In the garden, and RAIN!!!!
POSTED BY: SIGNYM
UPDATED: Thursday, December 25, 2025 04:27
VIEWED: 1005090
PAGE 307 of 1154
Quote:Yeah, I haven't delved into that kind of door - yet. I may at some point. The security screen door I had put in (so my cat wouldn't rip his way out through the screen, like he did with the window) is metal-framed with heavy-duty stainless steel screening. The inner door is a solid wood door I got MANY years ago for really cheap because the bottom panel had a crack in it. And as they say - putty and paint are what a carpenter ain't. But maybe when I get around to doing some more of that kind of work, I'll run into the same kind of frustration with the same kind of built-to-be-shoddy - and yet expensive! - products.
Originally posted by 1KIKI:Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
Oh... I agree.
That's why I was getting pretty pissed off when I saw that screen doors over $300 still had an MDF core. I don't get it.
Makes sense when you're buying a bottom of the barrel $80 door, but I think anything above $250 should have at least plywood. Once you start getting to $300 and $400 and beyond it should be solid wood, IMO.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
Well I've got until spring to figure out what I'm going to do now. I obviously can't buy it at Menards since none of them will fit, and as far as I know the only Big Box store to carry them in a size that will is Home Depot. Those doors don't seem any better than what Menards had.
It may be the same case here as it is with buying gutters. The gutters at Big Box stores aren't only crappy because you have to join all the seams, but they're smaller, of lousier construction, and they actually cost more than having a place that specializes in aluminum coming out to your house and running the exact lengths you need of high quality larger ones.
I'm going to get another quote together for the gutters soon, and when I'm talking to them I'm going to ask if they sell doors or know anybody they would recommend.
If I find a better option, I'll be sure to let you know.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
We used to have a big hardware store nearby that sold solid fir multi-light doors that Home Depot drove out of business. Tried to get the same kind of door at Home Depot, all they had was the MDF crap. We would have to get custom-made doors to find the equivalent.
Yeah... Like I said to Kiki above, I'm going to see what my options are outside of Big Box stores... if there even are any. I probably better get those gutters up before they put the little guy with the far better product out of business too.
Quote:
Even the plywood is crap. Hubby delegated me to buy 2x4s and plywood for the bed platforms (twinned together support a king-sized mattress, I have to say it turned out FABULOUS, and he built them in three days!) so I got the best 2x4s I could find (prime, dried ... have you ever touched the other construction lumber? It's literally wet!) ...
Yes. The lumber can be quite wet. Usually the regular stuff isn't, but the green stuff always was. In fact, we were going to use construction glue when we did the work, but it wasn't sticking. We thought at first it might be a VOC issue and they just didn't make it good like they used to. It turns out that you can't glue green wood. There are supposedly glues out there by companies like Gorilla that are designed for this task, but the reviews are mixed and I wasn't willing to pay 6 times as much per tube for something that likely wasn't going to do anything over the long haul.
If you're finding the non-treated lumber to be wet though, I'd look to other places to buy it, or at least try to contact a professional to see if that's normal in your climate. None of our non-treated lumber was wet to the touch.
Quote:
but even in the "prime" stack it was hard to find two pieces that didn't have big knots, or bark still attached, or big cracks or huge twist/cupping/bowing or other serious flaws. I'm thinking that the "good wood" accounted for something like 5% of the stack cause we looked thru about 50 pieces to find two good ones, and we had to do that several times to get six pieces, and sometimes we didn't get any at all it was just so crappy.
Took a look at the 3/4 plywood which was just awful - full of voids - and got the "furniture grade" plywood. It looks better than construction material, but it's not even 3/4" its 19/32, and when we went to cut it the wood was so soft it broke out on cutting and sanding and was just plain furry. It could have been grown for paper-making for all I know, it was the softest wood I've even seen.
Just for kicks I looked at the 2X10s (16'), and saw only one good piece out of maybe ten, the rest had giant cracks in them that were maybe 1/8" wide at the widest and that ran at least 3'.
