Hello! I live in a home in Chicago constructed in the 1890s, and I’ve been having trouble finding examples of the problem I’m dealing with online. Between the siding and the stone foundation, there’s a piece of wood trim running the full length of the house. As far as I can tell, it’s not structurally loaded bearing, but it is rotting out and exposing the interior structures to moisture and critters.

Does anyone have experience with replacing this kind of trim? My current instinct is to replace it with weather treated 2x4s and forego the ideal aesthetics, but if anyone has a better idea please tell me!

The void under the concrete slab will be filled with secure set spray foam , how should the side wall be built after that? Please give ideas

Hello, this is the tile in our bathroom. It seems to have deteriorate over time and now is missing some piece of tiles.
Do you think if I fill it with silicone caulk, it would prevent water from getting behind the tiles?
Then regrout?

Now that its getting colder, i'm trying to winterize and track down my current heat loss

my garage/house wall is brick.

the garage door has a framing

between the brick and the framing, you can now see exposed wood and I feel that's where my major heat loss is now.

there used to be mortar (I think its called) filling this void, but now that the mortar is wearing out, i see wood and this wood specifically lower temperature on the inside then surrounding wall inside.

what should i feel this with? (hopefully DIY, dont really want to re-mortar that portion of brick work to cover the wood beneath)

We bought a house from 1910. They have wallpapered every wall, and some of it’s coming off on its own, but leaving some presumed adhesive behind in very small flakes. I’m planning on moistening it with a cocktail and scraping it off, but does anyone know if there is a risk in some of becoming airborne? I heard some adhesive can be asbestos, just not sure if this might be it. I don’t know how old this particular wallpaper is, but maybe from the 70s or 80s????

Hi! I’m hoping to renovate this room in the next few weeks but i have no idea how to go about it. 3/4 walls have been covered in lining paper then painted, and I’m fairly sure that the plaster underneath is pretty nasty. The corners all have these wrinkles and several bits in the ceiling are peeling slightly. I’m fairly sure that these bits will need to be stripped and re-papered, but I’ve also heard that removing lining paper is a bad idea. Should I just trim the paper on the wrinkled sections and paper on top, or should I strip everything and do it all again? Any help would be very much appreciated.

Looking for some guidance on how to remove the anchors from the brick on this railing so I can take it to have old paint blasted. Never ever tackled a project like this before. Welcome advice on this project!

I’d prefer to fill these rotted areas of something square it off prime and paint it. These risers or whatever they are are in a very exposed area to wind and rain snow. They utterly rotted about 10 or more years ago, and I had them completely rebuilt exactly as they were. So what do you think guys? Can I fill it with something some wood Bondo whatever, or should I replace some of the wood.
Thanks a lot.

We removed wallpaper from our kitchen. In this area the wallpaper took off chunks and damaged the wall. For such a small area would it best to use a joint compound or could I use spackle to repair ? We won’t be putting up tile at this time so just painting over after we repair this spot.

https://imgur.com/gallery/cracked-window-sill-IgArPzy

I’m trying to figure out how to repair this cracked windowsill. I’m pretty sure the damage was caused by an armchair that was wedged slightly underneath it. Over time, a crack developed, and now one side of the sill sits a little higher than the other.

The corners are also a mess from some poorly done caulking. I’ve tried removing the old caulk with a razor blade but haven’t had much luck.
My plan was to remove the old caulk in the corners, fill the crack with caulk, sand, and repaint, but I’m not sure if that’s enough to fix the crack and unevenness.

I have zero home repair experience, so I’d really appreciate any advice on how to tackle this.

https://imgur.com/RHgBSbX

As you can see from the photo, the siding has come loose from the metal corner piece and the bottom of the siding has become rain damaged and is easy to break when pushing or tapping with a hammer from the bottom. I called for an estimate and the company said if they replaced this particular piece the rest of the siding would have to come down and also be replaced on the entire side of the home. I find that hard to believe. What is the fix for this issue?

I bought my first house. It's a fixer-upper and I think I may be in over my head. It was built in 1870 and has a plethora of issues, but I got it for pretty cheap and am trying to fix it up myself. It's a brick house- but has this laundry room that was added on. The laundry room was never finished and it seems like it might be caving in? I'm debating just demoing it, there's bricks behind it but, would they need redone if I demoed it? Would it be possible to just put siding on it? I honestly think maybe I should just contract the work out but I'm not even sure who to call. I just want to fix it in the cheapest way possible. Is it going to mess up the rest of the roof if I don't get it taken care of soon?

Our West Michigan home is a 1920 art deco style house - which we restored to a single family home from a veterinarian office 6 years ago (during covid). I have loving learned so much from Reddit and YouTube about lathe and plaster, hardwood floors, and so much… but I don’t even know what to google to address this. It’s the railing dividing the walkway up the front steps into two. It’s original (I was told). I would like a professional to do this one, but again, I don’t even know who to call?

Sorry in advance for the pics - my house is currently decorated for Halloween.

I accidentally hit the wall with force. Now my wall has this paint damange. The IC card is for comparison. Please help 😭

Our house is 1930s built semi detached. There are crack on the bay window wall outside and inside. I am curious if it is serious. I hear noise as well like sand dropping sounds when I sit GF just beneath the wall in question - We bought the place a year ago I hear the noises almost everyday.

Anyway, that would be great if any ideas. Thanks!

Hello,

I recently bought a house, and when we removed the floor tiles, some pieces of the lightweight screed came away with them.

What would you recommend to repair these areas and bring the floor back to the correct level? Would it be possible to use a cost-effective solution, as we have a limited budget?

Thank you very much in advance for your advice!

Any advice or ideas on what might be going on with this part of the wall next to our shower?

Obvious culprit would be water damage, but would like to be more prepared before going all gung-ho and tearing it up. Haven’t found anything wet so far but the drywall just crumbles with some pressure.

My 150+ year old house has a limestone block foundation that naturally allows some water seepage. The concrete floor is all nicely sloped toward a drain at one end. Except here.

I want to lay down some kind of threshold across this doorway to redirect the water towards the little drain hole in the (much newer) cinder block wall where the water will follow the dehumidifier’s hose down to the big drain on the other end of the basement. The threshold doesn’t need to be high. 1/2” to 3/4” should be high enough. Could go higher, but I don’t want to build a big tripping hazard.

What threshold or material would you use? How would you affix it to the concrete floor?

Took out drop calling and found open sections leading under foyer and front porch. Someone told me I shouldnt seal them because of ventilation and letting the house breath (1930s Sears kit home) should I worry about that or would I be ok to panel or foam the spaces between the floor joists?

I was trying to put up a mirror and drilled through the fall, and it seems like there's a metal plate behind it. Is this a pipe? Should I be concerned?

Separately, there was a gas leak reported coming from my oven just today, and this hole was drilled on Friday night and I'm wondering if this is related.

National grid and the firefighters came through with a scanner and it didn't pick it up here though

Any advice on how to fix this?? And if it's related to the gas