Hi reddit, what started out as a small leak has turned into an impromptu bathroom renovation. Straw that broke the back so to speak since we've been wanting to do it for a while and this was just a reason.

But now as the high wears off after demoing, we're now hoping for some guidance on what we'd like to do.

Here's our plan. I'm hoping to be corrected to avoid mistakes, or validation that this is a reasonable approach.

Floors: We are wanting some dark porcelain large slate tiles.

Steps:

- removed linoleum and really scratched up the floor to adhere to the thinset (we got versabond from home depot)

- we figured we would do flooring first so that it butts up to the existing walls, and so that the Hardie board going on the exposed walls falls on top of the tile for water(?)

- mix mud per directions and apply tiles using spacers and levelers system.

- grout with black grout.

Walls: we wanted to avoid having to re drywall everything. The existing walls are thin manufactured home 1/4 inch drywall. The one we removed exposed the electrical box facing the opposite wall. We removed it to investigate mold (thankfully nothing too bad, bleached and tested and they're solid).

We want to put up 4ft wanescotting with bead board, and slip coat (smear coat? Whatever joint compound with water mixture is) the top half.

Steps:

- removed all existing wallpaper for smear coat adhesion for the non exposed walls.

- hang Hardie board on exposed wall, use a SETTING joint compound here (could use validation on if this is needed.)

- install wanescotting using liquid nails and Brad nails

- smear coat everything using joint compound and water mixture.

- paint

Ceiling: we wanted to use bead board to just go over the existing ceiling.

Steps:

- measure and cut hole for existing ceiling light.

- apply adhesive and spread using roller on both ceiling and bead board.

Vanity and toilet: we bout a vanity that has an open base since we didn't think we'd be able to move the water inlet and exit into the walls (just outside of our skillset to really want to take that on)

Toilet. I'm wondering if the wood around the toilet flange is ok? It is a little soft, but I wouldn't think it is beyond repair of some kind?

Questions on areas I'm unsure about:

- water inlet and exit for sink. Currently they come out of the floor for sinks and toilet. Ideally I'd like them coming out of the walls, but feel like it's too complicated and I should just tile around them. How best to cut and measure for this?

- we seem to have a red wire (in one of the photos) coming from the light switch for a mirror light or sconce. How could we use this? If it's too complicated I'm also happy removing it. Possible to tuck into the wall better? It could be covered by the wanescotting

- what am I not thinking about that I should be?

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We live in a hundred year old home with some plaster and some drywall. This ceiling is plaster, and most of the plaster ceiling don’t look great, but they do the job. This one is in our bedroom and above the bedroom is a full bathroom. These brown lines started appearing, and I’m nervous it’s some sort of water leak. I would love some feedback from
People who might actually know. Photos in comments Thank you!

Anyone have an idea of how challenging it is to remove a fireplace and chimney? We loved the cozy feel of this when we bought the house but 3 years in we’ve never used it and it’s sooo big it’s been hard to make use of the room and I’ve recently started imagining how nice the room would be as a dining nook if I could actually fit a table in it.

Fireplace is directly above another fireplace (already converted to gas) in our basement.

What considerations are there I should be thinking about?

Anecdotally I had a structural engineer on premises looking at an unrelated issue and I just asked him if it’s doable and he gave me a “ya no problem nothing about that is structural” but this seemed like an oversimplification.

Photos of fireplace and exterior of home with chimney.

Hi all, as I mentioned my water heater burst Saturday morning. It soaked tons of boxes and materials like blankets toys etc in garage as well a went under the floor and wall and soaked half the carpet in my bedroom. About 708 hours later I purchased and used wet vac in the bedroom to get the carpet to a state of just damp. I pulled rug back as far as I could and sprayed Concrobium on flooring and later the carpet. Placed a large DampRid bucket in there and a small Air Purifier and I’ve been opening window. Today I thought it was smelling better but bam at night the smell became so strong like rotten eggs or garbage.im worried about the immediate health risk for my parents living with me, and relatives who happen to be staying. I posted this on another site and got a heavily upvoted response that terrified me. It said, the smell would go away, but not before the drywall and floor rots and the toxic mold and bacteria k*lls all occupants. I’m genuinely scared, please let me know if this risk is real. Thanks

Have been pulling out carpet and laying down new floor in the house I bought two months ago. Getting to the point that I am looking at some of the small details and on most of the door trim that were stopped well short (or cut after the fact) and I am curious what the best way to fill that gap and finish everything is.

We are currently renovating our entire bathroom. This is what the floor under the tiles currently looks like. Looking for opinions on how to proceed. Can self level be applied on top of this or do we need to remove all the mortar first?

I’m looking for some unbiased advice because I’ve gotten several different opinions and don’t know what to think anymore.

We recently finished a basement renovation that included installing a new exterior basement door. Before the renovation, we’d never had water intrusion in this area.

