As a real estate investor, I’m often needing to know what’s behind some drywall. I normally use a stud finder, but after removing a bunch of drywall, I sometimes find pipes, which, unlike electrical cables, are difficult to move, so I end up wasting my or my contractor’s time patching a wall back up. So, I bought the Walabot DIY 2, which claims to be able to detect wood and metal studs, plastic and metal pipes, and wires behind drywall up to 5/8″ thick and 4″ deep.
I put this to the test and compared it to my Franklin ProSensor M150, which can detect wood and metal studs as well as live wires up to 1.5″ deep.
I tested both sensors on an actual wall with pipes and live wires as well as a test wall.
My test wall below has, from left to right,
2×4 stud
15A Romex wire (non-live)
Pressure-treated 2×4 stud
2×4 stud
2″ black ABS drain pipe
Metal copper pipe
2×4 stud
The Walabot DIY2 detected all items, but it couldn’t differentiate between a wire and a pipe. Also, the Walabot got a bit confused by the 2 touching studs in the middle because of the small gap between the studs. The Franklin only detected the wood studs, but it detected them very well, including the two touching studs.
On an actual wall with wood studs, pipes and live wires, the Walabot performed the same, and it couldn’t differentiate between pipes and wires. The Franklin sensor, however, was able to detect live wires. The lightning symbols lit up yellow when a live wire was detected, as shown below.
Conclusion
It looks like both detectors are needed to see what’s behind your walls. I’d use them as follows:
Use the Walabot first to mark all wood/metal studs, and pipes/wires.
Use the Franklin to confirm the location of the wood/metal studs and to determine whether the pipe/wire detections by the Walabot are live wires or pipes. If the Franklin detects live wires, then that’s what they are. If the Franklin doesn’t detect anything where the Walabot detected a pipe/wire, then there’s a pipe there.
In America, many people use their garages as storage rooms rather than what they were intended for (parking vehicles). I do the same, but I also use my garage as a home gym. Along the side walls are 5-tier shelf racks with wheels and on each shelf there are 3 transparent plastic containers.
Having shelves with wheels makes it easy to move everything around.
But what do you do when you are renovating or remodeling your garage or if you need a temporary place to store your stuff for about 6-12 months. You can put everything in a self-storage unit, but for a 20’x20′ garage worth of stuff, you’re looking at paying hundreds of dollars a month if you are in the San Francisco Bay Area. You can buy a shed and put it in your backyard, but a large one would cost your around $1500, and you may not necessarily have the space for a large one in your backyard. Plus, you’d have to spend a lot of time assembling it, and it’s more of a permanent solution rather than a temporary one.
One low-cost option is to simply put your stuff in heavy-duty plastic storage containers with lids and stack them up in your backyard. Since they come with a lid, you wouldn’t need a shed because they are waterproof. If you’re worried strong winds could blow the lids off, just place something heavy on them, like a concrete paver.
The 27-gallon plastic bins are a good size as they’re not too big to carry and they’re not too small to fit somewhat large items.
The transparent kind is nice because you can see what’s inside and don’t need to necessarily label each bin. If you do want to label the bins, you can buy a label maker. This Brother P-touch PT- D610BT can print up to 1″ labels, making it easy to read them from a distance.
As of this writing, the price for a 27-gallon bin is $14, so even if you needed 35 of them, you’re only paying $500 for them, and when you’re done using them, you can easily empty the contents and stack them inside each other for future use.
If you have a lot of stuffed bins, some of which may be heavy, you don’t want to have to carry each one. For convenience, you can just buy a folding platform truck.
For $36, it’s totally worth it. The plastic bins fit on the platform and the handle allows for comfortable pushing or pulling (I prefer pulling). When you’re done moving the bins, you can fold the handle down so the dolly doesn’t take up a lot of space.
Now, you may have some large or long items that won’t fit in those 27-gallon bins. For these items, you can either but a few larger bins, like this 75-gallon one, which comes with its own wheels.
Or, you can just buy a small shed just for those items.
If you leave things exposed to the elements for a long time, they can become weathered and even break down. Thin plastic, for example, can become brittle from long exposure to the sun’s UV rays. To prevent this from happening, you can cover the bins with a heavy-duty tarp that is treated to prevent deterioration from UV rays.
If the tarp doesn’t cover the sides and you’re worried water might get in through some small gaps between the bins and their covers, you can cover the gaps with duct tape.
Or, you can buy a bigger tarp. The one picture below is 9mm thick (heavy duty) and from Harbor Freight.
