Home Improvement: What project have you spent money on that you now realize wasn’t worth it? |
- What project have you spent money on that you now realize wasn’t worth it?
- Near a recent fire? Change your air filter.
- If you moved to a new city, did you buy a home immediately or rent for a year?
- I keep pulling water (through a dehumidifier) from a room that's not even humid! What gives?
- Help! How to pick a white?!
- Locating Chirping Smoke Detector
- big ol’ hole in basement floor
- How do I remove the things that hold down this old coaxial cable down to the wall?
- 2 Year Long Basement Remodel
- DIY vs hiring a contractor
- What to do with an 1890s farmhouse
- Michigan crawl space water seepage looking for Advice
- Remove dirt from crawl space.
- Replacing toilet fill valve, 2" or 3"
- Use flex seal to fix slope on box gutters?
- Just bought a house, water seeping through the walls. Can I fix it from the inside?
- How to use this awkward closet space?
- What is the best LVP brand?
- Quick question for plumbers/ anyone who knows anything about water hoses
- Refinishing stairs & updating an entryway
- How to fix gaps between trim and floor
- Does anyone know any good water test kits for bacteria & metals, etc?
- Any septic tank owners on here? Wondering if you could take a look at my levels.
- Splice Outdoor Wire
- Contracting out some work - etiquette question
| What project have you spent money on that you now realize wasn’t worth it? Posted: 29 Oct 2020 10:32 AM PDT For example spending $1,500 on new attic insulation only to save $5 a month on the gas bill. [link] [comments] |
| Near a recent fire? Change your air filter. Posted: 29 Oct 2020 08:29 PM PDT I change my FAU filters every 6 months. The one on the right had just been through the last 6 weeks or so of fires, ash, smoke, etc. with the latest being the Silverado fire. I installed it around mid July; I've never seen it this bad before. Change your filters. [link] [comments] |
| If you moved to a new city, did you buy a home immediately or rent for a year? Posted: 29 Oct 2020 06:00 AM PDT Apologies if this is the wrong place for this, I just can't get any feedback on any other subs. The next place I end up moving to, I'd like to purchase a house. I've been living in apartments since I was in college and I'm over it. Is it better to get an idea of the city first and rent, or just go ahead and buy? The city I'm looking at has pretty good housing costs, but the housing rentals are insanely expensive. Edit: I did not expect this many responses, but thank you all! I will definitely be renting a house first! 🙂 [link] [comments] |
| I keep pulling water (through a dehumidifier) from a room that's not even humid! What gives? Posted: 29 Oct 2020 07:12 AM PDT Room is in the basement. Walls are mostly isolated (there's a tiny wall section without fiberglass). The floor is lined with "tar paper", a 2X3 frame and aspenite sheets. The rest of the basement is used daily (my home office, childs bedrooms, leasure room, bathroom, etc.), heated between 18 and 21. The problematic room is also heated. The adjacent room (cold room) isn't heated (duh!) and poorly isolated but the door is obviously always closed and, though not 100% sealed, it's pretty good IMO. Say 80%. I run a dehumidifier 24/7 (I'm trying to dry a wood slab for a project) and for a straight month, I've been pulling more than a gallon of water daily. Weird thing is the room doesn't feel humid at all. The dehumidifier even stops sometimes when the moisture level is too low. But day after day, it stills fills up. There's also a sump pump in that room (in the underground black tub) that collects the adjacent bathroom drains and push it in the septic tank. It's not 100% sealed either, I would guess 95% since there's sometimes a faint odor (I know!) sometimes when it's being solicited for a "big job". This bathroom is not used that often so there's not a great volume of "water" going through that system. So. I understand it's not well isolated. The house is close to 40 years old, the materials have aged, the methods have changed, etc. But! The quantity of water I'm pulling completely baffles me! [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 29 Oct 2020 01:31 PM PDT I want to paint several rooms in our new house white, but there are so many options! I'm finding none of them are going to perfectly match to the white trim, so should we go for the closest? Totally different? More cool? More warm? Grey-ish? I'm so confused what will match! [link] [comments] |
| Locating Chirping Smoke Detector Posted: 29 Oct 2020 10:15 AM PDT Oh, the fun of finding that smoke detector that is chirping. My wife and I recently moved into a new house and about a month or so ago our smoke detector started chirping seemingly in our garage. I tried locating it, but I cannot find it for the life of me. I think it is a definite possibility that it is hidden in the ceiling above the sheetrock. Rather than going on a desperate search for a hidden smoke detector, I decided I would let the battery die and then replace it with a new one that I can actually replace the batteries in, but I recently found out with a separate chirping smoke detector that they are hardwired with a battery backup, so I imagine this chirping will go on forever unless I figure out where it is. Does anyone have any ideas on how to get around this? [link] [comments] |
