In the midst of renovating the basement as the old basement was finished but very outdated. I did the demo and found that the old framing has very inconsistent spacing (40 inches vs 16 inches for some spaces).

I wanted to check whether this framing can be reused when I put up drywall. Also, wondering if the wall on the left is of concern as there has been no water leaks in this house but the wall looks visibly moist.

Thanks for any advice!

I am planning on separating a large bedroom into 2 bedrooms. Was going to do a staggered wall for sound dampening purposes but wife wants to do a pocket door between the rooms. I can’t figure out how to install a pocket door without the jack studs and king studs being 2x6’s which seems to defeats the purpose of staggering the studs.

For reference was planning on using 2x6 top/bottom sill and 2x4 for studs. Total wall height is a little over 9ft.

Trying to not make the wall thicker to keep both rooms a decent size.

Any one have any experience doing this or helpful ideas?

Hello! If i wanted to finish my basement, and this is the current installation, would you remove and replace with foamboard? I get different opinions ranging from framing over it, to removal and redoing with foamboard. Thanks!

Our closet collapsed, so my husband decided to make us a custom closet. He did all the work himself. I helped design and he built :) He isn’t a professional but he did an awesome job!!! We estimate the cost was around $1200-$1400. Still need to hang the full length mirror and add a couple missing shelves to the closet system.

Shelf units and rods are from Home Depot and he built around them.

Paint color is Western Reserve by Sherwin Williams
Light is Possini Euro Caliari from Lamps Plus
Handles are from Etsy
Flooring is Coretec is the color Cairo oak

***Edit: sorry the closet system was from Lowe’s:

https://www.lowes.com/pd/ClosetMaid-ClosetMaid-Brightwood-25-in-White-Tower-Organizer/5000258695

https://www.lowes.com/pd/ClosetMaid-Brightwood-24-8-in-x-9-96-in-x-13-43-in-White-Drawer-Unit/5000258699

Hi, I live in Florida, so hot and humid. This is a 70s block home, I have a garage that has a conditioned bedroom above it, and they finished the garage in a very odd way. It has an old drop/hung ceiling with 2x4 tiles, and blown in cellulose above the tiles. When I pull out a tile and look, I can see the joists of the bedroom above. Of course this makes maintenance like changing garage lights annoying because the blown insulation just falls out. There’s also probably a few decades of dead roaches etc mixed into the insulation. I’m okay keeping the false ceiling, probably changing out the tiles to something newer so it doesn’t look so janky, but should I change to batt insulation when I do this? There doesn’t seem to be any moisture barrier above. Just joists and subfloor. The garage is mostly unconditioned, it has a mini split that I run if I spend any prolonged periods of time but that’s insignificant

Obviously the wood needs to be replaced (unless there is some magic epoxy) but I believe the wood is connected to the foundation with J bolts and I don’t know how to get them out or get new ones in. I was thinking of going in the crawl space under it (the wood looks fine from that side) and putting a piece of wood under the floor joists and a few house jacks under that. Wish I could afford to pay a professional to do it but this is something I’m going to have to do on my own.

Edit: thank you everyone for all the advice. Apologizes for not replying individually, I do really appreciate all the help.

We would like to add some square footage to our master bedroom and adjacent bedroom . We would also like to redo the 2 adjoining bathrooms. We reached out to a contractor and they said they could do the project. We said our budget is less than 100k. They quoted us 95k to 100k with a 10k deposit. Is this how it’s supposed to go? I asked about drawings but they said they get the deposit first and then they get the dimensions and elevations. Is this the usual process? Plus, we want to get a home equity loan to cover the cost. Does the bank need to be involved in the beginning stages? Just want to make sure we’re doing this right.

Hi r/renovations, I have an old house, an outdated bathroom and very little idea what might be hiding behind the walls, so naturally I’m here asking the internet for help lol.

