DIY

The original post: /r/diy by /u/Shouldonlytakeaday on 2024-11-12 22:07:03.

The original post: /r/diy by /u/LampsLookingatyou on 2024-11-12 21:42:03.

The original post: /r/diy by /u/fireant2 on 2024-11-12 21:23:08.

The original post: /r/diy by /u/SteishTheJuck on 2024-11-12 15:26:04.

The original post: /r/diy by /u/underpin487 on 2024-11-12 21:53:37.

I have an immersion heater, it has two switches and a timer (the usual from what I am seeing online).

What I am failing to understand is why there is a 4th switch panel that is just a fuse switch.

For context, the immersion heater switches are set up as follows in a 2x2 square shape:

on peak switch off peak switch fuse switch timer

I am unclear what the bottom left switch with the fuse does. With it switched off, the heating elements still heat everything (I can physically hear it doing so) whether by turning the on peak or off peak switches on.

I am confused what the fuse switch does

I am having issues getting hot water for showers at the moment. I have the timer set for 1 hour each evening, it doesn't seem to be producing enough hot water. But then after literally 5 seconds of having the on peak element on, I have enough hot water for a 20 minute shower. This doesn't seem right at all, and I'm confused if perhaps the bottom left fuse switch is required to be on for the hot water to be moved from the tank?

The original post: /r/diy by /u/Mry0u on 2024-11-12 20:49:15.

We had door knobs on a spring mortise on our old internal doors and wanted to change them over to lever handles however the old bore holes are cut too 52mm and I am unable to find any lever handles that have a rose diameter greater than this. Anyone have any tips please?

The original post: /r/diy by /u/Mattsmithdoctorrulez on 2024-11-12 19:14:20.

Hello guys my dad and I are going to be adding on to the house soonish and I'm getting a new room with my own private entrance. and I want to sound proof the hell out of it so I can't hear my parents and they can't hear me. I would be paying for the sound proofing material myself and was wondering what my options are. I'm here in California USA. My room will be like my own studio apartment about 185sqf in size. So what are my options for soundproofing?

The original post: /r/diy by /u/a_h_0 on 2024-11-12 18:50:08.

I live at home, and I have a big family with lots of little ones. My siblings visit often and the house gets very loud. I’m completing my masters and I need some peace and quiet while studying. What are some cost effective ways to sound proof my office? My office is about 81 sq ft. The office door is French double doors and I have wood floors. There are two desks in my office, and pictures and posters on my wall. There is one window and a bathroom (the bathroom size is not included in the square footage). I was thinking of purchasing sound proofing panels from amazing and sticking them up on my door and around the room but I wanted to see if anyone had better ideas.

Edit: I have noise canceling headphones but it’s not sufficient. I just need to be in a quiet place to be able to focus, and I can’t go elsewhere to study because I use my PC which isn’t.. very portable

The original post: /r/diy by /u/Mubs9119 on 2024-11-12 18:18:55.

Will be mounting a tv into about 1” of old hard plaster with brick underneath. Going to Lowe’s today to get everything I could need. Just wondering what specific fasteners I should get. Will anchors be necessary? Do I need a hammer drill? The tv is right about 50 lbs. I have only mounted a TV one other time and it went pretty well though.

The original post: /r/diy by /u/Hot_Historian1066 on 2024-11-12 17:14:13.

I need to dig a trench about 30 feet long, two feet deep, but a few inches wide (for direct-bury wire for an outbuilding). The soil is quite rocky (decomposed granite with loaf-of- bread and larger granite stones in the Rocky Mountains).

I have a conundrum. I’ll need to rent some equipment to do the digging: would I be better off with a mini-ex or a 36” deep-capable trencher?

The mini-ex digs wider than I need but could probably handle extracting larger stones better, while the trencher digs narrower and might not encounter as many stones in the first place as a result.

The original post: /r/diy by /u/sypher1187 on 2024-11-12 16:33:51.

I'm planning to add an outlet for a TV on a finished wall. The wall is an exterior wall so it has insulation and a vapour barrier. I noticed that when the house was constructed, they used gang boxes with a foamed flange similar to this. I don't want to deal with extra drywall work so is there a way to add a single gang box and maintain the sealed air space? Am I over thinking this and all I really need to do is just tape the edge of the box to the vapour barrier with insulation tape?

The original post: /r/diy by /u/Greenteawizard87 on 2024-11-12 16:30:05.

