Bedroom crownmolding + entryway trim from last weekend. It has not been painted with the last coat of pain yet though. Plus I have not painted and fixed the banisters yet. Don't judge.
Home Improvement
- Thread starter Picasso3
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I don't have much experience with home improvement. I've just done basic repairs. My "hardest" project so far was probably putting hardwood floors (tongue in groove stuff from Costco) in the living room. Looking at doing a back splash in the kitchen and a pergola out back this spring. How hard is each project for someone with my limited experience, on a scale of 1 to 10 (10 being nearly impossible)?
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There's something important to remember. If you try it, and it comes out like ass, you can tear it out, start again, or hire it out. A back splash isn't hard. Remember this - preparation is about 80% of that job. Get the wall square and true, clean and ready to go before you start putting the finished product on the wall.
The pergola is even easier, in my opinion. Over engineer it. Make it strong as all get out. Create a template for the ends of your wood, and be sure to have a finished product clearly designed before you start. It makes everything so much easier with a product like this.
Be brave. It isn't rocket science. Just plan well, and work thoughtfully.
You need the right tools. For the pergola, depending on the size, it's pretty easy.
The hardest part will be putting the supports in the ground. You'll need to mix the cement properly and put them in the ground far enough. Depth will depend on height, but 2 feet should be good if it's in solid earth (not clay or shale or anything). Then you need to make sure all four corners are square with each other. You can do this by using string. Then you need to make sure the tops are mostly level with each other.
Or if you want to get fancy you can use a bracket that gets placed into the ground and then you can secure the wood into it with large bolts.
The rest is about securing the wood together with brackets so it doesn't fall off.
As far as back splashes are, all I can say is have a lot of patience and do it the right way with proper spacers etc. Outside that, it's pretty simple as long as you get the right spackle.
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2 ft in the ground might not be far enough depending on the frost line of where he lives. For instance here in Mich, the frost line is around 30"+ inches so they make you go to 48" below that frost line. If you do not do this, when the ground freezes, it will heave the whole thing up.
Intrinsic
Person of Whiteness
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Signed a contract to get the 23 year old deck on my house torn out and rebuilt. Was going to do the rebuild myself but after moving in and looking closer at the deck, kind of talked myself out of it. It's 15' off the ground and cantilevered on i-beams running through the house. Since it was so high,non standard, and I have zero experience doing anything home related or handy work related, figured this was better to sub out. He did offer to frame it all out and let me take over at the railing or decking part, but by that point I'd already mentally checked out of the project. Really excited though, guy is super nice, have looked at the work he's done around town and it looks great. He's won the top customer satisfaction award or whatever on Angie's List the past two years. We'll see. Was going to do composite but it basically doubled the cost of the deck and I really wasn't in to that.
Having said all that, I'm still interested in learning how to take care of my own home and want a project to do around the house. I have a "finished" room in the basement that is off the garage where basically they stucko'd or sealed the foundation blocks, put up a ceiling, and added a door. Knowing nothing about the room, how hard would it be to drop the ceiling to install some recessed lights (no current overhead lighting), frame out those cinder block walls and add some dry wall, then pull up the crappy carpet and do hardwood or laminate? There is HVAC in the room. That's kind of like three projects.... But figured it's a good opportunity to learn about electrical, flooring, and putting up a wall; things that should be translatable to other parts of the house.
Having said all that, I'm still interested in learning how to take care of my own home and want a project to do around the house. I have a "finished" room in the basement that is off the garage where basically they stucko'd or sealed the foundation blocks, put up a ceiling, and added a door. Knowing nothing about the room, how hard would it be to drop the ceiling to install some recessed lights (no current overhead lighting), frame out those cinder block walls and add some dry wall, then pull up the crappy carpet and do hardwood or laminate? There is HVAC in the room. That's kind of like three projects.... But figured it's a good opportunity to learn about electrical, flooring, and putting up a wall; things that should be translatable to other parts of the house.
Yeah, when you are creating structures in your house, especially something like that, you MUST have a contractor do it. I'm pretty sure your town would require a permit for you to do that, and then if you ever wanted to sell your house, I know I wouldn't buy it if you couldn't give me permits and contractor permits for it.
As to your project, that sounds like something I'm going to be doing in the next few years. It's easy if you have the tools to do it. The only thing you'll need to do is hire an electrician to the proper lighting stuff for you. I install lighting fixtures all day, but I won't run wire for lights. I would leave that to a licensed electrician.
Outside that, the rest is pretty simple. Buy a book from home depot that tells you all about framing. You need to put studs in with the proper spacing, then the proper support and framing for doorways.
Then you have to put in insulation (if you live in an area that has seasons). The floor is easy too, you would need to install a subfloor and some sort of pad or else your floor is going to be cold as fuck.
That HARD part is putting up drywall. Drywalling is an artform. It's easy to do, hard to master, so have fun with that. Watch some youtube videos.
HVAC is easy too. Just run some ductwork to where you want to drop it assuming you have forced air system. Then cut a whole in the drway where you want it to come out.
Overall, it's time consuming but there isn't anything tricky with it. The tough part is making sure your frame design and installation is done properly, but it's hard to fuck up if you can measure wood beams correctly and mount them at proper angles.
If you have any specific questions just ask.
