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    Home Improvement: Why is my paint melting? MYSTERY SOLVED

    December 08, 2020

    Home Improvement: Why is my paint melting? MYSTERY SOLVED

    Why is my paint melting? MYSTERY SOLVED

    Posted: 08 Dec 2020 10:43 AM PST

    I don't want to be one of those guys that posts a mystery and never reports the outcome, so here goes:

    OP: https://www.reddit.com/r/HomeImprovement/comments/erfr4x/why_is_my_paint_melting/

    About a year ago I posted in this forum with a seemingly bizarre patch of "melting" paint in my elderly parent's bathroom. Pic 1: https://i.imgur.com/F2eOBTA.jpg , Pic 2: https://i.imgur.com/lEh6Dyt.jpg

    Many helpful and some bizarre theories were put forth: an electrical short, roof leak, a strong sunbeam, etc. I went up on the roof and installed a boot over the stink pipe. I bought an inspection camera and drilled into the wall to peek around. Finally even cut out the drywall only to find....nothing.

    Turns out /u/ashlinka101's unlikely theory near the bottom of the thread was correct:

    I had the same thing happen in my aging dad's bathroom. It was an area that had latex paint over oil based AND as he started losing his balance, he would put his hand against wall there to steady himself as he stood/peed in toilet. This explains the sliding look of paint, as well. Good luck.

    So my 80 year old dad just had surgery and I've been helping him use the restroom. Last night as I was standing behind him while he peed he confessed to being the guilty party as he put his hand on that very spot to steady himself while peeing. Guess he was just too embarrassed to fess up all this time.

    Anyway, there's the rest of the story if it could help somebody else sometime.

    ​

    --Edit-- Thanks everybody for your responses. First time receiving reddit awards. And thanks especially for the suggestions to install a grab bar there, that's definitely happening.

    submitted by /u/Reelaxed
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    Previous owner chiseled a trench across our old hardwood floors. Wondering how to restore. Pics included.

    Posted: 08 Dec 2020 12:36 AM PST

    As in the title, a previous owner chiseled a trench across the hardwood floor so they could put a coax line on the other side of the room, instead of going through the basement (which is immediately below and extremely accessible). Ignoring the dozens of poor decisions that led someone to believe that was a good idea, we are left with this:

    (The pictures are all at different points of sanding.)

    https://imgur.com/a/87wX2PU

    The trench is more-or-less between the cased opening between the two rooms, although the wood continues between them as one continuous floor (besides the trench). It is about 1" wide and 1/4" deep, so it does not go all the way through the flooring. It's not a remotely straight line as it was clearly chiseled by hand. It's also not centered on the cased opening, so my original plan of covering it with a rounded transition piece will, I think, look terrible.

    Do I:

    1. Cover it with a large rounded transition piece protruding out of the floor (keep in mind it's not centered on or even really in line with the cased opening)
    2. Hog out another trench mirrored to the other side of the cased opening, and everything in-between (~10 inches wide new trench) and lay in a new oak panel that will be flat with the floor and center with the trim on the opening
    3. Rip out and replace the huge section of affected floor (Do not want to do this, extremely hard to find wood this size & age here, Upper Midwest)

    4. Other

      I had originally planned to do option 1 but now that it's time to do it I think it will look bad.

    ​

    All input appreciated!

    EDIT: Lots of great ideas here! As suggested by many of you, we're looking at more easily obtainable different types of flooring to make a "statement" piece for the doorway. It's more work than some of the other options but I think it would look great. I will be sure to share my fix, whatever it is, when complete.

    submitted by /u/_Twinkle-Toes_
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    Dryer smells like sweaty clothes?! (already cleaned the washer, lent trap, and vent hose)

    Posted: 08 Dec 2020 09:38 PM PST

    So I'm renting a house (from someone I know personally, so there's no maintenance people to fix this) and luckily there's a washer and dryer available to me! Unfortunately, I've noticed the dryer smells like sweat, especially after doing a load and not getting to it for ~30 mins. I've washed the washer and the dryer but didn't get any results, so I vacuumed out the vent hose (no extreme lent) and the whole back of the dryer... still smells the same.The only solution I've found is putting in extra dryer sheets and taking out the clothes IMMEDIATELY after the dryer stops. The only thing I can think of now is to 1.) get a new dryer 2.) take off the back piece of metal and vacuum the hell out of the vents

    Is there something I'm missing that I can do to fix this??

    submitted by /u/natah7
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    How necessary is termite prevention?

