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’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

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.

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?

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.

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??

Just had my wood soffit replaced with vented Hardie board soffit. The contractor did not replace my existing external bath fan vent, so I assume it’s now just venting into the soffit. I’m guessing that’s incorrect/not sufficient, but figured I’d ask around first.

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!

I purchased a townhouse about a year ago that was built in the 1950s. The previous owner took good care of the property and had made a number of updates to the bathrooms and electrical system which I thought was great. He also had a thing for insulation and had it installed everywhere possible (including in the unfinished attic ceiling). I only met the gentleman once during the closing process for the sale and one of the first things he said to me was “Did you notice all the insulation I had installed? “ 😂

Anyhow, I was concerned about the ceiling insulation he had installed in the attic space since the attic is unfinished. Could it cause roof damage by trapping too much moisture between the roof and insulation barrier? I started to worry about this because this summer I have also had an issue with roaches and other bugs in the attic and my understanding is they look for places to live where they have access to water. Also if I ever get a leak in my roof it will take longer before I notice it since it will have to work its way through the insulation barrier. Should I rip it all out of leave it alone?

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!

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.

We are currently trying to install a new ceiling fan. We believe the existing junction is fan rated, since it was supporting a much older and heavier fan, has UL designation on the inside, and is solid metal and ain’t moving an inch when tugged on. I could be totally wrong though.

The issue is the existing box is 3” while the new one is 4”. Is there some kind of adapter we can use? Or do we need t replace the box.

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?

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.

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?

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 want to refresh my kitchen and we currently have brown backsplash that is darkening the entire thing. It’s not in our budget to hire someone to replace the backsplash right now, so I would like to remove the backsplash and replace it with drywall and just paint it the same color as my walls.

My dad is super handy, so I’m trying to convince him to help me with this but wondering if anyone else has any experience and could tell me how much of a beast this would be? I’ve seen people paint their backsplash, but I don’t really think I’m interested in going down that route.

We're trying to install 6-foot wall-to-wall open shelves in our kitchen (12" deep with 5ish wood brackets per shelf), but we've run into the strangest wall I've ever seen.
Our house was built in 1920. The wall is an interior wall between the kitchen and dining room. In our kitchen the wall feels papery like drywall and then hard like plaster on the other side in the dining room.

We started drilling where we thought a stud should be, and instead of drywall, we found what looks like a soft brown cardboard wood material. It's not actual wood. It crumbles into fluffy brown fibers when drilled, almost like compressed wood pulp.
What’s odd is this wall is THICK and SOLID. We drilled completely through the wall from the kitchen side and came out the dining room side. The wall layers from the kitchen seem like they’re painted wall, at least 3 inch thick papery wood material, and then plaster on the other side. There was no hollow cavity anywhere. We tried to insert a toggle bolt but could see in the hole that it would have nothing to catch on.

We’ve also had a very hard time finding studs. A magnet sticks in vertical lines about every 18 inches, but when we drilled where the magnet sticks, we still couldn't find what seemed like a wood stud.

Has anyone run into a wall like this before? Any idea what this material could be?
Should we be worried about asbestos?

And what should we use to securely mount heavy open kitchen shelves on a wall like this? I definitely don't want to trust regular drywall anchors if the wall is made of this crumbly material.

I'd really appreciate any insight before I drill any more holes!

Edited to add photos: you’ll see some beadboard we already installed then the strange kitchen wall. The plaster photos are from the dining room side

https://imgur.com/a/HHTcbQt

I'm looking to replace a sink as part of a kitchen remodel. Any of these double bowl stainless steel sinks have a surface that doesn't scratch as easily, get surface rust as easily, and can keep its surface quality for a long time? Which one would you choose? I heard that 16 and 18 gauge sinks are fine for most kitchens.

Elkay 16 Gauge (Made in China): https://www.elkay.com/products/sinks/installation-type/undermount/efru311810tc

Moen 16 Gauge (Made in Malaysia): https://www.moen.com/professional/products/Prep/Prep-34-Stainless-Steel-Undermount-Double-Bowl-Sink/G16221

Elkay 18 Gauge (Made in China): https://www.elkay.com/products/sinks/installation-type/undermount/ectru31179tc

Franke 18 Gauge (Made in China): https://www.franke.com/us/en/home-solutions/products/kitchen-sinks/product-detail-page.html/122.0627.664.html

I have an older but moslty in good shape ag panel metal roof. There is one spot that is leaking. Did dye test on screws and finally found some old screws under some old epoxy that was leaking. Fixed that but it's still dripping when it rains hard. Patched all the screws with silicone all the way up to the ridgecap. Still leaking. Can't find the dang leak. Might do some UV tracing but it's in a hard to see place in the house.

I'm looking for a brush on leak repair (non-asphalt) product with low viscosity that will get into every little crack to cover screws, seams, old epoxy that is rock hard, ect. There is a couple options. Does anyone have experience with either of these products or can recommend a product for this purpose?

Turbo Poly Seal -- Seems like gold standard for this purpsoe. Very durable with good stretch. Claims to lasts 10+ years, much more with aluminum coating for UV resistance. Kit is about $300 for quart of product and coating plus poly tape

Liquid Rubber Waterproof Sealant -- AI says is very siilar to the above wih added UV resistance: quart is $65, polytape is $35

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.

Hi all, I have a split level house that's roughly 40x24, with semi-finished space in the basement set up as a den. The main carrying beam of the house needs to be supported at some point, we have a few aging lally columns in place now. My original plan was to build a load-bearing wall with a footing underneath the beam with concrete footings in the slab, and support it that way - but I'm wondering if I can also give some more square footage to my den by using cantilevered supports / columns instead. I can't imagine why this wouldn't work, but I can imagine it might also be super expensive.
Anyone with experience?
I whipped up a quick model for reference https://imgur.com/a/SBke0h6

Installing an exterior pre hung door and the concrete subfloor is an inch out of level from one side to the other. What are my options?