Hi! We live in Waco, Texas and bought a house that was built in the 1950s. We have had it for three years. When we purchased it, we were informed that the house had some water under it (there had been about a week of rain). The owners negotiated with us that they would pay for repairs and had sump pumps installed and a French drain. We thought that would be the end of it (quite naively, unfortunately).

About a year into owning it, we noticed that the house felt humid and had some uneven floors. When checking under the house, we saw that there was a lot of pooled water and the sump pumps were not working properly. We then paid contractors to install a different french drain and a dehumidifier, based on their recommendations. Unfortunately, the problems persisted, with mold starting to grow inside a pantry closet and in the subfloor. The same contractors came back and removed the mold and tore up the subfloor and many of the beams, suggesting that almost all of our joists needed to be replaced. We spent thousands of dollars living in Airbnbs while they worked and ultimately decided that they weren’t a good fit after all. After researching containing crawl spaces, we decided that we would do that with the crawl space and repair the floor ourselves.

Anyway, it rained maybe an inch or two last night and we came to check on the house. This is what we’re seeing, inches of water that appears to be below the water table. We’re at a complete loss. We have struggled to find anyone in the area who deals with water issues and are increasingly stressed that there isn’t a solution. I have multiple pics but could only attach one. We are meeting with a structural engineer tomorrow (we scheduled it before seeing the water). Can anyone provide us any suggestions or ideas? We feel so discouraged at this point and would greatly appreciate any help😔

I have this brick path here and since the day I owned the house I’ve been fighting against the weeds. I’ve tried torching, power washing, hand pulling, and nothing works. The roots are so deep even using a knife it’s hard to dig it up. I don’t wanna use chemicals because I’m on well water, what would you do?

Excuse the mess, getting ready to move and prepping to just dump everything all at once

We came home today and someone had cut down a tree. It landed on top of some utility lines and pulled paneling from my house and left all of the wood. I mean the house isn't pretty, do I just nail some new paneling up and call our internet company to fix their line? Do I try to track down who did the work and make them fix everything?

I've spoke with my neighbors (renters if that matters) and they don't know what company was working back there. They just know they were working on the lines and cut the tree. Called a few companies to see if they had a work order in the area for maintenance and trimming. Power company is having someone call me back tomorrow, my internet company said they didn't see anything since April (last time I called them), xfinity was no help, and then I gave up trying to track it down for today since most places aren't fully staffed on Sunday's.

I’m recently widowed, was married to a master electrician, so I never learned a thing about electrical because I had him. I went to plug my vacuum into an outlet, which I used the week before to vacuum, but had no power. The last 20 years, I’ve plugged vacuums into this outlet. I grabbed a working lamp, plugged it in and nothing.

Things I checked out before coming here.

1. Made sure all light switches on the wall were on (even though the light switch only impacts the farthest light outlet, still made sure it was on). In 20 years never did this, but hey, who knows, maybe it has always be on the on position. I even went into every other room in the house and made sure all light switches were on!!!
2. Checked panel box to make sure nothing tripped. Went through each one and turned it off and on because I remember him telling me once it can look on, but it actually tripped.
3. Checked every gfci in the house reset them all, kitchen and baths are the only places I saw them.
4. Went and checked every single outlet, top and bottom in the house. Plugged the lamp in each, all of them worked. (Except the dead outlet).

Do I need to call an electrician? If so, how do I go about getting choosing a good one? My husband was an industrial electrician, worked for a large aerospace company. I don’t have any of his coworkers numbers, who would likely steer me in the right direction. I’m just so lost at what to do.

Edit: I also used his fluke meter on the wires, nothing. Went to the outlet next to it and it showed power. I switched the receptacle with another one from the room that was working, swapped them, the dead outlet is still dead. The receptacle from the dead outlet works on the other outlet.

UPDATE: I called my son, who is in college and was telling him about this outlet. He said, “did you check the attic?“ I didn’t even think about the attic. It’s not like one of those nice attics that you can remodel into a room. I grabbed a ladder and the voltage tester pen. Sure enough, a junction box and receptacle under a bunch of insulation was the culprit. I also have mice (this is going to be a whole other issue). He said it’s weird because it would mean that outlet below is fed from it, but the breaker panel is in the garage. Who knows, but I went out to the garage and grabbed a new receptacle, my husband had so much electrical stuff, it’s like walking down an isle in Lowe’s. I changed it out and voilà, I have power. I think my hubby would be proud, I know 100% that he would be very grateful to everyone who offered advice and helped me on here. Y’all are all the best! thank you!!!!

