Home Improvement

I bought a mostly livable fixer upper. The previous attempt to renovate the bathroom themselves and really made some mistakes I don't know how to fix. They replaced the vanity (already damaged cosmetically) and tiled one wall. There is dried grout everywhere. On the wall, the molding, the vanity (which is grouted in) on the tiles. Idk how to begin getting the grout off these surfaces.

I will probably just replace the molding but what about the wall and the vanity? What about the tile it's self?

So I'm planning out a bathroom remodel and part of that is replacing the vent fan because currently mine is just venting into my attic (no bueno). I know normally bathrooms are vented out through the roof but my bathroom is on an exterior wall so I was wondering if I could just vent it out the side of the house. I'm going to be ripping open that wall anyways and I would much rather cut a hole in the side of the house than run a vent pipe up through the roof.

Also I'm in Minnesota if climate is a concern.

I am putting a mountain feature wall in my son's new bedroom.

Starting on the right, I want to run LEDs along the topmost mountains, switch to unlit cord/wire to go around the window, and then run another set of LEDs along the topmost mountain on the left. This should give a nice sunrise effect.

Do you know of an LED kit that can do this?

Thank you!

I'm cleaning this cabinet above the range/micro and noticed this mark on the back. I mostly keep cooking oils, vinegars, etc in here. Does this look serious?

Update: well it ain't pretty, but it shouldn't burn the house down. For anyone concerned, my electrician approves. Thank you all for your help today.

I am renovating my son's bedroom and trying to make the walls as nice as is reasonable before repainting. There are a few cracks like this in the paint. It looks like on top of the drywall there is paint, wallpaper, and then a few more layers of paint. The cracks could be at the seams of the drywall from expansion and contraction. They could be at the seams of the wallpaper. They could be something else. Most of the cracks come straightish down below the sides of windows, which makes me think drywall seams.

I gouged out one crack and filled it with joint compound to see how that works. Since the drywall is old, it was really hard to tell if this is at a drywall seam or not - there are places where previous work, maybe mouse damage, and who knows what else has made the drywall crumble from behind. These are the joys of an older house!

How would you handle this?

1950s house with block foundation. I’ve patched these areas with hydraulic cement. That didn’t work so I stripped and cleaned the areas thoroughly then repatched. It improved but still getting lots of leaking where the foundation and floor meet or just above.

The main trouble spot sits next to the water heater where some old oil tank lines were. Can I safely cut those out with an angle grinder and try to patch that up? There’s a giant concrete hump that encases them where the water leaks over too.

Our exterior is naturally moist. We’ve got a sump pump, French drain, gutters discharges all well away from the house. Short of digging up and putting in new footer tiles (which I definitely can’t afford now), I’m at a loss.

Any suggestions would be helpful. Waterproof paint? Block filler?

I've been noticing an occasional sewer smell in my bathroom, and finally realized it's only present when it's below freezing outside. As soon as the weather warms up, the smell goes away. For reference, my house was built in '55 and the toilet is plumbed into the original steel sewer line. There are no leaks (everything below the upstairs bathroom is easily accessible from the basement), and no issues flushing. House has sewer service, so no septic tank to worry about.

Could it just be the steel pipe contracting in the cold? If so, would replacing the wax seal address the issue?

Additionally, if that's plausible, would putting a space heater near the steel pipe help by warming it back up (temporary solution to address the smell). Basement is finished and conditioned, but I don't heat it for comfort unless we're spending time down there. I'll just deal with it being 60 degrees when I'm doing laundry.

If not, any other ideas? That's my only hypothesis, so hoping to get some feedback.

I've got no problem calling in a plumber and plan to do so, but I'd just like to have an idea of what I'm up against so I can set expectations for pricing and such.

Edit: Have ruled out dry drain traps. Current plan is to just let the plumber figure it out and hope for the best. Thanks for the suggestions.

https://files.catbox.moe/f32j05.jpg https://files.catbox.moe/lsi2fh.jpg https://files.catbox.moe/3kktlv.jpg https://files.catbox.moe/5m1j31.jpg https://files.catbox.moe/2biy91.jpg

Here is my problem: I have an old house - nearly 100 years old - that I need to insulate but I have a few problems and concerns I need to deal with. The walls are essentially stone and an old kind on solid cement block.

