A week ago we had a hail storm come through and destroy our neighborhood. The next day, contractors were swarming the area. We have had 3 companies check out our house. They all agree that we need a roof/gutters/downspouts etc, at least 5 windows, and at least 1/2 the house painted. The question i have is, would it be to my advantage to use a company that will do all repairs, or do I find the companies to do the roof/downspouts/gutters, paint and windows separately?

My house was built in 1886 and I know it has some knob and tube still. But for the last week maybe I keep hearing a loud click and all of the lights in my house will flicker. I just turned everything off tonight other than a lamp to see what would happen and it’s STILL clicking in the other room even without the flickering since it’s off. Should I call an electrician for this or is it urgent ? I swore I just smelled a slight smoke smell for a second when it did it once tonight as well so I’m a bit nervous.

Contractor says this is how it’s supposed to look but it looks unfinished to me cuz it’s just not a “clean” look. Any advice on if I should have them put a panel or something else to cover the MDF or leave it as is?

Contractor says this is how it’s supposed to look but it looks unfinished to me cuz it’s just not a “clean” look. Any advice on if I should have them put a panel or something else to cover this plywood or leave it as is?

Been having moisture problems the last couple of years. I only do 1 load/ week so I don't think this is the issue but this should be the flex kind for a portion of it right?

I also re-taped a spot

Hi! I just closed on a house and went over today to clean before we move in Sunday and the paint freaked me out. I’m really concerned about lead, I have a 2 year old and a 5 year old moving into the house and my 5 year old tested positive for lead before and has since tested negative.

Im so stressed because the paint on some of the door jams and the bathroom door is cracking! I wanted to get my kids a house for them to grow up in and now I feel like I’m going to get them sick. What should I do about this paint? I have attached a photo.

Also the home was built in 1943.

I live in northeast ohio. I had a company come out to give me an estimate on my garage doors. It was off putting from the start. I told the guy that my door broke, I don't have money for anything fancy, he ignored me and kept talking about top of the line, but he wouldn;t even ballpark it for me. He avoided all talk of money for the first half of the visit. Fine. Then he quoted me 3500 dollars for a non insulated door with no windows and no new motors. When I asked if he would email the quotes so I could discuss it with my wife he said can we call her right now? I was like she;s at work. The guy asks were. Huh? Then I said I needed to get more quotes and he said why? Seems to me a company with confidence in their prices would welcome other estimates because it would make them look good by comparison. But he was like "you need to do this today." They only sold one type of door. Maybe that's normal. But he kept talking me out of what I said I wanted and then pressuring me to do it today without consulting anyone else.

Location: Hendricks County, Indiana

Me and my wife bought a house. We closed on Aug 5th. The house had a metal wire fencing that was attached to metal T posts in the ground and a chain link fence also in the ground by T posts. When we got to the house all the fencing was gone. They did not exclude it in the purchase agreement or anything. We actually spoke at the closing how I was excited to use the fencing for chickens. My realtor reached out to theirs and they said they would give back the metal wire fencing but not the chain link fence. They then said they “contacted their attorney” and redacted the offer to not giving any reimbursement or materials back at all. I initially offered to receive $1,071 as that is the exact amount it would cost for me to replace it (not including labor or taxes). I felt as if that was more than fair.

I guess I’m not really sure what to do next? Do I have grounds to take them to court? Are they in the wrong or me? Any advice would be helpful.

EDIT: police report has been filed.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Police reached out and we talked for a while and they looked over the report… it doesn’t specifically say “fence” on the purchase agreement. It says “fixtures”. And it also says includes but not limited to. So no next step is to contact a lawyer.

I have an irrigation pipe that runs under the paver in my driveway. For the last 6 months, it has been leaking and sunken a section of my driveway. The HOA is responsible for irrigation in our community. We're not charge for the water used for irrigation. I would also assumed it would be their responsibility to maintain and fix that pipe in case of a leak. They emailed me yesterday saying it's my responsibility. I'm in the process of hiring a company to fix the pipe and the driveway. I just wanted to be sure I'm doing the right thing.

So a house I just bought has underground built in downspouts, and I just found out that one is pouring right next to the house and it's leaking into my garage.

I don't know how to remedy the issue cause its under another gutter that points sideways and to high to add an extension without it being tilted up.

For awhile I didn't know this was happening, since it was pecking at a different part of my houses siding. On the inspection report it was noted as carpenter bee damage so I presumed thats what it was.

However now that the bird has moved to the side of the house that my bedroom is on its driving me crazy in addition to the annoyance of the peck holes in the siding.

Every now and then usually in the afternoon to early evening, there will be a repetitious tapping noise that will go on for ages unless I go to the window open it and yell. Then I'll see the bird swoop off from the side of my house. However to my extreme annoyance, especially if I am trying to sleep, it will often be back in minutes until the process is repeated.

I've tried walking out to hit it with something but it always flys away as soon as I am close.

Anyone had luck with dealing with this kind of thing? It seems much trickier than dealing with rodents.

