8 ft tall basement. Previous owner seemed to cover the dirt floors with wood. How can I tell if its been encapsulated?

I have a 19th century home. It is a mix of balloon faming and modern framing. The floor sags towards center of the house fairly noticably on the first floor and affects the second floor. However the roof ridge is nice and level as it's weight is carried to the outter walls. In the basement one of the many culprits is how the joists are attached to the beam of interest. They did not have hangers. Instead they have, what I have been referring to as a nailer attached to face of the beam creating a lip for the joists to sit on. The joists are notched to sit on this. My original plan was to use screw jacks for posts under a second beam with spacing approximately 6' and slowly bring them all back into level with the rest of the house. But in thinking I realized the joists are all differt thickness and the top side of the joists were make level with each other to create a flat floor. So I go with my approach I will be changing that and will cause a lumpy floor that has high spots and lows. So in Lew of a beam I was wondering if instead I use a bunch of lolly post jacks to raise each joist individually. Does that make sense. I am not sure how this would be done normally so I am researching and any input or words of experience would be appreciated. Thanks in advance!

are there any resources/websites dedicated to DIY dummies? for projects like removing decades old wallpaper, possibly multiple layers (and what to do with the wall after that)? or sanding and refinishing doorways and windows in Victorian homes? is the best resource just YouTube? I'm detail oriented at whatever I do but I don't want to make a total mess nor do I want to spend £3k+ for sand/paint/finish jobs...

I'm going to be building a floating deck in the coming weeks with either wood or composite boards (haven't decided which yet).

There's a pergola I'm eyeing (Mirador 111S) and it unfortunately needs a few more inches (~5-6 would be ideal) of clearance due to a tall barrel sauna I'm placing underneath it.

Does anyone have recommendations on how to elevate the posts of this aluminum pergola on the deck so that I can both have enough clearance for the barrel sauna as well as anchor it properly to the deck?

The most basic approach I can think of is to anchor some wood in the areas where the posts will go, but I'm not entirely confident that this is the 'right' way with regards to load bearing (~475 pounds).

I'm also happy to just consider a taller pergola :)

I've been googling this for over 20 minutes and I can't find a thing! I'm looking for a 2 to 3 foot garden Stake that is a U shape to hold a light weight branch.

I've searched "4 shape", "h shape", "u shape" plant stake, garden Stake, brand stake... Running out of ideas.

The closest thing is is a Shepard's lantern stake, but I'm looking for the bottom style on both sides.

Please forgive my crude drawing.

https://preview.redd.it/garden-stake-v0-8bu5uv5qfted1.jpeg?auto=webp&s=9f5ac20a9dd43974798c452abe820559e4ef0078

I just moved into a new place with a floating (wall mounted) closet system. I want to buy drawers and drawer fronts for this system that match the color and size. I can’t seem to find any branding on the panels at all, and only found what might be a logo on the rod mount. Anyway to find matching drawers? Thank you !

Some pics to help: https://ibb.co/sKpZC4R https://ibb.co/0cKynTb https://ibb.co/j8WKf7B

Hello Redditters,

I received a quotation for window soundproofing that comes with this particular fine print "Guarantee of noise reduction: If no noise reduction is achieved on the date of installation, right before caulking the frames, we will uninstall our panels and provide a full refund."

It seems they have a good product based on their demo and they said the product has gone through laboratory testing. But erring on the side of caution, and just in case for the worst case scenario, I asked the contractor how would they determine "If no noise reduction is achieved on the date of installation" and under what circumstances would "provid[ing] a full refund" take place?

They responded by saying "The guarantee is straightforward as stated. We want to emphasize that this guarantee is not based on customer satisfaction, as satisfaction was not mentioned. Your concern is impossible to occur because the outcome is a physical certainty, similar to water boiling when exposed to heat." They also said I am the first client who has asked them that.

Their response led me to understand that the sale is final upon installation, but this is not what I understood from the fine print. Why put a hypothetical fine print there if what they are saying is that the sale is final? Is there something I am missing or not understanding?

In case it helps contextualize, this is a situation in Canada. I paraphrased the exchanges above to protect privacy, but the key words are kept to ensure the meanings remain intact.

I would very much appreciate your help!

I've only been in my house about 2 years but it literally feels like 2 months. Why didn't anyone warn me about how much stuff there is to do and how long everything takes?

I'pim beginning to realize this to house do list is just an ongoing way of life now. But I need some ideas and maybe your knowledge to pull this latest feat off.

