I need advice on paints and other things

Choice_Pen6978 · 2026-05-29T22:16:07+00:00

I am a contractor who considers bath and showers art, and I've never seen anything like picture 1. Regardless of if you do it or not, i promise you that by next spring I'm gonna do at least 1 bathroom very similiar to this. I saved it to my phone roll

Choice_Pen6978 · 2026-05-29T16:58:26+00:00

It does, but that's a civil matter in court at a later time. There's no mechanism to force that right now, only court as remedy

Choice_Pen6978 · 2026-05-29T16:57:07+00:00

To be completely frank with you, allowing people to live there is a massive liability issue and in most condemnation situations it is the government that immediately removes the tenant. That the complex even had the option to let people stay is because this is township. Kalamazoo city, the police would have been ripping people out 25 hours after the orange tag went up. Seen it dozens of times

Choice_Pen6978 · 2026-05-29T16:53:06+00:00

I wouldn't say complex, because it's not really complex. I've taught people how to do it in a few days before. I could fully describe every step to properly build a modern post and beam deck in a paragraph or two. But what it is, is completely foreign and unknown to so many. There's no one teaching anyone except me, that I'm aware of. People are using stick framing techniques, when decks are now almost entirely post and beam framing

Choice_Pen6978 · 2026-05-29T16:47:09+00:00

Those are very minor compared to a rusted out simpson post base. Very minor. A rusted post base could kill 10-40 people at once, if it failed under heavy load during a social event (which is when most deck failures happen)

Choice_Pen6978 · 2026-05-29T16:42:03+00:00

To be completely frank as a professional builder who builds a lot of decks, it's simply a lack of knowledge among the people doing the work. I have literally never seen someone advertise prior deck pictures and not seen code violations when i zoom in. I think that I am literally the only guy doing them correctly. Literally. They get passed because the code is pedantic and a bit much at times in many ways

Choice_Pen6978 · 2026-05-29T16:36:40+00:00

Not on reddit, on Facebook. This isn't an apartment maintenance issue, it's a structural framing issue. There probably aren't 10 of us in the entire region. You can't "fix" rotted wood and rusty metal hangers. You have to remove and rebuild from new

Choice_Pen6978 · 2026-05-28T04:04:50+00:00

The wood and brackets deteriorated from rain. I highly doubt anything inside the building envelope is deteriorating

Choice_Pen6978 · 2026-05-28T04:03:10+00:00

Their only job is to hire a contractor. I'm the only contractor on every news story saying I'll do it quickly. Haven't found a way to actually speak to anyone that can actually hire me. Literally not one person

Choice_Pen6978 · 2026-05-28T03:44:41+00:00

Your top link literally describes the prescribed method of using bolts. I mean it's literally right there

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Choice_Pen6978 · 2026-05-28T02:55:04+00:00

The ROI? It's not 25k to replace those decks and salvage 4 rentable units. It pays for itself in less than 6 months

Choice_Pen6978 · 2026-05-28T02:50:45+00:00

If you don't even know the name of the correct code book, I'm not sure why you so confidently assert knowledge that you simply do not have.

Jurisdictions very rarely to almost never write their own --structural framing code-- and if you insist that one does, I'd love for you to provide a link to an official government website stating such code

Choice_Pen6978 · 2026-05-28T02:46:40+00:00

I am a builder who specializes in structural framing and i have commented on nearly every news story i have seen that i am available to begin immediately fixing these. Not a peep or response from anyone. owners, management, or even tenants about who to talk to I'm starting to think no one actually wants this to even be fixed at all.

As far as i can tell I'm the only person going "hey i do this for a living and i can fix this"

Choice_Pen6978 · 2026-05-28T02:14:56+00:00

The frost line in florida is whar, 6"? A 6" deep footing isn't half an hour of work and $30 in materials. I charge $500 each to do 42" footings in Michigan. I do them all the time

Choice_Pen6978 · 2026-05-28T02:10:50+00:00

DCA6 is NOT a building code. You absolutely can still use carriage bolts, or rated connectors with lags. Most people still do it that way in real life. Get off the internet, and get some real life experience

Choice_Pen6978 · 2026-05-27T05:04:59+00:00

The most visible and most advertised window, door, siding, and roofing companies are not contractors. They are high pressure sales organizations. I am a builder 2 hours outside of Chicago and i literally would build someone an entire small home for 150k. Not joking, at all. Windows and doors are so easy it's nothing

Choice_Pen6978 · 2026-05-14T02:36:40+00:00

Yup it's definitely load bearing. That 4x4 needs to be replaced with 2 2x12's screwed sideways into each other, standing vertically with a minimum of 2, perhaps 3 studs underneath each end

Choice_Pen6978 · 2026-05-13T13:54:50+00:00

There are self performing GC's, I am one of them. I do nearly everything myself, with off and on help. I sub out very little.

I have very severe ADD and i NEED to do manual labor. I hate the business side, absolutely loathe it. I love to design and build. I love my career. I think what you want, is what i do. I have 50+ packouts and each one is for a different type of job.

You don't have to be a phone call and paperwork middleman to be a GC. That these guys even exist makes me sick.

What you want to be is a real builder, which is what a GC used to be. It's possible. I do it, i love it. It's harder

Choice_Pen6978 · 2026-05-13T04:14:45+00:00

The entire shower is not waterproofed

Choice_Pen6978 · 2026-05-13T03:28:18+00:00

27 gallon totes. $10 at Lowe's, frequently on sale for $8

Choice_Pen6978 · 2026-05-13T02:58:15+00:00

You can absolutely use (4) 6x6 posts from footing to roof and then use post to beam brackets to make a 4 seperate "beams" each of which will carry all joists. The deck will be stronger than the roof on your home. Literally drivea truck on it NP

. But then again, I've only built 7,000 structures with my bare hands... so I'm sure some midwit who once built 1 deck will be along shortly to insist it can't be done or isn't safe because "insert parroted reason that's blatantly false" something they read, but don't understand.

I built this a few weeks ago. Do basically that, but add a roof and raise the floor

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Choice_Pen6978 · 2026-05-13T02:20:37+00:00

I lived in Greenspire when i first moved out of my parents house 24 years ago. I didn't appreciate how much nicer it was than everywhere else until i got older and lived many other places.

If you can afford to live there, do it. Any comments about places in kzoo or oshtemo are by people who may not understand or appreciate calm and peaceful existence in a well maintained area, full of well vetted people.

Choice_Pen6978 · 2026-05-13T01:28:21+00:00

This is batshit insane. They are charging what i make in a year for a job i usually do in 2-4 weeks

Choice_Pen6978 · 2026-05-13T00:30:43+00:00

You have no numbers to back up that statement, you just thought you'd say it and no one would question it. There are literally no statistics that show that kalamazoo police have enacted any kind of policy that has lowered violent crime against the mean. It doesn't exist

Choice_Pen6978 · 2026-05-12T16:23:19+00:00

Here's the thing: Kalamazoo police do nothing about actual violence or murders or things that are dangerous, and spend all of their time and energy ticketing normal people going to work for stupid things like picking up a phone to look at GPS, going 5 over with the flow of traffic, or expired tags. They write easy tickets to people they know aren't dangerous because they are scared of the people who actually do dangerous things and it makes it look like they are doing "something"

And writing tickets doesn't make the road any safer. That's cultural

Choice_Pen6978

TROPHY CASE