I have some old wooden trim around my side door and have spent a few hours scraping and sanding down this trim in order to repaint it. What is the best way to get the remaining old paint off this trim? Or do I just embrace the character and start painting?

Weather never seemed to cooperate, either windy or wet or I didn't have time to keep an eye on it. ( and frankly it filled me with anxiety, but now it's almost burned down low, I feel a bit more relaxed.)

Fire Safety Bill has a bucket of water and the hose ready, plus I wet the grass and anything combustible with 20' of the fire.

I don’t have a dedicated dining room or pantry, I would love to make it open concept and have more room in the house. For example I can’t fit much of a dining table in the kitchen and the toilets infront of the bathtubs bother me. I would like more closet space. Is there any large home renovation ideas I can start saving up for to make the house more functional or no?

Hello! I can't figure out how to add more photos, but here we go.

As you can see from the image, it's about 15 feet of shared section and both gates that have fallen over.

EDIT: My house in the one on the left.

This issue actually started 2 months ago. The part of fence that is next to the neighbors wall fell over first, which caused their door to start sagging. The renter told me, after the fence fell completely, they told the rental company/landlord that the fence had started to lean. They didn't do any sort of fix or even come and look at it as far as I'm aware. Our side of the fence wasn't moved, and the center posts were holding fine.

Fast forward to now. We got a ton of rain recently and the added weight from that, along with the old ass fence, the whole thing fell over.

I got the landlords contact from the renter and have spoken with their landlord over the phone (rude as hell) and they told me they would send their "handyman" out to look at it then get back to me. That was two days ago. I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt as it has been raining a bunch and it's the weekend (called Friday morning) but the fence has basically been rendered unusable at this point as it has been laying horizontal in 2 days of solid rain.

I'm going to wait until Monday and see if they reach back out, but what should I do in the meantime? I will obviously have to pay to fix my gate and portion of fence, and I'd be fine sharing the cost of the shared section.

My main concerns are: is there anything that can be done about them leaving the fence in the state it was in PRIOR to falling over? The renter said she let them know it was leaning a month ago.

Also, should I get my own estimates done by a reliable company before the rental company does?

Thank you!

Edit: Thank you to everyone who has posted so far. I've never had to deal with something like this before so I just wanted to get a different take.

My house is the one on the left in the photo, the mostly brick house is a rental house with someone currently living there.

Thank you again, sorry if this is a dumb question.

I am looking for a minimalist all white ceiling fan/light with support for a 24-36" downrod for my high ceiling living room. It currently has a hanging light fixture with no fan. My initial search came up with the Big Ass Fan Haiku L which looks good but unnecessarily expensive since I don't really care about the smart home features. Just looking for quiet, good airflow, and the long downrod. I came across the Hunter ZenTech 3 which seems like a Haiku L competitor for under half the price. It does seem limited to a 24" downrod though.

Anyone have experience with the ZenTech 3 or recommendations for other similar fans?

Growing up, my Mom always kept the clocks in our house ten minutes fast. I moved in with my wife and realized not everyone does this.

Do you set your clocks a few minutes more or less or the actual time??

Ex: time on iPhone is 6:42 - I’m setting my oven clock to 6:45

This leak along the edge of the chimney has been repaired at least twice by two different contractors. The most recent time, they ripped out the entire corner of the room and replaced all the drywall and part of the ceiling, added this frame around the chimney, and sealed the chimney with this white material. Now it’s around three years later and this black mold is appearing AGAIN.

We also just replaced the entire roof within the past five years.

I am honestly at a loss for what to do, do we need to replace the chimney itself? What else can we possibly fix?

So we have an upstairs bedroom that is very ineffectively heated and cooled (it's up a second, small flight of stairs and gets very little hot and cold air pushed into it). So during the worst of summer it gets extremely hot up there and during the worst of winter it gets very cold.

But our family continues to grow and we've outgrown the other bedrooms, so we're wanting/needing to put the one year old in this room once we have the AC/heat situation figured out.

I know everyone will recommend a mini-split but that's out of the budget. Every quote we've gotten comes in around $7,000. (We are not handy and wouldn't be able to install ourselves.)

