I'm on the fence about replacing my deadbolt with a smart lock and want unfiltered opinions before I spend the money.

Specifically curious about:

1. Reliability over months/years (not just the honeymoon period)

2. Battery life and what happens when it dies

3. Whether you went keypad, app, fingerprint, or a mix — and what you'd choose again

4. Any security or privacy concerns that turned out to be real vs. overblown

If you regret it, I especially want to hear that. What broke, what annoyed you, what you didn't anticipate?

https://imgur.com/a/Oio8pzW

(Context) I got a new roof and paid ~$400 more for snazzier "cool roof shingles" that are supposed to reflect away the heat. I wanted to see if it made any difference at all. Afaict, the temperature seems to peak a little earlier in the day, and but it seems to cool down much faster.

Based on the data, would I say that the fancy shingles are doing what they promised? Nah, they were over hyped. But the fact that the heat load is shifting to hours where we're not at home, and the steeper cooling gradients that bring the attic to comfortable temps at ~5pmish (when we're actually home [and we don't have AC]), I think it's worth it.

The shingles in quesition are Malarkey Highlander Cool. I don't know what the old roof's shingles were, they weren't marked. Based on the previous owners' choices, I imagine they were the most budget shingles that money could buy.

My recommendation is that if you have a choice of the cool roof shingles, I'd buy it if it's a incremental cost. If the difference is in the thousands, I doubt they're worth it.

(Source) Myself. I've had a temperature sensor in my attic for a few years now

My family and I recently moved into a new home, and we absolutely love it. We spend most mornings and evenings outside playing in the backyard, so having a comfortable outdoor space matters a lot to us.
Our challenge is that the neighbor directly behind us (that also has their backyard facing ours) recently bought a camper that isn’t the most attractive, and they put out deer feed and corn twice a day. This brings 10–20 deer right to the border of our yards every single day. They also sit on their back porch often, and we feel like we’re just starting at each other. We’d like to create some privacy between our house and theirs, but we don’t want to install a full fence across the entire yard because the rest of the backyards are open and look great.
Planting bushes or trees doesn’t seem realistic since the deer would likely eat them before they ever mature. We’ve considered adding a partial privacy wall or screen, but we’re unsure if it would look out of place. There’s no HOA, so technically we have flexibility.
What would you recommend for creating privacy in a situation like this?

I have a little backroom in the basement, where the circuit breaker is etc. Theres also a sink. Theres no food or anything back there I can think would attract them, but theyve been everywhere in it since I moved in a year ago. I bought Terro Liquid bait, and have had traps all over that room pretty much the entire time. I periodically change the traps because they fill up with ant corpses, so they are eating the bait. but there hasn't been a noticible change in the amount of ants ever, so I'm both wondering why it isnt working, and what is attracting them to that room in the first place. I should also mention, when I first moved in there were ants also in the room next to it where I have my computer, but the traps worked perfectly in that room where I actually often have food. Any help/advice would be appreciated

Hello! We're in the pre-painting stage of a project where we have many exposed joists that will require coating. Unfortunately we've removed many old conduits which were installed over 50 years ago and left close to 100 holes in the joists throughout the project. I'm in need of filling these holes with a quick-drying, non-shrinking, sandable product that is not terribly expensive, and available in adequate quantities. I've had great luck with lightweight spackle in similar past situations, but the number of holes, and therefore the cubic inches needed for this project make the cost rather expensive. Does anyone have a product they can recommend for this situation?

Also, yes, I'm aware the holes are close to the bottom of the joists, but since they're so close to a load-bearing wall our engineer decided there's no bottom straps needed.

In short, background:

1. We have an easement for the power company, traverses the back of the property horizontally.
2. A power line goes along this easement. The poles are not on our property, just the wires.
3. Vertically, thus traversing the property outside the easement, we have some wires going to the neighbor, and some wires going into our house.
4. The power wires are fine - they are very high, well protected, well maintained.
5. But there's other wires that looks like coax or old telephone patch cables that are very low and pose a hazard: a jumping kid can easily touch them, balls, adults can stumble on them when mowing, less than 6' closer to the end of the property. (let's say it rains and they are wet, do I risk those wires conducting electricity if they're coming off an electric pole? I would hope/guess no?)

