So I’m stupid. I didn’t read the stain label until I was 2 hours into staining. It says “DO NOT INHALE”. I thought it was similar to paint i’ve never stained before. Now i’m freaking out. Will i be okay?
I immediately moved what i was staining outside and put a fan in the area.

Hi! I was hoping to get some guidance on what exactly to do with my "home theater" setup. To preface this, I live in an apartment, so running cables in walls is not an option for me.

As seen here, the blue line is my current setup. I have an 85ft armored full fiber HDMI cable running from my PC in the office to my living room LG C6. I originally had run the cable along the red line using nail-in cable clips, but as seen by the "ears" on the door frame's corners (due to my understanding of fiber optic bend radii), the black HDMI cable looked horrendous against the white wall. I took it down and decided to run it underneath some rugs. It doesn't look the best, and I can feel the cable under my feet whenever I step on it, but it definitely looks preferable to the red line.

I do plan to not use this current blue line setup forever, and I'm looking for an alternative way to run the cable that prioritizes aesthetics. I have a couple of cable raceways that I can use to eliminate the ugliness of the black cable, but that doesn't solve my issue of the bend radius of the fiber optic cable.

Some questions:

1. In the meantime, will the armored full fiber cable be okay with foot traffic (no shoes), or should I find a different method ASAP?
2. Does the bend radius of armored full fiber differ with normal fiber optic? I couldn't find documentation regarding such information online.
3. Although this would be my last resort, will painting the cable white be a good option? I know that paint can flake and rubber has a difficult time hooking on to certain paints, so I wouldn't know where to start.

Which direction should I go in? Thanks!

EDIT: I probably should have started off by saying I’m using this setup for 4K HDR playback and high refresh rate gaming, which is why I went with the cable I bought.

This is one spot of a basement wall. Quick background, the house was originally built in the 1930's and has clay brick. I was previously waterproofed from the outside and painted/coated with dryloc on the inside. The dryloc was chipping and peeling so I started scraping it off. After doing some research we discovered that behr dry plus was a better option. The basement is partially finished and the finished side went great and everything was fine. I started scraping and cleaning until I got to this spot. It doesn't go all the way through (there is i assume the other side of the clay brick) visible through the hole. My question is, how do I patch something like this? I've tried googling and chatgpt and haven't been able to find a good answer. Every suggestion falls apart because it's clay and most modern materials would dry too heavy (some kind of cement). Any help would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Just bought a 1955 home that needs alot work. Im planning to DIY most things except plumbing. All my interior walls have a painted 2x4 at the ends and the studs behind the drywall are "turned on the flat"(I hope this is the right phrase, the long face is what the drywall is attached to). There is also no insulation. I am doing one room at a time and want to know if it is worth it to turn the studs the right way?

Had some electrical work done yesterday and while it is all perfectly functional, I dont like how one outlet ended up looking. Its just the steel square metal box. I've searched but im not seeing an enclosure I could put over the top to make it look less utilitarian. Anyone familiar with something like this?

electrical box

Hi everyone,

I ordered 72 silicone wristbands across 4 different colors, but accidentally had the word "CLUB" printed at the end instead of "CELL".

The text is debossed/indented into the silicone and filled with paint. I need to strip the paint out of the word "CLUB" (or clear out all the text) without degrading or swelling the silicone material itself.

Material: 100% Silicone

Text Style: Debossed / Indented with paint fill

Quantity: 72 pieces

I've recently rebuilt a wooden porch with pressure-treated pine. At first, I stained the boards with white Sherwin-Williams stain, but after only a few months it's showing footprints. Should I restain or paint over the stain with paint. If paint, what kind? Enamel?

I'm a renter and our vertical blinds came with a wraparound complete pvc valance that I took off in favor of a curtain rod attached to the headrail with some no-no brackets. I made the mistake of putting the old valance in the back of an outdoor storage closet and it is not looking too good. It is apparently very difficult to find just a solid pvc valance for vertical blinds without buying an entire set. Any ideas are appreciated!

Hi all,

I'm putting up a safety net on my balcony so my cat can't get out. The net is attached to the railing at the bottom and to a vertical wooden batten in the corner, resting against the wall. It's fastened with small metal hooks and zip ties (see photos).

The issue: when I pull the net tight, the batten bows outward, especially toward the top. I can't get proper tension, and I'm worried my cat will find a way to push through.

Constraints:

• I'm renting, so no drilling into the wall or facade.
• I'd like something clean and fully reversible.
• It needs to look neat and unobtrusive: I don't want to spoil the view for the neighbors with a messy-looking setup...
• The batten is 60mm x 40mm and 2.5 m tall.

Any tips to make it stiffer?

EDIT: Since the setup is a bit unusual, here's my (very rough) sketch. Top view on the left, side view and batten cross-section on the right. The balcony is 8.53 m long, and the batten is 6×4 cm. One end of the balcony has metal bars, and the batten stays firmly in place there. The other end (the one in the photos) is a flat wall with nothing to brace against, so the batten is only held at the bottom by the railing, which is why it bows at the top. Sorry for the artistic level, it's a quick sketch from my notebook!

Thanks in advance !

I’m replacing an old bathroom fan with a 13” circular rough opening in the ceiling. The fan that is going in requires a 10 1/4” square rough opening and has a 13” square grille/trim.

How would you approach patching the dry wall? Replace a larger section of drywall joist to joist and cut a fresh square hole or try to ‘reuse’ the circular opening and patch the gaps left.

