sticks to finish my bathroom remodels. Just cheap MDF but I slapped new high gloss paint on them & did my best to hide the nails where you can't see them from above. Don't think I'll worry about filling the holes.

 

I have them. I kind of wish I didn't. Mine cause water to always drip right in front of my front door. When it rains, it's like I don't even have gutters. I may just have crappy ones or need new ones.

 

What are you paying extra for? If you look at just the R values of cheep vs expensive windows, it won't be worth the cost. Expensive windows are like expensive cars. The cheep ones get you to work just fine but there are other reasons to have a luxury car.

If I was in the market for new windows, I would seriously look into getting windows from Germany. Every house there has the same type of windows that seem to put even the most expensive one to shame here in the US. They're called "Roulden" Rule-A-Den. Instead of the crappy double hung windows, these lock with a handle giving a better seal. The best part is that they have blinds inside the glass that can let in different amounts of light. they go all the way to 100% black out to complexly open. I don't know why these haven't caught on in the US.