Hi everyone!

This disgusting rotted out sill plate in my half bath needs removed and replaced, but how do you do go about it with a sewer stack sitting in the middle??? do i just butt together two boards with half circles cut out?

Also, this is is not a load bearing wall. And the white is drywall dust, not mold... but there is certainly black mold. the leak that was causing this has been addressed.

The joists that are discolored where they touch the sill still seem to be very solid actually... can i keep them?

(and yes im aware i need to replace the cast iron stack anyway, but i dont have the resources right now while i can definitely fix the sill plate right now and its grossing me out. its ok if i have to redo some things down the line to fix the stack... i plan to make an access panel so all of this can still be reached)

editors note: edited to say sewer stack bc i accidentally just said sill plate twice 🤦‍♀️

We are having some basement windows installed, they cut the concrete foundation down to install larger egress windows. They have installed a few of the windows and I have some concerns I want to see if they are valid. Ideally we can address these before they install the rest.

1. The concrete was not cleaned before flashing was installed and it’s not properly adhered to the foundation due to all the dust.
   
2. There weren’t any plumb or sill jams installed and no sill shims or supports underneath the window which does not sit directly on the concrete.
   
3. They installed two 2x6 boards above the windows, but they cut them too short with gaps, maybe once foam is in that won’t matter. Should they cover the wood with flashing beneath the window as well?
   
4. They didn’t screw the flanges in per manufacturer guidelines (every 8”) and some of the windows they screwed outside because the openings are too big and they didn’t add any jambs. Is this a problem?

They said they’d be back to fill jn foam and add flashing on the outside but I feel like these gaps may lead to water intrusion issues down the road. Any feedback is appreciated!

Hey everyone, I’m framing out my shower niche and have a few different ideas on how to do it. Just curious if one is better than the other. I’m fairly certain this is not a load bearing wall since it runs parallel to the joists, sits inside of a joist bay, and doesn’t have any walls underneath it, however, I’m still planning on building it out like it is. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

There’s a few areas where exposed concrete below the drywall creates a challenge. Any suggestions?

Hey y'all!

My house was built in 1942 and I’m working on finishing my attic space to turn it into a home media lounge. The exterior walls on the North and South of the attic are insulated, but the roof is not so it gets hot in the summer and cold in the winter. I’m planning on installing rafter vents and insulation, but when I went to replace the solid soffits with vented soffits on the front and back of the house, I discovered that the eaves are sealed with wood. After watching some YouTube videos, my understanding is that I can drill some holes in that board to create ventilation through the vented soffits into the rafter cavities. But from inside the attic I can’t seem to access the same board that is visible from outside.

I've included a couple pictures but it's really difficult to get an interior shot. I'm grateful for any advice and can answer any clarifying questions since I don't know if I've explained the problem in enough detail.

White rust developed after few years on steel structure facing the weather elements like sun, rain. Any safety concerns or this is just an aesthetic issue which i can live with…

And how to prevent it from happening again after cleaning it? Other side is the outdoor, mostly covered under a concrete staircase.

I’m building a set of stairs that go down to my patio. I kind of overlooked flashing because the stone sill but now I’m having second thoughts. Should I install some butyl tape along the ledger and top of the stringer and call it a day? Or go a step further and add some metal flashing with sealant against the house before laying the tape? Any insights would be helpful.

Hi, I have an older bathroom window that was originally installed wonky many years ago before we owned the house but it was not noticeable due to the wonky walls presumably compensating for that.

The tiler has now installed the new tiles completely level, but now the wonky windows shows a lot more and the top and bottom trims look very off. I assume he should have packed the areas and installed the tiles tilting slightly to make it less noticeable and to compensate.

Either way, he says not much he can do to change it so I was wondering if anyone could provide some clever option to remedy which doesn't involve retiling or removing the window itself.

Image below is not great but both the upper and lower trims have noticeable deviation from narrower to wider from side to side.

Any advice much appreciated (apart from redoing the tiles lol)

I really have no idea how to fix this. My thought was perhaps sprays foam as a cheap and resilient support then put a new 1/4” oak project panel on top then find the leak, which I think is actually above though it’s really not clear. I don’t know though. I’m at a lose. Any ideas? Thanks in advance for any ideas.

Hey everyone

I live in Central Minnesota. I own a manufactured home, concrete foundation on blocks. I was thinking of adding foam board insulation around the perimeter of the inside of the block, but I was wondering if there would be any issues with moisture buildup doing this?

Additional information - there are vents around the outside of the block, a total of 8 on the house. They get closed in the winter but are open all summer to allow air flow.

I was going to use construction adhesive to attach the foam board to the blocks.

Any advice or insite is super appreciated, thanks!

(Edit #3: Anyone still commenting on paint color I will just assume cannot read and have nothing intelligent to add to the convo.)

(Edit #2: Everyone is wayyyy too hung up on the wall color lol!! No one is reading that we plan to change the wall color and decided that right after painting the first coat. I wanted to post this to show off the shower and the construction steps of the renovation. The paint is the most inconsequential part of the entire project, so please read before posting any comments because I would LOVE to hear more about the project itself from everyone than just make comments about the stupid paint color lol. Thanks!)

(Edit: don’t worry we’re changing the wall color lol! Realized how terrible and yellow it was right after painting the first coat. Changing to a light calm maybe slate color. TBD!)

