Home Improvement

I have a mold issue in the basement which I believe is caused by water seeping in through number of cracks on the exterior:

Is this DIY repairable? Does it require a mason or could it be sealed with silicone?

Looking for input. I’ve got a 4” to 1.5” flared flex cap for the base but trying to adjust the pipe ever so slightly seems to be troublesome. Any thoughts?

Flooring is by no means beneath me, but I haven’t really done anything below a shoe molding. So question for the tile high club: What would you do in the pictured situation? These are floor sections that have always felt a bit “squishy”. Today they finally popped up into the tent formation you see here.

Wait for it to settle and then add glue to keep it down? Cut it to fit?

Additional context:

I did not do this install myself, so the history is a bit of a mystery. This is installed in a full bathroom and is made of what feels like a smoothed slate material. I believe it is a composite tile.

More photos for context:

Hello community, I noticed that this stair step in my european 60ies house was a bit cracked so I broke it off completely. How would you fix this? Some mortar or tile glue? Does it need some kind of rebar?

My living room has no permanent light fixture. This wasn't a problem when it was just me but now my wife and I spending more there so it's time for a change. I'm looking a simple, "no installation required" solution since we plan to move in the future. Any suggestions? Thanks in advance.

We bought our house about 2.5 years ago. Originally built in 1974, it was the first house in this subdivision by at least a decade. There were a few issues we knew about, and a few that we didn't.

Most projects involve a lot of cursing the people who built this place because despite the structure being very solid -- they went way overboard on materials -- they were also idiots who didn't seem to know how gravity works or how to use a level.

A big issue we learned about after the sale was the storm water drainage issues, including a complete lack of storm water drains, no drainage around the foundation, and a bad leak at the lowest corner that would routinely flood the basement after a moderate rain.

Oddly enough, the foundation is in pretty good shape and has no major cracks or settling. Probably because the ground underneath it is a very compact mixture of clay and rock.

Stormwater Mitigation Steps Taken Prior to Now:

• Installed a central drain line to divert downspout runoff on one side of the house. (Took a day with a mini-excavator).
• Dug up an existing and fully blocked drain line on the other side. Replaced most of it (took two weeks of evenings by hand).
• Replaced all the gutter and valley guards (as part of roof replacement).
• Sealed cracks in front sidewalk.

This upgrades resolved most of the flooding. I learned last spring that if the gutter guards aren't kept reasonably clean, the gutters will overflow and dump water next to the foundation, resulting in basement flooding. I figured it would be best to install a sump pump with the best place being at the lowest point. Unfortunately, the lowest point is in a weird little crawlspace that's big enough to stand up in but only has a 2'x2' access door.

The other day, I started to dig the hole for the sump pit and immediately found a concrete slab extending 2 feet out from the interior wall I didn't know was there because it was covered with dirt.

I cursed the people who built this house -- for the hundredth time -- for not just digging a basement for the entire length of the house which probably would have been one hell of a lot cheaper than the excessive number of blocks walls they built to accommodate a small basement and four (4) separate crawlspaces.

...anyway...

I jackhammered through the slab and started digging out the sump pit. It's slow going due to the ground being very hard and rocky but I'll get it done eventually.

I am installing smart switches in my home. I have this 2-gang box at the top of our stairs, where I am doing a virtual 3-way setup for both switches. One powers the light on the stairs, the other the hallway at the top of the stairs. A few things:

• This box has no live wires since its the other side of the two 3-ways (I have tested this by disconnecting all wires from all switches and checking for lives).
• Each of the boxes is on a separate breaker. It has TWO sets of neutral pigtails in the back. This is the correct setup, but its possible the neutrals where mixed up during the original wiring of the house.
• Each set of romex wires is connected to another set of romex. None of them criss-cross (except the grounds).

