Home Improvement: People that paint over old screws that are actually important (not just ones that held up posters) deserve to go to hell |
- People that paint over old screws that are actually important (not just ones that held up posters) deserve to go to hell
- Removing paint from wood stairs
- Just completed master bath renovation
- Attaching a Breezeway/Mudroom
- Strong urine smell coming from only 1 heating vent
- Power cord coming out of chimney?
- Separation of caulk from base of tub
- Installing a bidet
- Advice needed for patio install
- I'm building a 1-2 ft tall stone retaining wall. How many full-size-wall design practices do I have to incorporate?
- Solar tube or skylight?
- Iron pipe rotted through...sink drain.
- Un-distress my brick
- Hot water heater won't stay lit
- Bi Pin T8 95 Cri LED source?
- Driveway paver project taking way longer than expected and I’m getting no updates from the company unless I proactively ask every single day.
- Holding down vapor barrier on basement dirt floor.
- Single Outlet Stopped Working
- Backer board in shower??
- AC replacement questions
- What is a decent tankless propane water heater for a family of 3?
- What are these bugs and how do I get rid of them?
- P trap rusted
- 40,000 cabinet hardware options
| Posted: 13 Mar 2020 11:26 AM PDT Some "handyman" painted over all the rusty 100 year old screws in my house and now just unscrewing anything for the first time is a major project. I just can't understand why someone that works on homes would do this. He could've chose to not paint over the screws. Or, better yet, he could've replaced the rusty screws for a couple bucks. But he chose the worst timeline for all of us. You just know he tosses chip bags and styrofoam cups out of his car while he's driving on the freeway. [link] [comments] |
| Removing paint from wood stairs Posted: 13 Mar 2020 07:01 AM PDT I removed old chasing paper from my stairs and it took a lot of the paint with it. I figure I can use an orbital sander to buff it down and paint over, but I'd prefer to just expose the wood. What's the best way to do this. Picture for reference: https://imgur.com/a/yexqM4c [link] [comments] |
| Just completed master bath renovation Posted: 13 Mar 2020 11:23 AM PDT http://imgur.com/gallery/FmZFBCt We've had ongoing issues with the shower pan in out master bath. Drain issues with clogging and calcium buildup. The floor was regrouted twice after forming a crack in the grout line down the center. We knew something was going on, but the bathroom otherwise looked good and I kinda didn't want to deal with it. The joints in the corners also stared to mildew up quickly after cleaning toward the end. For clarity, I have done a good bit of tiling, including a master bath in my old house, 20 years ago. That time it was a mud pan and curb. I'd classify myself as an experienced amature. We had wire shelves in the closet that both my wife and I didn't like, one day she bumped her head in the edge and proclaimed that they be replaced. I built cabinets to replace them but then decided to redo the bath prior to the closet, so it could be used as a work area. I got a quote from a trusted contractor and he came in a 16k excluding some materials (tile, fixtures, toilet, tub). The day the quote came in I decided to do it myself and started the demo. The only pros I had were for the counter top and shower door. I ripped up most of the tile I knew would be dry and piled it in the closet and shower stall. My wife was freaking out about the moldy parts. The next day she left to take my youngest to swim, I stuck a big fan in the window pushing the air out, donned my respirator and started gutting the wet parts. I had to haul all the tile, mud bed, drywall down the stairs and out to the dumpster and as quicky as I could. It was a tough day. My oldest helped with the tub the next day and then started tearing up the subfloor. Part of the floor ran under a wall, so I had to jack it up, cut out the bottom plate and replace that section. There was also a larger section of solid but damaged wood that would have been difficult to remove, but I could cover that with a new sheet, the size of the shower pan and glue and screw that down. Rerouted plumbing for the niche and soldered in a new rough in valve, added a diverter for the hand held. The tub was another story, the wife did not like the jetted tub that the house came with. The jets would collect mildew and you'd have to clean out the tub 3x over before it could be used. The tub ended up being rarely used. I picked out a deeper soaking tub and ordered it. Afterwards I was looking at the tub dimensions on paper so I could build the surround and noticed the tub had a center drain. The old run had an end drain, so I'd have to re-route it. Easy enough right, no there ended up being a joist right in the center, then right next to it was the dryer vent, what a pita that was. Kerdi went nicely and pretty quickly. I precut and labeled all the sheets before mixing the thinset. The foam pan and curb cut like butter with an oscillating tool with a metal blade. Easier than a sharp knife, IMO. I spent a lot of time on my tile layout and still a few things I overlooked. I tried my best to have a continuous grout line across the wall and down to the horizontal laying tile. A few missteps, but we won't discuss them. I used the Schluter dilex-eke (Inside PVC corner) in the shower so I'd never have to calk in there, I hate doing that. Working with it was okay, just took a lot of planning and test fitting. Outside edges are Roundec with corners mitered on the miter saw. The wife picked out a penny tile for the shower floor. I will never lay a penny tile EVER again. That was difficult to the max. Layout and cutting on the wet saw wasn't bad, but setting it was hard. I had them labeled in the order I wanted to set them and started. I used a cardboard backer to hold the tile and kinda slide it off into position. If you got it perfect you're good, slightly off and you have to move it, the thinset starts to seep through. Ugh, never again. It looks okay, but could be better. Before grouting you could kinda tell where some of the sheets are, but the dark grout helps hide that. I