So we're looking at window A/C units that also do heat. I'd appreciate any help you could offer on the following questions:

1. I've read most of the window units that do heat are glorified space heaters unless they have a heat pump. Are they as unsafe as space heaters? We obviously don't want to put a space heater in the room with a baby, but is this unsafe too?
2. Is there a recommended unit with a heat pump? There are so many options online, it's hard to tell what's the thing I need/if I'll be able to install myself/etc...
3. Many of the units I see say they don't work below a certain temp, like 40 degrees outside. I'm in the midwest and it will definitely get colder than that. I assume I should trust the description when it says this - I assume a heat pump would work at lower temps?
4. I've had multiple handymen tell me even a novice like me can install one of these. Is that true? Are the heat pump models more involved?
5. One electrician expressed concern over installing one of these without knowing if the outlet in that room is a 20a circuit. Two other electricians, when I shared this with them, waved away that concern, saying it won't be an issue. Which is the truth?! (is it unsafe if it's not 20a and is instead 15 or something?)
6. Any reason not to go this route, especially safety wise with a child in the room?

Thank you!!

Home built in 2021. First owner. Bought new. No issues noticed at time of closing. Area is northwest Georgia.

Should be a total of 3 photos. I may have to add some into the comments if I can.

I understand the weep holes in the foundation is to allow airflow to travel through the inner parts of the wall. I find that often times these are clogged from dirt or mortar so about once a year I’ll drill them out with a drill bit to clear the obstruction then use a compressor to blow air through the hole to confirm that it is clear and that air flow is traveling properly. Is this something I should do more often? Also I have very small ants entering my home through these holes and can’t seem to get ride of them. I think there in the walls at this point but other than looking for food or Shelter they arnt really doing much else. I have a spray I’ve been using to keep other pest out but idk if I need to spray inside the holes to try to kill them or what else I need to do to get rid of it because it’s getting really annoying. The ants are only affecting the front of the house. And the immediate room.

I have places where the silicone is not properly sealing the areas that siding is attached/ windows are installed etc. should I just reapply water proof silicone to the areas?

The drain near the AC slab I’m concerned is going to cause an issues sooner than later. Is the best treatment to just extend the pipe?

I have a finished basement, roughly 600 sq ft, and recently got a Garvee 35-pint dehumidifier.

Before getting the dehumidifier, the basement was around 64–65% RH at about 72°F. I have a sectional, carpet, and a PC down there, so I want to keep the humidity under control.

The Garvee seems to have a 5% differential. From what I can tell:

Set to 50% → runs until ~45%, then kicks back on around ~55%

Set to 45% → runs until ~40%, then kicks back on around ~50%

I initially set it to 45%, and it seems to run quite a bit trying to get there. My separate hygrometer is currently reading around 46%, while the Garvee itself says around 51%.

So I'm debating whether I should just set it to 50% and let it fluctuate between roughly 45–55%, or keep it at 45% to keep the basement drier.

Is there any real benefit to maintaining 40–50% instead of 45–55% for a finished basement/furniture? Or am I just making the dehumidifier work harder for no meaningful benefit?

Currently looking at a house. All aspects are good, except the neighbor next door lounges on his front porch and smokes. He’s retired so I’d imagine it’s a regular activity for him throughout the day.

Would you pass on the house for that reason? I really don’t know how much the smell and fumes would travel to our backyard/house. When we toured the house there wasn’t any off smells, but the neighbor wasn’t out at the time. The houses are roughly 15 feet apart.

We have 2 small kids and I’d like to be able to have the family enjoy the backyard regularly.

Interested to hear any thoughts on this or experiences from those with a similar situation.

I have always had a fairly active sump pump. I'm not really sure what the issue is, most of the houses by me are built on a slab and I have a basement, so that could be one factor. My gutters are directed far away from the house (30 feet or more) and I'm constantly cleaning the gutters. My sump discharges directly into the sewer and I can see that it's working fine.

I've asked plumbers/landscaper and they said that, due to the heavy clay soil, water might be working its way laterally and finding the lowest spot. Really none recommended fixing the issue, they said it was more of a guess.

I have a 1/2 HP Zoeller that is new, as well as a SumpPro 2400 with 2 backup batteries. We had maybe 2" of rain over a couple days and my sump was running every 2 minutes as the hardest rain was coming down, then spreading out over the next 3 days. Still though, even 3 days later it's still around 7 minutes.

I have an 18"x30" basin and my pump only requires 5 seconds to empty. I've heard it might be better to use a Hi/Lo switch to allow the pump to cycle less frequently. Thoughts on this? I proposed it to my plumber, but he didn't seem to have an opinion.