Ceiling is rock lath - I assume I’d approach patching like I would any regular drywall?

as i written in the title i would like to make an accordion but i dont realy know how, does anyone know any resources be it youtube or other websites that have step by step explained how to make an accordion?

I recently went up into my attic and noticed that the felt/membrane underneath the roof tiles, which I remember being a light grey/white colour, now appears to have turned quite dark, almost black, across much of the attic.

One thing I'm wondering about is the large black cold-water storage tank up there. I'm in Ireland, and this tank supplies water to the bathroom taps and toilets. I've noticed that the tank is completely open at the top, with no lid or covering whatsoever.

Could moisture evaporating from this tank be contributing to condensation in the attic and potentially causing mould to develop on the roof felt?

A few questions for anyone who might know:

• Is roof felt turning black generally a sign of mould, or can this happen naturally as it ages?
• Could an uncovered water storage tank contribute enough moisture to cause this?
• Should I be concerned about the attic ventilation?
• What's the best way to establish what's actually happening before it becomes a bigger problem?

I'll be getting a proper lid for the tank regardless, as I suspect it shouldn't have been left uncovered in the first place!

Any advice or similar experiences would be greatly appreciated. I'm not particularly knowledgeable about roofing, so apologies if this is a silly question.

Thanks in advance!

Hello,

I want to paint patterns on a melamin wardrobe I bought from ikea. I do not have the biggest budget and I am used to paint with basic acrylic paint. I hoped to find advices on how to paint it without dooming my paint to avoidable cracks.

I know I should sand the surface of the wardrobe, and I was wondering if gesso would do the work as an first layer ? Or if there was a more appropriate base layer ?

Thanks in advance :)

I have just gotten around to doing up the built in cupboards on our landing, I’m hoping to make it into a linen/storage cupboard. it has previously had wallpaper on the inside walls, I don’t know whether to strip it off or paint over it 🤔 what would be your advice?

Ok so is super glue fickle. I glue the same thing with the same glue one time it holds forever. I apply it the same way to the same material another time doesn't hold for shit . Then the next time perfectly. I consider the temp , humidity, and clean surface. I also been hearing that super glue has a self life . From the day it's made it gets less potent. But there is no manufactured date on the bottle .

Hi! I’m renovating an outdoor basement entrance and planning to pour a small landing outside the door and two footings for the retaining walls alongside the stairs. This will be my first time pouring concrete.

Daily temperatures are roughly 2–10°C (36–50°F), but the weather is changing and overnight frost is possible. I’ve read the manufacturers’ instructions, but I’d appreciate hearing from people who have practical experience with similar projects.

Under what conditions would regular concrete, warm mixing water and insulated curing blankets be enough? At what point would you need a winter mix or additional heating?

Have I missed the window for pouring concrete this year, or is a small project like this still manageable for a beginner? I’d love to hear what you did and how it turned out. Thanks!

Looking for help on sticking a towel rack on the inside of my new wet bar cabinet. I can’t get any stickers to hold. Any suggestions?
I’ve tried liquid sandpaper.

It's a 20 by 30 car port but over the 30 feet it drops 10 inches but is a perfect flat slope would this be to much slope

I just mixed together the Epodex 1k concrete effect about an hour ago and closed off the bucket while I went off to do something else (cleaned the mixer and then I got distracted with a book) then I double checked what to do with epodex and saw that the working time was one hour and just watched a video and saw that I was supposed to mix the material together in small batches because it drows quickly. I had been reading the label and somehow missed that working time was about an hour. I tried to see if it dried completely by scraping it and when that yielded nothing I just added water into the bucket. I feel like I just wasted money by mixing it all together but I didn’t have a scale to make sure I had the right ratio of water and I had a measuring cup that I could properly calculate for the 11lbs concrete material. Is this anyway salvageable or do I need to buy another batch?

I am asking here because I have an odd request. I have an office where the entrance is a double set of doors that one locks into the door jam with a lock. I have been told this is called an active/inactive door setup. I would like to flip the direction of only the inactive door, they currently both open into the office and take up up valuable space. While flipping both would likely be the easiest and "standard" the active door would open directly into a hallway and make things more painful overall. The inactive door however would flip directly into a small wall that is just slightly longer than the door.

The main reason for wanting to switch the doors is to "regain" space within the office where the inactive door will typically open to but also allow me to open said inactive door to allow more airflow if the office gets hot.

Main issues that I am sort of confused on are as follows

1. Flipping just one would mean the doors are no longer aligned and prevent the active door from locking into the inactive door
2. The door jam is an annoying 2x8 wide meaning even if we made some divider it would need to be extremely odd.

To solve the above I wonder if I could install the concealed door hinges to allow it to open the other way or if there is a better method?

Hi, does anyone know where to source orange grout or grout dye in the UK?

Looking for similar finish to this

Have seen Hemway but only seems to be fluo or metallic finishes.

Thanks!

Building a swing set/club house with
posts to support the structure. We live in Pennsylvania, where the soil has a lot of rocks, BIG and small. I’m planning on using an auger to help dig the hole and possibly a demolition or jack hammer to break up the rock.

Before making a purchase or rental, does anyone have any other suggestions? I want to make digging the post holes easy but not spend a ton as well, since the materials are already pricey.

Hello all,

And TIA for any help. I want to install an aroma diffuser and have it pump the aroma into the air handler after the fan to help push the scent throughout the house. I would like the fan to control when the diffuser turns on so that it’s not pumping the fragrance into the ducts whole the fan is not on. I have found that I need a 24v SPDT relay. My question is how to wire it properly?