Hi there everyone. I was just wondering if some people knowledgeable could give me an answer to my problem.

The laminate flooring I have I believe has mold growing under it. I live in a ground level basement that is subject to a lot of humidity during the warmer months. We do have a dehumidifier but the bedroom always smells like must and mildew. We clean it constantly but in a few days the smell overtakes the room again. The laminate flooring does have some gaps in it that I think could be causing moisture to seem in.

There are extra flooring strips available but I was wondering how difficult it is to take them out and replace them? I’ve never done it before and I saw a few videos of it on YouTube it doesn’t give me an idea of if I should be trying it on my own.

The flooring in many spots also can be pressed down as pops up a little bit.

The original post: /r/diy by /u/Yurassik78 on 2024-11-12 15:40:28.

Hi everyone, I am removing a glued pvc floor and of course there is a reasonable amount of glue residue on the underlying tiles. Which product I can use to help scrap the glue? I’ve tried with isopropyl alcohol, tesa adesive remover and a heat gun but result is far from optimal.

The original post: /r/diy by /u/Tax_Break_For_Plants on 2024-11-11 21:53:33.

Hello, I have some plants that need direct sunlight, So I'm looking to build a sort of balcony that sits on my windowsill and extends out as a flat shelf so my plants can get be place on it and receive direct sunlight and feel the breeze.

I was looking at "Pet Patios" and found a design I think would be the best to mimic.

Cat Models as Plants. (Right)

I also have cats so I'm thinking about basically copying this design, but the roof would also be wire.

I feel like by looking at this picture I could draw up a blueprint but I am having a hard to figuring out how to anchor it from with inside the window. Any suggestions would be great! thank you!

The original post: /r/diy by /u/infernalcolonel on 2024-11-11 21:34:30.

I have a LG DLGX3701W gas dryer, and the felt seal started coming apart. Pretty easy to find that replacement, and it's in my Amazon cart.

Problem is, I went down a rabbit hole when I read it might be a good idea to swap out the belts while I have it apart.

1. If that's the case, should I just do a [Chinese] "refurb" kit for the rollers, spring, etc., or is all that unnecessary?
2. Is there more than one dryer belt? The exploded view HERE shows two belts: 4400EL2001A and 4400EL2001F. The "dryer" kits only have the "A" version. They don't seem to be the same thing (1/4" vs 1/2" width).

Thanks in advance!

The original post: /r/diy by /u/Resident_Shoulder446 on 2024-11-11 21:33:03.

I'm installing cultured stone on the exterior of my home, going four feet up, capping it with a sill stone and then vinyl siding above. All was going well until I got to installing the sill stone. The cultured stone is 1-2" thick. The ledge stone is about 4" thick. As you can see from this pic (taken on end to show the pieces in profile), there's an incredible amount of overhang from the sill stone. So much so, in fact, that even with metal angle iron in place, the sill won't stay in place long enough for the mortar to dry. And even if I could get it to stay there, by using wooden supports for example, it looks ridiculous with that much overhang.

Because I have some extra pieces, I cut 3/4" off the back side of a sill stone and installed it. It mounted fine and looks good. But I also think that can't be right. Did my supplier sell me the wrong sill stone? Or am I missing something?

If I need to cut all the sill stones, it's not a huge deal -- it's about 30 linear feet, so 18 stones in all. But still... an added pain in what was supposed to be the easy part of the project!

https://preview.redd.it/apjdgnnubc0e1.jpg?width=3000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=13c5a3fb71e8f81af0bd19420b78aa3e9011eda0

The original post: /r/diy by /u/Highwayman1717 on 2024-11-11 20:25:56.

First time turning it on a few days ago, filled it with water bottles to make it more efficient...Low and behold it never got below 25. I rearranged it so everything was in a big ice pile, now it's at least frozen but hanging at 15 degrees. It's a 7 foot Frigidaire, no idea what to try next. The outlet is working fine.

I have a layer of styrofoam on the very bottom, then a pile of water bottles, then the foot itself on top with ice packs. Is the foam on the bottom possibly hurting my cooling from one side?

The original post: /r/diy by /u/W1ldpilot on 2024-11-11 19:58:05.

Hey guys, first post here (of many to come),

I have an old house (1968) that I got for cheap and I'm gutting it down to the studs. There is water damage, mold, and a slew of other things that I just want gone so I am starting from the top to get a better idea of the state of the roof.

