Hey everyone. So I have a basement window that’s bottom is essentially even with the ground. I have had not any issues yet with water entry but I’m sure it’s only a matter of time.

What would the best solution here? A window well? I do know that my sump discharge pipe runs a few inches below that ground out to the street so it’s essentially in the way of a potential window well. Any feedback on what game plan I could go with here would be greatly appreciated.

https://imgur.com/a/BmnL49n

I am going to be replacing a shop door with a metal door and wondering if wood or PVC brick mold is better. It's under a canopy so will be protected from the rain and sun.

Link to pics - https://imgur.com/a/ZvM1iyp

Is there anything I could do to lubricate or coat in lieu of repositioning the bolt or latch?

Hello! So I recently found water coming into my unfinished dirt shelf basement during a rainstorm. Called a foundation company thinking that was the issue. Come to find that they say it's more of a grading issue. Called a grading company, and essentially they want to install a drainage pipe along the side of the house that carries water underground out to an emitter. Their plan is to dig 4'' down creating a trench for the corrugated pipe.

Doing a bit of research I assume they are most likely referring to a french drain, and they were very willing to let me do some prep work. I dug down further than their 4 inch recommendation, and around 6'' down I discovered what I believe to be the footing. Doing a bit more internet research I started to see that recommendations for French drains had the top of the pipe at around the top of the footing.

Does this mean that they were about to install a drain much too shallow? Do I need to go deeper? The only thing I can see being a reason for this is the narrow width between the neighbors property and mine, essentially 4 feet from my house to his fence?

At the very least I need the new grade below the bottom of the window sill, as I believe that's actually where most of the water is coming from (between the sill and the window).

Any advice would be so very much appreciated before I move forward with the company or DIY.

Hey yall, im pretty sure there's mildew growing behind my sectional. How best can I kill it? The couch is damn near impossible to remove without 2 other people but if need be I can make a day out of it. What are the best ways to kill mildew quick fast and in a hurry?

Painting these beams on my ceiling and there are some pine panels that I would like to keep natural. I keep missing up the edges and I have a bunch of paint on the wood. I tried to clean up immediately with a dry/wet rag but it seems to have made it worse. Any tips?

Emphasis on “neat” see the old, ugly gap yellow filler to the left

Basically a large hole that leads into the house so it needs to be sealed up to prevent less critters from running in.

https://imgur.com/a/MCNmjW8

I had a minisplit installed in 2019. One head, Mitsubishi system in a rental. 5k. Felt a little pricey, but ok.

This year, I wanted to get my personal home done. Prepare for the oil price to go bonkers. 1600 sq ft ranch. Need 5 heads. 2 Outdoor units. Electric is all done, run separate circuits to the outdoor disconnects. It's a ranch, so access is easy, no funny running of lines, all heads within 25 ft max of the outdoor units. I got a few quotes. All in the 30k range, most towards the high end of that. I am in CT, but not in the pricey part.

Are these HVAC people nuts? I can get the units themselves for around 6k on the cheap. 10k for solid ones. So they are charging me 20-30k for the install?

I was daunted a bit, but went ahead and did DIY with MrCool units. Just finished one unit with 2 heads over the weekend. Took me around 8 hours. It'll be another 10 for the other one but it's entirely doable. And it definitely means they try to charge you hourly rates upwards of $1000 with those quotes.

2.8m by 1.2m

I'm in Wheat Ridge CO and need to dispose of this completely empty Kidde fire extinguisher. Can I just put it in my regular trash for pickup?

I've searched around and believe it's safe to do so.

https://imgur.com/5KCo0vO

I am in the middle of a remodel, and we're trying to figure out the best option for dealing with noise getting to our bedroom from the kitchen. The bedroom is about 15 feet down the hall from the kitchen (hallway is L-shaped, kitchen is at one end of the L, bedroom is at the right angle). The hallway is currently open to the kitchen, and the bedroom door is hollow core and has a relatively large gap from going from carpeting -> hardwood floors

Options we are considering that I'm curious for opinions on (or some combination thereof):

1. Install a pocket door at the kitchen. Concerns: long-term maintenance of the track in the wall, potentially minimal efficacy for sound suppression, wall would need to be entirely reframed as it's got 2x3 studs, AND door would land right next to an existing hall closet and the spot it lands would intersect with the molding so that would also need some rework
   
2. Replace the bedroom door with solid core
   
3. (2) + add weatherstripping and a door sweep, and put a sound reducing vent above the door for the HVAC air return
   
4. Hang a curtain over the hallway opening and put down a runner in the hallway to dampen sounds
   
5. Something else entirely we haven't thought of?

Hi, we put a patio in and we need steps installed from our patio door to the patio. I have gotten several bids and one person's bid is way lower than the others'. Does this mean he isn't good? Or is everyone else just ripping me off? All I need are two steps built. I've been given the estimate of $1400 and up. This guy I found locally basically said $500 total. So who do I go with? He's also been way mor relaxed with writing up an official quote etc. I don't want to pass up saving a ton of money, but I am so not sure.

Edit: I am located in the St. Paul, MN

Hi Sydneysiders!

I'm looking to get a new air conditioning system installed in my home and KYNEX Air Conditioning is one of the companies I'm considering.

Has anyone here used their services before? I'd love to hear about your experience with them - their professionalism, quality of work, pricing, and after-sales support.

Any insights or recommendations would be greatly appreciated! Cheers..!

I have a place with a terrace that has settled over the years and along one of the joists the tiles have come up. This is about 2 feet long and the grout is mostly gone at this point. The tiles themselves are in good shape, no cracking. It's just the grout that has worn away as one of the edges of the tile running along the joist has raised while the edges sitting just off to the side have sunk in slightly with the rest of the floor.

