r/DIY

We just had a plumber come and look at our sink and try to get it unclogged. He couldn't. Said that there's dried grease in the pipes. We don't put grease down the pipes, but the house is from the 80's. I we've been here 6 years, and have always had trouble with the sink. Usually we can get it unclogged on our own, not this time. Draino doesn't work. My husband tried to snake it, and nope.

That's when we decided to hire a plumber. He told us it would be $1200 to get it unclogged. Which is a lot of money for us. I don't know if there's anything else we can try before resorting to that.

We bought our first house a few months ago and every little thing seemed to come with a quote that made me want to sit down for a minute.

The latest was replacing a bathroom vanity I had never done anything like that before and my first thought was to call someone then one evening I was sitting on my laptop watching a couple of videos while comparing different vanities online and it started to look way less intimidating than I expected.

It definitely took longer than it probably would have for someone who knows what they're doing and I had to make two extra trips to the hardware store because I forgot a few things but once it was finished I couldn't stop looking at it every time I walked into the bathroom.

Now I'm already looking around the house wondering what else I can learn to do myself.

What was the first project that gave you that kind of confidence?

I have been having an issue with my toilet tank taking a long time to refill after flushing. I followed some instructions to flush the fill valve seal (under the red cap) and now my toilet isn't filling with water at all after flushing. Is there something else I should check or is this likely a fill valve needing replacement?

I have an existing doggy door. I leave it closed most of the day because my dog like to bark nonstop outside if left open. I want to create some sort of DYI lever that I can open and close while at work. Any DYI ideas? I'm thinking some sort of hydraulic lift or something cheap and simple along those lines that can be remote controlled, open on certain times, etc.

Hi everyone,

I’m looking for some practical advice.

I currently have old VELUX roof windows from around 1996-98 (assuming when house was built as there was no rennovation done later), model GGL 306. My main issue is rain noise, especially during the night. The windows are still working, but they are obviously quite old now.

I’m trying to decide between two options:

1. Replace the old VELUX windows with new ones, possibly the current equivalent size MK06, maybe with better acoustic / triple glazing.
2. Keep the existing windows and install VELUX roller shutters, which should reduce rain noise quite a lot.

My questions:

• Are newer VELUX windows significantly better for rain noise compared with older 1990s models?
• Would acoustic or triple glazing make a noticeable difference during heavy rain?
• Or is a roller shutter still the best solution if the main problem is rain noise?
• Is it worth installing roller shutters on such old windows, or would you replace the windows first because of their age?

I’m in Belgium, so rain noise and roof-window insulation are both important. I’m not mainly looking for blackout, but comfort and reduced rain noise.

Any experience from people who replaced old VELUX windows or added roller shutters would be really helpful.

Thanks!

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.

I fixed some exterior brick cracks with some mortar mix . The top crack line is too small I will use sealant later.

I don't know why and how the cracks were formed. There was a bush right next to the crack, that could be why. I had to pull the root out with a truck...

What do you think? Did I do the right thing or what?

Before:

Before

After:

After

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?

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.

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.

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?

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?

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.

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