OT: DIY

[Pachinko_]

Looks good! People tile the whole wall these days, not sure I'd bother either.

Laying tiles is not that hard, removing the old ones is a bitch.

[Jez2983]

If the coach makes a comment like that and none of you alludes to knowing what really pleases his wife then your team is not Australian.

Yep. Jenny knows what's up.

Also I'm not sure which wife he was referring to himself.

[WRau1]

[Gianstoppable]

So the wife has asked me to build a greenhouse for her. We don't have a big lot by any stretch (.68 acre lot) but there is a spot on the back of the garage that faces south and gets a ton of sun.

I'm debating about doing a lean to. I think that's my best bet but I want to make sure it's what I should do since this would mean removing siding off the back of my garage. I don't have a fancy great looking garage by any stretch keep in mind.

The spot is 6 feet long and I think I could come out to about 8 feet and 8 feet high at the highest point off the garage. Roof would have a slower pitch at first just to keep at least a 72×24 door. Anyone have any tips? Also, best spot to grab greenhouse materials locally? (Eagle, Wi)

[HKPackFan]

What are they doing it themselves and why does it require them to be in their underwear?

[stellation]

So the wife has asked me to build a greenhouse for her. We don't have a big lot by any stretch (.68 acre lot) but there is a spot on the back of the garage that faces south and gets a ton of sun.

I'm debating about doing a lean to. I think that's my best bet but I want to make sure it's what I should do since this would mean removing siding off the back of my garage. I don't have a fancy great looking garage by any stretch keep in mind.

The spot is 6 feet long and I think I could come out to about 8 feet and 8 feet high at the highest point off the garage. Roof would have a slower pitch at first just to keep at least a 72×24 door. Anyone have any tips? Also, best spot to grab greenhouse materials locally? (Eagle, Wi)

Does she want it for practicality/veges, or for it to be pretty? If it's a practicality thing then take a look into making a hoop greenhouse using star pickets and ag pipe- google "polypipe greenhouse" to get an idea- relatively inexpensive, quite sturdy and you'll get a good idea how much it would be used to see if you then want to make a fancier one. The idea is you whack in some star pickets, bend ag pipe between them to form a hoop roof and then add some basic timber to join them (if you want, you might be able to get away without it for that size)- this gives an idea, you can then just wrap the structure in greenhouse film/plastic- done well they're not ugly, too.


Cheap, transportable if you decide for a different spot, modular (make it as long as you want) and if you decide you don't use a greenhouse or want to make a fancier one then you'll generally find a use for all of the parts that made it.

[AussieBuck]

So the wife has asked me to build a greenhouse for her. We don't have a big lot by any stretch (.68 acre lot) but there is a spot on the back of the garage that faces south and gets a ton of sun.

I'm debating about doing a lean to. I think that's my best bet but I want to make sure it's what I should do since this would mean removing siding off the back of my garage. I don't have a fancy great looking garage by any stretch keep in mind.

The spot is 6 feet long and I think I could come out to about 8 feet and 8 feet high at the highest point off the garage. Roof would have a slower pitch at first just to keep at least a 72×24 door. Anyone have any tips? Also, best spot to grab greenhouse materials locally? (Eagle, Wi)

Need pics.

[Gianstoppable]

So the wife has asked me to build a greenhouse for her. We don't have a big lot by any stretch (.68 acre lot) but there is a spot on the back of the garage that faces south and gets a ton of sun.

I'm debating about doing a lean to. I think that's my best bet but I want to make sure it's what I should do since this would mean removing siding off the back of my garage. I don't have a fancy great looking garage by any stretch keep in mind.

The spot is 6 feet long and I think I could come out to about 8 feet and 8 feet high at the highest point off the garage. Roof would have a slower pitch at first just to keep at least a 72×24 door. Anyone have any tips? Also, best spot to grab greenhouse materials locally? (Eagle, Wi)

Does she want it for practicality/veges, or for it to be pretty? If it's a practicality thing then take a look into making a hoop greenhouse using star pickets and ag pipe- google "polypipe greenhouse" to get an idea- relatively inexpensive, quite sturdy and you'll get a good idea how much it would be used to see if you then want to make a fancier one. The idea is you whack in some star pickets, bend ag pipe between them to form a hoop roof and then add some basic timber to join them (if you want, you might be able to get away without it for that size)- this gives an idea, you can then just wrap the structure in greenhouse film/plastic- done well they're not ugly, too.


Cheap, transportable if you decide for a different spot, modular (make it as long as you want) and if you decide you don't use a greenhouse or want to make a fancier one then you'll generally find a use for all of the parts that made it.

How well would that plastic do with a heavy snowfall?

