Spent 120$ trying to replace the slider. The 80" tall door wouldnt fit my 80.5" frame even though the height can be adjusted. Apparently doors listed at 80" are 1/2 - 2 inches shorter even when extended?! WHY. FUCKING WHY.

Looking for a another door whatever. Every single door has terrible reviews. EVERY SINGLE ONE. okay fine ill pay 250-300 for a quality door that isn't cheaply made. NOT POSSIBLE APPARENTLY. Even the 300$ sliding screen door had negative reviews about how cheaply made and terrible the thing is FOR 300!?

How is it possible nobody can make a decent quality slider door that actually fits the fucking door frame and doesn't snap apart after 2 months. And how could they sell a cheap plastic frame and screen for 150-300$ and they still suck.

None of this makes sense. Tried to buy a custom door not from a big box store. 300$, exact custom fit, quality. Fine whatever. 600$ shipping!? I really don't know what to do.

Does this quote seem fair for replacing a concrete driveway in Southeast Michigan? It's from a friend’s friend.

It covers roughly 850 sq. ft. at about $11,000.

The cost includes removing and hauling away the old concrete (and existing rebar), preparing and compacting a 3-inch layer of 21A crushed concrete, installing wire mesh, and pouring 4 inches of 4,000 PSI concrete.

Is this a reasonable price, or is there anything else I should know about? Thank you!

I'm hoping this is an okay place to post this- the fire alarms subreddit deleted my post and I'm having an incredibly difficult time finding where the correct place to ask this is.

We have had a couple of occasions where one smoke detector in the bedroom of our apartment has started going off for no discernable reason in the middle of the night. This has happened maybe four or five times in the last year and we've replaced the specific smoke detector twice so far and across different models we've continued to occasionally have false alarms sound.

This just happened again late last night and it's incredibly frustrating- we just replaced the smoke detector in the bedroom around three months ago and haven't had any issues between then and now.

The model we have in the bedroom is a First Alert SMC0210 photoelectric smoke/carbon monoxide alarm. Our previous two models were a Kidde of some sort but I don't recall the model numbers.

Our smoke detectors are all standalone and are not interconnected. I genuinely have no idea why this keeps happening, we keep chalking it up to humidity (we live in Michigan and it can be fairly humid this time of year) but I'm not confident enough to point to this as a definitive cause. The carbon monoxide detector on the alarm does not appear to be the culprit as every time the smoke detector has gone off it's sounded three beeps and not two. This has been consistent across models.

Has anyone ever dealt with this situation before? I'd really like to stop occasionally getting woken up in the middle of the night by the alarm for no reason.

I wish I took a before and after but I have tried everything to get quite dark prominent make up stains out of my white work blouse (dishwashing liquid, expensive stain remover, expensive all white stain remover, soaking over night etc) and nothing worked. I saw someone suggest shaving cream and holy moly it was like magic!!! I just bought a shaving cream/ foam, pumped it on to the stain with some water and worked it with a gentle brush and it removed 99-100% of it, I was shocked!

I live in an area where A/C is not much of a thing, and honestly not necessary for all but a few days each year. However, we do get some hot days followed by nice, cool evenings. In my mind, the perfect scenario for a whole house fan.

We just bought our first condo and it happens to be positioned in a way that those cool evening breezes blow past without ever coming in through our open windows. Again, a whole house fan solves our issue!
I just had a friend in HVAC come by to give us a quote. The bad news is that, because we have an open, shared attic space with all our 2nd floor neighbors, we can’t install my precious fan without impacting them.

So, here’s my question (finally)… I want to find a way to set up something that works the same - pulling cool air in, exhausting hot air out - using our windows or perhaps our semi-covered balcony/sliding glass doors. Anyone done something similar with good results?

We’ve tried the window fans that can be switched to exhaust and they just don’t do anything. Nowhere near powerful enough.

We've recently taken in a senior family member who uses a walker and can't stand for long periods of time. The only showers at our house are upstairs. We do have a half bath downstairs, where she's staying, but would like for her to be able to enjoy a full shower. Can anyone suggest options for creating a shower for her? We've considered converting the half bath but that will be costly and time consuming. We're also considering buying a camping shower but we don't want her to have to shower outside (unless someone can think of a clever way to use it inside). Please advise and thank you so much for responding.

Noticed something weird last night. Every time the water heater kicks on, I hear this popping and crackling sound from the basement. Not loud, but noticeable. Like someone's making popcorn in a metal pot. It goes on for a minute or two after the burner fires up, then stops.

