c/edmonton-home-renos

My neighbor Bob swore by that spray foam for sealing windows so I went ahead and did all 12 of them one Saturday last fall

Turns out he was right about the draft stopping, but now my upstairs bedroom windows won't open at all because the foam expanded more than the can said, and has anyone else had to cut that stuff out with a serrated knife because it sets like concrete?

Tried using reclaimed barn wood for a basement accent wall in my 1980s Edmonton bungalow and ended up with all the nails popping out after one winter.

The wood had been sitting in a dry garage for years but the humidity changes in my house made the old nails shift so bad I had to pull the whole thing down and replace it with drywall, has anyone else dealt with seasonal movement wrecking their reno plans?

That moment I realized my bathroom floor was sloping the wrong way

Started tiling my ensuite about 3 months ago. Leveled everything out with self leveler, thought I did a good job. Then after the tile was down and grouted I put a level on it and realized water would just sit by the tub instead of draining toward the door. Took me a whole weekend to rip up 12 tiles and redo the whole slope. Should have checked before I started tiling. Anyone else had to rip up fresh work because of a simple level check you skipped?

The day my basement concrete pour turned into a muddy mess

I was doing a small 10x12 slab for storage in my Edmonton basement last November, and the ground was way wetter than I thought. The concrete started pooling water on top before I could finish screeding it, and I had to stop and mix up a dry batch just to soak up the moisture. Has anyone else had ground moisture wreck a basement pour on them?

Contractor talked me into stained concrete floors, biggest regret of the whole reno

We had that old laminate that was peeling and I was set on tile for the basement. Our guy convinced us stained concrete would be cheaper and look modern. Eight months in and every little scratch shows, plus we have to be super careful with drop zones. Anyone else get talked into a trend that backfired in an Edmonton house?

Spent a whole weekend fixing a window that should've taken 2 hours

I tried to replace a rotted trim piece on my 1970s bungalow window, and ended up finding the frame was completely soaked underneath. Took me three full days to rip everything out, let it dry, and rebuild it with proper flashing. Any other Edmonton folks run into hidden water damage that turned a small job into a nightmare?

Did drywall mud wrong for 10 years until a painter laughed at my buckets

I always mixed joint compound with water in the same bucket until a painter at my parents' reno said I was contaminating it with dried bits from the previous job. Turns out using a separate clean bucket for mixing and washing tools right away avoids those lumps that kept ruining my finish coats. Anyone else learn a basic drywall trick way later than they should have?

Hit $15,000 in kitchen reno supplies before we even started demo

I was adding up plywood, drywall, and all the little hardware for our kitchen flip in Bonnie Doon and I almost dropped my coffee. Just the cabinets and countertops came to $8,200 alone after we went with a quartz remnant from a local supplier. Then you add tile backsplash, the sink, faucet, under-cabinet lighting kit, and suddenly I'm staring at a receipt that's more than my first car cost. My wife asked why we didn't just paint the old ones and I had to explain that the plumbing was rusted anyway. Has anyone else had their budget balloon before swinging a single hammer?

Finally patched my own leaking copper pipe without calling my buddy for backup

Had a pin hole leak show up in my basement ceiling last Tuesday night. Water was dripping right onto my workbench, not a ton but enough to annoy me. I cut out the bad section and sweat in a new coupling around 11pm. Took three tries cause my torch was acting up and I hate soldering overhead. Total cost was like $12 in parts versus paying someone $300 easy. Anyone else ever fix something small yourself and realize you should have just done it sooner?

Talked to an older sparky about wire nuts vs wagos

He said he's been using wire nuts for 40 years and never had a failure, but I've seen too many loose ones in old boxes. Has anyone else switched back after trying lever connectors?

I finally asked my contractor why our quote kept climbing

We were redoing our basement in the west end near West Edmonton Mall. The initial quote back in March was $18,500 for framing, electrical, and drywall. By week three I noticed a bunch of small charges showing up for things like "material transport" and "site cleanup." I asked my guy Dave about it while he was packing up his truck on a Tuesday evening. He just shrugged and said "that's how we keep the base price low, you gotta expect the extras." It added up to almost $2,300 more by the end. Has anyone else had a contractor do this where the real cost only shows up in the add-ons?

That moment my plumber saved me $800 with one sentence

I was getting quotes to move my laundry hookup to the basement wall. First guy quoted me $1200 and talked about jackhammering concrete. Then my regular plumber came by, looked at the setup for 5 minutes, and said 'you know we can just run the pipes through the ceiling joists instead.' Saved me $800 and a ton of mess. Has anyone else had a contractor suggest a simpler fix that totally changed your reno plan?

