Home Improvement: Front Patio Project |
- Front Patio Project
- This keeps showing up on my mulch
- What do I need to do / buy to make my room feel as nice as a hotel bed or spa? What exactly are they doing to make the bed / room feel so good in terms of products they use/lighting/positioning?
- Is composite the future of decking?? (Trex, Azek, Timbertech)
- How to stop spiders
- Do we need to treat pressure treated wood for deck?
- LPT: Use the Home Depot / Lowes apps for price checks
- First time home buyer. What are pros/cons to buying a home that is up to date versus a lower cost home that is a fixer upper? Will you end up spending about the same?
- Need Advice on Refinishing Stairs in Old House
- Getting Dog pee smell off hardwood floors (no stain)
- Should I paint these walls around exposed brick?
- Zinsser Odorless... or how I managed to evict my daughter from her bedroom.
- Question about railroad ties, What’s the reason for them?
- We (finally) finished our Quarantine Project!!! DIY Kitchen Cabinet Makeover (Step by Step)
- Different roof pitches and potential living space in attic
- Backsplash corner doesn't line up. Advice?
- need advice for a project.
- HELP! Basement keeps flooding...
- AC vent diverter.
- A question about building a dry bar/coffee bar with an under counter beverage cooler.
- Basement renos - asbestos tiles
- Best way to reinforce bad studs in a 2-story balloon framed house?
- Faucet leaking under the hot water handle, even if only cold water is being used
- Ipe vs Red Balau what to do?
- Question about sanding a wall in preparation for painting
| Posted: 14 Jul 2020 01:45 PM PDT This was my first experience with hardscaping. https://imgur.com/gallery/eYG6tlp We bought the place about a year ago and have slowly been trying to improve the curb appeal. You can see the pre-purchase listing photo in the imgur album. We had done a lot of work already, adding some hostas to border the walkway up to the house, a ton of weeding, and transplanting of hostas and day lillies (they were all clustered together by the stairs), added a storm door, replaced the rotting door threshold, painted the shutters, planters, and door to create some contrast. After all that, the right side of the house was still plain. There was no matching retaining wall on the right garden, so we decided to do a little hardscaping project over Canada Day/4th of July weekend, adding in a small patio. Watched a lot of youtube videos and read a lot of guides to get a sense of what we were doing. Started digging down about 8 inches with 6 inches beyond the diameter of our patio. Had a yard of class 5 gravel, a third yard of sand, and our patio stones delivered. After digging down and getting it pretty much where we wanted the depth, started putting in the class 5. If I were to do it again, I would have done it in a more segmented fashion, measuring out the depth as I went. We ended up with a lot of high spots, so had to remove some rock. Leveled it out near close to perfect to ensure a 1.25 inch drop over the 9 feet diameter of the patio. Pain in the ass to run the wheelbarrow up the hill from the street to the house. Wet the gravel, ran over it with a compactor, checked for low spots, added gravel where needed, and hand tamped those bits. Added in an inch of sand over 1" PVC screed rails. With the circle, we laid a strip of sand down the middle, where I marooned my wife on our first small circle. As she started building out, I laid the remaining sand around the edges. This was pretty straightforward. I found the class 5 and digging to be the worst parts. After the patio stones were laid, we put down the edging around the outside. Had to make a few cuts on some stones, and used a diamond tipped blade on a circular saw. The next morning, we tamped the stones with the compactor and paver pad, brushed in polymeric sand, ran the compactor over again, added some more polymeric sand, and one more compactor run. Misted 4 times with 5 minute breaks as the package said. Finally we completed the project with a matching retaining wall around the garden. I'm really happy with how it turned out. Finished the job in about 3 days (30-36 hours of work). Perfect for the new work from home life. [link] [comments] |
| This keeps showing up on my mulch Posted: 14 Jul 2020 05:01 AM PDT |
| Posted: 14 Jul 2020 07:51 PM PDT Honestly collapsing on hotel beds at the end of a day is one of my favorite parts of traveling. [link] [comments] |
