Home Improvement: My experience building a 6 ft wood privacy fence |
- My experience building a 6 ft wood privacy fence
- Contractor trying to talk me into covering up lead/asbestos free popcorn ceilings with new drywall rather than scraping them. I’m kind of weirded out, but they also have their reasons.
- Hi all, I just bought an apartment and would like to 'redo it all', because it's quite dated -- my SO and I can't agree on whether this should be a one-time, do-it-all project (her take) or a do-it-gradually-room-by-room type of thing (my take)?
- Benefits of weed fabric under base layer for pavers
- Getting Paint Off a Deck
- Covering asbestos tile in basement
- Should I Replace These Kitchen Cabinets Or Just Paint And Change Hardware?
- Hardwood on the main floor
- Am I going to die from this mold? Help!
- Fixing up a 30 year old house.
- What did you wish you knew about building a deck before you finished?
- Ductless vs. duct range hoods
- Replacing a shower faucet lever
- Wooden 2x4s as support?
- Bathroom exhaust fan fogged mirror
- CoreLuxe from Lumber Liquidators
- What did I hit with the fence post auger....
- Replace bathroom wall insulation?
- Blocking Piano Noise from Downstairs Neighbor
- Basement Mold and Moisture
- Wondering what step to take next
- Quarreling Couple - HVAC edition
- window film?
- Big Drainage Issues
| My experience building a 6 ft wood privacy fence Posted: 03 Jul 2020 04:00 PM PDT To start off, my wife, daughter, dog and my self love our new fence. It was a lot of work, but well worth it. We bought our house in a Minneapolis last June with the intent to have a fence professional built shortly after we moved in, But the sale of our old house fell through twice and we ended up not getting as much as we had thought we would get. We didn't have the money to have it built last summer. We had three fence companies quote the fence. One vinyl and two wood ( cedar pickets, pressure treated post and rails. The quotes came back between 9-11k. Which was a lot of sticker shock. We were expecting something closer to 5k. (Spoiler it only cost us 2k!) So I started watching YouTube videos and pricing out materials from Lowe's, home depot and Menards. We originally priced out cedar pickets with pressure treated post and rails. Estimated 2-4k, which was well within our 5k expectation. We planned to build it the week of the 4th. My in laws are visiting us and my father in law is very handy (the kind of guy that built his own house while in his 20s after serving ). We started ordering materials and discovered that there is currently a shortage of lumber. This started to make us nervous that we wouldn't have the materials when my father in law here to help me build it. After shopping around and deciding to change to pressure treated pickets, because that's what would could find. We bought almost everything from home Depot. They delivered but to my house a few days before we started. Started Saturday morning digging the corner post and setting them. Strung string to make sure it's straight and measured 8 foot sections with orange ground paint. We then rented a two person auger with 8 in bit. It only took us 10 mins to dig the holes. Would definitely recommend renting one. I think I would have died trying to dig them by hand. We then set the rest of the post and nailed in most of the rails. Sunday we finished the rails and started nailing pickets. Finished about half of the pickets and one gate. We put the pickets right next to each other. Checking every few feet to make sure they were still perfectly vertical. The pickets do shrink after a few days and we now have a nice 1/8th to 3/16th gap between boards. Monday. Finished the other half of the pickets. We were definitely slower this day. Mid 90's and humid as hell everyday building was starting to take its toll on us. Probably drank 5 or 6 Gatorades a day and 5-6 bottles of water. Tuesday finished the front section between the garage and house with the gate. Filled some holes and moved some dirt around. Done! These 4 days were physically exhausting. I'm still sore, blisters, sun burn, and I think I strained some ligiments in my hand. We probably picked the hottest week of the summer. But it's done and building it ourselves saved us 8k. 201 feet of fence and two gates 29 - 4x4s 8 ft in length. Pressure treated, cedar tone. Cedar tone is just a pre stained to look like cedar. Cedar tone is more expensive, but it was all we could get. 32 - 2x4s 16ft in length. Pressure treated, cedar tone. Again it was all they had. 435 - 6 ft pickets 6 in wide, 5/8th thick. Pressure treated, green. 