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Official Pit Home Improvement/DIY thread

Thanks y'all. I am not very handy and don't plan on doing much home improvement on my own, so starting out with the cordless drill seems to make sense rather than just buying a set of stuff I probably won't need very often. I would like to get better at handling stuff on my own (like minor drywall repairs/patching - there are a few spots here that need it), but I'm not woodworking or constructing anything. I have some old hand tools (like 25+ years old), so I could probably stand to refresh some of that.
 
wfudkn said:
Thanks y'all. I am not very handy and don't plan on doing much home improvement on my own, so starting out with the cordless drill seems to make sense rather than just buying a set of stuff I probably won't need very often. I would like to get better at handling stuff on my own (like minor drywall repairs/patching - there are a few spots here that need it), but I'm not woodworking or constructing anything. I have some old hand tools (like 25+ years old), so I could probably stand to refresh some of that.
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If drywall patching is on your agenda, get yourself a good stainless steel 10-12 inch wide dry wall knife.
 
I have a shit ton of tools, but far and away I use my Dewalt impact driver more than anything else. I have 5 or 6 drills between cordless and corded, and I end up using the impact driver for pretty much everything anyway. It can drill, tighten, loosen or break just about anything. A few standard chuck adapters and it functions as an impact wrench at any size, so really it is a drill, driver, and wrench in one, with a serious amount of torque. And the recessed chuck doesn't slip like a drill can. I didn't think I would use it much when I got it other than for loosening rusted bolts and lugnuts, but I use it weekly on everything around the house, garage, and boats.

As far as the main consumer brands, I've found that Milwaukee blows away anything else. That said, they are generally heavier than most other brands, so Dewalt is probably a little more practical in most situations unless you really need a ton of power. Like for my sawzall I definitely prefer Milwaukee to Dewalt because that usually necessitates more power. But basic things Dewalt is fine. Craftsman and Black and Decker have gone to shit as far as power tools, and Ryobi is okay but just a small step above Harbor Freight one-time-use crap.

Craftsman are still my favorite hand tools, but Kobalt from Lowes has started to catch up. Their tools have gotten a lot better over the past 10 years or so.
 
I'm real into peg board for an easy way to store/find most my hand tools; pretty much if I can operate it with one hand then I have it on the wall. I also have the peg baskets for storing lubricants, spray cans, etc.
 
Deaconblue said:
That is my short hand for saying that a good selection of hand tools will be more useful to many than a collection of power tools.
Hammer-16 ounce claw
#0,1,2,3 plus stubby #2 Phillips screwdrivers.
Flat blade screwdrivers-1/8,1/4, 3/8, stubby 1/4.
Flat pry bar.
Slip joint pliers
Locking pliers (aka "Vice Grips)
Putty knife/scraper (metal and plastic blades)
Channel Lock pliers
Adjustable wrench
Open end/box end wrench set. 1/4 inch through 1 inch.
Metric wrench set 7 mm - 24 mm
Ratchet 3/8 drive.
Sockets 3/16 through 1 inch
Metric sockets 5 mm - 25 mm
Allen wrenches, inch fraction and Metric sizes.
Ratchet screwdriver with multitude of bit types and sizes. Flat, Phillips, Torx, Robertson, Allen.
Nail sets
Level
Stud finder
C clamps.
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This is a really good list. I would add, when you get a socket set, make sure you get some deep sockets as well as the short ones.

I've got some Craftsman hand tools which I like but I also really like the Kobalt brand at Lowe's. If you wait until around Thanksgiving, Lowe's usually has some really good deals on Kobalt tools/sets for Christmas.
 
HeltonCreek said:
This is a really good list. I would add, when you get a socket set, make sure you get some deep sockets as well as the short ones.

I've got some Craftsman hand tools which I like but I also really like the Kobalt brand at Lowe's. If you wait until around Thanksgiving, Lowe's usually has some really good deals on Kobalt tools/sets for Christmas.
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Good thoughts. Deep and shallow sockets are next level, IMHO.

Craftsman hand tools, as of 2017, are owned by Stanley Black&Decker. Sears has a license to sell royalty free for 15 years from then and for a 3% royalty thereafter. SBD made a deal with Lowes to sell Craftsman. So the Craftsman tools bought from Lowes may (most likely will) have different manufacturers from those bought via Sears online or elsewhere. Unfortunately, quality of more recent production is not what it once was for Craftsman.

SBD spent a lot of money building a tool manufacturing facility in the US. It is using "novel manufacturing technologies." Unfortunately, the timing, right into the Covid shutdown and accompanying supply chain issues have really hurt the operation. Likely the plant will close in 2024, with very little production.
 
our building fitness room in the basement is on concrete floors, which have some sloping and uneven areas -- room is about 24'x35' and we have up to $5k to spend

we are interested in a flooring option to go over the concrete with the goals of 1) a more pleasant workout experience and 2) dampening noise that travels to nearby units

looking into rubber and epoxy for now -- any thoughts??
 
