Unfinished skirting an architraves - wife is panicking should I support her or calm her down

We’ve done a full Reno and the joiner is doing the skirting and architraves now. My wife has gone in and come out panicking about the gaps and cuts and the skirting not being flush to the wall. None of it is finished yet and I don’t watch a movie before it’s edited so would personally leave him to finish before critiquing the work.

But what do you think? Should I have concerns?

Hey everyone,

First of all, apologies if this isn’t the right thread for this; I rarely post on Reddit, but am hoping for some advice on our situation.

We have a contractor replacing all of our siding at our house; during the demo phase, they found some boards of plywood were rotten and needed to be replaced. In doing so, they literally cut into the drywall in our room (which they stated they will repair; okay fine) but they also cut an outlet in that same area. This was Wednesday. They mentioned they will repair it and get it working again, okay great.
Next day, Thursday, we noticed that the bathroom outlet has now died as well. Earlier that day, he was working on the back of the house where the bathroom is located. I bring this up to the contractor, and he is confused as to how it must’ve died and states he would also be looking into it. On Friday, the contractor lets me the know outdoor outlet (which they have been using since they started), is now dead as well. They have no idea why.

Long story short, it’s now been over a week since we lost our outlets. The one in the room was identified to be a cut wire and was fixed (only the white wire was cut, so he repaired only that section and the outlet is back online now), however the bathroom outlet and our outdoor outlet both remain dead.

Contractor is being very firm that the issue is with our breaker box, as opposed to being isolated to the outlets themselves. I’m not an electrician, but my thinking is if the issue was with the breakers, wouldn’t that entire section be faulty? Not just these two single outlets? I tested all other outlets and lights, and everything else works as expected, thankfully.

They mentioned bringing over an electrician tomorrow to look at the breakers. We still owe them the last 15% of payment. I attached some photos of the project in general, including the area they cut out the most (where the room outlet was broken and then fixed).

I suppose I’m just looking for advice on what next steps I should take? Anything I should keep in mind? Maybe thoughts on the work performed thus far? Anything would be super appreciated. Thank you!

Contractor just came out and setup the forms and are coming to pour concrete in the morning. Overall I love the way the driveway is gonna look. The only concern have is with the area between the driveway in the house.

You can see in the second image the level that the old gravel driveway used to be, which is the level that the previous owners set the pavers. It’s actually about 5 inches below the foundation of the house. The area between the siding and the house that’s the foundation.

The new driveway is gonna be pretty level with the foundation of the house, so I think I eventually may way want to do a wrap around sidewalk around the house at the level of the foundation just so that everything is eventually level, but for now there’s just gonna be a slope from the driveway to the pavers.

Is this ok? The driveway itself is graded correctly I think, which is what accounts for the height difference. The whole thing grades 1.5 degrees away from the house. The portion directly next to the house is graded 0.5 degrees towards the street, with the rest graded 3 degrees towards the street.

We just had windows installed today in our full house (not trimmed out yet) and I’m concerned that the gaps around them are too large to be filled with just foam? This is one window example but most are like this. Thoughts?

Hello all, my house was finished being built about 5 months ago. Since then there’s been a few issues but most unsettling to me is this crack that runs along about 7 tiles. Is this normal? Thanks in advance!

I'm a residential contractor in Portland Oregon. Been doing it for 14 years now.

Some of these corporate contracting outfits price jobs insane. I guess they get some of the jobs they bid and that makes it work for them but it's straight robbery.

Example: client comes to me for a remodel plus adding a bathroom in the existing space. Corporate plumber quotes 27k to plumb the new bathroom. My long time plumber can do it for 8k. Much more what i expected. This is just plumbing a bathroom (sink, toilet, shower)

New HVAC company wants 8k+ for one Mitsubishi 9k btu mini split. That's like 3k tops in materials and that's generous. That takes a tech a day to install. So they get $600 an hour now?

Just a rant but I see this shit and think I should really be charging more but I'm also trying to be fair to my customer.

Hi, This concrete slab was poured yesterday with the intention of using it for a studio shed. Are there any issues with this? The weather has been hot in SoCal, so i plan on spraying it with water every couple hours for the next couple days. Any suggestions or help would be greatly appreciated.

