Home Improvement: Help to fix what could actually be the ugliest fence built in 2020? |
- Help to fix what could actually be the ugliest fence built in 2020?
- Don't put 10 year LI battery smoke detectors in places where it gets cold, they don't last very long.
- My basement floods.
- Basement sink drain smells. It’s not a dry trap.
- New cracks on all my windows
- How do I avoid drilling into pvc pipes inside the wall?
- Need help figuring out why water pressure quits after running water
- My first house- I know its not pretty, but how would you improve this exterior? (Paint schemes, construction, etc)
- White grout with black tile floor- are we nuts
- Energy Audit?
- Did 24volt house transformers contain pcb? A transformer from the 50s in my house caught fire and wondering the risks
- Warped wood floor. Is it fixable?
- I have a Bryant furnace, and the Honeywell 16x25, 8 MERV air filter says “long life - designed to last up to 12 months.” The filter was installed in July. Can I really wait almost a year to replace this filter??
- Owners of ductless mini-split air conditioning units - how do you like them?
- 12ga + 14ga wire ok?
- Attic Concerns/Questions
- Should I call my roofer back to fix this
- New Build - Garage Door trim can’t be fixed according the the builder
- Can water go through a gas meter?
- New apartment making me sick...
- what kind of leak can this be?
- Cracked ABS Elbow Wasteline at House Exit
- Help with pantry space
- Installing Dimmer Switch - Encountered Odd Electrical Wiring
| Help to fix what could actually be the ugliest fence built in 2020? Posted: 16 Dec 2020 07:54 AM PST My dad paid a contractor (!!!!) to get this fence installed. Please no harsh comments about my dad letting the contractor leave it like this, he was dealing with 30 repairs at once! It was late season + no time to get the hedge trimmed + the hedge goes outside the property line, which I think is the reasoning for the weird cut-outs. However, clearly this fence has PROBLEMS not explained by this. EDIT since I was unclear - this photo is taken from outside the backyard - the hedge is in their yard, it's just that some parts have grown past the property line onto public property (they have no rear neighbors). The footings are out of the ground. The cross-bars are not even. For some reason not a single board is the same height...I wish I had some close-up pics as it's even worse the closer you get to it. Some of the boards have cut-outs in the top leaving 2cm strips of wood. I would like to help and try and fix this fence aesthetically at least for my parents. I am not a super handy girl, but I do have access to pretty much any power tool needed. My first thought was to remove the cross-bars and line them up, and then to trim the top to be the same length. However, I have no ideas how to disguise the exposed footings, make the bottom look less odd (it follows the ground), or if there needs to be a top rail added. Any suggestions would be great, also not sure if it's a bad idea to do anything to it in the winter? Thanks so much. EDIT: LOL thanks for all these great fence / contractor roasts I am getting a lot of laughs (and some actual serious advice) EDIT 2: I have an update after talking to my parents. They are seeing the flaws. My mom mentioned they may have accidentally hired "fencing for the blind". They plan to talk to the contractor after the rest of their house repairs are done (bad storm). That work is going much better! [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 16 Dec 2020 05:53 PM PST I recently bought a whack of the fandangled 10 yr worry free LI battery smoke detectors for my house. The one in the garage has just died after about 2 months of service. The manual says (upon closer inspection) 'dont use where it gets really hot or cold' and it was about -2f in my garage this evening when it died. Just a heads up to everyone in extreme climates. Probably just going to chalk this up to a $15 lesson learned. [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 16 Dec 2020 08:08 AM PST My fiance and I have been patiently looking at homes for the past year, in the metro Boston area, which is an insane market. I researched everything regarding home health for the past year. EVERYTHING (or so I thought)! My conclusion was that water destroys everything and that we want a house on a hill, so that we can easily drain our water away. Sounds logical right? I thought so. So we only looked at houses that had relatively high ground compared to the street and surrounding land. My fiance on the other hand had things she wanted, certain architectural features and whatnot. We were a great team, we researched hard, saw many houses, and knew exactly what we wanted! We finally found the perfect house. High on a hill way above the street, with