Since the stair post I did earlier was received better than I thought, I figured I'd share some shop and site pics of a pool house I built a few years ago. All the timbers were felled and sawn under a 5km radius from the shop.

side note: the mod(s) at r/milwaukeetool are fucken losers

Looking for input from someone, or if you know someone, who’s attended / completed the NBSS Preservation Carpentry course. I love the idea of learning from the course but the price tag of $60,000 is exorbitant to me. Was it worth it is and has it made an impact on your life are basically the questions I’m asking. Been in carpentry for 8 years and I admire the idea of preserving old homes / history but 60k is quite a chunk of change

Hello, as the title states, I’m looking for some guidance on repairing different components of my rear exterior door, as replacement would be several thousand dollars, my family cannot afford this at the moment.

I am relatively handy with a construction background however, I am a concrete repair and coatings guy, so my main issue would be techniques and terminology for some of these components, but otherwise I think this is within my scope.

I have attached some pictures and my issues are as follows:
Loose threshold(sill pan?)
Wood rot on lower sections of brickmoulding AND jambs
Wood rot and ugly ass but functional patch job on astragal(mullion)?

I am very appreciative of any advice. Thank you

First time making tongue and groove cabinet end panels. How did I do? What is your method to make these look like factory grade paint? I plan on spraying them and then attaching them to my cabinets. Do you all caulk the panels at all? If so that type of caulk.

Replacing treads and risers and not sure if I want to fill/paint the skirt boards or cover them somehow

Does anyone know where I could buy the clamp that holds the blade without the handle attached ?

Want to make my own handles but seems silly to knock the clamp out of a handle that works

Cabinetry company didn’t measure correctly so now I have cabinets are two different heights, roughly 0.5” off. Contractor installed the cabinets (except the crown) and didn’t add a 0.5” base to try to make the cabinet heights even. I ended up firing contractor due to his lack of attention to detail amongst many other things and I am attempting to install the crown molding on my own now.

Question I have for the group is how should install the crown given the situation I am in? It’s a 2 pieces stacked crown so I have a crown riser and then a cove crown. The distance between cabinet box and ceiling is roughly 4” and crown cove is 3” tall so only 1” of the crown riser will show.

1. The easiest way for me to install the crown is to have the crown riser be flush with the cabinet face frame (so then the different in heights won’t matter with the inside mitre), then I would just have crown cove on top on that which would hide any differences in height. Potential issue is that having it flush means it could look sloppy with the line between the cabinet box and the crown riser.

2. Installing crown bumped out to match door fronts, and on the sides out by 1/4” but then the crown riser will have a small hole on the inside mitre due to difference in height of cabinets. Thinking I can just I could caulk the hole?

3. Adding a 1/2” of wood to the top (or unscrewing cabinets and adding to bottom base) to make the cabinet heights even. Issue will be the small visible strip of wood above or below the cabinets (which is sitting on top of countertops).

Open to any other suggestions that you may have! Thanks in advance!

Has anyone seen or done anything more appealing then metal window wells for basement windows?

I have this joint where my trim meets drywall on a perpendicular angle, I will have more trim on the face of the bare studs going down vertical. Need advice/ideas on what I should do to make this look clean, thanks!

Hi folks, I'm searching for a specific tools to enrich my current setup. As my side business (kitchen, closets, etc) is starting to grow, I need to invest in some tools.

I live in one of Balkans states where the main chipwood suppliers is company named Elgrad. They do the most of work, but there are always some things you have to do at the customer's place.

So, I need these tools: a plunge saw, a concrete drill hammer (SDS) and preferably an angle cutting saw for making those ends around the cabinets under the stairs and under roofs.

My goal is to spend enough money for good set of tools, but not to overspend for something like Festool, etc. because at this stage I don't want to spend too much. As far as I'm informed, I fall somewhere between Bosch Pro, Makita, DeWalt and Metabo.

Battery or not, less important.

I'd like to hear which models will suit my needs the best. I'm targeting something between 700 and 1000€ for all.

Thanks in advance.

I’m installing some cabinets next to this wall, and I had to cut the baseboards to make the cabinets flush with the wall. I’m patching and painting the bottom of the wall where the moldings came off. Currently my plan is to use wood filler to smooth the edge of the molding and paint it. Is there a better idea than that?

I just want to gather some opinions here. A relative told me that it’s sufficient to install ledger boards for closet shelving with just glue and brad nails. He thinks that the glue is sufficient. I disagree and always aim to screw into studs (and glue) to maximize the capacity of each shelf. What do you all think?

My house has plastic between the studs and the t1-11 . I’m planning on replacing the windows with new construction windows on the house and then putting siding over the t1-11 . Just feels like I should do some kind of permeable house wrap when I do the flashing tape on the windows but ive heard that 2 vapor barrier is a bad idea . Is flashing tape and drip cap good enough ?

Hey all, new homeowner here and I am embarking on a journey to fix my shed which has rotting rafter tails and rotting sheathing.