I also don't think they're used: my contractor checked on the ones going to the neighbor, and he noticed they were cut off and just hanging off his side of the fence, probably reason why they were so low on my property.

The wires going into my house... I don't need them either. I frankly don't know what they are, internet/video/etc is via fiber coming off the road.

How do I get them removed? My instinct would be to just pull the neighbor wire in from his fence (it's disconnected anyway, I'll of course check with him first), and just put a nice roll with the wire next to the pole. And do the same with mine: disconnect from the house, roll it up, put it at the bottom of the pole.

Any reason not to do this? Any proper way to do this?

Also, is it expected for flying wires to traverse your property outside an easement?

[California, Bay Area]

UPDATE 1: I went to the property, one cable is certainly an old telephone line, I followed it to the box, opened it, and there's a DSL adapter and wire that looks like telephone. Looks like AT&T. The other cable is coaxial, not sure whose it is, but I'd guess COMCAST given they're the only ones in the area. The coaxial cable has some tiny slim cable on top that looked almost like fiber, but it's cut off at the end and I think it's some sort of wire to support the weight of the coax? ending does not look like fiber, and it's tied around a metal hook - not connected.

UPDATE 2: I spent about 1 hour on the phone with AT&T to activate a fiber line, and asked about that wire. They told me explicitly that all they don't do any more copper based phone lines in my area, and that I can dispose of the wire any way I want (as long as I stay safe). Given I'm getting fiber installed, he recommends I talk with their technician once on my property and see if he can directly remove it.

I didn't notice this until yesterday when I was down there after all the rain and heard the trickle before I saw it.

Right next to a sump pit in the corner there is this hole in the wall that water is coming through, and it almost looks intentional. It isn't building up much, it seems to stay at the level shown in the video but to be honest I don't know where it's going. Haven't heard the sump run despite the one in the opposite corner running for a dehumidifier going into it. It has been trickling for like 24hrs at this point.

it seems like it's going down the french drains and not into the sump pit? Anyone have any info or advice?

There's water in the yard near this corner of the house. It's like 15-20ft away though, and I think the flower beds are graded away properly? I will investigate more

link to video

My girlfriend and I want to fix up the basement and we are both new to this kind of fixing up. The baseboards seem to be rotting or just falling apart and there are gaps between the concrete floor/wall and baseboards in some spots. The walls have yellow and dark areas around each corner and randoms spots. The paint seems to be falling off in a couple spots. https://imgur.com/a/NB0zUai

We would like to do it ourselves for the sake of saving money and also the gratification it brings. I have industrial construction knowledge but not sure where to start. Any tips on where to start and what I will need is appreciated.

I dont know the name for it but it's that plastic-like material that they put basically a bathtub over your existing bathtub and it covers the walls to help with moisture buildup.

The caulking is starting to come up/mold on some edges and the front of the bathtub part has some fairly big cracks in it. I'm just looking for ways I can avoid it fully falling apart.

We got it, idk how long ago and I don't have the information on where I got it/the company so I can't even contact them about some kind of warranty.

Hi everyone,

I recently bought this garage and I’m trying to figure out what would make the most sense to do with it before I start spending money on random improvements.

Photos are here:
https://imgur.com/a/vyxVkaM

It’s an older garage in an apartment building, around 20.6 m². The main purpose is obviously parking a car, and I’d like to keep it suitable for a bigger SUV in the future as well, so I don’t want to lose too much usable space. At the same time I’d like to make it look much cleaner, brighter and more organized than it does now, and have some storage for tools, car stuff, boxes, tires etc.

One thing is already decided and currently in progress. The existing metal doors will be removed and replaced with an electric roller garage door. The opening should end up around 250 cm wide and 200 cm high. Because of the new frame and roller door I’ll lose approximately 10 cm of width and around 10 cm of usable depth, so from that point on I’d like to keep any additional loss of space to a minimum.

