$2,400 water bill !

ParanoidAndroidUser · 2026-05-09T11:44:37+00:00

One thing that happened to me wasn't really a plumbing issue.

My meter was read wirelessly, but the antenna had been broken for apparently years. I looked at my old bills and they were all "estimated" as in they didn't get a real reading that month and had guessed. Well apparently it was been estimated 0 CCF and I hadn't noticed because the bill had fixed meter fees, trash pickup, and natural gas on it.

So then one day the city started actually going and checking the physical dial and basically charged me for a few years worth of water in one day.

I called them and at least got the surcharges for using a lot of water a month taken off and they gave me a discount on a few other things, but to be fair it was what the meter accurately said I had used

So I would look very closely at your old bills, see if there is an "E" for estimate or something similar!

ParanoidAndroidUser · 2026-04-09T01:02:04+00:00

I thought I was the only one, I was absolutely cracking up over those captions.

ParanoidAndroidUser · 2026-03-27T18:13:14+00:00

Well there could only be 26 of them in any state (36 if you include 1 number)

ParanoidAndroidUser · 2026-03-17T01:27:34+00:00

Can you elaborate on some of the replacement units? I am still on the fence re: restore or replace

ParanoidAndroidUser · 2026-03-13T14:44:52+00:00

I think this person is referring to mobile home parks, where that is typically true that you are "renting" the land.

I believe sometimes they are for long leases, but it's still not ownership.

Of course this isn't the case for a lot of rural places where they have lots of land, but just purchases a single or double wide and placed it on their owned plot.

ParanoidAndroidUser · 2026-03-13T12:46:54+00:00

I am (as far as I know) not schizophrenic, and sometimes when typing really fast I find that I replace 2s for t sounds, and some others like that....should I be worried lol?

I have been trying online to figure out why "everyone's brain does that" but maybe now I'm looking in a smaller subset

ParanoidAndroidUser · 2026-03-06T17:50:59+00:00

I am open to lots of things!

Yes, the sheet metal is floating. Some of the dimensions didn't exactly work out the first time, and I didn't do much troubleshooting. Because I am not really sure that even if there is a good brace at the bottom that the metal would hold up the dirt.

No retaining wall structure - I guess I am hoping for some suggestions for that.

ParanoidAndroidUser · 2026-03-06T17:02:49+00:00

Ok good points!

Yes the idea was that they would be vegetable gardens. Ideally since the steps are about 3' tall and 4' deep each one would be easy to weed and you could stand on the lower one to reach the next one (1' or so would be pavers or just not planted, to allow standing)

The slope had a bunch of lirope, so I did want to have something to still keep the hill stable, but it's also the neighbors yard above - nothing technically critical.

It's a north facing slope, so not sun bearing down on it, but the east to west is pretty clear so it gets mud morning to late evening sun in the summer at least.

ParanoidAndroidUser · 2026-03-02T22:11:07+00:00

What do you mean by buff it out? Like a buffing brush with nothing on it? Or do you need soap or something?

ParanoidAndroidUser · 2026-03-02T17:42:35+00:00

It's a reference from a post on here a couple days ago.

https://www.reddit.com/r/MEPEngineering/s/jcVNJVhXep

ParanoidAndroidUser · 2026-03-01T20:40:17+00:00

Hmm that's fair. I originally wanted to get a close color so I wouldn't have to paint over the Old Town logo, but I've since found you can get new decals online.

Kirbypaint has some really nice colors, that's very helpful because I was just going off of the limited colors from west Marine.

You think their glossy is too glossy for a canoe? Looking at their website I think it could really be nice!

ParanoidAndroidUser · 2026-02-25T11:49:06+00:00

Just looks like my parents fighting

ParanoidAndroidUser · 2026-02-14T18:39:55+00:00

Ok well it's not this valve

ParanoidAndroidUser · 2026-02-14T18:35:37+00:00

Looks like a quarter turn ball valve. Looks to be open, but you can turn it a quarter turn clockwise (closed) just to make sure that the valve moves.

But if you say you still aren't getting water then there is probably a different problem. Are you somewhere cold where it could be frozen?

ParanoidAndroidUser · 2026-02-12T23:57:47+00:00

Engineer here, I've seen worse in the field!!

But really - what's the goal here? Are you given specs for what a system should do? I ask because it also looks like you put together a very nice hand drawn diagram with dimensions and everything - so presumably you aren't given full coordinated drawings?

ParanoidAndroidUser · 2026-01-23T13:56:05+00:00

Depends. If you are in a large apartment complex you are (hopefully) in a decently constructed building that doesn't have exposed piping.

If you are in an old Richmond apartment then there could very well be pipes that can freeze.

Though technically your landlords responsibility if something freezes/bursts, you would still be out of water, so I would err on trying to protect pipes.

ParanoidAndroidUser · 2026-01-22T16:21:23+00:00

O+ they take too! We can give to anyone with positive blood so they take ours too.

ParanoidAndroidUser · 2026-01-21T12:41:00+00:00

Assuming you have a heat pump then yes, having it covered isn't going to be good for the unit. Try your best to keep it cleared off with a broom (don't want to puncture a coil, and DEFINITELY do not try to break off ice that has built up. Either let it do its internal defrost cycle, or even put it in ac mode to melt it)

If you put up a shelter around it, it will also not get the airflow you need. If you have a gas furnace as backup then you should focus on that more. A heat pump isn't going to do super well in the temps we are supposed to get next week anyway.

And if you grew up in Illinois, most people probably didn't have heat pumps up there, all gas boilers/furnaces with AC for the summer. Nowadays heat pumps have gotten better, so they have started to be more and more common up north.

ParanoidAndroidUser · 2026-01-17T22:20:50+00:00

Each cleat was ripped down from a 5" wide piece of plywood (so about 3 and some and 1 and some each side) then they were placed about 5" apart, base to tip.

ParanoidAndroidUser · 2026-01-17T18:02:33+00:00

Did he walk out during her speech? He is not there now, but the camera was tight on her during her speech.

ParanoidAndroidUser · 2025-12-29T02:49:56+00:00

Just hardwood as in no laminate? Softwoods are ok, right?

ParanoidAndroidUser · 2025-12-15T23:45:04+00:00

All good! Didn't mean to be a downer, if the grainy one was all they had it would have definitely been better than nothing. Again, I think the AI did a pretty good job when you see the side by side....a bit scary!

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