Howdy guys, I'm new to this board (although as you can see by my "L" I'm not new to texags). I just recently started renting a house in Bellaire which was built in the 1950s. While I don't own this one, I've always been kind of interested in getting an older house and renovating it... so this is kind of a neat opportunity for me to try one out before I make the plunge. It's a 2BR/1BA, 1100 square foot house that actually has a very open floor plan with nice hardwood flooring.

There are a few things I'd like some help/suggestions on.

1. The garage door is spring-loaded and takes a lot of effort to get it to stay open. I see the problem as two fold -- the spring has probably had its strength reduced over time and the door is probably heavier. What should I do to help the problem? Start removing material from the bottom until it balances out? Add weight to the top?

2.All of the outlets in the house are 2-prong. I was able to ask the owner of the house to put 3-prong GFCI receptacles in the kitchen citing a safety hazard (actually, one had already been put in). However, my entertainment center is currently plugged into a small 2 to 3 prong converter that makes me pretty nervous. Any thoughts on those? Seems pretty flimsy.

3. The water pressure at the kitchen sink is great, and it's close to the water source to the house. However, the water pressure in the shower and the bathroom sink are is terrible. There are cast iron pipes in the house and we saw rusty water for the first two days we were in the house. I think the bathroom sink may have really low pressure because of iron particles stuck in the sink's faucet opening (it's like a metal mesh that I'm sure trapped many of the particles). The shower... I have no idea. The water pressure out of the tub faucet is really hard, but it barely dribbles out of the shower. I'm sure there are blockages, but I don't know how to best resolve them. Help?

3. Bug problems -- we've spotted many roaches, spiders, ants, etc. in the house and if I don't solve it soon the fiancee will probably smother me with a pillow in my sleep. Should I just pay for a local pest guy to come out or should I ask the landlord to? Are there some general precautions I can take myself to make my life easier?

4. The front lawn is really struggling to grow grass -- half the lawn is just dirt. It looks really bad on an otherwise really nice street. The biggest problem just seems to be trees blocking sun from the lawn. I'd like to show you guys a picture when I can get to my home computer. When I share it, maybe you can give me some ideas for trimming the trees and bushes to let the light in, but still keep some of the appeal of a tree-covered street. I also will probably need help on jump-starting the lawn.

5. The light bulb in the bedroom turns on at a snails pace... what could possibly be wrong here? The fan seems to get to speed instantly, so I'm gusesing the problem is in the light bulb. Is there a specific kind of light bulb that turns on slowly on purpose?

6. I'm pretty allergic to mold. I'm a little worried about the house having a mold problem. The walls are pretty freshly painted, so the interior doesn't SEEM to have any mold problems.. however I did find a mold test kit in the garage and a few gallon sized bottles of bleach in the kitchen. Do you think it would be worth it to bring in an inspector to look for mold?

Thanks for any comments you might have.

1. The garage door

- is this a tilting door or segmented? I have no experience with tilting doors. If it is segmented the spring is probably very tired and needs replacement. Can be done by you - but these springs are VERY powerful and potentially dangerous to work with.

2.All of the outlets in the house are 2-prong.

- Unless the owner will replace them for you I'd continue as is.

3. The water pressure

- remove the filter on the faucet with your hands if you can. Otherwise use pliers that won't gouge it. Clean the filter if you can. Or take it Home Depot and replace it.
- for the shower head - take it off the shower stem. If the flow is strong out of the pipe just replace the shower head.

4. Bug problems

- get the landlord to call in a reputable exterminator. It is in his best interests to have a bug-free home to rent.

5. The front lawn

- this is a tough one for me. If I owned the house I would invest in yardwork. But as a renter, I'd be reluctant to do anything more than keep it tidy. Trimming trees means branch disposal - can be a big hassle to get rid of.

6. The light bulb in the bedroom turns on at a snails pace...

Is the bulb a CFL (compact flourescent)? If so - they commonly take a minute or more to reach full brightness. You can switch to conventional incandescant for instant brightness, but you'll spend 4X more to operate that light.

7. I'm pretty allergic to mold.

I would be vigilant. Look for it. If you experience allergies then consider other actions.

Rule #1

Several years ago I lived in one of those '50s houses in Bellaire. Spicewood's advice is spot on. Since this is a rental unit, I wouldn't spend a whole lot on improvements. The garage door is probably one of the tilting kind (mine was), so the springs are probably just tired. You could consider replacing the springs yourself, but I would complain to the landlord first about a safety concern with the door coming down unexpectedly. If the lawn area is shaded, then it's going to be difficult to have a lush growth. Once again, since you are renting, I wouldn't spend too much on improving it. The mold test kit and bleach bottles are pretty suspect for mold having been there. However, much older houses will probably have a limited amount of mold anyway, so just look out if your allergies flare up.

Agree that #5 is that you have a fluorescent bulb.

Oops. #6

With regard to your electrical, just because he hooked up a GFCI doesn't mean it's going to work as designed. Given that the rest of your house is 2-prong receptacles, your house is most likely knob & tube wiring that is NOT grounded. The only way to resolve the issue and get a GFCI to work as designed is to rewire the house with a ground.

What RTT said.

My inlaws ranch house built in '46 is only 2 pronged and they wanted me to hook up new outlets so it would be grounded. I did one so they didn't have to use the adapters but it isn't really grounded as there are only two wires. Only way to bring it up to "code" is to rewire the entire house.

