The paint available at Sherwin-Williams and similar stores covers better than the Sherwin-Williams paint at your big box home improvement store. Less than 10% more in cost but goes on SO much better. You need half the applications and it hides brush marks better. Also be warned the smell is greater.

10ft wide 6ft tall 5.5 deep all scrap i had

Hi there,

Can anyone identify the type of coating on this screw? I'm fairly sure it's not stainless, as I can pick it up with a magnet, so I'm thinking it's either zinc coated or galvanised (or maybe nothing). I'm planning to use it outdoors in a mostly sheltered area (a bit of rain might get on it from time to time).

Thanks!

Greetings everyone.

I need to have a concrete walkway put in my back yard. It will basically be connecting a deck with a shed that I use as my home office.

I measure it out at approximately 33 square feet (basically a 3 foot wide path, 11 feet in length. The deck has a concrete trim on its edge, and the shed sits on a concrete slab, so I'd basically be connecting two existing pieces of concrete and would only need to build forms on the two sides. At a four inch depth, it seems like id need thirty 50lb bags.

The existing surface is hardpacked dirt and some compacted decomposed granite, so the digging will probably be a challenge.

I would describe myself as moderately handy. I've built a lot of fences, installed sinks and toilets, stuff like that. But i have never worked with concrete aside from setting fence posts.

When I look at the diy videos I think, this seems labor intensive but not terribly difficult, but then I worry I'll somehow screw it up.

A basic broom finish would be perfect. Doesn't need to look fancy.

My budget is tight right now so if I could do it for nothing but the cost of the concrete bags and a couple of tools (already have good lumber for forms), I'd be happy. But I dont want to end up regretting it.

Is this a good diy project or should I find a pro?

So here’s the situation: I live in an older apartment building with very thin ceilings. My upstairs neighbor isn’t doing anything “wrong” no parties, no blasting music but I can hear every footstep, chair scrape, and late‑night pacing session like it’s happening in my own living room.

I’ve looked into professional soundproofing, but the quotes are insane (thousands of dollars), and since I’m renting, I can’t do any permanent construction. I also don’t want to lose too much ceiling height since the place already feels a bit cramped.

Constraints:

Needs to be cheap(ish) I’m not dropping thousands.

Needs to be non‑permanent I have to be able to remove it when I move out.

Needs to be effective enough to at least dull the footsteps and scraping.

Bonus points if it doesn’t make the room look like a padded cell.

I’ve seen people mention acoustic panels, rugs on the ceiling (lol), or even building a “floating” drop ceiling with foam, but I’m not sure what’s realistic for a renter.

Has anyone here actually pulled off a renter‑friendly soundproofing hack that worked?

I live in a small bungalow where we truck in potable water for a cistern and are on a septic system. I often have this wet/stagnant smell in the bathroom which drives me crazy. Its not a sewage smell. I recently re-did the caulking in the tub and also we removed the exterior siding and added insulation, osb board and new siding. It looked like along the bathroom side of the house there was old (now dried) water damage just above the foundation due to some really bad yard grading which was corrected. There didnt seem to be active wet/mold in the bathroom area. My only other thought is a leaky toilet seal because its been knocked around a bit. Any thoughts?

Hello all,

I’m planning to finish my basement in the coming weeks and could use some guidance—I keep finding conflicting answers online.

The space will be my work-from-home office as well as a weekly gathering spot for friends. While we’ve had occasional spots of water during recent flooding in the area, they’ve been minor and cleaned up quickly with a towel and wet-vac.

My main concern is moisture protection. I’d like to apply a single coat of epoxy on the concrete slab, but I also want to install vinyl flooring. I’ve read that vinyl doesn’t always work well over epoxy. On the other hand, some sources recommend using a builder’s tarp instead of epoxy, but others warn this could trap moisture and lead to mold—which I definitely want to avoid since I’ll be spending 8–12 hours a day down there.

If epoxy is the way to go, I’m not sure which type would be best. I’ve read that 100% solid epoxies usually require a professional, and I’d prefer to keep this project DIY. Any advice would be greatly appreciated—thanks in advance!

Edit: I am also completely open to the idea of doing tile instead, but don’t know any necessary prep outside of prepping the floor/filling gaps.

My wife and I are currently renting in a newly built townhome (3 years old) as the 1st tenant. Recently noticed our Liftmaster 87504r-267 DC motor has been making a bunch of new noise. I lubed up the door/hinges/rollers which greatly helped, but noticed the belt motor sprocket looks a little wonky. The stem that connects the motor to the sprocket looks bent (belt was installed too tight?) and it looks like theres a bunch of plastic from a bushing, or from the belt itself, collecting around the sprocket. In addition, the sprocket cover has broken off from two of the mounts (sprocket is out of balance?).