| big ol’ hole in basement floor Posted: 29 Oct 2020 02:46 PM PDT My wife & I bought an 1890s house in the northeast US this year that came with an added bonus: a big ol' hole in the middle of the basement floor. We're trying to figure out what to do about it as we also sort out what to do with the basement in general -- would love your ideas and advice. Here are some pictures: https://imgur.com/a/qrUUM1v (at the bottom of the post I'll share what we think the hole was for) Facts about the hole: - about 3ft diameter - filled with dirt and trash - lined with brick in some places at least - don't know how deep it is Facts about the basement and foundation: - the floor is in bad shape, spalling, and seems pretty thin -- maybe just an inch or two thick - pretty sure the slab was just poured right onto dirt - house has a rubble foundation that's in pretty good shape! - we measure radon at about 3-8 pCi/L in the basement depending on weather and season (but under 1 upstairs, so no immediate concerns) - we're almost at the top of a big hill and the basement gets damp but only rarely wet, and only in like two spots I'd like to -- who knows when -- turn part of the basement into an exercise room in addition to how it now works as storage and workshop. The basic ingredients of that feel like adding a floor and walls and mitigating the radon. But first, the hole! We have a vague hypothesis that some portion of the elevated radon is because of the hole, seeing as it's, well, a big ol' hole in the foundation. What should I do about this hole? My impulse is to dig out the inside until there's no more trash, then add gravel and aggregate until like two inches below where I'll want the floor to be, and then follow instructions (make sure there's an overhang, use concrete bonding liquid, then add concrete mixture, level and tamp down). If it helps for thinking about what to do with the hole, I've got some tentative plans about floor and radon mitigation, too. I talked with a radon professional who suggested that traditional mitigation won't work when the slab is right on top of dirt. So my rough plan is to lay down a vapor barrier of like 10 mil plastic sheeting on the concrete floors and exterior walls and build a floating floor of 2x4s and plywood on top. The radon pro suggested a heat recovery ventilator, too. Does this sound reasonable? Would love your advice on where I'm forgetting what or your tips about laying concrete. I've never done this before! And suggestions about what type of concrete to use would be great, too. Is this a small enough job where I should get the ready mix, or big enough and cost difference enough that I should mix my own? We did a bit of research and talked with our realtor and inspector and have a hypothesis about what the hole was for. We think the house used to have an octopus heating system, with the coal furnace in the hole. Pictures of the ducts that weren't totally removed are in that imgur album: https://imgur.com/a/qrUUM1v (that's where my username comes from -- longtime lurker, made an account just for this) [link] [comments] |
| How do I remove the things that hold down this old coaxial cable down to the wall? Posted: 29 Oct 2020 11:26 AM PDT Just bought a place. Having fiber installed. I want to remove the old cable but it is bolted down by these weird clips. What's the best way to remove these? [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 28 Oct 2020 07:31 PM PDT In July of 2018 our washing machine decided to not stop filling at the start of a cycle and ran water onto the floor of our basement for about 4 hours. By the time my wife went down to see if the washer was done we had water 6" deep in the utility/laundry room and ~2" deep across a large portion of the basement. She couldn't tell right away where the water was coming form so she went straight to the main water valve and turned it off. This all started around 9pm and I'm at work. There is a floor drain in the utility room, but it's apparently VERY slow and needs to be redone. Wife called a neighbor and a family friend to come over and help starting to clean up. We got the water sucked up and started pulling up carpet just to try and keep it from wicking even further. I called insurance on my way back to work and got a claim started. All of the carpet squares were either taped, glued, or both so we had to sand/scrape all of that residue up so the floor would float correctly. Also ended up having to put down 3 bags of self leveler in 1 area to get rid of the slope towards the floor drain. EDIT: We went with the LifeProof luxury vinyl planks from Home Depot for the floor because we wanted something nicer than carpet yet easy to maintain. While working on the floor in the main area we got some record rains and ended up with water in the basement. I was able to track it back to one corner of the bedroom/office area so I ripped down the wall to check it out. Found a crack that had been half-ass patched before. Called a repair company who came out and fixed it a week later. I waited a few days and put drywall back up. 2 days after I finished the drywall we got record rains again and the crack leaked again so I had to pull down all of the drywall I just finished. Called the repair company and they came out to