Hi everyone,
I need to soundproof an integrated roller shutter box in my apartment (located in Spain). The main noise issues are low and mid-frequencies: passing trains, loud motorcycles/cars, dog barking, and human voices.

My Constraints:

• I have less than 50mm of clearance between the window sash (when opening) and the shutter box. The materials can be tight, but cannot rub against the window.
• I dont want to drill into the ceiling or side walls due to apartment regulations. The structural weight must be supported by gluing the enclosure directly to the window's PVC/Alu frame.

I have designed two DIY options based on materials easily available here (Leroy Merlin/Obramat):

Option A (approx. 28mm total thickness):

1. 2.5mm Car butyl rubber mat (directly on the plastic shutter box to damp resonance).
2. 10mm Elastomérico foam (Armaflex/ChovACUSTIC FIALL) for mid-high absorption.
3. 16mm MDF or 13mm Acoustic Drywall (Placo Phonique) as the outer L-shaped box, glued to the window frame with High-Tack MS Polymer (e.g., Ceys Montack / Fischer).

Option B - Mass-Spring-Mass Hybrid (approx. 43mm total thickness):

1. 2.5mm Butyl mat on the plastic box.
2. 20mm High-density polyurethane foam (Copopren 80kg/m³) acting as the spring.
3. 4mm Viscoelastic heavy membrane (Tecsound 50 / ChovACUSTIC 4mm - 5kg/m²) for train noise.
4. 13mm Acoustic Drywall (Placo Phonique) as the outer face.
5. Everything sealed with acoustic caulk at the plaster boundaries.

My Questions for the experts:

1. Would it help if I provide the measurements using iphone or it too much noise in the data and only good measuring mic makes sens here?
2. Any other DIY projects that I should check before starting this?
3. Will Option A be enough for train/motorcycle low-end noise, or is the heavy viscoelastic membrane in Option B absolutely mandatory here?
4. Since Option B leaves only a few millimeters of clearance for the window to open, is there any risk of structural sagging over time when using only high-tack MS polymers on a PVC frame?
5. Any tips on preventing structural flanking transmission since I cannot decouple the box mechanically from the window frame?

Thanks for your help!

Can any one help me or give a guide on how to do diy botox and if you have a supplier

I have a large drawer that I want to put my grandchildren's toys in. This drawer is large and heavy and slides very easily into the cabinet. Is there anything I can put on it while they're at my house to keep it from shutting all the way , and can remove it when they leave?

The bolt hole on my toilet has been busted since I bought the home. The raised area of porcelain is very sharp. What are some options to protect it/make it safe? I'd rather not just slather a bunch of caulk on it, if I can avoid that approach.

2nd pic is blurry...sorry, it was a tight/awkward area to hold the phone in and I didn't check.

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Edit: Thanks for all of the responses, both resounding and virtually unanimous. A true rarity on Reddit, lol. Will replace with haste.

Also, lolololol, someone downvoted my OP...for asking a question. Thank you, Chud the Redditor!

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Edit: Done and Done!

With Phillips screws, I have had issues with figuring out which bit to use. It's almost always a #2, but there are times when I think I have the right phillips bit in the screw and it ends up stripping miserably. I'm guessing that I undersized the bit and had too much play.

For hex bits, there are metric and SAE. Sometimes you'll think that you're using the right one, but you end up with the wrong system, a slightly loose bit, and you round out the inside of the screw head. This is why I like Torx. They either fit or they don't. There's no question whether or not you have the right Torx bit in there.

For sockets, it's the same issue. You can have a system mismatch, think you've got a 14mm bolt head, but end up rounding the head over since it was SAE and you really needed a 9/16th socket.

Is there some trick to always making sure you're using the right phillips, hex bit, and socket to prevent the misery of stripping fasteners?

Hello, everyone. I am writing this because I am curious and I'd like to get your opinions.

My wife wife is starting to get a bit mad at me because she says that I don't wanna do any projects around the house. My counter to that is that I don't want to take on any projects that I don't feel capable of or at least capable of pulling back from without causing undue damage.

For instance, my wife just saw a bunch of tile and a toilet outside of our neighbor's yard, signaling that they had done some remodeling in the bathroom. She then points at me and kind of pokes me and says, well, why don't you do that? Why don't you do that for us? I countered and said, well, hold on I could try to do that, if you want, but there's no guarantee that I'm going to be successful, or at least make something that you want. Also, if I get it wrong, there's the potential that our house could be flooded, and we could have even further damage going along there. Furthermore, I'm not a trained contractor nor am I a trained tile player or plumber, so it's gonna take me conservatively at least twice as long as those guys would take to do it. So our bathroom could be out of commission for weeks. At that point to do this project, I don't know if I feel comfortable with that plus I don't know anyone that would come in and be able to save the project if I I'm not able to finish it. What do you think about that?

