In the garden, and RAIN!!!!
POSTED BY: SIGNYM
UPDATED: Thursday, December 25, 2025 04:27
VIEWED: 1005090
PAGE 169 of 1154
The ant stuff from Home Depot always worked fine for me, it seemed. Almost forgot that I had those issues, until you posted this. I also head about some trick, to put a line of something across their trail, which they then can't find how to cross. Maybe it was salt, or lime, or talc powder, lemon juice, can't recall.
Have you looked into mud-jacking? It hydraulically raises concrete slabs or other pavement or structures.
Not sure how much it costs, but supposedly much much cheaper than paying for a new slab of concrete, so it might be worth it to you to check. Not for you to do, but have somebody do it for you.
I don't get why you haven't done gutters. I called around, checked prices, had a guy bring his crew at his convenience, put seamless gutters on both sides of my house, 4 levels of roof eaves, connected them all, sloped them all, with downspouts, for about $350 cash. While I watched. I didn't really even need it on one side, which was lined with the driveway the whole way, but still worth the little cost.
Give your nearest cheap guy a month to pick his day, for the cheapest price.
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Quote:
Originally posted by JEWELSTAITEFAN:
The ant stuff from Home Depot always worked fine for me, it seemed. Almost forgot that I had those issues, until you posted this. I also head about some trick, to put a line of something across their trail, which they then can't find how to cross. Maybe it was salt, or lime, or talc powder, lemon juice, can't recall.
I've been using Amdro Ant Block, mainly. It's a marvelous product. Putting it down around the perimeter of my house kept them out almost immediately. Above the concrete slab where I had seen no less than 4 constant lines of ants coming to and from the house in front, the very next day the activity was halted completely and thousands of ants lie dead around the stuff.
Just last week, I also added a few gallons of the spray killer for the perimeter of houses to the mix. As far as I know now, there is no ant activity in the house or even the porch. Since the porch is exposed almost entirely now, I don't see any evidence of live ants there.
That's not the problem though. They're EVERYWHERE. My idiot neighbor told me years ago when I first noticed evidence of problems that he couldn't afford to pay the Orkin man who wanted thousands of dollars to put several subterranian treatments all around his house. He said his entire back yard was like a sponge to walk on. This year, I've noticed that the entire path around those winding stone pavers in front of my house is spongy and has risen. Over the last two years they've destroyed the paver patio on the back (again, something I thought was ugly as hell and always wanted to tear up and replace with other pavers or just gravel or river rock anyhow, but nothing I'm going to sink money into until I know the ants are gone).
While mowing last week I also noticed spots easily 100 ft from the house that seem infested too. These are in spots where there used to be trees that were cut down prior to my moving in.
Activity on the pavers seems to be down so far this spring with the vast amounts of poison and the early start I've gotten, but then again, as you know, it's still dipping down to some quite seasonably cold temps at night this far north and that may have more to do with it than the poison.
Quote:
Have you looked into mud-jacking? It hydraulically raises concrete slabs or other pavement or structures.
Not sure how much it costs, but supposedly much much cheaper than paying for a new slab of concrete, so it might be worth it to you to check. Not for you to do, but have somebody do it for you.
I haven't. This week while I'm working I'm going to spend a few hours every day making my house spotlessly clean. I plan on calling the city the first week I'm off and hoping that some of the guys I worked with when I first bought the house are still in the building department. I'm hoping they can give me some insight and some good advice/news. I really don't know what my options are at all at this point, and since I generally expect the worst in all things, I may be making this all much worse in my mind than it actually is. I haven't been able to get my friend or his dad to check this place out yet and give me any ideas. I can't exactly be mad about that since except for 2 phone calls in the last 4-5 years I shut all of my old friends out of my life while I was drinking and haven't tried repairing those relationships to this day. He's got his own rental property that his tennants let fall to shit that he and his old man have been trying to get back up to code before a deadline the city gave him next month. I offered to help him next week when I'm off work, but with what I'm dealing with I doubt I'll be able to get them to at least scope it out before I get the city involved.
Jacking everything up might actually be a solution, if I'm allowed to have my own crew and I can get my friend and his dad to help out after it's jacked up. However I doubt I'd be willi
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Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:Quote:
Originally posted by JEWELSTAITEFAN:
The ant stuff from Home Depot always worked fine for me, it seemed. Almost forgot that I had those issues, until you posted this. I also head about some trick, to put a line of something across their trail, which they then can't find how to cross. Maybe it was salt, or lime, or talc powder, lemon juice, can't recall.
I've been using Amdro Ant Block, mainly. It's a marvelous product. Putting it down around the perimeter of my house kept them out almost immediately. Above the concrete slab where I had seen no less than 4 constant lines of ants coming to and from the house in front, the very next day the activity was halted completely and thousands of ants lie dead around the stuff.
