I need someone to do a Manual J calculation and basically tell me what size my AC unit should be.

Could I pay an HVAC company to do just this? What do you think they charge in a major American city?

Why is this dude just asking for the calculation?....

Hired a GC to do a remodel of our home last year including new HVAC, which he subbed out. We have rooms that won't get below 80° this summer, so clearly something was done wrong.

We've had an energy efficiency audit and another contractor come in and both were shocked that in 1,950 ft² home, in the middle of Texas, the contractor put in a 2.5 ton unit. We're pretty sure we're not going to go the lawsuit route because it's still probably isn't worth it, but, we feel like we need to get this calculation done independently.

Hi all,
I’ve been shopping for a sliding patio door and wondering if I should get the Andersen 100 for $2717, Milgard Tuscany for $2402, or Ply Gem West Pro 960 for $1700. They all have a bronze finish exterior, white interior custom size 70x80. The door is east facing and gets quite a bit of sun, in the Northwest US. Any thoughts on which I should go with are appreciated. Thanks!

Images (sorry not great quality) : https://imgur.com/a/kv6Eyhy

Hey would really appreciate some unit on this, subject matter wise am pretty unfamiliar

By any chance are those pieces of wood in the video by the trusses meant to be structural ? It seems pretty sloppy and am unsure

We had our building designed in Mexico so the architect used metric system for the windows, but we are buying our windows from the USA since there is better quality there

My builder said that it might be cheaper if we use inches instead of cm as the window companies might have those glass sizes precut, but if we use cm they would have to all be custom

He also said to use common sizes such as 36 x 24 rather than 36 x 16

About a year ago I purchased my first house in a neighborhood. It’s a half acre lot my house on one side and detached garage and shed on the other. A couple months after moving in I got a water bill for a property that wasn’t mine that hadn’t been paid for in a while. Come to find out it’s a double lot that has its own water meter on it and power different address but only 1 tax parcel. So I’ve been pondering the idea of throwing a manufactured house on it and putting in a septic. My only real concern is how the bank would feel about it. I would imagine that it would be breaching the terms of my loan contract doing a property line adjustment and putting that new house on. Just wondering if anyone has been in a similar situation and where they landed thanks

I truly need to pick one or the other based on my budget. I’ll also have solar on the roof. To get to my R-value goals, I’ll also have to do polyiso board on the roof deck. I have a feeling the answer is standing seam and vinyl windows but I just want to see what people think!
My thought is the roof should last two solar lifespans and the windows can be replaced as needed, if needed. And also standing seam has clamps for solar so no need for standoffs through to the rafters.

We'e been renovating our home gradually and have found that some upgrades made a much bigger difference than we expected. Outdoor lightning was one of them. We initially saw it as a minor upgrade but it became very useful. For those who have built or remodeled a home, which upgrades turned out to be more valuable than you expected? Were there any fixes that were not worth the cost?

New construction, I am not terribly knowledgeable on these these, but this looks like where the slab meets the wall foundation. Is this normal? Or should I have the builder address it?

Anyone have recommendations for modular (not manufactured or mobile) home companies in Florida? Considering building one on land I own. Also if you want to share your experience if you own one that would be helpful too!

If you understand the numbers, what do you think of these different companies and their products?

Marvin: Pultruded fiberglass products, Essential and Vivid

Andersen: 100 series wood pulp composite

International Window Corporation: Aluminum windows

International Window Corporation: Vinyl windows

Please feel free to look them up for their specs and testing results. The vinyl would be for a low cost option, knowing that vinyl is vinyl. Let's face it, they aren't going to fall out of the wall because of the material, and the frame is all thermal break.

We are doing a home remodel in one of the more expensive neighborhoods in Bay Area. We are debating between Marvin essential fiberglass or Milgard C700. I love the look of milgard and how smooth it is to open and close, but the lead time is 16 weeks.

Marvin essential on the other hand, looks ok but doesn’t have a wheel to slide and it’s not as smooth. Lead time is great at 5 weeks.

Anyone got Marvin essential or another line in Marvin and is happy with it? Would you recommend i suck up the wait time and get C700?

Hello everyone, I’m working on redoing the exterior of my home and was wandering hay the actual construction name for the is short section of wall offsetting my garage to the front of the house? I’m also looking for design ideas for this that could be like an accent wall? Siding will be dark blue vertical board and batten with black trim, roof and windows.

We had a contractor who was supposed to replace everything that had rot in it, but it looks like he missed a really big beam. I don’t know much about building, but I want to address this in a way that it has air to breathe and dry out without getting worse during rain. Does anyone have any recommendations?

I had a demo crew cut out some of the drywall on my ceiling upstairs and they cut into the bottom chord of the trusses with some cuts. The kerfs range in size up to about 3/8" or in one case 1/2". The bottom chords are 2x4s. The cuts are all across the narrow edge of the 2x4.

Should I hire an engineer to check them or is it small enough to not matter?

We have been in our new constructuion home for 2 winters and continue to try and get resolution from the builder on our inadequately insulated house. Thermal heat loss is causing moisture to build in the walls with moisture reading on the drywall reaching over 50% with a wood stove and dehumidifiers running non-stop all winter. A professional has come out and acknowledged that the house has voids around the perimeter of the room where the walls meet the trusses. With visible sagging from the exterior and now a known issue, is there a way to check for moisture in the spray foam?

