The soil surrounding my 76-year-old house in Los Angeles is often wet or moist during our winter rainy season. Over the years, the excess moisture intrusion from rain and the ground movement that followed the rains, damaged some parts of the foundation where the most water got through to the foundation. The worst portion is a 12-foot section of foundation that is adjacent to the outside of the fireplace. It is this 12-foot section that I would like to improve.

In addition to putting up gutters, I'd like to do something simple & cheap to redirect some of the water away from the house. I thought of using simple, cheap 12"x12" concrete pavers, perhaps 2-deep, to create a sloped 2' by 12' hardscape to make the rainwater roll away. Is this a reasonable idea? Is there something better than pavers I might use? Should the pavers be placed in a layer of sand or is there something better to use as a base material that might hold less moisture?

OK, I will start with the fact that I can easily remove and replace the lock on this mailbox.

But what I am trying to do is replace the lock with some type of latch that does not require a key. Also, it needs to look decent (Though the upper flap hides the lock unless you are opening it.)

Basically I don't care about mail security, nothing of value is ever delivered and I live in a very secure area. The problem is that I have to keep a key on the wall next to the mailbox and I would prefer just some type of latching device that will allow me to open the flap, grab the mail and then close it again.

Any ideas?

Edit: Thanks everyone for the enlightening on the guests being installed wrong, unfortunately that is not an option to replace at the moment.

Hi All,

Need suggestions for how to fix a flashing to my pergola, to stop rain water during a downpour from bouncing over the gutter. It's got to be sectional and removeable so that I can access to clean the gutters. Rough sketch below, Red is where i need the flashing to be.

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I have an older semi, the shared wall between the units seems to be concrete/block and you can hear conversations. I have read the other threads regarding removing the existing wall and adding insulation/dampening. I am quite sure that in this case there is little to no cavity and they put the cement board (this build predates drywall) onto slats on the shared wall. Trying to remove this cement board is also a huge pain, as I have done so elsewhere and would like to avoid if possible. Adding a decoupled wall may be an option, but the space it would take up is a concern. I was considering green glue or a 2mm rubber layer and 5/8 inch drywall layer but I am seeing mixed opinions on that.

I have a garden shed/office behind which is a small stream about a meter below the floor level of the shed.

I'm thinking of drilling through the back wall and pushing the drain hose through. I would seal around the house inside the shed, make sure there's some fall off in the hole I drill and put some gauze around the open end to stop insects possibly crawling up the hose.

Can anyone think of anything I'm missing here before I start?

Thanks

I have an unfinished space where there is ThermoPly? What needs to be done to finish the space? Can you tape and paint ThermoPly?

I have a shower/tub combo in my bathroom. The walls of it are plastic, like in this image. (This isn't my shower, but an example I found online.) I would never dream of putting contact paper on the plastic part because that's where the water lands. However, what about the green "wall" part? Is it OK to put the contact paper on that surface or would the water just make it peel right off again? Is there a special kind of waterproof contact paper I need to use? My bathroom is just really plain and boring and I want to add some pizzazz, but I wanted to start with a smaller area since I've never used contact paper before. I tried looking this up, but all the threads I could find assume I want to put the paper in the actual shower part, and I definitely don't.

I'm looking to extend the edges of my driveway about 2 feet and I was thinking pavers would be the easiest way to go. I am looking for recommendations on what size of a paver to go with. They would primarily be for walking but I will likely park my truck on them from time to time. So would a larger, 12'x12' be a good way to go to minimize unevenness/shifting or would that be prone to cracking with the vehicle weight?

At the store I paid more attention to the finish on the tub and if there were any scratches or chips in it. Thought I lucked out when I found one that was blemish free when all the others at the store had damage. When I got it home and put a 4' level on the back deck it has a substantial dip in the middle (level touches the deck only at the ends) and when looking top down you can see the flange bows outwards at the middle of tub.

You get what you pay for and I bought a cheapo Bootz steel tub, but how screwed would I be if I installed this? Just scribe the tiles to the dip and shim the wall on the sides? Or will it cause an issue with water pooling there in the middle? This is for a guest bathroom that rarely will get used. I feel I already know the answer and I need to just return it and start the crapshoot again of trying to find a tub that's not damaged in some way cosmetically or structurally.

I had mice but all the holes have been plugged bait used and traps and the pest company is confident the critters are gone.

I'm replacing the vapor barrier at their recommendation due to it having the piss scent and whatnot to prevent other mice from smelling it and wanting to make a new hole into the house.

It seems like there is a boat load of options for plastic vapor barrier. Is there really that big of a deal? Or do I just go to Lowe's and buy 6 mil plastic sheeting in the largest pieces they sell, or something thicker? Also how much overlap do I need to account for? Since obviously it's not just laid down edge to edge, and I need about 900 sq ft of just dirt coverage. I live in NV zone 7a if that matters for anything in this case.

I have heard some folks seal the seams, but every crawl space I've ever been in was just laid down overlapping and that's all no tape or sealing of anything, is it necessary?

Also it's a crawl space so crawling room only about 3 ft from dirt to beams. I don't store things down there and I only go down every 3-5 months to inspect the area so not a lot of traffic. Oh and new construction 3 year old house.

I'm looking for a smart inline dimmer that installs directly on a lamp cord and works with Google Home.

Not looking for a smart plug or wall dimmer. Just a simple cord-mounted dimmer with smart controls.

I found the Tradim 6802W, but it seems to be available only in Europe.

Anyone know of a similar product that works with US 120V?

Making a Billy Bass play stuff from a Bluetooth Speaker

I have a final project idea for a class that involves taking a billy bass and instead of it singing when you press the button, it just moves and flaps while hooked up to a bluetooth speaker that will play my talk. I'm aware of those Donald Bell videos where he took the amazon one and made it possible but I have no soldering experience and am really bad at coding, so heres what I'm looking for if yall could help me out.

1. I want the Bass to not sing- Im assuming theres parts I can remove in the fish that will make that happen

2. I want the fish to continuosly move while my talk/speech/video plays on the bluetooth speaker, its okay if it keeps moving after the fact, ill just shut it off.

3. Is it possible to hook my speaker up to the fish, I was thinking of just setting the speaker up behind the fish and have it play my talk while the fish just keeps flapping and moving its lips but lemme know if its possible