Home Improvement Forum

My 2 cents here. I had same situation in my 30x15 family room. Asbestos tile and mastic. I had it professionally removed. However the guy doing it also mentioned that you have to do a lot to release any harmful amount in the air. One small area wont do anything. Just spray with water if you need to ...

Hey Shannon, I was wondering if you guys have plans on doing a video for basement window replacement? Setting replacement window in cinder blocks for example. For example my old windows are all made out of wood so no wood buck was used. However new one can be either be placed in with a buck or direc...

Thank you guys. As always your guys are super helpful

Thanks Guys. There is only room for a single top plate. As for the sloped sill. Would it make sense to mimic the slop to allow morr light in? It is definitely easier to frame it like a normal window and have a flat sill but the slope provides better lighting. Thoughts?

Hey Shannon, I have 3 basement windows in my family room. The family has no framing and it was tiled and all. I ripped out all of that out in order the frame the walls so it is more comfortable and nicer. However the interior sill is slanted. Any ideas on how to frame and install window jambs? I cou...

I believe it is orginal to the house. The confusing part is that i can see the nails on the top but not the vertical studs. I guess they did a better job filling the holes in some location. I think i need to open it up a bit more to see. Thanks

Hey Shannon. That is what Is suspect. It is solid wood but i do not see in filled holes except on the horizontal board on top. Yup joists are parallel to it however this is next to a staircase and there is a closet above it. It is most likely supported by some double joists and headers exactly like ...

Hey guys, I have this opening between the foyer and the livingroom. I have a hard time understanding the composition of it. I think this is a load bearing wall (most likely). The joists run parallel to it but there is wall exactly on top of this, pretty much copy of it which supports the second floo...

Fyi im in St Paul. Not as cold as the northern MN but still colder than other places

Hey, Is the garage heated? I recently fixed my garage due to framing rot. I talked to Shannon and guys here and decided to go with my original thought of Rockwool. I pulled a permit. Here is what the inspector suggested. Garages get wet mostly. You don't want to make an air tight space in there. You...

Thanks for all the responses. I think im going to stick with mineral wool. This water issue has been annoying and very hard to find

@clarence. Thanks a lot for responding to the water issues. It is much appreaciated.

Hopefully someone can chime in on the insulation

Thanks for the clarification. I did not see any weep holes when I was sealing the gap. I understand that it is really not a hole and more of a drainage path. Just wanted to clarify that I just not plugged any hole I saw. I see a lot or moisture around the snow hood I have. My hvac buddy will come ou...

No weep holes at the bottom of the wall. The brick extends down the sidewall by anch or two. This is a solid brick exterior and not veneer. This framing sits lower than rest of house. Id say the footer are the same height. The house itself sits on the rim joists which raises the floor about 10 inche...

Oh wow. Sorry guys. I did not get any notifications. You are right. I give it 20 inches deep. In my area frost line is 42 inches so i need to go 48 for sure. I think the footings are not attached to the slab as there is about an inch space. I think the slab is only 3 inches thick. I will do work on ...

Pic of wet area. This is the closer area to that vent. This is a step and there is a gap between the concerete step and the framing. Most of moisture is seen here

More pics

Hey guys and gals, So here is the issue I have. Back in December I recognized that a section of drywall in the garage was wet and soaked. So i took it off to let dry. I pin pointed the issue as an old slab which was not sloped properly. All the water from the tires would pool up in that corner. I de...

Few questions, you mentioned stem on top with 1x4s but you mentioned inside the sonotube. What do you mean by that? I was thinking of having the sonotube inside the box but what you suggested is the reverse. Sorry I am pretty bad with terms. If you need a 12" sonotube for the footing, and a 4x6 box...

I also found the deck requirements in St. Paul. Minimum width is 8 inches, not 12. Tube type forms are also recommended for for top portion of pier.

Thanks Spruce. You and Shannon have always been super helpful. Yeah, the issue is that we bought the house last year and previous owners were really old and could not keep up with most things. First thing I realized was how the soil wrap around the post. Second thing was that over time they added di...

Hey guys, Just wanted to get some ideas from you. This patio has been set in place for more than 20 years. I think they used red cedar or some sort of pressure treated lumber. The posts are buried in concerete. Not sure how deep. Some of the concerete started to crumble. However almost all of them s...

I like the hitachi one. The max nail Hitachi offers is 3.25 x 0.131. The gun accepts up to 3.5

Thanks for the reply. I though about hand nailing but everyone pretty much told me not to, citing the reason that one needs to be skilled to do it. I dont have that many walls. 3 in total. Maybe 50 feet long. I have a finish and brad nailer for trim work. I agree with good tools. I will look at the ...

Ps. Two 16d nails for end nailing studs to top and bottom plate.

Hi Shannon, Question regarding nail sizes for basmenet walls. The local code in my city requires 16d box nails which are 3.5" x 0.131" I can see that most nail guns run up to 0.131 for shanl diameter. I also have a really harx time finding any nails around my state. I can find 3.5 x 0.131 but only f...

As always, thank you very much.

One more thing I forgot. Framing advise on one wall which rungs parallel to the joist. I have a round HVAC duct running in that space. There is really no space to add blocking unless I attached the blocking under the joists rather than in between them. I kind of dont like this. Would it be acceptabl...

Hi Shannon, I am back with few questions. 1) I see a lot of arguments regarding framing with screws vs nails. Many argue that nails (16d) has better strengthen while screws can snap since they do not have great shear strength. Looking at GRK R4 framing screws, I can see the data sheet showing shear ...