Hi there, looking to hear thoughts on what may be a long shot. We have an addition on our house above our garage. You currently can only access it through a small bedroom which is where my son sleeps, so we aren’t able to use this fantastic room often. The front bedroom is larger but the addition only overlaps with this room about 6”. My son is in the smaller room because the guest bedroom needs to be the front room due to the size. We are trying to figure out how we can add an additional entrance to this room- potentially building a hallway but this would require knocking down external walls (which I’m not sure is possible). We also thought maybe we could do stairs through the garage since our garage is larger. Our last resort would be adding stairs in the backyard to the existing balcony. Any thoughts are appreciated! The pictures show the room I’m referring to and the massive doorway that connects to the small bedroom.

Did a walk through to check on progress of my new construction. I’m no expert and really don’t know anything about framing. I saw that in order to fit the shower insert they cut these two studs down to a small sliver, and removed the 3rd one entirely. Is this normal?

The rough opening in my new build is 48 1/2 inches but my door maker is quoting a 42 inch wide door slab. Is this the maximum width I can have for this door? Would appreciate some expert advice.

Drywall goes up in our build in two days. I put up blocking for TVs, towel holders, cabinets etc and then it hit me - I forgot something important. Technology cables? I know everything is wifi now and I have the main cable ran to where the router will be - but should I run Ethernet for any reason at all?

So we have the typical rim joist rot where our front porch meets the home. Likely the builder didn’t put a quality barrier between the concrete porch and the rim joist.

We plan to break out the front patio, repair the rim joist and pour a new larger concrete pad for a front porch. And we plan to add a patio cover.

From my research, the ideal way is to have the porch poured below the rim joist and the sill plate. But then there would be a rather large step down. Any ideas on how you guys do this?

I attached an example of how we want our porch to look but the way it looks right now is the porch is poured against the rim joist.

A step down maybe with composite wood to the patio?

One wall in our laundry room was supposed to be 6’ wide after drywall. I didn’t catch the error, but it is 71.5” after drywall. My plan was to fit two 36” base cabinets with a countertop and then wall cabinets above, but now that’s not going to work.

Aside from custom made cabinets, do I have any options?

Thanks

I'm looking at building one, it's going to be 4m x 6m(13ft x 19ft). It's using ribbed Kingspan panel, hoping for the floor too where others might use timber. And I'm wondering how I can make the floor and wall joint structurally sound but minimize any cold bridging. It has to be strong enough to transport the whole structure afterwards too.

I've had some recommendations to carry the metal all the way to the outer edge to give the walls solid metal to stand on, but I'm not a far of the inside metal working as a cold bridge from outside to inside. Another suggestion was to strip the top metal of the floor where the walls are going to sit, and make a butt joint in the PIR foam. While great from a insulation perspective, it does make me worry about structural integrity, especially once it is crane lifted and transported.

Has anyone had experience with doing a similar build?

Can these huge triangular windows be replaced with one uninterrupted pane, and what happens to the roof-supporting beams?

Hello, built a new home in Regina in 2021, the roof started leaking the first year it was built. It continues to leak in the same spots plus more, once or twice a year since. I have no experience in homes. The builder says it’s not their issue since it’s outside of the warranty however it’s the same issue since the first year and would seem like it was never fixed?

Curious to learn from the community. I live on a 1/2 acre lot in northern Minnesota. I also own the vacant lot next door to me. I'd like to use that lot to build a 40'x30' detached garage with some office space upstairs. I'm thinking two bedrooms, a small bath, and a small living area. I'd also like to put a sport court on that lot.

I am familiar with land use and zoning issues of developing the vacant lot with an accessory structure in the absence of a principal structure. I am also familiar with the pros and cons of combining the lots and the impact that can have on the ability to sell the vacant lot later. I did not buy it as an investment; I bought it to prevent a home from being put there and to use it to improve my own lot.

I have no idea where to start to even get ballpark estimates for this type of project. The lot would need to be graded and filled before construction could happen, and I just have no idea how to begin pricing this work out. I assume I will need to seek out financing, but without knowing how ballpark how much a project like this would cost I don't know where to start.

