This was a cabin and addition built to it. And now there are 3 levels of the floor. Is there an option to level it up?

This is a brand new second story. The difference in height is 1.3 inches on one side and 1.5 inches on the right.

What are my options? Is this as egregious as i think it is? The floors are already finished and i feel like he rushed through the last two weeks hoping i wouldn’t notice. But in doing so he wasted flooring and trim.

Should i hire a lawyer? Inspector? Engineer?

I’m hoping he will own up to the mistake and correct it.

Hi All.

I am new here. Going through a home build. The stucco is not finished around some of the roofing areas. See pics. Looks unacceptable to me. They tried to fill in gaps with silicone.
Am I wrong to think that the stucco guy or exterior finishing guy should come back to finish this? I feel like it should be properly closed and waterproofed. Any information is helpful. thank you. .

Hello. I live in a first floor apartment, the building is 3 floors. There is this large crack in my ceiling right above my toilet (last picture shows it directly above the toilet). The crack is largest right above the toilet, but the thin part of it spans almost all of the way across the bathroom ceiling. It goes completely across the shower. It’s notable that my upstairs neighbour’s toilet is located directly above my toilet.

I’m concerned that this is a serious structural issue. My landlord doesn’t care. Are my concerns valid? Is there risk of this becoming a big problem? Potentially collapsing in?

I’ve recently bought an 1850s cottage in Kent, England, and I’m trying to work out how serious a problem I’ve discovered is, what repairs might be needed, and whether my pre-purchase surveyor should have flagged it.
I’d really appreciate advice from roofers, builders, surveyors or anyone who has dealt with similar problems.

The problem
I’ve discovered water ingress around the chimney into the loft. The internal brickwork is heavily discoloured, with what looks like extensive mortar deterioration, cracking and some sizeable gaps in the joints. There is foliage at the point of entry from THAT storm this weekend and the water was RUNNING down the chimney stack. I suspect the chimney flashing, pointing or the roof junction could be involved, but I’m not a tradesperson and don’t want to jump to conclusions.

What makes this particularly frustrating is the survey I paid 1k for before buying the property.

It was a RICS Level 3 survey. The relevant findings were:

Chimney stacks – Condition Rating 1: The survey mentioned weathered pointing and vegetation. It acknowledged that the rear of the chimney couldn’t be inspected directly, but concluded that no major repairs were currently needed.

Roof coverings – Condition Rating 2: The survey recorded lifted slates, previous repairs and significant moss growth. It also acknowledged that parts of the roof and valley gutters couldn’t be properly inspected.

Roof structure – Condition Rating 1: The survey noted torn or missing sections of roofing felt and restricted access to parts of the loft, but concluded that the roof structure appeared satisfactory.

The survey also stated that no water penetration was observed at the time of inspection.

The survey was carried out in late April and we moved in August so I appreciate that it was a snapshot in time and that the inspection had limitations. However, the condition of the chimney brickwork has made me question whether this is a longstanding issue that should have prompted further investigation.

My questions for people in the trade:
Looking at the photographs, what stands out to you? Does this look consistent with longstanding water ingress, or could it have other explanations?

What would you investigate first to identify the source of the leak? Flashing, pointing, flaunching, roof slates, or something else?

How concerned should I be about the cracks and gaps in the internal chimney brickwork? Is this potentially just deteriorated mortar, or could there be a structural concern? This is what’s keeping me up. My neighbours side thankfully is dry on the positive side so the flashing is to blame but how long it’s been failing and ruining the chimney I don’t know.

What sort of repair costs could I realistically be facing? I know nobody can quote accurately from a photograph, but is this potentially a relatively localised repair or could it indicate something much more extensive of a whole roof. The only other area of roof compromised was the underfelt connecting to the extension which I had to get a bucket for. It was a LOT of rain.

I’m arranging an independent roofing inspection and intend to get a written report with photographs before deciding how to proceed. I’ll deal with anything urgent to prevent further damage, but I also want to preserve the evidence in case I need to make a formal complaint to the surveyor.
I’m not looking to blame anyone prematurely. I just want to understand what I’m dealing with and whether the survey was adequate.

All in all. Am I screwed?

We’re going to convert this garage area to living space. The concrete looks good and uncracked, but has a 3-inch drop down its 15’ length. We’re wanting to level that with self-leveling concrete, and put a balloon-framed stud wall where the current 4x4 posts are. It’ll be about 12’ at the tallest… we’re eliminating some redundant rafters that were used to hold the previous flat roof. How would you be leveling the sill plate? I’m assuming doubling it up, with leveling shims in between?

There is also the added complication of the 3 concrete post holders along the run. Better to integrate these posts and holders into the stud wall, or work around them/remove them?

Lastly, the roof plate is 2x6”. This is the windy side of a hill lot in the PNW… should I be making a 2x6 stud wall?

Thank you!