The ceilings are made of 16"x4' rock lath sheets with plaster over top (no texture, but crazy heavy!), and about 6 inches of insulation above that. Here comes where I ask for advice...should I take the time to clear out the fiberglass insulation from the attic, then tear down all the plasterboard, or should I take it all down in one go and just let the insulation rain down.

INB4: I got protective gear; Steel toes, gloves, bunny suits, goggles, respirators (P100).

TLDR: Need a fast and semi-clean way of tearing down insulated plaster ceilings.

The original post: /r/diy by /u/xf-18 on 2024-11-11 17:32:05.

Hello everyone! I recently bought an induction cooktop to replace a gas one, but when attempting the installation, I realized it’s about 1 cm larger than the existing cutout in my countertop. Unfortunately, returning the induction cooktop is not an option at this point, and I’d really like to avoid cutting the countertop, it would require dismantling all the cabinets, plus I’m worried about the dust and mess it would create. However, if I can’t find another solution, I might have to go that route.

Has anyone dealt with this issue before? Are there any adapters or other options available? I’ve seen some stainless steel adapters, but they seem to be made for the opposite problem.

Thanks in advance for any advice!

(edit: Forgot to add the counter top image)

https://preview.redd.it/f5sh3bu77b0e1.jpg?width=2016&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=46524c119225aa78a0a337b50beaf484cd6158f2

The original post: /r/diy by /u/shhhlife on 2024-11-11 17:11:59.

I will not be fixing this DIY, but I thought maybe you all can help me figure out who to call next?

This is in the corner of my living room, just inside the corner of the exterior wall. In the 3rd photo, you can see where just outside that corner we have a garden hose faucet. We had a big wet spot in this corner two or three times toward the end of the summer. Like at least 2 square feet of carpet completely soaked. It took us awhile to do anything because at first we thought our young kids were making the mess, but then we were able to figure out from security camera footage that no one was going over there.

I called the plumber, they cut into the wall and said it was a bad hose-bib, so they replaced that. I had already pulled up that corner of carpet and left it all open like that with a fan to dry. Then I went on vacation, got busy with back to school stuff, and basically ignored the issue for awhile.

It generally seemed to dry out though I didn't inspect it as closely as I should have. A few weeks later, I went over there to look closer and it felt like the concrete around the edge of the floor just outside the carpet tacks was just barely damp. Like it felt oddly cool to the touch but my finger would come back like almost imperceptibly damp. Another time, I went over to check again and indeed the concrete there was just a bit damp but nothing around it seemed wet.

Now, we've had really heavy rain this weekend so I've been watching it. It's clearly wet, and you can see two darker areas of the carpet bad right there that are pretty wet.

So do I need to call a plumber or a foundation company or who? I don't see water dripping from the hose bib. And clearly replacing the hose bib helped because we no longer have a large amount of water right there. But I'm having a hard time concluding that I somehow simultaneously developed both a plumbing and a foundation issue and now the plumbing issue is fixed but the foundation is leaking in rain water? I don't have any background knowledge in this stuff though...

https://preview.redd.it/tumhd0iz4b0e1.png?width=1142&format=png&auto=webp&s=f6f01c2b606237493e9feb1600344dc5f398dfe0

https://preview.redd.it/lsprf3iz4b0e1.png?width=1136&format=png&auto=webp&s=f2651b5486dba969531523a68130cdeac14cc679

https://preview.redd.it/ozhq25iz4b0e1.png?width=1123&format=png&auto=webp&s=924e908d5587c10d9d46bdbd39eb795965a1c6f5

The original post: /r/diy by /u/brainrotbro on 2024-11-11 17:01:53.

l had a number of basement stilts installed to deal with sagging floor in the center of a house. I have been tightening them over time in order to raise that part of the floor back up. The stilts are tightened via a large bolt on a threaded rod, which is part of the stilt. No part of the stilts can be removed-- so any wrench used to adjust the stilts must be with an open-end wrench (or something else able to placed around the stilt, i.e. not a permanently closed loop tool). The bolts on the stilts have become very difficult to adjust as I tighten them.

Is there a machine that can tighten these bolts slowly? Maybe something that attaches to the static part of of the stilt as a counterbalance? Or a stationary machine that uses itself as a counterbalance? Or a machine that can attach to another stilt as a counterbalance? Maybe my thinking is in the wrong place, or too specific here. Essentially, I'm looking for mechanical assistance in tightening these bolts that doesn't use body weight as the counterbalance.