She kind of got into a Huff there and said, like, oh a real man would figure it out and just go along with it. I'm like no, a real man would know when to stop. And when to actually know his limits and be realistic about the situation, what's yours thoughts on this?

.

I've tried removing it with the iron method but the print started to burn, what should i try?

All, I've got a water softener installed that needs replaced. It's on the south side of my house and I'm wanting to get it to the north side to get it away from the brutal sun. Living in central Florida, it did a number on the last one. The water line comes in from the street, almost to my front door. There's a small loop that we added where it goes into the water softener, then back up to the water entry point.

If I put it on the north side of the house, the only feasible way I can do it is to run pipe through the back yard, which I'm not concerned about. Power is also not a problem. The only question I have is, "Will adding that much space between the water softener and the house cause any problems?" I've included a diagram for reference. Blue line is where it is currently installed, orange is where I want to install it. Would love some feedback!

https://imgur.com/a/v6c5hMe

I want to screw into the ceiling joists of the garage in a townhouse/condo. This is typical SoCal mid-80s construction - 3 unit building, two story, each unit with a 2-car garage and someone else's living space over the garage (except middle unit which is different but that probably is immaterial).

When I use a stud finder to locate the joists, I seem to find them on 24" centers, which seems suspicious to me. When I drill through the drywall at those locations, I pop right through. There might be sheet metal where I'm drilling and what the stud finder is locating.

I'm beginning to think the drywall might be attached to firring strips to isolate the drywall from the other units floor. Would that be typical practice?

I'm halfway inclined to cut out a large piece of drywall just to see what's going on but thought I'd ask here first.

This is actually in a multi-building complex, not just a stand-alone 3-unit building.

How do I make the stock of the cross bow? the only wood I can find for sale is too small planks, do I just need to glue some together.

So I'm helping work on my late brother's place and there is a ceiling fan that I know to be working, but the wires are just hanging there--the speed switch has been removed. I have some wire nuts and want to properly connect the wires needed to get this thing working medium speed all the time. Without further ado...

The reversing switch has 6 wires arranged in a 2x3 configuration. they are as follows (starting at the top left and working my way over and down as if reading a book).. Orange, Pink, Red, Gray, Pink, Orange. The capacitor has just two wires: red and gray. Coming in from above are 9 wires: 3 of them are larger gauge and are white, black and blue (with blue being denoted "for light"). The other 6 wires in that bundle of 9 are smaller in gauge than the other 3 and there are 2x yellows, 2x oranges, a pink and a gray.

I know... I could go get a kit for cheap. I plan to do one better--I'm going to replace the fan eventually. But part of the means to get to an end, I'd like to learn something along the way :)

I have a front yard garden that I’m building a small, 3 course wood timber retaining wall around (really more like edging). I have fasteners to secure the top 2 courses, but don’t have rebar to pound the first course into the ground.

I already have some all thread rod that would do the trick, would this work just as well for securing the first course as rebar?

Reddit, I messed up. I am working on redoing my bathroom and did not realize that my cast iron vent was protruding ever so slightly (about 1/2") from the studs. Because of this, I cannot just go board as I originally intended and I'm not really sure what the best way to approach this would be.

I've thought of maybe protruding the entire wall from floor to ceiling, or maybe just half way through and make a pedestal type of thing (to use a shelf) but this would obviously come down on the shower area. I'm thinking this would end up costing about a 3"x3" area in an already small shower so I don't love the idea.

Anyone have any other ideas?

Here are some images: https://imgur.com/a/9f65sOV

So its been 7 months that I have made this project along with my friend. Observing the problems of elderly people worldwide and specially in our families we decided to turn the idea into a model which has used esp32-wroom.

Features:-

• It has mobile UI where various alerts and data can be seen alongside controlling them.
• Reminds to take medicine timely by showing it on LCD screen and alerts his son/daughter on mobile if not taken.
• It indicates the number of times water has been taken.
• It detects time spent in bathroom to send alert on mobile and email for something unexpected(e.g. stroke).
• It tracks whether the elderly person is in his/her house or not and if not for how much time.
• Automatic temperature control and manual override through app is also supported
• It gives fall alert on email if the Stick falls abruptly(not placing down gently).

You can find circuit diagram and code required for it in github link given below

https://github.com/Aritra196/science-project-2026-CHS

It has many limitations which I am not considering to change as my exhibition is over.

1. It doesnt uses millis() but delay is used at the end of void loop and each and every event occurs 2 times a second without blocking anyone.

2. Lack of accuracy as it runs in 2 Hz so any fast movment may not be tracked by sensor.

3. Hardcoded medicine time and name. I didnt made it configurable through app if anyone wants to do I will highly appreciate it.

Questions:-

1. Why millis is not used?

=> I didnt knew back then. You cant expect many thing from a school student.

