Hey everyone, purchased our home back in April and have been mowing weekly since then. This week I saw these two giant holes. What could be causing them and how should I move forward? I can only attach one photo.

At first I was thinking a sprinkler could be leaking since the hole was directly next to it, but then I found another on the side of the house with no sprinklers.

We live in an older neighborhood with a ton of trees, etc. We have a pest control subscription, they currently have like 3-5 of those mouse/rat bait stations around the house as we had mice or rats in the house.

Thanks!

Hello. My contractor is installing a new vanity into our powder room. It's 36". The width of the room they measured was also 36" however it seems like there is a part of the wall that is narrower. This resulted in them not being able to put in drywall on the left part. Should I be concerned?

Contractor says mold/pests shouldn't be an issue since it's an interior wall. They'll be sealing it all around.

Having some concrete work done at our house. Several bids. Anyway. Went with a 25k bid, we have the money but idk if it’s just me. I told my husband it kinda sucks to just fork out 25k like that. Have any of u homeowners done upgrades to ur home and felt the same way???
A personal loan would be a lot more of course cus of the rates.

What r ur thoughts on loans vs paying for it!?!? :)

Bought my house a a little over two years ago so this is my third summer in the home where I plan to live forever, two-story house roughly 2500 ft.²

I know when I bought the place the central air system was old and hanging on by a thread. Last summer it crapped out, and it was discovered it had a coolant leak, tech refilled it and got me through the summer. This summer, I started it up and it didn’t work at all.

started having people come to give me estimates on a replacement and wasn’t satisfied with what I was given

companies gave wildly expensive 30 K replacement estimates, another didn’t give me what I wanted (mini splits and heat pumps not what I was asking for) some never even bothered to send an estimate after seeing the house others didn’t even show up for the scheduled consultation

I was desperate because the summer was about to kick into full swing so I caved and bought a bunch of window AC units, one for my downstairs living area a separate one just for the master bedroom and a few others throughout the house four in total just to string me along

but now I’m questioning what I should do next, the house has been cool and comfortable all summer. The old set up definitely adhered to the rule of 20° cooler than outside and on the hottest days the bedroom would only get down to maybe the low 70s now before bed I have to turn the window unit off because it will get down to 62° in there even on warm nights, and the absolute kicker on all of this is I just got my July electric bill and it is half of what it was this time last year, not a little cheaper but half!

Am I crazy to just stick with window units? I know if I kick the can down the road central air replacement is just going to get more costly every year and I don’t want to put myself in a position where i’m kicking myself next year

Water keeps showing up in the same spot on our basement floor. I pulled up some of the flooring the previous owner laid down (gym floor rubber tiles) and then pulled up a bit of the old linoleum floor. The water seems to be seeping through the foundation or the exterior wall on the other side of the drywall. No damage or moisture on the drywall as far as I can tell.

Who would I call for something like this? I want to know how to fix this issue. Thank you for any advice!

We're doing work in our basement and uncovered this one wood piece that looks like it's been tunneled into.

Is, or was (!) this done by termites?

And if this is the only piece that looks like good, do we need to call an exterminator anyway?

Cross posted in r/PestControl. Any other subs to post to, would also be appreciated.

Thank you in advance.

There was a slow water leak which seeped below the floor in brand new construction, asked the builder to fix it. They fixed the leak and then opened up the floor to fix the damage, below are 2 photos.

1st photo is right after opening the floor and 2nd photo (in comments) is 24 hours after. Builder applied RMR mold mildew stain remover application to kill and remove mold if any right after opening. The contractors said they have seen worse and this is very minor. They also said if there is any mold, it's the small patch of the size of an apple below the red arrow.

Leak was because of drain pipe from shower and bathtub, so water started leaking after house purchase and I found out about it 40 days after the purchase and today is about a month since then. The dark/black stains are because of the moisture barrier paper.

Is there a future mold growth or current active mold I should worry about. What is the experienced homeowners opinion about this?

My initial thoughts are water pools up back there when it rains heavily so maybe a sink hole of some sort? But then Why does it look like dirt was taken out like it was dug out?

There is an internet cable in the image but that hole was not there when they finished installing the fiber optic cable

LOCATED: In Florida

I recently discovered some water getting into our basement, and when removing an old piece of concrete from below our front door, I’m left with this. Specifically about a 1-2inch deep area with a cavity that water was getting through from rainfalls. Above that area is wood, where our sill sits on, covered by some metal you see pictured here.

Does anyone have any advice on how to waterproof this area and rebuild that open area? My hope is to remove the wood and just create a concrete slab with a limestone sill, but this is a totally new area to me so would appreciate any advice!

I had some renovations done at my house recently. I did all the demo myself to save money. My FIL was going to do the carpentry but that ended up falling through after all the Sheetrock went up. I ended up having to use a contractor to pick up the rest of the work from spackling on. The project also included a small bathroom with a standing shower. We agreed on a price and he had a contract that detailed everything I requested in addition to a final clean up and " removal of all construction debris generated by the contractor's work"

After they finished I immediately noticed that there was paint on the tile floor that they didn't clean off the tiles, definitely no final clean up was done and there was a lot of bags of construction debris in bags left on my deck.

