Home Repairs

[Coyote_Bandit]

The heat and air guys are coming later this week to give me an estimate on a new central A/C and gas furnace. The system I have is about 15 years old and while it is still working it is at the end of its life expectancy and starting to have a few (so far minor) problems. The house is just over 1800 square feet. It is reasonably well insulated but not shaded from the Oklahoma sun. I think the current unit is a four ton unit. I hope to relocate and be out of this house in the next couple of years. How bad will the sticker shock for the A/C and furnace be? Recommendation or comments regarding particular manufacturers or features?



The plumber is coming the same day. He's going to fix a leaky outdoor faucet, replace the garbage disposal, and try to locate the source of what apparently is a very small leak around the bathtub. The previous homeowner "upgraded" the bath by installing a tubliner and a new tub surround. No telling what the source of that little problem is. That same bath needs to have new flooring. Seems the previous homeowner covered some damaged floor tile with some ugly polka dot carpet. I'll have the plumber come back later to replace and/or raise the hot water tank (required in order to sell). Any suggestions as to how best to remove the recently acquired mildrew smell from the closet that backs up against that bathtub? How about from the coats in that same closet?

[trof]

1. We got a new heat pump for around $5000.

Back in 2000.
Elec. heat and a/c.

[Coyote_Bandit]

3. Ouch!

Since I don't plan on staying here I obviously am not looking at high end equipment. Just a new reliable system that is more efficient than what is currently here. I know somebody locally that recently got a freestanding gas furnace for about $1500. Not sure what the A/C cost will be but I am afraid I will be spending at least $5,000 for a new system also. I know someone locally who lives in a 1200 square foot house that recently got an estimate for a new gas furnace and A/C that was $10,000. But his estimate includes running all new duct work and moving it from the floor to the ceiling.

[trof]

4. Ours included a new air handler

in addition to the outside unit.

[trof]

5. Oh yeah, 2300 sq. ft. home.

[Coyote_Bandit]

7. Why do I feel like

buying a new heat and air system is like buying a car?

Thanks for the info.

[Kali]

2. I'd fix the faucet myself, but the leaky tub could be a bigger problem.

I'd probably try the disposal too, but then I'm pretty good at that sort of thing.

Clorox is about the best all purpose cheap mold/mildew cleaner - read the directions and be careful not to mix it with other chemicals. Air and dryness are the other parts of the equation.


sounds like the previous owner blew it with the bathtub repair and that has caused all of the other related problems. Good luck.

[Coyote_Bandit]

6. The neighbors still laugh

about the previous homeowners attempts to use a spray painter. Apparently the only thing that got painted was him! Most of the repairs he did before I bought the house were good. New energy efficient doors and windows. Good quality carpet. Repainted the kitchn cabinets - although he scrimped on the door refacing. New quality kitchen appliances. But the bathtub redo was a disaster from my point of view. I'm just hoping I don't have to tear the whole thing out and start over. I don't want to put any more into this house than I have to since I'm looking at relocating and starting a business.

I'm not real handy and don't have a lot of tools. I do okay with a paintbrush, a hammer and a drill. But not so good with water and electricity.

Will color safe Clorox2 get mold and mildew smells out of fabric?

[Kali]

8. Not sure about the color safe clorox - think it is the actual chlorine in the regular

that does the trick. If clothes aren't too damaged, just washing a couple of times might do it - but bad mildew can atually "eat" the fabric and ruin it. With whites ,regular clorox will bleach out the black stains from mildew, but obviously for colors that might ruin them - of course if they are already ruined by mildew that won't wash out with just detergent, bleaching might be worth a try.

For walls and grout I imagine you need the real chlorine bleach to be effective.

[Coyote_Bandit]

12. I'm concerned about

a couple of coats. The dry cleaners I've called don't even want to take on the challenge. So if I can get rid of the smell then I will take them in for cleaning....

[trof]

10. My elec. & plumbing repairs are trial and error.

This oughta work.
Um...nope.
Maybe this.
Naw.
OK how about his?
YESSS!

[Coyote_Bandit]

13. OK - I feel better now - so familiar eom

[Kali]

9. don't do this:

http://www.thepioneerwoman.com/confessions_of_a_pioneer_/2007/03/the_worst_momen.html#comments

be sure to read the comments too. :rofl:

[Coyote_Bandit]

16. Thank You!

Love it.


:rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[hippywife]

11. We are in OK, too.

Just outside of Tulsa. We put in a new furnace/AC/heat pump about 5 years ago for about $2300 including all new duct work. Our place is under 1000 sq. ft.

[Coyote_Bandit]

14. Who did your work?

What brand equipment did you get? Do you know what size it was?