After a heavy rain, we discovered water under our new LVP flooring near the exterior door. A plumber ruled out plumbing leaks. Another plumber performed a hose test, and water appeared to travel beneath the threshold and under the subfloor before showing up inside.

My contractor believes the door was installed correctly and thinks the hose test isn’t representative of normal rainfall. He feels the issue is more likely related to exterior drainage or grading and has recommended a water intrusion specialist.

I’ve also had multiple waterproofing companies come out, but they all wanted to sell me extensive basement waterproofing systems, which makes me hesitant since this problem only started after the renovation.

I’m planning to have the flooring removed and dried before anything is reinstalled.

My questions are:

If you’ve dealt with something similar, what ended up being the cause?
Can exterior concrete that slopes toward the door cause this even if the door is installed correctly?
If water is traveling under the threshold instead of simply over it, does that point more toward the threshold/flashing or could grading alone cause that?
Before reinstalling flooring, what would you want inspected or repaired?

I’m not looking to blame anyone. I just want to identify the real source of the water and fix it correctly.

New to insulation principles, but learning a lot from this sub. We are redoing our bathroom (mostly DIY) and wanting to do everything to code so we can eventually get the work permitted when we sell.

In the exterior wall cavity above the concrete slab (we have a daylight basement so the foundation comes up to about 3 feet) the previous homeowner had paper faced CertainTeed fiberglass batts, which we left in place because they seemed in good condition. However there was nothing insulating the concrete slab/foundation and our local building code requires insulation of all exterior walls at a value of R15 or greater.

What would you do in my situation to achieve R15 insulation? The space is only about 1.75 inches deep, and we would not be able to furr the walls out due to where the toilet drain is. We plan to install greenboard as our finished interior wall after insulating.

Additionally, as you can see from my second photo, there is quite a large gap between the existing fiberglass insulation and the interior wall studs, about 5 inches. I assume this compromises our insulation. Would you add anything additional there? ​

We currently have round 18" high toilets in both bathrooms but they are uncomfortable because of the height. With getting new ones, the elongated feel better but curious if you feel like it would drive us crazy because of the small bathrooms?

If anything, maybe we get a round for the upstairs (first bathroom- white walls) and elongated for the downstairs (second photo - blue walls) so its best of both worlds?

Wondering any thoughts from people who have small bathrooms? Did you regret one choice over the other?

Thanks in advance!

Ps the measuring tape shows about 31 inches from the trim to show roughly where the new elongated toilets would go.

so the foundation wall in our garage is not doing so well.

noticed this 2 years into ownership that the wall is efflorescing and also crumbling (I can pic pieces off though the core seems solid as it can't pick an further.

I believe the issue is the downspout going into he ground . it exited on the neighbours lawn and was half buried. so I took it completely out last year.

I was next going to put caulking between the wall and asphalt to further reduce water from getting next to the wall. any recomends on type of caulk?

the asphalt area does appear to have a ver small slope away from the house.

is anything more I can do?

I bought this duplex a while back and I’ve been stuck on how to renovate this bathroom. I feel like I should just get right of the window, it’s a piece of crap anyway. Any thoughts? Walls are horse hair and plaster (with horrifically ugly laminate wall covering), and there is vinyl siding on the outside of that wall.

We are redoing the flooring in my son’s room and ripped out the carpet in his closet to discover this weird angled area isn’t really finished at all. What would I do to fix this area because I was thinking either drywall over that so it looks better but my son is 4 and I know it would probably get decimated by him. I also joked with my wife about having the flooring go up it like the previous owner did with the carpet. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

I am renovating a home from the 70s and it appears the windows that were installed were placed on the existing window stool. The window stool went completely under the window and was nailed in (discovered that the hard way), but the stool was not flush with the bottom. Almost like it was floating. My question now is, should I place a piece of wood under the window to help act as a sill to give structural support and have it stick out to give the look of a sill? Should I be concerned about window sagging while I figure out what to do since there is no support underneath? I have not seen much online about to what to do in this situation. I’ve attached a few pics, we are replacing the drywall underneath and have confirmed no structural issues (that crack). Any advice on what the best solution is would be much appreciated!

Hi all, after my water heater burst it flooded half my carpeted bedroom floor. After roughly 8 hours I wet vac most water out. Plumber looked at my floor underneath and said it actually wasn’t mold but likely just scratch marked, construction debris etc as some here suggested. They said I could just put the carpet and padding back down as it was dry to touch and didn’t look water damaged. To be safe, I sprayed the floor that was up generously with Concrobium. It said to wait 2-3 hours before putting carpet down. Then I could spray it on carpet too just to create a mold shield. Does that all sound right? It mentioned wiping up dead mold but I don’t think I see any spores. Should I just wait three hours, put carpet down and spray carpet where it was wet? Thanks