[bizarro]

Lean to-type is definitely the way to go. I've built several types of greenhouses - some in the upper Midwest. Are you doing passive solar gain? Or will you have a climate battery? What is the intent?

[stellation]

So the wife has asked me to build a greenhouse for her. We don't have a big lot by any stretch (.68 acre lot) but there is a spot on the back of the garage that faces south and gets a ton of sun.

I'm debating about doing a lean to. I think that's my best bet but I want to make sure it's what I should do since this would mean removing siding off the back of my garage. I don't have a fancy great looking garage by any stretch keep in mind.

The spot is 6 feet long and I think I could come out to about 8 feet and 8 feet high at the highest point off the garage. Roof would have a slower pitch at first just to keep at least a 72×24 door. Anyone have any tips? Also, best spot to grab greenhouse materials locally? (Eagle, Wi)

Does she want it for practicality/veges, or for it to be pretty? If it's a practicality thing then take a look into making a hoop greenhouse using star pickets and ag pipe- google "polypipe greenhouse" to get an idea- relatively inexpensive, quite sturdy and you'll get a good idea how much it would be used to see if you then want to make a fancier one. The idea is you whack in some star pickets, bend ag pipe between them to form a hoop roof and then add some basic timber to join them (if you want, you might be able to get away without it for that size)- this gives an idea, you can then just wrap the structure in greenhouse film/plastic- done well they're not ugly, too.


Cheap, transportable if you decide for a different spot, modular (make it as long as you want) and if you decide you don't use a greenhouse or want to make a fancier one then you'll generally find a use for all of the parts that made it.

How well would that plastic do with a heavy snowfall?

Now that I did not think of! I live in a cool climate in AU and have had some snow on one that stood up okay (it slides off the hoops easily enough, and ours are supported by some timber batons) but that wasn't that big a snowfall (about 10 inches).

[Gianstoppable]

Lean to-type is definitely the way to go. I've built several types of greenhouses - some in the upper Midwest. Are you doing passive solar gain? Or will you have a climate battery? What is the intent?

Not entirely sure on heating yet. I could possibly cut into the garage and add an outlet but I am not sure if I'll need a permit for building this. Normally I wouldn't care on a small project but town hall is like 2 houses away so I can't get away with everything as easy. I'm looking to build with materials for under $900. I'll be able to do all the work myself but I am not sure if I will pour a concrete slab (obviously would raise the price) or if gravel works best.

Intent will be early season growing with hopefully an eventual year round grow. I'm building a raised garden for her as well that these will be transported to. So I am open to suggestions. I'll send a picture of the spot when I get a chance.

[Gianstoppable]

Ok another question. My house was built in 1905, so I have the joys of owning an old fieldstone basement. The basement used to get a little wet after a rain but Caulking and gutters helped immensely. My big issue now, the floor. Its a very thin (1/2" slab) but its so old that its very uneven and even some spots where the floor is missing and its just dirt. Any way to fix this so it wont crack again? At least for a while? I figured self leveler in some spots but the spots where there is a hole can be a few inches down.

[Gianstoppable]

Anyone know an insured tree trimming service they recommend? Looking at getting a roughly 30-40 foot Black walnut tree cut down, some parts hang over my neighbors garage. Also a couple smaller pines, 1 had a power line running through a gap in the branches, that tree is maybe 15-20 ft but very few branches, looks pretty much dead. Thanks

[M-C-G]

Ok another question. My house was built in 1905, so I have the joys of owning an old fieldstone basement. The basement used to get a little wet after a rain but Caulking and gutters helped immensely. My big issue now, the floor. Its a very thin (1/2" slab) but its so old that its very uneven and even some spots where the floor is missing and its just dirt. Any way to fix this so it wont crack again? At least for a while? I figured self leveler in some spots but the spots where there is a hole can be a few inches down.

I had something very similar and ended up paying guys to grind it and then concrete layer back over it. I probably wouldn't do that again and would look into grinding it, getting maybe some concrete to level it a bit better, then look into a thick epoxy finish. I know nothing about being handy, so you've been warned

[M-C-G]

Anyone know an insured tree trimming service they recommend? Looking at getting a roughly 30-40 foot Black walnut tree cut down, some parts hang over my neighbors garage. Also a couple smaller pines, 1 had a power line running through a gap in the branches, that tree is maybe 15-20 ft but very few branches, looks pretty much dead. Thanks

Where are you located, I may have someone for you

[M-C-G]

Big DIY question- major bathroom reno- try it myself or bite the bullet and find the money to get someone who knows what they're doing? At a minimum I would pay for someone else to do the plumbing, waterproofing and tiling- am I basically then just getting to the point of "ahhhhh, **** it- just pay for the rest of it, too?"

