Driving around my neighborhood, I live in the Midwest. I often see garage doors that are only semi cracked open like the garage door is 6-10inches lifted. Maybe a foot. Is it just coincidence? Or is that something that people do to help keep the garage cool, am I missing out on some cool house hack?
Is it religion ? a matter of supersition ? against bees or some others bugs ? why, why ?
I know the door is dirty. Mostly remains of my dog that passed away in February. I haven't had the heart to clean it yet.
There are some stains on my wall (newly painted about 4 months ago) and I touched it up with roller brush using the same paint the contractor left behind.
It has been 30 hours since and it still looks wet. I am in perth and the temperature these few days range between 10 to 18deg outside and a bit rainy.
Is this normal? Do I have to worry?
Found this yesterday in my living room on the ground floor of my home. I noticed the ripples in the wood, and when I touched it, it just caved right in. The damaged section is about four inches wide, the wood outside of that feels solid. I haven’t seen damage anywhere else in the home. Our patio is on the other side of the wall, and there’s a small wood rack about a foot from the house. There are only a few pieces of wood on it, but I even checked those and don’t see any damage. Would love any input, thank you!
Hello, so my partner and I are panicking because after few months of moving in we decided to remove the bed cover and give our mattress a sit in the sun. However we were shocked when we found out that bottom part of the mattress is full of mold while the top part is all clean and I think the landlords were trying to hide it by flipping and covering it with a cover and we regret that we didn't check it earlier. Now we don't know if its fixable or if it's too late to clean it?
Also I don't know how it is possible since our house doesn't have any leaks, we never spilled anything on the bed, and our room is most of the time dry.
Many budget, and other common brands, use fiberglass in their memory foam mattresses. It's used to meet fire safety compliances, but is not required to be disclosed by any regulations.
It is a huge hazard, and safety risk if the fibers ever get out, either by washing or aging. Any type of agitation to the mattress could send the fibers into the air, and stuck to your clothes. The contamination can be as bad a bed bugs, and spreads very easily between fabrics.
It can cause inflammation in your lungs, and severe irritation of your skin.
Please double check about whether your brand might have fiberglass, and consider getting another brand or a fully zippered hypoallergenic mattress protector.
Hello. Need some advice on how to paint a small wall. I have roller brushes and normal brush and masking tape as well As the right Matt wall paint. Other than roller it on, is there a need to tape the cornices and skirting before painting near them? What about the external corner edges. Can I just brush or roller it outward at the edge? Pls note This wall is newly painted (4-5m old). The patch is because i screwed it up and painted wrong colour (used skirting paint rather than wall paint)
My mom hired a really cheap contractor who has messed up a lot of stuff in our house (she loves anything cheap). Please don’t recommend me going back to him.
He didn’t build the shower all the way up to the ceiling and the closet in the next room is exposed. What’s the fix for this?
So happy morning to me. I had a water line leaking on my clawfoot tub while i slept last night. Unfortunately I know have to get a hotel while the damage is being assessed. My main question is about the ceiling. Im not a huge fan of this type of ceiling, as a matter of fact im very outspoken against it being in my home. I find it very ugly but not sure if I can just rip it down or not. It seems like I could just kinda pull everything down and repaint the layer above, but im by no means an expert. Could anyone provide any insight?
So this is my first post, and I need some help.
I live in a garage, easiest solution and most affordable for me to do, at my moms house with my brother. I moved into here over a year ago.
The door isn't sealed, as we have had to use it to move things, and replace our water heater. I also open it on the random days we have nice cool days down here in south Florida.
Now, being in this garage, as compared to any room in the house, I've switched between them all over the years moving in and out, I have more issues with dust out here, than inside the house. There's not vents out here. The door has a seal around it, and I added extra seal liners to help with the heat. The attic we have semi sealed for the time being, because it's been so hot and it's helped. I have an air purifier as you see in the video I have attached. It's Shark Never Change Air Purifier Max, 5 year filter life, 1400 sq feet. I've moved it across the room hoping it would better help with the dust, but it hasn't.
I just wanted some advice on what else I can do? I dust every day, and by the next day, it looks like I didn't. I don't know how so much dust accumulates in a garage with no vents.