As to your project, that sounds like something I'm going to be doing in the next few years. It's easy if you have the tools to do it. The only thing you'll need to do is hire an electrician to the proper lighting stuff for you. I install lighting fixtures all day, but I won't run wire for lights. I would leave that to a licensed electrician.
Outside that, the rest is pretty simple. Buy a book from home depot that tells you all about framing. You need to put studs in with the proper spacing, then the proper support and framing for doorways.
Then you have to put in insulation (if you live in an area that has seasons). The floor is easy too, you would need to install a subfloor and some sort of pad or else your floor is going to be cold as fuck.
That HARD part is putting up drywall. Drywalling is an artform. It's easy to do, hard to master, so have fun with that. Watch some youtube videos.
HVAC is easy too. Just run some ductwork to where you want to drop it assuming you have forced air system. Then cut a whole in the drway where you want it to come out.
Overall, it's time consuming but there isn't anything tricky with it. The tough part is making sure your frame design and installation is done properly, but it's hard to fuck up if you can measure wood beams correctly and mount them at proper angles.
If you have any specific questions just ask.
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Intrinsic
Person of Whiteness
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One of my co-workers runs a business on the side and recently replaced his entire front yard with artificial grass. Feel free to send me a PM if you have any questions. I've never talked with him at length about it but he has some pics of his house after the swap.
Gravel
Mr. Poopybutthole
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I was just curious if it was an option that more people weren't considering. How's he like it, and if you've seen it, does it...look like grass?
Seems like it'd have a higher upfront cost, but not having to water, cut, or basically take care of it in any way seems like it'd make it pretty cheap in the long run.
Seems like it'd have a higher upfront cost, but not having to water, cut, or basically take care of it in any way seems like it'd make it pretty cheap in the long run.
Intrinsic
Person of Whiteness
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He said there's basically three companies that make itShaw,Mohawk(couldn't find the actual vendor, just a dealer page), and one other he couldn't remember. All three are made in NW Georgia, apparently. Material wise he said it is anywhere from $2.25 to $3.25 for materials. It is topped with sand, not the pebbles or silicon, it drains just like regular grass. It has a 10 year warranty on fading, tearing, or pulling up. There is some competition from China, but their textile process or use of lead paint doesn't hold up very well and it is only warrantied for 2 years or so.
Basically any cost / benefit you run he says to assume an 8 - 10 year life, and then you may run in to some maintenance, upkeep, or repair / replacement depending on wear and tear. Other than because he really really did not want to maintain a lawn, he also lives in a very rocky part of NE Little Rock where keeping a nice yard is near impossible.
This is a picture of his back yard. Guess YMMV based on layout and install.
Basically any cost / benefit you run he says to assume an 8 - 10 year life, and then you may run in to some maintenance, upkeep, or repair / replacement depending on wear and tear. Other than because he really really did not want to maintain a lawn, he also lives in a very rocky part of NE Little Rock where keeping a nice yard is near impossible.
This is a picture of his back yard. Guess YMMV based on layout and install.
stupidmonkey
Not Smrt
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Only complaint I hear about here in Arizona is that it gets hot and is not comfortable to stand on without shoes. Animals aren't fond of it either when it's like that. There could be certain types that fare better than others in the heat though.
Erronius
Macho Ma'am
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When you say "drop the ceiling" what are you thinking of exactly? Like, a simple grid ceiling with acoustic tile, or are you talking about framing/furring it down and doing drywall? A drop ceiling doesn't look hard, but it's easy to have it buckle or be out of level and look like shit.
Wiring all depends. When you say that you have no overhead lighting, do you at least have a light at the foot of the stairs? Not that it really matters, a lot of electricians will just have that tied to a 1st floor circuit - it's unusual (location dependent) for anyone to wire a separate circuit for the basement unless the homeowner requests more lights (we used to but we often put in like 4-5 lights). This goes for basement receptacles as well. So unless your basement is unusually large, you might be able to get away with 1 additional circuit, maybe more if you are going to have a lot of electronic shit.
Normally I will say to hire an electrician. Bring them in when the walls are framed and they'll run the receptacle bullshit before the drywallers get there, and whatever switch drops need to be put in. After drywall and drop ceiling, they can come back and do the can lights and tie everything in. If you want a hard pan ceiling they can just nail boxes up and you can put the lights up yourself later, but if they are recessed cans in a grid ceiling most will want to come back and wire the cans themselves rather than rolling up the romex whips and leaving it for the homeowner to splice into the cans themselves (I wouldn't). In fact they can choose to run the romex for the lights when they do the receptacles if they know that they are coming back, or if you have a really high ceiling (and are going to have like 2ft of space between the drop ceiling and floor joists) they can go ahead and wire them with some extra wire so they have some wiggle room to be moved in case they don't line up with the ceiling grid later, and just tie them temp to the joists. Then the grid guy can do the grid ceiling and you can cut the tile out, clip the cans to the grid and just throw the trims on.
If you're afraid of blowing something up by wiring a new circuit into your panel, then get an electrician.
Dashel
Blackwing Lair Raider
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New entertainment / play room. Prior to this it was an enclosed porch in horrible condition from the previous owner. Made it into useful space. We are really happy with it. Good for the kids during the day, and catching a movie at night.
Midway through:
and when it was mostly completed:
Midway through:
and when it was mostly completed:
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