Home Improvement

  • Guest, it's time once again for the massively important and exciting FoH Asshat Tournament!



    Go here and give us your nominations!
    Who's been the biggest Asshat in the last year? Give us your worst ones!

lurkingdirk

AssHat Taint
<Medals Crew>
49,672
237,977
Helped friends move in a new vanity earlier this week. To the second floor, of course. It was a six foot vanity. Of solid oak (white oak, rather fine looking). That thing was just fucking heavy. And then it had a solid stone top to go in as well. Which I believe was even heavier (sinks already in place). Heavy as shit.

However, this was the first time I used those straps you see people moving fridges with. They go over two people's shoulders and have a connecting strap. It's easy to adjust so you can change how high you're holding something (ideal for going up stairs) and then lower it again to get through doorways. I swear that countertop had to be 300 pounds, and just me and one other dude moved it. The vanity was a mere 169 pounds .


And we carried it, the two of us, on end up the stairs and through several doors. These straps are awesome! Don't have to fart around with multiple guys trying to get around corners and all that. I've already ordered me some, and if you're doing renovation, or planning a move, or anything that involves lifting stupid heavy things, I recommend them.

These are the ones:

 
  • 1Like
Reactions: 1 user

Skinner

Trakanon Raider
923
1,522
No idea where to put this, but does anyone know a place to get a half-decent bookshelf with glass doors that isn’t Ikea? I know about Litfad.

(thought this thread was about the TV show for the longest time wtf)
 

Kobayashi

Ahn'Qiraj Raider
977
2,752
No idea where to put this, but does anyone know a place to get a half-decent bookshelf with glass doors that isn’t Ikea? I know about Litfad.

(thought this thread was about the TV show for the longest time wtf)
Obviously hit or miss, but definitely check out your local consignment shops, thrift stores, and facebook marketplace. You can luck out on some stupidly low priced solid wood furniture that someone just doesn't want to deal with.
 
  • 2Like
Reactions: 1 users

Palum

what Suineg set it to
28,673
47,445
Does anyone have ZipWall poles? Curious if they are worth the premium price vs generic ones. I need to start using some non-destructive dust barriers.
 

Intrinsic

Person of Whiteness
<Gold Donor>
15,539
14,081
Helped friends move in a new vanity earlier this week. To the second floor, of course. It was a six foot vanity. Of solid oak (white oak, rather fine looking). That thing was just fucking heavy. And then it had a solid stone top to go in as well. Which I believe was even heavier (sinks already in place). Heavy as shit.

However, this was the first time I used those straps you see people moving fridges with. They go over two people's shoulders and have a connecting strap. It's easy to adjust so you can change how high you're holding something (ideal for going up stairs) and then lower it again to get through doorways. I swear that countertop had to be 300 pounds, and just me and one other dude moved it. The vanity was a mere 169 pounds .


And we carried it, the two of us, on end up the stairs and through several doors. These straps are awesome! Don't have to fart around with multiple guys trying to get around corners and all that. I've already ordered me some, and if you're doing renovation, or planning a move, or anything that involves lifting stupid heavy things, I recommend them.

These are the ones:


I'm generally a big fan of white oak but for some reason this vanity isn't resonating with me. It is very nice but just expected something else. Kind of throwing me off hah.
 
  • 1Like
  • 1Solidarity
Reactions: 1 users

Siliconemelons

Naxxramas 1.0 Raider
12,527
19,007
Those strap dolly things are legit... when all my appliances were delivered, the fridge was like within 1/2 inch of the door opening - the dudes just hoisted the thing up with those strapps and shimmied on in, done.

Random update: Induction stove top still awesome, Ikea 365 ceramic non-stick pans still holding up better than teflon counterparts did - very surprised by that. Also the way induction works may contribute as it does not tend to over heat like my traditional stove top did..

I need to replace my bathroom vanity, but its like 58 inches...so nothing "standard" fits...
 

Palum

what Suineg set it to
28,673
47,445
So for my second ceiling I decided to take a different approach. The first one I used a roller to apply mud, and I used ultralight. I did maybe 3 thinner coats with the 24" skimming blade. This took care of any sort of variances and built up fairly evenly, but it required a lot of sanding time due to being more 'airy', and I really wasn't happy with the ultralight generally because it was extremely easy to damage.

This one I decided to use USG Plus 3 which is sort of a all-in-one compound, thinned slightly. It is a bit harder and denser, but doesn't spread as nicely and I think generally slightly less working time which is something of a bitch when you're rolling out your own ceiling and skimming at the same time. However, putting 20-30 pounds of mud on a ceiling is a bitch regardless and the idea was if I could get it relatively flat with a decent build up, I would have an easier time just doing touch ups after the fact. There were a few scrapes and tear outs, but all were really quick to fix.

So far this seems to have worked out, did the skimcoat Saturday and sanded and did touch ups today. Will do final sand tomorrow night then start wall prep. One change I'm making is I had to finish the ceiling in the other room, because I needed to install all the electrical and put in can lights so I could actually see, which meant the walls I did prep after. I think that was annoying because of the extra sanding dust and all that. This time, doing all drywall first, then will clean thoroughly and prep all trim, then will do ceiling, trim, walls then baseboard pretty quickly after.
 

GuardianX

Perpetually Pessimistic
<Bronze Donator>
7,303
18,717
Took down my shitbox of a fireplace, 12,000 LBS of bricks, that was a workout.

1741785556303.png


1741785644168.png


What a fucking joke. I would guess that about 60% of them weren't even set in anything, I dunno if thats common or not. Literally behind the exterior bricks, bricks were layered usually about 3 bricks high without masonry at all for the chimney. When I got down to the firebox area it was about 10 bricks high of just stacked brick and no masonry. I thought about selling them but oh man, since there wasn't any masonry, AT ALL, about 90% of the bricks used as filler had roach eggs in them and as I got lower and lower most of the bricks had standing water in them. All of the studs adjacent to the fireplace were rotted so badly that I replaced them.

So many fucking roaches came out of this fireplace it was insane. We killed about 200 and, at points, I was just clearing and spraying as I was going. Place smelled like piss too, I was laughing a bit because I found part of a mouse jaw and several bones.

The gas line to the center of the fireplace was so rusted that I broke it in half with my hands. Someone had the amazing idea to put masonry compound AROUND that pipe but...you know...nowhere else. So water was sitting on it for the better part of 40 years more than likely. Cut it all out, up to the attic, and capped it, checked for leaks and waited an hour before restarting any gas appliances. The crazy part was the gas scent (Whatever mix they use to make that onion-y scent) saturated the wood, before I even was doing gas line work I was smelling gas and I grabbed one of the boards, the wood smelled like gas.

Replaced most everything on that wall including part of the top plates, mending plates are a mystery to me though:

1741786344071.png
 
  • 3Like
  • 2WTF
  • 1Wow!
Reactions: 5 users

Daidraco

Avatar of War Slayer
10,607
11,255
This is your house? Omfg, man. You've been breathing in that shit for how long now? All this time probably just thought it was just normal and then you crack all that shit open to find out that. 🤮
 
  • 1Solidarity
Reactions: 1 user

Pasteton

Blackwing Lair Raider
2,885
2,050
Anyone have one of those handheld moisture meter thingies (it’s like a video camera that lights up humid spots ) , have a type that they know well and can recommend? I want to get one but they’re costly so don’t want to pick a garbage one , I know nothing about these