PDA

View Full Version : When your landlady is too cheap and/or lazy to do proper repairs...



Rob Oplawar
September 3rd, 2009, 09:24 PM
You've gotta do them yourself.

I wish I had taken pictures of the process, but this project sort of grew organically from a quick touch-up paint job to a full blown repair, so you'll have to make do with my step-by-step guide:

How to repair a water-damaged window frame when your landlady is too cheap and/or lazy to do it properly:
(written in the first person for helpful relatability)

Oh gee, there are scuff-marks all over the walls of my room in my new townhome. My landlady told me she would be repainting. Oh well, she left some paint in the laundry room. Better get to it.
Curses, the paint she gave me is a different shade of white! (That, or this paint is dirtier than I thought. Ew.) I guess I'll have to repaint the whole room.
Sigh, the paint is all cracked around the window frame, too. I guess I'm repainting there as well.
Drat, a little piece of caulk is coming off near the base of the frame in the corner here. I'll just peel that off a bit...
OH GOD DAMMIT there goes a ten-inch length of caulk and several square inches of paint! And the rest of the paint on the frame is in similar condition... I guess I'll have to remove it all before repainting.
Hm, this paint scraper isn't working very well, it... oh, there it goes. Oh wait, that didn't just get paint, that got a big chuck of plaster. Wait, the plaster's damaged too?! Fuck.
Ok, well, I'll just remove all the plaster. Now that that's done,
Well that explains it, the drywall underneath here is black from water damage. Fuck my life.
Ok, so the corners of the drywall were so water damaged that they were repaired... with caulk. I'll just remove the caulk...
FUCKING CUNT SHIT DICK PISS COCK ASSMONKEY. You do not repair damaged drywall by filling the hole with caulk! It took me three fucking hours to scrape all that shit out of there!
Great, now the drywall is all scraped and cut and bruised and uneven. Half an hour of cutting and sanding without a mask... maybe that's why my cough is so bad right now.
Ok, all the damaged shit is removed. Four days have passed, and my window frame is full of holes, half of which were made by me. Now for the actual repair.
Mask the window and sill with plastic. Probably won't be fun to clean paint and shit off of it later.
Patch the holes with mesh: Hey, I'm pretty good at this! All holes patched.
Cover that shit up with plaster. Kickass, I'm so good. Wait 24 hours for it to dry, and...
Cock monkeys! The plaster is all cracked to hell! God dammit, I put it on too thick. Fuck my life. Scrape, sand, reapply, wait 24 hours, and...
You're fucking kidding me, still there are cracks? Well, at least these don't look like they'll cause any problems. Sand it down, and, on to:
Caulk! Who needs to read instructions. Ok, the gap between the windowsill and the metal frame is about 3/16 of an inch, so I'll open up this caulk tube at 1/4 inch and lay it on heavy. Hey, that's pretty cool, a quarter-inch thick rope of caulk all along the sill (wow, the innuendo here is amazing). Now, I press it in and smooth it out with a damp rag...
FUCK SHIT FUCK THERE'S CAULK EVERYWHERE! WHY AREN'T THERE INSTRUCTIONS ON THIS THING?! Oh, there they are. Ok, caulk cleaned up, starting over. Lay it down in a thin line, press it in where necessary, but mostly just smooth out, using one finger.
Shit, that still made a mess of things. How is it even possible to apply caulk without making a huge white mess? (Oh come on, grow up you guys). Well, it's mostly applied right, and the mess is mostly contained. Next!
Primer! Ok, the window frame is all primed, and... wait, fuck, that doesn't look right... Oh god dammit, I forgot the texture! Sigh.
Ok, spray-on knockdown drywall texture. Sounds simple enough. Who needs directions. Spray away!
Fucking fuck shit fuck fuck. Who the fuck invented this shit? This isn't working at all! Oh, hey, directions. Shake can vigorously for 60 seconds before use. Oh... Spray in circular motion, covering but not completely coating the whole surface. Wait approx. 2 minutes, then lightly knock down to desired texture with putty knife. Always practice on cardboard first. Probably should have done that first...
Ok, that texture looks pretty damn nice now. Now it's time for the primer! Hell yeah, that primer went on much better with the texture there. Wait an hour for it to dry...

Haha! Fooled you! I ain't done yet! Still waiting for the primer to dry. In twenty minutes I shall paint with waterproof paint so this problem doesn't crop up again, and then in an hour or so when it's mostly dry I will post a pic or two of the aftermath.

Donut
September 3rd, 2009, 09:45 PM
wheres the part about the insanity youre now afflicted with?

Bodzilla
September 3rd, 2009, 11:34 PM
if it's their place then fuck them and let them deal with the damage from the aftermath.

no way i'd do that shit for free, that lets them win.

paladin
September 4th, 2009, 02:08 AM
You idiot, you always document EVERYTHING before you sign your lease. Didnt you fill out a pre-assessed damage report. I just spent 2 hours helping my sister with her new place. Its litereally a shit hole. The damn thing was 3 pages long and we took about 70 pics.

Oh, that sucks btw.

TheGhost
September 4th, 2009, 11:47 AM
pics or stfu

Rob Oplawar
September 4th, 2009, 02:22 PM
cba

e:
http://spacebrick.net/pictures/blog_gallery/window1.jpg
http://spacebrick.net/pictures/blog_gallery/window2.jpg

Here's to give you an idea of what it looked like before, only it was much, much worse:
http://spacebrick.net/pictures/blog_gallery/window3.jpg
This is in the living room. In my room, the paint was peeling away, cracks ran all along the length of the frame, and there were holes filled with caulk. Lame. In the living room, it's just gross and dirty and over-caulked, but not actually damaged, per se.

Bodzilla
September 4th, 2009, 05:30 PM
why on earth would you do it rob, it's their responsibility to provide a working house man :/ it's kinda what you pay for :ugh:

Rob Oplawar
September 4th, 2009, 06:22 PM
You get what you pay for. This place costs half what some of the other places I looked at cost.
Here's the thing: I have to live here for the next eleven months, and my landlady, while nice, owns and leases several properties by herself and facing facts, she's not gonna have the time or the money to take care of this stuff that she really should take care of. If I didn't fix it, then it wouldn't get fixed, and I and everyone else who lived here subsequently would still have to put up with it. She wins either way, but I only lose if I have to put up with it. Repairs are a pain, but they're better than the alternative.

Limited
September 4th, 2009, 08:13 PM
I feel your pain Rob. The place I'm renting is crap, the back whole window frame, you can push it back. Single glazing, you could probably sneeze and break the windows. Theres a huge gap at end of garden in the fence, anyone over 2 foot could hop over it. My room isnt too bad, apart from windows, my friends room is awful though, constantly smells, I think someone died there or something.

We had a huge spell of snails getting in, so theres tons of wholes in the brick in kitchen.

Bathroom, floor is damp and moldey, same with some of the walls.

Its pretty bad place, we tell the landlord, she sometimes gets someone to fix it but usually it doesnt get fixed. It took them like a week to even bother to pop around to look at our kitchen roof that was leaking like crazy.

Dwood
September 4th, 2009, 08:33 PM
If the place is bad why not just find a new one?

Limited
September 4th, 2009, 08:42 PM
If the place is bad why not just find a new one?
Places are rare, costs and numbers wise and I'm on a contract. Thats case for me anyways, not sure about Rob.

I'm here to learn, not live in a lavish house with fantastic rooms, thats the way I see it, its livable so I'll put up for it.

Rob Oplawar
September 5th, 2009, 08:22 AM
^This, pretty much. It's really difficult to find affordable housing in Boulder.