44 - 50lbs bags of quickcrete quick setting Misc - hinges, latches, corner brackets, hardware, screws, nail gun nails, post hole digger rental, stakes, string, ground paint Total cost - $2016.27. Other things I already had. Shovels, wheel barrow, hammer, crow bar, reciprocating saw, circular saw, saw horses, tape measure, pencil, level. Nail gun. Edit: spelling and grammar Added details about picket spacing [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 03 Jul 2020 01:35 PM PDT I am looking to get a popcorn ceiling scraped, and level 5 smooth drywall finish on all the walls in a little townhouse I closed on recently. I'm kind of lost in the popcorn ceiling piece. I got one quote from some contractors that I know do great work, but their price was pretty high for just the ceiling. They also haven't been great to work with and took a really long time just to get me a quote. So, I wanted to at least get another quote from someone else so I called another company for help. When I was in the phone with them they explained that they almost always cover popcorn ceilings up with thin drywall over scraping. I explained that I had the drywall and popcorn ceiling tested for lead and asbestos already, and I know it's clear. I've really only heard of doing something like covering it with drywall used in instances where there is an asbestos issue. They started to say it was mainly because of the mess... But I'm also getting all of the drywall in my house skim coated and sanded a million times to get a level 5 drywall finish, so I'm clearly prepared for that. I agreed to any inspection but was honestly kind of put off when I got off the phone. I had the inspection today though and what they said actually made sense to me. They said that because I want such an unforgiving finish on everything, natural bows in the drywall from wetting down the ceiling are going to be really noticeable. They said that back when the ceiling was first coated in popcorn it was saturated to apply the popcorn, you can't really see it now but it has bowing in it now from that, and it's going to get worse when they wet it down down again to scrape it. Basically the 20 year old drywall underneath is never going to look as good as new drywall sheets, even after it's skimmed. It's painted popcorn too so they'll really have to saturate it to get it off. They said that they can do it if I really want them too, but that they really just don't recommend it at all. Their customers usually end up just adding new drywall anyway even after scraping for these reasons. So they just recommend skipping straight to it, especially since it's cheaper anyway. I don't want to demo and rehang the drywall, I would have to start messing with exterior insulation to do that which seems like it was pretty well done. But just covering up old work like that? It makes me cringe to just slap new drywall over the ceiling when there is zero asbestos/lead issues there. It sounds like a shortcut and I would always know that it's just hiding under there, plus I lose some ceiling space. At the same time, what they said sounds like it makes sense. I'm really torn and not sure what to do. I appreciate any replies, thank you. EDIT: I was not expecting so many helpful replies, THANK YOU! This is the most help I have ever gotten from posting anything on Reddit. I'm so glad to have this much input on a big decision for my first house. Just to clarify a couple questions I saw in the comments, it's a loft style townhouse and most of it is on the lofted ceiling - so it's quite tall, and the roof is on the other side. I understand that it's a mess to scrape it, but I'm not sure if people commenting about that realize that my entire house will be turned into a dusty, unlivable hell-scape regardless of what happens with the ceiling because of the number of times the walls will be floated and sanded. It's sitting completely empty until this is done because I knew that going into it. Also I guess I need to repeat that there is no asbestos or lead paint factoring into this either. I had it tested by an environmental testing company and I have the lab results in my hands. The hesitation came from covering up old work when my (limited) understanding has always been that the right way to do it is to get rid of it - not smush it down underneath another layer of drywall like a popcorn ceiling sandwich. I guess the first place my mind went was feeling like it's comparable to when people end up with 4 inches of vinyl flooring going back 40 years because no one ever just removed the old floor. I understand it better now, and I think I feel pretty good about just doing 1/2-3/4 inch new drywall over it. It's good to hear that I found a contractor who's shooting me straight too. I'll keep reading all your replies but if 60+ people are all saying the same thing with very little debate in the comments then I should probably listen! [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 03 Jul 2020 05:22 AM PDT Does anyone have any experience with renovating an entire apartment? Which of the two approaches -- all in or step by step -- is best in your experience? Also, if we have a specific vision for what we want from a room, let's say the kitchen, do we need an architect to realize that, or just a contractor? I keep thinking I wouldn't be able to 'source' all the right things -- how do I find counters that fit right, or the right stove etc. I'm quite young and clearly don't know much about this whole world, I've never owned anything haha. Many thanks in advance if you have any advice. [link] [comments] |
