Foundations. As in when the foundation walls are bowing in, or tall brick walls are bowing out, and definitely the combination of the 2. Everything else is manageable.
HVAC sucks. I’m EPA certified for refrigerants because I sell the stuff, but I hate working with it, it’s always dirty, and it always involves more than one skillset to properly diagnose and repair issues. And soldering on those little tubes for vacuuming out the AC just sucks.
@fuzzmanmatt@macromeh I actually replaced the blower motor in my furnace. Electric… I wouldn’t mess with gas. It was a bit of tear down, replace and put back together. But I got it done. And it fired up on the first try. Unfortunately, I wired it incorrectly and it was spinning in the wrong direction. So, swear a lot, rinse and repeat. Got it working. It wasn’t fun, but I’m not going to complain about furnace repair for $80 Lost one Saturday, but I’ve come to terms with that
@capnjb@fuzzmanmatt Nice! Just for comparison, I had the blower motor (professionally) replaced on my furnace and it came in just under a grand! (It’s a fancy-shmancy multi-stage blower on a geothermal heat pump system. They had originally quoted almost $2K! But the part came in less than they originally thought.)
I’m pretty solid with woodworking and electrical. I can do basic plumbing like replacing a garbage disposal, but if it involves using fire inside my walls to replace a section of pipe, I call a pro. Which leads to the the Something Else category. Welding. I can spot weld in a pinch but it’s a skill I would love to know more about.
My wife: What do you want for your birthday.
Me: A TIG welder.
My wife: Do what now?
Me: Let me rephrase that. PERMISSION to buy a TIG welder
@capnjb
Using a torch for the always uncertain prospect of solder joints always made me super nervous too. The only solid choice the flippers who sold us this house made was to use PEX… But then they still did a few parts of it wrong and I’ve had to fix it, but now that I have a PEX tool and crimp rings in various sizes, it’s pretty straightforward
@capnjb@guyfromhawthorn I wish the modern version of PEX had been available when we built our house. I did all the supply plumbing with copper pipe - 3 stories, 4 bathrooms, kitchen and laundry room. (I got pretty proficient at soldering ).
I looked at PEX at the time, but the early version had a lot of problems.
@guyfromhawthorn@macromeh I’ve got a 100’ spool of PEX and a handful of Sharkbite connectors. I really have no immediate use for it, but I have some ideas. And I did get an eye roll from my wife. WIN/WIN
@capnjb I’ll pass along the advice I got from somebody who really knows their way around a weld shop:
“It’s best to learn using an arc/stick welder. It will take some time, but once you become proficient at that, the other methods will come easily. If you insist on cutting corners, a beginner can get barely passable results with MIG. Never start with TIG - that’s a recipe for trouble.”
Roofing. It is hard, back breaking work. But I avoid it especially because I fell off my roof 30 years ago, busted up my foot (took 5 screws to put it back together) and still walk with a limp as a daily reminder.
@macromeh I’ve got a Spring/Summer plan to get up and put some solar panels on my roof. I’ve got a thing with heights so I’m not looking forward to it. The only reoccurring nightmare I have always deals with steep, steep slopes. My roof doesn’t have a horrible grade, but still…
@capnjb In roofer lingo, 12:12 means it drops 1 foot vertically for every foot of horizontal run, i.e. 45 degree pitch. IOW, too damn steep for an old guy to be climbing on.
Electrical. I fear anything that doubles as a method of execution. I guess you could stretch that to include carpentry if we take building scaffolds for hangings.
Water destroys things. Behind walls and under floors. And you may not know it’s happened until it’s way too late. That’s why I’m intimidated by plumbing. I might think it’s all tight and good, but if I missed a tiny leak, much badness ensues.
@blaineg I’m a software guy and usually refer to myself as a Bit Wrangler. At the lowest level, my job is to produce useful arrangements of 1’s and 0’s. Two collections of bits may both have the exact same total number of each, but only the set with the proper order is valuable.
