Home Maintenance and Aging - What happens when I can't be the Handyman?

[Boho]

Globe Union handles tech services for Gerber and they're great. They sent me a free O-ring set for my spout and gave me the dimensions of the O-rings. It's a discontinued model from 15-20 years ago and they didn't care about whether I registered the product or anything.

I think I once glued a torn flapper and it lasted for months or years longer. I don't think there can be a catastrophic flapper failure that I can't handle while waiting for a replacement.

When reinstalling the faucet handles, put a little plumbing grease (or Vaseline or wheel bearing grease should work too) on the serrated valve stem where the handle mounts to slow corrosion.

Good idea. I have some silicone grease for the O-rings that I'm afraid to use on them because I don't want the chemicals in my drinking water, but I can use it on the stem. One reason I insisted on getting the O-rings through Gerber is that there are rubber additives that make some O-rings work better when the spout is moved and I figure I'm more likely to get that with a good brand. I don't trust the no-name O-ring kits from Amazon or Ebay. I don't even trust plumber's O-rings. Who knows where they get them.

 

[Out of Steam]

Ditto. Gutters with good drainage away from the foundation are critical here, especially if you have a daylight basement.

The southeast is going on a 10 year run of above normal precipitation. It has built on each year and we are saturated right now. Any and all water drawn away from the foundation is important.

We moved to Virginia in 2019, and it seems like it has been raining more days than not since that fall. My upcoming drainage project is a second downspout on our covered patio to take some water further away from the crawl space.

 

[target2019]

My advice is for the survivor to move to a lower housing maintenance solution. I included similar words in my instructions letter.

 

[Out of Steam]

My advice is for the survivor to move to a lower housing maintenance solution.

With one child, who is not inclined to live near where we live, I feel rather strongly about making the move while I/we can manage the transition ourselves.

 

[Finance Dave]

Am I overreacting? How have others managed this transition from DIY to depending on others?

I'm 59. I was a licensed home inspector for 7 years, and for the past 2 years I've been doing some minor handyman work. I used to do nearly all the work on our personal house except a few things that require specialized knowledge or things that were just too big of a job such as a new roof.

The way I've been dealing with it thus far is "tapering". I still do most things, but for example our water heater is in our basement, and it went out. I'm not strong enough to carry the thing upstairs anymore, so I hired a plumber. We had some minor settling cracks in our drywall, and I did the prep work to clean out the cracks, tape them, and first coat of mud...but I know a drywall guy who's good and I let him do the final coat and texturing of the ceiling. I have a very tall skylight in our house that will require some scaffolding to paint...I'm hiring a painter for that even though I'm very good at paint work...just don't have scaffolding and this will require some "agile" person to get up in the "tunnel" of the skylight.

I'd say just do what you can, but start to develop relationships with pros for the things you can't do or don't want to do.

Good luck!

 

[Leo1277]

<snip> Rethinking my posts on page 1, as I was safely climbing my new telescoping ladder to look in the attic and potentially go up in there. I'm fine doing that now (age 59), but some day I won't be. <snip>

This one I might consider hiring out, even at my current age:

 

[NXR7]

This one I might consider hiring out, even at my current age:

Yeah, me, too. But I routinely see people in their 70's climbing a ladder to get on top of their motorhome to wash and check or reseal the roof. It's pretty common, actually, especially for the people who live in a motorhome full-time.

Ray

 

[Leo1277]

<snip> I feel I can continue for some time using the lawn tractor, felling trees, and so forth, but the end of being able to do such things does worry me. <snip>

Here is a method for removing even very large trees by one person without felling them

 

[Leo1277]

Yeah, me, too. But I routinely see people in their 70's climbing a ladder to get on top of their motorhome to wash and check or reseal the roof. It's pretty common, actually, especially for the people who live in a motorhome full-time.
Ray

That sounds like a bad idea. It's all a matter of knowing one's limits and when to downsize. This one you can just flip on it's side, no ladder needed to wash the top.

 

[ychuck46]

Felling trees

Here is a method for removing even very large trees by one person without felling them

Thank you, sir!

 

[Leo1277]

Thank you, sir!

Of course I was joking and I hope this didn't sound disrespectful, I just find this technique so amazing. They first go up the tree with a friction harness holding their feet and body to the trunk, and cut away any branch that's in their way up. When they reach the top, they go down again, cutting the trunk above them in 5 foot increments. It's supposedly even "quite safe" since the higher up they are, the body weight the trunk has to carry is a smaller and smaller fraction of the weight of the branches they have already cut off. And there is never a single large trunk coming down that may hit things far away on the ground.

Here is a version of a US crew doing it, using boot cleats instead of a separate foot harness, and not quite as wild as in the picture but looking a bit safer. Of course I still would never want to try it, especially handling a chain saw up there. But then that's me, and I am not my 20 year old former self anymore either...

 

[Out of Steam]

Of course I still would never want to try it, especially handling a chain saw up there. But then that's me, and I am not my 20 year old former self anymore either...

My father was unimpressed with my skills on a ladder when I was 20.

 

[calmloki]

We had a big long needle pine and a spruce taken down in our backyard a couple years ago - the trimmer went up leaving branch stubs. I was snooty faced at how far from the trunk he was cutting the branches - not tidy at all. Then he got up a ways and started dallying a couple loops around the stubs he had left so he could lower the branch and trunk sections down rather than dropping them into the lawn and leaving great divots. Smarter, safer, and all around better than me. Armando works part of the year fighting fire, the rest clambering around in trees wearing hooks and with a running chainsaw dangling from his belt. Hats off to him - he and his crew earn their money!

