Just bought this house and was getting my microwave to vent out today and noticed that inner side of the outer wall was black in color. Is that normal or black mold ? The house is 25 years old and has a cement board exterior.

https://imgur.com/a/CE3PWVu

Is this okay to do? Had a company spray the outside parameter of the house already a few weeks ago. Still seeing some spiders and other things crawling around down there from time to time. My 11 year old daughter refuses to go down there because of that. Would it be okay to purchase any type of bug spray and spray around the room and let it dry for a day or so before coming back down? Thanks

I believe that cold air is escaping underneath here and I have seen insects going to and from.. how can I make this air tight?

https://imgur.com/a/8mFPWNB

Had a termite inspector perform an inspection. They saw a probable infestation in the attic. One recommendation was to spray a topper over the insulation for about $1800, in addition to other remediations. However, he was giving a much stronger recommendation to pull all the insulation and replace it with termite resistant spray insulation for substantially more. Does this track? Is the topper really that poor a solution?

Hey all, the previous owner slapped some vinyl plank down in the kitchen without glue or floating it properly. So once planks started to slide around, it wasn’t long before they were cracking.

I pulled up half the kitchen at this point and underneath we have ceramic tile that’s been floated heavy in some areas (and cracked anyway) and not floated at all in others.

This is a 1970s house. I’m worried about doing this floor again and having further issues.

Would you figure it’s necessary to take all the tile out and redo from the subfloor up? Or would you risk trying to float it more and using a thicker plank for the next go round?

We have some renovations being done to our master bathroom and there’s a fine layer of drywall dust from the sanding. I’ve been cleaning it off of the floor and horizontal surfaces but it’s also probably all over the bed. How harmful is it to sleep in that room? I’m assuming they’ll be doing drywall sanding for a couple of days - do I need to clean it everyday?

I am in need of help! I framed a rough opening for a new window install, proceeded to flash the corners and sill plate. I think added caulking around the perimeter, except the bottom, screwed the flange into the rough opening and then flashed the remaining perimeter, working from the sides then up.

However, our house is rather old and the previous siding remains underneath the current siding + insulation. Beaver Board > Old Siding > Insulation > Vinyl Siding is how our home is currently layered. The outermost portion of the window nailing flange (channel?) seems to be in the same plane as the insulation, meaning the siding won't slide into the window's native channel.

Did I make a mistake? Is there a solution? Please let me know.

Here are photos: https://imgur.com/a/DpejO6r

We're new homeowners. Our garage door was damaged so we hired a company to put in a new one. They advised us that we should get the studs supporting our header replaced before they install the new door. The wood is old and worn, and one piece has a large split. They don't do that kind of work themselves, because they said it would require licensed contractors and a permit.

I started looking around for a contractor, but so far the ones I've spoken to have turned down the job. I think it's because it's too small and not worth their time.

Is it unrealistic to find a licensed general contractor willing to do this? Is it even necessary, or should I be looking for someone other than a gc?

Question - for a gas clothes washer and dryer, would they have to actually be on and running to produce carbon monoxide? Or could they still release carbon monoxide even hours after being shut off?

Thanks

Hi all, want to hear your thoughts as we are very new to this. Bought a townhome brand new 2,800 sq ft, built like a house very square floorplan and spacious, 4 bedroom with full baths and a very big basement family suite

We thought it is a bit too big for us to make it cohesive (we hope to have a modern farmhouse feel)

We are in Vancouver canada and the budget is 100k max, we met with 2 designers but 1 already came back with a quote of 25-30k in design fee which we thought was insane as it is 30% of our budget but we may be too uninformed.

I want to ask if you guys feel if

1. it is worth hiring one for a brand new house ?
2. Is that kind of design fee reasonable?
3. If allowed do you guys have any recommendations of a decorator/designer?

Thanks!

Hi guys,

I’m in a remodel. We had a low voltage guy come to give us a bid on Ethernet, speaker wire, shade wires etc.

Quite a few of the items I have done previously or can do myself.

