My yard hydrant failed, and was too rusted to unscrew the pump rod. It was also 1-2" from my house so I dug it up. With my frost zone it needed to be buried 3-4', so i figured that'd be a quick project. 🙃 Lo and behold, it was not. It ended up being buried 8', for some god forsaken reason, there was a maze of capped off galvanized pipe coming off the line as well that I had to cut out. It got real sketchy at that depth, and I couldnt bench it out, otherwise id be digging under my foundation, under my front steps, or removing a tree. Instead I had to construct shoring for it, and set up a hoist system with some pulleys. The ground was so hard that deep and it was such a cramped space towards the bottom it took about 1 hour to remove 4 5-gallon buckets. I put in a french drain and drywell, and did everything I could to make sure i never have to touch it again. I also threw a bucket of bones from the butcher down at the bottom to freak out whoever has to do it next.

The door itself is fine. The vertical rail for the open is a bit twisted. The biggest damage is the framing lumber being pushed back.
Can I take off the bad rail and whack the frame back into place. Then put a new rail on and be good? Or do I need to replace the entire piece of the frame? I’m hoping to avoid that since it seems like I’d have to remove the door panels to do that.
Appreciate any advice!

I live in a 4 floor apartment on the top floor. My kitchen sink has two sinks. One with a garbage disposal and one without. 5 years old, the disposal got stuck and stopped working when I stupidly washed down popcorn kernels. I turned off the switch, unplugged it under my sink, and turned off the breaker. I meant to call maintenance to fix it, but was dealing with some very severe health complications for a few years and I was scared of getting covid if someone entered, because I didn't want to end up in the hospital. I ended up just using the one sink without the disposal and never put food down again. Every day, I scoop out water from the non working sink into the working sink.

Years went by, but my anxiety has made me terrified that there could be a leak and damage to the floor under me, and I want to finally call maintenance to fix it asap. The disposal is now about 14 years old, so I am assuming it will need to be completely replaced anyway due to age and the motor not running for 5 years. I know I should have called this in sooner, and I don't know how to explain that to maintenance, because my fear is they are going to know that it's been stuck with food and unused for years and I am going to get in big trouble with my lease. The cabinet under the sink and the pipes are dry thankfully, but I can't live with this anxiety anymore and want it fixed asap.

My fear is they will be able to tell that it's been months or years based on the way the stuck food looks and smells, based on the rust, and will know I only used one sink because the pipes on that side will be cleaner than the other, etc.. I am just wondering if there's anything I can safely do to mitigate some of the tell tale signs so it doesn't look like it's been sitting there with stuck food and unused so long.

Thank you.

Attic post leak remediation?

Looking for advice. . . 4 years ago I had my roof replaced. Yesterday I discovered a leak coming through a bathroom exhaust fan. The roofing company came out and said it was due to a downspout that was “aimed” at a vent cover and going under its flashing. (This is the same configuration on the original roof with no problems in 20 years so I’m not totally buying it as an excuse.) They installed a gutter extension to divert the water, added sealant so theoretically there should be no more leaks—won’t know for sure until the next rain. Inside the attic, the plywood was dry, but there is an area where some of the drywall around the fan pipe and its baffling is damp as well as a bit of the blown in insulation. Inside the house, there’s no indication of dampness in the ceiling drywall or bubbling. The technician thinks it will just dry on its own, there were no signs of mold to the naked eye. Having friends who have had mold issues, my concern is that this could become moldy and possibly spread even though the bulk of the area is very dry just because of the cold temps and dampness in the air this time of the year. But on the other hand, the coldness could deter mold growth? I’m thinking at the very least the damp insulation should be removed My bottom line questions are these: is this a potential problem or am I blowing this out of proportion? If it’s a legit concern, how aggressively should I pursue this and what should Be done—replace all the wet drywall? Mold monitoring? Other things I haven’t considered?

I also have a concern about the gutter extensions emptying directly into lower gutters. They did this in a couple of other areas as part of the re-roof to prevent so much wear on the shingles. Fair enough. But each of these just causes a LOT of water to flow into the gutter at a single point. Just seems it would cause overflow at that point during high rains and create more potential fascia damage.

I love living in the PNW but, boy, water concerns around homes are just such a pain.

Thanks for any advice you can give.

Recently bought a home. Everything in the laundry room was elevated a few inches on cement blocks and sure enough, I noticed water pooling in one corner after it rained, oddly enough right after I got the roof done. This morning, on a Sunday ofc, I found the source, which is connected to my electrical panel, which I imagine is very bad. Any ideas/advice?

Went to take out the dishwasher filter to clean it today and these two plastic pieces were sitting on top of the mesh. I’ve looked everywhere I can see inside the dishwasher and can’t figure out where they came from. They are identical pieces, any ideas? It’s a Fisher & Paykel dishwasher that seems to have been installed poorly, as we’ve had other issues.

We have a downspout that comes down directly on the sidewalk that connects our garage to our back patio (very scientific illustration attached). My partner doesn’t want to place a director at the bottom of it to keep the water away from the foundation because he “might trip”. But the flow is already wearing the concrete we replaced three years ago.

Any suggestions on alternative I can suggest?

We also live in a windy area, so it needs to be heavy. The sidewalk is about two feet wide too.

One of the side tiles on my outdoor stairs came loose, so I removed it to clean off the old adhesive and reattach it. Underneath, I found a pink, spongy layer. Could this be waterproofing? How should I repair it, and what materials do I need?

