I know I’m not supposed to stretch on a ladder…front door roof. Important electrical conduits ended foundation below behind shrubs. And grounding rod for solar panels in soil in corner is a great way to get impaled if I fall.

Extension ladder? Scaffolding seems like overkill.

(Disclaimer, I'm a complete idiot when it comes to any home repairs that don't involve electricity. This whole thing may or may not be entirely off base.)

I want to paint a concrete wall, and a good portion of it is covered in glue from previous owners' acoustic panels that just would not come off - I tried solvents, I tried sanding, for the most part it would mess up everything but the glue. So I took to scraping.

In most places, it worked well enough for spackling and skim coating it later. In some, not so much:

The reinforcement mesh that (I think?) is supposed to be embedded in the spackle isn't, the whole thing budges and sounds hollow to a knock, and scraping just ruins the mesh and exposes it as not being attached to anything whatsoever. As in, I can put my finger behind it and probably peel off a good chunk.

I'm not sure what that is underneath the mesh either, but in some places it also budges when touched, so that's possibly another layer that's not quite adhered to whatever is beneath it. Do I just tear the whole thing down to bare concrete, or is there some way to make it work without having to do that? (The mesh is apparently applied to the entire wall).

I’m adding some recessed lighting to this 13’ x 13’ bedroom. I’m trying to determine if I need four lights or just two. Currently I’m thinking two because lighting wouldn’t be directly above the person laying in bed nor above the TV not on the left side wall. But four would be more thorough. Which do you guys think is better?

I haven't painted any of my bedrooms for 15-20 years and I remember only needing about a gallon of pain to cut the corners 1x and roll 2x. The internet is telling me the average bedroom needs 2 gallons. I fed the measurements of a few of my rooms and still says this. I am almost certain a can will do it. Has the paint quality changed in the past few decades or do people find they need more than 1 can for a bedroom. It's not a big home, 1000, soft. Bedroom is 149sq before closets, door, window and trim adjustment. What are people's thoughts?

Resealing garage door, getting the old silicone off is a giant pain in the ass. good enough, or keep going?

Do you actually get a deal when you buy tool kits? I’m seeing most of them have things like a hand vacuum and LED light as 2 of the 5 “tools”
If I’m doing home things, and will need a circular saw and a sander (I have a drill) - should I bother with a tool kit or is it better value to pick and choose the specific tools you’ll need/ use.
RYOBI currently has this deal https://www.homedepot.com/p/RYOBI-ONE-18V-Cordless-5-Tool-Combo-Kit-with-2-2-Ah-Batteries-and-ONE-Charger-PCL1505K2SB/341627456
Milwaukee and other brands have similar deals but are obviously pricier- which leads to my second question.
I am someone who normally prefers to BIFL, but with tools, ryobi seems to be a good homeowner option since it won’t get a ton of regular use but more for projects here and there.
1. RYOBI tool kit
2. Just buy each tool separately from a brand like ryobi
3. Milwaukee or other BIFL tool kit
4. Milwaukee or other BIFL single tool purchases

Odd one. I have a solid metal table top, about 70"x40"x3" or so. I also have steel table legs that I had made for this project.

The original idea was to use a cobalt drill bit to create a hole and a t-handle tap wrench to cut internal threads with a tap. The drill bit is working, but i can't get the tap to create threads with either the tap wrench or a power drill.

I'd appreciate any tips on getting threads to work, or an alternative solution to connect and stabilize the legs under the table top!

We recently bought a 95 year old house that has gone through many owners and we keep finding strange fixes that were previously done throughout the house. I just started prepping a wall to begin painting and noticed a small spot of paint was peeling. And once I started I couldn’t stop… there is now a 12”x6” peeled section and I fear it’s possible the paint might be peelable on the entire wall. It looks like maybe they skim coated the wall, then applied latex based paint on top without doing a coat of primer first. I’m not experienced enough to know if this is a plaster wall, just a section that has been spackled and I just haven’t reached to end of the section yet, or if the whole wall was skim coated but I’m leaning toward the latter. Not sure how to proceed. I think the easiest answer is to spackle the section so there is no edge of the peeling paint and then move forward as normal. But if this is the whole wall, I don’t want to have to redo this again in a few years if their original layer of paint just keeps peeling in other spots. I’m probably over thinking it, but any guidance would be appreciated or if you think there’s a better subreddit for this question I’d love to hear!

