Home Improvement: Feel so stupid posting this: what is the right way to paint all edges of a small pieces of wood? |
- Feel so stupid posting this: what is the right way to paint all edges of a small pieces of wood?
- DIY chimney sweep experience
- How dead am I?
- My First Home Renovation Project
- Interior Doors: What is the difference between Hollow Core, Hollow, and Solid Core?
- Our new washer shakes our condo please help
- Help, Stuck! Laminate Flush Stair Nose + transition + angles.
- Buying a new house (completed 2019). Should we pay for well ($250) and septic ($495) inspections?
- My exposed brick project in Boston. Looking for breathable sealer recommendations.
- Easy to replace a couple broken tiles?
- Bathroom exhaust fan install with blown in insulation
- Best place to order cellular shades
- Need help with french door glass
- What the hell is going on behind my drywall? PART 2
- Is there a way to step down from a 20 amp circuit to 15 amps?
- Replica lighting from China
- New Porch Columns
- At what point do you call your homeowner's insurance?
- Bypassing a CFL ballast help needed
- Trouble installing new thermostat, unable to turn off breaker power , possibly due to Solar?
- Need advice on dryer exhaust vent on roof of my home
- New to flooring
- Finished Porch Advice
- Solution Tor Broken Shed Window
| Feel so stupid posting this: what is the right way to paint all edges of a small pieces of wood? Posted: 08 Nov 2020 04:04 PM PST Clearly I'm a relatively new homeowner by posting this. I have a small piece of wood I'm trying to paid all sides of and am having trouble getting it smooth. I paint the edges but then paint ends up on the connecting faces, kind of dripping. I only have primer now on it but am trying to figure this out. I'm using a 2.5 wide brush which could be the issue or maybe it's using a brush at all and I should be using a small roller? I tried searching for the answer but Google kept giving me results for painting the sides of mdf or plywood which isn't the issue here. So far as I've done just primer I've been doing it and sanding down the excess. But clearly that won't work when I try to apply the final paint I'm using. [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 08 Nov 2020 07:36 PM PST I recently bought a home and the fire place is quite old and came as-is. It was clearly very dirty and likely needed some repairs as well - I called a few local sweep companies and they all said it'd be about a month before they could come out - I'm inpatient so I decided to do some research and it all seemed simple enough - I've just completed the cleaning portion of my project and I wanted to share my experience. I bought the drill powered "soot-eater" brush - was about $45 and was easy to operate and put together. I initially got cheap plastic drop clothes to protect the carpet and surrounding area - bad move! That shit was just moving around everywhere and was a pain to deal with - also it would get sucked up into the vacuum. I got so frustrated that I went back out to the store to buy the more expensive canvas drop cloth for $20 and it was very much worth it. I accidentally attempted to run my shop vac without checking inside and I didn't have a filter or anything on the exhaust and I legit blew I giant cloud of black smoke on my TV stand. So I got a filter and also another 10ft section of tubing for the shop vac to run the exhaust out the window - these two steps were crucial to my success. Also, don't try to vacuum all the initial ash in the fire place - get a bucket, hand brush, and dust pan and move the bulk of the ash into the bucket by hand - save the vacuum for finishing touches and clean up. Cleaning the actual chimney took me like 10min with the soot eater and didn't seem all that dirty. The fire box however was hella dirty and took me over an hour of hard work with a steel wire brush. My throat damper was rusted open causing major drafts and loss of heat. I brushed the rust/building up off of the pivot points - used some brute strength and some knocks of the hammer to slowly loosen it up - tossed some wd-40 on the pivot and with some more convincing I finally got it functioning smoothly again. You will get dirty! My arms and face were covered in black soot - definitely wear a mask! I tried to wear safety glasses as well but they fogged up immediately and I got pissed. My Total costs: $135 -soot eater - $45 -wire brush - $3 -brush, dust pan, bucket - $20 -shitty plastic drop cloth - $4 -good canvas drop cloth -$23 -shop vac filter and additional hose -$40 I already had drill for soot eater, shop vac, and basic tools. If you have hardwood floors by your fireplace I think it would be much easier or at least be less stressful - we have new white carpet that I was very worried about getting dirty. Total process took me like 3 hours - but i has to run to the store, my fireplace was extremely dirty, and I had to fix the rusted shut damper. Overall - it wasn't super easy and was a little stressful. But now that I've done it once it should be hella East next time. [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 08 Nov 2020 01:10 PM PST We had concrete poured 3 weeks ago for a new back patio. I just let my kids ride their push bikes on it. There are lines all over the concrete now. Are these permanent??? My wife isn't home and I'm trying to figure out how dead I am when she gets home and sees it. [link] [comments] |
