Home Improvement

I am re-arranging the shelves in an old bookcase, and I'm having trouble removing a few broken shelf pins inside the holes I want to use. They don't protrude enough for me to get any kind of grip with the needle-nose pliers that I used to take out the other pins.

The shelf pins are this style. Quarter inch diameter. Not sure what kind of metal they're made out of. The pin itself is hollow, which rules out most of the common solutions for this kind of problem.

Does anyone have any suggestions for how to remove these?

We're getting our house repainted, so I took down one of the hideous lamps in the bathroom to uncover this. It was certainly a choice, but I think this may have been original to the house (ca 1940). While it's a bit much, we're trying to be authentic to the original vision of the house. Does anyone know if it's possible to find old wallpapers? Are there individuals or companies that can match designs like this?

My hood fan vents into the top of this metal box, which then has a vent to the outside about halfway down the metal box. The box itself it maybe two half-height shoe boxes in size. I looked pretty hard, and the closest I could find was that it might be related to collecting condensation.

Does anyone know what this is for?

Thanks

I should say! The picture that comes up for this album is clearly the outside vent and is not what I'm talking about. Click on it to see all the pictures!

I’m in the process of refinishing my basement, and I’ve installed the breakers. My panel uses Square D QO breakers that have a window that shows red when the breaker is in the tripped position. Breakers are then reset by turning fully off and then on.

One of the new breakers shows just a tiny bit of red in the window when it’s in the “on” position. It doesn’t instantly trip when turned on. It does this even with the breaker removed from the panel. The breaker switch moves fully to both on and off positions.

Is this something to be concerned about?

Honestly I am so bloody baffled by this.

I removed the smoke alarm that would be affected by vibration from the loft floor (which was in the room directly underneath), but the other alarms still go off when someone walks up there (they're all wired together, so when one goes off they all go off). I removed the one that's in the loft too, but it still happens.

I have no fecking idea what else to do 😅 should we go in under the loft floor to have a look, or into the ceiling underneath the loft floor? Any suggestions for what to look for? Should I be concerned that vibration is affecting wiring? Is it spooky ghosts?

I purchased a house back in May and this was originally missed in the inspections. I have no idea how long it's been like this, but I've been thinking of how I can fix this as soon as I noticed.

The detached garage gets its power from this buried romex wire that is exposed to the elements. It looks like it was originally protected by some sort of non-outdoor conduit at some point. It's now rusted through and exposed. The ~~romex~~ UF insulation still seems intact, but I'd obviously like to protect this more permanently.

The wire is powering a single outlet and light that is just above where this exits the ground and enters the garage.

I was thinking I could use some correct type of caulk (something for asphalt?) in combination with some correct conduit to make this safer. I can probably disconnect it from the outlet and pull it through to install conduit piping from the top. Or find something outdoor rated that is more U-shaped that can be bonded to the back wall to also protect this.

Anyone have any ideas? I'd very much like to avoid digging this up completely. If I were to server this wire in the process, there's nothing I can do other than digging up the driveway.

Edit: thanks for all the comments everyone! I did go back to check and it is actually UF cable. I assumed romex but went back to check. After removing all the cobwebs and actually rubbing away the dust, I could make it out. I didn't realize you could bury any cable right into the asphalt like that.

It takes a few minutes for my tankless water heater to warm up, so we end up wasting a lot of water in our shower. Is there a way to avoid this? A friend mentioned a “comfort valve” or something? What is it and how does it work? Or is there another solution? Thx!

Hello!

I was wanting to move my washing machine and dry to a different part of the laundry room. It's all open ceiling so my thought was to run the cold/hot/drain hoses up the wall about 3ft, then across the ceiling about 5ft and then down another 3 ft to the sink to drain (or in the case of the taps, get the hot and cold)

I was going to use pex to get the water to where it needs to be.

Is this too far? Will the washer still be able to drain at that length? Can it drain up like that first?

Thanks!

Back with a dozy. What is your favorite paint brands? Why?

There's a little gap at the bottom left and if I tug on the trim, it's loose and hollow. I can hear road noise coming in from behind it.

I just wanted to check if it's safe to caulk here before I fill that gap with a strip of foam, then caulk it off. Ie if there's any purpose to the trim being loose that I'm unaware of.

Edit: this is the interior.

First time home owner here. I stuck these vent deflectors a month ago on one of our vents and I removed it today for some other reason. I noticed these stains that looked like water stains but I think it's actually something that is growing - maybe unfortunately mold or something. I need help in understanding this situation and possibilities of this happening. Please share your experience or knowledge related to this issue if you can.

Thank you!

EDIT: Mystery solved - this seems to be the result of some chemical spray during cleaning. Not concerning.

I own a house in the midwest and recently got a spirit level for some repairs. However, I don't stay here in the winter - I go south where it's warmer. Can I leave my level here in the house? temps will probably get down to -30 or so.

A few years ago i bought a very run down mobile home and i started rebuilding it from the steel/iron frame up. Ill include a few pics of the in between in the comments, but this is my kitchen finally completed. I rehabbed some used cabinets and built a good bit of them from scratch as well as the cabinet doors. This is my first time building anything at this level. Many mistakes were made, but i learned alot.

