Home Improvement: Lowes 2-day shipping shenanigans, buyer beware! |
- Lowes 2-day shipping shenanigans, buyer beware!
- Insulation, HVAC, and Attic Heat
- [Update] Backsplash pattern didn't line up in the corner -- all fixed now!
- Previous owner cut down a tree (staghorn sumac or tree of heaven idk) now suckers are growing all of the over the lawn. Worried about septic field.
- DIY Shed
- Cracking up over grout (second attempt to post)
- Looking for advice on improving this deep closet?
- Remove door bell wires correctly
- No building codes
- Hunter ceiling fan speed switch doesn’t work. This is the fastest it can go.
- How to open shower temp valve? Special tool?
- Sound dampening options for "window" between two rooms
- Setting up AC water pump receptacle
- Buying a 4 bedroom home, the original CO is approved for 3 bedrooms and there's another CO for a Rear Addition, is the Rear Addition useable as a fourth bedroom?
- Ac unit question
- Question about gravel between house and paver patio
- How do I improve my 1940's attic?
- Termites
- Need advice on how to raise living room floor 3/4" to be level with kitchen floor.
- Virtual reality is a great tool for a home remodel.
- Bathroom Remodel
- Questions about running a line up wall, through attic, down wall
- Looking for feedback on replacing basement carpet with gym flooring.
| Lowes 2-day shipping shenanigans, buyer beware! Posted: 16 Jul 2020 03:50 PM PDT Silly dumb me payed $9.99 for 2-day shipping from Lowes (for something that itself was like $10...yeah I know...dumb). It's been 4 days and the item is still "Being prepared" according to the online tracking they have. I call the customer service phone number they provide in the email confirmation to see what's going on. It is a pre-recorded message that literally just repeats over and over "For questions about shipping orders, please contact your local store. (Pause 5 seconds) For questions about shipping orders, please contact your local store." ad infinitum. Um, ok? Thanks for putting that customer service phone number in the email I guess? Hang up, call my local store. It rings for about 2 minutes before someone picks up. I explain what's going on, just trying to see where my order is, not mad, don't need a refund, understand they're probably totally slammed due to the world being fucked, etc. "Alright sir, give me one second." Phone clicks. Starts ringing. Rings for literally 5 minutes. Considering hanging up, and finally someone answers. I explain it again, and he can see that the order is "in processing", probably at, or on the way to the warehouse. It might be at the store by tomorrow, or at my house, or maybe the warehouse. He can't say for sure. He also can't help me with a refund for the 2-day shipping fee, but he can maybe find me someone who can. That's ok, it's probably not worth anyone's time to figure that out, I'll just never shop at Lowes again instead. /vent [link] [comments] |
| Insulation, HVAC, and Attic Heat Posted: 16 Jul 2020 05:35 AM PDT I figured you all would be interested in hearing my journey in my search for why I can't keep my house cool in the summer. My solutions are not complete, but I'm making progress. So we live in North Carolina, where winters are mostly mild and summers are HOT. We just bought a house in December out in the rural area of Charlotte and moved in over Christmas, and sold our old house. I knew when I bought the house that the insulation in the crawl space was falling, but I knew it was an easy fix so I didn't mind. Very common in older houses with crawl spaces. The past month or so have been getting warmer, and our air handler has had trouble keeping the house at a reasonable temperature, so I went into the attic to investigate. What I found were two large cavities that were open to the attic into walls of the house: a 4 foot by 3 foot chase for the fireplace and a 1 foot by 2 foot chase for the master bath plumbing. I closed these up with some OSB, then started to air seal the attic. I also noticed that the loose fill fiberglass was barely covering the 2x4 trusses, so I figured I'd air seal and rent a machine to top it off with some blown in cellulose once I finished air sealing. So, I'm working in the mornings on air sealing since it gets sweltering hot up there (it's a 1 story house with different levels of roof heights for the front porch and garage). I noticed the gable fan on the garage side was dead, so I replaced it. That solved the issue of the extreme heat on the garage side. Two weeks ago, I finished up air sealing the garage side and moved across the vaulted ceiling to the far side of the house. To say the attic on this side of the house was hot is an understatement. I could barely hold on to the trusses they were so hot, and I knew that if I spent more than 5 minutes in there I would most likely pass out. It was dangerous. I also knew when I bought the house that there weren't any ridge vents on the roof, but I didn't think anything of it, until this incident. So I decided to add ridge vents to the roof. There are soffit vents around the entire roof line and baffles in place, so I didn't