other high houses by our side and houses across the street WAY below us. Everything looked beautiful so we made an offer ($50k over asking, inspection for info only, typical Boston stuff), and it got accepted. Fuck yeah! Dry beautiful house here we come! Inspection comes around and I'm proudly pointing out my relatively high elevation to the inspector and he's just like "okay whatever". Doesn't he get it? I'm gonna be dry forever! Everything else looks fine and we're good to close. Our first week in the house, a forecast for heavy rain is upon us. Bring it on! I wanna see my hill get rid of all the water! Rainstorm hits and our basement fucking floods. Like 0.5 inch of standing water. What. The. Fuck. How is this possible? I spend all night with a shop vacuum and Home Depot pump getting all the water out. It seemed to be coming straight from the floor. What a miserable night. The next morning, I introduce myself to the neighbors across the street down the hill. They're a nice couple, about 70 years old, who have been living here for the past 50 years. "Crazy storm last night huh? Your basement flood?" I asked. "Nope!" They proudly proclaimed, and they invited me inside to see literally the driest basement I've ever seen. THESE PEOPLE ARE FUCKING 50 FEET BELOW ME! DOES GRAVITY NOT EXIST? I tell them about my basement flood, and they give me a history lesson that both blows my mind and breaks my heart. Apparently my house has been flooding since it was built fucking 100 years ago, because it was built on what's called ledge, an underground rock formation/cliff. Water can't penetrate ledge, so although lots of it flows down the hill, most of it just sits up there and doesn't diffuse deeply into the dirt. A few days later, I had this confirmed by a water proofing expert who dug some holes in different spots of my property to confirm that there's just fucking ledge everywhere. "But you guys are lower than me... Why didn't you flood?" I asked. "There's no ledge beneath us, just pure soil." Says the old neighbor. "The water flows deep into the dirt, so that the water table is far beneath us." Again, I had this confirmed by the water proofing expert and a conversation with a geotechnical engineer. Fuck. Me. All my neighbors on my side of the street, who are high up, are built on ledge and have water issues. All my neighbors across the street, who are literally 30-50 feet below us, have zero water issues because their soil diffuses water easily. After all my research, why did no one ever say fucking anything about LEDGE? Fucking FloodFactor rated my home for "1/10 minimal flood risk". Guess people don't take ledge into account. Anyways, I hope this story can help someone looking for a dry home. Apparently high ground does not mean dry, and the ultimate test is whether or not you have ledge beneath your home, because water can't diffuse through ledge, so the water table will be closer to your house. TL;DR: Spent lots of time looking for a house on a hill so that I could have a dry basement, turns out that hills don't fucking matter at all. What can I do now? [link] [comments] |
| Basement sink drain smells. It’s not a dry trap. Posted: 16 Dec 2020 09:28 PM PST My basement sink stinks. I know it's not a dry trap because my dehumidifier and my reverse osmosis water filter drains into it. Could it be mildew buildup? Or some other bacteria type thing? [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 16 Dec 2020 07:16 AM PST I was cleaning a window today and noticed what looked like a small crack in my window. Much to my horror, I then noticed the same type of crack on ALL of my windows. The house is a new build one and a half years old. Each window has one crack, nothing big, as shown in the pictures, but having not noticed them before, I think they are new. I am going to try and find out who installed the windows and see what they say, but does anyone have any ideas? *Edit - Thank you all for the responses. Much to my surprise, I was able to scrap everything away. [link] [comments] |
| How do I avoid drilling into pvc pipes inside the wall? Posted: 16 Dec 2020 09:26 PM PST Yesterday, I attempted to install a shelf on the wall, but accidentally went right into the emergency sprinkler line in my townhome. It sprayed like a geyser for about 30 minutes until Fire Dept turned off the emergency fire sprinkler line in the building. After about 5 minutes of blocking it with a pot, we then had the idea to redirect the violent water spray into 50 gallon compost/recycling receptacles, including 3 other neighbors'. That helped minimize water damage. We're now in recovery/repair mode with various contractors. Now, any time I intend to drill into the wall, I'm afraid I'll have PTSD. I don't want to live in fear though, So, I'd like to mitigate it in the future.
