c/edmonton-diy

Got roasted on a drywall texture job, actually appreciated it

Had a guy on the Alberta Building Envelope forum tell me my knock down texture looked like a pizza crust that fell off a counter. I mean, he was blunt but he was right, so I switched from a 12 inch knife to a hopper gun and practiced on scrap board for about 4 hours. Has anyone else had a brutal comment that ended up improving their finish work in a real way?

Reclaimed pallet wood from the Strathcona dump was a game changer

I spent last Saturday digging through the scrap pile behind the Strathcona waste transfer station and pulled out about 40 feet of solid pine pallets, totally free. After a quick pass with a metal detector and a sander, I built a raised garden bed frame for my backyard in one afternoon. Has anyone else had luck finding decent lumber there, or is there a better free source around Edmonton?

My $200 dehumidifier made my basement worse, here's the real issue

Picked up a mid-tier dehumidifier from Rona back in June to deal with the usual Edmonton basement dampness. Three weeks in, the thing actually raised my humidity levels because I put it right against the foundation wall, blocking the airflow. After my drywall tape started peeling near the floor, I read the manual and realized I needed 12 inches of clearance on all sides. Moved it to the middle of the room and now it works fine, but I'm still salty about the tape repair. Anyone else find out the hard way that placement matters more than the machine itself?

Frost heave cracked my fence posts, steel brackets saved the rebuild

Been fighting fence posts heaving every spring in St. Albert for 6 years now. Replaced three cedar posts twice with concrete and they still shifted up 3 inches by April. Last fall I tried those 18 inch galvanized steel ground anchors instead of concrete, the kind you screw into the ground at an angle. This spring after the thaw, the fence line stayed dead level, not a single post moved. Cost me about $45 per post versus $20 for concrete but no more redoing it every other year. Has anyone else switched to steel anchors for sheds or decks with clay soil around here?

Vent: My garage door opener gave out mid-winter at -32 and the spring snapped

Had to call a pro in St. Albert after my DIY torsion bar fix went sideways and the door slammed shut, anyone else just leave this stuff to the pros now?

Vent: My buddy's $12 caulk gun lecture made me ditch my fancy one

I was bitching about a drafty window seal job in St. Albert last week, and my buddy Dave, who frames houses for 30 years, said my fancy 40 dollar gun was the problem, not the weather. He brought over his beat up 12 dollar one, and the bead came out smoother in one pass, no drips, no mess. Anyone else find that the cheap stuff just works better for certain jobs, or am I just bad at using the pricier gear?

Found out my garage slab was poured wrong, 2 years after moving in

I was fixing a crack near the garage door last week and decided to check the slope with a level. Turns out the concrete pitches toward the house instead of away from it, so water has been pooling right against the foundation. I found a local building code rule online that says the grade should drop at least 6 inches over the first 10 feet. My neighbor said the original owner did the pour himself, which explains a lot. Has anyone else in Edmonton dealt with a bad foundation slope and what did you do to fix it?

Frost heave wrecked my shed slab, pier option fixed it for $140

Last spring my 10x8 shed floor tilted almost 4 inches after the ground thawed. I was set on pouring a new 4 inch slab because that's what everyone says to do, but my buddy who does fence work talked me into trying helical piers instead. Dug down 6 feet, screwed in 4 piers, and framed a treated wood base on top. Total cost was around $140 in materials plus a weekend, and it's still dead level after this winter. Anyone else deal with heaving and wish they'd skipped the concrete the first time?

Pro tip: I saved $180 building my own raised garden beds this spring

I finally added up the receipts from my last DIY project and realized I spent $220 on cedar planks and screws compared to $400 for a pre-made kit at Home Depot. The key was finding a local lumber yard on the east side that sells offcuts for cheap. Anyone else found a good Edmonton source for budget lumber?

I finally fixed my drafty Edmonton window with a $12 roll of rope caulk

That week last June when my basement flood ruined 3 different DIY projects at once

Honestly it started with a simple pipe leak under the kitchen sink on Monday. I thought I fixed it with some plumber's tape and a new washer from Home Depot on 99th Street. Then Tuesday morning I found water in the basement and realized the leak had been dripping down inside the wall for months without me knowing. By Thursday I had to rip out 8 feet of drywall and half my workshop shelving that got water damaged. Has anyone else had a small quick fix turn into a week long nightmare like that?

Hit 200 board feet of reclaimed lumber in my garage stash and it feels like a problem now

I've been grabbing old pallets and demo wood from renos around Edmonton for about 18 months. Last week I actually measured everything stacked against my wall and it came to 200 board feet. That's enough to build like three big shelving units or a whole shed wall. Has anyone else here just accumulated way more scrap wood than they planned and what do you actually do with it all?