| My First Home Renovation Project Posted: 08 Nov 2020 12:26 PM PST Hi everyone, I'm a lurker, but finally decided to post this project that I've been planning to do for a couple years now. I'm in the South Bay of Los Angeles, near the beach cities. I bought this house a couple years ago, and live there with my wife and preschool age kids. This is my forever home, so I'm planning to pay it off 15 years early and don't plan on ever selling it. It's also my first time ever doing a renovation. With that in mind, a big reason why I bought a house is because I can do whatever I want with it. One thing we've never used or cared about is a dining room, so we want a bigger kitchen and living room. I've finally decided to actually start hitting the pavement to look for contractors, etc., but before I go and make a fool out of myself around town, I wanted to get some outside perspective. So here's a few pictures of my house as it is now. These are staged real estate photos from when I bought it a couple years ago, furniture & decor are different but structure is exactly the same. And here's a overhead floor plan: https://imgur.com/mtfg3Tm So, basically the order of what I want to do is:
You're in for a treat because I got creative with MS paint and drew what I basically wanted to do: https://imgur.com/a/NZDhcIg The kitchen I want to install will be cheap, most likely something from Ikea. I only need it to last about 15 years, at which point I will probably do another reno and put in something of higher quality. Or I'll just leave it. I'm sure I'll figure it out in 2035 if an earthquake hasn't already swallowed us up. Hopefully the finished product will look something like this: And the floor plan: https://imgur.com/8EGZbtF Let me reiterate this is the first time I've ever done a renovation, but everyone who has done them keeps constantly telling me I'll throw away tens of thousands of dollars if I get a general contractor, and to just hire dudes for the individual jobs. So, okay, I guess I'll do that. I'm also trying to budget for this thing. I'm trying to get a rough idea of the cost for each job so:
Small side note, I'm really all about buying as much from Home Depot/Lowes as possible because of my military discount. So, I'm estimating about 22k at the top end for this project. Plus 15% because something will happen. Plus another 15% because the city and the county will find some way to fuck me over somehow. So roughly 30k at the top end. Does that seem fair? I'm also thinking of consulting with a professional to maybe draw up plans with a little more fidelity than "some guy screwing around with MS paint on his laptop". Anyway, I'd love to get some opinions on this -- likes, dislikes, potential issues, or maybe even better ideas. I'm currently asking everyone I know in the neighborhood for contractor recommendations. I've also actually got way more than 30k saved up for this, but I want to use that on other projects like a main sewer line repair, bathroom renovation, and a garage conversion. Thanks for reading! [link] [comments] |
| Interior Doors: What is the difference between Hollow Core, Hollow, and Solid Core? Posted: 08 Nov 2020 05:15 PM PST I know this question sounds easy, and maybe it is, but then again maybe its not. I'm looking at three doors made by Jeld-Wen on the Orange Retailers website. All three are identical in style, size, and product line. One is listed as "Hollow Core" with a weight of 34lbs and price of $90. Next up is a "Hollow" door with a weight of 56lbs and a price of $119. Finally we have the "Solid Core" door with a weight of 70lbs and a price of $189. I know what a "Hollow Core" door is and I know what a "Solid Core" door is but just what in tarnation is a "Hollow" door? FWIW I am planning an upgrade from my existing Hollow Core doors which is why this is coming up. [link] [comments] |
| Our new washer shakes our condo please help Posted: 08 Nov 2020 03:03 PM PST We just bought a new two in one washer dryer (I'll put the link below if that helps at all) and it shakes so violently that furniture shakes and my bf has mentioned that "a helicopter must be going over the house" when he didn't realize I'd started running it. We've tried putting vibration pads under it, leveling it, experimenting with load sizes and the settings, but nothing works. Does anyone know anything I can do or buy to try to fix it? Thanks in advance. [link] [comments] |
