seven i feel your pain - I am going through this very issue right now. We call them the "dirt police" and I hate them. In my county, we had to post a bond for erosion and sediment control. I have been in the house for 4 months - still don't have the bond back. But I think i am close to getting it back thanks to this forum. In order for us to get the CO - we had to have seed and straw down. That was done last fall - but we were coming off a horrible drought. Some of the grass took - but we had a lot of bald spots. The dirt police allowed us to occupy - but kept the bond until we met their standards (which they do not have written down anywhere - very frustrating). 3 weeks ago, i aerated and seeded with a fescue & perrenial rye mix. I also seeded with annual rye in places where we were having erosion "issues" as they saw it - minor runoff the way i saw it (I live on the side of a mountain - water has to run downhill). The annual rye pops up very quickly with just a little water. It is cheap seed - I bought 50 pounds at Lesco for 30 dollars. In all the spots where the dirt police were picking on, I put down quite a bit of the AR. It has filled in nicely and in a few weeks I will call the DP's back and hopefully that will be the end of them. The dirt police recommended that we use Kentucky 31 grass which they like for controlling erosion (the sell it at home depot). It grows very fast and is drought resistant. I opted to not use it since it is an unattractive grass, I would have to kill it before replanting, and I had some fescue grass growing already so I did not want a hodge podge. However, if you need a lawn fast and your dirt police won't accept all rye grass you might want to think about the Kentucky 31. Our dirt police told us that they will allow a mix of rye and other grasses but will flunk us if we only have rye growing. They know it will die (after all - they are the dirt police!) I recommend calling your local DP department and make sure that they will accept all rye grass. If yes, then go with the rye since it is cheap and fast. If not, think about the kentucky 31 as an alternative and only use the minimum required to get in. Then start over in the fall. For those who don't have to deal with dirt police, consider yourself lucky. It is a horrible feeling when all you want to do is move on and these gestapo have so much control over your life. It is added pressure when you need to create a lawn and you have limited funds and time to do so. Good luck.

You got a good price! My single floor, 2000 sqft costs $450. And IMO it is worth every penny! The price actually is not computed by sqft, but by the number of vents. Ask those subs just who does a full duct cleaning for a couple hundred? *IF* they can name someone, check 'em out, but I think the subs were just blowing hot air. You can DIY -- and it won't be nearly as good as professional, but 1000% better than nothing. Seal the duct entry at the furnace, and all vents other than the one you are working from. Wear a dust-mask and goggles. Use the rods for a chimney brush and attach a slightly-smaller-than-duct-sized bundle of soft rags. Start with the vent farthest from the furnace. Run rag-bundle through the duct as far as you can reach, swirling and brushing the dust towards you as you pull the rod back. Vacuum the accumulated debris. Do not swear at the amount of splfft. Repeat the brush-swipe until there are no more wood chips, screws, nails, metal filings, plasterdust or sawdust. Repeat the process at each vent opening. The last vent should be the one at the furnace. Vacuum that vent and duct. Remove the seals from all vents. Done. The first time I DIY'd mine Without skill or practice, (and not the proper tools) it took me ten hours . It takes a pro about 2 hours AND he does a vacuum of all duct surfaces -- much better than brush alone. Please consider not only the health aspects [who really wants to breathe dust-laden air??] but remember that not cleaning the ducts will just about guarantee your furnace is going to get dust-filled, which is not good for the electronic controlss and worse for the burners and mechanical parts. Cleaning the furnace --assuming it won't need repairs-- will cost almost the same as the preventive duct-cleaning. In fact, read the HVAC warranty carefully, because sawdust and plaster-dust deliberately left in the ducts just might void it.

Your dryer is probably rated to handle something like 60 to 80 feet of venting (more than likely the manual lists this). Bends of various degrees or the use of flexible venting reduce that max amount (meaning they "count" for a certain number of feet). A flexible vent of 4 feet alone isn't going to hurt your dryer or blow up your house. However, it will capture more lint than a rigid (smooth) vent and be harder to clean. Very few people clean their vents as often as they should and stacked units make it harder to get to in most cases, so please think about cleaning and access as part of your plans. Lint can cause a fire. For what it is worth, my dryer has a run of about 18 feet with one 90 degree bend. That is more than most people but easily enough for the unit to handle. My first four feet are flexible, and I basically had to use this to get through the floor more easily. However, I can access it quite easily and clean it every 3-4 months. It's not too linty when I do, but it's just good dryer hygiene.

more custom than developer but not 100% custom; no, don't think there's anything in the contract unfortunately. I asked builder directly and response was will clean up until the (1st) elbow.