Home Improvement: [OPEN DISCUSSION] Weekly thread |
- [OPEN DISCUSSION] Weekly thread
- Solid Hardwood Floating Shelves
- Can concrete splatter and stain be removed from concrete? My contractor left a bunch of messy puddles on my and my neighbors driveway, now I am concerned it will be there forever. It's been a month.
- Moron with a locked room
- What Kind of Water Shut Off Valve is This and how do I turn it off?
- I burned my countertop and then took a dremel to it to remove it.
- Can’t find air filter :/
- Moved into new house. Our dryer (4 prong) and the wall outlet (3 prong) don’t match up. What can we do?
- What are the best and cheapest wireless indoor/outdoor security cameras, preferably with a low/no cost subscription?
- Relocating a front door
- Basement Flooring - Quarantine Project
- Does anyone how to change these lights? I cant figure out how to open then to change the bulb or how to change the whole unit
- I am maintaining a 9 room home on my own. What is essential to maintain ? to maintaining a 9 r
- To cut or not to cut? Kitchen Cabinet DIY
- Door knob broken and door too tight in frame to remove
- WHAT THE F*** IS THIS SOUND?
- Exterior Recommendation -- Painting Window/Door Trim
- question re: deck posts
- In Denver, snow tomorrow. Should I drain my swamp cooler?
- Why does laminate countertop take 2-3 weeks?
- Is it OK lay plywood underlayment on top of carpet, and then put exercise tiles over it?
- Need help finding a piece of hardware for shelving
- New Cedar fence sagging - issues with gate
- Sound Proofing Door
- Help with old patio that collects water and drains towards house
- First time homeowner here. When painting more than one coat...
| [OPEN DISCUSSION] Weekly thread Posted: 07 Sep 2020 06:05 PM PDT Welcome to the (roughly weekly) Open Discussion thread.
We do this for a few reasons. We know some folks are hesitant to create a new post for a small question they may have. Well, this is the place to ask, and discuss. At the same time, with a growing community we find ourselves having to limit the posts that may be off-topic to the primary purpose of the sub (home improvement questions and project-sharing posts). These topics include home warranty companies, general painting advice, room layouts, or rants about companies, contractors, and previous owners. While these may be of interest, we are trying hard to provide a venue that will both allow, and constrain, the conversation. Thus, this thread. Thank you for participating.
Just a reminder to stay away from any personal or disrespectful commentary. From the sidebar:
If you haven't already, please review the sub guidelines.
Have fun and stay safe folks! [link] [comments] |
| Solid Hardwood Floating Shelves Posted: 07 Sep 2020 04:28 PM PDT https://imgur.com/gallery/l8Lyyu2 My wife mentioned that she wanted some floating shelves in our master bathroom, since we demo'd the linen closet in our master bathroom in order to double the size of our shower, a decision that neither of us regret (seriously, having a massive shower is so so nice). I figured that if I was going to do floating shelves, I wanted some nice chunky ones that were solid wood. So we made a trip to our local lumber yard, looked at a bunch of wood but ultimately decided to go with some Hickory. We loved the light blonde color of the wood and the straight grain structure. It was 8/4 rough sawn, and I had them open it down to a finished thickness of 1.5". After getting it home, I cut it to its final size, routed a 1/8" radius on the edges, sanded everything down, and drilled the holes for the dowels and lag screws. Installation was pretty straightforward. Determine the height we wanted the shelves at, mark the stud locations, drill the holes, and then attach the rear of the shelves to the wall. The front of the shelves just slide over the dowels, and the dowels support the load of the shelf (5x 5" long dowels in the wall shelves, and 3x 2.5" long dowels in the sink shelf). Overall the project was pretty simple, but the outcome is exactly what we wanted. We love the natural color of the wood, and the additional storage it provides is very functional. [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 07 Sep 2020 03:34 PM PDT As the title says I had a contractor do my driveway as well as a mortar together a stone retaining wall that had falling between my and my neighbors driveway. The pictures may be a little difficult to see but in real life it looks twice as bad. Concrete splashes on my driveway and sidewalk and what I assume is mortar splatter on my neighbors driveway. Is there anything I can do about this its this a fixable