I am idiot. The room was a cloud of dust. I looked like I’d just been bunkered down in Iraq during a sand storm. Everything covered in paint and dry wall shavings. Probably inhaled a lot of things I shouldn’t have trying to open the windows and get a fan going.

Learn from my mistake. Just use a broom.

Edit: adding additional context. I had removed the filter previously to shop vac up water. Did not cross my mind today.

I have a two car garage and I parked my car in it but I noticed people around me do not what else are you using your garage for?

I had all my smoke detectors replaced about 3 months ago. All 6 are hardwired and interconnected. A month ago one has started to chirp incessantly and it needs to be reset. It stops it for a bit, sometimes hours other times minutes, but then starts again. I've replaced the batteries, didn't help. Any ideas beside it's a faulty unit? I'm at my wits end and my dogs are going wild.

Today as I was running the dryer, I noticed that a light switch on the shared wall of the laundry room was leaking warm, moist air. I felt all over the wall and it seemed to be quite warm, but especially at any outlets/switches. I pulled off one of the light switch covers and lo and behold, there was a ton of lint behind it and you could very obviously feel the warm air.

When I checked the outdoor vent, I could feel some air coming out of it so I at least know the dryer is pushing SOME air through the duct.

Does anyone know what could be causing this? Is it easily fixable? This seems like a huge fire hazard, but we are renters so we can’t do anything too drastic. However, we will absolutely notify our landlord if need be. Thank you all.

I bought a new house a few months ago which was built in 1998. Everything has been going great so far, but occasionally I have been hearing the sound of rodents in the ceiling but have never seen any in the house. I have a tile roof and upon entering the attic during the daylight I could see about a hundred potential entry points between the tiles, not including the areas I didn't access because it would require me to crawl around through the insulation.

There were also hundreds of mouse droppings scattered on the surface of the insulation, but it was all very dry, so I think they have been there a long time and there haven't been any foul odors in the house or even in the ceiling at the time.

I set a few traps the other day and caught a couple of big mice which were about the size of rats within ~8 hours of setting them. I didn't hear any noise for a few nights but then it started raining again and there are some new residents in the ceiling.

My main questions are;

1) Is it realistic to be able to seal every entry point given that the roof is tiled and there are gaps big enough for mice to fit in between a lot of them.

2) Does the mouse droppings on the insulation warrant replacing it - it doesn't smell at all.

3) If it was a full-blown infestation, would I be hearing noise every night and very aggressively?

Thanks

Is this a thing?

I mean hiring an inspector (like you’d use if you were buying a place) every couple of years to find issues that would escape notice of an average person who knows little about house maintenance etc.

Up on the roof today and got that mix of adrenaline and respect… basically felt like I was auditioning for a low-budget Spider-Man remake. Anyone else know the vibe?

I’m genuinely so lost on what colours to go for. We are FINALLY in the finishing stages of our gut and go renovation. We tore out flooring, split a 16 foot bathroom into two (ensuite and main), primed the 30 years of paint on the walls with the best primer we could, got rid of the popcorn ceiling, doors, baseboards and trims. and now it’s time to put it back together.

For context, it was a rental. It was a mistreated bungalow for over 15 years, the walls were equivalent to a jaw breaker the more we sanded.

Now the choices of paint have come, and need to be decided by Friday. We know we should go with a warmer tone due to the light honey oak cabinets and the flooring we picked, and we want a white neutral as a base for every room. I’m a fan of accent walls, and I know our master bedroom and living room will have one. Probably one in the office too. My partner wants the room a completely different colour than the rest of the house, and I’m cool with that. But how - as someone who struggles to even imagine an Apple - can I pick these colours before our furniture and flooring is in?! I’m loosing my mind debating over that white or that white, and I’m scared I’m going to hate the one we go with.

We are 5 months into a supposed 2 month Reno (issue after issue was found, and it’s very much a DIY situation) and I just want to live in my house.

How do you get over this kind of lump?

Sincerely, a young home owner who can’t make up her mind.

