I recently moved into a new to me house with a full basement.

I am starting my plans to build my workbenches and tool stands but am concerned that the humidity will be too high and cause issues with the wood (and with the tool surfaces).

Is there a general rule of thumb on what humidity is appropriate?

FWIW, according to my temp/humidity sensor it is about 75% right now.

Edit/Update: Thank you for the feedback. There is a drain in the floor, so I just bought a dehumidifier with a hose output.

I am currently planning an LED lighting installation for my 5' x 7' walk-in closet and would appreciate some advice.

A closet company is installing a new U-shaped closet system with a toe kick and top molding around the entire perimeter. My plan is to add vertical LED lighting and possibly light some of the shelves.

Here is my current proposed plan for powering the setup:

- Add a second switch box next to the existing light switch at the entrance.

- Run Romex wire down through the wall and exit under the toe kick, adding a vent for access and heat dissipation.

- Place the LED driver under the toe kick, then run the 24V wire to various locations behind the toe kick and drywall to reach the lights.

Does this setup sound correct, or is there a better way to do this? I would welcome any recommendations or alternate ideas one might have.

I need to fix a problem with my shower/tub.

For months now the hot water has been constantly flowing, like pretty steadily. I turned off the hot tap in the panel behind the shower and that fixed it for a little, I’ve been turning it on and off to shower every day but recently the leak came back and it’s just getting worse. The flow gets stronger every time I use the shower and turning off the hot tap doesn’t do anything

The sink in the bathroom is unusable as well, it completely fell off the wall. This isn’t my home and it’s been like this since I moved in. This isn’t the typical renter situation where the landlord has to fix these things. So I’ve just been living without a sink in the bathroom the whole time.

Turned on the heating for the first time in 6 months today.

Burner isn't firing up.

I opened the bleed valve and tried the red button while open a few time but no fuel still.

I'm assuming there's an air lock and not enough pressure to pull the fuel through.

I've a quarter of a tank of kerosene in a 900 litre tank.

Would filling the tank help or am I at the mercy of trying to hook a plumber at this time of year when it's hard to get one?

EPS/foam moldings are repeated damaged by wood peckers. Came across some coating product claim that they are woodpecker proof, such as:

https://www.stocanada.com/woodpecker-protection-for-your-home/

https://www.adex.ca/products/graphex-coat/

Found very little comments/reviews of such product.
Wondering if anyone has any experience with them. Do they work? How is the installation process?

Hello all,

Looking to replace my hollow core door with a solid core door.
Any tips!
Should I remove the hollow door with the hinges attached and then transfer the hinges to the solid door?
Or leave the hinges on the frame?

Thanks

Would adding insulation panels to the ceiling of our below grade garage help keeping the great room above it warmer by much. The garage doors allow a lot of cold down there and I spend most of my time in the room above it. Recommendations for the proper product would be great too. Thanks in advance.

Whats going on here? Replaced and sealed the cap and realized something else is happening.

We are buying a 1950s house with block basement. At some point in the distant past there was water infiltration. Additional measures (extending downspouts, grading, drylock etc) are recommended by a professional to be safe but the report said there is no evidence of existing moisture or mold. Still we want to plan right just in case there is moisture at some point.

We’d like to put up moisture and mold resistant drywall to finish the walls. Would adding vents to the drywall allow any ambient moisture permeating through the block to be picked up by a dehumidifier?

My concern with interior seals and insulation is that we would simply trap the water behind the wall and leave it in the cinder to deteriorate and giving it no place to go.

Thoughts?

Hello everyone.

I am looking for a suggestion or tips on doing a repaint of my negative sides concrete wall.

I already completed skimcoating on one side. However, I encountered one challenge i would like to avoid when i do the other 3 sides of the room . I can say i have done an extensive amoubt of research already, but this question i have now is something i am still not very confident with.

I am hoping that i can strip what is only really needed to be stripped from the current old paint. I am using this stripping tool that is using a utility knife blade, so it is sharp and thin and can easily strip away paint that you want. However , it is also easy to strip even those intact paints.

So my question is simply, is there a better way to strip just so i am only stripping what is really already loose paints?

By the way, most of the paint i am stripping are those affected by hairline cracks, and they are crispy like crackers...

hello! i am attempting to make a plant pot with a glass bottle. i have never done anything with glass before. i'd like to break the glass at certain point and sand down the rough edges and put soil in it. however, i don't know how safe it is to sand glass down indoors. i have eye protection, a k95 mask, and gloves, but i live in a dorm and we can't open the windows for ventilation. i don't want to poison myself or my roommate. is it okay to do it outside? can i even use regular sand paper? i really don't know anything so any and all advice is appreciated. thank you

I'm planning on making some plush aquatic flatworms, and I need some sort of plastic U shape so that the head will hold its shape.

