(no subject)
Feb. 4th, 2014 02:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
vicarzNot much activity:
1. I cleaned toilet bowls! They looked fine at a glance, but were scary. I may replace the toilets but there isn't a rush. You laugh, but I need to make the place more livable even for visits - clean the bathrooms, have food around, just little things. So far I have gotten soap, lotion, towels - even an emergency pair of work clothes. The fact I can do laundry here is a plus. Walking from the metro entrance #2 I found another subway sandwhich franchise and sala thai.
2. Have not tested floor for asbestos. Upstairs there is an odd layer between two layers of tile that might make it really easy to pull up, and avoid creating dust. Downstairs I haven't yet pulled any parquet to see if there is wood underneath it - a new theory of mine.
3. Got a roof bid in, 9500, which included roof replacement, flashing, and recover the porch roof. However they forgot the skylight and brick pointing in the bid. Asking for input on it from Scott. I haven't sought other bids, and will see what input I get regarding the price before I decide whether to just roll with them. Jason is very happy with their work.
4. Had 2 more people come by and check the place out for the digout - each, in different ways, noted they are more construction and it's hard to say without an engineer's report. It seems getting real bids before a test dig and engineer report/plan is difficult. One company came by, USA Contractors, and were very professional and even left a gift bag (I now know refrigerator magnets DO stick to the stainless frig, if not terribly well). Curiously they also said they'd give me a bid, though from what they said I'm not sure how.
The other guy was the guy from up the street, who ... when I didn't answer directly how much I meant to spend, essentially told me to call when I knew what I wanted to do. He did suggest a cheaper faster alternative of chopping into my 9' ceilings upstairs and lifting the floor up via the joists rather than digging out the basement. It's not a deal-killing idea, but in the long run I think the digout is better...more so when he though I should scrap the radiators and go all blown air (because raising a floor is much harder with radiators of course). One plus - level floors.
So overall I may need to knuckle down and get an engineer test dig and report, at thousands of dollars, before I try to get contractors.
1. I cleaned toilet bowls! They looked fine at a glance, but were scary. I may replace the toilets but there isn't a rush. You laugh, but I need to make the place more livable even for visits - clean the bathrooms, have food around, just little things. So far I have gotten soap, lotion, towels - even an emergency pair of work clothes. The fact I can do laundry here is a plus. Walking from the metro entrance #2 I found another subway sandwhich franchise and sala thai.
2. Have not tested floor for asbestos. Upstairs there is an odd layer between two layers of tile that might make it really easy to pull up, and avoid creating dust. Downstairs I haven't yet pulled any parquet to see if there is wood underneath it - a new theory of mine.
3. Got a roof bid in, 9500, which included roof replacement, flashing, and recover the porch roof. However they forgot the skylight and brick pointing in the bid. Asking for input on it from Scott. I haven't sought other bids, and will see what input I get regarding the price before I decide whether to just roll with them. Jason is very happy with their work.
4. Had 2 more people come by and check the place out for the digout - each, in different ways, noted they are more construction and it's hard to say without an engineer's report. It seems getting real bids before a test dig and engineer report/plan is difficult. One company came by, USA Contractors, and were very professional and even left a gift bag (I now know refrigerator magnets DO stick to the stainless frig, if not terribly well). Curiously they also said they'd give me a bid, though from what they said I'm not sure how.
The other guy was the guy from up the street, who ... when I didn't answer directly how much I meant to spend, essentially told me to call when I knew what I wanted to do. He did suggest a cheaper faster alternative of chopping into my 9' ceilings upstairs and lifting the floor up via the joists rather than digging out the basement. It's not a deal-killing idea, but in the long run I think the digout is better...more so when he though I should scrap the radiators and go all blown air (because raising a floor is much harder with radiators of course). One plus - level floors.
So overall I may need to knuckle down and get an engineer test dig and report, at thousands of dollars, before I try to get contractors.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2014-02-05 06:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-02-05 09:07 pm (UTC)It is a lot of work, and yes every time I turn around I find something stupidly wrong. However the basement digout project is the real bear. Everything else is imaginable, doable, but the digout requires science.