 

[Leo1277]

We had a big long needle pine and a spruce taken down in our backyard a couple years ago - the trimmer went up leaving branch stubs. I was snooty faced at how far from the trunk he was cutting the branches - not tidy at all. Then he got up a ways and started dallying a couple loops around the stubs he had left so he could lower the branch and trunk sections down rather than dropping them into the lawn and leaving great divots. Smarter, safer, and all around better than me. Armando works part of the year fighting fire, the rest clambering around in trees wearing hooks and with a running chainsaw dangling from his belt. Hats off to him - he and his crew earn their money!

Thanks for this, especially including the impressive picture. This guy Armando really seems incredibly skillful, and I find it interesting to see that also in the US, this technique is apparently also used at least sometimes.

 

[JoeWras]

Thanks for this, especially including the impressive picture. This guy Armando really seems incredibly skillful, and I find it interesting to see that also in the US, this technique is apparently also used at least sometimes.

What I see in our neck of the woods is when an experienced tree cutter goes on his own, he employs this technique. Without a lot of equipment (cranes, bucket trucks), he has no choice.

I watched one small wildcat cutter like this spend 3 weeks at a house cutting trees that would have taken a major tree crew less than 1 day to accomplish.

 

[Leo1277]

Along the lines of the bottoms-up tree cutting, one of the regular maintenance issues here in Florida is removing coconuts. These coconut palms are everywhere, after all they are one of the most beautiful and iconic plants of the tropical world. But a coconut falling down from up high (say 30-50 feet) is really dangerous, so coconut palms along streets need very regular maintenance, and also in residential areas, it is needed at least once a year because coconuts can become missiles in hurricanes.

Nowadays they do this mostly with bucket trucks, but because of all the equipment needed and having to get it all to the back yard, it's expensive and cumbersome. Once when I got it done, the company guy told me that not too long ago, they used monkeys to do this. But tending a monkey crew humanely (or should one say, "monkeyly"?) is a project in itself, so the monkey method is not used much in Florida anymore. But in other parts of the world, the method is alive and well:

 

[Leo1277]

My favorite neighbor here is from Jamaica, and he oozes coolness and kindness while at the same time being very funny and charismatic. He just turned 80, and I often enjoy listening to his stories from the Caribbean of the past, and also his knowledge and enjoyment of Calypso and Reggae. He told me that when he was young, or "younger" as he would put it, he had no problem climbing coconut trees and getting the nuts that way. And even nowadays, you can still sometimes find some island natives who harvest the coconuts for free if they are allowed to keep them. Again, this isn't anything that even my 20 year old self would have ever dared to try, but apparently, if you are of the right spirit and attitude, it's not that hard, see here:

 

[calmloki]

What I see in our neck of the woods is when an experienced tree cutter goes on his own, he employs this technique. Without a lot of equipment (cranes, bucket trucks), he has no choice.

I watched one small wildcat cutter like this spend 3 weeks at a house cutting trees that would have taken a major tree crew less than 1 day to accomplish.

3 weeks? think it says more about the cutter than the equipment. This was done to bid rather than by the hour, but Armando spent under 6 hours to take down a big long needle pine and a smaller spruce (the one in the photo), a 8" small fir, and some cedar branches and bamboo while his 2-man ground crew chipped everything but the big stuff up - and that got turned into firewood lengths!

As for me, I'm handy with money.

This is the neighbor having him trim a big old leaning oak - 4'+ diameter trunk and heavy wood. Took a bit more rigging. Back 35 years or so I trimmed some branches from that oak when I owned the place. Did it very thoughtfully and neatly managed to drop a chunk of limb onto the old front porch which extended across the front of the house. Put that porch right on the ground and insurance, to my amazement, paid to have the porch replaced (a corner visible in the photo). Stupidity insurance - who'd a thunk it!

 

[JoeWras]

3 weeks? think it says more about the cutter than the equipment.

One man, 15 very large trees as in the original picture. No branch shredder.

Take down tree, haul away wood in small dump truck. Rinse and repeat for multiple days.

It was like watching paint dry.

However, the homeowner saved over $5k by having this guy do it.

 

[Ronstar]

I worked on some highway projects with these guys - they would defoliate the right of way in no time. Big cutters and chippers taking out 30" trees with no problem.

 

[JoeWras]

I worked on some highway projects with these guys - they would defoliate the right of way in no time. Big cutters and chippers taking out 30" trees with no problem. https://homertree.com/mass-land-clearing/professional-land-clearing/

This is like 100% opposite of the one guy method.

I've seen these crews here too. Almost no need to get out of a cab. Grab the tree and cut it off, bring it over to the grinder and done. Some of the grinders are the size of large above ground backyard pools. A person falling into one would be killed in seconds, hence why they do it all from the safety of their automated equipment. Impressive stuff.

 

[NateW]

As for chainsaw work, when I was in highschool my friend's brother was an emergency room nurse and occasionally told us ER (horror) stories. He said one day the rescue squad brought in a man who was in a tree cutting limbs and fell while holding a running chainsaw. I don't remember the specific details, other than the chainsaw really tore him up!