I am a proud owner of a brand new home. I am in love with it. It's cute the yard is perfect. It is old and lived in hard. And we couldn't afford really nice. Pretty much everything we looked at had some serious issues so we chose the one we loved the most and the one we felt we could handle the issues. I have lots of questions so I will be here a lot.

I have a very basic knowledge of tools and carpentry but very little knowledge about how to apply that to a home ownership. So my first question is can you recommend books, websites, other lemmy communities that are also good resources?

And my second is how do you prioritize your home projects when under budget constraints and they are of equal importance or unimportance?

Last question (for now) how do you deal with the overwhelm/frustrations of previous owner issues or poor workmanship? (I still love it. It's ours and I love it but we are picking up on stuff that we didn't know about ex the neighbor told us there is a sinkhole under our driveway and it had already been repaired but poorly or the fact that we didn't see it empty until after close and it's obvious their pets handled the moving process poorly and have urinated in every room with carpet)

Hello, I just moved into this house and it’s a pretty major work in progress. One thing that’s perplexed me though is the front door.

We have a light switch inside that no one knows what it actually does. It’s right inside the door but it doesn’t turn on the porch light. That one is on the other side of the room.

We had a contractor over giving us quotes to install stairs and I asked his opinion. He pointed out the white around the door is not wood but a barely transparent plastic. He’s pretty sure it’s supposed to light up and the reason the switch doesn’t work is because the bulbs are probably burnt.

Issue with that is that I can’t find a way in to check that. It definitely is a very fragile plastic. Wouldn’t take much to break. But I’d like to not break it so I can replace the lights and put it back together. But I don’t see screws or anything. Anyone have any advice?

Hello, I just moved into this house and it’s a pretty major work in progress. One thing that’s perplexed me though is the front door.

We have a light switch inside that no one knows what it actually does. It’s right inside the door but it doesn’t turn on the porch light. That one is on the other side of the room.

We had a contractor over giving us quotes to install stairs and I asked his opinion. He pointed out the white around the door is not wood but a barely transparent plastic. He’s pretty sure it’s supposed to light up and the reason the switch doesn’t work is because the bulbs are probably burnt.

Issue with that is that I can’t find a way in to check that. It definitely is a very fragile plastic. Wouldn’t take much to break. But I’d like to not break it so I can replace the lights and put it back together. But I don’t see screws or anything. Anyone have any advice?

I made a post previously on having rot behind a soffit and many of you gave me great advice on how to proceed in fixing it the right way.

This weekend I worked nonstop and got most of everything fixed. I removed part of soffit and cut the rafter tail to expose the area and quickly identified the problem - no kickout flashing

I cut out the rot on the sheathing and patched in plywood. I ripped the siding off all the way up to the roof to expose all the step flashing - this involved removing both the vinyl siding and the original composite siding. Working from the bottom upwards, I laid down new house wrap. I fabricated a nice piece of kick flashing to go on the end of the run.

Then I installed a nice piece of counter flashing over the step flash, then finally another layer of house wrap partially overlapping the cFlash.

I then installed pressure treated furring strips for the vinyl siding and reinstalled the siding. Here's the siding going over my kickout flashing.

With that done I repaired the rafter tail and replaced all the rotten fascia board, then reinstalled the soffit vents.

Now I'm in the process of installing drip edge before the gutter goes back. Due to poor roof installation, the underlayment doesn't extend down far enough to overlap my drip edge, so I'm having to cut 2.5" wide tarpaper strips and splice them in underneath the existing underlayment edge. That way the drip edge will be covered.

I DIY’ed the floor in my bedroom but I’ve got gaps like the one pictured in a few spots. What’s the best way to close these up?

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/6251091

I have this:

https://www.aquaplan.com/product/easy-band/

I need to attach it vertically to some thick hard rubber roofing. There is a small section of roof which should probably normally have a parapit but instead the roofing rubber is not backed by anything. Then below it is a wood panel. So when it rains sideways the water runs down the roofing rubber and behind the wood panel.

I just need a piece of shingle to divert water to the exterior side of the panel. Roofing glues are made to never cure. Probably rightfully so, but that probably wouldn’t work to attach a shingle vertically as gravity would over power that tar-like never fully dry stuff. I tried construction adhesive & it didn’t hold.

Hey folks, looking for some advice because I don't know how to proceed.

This house came with vinyl siding and I noticed rot under it. The rot terminates up high behind where this soffit meets with the exterior wall. I need to get in here to figure out how water is getting in and then make necessary repairs, but the soffit is really in the way.

I've already removed the rot lower down - I had to remove vinyl siding, a layer of foam board, a layer of rotten OSB, the original rotten siding, and the original rotten sheathing. All of those layers are still present behind this soffit.

When I take the soffit vent off, there's a layer of OSB directly above it. Really don't know how to gain access here.

Any ideas?

Is whole-home surge protection a good idea to protect large appliances, a plug in hybrid car, etc from voltage spikes?

I'm also a little lost in terms of what I should be looking for in a whole home surge protector. Are they all just MOVs, and if so, doesn't that mean they'll wear out and need to be replaced overtime?

This is for a rental unit, so I'm trying to keep the cost low, while also sealing it away from silverfish. I have very fine steel wool on hand as well as a tube of DAP ultra clear flexible all purpose sealant.