Hey folks- what in the world causes this on ceiling tiles?

Just completing a house purchase and can’t wrap my head around the multiple cracked tiles … any tips for dealing with drop ceilings appreciated!

Hi! I’ve bought an old house with hopeful ambition to restore it, but I’m a novice (at best) at any sort of home improvement. Can I get some help identifying and finding a solution to fixing what’s happened here? Thank you in advance, any sort of helpful tips are incredibly appreciated!

A few weeks ago, I installed a new heat pump boiler, from the brand Midea, to replace our old electric boiler. According to the installation manual, the tank itself is made of enameled steel.

Since all the old pipes in our house are copper, I placed a dielectric coupling on both the inlet and the outlet. On the inlet side there is also about 1 meter of Alpex between the copper and the boiler.
Yet I now notice that the hot water is very slightly brown, and rust has collected in a collector that is currently not in use. I read somewhere that there should actually be no copper upstream of the boiler, but this advice seemed more the exception than the rule. I also know of several systems where this is the case and they don’t have rust.

So, is it true that copper pipes upstream of the boiler, even with 1 m of Alpex and a dielectric coupling, can cause rust so quickly?

Hello everyone,

I have an house build in the 1960s in Quebec. I opened one of the exterior wall this weekend in search of nest ants. What I found out when opening did answer some other question though. During the winter, I have a hard time with wind draft, the walls are very cold and humid too.

My house exterior is brick. The construction is brick wall, black paper, air space, 2x4 with R12 in the stud. Nothing else. Code here now is R24.5 minimum.

Now, I'm not planning on redoing my brick anytime soon. Because of that, I cannot put a foam board behind it to increase insulation. I'm thus looking for alternative. Also, I think there's not even a 1/2in air gap between the 2x4 and the paper. There's also a window on the wall.

At first, I though I could simply remove the 2x4 wall and put a 2x6. But this would create a massive job since it's also holding the ceiling and roof.

So I though, can I just put 2x2 on "top" of the 2x4 to create a 2x6 and stuff rockwool in it? I saw there's R24 rockwool for 2x6 stud. I know 2x2 are very brittle and easy to break so maybe 2x3 which would create a 2x7 and I could put a 1in board in the cavities (although the stud won't be covered providing incomplete protection)?

Before installing the gypse, I'll also install a vapor barrier to prevent air moving inside the house. The little black tarp doesn't do much on that end.

What do you think of that plan? Better one?

Thank you!

I'm looking for a way to repair this without replacing the entire counter top. Looks like the range was replaced and the original was a tiny bit bigger from the late 80's.

Has some room behind as well where things can slip by and fall down. Is the best idea to find a range that will fill the gap?

I decided this year I had to redo our patio because, well, look at the before! Every time it rained the patio flooded, which not only made it look bad, it was not good for our home’s foundation. I am a 58 year old Grandma and was able to complete this project in about 7 days ( a couple of days of rain slowed my progress 😉) . I used 24” x “ 24” concrete pavers from Lowe’s which cost a total of $548. The white rocks in between the pavers were $10.98 per bag, and I used 30 bags total. I also had 2 cubic yards of galvanized sand delivered from a local business, which was $146.00 delivered. I also used about 10 bags of pea gravel at $4 per bag. I still have to seal the pavers but have purchased a cement sealer that can be sprayed on the pavers. It was $35. I also am going to “glue” the white rocks and that Lockscape mulch/rock glue cost $44. The lighting is Govee outdoor weather proof strip lighting and Govee Outdoor String lights. We already have Govee permanent outdoor lights on our home so I decided to stick with that brand. My husband loves lights ( does every guy, or is it just my husband and adult son’s?) so although this wasn’t all that important to me, I knew my husband would enjoy the addition. All of the lights cost about $350.00 Overall I am happy with the final result and would encourage anyone to take on such a project

I’m thinking of nailing in a PVC skirt board (5-6 inch wide) around the bottom of this four seasons room before the vinyl siding goes on. Im trying to make it waterproof since it is so close to the ground. Any other suggestions?