fix it free of charge, even though it had been hidden behind the wall before. They earned a customer for life and a solid recommendation to anyone in the area who needs foundation work done. Once the drywall work was all done I decided that I didn't like how poorly done all of the paint in the basement was so I bought paint and started repainting everything. We'd already painted 1 wall in the living room area, but since I'm doing everything out of order I had to put down a drop cloth to paint the walls and ceiling in there. Painting the walls and ceiling meant more drywall patching since like so much else here it was totally half-assed. All of the baseboards had been put up with nails, liquid nails, and silicone caulk to seal the top edge and fill the nail holes so I had to scrape all of that off before I could paint them. None of the closets had any kind of trim, so I added that. One closet didn't even have finished drywall so I took care of that at the same time. The door to the bedroom hadn't been painted either. The closet shelves and wall cabinets went back up in May of 2019 and we've SLOWLY been organizing since then. The basement seems to suffer from 'out of sight, out of mind' since I'm really the only one spending any major time there. We still haven't put anything up on the walls because we can't decide what we want where and I can't bring myself to start putting holes everywhere so it's still not 100% done but it's close enough for now. All in, this cost us around $2,000 out of pocket after insurance. It took at least 4 times as long as I initially thought it wound and like all projects ended up suffering from scope creep. EDIT: Looking back, there isn't much I would have done differently other than maybe deciding to paint everything before I got most of the floor down. The biggest portion of the 'budget' not covered by insurance went to having the cracks in the foundation fixed for just shy of $700. This did come with a lifetime fully transferable warranty and included them coming out a 2nd time at no charge. All paint was purchased from Sherwin Williams just days after a sale ended so like a sucker I paid full price. Went with SuperPaint just to split the difference on price/quality for the walls and Eminence for the ceiling. Roughly 10 gallons and $500. Everything else was drywall-related supplies (compound, tape, screws, drywall, more drywall, finishing tools), primer, various paint brushes/rollers/trays/caulking, new trim to replace a couple broken pieces and to put where it wasn't before, air nailer to do the trim, a few new can light inserts, and a couple tools as needed from Home Depot. I live right around 400 yards from a Home Depot so some days I was there 15+ times getting little things I forgot. I was on a first name basis with several employees there, one even helped me schlep the drywall across the parking lot and into my basement because I didn't have access to a truck at the moment and all of theirs were rented. [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 29 Oct 2020 10:17 AM PDT If you are capable of completing a job yourself, what factors do you consider when deciding whether or not to take it on? I'm in the midst of renovating my home in which I will be doing nearly all of the work myself. I'm doing it myself because I have the tools and skills but also because I don't have money. The next job I'm struggling to get moving on is installing a French drain between my neighbors driveway and my home. Everything about the job is uncomfortable to me. It involves working right beside my neighbors house (whom I'm not friends with), digging and moving clay soil, hauling or having gravel delivered, etc. These things really don't appeal to me. I feel like I'm getting worn down by the burdens of my home. Thus far I've had an attitude of I can do it and I want to do it because I have an expectation of excellence in work. I'm starting to think that this prideful attitude may be foolish and that my mentality is wasted in my decaying neighborhood. I imagine many people are in a similar position given the age of so many homes in low to middle class neighborhoods in the midwest USA. I'm watching these neighborhoods rapidly decay and it's unfortunate. At this point I'm ready to flee to a rural area with my wife. The sooner the better and I need to weigh the cost benefit of dragging this out vs saving on labor costs. At what point should I say the money saved is worth the money spent on hiring a contractor? Has anyone had similar sentiments about caring for their home? [link] [comments] |
| What to do with an 1890s farmhouse Posted: 29 Oct 2020 07:39 PM PDT I am soon going to acquire my eccentric aunt's 1880s/1890s farmhouse. It's been neglected for a variety of reasons, but I'd really like to keep it and fix it up because it has a lot of charm. There's no glaringly obvious problems, but I know there's likely things wrong with it, where do I begin? What kinds of experts/inspectors/engineers should I contact first? I'd like to do this right and preserve as much of the home as possible. [link] [comments] |
