The Home Improvement Thread

[Hemi-Cuda]

Originally Posted by greyshep

I switched my deck to composite a couple years ago. Major improvement! But, I did have to add extra joists to make it 12” on center due to the extra weight and support needed for composite.

Just my opinion but I think it looks nicer than concrete.

How expensive was it? And do the boards get hot under the sun? Looking at redoing ours since the original owners of our house never treated or maintained the wood deck at all, and the planks are on their last legs

[greyshep]

Originally Posted by Hemi-Cuda

How expensive was it? And do the boards get hot under the sun? Looking at redoing ours since the original owners of our house never treated or maintained the wood deck at all, and the planks are on their last legs

I dont recall the exact final cost. I would have to search for the receipts but it didnt seem too bad. We bought ours from Windsor Plywood. The brand was Armadillo. We have been really pleased with it. We have a direct South exposure and the deck can get a bit toasty on a hot day but still able to walk on it in bare feet.

So much nicer than having to re-do staining every couple years. Also have found it really durable. Just completely headache free and no more slivers, really have nothing bad to say about it.

[DoubleF]

Originally Posted by Hemi-Cuda

How expensive was it? And do the boards get hot under the sun? Looking at redoing ours since the original owners of our house never treated or maintained the wood deck at all, and the planks are on their last legs

IIRC, it was like 20-30% more expensive than a traditional deck when my parents did it. However, the expectation is that it should last nearly twice or thrice as long with zero maintenance/upkeep like re-staining etc.

A day like yesterday, the deck was warm for a dark grey/navy color. Definitely choose lighter colors vs something like black. For a 30C+ day, it might be a bit of sudden ballet dancing for those not expecting the sudden heat, but you can walk on it barefoot after a momentary adjustment period. It's not asphalt hot, more like that temporary "Oh #### my leather seats are hot" range.

If your feet are sensitive, I'd suggest some outdoor shoes or outdoor rugs for a chance to acclimatize. The temps of the material drop rapidly in shade vs direct sun. I think within about 1-2 minutes the material can go from leather seat hot to comfortably warm if under a rug. Sections in the shade can feel completely cool vs the sections in the sun.

[Wormius]

Is warping still an issue with the composite boards? How about colour fading?

[greyshep]

Originally Posted by Wormius

Is warping still an issue with the composite boards? How about colour fading?

Re: warping... Do not believe this is an issue, certainly nothing of the sort has occurred with ours.

Re: fading... I have to believe it will fade a bit over time but ours is hit by the molten sun with a full South exposure so if it was going to fade significantly I think I would have noticed by now.

[DoubleF]

Originally Posted by Wormius

Is warping still an issue with the composite boards? How about colour fading?

No idea. My parents deck is only entering the second summer. The materials are supposedly more resistant to warping than earlier variants though (albeit I don't know how much of a concern warping was in the earlier variants in the first place). At the very least, no warping concerns at all so far.

Fading again, unsure. Supposed to be more resistant, but no idea what that actually means from a practical perspective. I'll say that dust on the deck makes it look significantly more aged than anything UV related so far. Worst case scenario, the fading helps a little bit with the heat on hotter summer days. Rotating the patio furniture on occasion and/or removing everything from the deck to even out the fading might be something worth doing every few years, but I can't imagine it being much worse or different than a traditional wood deck with stuff sitting on top of it? Plus I think there's some option to restore it in the same way you can restore stadium seats. Again, not really worried. It's an issue for later.

[calgarygeologist]

Originally Posted by greyshep

I switched my deck to composite a couple years ago. Major improvement! But, I did have to add extra joists to make it 12” on center due to the extra weight and support needed for composite.

Just my opinion but I think it looks nicer than concrete.

Yeah, in general I think a deck is nicer than a patio but with stamped and coloured concrete or maybe exposed aggregate it looks pretty good too. I'm just getting old and lazy and I really don't want to have to worry about any maintenance in the coming years.

[greyshep]

Originally Posted by calgarygeologist

Yeah, in general I think a deck is nicer than a patio but with stamped and coloured concrete or maybe exposed aggregate it looks pretty good too. I'm just getting old and lazy and I really don't want to have to worry about any maintenance in the coming years.

Agreed stamped concrete, etc. can look quite nice. Keep in mind we do live in an area that is prone to freeze thaw and I’m not sure if any concrete is immune from cracking. Also quite sure exposed aggregate requires semi regular maintenance and resealing.

[photon]

My AC was pretty clean when I unwrapped it earlier this year but I just saw it's COATED in some kind of stuff almost like pet hair.. is that the fluff from earlier in the season?!! Did my AC try to ingest a cat?

Anyway I assume I can just gently spray it with water from the inside outwards?

[DoubleF]

Originally Posted by photon

My AC was pretty clean when I unwrapped it earlier this year but I just saw it's COATED in some kind of stuff almost like pet hair.. is that the fluff from earlier in the season?!! Did my AC try to ingest a cat?

Anyway I assume I can just gently spray it with water from the inside outwards?

Aspen cotton wood fluff? I used the leaf blower on my AC unit a few days ago and it looked like a pillow exploded.

[Ironhorse]

Any recommendations of places to take a window screen to have the screen replaced? My kid has created an adult fist sized hole in one, and now all the bugs are getting in to the house...

[Fuzz]

They are pretty easy to do, you just need a screen repair kit. Otherwise, take it to Chinook Screen and Glass on 16th ave, they are great.

[timun]

I can second the recommendation to go to Chinook Glass. I had them make a custom window screen a few years ago,, and it was super easy to deal with them, the product was built well, and it fit perfectly.

[photon]

Yeah I've used Chinook Glass a number of times for different things, they're always good to deal with.

[kcin]

Can anyone recommend a provider and installer for a concealed mini-split system?

[Bill Bumface]

Originally Posted by Bill Bumface

Ok, all this talk of my hot water tank being pushed past what is reasonable has me looking at tankless options because I can't fit anything bigger than the 40gal currently down there, and my kids will be teenagers during the life of the next one.

I've hard Rinnai and Navien are great. I like the "Comfort Flow" feature of the Navien so that doing dishes by hand and turning the hot water on and off a lot isn't an exercise in frustration.

Anyone have any advice/experience? Have an installer you'd recommend?

Got this taken care of today. For posterity, the "Comfort Flow" feature seems well worth it. My time to first hot water actually dropped at all locations vs. the old tank due to the old tank only having a 1/2" line out of it. It'd better last though, $5K for a water heater stings.

[Fuzz]

What size unit did you end up going with?

[Bill Bumface]

I went with the 240. There will be teenagers during the life of this unit, and I didn't want to leave room for regrets.

[Fuzz]

Good call. My 180 is totally fine for 2 of us, but I think would be irritating if I had too many people trying to use it. With the shower and DW or laundry running, it slows the flow a lot when I turn on the kitchen faucet, too.


Do you have a circulating hot water line? I did'nt bother at install, but may do that when I renovate the kitchen.

[Bill Bumface]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

Good call. My 180 is totally fine for 2 of us, but I think would be irritating if I had too many people trying to use it. With the shower and DW or laundry running, it slows the flow a lot when I turn on the kitchen faucet, too.


Do you have a circulating hot water line? I did'nt bother at install, but may do that when I renovate the kitchen.

I'm just using the internal recirc. I'm not in love with the idea of heating the house via pumping hot water around all the time (although insulating the pipes would make a huge difference there).

We're at 3s to first hot water on the kitchen sink (and because of the buffer tank, instant hot water every time you turn it on and off for things like dish washing).

Our second floor shower is ~10s to hot water. Luckily none of our pipe runs are overly long.