Q&A for contractors and serious DIYers| Home Improvement Stack Exchange
TL;DR: floating shelves or similar without drilling holes in the wall? We were planning to put some some floating shelves on a wall, and put decorative plants on them. But the wall is tiled with marble, so we are reconsidering (don't want to damage the marble by drilling, and don't want ugly holes if we change our minds). What alternatives are available? The easiest, but least "floaty" is to instead do a free standing rack of shelves - but of course that looks totally different. Other half ba...| Recent Questions - Home Improvement Stack Exchange
I just had insulation installed yesterday. The installers brought a shop vac into the attic to vacuum up any remaining old insulation. When they finished vacuuming and installing the new insulation, I noticed that one of my outlets no longer works. Using an outlet tester, I'm seeing "open hot". Additionally, using a non-contact tester on the outlet causes the tester to beep. I worry that the installers may have knocked a wire up in the attic. I do recall seeing a junction box, so I assume the...| Recent Questions - Home Improvement Stack Exchange
I am installing a gas garage heater. My gas lines going to already installed appliances have regulators before them. I am assuming I need to install a regulator before the garage heater since its limit is 1/2 PSI. Is this correct?| Recent Questions - Home Improvement Stack Exchange
I live in a ground-floor apartment of a 4-floor building. In each floor there are 4 apartments. My apartment is in the quarter facing West-South-West and North-North-West; see this satellite image I took from Google Maps (north is up): I would like to install solar lamps on the two external walls of the apartment, to light up the backyard at night. What is the best orientation to install them at? (I know that the optimal orientation for solar panels is South, but I do not have a South-facing ...| Recent Questions - Home Improvement Stack Exchange
I recently started renovating my (older) house second floor. Took out the floors that were very squeaky and uneven. The subfloor is a concrete slab that had wood boards glued to it with bitumen. Most were warped, some were rotted so everything was taken out. No structural problems with the slab, but it was poured haphazardly so it is somewhat uneven. The new plan is moisture barrier followed by sleepers fastened to the slab then some sort of OSB with the final flooring on top. Since the room ...| Recent Questions - Home Improvement Stack Exchange
I have a main lug panel with a bonded ground a neutral bar now so do I need a generator with a floating neutral to make it work? Or do I need a sub pannel. This is all off grid so I don’t have to worry about back feeding in lines. So should I hook up the cabin to a generator?| Recent Questions - Home Improvement Stack Exchange
Need to install a baby gate here but the steps start right at the corner. I know that on corners there will be a stud about 3/4 inch in (like where the railing is mounted) but mounting the hinges there would leave a large gap between the floor and the gate. If I wanted to mount the hinges basically flush with the corner, how do I mount it securely? If I just drill in I'll hit the bead and then just drywall. Should I mount a 2x4 or 1x4 plank to the stud and then mount the hinges to the plank? ...| Recent Questions - Home Improvement Stack Exchange
My dishwasher is a Frigidaire (aka Electrolux) Gallery model Fgip2468uf1a. I run the machine on any cycle and it runs for about 5 minutes and just stops. It leaves water in the bottom but the first thing it does is pump water out, so I think the pump works. I took the parts out of the bottom and cleaned them and it looks like the spray arms are clear. The Machine is only about 4 years old so seems a little young to be wearing out like this. I checked the float which seems fine. Sprayed it dow...| Recent Questions - Home Improvement Stack Exchange
I have a leaking shut-off valve that goes to the outside (water hose connection). There is no other shut-off in front of this valve. To work on it I have to turn water to the whole house off. It seems to me I could get the "inside" parts - valve stem with seals etc. and do not have to replace the body that's soldered. But I don't know what type off valve it is - maybe gate valve? Could you identify valve type and point to parts to get for repair. Possibly cross section picture of valve and in...| Recent Questions - Home Improvement Stack Exchange
This morning I stepped out of my shower and I heard a cracking noise. A 5" crack appeared in the acrylic shower-pan. Not enough support underneath obviously. It had always flexed a little bit, but it survived for 25 years. I guess the acrylic fatigues over time and couldn't take it anymore. Luckily it happened after I was done and these was no standing water in the pan at that moment. Just some residual moisture. I already was planning a redo of the bathroom in March or April next year. (I si...| Recent Questions - Home Improvement Stack Exchange
