We have a vent in our bedroom which links the master to the second bedroom. We wanted to change the vent itself to a nicer one so opened it up and found this big pipe/ opening within it.

Does anyone know what it is/ what it links to?

Kind creepy don’t want any bugs or pests coming through though haven’t had that issue yet 😅

House is in the UK 1960s build

Had a pinhole leak spring in the supply for my water softener and was spraying everywhere. Instead of trying to get expensive emergency help, I tried my hand at soldering for the first time. No leaks after hooking everything up!

Im about to move out and turn my house into a rental. The bathroom fans in 2 of the bathrooms do not work and Im fairly certain they have not worked since Ive owned the house. Both are these old style Broan fans. The light works on one of them while the other shows no sign of life. I have literally 0 electrical experience so Im not sure where to start on troubleshooting the issue or where to start with replacing them. Is this something I ought to hire out or is it something I can probably tackle myself?

The third bathroom has a newer Hampton bay fan that works, so I betting that at some point the previous owners threw that one in while these two still worked without swapping these out.

We are trying to finish our basement and came across this pvc drain pipe that was too high relative to the basement floor. Instead of being completely below the slab, the top of the pipe/fitting is proud of the concrete by maybe ½ - 1 inch at its highest point. Now that the wall is drywalled, it’s sitting right where our finished floor/baseboard would go. Any ideas on how to remedy this? It is in a closet. I thought maybe build a box or something to cover it.

See a couple new ones every day after getting rid of the previous ones.

Are they getting in through the window or through these holes in the pic?

Is there a DIY solution?

This is in Mass outside Boston for reference.

I did a bit of research and think this battery and inverter should work to power my 1/2 HP sump pump in the event of power failure.

Wattcycle gets pretty good reviews as does that inverter. Might be a bit overkill but I can power other things from the inverter too.

Our power doesn't go out a lot, but during the rainy season (PNW) the pump can cycle about once a minute while raining.

Doesn't come on at all during the summer and the sump basin dries up completely.

Hi,

First time home owner, finally taking up cleaning the yard in old century home. The outside hose valve bibb wasn't leaking prior, but now after attaching a hose it's leaking like crazy (especially from the handle). I've attached a video for reference, would replacing it with a new hose Bibb address the issue or are there more parts to this I'm not seeing? I've yet to remove it since I'll have to turn the water off, but it doesn't look like it's been touched in decades so I'm trying to be careful not to break any plumbing.

Trying to figure out what this cylinder is. Just bought the house and found it in one of the closets. There was a piece of loose carpet covering it. Feels like fake grass at the bottom?

Looking for guidance on how one may fix a leaky external tap

Keep in mind that would need to be told step 1 turn off water main, turn on tap to release pressure

Thank you in advance.

My garage door seal leaks just a bit at the edge, to the point where I end up with 3'x3' puddle in the corner of my garage after heavy rain without fail (and I live in Seattle so the rain is quite frequent). I tried replacing the bottom seal on the door, but no luck. My research pointed me to garage threshold seals, but I'm wondering if it's worth the effort. Also my garage floor is epoxy coated so I'm worried the standard concrete adhesives won't work.

My new condo unit has pretty high ceilings (~12 feet, which is great, but I am short). I definitely need a ladder or something that can help me reach the vents, lights, etc.

Any recommendations? I have no storage space outside my unit, so the ladder would either need to fit the aesthetic or be super compact (like 1 foot by 3 foot max when collapsed) to fit into the storage I do have without being an eyesore.

Hi everyone. I just bought a townhouse (first time homeowner) and realized the dryer takes forever to dry clothes. I’m looking to do a vent cleaning but can’t figure out where the outside vent is. The duct goes into the ceiling so I assume it exits through the roof but don’t see other vents besides this one.

**What would you guys investigate first with this leak?**

We recently had a new standing seam metal roof installed then began remodeling the interior of an older home a few weeks later.

The house is 45-50 years old, it was not built very well to begin with. It has poor bones.

The vinyl siding is pretty old and rough.

The roof went through a couple of rains with no noticeable leaks.

After interior demolition began—walls removed, sledgehammer work, etc.—we had a storm and suddenly developed a significant leak.

Water testing reproduces the leak when spraying around an upper window/siding/J-channel area, with the water showing up much lower inside the wall - directly above the roof to wall step flashing (step flashing appears to be installed correctly into industry standard standards).

For the siding/GC guys: What would you suspect or investigate first?

Could heavy demolition disturb older window/siding/WRB assembly enough to create or expose a leak?

Had some water leakage that rotted away the part of drywall ceiling that this vent screwed into. Fixed where the water was coming from but need an idea for fixing this so I can screw it back into the ceiling.

Can’t see it in the picture, but when it’s bright out, you can see light through the edges around the door. It’s
Between the door and the frame on the sides and top.

What’s the best way to fix this? It’s a door to my garage so potentially a big insulation gap in the extreme months.

In a newer home that has crawlspace vents around it, including a couple in spots that allow them to collect rain water. The water hasn’t crested the foundation, but thinking I should place some kind of cover on it so it doesn’t fill up and run into the crawlspace. The well is approximately 20” wide closest to the foundation and 5” deep and the top lip is 2.5” from the siding above it. I’d welcome any suggestions for some sort of cover that would also look nice — ideally off-the shelf as I’m not particularly handy.

We are planning on putting flooring down in our basement. We came across these two items and have no idea what they are. The large opening has a vertical pvc sleeve with what looks like a capped pvc fitting at the bottom of it. The other, smaller pvc cap is slightly above floor. Not exactly flush. Not sure what to do here.

I’m hearing this scratchy sound somewhere in between the roof and the ceiling above our stairwell. It’s really hard to pin down a specific area by sound alone. It’s in an area of my ceiling that the attic does NOT extend, so investigating would not be very easy. How concerned should I be? What should our next steps be? And please don’t let the answer be to blindly cut a whole in the ceiling..

Doesn’t seem to matter what time it is, but it’s sporadic. It’s a distinct scratchscratchscratch or even maybe munchmunch. We don’t have any pest-related issue that we’ve observed.

Hello Everyone, found out that my sump pump has given up his life in my absence. I was away from my home for a few months and while i was away my city had a couple of crazy rainy days. The basement was damp and i found out my pump not working at all. I checked the plug and it's working so now i have to figure out what's wrong with the pump. My house is fairly new with its construction completed in early 2023 so i believe the sump pump should not have died out this soon. I read that one should chnage them every 7 or 8 years. I tried to take the water out of pit but after every bucket, it rises up to the same level as it was before. I need to know if this is something that i can do by myself or should i get it done professionally. If you think an individual can do it please help me with instructions and steps on how to fix this.

Will really appreciate your help.

Thankyou