    Posted: 08 Dec 2020 06:13 PM PST

    I live in Florida and just bought my first home. Truly Nolen ($$$) wants to put product under my home into the walls to prevent termites. I had no signs of termite damage in the inspection nor do I have anything currently. Stark exterminators($) wants to just put canisters of bait into the ground all around the house.

    Is this something I even need to be worried about? I doubt I could get lower insurance just by having this service done either. What's your 2 cents?

    I

    submitted by /u/zhouyu24
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    Dummy of the year trying to track down contractor

    Posted: 08 Dec 2020 07:17 PM PST

    That's me.. so I've been on here a bit trying to get advice about my botched tile job, that I paid for, yup I did it. Anyway I spoke to my lawyer and he basically told me to go through Labor for my state to file complaint and possibly have money recouped after investigation. I'm having a problem. I can not locate my "contractors" license anywhere. Lawwwd. What else could go wrong. Is it possible they are not licensed? I have picture of truck, no license. Nothing on any webpage or social media page. It just says "Tile Contractor". I was under the assumption that presenting yourself as a contractor without actually having a license is against the law. What now? Jesus take the wheel.

    submitted by /u/Damnitalltohell86
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    Need help with water coming from the ground in crawl space (I did my legwork, hope you can help)

    Posted: 08 Dec 2020 04:34 PM PST

    Hello /r/homeimprovement! I wish my first post as a homeowner would be for something more, uh, cosmetic, but I come seeking help for an issue I discovered late last month.

    ​

    I live in New Jersey and we got quite a bit of rain last month. I decided to go check the sump pump as the crawl space entrance is only covered by a sloped shingled "thing" thing that the previous homeowner installed. Here is the entrance without the cover: https://i.imgur.com/l0s8Xgo.png

    ​

    I discovered the area to the left of the entrance saturated with standing water and saw the sump pump output was actually pumping near the foundation, and then coming back into the crawl space entrance. This seemed to create an endless cycle for the pump, so I moved the output to the middle of the yard (also shown is the crawl space cover) https://i.imgur.com/mXoHMNC.png https://i.imgur.com/l0tLpti.png

    ​

    New location of sump pump pipe within entrance https://i.imgur.com/WDZqIeY.png

    ​

    This seemed to solve the cycling issues, but last week it rained again, A LOT, so I moved my ring camera to keep an eye on the entrance (and discovered a cat keeping warm underneath, but that's a different story).

    ​

    The next morning, I checked the camera and saw the pump didn't even seem to engage, it turns out that when I adjusted the pipe I inadvertently blocked the pump float from being able to rise and fall with the water level, leading to this (red marks are indicating where water is) https://i.imgur.com/CkqnKA4.png

    ​

    I fixed that, and noticed the bucket only has two holes, both on the opposite side from where water accumulates https://i.imgur.com/M1CF5lf.png. I thought my issues were solved.

    ​

    But 4 days later, I saw the area was still wet and cleared the water with the shop vac and the water kept coming out of the ground as I vacuumed. I pushed back the liner to see another pipe routing directly to the hole https://i.imgur.com/tpbW1WC.png. The previous homeowner said the crawl space has a french drain, so I'm wondering if this is where that drain is draining to? I didn't trace it to find out since it's under the rest of the liner in the crawlspace (which is dry...at least on top).

