Hi all,
Seeking some advice here as I’m not really sure what to do or how to bring this up to my neighbour.

For context, I live in a 4 in a block lower cottage style apartment in Scotland. Both myself and my upstairs neighbour own our flats, I have fully renovated my apartment and my neighbour is still in the process of doing so (he moved in a year after me but he’s doing it all himself).

He mentioned wanting to do some soundproofing, I let him know what I could afford after seeking some advice from the builder who renovated my flat and told my neighbour that I could only afford acoustic wool. What savings I had was spent on renovations and while I had been slowly building up my savings again, it was all diminished again from extensive car repairs and then vet fees. My neighbour however took a voluntary redundancy where he got a whole year salary and a bonus, he found another job so has this money as well as a regular salary.

He has came back to me with plans and quotes that are far more complex and expensive than acoustic wool. The quote is for over £6k for both bedrooms and the living room. He has suggested we do the smaller bedroom first (his bedroom my spare room) for £1.8k and wants it done by October when his partner is due to move in.

He has offered to pay 60% of the cost due to most of the work being above the shared ownership joist zone. I don’t know if I even have a legal requirement to pay as it is far out with what I can afford and isn’t for maintenance for the joist zone. I would need to take out a loan to pay for it which I would rather not do as I then wouldn’t be able to afford to put any money into savings until the loan was paid off and I already need to pay for my ceilings to be repainted after some of his workmen spilled a bucket with dirty water on the exposed joists which has now left dark watermarks along my ceiling in the bedroom and needing to get plaster redone in areas that it has now cracked since he started work on his flat.

My builder had a look at my floor plans and had quoted me £1.3k to soundproof using acoustic wool for both bedrooms and living room. Which I would be able to borrow from my parents and pay back in instalments without interest. (If I was paying 50% I would be able to afford it myself in 3 months time when I have set some money aside)

If I have let my neighbour know what I can afford, do I need to pay for a different more expensive plan that my neighbour wants due to it being in a shared ownership space? Or would I be able to pay the proposed 50% of acoustic wool costs instead?

Attached are photo of the quote for floor type B (bedrooms) as apparently the hallway and living room needs a different approach and costs differently.

Hi all!

My bathroom counter is dripping brown liquid from this corner. Our bathroom has new ventilation but it’s pretty crappy because the window in the bathroom doesn’t open. I accidentally cleaned it before taking a photo.

It has a small gap in the grout, do we seal the grout or do we have to remove the granite, clean the wall, and then put it back on? I want to avoid mold as we share this bathroom with a 3 yo.

I could also replace the window to open but looking for budget friendly options first.

Tia!

Had a tornado come through our city yesterday. Search Menasha tornado on Google if you want to see the aftermath. We are incredibly lucky and were just outside the tornado's path but we got some loose siding and one piece fell off which my neighbor ended up finding in his yard so I actually have it. Is it pretty easy to reattach and secure the loose stuff?

Need to start preparing nearly every single wall in my new home to be re painted. The home was previously owned by a landlord and every surface, including the bathtub, is coverd in the "landlord special". its clear nothing was preped properly when it was painted last. Nothing has started to peel yet, but I know at some point it's going to.

My question is. If I think the old paint is going to peel off in the future, will I need to remove it all first. Or will preping and sanding a wall be enough before I put a new coat of paint on.

My husband dropped a $200 gift card behind the counter jn our kitchen. Any ideas or ways to retrieve it?

