Removing nailed-in floor plywd

I third or fourth the notion that you should have a plumber do most of this work. You can run the venting yourself, if you are so inclined, but you will be very sad if you don't have a plumber do the pipe work. You don't just need a drain line, though you do need that--you also need hot and cold lines with shutoff valves and a gas hookup, none of which you should play with. (Especially the gas line.)

You may also need a pump to get the water from the base of the washing machine to the sewer line, which should be 4-5 feet off the floor. Check how far up your machine will pump (it will be in the manual), and subtract a foot or so for the manufacturer's wishful thinking.

As for venting out your front/back hatch, measure the distance, and find out how far your dryer is rated to vent. Then you have to subtract a bunch for any turns the vents take. Mine is rated to vent 60 feet, but since I had to take three 90-degree turns to get the vent to the outside, I couldn't actually use more than 30 feet of venting.

Posted by: parkplaced at August 10, 2009 10:31 PM in response to Washer and Dryer in Basement

I lived around the corner from this school for several years. The blocks in question feature a middle-income housing project of identical, uninspired townhouses from the 80s and the back of Key Food. The (lovely) community garden is about the only thing that makes the area feel like a neighborhood where people live and care for each other and the block. That the SCA would destroy it makes me sick, sick, sick--sicker than the destruction of the school building.

Posted by: parkplaced at June 24, 2009 10:25 AM in response to Council Subcommittee Hears Case of PS 133

I second your recommendation. I've learned a lot at Makeville, and if you don't have your own tools and shop you can rent studio time there quite reasonably.

Posted by: parkplaced at June 21, 2009 11:00 AM in response to Rec for DIY woodwork class

I met Mohamed when getting bids for a biggish wiring job on my brownstone. He was punctual, professional and answered his phone (!). He was detailed about the job and very thorough and knowledgeable. I had to go with another contractor because of scheduling problems (using Super-Charged, and they're great too), but that was the only reason. I would (and probably will) hire him in the future.

Posted by: parkplaced at April 23, 2009 3:09 PM in response to Electrician Reccomendation

Update: I took off some of the heads with a grinder attachment on my Dremel, and then pried one sheet of plywood up on each floor. Alas, no fabulous heart pine waiting to be refinished; everything looks fairly unsalvageable. I think I'm going to leave the rest of the plywood where it is and put down bamboo.

Posted by: parkplaced at April 15, 2009 12:06 AM in response to Removing nailed-in floor plywd

I worked on the soil for ten years at my previous house, and now I'm starting over again at a new place. I think your experience is typical: every yard in Brooklyn has a hundred years of discarded stuff permeating the soil. I found keys, old hardware, doll heads, pottery, and piece after piece after piece of broken glass. (Contrary to what another poster said, I found that it actually does seem to work its way out of the ground--maybe it's the worms? don't know.) In one part of the yard, about a foot down, I found cobblestones. I found pieces of slate. I never replaced the soil; I just dug and sifted, composted and planted, and I had a terrific, lush garden.

Posted by: parkplaced at April 14, 2009 11:39 PM in response to Backyard Soil Clean-up

Funny, I was just told exactly the opposite--you own (and are responsible for) the fence on the right, and your next-door neighbor owns the fence on the left. That makes me a little suspicious of both possibilities. It would seem to make more sense that you'd be jointly responsible, as you are with a retaining wall. I would like to know--I've got ugly chain link on both sides.

Posted by: parkplaced at April 9, 2009 9:07 PM in response to Backyard Fence Question

There have been several cogent discussions about fences - some quite recent - I'd look in the Forum Archives. I think someone even gives a link to the relevant code.

Posted by: Arkady at April 10, 2009 9:39 AM in response to Backyard Fence Question

http://www.nyc.gov/html/dob/downloads/bldgs_code/bc26s3.pdf

§[C26-75.0] 26-233 Maintenance and repair of protection fences and retaining walls.—Unless otherwise provided by special agreement between them, the owners of adjoining properties shall be responsible jointly for the proper maintenance and repair of partition fences and retaining walls dividing their properties; and each such owner shall be responsible for one-half of the costs of maintaining and repairing such fences and retaining walls, except that where the replacement of a partition fence removed by one owner is necessary for safety, the owner removing the fence shall replace it at his or her own cost.
See also: http://www.nyc.gov/html/dob/downloads/pdf/retaining_walls.pdf
And “fence” at: http://www.nyc.gov/html/dob/html/violations/bh3-27-147.shtml

Posted by: vinca at April 10, 2009 10:10 AM in response to Backyard Fence Question

Try this link for retaining walls (goes without saying, different than fences): http://www.nyc.gov/html/dob/downloads/pdf/retaining_walls.pdf

Posted by: vinca at April 10, 2009 10:18 AM in response to Backyard Fence Question

So... the solution (based on vinca's post) would be to make sure your fences aren't considered "partition fences and retaining walls dividing their properties."

