Julie Nelson

REPAIR CHRONICLE #2:
POPCORN CEILINGS
Julie Nelson - NW Hills / Austin, TX - submitted 03/08

Q1. What was the scope of your project? [fix a leaky faucet, add a 2nd story]
Scrape the ugly popcorn stuff off the ceiling of my office in my new 1970's house in the woods. Basically a very easy project, very little skill involved and I totally recommend bringing your house into the current century by scraping all popcorn off the ceiling BEFORE you move in and BEFORE you replace the carpet.

Before we get too far, a note on the possibility of asbestos: popcorn ceilings may contain asbestos if the house was built or the popcorn was sprayed before 1978. You can have a sample tested at a lab.

Back to the EASY ... all you do is get a ladder, a little water sprayer (plant sprayer, cheap) and with a fine to moderate mist, spray about a 2' x 2' patch of the ceiling then spray another 2' x 2' patch of ceiling then go back to patch #1 and scrap off the popcorn. Most of the popcorn will come off easily. Be careful with the stubborn spots ... spray again and wait a few minutes, repeat, repeat, be careful to minimize damage to the sheet rock and remember you can sand down a bit later. I recommend wearing a hat because it will fall on your head, shoulders, waistband etc. Cover any light fixtures or ceiling fans with plastic to simplify cleanup. You'll most likely need a little spackle to fill in a few gouges.

Once you have it all scraped off, then you'll want to sand. The sanding part was not real fun as the dust falls heavily onto your head, face, eyelashes. If you would like to know what you would look like with white hair, this is an opportunity to find out without paying a beautician. This is the portion that really requires a face mask and a cold beer but cover the opening. Before you paint, take a light broom and brush off the ceiling.

Q2. What was the general budget (initial)? [do not have to disclose]
$10 for a can of paint.

Q3. How close did you land on budget? [nailed it, doubled it, refused to add up the receipts, in denial]
Doubled it because I needed a can of primer then a can of paint.

Q4. $ for $, what was the best money spent?
Definitely the face mask for the dust (from sanding) and the $50 for a massage to get my neck and shoulders back in alignment.

Q5. $ for $, what was money not well spent?
Nada, it was a cheap project.

Q6. If you had it to do over, what would you do differently?
I would hire day laborers to do it, would knock it all out in one day and would have done all 3 rooms before we moved in. I would so a more detailed job of containing the dust such as putting plastic down everywhere and plastic over the doors so the dust did not creep into other areas of the house.

Q7. Advice for the rest of us?
It's easy, go for it, preferably before you move in.

Q8. Was there a contractor, plumber, electrician, innocent bystander [fill in the blank] who deserves an oscar for best performance?
Kay for supplying cold beers.

Q9. What's next on your list?
After the $570 I spent on replacing my furnace exhaust fan this morning, I'm not in too much of a hurry to proceed with the list. However, next thing on the list is replacing the insulation tacked into the studs under the house (actually falling off the studs, which has made some little rodent very happy) or building a trellis on the south side of the house to hide the junk under the house.

Q10. Your name or alias? Your neighborhood?
Julie Nelson, Northwest Hills, Austin, TX.

By our favorite South Austin contributor-Patti P.

One night last week I planned on cooking pasta for dinner-knowing what time the family would most likely be home and ready to pounce on their plates-and being that it was my turn to cook-I started the big pot of pasta water before everyone was home and let it simmer on the stove, figuring I could turn up the flame as soon as the front door opened to get the pot to a rolling boil quickly. Thus dinner would be served, consumed, cleaned up in record time and we could hop right on to evening events.

Instead of being an organized time saver, I unwisely wasted quite a bit of energy keeping that pot of pasta water on simmer. Yep, I'm a noodle head in more ways than one.

But simmering that pot of water is no different than the traditional water heater that you probably have in your house. It keeps your water heated 24 hours a day-when you're sleeping and even when you're not home. Wasting energy? Yep you are. Which may make you a noodle head too.

An energy efficient but not necessary economical alternative to those continuously heating water tanks is the tankless or "demand" water heater that has been common in Japan and Europe and has gained some popularity in the U.S. since the "go green" movement started leafing out in the early 1990's.

Tankless water heaters heat water on demand with a heating device that kicks in when a flow of water goes across the internal sensors (you've opened the hot water valve). The flow sensors turn off when the flow detector detects that you've turned off the hot water valve. Tankless water heaters are about the size of a briefcase; no storage heater with drip pan needed.

Traditional storage water heaters rise and maintain hot water temperature and have to turn on sporadically to store and maintain your set temperature 24/7. And they are much much bigger than a briefcase.