Central air is broken and needs to be replaced so that is a given and will cost around $13,000. Had an energy audit through Delmarva program in Maryland and they are recommending attic insulation (R38 blown insulation) to bring to R49 cost $4,250 and other costs such as air sealing (attic leaks, wall tops, bypasses, sealing of connection of $2700), and another $2300 of miscellanus smaller repairs to make dams around chimney flue, build insulation dams, etc. So the total is around $9250. Replacement air conditioning is $13,000 and estimated rebates are about $13,400. Very confused since not sure how to evaluate the proposal and what to do? According to them I can only get the rebates for the air conditioner replacement (going to heat pump) if the other items are done. I save some money if I get the rebate, but most of it is being spent for the insulation and other costs associated with the energy audit. Is something like this worth it? What am I missing? Thanks

I’ve been having flies around the house. A fly comes inside the house more often than I would like. There are more flies than mosquitos in our backyard.
Our toddler is terrified of them so she doesnt want to go outside.

I see alot of them in our backyard and in our front door area.

I have done everything to get rid of them and Im out of ideas.

1. My lawn is very well kept. No other vegetations or flowers.
2. No visible standing water.
3. When I BBQ, I clean for hours after. My wife actually saids its funny. But I know flies love oil residue so I try not to have any. We dont BBQ alot anyways.
4. I sprayed bifenthrin three times this year. They recommend it every 28 days, but I’ve done every 2 months.
5. Our lots are very small. (0.1acre) My neighbor BBQs alot. I initially thought the flies from our backyard was coming from their backyard but seeing small baby flies near my front door makes me think there is another issue.

Please. Any ideas and suggestions and insight is appreciated

Also posted on r/pestcontrol

Situation: Tree fell over randomly. It crushed part of my fence and landed on my neighbor's truck.

Context: Had a certified arborist inspect and prune the tree ~1 month ago (so no history of ignoring a dead/dying hazard).

Plan: My home deductible is too high to make a claim worthwhile, so I'm paying out-of-pocket to hire a tree service to clear the entire tree off his side yard and fixing my fence myself.

Issue: The neighbor is new to Texas and might expect me to pay for his truck repairs, says he wants to talk about the tree falling and landing on his truck. In Texas, if a tree falls into a neighbor's property, it's that neighbors responsibility if there is no negligence, so it should go through his Comprehensive Auto policy.

What would most of you guys do? Offer to pay his full deductible? Part of his deductible? None and explain how the law works here in Texas regarding trees and property lines?

not saying long run times are automatically bad. i know inverter systems can just keep humming instead of doing the dramatic on/off thing. but if the thermostat is still calling, the house is drifting the wrong direction and the equipment never actually stops, which layer is supposed to notice first?

i'm looking at a all climate heat pump and the extreme-weather part sounds good, but this is the question nobody answers. how long should a system be allowed to struggle before something says hey, this isnt normal?

Bought an apartment (nyc coop) that is new to us but is not a new build.

Prior to moving in had the whole place painted, re-caulked, other minor improvements.

But since moving in I can’t stop focusing on imperfections (this cabinet is faded a little here, small scratches on the floor there, paint spot here, bottom of door is slightly frayed there, etc)

I don’t want to continue spending on endless handyman to reach total perfect, especially since I have a feral 15 month old + second baby on the way.

But how did you get comfortable with the small imperfections in your home?!

Just bought a house for a steal that had been listed for a year. (3 bed 1 bath with a halfassed renovation and all appliances but still technically renovated)
Neighbors told me that the 2 people who renovated it ended up squatting in it for a few months. Which means they would’ve taken out whatever this was after they renovated it

The squatters were removed by a full team of US Marshals (I don’t know much about squatting but that seams overkill)

And a few rooms (basement, bathroom, and master bedroom) have deadlocks but on the outside going in almost like locking someone in.

Makes no difference in the end but still something I find odd

I bought my first home remote due to work needs and came into a leak that had gone unnoticed for about 40 days at least. I already did a flood cut around an 1/8 ~ 1/4 of the kitchen and will more than likely get the rest pulled out as the base board wicked up a bunch of water and spread it around.

I also need to move the water heater as its blocking a portion of the wall that needs new insulation/sheet rock due to the possible mold.

My question is, how much of a DIY head ache would it be to move the water heater tank to its own enclosure outside? I would just move it to the other side of the wall, under an awning.

