Home Improvement: Carbon Monoxide detectors |
- Carbon Monoxide detectors
- Master Bedroom Quarantine Renovation (BEFORE & AFTER and process Imgur Album)
- This may be the wrong sub, but does anyone know where I can get LED strip lights for my room that won't leave any marks/cause any damage to my walls?
- Old epoxy floor in garage - any easy way to remove?
- Ice Dam
- Gap in crown molding corners
- Shower floor repair
- Silica Dessicant in new Dual Pane windows?
- Landlord has straight up refused to deal with mould. What’s the best way for me to tackle it myself?
- Lead paint on floors- removal options
- Possible Leak
- I have plastic film on most windows in the house but no curtains. Do I need them? Will they bring energy cost down or is the plastic film enough?
- Frost inside garage walls
- Drywalling basement with <8' ceiling height, wall panels vertical or horizontal?
- Refinishing kitchen cabinets
- Couch is blocking baseboard air vent. What’s the best way to extend the air flow underneath the couch?
- Remote WIFI temp change sensors that don't require an alarm system?
- New GFCI outlet tripping breaker
- Dealing with the doors of my sliding door ‘sagging’ creating a large draft from the door. These doors are newish (2015).
- Advice on Sloped Floors in New Construction
- Advice and Experiences with DIY medium-small bridges?
- Don't know where to start helping my mom with major home upgrades
- Help! I screwed some screws into an antique bed and now the screws are stripped and won't in further or out
| Posted: 02 Feb 2021 08:24 AM PST Last night our carbon monoxide detectors started chirping in the middle of the night. There appears to be a leak in the furnace exhaust, so now the heat is shut off and we have aired out the basement. The fire department had to come by before ( the large fuel company that installed the new system ) will come into the house. It's ok to be inside, but we have no central heat for now. We are waiting for service, delayed because of the blizzard. The point is: carbon monoxide detectors alerted us. 5 people and 2 dogs could have died in bed. I'm not sure if they are required like smoke detectors are, but today I want to tell everyone that they should have these in their home. EDIT: the alarm is 4 loud chirps, a pattern, every 30 seconds or so. Loud enough to wake us up, distinctly different than a low battery chirp, or a smoke detector blast. We have 3, one on every level, and 2/3 were set off. They plug in to wall outlets, the house is not hard wired with CO detectors. It's a Veissmann wall hung boiler, hot water base board heat system. Fueled by propane. Installed to replace in September 2019, and it was determined by the service technician that there was a loose connection and it was leaking exhaust. [link] [comments] |
| Master Bedroom Quarantine Renovation (BEFORE & AFTER and process Imgur Album) Posted: 02 Feb 2021 10:44 AM PST So in late March I had some time on my hands. I own a 1880's row home in Philadelphia. I was suspicious that the ceiling in my master bedroom had been lowered from the original height. I cut a little hole in the corner and confirmed this was correct. Years ago the previous owner had framed out and drywalled the ceiling at 8 ft and just left the original 10ft plaster ceiling closed off (not sure why). So we decided to do a little quarantine project and raise these up. Then I realized I should go ahead and rip out the closet and redo it. Then I realized I should rip out the extra framing around the chimney that runs through the room. Then I realized I should add recessed lights. Then I found a 2'x'3 hole in the plaster in the corner during demo, so I should blow in insulation. All the demo was rough on the carpet (which we hated) so we might as well refinish the original hardwood floors. Then I found an unused air duct next to the chimney that ends next to the laundry area in the basement, so let's put in a laundry chute. I was gonna do Ikea hack faux built-ins but heck, let's just build them all from scratch. This project started out as a 2 week drywall job to raise the ceilings and evolved into a 6+month massive renovation and building a custom built-in wardrobe. Imgur Album with details of the process. Rough cost/material breakdown ~ $300 -Drywall, spackle, screws ~ $300 Home Depot ~$200 - Recessed lights (6in remodel cans insulation contact and air tight) , light trims, wiring 14-2 for recessed, 14/3 for ceiling fan - Home depot ~ $150 Paint - Behr premium. Untinted semigloss for the trim and wardrobes, eggshell -silky white for walls, eggshell - Juniper ash for green accent wall) $1400 - Contractor to finish floors Insulation blower rental $70 for 4 hrs at Home depot $170 - Insulation - Ecofill at Homedepot ~$730 - Plywood for built-ins - Sande Plywood at Home depot $700 - Doors for built-ins from Cabinet Authority ~$60 - Materials for laundry chute - 5' long 8" air duct and 8" air-tite duct take off $65 - Crown Moulding - primed pine - Home depot $120 -Baseboard 5 1/4" primed pine Home Depot $50 - Popup brass outlet for vanity - Leviton - Amazon $40 - Door hardware - Amazon ~$200 - Miscellaneous screws, caulk, etc. Materials I already had or got from friends/family hinges for cabinet doors - reused from the in-laws kitchen renovation reclaimed wood for vanity (reclaimed for free from a warehouse demo several years ago) Ikea dresser for vanity drawers [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 02 Feb 2021 03:38 PM PST |