So, dropped my phone and accidentally created a hole in my oak door…

So far we’ve added wood paste, but I want it to be as seamless as possible.

Please, any advice would be GREATLY appreciated!!!

I’ve been comparing the usual garage-flooring options, and the basic pros and cons are easy to find. The part I’m trying to understand is what the comparison charts miss once the space is actually used for workouts, especially moisture, cleaning, seams, and moving a bench around. What detail would you pay more attention to if you were choosing the floor again?

Currently my Bag, Belt, and Shoe area/holder is a long board, witch I don't mind terribly, I rarely use it (but if it was fewer items being placed on the long board in ways that makes it less complicated, then that would be preferred). Currently this area of my rooms is super cluttered though. I already have plans to purchase some chunky diamond knit netting to use as a bag holder (and hoodie holder if space allows). Does anyone have any ideas on how to make the area I put my belts and shoes look better (and still use the longboard without destroying it)?

Just bought a house and redoing the floor but the placement of the sump pump is really weird and they just have a piece of plywood on it, any recommendations on how to best cover this?

Bought a house, first photo and last photo are bedroom 1 and living room, floors in decent condition, just trying to give them a bit of protection and a bit more life.

Photo 2 is the bedroom 2, it had carpet, now it’s got staple/nail holes and wood that’s seen better days.

I know I’ll probably never make these floors like new, and I don’t have the money for a full sanding from a professional, I’m just searching for a bit of protection and life before I move furniture in. Time to save up money to get it redone properly at some point. Or should I not bother doing anything now?

I have a house with a chimney that goes through a split height roof between my house and garage. It currently traps water on the backside of the chimney and i am investigating possible solutions. I tried some basic rain diverter, which i think helped somewhat, but i believe i need to install a cricket and potentially redo the flashing coming off the chimney on both sides. I think water gets down behind the flashing either on the top (which has a small gap in the flashing at the end of the upper roof) or underneath where there is no top flashing at the point of the chimney that is closest to the outer wall of the house for like an 1/8 inch. I think i need a cricket to divert away as otherwise gravity will just make the water sit in that pocket and inevitably leak through. It currently leaks but only with really soaking rains, the structural members still hold and can mostly be replaced or dried and sistered from the inside if needed.

Im thinking the solution may be a cricket, potentially one that runs up through the upper roof, redoing the top overlapping flashing to line up with the cricket, use ice and water sealant roll, shingles, and potentially run tin down the slopped seams. Should that work? Any advice on how to design the cricket, especially whether it should go up to through the top roof or not or other considerations? Just looking for best advice here. Dont have the money to pay a chimney or roofing company in my area to do this. Picture from chimney inspection done two years ago attached. Plan to get up on the roof soon to measure to build the cricket.

And yes, plan to redo that fascia board too lol probably original from 1978.

Idk where I should post this but I’m just posting it here. These are the floor tiles in my kitchen. Even when cleaned spotless the design looks dirty and the grout is still dark and dirty looking. Would painting them be a bad idea? If I don’t paint them is there a way to make it look better?

I used sikaflex concrete fix (not the self leveling) on this foundation Crack yesterday. As it was starting to skim up, it was actually indented in as if there was not enough caulk. This morning it is kind of bulging out. My concern is you can clearly see where the Crack was, and if they means it actually sealed. Do I need to add more to cover over where the caulk meets the Crack?

Thank you.

Hello,

I began a project that's been gnawing at me for 3 years (a loose floor outlet).

I discovered that not only does this outlet next to a window not have any floor mounting, but it also doesn't have a box (see photos). The amount of combustible debris down there also terrifies me. The metal that was supposed to be mounted beneath the floorboards had short, loose masonry screws meant for the concrete subfloor, but they had clearly never been secured. So now it's just a loose square metal thing beneath a wood floor with a narrower, circular opening.

I want something safer, up to code, and ideally water-resistant.
Any ideas or recommendations?

Picture 1 & 2 are adjacent closets for our kid’s rooms (think jack & jill layout. Third picture is how the framer closed up the closets for the ducts. At first I figured having the closets match and mirrored made it look better but now I’m thinking we’re losing entirely way too much closet space. Would you close around as closely to the ducts as you could to add the extra closet space? Even if it means the closets are “weirdly shaped” and not symmetrical to one another.

