Recent content by EdNerd

A couple of clarifications: (1) This is a covering over an outdoor patio. Weather-tight is a matter of degrees, not an absolute. This is SW Arizona - a bit of rain from time to time, never snow. More protection from sun and pigeon fall-out than rain. Still, the more water-tight, the better. (2)...

Have you looked at bougainvillea? The roots aren't real invasive. When they start growing taller you can hide a t-stake inside the plant to give it support until it can stand on its own. They are dirty - as in they drop and shed leaves and bracts in abundance. But they love the sun...

I am replacing the roof on my side patio. Right now I'm putting up new wood. I've got an odd bit where the house roof intersects the patio roof, and I'm wondering how y'all would do this? As always, I have no idea what the right questions to ask are, or what options sound good but lead to...

Also found: https://homeguides.sfgate.com/paint-previously-stained-fiberglass-doors-38430.html https://www.doityourself.com/stry/how-to-refinish-fiberglass-doors http://realestate.boston.com/home-improvement/2018/08/01/making-faded-fiberglass-door-look-like-new/ So what I want is in there...

Ah ... I musta blipped over that. My thought is yeah, repainting would be their problem. But if I've made it bigger than they want to deal with, it makes the house harder to sell. I'm a very "adjustable" person - if it's hard to adjust, I keep looking. This house may need lots of "adjustments"...

Unless I missed something, the sanding and priming applied only to the wood trim around any glass insets. Or did I read it wrong??

I read that same article yesterday before posting. As 98% of the instruction was simple painting tips, and nothing saying either "prepare the fiberglas door like so" or "fiberglas doors need no special preparations - just paint it", I thought I would ask that specific question. Does a...

I am looking at new exterior doors. The house is in SW Arizona, and the front door faces west with no overhang - so it gets hit with the full afternoon sun all summer long. I've been advised to go with fiberglas. My biggest concern is changing the color of the door down the road. Either because...

I can increase the duct size by raising the bottom of the closet floor. Or I could add a return through the attic, next to a supply duct. Or I could shift focus to adding separate cooling for just this room. Ed

This >> "inefficient return duct sizing in other parts of the dwelling"! They way you put that made me think of a project I've been planning but have never gotten around to doing. The return into the AC unit, a package with gas heat sitting on the ground, is the bottom of the closet in the back...

I am located in Yuma, AZ - at the junction of the CA, AZ, and Mexico borders. The enclosed garage is well insulated in walls and ceiling; the rest of the house is not as well done. The enclosure is three walls (common with the living room, an east wall and a south wall) and open to the rest of...

Another possible consideration is to rework the existing ducts to properly feed all the rooms. The main question here is: can the fan push from the back of the house all the way forward? This could be resolved by replacing the existing AC with a split system, and putting the air handler in a...

I've attached a PDF image of a diagram of my house, which is in SW Arizona. The problem is the very front room, which is actually an enclosed garage. The house was like this when I bought it almost 20 years ago. The AC unit is located at the very back of the house - it's a single package unit...

We chose a nice tile for our shower. It has a burlap bag kind of texture. No one at the hardware store mentioned that a smooth tile would work and clean better in the shower!! Anyways, it's installed. We have very hard water here, and we're concerned about mineral deposits building up in the...

Just to close everything out -- We had tile put on the floors, and the tile guy made an offer on tiling up the shower too. So we went that way. Now I have *two* tub kits to get rid of! :( Ed