I took down lath and plaster from this wall (it was crumbling bad). This is the first time I’ve ever installed drywall (don’t judge the base plaster work).
I noticed the areas in red and deep behind. Should I have left the keys? Did I miss something? The wall is caved in like 1-1.5 inches in.
We had a concrete driveway installed that our home and it’s spalling very badly. The contractor we hired to do it suggested stamping it because the shape of the driveway was too awkward to broom finish it. It was done in late September and not sealed until late October in Ontario Canada. I’m looking for opinions on whether this was a occurring issue, a concrete issue, etc..
The deck pictured is coming up on 20 years old, and 2 of the hanger brackets securing the beams to the nearest post are completely rusted through.
What's the proper way to replace these or otherwise make the needed repair? My gut instinct is to free the post entirely, supporting the beams from below, then affix new brackets/hangers and shimmy back into position.
Hey everyone, quick question.
How often are you guys losing out on a project because a homeowner’s financing falls through at the last second or they realize they’re under-budgeted?
I’m looking to see if there’s a real appetite for contractors to have a direct line to a lender who can vet those budgets early. Is that a resource you’d actually use, or is it better to just let the client figure it out on their own?
We had our front porch redone two years ago, and at the time, the contractor had recommended using Euclid Diamond Clear concrete sealer to reseal it again in two years. I looked around today, and I didn’t realize that it only came in 5 gallon buckets that run north of $200.
The porch is pretty small, so I feel like a 1 gallon bucket would be plenty. Is it worth it to stick with diamond clear, or are there other similar sealers that would offer the same look and finish as diamond clear but in a smaller container instead?
Can someone please for the love of god and everything holy tell me what the heck this is called? I know I've seen it, but where?
Sorry for the photo of the screen, but I was kicking this around on a 3d model website, and it was hard enough to get this angle of the darned thing but I wanted to figure out what it is, and what size it should be relative to.
It's some kind of brace for a horizontal beam, but searching by image does nothing, I've drawn it several different ways, and I don't have many contractor friends/friends in construction.
I don't even know what to call the structure, an arbor/trellis for indeterminate tomatoes is what it is going to be, like in the second photo that isn't mine.
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Im rebuilding a retaining wall because it's leaning and bowing. I don't think a French drain was installed so I will be adding one. During disassembly I'm finding layers of different stone. The retaining wall blocks were filled with coarse stone. Then behind the wall and under the top soil is a 6" or so layer of mixed coarse gravel and soil. Below that is some chipped stone that looks to go all the way down to the foundation. My question is when rebuilding the wall with the French drain, should I use the clean coarse gravel that was used to fill the blocks as the primary back fill over the drain and use the fine chip stone to fill the blocks? Or would it be okay to just reuse them where they were?
Hello everybody!
(you can skip the next 2 paragraphs)
I have been considering a pretty major career change for awhile now, I currently work as a software engineer, I literally have a masters in computer science, but truth be told this was never my original plan, it was always my backup plan.
Over the past 6 months I haven't been able to stop thinking about running a blue collar business of some kind. I did a lot of construction from the age of 16 to 24 before I became a full time software dev. While I was in school though, I always intended to run my own business, but the corporate world has been a soul-crushing experience. I spend all my free time looking for an exit strategy—searching for ideas with enough growth and financial potential to finally let me work for myself.
In the past few months, it’s like the universe is shouting at me to do this. Everywhere I turn, I’m meeting people in the industry. I reconnected with a friend from high school who runs mitigation and pack-out crews, it was a grind to begin, but he does very well for himself at this point. I recently met someone in a close friend group who works on estimation for a restoration company. Even more recently I have gotten very close with an old friend from high school who actively works as a project manager for another restoration group.
When I reconnected with this last friend, I had asked him if he ever planned on starting his own thing and he answered that he had. He has enough hours to get his ROC in our state as well so that would be taken care of. Since then, we have been talking non stop, realizing that we really do have almost all of the connections and network to start a small group and get our grounding.
(YOU CAN START READING FROM HERE)
Please forgive me for how long this has all been, I wanted to set the precedent because I do not want anyone just saying its not worth it, or I have no place jumping into this space because thats not what I am looking for. I have a very specific question.
For all that is holy, where do we begin getting jobs from?
I get that this stuff is largely paid out through insurance, but is it the insurance companies who we need to develop relationships with? Is it mitigation crews who don't want to do the actual restoration, is it online SEO or is it the actual homeowner?
Restoration doesn't seem like the kind of thing you can just advertise on social media since it's a service people are usually hoping to not need in the first place, but this seems like the big thing we need to solve.
In our network, we have access to a ROC, we have access to a solid network of subs, we have access to estimators who will do free lance and commission based work, I can even build us out a custom CRM if we ever needed it, we literally just need to figure out how to start getting jobs.
PLEASE HELP, I will take any suggestions.
p.s. the all knowing AI tells me that plumbers, insurance agents, and property managers is who we need connections with... sounds valid, is it?
We are having some ceiling work done, and the workers want to do it on a "pakyaw" (contract/lump sum) basis. The question is: should I pay them in full before they start, or only after the work is finished?
Imagine if moving one wall in your model instantly flagged setbacks, fire clearance, drainage, all of it. No back and forth, no waiting weeks, no guessing what the city will push back on later.
Right now, most of us are still dealing with disconnected systems. Design changes here, compliance checks somewhere else, and the real issues only show up after submissions or worse during construction.
Feels like a lot of time and money gets burned not because we can’t build, but because approvals and coordination lag behind the actual work.
Not saying this exists today in a real way, but if it did, it would change how projects move.
Text: Jyc glass 09/2016
Tempered
ANSI Z97.1-2009
16 CFR 1201 11
CAN/CGSB 12.1-m90
3mm UA SGCC 3957
What* I need
My kitchen base is slightly slanted, but the bearing beam is straight. I asked to have my countertop flush with beam to make the uneven base less noticeable. But it was installed following the direction of base. The slant is now even more noticeable.
Was told they did their job correctly and measurements are correct. After all, my island is slanted.
I’m just questioning if I can accept this. After checking measurements, I don’t think it was cut deep enough to make it flush with beam. I don’t think the guys are willing to work with me on this one. Can this be salvaged?