Home Improvement

I'm not a fan of caulking toilets at all. Generally it looks like shit, and you want to know if your seal is leaking. And caulking doesn't do a fucking thing for a wobbling toilet.

Vinen_sl said:

Anyone have any experience soundproofing rooms from traffic, outside, etc? The house I purchased is on a busy street and one of the rooms gets some noise (not enough to block sleeping, etc). Wife and I are considering soundproofing it in the future. We were thinking Quietrock-530 and another pane of glass on the inside of our windows.

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I've used sound deadening material on outside walls over plywood and under the final finish, in this case it was cedar shake. I don't think it helped much. I would concentrate my efforts on the windows.

Picasso_sl said:

Going to record and publish a full journal article on caulk fixing my wobble

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Did you accidentally use bricklayer's mortar instead?

lurker_sl said:

I've used sound deadening material on outside walls over plywood and under the final finish, in this case it was cedar shake. I don't think it helped much. I would concentrate my efforts on the windows.

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Thanks for the heads up. This house was built in 1920, figure for now I'm going to have the pro's come out and look at the window frames in the spring once they can be caulked up. Noise is tolerable just want to plan on improving in the future.

Honestly, with curtains I think we can maintain ~45-50 db constantly which is perfect for me (I can't stand pure quiet...) My wife on the otherhand thrives in noise... friggen woman who grew up in Shanghai during it's massive growth period in the late 80s to mid 90s...

I freaking hate painting, but could not ever bring myself to pay someone to do it.
My hints:
remove everything in the room you are painting - It is a pain in the ass to paint around even covered up furniture
Work slow - get everything off the walls and Spackle any imperfections and next day you can sand evenly and prime.
Prime!! It make a huge difference and now premium paint will have primer included.
Get gloss pain for trim - mostly a preference for me as it make is very easy to clean in the future.
Good paint like many things cost more because its better.
I use eggshell for walls and I dont know why. Though bathrooms I use all gloss
I dont tent to use tape but if you do remove it while the paint is still wet or you will either: rip paint of with the tape or leave tape on the wall (especially in corners)
I start with walls first and I usually do 3 coats even if it says it is not necessary. Just seems like tiny imperfections will get covered by the layers of paint.
Then I do trim and ceiling.
My most important tip: Keep the lid of every color paint you have and label it with the exact room/wall the color is used in. That way you will be able to get the exact color of paint for a future touch up. Also if you go to Home Depot for the original paint go there for the touch up paint and maybe even write the store you bought it from on the lid as well. The different brands have an almost impossible time perfectly matching up an exact color where the correct store will just have to enter the code on the top of the can.

Good luck

dolaan_sl said:

I dont tent to use tape but if you do remove it while the paint is still wet or you will either: rip paint of with the tape or leave tape on the wall (especially in corners)
My most important tip: Keep the lid of every color paint you have and label it with the exact room/wall the color is used in.

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^^

Also, edgers are godly. Nobody told me about them until later is life, wtf!

I am a complete home improvement noob so need some advice. What does it take to rip out a carpet from a master bath and lay down some tiles? Is this something as a total noob I can do on my own? General idea of what the costs might be?

lindz_sl said:

I am a complete home improvement noob so need some advice. What does it take to rip out a carpet from a master bath and lay down some tiles? Is this something as a total noob I can do on my own? General idea of what the costs might be?

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WTF Carpet in a bathroom?

I really have nothing to add other then that.

lindz_sl said:

I am a complete home improvement noob so need some advice. What does it take to rip out a carpet from a master bath and lay down some tiles? Is this something as a total noob I can do on my own? General idea of what the costs might be?

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Ripping up carpet is easy. Putting down tile is time consuming and you have to be careful or you'll wind up with a crooked pattern. Tile is sold by the square foot ($2-$5 usually), pick out your tile, measure bathroom, that is basically going to be your cost. There are some ancillary costs but they aren't that expensive. Pretty simple DIY project.

Would vinyl be a better idea for someone totally new to this?