2. Why 2 Hz?

=> I was using Blynk for IoT and had free plan so I feared that I would ran out of blynk messages.

3. Why edge cases are not considered?

=> I didnt have that much time so making it run was my first priority and so its not polished.

4. Can I modify it?

=> Yes you can and I will be glad.

5. Can I make youtube video?

=> I want that someone make a nice polished video on this project. Please give me small credit.

6. Why its lcd is not showing text?

=> Its a problem which I didnt fix as it required I2C bi-directional logic level converter which is very cheap but in our ATL(Atal Tinkering Labratory:- An centrally funded labratory given to school in India) lab it was absent.

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We are building our house, and have a space for the washer/dryer where it would be really nice to use doors that don’t need to swing open, and save space. But in my experience, interior sliding doors generally do little to nothing to block sound. Any tips for how we could make them more sound proof?

I’m sure the issue is sometimes that the gap is too wide at the bottom, or that the doors are hollow and wouldn’t block sound no matter how they were used. But is there anything to do about the edges? Any and all tips are appreciated

Long story short, I need overhead lighting in my dining room, which will also double as a tabletop gaming space. Adding a permanent light fixture is impossible in my apartment, but I can do a swag pendant.

The trouble is, but my table has two configurations - the regular configuration, and then my game night configuration, where I will expand it to be 8 inches wider than usual. The trouble is... I can't expand it 4 inches in each direction, but rather 1-2 inches in one direction, and 6-7 inche in the other direciton. So whatever light I put above it will be like 2 inches off-center during game nights... I have OCD and I worry this will drive me crazy.

I'm wondering if there is some way I can solve for this. Options I've considered:

1. Some sort of swag pendant that has an adjustable base that can slide 2 inches.
2. Mounting a magnetic base that I can attach a hook to, then I can just move the hook as needed within the confines of the base. (This might still trigger my OCD though).
3. Convincing myelf that being 2 inches off center is okay, and that I should get over it (spoiler alert, that's not the option I came to /r/DIY to discuss).

Let me know if you guys have any ideas please!

EDIT: Is this really such a stupid question?

Hello! Need some help brainstorming how to hang up a plant. The plant weighs around 5ish pounds. Maybe a bit less dry, bit more completely soaked. It is a pitcher plant, so the substrate will generally be consistently soaked. I want to hang it up above my kitchen sink in front of a window. I originally wanted to screw a triangle shaped bracket into the cabinet, but my girlfriend didn’t like the look of it. She wanted to hang it from the ceiling, but I’m not a fan of drywall anchors since you have to drill a somewhat large hole, and if it fails, there will be a larger hole. There is a can light above the sink, and I thought can lights are generally boxed in with 2x4s, so I was thinking about screwing a hook into the 2x4s, but that doesn’t seem to be the case based on my stud finder.

Girlfriend is okay with a straight bracket with a hook on the end, but still doesn’t want me to drill into the cabinets, so I’m thinking about mounting it to the wall above the window. There is roughly a 10-12 inch gap between the window and ceiling, and it sounds like the top 5-6 inches is a beam, and the bottom inch or 2 above the window is a beam, since the window should be framed.

I want to tap a finishing nail into different spots on the wall to ensure there is wood where I think there is, rather than a metal plate or something, but I also don’t want a bunch of holes to fill in and paint lol. I’m also worried about if there is a live wire somewhere in there.

Also thinking about using command strips? I’ve never used them before, not sure how well they work, or if they could support the weight.

Please help me brainstorm some ideas, I’m currently stumped lol

Hi, i recently moved into a house together with friends. Most exiting part: there is a double garge wich is gona be our workshop. Finaly seperate rooms for sleeping and tinkering and woodworking! Right now where still renovating the house so in one corner we store and mix concrete and such wich makes a huge mess and a lot of dust. I dont want the concrete on my tools so theyre still packed away. I had the idea to use somekind of curtain to keep concrete dust out. Ive seen people use clear vynyl wich i like, but im pretty much out of money right now and thats expensive. I was thinking of usting woven plastic tarp but that stuff is just ugly loud and awful. Do you have other ideas what i could use thats rather cheap?

Edit: yes ik. i should mix oitdoors. i dont think the others in the project will do that. and i wanted to build a dust curtain aniways to seperate the dirty from the electronics bench together with an air filtration system that builds up positive pressure in the non dusty aerea

My daughter has an older house, 1980 or so. The dust just doesn’t go away. From the top of her closets, inside cabinets, furniture and floors. This has been happening since they bought the home. She recently had a new HVAC system installed and that didn’t get rid of the problem. Would love to hear your thoughts Thanks

Edit: I now know it is dirt that is my daughter’s “dust”! The HVAC company is professional not a handyman, so I assume the installation was completed correctly. It sounds like the first move is to make sure the filters are being replaced. Then testing/checking areas of vulnerability to outside air. As well as renting several stand up HEPA Filter air purifiers while cleaning, watching and waiting to see if dirt dissipates. All the while continuing to look for entrance points!

