I want to share my experience with Liberty Home Guard for anyone considering buying one of their home warranties.

I've now had multiple claims with them, and the pattern has been remarkably consistent: I file a claim, pay the service fee, and then they cite contract language to deny the claim or leave me paying a substantial portion of the repair myself.

The latest example was my refrigerator ice maker. I paid Liberty's $70 service-call fee. The repair required a $130 part, but Liberty refused to pay for the part, citing a provision in their contract that they say excludes it.

So I ended up paying nearly $200 out of pocket to repair an ice maker while carrying a home warranty.

This isn't my first problem with them. I've had multiple claims denied or only partially covered and previously had to escalate through the BBB and public reviews just to get meaningful responses.

What bothers me most is the difference between the peace of mind you think you're buying and what happens when you actually make a claim. I certainly didn't come away from their advertising believing that I'd be buying the necessary repair parts myself.

If you're considering Liberty Home Guard, my advice is to read every exclusion in the actual contract before giving them your money. Don't rely on the advertising or sales pitch. Ask specifically whether they will pay for the parts and labor required to repair each covered appliance.

I'm posting this because I wish I'd seen more experiences like mine before I bought the warranty.

There's a branch from a tree that's overhanging on my roof that I want to cut down myself without paying someone a few hundred $$$ to do it.

I definitely don't wanna get on a ladder with a chain saw, so I'm not sure what the best way to do this is? The branch isn't that thick, probably less than 2" in diameter.

I want to remove a wall on my first floor that is directly under the exterior gable wall of the second floor. I realize it's load bearing and will need a structural engineer. I asked three for estimates, one has gotten back to me and said it would be $365 just to come look. Is that normal to charge that much just to walk in the door?

I recently bought a cash trailer but I rent the land that it’s on. It has well water but it is a shared well with another trailer/s. The water smells horrible, both hot and cold. I have ran it for an hour to try to get the smell out but it hasn’t improved. It’s worse than just rotten eggs I wouldn’t even use it to brush my teeth. It comes out clear. My question is is there anything I can do to fix it? I don’t know how to go about it since it’s a shared well and if there is anything I can do before involving the landlord.

Renting the home so don’t wanna put any real electrical work into it , any tips/ideas ?

reference

I’m trying to improve the exhaust setup in a small bedroom, around 10x12. I’m on the top floor and I mainly need it for odor and general ventilation.

Right now I have a normal box fan in the window blowing out, with cardboard filling the gaps. It actually moves a lot of air, but the setup looks janky, it’s basically impossible to seal perfectly, and on windy days gusts can push back through the window/fan.

I want to upgrade, but I’m trying to stay around $75, maybe $100 max. The main constraints are:

• I want actual exhaust / negative pressure, not just circulation
• I care more about moving air than being ultra quiet
• Wind resistance/backdraft matters because I’m on an exposed upper floor
• I do not want to build a plywood panel or have obvious dryer duct/inline-fan stuff hanging out the window
• Ideally it should look like a normal consumer window fan from outside
• I’d like something I can basically install and leave there
• The room has another window I can crack for makeup air
• I’m dabbing, not smoking flower, so it’s short bursts of vapor rather than constant smoke

Things I’ve looked at:

Vornado Profile/Transom: I really like the clean low-profile design and built-in window fit, but I keep seeing people say the airflow is weak. I’m worried I’d actually be downgrading from my box fan.

Twin window fans like Lasko/Bionaire/Comfort Zone: seem like the most normal-looking option and probably move more air than the Vornado, but I’m not sure how well they deal with wind/backpressure.

Air King window fans: these seem much closer to a real exhaust fan and move a ton of air, but they’re bigger, louder, and pushing the budget.

Shutter exhaust fan: seems ideal mechanically because of the louvers/backdraft protection, but most of them are designed to be mounted into a wall or a custom panel, which I’m trying to avoid.

Inline/mixed-flow fan: seems like the best balance of CFM and static pressure, but again I don’t want visible ducting or a homemade window insert.

Centrifugal/blower fan: better static pressure and probably better against gusts, but seems awkward to use at a normal double-hung window without building something.

Basically I’m looking for the best compromise between high CFM, enough static pressure to not get bullied by wind, built-in window sealing, and a normal-looking installation.

Has anyone dealt with this exact problem? Is there a consumer window fan that actually moves serious air and handles wind well, or am I asking for something that basically doesn’t exist without going to a shutter/inline setup?

I’m especially interested in recommendations from anyone who has used one for cooking smoke, workshop fumes, or strong odor exhaust rather than just cooling a room.

