First time poster - installing KEF Ci4100QL speakers in these cutouts. When using my stud finder it seemed like the entire wall was a stud, so I decided to just make the cutouts and figure out the rest later.

I’ve deduced these two areas are not foundational, but I’m still worried about cutting out the wood. What exactly is going on behind this fireplace?!

Siding is aluminum. Tried to show in the last picture how it looks like there was flashing added and it was repainted. It also looks like it sunk into the window trim. It's the front left post that is sinking. What would I use to level it out and what size jack is needed? Thanks!

I'm updating this 1970 place and want to remove the Roman columns and replace them with treated 6x6 beams. Can I yank these one-by one and just replace them one-by-one, or would you jack up the structure in between first?

Please post Homeowner/DIY questions here.

We hired a pest control company to do exclusion work. They attached solid galvanized z flashing to our siding and I have concerns about the work.

• The bottom of our sill plate is ~ 1/2 inch above the end of our vinyl siding. Sill plate is covered by the vinyl siding but is otherwise exposed so not covered by metal, foam, sheathing or house wrap. Sill plate also does not seem to have a barrier between it and the concrete foundation.

• We don’t have a siding starter strip (siding is from 1989) so there’s a sizable gap between the siding the foundation which is why we needed pest control/exclusion work.

• The lip from the metal on the vinyl is causing water from dew and rain to drain into the metal Z flashing and there isn’t an easy way for the water to drain out because the lowest edge of the Z slopes away from the foundation.

The pest control company says this is fine because the metal isn’t air or water tight but I’m worried about having standing water so close to the sill plate.

We’re going to reside the house within the next 2-3 years. Until then I’m choosing between 2 options.

Option 1) Drill weep holes into the existing metal Z flashing to allow for drainage and airflow

Option 2) Remove and replace with metal mesh for better drainage and airflow - something like this: https://www.animaltrapsandsupplies.com/products/pest-armor-3-8-expanded-high-profile-zmesh-48-length.html

Is option 1 sufficient to prevent moisture issues with the sill plate or should I go with option 2 to be safe?

Both pest control and a local GC have told me option 1 is fine but I don’t want to be looking at a pricey and complicated repair down the road.

I’m redoing some interior railing. The original wrought iron went up at one continuous angle. However, it was pretty low (about 33”) and I am bring that up to 36” at the top of the handrail. That said, for a wood handrail should I just do one continuous angle into the wall, or offset the knee wall and do a straight return?

Also for terminating at the wall what are the thoughts on a rosette vs. half newel post?

Thanks!

first of all, good morning. so i bought myself some work trousers from stanley, cause they were discounted (20€). but i noticed that the pockets are positioned fairly bad, that you can't even get a hand in them without breaking it or ripping the pockets open, it seems like the pockets are too far in the back to reach. You have any advice for other trousers?

Transportation business I started last year is non-viable due to unforeseen local industry changes in April. Looking into carpentry as something to sustain me to retirement.

I'm seeing that there's a six week pre-apprenticeship training with the NorCal union.

A local college offers a construction tech program thats 2 years long.

Any advice on which route to go? Would one set me up better for certain things than the other?

In the meantime will be looking for a local small company who could use a helper.

The majority of my career has been doing commercial concrete formwork and remodeling, so lots of hand driving.

I have done a decent amount of framing but never gotten into the weeds with framing guns.

I’m getting ready to frame my own house and was wondering if the depth adjustment on a framing nailer is something useful I should spend the extra money on or if It’s not that necessary. I have the most experience with a paslode F350S and I do not believe it had a depth adjustment.

I am eyeing the Metabo NR83A5 but don’t know if I need depth adjustment or not.

What do you think of this carpentry?

It is a second floor.

2x3" wood, OSB plate... 50 mm thermal insulation.

RTA cabs.

Charging $30 per to assemble.

How much do you charge per box to install?

Hi all,

I'm doing a kitchen reno on my FiL's house, my wife and I live with him and I've pulled off the dry wall as part of that. To our horror I've discovered six split studs on a load bearing wall. Go figure. Anyway I’m trying to figure out the safest/code compliant way to deal with it.

A few details about the structure:

• It’s a supporting wall under a vaulted ceiling, single floor, no attic in the kitchen area and no basement beneath. It's built on a concrete foundation/subfloor.
• The ceiling joists/rafters mostly land between studs on the top plate, not directly above them with the exception of one. They're marked with pencil (not obvious in the photos) and verified with a stud finder.
• The wall has a double top plate, deliberately split at the vent for a range/stove.
• Several studs are visibly bowed, and six are split.
• Drywall hasn't been off since 1983, lol.

My questions:

1. Is the best practice to sister a new stud, then remove the old one, and finally install a full length replacement?
2. Since the joists are bearing on the top plate and not the studs directly, is there any added concern about doing stud by stud replacement, assuming installation of a sister stud with a snug fit before replacement?
3. Would it be smarter/acceptable to leave the sister in place permanently (essentially doubling up studs) instead of pulling the old one?
4. What's the general process in the trade when coming across this kind of mess?
5. What do I need to do to bring this up to modern code? I think I should use metal screw/nail guards over the wiring chases and should use reinforcement stud shoes over the notches in the studs as they look like around 50% of the material is missing.