Now, here is my odd behavior and my need for assistance:

After wiring the two virtual 3-way setups (Option 2 from this page) everything was working fine. I was also planning to switch out the fixtures, so I went back and turned off the breaker for the hallway, but the smart switch for the hallway was still active (LED is on, I can see it on homeassistant). Now, I am thinking the original wiring mixed up the loads in the box with the incoming wires and the two neutrals for those breakers have been connected...anyone have thoughts on whats going on? is the solution here to basically swap the incoming 3-wire load romex?

**Solution: ** I am not 100% certain the cause of the issue. It is possible I mixed the wiring up when doing the virtual 3-way, but I basically followed the advice here and started from scratch. I traced the travelers from each of the main boxes and connected them to the appropriate load and completed disconnected the 3-way part. once I had the right load on the right travelers, I then setup the virtual switches wiring off the black wire coming with the traveler. Lastly, I ensured the neutrals from the two romexs that had a traveler+load where pigtailed with the virtual switch. took a bit of time, but felt this was the easiest way to not spin my wheels too much. Appreciate the advice, if anyone really does want, I can put together a diagram (on paper 😉 )

First, pictures:

Interior wall

Ceiling & rafters

Exterior wall

Under the carpet

My 1962-built house in Ohio has this three-season sunroom in back that was converted from a covered rear patio. For the first few years I lived here, I tried to use it as year-round office space, but it stays too humid back there during the spring/summer/fall to not have A/C or a dehumidifier going at all times, and I can't effectively heat it during the winter, so for the last couple years it has just been used as non-climate-controlled storage. I want to change that this year and make it habitable year-round.

From what I can tell so far, looks like the existing walls are solid enough, so I think maybe I could just add insulation and drywall? I don't think those ceiling rafters are functional, looks like they're just hanging there, so was thinking maybe I could remove them and raise the floor off that concrete patio slab some too.

All advice is appreciated - I'm not an expert on any of this, though I do have some experience performing the actual labor that would be required once I know what I need to do.

Technically this isn’t home improvement since it’s a summer cottage I’m fixing up for a customer. I’ve got to say though, what a fucking privilege it is to be self-employed and land jobs like this. An elderly customer with deep pockets handed me the keys to their remote cabin and basically told me to fix whatever needs fixing. No deadlines, nobody watching over my shoulder, and I’m free to come and go as I please. I wouldn’t go as far as to say I’d do it without pay, but I honestly can’t think of anything I’d rather be getting paid for.

EDIT: All time top 1 post on this community - yay!

Looking to put gutters here.

This is how others next door are done, as well as how the ones I'm replacing were done previously. Basically a downspout connected between two gutter's via a hole cut in them.

Is this actually the correct way to do this, or is there a better way that doesn't seem so janky and leak prone.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/34021020

I recently installed an Emporia Vue with monitoring for the individual circuit my water heater is on. It captured the very significant difference in energy usage from replacing resistive heat with heat pump.

I'd like to know if there is something I can do to close the gap or hide the gap in the blinds. Obviously, I can measure properly and purchase new ones but really trying to avoid that.

I've also thought about curtains, but it's also something I'd like to avoid. Are there any solutions to this?

Here is another photo zoomed out.

Years ago I built this table, while it is not the best work, it is the best table I have ever built.

It is very solid, the legs are 4x4s and the top 5 2x6s. The floor of my shop is wood, and normally it is only me moving the table. I stapled pieces of felt to the bottom of the feet, and they worked for a while but now are worn out.

I am looking for an idea of something to put on the feet to make it both easier to move across the floor, and keep the table from marring the floor.

I am thinking pieces of leather may work well. I have tried the plastic things that are supposed to make furniture glide, and they did not work at all.

There's an approximately 24"×24"×32" space in the corner of my kitchen between the actual cabinet and the range.

I'm at a loss. The house is fairly small, and I'm an efficiency nut, so 10ft³ of totally useless space bugs me. The proximity to the oven would make extending the cabinet back that way and using some kind of blind-corner storage solution impractical.

We've been thinking about getting a new water heater, the current one is ancient and lives in a little enclosure outside, about 12' away. Can we get one of those short ones and tuck it in there or is that likely to overheat?

