Just moved into new place
-All is well, love it, except one thing
My step-brother Matt recently got married, and his new wife's mom owns a duplex. Matt and his wife moved into the duplex and his wife's sister lived on the other side. Circumstances forced the sister to need to move out, and Matt's wife's mom offered me a great deal to move in. It has twice as much space as my last apartment, is only 60% the rent, and I have enough room to get a roommate.
The place kinda smelled like dog pee, because the sister had 3 kids and two dogs.. The mom had the place painted and the carpets steam cleaned. It looks great!
I finally got moved in and wow the dog pee smell just won't go away. It's pretty bad in the basement. I've let it air out since the basement has an exit to the garage. It's helped, but hasn't quite gone away. I think it will over time and I've been ousting and febreezing the hell out of the place. I think it might be the carpet on the stairs going down to the basement, since it's the only old carpet in the place, and it's pretty nasty. My friend does carpet and he said pulling it up and laying down new carpet wouldn't be a big deal at all. I just need the carpet.
If everything works out, I plan on staying here for several years. I need to settle down and life my life for a bit. So with the carpet, I'll probably give my friend $40 for the labor and see if the landlord won't chip on for the carpet (since it will make it look nicer).
My big issue now is the shower. The place has two bathrooms, one next to the two bedrooms (a full bathroom) and a smaller bathroom with stand up shower in the basement. For the first few nights of living there, I was showering downstairs because I didn't have a curtain yet, etc..
Two nights ago, I finally took a shower in the main bath. It looks nice! It's all remodeled, new tub, etc.
but when I stepped into the tub, I heard the loudest crack! And then as I moved around, every step I took was an amazingly loud creaking/cracking sound. =( It's like walking on egg shells. And when I say loud, I mean, my roommate was sleeping and it woke him up. He thought something was wrong.
I brought my dad over, since he has rebuilt bathrooms, and he think it's pretty jacked up. He says it looks like the shower walls would have to come out, along with the toilet to get access to the tub. Then the tub would have to come out and then a solution would have to be installed to better support the tub.
I've googled around, and this seems to be a common problem for fiberglass tubs that were installed without a mortar bed, which is basically a layer of wet concrete that you set the tub in so it conforms to the tub. Without it, the fiberglass just flexes freely.
The problem is huge, because my roommate and I work different schedules, and I shower in the morning when he is sleeping, and he comes home late after work when I am sleeping, and he wants to shower. There is absolutely no way to sleep through it because it sounds like a hammer. Both of our beds are within 8 feet of the shower, just seperated by walls.
So basically, we can't really use the shower and will have to go down stairs and use the basement shower, which isn't all that nice. I talked to Matt's wife, and she said her mom knows about the shower noise, but says it would cost $3,000 to fix so hopefully we can 'adjust'. I got kinda upset about that, basically saying "adjust, as in not use it? I'm even more upset your mom knew and didn't tell me. I would have made fixing it part of the lease agreement".
My dad says it's all labor, something that could be done in less than 8 hours by a professional. They basically have to break down the shower, pull the tub out, lay the mortar bed, set the tub in their right, and put the shower back to together.
I'm not really wanting to drag all my shit down to the basement every morning to shower, especially since my bedroom door is 2 feet from the bathroom door upstairs. I want to be able to enjoy normal use of the shower, and can't now. It functions ok, but using it completely destroys the peace of the home.
-cliffs
-moved into duplex
-love the place
-basement smells a bit like dog pee but is getting better as I air it out.
-step brother and wife are in other side
-wife's mom owns it
-finally got to use main shower
-tub isn't installed right, no mortar bed
-cracks and creaks so loud anytime you step in it that it makes you want to punch new borns
-can't possibly sleep while someone is in shower
-roommate and I have different schedules, almost always will be showering when another is sleeping
-Want landlord to have shower fixed
-All is well, love it, except one thing
My step-brother Matt recently got married, and his new wife's mom owns a duplex. Matt and his wife moved into the duplex and his wife's sister lived on the other side. Circumstances forced the sister to need to move out, and Matt's wife's mom offered me a great deal to move in. It has twice as much space as my last apartment, is only 60% the rent, and I have enough room to get a roommate.
The place kinda smelled like dog pee, because the sister had 3 kids and two dogs.. The mom had the place painted and the carpets steam cleaned. It looks great!
I finally got moved in and wow the dog pee smell just won't go away. It's pretty bad in the basement. I've let it air out since the basement has an exit to the garage. It's helped, but hasn't quite gone away. I think it will over time and I've been ousting and febreezing the hell out of the place. I think it might be the carpet on the stairs going down to the basement, since it's the only old carpet in the place, and it's pretty nasty. My friend does carpet and he said pulling it up and laying down new carpet wouldn't be a big deal at all. I just need the carpet.
If everything works out, I plan on staying here for several years. I need to settle down and life my life for a bit. So with the carpet, I'll probably give my friend $40 for the labor and see if the landlord won't chip on for the carpet (since it will make it look nicer).
My big issue now is the shower. The place has two bathrooms, one next to the two bedrooms (a full bathroom) and a smaller bathroom with stand up shower in the basement. For the first few nights of living there, I was showering downstairs because I didn't have a curtain yet, etc..
Two nights ago, I finally took a shower in the main bath. It looks nice! It's all remodeled, new tub, etc.
but when I stepped into the tub, I heard the loudest crack! And then as I moved around, every step I took was an amazingly loud creaking/cracking sound. =( It's like walking on egg shells. And when I say loud, I mean, my roommate was sleeping and it woke him up. He thought something was wrong.
I brought my dad over, since he has rebuilt bathrooms, and he think it's pretty jacked up. He says it looks like the shower walls would have to come out, along with the toilet to get access to the tub. Then the tub would have to come out and then a solution would have to be installed to better support the tub.
I've googled around, and this seems to be a common problem for fiberglass tubs that were installed without a mortar bed, which is basically a layer of wet concrete that you set the tub in so it conforms to the tub. Without it, the fiberglass just flexes freely.
The problem is huge, because my roommate and I work different schedules, and I shower in the morning when he is sleeping, and he comes home late after work when I am sleeping, and he wants to shower. There is absolutely no way to sleep through it because it sounds like a hammer. Both of our beds are within 8 feet of the shower, just seperated by walls.
So basically, we can't really use the shower and will have to go down stairs and use the basement shower, which isn't all that nice. I talked to Matt's wife, and she said her mom knows about the shower noise, but says it would cost $3,000 to fix so hopefully we can 'adjust'. I got kinda upset about that, basically saying "adjust, as in not use it? I'm even more upset your mom knew and didn't tell me. I would have made fixing it part of the lease agreement".
My dad says it's all labor, something that could be done in less than 8 hours by a professional. They basically have to break down the shower, pull the tub out, lay the mortar bed, set the tub in their right, and put the shower back to together.
I'm not really wanting to drag all my shit down to the basement every morning to shower, especially since my bedroom door is 2 feet from the bathroom door upstairs. I want to be able to enjoy normal use of the shower, and can't now. It functions ok, but using it completely destroys the peace of the home.
-cliffs
-moved into duplex
-love the place
-basement smells a bit like dog pee but is getting better as I air it out.
-step brother and wife are in other side
-wife's mom owns it
-finally got to use main shower
-tub isn't installed right, no mortar bed
-cracks and creaks so loud anytime you step in it that it makes you want to punch new borns
-can't possibly sleep while someone is in shower
-roommate and I have different schedules, almost always will be showering when another is sleeping
-Want landlord to have shower fixed