can still see it a little, but it doesn't bother me. We picked different floor tiles after we started and went with a larger one, a 30x15. Slightly larger than the 24 that my wetsaw could cut. With some creativity, I was able to make nice cuts lengthwise. Cutting this had to be done with care since the tile was larger than the water tub, water would spill off the tile and onto the floor. Had to place sponges on the tile as i cut. Setting the large tiles wasn't bad, leveling clips made it pretty easy. Much easier than slamming with a mallet and checking with a level. It took me about 7 weeks to complete. Working just about every night and weekend. Master bedroom was a wreck just about the entire time. We saved every receipt so we could compare it to the quote we got, but I haven't totaled it up yet. My wife did about 2 weeks ago and we were just over 8k. A rough guess would put us just over 10k total. Including the notable expensive tools, like the wet saw, laser level and an oscillating tool (don't know how I ever lived without it). [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 13 Mar 2020 05:32 AM PDT I'll post an Imgur link as soon as they upload, but I bought a foreclosure, there is a small room that spans to my garage entrance to house entrance. Kinda like a rectangular breezeway with walls and a legit roof. The problem here is it's not really attached to the house great, and more importantly, water is getting behind both ends of the room. Thankfully one side butts against the block wall of the garage so nothing rotten there, but the other side butts against the house and water managed to leak behind it, so no matter what I have to disassemble it to fix the flashing. I'm curious if anyone has any advise on attaching it properly and also properly to the ground so it doesn't going sailing away if a tornado came through or something lol. My plan is to remove it and hopefully be able to reuse some of the walls since they're not rotten or anything, also the roof trusses as well. I'm going to cut out the weird siding behind and below the roof, screw or nail the ends of the walls to the house walls which I'm assuming the studs if I can find them lol. And also lay down a better block foundation to attach the sill plate to the ground. Right now they had a metal roof over asphalt 3 tabs and they nailed down a 2ft strip of metal flashing between the edge of the roof and the house wall (but still leaked lol?) Any comments on my process would be tight, or advice or if I'm an idiot and doing it wrong. [link] [comments] |
| Strong urine smell coming from only 1 heating vent Posted: 13 Mar 2020 07:23 PM PDT Hi, I have gas heating in my home and have been wondering why my living room smells like pee the whole time I've lived here (7 months). Turns out, it's one of the vents! I only noticed because I was cleaning my house and decided to get some of the dust out of my vents. None of my other vents in the house smell like anything at all, except for one of the vents in my living room! It smells like pee! Not cat pee/mildew, but full-on (human?) pee! What could be the cause of this and what should I do? [link] [comments] |
| Power cord coming out of chimney? Posted: 13 Mar 2020 09:03 AM PDT I was fiddling around on my side yard, trying to clean up all these old and unused cable/phone lines that are run to various locations, and I noticed a cable tucked along a gas line that goes into my chimney. The fireplace was retrofitted to gas, at some point, long before my time. Pulling on the cord a bit, I found that it was actually a 3prong, buried in the dirt. The cable goes in the same hole the gas line does. But outside of that, I have zero idea what it does. It's not live, currently. There may be a switch that controls it, but I couldn't begin to guess where that is. But, I'm assuming it's connected to something, that needs to be powered, instead of an extension cord of sorts, which was my first thought. Anywho, I was wondering if any of you guys have ever heard of something like this, or have any guesses to what it may be for? I'm going to get up on the roof this weekend, and look down the chimney, but I can't imagine I'll see much. I do have a photo I can attach, but it's literally just a power cord coming out of a 1 inch hole, next to a standard gas pipe. Not the most telling, or interesting, photo. edit: photo: https://imgur.com/a/tJ1E8ra [link] [comments] |
| Separation of caulk from base of tub Posted: 13 Mar 2020 05:37 PM PDT Our house is all new construction, ~1 year old. At the base of the tub in the master bath there is a gap developing between the caulk(or whatever the plumbing equivalent to that is called) and the tub itself. Is that something that two newbies can fix and if so where do we start? Thank you! [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 13 Mar 2020 04:40 PM PDT To install my Luxe bidet, I need to remove these nuts, but the black thing around it prevents me from removing it. Is it possible to remove this? Is it even possible to install my bidet with this thing on? Also, after I turned off my toilet water, it stopped flushing (as expected), but the water already in the toilet doesn't drain. Is that a problem? [link] [comments] |
| Advice needed for patio install Posted: 13 Mar 2020 06:02 PM PDT Hey, everyone! This is my second post on Reddit, and I'm a newbie to home improvement and wanted some advice on the proper way to lay out a patio. I just bought a house and really wanted to extend my patio out for more space. I finally settled on a design similar to HomemadeModern YouTube channel where I would pour large concrete pavers and fill the gaps with some sort of rock/gravel. For added info, I live in Louisiana with a lot of rain and in general a wet/humid environment. I'm just a little confused on how to properly do this. I don't want to cause any long term damage to my house with improper drainage and avoid having to redo the patio. It's not really in my budget to have a contractor or landscaping team design and do all the work; also I thought it would be a fun little project that I could learn from. Apologizes beforehand if these are stupid questions; I'm new to all of this and would appreciate any advice.
