Notice:
I can't caulk for shit.
Putting house on the market soon, only need to caulk a few places, clean up some spackle and touch up paint. I'm really worried the touch up won't blend though.
Notice:
I can't caulk for shit.
Putting house on the market soon, only need to caulk a few places, clean up some spackle and touch up paint. I'm really worried the touch up won't blend though.
Absolutely agree about original hardwood. We bought our house as a foreclosure and were really hoping to find original hardwood under the cheap carpet the bank installed. Unfortunately there was none to be found. We aren't going anywhere so we don't need to hurry up and do everything at once thankfully. It's not even that we mind the carpet really, but it doesn't even have padding underneath which obviously sucks. Also, we have a cat that has decided everywhere is it's litter box (she's fine health wise, just a fat lazy thing who is also a diva), mainly the living room.
Anyone have any fireproof filing cabinet recommendations? House titles, car titles, birth certificates...I need a place I can bolt down in the house and be sure it is safe.
Thanks captain obvious, I was looking for suggestions.
Look for a smaller gun safe. That should foot the bill for what you need.
Sent from my SM-G975U using Tapatalk
So the wife noticed that one of the ceiling tiles in our basement bathroom was sagging and discolored. Oh oh.
Initial reaction is that with all the heavy rain Georgia has gotten recently, that one of our roof vents broke a seal and was leaking down. Upon inspection, the pipe itself was not busted and seemed to be conveniently in the exact spot our guest bathroom toilet is.
After draining the toilet and removing it, the leak seems to have stopped thank goodness so I am confident I found the culprit.
1. The wood underneath the bathroom tile is wet about 6 inches to the right and left of the pipe, but bone dry up and down; do I just let this air dry or maybe put some paper towel pressure on it over the next day or so? It seems to be a recent issue, and the wood doesn't feel rotten...just wet. Id imagine I want to wait a day or so before replacing any toilet or wax seal just for the air to get to it. Upon inspection this AM, it seems to have dried a bit ever so slightly.
2. What are the chances the toilet itself is the culprit and not the wax seal? I would hate to replace everything only to find that the toilet is the issue. Toilet is at least 10 years old and wasn't touched for ~7 years before we bought the house a year ago.
3. I can't remove that black gasket/ring/pipe without removing the pipe itself correct? So im just planning to leave that in place. Ive cleaned up a fair bit of the old wax, but in placing a new wax ring should I dig around and underneath the pipe and gasket to remove as much as possible?
I can't speak to the replacement of the toilet or toilet seal. However, you should let the wood air dry for a couple days, or throw on a fan for added air circulation. Take a screwdriver and poke the wood afterwards to detect any wood rot. If the screw driver easily penetrates the wood then it's too late.
As for determining the leak culprit, it sounds like you found it if the leak stopped after removing the toilet. You can try to "flood test" around the seal to be sure. I dont have an easy way to do this, however, but it just requires some standing water around the seal but not into the pipe. Then have your wife or yourself watch for leakage in the basement.
Ive tested pouring some water into the pipe directly to see if the pipe was busted. Seems to have been leaking in around the flange. I plan to let it dry for a few days before installing a new toilet for sure.
Could I place a ring of waterproof caulk or sealant around the flange just to keep that barrier safe, or would I have to resort to a mortar compound of some sort?
The sealant might end up getting squeezed out when you install the new toilet I would think. Mortar is porous so it wont do you any good.
So in the unfinished part of our basement we are wanting to seal off and insulate to mitigate the temperate fluxes, humidity of Georgia summers, and help with ants and any other bugs that may crawl in.
Best first step is to think about insulating the unfinished part of the basement and installing a solid outside door for the basement garage into basement entrance, right? Problem is an AC drainage pipe that runs right below the door threshold and outside. Pardon some of the mess, its literally a poorly sealed basement garage.
Spoiler: show
What are the options in dealing with the drainage pipe and its exit out the side wall? Would it be better to just have a drain installed in the garage floor?
Who would we call to come out and check the basement waterproofing (we were told it was waterproofed by our realtor) before we start insulating? What else would we need to check before looking into insulating or drywall?
There's a lot to unpack there so I'll try to simplify it as much as possible:
Insulating the basement: Depends on what this basement is. Are we talking about a true below grade basement, half-basement, or partially exposed basement?
If it is fully below grade you might not need much work as earth is a natural insulator. Seeing as you have a basement door it seems that at least a part of the basement is exposed to the outdoors. If so you will want to insulate the exposed walls. Take careful consideration of condensation buildup and have a vapor barrier installed on the warm side of the assembly (is it always warmer outside or inside).
