If it was me if find a way to report it such that it becomes a superfund site, or as close that as possible, to make sure nobody can buy it without the owners fixing it.
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If it was me if find a way to report it such that it becomes a superfund site, or as close that as possible, to make sure nobody can buy it without the owners fixing it.
Does not track. Maybe they do things differently in Southern VT, but up here nobody is named Clem. Sounds like maybe you crossed the border into Upstate? Armand is more likely.Quote:
Originally Posted by Timberridge
I'm going to PM you on this, but she's both right and wrong. If it's only one tank, and it's in an easily accessible location, that doesn't require tree or sidewalk or retaining wall removal etc, AND the dirt is clean, then it's not really that big of a deal in this town.Quote:
Originally Posted by dan_pdx
BUT, and this is big... there is literally no way of knowing until you've at least partially excavated. If the soil is contaminated, it has to be removed, and the budget could balloon to multiples of the original estimate.
Yeah, that's the thing - in the current RE environment, we don't get to inspect the tank or have a contingency around it, so it's just a question of "do you feel lucky, punk?" According to Googs, about half of tanks have leaked to some extent, and I'm thinking we don't feel that lucky.Quote:
Originally Posted by Ted Striker
As a local, is our agent being too cavalier / gaslighting us? She's asking us to call her guy at the fire department, who she says will tell us it's NBD, LOL.
I just pm'd you.
As for the fire marshal, yeah he's the guy who has to sign off to close out the permit, and he isn't glademaster. But he's not going to turn a blind eye either.
The quicker you buy a house, the quicker she gets money. Of course she wants to believe it's no big deal.Quote:
Originally Posted by dan_pdx
Tell her you'll buy it if her commission can be accessed for cleanup money if the costs rise above $10,000.
Aren't there any businesses that would do core sample analysis? Seems like it would be pretty straightforward to take about 8 cores around a buried tank like that and at least have *some* idea what the lay of the land might look like...Quote:
Originally Posted by Ted Striker
I do get that the seller and even the agent have no interest in *actually* knowing this information. :D
There are, but eight cores is at least 48 feet of drilling. And the tank has to come out eventually anyway.
And as you mentioned, the seller isn't going to voluntarily devalue the property.
Yeah the agent thing has always bugged me. Their incentives are not aligned with the seller or the buyer - they're only incented to get contracts signed. In this case, since we have been trying to buy remote, there's actually a lot of leg work for our agent to do (video tours of listings), so at least we're getting something out of it, but still, she's more interested in getting us to sign than getting us what we want.
Classic RE agent moment: some inexperienced flippers bought the house across the street, took the roof off to add a second story, and left it like that through a Portland winter. They eventually managed to get their permits and finish the house up, but I went in to the open house and noticed that the subfloor on the first floor had permanently warped due to the repeated wet/dry cycles. I told the listing agent about the house being roofless through the winter and he told me "I don't want to hear about that." Fucker, I should have sent it to him in a letter via certified mail. Also, we needed about 5 square feet of old oak flooring to make repairs in our living room, and the flippers junked at least 300 sf of it from their living / dining room due to water damage -- I should have broken in and taken some before it was completely trashed.
And yes, you can absolutely get core samples done, but in the current market, it doesn't seem possible to get them done before making an offer (but it would get expensive given that most are bidding on multiple houses before winning one), and if you have that contingency, the seller will pick another offer.
Meh, we're actually walking away from this house partially due to the oil tank but also due to a very thorough home inspector's report. Even our agent took a look at the report and told us to, in Mrs. PDX's words, "run away!".
thanks all for the oil tank wisdom and stories. Ted sent me a B'ham company that does inspection / remediation (thanks Ted!), so if we do run into something else that looks promising but has a tank, we'll give them a call.
Unless you're paying them, RE agents--theirs and yours--work for the seller although they both have a duty to disclose.
In the long run the fact that most buyers prefer to have a "free agent" that is actually working for the seller probably drives up the price more than hiring a buyer's agent would and drives up the cost of real estate in general.
We have a little 12V electric trolling motor, about 15 years old, that we use for maybe a couple of hours per year, or not at all. The other day the insulation on the positive cord was charred where it attaches to the alligator clip that attaches it to the battery. I assume even the wire was partly broken or more likely the solder joint between the cord and the clip was bad. Any other explanation? Any reason this shouldn't go in the trash?
FWIW, this tracks with what I've heard on Vermont, as well. My ex worked for the state, and part of her job involved dealing with failed tanks (and remediation) as well as a state program that provided grant funding to replace residential tanks before they failed, so I've heard a fair bit about the process.Quote:
Originally Posted by Ted Striker
Personally, a buried tank would probably scare me off unless the place was on city water. Dealing with removal and remediation can go anywhere from a moderate PITA (get the yard dug up, track drained and removed, and soil samples come up clean so you just need to deal with the giant hole) to huge PITA (tank has failed, subterranean features provide leaking oil with preferential path into groundwater), and having to worry about potentially having contaminated well water would suck.