| Is composite the future of decking?? (Trex, Azek, Timbertech) Posted: 14 Jul 2020 04:18 PM PDT What do y'all think? I just read that composite is only 15% of the decking market ... seems that that must go much, much higher. Also, do you have any suggestions between Trex, Azek, or Timbertech? I've read some good and some bad on each. It seems that they've all historically been the same-ish, though Azek is higher end and Trex is more affordable. Are any of them actually changing to be better than the others? [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 14 Jul 2020 06:23 PM PDT Hey everyone!!! I'm looking for some advice here! So my and the girlfriend recently moved into our friends mostly finished basement. It has a drop tile ceiling and I've been noticing an insane amount of spiders by the ceiling and the smell little windows. Does anyone have any suggestions to combat this? I'm gonna vacuum up all the spider webs and spray something that I picked up from Home Depot that's supposed to stop them from coming in (but who knows how well it'll actually work) has anyone had any luck with anything? I understand bugs are a part of life but I think I killed Atleast 5 within a 10 minutes window last night [link] [comments] |
| Do we need to treat pressure treated wood for deck? Posted: 14 Jul 2020 05:18 PM PDT Hey guys. We have an old 30 year old redwood deck we absolutely adore. We are updating the posts and keeping the remainder of the deck. We are going to use pressure treated 6x6 posts to keep it simple. We plan to stain them to try and make them at least somewhat match the old aged redwood. Anyway, do we need to wait a certain amount of time before we should stain? And do pressure treated posts need sealed or anything? Thanks! [link] [comments] |
| LPT: Use the Home Depot / Lowes apps for price checks Posted: 14 Jul 2020 07:14 AM PDT It's super annoying finding something with no marked price and having to take it up front for a price check. I just use the apps in both stores for scanning the UPC and finding the price and/or quantity. You can also use the apps to find the locations of products in the store without asking someone where something is. Both apps are available in the iOS and Android app stores. [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 14 Jul 2020 06:22 PM PDT My fiancé and I are browsing and my impulse is to snatch a lower cost home and do the work. I understand it could take time and possibly cause some aggravation but that's not my main concern. Im quite patient. I'm wondering if putting in the work would actually be worth it in terms of cost. Anyone have experience? Ex: fully up to date @ ~ $450,000 v needs work ~ $300,000 Thank you! [link] [comments] |
| Need Advice on Refinishing Stairs in Old House Posted: 14 Jul 2020 07:20 PM PDT TL;DR my home is 120 years old and I started refinishing the stairs but am wondering if I should abandon it. Need advice. I (29F) purchased my home in April of this year (Pittsburgh, PA) and it was built in 1900. Redone by the former owner in every aspect except the stairs which were covered with a thick brown carpet. I decided I wanted to rip off that carpet and ideally, refinish the stairs + possible runner. When my dad and I ripped up the carpet, we found that three stairs needed to be replaced. These are custom (photo incl) and took a while for my dad to work out. The wood for those steps are different from the old ones.. and the old ones were clearly painted several times. I have been stripping the old stairs for a few nights now and I am about to give up. So far I've had to apply 3 coats of stripper to each and I still haven't scraped it all off (more photos). Plus I have pulled out approx 10,000 staples and 500 nails. It's okay work, but at this point I'm wondering what I'm going to be left with when I get to the wood. Since the house is 120 years old I feel like I was an idiot for thinking I'd find anything that was usable and didn't need to be replaced. Is this a gut job? I don't have $20,000 to pay for new stairs. And this is set one out of two. I am now considering just recarpeting. But I need help. Any and all. What should I do? new stairs bottom stair 1 strip some stairs and risers stripped stair stripped [link] [comments] |
| Getting Dog pee smell off hardwood floors (no stain) Posted: 14 Jul 2020 03:09 PM PDT I've read a few other posts about this but wanted to post my own to clarify. I have an area rug that I just discovered my dog has been peeing on in one spot, you can't even see it on the rug so I don't know how long this has been going on. You can't see any visible stains on the hardwood underneath but it does smell like pee. I've read to pour vinegar on it and let it sit for 24 hours which seems like a terrible idea for wood floors. I've seen a lot of recs for nature's miracle. Also a lot of people putting shellac primer on? I'm not going to go that route. So for my floor, since there is no noticeable mark, have people had luck with nature's miracle or is there something else others recommend? Also, any tips on how often/how many times I should treat it? I am probably going to get a cheap black light flashlight per another posts recommendation to make sure I'm finding the stains, and once it's all cleaned I have a waterproof rug pad to put under the rug after that. [link] [comments] |
| Should I paint these walls around exposed brick? Posted: 14 Jul 2020 07:38 PM PDT I got a new apartment and it has a small exposed brick area in the wall. I'm thinking about painting only the wall around it (not the brick), maybe a dark blue or dark gray. Would that look good or would you leave it as is? [link] [comments] |
