Home Improvement: Pulled a dead dog carcass out of my ceiling... for the second time... need advice |
- Pulled a dead dog carcass out of my ceiling... for the second time... need advice
- Managed to replace my bathroom faucet with only 5 trips to the hardware store
- 3 Season to mud/bath room conversion
- Let's paint the hallway, they said. It'll be fun, they said!
- Apartment dweller needs to get rid of about 4-5 garbage bags full of junk
- Kitchen Renovation
- Removing rock glued to floor
- Basement Renovation advice
- Tips for new homeowner house maintenance
- Door Replacement for Steel Frame?
- Rex-Wrap vs Tyvec house wrap
- Moving into a new house, no water from tub/shower?
- Tips on removing thick scum from tub?
- Does anyone have any experience cleaning refinished tubs stained by rusty well water?
- This is some form of metal siding. How do I smooth it out?
- Painting the walls... did I mess up the spackling?
- Cleaning a dryer vent
- Do I need to re-prime the wall?
- What kind of doorbell is this? It is built on the front door.
- Are doors supposed to be painted before or after they are installed?
- How much energy do you use per month?
- AC leak, tech coming tomorrow, what to expect?
- Window issues new house
- Is this DOUBLE wallpaper?!
| Pulled a dead dog carcass out of my ceiling... for the second time... need advice Posted: 29 Aug 2020 02:27 PM PDT Hey guys I bought a vacant house in a fancy neighborhood and have done an extensive remodel. The basement always smelled like death so I went searching. I found a dead dog in a crawl space under the deck and removed it. I thought I was good to go but the smell remained. I spent months sniffing around until I was convinced it was in the wall. I did some research to learn to look for dark stains which indicate some fluids escaped from a dead animal and I found them on the ceiling right where the smell seemed pretty strong so I went for it... I cut out a 5x5 inch square thinking I could find a rat or something but was surprised to find the leg of a dog poking through. I went and got some PPE and pulled the guy out. Aggressively. I stuck the body in two garbage bags and kept pulling insulation out that was dark and stained. Once I started getting clean insulation I stopped... I think cooked up some baking soda and water and sprayed all around inside the hole until things were nice and wet. I put some paper towels up there to absorb the drips? Then I closed up the hole with painters tape for now. I bleached the walls and floor around it and vacuumed up all the debris. What should I do now to finish this off?? Any advice is much appreciated. I have two small kids and just want to be clean and safe etc. Thanks! Edit #1: will respond later to all questions. Also this is a basement ceiling. Edit #2:
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| Managed to replace my bathroom faucet with only 5 trips to the hardware store Posted: 29 Aug 2020 05:15 PM PDT My wife had been begging to replace the faucet in our bathroom because of how easy it was in our kitchen and 2nd bathroom( in her mind). We were in menards picking up some stuff for other projects and she convinced me on a new faucet there. Get home and she wants to put it in right away I wisely delay to the weekend as I know we aren't going to have everything we need. First thing is the existing water service doesn't have shut offs so I run to the store once to pick up some new shark bite service connections. Second the p trap is completely corroded and apparently also cracked, with only my wife's hair and toothpaste residue keeping the thing from a massive leak. Go to the store a second time to pick up new p trap kits, both sizes just in case and a p trap adapter for the smaller size. Get back to install the drain, turns out the pipe in the wall is actually an elbow with a threaded end towards the sink so my adapter won't work, back to the store to pick up a female thread to 1-1/2 pipe adapter for the 1-1/2 drain adapter to glue to. Finally everything should be good to go, but wait... I had cut the tail pipe prior to leaving to get the last adapter and now the pipe out of the wall sticks out to far and I can't get everything linked up without running p trap connection out in front of the drain pipe from the sink. Now the tail pipe is to short and somehow we're missing some of the gaskets so one more trip to the store for another tail pipe and gaskets. Finally everything fits(mostly) and it all works leak free. In Total a 20-30 minute job ends up taking about 5 hours and 4 trips to the store. [link] [comments] |
| 3 Season to mud/bath room conversion Posted: 29 Aug 2020 05:36 AM PDT Album with descriptions: https://imgur.com/gallery/kE8BIFS Couldn't figure out how to add my after draft to an existing imgur album: https://imgur.com/gallery/15yZexR [link] [comments] |