And yes carpet in the bath. I've lived in two houses IN A ROW now with carpet in the master bath and if we get this house, it will be the third. No idea why people choose to do that.

Add 10% generally to the amount of tile you'll need. This accounts for pieces you need to cut (The largest pain when DIY, esp. around the toilet drain), and will probably leave you with a few extra pieces to stick in storage. Mastic, tools, and spacers is all you really need after that. But I'd agree, laying tile is not as easy as putting together an IKEA product.

Edit: I can only imagine people put carpet in bathrooms in areas that get cold. I've never seen this as an issue as I don't get snow more than a few days every few years.

Vinyl is a hell of a lot easier than tile. It also looks like a 1970s ghetto. The only tool you need is a razor.

The carpet in bathrooms was a 70's thing I believe.

You'd be surprised at how decent vinyl looks nowadays. People always envision bad linoleum-like products from the 70s when you mention vinyl, but you can get vinyl that looks exactly like hardwood or tile from a distance. Obviously you'll feel the difference once you step on it, but to look at it from the doorway to the room you'd be hard pressed to tell the difference.

Vinyl Flooring, Vinyl Floor Tiles at The Home Depot

vinyl tile:


vinyl wood:


They even make vinyl "wood" floring that comes in planks, basically like big stickers that are the size of normal wooden flooring planks, and you fit them together just like you would a wood floor. Only at like 1/10th the cost.

My mom put down vinyl tile in her kitchen, looks similar to the first pic I linked above. She actually wanted vinyl over tile not only for price, but vinyl is also softer to stand on for long periods of time. Standing on wood or tile kitchens her whole life, her back would start to hurt when in the kitchen for hours cooking, the vinyl helps with that. She prefers that to having to put down rugs on a traditional tile/wood floor to stand on(and slide on)

Heck, there's even vinyl countertops nowadays that look just like granite or marble or any other high-end finish. The amount of crap they can make vinyl look like nowadays is pretty amazing. It's advanced a lot in recent years

vinyl countertop:


Damn, I sound like a vinyl industry shill, lol

Interesting, thanks for the link joeboo. I'll take a look at that. That might be a good alternative unless I want to do a contractor. I really don't trust my DIY skills for anything beyond minor repairs. Have you used the vinyl tile? How does it stand up vs tile?

And the carpet in the bathroom has been in our houses built in 1989 and 1996 and the potential new one is 1997. And this is Seattle so its not cold here either! Just weird.

Vinyl is pretty damn strong. Obviously not *quite* as strong as tile. The only issue my mother ran into was the people who installed her vinyl flooring(she's over 60, she's not doing anything herself, no matter how relatively easy) moved her fridge back on to it too quickly before the backing/glue dried. Something that heavy, like a full fridge, rolling on the vinyl caused a crease, and they had to re-do that section of her floor. It would have been a total non-issue had they waited 48 hours for the glue to dry like they were supposed to, but they didn't want to have to come back out in 2 days just to move her fridge back for her(she couldn't do it by herself)

so basically, try to avoid doing much on it for the first couple days after install, but then it's tough as nails. I'm sure you could probably puncture it if you really stabbed at it with a knife or screwdriver or something, but it's not going to get damaged through everyday wear and tear...especially in a bathroom, not near as much goes on in there compared to a kitchen floor.

I've seen a fair share of carpeted bathrooms.

If you're not planning on staying there long enough to have to replace it when it gets moldy it's actually not a terrible thing, I guess. Or if you're a designer with more concern for style than sense, I suppose. All I can ever think when I walk into one is "What a bacteria factory. I wonder if this carpet started green. I wonder if it startedshag".

And while the vinyl tile flooring itself might not be a TON cheaper (almost all vinyl time is $1-$1.50 a sq foot at Home Depot, vs $1 - $20 sq ft for tile), the install is where you save money. Nothing special needed to cut with other than an exacto knife(no tile wetsaw or anything), and no grout expense, no sealing to do, etc.