| Old epoxy floor in garage - any easy way to remove? Posted: 02 Feb 2021 07:40 PM PST Hey guys. For whatever reason, only half of my 1970s 2 car garage has an epoxy floor. I actually prefer the concrete side - it's beat but I'm messy in the garage, and I love that the concrete side absorbs all of the rain water and melted snow. The epoxy floor is an ugly blue, is rubbed away in a lot of spots, and seems to be waterproof. As a result, when my wife parks there after it has rained or snowed, the water pools up on the epoxy floor and will sit there for days and days. It's so annoying! Just curious, is there a simple way to remove this epoxy floor? Like some chemical I can just spray on it to dissolve it? Or is it easy to sand off? I'm not interested in making this a project, but if I can do it cheap or with the tools I have I'll do it. Otherwise Ill just live with it as I have bigger fish to fry. Thanks all! Edit: Just wanted to add it doesnt have to look beautiful either, as it's just the garage/workshop. [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 02 Feb 2021 07:55 PM PST Just bought a house and got a big snow. Have a big ice dam on one corner of the house. Anyone have any good solutions to melt it/get it down safely? It is above our main walkway to the back yard and causing icicles down the side as well. It's a big block so don't want to mess with it and damage gutters. As we just moved in I didn't realize this was an issue or I would have done some preventative measures. Thanks for any help. [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 02 Feb 2021 05:34 PM PST I'm learning the challenges of crown molding the hard way. I've miscalculated something and now all of my inside corners are gapping a bit either at the top or bottom. Is this fixable with the right filler? What's the best material to use? I know caulk has a tendency to shrink. Here's one of the worse corners: https://postimg.cc/DJDNPGC9 [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 02 Feb 2021 05:33 PM PST I decided to leave CLR in a ziplock bag in the shower after cleaning the shower head. It ate through the bag and eroded a small sectioned the tile floor. It doesn't appear to be leaking any water thankfully. What would be good to fill this area? [link] [comments] |
| Silica Dessicant in new Dual Pane windows? Posted: 02 Feb 2021 08:19 PM PST So I got new vinyl replacement windows about 6 months ago. Cost about $8k. These are double pane with Low e glass and the windows are manufactured by NTWindow out of DFW. A couple months ago I was noticed what looked like sand inside the spacer. See this picture: https://m.imgur.com/Z6QG1CM I can't say for sure that they weren't there on Day 1, but when I noticed it I called my installer. About 60% of the other windows have this same material, but a lot less. Some only have a few grains. They are all in the same place, on the left hand side of the spacer. My house is in a lot with sandy soil so I thought maybe wind was causing sand to blow inside the window, but the installer said it is likely silica Dessicant that is installed by the manufacturer. I researched and sure enough most manufacturers do use silica Dessicant, but all the photos I found show the silica like perfectly clear little spheres. What is in my window is much finer and just looks like sand. If there are any window pros out there, I'd appreciate any insight on what is inside my window and if they've seen anything like this. [link] [comments] |
| Landlord has straight up refused to deal with mould. What’s the best way for me to tackle it myself? Posted: 02 Feb 2021 04:19 PM PST Already got a dehumidifier, but the painted wall and tiles are covered in mould. What's the best way for me to safely clean it up and slow it down (I know it's not possible to make it stop completely without knocking down the wall). [link] [comments] |
| Lead paint on floors- removal options Posted: 02 Feb 2021 05:37 PM PST Hi! I own a 220-year old colonial and I have determined that 4 rooms and two stair cases have lead paint on the under layers of the floors. I'm guessing it's 1,000 square feet or slightly more of the home. I'm trying to weigh my options. I have a company coming to give me an estimate for abatement of the lead but I am trying to decide how I should handle it. Assuming it will he absurdly expensive to remove the paint from the boards so I can refinish. We have two small children so we need to do something about the issue and need to make sure the issue is really solved. Option #1: Have the company remove all lead paint from floors and stairs so they can be refinished. Option #2: Have the boards removed all together. Being a antique home lover, my knee jerk reaction is to say preserve the historical integrity, but this option would fully remove the problem while allowing me to address some structural issues with the floor. Like insulation, gaps and damage. Option #3: Seal the existing floor and lay a new hard wood layer over. Not possible in all areas but in a few areas it may do the trick. This option I would be able to mostly do myself. Luckily unlike most homes this age my ceilings are not super low. Any thoughts?? [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 02 Feb 2021 07:04 PM PST Hi HomeImprovement, I am trying to track down the source of a GFCI outlet which has tripped and will not reset. when checking above the range microwave in to the duct, I came across this stained or water damaged piece of board. Right above this area