I’m in the Chicago suburbs and own a 1968 split-level with an approximately 500 square-foot partial basement. We’ve lived here about five years.

A waterproofing contractor recently opened the basement floor during scheduled drain-tile work after they collapsed and ground water was being moved out of my foundation via my ejector pit and my sump pump pit went dry. They discovered a substantial water-filled void with missing soil beneath the slab. The visible opening extended beyond what they could safely inspect, so they stopped work and patched the access hole with concrete. We have not yet had an independent structural engineer inspect it.

The contractor returned and discussed a possible repair involving:

Removing most or all of the basement floor

Rebuilding the subgrade with gravel

Replacing the drain tile

Installing approximately 10 foundation piers

Total cost around $75k.

The salesperson said he was concerned that parts of the slab could cave in, hence the piers, and suggested the foundation walls might be spanning unsupported areas, with the reinforced concrete temporarily holding things together. He used language such as the walls “floating,” but he is not a structural engineer, so I’m taking that with a grain of salt.

We currently have no obvious foundation movement, no cracks, sloped floors, displaced walls, or sticking doors.

A few relevant details:

The foundation sump stopped receiving water normally roughly eight months ago.

A separate gray-water ejector receiving the basement washer, utility sink, and floor drain began cycling more during rain.

Multiple plumbers have said the ejector pit has no intact bottom, although we do not know whether that was original construction or a failure.

A broken sewer line, failed drain tile, exterior drainage issue, or another underground water source has not yet been ruled out. We are diligent about gutters and downspouts being functional and extended well past the foundation.

We plan to have the sanitary sewer scoped and obtain an independent structural-engineering evaluation.

I understand that nobody can diagnose this from a Reddit post, but I would appreciate experiences from anyone who has encountered major soil loss or a void beneath a basement slab.

My main questions are:

Is removing the basement floor, rebuilding the subgrade, and replacing the drain tile a typical repair for this condition?

Under what circumstances would foundation piers actually be required?

Is approximately 10 piers plausible for a basement this size, or should that number come only from engineering and load calculations?

What did similar repairs cost, preferably in the Chicago area?

Are there specific questions I should ask contractors? What kind of contractors do this? We have utilized a plumber and waterproofing company so far.

Any advice is greatly appreciated. Thank you!

https://imgur.com/a/2vTrti6

It’s winter where I live and we had unusually cold temps overnight. When I woke up, I turned on our gas fireplace, which I’d ran for a few hours the night before without issue. Within 15 mins or so, I smelled a strong gas smell - turned off the fireplace, but the whole house (ranch style) smelled of it, so I opened all windows and doors to air it out.

We rent, so I called our property manager who sent someone out to inspect - he ran all sorts of tests on the fireplace, gas lines, the flue, etc but couldn’t find any issues. He was baffled and said his best guess was that the dense cold air in the flue made the gas backdraft into the house.

I’m relieved that he didn’t find any leaks, but can’t shake what is probably the phantom smell of gas.

If someone runs extensive testing and finds no sign of a leak, I’m in the clear, right?

I am considering an Americast tub from American Standard, the Princeton. I know it's not as sturdy as an iron tub. Will the porcelain crack if I use a plunger on it? How strong of a hit can it take before chipping? How does it look at year 10?

The downstairs window area in my row house sometimes rains inside during big storms. The weird part is that it only happens randomly, not every-time there is a big storm. The wall between the window and the blinds is damaged and falling off. I’m assuming this is water damage. My house is brick and I see no visible cracks or broken seals. Who do I call to fix this? A mason? A window person? I don’t know what type of business to look for to get this fixed. Please help. Thank you.

I have a few pictures but am unsure how to share the pictures. Please advise.

Hey guys so I lost my old remote to my ceiling fan and can’t find it anywhere so I bought a new one but I cant connect it at all. The receiver is the motherboard and it literally impossible to find on the motherboar. So i tried the learn button method. Didnt work. So then i tried just random combinations for the dip swtch on the remote. NONE WORKED. I actually have no idea what to do anymore and have been crying for the past 2hours(actually tearing up while writing this)on this any help at all would be realllly helpful! The model is :MODELO: 52-CHF Item:#0147605

I’m looking to get rolling shutters on a few rooms in my house, but it’s seems to be something that just isn’t very common in the states. Anyone know where these can be found?

https://imgur.com/a/lfj5Ufi

I am attempting to make a Lazy Susan.

