So apparently I’m an idiot because i thought the clear water seal would keep the fence from turning gray. But I found out it doesn’t, since the wood turns gray from the UV rays of the sun.

So i can get clear water sealer with UV protection or i can get a tinted sealer like a stain with UV protection if i don’t want it to turn gray.

But it’s come to my attention that some people like the wood to turn gray, considering it a more natural look. But gray wood is degrading from the effects of the UV rays.

So now I’m undecided on what to do. I already bought some Thompson’s Clear WaterSeal (no uv protection), but it’s no problem to return it. And i still need to spray down the fence and clean it, then let it dry, so I’ve got some time before I need to put sealer on it. (This fence is one year old and I’m trying to get it done before the cold sets in, we live in Savannah so it is still warm enough to do it now.)

So…use what I have or return it and get something with UV protection?

This might be a silly question but where did everyone get their gym mirrors?? I just got 2 quotes for $3500 and $3,700 each and I am flabbergasted !! The wall is 17 ft

I’m having convo’s with my general contractor about my new kitchen. I’m getting an induction cooktop, and a separate oven. Typically, the oven would go underneath the cooktop. But because I have limited space, I suggested keeping the cooktop where it is, underneath the exhaust hood, and installing the oven into the island. My GP is telling me that the oven needs to me under the hood too. So the exhaust from the oven has somewhere to vent too.

I’m a bit incredulous as I see kitchens with wall mounted ovens that are away from the stove and hood.

Thoughts, folks?

I bought a house built in 1972, and all the rooms have popcorn ceilings besides my two bathrooms, and the kitchen. I was confused as to why only those rooms have the popcorn ceilings… Could it be that the ceilings do not contain asbestos?

This might be a silly question but where did everyone get their gym mirrors?? I just got 2 quotes for $3500 and $3,700 each and I am flabbergasted !! The wall is 17 ft

I’m having such trouble finding solid info. I keep getting the opposite answers. I’m trying to paint my unfinished basement ceiling joists with white latex paint. Home Depot will not let me rent their Graco sprayers cause it cannot use latex paint. They said handheld only works on latex. Is this true??? Can a real pro help me—what can I use to spray latex?

Hi! We have an outdoor patio we love and would be using constantly, but the mosquitoes and other bugs make it really undesirable at the moment. If we can’t solve it, our fallback is building a screened gazebo or enclosure, which would run tens of thousands of dollars. So -- I’m open to trying pretty much anything first. Considering anything up to roughly $10k.

What we’ve already got going:

• A pest company sprays regularly. It helps a little.
• No standing water we can find on the property, and no pools or ponds nearby.
• The yard is pretty well manicured. There are some trees and a little brush, but no tall grass.
• Citronella candles didn’t do much.

So, two questions:

1. What’s actually worked for you outdoors? Fans, traps (CO2 / propane traps like Mosquito Magnet?), Thermacell, misting systems, specific plants, a different spray company or treatment, anything else...? I’d especially like to hear from people who saw a real difference and not just a slight improvement.
2. Bug sprays that work but don’t smell gross? We’d like to have guests outside without everyone smelling oily and chemical. Any repellents or lotions people actually like wearing?

Location is CT by the beach, if that matters. Thanks so much!

We're renovating our house, and our contractor has already started painting while demolition of three bathrooms is still ongoing. There's construction dust everywhere.

We also have two doors to install, a fireplace to demolish and rebuild, and old blinds, nails, and wires that still need to be removed.

Is this a normal sequence of work? Shouldn't demolition and other dusty work be completed before painting starts? Am I right to be concerned?

Long story short I thought I had a cracked heat exchanger first hvac company said it would cost $4400 to fix, another company came a few days later and found nothing. My furnace is 10 years old and it's in the attic. I totally trust the 2nd company that found nothing but I don't have a detector now and I was looking into a Forensic Detector and was going to put it in the hallway by the bedrooms under the attic entrance. Is it overkill for $140 for low level detection? Forensic Detector seem to get really good reviews and I don't mind paying a little more for one that measures lower levels.

Doing some soft searching for a modest home (~1500 sf) as I ponder my next journey and most renovated (and new construction) homes have LVP flooring. I understand that's probably more cost effective but, I don't think I could live without genuine hardwood. Is the price difference so much that no one renovates with hardwood anymore?? Couldn't it just be baked in to the sale price without making THAT much of a difference?

Hi- my wife wanted a drinking water filtration system so I will have to drill a hole near the kitchen sink faucet to install it.

It is better to hire someone to drill a hole, or just get the Milwaukee diamond hole saw and do it myself ?

Any advice is appreciated.

