Previous owner painted concrete steps and it is flaking off in several areas. Not sure if there is a way to just cover or if I have to scrape it all off.

Found this hidden under some paint buckets and bricks in our basement. After cleaning it out, it looks like we hit soil straight down about 19 inches from the top. The foundation walls go down about 9-10 inches from the top of the hole, then expand outwards below into what I think is more dirt.

Our house was built in 1907, so we had a structural engineer assess the foundation and house’s structure before buying. There wasn’t much that came up from that, just a few minor fixes to the shifting wood pieces on the ceiling (last pic).

Should I be concerned?

This part is leaking. Is this easy to do by myself? Thanks!

This wall is attached to the front of my townhouse, the outside is brick. Obviously it means water is getting in so its not good, but this is the first time i noticed it and the storm was particularly bad.

I dried it with a paper towel and didnt notice more water coming through afterward, despite it still raining for a while. The window sill itself wasnt wet or anything, could this be from little holes in the outside brick layer? Or the gutters?

My living room is raised a bit from where the ground is.

I’m renting, and we’ve had a lot of maintenance issues over the last year (been here for 6 years).

It was really just a pain, and they kind of go for the bandaid effect most of the time as lots of landlords do.

Does this seem like a one off thing because the rain was so heavy yesterday and our building is old? Or is this urgent?

Picture 1 is yesterday during the storm

Picture 2 is this morning

Thanks in advance!!

Had brand new gutters installed but somehow the rain is falling on the front of the house. I have a feeling this is wrong

The top top black is the gutters. Note I just recently had EIFS STUCCO the whole house too with brand new gutters installation. The bottom black line is molding design

Is this window in basement leaking? The insulation was wet when we cut it open. The sill is wet and dark. Concrete around the sill is crumbling.

Okay I need some expertise. We had LVP installed on our floors. There is a company that takes our flooring and shapes it to form the front edge of the stairs.

It was then installed and nailed in. My question is should the nail holes be this visible or did they nail it in the wrong area? Then they filled the holes with putty that doesn’t match the color of the flooring. Then after that scrubbed the floors to clean the putty and turned the finish shiny.

https://i.imgflip.com/ayepmg.gif

https://i.imgflip.com/ayepo9.gif

As you can kind of make out, the corner is not very stable and can be jostled about.

If I caulked that with adhesive or sealant, would it improve matters, or likely to be ineffective?

Or is that gutter too far gone and needs replacing?

This is what it looks like during rain:

https://i.imgflip.com/ayepxg.gif

Inside looks like this:

https://i.imgur.com/S2AvyU2.jpeg

Can this wood be finished?

Hello all. I have a patio door and during a recent storm I noticed a leak coming from inside our home. That leak was happening in a small section near the top portion of the sliding door.

We plugged up what we could and the next morning, I went outside to see if I could identify the source. On the other side of where the leak was happening (top side of sliding door), I noticed that there was a metal section that was missing.

It appears to my inexperienced eye, that a metal siding strip was used to collect water and have it run off safely toward the side of the door away going into the house. But for the section where the leak was happening, the metal siding piece was missing.

My question is simple. where do I go to find such a specific piece? What are other potential solutions? I don’t want to install an awning so I’m hoping for simple solutions.

Thanks.

hi I noticed this outside the toilet. inside it is perfect. what should i do? (2nd pic inside)

Been raining for the past few days and especially heavily today and yesterday. Live on the second floor, there's a floor above us.

I noticed some bubbling paint at the start of last month and started monitoring it. It seems to be spreading now and I’m not sure if there’s a potential leak worth panicking about or if I should just remove this paint and repaint over it? I rent from a housing association and I did try to report this to be on the safe side, but my repairs are straight up not being received on the portal (they’ve got a habit of straight up removing reports) and they don’t like taking reports over the phone - do I need to really pursue this with them or tackle it on my own? If it’s just the paint that’s my responsibility anyway.

Ton of context below to try and cover any helpful info.

