Home Improvement Thread 2: Electric Redo the Loo

wokeupnew said:
I took some pictures lol

It doesn’t line up with the concrete and this one side has it where there is a gap. When we moved in on Sunday it was raining so you could see it leaking into the garage. I think we definitely need new doors and the ground in front repaired so it seals completely. Which leads me to believe it might need to be redone.

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Those look like areas that someone has already patched. I'll wager that they popped again because of freeze-thaw. Putting more concrete or another patch on that would probably pop again. But seriously not a reason to rip a whole garage up.

You could probably again DIY it and get some good results but I think you would need an angle grinder with a good concrete wheel and SERIOUSLY DO NOT MESS AROUND WITH GRINDING CONCRETE WITHOUT A NIOSH APPROVED RESPIRATOR!!!! Silicosis is real and there is no cure... You'd then put down some sort of leveling compound and paint the whole thing to get a uniform look.

If someone tells you it's a gut job... then get a second and third opinion.
 
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folsom_lives said:
Those look like areas that someone has already patched. I'll wager that they popped again because of freeze-thaw. Putting more concrete or another patch on that would probably pop again. But seriously not a reason to rip a whole garage up.

You could probably again DIY it and get some good results but I think you would need an angle grinder with a good concrete wheel and SERIOSULY DO NOT MESS AROUND WITH GRINDING CONCRETE WITHOUT A NIOSH APPROVED RESPIRATOR!!!! Silicosis is real and there is no cure... You'd then put down some sort of leveling compound and paint the whole thing to get a uniform look.

If someone tells you it's a gut job... then get a second and third opinion.
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Yeah, it may not need a gut job, but it may need to be grind down and redone in some sections. Which is why I'd be okay with someone with more knowhow on concrete installation to do it properly. that seems more than a simple DIY job from my perspective so I'll just have to see what this person recommends and how much it might cost. If I was paying for this 100% myself I'd probably just grab a bag of concrete and start patching. I appreciate the help and advice!!
 
We need some electrical work with our breaker box and a few other things here and there. Local electrician has quoted us $982 for the full work; labor and materials/parts included. Has anyone gotten electrical work done recently or knows if this feels right for price?

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wokeupnew said:
We need some electrical work with our breaker box and a few other things here and there. Local electrician has quoted us $982 for the full work; labor and materials/parts included. Has anyone gotten electrical work done recently or knows if this feels right for price?

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With the ground bar and the feeder it doesn’t sound stupid to me but on the high side. I would assume they’re charging you about a hundred a piece for the switch and the outlet which is probably about right and I’d do those myself. The feeder and ground bar is outside the scope of work I’m comfortable with. You could do those two jobs with really nice outlets and switches for about fifty altogether. 20 if you want to use cheap stuff.
 
TrainFan73 said:
With the ground bar and the feeder it doesn’t sound stupid to me but on the high side. I would assume they’re charging you about a hundred a piece for the switch and the outlet which is probably about right and I’d do those myself. The feeder and ground bar is outside the scope of work I’m comfortable with. You could do those two jobs with really nice outlets and switches for about fifty altogether. 20 if you want to use cheap stuff.
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Yeah! I think it feels okay~ Because I had them coming for those two more complicated items, I figured that they might as well do the other 2 easier items. I would not have had an electrician come for the light switch and outlets separately.
 
Any of y'all familiar at all with high quality artificial grass installation? Had it done or done it yourself etc?
 
Mather said:
Any of y'all familiar at all with high quality artificial grass installation? Had it done or done it yourself etc?
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We’ve got turf in our backyard. The previous owner’s installed it but I did pull up a patch of it when one of our trees was struggling.

My observations:
1. It’s way thicker than I anticipated. Nothing’s getting through (water, weeds, etc)
2. It does still get quite hot in the summer. It may be more comfortable up north, however. I’ve heard they may have varying levels of quality which absorb heat better than others.
3. I probably only took out a 4 by 4 foot patch but they nailed about 50 foot long nails into that sucker. Biggest pain in the ass to pull all those out, so I imagine putting them in was no walk in the park.

Also, I’ve heard it’s just insanely expensive.
 
Alternatively, a question I was eventually going to ask here... Has anyone gone #NoLawn here or planted native plants successfully in large swaths of their yard? If so, what steps did you take doing that? How much did it cost? Was it a lot to undertake etc?

We hate lawns and want to eventually transition away from having just grass. The previous owner neglected lawn care so there's some patches of brown spots, different types of grass here and there, they didn't bother raking so some leaves and sticks from trees left spots and patches where grass couldn't grow. They also had two smalls dogs who probably had favorite spots to do their business on the lawn. From a distance or if you drive by it looks totally normal and good, but up close you can see the issues. There's some nicer landscaping where plants are still surviving/thriving that we'll try and help this summer. But by next spring/summer we want to try and break ground on removing some grass in areas.
 
folsom_lives said:
Why are you trying to kill our planet? Hmmm?
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Okay, not killing planet, our backyard has 3 massive concrete slabs that take up about 700 sq feet. They are, according to the previous owner who installed them himself, 3 feet thick. YES GET ALL THE JOKES OUT OF YOUR SYSTEMS NOW...



