c/diy-home-projects

Vent: My kitchen cabinets went from shiny to dull in under 3 months

I used a vinegar and water mix to clean them like my mom always did, and now the finish is completely ruined. Has anyone else had their cabinet coating get wrecked by acidic cleaners?

Vent: Refinished my kitchen countertops and they look worse than before

I spent 3 whole weekends sanding and applying epoxy to my laminate counters in my apartment near Cleveland. Followed every YouTube tutorial step by step, even bought a $60 heat gun to get bubbles out. Now 2 weeks later, there's yellow spots forming near the sink where I guess moisture got under the seal. Has anyone else dealt with epoxy yellowing after a diy job or did I just mess up the prep work?

My neighbor Bob insisted I use self-leveling compound under vinyl plank flooring. I didn't listen.

He's been doing floors for 30 years. I figured a few small dips wouldn't matter under floating click-lock planks. Six months later I've got three spots where the planks rock when you step on them and one seam split open. Now I'm pulling it all up and doing it his way. Anyone else ignore simple advice and pay for it later?

Found out the hard way why you shouldn't paint trim with wall paint

I painted my living room baseboards last weekend with the same flat paint I used on the walls. Looked fine at first but after 2 days it's already scuffed up from just walking past them. My buddy who does renovations told me trim paint needs to be semi-gloss or gloss because it's way harder and you can actually wipe it clean. I guess flat wall paint is too soft for stuff that gets bumped and touched all the time. Has anyone else made this mistake or found a cheap trim paint that holds up okay?

It took me 6 years to figure out I was using painter's tape wrong

I used to just slap blue tape on baseboards and call it good, then peel it off and pray. Last month I was doing a trim job in a 1950s bungalow and the homeowner watched me tape up for 30 seconds before asking why I wasn't pressing the edge down. She showed me how to run a putty knife along the tape edge to seal it, and now my lines don't bleed at all. Has anyone else had a basic skill click way later than it should have?

Just learned my paint roller covers have a lifetime and I'm shook

Found a dusty old roller in my garage and used it for a room repaint - big mistake. Looked up the label and apparently most rollers expire after like 2 years even if unopened. Anyone else ever use ancient painting gear and regret it?

Refinished my oak floors over a weekend and the difference is wild

My living room floors were looking rough after 10 years of dogs and kids. I finally sanded them down with a rental drum sander from Home Depot on a Saturday morning. Put down three coats of water-based polyurethane over the next two days and let it cure for a full week before moving furniture back. The before was this scratched up amber mess and now it looks like a brand new install from a flooring showroom. Total cost was around $200 for the sander rental, sandpaper, and polyurethane. Has anyone else tried refinishing their own hardwood floors and what finish did you use?

Tried using a heat gun instead of a putty knife to remove old wallpaper in my bathroom

I spent like 3 hours scraping wallpaper in my tiny bathroom last weekend and got maybe 4 square feet done. My buddy suggested I try a heat gun on a low setting so I grabbed one from Harbor Freight for $15. Held it like 6 inches away for a few seconds on each section and the paper just peeled off in huge strips without any damage to the drywall underneath. The whole room took me under an hour after that. Has anyone else had good luck with heat for stubborn wallpaper or did I just get lucky with the type of glue they used?

Tried painting my kitchen cabinets without sanding them first. Big mistake or worth it?

I watched like 5 YouTube videos saying liquid sanding deglosser works just as good as actual sanding. So I went for it on my oak cabinets last Saturday, used the deglosser and a good primer. After 2 days the paint is peeling off in spots where the old finish was really shiny. Now I'm wondering if I just used a cheap deglosser or if sanding is the only real way. Anyone else try deglosser and have it work out better?

My neighbor Bob swears by using baking soda to fix any squeaky floorboard

I tried his trick on three different boards in my hallway and now the one by the bathroom door squeaks twice as loud as before, so has anyone else had a DIY home guru give advice that totally backfired?

Built a floating shelf last weekend and realized I've been using the wrong anchors for 20 years

My old shelf in the living room kept pulling off the wall, so I tried those toggle bolts instead of plastic anchors and it's rock solid now. Anyone else find out way late that they were using the wrong hardware for drywall?

Thought I could paint a room in one afternoon, then the drywall repairs happened

I was dead set on painting my living room last Saturday. Figured I'd be done by dinner time, easy. Then I pulled off the old switch plate covers and saw the patchy drywall around every outlet. My dog had also put a small dent in the wall last month that I kept ignoring. I spent the first three hours scraping, filling, sanding, and priming those spots alone. By the time I actually rolled the first coat of paint on, it was 5pm and my arm was dead. The whole project took closer to ten hours across two days instead of the four I planned. Has anyone else had a simple paint job turn into half a weekend because of hidden wall damage?

My big debate: paint sprayer vs roller for kitchen cabinets, I tried both

So I redid my kitchen cabinets last month in my house outside Nashville and I was torn between using a paint sprayer or just sticking with rollers and brushes. I started with the sprayer on the first set of doors thinking it would be faster and look smoother. Honestly it did come out looking like a factory finish but the overspray was a nightmare and I spent hours taping everything off. Then I tried a high density foam roller on the other half and it took longer but cleanup was so much easier and I didn't have to cover my whole kitchen in plastic. Now I'm wondering which way is really better for a regular DIY person. Has anyone else gone back and forth on this and found a clear winner for cabinet jobs?

