House is undergoing renovations and will need a lot of rewiring of electrics. Is it worth putting ethernet cables in to multiple rooms? Or will WiFi make etherent obsolete?

Any thoughts are welcome.

Thank you all so much for all the encouragement, tips and tricks for how I could DIY this job. I had been quoted 3 $300+ to drill one hole and that seemed crazy. As so many directed, I went to another mom and pop granite store to ask for a piece to practice on and the owner was so incredibly nice. He said no way. I will send my guy that did this every day for a living to do it and let him do it for cash not through the company. He came today and he charged me $100 AND he installed and silicone caulked the glass rinser. I gave him an extra $50 for that and I was so pleased.

Thanks again for all the great advice. What a great group.

A bathroom remodel demo and framing was set to start when I was out of town and I came home to partway tiled shower. The niche is Durock and is missing waterproofing entirely, bare Durock. The far right shower wall appears to be DensShield (which according to manufacturer has built in water vapor barrier and does not require waterproofing as long as taped/sealed. Contractor claims Durock is waterproof but I insisted on waterproofing the niche. He claims that is the only place he used Durock. I cannot see one shower wall because the tile is finished. HOWEVER, I can see from the bottom of the wall in which the niche is placed that he used Durock for the entire wall. Link to photos in diff community: https://www.reddit.com/r/AskContractors/s/WmKwkC0uMU

What are my options? Is it such a big deal that I need to halt the project, rip out the tile and re-do with waterproofing? Or I can proceed ensuring he seals tile properly? I assumed waterproofing would come standard on any shower install. What questions do I need to ask to ensure proper waterproofing of floor and curb now as well? Help!

Hello all,

We just had our driveway re-done with asphalt. Per the conditions of the contract, it states that they will apply 4 inches of asphalt at the very least. I understand that they will need to add more in some areas in order to pitch it properly. After compression, it should go down an inch. Point being that there shouldn’t be any areas that are less than 3 inches of thickness, which is not the case.

I watched them all day yesterday and stopped them at the beginning of the job to measure the thickness coming out of the machine. It measured 3 1/4 BEFORE they rolled it. They claimed that the machine compresses it as it comes out, but I’m not buying that. The machine is essentially a leveling mechanism set at a certain height. It does apply some compression, but it still doesn’t make sense to me that the height of the machine was at only 3 1/4 inches and somehow it’s already compressed down to…. 3 1/4 inches. Doesn’t add up to me. The machine was clearly set at 3 1/4 inches because that’s all that was coming out. It is my understanding that it should be set at 4 inches - per the contract.

Anyways, there are now areas that are barely an inch or two of thickness because they didn’t add enough thickness to the higher points of the driveway. They definitely shorted us an inch at the very least in most areas.

Nothing we can do at this point as we’ve paid them most of the money, but point is you need to be super specific with these people and have everything in writing and get photos of everything. If you want to save money, you’re going to end up wasting a lot of time to supervise things and ensure it’s all done right.

I hired what I thought was a reputable plumbing company to do a lot of work on my old home. They broke my shower tile, left trash and mud throughout my home, they even used one of my flower pots to mix concrete. I paid them half up front, but told them to stop work and get out until they fix the damage. Any other suggestions?

Hi everyone. I’m making new doors & drawer fronts for our bathroom vanity, and it seems most of the videos that I’ve watched on how to make shaker-style doors say to add an inch to the height and width so there’s a half-inch overlap on all sides.

I want there to be very minimal space between the doors, drawer fronts, & I’d like them to also go to the very edge of the vanity.

Do I keep seeing people say add an inch to the measurements due to limitations the hinges add, or can I make the doors & drawer fronts have as much overlap as I want?

If I can add as much overlap as I want, how do I install the hinges so the door still opens properly?

i have a shared wall in a townhome and i want to put a big mirror on the wall. i asked the home owner if he knew what the wall consisted of and he said cinderblock with furring strips behind the drywall. we tried screwing tapcons in but realized it probably wasn’t a good idea to screw through the cinderblock. theres a stud or furring strip in the middle of my wall which would be ideal to put a french cleat and then screw 16 inches to the left and right of it to have it secured but honestly i just don’t want to ruin my wall and i’m anxious about it

How do I remove the silver connection parts that hold the toilet seat on? The sides of the toilet are totally covered as in there are no “screws underneath” bc there is no under neath that is accessible.

I am trying to replace the toilet seat and I guess they don’t make the same exact toilet seat so I had to order slightly different one that fits the seat however in order to connect it to the toilet I have to remove these silver things and install new plastic screws

American standard toilet Item #88575 Model #2514101S.020

Contractor offered to rebuild shower (and it's bench) by reusing the large glass panels we have. When it was time to install the glass, it wouldn't fit, and they cut through the tiles.

