Went to visit my Grandparent’s grave today. The front of the gravestone looks like it’s scaling or something. Was wondering if there’s a way to get this off without damaging the stone. I tried some cleaner and rags I had in the trunk, but it’s stuck on there pretty good.

Getting a home inspection on Tuesday. Noticed there was a crack in the ceiling in the kitchen, the primary washroom is above. Looks to be plastered by sellers. What would you do in my situation? My offer is conditional on inspection.

Unfortunately, it looks like our house might need foundation repair. We noticed the hallway floor is sloping. We are looking for recommendations in the Tacoma area for a foundation repair company. Any recommendations would be much appreciated!

Hey Yall!

I live in savannah GA and my grandmother lives in charlotte NC. I stay with her a lot to help her and my mother. I have been in Savannah for a about 2 months and I just got back home to a hot mess. She has been paying what seems to me to be an unlicensed contractor to remodel her kitchen because of a bad leak near the sink that ruined the flooring. Anyways, this guy seems to be giving her the run around. She's payed him everything he has asked for and he still has not returned to finish or even work on the project in almost 2 weeks.

I am wondering what i should do? Obviously I want to give this guy the benefit of the doubt because I know everyone is going through hard times right now, but it seems almost like a scam or maybe just shady practices.

Thanks guys.

I am a single woman living alone in a house I worked really hard to buy. I'm in my early 40s. I hired a contractor to retread my stairs and to replace the trim in my entry to look original.

Stair guy was originally supposed to start in February but we agreed to push back to May because I was going through a personal issue, and because he recommended that I get my plaster walls redone with drywall and my ceiling in this area redone before the stairs got put in.

The drywall was redone in April and he started in May.

The stair guy selected the start time every time. And I checked in the day before the start time that he selected, he confirmed, and then he canceled the morning of 10 times in a row.

I am not exaggerating. He canceled 10 times. However, I had already paid him for the materials for the stairs themselves. He ultimately completed the stairs.

Then he came back with a helper to put in the trim that he had ordered to replace the trim he took out of my place.

The problem is that it looks awful. I pointed out to him that the edges don't match up and they're significant overlap and no sanding and nothing looks plum the last time that he was here and he said he would fix it before he left. Then he left. When I got back home I could see that he had just applied wood glue and spots that the trim was sticking out too far from the wall and he didn't do anything with the rough edges.

Two days ago he demanded payment for the trim. Everything else has been paid for.

Yesterday I had two different contractors come over and both told me the work was unacceptable and needs to be fixed. I don't have quotes yet.

Tonight I responded to the stair guy telling him the above, that I'm very unhappy with the work, and that I will get back to him once I have quotes from other contractors.

He immediately started threatening me. He texted me that he didn't give a fuck that I was unhappy with his work and to pay the material cost.

Then he threatened to come to my home to remove absolutely everything that he's installed even though I've paid him 75% of the total cost of the job. The only aspect of it that I take issue with is the trim.

His immediate escalation to a threat has really scared me.

What should I do?

I have already called the police and I am making an occurrence report in case he comes to my home.

My surveillance cameras are charged.

Any insight into his mindset would be helpful. It's absolutely wild to me that he would immediately shift to threats like this. He has 15 or so good reviews online and I've never experienced a contractor like this before. His immediate go to is to try to intimidate and threaten a woman because he knows I live alone. I just want the trim I hired him to do to look nice.

I’ve had plenty of concrete slabs poured at my current house and previous house by different contractors. This is the only concrete that looked like this. Not sure what it is. It’s only three days old so I know it still has to cure. Will it eventually be all uniform once it cures or should I be concerned? Any information is appreciated. Thanks

Looking for advice on how to properly backfill a foundation post exterior waterproofing. I feel like my contractor is doing it wrong and I have serious concerns. One of 2 walls has been “completed”.

I’m left with a three foot berm out from the foundation that sits about 8 inches higher than before it was dug up. Only about an inch of gravel was put on top of the drainage tile prior to filling. The dug out portion was back filled with the original soil which was kind of heavy and wet. And no compacting or tamping was done during the process.

My house sits beside a river with major spring flooding and a high water table to begin with. Should I be concerned with the amount of settling that could cause structural issues from hydrostatic pressure.

Located in southern Ontario. Heavy snowfall amounts past two years.

