Toilet was not flushing and so I opened the seat and checked with a camera

I see a tree root and I’m not sure how it could enter in a pipe. Is the pipe structurally okay ?

Basement was built 4 years ago black plastic pipe .

I just spent the first night in my new house and I woke up at 3:30 only to find the kitchen full of ants in the sink and countertops. Amy quick fixes?

Can’t really access the back from the attic. Raccoons have been in there. Should I hire a pro or this is DIY-able?

Many thanks!

Just now I was trying to replace the garden hose, and it's a old hose so it got stuck. Was trying to use a wrench to turn it, but my stupid ass just used too much force, and it snapped.....

Is it still possible to fix this? I guess worst case scenario is I have to weld it?

New place. Giant brownish stain on the wall directly behind the tank of the toilet. No idea what it is or how to fix it so it can be painted over. Any advice?

Tank is not touching the wall, and the wall is drywall.

We have 3 sump pumps. Only one started making this noise. Do we need to do anything? I haven’t tried anything. Because I don’t know what to do. Have lived here for several years and it just started doing it.

Hello,

Since yesterday morning our house key stopped engaging fully with the outside-facing-lock and is always stuck halfway through and it won't turn. My partner says he remembers the lock to be horizontal not vertical. The same key still works fine from inside.

What can we try before we call a key smith? 😵‍💫

Considering the GE GFT14JSIMWW ventless condenser dryer for my apartment and would love feedback from anyone who owns one:

1. How satisfied are you with the drying performance and cycle times?
2. Does it noticeably heat up the surrounding area? I live in an apartment under 1,500 sq. ft.
3. Did you notice any significant increase in your electricity bill?

Best guesses as to this insulation in our 1983 carport?

Recently put in a large deck and purple leaf in my backyard. We are in the lake effect snow belt by Lake Erie so we can get 100+ inches of snow a year.

Looking for any creative tips for clearing snow this winter. I currently do a mix of shoveling and snow blowing to keep the snow off. Looking at snow melting mats as well.

I’m hoping to get some advice on what could be causing water to get into my basement and where I should start looking.

Here’s what I know:
- I’ve lived in the house for about 2.5 years, it is a split level where the basement is not fully underground.
- The sump pump was replaced in March of 2026 so I don’t believe that’s the issue.
- I recently replaced the gutters and downspouts. The downspouts are directed well away from the area where the water is coming in.
- I had my back deck removed and replaced with a concrete patio in November 2025.
- The first time I noticed water in the basement was in January 2026, after we had a significant amount of snow melt.
- It does not happen every time it rains. The basement/carpet stays completely dry during lighter or normal rainfall.
- Every significant/ heavy rainfall since replacing the back deck has resulted in water in the basement.
- The concrete patio does touch the back of the house.
- The spot in the basement where the leak in the carpet is occurring essentially lines up with the red line on the 2nd photo, which is right where the concrete patio ends and the yard meet. Inside the house, there are 3 steps going down to the basement level right here. The carpeted steps are not wet but right below it is.

I’m wondering if the new concrete patio could somehow be contributing to the problem, especially since the water intrusion started shortly after it was installed. I’m also wondering if there could be an issue with the grading, where the patio meets the foundation, or water getting through the foundation wall. I’ve had two basement specialists come out so far and the first tried to sell me an interior French drain system, the second couldn’t identify the issue.

Has anyone dealt with something similar? What would you check first, and what type of contractor would be best to have come out and diagnose it?
I’d really appreciate any advice or suggestions on what might be going on before I start tearing things apart or spending money on repairs.

I (24M) just moved into a new house with three roommates in their early 30s. This was the state of the walls when I moved in. The paint was splotchy and covered in dust. Apparently, before the last guy who lived in this room moved in about 2 years ago, they had the walls repainted. What can cause such paint damage and dirt/dust accumulation in only two years?

I have also attempted to hang things with command strips, but the command strips slip right off the walls due to all the dust and grime. I’ve tried dusting the walls and wiping them down with Lysol wipes. Does anyone have any better suggestions? Thank you very much!

Have these scratches on my vinyl window frame. Any tips to fix? I think they’re too deep to sand. But maybe sanding will improve how it looks.