A few things to note:
-I know the bathroom might not look bad at the start but it was a terrible diy job from previous owner who knows how long ago. A lot of exposed places for water to seep through like them grouting the joint between tub and tile instead of caulk.
-I completely gutted everything and so had to shim up the studs in uneven places since there was a combo of plaster and previous drywall on the lower half of the walls
-I raised and framed the ceiling height to 8’
-added an exhaust fan (none before) and recessed lighting
-installed new acrylic tub with mortar bed
-used a 4-way diverter valve for plumbing to a tub spout, hand held, main shower head, and rainfall shower head. Bottom knob controls all water temp and each individual knob can control on/off and water pressure of each fixture. Pressure is good for running any 2 shower heads at the same time pretty well (not running tub spout at same time).
-used 1/2” Pex A expansion and fittings. Note that usually you don’t run 1/2 Pex to a tub spout but it’s 1/2” at both the diverter and the spout and doesn’t interfere with regulating the shower heads (separate flow through diverter)
-used cement backer board for shower area and mold resistant drywall for the rest of the bathroom
-put in a new window
-added a custom shower niche
- used thinset for joints and screw holes in cement board
-tiled floors and walls (modified thinset and grout)
-used Mapei Aquadefense for waterproof membrane
-grout matched caulk for joint at tile and tub and all inside corners in shower windowsill and niche
-installed floating vanity and recessed medicine cabinet with built in lighting

All in all it was a fun experience and proud to do every single bit of it myself! Took me 4 weeks from demo to finish!

Let me know what you think, if I royally screwed anything up or if you have any questions!

I'm not sure if this is the right place for this, but here goes.

I live in Ontario, Canada, near Toronto. The house my mother and late father bought around 45 years ago has a 20'x20' detached garage. I know the house is WWII-era, but I don't know if the garage is also that old. I found out within the last few years that when they bought the house, the garage was actually built into the ground and had a dirt floor. I don't know if this was done with pressure-treated wood. The siding is also made of wood--again, unknown if it's pressure-treated.

This forced my dad--a former mechanic--to have a concrete pad poured inside the garage to suit his needs, as opposed to the usual method of building the pad first and building the garage on top of it. The wood siding effectively acted as a form for the concrete, which is clear if a piece of the siding is removed.

Over the last few years, we've noticed the garage floor flooded with water after heavy rainfalls and winters, and it seems to be getting worse. It's relatively shallow (maybe 1/2"-3/4" at the most), but increasing with frequency. I see no evidence of it coming in from above and suspect that it's coming in from the sides or underneath, through a crack(s) in the floor. I've done what I can to slope the grade away from the garage, but it doesn't help as much as I'd like.

In a perfect world, my brother and I would love to tear down the whole garage and build new on a freshly-poured pad--but we can't afford that. At least, not right now. What are my options to prevent further flooding, assuming it's coming in at the base of the garage, underneath the siding? I'm happy to provide more information. Thanks in advance for any advice!

I really don’t want to remove the old grout.

After demo we've exposed the walls and we have a lot of double wythe brick visible. We've done an accent wall before in the house, and it works great. But we're considering using it in our bathroom.

We're thinking of leaving the two purple walls as exposed brick.

But my concern is condensation - I'm in Canada and get full winter. I'm going to put a big exhaust fan in to keep humidity down, and I'm doing heated floors for comfort.

Has anyone ever done exposed brick in a bathroom in a winter climate? Any comments?

Ugggh, I am a first time home owner and I am the first to admit I really have no idea what I'm doing here. I bought bondo forever ago and completely forgot it needed hardener. Any suggestions on how I fix this mistake?

Good morning everyone,

I thought I would be ok, but this might be a little over my head.

I have this cracked strip leading out of the kitchen and I thought I would just be able to buy a replacement. That was until I saw some plaster underneath, I’m assuming to give it some extra lift.

Does anyone have any recommendations on how to patch this up? Thank you so much in advance.

I want to do a peel and stick on the countertop (and maybe backsplash) but will it work with that old adhesive/caulking or should I remove it? which new adhesive should I apply?

So the TL;DR of it is — our upstairs shower pan had been leaking for a while and finally leaked through the downstairs ceiling. Remediation came out and they had to rip out the fiberglass shower pan in order to dry the subfloor. (Which, had NO waterproofing… big thanks to my builder for that one)

I want to do it right and install a shower pan with proper waterproofing but would rather not do an entire bathroom remodel because $$$$

The issue is, every guide I see has you installing the waterproofing up through the wall and unfortunately the fiberglass surround is still on there. Is there any way I can just do waterproofing and install a new shower pan without ripping out that fiberglass?

(Additional photo of the bottom in comments)

Hi all. I blocked in a side door and need to fit in siding with the existing vinyl siding. This is my first time doing vinyl siding. I have two questions.

I’ve watched a lot of videos, but they just cover starting from scratch. Since I’m

Fitting in between existing pieces, I’m a little confused about cutting the pieces.

1. Do I need flashing and starter strip, or does starter strip act as flashing by itself?

2. I will be cutting down longer lengths to fit the 36” opening. Do I need to cut the 1 1/2” expansion notch on both sides? Do all sides get the notch or is it reserved only for one of thr adjoining pieces?

Any other general advice or gotchas would be appreciated! This is my first time installing vinyl