The Design Community Hub

c/diy-home-projects

26

shah.barbara•9h ago

I finally stopped ignoring the 'paint the ceiling first' rule

My buddy Mike saw me cutting in trim before rolling the ceiling and said 'you're making extra work for yourself, dude.' Took his advice on the last room and saved like 2 hours of cleaning up splatter. Has anyone else resisted a basic rule for way too long?

6

grace926•18h ago

Spackle trick I wish I knew before redoing my dining room ceiling in Memphis

For years I sanded every patch smooth, but a contractor buddy told me to just dampen my finger and wipe the spackle flat while it's wet. Saved me like 45 minutes on one ceiling patch, has anyone else tried this?

11

miller.susan•15d ago

Flip-flopped on using paintable caulk for baseboards

I always figured any old caulk would do, but my buddy insisted I try DAP Dynaflex 230 for the gaps in my living room trim. After 6 months in this humid Houston weather, not a single crack formed while the cheap stuff I used in the bedroom is already pulling apart. Has anyone else found a brand that actually holds up long-term?

5

ray210•17d ago

That $40 laser level I bought off Amazon was a complete waste

I thought I was being smart saving money on a laser level for my bathroom tile job last month. It showed a line that looked straight until I checked with my old bubble level... it was off by like a quarter inch over 6 feet. The whole first row of tile had to come up and that cost me 3 hours and an extra $20 in thinset. Has anyone found a decent budget laser level that actually works?

4

phoenix845•18d ago

Neighbor swore by using dish soap in his paint sprayer... what a mess

My buddy Dave told me to add a squirt of Dawn to my latex paint to help it flow better through my Wagner sprayer, and now I've got bubbles all over my fence that won't pop. Has anyone else run into this trick backfiring on them?

15

grace926•18d ago

Last week I tried painting my kitchen cabinets without sanding them first

I had been planning to strip and sand my oak cabinets for months. Read all the tutorials, bought the chemical stripper. Then my neighbor stopped by and said she used a liquid deglosser and a bonding primer on hers three years ago and they still look perfect. I figured what the heck, I already had the paint. So I spent one full Saturday deglossing and priming instead of two weekends of sanding. So far so good, no chips or peeling after a week of normal use. Has anyone else skipped the sanding step and regretted it later?

20

the_ben•21d ago

Found a simple trick for organizing small hardware at an estate sale in Richmond

Last weekend I went to an estate sale in Richmond and saw an old workbench setup that blew my mind. The guy had baby food jars screwed into the underside of a shelf, with the lids nailed to the shelf so you just twist the jar on and off. I tried it in my own garage with 15 jars for screws and nails, and it's been a game changer for keeping things sorted. Anyone else come across a cheap storage hack like this at a thrift shop or garage sale?

1

wendy_clark•22d ago

I swear by that cheap Harbor Freight heat gun everyone warns you about

Bought one of those $9.99 heat guns from Harbor Freight last spring for a vinyl wrap job on my kitchen cabinets. Everyone on here said it would catch fire after 5 minutes, but I've used it on 8 projects now and it still works fine. What I learned is that most people who bash it probably never used it on low setting with the right nozzle. Has anyone else had good luck with the cheap stuff from there, or am I just lucky?

14

kai_stone99•24d ago

Caulk failure on my bathtub after 3 months

Used the expensive silicone stuff too. It's peeling off in strips now. Any recommendations for a brand that actually sticks to porcelain?

17

sarah_johnson46•24d ago

The day I put my drill bit through the wall on the WRONG side of the stud

I was hanging a shelf in my laundry room last weekend and drilled three pilot holes before I realized I was aiming for the stud but somehow kept missing it. Then I noticed the dust was coming out way too easy and the bit went straight through the drywall on the other side. Turns out I was holding the level crooked and marking the holes based on my bad line. Ended up with four extra holes to patch in a 2x4 area. Has anyone else ever drilled into a wall and immediately known you messed up before you even pulled the trigger back?

17

ray210•27d ago

Spent $200 on a tile saw I used exactly once

Bought a fancy wet tile saw for a bathroom floor project last spring. Finished the job, it's been sitting in my garage ever since, and now the blade is rusted. Anyone want to buy a slightly used saw cheap?

18

kelly31•1mo ago

Hot take: store-bought shelf brackets are way worse than making my own

I tried to hang some heavy bookshelves in my garage last weekend using those cheap metal brackets from Home Depot for $8 a pair. After two of them bent under the weight of just a few boxes, I cut some wooden brackets from a scrap 2x4 and they held up twice the load no problem. Has anyone else found that simple wood supports work better than the store stuff for heavy shelving?

18

wadepalmer•1mo ago

Rant: Tried to save money painting my own rental and it was a nightmare week

Last Tuesday I was so proud of myself. Grabbed a $20 gallon of Behr from the Home Depot in Phoenix and figured I'd do my whole living room in a day. Man, I was wrong. That cheap paint was like water. Had to do 4 coats and it still looked trash. Spent the whole week redoing it with Behr Marquee at $45 a gallon after my landlord's painter buddy walked through and laughed. One coat did the job. Anyone else learn the hard way that cheap paint costs more in the end?

5

holly_flores79•1mo ago

Tried using painters tape to mark my drill bit depth.

Was drilling shelf brackets into tile last Saturday and kept going too deep. Stuck a strip of blue tape on the bit as a depth marker, worked perfect for all 12 holes. Anybody else got a one-tape trick that saved a project?

