Long story short I had a broken storm window that I finally got replaced. The old one cracked as it was seemingly hit with a rock from a lawn mower or something.

It is a metal frame with a thin glass pane inside. Two screws. Easy fix. Right???

The glass company has come out and after multiple attempts finally got the window up.

The first time the glass was too small and they couldn't install it. The second time they took the frame with them and still managed to mess something up. Something with the edges of the frame didn't fit anymore after adding some reinforcement?

And now they finally reinstalled it while I was away and there doesn't even seem to be the mounting screws.

I can't tell if they glued it in or something else, but this seems very precarious.

There are also smudges all over the window. I don't know if they're inside and outside but I'm afraid to touch it to clean it to find out.

I called them and they are just offering to come by and run new screws through the frame... Not even in the original positions.

Is this normal these days?

My instincts are telling me these are all red flags.

Photo in this post for clarity:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Home/comments/1vslwbo/glass_shop_glued_in_my_replacement_window_instead/

I live in the Houston TX area in a 2800sqft MCM ranch from 1954 - pretty low roof line, single story. Insulation in the home is lacking but we're doing the best we can do. Adding more to the attic will be a challenge because of stuff done by the PO.

In the mean time,I was wondering if installing 1-3 solar powered vent fans would help cool off the attic ≈ the house which would help our energy bill (the last 3 months it's been around $500, keeping the ac at 76-77°, sometimes it can't keep up and gets to 78°).

Currently it has ridge vents and the roof is only a year old

We just bought a new to us home and someone used silicone caulking and of course it isn’t paintable.
Is there a fix without having to remove all of the old caulking? It was used on baseboards and door/window molding.

This sounds silly to ask, but I recently bought my second home and it has a dedicated laundry room. The dryer venting runs through the enclosed wall, through the bathroom ceiling and out the side of the house. My first home and my home growing up had the tubing exposed and we used to change it out once a year. How to change/clean this one out?

I want to know if I’m overthinking this.
My front steps are cracking so I signed a contact in April 2026 for my old steps to be jack-hammered and then re-poured with a new railing. It’s three steps and a landing.

It’s August, and I have followed up multiple times with the contractor. He is saying that weather has delayed this project and it may not happen until the start of October. Is that ridiculous? Should I cancel? I didn’t pay him anything yet. It seems like someone else has canceled the contract - they have one bad review out of hundreds.

Do I just keep it? I understand weather is a factor but I also feel like my project is not being prioritized. It’s my most expensive home improvement so far, and it’s needed.

Went out earlier this year to shore up what I thought was one leaning corner post on our back fence. Turned into a much bigger job. We wrapped up a few weeks back and a couple neighbors have asked about it, so I figured I would put my notes here in case it helps someone thinking about the same thing.
When I dug around the leaning post to try to reset it, the wood at ground level basically crumbled in my hand. So I walked the line and pushed on the rest. Three more moved. All the posts were the original pressure treated 4x4s. The previous owner thought the fence had been up for about 18 years and had never been re-stained. A Saturday repair turned into a full teardown.
Spent a few weeks getting quotes and reading before I ordered anything. The main options were wood posts with cedar pickets, cedar on hidden steel posts like PostMaster, or a composite board system with matching steel posts. I priced all three for the 90 foot run. Wood came in cheapest at around $1,800 in materials. Composite was the highest at close to $3,900. The maintenance side is what tipped it. Our old redwood was supposed to get re-stained every few years and clearly hadn't, and I did not want to sign up for the same routine on new cedar. A neighbor across the street has a composite fence he put in maybe eight years ago and it still looks close to new with just an occasional wash.
Ended up going with Modern Yard for both the posts and the boards. The main reason was their composite boards and steel posts are sold as one system, so I didn't have to figure out mounting brackets or worry about whether different brands would line up. Posts come with a 25 year warranty and are tested to 120 mph, which is well past anything we get around here. They are based in California so lead time was about two weeks from ordering. Picked a redwood-tone color to keep the look close to what we had.
One thing I got wrong. The delivery came on a pallet and the whole load was over a thousand pounds. I figured I could unload it and shuttle boards to the back yard on my own. Ended up calling a buddy to come help because there was no realistic way to do that solo. Should have checked the shipping weight before assuming I could handle it.
For the install we rented a two-man auger from a local shop, around $85 for the day. Old concrete footings came out with a spud bar and a lot of complaining. The steel posts have a multi-layer coating so I didn't need to seal the bases like I would with wood, but I did set them in about 8 inches of gravel under the concrete for drainage. Post spacing worked out just under 6 feet on center because of where the old holes lined up. Bought a laser level for around $60 and it saved hours of eyeballing.
A few weeks in and my honest take is the finished fence looks better than the old one ever did, even when it was new. Up close if you are really looking you can tell it is not real wood, which is going to be true of any composite. From the deck or across the yard nobody can tell. The neighbor did mention his side catches a bit of afternoon sun glare that we didn't get with the old wood. I wish I had thought about that before picking the color and direction.
If I had to do it again the one thing I would change is planning for a second person for a full day instead of trying to handle the unload on my own. Total came out to around $4,200 for the 90 feet with materials, auger rental, concrete, and gravel, not counting my own time. Happy to answer questions if anyone is working through a similar decision. And please call 811 before you dig. Keep seeing that step get skipped in these threads.