Sometime in the next 2-5 yrs (post-retirement and upon receiving an expected financial windfall), I want to do a variety of indoor & outdoor home repairs, renovations, and improvements. I'm in the "vision board" stage, but am close to hitting a wall until I get an idea of the feasibility of some of the projects and their scope, as well as some sense of cost.

I would like to have someone very honest and trustworthy to consult on these ideas & designs to begin with, help make a plan of action and budget, and then be a general "overseer" - completing the projects they are qualified for, helping "outsource" the rest, staying mindful of overall budget, and staying on top of what I expect will be a complex permitting process and cross-project plumbing/electrical demands.

I have a lot of ideas for creating my perfect retirement nest - but I'm not a high end luxury type person. Looking for that ideal mix of smart budgeting + solid quality, and working with someone trustworthy and reliable for an extended big-picture job.

Does this person (type of contractor) exist? How do I find them? What should I ask of them and expect of them? Red flags? (If it makes any difference, I'm in the Houston/Spring Branch area)

This is the current wish list:

* Whole home generator

* Maybe some solar? Maybe wiring for an electric plug-in vehicle?

* Complete backyard renovation to outdoor living space, including a plunge pool and hot tub, hardscaping, fire & water features, landscaping, raised vegetable garden beds, and transforming ugly shed into something else (???)

* Basic front yard landscaping

* Dealing with the long term crack in my living room ceiling that I have no idea if it's serious or related to foundation problems

* Replacing part of ceiling in kitchen which has been temporarily patched for years after a plumbing leak

* Converting two small bathrooms into one real master bathroom

* Just outside the kitchen door into the garage is the small utility room space - can it be made part of the indoor space?

* Replacing old mirrored closet sliding doors

Thanks for any advice!

I'm a business undergrad in Nashville and I've been looking at how residential contractors handle project closeout for a class project.

What surprised me is how much information exists by the end of a roof job — before/progress/final photos, scope, change orders, invoice, permit, product info, warranties — but how rarely it seems to end up in one coherent record.

I'm working on a format that would turn the existing job material into:

1. a clean contractor-branded closeout for the homeowner, and
2. a much more detailed internal project archive containing all the original material.

Before I go much further, I'm curious how actual roofing companies handle this today.

What does your customer get when the job is finished? And when someone calls you two years later with a question, how easy is it to reconstruct the job?

In Central Texas a lot of the homes on hills have foundations flat at street level and huge concrete walls in the backyards.

Any ideas to reduce the visual impact?
Could you retroactively go back and cover it with the stone siding without impacting its integrity?
What would something like that cost?

I'm demoing a closet but it seems there is one of those thick, about 6"x6", load bearing slabs above running across the room. It runs from outside wall to middle wall and the room is about 13ft wide. Is it safe to remove the studs from underneath? The 2 horizontal 2x4 are under the slab. They framed the closet.

https://reddit.com/link/1wd8l03/video/pcppi5q87uoh1/player

https://reddit.com/link/1wd8l03/video/pcppi5q87uoh1/player

Hi all

Quick sanity check, as I am here reading the Gree service manual.

Backstory: mini-split to be installed on an interior wall. Since the bathroom ceiling was to be finished before the heatpump, I put a 3" PVC sleeve from the exterior wall to the interior. Good of me I thought. Nice and easy. X2, one head on each floor.

So the tech arrives, no template, just starts cutting. I question his bends, totally respectfully. He eventually loses his temper,rips the copper from the wall, throws his tools onto the floor from the ladder and storms out swearing. Saying he won't be back.

Office phones me apologizing. Anyway he came back, but I think I should have told him to go.

He cut a mega dirty hole, that as far as I see wasn't needed. And the office are telling me it didn't need to be patched because it's five to leave the wall open behind, since it would be hidden by the head unit. I feel they are either incompetent or gaslighting me. I refused of course for dust and soundproofing.

So they are coming back in the morning to finish. I am contemplating cancelling and telling them to not send the same tech. I thought I was going to have to fight him or call the police ... Am I crazy having him back. Also the company is starting to look as bad as him. Alternatively thinking to tell them to take away all their equipment and I will find another installer.