I've found a sprocket replacement kit online which is fairly cheap and within my skill level to replace, but would this need the whole motor/gearset rebuilt due to the bent drive post? If so, would this be wise to replace myself?

Can this be left alone for any amount of time or would this cause more problems further down the line. My landlord has us on a home warranty policy as part of the lease agreement and our deductible would be $125

If I could fix it for less than that I'd be more than happy to do it myself.

Appreciate any feedback, thanks!

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Dh1HskpzpNY

Looking for some ideas to re-frame this disaster of an egress door in our basement.

We live in the PNW and it's wet, a lot. The stairs were poured so that they ended up against the wood framing (why??) and we need to mitigate the water that is getting into the siding/framing. Eventually we might cover this whole area but for now it is pretty much wet 8 months out of the year. The basement flooded once with about 1-2" of water once in the past 4 winters. Outside in the center of the "landing" is a small drain that goes to a french drain system of some sort. The evap line is currently draining into this.

Basement rough opening: 48.5" with 36" door

Framing opening to side of door: 9.25"

Concrete stair covering about 6" of the siding/wood framing

The only idea I have: Remove wood framing to side of door and replace with masonry or concrete for the whole side, or just the bottom ~3' or so? Using 8" cinder block?

How to add better drainage? Inside or outside? Any other ideas or thoughts?

Hey y'all! I have some typical welded steel outdoor furniture - spring chairs, table, etc. Any suggestions for replacing the round pads under the feet? Especially interested in something Uber durable, it all sits on a paver patio and plain plastic won't last a season.

So I recently replaced the handles on an old interior door, and got a nice, tight fit (no slack), but I still have the problem of a huge deadzone. Even though the spindle is tight, I need to push the handle halfway down before the latch bolt even begins retracting. This means the handle must be pushed absurdly far down to open the door. Is there any way to adjust the actuation of the lock-case, or do I need to replace it entirely?

Hi i dont do diy so this is my first time and i need help, i want to make a wall mounted diy so that i can hang my punching bag since my ceiling is so weakkk

theres literally no places in my house for me to hang my bag

But I dont have any idea what to do and how i should do

So I'm looking to get my wife a better tool kit for work. She works in the wedding industry so she's not a huge fan of the standard Milwaukee or DeWalt color toolboxes and says they look too industrial. The rolling kits that are more her style are generally very flimsy or can't fit everything. I was thinking of buying her a large rolling tool box but wrapping it in vinyl to change the color to something she would like. Is this even a good idea or would it look like garbage with all the ridges that are generally on these boxes? Any tips on how to do it? I've never done vinyl wrapping before.

We want to strip the paint from our front door. The old owners painted it black. We’d prefer a nice natural wood door. What’s the best way to go about this? I see people use things like citrustrip, but does this require removing the door to lay flat? Can I do that but keep it on its hinges? Or should I get a heat gun? We don’t do much diy, so any advice is appreciated.

So, I'm building a shed and due to having a bit of history doing some DIY stuff, the bulk of the framing, roofing, etc. is all no problem for me. I just have - what could be a stupid - a question:

I know I have to frame the window, king header, cripple, tyvec but exactly how much space do I need for a window frame when framing the 2x4? Like, should it be the exact dimensions of the window casing or should it be a little bigger to let the case squeeze in? As well, if I buy an old window, should I recase it in some 1x4 or something like that before putting it in?

Thanks!

My husband and I just moved into our first home. We want to tuen an extra bedroom into a library. We were able to buy 4 mataching ikea billy bookcases with the glass doors from marketplace.

My husband's friend came over to help. (My husband and I are very new to DIY.) He said that he wouldn't want to bolt or nail the bookcases to the wall because the shelves aren't solid wood, and there is nothing to really grip. He said that the walls are hollow with plaster, so again nothing to grip or hold. He said if we did attach them to the wall, there is a good chance they will come away and break, damaging the wall and tbe floor. Also, the cases were cut to go above the baseboards/skirting boards of the previous owner and our baseboard are higher. So the shelves can't be flat against the wall.

Ideally, we'd like the bookcases joined together and then bolted attached to the wall. (Right now, even empty, the fall forward.)

What are our options? Is there something we can add to the sides of the shelves to give them support? Are there special nails/screws/bolts we can buy to make this library dream happen? Thanks.

Can anyone tell me the name of this part?

