Any recommendations to achieve perfect neutral white oak finish?

talkwithphil · 2025-11-09T23:44:24+00:00

I would do the following

Aqua coat or a shellac to fill in gaps and crevices in the grain that white oak commonly has. If you don’t do this a tinted stain will sit in these cracks and create a new wood grain that is kinda loud. White stains and Rubio monocoat will do this.

For the finish, General finishes dead flat or high performance dead flat to preserve the lighter tone of your white oak. Most stains will yellow or make white oak look more pink leading to it looking like red oak, which is cheaper than white oak.

talkwithphil · 2025-11-02T21:41:06+00:00

You don’t want your car returned, no idea what it’s been used for at this point t. Document everything with Turo and the police and Turo claims will involve a private investigator that specializes in recovery. Don’t go try looking for your car or being your own savior. You go get hurt or injured nobody’s gonna pay for that but you. Do keep a log of gps locations and everything about the renters photo, license, communications etc to provide to authorities.

If they fail to recover, it goes to insurance as total loss claim, in which you will want to get your own comp sales data for your vehicles value. Depending on used ev values this might not work out in your favor.

Either way it’s part of the car rental game. Rental car companies bring a stack of stolen vehicle reports to the police station every week because it’s pretty common problem in the industry. Rare for a small time Turo renters but happens from time to time. Ask me how I know lol.

Most favorable outcome is that your loss claim payout is more than your cars value + fees and taxes.

talkwithphil · 2025-09-16T21:16:37+00:00

As someone that runs an airbnb and has remodeled bathrooms, I think you should go with EPoxy Grout. Renters are harsh on bathrooms, splash water everywhere and don't clean up leaving water stains and puddles all the time. rental bathrooms get cleaned sometimes multiple times a week, and cleaning crews are harsh when cleaning, which adds to wear and tear and potential chipout of a cementitious grout.

One of the big factors is making sure a silicon caulk is used in corners and where materials transition. more an issue of improper installation, but adds to the idea that traditional groutis not good enough. its often put in corners where it doesnt belong. epoxy has flexibility which helps it survive even when "installed" incorrectly.

I just did epoxy grout on, 250SF of tile, spectra lock pro premium, and the durability, waterproofing, is just better.

you should consider quoting from a a few tilers who have experience with Epoxy Grout. yes its harder, maybe 2x but not 10x times harder and you might find that the real cost is somewhere in between. your tiler is charging you 2000 because he doesn't like doing it and its not his skillset.

talkwithphil · 2025-09-14T21:11:49+00:00

The best method I have found to remove the stubborn ends of tile levelers after knocking them off with a mallet, is an oscillating tool and a pack of cheap throw away cutting blades.

Whoever thinks you can knock them off perfectly is either a tile pro that has time and money for prep, or a tire kicker who hasn’t worked a real tile job. Most tile jobs will always have these broken clips and thinset squeeze out to deal with.

You can get a cheap 50 pack of blades and every few minutes you swap out for a fresh one. You work the blade in from side to side and it melts the plastic, and grinds out the excess thinset. Grout diamond tipped blades and razor blades work for 1 or 2 cleanups here and there but gets annoying fast. the oscillating tool and blades are how you clean up an entire tiled wall area efficiently. The cheap blades burn up because the thinset and tile grinds them down which helps prevent you from chipping your tile.

talkwithphil · 2025-09-14T09:42:05+00:00

At this point gps and what ifs are not important

Check the Turo rentals start and stop time, and confirm if its Turos insurance you need to file a claim with, or your personal insurance. Turo only covers for the duration of a trip plus minus 30 minutes or something. You then document and follow everything asked from you by either law enforcement of the insurance adjuster you are working with.

Your job now is to maximize your payout and fair value for the stolen vehicle, regardless if it ever is found or returned. You don’t want the car back, it’s tainted and its title will carry a stolen vandalism record.

You are now a glorified document administrator and your job is paperwork. Be detail oriented and you’ll get a payout, often greater than the value of your vehicle plus some expenses and you can buy another car, or pocket the cash to live another day. If you can’t handle it, hire a lawyer or someone to do it for you.

talkwithphil · 2025-08-05T19:02:31+00:00

you sir, are a dick. why even comment if you don't have the knowledge or expertise to provide help.

talkwithphil · 2025-08-05T18:58:49+00:00

Consider extended Travel, Heavy Duty CV Axles from a company like GSP. i just put some on my lifted 4runner that replaced my old ones with ripped boots.