But what if you have a bunch of shelving racks with uncovered bins in them? In this case, rather than disassemble the racks and buy lids for those bins, you can just roll your racks to your backyard and cover them with tarp to prevent them from getting wet. It’s probably easiest to line each rack along your fence and then cover them with tarp by stapling the tarp to your fence, which is usually made of wood, and having the other end of the tarp cover the top and front side of the rack. However, you’ll need to secure the tarp to the rack to prevent it from blowing away when its windy.
If you have to store a bunch of clothes, a cheaper storage option is to put the clothes in a cardboard box or a plastic tote bag, like this.
For just $5, these large, 20-gallon plastic totes are cheap and, since they’re designed for light items, like clothes, you can easily carry them without the need for a platform truck or dolly. They also come with a zipper. If you go with cardboard boxes, not only are they not waterproof, but you’d have to use tape to close them, which is extra work.
So there you have it. A cheap, easy, and organized way to temporarily store stuff in your backyard.
Most homeowners, and, surprisingly, some plumbers, only use Teflon tape around pipe threads. While this often is sufficient to prevent leaks, it is not the best practice. For more reliable results, always use a combination of Teflon tape followed by thread sealant.
One of the most popular thread sealants is RectorSeal #5.
As a real estate investor, I’ve had to replace many toilets. Normally, I do that while doing a complete renovation. The problem with many toilets is
the bolts to the toilet flange in the floor can get loose
the floor may not be perfectly level
These issues can cause a toilet to slide, rotate, and tilt.
Fixing a rocking toilet due to an uneven floor
After renovating many bathroom floors with both tile and vinyl, it’s unfortunate that despite a contractor’s best effort to create a perfectly level floor, a small imperfection could cause a toilet to not sit evenly on the floor. The easily way to fix this is by installing plastic toilet shims on the LOW side of the toilet. Make sure to install it on the LOW side as the weight of the toilet will help keep the shim in place.
Fixing a loose toilet due to loose bolts
The bolts that come with many toilets are usually the cheap kind. Sometimes, they work just fine, but depending on your toilet flange and toilet, they may easily become loose, which is what happened to me. To remedy this, I replaced the cheap toilet flange bolts with the Fluidmaster SetFast 5/16 in. x 2-1/4 in. No-Cut Brass Closet Toilet Bolt Kit. Price at $8, which is about double the cost of the cheap bolts, these bolts don’t require any cutting and they securely hold your toilet in place. Unlike some other toilet bolts that come with a small head, the bolt head the Fluidmaster bolt is thick and wide, so the bolt remains within the toilet flange slot no matter what.
When you tighten the acorn nut, the height of the threaded stud decreases automatically.
The yellow lock washer is thick, which holds the bolt in place vertically as you place the toilet over the bolts. This is way better other toilet bolt kits, which either don’t come with a lock washer, or the lock washers are thin and flimsy.
When applying grout to tile, you’re supposed to wait 15-30 minutes before wiping the grout of the tile while leaving the grout between each tile. This is easier said that done. No matter how good you are, you’ll probably be left with a thin layer of grout on your tile. If you use a light-colored grout on light-colored tile, you won’t notice the haze except at certain angles in certain lighting. The haze can resemble hard water stains. If you use a dark-colored grout on light tile or a light-colored grout on dark tile, the haze is more prominent, and your tile can look dirty. See example below.
Before
You can try to scrub with soap or even a steam cleaner, but that will have zero effect. Luckily, there is an amazing chemical product that can relatively easily remove the grout haze from tile. With Aqua Mix 1 Qt. Cement Grout Haze Remover by Custom Building Products, you just mix the liquid with water, pour some one the tile, wait a while, then rub the haze off. For tougher haze, don’t mix with water. In my case, I poured the liquid at full strength without adding water into a spray bottle, sprayed the liquid on the tile, then wiped the haze off with a rag. As most comments say on the Home Depot product page, this stuff is “amazing”!
To easily remove weeds from control joints in your concrete driveway, use an angle grinder with a wire wheel. I use a 4.5″ Ryobi brushed, cordless angle grinder. Don’t use a brushless angle grinder because it can’t be used for this purpose. I prefer using a knotted wire wheel. A non-knotted wire wheel works as well, but I find it better for cleaning control joints after removing large weeds using the knotted one.
To prevent kickback, stand and drag the tool to the right as shown in the photo below.
If the angle grinder flange lock nut is stuck, use either a pipe wrench or a thin wrench to unlock it. For convenience, clamp the angle grinder to a stationary vise.
Whether you hire a contractor directly or you are assigned one from your home warranty company, it’s important to check a number of things to prevent regret and liabilities. This is especially important when you are assigned a contractor from a warranty company because, speaking from personal experience, contractors who partner with home warranty companies tend to cut corners and behave unprofessionally, as I have experienced this multiple times.
