Let's See Your House Projects!

[Turkish Pickle]

Those who work on their homes - what is one thing you wouldn't ever do yourself?

Related: how hard is it to change the toilet bowl? Renovating the bathroom doesnt sound like it'd be too hard (tile, new vanity etc) but I don't know how worth it'd be if I did it myself vs paid someone to install.

[hooligan_E84]

Originally Posted by Turkish Pickle

Those who work on their homes - what is one thing you wouldn't ever do yourself?

Related: how hard is it to change the toilet bowl? Renovating the bathroom doesnt sound like it'd be too hard (tile, new vanity etc) but I don't know how worth it'd be if I did it myself vs paid someone to install.

Swapping out a toilet is dead easy.

Tile can be a PITA, depending on what tile you're choosing.

Waterproofing the shower/tub backer is something I wouldn't tackle myself.

[bosstones]

Originally Posted by Turkish Pickle

Those who work on their homes - what is one thing you wouldn't ever do yourself?

Related: how hard is it to change the toilet bowl? Renovating the bathroom doesnt sound like it'd be too hard (tile, new vanity etc) but I don't know how worth it'd be if I did it myself vs paid someone to install.

I'm a bit of a wuss when it comes to working in supply line for plumbing (ie sweating pipe)...mainly since I just don't have a lot of experience doing it. Given that and the potential damage it can cause, I leave that to someone licensed and insured. My house has CPVC which doesn't seem any harder than running PVC (which I don't mind doing) so I may give it a shot.

Replacing a toilet bowl is EASY. The hardest part is just maneuvering the bowl since you sometimes dont have much room to work. Easy DIY, though,and not worth paying someone.

[lsturbointeg]

i'm pretty comfortable doing anything since i've pretty hand my hand on everything.

[vreihen16]

Originally Posted by Turkish Pickle

Those who work on their homes - what is one thing you wouldn't ever do yourself?

I would never change the in-tank lift pump in our septic system. Pew!!!
Fortunately, my DW worked as a sewage treatment plant operator among the careers on her resume, so she handled that repair a few years ago while I provided support...from several towns away...upwind.

Over the years, I have done everything on a house from shingles down to well pumps. The one thing that I would leave to tradespeople if I had to do it again is laying a foundation. My old man built his own house as GC right after I got out of college, and fired the masons after three courses of cinderblocks because they weren't laying the blocks level enough for his liking. The framers were scheduled to start in less than two weeks, and our entire family wound up being masons for two weekends and the week between them. Hauling blocks into the pit in a wheelbarrow, heaving them up onto a scaffold platform, mixing the cement and hauling it in another wheelbarrow as needed. Not complex work, but extremely labor-intensive especially when working full-time jobs at the same time.....

[Alfisti]

Whooooooooooa there on the toilet. Now, back in the day changing a toilet only had one real challenge and that was to ensure you land it right on the wax ring correctly and don't smoosh it to correct your mistake.

Now, this was when the bolts and bolt holes were visible. With modern "easy clean" toilets, all the hardware is hidden. So you are standing there with a fucking 100 pound toilet, trying to line up bolts you cannot fucking see on a wax ring you have one shot at.

I managed to do it but man I was shaking like a dog shitting razor blades.

[buldogge]

Originally Posted by Alfisti

Whooooooooooa there on the toilet. Now, back in the day changing a toilet only had one real challenge and that was to ensure you land it right on the wax ring correctly and don't smoosh it to correct your mistake.

Now, this was when the bolts and bolt holes were visible. With modern "easy clean" toilets, all the hardware is hidden. So you are standing there with a fucking 100 pound toilet, trying to line up bolts you cannot fucking see on a wax ring you have one shot at.

I managed to do it but man I was shaking like a dog shitting razor blades.

Not sure which brand you were messing with...but...with the Toto UniFit system, it is actually easier, as you set the wax ring with the adapter/unifit, and then you just set the toilet down on that, with no risk of dislodging/moving the wax ring.

You also get to shim/level the bowl, if necessary, without worry of upsetting the ring, as well.

I just set a Toto Aquia IV a few days ago...slowly creeping towards the finish line on our 3rd FL bath...

-Mark in St. Louis

[Alfisti]

American standard. They have been outstanding toilets, only ones since I have been in this country not to constantly clog (Why is the piping so fucking narrow in north america? A decent taco and fuck, all hell breaks loose).

[pennsiveguy]

Originally Posted by Turkish Pickle

Those who work on their homes - what is one thing you wouldn't ever do yourself?

Related: how hard is it to change the toilet bowl? Renovating the bathroom doesnt sound like it'd be too hard (tile, new vanity etc) but I don't know how worth it'd be if I did it myself vs paid someone to install.

I'm generally fearless when it comes to most DIY projects. I was working for my parents flipping (long before such a term existed) houses when I was 12-13 years old. Did my first tear-off and re-roof at the age of 14, on a 100-year-old 2-story house. I completely re-wired and re-plumbed a 4K sq/ft Victorian 3-story house back in the '90s. I've done a couple of 5000 sqft+ concrete flat-work pours with power trowel finishing. There's little that I haven't tackled when it comes to construction or remodelling.

