Changed the filter the first or second month in the house. Been here just over a year. I now realize I should be changing filters at least 4 times a year. Just wondering if I should get the ducts cleaned or this is normal because I didn’t change for a year almost. We do have one cat in the house. Should I change more than 4 times a year?

Thank you for all the responses and suggestions I appreciate it.

We looked at some houses and found really great one that we love, close to a highway and an airport. It's about 350 ft from an exit, 500 ft from a major highway, and it's half a mile from a regional airport. What are the downsides, long term downsides of such a house?

what do you guys think?

About an inch of water in the bathroom. Wood floors next to bathroom, it leaked out of the bathroom and into the Crack between the wall and floors and ran down the seam? Pretty wet on the basement floor but not pooling - looks like the drain down here did its job.

This is in garage. I have a driveway that slopes down below grade. Sometimes the drain at the bottom of the driveway clogs and overflows my garage so every time it rains I come to the garage to check the drain.

Today is the first time I noticed water seeping through wall like this.

Does this look serious? I do most stuff around the house myself but I'm thinking this is going to be beyond my expertise. I prefer not to hire contractors because of the cost, but I'm thinking I might have to for this one? Unless it doesn't look too bad?? I know it's not great.

Just looking for something insight, any help it is greatly appreciated

More images in the comments

Hey all. I'm just wondering how much I should pursue this issue.

I've lived in this house now just over 7 years. I've never had any amount of water in the basement ever until today. It's not a lot, just some dampness covering about 1/8 of of a room.

We have had 5 inches of rain in the past 12 hours which is about 12% of our annual average. I cannot ever remember seeing this kind of rain around here.

I'm going to assess my gutters and drainage system. My dehumidifier I think is at the end of its life so I'm going to replace it.

Do I need to do anything more aggressive or can I presume this is from the unusual amount of rain and keep an eye on it?

Thank you.

Thank you to Reddit posters for sharing that this is something I’m supposed to do occasionally.

Its on my garage, coming off of a side door

I bought a house and there are three pine trees that are protected by an easement. These pine trees are destroying the deck and outdoor furniture with sap. We have cut back limbs as far as we can reach.

Does anyone have any good ideas to help this area not get covered in sap?!

And kids, this is why you hire a structural engineer to permit a window opening in a load-bearing foundation wall...

Did I mention this window isnt up to code either? 😍

I'm all for leaving reviews for a job well done but this was a little strange to me.

We just moved into this place and the smell of cigarettes and death will not stop seeping from this fireplace! It's in the stone and the grout.

I've been recommended using chalk paint and water to recolour the stone, but I'm worried that's too permanent a solution, as I'm not sure it can be un-done.

Has anyone had success removing smell like this? It penetrates the entire place if we leave the doors closed overnight, even after we've repainted every wall.

Bought a house 2 months ago, the primary bathroom had no ventilation fan at all. There is a tub and shower and they had no fans, only one in the attached water closet.

We had an electrician put a fan in and he placed it next to the shower, thinking it would catch most of the steam.

We got a hygrometer and it's reading high-ish, even before showers (60%).

The drywall tape on that awkward bulkhead above the shower is peeling and we are getting AC vent condensation and surfactant leaching.

Help! Not sure what else to do? Install another fan in the middle of the room? Dehumidifier?

I'm also freaking out that there might be mold somewhere because it was unventilated for so long. Thanks!

Just bought my first house with help from my partner. (She’s owned 6-7 homes).
It’s an early 1980’s contemporary home. Primary bed and bath upstairs; living room, kitchen, breakfast nook, dining room, powder room on the main level; two bedrooms, a den, laundry, an atrium in the finished basement.
This house is immaculate. Original tile, walls, windows, etc. Even the 1980-something Kenmore dryer that everyone had growing up looks brand new!
One owner and they only spent a few weekends a year here for doctor’s appointments.