have to do anything for that. The neighbor said the previous owner simply went the cheaper route with the roof and just added the gable fan, which surprised me since adding the ridge vent literally only cost me $350. After adding the ridge vents, the attic temperatures dropped significantly. I can now work up there, even during the hottest part of the day, and I shut the gable fan down (I plan on closing off the gable vents soon as well). After this, I was pretty excited because I thought the HVAC would be able to keep up now. Boy was I wrong. The next day was the hottest day yet of the summer, and the house reached 78 degrees with the AC running all day. Something else was wrong. I went under the house at 10:30 PM, the house still at 78 degrees when we were trying to sleep, and found water pouring out of the unit, on the side without the drain (A-frame evaporator with a drain pain on the side for horizontal orientation). I realized the air handler is tilted way off on its blocks. I decided that I'd wake up early before I had to work and check on the air handler before I called anyone out. I had just had it recharged with Freon, and it wasn't very low so I knew there wasn't a leak, but the guy didn't say whether he checked the evaporator coils or not. The air blowing out of the supply ducts is a chilly 50 degrees, so I knew it was working, but I didn't know if it was clogged since the air flow was so low. I had a brand new filter and everything. After opening up the unit and getting the cover off the evaporator, I found a perfectly clean coil. Ugh. No dice, something else has to be wrong. I checked all the ducts for any breaks, and nothing. Everything was working fine. It had to be the blower or something. Next step was to read a bit about this unit, so I pulled up the manual on my phone and started reading, and in the spec section of my specific model I saw something: 3 speed blower. Low, medium, high. Oh damn. I found the documentation on the jumper landings and found it's on the lowest setting. My hunch is that the air was moving so slowly over the coils that they were eventually freezing up on the hottest days, and the slow moving air wasn't enough to cool the whole house. So I changed it to the highest speed. Boom. Problem solved. The next day was even hotter and sunnier, and we had no problem keeping the house at 74 during the day. This is not the end of the problems at all, though. I checked the ceiling temperature in areas where I know there's not much insulation and it still gets up to around 92 degrees (99 before the ridge vents). I have some fiberglass rolls that I've added that have helped in some areas, and now I just need to wait until Lowe's is renting out the blowing machines so I can top everything off and be done in the damn attic. TL;DR: House was hot. Started sealing attic. Attic was insanely hot. Added ridge vents to roof. Attic no longer hot. House still hot. Changed speed of blower on air handler. Problem solved. [link] [comments] |
| [Update] Backsplash pattern didn't line up in the corner -- all fixed now! Posted: 16 Jul 2020 08:00 AM PDT Edit: Original post link Original Tile Mistake: Pic 1 and Pic 2 I made a post a couple days ago about our backsplash pattern not lining up in the corner of the kitchen. The contractor came out the next day and fixed it no problem. It took him maybe an hour to redo. It's also grouted now and looks great! Re-updated Pic w/ Outlet Covers The pics don't do it justice. It looks even better in person! (Especially the cabinets in the picture look sooo much more off-white than they are in real life, weird) Anyway, some people on the original thread said the tile wouldn't be useable, the drywall would be destroyed, the outlets wouldn't be able to come out, the tiles wouldn't lie flat... I'm glad none of that ended up happening and all is good now! [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 16 Jul 2020 05:26 PM PDT Hi first time ignorant young home buyer here. Thought everything was going to be rainbows and butterflies with a rainstorm every so often. Y'all. I'm about to start crying I cannot sleep at night because all I think about is how to get rid of this damn tree. I bought this home in the winter. I noticed one tree stump in the yard that was rotting away nicely. Cool. I noticed another on the side the was about 6 inches in diameter. I had no idea why it was cut down but who cares. Spring roles around and little sprouts start shooting out of the ground. I decide to just mow them down. I keep doing this for 2 months and it gets worse. That whole side of the lawn now feels like I'm walking in twigs. I've read spraying the leaves with brush killer would do the trick. Those suckers died but new ones would pop up. I did a second round and same thing happened again. I'm starting to see suckers shoot out under my ground level deck. Idk what to do. I feel like I'm making it worse. What is the best way to go about this?! I've looked at videos but most are treating the tree before it's been cut down. The previously owner already cut this down almost to the ground. Has anyone been in this