I'm getting several estimates. And hoping to take advantage of the upcoming Home and Garden Show to get better pricing.

[hippywife]

15. I dunno

and the hubband doesn't remember. Cotner did our work. They're out of Sapulpa, I think, but live down the road from us. (And I was wrong, no heat pump, that was at my old place before I got married.) Whatever you do don't have Dale and Lee come out. They wanted $5000 to do this place. That is total robbery! :eyes:

On edit: Ours is a Corsaire by Rheem.

[Coyote_Bandit]

17. Thanks

I mentioned earlier than I know someone who got an estimate of about $10,000 for a new system and new ducts in a 1200 sqft house here in Tulsa. I'm sure he probably had high efficiency equipment quoted. Still seems high. That estimate was from Airco. I haven't called them for an estimate....

Is Cotner a good democratic heat and air guy? My plumber is. He lives in my neighborhood and kept his Kerry sign up for nearly a year after the election. Somebody I know noticed that and called him to do some work. He did good work for a reasonable price and was prompt. Now there are several of us that call him.

[hippywife]

19. I don't know

what his politics are. We live in a rural area and they are down the road from us. All I know is they had the best price and they've always done right by us, even when it came to stopping in to do repairs to the old system we had.

[jmowreader]

18. YOU can replace a water heater!

Well, you can if it's an electric unit. If it's gas, you can do the work yourself but call the gas company to check your work before you light it.

You Will Need:

A water heater that is at least as large as the one you're replacing
A water heater installation kit
Two wire nuts--they need to be big enough to hold two 10AWG wires twisted together
A set of vise grips
A pair of pliers
A tool that can cut and strip 10-gauge electric wire
Two screwdrivers, one flathead, one Phillips
Two big crescent wrenches
A tubing cutter if your water heater's plumbed with copper, or a hacksaw if it's plumbed with PVC
Som e plumber's emery cloth (like sandpaper, but it's about an inch wide and comes on a roll)
A garden hose
The mop
Enough pipe insulation to wrap the pipes going into and out of the water heater

You might need
A 30-amp double-pole breaker for your brand of breaker box
A roll of 10/2WG NM electric cable
A drain pan for the water heater
A drain tube for the T&P relief valve
A water heater strap if you're in hurricane, earthquake or tornado country

Step one: Go to the breaker box, figure out which breaker runs the water heater, and turn it off. Then look at the breaker: if it doesn't have the number 30 printed on it--implying that it is a breaker that will trip when more than 30 amps of current are asked to go through it--you need the new breaker and the new wire. If the electrician who wired your home wasn't a total fly-by-night communist heathen piece of shit like mine was, you should have the correct breaker and can go on to the next step.

Step two: You should see three things coming out the top of your water heater: the cold water inlet, the hot water outlet and the electric cable. If you have enough slack in your cable to do it, just chop the cable off as close to the water heater as you can. If there isn't much slack, you'll see a cable clamp in the middle of a plate on top of the water heater, with the cable sticking out of it. Undo the screw on the clamp and the screw holding this plate down, remove the plate, and cut the three wires as close to the wire nuts/ground screw as you can. Turn the water valve on the cold water inlet off. Use the tubing cutter to cut the two pipes leading into the water heater as close to the elbow that makes them turn down into the unit as you can. (For the longest time, it was The Thing To Do to solder pipes directly into water heaters. Now it's against code in most places and a really bad idea everywhere else to not plumb water heaters with at least 18" of flexible line into the unit.) Either on top of or on the side of the unit is a brass thing with a flip lever on it. This is the Temperature and Pressure Relief Valve, one of the greatest inventions of all time in that it has completely eliminated the danger of water heater explosion, and has saved the lives of countless homeowners. There may be a drain tube screwed into it. If there is, remove said tube and hang onto it. At the bottom of the water heater is a valve with a garden hose thread on it. Hook the garden hose to the water heater, put the other end outside and open the valve. When the water heater has drained completely, go to...

Step three: Haul the old water heater outside and call the city to come get it.

Step four: Take the new water heater out of the box. You will note that it looks pretty much like the one you just removed.

