Home Improvement: I built a round paver patio! |
- I built a round paver patio!
- I built a bar into the side of my garage during quarantine
- Are there a bunch of bugs that just live in your house ?
- Why did it take me so long to buy one of these?
- Replacing shower faucets
- HELP! Improve curb appeal of our new home
- Issue with spraying kitchen cabinets
- I think this is wiring for a 3-way switch. How can I tell?
- What is this thing in my yard?
- Laminate flooring in a bathroom
- How can I creatively and safely get a bathtub off a pickup truck by myself?
- Fixing Drywall Holes with Anchors?
- 10x12 Shed on a much larger concrete backyard
- help pLEASE my granny unit gets way too hot, what do i do to keep the cool in?
- SOS replacing faucet and sink came off counter
- What kind of pro am I looking for?
- Small, mysterious hole in sprinkler pipe
- How could we tell if this odd wall is load bearing?
- Beam failed engineer's test
- Are pendant reading lights a good idea for bedrooms?
- Retaining wall gravel base keeps eroding
- What is this?
- Garage Door Does not close all the way down intermittently
- MA- neighbor wants to get certification for wiring in the house. How to help?
| Posted: 15 Aug 2020 03:14 PM PDT It took a month and a half, but I finally finished the round paver patio I started in early July! The patio is about 14' across, and used around 600 pavers. Link to pictures: https://imgur.com/a/oEoiEWB I started the patio mostly for something to do. I work in an office job that's centered around research and writing, and I like physical projects to provide some balance to my life. The previous homeowners had also left about 100 pavers lying around, which was sort of the catalyst for the project. Ironically, I ended up not liking the color of the pavers with the other ones I bought, so I ultimately didn't use any of them. This was probably the most involved project I've worked on. I did all of it myself except for having the gravel and sand picked up from a gravel pit. (My dad has a truck and was lovely enough to help me with that part.) I wanted it to stay mostly fun, so I gave myself a really relaxed schedule to work on it, usually spending 4-6 hours a day on it a couple days a week. Altogether, the project cost around $420, although I'll get about $28 back in rebates and I plan on selling the remaining pavers, hopefully for around $25-35. My cost breakdown included: Pavers: $290 ($105 for reddish clay bricks from a guy on Craigslist, $185 for Holland concrete pavers from Menards) I also had to buy some little things like a manual tamper ($20) and work gloves ($8), but they weren't necessarily part of the patio. Truthfully, I didn't plan this project out as well as I could have, and a lot of parts were chaos. For example, I changed the size of the patio halfway through, the pavers I bought used off of Craigslist ended up being the wrong kind, so I had to redo my design, and I missed a forecast for rain so there's some polymeric sand on the top of my pavers. Part of the fun, right? But overall, I learned a lot, and I don't think it looks too shabby for a cheap firepit patio! [link] [comments] |
| I built a bar into the side of my garage during quarantine Posted: 15 Aug 2020 09:35 PM PDT |
| Are there a bunch of bugs that just live in your house ? Posted: 15 Aug 2020 08:20 AM PDT I was in my basement and saw all these bugs around... dead and alive. Makes me wonder then, just because you drywall the rest of the house, doesn't mean they're gone... they're all just on the other side of your drywall, right? [link] [comments] |
| Why did it take me so long to buy one of these? Posted: 15 Aug 2020 07:21 AM PDT A vacuum sander is an absolute game changer. And I have six more feet of shopvac hose now! [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 15 Aug 2020 11:26 AM PDT Hi! I'm trying to replace the faucet in my shower - I removed the old one without issue, but installing the new one isn't as straight forward as I thought it would be. I'm realizing now that isn't just a plug-and-play kinda replacement. Here's what's behind the old faucet: https://imgur.com/a/6UBlfud/ Here's the cartridge for the new faucet: https://imgur.com/a/ZPx8gSI/ So did I just buy the wrong kind of faucet? Or have I just not removed enough of the old one? Thanks in advance for any and all advice!!! [link] [comments] |
