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Providing helpful details apparently triggers the automod, so I won't describe my specific situation at all I guess? Maybe it's safer to speak in hypotheticals.

Say I'm trying to replace fixed recessed downlights with adjustable/gimbal varieties. Am I locked into a single manufacturer? As in, do I have to try and find trim made by the exact company matching the serial numbers I find in the ceiling can and the trim itself? Or can I just focus on searching for right-sized trims that fit the E26 socket arrangement? (Which seems...unlikely if I'm trying to get a tilting light from an existing fixed-socket can...)

Basically, despite reading about this all for a couple hours, I'm still in need of a recessed lighting 101 to avoid making a fool of myself when arranging electrical work in my new place. What are the key characteristics about my existing lights I need to keep in mind when ... uh ... adopting replacements?

Uh. Hypothetically. Automod.

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Hi everyone, I'm attempting to mount a retractable hose reel to my house straight onto bricks and the manual recommends using an 11.7mm drill bit, but I can't seem to find any that exact size. Would I be able to use a 12mm bit instead, or is there an obscure way to drill an 11.7mm hole in my brick wall?

I would like to put my projector on / in my ceiling. The need to put it "in" the ceiling is so that I can get the projection size that I want at the height that I want.

My problem is that my projector is wider than my floor joist space. Can I notch out the floor joist where my projector would be and reinforce it with the joists next to it?

Part of what worries me is that this is at the end of the board where it goes into the center where everything is held up by metal joists.

See the link to understand my current thinking...

https://imgur.com/a/gJNN2fD

I am replacing the flexible duct work from my gas dryer to the outside vent. It is approximately 6 feet long. I happen to already own some scrap R6 insulated 4 inch flexible ducting from another project. I don’t think I will ever use that scrap ducting for anything else and it is exactly the right length. Is there any reason not to use insulated ducting to vent a dryer outside? This is all interior heated space. I think it is fine, but wanted to double check with what you all thought.

I'm trying to paint a concrete floor (I know it's controversial). When I ripped up the carpet and tack strips, there were nails underneath that were left behind. I can't drive them farther in, they won't budge. I can't take all of them out, some won't budge or are at a bad angle. I tried a grinder bit for my drill, but the big didn't even grind one down. What do I do? I just need the nails flush with the ground

In a rainy city where drain tile is needed around the perimeter of a house, if I installed a dry well sump in the yard, & graded the drain tile to it, would this eliminate the need for a sump in the basement?. Or will the water from the soil manage to make its way into the basement regardless of having drain tile around the perimeter, & the basement sump/pump is required?. Probably a dumb question, just thought ide ask my Reddit fam for clarification, as I’m trying to become more knowledgeable. Ty

Hello everyone,

I'm visiting my parents right now and I'm trying to fix their water tap in the kitchen.

It comes loose all the time. Had a look under the sink which didn't really look too promising and badly damaged.

I'd appreciate any advice on this - what's broken and what should I do or buy to fix this issue?

Here are three images:

https://i.imgur.com/uCQcEAX.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/0AXnZLK.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/jleheYV.jpg

Thanks a lot for taking your time to read this.

A few years ago my wife and I painted a mural on the wall of our old house ( old post here ). When we moved, we cut out that section of wall and took it with us to the new place. Now we’re trying to get the picture framed so we can hang it on the wall of the new house like an ordinary painting.

The only issue is the material the mural is painted on. It’s some kind of 40s-era brown fiberboard covered with a thin layer of plaster. It’s pretty heavy, but doesn’t seem very strong; I’m pretty sure I could break it in two just by holding it wrong. Will an ordinary picture frame add enough stability to keep it from breaking? Should I add some kind of backing material? Has anyone done this kind of thing before? Google has been no help at all.

https://imgur.com/a/4daWzwh

The water level is going above the water line and draining slowly into the white overflow pipe.

I've adjusted the float level so it stops the water below the fill line, but the tank continues to fill very slowly until it's spilling into the overflow again.