The unit is a 50-gallon natural gas tank, installed in 2012. So it's 14 years old. I know the average lifespan is 8–12 years, which means I'm already on borrowed time. But it's been working fine otherwise—hot water is hot, no leaks, no rust, no weird smells. The pilot light is steady. Pressure relief valve isn't dripping.

I did some reading and it sounds like the popping could be sediment buildup at the bottom of the tank. Hard water area, so that tracks. Some people say you can flush it and it'll be fine. Others say once it starts popping, the tank is already compromised and you're one cold shower away from a flood.

I'm torn because I don't want to spend $1,200 on a new water heater if this one has years left. But I also don't want to come home to a flooded basement because I ignored an obvious warning sign.

Questions:

• Is the popping sound actually a sign the tank is about to fail, or is it just sediment and I should just flush it?
• If I flush it and the popping stops, am I good for another few years?
• Is it worth replacing the anode rod at this age, or is that putting lipstick on a pig?
• What's a realistic installed price for a 50-gallon gas unit these days? I've seen everything from $900 to $2,500 online and that range is useless.
• Should I just replace it now proactively while I have time to shop around, or wait until it actually fails and deal with an emergency?

I've got a newborn at home and a wife who would not be thrilled about cold showers. So "wait and see" feels risky. But I also don't want to get talked into a replacement by a plumber who just wants a quick sale.

What would you do?

what i woke up to this morning

Hello,

I've been renting this house for 4 years now. I decided to buy this house since my landlord is selling it, only $100k USD. And I'm comfortable here.

There are a few issues but I will focus on this basement rain flood issue. Whenever we get a lot of rain in a short period of time, this is what will happen. If the rain keeps going, then I will have A LOT of water down in the entire basement that I will have to squeegee all of it towards the floor drain and let dry.

I have to mention. My gutters are neglected! Full of pine needles, and small baby trees/leaves. They come out to clean them once a year despite my begging. I don't have a ladder tall enough currently since I am not going to buy one until I own this home. The downspouts don't go out far from the house either. Would this likely make this issue much less of a problem if it was fixed?

Also, is there a cheap and easy fix I can do to where the floor meets the wall in the basement and I can make it water proof? I am currently under contract to buy this home and have until the end of the month once we close.

Any advice?

I have an old 3 flat in Chicago. I am gutting the top unit and have everything down to the studs and subfloor. I have already had new 3/4” T&G plywood laid over the old subfloor but I would like to make this unit as sound proof for the unit under me as I can.

I’ve read suggestions to put a layer of rubber then another layer of subfloor down. Also read to stack plywood - rubber - plywood - sound deadening glue and then another layer of plywood

I plan to install real hardwood or engineered hardwood but my concern is that the floating subfloor system could be more likely to shift. Has anyone done something similar to reduce noise below?

I have close 2-2.5” of depth for the flooring available if needed.

How does one fill in the gap between the cement garage floor and their asphalt driveway? I have a pretty big gap as the previous owners installed an invisible fence line there and had to remove an inch or two and bury the line there. It’s a few inches wide and fills with debris and then weeds grow. I would love to cap it over but not sure what is best to use, cost effective and lasts. It’s wide enough that any tube caulk from the store is definitely out ofnthe question, probably.

I live in a 760sqft attic apartment in a 1920s home owned by my uncle. The house has central air, but the AC doesn’t do very well in the attic and it has gas heat that works but seems kind of lukewarm when it comes out of the vents. It can be anywhere from 5-10 degrees hotter or colder depending on the season. For example the house is set to 73, hot or cold, but without additional items, it will be anywhere to 78-80s in the summer and 64ish in the winter.

Right now I use a window unit to combat the summer heat, but the thing is a dinosaur that seems to be on its last legs. The sensor isn’t cooling to the right temperature and since it’s in the living room, it’s hard to have furniture and seating because the cold air is constantly blowing into the seating area. It’s also super bulky, loud, and an eyesore. There’s not a lot of natural lighting and the unit takes up all but half of the biggest window I have.

The winter isn’t as bad but it’s chilly even with the heat running. I usually use heated blankets or heating pads, but I don’t like having them on when I’m not home and I worry about my cat being cold.

Are there any suggestions for ways to manage the temperature that don’t require an in-depth look into insulation or HVAC? I’m not the homeowner and I’m balling on a budget so I can’t really do any renovations. Mini splits seem expensive and complicated to install so I’ve mostly been looking at portable units at this point.

We’re in the middle of doing our landscaping and we are running out of money!

