📢Hub Chatter

c/alberta-homes

28

the_julia•20h ago

Walked through a new build in Airdrie and noticed every house has the exact same front door color

I went to check out that new neighborhood off Yankee Valley last weekend and I swear every single house had that same dark grey door with white trim. Like did the builder just buy in bulk or what? It made the whole street feel kinda copy paste. Has anyone else noticed this trend in Calgary area developments or is it just me?

5

finley777•1d ago

I finally fixed a leaky faucet after 6 months of ignoring it

Turns out the cartridge was just loose, a 2 minute fix with a wrench, and I spent half a year letting water drip down the drain in my Calgary basement. Anyone else waste way too long on a dumb simple home repair?

14

iris394•4d ago

Our furnace went out in -35 weather last January, and I'm still picking sides on emergency repairs vs. preventative maintenance

Last January during that big cold snap, our furnace just quit at 2 in the morning. House dropped to 10 degrees inside by the time I got it looked at. The repair guy said our heat exchanger had a hairline crack that we probably missed for months. I ended up paying $1200 for a rush emergency repair from a guy who came out at 3am. But now my neighbor keeps telling me I shoulda just bought a $400 maintenance plan and had it inspected every fall. To me though, even with inspections stuff breaks when it breaks. Has anyone else argued this with themselves after a big repair bill?

16

gavin_allen48•4d ago

That fancy attic fan I installed 2 years ago is still collecting dust

I bought this pricey solar attic fan in 2022 thinking it would cut my cooling bill by half. Turns out my AC barely runs anyway in Calgary summers, so it's just been spinning up there doing nothing. Anyone else impulse-buy home upgrades that ended up being totally pointless?

6

lee_grant97•5d ago

Took me 5 winters to figure out my furnace filter was the wrong size

I kept wondering why my utility bills were so high every January and February. Then my HVAC guy came out for a tune up last fall and pulled out my filter. It was a 16x25x1 but my slot is actually 16x25x4. He said I was basically choking the system for years. Has anyone else been running the wrong filter size without knowing it?

8

margaretk89•5d ago

The hot water tank went kaput last Tuesday and I was scrambling

Came home after my mail route and found a puddle in the basement. The tank was 12 years old, so I guess it was its time. I shut the water off right away and called a plumber. They quoted me $1,800 for a new 50 gallon unit installed. Ended up paying $2,100 after tax because they found some rust on the pipe connections. Has anyone else had a sudden water heater failure in the middle of winter? How did you handle it?

1

the_wyatt•7d ago

The whole 'paint the ceiling before the walls' thing - does it actually save time or just make a mess?

I was doing my living room in Edmonton last month and debated for like two days whether to paint the ceiling first or do the walls then tape off for the ceiling. My buddy swears by doing the ceiling first because you can just roll right over the top of the walls and it doesnt matter if you get paint on them. But my dad always did walls first and was super careful with cutting in the ceiling line after. I tried the ceiling first method on a small bedroom and honestly it felt like more work fixing all the splatter on the walls later. But maybe I just did it wrong? Has anyone else gone back and forth on this or found a solid trick that makes one way clearly better?

0

brooke484•8d ago

Tried that spray foam insulation in my attic and it was a disaster

Ngl I thought I'd save a bunch by DIYing the spray foam in my Edmonton bungalow last weekend. Now I have a giant cured blob on my hands and the smell won't leave. Has anyone else had luck with a pro for small attic jobs?

6

eva_garcia56•8d ago

Chat with a roofer in Lethbridge changed how I think about attic vents

I was up on a job last Thursday and this old roofer named Pete pointed out my ridge vent setup was basically useless because the soffits were blocked with insulation. He said in our Alberta winters that trapped moisture can rot out the whole roof deck in 2 or 3 seasons. Has anyone else checked their soffits after a big snowfall?

1

nina_sullivan61•8d ago

Last month at the Co-op parking lot, a guy told me my new roof vents were all wrong for Alberta winters

He said the 3-inch stack vents I installed would ice up and crack by February. Anyone else had a roofer tell them to switch to insulated exhaust boots?

8

rileyjones•10d ago

Warning: My $50 infrared thermometer was way off on my furnace ducts

I bought a cheap infrared thermometer from Amazon to check my heat registers in Calgary last month. One room showed 60 degrees while another was 85, so I thought my furnace was totally out of balance. Turns out the cheap sensor reads shiny metal surfaces wrong by almost 20 degrees, and the ductwork was actually fine. Has anyone else found big differences between IR thermometers and probe thermometers for HVAC work in Alberta homes?

25

faithg26•12d ago

Had a talk with my neighbor about foundation cracks and it changed my mind

My neighbor Dave came over last Saturday while I was sealing a crack in my basement wall. He said I should stop patching them and just get a proper drainage system installed. I figured he was just trying to sell me on some expensive contractor he knows. But then he showed me his own basement where he did the same patching i'm doing and it just cracked again after 6 months. Now i'm second guessing whether I should spend the $4k on weeping tile or keep doing the $20 tube of epoxy every season. Has anyone here actually had long term luck with the DIY crack repair kits?

27

valthomas•14d ago

Rant: Found out my brand new water heater was installed without a pressure relief valve

I was reading the city of Calgary's building permit stats for 2023 and realized 12% of new home renovations failed inspection for missing basic safety stuff like that, which blew my mind since I just paid $2,800 for mine last month... has anyone else dealt with shoddy contractor work like this?