JuiceCrewAllStar said:
our building fitness room in the basement is on concrete floors, which have some sloping and uneven areas -- room is about 24'x35' and we have up to $5k to spend

we are interested in a flooring option to go over the concrete with the goals of 1) a more pleasant workout experience and 2) dampening noise that travels to nearby units

looking into rubber and epoxy for now -- any thoughts??
Click to expand...

How big of a space. We have these in our garage and they work great.

www.americanfloormats.com

American Floor Mats

American Floor Mats brings you 25 years of floor mat experience. We are proud to offer you the most comprehensive selection of high quality door mats.
www.americanfloormats.com www.americanfloormats.com

Probably need to get some self leveling concrete to address the sloping and uneven areas.
 
DeaconCav06 said:
How big of a space. We have these in our garage and they work great.

www.americanfloormats.com

American Floor Mats

American Floor Mats brings you 25 years of floor mat experience. We are proud to offer you the most comprehensive selection of high quality door mats.
www.americanfloormats.com www.americanfloormats.com

Probably need to get some self leveling concrete to address the sloping and uneven areas.
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I agree on getting the floor smooth and level. Unless you have water or other issues that the slope is addressing.

IMHO, mats or similar easily cleaned cushioning floor are probably better than carpet or just a coating like epoxy for this type of situation. If it's fits your budget, epoxy on the concrete before the mats go down would be good. But third priority.

Mako (and others) can probably give you first hand experience on the ease of cleaning mats vs carpet in the workout gym.
 
The mats in our garage are for our workout area. They dampen the sound of the weights and we have a mop to clean when necessary.
 
I know a decent # of folks on here (maybe not in this thread though) are in the Northern Virginia area. I need to have a bunch of carpets cleaned to try to remove dog pee smell, and I've used Stanley Steemer in the past and had fine enough experiences. Is there any reason to look elsewhere? They tend to have good pricing and seem to do a good job, but I'm not sure if there's other processes that would be better?

Unrelated, we toyed with the idea of building a pool when we built our current house, but ended up not doing it because at the time our son was 2 and we were naturally worried about safety. We're finally going through with it since he's older and can swim and hoo boy let me tell you, from a cost perspective we should've done it when we built the house! Fairfax County in Northern Virginia has more and more stringent run-off laws now, everything is so much more expensive than it would've been 4-5 years ago, and now we get to tear up a nice pretty backyard (admittedly to build something even prettier) depending on how we have to work the construction entrance around out septic field. We also won't be able to get digging before it gets too cold to spray the gunite so we won't have it done in time for the beginning of summer, womp womp. Wish me luck!
 
Y'all, doors are fucking EXPENSIVE. We just moved into a new house and the front and side doors are hot garbage. They're those doors with internal blinds between the glass panes. The front door blinds broke in the open position literally the night that we moved in. Had someone out to fix them and they were unfixable. We found a janky interim solution so that all the people walking by don't see into the house and no one is allowed to touch the mechanism on the side door at this point since it's basically a second front door. But just had a door guy out to quote us to replace both doors and it ain't nothing like looking at doors at Home Depot. I assumed these would be more, but I am stunned by how much more. We could shop around to different services but based on some rudimentary google research it seems like most door specialists come in pretty close, give or take. We have four more of these shitty doors in the house, but none of them open to the public so we're not going to worry about them unless we hit the $1.2B powerball tonight, though even then it might not be enough to cover all four.
 
Deaconblue said:
I agree on getting the floor smooth and level. Unless you have water or other issues that the slope is addressing.

IMHO, mats or similar easily cleaned cushioning floor are probably better than carpet or just a coating like epoxy for this type of situation. If it's fits your budget, epoxy on the concrete before the mats go down would be good. But third priority.

Mako (and others) can probably give you first hand experience on the ease of cleaning mats vs carpet in the workout gym.
Click to expand...
there is a drain in the room that did have backwater flood up through it last week due to a big rainstorm

not looking at carpet — mostly epoxy or rolled rubber

we currently have a bunch of mats on the concrete
 
JuiceCrewAllStar said:
there is a drain in the room that did have backwater flood up through it last week due to a big rainstorm

not looking at carpet — mostly epoxy or rolled rubber

we currently have a bunch of mats on the concrete
Click to expand...
Floor drain is pretty high on my list of "you should have mentioned THAT" items. Deal with the water issue first.
 
wfudkn said:
Y'all, doors are fucking EXPENSIVE. We just moved into a new house and the front and side doors are hot garbage. They're those doors with internal blinds between the glass panes. The front door blinds broke in the open position literally the night that we moved in. Had someone out to fix them and they were unfixable. We found a janky interim solution so that all the people walking by don't see into the house and no one is allowed to touch the mechanism on the side door at this point since it's basically a second front door. But just had a door guy out to quote us to replace both doors and it ain't nothing like looking at doors at Home Depot. I assumed these would be more, but I am stunned by how much more. We could shop around to different services but based on some rudimentary google research it seems like most door specialists come in pretty close, give or take. We have four more of these shitty doors in the house, but none of them open to the public so we're not going to worry about them unless we hit the $1.2B powerball tonight, though even then it might not be enough to cover all four.
Click to expand...
Hit up the restore, man! The one here at least has some good windows & flooring.
 
I have never in my life heard of or seen doors with internal blinds what the seven hells
 
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