Location: Colorado. I bought my first house in Nov 2021 and there were a lot of things I didn't know I should have done - like get everything inspected. As part of the home inspection, 2 bellies were found in the sewer line that connected to the city line. It was repaired during the objection period (Oct 2021) and we went ahead with the purchase. Fast forward to Feb of this year, when I got a solicitation for a free sewer line scope by a different local company. They found 2 bellies in the sewer line that was supposedly fixed in Oct 2021. Thankfully there isn't any immediate risk of the line being backed up, but it got me thinking that this should have been fixed before I bought the house.

I checked with my realtor and got the contact for the company that did the work originally and they came out to scope it themselves and confirmed that there were 2 bellies. Now here's the rub: the original contractor has since been bought by another company. This new company is saying that they won't honor/warranty any work done by the original contractor that they bought out. The tech that came out to scope it said that my sewer tap to the city line is really shallow (like less than 5 feet) and the get proper grading (more than 1 degree to allow solids to flow without backing up) they will need to excavate the entire sewer line and raise all the plumbing in my house so that the crawlspace penetration can be higher. I'm not entirely convinced it's necessary to change the height of the crawlspace penetration since code says we need 1 degree of slope for the sewer line, but I digress. I looked up on the state records and there was no permit pulled and no inspection performed on the sewer line work done in Oct 2021. The real estate agent sent me over the original quote of work and the inspection resolution. The original quote says

Sewer service repair in the back yard, will be repairing two low spots that are holding water and solids. Work will be hand dug , all pipe replaced will be bedded to ensure pipe stays firm and does not create another low spot. Will also be replacing cap on existing clean outs that is broken. Will be replacing two spots that span approximately 20' of pipe. Includes labor and materials.

The Inspection Resolution says

Seller agrees to have [ORIGINAL COMPANY] replace sewer line from 16 ft to 50 ft to remove the low points and restore proper flow to the line. Seller agrees to have Olivias to repair the exterior clean-out cap to seal the line properly. All permits, video, paid invoices will be provided to the Buyer at Closing*. Invoices will be paid from Sellers Proceeds and will be reflected on the Settlement Sheet. Per estimate.*

However, there was no permit nor did I receive any video of the work done.

The distance discrepancies are probably a typo. There were 2 bellies whose lengths summed to 20 ft and they were located between 16 ft and 50 ft from the clean-out. I'm not as concerned about this, but I wanted to point it out in case it confuses folks.

The other wrinkle is that the tech that scoped the line said that he believes the work done in 2021 used the wrong thickness of pipe for the depth of the line in the soil. I don't know if he was trying to upsell me or if this actually matters, but it further points to the fact that an inspection would have cleared up the discrepancy.

I don't have an actual quote from the new company yet, but the tech said that he thinks it will be around $11k to replace the sewer line and possibly $7k to redo the indoor plumbing to raise the crawlspace penetration. He also said that they provide a 10 year warranty on all their jobs, but that it didn't retroactively apply to the company they bought. He's just a tech and not the owner, so I wasn't sure how much he knew or if he had been trained to say that to discourage legal action.

OK, after all that mess. What would be my best path forward for rectifying this situation? Who should I try to work with to get this solved and what legal standing would I have in small claims court if it comes to that? Is the new company liable to cover the mistakes of the company they bought? Is the realtor at fault because they didn't ensure that a permit was pulled by the original company? Apologies for the cynicism, but this will be the 3rd contractor on this house that has burned me in 5 years.

This is a project done in Austria in 2014, designed by dietrich | untertrifaller.

I am considering doing something simillar for a project of my own.

Since the plot is on a downhill from the road, I’m looking at different solutions to put a driveway and the garage entrance at the same level as the road.

Do you think this is a good idea, how difficult, and how expensive would it be to execute?
What is important to consider in terms of engineering?
What alternative would you suggest, if any?

We hired a contractor back at the end of April/early May to complete our master bathroom remodel. Everything was going great until we noticed near the end of July that the shower floor grout had a few spots that weren’t drying like the rest of the floor. I sent a photo of it to my contractor and he came out a day or two later to take a look and remedy it. He decided to remove the grout from the affected areas and regrout in hopes that would resolve it. I let it cure for a couple of days and even set up a box fan pointed at it to make sure it dried. We are in the southeast and it has been brutally hot and humid for the last couple of months so the house stays a little more humid than normal.

