Building a stick frame house in the woods in 90 days

[pacerron]

Peter,
The gate is looking good.
One suggestion I might make from looking at the 1st picture, concerning "curb appeal".
The gate looks like it is lonely as in, where's the fence?
We know you have the 8' deer/dog fence coming to it but that doesn't make the picture.
You might consider, just for looks, "curb appeal" putting a few sections of 4 foot high fence out from each side of the columns
in front of the deer/dog fence. Perhaps to where the trees start.
It could be either wooden rail, stained or the white vinyl fencing which looks great if you rinse the bird dung off it occasionally.
It looks like your mom has been busy planting bushes and putting in other landscape features. Hope to see pictures of them and the back yard soon.
Ron

 

[murphy1244]

Peter,
The gate is looking good.
One suggestion I might make from looking at the 1st picture, concerning "curb appeal".
The gate looks like it is lonely as in, where's the fence?
We know you have the 8' deer/dog fence coming to it but that doesn't make the picture.
You might consider, just for looks, "curb appeal" putting a few sections of 4 foot high fence out from each side of the columns
in front of the deer/dog fence. Perhaps to where the trees start.
It could be either wooden rail, stained or the white vinyl fencing which looks great if you rinse the bird dung off it occasionally.
It looks like your mom has been busy planting bushes and putting in other landscape features. Hope to see pictures of them and the back yard soon.
Ron

Your right, that gate is missing something. Its just there and square.

 

[murphy1244]

Peter,
The gate is looking good.
One suggestion I might make from looking at the 1st picture, concerning "curb appeal".
The gate looks like it is lonely as in, where's the fence?
We know you have the 8' deer/dog fence coming to it but that doesn't make the picture.
You might consider, just for looks, "curb appeal" putting a few sections of 4 foot high fence out from each side of the columns
in front of the deer/dog fence. Perhaps to where the trees start.
It could be either wooden rail, stained or the white vinyl fencing which looks great if you rinse the bird dung off it occasionally.
It looks like your mom has been busy planting bushes and putting in other landscape features. Hope to see pictures of them and the back yard soon.
Ron

Your right, that gate is missing something. Its just there and square.

 

[FairfaxStu]

Ron:

You are right, the fence is there but since it is a deer fence, it is really hard to see in the pics. A few sections of vinyl fencing would look pretty darn good and add more privacy. The one thing I noticed is that crude sign with the house number/address on it. I think it may look cool to buy some of those large numbers from Home Depot/Lowes in black and add them to the column itself. Potentially, they could be attached with my favorite adhesive, clear silicone.
-Stu

 

[pacerron]

Ron:

You are right, the fence is there but since it is a deer fence, it is really hard to see in the pics. A few sections of vinyl fencing would look pretty darn good and add more privacy. The one thing I noticed is that crude sign with the house number/address on it. I think it may look cool to buy some of those large numbers from Home Depot/Lowes in black and add them to the column itself. Potentially, they could be attached with my favorite adhesive, clear silicone.
-Stu

Stu,
The vinyl stuff comes in colors now and even has wood grain. There are sites on the net that have you download a bit of software so you can design and see what various fences look like on your property.
I think Peter addressed the house number issue above.
Have you vented your soffits yet?
Ron

 

[FairfaxStu]

Not yet Ron. The City of Fairfax was kind enough to send me a doozy of a personal property tax bill and I am battling a washing machine drain issue that may cost a fortune as well. Like they say, "if it not one thing, it is another".
-Stu

 

[FairfaxStu]

Not yet Ron. The City of Fairfax was kind enough to send me a doozy of a personal property tax bill and I am battling a washing machine drain issue that may cost a fortune as well. Like they say, "if it not one thing, it is another".
-Stu

Attached is a picture of my drainline for the washer that I installed way back in '97. When I previously briefly hijacked this thread for my soffit vent question, I got some really good suggestions. While not optimal, the setup in the picture has worked fine for nearly 16 years.

I suspect the issue is with a combination of liquid fabric softener and hair at some place in the PCV piping I installed. As such, I have used an entire 32 Oz. bottle of some seriously strong drain cleaner - it came as a bottle packaged within a bag. I am going to let that sit overnight and rinse with hot water tomorrow.

If any of you plumber types has clever suggestion, I would greatly appreciate it. The next step, as I figure it, is to get my large snake out and try that. The problem is that my snake is quite large so I am not sure that I could push it beyond the trap.
-Stu

 

[pacerron]

Attached is a picture of my drainline for the washer that I installed way back in '97. When I previously briefly hijacked this thread for my soffit vent question, I got some really good suggestions. While not optimal, the setup in the picture has worked fine for nearly 16 years.

I suspect the issue is with a combination of liquid fabric softener and hair at some place in the PCV piping I installed. As such, I have used an entire 32 Oz. bottle of some seriously strong drain cleaner - it came as a bottle packaged within a bag. I am going to let that sit overnight and rinse with hot water tomorrow.

If any of you plumber types has clever suggestion, I would greatly appreciate it. The next step, as I figure it, is to get my large snake out and try that. The problem is that my snake is quite large so I am not sure that I could push it beyond the trap.
-Stu

Stu,
Is this laundry closet on the main floor of the house? Looks like concrete block on the outside wall.
Is there a basement or crawl space under the floor where the pipe goes down?

If the drain cleaner doesn't work and doesn't eat your pipes you might try an electric fish tape or a piece of solid copper wire if you have them.
The problem may move to an underground part of the pipe if/when you break the clog loose.
In any case, be careful of working on the pipe with the chemical drain cleaner still in it. Wear goggles and rubber gloves.
Since the vertical pipe has a rubber cheater sleeve connection on it, you might take that apart to see if the vertical drop is still clear.
If it is clear and snaking past the trap doesn't work, you may have to cut off the horizontal run with the trap and replace it. You can do it.
Ron

 

[dave1949]

Stu,

You could replace the trap with a cleanable trap--if that isn't one. Use the cut where that fernco is installed to put in a clean-out wye?

 

[FairfaxStu]

Ron, what looks like a concrete wall is actually the bathroom on the other side and yes it is on the first and only level of the house. It is one of the old ones that used wire mesh and metal to set the tiles in. I have a conditioned crawlspace beneath. This drain dumps into a 4" CI main drain - I think it is only 1.5" PVC.

To be clear, I don't really have a clog per se. Instead, I have an obstruction of some sort that does not allow the water to drain quickly enough. These modern front loading washing machines dump water at a scary fast rate.

Dave, thanks for the tip. I am not clear on how that would work since this is in the wall and covered by drywall.

Now that I look at the pics I took so many years ago, I am not sure why I chose to tie into that drain (vanity sink on the other side) as opposed to the main vent pipe which is literally right there next to it. Either it is an optical illusion or that is a larger pipe anyway.
-Stu