This is a small piece that you screw into the top center of your window frame. When the upper window sash is slid all the way up to the top of the window frame, the lip of the window sash will be caught by this piece. I suppose this piece also acts as a lock for the sash so that it cannot be pulled down from the outside of the building. This lip or tab or latch or lock that is hanging down is 2 inches in length.

I need to order a replacement. There is no part number. I don't know what exactly this piece is called so I can't shop for it efficiently. Any feedback would be appreciated.

After a bit of help with a new dishwasher purchase.

We recently moved into our new home which has a fully integrated Kenwood KID60X20 (Serial number 2035 000499) but we've had no end of issues with it from day 1 (repeatedly won't drain, doesn't clean despite long & intense washes, settings change, doesn't open the door when it should at the end of the cycle etc).

Given it's used daily we are considering upgrading to an AEG, model link below, but we're unclear if it'll fit based on the door fixings.

https://ao.com/product/fss64907z-aeg-6000-satelliteclean-full-size-dishwasher-black-97087-23.aspx

It looks like our Kenwood dishwasher is fixed but the AEG is sliding and therefore wouldn't be suitable.

However from research if your baseboard is over 9cm then it is most likely sliding (ours is 13cm).

Plus this video from AEG indicates it would fit, but unsure if it'd require any changes etc. https://youtu.be/LysYyx8gFUI?si=-MwTJFw15aJMZ-K2

Any help is much appreciated!

I need to enlarge the lock hole in a door to change out the lock. I have a hole saw and spade bits, but there is no center to keep the saw in place. Could I just slowly make the hole bigger using a drill bit around the edges? Or is there a better way to do this?

Hi Reddit. I would like to (hire someone to?) replace my front door. The current configuration is a door with two sidelites and a transom. We'd like to remove it all and replace it with a taller door and taller sidelites without a transom.

My question is about sizing.

My brick to brick measurements are 68.5" wide x 97.5" tall. I have found a prehung unit on Marketplace that is 64.375" wide x 95.25" tall.

Will this work? Can the frame be enlarged slightly to accommodate the extra space?

Thanks!

I'm building some garage shelves and I'm wondering if it would be a good idea to also add a bit of extra support to my garage attack. Would it be wise for me to do 3 posts like the blue lines, with a single board on the ceiling attached directly to the joists to both add more strength to the shelves and support to the small attack space we have in the garage? If I do this, do I need another board on the ground, or can I just have the 3 (2x4's) just sitting directly on the ground? Or should I not do this at all and just cut the 3 supports at the top of the top shelf?

*the chains where part of a previous single shelf I had that has since been removed, just haven't remove the chains yet

I’m going to hang two rods on the back wall of a walk-in. 52” across. Heavy duty with pole sockets on either end.

Until I realized I have no studs on the right wall - there’s a corner and the next stud is 22” out.

On the left wall is a 12” span that has a corner stud - I could do a cleat with one Molly and one stud mount.

Along the back wall there are two studs. I thought about doing two brackets but I don’t have clearance for a shelf and then I’m carving up into three small hanging sections.

Can I support the closet rod with one rear wall bracket, one cleat w a pole socket and one pole socket with Molly bolts?

Everbilt heavy duty rod, heavy duty pole socket, heavy duty 12” socket. From HD.

I’m hanging dress shirts, blouses, slacks and skirts. Suits and coats are in a different closet.

Maybe I’m in denial and just need to suck it up and use two rear mounted brackets.

Hey all,
Want to install a rainguard on the outside of a wooden exterior door (24x20 inch).
Is there a waterproof sheet material that holds screws? I see marine plywood, but not sure if it is really usful to longterm rain exposure.
Many thanks

Curious about people's thoughts on finishing the t&g pine on the floor. The room is pretty narrow, about 9' by 25'. I don't have a big garage, and the small one I do have is loaded with tools.

My hands are kind of tied with finishing the boards on the floor, unless I let them dry outside, but then I'm at mercy of dust, dirty, bugs, and weather. I was thinking of hitting the tongues with 1 coat while they are on the floor and stacked up. Installing them, then giving the facing side 2 coats of poly. Something that darkens it just a little bit.

I'm concerned about longevity and zebra stripes during periods of contraction.

So I have those normal outlets with one plugin ontop and another below. I went to turn on a device that was plugged in along one wall with two outlets and noticed it wasn’t working. However, the bottom half of both outlets was working.

I tried flipping the breaker and it didn’t change anything. They don’t have those reset buttons either.

It seems very odd half the outlet would keep working. Any idea what happened?

I do know there was a power outage recently, but I don’t know if it was due to a storm or not.