is the 2f, does this look some board staining or water intrusion? Thank you [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 02 Feb 2021 09:05 PM PST I moved into this house last October but the windows are old. I really never got used to putting curtains around the house but since we put plastic film over the windows we thought it was going to be fine but I think the house feels colder in all the rooms without curtains. The only room that has something similar to a curtain is our bedroom which the blinds are those folding ones that look like accordion that have no gaps. So do I need curtains in all windows to keep costs down or could it be another insulation issue? [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 02 Feb 2021 06:49 PM PST We recently took possession of a new single home and I noticed quite a bit of frost build up on the slab, drywall, and footings Any idea what could be causing this? [link] [comments] |
| Drywalling basement with <8' ceiling height, wall panels vertical or horizontal? Posted: 02 Feb 2021 08:58 PM PST I'm remodeling the basement, and ready for drywall. My ceiling height is 7'8". Is it best to run the 4x8' drywall patterns vertically or horizontally with offset configuration? [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 02 Feb 2021 08:52 PM PST We got an refinishing estimate of $7K from Nhance for our kitchen which has a large number of cabinets. The previous owner had it painted and it is peeling off in high traffic areas. Is this a reasonable estimate? We were also suggested refacing which they said it would cost about $12K. Our cabinets despite the peeling paint and the old fashioned look are still in good condition. We don't have the time and space for a DIY paint job. Any thoughts? [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 02 Feb 2021 08:38 PM PST There's a baseboard air vent right where my couch needs to go. Here's a picture. I've seen multiple solutions for extending floor vents, but not really for baseboards. Has anybody had the same issue or have any ideas? Thanks for your help! [link] [comments] |
| Remote WIFI temp change sensors that don't require an alarm system? Posted: 02 Feb 2021 03:31 PM PST Hi guys, I recently moved to a house that has a separate, heated 900sqft garage/shop area. I work on cars, welding, woodworking etc in there. My concern is that if ever there is a fire in there and I am in the house I am not likely to notice until the entire thing is up in flames. I have been looking for some kind of detector that works over wifi and does not require a whole alarm system. My google-fu has told me: 1) smoke detectors are not recommended for garage/shop areas as they are too sensitive to exhaust and fumes from the type of work I do in there 2) a temp/rate of temp change sensor is what I should use. This type of sensor will alarm when temp exceeeds 170f (say) or the temp increases more than 20 deg in 5 mins. However all of the sensors I can find that fit the description of (2) above are for whole-house panel alarm systems, which I do not want. Does anyone know of a simple, wifi-enabled sensor/alarm that would work for my application? Or have some kind of alternative? Thanks!! [link] [comments] |
| New GFCI outlet tripping breaker Posted: 02 Feb 2021 04:43 PM PST Hello, I installed a weather resistant GFCI outlet (15a) on my patio which was wired into existing circuit. Today, two contractors came by and started doing some work with heavy corded drills and impact hammers, which tripped both the GFCI outlet as well as the whole circuit at the panel. I know for a fact that I wired into the line side of the outlet, and the exterior box is also grounded. That said, I don't understand why the circuit tripped. My understanding is the outlet should have tripped alone. I checked my wiring with an outlet tester and it passed as wired correctly. Any input is greatly appreciated! [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 02 Feb 2021 04:42 PM PST Anyone have any advice on where to start to troubleshoot this on my own? Note I'm in cold Canada so the drafts aren't a minor issue. [link] [comments] |
| Advice on Sloped Floors in New Construction Posted: 02 Feb 2021 02:28 PM PST I hope this is the right subreddit for this, please forgive me if it's not. We have a new construction home that was built within the last year. (The home was already constructed, we did not commission the build). The house was built by a small home builder and a new construction warranty was provided which spelled out areas covered and the parameters under which certain defects would be corrected. We discovered early on that there are multiple places in the house where the floor is uneven and is noticeably sloping. The slope exceeds the measurement over a distance as provided in the warranty and we have approached the builder about fixing. (The slopes are noticeable when you stand on them and also aesthetically apparent, one of them especially so.) If this was a 150 year old house I'm not sure we would think twice about it but it is brand new construction and it's so bad in 1 room that it drives me crazy to even stand in there. I know that we should work towards having this fixed. I'm most concerned that it will detract from the value of the home should we ever need to sell. (I know that I would personally be concerned as a buyer about sloping floors in a newer construction home) The slopes don't seem to be progressing or getting any worse and it does seem like this was likely a framing error. (A beam being set in on the main level at the wrong height which carried the cumulative error through the house) The builder's initial reaction was to just say "well I'm not sure how we would fix this." Does anyone have any experience with something like this or have advice on how we should proceed? We're not sure what to expect from a solution. TL/DR: New construction home has noticeably sloped floors. Should be covered under warranty. Builder doesn't seem to be forthcoming with a solution and we're not sure what we should expect. [link] [comments] |