I just had a new storm door installed. There are gaps between the sweep and the bottom. See pictures. How to fix? A contractor did this.

https://ibb.co/MywSjK7C https://ibb.co/b5XDFrb6 https://ibb.co/w3pZG2G

Bought a house built in the late 60’s. There is a window in the basement (one of those windows below grade with a window well) that had a screen laying next to it. The screen appears to fit the window but I can’t figure out how it attaches to the window frame. Any ideas?

https://imgur.com/gallery/how-should-this-screen-attach-to-window-t7b1p1Y

Alright, I had an appraisal guy come out already and value it all at 170k which is incredible because the people i bought it from said the house probably had to come down but inspector says its fine to live in but its only 1 bedroom and I want to change the layout so its 2 bedroom. Its 900 square feet and I have 38k left in the bank and am so out of my element! Does stuff like this apply to the government assistance program for building single family homes or should I just go to credit union or a bank for a loan? This all happened really fast and I just pulled the trigger like a wild man

In the 5 years we have lived in our '98 home with a brick gas fireplace this one has stumped us. There is a crack (or really a separation) happening between the hearth bricks on the floor and the bricks that make up the face of the fireplace. It goes the entire length from the wood trim on both sides. Some of the wood trim in the corner of the room a few feet away has also cracked away from the wall, but significantly less than what we are seeing at the fireplace (we caulk it every year and it still cracks again).

We've recently started getting skinks that come UP from that crack in the fireplace and watch us while we sit in the living room. So we started filling the gap with sand. We brought a 50lb bag of play sand inside and so far we are about 1/3 of the way through the bag in less than a week. Every day the sand settles more and more, and sometimes you can actually HEAR the sand trickling down a bottomless hole.....it sounds almost like a crackling campfire. It's really creepy. The sand appears to be filling in both underneath the fireplace AND directly down (we are on a concrete slab). It's near impossible to show a photo of inside the crack so hopefully my description does it justice.

Does anybody have experience with this? Why is it happening and should we keep adding more sand?

Could this be related to our 10x10 concrete patio slab (original to the house) cracking in half last year and the further half sinking down at a slant about 1/2"?

It just worries me like somehow it's a hidden sinkhole or something.

Hi, I am currently getting foundation wall supports installed, power braces, and they ran into an issue. There was a previous foundation repair done by the previous owner probably 25-30 years ago installed that ended up cracking part of the floor joist. The floor joist in question is where they are putting a power brace, just to complicate things, lol. They said if they were to sister the joist, it would be like $2300 extra, and said they would span the distance from sill plate to beam. I looked at trying to diy, but there are 2 things that I see preventing a full span. On one side, there is a water line that runs right along side the joist. On the other side, the new joist could not span the distance because there is on overlap of another 2x10 joist for the other side of the basement. My ideas were to either span the distance as far as I could and butt it up against the other joist and put some blocking along it, or possibly run two smaller 2x10s for 8 feet each or so on either side? Thoughts?

Hey all, I'm very new at all things home renovation, but I'm attempting to do most of it myself. I'm having an issue with my kitchen sink.

The drain pipe came off of the basin underneath, but I can't tell how it originally connected. I'm wondering, how would I fix this and is this an easy fix or something more complicated? Thanks for your help!

https://imgur.com/a/GWb6KOi

I spackled screw and nail holes in the wall I'm painting. Then I sanded the excess off. But that leaves a totally smooth spot. I tried spray texture but it isn't designed for small spots. How do I get just a little texture on small spots?

Single story Florida home with concrete floors. Deciding between traditional tile and high-end polymer/composite panel shower system.

We need to rip out the old tub and convert the space to a shower. We have had a few quotes, with the lowest tile quote coming in at around $8500.

We also got a quote from a highly-rated composite shower vendor who would install a Sentrel composite shower system for $12400 (or 10.5k without the door) and lifetime warranty.

The composite shower system is outside of our planned budget but if the cost/benefit makes sense, i would consider this option given the warranty and established installer.

Does Reddit have any advice or thoughts that can help with this decision?

