When I was a kid some family friends had put an air-moving fan in the floor from the basement to the first floor. On hot summer days it would pull the cool air from the basement, and in the winter it would circulate the air from near their woodstove in the basement to the upstairs.
Maybe that would help? Wiring would be the hardest bit to figure out. After that it's just cutting a hole in the floor.
Ah shit. The faucet is stainless but the counter around the sink is some kind of wood composite. Guess I'll put a bandaid on it and plan to replace the counter.
A bleach solution or white vinet solution will kill it. You could spot test for colorfastness on all surfaces first. And there are places online that give solution ratios.
The best way is find a friend who had work done that you were impressed with and have them introduce you. That way you can get first hand experience about the quality and customer service.
Having used this site before, it’s worse than useless in my experience. I got a bunch of phone numbers of businesses that ghosted me or lost me in their terribly designed phone systems, and then got cold called by other contractors that wanted to charge insane prices, didn’t understand the project, or tried to change the scope of the project completely to upsell me.
No idea. I get ecstatic over mediocre contractors who barely gouge. We've genuinely just started DIYing almost everything because if it looks "okay, I guess" then at least it didn't cost $8000 and I semi-learned a new skill.
Edit: our best contractor was from a random Google maps search for handy person. I picked a relatively new business with few reviews entirely because they were the only ones to call back. But they worked out great and I was happy with the work.
I think it is honestly trial and error.
Edit edit: the vibes you get from the in home estimate are helpful. If they don't try to upsell you at all, hire them.
In fact, the aforementioned best contractor we ever hired told me not to contract them to do something because it was a really simple to DIY. They showed me the exact kit to buy and told me how to do it. Theoretically he could have screwed himself out of money but we decided to do a bigger job than originally planned because of that move.
To seal the gap around your kitchen sink water pipe, consider using DAP Ultra Clear Flexible All-Purpose Sealant. It's a practical solution that can effectively seal the area from silverfish and provide a neat finish. While repipe services might be ideal for long-term solutions, using the sealant and possibly reinforcing with fine steel wool can help address the issue efficiently within budget constraints.
I'm a new homeowner and I also don't know how to find good quality contractors. For now I resort to posting on my city's subreddit to ask for recommendations. Also, recommendations from friends that have hired them in the past.
Most of the time I just DIY for anything that's not massive, but when it comes to big projects like Roof/Foundation you listed Friends/Family/Neighbours I trust who have used them in the past.
Once I find a not shit contractor, I latch on to them and maintain that relationship.
Community mailing lists. Maybe Nextdoor. I’m much more likely to try someone that a person I know recommended. For instance, we have a very active school “bulletin board” mailing list and people ask for and receive recommendations all the time. I may not know the person making the recommendation personally, but we’re all part of the same community group and that holds some water for me personally.
Nextdoor is a real crapshoot depending on where you live, but if you have nothing else, it’s worth a try.
From the "redirect the vents" side of things, I've been doing this manually for the 7 years with no ill effects. Last year I added a Flair system and Ecobee to automatically balance using the registers. They have back pressure detection to prevent damage to the HVAC system so there's always enough vents open. At least in my scenario it's been a game changer for the third floor of our townhouse. As we've headed into warmer months our bedroom is actually cool in the evenings and the lower floors are normal temperatures. During the winter our living space on the second floor was cozy without blasting the bedrooms and making it too hot to sleep. With the number of vents I had it cost just over 1K to do, but that was way cheaper than it would have been to have the house and system rezoned.
I'm into smarthome stuff so now I've actually got room level presence detection going and tying that back to Flair with Home Assistant so we only cool or heat occupied rooms. Wife is a very happy camper in her now temperature controlled office, and it only targets the office when she's in it.
This sounds super interesting! I didn't know that smart vents were a thing. I'd like to get some more smart home tech stuff in general and this seems up my alley. Plus my vents seem to be stuck open anyway so it wouldn't hurt replacing them lol.
I use a portable AC - this is different from a window unit. The unit itself stands up inside your room, and it has a flexy hose that goes into a flat panel that's about 10 inches high and expandable widthwise. You lift the window a bit, put the flat panel in the open spot, then close the window so the light pressure keeps the flat panel in place. It's all on the indoors side of the screen, so it counts as being inside your house and nobody can complain.
(Assumptions: you have the typical American sliding windows, and your HOA doesn't have rules about the inside of your house like curtain color or whatever)
Install a mini-split upstairs, it will keep that zone the correct temperature using it's own thermometer. It can be downsized a bit as the main HVAC unit will help it out using your existing ducting.
For exact design, I would say have one per bedroom or a multi-zone mini-split that can cover each bedroom.
Many (most?) mini-splits are DIY friendly as well, if you want to save a bunch of money and install it yourself.
I know multiple people say to close the downstairsregisters, but HVAC sources that I look at say that it greatly stresses the system if you do this and that it's a bad idea.
Haha well true. I just presume that if you have dampers built into the system by an HVAC company that steps would be taken to ensure it doesn't mess up your system.
I've never seen manual dampers that smart. 🤷 Give closing up downstairs a shot and if your evaporator turns into a block of ice, well, then you let it thaw and know your need more air flow.
Haha. Well I don't mean the dampers themselves are smart. I mean that the HVAC companies will do pressure checks make sure things are flowing and vented properly if they are adding in dampers in particular areas.
If you close a register all pipes and joints between the furnace and the register will be under more pressure than designed and can force the joints to cause leaks, this can push humid air into joist spaces as well.
Theres lots of potential issues, putting a damper as near to the source as possible prevents this issue.
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