| Let's paint the hallway, they said. It'll be fun, they said! Posted: 29 Aug 2020 04:56 PM PDT I've never been to a crackhouse, but I bet it looks like my hallway. https://imgur.com/a/JGffB5a Prior to painting over the beige paint in our hallway I was looking at the walls and seeing what needed to be filled. I took my putty knife and knocked down a little high spot and paint started just scraping off in sheets. The paint is over 6 years old, and predated us moving in. It clearly wasn't adhered to the old white paint underneath. I scrape and scrape and for the most part it all came off easily, but there are parts where it won't. There are spots where there is mud between the white paint below and the beige paint, causing adhesion, and high spots, and it's pretty difficult to scrape off. The problem is now there are many layers: torn sheetrock > sheetrock > white paint > white paint with mud, beige paint on top of it all. Can it be repaired? Do I sand it down and try to build up mud? Do I need to rip the walls down? Do I just torch this place? Help me /HomeImprovement, you're my only hope! [link] [comments] |
| Apartment dweller needs to get rid of about 4-5 garbage bags full of junk Posted: 29 Aug 2020 08:35 PM PDT I can't get rid of large black garbage bags filled with junk in my building. The chute is too small for a standard tall kitchen garbage bag and we aren't allowed to put garbage/trash directly into the dumpsters. I have about 4-6 black trash bags worth of non-recyclable junk of all kinds. None is hazardous—I can drop that off free of charge at a county site. No electronics either. I thought I could just drive it to a dump, pay a fee, and get rid of it. But all the dumps and landfills in my county have a minimum 1-ton or 3-ton fee. My stuff weighs 300 lbs at most. I checked with junk haulers and they want $325 and up. This is insane! Unless someone has a different idea, the only way I can figure is to buy a box of small garbage bags and fill a bunch of them with my junk and send a couple down the building chute each week. Any help? Thanks! [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 29 Aug 2020 06:42 PM PDT Thinking of a white cabinet with a white stone backsplash. Countertops will also be white. Has anyone done this type of design? Does it look good? [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 29 Aug 2020 12:27 PM PDT My apartment's bedroom floor has ... a giant rock glued down. I'm trying to get rid of this rock, but I need some help. Here are more details. The rock is not directly glued to the wooden floor. Instead, there are two planks of wood underneath the rock. The rock is glued to these planks, which are glued to the floor. I want to remove the rock and the planks. I'm guessing I'll need to use a wood glue dissolver (maybe just vinegar will work?), but it's not clear to me how to apply it. One difficulty is that the space in between the two planks is filled with lots of pebbles and general rubbish ... it's a little bit of an odd situation. https://imgur.com/a/tqJ6iAQ. The schematic I've drawn is a view from the top if the rock were transparent. Maybe I can rub some vinegar onto the outside edge of the planks you can see, but I'm not sure that'll do much towards being able to pry up the wood. Thanks for any suggestions, and enjoy speculating on why someone once decided to glue a rock to their floor! EDIT: Got it! Ends up that the rock was affixed to the planks with glue, but the planks were nailed into the floor. So prying up with a hammer worked fine. Figured this out while trying to use a hair dryer to melt the wood glue and pry it up. [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 29 Aug 2020 01:37 PM PDT My wife and I are looking to renovate a portion of our basement and I was hoping for some advice. Not the "watch out for water" or "use this product" type of advice, more the "What features should I include?/ What do you wish you had added?" type. It's going to be an office and living space. Thanks so much! [link] [comments] |
| Tips for new homeowner house maintenance Posted: 29 Aug 2020 07:57 AM PDT Any tips on things i should be doing to maintain my new home (new build) its been about 1 year now. For example i just learned about pouring a bleach mixture into ac drain pipe to keep it clean sometimes. Never heard about that before. Any other things i should be doing occasionally?? Thanks! [link] [comments] |
| Door Replacement for Steel Frame? Posted: 29 Aug 2020 06:49 PM PDT Hi friends, I need some advice on my very sad garage/dwelling door. The door is warped beyond repair and cannot even be closed. It seems like most people here prefer to replace wood framed interior doors with a prehung one. However, I can't seem to find much information about metal framed doors. Should I find a door that will fit this frame or should I replace it altogether with a pre-hung door (my county requires a 20 minute fire rating for doors leading from garage to dwelling)? Edit: Upon further research I may actually have a knockdown frame but I can't find how to match doors to this type of frame, does anyone know? Thanks! [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 29 Aug 2020 06:31 PM PDT I am having my siding redone and my contractor typically uses Rex-Wrap for the house wrap. Does anyone know how this product compares to Tyvec house wrap? Thank you! https://www.lowes.com/pd/Tyvek-9-ft-x-150-ft-House-Wrap/3227658 [link] [comments] |