1. Check License Status
Licensed contractors are registered with the state. Check the status of their license on the Contractor State Licensing Board (CSLB)’s website. It should state whether their license is active, suspended, or revoked. If it’s suspended or revoked, they probably didn’t do a good job and it’s illegal for them to do work they were licensed for, so stay away from them. For example, here’s the contractor page for Loves Air and their license status.
2. Check Classification, Bond, and Worker’s Comp Info
On the contractor’s page on the CSLB website, you should also check the contractor’s work classification, bond, and worker’s compensation info. Here’s an example for Loves Air.
2. Check Online Reviews
If you are looking for a reputable contractor or are assigned one, read their online reviews, e.g. on websites like Yelp. For example, compare the reviews of Loves Air to T N T Heating & Air, both of which are HVAC contractors. Don’t just look at the number of reviews and the average rating. Read past customer comments as well and how the company responds to customers.
This company got only 2.7 stars from 59 reviews. After reading customer comments, it’s obvious that you should stay very far away from this company. Here’s a response from the owner to a customer’s comment. This tone and choice of words says it all.
Unsurprisingly, this company was chosen by many home warranty companies.
4. Check building permit history
Go to your local government (city / county) website and search for building permits associated with the contractor. For example, T N T Heating & Air serves Modesto, Stockton, and other neighboring cities. If I go to the City of Stockton’s Building Permit website, click on Search Permits, and enter the contractor’s license number, I can see the status of all permits for that contractor. If the permit status is “issued”, that just means the contractor successfully submitted a permit application and can begin work. Once the work is complete, the contractor is supposed to schedule an appointment for the city inspector to inspect the work and either approve the work or disapprove of it with a list of things that need to be fixed. If the inspector approves the work, then status changes to “Finaled”. If the contractor never got the work inspector or approved and a certain period of time passes, then the status changes to “Expired permit”.
In the example below, we see that the contractor has 2 “issued” permits, which are recent, followed by 6 expired permits since 2019. This indicates that the contractor likely repeatedly just got a permit issued but never got an approved inspection, which is illegal. This is a huge red flag. Stay away from such contractors.
5. Get Multiple Quotes
Some contractors will give free quotes. Others will charge a nominal fee. Either way, try to get multiple quotes with a clear breakdown of parts, materials, and labor. Sadly, many contractors don’t like to provide a breakdown because it exposes their outrageous markups. Nevertheless, even if you don’t get a detailed breakdown, at least you’ll know at a high level the main things you’d be getting (or not getting). If a contractor’s quote is outrageous or doesn’t make sense compared to other quotes, then you’ll probably want to skip that contractor.
One of my rental properties is a triplex in Stockton, California. The roof uses standard residential shingles and has an area of about 4000 square feet. I got a roof replacement quote from a licensed contractor that specializes in roofing on May 10, 2023, for $28,270. Here are the details:
Tear off existing 1 layer of composition roofing
Any dry rot will be an extra charge to replace. Dry rot repair labor rate is $85.00 per hour per man plus material.
Roofing will be limited lifetime Certainteed Landmark Solaris cool shingle over one layer of Certainteed Roof Runner synthetic underlayment.
Venting per title 24 codes. 11 intake vents and 11 exhaust vents.
New pipe flashing painted to match roof color.
Certainteed Sure-Start 4 Star Warranty (10-yr. labor warranty % 50-year material warranty)
New TPO membrane roofing in dead valley
Includes building permit and dump fees.
New 5″ gutters with new down leaders an extra $3700
I got a quote from an all-purpose contractor who could do the job for $26,000. Here are the details:
Replace roof with California Cool shingles
Replace any dry rot
Underlayment would be felt paper, not synthetic underlayment
Since I think these quotes are outrageous, I decided to replace the roof myself with some friends, one of whom happens to be a roofer. Here’s how I did it.
Set up a ladder
A ladder must be on the job site for the Building Inspector’s use. The ladder must be set up to meet the following minimum standards.
The ladder shall meet OSHA Standards and be rated a minimum of 250 lbs.
Find a level, hard, slip-resistant spot on the ground free of debris to set the ladder feet on.
The ladder shall extend no less than 36 inches above the edge of the roof at the point providing access and secured (tied off).
Place the feet of the ladder at a distance of 1⁄4 the height of the ladder away from the building. In other words, if the ladder is 8 feet tall, place the bottom of the ladder 2 feet away from the building. If the ladder is 12 feet tall, place the bottom 3 feet from the building.
If you have a gutter, slip a 2 x 4 into it to keep it from being crushed by the ladder.
Note: Inspectors will not walk on tile roof coverings or pitches exceeding 5/12. Ladders are still required for access to the roof edge for these inspections. If a ladder is not provided or if the ladder does not meet the minimum requirements listed above, the inspection will be canceled. If a second inspection request is canceled for lack of access, a reinspection fee will be issued.
