Home Improvement: Any ideas what this ‘hair’ is? |
- Any ideas what this ‘hair’ is?
- Tightening wobbly kitchen tap
- Can I cut an old phone line safely?
- Reclaiming our yard - part 2! Kinda...
- Sound proofing / dampening noise on shared wall.
- Good material to level a crawlspace?
- Grinding concrete - N95 mask alternatives?
- Why is my internet coax curved on the outside of my house? Can I move it?
- Durable Garden Hose Recommendations
- Horizontal light switches
- Forced to move in without carpet. Can we paint the plywood underpayment and live with it?
- Help Me Identify Which Filter My Furnace Needs, and Installation Process
- Replacing door sill with wood rot issue (brick veneer home in Atlanta, GA)
- What is this grey flakey stuff growing on the stone behind my faucet? Advise on what to do with it?
- Beautiful tile shower... without a waterproof membrane
- Fridge Water Dispenser Leaking (Whirlpool)
- What is this part? found it in the garbage disposal
- New fridge is too loud (compressor buzzing). Tips for picking one that isn't loud if I return it / other advice for the situation?
- GFCI outlet solid red even after replacing
- Deck maintenance & restoration project: Stain is ugly & peeling, wood is starting to wear, railing is sturdy but joints are starting to visibly come loose
- Simple, non-trashy, and sanitary way to warm hose water for quick outdoor showers?
- Alternatives to grass for a shady, sandy lawn
- Rats!
- Do I need to chill out and believe in my fence guy regarding the integrity of the concrete for fence post? I want to think that they are wrong.
| Any ideas what this ‘hair’ is? Posted: 06 Apr 2020 07:42 AM PDT My partner and I have been removing some plaster from a wall in our attic. The plaster seems to have hair in it? It's a 1890s Victorian House in the United Kingdom. You can see a close up of the hair in the second photo on Imgur. Thanks, we have read it could be animal hair? Imgur: https://imgur.com/a/PyrLpDF UPDATE: Thanks to everyone who replied! I've been lurking ok this sub for a while but been nervous to post - Will post with updates as we are considering a complete redesign of the attic space 😀 [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 06 Apr 2020 07:55 PM PDT Hey folks, Our kitchen tap has become wobbly and after reading online guides/watching videos, I can't figure out how to tighten it as it's not just a nut to tighten... there seems to be a 'bar' that I can't turn because of the mixer pipes going into the faucet (ignore the caulk) [link] [comments] |
| Can I cut an old phone line safely? Posted: 06 Apr 2020 07:58 PM PDT I have an old phone line in a room I am painting. I'm not sure if there's power going to it or not. Is there any kind of safety issue if I simply cut it out of the wall? If not, how do I get rid of it safely? Thanks a ton for anyone that can help. [link] [comments] |
| Reclaiming our yard - part 2! Kinda... Posted: 06 Apr 2020 07:18 PM PDT New tandem project - front yard! My new trimmer and edger was delivered today, imagine my disappointment when I realized I can't go straight to the edger. Does anyone know what I need to do? The first pic shows my taking a flat shovel to the sidewalk when I couldn't seem to find the edge of the sidewalk, second pic shows it's my entire front yard. I went to work with the shovel and there is a ton of overlap, now I've got this 3" ledge. Now what? Do I just clean up the rest of it with a shovel and leave it like that? I'm kind of lost. Also, if anyone knows about serious mole problems - please let me know. I've already trapped one, there are at least 2 more which seems like a lot for 5000sqft yard but this place has clearly been neglected. [link] [comments] |
| Sound proofing / dampening noise on shared wall. Posted: 06 Apr 2020 07:07 PM PDT Hello all, I am having a bit of a sound issue with some new neighbors. For the first two years I've lived in my south philly row home I had no neighbors. Recently some younger college kids moved in. I wasn't aware before, but the walls in my master bedroom are PAPER THIN. We must share the wall with their master bedroom as well because I can hear every conversation, every song, every moan and groan,and I even can hear them snoring in the morning. It is driving my wife and I crazy. I would like to dampen the sound some how. I want it to be as minimally invasive and as possible and budget friendly. I was considering just putting a layer of plywood on top of the current drywall and adding another layer of drywall over that. There are no electrical outlets on the wall and it's only about 15 feet long. Would this do anything or would I just be wasting my time? It doesnt have to be totally sound proof I would just like to not hear them farting all night. Does anyone have any experience with a DIY project like this? [link] [comments] |
| Good material to level a crawlspace? Posted: 06 Apr 2020 08:44 PM PDT Basically above. Our mostly finished basement has an elevated crawlspace that's currently dirt. The dirt isn't level and has heaps and valleys in it. We'd like to use the area for storage, so preferably not dirt or wood. I was thinking maybe rubber pellets since they won't mold? Thank you! [link] [comments] |