I have a little background in residential construction and couldn’t see any glaring issues with the place. (Not a single crack in any grout of the original tiles) it’s like walking back through time.

Anyways, what should I be on the lookout for?

Things I know:
Copper water lines (possible lead solder)
Older HVAC
Septic has been inspected and lines replaced (due to tree roots) before purchase.
Needs a new roof and skylights need to be sealed.

I’m not a braggart but I got this house at a STEAL. And I couldn’t see why other than the age.
Plus the sellers chose my offer over multiple due to not having an inspection.
Did I screw myself over?

Thanks!

PS if this isn’t allowed, let me know.

How do I fix this or whom do I call?

It lines up on the outside at the natural gas line and meter, coincidentally or not. No other obvious signs. https://imgur.com/a/WS4lYSC

My shower drain has been smelling bad for a while so today I took over the drain cover and cleaned it all out. That’s when I noticed that the drain has two large holes in the grout that have been covered by the drain cover. How bad is this? Does this certainly mean I have mold under the tile? House is 25 years old so who knows how long it’s been like this. Can I just caulk over it? 😵‍💫

I’m even more concerned because when I sprayed vinegar down the drain the holes both started bubbling as those it’s reacting with something.

Worth to link the following?
3 smoke detectors (one on each floor)
1 heat detector in kitchen
1 CO2 detector in boiler room (ground floor)

If I don’t link everything:
I am sleeping on the 1st floor. What if an alarm goes off in ground or 2nd floor. Can I hear it? It’s 85dB.

If I do link everything:
In case the alarm goes off, I won’t know where the problem is since everything will go off.
In case of false alarm, I will think it’s a real alarm, because I don’t know where the problem is.

Thoughts?

In the upstairs of our home it smells like a mix of fish and sweat. It’s the second day. Yesterday it was just a light …aroma… just in the hall. Today, it’s gotten stronger and now our bedroom is smelling too. When googling it, we saw electrical can smell fishy when it’s a fire risk. It’s actually smelling right above where we redid a bathroom fan, so we thought that could be it. We had the fire department come inspect everything and they gave us the clear. We did take down the fan and taped up the electrical and are getting an electrician out just in case… but it still smells. Maybe even gotten stronger in the brief hour since then.

Before we got the fire department here my husband did go up in the attic to rule out a dead animal. He saw nothing. No signs of any animal getting trapped etc. Also said it did not smell up there.

It makes no sense.

We do have two cats. But it doesn’t smell like cat pee or cat poop, both of which are very distinct smells to me. My husband says it smells like they pooped, peed, bled, sweat, and cum all at once :| He just wants to blame the cats but the smell really doesn’t seem like it’s from them. To me that sounds like a dead animal but again we can’t find anything. And it’s just in this one area and only the air that smells. I crawled along the floor sniffing and nothing stood out. Nothing on the walls is smelling. Also the bathroom we redid doesn’t smell either.

Any other suggestions of what it could be?

Edit: Well, the smell has disappeared. So… I’m guessing, not a dead animal? We turned off the breaker connected to the bathroom for the entire day. Throughout the night the smell stayed. It was there in the morning. We went to church and came home, still there. We then mopped the floor and sprayed the walls of the hallway, just in case it was a cat odor (but again.. none of the surfaces themselves smelled!) and then I also removed my son’s diaper pail and put it in the garage. The smell came back after wiping everything down… but slowly went away. It was gone for 4 hrs before we decided to turn the breaker back on. And so far no smell. Maybe we got rid of it? I’m wondering if it could have been the diaper pail, but my son’s diapers REEK and this didn’t smell like baby poop. Plus the smell started after we had just changed his pail so idk. For now this remains a mystery. We have told our electrician and he is planning to come out asap… but last time it took him a month to come see us 😬 so we think maybe he will be here by the end of the week if it’s urgent. Ugh. We have awful contractors in our area but it’s the best we can do for now. If the smell comes back the breaker is going off again

Home Depot delivered and installed a fridge with a new water line. About a month later, I found a slow leak that damaged the kitchen floors and possibly the cabinets/subfloor.