I'm happy to do bits and pieces of reno work myself, but this seems to fall into the "rather not totally screw it up" area?

So we had a 100 year old house where they put a tub kit in which blocked a window. So we started a project to remove the tub kit, tile the area and have a glass block window installed. My brother and I started the demo and immediately found some rot behind the tub kit which resulted in needing to redo some of the framing. My wife and I figured why not get a nice metal tub (instead of a plastic whirlpool one that didn't work), so we removed that and found problems with the flooring.

So we ripped up the flooring, while doing that, we found a plumbing problem, which resulted in us ripping out an old plaster wall. So at this point, we realized that we now have completely stripped every wall but one, needed new flooring, updated electric, basically everything but the toilet and the door needed to be fix or replaced.

At that point, we conceded the project had gotten too big for our skill set and we had to bring in someone to do the job. So our $500 DIY project turned into a $3500 renovation that we contracted out. The good news was that it looked amazing once we had finished and added a lot of value during the resale.

[buckboy]

Lean to-type is definitely the way to go. I've built several types of greenhouses - some in the upper Midwest. Are you doing passive solar gain? Or will you have a climate battery? What is the intent?

Not entirely sure on heating yet. I could possibly cut into the garage and add an outlet but I am not sure if I'll need a permit for building this. Normally I wouldn't care on a small project but town hall is like 2 houses away so I can't get away with everything as easy. I'm looking to build with materials for under $900. I'll be able to do all the work myself but I am not sure if I will pour a concrete slab (obviously would raise the price) or if gravel works best.

Intent will be early season growing with hopefully an eventual year round grow. I'm building a raised garden for her as well that these will be transported to. So I am open to suggestions. I'll send a picture of the spot when I get a chance.

You don't need a permit. I mean they may tell you do, but you don't. Permits are for suckers. I've done $150,000 worth of work on my house and never pulled a permit. And that's just at this house.

[sdn40]

Ok another question. My house was built in 1905, so I have the joys of owning an old fieldstone basement. The basement used to get a little wet after a rain but Caulking and gutters helped immensely. My big issue now, the floor. Its a very thin (1/2" slab) but its so old that its very uneven and even some spots where the floor is missing and its just dirt. Any way to fix this so it wont crack again? At least for a while? I figured self leveler in some spots but the spots where there is a hole can be a few inches down.

Have someone take a look at it and then decide from there if you can DIY. There are many self leveling products out there but some require minimum thickness or they will crack, and the good levelers are quite pricey. Pay someone that knows what they are talking about $100 now to save you piles of money and aggravation later

[Gianstoppable]

Lean to-type is definitely the way to go. I've built several types of greenhouses - some in the upper Midwest. Are you doing passive solar gain? Or will you have a climate battery? What is the intent?

Not entirely sure on heating yet. I could possibly cut into the garage and add an outlet but I am not sure if I'll need a permit for building this. Normally I wouldn't care on a small project but town hall is like 2 houses away so I can't get away with everything as easy. I'm looking to build with materials for under $900. I'll be able to do all the work myself but I am not sure if I will pour a concrete slab (obviously would raise the price) or if gravel works best.

Intent will be early season growing with hopefully an eventual year round grow. I'm building a raised garden for her as well that these will be transported to. So I am open to suggestions. I'll send a picture of the spot when I get a chance.

You don't need a permit. I mean they may tell you do, but you don't. Permits are for suckers. I've done $150,000 worth of work on my house and never pulled a permit. And that's just at this house.

I live 2 houses from Town Hall, had the inspector stop by when we originally started our remodel so we had to pull permits for everything. They shouldn't be able to see this area so I won't pull one anyway

[M-C-G]

Not entirely sure on heating yet. I could possibly cut into the garage and add an outlet but I am not sure if I'll need a permit for building this. Normally I wouldn't care on a small project but town hall is like 2 houses away so I can't get away with everything as easy. I'm looking to build with materials for under $900. I'll be able to do all the work myself but I am not sure if I will pour a concrete slab (obviously would raise the price) or if gravel works best.

Intent will be early season growing with hopefully an eventual year round grow. I'm building a raised garden for her as well that these will be transported to. So I am open to suggestions. I'll send a picture of the spot when I get a chance.

You don't need a permit. I mean they may tell you do, but you don't. Permits are for suckers. I've done $150,000 worth of work on my house and never pulled a permit. And that's just at this house.

I live 2 houses from Town Hall, had the inspector stop by when we originally started our remodel so we had to pull permits for everything. They shouldn't be able to see this area so I won't pull one anyway

So we added a bathroom without permit and it came up as an issue when we sold with buyers. But if you aren't planning on moving it is a good way not to get on their radar for a new property tax assessment