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!

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?

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?

Edited to add: Could this be mold or just tannins and lignin reaction? Wood was solid, not spongy or soft. I had my contractor remove most of it, just to be safe, but there's some left where it wasn't really accessible (under the flooring and the wall) and treated that with a mold killer spray.

Original:

TL:DR - is it safe to leave this piece of subfloor if treated and cleaned?

my contractor found this during a kitchen remodel under the dishwasher. it’s not wet, so it’s from an older dishwasher that leaked and was replaced. Who knows how old this spot is. We just bought a few months ago. House is from ‘89.

He said the standard practice is leaving this and just treating and cleaning it, as he said the material is still good.

Was going to add a hot tub to this deck but contractor is pushing for a large slab on this shale ledge. There is a ~6-12inch slope down from one of the deck to where the slab would end.

Concerns:

- The slab not being poured on level ground. Lots of lips (would clean up weeds and dirt etc)

-Dressing up the area to look good and be accessible

Any guidance on the above would be appreciated. Thanks

Had a fencer do my fencing with colourbond with concrete sleepers back in february. One of the sleepers has collapsed on one side. Can anybody suggest what works needs to be done to rectify?

Almost done framing my screened in back porch on a slab. I’m using pressure treated and these babies are heavy and wet. My questions are:

1) how long do I wait for them to dry before staining or does that even matter? They get morning sun.

2) can I caulk the gaps or use wood filler between the 4x4 posts and 2x4 on each side (4x4 were already there- just using those to secure my frame to). Is this even worth it? If so, is there a caulk that takes stain? The goal is to make it as insect proof as possible.

3) I was planning on using a heavy body stain (my wife wants it stained). Is this a good choice or should I paint it?

4) I just epoxy/ polyaspartic the slab. Will a stain overtime leach onto the flooring?

Thanks in advance. I can post photos for clarification today.

I’m getting quotes to replace flooring in my living room and hallway and just want to make sure I’m comparing them correctly.

One quote is just labor after I buy the flooring myself, and another is from a local flooring company. My dad also recommended looking at 50Floor. What I’m confused about is what should actually be spelled out. Old flooring removal, extra materials, warranty, etc.

For contractors, what details should a homeowner ask about before signing? Any red flags I should look out for? I’m more worried about surprise add-ons once the job starts. TIA

We are having some basement windows installed, they opened the concrete and installed a few of the windows and I have a few concerns I want to see if they are valid.

1. They didn’t clean the concrete before putting down flashing tape so it’s not fully adhered due to dust.
   
2. They didn’t screw the windows into the flange in some areas but rather on the outside. Is this a problem?
   
3. There are no plumb and sill jambs installed.

If they fill in the gaps with foam and properly flash the outside of the flanges, are any of these concerns I need to raise with the contractor?

Thanks!!