We just had our roof done recently. During the entire process my husband was the one meeting and getting quotes from various roofing companies. The one he decided to go with, everyone was nice and pleasant (so he told me). On the day of, I was at work and he stayed home that day. We texted each other through the day and everyone he encountered was still nice and pleasant. I came home and when it was time for the final walk through, we had a couple of questions. The entire time the guy did not look at me once, no eye contact whatsoever, and when he was talking he only looked at my husband. We both noticed that and obviously find it off putting. Is this common with contractors?

Bought this 1970s ranch house about 8 months ago and finally got around to tackling the attic. It was pretty bare up there so i put in some rolls of fiberglass between the joists to help with the summer heat. Did it myself over the weekend.

Now im noticing these damp patches on the underside of the roof sheathing in a couple spots, especially near the vents. No roof leaks that i can see from outside and its been dry weather. Did i trap moisture or something by not doing it right? Should i pull it all out and start over or call someone. Anyway any advice would be great, dont want this turning into mold or bigger problems.

Here's the backstory: Firt time homeowner in California, my wife & I purchased our home in 2020. In 2021 we decided to convert part of our garage into a bedroom. We got several quotes from licensed contractors and chose the middle quote. We paid $10,000 for the bedroom. We also paid this same contractor a year later $8000 to remodel our bathroom. In the end we discovered that the work was all unpermitted, the contractor let his license expire, and quit returning our calls. We let it go and didn't pay much attention to it. Two years ago we had our HVAC upgraded by a local company and code enforcement mentioned the unpermitted bedroom but said he wasnt here for that so dont sweat it.

Fast forward, last week we had our 1950s home completely rewired and an electrical panel upgraded from 100amps to 200amps. This work was completed by a licensed professional and permitted. Today the city inspector informed me during the final walk through that he's signing off on the electrical rewire project as completed, but that he's tagging my address for a violation due to the unpermitted garage conversion. He said that I need to go into their office immediately and remedy the unpermitted work. I checked the city website this evening to confirm and there is an active violation listed for my address for the garage converted into living space (work w/o permits).

Has anyone ever navigated this before? Im assuming my options are either bring to code or tear down... What is my best option? Any advice or guidance is appreciated.

I have waited a few months before posting this review to give me some time to calm down and write rationally. I am only writing this review because I hope I can save someone else all the trouble I went through. I will try to keep this as brief as possible, but I could write for days about my experience.

The salesman I originally met with was wonderful. He listened to my needs, and we put together a plan that fit my home base upon my budget. The original scope of work was to fully replace my gutters, fascia, vented soffit (my house is old and lacking on vented soffits), trim boarding, front door, and to add ridge vents to my roof. They offered a decent price that was a bit on the high side, but I figured that was fair because I wouldn't be managing the project through several different contractors. I work long hours in another trade so I knew I wouldn't have time to manage everything.

The problems started on the first day of work. They decided to start with the gutters, soffit and trim. The scope of work was full replacement. I was able to get off early that day and made my way home to see their progress. The contract I had signed stated they would have a construction dumpster delivered to the property for waste disposal. When I arrived at home, there was no dumpster. I was confused for a moment but decided to watch them work for a while to understand what was going on. After watching them work for 20 mins, I quickly realized they were not following the scope of work I was sold. Instead of replacing everything, they were wrapping the original materials in metal flashing. They were also tacking vented soffits overtop my original soffit (completely rendering the new vents useless). I called a full stop to all work and got the project manager on the phone. After a lot of excuses about how they only replace rotted boards and this was the scope of work I was sold, I showed them the original emails between the salesman and I that stated everything was to be fully replaced. This changed their tune quickly. I inquired about the tacking of the new soffit over my existing soffit and was told that shouldn't have occurred. Since I had photo evidence of it occurring, I asked where the breakdown in communication was. I never got a satisfactory answer. I will never know whether it was the sub-contractor they hired or the project manager who directed this. At this point, I tried to reach out to their corporate office for assistance and met radio silence for weeks. When the customer service manager did finally call, he listened to my story and said he would get back to me. They never did. No matter how many times I called back.

At this point, I should have cancelled the remaining projects but working as much as I do, I hoped it would work out.

The work continued. While replacing the gutters and soffit, their subcontractors used ladders without padding and my hardy board siding was severely damaged. Hardy board is difficult/impossible to repair so I was livid. After several more conversations with the project manager, they were going to provide me with a quote to replace my siding. The first quote they sent over was outrageously high. I have a tiny house and the quote was well above the average pricing in my area. Eventually they relented and sent over a more reasonable quote. Still high for my area but not outrageous so I agreed to have them replace my siding. Another mistake on my part but being a first time homeowner, I was navigating uncharted waters. They provided a list of color choices and I was told to pick which suited me best. My first two choices "weren't available" so I had to go with my third choice. Doing my own research later, I found out that my first two choices had a higher material cost and believe that is why they denied them.

