I'm looking to get a new power vent water heater and I'm shocked at the quotes I'm receiving. The units sell for about $1200 at Menards (consumer pricing - I'm sure plumbers can get them cheaper) and I'm getting total job prices in the neighborhood of $3200-$3500 for a straight drop-in replacement. $2000+ for labor and disposal seems ridiculous.
Any suggestions for good, affordable plumbers?
I had a number of days this summer where I needed to open windows on hot days to ventilate the house, or open my attic hatch on a hot day for a few hours. This has resulted in my temperature profiles getting progressively worse all summer due to these outliers, despite the system actually performing just fine.
Is there anything I can do to find these outliers and remove them from temperature profiles? E.g. - One day I had windows open and the attic open when it was 90F outside. I kept the AC running to minimize the amount of time it would take to recover to a comfortable temp, but beestat is reporting that as the temp in the house increasing when the outside temp is 90F, even though that's not the normal operating condition.
I had a number of days this summer where I needed to open windows on hot days to ventilate the house, or open my attic hatch on a hot day for a few hours. This has resulted in my temperature profiles getting progressively worse all summer due to these outliers, despite the system actually performing just fine.
Is there anything I can do to find these outliers and remove them from temperature profiles? E.g. - One day I had windows open and the attic open when it was 90F outside. I kept the AC running to minimize the amount of time it would take to recover to a comfortable temp, but beestat is reporting that as the temp in the house increasing when the outside temp is 90F, even though that's not the normal operating condition.
My attic access hole is 20"x35", with a 0.5"-0.75" lip that runs all the way around. The current cover is a drywall panel with a fiberglass batt resting on top that must be pressed up into the attic and set aside when climbing up. In the attic, the hole is surrounded by vertical plywood that rises about 12-14" on all sides to prevent the blown-in insulation from falling down.
I live in the same type of climate area as Chicago, so I'm looking to insulate this to at least R-40, ideally R-60.
I'm looking for feedback on my current plan (listed from bottom to top):
3/4 inch drywall
3/4 inch plywood
1 inch (R-5) foam board
1 inch (R-5) foam board
R-38 fiberglass batt, faced, kraft side glued to the foam board (~12 inches thick), starting with a 24"x48" roll, cut to 24" x 39"
The idea is that the fiberglass batt is oversized to create a tighter seal with the surrounding plywood. I want to attach handles to the drywall panel so that you can pull the whole thing down instead of just relying on its own weight to settle into place. The drywall is kind of fragile so I'm giving it a plywood backing to have something to screw into and protect the corners from getting chipped. The foam board provides very good R-value per inch and is very light, so I'm using as much of that as I can without making the whole thing so thick that it can't fit back down through the 20 inch wide hole (call it 18 inches with the lip that's there).
So I figure it's R-48 plus whatever minimal insulating value the drywall and plywood give. Total height should be 15-16 inches, so it'll be just a little taller than the surrounding plywood, and can still fit through the hole if I rotate the panel and feed it down longways, compressing the fiberglass.
Any notes?
TL;DR - Ice dams -> replaced insulation -> leaking/chewed ducts -> replaced ducts -> cleaned ducts -> bed bugs/bat bugs -> bat exclusion -> the end... (hopefully)
My wife and I have been in this house for just over 3 years. The house is 30 years old and in pretty good shape overall. We've had to do various expected things - new washer and dryer, new kitchen appliances (all of them), new sump pump, etc. Plus a few optional upgrades like a kitchen backsplash, new carpet in the family room, new door hinges, cabinet pulls, and light fixtures. I DIY as much as I can - I added a return vent to our finished basement for example, I replaced the sump pump on my own, I did all the hinges and light fixtures, and did the install for the new microwave, stove, and dishwasher. After doing all of that work up to this point I've been feeling pretty good about the house...
Back in February of 2024 as the weather started to warm up we got a few water spots on our 2nd floor ceiling. The roof is in good shape and fewer than 10 years old. I crawled around in the attic and didn't see anything obvious. Overall I chalked it up to snow getting blown in through the soffit vents during a blizzard a few weeks prior, then that snow melting when the weather got above freezing. I painted over them and then just kept an eye on it the next winter and we had no issues. This winter... more water spots. I looked out on the roof as it was happening and saw what looked like ice dams, and the location aligned with valleys on the north side.