I've been looking into the insulation solutions available in my market and it is basically a matter of gluing thick boards of styrofoam-like material to the walls.

On the outwalls this is not feaseable as the house faces a road with no sidewalk, so I'd be encroaching onto the road. Inside, adding 5cm of insulation would make small rooms smaller to the point some would be, for all practical purposes, rendered into generous pantries.

Because I live in a somewhat rural area, mice and rodents are a concern, so adding materials they can chew through makes no sense. It would be like supplying an easy to move through medium to run the entire house. I have seen houses and buildings with this kind of insulation chewed into, the moment the smallest of pieces of the hard plaster gets cracked, which is very easy. The added fire hazard is a concern as well, I'll admit.

I've already seen cork insulation but the base color is always brown and does not deal well with being painted on.

What other options may I look into? I'm in southern Europe but in an area with harsh winters.

Drawing

Red is a concrete foundation. Black is rotting wood foundation that needs to be replaced.

Foundation issues suck. House has foundation issues. Most of the foundation will need to be replaced. Part of the house currently has a wood foundation which is rotting. There is an addition which has a concrete foundation. (See image above).

I know that the wood foundation can be replaced with a pier and post foundation. They can stabilize the house, dig and pour piers, then use metal posts to brace the house at the right height.

Is a pier and post foundation the only option? Is there a way to do a concrete foundation?

Edit: The image is a top down look at the perimeter of the house. The red part is a ~600 sqft addition. The black part is the main house.

Homeowner with a decent amount of handiness but wondering if I’m going to bite off more than I can chew. Is it worth it to try and remove the old shower tub combo and replace it with a new one pretty much by myself? I realize this is a bit of a loaded question and can’t really be answered without knowing my skills but if anyone with skills can share some tips or steer me away from attempting this that would be much appreciated.

My new (first) home needs some significant siding repair. Wenconsider ourselves handy but it's a lot for us to handle and we want to have the insulation redone as well.

Pros and cons of various types of siding?

Tips for working with contractors?

What is the difference between roofing companies, exterior companies and the general reno or contractors? It looks like in my area they will almost all do the same siding work. Is it just a difference in naming?

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.crimedad.work/post/45354

cross-posted from: https://pixelfed.crimedad.work/p/crimedad/645809278769635471

These just go out with the other recycling, right?

#cfl #mercury #lightbulb #ewaste #recycling #garbagenight

@[email protected]

It's leaking right where the arrow is pointing. It only leaks when it's refilling the tank after each use. The two outside carbon filters were new in March but the middle (reverse osmosis) filter is probably a year or more older. I'm hoping it just needs a new RO filter and that it's only leaking because it's clogged. Any advice? I feel like that notch it's leaking from is meant to relieve the pressure when clogged.

I have a small barn like structure on the back of my property that I have started fixing up. Previous owners have done stuff to it as well and I came across this part in the loft. As can be seen in the pictures this light shining through into the inside from the soffit/facia, if that's what it would be in this scenario.

What I am wondering is, is it okay to seal that up? From the other side of the structure, it looks like they are mostly boarded up. I want to try to keep the place at a somewhat decent temperature so I would like to seal it up with some foam to keep spiders and bugs out.

Let me know if you need any more info or pictures. Also I do know about the moss on one side of the roof, that side doesn't get much sun and I live in a wet climate and it has like 3 large trees surrounding it.

Light shining through from the next picture.

where light is shining in from

A wider angle of the area the light is shining in from

front of the structure that appears to be sealed off

I'm planning on converting a 21x21 garage to a living room in the next couple years. I've got pretty much everything figured out I believe, and it seems a bit simpler than the bonus room conversion I finished earlier this year.

Has anyone done this, and have any tips / unexpected things I might encounter?

