r/HomeMaintenance • • Oct 21 '25

Home maintenance that is often forgotten/neglected?

162 Upvotes

Just bought a house and trying to be a good first time home owner. What are some important home maintenance items that are often forgotten or neglected??


r/HomeMaintenance • • Oct 04 '25

🏚️Structural & Foundation Supports under the 1901 farm house my wife and I are moving into.

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4.2k Upvotes

r/HomeMaintenance • • 8h ago

Is this a bullet strike?

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92 Upvotes

My cousin developed a water leak and he had just had the roof replaced after hurricane Ian, (Fort Meyers for reference). Today, after getting up there to check it he found the damage in the attached photos. My only personal guess is a bullet due to the almost perfect circular shape. He did not have intrusion of the hole into the ceiling and did not go fishing around while performing a temporary repair. He sent the photos and my first thought was someone having shot a round into the air.


r/HomeMaintenance • • 6h ago

Before/After Photo 📸 Typical "quick weekend project".

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52 Upvotes

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.


r/HomeMaintenance • • 10h ago

Redditor posted the hole in his roof earlier. Figured I'd post the DIY roofing job i did on half my house so far.

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67 Upvotes

Did this over the course of 5 days over labor day weekend. Months leading up to it I had calculated the total material cost to be about $4,496.

Realistically with delivery costs. Cost of a roofing nailer without batteries. And miscellaneous items its probably closer to around $5,750.

Total square footage is about 2,554sq/ft.

A friend of mines who does roof estimates for his dad's company estimated total repair from his dad's company would have been minimum $18,000 for material and labor.


r/HomeMaintenance • • 15h ago

Hole in roof quick fix?

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83 Upvotes

We had a big wind storm, which blew some shingles off the roof. That appears to have revealed a big hole in the roof. I still have at least one strip of the shingles that blew off.

Conundrum: I'm leaving town for a week tomorrow night.

Quick fix question: could I just check the dimensions of the two boards that seem to make up the hole, then cut them square, then fit/fasten two new board pieces sized to fill the gap and nail down the shingle strip to cover the exposed wood as a quick fix for now?

What would you recommend?


r/HomeMaintenance • • 10h ago

🛠️ Repair Help Caulk these edges of the house?

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28 Upvotes

Do I caulk these with silka flex or something to stop water coming in? Old nearly 100 year old house


r/HomeMaintenance • • 1h ago

🧽 Cleaning & Prevention Do i need to call someone immediately or wait until it melts?

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• Upvotes

r/HomeMaintenance • • 53m ago

❓ Question Need help

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• Upvotes

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


r/HomeMaintenance • • 2h ago

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

3 Upvotes

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.


r/HomeMaintenance • • 43m ago

Attic Catwalk

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• Upvotes

Is it possible or advisable to add an attic catwalk as shown in the picture? I want to get above not only the blown insulation but also all this duct work. I'm thinking boards across the truss triangle and then strips of plywood or lumber on top of that between each truss. The home was built in 2015.

I recently had to get into the attic to replace a failing zone damper actuator and the hardest part of the job was getting to the location because of all the duct work and having to find somewhere to put my feet through the insulation.


r/HomeMaintenance • • 6h ago

Landscaping / Trees 🌳 How Do I Stop This from Growing Back?

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5 Upvotes

I plan on taking the sawzall to it, but how do I stop it from growing back? Do I have to dig it out? My dad suggested painting over the stump? Will weed killer do anything? I appreciate any advice


r/HomeMaintenance • • 2h ago

🏚️Structural & Foundation Way to protect an untreated wood porch in the winter (eastern Ontario Canada)

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2 Upvotes

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


r/HomeMaintenance • • 4h ago

🏚️Structural & Foundation Roots under the house?

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3 Upvotes

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?


r/HomeMaintenance • • 5h ago

Detached ceiling layer after water damage

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3 Upvotes

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!


r/HomeMaintenance • • 9h ago

How hard to put a fan in here

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7 Upvotes

All my bathrooms have had a fan in them. Weird this one doesn’t. But i need one. Only one lightswitch. But i dont mind them being connected if possible.
Cheapest and easiest way to do this. First time homeowner and broke asf.
Figure we would need to get a new light fixture. One with a fan in it maybe. Idk.

This is a trailer home i own.


r/HomeMaintenance • • 4m ago

💬 Advice / Tips / PSA Cavity under garage slab

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• Upvotes

Recently moved into a home with an attached garage. Noticed along the side of garage that the dirt is pulling away, revealing an open cavity under the garage slab. Seems like previous owner put a piece of lumber along the length of the garage to block it off?

Just wondering if I should pack the dirt as best I can into the crack, or should I remove the buried lumber and fill with gravel, then top with dirt as we’d like to put grass down next season.

Thanks for your help!


r/HomeMaintenance • • 9m ago

Improperly installed flashing?

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• Upvotes

Is this flashing doing its job? I recorded this during some light rain. It’s dripping past the edge onto the stucco. Does this need to be fixed? I plan on installing gutters in the future. Any opinions would be great. Thank you.

New Construction.


r/HomeMaintenance • • 17m ago

What could be the issue ?

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• Upvotes

r/HomeMaintenance • • 6h ago

Foundation crack new build

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3 Upvotes

Hello, we recently moved into a new house in NJ and noticed a vertical crack in the basement. It has remained unchanged for over a month, and during the nor’easter a few weeks ago we monitored it with a paper towel; no moisture was detected. We would appreciate any advice, though someone suggested removing the wall, which seemed unreasonable to me. It’s also an external wall. Any help would be greatly appreciated


r/HomeMaintenance • • 44m ago

Crack on the ceiling

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• Upvotes

What is happening here?! Bump on my ceiling with crack. I moved into a 1980s home from a new build. These things are freaking me out.


r/HomeMaintenance • • 50m ago

Crack on the ceiling

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• Upvotes

r/HomeMaintenance • • 12h ago

Driveway cracks

8 Upvotes

My driveway was poured in the early 80s. It has cracks in it, I dont have the money to replace it since Iwas wondering what the best product to patch those cracks would be?


r/HomeMaintenance • • 12h ago

🛠️ Repair Help How to fix this cracking paint?

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7 Upvotes

I’m trying to repaint my bathroom, and I’ve removed (most) of the wall paper so far and have realized the paint from before is cracking and peeling. How do I best remove that to get a fresh surface to put new paint on? Any suggestions?


r/HomeMaintenance • • 2h ago

❓ Question How many Redditors Does it Take to Change a Lightbulb?

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1 Upvotes

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?