| Benefits of weed fabric under base layer for pavers Posted: 03 Jul 2020 06:52 AM PDT This is my first time installing pavers and I have over 200 feet of weed fabric just sitting in my shed that my friend gave me when he moved. Is there any benefit to laying the weed fabric down after tamping the dirt and before laying the base gravel? Most videos I watched don't seem to use it but my neighbor says that his contractor did use it when installing his paver patio. What's the right way? [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 03 Jul 2020 07:22 PM PDT My husband and I are first time home owners. We have a lovely large deck outside, but the previous owners painted it with interior latex paint and it was peeling and snagging and generally looking horrible. If anyone has a similar situation, here was our trial and error process so you can skip the majority of the heartache: 1) Peel the obvious parts that wanted to come up by hand 2) Try power washing with a 2300psi power washer. This helped for maybe 2% of the paint, but realistically just shattered what could have been large pieces of paint into little shards that were nearly impossible to sweep or clean up from the area around the deck. 3) Rent a large floor sander from Home Depot with 20 and 36 grit sandpaper. This worked for another 60% of the paint after using it for hours on end. For pine boards it seemed to do okay, but our deck had some leftover cedar boards that were too much for the sander to handle. 4) Try citripeel paint stripper. This smelled fine, but in my naivety I didn't realize it would make the paint so soft and such a mess to take up. This does not dry in 30 minutes - don't fall for it. This delayed a portion of the project by a solid 12-15 hours. 5) Try the floor sander again. Realize the boards were slightly concave which meant the majority of the sandpaper was not coming into contact with any paint. Any sanding over the area with paint stripper was just a gummy nightmare. Moral of the story: buy the angle grinder. Avoid the the heartache. Sorry if this is similar to something already posted - fairly new to thread. Also, would recommend not using the angle grinder for more than an hour at a time. It gets really hot and the unpleasant vibration feeling in your hands last for a while after. [link] [comments] |
| Covering asbestos tile in basement Posted: 03 Jul 2020 02:31 PM PDT I recently bought a house on the north shore of Massachusetts. Basement has a "finished" room that had gross stick-on vinyl tiles that I easily removed. I was excited when I saw that the original '60s asbestos tiles underneath seemed to be in good shape and were fairly level. My original plan was to use an epoxy garage floor paint directly on the tiles to encapsulate them and have myself an ok-ish floor for my office/makerspace. When I went to do some more prep today I found a bunch of tiles that were loose. I carefully (wore an asbestos-rated respirator, wet the area, etc) removed as many of the loose tiles as I could. So now I'm at a loss as to what my next step should be. I know I could do a self-leveling concrete, but this floor doesn't have to be perfect and I'd like to finish this quickly and cheaply. Is there something else I could apply to fill in the large gaps before I paint? If I do have to do a self-leveling underlayment, is a coat or two of epoxy floor paint strong enough to use directly over the underlayment as the final flooring? Again, trying to be cheap... and the ceilings are so low that I don't want to add too much additional height to the floor. Pics of the gross mess of a floor: https://imgur.com/a/vhvQJ5V [link] [comments] |
| Should I Replace These Kitchen Cabinets Or Just Paint And Change Hardware? Posted: 03 Jul 2020 12:36 PM PDT Can I save these cabinets by painting and changing the hardware or are they too dated and ugly to save? As you can see I slapped some paint on the one cabinet to the left to see what it would look like. Im trying to save money, but not at the expense of my kitchen's aesthetic. All the wood-paneling on the wall is going to be covered by subway tile btw [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 03 Jul 2020 01:42 PM PDT Hello everyone, I wanted to get peoples insight on this question. How does everyone feel about hardwood throughout the entire main floor... this would include foyer, mudroom and kitchen. Only tile in the powder room. I am in the middle of making a decision, and it's hard to find a consensus. People say that high traffic areas should be tile, like the foyer and mudroom... however, also people who have hardwood say they've never had an issue. So if you could choose right now what would you do? [link] [comments] |