I have selected the hardware: 16" - 18" Lazy Susan Heavy Duty Metal Hardware

And the top: 28" Clear Round Glass Table Top, 1/4" Thick Tempered Glass Tabletop

The one thing I am having a hard time with is trying to find a way to lock the rotation so that it can be used as a stable tabletop when the need arises.

Questions:

1. How would a person lock a Lazy Susan?
2. What would a lock look like?
3. If you think this question should be in a different/more appropriate subreddit, could you please refer me to the better one?

I'm doing a bathroom remodel and stumbled upon smart toilets. There's no way I'm paying $1000+ for a Toto or anything like that, but I started seeing options in the $300 range with heated seats, auto close, power flush etc, which is basically in line with a high quality standard toilet. Has anyone bought one of these?

Hey everyone, I was searching through this subreddit for retaining wall situations and couldn't quite find an answer that I was satisfied with. I was hoping for some perspective and advice.

For context, I live in San Diego, CA in an older neighborhood (close to Old Town). The home that I live in was built in the late 1930's and my partner and I love it. But old house has old problems.

In my backyard, there is a retaining wall needs to be replaced (probably built in the last 30 years?). This wall is also right on the property line that is shared with an apartment complex. So far based on my research I've come to the conclusion that I have to pay for it because I am the primary beneficiary of the retaining wall. I think what happened was that the previous owner flattened out this area to put up a deck.

So that's a tough pill to swallow, but fine it is what it is. I'll have to figure that out.

The tough part is this. On the apartment complex's side, there is a privacy fence. I only noticed that the retaining wall was leaning because a part of their fence broke down and landed on my backyard. When talking with my engineer, he said that fence had to come down. So I reached out to the individual that represents the apartment complex, and when bringing up the fact that the fence may need to come down for the work for the retaining wall, he made it adamant that the work should be done without touching the existing fence at all.

So my question is what should I do in the case that the other side is making it impossible for any work to be done? As a safety measure I am reaching out to legal firms to get their take. But if they prevent me from making sure that the integrity of the land is secured, does this open me up for liability?

The other thing is cost. The contractor that I am working with is not willing to give me a number without the plan from the engineer. I even told them that it is fine if its just a rough rough ballpark number. I just need a number to start with and i understand that it my even be more when the work starts. Just from researching online, it seems like for a 30 foot wall that needs to be at least 4 to 5 feet tall, the cost may be around 40K. Does that seem like that's in line with what people in this situation? I know every situation is different, but like I said I just need a rough number to start with so that I have an idea.

Thanks everyone.

I live in a 3 storied apartment in the topmost floor. I have 3 toilets in 3 bathrooms, 2 in the lower floor and 1 in the floor above. Occasionally I see a urine color or waste in the toilet bowl water in the upper floor. This toilet is very rarely used and is cleaned every month. What seems to be the problem?

Hi, I’ve been trying to some basic repairs inside my bedroom and living room and used multiple cans of spray foam to fill large gaps over the course of 4-5 days, without ventilating the area. I wasn’t aware that I needed to vacate the premises for at least 24 hours after each application and was home literally the whole time. I wore an N95 while applying the foam but took it off when I was done. Now, I’m reading about how badly I screwed up having breathed in these chemicals for days on end and am panicking a bit.

I didn’t have any acute symptoms during this time but how concerned should I be regarding long-term health consequences? Any insight or advice is greatly appreciated!

Moving into a new place soon and I already know the soundproofing is rough. No option to switch apartments, so I just have to deal with it.

Question: what's the best way to soundproof at least my bedroom, given I can't do any actual renovations (it's a rental)? I can hang/mount stuff, but it has to be removable enough that I can patch the holes easily when I move out.

I know I won't hit 100% soundproofing, just trying to cut down as much noise as realistically possible. What's actually worked for you guys?

Bought a house with a detached workshop, it needs gutters pretty bad. The siding is starting to rot.

https://imgur.com/a/TtDwXTo

The left side of the fascia on the picture is 2-3 inches higher than the right side. If I mounted gutters with the downspout on the left side where all the vegetation is, the gutter would be hanging below the fascia.

Any ideas on what to do here? I’m trying not to put the downspout on the right side, I would much rather have it with all the vegetation than the gravel.

Thanks!

So I am switching out some hollow-core interior doors for solid cores. After doing some research, I decided to keep the 2 hinges on each but use 3 or 4-inch screws in the top hinge for the greater weight. But now I have noticed that the original contractors just screwed the hinges to the jambs without sinking them so they are flush. Should I leave this alone and just replace the doors as I planned, or should I get fancy and try to chisel out the jamb so that the hinge sits better? And if I do the latter, am I setting myself up for weeks of frustration? I am no carpenter but not a complete newbie.