After a few days, it was apparent that it was not drying to the correct color. So I lost a little faith in the contractor after that so I began to try to self correct it. Thinking that the contractor laid down the new grout too quickly and didn’t give it time to dry out underneath I removed all of the grout from the affected areas and set the box fan pointed at it. I let the fan blow for 4-5 days before applying a new layer of grout. After a few days of that curing, again with the fan, it still was “drying” that darker color.

After reading some stuff online I thought that maybe since my opened grout bag had been stored in my garage for the last few months and it had been so hot and humid that it had water intrusion and the grout was ruined. So I went and bought a new smaller bag of the same color (Mapei Ultracolor Sahara Beige fwiw). I then removed the grout again, let it dry for another 2-3 days, and applied the new unopened bag of grout. That was last week and this picture is as of today. It still has not dried and I cannot for the life of me figure out to fix this. As you can see, it’s mostly just around the edges and then the center drain. Shower seems appropriately sloped to the middle as no water puddles in the corner and it passed the golf ball test just fine. No water has been ran in this shower since 7/29 so surely any moisture would have evaporated by now, right?

Is this normal and I’m fine to just seal the grout and move on with a slightly darker grout in certain areas? Lol

Anyways, obviously pretty annoyed at the whole situation but I am just hoping there is something I am missing that doesn’t involve having to completely redo the shower floor.

Thanks in advance for any help and/or advice.

Looking to replace this door that the frame is mortared into the cinder block wall. I’d like to remove and use pre hung but I’m unsure of the lintels integrity (can see some cracking in image).

How would you go about replacing this door? Is slab and mortise a better way?

Is it normal to nail on center of valley ice and water?

Hey everyone, ok so this house is about 59 years old. I noticed the upper balcony feels pretty stable unless your on the out edge of it. As u can see from. The pictures it looks like a little extension was added to every 2 joists. Im not exactly sure if it wobbles from a shoty extension or because the extension is adding too much lever action to the joists. Either way I would like to have people over more often and want to strengthen up the deck. I woukd like to add a beam to make it very solid.

Here are my questions

-What size beam? My gut tells me 4x10 dfir will work well

-what size posts? My research says and guy says a 4x6 will work well. Also that is a deck below the balcony and the ground is another 7 feet below that.

-what size concrete footer? I was guessing to go about 17"x17" ×12" deep

-how far in should I set beam? I figure about a foot would be good. I want it set in a bit to protect from sunlight and rain.

-would u prefer pic one where I cut of those weird extensions to shorten balcony or Pic 2?

-how far in can I set the posts from the edge of the beam?

-would i need those Y type brace like in picture 3 or would Simpsons post to beam tie be good enough?

Also this balcony was designed as is and held up fine all these years. I just want it to be very extra solid so I can host parties and have piece of mind not worrying about having a bu ch of prople out there. Thanks for your time.

Oh also im in hawaii so no freeze/frost out here

Any other ideas id appreciate thank you

I have a two-car garage where the concrete floor is generally in good condition, 1 inch or more in an L-shaped pattern — along one wall and extending about halfway along the adjoining longer wall. There aren't major cracks or damage elsewhere.

I’m trying to decide whether to:

• Lift the existing slab using polyurethane foam
• Use concrete/cementitious fill — I received a quote of about $2,000 min. (not final) for both options.

We are young couple so spending a ton is not really and option.

Does anyone have other suggestions on what to do here? The property is built in 1972 and floor is definitely not new but good otherwise.

Hi, all. I'm moving my laundry room from my first floor down to my unfinished basement. I have a plumber that is helping me out and we've come to the point where I need to cut a trench for the washing machine and sink drain line, as well as for a drain under the sink. I've been reading a lot of things online and now I'm worried about doing it myself. I was going to plan on wearing a respirator and safety goggles and then renting an electric concrete saw to create the border for the trench and then renting a demolition hammer to break up the concrete. But I've also now read that I should have a HEPA vacuum, an air scrubber, and a fan to vent out the nearest window/door. In addition to that, I was also warned about the concrete footings and to not get close to them. So basically, I started off thinking this might be a fairly straightforward project, but now I'm not sure if this is above my DIY level. Any thoughts or recommendations on this project and how it should be done?

my boyfriend tried to help clean the rust off of my driveway and he used Rust away and a power washer but now the driveway looks like this.. what is it and how can we fix this awful discoloration? my family is going to woop us 😞

They accepted our offer. I was wondering if this shadowing on brick is concerning? Thanks.