The Home Improvement Thread

[bizaro86]

Originally Posted by calgarygeologist

The beauty of the basement garden is that in an unfinished basement humidity shouldn't be too much of a concern and it would be easy enough to bore a hole through the foundation for an exhaust fan if necessary.

I know my first thought upon seeing a basement vegetable garden would be "not enough holes in the foundation."

[mrkajz44]

Not sure if this is the right thread, but it seems close enough.

Had some mice in our BBQ in the summer so we stopped using it and set traps. The ones around the patio furniture were the only ones that were successful, no mice were caught in the BBQ but we caught around a dozen around the patio furniture (no nesting found in the furniture itself).

After a while the traps stopped catching mice so I did a full clean of the BBQ and starting using it again. Last night I go out and see some activity again in the drip pan area - the tin foil I use was ripped up in multiple places so it must have been the mice chewing away at the grease on the drip tray.

Any ideas? I can start up the traps again of course, but with the patio furniture put away I'm not as hopeful we'll catch much. Is a reasonable idea to just clean the drip tray every time I use the BBQ? Not really sure where to go here.

Not sure if it matters, but we haven't been able to find the source of the mice.

[jwslam]

What about cayenne or cinnamon in your drip tray?
Cayenne worked well when I was trying to keep rabbits from gnawing at my flower seedlings early spring

[Fuzz]

Fells like a problem that a box that makes fire would just take care of...

[topfiverecords]

[red sky]

Originally Posted by jwslam

What about cayenne or cinnamon in your drip tray?
Cayenne worked well when I was trying to keep rabbits from gnawing at my flower seedlings early spring

Hmmmmm, sounds delicious. Bit of a sweet and savoury thing going on here.

[Shazam]

Originally Posted by photon

Any recommendations on someone to reupholster a set of dining room chairs?

I have no idea how good they are, but I have driven by them on occasion:

http://www.simmeringupholstery.ca/

I know that Birchwood Furniture also does it, but again I have no idea what kind of job they do.

[InglewoodFan]

On the topic of rodents, I may have a squirrel in the attic. I am inspecting all my soffits to try to figure out how he got in but accessing the attic is tough. I have ~2' tall OSB "baffles" around my attic opening ever since I got more insulation blown in. Plus I am bit big to be wandering around the joists. So I am having a tough time confirming.

Anyone with experience? Best left to a pest control specialist I am guessing?

[Fuzz]

Originally Posted by InglewoodFan

On the topic of rodents, I may have a squirrel in the attic. I am inspecting all my soffits to try to figure out how he got in but accessing the attic is tough. I have ~2' tall OSB "baffles" around my attic opening ever since I got more insulation blown in. Plus I am bit big to be wandering around the joists. So I am having a tough time confirming.

Anyone with experience? Best left to a pest control specialist I am guessing?

You can rent squirrel traps. If you can get up there, just bait it and leave it. You will still eventually want to find the entry, but you should catch them.

[GoinAllTheWay]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

Fells like a problem that a box that makes fire would just take care of...

Came REAL close to doing just that this summer. Started to notice a number of mice on back deck. Didn't think much of it until one day I went to use the BBQ. Opened the lid and there must have been 6 of those little bastards in there. They just DGAF that I was there so I turned on the gas, was REALLY tempted to hit the igniter but just not that mean. Gas sent them running.

Traps out the next day. Within 2 weeks, I had caught 24 of them. If you see one, you can bet your bottom dollar there's a lot more.

[CroFlames]

Haha gassing mice.

[Table 5]

Originally Posted by photon

Any recommendations on someone to reupholster a set of dining room chairs?

You may want to give https://www.reclaimvintage.ca a try, as they do lots of nice reupholstery/restoration of vintage furniture.

https://whittakerdesigns.com is also someone who makes custom furniture right here in Calgary, so I'm sure they could do it. They may be more industry focused, but perhaps someone to consider. We have a couple of couches from them and they do soldi work.

[Flames_Gimp]

anyone know a good drywall guy? In had someone board the vaulted ceiling in my addition and he did a terrible job at the peak. Basically it's 2-1/2" out over an 18' span. You can't see it in the pic.