| Help, Stuck! Laminate Flush Stair Nose + transition + angles. Posted: 08 Nov 2020 07:41 PM PST I don't even know where to start here.... here is the step I'm working on and a screenshot of the type of "flush" stair nose i got from Lumber Liquidators..... every video I watch, the nose is just like tongue and groove, what I have here has no tongue. How is this supposed to be "flush"? I have left over laminate so I wanted to do the step with the left over but is that even possible with what I have? Also....i don't even know which way I should go here with the laminate with this nose. Should i do a bunch of boards running the width of the stair? Or should i do 3 pieces running the length (which is the opposite of the room it's going into but at this point i don't care) This transition looks large also. I bought a reducer but i have no idea if it'll work on something this large. This is my first time doing flooring and this is confusing me.....having to deal with an angled step, transition, nose, and reduction all in the same little spot. Help a clueless guy out here 😂 thanks! [link] [comments] |
| Buying a new house (completed 2019). Should we pay for well ($250) and septic ($495) inspections? Posted: 08 Nov 2020 06:08 AM PST Buying a new house (completed 2019). Should we get well ($250) and septic ($495) inspections? We're already paying for a home inspection. [link] [comments] |
| My exposed brick project in Boston. Looking for breathable sealer recommendations. Posted: 08 Nov 2020 04:44 PM PST Here is what my wall looked like : https://imgur.com/gallery/kovGro3. Plastered late 1800's wall (117 sq ft) in Boston apartment I used a hammer and chisel at the beginning to see what I was working working with: https://i.imgur.com/xLoglJD.jpg Dusty as hell. Used a 3M Full Facepiece Reusable Respirator 6800. Upgraded to Bosch Bulldog Xtreme 8 Amp 1 in. Corded Variable Speed SDS-Plus and Milwaukee 3 in. x 6 in. SDS-PLUS Hammer Steel Tile Chisel. Way easier than hammer and chisel. Done in one evening. This was one of the easiest parts of the project. The plaster disposal was the hardest part. Extremely dense and heavy stuff. Lots of fine dust particles. https://i.imgur.com/aVa7kOg.jpg I then removed mortar residue from bricks with a drill mounted with Avanti Pro 4 in. x 1 in. Non-Woven Drill Mount Quick-Strip Disc. More dust. Very time consuming. Brick by brick. Went through 3 discs. Started to remove mortar residue from bricks with a drill mounted with Avanti Pro 4 in. x 1 in. Non-Woven Drill Mount Quick-Strip Disc. More dust. Very time consuming. Brick by brick. Went through 3 discs. https://i.imgur.com/OiWb0ju.jpg Final product. https://i.imgur.com/00yMuHl.jpg Used a Muriatic acid based product, Sureklean 600, at a ratio of 1 part acid to 10 parts water to get rid of the efflorescence. I used a hose to get the wall super wet before applying the acid with a Tampico brush. I rinsed it with water after 5 min and applied a baking soda to neutralize the acid. Used a gas mask respirator, 3M Organic Vapor/Acid Gas Cartridge/Filter 60923, and a coverall while applying. Looking to seal it with breathable product to limit dust and and maybe add a little luster. Any recommendations? [link] [comments] |
| Easy to replace a couple broken tiles? Posted: 08 Nov 2020 05:35 PM PST Hello all. Three tiles in this picture are broken (the obvious one at the front left and the two to the right of it). Is it realistic to remove and replace just three tiles like this? Of course I'd also have to find matching tile, but that's sort of a separate issue. This would also allow me to make the front edge even, which would allow me to install the translation piece I have for the vinyl plank I'm installing. I could also probably get a different transition piece that would cover the uneven edge. Many thanks. [link] [comments] |
| Bathroom exhaust fan install with blown in insulation Posted: 08 Nov 2020 04:43 PM PST Hi everyone! I'm doing a bathroom renovation and am installing a new bathroom exhaust fan. The attic space is insulated with about 8" of blown in cellulose insulation (green fiber brand). When installing the fan do I need to frame out the space around it to keep an area around the fan clear of the insulation or is it ok for it to be surrounded by the stuff? The fan housing itself is rated for direct contact with insulation but I'm wondering if it's good to keep the space clear around it to prevent insulation from getting sucked in when the fan is running. Thanks in advance for any advice! [link] [comments] |
| Best place to order cellular shades Posted: 08 Nov 2020 04:43 PM PST Here is the deal:
Questions:
[link] [comments] |
| Need help with french door glass Posted: 08 Nov 2020 05:15 PM PST I need advice. We have a broken 15"x12" pane of glass in this french door. What's the best and cheapest way to replace it? [link] [comments] |