That $15 moisture meter saved my basement reno

Overheard a guy at Home Depot say he never drywalls a basement without checking every inch with a pin meter first, and after poking around my own walls I found a damp spot behind the old paneling I would have sealed right over. Anyone else had a bad experience skipping the moisture check?

Tried both spray foam and rigid foam for my basement rim joists. The rigid was way easier to work with.

Found out my 'finished' basement was never insulated at all

I was tearing down some old paneling in my place near Whyte Ave last month and found nothing behind it but dirt and cobwebs. No insulation, no vapor barrier, just bare concrete from 1959. The kicker is the guy I bought the house from had it listed as 'fully renovated basement' and charged me 20k extra for it. I checked the city records and there was never a permit pulled for that work. Has anyone else dealt with sellers hiding garbage work like this?

I had the worst reno week of my life after cheaping out on a $30 reciprocating saw blade to cut through a cast iron stack in my 1950s Edmonton bungalow.

It took me 6 hours and 3 broken blades to get through one pipe, has anyone else learned this lesson the hard way with old plumbing?

My plumber buddy told me to run PEX instead of redoing copper in my 50s bungalow

I was about to drop $1200 on copper pipe to repipe my basement bathroom in Edmonton. My buddy who does service work for a living said just use PEX it's fine for residential. I was skeptical because my dad always swore by copper. But I went with his advice and ran PEX from the main line to the shower and vanity. Saved me probably $800 in material and the install took half a day instead of two. No leaks after 6 months. Has anyone else made the switch from copper to PEX and regretted it later?

Shoutout to the old hardware store on 118 Ave

Stopped by that place on 118 Ave last week to grab some trim nails and noticed the bins are still labeled with handwritten price tags from like 15 years ago. The guy at the counter even remembered my grandpa from when he used to go there for lumber in the 90s. Anyone else got a spot in Edmonton that feels stuck in time like that?

My flooring guy told me to always buy 10% extra laminate, I thought he was nuts

I ordered laminate for my 500 sq ft basement in Edmonton and only bought 5% extra to save cash. Three planks got damaged during cutting and two had weird warping, so I ran out and the store was out of my batch. Had to wait 2 weeks for a restock and now the new boxes don't match the old ones perfectly. Anyone else had to deal with mismatched batches on basement floors?

PSA: I found out spray foam insulation can actually trap moisture in Edmonton basements

I was all set to spray foam my basement walls last week until I talked to a guy at Total Home Reno on 99 Street. He told me that in our climate, closed cell foam can seal moisture inside the walls if you don't have a proper vapor barrier underneath. I looked it up on the Alberta Building Code site and found a stat saying 30% of basement renos with spray foam end up with mold issues within 5 years. That totally changed my mind, now I'm looking at rigid foam boards instead. Has anyone else here had problems with spray foam in their Edmonton basement?

PSA: Don't skip the vapor barrier in Edmonton basements

I helped a buddy finish his basement last summer and he insisted we skip the poly on the exterior walls to save $80. We hung drywall in June, by September there was black mold creeping up the bottom 6 inches of the walls. Two guys I know on the south side did the same thing and now they're tearing everything out. Anyone else seen this mistake around the city?

My basement flood clean up took 3 days longer than I planned

I had a pipe burst in my basement back in February and figured I'd have it dried out and patched up in a weekend. Ended up spending 6 days ripping out wet drywall and insulation because I kept finding mold behind the baseboards. The rental dehumidifier from Home Depot ran nonstop for almost a week and my hydro bill was brutal. Took me another 3 days just to get the framing straightened out since the studs had swelled up. Anyone else run into hidden water damage that snowballed way past your timeline?

Went to that Habitat for Humanity ReStore on 99 St last weekend

I swear half the stuff in there was the exact same laminate flooring I put in my first condo back in 2008, just sitting there for $8 a box. Did all the old peoples' renovations just get dumped there over the years or what?

Just crossed the 200 bathroom tile job mark yesterday

I've been doing bathroom renos around Edmonton for about 4 years now and somehow yesterday was my 200th tiling job. It was a small master bath in a 1970s bungalow near Whyte Ave. The homeowner asked me how many tiles I've laid total and I did the math in my head, came out to around 12,000 tiles. Has anyone else kept count of a random milestone like that or am I just weird?

My neighbor pointed out my window well drainage problem and it saved me a headache

Last spring after a heavy rain, my neighbor Bob came over and pointed out that water was pooling right against my basement window well. He said if I didn't fix it soon, I'd be looking at a wet basement down the road. I ended up digging out the gravel, adding a proper drain pipe that runs away from the house, and backfilling with larger stones. It cost me about $80 in materials and a Saturday afternoon, but now I don't worry every time it pours. Has anyone else had a neighbor spot a problem you completely missed?