All Forum Posts by: Scott J.

I see your logic Cheryl. But I was working at the faucet at my house and actually enjoyed it, even though it was frustrating at times. There was a post somewhere on BP awhile ago about valuing your time on weekend work. I put a lengthy response saying that mowing my lawn and working on stuff around the house actually keeps me sane and is enjoyable. I think it would be sad if everything I did on the weekends was thought of in terms of dollars lost. That's just me though, I know others would disagree.

It would be a WHOLE different story if this was my tenant's faucet :)

**Update - thanks for the tips and suggestions everyone. I ended up buying cutoff disks ($7) for my Dremel tool. They cut through the nut very easily, and didn't even spark. I then used a chisel and a hammer to get through the final 1/8" of the nut that I couldn't cut through that was flush with the sink.

The whole process took about an hour due to the awkward angles, but I would definitely use this method again. The new faucet is now installed and works like a champ.

Hi Jerry,

I own two houses on one lot in a historic area in CA and I absolutely love it. They qualify for something called the Mills Act in California, which basically reduces our property taxes by 40%. The downside is that if we do anything that modifies the "street appearance" of the property, we need city approval. That would really suck for a rehabber, but it's great for buy & holders.

Contact the department in charge and find out the details of it. In my city, they offer grants if you make repairs/improvements that keep the historical look of the property.

Long story short, it can be awesome or a drag, but you don't know until you get the details.

I see what you're saying Brian. But for now I would just like to remove the nut and install the new faucet. While it may take some people half a day to buy and install a new dishwasher, garbage disposal, hoses, and a sink, that guy ain't me. Not to mention spending over a grand on parts and labor.

We're hoping to do a whole kitchen remodel in a couple years and will do the upgrades then. Everything works dandy, the nut is just corroded preventing me from installing the faucet. I will probably go Mitch's route and cut it off this weekend.

Thanks for the reply Matt, that is a good suggestion. But I'm a little hesitant to take out the sink because it's a very old setup under there (as you can tell by the copper water pipes). There is also an old disposal and dishwasher with everything connected to each other so I'd love to find an alternate route if there is one.

I will definitely keep your suggestion in mind if all else fails.

I purchased a new faucet for the kitchen sink yesterday. But I the nut that holds in the old faucet is severely rusted/corroded. After spending six hours on a precious Sunday with no luck, I'm asking the brilliant minds of you BPers for help.

First of all, the pictures don't do it justice. The nut is about a third of an inch thick, making it very difficult to grab with the basin wrench. But even when you can do it, me and two friends couldn't get it to budge an inch. Also, it's in a very difficult location with only a few inches of room on each side of it.

This is what I tried:

1) Lots of WD-40, with plenty of time to soak-in
2) Blow torch - the old heat & cool method didn't do a thing
3) Lots and lots of elbow grease. I must have put all of my might into this thing 30 times.

I can think of two other options:

1) Cut it out- this may work, but the lack of room and the metal everywhere makes it risky.
2) Cut out the old faucet from above. I'm hesitant to do this because if it doesn't work I won't have any faucet.

Thoughts?

I also vote no. I think someone's credibility should be based on their actions, not if they have an avatar. A lot of my questions are about issues I'm having with tenants and I would be much more hesitant about posting them if my picture was included.

I know I could add a picture that isn't my portrait, but what is the point?

As I was sending a carefully worded text message to a tenant today and I got to thinking about how much the fear of lawsuits impacts my daily decisions. From driving my crappiest car to see a tenant or adding "this is not legal advice" to posts on BP. I am constantly doing little things to prevent lawsuits.

Here's my question: is this really necessary? I'm honestly not sure. We've all heard horror stories of evil tenants suing an innocent landlord. But how often does this really happen?

Here are a couple topics I'm very interested in hearing your responses to:

1) What little, or big, things do you do to prevent being sued?

2) Have you personally ever been sued? (Not a neighbor, friend, or business partner. You.)

Great information everyone.

Where do you get your water heaters? I was planning on going to Home Depot and using a 10% off coupon, but it sounds like that might not be the best way to go.

I took a plumbing class recently to be a more informed landlord. The teacher said that water heaters should be replaced at the end of their warranty (often 10 years) and not to wait until there is a problem to replace them.

Is this actually done by you pros out there in the field or is this just conservative teacher talk? How do you know when to replace your water heater?

One of my water heaters is a year past its warranty but I would hate to replace it if I could get a couple more years out of it.

Lastly, do you replace water heaters yourself or hire someone?