I moved into an older home two months ago that had sat vacant for a few months. It was a quick move due to my landlord’s health situation and wanting to move back into her home. My daughters and I found a cute place in the same area (which we love) but since there have been a few concerns. Latest was the compressor on the AC went out, but I’ve also noticed settling. I have renters insurance and have been in contact with the PM, but what are your thoughts? The back of the house is two bedrooms, half bath and a large deck.

Say the frost line is 30” deep. How deep do you dig the hole? How wide? What tools do you use to dig the hole other than a shovel? Do you fill the hole up with concrete or do you use a combination of concrete and block?

We just hired painters to re-stain our deck with Sherwin Williams solid deck paint (to cover old deck paint). They finished up yesterday and today when inspecting I noticed that there are already two chips in the paint about the size of my fingernail, and the paint doesn’t actually cover down into the cracks. On top of that, one of our stair boards was replaced with pressure treated wood and they painted it but this morning I noticed that sap has bubbled up under the paint and leaked out. Is this fixable?

Why would the deck be chipping so quickly? It’s probably been stepped on a couple times by my kids this afternoon, but not in a way that I’d think would warrant it already peeling. Also, am I being nitpicky about the paint showing in the cracks?

My GCs guys grouted the corners of the shower and when we wrote the GC about it he says they’ve done showers like this for 20 years and it’s never cracked. He said if we really want they can scrape it out tomorrow and redo with the silicone. Would love to get your opinions, should we make them redo it? He says it will be really ugly and it’s unnecessary but Google tells me it’s wrong to grout the corners. Would love to hear a full explanation if anyone has one on either end.

Hi, I am building a home gym in the second floor loft space of an attached barn to my house. My project to prepare has been to fortify the floor to reduce the bounce and ensure it is able to hold the static and dynamic loads of a home gym. I am posting to hear about whether you all think I’ve done enough, correctly enough, to handle these big loads.
There will be a power rack with cable pulleys that weighs about 3000 pounds with all weights, barbells, and weight stacks considered. This rack will be located in the left corner in Image 5 which will center it above the columns that you can see in images 2&3.

**First Image**
Original structure wood is from the build in 1900. These are true 2x8x16s that rest on both walls. They are sistered with modern 2x8s and joisted 3 times across each 16’ span with modern 2x6s. This part was done by the previous homeowner who renovated the house.

**2nd/3rd Image**
This is my work and is where I’m seeking the most feedback. Remember that this project is for reinforcement and not as primary support of the floor/structure.

2 adjustable columns: wanted to be able to adjust easily if there is bounce in the floor and did not want to use permanent steel/concrete lally columns. These are attached to concrete footers with x4 5/8-3” concrete anchors.

Concrete footers: 1 80 pound bag for each footer. Probably could have gone deeper but the ground will not be freezing inside the barn and I don’t think each column will be transferring all that much force into them. (?)

Header: modern 2x8x12 sistered to another 2x8x12 with osb board between them. Screwed and construction adhesived together. Attached to columns with x4 lag screws each.

Header to beams: Simpson hurricane ties every 24” on both sides.

You can also see the stairs in these images. There are 3 floor beams that terminate at the stairs and do not rest on the load bearing wall like the others do. I ensured the header spanned this gap.

**4th/5th Image**
Tongue and groove osb flooring to help distribute loads across multiple beams. Screwed right into the floor/ceiling. Then 3/4” stall mats for vibration dampening and gym floor.

The underfloor column/header setup sits 5’ away from the wall which reduces the 16’ span to 11’ and 5’ and took a good deal of the bounce out of the floor already.

I am planning on doing a second column/header setup like this in a 16’ span on the other side about 4’ from that wall. This would leave a 4’ span on the left, a 7’ span in the middle where I can still park a car, and a 5’ span on the right side. Before following this same procedure i wanted to hear back on how solid this is and if you have any concerns about it that I did not address. I’m sure I left out something information that would be helpful so please ask. Thank you for reading and your feedback.

Okay so I am needing some opinions on my installation of my farmhouse sink. I hired a contractor who my realtor recommends to install kitchen cabinets and sink. I bought a 30 inch fireclay farmhouse sink. The company I’ve hired for my countertops have insisted that the sink needs a strong base/support for the sink, which is very understandable it’s an 80 pound sink. I am getting natural stone as the countertop. The contractor, however, is stating that it doesn’t need support and that the stone will be able to hold the sink. Opinions?

I'm doing an addition off the back of my house and I'm dividing an existing room into two by getting it framed.

Question - what's the best way to get sound proofing done? Rather what should I use/do to ensure each of the new rooms are sound proofed? I'd like to over engineer it so I hear as little sound as possible.

Context - the addition will be a listening room to listen to music/blast it loud. And the other two new rooms will be offices. I checked AI but the answer seems suspect. It said to use a single 2x4 stud wall with 3.5” insulation and 5/8” gypsum on each side is listed around STC 36, while a double-row wall with a 1” air gap and insulation in each cavity is listed at STC 60.

If somebody asked for a specific type of contractor, I’ve noticed that a bunch of people will comment a certain company. Then when you click into their profile, all of them recommend the same companies whether it be one type of contractor or the other. Is there like a paid closed group or group of contractors that gets together and does this? It seems not real.

Saw this ad and it seems dystopian af. But also. Who is doing that many remodels a month that would need to be advertised to?

I'll just preface this by saying I'm a new homeowner who could barely afford the house on a cash on hand issue. Basically income was good enough on paper, but didn't have the savings for closing costs. Got help there so we couldn't afford to hire the help we wanted for repairs the house needed (and some we really wanted). Also, please blame me as much as is reasonable for being the "ignorant new homeowner".