Is it poor form to pay him to do some Of the items that are harder/more complex and take care of some the low hanging fruit? It’ll save me a little over a grand which isn’t small potatoes.

Will this upset my GC/not worth it? Or it’s my house and project and do as I see fit?

I'm looking to tear out the floor tile in my kitchen and pantry and install laminate. It appears the last homeowners had the tile and backer board laid over linoleum. Wondering if having it over the linoleum would make it any easier to tear out rather than just on the subfloor?

So... I bought my first home a couple years ago, old house, built in the 40s.

Today I went to do some laundry in the basement and saw a stream of sediment on the floor, traced it over to the wall, and saw a nice pile of dirt at the base of the wall.

Album

I thought it might've been the window directly above, but I couldn't feel any moisture there, even after a fresh rain brought a whole new stream of rain water into my basement... yay.

Unfortunately, I can't fully assess the damage at the moment because the entire foundation wall is covered in a sheet of plywood that I'll need to tear down (can't help but wonder if there was mal-intent there).

Clearly I need to re-assess the grading on the side of the house, but if there's a giant fissure in the foundation, I don't imagine that'll help a ton.

So what would you do in my shoes?
Should I tear down the wall and see if I can't patch it myself a la these guys, or should I call a pro ASAP? Obviously I'm not too keen on the idea of spending tens of thousands on foundation repair.

Any one have pros or cons to LVP in bedrooms vs carpet? We put LVP in the rest of our main level outside of the 3 bedrooms, and we just got a quote on carpet to replace the 3 bedrooms for roughly $4800. I know I could LVP for cheaper. But I love the soft sponginess of carpet/padding and hate walking without shoes on my LVP. I might look around for other carpet, but wondering if I should reconsider my stance on LVP in bedroom?

I've cut up many things with my sawzall so they fit in my trash bin for disposal, but never a very large mirror. The mirror appears glued on and appears to be a pain to remove. Can I just put the blade on it and pull the trigger? Will the mirror explode in my face? Thanks for your help.

link to photo of similar door with mirror

Contractor is installing screen tight screen system on back porch. He's leaving a 2 inch gap under the bottom frame of the screen to allow us to wash out debris out the bottom. The gap has 3 to 4 inches of screening that just hangs under and goes outside looking unfinished. I don't understand why we'd pay for a screening if we were just leaving a gap at the bottom. Thoughts? I would share a picture but it won't allow me.

Should I be concerned with their options? Stay away from certain lines?

I am getting siding, roof, and gutters replaced, and fascia boards wrapped in aluminum and new soffits.

First contactor I had out was a big local company, willing to do the job for my written SF estimate (~26k). They had booklets for Iko shingles and Market Square siding.

I also have a guy that lives around the corner who does construction, said he can get a crew together to do the job, and save me enough money to get the fascia boards and soffits done. He suggested getting materials from Menards. I'm just trying to do my research and make sure I'm not going to have issue with the products they sell, since it is a big box store, or at least pointed to a direction of which ones to use over the others. This guy has done work for me in the past, albeit a smaller drywall job, but he did great work for cheap ($500 total with materials to drywall my whole ~5x8 bathroom that reddit seemed to think should cost like $2k), so I'm not worried about his quality.

And for whatever it's worth, my house is not some fancy mcmansion, etc that I need the greatest stuff out there. It's a split level 1500 sq ft 2 BR (used to be 3) house. I'm not looking for best of the best, highest end stuff. I just need to get my hail damaged aluminum siding, gutters, and roof replaced... and honestly, if I put up the cheapest stuff I can buy, it will look 10x better than the house does now, but if I can get something middle of the road that will last longer, not fade, but without paying top of the line prices, that's the product I want.

Photos of the house for reference - https://photos.app.goo.gl/Ry4w4zQ5rrqYvB9s6

I'm planning on placing an offer on this condo. The price is very good, but I'm concerned about how serious these pieces of damage may or may not be.

https://imgur.com/a/NxM2fuM

The first picture is in the closet, the second is directly below the above unit's window unit AC, and the third is by the bathroom with a broken exhaust fan.