Do I need to screw the toilet to the concrete tiled floor? The person at a plumber suppliers said no just silicone around it? Please advise?

Hi,

My wife wants me to construct a house(or two separate houses) for two dogs that were abandoned near our villa and since winter is coming soon, I have no choice but to build it now. (Before anyone says anything - no, we can't take the dogs home)

Has anyone ever built such a house? What's the cheapest way for me to do it? I don't have any spare money for a side project this month anyway but I'll give it a go regardless.

What materials do I need? Are there any alternatives to the materials that I can find in my basement? For example, can I substitute the glass mineral wool with something else? Thank you guys.

Hey guys. I was wondering if anyone had tips on how to make a large t-shirt smaller without the use of sewing/stitching? All the tips I see online usually center around cutting and sewing, and I was just wondering if there were any other methods. Thanks 😊

Hello looking to build a outdoor playset is their a place to go to downloand plans to make your own? I can't seem to find any sources that offer playsets.

I have a shower/tub combo in my bathroom. The walls of it are plastic, like in this image. (This isn't my shower, but an example I found online.) I would never dream of putting contact paper on the plastic part because that's where the water lands. However, what about the green "wall" part? Is it OK to put the contact paper on that surface or would the water just make it peel right off again? Is there a special kind of waterproof contact paper I need to use? My bathroom is just really plain and boring and I want to add some pizzazz, but I wanted to start with a smaller area since I've never used contact paper before. I tried looking this up, but all the threads I could find assume I want to put the paper in the actual shower part, and I definitely don't.

Hey so I’m trying to do a thing for one of my classes that involves slush (like wet snow). Where I live it hasn’t gotten to that point of the year to allow for snow to fall and slush to form just yet. I’m wondering if anyone knows how or if they have any ideas on how to make slush themselves. (Maybe like altering an already existing homemade snow formula?)

Any help would be very much appreciated.

OK, I will start with the fact that I can easily remove and replace the lock on this mailbox.

But what I am trying to do is replace the lock with some type of latch that does not require a key. Also, it needs to look decent (Though the upper flap hides the lock unless you are opening it.)

Basically I don't care about mail security, nothing of value is ever delivered and I live in a very secure area. The problem is that I have to keep a key on the wall next to the mailbox and I would prefer just some type of latching device that will allow me to open the flap, grab the mail and then close it again.

Any ideas?

Hi everyone! 👋
I'm a student at University College London (UCL) conducting a quick academic survey on home DIY power tools for an academic project.
If you live in Europe and use power tools—whether professionally or for home DIY—I would really appreciate 3 minutes of your time to share your insights:
🔗 Survey Link: UK Consumer Research: DIY Power Tools and Home Care – Fill in form
The survey is completely anonymous, strictly for educational research (no selling or promotion), and takes less than 3 minutes. Thank you so much for helping a student out! 🙏

At the store I paid more attention to the finish on the tub and if there were any scratches or chips in it. Thought I lucked out when I found one that was blemish free when all the others at the store had damage. When I got it home and put a 4' level on the back deck it has a substantial dip in the middle (level touches the deck only at the ends) and when looking top down you can see the flange bows outwards at the middle of tub.

You get what you pay for and I bought a cheapo Bootz steel tub, but how screwed would I be if I installed this? Just scribe the tiles to the dip and shim the wall on the sides? Or will it cause an issue with water pooling there in the middle? This is for a guest bathroom that rarely will get used. I feel I already know the answer and I need to just return it and start the crapshoot again of trying to find a tub that's not damaged in some way cosmetically or structurally.

I have a garden shed/office behind which is a small stream about a meter below the floor level of the shed.

I'm thinking of drilling through the back wall and pushing the drain hose through. I would seal around the house inside the shed, make sure there's some fall off in the hole I drill and put some gauze around the open end to stop insects possibly crawling up the hose.

Can anyone think of anything I'm missing here before I start?

Thanks

I have an older semi, the shared wall between the units seems to be concrete/block and you can hear conversations. I have read the other threads regarding removing the existing wall and adding insulation/dampening. I am quite sure that in this case there is little to no cavity and they put the cement board (this build predates drywall) onto slats on the shared wall. Trying to remove this cement board is also a huge pain, as I have done so elsewhere and would like to avoid if possible. Adding a decoupled wall may be an option, but the space it would take up is a concern. I was considering green glue or a 2mm rubber layer and 5/8 inch drywall layer but I am seeing mixed opinions on that.