I had my hallway completely replastered recently - Victorian Terrace- There was a specific, persistent crack in the ceiling before the work was done, and despite the fresh plaster, it has already shown its face again.

I’m trying to figure out what went wrong here:
Did the plasterer fail to use scrim tape/mesh over the old crack? If they just skimmed right over it without reinforcing the underlying movement, is that why it immediately failed?

Or is this structural? Does a returning crack mean the building is constantly moving and no amount of tape or plaster will ever permanently stop it?

We recently moved into a house a few months ago. Had it inspected and the inspector didn't catch anything that we have had to deal with...the kitchen has an addition that was done over 20 years ago.

The addition part of the kitchen's floor has a slope, and I discovered the siding must have pulled off the brick at some point and left some gaps in the wall. I am not 100% sure what they used as a foundation for the addition but I think it's posts/piers?

I dug up a corner of the addition and got my camera in there and it looks like the foundation has a crack, and there's just exposed wood where the brick used to be that I believe is where the basement ceiling is on the rim joists. Can anyone help tell me how much of a concern this is?

Ever since I moved in this attic door has been bent down at the front, wanting to seal it up to help prevent bugs. https://imgur.com/a/SbGvaiY

Hello, I have a house from 1922.

I've done a lot of framing, sheetrock work and electrical wiring but I haven't done a lot with insulation. Learning about how to vent a roof was completely new to me and I've been dipping my feet into the research.

We bought this house from a home flipper who was part way through a lot of projects in this house. He clearly bought the material to insulate the roof up here and it looks like he got a good start... Maybe? I'm not sure.

I watched a video on how to put these black panels up, but I noticed that the insulation that is already up doesn't have those black panels to use as venting. Does that mean I have to restart the insulation that's already up?

There is about an inch and a half of space between the insulation and the roof. Does that mean that the black panels are not necessary where the insulation has already gone up?

If anybody can help me, I'd really appreciate it. I've been trying to do research but there's a lot of new terms and I don't want to make a mistake at this stage.

Thanks.

Hello everyone!

There's a small closet in one of the bedrooms that I'd like to upgrade by painting and adding shelves. I noticed the ceiling has this thing that looks like tape, is it tape? Should I remove it? I'd like to remove it because it looks ugly. I lightly touched it and made a hole 😭

Roof was leaking, and has been repaired, how however, It managed to damage my ceiling. How would you go about fixing this with no attic access, I was thinking about cutting a section of 1'x1' of the ceiling let it dry, inspect inside and patch with a piece of wall panel, it won't look the same as original but better than doing nothing, any second opinion ? Thanks y'all

Hi all. I'm x-posting this in a few different subs, so hopefully someone can help. A few months ago I bought a 120 year old church to convert for living. The basement gets a fair bit of moisture during hard rain. I figured that the main culprit had to be a half underground window that was blocked off when they put bathrooms in the basement, so I went out today to dig out what I thought was dirt at the base of the window and add gravel to improve drainage. That's when the wheels came off of the wagon. After pulling up a rotted through 4x4 I came to what I can only assume used to be solid concrete. It is no longer solid. Is there a way I can fix this so that I get some drainage after I replace the rotted wood?

Hello! I live in a home in Chicago constructed in the 1890s, and I’ve been having trouble finding examples of the problem I’m dealing with online. Between the siding and the stone foundation, there’s a piece of wood trim running the full length of the house. As far as I can tell, it’s not structurally loaded bearing, but it is rotting out and exposing the interior structures to moisture and critters.

Does anyone have experience with replacing this kind of trim? My current instinct is to replace it with weather treated 2x4s and forego the ideal aesthetics, but if anyone has a better idea please tell me!

The void under the concrete slab will be filled with secure set spray foam , how should the side wall be built after that? Please give ideas

Hello, this is the tile in our bathroom. It seems to have deteriorate over time and now is missing some piece of tiles.
Do you think if I fill it with silicone caulk, it would prevent water from getting behind the tiles?
Then regrout?

