The Home Improvement Thread

[topfiverecords]

Originally Posted by CorsiHockeyLeague

Yep - Howe Sound.

How does the Howe Sound sound?

[Brendone]

Originally Posted by DoubleF

I had a warranty issue on a fridge a few years ago and they sent someone from a place called SouthTV repair (?).

I looked it up and it seems like they're just a generic appliance repair outfit. I wonder if Brendone should just see if someone can fix it or jerry rig a relatively lasting solution for him.

Initial inspection gave us hope. Tech said there’s likely a leak in the evaporator and they should be able to order and replace the part. Fantastic! Shop calls a couple days later. Sorry, manufacturer says the part is obsolete / no longer available, get a new fridge (48” built in, 3x what we paid 13 years ago). Well, fack, return all the Christmas presents. Called the tech to confirm we’re screwed before we head to Trail. “Oh, our “seal” guy should be able to find and patch the hole if it’s copper.” Great! Christmas is back on? Now we’re just waiting to see when the “seal” guy can come over.

Bar fridges, I get it. Repair costs more than the fridge. These built ins with accessible top mount refrigeration units? They should be so easy to maintain/ repair… shouldn’t they? That was a part of the appeal. Looks cool, and so easy to get to the parts.

I hate how disposable everything is now, regardless of the cost.

[CorsiHockeyLeague]

Originally Posted by topfiverecords

How does the Howe Sound sound?

Depends how many sea lions are around.

[blender]

Originally Posted by CorsiHockeyLeague

Ok, bumping this with a new question on siding... anyone use hardie board? And if you did, here's my question: did you get it painted by the factory, or did you get it blank and have someone prime and paint it? What was the cost difference, how's the durability, etc etc...

IMO it seems like the benefits of painting it - including access to a lot more colours - are substantial but if I end up saving $5k by getting it pre-painted I honestly might do it because I have to cut costs somewhere.

Hardie is a great product. I would definitely recommend the factory finish as it is baked-on and much harder and more durable than simply painted. In your location you would definitely want to install the cladding over a rain screen (might be required by code).

As a step up option with zero maintenance, you may want to consider metal cladding.

[blender]

Here are some pics of a place I am building right now with metal cladding.
There will be cedar and rock features in the areas without metal.


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[CorsiHockeyLeague]

Nice! Is that the Thompson? Looks just about done. Are you the builder or the owner?

I just prefer the look of the Hardie for my design, is why I went with it... but I guess I also just assumed metal cladding would be more expensive.

They're definitely doing exterior cladding and possibly an exterior insulation layer if I approve a change order, depends on the cost - my builder just re-did their offices nearby and used it so I asked them to give me a price; I figure if they think it's worth doing on their office it might not be a bad call for me.

[DoubleF]

Originally Posted by Brendone

Initial inspection gave us hope. Tech said there’s likely a leak in the evaporator and they should be able to order and replace the part. Fantastic! Shop calls a couple days later. Sorry, manufacturer says the part is obsolete / no longer available, get a new fridge (48” built in, 3x what we paid 13 years ago). Well, fack, return all the Christmas presents. Called the tech to confirm we’re screwed before we head to Trail. “Oh, our “seal” guy should be able to find and patch the hole if it’s copper.” Great! Christmas is back on? Now we’re just waiting to see when the “seal” guy can come over.

Bar fridges, I get it. Repair costs more than the fridge. These built ins with accessible top mount refrigeration units? They should be so easy to maintain/ repair… shouldn’t they? That was a part of the appeal. Looks cool, and so easy to get to the parts.

I hate how disposable everything is now, regardless of the cost.

I think, it depends. Lots of these appliance guys, I think their attitude is basically Legos. If there's no identical part to swap in, they won't touch it. What might help is to see if you can find one with a back yard mechanic type of mentality where they consider jerry rigged solutions.

Kinda like their "seal guy" who might be able to patch it then top it up. If it works out, give the dude a tip and keep that guy as a contact in case the fridge gets wonky again. Odd you had to call back to confirm before they thought of getting someone to contemplate a solution like that though.