ok, I will continue. They're pristine, totally uncracked, you could land the space shuttle on them and there is absolutely no way of removing them without spending an absolute fortune. So I think I'm going to cover them with artificial turf. For close to top quality stuff I've priced out at about $6000 which isn't terrible. This stuff has a lot of silica sand that gets brushed into it and this apparently keeps the heat down as well as being anti microbial. But it's the installation I was curious about so the mile long nails sounds right, although in this case it'll be tapcons. I've also been told they can glue it or double side tape it. The tape seems destined to fail miserably but they swear it doesn't. I'm skeptical however.

wokeupnew said:
Alternatively, a question I was eventually going to ask here... Has anyone gone #NoLawn here or planted native plants successfully in large swaths of their yard? If so, what steps did you take doing that? How much did it cost? Was it a lot to undertake etc?.
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So I also hate lawns in terms of amount of water needed to keep alive, cost to maintain etc so on our front lawn we have been seeding with white clover. This stuff grows very easily, needs almost no water, is nice and green and can grow to be about 5 inches tall depending on rain etc. Its better for the soil than grass, looks kinda like green clouds and apparently also keeps grubs away. And it's cheap, the seeds are not expensive, I just mix with decent top soil and lay it over the grass and it pretty much takes over. Haven't quite gotten the whole lawn covered but it's well on its way.
 
Mather said:
Okay, not killing planet, our backyard has 3 massive concrete slabs that take up about 700 sq feet. They are, according to the previous owner who installed them himself, 3 feet thick. YES GET ALL THE JOKES OUT OF YOUR SYSTEMS NOW...



ok, I will continue. They're pristine, totally uncracked, you could land the space shuttle on them and there is absolutely no way of removing them without spending an absolute fortune. So I think I'm going to cover them with artificial turf. For close to top quality stuff I've priced out at about $6000 which isn't terrible. This stuff has a lot of silica sand that gets brushed into it and this apparently keeps the heat down as well as being anti microbial. But it's the installation I was curious about so the mile long nails sounds right, although in this case it'll be tapcons. I've also been told they can glue it or double side tape it. The tape seems destined to fail miserably but they swear it doesn't. I'm skeptical however.


So I also hate lawns in terms of amount of water needed to keep alive, cost to maintain etc so on our front lawn we have been seeding with white clover. This stuff grows very easily, needs almost no water, is nice and green and can grow to be about 5 inches tall depending on rain etc. Its better for the soil than grass, looks kinda like green clouds and apparently also keeps grubs away. And it's cheap, the seeds are not expensive, I just mix with decent top soil and lay it over the grass and it pretty much takes over. Haven't quite gotten the whole lawn covered but it's well on its way.
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What jokes could I possibly make about 3 feet of concrete in a residential backyard...

Also I thought you were just being one of those too-lazy-to-mow schmucks.

I am happy to hear you have clover. Carry on fellow pollinator.
 
Mather said:
Okay, not killing planet, our backyard has 3 massive concrete slabs that take up about 700 sq feet. They are, according to the previous owner who installed them himself, 3 feet thick. YES GET ALL THE JOKES OUT OF YOUR SYSTEMS NOW...



ok, I will continue. They're pristine, totally uncracked, you could land the space shuttle on them and there is absolutely no way of removing them without spending an absolute fortune. So I think I'm going to cover them with artificial turf. For close to top quality stuff I've priced out at about $6000 which isn't terrible. This stuff has a lot of silica sand that gets brushed into it and this apparently keeps the heat down as well as being anti microbial. But it's the installation I was curious about so the mile long nails sounds right, although in this case it'll be tapcons. I've also been told they can glue it or double side tape it. The tape seems destined to fail miserably but they swear it doesn't. I'm skeptical however.


So I also hate lawns in terms of amount of water needed to keep alive, cost to maintain etc so on our front lawn we have been seeding with white clover. This stuff grows very easily, needs almost no water, is nice and green and can grow to be about 5 inches tall depending on rain etc. Its better for the soil than grass, looks kinda like green clouds and apparently also keeps grubs away. And it's cheap, the seeds are not expensive, I just mix with decent top soil and lay it over the grass and it pretty much takes over. Haven't quite gotten the whole lawn covered but it's well on its way.
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How are there not bodies in three feet of concrete?!? And why did he do that?!?
 
folsom_lives said:
Probably?! Quick math at $150 a cubic yard would mean in today's freedom dollars he was pushing $12k in just a mass of concrete...
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This would have been done like 30 years ago, and he was the local shop teacher at the high school. I'm sure he had ways of doing it on the cheap. Like he built this garage himself too and this thing is about 600 sq feet and on similarly thick concrete, there is not a single crack in the floor anywhere in it, it's pristine.
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wokeupnew said:
Alternatively, a question I was eventually going to ask here... Has anyone gone #NoLawn here or planted native plants successfully in large swaths of their yard? If so, what steps did you take doing that? How much did it cost? Was it a lot to undertake etc?

We hate lawns and want to eventually transition away from having just grass. The previous owner neglected lawn care so there's some patches of brown spots, different types of grass here and there, they didn't bother raking so some leaves and sticks from trees left spots and patches where grass couldn't grow. They also had two smalls dogs who probably had favorite spots to do their business on the lawn. From a distance or if you drive by it looks totally normal and good, but up close you can see the issues. There's some nicer landscaping where plants are still surviving/thriving that we'll try and help this summer. But by next spring/summer we want to try and break ground on removing some grass in areas.
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For the record, this is what the clover looks like. Added bonus, loved by bees and dogs alike...
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