I noticed this what may look like a small leak of some sort? I feel like I saw it before and forgot about it and saw it again today. After I saw it again today I thought maybe I should ask around. For context this is in my living room on the first floor. Above are bedrooms but there is a bathroom beside the bedroom that is directly underneath this spot. The home is about 22 years old. Is this normal at some point for older homes? Should I be concerned about possible mold if it has been a while it’s been there? Please let me know your thoughts and advice thank you in advance.
Edit: the spot is not soft, hard as a rock. I also spend a lot of time in this room and have never smelt anything unpleasant.
Are these cracks around windows something to be concerned about and how do I go about getting it fixed? I also noticed that there are gaps between some bricks next to said windows and a white patch next to the top window (first pic) but I don't know if these are separate matters in itself and if it's of concern again? Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated - thanks!
Recent thunderstorm in Central New Jersey had my roof leaking. It seems its leaking only from the corners of the skylight. I will try to seal it with something from homedepot but wondering if anyone else has any suggestions. Thank you so much !
My fiance and I are building our first home and our back door is basically all glass. What are your recommendations for a window tint or film that will provide privacy, especially at night, but still allow us to see out of the door during the day. Photo attached for what the door will look like
After a heavy storm on Friday, today I found a soaked rug in my finished basement. Traced the water path: it's entering at the foundation wall directly below a basement window, running along the wall-floor joint, and pooling under the laminate a few feet away — water came up through a seam when I pressed on the floor. Pulled up the wet section: a couple planks are swollen with small mold spots on the underside, everything else is dry.
The likely culprit: the window well outside on that wall gas some soil and literally has plants growing in it. My theory is that area isn't draining properly or something? I need advice.
Barely any mold on the laminate only in the corners a small amount.
Curious what others think — does this read right to you, or does the evidence suggest something else? Do I need to cut up the dry wall?
The following is a long-winded, inexperienced, and speculative brain dump.
The headline: *Edit* Our family house is dealing with some growing pains
Our Houston, Texas house will be 22-years-old this year, and we’ve all (6 adult family members) noticed the natural wear and tear for a while now. Maintenance and emergency repairs are to be expected, but there are two pressing issues that are concerning me right now (I am not the homeowner, just a concerned eldest daughter).
#1: Our water heater tank in the attic has been leaking into the ceiling (for who knows how long) so severely that a mitigation team will be demolishing bedroom walls, ceilings, floors, and more on the second floor because of extensive water damage. The replacement (tankless water heater), diagnosis, and reconstruction will be upwards of $20,000, and “stressed” isn’t a strong enough word to describe my folks right now. At my time of writing this, I have no idea how severe the spread of water is, but as far as we know, removing the dry wall to expose the wooden studs is required to let them air dry and prevent further damage. Water pooled in the ceiling of one of the bedrooms and we’re hoping the spread was contained—relatively speaking.
#2: We might have a roach problem? It’s debatable. The homeowner, my Dad (and former exterminator), says cockroach sightings are seasonal and nothing to worry about when we see an increase. It’s this constant routine: we see more of them, he calls pest control to treat the hot spots, they scatter and die, and then it’s quiet. If you were visiting our house for a day, you’d never know that we see (emphasis on “see”) at least 1-2 critters a day (usually in places like the kitchen or garage)—during the day—potentially meaning their nest is crowded. We’re not a dirty household either, but because 3/4 of their kids are college students out of town, it’s hard for my folks to be as thorough as they’d like to be (they travel for work a lot as well). The following are reasons why my siblings and I believe the problem might be more serious than our Dad thinks:
- Droppings have been found in cupboards, cabinets, drawers, bedsheets, carpet, along base boards, etc., pretty much everywhere you’d expect to find them. At one point, I was seeing droppings on my bed every time I’d come home from university (weekly).
- My bedroom was a known hotspot for several years because I didn’t know there were holes in my closet and bedroom walls from natural wear and tear and wiring respectively (mice also found those entry points very useful. I nearly killed a mouse once a week, it was ridiculous). I’ve woken up to critters crawling on my leg and I’ve learned how to identify the type of pest based on how it sounds—if I don’t kill it, I don’t sleep that night because I can hear every scurry or nibble (when it’s mice).
- I’ve found several roaches at different life stages in several places.
- We have reason to believe they navigate through our walls as that would explain the second floor sightings.
- We’re human, and we do have clutter (nothing obstructing the floor) like any family (Christmas decorations, old boxes, photos, etc.). That said, we’re consistent with keeping food waste in the kitchen and dumpster only.
