c/edmonton-home-reno

Warning: Don't skip air sealing your attic like I did

I had my attic reinsulated last spring by a crew in St. Albert and they told me to seal all the gaps first but I figured it was fine to skip it. Now my upstairs bedrooms are still COLD no matter how much I crank the heat, and my gas bill went up almost $80 a month. Has anyone else learned this lesson the hard way after a reno?

Shoutout to ductless mini splits for our garage conversion

Spent around $3800 on a Mitsubishi unit for my garage conversion in Edmonton last fall. I was gonna go with baseboard heaters but my buddy who does hvac talked me into this instead. It heats way faster and I don't have to deal with cutting into my furnace ducting. Has anyone else tried these for a cold climate garage?

Went to that reno show at the Expo Centre and got burned on a window quote

I was at the Edmonton Home Renovation Show last Saturday and some booth guy quoted me $4,800 for three basic casement windows. Turns out he added a 20% “show special” fee that wasn’t mentioned anywhere in the fine print. Has anyone else dealt with sketchy pricing from vendors at those trade shows?

Talking to a plumber at Rona changed how I look at PEX fittings

I was grabbing some copper fittings last Saturday when this older plumber told me he's seen PEX fittings fail after 8 years in Edmonton basements because of the chlorine in our water. He showed me a cracked fitting from a job he did in 2016 and said most people don't realize the cheap ones can get brittle over time. Has anyone here compared brass vs plastic PEX fittings long term?

Knocked out a 1970s popcorn ceiling in my living room last week

I finally got around to scraping that awful popcorn texture off my living room ceiling (about 400 square feet) and the difference is night and day. I thought it would be a quick weekend job, but it took me three full days from start to finish. The trickiest part was getting the texture wet enough to scrape without damaging the drywall paper underneath, you know? I used a pump sprayer with warm water and let it soak for about 15 minutes per section. My arms were killing me by day two, but seeing that smooth ceiling made it worth it. Has anyone else tackled one of these old Edmonton ceilings and found a faster method I should try next time?

Rant: I tried painting my basement with a roller vs. a sprayer and the sprayer saved me about 6 hours of work

The roller gave me a better finish on the concrete walls but the sprayer cut my time from 9 hours to 3 hours and I'd rather have my weekend back lol, has anyone else found a faster method for basement ceilings?

That $40 caulking gun I cheaped out on cost me 3 hours of cleanup

I thought I was being smart buying the basic home depot caulking gun for my bathroom reno. Well the plunger slipped halfway through the tub surround and I had silicone EVERYWHERE. Took me an entire afternoon with scrapers and goo gone to fix the mess. Has anyone else had a tool fail that ended up costing way more in time than just buying the good version?

Frost proof spigots are way overrated for Edmonton winters

Everyone swears by those frost proof outdoor faucets but I went back to a regular spigot with a shutoff valve inside the basement. After 3 years the frost proof one still froze up on me last January when we hit -40 for a week. Has anyone else had better luck just using the interior shutoff?

Can we talk about that cheap caulk I bought at the hardware store...

Picked spray foam over batts for my garage ceiling and glad I did

I've been going back and forth on insulating my detached garage for about a month. Started with fiberglass batts from Home Depot cause they're cheap, but then read about air sealing. Ended up renting a spray foam rig and did the whole ceiling myself last Saturday. It cost me around $900 for the rental and materials, but the garage stayed warm through that cold snap we had. Has anyone else tried DIY spray foam or should I just hire it out next time?

Finally listened to my dad about using a sharp chisel instead of forcing a dull one

He watched me struggle for 20 minutes on a door hinge in Edmonton last month and said 'if you can't shave arm hair with it, it's not sharp enough' so I stopped trying to cut corners and bought a good set of diamond stones for $60, has anyone else had a stubborn old-timer call them out on tool maintenance?

Spent 3 hours trying to level my shower pan before realizing the floor was the problem

That 70% energy loss stat on old attic insulation floored me

I was reading a City of Edmonton rebate page and found out my 1960s R-12 attic insulation was basically letting 70% of my heat escape. I always thought 'insulation is insulation' until I saw that number. Anyone else check their attic R-value after a brutal winter bill?

Skip the expensive moisture barrier, just use red rosin paper

I was about to drop $200 on that fancy plastic vapor barrier for my basement Reno. Someone on job site told me to just use the thick red rosin paper instead, costs like $30 a roll. Been 4 months since I finished the framing and insulation, no moisture issues at all. Anyone else use cheaper alternatives for stuff the big box stores push?