I'm trying to change some recessed lights with some surface-mounted lights. I'm doing this because the recessed lights are just not bright enough for us. The lights I'm replacing them with are completely made of plastic. The recessed lights are 4 inches. The original plan was to take the 5-inch plastic mounting plate and just anchor it into the ceiling on top of the can. The problem is that the hole for the recessed light is a bit too big for me to do this. I was thinking of using these 6-inc...| Recent Questions - Home Improvement Stack Exchange
I bought my house in 2021, original construction was in 1948. I noticed these cracks in the stairwell to the basement and on the wall directly to the right at the bottom of the stairs, just wondering if this is something be concerned about. There are no other cracks that I can see anywhere else in the house. My main concern is less the long hairline one, and more the one at the corner and the horizontal ones across the lower part of the ceiling. I had a structural engineer come out a year ago...| Recent Questions - Home Improvement Stack Exchange
Can you run the hot water from the washing machine faucet through a regular garden hose ? And then use a y connector to control the temperature through the flow control valves ?| Recent Questions - Home Improvement Stack Exchange
I have few different thicknesses of hardwood in the house--just what the last owner did. I’m redoing a part of the flooring and I’m on two levels. Effectively half the house has extra layer of plywood underneath the hardwood. So, there is a 5/8 inch difference in height that was previously managed by a transition piece. Can I slowly build up to a 5/8 height of plywood? Like build a ramp- so no transition piece is needed? I can do this ramp over 5 feet. So about 1/8 height increase per foo...| Recent Questions - Home Improvement Stack Exchange
I have a fabric-encased hose that works really well except I must have dragged it over a nail head or something like that and now it leaks, a lot. The leaking area doesn't have an obvious hole or rip in it that I can see, plus I don't even know what to call this type of hose in order to research it without the help of this community. Is there a repair kit or method to make this usable again? Thank you| Recent Questions - Home Improvement Stack Exchange
I am building my curbless shower. I have floor pan from Kerdi and was planning to do cement board on the bathroom floor, but I am worried if it will be water tight. Can I use cement board or shall I use Ditra membrane? How do I transition from shower pan to cement board or to Ditra membrane?| Recent Questions - Home Improvement Stack Exchange
I have a old chamberlain garage door opener with sensors. Its motherboard started going bad - not allowing opens and closes based on transmitter. Sensors worked fine. Replaced it with chamberlain d2101. Pretty easy install, got them swapped, chains redone, and then did the electric which was pretty easy too. Red switch first slow, white switch second slot, white sensors third spot, black/white sensors last spot. Think we are good to go. Gives me four clicks and error code 1 arrow up 1 arrow d...| Recent Questions - Home Improvement Stack Exchange
I am having problems with a residual current circuit breaker (RCCB) tripping frequently. The breaker is located in the panel of a newly renovated flat in a three-floor building (basement floor, if it matters). The breaker trips in stormy weather with thunder storms and high winds. For example, it just happened three times within 20 minutes today. However, it also trips on dry sunny days in the summer time without any weather, but that happens less frequently and less predictably. The device w...| Recent Questions - Home Improvement Stack Exchange
My Sukkah uses a common design of a structural pipe rectangular prism surrounded by canvas (looking similar to this one, but built with Speed-Rail® aluminum fittings, not Kee-Klamp® Galvanized Steel fittings). It is constructed on my deck (which is Trex® Composite on a wood frame). The house is L-shaped, and the deck almost fills the inside of the L. The deck is mostly rectangular, with a bump-out on the northeast corner for the grill, and a bump-out on the southwest corner for the stairs ...| Recent Questions - Home Improvement Stack Exchange
I’m running a new dryer line upstairs with 10/3. I bought 50’ hoping it was enough but alas, I’m short about 3’. I have 20’ of 10/2 leftover from a different project and wondered if I could cut a splice of black wire and slide it into the the 10/2 to effectively make it 10/3. I haven’t tried yet and realize the sheathing may not want to cooperate, but since it’s not too far thought it may work. Is there any reason why this would be unsafe?| Recent Questions - Home Improvement Stack Exchange
