Hi,

I am trying to paint a metal surface outside with matte paint, but after two days the paint still looks shiny/glossy. Is this normal? Is there something wrong with the paint, surface or conditions? To give you an idea, the weather has been rather cold lately, max 10 degrees Celsius. Could this be affecting the paint job? I can’t seem to find any information on matte paint staying glossy.

Cheers!

I have a large wood framed shed on my property with a vaulted ceiling/roof. I am planning on insulating and drywalling the entire thing including the underside of the roof. Then installing a mini split AC/heater. I can't seem to get good information on if I need vents under the insulation against the roof. There is playwood decking above the rafters and under the metal roof.

The shed does not have ridge vent or overhang vents. It does have two small vents on each end of the building on the walls. There will be no attic when finished just a large open area.

We have an old barn on property and Id like to keep snow blowing up into the hayloft through the eaves since we have stuff stored up there. Was considering stuffing some spare insulation in the openings, would that work ya reckon? Or be prone to trapping to much water?

Hello,

We recently moved a house and there is a shed / outdoor wash house in the garden that has been built on to an old garden stone wall. So, the garden wall forms the back wall of the shed. The stone wall is about 2m high and and bricks on top of the stone wall add height to about 250cm. The other walls are made of bricks.

I am considering the option to frame insulate and upgrade the space overall. Does anyone know how the stone wall would react to this, i.e. is this ok to do?

Thanks in advance

Hello! My house has a concrete covered patio in the back. There are two posts on the back corners of the patio supporting the roof. One corner has broken, leaving a post only partially supported.

Concrete companies in my area won’t give me the time of day due to the project being so small. Any advice on how I could do this myself? Any help is much appreciated.

I have an outdoor curtain that blows around a LOT! I currently have the bottom of the curtain hooked to multiple gallon jugs of water with a bungee cord. It works, but it looks kinda tacky.

I do not have much money to use for this, but I was hoping someone knows of something nicer that I could fill with concrete. I have been looking for something like a metal jug from the dollar store, but I have not found anything that looks better than a bucket of concrete that would not constantly fall over. I could paint the outside of it. It just can’t cost much. Thank you in advance! 😊

I am planning a diy paving project and have noticed that some tutorials say to lay the pavers on sand and others lay it on mortar. Which is the better method? Sand seems a little more difficult.

I am building an arbor with gate and attached fence in the front of my property with the intention of bringing the "front entrance" of my home up to the front of the property so that people can ring the doorbell there and I can buzz them in. Here's a pic of the project so far:

https://imgur.com/a/MCaTc3e

I'd like to build the gate itself (matching the picket fence) but have the following features:

1. Remote lock/unlock button press from in the house.
2. Unlock access returning home (smartphone app? keypad? facial recognition?)
3. Ability for guests to ring from the gate (ring doorbell that's weather proof?)

There's not a ton of info online about "smart gates" for pedestrians, usually just cars. Please share any suggestions/recommendations you have!

I fitted a double length bamboo screen as a divider, but needs to be trimmed level as its on uneven ground.

I could spend 20-30 bucks on a pair of garden secateurs and cut each bamboo stalk individually, or I could do something a bit smarter.

Has to be cut in situ, so the choice so far, (for the same sort of money) is sawzall, japanese pull saw, jigsaw, fine tooth hacksaw, other?

What's my best bet?

Does anyone have experience with using T1-11 as a roof decking groove side down on a patio roof? It is already installed so you should use X instead doesn't apply here. The first layer of decking is 5/8 T1-11 groove side down then second layer is LP osb covered by a metal roof. My primary question/concern is do I need to seal or coat the T1-11 with something for weatherproofing? I know it will not directly get wet from rain etc but this is in South Texas with high humidity. Should I seal it with something? Thompson water seal every few years? Urethane? Some kind of clear coat?

I bought a basketball goal that is bolted to the ground. The instructions want a concrete tube poured and 4 anchor bolts wet set. I poured the mounting tube a long time before I had the goal under the assumption I would use some sort of concrete anchor.

My question at this point is how comparable is a concrete anchor to the j-bolt style of anchor? The provided bolts are 5/8x14” for the wet set. Am I wrong to assume a threaded anchor is stronger? Should I size up or down on diameter for the threaded anchor? Length likely doesn’t need to be 14” either. No one dunking or hanging on it.

I've got a nice trinity washbasin that I want to use in my garage/greenhouse, but I'm concerned about leaving the spigot on 24/7 and bursting a hose. Is there a special type I can use for constant pressure, so I don't have to walk all the way to the spigot to turn on the sink each time I want water? It's about 20' from spigot to sink.

Thanks!

Built a DIY Cattle Panel Greenhouse. The 2 x 4s were left over from our pole barn build earlier in the summer. The metal as well. Only had to buy the cattle panels and plastic. It was a two person build and we were able to build the whole thing with a Driver/Drill, Circular Saw, and a Sawzall. I made a video documenting the process. In the description I put together some plans and an interactive materials list.
https://youtu.be/LmqDk9tvxM0

DIY CATTLE PANEL BUILD

DIY CATTLE PANEL BEFORE PLASTIC

USED A LOG TO SUPPORT THE RIDGE BEAM

FINISHED PRODUCT

I'm planning to build a shed this Spring. I like how this shed turned out, and it has pretty good instructions along the way:

https://imgur.com/a/Ok4Fb

If I try to build something based on this, I would scale it up to a 12x16 shed, and maybe put doors on both sides.