| HELP! Improve curb appeal of our new home Posted: 15 Aug 2020 09:20 AM PDT My husband and I just bought our first home in the Nashville area. We absolutely love the lot! Huge backyard, its the last house on a dead end and it's wooded on one side so we have privacy. The interior is great but unfortunately the outside is very plain and ugly. I'm not a big fan of vinyl siding but I know there are ways we can improve the curb appeal. Here's the issue.. the previous owners renovated the garage into a big entry/family room (the door on the left). We want to use this as a main entrance. The porch entrance is supposed to be the master bedroom now. It's kind of awkward. We are looking for affordable ways to increase curb appeal & make the left entrance look more like the front entrance. We've thought of screening in the porch area and adding a sliding glass door to make it more private or just removing the door and porch all together. What do you think? [link] [comments] |
| Issue with spraying kitchen cabinets Posted: 15 Aug 2020 02:42 PM PDT So I'm spraying my maple kitchen cabinets white with a HVLP gun. I primed two coats with Stix and 2 coats of Benjamin Moore Advance but I noticed that that at a certain angle when the light hits the door, it looks kind of streaky (not entirely smooth). It doesn't look that noticeable when looking straight on. Is the streakiness or sheen caused by rough spots that need to be wet sanded or do I just need another coat of paint? I don't think it's the dark wood showing through... Upon closer inspection some spots look smoother where it doesn't look streaky? I've attached some pics. Any advice would be appreciated since I don't know exactly what's causing this and how to fix it. [link] [comments] |
| I think this is wiring for a 3-way switch. How can I tell? Posted: 15 Aug 2020 07:38 PM PDT TL:DR - is this wiring for a 3-way switch? How can I tell? How can I wire it to bypass it? Do we need an electrician? So I'm helping a friend install new light fixtures in a rundown partially remodeled place he just bought. I came across this on one side of the kitchen. There is another switch on the other side of the kitchen which has no current running through it. I'm guessing that this was a 3-way switch but my YouTube electrical experience is failing me. If it is, this one is no longer needed since this entry will be blocked off. How can I wire it so that the circuit will run through the other switch? How do I even know if was in fact for the light? Is this above my pay grade (free) and bite the bullet and call an electrician? [link] [comments] |
| What is this thing in my yard? Posted: 15 Aug 2020 04:35 PM PDT I cleaned up the yard on the side of my house and found this grey thing sticking out, and I have no idea what it is. Electrical? I want to remove it if I can. Thank you. [link] [comments] |
| Laminate flooring in a bathroom Posted: 15 Aug 2020 06:22 PM PDT If a toilet is installed over laminate flooring will it flex too much and eventually mess up the wax ring to the point of leaking? I'm in the middle of laying laminate flooring down as I type this and it occurred to me that with the foam underpad, that the toilet might rock too much because of the foam and cause the wax ring to fail. I will do my best to secure the toilet tight, and shim/caulk it so that there is little to no movement between the toilet and the laminate, but is this enough to overcome the foam? How flexible do wax rings remain over time? Should I screw the laminate to the subfloor where the toilet will cover the screws? Should I eliminate the foam altogether? I know overall laminate is not a great choice for the bathroom but our whole house is laminate that I will be replacing in 5-10 years. I don't care about any superficial water damage that will occur, but I don't want a leaky wax ring (which is the cause of this whole emergency Reno). [link] [comments] |
| How can I creatively and safely get a bathtub off a pickup truck by myself? Posted: 15 Aug 2020 08:49 PM PDT I'm going to rent a pick up from Home Depot curbside pick up a bathtub. Product details says 80lbs. They will help load it onto the truck but I have to unload it into my garage by myself. I need it for a remodel in a couple weeks and it wouldn't get here in time if I shipped to home so I shipped to store. I thought about inflating an air mattress and shove it off onto the mattress but then I'd still have to figure out how to get the rest of it on the ground. I'm a total of 105lbs but was able to push a 200lb elliptical from the inside the garage around and into the house by myself. It did have a wheel on the back end so I was able to tie cloth around a bar to lift. It wasn't easy but better than relying on brute strength I didn't have. I'm hoping someone has an idea where I could do the same thing with unloading a tub. Also will a tub fit on the back of a pick up? [link] [comments] |
