Hi, I’m trying to drill into what I believe to be a masonry wall in order to put up some shelves. I’m using a Makita drill with a hammer setting and 8mm masonry drill bit (as per the plug size required for the shelves).

I have checked for studs / wires / pipes using a sealey detector and all is clear.

My issue is that I am able to drill about 1.5” into the wall, then suddenly the drill will go no further. I have gone at it with a bit of pressure, increased the drill speed and torque, but the drill just ends up widening the hole it has already created and won’t go any further.

I’ve read that it could be a metal plate protecting wires but surely that would pick up on the AC detector. I tried drilling another hole a few inches higher and am having the same issue.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Any advice what could be causing this and how I can work around it?

https://imgur.com/pBGwyis

House was built in 1986. Knob is non-functional. Brand is Pulnix.

I rent, I tried to fix my window with no luck. I’d looked at YouTube videos, google, everything.

I took the handle off and saw the square rod behind the window handle had snapped.

I told the landlord about the issue and they waited until we had moved out to get someone to look at it.

They’re now taking money from our deposit and saying we intentionally broke the window with force, which is wholly untrue!!

Is this even possible to break a window like this? It is my belief that either the window was faulty or they had tightened the handle too much.

Sorry if this is the wrong sub!!

I just moved into a newly built apartment in Germany, having previously only lived in wooden frame and dry wall houses. I was drilling into a wall to install a kitchen and after about 30mm the drill punched through into some cavity. Looking into the hole I see what looks like black coloured material, but poking in there it feels hard and crumbly like brick still.

I’m guessing the brick holes are black on the inside then? Am I cool to keep drilling or should I check something else? The floor plan shows no surprises, i’m 500mm from the nearest outlet and the plumbing is all external. Up until now have only really installed light duty stuff and drilled short depths so this took me by surprise. Appreciate the help!

Hi everyone, I am looking to glue down outdoor natural stone tiles and looking for a premixed mortar solution (cannot really be bothered to mix given that in my mind is a massive job).

Any recommendations? We get freeze and thaw cycles here. Most of the product on the shelves seems to be for indoor use. Am I out of luck for outdoor?

I am working on a "treehouse" that will be a 10'x14' platform in the woods supported by 6'x6' posts on top of concrete footings. I was hoping to get the footings four feet below the surface to get below the frost line here, but I am hitting ledge at about three feet. To do this right (or at least as right as reasonably possible without blasting), can I pour the concrete footings right on top of the ledge, or should I anchor the footings to the ledge with something like a rebar shaft bored into the ledge and epoxied and pour the concrete around that, or something else? Thank you all for your suggestions .

I'm installing canned recessed lighting (looks like this): https://i.imgur.com/xSyFeb2.jpg in the joists of my basement. The ceiling will be left open joists with no drywall or drop. I am having a hell of a time trying to install these and not sure if there's an easier way. Once I cut the hanger bars the proper height and make sure it'll fit snugly between the joists, I can't seem to hammer the nails into place. The nails constantly move or get bent and I can't hold it long enough in place to hammer it down. Am I missing something? Given the reviews on Lowes & Home Depot's website, I don't feel like it should be this difficult! Can I remove the nails and put in actual screws instead?

Hi everyone! I am trying to create and print out some big posters. Most of the ones I am considering are collages of smaller pictures but I am trying to make the final picture 5' x 5' ideally

Would love some tips on:

1. How do I ensure that the collage posters are clear once I put them all together and print it?
2. How do I ensure a single picture poster that's printed this large would maintain clarity?
3. Any ideas about how/where to get such large prints in small quantities (thinking a total of 4-5 posters)?
4. Have any of you tried printing on a fabric before?
5. Thinking I want to pin the posters to a large board of some kind (my wall is painted badly and is bumpy) - any ideas on how to get large boards or hack around this?

We’re remodeling our bathroom, and we decided to keep the old floor tile since it was still in good condition, but all of the walls needed to be redone. There used to be a curved tile trim that we had to remove, but it left about a 2in gap between the wall and the tile floor like this (https://imgur.com/a/VQonSAw).

We’ll put trim on, but it isn’t thick enough to cover the whole gap. Is there something else we can do to fill the area?

I am attempting to build a display cabinet using a DIY cabinet and an old barn window for the front. My friend who began the project already mounted the front with some hinges, but didn't take into account the fact that it will no open, since the side of the window bumps up against the cabinet (see the second to last picture). I've looked at many types of hinges, and eventually purchased two kinds (see last picture), but I'm not sure about how to mount them. Any help on how to do this is appreciated.

Images: https://imgur.com/a/BTFyzLg

A month or so ago I had a leak from the kitchen during the night. Water flooded out the tap for hours in the night which made the carpets of the living room wet. We took up and disposed of the carpet and have been running dehumidifiers to dry to concrete underfloor. Everything looks and feels very dry. We had a specialist come and check the damp level and he said it was around a 5.5 last week. When I look online I can only see damp levels in %s so not sure what this means, but he mentioned the standard is 3 but the range is 3-6. We were due to have him come back to check the damp level again today but he called in sick.