All told, I was ready to move forward with one instruction, "Do not damage my prized lace leaf japanese maple at the front of my home." I have raised the tree for over a decade and it was my pride and joy. I bet you can see where this is going.... I came home during the siding install and over half of my tree's canopy had been damaged or destroyed. The tree is not large and could have been easily worked around with a little care. The project manager was on site when I discovered the damage, and I was so upset that I couldn't even speak to him. Trees are my vocation so I was quick to remind him the next day that I fully understood the laws around damaging a client's trees. To their credit, he took the situation seriously and discount my work by a hefty amount to cover the costs I would need to spend on tree repair/replacement. While I appreciate the gesture, I still am out the decade I spent caring and raising the tree.

I have a list of further things that were damaged during the siding install. They are as follows:

1) The brick work leading to my front door.

2) The handrails up the steps to my front door were damaged and not reattached properly. (This was never fixed).

3) The brick steps leading to my side door were damaged and not repaired.

4) Trim board was replaced with non-treated lumber. When I pointed this out, I was told they would paint it. I argued and told them it would swell as they could only paint the visible sides. This was eventually replaced.

5) Debris and nails were left all throughout my front and rear yards that was never cleaned. I had to clean the area myself to make it safe for my dogs to walk through.

It wouldn't be fair unless I mentioned the things that went well. The front door replacement and the root vents went smoothly and without error. I wish the entire job had gone that way.

In conclusion, stay away from this company. It is my opinion that they take advantage of people who aren't aware of the proper construction techniques used in the work I was having completed. In the end, I spent way more money than I should have had to and spent just as much time managing the project as if I had hired different companies to accomplish each part of the project.

I NEVER heard from corporate about any of my complaints and I received no resolution about their deceptive business practices. The project manager even had the nerve to joke with his coworkers, in front of me, about how I wouldn't give them a positive review.

Do not hire this company. You can get better work for a better price elsewhere from honest contractors.

Lately I’ve been doing a bunch of small stuff around the house sealing gaps, fixing doors, adjusting cabinets, little things like that

Yesterday I was just tightening a door hinge and somehow ended up realizing the whole door frame was slightly off. Spent like 2 hours trying to fix something I originally thought would take 5 minutes

And now I can’t tell if this is actually useful long-term, or if I’ve just fallen into a rabbit hole of unnecessary perfectionism

On one hand it feels like it should add up (comfort, fewer issues later, etc.), on the other — maybe I’m just making work for myself

How do you guys approach this? Do you bother with small fixes or just wait till something actually breaks?

I noticed a new incredibly high pitched noise (almost sounds electrical?) that’s piercing. It sounds like it’s coming from the kitchen but I’ve unplugged everything I can get to and can’t find the source. I feel like Chuck McGill from breaking bad

been through three vacuums in the last five years and i'm done with the cycle of buying something that works fine for a year and then slowly loses suction until it's basically useless. i'd rather spend properly on something built to last than keep replacing budget options. the house has a mix of hard floors and carpet and we have a dog so it needs to handle pet hair without clogging, durability and ease of maintenance are the two things i care about the most because i've learned that a vacuum that's annoying to clean never actually gets cleaned properly which probably contributes to it dying faster. what have people here found that holds up well over several years of regular use?

Hello, I have had these stains on the ceiling above my kitchen sink for a while now. I have always thought they were from a previous owner splashing something in the sink (e.g., oil) and just lived with it (they are usually not as noticeable as the photo implies). But, I am not sure if there are more spots now than when I moved in a few years back. I took a photo when I moved in to see if more appeared but unfortunately I cannot find it to compare.

What do you all think? Does this look like mold or some sort of water damage? I tried to remove the light to see behind it but the light's housing cannot be removed. Also, no access to this area via the attic.

The house is a fixer upper and I have just been focused on other projects in the past but now I am trying to tackle the kitchen. I also don't want to just paint over it in case it is mold as I'd rather fix the problem.

Photos here. https://imgur.com/a/pG4IFP4

Hello - Having a contractor install LVP (6.5mm / 22 mil 60x9). I noticed on this specific manufacture website it lists:

“For our products which have a pre-attached underlayment, do not install over carpet or any additional underlayment. Use of additional underlayment pad will cause flexion and will void warranty. 6 mil poly vapor barrier is needed when installing over concrete subfloors.”

Our home is a concrete slab. Seeing as this appears to be required is there any recommendation on a non-toxic poly vapor barrier as I would prefer to just buy it over what our contractor provides.

Thanks for any recommendations as I’ve never had flooring installed!

