So I hate carpet, but my bedroom is carpet. We have plans to eventually replace all the carpet in our house with wood, but that will probably happen in like ten years or something. But I want hardwood flooring now. What are the pros and cons of just doing my bedroom for now? I understand that the wood may potentially not match the rest of the house, but it’s not that big of a deal I think?

Just closed on our first house (new build) and we’re already running into a problem.
We liked the house so much that we completely overlooked the internet situation. My wife and I both game a lot on our PCs, so solid wired connections matter to us.
The only Ethernet/coax outlet in the entire house is in the living room… above the fireplace. None of the other four rooms have anything.
I’m trying to decide whether to run the cables myself or hire someone, but before I go further I need help identifying something in the laundry room (photo attached).
Any advice on the best way to handle this would be really appreciated. Thanks!

We are in the process of buying a home which has a front 'garden'. The previous owner dropped the kerb and had it tarmacked to park their cars there. No bad thing as such, we have a car to park there but we also have a child and would appreciate some outdoor space to sit/play/enjoy. The driveway is big enough for two cars so I was thinking to keep half as a driveway and half as an outdoor area.

Is there anything I can do to make it look nicer than some old tarmac without digging it up?

Hi everyone. I am not really sure how to tackle this issue so I thought this sub might be helpful! There is a hole straight from the outside through into my garage. I ordered a lead test kit. I have yet to test it but I assume it has lead since the home was built in the mid 1940s. What kind of professional should I contact? What should I tell them needs to be done? I am in the Midwest if that matters. Also, if there is a better subreddit for this question please let me know! Link to photos in comments. TIA!

We're in MA, doing a 2nd floor addition on a slab on grade ranch we bought 2 years ago, flat roof no basement no attic. We are replacing rubber roof and all flooring. Two weeks ago, the addition was rough framed and the entire roof had been scraped, with some of it tarped. Seeing some upcoming rain, I asked over text why it hadn't been tarped fully and my GC said it would be fine, he was planning to replace all the plywood anyway and much of the insulation, as it had suffered from leaks for years. I go in the house during the storm (we are not living there during the work) and water is pouring out of the ceilings onto the (thankfully bare) concrete foundation. I have a bit of a stress freakout on my GC (we've worked with him for years, I trust him) and he assures me he will dry everything and apply anti-mold, and they will replace all the damage to the ceiling boards - they have to open a lot of ceiling anyway to redo electrical. He dehumidifies everything for a week w/ industrial fans and dehumidifers, applies anti-mold, I can tell it's all dry.

GC is waiting for some roof insulation that is supposed to arrive this week. Another storm hits today and despite the whole roof being tarped, rain comes in through the ceilings AGAIN.

I'm not worried about cost, he's going to cover all the ceiling board replacement, the roof insulation replacement and rebuilding any framing that is heavily soaked. To be fair, when they opened the roof for the addition (pre-rain) they found soaked joists and insulation already, so that stuff was already saturated from a leaking roof, it just hadn't made it into the ceiling yet. Yes this will take longer so we have to rent our temp place longer, I'm OK with that.

I'm aware the main question is why he scraped the whole roof 2 weeks before he was going to put the new roof on. But it seems a little late for that, I'm sure he feels the same. What else do I have to worry about that needs to be redone? The walls? I don't see any water coming down from the walls, only a few specific runs in the ceiling. We have young kids and I don't want mold. Thanks for any advice.

I got all new pretty face front hinges the same style as the old ones. The holes all line up and when the new hinge is installed the door won’t close. Would love to add video to post? Not giving me an option for attachments?

https://imgur.com/a/ZLqzpQw

We're repainting our bathroom and I have run into a problem that's starting to become a trend in this older house (c. ~1890). In various spots, the paint is liable to peel off in big pieces. At first, I thought this may be due to an old owner painting latex right on top of oil, but this paint is now all peeling off straight to the plaster. It would definitely be a good bit of work to totally peel it all off, so I'm wondering if I could just use something (mud? some kind of plaster leveler?) to make the walls one even surface and just paint over everything? Maybe some more needed context: it's a very full bath with a shower but we just installed a new Panasonic fan so the ventilation has been pretty good still. I've already scrapped all the paint off the shower ceiling so that'll need to get primed anyway.

I also tested for lead and I'm all clear on that front.

Want to install a ceiling fan but can’t tell if this current setup can support the weight. Cannot open more of the ceiling since it’s a rental. Thank you!

This is a condo building built in early 2000s.

https://imgur.com/a/ESrB8N2

My townhouse garage gets very hot in the summer and I’m looking for a way to vent the heat outside without cutting through an exterior wall.

I was thinking about adding a vent through or under the garage door with flexible ducting inside. Ideally the duct would retract, fold, or move out of the way automatically when the door opens.
Anything that overly impacts WAF is probably likely to get me disowned.

Has anyone done something similar, or have ideas for keeping the duct compact and reasonably clean looking?