One rafter in particular has rotted all the way back to inside the shed about an inch.

There are also 2x6 blocks that are just shoved in between the rafters that sit on top of the wall frames that are somewhat rotted (not sure what those blocks are called) inside fascia maybe?

My plan is to rip up the shingles, cut away the half sheet of plywood that is rotted away back behind the rotted rafters, and then sister nearly all of the rafters.

I wanted to know if for rafter tails that are only partially rotted, is sistering necessary? And if not, how can I “repair” them without sistering.

Any and all advice about what I’m about to embark on, and any helpful YouTube guides you might recommend are appreciated.

TL;DR: Had a contractor install a new garage-to-house fire door. It creaks loudly, one hinge is missing a screw and isn't sitting flush, and the spring hinges won't fully close the door unless other exterior doors are open. Is this normal and outside of their responsibility?

We recently had a contractor install a Masonite 20-minute fire-rated steel door between our garage and mudroom, and I'm trying to figure out if I'm being too picky or if something isn't right with the installation.

The door makes a pretty noticeable creaking/groaning noise whenever it's opened or closed. It's not the usual squeaky hinge sound, and I've tried white lithium grease without any improvement.

The bigger issue is that the spring hinges won't close the door all the way unless it's opened almost completely. If you open it partway and let go, it'll swing shut but stop when it hits the weatherstripping without latching.

I did notice that if I leave the overhead garage door and exterior door open, it closes much better. With everything closed like it normally would be, it doesn't. The contractor says it's just air pressure and that he can't change the physics of the house.

I also noticed one hinge is missing a screw (the other two have all four), and doesn't seem to be sitting completely flush against the frame.

The contractor says the creaking is normal because of the tension in the spring hinges, but I'm having a hard time believing that's the whole explanation.

I'm not a door expert, so maybe I'm wrong here. But I'd think a newly installed door should close properly without having to leave other doors open, and I wouldn't expect it to creak this much.

For anyone who installs doors, does this sound normal? Is air pressure really something the installer can't do anything about, or should they be checking the hinge adjustment, frame alignment, etc.?

I'll attach some pictures of the hinges and a video of the door opening and closing.

https://imgur.com/a/LKA2QCL

My upper floor is carpeted. I’ve pulled the carpet off the stairs. The top landing ends in a prefect square with no nose. I’ve installed all new stair treads and risers. I’m stuck on how to transition the top carpet down to the wooden riser. I have 3 risers and 2 treads left to install but I’ve stalled on how to do the transition. Ive stumped chat gpt

I left the water on, in the sink with the stopper in, the other day. I'll spare you all the math but long story short I calculated the amount of water that I did not get back off of the floor and I believe it to be 5 gallons or less.

I live in an apartment so I cannot just tear up the floor which is vinyl plank. There was a spot below me that had water come through the drywall and the apartment management just put a dehumidifier and a fan down there for a few days and called it good.

I have expressed that it's my fault and I'm willing to pay to correct it, and I want this looked into properly because I don't want anyone to live in mold and they just do not want to do anything.

So my question is non destructive only what moisture meter or flir camera etc can I use to best determine if there is an issue so I can get them to act?

I do not know for sure how this place is constructed but I have the vynil plank I am sure the underlayment is probably osb then a cavity with insulation in the floor and under that is the neighbor below drywall. This is all a guess though.

Thank you

Okay help me out here. Need to replace ALL of this as unfortunately the top plates, beam and studs have some major rot in several sections. The entire wall is 32ft and I plan on doing it in 3 sections at a time. It's just a pony wall mind you no structural framing.

How should I go about doing this?

I already have bottle jacks on cement blocks with a beam to support it from the inside just to relive pressure. My plan is to take out 12ft sections entirely, cut a bunch of studs (33inches seems to be the average size give or take). Nail the studs in either 16" OC or 12" OC. Replace the 4x4 posts with 6x6 and add gussets to them. Then start sliding in the top plates and beam.

One part I'm having a hard time visualizing is if I should stagger the plates and top beam and if so how I'd go about doing that.

Any and all insight would be much help!!

For all you trim folks who regularly install over exposed SOG floors, are you leaving any kind of air gap between the baseboard/bottom of casing legs and the concrete to prevent moisture issues?

Does your answer change if the material is stain vs paint grade?

I don't see slab floors very often, so I'm not sure what's customary. Seems wise to leave a gap. Also seems like it wouldn't look great.

I am attempting to level a floor that used to be the back porch of the house I live in. The previous owner built a room and used the slab. The grade was never fixed, so there is roughly a 1.5 % grade in two directions (from one corner to the opposite corner). I want to level the floor without raising it too much. I plan to rip the 2x4s lengthwise to compensate for the grade in one direction while angling the blade to compensate for the grade in the other direction. I will put 1 inch this plywood down once the 2x4s are cut and placed. Is this feasible? Is there an easier way? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Was going through older pics on my phone and found those stairs I built last year. Did a full scale drawing on the floor on site. "Escaliers balancés". There were two sets, from basement to second floor.