Apologies for the non-technical expressions, I am not a native English speaker. I have the following embedded water flush: The problems with that water flush are the following: it usually flushes fine (90% of the time) sometimes, when full, the blocking mechanism does not work and the water keeps on flowing (1/5 cases of the remaining 10%) usually the water influx stops, then after a moment a tiny stream of water sips, with a faint sound of water (4/5 of cases of the remaining 10%) sometimes,...| Recent Questions - Home Improvement Stack Exchange
I moved into a new house several months ago, and this house uses Eaton 20A GFCI breaker. My 5-year-old Samsung Washer keeps tripping the breaker, and this breaker's diagnosis says that it's because Ground Fault (5 times flash lights on the tester). I do not know what should I do. Do I need to replace the Washer?| Recent Questions - Home Improvement Stack Exchange
I am installing an off-grid solar system to power some external buildings, but I want an automatic transfer switch so that outlets will be grid powered when the solar batteries are low. Can I run a pair of 8 AWG wire to the transfer switch and then tie all grounds to the grounding rod of the solar system? In the breaker box fed by the transfer switch, do I just use a grounding busbar or do I need to use a bonding strap as well.| Recent Questions - Home Improvement Stack Exchange
I'm replacing a door chime transformer with a new 16v 30va transformer to accommodate a new Ring doorbell. The existing transformer is attached in our circuit breaker panel through a knock out at the bottom of the panel. This morning I shut off power to the breaker panel, removed the panel cover, and found that the old transformer has two red wires and no green/ground wire -- the new transformer has a white, black and green/ground. I'm trying to figure out whether I need to attach the new tra...| Recent Questions - Home Improvement Stack Exchange
We recently purchased a Tesla Model 3 and are planning on adding a 240V NEMA 14-50 outlet in our detached garage to improve charging speeds. Tesla's documentation specifies 6 AWG copper wire with 4 conductors (including ground, 2 lines and neutral). Since we have the standard range model vehicle, it can only draw a maximum of 32A from the wall. When we bought the house there already appeared to be 120V electric run to the detached garage via existing conduit. We were hoping to dig a straight ...| Recent Questions - Home Improvement Stack Exchange
I've purchased a Broan NuTone fan to replace the old one in my bathroom. The fan itself has a white wire, a black wire and a green wire. The wiring in my house consists of a black wire, a white wire, a green wire and a bare copper ground. According to the instructions, I am to attach the green wire from the fan to either a green wire from the supply or to the ground. Since the existing wiring includes both, should I connect both the green and the bare copper to the green wire attached to the ...| Recent Questions - Home Improvement Stack Exchange
I bought a brushed nickel ceiling fixture to hang over my dining table, but it did not come with a long enough chain or wire. I found the chain & two strand lamp wire in brushed nickel at Lowes, but they only had copper coloured ground wire, which will look odd where it weaves through the chain to attach to the plate on the ceiling. Can I use one of the following? picture hanging wire (twisted) galvanized steel wire (appears to be single filament) smaller (finer) gauge speaker wire, split to ...| Recent Questions - Home Improvement Stack Exchange
I noticed that one of the three switches used to control our kitchen lights was acting funny. By funny, I mean that when I flipped that switch to turn the lights on there was a delay of about 1 second. Looking through forums the most likely candidate was a bad switch. The other two switches work correctly. Went to Home Depot and picked up a Leviton 4 way switch, samve amperage and voltage (15A 120V) as my original. The only difference was the new switch had a grounding screw, whereas the old ...| Recent Questions - Home Improvement Stack Exchange
I have a wall that is 8 feet tall and about 20 feet wide with a strip of chair rail that runs the length of the wall. I used Sherwin Williams satin white paint. I gave the wall a light sanding with fine sand paper before I painted. I cut in the top, bottom, and the chair rail with a brush. Then rolled on the paint with a Purdy roller. The wall is now full of streaks (even after a second coat). I used the "W" technique (always worked fine for flat paint). I plan to repaint it again with the sa...| Recent Questions - Home Improvement Stack Exchange
Q&A for contractors and serious DIYers| Home Improvement Stack Exchange
I have 1 DeWALT 18 volt NiCd batteries. One charges without incident. If I attempt to charge the other, a whining noise is emitted from the battery or charger. Is it safe to attempt to charge this| Home Improvement Stack Exchange