But the one thing I won't f*ck with is torsional garage door springs. Those f*ckers will take an arm off in the blink of an eye. And be jubilant about having done it. There are professional garage door companies all over town, and I'll happily pay any one of them to putz with those springs whenever I need one fixed or replaced.

[Alfisti]

Yeah i ain't touching that shit. I've seen them snap and FMD, like a gun shot.

[pennsiveguy]

Originally Posted by Turkish Pickle

Those who work on their homes - what is one thing you wouldn't ever do yourself?

Related: how hard is it to change the toilet bowl? Renovating the bathroom doesnt sound like it'd be too hard (tile, new vanity etc) but I don't know how worth it'd be if I did it myself vs paid someone to install.

My girlfriend, a Special Education teacher, just last weekend swapped in a whole new toilet. Without telling me that she was going to, or asking me how to do it. Let that be an inspiration to you.

[ToddBlack88]

Originally Posted by Turkish Pickle

Those who work on their homes - what is one thing you wouldn't ever do yourself?

Related: how hard is it to change the toilet bowl? Renovating the bathroom doesnt sound like it'd be too hard (tile, new vanity etc) but I don't know how worth it'd be if I did it myself vs paid someone to install.

I have done pretty much everything when it comes to home construction, and hold a few trade tickets.

The one thing I won’t do anymore, is large project drywall finishing. I can do it but I am slow and a perfectionist, so I find it’s better for me to pay a pro to do it in a third the time, while I go do what I do to pay for it in a quarter the time.

[hooligan_E84]

Originally Posted by Alfisti

Whooooooooooa there on the toilet. Now, back in the day changing a toilet only had one real challenge and that was to ensure you land it right on the wax ring correctly and don't smoosh it to correct your mistake.

Now, this was when the bolts and bolt holes were visible. With modern "easy clean" toilets, all the hardware is hidden. So you are standing there with a fucking 100 pound toilet, trying to line up bolts you cannot fucking see on a wax ring you have one shot at.

I managed to do it but man I was shaking like a dog shitting razor blades.

Not all modern toilets are skirted, dude.

However, when you're talking about skirted toilets, I agree.

[Alfisti]

Originally Posted by hooligan_E84

Not all modern toilets are skirted, dude.

I realise that but they do look better and if men are in the house, way easier to keep clean.

[cmyx6go]

Originally Posted by Alfisti

Whooooooooooa there on the toilet. Now, back in the day changing a toilet only had one real challenge and that was to ensure you land it right on the wax ring correctly and don't smoosh it to correct your mistake.

Now, this was when the bolts and bolt holes were visible. With modern "easy clean" toilets, all the hardware is hidden. So you are standing there with a fucking 100 pound toilet, trying to line up bolts you cannot fucking see on a wax ring you have one shot at.

I managed to do it but man I was shaking like a dog shitting razor blades.

Originally Posted by Alfisti

American standard. They have been outstanding toilets, only ones since I have been in this country not to constantly clog (Why is the piping so fucking narrow in north america? A decent taco and fuck, all hell breaks loose).

I think I'm in love! Someone else uses fuck the same way I do.

Carry on

[Alfisti]

I'm australian, we use the C word just as much but I refrain here.

[Patrick303]

Originally Posted by lsturbointeg

Love the exposed ceiling painted black!!!

[Alfisti]

So how do you blokes get the time to do all this work? My missus would go absolutely ballistic if I spent time doing all this stuff 'cos she would have to watch the kids.

[cmyx6go]

Originally Posted by Alfisti

I'm australian, we use the C word just as much but I refrain here.

That is one word I never use.

[pennsiveguy]

Originally Posted by Alfisti

So how do you blokes get the time to do all this work? My missus would go absolutely ballistic if I spent time doing all this stuff 'cos she would have to watch the kids.

I spent every non-work minute of the first 2 weeks of my first marriage - right after we moved into the new house we built - fixing the shitty drywall job the contractor had done in the 3-1/2 stall garage. And putting corner bead on all the corners, and j-bead on the exposed edges. And poly-ing the floor and then spraying three coats of primer and paint. And then peeling up the poly and epoxy coating the floor. While she stomped around the house and pouted and sulked.

It kinda set the tone of the marriage. It was pretty much over before it began.

But the house turned out fucking great!

[vreihen16]

Originally Posted by Alfisti

With modern "easy clean" toilets, all the hardware is hidden. So you are standing there with a fucking 100 pound toilet, trying to line up bolts you cannot fucking see on a wax ring you have one shot at.

Leave it up to those pesky Americans to come up with a reusable synthetic toilet seal:

[vreihen16]

My DW and I are in the early planning phase for building our retirement all steel barndominium. One thing that I will not compromise on is a commercial-grade, rear-exit toilet, with an electronic Sloan-type valve to flush it. No way am I ever going to wait for a residential toilet tank to re-fill! Bombs away woosh, wait 5 seconds, ready to fire again. I want the mother-of-all toilets that even puts Al Bundy's mighty Ferguson to shame.....