We have a whole house filtration with was surrounded by bushes. We recently cut them all down and now the filtration is exposed to direct sunlight. Should we put a fence around it or is it ok?

We have several wired smoke detectors that are a little over 9 years old. I have heard that they have a ten year life and would need to be replaced and they will eventually beep continuously until they are replaced probably starting to beep at 2am some morning. Is that true. Should I replace now?

https://imgur.com/a/wH5QyAb

The door is sort of bouncing off the top hinge. I’ve tried messing with the back screw and no luck. Any suggestions? I’m stumped on this one.

Can someone recommend a square tile-in drain for 3 inch pipe? I can't find any...

I've been peering into my attic to monitor for any roof leaks.

I noticed there can be some faded light coming in from the outside in some places in the roof. These seem to be from slightly lifted tiles for certain things that need to come out of the roof (like solar hot water panel, vent from gas ducted heating).

Sometimes I can just see a small hole of light for no good reason at all.

Is it normal for attics to be like this, or should I be striving to try to plug up and tighten up everything so that the attic is completely dark?

The spring inside the fort latch has either broken or fallen out of place, and the handle is heavy enough to open the latch at rest. So now unless I use the 3 point lock or the deadbolt, the door will swing open with a light breeze.

This is my current 3 point lock system . The replacement cost is $288.

I’ve taken it apart and the assembly around the latch is riveted shut so I can’t access or even see the spring. I did see a YouTube video of someone who drilled out the rivets, then hammered down and used a grinder to get the assembly together again… more work than I’d like and if I mess up, I’m stuck without anyway to shut my door…

Am I insane for thinking I can just buy a less expensive off brand handle to replace this? I must be missing something… any advice is much appreciated!!

My 90's home has what appears to be ( it is up in the ceiling only accessible by the 7.5" hole) a Halo style canless light mount (Lithonia Downlighting CJ50112). I removed the old light shroud and there is a junction box next to the hole (either part of the mount or attached in some way).

My wife would like a <10lb light/chandelier in its place. What is my best option to easily convert this mount to adapt it to a mount capable of handling a small chandelier type light?

My company, Checkmate Roofing & Construction, just snagged the Houzz 2024 Badge. That's right, we're in the top 2% of home improvement pros. Who would've thought a bunch of roofers could be this cool?

Anyone else work in construction? Let's hear your thoughts.

#roofing #checkmateroofing #bestofhouzz

My company, Checkmate Roofing & Construction, just snagged the Houzz 2024 Badge. That's right, we're in the top 2% of home improvement pros. Who would've thought a bunch of roofers could be this cool?

Anyone else work in construction? Let's hear your thoughts.

#roffing #checkmateroofing #bestofhouzz

We installed a vinyl floor throughout our main floor last summer. We had done this rather quickly as we were expecting our first baby in the fall. We knew the original hardwood flooring underneath was a bit uneven in the center of our hallway, however we didn't think it would cause too much of a problem because the flooring we had chosen had a thick padding underlay. Turns out we were wrong (we are first time homeowners learning along the way)! As the weather got colder (we live in Canada) we noticed that the seams on the planks in the hallway were buckling, some were splitting and breaking. We know we have to rip up half the floor to fix it as we do not have any transitions. The problem is we are unsure how to fix this problem. We have looked into some options such as floor leveler and foam (or just having a professional come in but we rather not as we are on a tight budget), we are just not sure about what to choose as we have the original hardwood underneath. We would love some advice before we attempt this project (again). Thank you!

I have an existing light/fan switch on one end of the room, but would like to add a second switch to make it a three way switch at the other end of the room for the light. There is no way I would be able to fish a wire from the fixture to where I would like the switch to be.

Is there a wireless option to use that would not require me to change out the existing switch and just maybe put a receiver in the light/fan combo? I could run a power source to the switch if needed to avoid any battery replacements. I don't want to change out a lot of components that aren't necessary, though.

Bonus points if it's a toggle design and not a rocker switch to match the rest of the house