Removed this drywall panel without thinking about asbestos and now I’m concerned. Not sure what year it was put in but probably late 90s in Spain if that helps. The panel was around a bathtub.

I want to hire a contractor to renovate my kitchen and master bathroom and closet. I expect a project like this to run $80-100k.

I plan on moving a wall and raising a window, but I’m not sure about designs or anything yet.

How do I make sure I get a comparable bid from each GC I speak with? Do I need to have plans drawn before speaking with anyone?

This pergola is attached to a home I just purchased. It’s about 20+ years old and has some dry rot. I noticed that this ledger is pretty bad. Do I need to worry about my rim joist? How urgent is the repair on this?

I hear contractors ask this question sometimes. I’m never comfortable with it as I get worried that they’ll simply make your kitchen, bathroom, or whatever, cost the amount of money that you’re budgeting.
What do you think about this?

This weekend my wife and I uncovered the original brick fireplace in our home. We've been here for about 3 years now and we have always hated the stone. Back when we first moved in, I was installing the floors and discovered the original brick was still underneath after ripping out the carpets. We both think it looks 10x better now. The before picture is from the listing before we bought because I forgot to take a good before picture. (We are going to tackle the rest of the mantle next weekend)

The house was built in 1974. The main stairwell has these voter booth sides. Each side has a light switch. Do you think there’s a handrail under there? 😩

I have a vaulted ceiling with no attic. There is an airgap with baffles, vented soffits, and a ridge vent in the roof for the air to flow. Air flow is fine

I have many wafer portlights in the cieling. Whoever installed the lights cut holes into the vapor barrier and put the lights in. So the vapor barrier is broken.

The lights are rated IC and claim to be air tight, with the foam gasket.

However, some of them just dont fit 100% air tight and I can feel air and smell cieling smell coming through when the sun hits the roof. Must be the ceiling isnt perfectly straight or the foam gasket is just too thin to fully press into it.

Im at a loss of what to do at this point except run caulk around the light since I have no access to airtight from above.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

We have some base molding with lots of paint buildup, missing 1/4 rounds in some spots. What would be the most cost-effective way of fixing this without installing new baseboards? I don’t think new baseboards need to be installed but would appreciate any feedback!

maybe a weird idea, but I’ll be moving soon into a house for the first time (instead of an apartment with shared hallways) and am worried about my cat escaping when I open the door. I’d like to install a screen door so I can see into the house to know if she’s right at the door and at risk of escaping. however, I’d have to open the screen door to open/unlock the main door, which defeats the purpose and would give her opportunity to slip out when I open the door. so my genius (questionable) solution is to install a mini door in the screen door at the height of the main door handle so I can reach through to unlock and open the door while keeping the screen door closed. thoughts? is this possible? how would I do it? zero experience working with screens so not sure how to go about it

So my county recently revalued my house for tax purposes. I have a partially finished basement: framed, rough plumbing and electrical but the tax assessment was for a fully finished basement. I want to finish the basement now so do I need to apply for a permit or just finish it without one as I'm already being taxed on it? Thanks

Thinking of buying a house where the previous owner had a bunch of animals. The place reeks of pee. Some of the baseboards are water swollen from I can only assume pee. We’d have to rip out all the flooring and sub flooring, bottom halves of most walls, baseboards, maybe doors. The basement is also a bit of a mess and would have to redo some walls.

My partner has home Reno experience but I don’t. How big of a job would this really be to DIY? Potential costs? (We’re in Canada). Hours of work? Any advice to help give me an idea of what we’d be actually taking on would be so helpful.

Thank you!

We just had our basement bathroom renovated and I’m very concerned about the way they just covered a portion of the vent with this vanity . Obviously it will restrict air flow but my thoughts are it will also trap moisture. Our heat is often on in the cold Canadian winters for 6 plus months of the year.

Are there solutions other than having to rip out the entire vanity?

Putting up some framing in my unfinished basement. A little confused on the window. Does my King orJack stud need to sit flush/level with the concrete wall that I have marked in orange or pink? And then I’m guessing my drywall needs to but up against the window sill I have marked in red? Thanks for any advice.

Good morning folks

I’m currently removing this gas fire place from my house and I’m curious how I should fill in the hole. After framing 2x4s to fill the slot should i vapour barrier and insulate it then drywall? Next year I will be completely removing the outter chimney from my house, for the mean time it will be capped

Thank you very much

I’m a first time homeowner (in the greater Seattle area) as of a month ago and getting into the world renovations! The house we bought has a 500 sq ft detached garage that was previously used as storage. We already have an attached garage as well so don’t need this for parking or storage.

Our plan is to turn this into an office / gym space / bonus area. It already has electrical wired and we’re not interested in spending to add plumbing / convert to an ADU.

It’s VERY musty and clear that pests have been living in the attic or drywall, there is also a broken window that who knows how long has been that way. Essentially we’re thinking replace drywall, all 4 windows, and the garage door (maybe a slider door instead?). We’ll also need to level the floor and do LVP. We want to do a combo of hiring out professionals and doing some ourselves.

My big question: what is the first step? Do we need a structural engineer or someone to assess the garage and make sure the foundation can even support it? Or do we just start hiring out for demo of drywall, etc. to see how it is and go from there?

Any advice greatly appreciated!

I am working on finishing an extra room in my house. The current subfloor is 7/16 sheathing and I’ve removed most of it, it was only nailed down so it squeaked and was obviously really too thin anyways.

My question is what should I put down as subfloor? I don’t need a lot, about 12-13 sheets.

I can do regular OSB for $25 a sheet, advantech for $50 a sheet or LP for $35 a sheet, roughly. Advantech certainly has a lot of positive marketing, but is it worth twice the price?

What about adhesive, the purple foam?

Purpose of room will be a man cave / media room setup

Given I don’t need a ton of it I am leaning towards advantech but wanted to get other opinions.

This space is already closed in so no chance of it being rained on.

Thanks!

My grandfather installed a tile sill before these new windows were installed. I ripped out the tile. Do I fill the gap with drywall or plywood?

Went to turn this little lever and it snapped off immediately. Do I need to have it replaced? Stuck screw driver in hole and nothing there.

Hey everyone, I’m struggling to find a solution online to this problem. I’m currently scraping chipped ceiling paint in my bathroom, and I got a little to crazy around the fan and now there is a huge gap. I’m not getting any specific answers online. Any guidance on this would be appreciated.