r/DIY

I moved in with mom just before the pandemic to take care of her, Alzheimer's. Since then, I've been trying to track down this mildew smell. I even taped off the shower seams to see if water was leaking into the walls. Nothing worked.

I noticed that that toilet would NEED cleaning, while the others didn't grow any thing in their bowls. It finally hit me. If the mold, or whatever it is, growth is happening below the water line, the source isn't coming from the exposed air in the bowl, but in the water somewhere that could grow enough to get into the bowl, but still have air exosure so I can smell it. If it was from the sewer line, I wouldn't smell it.

Epiphany. What goes below the water in the bowl, but has air exposure? The MOTHER@#$%ING OVERFLOW! That little tube poking above the water line in the toilet tank that has the bowl refill line quirting into it.

I poured citric acid, chased with few sprays of BacOut enzyme cleaner, and washed all that down with a dose of Listerine, just because it was within reach and felt like a good chemical warfare thing to try.

OMG! It's gone. It's finally gone. I was close to doing wall demo to hunt the source and it was the toilet the entire time! I have a 2nd Toto toilet, same model that has a very mild musty smell too. Maybe the overflow design of that model of Toto has kinks that allow mold to develop. My other 2 toilets don't stink. I mean... you know what I mean.

So if your bathroom has a mild funk that won't stop, dump cleaner down the overflow and see if that helps. Just had to get the info out there so I'm not the keeper of the secret knowledge.

We had our master and guest bathrooms completely remodeled to the studs last September. Our contractor was amazing and seemed to know what he was doing. We are very happy with the final products.

However, the guest bath single sink started smelling like sewer gas a couple months ago. We snaked it and found nothing lurking in the drain. We add Draino, let it set for a few minutes and rinse well with hot water but the smell returns in a week or so.

Any idea what’s going on? The two sinks in the master bath do not smell at all.

Just that. Had a lot of trees come down in the storm. This has happened enough over my life that I’m finally going to get one.

It also seems no one close to me has one so now I can be the guy who comes over with his chainsaw when they need help.

I don’t need anything crazy or massive and I can’t break the bank on it. Just want a decent run of the mill chain saw.

I tried internet searching but I don’t have much luck with that these days with all the AI slop. It’s just a bunch 80 page long BS articles all showing the same top choices on Amazon which are just the top choices bc someone paid to have them bumped to the top.

Thank you.

As the title says, I am in the process of buying my first home and I desperately want to change the cabinets. They are currently grey and upon closer inspection have brush strokes in them which leads me to believe the seller DIY’d it and did not put a topcoat of anything over the grey paint. The age of the house leads me to believe the cabinets are actually honey oak underneath, which I would eventually sand and stain to a more updated color. what would be the best approach to strip the paint before staining, and does anyone have any recommendations for paint stripper or just scraping it off?

I posted a while ago about one of my sonotubes being slightly lower than the others. So now I need to shim my 4x6 post base connectors. Does anyone have anything they can send as a recommendation? Hoping to start framing tomorrow after work so id prefer something thats readily available.

The door to my bedroom won’t stay closed, because the latch of the door know won’t line up to insert into the strike plates hole. About a 0.25” miss aligned. Normally I would just move the strike plate, but the door frame is made of metal and doesn’t seem to have a wood backing.

i have removed the strike plate and it seems the holes were built into the door frame and not added afterwards.
The door itself is hung properly, but who ever installed the door knob in this home originally seems to have misaligned the knob with the strike plate.

What solutions are there to fix this? Is there a way to change out the strike plates hole that are built into the metal frame? Am going to have to buy and hang a new door?

Let me know. I tried googling this and using Google lens to give me advice but it just kept giving me a runaround of different Reddit conversations and YouTube links

Building a house with an RV garage. Will have wiring for a ceiling fan with light installed by the builder, likely 16/4 or 18/4 (not exactly sure what gauge size). If I install a ceiling fan that doesn’t have a light, can I use the wiring for the light to install LED tape lighting around the border of the ceiling? If so what would the diagram look like?

