Please, never let me get so lazy or foolish as to avoid basic home repairs.

I've seen 3 houses recently, during my new home search with damaged door frames requiring serious repair or even replacement. All 3 could have been avoided by simply caulking the gosh darned gaps and re-caulking as needed. 30 minutes and a couple of tubes of caulk would have prevented thousands of dollars worth of damage.

WTF is wrong with people?

Besides being lazy or foolish, some of us are ignorant also.

Aye. The home inspector people and new home sales people in this area area now giving out instruction manuals. I've not seen a house (I've looked at over 100) with a clean heat/ac filter yet, most are almost totally clogged with crap. I buy them 12 at a time off Amazon, and change them every few weeks. Houses cost a grip, WTF? If you don't know, Google is real handy.

quote:

Originally posted by Fredward:
Aye. The home inspector people and new home sales people in this area area now giving out instruction manuals. I've not seen a house (I've looked at over 100) with a clean heat/ac filter yet, most are almost totally clogged with crap. I buy them 12 at a time off Amazon, and change them every few weeks. Houses cost a grip, WTF? If you don't know, Google is real handy.

Don't get me started on a/c filters. I have 5 tenants, and when those idiots call me that their a/c is freezing over or not working, the FIRST thing I ask them is when they changed their a/c filter. Then to top it all off, if the coils are dirty on the newer units with A frame coils, you have to remove the Freon from the unit, cut the coils out, take them outside and clean them, weld the coils back in and recharge the unit.

quote:

Originally posted by Rey HRH:
Besides being lazy or foolish, some of us are ignorant also.

There's also the "invisibility" of creeping disrepair.

Our home has vinyl siding with aluminum trim/flashing, but there is one spot, surrounding the front door, with exposed wood. It's not much, and that's part of the problem. Every time I look I think to myself "I gotta get some paint on that soon." Then forget... until the next time I look.

quote:

Originally posted by jimmy123x:
Then to top it all off, if the coils are dirty on the newer units with A frame coils, you have to remove the Freon from the unit, cut the coils out, take them outside and clean them, weld the coils back in and recharge the unit.

Who was the "brilliant" engineer who came up with that idea?

Sounds like a jobs program.

quote:

Originally posted by 229DAK:

quote:

Originally posted by jimmy123x:
Then to top it all off, if the coils are dirty on the newer units with A frame coils, you have to remove the Freon from the unit, cut the coils out, take them outside and clean them, weld the coils back in and recharge the unit.

Who was the "brilliant" engineer who came up with that idea?

Sounds like a jobs program.

The EPA is what caused it with their higher seer requirements. They can fit more coils that way for more heat/cooling exchange for more efficiency.

My AC unit has removable panels on either side of the a-coil, at my demand. They had to make the top part (plenum?) anyway in the sheet metal shop, so I paid a little extra 4 screws to each and I can get good access with a vaccuum cleaner hose. I can also get in there with a liquid funk killer, sometimes the condensation drain gets nasty. But I've owned HUD repos, so I know a little. Not a lot, I assure you, but a little.

Don't get me started. I spent last Thursday playing impromptu QC inspector on 5 homes my employer was considering taking over management on.

19 hours, 150+ photos, and 7 pages double spaced (that turned into 67 pages after I added all of the photos as supporting evidence) of half-assed work later, I've seen more than my share of shit (I thought I'd seen bad work from a few of our former contractors, but ho-lee chit). In one house I found a dryer vent that would send a fire inspector into convulsions, washer drains made up of PEX line, sharkbite spigot fittings, and duck tape, bathroom windows that were rusted. There were numerous instances where they just painted over the repair when they should have done the whole wall. All this, and more.

...Somehow, I don't think we're going to take the management.

Wanna talk about the house with buckets under leaks in the attic, with soft spots dripping througH/ How about heat registers with not duct work connected to them? Or the sump pump covered with carpeting? Okay, I gotta stop.