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Short version: we live in a 100-year-old row home in DC and this whole winter we’ve been feeling freezing air coming from underneath our kitchen cabinets. It’s at the corner where the kitchen ends and the extension to our first floor begins, and where our neighbor’s house fully ends (so an exposed space). My handyman came by and I asked him what we could do; he said it was likely a hole or gap at the above intersection but we should “wait until summer” because the house will be shifting with the weather. Is this really necessary? I said “sure fine” but it’s getting down to 10 degrees at night and the first floor is freezing. Thanks for any advice! submitted by /u/mino65434 [link] [comments]

We live in northern colorado in a 1967 house with empty wall cavities. We have added blown in insulation to the attic. We are considering insulation for the walls because we still feel radiated cold. Sound is not a concern. Have you had foam insulation injected? What was your experience? Are you glad? submitted by /u/atomicskier76 [link] [comments]

submitted by /u/Reddit_User_5559 [link] [comments]

I am going to get a dog later in the year and need a fence. Dad likes his chain link fence because it's stood the test of time being all metal and concrete. However, I find them to be rather unpleasant looking. My house is a big corner lot into a really nice subdivision so I would like to get something that'll last a long time (i.e. wouldn't just rot) while simultaneously fitting in with the friendly aesthetic of the neighborhood. Most of the houses have cedar fences here (out of sight - mine is the only one where it'll be highly visible) and the cedar fences are in various states of disrepair from time. submitted by /u/Delicious-Tachyons [link] [comments]

My husband and I are closing on our new home in March. While we eventually plan to completely re-do the kitchen, for now, we want to give it a little "facelift" to modernize it. Our goal is to make it look nicer while also not spending a small fortune since we plan to completely re-do it in a few years or make it look cheap. We plan to change out the knobs on the cabinets and paint. I would also like to do something about the backsplash. I have found some peel-and-stick tile (something like this https://www.homedepot.com/p/Mixed-Tan-11-5-in-x-10-7-in-Natural-Marble-Peel-and-Stick-Backsplash-Mosaic-Wall-Tile-5-Pack-ST-LSS001-BST-5/324202370#overlay) which seems doable, but I am trying to figure out my options as right behind the stove, there is a square of decorative raised tile around eight small tiles. It sticks about maybe half an inch from the rest of the tile. I am trying to figure out if I could somehow file it down so that I could put the peel-and-stick over the top. Any ideas on how I would go about this? Is it possible? Is there a better way to do this? Any advice is appreciated! Thank you! submitted by /u/tonkatruck1023 [link] [comments]

Today my wife tried to use our gas oven, and while it ignited and got warm, the kitchen smelled pretty strongly of gas, so I had her turn it off. After it was off the gas smell dissipated after about 5 minutes so I'm pretty certain there's no general gas leak I need to worry about. I took the attached video of the igniter and gas running to show the coloring. I know its supposed to be all blue, and that an orange or yellow flame can be a sign of different issues that could cause extra smell, but I wasn't sure how much non-blue flame is considered normal. Realizing now I can't upload video or pictures here for some reason, but I would say ours is 80% blue flame (the other 20% is orange), but I would think its pretty normal..? I will also say, that we're in Indiana and going through a major cold front right now. It's currently 5 degrees(f), and was below zero last night, and I've heard that can affect things. I'll also add that while this took longer to ignite in the video, I assume thats because I had the bottom oven drawer removed. When I keep that door shut, trapping more of the gas, it lights in about 45 seconds. We've had this gas oven in our house for about 6 years now. No recent changes. I'm just trying to decide if I need to worry here. I think it's probably fine, and I'm just planning to test it more tomorrow when the kids are back at school and the temperature is back to normal. Hoping someone here with more experience can help me out, because my wife is telling me "its your fault if we all die tonight" lol... Thanks in advance! submitted by /u/ApolloMk2 [link] [comments]

Any tips on cleaning fire residue off of vinyl tile and stone? We had a duraflame log roll out of our fireplace. The only damage is done is a lot of staining to the stone in front of the fireplace and on the vinyl floor. Are there any chemical solutions that can remove this tar-like for residue? It's very stubborn and difficult to clean. Picture of damage: https://imgur.com/gallery/LpfTu3d submitted by /u/bedHeadProgrammer [link] [comments]