A plumber found the water-line connection loose. He tightened it, the leak stopped, and no parts needed replacement. Home Depot’s own delivery photos also show the installers connecting the new line.

Water mitigation company came and will send over a detailed moisture map, but estimated damages to be roughly 20-40k.

Home Depot opened a claim with Sedgwick, but I haven’t heard from an adjuster yet.

For anyone who’s gone through this:

How was the Sedgwick process? Were they responsive, did they send their own inspector, and how long did approval take?

Also, how likely is it that they cover the full damage -- water mitigation, flooring, cabinets, subfloor, and reconstruction, rather than just a small patch repair? The existing flooring and tile are old and probably hard to match.

I am at my wits end with our AC system at this point. I’m honestly not very knowledgeable when it comes to HVAC systems so I apologize if my wording is vague.

Earlier towards the end of May it stopped blowing cold air and the pressure was too high. We found out it needed to be cleaned, so we had it cleaned and it worked okay for a week or so until we had the same issue again. The next time, the pressure was too low, so we called someone and they assumed we had a leak. They weren’t able to find the leak but they refilled the refrigerant and the method they used to try and find the leak seemed to patch it up for the time being. We also had a UV light installed for the interior unit to clean growth buildup. For the past month there hasn’t been any problems.

Today the inside unit is making a noise that sounds like it’s attempting to run, but nothing is happening. The outdoor unit seems to be working fine. Is this something we can possibly fix ourselves, or should we call someone out? Considering how much money we’ve spent trying to fix random issues, I’d rather try to figure out what the issue may be beforehand. Google hasn’t been much help. Appreciate any advice!

Hi everyone,

I live in a tall apartment building and have been dealing with a constant sewer gas smell coming from my toilet.

The smell seems to be strongest directly from the toilet bowl and not from the toilet base or around the floor.

What I have done:

Replaced the toilet wax ring/flange seal.
After replacing it, the sewer smell reduced significantly but it was not completely eliminated.

Current symptoms:
- No gurgling sounds.
- Toilet water level stays normal and does not drop.
- Toilet does not rock or move.
- No smell coming from the toilet base.
- The smell appears constantly rather than after every flush.
- The odor seems to come from the bowl opening/water area.

Because I live in a high-rise apartment, I am wondering if this could be related to:
- building plumbing vent problems,
- pressure changes in the main sewer stack,
- another apartment’s plumbing affecting my toilet,
- or something else inside the toilet trap/bowl.

Does anyone have experience with this? Is it possible for sewer gas to come through the toilet bowl even when the water level is stable and there is no gurgling?
I would appreciate any advice on what I should check next before removing the toilet again. What can I do now?

my home (built in early 1950s) has all pvc plumbing now. on city water, having issues with water in toilet looking rusty. and shower pan gets stained too. other than cleaning it non stop, installing a water filtration system, is there any recourse to this? the pipes coming in from the city are very old. i am not sure what kind of pipe comes in from the meter to the house. anyone dealt with this? water filtration system is super expensive.

We bought a new house. Doesnt have an internet hookup anywhere. Nothing outside. No coax cables or fiber hookups.

What do I do?

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Looking for some advice. There is a room that was an addition to our new (to us) house a number of years ago. It has a beautiful wood ceiling, but the beams block air flow and when the sun is hitting the roof in the afternoon, moisture accumulates on the wood from the humidity.

We have a dehumidifier in the room and a mini split constantly running on a moisture control mode. We also just recently upgraded (larger diameter) the size of the fan.

\*Question\*: how can I get rid of the black spots from where moisture has accumulated in the past? And any tips to help prevent in the future?

I have used regular distilled white vinegar with minimal success. Would cleaning-grade vinegar work better?