TBH, it's not solely that things are as disposable. It's just that manufacturers cannot consider upkeep on certain things past a point in time and cannot offer a solution they support. A fridge has similar components regardless of brand and size. All you technically need IMO is a way to get a working evaporator in there that won't cause problems if the OEM options are gone. Fridges supposedly only have around 5 segmented sections and are relatively simple machines vs other machines we use regularly. In theory they should be easy to repair, but I think the cost of repairmen have gotten to the point where most people don't want to bother. I think the other part of the equation is that some people think they can afford an expensive fridge, then they should be able to afford to replace it vs merely repairing it so the demand by appliance guys to show up and repair it is quite low.

I know a guy who is basically a tinkerer/inventor. His bar fridge failed early and he got mad. So he disassembled it, looked at how it worked, then split and shoved the components into a coffee table with a few other items and took it to work. His colleague was gushing about how cool it was. He was saying it was too simple and stupid. IIRC, the colleague said it was a mini keezer, fridge and crypto miner built into it. The guy was saying it was leftover raspberry pi parts and two broken fridge components combined into a table.

[I-Hate-Hulse]

Originally Posted by blender

As a step up option with zero maintenance, you may want to consider metal cladding.

We went with Longboard aluminium cladding. The ability to look like wood with zero maintenance, and be woodpecker / hail proof is a big lift over hardi board.

[Shazam]

Hey I put aluminum cladding around my bonus room windows. That stuff is impenetrable. Totally hailproof and very paintable.

[blender]

Originally Posted by CorsiHockeyLeague

Nice! Is that the Thompson? Looks just about done. Are you the builder or the owner?

I just prefer the look of the Hardie for my design, is why I went with it... but I guess I also just assumed metal cladding would be more expensive.

They're definitely doing exterior cladding and possibly an exterior insulation layer if I approve a change order, depends on the cost - my builder just re-did their offices nearby and used it so I asked them to give me a price; I figure if they think it's worth doing on their office it might not be a bad call for me.

Adams Lake.
I'm the builder.
The metal is definitely more expensive, 15-20%.
You are good with Hardie as it is a very good product. I have Hardie lap siding on my own house.
You mentioned dark colours. Iron Grey is quite dark. The Sage colour looks fairly dark when it is installed IMO.

I'll dig up some more pics

[CorsiHockeyLeague]

Thanks! That would be amazing... I'm basically looking at the deep ocean, evening blue or mountain sage if I was doing the factory colours, I think, but yeah they look quite light on the page / in google image searches that I've done so I wasn't sure.

[blender]

James Hardie colurs in real life:
The Blue House is "Deep Ocean"
The grey is "Iron Grey"

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[Ashasx]

I think deep ocean looks great.

[indes]

Originally Posted by Ashasx

I think deep ocean looks great.

I hate myself for loving the iron grey more than the blue. Curse these millennial tendencies.

[Ashasx]

Originally Posted by indes

I hate myself for loving the iron grey more than the blue. Curse these millennial tendencies.

I like the iron grey as well. It looks like a really dark green depending on the light.

[blender]

Originally Posted by Ashasx

I like the iron grey as well. It looks like a really dark green depending on the light.

Totally.
I have it paired with a light blue (Boothbay Blue) on my house and it looks dark grey, but if you have anything orangey around it, it brings the green hue out

[CorsiHockeyLeague]

Awesome thanks. That helps a lot.

It's looking likely that I'll be doing black matte exterior windows which would probably look good with either. But I just kind of want some colour. I think the blue would look good with black and a dark wood soffit, like what alI hate hulse posted on the right hand side of his picture. But I also do like the green undertone in the other one.

Decisions decisions.

[Sliver]

That blue with white trim/soffits looks sick.

[Shazam]

Originally Posted by CorsiHockeyLeague

Awesome thanks. That helps a lot.

It's looking likely that I'll be doing black matte exterior windows which would probably look good with either. But I just kind of want some colour. I think the blue would look good with black and a dark wood soffit, like what alI hate hulse posted on the right hand side of his picture. But I also do like the green undertone in the other one.

Decisions decisions.

I'm not sure what pricing is like in BC, but the cost of black trim windows in Calgary is utterly insane.

[CorsiHockeyLeague]

I tried to go with white to get a better price and it was like a 2% difference. I was expecting way more.