situation? [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 16 Jul 2020 09:03 AM PDT https://imgur.com/gallery/Mvdi9DX West Virginia 8'x10' shed built in the back yard of my 1900 built home. Broke ground on the project on May 4th and completed July 15. Completed on weekends and evenings after work. The only power tools used were a circular saw and cordless drill. Other than that, I used a framing hammer, hand saw, framing square, speed square, level, and chalk line. Prior to this I had very little building experience and taught myself using YouTube videos and online forums. Other than having my brother help haul the gravel and carry some lumber, the entire shed was built by myself. It is not perfect or fancy but it serves a purpose and I am pretty pleased with the outcome and all I learned along the way. I will try to answer any questions the best I can. The gallery below has some images from beginning to end of the project. [link] [comments] |
| Cracking up over grout (second attempt to post) Posted: 16 Jul 2020 08:44 PM PDT Cracking up over countertop and backsplash Fun title for a very basic problem. I bought my home three years ago as a new build. I have a dark grey countertop and a white subway tile backsplash with a dark grey grout. At the point where the tile meets the countertop the grout is cracked or has completely cracked out. Of course I assume this is typical as expansion and contraction, BUT I want to fix this to restore the pre-crack/chip beauty this meeting of counter and tile had. Is the answer regrout? Any issues with that? I have never done this before. It's ok if I'll have to do this every few years. What about silicone / caulk? I have flashbacks to a bad caulking experience I had in my shower years ago (not being able to make nice u shape at the seams of the corners) so level of difficulty with this option. Thanks in advance from a cracked up homeowner. I would add a picture but I can't see how to do that. I'm not an idiot, this is my first post ever. So I don't even know if I should explain this paragraph as an edit. Sigh... copypasta cause my original got removed based on the link to my picture. So that's a problem for another day. How it looks [backsplash] [ ]|[ ]|[ ]|[ ]|[ ]|[ ]|[ ]|[ ]|[ ]|[ ]|[ ]|[ ]|[ ]|[ ]|[ ]|[ ]|[ ]|[ ]|[ ]|[ ]|[ ]|[ ]|[ ]|[ ][ ]|[ ]|[ ]|[ ]|[ ]|[ ]|[ ]|[ ] ——- __—-~~~. >......———————— - broken grout [link] [comments] |
| Looking for advice on improving this deep closet? Posted: 16 Jul 2020 08:53 PM PDT http://imgur.com/gallery/d3GkUY0 Aside from paint, I'm wondering if we should add some different shelving or just leave as is for blankets, etc. Sorry I forgot to take measurements but the closet is high up on the wall and is very deep, I would need a stool to reach the back of the closet. Thanks in advance for any help! Edit: I should note this closet is in my bedroom. [link] [comments] |
| Remove door bell wires correctly Posted: 16 Jul 2020 08:22 PM PDT I am looking to remove the wires from what used to be for a door bell in my garage. The door bell was removed at some point but the wires were just left capped off. What would be the correct way to remove them? Generally i have seen door bell wires that were fairly small gauge, but these seem quite old and basically the same size as all the wiring throughout the rest of the house. I am remodeling the area and am open to just putting a box in if that is the easiest route. Thanks [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 16 Jul 2020 08:19 PM PDT Currently I'm living on one side of a duplex that is owned by my husbands family. The duplex is ~800 sq ft per side. Our family has outgrown the 800 sq ft and my husbands family has given us the okay to turn the duplex into a single family home to give us the extra 800 sq ft. In the county we live there are no building codes other than you cant build beyond 3 ft of property lines. You could live in a shed here. Because of the lack of codes this duplex has not been built with quality in mind and only built quick and cheap. Before we go onto renovate I'm not sure if we should hire a home inspector. If there are no codes could just any minimum standard pass? If any minimum standard can pass should we just hire a general contractor and let them go over the house with an eye for improvements he could recommend? I'm also concerned about issues general contractors dont particularly look for or deal with like mold. Tl;dr There are no building codes in my area so would a home inspection be pointless as far as knowing the overall issues before renovating a side by side duplex into a single family home? Does any minimum standard pass an inspection if there are no codes to begin with? Could I tell an inspector a "grade of quality" I would want them to look for? [link] [comments] |
| Hunter ceiling fan speed switch doesn’t work. This is the fastest it can go. Posted: 16 Jul 2020 06:44 PM PDT |