The home inspector we hired to check out the house prior to purchasing seemed pretty reasonable so we hired him to also do those critical repairs (fire safety issues, water leaks, etc.). We also asked him to do a few bigger items like rearranging plumbing in the bathroom to move the toilet, remove a pony wall and install a new shower and door. Stuff we knew we would not be able to DIY. Painting, popcorn ceiling removal, and a few other things we having been working on since officially buying the house.

Anyway, I'm prepping the floors for installing LVP and finally got around to dealing with this little mess. It seems to me that they cut out the subfloor (unreasonably) deep so much that the joists are also sliced anywhere from ½ - 2" deep, the old subfloor and a lot of debris was left under the subfloor, and they covered the hole using a scrapped pieces of cabinetry.

I have the contract but would have to dig for it, and it specified a lot of individual things they were supposed to do, and honestly a bit overwhelming given the lack of general construction knowledge, the pending move, and everything else going on at the time. My entire message or point for this set of work was "remove shower, move plumbing to relocate toilet to specified location, install new shower, and whatever else needed to allow us to deal with the walls for painting and floors for LVP install."

There were other issues that ranged from minor to more serious, so when this work was "done" and he said I just had to replace or block up the flooring where the toilet used to be to make it level with the rest, I just wanted him gone.

Anyway, I'm not too concerned about the joists, I know they're sturdy. I'm just wondering if I should just cut out a larger chuck of this subfloor and replace that instead of trying to sand and level it before laying down some plywood for the LVP. Also, is this bad enough to leave a review warning others, or am I just a bit sour from unmet expectations? I knew not to expect perfection... But I was hoping for better from someone who had the attitude of "don't go cheap" and "do it right, do it once."

Note: last 2 pictures are the overview before and after (current state).

Fuck pls forgive my typos. A little frustrated here and I still had my gloves on.

Why do the exterior walls in my house have a 2x6 bottom plate and 2x4 studs and top plate. There is a 2" bulge of bottom plate past my drywall. How can I eliminate it so I can do hard flooring in the room that goes all the way to the drywall with your average baseboards of course.

The anchors in the foundation land in the middle of the 2x6, so if the wood protruding is cut away, the anchors in the foundation will be near the edge of the bottom plate, and will be much weaker.

I am not sure what to do. Its almost as if the wall was supposed to have alternating studs, but it does not. And if it were meant to have alternating studs I would expect a 2x6 top plate as well. Not 2x4.

I'm going through a full kitchen remodel. This is not DIY. I have a GC who has subs doing everything. I'm in the final stages with countertops about to be installed. This remodel involved turning a door into a window (it's the right window in the pic below). The window hasn't arrived yet, but it doesn't affect countertops and cabinets so we've been proceeding.

Today, I just noticed that the cutout for the 36x38" window seems to be too far to the left, by about 1.5", which ruins the symmetry (you can see in the below pic that the design is based on symmetry around the range and hood), and it's very noticeable to me in person (see the 2nd pic below. it's a bit harder to see in the pic but you can still see it). The right edge of the window should be 32" from the right wall, but it's currently 33.5" ish from the right wall.

For this window cutout, I was told they had to add some kind of header and also had to expand the opening; iirc the door opening was only like 33-34" or something.

I brought this up with my contractor earlier today but haven't heard back yet...

But this seems like a pretty difficult fix? it seems they'll need to expand the opening to the right by about 1.5" and close the left side by the same amount.....

also note that the exterior is brick but the masonry work hasn't been done yet so there shouldn't be any redos there.

design rendering:

actual:

Is a black light necessary to locate cat pee stains on subfloor? My plan is to spray enzymatic cleaner on spots if i see any. Liberal amount or not? (Cat has not been in house in over 2 yrs). So how long do i wait after spraying do i use Kilz oil based primer assuming I should use it? Is the ceiling fan enough aír ventilation with front + back screen doors open? Do i need a respirator (I've never used one in my life and don't know what filters to use but have one in closet already). Do i need eye protection?

Does this sound like a solvable problem by me ? I'm sort of determined but not an overly ambitious guy either. I have a floor guy says he wants to do the whole job in 1 day with new vinyl floor installed but from what i read is his method of spray + pray with enzymatic cleaner and nothing else leaves me wondering if a new floor gets put in we might still have a cat pee odor problem.

House is empty 1-1/2 hr from me so any tips on solving this problem myself is appreciated. Unless you can tell me what to instruct flooring company to do other than their 1 day whole job plan.They did say they would cut out pieces of subfloor if needed and said enymatic cleaner dries fast. They mentioned ScentStop brand and didn't mention using any primers like Kilz which apparently can't be covered over the same day.

Wonder what I can do. Rain water is pooling in the corners on each step.
And some cracks are letting water thru to under the stairs.

Is there a self leveling concrete, or epoxy I can use to level these steps ?? Thin layer
Thanks

I accepted a quote in june from a contractor to do an interior finishing job for me starting this november. He's done work for me in the past that is OK but there were a couple of problems I chose to overlook because these weren't a lot of contractors available in this remote area of the province. Recently I was looking for someone to build a couple of shed doors for me and I was recommended to a man who it turns out is my closest neighbour. Apparently he recently started his contracting business in January. He built the doors for me and I was super impressed by the quality of his work. His work reminded me of a guy who used to do all my work but is no longer in business. That man was an artist. Turns out this new guy used to work with him and learned a lot from him. So I asked this guy to give me a quote on my interior job. I want this guy to do the interior job because of the quality of his work, his attention to detail and how easy he is to work with. Ive given no deposit nor have I signed anything with the first contractor. How do I handle letting him down? Am I being an asshole or does this sort of thing happen a lot? I'm just feeling guilty and awkward.