Just last week, I also added a few gallons of the spray killer for the perimeter of houses to the mix. As far as I know now, there is no ant activity in the house or even the porch. Since the porch is exposed almost entirely now, I don't see any evidence of live ants there.
That's not the problem though. They're EVERYWHERE. My idiot neighbor told me years ago when I first noticed evidence of problems that he couldn't afford to pay the Orkin man who wanted thousands of dollars to put several subterranian treatments all around his house. He said his entire back yard was like a sponge to walk on. This year, I've noticed that the entire path around those winding stone pavers in front of my house is spongy and has risen. Over the last two years they've destroyed the paver patio on the back (again, something I thought was ugly as hell and always wanted to tear up and replace with other pavers or just gravel or river rock anyhow, but nothing I'm going to sink money into until I know the ants are gone).
While mowing last week I also noticed spots easily 100 ft from the house that seem infested too. These are in spots where there used to be trees that were cut down prior to my moving in.
Activity on the pavers seems to be down so far this spring with the vast amounts of poison and the early start I've gotten, but then again, as you know, it's still dipping down to some quite seasonably cold temps at night this far north and that may have more to do with it than the poison.Quote:
Have you looked into mud-jacking? It hydraulically raises concrete slabs or other pavement or structures.
Not sure how much it costs, but supposedly much much cheaper than paying for a new slab of concrete, so it might be worth it to you to check. Not for you to do, but have somebody do it for you.
I haven't. This week while I'm working I'm going to spend a few hours every day making my house spotlessly clean. I plan on calling the city the first week I'm off and hoping that some of the guys I worked with when I first bought the house are still in the building department. I'm hoping they can give me some insight and some good advice/news. I really don't know what my options are at all at this point, and since I generally expect the worst in all things, I may be making this all much worse in my mind than it actually is. I haven't been able to get my friend or his dad to check this place out yet and give me any ideas. I can't exactly be mad about that since except for 2 phone calls in the last 4-5 years I shut all of my old friends out of my life while I was drinking and haven't tried repairing those relationships to this day. He's got his own rental property that his tennants let fall to shit that he and his old man have been trying to get back up to code before a deadline the city gave him next month. I offered to help him next week when I'm off work, but with what I'm dealing with I doubt I'll be able to get them to at least scope it out before I get the city involved.
Jacking everything up might actually be a solution, if I'm allowed to have my own crew and I can get my friend and his dad to help out after it's jackeNOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:
Originally posted by JEWELSTAITEFAN:
I don't think you understand mud-jacking. It would level everything for you, without digging or whatever.
I don't honestly know what mud-jacking is. My porch is attached to the house, with a huge 15'x15' hole that's around 3 1/2 feet deep that extends the crawl space of the house proper (although the original foundation wall was thankfully left in there, so it probably doesn't benefit directly from the sump pump like the crawl does). At the end of the porch, it is attached to a shed that is around 6'x15' that is on a busted concrete slab that has cracked and shifted considerably.
Though I've checked for level all over the house and it passes, there is a considerable downward grade from the roof of the porch all the way to the end of the shed. If I were to guess, about 90% of the weight of the entire unit is resting on that slab right now. I have to do something one way or another soon, because all signs point to the doubled up 2"x12" headers on the front and back are actually tied into the house and if the thing falls it's taking a big ass chunk of my house with it.
Quote:
Put that ant stuff we here you see them. You don't have leftovers?
I've been doing that for 3 summers now. I kill one ant hill popping up from under those pavers and 5 more pop up to replace it. It's like a demented game of wack-a-mole that you're destined to lose.
I used all I had left over from last year and another $12 bottle I bought last week already. Going to pick up more this week.
Quote:
That gutter price was for the whole deal, including whatever taxes might have been applied (I did work a discount for no receipt, cash). My house is only 40 ft long, including porch, so that is 80ft, with 4 different levels, including everything to connect them to each other, and downspouts. I did call everybody in the book, and I think had quotes around $1500. My eaves are about 15 ft up as well. Crew was about 3-4 other guys with the boss. I wanted to get them to do my other house, but my schedule didn't work out.
Yeah.... there's the difference. I need about 2/3rds as much aluminum gutter for my garage alone as you do for your house. With the porch and shed included, my guess is I'd need around 70 feet for both the front and the back, which is another 140 feet total. Two downspouts for the garage, and 5 for the house, given the way it's built.
Like I said, I don't remember the exact quote I had for the aluminum off hand, and it was a few years back so it's probably higher now, but if memory serves it was around $700. May have been $800. Whatever the exact measurements were, I compared that to smaller width, segmented gutter trash at Menards and they came in roughly 50% cheaper than buying that shit that I'd have to tie together every 10 or 12 feet or so.
Also, like I said before... WAY TOO MUCH freakin' house for one person. Let's just say I was a lot more ambitious when I was 32 years old and I still hadn't all but ruled out the idea that I might get married and have kids one day. No point in crying about bad decisions now. My next house will be 1/3rd the house and lawn that I have now.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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Job update...