Thanks for the responses, guys...

Took a couple pictures today while I was waiting for a tow-truck to come and jump my car, which wouldn't start this morning.



That's a picture of my lawn. I stood in the middle of the dead grass area and coule plainly see that the trees were covering any available light that might hit the grass. Where it isn't trees, it's houses. A couple branches could be trimmed to give a little more sun on the backside, though. I understand people saying that they wouldn't put any work into a rental -- but at the same time, it kind of sucks to have a lawn like that and it's really muddy if you ever have to walk through it.



That's my garage door system. I can balance it if I stand under it and try to hold it open for a long time. I think I'm just going to make a wedge to keep it open, because it's "close" anyways. Honestly, I'm more worried about keeping it closed when I'm not home right now -- right now just about anybody could walk up and open it.

As for the other comments...

RE: 2 prong outlets -- rewiring the whole house is not really an option for me at this point. Using these 2 to 3 prong converters doesn't establish a ground either. When I was doing research on www.thisoldhouse.com, I came up on an article that basically said if there was no ground wire to the outlet and the U-box wasn't grounded, a GFCI plug was the best option.

quote:

---

TOH Tip
Even if an outlet box isn't grounded, installing a GFCI in it will still protect you (and your tools and appliances) from ground faults. But an ungrounded GFCI can't safeguard sensitive electronics, such as a computer or phone, from the interference caused by stray currents. The National Electrical Code requires you to stick a label on the receptacle that reads, "No equipment ground." These labels come in the box with a new GFCI.

---

RE: branch disposal -- Actually, as of right now there are mounds of branches and other heavy trash on the side of my house... including totally filling up my "trash can" for the weekly trash pickup. It's kind of a big hasstle.

Re: CFL light -- I'm learning to live with the light. I do think that's the "problem". It's actually kind of nice to turn it on in the morning and not have your eyes burned out


Actually, last night was pretty dramatic. The lights started dimming while we were watching SNF and then all of a sudden the lights went off and then came back on. Thought it was momentary, but then it happened again. Didn't take long for me to realize though that the electricity was still good in a couple rooms, but gone from the rest of the house. I went to the breaker box and all the breakers were in the ON position. I reset them and nothing changed. About 2 hours later, the lights in the house all came back on again. When we woke up at 5 AM, the electricity was gone again (other than 2 rooms). At first, I thought we may have may have too much load by watching TV, running AC, and charging a laptop... since it's such an old house. However, it's just weird that only part of the house went out of electricity and the breakers were fine. Then, this morning waking up to no electricity was probably the weirdest part of all -- we had no electricity load all night other than major appliances and A/C.

Centerpoint is going out there today -- hopefully we get some answers. By my internet research, it looks like we may be getting less than 240V to our breaker box.


[This message has been edited by HotardAg07 (edited 9/20/2010 12:52p).]

Property management company or independent landlord?

- Yes, call the exterminator. Don't wait for the landlord to.
- Lube up the garage door first before you do anything else. Don't use WD40, use grease of some sort. (I use white lithium, I don't know what others would recommend.)
- Call the landlord about the brush disposal in the back. Tell him that either he needs to have someone come take care of it or you will take care of it and bill him for it.

Regarding the electricity -- oh my god get an electrician out there pronto. That scary ****. Get an electrician out there. Have him bill the landlord.

You should not be responsible for bringing the building up to code and rewiring it. You do, however, by law, have a right to a safe living space that won't burn down around you.

Last, but not least: You have renter's insurance, right?

Independent landlord... nice enough guy, but has not held up his end of the deal on multiple issues so far. I'm trying to keep the relationship non-adversarial

I don't know your relationship, but it's time to make that S*it adversarial!

Independent Landlord is actually easier than property management co in this case.

First, state law says that you have a right to a place that is clean, healthy and safe. Bugs != clean/healthy. Electrical problems != safe. You can get him to fix it without much effort, but you have to follow certain steps for things to be precisely legal. See the following document:

See: http://www.oag.state.tx.us/ag_publications/pdfs/tenant_rights.pdf

If I were you, I would first ask him to take care of pest control and electrical issues by next week. When he misses that deadline, send him a certified letter stating that you'll have it taken care of by X date and will deduct the bills from your rent. Then proceed to do so. Even if he tries to evict you for nonpayment of rent or something like that, you can defend yourself by simply taking these documents to court... as long as you followed the steps right.

Seriously, don't deal with a crummy environment because your landlord is a wannabe slumlord.

Your landlord needs to keep up his end of the bargain but if you get cross ways with him don't expect him to renew your lease when it is up.

[This message has been edited by Sensei John Kreese (edited 9/27/2010 10:24a).]

3. The water pressure - water pipes are routed through my attic to everywhere else in the house, as well as to the outside faucet in the back yard. As these pipes were galvanized steel pipes, they had rusted from the inside out with the pipes being clogged with rust, impurities, etc. I found out about this by looking at the inside of the pipes adjacent to the shower heads, etc.

Had no water pressure at all until my plumbing was replaced. It wasn't noticeable when I bought the house around 10 years ago. Just got a lot worse as time went on.

replacing the plumbing isn't cheap if it is done by others, but seems very doable if one has the knowledge and skills to do it themselves.

[This message has been edited by Imsodopey (edited 9/29/2010 7:31p).]