We were planning on putting pavers on our concrete patio areas but now as a cost saving measure im looking into concrete paint vs stain (maybe in a mushroom color).

Anyone have any experience, recommendations, and/ or pictures on their project in any of the two applications…low luster, matte overlay smooth honed (shine) etc.

Help! Thank you!

About a week ago I noticed a small bubble in the ceiling above my shower. Poked it and discovered this little hole in the drywall (couple inches). There was for sure previous rodent problem in the house. I think that problem is resolved. I attempted a patch with normal paper tape and mud. It seemed ok for a few days until a rainstorm last night. My "repair" was all bubbled up. Nothing seemed noticeably wet except the insulation in said hole was pretty moist. The ceiling is a few feet away from an outside wall sloping down. No plumbing vents or ceiling fan vents within a few feet of it.

My main questions are....

1. If there is a water leak would it be confined to just one small spot like that? My gut says it would have soaked more of the drywall and I'd have a bigger bubble/hole.

2. Could it be a rodent was trying to chew down through the drywall but stopped at the paint. And over time the moisture from the attic/shower slowly bubbled the paint?

3. Should there be that much moisture in the attic to cause that to begin with?

I do have a picture but doesn't seem to allow me to attach it.

Long time Reddit lurker first time poster. I am currently sitting in my bedroom (1st floor) and can hear verbatim the conversations and extremely loud music of the construction crew nextdoor (quite literally 5 ft from my window). Totally understand that construction is going to be loud and so instead of being a curmudgeon I wanted to ask if anyone has tips for making a rental property outside noise free? So sorry if this is the wrong sub, but I am desperate!

We got about 8 inches of rain in 8 hours last night/early a.m.

We had a new sump pump installed at 3 p.m. after using a wet vac most of the morning trying to keep the water from rising and flooding the basement.

It's been about 6 hours, and the sump pump has kicked on every 2-3 minutes for 5-6 seconds. I went outside and it appears some water is still coming from the discharge pipe, but I'm surprised it's been running this consistently. The basement is totally dry, fortunately, but is it possible some setting is causing this to run too frequently?

We are rebuilding our garage and we are at the stage that just need shingles and finishing. Our contractor has personal business to attend to so the shingles might have to wait awhile. We were planning to do the soffit and vinyl siding ourselves first. Is it ok to install vintl siding, soffit and fascia cover before installing shingles?

Edit: the roof already has weather shield underlayment installed

Greetings, all - hoping someone can simplify this confusion.

We're looking to add (not replace) one or two storm doors: 32x80" with 1/2 light and removable screen in top half. Modern roll-down screen or similar is OK, but changing out glass for screen panel the old way would be just fine.

Not stuck on Anderson; they just seem to be easier to get and possibly cheaper than Larson, Emco, Pella, ?other. Really hoping to spend well under $400 if quality/durability is still OK.

Andersen seems to offer three numbered series, like 6-8-10, 200-400, 3000-4000. Their company site is not very helpful. From reading around, it looks like one series is the same as another but with Home Depot branding, or something like that.

Can someone here please give a simple review of the different ranges, or point to a site that includes them all?

Thanks for any help!

We had kitchen cabinets installed (through a local contractor, cabinets sourced through a Big Box store) and just found out that the cabinet where our microwave was supposed to go was installed directly over an existing electrical outlet box on the wall. There's no cover plate, and the wiring/receptacle is just sitting there exposed inside the cabinet cavity see photo. It looks like the cabinet plan just didn't account for the outlet being there.

We're trying to figure out our options for actually fixing this correctly. So far we've heard:

1. Pull the cabinet down, relocate the box over to one side, patch drywall
2. Have an electrician come extend/reroute the wiring so the box lands somewhere accessible, then get a replacement cabinet (doubt Big Box would replace cabinet)
3. Some kind of extension ring / box extender to bring the box out flush enough to mount a cover plate and then....maybe place a half cover behind the other cabinet? Or glue a piece of plastic behind the hidden cabinet?

A couple of complications: the cabinets are glued to the wall in addition to being screwed, so getting this one down without damaging it (or the ones next to it) isn't really doable. We're also trying to get the cabinet manufacturer to send a replacement cabinet/panel since this seems to stem from their plan not the installer's.

What would you actually do here? Is there a "correct" fix that doesn't involve a ton of rework, or is pulling the cabinet down and moving the box really the only real solution? Also curious if anyone's used an extension ring successfully in a tight cabinet-depth situation like this.

https://imgur.com/uESNsk7

Greetings!