I attached pics to give a little context, please ignore the mess on the patio, working on another project :) . The area isn't too big, only about 168 sq ft. Sorry for all the questions and thanks for y'all's help! [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 13 Mar 2020 05:12 AM PDT Do I need a gravel footing, or will compacted earth do? Do I need gravel backfill behind it? The land behind the wall is flat, so it has limited structural requirements. With such a short wall, I'm not sure what's considered what is adequate and what is over-engineering. I'm using natural field stones, which I'm going to mortar together (partly to match an existing wall on the property). The wall is separating two sections of lawn, so it'll drain well. I live in southern New England. [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 13 Mar 2020 08:08 AM PDT We have a low ceiling in all of our 1 story house. There' an unfinished attic above, but with a pretty low slope. We want to bring in some more natural light- especially into the main living room. Would you all go with solar tubes or sky lights? Why? [link] [comments] |
| Iron pipe rotted through...sink drain. Posted: 13 Mar 2020 07:59 PM PDT Advice for this mess? The middle drain is the only one used. It drains the sink. Rotted through at the bottom of the T. Plan is to bash out the iron pipe with a hammer. Put a rubber union on the copper to transition to 2" pvc. Then lead that to the main pipe....it is either 3 or 4 inch. Fun facts .... it's been leaking for who knows how long. HVAC guy was doing a seasonal inspection and noticed it. Super gross under the vapor barrier. [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 13 Mar 2020 07:09 PM PDT I've got a brick wall with a fireplace in my living room. It's been "distressed" or something similar, and I'd like to try and restore it to it's original, plain condition. I'd probably settle for removing or significantly fading the white-ish parts, if I could. Pic: https://imgur.com/a/lfj4KNF So far soap and water with a stiff brush hasn't done much, and neither has vinegar. I'm trying keeping one moist with vinegar for an extended period right now to see if that helps break it down. Any ideas on what this is on the brick or how to remove it? [link] [comments] |
| Hot water heater won't stay lit Posted: 13 Mar 2020 09:49 PM PDT I'm having a problem with my hotwater heater. About 2 weeks ago the pilot light went out. I relit it and all was fine. It heated the tank and we had hot water again, but then the pilot light goes out. I replaced the thermocouple and no matter what it will only stay lit for one tank, but now I can't get it to stay on at all. Gas to the rest of the house is fine. [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 13 Mar 2020 06:01 PM PDT So the house I bought had some old T12 florescent bulbs with ballasts, I want to replace them with LED T8's but I cant find any good source with 95 cri in stock. Hoping that someone may know a good place to look? [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 13 Mar 2020 09:46 PM PDT I'll try to make this as short as possible. Hopefully those of you with more experience in this can tell if I'm being unreasonable and need to chill, or provide some advice on how to proceed. Here goes: -Signed contract back on Jan 28th to redo our driveway (about 512 sq ft.) and also to make front porch entrance floor a couple feet bigger and re-tile the front porch and its steps. -Woman from the company said: pavers need to be ordered and require city permit. Both of these take weeks, so be patient. Front porch work needs no permit, we can get started on that in the next 2-3 days. -That day she took 50% advance payment of $2,074. -Kept postponing start of front porch work for about three weeks. Finally got started on it about three weeks ago. When the man she sent to do the work showed up he said "I'll get this done in three or four days." Three weeks later still not finished. Guys shows up, does some work, disappears for a few days, comes back. Front porch is about 20-25 square feet. -Today he showed up about 8:15am, stopped working shortly after, said he was trying to finish but his blade was dull and was breaking the tile as he was trying to cut it, so he was gonna have to get a new blade and wouldn't be able to come back til tomorrow (for a blade you can get at the store and come back in 20 minutes). -Meanwhile this week I asked the woman what's the status with the pavers and permit since it's been six weeks already. She told me she needed to collect an additional 100 dollars from me to pay for the permit. I refused to give her the money and said I already gave her 2k up front. She said this was not included in that initial payment. I asked her to please show me a receipt or any record that shows the pavers order, and I also asked her to provide the permit number, since I haven't been given any update on any of this and now I'm being asked for more money. She did not provide either of these, says she will provide permit number "when she has it," whatever that means. Does this usually take this long and is this usually how companies proceed? I am tremendously frustrated with this situation and with this woman who provides zero visibility on the project and now asks for more money without any clarity on what she's doing with it. [link] [comments] |
