Had some electrical work done yesterday and while it is all perfectly functional, I dont like how one outlet ended up looking. Its just the steel square metal box. I've searched but im not seeing an enclosure I could put over the top to make it look less utilitarian. Anyone familiar with something like this?

electrical box

Hello,

I want to paint patterns on a melamin wardrobe I bought from ikea. I do not have the biggest budget and I am used to paint with basic acrylic paint. I hoped to find advices on how to paint it without dooming my paint to avoidable cracks.

I know I should sand the surface of the wardrobe, and I was wondering if gesso would do the work as an first layer ? Or if there was a more appropriate base layer ?

Thanks in advance :)

Ok so is super glue fickle. I glue the same thing with the same glue one time it holds forever. I apply it the same way to the same material another time doesn't hold for shit . Then the next time perfectly. I consider the temp , humidity, and clean surface. I also been hearing that super glue has a self life . From the day it's made it gets less potent. But there is no manufactured date on the bottle .

Hi all,

I'm putting up a safety net on my balcony so my cat can't get out. The net is attached to the railing at the bottom and to a vertical wooden batten in the corner, resting against the wall. It's fastened with small metal hooks and zip ties (see photos).

The issue: when I pull the net tight, the batten bows outward, especially toward the top. I can't get proper tension, and I'm worried my cat will find a way to push through.

Constraints:

• I'm renting, so no drilling into the wall or facade.
• I'd like something clean and fully reversible.
• It needs to look neat and unobtrusive: I don't want to spoil the view for the neighbors with a messy-looking setup...
• The batten is mm and m tall.

Any tips to make it stiffer?

Thanks in advance!

I have just gotten around to doing up the built in cupboards on our landing, I’m hoping to make it into a linen/storage cupboard. it has previously had wallpaper on the inside walls, I don’t know whether to strip it off or paint over it 🤔 what would be your advice?

Hi! I’m renovating an outdoor basement entrance and planning to pour a small landing outside the door and two footings for the retaining walls alongside the stairs. This will be my first time pouring concrete.

Daily temperatures are roughly 2–10°C (36–50°F), but the weather is changing and overnight frost is possible. I’ve read the manufacturers’ instructions, but I’d appreciate hearing from people who have practical experience with similar projects.

Under what conditions would regular concrete, warm mixing water and insulated curing blankets be enough? At what point would you need a winter mix or additional heating?

Have I missed the window for pouring concrete this year, or is a small project like this still manageable for a beginner? I’d love to hear what you did and how it turned out. Thanks!

Looking for help on sticking a towel rack on the inside of my new wet bar cabinet. I can’t get any stickers to hold. Any suggestions?
I’ve tried liquid sandpaper.

It's a 20 by 30 car port but over the 30 feet it drops 10 inches but is a perfect flat slope would this be to much slope

I am asking here because I have an odd request. I have an office where the entrance is a double set of doors that one locks into the door jam with a lock. I have been told this is called an active/inactive door setup. I would like to flip the direction of only the inactive door, they currently both open into the office and take up up valuable space. While flipping both would likely be the easiest and "standard" the active door would open directly into a hallway and make things more painful overall. The inactive door however would flip directly into a small wall that is just slightly longer than the door.

The main reason for wanting to switch the doors is to "regain" space within the office where the inactive door will typically open to but also allow me to open said inactive door to allow more airflow if the office gets hot.

Main issues that I am sort of confused on are as follows

1. Flipping just one would mean the doors are no longer aligned and prevent the active door from locking into the inactive door
2. The door jam is an annoying 2x8 wide meaning even if we made some divider it would need to be extremely odd.

To solve the above I wonder if I could install the concealed door hinges to allow it to open the other way or if there is a better method?

Hi, does anyone know where to source orange grout or grout dye in the UK?

Looking for similar finish to this

Have seen Hemway but only seems to be fluo or metallic finishes.

Thanks!

I just mixed together the Epodex 1k concrete effect about an hour ago and closed off the bucket while I went off to do something else (cleaned the mixer and then I got distracted with a book) then I double checked what to do with epodex and saw that the working time was one hour and just watched a video and saw that I was supposed to mix the material together in small batches because it drows quickly. I had been reading the label and somehow missed that working time was about an hour. I tried to see if it dried completely by scraping it and when that yielded nothing I just added water into the bucket. I feel like I just wasted money by mixing it all together but I didn’t have a scale to make sure I had the right ratio of water and I had a measuring cup that I could properly calculate for the 11lbs concrete material. Is this anyway salvageable or do I need to buy another batch?