This is a Kohler seat, on a Kohler toilet, if I tighten these screws, the split part of just widens and the seat is loose…

Am I simply over tightening them ?

There’s gotta be a trick to this that I’m missing. Yes, I have spun the black parts 180° to see if that fixed it, it did not.

Yes, I tried Googling this, and searched this sub and I tried watching several videos, but none of them seem to be on these Y type hinges.

Thanks in advance.

so my kids have bedrooms that are in the front of the house and on the ground level. It also gets hot here the summer and we don’t run AC so we keep the windows open. I would feel safer if there was some type of security on their screens.

It seems like there are a lot of to make a simple alarm in case the screen gets pulled the window, but what if somebody cuts the screen and crawls through the opening? What is an easy way to make the screen cut proof or at least really difficult to cut?

I have not looked into just getting aluminum screening material just because I made all the screens nylon as I always have. I’m not sure how difficult it is to aluminum screen in or if that is better.

DIY project is a 3D plastic printed BLDC with steel/iron body (plastic encased) of about 2 to 2 1/2 inches of diameter. I'm searching for DIY alternatives for a steel/iron body (ring shape) to conduct magnetic flow (to be used either in outer rotor or innet stator). Alternatives I've seen:

• Short cut of a Steel pipe (but they i'm not buying 12 ft of pipe to cut 1/4 of an inch ring)
• Stacked washers: So far seems best alternative. Yet I don't know if they are from the best material or if eddy currents would be very bad. Hard to find in big sizes.
• Bearing inner ring and/or side washers (but it seems that that steel is not the best ferromagnetic steel)
• Shaft collar: Seem good, but very expensive (about 20 USD a unit for the size I need) and too big
• Fill with iron dust (seems very suboptimal)

Anythin better you can think of?

PD: Sorry for my english

I’m finishing my garage this weekend and using 1/2 inch sanded plywood to finish the walls after insulating. I’d like to finish with a satin polyurethane but I’m reading it’s not recommended to use rollers as it will show more. However, it would take be forever to apply with a brush. Any tips?

My in-laws were kind enough to gift my wife and I some land that has 2 (essentially) abandoned properties on it. They've sat vacant for 3 years. We're currently renovating/repairing the mobile home with hopes to demo/rebuild the house in the upcoming years.

One thing that has me a bit stumped is the mobile home underpinning/skirting.

It's a gradual slope - but goes from ~18 inches on the short side to nearly 7 ft. on the tall side. I've not been able to find a mass produced option for the tall side, and I'm just looking for advice. Do I just do a custom build with pressure treated wood?

Are there options I'm overlooking?

I'm relatively handy (have replumbed, reinsulated, and various odds and ends) - but this has just left me a bit stumped.

US based - eastern state that gets all 4 seasons.

Our house is 5 years old (bought it 2 years ago). The basement is finished throughout with drywall. On one exterior wall there is water intrusion after a heavy rain, noticed only after the water had saturated boxes stored there.

We had a contractor in for a different job and he was pretty confident that the leak is from a foundation rod hole that wasn't sealed properly, he even pointed out an appropriate location of the hole.

My husband and I would rather try a diy fix before calling in a contractor that will likely try to upsell some sort of foundation repair system. Looking for advice from anyone who has done this repair in the past.

TLDR: Is there any way I can reduce solar heat but preserve visibility/light transmission through my (not ground floor, historic, very much a rental) apartment's (double pane) windows? I've been researching in circles for months. thank you!

Hello! I've seen some older threads on here but wanted to make a new one (commenting on a 4 year old post seems ineffective). It's been in the 100s for a week and we have a gigantic, south-facing window in our main living area. Blackout curtains are only helping so much, and it being so dark inside is starting to screw with our mental health. I saw another post on here warning against interior reflective film if you have double pane windows (we do), so I'm glad I saw that!

Many people recommended solar screens, but that'll be the same issue as the curtains. Plus, I don't feel confident putting anything outside the windows. I'm a renter in an apartment and there's no chance of me installing any hardware outside. Even inside, I have plaster walls so it'd be a whole thing. I could maybe apply an exterior film. (I'm on an elevated first floor, so it might require a ladder). I live someplace with heavy summer rains, so I'm not sure if that'd be an issue.

