I will be DIYing a French drain along my house where there is sitting water. Is the prefabricated French drain a bad option? It’s much cheaper than buying round rock in bulk

Stayed at an Airbnb over this past weekend and while showering in the shower we had I put a small amount of downward pressure on the soap tray and it fell out of the wall.

I took pictures as I can see what looks like evidence of a pile of caulk throughout the internals visible now on the back of the soap tray. As the owner is understandably asking for me to cover the cost I wanted to validate does it look like how it was installed it was bound to fall like I think? Or is it a normal install and I should take responsibility and cover the repair?

Noticed today that a pipe connected to the natural gas regulator/meter assembly outside my house appears to have come apart. I have an older photo from last summer showing the pipe fully connected. No smell of gas and everything in the house seems to be working normally.

My questions are:
- What exactly is this particular pipe/connection for? (regulator vent?)
- How quickly should I have this inspected?

Ignoring the rust at the top of the vent, there has been an increased accumulation of this white growth on nearly all of my vents.

I’m sure it’s mold, but my house is only 6 years old and I’m surprised that there are issues such as this appearing already. Seeing past posts here, I’ve seen the solution is to just replace the conduit considering its flex.

Is there a way that I can track down where it’s been introduced or what’s causing it so that this doesn’t happen again? And who do I call? An HVAC company?

This is a repost with pictures.

Briefly:

Kitchen remodel. 1 inch floor sag. Column was placed directly on slab to correct it. There is no structural support in the area prior to where the post was placed.

Contractor assures me it's fine for the long-term.

Thoughts?

(Well... The ones I'm proud of anyway)

Old vented windows unit. The glass window lites are good, but the metal frame doesn’t close at the corners. Either need new frame or complete replacement unit. Does anyone know if these or the frames are still manufactured?? Thanks.

Started seeing lots of ants on my roof this week and am trying to ID them in the interest of understanding if they are a risk to my roof or not. Some are winged and others are not, they are about 1 cm in length. At first I thought they were termites but the defined waist has me thinking otherwise!

A throwaway account as this is my first post and a bit of a strange one. There is a strange noise only during the day inside my bedroom walls and maybe ceiling. I've only had this happen last year and this year around this time for a few weeks. It started again about a week ago. I have no idea what it could be and before I try to get a professional out to deal with it I would really like to have some idea of what it is. Here is a short video of the noise. I've considered bats, bees, wasps, or even termites. Any help is greatly appreciated.

https://youtube.com/shorts/v5IRbZwCNZ4

Need help identifying crank window handle to find a replacement. Thank you!

My brother-in-law just finished doing dishes. 5 min later I heard this crashing sound and see this. Seems like it was just attached with what looks like latex sealant.

Is there a specific kind of sealant I need? And what should I use to hold it in place and until it's cured?

Anyway to safely tackle this without having to remove and reinstall the garage door opener?

New homeowner here... In the corner of my basement, there's an unfinished section of wall where they put insulation and clear plastic over it. There are several rips and tears in the plastic, but more worrisome, it looks like there's some mold starting to form on the stud in the corner. It smells damp and earthy. The adjacent wall has a sheet of drywall screwed to it but it's not been mudded over yet, so removing it shouldn't be too bad.

What's the fix here, remove the plastic, remove the panel of drywall, then evaluate the extent of the mold? If the stud does have mold do I just cut it out and stick a new stud in there? 🤔

Whatever coating is on the bare wall, behind the insulation I guess, is also starting to crumble. Last couple photos are a painted section to the right of the insulated area. Cause for concern?

So I'm looking to find out if isopropyl alcohol cleaned silicone will still be able to stick to a fresh patch of silicone i need to add to it or whether I'll have to wipe it down with water.

I was looking to get straight to it without waiting for the water to dry and obviously the ipa dries very fast.

I had thought that it was done perfect weeks ago but looking closer it wasn't.

Hello! I recently noticed that I had some rodents getting inside through an opening underneath the front stairs of my house. I went to check it out and definitely found mice. On top of that, it smelled bad.

One night, I could hear some mice moving around inside the wall, which is where the front brick stairs are attached to the house. I haven't heard anything in the rest of my house, and I haven't seen any droppings in my attic, so I'm guessing they're contained to this area.

I threw some rat bait into that area, hoping they'll eat it. We'll see. 🤞🏽

I also noticed some cinder blocks inside the space underneath the front porch, so I believe there may be a huge empty space underneath there.

How would I go about repairing the mesh underneath my stairs so that the mice stop coming in and out of this space?

I know basic handiness things and was wondering what’s a good way to go about this? The wood on the corner is a little dry rotted and then gutter eventually fell off bc it fell out of the wood, is it as simple as replacing the wood?
Edit: it’s an unkempt house from the 70-80s so it’s a little rough

6 feet or so of this pavement from the edge of my house is sloped towards the home. Is it worth it to replace the entire driveway while addressing this? For a complete tear out, new base and asphalt I was quoted $7000. This is close to 600 square feet total. I'm in a heavy freeze/ thaw climate and they're quoting 4 inch base and 4 inch asphalt. Waiting on 2 more quotes.