| Grinding concrete - N95 mask alternatives? Posted: 06 Apr 2020 06:40 AM PDT I need to grind down (and drill) concrete around the exterior of house. I'm removing tripping hazards and adding drainage channels. Unfortunately, I don't have a respirator. Everywhere is sold out, so I can't go pick one up or order one for delivery. Are there alternatives? Will I be safe with a DIY mask made from a T-Shirt and continuously wetting the area? Or do I need to wait until I can buy a half-mask respirator? Update: Thanks for all the great info. It lead me down a research trail of alternatives and particle sizes. I'll be waiting to do any grinding until I get some respirators and filters. I'm also working on putting in French drains all around my property and walkways, which may solve the worst water problems anyway. It'll just take longer to get results. For the trip hazards, I'll use my cold chisel to take down high edges and if they're ugly cover them with outdoor rubber mats. [link] [comments] |
| Why is my internet coax curved on the outside of my house? Can I move it? Posted: 06 Apr 2020 01:15 PM PDT The way the installer put the coax on the siding has an unsightly curve. I'm assuming it's necessary to have the connection horizontal? Also I'm guessing this may be so extreme because they used a past cable to run into the house. I'd like to hide the cable along the gutter to clean up the look. [link] [comments] |
| Durable Garden Hose Recommendations Posted: 06 Apr 2020 08:00 PM PDT I bought a new hose over a year ago, then go to hook it up today for the first time and it leaks excessively where the copper hardware connects to the hose. I guess that's what I get for not testing what I buy before return period is up. I have had a lot of bad luck with hoses the past few years. With from not lasting or not working from the start. So what hose brand or hose type/material do you all recommend that you have used for at least 4+ years without any failure? Thanks!! [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 06 Apr 2020 07:04 PM PDT |
| Forced to move in without carpet. Can we paint the plywood underpayment and live with it? Posted: 06 Apr 2020 08:40 AM PDT Hi y'all! So we closed on our house on Monday and have been spending the week painting and peeling wallpaper. The old carpets in the bedrooms were so disgusting we left them in place while we painted planning on replacing them as soon as we're done painting. Now with Covid-19 we can't get a carpet installer until May, but will need to move in ASAP as our lease on our rental is coming up. Do you think for the time being the plywood floors would be livable? If we painted them for the time being to make them nicer, what kind of paint should I use? Thanks! [link] [comments] |
| Help Me Identify Which Filter My Furnace Needs, and Installation Process Posted: 06 Apr 2020 05:30 PM PDT Hi, I opened my furnace filter compartment to find there is no filter actually inserted, all there is currently is some type of screen/mesh that is been attached to the bottom of the area. The only details I have on the model is from what is on the face of it, reading "carrier 80". I'm not sure if there are several versions of this, and how to determine what size/type filter I need. Additionally, once I get the filter, is it as easy as sliding it into the spot and shutting door, or does it need to be affixed in some manner? Thanks in advance, new to all of this. [link] [comments] |
| Replacing door sill with wood rot issue (brick veneer home in Atlanta, GA) Posted: 06 Apr 2020 04:26 PM PDT I live in a wood frame house built on concrete blocks with a brick veneer in Atlanta, GA. Built in early 1950s. Some recent home repairs have uncovered areas of rotten 2x10s (below exterior door and above crawlspace entryway). Water damage makes me worried. I do not know if the moisture is coming through the brick wall and the entire frame of my house is damaged, or if the damage is localized to areas where the water is entering/pooling. I need to replace the sill and threshold under and exterior door because of rot. I want to learn about the root-cause of the rot so that I can try to prevent it from happening again (and address any issues that the rot has already caused). An imgur album is linked below of my door sill issue. Does anyone have experience with moisture behind brick veneer? [link] [comments] |
| What is this grey flakey stuff growing on the stone behind my faucet? Advise on what to do with it? Posted: 06 Apr 2020 10:05 PM PDT I recently noticed some of this grey flakey stuff growing on the stone tile/wall behind my sink faucet in the bathroom. It's interesting because it looks like it's growing as sheets or shavings of clay almost. Is this mold or hazardous? Should I fix it immediately. Please advise on best course of action or what you think it might be. Close Up image of the stuff HERE I have not touched it but it looks almost powdery and is leaving small dust piles where it is growing. [link] [comments] |