    ​

    So after that, I'm thinking this is groundwater and a high water table. Here's a picture of the area surrounding the pump about an hour after I vacuumed everything up. https://i.imgur.com/Lve0mhZ.png

    ​

    Now, here's another photo about 30 minutes later, showing the pump engaged after a certain point and pumped some water out, reducing the water level https://i.imgur.com/7NKoa8b.png

    ​

    So that's the crawlspace, but before I wrap up I wanted to show you some pics of the surrounding areas 3 days after the last rain.

    ​

    Summary

    • My ground seems really wet, like, really wet. I don't recall the ground being this bad during the summer or early fall.
    • My water bill isn't outrageous, so I can rule out a pipe leak or something.
    • The water seems to come from the ground, the closest well data for my town says my water table is ~5ft. I don't think the issue is the unsealed crawlspace entrance, although I'm sure it doesn't help the situation.
    • Even 4 days after rain, water continues to show up near my crawl space and rises until my sump pump triggers, putting it into the middle of my yard.
    • Here is the imgur album if you prefer to see most of the comments above in the album https://imgur.com/a/NCS7XEO

    ​

    Plan of action and advice (where I need your help after reviewing the above):

    Immediate Steps $ (get me through winter):

    • Drill a few holes in the left side of the pump bucket, this should help allow water to enter the pump and trigger it more often and more frequently.
    • Continue to monitor and shop vac as needed
    • Lay liner back down to restore some semblance of a vapor barrier

    ​

    Mid-term steps $$ (Spring):

    • Hire a plumber to reroute sump pump output through crawlspace wall https://i.imgur.com/QnbZPMD.png
    • Install sloped drain pipe down the length of the driveway, connect sump pump output and all downspouts on that side of the house into the drain pipe. This leads to a popup drain by the sidewalk (blue line, red x's are concrete I have to bust up) https://i.imgur.com/JxBeFA9.png
    • Install permanent crawlspace door.

    ​

    Long-term steps $$$ (Summer+):

    • Completely reline the crawlspace and figure out what the hell that drains pipe going to the sump pump is doing
    submitted by /u/4rch
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    Ruined another brush by using polyurethane...what am I doing wrong?

    Posted: 08 Dec 2020 06:17 PM PST

    So I'm using a brush to apply a polyurethane finish to my floor, and I'm using mineral spirits to clean the brush, but whenever I leave the brush to dry, it hardens up every time. I've watched the tutorials and it appears to be very straight forward but obviously I'm screwing something up. I'm dipping the brush into the mix, swirling it around for a while. Then I use a brush comb and clean thoroughly through the bristles. And I'll even repeat the process several times, but nothing. Brush hardens every time. At this point I'm about to just use rags because I can't afford to keep throwing away good brushes. Really frustrated with failing such a simple process. What am I doing wrong?

    submitted by /u/Videoboysayscube
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    Attic insulation. High and low spots

    Posted: 08 Dec 2020 09:53 PM PST

    As stated, I have high and low spots every where. Some are as high as 18 inches, and as low as seeing drywall.. I want to do this myself. But since there are so few low spots(drywall low) I was wondering can I just buy the correct blow in insulation and just open the bag in the low spot will it still do the same thing without the machine??

    Thanks for your advice.

    submitted by /u/thedan667
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    ‘Dirt’ or soil smell coming intermittently from kitchen sink

    Posted: 08 Dec 2020 09:53 PM PST

    Hey all, we recently bought a home with a septic tank system. I've always had sewer before. Sometimes a soil or dirt smell comes up through the kitchen sink drain. I googled that and couldn't find any useful answers. Anybody that is familiar with septic tanks know if this is normal? Thanks for any education!

    submitted by /u/bitchlipsmalone
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    UPDATE: Need Help Mounting Payphone to Interior Brick Wall

    Posted: 08 Dec 2020 09:45 PM PST

    I posted yesterday asking for help mounting a payphone on an interior brick wall. I completed the work tonight and thought I would share what I used to complete it and photos too.