I live in the Midwest and the genius builder on my house opted to put all water lines on the exterior of the home, with the exception of the ones that run up from the back of the garage (where the water heater is) to the second level, which creates the majority of my issues. Every year, my water lines freeze. Thankfully, they’re PEX, but being able to do laundry and shower in the winter is nice too. Two years ago, I put a recirculating pump on and put the bridge valve on the last fixture in my master bathroom. This solved the issue for there, but I think the system must branch and also lead to my hallway bathroom and laundry room. So I believe the washer is the last on that line. I believe the order of fixtures - closest to furthest from the WH would be shower, toilet, sink, washer. Currently, my toilet, sink, and washer aren’t working because they’re frozen. Would I be okay to put another bridge valve on the sink? Or do I need to put it on the washer somehow? If I need to put it on the washer, how do I do that? The valve is a set distance and doesn’t fit the distance of the water lines as they stand. I don’t know how to work around that. Plus I already have a lot going on with the water connections there because I have a steam dryer. I’m sure it’s obvious, but I’m a little clueless about all this plumbing stuff, and while my dad is handy, he insists that I install plastic in my attic to block the incoming air (and thus ventilation, in my opinion) as the solution and I don’t think that’s the best approach. I really appreciate any help! submitted by /u/KayceeCo [link] [comments]

Had a contractor redo my bathroom floor with tile and they did not pull the vanity to tile underneath is the common submitted by /u/Secret_Roll7331 [link] [comments]

I'm currently renting a house in upstate NY and it is my first house with an oil burning boiler for heat. In the midst of this arctic blast my tank ran out the day before they were set to refill it. So I got to run an entirely unintentional experiment. I went to the gas station and got 5 gallons of diesel to put in the tank, managed to get the boiler restarted. Decided to play it safe and got a second 5 gallons of diesel and added that to the tank as well. So 10 gallons into an empty tank at 9am on Tuesday, sometime around 10am Wednesday the heat went out again (while waiting for the fuel truck to show up). So I have a 1,300 sq. ft. house and the oil burner used 10 gallons in 24 hours. I know it is cold right now but that seems like an obscene amount of fuel. Am I crazy? I have 2 zones downstairs and 1 zone upstairs. I keep the zone I'm in at around 66 during the day and everything else is around 62. I turn it down at night except the bedrooms upstairs. I know it had to work extra hard yesterday because it was 46F in the house by the time I got the boiler restarted. So I guess it burned more fuel than usual to get from 46 back up to 66 but still, 10 gallons in a day? Should I be contacting my landlord that it needs to be serviced or is this just normal? At $3.60/gallon it's going to be an expensive month at this pace. submitted by /u/17Shard [link] [comments]

There are many times where my wife does her hair, then we drive to wherever we are going, and as soon as we leave the neighborhood she goes “shoot, did I turn off the curling iron?” Which leads to us driving back to make sure it is off/unplugged. I saw some Eaton brand smart outlets at Lowe’s, and wondered if I could install one of those to replace the existing outlet where she uses her hair tools. Then I could check my phone and be able to turn off/disable the outlet remotely and not have to turn around every GD time. Anyone know if this would work? From a power standpoint? submitted by /u/drivel111 [link] [comments]

Not sure if this is the appropriate sub for this question, feel free to correct me if I’m in the wrong place. I closed on a house that has plumbing issues in the den/laundry room two months ago. Obviously, I didn’t know this at the time. There is no utility sink in this laundry room since the original location of the washer and dryer was in the basement and for whatever reason, the owners prior to the ones we purchased the house from, whom I’m assuming completed this alteration decided not to add a utility sink. It is below freezing today and once again the pipes have frozen then burst and has created a mess. This room has always been a bit wonky and now with our experience with it, we figured that it’s because it’s probably been damaged more times while the previous owners owned it and at this point probably needs a complete overhaul. My question is, should I finally get my homeowners insurance involved ( my husband fixed it prior and we didn’t file a claim), or just sell the house at loss. We don’t have the funds to gut this room and redo it and we are not nearly handy enough to try and figure out how to do this on our own. The thoughts to sell it come from the fact that we are not native to the area and had no idea the kinds of things this house would need. And, tbh, it needs a lot! We’re finding this out the hard way since the seller disclosed that there was nothing wrong with the house. Thought? Input? submitted by /u/hazelnutcofffeee [link] [comments]

