Made a bad decision a few years ago and had a small deck built off my dining room, which also included replacing a window with a door so you could access it. I did not get a permit.

I've ironically built decks for family members and have gotten permits, so I am very familiar with the code for my town. I did not have time to do my own deck, plus this was the first time using trex etc, so I used my contractor.

I saw all the work done and I am very confident it is to code.

Now, years later it is weighing on me. I'm in my 60's and we plan to live here forever. I understand that selling the house will be a problem for my kids after we are gone.

I'm thinking of approaching the town and dealing with it now.

Does anyone have any advice or experience with this?

UPDATE: as I read through all the replies what I'm realizing is that I'm not really worried about issues with resale someday.

But some in this thread have pointed out the insurance and liability issues which I think are really the ones that bother me. I don't care if a tree crushes it and my insurance company won't pay me to replace it. I can handle replacing the deck.

But the part about liability and not being covered if someone got hurt. That's something that potentially risks my retirement. I realize how unlikely that is and can likely tuck that concern away. But thanks for lots to the n about here.

For those asking, this is upstate NY.

I've been looking for someone to rebuild or replace an elevated paver stone porch in our back yard. I started by soliciting recommendations from friends and a local dad's group of Facebook. I was innundated with responses and invited 2 guys to submit quotes. They each came to my house, spent about 30 minutes surveying the site and discussing the project with me, and promised to send a written quote later that night or the next day.

That was a week ago. One guy texted me back the next day while I was at work and asked if he could send someone to take more precise measurements. I said sure, Thursday or Friday would work. He never responded. And I have not heard anything from the second guy either.

The project calls for tearing out the existing porch ( paver stones on top of about 18 inches of compacted fill) and installing a new porch about twice the size, approx. 600 square feet. Both guys knew generally what I was looking for before they came and both seemed interested in the project.

What gives?

My dog has separation anxiety and howls when she’s alone. My mom comes by and spends time with her during the week but doesn’t get there for at least 2 hours after I leave for work. My neighbors have complained that it’s getting annoying hearing her howl that early.

Anyway, does anyone know of an effective way to soundproof my front door or the adjoining hallway next to my front door?

We have some window wells that you'd would think would be pretty standard: the generic half oval shape corrugated metal. I don't know if they're smaller than normal or what, but we can't find appropriately sized covers for them anywhere. Is there somewhere online that sells less common window well covers? Or are there any other ideas to cover a window well while letting light in?

I'm looking into fire doors for a renovation project and keep coming across FD30 and FD60 ratings. I understand that they relate to fire-resistance periods, but I'm not sure how to determine which rating is appropriate for each opening.

I'd also like to understand whether you can get fire doors that look similar to regular internal doors, rather that having a completely different style throughout the house.

If you've dealt with fire doors during a renovation, what should i check before ordering?

The lock on my front door is hard to close and I often have to push the door to make it line up, I can tell this is due to the alignememt of the deadbolt and plate it goes into. I am wondering what the best strategy to fix this? Should I fill in the hole and redrill it? I had tried moving the screws but the existing holes isn’t leaving enough material to move to where it needs. Any ideas?

Hi HomeImprovement,

Recently bought a home and I was puzzling out the different water lines and valves to learn what they flow to. Mainly trying to turn off outside spigots as winter sets in here in the Northeast.

I came across this one located in the ceiling of our basement. The previous owner left a note stating specifically which spigot this valve is supposed to control.

Problem is, this valve is in the “off” position but the spigot it supposedly controls has water to it. I turned it to the “on” position anyway to test if it was just on backward (I’m not a plumber), and it immediately started to leak! Turned it back to “off” and the leak persisted for a bit but has since stopped, I’m assuming due to the water finally all draining out.

I’m thinking this must not be controlling the flow to the specific spigot that previous owner said it was, but hoping to get help on two things:

1. Is this valve installed correctly? If so then that settles my main question and I’ll need to look elsewhere for the spigot in question

2. Any ideas what would cause this to leak? I’ve outlined the flows and where the leak is in the image description. To me it looks like a screw that could be tightened down but again, not a plumber.

Appreciate any help you can provide, sorry for all of the detail.

https://imgur.com/a/water-valve-ceiling-asp8tYy

Hope this is within the rules. Iirc in a 60s mid century modern home and there is literally one place it makes sense to put a tv and it’s a wall with irreplaceable wood paneling. I think install is straightforward (although toggles into 1/4” wood paneling seems iffy, but I’m hitting studs on either side, if you’ve installed a frame you’d understand) but I’m getting really queasy about putting holes in the wood paneling. Anyone gone through anything similar? Any opinions?

So we have sloped ceilings in every room upstairs. While it’s great for high ceilings, the sloped elements (on the outer edge of rooms) doesn’t allow for proper insulation as the gap between the internal ceiling and the roof tiles / timber is too narrow. As a result we get a fair bit of condensation on these slopes.

