c/albuquerque-home-improvement

Shoutout to the guy who told me to check my roof vents before blaming attic insulation

I was in my house in the North Valley last July chasing high cooling bills. Turns out my soffit vents were all blocked with old bird nests, not insulation issues. Now I check those every spring before I drop $500 on more blown-in stuff anyone else deal with this?

Bought a $30 insulation blower on Craigslist and it was a total waste of time

Picked up a used insulation blower from a guy in the South Valley for cheap. Figured I could save some cash blowing cellulose into my attic myself. This thing clogged every 5 minutes, threw dust everywhere, and I ended up renting a proper one from Sunbelt for $80 to actually finish the job. Lesson learned: sometimes renting the good stuff is cheaper than owning junk. Has anyone else had luck with those cheap blowers or did I just get a dud?

Chose foam insulation over fiberglass for my garage attic. Hotter in summer but way less dust in my lungs.

I was standing in the insulation aisle at Lowe's on Coors last month trying to decide. Fiberglass was $0.60 a square foot, spray foam was $1.10. But I've helped a buddy do fiberglass before and that itch drove me crazy for days. Plus I read foam seals air gaps better. Went with the foam, had a pro spray it. Two weeks later, garage stays cooler but honestly the real win is I can actually breathe when I go up there. Has anyone else tried doing foam themselves instead of hiring out? Seems like a nasty job solo.

Chatted with a GC last weekend who changed my mind about spray foam

I was loading up at the Lowe's on Coors when an old contractor named Hank stopped me and said spray foam can trap moisture against stucco walls here in Albuquerque. He showed me cell phone pics of a job where the wood behind it was totally rotted after just 4 years. Has anyone else had issues with closed-cell foam in our dry climate?

PSA: That cheap spray foam from the big box store is not the same as the good stuff

I used the $4 can on my rim joist gaps last fall and it shrank so bad I could see daylight through it by spring, has anyone else had gaps reappear after using the budget cans?

Thought those $20 LED shop lights from Menards would be junk but theyve been running 6 months straight no flicker

Shoutout to the guy at Lowe's on Coors who saved my water heater install

I was about to buy a flex line that was way too short for my setup and this dude walked by, pointed at it, and said 'that's gonna burst on you in six months'. He grabbed me a different size for $8 less and I had it done in under an hour. Has anyone else gotten good help from a random employee at that location?

Full drywall replacement vs. patching - when does patching actually cost more?

Been fixing up a 1952 house near Old Town. Spent 3 weekends patching holes in the living room ceiling, then realized the texture never matched and cracks kept showing up. A contractor buddy finally pointed out I spent $180 on joint compound and mesh tape when a full sheet of drywall was $22. When do you guys draw the line between patching and just ripping it all out?

Just realized my backyard looked way better after I planted 6 junipers

I had this bare patch of dirt near the fence for like 3 years, kept telling myself I'd get to it. Finally last spring I dug holes, threw in 6 dwarf junipers from Lowe's, and watered them once a week. Fast forward to now, they've doubled in size and filled out the whole area, plus the neighbors stopped complaining about dust blowing onto their patio. Has anyone else seen a big change just from adding a few drought-tolerant plants out here?

My neighbor called my stucco patch job 'lumpy' and I was mad at first, but now I think he was right

I patched a hole in my stucco wall last spring and thought it looked fine from a few feet away. Then my neighbor Bob, who's been doing construction for 30 years, walked over and said it looked lumpy and wouldn't hold up to the monsoon rains. I got defensive at first because I spent a whole Saturday on it. But after the first big storm in July, I saw a crack form right along the edge of my patch. Bob showed me how I didn't mix the stucco ratio right and I used too much water. Now I'm debating whether to rip out the whole patch and start fresh or try to layer more on top. Has anyone else had a neighbor give them feedback that totally changed how they approach a home repair?

Installed new attic insulation myself, 1 day job turned into 5 days

I figured I'd just roll out some R-30 batts in my 1970s ranch house on a Saturday, but I spent the first 3 hours just trying to find where the previous owner had buried the junction boxes. Has anyone else dealt with insulation hiding electrical hazards like that?

Warning: I saw a guy on a roof in the North Valley yesterday without a single drop cloth down.