Thing's Ive investigated / confirmed / planned so far:

• Leveling the graded concrete floor
• Filling the entrance hole with an exterior rated wall + windows
• Insulating the preexisting exterior wall segments
• HVAC connection
• Additional electrical outlets
• Framing an entrance to the space in the adjacent load bearing wall

Second guessing before I brute force this and break the cartridge. It should just pull straight out at this point?

See title. Is it the spring lifting one side off the ground or is it something else like the cable on that side? Thanks for any advice!

Edit: From what I can tell the door and the floor are both slightly off level in opposite directions. I also just replaced the bottom seal in an attempt to fix this.

Title is pretty much everything!

I have these high up windows that I'd like to clean and maybe in the future install curtains on. I guestimate the wall being 20ft (6m) tall.

For other rooms in the house I typically use an A-Frame, but it's impossible to find an A-Frame to reach that high where I am.

I plan on draping a towel over the top of the ladder to prevent scratches and scuffs on the wall, as well as getting a rubber mat or something if the floor seems slippery. I am just not sure if drywall would support a ladder? Especially near the frame of the windows. Maybe there's something else I'm not considering as well?

I am about finished with an 8 ft x 13 ft patio, and the plan is to bond the pavers with polymeric sand. It's just starting to get down to freezing temps overnight, and I'm willing to take some chances with some creative solutions to cure the sand before it gets even cooler.

I understand that it's generally a bad idea to attempt poly sand in cold weather. But entertain my dumb idea: my patio is small enough to where I can cover it with a tarp like a tent, and I can leave a space heater in there overnight so that the sand is exposed to warm air. I am personally convinced that it's stupid enough to just work. Is this a terrible idea?

I also had the thought of bringing hot water out in a watering can from my bathtub. I needed to tamp the gravel that froze at one point, so I already did this, and was able to cover the whole area in about 5 trips or so. My only concern is that this is not a conventional way to set the sand, and am concerned that the hot water would flush the polymers right out of the sand without having an opportunity to cure.

What are your thoughts? I'm willing to take silly risks on this :) Worst case scenario, I get expensive regular sand, right? That's not so bad ;)

Edit: Decided to wing it and give it a shot. I thought I would attempt to heat the paver bricks overnight, and if that plan fell apart, go ahead with typical utility sand. Well, I successfully built a tent with a steel tamper, a hand truck, and tarps, and snuck a little battery-powered temperature and humidity sensor in there that I use with my home automation.

All throughout the night, the temperature hovered around 70F during a high 20s evening with less than 40% humidity! It worked so incredibly well that I decided that there was no reason why I shouldn't take advantage of this. With the bricks bone dry and warmed up, I did the poly sand today and it turned out absolutely excellent. I put the little tent back on it, and plan to leave it on there with a ceramic space heater running for about 3 more days. It's quite literally a summer day in there minus the sun! It's covered like a tent, too, so it will be protected from the rain while it hardens!

Here's some graphs of how well this is working out from the sensor! This is the humidity! The jump and drop was when I took the tarps off, did the poly sand, and put it back together. The humidity with the situation going is the same as indoors!

And here's the temperature! Staying toasty at about 73F! The little dip on the end is from when I opened it up to crawl in and check on it :)

This is honestly better than waiting for the spring! I'm so happy how this is working out!

I recently bought my first house and I noticed some rot happening beside our garage door. It appears that when the cement driveway was poured, they got too close to the siding and now water is wicking up into the wood. I figure I can cut back the siding and replace it but how do I stop this from happening again?

An electrician 'fixed' an issue by making this hole in a basement cinder block wall.

.. how do I put that box back in or fix the wall or something?

Inside the box are two capped (hot) wires.

The pipe seems to be copper. Doesn't bend or anything. It can't (at least easily) be pushed back in.

I had wanted to use cement paste.. but like what do I do about the box? I guess I could paste everything except the metal pipe but geez: then i still have this sketchy box hanging out.

Images: https://imgur.io/a/yBh2QBD (posted from mobile and don't think the images went through)

Any ideas?

I can't find downspout extenders at my local hardware store besides the terrible accordian ones. I just want a metal 10' extension.