My basement floor looked like a cracked desert for 8 years

I finally poured a self-leveling concrete overlay over a long weekend last month and the difference is insane, the old floor had these deep fissures from when the house settled back in 2016. After 3 days of work and about $200 in materials, it looks like a brand new slab with no cracks at all. Has anyone else tried coating their concrete instead of tearing it out?

Warning: those cheap plastic outlet spacers can crack your drywall

So I was swapping out light switches in my 1920s house last weekend, and the old boxes are set back way too deep. Picked up a pack of those plastic outlet spacers from Home Depot for like 3 bucks. I was stacking two of them behind a switch in the living room, and one of them just snapped right in half. It wasn't even that tight. Now I gotta patch the drywall where the crack went up about 4 inches. My buddy who does electrical work saw it and told me I should use metal spacers instead, they hold up way better under pressure. He showed me the ones he keeps in his truck, $8 for a box of 10 at the supply house. I'm wondering if anyone else has had those plastic ones fail on them too?

Hit 50,000 board feet of lumber through my sawmill and finally changed my mind about sharpening

For the last 3 years I was one of those guys who would run my bandsaw blade until it literally started smoking. Figured I was saving time by not stopping to sharpen every few thousand board feet. Then last month I hit 50k and decided to actually count how much time I was losing to dull blade cuts and having to sand rough edges. It was like 4 extra hours per 10k feet. Now I sharpen every 5k and honestly I'm getting through logs way faster. Has anyone else done the math on their sharpening schedule and been surprised?

Got a free pallet from a construction site and tried to turn it into a coffee table

Finally got my garage workbench organized after 4 years of clutter

Spent last Saturday clearing off everything, sorting screws and nails into baby food jars my wife saved up, and mounting a pegboard. It took about 6 hours total but now I can actually find my 10mm socket without digging through three coffee cans. Anyone else find that organizing tools makes you want to start more projects or is that just me?

Walked through a Habitat ReStore and saw a guy buying a toilet for $15

Honestly I went to the Habitat ReStore in Columbus last weekend just to browse for trim pieces. This guy rolls up to the checkout with a toilet that looked brand new, just missing the seat. He said it was a Toto and retail was like $400 easy. The cashier rang it up for $15 because they price fixtures by weight not brand. I almost grabbed one myself but I don't need a toilet right now. It got me thinking tho, are ReStores really that slept on for plumbing stuff? Has anyone else scored something crazy cheap from one of those places?

Why does nobody talk about using a pallet knife for spackle instead of a putty knife?

I was fixing nail holes in my living room drywall last month and got sick of the putty knife leaving those weird ridges. Out of frustration I grabbed an old plastic pallet knife from a paint set and it smoothed everything flat in one swipe no sanding needed. But I wonder if it actually holds up for bigger patches or if this is just a lazy hack that'll crack later. Has anyone else tried something unconventional like this and had it work or fail?

Question about painting over old wallpaper - worth the risk or just strip it?

I was at the hardware store last Saturday and overheard two guys arguing about this. One said he's been painting over wallpaper for 15 years with no issues, just uses a heavy primer first. The other guy said he tried it once in his bathroom and the whole thing bubbled up after 3 months from the moisture. I've got a 10x12 bedroom in my house from 1985 with floral wallpaper that's in decent shape. My neighbor says strip it, but that's a weekend job at least. The paint route would take me like 4 hours tops. Has anyone here done the paint-over method and had it hold up for more than a year?

Tried to fix a slow drain with boiling water and cracked the sink basin

Last Saturday I was trying to unclog the kitchen sink. It had been draining slow for a few days. I figured boiling water would loosen up whatever was caught in there. Poured a full kettle down and heard a loud crack. Now there's a hairline crack running from the drain to the edge of the basin. I guess the porcelain or whatever it's made of couldn't take the sudden heat. Now I'm looking at a full sink replacement because patching it looks terrible. Has anyone else wrecked something trying a simple fix like this?

Hot take: I stopped using pre-mixed joint compound and started mixing my own mud

Used to swear by the pre-mixed buckets from the hardware store for drywall work. It was easy, just open and go. But after doing a big basement finishing job 2 years ago, I noticed the pre-mixed stuff shrinks way more and takes forever to dry between coats. A old timer at the lumber yard told me to try mixing my own from powder. Now I do it for every job. It's cheaper too, like $12 a bag vs $20 a bucket. Plus I can make it stiffer for the first coat and looser for the top. Has anyone else made the switch and noticed less cracking?

My bathroom faucet handle snapped off at 6am this morning

I went to turn on the hot water to shower before work and the handle just broke clean off in my hand. The plastic internal piece had been feeling a little loose for a few weeks but I kept putting off fixing it. Had to use pliers to turn the valve stem just to get enough water to brush my teeth. Now I'm debating between paying a plumber $150 or trying to rebuild the cartridge myself tonight. Anyone have luck fixing a Moen faucet with a broken handle instead of replacing the whole thing?

Fixed a squeaky floor with a $5 tool instead of calling someone out

I used to just live with squeaky floors for years. Figured it was something you had to hire a handyman for or rip up carpet to fix. Then last month I saw a video about these little screw-in floor repair kits at the hardware store. Picked one up at the Ace in my town for like $5. It has these special screws that break off flush with the floor after you drive them in. I did three spots in my hallway in maybe 20 minutes and the squeaks are completely gone. Has anyone else tried those kits or do you have a better method for quieting an old wood floor?