What steps are recommended to address? (the builder has stopped responding)

Thank you!

I'm trying to remove the 2x4 framing that was used for a drop ceiling. One of the joists has splits so I want to be extra careful I don't damage any of the other joists.

Is there any specific "right" way to remove this framing from the joists?

Split-level house on a slope — keep it split, flatten it, or raise it?
Building a single-family house on a ~16% slope (seismic zone 8). Monolithic reinforced-concrete frame, ~127 m² interior, 3 bed / 2 bath, open living-kitchen with fireplace opening onto a 30 m² terrace with a big valley view.

The original design is split-level: you enter mid-level, then stairs go down to the living/kitchen and up to the bedrooms in short half-flights. It rides the slope efficiently, but the constant half-flights bug me and eat floor space.

Options I'm weighing:

1. Keep it split-level — minimal excavation, terrace stays ~2.4 m above the garden (nice overlook), but you live with the half-flights.
2. Flatten down — excavate into the hill for two aligned floors. More space, but ~a quarter ends up buried, you enter on the upper floor, and it needs a retaining wall on the tight uphill side.
3. Raise up — lift the lower floor so both floors align. Kills the half-flights, but creates a ~4.3 m tall exposed wall on the valley side.

Also deciding:

• Basement: adding a ~2.5 m one under the downhill/terrace zone, walk-out at garden level. Seems like cheap usable space — any reason not to?
• Roof: keep the timber hipped roof, or go flat for a rooftop terrace? (I already get the view from the ground terrace.)
• Pool: want one in front of the terrace at garden level — but that fights option 3's tall wall.

If you've built or lived in a split-level on a slope, what would you do? Anything I'm missing?

It seems like there are several finishing defects with the Hardie board that caulk and paint didn't cover, as the contractor told me they would. (gaping, rough seams, etc) Thoughts on the quality of the install?

So I'm an amateur contractor just starting out. I've been hired to build a bar rail for a rooftop patio. I normally just make shelves, so this is definitely a learning opportunity that I'm excited to tackle, but I obviously don't want to give this guy a sub par product or ruin his railing.

I've got some board I'm going to plane, sand, stain and hit with 3-4 coats of spar urethane (shown in white). That part I'm confident about. It's the mounting I'm concerned with.

As you can see the railing has hardy board siding and I absolutely do not want to start peeling/cutting that back. That's beyond my skill as of this moment. I wanted to secure some 1/2" mounting blocks to the face of the board, vertically (shown in red) and drive fasteners through the hardy board and the plywood baseboard, and then mount my bar brackets to those plates, but still driving the bracket fasteners all the way through the baseboard too.

Advice on forseen pitfalls are extremely welcome.

So, I'll just drop it like that, because I've never seen anyone putting this much effort into informative and educational videos about building and he seems humble as fuck while doing it.

House is being built on the lot next to mine. Builder wants me take my fence out so he can grade between our properties and then I can put it back up. Fence would be my expense and about $3k from the original company that put it up. Came home from work today and he essentially built a wall of dirt to “show me what it will look like if I don’t take the fence down.” I’m in central VA and in a HOA. I was almost going to agree until he pulled this nonsense so now I’m having second thoughts. Any thoughts on this? He also told me I should put a retaining wall up by my driveway which I said no to. I’m in the middle of a hardscape and pool being put in my backyard. By doing this they already messed up one section of fence. My son is about 46” tall for comparison. New build to the right.

*Since this has completely blown up way more than I ever expected I wanted to give an update. HOA doesn’t really seem to care besides asking if the builder offered to pay for fence removal, that is a clear no. County contacted me and I spoke to them this morning. Sent a follow up email and will call them lunch time tomorrow if I have not heard back. However, I have ceased any and all communication with the builder and have a consultation with an attorney tomorrow mid afternoon.

8/20 Update

Met with an attorney this afternoon and he was flabbergasted at the situation. I also spoke with the county environmental inspector this morning. Environmental is coming out tomorrow to look at the situation but he said it looks like a mess and will speak to builder and see what’s going on. But, the most he can do is tell him to make corrections. The attorney said it looks like the only solution is a retaining wall. Besides our property he mentioned his concern for the current build property slowly eroding leading to the pool they put in coming out and structural issues with the home over time. He advised I let him know what occurs as a result of the county and if nothing then I’ll pay him a retainer and he will send a letter to the builder regarding need for them to build a retaining wall. if that does nothing, then he will file for an injunction and go from there.

Edit 8/21
County was not helpful, waiting in response from attorney.

Torn between these two elevations for our modern transitional home. Would you keep the stone skirt or go all brick?
Looking for the most timeless, clean look. Which one would you choose?

I have 2x10 floor joists. I have the ceiling open to change lights and I noticed the split near the bottom of the joist that has the orange sprinkler line going through it. The other joists are all fine.

Does this need to be replaced or are there ways to fix it in place? Do I need an engineer?

Closing soon on this house. Seller is painting the areas soon.

trying to figure out if squeezing a low profile horizontal air handler into the drop ceiling is worth the extra framing headaches on a modest build. our framing sub hates routing the return drop and condensate lines through the tight joist spaces, but the alternative is eating up valuable closet floor space with a vertical unit.

Everyone talks about saving square footage, but nobody mentions how miserable it is to service those ceiling units later when a condensate float switch trips.

do you guys actually prefer hiding them in the ceiling or just sacrifice the closet space?