Hey friends! Each year mid October, after the first chill and warm up of fall, my house gets absolutely SWARMED with ladybeetles (the orange ones that bite). Particularly the western facing wall where my side door is. The issue is they manage to find their way in and around that door and I end up vacuuming dozens of ladybeetles off the walls and ceilings each day for weeks on end. I'm wanting to beef up my door seal to keep them from being able to crawl around and in. I tried a peel and stick option from Lowe's last year but it was too tight and the action of opening and closing the door ended up ripping it off the frame. What's currently in place is the rubber seal that slots into the channels on the door frame and it's just fine the rest of the year. But I'd love to seal it up tighter to prevent "the annual ladybuggening" from overtaking my home.

TL;DR What products do you recommend to strengthen an outside door seal to prevent seasonal bugs from crawling in. Thanks guys sorry for the Novel!

I live in Alberta Canada. It gets pretty cold in the winter and I have lots of windows and none have blinds/curtains on right now. My house feels a bit cold and I think that's because the windows are uncovered (no drafts, I checked).

I just got a quote from a local company $4k for zebra blinds and $6k for honeycomb ones. According to them, the difference between the two is not much. It felt like they were advocating for zebra blinds.

I have nothing against the zebra blinds but I want to know if they are even energy efficient at all or if they won't make any difference at all.

We are needing to redo the interior and exterior of a home we are purchasing. Can you recommend a program (or app) for this? I'd love to upload photos and add furniture or windows and redo cabinets, etc. I see it all the time on TV. Why I can't figure out how to do this baffles me.

TIA!

Hello. I have a small utility closet in my finished basement that has 2 walls and ceiling that were left unfinished. Originally, there was pink fiberglass insulation installed but I mistakenly removed it and replaced it with Kraft faced insulation because it was cleaner and less dusty. I've now learned I can't leave this type of insulation exposed and am exploring my options for this room. My water heater and basement air handler are both in the utility closet. Cement floors and the other 2 walls are cement.

My question is, what options do I have for insulation that isn't dusty and won't be falling apart? Does the room even need to be insulated? I keep network equipment, a printer, a couple of other electronics in there and I don't want them getting dusty and having a short life.

Could I install foam board insulation? Or encapsulated insulation? Would either be safe to leave exposed? I don't want to drywall finish the walls because all my Ethernet runs are there and I might need access to the walls later.

This is a new construction (2019), located in Georgia. The basement is 50/50 above grade and below grade.

I'm open to all manner of suggestions. Just want to see if I can make some use of the space without worrying about fiberglass insulation all over everything.

Apologies if this is a stupid post - I'm a first time homeowner and am finding lots of conflicting info so far. Thank you!

I'm looking for recommendations on how to deal with redoing the doors to our laundry area. The space is a pretty deep and wide cut out that houses our washer and dryer side by side. The space is closed off with bifold doors on a track so the sound gets dampened by the doors. But bifold suck.

We still want doors so the washer and dryer sounds get reduced. But since the laundry area is in a cutout, a wall is essentially on the left side. I've seen Instagram videos of people doing barn doors but they usually require the track to be wider than the opening.

I'm also planning on trying to stack the dryer (right) on top of the washer(left).

Struggling to figure out what this is supposed to feed. Originally thought RV. After googling I’m not so sure.

https://imgur.com/a/TV87awj

We currently have a half unfinished second floor and are starting to look at renovating it to add another bedroom and bathroom. The plans would be drawn up by a close friend and the work would be done by my brother in law who is a licensed contractor with years of experience. How important is it to pull permits? My main concerns are insurance and resale but don’t fully understand the implications. I have full confidence the work will be done up to code and would love to avoid the tax increases. Also live in a very sought after area for what it’s worth. Thoughts?

Hi, I've been trying to figure out why my fridge hasn't been cooling properly. The evaporator was frozen over so it was thawed. Happened again within a few days. The coils in the back have been cleaned and the defroster thing was replaced. It seems to be cooling now but noticed the whole evaporator has fallen and broken off the plastic clip that was holding it to the freezer wall. Not sure if the evaporator is slowly falling more and more. Is this a problem? It has made the connection between the evaporator and the defroster mechanism pretty stretched because of this as well. :( Does anyone have any input on this situation?

My husband uses a LOT of talc powder in our bathroom and after 25 years of cherry bath cabinets I have found it frustrating to keep powder off of them. It is caked in every crevice of the cabinets and repeated cleaning has eventually taken off the top layer/seal of the cherry wood in some areas.

We are getting new bath cabinets this fall and I plan to get white plain cabinet doors for easy maintenance. My renovator chose a shaker door with a very small shaker frame border on the front of the door (if this makes sense). I would love to get this style (or even regular shaker doors) but am leaning toward a completely flat door for easy cleaning. Does anyone have any recommendations?