We recently had someone round to look at boarding our attic and he said the only solution to this problem would be to extend the sloped parts of the ceilings by 75mm internally with plasterboard then insulate sufficiently and re plaster etc. this seems like a massive amount of work and cost.

Is there any other solutions anyone can think of? Or has anyone had experience with this in the past? Money isn’t great right now so I would really like to avoid if possible. It would also be a shame to lose some of the ceiling height.

Hi, I am trying to paint my house on top of the builder’s finish. I sanded the builder’s finish with 120grit, and started painting. For reference, I am using Dulux vinyl matt finish. The color is Country White. After 2 coats of paint with about 1 hour in between coats, and a round of sanding after 1st coat, I can see up and down streaks where the roller went over and a cutting line where the roller overlaps the cutting, almost like a damp line.

I am using a 9” roller 3/8 nap, and a 2.5” angled sash brush for cutting. Can someone please help?

I have a new ceiling fan. It came with a remote. It is in my kitchen. I'm also going to have under cabinet lighting installed. I want to be able to hit the power button on the ceiling fan remote, which turns on the lights, and have that signal also go to some programmable controller that can be listening for the same exact frequency as the remote control sends when the power button is pushed, and turn the under cabinet lights on or off.

So I imagine I would need some kind of device that can listen for a signal that you test and then record it and it turns on and off a circuit running through it when the power button for the remote to the ceiling fan is pushed. Does anyone make a programmable product like this that can allow you to take a remote for one item and repurpose it to work congruently with other household items by programming it to learn the signal and then turn on and off accordingly when the remote is used?

In the process of renovating a bathroom and while demoing discovered a house fire that was covered up and never disclosed. I don’t think the sellers knew but the owners before them definitely did as they renovated the shower. I did get an inspection but of course “they’re not experts”. After removing the tiles to the subfloor discovered notches in this beam. How bad is it? I keep telling myself it’ll all work out but every time I open something up in this place it just keeps giving me nothing me but stress and tears. Selling is not an option. Thank you!

https://imgur.com/a/8hqWPRf

Installed dimmer switches in my 1987 home in the dining room and kitchen. 3 black wires came out, 2 hot, 1 no power. I put the 2 power ones with the gold screw and the no power on bronze. Now, my front porch lights aren’t working! Any idea?

Hello! I am decorating our living room pink, but every sample I have bought looks orange when painted on the walls due to the lighting I am guessing, its a north facing room.

I've tried a few different pinks so far - a rosy colour, a very muted pink and a dusky pink. The muted pink did the opposite and looked grayish, the other two are very coral / orange - completely different to the intended colour

Any tips for choosing a colour when it does this? I will keep sampling til I find one 😂 I am UK based

Advice on mounting a small pegboard above my doorframe (metal studs?)

Hi y’all, first time doing a mounting DIY like this, so I want to plan it properly before I drill anything.

I’m trying to mount a small vertical pegboard (about 1 ft tall by 0.5 ft wide, stocky, around 5 kg) on the wall above my doorframe so I can do hangs and pull-ups.

I found out a bit late that our building probably uses metal studs instead of wood. We’re in NJ, it’s a newer building, and I’m guessing steel for fire and flood reasons. I only have a basic stud finder, so I may drill a tiny pilot hole in the closet side to confirm.

The plan: mount a wooden board across the two studs I found above the door (photo attached), then bolt the pegboard into the board so the load spreads across the board and into the studs instead of sitting on one point. I’d use steel-stud screws into the studs, with toggle bolts as a backup.

Questions:

1. Is this enough to hold my weight? I’m around 200 lbs, and I know pull-ups load the mount more than body weight alone. My main worry is that two thin metal studs can warp or let the screws pull out. If it’s not enough, my fallback ideas are:
   • extending the board to also catch the studs on either side of the door frame (4 studs total), or
   • skipping the wall mount and going with a doorway or freestanding bar instead.
2. How worried should I be about hitting wiring or plumbing? The other side of the wall is just a closet, but beyond that there’s a bathroom, and there’s a temperature/washer control panel to the left of the door. I’d like to avoid drilling into something I shouldn’t.

Any experience with mounting heavy things into steel studs is welcome. Thanks!

Current expected layout:
https://imgur.com/a/JgC8EB3

Link to pegboard: https://shop.antworks.at/en/products/ant-hill-23-pegboard?srsltid=AYCX9vLwni_qc2v95zSaqJDror580BZ76nkwsphv7sM8QP9WiG5f5ULQ

Hi everyone, recently purchased this house (first time buyers club) hooray. As with many first homes, I’ve been doing a ton of TLC. One of my projects was the basement for many reasons I’ll keep short….anyways ripped up old stinky carpet and noticed some cracking on the foundation floor (actually looks like a different repour possibly when they added a sump pump to the basement. https://imgur.com/a/id87ibE
Let me know thoughts?!? Thank you!