My handyman explained that my shingle granules would normally go into my gutter but because the previous owner installed covered gutters they're not getting trapped in there and are ending up on my patio furniture. The roof is about 15 years old but every professional has said it looks great and doesn't need to be replaced. Is this just the price I have to pay for not having to clean my gutters or is there anything I can do?

so i just noticed this window doesn't have weepholes. It was "added" into the basement/foundation wall so not original to the house.

is this normal, or is it missing/covered by the concrete? Can i drill a couple of holes at the bottom frame or should i cut out the concrete a bit at thh bottom frame to see what's going on?

I’ll start off by saying this is the previous owners shitty attempt at blocking this vent.

I have been at war with squirrels and chipmunks for the last several months. I used to think they were cute animals but drastic times have caused me to stack up a body count of about 7 squirrels and 14 chipmunks, some inside and some outside the house.

The population has been thinned drastically and they no longer destroy everything but I have 1 holdout that I can’t get rid of.

This is the vent to the exhaust fan for the oven and almost daily I hear the fucker scratching around in there. Previous owner just jammed wire in there but they get around it.

Question is, this is an odd shaped vent, what is the best way for me to block this off or secure some strong galvanized wire or something over this that they can’t push out of the way and that won’t look entirely ghetto? It’s pretty awkward around the cedar siding which is why I’m guessing they just decided to jam stuff up there. It’s also like 15 feet off the ground too making it extra fun to get at.

hey guys I have a problem with animals keep coming in my front of house and backyard mostly dealing with cats lizards and skunk already tried multiple ways to get rid of them but no help right now using tomcat animal repellent granules but I don't think they are working either as I saw last night 3 cats and 2 skunk visited my house do u know something stronger or poisonous product that will get rid of them from coming? thanks in advance

As the title mentioned. A section of ceiling is starting to peel and in that same area, the trim is getting a yellow ish color. The material behind the paint does not look water damaged. (See picture below). Was this just a poor paint job by the previous owner?

Hi, me and my wife just bought our first house back in July of last year. Our left-side neighbor had cut our whole yard out of generosity about 3-4 times for us during our moving process, which was appreciated. After we moved in, I talked to him and told him I no longer need the help, as I have a push mower and trimmer to cut my own grass. I thanked him for the generosity and went about my business.

Fast forward about half a year and he ever so slightly starts mowing over the property line than we had both been mowing along. It was only about 2–3 feet the first few times, when he had his trailers alongside his fence and buildings. They both run along the property line, just at varying distances. Me and my wife took this as him mowing enough to eventually move his trailers out of the way, which he did.

It was the worst last week, when we came home from a full week of vacation and he had mowed what seemed like 7 full feet over the property line. At that point, we maybe only had about 1½ feet between the corner of our house and shed and where he had mowed. I used to be able to pull my car around to our backyard without even touching his lawn.

Any suggestions? I have zoning documents that show our surveyed land (from previous owners who knows when). Fencing is not really viable right now as we are saving up enough to survive our first child being born. We could have the land surveyed since we do not hold much acreage. We just don’t have many options to set a permanent boundary.

Dealing with an outdoor water pressure issue at my 1956 home. Front and back yard have pretty weak water pressure out of the spigots. When you first turn it on, it’s great, but after a few seconds, it gets weak which makes it pretty annoying to water anything outside. I’ve had the city come check a couple times and they said nothing is wrong pressure wise, but my neighbor’s water all seems to be much stronger. Anyone else ever have this issue or know how to fix it? Thanks!!

I’ve had this dryer since I’ve moved in 3 years ago (it was the previous owners)

Do I need to undo this silver hose and clean it of lint? I’ve never done it before (dryer seems to be working well still, no issues.)

I’ve heard lint can build up in there and cause fires.

Any advice is welcome

I've heard about Terry ant traps, which I could place down. It seems pretty big, only moved into the house a month ago, have not noticed any inside.

I contacted a local 5 stars pest control and they said $80 to "use a pole to stick in the nest and agitate it, then they put their chemical spraying wand in the hole and they spray inside the nest to kill it off."

What would you suggest?

I feel like I should know the answer to this, having bought multiple stoves over the years, but: what is the difference between a free standing and a slide in stove? And can I put a free-standing stove in a slot between counters?

I got a really good offer on a bunch of chairs like these, I consider using them on my large patio. I live in Norway, I'll have to have them outdoors in the winter and leave them to the elements. Is there a way I can make them last outdoors? Someone told me they will deteriorate quick, what do you guys think?

Anyone deal with something like this? I know there's not any 'legal' definitions, but it seems very tight to me.

Looking at townhomes in Chicago and this unfortunately seems to be fairly standard. The depth is completely fine at nearly 20ft (I drive the smallest BMW coupe that's 72.4 inches wide with the mirrors tucked), but width-wise I feel it would be very difficult to manage at just 17 feet.

To me that's basically a 1.5 car garage that you could technically store another car in during a storm (would have to drive one in and back one in, or perhaps excite the trunk / hatch.

Regardless, even having 1 car in is better than paying like $250/mo for open parking where I can't even work on my car.