| Advice and Experiences with DIY medium-small bridges? Posted: 02 Feb 2021 08:18 PM PST I'm not sure this is the forum for this but I am curious about the prospect of building a bridge myself on my property. This creek flows directly through the center of my land and I cannot access the other side unless I cross the river or trespass through other peoples properties. On average the waterflow is 12 ft wide, and I am interested in building a safe narrow foot bridge that would support the weight of 2 people at once. There are small banks of about 2 feet on both sides of the creek before rising up about 5 feet to the height of the rest of the land gradually and it is at most 6 inches deep when it rains. Does any one have any experience with something like this? My curiosities include: What a project like this would cost Would 2 adults with carpentry work be able to handle a project like this If there are specific types of bridge builds that would be suitable for this? Any tips, advice, bad experiences, mistakes and Victories welcome. [link] [comments] |
| Don't know where to start helping my mom with major home upgrades Posted: 02 Feb 2021 08:15 PM PST TL DR: Helping my mom with roof, exterior wall, windows, paint upgrade and don't know where to start. In Oregon. My mom's house is built in 1985, and has lived there since the year 2000. There have been no major upgrades/modifications to the house. Only a small things here and there. She to replace the various things that make up a house to keep it in good health. She wants to live in it for 5-10 more years before she plans on selling if that's important information to have. From what I understand, she plans on reroofing the roof, repainting the house and replacing the windows. She did notice some damage to the interior wall in the garage as well (I'll get to that later). Some pictures are here: https://imgur.com/a/92MKF9R, and I can post more if needed! Roof: The roof is asphalt shingles. I don't know much else about it. I only help her clean the gutters every now and then. I do know that it's not a simple roof shape. Lots of angles and turns. So far, I've contacted 6 roofing contractors given to us by friends and family and they're going to give us quotes this week and next. We would like a complete reroofing. Walls: Exterior walls show paint chips and damage in many locations, some of the wood that go along the house horizontally and vertically show some expansion (probably water damage over time?) and not sure if that should be a concern or not. Would a fresh paint job protect it from further damage, or is this more than just repainting the house? What sort of professional would I turn to for this? Windows: Windows are old, and inefficient and would probably upgrade to a more insulated frame, etc. Condensation does get through and cause the interior frame to get wet, which has led to water damage over time on some parts. Do I find someone who can do fix up the exterior walls and windows as they're on the same area of work? I'm sure framing matters with the type of windows and would need to be working with whoever is working on the walls. And there is an area in the garage, where we noticed a crack in the concrete. The other side is in a dirt area half in the ground and half exposed to the outdoor air. This crack is about 20" tall and has probably been there for some time. I don't think they show up overnight at that size. There isn't a gutter on the roof on that side, and when it rains (rains often in Oregon), so I'm thinking the water builds up there and the weight of the water + dirt might be pushing into the concrete. What professional do I turn to for things like this? So with all this said, I'm sort of overwhelmed with what to do first. I've got roofing contractors coming to look at the roof and to give me an estimate of how much it'll cost to reroof, but should we be doing the other things first (walls, windows, crack in concrete)? What professionals do I turn to for some of these things? Are there general contractors who can do it all? What permitting would I need for all of this? Would the professionals take care of that? Thank you for reading this far. I appreciate any and all feedback. I'm not a home owner myself but I hope to be able to help my mom through this overwhelming challenge. [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 02 Feb 2021 08:14 PM PST I thought I was helping by fixing the wobbly antique bed by inserting some screws into it. Now a couple of the screws are stripped, sticking out by a quarter inch and the antique appearance has been diminished. Does anyone know how I can get the screws out or screwed all the way in? Or any kind of tool I can use to saw off the part that is sticking out? I have a miter saw, a circular saw and a saber tooth saw at the moment. Thanks!! [link] [comments] |
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