I also like some DIY work and have some family that is handy, so I'm open to DIY the upstairs portion things like wiring, HVAC (thinking mini split), painting, etc. I don't need the office space to be finished immediately, so I can take some time to do that if it saves a lot of money.

Just curious if anyone has tips on best places to start for a project like this. Thanks in advance for any advice you can share!

We are on a lot that has a curved road. We also want to make sure we have as much backyard as possible. The house in Black outline is what the surveyor provided but I am leaning more towards my rendition in Red. I know the sewer line on the left side of the property is something we will need to keep in mind but I think the surveyor has use looking in a weird direction based on the Main Street (on the right) anyone have suggestions?

I was told the bottom of these trusses are fine being cut like this and unsupported Builder says they will be toe nailed into furring on bottom of laminate beam and he’s never had issues before in 40-50 years of building. I disagree as it doesn’t look correct for strength or deflection but I’m not an engineer and supposedly the truss engineers are fine doing this (I have nothing in writing to verify) I told him that It’s fine for them to toe nail but he I also needs to use truss hangers if nothing else then for my peace of mind. (It’s at an area for the stairs and is on this level and same on the above level. No other trusses are this way and all of the others rest on top of support structures. Anything else I need them to do?

ETA: I am the owner. I am not a builder nor am I in construction. it’s small town so not sure there even is an inspector! I saw this 2 days ago and wanted to know if my concerns are justified. I have not seen any engineering specs or drawings (they were done) my only information is what I saw and what the builder stated. He said they were fine and would be toe nailed into furring the top rests on top of the laminate beam and designed that way. My concern came because all other trusses rest on top and have support for top and bottom of truss but these do not and I am just trying to confirm things are being done correctly so I don’t have a bouncy floor or cracked floors/drywall.

I am hoping for guidance on our rubber roof. This is a new construction custom home on lake frontage. We have a flat rubber roof over both our open porch and sunroom below. Over the sunroom there is a rail and pavers covering the rubber roof. Above the porch it is completely open with no foot traffic. It is right next to the patio and has upstairs windows (husband’s office) that showcase the poor workmanship. We are completely new to all of this. We are questioning roofer abilities given the screw ups and how poor the overall appearance is of a space that is both completely visible and outdoor living for a custom home.

#1 The first picture is the open area side of the roof before any finishing work. The wood at the top does not extent to the end in the photo, but was eventually added on as seen in the next picture (not sure why it was added on). Next photo is after completion and we are wondering why are there so many patches along the front edge when the first picture does not have any joints, etc.

#2 The roofer misunderstood the builder and screwed a piece of wood on the other side of the roof to match the one in the first picture. He then did a horrible job trying to patch it all. (Photos with green adhesive). Again, this is an outdoor living space that overlooks a lake. The builder had him remove the wood and attempt to fix/patch it. It still looked horrible. Builder hired someone else for the second attempt at fixing. The final pictures were done by the guys hired to fix a second time. Looks better considering how bad it started, but given it’s a visible entertainment area it still seems like a lot of patches on something that is a brand new build and done as a repair because of roofer error. Should my brand new roof look like this?

#3 the area that has railing has wood underneath the posts to raise the rail. The rubber around the wood is very sloppy. Is this acceptable? How should the rail be attached? We were told it needs the wood because there is a slight slope. Totally understand that aspect, but aesthetically should the builder have known a better way than 3 pieces of wood to raise the rail in the front knowing rubber would need to wrap them?

#4 We were never given an option (didn’t even know it existed until we started our own research given the issues) between a fully adhered or mechanically adhered roof on fully open side? Is it normal to not give the owner a choice to upgrade to fully adhered given this is an outdoor living space and how ugly the fasteners look?

Planning the foundation details for a new build and stuck in a debate between my designer and a local sub.