| Michigan crawl space water seepage looking for Advice Posted: 29 Oct 2020 06:41 PM PDT Looking for Advice on where I need to make changes and how much of an issue /danger this water seepage is currently. We recently purchased the house (the Covid market is impossible and I can't believe we can finally move out of our apartment!). Looking to repair this ourselves if possible. This side of the house does not have rain gutters.. so we figured that was a good place to start... any and all advice would be much appreciated! [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 29 Oct 2020 06:40 PM PDT Our house has an addition built on the back of the main house. The crawl space has bairly enough space to crawl through between studs and ground(thus "crawl" space). But i was wondering if there is any tool or reasonable method to break up and remove dirt from a crawl space. (To make it less narrow) Like perhaps some kind of dirt vacume ? Or trench digger variation? [link] [comments] |
| Replacing toilet fill valve, 2" or 3" Posted: 29 Oct 2020 07:46 AM PDT Hello, I have a running toilet and I think the fill valve needs to be replaced. I've shut the water off at the wall valve and with the tank full I don't seem to be getting any running water in the bowl so it doesn't seem like the flapper is the problem. The flapper doesn't show much wear at all, actually, seems like it's held up very well. The toilet tank assembly is 20 years old (I bought brand new construction), this will be the first replacement of the parts. I have the old float ball type, looks like this which they don't seem to make anymore when I do some googling for a toilet fill valve. I'm looking at something like this (this was found just doing a simple ebay search): Fluidmaster 400Crp14 Universal Toilet Fill Valve And Flapper Repair Kit, For 2-I The description says Size:9" to 14", 2" Flush Valve Toilets From the photo it looks to be telescoping to fit deeper tanks, I guess. I measure my tank and from the bottom to the top lip with the lid off (so measurements taken from the inside) it's about 10 1/4" to 10 1/2" tall. So 9" seems like this would work for me. How do I know if my flush valve is 2"? I've also seen fill valves advertised as being 3" My toilet is branded Universal/Rundle 6.0 Lpf/1.6 gpf. The flow measurements have the most wear but that's what it looks like. I don't believe my toilet is anything non-standard or special and I'm guessing the 2" is what I need. Can I get some opinions on what fill valve I should be replacing mine with? The Fluidmaster brand seems to be a big one from what I've seen. [link] [comments] |
| Use flex seal to fix slope on box gutters? Posted: 29 Oct 2020 07:06 AM PDT Hi everyone- My old house has box gutters. They don't slope properly towards the downspout, so water pools when it rains, and now some of the paint is chipping away. It's only a matter of time until the metal rusts and water gets into my roof. Here is a picture of the gutter on a rainy day. My friend has suggested two fixes:
I have questions for both options. Regarding option 1: does anybody have any suggestions for the kind of paint/primer to use? Is there a super-heavy duty waterproof paint I could use (car paint? boat paint?)? Regarding option 2: is flex seal actually OK? I have reservations over using an "as seen on TV" product. Can I paint over the flex seal after it dries? What paint should I use? I'd appreciate any and all feedback. I know I'm an old man now because, whenever it rains, I get worried about the gutters. [link] [comments] |
| Just bought a house, water seeping through the walls. Can I fix it from the inside? Posted: 29 Oct 2020 06:03 PM PDT Me and my wife just bought our first house and had not been told that water was seeping through the walls. Today was the first heavy rain since we moved in about a week ago. There was no water on the floor, but I could see that water was seeping through the walls in a few spots. From what I've read, some have used Quikrete and some say the fix has to be done from the outside to reduce moisture around the foundation. Any advice would be super appreciated. I've been freaking out all day since I saw it today. Pictures - https://imgur.com/a/jLY14bm [link] [comments] |
| How to use this awkward closet space? Posted: 29 Oct 2020 07:36 PM PDT I've got an awkward hallway closet/linen closet space that's got the oddest dimensions: it's got a narrow doorway, but the inside of the closet is tall and has a diagonal wall that makes it much wider than the door. Looking from above, it's basically shaped like this: |---------------------- | |. | |. | |. / | / |___________/ We tried to MarieKondo our towels to stand upright, but they're too floppy on the wire shelving, so they look a mess. The bed sheets are hopeless because they're too wide. The outside doorframe height is 80.5" The outside doorframe width is 15" The inside width is 35" at the widest point (because of the diagonal wall) The inside height is 99" The inside depth is 22.75" Here's a link to some pictures of the space: http://imgur.com/a/ni01hGM EDIT: Here's a pic of the outside of the closet door. It's between the diagonal wall (of a bedroom) on the right and an HVAC panel to the left. Thanks for the help! [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 29 Oct 2020 01:12 PM PDT Few things I read on reddit:
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| Quick question for plumbers/ anyone who knows anything about water hoses Posted: 29 Oct 2020 02:30 PM PDT Hi all, my backyard hose on/off wheel no longers "shuts off." If I turn it to the off side, it just keeps turning indefinitely. How can I fix this? Thanks!! [link] [comments] |
