c/diy-and-reno

That time a drywall finisher told me I was wiping the mud too much

Guy walks over while I'm smoothing a joint for the fifth time and says 'ya keep wiping off the mud, not spreading it.' Turns out I was taking material off instead of leaving a thin coat. Has anyone else had a pro call them out on something they thought they were doing right?

Debate: Should you paint over old caulk or rip it all out first?

My buddy swears by just painting over cracking caulk in the bathroom, says it saves time and looks fine for a year. But after I tried that last winter, the whole thing peeled off in my shower in Silver Lake within 2 months. What do you guys do when you get feedback from someone who says your DIY shortcut is the way to go?

My shower valve started leaking at 2 AM last Saturday in Austin

I woke up to a dripping sound and found water pooling behind the tile. Tried tightening the packing nut first but it was already stripped. Ended up cutting out a section of drywall from the closet behind the shower to access the valve from the back side. Replaced the cartridge and had it fixed by noon but what a mess. Has anyone else had to deal with a shower valve that fails in the middle of the night?

Finished my basement with exactly 47 sheets of drywall and zero waste

I was framing out my basement in Columbus and somehow managed to cut every single 4x8 sheet so that I used every last scrap. I had 47 sheets total and the last piece I cut was exactly the right size for a weird little nook above the stairs. It felt like some kind of drywall miracle because I usually end up with a pile of unusable offcuts. Has anyone else pulled off a job where the math just worked out perfectly like that?

Tore out a brand new tile backsplash yesterday after a dumb mistake

I was tiling my kitchen in my 1950s bungalow in Des Moines. Spent 6 hours setting the subway tile on Sunday, looked great. Then Monday morning I noticed the entire row above the stove was a half inch lower than the rest. I must have bumped the laser level while grabbing a beer. Had to pull 12 tiles off, scrape the thinset, and redo it. Cost me an extra $40 in thinset and a whole afternoon. Has anyone else had to redo fresh tile because of a leveling screw up?

PSA: Took me 7 years to realize I was painting trim wrong the whole time

I was painting baseboards in my living room in Phoenix last weekend, normal stuff. My neighbor comes over, been a painter for 30 years. Watches me for like 2 minutes then says 'why are you brushing against the grain?' I had no idea what he meant. Turns out I was doing the final coat perpendicular to the wood grain every single time. Looked fine to me but he showed me his way - one smooth pass with the grain. No brush marks, no bumps. Felt like a complete idiot. Anyone else discover they've been messing up basic stuff for way too long?

First time using a planer on old barn wood, didnt expect that much tearout

I salvaged some oak beams from a torn down barn out near Abbotstown last weekend. Ran them through my Dewalt 735 for the first time and the tearout was way worse than I expected, like deep gouges on almost every board. Figured out I was taking too much off at once and the grain direction was all over the place. Anyone else have tricks for dealing with really old, gnarly wood that wants to fight back?

Burned out on using a roller for everything, finally caved and got a sprayer for my fence

I spent three weekends painting this 200 foot privacy fence with a roller. After the first Saturday my back was killing me and I still had like 80% left. Borrowed a buddy's Wagner sprayer finally and knocked out the whole thing in 4 hours flat. The finish is way more even too, no brush marks or drips. Has anyone else had that moment where you realize you've been doing something the hard way for no reason?

That $80 wet saw blade I thought was a bargain...

Picked up a cheap wet saw blade at a big box store for $80. Figured a brand name was just marketing hype. First cut on some 12x24 porcelain tile? Chattered like crazy. Second cut threw chunks out of the edge. By the third cut the blade was basically smooth. Took me an extra hour to clean up the mess and reset. Ended up driving back to the store and grabbing the $140 blade I should have bought first. The cheap one didn't save me money, it cost me time and materials. Anyone else learn this lesson with tile blades or another tool?

Pro tip: skipping primer on kitchen cabinets was a mistake I learned the hard way

I painted my maple cabinets with just two coats of latex paint last weekend, no primer. Now the stain is bleeding through and it looks like crap in the afternoon light. Anyone got a fix for this without sanding everything down again?

My neighbor the contractor made me question my whole approach to drywall mudding

I was telling him about how I spend hours sanding between coats to get it perfect, and he just laughed and said "you're fighting the mud instead of letting it work for you." He showed me how a slightly wetter mix and fewer passes actually gives a smoother finish. Has anyone else had a pro totally change how you do something you thought you had figured out?

My drip irrigation system failed and flooded half my raised beds

I came home from a weekend trip Sunday to find one of the emitters had popped off the line. Water was pooling around my tomato plants and two beds were completely soaked. I spent three hours digging trenches to redirect the water and replaced all the cheap push-fit connectors with proper threaded ones from the hardware store. Has anyone else had these plastic connectors fail after a season or two?