The original post: /r/diy by /u/eoJmIiH on 2024-11-11 17:01:30.

https://imgur.com/a/qu0YZFr

Hi All - We bought this house about 2 months ago and when we did the inspection the textured paint in the bathroom ceiling (outside the shower) was clearly separating from the drywall ceiling a little. It was only in this one spot and was the size of a golfball give or take.

The seller said there was a small roof leak which they had fixed and that is where it was patched/repainted. We went into the walk up attic and saw some water stains on 2 adjoining pieces of the plywood flooring right above where the issue was and the inspector said it looked like they caught the leak quickly because the plywood was in very good shape and there were no other signs of leaking from the roof. The plywood is nailed down so we were unable to pull it up and investigate further.

That gets us to today, I think with the increased use of the shower we started seeing the sagging/separating was becoming larger and more noticeable. So I poked it with my finger to see how soft it was, my finger went right though it fairly easily. Spouse, upon seeing new ceiling hole, wasn't super enthused. We put a new roof on a few weeks ago and verified there was no new leaks anywhere. There are no signs of plumbing being in this area.

I ended up manually removing parts of the surrounding area to see how extensive the softness was. The size of the hole is basically everything I was able to easily pull apart and you can clearly see some wet insulation just hanging out touching the wood. The wood itself feels fine when I poked it with a screwdriver. Didn't easily peel apart and wasn't mushy at any level. I'm working under an assumption that the insulation get wet and the humidity just got trapped with nowhere to go. I can't tell what might be mold vs wet insulation vs drywall.

In 6-9 months we are going to be renovating this entire floor (completely changing the layout and increasing the size of this bathroom) so I'm trying to find a good balance of resolving the immediate issue and not putting a ton of money into something that will end up getting ripped out soon.

This is my plan of attack - I'm looking for any feedback on items I might be missing or what to look do better.

• Tape some plastic over the hole in the ceiling to prevent insulation/junk from getting into the bathroom
• Go go into the attic to remove the plywood floorboard(s) above the hole/wet spot and pull out any wet insulation
• Inspect the area to any wood/drywall/other types of damage or growth
• Spray the area with a bleach/water solution to treat any mold looking items I might find (it looks to be crazy might call someone in to do mold remediation)
• let the area completely dry out and install new insulation
• put back the plywood floorboards.
• In the bathroom cut out the area in red around the hole and patch with new drywall (I won't bother texturing it since we are going to remodel next year).
• make sure to tell contractor doing the future reno of patch work in case there is anything they need/want to do to clean it up down the road.

It doesn't look like fiberglass insulation so I'm planning on getting a few M95 masks and wearing gloves/long sleeves.

Thoughts/feedback/suggestions?

The original post: /r/diy by /u/DocChloroplast on 2024-11-11 16:58:47.

Moved into a small townhouse last year. I noticed our towel rack was loose, so I went to adjust any screws holdijg the assembly together when the main part peeled off these bits of paint and I assume parts of the underlying drywall. What’s the best way to patch this up? Thank you.

The original post: /r/diy by /u/Notsocheeky on 2024-11-11 10:47:14.

Can I apply a water based polythurane on top of a oil stained table top. According to the instructions the oil is fully hardened after 5 days. Should I wait 5 days or can I apply the water based polythurane sooner? I am really curious to your experiences with this.

https://preview.redd.it/tefjoyda590e1.jpg?width=2296&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c2b403379bf6efa5eb9f7a5e9da85236130f97d7

The original post: /r/diy by /u/blusay on 2024-11-11 09:36:04.

Small bag of cement, 5kg, using 10%, a year later it’s all wasted, not hardening. Even when kept in a carefully closed bag.

I’d like to take steps to preserve small quantities of cement to keep it handy when small needs arises (and not waste most of it each time, it’s ridiculous).

I thought of buying a new fresh bag and right away (after taking what I need) divide it in small portions for long term storage. It shouldn’t be wasted if properly sealed.

What shall I use?

Edit:

In the end I transferred the rest of my 2.5kg bag in a couple of glass jars with metal lid (recycling food container, free). I was sealing a new power outlet box in a wall, outdoor, and I barely needed 300g (200 in the wall, plus waste and curing sample to check).

Edit2: I want to have some at home in case I need a little for some repair. I know it’s cheap but my time driving and shopping and back is worth more (plus the work postponed).