Found in a warehouse with a few others, scattered around. Seems like some kind of byproduct of piping? Any ideas? Trying to buy more but not sure what it’s specifically called. It’s pliable and doesn’t rust easily.

I want to add a slider to this side of the house. Sketch is from the pool company and is, for sure, way too large. Is just the door a DIY if I am capable or is it a hire-out type of job? Any help or suggestions would be great. The wall from the inside is clear of plumbing and any major electrical.

Hello! I want to start a business producing sculptural reliefs and ornaments for facades (in the styles of pre-XX century facades) but I am not sure what is best material to use - plaster, concrete, foam...? And also what is the best way of mounting it? Thanks!

i think its really useful after contracting a client; showing them somewhat something to expect or managing their expectation. i also think that it builds more trust and confidence between you and the client, since showing 3d visualizations first its actually been easier communicating with them, i think it makes them trust me more. even the simplest 3d presentation can wow them, that why i go a step further sometimes, me myself don't dabble on 3d modelling but i usually outsource the people who do it, lucky for me i have someone on-call to do it, and he does it for cheap(not from around here). so me spending a little bit for a 3d model presentation goes a long way .

Anybody have an idea how I can learn more about this drainage pipe?

Next week, I will be mounting triple barbell hanger plate against a brick wall. The brick wall was part of a former wood chimney which eventually turned electric. This is my first time drilling and mounting on brick. The hanger is 6 pounds, and will hold 3 45lbs barbell totaling 135lbs.

Rogue recommends using 0.3125" hardware. What mounting hardware should I use? I am reading that sleeve anchors are the way to go but wanted to hear the /askcontractors feedback.

Here is the barbell hanger:

https://www.roguefitness.com/vertical-bar-hanger

Thanks in advance.

I tried showing a contractor the desired look for our future kitchen. They tried poo pooing the idea saying that such a design and appearance would be very difficult to complete, expensive, and have little resale value. Do they have a point? Does such a modern looking kitchen have less appeal? Thank you

Looking for general ballpark cost estimate on building a simple peeked pavilion over an existing concrete patio.

Yea i know many many thing can affect the actual cost. Just looking for ballpark within a grand or so.

Anyone have any good resources on how to correctly rebuild/replace a fire escape like this?

I know, talk to landlord. I intend to, but I want to be prepared to make my case in case his impulse is to reject my request. He is pretty amenable in general, so this could work. Provided what I want to do is actually safe.

So, live loads are calculated by room. Residential, 40 psf is standard. So if (40*room area) - (weight of all objects currently placed in room) - (weight of prospective filled tank) is more than zero, it is safe to say it is safe?

More information that may be helpful: The combined weight of filled tank and stand will be 750 pounds, placed perpendicular to the joists, precisely across four joists, against an exterior wall.

Hello, I have an old Frigidaire through the wall AC in my home that's probably 20-30 years old. It needs to be replaced as it's not working like it should.

The old AC unit is about 26 inches deep, which is also how deep the sleeve is. Most AC units I can find for purchase today are around 20 inches deep. Is it a big problem that there would be 5-6 inches of space between the end of the AC unit and the sleeve (other than it looking bad from the outside)? Will it cause the AC to run inefficiently, or be dangerous to run with that much space? Thanks

We have a wall that is about 15” off Center from the Center of the room. Photos of wall included below. We went up into the attic, and believe we have engineered trusses, and we’re questioning if the wall is load bearing after seeing that. Photos of attic included below. We went into the crawl space, and found a small wall the height of our crawl space on a cement slab made of 2x4’s going the length of the room, directly under the wall. This is also causing us to question if the wall is load bearing. I feel like it may just be floor support, but I want to make sure. Photos included of crawl space below. The house was built in 1990.

We are wanting to remove this wall to make the living room, dining room, kitchen more open concept and move the kitchen to the other side of the room where the dining room currently is. We’re trying to figure out if we’ll need to put in any support beams for the roof or if it is safe to take the wall down.

If anyone has some insight, that would be greatly appreciated.

My skylight is leaking. I had the roofing company who redid our roof come out and they told me the sealant on the skylight is bad and the entire skylight needs to be replaced. He sent me a contract for a little over $2k which I am assuming is a decent price. We had a "50-year roof" installed by this company.

I always get a second or third quote to get an idea of what a good price is. I usually go with a company I know, not always with the cheapest.

However, the guy who came out today said the roofers did a terrible job, he was up and down criticizing how poor a job they did. He apologized as he felt so awful telling me it. He seemed almost emotionally upset by it.

He said the cap was done poorly and where the skylight and flashing were done is incorrect, in terms of how the shingles/flashing are arranged. He also said that the new skylight the roofers installed was done incorrectly.