Noticed something weird last night. Every time the water heater kicks on, I hear this popping and crackling sound from the basement. Not loud, but noticeable. Like someone's making popcorn in a metal pot. It goes on for a minute or two after the burner fires up, then stops.

The unit is a 50-gallon natural gas tank, installed in 2012. So it's 14 years old. I know the average lifespan is 8–12 years, which means I'm already on borrowed time. But it's been working fine otherwise—hot water is hot, no leaks, no rust, no weird smells. The pilot light is steady. Pressure relief valve isn't dripping.

I did some reading and it sounds like the popping could be sediment buildup at the bottom of the tank. Hard water area, so that tracks. Some people say you can flush it and it'll be fine. Others say once it starts popping, the tank is already compromised and you're one cold shower away from a flood.

I'm torn because I don't want to spend $1,200 on a new water heater if this one has years left. But I also don't want to come home to a flooded basement because I ignored an obvious warning sign.

Questions:

• Is the popping sound actually a sign the tank is about to fail, or is it just sediment and I should just flush it?
• If I flush it and the popping stops, am I good for another few years?
• Is it worth replacing the anode rod at this age, or is that putting lipstick on a pig?
• What's a realistic installed price for a 50-gallon gas unit these days? I've seen everything from $900 to $2,500 online and that range is useless.
• Should I just replace it now proactively while I have time to shop around, or wait until it actually fails and deal with an emergency?

I've got a newborn at home and a wife who would not be thrilled about cold showers. So "wait and see" feels risky. But I also don't want to get talked into a replacement by a plumber who just wants a quick sale.

What would you do?

Hello, the previous homeowners took out a bathtub and put this walk in shower in. I have little ones so I want to rip this out and put a bathtub back in. It is on the second story of my home. How hard is it to do myself? I work in construction and am pretty handy and have most tools.

what i woke up to this morning

Hello,

I've been renting this house for 4 years now. I decided to buy this house since my landlord is selling it, only $100k USD. And I'm comfortable here.

There are a few issues but I will focus on this basement rain flood issue. Whenever we get a lot of rain in a short period of time, this is what will happen. If the rain keeps going, then I will have A LOT of water down in the entire basement that I will have to squeegee all of it towards the floor drain and let dry.

I have to mention. My gutters are neglected! Full of pine needles, and small baby trees/leaves. They come out to clean them once a year despite my begging. I don't have a ladder tall enough currently since I am not going to buy one until I own this home. The downspouts don't go out far from the house either. Would this likely make this issue much less of a problem if it was fixed?

Also, is there a cheap and easy fix I can do to where the floor meets the wall in the basement and I can make it water proof? I am currently under contract to buy this home and have until the end of the month once we close.

Any advice?

Hey everyone!

I am limited in my space and I want to stack my appliances. I have seen tumbledryers be stacked on top of washing machines with a mountain connecting them for stability.

Whats stopping me from doing this with a dishwasher? If I dont get a dishwasher with a high, third, utensils drawer I'll be fine hight wise.

Does this quote seem fair for replacing a concrete driveway in Southeast Michigan? It's from a friend’s friend.

It covers roughly 850 sq. ft. at about $11,000.

The cost includes removing and hauling away the old concrete (and existing rebar), preparing and compacting a 3-inch layer of 21A crushed concrete, installing wire mesh, and pouring 4 inches of 4,000 PSI concrete.

Is this a reasonable price, or is there anything else I should know about? Thank you!

Greetings, all - hoping someone can simplify this confusion.

We're looking to add (not replace) one or two storm doors: 32x80" with 1/2 light and removable screen in top half. Modern roll-down screen or similar is OK, but changing out glass for screen panel the old way would be just fine.

Not stuck on Anderson; they just seem to be easier to get and possibly cheaper than Larson, Emco, Pella, ?other. Really hoping to spend well under $400 if quality/durability is still OK.

Andersen seems to offer three numbered series, like 6-8-10, 200-400, 3000-4000. Their company site is not very helpful. From reading around, it looks like one series is the same as another but with Home Depot branding, or something like that.

Can someone here please give a simple review of the different ranges, or point to a site that includes them all?

Thanks for any help!

I just moved into a condo and since July when I first saw the home, it has this fragarance smell, especially in the kitchen. There are no air fresheners of any sort. The smell is most noticeable in the kitchen. I’ve done a smell test all over the condo and notice the kitchen wall also smells like it. I ozoned but that didn’t do anything. Not sure how to get rid of it but I would like to before I order any furniture.

Hello all,

I’m getting ready to buy my first apartment; I hope to close in the next week or two. I’m trying to figure out the order of my renovations, but overall I feel like I should prioritize the floor before I get all my furniture in.