| Beautiful tile shower... without a waterproof membrane Posted: 06 Apr 2020 09:50 AM PDT Warning: Rant (feel free to skip to question) Bought my "lipstick on a pig" house in August last year. House is beautiful and freshly remodeled. The inspector missed: the vanity drain pvc leaking, tile shower installed without membrane and slow leaks, sketchy circuits in living room that have since lost power, coat closet shelves falling down, 1/2 of guest shower door doesnt slide, no hot water in guest shower, hot and cold pipes reversed in guest shower (hot comes on first, then turn to cold), termite damage joists that need sistered, fridge water line leaks. He did find that there is no dryer vent (genius discovery) and that the boiler pipes had some leaks. The problem is the house had a lot of renovations and nobody ever used them. There was no signs of damage from leaks because drains had never actively leaked. My question: The master shower is leaking into the sub floor since we bought the place. Luckily it is over an unfinished basement. Then it started making large puddles onto the basement floor too. I thought the issue was around the drain so I pulled up just over a square foot of tile. I found the drain free floating with caulk holding it to a cement backer board. Once I removed the caulk you could put a screwdriver head go all the way from the shower to the basement. I placed a black plastic membrane on the floor that goes into the drain. I caulked it down, sanded my tiles down, mortared, grouted etc. I am now 99.5% sure the drain area is not the issue. I took a long shower to find I had fixed the fast leak and made the slow leak worse. There is a very small amount of pooling that doesn't reach the drain because of the tile fix. Now those puddles drain through the grout into the cement backer board and into the sub floor. Yay. I desperately sealed the grout but to no avail. There wasn't enough slope in the shower floor for my 1/2 fix to really be effective. I can't get the drain to be 100% the lowest point anymore. I know the whole thing should be ripped out and start over. However I was thinking of just starting on top over the existing floor. Id get a proper drain with bolts, build a new cement pan, pvc membrane, mortar, tile. I'd also rip out the first row of wall tiles and bring the membrane up behind them. I have matching tile for the wall. I wanted to run my plan by people much smarter than me first. I could hire someone but I fear what the cost would be and my trust is currently extremely low so I'd feel the need to supervise anyway. [link] [comments] |
| Fridge Water Dispenser Leaking (Whirlpool) Posted: 06 Apr 2020 06:20 PM PDT We recently purchased a Whirlpool Refrigerator (WRX735SDH) and already have front water dispenser leaking. Any ideas on how to fix it? [link] [comments] |
| What is this part? found it in the garbage disposal Posted: 06 Apr 2020 02:28 PM PDT When I was taking apart my garbage disposal, this thing shot out of the wastewater end. What is it? it looks completely warped and now the water from the wastewater end dribbles onto the floor. Any ideas? [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 06 Apr 2020 08:32 AM PDT Hey all, had a new fridge delivered from Home Depot Friday morning. A Maytag MRT118FFFH4. After a couple days, I'm pretty unhappy with it. Works fine for the most part, but every couple hours the compressor kicks in with a loud buzzing/vibrating noise. You can hear it throughout my apartment, and it's loud enough to wake me up in the other room. It usually makes a little gurgling noise at the same time, but that doesn't bother me – you don't really hear it unless you're by the fridge, whereas the buzzing sound is pervasive throughout my apartment. I've pulled the fridge out and poked around at the bottom of it, but haven't been able to find any part buzzing near the compressor that I could stabilize/fix. Not that experienced dealing with fridges, so if there's anything I should try, advice would be appreciated on that front too. I've also had it level for the past few hours – the floor's a little tilted, so it was about 1" tilted to the side for its first day here. Unfortunately, straightening it out hasn't done anything to reduce the noise so far. Right now, I'm planning to call Maytag in the morning to see if they can help at all, and probably call Home Depot to see if there's any way I can exchange it for another model. If I do so, any tips for picking out a non-noisy fridge next time? I work from home most days and it's important to me the fridge does not make a lot of noise. I've lived with a few fridges in my life, and only one other fridge has given me issues (also intermittent noise when the compressor kicks in). I still have no idea how to pick out a fridge and know for sure that noise won't be bothersome (most of the fridges I've dealth with have been fine!). But I don't want to get things wrong again, I just want a fridge that won't bother me with noise. Anything I can do here? Thanks y'all [link] [comments] |