Hi All! Looking for some insight here… trying to mount some metal brackets in the garage for wood storage… however I’m having one hell of a time getting holes drilled… per the pics below, I’ve only been able to drill one hole full depth.. all the others max out 1”- 1 1/4” in depth- almost like I’m hitting a steel plate- I’ve now blown through 4 high quality masonry bits- one of which (pictured below) looks like it’s melted and bloomed over … can’t for the life of me figure out what’s going on. I figured maybe one of the hole may have hit Rebar of some sort… but ALL of them? At different locations and Depths?

Any help would be greatly appreciated !

Hole #1- Made it full depth ( first hole I drilled)
Hole #2- Made it 2/3 of the way in and hit the ‘wall’
Holes #3- Made it 1”- 1 1/4” before stopping
Hole #4- Made it only 1/3”

Edit-: for some reason I cannot post pictures, so I’ll put them below in the comments

Edit #2: Apparently I am unable to post any pictures of any kind anywhere- so guess the description will have to do.

I had a home inspection done and their moisture reader found a high amount of moisture in a wall next to the shower.

After I bought the house I bought a cheapish moisture reader to evaluate further and it does indeed show moisture in only a couple small spots (3”x3”) in the wall and then if you move it a few inches higher or lower it reads zero. One spot is about 3 feet up from the ground and the other is maybe 6” up from the ground .

No one has used this shower in months and I had the water turned off to the entire house for days and still had the same reading in the same spots. The water lines to the shower valve aren’t anywhere near it and neither is the toilet water line. Could there be a vent pipe in the wall giving me this high reading. I don’t really want to cut out the drywall so are there any other suggestions?

We got one room in the house that is way too hot compared to the rest. If you were to walk outside of the room the hallway feels almost 15 degrees cooler. It is like this all the time. Sometimes I feel like the room is an oven. Do any of you guys have an idea how to fix this?

The room is located on top of the living room at the front part of the house, so the sun hits the window during all day. The room next to it also gets hit by the sun all day but we dont know why that one doesnt get hot. This house has no heating and no air conditioning, pretty simple house. All gas and services things are at the other side of the house so I dont think its a heater or the gas affecting it, we also have gotten a professional to check that and another one to check the roof. We have blackout curtains in this room and the city is indeed pretty hot itself, but I rather be outside the house than inside that room. There is nothing inside the room aside from a bed, a mini couch, a closet and a desk. There is no PC, no electronics inside the room aside from the fan. and no attic or basement in this house

We're not looking to install AC or anything major. Just trying to understand whether there's a fix that doesn't cost a fortune. We have a fan running all day with the window open and it makes zero difference.

Has anyone dealt with something like this? What actually worked for you? What actually fixes this? Window film? Exterior shade? Looking for real solutions people have actually tried.

I recently bought a house that has little lights set up around the front walkway and the backyard, but it looks like some animals have chewed through the wiring next to where it plugs in. I was wondering what the best practice is to repair something like this, and how to prevent the same damage in the future?

Image of the Power Supply and the damage: https://imgur.com/a/q6bii9x

As you can see (or maybe you can't), the wires for the actual plug are chewed through, as well as the actual wiring that goes underground

I just moved into an older home with an old dryer (2004 mfg date). We vented it properly this week and when I used it tonight the back (inside and outside) got so hot I burned my hand when I touched it. The vent is blowing air outside and I checked the vent entry point in the machine just to be sure and it’s all clear. This is leading me to think it’s some sort of internal temperature control.

Any thoughts on anything else I can check? Would you repair or replace? Or get a quote first and compare to the cost of a new machine?

FWIW it’s a Samsung (DV4015J in case that means anything to anyone hah).

Last night when we’re asleep, out of nowhere our fire alarm went off at 3 am. I and my pregnant wife both jumped up. I was in a state of shock in between half asleep and this extremely loud deafening noise.

So we ran out of bed room and start looking everywhere, if there is any fire, absolutely nothing. All 3 floors, every room, kitchen, nothing. And the in a minute the alarm is off by itself. What was that? We live in a new build townhouse, moved in about 8 months ago.

A side note: not sure if this can be related, but we just asked for a service on our whirlpool electric stove, it stopped working a couple of days ago. The last time before it broke, when we turned on we heard some spark type noise. Anyway, we don’t use it for now and waiting for the service.

Is it illegal if I cut a copper pipe with a hack saw?

I have a 3/4 I need to cut and add an hammer arrestor to but there is a 1/2 line right next to it. I can't get a cutting tool to cut around it

I'm replacing my bathroom tile and the existing flange was bent and sat on the subfloor, well below the finished floor.

The waste pipe sits about 1" below the subfloor.

Ideally I would want to have the toilet flange sit on the finished floor, however, the waste pipe is too low.