I have a storage room that has a water heater, sump pump, and an A/C system with zone control. The last couple of weeks I have heard this noise that sounds slightly like a kid’s toy jet engine starting up? That’s the best way I can describe it. Every time I hear it I jump up but don’t get there in time to figure out what it is.

By several I’m talking drywall, windows/siding/gutters, deck, lvp floors, and more.

Would hiring out individually to people who specifically do those jobs, looking for a small business (or 2) handyman (none of work would be more difficult than what I can do myself I just literally do not have the time or the patience anymore), or something else? Knowing one or two guys will of course take longer is fine so long as progress is being made consistently. I’ll get several quotes just don’t know really where to start since getting 3 quotes from “window guy” then 3 from “flooring gal” then… Will take sooo long and I don’t wanna waste my or anyone else’s time. TIA.

I had a flood from upstairs that ruined the plastic globe of our fluorescent light fixture in the kitchen. It is a somewhat large space and the current fixture has 4 48" fluorescent bulbs.

Because we can't easily replace the broken plastic globe under it I have been looking at replacement fixtures.

My concern is that the brightest LED fixtures I can find all output about ~30% less lumens than what I currently have.

My question is if I will getting the same "effective" light in the space since the LEDs will all be facing downwards instead of a fluorescent bulb that is sending light in every direction (of which I know some is reflected).

Strange question.

My SO hates ceiling fans (how they look) but I love them - or rather the air movement they produce - especially in the bedroom.

We’re redoing our bedroom in a few months, and I wanted to see if you all had ideas how I could get that nice, gentle/natural air movement without the visible ceiling fan.

New home owner here. Had a fridge leak for at least a couple of weeks which caused some decent water damage which I first noticed because the engineered wood planks by the fridge were buckling… I removed all the wood from the fridge area and have been running a fan there for the past few days. I also went into the crawl space where I noticed that the water damage is more spread out than I believed. Currently have a fan and a dehumidifier running down there as well. Pictures of the old fridge spot, area next to it, and crawl space on either side of the vent can be found here: https://imgur.com/a/em4yFSf

What is the best recourse here? Keep running the fans and dehumidifier until the subfloor dries and see if it’s salvageable? Or is the subfloor so far gone that there’s no way it doesn’t have to be removed? I would likely hire a contractor for the work as removing the kitchen cabinetry to change out the subfloor seems like a major pain…

Broke my bathroom door, it measure 79 1/2” x 27 3/4”…. cant find anything that size. is this something i need custom made?

Thanks in advance for any feedback or advice! I’m wanting to fix this issue before the rainy season starts and more leaking/damage occurs!

I have a deck upstairs off my MBR. It sits directly above my dining room and living room. There is a lowered soffit between the DR and LR for HVAC ducting and there has been leaking and plaster damage occurring in that area for the last year. Not terrible, but there is some bubbling and tiny cracks in the plaster that travel down the adjacent wall too.

The deck was rebuilt 8 years ago by a reputable contractor and appears to have the metal flashing, correct coatings under the tile.

My question is - how could the water be getting under the deck to the ceiling of the rooms below? Do I need to rip the whole thing out again and re-do? Or do I need to do a lot of caulking around the perimeter of where the walls meet the tile floor of the deck as there appear to be spaces there?

Any help or advice is very much appreciated! Trying to nip this in the bud and not cause more damage or problems!!

I power washed my siding and didn't consider the holes and gaps until after.

I also sprayed upwards sometimes due to where the green moss/dirt would form.

I have foam waterproofing behind the siding. But there is quite a lot of dripping water around where there are vinyl siding gaps.

Anything I can do to ensure the siding/house drys out completely inside?

Of course the water can still exit back through the holes and gaps, but wanted to check with you all.

Thanks

Hey everyone. Finishing up a 3/4 solid hardwood floor with 3/4 ply base. Initially, I'd planned on floating the subfloor but it didn't work. The ply was flexing and bowing, so I spent about a week anchoring it to the slab. That sucked!!!

I still like the idea of a floating subfloor for the next rooms. Not to mention the time saved. Would two layers of 3/8 ply stapled together perpendicular work better?? Assume the slab is flat, which it is for the most part.

I really don't want to go through driving hundreds of Tapcon's into the slab again, so any ideas are greatly appreciated!!!

Hi everyone...so today I had my septic tank pumped for the first time since I moved in to my house a couple years ago (first house in general so I don't have much experience with septic tanks).

Leading up to today, there have been seemingly no issues with the plumbing in my house or with how the septic tank operates.