We have a 100 year old house with one (simple, two-wire) thermostat for our whole house, and a standard bare-bones oil furnace with hot air ducts. The thermostat is in the living room, which is where we have added a wood stove. We prefer to heat with wood as much as possible, when we are downstairs, but of course the temperature rises and falls as a fire heats up and then subsides. Unfortunately, the heat from the wood stove (just in that room) overrides the thermostat and the upstairs gets very cold when the heating system isn't running. The thermostat is next to a doorway. I would like to move the thermostat to the opposite side of the wall where it is installed, which would put it in the front hallway. Cons: The thermostat would sit near a floor duct and get a small mount of heat (though not asmuch as from the wood stove), and it would be within about 10 feet of the front door opening and closing. Those two factors will skew the thermostat, but not as much as having it in the same room with the wood stove does. I feel like having it in the hallway will give the furnace more accurate feedback about the general house temperature and help a bit. It seems like an easy fix, to remove the old thermostat, drill a hole through the wall to the other side, shift the wires through, install the thermostat on the other side, and close up the wall on the original side. Is there any reason why this wouldn't be workable or a good idea? The wall is fairly thin and the wires must come up the center of the wall from the cellar, it's just a matter of which side the hole for the thermostat is on, right? submitted by /u/JoyHealthLovePeace [link] [comments]

Hello, I cannot decide which one looks better for a family apartment that I would like to rent out. the room currently I don't have many options though. first option second option I would be happy if you have any suggestions that can make the apartment look cosy or chic. Thank you. submitted by /u/EmreSaygin [link] [comments]

Moved into a new place a couple of weeks ago and have run into a few of HVAC questions. https://imgur.com/a/APYf8CA 1) In the basement bedroom, the return register is right next to the supply. Should the register be moved down to the floor level? 2) This return makes quite a bit of noise due to the high air flow. This 6" return is about 6 feet away from the furnace and the only other return is close to 30 feet away, but it is a 10" duct. Can I change the 6" duct opening to an 8 inch opening to reduce that noise? I'm reading that adding another return would be ideal, but if I didn't want to shell out for that currently. The previous owners used those magnets to cover the duct as their solution... https://imgur.com/a/tuvFcsK 3) This is the 10" return. The duct is rather small compared to the size of the whole register, so as you can see - I can rotate the filter 180 degrees and get a second use out of it. The thing is each of those spots you see were after only a week of filtering...I was expecting a month or two of filter life on each side. Am I overestimating how dirty the filter already is? I swapped out this filter for another this morning. submitted by /u/AKPatel [link] [comments]

My house was built in the early 80s and is relatively well insulated. The one issue is that if I put my hand by an outlet on an outside wall it’s freezing cold. Is this normal? Is there anything I can do to improve this situation? submitted by /u/Exciting-Delivery-96 [link] [comments]

Just removed wood paneling from a room. I’m looking for advice on which route I should take to finish this project. Some people have told me to buy new drywall and put it right over the old drywall, without ripping it all down. Others say just patch the holes, scrape all the glue off from the paneling, and mud/skim everything before painting. What would be the best option? submitted by /u/dcooper1996 [link] [comments]

I posted this in interior decorating, and I've tried to upload the photo but it keeps blocking my photos from being added. https://www.reddit.com/r/interiordecorating/comments/1i7jd3h/comment/m8l98vz/?context=3 submitted by /u/mother__war [link] [comments]

We have an existing gas fireplace, but our chimney liner is shot and we were quoted way too much money to replace it. We'd like to replace the fireplace itself with ventless gas or electric, but I'm unsure of install costs. Since we already have the gas line there, is it cheaper to install a ventless gas fireplace or would an electric still be cheaper to install? We have electric nearby, but not in the fireplace itself I don't think. submitted by /u/DissociativeOne [link] [comments]