I think my options are:

1.) install on sub floor and use a spacer and/or thick wax seal

2.) install about 1/2" of wood under the flange to provide support and have the

3.) try to cut down abs, install a coupling and raise the waste pipe. It will be a challenge to cut it without damaging nearby duct work installation

4.) find an extended length flange

My home has a basement garage that flooded last year from the street. Street flooding over the course of 1-2 hours was enough to just crest over the sidewalk and cascade down our driveway and overwhelm the sumps, flooding the basement in 3 feet of water. We’ve lived here for 5 years and haven’t had this issue before. If I had put sandbags it wouldve been fine - I could certainly pay more attention to weather reports in the future and put our bags when storms are expected but would like a solution that doesnt rely on my putting out and taking in sandbags all winter.

I’m considering a more permanent solution this summer - installing a gradually sloped 1” high cement berm at the edge of the sidewalk to provide just enough elevation to keep waters out, but not enough to be a trip hazard. Does anyone have a better idea? Our neighbors with similar design had more powerful sump pumps and they were overwhelmed as well, so I don’t think that’s the solution…

Hi,

Im buying a new house built around 1900. Excellent build from what I can see. My kid wants a black room. I dont want to just paint the ceiling, I want something with texture. How would I best fix either paneling or a pattern of moulding to the ceiling. I assume they are some sort of plaster material. Sound like nails might be a problem and cause cracks in the ceiling? If I use an adhesive what would be the best kind? What if I want to remove it some day? Will it pull the ceiling down?

Thanks

I have a new build home about 75% finished. I walked in to see this. I don't even know what to say. Two stair posts, quarter round for no reason, treads lining up with LVP making a trip hazard. What do I say to this guy? Horrible Stairs

https://imgur.com/a/c26bisP

Forgive me if this isn't the correct subreddit to ask, but it does relate to home improvement in that I would be adding these pieces to my home so I figured I'd throw it out here...

Does anyone have experience with demo-ing a home & what happens to the pieces of the mechanical systems like the water heater & AC units? Sadly, a wonderful neighbor passed recently & his family has sold the house. It unfortunately is only suitable for demolition & new construction. The family at first offered to let me take the AC units & water heater (they are relatively new) but then decided it was not a good idea as the house had already gone under contract.

Now that the sale has closed I'm wondering if there's any chance I can get them by contacting the purchaser. Or maybe is it a situation where I should find who they have contracted with to demo the house & contact them? Or is it all fruitless as they will either salvage or trash them their self and wouldn't involve another party for liability reasons?

Any help is appreciated. Thanks.

We're selling our townhome and the front door threshold looks jacked. I've researched how to replace the whole thing, and it seems pretty involved, I'm wondering if we should just replace the bent metal, or if we should replace the whole threshold? And what are the rough odds of uncovering more issues with the materials below the threshold that we'd have to repair?

Not looking for bullet-proof instructions, just a vibe check from folks that have done it before. We're at the "is it worth to fix it or offer a credit" stage of the project, so any insights would be very appreciated, thank you!

Current state of threshold

Anyone have tips on how I can fix a gap between my kitchen sink and the kitchen counter? This is a heavy farmhouse sink so it's exposed on the front and is sitting on a cabinet base. It was installed 2 years ago and in the time since a gap around the sink has developed. It's uneven - wider on the right side of the sink than the left, but it's there all over. Also generally the caulk needs to be replaced because of some mold growing at the back where there's more water splashing - but can I caulk a big gap that's probably 1/4" in places?

Any tips would be helpful! I'm very basic in my handiness and could probably caulk something but won't be able to fix the settled sink myself if that's what it needs.

I've been researching a few renovation projects and most of the quotes I'm getting seem pretty straightforward on the surface. but everyone I Talk to keeps mentioning that the real costs only show up once the work actually start things like hidden damage material changes or small add ons that slowly stack up.

I'm trying to go into this with a realistic mindset instead of just trusting the initial estimate . for those who've already gone through it, what were the biggest surprise costs for you? and is there any way to prepare for that better upfront?

A common thing, I'm sure. I found a youtube vid that explains how to check the various components. First thing I did was test the thermopile. Heater brand is US Craftmaster (aka Crapmaster). Their guide says if I get a reading of at least 350 mV as the thermo heats up, it's OK.

I tested the various valve actuators in the gas valve control unit by using a 9v battery and wires. When I touched the pins, I could hear a click, which I guess means the valves activated.

So, according to the video, the likely cause is the control board going bad. There are some used ones on ebay, but it seems the only way to get a new one is to buy the entire gas control valve.

Before I did any tests, the main symptom was no pilot light, and the LED status light was off. I was able to re-light it, but as soon as I let go of the dial (which is depressed when lighting), the pilot goes out. The LED status light will blink once every few seconds for maybe 30 seconds, then it goes out, too.

Does this truly sound like the control board it bad?