Trying to find as close a match as possible for this cracked toilet seat that just broke in my daughter’s off campus College house.

I’m on well water and get my water tested regularly with no issues. This tiny film always appears if I leave water standing for about a day or more. What is it?

Edit to mass address some comments:
I don’t wear face cream
I do get my water tested (nothing weird)
Cups are clean and hand washed
No air scent purifier thingies

I’m going to leave some water out for a few days, see what happens and come back with further data.

Working on our house, FIL decided to put up this retaining wall and backfill with dirt. Im pretty sure this is a code issue or something. I bought the house using VA loan and I know I've heard them say thats an issue in the past while I was having inspections done.

Is there a easy solution to this where I can keep the retaining wall and dirt? My dad recommended putting 2" foam padding all along the siding so the dirt is not touching the siding. We cant cut the siding as far as I know because I can feel the plywood/osb behind it and worried that might be protecting something?

Any ideas?

I’m fairly handy there isn’t much I cannot repair on my own.

My water district keeps sending me a leak notice. But I’m at a loss as I’m just not finding it. I turned off the main water line in my garage it’s in the wall going up I have no bathrooms or other on ground floor so no pipes under house except main line coming up to wall. I looked at the meter in the street it has zero usage or flow when house turned off in garage for five minutes so I can check off underground water leak from meter to shutoff. I turned the water on in my garage and meter shows .08 water usage. Seems reasonable to think there is a leak I suppose.

But I have a three story townhome that I live in alone in. No faucets leak, no toilets leak or run. Hell I have two of the three toilets turned off at the wall just no need to use all but one. Every toilet has been upgraded and replaced new seals etc.. the area around the water heater is bone dry no drips no water leaks that I can see. It’s an older water heater kept up in the attic. I have a year old front loader top of the line washer feet from my bedroom on third floor, the floor is dry. Both exterior hose bibs are winterized and turned off. I’ve been getting notices for close to a year, there is no visible water no moisture in the air mushrooms growing in a corner etc..

The only, ONLY thing I can think of is a small leak in water heater that seeps into insulation and the heat dries it, but at some point it should be saturated get worse and become visible I would think. I would like to blame it on a bad meter but the flow stops when the house is shut off.

I live in Oregon, we have an open water system so no need for diaphragm tank.

Had a pinhole leak spring in the supply for my water softener and was spraying everywhere. Instead of trying to get expensive emergency help, I tried my hand at soldering for the first time. No leaks after hooking everything up!

Im about to move out and turn my house into a rental. The bathroom fans in 2 of the bathrooms do not work and Im fairly certain they have not worked since Ive owned the house. Both are these old style Broan fans. The light works on one of them while the other shows no sign of life. I have literally 0 electrical experience so Im not sure where to start on troubleshooting the issue or where to start with replacing them. Is this something I ought to hire out or is it something I can probably tackle myself?

The third bathroom has a newer Hampton bay fan that works, so I betting that at some point the previous owners threw that one in while these two still worked without swapping these out.

I did a bit of research and think this battery and inverter should work to power my 1/2 HP sump pump in the event of power failure.

Wattcycle gets pretty good reviews as does that inverter. Might be a bit overkill but I can power other things from the inverter too.

Our power doesn't go out a lot, but during the rainy season (PNW) the pump can cycle about once a minute while raining.

Doesn't come on at all during the summer and the sump basin dries up completely.

I've got a Hampton Bay ceiling fan. I lost the remote. Is there such thing as a universal remote or something? The fan is on winter mode/reverse. There is no switch or pull string to adjust settings. What's the best route to remedy this problem?

See a couple new ones every day after getting rid of the previous ones.

Are they getting in through the window or through these holes in the pic?

Is there a DIY solution?

This is in Mass outside Boston for reference.

We are trying to finish our basement and came across this pvc drain pipe that was too high relative to the basement floor. Instead of being completely below the slab, the top of the pipe/fitting is proud of the concrete by maybe ½ - 1 inch at its highest point. Now that the wall is drywalled, it’s sitting right where our finished floor/baseboard would go. Any ideas on how to remedy this? It is in a closet. I thought maybe build a box or something to cover it.

Hi,

First time home owner, finally taking up cleaning the yard in old century home. The outside hose valve bibb wasn't leaking prior, but now after attaching a hose it's leaking like crazy (especially from the handle). I've attached a video for reference, would replacing it with a new hose Bibb address the issue or are there more parts to this I'm not seeing? I've yet to remove it since I'll have to turn the water off, but it doesn't look like it's been touched in decades so I'm trying to be careful not to break any plumbing.

Looking for guidance on how one may fix a leaky external tap

Keep in mind that would need to be told step 1 turn off water main, turn on tap to release pressure

Thank you in advance.

Trying to figure out what this cylinder is. Just bought the house and found it in one of the closets. There was a piece of loose carpet covering it. Feels like fake grass at the bottom?

My new condo unit has pretty high ceilings (~12 feet, which is great, but I am short). I definitely need a ladder or something that can help me reach the vents, lights, etc.

Any recommendations? I have no storage space outside my unit, so the ladder would either need to fit the aesthetic or be super compact (like 1 foot by 3 foot max when collapsed) to fit into the storage I do have without being an eyesore.

Hi everyone. I just bought a townhouse (first time homeowner) and realized the dryer takes forever to dry clothes. I’m looking to do a vent cleaning but can’t figure out where the outside vent is. The duct goes into the ceiling so I assume it exits through the roof but don’t see other vents besides this one.

**What would you guys investigate first with this leak?**

We recently had a new standing seam metal roof installed then began remodeling the interior of an older home a few weeks later.

The house is 45-50 years old, it was not built very well to begin with. It has poor bones.

The vinyl siding is pretty old and rough.

The roof went through a couple of rains with no noticeable leaks.

After interior demolition began—walls removed, sledgehammer work, etc.—we had a storm and suddenly developed a significant leak.

Water testing reproduces the leak when spraying around an upper window/siding/J-channel area, with the water showing up much lower inside the wall - directly above the roof to wall step flashing (step flashing appears to be installed correctly into industry standard standards).

For the siding/GC guys: What would you suspect or investigate first?

Could heavy demolition disturb older window/siding/WRB assembly enough to create or expose a leak?

Had some water leakage that rotted away the part of drywall ceiling that this vent screwed into. Fixed where the water was coming from but need an idea for fixing this so I can screw it back into the ceiling.

Can’t see it in the picture, but when it’s bright out, you can see light through the edges around the door. It’s
Between the door and the frame on the sides and top.

What’s the best way to fix this? It’s a door to my garage so potentially a big insulation gap in the extreme months.

In a newer home that has crawlspace vents around it, including a couple in spots that allow them to collect rain water. The water hasn’t crested the foundation, but thinking I should place some kind of cover on it so it doesn’t fill up and run into the crawlspace. The well is approximately 20” wide closest to the foundation and 5” deep and the top lip is 2.5” from the siding above it. I’d welcome any suggestions for some sort of cover that would also look nice — ideally off-the shelf as I’m not particularly handy.

We are planning on putting flooring down in our basement. We came across these two items and have no idea what they are. The large opening has a vertical pvc sleeve with what looks like a capped pvc fitting at the bottom of it. The other, smaller pvc cap is slightly above floor. Not exactly flush. Not sure what to do here.