Shoutout to the old hardware store on 118 Ave for closing down

Honestly, I still miss that place. It was a dusty old building with creaky wooden floors, and you could find random bolts and screws in little bins that nobody had touched in 20 years. Over the last 5 years or so, it just got emptier and emptier, until last spring they finally locked the doors for good. The guy who ran it, old Mr. Kowalski, told me he couldn't compete with the big box stores anymore. Plus, the city jacked up the property tax on that strip, and his supplier started charging double for stuff like copper pipe. Now it's a vape shop, and every time I drive by I think about the time he gave me a handful of washers for free. Has anyone else seen their favorite local spot disappear around here?

The Home Depot parking lot on 82nd saved my drywall project last weekend

A forklift driver there showed me how to load 4x8 sheets solo by tilting them against the roof of my truck instead of sliding them flat and now I never bring a second person for materials.

Why I finally stopped doubting duct seal after my basement rim joists hit -35 C last winter

I figured the guys saying a $4 bucket of putty could seal gaps better than spray foam were just cheaping out, but after checking my basement temps this January the stuff actually held steady where everything else had pulled away from the concrete.

Painted my garage floor last weekend and it peeled off in 3 days

I prepped the concrete with that big box store's cleaner and used their epoxy kit, but half of it came up when I moved my toolbox across it. Has anyone had luck with a different brand for Edmonton cold garage floors?

What I learned after 8 years of mudding and taping drywall

I was in my garage last month finishing some drywall patches on a rental flip near Whyte Ave and noticed the mud was cracking again. A buddy who does commercial finishing stopped by and watched me for 2 minutes then asked why I was pressing so hard on the knife. Turns out I was squeezing all the compound out and leaving almost nothing on the tape. 8 years of doing it the hard way. Anyone else ever have that moment where you realized you'd been doing a basic thing totally backwards?

Rant: Cheap pine vs. oak plywood for Edmonton garage shelves - learned the hard way

I built garage shelves last summer and used regular pine plywood because it was $45 a sheet compared to $80 for oak. Six months later, that pine stuff is sagging between the supports on my 4-foot spans, holding my winter tires and totes. My buddy used oak plywood with the same span setup and his stuff is still dead flat. Now I gotta rip mine out and redo it, costing more time and money than if I just spent the extra upfront. I know oak is heavier and harder to cut, but does the longevity actually make up for it in a freezing garage? Anyone else deal with cheap plywood failing after one Edmonton winter?

Tried insulating my garage door with foam board last weekend

I picked up four panels of rigid foam from Home Depot for about $60 and cut them to fit between the door sections. The garage actually stayed above freezing during that cold snap, which I was not expecting. Has anyone else tried this on an older door and had the panels shift around?

Tried to fix a leaky faucet myself and flooded the kitchen

Honestly, I thought I could save $150 by swapping out the cartridge on my kitchen faucet last Saturday. Got it all apart, forgot to shut the water off under the sink, and sprayed water everywhere across my laminate floor. Took me an hour with a wet vac and a bunch of towels to clean up. Has anyone else had a simple diy job turn into a total disaster real quick?

That tip about using bleach on deck stains wrecked my boards

My neighbor said a 50/50 bleach and water mix would clean my cedar deck, so I tried it last summer. It lightened the wood unevenly and left a patchy mess that wouldn't stain evenly. Anyone else gotten bad advice from a so-called expert around here?

Question about using spray foam around basement windows in Edmonton winters

I talked to my neighbor last week who's been doing renos around here for like 30 years. He told me I was wasting my time using the standard spray foam from the hardware store on my basement windows. Said the stuff just shrinks and cracks after one deep freeze here. He showed me how he uses the higher expansion stuff meant for big gaps and then trims it down with a knife after it cures. I never really thought about the temperature thing being that different here compared to somewhere warmer. Has anyone else in Edmonton had their spray foam fail on them after a cold winter? I'm wondering if I should rip out what I already did and start over with the heavy duty stuff.

Refinishing my kitchen cabinets with gel stain vs paint was a tough call

I spent like 3 weekends going back and forth on whether to use gel stain or paint on my oak cabinets here in Edmonton. Ended up going with General Finishes gel stain in java brown because I wanted the wood grain to show through still. It took 4 coats and a ton of sanding between each one but the result looks way better than I expected. Anyone else try gel stain on cabinets and have it peel on ya later?

Saw a basement floor crack show up 3 years after pouring near St. Albert

I was under the stairs checking a weird smell and saw a hairline crack running across the slab. Turned out the old weeping tile wasn't tied into the sump right. Had to rent a jackhammer for 2 days and chip out a 4 foot section to fix the drain. Anyone else find hidden issues years after a pour?

Neighbor clocked my deck stain job and roasted my technique

Last summer I was staining my deck in Ritchie and a retired painter from down the alley yelled over the fence that I was 'painting myself into a corner' by starting in the middle. He told me to always work from the far end back toward the exit so I don't trap myself. Tried it on the second coat and honestly it saved me from crawling over wet stain. Has anyone else had a random passerby give them a tip that actually stuck?