I'd like to temporarily enclose my porch for the winter. I'm in Lou KY, so it won't be foolproof for the whole season. I just want to buy as much time as I can.

It's a covered patio with 3 open sides. I've heard of people using grommet tarps but I'm worried about the wind. From ceiling to ground, I should plan for 11 feet. Each side is 12' and the side away from the house is 14'. There's no trees here yet, it's a new neighborhood. In a slight wind over 10mph and I have to lock everything down on it.

Would using trim pieces with a roll of transparent plastic be safer in the wind than the grommets? I don't think I can find a tarp with grommets on all sides in the sizes I need. With either option, I'm not sure how to secure it to the house, which is brick, the columns (2) which are aluminum siding as well as the trim around the roof of the patio. There might be a slight bit of wood I could use. But I also don't want to tear everything up with holes in it.

Anyone have a clue what I can do, or maybe someone actually done something this? I know it'd really help if I had one more side on my porch, but if there's a way to do, I really wanna try!

Hey Reddit friends!

https://imgur.com/a/9if0Ymp Pictures

My girlfriend and I just bought our first house and decided to rip off the old basement carpet (40 years old carpet) to install vinyl flooring instead. Once the carpet removed, we noticed some worrisome white and black marks on the concrete floor.

We were wondering if you guys had an idea what it could be and if we should worry about it and perhaps consult an expert to come and take a look. We’re not thrilled to install the vinyl flooring not knowing if it’s humidity/moisture “safe”.

Also, on a side note, we’re going to install Multiclic vinyl flooring and we were also wondering if it was necessary to put a layer of moisture barrier on the concrete before installing the new flooring or installing it right on the concrete would be OK?

PS: Is this crack a subject to worry about? https://imgur.com/a/OTigij5

Thanks 🙏

Hey everyone,

I recently bought a house built in 1950, and it has a fixed window in the garage with dimensions of 69 x 24 inches. I want to use the garage as a workspace for working from home and would like to make this window openable.

Home Depot told me it's a non-standard size, so it would cost $600 with a 3-4 week wait. Spending $600 for a garage window seems excessive to me. If I hire a handyman at $45 per hour for 8 hours, it will be $360, making the total project cost around $1,000.

What are some affordable options to make this window openable? Any advice would be appreciated!

https://imgur.com/a/eJRyhuA

First time homebuyer and three of my cabinets were for some reason or other water damaged. Each is next to a different wet appliance (dishwasher, fridge, and washing machine, all thrown in for free by seller) so the water source wouldn’t be a big mystery to me. Is there a reliable way to tell if the water damage is for something old, or something ongoing? The cabinet next to the dishwasher WAS due to a slow water leak in dishwasher, but that one was moldy and our inspector kindly came back to help us troubleshoot and his moisture detector picked up heavy readings on it, which helped. I’m pretty glad he did because it seemed dry to the touch.

The other two cabinets feel dry as a damn bone but one is especially stinky (fridge) and the other is visibly warped (washing machine). Inspector moisture detector didn’t pick up anything on these but if they’re fine why do they smell so funky??? The fridge is way too heavy for me to move and check for leaks and day by day I’m tempted to tear these cabinets out with my bare hands even if it means ruining the marble countertops. I can’t believe I was ever excited about this house lol.

I'm removing a couple structural walls (they're actually half-wall) and I'll be installing a longer beam. I'm planning to install a flush beam. The structural engineer has not come up with the drawing yet but during the site visit, he said that the beam depth will probably be 16" and width will be 5". The above ceiling joists are 2"x12" and therefore, a 16" beam will still be partly exposed even with flush installation.

Based on my research and a similar project that a friend did (where he put a 22' beam with 12" depth), it seems like a 16" depth is too much for such beam. A couple questions for the community:

• Based on the home layout in https://imgur.com/KxjjKNT, what do you think the right depth should be? Any online calculator will be appreciated.

• How does exact beam material (LVL, etc.) affect the depth and can I request engineer to design with a smaller depth?

Thanks in advance for the help.

We had an old wood deck that needed to be re-done, hired a company to remove it and build a new one + railings.

The company we hired had really good reviews, but there are two concerns I have with the result, unless i'm just nit picking, so looking for some opinions.

1. For some reason they used shorter width pieces in the middle (blue arrow).

2. From the pictures it looks like some of the gaps are noticeably larger than others? (red arrow) Although maybe its just the picture. We are out of town and will inspect it in person tomorrow.