| Refinishing stairs & updating an entryway Posted: 29 Oct 2020 09:38 AM PDT Since we moved into our house about a year ago I've wanted to change how this entryway looked. The floor and stairs, which had a beige sheet vinyl on them, were beat up and ugly and needed an update. I ripped up the sheet vinyl, which also required ripping up the old linoleum it was glued to, and scraped up the felt paper that had been glued to the original hardwood. I refinished the stairs by sanding and restaining the treads and painting the risers and adding some trim. For the entry floor we placed floating vinyl click-together tiles on top of the hardwood, it's our main entry in wintertime and I didn't want to go to all the trouble of refinishing the hardwood just to have it get damaged by road salt and whatever else would get dragged in on our shoes. We also ended up replacing the old screen door with a newer storm door. From start to finish I'd say this took about a month and a half, mostly on evenings and weekends when I had time to spare. Total budget came out to around $650, that price includes the new door (which had to be special ordered because our house is old and nothing is standard sized). Without the door the budget would've been closer to $350. Next is to tackle removing the old flooring that runs through the hallway and kitchen on our main floor. It looks odd right now with the contrasting flooring, but I'm hoping once both areas are redone it'll go together nicely! [link] [comments] |
| How to fix gaps between trim and floor Posted: 29 Oct 2020 12:01 PM PDT What is the best way to fix uneven floor trim? The trim is perfectly flat and level, but the floor dips in a couple places. Basement was finished by a DIYer. There are no pipes or wires behind that wall. Picture: https://imgur.com/a/up6Bjqp [link] [comments] |
| Does anyone know any good water test kits for bacteria & metals, etc? Posted: 29 Oct 2020 05:59 PM PDT (Idk if this is the right reddit page to post on. So sorry in advance) I want to test my water purifier and my tap water but I feel overwhelmed on which test is the best. [link] [comments] |
| Any septic tank owners on here? Wondering if you could take a look at my levels. Posted: 29 Oct 2020 04:01 PM PDT I have two tanks and both appear to be filled fairly high. these are new septic tanks and we have only lived in the house for about 3 months but have been remodeling it for the past 10 months. I noticed some type of sewage smell in my basement furnace room and that's what triggered me to check the septic tank. Although to be honest the smell could be a dead mouse not really sure. Septic tank https://imgur.com/a/4QPYt9I [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 29 Oct 2020 05:26 PM PDT Hey! TL;DR up front - what's your favorite way to splice wires for outside applications? Heat wrap a butt crimp? I got some supposedly water proof wire nuts, but I'm skeptical. Full context below: I just had a guy install a water softener, and he did a plain terrible job on getting the power to it. First, he used what had to have been a one inch drill bit to punch a hole through the exterior block so he could get what looks like 22 gauge wire through to an outlet. Whatever, I just patched the stucco, and I'll paint it tomorrow. The real issues are that - he didn't hardwire it at all. He just has the wire going through the front of the outlet and plugged the adapter into the outlet...that's on a lightswitch that apparently I can never use again. So now I've got to splice this thing in my bedroom and run it to an outlet that's not on a switch. Fine...whatever. Just a quick chore. [Imgur](https://imgur.com/7Fo6VKd) Last straw is this dude just uses regular ass wire nuts on his outdoor splice. Didn't even bother with electrical tape. I'm not an electrician by any stretch, but this seems really wrong, yeah? [Imgur](https://imgur.com/aL4PKnH) [link] [comments] |
| Contracting out some work - etiquette question Posted: 29 Oct 2020 04:38 AM PDT Hi everyone, we're contacting out some work on our 116 year old home. New ceiling drywall tear down & replacement in kitchen, small odd shaped bathroom and an extra bedroom, having our deck power washed & painted & having some painting done in about 70% of the home + our kitchen cabinets. Normally we'd diy but we're in a home-sale situation & decided it would be best to hire out & get it done right and fast. The same 2 guys will be doing all of this work. Is it appropriate to give them a tip or a gift card or something to thank them? They're doing a really good job, are very polite & most importantly are working around our moving boxes and packing shrapnel. It's absolute chaos over here. I apologize if this isn't the right place to post, but I was hoping to find some suggestions or a shared experience. TLDR: we have 2 guys doing a lot of work in a short span of time so we can sell our house. Should we tip them or get them a gift card? Edit: seems like very quickly, the unanimous response is a big yes. My dad is very handy, so I've never had anyone ever work on anything like this for me, so I'm new to the situation. Thanks for your advice!!! [link] [comments] |
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