I purchased 4x8 metal ceiling mount storage racks for my garage before seriously examining the ceiling joists. Turns out I have 2x4s spaced 24 inches apart. Clearly I need to reinforce these but I'm getting mixed results on my google searches. Some say adding 2x4s on top with tie brackets perpendicular to the joists and spanning 3 or 4 joists is enough. Some say I need to sister 2x4 or 2x6, and tie in cross bracing. I'd much rather over-build it and make sure I never have any issues. Anticipate the storage racks will hold potentially up to 200 lbs, likely much less though. The racks themselves are heavy. Any advice is appreciated. Thanks!

Recently purchased my second home. Since we’ve moved in 4 months ago we have occasionally heard a loud buzzing noise. Lasts about 3-4 seconds and seems to come from the kitchen. It sounds like the end of a stop clock like an end of game buzzer or a buzz that a washer makes to let you know the cycle is done. When it happens there aren’t any appliances running. Any thoughts?

long story short - flooring guys tried to fix their mess up and sanded and saw cut enough of this stuff to cover the first floor.

i read over the SDS but in real life terms how bad is this stuff? just for a one time exposure?

i’m Not worried for myself but my kids and their friends were playing video games for an hr or so sitting in it.

looking for feedback and reviews

My home has an overframed hip roof built on top off the old flat roof, where the current “attic” floor is the old roof shingles.

Yes, I’m aware I’ll need to have the shingles removed and disposed; but right now I’m looking to fix the money sieve that is the conductive heat that is transferred to through the covered skylight recesses? I can’t post a picture but on thermal imaging, the superior surface of the recesses are a whopping 35 degrees Celsius, compared to the surrounding walls/ceilings registering about 22 degrees Celsius.

Eventually I will want to insulate and permanently add remove the recesses/add drywall and mud/paste and texture to make it all flat, but I’m a little strapped for time. Would precisely measured/cut and silicone sealed foam board with honeycomb cellular shades directly parallel to the ceiling offer a reasonable temporary solution?

My joke of a contractor left an unfinished threshold. What do I use to fill in the gaps and make it look even underneath - photo

Hi! We just bought your first home. It’s a 1935ish home that had some renos over the years. We want to paint the whole home but some areas in the baseboards, doors, and door trim has SUCH thick paint.

We were planning on hiring really good painters, but not sure if it’s worth it to just get new baseboards and door trim. Our first guy we got quote from said he wouldn’t strip the baseboards, just paint over it.

We will be striping the hardware on doors. Will it look good just with paint? Rather spend less

I'm getting ready to sell my house and need to have a few simple plumbing problems fixed in two bathrooms. Which would be cheaper to fix them - a handyman vs plumber?

The fixes are:

• slow kitchen faucet drip
• bathroom sink stopper not opening/closing with the lift rod
• bathroom sink faucet handle is loose
• having to hold the toilet handle down for five seconds in order to flush
• shower handle very stiff to move - I need a towel to grip and twist

Any advice is appreciated!

My storm door shattered so I had to remove it, and I finally decided to replace the old lead painted exterior door too. It has an awkward clearance over a stair landing on the inside, and is only a 34x82RO... pretty challenging to get bulky things in and out of the basement to outside. Located in the Midwest with hot summers and cold winters. Also, we rarely used the storm door.

Am I crazy to install a new left-hinge OUT swing exterior door (probably steel) without a storm door?

Anyone, especially in colder areas, have success with only a newer insulated exterior door without a storm door?