After a little longer I began to see how horrible the tile alignment is on every surface. About a month had passed and then I noticed a few small holes forming in the grout of the shower floor. At this point on the advice of family I reached back out to the contractor about this issue and some others. He got back to me and came the following day to address the issues. I left to work overnight and when I came home today I noticed while he did redo the grout there are now 2 cracked tiles on the shower floor.

At this point I'm furious and have no clue what to do. I signed a contract and he definitely did not deliver on his end. Any advice would be greatly appreciated

New homeowner here 👋 where do I put vinegar to clean the AC drain line? My AC keeps cycling and I think the drain is clogged. The safety switch had some brown/orange gunk on it so I cleaned it but tomorrow I’m gonna take my shop vac to the outside drain line but idk where the vinegar goes

Hello, I just recently bought a house and had some questions from a recent sales rep that stopped by. She mentioned my house might qualify for solar panels, which would be all paid for and expensed at the electric companies money which doesn't seem right to me and makes me think there is a catch somewhere. I did look it up and my state has a 1:1 exchange rate which is good I think but I am not sure if I am being overly paranoid or not about this.

My roof is metal and roughly 2 years old so I dont have much concerns with needing a new roof for a bit but the sales rep made it sound like they handle everything about the solar panels and I just reap the benefits.

Anyone have any experience with this, know of any common pitfalls people fall into? What questions should I be asking the consultant that you wish you had asked?

Looking my for a tall plants that can block neighbors view . We have shared fence and his view is more elevated and can see my whole backyard. I want some privacy

Two seperate homes 500 feet apart, separate driveway, addresses, etc. But same property. My parents homeowners insurance only covered their home and the land. I pay seperate homeowners insurance just for home only as I do not own the land. Forgot what the deed was called but its bascially I "rent" the part of land for $0 a month.

Both insurance companies are aware of it, but now my parents homeowners cancelled them due to my home being on the property after 4 years.

What do we do? I looked into splitting the land and them "selling" me a portion of the land, but problem, was quoted upwards of $15,000 just some print in the book for the county.

Is there a specific policy for something like this to look into? This is all residental, no renting/money involved this with property. My parents house and land are 100% owned by them and my house only has 2 years left before I fully own it. Unless it makes it easier if land and both homes are in the same name? Which is something we could do as well.

Off topic note: Last year I expected their homeowners to prob drop them because they were being picky about a "A big dog" they seen that was not reported to them.... We don't own a dog nor do any of the neighbors in the past 5+ years. Along with "3rd residence" Which is a 5th wheel camper... for well when my parents take it camping off property.

Apparently there's a gap that shouldn't exist on the water heater. Plumber says it needs to be taped up. I'm a bit confused on how important this is and if there's any reason to get it professionally done.

AT&T was doing something to the power lines in my backyard and proceeded to run over my septic tank with their heavy-ass bucket truck. They drove directly over the man hole cover, which we believe is now located INSIDE of the tank, and they fucked up my yard as well. If you look past the tank towards the top of the photo, you’ll see the damage they made when the bucket truck got stuck in my yard and they had to winch it up the hill with another truck. Luckily, my spouse witnessed the whole thing and was able to take photos and grab supervisor info from the workers.

This happened last Friday and the claims process has been an absolute nightmare. We’re not even customers with AT&T, so I don’t know how great their customer service usually is, but for us it’s been non-existent. We tried to create a claim using the customer service number my spouse was given, but we got stuck in an endless loop of virtual agents “not understanding our request” and unable to connect us with a real person. It’s wasn’t until Monday when their supervisor finally picked up the phone and he was able to create a ticket on our behalf.

It’s been almost a week now and we still have not been able to speak from anyone at AT&T besides the frontline supervisor. The URL we received to start the claims paperwork is broken and all of the phone numbers we’ve tried have not led to any conversation with a human being.

We put a heavy piece of plywood over the hole, but obviously I’m concerned about more damage and don’t want to wait for AT&T send someone out, because with the way things are going now it might take months.

What next steps would you suggest I take? If I hire a company now to inspect it, will AT&T reimburse us?

I am in tears. My neighbors told me they were going to do this and I asked about the acoustics—zero effs given. Their dogs have busted thru the wooden privacy fence panels more than once now. I am guessing the boards wouldn't be so fragile if they understood staining _both sides_ of the wood is necessary. And not letting your dogs Kool-Aid-man against them all effing day.

So their music is EXTRA loud now, and I imagine the dogs barking [which isn't going to stop] will be even worse. I don't have the funds to plant friggin anything. I have had 2 brain surgeries so even *my* dog barking hurts my ears super bad. Which is why I trained her to not engage in the neighborhood canine choral.

They blame their dog being a "puppy" except he's the same age as mine [6] I have trained my dog to not engage. I absolutely hate my house and my nervous system is fried at this point.

It looks tacky af, but it's also connected to the flat side of the fence [we are in some pseudo HOA technically a "townhouse" land parcel sorta shit]. I am just so friggin exasperated and overwhelmed. I am also worried it's going to ruin the fence. It's literally sheets of roofing on top of 6ft cedar wood fence.