Any tips or tricks appreciated! Thanks! [link] [comments] |
| Need help figuring out why water pressure quits after running water Posted: 16 Dec 2020 09:04 PM PST When I run the water in the house The water pressure seems fine at first but if I flush the toilet then wash my hands I have about enough water to do just that then i have no water in the lines. every thing else seems to be fine. no leaks or anything else. If water is not used it will come back until it is used again. does anyone know how to trouble shoot this issue and how to fix it? Note:
[link] [comments] |
| Posted: 16 Dec 2020 02:36 PM PST I just bought my first (cheap) home. Finally adulting in my 30's! I need advice on how to improve the exterior. I hate how its so flat and one-dimensional. Also, vehicles can pull right up to the house. I was thinking of some flower beds or a small overhang/deck. I'm also lost on colors. I bought it for a good price and the interior is move in ready, so I have about 3k-5k to make changes. Thank you for any advice! [link] [comments] |
| White grout with black tile floor- are we nuts Posted: 16 Dec 2020 09:51 AM PST Hi All, I am in the process of getting my small master bathroom redone. I won't be doing the improvements we have hired a qualified contractor. The below is what we want it to look like. My question- will this grout immediately look bad and fade? It's a very small bathroom with not much light. My main concern is the grout becoming discolored. Any advice on if this is a very bad idea or if grout stays the same color? https://i.pinimg.com/564x/96/65/8e/96658e9aed7f716676bdc618ef95b3ff.jpg [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 16 Dec 2020 10:13 PM PST We moved into our first home a few months ago and with it getting cooler out the energy bill is going up. We bought in the summer time so we didn't get to experience how drafty the home is until now. What exactly does an energy audit consist of and will they be able to tell me everything i need to do and who to hire to seal the place up? For example, we basically did a lateral move. 1300 sqft townhome to a 1300 sqft rambler. Energy bill at it's highest in the townhome was roughly $160. The bill for November in our new place was $265. We have older windows, aluminum framing some with broken seals (cloudy). We were quoted $9,000 for 185sqft of windows. Are windows going to make a massive difference to a point it should be the 1st thing we do? [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 16 Dec 2020 06:28 PM PST Aired out the house but the fire department accidentally blew the smoke into our ventilation lol. If pcb we were thinking of throwing out our dogs food. There wasn't a smoke alarm in the basement (Landlord is putting one in) so I was sitting in the room directly above this smoking transformer for the entirety of its burning, and only realized once I thought my laptop battery was melting. [link] [comments] |
| Warped wood floor. Is it fixable? Posted: 16 Dec 2020 08:29 PM PST I unfortunately had a fish tank fail. I thought I caught it early. Mopped up all the water etc. A day or two later, I notice what looks almost like a speed bump in the floor. I'm wondering how screwed I am? Is this something that can be fixed? Any help would be much appreciated. [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 16 Dec 2020 07:56 AM PST New home, hence the lack of understanding and it's tough to find clarity on this via Google. We are in Michigan and have a dog, though the dog spends very little time in the basement near the furnace. The furnace is a Bryant 926TA. Here is a photo of the filter, installed. [link] [comments] |
| Owners of ductless mini-split air conditioning units - how do you like them? Posted: 16 Dec 2020 11:55 AM PST I'm considering installing them in my 170 year old home with zero existing ductwork and would love to ready about your experience! Will only be using these for cooling as we love our steam heat. [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 16 Dec 2020 07:47 PM PST Replaced the bathroom exhaust fan and used about 1.5ft of 12ga wire to connect the new fan to the original wiring. The original wiring is 14ga and didn't have a ground wire, but is in a rigid metal conduit. I connected the fan's ground wire to the conduit. This is my first electrical job and I'm seeking some assurance that it's alright, or caution if I need to get up there and redo it before it catches fire or whatnot. I'm in FL, US and the house was built in 1980 if it matters. Thanks. [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 16 Dec 2020 07:33 PM PST My wife and I are first-time home buyers in the Portland Oregon area. Before we bought the house we had an inspection done and the only note the inspector made in regards to the attic was that it needed more insulation. Now that we bought the house, I went up to the attic to take a closer look and had some questions in regards to what I saw (link to pics http://imgur.com/a/RX1JguC):
Thanks in advance for the much needed advice! [link] [comments] |
| Should I call my roofer back to fix this Posted: 16 Dec 2020 07:06 PM PST New metal roof put on last Monday. Finally got to looking around the house and saw this. Should I be calling them back to fix it? [link] [comments] |