| Holding down vapor barrier on basement dirt floor. Posted: 13 Mar 2020 05:13 AM PDT Installing a 20mm vapor barrier over dirt floor section in basement addition, to cut down on moisture transfer. Debating between stone vs pt 4x4 around the perimeter to hold it down. Only have two basement windows at that end of the basement to feed stone through. Thoughts on either solution, and how to efficiently get stone through the windows? [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 13 Mar 2020 05:24 PM PDT Hello! We just moved into a townhouse built in 1993. We have a surge protector plugged into our living room area, which houses our LED TV, Hue Hub, Google Home, Verizon Fios Router, an Apple TV, and a PS4. Seemingly out of nowhere--though I did plug in a speaker across the way in a different outlet close in time to this happening--both of the areas to plug something into on this outlet stopped working. The TV was not on or anything, and the other stuff, other than the router, was idle. I only realized the power stopped working there because I was watching something on my laptop streaming and it abruptly stopped. I have searched just about every thread I could find in this vein but still feel stumped. I have tried jiggling/tapping the front, we've switched the breaker off and on and off and on again, we've tried plugging other things into it, and we've tried pushing every GFCI switch we can find, indoors and out. It is seemingly the ONLY outlet that is having this problem, and I did not hear any 'pop,' nor does it look like it is burnt. In fact, everything here is pretty impeccably kept and well-made upfront, which is part of why this is particularly confusing for me! I know zilch about this stuff, is there any other solution that doesn't involve me inadvertently electrocuting myself to death or having to call an electrician that anyone can suggest I try? Thanks for the guidance! [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 13 Mar 2020 01:13 PM PDT We bought a house a little over a year ago. I've decided it's time to start updating. I am going to do subway tile in the shower. My question is, do I need to do backer board? I have done tile floors where I did use it, but I've never done a shower. I see where some use it and some don't. Tia! [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 13 Mar 2020 08:41 PM PDT So I just purchased a home, and have been here a few weeks. AC started having some issues and had a company out to take a look. They said the unit is old, uses Freon, R22 and they don't have any for replacement. So the logical solution is replacement. Now i'm not adverse to replacing the unit now and having 10 years to not worry about it. I suspect I can cover the cost of an installation and they claim they can do the install in a few hours, which I like in Florida with family over. Of course I do feel like the timeline is a bit compressed. However when I was calling several companies to come inspect the unit several did not have availability for days, so i'm worried if I wait there will be delays in possibly getting the unit replaced. So my question is would I be making a mistake to just go with this company and get the install ASAP rather than shopping around? I dont see the prices being more than a few hundred apart and I'm expecting somewhere around 5G for the units and install. Also any advice on warranties is appreciated, it sounded like they were going to try to sell me on those but I'd expect like most things the MFR should be fine. But it is my first home. [link] [comments] |
| What is a decent tankless propane water heater for a family of 3? Posted: 13 Mar 2020 04:51 PM PDT |
| What are these bugs and how do I get rid of them? Posted: 13 Mar 2020 08:28 PM PDT Live on the bottom floor of an apartment in Memphis, TN. These keep appearing in my kitchen and bathroom. Pest control has come by several times to no avail. https://i.redd.it/xhw5auwo4km41.jpg [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 13 Mar 2020 08:27 PM PDT I am trying to upgrade my old kitchen dual sink to a large single drain sink. I have two questions if anyone can help. Both sinks have their own drain that goes behind the drywall. How can I properly seal the left one? The second question is the p trap on the right is rusted shut. How would you all remove this? The previous owner never installed a water shutoff valve for the cold water line. I plan on doing that as well. [link] [comments] |
| 40,000 cabinet hardware options Posted: 13 Mar 2020 08:15 PM PDT And I still can't find one I like. Well, I found one I like but it's the wrong finish and try as I might I can't find the equivalent anywhere in the finish I want. [link] [comments] |
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