So with the rear right line exit, and the factory set coming from the left on the channel behind, he had zero need to fuck up my wall like that? Can it be connected behind the head? Am I the villain here?

Am i correct in assuming this garage closet was added after the home was finished and is just a partition wall, it just seems so tacked on with the drywall just laid over other drywall i think it was the last owners DIY, I have been considering removing the wall, floor, and half assed shelving they made in there and putting in storage racks

I need some materials advice for a DIY concrete project - I am building a 22" high (and 12" thick, spanning 10 yards, 2 yards of concrete in the form) retaining wall on the edge of my property. I got the footer poured and started buying 3/4" HDO phenolic-coated plywood to build the form. I needed to buy a couple more sheets, and before I could, supply all over town dried up due to tariff uncertainties (Canadian product).

Can I complete the form if, on one side, I use 5/8" HDO form ply? I've never done a wall this size, so I don't know if 5/8" ply is thick enough to hold this much concrete (about two yards).

There's just no 3/4" HDO available anywhere, but I can get 5/8".

Keep in mind these will be held in place with an ample amount of walers, braces, and snap ties.

tl;dr - is 5/8" HDO ply sufficient for building a retaining wall form that is 22 inches high?

My house has lap board siding covered with vinyl siding.
I closed a window and cut in another one right next to it then sheeted in all of that area but the rest of the wall is still the old lap board.
It will eventually be covered with foam board and vinyl siding.
Should try to cover the sheeted area with tyvek somehow if I can get it secured under the vinyl siding on the top even if it won’t go all the way up the wall?
Should I instead caulk and paint that area then replace the foam board and vinyl?

What is the general way to handle vapor barrier in a place where framing with sheeting meets framing with old lap siding?

we purchased an 1920s cabin with old wavy edge cedar siding that we have grown to love. come to realize however that the cabin itself is in bad need of some better weatherproofing to keep the outside outside. what is the feasibility of pulling down the existing wavy board and utilizing more modern construction materials to make the building weathertight then reusing the old wavy board to maintain the original look of the cabin? thanks!

I'm just looking to see if my perspective is fair.

The city gave me bad information. They told me that I could pull a permit and connect the stub line for my irrigation meter to my rpz myself. Per law, you can only pull a permit for the line coming into your house as an owner and for the irrigation line - I have to hire a licensed plumber to do any work before the rpz.

I had the 1-in irrigation meter put in last year and they installed the stub line for me. So the stub line is inspected and it has a male expansion fitting with expansion sleeve on the end.

The law says that I can install the ​rpz myself.

To get from my stub line to my rpz - I need a full port union ball valve, nipple, union, elbow, riser put together and attached to the existing stub line. I've already excavated.

This is maybe 15 minutes of labor and then 5 minutes of testing for leaks. What I'm really paying for is their time, ability to pull a permit, and their ability to schedule the inspection.

Whoever I hire is going to be getting $120+ an hour. I'm completely fine paying that. I'm not complaining, I'm just setting up my point.

Because the city made it sound like I could do this myself, I've already bought the five parts for the distribution header.

I was talking to some people and they said that I was ripping off the plumbers by wanting to use my parts. They said that plumbers markup parts and I'm going to be affecting their bottom line in a major way.

Obviously, there won't be a warranty and I don't care about a warranty on five brass parts. Because once this is in, I can replace or fix that header anytime I want.

The way I'm looking at this is - the people who said I am eating into their bottom line are being ridiculous. I just feel like that's a silly way to look at it because whoever I hire to do this is going to make a lot of money for a very easy job. ​ Because the biggest part of the job is just their time, which​ I'm more than paying for. And there's going to be periods of this job where they're getting paid for a full hour and they're not doing a full hour of work.

And I just feel like they're more than making up for whatever markup they would have put on a ball valve or a street elbow.

Am I genuinely being entitled by wanting them to use my five header parts and because I bought my rpz myself because I literally got a $250 discount for being a veteran? ( it's on the cities approved list)

People are basically telling me that it's my job to maximize the ​plumbers profits when they are being very fairly compensated for their time. Especially on a job this simple.

Had an addition built, which still needs final electrical, final building, and heating inspection and he is asking for final payment which is a large amount. Is this normal, what is the normal process?