| What the hell is going on behind my drywall? PART 2 Posted: 08 Nov 2020 07:20 PM PST Trying to mount a bracket for a TV, and after getting wacky, wild readings with stud finders, I took out a large piece of drywall (which is going to be covered by the mount since I hate patching). I think the picture speaks for itself. Also worth showing that the other side of the wall is another room, so this wall is about 5.5" deep. The room layout is shown here. I guess my main question is: Since this wood is not a traditional stud, but it IS at least 3" deep, would it be okay to mount a large, heavy TV mount and TV to it? Bonus question: Anyone know why traditional studs aren't used? Or what this style of wall construction is called? Thanks a lot in advance. I got great advice from you guys here for part 1 :) [link] [comments] |
| Is there a way to step down from a 20 amp circuit to 15 amps? Posted: 08 Nov 2020 03:33 PM PST What I want to do is add a circuit for my carport (it does not have lights or outlets) that has a 20 Amp GFCI and then from there run to a light switch to operate 3 lights in my carport. The reason I want a 20 amp outlet is just in case I wanted to use a heavy tool of some sort. Or am I just better off doing two completely separate circuits? One going to the GFCI and one to the lights. Thanks in advance. [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 08 Nov 2020 05:01 PM PST My wife and I are finishing up our home and we have found that many of the designer lighting fixtures that you can buy here in the United States are also made as replicas from several companies in China. It's hard from a website to know the quality. The prices are what I would say I am reasonable for a lighting fixture $1000-$2000 but an order of magnitude less than what the true designer piece would be. Does anyone have any experience with sites like Also replicalights.com.au If no one has experience with these vendors does anyone have any that they have had good experiences with where the product is quality and the customer service acceptable? Thanks so much in advance! [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 08 Nov 2020 07:06 PM PST My porch columns are starting to rot and I want to replace them. The current posts are wood resting on a metal base. My issue is that the measurements of the columns are odd. Everything column I see online is 8 feet tall, mine are 97.25in. Is this normal? Is this difference made up by a capital? [link] [comments] |
| At what point do you call your homeowner's insurance? Posted: 08 Nov 2020 12:41 PM PST I posted this in the homeowner's sub and got mixed recommendations. Hubby and I bought our first home and a fixer-upper in the end of July. We've done a lot of great improvements but haven't been able to fix everything (I mean who can LOL). We saved a little bit away in case life throws a wrench in our life like a broken washing machine etc. I've been doing most of the home repairs myself and since we don't have any renovating budget left I figured I would do the small projects that don't cost much or anything at this point. So I tackle the original 1/2 bath wall paper. Gonna take it off and paint with paint I already have. Easy peezie! Found our some of the plaster is crumbling (posted on here for help of the wall type LOL) but not anything concerning that can't be fixed. Until this morning, when I take the heating duct vent off to get that wall paper around and and discover black mold is growing behind the wall. (granted I don't know what type of black mold) There was some in the heating duct vent and that wasn't terrible but when I saw it growing on the backside of the drywall surrounding the vent and on the edges I knew this was going to be a problem. I checked a little closer? It's growing out from behind the wall where the medicine cabinet is too on another wall. The room always smelled a little weird... like a sweet but old smell. Now I guess I know why. We saved, but not enough for this! Just for if like 2 appliances crapped out at one time. The part that really confuses me is how it got there! There's no shower, and as far as I know, no plumbing even on that wall where I first noticed it, there is on the second wall. The room doesn't feel humid. The house doesn't have high humidity levels, even the crawl space is dry as an oven. Inspector even commented on how nice it is down there. We knew we bought a fixer-upper but this is is my first terrible surprise. I did check our insurance and we do have mold remediation coverage, and our deductible is only $500. We will have to completely redo the bathroom, because the wall is tiled 1/2 way up the wall so we will have to rip out the wall and tile, then redo the floor because the tile on the wall is going to damage it. I know that the mold is growing on at least 2 different walls in the bathroom in some part. I don't know if we will know where the source is coming from until we rip it out, but I don't want to be the one ripping out mold due to my asthma, and a remediator is going to cost more than $500 in my state let alone what it will take to rebuild the bathroom. The mold is also black and I am not sure I want to be the one to rip out mold of any kind let alone black mold of the wrong kind if thats what it turns out to be. Not sure what our alternative is. :/ That is why we were thinking insurance was our best bet. What are your thoughts? [link] [comments] |