| How to open shower temp valve? Special tool? Posted: 16 Jul 2020 08:43 PM PDT Hey guys im not sure if this is the best sub to ask this but I recently moved into a new house and one of our showers https://imgur.com/a/0V0ppBD/ only goes from 70 to 110 (max) degrees. My landlord said his wife used that but I like cold showers lol. In the pictures it looks like I need a tool or something to pry the valve open to ger access to the turn valve thingy to expand the temp range and turn radius. Lanlord is overseas at the moment and Id honestly rather do it myself. Any guidance would be much appreciated. [link] [comments] |
| Sound dampening options for "window" between two rooms Posted: 16 Jul 2020 08:38 PM PDT Our house was built in the 70s. We have a small office. The office has a very small entry and a giant 'window' that opens into the living area and gives it a great view and natural light. However, the window has no glass, but rather shutters. This used to be my office, but my partner has been working from home and I let him have it since I can comfortably work from the adjacent living or dining space (and prefer it). However, it's been *very* difficult because we are both often on calls and there is no sound barrier between the office and the rest of the living space. I explored replacing the shutters with glass but realized we'd have no way to get furniture in or out of the room (the doorway is really narrow, so our large desk and sofa in the office had to go in through the window). This situation is driving me crazy. We don't have many other options for working in other parts of the house for a variety of reasons (e.g. some areas don't get wifi and/or are unfinished). Are there any options for closing up the window temporarily that aren't an eyesore? I know a sheet of MDF would do the trick but that will be a very last resort since it's such an eyesore. [link] [comments] |
| Setting up AC water pump receptacle Posted: 16 Jul 2020 08:35 PM PDT Recently had an in window unit installed, unfortunately our building doesn't allow drip off the back. Understandable as we're in Hawaii and there's 33 floors, it puts off about 3.5 gallons a day. The contractor set up the put off, with a flexible tube to a 5 gallon bucket. It's secured with two zip ties around a straight piece of metal, that sits on the outside of the bucket as a "clip". Any suggestions on a way to secure the tube to the bucket that's better than this janky set up? [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 16 Jul 2020 08:26 PM PDT I'm in contract to close on a 4 bedroom house (as listed on MLSLI) soon and when reviewing the Title Report, I realized the original CO on the house was only for 3 bedrooms. There's also another CO for a "Rear Addition" that was approved years after the original CO on the home. The Rear Addition is where the master bedroom currently is. Can this Rear Addition CO be valid for a 4th bedroom or technically a different CO is needed? Location: Long Island, NY [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 16 Jul 2020 08:18 PM PDT My house is a weird setup so the main floor is on too and the downstairs has the bedrooms. Upstairs has kitchen, living room, and master bedroom. My downstairs is not a basement just a weird setup. Anyway i turned off the air completely downstairs. I have only the upstairs air on. Is this okay? Is this bad for my house? Any recommendations? I live in sc so it gets really hot, but I feel like my ac unit is always working if I keep it at like 73-74 [link] [comments] |
| Question about gravel between house and paver patio Posted: 16 Jul 2020 08:14 PM PDT I'm about to start on my backyard paver patio. The main reason for this project was the old patio was graded a bit towards the house, so our first priority is to properly move water away from the house. The pavers we are going to use are a mix of leftover pavers from our front walkway project, used pavers from a friend (free!), and pavers we are going to purchase to fill in the gaps. In an effort to extend the patio out to where we would like it to hit in the yard and to reduce the amount of pavers we need to purchase, we were considering running about a 1.5' wide gravel area along the back of the house with a French drain beneath it. This would be directly sandwiched between the house and the patio. We are also adding in French drains around the house, so I would connect this to that system. I'm concerned because there are hardly any pictures of this design online, so I'm wondering if it will actually cause more drainage issues than help. Is this idea dumb? Should we just suck it up and buy more pavers so that the paver patio touches the foundation? Here is a picture of where our new patio will go (not yet graded properly) and the second picture is the closest picture I could find to the gravel sandwiched between a house and pavers I could find online. Thank you so much for your help! [link] [comments] |
| How do I improve my 1940's attic? Posted: 16 Jul 2020 08:13 PM PDT The attic details I live in the Northeast U.S. in a ranch style home built in 1948. It has roughly 1400 sq ft., low pitch roof (30% or so). Ventilation:
There is a brick chimney, but the masonry is entirely on the exterior of the framing and does not interact with the attic at all. There is no gable vent on the chimney side - and I also have a minor mold issue on this side where the prior owner neglected to removed leaves from the valleys on the gable, causing rain to back up through the roof. Other details include:
The problems
The questions I have for you
[link] [comments] |
| Posted: 16 Jul 2020 07:51 PM PDT Inspector supposedly found termites and a mud tunnel in the basement bedroom on a home I'm under contract for. Said he could treat the area for $250-350. Is it worth treating the whole house? [link] [comments] |
| Need advice on how to raise living room floor 3/4" to be level with kitchen floor. Posted: 16 Jul 2020 06:12 PM PDT Hi everyone! It's our first time renovating (two story condo in north Lake Tahoe) and it's been a learning experience! We are replacing our condo flooring with vinyl planks we bought at Costco. The upper level is half linoleum, half carpet; we want it to be completely vinyl. When we ripped out the carpet we realized that the linoleum part was actually raised with particle board by 3/4" to meet the height of the carpet. We determined it'd be easier to raise the carpet area to meet the height of the linoleum area. If we buy sheets of particle board to fit into the lower area, how would we affix it to the ground level? Nails? Adhesive? We have a pad we're laying below the vinyl planks. Would we be able to install the pad and vinyl planks directly above the linoleum or should we tear out the linoleum? If we do have to tear the linoleum out, the particle board would then be 5/8". Thank you for the advice, it's greatly appreciated! [link] [comments] |
| Virtual reality is a great tool for a home remodel. Posted: 16 Jul 2020 01:58 PM PDT So, I'm in the middle of a pretty big whole home remodel. I started out by making a 3d model of my house with the free version of sketch up. I had zero prior experience, and it was pretty quick to pick up. I got a HTC Vive, played around a bit then got down to serious business. I installed a sketch up plugin called VR Sketch (€5.50/month), and I was able to walk around in my house and see things at scale. This was invaluable. I made tons of changes from my first plans based on what I saw in VR. My master bathroom is smaller and I needed to make good use of the space. I was able to quickly see what worked and what didnt. I decided to do a pony wall and glass instead of a cave shower because it made the room feel much bigger. I moved the tub, and decided to go a little bit bigger on the with it because I could tell that after moving it I would have enough space and it wouldn't feel cramped. I am designing the cabinets in vr right now with the sketchup plugin Sketch This. My only complaint is that it is harder to make judgements on colors and materials like wood and tile than it needs to be. Is anyone else using VR to plan their remodel? What tools/headsets /software are you using? Note: Not a paid endorsement, just a happy customer. [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 16 Jul 2020 08:34 AM PDT Remodeled my bathroom and adjoining laundry room. Did everything myself except put in the pex and tile four walls. After I tiled the floor I said frick this. Lots of mistakes but if I ever do this again things will go better. I learn by repetition. Would do a million things differently now that I've done this once. Maybe everything will hold together for a year or two. Thanks to everyone on this forum who helped me with my petty questions. Before and during pics: https://ibb.co/album/hCbdLQ Finished pics: https://imgur.com/a/I0B5Q72 In a nutshell...
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| Questions about running a line up wall, through attic, down wall Posted: 16 Jul 2020 07:49 PM PDT Live in planned neighborhood style home built 2004. Need to run a line from one room to one a couple rooms over. Estimate needing ~100ft of line to account for going up/down wall and through attic. Have not done anything like this before and looking for general advice on how to approach this project. Thanks for any help. Edit: Ethernet cable from router to office. Do have access to attic, the area is not floored though [link] [comments] |
| Looking for feedback on replacing basement carpet with gym flooring. Posted: 16 Jul 2020 02:38 PM PDT I recently bought a house with a carpeted basement. I cut out a section of the carpet and it looks like low-pile over some kind of foam over concrete:https://imgur.com/a/R2WFSdy I want to replace this with gym flooring and I'm thinking of going for 3/8" rubber tiles:https://shop.rymarrubber.ca/product/38-20-gold-rubber-tiles-2x2-88/ I haven't contacted the supplier yet but my reasoning is that these are probably less smelly than 3/4" stall mats (I will check). My original plan was to remove the carpet and foam, and install these tiles directly over concrete. Now I'm second-guessing and thinking instead to put a layer of DMX:https://www.homedepot.ca/search?q=DMX#!q=DMX Then a layer of OSB plywood over that, and then the gym mats. My reasoning is that:
My only worry with this setup is my ceilings are already low and height is at a premium. Thoughts? [link] [comments] |
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