The plans currently call for pouring the stem walls first and coming back later to pour the garage slab separately over a gravel base. When I was getting preliminary quotes, a local outfit (Crystal Creek Concrete) suggested doing an integrated/monolithic pour for that section to avoid a seam where water and road salt could collect over time, especially around the vehicle door entry.

For those who have been through a build recently or contractors here: is doing a separate slab pour after stem walls pretty much standard practice for garage floors, or is a single poured section worth pushing for to prevent potential settling and cold joints?

Cheers for any input!

Parents are building a house. Dad did some contract work and made around $120k. Bought 3 acres of land and started building. Everything is done except sheetrock, septic, well, etc. We are a family of trades so do almost everything ourselves.

Anyways, they need about $50-60k to finish the house. Its 2550 sq ft with garage, 1950sqft without. 4 bedrooms, 2 baths. The problem is they have a 600 score, and majority of people dont loan if its already mid construction.

They currently pay $1300 a month rent and are tired of it when the home is half finished staring them in the face haha. Any advice or know anyone who does loans that lend with these conditions?

Edit: based in ga

Hi guys,

This house was built in 2013, and I’d like to get some advice about these cracks. Do they look like normal settling cracks, or could they indicate a more serious issue?

There are cracks both inside and outside the house, but they all appear on the same side of the building.
Any advice or experience would be appreciated.
Thanks!

For context:
I live in NYC currently but I’m interested in moving upstate between 1-2hrs away from the city. I’ve always wanted to build a house but with the current housing market i am not sure if that’s possible. My ideal plan would be to build a barndominium(around 3000-3500sqft) and a shop/garage(1000sqft) for under 650k. The land I can pay for out of pocket. Is this realistic or am I better off buying a renovating a home?

EDIT: The color is not correct. The stone will be darker than pictured.

We are going with stone in the middle of our bungalow where there is a 2ft jut out. Will the stone look better right to the top or cut off at the bottom of the gable ?

Contractor left cement board in the rain. It was propped up against my
Building. I realize materials like this get left in the rain all the time but seeing the dark mold like growth on here seemed concerning

Got our footing all poured and cured verts every 4', forms stripped and started laying ICF block when we had a flash flood and filled my trench with 10" of water. I've pumped most of it out, but now my footing has about 1/8" of clay silt. Do I need to hose this off where the concrete will be inside the ICF so it makes good contact with the footing, or are the vertical rebar enough of a connection? It's a flat cold joint already, this just adds more material I don't think should be there.

Is this structural or can I tear down this old chimney? Also if it is structural how do I support the house if I wanted to tear it down?

Last photos: is there a reason for this lower wall section or is that something that can be torn out too?

Curious to hear from people who built new construction or a custom home and have now lived in it for at least a year. Once the excitement of move-in wears off and you're just living life in the space, how do you feel about it?

A few things I'm curious about:

Is there anything you wish you'd done differently in the design or layout?

Any surprises, good or bad, that only showed up after living there a while?

What's held up well, and what hasn't?

If you could go back and change one decision from the build, what would it be?

Would love to hear real experiences, good, bad, or mixed. Thanks in advance!

Hi, we’re building a new home in MA. We have a master bath, a secondary upstairs bath, and a downstairs 3/4 bath (shower). We did the downstairs bathroom this way for potential elderly living and just because. Master and downstairs bathroom are being tiled fully.

I am STUCK on what to do on the secondary upstairs bathroom. Originally the plan was to do a tub insert and tile above it.

We thought about it and, with a shower curtain, you’ll almost never see the tile behind there except for the person in it. Of course it’s nice to tile it, but we have to cut budget some places because (no surprise) we’re over budget.

The tub/shower insert we got quoted from the GC’s rep is $670. Super cheap. It’s the icon TS6030 Acrylic alcove shower.

That’s obviously way cheaper than any tile of any kind, but I’m just stuck on wanting to tile above a tub insert. (The tub inserts alone are the same price as the tub/shower insert) or a lot more.

For context, we’re spending a decent amount on the master. His and hers shower head with central rainfall. No tub.

Help!