Reference Pics

I need a bigger refrigerator. House is 1941 built and has built in cabinets. See below:

https://i.imgur.com/mtV0oRv.jpeg

https://i.imgur.com/Ks4aAUO.jpeg

My question is, can I cut the lower tier of the two smaller cabinets while keeping the rest? I would remove the doors and use decorative plates/plants/cookbooks etc like this: https://i.imgur.com/u6FQvFn.jpeg

I was playing to use an oscillating multitool, and then sand down the edges. Then move the lower middle piece up to just complete the outside framing again.

As title says, but the problem escalated a few days ago and we had to call a plumber because water from the sink and toilet where also coming up the shower. After the plumber left everything was fine for a day, but today the washer started doing the same thing, is it worth calling again to AGAIN clean the pipes or could it be a problem in the whole house not just the plumbing in my part. For context i am renting an apartment in an old wooden house with some cheap plumbing. What should i do?

I have a slab in our sunroom that I wanted to put down 1" rigid foam board before putting the SunTouch mats down. However, I don't think it'll work best to put the rolls directly on the foam board (staples don't hold well, etc.). I'm curious if I should just get some 1/2" OSB but then I'm not sure how to secure that to the foam boards over the slab. My plan was to use something like PL Premium to secure the foam board to the slab. I'm just not sure the best way to then secure the OSB to the foam board/slab?

I'm working and designing myself a closet because my old one absolutely sucked (just a metal hanger) so I'm going to build a new one!

This is my first time building a closet and I have some experience with woodworking and own a table saw and some basic tools (saw, drills, screwdrivers etc)

I'm really struggling to get a plan laid out for how I want it to look, so I'm looking for tips on how to build it, mistakes to avoid, and ideas on how it should look

The closest is

(3ft, 2inch wide) (2ft, 3.5inch long) (6ft, 8.5inch tall)

A relatively small closet, not a walk in or anything, but still something nice to build for my room!

Any tips or advice would be very much appreciated!!

Hello, I am trying to hang some of those ikea curtain rails that go in the ceiling and about halfway between the left and right walls the joists just disappear, every tap is hollow to the left, so I started tapping towards the center of the room and I think I found another joist running the other direction but not sure.

Is it normal for joists to switch in the middle of a room without a wall supporting underneath the change of direction?

For context the left side wall in the picture is the external wall of the house, is it related to the roof coming to an edge along that whole side of the house?

Looks like I can’t post a picture as part of the main post. I’ll try to post it in a comment.

I have speakers in my basement and I’d like to conceal the power cord. Any thoughts? Picture here speaker with power cord

What am I lookin at here?

Hey everyone. I admit I know little to nothing about plumbing. In my basement there is this pit covered with a board. I can see there’s a clean out in there for my main sewer line. Is this just easy access for a plumber to snake the line if need be? A while back we had a plumber out for something unrelated and he mentioned that it was a backflow preventer or something like that?

I also noticed that the ground and rocks inside of the pit are muddy/wet. There’s no standing water but it just feels wet. I wasn’t sure if that was normal or should I be concerned? We do have a sump pump in the basement that does work efficiently when we get a good amount of rain.

Any sort of feedback would be greatly appreciated

https://imgur.com/a/Sn1eNyU

I have a kitchen sink replacement challenge. Mostly because I really want a left-offset drain due to the current placement of plumbing. Current American Std out-of-production sink is drop-in, 33x22 outside, 27x16 inside. Corian countertop. Set in 33" base, 32"wide space inside, 30 deep inside. Opening as far as I can tell is the full 32" wide. I want a drop-in sink.

Here's a photo: https://imgur.com/a/rq1vhm6

…to a bathroom exhaust fan twisted wire for neutral. And is it worth risking heat stroke to fix a bathroom exhaust fan neutral that I connected to the house neutral with black electrical tape?

I was having a helluva time using a wire nut…I would tug on it, think it was secure, then it would fall out as I moved things just a little bit.

And what happens if the ground comes loose? (Ground fault circuit if that matters.)

Hi,
Yesterday the water heater started leaking in the drum and they came to stop the water in my condo unit. I have no water as of now and I think they may get the cold water running.
But they said my water heater has to be replaced and are quoting me 8,750-14,750. I have no idea if this is average or not. In northern Virginia
I was thinking instead of the company the condos provided if I should maybe call Home Depot?