I dunno SIX, does the west coast have crappier lumber because we're in the middle of a housing/ renovation boom, and demand is outstripping supply? Or is this just a Home Depot problem? Or is this a nationwide phenomenon? Or am I just being picky?
Next time I go to Home Depot I'll count up the number of voids in the 3/4 plywood, and you tell me ... what's going on here?
Our plywood had a lot of voids. My friend wasn't too happy when he saw it, but I told him that my brother and I were getting the stuff while it was raining heavily outside and even though we threw at least a dozen or two boards to the side to get the ones we got, those were the best ones we were going to find.
For sub flooring, it doesn't really matter. We just needed to be careful that we picked suitable pieces for the ones we were going to cut and that we weren't going to put any of the voids directly on a cut where they'd join to another piece.
As for counting, which I didn't, I'd guess the worst one had something like 16 to 20 of them. They are usually very uniform when you get them, almost in a grid. At least that was my experience with the on
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Quote:Well, bon chance on your trek thru the other city. I hope you get thru the trip ok without too many hassles and that your hearing aids are all properly adjusted and that they work great!
Originally posted by Brenda:Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:Quote:Hmmm... but I get the feeling that things bother you. You shouldn't have to live your life in quiet resentment. Not only is it bad for you, it poisons your relationships. So somewhere between staying quiet and being an aggressive a-hole is a happy medium where you stick up for yourself without being a jerk. It's a hard line to find and most people spend their whole lives not finding that balance, but it's definitely something positive to work towards.
Originally posted by Brenda:
No worries anybody. It's life and I can't do much about it or people.
Just a thought.
True enough. But I have one thing looming on the horizon for tomorrow. How to get to my hearing aide appointment in another city with a possible bus strike.
-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake
You idiots have been oppressing the entire sexual spectrum as long as you have existed. I can't wait for the day your kind is dead - WISHIMAY
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Hey Signy (and Jack)
FWIW here's my take on "Big Box stores".
To me, of the 2 big box stores I have experience with, Lowe's is FAR superior to Home Depot. But as stores to buy from, they have their plusses and minuses. (I don't think of Ace as a big box store, and though it's expensive, I tend to go there for my home building / repair materials because they really are helpful and have the oddest things one might want, like horse-troughs. So I'm an Ace customer unless I'm in need of hard-core supplies, like sheets of drywall or lengths of crown molding.) Anyway, when I see the local contractors zip into Lowe's or Home Depot I understand why those stores carry what they do at the prices they are. AFAIK, contractors in general don't order their entire framing supply, or sill-plate anchors, or bricks, or re-roofing materials, or (...), from Lowe's or Home Depot. They'll either order them directly from the manufacturer (Weyerhaeuser plywood, Owens Corning COOL roof shingles) or from a licensed intermediary.
I think local contractors go to big box stores when they're short, or have a change order, or have a small project, or have some other need where they have to get something NOW - or their entire schedule, or job, goes off-track.
So big box stores are in between the mom-and-pop sundry stores and the larger construction suppliers. So they carry a lot of different kinds of things you won't find at a more strictly consumer-oriented mom-and-pop place, or Ace --- whole shelves of drywall, bins of Simpson strong-tie products, stacks of framing lumber, pre-hung doors and windows, PVC pipe and connectors, and you-do gutters. But that convenience comes at a cost for contractors and us consumer-type customers. Because those stores understand they have the contractors in a bind - buy here now, or wait days or weeks for a commercial supplier to come through. And I think that lends itself to carrying low-quality products. Buy this, or go without.
I THINK it might be especially true for things like framing lumber and plywood (and even doors and windows). A genuine lumber mill might have better, cheaper, and more. At least, when it was open, that was true of the lumber mill near me.
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Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:Quote:
Originally posted by Brenda:Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:Quote:Well, bon chance on your trek thru the other city. I hope you get thru the trip ok without too many hassles and that your hearing aids are all properly adjusted and that they work great!
Originally posted by Brenda:
-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake
You idiots have been oppressing the entire sexual spectrum as long as you have existed. I can't wait for the day your kind is dead - WISHIMAY
Thanks SIG. I gotta little help on my trek Friday. Someone who knows where I have to go to take me part way there which will be a BIG help.
