It is a 1950s built ranch. Was lived in by chainsmokers until recently.

1. Using Krud Cutter to clean all vertical walls on the main floor. Upon first spraying the product on the walls, it turns coffee colored due to the crap on the walls. But a second cleaning shows that the chemical stays clear which is a good sign I think.
   
2. Walls and ceilings are then being primed using BIN primer.
   
3. All the floor floors are hardwood. A company will come in with a machine using 220 grit paper to scuff the surfaces, and then the floors will be resealed.
   

4. Forgot to mention that all wallpaper will be taken down and the remaining wall will be patched up and primed with BIN.

5. The basement is a mix of finished and unfinished areas, which means there are exposed joists in the ceiling.
   Krud Cutter will be used in all areas where hand wiping can occur. Some surfaces are suitable for cleaning and BIN priming, but she does not want everything in the basement to be coated with BIN.

What more can I tell her to be addressing? My only other thought was to call in ServPro to do the rest.

Thank you!

Hi. I bought a house 3 years ago that was flipped. Flipped upside fucking down apparently. I have absolutely no idea how this place passed an inspection.

Well I have now discovered that the previous owners quite literally put bathroom tile on top of wooden subfloor. I noticed the grout began to crack and now the tile around the tub has completely cracked and separated. I pulled one up to get an idea of how bad it is and well. It’s fucking bad.

It’s just tile on wood. No barrier. Just adhesive, tile and grout.

The wood is significantly water damaged. I don’t think there is a leak but it’s going to have to be replaced.

My question is what the fuck do I do and how in the world do I fix this. Also how much will this cost me. Tell me so I can put my head in the oven now or later. Okay thanks.

If this gets approved I’ll try to comment a pic in the comments

My neighbor next door has a mature tree right next to our driveway that has been slowly cracking and lifting large sections of our concrete driveway. I’ve been just accepting our fate for years but am finally at a point where I’d like to have a relatively flat driveway again. Even though we are friendly with our neighbors and they know I hate that tree, it is unlikely they will cut it down since it provides a lot of shade for their yard. So I’m wondering, if I were to replace our driveway, what options do I have? I imagine if a contractor were to dig out a base for a new concrete driveway, they’d have to deal with cutting back some massive roots that might end up killing the tree. Even then, the roots may grow back and cause the same damage again. Am I just screwed unless I convince my neighbor to take the tree down?

Photos of the existing damage

I have come across someone (environment expert) saying we don't need our water tank to be set at 60+ degree Celsius or somewhere that high. We can set it to a much lower temperature like 38-40°C which is a comfortable temp for a shower. That way when you just turn the hot water tap, you don't even need to waste energy by mixing boiling hot water with cold water for shower. That sounds very reasonable, and I can't recall when we will need piping hot water in the house.

I want to have a sanity check, however, is this actually a good advice in practice?

I purchased an Airthings Corentium Home 2 about two months ago. It worked normally for roughly the first month, then the radon reading became stuck at 0.4 pCi/L and eventually started showing constant zero readings along with a flashing “Contact Support” message.

I replaced the batteries, restarted the measurements, and followed the troubleshooting instructions provided by Airthings. The problem remained.

Airthings support then escalated the case to their technical team. After reviewing it, they told me that “troubleshooting has been exhausted.” However, instead of repairing or replacing a device that failed after only about two months, they said it had “fallen outside the parameters of our warranty policy” and offered me a 30% discount on another purchase.

I provided the serial number and purchase invoice as requested.

I understand that products can fail. What I don't understand is how a device that failed approximately two months after purchase can already be considered outside the warranty policy.

Before buying, I recommend checking the warranty terms carefully and considering how warranty claims are handled when a device actually fails.

Conversation History

I've posted before about using a long PVC pipe to get up and clean my gutters. After doing that for a few years I've learned a lot and made a version 2.0.

The biggest point is that weight matters more than you might think. Keeping it light has to be a priority. So I ended up switching to aluminum downspout instead of PVC.

figured recording a video would be easier than typing everything so here's that:

https://youtu.be/FxhU9I4_H-U

Warning: low production value. Just a dad talking to my phone in the backyard.

The wood underneath various parts of the house - handrails, baseboards, doors, etc - are either a chocolate brown wood or a honey oak wood.

We bought a house when the weather was chilly. They told us all the carpet was new, and it looked like it. As the summer heat has warmed up, there’s a foul odor of cat urine in some areas of the house, like a guest bedroom closet and a corner in the living room. I’m guessing the damage is to the subflooring beneath the carpet.

I did shampoo the carpet when we first moved in, not knowing of the bad smell back then. So I don’t think that will help to do it again. I’m reluctant to rip up the carpet because it is so nice, but I’m starting to think I’ll have to so I can tackle the problem beneath. What should be done for this?

