Fifth Avenue Forum

Has anyone rented one of those carpet cleaners from Home Depot/Lowes?

Not from HD, but I have rented one from my grocery store in the past.

Good results? Better than a regular personal/residential use rug scrubber?

Has anyone rented one of those carpet cleaners from Home Depot/Lowes?

Not from HD, but I have rented one from my grocery store in the past.

Good results? Better than a regular personal/residential use rug scrubber?

Yes, it worked out quite well. I forget which solution we used, which plays a big role, but it did a great job. Made quick work of the entire carpet.

Whenever we had our bathroom remodeled, the new sink that was put in has one minor flaw that I am afraid could become major. No matter how much the drain is tightened, a very small amount of water still collects at the very bottom of the sink and does not go down the drain. We can't get it tightened enough for it to be below that water level. Any suggestions? I feel like if we tighten it any more we will crack the sink.

So the drain in the basin itself (not under it) sits proud of the bottom of the basin? Have you disassembled the entire drain, removed all putty, and dry fit it to see how it sits? I’ve never seen that before. I guess it’s possible to use too much plumbers putty, but you’d really gave to torque it down to crack porcelain.

Yeah I’m not quite understanding the problem. Pic?

My thought was you used too much putty or too thick of a gasket. Other than staining though I don't know if it will be a huge problem.

I can't envision a scenario in which you would use anything other than plumbers putty under the drain. Perhaps it really is as dumb as somebody putting another type of gasket below it.

So my dad has been trying to sell my grandmother's old house... He's put about 2k into it in painting and new carpet. So this past week the realtor called... The boiler furnace malfunctioned and broke several of the aluminum radiators. Water leaked all over the hardwood floors and carpeting. The place is essentially ruined and he only had fire and theft insurance coverage as it was vacant. Life sucks

Yikes. My folks ended up selling my grandparent's house at auction because my grandmother hadn't been living in it for around 3-4 years before she passed. It's unreal how quickly a house deteriorates when left empty. The roof was shot, water damage all over due to the leaking roof, and the house being in a less than desirable neighborhood meant that they would have to put more money in than they'd get out. It auctioned for $5,000. Sad that a house where so many fond memories took place ended up being worth less than a used car.

Yeah.. At this point they're hopeful to get 40k for it. They had it listed for 115k before the accident. They had to pull out 2k worth of brand new carpeting among other things.

we are looking to add tile backsplash in our kitchen. we have about 14 linear feet of counter that we are looking to add where our range is. our granite currently has a 4" return on the granite on the wall. we had been hoping to explore removing this so the backsplash would be flush with the counter; however, when discussing with a few folks, they indicated that often times when this the return is removed, the counter is not flush against the wall. anyone have experience with this? we were discussing adding a piece of trim tile to function like quarter round

I would think that even if you did have it flush to the wall, that a cut edge may be visible then as well.

we are looking to add tile backsplash in our kitchen. we have about 14 linear feet of counter that we are looking to add where our range is. our granite currently has a 4" return on the granite on the wall. we had been hoping to explore removing this so the backsplash would be flush with the counter; however, when discussing with a few folks, they indicated that often times when this the return is removed, the counter is not flush against the wall. anyone have experience with this? we were discussing adding a piece of trim tile to function like quarter round

We took the granite return off when putting our backsplash up. There were a couple areas where the counter was not completely flush against the wall, but it was less than the thickness of the backsplash tile so it wasn't an issue. I would take the return off and see what you're dealing with and then plan from there.

- Might get lucky and have a flush counter
- Could be a negligible amount like ours
- Could use your aforementioned trim tile
- Instead of thinset or mastic (about 3/16th inch thick) you could use a mortar bed, which can end up at about 3/4 inch thick
- Put backerboard over the drywall before putting the tile up (https://www.oldtownhome.com/2012/9/13/K ... a-Pattern/)

If attempting a DIY - I definitely recommend using Ardex X77 fiber reinforced mortar. It's expensive - about $30 a bag - but you'll probably only need one, and it greatly compensates for the DIYer. I did my entire stone fireplace with it. THe fiber helps prevent sagging of the vertical tiles.

Pretty lame pic, but the bathroom at the country house is coming along:



It's been about two years now, but it's just been my Dad working on it in his spare time. He's probably 85% done.

I think I have that exact same sink/toilet you had except mine are pink. Jealous?

The toilet is still sitting outside on the breezeway porch if you want a matching set.

The toilet is still sitting outside on the breezeway porch if you want a matching set.

His and Hers toilets would be amazing.

Did he have to sledgehammer the tile off the wall? Assuming that turquoise thing is tile.

oscillating tool would've made quick work of that, if you're looking to do the same.

Here's a photo of mine from our first walk-through of the house:
It'll be remodeled after the wedding, but no way in hell am I doing that myself. We'll hire a contractor.

Did he have to sledgehammer the tile off the wall? Assuming that turquoise thing is tile.

I did most of the demo'ing. It came off fairly easily by combination of a small hand sledge and various pry bars. Generally I was able to just slip a wedge behind it and tap my way down the wall. Same for the floor, most of it came up in slabs/sections. There were portions of the floor I had to just strike with a small sledge to break loose. The hard part of the floor was the layer of metal mesh in the mud sublayer, that stuff came up in shards, had to be sure to wear gloves or risk messing up the webbing in your hands.

oscillating tool would've made quick work of that, if you're looking to do the same.

Have to re-tile our shower in the near future. The guys that did our bathroom in 2017 were a goddamn disaster.

Did he have to sledgehammer the tile off the wall? Assuming that turquoise thing is tile.

I did most of the demo'ing. It came off fairly easily by combination of a small hand sledge and various pry bars. Generally I was able to just slip a wedge behind it and tap my way down the wall. Same for the floor, most of it came up in slabs/sections. There were portions of the floor I had to just strike with a small sledge to break loose. The hard part of the floor was the layer of metal mesh in the mud sublayer, that stuff came up in shards, had to be sure to wear gloves or risk messing up the webbing in your hands.

Our bathroom floor is like that, but the colors look good/normal. The dudes that did our bathroom had to strip tile of the wall and had to bring in some incredibly intense tools to get it done.

oscillating tool would've made quick work of that, if you're looking to do the same.

Have to re-tile our shower in the near future. The guys that did our bathroom in 2017 were a goddamn disaster.

Thinset makes all the difference. Tiling a wall is way different than tiling a floor.