There's a plethora of information out there on tankless water heaters, and the pros and cons differ depending on whether the source of information is a green energy company, a utility provider, a consumer organization or a tankless water heater manufacturer. To help you decide if going tankless is for you, I've combined all the major pros and cons from the sources above and will leave it to you to weigh your "greens": energy savings vs. green dollars.

Tankless pros: energy, baby

· Tankless heaters run by cleaner* renewable gas (with electronic ignitions) use about 20% less energy than traditional gas run storage water heaters based on an average usage of 78 gallons of hot water a day (which is about 3 showers, 1 laundry load, running dishwasher once and the faucet 9 times). Does this reflect your typical household usage? This percentage of savings is according to the October 2008 issue of consumer reports. Manufacturers tend to claim 30%-50% energy savings, and the green guide comes in at 34% (which is the average of all claims above). *Cleaner than electricity.

· Tankless do not have energy "standby" losses which can represent 10-20% of a typical household's annual water heating costs. Standby loss means that traditional storage heaters have to keep heating water in the tank as it cools off.

· Tankless take up only a small space: again the size of a briefcase as opposed to a small water holding silo. Great feature for smaller house living.

· With a tankless you don't have a huge tank of water sitting in your house with a drip pan underneath...and drip pans are for...

· Tankless are less likely to leak or rupture (good news if your water heater is in your attic like my last one was).

· Reportedly tankless are less prone to mineral and sediment build up-which makes sense because you're not storing up water.

· Once the tankless water senses the hot water faucet is turned on, you'll have a limitless supply of hot water (based on your water wise conscience and ability to pay for the gas that is heating your water).

· Tankless last about 20 years vs. 10 years for a traditional storage heater (helping to cut down on waste in the landfills).

· You can save $70-$80 a year on your household energy bill (based on conventional bill of $200 a year for gas storage heater and $450 for an electric storage heater).

· You may be able to qualify for utility company rebates and state tax credits by installing a tankless heater. Go to www.dsireusa.org. This is a data base of state incentives for renewable energy.

· The greenguide says that tankless can provide hot water in as little as 5 seconds as opposed to 30 seconds that it takes some storage heaters to send that warm liquid your way. Some consumer reports contradict this statement (which is coming up in the cons...)

Tankless cons: green conscience vs. green dollars

• Upfront costs for a tankless water heater are high: $800-$1,500 compared to $300-$400 for traditional storage tanks. The greenguide tested what they claim to be the most efficient systems and these run as high as $3,920 down to $850 depending on size of house and proximity of main tankless to farther faucets/bathrooms.
• Installation costs run around $1,200 (compared to $300 for a storage water heater) because tankless need electrical outlets for the fan & internal electronics, upgraded gas pipes and a new ventilation system.
• OK, based on the cited initial costs of installing a tankless, it would take you about 22 years to recoup your initial investment (which might be superfluous at this point as tankless have a life expectancy of 20 years.
• In order to have enough water available on demand, you may have to have a central unit for the house and then additional POU "point of use" units installed in bathrooms and farther faucet.
• You may find inconsistent hot water temperatures with an on demand water heater; e.g. if you just need a tiny trickle of water so you can shave, there may not be enough water passing over the internal sensors of the tankless heater to know to start heating. So, in this case you could end up wasting water by letting the faucet run at a higher rate just to get hot water to lather up your mug.
• The faster the flow of water, however, that passes over the internal sensors the less time the water spends in the heating element. So, particularly in the shower, you may find yourself mixing some cold and some hot water until you can fine tune the temperature. Could take a little practice.
• And, this is where my eyes started glazing over with facts and figures: depending on your ground water temperature for your area (no I do not know mine) your tankless may not deliver sufficient hot water if the ground water is cold. Like in Vermont where hairdryers are used more for thawing frozen pipes than they are for creating high hairdos.

So, there you have it. The pros and cons of going tankless. If saving energy is important you, the expense may be worth it. If you want to take baby steps toward saving energy-insulate your current water heater well and reduce your use of hot water.

Thanks for reading. Patti P.

REPAIR CHRONICLE #1:
STAINED CONCRETE FLOORS
Patti P - Shady Hollow / Austin, TX - submitted 02/08

Q1. What was the scope of your project? [fix a leaky faucet, add a 2nd story]
The entire main floor of Casa Przybylinski (other than kitchen & bathroom) was carpeted with allergen hugging Berber loops when we purchased the home in 2004. By 2006, having mustered my way through 3 sinus surgeries, my husband & I knew the Berber had to go.

Q2. What was the general budget (initial)? [do not have to disclose]
After paying over $20,000 out of pocket for medical bills that our insurance carrier chalked up to deductibles, our general budget was merely a piggy bank. Piggy squealed when we peeked at wood, laminate or tile floors. Even getting a contractor to do the staining job was out of our reach: we received average quotes of $4000.