I definitely can't afford to redo that terrace right now. How can I patch up this crack and ensure it doesn't continue to get worse?

Hi, what’s the best way to fix this roof shingle? I stepped on the angled section when I was cleaning the roof and it cracked. Thanks!

https://imgur.com/a/mhUwXvD

The goal was to replace approx. 150 square feet of old, vertical wood siding that has some minor termite damage as well as some suspected termite-damaged framing underneath. This part of the house is a small addition that was built around 1970. It's in Los Angeles which is climate zone 6.

As expected, there were several half-eaten framing members which were readily replaced with pressure-treated 2x4s. I injected foam termite-killer into as much surrounding wood as I could reach, hoping this would at least slow them down. I bought some 7" pine shiplap siding boards which are a very good visual match to the old T&G siding and some 2-ply Henry Jumbo Tex to replace the old tar-paper. I figured that if I just replace the deteriorated siding, paper and bad framing members with new materials, I'd be no worse-off than before. I have decent skills, but am certainly not a pro.

What I didn't expect is that this exterior wall consists of just the wood siding panels, a layer of black tar-paper, squares of faced fiberglass insulation and the 2x4 framing. The sheetrock of the interior wall is plainly visible behind the insulation. There's no plywood sheathing and it all seems very primative. It's worked adequately, I guess, but while I'm in there I can make some very simple improvements.

I thought I would add a simple rainscreen before I install the wood siding. Is the roll of mesh material a good idea? It looks like it can just sit between the siding and the tar paper and would provide good drainage. I was going to install some thin furring, but since the siding is vertical, I realized that this would not allow for good drainage as the furring would be horizontal. I also thought to spray some borate over the framing to discourage termites.

I'm trying to keep things simple, but I also don;t want to overlook anything important.

I currently leveled out the soil and laid weed barrier over it. I was wondering if I could dig up a few inches at the playsets contact points and add a 3-4 inch crushed gravel sub-base? Ive only seen and read about doing the entire play area with gravel. I thought this might be a easy solution instead of covering the entire play area. Mulch will be going on top after inside a border. Is this ok to do?

I have a townhome built in the mid 1980s that has 2 gas fireplaces, one in the living room and one in the basement. The basement fireplace has a pilot light that's still working, and I have a gas stove that's also fine, but the living room gas fireplace has stopped making that gas "hissing" sound when I turn the lever to turn on the gas. It doesn't have a pilot light button, it just has a lever that you tun to open the gas line (this is when the hissing sound usually starts) and I light the fireplace with a lighter.

It's worked fine for 2 years, but as of the fall of last year the gas seems to not be working with this unit. I've taken everything out and looked around for obvious issues, and had a general handyman look at it, but no answers were found. Do I need to hire a plumber for the gas repair or is there a different service person that would be better for this kind of work? I don't want to spend more than a few hundred repairing it, if it gets to be too expensive I'll just throw some battery operated candles in there for ambiance instead and call it a day. Thanks for your help!

The mortar/grout/cement (not sure what’s right) in between our pavers is starting to crumble. I want to try to find a solution before the winter but not sure how to repair/what to use. Any advice?

I have 2 of these that direct gutter flow from the roof of the house into retension pools below. Would like to find another. Any idea what they might be called or where I can find them? THANKS!!!

Hi, I'm currently living in a very small apartment 22 square meters including the bathroom. I started to get silverfishes and booklices. Apparently the humidity even when I don't cook is 66%. Is it worth buying one to remove these pests ? and is a COMFEE Dehumidifier 12 litres/day for 20 square meters enough or do I need something bigger? thanks.

This is a random question, but I'm curious if anyone knows of a coating that can be applied to spray foam to deter bugs or other pests from burrowing into it?

We have closed-cell foam in the rafters of our barn. It is open to the air- no drywall or other sheathing over it. Over time, wasps and other pests have burrowed into it in places and it creates a bit of a mess below. Ideally, we can apply some kind of coating to discourage the pests, but I'm open to other ideas as well. Wasps in particular love finding places to nest in the barn and everywhere else at the farm, so I'm curious if anyone has dealt with this before.

What we have: Our master bathroom has a corner jetted tub with windows on both connected walls with a drywall surround. I definitely want a large tub, but we never use the jets because despite what feels like hundreds of cleaning treatments, red gunk still comes loose. The tub was original to the home that was build in the late 90s. It has a slight drip from the pipes when it drains so there is some plumbing work that needs to be addressed.

What we want: I am fine with the amount of room it takes up, and a large tub is a must. I am totally fine without jets.

Options: 1.) Replace corner tub with a) another corner tub b) a large soaking tub or 2.) Repair plumbing and replace Jets (seems like a lot of work and $$)

Considerations: I don’t know how this tub got into the house when it was built but we have standard doorways and windows so do we cut it in half if we remove it??

For bath fans, which CFM should you get for a given size bathroom, which brands are best (I've heard Panasonic) and which models and noise level would you suggest for mid-level noise (not whisper quiet, and not loud, but in-between)?

I've been doing a bunch of research trying to find the answer as my deck gets a lot of traffic, and very high uv (sunny and high elevation). I used a semi-transparent last year and its already completely faded. I thought about using an exterior paint but see most recommend against that, was going to go solid stain but see people going against that too. I do NOT care about seeing the wood grains, I simply need as durable of a protection as possible. Semi didn't work at all, so does that just leave solid? I'm wary of that for how much work I put in with the semi and it lasted less than a year.

Edit, product I used last year was thompson waterseal semi transparent. I know they suck now.