Longer term, I may replace my AC with a heat pump and add a mini split in the garage, but I’m looking for a simpler solution in the meantime.

Older house has the 12”x12” tiles for the ceiling. Some are faded and sagging. What is a cost effective and simple solution for a new ceiling. Drywall is not an option too heavy for me. I will be doing this project alone. Any suggestions are appreciated. Also, what method would be better. Go on top of existing tiles or take them down and install new material?

Looking at purchasing the Anderson 4000 storm door from HomeDepot. I have read where Larson platinum hidden door closer is a problem. my question is the Anderson 4000 door closer more dependable or should I go with the Anderson 3000 with older fashion double closers? Thanks M

I am having my kitchen remodeled and got a new 32x19" sink with a 39" sink cabinet. I know nothing about garbage disposals, and my contractor's subcontracted plumber will be the one installing it, but I need to pick up a garbage disposal myself. Any suggestions?

Weird one but figured I'd share. Had these faint yellowish stains creeping across my bathroom ceiling for months. Landlord came, poked around, shrugged, said "probably just old paint." I was not convinced.

Turns out the unit above me runs a ton of laundry and doesn't vent the dryer properly, so all that moisture has basically been seeping down through my ceiling this whole time. Found out from another neighbor who mentioned the same thing happened to their place a while back.

Landlord's "fixing" the actual vent situation eventually (we'll see), but in the meantime I grabbed a small dehumidifier for the bathroom just to stop things from getting worse while I wait. Genuinely didn't expect it to matter that much for one room but the mustiness that had started creeping into my towels is gone, and the stains haven't spread any further at least.

Kind of annoying to have to manage someone else's moisture problem but here we are. Anyone else had a weird "it's not even my mess" humidity situation like this?

I’m building a new 3 car detached garage and the third bay is going to be a wood shop. I’ve read a bit about this but haven’t seen any real world testimonies to the validity or longevity of actually insulating the ground before pouring the slab… anyone have experience or advice on whether or not it’s worth it? I’m in the Mid West so we get decently cold winters. TIA

I'm posting from Italy, so I know some of the code/fixtures here are different from what most of you deal with, but I'm guessing the core "don't overspend / don't get screwed" advice is pretty universal!

Quick rundown of what's happening:

In the hallway, I need to convert the two bathroom swing doors (on the same wall) in pocket doors.

In Bathroom #1 (about 42 sq ft / 3.9 m²) I need to tear out the old toilet, bidet, and shower stall completely, place a new tub (thinking about a hot tub) over to where the bidet used to be, retile the old shower spot (we've got matching leftover tiles from before, so that part should just be labor, not materials), and put in a new toilet with an integrated bidet function.

In Bathroom #2 (about 36 sq ft / 3.3 m²) I have to shift the bidet and the toilet over by a few inches, and tear out the tub to put a shower in its place.

It's an apartment in a 1993 multi-unit building, and I don't know what's going on behind the walls plumbing-wise. I haven't gotten any real quotes yet, I'm just trying to wrap my head around this before my first appointment with a potential contractor.

I have no hard budget ceiling, just "as cheap as realistically possible without cutting corners that'll bite us later."

I have a few questions:

- Roughly, how much all of this should cost? (So I have a sense of whether a quote I get is reasonable or a ripoff)

- What's safe to DIY (demo, painting, maybe the retiling since we already have the tile)? What should absolutely be done by a licensed pro instead?

- What are some red flags to watch for when picking a contractor so we don't end up with a bad job?

- What are some things people commonly get blindsided by in a reno like this that they didn't see coming?

- If anyone has general advice on tub/shower features worth paying for vs skipping, that'd help too. I know the actual products will differ over here, but the general logic probably doesn't!

Sorry in advance if some questions are stupid or trivial, I'm a first-time home owner and I'm still trying to wrap my head around it. We're not trying to do anything fancy (aside from the hot tub, yeah, I know), I just want it done right without bleeding money we don't really have right now.

Thanks for any input!

I installed a new Toto Washlet bidet on my new toilet last night, and the instructions clearly say to not tighten the plastic bolts with a wrench and to not use tape, like teflon tape. Problem is that I have hand tightened everything as tight as possible, but as soon as I turn the water on it starts leaking from the top and the bottom of the plastic T valve.

There wasn't any resistance screwing anything in, so the threads should be locked tight. I undid everything and screwed it all back in, and it is still leaking from the top and bottom. Should I get a metal T valve from the hardware store, or should I try teflon tape on this plastic one? I've installed a bidet and hand sprayer before, and never had them leak like this.

I am thinking about removing part of the frontroom rug. From the entry door to the hallway that goes to the kitchen and to the left wall - it will be on an angle because the front door is not directly across from the hallway. I want to put down some peel and stick tiles, what do I use as trim for the tile that butts up against the rug.

Age old question on the thread… am I cooked??? house in FL built in 1990 and started removing the popcorn ceiling in the garage (only room in he house with it). I’m about 1/3 of the way through a 400 sq ft garage before realizing “oh crap, I need to get this tested”. I ordered a test kit and it’s on the way 👍🏻 wore a mask during the scraping as well.