To get the job done, and silence the squealer, we figured that if we researched staining pre-carpeted concrete floors on the web, we could pull up the Berber carpet and stain our dining room, bedroom, hallways, and living room by ourselves for about $500.

Q3. How close did you land on budget? [nailed it, doubled it, refused to add up the receipts, in denial]
We stayed under budget by doing all the work ourselves and returning any unused (unopened) product to respective stores (we hung on to those receipts like a ribbon won at field days). Examples of product that we were able to return; initially we were quoted needing 5 gallons of stain to adequately cover 1000 sqft. Quality (fresh) stain runs $60 a gallon, so right out of the starting gate we plunked down $360 for stain. {I added on one more gallon as I graduated from the school of "More is Better."} But, by preparing the floors well, and mixing the stain as directed 1 to 1 with water, we were able to return 4 gallons of stain unused and recouped $240.

Q4. $ for $, what was the best money spent?
The money on the stain was the best money spent-it was fresh, and absolutely the right brew of penetrating reactive stain that beautifully combined with our freshly cleaned concrete. We used BAS-14 "Cordovan Leather" from Butterfield Color. It's available to the public by a great concrete firm (super personable & helpful employees) on St. Elmo across from the City Hazardous Waste Center. How convenient.

Q5. $ for $, what was money not well spent?
A paint sprayer that we purchased at a local hardware store was a clunker-because you can't use metal when working with acid stain, we searched high and low for a sprayer that did not have a metal wand. We finally found a sprayer with a vinyl hose, hurrah! But when we got it home, a clunk sounded in the box and we instantly realized the uptake section of the hose was metal. Worthless for this project, and the store would not take it back.

We didn't waste time with haggling-we were on a compressed time schedule-it was Memorial Day weekend, monsoon humid rains were coming and our 2 dogs were raking up the meter at the kennel and surely shaking with each thunder boom while we transformed the floors. Just knowing how uncomfortable Mr. Dooley & Dusty (our family hounds) must have been with storms over furry heads and unfamiliar grounds under furry paws made us work feverishly with our own furry paws to get the job done and get them home.

We went back to several home improvement stores looking for a proper sprayer without success, so we pulled a MacGyver and bought two wooden mop poles (without metal screws) and duct-taped (Garrison Keeler would love us) lambs wool window cleaning thingies to the poles, dipped the contraptions into a commercial rolling bucket and proceeded to stain our floors in great sweeps of color. Hint: you know that you have prepared your floors correctly if the stain turns a shocking fluorescent chartreuse foamy color as soon as connects with the concrete. The stain mellows in a few hours to the chosen color-again, in our case, Cordovan Leather.

Q6. If you had it to do over, what would you do differently?
I would have whispered incantations over the piggy bank (and/or put my hair in a pony, jumped out of a bottle and blinked for extra cash) in order to hire a crew to come in and help with the initial floor preparations.

When pulling up carpet in an 18 year old home that was built in the crazy "build ‘em fast" housing boom in Austin, there was no hint of what we might find underneath in terms of the shape of the concrete.

Thankfully, the concrete was smooth as our piggies flank, but the project was almost doomed from the start due to the plethora of paint, compound, and swiggly glue from the rug in staging areas in each room (including an apparent spilled can of varnish that a contractor walked through...I know his shoe size and have memorized the tread of his boot.)

In order for the stain to permeate the concrete, we had to clean every speck of paint/glue/compound from the flooring. At first inspection, we were ready to throw in the towel. Instead, we got on our hands & knees and many towels for 5 days and tried every cleaner (starting with less toxic) and kept fans circulating and windows opened. Simple Green worked the best. Oh, slide back on one of those towels for a minute-it must be like childbirth, how fast we forget the pain-before cleaning could start, all the tacking strips that held the carpet down into the concrete had to be removed.

My husband & I tried screwdrivers hammered under sections of strip, but that method was way too arduous (though it did create some awesome sparks!) Julie Nelson graciously lent us a floor scrapper on a pole (for leverage) and I admit I took great pleasure in whamming that scrapper under the tacking strips. It pulled up a few satisfying lengths, but still too slow. So we bought a new sharp edged shovel (I had cracked the handle on our previous one), and by using my considerable weight and force, the tack strips finally started flying up-complete with chunks of concrete. I figured we would deal with those concrete holes later-I would not look up until I completed an entire room wall, and then my husband would take a turn. Such focus!

Q7. Advice for the rest of us?
Wear a baseball hat during this project. Not just to protect your hair, but to act somewhat like horse-blinders. Keeping your head down and working on one section of floor at a time (completing that section before moving to another) was our saving grace in completing the job. If we had popped our heads up and fully realized the "miles of work" ahead of us, I think our floors would still be left undone.