situation, cleaning? grinding? acid? what am I supposed to do? FYI neighbor chipped in $1000 to me so my contractor would rebuild the retaining wall. Now I took his money and his driveway is left a mess, I really need to fix this so I can sleep at night. [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 07 Sep 2020 11:47 AM PDT So I feel like a moron. I have a guest bedroom, it's mostly for guests, but once in a while I go in just so it's not useless space I pay for. Anyway, it had been a while since I went in there, but the door wouldn't open. It feels like the door knob is broken. There are no screws on the side I have access to. (This feels like a bad riddle). Are there any tricks to use without destroying the door? And if I need to take down the door, what's the easiest way to do that without reenacting the Shining scene? It's just a cheap door, nothing fancy. close up of the door https://imgur.com/a/R7Zlz6w the whole door https://imgur.com/a/OGkPbiJ [link] [comments] |
| What Kind of Water Shut Off Valve is This and how do I turn it off? Posted: 07 Sep 2020 05:21 AM PDT http://imgur.com/a/5NxNyi0 I'm a very new home owner and I discovered that I may need to replace one of the toilet's fill valves. I found that I have this valve and while it could be common, I've never seen this type before and don't know how to stop the water from entering the toilet. I've got nobody to ask so was hoping someone here could help. Thank you! [link] [comments] |
| I burned my countertop and then took a dremel to it to remove it. Posted: 07 Sep 2020 02:50 PM PDT Tl:dr - I'm looking for a product that will fill in a scratched, likely resin bathroom countertop. Needs to dry off-white. I have a bathroom countertop in my apartment that got singed from a burning incense stick. I used my dremel to remove the discoloration but I pressed too had and it left scratches that are noticeable enough (to lose a deposit). I'm not entirely sure what material the countertop is but I know it's not anything fancy. Does a repair kit product exist for something like this? [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 07 Sep 2020 01:08 PM PDT Hi all. New homeowner here. It's been smoky in Cali with all the fires so I wanted to change the air filter (first time ever). We have a split system with fan outside and furnace in the attic. I looked all over, opened all compartments and couldn't find the filter. Finally read the manual and it suggests that this system may not have an internal filter and one needs to be installed externally. I am not seeing one. Is it possible contractor didn't install it? Please see photos for system setup. Two last photos are for something that's in the farther end of the attic and is connected to the furnace by a duct. No idea what that is. Thank you in advance. [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 07 Sep 2020 03:06 PM PDT Solved! Literally a 5 minute YouTube video explained everything. Probably the easiest home improvement job so far. Thanks for the help everyone! Here's some pics of the dryers specs and the outlet on the wall. I don't know much about electrical stuff and don't want anything bad to happen lol Would something like this work? Adapter Thanks for any help! [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 07 Sep 2020 07:40 AM PDT Need some help as I've been looking and don't want to purchase then be disappointed in performance and storage. Thanks! [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 07 Sep 2020 06:31 PM PDT Hey all. I bought a house in Feb and love it a lot. The living room / dining room / kitchen are all one large open room. I've made it work but it's a bit awkward to actually get a dining room out of it. It's not a lack of space - the main entrance door is smack center again the largest wall. I didn't think much of it and a friend made the point I should move the front door 8ft towards one side of the room where a large existing window is. That idea blew my mind as it really improves the layout possibilities. I am researching what this would look like. I think removing the window and adding a door is likely the easier step (I realize it's an outer wall so structure, insulation and all electrical circuits will have to be managed). The real tricky part / part I am concerned about is removing the original door. The exterior is painted brick. I think it makes sense to leave a window in it's place but that won't take up all of it's hole in the wall. Has anyone done this before? What should I look for / ask of general contractors as I start to get bids and ideas. Any tips or advice is appreciated! [link] [comments] |