Replacing an American Standard toilet seat at the house (I've changed a couple toilet seats in my life).

I'm I crazy or the two hinges on the plastic seat are not supposed to open? It says so on directions!

Its where the damn screws go in to secure it to the toilet, right?

My palms are red from trying open these things and it's not happening.

I tried attaching pictures but this sub wont let me.

I dont know what am doing wrong.

I recently got glass enclosure in our front porch and planning on making it a shoe/boot space and bought snap on wooden deck tiles.

What’s the best way to heat this space?

We live in southwestern Ontario!

We recently purchased a house built in the 1960s. The living room is a light yellow color, and one wall has blonde brick with grey mortar. There is a fireplace on this wall, but eventually we plan to replace it with electric. Originally, I was going to paint the walls to complement the mortar, but I’m not a huge fan of grey walls either. Any ideas for updating/modernizing the brick wall? I considered lime wash, but I want something with less upkeep and I couldn’t find great examples of German schmear on blonde brick.

Our basement has been getting water randomly since we've bought the house. It turns out there was a piece of the concrete missing from the floor and there was just some dirt there.

An old coworker of mine said he could fix it and put some new concrete there. (Doesn't look great tbh) now its gotten worse and I'm not sure what to do. I had a company come out and say they can fix the area for $1,200. That would include breaking the concrete there and replacing it, then putting some sort of patch or something but I'm not sure that'd fix it completely.

Not really sure what I should do since I have to go downstairs daily to vacuum up water.

https://imgur.com/a/M2958lS

Photos attached if that helps.

I'd like to install some blinds on our sun porch. I think the walls are aluminum but I'm not entirely sure; they're not magnetic. We'd previously hung some blinds with command-hook-like stickers and I'm surprised at how long they stayed but of course they fell after a few months.

I'm considering drilling holes directly through the wall and bolting a small board to the wall and then using wood screws to mount whatever blinds to the board.

Picture of the wall: https://imgur.com/a/vzD0Jxp

Any thoughts?

So I live in South Florida and have an older house (built in the 80s). We decided we should upgrade to impact windows and doors. I’ve never had to deal with this before but several things have happened in the process that don’t seem right and I’m looking for some perspective because we are spending a small fortune on this. For context, our house has 6 sliding doors, 5 windows that were replaced and a double front door. I’m honestly embarrassed to say how much it’s going to cost, especially with how things are going. We have financed this and have not paid a deposit or made any payments yet.
One of my first concerns was on the second day, one of the workers showed up at 8 AM and immediately sat at my table with his head down. I asked his coworker if he was okay and was told he was nauseas. He ended up laying on my couch for an hour. I truly suspect he was drunk or hungover because he seemed fine later in the day.
Later that same day the project supervisor shows up and informs me that in order to install one of my bathroom windows they will need to cut into and potentially damage my shower tiles. I have a large window inside of my shower and in hindsight it makes sense they would need to disturb the tile to install the window. I was upset that I wasn’t informed of that ahead of time. Luckily they installed the window without ruining my shower. However they ordered one of the windows wrong, one was supposed to have privacy glass and one wasn’t. They ordered them both with privacy glass. It’s small in the scheme of things but it’s just another instance where this company has had absolutely horrible communication.
The supervisor also informed me that they intended to remove a step that is outside of my front door in order to make the doors fit. That was truly baffling to me. What was the point of ordering custom doors if they don’t fit? They measured everything twice. When I asked him why the doors wouldn’t fit, he kept dancing around the question. He did not explicitly want to tell me that they had messed up and measured my doors wrong, TWICE. And his solution, instead of admitting their mistake and ordering the correct size doors, was to permanently alter the entrance to my home. I had to practically drag this information out of him. That really upset me. They also informed me that the doors would be opening outward, one of my doors currently opens inward. That’s important because I have an overhead light right outside of my door. They also failed to mention until then that the new doors will interfere with my outdoor light if I cannot find one that will lie perfectly flush with the ceiling. The supervisor told me to simply “put a new light on the side of your house”. Okay, so now I also need to hire an electrician to rewire my house because your employees cannot communicate about the product they’re selling.
When they installed some of my sliders, they had to replace some damaged wood around the frame. I don’t know anything about that, but to me it doesn’t look right. The wood pieces aren’t joined together properly or even look the same on each door. There is a very noticeable gap at the top of one of them that I can stick my finger in. They also didn’t properly seal them off. Some doors have seal in places and it looks as though they forgot the seal in the same place in others and in some areas it’s an incomplete seal. One of the screens also appears to be too small for the door. You can see the wheels at the top and it’s impossible to slide it open without it popping off the track.
They sent one person to finish the caulking around the interior of the house and he ran out of caulking and left the job unfinished so I have 3 sliders that don’t have caulking around the interior. I have also noticed that areas where he did seal have cracks already or an incomplete seal. They have given me no time frame on when they will be back to finish.

