Building / Maintaining a Home | Forum profile

What is the fair way of handling this problem? I live in the Northeast and found on my doorstep late last night a copy of a service ticket for a delivery of 22.5 gallons of heating oil to top off my tank. On the ticket it states that a phone order was placed and the oil was to be filled on November 10th. I currently do not have a heating oil/furnance cleaning contract with this company...

I also had a Dewalt drill fail within the past year. Battery actually melted in the charger. I know I could have replaced the battery & charger, but . . . I ended up buying the 18v version of this: http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet /ProductDi... So far, I've only used the drill & light, but I didn't own a sawz-all and I expect the small circular saw to come in handy ...

I'm wanting to build a small pathway in my backyard that leads from the driveway to the back porch. The path will be small--just 3 feet by 6 feet. Cost of materials won't be a huge factor since there won't be much material to work with. First off, I've looked at several paving options--clay pavers, brick pavers, natural stone. Does anyone have experience with these, and preferences?...

A friend of mine helped me pour about 40 feet of sidewalk but he didn't know how to finish it with a light broom finish so I tried and screwed it up. That was about 5 years ago already. The brush/broom finish is way too coarse, and it holds moisture and mildew. Some day I'll jack hammer it all out and then have it done right. But in the meantime I was wondering if anyone knows if I can ...

We are tiling our single, small bathroom. I picked out the tiles (a classic white and black mosaic - mostly white) and am wondering what color the grout should be. I recall people saying white gets very dirty and looks bad. The grey looks like yet another color. I like the black grout. Is it a good choice? Thanks for any input. Mara

We just installed a new gas furnace, upgrading from a 50+ year old oil monstrosity to an 80% variable-speed gas model. It kicks butt at heating the house, but boy is it noisy! Not so much the furnace itself (although we did expect that to be much quieter based on the salesman's descriptions), but especially the airflow! The first night we had it on, we thought there was a windstorm, but...

The Master Bath in our house has been an uninteresting gray-ish white walls, with white trim and white tile with an occasional black diamond. Because the walls were dirty white, the room was dull and dingy, even though overwhelmingly white. Even the sinks and counters are white. I envisioned spending big bucks ripping up the tile and replacing it with travertine, which would have ...

My local Lowe's sells Gila brand of window film for residential windows. Some of it is supposed to reduce heat/glare from the sun and some is supposed to provide privacy. I assume the privacy line is supposed to allow you to see out but someone on the outside can't see in. They have dark tint, mirror tint and various decorative versions. Anyone have experience with this material? ...

I asked a surveyor to get me an elevaton certificate. He siad it would be 350 dollars, maybe a little more if he could not get a close bench mark. He called ma few days later and told me my house was at ll feet and the certificate would cost 1400 dollar because all of the bench marks were destroyed by IKE. My cousin, who had 6 inches less water in his house than me, had a surveyor ...

Curved or straight -- any thoughts? I've been seeing the curved ones in hotels lately, and I know some people like them -- more space in the shower and/or they can minimize water escaping if they're set into the shower surround space. OTOH, they can extend further out from the surround area into the rest of the bathroom. Yeah, I know it's a little thing, but as always, I'd appreciate ...

I asked a surveyor to get me an elevaton certificate. He siad it would be 350 dollars, maybe a little more if he could not get a close bench mark. He called ma few days later and told me my house was at ll feet and the certificate would cost 1400 dollar because all of the bench marks were destroyed by IKE. My cousin, who had 6 inches less water in his house than me, had a surveyor ...

We just installed a new gas furnace, upgrading from a 50+ year old oil monstrosity to an 80% variable-speed gas model. It kicks butt at heating the house, but boy is it noisy! Not so much the furnace itself (although we did expect that to be much quieter based on the salesman's descriptions), but especially the airflow! The first night we had it on, we thought there was a windstorm, but...

What is the fair way of handling this problem? I live in the Northeast and found on my doorstep late last night a copy of a service ticket for a delivery of 22.5 gallons of heating oil to top off my tank. On the ticket it states that a phone order was placed and the oil was to be filled on November 10th. I currently do not have a heating oil/furnance cleaning contract with this company...

I'm wanting to build a small pathway in my backyard that leads from the driveway to the back porch. The path will be small--just 3 feet by 6 feet. Cost of materials won't be a huge factor since there won't be much material to work with. First off, I've looked at several paving options--clay pavers, brick pavers, natural stone. Does anyone have experience with these, and preferences?...

With a barn that old I think you need to decide to either restore it, tear it down, or don't do either but instead use it until it's unuseable. There's no magic answers. If you care about maintaining the historic integrity of the home while also strenghtening it, then you might as well quit complaining about the costs associated with it, especially since you said you don't want to do any...

Curved or straight -- any thoughts? I've been seeing the curved ones in hotels lately, and I know some people like them -- more space in the shower and/or they can minimize water escaping if they're set into the shower surround space. OTOH, they can extend further out from the surround area into the rest of the bathroom. Yeah, I know it's a little thing, but as always, I'd appreciate ...

The Master Bath in our house has been an uninteresting gray-ish white walls, with white trim and white tile with an occasional black diamond. Because the walls were dirty white, the room was dull and dingy, even though overwhelmingly white. Even the sinks and counters are white. I envisioned spending big bucks ripping up the tile and replacing it with travertine, which would have ...

With the cold weather on us, we bled our old-style baseboard water heaters to get rid of air bubbles and get the hot water a-flowin'. Everything went pretty smoothly until we hit one bedroom. We cleared the air bubbles, but only cold water is coming through! This bedroom's heater worked fine last winter. We did have the bathroom redone (including plumbing), and I'm wondering if ...

A friend of mine helped me pour about 40 feet of sidewalk but he didn't know how to finish it with a light broom finish so I tried and screwed it up. That was about 5 years ago already. The brush/broom finish is way too coarse, and it holds moisture and mildew. Some day I'll jack hammer it all out and then have it done right. But in the meantime I was wondering if anyone knows if I can ...

We are tiling our single, small bathroom. I picked out the tiles (a classic white and black mosaic - mostly white) and am wondering what color the grout should be. I recall people saying white gets very dirty and looks bad. The grey looks like yet another color. I like the black grout. Is it a good choice? Thanks for any input. Mara