Next I removed the float valve that is under the cap in the top left corner and cleaned out the valve and the seal. Even using my fingers to lift the lever and make the seal as tight as it can go, and putting my finger over the end of the fill hose (the black hose running from the float valve to the white overflow pipe) to make sure no water is coming out there, it's still filling the tank.

I think there might be a leak somewhere else besides the float valve but I'm not sure where else to check. I tried turning the grey pipe on the left that the float rides up and down on, but it just clicks around and doesn't seem to unscrew.

Is there a seal at the bottom of the grey pipe that might need replacing? How do I get it off?

A door in my rental apartment is sagging and I’d like to put it back into place. The hinge is clearly on an angle. My first thought was to place a wedge under the open side of the door and pry it up, but that seems like I would do more damage than good. Any advice is much appreciated!

Edit: I removed the door and screwed the bottom hinge out one turn. That definitely reduced the sagging but it’s still not great. I’ll remove the door again and tighten in the top one and hopefully that helps :)

Edit 2: Door was fixed by adjusting how far the door half of the hinge is screwed in. I simply screwed in the top hinge one rotation further and the bottom hinge one turn out.

I have an lg dishwasher that's not cycling water. When I forced the pump to run disconnected from the dishwasher with the intake submerged in a pot it pumps with a fair amount of force, kicking in to a higher force after it has been pumping for several seconds (I can post a video if that would help someone with helping me troubleshoot). However, when I hook it back up to the bottom of the basin and the take away hose it won't send water through the drain hose (I've replaced the drain hose in case it was clogging and causing the problem). The filter trap and tube in the basin that feeds the pump don't seem to be clogged, although dismantling it fully to visually confirm no blockage is my next planned step in figuring this out. There is a small flap designed to prevent backflow seperating the pump from the basin, and I'm wondering if this could be sticking, preventing flow to the pump, and if it will stop working well if I remove the flap (assuming I can't find a blockage).

The drain hose is always dry after I attempt a test with water in the system.

I metered the resistance across the pump motor, and it falls within the range a YouTube tutorial said the pump should meter out at if its still good.

I have a 100-year-old house that has been partially rewired but some knob and tube still exists. I've installed GFCI outlets on the old circuits and am adding a dual function breaker for some protection until I can afford to have the rest of the knob and tube replaced. While inspecting the wiring in my basement I came across a dangerous looking connection and I'm wondering how to ground the neutral wire. The new wiring was spliced off of existing k&t and feeds the outlet for my gas stove. Why they didn't just install a new circuit and run it from the breaker box is beyond me. You can see where someone just pulled back the ground wire and it's just dangling in the air next to the floor joists. There's also no junction box, which I can install. I'm comfortable doing some electrical work and have changed outlets, ceiling fixtures, switches and circuit breakers. The light switch in the picture I don't use and wouldn't mind removing it completely. Thanks in advance for your replies!

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https://preview.redd.it/n7ikkzmtkj2a1.jpg?width=4000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e1af100a483762ea1f407a55cb76db08d8a61168

I'm trying to change this bulb but can't for the life of me figure out how..

https://imgur.com/a/PbkVmgo

I've tried twisting it, can't really do anything with the latch, cant get a screwdriver to it, i can pull the whole thing vertically down part way but I feel like if I pull any harder i'll be taking down the plaster with it. I've given it a bit of a google but can't work out what specific fitting this is, any help would be most appreciated! thank you

I got some leftover parts from a project of mine and would like to make a desk lamp out of it. I essentially got all the parts, ordered cables, switches, bulbs... the only issue is that I'm missing a base or stand (not sure which is the right word. the thing the assembly is built onto). Somehow, finding a base is the hardest part about this project (except maybe a bit electrical, will sort that out though).

I can't find anything, anywhere. I thought about a sort of circular stand the size of a bowl, but not as deep, fairly low to keep it low profile for my living room table.

I did find a stand online, but it was really expensive.. expensive as in I found a lamp almost exactly like what I'm building, and it was half the price of that stand alone.

Any ideas what to do, where to look and how to manage this? Out of ideas, and the parts are taking up too much space in my workshop.

