r/OldHomeRepair

This stain (no before picture) has been on the ceiling of my garage since we moved in a year ago. I should've checked it before but brushed it off. I noticed a slit here and poke my finger through it and noticed multiple holes in the dry walI. It's not damped but I do few small wet spots. never noticed how bad it's gotten. I know I have water damage. The garage is above our bedroom and master bath. My question is, what's the next step to pin point the leak? Should I cut the dry wall and see what's underneath or should I just call a plumber to do it? Any help would be much appreciated thanks

I have a very old house. These basement windows need to be replaced. I am wondering how involved this will be? Will the framing need to be ripped out and replaced? Is this something worth DIYing?

I am moderately handy and have a pretty good number of tools available to me.

Any resources/ videos that you would suggest would be helpful.

I recently bought a house build in 1930 and am in the process of replacing the wood paneling (which was on top of old plasterboard) in the living room with drywall. The studs are spaced rather strangely, most of them between 20-26 inches OC.

But my biggest concern right now are in the corners. There aren’t studs going the full floor to ceiling in the corners, there is instead a length of wood about 1.5ft long at the top, center, and bottom of the corner, in both directions. What would be the proper thing to do to ensure I am hanging the drywall properly in the corners? As you can see, I can’t have a continuous piece going from floor to ceiling, because of diagonals going along the walls.

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.

Hello all, I’m looking for some assistance with figuring out what this stuff is coming out of my wall. It’s under my kitchen cabinets just in this one area, pulled off the toe kick to do a thorough vacuum tonight and noticed it. Doesn’t bother me because I don’t access this area often except that I’m curious if this is a sign of some kind of bigger issue. House was built in 1912 but this kitchen was an addition at some point (not sure when but I assume 60+ years ago). I just moved in this past February and am slowly starting to understand the quirks of owning an old home. Thank you kindly!

Hello all,

I'm in a 100+ year old house. I've got AC, but the dampers on all the first floor vents are just gone. The house is not well insulated and it leaves my room in particular quite a bit warmer than the first floor, so I'd like to be able to close the first floor vents. The baseboard vents are very nice (if in need of some restoration) and I would rather not replace them with the boring sheet metal ones. Has anyone ever dealt with this?

I bought my house a couple years ago and noticed these raised lines along the edge of a few rooms on the main floor. The house was built in the 70’s. Curious if you knew what caused it and if it’s something symptomatic of a bigger issue?

I’m trying to understand how this might have looked previously. We just moved in and we were told there is no water damage. Of course we have immediately found out that that’s not true. They put up insulation and a vapor barrier (not even sealed) to hide the damage. Legal pending. But those 2x4 can’t be how the house was built (the house [1987] is too old for the age of the wood) and there’s no sheathing on the exterior walls anywhere, all the way up to the attic. The only thing between this photo and outside is weather wrap and siding It doesn’t look properly supported either how it would need to be without the sheathing.

If anyone knows about this kind of thing and has any insight, that would be great.

On a not-so-side note: The house is racking

we just closed on a house built in 1920, and are curious for any tips/suggestions on how to fix random holes/spaces in the floors. there aren’t many, and the photo is from the room where a kid will be so we want to get this fixed pretty quickly.

let me know whats worked for you- thanks!

I (M27) and my wife (W27) just closed on our first home two days ago. Immediately got to cleaning, and even had our Church small group help us clean a big portion of the house before moving in. House is from the 1940s in the US Midwest , and definitely needs some upgrades and fixes before we move in next week. DIY is my longtime hobby, and I am really excited to figure out how to save costs and get our house feeling like a safe place for us to raise our kiddo (3months). Confident in my ability to do a remodel, as long as I have the right YouTube video and tool. And of course, ballin on a budget.

Last night, got to look at the shower tile of the bathroom. Was already breaking off from old grout. Peeled back the tile and the wall that the tile was on essentially fell out from around the lower part of the tub. Good amount of debris, vacuumed up a significant portion before the photos taken.

Immediately Felt like my tongue was itchy (I know I probably should have been wearing my mask, but intended to just look, not a full project). I know a big concern with older homes is Asbestos products, but I am not familiar enough to know what is asbestos, let alone what material this wall is made of.

Is this a larger project than just filling the hole with a new backing and retiling? Is there asbestos in these products? Any thoughts what to do with the wood? (More below)

Things I noticed:
- at least two or three layers of material behind the tile. One is for sure a paper material that when onto the rocky/muddy/idk material. The other is a thinner tile(??) the crumpled.
- the tub looks like it is up against the wood frame itself, not away and next to the wall like I would have imagined
- the frame is definitely starting to rot on the left piece of frame. The other two visible are fine and solid. The rot one is only spongy in a 2in diameter spot of the wood. I don’t think the whole board is bad
- the basement floor, directly under the tub, has zero signs of water damage. Looks like it is isolated to the 2in space of the frame
- there is a outlet on the other side of the shower wall (to a bedroom) that can be seen in the whole next to the water damaged spot.
-there IS asbestos tape on the air conditioning ducts

What do you think? Did I just condemned my family? Is the remodel a quicker fix or a larger project? Any recommendations welcomed!

As you can see, the bottom part of the bracket around the metal piece on which the post sits has completely rusted out. The metal piece on which the post sits seems to be intact. But probably still needs to be fixed. Not sure who to call and how much work it is to fix it but part of the house addition that was done by previous owner is resting on it. Any suggestions on what steps I need to take to fix this? I haven’t tried calling anyone yet. wanted to get a general sense of what I’m dealing with here before I do.

Also, on pic #4 the concrete pier has moved but the support post still manages to stay vertically on it as the metal bracket seems to have adjusted for the tilt. Any suggestions on who to call and how much work it will take to fix?

I'm in Fairfield county CT.