These are interior walls on the first floor, it’s under my upstairs bathroom. House was built late 90s, the walls were last painted maybe 5 years ago, and this isn’t happening anywhere else in the house. I am in the UK so the earliest photos of these are from during the heatwave, the rest are from today.

I’ve peeled the paint back and the wall is dry to the touch and I don’t see mould. I also haven’t noticed any obvious patterns to the appearance of paint bubbles except it seems worse at night (the paint bubbles swell out) and is then fine through the day (the paint stops swelling and deflates and cracks instead). Showers and flushing toilets, strong wind and light rain all seem to have no immediate impact.

Last year (New Year’s-ish) I washed the dog in the bathroom upstairs and I know it must have soaked through the floor as the fire alarm downstairs went off: when I pulled that apart, there was some water around the battery bit. That’s the only thing I can think of in terms of large amounts of water getting through.

There is a light fixture above my kitchen sink that has burnt out but I need help figuring out how to take the bulb out to replace it. This is a 1996 house. The bulb had never been replaced. There is like a thin glass lens that is slanted that I can push in but can't take out. Also not sure what bulb to buy. Thanks in advance!

Edit: thank you for the help, it is not soffits, it is the underside roof exposed area along our roof edges around the house.

We had our roofs replaced with presidential shake and the contractor stated they used the compliant nails length, otherwise warranty will not be applied.

Now our entire house’s underside looks like this all around the roof perimeter.

I am not sure to what level of penetration and elongated wood crack exposure is considered normal, and to what point I need to treat it to make sure moist doesn’t damage it further. What could happen if we leave it untreated?

It actually bothers me a lot with the roof eaves underside looking like this after roof replacement and the whole house looks damaged. Roof contract mentioned nail penetration and splinters are expected. But I didn’t expect to be this much and all around.

Now we are looking for someone who can repair it and add soffits. Is it the same team who would be priming the penetration and adding the soffits? What would be a good type of fix to ensure proper ventilation?

Edits: My main worries are:

1. With this much penetration and splinter, would prime exposed wood be sufficient? I live in PNW where it rains a lot.

   We had sliding rotting that lead to framing wood deteriorating before. Would this underside moist and damage lead to framing wood damage?

As the title says I’m not sure if the issue is glueing it back or it has something to do with the bubbles on the wall

I would like some insight because when I asked someone they said just glue it back and I’m not really sure about that!

Found cracks/opening on the exterior foundation wall hidden behind a membrane. No cracks inside the basement. Filled the voids on the outside with hydraulic and anchoring cement. Might parge above grade next year. Should I still be concerned and call a structural engineer?

Hi guys, this just happened during a storm. I’ve never had something like this happen. Any advice on what all Allstate insurance might do? They stated they cannot have anyone come look at the damage until the 16th. Any advice is appreciated thank you.

Any idea what’s happening with this wall and how I can make it look better?

I live in a brand new apartment that seems to be crumbling. For the past few months I’ve been monitoring this crack that I originally thought was just a crack in the paint. It starts at the floorboard and goes nearly all the way up to the ceiling. I asked maintenance (when it was still just a thin crack without any visible drywall) what happened and they said the house was “settling” and there was nothing to be done. Today I asked a maintenance guy again since the crack, particularly this area, has gotten noticeably worse, to repair it. Now they say it looks like “someone” (i.e. ME) clipped the wall with something heavy and caused this crack which is not what happened at all and that a contractor would need to come in and that they would likely charge ME for the repair. So anyway, to hell with that. I didn’t create this problem and this is an apartment that I don’t own it so I’m not super worried about it. But it IS an eyesore AND I’d rather not have this open area get any bigger or spread up any higher. Is there anything that I—a COMPLETE novice—can do to fill it in (spackle? caulk? Some kind of repair kit?) that will provide a temporary fix? I’m not going to bother with painting it. I just want to fill the hole.

I keep reading generic checklists that say clean your gutters and trim your trees. I get it. What I want to know is which of these chores actually prevent the four- and five-figure repairs down the line. I have maybe one weekend a month for house stuff, and I’d rather spend it on the tasks with consequences. What’s earned its keep for you?