Took the old slate roof vs new synthetic. Picked the expensive one.

My house in Albany from 1920. Had to decide on a new roof 2 years back. Slate was $18k more. But the synthetic stuff just felt wrong on a house that old. Neighbor said I was nuts. 2 winters later. No cracks. No leaks. The synthetic roofs on the new builds down the street are already showing wear. Did I make the right call or just overpay for nostalgia?

Stripped wallpaper vs painted over it - which is actually dumber?

I tried stripping wallpaper in a 1920s house in Detroit and after 3 hours of steam and scraping I only got 4 square feet clean. My neighbor says just paint over it like he did, but won't that bubble up in a year? What's the smarter gamble here?

Set my saw too deep, blew a chunk out of a customer's baseboard

I was trimming out a living room in a new build over near Riverton. Thought I had my depth set right on the miter saw but I was off by maybe an eighth. Nicked the bottom of a brand new preprimed baseboard and it splintered up about 3 inches. Had to pull the whole board, cut a new one, and recaulk. Took an extra 45 minutes and I felt like an idiot the whole time. Anyone else had a brain fart with a saw setting that cost you more time than it should have?

My neighbor 'helped' me drywall and made a huge mess

So I was hanging drywall in my basement last Saturday and my neighbor Bob comes over saying he used to do this stuff. He grabbed my taping knife and started slapping mud on before I could stop him. He put it on way too thick and left giant ridges everywhere. Then he tried to sand it with a dry sponge and made this awful dust cloud that got into everything. Took me three extra hours the next day to scrape it all off and start over. Anyone else have a 'helpful' neighbor who made your project worse?

Tried using painters tape as a cheap substitute for drywall mesh on a crack repair

I had a hairline crack in my living room ceiling that kept coming back after every patch job, so last weekend I decided to try painters tape instead of buying proper mesh tape. The crack is about 2 feet long and the tape lifted right off when I applied the joint compound, leaving me with a mess to sand down. Has anyone else found a reliable way to handle stubborn ceiling cracks without spending a fortune on specialty supplies?

Hot take: power washing a deck vs. staining it first is a debate that cost me a whole weekend

Spent last Friday power washing my deck in Portland until the wood looked brand new, then my neighbor said I stripped all the natural protection out and should have stained it right away. The other side says let it dry for a week first. Which camp are you in after your own Reno jobs?

PSA: I found out that taping drywall joints wrong can cost you a whole afternoon in rework

I was reading a forum post from a guy in Denver who said most people skip the mudding step on the tapered edges of boards and just go straight to flat joints. I tried it on a small closet job here in Phoenix and had to sand for an extra hour because the paper edges bubbled up from being too wet. Turns out that pre-filling the tapered gaps with a thin layer of mud before taping actually saves time in the long run. Has anyone else learned a simple trick like this that seems backwards but really works?

Tried skip trowel texture after years of using orange peel and I'm never going back

Finally had enough of fixing orange peel touch ups in my rental, so I tried skip trowel on a 12x12 bedroom last weekend. It hides drywall patches way better and took me maybe half the time once I got the mud consistency right. Has anyone else made the switch and found it works better for older walls?

That day I tried to save $200 by renting a concrete mixer and ended up buried in mud for 6 hours straight

Just hit 500 drywall screws in a single day for the first time

I was patching up a ceiling in my garage in Denver and somehow got into such a rhythm that I ended up sinking 517 screws before my drill battery died, has anyone else ever gotten weirdly obsessed with hitting a certain count on a basic task?

Tried to fix a squeaky floor and drilled into a water pipe instead

I was in my hallway last Saturday trying to screw down a loose floorboard, heard a hiss, and realized I hit a 1/2 inch copper pipe. Now I've got a wet patch in my ceiling downstairs and a $200 plumber bill. Anybody else ever accidentally turn a 10 minute job into a whole weekend disaster?

Spent 4 hours trying to level a concrete floor for my shed base

I was setting up a 10x12 shed in my backyard near Austin, thought I could just pour some self-leveling compound and be done in an hour. Turns out the floor had a 2 inch slope from one corner to the other, way too much for that stuff to handle. Had to break out the grinder and diamond cup wheel, then do multiple thin pours over two days. Anyone else run into a floor that's way more unlevel than you expected?

Vent: neighbor's advice about painting over wallpaper was a disaster

My neighbor Bob told me to just paint over the wallpaper in my hallway instead of stripping it. Said he did it in his house and it looked fine. Three months later the wallpaper started bubbling up in these big ugly patches. Had to scrape it all off anyway plus deal with the paint mess. Anyone else had bad luck with this shortcut?