Yeah looks like Mica and sandstone. Unfortunately landscapers/contractors love to just cover things up with top soil and run away.
The rocks could be tightly packed silt, loose sandstone, or maybe mica from excavation. Pictures would help.
Considering how problematic water heaters can be, I'd refuse shipment on that. Especially with the glass lining. It looks like someone hit it with a forklift or something.
Actually just had a short conversation with @ruud@lemmy.world about the latency. We're going to try and address that for those of us outside of Europe.
It's honestly really easy. The internet makes it out to be so much scarier than it is. The windows even come with instructions, lol.
- Remove the sash bead with a knife and prybar carefully.
- Remove your panes, usually with double toggles, or pushing to the side if it's spring-loaded on one side.
- Remove any additional wood stops or brackets in the windows frame except for the very outer one at top.
- Fix any rotten wood, paint the sill.
- If you want an A+ on the install, also add an adhesive/tar waterproofing strip on the bottom third of the window frame.
- Insert the window, and shims on the sides where the screws go.
- Screw the window in.
- Adjust tightness to ensure smooth operation, fiddle with shims as-needed.
- Trim shims and spray-foam the cracks.
- Trim off spray-foam once dry.
- Re-attach sash bead and caulk/sand/paint.
- Caulk exterior and anything else you can find.
Some windows will have additional steps like drilling small weep holes on the outside corners and stuff, but it's just a "read the instructions" thing.
Hah, did the same. I removed all of the old insulation too, which was worse! Sealed cracks and holes, then blew in new loose fiberglass up to R-60.
The key with windows is reducing your cost. I too received a quote for $30-40k back in the day... so I did it myself with vinyl replacements (double pane, argon, etc). Ended up spending only a few thousand total for the whole house, I know I did a better job than the local contractor because I spent my time and did it right.
We had a massive comfort difference due to the old windows being extremely drafty (1960's original wood single-pane). In my opinion that's the biggest benefit. We also were able to remove our storm windows, so improved exterior visibility, reduced cleaning, and improved curb appeal in my opinion.
Energy-savings, yeah not so much unless you DIY like I did to keep the cost down.
You know, I searched before creating. Lol. Thanks! I'll axe the duplicate.
Get help with your home improvement projects, discuss contractors, etc.
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Yes, I'm very proud of the Reddit community for several times over the years mass-recommending open source and federated options.
Waves/Waves 2! Fantastic twin stick shooters, now free as well. Both have great chip tune soundtracks.
Burn it to the ground! I wish all top subreddits had the balls to go dark indefinitely to the point they have to backpedal or forcibly take over the subreddits. Burn it to the fucking ground!