A tank failing in the basement isn't fun, either, as the fumes can render a place effectively uninhabitable.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by old goat
Replacing the electrical cable is simple and cheap. If you want to keep the motor, you can put in half an hour of work (including going to the hardware store to get the replacement cord) and bring it back to life. If you were looking for an excuse to get a newer motor or to just get rid of this one, this is a good chance too.
Send it to Benny, he's an expert in trolling.Quote:
Originally Posted by old goat
I disagree. He means every word.Quote:
Originally Posted by Timberridge
I can replace the cord, although it looks like the alligator clip design was discontinued in 2001--so unsafe?
My question is--is there any motor or battery related things that would cause the cord to overheat. At this point I'm assuming bad cord. In taking off the insulation I think I see why. If the design is bad I'm not sure I want to fix it.
The cord is soldered to the clip and there are copper wings on the clip that pinch the cord to hold it in place. I think the wings were pinched too tight or otherwise worked their way through the insulation and into the cord over the years.
What's this thing?https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...81e7899ba6.jpg
Flip it over
Heat protective cover for the shelf next to the grill?
Male shapewear.
It's the same on the other sideQuote:
Originally Posted by krp8128
Soft boomerang.
Quote:
Originally Posted by old goat
Hmm, I can't imagine that they used the wrong gauge for the motor current draw. It's possible that the plasticizer in the insulation was lost over time (you see that often in older electric appliances, like radios from the 70s, where the cord is all cracked). Newer appliances, well, they're not as old, but they also have better plasticizers and stabilizers. It's also possible that due to repeated flexing cycles some copper strands broke and all the current was flowing through a reduced number of them, creating a hot spot.
I checked online and apparently it's preferred now to either hard-wire trolling motors, or to use plugs instead of alligator clips.
If you just want to keep it the same way you could get something like this 20 amp heavy duty alligator clip cord (I don't know how big your motor is, I saw that an average small trolling motor is 6 amps, so this one should be OK), clip off the banana plugs and splice the cables. But it depends on how comfortable you are in using a motor with such a repair.
Ted, if the mag collective can't get this one, maybe try posting here: https://www.reddit.com/r/whatisthisthing/Quote:
Originally Posted by abraham
It’s an oven mitt for Flipper.
Q on using Venmo - if the sender pays with a credit card, who pays the fee for using the card? Sender or recipient?
I need to set up Venmo to collect money for a bike club order, and don't want to get stuck with fees.
Incontinence pad for a Harley rider. Gotta protect that leather, and chaps are assless.Quote:
Originally Posted by Ted Striker
Sender I believeQuote:
Originally Posted by El Chupacabra
Looks like a cover for a surf foil. Does it unzip?Quote:
Originally Posted by Ted Striker
Does it light up or make any noises?
Kayak seat back pad for Lars Erickssong?Quote:
Originally Posted by Ted Striker
That's goodQuote:
Originally Posted by ötzi
No pockets, zipper, etc. That's just a fold down the middle, and the other side is exactly the same.
What I do know is that it came with something I bought, as a bonus freebie, (with no explanation). But it's been so long I can't remember which thing it was.
https://www.reddit.com/r/whatisthisthing/Quote:
Originally Posted by Ted Striker
you'll have your answer in about 10 mins.
Yeah--the plug in cord permanently attached to the battery looks much safer to me. I'm just going to reuse the clip I have , cut off the bad section of cord, and solder it to the other leg of the clip. Just need to find some insulation for the second leg of the clip, or buy a new set of clips for 5 bucks. But in the long run getting a safer motor seems wise. OTOH I'm trying to convince my wife that I'm too old and decrepit to be lifting a heavy battery into a rocking sailboat while standing the wake-boarding boat waves.Quote:
Originally Posted by Fofo
I'm now taking over/under bets on the 5 year survival of this tree. Before you wager, you should know the following;Quote:
Originally Posted by huckbucket
- Physics was not my strong suit in high school
- Yes, that's a floor jack
- I used screws AND nails for double the securingness
- The feet are not sunk or otherwise sitting on concrete
- No, I'm not gonna cut the excess off the top of each leg because ....
- And yes, the theme to Sanford and Sons was playing in the background
- Fun was had.
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Thanks - I'm setting up my Venmo account now, and that's what it looks like during setup.Quote:
Originally Posted by Supermoon
can you define "survival?" 'cause while the big stem looks troubled, it appears that it's sprouting from the roots.
Has the "Skip Ads" button gone missing in the YouTube app for anyone else recently? Some googling shows that this issue has been documented before, but always related to using YouTube on the web in a browser. I can't find anything about it in the mobile app. It's been like this on my phone for about a week now. Phone restart does nothing.
I'm aware that some ads cannot be skipped, that's not what I'm talking about. What's happening is that an ad starts, the "You can skip this ad in 5, 4, 3..." countdown appears, but when the countdown finishes the "Skip Ad" button never appears. It's a minor annoyance when it's a 30 second ad, but a huge PITA when the ad is minutes long.
Just tried it with the youtube app on android 11 and the skip button appeared after the countdown as per normal, so maybe an issue on your device?
Do people who utilize nervous laughter, actually think it works?