| Fixing Drywall Holes with Anchors? Posted: 15 Aug 2020 01:08 PM PDT The previous owners of my home installed a shelving system (similar to this ). Today the whole system pulled away from the wall; it was a little top heavy.. The screws holding the vertical bars were screwed directly into the drywall without anchors, so they stripped their way out. I'm trying to decide what's the most painless fix. I was thinking of screwing self tapping dry wall anchors into the existing holes, and re-screwing the unit as-is. Is there a reason not to do that? Alternatively I'd probably need to fill the holes with a compound? But would that hold the anchors any better than going straight into the existing holes? Thanks! [link] [comments] |
| 10x12 Shed on a much larger concrete backyard Posted: 15 Aug 2020 04:44 PM PDT I have a backyard with a large concrete area (reinforced with bars) in a very good condition. I would like to build a 10x12 shed. Google doesn't really help much as most of the article talk about pouring new concrete for a shed. My problem is that the concrete area is very large (20x20) and the shed I need to build is only about 10x12. Water seepage is an obvious concern if I were to lay out the joists directly on the concrete floor. I need advice on how to get the shed foundation going on existing large concrete slab? I plan to keep sensitive telescope instruments there so the insides of the shed need to be pretty much as safe as a home (ignoring HVAC/heating, etc.). Please note that there are other areas in the backyard with open ground but the whole exposed ground is being used for growing vegetables. Another issue with that is that the location of the open ground cannot work for my telescope shed because it is too close to the fence. The only option I have is to build a shed over an existing large concrete base. [link] [comments] |
| help pLEASE my granny unit gets way too hot, what do i do to keep the cool in? Posted: 15 Aug 2020 06:54 PM PDT i'm going to try and be brief. basically i'm an 18yr old student living in a single room adjacent to my parents house. the room is fine but there's no direct electricity (extension cord + power strip is all i've got) and the roof needs better insulation. it's been over 100 degrees the past three days and i can't handle it anymore. i try maintaining airflow, fans, but NONE of it is helping. the sun beats down directly onto the roof and fans won't help that. whatever improvements i have to do to the room, i have to complete / pay for on my own. if there's anyone with tips on finding/installing an affordable AC unit, or ways to keep even a bit of sun off the roof, would be so appreciated. if there's any way i could improve the insulation without doing a huge remodel, i'd be eager to learn. thanks so much. [link] [comments] |
| SOS replacing faucet and sink came off counter Posted: 15 Aug 2020 05:33 PM PDT Title says it all. Google hasn't been much help about how to get this sink back on. Is it just as simple as laying it down and re-caulking around the edges? All help appreciated we are panicking lol [link] [comments] |
| What kind of pro am I looking for? Posted: 15 Aug 2020 04:47 PM PDT Hi folks, I recently had an old patio replaced. The old stairs were concrete and a crack had formed between the stairs and the house, allowing water to get in and do its thing over who knows how many years. The siding is completely gone, and the rot made its way into the bottom sill of the sliding glass door and probably further into the wall and the structure of the house. This is way over my and my handy father-in-law's heads, so I need to outsource it. My question is, what kind of professional am I looking for? Just a carpenter, siding repair specialist, something else? Any input is graciously appreciated. TIA! Pics here: https://imgur.com/a/p1KZrs1 [link] [comments] |
| Small, mysterious hole in sprinkler pipe Posted: 15 Aug 2020 05:53 PM PDT I found this tiny hole in one of my sprinkler pipes today. Water has apparently been shooting out of it for a long time, but was buried deep in the dirt, so I never noticed until now. Is there any chance this is intended/desired? Or some kind of breakage/mistake? It looks too perfect to be a crack. What is it?? Images: https://imgur.com/a/WLXFlYu [link] [comments] |