I know there is a lot of posts about smoke detectors, but not finding what I want. Looking for a smoke detector (bonus if HomeKit), that offers a short term snooze/hush via app or physical button that can be activated when cooking in the kitchen, to prevent alarm from triggering and terrorizing my pup (and setting off alarm in whole house as well.) Way building code was written here forces a smoke detector to be within 8 feet of stove/oven. Grilling veggies/steaks is a nightmare, submitted by /u/yourguess01 [link] [comments]

Hi all, my washing machine is in a first floor bathroom addition that has inadequate insulation to withstand freezing/subfreezing temperatures. The bathroom has a shower, toilet, sink and washing machine hooked up in that order, and so far this winter I've been able to keep all but the washing machine from freezing. Unfortunately today I realized the cold water pipe to the washer is indeed frozen, though the hot water pipe is still functioning. I'm a little uncertain how to address the cold water line to: Get it thawed try to prevent it from bursting. For my sinks/showers when they've frozen I've just made sure to keep the tap open as we wait for it to thaw so that the air and water has somewhere to go. For the washer I'm not as sure. Should I just keep the dial "on" as if I were starting a wash? It's an old school top loading washer and from my understanding there is a pressure switch to control the water so it should be safe to leave it "on" for whenever the pipe unfreezes, since it'll just fill with water as normal and then stop once full. submitted by /u/Interesting_Lunch204 [link] [comments]

Small bathroom with just shower/toilet/vanity. The shower will not be open (it will have sliding doors). I am looking for advice on the entrance door to the bathroom. We were thinking initially of making a thin wall/partition with a normal door. I was looking into sliding doors but if I understand correctly, to get a good seal, we'll need to make the wall a standard thickness so the door itself slides into the wall. I don't know much about doors. I believe barn doors are out of the question as the seal will be terrible in the few times the door will be closed. This will be a bathroom for a bedroom where the bathroom will be open 95% of the time anyway. Does anyone have any recommendations wherein I can maintain having a thin ~3" partition-wall rather than going with say a 6" wall? The 6" wall will cut into the vanity and shower which I'd like to avoid. Like perhaps a solution where the sliding door system is very thin or where the door essentially slides via the outside of the room (rather than cutting into the space of the inside of the bathroom) but still has a decent seal compared to barn doors. I figured I'd ask here! This is the first project of my life where I have some major say in the design so figured I'd so my research! (: submitted by /u/CapitanShoe [link] [comments]

Hello! Does anyone have any cheap recommendations on how to seal drafty doors and windows? I was planning on getting a door snake, but those seem to be $20 each and we would need three. I don't feel like spending that money. I would also like to have a seal that can go up the door, so snakes aren't going to work. I'm thinking about getting Alien Seal, but I'm not sure how well it works. Do you guys have any thoughts or recommendations? We did just caulk some windows, so I think we need a plastic seal to go over those. You guys have any cheap recommendations for those? Thank you in advance! I appreciate it. submitted by /u/CatCrimes69 [link] [comments]

Trying to get my windows insulated from inside (in addition to double glazed window) with a 20 vinyl drop sheet. I want to put them up it in a way I can remove them in summer. Any ideas on how to go about this? There is space in the window frame after the window on the inside about 5-6inches. I was thinking to do it using a Velcro but wasnt sure if the 20mm vinyl would be too heavy for that. Thannks submitted by /u/LordOfTheUnderlord [link] [comments]

I’m trying to install some conduit tubing behind drywall to run wires for a wall mounted TV (small panels at each opening on outside of drywall). The whole thing is pretty straightforward with the exception of the insulation in the wall. It’s blocking the tubing from getting through cleanly end-to-end. Does anyone have any suggestions for creating a clear pathway in the insulation? Are there any tools professional electricians or handymen typically use for similar post-build installation of conduit behind a wall when insulation is present? The two openings are about 48” apart, so not quite as simple as brute forcing it through with my hand / arm. Thanks in advance for any tips! submitted by /u/CletisTout [link] [comments]