Step five: Put the drain pan on the floor, if you don't have one already, and put the new water heater in it. Screw the drain tube into the T&P relief valve. Get out your water heater install kit and you will find that it contains two Close Nipples (the silver things with threads running all the way up both sides), two compression fittings (the big brass things you never saw anything like before), two hoses--either braided stainless (the kind you want) or corrugated copper (I have this kind, which is how I know you want the other), and a roll of teflon tape. Wrap one end of each nipple in tape and screw it into the water heater. Right now it doesn't matter which. Go to your two pipes and first sand the ends to clean them up, then take a compression fitting and look at it. You will see that one end has threads, just like the nipples do, and the other has a big nut that comes off. Remove the nut and you will find a copper ring. This is your compression ring. Slide a nut on one pipe, slide the compression ring on, put the rest of the compression fitting on the pipe, and screw the nut on the fitting. Then use the two crescent wrenches to tighten the hell out of the fitting. Wrap the exposed threads of the fitting and the nipple with teflon tape, then screw a hose between the compression fitting and the nipple on the right side. The cold water line always has a valve in it, the hot water line never does. To tighten the nipple, put a wrench on the hose end and turn it; the nipple will screw in real nice. Do both sides, and insulate the pipes.

Step six: Take the plate off the top of the unit. Somewhere in the box is a cable clamp. Put it in the hole where the cable will go through, and tighten the nut. Stick the cable through the clamp and strip it. You will find a black and a white wire plus a bare one unless, once again, your electrician was a cheap bastard. (If he was, you'll need to ground the unit by clamping a ground wire to the cold water line if it's metal.) The bare one's ground. There's a green screw in there. Loosen it, bend the end of the ground wire into a little book, and loop it around the ground screw. Tighten the hell out of it and go on. Then strip the black wire in the cable and in the unit (about an inch should do), clamp them together side-by-side with the vise grips, and twist the two bare wires together really tight with the pliers. Put on a wire nut and do the same thing with the white wire. Button your water heater up and go upstairs.

Step seven: Open every hot water faucet in your house, then open the valve feeding cold water to your water heater. Look for leaks. If you see any, turn off the water and fix them. If you don't see any, go to the faucet farthest from the water heater and wait until you get a nice steady stream of water without any sputtering from the 50 gallons of air you're forcing out of it. When this happens and you've got a nice neat stream of water, turn the faucets off and turn on the breaker. If you don't hear any crackling or popping, and you shouldn't, wait half an hour or so for the water to warm up.

[Coyote_Bandit]

20. Thanks for the info

It is a gas water heater.

I have to have it raised or replace it with a specific model tank or use a tankless water heater to meet the legal requirements here to sell the home. It works fine so I will wait to do that until the for sale sign goes up.

[Gormy Cuss]

21. ~ 5 K

We had a changeout for a similar size house a few years back and that was the range of prices.
The new A/C units are much more efficient by law but the good news is that your electric costs should be dramatically lower for the years that you are there. The fuel savings on the gas furnace may not be as noticeable but should also be a factor. Also, a newer and efficient system is a good selling point. Don't know how standard it is but we had a full 5 year warranty built into the purchase price.

[Coyote_Bandit]

22. Thanks n/t

[anti-everything]

23. This is why I rent.

[Nicole]

24. That doesn't make sense, financially.

As a homeowner, I do have to pay for repairs. I also have something to show for where my money went.

Your rent money will never be your's again. My money will be in the bank when I sell my home.
For now I'm living mortage free since I paid off my home. You will never pay off your rent.

[anti-everything]

25. But I'm lazy.

I like not having to fix shit. I fix my cars, that's enough. I like not having to fix my house. I don't care about equity because I'd lose money on this dump. I'm not saying it's bad to own...in fact, it's good to own...but it's not for me and not for this house.

[Nicole]

27. Well that's different then.

Go ahead with your lazy self. :rofl:

I pay to get my house fixed so I'm lazy too.

[Nicole]

26. I paid $3600 for my new A/C & Heat unit a couple of years ago.

I'm also in Oklahoma. My unit is a Carrier but I can't remember the size of it. The old one was a Rheem which began giving me problems when it was 6 years old.

My house is not shaded from the sun either, which I love this time of year. I thought it was well insulated but the guy installing my unit suggested blowing some more into the attic. Since he didn't do that I knew he wasn't trying to inflate the bill so I took his word for it.

It's made a huge difference in my utility bills, my June & August electric bills dropped about $100.

[Coyote_Bandit]

28. Sounds like

you got a pretty good deal. Based on all the folks I've talked to (not just here at DU), Carrier and American Standard brands are getting the strongest recommendations. I'd be happy to get the same kind of deal.

About four years ago I blew over 60 bags of insullation in the attic - in addition to what was already there. Bought it at Home Depot and rented the blower. I had somebody help me and it took us less than half a day to complete. The attic is not very tall so having to crawl the length of the house was the most miserable part of the chore. There is a plywood laying over the rafters the length of the attic which helps a lot. House is only about 1800 square foot so those 60 bags added several inches of depth. It settles though and it could probably use some more insullation. Maybe I can get motivated to do the same thing again if need be....

THanks for the info.