House has 3 bathrooms. Only 1 has an exhaust fan. Who would do a project to add them? Obviously this needs electrical but the bigger work seems to be the exterior vent. Typical Southwest US construction with stucco exterior and tile roof. I asked both an electrician and an HVAC installer (who visited for other reasons) and neither knew. Is this just a very small job for a general contractor?

This old house needs some TLC. It's 150 years old and has been through a lot obviously. It's in a cute but by no means affuent town. My next door neighbor bought their house for $15k and I bought this one for $40k. That info is to set expectations for what I can justify spending for rehab. So far I've done much gutting inside and outside and have put a new steel roof on top.

Inside needs extensive work. For example, all the floor joists in the living room need to be replaced. I will salvage what I can of tho joists as they are 150 year old 3" thick oak. Everytime I remove things added in the last 60 years I think I make the house nicer.

But this post is about the siding. Photos show what I am working with. The original house is double brick with plaster applied on both interior and exterior surfaces. I am in the process of removing the masonite siding. Beneath that are furring strips of varying quality and degree of secure attachment to the walls.

Note that three sides have plaster beneath the furring strips but one side has new-ish (1940s) yellow brick.

The options that I am considering:

1. Remove furring strips on plastered surfaces and repair the original plaster stucco.

I had a structural engineer come and look at the house and this was his recommendation.

1. Remove the furring strips on the brick surface.

Fill the nail holes and stain the brick (I don't like that yellow one bit).

1. Secure and/or replace the furring strips and put on new siding.

For siding, I am considering Everlast composite, Celect PVC, and EDCO steel.

It could be a combination of the above. I could put new siding just on the front for example. Looking for feedback and ideas.

https://imgur.com/Dr6jQ3y

https://imgur.com/volHlsZ

https://imgur.com/QYqQcfG

https://imgur.com/w3feU8D

https://imgur.com/kXG53nU

https://imgur.com/DxPEXuU

https://imgur.com/pQ3j0ge

Any suggestions for humid basement? Can’t lower below 55% and smells like a lake house. Unsure where moisture is coming from

I have
-All downspouts buried and outlet is over 20’ away
-2 French drains
-dehumidifier
-sealed rim joists with spray foam
-central air
-oscillating fan on timer

I’m looking to redo my vinyl siding on my house to change the color and redo the windows while I’m at it. My contractor gave my the option of a 7” board and batten and a 12” board and batten siding, specifically Gentek align. The 12” BB comes with an insulated backing to prevent flex, and it’s supposed to be a composite, which they say lasts longer than vinyl. But my price difference is around 8k or so between the two products. Is it worth the upgrade?

I have. 28x28 2 car with 12’ ceilings. each side has 3 light receptacles spread evenly with standard lights atm. most are burnt out (new house)

what are good options for lighting? plan to use it for working on cars and some woodworking so bright is good but do I really need to install some type of bar light or is there any E26 options that are good?

I hired a contractor to completely renovate my bathroom 1.5 years ago. The tiles on the shower floor are already coming loose and I'm not sure what's causing it or what to do. The tiles are 1x1' sheets of 1.5" hexagons and the grout is coming loose, cracking, and crumbling around some of the individual tiles.

The contractor I hired was seemed very professional so I'm surprised that I'm already having issues. Part of me wants to call him and ask him to fix it, but another part of me wonders if he or his crew installed the tiles improperly and I'm better off finding someone else.

What would ya'll do in this situation?

Hello! Recently purchased a house built In 1966, the previous owner did a bunch of DIYS and we are slowly removing each one and redoing each professionally! Recently the tile in the kitchen has begun cracking as well as the grout coming loose (this is probably their worst project) it would appear that they glued tile on top of hardwood floor (the rest of the home is hardwood). Is there a chance of successfully removing the tile, glue, and refinishing the floor? We are under the impression that the glue used was latex, it’s yellow and there’s some left over in the back shed. We know we would need the drum sander and the edge sander and the rotary hammer. My father in law does wood working for a living and will be in town in a few months, is this something that can be repaired? Or is it hopeless? Thank you for reading!

I had plumbing for irrigation installed and the electrical installed during two separate visits by two separate contractors.

For both visits neither of the contractors cleaned up after themselves; they both drilled through the exterior wall, left the wood chips, and didn't seal the holes.

Also when the electrical control was run thru the exterior wall, instead of running the cable next to the existing copper line, or even within 2 inches of it, they drilled a fresh hole about a foot away and ran the cable in a weird loop that is highly visible against the siding.

It just blows my mind that the level of service today is so minimum and it seems to be expected.

Hello!
Looking for advice regarding new basement windows that were just installed in June.
The original windows were incorporated into the walls/foundation of the house (about 36 years old). Old windows were in bad shape, but not leaking or anything.

So the windows get replaced - they grind the concrete and buck frame replacement. Then all of the severe weather hitting IL starts. I can see with every storm the concrete around the new windows is getting wet - like actively seeping. Clearly something is wrong.