    I went to Lowe's tonight and bought a hammer drill, 1/4" x 1 3/4" Tapcon flathead screws. I also bought a masonry drill bit for the pilot holes. The hammer drill I bought isn't quite as fancy as the one I rented earlier in the week from Home Depot, but it got the job done. I don't expect to need it often, so no issue there.

    I mounted the phone mount and was surprised how easily the tap cons went into the wall with the drill. I decided to use five of the screws, probably overkill for a 47 lb pay phone. Thanks again for the help in my earlier thread.

    Photos - https://imgur.com/a/GrebArV

    submitted by /u/MyPrivateAcctAZ
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    Sagging ceiling above my room

    Posted: 08 Dec 2020 09:31 PM PST

    I live downstairs in a 25 year old house and above my room is a sagging ceiling that has two beams sagging and nail pops, im scared the ceilings gonna come down on me and my mom doesn't really have the money to fix my ceiling so idk what to do I don't have enough money to get it fixed and I only have my mom and I and she refuses to let us try and fix it ourselves I'm out of ideas and scared

    submitted by /u/Acidtwentyone
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    HELP! Flea infestation

    Posted: 08 Dec 2020 01:46 PM PST

    So I washed my bed sheets and had my carpet cleaned and was told to spray a cedarwood oil spray to prevent fleas but instead it brought like 20 fleas onto my bed....

    At this point, I don't know what to do.

    I have also been vacuuming everyday and I still no have idea where they are coming from.

    I have no pets either.

    submitted by /u/VerusGrace
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    I’m painting my entire home interior Simply White. What seemingly easy tasks have you taken on that threw you for a loop?

    Posted: 08 Dec 2020 11:52 AM PST

    How much different can painting your house perfectly white be? I didn't even think to ask. Well let me tell you. Every single flaw and holiday will scream at you. It must be perfect. Make sure you use primer or you will be wasting lots of expensive paint. The seams and corners are what make it and every single centimeter of wall must be covered or it will look cheap and trashy. Two rooms down and three to go and wondering what I've gotten myself into. It looks amazing thankfully.

    submitted by /u/Goldenwaterfalls
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    LPT Spend the money on thicker more expensive LVP if your subfloors need a lot of work

    Posted: 08 Dec 2020 07:36 AM PST

    This is no substitute for fixing your subfloor, but if you're not a pro at pooring self leveling compound, a lot of defects, a generally un-smooth surface, the thicker material doesn't telegraph as much. I just re-did a basement floor area for a gym workout area and wish I had gone with a thicker material despite having poured self leveling compound in areas and it still getting some "air gaps" on various areas that just are not perfect.
    To each their own.

    submitted by /u/Past-Swimming-9010
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    Replacement Burner Switch for Frigidaire Stove RD-38-62

    Posted: 08 Dec 2020 10:28 PM PST

    So this is for a vintage Frigidaire Stove RD-38-62 and switch part number is 6598335. Apparently this part has been long discontinued. Found a used one on eBay for way too much. I'm wondering if it's possible to just use a newer version Frigidaire Burner Switch.

    Like this one on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/LinkEZ-Range-Switch-316436001/dp/B0856PP512/ref=sr_1_3?crid=39FCFYKJ0XX15&dchild=1&keywords=frigidaire+stove+switch&qid=1607495441&sprefix=Frigidaire+stove+switch%2Caps%2C180&sr=8-3

    submitted by /u/TheExusGamer
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    Pet safe mice traps/ how to beat get rid of mice in home

    Posted: 08 Dec 2020 10:27 PM PST

    Hello, recently my cat has found 2 mice in the house. While she's good at finding them, and showing me where they are to trap, she's not great at killing them. I'm looking for recommendations in pet friendly traps and how to best get ride if the mice in my home. Also Do sound repellant mice traps actually work to deter mice?

    I'm open to suggestion for none killing and killing solutions. Thanks in advance.