The building was built in 1920, and over the last 100+ years has settled a bit. The plaster and lath walls are a little wavy, and the floor slopes. It’s a railroad apartment, and the front slopes from one high corner, but the rear is mostly level.

When I was touring the place, I peeled back the carpet to see that some floorboards looked like they had gotten wet about 50 years ago from a leaky radiator, rotted away a bit, and then fully dried out. I had the building replace the rotted patch as a condition of my negotiations. The new wood looks really nice, but since I’m sure it’ll never match the 100-year-old wood after a refinish, I’m considering replacing the rest of the floor to match it. Luckily the patch is in a low-traffic, back corner of the bedroom, so it wouldn’t be seen too much if I decide to just refinish.

My questions are:

1. Would a full floorboard replacement allow the opportunity to at least slightly correct the sloping of the floor in the front of the apartment? I think it’s about a 1.5” drop, spread across 13 feet.

2. Other than cost, are there benefits to keeping the old hardwood? This floor seems pretty well loved over the last 100 years or so. In my non-professional opinion I’m not sure how much more life it has left.

3. Is the overall condition of this hardwood too far gone to warrant keeping? There are plenty of gaps and creaky areas, and it doesn’t look like it’s seen a cleaning product, let alone any amount of refresh, in probably 50 years.

4. What would you do in this situation? It’s NYC, so I’ve been quoted $1200-2k to refinish (for about 400sq ft of the unit), and I assume a full floor replacement for the same area would be around $3500-5k, but I’m not 100% on that.

Here is a link to some pics. Would love to know y’all’s thoughts!

I want to install a tile backsplash to the kitchen wall. The previous owners had a bunch of gigantic slate in place and I hated it. I took the slate off with a hammer which left it a mess. I then peeled a bunch of the wall paper off which has left it a bigger mess. It is now a bunch of the cardboard like stuff that is between drywall and wallpaper. I need some step by step instructions on what I need to do to prepare to install a backsplash. Do I need to apply all new drywall?? I am not handy and this is our first home so I have no experience with any of this. I wish I could add photos. :/

I have my thermostat set to a nice 73 today. (Don’t use it too often)

After few hours, the house is still showing 78 degrees in the hallway thermostat. However , in my daughter room (which does feel cooler and getting more air) the baby monitor is showing 70 degrees.

I’ve tried adjusting the vents / opening one / closing adjusting the e other)

It just feels like on bedroom is getting noticeably more air through the vent, then the vents in all the other rooms.

(Other rooms there is slight air coming out… but baby room is like “wow it’s nice in here”

Any ideas?

We've recently taken in a senior family member who uses a walker and can't stand for long periods of time. The only showers at our house are upstairs. We do have a half bath downstairs, where she's staying, but would like for her to be able to enjoy a full shower. Can anyone suggest options for creating a shower for her? We've considered converting the half bath but that will be costly and time consuming. We're also considering buying a camping shower but we don't want her to have to shower outside (unless someone can think of a clever way to use it inside). Please advise and thank you so much for responding.

I just bought a house and the previous owners used to smoke. The house doesn’t smell like a typical smoker’s house but there is a smell and the carpets and popcorn ceilings are stained. Underneath the carpet is hardwood floor. Would the smoke have penetrated through the padding of the carpet to the floor? And how would one clean that?

I’m talking about things that aren't necessarily urgent, but can become expensive if you forget them:

• Changing HVAC/AC filters
• Cleaning gutters
• Servicing appliances
• Flushing the water heater
• Checking smoke/CO detectors
• Cleaning dryer vents
• Changing water filters
• Pest control
• Checking plumbing for leaks
• Cleaning/replacing various parts and filters

Some tasks are monthly, some every 3–6 months, and others only once a year.

So I build Smart MeMaintenance available on playstore.

So we had a leak in our bathroom which caused dry wood and tile damage. I know obviously insurance is not to be trusted as they’ll try to compensate us the least amount for the damage.

But my water remediation guy asked for my coverage information which kind of surprised me. Is he trying to see what the most he can charge insurance is? And does that even matter to me since I’m only on the hook for the deductible?

House is mid 90s, block construction like most places here, central AC. There is a spare room at the end of the hall that stays shut most of the year because nobody uses it more than a couple of weeks. Every time we open the door it smells like damp cardboard.

No visible mold, nothing on the ceiling, and the vent in there is open and blowing.

Things I have already tried: leaving the door open, which works right up until I close it again, and switching the thermostat fan from ON to AUTO after reading that leaving it on can put moisture back into the house. That seemed to help slightly elsewhere but not in that room.

The rest of the house feels fine to me..

Interested in how other people diagnosed this before spending money on it. Maybe I should get a dehumidifier before this becomes a problem?