Having done all the electrical, plumbing, roofing’siding, sheet rock, flooring/tile work and woodworking (including cabinetry) on my current house, I would go with welding and/or HVAC. I did install a couple of mini-splits in our poolhouse, and extended a run for the central air/heat when I re-did/expanded the guest bath, but planning and installing a full system is beyond my skill set (I would LOVE to have a geo-thermal set-up if I could find someone locally that would do it). But welding… never really gave that a try. Maybe someday.
@chienfou I have pretty good skills for almost every handyman task (thanks Dad, for making me help with EVERY household project that came along, as well as at multiple investment properties ) but I still hate tile work.
[In best gravelly Springsteen voice] Me and mortar, we just don’t get along.
Plumbing. Electrical is only sketchy if you have to work on the breaker box itself. If don’t tighten a water pipe fitting just right then, boom, thousands dollars of water damage.
Trunk storage.
Anything that requires certification.
Wallpapering
Surgery.
@shahnm Especially DIY brain surgery… cut the wrong thing and now the hands holding the scalpel don’t work any more. So awkward!
@awk I hate it when that happens.
@awk @shahnm
Plumbing. Electrical is pretty straightforward, but plumbing gets down and dirty.
@Salanth Dirty, but simple. Everything flows downhill.
Except the brain donors that plumbed our kitchen sink. The drain ran uphill for about 10-15 feet. No wonder it kept plugging.
Finding the YouTube instructional video that you can understand.
Foundations. As in when the foundation walls are bowing in, or tall brick walls are bowing out, and definitely the combination of the 2. Everything else is manageable.
At some sites, dealing with customer service.
HVAC sucks. I’m EPA certified for refrigerants because I sell the stuff, but I hate working with it, it’s always dirty, and it always involves more than one skillset to properly diagnose and repair issues. And soldering on those little tubes for vacuuming out the AC just sucks.
@fuzzmanmatt
And also blows.
@fuzzmanmatt @macromeh I actually replaced the blower motor in my furnace. Electric… I wouldn’t mess with gas. It was a bit of tear down, replace and put back together. But I got it done. And it fired up on the first try. Unfortunately, I wired it incorrectly and it was spinning in the wrong direction. So, swear a lot, rinse and repeat. Got it working. It wasn’t fun, but I’m not going to complain about furnace repair for $80
Lost one Saturday, but I’ve come to terms with that 
@capnjb @fuzzmanmatt Nice! Just for comparison, I had the blower motor (professionally) replaced on my furnace and it came in just under a grand! (It’s a fancy-shmancy multi-stage blower on a geothermal heat pump system. They had originally quoted almost $2K!
But the part came in less than they originally thought.)
I’m pretty solid with woodworking and electrical. I can do basic plumbing like replacing a garbage disposal, but if it involves using fire inside my walls to replace a section of pipe, I call a pro. Which leads to the the Something Else category. Welding. I can spot weld in a pinch but it’s a skill I would love to know more about.
My wife: What do you want for your birthday.
Me: A TIG welder.
My wife: Do what now?
Me: Let me rephrase that. PERMISSION to buy a TIG welder
@capnjb
Using a torch for the always uncertain prospect of solder joints always made me super nervous too. The only solid choice the flippers who sold us this house made was to use PEX… But then they still did a few parts of it wrong and I’ve had to fix it, but now that I have a PEX tool and crimp rings in various sizes, it’s pretty straightforward
@capnjb @guyfromhawthorn I wish the modern version of PEX had been available when we built our house. I did all the supply plumbing with copper pipe - 3 stories, 4 bathrooms, kitchen and laundry room. (I got pretty proficient at soldering
).
I looked at PEX at the time, but the early version had a lot of problems.