As you can see from the photos, there are quite a few pipes and ducts running across the ceiling. Most of them are part of the building, so realistically I can’t relocate them. My first thought was just to leave them exposed, clean everything up and repaint the garage rather than trying to box everything in and lose even more ceiling height. I’m interested to hear what you would do with that because visually it’s probably the messiest part of the garage right now.

The floor is just old concrete at the moment. I’ve been looking at epoxy, garage floor tiles, concrete paint or simply repairing and sealing what’s already there, but I don’t really have a preference yet. I mainly want something durable, easy to clean and something that won’t start looking terrible after a couple of years of parking on it.

There are also some visible moisture/water stains on the ceiling and wall in one area. I definitely don’t plan to just paint over those. I want to find out where the moisture is coming from and get that sorted first. If anyone notices anything from the photos that looks particularly concerning, I’d be interested to hear it.

The electrical setup is pretty old as well. The garage does have its own electricity and three-phase power, so while I’m already doing work there I’m thinking about having an electrician clean up or replace the existing panel, add some more outlets and prepare wiring for a possible EV charger in the future.

Lighting is another thing I want to improve quite a lot. Right now it’s pretty basic. I’m thinking of several LED fixtures rather than one central light, ideally with the lights automatically coming on when the roller door opens or when someone enters the garage. I’d like it to be very bright when parking and getting things out of the car, but without having lights or other things hanging down unnecessarily because the ceiling isn’t particularly high to begin with.

For storage, I’m not sure what the smartest layout would be. I was thinking maybe shallow cabinets or shelves on the back wall, possibly some wall-mounted storage or a pegboard/slatwall on one side. I’d rather keep things off the floor wherever possible so the garage doesn’t slowly turn into a storage room where the car barely fits.

I’m also wondering whether you’d do anything additional for ventilation or humidity considering it’s inside an apartment building and there are already various ventilation/utility pipes running through it.

Basically, if this were your garage, what would you do first and what would you leave alone?

I’m not looking to turn it into a fancy workshop or spend a ridiculous amount of money on it. I’d just like it to feel clean, modern and practical, while keeping as much room as possible for the car.

Even simple suggestions like “paint everything white, epoxy the floor, put cabinets on this wall and leave the pipes exposed” are exactly the kind of feedback I’m looking for.

Feel free to refer to specific photos from the album or mark them up if you have a layout idea.

Thanks!

Hey everyone… is there a caulk that would work well to stick my vapor barrier to a block foundation in my crawl space? Was googling it but the answers were all over the place.

Need to replace this shut off valve.

Never seen the plastic piece before. This was done by the previous home owner.

Will the shut off valve screw off and I can just buy and screw a new replacement in?

https://imgur.com/a/uWsgJDv

I was wondering if I could get some help before we get help out here. Ever since my downstairs neighbors had moved in this awful almost gas like smell is coming from somewhere in my bathroom I don’t know if it’s the drains toilet or sink pipes but it’s just horrible and gives me dizzying headaches. I sent in a maintenance request but I don’t know how long I can handle this it’s horrid. There aren’t any leaks or anything but I for sure know it started very close to when our neighbors moved in downstairs. Thanks

Hi all, hoping someone familiar with Panasonic bath fans can tell me if this sounds normal or if I should be checking my ductwork.

I just installed a Panasonic RG-C811A in my master bathroom, replacing a builder-grade 50 CFM Air King. The new fan moves noticeably more air and passes a tissue test, but I’m hearing a fair amount of what sounds like uneven air turbulence/rushing noise.

What caught my attention is that when I switched the fan from 110 CFM to 80 CFM, it initially slowed down, but then ramped itself back up and ultimately sounded almost identical to the 110 CFM setting… same apparent fan speed and roughly the same noise level.

My understanding is that Panasonic’s SmartFlow system will increase fan speed to maintain the selected airflow when it encounters higher static pressure. If that’s correct, I’m wondering if this behavior is pointing to excessive restriction somewhere in my existing ductwork rather than simply normal fan noise.

For anyone familiar with these: does an 80 CFM setting ramping up this much suggest I should inspect the duct run, damper, termination, etc., or is this normal behavior for these fans?