We've also been talking about a whole-house water fountain system, but I'm worried that changing filters would be incredibly annoying.

Hi all,

We bought a house last year and the backyard has artificial turf. We don’t like the wooden edging the previous owners built in so we were thinking of using concrete edgers instead.

Does anyone have experience with that? Anything we need to be cautious of? I hope I don’t need to remove the turf to do this, so curious about your experience.

I am renovating my new house and would like to ask everyone, is it better to choose wooden doors, WPC doors or steel-wood doors for interior doors? Which one did you choose? How do you feel after using it for a few years?

(If anyone knows a better community for this please point me in the right direction!)

My house came with a Frigidaire scratch and dent fridge. I don't know the model but it seems to be the professional line and from my research it seems closest to this one but probably an older model because mine doesn't have a water dispenser.

Anyway, I'm trying to remove one of the door bins because it has a big crack in it I want to glue. I can't get it off though. Everything I've found seems to imply you can simply lift it up, but looking at mine whoever installed this seems to have put them inside a different part of the bin than I'm seeing in tutorial videos. The tab seems totally stuck inside and I can't figure out how to remove it.

Am I boned on getting this out, or does someone know a trick? I'm afraid to pry it away from the side too hard because of the cracked section on one side.

Closeup of tab inside part of the bin. Tutorials seem to imply the part below that is where the tab is supposed to go (with that little roundy part going over and behind the tab).

Bin more zoomed out

Just noticed this when getting a new AC installed yesterday. Not sure if it's a bird or squirrel nest, or even active. It's super high up that I don't have a ladder to reach, also I am not super cool with being that close to electrical wiring but I feel like it's a hazard that needs to be removed. Anyone else experience this and what you suggest my approach should be or what service might need to be hired?

I have this single pole 3 way dimmer switch where I attached all 4 wires in the correct spot for my living room lantern, or so I thought. My lantern successfully worked, however, all the light switches in my kitchen either stopped working or worked not as expected.

For example, the light switch in my kitchen that's on the same wall as my living room light would only turn my kitchen light on and off if my dimmer switch was on.

What am I doing wrong? Am I using the wrong dimmer switch? More photos in the comments.

Hey folks,

I noticed some of the trim around this door is bending. I assume it is likely due to humidity but any other possible causes? This is in the basement where it is typically cool.

What do you recommend I do to fix it? Just some simple wood glue and something to hold it in place as the glue dries?

Hello,

I have an idea, but I lack the technical expertise to implement it.

I possess an old gasometer, and I currently document its readings by taking a photograph each month and manually entering the data into a Calc spreadsheet, along with the corresponding dates.

I am hoping to automate this process.

My initial thought is that a system could capture the images automatically, input the data into a database, and then present the information in a user-friendly format on a display.

Would anyone have any suggestions or insights on how to achieve this?

Thx

My small garage was built in the 40s and has wood siding which was damaged by a recent hail storm. Insurance cut us a settlement check and I decided to challenge myself to repaint the garage myself

The hail mostly damaged the paint, with some small chips in a couple of spots. My plan is to sand the portions that are to be repainted, fill the chips with wood filler and repaint

I'm looking at getting an air compressor (Partly as I'm seeing commentary on it being far easier and faster than rollers, and partly out of buying a tool I might not ever have a decent enough reason to buy in the future that'll be useful to have on hand) and a sprayer to do the bulk of the painting

Given I'm mostly looking to repair some quarter size damage to the paint splottered all over 2 sides of the garage, do I need to sand all of the old paint off before repainting or can I simply paint over the old paint? The old paint is in pretty good shape where the hail didn't sand it away. Looks like its been repainted within the century, possibly even within the last decade, and I'm not changing colors dramatically, just doing a flat "white" over a flat "white" which shouldn't be a very obvious difference after weathering. Basically am I reducing the durability of the paint job if I paint over the existing undamaged matte paint?

Additionally, any other gotchas I should be aware of?

I can provide photos tomorrow of the damage and existing paint if needed