His whole cleanup must have taken hours. I keep a cheap tarp in my truck now just for that kind of thing. Anyone have a better method for catching debris on a sloped roof?

PSA: I was sealing my concrete patio wrong for like two years

I kept getting those weird white streaks on my patio near the trampoline, thought it was just the sealer reacting to the sun. My neighbor Mike, who does pool decks, came over last weekend and just pointed at the hose. He said 'You're spraying it on too thick, man, you gotta mist it like you're scared of it.' I tried his way on a small section, using a cheap garden sprayer from Lowe's, and the difference was night and day. Anyone else have a simple trick for sealing concrete in this dry air?

Tried to save cash on a DIY stucco patch kit for my Westside house

The pre-mixed stuff from the hardware store cracked and flaked off in under a month. Wasted about $80 on materials and a Saturday morning. Anyone have a good local contractor for a small repair like that?

A neighbor told me my gravel was wrong for my yard and after one big rain I had to agree.

Warning: I tried the cheap $40 gutter guards from the big box store versus a local ABQ company's $150 system. The difference after one dust storm was insane.

I finally gave in and paid $300 for a 'desert-friendly' deck sealant that washed off in the first monsoon rain.

Honestly, I should've known better than to trust a brand that didn't list the actual ingredients, and now I'm out the cash and have to re-sand the whole thing before trying again, so has anyone actually found a sealant that holds up to our summer storms?

Just realized my neighbor and I have totally different ideas about stucco repair in the Northeast Heights

Last week, my neighbor on Juan Tabo hired a crew to patch a crack with a premixed acrylic compound, saying it was faster and cheaper. I've always used the traditional 3-coat cement plaster method on my own house, which my dad taught me years ago. Which way do you think holds up better against our sun and freeze-thaw cycles?

Can we talk about the day my neighbor's swamp cooler flooded my yard?

It was 102 degrees last Tuesday and their old unit on the roof gave out, sending a steady stream of water right over the property line for about six hours. I had just laid down fresh gravel in that exact spot, so now I'm staring at a muddy, washed-out mess. What's the actual rule here in Albuquerque for dealing with damage from a neighbor's failing equipment?

My old adobe wall needed 27 bags of stucco mix to finish, which felt like a lot more than I remember.

I was patching up a section of my house's original adobe wall last month, the one on the west side that gets all the afternoon sun. I remember helping my dad with a similar job maybe 20 years ago, and it felt like we only went through a handful of bags from the hardware store. This time, my little project just kept eating up mix. When I counted the empty bags at the end, it was 27. It really hit me how much more material it takes to maintain these old places now, and how the work seems bigger as you get older. The wall looks great, solid and smooth, but my back definitely knows the difference. I guess materials and my memory have both changed over the years. Has anyone else been surprised by the scale of a repair on an older Albuquerque home compared to when they were younger?

I was set on a stucco patch kit until a guy at Ferguson's on Menaul told me to just use a bag of base coat and a trowel.

He said, 'Those kits are for tiny cracks, but your house has that classic Albuquerque sand finish, so you need to match the texture with a real base coat and a little sand from your own yard,' which saved me about $40 and gave me a much better fix.

Showerthought: The week my neighbor's swamp cooler died taught me more about Albuquerque houses than any inspection.

After three days of 100-degree heat watching him patch the old unit with duct tape and a prayer, I finally asked my usual guy for a quote on a new one, and his $4,500 estimate for a proper install made me check my own unit's pads immediately.

My DIY stucco patch on my Westside house turned a weird color

I tried to fix a small crack on my home's stucco using a premixed patch from a local store. After it dried, the patch was a totally different shade of brown than the rest of the wall, like a bright tan spot. A neighbor told me the sun here fades the original color a lot over time. Has anyone found a good way to color match stucco in our Albuquerque sun?

TIL my old adobe wall has exactly 47 layers of plaster on it

I was fixing a crack in my living room wall over in the North Valley and decided to see how deep it went. After chipping away for what felt like forever, I started counting the different colored plaster layers. I hit 47 distinct coats before I got back to the original adobe brick. My house is over a hundred years old, so I guess every owner just slapped on a new layer instead of stripping the old stuff. Has anyone else in town found something this wild when doing a simple repair?

I finally got around to fixing that one loose tile in my shower... and found a whole section of rotted subfloor underneath.