new construction causes water woes for neighbor
yborgal
16 years ago
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chapnc
16 years agoyborgal
16 years agoRelated Discussions
New construction massive water damage
Comments (18)I don't understand the whole process, but if you had to pay $100k in legal fees and had a return of $64k, doesn't that leave you in the whole even worse? We bought our 25 year old home last April. (Zero Lot Line) Our neighbors said that the former owner wanted to replace the roof the year before, even though they didn't want to. Turns out that the former owner really took the cheapest 'contractor' he could find. Crooked rows of shingles that disappear under another row, no mastic on the chimney top, poor flashing, nails right through the exposed portion of a shingle, only four (instead of the required six) nails per shingle, ripples in the shingles that could be caused by old nails still in the roof. I filed a complain with the BBB after getting the info from my neighbor. The company has gone out of business, which is of no surprise. There were other complaints against them, too. In my case you get (or inherit) what you or someone else paid for. In your case it sounds like the builder danced around the problems until the company was gone. I really hope your damages were partly covered. If that happened to my home I'd be sunk....See MoreHot Water Recirc pump new construction
Comments (17)Water is very precious resource in drought-stricken CA.. so we don't want to literally flush clean water down the drain. We are planning on installing a HW recirculation system that is activated on demand. the system we're thinking is to have one continuous HW loop on the farthest and most affected bathrooms and have a pump that is activated by a switch with a timer that will run for about 25-30min and then stop. so when you are ready to take a shower, when you first walk into the bathroom you turn on the pump (set to run on a timer) and while you're getting ready to get into the shower, enough of the hot water will be circulated in the line that when you turn on the faucet/shower, there will be very little cold water to be purged before hot water starts to come out. so the circulation pump is not on all the time, and only on demand... this basically eliminates wasting 5-10gal of water while waiting for the hot water to start coming out and instead of the water going down the drain and into the sewer, it goes right back into the HW heater to be reheated... which essentially is the same as replenishing it with with the source cold water.. same thing would have happened if you don't have recirc system... so not much energy wasted there. our system energy wasting would be the electricity to run the pump for 30min or so when we are heating up the line (and the cost to install the long return line that mates with the supply line, appropriate backflow check valve on the supply line and the pump/switch system itself). so it shouldn't be too bad. We dont' intend to run the pump all day, so.. we probably ought to think about grey water system, but couldn't really get our act together to plan for that this time.....See MoreWater pipe material for new construction
Comments (11)I agree, use either PEX or copper, and forget about CPVC. Apparently there are water conditions that can cause problems with PEX, and this PEX supplier has recommendations on how to evaluate whether PEX is suitable for your water supply. https://www.pexuniverse.com/problems-pex-pipe-and-how-prevent-and-fix-them "Test water quality and determine whether PEX is suitable. Water pH should be at or above 6.5 and chlorine concentration should be at or below 4.0 ppm (parts per million)." My house was originally all copper, but during recent renovations we switched most of the house to PEX. I really like working with PEX, but some of the advantages may not apply to your situation. For example, I was able to snake it through holes drilled in my basement floor joists, which kept all the pipe up in the ceiling, so I no longer have any copper pipe running below floor joists (you probably don't have a basement). PEX is also more tolerant of freezing and thawing, and I live in an area where freezing temps are common in the winter (probably also not applicable to Florida). I was also able to use a manifold with multiple shutoffs, and make direct runs to each fixture. This gives me a central point to shut off water to an individual sink, commode, shower, etc. You can also create a similar layout with copper, but its much more tedious because there are so many pipes to route. Most copper pipe layouts use one large diameter pipe as the main feeds for hot/cold, and then T off of that pipe to each fixture. One suggestion I have is to ask the plumber to avoid running water supply lines in or under the slab, except for the point where water comes from the city water system. They will probably want to run all the supply lines before pouring the slab, and if they are like most contractors they will not do a pressure test before the concrete is poured. This means that leaks are discovered after the fact, and are difficult to fix if they are in the slab. Slab leaks are relatively uncommon, but a PIA to fix if you have to jackhammer a slab or figure out how to reroute around the bad section. All it takes is one crimp or dent in the flexible copper pipe to create a weak point where a leak can form. Bruce...See MoreAny advice on how to deal with neighbors during a new construction?
Comments (51)Make friends. It’s usually not hard—unless they’re nuts. I’m a pain in the backside online, but in person...everyone likes something. Most people like a number of things. I’m interested in absurd numbers of things, so I just find the overlap and we chat for hours about whatever. Start with a sharp eye for what they’ve paid attention to and a sincere compliment. Soon, you’ll know the names of every kid, in-law, grandkid, and cousin, or every flower, or the detailed history of every car acquisition. If you don’t know about something that they are passionate about, show an interest in learning. People don’t hate their friends. Then keep an eye on the property and try to make it as minimally obnoxious as possible. And be a good judge of character and ask the people with more sound judgement to let you know when there’s a problem. Crazy mean people are usually easy to sniff out, and you don’t ask them to let you know about anything, but if you compliment their cats enough, they usually unclench a little. Baked goods used to work, but too many people are gluten/sugar free range vegan quinoa diabetic organic non-GMO gathered widdershins by Buddhist Wiccans and rubbed in raw royal jelly (which is definitely not sugar), and you’d immediately start off on the wrong foot. Find out if they’ve got severe allergies or severe craziness first. And get them not to talk about really stupid things but instead about stuff you do find interesting so your eyelid twitching doesn’t give you away. You might know homeopathy is a crock but talk happily about how to grow herbs....See Moreyborgal
16 years agologic
16 years agoyborgal
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16 years agologic
16 years ago
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