Photos are attached, and boy howdy it's a mess.

For what it's worth, I'm in Southern California, USA, so figure California/U.S building code applies. Oh, and I'm aware the wiring isn't up to code. That was one of the major reasons for pulling the dry wall.

I (28F) am a first time homeowner. I am not a carpenter by any means so please bear with me if I am using the wrong terms, I am just speaking to the best of my knowledge.

Before moving into this house, there was work done on the rafters due to some rafter separation from the ridge board. Now, about 1.5 years later, I’m in the attic, looking at the work and noticing that the wood that they used to sister to the rafters is completely separated from the rafters instead of being pressed right against them.

Hurricane season is upon us and this is causing me heavy stress and I don’t know the severity of the issue. I recently had a roofer in my attic to check something out and asked him to take a look at the rafters and let me know if the work was done sufficiently, and he had said he didn’t have any concerns with it. But this just isn’t sitting well with me. It doesn’t look right.

I attached a photo. The dark wood on the right is the rafters, the middle is the sister pieces, and on the right is the collar tie.

What happened - was this just not done correctly to begin with? What can I do about this? Looking for any knowledge, recommendations, etc.

Hi all,

I need to rebuild a fence that’s about 2 m tall and 3–4 m long, located between brick walls (see photo).

I’d like to reuse the existing posts and planks. My plan is to install new rails made from 100×100 mm construction softwood.For each rail-to-post connection, I’m planning to use 2× 8×240 mm structural wood screws. Alternatively, I could use M10 through bolts, but that would be more time-consuming.

The fence is in a mountain village (high above sea level). It’s somewhat sheltered but does get moderate wind. I’m mostly looking for a cheap and practical solution; it doesn’t need to be perfect or super fancy.

👉 Question: Will this design be OK as-is, or should I adjust something (e.g., change rail cross section, use bolts instead of screws, etc.)?

Thanks!

TLDR - Three questions:

1. Is there a better way to cut rectangular holes out of the middle of 2x6 boards than drilling circular holes in the wood and then shaping it into a rectangle with a jigsaw?
2. Is there a particularly good tool to even out the rectangles' interior sides if my jigsaw skills are lacking and the cuts aren't even?
3. Is it structurally sound to exclusively use tension to support a wooden scaffolding frame without fasteners? It's intended to support tools and one person at a time.

Details:

I'm making a set of modular scaffolding based on some reclaimed 2x6 wood planks. To keep it small enough to fit in my car trunk, I need to be able to assemble and disassemble it without much issue, and ideally without any fasteners. I made a design that's basically using a series of wood "pins" to hold the respective joints together nice and steady once they're hammered in a bit, and easily disassemble by hammering the "pins" from the narrow side to loosen them from the joints. It's basically a pair of torii that are connected face-to-face by 2x6 boards over a 4' gap.

Basically, it consists of the following:

• A-Board - Roughly 4' 2x6 with a 3 1/8" x 1 3/4" holes about 15" from the base and another cut 15" above that.
• B-Board - Roughly 2.75' 2x6 that's trimmed narrower at each end to cut away about 1.5" from each side. There are 3 1/8" x 1 3/4" holes cut in them around the middle so that two other boards can insert side by side, but there's also a roughly 1.5" x 1.5" hole in each "wing".
• C-Board - Roughly 5' 2x6 that's trimmed like board B with similar holes in the "wings".
• Pins - These are the cutaways from narrowing boards B and C, then tapered to go from 1.75" to 1".

The structure works by inserting two C-boards into a B-board on each end, then pinning them in by hammering the pins into the wing holes, using tension to keep it together. Then the B-boards are each inserted into two A-boards, which are also pinned in place. I use a pair of B-boards to insert in the other set of A-board holes to provide some more rigidity without diagonal braces. The parts of the "wings" that poke out also double as ladder steps to ascend the scaffold.

My current thought to give it additional height is to drill and cut away 4" deep, roughly 1" x 3" inserts into the top of the A-boards, then trimming away (a la the B-boards and C-boards) a corresponding amount of the base of another set of A-boards (D-boards, I suppose, since they won't work as bases for the structure as a whole). I'm envisioning drilling holes through the A-board and D-board overlap so that I can put a rod through it as well just for some added stability there, but one thing at a time.

Apologies if this is the wrong subreddit to post this in. Don’t know the story as to why the base of the stair is like this. What would be the most proper way to fix this and match the trim?

Hi everyone. I’m extending a deck, and to do so we split this beam in the center of the post notch so that we could add an additional beam. As we cut the existing beam and removed the part that we needed to remove, a deep-set nail stripped out a sizable chuck out of the existing post (whoever built the original deck was very nail-happy and put nails in random places).

I’m wondering if this missing chunk will cause the final inspector to fail the extension, or if it will threaten the security of the deck. I know exactly how I would fix it if so, but I’m curious what other more experienced people think. Do you guys think this matters or do you think it’ll be aight?

Removing this giant planter box. Thought it would be easy. Remove dirt, de-nail a few visible brackets, pop it off the deck it's resting on.

Nope. It's still secured to something. Even lifting it with my car jack isn't working.

Is there a standard practice when securing these to a deck? Like giant screws on the bottom layer of 4x4s?