I want to renovate these stairs and am seeking advice on these basement stairs and how to redo them. All of the other stairs have a lip except for the two leading down from the landing.

Also the stairs aren’t dirty, those are white paint spots from the previous owner lol

I recently bought a cabin but the french doors to it have me concerned about security when we are not there. They seem incredibly easy to kick in and appear to have evidence of being kicked in proir. Looking for solutions without replacing the doors all together because I think that is going to beyond my skillset.

At first I was thinking some sort of security bar, but not sure how that would work being set up on the outside, as all examples I am finding are to install it on the inside (this is the only door to the cabin). I've also looked at metal gates and even rolling shutters but I really don't know what I am looking at and for. I've showing some of these options starting at a few hundred to and others up to a few thousand. I would like to get away with a few hundred and not thousand if I can, but ultimately will do it if I need to if it is justified.

Ive attached photos of the door and different solutions I have been eyeing. I'm open to any and all suggestions please.

We’re closing on an older home that has a small half bath attached to the master bedroom. There’s another full bath upstairs and full bath downstairs.

Next to the bath, there’s a closet for the master and another closet for the adjacent bedroom. Would it be a bad idea to take this closet space away and bump a couple feet into either the spare bedroom and master bedroom to make a full sized bath for the master? There’s a couple other closets in the master so closet space isn’t an issue. We can add a closet to the spare bedroom, but it would shrink the spare bedroom about ~10SF or so. We can make the new master bath about ~60SF and would bring the spare bedroom down to about ~120SF. We have another bedroom up there as well that would be unaffected.

Would it be worth the hassle? I enjoy projects like this but not sure if it’s more effort than it’s worth.

We just finished renovating our bathroom shower with porcelain tiles. We did a full gut renovation of the bathroom.

1) What is the cause of these hairline cracks in the porcelain tiles? We started seeing one crack in two tiles and now it’s all over in different tiles. First 3 pics

2) What’s causing water to come out of this tiny hole at the bottom of the grout? This is on the side of the shower wall near the faucet trim.

Need some advice on what’s happening and what we need to do to fix it.

Thanks in advance!

We converted a screened in porch to a four seasons room but part of it is now an open porch area. I took the preexisting drywall down in the covered porch area. Is there any issues with leaving the fiberglass insulation in? We are putting tongue and groove in on the ceiling.

I recently moved into a old farm house with lath and plaster and can’t want to mount my tv but can’t find the studs I’ve used an old cow magnet and tried screwing in but the screws never hit anything hard and the magnet is getting attracted to anything… what do I do?

I want to openup a closet from the adjacent room. The wall is parallel to the basement joists but perpendicular to the attic joists.also this is the only wall on this floor that runs on this line (See floor plan).

I beleive the load bearing walls are parallel to the staircase based on the basement beam and pillars.

See also the image of the attic. I want to take down the wall underneath the attic scuttle.

I’m installing a 48x36 shower in the top left corner of my bathroom. We will be tiling it with 24x24 tiles that are actually 23.5 inches. On the 48 inch side putting 2 together even with the grout I’ll fall a bit short of the needed length. We have our toilet after the shower so don’t want to extend too much past the shower but was thinking of adding a 2-3 inch piece.

The question I have is on what side should I put that “short” piece. On the left side extending out of the shower the grout would be close to the side wall which would hide it, but would see it when I open the door. While on the right side against the wall it would be a bit less visible on the way in, but might show more overall.

Shower model: https://zitta.ca/en/produits/item?id=KDB2483600ASTC41

I’m trying to pick a paint color for this master bathroom renovation. Can you give me your top 2 or any advice on how to pick a color!?! Here are pics of the current color options as well as what we are working with for the bathroom. P.s. the photos don’t do the paint color justice but that’s the best I could get for now :/

I have an already made kitchen island that I want to make bigger. Is it possible to add a base cabinet to the 2 I already have ?

B

A guy came to demo my kitchen, and cut through the drywall to our good wood. We were not panning on re drywalling over this wood. So the cut will be visibke to all. Should I ask the company for a discount? What would you do?