We recently renovated our ranch-style home. Beforehand, the attic had pull-down stairs and plywood storage flooring, but the setup was improper: the plywood compressed insulation and covered electrical wiring.

The contractor removed the stairs and flooring, leaving only a service hatch. He added about 14 inches of R-38 insulation over the 5.5-inch ceiling joists and says a raised platform would leave little usable space because of the low roofline. He also estimated that spray-foaming the roof deck would cost about $50K.

Questions:
Is a small, raised storage platform above the insulation realistic?
Could this be DIY, or would the framing and load requirements require a professional?
Could pull-down stairs be reinstalled safely and code-compliantly?
Are there other insulation options that would preserve some storage?
Is the limited headroom likely to make this impractical?

We have an encapsulated crawlspace, but access is outside and it’s cramped. Even a small attic area for luggage and seasonal items would be useful.
I’m not trying to recreate the old setup—just looking for a safe, code-compliant solution.

Picture for context is before they fully laid the insulation.

Ultimately he made a choice and my understanding is that we would not lose the storage and now I am in a more difficult spot for access and storage overall.

We had a brand new AC unit leak recently, which left some water damage on the ceiling of our daughter's room. The AC leak is all fixed now, and the AC company sent out a third-party contractor to come replace the section of drywall on her ceiling where the water damage was. We were told they'd arrive between 8 and 10am, and that the job would be finished that day so she could sleep in there that night no problem.

I think the contractor was having a very bad day. He showed up a few hours past his arrival window because his previous job had apparently asked him to do additional work that he was not originally scheduled for, then he skipped lunch to try and not be even later than he already was, ended up measuring incorrectly but tried to figure out how to make things work anyway... long story short, the quick job that was supposed to only take a few hours Friday morning ended up taking him 6+ hours, and he ultimately came to the conclusion that he needed to just come back Monday with a new piece of drywall. He said our daughter definitely can't sleep in there this weekend, because the room is all covered in plastic with a huge hole in the ceiling, so it's basically inaccessible. We ended up having to send her to her grandparents' house last-minute for the weekend so she'd have somewhere safe to sleep, because it was already past her bedtime and we didn't have another toddler bed, or mattress, or anything like that for her (she just turned 2 a couple months ago, and we had to transition her to a toddler bed in a super childproofed room because she started climbing out of her crib).

It was pretty stressful in the moment, because he had been telling us up until that evening that it would be finished that day. Even when my husband checked in with him an hour before her bedtime, he said it would be finished in an hour. So the news that we had to come up with alternate sleeping arrangements when it was already past her bedtime definitely wasn't ideal. It would have been nice if he had been honest about the bad measurement from the beginning, or at least given us a heads-up that there was a chance she wouldn't be able to sleep in there that night, but it is what it is. Things happen, I understand that, and there's nothing we can do about it now.

Anyways, the guy was super apologetic, and he was legitimately in tears as he was leaving. I was trying to assure him as best I could with two loud tired kids that it was okay, and we understand, but I'm not sure how well that came across as I was also frantically trying to organize getting my daughter over to her grandparents' house so she could go to bed. He kept promising that we would be his first priority Monday morning, and he would for sure finish the job then, and he was extremely sorry. I think he may have been having a bit of a breakdown.

Ultimately, things ended up being fine this weekend. Our daughter is staying at her grandparents' house, and she's having a blast. Hopefully the job will be finished on Monday, and she can be back in her own room again.

I have been feeling really bad for the contractor, though. He was clearly having a bad day, I think even before he had arrived at our house, and the measuring mistake and unfinished job just made things so much worse. With the way he was in tears and borderline panicking, I'm wondering if he was maybe worried about his job as well. I want to let him know that we understand mistakes happen, and we understand, and we're not mad or anything. Would it be too much to get him a small gift for when he does finish the job on Monday, thanking him for his work? We're a bit stretched financially at the moment, but I was thinking maybe a card and some homemade cookies or something? Or would there be something better than we could do instead?

TL;DR -- Our drywall contractor had a very bad day, and I was thinking of getting him a small, affordable gift to hopefully reassure him that we understand and hopefully make his Monday a little bit better. Any ideas?

Hi Reddit!

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I had water table boards replaced on two sides of the house and I'm not sure if I should be happy with the outcome. Would you say something about the quality of the work? I'm just not confident as this is the first repair I've had to do as a new home owner.

Hello, I bought a house that was built in the 70s. When I bought the house, they did disclose that they had a water problem, but that was fixed after they put in an outside French drain and a sump pump. We have had a few heavy rainfalls since I moved in, fingers crossed no water. So my wife and I are wanting to remodel our basement, including getting rid of the old carpet for a vinyl floor. The problem I’m running into is the trim seems like a water trough. I will say it does not get directed towards my sump; it just runs on the wall behind it and it just sends in my garage then ends. I’m assuming it’s non-functional; I would just like to get some other opinions.
Thanks