| Basement Flooring - Quarantine Project Posted: 07 Sep 2020 03:04 PM PDT Pictures: https://imgur.com/gallery/Z5Ztg0u Location: Appalachia, US **The Project** I decided to redo 500 sq ft of flooring in the basement with luxury vinyl plank (LVP). We went with Solid Tech Plus from Mohawk because 1. Good reviews 2. A 20 mil wear later (as I understand very durable), and 3. Style. We used a local flooring retailer (non-chain) to pick out floor samples that we could take home and see in our house's lighting. I'm certain I would have chosen 2-shades too dark seeing the sample in the show room vs our basement. What we replaced was not-well-maintained carpet and ceramic tile in a hallway. **Demo** Started by ripping out the carpet. It came out easy enough with nothing more than hand pliers and a utility knife to cut sections into reasonable sizes. Under the carpet on the perimeter were wooden tack strips nailed into the cement. A pry bar got these out with some effort. The ceramic tile in hallway tile was the worst part of demo. A hammer and hand chisel and patience was enough to remove the ceramic tile itself. **Floor Prep** Most of the time was spent on floor prep and getting everything level. We found that the ceramic tile was adhered to the cement slab floor using ... more cement. We had to use an air hammer to remove the cement adhesive after we got the tile out (chisel hooked up to an air compressor). Otherwise, the cement adhesive would have made the flooring in the hallway 1/4" too high. We found the cement floor had a hairline crack, likely from settling, that we had to grind down to remove about 1/4" off the top from about 30 sq feet area. Using a 4' leveler, we found that there were dips as big as 1/4" over 4' in some areas, which was too much according to the flooring manual that came. Grinding down the top layer was much easier than we thought - we rented a cement grinder and were definitely happy with the HEPA/vacuum to take care of dust. The grinder itself was just a 7" dewalt handheld grinder with a cup grinding wheel. One low spot was taken care of using self-leveling cement. Having never laid this before, I felt it was pretty hard to screw up. You just add water and pour. Not sure why I was ever intimidated by doing prep work on the cement slab. **Laying the Floor** The flooring itself is floating and was incredibly easy and quick once you got your first few pieces laid. They just lock into each other tongue-and-groove. I put down an entire room alone in about 3-4 hours. The biggest time cost for laying floor was cutting the floor planks to go around 3 door frames and 2 closets. To make life easy, we cut a 1/4" gap into each door frame from the floor so that the planks could slide under the door frame after a rough rectangle cut was made in the plank using a jig saw. This way, we didn't have to cut the floor plank to match the "fancy" shape of the door frame molding. Each piece had to be measured and cut to fit our specific doorway sizes and size of our doorway molding. The perimeter pieces had to be occasionally trimmed to fit the last row in a room, or to start a new row with a staggered layout. A table saw made this quick work. The least amount of time was spent actually laying the bulk of the floor. I can lay 1 to 2 planks a minute when I didn't need to stop and cut (2.5 to 5 sq ft/min). **Budget** Ended up getting initial quotes from our local flooring company for ~$4.79/sq ft for LVP from the Mohawk Solid Tech Plus line we liked, plus almost $3000 for labor, total = $5500. Ended up buying the EXACT SAME flooring online at $3.11/sq ft from American Carpet Wholesalers. I asked the local company if they'd meet us halfway on price, but they didn't bother to call me back. I don't feel bad. I bought some equipment I didn't have: table saw being the most expensive at $199, but also a jig saw, mallet hammer, tapping block, pry bar, and leveler. However, this is an investment that I can use for years. Biggest incidental was renting a cement grinder and vacuum for $130. All-in I came in at around $2300 vs the initial $5500 quote. The flooring material was $3.11/sq ft X 550 sq ft = $1700. **TLDR** Overall 9.5/10 would recommend. LVP looks amazing, feels great, but sounds like I'm walking on really, really nice .. plastic. I'm already scheming on when I'll use my new new toys to attempt floor-to-ceiling bookshelves [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 07 Sep 2020 08:30 PM PDT |