| New Build - Garage Door trim can’t be fixed according the the builder Posted: 16 Dec 2020 07:01 PM PST So I'm about to close on a new build and I noticed the large gap in the corners of the garage door opening when the doors are closed. I asked the builder if there is something that can be done and he doesn't have any solutions. He said the trim is cut at a 45 degree angle to stop the frames from rotting out and that's why the gaps exist. On my last walkthrough I actually found a dead mouse in the garage so it's clear critters got in at some point. Any ideas what I can do here? Is the builder correct that nothing can be done? [link] [comments] |
| Can water go through a gas meter? Posted: 16 Dec 2020 04:45 PM PST Was having a fireplace log installed. Guy says there's water in the gas line to the fireplace and you could see/hear it when he turned the valve open. He's never seen this before so said to call a plumber which I will. i looked under my house and the gas line leaves my meter next to my house, goes in then up and branches to where it needs to go. How would water be in there? It doesn't go underground after the meter, it actually goes up off the ground. Would water be going through the meter??? My furnace and stove work just fine. Wth? [link] [comments] |
| New apartment making me sick... Posted: 16 Dec 2020 10:35 PM PST Hey guys, So I moved into a studio apartment about 3 weeks ago and have been experiencing symptoms of irritated respiratory system, lung pain, fogginess, nausea, heart palpitations and being short of breath. The other night I woke up catching my breath at 1 am and couldn't go back to sleep because I'd experience a "zap" feeling in my body. I opened a window with a box fan and slept in 40 degree weather basically to keep it ventilated. I got a top of the line air purifier, 3 plants, and a box fan for the window but it doesn't put a dent in the air quality. The building is from the 1940's or earlier and there is virtually no ventilation save a single window. No vents, etc. The air is very dry at around 30% humidity so I don't think it's mold. I did a good look around and couldn't find any. The landlord mentioned he installed new carpet and did some painting prior to my move in. When I met him there to sign the lease he had the window and door open to ventilate the place (red flag lol). Anyways, the more I pay attention there seems to be a sort of sickly sweet chemical smell. I ignored this on move in but it's come to my attention more and more. It's like there's a light invisible persistent vapor at all times... Could it be the carpet offgassing?? I read that old baseboard heaters can emit antifreeze vapors that create the smell? Any thoughts on figuring this out would be appreciated. Thanks [link] [comments] |
| what kind of leak can this be? Posted: 16 Dec 2020 06:49 PM PST never seen this before and just saw it a few hours ago. doesnt feel very wet but the dry wall is moist as you can see where i put some dents in it with my finger [link] [comments] |
| Cracked ABS Elbow Wasteline at House Exit Posted: 16 Dec 2020 04:29 PM PST I just noticed the efflorescence/mineralization at this fitting. There is a crack along the molding seem half if the circumference and then down the inside bend imgur pics I had a similar problem at a toilet flange where the joint didn't seem to have made a full connection. Rectified that with putting a new flange that is made to be a retrofit with a gasket and inserted to the interior of the pipe. The repair of this elbow I am at a loss as how it can be fixed if cut out the elbow then there is no pipe left on the downstream section since they put it right smack dab next to the cement wall. These pipes are from 1974 USA. How would a plumber fix this? I know there are sealants, but from what I know that is a temporary fix. This leak seams to be an extremely slow one as there is no dripping and any seepage evaporates off the pipe. [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 16 Dec 2020 10:23 PM PST I have a pantry that's about 15" wide and 8" deep. It's a really tiny pantry for 4 people. The pantry wall recedes and there's a space available to mount something for storage. I found wire hanging baskets like you see in kitchens holding garlic and fruit, but I'd be putting baking goods, food, and snacks in it. And it'd be exposed, because it's wire baskets. I really don't want to have to resort to this option. Any ideas? [link] [comments] |
| Installing Dimmer Switch - Encountered Odd Electrical Wiring Posted: 16 Dec 2020 10:14 PM PST Hi all! I'm new around this subreddit, so thanks in advance for your time! I'm trying to install a Lutron Caseta dimmer switch - I'm interested in testing out the Google Home compatibility before converting the home to the Lutron switch system. As I started to work on the test room, I found the switch to be wired different than the diagrams. Three wires total - blue, yellow and brown. The image link attached should give a good idea. The blue "looped" wire was attached to a single screw (top of switch). And the brown and yellow wires were both attached to their own single screw (bottom of switch). The Lutron switch has two black wires and a green ground wire. Hoping someone could explain the trick to wiring this switch up. So far, with blue and yellow each connected to their own black wire, I get power to the switch. But for some reason, it won't power the lights! Also - not sure why the blue wire looks like a loop. Thanks for your help in advance!! [link] [comments] |
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