| GFCI outlet solid red even after replacing Posted: 06 Apr 2020 08:06 AM PDT I have a GFCI outlet on my deck that recently stopped working. It had a solid red indicator light. The manual said to press both the test and reset buttons at the same time, and if that didn't fix it, the unit would need to be replaced. It didn't fix it, so I bought a new unit. I just got done installing it and still have a solid red light. I've tried resetting it and pressing test + reset together to no avail. It's just the two line cables and the ground. No load. Not sure if maybe it's something simple I'm missing, or if there's a more complex issue that may require an electrician.... Edit: I found my outlet tester and when I plug it in, none of the LEDs light up. According the chart that signifies "open hot" Edit: this is what it looks like: Edit again: OK apparently I just fixed it, and the solution was perhaps simple but not obvious at all to me. So right next to this outlet is a light fixture that holds two spotlights that illuminate our backyard. These lights are turned on and off from the same switch that controls this outlet. I really don't like the spotlights and never use them. I got tired of having them come on anytime I wanted that outlet to work, so I simply unscrewed the bulbs. Apparently that kills the outlet. The fixture has to have two bulbs installed, at which point it'll continue sending power to the outlet. I'm glad I fixed it, but it's annoying that I'll always have to have the spotlights lit whenever I want power to the outlet. Maybe there's some way to bypass them? [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 06 Apr 2020 03:12 PM PDT Aside from a pressure washing last year, our deck hasn't been maintained in the last 3 years since we bought our house. I've research online and I think the order of events is this:
Questions - Anything else wrong that I've overlooked? Do the order of events make sense? What do I do with the railing? Edit: think I can avoid using stain remover if I just sand the whole thing? [link] [comments] |
| Simple, non-trashy, and sanitary way to warm hose water for quick outdoor showers? Posted: 06 Apr 2020 08:41 AM PDT I have a large fenced in backyard/garden with plenty of privacy from trees. I get pretty messy from gardening as well as hot and would love to be able to take a quick rinse in the summer. Was thinking it would be especially useful if I could use it in the Spring, Fall, and at night when the temperatures have dropped a bit without freezing to death. Furthermore, I would like it to be somewhat sanitary. The idea of a big old plastic tank that could harbor bacteria and fungi sort of bothers me. Would also prefer if this did not look trashy so Im willing to buy a manufactured product. [link] [comments] |
| Alternatives to grass for a shady, sandy lawn Posted: 06 Apr 2020 02:01 PM PDT Hey all, I bought a house this winter, just about 3 miles south of Lake Michigan. As a result, the yard is pretty sandy (there were dunes/beachfront here a loooooong time ago, and the dunes were scraped away and everything was built on the sand). The soil definitely isn't awful, as it's a decent shade of brown, well draining, blah blah. My property has a ton of trees to the south and west, and the house on the east side, all of which will provide a ton of shade when they have leaves on them. Because of these things, the grass is kinda patchy with a lot of non-grass growing throughout (moss, various creeping plants, some flowers). I'm a pretty environmentally oriented guy, and I'm not a huge fan of big expanses of turf, especially given the sandy soil and shade that isn't too conducive to extra happy grass. I'd like to have something else. Have any of you experimented with non-grass alternatives? I've read a fair bit about creeping thyme, and I will probably plant some of that in areas where the shade isn't too thick. I might actually try to get the moss to grow better around the trees to fill in some space. Do you guys have any other suggestions? My requirements boil down to:
I know it's a pretty niche list, but Reddit always seems to have at least one answer. Are there maybe other subreddits I should check out? I worry that r/lawncare would gut me for this question. [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 06 Apr 2020 07:55 AM PDT The 2 homes on either side of us are owned by the same person, he rents to his step kids. Last summer I discovered that both houses have rats and one has both the Norway rate and the Black rate. As a result we have found the Norway rate now living at the front of our house. I have talked to both side tenets who have advised that the owner is dealing with them but he's a "do a little of work as necessary kind of guy." Which means he's put down a few traps but that's about it. Once I found out I we had rats I put down rat poison and changed our garbage bins over to metal cans however this hasn't stopped the problem. I don't think I will every get ride of them if they still live on both sides of my house. I am investigating Coyote urine as a way to create a barrier around my house. Has anyone used/ done this before? I could use some advice. [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 06 Apr 2020 09:10 AM PDT The night of the concrete pour for some fence post, temp dipped down to 25 and there was some snow about 1 inch. The post weren't covered or protected from the elements. It's been 5 days after the concrete poured. I can take my nails and dig my fingers into the top surface and it is grainy like wet dirt/sand. Temp has been 60s high the last two days. The fence sales guy says it needs more time to cure. I think the concrete might be ruined and not set right with the temperature that night of pour. I understand that concrete takes up to 30 days to fully cure, but shouldn't it be solid enough by now where I should't be able to dig this up with my nails? [link] [comments] |
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