Video of Fan Running

Hi

I am looking some advice regarding a home I am purchasing which has some major problems and I am looking for some pointers on what should be order of fixes.

Due to mortgage affordability this is the only house in my affordability which ticks all the boxes and I do have some reserve fund to get the work done slowly slowly (spread over 2 years) .

It has below problem and I am not sure the order in which fixes should be done and time frame like ASAP/in few weeks.

1. Flood history of 3 inches in basement/crawl space

2. Entire roof requires urgent replacement and its been leaking for few weeks (I can see damp walls etc)

3. New gutters are needed and old needs replacement.

4. Electric is original 70s and needs replacement

5. Interior decoration (replacing 2 old baths and paint work)

Not aware if the property has asbestos

I know it seems lot of work but the location and price point it too good to let go.

Many Thanks

I completely forgot to schedule maintenance this spring and somehow made it through the summer. Is it still worth getting a tune up now or do most people just wait until next year?

Hello everyone,

First time home owner here. Had a washer and dryer delivered by Costco. They couldn’t push the dryer all the way in because the pipe they had was hard to connect to the dryer vent box which is on the right side of the wall. The installer blamed the builder but I don’t know if I am missing something. Is there anything I can do to replace a vent part so that I can push the washer and dryer to be more flush against the wall? Here are pictures. Thank you!

Never had a gas water heater before. When this one runs its pretty loud and pops alkt and I can smell it running. 1 can smell like exhaust though the whole kitchen

I iust bought the house and have a home warranty the will come check it out for a fee but I1 don't know if thats just normal use

https://imgur.com/a/NEnhS0J

While troubleshooting electrical issues, we spotted this pipe in the ceiling of our laundry/utility room in our basement. It's uncapped and leads directly to the exterior of the house and has been there since before we bought the house four years ago. The house is 20 years old.

It's in the ceiling above where our w/d are, on the other side of the room from the HVAC system. I do know that the w/d were originally elsewhere in the basement before their current location.

I'm guessing I should cap the PVC pipe ASAP, right?

Hello,

I have a house built in 2007 with some nice, if not shabby looking, kitchen cabinets. I don’t really want to paint them, would much rather keep them looking natural.

What are some quick/easy/inexpensive ways to freshen up older cabinets?

https://imgur.com/a/FKfBhB9

Hey guys I hope you can help me with this. I have this wheel lock alarm thing that is installed above my tv that is installed at a crooked angle from when the condo was made. It is a huge eye sore and hate how it is not even straight (OCD I know). It’s the link below for the wheel lock.

https://www.amazon.com/WHEELOCK-MIZ-24S-W-Mini-Temporal-Continuous/dp/B08Z3DGVB6

I wanted to installed some wooden paneling in this area and was wondering if I can at least fix it or move it? I do own the condominium but I see some conflicting information online.

If it helps I live in Florida (Orlando area) and would love to figure this out. Thanks!

I was going to replace bathroom exhaust and notice whoever built this house in 2003 never put a duct but yet have a vent on roof. I was wondering why the roofer forgot to add a roof vent, had them come out to add it and they thought i was crazy. I dont know if their is even a hole in the roof. Who do i call to fix this? Roofer, hvac or electrician? Exhaust just been blowing into a ceiling cavity all these years.

I bought an old house that's mostly functional but this is the tub/shower in what's currently the only bathroom.

The plan is to add a 3/4 bathroom that I can use as the primary bathroom while I completely gut and remodel this one but I need this shower functional before I can do that. It doesn't have to be any variety of pretty, it just needs to work.

My first idea was to replace the whole faucet/shower head assembly but no combination of search terms I've tried has gotten me to those. So the next idea was to just get a couple of pieces of threaded pipe, a connector, and then stick a shower head on the end of it and figure out a way to fix the curtain rods. I found a 6' length of threaded rod that I think will work but I have been completely unable to find this wall mount flange and whatever this pipe connector is.

If anyone knows the terms for what I should be looking for here or if there's some ready made solution for this that I just haven't figured out how to search for, I'll take whatever I can get at this point.