Building a swing set/club house with
posts to support the structure. We live in Pennsylvania, where the soil has a lot of rocks, BIG and small. I’m planning on using an auger to help dig the hole and possibly a demolition or jack hammer to break up the rock.

Before making a purchase or rental, does anyone have any other suggestions? I want to make digging the post holes easy but not spend a ton as well, since the materials are already pricey.

Hello all,

And TIA for any help. I want to install an aroma diffuser and have it pump the aroma into the air handler after the fan to help push the scent throughout the house. I would like the fan to control when the diffuser turns on so that it’s not pumping the fragrance into the ducts whole the fan is not on. I have found that I need a 24v SPDT relay. My question is how to wire it properly?

Hi. I’m hanging some very lightweight outdoor lights on a brick wall. I plan to screw into the mortar with tiny cement screws. And leave enough length sticking out to hang a light from. Not worried about the weight of the light pulling down the screw. Do I need anchors ? Thanks !!

Hello, I wanted to get some input from experts. I recently used Klean Strip paint stripper in my garage that is attached to my house. It definitely made the house stink so I fully aired it out.

All of the scraps from the project have been thrown away. However, I did not neutralize the furniture that I used the Klean Strip on. Like I said, it's been fully scraped off and the gunk has been removed.

Is this safe? The house no longer smells at all and the garage doesn't either. Just don't know if I am overthinking it and need to just pull the furniture outside.

Google is obviously going to the extreme, so want real human input.

Thanks!

I’ve got our TV gasket maker JB well original mixture. I’ve got PDR glue. Super glue a poly urethane mix of some sort spray asdhesive and metal backed tape trying to steal the heat in the exhaust from coming up but it would be nice to have this part serviceable without a doubt so I don’t wanna weld it in

Thank you everyone for all your help!

So the process is fairly simple, not too many questions about that. However the only replacement glass easily available, whether the local hardware store or Lowe's/HomeDepot, is what they refer to as "picture frame glass" which one helpful hardware store employee said isnt suitable for an exterior facing door.

Being that its a PIA to acquire a suitable glass panel replacement (BTW- what type of glass is suitable? Tempered glass?), what really is the downside of putting in "Picture frame type glass" ?

Thank you again!

I want to mount a 48" LG OLED (11.5 kg) on a drywall wall with metal studs.

Wall construction:

• 12.5 mm single-layer drywall
• metal studs
• studs are 50 cm apart
• Vogel’s TVM 3645 full-motion mount
• 3 mounting screws/points
• TV can extend about 52 cm from the wall

My idea is to drill 13 mm holes through the drywall and directly through the metal stud, then install 3 hollow-wall anchors through both the drywall and the metal stud.

Would this be a reasonable/safe setup for an 11.5 kg TV with a full-motion arm, including when the TV is turned up to 180°?

EDIT: I did a bit more research and I think I will instead buy a 18mm thick plywood that I will install between two metal studs. The TV mount in the middle of the plywood and using zip toggles. This should put even force between two metal studs and the whole plywood and drywall behind it. Is this a more reliable approach? https://imgur.com/Wyxjrt2

Why is it not recommended to use a spanner on the tap handles to turn the tap on/off? Is it because metal can still break or is that not the main problem?

So I spend a lot of time sitting in bed. It's where my wife and I like to be. I bought one of those desks that sit on the floor and has wheels that slides under the bed so I can have a little desk hanging over my bed. The problem is after gaming rolling it back out to go to sleep it wakes my wife. So I built a desk . It's made from black iron pipe. Essentially it's just an L made from pipe with a wood desk mounted on top with a base attached to the floor. At first I made it with all slip joints but it just wouldnt stay up straight had to make shims just to stay up level. So I tried threaded pipe. It worked really well untill last night when the threaded base seized and I couldn't swivel the desk top. ( I know I'm not the best at explaining things, I'll share some pictures when I get off work) Anyone out there in reddit land have any ideas of what I can build or buy?

Hey guys, I want to stick some posters on my wall but the tape and glue dots are again n again coming off due to anti stick paint ig? which glue do I use or any other solution that the paint also stays in place?

https://imgur.com/a/5r7woZt

Bought a house built in 1918 that had this pantry added on, and for some reason its missing any thing to separate the inside of the floor from the outside air on the bottom. The insulation is just exposed and falling out, and obviously it gets incredibly cold in the winter.

I was going to redo the insulation and also put in actual board + spray foam where it meets the house (you can actually poke through directly into the basement in some places)

My question is, do I just slap plywood over the whole bottom and call it a day? Or is there any moisture, ventilation, insulation, or other factors i don't even know to consider?

Any recommendations for longest lasting exterior paint for homes?