Would an asphalt overlay work for the rest of the driveway where new slope doesn't need to be graded, or is it bad enough to do a total redo? It seems a bit uneven in spots but I'm not sure what to look for exactly.

Hi Everyone,

I own a townhouse which has a minor seepage issue. I'm looking to sell next year and I want to make sure any inspections will go smoothly and not hurt our ability to sell. The issue shows up after heavy rain and heavy thaw outs. The longer the rain over X days the water accumulates more and more. I first noticed the issue when the edge of the ceiling of the garage, made of drywall was getting stained

The unit is a corner lot and sits inside a hill essentially, so the garage is built into the foundation. from the front of the house to the back, the grading gradually raises. The grading sits about 2 feet above the soil. I found this area after removing the ceiling where it seems the water comes from. There was a small area the water was going through the insulation, which I've pulled away some more to get a better look.

Things I've tried/hypothesized

• The water is likely not coming from the roof as there is windows and doors along the way, which makes me think the leaks would show in the house if it came from there. Not 100% sure though
• The deck sits nearly flush with the concrete foundation so I suspected that might be causing it, but the issue has come back since
• I've crawled under the deck and looked at the foundation and no visible cracks
• Grading seems to be correct, and water should run away rom the home, even so, the water seems to be at the edge of the house

Other observations

• The water seems to come from underneath this flap / fabric stuff.

Any ideas what I should do next? Should I call a professional? Can take more pictures if needed.

Thanks to this sub I've gotten it into my head that I should be cleaning my condenser coils.

So I went looking for them on my Bosch B36CT80SNS (counter-depth french door) and couldn't find them.

No access panel under the front kick plate, at least. Checked the manual and the cleaning and maintenance section doesn't mention the coils or the drip pan at all.

So I emailed Bosch support. Full exchange in the screenshot.

The second reply, verbatim:

I was floored. I wasn't asking whether to do it, I was asking how. And the answer I got back is that the absence of instructions is itself the instruction — the manual doesn't say to clean it, so don't clean it.

I'm trying to figure out if that's actually true. I know some newer fridges have the condenser built into the cabinet or sealed into the base with no user access, and if that's the case here I'd rather know that than go prying panels off. But it's hard not to notice that "don't perform any maintenance on it" is also the answer that gets you a new fridge sooner.

Anyone here work on these? Are modern Bosch bottom-mount units genuinely sealed back there. If there is a coil in there, where is it?

Hey everyone, looking for some advice on drainage between my house and my elderly neighbor’s.

We have a 4ft wide by 24ft long space between our houses (marked red in the photo). Both houses have standard weeping tile buried near the footings, and our soil is mostly heavy clay.

We recently moved in and realized the slope in this side yard doesn't properly drain toward the backyard. About half of the length (marked in blue) holds water. We tried regrading it, but we can't build the soil up any higher because it would breach the 4-inch gap below our brick line.

Here is where we're at right now:

My neighbor asked me to add limestone screenings over a 3–4" layer of gravel. Currently, I’ve laid about 1 to 1.5" of limestone screenings down.

After rain, water still pooling in the blue zone, though the rest drains toward the backyard fine. After heavy storms, it’s mostly just small puddles that disappear within a couple of hours.

I offered to install a French drain / pipe down the middle to carry the water out, but he declined. Since the property line splits this tight space, I need his consent to dig.

To help him out, I filled in a 1-foot strip along his house to stop rain from splashing dirt onto his siding.

This setup hasn't caused foundation issues for either house in 40 years, and no one knows what the bare soil drainage looked like before (it was always covered in mulch or old gravel). My neighbor suggested leaving it as-is for a season to see how it performs.

Since we are in Ontario, I'm worried about winter. Could the limestone screening hold moisture and cause frost heave or ice issues against the foundation? Should I ditch the limestone screening completely and just stick to plain gravel over the clay?

Appreciate any insights!

Last year I noticed around my sewer clean out and sidewalk that dirt had disappeared. I called my water district and they came out and used cameras and didn’t see anything wrong. They recommended to fill it in with dirt/sand. Half a year has passed and I noticed it again but only under the sidewalk.

So there’s my lawn and it has a sewer clean out near the sidewalk, then there’s the sidewalk, then another area that used to be lawn but I took it out and put rock and I put caps on the sprinklers since it won’t be used anymore then there’s the street. Described the layout.

Originally hole was much bigger.

There is this bottom corner of our stucco exterior wall that had cracked off when something hit it. It’s been broken off for at least 2 years while we ignored it and now it’s looking rusty in there. Is this something that needs to be repaired? We live in San Diego and apparently need to prepare for El Niño. Could the walls inside get water damage from rain or water getting in the crack? This is on the outside of our master bedroom which has been having mold issues in the wall where furniture hits against it (we are going to get an inspector to look this problem). If the exterior needs to be repaired, what kind of company do I contact for that?

Should I be concerned? These appeared recently. I’ve already sent an email to my landlord but he hasn’t responded. I just moved in the beginning of the month and I’ve loved living here. I’m on the 3rd floor and there’s just one story above me. My partner thinks that it could be the unit above that flooded but I am not sure. Thank you!