I'm more concerned with the shorter width pieces as it seems to stick out a bit to the eye..

Thanks

PICTURES

I'm remodeling a single-family home for section 8 housing. I need to remove the carpets from four bedroom and replace them with vinyl flooring. I'm not sure what flooring, or color, I should pick to go with the current hardwood flooring that's on the outside.

Any ideas or suggestions from you all?

https://imgur.com/7uuieVl

Location: Florida

Helpppp what does this mean? It’s July in hot ass Florida. The alates are just running around drunk off borax. They are not trailing. Just running around like chickens with their heads cut off. Idk if this is a good sign that my regimen worked (borax traps, then maxforce granule bait, then terro instant kill on the outdoor nests. Then home defense around perimeter) now all the outdoor workers are gone. Inside is 85% alates and only a few workers left. What does this mean? I keep putting out borax traps and buying other baits on Amazon to try. The alates just swim around in the bait and die. Will they take it back to their nest? Can alates even do that? Should i just be squishing all the alates and leaving the workers to carry back the baits to the nest?? (the nest I can’t even find despite watching them endlessly, they appear to have no pattern 😵‍💫) helppp please they are driving me crazy.

From all my reading and research...

Seems that if the basement concrete wall is above grade, AND there is no vapor barrier on the external side of the wall, its fine to put the barrier on the interior wall. IF there is some external vb, then nothing she be done on the interior wall. Correct?

If the concrete wall is below grade, the vb should be put on the external wall, and nothing should be done on the inside of the wall.

Does this sound correct?

I bought a brand new house 4 years ago. The master shower started leaking about a year ago. We noticed that our floor in the bedroom was starting to warp so we called the builder and he came out and looked at it and caulked around the bottom of the shower and said it should be good for a couple of years. Well we noticed it started leaking again 6 weeks ago (less than a year after the first time) so I had a different contractor out to look at it and they went under the house and saw that there was water dripping under there and water damage. They told me they could fix it but because the house was so new they said I should reach out to the builder. That he should back up his work for longer than a year. So I messaged the builder again and told him the shower was still leaking and he came out and looked again. When he was here he told me that the shower was probably installed incorrectly because it shouldn’t be leaking and said he would talk to some people and get it taken care of. I didn’t hear from him so I reached out after a couple of weeks and he told me he wasn’t going to do anything for us. I know that in Washington state a contractor is liable for their work for 6 years. The whole shower needs to be redone, subfloors, transition between the bathroom and bedroom and potentially more depending on how bad the water damage is. It’s going to be $10,000+. Can I file a claim against his insurance? Is that something that is covered/worth the time and effort pursuing? It’s seems so unfair that I have to spend that much money to replace a brand new shower.

I replaced my old Honeywell thermostat w the Sensi yesterday. Got it set up; it was working. Come home from work today - screens blank. Nothing. Wasn’t the batteries. Took front off to find some of the wires weren’t in all the way- reattached the loose wires. Still nothing.

I thought I’d really screwed up. I took the Sensi out and put the old one back in, and it’s working. Any ideas?

I am looking for doorstop for an outward swinging patio French door. I wood prefer not to have the doorstop on the floor , but I can't find anything for the US market. I found this https://doorstopworld.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/main.jpg but it's for the UK.

Any ideas what I can use?

I'm moving into a new apartment and they had to install a new garbage disposal. But whoever installed it made it so that the disposal turns on when the switch is flicked down and turns off when the switch is flicked up, essentially backwards, which really annoys my OCD. Any idea how to fix this? I tried turning off the breaker to the garbage disposal, then flicking the switch down, then turning the breaker back on, but it turned on as soon as I turned the breaker on. I've already been harassing the maintenance team to fix a bunch of stuff before I move in, so I know they're not going to care, since it technically works. Any ideas? Thanks.

I know dark colours are hard to get exactly right, but we’ve paid some painters quite a bit of money to repaint some basement walls. They’ve come back a few times and each time the imperfections seem to get more and more peculiar so I wanted to post to make sure I’m not just being a picky butthead. The latest they allegedly sanded down the walls and used a higher quality paint (don’t know exactly which, just know they are using an eggshell sheen).

It’s not as obvious to the naked eye but after you’ve seen it under the flashlight it’s apparent, especially when the overhead lights are on.

Here’s a pic, and to note this is true on all the walls, including some that just recently had some of the drywall replaced. Is this something that is just the nature of the beast with a darker colour, or is there something they are obviously doing wrong?