@guyfromhawthorn @macromeh I’ve got a 100’ spool of PEX and a handful of Sharkbite connectors. I really have no immediate use for it, but I have some ideas. And I did get an eye roll from my wife. WIN/WIN
@capnjb I’ll pass along the advice I got from somebody who really knows their way around a weld shop:
“It’s best to learn using an arc/stick welder. It will take some time, but once you become proficient at that, the other methods will come easily. If you insist on cutting corners, a beginner can get barely passable results with MIG. Never start with TIG - that’s a recipe for trouble.”
@compunaut That is sage advice. I just like having things.
Roofing. It is hard, back breaking work. But I avoid it especially because I fell off my roof 30 years ago, busted up my foot (took 5 screws to put it back together) and still walk with a limp as a daily reminder.
@macromeh I’ve got a Spring/Summer plan to get up and put some solar panels on my roof. I’ve got a thing with heights so I’m not looking forward to it. The only reoccurring nightmare I have always deals with steep, steep slopes. My roof doesn’t have a horrible grade, but still…
@capnjb My current house has a metal roof with 12:12 pitch. So I am not even mildly tempted to get up there.
@macromeh I don’t know what that means but it sounds scary. I guess I won’t sleep tonight. Thanks.
@capnjb In roofer lingo, 12:12 means it drops 1 foot vertically for every foot of horizontal run, i.e. 45 degree pitch. IOW, too damn steep for an old guy to be climbing on.
@capnjb @macromeh
Maybe that dream is telling you to hire someone for that job! At least an assistant?
@macromeh I’ve done three roofs, that’s plenty.
Electrical. I fear anything that doubles as a method of execution. I guess you could stretch that to include carpentry if we take building scaffolds for hangings.
I was a professional carpenter, union even, and worked with an electrician. I know how to do those, so plumbing is unknown and a little intimidating.
Water destroys things. Behind walls and under floors. And you may not know it’s happened until it’s way too late. That’s why I’m intimidated by plumbing. I might think it’s all tight and good, but if I missed a tiny leak, much badness ensues.
@accumulator Water is undefeated.
Sincerely,
Grand Canyon
@accumulator @capnjb
What is this water of which you speak?
Puzzled,
The Atacama
@accumulator @macromeh Yo… don’t be making me learn things. I’ve got enough things in my brain already!
@accumulator @capnjb @macromeh
I ain’t afraid of no electrons.
@blaineg I am appropriately wary of electrons in large quantities.
@macromeh I would say I’m respectful. But in a lot of ways my job could be titled Electron Wrangler.
@blaineg I’m a software guy and usually refer to myself as a Bit Wrangler. At the lowest level, my job is to produce useful arrangements of 1’s and 0’s. Two collections of bits may both have the exact same total number of each, but only the set with the proper order is valuable.
@macromeh Computers are just so fussy.
Most of the time. Microsoft Word still cracks me up with its “Approximately 6832 words” count.
What you do mean “approximately”? You’re the computer!
Having done all the electrical, plumbing, roofing’siding, sheet rock, flooring/tile work and woodworking (including cabinetry) on my current house, I would go with welding and/or HVAC. I did install a couple of mini-splits in our poolhouse, and extended a run for the central air/heat when I re-did/expanded the guest bath, but planning and installing a full system is beyond my skill set (I would LOVE to have a geo-thermal set-up if I could find someone locally that would do it). But welding… never really gave that a try. Maybe someday.
@chienfou I have pretty good skills for almost every handyman task (thanks Dad, for making me help with EVERY household project that came along, as well as at multiple investment properties
) but I still hate tile work.
[In best gravelly Springsteen voice] Me and mortar, we just don’t get along.
@compunaut
For me it’s sheet rock finish work… I can do it but definitely NOT my favorite.
@chienfou I’m quite good with a torch (because Dad had a set), but only a novice with arc. A modern TIG/MIG setup is on my wishlist.
Plumbing. Electrical is only sketchy if you have to work on the breaker box itself. If don’t tighten a water pipe fitting just right then, boom, thousands dollars of water damage.
@medz
Ditto for a line in your fuse box… but with fire!