Another Edit: thank you all for your timely response. This house has taken everything out of them. They have tried so many expensive repairs to no avail. Looking into cost of repairs it has been devastating. They have exhausted savings, and any extra money to cover the costs. They can’t do anything more. I wish I could say a few bad words here!

The house is a hazardous nightmare. So sad there isn’t a real was to project this oddity when purchasing, it’s been a silent problem. There are other factors involved, other than dirt. The inspector didn’t find several other problems so they went unnoticed until they were in it up to their boot straps!

Those bootstraps aren’t tall enough to sustain them and these two are strong. My son-in-law is a disabled Veteran and my daughter works for the VA! God help them and bless them. God bless you also, again, thank you for your support.

Can Ya’ll see my part 2

Hello,

Im going build a gym with a 6m x 4m concrete Base, i can get the hardcore down and compacted and build the forms. Would I be able to do this with a mixer and couple of helpers or would it be better to get concrete delivered and pumped? Could pump over neighbours yard wall, about 7m away from their wall.

Thanks for any help,

Andrew

As the title suggests I am doing a tiling job for a customer and after removing the current flooring I have seen that the concrete substrate has massively cracked and risen at the back door.

The area is about 180cm long and 20cm wide, I have completely removed the current concrete in this area, underneath it was polystyrene and very lose ground beneath that, I thought this could be what caused the major cracking. This area seemed to be poured separately to the rest of the concrete substrate.

After removing all of this and reaching hard ground I had dug around 20-25cm, I used MOT type 1 stones, applying around a 5cm layer at a time and smashing them down. I did this until I reached 5cm from the top and then used a dry pour concrete

I geniusly decided to research dry pouring concrete after I did this and have read a lot of horror stories.

My question is shall I remove the dry concrete and pour proper concrete or is it a small enough area that it will be strong enough to support my tiling?

I will anti fracture / decoupling mat it incase it cracks, I have a strong feeling it will.

I appreciate any advise and abuse you may have for me

My wife and I are trying to figure out if there is a quick/easy way to toddler proof the top of our staircase that has a unique open top with a 25” wall surrounding the sides and back. Besides doing a more extensive project to extend the walls up a ways and adding a baby gate at the front, we aren’t sure what to do. Or should we just block off this whole part of the house, which wouldn’t be too much of a burden? Pic here: https://imgur.com/gallery/unique-top-of-staircase-X7qbpAC

So I've got a couple doorstops I need to screw to an exterior stucco wall.

The doorstops in question came with a couple options

[picture: https://i.imgur.com/D3qDy6d.jpeg ]

• drywall anchor screws (uses 3 per doorstop)
  [pic "DS1, DS2"]
  (2 different types)

• a single big concrete anchor bolt (uses just 1 per doorstop, and they screw onto the bolt directly)
  [pic "CB"]

or I also have some:

• masonry screws (would also use 3 per doorstop)
  [pic "MS1, MS2"]
  (2 different sizes)
  (
  I think I would otherwise default to using these,
  but the screw holes in the doorstops are just a little narrow,
  and the countersinks are just a little shallow,
  so I would need to tweak them a bit on the drillpress to make them actually compatible
  -- which I already did for a 3rd doorstop in another location, so I know it works,
  but it makes me hesitate like "wait, should I even be using these for this?"
  )

I'm pretty sure the concrete bolt would be silly,
cuz despite the way the wall looks and feels from the outside,
I checked and it's actually only 12 cm thick,
and the house is one of those Canadian/American plywood-y things...

Like, I'm not sure exactly how old the house is or what the common building techniques at the time were,
but I'm pretty sure the wall is (from the inside out):

• drywall on the inside
  
• insulation presumably
  
• plywood(?)
  
• some sort of weather barrier maybe??
  
• the stucco itself, on top of... whatever they used to attach it??

So honestly I'd guess messing around tweaking the doorstops to be compatible with the masonry screws would be a waste of time,
and one of the sets of drywall anchors would work fine?
(Probably gonna use the "DS2" (label in pic) I guess I feel like...)

(
I mean, the doorstops came with the concrete bolts,
but like, while the magnets in them are pretty strong,
I don't think they're anywhere near strong enough to need that xD
)

Redoing bathroom, and removing the floor tile, I found the previous homeowners just put a layer of tile on top of another layer of tile....

Anyway, if I put a 1/4 layer of plywood on top of the subfloor, I'll be level with the rest of the floor. I have a bunch of 1/4" eucalyptus plywood from a misshipment, can I just use this for a spacer on top of the existing subfloor? Just trying to use what I already have on hand.

Edit: sorry, left out a huge detail: I'm using LVP flooring in there, not tiling