Want to rent an apartment, but the door opens outward with exterior hinges. How do I know if these pins are removable? There is no hole on the pin barrels. Besides, there is no horizontal pin, so I guess it's not a security hinge. Should I be worried?

I live in Japan, and exterior doors are quite common. Any advice is greatly appreciated.

Hey y’all. Just bought my first house! Whoohoo, except… it didn’t come with a user manual. Hey folks I think I’m a pretty smart guy, I know how to use pretty much every tool on the planet, I can fix just about anything on car, and I know a lot when it comes to electrical, plumbing, etc. but HOLY CRAP, owning a home makes me feel dumb. Making 4 trips to the hardware store to try and find a vacuum breaker with the right threads. Making three trips to Home Depot trying to get the right circuit breaker. Ho boi. Anyone feel like this before? If so, how’d you get more familiar with how homes work? Everything has its own standard and yet nothing in my home seems to fit the standards. Yikes. Well any advice or input would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

I saw a commercial for re-stickable wall tiles that be used to hang portraits, but I don't remember what they're called (it was in between X-Men days of future past) but I know they had a website, I think they were called "smart tiles or something" does anyone know what they're called?

First floor bathroom has some bubbling. Unsure if it’s always been like that or is recent. Water? Poor paint adhesion ? Should I just leave it or try to repaint and see if it happens again?

https://imgur.com/a/MthGpAP

Hey everyone. So my home had termite damage before moving in. Doing some maintenance on the side of the house and discovered that I could easily break through this particular section, 8"-10" deep and I am afraid deeper if I kept trying to pick at the wood. Home is from 1949, this was a car port and at some point enclosed and this is not necessarily considered a fascia per say, see pics https://imgur.com/a/ZzCK1D1

I am thinking just filling it in with a ton of bondo and that should do the trick, but should I fill it in with some spare piece of 2x2 or something else? Suggestions greatly appreciated.

Thanks so much!

I finally caught a break and am planning a bathroom renovation, but call me old – when did the labor costs for tiling jump to $20-$30 per sq/ft? We've got a pretty big bathroom with a total area of 258 sq/ft, which comes to about $5,160 to $7,740 just for labor.

I got this price by cold calling a few local companies I found on Facebook. This is way too much for what I was expecting. I was hoping to keep the cost for this part of the labor around $2000.

Does anyone have any tips or suggestions on where to find more affordable labor or any other cost-saving advice for this renovation? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Walked out this morning and my son found a piece of metal in my driveway. I didn’t think anything of it at the time but saved it just in case.

Now this evening I was outside again and noticed two holes in the siding just above my garage door. One of the holes had a similar piece of metal sticking out of it. Anyone have any idea what the metal is and how it managed to find its way into and breaking my siding? My best guess is that it’s some random scrap that got kicked up by a neighbor’s mower.

https://imgur.com/a/Hle7uFE

We moved into our house in May of this year. The house has had one owner, it was built in 1994. This week I’m noticing all of these cracks in the ceiling, along with some nail pops. It almost looks like the drywall tape along the edges and between sheets is coming down. What could be causing this?

https://imgur.com/a/foKKjXo

I'm not sure what the main point of this post is, other than to vent. I'm just about two years into owning my first home. It's a somewhat recently renovated ~100 year old home, and I am just so overwhelmed trying to keep up. From a horrible experience replacing the roof, crawl space water and humidity problems, and now issues with the 15 year old HVAC systems and a shoddy install of a new system this week, I don't know how I can keep doing this. I try to be as educated as I can about the ins and outs of everything in the house, but it's exhausting. Dealing with contractors and trying to stay on top of issues after shelling out large amounts of money to fix issues only to find that things aren't done right, or could be done better is killing me. Every day I worry about something else in the house. This week it's leaking ducts and excessive condensation on my brand new HVAC system in the attic. The roof replacement was a saga of poor installation issues and hours in the attic trying to identify problems that needed to be fixed by the installer after they were done. There is a never ending list of things that need to be fixed, and every time I feel remotely caught up something else crops up that causes problems. I like the think that I take a lot of pride in the work that I do for a living, and it is just so demoralizing dealing repeatedly with professionals selling expensive repairs and home improvements that seem to cut corners. Sometimes I think that ignorance would just be bliss, and not trying to educate myself about the house would be an easier existence. I can't keep going on like this for much longer.