So it was pumped this afternoon, and when the company that did it was done, they left the invoice in my mailbox with a note that said everything looked good and that they cleaned the filter for me. After work this evening, hours later, I went to re-bury the lid that covers the tank. When I got close to the lid, I could hear what sounds like water trickling in to the tank. It's not a heavy stream, but it seems like a consistent, moderate trickle.

I asked my wife if she was running any water in the house or just flushed the toilet and she said no, so I'm not sure where this water is coming from that's trickling in to the tank? I would open it up and check myself but the lid is solid concrete, super heavy, and I don't have the proper tools to lift it. Also, I hurt my back a few months ago and don't want to risk re-injuring by trying to lift this heavy lid.

Does anyone know what the problem could be here? Is it normal for water from my plumbing to just slowly drip in to the tank? Am I just only hearing it now because it's mostly empty after being pumped?

I'm going to call the company that pumped it in the morning, they were closed by the time I noticed the issue, but I wanted to see if anyone here might know what's going on in the meantime.

I live in Central Florida. I own my first home, and we found mold in the bathroom. Now we are having mold remediation done.

Our floor is bare, no insulation and no moisture barrier in the crawl space. We now understand this should be done.

We had water flowing under the home, we are grading the property and putting in extenders on the gutters.

As I research all of this, we have had someone come give us an estimate (6K), to put in insulation and moisture barrier up on the floor. He said putting plastic on the ground is overkill.

I see a lot of ads and videos with plastic on the ground, which is better?

Is a dehumidifier a good idea under the crawlspace?

Should I install two fans? Would they just run all the time?

I really need to fix the moisture situation in this house.

Thank you for any advice!

Does anybody know about the service and how much it costs I’m in Ontario Canada in the GTA and just curious. My father in law is looking for a quick fix for his tub without losing his bathroom for a week or two.

He lives an hour away from us and so I don’t wanna waste anyone’s time .

Thanks

I have a picture frame I want to hang on my indoor brick wall. I can’t use drills or make holes since I’m renting. The mortar is pretty shallow, so I don’t think brick clips will work. Any other ideas out there?

I am considering moving to a city where there are a bunch of abandoned houses built prior to 1950, so likely contain lots of asbestos. The buildings are slowly deteriorating over 50 years. I'd never enter them, but am I at asbestos risk by just walking outside near the buildings? My concern is that wind blows asbestos from degrading structures into the air and I breathe it in. Is that concern rational, or am I worrying too much? Would you buy a house that is surrounded by degrading buildings that likely all contain asbestos? Thanks!

How would you repair this builder’s error? Home built in ‘07. Builder installed the windows nail fin to framing. Sheathed over the fins to the window edge then sided.

Aside from stripping all siding, repairing as needed underneath and then re-siding, are there any other repairs I should be considering?

So I moved into my new apartment a couple months ago. The caulking on the tub looks like actual strands of poop leaking out. Wish I could send pics but I’m not verified yet. What should I do? Report? Anything helps

Trying to figure out how to repair chipping on my fireplace without replacing the whole thing. Any masons out there know?

Hello everyone, we have a house we bought (yippie!) but the kitchen has horribly old brown linoleum down. We know we will do a full remodel eventually after we save for a bit but I would like to at least do something to make it look less shit. We have a toddler and a dog so it needs to be able to take some abuse and spills. Should we just rip out the linoleum and replace it with new vinyl or something? Is there a better option out there that doesn’t break the bank? I’m a fairly handy guy so expect to do it myself but just wondering about options I’m missing.

Thanks!

I'm currently cutting a hole in a closet ceiling for an new attic access hole, in my 1950s single story ranch. I noticed there's small strips of wood going perpendicular and underneath the joists. It seems it's just three sandwiched together. It's not above any wall. are these safe to cut away to make the access hole? I assume these are just for the drywall to my nailed to, but I want to be certain before I make any cut I can't undo.

Image showing the pieces of wood with red text sorry for the picture quality. The angle was awkward and I had a few layers of PPE on

House built in 1930s. It’s hard wood floors with what seems to be old glue? Linoleum was over this, particle board, and another layer of linoleum over that. 100 Sq Ft.

Picture: https://imgur.com/a/QFEoRH7

Basically the title. No I did not get 3 other quotes. First time home owner and we have a million other things going on. The company was able to come out and give an estimate as well as do the work on the same day (a week or so after we called) where others were scheduling an estimate and then would do the work later and we just wanted it done.

HCOL area. Price didn’t seem unreasonable to me but still seemed high so was looking for input as we have some less pressing plumbing needs for the future and wondering if they’re priced reasonably and we should look at them for future work.