Great - problem identified: ice dams. What's the fix? Get an insulation company to come and check it out. They do an inspection and find that the 30 year old cellulose is compacted, we had prior mouse activity in the attic so they crawled all around in there - let's vacuum out all of the insulation, air seal the plane of the attic floor, then blow in 16" of new fiberglass. I also had them spray foam the rim joists in the basement since it was like $700 extra. All told it was a $8000 project.
In the weeks after they did the work, I kept noticing very fine fiberglass particles throughout the house. I vacuumed a ton, kept changing the furnace filter, etc. Eventually I suspected that we had a leaking duct, specifically a return that passed through the attic, and was sucking insulation in. I had 4 separate HVAC companies come to find the leaky return, only 2 of which were willing to crawl around the attic. After the third visit with no diagnosis (literally told "just wait it out") I was fed up and went up there myself and immediately found the leaking return. I sealed it with foil tape but still wanted a pro to look, so the 4th company at least had the benefit of knowing what I had found. They crawled around and found... 4 of my 8 supply branches in the attic had been chewed through by mice, and one of them wasn't even connected to the main trunk. The return was easy compared to what they found going on with the supply ducts... Now we were looking at full attic duct replacement. $3500 to replace old flex duct with new flex duct. $7000 to replace with rigid duct. We live in the country, mice are a fact of life and may find their way into the attic again - I opted for rigid duct.
The HVAC company comes out and does the duct replacement. No issues with them, but when I saw the amount of mouse droppings that poured out of the flex duct they removed I was very glad I was doing the replacement. However, 2 problems with the new ducts in a freshly insulated attic - 1) they tried to keep the new ducts clean but inevitably some fiberglass got scooped up into the ducts, and 2) they did not replace the main trunk line because it was still in good shape - rigid 10" x 24" ducting, but obviously the mice had access to that so there could be droppings there. Those two things suggested that I needed to get my ducts cleaned to get the fiberglass out, and any mouse droppings that may have been in the main trunk line. The HVAC company recommended a duct cleaning company since they don't do it themselves.
I contacted the duct cleaning company and they were able to come out pretty quickly. I watched the work they did and... I was not impressed. I asked about their method when they showed up and they said duct cleaning isn't their company's main thing - it's a side service, and there are probably a bunch of tricks of the trade but the don't know them. They had me turn the system totally off, then they just went to each vent (supply and return) with a compressed air nozzle and a vacuum. They fed both of them into the duct as far as they could reach, and that was it. They did get a good amount of mouse droppings out so clearly they made it partially into the main trunk, but based on the method used I was not confident they were able to get all of it out - and they also were not confident when I asked about it. They finished and left - $750 paid. I was annoyed so when their main office emailed asking for a review I responded and shared my concerns. Their COO responded and apologized for what the crew said, she sent a whitepaper explaining that their duct cleaning method is less likely to damage flex duct (which I no longer have...) compared to the companies that induce negative pressure in the system and blow everything back towards the furnace, but she offered to send another crew out for a second cleaning at no charge, including having them spray a disinfectant in the ducts (bioesque something or other). The second crew seemed like the "A" crew - they had me turn the HVAC blower fan on, and they went around with blue painters tape and shut all of the vents except for the one they were working on. They got a few more mouse droppings out, but it seems like the first crew got most of the ones that were accessible.
Great - new insulation, new ducts, cleaned and disinfected ducts - should be good. Nevermind that the insulation either settled or was trampled by the crew replacing the ducts - at this point I think the leaking supply ducts were more likely to be the cause of the ice dams than a lack of insulation. Why the insulation crew didn't mention anything about the ducts, especially the disconnected one... idk. I wrote a bad review for them since they also only installed half the baffles that we agreed to, left staples all over my driveway, cigarette butts in my yard, and ripped my smoke detector out of the ceiling. The owner responded offering to come out and take a look (prior to the duct work being done) but I honestly don't want anyone from that company inside my house again.