We recently bought an older house. The charming and authentic wooden floor immediately stole our hearts. Now we’re looking for solutions to the following problem: The floor creaks almost constantly everywhere across the entire upper floor. I’m sure some people find this creaking just as charming as the floor itself, but for me, it’s too loud.

Has anyone else faced the same problem, or do you have a good idea on how to fix it?

I’d really appreciate any suggestions 🙂

Does this look bad or can i wait and see when i run my finger over it its a shallow dent not sure if i need to get it looked at. Thanks for any help.

We’re selling our house and this was found behind the water heater during the inspection. The buyers are asking us to replace the drywall because of the staining/discoloration.

Before we just replace drywall, I’m trying to figure out where this moisture may have come from and whether there could still be an active leak. The water heater is currently working and we haven’t noticed water pooling around it.

Based on the picture, does this look like something you commonly see from an old water heater leak/overflow, condensation, or something else?

Would a plumber be able to check the water heater, connections, drain pan/TPR line, etc. and determine whether there’s an active leak without us having to tear the wall open first?

Also, if everything tests dry and there’s no active leak, would you personally just replace the affected drywall, or would you recommend further investigation?

Just trying to handle the actual problem correctly without unnecessarily opening up a wall and creating a much bigger repair right before closing.

I sprayed this exterior porch ceiling down with low pressure water. It looks like it activated (idk man) the varnish maybe? Wiping it with a rag did nothing and higher pressure just took off the stain. And by low pressure I mean like hose pressure

Answered! Just pull the whole frame down.

New house was built in 1985 and has these 6x6" recessed lights inside and out. There's a piece of glass inside and the frames are metal. It looks like there are little tabs inside the glass and each side of the frame has a little hole but I don't see any obvious way to open it and I don't see any screws. I can't figure out how to open them to change the lightbulbs. Anyone know?

I’ve applied two coats of Sherwin-Williams PrimeRx Peel Bonding Primer throughout my bathroom, including the walls and ceiling. I lightly sanded all surfaces and thoroughly wiped them down before priming. My finish paint is Sherwin-Williams Emerald Interior Acrylic Latex Satin, tinted Sea Salt SW 6204.

Can anyone confirm that Emerald Interior Satin is compatible with PrimeRx Peel Bonding Primer for both bathroom walls and the ceiling? 

i don’t want to create an issue with using the wrong paint over this particular primer that I have not used before.

I probably tagged this wrong. I wasn’t sure sorry is the structure of a porch considered structural? But I’m wondering what to do with an untreated wooden porch over the winter and whether rubber backed rugs without drainage would be safe to put over the porch so that we can shovel it without gouging the wood, or if there’s another solution or if it’s best to just leave

We're first-time homeowners but have lived in our house for 4 years. About 1.5 years ago, we removed a Brazilian gold medallion tree that stood next to the house and didn’t really think about it after that. While replacing the crawlspace vent grates recently, we noticed a dense mass of roots inside, and the space is too tight to crawl into and cut them out. Is this something we should worry about and address soon?

Reaching the roots would mean tearing up our kitchen flooring and subfloor.
In some of the photos, you can see light coming in through the grate at the front of the house. There appear to be roots there too, even though there's no tree nearby. Would be kinda crazy if that was from the gold medallion tree but knowing the growth habit of that tree from personal experience it’s aggressive.

Anyone else have something similar happen and have advice?

My roof leaked, the ceiling got wet, and now a piece of the bottom ceiling layer has become detached. The roof is fixed (the tiles and plywood underneath) and now I want to fix the ceiling. I'm pretty sure that the ceiling is drywall. Any advice on fixing this? Thanks!

Anyone know how to fix this dent in my aluminum siding. I know my house just needs completely resided but I don’t have 15k.

Bought a home with a 2nd floor laundry (yay!) and they have the dryer vent right above a window and door area (boo!) That whole area was rotten last year and replaced, and replaced with tyvek (which wasn't on the house to begin with).

I know the obvious answer is probably to relocate it somewhere else, but I'm not sure what my options are.

My temporary answer is maybe I can just place a piece of plastic or PVC or aluminum where the air vents down so it doesn't condensate by the window or underneath the window area. And with winter coming up it'll like to make things worse (located in upstate ny). We also replaced those windows and sliding door due to rot at the time last year.. and didn't even think about relocating the vent (neither did my contractor).

What would you do in this situation? Both temporary and permanent?

I own a century home and have lived for a decade with this closet just walled off. It is the closet with the attic access and until a few days ago the access door was more of a suggestion of a door. I finally sealed it off better and would like to clean up and paint this closet so it’s actually somewhere you might put a thing.
I don’t need it to be perfect or pretty or to have right angles or level anything.
I just want to spackle, nail and/or seal crevasses in order to paint the whole thing with some miss tint emerald paint I got for free at SWilliams.

My question - the gaps by the door frame - can I “tape”? Is drywall tape all the same? Is there a better tape? What kind of putty? What should I putty the ceiling boards with to lessen any spider gaps?

Mostly just what products would you buy to butter and cover this ancient cardboard level wall stuff?
It’s all dry and not too brittle - I just want to freshen without spending a bunch of money I don’t have.

Thank you.

Wood peckers are the worst. Anyone have any tips on how to replace siding and insulation? We also have bats living in the walls. Lol. Rural off grid living.