| Zinsser Odorless... or how I managed to evict my daughter from her bedroom. Posted: 14 Jul 2020 05:47 PM PDT Taking advantage of a child-free weekend, I took the opportunity to finally strip the ancient wallpaper off my daughter's bedroom walls s Upon the advice of the paint store lady, who said I should prime with oil-based primer because water-based wouldn't stick properly if I accidentally left any adhesive residues, I opted for a gallon of Zinsser Odorless, which is touted as a low-VOC primer for use in "indoor areas where people are present". It also has the added benefit of sealing in some of the faint cigarette smell in the wall (previous owners were indoor smokers). Knowing that it would be at least a week until I could topcoat with paint (due to time constraints), I applied two coats of the primer to leave a somewhat even appearance and cover up the spots where the old dark blue paint had peeled revealing white plaster. Bascially, I didn't want it looking like crap for a whole week between priming and painting. I think I waited the minimum 2 hours between coats, but that's where I'm not entirely 100% sure. If not the full two hours, it was close. Anyway, that was on Sunday. Now it's Tuesday evening and we still can't use the room because of the bad smell, and that's after two days with the window open and fans running full-blast. I also ran an ozone generator in there for an hour today while we were all out, and then ventilated before we came back inside. Since Sunday night, kiddo's been sleeping in our bed while I sleep on the floor. This can't go on and I'm at a loss as to what to do now - this is definitely not what I expected from an "odorless" primer and if I'd know it would be like this I would have opted for a water-based, even with the chance of poor adhesion. The smell itself isn't terrible (it's nothing like your typical oil-based primer smell), and it's really hard to describe. It's almost metallic or even ozone-like, and a little 'sickly' if that makes any sense. It's not overpowering but it's very present and persistent, and I don't want her sleeping in the room until it's totally gone. So, if you've made it this far, my questions to all you fine folks (especially if you've had any experience with Zinsser Odorless) are:
I (clearly) don't have a lot of experience with priming/painting but I'm concerned that I've seriously screwed up and risk compromising my kid's health because of it. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. TIA. [link] [comments] |
| Question about railroad ties, What’s the reason for them? Posted: 14 Jul 2020 08:22 PM PDT I am trying to figure out why my house has railroad ties. I want to get rid of them. The reason I ask is because my neighbors house was built in 1970(However he didn't buy it until 2011). When they build his house, they made sure to make a concrete wall like normal people. When my house was built in 1990. Whoever was building it decided to put railroad ties right in front of the concrete retaining wall of my neighbors. So now we have the railroad ties in front and a concrete retaining wall in the back. My questions are as follows. What was the reason for the railroad ties other than decoration? If I remove these myself, I understand I will need to find a dump that accepts them, will there be any other cons other than them not being there? Thanks. [link] [comments] |
| We (finally) finished our Quarantine Project!!! DIY Kitchen Cabinet Makeover (Step by Step) Posted: 14 Jul 2020 06:28 AM PDT Hi all! My fiancé and I would like to share our 4 week long (July 4th delayed it, as well as trying to do as much as possible while also working from home) cabinet remodel journey. Ever since we had the previous homeowner's countertops replaced with the white/gray quartz countertops, my fiancé has been dying to redo the cabinets. Originally we wanted to do it soon after the wedding..but with that being delayed until next year bc of COVID, we had all the time in the world to do it. The link has pictures as well as photo descriptions so that you can maybe use this guide to aid in your journey and learn from my mistakes. It's way more detailed than this post, so I could avoid making you all scroll through the same info while looking at the pictures. My inspiration and information came from 2 separate post from other Reddit users in the past who have done it (/u/grampadeal & /u/painterboy, I can't thank you both enough!), and their posts made me believe someone with 0 air tools, air compressor, or interior paint experience could accomplish professional results while savings a TON of money. First we removed all the cabinets and removed a gazillion screws to take out the existing hardware (details on mistake made here can be found in Imgur album), and on to the garage they went for prep! The original cabinets were stained (woodlovers..I know they were nice before, but I'm trying to get a head start on learning happy