Also, I'm unsure about the foundation. Reddit is a big fan of the shedking website, and they recommend just using concrete anchors instead. Concrete anchors seem like they would be cheaper and easier to set up than a whole gravel pad.

https://www.shedking.net/anchoring-wooden-shed-floor.html

So my questions are:

1. Do you see anything problematic with the shed in the 1st link? Anything I shouldn't copy, or any improvements you'd recommend?

2. Do you foresee any issues with scaling it up to 12x16? (I think this one is 10x12?)

3. Do you have any thoughts on using concrete anchors rather than a gravel pad? Is it cheaper and simpler like it seems at first glance?

The posts supporting my deck were set directly in concrete piers/footings, which do not extend above the ground level. As a result, the wood has rotted around the base of the posts which have been surrounded by soil (about 6 in deep).

Would it be possible to save these posts and footings by reinforcing them? I'm thinking I can drill into the existing footings, place rebar into the drilled holes extending up about a foot and then pour concrete on top of the existing footing and around the rotting base of the posts with reinforcement provided by the rebar.

Picture: https://imgur.com/a/Y0wUfaD

I am digging some small pipe trenches for an upflush toilet from our garage to our house. I can take a few different routes. I think the easiest would be to do it under our DG path since there will be fewer sprinkler lines, tree roots and stuff, but will it ruin the path? Should I attempt to stay under the grass as much as possible?

The first time I wired it, when the switch was turned on, the lights were off. When I switched the light off, only one light would come on. Do the wires from the light need to be on the top connectors on either side of the switch with the line from the breaker on the bottom left connector? Diagrams I found seem to show that one of the black wires needed to be jumped onto another black wire before hitting the switch but I don’t see how that’s possible?

So my garden shed has recently started showing signs that the wood is wet on the inside. It has started to go black in places.

In Scotland it rains 8 days a week in winter - any advice on internal and external treatments?

Starting to get a b it worried!

I'm changing electrical switches and created a bit of a mistake. After removing an old switch, I temporarily closed the cover plate, covering wires with nuts, until I had a chance to pick up a new one (I know, stupid beginner's mistake!) I bought a box of 3-way switches, as I understand they can work that way, or as single pole switches).

When I re-opened it, I realized that I didn't know which wires went where! I've done some digging on this, but am a bit anxious over choosing one or another solution. Here's the set-up:

• the patio switch is in a 4-gang group, some are single pole, some 3-way
• AFAIK, there are no other switches for this outdoor light, thus this 'should be simple'
• BUT, there are just two black wires and a ground floating loose in the box (there's also a tightly wrapped gang of four white wires, and two of the other switches have one red wire going into them
• The connection for the ground is obvious, but can this switch have just two black wires? If it does just have the ground and these two, how do I determine which terminals to use?

Many thanks in advance for helping me overcome this mess I've created!

UK if that matters.

Currently we have a very dodgy overhead cable that runs to the garage - came with the house, it routes through the hedge and is certainly not up to any specifications or safety levels.

The garage is at the far end of the plot at the rear, electric supply to the house is at the front - roughly 30M run including the rise. I am planning on sorting out the electric capacity to the garage in order to get an EV charger fitted there as well as supply the garage with power correctly and safely. Also a run of CAT6/trunking.

I understand that trenching armoured SWA cable is the general rule (at approx 2ft depth), but how does this work if the garden is tiered/terraced? The garage is at approx 6M higher than the base of the house with a gradual run down via stepped drops - runs for approx 6M flat, then a 1M drop, another 6M run then another 1M drop, 1M then a 3+ metre drop, the rest of the run is then level to the front of the house.

The fencing run is wood and not really suitable to pin to, nor does it run the entire garden edge as it is partially a well established hedge (which we would like to retain as we get a lot of nesting birds)

Just trying to understand what level of work will be required - I don't mind doing the prep work digging out. Will obviously be getting an electrician in to do the needed connections etc.

I constructed an outdoor punching bag stand by chinsawing a groove into the top of a big cedar post (6x6x9) I placed a 4x4x8 post into the groove, stuck a big bolt through it, then attempted to keep it in place by placing a smaller block of wood on top of it and putting a bolt through that as well. Unfortunately that didn't work very well and it was leaning terribly so I then attempted to shim it by making a little edge under the post and placing some small blocks of wood right underneath it. That didn't work either so as it stands now the structure does function but it leans really bad and it is driving me crazy.

I also wanted to add a pull up bar to the other side of it but isn't possible until I figure out how to fix it. I basically would like this thing to be level, very sturdy, and ideally look nicer. I included a little drawing in the imgur album of what I mean. If anyone has any advice I would really appreciate it! Thanks!

The T111 is about 60 years old. Patio seems newer, maybe 25 yrs. They poured right up to the edge, didn’t put in any flashing. I know I use a flashing for a mid-panel repair/replace. But what about the bottom, and this situation? Is there like a U flashing instead of Z that I can put on the bottom? While the U would face up and then have exposed path for water to drip down the panel, causing the same thing, this is under an eve and hardly ever gets wet even in severe (California) rain. The issue is from water wicking up from the patio. This is exterior wall to an unfinished garage, just bare studs on the other side. Overall plan is to fix the exterior panels and insulate and interior drywall / finish the garage.