The issue is we were due to have new carpets fitted this Tuesday so now we have to decide if we should postpone this until we get the specialist to be confident the damp is as dry as it can be. If I cancel this carpet laying it will be weeks and weeks for another appointment and living without the floor is very difficult.

Should I wait or is it safe to lay carpet?

When the top uPVC windows in our bedroom are open, even the tiniest amount of wind causes an annoying whistling/howling sound, regardless of which of the two windows are open. The whistling stops if all windows are closed.

Could this be due to the sealant on the inside failing? I can’t see any holes but the top looks a bit “frilly”. I’ll add a picture to the comments.

So I am turning a gumball machine into a dice tower and I want to put a hole in the lid so that I don't have to take it off to drop in the dice. The lid is made of steel and not particularly thick, and the rough guideline I drew is a little under an inch. I figured I would need to drill it, but my drill bits are pretty small. What would I need to do this?

Please ignore how messy the guideline is, I will be spray painting this later so I didn't really care how neat it was. Also, the guideline is thick because initially, I traced around one of my D20S, but I decided to make it a bit bigger in case I have bigger ones I want to use later.

https://preview.redd.it/wph6tzgk445b1.jpg?width=2226&format=pjpg&auto=webp&v=enabled&s=6c0572f653c1bc52b5384495b94b2cc784181406

Hi, I'm trying to determine if these bumps indicate that there's a leak underneath the bathroom on the second floor... appreciate any help on this:

https://imgur.com/a/KKH5AQp

Images:

1. There's been a leak (before I bought the unit) from second floor to first floor kitchen, so I'm not sure if these are 'old'.
2. The yellow stain could be because this spot is right above the microwave/stove/appliances
3. I used a Klein pinless moisture meter and got a reading of ~ 20% in the area. 30% in some areas, but these are right below studs so the 30% areas could be false positives (I used a stud-finder).

I'm trying to decide if I should ask a contractor to come take a look at this, but getting some second opinions hopefully before doing so

Recently there’s been a small leak next to my bathtub/shower. I had a plumber come out and he pressed on my shower wall and immediately said that the problem was from the caulking coming loose and that I needed to recaulk. I inspected further myself and he was right, lots of places where the caulk was no longer sealed.

Tonight I started to remove the old caulk and along the bottom, where the shower wall meets the tub, there’s water sitting at the bottom. Not enough that it flowed, but just trickled and seems to sit.

Is this normal water from the water getting behind the shower wall? Can I just air it out, dry it as best as possible, apply mold killer and recaulk? Will this at least hold me over for a few years until I can afford a complete demo and reinstall??

Hi!

I love dishwashers. I love them so much I'm trying to install one in a place I'm renting. Why? Because I hate doing dishes.

What I've got:

A garbage disposal that's wired to a switch above the sink.

What I want:

I want to create an under sink outlet using the garbage disposal power. I want the disposal to still work on the switch and use the outlet for the dishwasher. Yes, I know it's weird to have a disposal and dishwasher on the same circuit, but who uses a garbage disposal while their dishwasher is on? I only use the garbage disposal occasionally because I have to because of buildup in the drain. I think disposals are silly and I'd much rather have the room under my sink, but this is a whole new topic.

Limitations:

It will be very difficult to run any new lines because I don't want to cut into the back of the cabinet walls. The garbage disposal is directly wired to the switch above. The line comes out of a tiny hole in the back of the under sink cabinet.

Is this possible? I had an electrician do this exact thing for me at my last place, but unfortunately I was too hungover to take notes. He appeared to just be working under the sink, but that whole day was a blur. I can't figure out how he got constant power to the outlet and keep the disposal working on the switch. He directly wired the disposal to the new outlet box under the sink. He didn't change it to a plug-in. I just can't figure this out in my head.

I have this solid wood chest in my room where I used to have a small fish tank. Now, I'm looking to upgrade to a bigger one that is 29 gallons. The standard length for these tanks is 30.25in, but the chest is only 29.5in. It's not a massive difference but I don't want to risk even the slightest overhang. Thus, I am looking to get a simple wooden slab that would be about 16in wide by 31in long and rest it on top of the chest, and then place the tank over it.

With water and substrate, the tank would weigh about 270lbs (I imagine). My question is 1) what's the cheapest way to go about acquiring this slab of wood and 2) what kind of wood should I avoid and what kind should I look for?

Most solid wood I saw is really expensive. Is there anything cheap that would still be durable and hold a lot of weight?

Thanks!

I live way up a hill at the edge of my city. Water pressure is usually fairly low, but usable. I have a pressure booster pump between the water main and my house that usually does the job fine. However, being near the top of the system, I have low pressure and during times of high demand it drops low enough that the pump shuts off from lack of flow.

I am thinking of placing a raised storage tank that will fill from the mains during normal pressure, but be able to back-flow into my pump when pressure is low. (There will be a 1 way check valve between my system and the water main to prevent the possibility of back flowing water into the public system.)