| Am I going to die from this mold? Help! Posted: 03 Jul 2020 04:34 PM PDT So the wax ring on my toilet started leaking, and rather than just replace it, I decided that while I had the toilet pulled up, I'd replace the crappy baseboards the previous owner had installed, and give the room a new coat a paint. After I pulled out the baseboard next to the toilet I found this: Looks pretty ominous to me. Here's a closeup: I don't think the wax ring was leaking long enough to cause this issue, but I have an idea what might be the problem. Here's a zoomed out view of the area: On the right, you have the "toilet room". The wall between the bathtub/shower is the one with the mold. Here's a closeup view of one of the shower handles: Although this shower has only been used by us maybe three times, the previous owners may have used it frequently, which may have allowed water to seep into the hole behind the shower handle causing this mold problem. Finally my questions:
Thanks!!!! tldr; I found what appears to be black mold behind a baseboard. What do I do? [link] [comments] |
| Fixing up a 30 year old house. Posted: 03 Jul 2020 09:33 PM PDT https://imgur.com/gallery/2q12QvV My boyfriend is inheriting his fathers house, he built the house 30 years ago and smoked in it since it was built. We've spent most of our free time for the last three months getting it ready for us to move in. The house is in quite a bit of disrepair and absolutely stained with nicotine. You can really notice this in the stark contrast of the newly painted kitchen ceiling and the unpainted living room ceiling. So far we have kiltz'd almost the whole house, painted the dated kitchen cabinets, cut down the half wall between the kitchen and living room with plans to install a bar top. His father and him built a box to cover the damage on the half wall while also giving us power to our lights and two sets of electrical plugs. The closet and bathroom in the master were destroyed and moldy from a leak in the roof so we had a drywall team come in to repair them. We still have a long way to go but I'm so proud of our progress and just wanted to share! [link] [comments] |
| What did you wish you knew about building a deck before you finished? Posted: 03 Jul 2020 12:42 PM PDT We're getting ready to complete a couple projects around the house, which means — of course — picking up a new project. I'm pretty handy, so I'm considering building our deck instead of dumping thousands of dollars into a contractor. We won't be putting holes in the ground until next spring at the earliest, so I have a lot of time to research and learn. What tips can you offer? Gotchas to look for? Research suggestions? [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 03 Jul 2020 08:46 AM PDT I'm in the process of finishing my basement and I'm setting it up to have the room for a kitchen one day. As the title suggests I'm trying to figure out range hoods. If I go with the standard duct version, there are a couple options for air exit. One is the old dryer vent, which would have three 90 degree bends to get to the chimney stack. The other would be two 90s to go to the furnace chimney. Both have around 10-15 linear feet to get to their exit point and then about 25 feet to the top of the chimney. Drilling a new hole is an option but less ideal as my basement is 8 inches of concrete to get through. I have access to a hammer drill and can rent the bit from Home Depot so it's possible to do but just a bitch. The other option I was thinking of was going ductless as it would require less effort. But I have no experience with these so any input is welcome. [link] [comments] |
| Replacing a shower faucet lever Posted: 03 Jul 2020 01:18 PM PDT In the course of a bathroom remodel and I'd like to replace the ugly knob in my shower with a matching fixture. Unfortunately what I've got looks very dissimilar to others I see online, and I am not confident in my ability to find one that matches- and anyway, this thing stuck way out of the wall and i was looking for something a bit slimmer. So i start looking at universal valves so that I can replace mine and make sure I get compatible parts, but they all look to be Male-threaded whereas mine appears to be female. Is there a way out without having to sweat copper? Im terrible at it and the shower does not have its own cutoffs, so it has to be shut off at the house main. I really dont want to call a plumber if I dont have to, but if there is an