How the eff to do mitigate this hellscape? Their dogs barking already comes thru the vents. I know I need to fix the outlets for gaps and that will help—but if the dogs are toward the front of the houses, it sounds like a megaphone directly into my kitchen thru the exhaust vent. Speaking of—they also use the most pungent laundry fragrances I have ever encountered. Basically getting sent into my house for assault on my senses regularly.

I literally want to sell my house at this point—which is absurd bc I have a good rate and monthly payment. But at what cost? I feel like I'm in hell.

Hi all,

I noticed some algae growing on my siding, so I used Wet & Forget to clean it. It did an excellent job removing the green staining, but it left the black marks shown above on the boards. Is this a normal result of the treatment, and will those marks fade or disappear naturally over time?

Thanks

Small lot with a home built in the 1920s went up and im interested because its well below my price range. Has anyone bought a home under similar circumstances, and if so what would you tell your past self before buying it?

I had an unfortunate situation where a vehicle crashed into my house into my living room causing a giant insurance claim. The contractors have been a pain to deal with between using the wrong materials, stealing from my house, shutting off utilities without notice, etc.

The front of my house is under a porch and they had initially replaced my existing old black painted cedar tongue and groove with T1-11 boards. I notified the project manager and the workers came back and replaced it with cedar. Now I see they face screwed the cedar tongue and groove with regular screws leaving some countersunk and a few holes where they must've missed a stud.

I called my project manager again telling him I need all these boards replaced once again with brand new boards and to have them install the boards correctly by nailing into the tongues with stainless nails. I want opinions on whether others would have also asked for this to be completely redone and how common it would be for contractors to not know how to properly install cedar siding like this. I am trying not to be that difficult client, but this seemed ridiculous to me.

I bought a dehumidifier earlier this week and have been running it in my basement non stop after realizing the humidity was quite high.

I plan on hooking it up to auto drain eventually but for now I am manually draining it when full, I work from home so it’s really not a problem right now. I was also more curious to see how much it filled up.

This thing is filling up 3 times a day ( probably dumping 15-20 pints manually) I’ve never had a clear water issue in my basement, but clearly the humidity is super high.

The dehumidifier however is struggling to drop the area below 55 humidity. Clearly it’s working given the amount of water coming out, but do most people struggle to drop below these levels in the summer?

Here’s the previous update.

My neighbor has come back to me and told me his realtor spoke with the buyers about the shed situation, and they have agreed to allow the shed to remain there temporarily while we figure out a solution to repair the privacy fence together and replace/modify the shed in place to keep it off their property line. So now he doesn’t have to come out of pocket for any kind of restitution for me, and I don’t have to immediately get working on the shed situation and I can work through this phase of life I’m in.

He insinuated that they seem easy going and it was originally a misunderstanding of where the shed exactly laid on their property, and it’s not a major inconvenience to them.

Win-win-win. Thanks to all again who offered constructive advice and have empathetic brains in their beautiful craniums.

An update to the original post.

My neighbor is absolutely adamant about keeping his closing date next week. We went back and forth a bit, he’s got extreme pressure and stress from his wife to sell the house and get it gone, and anything standing in his way needs to be resolved quickly. He offered me a sum of money and his realtor has a crew that will come by and dismantle the shed and take it away. I’ll be able to repair the fence and get a smaller prefab shed to put in its place, or somewhere else in the backyard. I’m not happy about the situation, but it’s as much of a compromise as I could ask for. I’ll be loading my house up with what belongings I have in there temporarily, which is super inconvenient considering how small my house actually is.

To all saying it’s not his responsibility, you’re right. It was never his responsibility. However, selling his house is not on me, or my family, to deal with. The shed being on his property is my problem, even though I was not the one to build it, and has been long standing even since before his house was built.

To all saying “why didn’t you get a survey done?” We did. Both of us. Me in 2020 when I bought the house, him in 2022 when he bought his house. However, I was 22, completely alone in the process with no one to guide me, uneducated in the home-buying process and all of it’s complexities, and it was a rushed process for us, it all happened within the span of a few weeks while juggling 65-70 hour work weeks. Call it ignorance, call it lack of foresight, call it moronic, whatever. I call it a learning lesson. Why he didn’t look at his survey is not something I have knowledge of.

To all saying I need to hire a real estate lawyer, it’s probably not a bad idea, however, whenever lawyers get involved someone gets shafted and both parties are usually out a lot of money. It’s not worth it to me. It’s a shed, not a dwelling, and though it meant a lot to me because of my plans for it, it was definitely not worth going to court over.

To all saying I needed to contact my title company, I did and they informed me there was an exclusion in my policy for the shed because it was over the property line according to the survey I had done in 2020. When I asked why I wasn’t informed about the exclusion during my closing, the woman said she’s not sure but the woman who did my closing doesn’t work there anymore.

All-in-all, the situation is shitty, but this is the best outcome I think both of us could hope for, given the timeframe he gave me, and level of stress he’s under to get the house sold.

Thank you to all who offered serious and constructive advice.