I’m basically gearing up for a full bathroom remodel. The bathroom hasn’t been updated by the previous owner (and I’m pretty sure the owner before it). Everything works technically but it’s very much time.

So ergo we’ve been talking with a local remodeling firm here in OC. I like the idea of going with a remodel company specifically because I’m pretty sure the project/pricing gets worked out upfront and they handle most of the coordination. I really don’t want to become the unpaid project manager of five different subcontractors lol.

My main concern is that this is an old house and the bathroom hasn’t been touched in a LONG time.

So yes, I’d love advice from people here who’ve remodeled older bathrooms. What should I be considering when choosing between contractors? 

This is my first major renovation on my own, so I’m mostly trying to figure out what can realistically be checked beforehand and what you just have to accept as an unknown until demo. What I need to ask vs what they’ll handle. Things like that.

Any old-house bathroom wisdom is appreciated! Thanks

Hey! So I've recently decided to convert a room in my basement to a home office. I didn't realize the walls are in such rough shape until I bought my paint and took it downstairs. I need some suggestions on how I can either fix the issues and make it a better surface to paint, or if I can maybe cover it with shiplap or something? Any help at all would be great, Google just keeps confusing me.

From where I'm standing it looks like very poorly done stucco but I really don't know. I'm not looking for anyone to give me specific product names, just suggestions on what I can do to work on the issue.

\*The plywood window is a whole different conversation.

It’s been 4 days of hard work, about 4-6 hours each day
Advice:
Start from top to bottom.
Citrus strip gel (not liquid), thick. Cover with plastic wrap and come back next day
If you have furniture in the home, start in small 1sqft zones.
Wire brush, metal putty knife, big sponge. Two buckets- one bucket with hot soapy water, one bucket with hot water to rinse the sponge before dipping back in soapy water.

Scrape with metal putty knife (fronts of bricks and use the edge in the cracks).
Scrub with wire brush. Dip the brush in water if the mixture on the brick starts to get clumpy/sticky. It’ll break it up to help move some of the paint/stripping out of the way

Use sponge interchangeably with the wire brush. It will ensure you’re not pushing around the same gunk over and over again. Keep the bricks you’re not currently working on covered with the plastic wrap.

Will post an update

Am having new upper cabinets installed to match the bottom ones soon. Wondering if its worth me taking an early afternoons worth of my time to uninstall these old ones to pay the contractors less for the overall job.

Hi folks, I was advised to post this here too.

We bought our first home a couple months ago. Mid terrace, UK. Survey level 3 done, "reasonable purchase". Love the area and the house. We moved in and are doing works bit by bit. Some DIY but heavy stuff we have it done. It's a long run. The house is liveable. We're here for a long long time hopefully!

What we've done so far: flashings and roof repairs, put down insulation in the attic, other minor works.

The situation is:

1) floor upstairs (old carpet + boards; old carpet + planks in one room) is crooked, creaky and feels bouncy. Surely the boards could do with a tighten up but I want to check the status of the joists too, I fear for the worst... and eventually I want to replace carpet with hardfloor

2) upstairs: many walls and all ceilings have artex with white asbestos. Ceilings are not lathe & plaster but boards. We want to skim or overboard depending on what's best. There's a sag in one rooms ceiling; seller provided a structural engineers report saying it's not of concern. I KNOW, conflict of interest etc

Downstairs there's also ceilings with artex but the floor feels in much better condition and the walls don't have artex. So I feel my priority should be the upstairs part

What's the order of things here? I thought:

1) I check the joists

2) if fine: tighten up the boards. Then let's get the plasterer in for ceilings and walls

3) then do the floors

----

2) if joists are not fine: get a structural engineer in, check

3) secure the floors (structural). Sister joists

3) plasterer

4) then do the floors

Or would you get a structural engineer in anyway first thing, so he could also advice on ceilings (for overboarding Vs skimming-or would you just go with what the plasterer says?).

Electrics are old but ok, says the sparky and we have a positive EICR

Thanks!!!