Have a clean place to rest each evening during the project. Thankfully, we have a 2 story home and were able to climb the stairs into a warm shower and clean sheets each night.

Make sure that you don't stain yourself out of the house; e.g. if the cold beverages are in kitchen fridge-make sure that entrance way is clear and unlocked. I can't tell you how many times we'd forget and lock the door and find ourselves biding our time parched on the front porch while the May rains pounded down.

Q8. Was there a contractor, plumber, electrician, innocent bystander [fill in the blank] who deserves an oscar for best performance?
Best performance in a documentary probably goes to the next door neighbor's kids faces when they poked their little noggins into the garage to see what we were up to for the long weekend. We were suited in gas-like respirator masks, full length plastic gloves, professional wrap around eye goggles, and baby boomer mutant ninja turtle kneepads. As I was not in the mood to whip off my gear to give a lovely lecture on why Mrs Przybylinski was looking like a transformer, needless to say, those kids skedaddled but quickly.

Q9. What's next on your list?
Replacing the gold frames around sliding mirror doors in master bath-perhaps with sleek wood; putting some film on the acres of mirror, and figuring out a way to inexpensively replace our gold framed shower stall with a sleek frameless one-like an epoxied terrarium. (Not that I want plants to grow in my shower-nothing green or black there, please!) How hard could that be? Perhaps we could use some auto glass from the salvage yard... And also plan on painting the 80's gold sink fixtures with some spiffy stainless steel (ok, brushed nickel-ish) paint. No concrete sinks for this chickie.

Q10. Your name or alias? Your neighborhood?
Patti P. Shady Hollow. SW before there was a SWE.

A definite first. We were about to write an offer Friday morning on a house my buyers were very excited about. My buyers are also very expectant, as in the baby is due this week. As you may guess from the title, that Friday appointment did not happen as contractions take precedence over real estate.

We learned that the sellers of this particular house were out of town for the weekend camping in west TX so offers would not be presented until Monday. We also learned that they already had one offer in and thought it would be up to 3 (including ours) by the end of the weekend. I explained the situation to Dad-to-be and told we would either need to write the offer this weekend or this was not the house for them. Dad-to-be said this was definitely the house for them and we would figure something out over the weekend. I told him first things first and to call me on Saturday and let me know baby and Mom status.

First, the star of the story: Eleanor, 7 lbs 12 oz, full head of hair, 10 fingers and 10 toes, showed up some time on Saturday.

Fast forward, I met them at the hospital Sunday afternoon with a room full of family. We talked baby and real estate for about an hour, wrote the offer and I left them with their hopes and dreams.

We're under contract!!

If you are in the process of buying a home and have chosen to purchase (or the sellers are providing for you - even better) a home warranty, then we would like to help you assess your options. Remember that a home warranty is not the end-all to home repair or home headaches as they do not always help you or apply when you need it the most, but for most folks it's a nice little insurance policy to have in your back pocket. We recommend that you go online and look for a chart outlining the coverage options and compare. Here are the basics in no particular order:

American Home Shield
www.ahswarranty.com
1-800-735-4663
ServicePlus Package: $415
CoveragePlus Package: $391
*Trade Service Call Fee: $60 per repair visit,
or cost of actual service, which ever is cheaper

Everything Residential
www.everythingresidential.com
1-800-592-9702
Base Contract Coverage: $380
*The homeowner is responsible for paying a $35 service
fee per claim for the first two claims. Service fees in excess of two
will be a rate of $100 per claim.
*12 months of coverage

First American Home Buyers
Protection Corporation
www.FirstAm.com/warranty
1-800-444-9030
Basic Contact Coverage: $329
First Class Upgrade: $399
*service fee: $60
*12 months of coverage

LandAmerica Best Home Warranty
www.bhwc.com
800-443-5599
Standard Plan: $325
Maximum Upgrade Options: $400
* Trade Call Fee: $60

Allied Home Warranty
www.AlliedHomeWarranty.com
(866) 791-1200
Standard Coverage: $320
Premium Upgrade: $355
Gold Upgrade: $495
*Trade Service Call Fee: $60

Fidelity National Home Warranty
www.homewarranty.com
1-800-862-6837
Standard Plan Coverage: $320
Comprehensive Plus Plan: $355
*Service Call Fee: $55
*12 months of coverage

Home Warranty of America
www.hwaHomeWarranty.com
888-492-7359
Gold Coverage: $325 - $55 service fee
Diamond coverage: $380 - $75 service fee
**13 months of coverage**

OLD REPUBLIC Home Protection Plan
www.orhp.com
800-445-6999
Standard Coverage: $350
Silver Upgrade: $400
Gold Upgrade: $400
* Trade Fee: $60. See website for details