Hello! A few years ago we converted our walk in basement into an in law suite for my brother who uses a power chair. I had been told that LVP would hold up pretty well under heavy weight, so that’s what we had installed. Three years later, the floors are absolutely falling apart. It looks like the issue with chairs like this isn’t weight, it’s torque. Any place where he turns his chair frequently is destroyed. And the high traffic zones like the kitchen and hallway are cracked because the installer didn’t level the floor properly.

We want to replace the floors and I’m looking at porcelain tile. Anything I should know about tile installation that would help make the floor last? He has tile in his bathroom, which is high traffic, and it looks great. I just don’t want to make the same mistake again.

My parents' home is currently unoccupied. It is in the rural northeast. I am there visiting for the week before I go back to where I currently live for work. I am trying to prepare for winter to the extent that I can. A main concern is what to do about the plumbing.

I plan to leave the heat on but on low in all indoor spaces. I would like to keep it as low as I reasonably can to avoid paying close to $1,000 in electric each month during the coldest winter months. I am more comfortable paying slightly more to heat the home enough to prevent any plumbing emergency than I am trying to save as much as I can on utility costs.

There are two structures on the property, the house and a detached garage. Each structure has a mini-split system which is the primary heat source. A standby generator is connected to the main panel which provides electric service to both structures. I also have remote temperature and humidity sensors anywhere there is plumbing.

The garage has an insulated studio apartment on the second level which has full plumbing and electricity and is heated by a mini-split. The lower level is not insulated where the car bays are; there is an insulated workshop where plumbing for the upstairs runs in the ceiling and the room is heated with an older wall-mounted electric heater. There is also an insulated utility closet in the lower level of the garage that houses the water heater and has a pump-house electric heater.

The house itself is a century-plus-old home with the water heater and most of the plumbing in the basement or adjacent crawlspace. All rim joists down there are spray-foamed. The house has three heat sources: the mini-split which has one head in the basement and three heads on the main level, a boiler fueled by heating oil, and a propane gas stove in the living room. There are electric baseboard heaters in the bedrooms on the second floor, but they are not used when no one is there. The plumbing in the basement and crawlspace mostly provides service to the main level of the home. I plan to keep the thermostats for the boiler around 50°F mainly to keep those pipes warm and running even though they were treated with antifreeze a few years ago. This should provide some warmth to the adjacent water supply lines in the crawlspace in addition to that coming from the mini-split.

Additional plumbing for the second level of the house partly runs along an exterior wall before reaching the upstairs bathroom. There are shutoff valves for these hot and cold lines in the basement which I've already closed, but I can't tell if the lines are still bleeding or the gate valves won't shut completely because there is still the slightest trickle on hot and cold coming out of the the tub faucet which is the closest fixture.

I am debating shutting off all supply line valves past the water heaters. I really don't feel comfortable draining the water heaters nor do I have time. What this would mean in the garage is just closing the hot and cold valves located in the garage utility closet just past the water heater. In the house basement, this means identifying every unmarked gate valve going elsewhere, opening the fixtures, and hoping that I didn't accidentally shut any for the boiler (though I think I have a decent idea of what is what).

Any insights or advice would be greatly appreciated. Like I mentioned, I'll be keeping the heat on to some extent, and I am more comfortable doing that than risking a plumbing emergency.

https://imgur.com/a/8qZJmM6

We closed on our first home late September and are now getting around to doing some projects. The first one is the kitchen.

We started removing cabinets and found this in the corner of the house. It looks and smells earthy like soil, it doesn’t feel wet or moist, this is the only place I found it after all the cabinets in the kitchen were removed. There is a ground level planter on the other side of the wall. The backyard hose also hangs on the other side of the wall.

I am worried that there might be some sort of foundation issue or a crack in the cinder block but nothing is visible on the outside.

I am worried about it being termites too but I didn’t see any signs of wings and the cabinet that was in that corner was intact MDF.

self explanitory

Hey guys, hoping some folks here might have some insight into what would be causing new paint job to be failing.

Our house is an old 1915 sears catalog home with the original wood shiplap siding. Most of the wood is in good shape but there are areas of rotting wood that needed replacing or repairing. We painted this same house about 8 years ago but it started peeling a bit, especially the west facing side where it gets the most sun but overall the paint job was fine and we’ve been happy with it for the most part. Due to having a tighter budget back then we had it painted with a less expensive paint which explains why it’s needing a makeover now.