    Edit: hesitate to use poison in case my cat actually does kill/ eat a mouse

    submitted by /u/picklepearr
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    Question about existing window treatment hardware

    Posted: 08 Dec 2020 10:15 PM PST

    I'm moving into an old cottage and the windows have these on either side. What normally attaches to these? Doesn't look like it's for a narrow rod but I could be wrong. Thanks in advance!

    submitted by /u/piedraazul
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    Water Damage on Subfloor

    Posted: 08 Dec 2020 09:54 PM PST

    Looking to DIY LVP install on my new house. Found some water damage and black spot on the subfloor. Is it mold? I found a suggestion online to use cleaning spray mold removal product on it. Should I replace the subfloor?

    Secondly, there are random cables in the room. Should let them be or would it be okay to cut them? How do I figure out what they're for. I'm guessing DSL, but not sure. Thank you https://imgur.com/a/gaVmF24

    submitted by /u/qponrocks
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    Need help upgrading thermostat

    Posted: 08 Dec 2020 09:38 PM PST

    https://imgur.com/gallery/7VA0nuH

    This is what I have now. The big gold wire was originally just grounded a screw. I'm just not sure which wire corresponds to which color in a digital thermostat. There's r, b, y, g and many others in my basic Honeywell device and not sure which to put in which hole. Thanks!

    submitted by /u/flyiingpenguiin
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    Is it possible to install large tiles on a sloped floor?

    Posted: 08 Dec 2020 09:36 PM PST

    I'm planning on installing some large tiles (24x24 inch) in my laundyroom room. The only issue is that the floor has a slight slope towards the drain in the middle of the room. Is this still possible?

    submitted by /u/designhelp1231
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    Just bought a property with cracked grout in the bathroom. Can I seal it?

    Posted: 08 Dec 2020 03:25 PM PST

    I just bought a property with a bathroom that has tile for the shower. The inspection revealed mild leakage from cracks in the grout especially long thin fractures in the both corners of the shower. Can I seal the grout, or do I need to completely replace the tile? If the former what grout sealer would you recommend? Thanks!

    submitted by /u/mwspencer75
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    Dirt buildup around kitchen faucet

    Posted: 08 Dec 2020 09:21 PM PST

    I recently bought an apartment in an older 1940s building. I notice a constant buildup of this brownsh black sediment coming from the kitchen faucet. Is this concerning in terms of water quality? Is it a piping problem?

    http://imgur.com/a/UgOcxmX

    submitted by /u/THE_SIGTERM
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    Best way to repair damaged drywall on walls I don't care about?

    Posted: 08 Dec 2020 05:32 PM PST

    One of the previous owners of my home renovated the kitchen, moving the old cabinets into the garage to be used as storage and a workbench. We decided that we want to set up a home gym, and have ripped out all the cabinets to make space for the equipment we will get.

    In some places the cabinets had dug into the wall or the screw wouldn't come out cleanly, so I am left with lots of spots with ripped paper. I'm looking for the simplest way to clean up the walls to then throw on a layer of the cheapest white paint I can find. I have only done minor repairs to screw holes and such with DryDex spackle, so I'm not sure what extra steps I might need to take to clean this up. Since I don't really care about the quality of the finished product can I just throw on a thicker layer of spackle or something similar, or do I need to take extra steps to prevent issues after the fact?

    Examples of the damage: https://imgur.com/a/lFXInLw

    submitted by /u/FlyingDugong
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    Drilling (very) accurately into concrete... what is a good way to start the hole to prevent the bit from wandering at all, and make sure its straight

    Posted: 08 Dec 2020 01:49 AM PST

    Drilling (very) accurately into concrete... what is a good way to start the hole to prevent the bit from wandering at all, and make sure its straight?

    submitted by /u/RoscoeGang
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    Is this asbestos?

    Posted: 08 Dec 2020 08:52 PM PST

    Just moved in to a house. Took up some of the upstairs flooring and some of the ductwork underneath was disconnected. It's wrapped in this... Thoughts?

    http://imgur.com/gallery/uBXCts1

    submitted by /u/socav
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