r/HomeMaintenance

I was doing some work over by an air return in my ceiling, and when I removed the panel I found that there’s more drywall behind my ceiling, with some kind of spacer board between them. This is a 1979 house had extensive renovation about 10 years and 2 owners ago. Is this weird? Should I be watching for any concerns over time? Thanks

We’ve had 2 windows shatter recently. The first was on a cold day in December, and the second was yesterday on a warm day in April. We bought the house about 5 years ago and have no idea how old the windows are. What would cause something like this? It’s only the outer pane shattering, the interior pane and surrounding windows are all intact.

Hey, thanks for taking a look at this post. We just went through inspection on a 30 yo colonial in central Massachusetts yesterday and found 2 cracks in the foundation. Our inspector says they're no big deal and not structural but I am anxious and would love reddit's opinion. We're considering hiring a structural engineer to get a second opinion and for peace of mind even though our inspector said it isn't necessary. Would love your thoughts on this, thanks!

First long crack is in the basement and moisture is coming through. First 3 pics

Second crack is under the gate where there's no basement underneath but it's wider. Last 4 pics

Also, can I cut the ATT coax line next to it and plug the hole? needing this wall space for another project.

I'm installing floating shelves with a power drill above the sink in our kitchen. The shelves will be holding some heavier things, so I want to install the shelving into studs. There's a full bathroom right above the kitchen. I have plaster walls, the house was built in 1950. I've marked where I want to drill on the wall with pencil.

I bought 2 stud finders to cover all bases since I read that stud finders can struggle with plaster walls. The magnetic stud finder finds the studs, but is only sticking to some parts of the stud. Where I want to drill, there is no magnetic connection along where the stud should be. The Franklin stud finder is giving me inconsistent readings along the studs and is saying it gets thicker where I want to drill, which has me worried. But maybe it's getting confused by the laths?

Not sure if I should do the clothing hanger trick or if I'll be fine. I looked up how plumbing goes through studs sometimes and that has me worried that I'm going to drill into plumbing. I'm a chronic over thinker and I'm not sure if this is one of those times or if I'm about to make a big mistake.

Why is this happening and is it a problem? Is there something I can do to protect this brick?

I just bought this house a couple months ago and haven't even moved in yet! I do have a surveillance camera facing this front door way and nothing would've hit it that I know of.

4 years ago we renovated our bathroom.

For our shower we got (pictured):

1. GROHE 35601000 Rapido Smartbox Universal Rough-In Box, Starlight Chrome

2. GROHTHERM® SMARTCONTROL SINGLE FUNCTION 2-HANDLE THERMOSTATIC VALVE Trim

Everything works well except from the start there’s been a problem with the knob for the shower. For context, turn counter clockwise to turn bathtub on, clockwise to turn shower on. There’s a “neutral” position that’s supposed to be at 12:00 (presumably) but for reasons I’m getting into, that neutral position moves.

So what happens is sometimes when we’re turning it (either direction), you hear a clicking sound and the neutral position moves. This has happened almost since the start, but lately it’s gotten really bad. As you can see in the pics, the cap has fallen off, so I took a pic of the inside of the knob. It looks like some kind of blue thing broke?

Right now I’m getting worried it’s going to get to the point that we can’t turn the shower on (or even worse, off). Does anyone know what this entails? Is the broken blue thing the problem? If so can I easily replace that? Or is this going to require a full plumber? Any help is appreciated.

i recently purchased this house and when i moved in the oven was an included appliance. that being said, i know zero history about it other than every time i use the oven the back left burner gets as hot as the oven. i’m missing something that goes beneath the drip pan because all i see is a black hole going to the oven but im not sure what the piecing part is called or where to find it. any help would be appreciated.

Hello all. Hoping for some help here. I have a unique problem that I need help with. My basement walkout door is in a well. The wall inside the well to the door is framed, not poured. There is flashing which sits where the framing meets the concrete. The other day we had a lot of rain (over an inch/hr), and I got water intrusion around the base plate, which is partially buried in the concrete.

I really need some help with this, I'm a pretty poor homeowner and need to fix this somehow. Who/what trade should I call? We have more rain on the docket for the week. My wife and I can maybe swing 5000 dollars towards this, but honestly used up a lot of our money buying into this house. I had no idea this was wood frame until we had water get in. For the time being I have put a heavy layer of silicone over all the joints and tapcon intrusions through the flashing. What can we do? Thanks all. I can provide more pics if need be.

What's the easiest/cheapest way to fix this damage? It doesn't have to be perfect, I just want it to look un-destroyed lmao.

(She's a crate dog now)

Hello,

I recently purchased a gas Samsung dryer for my house since there is only a gas hookup. However, I did not realize that it would be so difficult to find someone to actually hook it up. All of the companies I have called said that they would charge me $100 just to come look at it. The only plumbing company that I got to come look at it free of charge said they were going to give me a good deal and only charge me $500 to hook it up and tried to scare me that if i try to hook it up myself the house might blow up to pressure me to sign. Keep in mind I have the kit and all the materials to hook it up and my home has the standard outlet.

My research tells me an experience plumber should have no trouble connecting the line to the dryer within 15-20 minutes. $500 is what I paid for the dryer and if I knew it was going to be so expensive I would have rather paid an electrician to install an outlet for an electric dryer even though it would be more overall, I could use it to charge electric cars as well. However, I cannot return the dryer anymore.

Does anyone have any advice for me? Am I getting scammed or is this the normal thing now adays and how did I not know it was this difficult/expensive to hook up a gas dryer to a house?

Kids think it came from moving bed

There is water coming in above the foundation in these places. It’s not a lot but it’s a small stream in both places during heavy rain. Is there a reason I can’t just silicone every gap or possible place it could be coming in? Any advice appreciated.

my mom has this whirlpool dishwasher that has started to pool water in the tub after a cycle, it just sits there, we tried cleaning the filter and the other piece near the filter, replaced the pump and tried shortening the drain line to no avail. pic for refrence

to be clear I just tried running it and it still pooled water, we've tried holding a shop vacant hose to the end of the drain line on the dish water to check for any blockages

I noticed this drip the other day at my water heater and had my bf call a plumber to come fix it before it got worse. They quoted 1400 but another 1400 if they had to open the wall. Said your house is piped with pvc and should be repiped. I paid his inspection fee and put in a claim with home warranty to come fix it since he said it wasn’t urgent. Is that normal pricing? I was shocked and asked is that to fix the one drop a minute that’s coming out? Yep he says, you’re other pipe is rusted and needs works too, want a quote? Not a chance I said. I put a clay pot under and since Thursday finding it I would say it’s about a quarter cup of water.

It’s flat screw no slots and I don’t have right screwdriver

Just recently moved into a house that has a gas dryer. It was disconnected when we moved in so I reconnected it but it’s not getting hot. The gas line it’s attached to runs from the same line that is attached to the water heater and furnace. There is a on and off valve on both the water heater and furnace line, but not one to the line to the dryer. Any help with the issue from the video would be greatly appreciated. I might just be dumb lol

Many thanks!!

After a rough winter in NJ and having to chop a lot of ice my patio concrete took some damage and appears to be wearing away further through rain and walking on it. Any ideas on how to fix / keep from continuing to get worse?