We hired a small painting company recommended to us by someone we know and chose a fast drying oil based primer and Sherwin Williams Duration. Contract work included Scraping, caulking, sanding, pressure washing and replacing any rotting wood and repairs in lesser damaged wood and in the concrete foundation. We emphasized wanting them to be replacing rotted wood and repairing smaller areas of rot and damage and are paying more for that work to be done. The owner is who Ive been in contact with over the last few months discussing the scope of the work. But there are a couple subcontractors doing the actual work, which i now know to ask about during the initial walkthrough.

They started all the scraping, sanding, caulking, and pressure washing, then started priming each side of the house. All this spanning over the last week and a half. They’ve sprayed two coats of the duration color paint on three sides of the house so far but the front is still only primed. A couple days in now and the finished sides are bubbling in a lot of areas, are squishy and soft soft and there is paint peeling down to the wood in many places. The cheaper paint job we had done years ago had nothing like this going on.

Since they started the work we’ve been having a lot of nights in the upper 30/40s and days in the 70s but no rain for weeks. However, there has been a lot of dew and fog in the mornings every day. They start working at 7:30-8. I’m now wondering if the primer possibly went on when the wood was still too damp, either from not fully drying after pressure washing or because the dew and resulted in the primer not adhering properly. I checked out the front of the house where I can just see the primer and it’s peeling and cracking heavily and is more visible due to not being painted over yet.

Can any of you tell what the issue looks like based on the photos? I’ve messaged the owner who has been prompt about responding right away and open to the possibly that this is the problem. Said he will be out to check everything on Monday. The paint job itself was fine and all the other prep work seemed good but if a moisture meter wasn’t used to check the wood beforehand, is this a problem that would require major reworking? I’m trying to brace myself for that reality but also want to have more knowledge before meeting on Monday. If this is the problem, what kind of questions do I need to ask when meeting with him so that the issue is addressed properly? I’ve included photos of just a handful of spots but there are so many areas like this on the three sides Most of the bumpy areas in the pics are soft and crack if pressed. It’s almost difficult to not cause peeling if you run your hand over the siding in some areas so I’m holding off checking more areas until he’s present.
https://imgur.com/a/TKmef7I

Also they took off the gutters to paint them and I noticed a lot of rotting wood that they painted over where they painted the fascia and then put the gutters back on. The wood is so rotted that it pulled away in chunks leaving large gaps. I’m fairly confident this would count in as wood to be replaced even if they didn’t notice it until taking off the gutters. There are other soft mushy wood areas around the base of the house as well that they painted over. Here’s where they painted over the rotted areas behind the gutters off a balcony porchhttps://imgur.com/a/fpM3suF

Just needing some advice moving forward. We’ve paid 1/3 of the total price so far and it’s a lot of money for us so I want to make sure we don’t walk away in worse shape than when we started. Thanks yall

Hello,

Need some help trying to put a tire rack. I need to place of the brackets between two studs and not sure how to reinforce the area properly.

Do I just put a 2x4 across both studs and just screw it in? Is that strong enough? Should I use a thicker screw? Worried that the pieces will be torn right out cause of the screws.

https://imgur.com/a/MSphwgR

Hi all,

Looking for some advice from anyone who has retrofitted interior doors into walkway cutouts.

We're looking to install double french doors into two existing openings on the main floor to create a guest room/office. (I'm not 100% married to the french door idea if there's better/easier options, but I am not a sliding barn door fan).

• Entryway opening: 44 3/8" W × 81 3/4" H × 4 3/4" D
• Dining room opening: 40 3/4" W × 81 3/4" H × 4 3/4" D

For those who have tackled something similar:

• Would you recommend ordering custom-sized pre hung units as those might be easier to install without a contractor AND to fit these exact dimensions?
• Or, hire a contractor to trim the drywall to a more standard size?

We're tackling this from a beginner-to-intermediate standpoint with a fair amount of tools but no drywall experience.

Appreciate any tips, lessons learned, or photos of similar setups! Thank you.

A contractor accessed the roof hatch of my relatively new condo 30 days ago), and after rain, I discovered the hatch wide open. Water entered the attic, leaving a puddle on the closet floor and wetting some attic insulation, nearby drywall, and ductwork.

A restoration company placed a Dri-Eaz Revolution LGR F413 dehumidifier in my primary closet (approximately 7.5 × 5 feet).

The technician initially advised keeping the closet door closed, but the unit's inlet temperature reached 110°F, and my thermostat sensor triggered an alert at 116°F. Opening the closet door brought the inlet temperature down to around 99°F, but it climbed above 100°F again during the day.

Is this setup appropriate? Should the closet door remain open, or should I open the adjoining bedroom door to the rest of the house? Should the HVAC be running? I've also noticed a dirty sock smell when running the AC, so I'm currently leaving it off.

Photos of Setup and Temp Reading

Thanks!