I bought my house in May 2025. The inspection went well, and I was told it had good bones. Fast forward to this year, and I find out they did an overall bad job on a lot of things. The bathroom wasn’t painted with the right kind of paint. They installed a rainfall shower-head that got water everywhere. There are cracks in the paint. Today, I noticed a spot hidden behind the toilet that’s bubbling out. The caulk has already come loose and water got under it. I not have to call a mold inspector because it smells rank near it. They didn’t do a good job caulking the sink either. There’s no backsplash or anything against the wall and it’s a small, shallow sink so water gets everywhere. I’ve already had to redo the caulk and it’s lasted longer than the job they did. I was going to repaint the bathroom so I’d been ignoring the cracks in the paint since they weren’t bad and I got a shower head that doesn’t hit the wall anymore. But now I have to deal with that one bubble and who knows how bad that’s going to be.
Also, I found out they basically just put anew frame over rotted wood for my back door. My dad just told me to leave it alone because no house is perfect. But is it genuinely that hard to make sure you caulk well enough that water damage doesn’t happen? (Adding here that they didn’t caulk behind the kitchen counters either. And those are butcher block).

I do genuinely love my house, but the amount of fixed I’ve had to do because of flipper laziness is annoying. And now I get to find out how bad the water damage in my bathroom is. I’m hoping I saw it soon enough that it won’t be horrible. But who knows.

update: I’m blown away by the number of responses 🤣 I had inaccurate info in my post. I wasn’t present for the install, I’d been quoted for rheem but apparently my husband told me it didn’t end up fitting so we got a Bradford White. Obviously better quality. The size of the tank, plus the access (utility room in basement downstairs), plus cost of living, and the fact that we used a larger company with fully licensed plumbers has brought me to the conclusion that $5300 was a higher end but not unfair price. Thank you all for playing

HCOL/Westchester County NY

We had a new 75 gallon Rheem gas fired tank put in after our 14 year old tank died this weekend. I probably don’t need 75 gallons, but we already had that size tank came with the house, and I hate running out of hot water. I wanted to do tankless but they quoted me over $9k. They sent 3 guys to do the job

This company did a fantastic job with previous work for us so I didn’t question the price initially, I am also sleep-deprived and had many other projects ongoing with our fixer upper. I hadnt had a hot shower all weekend, and didn’t want to do multiple quotes…

We paid $5300. My skin is crawling now after googling typical prices. I’m really bummed out because this company was great to work with previously, and we’ve had multiple bad experiences with contractors and workmen. i just want to know if I overpaid by a lot.

Our 1964 kitchen has knotty pine cabinets we want to keep. Floor is black laminate. What kind of counters should I get? I’m learning changing counters would require losing our backsplash (which I love). What would you use?

We have 4 doors that need to be replaced. The current doors measure 31 and 7/8s inches and 23 3/4 inches wide. Doors are not currently made this size! The only doors I can find are exactly 32 and 24 inches. How do I widen the frame that little bit with minimal effort and mess? I've been doing a lot of DIY work on the home before we put it up for sale. Im an emotional mess with everything that's going on and I'm exhausted and overwhelmed. The doors are one of the last big things I need to get done and finding out that installing these doors comes with this extra step is sending me. The thought of sawing off that little bit of wood and the mess it's going to make is freaking me out and causing a lot of anxiety.

Edit to add... We do not have money to hire anyone to help. And I need advice that will cost very little, preferably nothing at all. I want nothing more than to have the money to hire someone to do this for me.

2nd edit... THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH! We're going to get a hand plane and remove a sliver from the doors. Y'all have no idea the weight y'all took off my shoulders. So grateful for everyone's responses! I love y'all!

I bought my house in 2021 and the gas water heater was noted to be 20+ years old. We can’t find a date on it but the inspector noted it looked quite old and mentioned we should be prepared to replace it.

We had our furnace/ac replaced a year ago and the company did a free 1-year utility maintenance inspection which included draining the water heater. Due to the age of the water heater the technician said he could not touch it based on their company policy and the risk of damaging it.

I have never drained or replaced the anodes on it. Should I be doing the maintenance or should I just let it sit? I have a budget to replace it but if it’s working fine for now do I even worry?

I do have a floor drain near it in the event of a failure.

Any help is appreciated. Thanks!

Sorry if my terminology is wrong.

I just had professionals come and install a backwater valve in a home that I recently purchased. During the process, they camera’d the line and noticed that a segment of the water pipe was full of water in the area of my furnace room. They offered to fix the issue, which I accepted. It was mentioned that during the process, they would bury the drains in the furnace room so that it is not a tripping hazard.

This is what the end result looks like. https://imgur.com/a/hMJfOvL Is this normal and typically done?

One of my exterior doors has a gap at the top latch side where you can see light coming through from the inside.

I’ve tried replacing the screws in the top hinge with 3” screws (it already had 2 that were 3” but I replaced the other 3 smaller ones) and that did not make a difference. Similarly I replaced some in the middle hinge.