Anyway, thought we were in the clear, but then a few weeks after the duct cleaning I find... bed bugs. Dead ones, along the baseboard in my toddler's room, another 2nd floor bedroom, and all the way down on the 1st floor too. My immediate thought is that they came in with the duct cleaning company. Their main service is property restoration after fire, floods, mold, etc., so I figure it's not unlikely that bed bugs could have come in on their clothes, or in the vacuum if they didn't clean it between customers. I did a bunch of reading about bed bugs and had my pest control company come out too. I also saved 2 of the dead specimen in a plastic bag. From what I read, I was holding my breath hoping the pest control guy says they're bat bugs, not bed bugs. (I didn't know bat bugs existed until this whole ordeal). Pest control says they're probably bat bugs, but he can't make a 100% ID. His prescription if they're bed bugs is to do a whole-house heat treatment that will cost $2500. If they're bat bugs, he says we should pay $1000 for bat exclusion, $400 to "dust" the attic with something to kill the bat bugs, and still do the $2500 heat treatment to kill any that made it into the house.
I'm skeptical of the heat treatment in the case of bat bugs, so I take the day off work and drive 100 miles to our state university to have the entomology department look at the bugs. They immediately confirm bat bugs - literally 30 seconds under the microscope. They talk me through the options for how to address it and I feel very confident that we have a timeline for how this happened, and a fix. All the work taking place in the attic probably scared the bats away. The bugs were hiding out during winter (they can survive for almost a year without food, especially when it's cold and their metabolism slows down). With the bats gone and the weather warming up they start crawling around looking for food. They come down through the wall cavities, out from behind electrical outlets and such, then crawl through the residual insecticide that I have sprayed every other month, and died. Bat bugs are more fragile than bed bugs, so the baseboard spray is actually effective for them. Bed bugs probably wouldn't have been bothered by it. We haven't seen a single live bat bug. They will feed on people if they're desperate and that will sustain them until they die of old age, but they cannot reproduce unless they have bat blood to feed off. So the entomology guys had me feeling pretty confident - get rid of the bats, dust the attic, and keep up the baseboard spray. The bat bugs will eventually die and I don't need to do the heat treatment. Entomology also said they've had people come to them after doing a heat treatment saying they still have bed bugs, and that's when they learn about bat bugs. If they're bat bugs, you have to address the root cause, which is the bats.
The pest control guys were here this morning doing the bat exclusion and attic dusting. They immediately found the place where the bats were likely getting in - exactly in the corner of the house where the bugs crawled down through the walls and into the living space - all within 15 feet of the northwest corner. Bat entries sealed, attic dusted, ultrasonic device put in the attic (temporarily), and since they're endangered/protected species a bat door was installed near their entry so they can go out but not in. $1400 well spent to not have to think about bat bugs/bed bugs crawling around the house.
So that's the whole story (for now). $8k insulation, $7k duct replacement, $750 duct cleaning, $1400 bat remediation - $17k+ all started with some water spots on the ceiling. I'm tired, boss.
Found in second floor bedroom(s), near baseboard more than six feet away from beds. Attic has history of bat presence. Showed up as weather (and attic) warmed up.
I know, I know, I'm behind the times and the Trail Glove 8 is what's currently on sale, but I was able to make my old pair of Vapor Glove 4s last a very long time so I'm only now getting around to replacing them. For many reasons I opted to stick with what I know, or at least close to it, and shop eBay for gently used Vapor and Trail Gloves in my size. I found a pair of Vapor Glove 4s in my size, and immediately swooped those up knowing that those work for me. Then I also tracked down a pair of Trail Glove 5s and a pair of the original Vapor Gloves. I hoped they'd all be serviceable and I could rotate them to prolong their life and delay having to buy any new shoes which always feels like an expensive gamble.
I finally got around to a run in the Trail Glove 5 and... very disappointed. The shoe is in very good condition with almost no visible wear, so I am very doubtful that it's specific to this particular pair. After reading a few reviews from when these shoes came out it seems like this model has received this criticism before. The problem - arch support. Conspicuous arch support.