| Moving into a new house, no water from tub/shower? Posted: 29 Aug 2020 05:08 PM PDT Hi guys, I'll keep it short. Looking for suggestions before I call a plumber. Was out here with an inspector not long ago. Water was good. Currently, I get full water pressure from the sinks, outside faucet and toilet fills up fine. The tub just barely puts out water at all. I can turn it to hot or cold and it barely comes out, though it's getting hot when set to that. I do have a water softener. Looks like the part where the salt should go is just filled with water. Not sure if that's relevant or not. Any tips? Thanks! [link] [comments] |
| Tips on removing thick scum from tub? Posted: 29 Aug 2020 07:40 PM PDT Just bought a house and one of the bathrooms has a thick/raised yellow scum in the porcelain tub. I'm guessing the previous owners gave up on trying to clean it. Any tips on how to scrub it off? I briefly tried with CLR and a magic eraser and could tell it probably wouldn't do it. [link] [comments] |
| Does anyone have any experience cleaning refinished tubs stained by rusty well water? Posted: 29 Aug 2020 07:31 PM PDT So, my Central FL well water leaves rust stains in my blue shower tub combos. I try to stay on top of it, but of course sometimes I need to break out some heavy chemicals to get rid of the stains. The house has a salt based water softener, RO for drinking, but otherwise no whole house filtration. I'd like to bring the house out of the 80s by getting the tubs refinished in white (by a pro), but I've heard those finishes can't handle chemical cleaners. How would I clean the rust if not with a harsh chemical that might damage the new white finish? Is there a magical organic rust cleaner I don't know about that I'd be able to use on a refinished tub? I guess I should say I don't think extra filtration is in the cards, and I'd rather not have to gut/replace the tubs cause I actually really love that they're all one piece. No seams to scrub. So refinishing seems like a good option... in theory. I'd love some advice or ideas. And suggestions for reputable companies whose product is legit. Thanks! [link] [comments] |
| This is some form of metal siding. How do I smooth it out? Posted: 29 Aug 2020 05:28 PM PDT So I want to layer something on top of this siding. It surrounds our door as an inset into brick. It is under an overhang, protected but still outside. I have enough depth to slap something on top. Or I can use some kind of compound to smooth it out. It only needs to be paintable. Probably about a 6" surround around my door. I'm open to whatever. If I can smooth the metal I'll strip it and do that. [link] [comments] |
| Painting the walls... did I mess up the spackling? Posted: 29 Aug 2020 09:03 PM PDT I'm painting over dark beige walls I filled the holes with spackling and only sanded until it was smooth... not until all the spackling (besides the hole) went away. I've put 2 coats of Benjamin Moore Step 1 primer However, the spackling is showing through like a sore thumb: https://imgur.com/gallery/xsmfTKe I'm about to move on to applying a coat or two of white Benjamin Moore Regal paint, but am worried the spackling will still stick out. Should I start from the beginning and sand these puppies down? Or just a third coat of primer? Or just continue with the paint job? [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 29 Aug 2020 05:12 PM PDT We bought one of those dryer vent cleaning kits where it has a brush on one end, and you connect a bunch of rods together to each other. The last end is connected to a drill which turns to brush clockwise. We thought this would be an easy diy thing... turns out the vent cover outside was broken, so two trips to Home Depot later and we have a new cover. We then inserted the cleaning rod as far as we could from the inside of the house, but it got stuck somewhere, perhaps on a 90 degree turn about 4-5 feet in. Got it out thankfully and decided to go at it from outside. Again, stuck somewhere, maybe 5 feet in. I'm guessing the run of the vent is around 10-11 feet, so relatively long. I can't move the dryer anywhere else to make it shorter. When I run the dryer, I can feel some air coming out from the vent, but it's very weak, and not enough to even flap the cover open. Should I be worried? Do I have a clog? [link] [comments] |
| Do I need to re-prime the wall? Posted: 29 Aug 2020 06:39 PM PDT The is a section of wall I want to paint with an eggshell finish. It's already primed and painted with a flat finish, it just gets dirty too fast (kids). Do I need to prep it to paint it over or can I just add the eggshell on top of the flat? Thanks! [link] [comments] |