We just bought a house and the yard has a turtle pond. The pond itself was filtering and pumping its own water and was not connected. We emptied the pond and took out the pump. We found these three pipes covered by some bushes, parallel to each other in a row. They are orange capped, extend 1.5 our and then hook to other pipes from the ground

Maybe the pond was a different set up before? We want to fill in the whole pond since we have a toddler but don't know what to do with these as they stick out

Hey all, I live in an NYC co-op administrated by a nonprofit agency who are masters of the half done and slapdash installation.

Our downstairs neighbors share a bedroom wall with the exterior part of the entryway, where a massive metal gate slams shut loudly every time any resident or delivery person comes in or out. We / they have asked the maintenance team to fix this gate hinge, since moving in about two years ago when the complex was built.

The gate opens slowly and closes slowly... then slams itself shut. Is there a heavy duty solution for this? My mind said "pneumatic hinge" but all of those that I see for sale are for cabinets and toyboxes. What is the missing piece of hardware that we are seeking?

Thanks in advance! Even here many floors above we can hear the gate clatter and slam itself shut several times an hour, the cacophony echoing against the courtyard (and waking our downstairs neighbors throughout the night.)

US here. I have a chandelier with transmitter I’ve tried hanging to no avail. Unfortunately lost the instructions and have googled furiously to find something, unfortunately this is some cheap knockoff unit that seems a bit shoddy. I’m a novice at electricity work but I know the basics.

The unit has a red, blue, and small white wire. Output is normal white and black.

I’d upload a picture if this stupid mod would let me link one but it won’t.

I tried red > black(hot), blue>white(neutral), white > ground (? I don’t feel this is right but it doesn’t have a ground, which seems super weird as it’s a metal chandelier)

Anyone know how this should be wired? Is this not worth messing with and should I ask for a refund since this thing seems a little shoddy?

Got it from morsale.com if that helps. Cannot track down original instructions or any help on the unit or why the wires aren’t standard.

We’ve two builtin wardrobes with ~20 yr old sliding mirror doors. They’re the bane of my life? completely off track, never slide properly/jam all the time and fixing them is beyond our capabilities. Anyone replaced sliding wardrobe doors before? Is it worth looking for someone to repair them, or is it better to replace all together?

The PVC pipes on the exterior of the house look terrible. Garbage terrible. What are the alternative piping materials suitable for this application?

Hi all. Moving into a new house and trying to get a better understanding of GFCIs and so on. The house is about 30 years old and we’ve found some small stuff that wouldn’t meet code these days.

I noticed that in the bathroom there is a standard outlet/receptacle (not GFCI). Maybe a problem.

However, in the breaker box there is a circuit labeled “House GFCI”. There is a GFCI outlet in the garage (?) that is on that circuit.

If I trip that GFCI, it shuts off power to the bathroom receptacle in question. So, it seems like this outlet IS GFCI-protected despite the fact that the receptacle itself is not GFCI.

I want to replace that bathroom receptacle for cosmetic reasons (it’s the wrong color, and it’s old and dingy-looking).

Is it fine to just install a standard receptacle because it is on that house GFCI? Or would it be safer to install a GFCI receptacle there? (And if you could teach me why/why not I’d appreciate it!)

Thanks, all!

How do I open this gas line? https://ibb.co/prc84R2

My couch (a Burrow Nomad) has relatively thin cushions made, I believe, of memory foam. That means that they feel nice and supportive at first, but after I sit on them for a while, the foam caves in, the support is gone, I start wiggling around for a better position, and before you know it my tailbone hurts all day.

Getting all new cushions would be kind of cost-prohibitive, and I'm not even sure how much they would help because they'd have to be the same height as the current ones to fit into the covers.

So now I'm tossing around the idea of slipping some kind of extra padding underneath the cushions, something firm enough to add support but slim enough that it's hard to see.

My working idea is to get something like a mattress pad made of firm latex foam, which is springy instead of mushy. If it's only 1-2" thick and cut down to be a little smaller than the cushions on top of it, I can imagine it disappearing into the couch pretty well.

But even a twin mattress pad seems to cost like $150, which is more than I'm hoping to spend on something that I don't even know will work.

Is there another option? A cheaper material with similar properties, or another approach altogether? I know the simple answer is that literally anything squishy could help, but I'm hoping there's something better.

How would I go about figuring out the area of the floor of my backseat? My dogs like to lie there and I would like to put some foam down. I know there’s an easier way to trace an area besides using a measuring tape or shoving the foam in and hacking away.

Help my brain unmush itself please!

Moved in to a new house 6 months back and the built-in gas cooktop isn't level--all my oil is pooling at the bottom of my pan and it's driving me nuts.

Do you guys have any suggestions on how to level it in a safe, aesthetically pleasing manner? Everything I've found online is around leveling a full stove's feet, which obviously doesn't apply here

My son grabbed me and said "there is a leak in your workroom". I inspected and determined it was probably coming from the toilet upstairs. I shut off the water supply to the toilet, and after a couple of minutes the leak stopped. There was no water on the floor around the toilet.

A little while later, I checked the bowl and it was full, however, the tank was empty.

I can't figure out where the lead is coming from, and would appreciate any help.