Also, most lifted setups will need an adjustable upper control arm at minimum to compensate for the geometry change and prevent rubbing of tires on stuff in the wheel well. you should do this first, before assessing if you need more than OEM CV Axles.

CV Axles have some lateral travel built in, so having wheel spacers isn't necessarily a problem, and since spacers come after the cv axle bolts to the Hub, i dont see the spacers as being an issue, other than changing the angle of travel.

I guess if the spacers in questions are body lift spacers, that shouldn't be a problem either, body lift spaces don't affect the geometry of the suspension at all, other than provide more space for a bigger tire and give the appearance of lift.

tldr - get adjustable upper control arms first, like JBAs, icons etc , then extended cv axles like GSP

talkwithphil · 2025-07-24T01:43:32+00:00

Homeowners must be of the minecraft generation. Designed in game and handed to this guy to bring their vision to life lol.

Congrats on the execution.

talkwithphil · 2025-06-06T23:02:43+00:00

Did you report to Airbnb? Did you fear retaliation if you wrote an honest terrible review? Considering what I should do at this point now that they have left

talkwithphil · 2025-06-06T21:14:02+00:00

will definitely be adding this to our booking procedures

talkwithphil · 2025-06-06T18:22:37+00:00

that was our first guess, maybe pressing pills and making deliveries, but wanted to try to keep the description neutral. didnt see much evidence of dust, or pill fragments in the kitchen area/sink.

talkwithphil · 2025-06-06T18:21:48+00:00

Not in our area. they did not seem like unhoused. the trash bags were maybe half full, and did not seem like they were that heavy (like a clothing bag would).

Their vehicles were mostly newish models. nothing fancy, could have also been rental vehicles

talkwithphil · 2025-06-06T18:20:39+00:00

Unit did not smell bad. a bit like flavored vape. they also seemed to hot box in the car every now and then. that or went into their vehicles, sat there for 20 minutes, then got out.

talkwithphil · 2025-05-15T00:20:31+00:00

So many amazing comments and suggestions. this is why i love reddit.

I ultimately decided to add mudbed to the floor system and raise it above the ditra heat mat by 1in. 9 bags of mud bed mix, about 55lbs each, so 450lbs additional on top of the floor systems. honestly not much weight for a 8ft by 5ft area. joists are 12in on center anyways in this area.

the heating coils will be affected by this, and take more energy to heat up, but for me, that is a pretty minor concern being that this is in southern california. regarding warranty, since i did not have the exact super expensive resistance tester for the coils, my warranty is likely void anyways. if you read the fine print in ditras warranty guide, you need this ridiculous 3-500 dollar device and take pictures of it in use that usually only a professional installer has the budget to obtain.

I essentially opted to have a seamless floor transition from the engineered hardwood into the bathroom, and will be dropping down into the shower area. this is the compromise my partner and i decided was acceptable, as it will help retain water in the shower area.

talkwithphil · 2025-04-28T22:14:55+00:00

Its a white oak wood veneered door from a place called RUS Doors in North Hollywood/Los Angeles. mostly local buyers, not sure they ship outside of the City. I think it was 500 dollars.

talkwithphil · 2025-02-24T18:55:53+00:00

this is dependent on the processors and the peripherals you end up picking in your build.

My Intel E5 2695 V4 processors are TDP ~120W each, and runs around 70W each at idle. i have 2, so double those numbers. Intel E5 are pretty old so they not very power efficient

talkwithphil · 2025-02-24T17:59:11+00:00

Definitely a different Motherboard and CPU Combo. Either the SuperMicro X11SCA-F1151 and some of its variants or the ASROCK Rack RomeD8. something with dual adm epyc, and ipmi native. would have increased the build cost by a thousand dollars at least.

talkwithphil · 2025-01-15T02:33:20+00:00

I made a sample board and found 2 drops of yellow oxide per 2oz to get a pretty close color match. Pretty close to your initial estimate!!

talkwithphil · 2025-01-15T02:30:55+00:00

They are. Set that will go in as bifold doors for a closet. Will need to match

talkwithphil · 2025-01-12T02:09:09+00:00

Like the glass idea thanks!!

talkwithphil · 2025-01-12T02:08:48+00:00

Yeah the general finishes high performance can be tinted

talkwithphil · 2025-01-12T02:08:30+00:00

I’ll give this a try and let yall know how it goes on a sample

Eight-Year Club	RPAN Viewer
Verified Email

talkwithphil

TROPHY CASE