| I am maintaining a 9 room home on my own. What is essential to maintain ? to maintaining a 9 r Posted: 07 Sep 2020 06:19 PM PDT ...dust and dirt cropping and a roof caving in because I didn't know to remove snow ,made me realize I have to get it together. I don't even know what I don't know. Are there standard things to attend to or watch out for. Are there certain professionals that I will need to come for regular maintenance ? Thank you so much for any thoughts it seems like a lot to consider. [link] [comments] |
| To cut or not to cut? Kitchen Cabinet DIY Posted: 07 Sep 2020 10:35 PM PDT First time home-buyer, long time crafter and DIY-er here for maybe a stupid question? We just did a bunch of demo in our u-shaped kitchen including pulling up the old laminate countertops to replace them. I had never really noticed but I discovered the dead empty space in both corners with no cabinet access. There Id a beautiful cabinet with two big doors and two big drawers but on both sides in each corner there's nothing. Not even a blind cabinet space. Is there any way I can cut into the neighboring cabinet wall, build a little cheap hidden cabinet to access the space and avoid buying all new cabinets? We're replacing the countertops with butcher block or more laminate so wouldn't be as heavy as stone? Basically my question is if making this hole is going to make the cabinets less stable? I mean it might not be fancy, I'm not worried about a little janky hidden cabinet just worried if they will collapse? [link] [comments] |
| Door knob broken and door too tight in frame to remove Posted: 07 Sep 2020 07:07 AM PDT I recently bought a home and had the hardwood floors sanded and stained. In the course of performing this work, the flooring team closed the door from my dining room to my kitchen. Since then, I have not been able to get this door open again. The doorknob would not turn and the door is so tight in the frame, I wasn't even able to budge it after removing the hinge pins. I've tried inserting a screwdriver in the door knob assembly and turning but this thing will not move. I've also tried light tapping on the outside of the door to loosen it from the hinges but no luck there either. I've spent a few hours on this now and totally lost my patience. Any advice is appreciated. Link to pics: https://1drv.ms/u/s!AkP677eg3qYan0d1L5JwgnIMZUWK?e=vaYZDA [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 07 Sep 2020 08:41 PM PDT Background: Bought a house in the spring, recently had the vents in my house cleaned and maybe a month after this noise started as I walk over this area of my house. Please ignore my jammies in the video but I have tried to google-diagnose it and have not found anything close to this sound. It seems to be where I have ductwork and it is close to the actual furnace but I don't believe it is coming from the actual machine. Its not exactly consistent with where I step but it is only heard when walking over this general area. [link] [comments] |
| Exterior Recommendation -- Painting Window/Door Trim Posted: 08 Sep 2020 12:21 AM PDT Hello everyone! I am looking for some colour recommendations for painting the trim around my windows and doors. The window trim in the backyard, and around the garage window needs to be repainted, and figure they should match the front. Presently they are white -- I'm tempted to keep things that colour so I will only need to repaint the back as opposed the front as well. Presently the fascia is a brown colour, soffits are a cactus green. Here is a picture of the exterior Should they go brown, stay white? Any help/suggestions would be greatly appreciated! [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 07 Sep 2020 10:00 PM PDT I would like to build a small deck in my side yard. The issue I am coming up against is that I cannot dig for posts directly along the house because that is where my gas line runs. What is the alternative to this? I am completely new to building a deck, doing lots of research, but I need to know what to look more at in order to problem solve this particular situation. Do I run a ledger along the house itself and then set the first set of posts farther off the house? I have siding on the house, so would also need to figure out how to run a ledger on surface that isnt vertical. Any resources and insight are greatly appreciated! [link] [comments] |
| In Denver, snow tomorrow. Should I drain my swamp cooler? Posted: 07 Sep 2020 04:13 PM PDT I'm in lakewood and potentially getting 6-8 inches of snow overnight. Shouldn't accumulate since it's 90 today, but worried if I should drain swamp cooler? It will be back in 80-90s next week also so I know I'll use again [link] [comments] |
