Questions tagged [remodeling]
The remodeling tag has no usage guidance.
305 questions
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Can I demo plaster walls but somehow keep the window casing?
My house was built in 1915. It has cracked (original?) plaster over lathe, poor insulation, leaded paint, and knob and tube wiring. To fix all of these things, I'm demo'ing the upstairs down to ...
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Does a drain pipe have to be in the floor/wall or can it run on top of floor underneath cabinets?
I'm renovating my kitchen on the second floor of my duplex, so there is a finished ceiling directly below it. The kitchen sink will be moved about 7 feet horizontally from where it is now. In the ...
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Can I add 8 more lights to a circuit?
I have a recessed light (75w) in one corner of my room (on 15 amps breaker) and I am thinking of the extending the input to this light circuitry to fill the room with 9 more bulbs.
I plan to arrange ...
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How can I remove a non-load bearing wall in my basement?
I have two small rooms in basement. I want to remove the common wall between the two and covert the resulting big room into a home theater.
What is the best way to remove the studs, wiring, etc.?
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Kitchen Remodel Order of Operations
We're looking into doing a basic remodel of our kitchen: replace current tile with new tile, reface cabinets (maybe replace a couple of cabinets), replace back-splash and replace the counter-top. We'...
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Is it possible to move a front door?
My family just moved into a new house and it's awkwardly laid out. We are planning on moving in another year or two and we want to fix up the house enough to profit from it, but to also make it as ...
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Do I NEED to remove the wood trim to sand and re-stain it?
I have 108 year old original wood trim throughout my house. Due to a roof leak last February, three rooms on my first floor need to have most of the (also 108 year old) plaster walls removed and ...
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Tools necessary for an efficient demo
Due to some water damage sustained last February caused by an ice dam induced roof leak, I have to remove and replace the 100 year old plaster in my dining room, kitchen, and bathroom. That, combined ...
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Should I put vapor barrier only on exterior wall of a bathroom?
I've been searching around the site and haven't found an answer for my question on where to place a vapor barrier so I'm hoping to get a little more clarity here.
Basically I'm in the home stretch of ...
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What's the recommended order for completing these bathroom remodel tasks?
I realize that this question is similar to What is the order of tasks when refitting a bathroom? but since I have some different projects, I thought it would be appropriate to ask in a separate ...
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Replacing old windows - how to make vapor barrier?
I'm replacing a couple windows in an 80 year old house. Not surprisingly, there is no house wrap or any kind of vapor barrier. It's 2x4 studs with 1/2" tongue and groove wood siding on the inside, ...
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What do as-built drawings need to look like?
For a permit for an office addition to our house in California we need to provide as-built drawings to the city. Among other things, they will use these plans to do title-24 energy calculations.
Are ...
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The best kind of tiles for using on floor and walls
I'm in the process of doing up a room in my home for short term rental. It is a small room, and approximately square; about 12.5 ft by 12.5 ft. This room is on the edge of a building; we normally ...
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How would I replace this wall?
I have a house that was built in 1950, when it was built, the garage was built 10 feet away from it. At some point in the last 60 years, someone closed the space (side walk area) between the house and ...
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Do I need builders risk insurance for a kitchen remodel
I am managing my own kitchen remodel which involves the following work:
Level subfloor
New porcelain tile floor
Replace load bearing wall with post and beam (under the direction and plans of a ...
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Do I need a special receptacle when more than the standard number of wires need to be connected?
I've got two regular wall outlets controlled by one single pole switch. I want to replace them with new ones, and thought I just needed to grab a couple duplex plugins for them.
Except there's more ...
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can I extend my open loft?
I own an open loft (I have open view to the living room from the second floor), however, I feel that I'm wasting a lot of space. I want to know if is possible to close the second story completely and ...
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How to adhere drywall to cinder block
I have just purchased a home which I will be renovating prior to moving in. The house was built in 1950 and has cinder block ex/interior walls. I have an area going into the hallway which attaches to ...
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Subfloors and stairs
It seems to me that many people put subfloors in their basements (and other floors), but what do they do when it comes to the existing stairs? I'm code says that you can't have more than 3/8" ...
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Can I rely on a simple gas valve to shut off the gas?
I have a gas pipe with a simple turn shut-off valve in line on the pipe feeding the section I need to work on. Is shutting it off there sufficient enough to do the work I need to do, or do I need to ...
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What kind of subfloor do most people use these days?
I've been reading tons on how to do a subfloor for my basement and I don't seem to be getting any closer to an answer. So far it looks like there are 4 ways to do this: (I'm stealing a good part of ...
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How do I improve the insulation in a vaulted ceiling?
I live in a twenty year old Florida condo quadplex. The upstairs ceilings are two by four trusses of a mansard roof.
I have replaced the ac, wall insulation, ducts. An IR thermometer shows huge heat ...
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Washer tray AND stand pipe with trap?
I am moving my washer and dryer up to my second floor. I plan on using a tray with a floor mounted shower type drain. Will there be enough room in the joist bay below to join the tray drain and the ...
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How can I install a sink/dishwasher in basement?
I am looking to finish my basement and as part of the renovation, I'd like to install a bar complete with a sink and dishwasher (and beer taps of course). Attached (once I get enough rep) is a ...
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How does the drywall meet a direct-to-tub surround edge?
Does the drywall get placed over the lip or meet at the lip?
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How do I secure the shower valve without removing tile?