8

dylanbarnes•15d ago

Walked into my rental unit and found a family of raccoons living in the attic crawl space

Last month in Lethbridge I went to check on a property I manage and heard scratching above the ceiling. Pulled down the access panel and three raccoons just stared at me like I was the intruder. Anyone else have to deal with wildlife crashing in their rental homes?

28

paige_martin•15d ago

Finally switched from a tank to a tankless water heater after a cold shower streak

I kept going back and forth for 6 months whether to stick with my old 40 gallon tank or go tankless. Then I had 3 mornings in a row last February where the hot water ran out before I finished my shower. That did it for me. I put in a Rinnai unit and now I never worry about timing my showers with the dishwasher anymore. Has anyone else here made the switch in an older Calgary bungalow?

10

faithg26•16d ago

I wasted $200 on a fake home inspection report

I bought a house in Edmonton last spring and thought I was being smart hiring an inspector. Found a guy online who seemed legit and charged $200 flat. He walked around for maybe 30 minutes and handed me a 3 page report that basically said everything was fine. Turns out he missed a cracked foundation wall in the basement that cost me $4500 to fix 6 months later. The city licensing board told me he wasn't even certified but I didn't check before hiring him. Now I tell everyone to ALWAYS verify credentials with the Alberta government site first. Any recommendations on actual good inspectors in the Edmonton area?

2

blair_green86•18d ago

Decided between a metal roof and asphalt shingles for my place near Red Deer

I was stuck choosing between a metal roof and asphalt shingles for my house. Metal would have run me about $15k installed, asphalt was closer to $8k. I went with the asphalt because my roofer said with our hail risk it's actually cheaper to replace shingles than repair dents in metal. That was 3 years ago and I already had to replace 3 shingles after a bad storm last June. My neighbor got metal and his looks fine but he's worried about the next big one. Anyone else near Calgary have metal and regret it?

17

anna_hill•18d ago

Split decision on spray foam vs batt insulation after my attic disaster

Last winter my place in Lethbridge hit -35 and I noticed ice dams forming on the roof. I had blown-in cellulose up there but it was settling bad, so I started looking into fixes. Half the contractors I talked to said spray foam is the only way to go, the other half said batts are fine if you seal the gaps right. Has anyone here dealt with this choice and regretted one or the other?

2

mason_knight•19d ago

Was dead set against tankless water heaters until a conversation changed my mind

I was over at a friend's place in Calgary last weekend and he was raving about his new Navien unit he put in 3 months ago. Said his gas bill dropped by $40 a month and he never runs out of hot water even with two teenagers showering back to back. I always figured they were too expensive and finicky but he walked me through the install cost vs savings over 5 years. Now I'm thinking about swapping my old 50 gallon tank out... anyone else made the switch and regretted it or loved it?

20

charlesowens•19d ago

Wasted $400 on a fake wood floor refinishing kit last summer

I spent a whole weekend sanding and staining my living room floor in Lethbridge with one of those $40 kits from the hardware store, and by November the finish was peeling up in sheets near the baseboards, has anyone else had that cheap polyurethane fail after the first cold snap?

12

markm27•19d ago

Is HRV really worth it over a basic bathroom fan?

I put a $1500 HRV system into my Calgary bungalow last fall and honestly I'm not sure it's doing much more than the old $200 Panasonic fan I had before. My humidity levels sit around 45% either way and the electric bill went up a bit. Anyone else find HRVs overhyped for Alberta's dry climate or am I missing a setting somewhere?

20

lily394•20d ago

Just realized I was cleaning my bathroom grout completely wrong for 3 years

I always thought scrubbing grout with bleach and a stiff brush was the only way to go. Then last month I was at a client's house in Edmonton and she saw me going at it and just laughed. She told me to try a steam cleaner instead, said it lifts the dirt without damaging the sealant. I was skeptical, but I borrowed her little handheld one and honestly the grout came out looking brand new in half the time. Now I'm wondering if I've been wrecking my own grout at home for years with all that scrubbing. The weird thing is my clients never complained, so maybe the bleach method is fine for some people? Has anyone else had a moment where a client or friend showed you a house cleaning trick that made you feel totally clueless about how you'd been doing it all along?

19

martin.jamie•21d ago

Stopped at a farmhouse near Leduc last fall and it completely changed how I look at insulation

The guy had this old place from the 1920s and he'd stuffed the walls with straw bales decades ago. Still holding up. No fancy spray foam or anything. Made me realize how much we overcomplicate things with all these high R value products when the old ways worked fine. Has anyone else seen something like that on a rural property?

14

the_thomas•23d ago

That time my boiler froze solid at -40 in Edmonton and the plumber said I'd be waiting 3 days

I ended up wrapping the pipes in shop towels and pouring hot water over them every 4 hours for 2 nights straight while the rest of the neighborhood told me I should have let the taps drip, so has anyone actually tested if that trick really works in extreme cold or is it just something everyone says?

8

the_michael•23d ago

Pro tip: Found out I was sealing my deck wrong after 5 years of peeling stain

My neighbor in Red Deer took one look at my deck last spring and said your stain is bubbling because you didn't let the wood dry long enough after pressure washing. I always thought 24 hours was plenty but he showed me a moisture meter reading at 18% and said you need under 12%. Has anyone else been making this mistake and found a better drying routine?