Bella Vista

Yesterday the garage door springs broke. They were installed new when the house was built in January '02. Five years. I jumped on the internet and did a search on Google for 'garage doors Tampa' and came up with many garage door companies. I located two that were close by and called them both. I found out that the typical springs are rated for 10,000 cycles, meaning up and down. One company informed me that there were better springs for a higher price that are rated at 20,000 cycles. The economy typical springs are of a oil fired tempered metal and the better springs are galvanized. The one company told me they only sell the better galvanized springs as they give better service and last longer of course. I had already made an appointment with the second company after getting a quote on the galvanized springs but I then thought maybe I should call back the first company and see what their price was on the better springs. It turned out that they offered to match the other company's price and lower the service fee from $39 to $19 so I took them up on their offer and called the second company back and cancelled the appointment with them. I liked the way the girl at the first company handled my questions compared to the second. The second company had to call me back after finding the price on the upgraded springs which I thought was odd. When the service person came out he was very informative after examining the garage door setup and gave me details on how cheap the materials are that were installed. He pointed out the metal rollers with the exposed ball bearings and the oil tempered springs that were not good for over four years on the average. He showed me an upgraded roller that had neoprene wheels like you see on the inline skates today. This for a quieter garage door. I was all for that when I saw that. So, now the price was going up for the repair. It started out at anywhere from $200 to $300 for the replacing the springs. Now, I wanted the quieter rollers. They were an extra $150. The bearings on these rollers were enclosed also which made for a longer lasting roller. During the repair the service person showed me a roller he took out that was wore out and the bearings about to spill out. He said this would cause a big problem if this roller had failed. He replaced the rollers and the wires on each side that had broke along with the original springs. He also greased the screw that pulls the garage door up with the motor. It was dry and noisey he pointed out. I could hear a difference afterward. The neoprene rollers made a big difference. I was offered a lifetime warranty for another $150 but after talking it over with my other half we decided that we would forego that and accept the one year warranty included in the repair. All told the repair added up with tax to just around $550. It's an expense that you don't count on but when something like this happens what are you going to do, you don't want to dilly dally around, you want it fixed now. I'll have to get the name of the company and their phone and post later as I don't have it with me now. I would highly recommend this company to anyone. One company I would not recommend is Overhead door. I had a garage door installed by them years ago and the installer had a bad attitude. He didn't like me hanging around watching him work. Johnny, the service person yesterday didn't seem to mind as he quickly did the repair and he even answered my questions very well while I watched. The whole repair took less than an hour and he arrived within an hour after calling the company. I work nights and I would hear the garage door open and close in the afternoon when my other half would bring the kids home from school. Today I never heard the door open or close and I slept soundly. I couldn't believe the difference.

Water Conditioner install

How many in the neighborhood have a water softener I wonder. How many know the benefits of a water softener. I've used one for 28 years on my other house. Now I want to install one where I live now but it's not an easy install. I installed my first softener right after moving into my newly built house. It was easy to do as all the piping was pvc. Now, I'm up against copper tubing. Not a big deal but a little more work to get the fittings right. The one big thing that bothers me at the moment is getting the wasted drain connected to the sewer or laundry drain. I've looked at a couple of installs in the neighborhood from the road and even went up and talked to one neighbor who showed me his installation by a company. It appears the waste drain just goes into the ground. I'm wondering did the company that installed this dig and put in a large rock filled sump for the waste water or what? I want to install this softener correctly and I don't want the waste water to just spill out onto the grass as it is saltly and would kill the grass. I've bought tubing and parts to run this waste line to the laundry drain but that drain is far from where I want to install this softener so I've put off the installation until I can find the time to lay everything out and make sure I've got all the parts before starting. I don't want to have to run back and forth to Home Depot or Lowes in order to get the water running again after cutting into the pipes. If you did your install, give me your experience here or tell me your experience with the company that installed yours. Or, was it already installed when you moved in? I'm on my third softener now at my other house as the previous two didn't have a pre-filter installed. After my second softener quit working I called the 800 number for Sears and a nice person on the other end informed me that I needed a pre-filter to filter out the junk that clogs the tiny parts in the softener. Well, I installed a simple whole house filter before replacing the second softener with a third and I can tell you that the third softener is now over ten years old and still going. I've only opened the softener and cleaned the tiny innner workings once and they were clean. The pre-filter I bought was a clear plastic type and I could see the iron buildup on the string filer inside which I would change about every six to nine months. I used a carbon filter once but didn't notice any difference and went back to the string type as it is much cheaper. Besides, I don't drink water from this softened water, only from the fridge with it's own carbon filter. Just some thoughts here. Please post any you may have.