| Bypassing a CFL ballast help needed Posted: 08 Nov 2020 06:15 PM PST Coming from Oregon, The old ballast went out on a 2 bulb cfl fixture in my house. The sockets are 4 pin g24q style, for 13w quad tube cfls. I'd like to replace them with LEDs instead of buying a new ballast. So I've removed the ballast, and here is where I want to make sure I'm on the right track - there is one hot and one neutral wire coming in, and 2 sockets that need power. Now behind the fixture, there are 4 sets of wires coming in, 3 of which are pigtailed together, with 1 wire coming out to the (now gone) ballast. My thinking is that I pull a live and neutral from those pigtails for the second socket, would that be correct? Also, since the ballast is gone, can I remove the ground that was attached to it? Thanks y'all! [link] [comments] |
| Trouble installing new thermostat, unable to turn off breaker power , possibly due to Solar? Posted: 08 Nov 2020 04:50 PM PST So i'm trying to replace my old thermostat but can't seem to turn off power to it. I use SUNRUN solar power as my main power source. I went to the regular breaker, turned off the AC breaker and the breaker for the outlets/lights in the room where the thermostat is in. Everything still stayed on. I decided to turn off ALL of the breakers and almost half my house still has power. Is it because I have solar that when I switch the breaker it continues to run off solar power? Or something else? would appreciate any tips to figure this out. Thanks [link] [comments] |
| Need advice on dryer exhaust vent on roof of my home Posted: 08 Nov 2020 07:31 PM PST Hey guys, My dryer recently broke because we had so much build up of lint in our dryers exhaust. Got up on the roof to check out the exhaust vent and it was so unbelievably small that it's no wonder it clogged. This may be a highly specific question, but are there any recommendations on dryer exhaust vents to install on the roof of my home? We get a ton of snow in the winter where I live, so that should be a consideration. I'd hate to replace it with a vent that is going to have issues with moisture or just create another problem altogether. Any advice would be appreciated! Thanks! [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 08 Nov 2020 07:26 PM PST Hey everyone. Hoping you all could help me and my wife with a flooring project. We're laying down stick together vinyl plank in our basement over a concrete subfloor. I had prepped the floor and when we were almost finished with the main room I found a raised bump in the concrete that looks like a patch from something previous. I don't think it's going to go under the thin planks well and wanted to see if anyone had an idea of what it might be and what I can do to level the floor more. It seems almost like a piece of plastic in the middle. I'm thinking maybe an old drain? Here's a couple pictures. I know it's hard to see but there is a white square in the middle with cracks in the concrete coming out on diagonals. Would love some suggestions. Thanks in advance. Bump in concrete https://imgur.com/gallery/VajUfB6 [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 08 Nov 2020 05:52 PM PST Hi all, First time poster here. I'm in the process of purchasing a condo in Chicago. It's a two-story unit with a finished basement. In the basement there are glass sliding doors that open up toward the front of the property with an outdoor concrete 8'0" x 12'1" patio. Due to the patio being below ground level, it's slightly sloped toward the middle where there's a drain to prevent any water leakage into the unit. The patio is also roughly 4 inches below the basement entrance. We want to finish the patio with some kind of outdoor, water-resistant flooring and then put a grill and little dog area on it. Our biggest concern is making sure that the flooring is level and the drain doesn't get clogged for rain/snow runoff. Any recommendations for the best way to do this? I'd like to DIY but could hire someone if needed. Pics: Thanks! EDIT: Changed porch to patio 😬 [link] [comments] |
| Solution Tor Broken Shed Window Posted: 08 Nov 2020 07:25 PM PST I bought my first home this summer, and we have a plastic Lifetime brand shed in the backyard. There's a plastic window on the shed that I believe is supposed to clip on to the side of the shed somehow, but it's broken, and the window doesn't stay up. We've tried duct taping the window to it every possible way, but after a couple of days, the window falls back off. I want to know of a possible solution to close off this window so I don't have this bug opening in the side of my shed. With winter coming, I don't want any weather damage to the stuff in my shed, and I don't want any bird or vermin making a home in there. Does anyone have any suggestions? Could I just hammer a piece of plywood over the opening? Is there a better way to do it? [link] [comments] |
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