I am so hoping that something can be done. I have to take them off because of a buzzing with the left one. Makes me not want to use them and I know I have to. Will let you know what happens.NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:
Originally posted by 1KIKI:
Hey Signy (and Jack)
FWIW here's my take on "Big Box stores".
To me, of the 2 big box stores I have experience with, Lowe's is FAR superior to Home Depot. But as stores to buy from, they have their plusses and minuses. (I don't think of Ace as a big box store, and though it's expensive, I tend to go there for my home building / repair materials because they really are helpful and have the oddest things one might want, like horse-troughs. So I'm an Ace customer unless I'm in need of hard-core supplies, like sheets of drywall or lengths of crown molding.) Anyway, when I see the local contractors zip into Lowe's or Home Depot I understand why those stores carry what they do at the prices they are. AFAIK, contractors in general don't order their entire framing supply, or sill-plate anchors, or bricks, or re-roofing materials, or (...), from Lowe's or Home Depot. They'll either order them directly from the manufacturer (Weyerhaeuser plywood, Owens Corning COOL roof shingles) or from a licensed intermediary.
I think local contractors go to big box stores when they're short, or have a change order, or have a small project, or have some other need where they have to get something NOW - or their entire schedule, or job, goes off-track.
So big box stores are in between the mom-and-pop sundry stores and the larger construction suppliers. So they carry a lot of different kinds of things you won't find at a more strictly consumer-oriented mom-and-pop place, or Ace --- whole shelves of drywall, bins of Simpson strong-tie products, stacks of framing lumber, pre-hung doors and windows, PVC pipe and connectors, and you-do gutters. But that convenience comes at a cost for contractors and us consumer-type customers. Because those stores understand they have the contractors in a bind - buy here now, or wait days or weeks for a commercial supplier to come through. And I think that lends itself to carrying low-quality products. Buy this, or go without.
I THINK it might be especially true for things like framing lumber and plywood (and even doors and windows). A genuine lumber mill might have better, cheaper, and more. At least, when it was open, that was true of the lumber mill near me.
They don't have any ACE Hardware by me. I'll bet they used to, but just like where I grew up all of them are gone. I only know of one left that I grew up with in the south suburbs by my grams house. Too far to drive when I need little things. And yeah, they are quite a bit more expensive.
I do miss ACE when I need cheap keys cut though. The locksmith by me is really expensive, and those key cutting kiosks the big box stores have simply don't work at all. The technology isn't there yet.
Recently I had to drive to a Menards that was further away from my house for one of the jacks we used. That store is monstrous. Two full stories with escalators and and elevator. I'd never seen a big box store that big by quite a margin. If I wasn't in a hurry that day I could have spent all day in heaven.
But yeah... my guess is that contractors generally get the higher quality stuff first at discount prices for buying in bulk and then the big box stores in the area get the refuse. There is quality control though, so it's not as if the lumber is shit or anything. You might have to do a bit of digging on occasion, but everything we got was fine. My friend was being nitpicky about the plywood. You're not finishing stuff with that material. It's meant for underlayment.
The door situation kind of annoys me though. Even though I now know that the door was destroyed by the elements because the idiots broke the seal and sawed off the bottom of the MDF and cobbled it back together, I don't think anything 100% free of wood core is going to hold up for decades, let alone MDF or even plywood. Honestly, I'd be much more inclined to buy something that was straight aluminum or
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Off soon to hopefully get my hearing aides straightened out.
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Well, problem with hearing aides is some me and some my ears. My ears there isn't much that can be done. With me, I have to be more careful when I am putting them into my ears and make sure that they are in secure.
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Been watching vids using scenes from the Netflix, I think show "Good Omens". It is based on a book and my library has a copy of the book. After seeing the vids, I have to read this.
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I hope that fixes the problem considerably, Brenda! 
And if you find the book, maybe you could let us know some more about it!
Quote:
Originally posted by Brenda:
Well, problem with hearing aides is some me and some my ears. My ears there isn't much that can be done. With me, I have to be more careful when I am putting them into my ears and make sure that they are in secure.
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