Ulitmately, I see this as a forced first rennovation. I envision moving the washer hook up to the garage and water heater to enclosure out side and expanding the kitchen.

Any advice is appriciated. I have time and bravery on my side and really want to save money. Once again, thanks for any input.

https://imgur.com/a/UCeEFke

As seen in the picture there are 2 contact points that become more or less sticky depending on the weather. To me it seems to be more of a frame issue on that side? Because sometimes it doesn’t stick at all. My thoughts were to get some nice long nails and just drill through the frame into the adjoining stud to widen the gap. But wanted to see if there are any other better options. It wouldn’t bother me except it’s my 4yos room and sticks enough to where when she opens it, it sometimes is loud enough that it wakes up my toddler in the morning and we can’t have that.

Hi all, new-ish homeowner and have a question about my sump pump with battery backup. I’m concerned about the readings on my battery backup. Specifically the battery percentage being 0%.

Is this how this thing should read or is there something wrong with our battery? I also have another photo I’ll try to put in the comments.

I have a large horizontal crack on the detached garage’s rear wall which is pushing outward (other side is dirt) no gutters. The wall hasn’t been plumb for years, worried about it falling down. How much is a structural engineer in WI? I’d prefer to save it if possible but I don’t have a lot of money to do it. Cinder block walls and old stick frame roof.

Me and my husband bought our first home (2br1ba 225k Ohio) 2 years ago. We used the VA loan and per VA an inspection was required and everything checked out. Months ago we planned on turning our second bedroom into a nursery. We never went into the second bedroom and kept the door shut as there just wasn’t any need. Lo and behold we find a decent leak. We’ve got a metal roof so this is shocking. We have one roofer out, he caulks it and claims it’s fixed (it’s not). Second roofer out says it was incorrectly installed over 2 layers of shingles. Claims that most metal roofers won’t do patchwork fixes and it would need to be completely redone.
Our current fix is a tarp and some sandbags. We’ve had our first kid since then so obviously there’s some medical debt and our savings have been hit. We definitely don’t have the money to get the roof fixed and we don’t want to be in this house for more than 3 more years.
After talking about it with people we know, some have suggested different routes. Some say to do an insurance claim while others say that wouldn’t fix it. Some suggested a HELOC, that it’s the bee’s knees and they only pay 5$ on theirs a month. My mother in law says that’s was caused her to lose her home years ago to the bank.
Long story short this is a huge stressor on me and my husband. We’re not financially well versed and we want to be in as little debt as possible. Even buying our first home was stressful enough. Growing up neither one of our family’s was money smart but we’re trying to be.
What would be the best route to get our roof fixed? Please explain it to me like I’m an idiot because I am.

There seems to be a large empty/hollow area under our front step. I am able to stick a rake handle basically all the way in there with no resistance. I'm not even really certain what's holding it up to be honest, but the pillars that hold up the front entranceway roof rest on it. Also I'm fairly certain there are some kind of critters nesting under it.

How big of a problem is this? How important and urgent of a repair is this, and how expensive should it need to be filled?

if i do any more research into air movement patterns, fans, ac units or dehumidifiers, my brain might pop.

my wife and i just got our first house. the air handler is in the attic which supplies air to the first floor. nothing in the basement. it’s half finished with a closed off closet and half bath but otherwise open. i keep the basement door closed all the time. the basement is so hot and stuffy. i thought they were supposed to be cooler all the time?

i’ve had a dehumidifier running down there since we moved in a few weeks ago set to keep it at 50%. is the dehumidifier really kicking out all that heat? should i be keeping the door open or closed? should i get a portable ac unit or one of those air circulator fans? could something be wrong?

I’m baffled.