easy way out im not seeing it. Thank you! [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 03 Jul 2020 05:39 PM PDT Hello! First time posting here. I was hoping to get some opinions on something. We have a basement that we are finishing out and previously there were 3 metal support posts along the long joist running across the length of the room, spread about 10 feet apart. Our contractor (great reviews and highly recommended) removed the center metal post and instead replaced it with two columns made out of three 2x4s. Pictures: https://imgur.com/a/ROW4Io9 Of note they 2x4s are all nailed together - should they be screwed together? So now the span goes: basement wall, 10 feet, metal post, five feet, three 2x4 column, 9ish feet, three 2x4 column, five feet, metal post, 10 feet, opposite wall. The area above is mostly walk way space like hallway/door ways. Do you think this will be ok? Or should I insist on having metal support poles or some other option? Any advise is appreciated! Thank you. [link] [comments] |
| Bathroom exhaust fan fogged mirror Posted: 03 Jul 2020 06:36 PM PDT I updated the exhaust fan in my downstairs bathroom in a house built in the 70s, and while the exhaust fan does help clear some of the moisture from the bathroom but the mirror continues to fog. Is the bathroom exhaust fan supposed to keep the mirror from fogging up if it's functioning properly? The previous exhaust fan also did not keep the mirror from fogging [link] [comments] |
| CoreLuxe from Lumber Liquidators Posted: 03 Jul 2020 03:33 PM PDT Looking to replace carpet with CoreLuxe EVP. Any experience with this. It looks good for my need (young kids that spill a lot). It looks easy to install based on a few YouTube videos. [link] [comments] |
| What did I hit with the fence post auger.... Posted: 03 Jul 2020 05:19 PM PDT House is slab on grade built in early 2000s. On septic and well. This is outside a bedroom. Gutters just drain onto splash guards. Hoping to figure out what it is before digging around it to repair [link] [comments] |
| Replace bathroom wall insulation? Posted: 03 Jul 2020 10:04 PM PDT Remodeling a small bathroom, trying to decide if I should replace the wall insulation. Only a very small portion of wall is an exterior wall, but all walls currently have R-11 batts throughout mainly for sound deadening. It was installed probably 20+ years ago, but still seems in good shape and no mold or anything. Located in California Bay Area so no super cold winters, just trying to determine if I should go ahead and replace it being that the walls are open now. I read this stuff can last 80-100 years or more. Any thoughts? [link] [comments] |
| Blocking Piano Noise from Downstairs Neighbor Posted: 03 Jul 2020 05:17 AM PDT Hi -- I just bought my first condo and moved in last week. I unfortunately wound up with a musician directly below me that has a baby grand piano in his condo, placed right below me. Unfortunately, when he plays, the noise travels directly into my unit, is very audible in my living room space, and travels throughout the other rooms. This is unfortunately my nightmare and what I was really hoping to avoid by buying versus renting. I spoke with him yesterday, introduced myself nicely, and he explained he plays for at least an hour a day. That's fine, but I really don't want to hear it in my unit. Toward that end, was wondering what I can do to block the sound. I spoke with the HOA President who mentioned we could try soundproofing if there's something that will work. I'm mostly concerned about trying something, spending a lot of money, and it doesn't do the trick. In an ideal situation, the soundproofing eliminates the noise from my unit and allows him to continue playing. Wondering if anyone knows what best to do? I imagine investing in a solution outweighs potentially moving (and quickly selling or renting the place) over this. Happy to provide any additional information. Thanks. [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 03 Jul 2020 09:52 PM PDT Hi All, Today I removed some carpet and trim on the floor of the basement and came across a bit of mold. I plan to remove the rest of the carpet tomorrow to see what else I find. I also found the concrete floors on the other side of the wall (2 ft wide crawl space) showing signs of moisture (photos: https://imgur.com/gallery/simM79t). I recently purchased this home and the prior owners said the basement had leaked one time in 2019 but has been remedied. I had an inspection done prior to purchasing and they couldn't find any signs of mold or moisture, but it was dry for two weeks when the inspection was done. I'm in the PNW and June has been quite wet this year. Now, I'm just looking to get this fixed and put in place preventative measures. The grading around the house and exterior drainage isn't the best and needs to be looked at (photo of grading right outside of the basement room is included in the link above). Other than that, I have no idea how to where to start and who to hire. Have any of you dealt with this before? Do I need a contractor, handyman, mold specialist, or inspector? Thank you! [link] [comments] |