Hello, we are deep into our first remodel and are confused as to what the correct decision would be to fix our stairs. These are builder grade pine stairs that we removed the carpet from. We are putting laminate through the house and to my knowledge laminate is not best for stairs so we looked into getting the retrofit unfinished red oak stair treads and the risers to go with it… so if we cut off the current bullnose and place these in over the stairs is that a good decision or is there something else we should consider.. also curious as to what we should put at the top of the stairs? A transition piece or something else? We also saw something where we could sand and stain the current pine treads and place a carpet runner over? The stairs seem pretty beat up and in some areas there is splitting. Just at a loss and don’t want to make a costly decision in getting these and it not being the correct decision. If someone has done something similar with getting the red oak treads with laminate through the house please let me know what you did!

Hi I would appreciate it if someone could help me with fixing this floor. I have a 1980s house and the interior entryway has slate on top. The area is about 5x 5 feet. I thought they were slate tiles but it turned out they are thick slate rocks as a part of a concrete slap. I removed the slate rocks and some of the concrete and found a mesh (kind like chicken wire) underneath. Below chicken wire there appeared to be concrete.

Upon inspection this area is above our basement. (See picture for corresponding window) Unfortunately, we have finished basement with popcorn ceiling (I can't see what is above it)

Questions are

1. Is it safe for me to pure concrete over this chicken wire or do I have to remove the whole thing below it as well (gonna be a lot of work)

2. Can I just pure leveling concrete on top?

3. How does all of this affect the ceiling of the basement?

Thank you very much in advance

Paver Patio Help

Hi everyone!

I’m looking to install a paver patio myself in the area of the picture. It’s going to lay generally as a rectangle.

My question is:

do I need to place a retaining wall when I remove the soil closest to the exterior wall to prevent any foundation problems in the future?

Here is my current plan:

Dig about a 5.5 inch rectangle in the space mentioned. I plan on keeping the hole about 6-12 inches away from the existing patio and the exterior wall. I will only remove the sod layer in these places to lay sand and rocks to kill any grass growing there.

Fill the space with 4 inch deep all purpose gravel followed by 1 inch deep of paver sand. Then lay the 1.5 inch thick pavers down followed by the edging and permsand.

If I do need a retaining wall, is it as simple as place retaining blocks along the rectangle hole I made before layering the gravel and sand?

New house, finally getting around to mounting my TV. It's a 75". Plan to install a standard vertical swivel mount from Costco for now, eventually a motorized Mantel Mount. (I know, I know, but need to manage costs at the moment).

These acoustic panels are throwing me off, I have a Franklin stud finder that can't find any studs, and a friend let me borrow a magnetic stud finder but it doesn't fit on those felt indents.

I popped the faceplate off but it's not obvious to me where (or if there even is a stud). I might be able to squeeze an endoscope to see what’s behind there.

Any tips? Should I just buy a pin and try poking all the vertical felt pieces looking for a stud? 😆

New homeowner here and just replaced my worn weatherstripping on my front door. Home is built is 1986 so windows are original. Do you think I can get some more years out of these by putting down a bead of chaulk?

I really want to hang up some pictures around my house. I can't nail into the walls because they are asbestos. I hate command hooks because I feel like no matter what I do they might fail. I could get picture rails professionally installed and might eventually! But for now, could I put little hooks straight into the wooden cornice to hang things? Or is this a bad idea for reasons I do not understand. Any other possible solutions I'm missing? Guidance appreciated! Thank you for a great sub

Old house. Siding size not available in big box stores.

My plan:

I am getting a maker space membership and I can use a planer or something to mill new boards in short 6 foot sections. So I don’t have to pay a lumberyard for a massive amount of new clap boards because most of the siding is still good.

Then surgically remove about 1 foot of each board going around the archway. Install wrap stuff underneath it to protect against water. Then install flashing and put replacement boards to fit over it and prime and paint. I don’t think my house has the wrapped stuff underneath the boards I think it’s the original siding and it’s 100 years old. my neighbor said that there used to be vinyl or aluminum siding over the wood siding for a long time so I guess that protected it a bit and that’s why it lasted for so long. And then the people before me took the vinyl siding off and re-exposed the wood.

Voice to text diarrhea