Night shift is gone on the 22nd of June. Not sure what that means for everybody else, let alone my future there. I've heard that they're offering severance to night shift employees who don't come to days. That only amounts to 2 weeks pay for how long I've been there, so that's nothing. Because of the severance offer, I inquired with Number 2 about the possibility of unemployment and he said that the company has never fought it before and that even people who were fired for stealing got it.
I'm no dummy though, and with the massive changes throughout the company recently that means nothing today. It's also possible that in the fine print of the severance package that you're signing away your ability to get any unemployment as well. I wouldn't make any decisions on anything until I have all of the details.
I'm not going to like this new system no matter what happens, but my schedule means more to me right now with the house problems than it ever did before. I think my days of working 6 and being off 8 are done for, but I'm mulling over the idea of offering them weekends instead. It seems the new schedule is going to be "block scheduling" where every part and full time employee will work the exact same days and time every single week so nobody has to be in charge of scheduling anymore. I think I at least have a shot at getting this since I doubt very much the list of people offering to work every weekend is very long.
If I don't like the terms, there is always the third option of a 3 month leave of absence, unpaid. That would give me time to work on the house, while taking out a home equity line of credit for the repairs that need to be done. Also it would give me plenty of time to help my friend out with his problems and get his help with mine. I could also likely re-establish a working relationship with his dad who hasn't retired and get some work on the side in the mean time.
If I'm working part time still at this job, I may even work for free for him if we can barter for his own help with my house project.
I'm hoping that a summer of repairs is fruitful and I'm in a better position to reassess everything and make a more informed decision. I'd not like to burn my bridges with this company because there's a good likelihood that I could get a request for transfer approved if I were to move down by my brother. It wouldn't exactly be walking distance from where I'd be living, but neither is the place I'm working at now.
For better or worse, my life just got a whole lot more interesting overnight. 
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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Gotta be careful with moving boxes around here and unpacking. Succeeded in irritating both branches of my sciatic nerve over last weekend. Woke up Tuesday morning with pain in my right leg but the left was worse. Pain from my left ankle to my hip.
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Quote:Why would you be in any hurry now? Take your time, relax. Enjoy the new place.
Originally posted by Brenda:
Gotta be careful with moving boxes around here and unpacking. Succeeded in irritating both branches of my sciatic nerve over last weekend. Woke up Tuesday morning with pain in my right leg but the left was worse. Pain from my left ankle to my hip.
Do you have a view? Stairs? Laundry room? Heat?
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Hey BRENDA, welcome back! I hope the new place is everything you want it to be! I'm with JSF ... don't hurry with the unpacking. Take your time and don't tweak anything worse than it already is.
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Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake
"The messy American environment, where most people don't agree, is perfect for people like me. I CAN DO AS I PLEASE." - SECOND
America is an oligarchy http://www.fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?tid=57876 .
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Wow, SIX, you're dealing with a lot more than I can imagine, house-wise. But FWIW my uninformed opinion is that the porch hasn't collapsed yet, so unlikely to do so in the near future. My equally uninformed advice: Take your time, don't panic. I would start by connecting the pipes up first, since water around your foundation will only make things worse by carrying away the sand/dirt from around your porch. Erosion ... a powerful force for damage!
As far as the job is concerned, I'm glad that you're not burning your bridges. The homeless guy that I knew who found a job and a place to stay in Idaho? He's back again in LA, homeless and jobless because he refused to fill out a timesheet detailing his work that some byatch in the front office wanted him to fill out. I know that jobs are filled with all kinds of aggravations, but it's like they say: The only thing worse than working is not working. So try to make it work out, keep your job until you find another, and don't hang your entire future on to your house sale because I have some questions about some aspects of your house (not structural ones, you're already looking into that) which I will bring up at some later date when you're not facing so many issues.
-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake
"The messy American environment, where most people don't agree, is perfect for people like me. I CAN DO AS I PLEASE." - SECOND
America is an oligarchy http://www.fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?tid=57876 .
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Quote:
Originally posted by JEWELSTAITEFAN:Quote:Why would you be in any hurry now? Take your time, relax. Enjoy the new place.
Originally posted by Brenda:
Gotta be careful with moving boxes around here and unpacking. Succeeded in irritating both branches of my sciatic nerve over last weekend. Woke up Tuesday morning with pain in my right leg but the left was worse. Pain from my left ankle to my hip.
Do you have a view? Stairs? Laundry room? Heat?
It's not really being in a hurry JSF but I was stagnant for so long that I now am able to do things. I am working on slowing down now that I have things a little bit more organized.
I am at the back of the building on the 10th floor. So, yeah I can see. There is an elevator that I use. No way am I tromping up and down 10 flights of stairs. There is a laundry room and right now heat is no problem with all the natural light I get in here. So, I know it will be fine come winter.
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