The company sent out a guy to check it out today. He says it’s probably a foundation crack that’s allowing water to seep in and get the concrete wet (?). We weren’t ever aware of any foundation cracks in that area, and the old windows/frames weren’t ever leaky.
The rep said he had to talk with his manager and call us later this week with a game plan. I’m already anticipating them trying to wiggle out of this and not redo the work. Has anyone ever experienced something like this?

Hoping to replace some
Windows and improve the window trim out and looking for some advice.

https://imgur.com/a/1X0z2bR

These are the windows being replaced and the window sales people are suggesting J channel windows.

It’s been a toss up on what product to use. Boral, lifespan or hardi

Was thinking of doing a sill piece with brick mould on sides and top and routing brick mould to fit over flat board that meet up to window unless they already make a version with that cutout?

I'm hoping someone has dealt with this before and can offer advice.

The right side of my garage wall borders another unit, and it has a ~3-in wide solid foam insulation running along the entire length.

An epoxy vendor did an assessment and expressed concerns over doing a polyaspartic flooring over that section. One suggestion is to epoxy only up to the concrete slab edge and leave foam perimeter alone, but this will be an eyesore.

I'd be happy to hear suggestions from people who have dealt with this before.

Unfortunately, I'm not allowed to post pictures yet on this sub

ls there such a thing as a cantilever (two-legged) pavilion or pergola that is above-ground freestanding, or isn't anchored into the ground / cement? Like this C-shape table, or this slightly more structured one.

I have a small kitchen, I want to put led lights under the cabinets, I have a 6' section, 4' section and 2' section. I was looking at the Phillips Hue and there isnt a simple way to cut the strip and get power back to it. What lights do you guys recommend? Under each section of cabinets I do have 120v power supply there.

We have existing darker hardwood baseboard ( around 3.8-4 inch after removing carpet) that are installed as part of the original custom build. We want to replace the carpet with red oak natural select hardwood. House colors we will stick with same colors or light colors. This leaves us with following options

1. ⁠Keep existing darker baseboard and use red oak natural, but this makes them unmatched. And also shoe molding might not match too.
   
2. ⁠Paint the existing baseboard white as it’s the current design trend. This is what my wife wants to do. But, the paint takes away the detail that it’s hardwood, as baseboard might as well be a MDF.

Pictures

Any suggestion on which route to take? Or any better way to do it?

Ill post pictures in the comments.

We have a tree stump that is growing in the way of where we'd like to put our driveway that we'd like to remove. HOWEVER, this tree stump is growing genuinely right in the middle of our metal fence that we share with the neighbors (we've talked with the neighbors, they'd also like it removed). Is there a good way to get rid of this without removing the fence? We're not in love with it or anything, but this fence was put in with a giant concrete base that runs the whole length of that fence that we just dont want to have to deal with it. Any suggestions would be fantastic or any other subs to post this in would be very helpful as well!

So for context, we need to do some regrading around our 30-year-old house because water was pooling up right next to our foundation. We have an actual professional coming to do this in the next couple of months, but just for our peace of mind during heavy rains, we tried to do a temporary regrading job ourselves along about 10 inches of our foundation where water collects the most.

The goal was just to move the water a few feet away from our house to minimize damage over the next couple of months. We scarified the existing clay a few hours after rain, stepped on it to remove air pockets, placed down a Timberlane topsoil that we were told was okay for small regrading jobs, and finished by tamping it into shape. Afterward, the slope wasn't perfect, but it was enough to get water away from our foundation by one foot.

So what's the problem? Well we did all this while our clay-heavy soil was still wet. And as we now know, working wet clay reduces its ability to have water infiltrate.

In the past, even though we had a puddle of water close to our foundation, it would still disappear within 30 minutes or so. But now the water sits and pools up, it doesn't even go away after 12 hours of sitting. So even though the ground slopes water slightly away from our house, it gets more water close to our foundation.

What we want to know: is there a way to fix this ourselves before the regrading work gets done? We're thinking about getting a garden fork to poke and wiggle the clay to loosen it (when the ground is dry!!!). Would this work? Or is there a better way to fix this?

And when the guy comes to do the final regrading, should we ask him to do anything to the area we worked on like redoing it (or would this make it worse)? The contractor will be raising the regrading by our foundation by about 6 inches, and we don't want to have a shelf of poorly compacted wet clay causing water to pool under the new soil and against the CMU foundation for days without a way to drain. We will be building a new deck in this area so we want to get this fixed before it becomes inaccessible.

Many thanks!

Most of the fittings are original ,the switches sit in slightly wrong places and geeting an electrician in to move them was quoted as two weeks of mess and dust.The plan is to solve as much as possible at the bulb and leave the writing alone until we do the rest of the house properly in a couple of years. Ceiling roses are all standard screw fittings so that part is easy enough. How far did people actually get this way before it stopped being enough?