Have anything that is *on* the property line removed, and just build fences a few inches *within* your property... then you're not building a "partition fence" but rather something within your own property.

Would that work?

(In Georgia, my mother actually has one of these weird no-man's-land spaces between two stockade fences because their neighbors are odd and didn't want to cooperate -- it's a 10-inch "alley" where snakes and spiders live.)

Posted by: tybur6 at April 10, 2009 11:01 AM in response to Backyard Fence Question

I've actually gone to the DOB during one of those Open House nights and asked this question before we put our fence in. We were told: The fence can be no higher than 6 feet, doesn't require a permit and belongs to and is the responsibility of the person whose lot it sits on. If it straddles the line, both parties share responsibility. I would assume especially in the cases where the fence is old and no one remembers who put it in. If a neighbor did put one on your property, then that's a whole other kettle of fish. Your title may tell you where the fence sits- ours did. In reality, if we all were so dependent on our neighbors choice to right or left, no one would be able to have a uniform fence. That may have been custom, but is not code.

The fence/retaining wall code in vinca's post may refer to instances where the retaining wall would make the grade change high enough to warrant a fence for safety according to code. Something like the reasoning for a deck railing even if the deck is only a few feet high. I believe this is why in the title of the article in the code the fence is referred to as a "protection fence" and only later refers to it as a partition fence, which it still is. You can see numerous examples of protection fences on retaining walls in her link to retaining walls.

However, the code that vinca links to about protection fences has been revised as of 7/08. If you go to that link, all the text has a strikethrough and tells you to refer to the revised code. Not sure what the new code is on that, but the DOB guy told us you are responsible for anything on your lot. Not that they've always been right.

Posted by: kensington gal at April 10, 2009 12:13 PM in response to Backyard Fence Question

z's correct.

Posted by: 1842 at April 10, 2009 1:39 PM in response to Backyard Fence Question

When I moved into my house on Carroll St. the entire backyard was covered with cement. I had it broken up and removed thinking that I could go in the next day with a rototiller and begin planting. What I found instead was a nearly solid mass of glass going down at least five feet. I built sifters, got four day-laborers and between the five of us we sifted the soil and put everything into a dumpster. The soil was dead; I didn't see a single living thing in any of the piles. I brought in dozens of bags of topsoil, compost, leaves and anything else I thought could enrich the soil. Now, nine years later it is a lush garden with worms, birds, the various wildlife and beautiful plants and trees. It was a lot of work but once the first sifting had been done it became easier and more satisfying. You may want to consider sifting the soil since there is probably a lot of glass and other junk in that dirt.

Posted by: runes at April 15, 2009 7:56 AM in response to Backyard Soil Clean-up

If you go the route of screening and sifting out the debris, you can dig a deeper hole and bury all of it as long as its glass, rocks, metal bits, etc and nothing harmful.

I had lots of new soil brought in and one of the other posters is right, you still keep finding bits of junk. Unless you have very young kids crawling around in it I wouldn't give it a second thought.

As we discussed a week ago in another thread, kids need to cut themselves and eat some dirt once in awhile in order to grow up normally and not become some PS brat. :)

Posted by: daveinbedstuy at April 15, 2009 8:32 AM in response to Backyard Soil Clean-up

I am in the third year of attempting to de-rock and de-junk our back yard (which had been gravelled over, so it is just full of rocks). I bag everything and put it out with the garbage, but it is a slow and laborious process. Have found lovely chunks of bluestone, a cellar hatch door, bones, china, melted glass, rusty paint cans, many many bricks, layers of old cement paving, etc. For our vegetable patch we built an elevated area and filled it with all new soil, just to be sure we had good stuff. We also compost so that has helped renew the soil. Plants and trees are all doing well. It's the Japanese knot weed that is really a pain... though not as bad as I thought it would be. If you don't want to pay someone to do it, it will take you a while but it will be interesting and you'll feek that much better about it!

Posted by: mshook at April 15, 2009 8:49 AM in response to Backyard Soil Clean-up

If you have a lot of soil to sift, I highly recommend building one of these.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Trommel-Compost-Sifter/

We build one to sift compost in our community garden, and it's incredibly efficient. Works great on removing rocks and debris from soil too.

Posted by: arches at April 15, 2009 12:18 PM in response to Backyard Soil Clean-up