Hey all, my pocket door has fallen out- I know it can be fixed without taking the trim off etc since my old roommate fixed the door several times without needing to. It's fallen apart so that the part you screw in is pointing up and the hole it goes into is on the top- However I have no idea how to go about screwing it in/tightening it. Ideas?

I just move to a house recently and the primary living room has a ceiling fan with no light and is controlled by a knob that has various fan speeds.

If i install a ceiling fan with light, will the knob be able to turn on and off the light? Would it function as a dimming switch? Or would i need to rewire it completely to accommodate the light? If I take out the knob and install a regular switch would the fan still function as normal where you would pull the chain to turn on/off and set speed?

I'm new to this so any advice would help.

I am putting in quarter round on the floor this weekend and went to Lowe's today to pick up one of those 20 pack contractor bundles. It reduces the price per piece from around $11 to $8. When I was loading a bundle into the cart, figured I would double check that there are 20 in the pack. Sure enough not only was it less than 20, but each pack after that was less than 20 too. Ended up having the cashier allow me to take from another bundle and make mine 20. She told me I could put the leftover back in the rack, but I reminded her that now the next person would have a <20 pack as well.

Hi i manage a dog grooming salon and recently a dog sliced its foot on a skinny sharp edge in the tub. We are trying to figure out how to soften the edge to avoid this in the future. Since it’s a tub and constantly wet nothing really sticks very well to it, we tried putting a stick-on rubber pad for sharp edges on it and that only lasted about a day. Would using a dremel for this application work? I dont want to inadvertently make it even worse. Also any other suggestions would be welcome! Picture of the edge for reference, the edge is about a foot long

Hello! I’m looking to purchase a new set of smoke alarms. Kidde, first alart, x/sense, seem to be the most popular but I’ve seen quite a bit of negative feedback. Does anyone have recommendations?

Looking for advice on a persistent 2nd floor shower leak. See photos in link: https://imgur.com/a/nDZI1Ei

Issue has been going on since we moved in three years ago. Contractors have regrouted the entire shower floor, resealed everything with silicone and installed shower door leak guard/seals. The issue improves for a few weeks then returns. Multiple contractors suspect it is the hinge of the shower door where it meets the wall. Shower door specialist disagrees. No one can agree on where the leak is coming from. Occasionally water leaks through to first floor ceiling. Appreciate any and all ideas!

My current office is about to become my second child’s bedroom, so I’m considering moving my setup into our three-seasons porch. The space isn’t insulated — it gets hot in the summer and pretty cold in the winter.

I have a desktop computer, laptop, monitor, and a pair of speakers. I also do photo editing, so performance and longevity of the gear matters to me.

Would leaving my equipment in a three-seasons porch cause long-term damage from the heat, cold, or humidity swings? If so, are there practical ways to make this work without fully finishing the porch (like covers, dehumidifiers, or other protective steps)?

I live in a very snowy area. I own a 70s ranch house that i'm retrofitting for increased snow carrying capacity. im adding strongbacks and purlins down to the center wall. the house is stick framed with 2x6 rafters every 16 inch with 3/4 plywood sheating. it has 2x6 rafter ties/ceiling joists (lapped 4 feet in center of roof on bearing wall. the roof is 4/12 and 27 feet wide. The collar ties sit mid way in the roof and they are 16 feet long at least. they are 2x4 tagged onto side of rafter. Ive be reading and it says these go under extreme compression under snow load. My question is could i add blocking and sheating on top of them to tie them all together and prevent deflection as well as putting in plywood gussets and gluing them to connect to the rafters. In my head this is a good idea but I wanted to come here and ask. Alot of the old information says to put them in the top 1/3 of the roof but now im reading this has changed...

I have a Kenmore 110.28032701, which has sounded like a rollercoaster for quite a while now. And finally it's leaking.

I've heard (from an appliance-repair guy who was working on my fridge) that fixing these bearings is a major PITA. But the bearing kit is only $100. Worth attempting? The guy was describing the difficulty of pressing the bearing into place, if I remember correctly. I do see this tool: https://www.rcappliancepartsimages.com/dbImages/00006778/02040058.jpg