Drain pipe: Installing a new drain in the slab may become economically infeasible. I would recommend not doing this if you can avoid it. I'm struggling to come up with alternatives at the moment, however. You may need to deal with the current situation if you do not have another floor drain to direct the water to. If inspiration strikes i will make a new reply.
Waterproofing: Just hire a building/home inspector, although some waterproofing contractors might do it for a reasonable fee as a way to get their foot in the door for the work. There will probably need to be some destructive inspection openings made to verify the waterproofing and its condition. Dont know what your house looks like or its construction so your mileage may vary.
We are finally planning on replacing the carpet in my house. When we bought it, it had this butt-ugly green color throughout and I figured I'd keep it because at the time I had a 2 and 3 year old. I knew they were gonna make a mess, and they didn't disappoint.
We want to do laminate flooring since it'll be the easiest to DIY, and quite frankly, literally everyone in our area is doing it, so I don't think it will alter the home value negatively.
Anyway, we want to start with the bathrooms, and I want to redo the paint with the floor, and I just don't trust myself. I feel like whenever I've designed things in life, people didn't agree with my choices, so I am very hesitant to decide "this looks good" when I clearly don't have an eye for home design.
To the point: What have people used in getting ideas for the right colors? I tried downloading some 3d design apps to get a visual, but often they don't have a lot of the colors I see in homes (gray wood tones seem to be popular out here). I'm just nervous of taking something ugly and just replacing it with ugly. XD
I should note, it's still in the back of our heads to sell within 2-3 years if we can find something bigger, so I don't want to just strictly do what I like because of that.
Colors are hard, I feel your struggle. I worked behind a paint counter for the better part of my ffxi life. Local retailers from reputable stores will be a good resource for narrowing down a color palette. Dont be afraid to go bold. Safe palettes include very muted and beige colors. I abhor beige. I love a good muted color, though.
Computer apps are helpful but will never ever be an accurate depiction of what a color will look like in your room. You will need to experiment with samples to understand how the lighting will affect the overall look.
As for laminate flooring, I avoid it as much as possible. Most adhesive materials have hazardous off gassing used for the laminates. The carpet was also acting as an acoustic absorber, so sound transmission will be different, especially if there are rooms below. If you truly intend to DIY a laminate floor I highly recommend researching Non-VOC compliant adhesives and flooring material.
Thank you for the info! This is the kinda look I was thinking of getting. Note: None of my bathrooms are big enough for anything fancy, so I am really just looking at the colors for the walls/floor. Our cabinets are white, instead of the gray in the photo. We could replace them later on, but that's not currently the plan.
I don't know how well the colors would work as only one (my kids') out of our three bathrooms has a window. They do have bright lights, though.
It is a partially exposed basement on a ranch. If you can imagine looking at the floorplan of a rectangular ranch from above and drawling a line down the center lengthwise. Top half of that line is finished or partially finished (only subfloor) and leads out into the back yard. The bottom half of that line is unfinished, underground, up against the foundation, and is where this third small garage is. There is a small hallway splitting the two sections that runs the length of the floorplan. That is where this door leads to from the garage.
Much of the basement is beadboard without insulation, which is so thin. The finished parts are drywall.
My plan was to clean up and insulate around the outside of the finished portion and maybe hang drywall in the future. Then, along the foundation portion of the unfinished basement, line it with foamboard insulation and give myself a semi unfinished (but sealed and insulated) storage space.
The drain by the door still presents issues.
Ksandra: As per colors, my wife and I bought a house that overdid it with 90's tile and crown molding. We have a dark brown wood trim throughout the house and have had to choose colors very carefully when repainting.
What we've been doing is sticking to accent walls and letting that color pop while playing the dark brown trim off of the regular whiter walls. Then when it comes to decor, we are able to two-tone off of the accent wall without disrupting the brown trim. For example, we painted our living room a navy blue accent wall. Couches, chairs, pillows, etc are either a similar shade of that blue, a much lighter blue/gray, or a chalky grey/white.
Don't be afraid to get a small sample of a color and dab it on a wall at home. At worst you're out a few bucks from a 2oz paint sample you don't use and then just cover it up with white and primer when you choose the actual color.
Bit of a carry over from the Covid thread, but I'm having to move due to a landlord planning renovations in the middle of the pandemic. Taking the opportunity with the low rates to look into buying a house. I got pre-qualified yesterday, and have an appointment setup with the realtor to review some houses this Sunday. I'm all too familiar with some major pitfalls like HVAC, plumbing/water heater, foundation, and roof. Does anyone have any other specifics I should watch out for? I definitely plan on an inspection, but I'd like to know what I'm looking for before I go on Sunday.
Friend of mine on fb posted this
I'm dying
Spoiler: show
What the fuck