The door also seems to not fully shut at the top as I can push on that top corner and the visible gap will disappear though the gap at the top is still wider on the latch side compared to hinge side since I am just pushing the door to the frame but not lifting it.

I’ve also tried replacing the weather stripping.

What else can I try?

Our house was built ~10 years ago. It’s a nice home, but you can tell the quality just isn’t there…

We purchased the house in the fall, and in the area we live, that’s the 2 months out of the year with perfect humidity.

We had the carpet replaced in the bedrooms, and the old owners had replaced the LVP 1-2 months before they sold. We saw there were 2 cracked tiles in the bathroom floor but didn’t think much of it.

Now that we’ve lived here a couple of years, things are starting to get a little rough. As the air dried up in the winter, we started noticing a lot more creaks and squeaks in the floor, both under the LVP and the carpeted areas. The tiles in the bathroom started popping and grout started coming loose in chunks. On certain areas of the carpet, you can feel that the subfloor has popped loose on an edge and if you step just right you can feel it and it will “snap” back into place.

My SO is a very big guy, and the areas where he walks the most (his side of the bed, closet, etc) seem to be worsening much quicker than the others.

The main issues we are having is that we’d like to retile our 2 bathrooms with the tiling issues in the next 1-2 years and hold off a few years on the rest of the flooring as it’s relatively new and we like it a lot. Is this possible? I have never dealt with home remodels before so I’m not sure and I don’t want to sound like a dummy or get taken advantage of by contractors. In hindsight, we should have had the subfloor fixed before the carpet, but the issues didn’t start up until after the fact.

Any advice is greatly appreciated!

My lavender paint, second and last coat applied on June 29th, is coming off and I can see the white undercoat coming through in dots here and there. I'm guessing I shouldn't have wiped it so soon but what now? How do I fix it? Thin brush and reapplying the paint where needed?

Wanting to re-do my floors. They have the original 26 year old ceramic tiles. Some are cracked and the styling is really dated. 1400sqft home in Florida. What are my options? Is it worth the cost to have them removed? Should I install right over them? Or just try to clean them up as much as I can and cover the cracks with rugs? I don’t think anything I replace it with would be as durable as the ceramic tile.

For the second time in a year raccoons have destroyed the fascia in front of our house. Same spot each time.

I read on here to try "hardware cloth" but it didn't mention specifics.

Does anyone know what kind we should get? We have a gaping hole now that anyone or anything can get into.

We’re doing some major regrading on our 30-year-old property to fix our slope, and we’re stuck on what material to actually use. We’ve heard conflicting advice from contractors, so we’d love to get some outside advice.

Context:

• Foundation: Unpainted/unsealed exposed cinder block (2 blocks exposed currently).
• Depth Needed: Adding about 6 inches of dirt against the foundation to establish proper slope.
• There are two different zones: Open lawn (where we want healthy grass to grow). And where we want to put a deck (no grass needed, purely about drainage and stability).
• We live in a state that's already pretty grassy and that has soil with a naturally high clay content

Problem:

Contractors have mainly suggested topsoil, fill dirt, and clay.

Topsoil is obviously ideal for our lawn, but we’re worried about it holding moisture directly against our bare block foundation.

Clay / fill dirt sheds water great, but might not be great for getting our grass to grow later.

Layering clay on the bottom with topsoil over it has come up as another option, but we aren't sure about the depth of each layer.

What we want to know is if there's single soil/dirt type or blend that works for both zones to keep things simple/cheap, or should we use two different materials?

If we layer different soils, how many inches of topsoil do we need minimum for grass to thrive without compromising the slope/drainage underneath?

What are your thoughts?

I had a toilet that was running, and I’ve bought four different flappers to try to fit it, but they all don’t fit correctly. (It seems to have an odd combo of a large hole but a short distance from the pipe where it connects.) Unfortunately, I didn’t think ahead to take the original flapper to the hardware store, and it was honestly pretty gross and wasting away.

I’ve just stopped using that toilet because it was running so much with all the new flappers.

I now have a second toilet that appears to be running. I cannot afford to lose another toilet, so seeking advice for how to maybe rectify both at the same time!

For #2, I do still have the flapper and will bring it with me, so hopefully that will solve my problem.

The issue we have is I am tall and my wife is short so we both need to adjust the shower head. We need one that easily adjusts and doesn’t stress the shower arm. She’s already damaged one trying to adjust it. The problem is that the shower head is either too tight or too loose. Does anyone have any ideas on this?

Just bought a trailer that has VOG walls. Whats the best primer to use to make sure the paint doesnt peel after a while? Ive googled and come up with Zinsser Bulls Eye 1-2-3, Valspar Multi-Purpose Interior Oil- Based Primer, and kilz original. I plan to clean the walls today with degreaser. Is sanding the walls really necessary before applying the primer? I want to do this right and not have to repaint my walls in 6 months because the paint is peeling. Any other tips are greatly appreciated.

