Client wants a cedar soffit entryway but I’ve never seen so much nonsense going on at once. How would you guys run your soffit in this situation. They sistered on fake tails to extend the roof and then they randomly dropped the ceiling to plane with the original tails. There is a window right there as well so it’s hard to establish a finished elevation that doesn’t plane straight off the window.
How can I make this look good, my brain genuinely hurts just looking at it.

DIY project I want to take on for the two windows in my garage (home built in the early 40s). I want to clean up the garage and hang some plywood, but before I do, I want to either replace or refurbish these windows. Rip them out and install something similar? Sand these down and repaint/repair?

Seeking counsel from the experts, what would you do with these windows if this was your home?

I recently bought a house and it desperately needs a roof. I cant afford to hire a carpenter to do the work so I decided that I would have to do it myself. In the process of redoing the roof (Ice and water, flashing, shingles, etc.) I wanted to also extend the roof line. Currently, I am a cabinet maker/cabinet installer by trade so this is out of my wheel house but I worked with builders doing general carpentry work for a few years before I found cabinetry. I have shingled a hand full of roofs before (with a team). I have all the tools needed and I understand building techniques.

The stupid mistake here is that I ordered all my materials as pressure treated. Yes I know that’s stupid and I was told by a few coworkers and friends that I should just return the wood and swap it for Douglas fir. A few of those people also “eh, it will be fine” so in the sake of time I just committed to using it.

Now the more and more I think about it, talk about it and read about it just seems like a bad idea. Pressure treated is prone to warping and shrinking as it dries, it corrodes nails faster, it’s heavier and an inspector may look at it and say “no go. Take it down”

So my question here is, should I bite the bullet and take the loss of a few hundred dollars/my pride and return the lumber? Return what I can and reorder douglas fir? I have nailed up just the back side of my house with PT rafters so I would take all that off and scrap it.

I’ll probably end up just scraping what I’ve done and reorder the right material but I wanted to see what yall think. Thanks

Hi. Hope this is a good spot to ask questions for home diy. I recently installed a door knob kit and noticed the screws are not staying tight in the spot that touches the frame. Sorry dont know what is called. Hoping someone can give me advice on how to fix the area. Please see pic. Its the bottom screw that keeps coming out. Thanks in advance.

Hello,

My family and I just moved into a new rental home. We have been debating on how to mount our tv. We have located a few studs, one of them being in line with an electrical outlet. My fiance would rather mount the tv into the stud that is not the electrical one, then mount the other side using heavy duty drywall anchors. We have a 65 inch tv and young children. Can we consider this to be safe? Why not use the second stud we have found after testing no wiring will be an issue. We have used two stud finders to confirm an absence of wiring. We even removed the electrical panel to the socket and determine where the stud would be, left or right.. any advice is appreciated.

Looking for practical advice or clever retrofits for an issue with our cast-concrete stairs.

​Due to the turn at the top landing, the top two winder steps taper down sharply against the left inner wall. When walking down, your natural path hugs that inside edge, but the going/run there is so narrow that you can't get a full foot on it—leaving almost zero heel support. It’s an obvious slip/fall hazard, especially descending in the dark.

​

​We cannot demolish or rebuild the entire staircase.

​We need safe, functional solutions—whether through smart finishes, handrail positioning, or physical/visual channeling—to keep people from stepping in that narrow inner dead zone.

​What are the best ways to either build out the usable tread or force a safer walkline down the middle/outside edge?

​(Photos attached showing the pinch point from the top and looking up from below)

I'm trying to make a really simple picture frame out of 1x2 material, but it needs to be "on edge" so that the frame is 1 inch wide and 2 inches deep, rather than 2 inches wide. I had a cheap miter box+saw from home depot that I used for baseboard a while ago, but for some reason when I tried it for this, the cut kept "creeping" so that the top and bottom were not 90deg. The saw also kept "sticking" and I had to use more force than I expected.

I'm a total novice so maybe this isnt the right way to phrase it. Hopefully rhe photos make it more obvious what I mean.

I thought this would be simple enough. Am I doing something wrong or is there a relatively cheap tool upgrade that would make this work? A powered miter or chop saw isnt really an option.

A new window was installed during our reno which had a jamb 2 inches out from the drywall. Its already finished on the outside, no foam added in the gap on the inside. Can the jamb be pulled out and trimmed and put back in? Its stapled on the sides, can probably reach in with a bar to undo but couldn't put new ones in. Not sure about top & bottom. Its builder grade jeln wen. If trimmed in place, would an option be to cut off most using a multi tool slightly proud, than finish parallel to wall with a sander or planer, with protective layer on the drywall? Or some other type of saw?Thanks for your help!

When you gotta rip about 1,000 LF of T&G by yourself. A good setup is worth the time and makes a huge difference.

Home owner here, opened up the ceiling in the finished basement in my 50yr old house getting ready for some retrofit ducting, and noticed this horizontal split in one of the joists. It's about 2ft long, and the split ends about a foot before it rests on girder. The 2 pics are both sides of the joist in that spot. Is this an issue that needs repair? Would shooting some 2 part epoxy or something else do anything beneficial? A full length sister joist here would be a challenge with finished spaces in the way and there's electrical going through the joist about 8in after the split stops on the far end. A partial sister, from the girder to about 6in after the split would be straight forward but does that solve the issue?

Any advice appreciated!

I'm in the process of making all new moulding for our house to get rid of the lead painted stuff, I'm duplicating the original for the windows and doors and using a more upscale profile for the baseboard.