Found out my house is basically sitting on a swamp after reading the soil report

I was digging a post hole for a fence last weekend and hit water at like 2 feet down. That got me curious so I pulled the old soil report from when the house was built in 1988. Turns out the whole subdivision here in Mill Woods is built on what they called 'high plasticity clay' with a water table that sits at 3 feet during spring melt. No wonder my basement floor always has that damp patch near the southeast corner no matter what I do with the gutters. The report even said to use deep foundation piles but the builder went with a standard slab anyway. I called the city permits office and they confirmed the record shows the builder got a variance for it. Has anyone else found something buried in their house documents that makes you question the whole build?

Those cheap LED shop lights from Amazon? I was dead wrong about them.

Thought they'd flicker and die in a month for $30 each. Installed 8 in my basement workshop 6 months ago and they're still going strong. Anyone else switch from expensive name brand to cheap LEDs and get surprised?

Talking with my grandpa about drywall mud changed how I see the old houses around here

I was helping my grandpa patch a ceiling in his 1950s bungalow last weekend and he said the old plaster and lath was way more forgiving than modern drywall compound. He showed me how they used to mix their own mud with horsehair for strength and it hit me different because I've been fighting with bubbling paper tape on my own 2020 build for months. Is there any real benefit to hunting down that old style plaster for a small repair or am I just romanticizing the past?

Vent: Wasted $800 on a custom bathroom vanity that didn't even fit

I ordered a custom vanity from a local shop in Edmonton last summer without checking the rough-in measurements myself. I assumed my contractor had it right, but the pipes were 2 inches off center and the vanity wouldn't slide in. Ended up having to pay another $300 to get the plumbing moved after it was already tiled. The shop wouldn't give me a refund either since it was custom made. Has anyone else run into this issue with pre-built vanities not matching Edmonton's older plumbing standards?

Got quoted $18k for a rewire and almost had a heart attack

Honestly, I was just getting some old knob and tube replaced in my 1950s bungalow near Whyte Ave, and the first electrician hit me with $18k. Got two more quotes and landed at $11k with a smaller outfit. Has anyone else seen insane price swings like that for a basic panel swap?

Overheard a contractor swearing about poly-B pipes at Home Depot yesterday

I was grabbing some drywall screws and this guy was on the phone yelling about polybutylene pipes in a 90s home in St. Albert. He said they can burst without warning and cost like 5 grand to replace if they fail. I didn't know that was a thing, but now I'm paranoid about my own house built in 1994. Anyone else deal with poly-B or am I just overthinking it?

That cheap laminate flooring I installed 3 years ago is already peeling at the seams

Went with the $1.49/sq ft stuff from a big box store back in 2021 thinking it was all the same. Fast forward to today and the edges are curling up in my kitchen and the living room. The moisture from the concrete slab is seeping through even with the underlayment they sold me. Saw my neighbor put in the mid-grade stuff at $2.80/sq ft and his still looks brand new after the same amount of time. Lesson learned hard... you really do pay for what you get with flooring in this Edmonton climate. Anyone else have their cheap floor fall apart after a couple years here?

Changed my mind about spray foam insulation

I used to think batt insulation was fine for my garage ceiling, but after watching a neighbor's place get wrecked by ice damming last winter, I switched to closed-cell spray foam. Cost me about $1,200 more but the air sealing makes a huge difference. Anyone else make the switch and notice lower heating bills?

I was Dead wrong about those cheap knockoff LED grow lights from Amazon

Bought a $40 four-panel setup for my basement seedlings out east and after 6 weeks they were leggy and pale compared to the ones under my friend's $200 Barrina rig he brought back from Calgary, so now I'm out the money AND the growing season, anyone else had a cheap light fail on them?

Took 6 weekends to fix a simple uneven bathroom subfloor

Started leveling the bathroom floor before tile and thought it'd be a 2 day job. Ended up pulling up half the plywood because the joists were warped and it took me from September right into October. Has anyone else found hidden surprises that blew up their timeline?

Why I think spray foam insulation is overrated for most Edmonton homes

Last month during that cold snap, I had a guy from a spray foam crew come by to quote my attic. He was super confident claiming R-60 spray foam would pay for itself in 3 years. Except my buddy who works in building science ran the numbers and said for our climate with the freeze-thaw cycles, dense pack cellulose actually performs better long term and costs about $2,500 less for my 1500 sq ft house. I went with cellulose instead and after that -35 week, my heating bill was only $20 more than my neighbor's who has spray foam. Has anyone else found traditional insulation works just as good here?