I used to run in traditional shoes - the Brooks Ghost 3 (as an aside - when I bought them I proudly showed them off to my cross country coach since he talked about how he loved his Ghost 2s. He responded with, "eh, the new ones are over-engineered. They had a good design and they ruined it."). The Brooks generally served me well but I kept encountering problems with plantar fasciistis. My brother loaned me his copy of Born To Run, I couldn't put it down then went out and bought a pair of Five Fingers. I ran those as long as I could - 3 or 4 years definitely over 500 miles (I mostly take winters off). I finally had to trash them after the rubber sole separated so badly from the upper that it flopped when I walked. After that I dug the Ghosts out of a bin and tried them for one run. In that one run I got such severe blisters on the arches of both feet that I was out of commission for 2 weeks.
I forget the exact timeline but my next shoes were the Saucony Kinvara8 and the Vapor Glove 4. The Kinvaras have been demoted to lawn mowing shoes, but I literally prefer them to the Trail Glove 5. Just like with the Ghosts, one run in the Trail Glove 5 and I have arch blisters again. Thankfully I learned my lesson and kept the distance down, so hopefully they'll heal quick enough that I won't have to take any time off. If anything, this is validation for me pulling the trigger and buying the Topo ST5s, as that's the only "barefoot" shoe I can find in stores locally. I told a local barefoot enthusiast that I tried the ST5s on but didn't like the arch support, and they scoffed at the idea that it had any arch support. The Trail Glove's support is way less noticeable than the ST5 and it still proved to be a problem, so I'm glad I didn't settle and buy the Topos.
You can't buy new Trail Glove 5s anywhere that I've seen, so this isn't advice to stay away. Really I'm just venting. The shoe literally says "barefoot" across the side of the heel, but it has arch support...
If there's a lesson from any of this, it's that the "oh the new stuff is over-engineered and they ruined the design." My old coach said it when Brooks went from the Ghost 2 to the Ghost 3. I've seen it mentioned in regards to the Kinvaras. I've seen it in regard to the Vapor Gloves and the Trail Gloves. Sometimes it's just whining from people who like what they know and won't give anything else a chance. Sometimes it's legitimate criticism though, as I'm learning.
I'm looking for minimalist running shoes but really want to physically try them on before buying. Ideally something like Vibram FiveFingers, Merrell Vapor Glove or Trail Glove, Xero shoes, Vivobarefoot - at this point I'd even settle for Altra Escalantes or other low-stack traditional trainers.
I've searched the online inventory of Browns, Iowa Running Company, Fitness Sports, Dicks, Scheels, Finish Line, SOKO, etc. and the closest thing I'm finding are Altra Escalantes at Iowa Running Company, but they have literally one size in stock per their website. Am I missing somewhere that could possibly carry these types of shoes?
EDIT - the Topo Sports ST5 is available locally, but reviews say that has aggressive arch support, which is a non-starter.
EDIT 2 - tried Iowa Running Company, Fitness Sports, and Browns. They are all able to order Escalantes for me, but of course I can do that myself. They had Altra Torins and Lone Peaks in stock, but those have double the stack height I really want. Besides Escalantes, Iowa Running Company had the next good option in the ST-5s (which they had in stock). Unfortunately, the reviews mentioning aggressive arch support are correct and it immediately felt like a blister waiting to happen.
Long story short, Escalantes would already be settling for something more cushioned than I want, and I can't even get those locally. If I'm going to have to go online just to get those then I may as well get Vapor Gloves, Trail Gloves, Xeros, or Lems. REI, here I come.
Alternatively, I may literally just find a pair of cross country spikes with a wide toe box and call it a day.
EDIT 3 - I found a gently used pair of Vapor Glove 4s in my size on eBay - the exact model I loved running in, just in a different color. Overnighted those and will hopefully get a few hundred miles out of them, giving me time to take a trip out to REI or somewhere else that actually sells the shoes I want and can try on in-person.