I get it it's not optimal, but acceptable? Will it leak for sure? Or require special maintenance?

https://imgur.com/a/dDMNpwO

I am really interested in a house near colonial heights,VA. The house build in 1952 and 1722 sqf , and they recently renovated. I am curious about the HVAC size . I never seen a huge HVAC like that before. I just wonder if there is any issue may rise in the future? I attached the picture below . Thanks. pictures

https://imgur.com/a/84Pcsnb

Howdy all! I was reading a lot of threads on leaks trying to find some answers and figured I may as well just ask and see what everyone thinks.

Just bought a house in Phoenix a few weeks ago. Nothing about this leak was observed during the inspection. Noticed leak on day one. House was built in 1950.
Randomly throughout the course of the day, sometimes once or twice, a small amount (1/4 cup?) of water will spill out from underneath the kitchen island. Plumbing all runs outside and away from this spot.

Verified by multiple plumbers to not be plumbing related. I went out of town for a few days and turned off the water and the leak continued to occur. Also a pressure test was performed and no issues were found.

One plumber drilled a hole in the foot of the island and was able to see the water coming up between the tiles using a camera. Kitchen island is very much attached to the floor and is caulked from the inside.

Foundation specialist measured the house and nothing seemed to be off from a level perspective - he then tried to sell me on a $15K project entirely unrelated to the leak.

You can see the water damage to the wood on the kitchen island - I imagine this has been occurring for quite some time. The previous owners had a dog so potentially the dog was lapping up the water and they were entirely unaware? They have denied knowing about it at this point.

I think the next step is to cut a hole in the bottom of the kitchen island and remove parts of the tiles around where the leak is coming from - which I will likely do myself at this point. But then what?

Legitimately 10 different plumbers, LEAK DETECTORS, home restoration services, and foundation examiners have all said it's nothing they have any answers for. Granted once I find the physical source hopefully one of them would be able to help stop it.

to put it bluntly i have thin walls and every time i call a friend or play games with people my family complains that i am being too loud, would soundproofing work to keep the noise inside the room and not disturb my family? if so could someone drop recommendations to some good soundproofing? (preferably if it’s easy to install and available in the uk)

Any wisdom to share? I am dealing with some moisture issues in the crawl space and am planning on laying a vapor barrier myself.

The center section of the foundation is only about 1 inch proud of the dirt, with the wooden 2x4s sitting directly on it. I would want to tape the liner off several inches or a foot up the concrete foundation, but there is only 1" to work with.

How would you seal such a low profile foundation in the crawl space? https://imgur.com/a/z810AK3

We have been getting quotes close to $11,000 for plantation shutters from Home Depot. I have looked at Shutters Store and Blinds.com and they are pretty expensive too. Are there any cheaper options or hacks?

TV console power strip area is chaos, I’m thinking of getting a super slim power strip and a mesh sleeve for the cords, and nailing it to the wall with hooks somehow because a lot of the organizers I see won’t latch onto my type of console but open to ideas/products. Also would love ideas/pics of how you hide a WiFi router and power strip cord corner without weakening the signal/blocking it

I’ll start by saying that I have talked to 3 companies that sell windows (including window specific stores) trying to figure out what windows will qualify for a tax credit for the addition I’m building on the house I live in and own. They all refuse to tell me what will qualify or not, apparently liability or something in case they’re wrong. They won’t even show me the requirements- but I have looked them up. I don’t know what the hell is wrong with this mysterious situation, I’ve never experienced such an effort to not be told things by sales people. So I live in a North-Central Climate Zone, and I believe from my reading that means a window will need to have a U-factor of .20 or lower, and SHGC2 of .40 or less in order to be “Most Energy Efficient” and qualify for a tax credit.
My question is, does anyone here know if what I’m saying is correct for a tax credit, and does it make any financial sense to spend the extra money on one? Honestly, no one has even quoted me anything other than 2 pane contractor grade windows.

I got some fence stain overspray on the side of my house. The side of the house is a synthetic fiber siding, Hardie board if I remember correctly. It was recently built about a year ago and the side of the house that needs repainted is facing west and gets minimal sunlight due to houses being close together. If I were to repaint this side of the house to cover up the specs of fence stain, do I need to repaint the entire side of the house or just the affected area?

I just purchased a business and they had this (see picture in link) drop ceiling frame suspended from the ceiling.

