Question 1

What is the general price for a new forced air furnace for 1,500 home?

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It is a cape with a full basement.

Question 2

Recently noticed a little oil under burner

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also recently had the furnace cleaned thinking it might stop the leak, it did not. My question is after going through all repair options, what could I expect to spend on new burner. I believe it is an beckett burner that has been serviced regularly. 83% efficient, I'm trying to prepare for the worst case senerio..??Thanks

Question 3

Should i get extended warranty on my 8 year old fridge?

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Should I get an extended warranty on my 8 year old GE Profile fridge?

Question 4

heat exchanger

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My 2005 Lennox heat exchanger has a small hole in it and needs to be replaced, the part is under warranty but the labor to install is not covered, I was quoted 983.00 . I was told by the service technician that the job would take four hours and then told by the scheduler that it would require two technicians and that 983.00 would be correct. Is this a fair price, it seems extremely high to me, Your input please.

Question 5

Getting a roof replaced under Insurance (hail damage)

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I called in a claim a couple of weeks ago, have a roofing company already chosen that helped to tell me what to expect etc..well i already had like 7 quotes from local roofers and when i got the paperwork in the mail from my insurance adjuster they only listed a check for 1,395.97. The minimum quote out of all 7 was 6,500...i notice at the bottom of the paper is says "you are entitled to the recoverable depreciation once the work is completed or you have a signed contract for the repair work" I'm confused on if thats all they are sending or if i send in receipts / quote from the roofer if they will send additional money, not sure how this works and when i called them to find out they were pretty vague on what is done but they mentioned something about supplemental..can anyone help shed some light on this?

Question 6

How do I check if air vent is working?

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I just stumbled onto this site and all I can say is "where the heck have you been all my life"!.  Great questions and great answers!  My question is what is the function of a Hoffman Speciality #79 air vent (check valve inside) I've had one on my +40 yr. old American Standard hydronic boiler and have never changed it out!  What is it's purpose and how can I tell if its working or not?  Thank you!!

Question 7

Need Backup Generator

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I have a definite problem now that we're one of the states that got hit with Superstorm Sandy last year.Now we do need a backup generator for:1. An elderly person with no close relatives to stay in their home and keep warm when power goes out.2. Keeping pipes in finished basement warm (older house no way to get to pipes to upgrade insulation to modern standards to keep from freezing, always had a separate heating system, but of course that requires "electricity" to run it.Without going over living the life in the TV show "Revolution" all over again in another post storm crisis, we tried calling local gas utility and several contractors, and besides the enormous cost, some have raise roadblocks we can't overcome to using natural gas (preferred) to solve the problem.  They will not let us "split service" and since there is no foundation where the generator would have to go, an additional gas line and meter and all that have to be constructed, and some problems with codes and zoning exist...

Question 8

Developer Wants Some of My Land for a Road -- What do I need to know?

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Hello,My house is in a neighborhood that was, at one time, intended to be much larger.  But the developer went out of business after building just a few homes, and another developer swooped in to buy the land a few years later to finish out the main section.  My house sits adjacent to a 50' plot of grass that was once intended to be a road to somewhere.  The county owns this land.  I'm attaching a hilariously crude sketch here so you get the idea.The black to the right is the main neighborhood road.  My house is the grey box at the bottom.  A neighbor is at the top.  The light green section is 50' wide and maybe a couple hundred feet long and is owned by the county.  Now here's where it gets interesting.  First off, the white section is really hundreds of feet of woods belonging to two different homeowners on another street.  Their plots are not squared to ours and meet at an angle to this land.  I know the guy who owns the bottom section.  I assume this developer owns the top and will...

Question 9

How to repair Cinder Block Long driveway wall that has a break in it

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Hi HOH People:We have a long (circa 100 feet) low lying cinder block wall along a driveway on a slight slope. Originally built in a straight line, but wriggles a bit here and there....The wall is so long its seen various sections of it undergo repairs when I was younger and stronger or we were able to hire people we could trust to repair the wall with honest estimates.Now there is a huge gaping hole in the cinder blocks that you can see through to the other side (not our property so we can't let the wall just fall down!)I took some photos to help you visualize the condition but some additional facts might help.You should know that prior to December 2013, the driveway was "perfect" up to edge of bottom of wall.  But during this past winter, the snow shoveling people continually hit the wall, so there is that gap between asphalt patching and base of wall which can be filled and patched when the wall is repaired.There was some "paint" on the wall that over the years slowly stretched out...

Question 10

Should all thru-wall home ac units drain out condensate in humid weather?

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I'm new in humid central Florida and have two thru-wall room AC units.  A large Freidrich one that also has resistance heating (for the couple of cool nights in "winter" here) and a small bedroom sized GoldStar one.  The Friedrich does great and as I assumed all units did, drips condensate outside.The smaller one was only being used at night with the bedroom door closed and the bigger unit off (to save elec. $s).  Last week was the beginning of the most humid summer weather so I had the small one on one night (80 deg at 11pm, and 65% humidity, pre the weather report) with the door closed.  I was cool overnight, but I also sweating...  I began to wonder if a  unit can blow cold air, but not be removing the moisture and instead be blowing it back into the room too?  I checked outside the next morning and some other time during the hot afternoon - and there was No dripping at all, while the other units was, as it always does.  Looking up at the unit (on the second floor in the shade) I...

Question 11

Ceiling fan with 4 small light ceramic sockets. How do I loosen sockets?

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My HW store only sells 60W "day light" CFL bulbs in the candle size. With four bulbs, it is way too bright. I'd like to replace the small size ceramic sockets with standard size sockets. Also, the price of standard CFL bulbs is cheaper and there is more selection. I have a spare fan that I took down some time ago. I am trying to figure out a relatively quick way to do this on the spare fan. I have 7 ceiling fans.Each socket is rated at 75W and 125V, so there shouldn't be a problem replacing them with a standard size ceramic socket. I know how to shut the power off and rewire. So, no issues there.When I try to loosen the ceramic socket with a wrench, it cracks. Is there a special tool or technique to loosen the socket. There is a threaded tube coming out of the light fixture, and the ceramic socket has a metal base that screws over the tube. The hole connects to the ceramic socket on both sides. One side has a small metal hole.

Question 12

Concrete slab over dirt floor and best insulation for basement - California

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I have a basement/crawl space with a dirt floor (California, Zone 3, 1920s wooden frame house). Two questions: 1) I'd like to cover the dirt floor with concrete. Do I need to put in a layer of gravel and a vapor barrier first? Even though its California the basement has some damp issues because it's on the side of a hill. We have a French drain around the house perimeter to stop the worst water seepage.2) We currently have fiberglass batten insulation in the basement ceiling but it is rat contaminated and needs to be removed (yuk). I'm wondering if it would make more sense to insulate the basement walls rather than the ceiling since we are starting over, and am leaning towards closed cell foam insulation in the shear walls (the basement is earthquake retrofitted with shear walls). Any feedback on that? I'm looking for insulation that is effective and less appealing to rats (we are doing a rodent exclusion project as well but I am assuming you can never completely keep rodents out). I'm...

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