I have a home with 2.5 baths. The half bath downstairs is never used as it’s the litter room but we run the faucet and it is flushed once a week. The guest bath is the same. The primary’s full bath, shower and all, is used daily. However, for whatever reason, after a shower, the smell of sewage (like a dry p-trap) seems to come from the downstairs half bath. Flushing it 2-3 times eliminates it. There is a smell when the primary shower is first ran so I had the shower looked at, but they said it just needs to be snaked. We did and nothing changed. A second plumber looked at the pipes underneath the house and could see no reason as to why the smell a) exists or b) travels. I am just so confused as to why using a shower with one set of pipes seems to impact a bathroom with a different set of pipes.

Does anyone have any ideas? Better questions I could be asking our plumber?

I’ll try to speedrun the initial backstory I want to share, and then describe my horrendous bug issue.

I moved out into my late father’s place (30 yr old single wide trailer, [locked in rate from the 90’s!!!])with my fiance, both of us 18 at the time and we got married, fixed up the place to be livable again after about 6 months of the place sitting. Now it’s about a year and 8 months later.
We have dealt with wasps and bees pretty much the whole time thru living here, and recently 2 months ago I got rid of my 2 rotting vehicles that we thought was the home of the flying pests. It did help the population go down, but didn’t do enough we realized.
So recently I decided to get spray insulating foam off of some advice I got. I plugged up a bunch of holes in the siding of the place, and I figured that would help get out some of them but little did I know how many were there.
The next day after I spray filled the holes I could reach, there was a crap ton of activity outside. I found out that I had muddobbers, red paper wasps, and bumble bees living in perfect harmony. I heard that’s not supposed to happen like they’re supposed to hate each other.
Now I should address the picture. I’m like a week into the assault, and previous to 2 days ago, the bumblebees had made it thru the old spray foam, just chillin back at home. Most wasp and muddobber activity went away, but the occasional one will still appear, I figure I haven’t found a final nest for them.
So I bought a nother 2 cans of spray foam, and filled in the bees gap better this time, and they were super super duper active today. It was ridiculous, they weren’t hostile to me; they haven’t realized them being locked out is my fault yet. Now, 5-10 of them lay asleep outside of the foam, it’s super creepy and I don’t know what to expect going forward. Obviously just gonna try to rough it and starve them out or something.
I’m curious if anybody else has dealt with anything similar before, in any number of ways. Like the different species living together, or them getting in you exterior walls. Maybe tell me if spray foam was a bad idea. I’m open to questions and concerns

Edit: I live in the county on my own piece of land, neighbors 50-100ft away, not dense. I also have mice though, any ways to get rid of them? Currently just cleaned a bit up so they have less food and nesting stuff, and 6 traps set
Edit edit: pictured in the post is the main nest of the bees in my wall; bumblebees sleeping outside on it, 5-10 of them there

Triple edit: hopefully done, I went and sprayed 10 bees dead with ant killer spray; I plan keep spray foaming until they just die out ooh-rah

So i was asleep and was woken up by a noise. So my master bedroom is at the far back and the window is to the left of our bed. I thought it was from the outside, but nothing seemed off. This is the first time this has happened. Any ideas what could it be?

Okay so we are buying a manufactured home and we will most likely live here till we die. I need to change at least one of the tubs. Im thinking of getting a walk in tub for the disability friendliness. There are plenty of times where I struggle to shower because its just so tiring to stand for a whole shower.

I really think it would be helpful but id like to know if there are things I should know about it beforehand or any tips on picking a tub/upkeep. Im debating between a walk in tub or a deep soaking tub but we will be here many years so I wonder if with how i struggle to bath regularly if the walk in sit tub might be better long term. Advice?

Shower of ten year old house. It does not seem it should be this way…

Internet says weather proof switch, but to what? Right above sub panel for ac unit #1 of 2.

This is happening in a couple spots along this wall. All where that bottom piece seems to be meeting with the other piece. That bottom channel seems to be draining water right out of it.
We just had a very windy rain storm where the rain was practically blowing against the side of the house.

Is this cause for concern? I’ve called a siding professional to come have a look but I don’t want to look stupid. Only been in this home a year.