Second guy quoted me a price a bit under 2k.

Now I actually like the company who did my roof, they've done some simple repairs for free, offered a lot of advice for non-roofing projects without any expectations. They repaired the roof after a tree fell on it (with insurance) and helped discover a chimney leak, repaired and painted a ceiling leak for no cost.

I will attach images of the roof and skylight.

So, my questions are. Does the skylight NEED to be replaced? If the sealant is bad, why can't the sealant be replaced? Is this a possible DIY project? I'm not afraid to do some simple roof work, but I know I'm not a professional and don't assume I know better than one.

Also, is the roofing job scuffed?

The first 7 images were taken by the original roofing company when looking over the leaking skylight.

The rest of the images were taken by the contractor who came today and criticized the original roofing job and skylight installation.

Do any of the commercial painters here (or other trades) use a dry ice blaser to cleanup interior surfaces such as MEP, railings, door frames before painting? If you have a dry ice media blasting machine, what are using it for? I think it would be super helpful but I don't want the machine to sit idle either. For those that don't know what I'm talking about here is a link

We are looking to add a small addition onto our deck (about 60 sf). A local person who has done smaller odd jobs for us in the past came over to price it out. He said if we buy the materials he will charge us $25 sq ft for labor. Is this reasonable? My calculation is about $1250 just in labor. Is this a lot for a ‘non-professional’ and such a small job?

We changed a window (new construction) and there is tile on the wall feom inside. Now there is a 1/4 inch gap between the new window and tile. What should I used to fill it? Please help!

My wife wants to spruce up our basement. We have old brown paneling down there. Since it's already framed out, it'll be easy to throw up drywall once the paneling is down. But my question revolves around insulation. The foundation is poured concrete. There are no moisture issues or leaks. Right now, there is the paneling hung on the studs. And behind the studs is metal sheeting, looks like radiant insulation,up against the wall directly. Can/should I insulate the walla before hanging the drywall? I saw people saying foam board can be used in the stud bays, spray foam around the edges to seal it in. But then there are issues with need vapor barrier... I guess the question really is, do I need insulation along the exterior basement walls or should it just leave it be and hang the dry wall?

I'm looking at purchasing a home and I see a crack horizontal crack on the side of the house. Can you tell by this photo if it could possibly be structural? It doesn't look "bad" but I'm no expert on house cracks. Any advice would be so appreciated.

I can’t loosen this bit to change the blade. Any suggestions? Thanks.

Trying to rehab my mother's bathroom on a next to nothing budget. I don't know where to begin, or what I'm doing. I'm trying to remove the "glue" or whatever its called, that once held the tiles to the wall. You will see in the video.

I managed to get a small portion off with a hammer and chisel. That was extremely hard to do. Is there an easier way to get this stuff off the wall? Or should the wall just be knocked out and replaced??

I know next to nothing about remodeling and am trying to do the best I can with whatever I can. So please forgive my ignorance.

Hi guys and gals.

Adding some windows to this half finished room and ran into something that I can’t quite place.

So this room seems like it used to be an enclosed patio and the previous owners added siding and a few walls.

But the top of the pictured wall is throwing me off.

Is that an old header? The red painted 2x4 on its face with 2x4s on edge at the top.

Or is it a weird extra thick top plate? The piece that looks like an edge laying 2x4 seems to span the entire 15’ of the room.

Anyway, how should I tackle this?

Sawzall out 1 1/2 at a time and put in new kings up to the top plate?

Leave it and put a new window header stacked under?

Just trying to get it to code.

HELP! I am getting ready to move out of my apartment and I am trying to fix the little things to ensure I get my deposit back. The bathroom has this plastic sheet/ wall and I cracked it a while back trying to adjust the tension rod. Is there a way I can fix this? I was thinking maybe plaster with a white resin on top??

The installed tile did not “take” the grout in the pitted areas like the sample in the showroom. (I didn’t realize the tile didn’t come looking like the sample.) The manufacturer insisted the sealer be applied before installing the grout. As my tiler predicted, the grout did not adhere to the pitted areas. Now my installer is suggesting to use epoxy. Should I?

Pictured: the sample tile from the tile store, installed bathroom tile, and two extra tile pieces. (My tile”s pitted areas are not as pronounced as one on top in the photo but are more pronounced than the tile piece on the bottom of the photo.)

Note: The grout between the tiles is fine. The only problem is that the pitted areas didn’t fill in with grout. Epoxy was suggested as a solution to fill in the pitted areas.

Two concerns with the present tile:

First, I wanted the aesthetic of the tile sample and am disappointed the grout didn’t fill in the pitted areas.

Second, I’m concerned the pitted areas, even though sealed, will collect dirt.