| How could we tell if this odd wall is load bearing? Posted: 15 Aug 2020 01:45 PM PDT Our bathroom has an odd shape, with weird tiered ceilings and this mini wall to house the shower plumbing. How can we tell if it's loading bearing before we attempt to remove it for a renovation (where we plan to reroute plumbing)? We unfortunately have zero architectural drawings from the house's history. Also, the bedroom that this bathroom connects to does not have this beam that extends from the wall towards the other room (behind the photographer). [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 15 Aug 2020 04:14 AM PDT The beam that spans across our kitchen/living area looked like it was slightly bent so we contacted an engineer to analyze it. It failed. We were given 2 options to fix this:
Both are over our budget, the steel beam being way more expensive but I would prefer to replace than to just add on to the existing beam. Do we have any other options??? Like adding some sort of perpendicular/vertical support post? They also told us it would take about 2 weeks to do, which normally would be fine but we're already in the middle of other renovations (same company as the engineers) which should finish up soon and we have baby #2 due any day. If we don't do this work now, it will be more expensive later because we already have the other renovations going on so they can just add in to that. Ugh. So stressed out. Please help! We're in Ontario, Canada. [link] [comments] |
| Are pendant reading lights a good idea for bedrooms? Posted: 15 Aug 2020 06:54 PM PDT Working on making some changes to rooms and lately I've really been liking the idea of having two pendant lights hung on either side of the bed instead of having wall (not possible with a brick wall) or table lights. Is this a fad that is getting old or do people still find things like that neat? [link] [comments] |
| Retaining wall gravel base keeps eroding Posted: 15 Aug 2020 01:25 PM PDT We did this retaining wall three years ago and we never managed to figure out how to prevent the gravel base from eroding. Is there something we coat it with or add in to prevent this? [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 15 Aug 2020 06:12 PM PDT I don't have much experience, so please bear with me. It's sort of a veneer facade in the color of green/black pattern - thin covering. It was sort of "glued", "pasted"... sort of like a sticker? to the wood. I was wondering if you guys can help me find the name of this sort of thing. I would deeply appreciate it. Thank you! [link] [comments] |
| Garage Door Does not close all the way down intermittently Posted: 15 Aug 2020 11:34 AM PDT The Garage door just stops about few inches of the ground when i try to close it . I have to repeat the process 3 or 4 times of opening and closing , than it finally closes fully. (sample pic is attached). Brand is Craftsman I also checked if there are an hindrances or objects near the sensor or path and the sensors are clean too. Randomly the door closes completely in the first try or i need to try it 3 or 4 times than i get lucky to get the garage door close completely. Any ideas as what i need to look for? [link] [comments] |
| MA- neighbor wants to get certification for wiring in the house. How to help? Posted: 15 Aug 2020 07:55 PM PDT Advice needed on wiring certification (MA) Hello, I'm trying to help a neighbor of mine in MA. TLDR: Family friend of neighbor had replaced their knob and tube wiring with a more modern wiring system without certifying it when they purchased the house. How to get it certified and inspected and would this affect their insurance rates? They have been living in their current home for about 15 years and the husband was responsible for maintenance and upkeep of the house. Due to some circumstances, the wife has found herself managing the house alone. She had come by asking for recommendations for electricians because she wanted to get some wiring work done and shared that when they purchased the house, one of their family friends was kind enough to replace the knob and tube wiring with modern wiring system for free. They never got any certification for it though. She wants to get an electrician to inspect the wiring and get certified but doesn't know where to start and is afraid that the cost might be high. More importantly, she doesn't know whether this will impact her insurance rates? Size of the house is about 1500 Sq. ft. with 2 floors and an attic. Can anyone please help? [link] [comments] |
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