S4 E23 - The Very First Reddit Special!

 

In this episode, Colin and Jimmy answer recent questions from the Home Improvement forum on Reddit. In this very first Reddit Special, they answer the following questions:

u/Honey_Badgered - Hello! I am in the process of meeting with potential GCs to do a remodel of my kitchen. This will include tearing down walls, and relocating plumbing and electrical. Yesterday I met with a GC who said that while we technically have to pull permits, we could also decide not to and save ourselves about $3k. I saw this as a huge red flag. Would I be smart to avoid this GC? 4:28 - 7:09

u/ministerofinteriors- What's the best time of year to caulk gaps in trim and casing? (Question for people in cold climates) : It's been a particularly cold, dry winter here in Canada and the newly installed window trim (from August) is showing corner gaps from temp and humidity changes. Is there a particular season that is best to caulk these gaps so they don't open back up or possibly push out in higher humidity and outside temps? Am I over thinking this? Would it not be the case that if I fixed this in the dead of winter, I might see some issues in the height of summer? 7:10 - 9:20

u/AutumnCupcake - How hard is it to install a dishwasher when there isn’t one yet? Considering a house that is otherwise move in ready and perfect but has no dishwasher. We’ve been without a dishwasher for 2 years and are a bit sick of it, so the only project we foresee is installing one. I know we would need an electrician to do some wiring and a plumber and obviously the cost to buy one. But i think we’d also have to remove some cabinets. Is that even possible? I don’t want it to turn into a full remodel.11:00 - 13:10

u/ADeuxMains - Insulate Crawlspace? I'm in California and have a house from the 1940s with an uninsulated crawlspace. Forced hot air + central AC system. Should I insulate between the floor joists to help reduce summer cooling costs? Seems like it should help but I'm cautious about creating moisture problems. And if so, should I use unfaced insulation? 13:10 - 15:22

u/hated_n8 - I have done ZERO preventative maintenance on my water heater in 7 years. Anything I should know? We have a regular water heater, not tankless. 15:24 - 17:14

u/Casedilla15 - Whole house humidifier? Hi y’all! Now that proper winter temps are here I am finding that my house has really low humidity levels. Right now, we hover around 20%. Does anyone have experience with adding in a house humidifier? Has it been worth it? Thanks for any help! 17:15 - 18:54

u/SysTech321 - Would you remove a half bath for upstairs laundry room? My wife and I are debating on removing an upstairs half bathroom in favor of converting the room to upstairs laundry. This would leave us with just the 1 full bathroom upstairs. In the basement of the home we installed a brand new full bathroom. Would this be a bad trade off and negatively impact our homes resale value? Another option we have is to expand the upstairs half bathroom area to accommodate a toilet, sink, and laundry all in the same room (that may look a bit odd and cost significantly more). Just to note this is for a 1,500 square foot ranch. What do you think? 18:55 - 20:41

u/notmomo1 - White quartz countertops are awful! Help! We just bought a home and the counters get marked from EVERYTHING. The little feet on the bottoms of appliances, by food scale, my coffee maker all mark the counters. I tried putting those items in a tray on the counter. The non-white plastic trays left marks (I'm sure the white trays are leaving marks on the dark accents on the counter). Of course, cleaners are severely limited with quartz too. From what I understand these are really robust countertops and the marks are pretty much all superficial and will come off... eventually.... Anyway, does someone have any feedback on these countertops to keep them looking nice? Thank you. 20:41 - 23:29

u/No_Sherbert_9766 - Tiling kitchen floor: Brand new here and have a question. I have exactly zero tiling experience and no business taking on this project but no contractors seem to want a job this small. So I’m going to attempt to retile my kitchen floor. Here’s the question: it’s currently tiled, just ugly, and the tile extends under all of the appliances and cabinets. Obviously I’ll be removing the appliances, but do you then just remove the tile up to the cabinet edges and place new tile butting up to it, or do you remove the cabinets fully and the tile underneath them? It seems like the former would make the most sense other wise you’d be removing counter tops,sink, etc… but I just have no idea and don’t want to mess it up. I tried looking online and found conflicting info. Thanks so much. 23:30 - 27:16

 
 
 
Home Improvement, Podcast, DIY, Producer PicksColin ShawBehind the Studs Podcasthome improvement, remodeling, homeowners, framing