| Wondering what step to take next Posted: 03 Jul 2020 09:41 PM PDT A plumbing company came to replace a pipe underneath our house and could only get to it from the inside of one of the bedrooms which is carpeted. To my understanding they were going to have to cut out a block of concrete underneath the carpet, dig a hole, replace the pipe, and cover with new concrete which i would have to wait to dry before putting the carpet back on. Upon returning after the job was finished i noticed with the carpet rolled up that there was actually tile and black mastic underneath the carpet and im afraid they may have just ripped the tile off and cut into it the mastic like it were concrete and im scared of possible asbestos exposure from the incident. I had moved all of the rooms furniture to one side of the room the night before and i believe they had put up plastic to separate that side of the room to the side they were working on. They took the plastic down after the job was done and my main concern is airborne asbestos getting over my furniture and walls after they had taken the plastic down and wanted to know a safe way of going about being able to live in there again. Im not sure if they had a proper ventilator or dust sucker in the room while doing the job and i would have liked to have known about the tile or black mastic underneath so a proper asbestos test could have been done before taking out an entire block of it and a little under 1/3 of the rooms tiles. Sorry if the way i worded this is confusing but this has made me a bit anxious [link] [comments] |
| Quarreling Couple - HVAC edition Posted: 03 Jul 2020 01:22 PM PDT Alright HVAC professionals, The wife and I have been having a fun argument and neither have been able to overcome the other using online sources. So we turn to yet another online source. Its 100 here in PA today and the AC is running constantly. Split level house. It is keeping up in terms of setpoint temp vs actual temp in the house, so we know the AC is good. But the question now is forced cycling. I am of the mindset that once an hour I will turn the AC up one degree so the compressor shuts down and then I turn it back to the original set point. This allows the whole system to lay dorment for 5 minutes automatically and then comes back on. I always heard this prevents freezing up and is good for the equipment. She is of the mindset of, "let er run" and eventually it will cycle itself. It may be 8 hrs of straight run time, but that's the cost of doing business. The internet says both things. It also says that we have significant HVAC problems since it cannot cool my house 30 degrees during the dead heat of summer. So, i turn to your guys. What are your thoughts? Of course I think I am correct and she is wrong. Loser has to let the dog out every night before bed for a week. So confirm to me that I am right so i can reap the winners prize. [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 03 Jul 2020 04:26 PM PDT i want to still be able to see out my windows, but don't want my new neighbors to be able to see inside. what would i need to get? [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 03 Jul 2020 07:08 PM PDT My wife and I live in North Alabama and have started the process of upgrading the outside of our property, specifically the backyard. We have major drainage issues. This was back in February after a particularly hard rain but it's not much better after a moderate one. I don't know much of anything about landscaping. Was hoping y'all could provide some insight. Of course you can only see so much from pictures but does this look like a grading issue, leveling issue, do I need french drains, a combination of all the above? Also, once it's finished, would I have a mud hole to deal with for months or would I have time to get grass growing (if we didn't do sod)? We've got several major projects we'd like to do back here including a new privacy fence and concrete driveway extension back to that shop as shown in the pictures. We'd like to do a paver patio to the right of the sunroom as well. I feel the drainage should be take care of before we do the patio but would it matter regarding concrete/fence? We want to make sure we get these projects done in the order that makes the most sense. Thanks for any advice you can provide. TL;DR how do I fix my drainage issue and should I do it before pouring concrete to the shop or putting up privacy fence? Located in North Alabama. [link] [comments] |
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