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Practical Solutions to Home Repair and Landscaping Issues

This is to share solutions neighbors have come up with to deal with some of the unique and not so unique home repair and landscaping issues  we face while living in a neighborhood that dates back to the 1920's.

(1) No curb  (2) Replacement of Asbesto Shingles  (3) New! Recycling A/C Water (4) New! Holding down landscaping edging

1. No curb -  Solution by David Williams - New Orleans On David's side street he did not have a curb.  He solved that problem by taking brick pavers and placing the along the asphalt edge on the side of the street.  On the house side of the pavers he filled in the area with dirt and placed down sod.  The brick pavers have ridges that help prevent them from shifting and the asphalt edge and dirt and sod also help.

Before

Close Up

After

2. Replacement of Asbestos Siding/Shingles - David Banghart - New Orleans My house was missing some of the asbestos siding/shingles.  Home Depot sells Fiber Cement replacements made by GAF that match the styles we have on these old houses.  GAF calls them California Rancho (49241).  The Home Depot SKU for the white wavy style is 312366 for individual pieces or 312397 for packs of 18.  Each pack of 18 costs $58.88. Not all Home Depots carry them so call and have them look it up. With the pack of 18 should be some black backer strips. You will need siding nails and black roofing paper.  I suggest also buying a masonry bit to make more nail holes and a masonry saw blade for the circular saw or jigsaw to cut the shingles. A dust mask and googles will be needed when cutting the shingles.

3. Recycling of air conditioning water  - David Banghart - New Orleans The A/C unit draws a lot of water from the air in the house. Generally it goes to waste.  We recycle the water to use on our plants.  We first started by putting a small watering pitcher under the outflow pipe.  However there is some much water that I had to move to a larger container, hence the small square bucket seen below. I ultimately hope to connect my outflow pipe to a 55 gallon plastic drum with a spigot on the bottom. Be careful when doing something like this to ensure the water does not back up or you could have an overflow in your attic or wherever your air handler is located. I  get 10+ gallons of water a day this way.

4. Holding down landscape edging.  Susan Banghart - New Orleans We use a lot of black plastic landscape edging. To help keep it in the ground Susan pounds 6" to 8" nails through the bottom lip. They work far better than the edging staples you buy at Home Depot.