| Why does laminate countertop take 2-3 weeks? Posted: 07 Sep 2020 07:52 PM PDT I am installing a new kitchen and am looking to get a laminate countertop installed. I've spoken with a couple of installers and they all say that they have to measure after the cabinets are in and that it takes 2-3 weeks after that for the actual install. Can anyone explain to me why this is? I have one L shape and one 10 foot run. In my mind I would be buying the slabs necessary, now, and then someone would come into then house and cut and install them after the countertops are in. What am I missing? [link] [comments] |
| Is it OK lay plywood underlayment on top of carpet, and then put exercise tiles over it? Posted: 07 Sep 2020 05:21 PM PDT I have high pile carpet in a room that I'm hoping to turn into an exercise space. I'd like to put rubber / eva exercise tiles down, but they are too unstable when sitting directly on the carpet. I was initially planning on tearing up the old carpet, and laying down rubber flooring, but then I found this: https://www.flooringinc.com/blog/can-you-install-rubber-gym-flooring-over-carpet/ ...which suggests that I could instead just lay down 1/4" plywood on TOP of the high pile carpet, and install the exercise flooring over the top. The problem is that I can't find ANY other sites / forum posts that suggest this solution, so I'm worried that it won't actually work. Does anyone have any insight? Bonus question, the site suggests taping the plywood boards together, but that also sounds kind of sketchy. If this is indeed a workable solution, is there a better way to join the plywood end to end? Thanks very much for any advice / suggestions! [link] [comments] |
| Need help finding a piece of hardware for shelving Posted: 07 Sep 2020 08:53 PM PDT I have a folding bookcase that was missing a shelf when I received it. I'd like to replace that shelf, and while I could easily use pretty much any kind of bracket to support the front, the way the existing shelves are supported is by pegs on the back of the shelf, and these sort of two-piece brackets on the front (image- https://imgur.com/MeWq0AQ) Can anyone tell me the name for this piece of hardware, and whether I'm likely to find it at a Lowe's/etc, or would need to find it elsewhere? [link] [comments] |
| New Cedar fence sagging - issues with gate Posted: 07 Sep 2020 12:03 PM PDT [Gate] ( https://imgur.com/a/Tfb3tkT ) Located in North Texas. Just had a 6' cedar fence installed last week. I plan on discussing with the contractors before they return to stain the fence but I noticed a few days after install, the double gate (about 9.5 ft total) is already starting to sag/become misaligned and is rubbing against the other door of gate when I open it. This was a major issue with the fence we just replaced. I'm assuming the contractor will know how to correct this but I was hoping to have an idea of the best plan also in case their suggestion isn't the greatest. Through research, it sounds like the best thing would be adding an anti sag kit with metal brackets and a cable or install more wood braces in the same format. I was also curious about the best way to secure it from moving too much when it gets windy as this seems to 'loosen' everything up and opens the door for issues. Any suggestions on how to best correct the issue would be appreciated? [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 07 Sep 2020 08:46 PM PDT Hello! I'm trying to find the best way to sound proof a door. The door is between my bedroom and the kitchen. Any suggestions? I've looked into using fabrics and acoustic barriers, but I'm not sure what the best option is for a bedroom door. Also, would I apply it facing inwards (towards my bedroom and where I want it to be quiet) or outwards (towards the kitchen and where the noise is coming from)? [link] [comments] |
| Help with old patio that collects water and drains towards house Posted: 07 Sep 2020 07:28 AM PDT Recently bought a house and was hoping to have someone redo the patio but everyone is booked far out and other projects have taken priority. The patio is cracked and slopes towards the house in places. I'm looking to prevent the water draining towards the house until I we get the patio redone next spring. I'm wondering if there's some easy solution, don't really care if it looks crappy. I've considered just putting sandbags up against the house. I'm wondering if I skim coated the patio with self leveling cement if it would do the trick for the winter. Here's some pictures. Thanks! [link] [comments] |
| First time homeowner here. When painting more than one coat... Posted: 07 Sep 2020 06:23 AM PDT How do you keep the paint from coming off with the tape? Pull it earlier and re-tape for every coat? [link] [comments] |
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