wife, happy life prior to my wedding, so I apologize in advance), so we used liquid sandpaper instead of sanding by hand. Once we coated with the liquid, and then let it sit after scrubbing in with 3M stripping pads. We then primed with BIN primer, filled the existing hardware holes with wood filler, sanded the wood filler, and then sanded the first coat of primer with 220 grit sanding block. After vacuuming and wiping down with tack cloth, I then drilled the new hardware holes in to all cabinets and drawers. After that, we were ready have some fun with the compressor and paint gun! We ended up painting the frames by hand and then painted the cabinets using the HLVP gun at about 55-60 PSI. After the first coat, we lightly sanded to ensure a smooth finish. We ended up only having to do 2 coats of plaint plus a little touch up to get full coverage because of how efficient the gun was. After painting 2 coats, and also applying the darker paint to the bar to provide contrast, we reinstalled the hardware and the rest is history!! I'm so proud of my fiancé, she killed it and helped in so many ways. This was our first project of many together..and I can't ready to get started on the next! Tools/materials used:
[link] [comments] |
| Different roof pitches and potential living space in attic Posted: 14 Jul 2020 07:21 PM PDT Hello, I apologize if this is not the correct place to post this. My boyfriend and I are very close to closing on a modular home. The last thing we are deciding is roof pitch. We either want a 7/12 or 9/12. My question is, would I be able to get a 9/12 roof pitch now but down the road actually make that attic area into a livable space? We can't afford to make that a livable space now. Something about putting a solid ground in there? That's what we were told. Also could I do the same with the 7/12 roof pitch? [link] [comments] |
| Backsplash corner doesn't line up. Advice? Posted: 14 Jul 2020 03:32 PM PDT Edit: Fuller pic with and without paper towels: http://imgur.com/a/JHbhsH9 We hired someone to install this backsplash. He didn't cut it so that the corner lines up. I'm not sure if I should have expected it to line up? Should I ask him to redo this whole section? It seems like it would be a waste of the tile, plus he already thinks he didn't order enough and he's gonna be short (and it took over a week to get this amount delivered... There is another wall we're putting this on). I would feel bad asking him to redo that entire section. Or, should we stick a vase/paper towel holder there and just forget about it? I guess my question is, is this considered a major fuck up, or is it just something we should let go? [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 14 Jul 2020 06:59 PM PDT I was looking to change out a folding table I use as a computer desk, to a wood/pipe desk. the top would 7ft long x 3ft deep. it would need to support around 300lbs. I figured on using the 3/4" steel pipe from home depot. I was figured a frame for the top with 4-5 flanges that attach to the wall. on the outside connections run a 45 degree brace back to the wall. just looking to see if this is feasible. I should note that the wall is a wood frame over foundation. not sure how the wood is attached. the studs are turned long side parallel to wall. as for the shelves again looking for the same as the desk just no brace. looking to do 3 shelves. each supporting 150-200lbs. i can make a vertical double U frame that supports the 3 sheves. there will be 4 of these. there would be 3 flanges at each frame these both have to wall mounted i am trying to avoid connecting to ceiling or floor, due to the occasional flood that cause big problems. [link] [comments] |
| HELP! Basement keeps flooding... Posted: 14 Jul 2020 06:55 PM PDT We live in an older house, stone foundation, and whenever we get a heavy rain water just gushes in from a few spots in the foundation. Gutter flow is being displaced 6' away from the house. The places where water creeps in are under a porch or deck. What do y'all think—sandbags? Add more slope? Many thanks. [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 14 Jul 2020 06:47 PM PDT On our central air vents...we have the plastic diverters that basically send the air 90 degrees from the vent. Would it be bad to aim them towards the wall? It would be an outside wall with a window about 3 feet up. [link] [comments] |