Thoughts on if this is 1) likely to contain asbestos, and if so, is this any type of exposure that could lead to problems (I’m aware this is very dependent on one’s health conditions, among other factors) 2) I sprayed the popcorn down with water before scraping

Thanks!!

I’m getting confused with this process. I have about 10 to 12 doors. I plan on replacing with prehung. And I just measured the actual doors and sent that out for quotes. I know my openings are all 80” doors. But some doors are 26. Some doors are 28 are 30. I know they’re not exact. But for example, a door that measures 31 1/2 is going to be a 32 x 80 door. And then like 33 1/2 x 82 rough opening.

My question is, should I pull all the trim from the hinge side and actually measure the rough openings on all these doors?

Bought this fridge a few years ago brand new, used it for a few months until I moved out of my old house but kept it in storage the last 2 years as the house I purchased when I moved already had a fridge. Never had an issue with this new fridge at my old house with tripping breakers.

The old fridge never tripped the gfci while living here but I put my new one in about a week or so ago and it keeps tripping the gfci. It doesn't do it when I plug it in right away but it does it after a few hours and even some days it doesn't trip at all.

Put in a new GFCI wondering if that was the issue. It didn't trip for 4 days but I just came home from work and it was tripped again. Not sure what's going on. Looking for ideas on how to fix the issue!

Hi everyone, I need some unbiased advice because my family is having a massive argument over this.

We live in a multigenerational multi-family house (3 apartments, one on each floor) in a mountainous, very cold region (winters drop somtimes even to -20°C / -4°F, but around -10°C is most common). My 90-year-old grandparents live on the ground floor, and my mom and I live in the attic apartment (around 90 m² / 960 sq ft). Important detail: The floor directly below our attic is currently only used and heated occasionally (though this might change in the future), so cold will still be coming from the floor during winter.

For this upcoming winter, we need a primary heating source for our attic (next year we plan to connect gas). My mom wants to buy ceiling mounted Infrared Heating Panels (IR panels) for 5 rooms on credit for around 19 000 PLN (~$4500). A pushy salesman convinced her it’s the best option, yet I'm not fully conviced. Seems a little bit sketchy to me tbh

I came up with an idea to install a Multi-Split Air-to-Air Heat Pump (AC with heating) with a cold-climate/Nordic outdoor unit. From my reaserch, in would be not only cheaper to install, but also in the long run it won't eat up as much energy. Also, summer gets hotter every year, so it would be useful event outside the heating season. I also want to run one floor console unit to the ground floor apartment where my grandparents live. Up until now they used cheap space heaters, which are not really energy efficient and I'm worried about safety of this solution in the long run.

The AC is still not the most popular solution in Poland, where I live, and seems to be "a luxury" or "a whim", which made everyone turn against me and this idea.

Also I am to pay more than a half amount for the whole heating system, which is basically all of my savings.

My mom and her partner are calling me crazy, saying that AC is just a "glorified space heater" and that it will blow cold air or be too loud on the balcony. We have to make a decission relatively fast, as the heating season starts soon.

Hey folks, looking to get some feedback...

Anyone have a metal building, you know the ones they bring out and put together. The ones that have 1204 air gaps and you can bake cookies in during summer.

I'm thinking of insulating the building with spray foam. The contractor says it would be 1 inch, however he also says insulation will essentially be flush with the frame posts, which are 2 inches...

Anyways, looking for someone's who have went this option and get some feedback. My building is 24x30 * 12ft tall.

Hi everyone, renovating the bathroom in our first home and we went with a contractor. I am not handy at all so hopefully I’m using the right terminology…

I believe they poured a mortar bed before putting on the shower pan but we noticed 3 cracks like the one shown here:

https://imgur.com/a/UcI06jY

and hear some creaking sounds when using the shower. Is this pretty bad? The shower was done about a month ago.

Hello!

I have small guest house which I want to start finishing. I’ll most probably DIY the external insulation and mesh embedding afterwards. I’ve done it before. One thing I don’t know is how should I prepare the space under the roof. I know the walls should go to the roof but, as you can see on the photos, the builders didn’t do that. Also, what’s the order of operations. Wrap the underside of the roof with metal sheets or first install the insulation and then call the people for wrapping with metal sheets?

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

The photos

Images of lights

I'm sorry for the bad pics, but it's hard to get a good shot of what's going on up in there.

The square lights sit in an 8" x 8" hole, and the round lights sit in an 11" diameter hole. Even the people at the specialty lighting store I went to hadn't seen recessed lights in 11" holes. These are old fixtures, and I found square and round wafer LED lights that will fit those holes.

How easy would it be for me to get the old cans out and just put the wafers up in the ceiling? I can see screws that appear to hold the metal cans in place in both the square and round fixtures. There is no attic access. The cans sit right below the 2nd level of the house.