My siblings and I planned to surprise my folks by deep cleaning and reorganizing the kitchen (as a start)—setting Advion gel bait along cracks and baseboards, cleaning dark and moist areas, and sealing food products with new airtight containers.
My main question is, though we’ll still enact our de-infestation plan, could the potential infestation and water damage be related given that roaches like dark and humid/moist environments?
I’m “catastrophizing” here, but is our entire house at risk of permanent damage? Or rather, should we start looking at new homes because long-term repairs will surpass the price of building a new home (I know it’s not as bad as water damage + termites)? Is there a better way to go about tackling the potential roach issue? Given our environment and the age of the house, is there anything else we should be on the lookout for? These kinds of surprises are never fun.
Thank you for entertaining my silly inquiry.
How easy would it be to replace this lock? It got broken probably due to aging and one of my brother’s friend came and help us put a temporary fix, so we could use it, as the door was not closing anymore.
He said that we should change the whole door, but I was wondering if only the locks can be changed. As changing the whole door would be way too expensive.
To change it, what would we need and how difficult would it be? Is it something I can do by myself or should we call a professional?
We have a cabin in Northern Minnesota that’s been in our family for 60 plus years.
About 4-5 years ago, we built an addition onto the existing building. Unfortunately we didn’t use a professional contractor, and we had a friend that does handy work take on the project.
In our new addition, we used tongue and groove and every single wall and all the ceilings (the flooring is LVP). We selected the wood from a large retailer, I believe it was called Blue Stain Pine or something along those lines.
Allegedly some of the wood was purchased from that establishment, but our “contractor” found a good deal on the same product from a local guy up here to buy the rest of the wood needed to complete the project. So we were under the assumption that the wood was sourced from 2 places, but now we are beginning to believe it may have all been purchased from the local guy, alone. However, that is unconfirmed.
Our handy-man friend also installed/gifted us with 2 large decorative beams (not structural), and he said he got a steal of a deal on them, and we don’t know where those were purchased from either. These beams are only located on the newer half of the cabin, along the vaulted ceilings.
In the last two months, my husband and I started noticing holes appearing through out the entire addition, NOT in the original side of the cabin.
We explored the idea that perhaps they had been there and they were just natural parts of the wood or wood boring insects from 50 years ago or from this year.
But we started paying attention and keeping a close eye on said holes, and integrity of the wood, and of course, there are more. They are appearing rapidly and at a semi-rapid pace.
The holes are in the walls, in the ceilings, and the decorative beams. They are all different shapes and sizes. Some even go all the way through the walls.
We have not really seen any droppings or saw dust like material under any of the holes. A little bit here and there, but nothing very definitive.
We haven’t seen any bugs either, we have seen some but we’ve researched every one we have found and none of them were confirmed to be pests.
Also, something worth noting, that after the first year of construction was complete, we had an extremely abnormal amount of flies in the cabin. Hundreds and hundreds of them. In our neck of the woods, some flies, midges and other bugs are inevitable up here and just comes with the territory.
And another thing worth mentioning, is that the new addition side of the cabin is cathedral style, so there is no attic above. But on the original cabin, the ceilings are standard sized and there is an attic.
Anyway— about two weeks ago, we had a corporate or franchised company come out for an inspection and possible treatment. The employee really didn’t to see have a clue of what he was talking about or to be very knowledgeable. Our family initially thought we had some sort of wood boring beetle, but the employee arrived at the conclusion of “possible carpenter bees”. That experience was an absolute dud.
Then we found a local company come back about 2 days ago, they were much more knowledgeable and familiar with their occupation. They were kind and understanding. At first they believed that there was no active infestation because there wasn’t any dusting or dropping. But the more they inspected and the more we explained, they became stumped.
We are at a total loss. Something is absolutely happening. We’ve been taping, marking, and taking photos regularly of the holes or any insect we’ve come across.
We are terrified for so many reasons, this cabin is our everything. It carries so much sentimental value and the amount of money we’ve spent building the addition would be such a shame to have to be wasted.
For anyone that reads, thank you so much. I appreciate any and all feedback. We are open to advice and suggestions. We really want to figure out what’s happening and hope to be able to stop it before it progresses into an even bigger problem.
From the bottom of my heart, thank you again.