| A question about building a dry bar/coffee bar with an under counter beverage cooler. Posted: 14 Jul 2020 04:32 PM PDT As the title states, I plan on building a dry/coffee bar in an empty corner of my kitchen. I have pretty good woodworking/cabinet building skills, so I plan on custom building something myself. That way, we can get the exact design and dimensions we want, not to mention a much better choice of finishes. My wife wants an under counter beverage cooler to be part of the unit. I realize that there are freestanding and built in units. We don't have a set price limit for the cooler, but the nicer $1000 plus units aren't in the cards. After doing a ton of research, the reviews on the more affordable built in units don't inspire much confidence. It seems like you have a choice of getting something that doesn't work right off the bat, or one that works great for two years before crapping out. However, the freestanding units have considerably better reviews and cost about a third less than a comparable built in I came across a freestanding unit with pretty good reviews that meets our needs and, according to the manufacturer, only needs 1 1/2 inches clearance on all sides. Since I have total control over the dimensions of this unit, could I use the freestanding cooler, and build it with the approved clearance tolerances (or slightly more) and use filler strips on the face of the bar to give the cooler a more built in appearance, while maintaining the necessary clearances? If I'm not being clear, I'm referring to something similar to the strips used to fill gaps between kitchen cabinets and walls. Even with the requires clearances, I wonder if air flow would be an issue in my proposal. If so, the design, as I envision it now, would allow for holes between the compartments that wouldn't affect function and would allow considerably more flow. I understand I might be trying to put a square peg in a round hole here, but the terrible across the board reviews of the built in coolers has me worried that they would be an expensive mistake. I'm looking forward to any guidance you guys and gals can give me. Thanks! [link] [comments] |
| Basement renos - asbestos tiles Posted: 14 Jul 2020 07:48 PM PDT I'm working on a complete basement renovation and I'm a bit stuck on options when it comes to dealing with the asbestos tiles that were under carpeting. A lot of them are loose or broken and any time I touch a tack strip, they break. I have hired an asbestos company to remove other ACMs and have asked them to remove the tiles as well. The main reason I asked them to remove the tiling is due to a foundation crack where we believe there might be mould under the wood substrate. There's mould under the carpet and tack strip over the tiles; so it's a fair assumption. But the wood substrate is only located in the family room and not the hallway, bathroom and bedrooms. I'm debating on just leaving the asbestos tiles where there is no wood substrate and that were directly glued to the concrete and only tell the abatement company to remove the loose/broken ones including the tiles under the tack strips. If only some tiles are removed including the perimeter wall ones, can I add self leveling concrete as to have a level floor for new substrate and flooring? Can it be applied to both mastic and asbestos tiles? If these tiles are coming up fairly easily, could there be concerns of them moving under any new substrate and flooring? Any advice is appreciated. [link] [comments] |
| Best way to reinforce bad studs in a 2-story balloon framed house? Posted: 14 Jul 2020 07:42 PM PDT Gutting an old balloon framed house and noticed some of the studs could use some work. Problem is the studs go all the way up the house. Not sure how to go about this? [link] [comments] |
| Faucet leaking under the hot water handle, even if only cold water is being used Posted: 14 Jul 2020 07:39 PM PDT Hi, sorry if I'm poor with the correct names of things- I'm a first time homeowner. A few months ago, I had my faucet replaced because the one left in the house was falling apart. I just noticed a leak. It's a pedestal sink and if I use a strong water flow out of either the hot or cold, water comes out from under the hot side of the faucet. At the same time, the sink is draining much slower. I really only use this sink for washing my hands, so it shouldn't be clogged with anything. What's the likely cause of the leak and is the draining issue related? [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 14 Jul 2020 07:33 PM PDT I am looking to build a deck and trying to decide if I'll be good with Red Balau or should spring for Ipe. RB seems to be really hard, fire resistant and low maintenance whille being a 60 ish % the price of Ipe. Am I missing something. Anyone know why it'd be worth spending 30 to 40% more on Ipe? Any thoughts on maintenance and longevity? Any general things to think about when considering wood that I might have missed? [link] [comments] |
| Question about sanding a wall in preparation for painting Posted: 14 Jul 2020 07:01 PM PDT Hello r/HomeImprovement, My question is with respect to sanding rough patches on a wall before painting it. I have begun to sand rough patches (and areas that were spackled with joint compound to cover up nail holes) with 120 grit sandpaper. Some areas of the wall are quite smooth, whereas others have the texture of paint that has been rolled on. Should I sand the wall so as to have a uniform texture? Will the sanded areas look different from those not, after the paint is applied? Thank you for your consideration. [link] [comments] |
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