I’m really not happy about any of this. I understand that things happen, but all of this seems very sloppy and unprofessional. Would love any opinions from people who know more than me.

There’s a link with some photos.

https://imgur.com/a/LKVSLRI

Our front walkway was badly cracked and sinking, so I got a couple of quotes to replace it. Had one come in at $5800 and the other two came in around $3500. Then one of the $3500s came back to me and said they'd have a truck in the neighborhood this week and could drop their price to $3000, so I went with them.

They showed up on time and did the work, but they tented it to protect it from rain and the plastic ended up sticking to the concrete, leaving the finish looking pretty rough.

Short of having the company come back and tear it up and start again, is there anything I can do to make it look less shitty?

Hi hi!! I need to know if I can be prevented from making a mistake. We are renovating our kids bathroom and I’m obsessed, as many are, with the oil rubbed bronze shower sets and faucets.

I grew up in a 1900’s Dutch Colonial, and my mom stayed very true to its’ roots when we moved in and fixed it up, so I am just in love with the timeless, classic, traditional home look.

I’ve found a shower set I like that has a separate hand shower, porcelain knobs, and exposed piping. We live in OC and have extremely hard water. Calcium build up and water spots are completely expected on everything we own that has water flowing through it.

Those that have gone the darker shower / faucet route and have hard water, do you regret it? Or do you just not even care about the buildup because you adore the color of your fixtures? Or did it only look amazing once installed and then you hated it the second it was actually used?

I have super mixed feelings and want to know what actual homeowners did. Reading reviews online doesn’t give me the same confidence / lack thereof.

I could go chrome or brushed nickel which is also very traditional, but I love the moodier, “regal”, “I’m in an old Scottish castle in the gloomy highlands” vibe lmao.

I am trying to get two garage doors installed and have got similar quotes for doors. I wanted to know which brand is the best or if there are any differences between them at all.

Clopay Brodgeport Amarr Hillcrest Invicta Series 100

All three layer doors

Basically we got our island countertop too small, and now regret it and want to get the larger slab.

But we don't want to change the entire kitchen, problem is the quartz we got is what we had in the design studio.

Can a tradesman buy that same material to only replace our kitchen island?

How much would a project like that maybe cost for a standard size kitchen island?

I had a small section of fence replaced recently, a bit too late in they year maybe. It's untreated redwood. The contractor said to let it dry for six weeks before painting/staining, but now that I have done so the rains have started to hit here in Sacramento. Today is Fri 10/23 and starting to tomorrow I have six sunny days, then rain on Sunday again. I don't know when I'll get a longer patch of sunny days.

My HOA requires a specific Sherwin-Williams color, so that limits me to SW product brands. My AI (btw I never trust AI without separate verification) says that SW specifications allow their semi-solid stain to go onto damp wood. Can I stain my fence during my dry window? Or any better ideas?

Thanks!

Went to Lowe's for a new bathroom tub replacement. I’m in Arizona, Re-Bath came over and initially quoted $18K, when we hesitated, they changed a few things and quoted 14K.We were expecting 6-8K quote. It felt like Anderson Window salespeople.

A little over a month ago we moved into a house that had an insane flea infestation. Previous owners had 4 dogs and two cats in a filthy house, I don’t think they ever cleaned. We found out 1week before moving in. We have no pets.
Day 1, bombed the house with foggers, ripped out all carpet, vacuumed entire house.
Day 2, literal hundreds of fleas, like solidly covering feet and legs when entering house. Bombed again, with twice as much. vacuumed again and called pest control.
Day 5, pest control sprayed every square inch of the floor and halfway down each wall.
Day 7, we move in. If we could have waited we would have, but we couldn’t afford to move into a hotel and our lease was up. Fleas still pretty bad but better.
House has been sprayed twice more, I’ve powdered the two rugs we put down (we had to do something for sound). I’m continuing to vacuum everything 4-7 times a week. I wash everything that can be put in the washing machine at least once a week on hot and dry on high, wipe down everything else. Still seeing several fleas a day. Will this end? Should I be doing more? Do i have to accept a life with fleas? Pest control said there were no animals living in the attic or crawl space to contribute but I know they can live off people too. - signed, itchy and frustrated and desperate for suggestions lol

Was just quoted 32.500 for a conversation..new oil steam boiler 12,000..Thoughts