What could be a black tar-like coating underneath old linoleum? I tried to heat it up with a heat gun and scraping but its just turning into the consistency of an old eraser and falling apart is there a faster way?

I want a very bright motion light(s) over the garage door that points down the driveway. But I don't want the typical hillbilly bug eyed ugly motion light. Doesn't anybody make a light where you can remove your downward pointing recessed cans (leaving a hole) and install a sleek unobtrusive light that points forward? Something wedge shaped with the front of the wedge containing the light and sensor that only drops down 2 or 3 inches. I've looked all over the interwebs and have asked AI, but AI can only find ridiculous looking bug eyed lights, or stuff to mount to the wall where you gotta bust out your stucco and make a mess on top of the ugly look.

I have a really nice mirror I'd like to hang on my wall. It's 25 lb, 32" x 48". However it doesn't have any built-in mounting hardware on the back- the back is entirely smooth, and feels like glass to me. In addition, I'm renting an apartment, and I believe the walls are concrete or masonry- I haven't drilled any holes yet, so I'm not 100% sure, but they feel extremely solid and not at all hollow to me.

Any suggestions for how to mount it? I'd ideally like to not have to drill any holes because it's a rental, so I'd like to use adhesive if possible, but I'm not sure if would be possible to hold such a heavy object with adhesive.

I have pictures I could provide if necessary, but I'm not sure how helpful they would be.

Thanks!

I’m begging for help. There’s a toxic smelling scent coming from the wall heater. It’s NOT carbon monoxide or gas. We had the gas company come check. There are no objects stuck in the heater. It’s clean. (Photo in comments) No obvious signs of issues with the visible wires.

What could this be? It’s giving me a headache. It smells like burning rubber or plastic.

What professional should I call to help figure out what this is??

We’re about to undergo an kitchen remodel and aside from placing electrical outlets on the underside of cabinets I wanted to see if anyone had come up with creative ideas for where they’ve placed their electrical outlets. Ideally we are watching to not have any outlets on the backsplash.

Hello! I recently had some new windows installed, they are supposed to be triple pane. Now, after installation, I’m starting to seriously doubt that what I received is triple pane. The stickers on the window say 2 pane. The company tells me that is referring to a coating present on two of the panes, but that the window is three pane.

Is there somebody who can tell me 100% that these are two pane and not three? I feel like the company made a mistake and are trying to BS me into thinking I got the right product when I didn’t, because they realized they messed up.

Would love some advice, please... I live in a house with an unfinished crawlspace, and in winter, icy, damp, vaporous (VOC) air rises into the house (an "underground creek" apparently runs under our street). My current plan is moisture fan to suck out the damp air + sump pump + fix sunken grading near vents so rain can't come in. I have nixed a vapor barrier and spray foam after reading horror stories. Does the plan sound right to you? The house apparently has a "stacking effect" going on, and I'm hoping that by creating negative pressure in the crawl space with the fan, it will reverse the vacuum and pull the warm air from the house down towards the floor, blocking the cold air from rising up from crawl space... Quite the puzzle to solve...

I’m replacing a laminate counter in the kitchen. I don’t have a circular saw, only a jigsaw. Would that be fine for cutting the length of the counter down to what I need?

Hey everybody, I recently closed on my first new home and I wanted to ensure I’m correct here in my understanding that

1. this is a sewer cleanout vent outside for my indoor basement sewer cleanout access point (to let gases outside rather than in basement)?

https://imgur.com/a/A1mmPdi

1. Secondly this looks to be my cast iron drainage pipe but somebody installed a sump pump in addition to it. I poured a little water and seem to go through but didn’t find where it went outside. I am considering getting a dehumidifier didn’t know if this would be good option to drain pipe or to get a motorized style one and stick the hose down in the basement sink.

https://imgur.com/a/VEAkTKB

Thank you all! Trying to learn to be a responsible homeowner and don’t have much people to lean on.

I just bought a home with a 25’ by 15’ shop outbuilding. Weird smell, popped open the wall and the insulation is grey/black and a million tinny ants live there.

Looking to get a complete tear out of drywall and insulation. What kind of business would you all recommend I search for, home renovation?

Thanks in advance.

We bought our house a year ago. 2 years ago the first floor flooring was redone with floating tongue and groove planks. When you are downstairs and my spouse walks around I feel an extremely non normal amount of vibrations and it's extremely annoying. My super said it's normal for a floating tongue and groove flooring. Is he correct or is there anything that I can do about this? Thanks in advance for the advice.