I suppose here is the appropriate forum... Tool shed construction.

I'm planning for the build of a small tool shed, to store my lawnmower, rakes, gardening stuff, table saw, and a few other odds and ends, and have run into a bureaucratic nightmare.

I'm going to do one of those "precut" wooden shed kits, primarily because lumber prices are horrifying right now. I really don't want to put it on treated wood foundation, but would rather put a nice little 4" concrete slab down. Here's where the issues are starting. Since it is bigger than 120 square feet, I...

I suppose here is the appropriate forum... Tool shed construction.

Sealing windows without flashing or barrier

The previous owners closed in a porch to make it a three season room. We are trying to turn into an enclosed room. Eventually we'd like to replace the siding but in the meantime we wanted to start with the broken windows and didn't have money to do both at the same time. This would have been preferable because upon removing the windows and interior insulation it turns out there was no flashing around the windows or vapor barrier on the wall sheathing. The guy we had install the windows said...

Sealing windows without flashing or barrier

Radiant floor recommendations?

I'm putting in a radiant floor in my basement that has a concrete floor and then tiling over the bathroom area and cork over the work area. I have chosen the Schulter DITRA-Heat system. It will be covering @ a third of the entire basement space.
Has anyone any experience installing these and might have some tips or recommendations or how well the system works?
A vaper bearer is just a thin mastic type thin-set product that you trowel on, right? And then you roll/adhere the pad that you weave...

Radiant floor recommendations?

Hollow core door resizing

I need to cut about 3/4- 1 inch off the bottom of a hollow core door. How much of a pain in the rear end is this going to be?

2 Cycle Engines - Success

My Mantis tiller and Echo weed wacker both didn't want to run this year and replacing the spark plug and fresh fuel didn't help. I bought new carbs on Amazon for both for less than $15 each. The kits included new spark plugs, air filters, fuel filters, gaskets and the carburetor. Swapped them out and success! They've made the carbs very hard to clean by plugging the pins out to clean any gunk. But at the price of the carb kits, why bother?

Window frame question

My question is, why is there such a large gap and how can I fix this (not using weatherstrip)? For whatever reason I wanted to mention my window screen frame has a spring mechanism to make it easy to come out on the side which exacerbates the gap.

I’m pushing for them to get a larger window screen frame but I’m told (the runaround) that their hands are tied and that these window screen frames come with the window. Can I buy window screen frames individually that will fit snug and properly?

Toilet issue

My toilet is about two years old. In the past few weeks, I notice a quick hissing sound in the flush tank at times. Apparently, the fill-up is triggered and it is putting water back in the tank. The water level in the flush tank is not low at all when this happens. Any ideas what is going on and how to fix it?

HVAC concerns.

I just brought this house and they didn't note it on the inspection report. The previous homeowner sealed up the filter inlet from the return vent and cut two opening in the return vent. He put a bigger filter so I believe after playing with it he had two in there one against the wall and the other to hold it up. Then there vent on the other side of the return vent. What will this situation cause the furnace to do?

what kinda pivot bar is this, and where to get replacement?

Broken my windows' pivot bars. looked at some online hardware stores and found nothing. What is the name of this kinda bar, and where to get replacements anyway? The bars look like this, thank you:

Weather stripping on an interior French door - fix or replace?

The rubbery weather stripping on the French door to my sun room is hanging on by a thread. The baby actually likes to come and tug on it. Is there a type of glue I can use to secure it back in place? Or do I need to remove it and replace with a new one?

Hardwood stair squeezing sound

Recently my hardwood stair has squeezing sound when stepped on. Since it is all finished/covered behind, so cannot reach the inside to check where went wrong. I just suspect that the sound is produced between the stepping wood board and the vertical wood board. What can I do to fix this problem?

Weird draining problem - Biting the bullet!

I've decided to bite that proverbial bullet, and just try to fix the !@#$& thing on my own. I think I'm a fairly smart guy, and even though I'm not a professional plumber, I have done jobs similar to this before and completed them without destroying the house. I'm pretty angry that I got so frustrated with this thing, that it just made me more angry that I was willing to give up. So...

The part I'm going to have to get the snake into is that black cast iron drain stack. In order to do that...

Weird draining problem - Biting the bullet!

Tesla Achilles Heel

The recent Tesla accident reveals the batteries as being a real hazard. Lithium batteries are finicky about mistreatment and overtemperature any accident that results in a short circuit or internal battery damage can be a disaster. It was reported that first responders had to use 30,000 gallons of water over four hours to put out the fire, as the battery kept reigniting. What is going to happen after a greater number of electric vehicles are on the road and become involved in accidents...

Tesla Achilles Heel

Best friend's house burned on Easter five years ago

I'll give the abridged version here. My best friend who keeps having bad luck and was nearly killed in a car accident last April was just getting back on his feet when there was a house fire. Because the house was still not repaired from an oak tree falling on it and nearly destroying it, there was no insurance.

His girlfriend and daughter were trapped inside, but he literally ripped an entire window off the wall (frame and all) from the outside with his bare hands to get them out...

Best friend's house burned on Easter five years ago

Is this standard/OK from a mason?

I have a mason (and his crew) fixing part of my house's foundation right now. So far I'm not too pleased about a couple of things, but I want to check whether my expectations are reasonable since I haven't had much experience with masons and their work. Maybe what he's doing is standard and my expectations are just out of line... or maybe not.

Yesterday he and his crew arrived to do what we all thought would be a fairly minor job that would be finished in a day. While they were working...

Is this standard/OK from a mason?

Hi from Boston!

Hi all! I'm responsible for a lovely old house that has a lot of deferred maintenance to be done. Some of it is stuff I can DIY, some of it is stuff I'll need to hire other people to do. I actually don't know a lot of homeowners, so I'm here to look for advice about things like "is this normal from a contractor?" and other things that I can't necessarily learn from web searches.

Nanosilver and COVID

Sometimes the baby is thrown out with the bathwater because of negative commentary. That may be that case w/respect to nanosilver. While both the government and big-pharma are quick to discredit nanosilver as a cure for COVID they fail to point out how it might be effectively used as a preventative. It does demonstrate antiviral and antibacterial properties and is used in wound care dressings and sprays. "AgNPs may well be a possible solution for cutting off the route of transmission, either...

Nanosilver and COVID

Is this a reasonable cost for drywall repair?

Mother-in-laws house has drywall damage in a bedroom due to roof leak. Contractor proposes replacing drywall on entire 8 x 13 wall (one window) with tape and texture to match room, and replace insulation between two studs, for $1900. In Sacramento CA area. Does that sound reasonable?

How would you refinish this concrete wall?

http://imgur.com/a/9EE2CmS

I'm refinishing these basement steps. Need to figure out wall treatment. I'm sure if I use paint or some other direct-to-wall finish, it will meet the same fate as what is on there. I'm considering some sort of paneling but not sure about how I would secure to wall, how I would handle rounded corners and how it would meet the skirt (which I'd like to avoid removing if possible).
The stairs will eventually be covered in LVP if that matters.

Bathroom makeover

So I just closed on the house yesterday.
Now for the hard part, the flooring on the entire upper level has to get redone and im dealing with a master bathroom with carpet in it. Doing the cabinets and countertops is lower on our priority list but was wondering if anyone had any suggestions for this nightmare flooring and walls that will go with the rest of the bathroom. We have a consultation with empire on monday but there are so many options./
Also for the space to the left of the hot tub...

Bathroom makeover