[Titan2]

Originally Posted by Table 5

You may want to give https://www.reclaimvintage.ca a try, as they do lots of nice reupholstery/restoration of vintage furniture.

https://whittakerdesigns.com is also someone who makes custom furniture right here in Calgary, so I'm sure they could do it. They may be more industry focused, but perhaps someone to consider. We have a couple of couches from them and they do soldi work.

Where might these folks be located? Are they in a purpose built area of town? What might that be called?

[speede5]

Originally Posted by Flames_Gimp

anyone know a good drywall guy? In had someone board the vaulted ceiling in my addition and he did a terrible job at the peak. Basically it's 2-1/2" out over an 18' span. You can't see it in the pic.

That is some interesting sheeting.

I wish I could help but I can only say even if it means a full resheet get it fixed right. I had a similar issue with my vaulted ceiling, not out by that much but enough that I could see it, and I gave the drywallers the benefit of the doubt that it wouldn't show and it was a thorn in my side as I could see it after finishing. No one else really saw it but it drew my eye and I wished I had been more firm.

They should probably have run the sheets vertically and would not have had any butt joints.

Also if someone actually muds that mess make sure they use good mud not just filler, cause there's a lot of seams in odd places and the last thing you want are cracks in a year or two as things settle.

[CroFlames]

That needs to be redrywalled by a pro.

Even the best taper in the world couldn't make those joints invisible with that much natural light pouring in. Even with a perfect drywall and tape job, angled ceilings like that with skylights you will likely see very faint joints as the light hits it throughout the day.

An easy fix could be to just add texture after it's taped and mudded though.

[GoinAllTheWay]

Wow that's some bad drywalling, looks to be out as much as an inch in some places.

Sure love those skylights though. If you have plants, they'll love it in there.

[Bill Bumface]

This is my favourite game in the world of trades and passing the baton of problems:

Framer to drywaller: #$*@ you, buddy!
Drywaller to mudder: Up yours, #$)@%&!
Mudder to painter: Go #&$@ yourself!
Painter to homeowner: Eat #*@*!

[Flames_Gimp]

Originally Posted by speede5

That is some interesting sheeting.

I wish I could help but I can only say even if it means a full resheet get it fixed right. I had a similar issue with my vaulted ceiling, not out by that much but enough that I could see it, and I gave the drywallers the benefit of the doubt that it wouldn't show and it was a thorn in my side as I could see it after finishing. No one else really saw it but it drew my eye and I wished I had been more firm.

They should probably have run the sheets vertically and would not have had any butt joints.

Also if someone actually muds that mess make sure they use good mud not just filler, cause there's a lot of seams in odd places and the last thing you want are cracks in a year or two as things settle.

it's actually not bad and doesn't need re-sheet, it looks a bit rough because they used a flush router to cut the skylights, the only big i would change if i did myself is rasp the edges of the center sheet to match the roof angle and use a laser level to get the center strip straight. Other than that clean up some of the recessed light holes.

I instructed a friend to board my entire house and hired out the finishers. it turned out great

other than the center strip (the bad side is out of frame), why would you say complete resheet? i checked for big gaps everywhere and the joints are tight enough, i don't see anything that wouldn't disappear during finish. mud and tape. Maybe the pics worse.

Just need the strip at the peak straightened, if you know someone ?

thanks for the input

[Flames_Gimp]

Originally Posted by CroFlames

That needs to be redrywalled by a pro.

Even the best taper in the world couldn't make those joints invisible with that much natural light pouring in. Even with a perfect drywall and tape job, angled ceilings like that with skylights you will likely see very faint joints as the light hits it throughout the day.

An easy fix could be to just add texture after it's taped and mudded though.

Croflames:

The joints are tight except he didn't rasp an angle onto the side of the center strip, if it was ang;led it would be flush to the wall.

texture would be nice though

GoinAlltheWay:

There's hardly a gap, it's an illusion as i thought so too, til i went in the room and looked closer. there's 1 strip he forgot in back left corner but the wall sheet will cover most and then id add a filler strip to support the corner bead.

I'll post b4 and after pics of the rest of the house, you'd be surprised, the art is in the finishing. That being said you never want gaps bigger than 1/4 - 3/8" otherwise they have to use a flexible concrete filler first as drywall mud will crack