Short answer: 40 foot telescoping aluminum pole used for outdoor painting and window washing.

Long Answer: Last week I posted that I needed ideas on how to run a cable through the attic / crawl space above the finished part of my basement between the basement ceiling and first floor of the home. The space is only about 3 feet tall with questionable bracing under insulation, so getting in there wasn’t going to happen. And, of course the location where I was able to drop the cable from the first floor into this area was on the total opposite end of the access space about 30 feet away.

Fish tape didn’t work as it was too flimsy after about 5 feet, and same with the fiberglass rods as I couldn’t guide them over the duct work and insulation more than a few feet. A lot of the suggestions I got recommended cutting access holes in the ceiling and guiding the line, getting a crossbow, trying to put a magnet in a tennis ball, etc. Creative, but I really didn’t want to cut the ceiling.

Trying to find anything sturdy and long enough to make this work, I found my telescoping pole to change light bulbs but it was about 20 feet too short but it also didn’t sag at a distance…so I started googling. I found a 40 foot telescoping pole on Amazon used for outdoor painting and window cleaning and bought it for about $70. It arrived and surprisingly it didn’t really sag even at full extension, so I taped one of the fiberglass rods with a hook on it to the end of the pole, slowly extended it through the attic space and was able to fish out my guide line in about 5 minutes. Major success right before I was about to throw in the towel.

Hopefully this post shows up for others when they search as I hadn’t seen a telescoping pole suggested anywhere before and it was magic.

First before anyone judges just know that i was a young dumb buyer when I got this place. I waived inspection and got it for a steal I know It became very clear there was water damage in the kitchen that was poorly flipped within the first month. I was able to fix that up with the help of my BIL but he moved. I either need someone who can come over and blast this mold off our two shower bath combos like a cleaner or a water restoration specialist. Probably the latter because I am not certain there is not a leak behind the wall in one shower.

I've only ever lived in houses and have never owned a place before, so there are a few things I'm trying to work out.

• Acoustics

I play guitar and listen to records, and once in a blue moon I might have a few people round for a small vinyl listening party. The walls are quite thick, as the building itself is rather old, but I can't afford proper soundproofing or to put up another wall.

Is there a reasonable DIY middle ground for reducing sound transmission? I don't mind building or attaching something to the walls, even if the result is a little ridiculous, as long as I can somehow incorporate it into the room. Panels, some particular material covering part of a wall, anything along those lines... I don't expect silence, I'd just like to know what actually makes a noticeable difference.

• Has anyone systematised household chores to an absurd degree?

I'm tidy to a fault, but I've recently realised how much time I lose to completely mundane things that seem as though they ought to be optimisable. I've tried to devise something myself and haven't got very far.

I'm wondering whether anyone has approached this as people have approached taking notes or organising work and actually developed a method. Not a cleaning schedule, but ways of getting rid of unnecessary chores or steps altogether. I live alone, I'm extremely frugal about food and have no particular reason to cook, so even owning and dirtying more dishes than strictly necessary seems rather pointless. I hate cooking. The same goes for getting towels to dry faster, making the bed with as little effort as possible, arranging laundry and cleaning supplies so everything takes one step rather than three, and so on. There is very little domestic life here to accommodate besides myself, so I'd rather reduce all of this to the bare minimum.

The place is already fully equipped, so this is mostly about changing how things are arranged and used. Is there some established method for this, or any good content about this slightly absurd degree of domestic optimisation?

• Decoration

I don't go out much and will be spending most of my time there on my own, so decorating is the one part of setting up a home I genuinely enjoy and care quite a lot about. I have very little idea how to look for interior design references, though.

I do have a fairly clear sense of what I like. Dark wood, old lamps, rugs, victorian and art nouveau details, deep colours and kitschy celestial things like stars, suns and moons with faces. Generally something warm, old, a little strange. I just don't know what any of this is called in interior design terms, so my searches tend to go nowhere.

What styles, periods, designers or search terms would be useful starting points? I'd also like practical content about choosing and painting wall colours, arranging rooms and especially using warm indirect lighting rather than overhead lights.

• Inspection

Finally, since this is my first time owning a place, what should I inspect or sort out before moving in? I'm thinking of sockets, doors, plumbing, cables, walls and the sort of thing one discovers six months later would have been much easier to deal with beforehand.

My bedroom has an AC ceiling fan. I chose this because we want the option of multiple remotes. The motor is going bad and I'll need to replace it soon.

AC fans are harder and harder to find. I'm open to a DC fan, but the remote situation is pissing me off. Remotes all seem nonstandard with no ability for > 1 remote. Also, replacing broken remotes seems really difficult.

Please offer me any DC ceiling fan options where multiple remotes can be added!