Classic Hifi Care

New garage door, $10,000. A wany soffett board replacement, $10,000. Roots in the sewer pipe (there were no roots, there isn't a tree within 50 feet), $10,000. Repaint the house with ceramic coating, $10,000. Replace the mini split system on the shop (all that was wrong with the one that's there was low refrigerant, Recharged and worked well all summer) $10,000. To touch up the 29-year old paint job on the Buick, then "wheel" the finish, $10,000. Replace the air conditioner on the house, since this one is "getting old" just for grins, $10,000. These people must think I look rich or just plain daft.......

Everything is expensive, but from what other people tell me, it seems to be more expensive on either coast than here in little ole' Hart Michigan. The last thing that I spent $10,000.00 on was the roof, and it is a big roof, and that was 9 years ago. My neighbor across the street just had a roof put on this past summer, slightly smaller roof than mine and it cost her $18,000.00. Ouch!

Bill

These are projects we have had done in the past, for much lower prices than what we were initially quoted. You have to be careful anymore, particularly if you are a senior citizen. Old people are fair game for the spank, the upsell.

I'm taking care of my elderly step-Mom, and I'm watching her go through this too. I do what I can- I fixed the roof, replaced all of the soffit boards, and I am rebuilding the deck. She has had to shell out $5000 to replace the main circuit panel that was woefully unsafe in her 1964 house. Then another $5000 for a new central air condenser unit and evaporator coils. Sewer backed up, and $500 to auger that out. (clog was 50 feet in or I would have gotten it.) Even being handy and trying to minimize the costs, anything professional is becoming mega bucks. Or rather, I should say that our dollar is becoming worthless. The dollar is the new quarter. Wages stay pretty much the same, and costs double. How long can we keep that up? I really worry about the world our kids will inherit.

I do what I can, but I'm not 35 anymore. I have to remember I am too old to do a lot of this work. My next project I shouldn't mess with is to remove the drywall in the garage to insulate the walls. You would think that if they insulate the house when they build it, they would also insulate an attached garage. Nope. That is an upgrade. Costs extra, not required by building codes. Guess what they want to do that? Yep, $10,000. I think I can do it in a week and not overdo it. I put 160 sheets of drywall in our house in Missouri. This will take about 18 sheets, give or take. I put in two new toilets a couple months ago. They wanted $2500 apiece to do that. I put in TOTL American Standard models in, the best we could buy, for less than $500. The problem with doing any kind of demolition is that there is no place to get rid of the debris. You have to pile it on the end of your driveway for the "uncontained trash" people to pick it up. I set the two toilets out for the trash people and somebody took them before the trash people came. I think I can do the rotten soffett boards myself. My main concern is that the flat roof on the patio may be impacted and I'm not sure how to handle that. My neighbor gets his stuff done by the "beer thirty" method, something I usually would not consider. I might in this case. The bad board is on the patio. There are no rain gutters, so when it does rain, the water stands on the corner of the flat roof, and it takes a long time for that board to dry. Then it rots in the sun. It is a 2X which I can replace with vinyl.

I need some work done to my house but there's no way that I'm going to pay the inflated prices to get it done.

I put a 30 year asphalt shingle roof on my house 20 years ago and it is showing quite a bit of wear and needs to be done again. I'm undecided on putting a metal roof on or putting on another asphalt shingle roof. If I put an asphalt roof one I'll probably use a nail gun even though I don't want to. My plan is to do it next year. Whether or not that happens depends on my health. I put a new roof on my garage a few years ago so that should be the last one that it needs. Either way, my son will help me and that will help me out a lot.

I've gone through life doing almost all maintenance myself.

Our house is fairly young yet, so it is in pretty good shape. The soffett board is something I have been watching. The house was built in 2008, we bought it on a short sale in 2012. That soffett board was soft when we got the house. They want $30,000 to remove the flat roof and put on a peaked roof like the house, so that won't happen. The patio is 12'X20'. The plan right now is to cut out the bad part of the soffett, then put in a patch. The metal starter strip along the edge is the fly in the ointment. I don't know what to do with that. I'll get a bucket of "roof mop goo" and spread it on the roof where I do the work. I'll cut the soffett board between joists, kluge in a cripple, then put a new vinyl board in the breach. I did this process in Missouri one time and it worked well. We had a metal roof in Missouri. They are starting to use those here as well. Looks like they would get awfully hot out here, but people who have metal roofs like them. I think I'd recommend one if you are looking for a recommendation.

Metal roofs are great, but like very thing else it just depends on who does the installation. There are a couple of different ways to install, and the one I like is the one where you do not see any of the screws. To me, if you can see the screws at some point that gasket that is under the screw will fail and then you will have a leak. My cousin had a metal roof put on a couple of years ago, the Amish did it and all the screws are hidden. It looks great, a nice clean look.

Bill

I'll have to check into the metal roof that doesn't have the screws showing.

Traditional standing-seam roofs used clips that were covered by subsequent rook panels. Really good ones were soldered. Not a job for your Weller gun....

Chris Campbell