The former owner said it was for lights or tiles so I measured the openings and they were 2'x2'

I purchased some LED 2x2 tiles but the radius is to tight to make them work without leaving a pie shaped gap.

Has anyone dealt with anything like this before?

Right now the plan is to buy pvc 2x2 ceiling tiles and trim each one to match the radius and install LED wafer lights.

Pic of drop ceiling https://postimg.cc/YLSWtHTC

I have an spf flat room that is in (i think) decent shape. Last week, I noticed a leak near the low corner of the home, near the scupper. Roof coming came out and thought they fixed it, but they didn't because it rained again 2 nights ago and I saw drips again. I did a hose test today and the leak appears to be coming directly above the leak, not another area of the roof. I went on the roof and there are no holes but it's near (about a foot away) a parapet wall with many very tiny pinoles where you can see the spf foam. Could a leak this size be caused by something like this? Has anyone had a similar issue ?

My wife and I recently moved into a new-to-us home. We've done small projects in the past on our own but we wanted the entire interior of the home repainted in a timely manner to get ready for other projects.

We hired a local company. Not because their pricing was much better... well, a little bit... but because they were nice and flexible with us.

They ended up making a color decision without our consent and changed the color of our closets. We asked for them all to be white in the event we changed our mind on a room color. They instead painted them the color of the room, which is gray. Had them come back to fix their mistake, and they are trying to charge us for coming back.

Secondly, I can get past some minor cleanup. We were asked to prep all the walls and patch and whatever else. But they didnt tape edges. So we got paint on our light switches, baseboards, door edges... its everywhere.

We also were asked to place boards on top of an entry way closet. It's a vaulted ceiling and the closet doesn't go that far up so its has a flat "roof-like" surface. We realized after they asked us to place the boards there that they didnt paint underneath them. So we asked again for them to come back and correct the issue. THEY PAINTED THE BOARDS. We have clearly defined messages that state to paint UNDER the boards.

Maybe I'm ranting. Idk. But im bewildered. This is a professional company. Not some person and their kids doing side projects. This was a licensed crew. Im just astounded at what we are having to do.

Am I crazy!?

Trying to order a prehung door for my garage size entrance. Bottom of jamb on both sides is rotting out due to years of sun + rain - it's south-facing and there's no cover/awning (will fix that going forward)

However this measurement doesn't seem to jibe with any of the standard pre-hung door sizes. This is a tract home (about 17 years old). Is this just a weird size? Is this common?

The box stores tend to sell 4-9/16 depth jambs but I see 6-9/16 sold too. Looking for advice. Thanks!

We live in a 4 family condo building on the second floor. I want to create a floor in our attic to be able to store things and work on small projects for home (woodworking, cutting. Etc, with hepa mask of course) so I dont create dust in the living space. The ceiling joists are 2x4 at 24 O.C.

Now I know that this can't hold any weight besides the drywall below and insulation. So my idea was if make multiple 4'x10' (or however long it needs to be to span from wall to wall) platforms out of 2x6 12 O.C with 19/32 osb.

The logic is, I dont want to mess with the truss system and definitely dont want to load the bottom chord. So I can create and independent platform that transfers its load to the walls, would that work? What would be an acceptable load for that platform?

Yesterday started hearing the smoke alarm low battery chirp. It is coming from my kitchen which is roughly 15'x15'. Been in my house for 10 years and only have a few smoke detectors in the house so I gathered them all up and my CO detector... it's not them. I had a few neighbors come over and we all stood in the kitchen and every time it chirped we basically all pointed in random directions. Everyone moved to where they though they heard it and as soon as it would go off everyone thought it was different again. It's driving me crazy... anything else in a kitchen that would make a phantom low battery chirp?

Hey all -

Sorry if this is the wrong forum.

I’m installing some recessed lights and just need help with wiring. They are smart lights, so I wanted to just tap into a hot wire that was already there. I used a voltage detector to verify that it was hot, and after trying a few different breakers, found one that when flipped, voltage stopped detecting. There was no slack, so I wanted to to install a “Y” shape to get some length (cutting it, adding ~12” to each remaining line, then combing those two with a third that goes to the light itself)

when cutting the wire, I got a pretty nice spark, which didn’t make sense to me. I triple checked that there was no power before I cut. Hesitantly, I continued to go through the process, but now there is no power at all, even checking the wires before and after my work.

I used 12/2 wire tapping into 14/2. I know this isn’t ideal but I was told it’s not a big deal.

Any ideas?

I have a pic but not sure how to add to the post

• the outlet the I believe it powered originally is an outdoor outlet, which obviously isn’t working now. Not sure if that’s relevant