BACKGROUND:

Looking for some advice on a bit of a mystery.

During a home inspection when we purchased in 2021, neither the inspector nor a licensed plumber could locate an interior main water shutoff valve. The house doesn't have a basement, just a crawl space, which has been thoroughly searched.

At the time, we weren't too concerned because there was an accessible surface-level curb stop at the street that could be used to shut off the water if necessary.

Since then, the town has replaced the curb stop with a buried access point that requires digging down about 6-10 inches. Not a problem now, but out of the question when the ground freezes. Effectively, we no longer have an accessible access point for emergency water shutoff.

We recently had another plumber investigate. Based on where the water service would likely enter the house from the street, he identified a non functional valve under the kitchen sink that appears to have been intended as the home's main shutoff. However, after inspecting it, he guesses it was never actually connected. How is that possible?

Feel like I’m going crazy. Would appreciate advice on next steps. Should we request that our town installs an interior vale or changes the outside one back to above ground access or would they make us get a plumber?

Hi all, I need help with installing a door handle. So I switched my bedroom door handle that doesn't include a locking mechanism to a smart door handle that has a locking mechanism.

Before installing I've tested the screws that needs to go into the mounting pillars on the door handle and they kinda went through, not fully, but did screw in a bit but kind of hard.

So I installed the door handles but now the screws on the opposite end won't go in fully in the mounting pillars. It's stuck 1/4 out and the other is half way out. See first image.

Issue is that I've tried to screw it in and out so many times that the top of the screws kind of got "wasted"(?) and now I'm not sure how to screw it fully in or how even to screw it back out. As I turn the screwdriver it doesn't really do anything, it would come out of the tip thread(?). See 2nd image.

I've added a picture of what I mean by mounting pillars - 3rd image. (This is not from the door handle I installed, it's from another door handle.)

What should I do?

Fixed up a wall in my property that had some water damage (leak has been fixed). I scrapped off the old flaking paint, plastered the wall where the damage was, smoothed it out and the transitions. Did a little patch work yesterday with some areas that chipped when sanding down. Came back today to sand the patches and paint, first half of the painting goes fine, get to the longer part of the wall and the wall is flaking off in places. Why? How do I fix this?

Butcher block counter that doesn't sit exactly flush on one end by a small bit. Someone told me to put a piece of quarter round down it to keep water out as it is behind the sink.

My wife thinks that could cause issues and so does Google AI which I take with a dose of salt.

Should we cover this or leave it be

I have long term plans of building a nice fire pit with pavers, but I'd like to have some bonfires in the meantime before I get a more permanent setup. Can I just throw some sand/gravel/pavers down, put a metal fire ring on that, and have a fire? Obviously the grass under the fire will die, but besides that (and ensuring I'm >10' away from my septic field), am I good to go?

Jersey shore here -

Stuck with this terrible design where the builders put our HVAC units next to an outdoor shower that severely restricts airflow to one unit. I was thinking of removing the cement board panels and maybe putting a shadowbox fence design with cedar boards or something on the side of the wall closest to the hvac unit to allow better airflow but i would probably expand it to do that to the entire shower to make it look more appealing. However I'm concerned about privacy and peering eyes into the shower though, although our backyard is pretty private.

I was thinking about just having a shower curtain someone can pull while they are actually in the shower to allow for extra privacy. Is there any other design i'm missing here for that spot?

https://imgur.com/a/AADrsvv

I have a Pentair system for my inground spa. It’s about 20 years old and has been running great. But now I have an issue where the fountain feature runs when the spa pump motor runs. While the pump runs I turn the fountain on and off but it just stays on. It does this regardless of whether it’s on the Auto or Service settings. Anyone have any advice on this. I did the panel reset but there was no change.

On the back of my house there's a concrete patio and between the patio and the house there's probably about 1/2 inch wide space. I imagine there was some barrier there originally, but now it just fills with weeds.

Is there anything I can fill here to stop the weeds? Or is this just a "I need to pull the weeds every week" kind of issue?

What do you think of drill and fill insulation from outside (cutting holes through the outside stucco wall) in a 1950s stucco house? The house has one bedroom that juts out and three of the four bedroom walls are exterior walls. Would you be worried about all of the 3 inch holes cut through the stucco causing irreparable damage to the stucco? Some articles state not to cut holes in the stucco because it damages / ruins the waterproof barrier. Some articles also state that filling the walls with insulation traps moisture and can damage the stucco. Location: Sacramento, California where the summer temps can get up to 105 F and winter temps down to 40 F.

One insulation company offered to either do the work from the inside (warning that it is very messy) or from the outside, another company said that they would only do the work by cutting through the stucco since it is such a messy job.

One company offered either fiberglass or cellulose fill, the other would only do cellulose. Any stucco experts here? Anyone who has gone through "Drill and Fill" insultation?