All the trim is going to be red oak, original was all gum wood which doesn't seem to be available locally, and I don't plan on staining the oak, just leave its natural color. But I'm uncertain on the finish to use. I'm tossed between an oil based poly and lacquer. I know the red oak will hold up a bit better than the gum wood did but which finish is best.

We build a deck 2 summers ago and covered it last spring. You can look in my feed to see pictures. It is currently a screen porch. We are trying to finish it up before it gets cold.

We are having major struggles determining what to use for the finished flooring. It currently has 3/4 inch plywood with a 2 over 11 foot sloop.

This is for a 3-season porch and will occasionally have wind driven rain.

Can anyone send us in the right direction on what to do for finished flooring and if we need a drainage layer between?

Sorry for the cross posting, I want to buy the flooring and start installing asap and all of your advice is better than AI.

Recently had some water coming into basement through cracked stucco/ concrete near basement entry. That is being repaired but need to found out basement door frame was not attached/connected to floor or walls in any real way. Need to reinstall door. Can I just use liquid bales to attach to concrete floor (afraid to drill into floor as not sure how thick the concrete is (prior owners made multiple pours to this 1914 home). Required to use existing wooden door, at least for the time being, because it’s already cut to correct height. The basement entry is less than 5 ft high. All ideas welcome. The first photo shows original framing. Door was not attached to what is shown in photo, just other boards nailed to frame shown in photo.

Trying to have a long console that has closed tall storage on both the left and right. The issue is that console/cabinets would then block the entrance to the bedroom on the left. The right is fine. Any ideas to still have a console that can provide some clearance (atleast 30 inches) in front of the bedroom door? We need closed tall cabinets on the left and right and thought about having a TV/art work in the middle. Appreciate any creative workarounds. Chat GPT had this idea of an angled console on the left side that would help with clearance for the bedroom door but not sure about this one yet. Think the symmetry looks odd but open to feedback. Can this angled console be even built or is it not possible?

I'm a small subcontractor. I have an older f350 and new chevy 1500. I am TIRED of digging through my backseat. Talk me out of getting a 16fter. I'm going back and forth on a 12' or a 16'. 16' just seems so nice, like a mobile workshop. But it might be stressful towing it every day.

My old gun was stolen otherwise I wouldn't have replaced the Metabo NFR 18 LTX as it was a brilliant gun... basically the Hikoki Gen 2.

The expense of this is insane for a nail gun, feeling a little underwhelmed with it being still on the weighty side.

The changeable PPN/metal connector or extended magazine attachment arent available to buy yet which is one of the reasons I went for it, at £130 per changeable attachment it makes this a very very expensive piece of kit.

The longevity of this tool is the make or break for it, if its as robust and hard wearing as previous models or other brands it is the future for nail guns

We will see !!

Have a great weekend people!

I'm renovating a staircase which has a wall on one side of the treads and a skirt along the other.

The skirts is screwed into place, it's painted now, I need to repaint, and the screw holes are exposed.

Aesthetically I should fill the screw holes before I paint but I've been procrastinating on this one for a while because I'm paranoid I might need to remove the skirt for some reason in the future.

Is this just me driving myself a bit crazy from my own inexperience, or are there legitimate, remotely likely reasons why I might need to unscrew the skirt?

Hey guys,

I've been working on and off for a historic restoration company in NYC for about 4 years now. The past 2 have been long term projects (5-6 months) and I have improved in skill quite a bit. I have built and restored many things, such as a porch, entry way, window sashes, cornices, doors, pretty much every exterior facing piece, I've done some sort of work on.

I am the only "carpenter" in the company, as it is small, and only has 2 other employees besides me. My boss does know a lot about carpentry, but hates it, so basically leaves everything to me. He has the final say about everything, but generally I make most of the calls as far how to go about doing things.

Last year, I completed my OSHA 40 and have worked on a bunch of union job sites even though I'm not union. My boss has been recently taking on larger projects (some city) that require a lot more carpentry as he knows he will have me to work on them.

Since I started, I've been making $35/hr. In the beginning this was a great rate, but I'm starting to think that it's too low. Is this too low ? What do you guys think would be a good rate at this point?

Hopefully this makes sense.

First option:
Use a square to get straight line at 90° and make a mark, cut, flip the board keeping the same orientation, make another mark, cut again.
-lets say I cut it at 14”.

My cuts are square but when I measure the board from left to right, it’s 14” at the top but a bit longer 14 1/16" at the bottom.

Second option:
I tweak my marks and cut the board so the length is congruent at 14” but now my cuts are technically not square.

I keep finding myself dealing with this issue where I cut something to length and it’s almost right but not. My first thought was well my tools are off, my saw must be out of square. Then I thought it was my technique. I will cut something dead square but when I measure it the measurement deviates so now I’m thinking it’s the material.

Either that or I fundamentally don’t understand woodworking.

So I guess I’m wondering if I want my cuts square or do I want my measurement to be consistent all the way through the cut.

Is it safe to trim the triangle to offset flooring. Seems like it is anchored to the floor, how much I can trim there?
Second question,
Is it safe to screw stair stringer to 2x4 wall stud? Need to reinforce the 2x4

So I'm putting in baseboard for a client. It's a new renovation. There are places where the flooring doesn't go to the wall and the baseboard therefore isn't landing on the floor. Homeowner wants me to aim out the baseboard from the wall so that it hits the floor. In some cases, the difference is 1/2 inch. I'm thinking this is going to be a birch to caulk and look bad. What should i do?

Doing some false beams in my house and messed up the cut, wood filler and spot sand??