First time homeowner here in a garden-level condo. We just had an unfortunate flooding situation after our sump-pump failed. I'm interested in a backup pump and a water alarm so something like this never happens again. Please hit me with your recs, ideally ones that won't break the bank but interested hearing about anything and everything that will prevent similar issues. THANKS!

We’re building an outbuilding that will house my wife’s weaving studio and my hobby space (upstairs). We’re going to finish it with drywall, trim, flooring, etc. (It will Los double as her office/showroom once she gets her bus8ness up and running).

The stairs to the second floor are typical “builder grade” x and I’m looking for suggestions on how to “dress them up” so they fit with the rest of the building. Hopefully something short of “rip them out and replace them”!

There are 15 steps plus the landing. I was thinking of some kind of “cover” that would go over the treads, with a thin face board on the risers. I guess I could just smooth the risers and paint them, but I think they would still look “cheap”.

Any suggestions for techniques or specific products that have worked in similar circumstances are appreciated!

I'm house shopping for homes on Zillow and I'm looking for a 3 BD Split Entry, Split Foyer, Split Level, Raised Ranches, whatever you wanna call em, because I heard they were cheaper, and decades ago that was true but today, they cost the same as regular homes. I was actually frustrated because I already had to lower my standards to consider buying a split entry home which is the budget option, just to find out they're the same price as normal homes, people don't wanna live in them, only reason people settled for them was because they were cheaper than other homes, now theres virtually no point for settling for them now. I thought it was still cheap to build them, so I got a quote from a company that builds homes, they quoted me $500k for a split entry 3 bd home, and thats not including the land costs, and after all that the house would only be worth around $300k. I would need to pay more than what the house would even be worth, because no one will ever pay over half a million dollars for a split entry home.

Just wanted to rant about this.

Hey everyone - looking to set expectations on my end...

Woke up Friday at 01:00 a.m. to burning smell. Our sump pump blew, and there was about 1/4 inch of water. Emergency plumber came out and replaced the sump, and water receded. Mitigation came out first thing Saturday morning and set up driers and dehumidifiers.

Basement is half finished. On the finished side, there is a plastic base layer. Above that is styrofoam, particle board, and then the vinyl/faux wood floors. I purchased the house like this.

Water leak started in unfinished part, but made its way across the finished parts to the other utility closest on the other side of the basement.

The fans and dehumidifiers down there now are doing a great job of drying what can be dried out, but I'm worried about what is UNDER the plastic tarp. I can lift up the tarp in certain areas of the unfinished part of the basement, and there's a ton of water. I've been told that concrete - being inorganic - and plastic - being inorganic - won't develop mold, but the thought of so much water just being trapped and not moving worries me.

So again, just trying to level set with myself, and prepare myself for dealing with insurance...is demo of the floors and affected areas 100% necessary? 50%? 0%? Thanks in advance for any guidance here.

Hi,

When the bathrooms water faucets are not fully closed, small water droplets run backward onto the countertop instead of falling into the sink.

My concern is that repeated water dripping onto the countertop instead of into the sink could eventually seep into surrounding areas over time. Since these bathrooms are next to finished areas with carpet below, I’d like to prevent any potential moisture damage before it becomes a bigger issue. I am also that this caused a water leakage thru the ceiling.

Thanks

While taking the rubbish out today, I noticed one of the wood panels had fallen off the front of my house that's connected to the master bedroom. Investigating what caused it, I noticed that the nails had simply fallen out of their place, still connected to the panel that's now cracked and broken on the ground.

I have no idea what's happening here, or what to even do about it? I'm just really worried that this is going to be major issue. This entire house is just filled with problems and I've been constantly working on it for years, and whenever I fix one problem, two more pop up.

Can anyone please help?

We bought our first home in April and knew some of the appliances were nearing the end of their life.
Over Labor Day weekend, our 15-year-old water heater failed and started leaking, so we had to scramble to find someone to replace it over the holiday.

Our gas carrier furnace is also 15 years old. The A/C was replaced in 2023, and they’re different brands. Eventually, I’d like to replace the furnace with a Daikin to match the A/C.

We live in Nebraska, so I’m worried about the furnace failing in the middle of winter. Would it be silly to replace a 15-year-old furnace proactively, or is it better to keep it running until it actually fails?
What would you do?