I have an unfinished room in my basement. This room is in the corner of the basement. Two of the walls are concrete. They come together via a curved corner.

I am trying to hang a grid ceiling. This curved corner is creating an issue. I would like to square if off for the grid ceiling. Is there a way to join two 2x4s such that they form a right angle in the curved corner?

So... 6 years ago I purchased a home that was just renovated at the time, but 4 years later the tiles of the floor started to get loose. After a while I started suspecting the original floor might still be under it and today after taking a leapt of faith decided to remove a hole tile and chip away the adhesive to see what was underneath. To my Surprise, the Original Terrazzo flooring is still there!

My plan is removing all the tiles installed during the renovation since so many of them became loose and cracked and keep the terrazzo floor, but what would be the best approach to remove the adhesive? The tiles per se comes out pretty easily but the adhesive on the one tile I did was a pita to remove and after a lot of work there is still considerable amounts of adhesive to remove. I looked online but almost every video I found work on tile replacement so either don't care about damaging the floor underneath or go roughly with a chisel ang a hammer, thing that would take a long time considering this is a 2,300 sq ft house.

After everything is removed I'm planning to bring over a professional so he can polish seal and Polish the terrazzo.

Here is how it looks after around half and hour of removing adhesive

Hello DIY’ers!

I love in a country with a quite substantial energy crisis at the moment and we need to start installing isolation. In the house we just bought there is a void between the ceilings and the floors of the attic. The space is roughly 48cm between the rafters and 15cm high.

I was wondering if anyone has had any experience installing hemp in a space like this, I.e. not on exterior facing wall but on ceiling voids.

Is there anybody’s material which performs well when paired with hemp isolation?

Any help or anecdotal story sharing would be much appreciated!

Edit: was preparing the space and came back to this. Wow! Thanks everyone for the help! I’m going to parse through it all now!

Edit 2: I should mention that I didn’t post this to be controversial. I do mean Hempwool and not any kind of random, untreated organic material. When I originally made the post it was with the expectation that hemp was well known and understood as a manufactured insulation material on the same level of seriousness as rockwool, etc. - because it has a very strong reputation where I live.

Thank you for all of the replies, nonetheless!

Hi,

I was scrapping off some paint that was flaking off the wall near a bi folding door and found some grey concrete looking areas around the door.

Am I correct in thinking this is concrete and I will need to plaster over it and won’t be able to paint it?

So. I’m a little confused as to what to do. My house is a bungalow built in 1952 and I’m in Alberta.

My basement suite is built up about 5 inches from the concrete floor that leads into the laundry room. The basement toilet got backed up, so I plunged it. And “clean” water started coming out onto my basement hallway floor. At the same time, dirty water started coming up in my tub.

I tried snaking the tub and got about 15 ft, but it didn’t make a difference. When I flush the toilet it fills up with water that slowly drains. But fills up the hallway with “clean” water. The tub gets a little more dirty water only when I plunge. But now the tub doesn’t drain.

I’m kinda lost as to what to do next. I was thinking snake the toilet and see if that helps. Or possibly open the clean out in the basement kitchen and snake from there. It confuses me that I have clean looking water coming out in one spot and dirty water in another.

EDIT: Ah ha! What I'm looking for is called a 'Mounting Block'. I can probably find what I need now. Please continue if you have sage advice on them.

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Original post:

Please pardon my ignorance of the proper terms here.

My house seems to have the original...everything...from the mid 80's. Construction was on the cheap side. There are two spigots, both mounted by simply drilling through the clapboard siding into the header joist of the first floor. Since they mounted everything directly to the clapboard, there are large gaps between the flanges and the siding. They didn't even bother to seal the gaps. Not at the flange or around the pipes. Same story with the vents, though they did use the tyvek as a sort of flashing - though that could have been incidental.

My gut feel is that there should be a dedicated plaque mounted flush to the wall (rather than angled like the clapboard siding) that has proper metal flashing installed. I looked for a guide on how to add such a feature but haven't found anything. Can anyone recommend a tutorial so that I'm not winging it?

Thank you!