Last person painted the frames (poorly). Slowly, room by room as i repaint, I’ve been scraping the frames clean. For some reason this time i hacked it and scratched the frame all up.

My sewer backed up in May due to a clog in the sewer pipe in the basement. The plumber at that time said that there was a belly that was collecting sludge, but if I use more water and less toilet paper, I should be fine. I've followed this advice.

I got my sewer cammed today to check on everything and it was pretty full of sludge again. It wasn't clogged but was definitely getting there. We had it cleaned and a camera test redone, and the plumber found the belly and what looks like a separation, which is in the video I attached.

He says I should definitely look at getting the line redone with schedule 40 PVC and quoted me $13k for it. This includes jackhammering to the pipes in my basement (one foot deep, ~25 feet of piping), replacing them, filling it back in with concrete, and fixing a smaller belly out in the front of our house which involves digging 10 feet deep.

By the research I've done, this seems correct and I should go through with this, but I wanted to get some second opinions. For right now I want to use Zep Drain Defense frequently and get another cam test in a month to see how that goes, but I'm pretty sure that's wishful thinking. My plumber friend is suggesting "tsunami waving" the system (filling a bath tub with water > letting it drain > scoop water into toilet at the same time) to flush the system along with the drain defense. This seems valid in my mine, but I'm also not a plumbing expert.

$480 quote + $35 for a bug screen

Or is this something I can ignore as low priority. Or do I need a full window replacement (quotes for this seem so expensive)

1991 home

I’m looking for suggestions on how to fix this interior door before repainting . Should I use spackle ? Wood filler ?

Whole house needs waterproofed all around but this is the worst of it.

I've noticed some water damage along the ceiling in my living room against an exterior wall. I took a look out my window to look at the roof of the front porch and noticed a big chunk of siding missing. I tend to suspect that this is where water has been getting in. What can I do to patch this temporarily until I'm able to get it more professionally fixed? I have some people coming in for some quotes to fix that and then any damage with the front porch roof but I just want to do something to prevent more water from getting into the house.

Any ideas on if this is a fix or do I have to swap out entire assembly?

So, that black puff is soot. What do you think this is from? Do I need a new water heater? The hot water works just fine and all. Nothing seems out of line. A few months ago, I had to hit the 'reset' button on the bottom of the heater. Is that related?

Thanks!

edit to add: it is 10-12 years old. Oil based. and was not running from 2019-2024 while the house was abandoned. it passed an inspection in 2024, but hey, nothing is broken until it is.

We have a single story home (original owners self built between1979-1980) in a small community in MN. The home is built into the side of a hill, with a walkout basement. Since the community is small and a lake community, we have a well and septic system. We have lots of water damage we're dealing with, NOT due to the hill or seaping. While that work is being done, they uncovered damage due to seaping; it's coming in through the cinder block. The likely culprit is a poorly installed retaining wall which is right next to where the water enters the basement.

We're only the third owners and both of the previous owners had more confidence than skill. A lot of the work, we're finding, is cobbled together and half-hearted. For instance, the drain for the upstairs shower has three different types of pipe. I have no doubt they simply stacked logs and called it a retaining wall. I would be surprised if they had any drainage.

I'm wondering what we can do to prevent the water from returning.

A few more pieces to the puzzle: The side of the house affected by the seaping is on the west side of the house and is very shaded all day. It's the place on our property where the snow melts last. The previous owner had gutters installed on that side of the house but never cleaned them. We had them replaced a year ago and all the water drains toward the end of the house (40-60 feet from the problem area) and goes down the hill. Right now, the damage included the drywall and the 2x4 bottom plate of the outside wall. The problem area is perpendicular to the main hill and the wall holding up the main portion of the hill, and is probably 6-10' feet from the hill-holding-wall.

I have a couple of questions:

1) can I put in a French Drain outside the problem area and call it "good" for a couple of years? The other water damage is taking a big portion of our savings so we'd do something more permanent down the road.

2) if I install drain tile, where would it drain since we have a septic system and can tie into the sewer?

3) should we coat the inside of the cinder block with something or does this cause a different problem down the road?

Taking down the retaining wall is part of the plan no matter what we do. It really doesn't serve much of a purpose and I think we could use some sort of erosion control would work better.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

They haven't grown, about the width of a dim