19

nancy3•1mo ago

Debate: Should I tile my backsplash myself or hire a pro?

I'm redoing my kitchen in my 1950s bungalow in Portland and hit a wall with the backsplash. On one hand, DIYing it saves me about $600 on labor for a 30-square-foot area, and I've watched enough YouTube videos to feel confident with a tile saw. But on the other hand, I messed up the layout on my last bathroom project and ended up with crooked grout lines that still bug me a year later. A pro quoted me $1,200 for materials and install, which seems steep for a simple subway tile pattern. I'm leaning toward doing it myself with a $50 tile leveling system, but I'm worried about the corners around my outlets. Has anyone else had to choose between saving cash and getting perfect results on a tile job?

4

elliotburns•1mo ago

Tried to save money on drywall mud and regretted it instantly

Picked up a bucket of the cheap premixed stuff from a big box store last weekend. Figured mud is mud, right? Wrong. That stuff was watery and full of clumps right out of the bucket. First coat went on like paste, took forever to smooth out. Sanded it the next day and it crumbled like old cheese. Had to scrape half of it off and redo the whole section with the name brand stuff. Learned my lesson about cutting corners on joint compound. Anyone else get burned by bargain drywall supplies?

9

jade618•1mo ago

Rant: Just learned drywall mud has an expiration date nobody talks about

I was digging through my garage last weekend to start a patch job in my laundry room and pulled out a bucket of joint compound I had sitting there since 2021. Figured it was fine, mixed it up, started spreading it on the wall and it came out all crumbly and weird. Would not stick right at all. I checked the bucket label and there in tiny print underneath the barcode it says "best if used within 12 months of manufacture." Never once in 8 years of doing my own drywall have I ever seen anyone mention this. Not in YouTube videos, not on forums, not even the guy at the hardware store warned me. So I wasted a whole Saturday afternoon scraping off what I put up and had to drive 20 minutes to buy a fresh bucket. Has anyone else run into this or am I the only sucker who didn't know?

15

robinl90•1mo ago

PSA: I read that a gallon of paint only covers about 350 square feet on rough surfaces, not the 400 they say on the can.

I was painting my old brick patio wall last weekend and ran out of paint way too fast. I looked it up and found a fact sheet from a paint supplier online. It said textured surfaces like stucco or rough brick can cut coverage by over 10 percent because they soak up more. My wall was about 300 square feet and I needed almost a full gallon, which matched what I read. Has anyone else had to buy extra paint for a textured outdoor project? What did you do to estimate it better?

8

riley58•1mo ago

Vent: My paint sprayer idea for the garage door was a total mess

I thought using my old airless sprayer on the garage door would be faster than rolling. It wasn't. The wind caught the overspray and put a fine white mist on my car, the neighbor's fence, and a shrub. Took me three hours to clean everything with a pressure washer. Anyone have a better method for a smooth finish on a big metal surface?

18

olivia_barnes97•1mo ago

Warning: My old kitchen tile was a total pain to remove until I tried a different tool

Three years ago in my first apartment, I started chipping away at the ugly backsplash with a hammer and chisel, which took forever and made a huge mess. Last week, I finally rented a rotary hammer drill for $40 from the local hardware store and the whole thing was gone in an afternoon. Has anyone else found a tool that completely changed a job for them?

20

leebrown•1mo ago

Pro tip: stop using drywall screws for everything

Honestly, I see so many people grab a box of those coarse thread screws for every single project, even building a deck frame. They're brittle and snap under shear stress, which is a huge problem for structural stuff. I learned this the hard way when a bench I built for my patio in 2021 collapsed after one winter. Anyone have a good rule of thumb for when to switch to structural screws or lag bolts?

4

patricia_wright•1mo ago

Rant: I picked the wrong kind of drywall mud for my bathroom ceiling patch and it's been a nightmare.

I had to choose between a $15 bag of quick-setting compound (which sets fast, you know, like in 20 minutes) and the regular all-purpose stuff, and I went with the quick-set thinking it would save time, but it started hardening in the pan before I could even finish the first coat, so now I'm stuck sanding down a lumpy mess. Anyone have a better fix for a 2x3 foot patch in a humid room?

14

kai779•1mo ago

My deck stain job peeled after just 8 months

I pressure washed and stained my back deck last summer with a solid color oil-based stain. It looked great for a few months, but by this spring it was peeling and flaking off in big sheets. I think the problem was the old stain wasn't fully removed, or maybe I didn't let the wood dry long enough after washing. Some folks online say you should always strip a deck completely, while others say a good wash is enough if the old coat is thin. What's the right move for a second attempt this year? Has anyone had a stain fail this fast and fixed it for good?

1

mitchell.shane•1mo ago

Update: I put in a new kitchen floor last week and everyone told me to use the floating method.

Three years ago in my old house in Tacoma, I glued down a vinyl plank floor and it held up perfectly through two big dogs and a flood from a broken pipe. Last month, I ignored the common advice and glued the new planks down again, and the install was solid in half the time. Has anyone else had a good experience with glue down floors over the floating kind?

1

mila_jones39•1mo ago

TIL I've been putting up drywall wrong for like a decade

I mean, I always just screwed it up tight and called it good. Then I saw my buddy in his new place in Tacoma, and his walls were perfectly smooth. He told me he leaves a tiny 1/8 inch gap at the floor for expansion. My mind was blown. Anyone else have a basic thing they were doing totally backwards?