Are there any home or auto repairs you haven’t gotten done because you’re unsure who to contract to do them? List them here.
Do you know the answer? Please advise!
The house has vinyl siding and three or four pieces of it need to be replaced because they were damaged in a winter storm. I have the pieces needed - there’s a box of siding in the basement. If I needed all the siding replaced I’d know where to start, but this is a very small job and I don’t know who would be interested in doing it. Any ideas?
We have some depressions in the yard that need some fill and bobcatting.
Easy, right? Call some landscape companies, call a fill dirt place, go to the local fill and other materials place, put an ad online at the usual places.
Nada. Landscape companies either are into mowing lawns or big renewal jobs that are a minimum $2k. Fill dirt places are for filling BIG holes. And on and on.
Dozens of calls, emails, etc. And haven’t found a single place that does this. Not one.
I have a hot tub in my backyard that has spent most of the last decade unused and in disrepair. I poured the slab upon which it sits, and had it delivered before I had the backyard fenced in. I doubt that it would even fit through the gate in the fence, if I were to have it removed. That is not a concern, though, beause I first have no idea who would perform such a task. So I bought a sawsall, and I’m going to chop it up and dispose of it piece by piece in my weekly garbage pickup.
We’re having multiple projects done (long story), and it happened to be the concrete guy who had the bobcat and the willingness to do a small fill-related job kind of like the one you need.
Not sure if this helps. Maybe you have some larger project that needs doing, that happens to require the right equipment, and they could tack this on?
The rack of pegs that our winter coats hang on fall off the concrete wall. I have no idea how to fix that, and I’m sure i can’t find a contractor. I’m thinking I’ll cover the bolts that fell out with except and shove them back in?
A friend of mine was in your situation, so he bought a used bobcat. He let me play around with it, it’s really cool. He keeps his eye out for small jobs he could do with it. He recently helped with the demolition of an old house that had caught fire a few years ago.
Know anyone with a bobcat? Maybe place an ad on Craigslist or at a local Tractor Supply type store?
Is it a wooden fence? If it is, you can very easily take out and replace a section between two posts. In fact, when I had mine put up, I specifically made sure that at least one of the sections was wide enough to get a bobcat through it. It made put in a patio a few years later a lot easier in the [same] person installing it.
My local Taylor rental rents little backhoes. A friend had a blast with the rental when he wanted to level his yard. I think a lot of home Depots rent them, too.
I can’t quote thse who’ve responded to me for some reason.
I’ve already begun the dismantling process. Last summer I drilled holes in the tub to try and allieviate the collection of rainwater. Wasps have made a home in the cover, the dials and knobs are crumbling away- it’s in bad shape. I have removed all of the wiring, anything electrical, and it is disconnected from yhe main electric supply. I have 2 of the side panels removed, and am digging away at all of the insulation in there, to get a good look at what I’ll be cutting with the sawsall. I have torn out and thrown away the stereo, and I have given away the 2 large pump motors that I’m pretty sure still work (and move A LOT of water).
I’m in for a penny, in for a pound at this point. One of these days I am going to complete the cutting up into little pieces of this thing.
A friend had an old dead hot tub that was finally removed when a contractor left a trash truck on their driveway for too long after completing re-doing their roof. They decided if he wasn’t going to remove it promptly, they would fill it. And so they did. I think they only had to cut the hot tub into 3 pieces to fit it in the truck.
Same thing here. I finally found a roofing company that was willing to do it while also doing some other roofing repairs, which added up to a days work. They were very reluctant, but finally agreed as long as they didn’t have to do any electrical work. I should have made them stick to the “no electrical” promise, because the guy thought he was being helpful by wiring it up. As best I can tell, he just connected wires randomly. Once I rewired it correctly it worked fine.
I had a terrible time finding somebody to move an unused 220 dryer outlet to my garage for car charging. The response I got from electricians were “if I have some time between jobs I’ll call you,” ghosting me, “we only do new construction now,” etc. I finally found an apprentice electrician who was willing to do it. That was a mistake, because never hire an electrician who doesn’t know what a NEMA 10-30 outlet is.
If it were me, I would move the rack slightly so I could drill new holes and install the rack with Tapcon screws. You just need a masonry drill bit, which will cost a few bucks.
ETA: oh, you probably also need a hammer drill. Good investment if you work with concrete often, otherwise maybe borrow or rent one.
Know a good realtor? That’s how we contract most of our small stuff. She is a contractor herself, and has a list of reliable people she uses and recommends.
We’re in an 80 year old house on a hill that’s settled. One of the exterior doors on the downslope side sticks to an unreasonable degree due to the frame being out of true. It would probably take a carpenter about 30 minutes to rehang it.
Our local Home Depot maintains a job board for small jobs. I purchased a couple of light fixtures from them and asked the service desk if they knew someone who could install for me - all I needed was someone to remove the current fixtures and put the new ones in (we don’t mess with electrical stuff here - pros only). They told me they could post it on the board and I’d get a call from a qualified place if there was interest. Two days later, I got a call and got my new fixtures put in. I’ve also got that firm’s contact info so I can call them for anything new that comes up.
The new conundrum here is a place to fix our roof antenna. The time is coming where I think we are going to want to cut the TV cord (in our case it’s satellite since we live in the semi-sticks). Our house already has a roof antenna, but the directional rotor on it is broken. There are streaming services that will get us most of what we want, but we watch a lot of PBS and that’s what we’ll need the antenna for. I’ve got contact info for one company about 40 miles away who can do the work, but whether they’ll be around or willing to do the work when the time comes is the question.