| What kind of doorbell is this? It is built on the front door. Posted: 29 Aug 2020 12:26 PM PDT I have never seen this type of doorbell before. The house I bought has no wired doorbell instead it is built on the door. I don't mind it, but might want to update it to something newer than 45 years old. Don't even know how to Google it. Does anyone make this kind anymore? [link] [comments] |
| Are doors supposed to be painted before or after they are installed? Posted: 29 Aug 2020 03:18 PM PDT Hi, I bought a new construction home that is just past the drywall stage. Their model home and all of the example home websites for this sub-division show pure white doors that match the color of the trim. But the doors they put in are a very faded looking yellow... Is this something they are going to paint? Please see the photo: https://imgur.com/a/i6YrYAB - that is what the house currently looks like (no floor yet). Since they already installed the doors, I'm not sure whether they will be painting the doors, or if they;re supposed to come bright white? [link] [comments] |
| How much energy do you use per month? Posted: 29 Aug 2020 12:14 PM PDT Recently bought a home and would love to know avg energy use per household. Intentionally didn't ask for utility bill as energy costs differ per state. Home info: Energy use: [link] [comments] |
| AC leak, tech coming tomorrow, what to expect? Posted: 29 Aug 2020 05:32 PM PDT My AC was installed 2 years ago. It was a full install, we had window units before. Outside unit on the side of the house, main unit in the attic. In the interim me and my husband had a baby, and we have not had a service on the AC. I know. But life got in the way. Today I noticed a doorframe was leaking. Panic dash into the attic, checking the roof. It's not the roof, it's the AC. I called the after hours technician for the people who installed our AC and he gave us a couple things to try and they don't work to call him back. Our unit sits in a big drip/condensation pan that sits on top of a built pallet-like wooden support. There are two drainage pipes, one that connects to the drip pan and one that comes out of the unit itself. Both of them seem to be functioning well. We used a wet vac to suck out the exits of those drainage pipes, by the outside unit. That didn't give us anything spectacular, just a little bit extra drainage. More investigation upstairs in the attic leads us to believe at least one of two things, The drip pan has a small leak or one of those drainage pvc pipes is leaking and that it is not condensation. Our attic floor is large plywood sheets. The area around the AC unit towards the front is damp, there is not unsignificant amount of mold growth. By peeking in through the spaces in the pallet like structure we can see that underneath is also damp. Below the plywood is the joints and joists for the ceiling of our house / floor of the attic. The door jamb that was originally leaking to alert us is still leaking even though we have turned off the AC now. It is about 5 feet horizontally away from where my husband and I think the 'leak' is/the worse of the water damage/mold growth is. The AC tech is coming out tomorrow morning, we are paying out the ass for weekend rates. He is going to give us a full service. But honestly, how bad is this? What things should we be asking the tech, how much, if any, are they going to be responsible for the water damage? Are we SOL? This house was just recently put in our name, it's a family inheritance thing, so we don't have home insurance yet. Should we start taking apart the door frame tonight to let it start drying, survey the damage? Can we turn the AC back on? The damage is already done right? [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 29 Aug 2020 03:54 PM PDT We are closing on a new house that has a mixture of wooden and vinyl windows. The vinyl windows work well but all the wooden windows are stuck shut. We've asked the builder to fix this. One of the wooden windows has a gap between the window and the frame. Is this something that can be fixed or should this window be replaced? Could the frame be out of square and cause this? Window gap https://imgur.com/gallery/O1mVvv2 [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 29 Aug 2020 11:30 AM PDT Be me. Be removing wallpaper. Be working on FINAL, PAINTED OVER WALLPAPERED ROOM IN HOUSE. Stuff comes up in sheets (yay!) Pretty clean, not bad but one wall looks different underneath the devil wallpaper. Huh, says me. Weird. Whatever! I'll save it for last! Clean all the glue off the other walls. Takes 6 hours but going well. Lots of time to work on upper body strength through repetitive motions. Get to devil wall. Wait wtf is this more wallpaper? Is that why this brown paper is here and on no other walls? Ask internet for help. Eat pizza and sulk about almost being wallpaper free but not quite. Wallpaper. Just when you think you're out, they pull you back in. Wallpaper Herpes [link] [comments] |
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