To measure the roof area, I took a screenshot of the roof from a satellite view in Google Maps. I then annotated the roof with letters, printed out the image, and took it with me on the roof.
Tear Off: Yes You can have up to 2 layers of shingles. If you have one layer, you can add another layer on top of the first layer. If you have 2 layers, then you’ll need to tear off both layers. I had one layer, but I decided to just tear it off anyway.
Resheet: No Resheeting is to replace all plywood under the shingles.
Structure: Main Structure
Original Roofing Material: 30yr Laminated Dimensional Composition
New Roof Material Product Information: Cool Roof CRRC ID 0676-0133,
Area: 45 squares (1 square = 100 sqft)
Conditioned Space: No A conditioned space is a space between the roof and the ceiling that is air conditioned to be hot or cold.
Roof slope < 2:12 pitch? No Most residential roofs in California have between a 4/12 and 9/12 slope. Roofs with a pitch exceeding 9/12 are called steep slope roofs.
Reroof less than 50% of the entire roof area: No
Once you get your permit, you must post it on the building. The city inspector will look for it when they come to inspect the work.
Inspections
According to the permit, one inspection is required and some are depending on need.
On the permit, there will be a form for the inspection to fill out for each inspection type.
In my case, I don’t think the special inspection (019) is needed, but the other two are needed.
The permit also indicates that the following inspections are needed:
After removal of existing roofing for the plywood deck inspection.
After new plywood or OSB sheathing is installed for the nailing inspection.
After the project is complete for the final inspection
Inspections can be scheduled online at Stocktonca.gov/scheduleInspection. When you enter your permit ID, you’ll see some inspection options.
For the inspections, I would choose 015 Roof.
Inspections will occur between 7:30 AM and 4:00 PM. When you schedule an inspection, you can request an AM time window (7:30 AM to 12 PM) or a PM time window (12 – 4 PM) in the “Notes to inspector” field.
UPDATE: After scheduling the first inspection, the city inspector called and said that
he’d be at the site between 11 AM and 1 PM
the City of Stockton doesn’t require in-progress inspections, just final inspections.
So, I canceled the in-progress inspection and will just schedule one final inspection when the roof is complete.
Remove old roof
You’ll need to remove the old shingles and the underlayment (tar paper or synthetic underlayment).
You may also need to remove old roofing materials in places like the dead valley. In my case, there was a metal sheet and old TPO material.
If the fascia boards are rotten, you should remove and replace them as well. Use a pry bar and a metal-cutting blade to cut nails holding the fascia board in place.
For long pieces of fascia board on the 2nd story, you’ll need multiple workers laying down on the roof and leaning over to pull the boards off.
When disposing of the old roof, it’s easiest to park a dump truck in the driveway so you can throw the old roof materials from the roof into the truck. You can rent dump trailers from Home Depot, but then you need a truck to haul the trailer and you need a driver. Also, the trailers at Home Depot may not be available when you need them. In my case, I hired a guy who has a dump truck.
When you’re at the dump, you can just dump the garbage mechanically rather than by hand.
Buy new roof materials
I bought 15 pieces of 2x6x16′ wood for the fascia. You can find boards as long as 20′. However, some edges are longer than 20′, so you’d still have to splice two pieces together, which can be done using a galvanized tie plate.
I also bought 9 sheets of 4×8 OSB plywood to replace any rotten parts of the roof deck.
Paint fascia boards
Make sure to paint the fascia boards before installing them, including the ends after making any cuts. Paint protects the wood and delays rotting.
Install fascia boards
Installing the fascia boards is also a multi-person job.
Nails are shot into the wood using a pneumatic nail gun.
Static roof vents allow air to escape from the attic. Often multiple static roof vents are needed to adequately ventilate the attic. Roof vents should be evenly spaced across the roof and installed just below the peak of the roof where heated air will rise. Learn more.
Adjustable-color LED Light Bulbs (This is for the sconces. I set the color to pink.)
Uplights (This one on Amazon lets you change the color of the light) In the picture above, I just have one behind the sofa with a soft white (yellow) light.
LED Light Strip (I got mine from Costco. You can adjust the color.) In the picture above, this is the blue light behind the TV.
1.5 RPM Speed Disco Ball Motor(I chose a speed of 1.5 RPM. Faster speeds make the lights move too quickly, which is distracting and headache-inducing)
Spot Light (This is for the mirror ball. I bought this one because it allows me to adjust the aperture size / spot diameter.) In the picture above, I put it on the ottoman facing up to light up the mirror ball.
Northern Galaxy Light Aurora Projector (In the video above, I set the color to red (R) and blue (B) and disabled the green “star” lights. It’s on the ottoman and illuminates the ceiling).
