Home Improvement Stack Exchange
Home Improvement Stack Exchange

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1500 questions
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5 answers

How do electric hot water heaters explode and what can be done to prevent that from happening?

My neighbor and good friend is a union steamfitter, and general handyman. He had to replace his electric hot water heater last year and he did it himself. My wife and I have to replace ours now, and he says its a super simple job and he has offered…
hotmeatballsoup
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How do I protect myself from bad contracting jobs?

I've came cross couple recent bad jobs 1 2 and am dealing with a bad electrical job myself. Before putting down money and letting the people leave, what resources are available to a consumer to protect themselves (before the fact and after the…
Nelson
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4 answers

Moisture leaking out of chip in floor tile

I dropped something heavy and mildly pointed onto the bathroom floor. The Bathroom is tiled with ~30cm square black "slate like" tiles, but where I dropped this thing, the surface has been badly (2-3 cm radius, ?1-2mm deep?) chipped, and underneath…
Brondahl
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2 answers

What kind of nut is this

what is the name of this nut, I need to find a way to loosen it . From the top
Charm_quark
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Contractor cut joist hangers to make them fit

(edited with additional info re. header) We are removing a couple of load bearing walls as part of renos in our home. The engineer specified a W8x21steel beam to replace the load bearing wall. The floor joists are 2x10. It appears the contractor…
user105375
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5 answers

I hit a pipe with a mower and now it won't turn

I was mowing the other day and there was a pipe sticking out of the ground. The pipe wasn't carrying any services, just a piece of metal sticking out of the ground (I've now removed it). The pipe was covered by the longish grass and I hit it with my…
tyelford
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1 answer

Orange material in grout lines - need help to identify

Having recently moved into a new (resale) house, I looked closely at the grout lines on one of the tiled shower floors and noticed many small gaps in the grout lines with an unidentified orange material in the gaps. I've attached a…
mattbg
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16
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3 answers

Is it normal for GFCI receptacles to explode and burn?

I noticed my tooth brush wasn't charging one morning and none of the plugs in my bathroom were getting power, I went down to the circuit box and saw a flipped breaker so I flipped it back and it immediately tripped again. I tried it once more with…
almarshall
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6 answers

How to drill a hole in a space too small to fit a standard manual or electric drill?

I have a very narrow kitchen cupboard I'd like to make some changes to (add shelves maybe). Almost any change will require drilling holes though, and there's not enough room for a standard electric or manual drill, so the first problem to solve is…
Highly Irregular
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5 answers

CO detector starts beeping every morning at 6am

My 2-years old CO detector (small, wall-mounted device with battery, no other power source) started beeping every morning for at least few minutes, sending sharp chirps once every 10 sec. It starts around 6am. I don't see any visible fire or cooking…
aaaaa says reinstate Monica
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How do you reduce floor sound transmission?

How do you reduce the sound transmission through a floor? Using "green glue" between a couple layers of plywood subfloor seems to work well. Are there any other tricks or suggestions?
jlpp
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Is it possible to convert a truss attic into living space?

What are some options for converting a trussed roof into living space? My understanding (please correct me if I am wrong) is that the following needs to be taken into consideration: proper floor joists need to be installed/sistered. Knee wall…
DA01
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Is white paint the same color regardless of the company?

I'm painting and have run out of the particular white paint I was using. I have some leftover white from a different room. Is there a way to tell if the white will be the same and match? Here are the two versions Ace Premium Royal Interior Wall +…
Jason
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6 answers

How to remove a shelf fastener with a round head and no slot

I have some shelving in my closet and it's screwed into the wall with fasteners that look like this (see image). It's a smooth circle and doesn't have any type of hole of slot on top. Is this a screw? If so, what kind of screw is this and how do i…
Kizzie
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How do I run ethernet, speaker wire, and coax through a wall into a crawlspace?

I would like to run three low-voltage cables from my entertainment center through an old plaster wall, down (1-3 feet) through the sill plate, and into the crawlspace. The cables are Ethernet, coaxial-something (for a roof mounted UHF/VHF TV antenna…
Stefan Lasiewski
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