I thought window film was my answer because it could preserve visibility but reduce heat. My biggest issue was finding the right one with the best VLT, heat reduction, correct sizes, material, etc. Now I'm not sure how to approach the whole thing! Am I overlooking anything? I know our power bill is going to be absolutely miserable.

types of products as well as brands are all of interest! I'm planning to do everything myself, of course. I don't have easy access to tools at the moment but I'm down for a bit of a challenge.

I had this new kitchen installed a couple of years ago.

It's a wooden (veneer) counter top.

Near the faucet, water accumulates. Althought I have been careful to wipe water after use, over time, some stains have appeared. I decided to unscrew the faucet to see the extend of the damage and sand what I could.

I normally use something like linesee oil to protect the counter top. Mostly effective except around the faucet. And somehow water crept in (stain on the right hand side).

Any recommendation to protect the inside of the hole in the counter top?

Would covering the inside of the counter top with oil help?

https://preview.redd.it/e0pz1rtzmnbh1.jpg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e315f0407417dad91ceeef1ae3f75465747f477e

https://preview.redd.it/w7hhftw0nnbh1.jpg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ffcf0f3ecf69a056cfd81c13979e94973604eb04

https://preview.redd.it/2b3v69j2nnbh1.jpg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=336676dab389c2be2a2fd154f4cc27826b33e934

We're doing some small improvements around the house, and my wife wants to mount our 48 inch Samsung TV (model no. UN48J5000AFXZA if it helps). I am a novice at the concept of wall-mounting, and from what I've been looking at, the mounts themselves can cost anywhere from ~$20 to north of $300. Any sources for what specific mounts I can purchase for this model, hopefully one that doesn't cost a fortune and doesn't take a professional to set up? TIA!

My basement floor (total ~400sqft) is acid-stained brown over most, but not ALL of the area and has some low spots.

My original vision was a grey/stone, raw, unfinished concrete floor for that industrial, minimal look, with unpainted cinderblock and white-painted walls.

But, it seems that I can't just pour self-leveling over the floor without grinding off the acid effect first, which is more trouble than I want to deal with; and I'm waiting on a quote, but I'm guessing its pretty expensive to have a pro do it. And even if I grinded and poured the self-leveling layer, the layer would be fragile and would probably crack easily if I like dropped something heavy on it. Just painting it grey isn't an option either, because I'd still have to grind first.

Now I'm thinking maybe the easiest thing to do is luxury vinyl tiling over the whole floor? But I would still need to put some layers of moisture-mediating material under it, right? And I guess I would need to level it out, at least in the low spots first, right? But maybe, since its going to be covered, its not TOO important that I grind before I pour the leveling stuff?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Are there any other options for me that I don't know about?

Thanks!

I purchased this lamp from Amazon a while ago. During a move, the glass half lampshade was shattered. Instead of throwing the whole lamp out, I'd like to purchase a replacement part to act as a new lampshade.

As you can see from the linked images, the glass lampshade is slightly tapered at the base and is secured by three screws holding it in place. The base of the lampshade measures 7.5" in diameter.

Any recs for a similar fixture that would fit inside this lamp?

Thanks!

I’ve been obsessed with home improvement subreddits for a while now, and I’ve noticed a pattern. We all look at these incredible, high-end renovations and think, "I want my place to look like that." But then I open an Excel sheet to estimate materials, and suddenly I have no idea if I need 10% or 20% waste for flooring, or what my actual budget breakdown should be.

I recently stumbled upon a community called itsdunrite (itsdunrite(dot)com) that takes a different approach to this. Instead of just looking at pretty photos, they use AI to actually pull a "build plan" from photos of your own space. It breaks down the materials, estimates the costs, and even helps find a contractor if you’re out of your depth.

It feels less like an "ad" and more like a bridge between the pretty inspiration photos on r/RoomPorn and the actual, messy reality of doing the work.

Has anyone else tried using itsdunrite (itsdunrite(dot)com)?