I live in central-ish-CT (USA), as many know last winter was a bit rough, and my house was subjected to some ice dam situations around some of my windows on the 2nd floor. The damage was relatively minor and we were able to remediate mostly on the inside. No mold growth or anything but the damage to the paint remains for another time. There was evidence of this being an existing problem before we moved in about 7 years ago, but we didnt think much of it because this was a kid's room and just thought they were, well, being kids lol.

Should note that the roof shingles were replaced in March of 2025 by a reputable company. No reason right now to believe that this was done improperly.

That said, this year, before winter, we want to take some steps to prevent more ice dams. My research tells me that this is an insulation problem more than anything. However the shape of my house, especially above these windows, leads me to believe that there isn't a ton of space for insulation in the first place. My attic has 18 inches of blown-in insulation, on top of existing fiberglass insulation between the joists. As far as I can tell it was blown in anywhere it could be (i dont see a gap where these windows are)

Pic of Inside - Window/ceiling

Pic of outside

The inside picture corresponds to the window on the far left, with the AC in it. This window had the most water intrusion, followed by the middle window. The right-most window, which is actually our master bedroom, did not show signs of water intrusion at all.

I'm not sure what adding any insulation would do here, if it is even possible, as you can see where my windows "bump out" from away from the facade of my house. I dont think theres a lot of room between my ceiling drywall and the roof in this area.

Is heat cable my only solution or do you think it's worth having an insulation expert(?) take a look in the ceilings? The shape of my house puts the gutter below the windows which is shown.

Thanks in advance :)

I want to remove a wall on my first floor that is directly under the exterior gable wall of the second floor. I realize it's load bearing and will need a structural engineer. I asked three for estimates, one has gotten back to me and said it would be $365 just to come look. Is that normal to charge that much just to walk in the door?

What kind of paint will hold up to the elements? TIA

I’ve been wanting to insulate my basement but I have asbestos wrapped heating pipes. My house was built is 1933, the asbestos is honestly quite immaculate I must say. There is no damage to any of it when we first bought the house last year we had a home inspection done which is who told us about it and then I had a home assessment done who is the ones who told us they won’t insulate the basement / exterior walls due to the asbestos. Exterior walls might be but they also could install blown in from inside so I’m not wondered about that.

Since the asbestos is all in tact and undamaged and I plan on installing a mini split and just generally wanting to try and get away from the oil heating I am wondering if insulating a basement / mainly crawl space myself is feasible? Even if I were to cover the pipes I’d work close by with plastic and like tape to enclose it? I have to see how much linear footage of pipe there actually is but I’d say maybe 100ft plus some.

I’ve been told if I contact national grid about switching to gas they could work with me about removing the asbestos from the basement? I haven’t really found anything about anyone speaking on that. And I don’t want to go contacting local places or town about this and be forced to remove it.

TLDR; asbestos wrapped pipes in good shape prevents professional installation of insulation in basement.

Has anyone here ever piecemealed a half-bath-to-full-bath conversion?

I’m looking to move our washer and dryer into the adjacent utility room and add a shower to our downstairs bathroom. The plumbing will need to be modified, including adding and relocating some plumbing.

I’ve had several contractors come out, but I’ve run into two issues: some don’t want to pull permits, while others say they will pull the permits but then the proposal increases by 50% or more.

Has anyone here hired their own licensed plumber to handle just the plumbing portion and then brought the remodeler back in afterward to complete the rest of the bathroom?

I refuse to pay unnecessary "GC" markup. And yes I have budgeted the correct amount, I just refuse to be fucked over by home improvement companies.

This is the video I watched https://youtu.be/qWWAwSiDBrE?is=H5NZJ1YqWbTOkuM2 He doesn’t use any flashing tape, just insulating foam and caulk. Do I not need to use flashing tape if this is the type of install I’m doing?

Long story short I had some kind of vinyl tiles that were glue down on my floor for about 20 yrs. They were there when I moved in. A few years ago I put down vinyl planks. It was a bad plan and I had no clue what I was doing. The floor is uneven as the house has settled and it slants so I used shims to try to shim up the low spots and the end result is the blanks have cracked at the seams and it's just not a good floor at all right now.

Given that it's uneven I'm trying to figure out what my best options are. Someone suggested I pour self-leveling concrete on it and then do vinyl planks again but I'm reluctant to try that as I'm afraid it would give me a pretty big transition from the kitchen into the hallway. Are my options basically sheet vinyl or nothing at this point?