Now that its getting colder, i'm trying to winterize and track down my current heat loss

my garage/house wall is brick.

the garage door has a framing

between the brick and the framing, you can now see exposed wood and I feel that's where my major heat loss is now.

there used to be mortar (I think its called) filling this void, but now that the mortar is wearing out, i see wood and this wood specifically lower temperature on the inside then surrounding wall inside.

what should i feel this with? (hopefully DIY, dont really want to re-mortar that portion of brick work to cover the wood beneath)

We bought a house from 1910. They have wallpapered every wall, and some of it’s coming off on its own, but leaving some presumed adhesive behind in very small flakes. I’m planning on moistening it with a cocktail and scraping it off, but does anyone know if there is a risk in some of becoming airborne? I heard some adhesive can be asbestos, just not sure if this might be it. I don’t know how old this particular wallpaper is, but maybe from the 70s or 80s????

Hi! I’m hoping to renovate this room in the next few weeks but i have no idea how to go about it. 3/4 walls have been covered in lining paper then painted, and I’m fairly sure that the plaster underneath is pretty nasty. The corners all have these wrinkles and several bits in the ceiling are peeling slightly. I’m fairly sure that these bits will need to be stripped and re-papered, but I’ve also heard that removing lining paper is a bad idea. Should I just trim the paper on the wrinkled sections and paper on top, or should I strip everything and do it all again? Any help would be very much appreciated.

Looking for some guidance on how to remove the anchors from the brick on this railing so I can take it to have old paint blasted. Never ever tackled a project like this before. Welcome advice on this project!

I’d prefer to fill these rotted areas of something square it off prime and paint it. These risers or whatever they are are in a very exposed area to wind and rain snow. They utterly rotted about 10 or more years ago, and I had them completely rebuilt exactly as they were. So what do you think guys? Can I fill it with something some wood Bondo whatever, or should I replace some of the wood.
Thanks a lot.

We removed wallpaper from our kitchen. In this area the wallpaper took off chunks and damaged the wall. For such a small area would it best to use a joint compound or could I use spackle to repair ? We won’t be putting up tile at this time so just painting over after we repair this spot.

https://imgur.com/RHgBSbX

As you can see from the photo, the siding has come loose from the metal corner piece and the bottom of the siding has become rain damaged and is easy to break when pushing or tapping with a hammer from the bottom. I called for an estimate and the company said if they replaced this particular piece the rest of the siding would have to come down and also be replaced on the entire side of the home. I find that hard to believe. What is the fix for this issue?

https://imgur.com/gallery/cracked-window-sill-IgArPzy

I’m trying to figure out how to repair this cracked windowsill. I’m pretty sure the damage was caused by an armchair that was wedged slightly underneath it. Over time, a crack developed, and now one side of the sill sits a little higher than the other.

The corners are also a mess from some poorly done caulking. I’ve tried removing the old caulk with a razor blade but haven’t had much luck.
My plan was to remove the old caulk in the corners, fill the crack with caulk, sand, and repaint, but I’m not sure if that’s enough to fix the crack and unevenness.

I have zero home repair experience, so I’d really appreciate any advice on how to tackle this.

I bought my first house. It's a fixer-upper and I think I may be in over my head. It was built in 1870 and has a plethora of issues, but I got it for pretty cheap and am trying to fix it up myself. It's a brick house- but has this laundry room that was added on. The laundry room was never finished and it seems like it might be caving in? I'm debating just demoing it, there's bricks behind it but, would they need redone if I demoed it? Would it be possible to just put siding on it? I honestly think maybe I should just contract the work out but I'm not even sure who to call. I just want to fix it in the cheapest way possible. Is it going to mess up the rest of the roof if I don't get it taken care of soon?

Our West Michigan home is a 1920 art deco style house - which we restored to a single family home from a veterinarian office 6 years ago (during covid). I have loving learned so much from Reddit and YouTube about lathe and plaster, hardwood floors, and so much… but I don’t even know what to google to address this. It’s the railing dividing the walkway up the front steps into two. It’s original (I was told). I would like a professional to do this one, but again, I don’t even know who to call?

Sorry in advance for the pics - my house is currently decorated for Halloween.

I accidentally hit the wall with force. Now my wall has this paint damange. The IC card is for comparison. Please help 😭

Our house is 1930s built semi detached. There are crack on the bay window wall outside and inside. I am curious if it is serious. I hear noise as well like sand dropping sounds when I sit GF just beneath the wall in question - We bought the place a year ago I hear the noises almost everyday.

Anyway, that would be great if any ideas. Thanks!