The plumber didn't secure the new valve to the frame, so the shower valve and head were left loose and it is wiggling. The new tile is completed and we do not want to redo it.
What is the best way to ...
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Which comes first - Flooring or Kitchen Remodel?
My wife and I are going to upgrade multiple parts of our house but we really want two key areas completed first, but we're not sure where to start or if we should do then at the same time, which is ...
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How should I patch a popcorn ceiling?
I had to repair a corner joint between my kitchen and living ceiling (kitchen is ceiling lower than living room) by scraping the popcorn off of the kitchen ceiling and replacing a metal corner bead.
...
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How can I add two bathroom receptacles behind and above a vanity?
Background
I'm in the middle of a bathroom remodel, and had to take off some drywall to get the tub in, then thought I may as well take all the drywall on that side off to give me an easier taping ...
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How to repair this shower/bathroom wall for bathroom remodel.
I have a nasty bathroom downstairs. It looks like the previous owners built it over a floor drain, not entirely sure if this is a good thing or not (not even sure if that's what they did but see ...
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Is it code-legal to have a circuit breaker box within a storage room?
I am currently in the process of planning a room remodel to convert an existing bedroom into a home office and storage room. One thing that makes this conversion a little bit tricky, is the existence ...
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Should I use caulk or grout between the edge of a tiled bathroom floor and the walls?
I just tiled my bathroom floor. What should I put between the tiles and the walls, silicone or grout?
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How can I remove the tile from this wall?
Doing a tile removal on our master tub/shower. I'm pretty sure the tile is original to the house, which is 34 years old (1978). It's a 4 1/4 inch tile, that has been backed by dry wall. When I was ...
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When to stop a backsplash? [closed]
We have a kitchen with a U shaped with a peninsula that divides the kitchen and the living room/dining room. If the end of the peninsula is against a black wall, how far up the wall do we stop the ...
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How can I tell if a slab foundation can be built on?
I am purchasing a small one-story home built in 1955. I want to turn the garage into living space. The home sits on a crawlspace, but the garage is on a slab that was added to the side and abuts the ...
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How can I move a non load bearing wood frame wall?
I am remodeling my basement and want to move the location of a non-load bearing wall that is diving a section of my basement. Currently the wall is down to the bare wooden studs. The header was nailed ...
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What information do I need to size a sawn or hewn beam?
I have a load bearing wall in my house that a previous occupant decided to cut a hole in to make things feel more open. They did not add a header, much to my chagrin. I'm planning to put an exposed ...
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How far can I move ceiling joists up?
The second floor of our house has a fairly low ceiling, perhaps 6'8" or 6'10".
The width of the structure is only about 16' with standard construction and the ceiling joists running parallel to to the ...
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Should I choose cordless hammer drill for home improvement? I'm a green bird for it [closed]
I'm planning to do home remodeling all by myself and now I'm preparing for all the necessary tools.
When considering cordless hammer drill, I'm at a lost. I found that the cordless hammer drill was ...
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Why cordless hammer drill possess such few markets in Europe?What's the difference between hammer drill and impact drill? [closed]
Recently, I found in a GfK data report that cordless hammer drills have very little market share in Europe. But to my opinion, we use it very often when doing home improvement or building something. ...
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How should I convert a double sink to a single sink?
We are going to remodel our bathroom which currently has two sinks (and not that much cabinet/drawer storage) to a single sink with larger (and more) drawers for storage.
Under the current double ...
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What is the expense and difficulty of moving an exterior kitchen wall?
I'm considering a kitchen remodel, that is in the front-right corner of a house, and surrounded by a covered deck on both sides. The deck extends out 8ft in the front and 9ft on the right.
I'd like ...
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Can I install laminate flooring over linoleum which is torn?
I have a small hallway/entryway with cheap linoleum. (Approximately 8 ft by 3 ft.) Part of it is torn, exposing the concrete floor underneath.
I have enough laminate (simulated wood) flooring left ...
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Do products like Ditra make tile removal more complicated?
Products like DITRA are great to use when installing tile, but I can't help wondering what it'll be like to remove the tile later. Is it more difficult to remove tile that's been laid on this type of ...
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Do I have to check if my floor is level before installing new linoleum (from a roll, not tiles)?
I just tore up my old linoleum flooring and will be installing new linoleum in the next few days. Some internet research has revealed that I need to make sure the floor is level and, if it is not ...
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Which is least likely to crack due to high traffic, large or small tile?
Consider a kitchen on pier-beam flooring with two doors allowing traffic to flow through it.
The floor is 10x10 feet. I plan to tile and would like to minimize risk of cracking. Which size tile would ...
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Remodeling a pre-1920's home with planks on the interior walls
I own an older home in central PA; my guess it is pre-1920's and I was going to remodel the living room and insulate the walls and run new wiring. The walls are horse hair plaster; when I removed the ...
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Refrigerator enclosure dimensions
We are in the process of remodeling our kitchen. One of the bigger tasks is to take an existing tiny pantry area (10" deep) and expand it to become a refrigerator enclosure.
I know the standard ...
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Is having a window in a room that is below grade a requirement?
This would be in Charlotte, NC, Mecklenburg County. I vaguely remember hearing somewhere that rooms that are below grade are required to have a full size window in them or they can't be considered ...
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How common are wet rooms in the US?
I have a half bath to which I'd like to add a shower. It is quite small; currently, the smallest shower pan I've found (32"x32") is too large to fit. I've considered turning the entire room into a '...
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