DIY/Home Improvement Forums

Thread from 2016:

Any suggestions for DIY Home Improvement forums? I look around on Reddit, here on GRM at times, but was wondering where else you go for your home improvement questions and suggestions!

For house ideas: Garagejournal. For garage ideas: garagejournal. For questions on actually doing the ideas: GRM.

This is why my wife wouldn't let me look at houses by myself :(

In reply to WonkoTheSane:

My brother, carkid1989, suggested Garagejournal for garage stuff...didn't know they had home improvement stuff on there too...might have to finally take a look at the site!

Sorry, I was being a bit cheeky there. As in, "I only care about the types of home improvements I see over on GarageJournal." I only care about improving my garage. Hence why my wife wouldn't let me look at houses alone.

Pinterest? Shocking amount of non-chick stuff on there.

Lots of DIY home improvement, Beer/Wine/booze creation, Automotive, etc.

Ideas usually come from Google images.

From there, the guys and gals on GRM are awful smart and the signal to noise ratio is much better than most forums.

I have not found good forums for this purpose. Regions vary for code requirements, but everyone is an expert and I've noticed hostile arguments in some of the forums I have seen. Sorry, but if you live in South Texas you don't need to worry about frost heave and anticipating snow loads. I usually get ideas for things from places like Houzz, and then try to find out what I want to do on youtube, etc. I say find one good source for the plan and stick with it. Too many cooks and all that.

Try http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums. Overall the forum is a little soft and more to the garden/decorating side as the name would suggest. But the technical sub-forums like kitchen, electrical, flooring, home repair and plumbing are pretty good. I used it a lot when I did my kitchen and those folks know a lot.

WonkoTheSane wrote: For house ideas: Garagejournal. For garage ideas: garagejournal. For questions on actually doing the ideas: GRM.

You can sneak in a home question at garagejournal. Lots of people do. If nothing else, post it in off-topic.

DO NOT post anything dealing with religion or politics, or your stay will be short.

Zombie thread, canoe deleted.

This was a zombie thread, but I would advise against posting home questions on the garage journal...you'll get 50 responses; 1 or 2 may be correct, 10 will be incorrect, and the rest will be on some totally different topic that has nothing to do with what you were asking. 

I've been on that site for years and try to provide helpful advice where I can, but it's getting so I hardly bother anymore since it's not worth the effort.

Not sure where my wife finds all of the projects but if I can find the website I'd like to shut it down

Just like mine found Houzz.com on the interwebs when we were building our house. I came home everyday to a stack of pictures printed off that damn website. If I ever meet Mr Houzz, I will make him bleed!

The girlfrind (soon to be fiance) has been putting me to work at the house, redoing 'her' bathroom

And she doesnt even live there yet lol

I love her though, so we keep on going with projects

hybridmomentspass said:

The girlfrind (soon to be fiance) has been putting me to work at the house, redoing 'her' bathroom

And she doesnt even live there yet lol

I love her though, so we keep on going with projects

Sounds like my current project. We haven't even moved in to our new house and the boss (Birdlady) has me remodeling her walk-in closet, the living room and building her a private office. 

Happy wife, happy life? 

-The $1x,xxx I'm saving us in contractor fees means I get to spend $1x,xxx on car parts, right?

birdmayne said:

-The $1x,xxx I'm saving us in contractor fees means I get to spend $1x,xxx on car parts, right?

Absolutely.

I have a huge unfinished basement, wife would like it finished with a gym, full bathroom, bedroom, storage closet and workshop. Its doable but the quotes are outrageous. 

I only do old homes and have found a couple of the restoration/old homes groups on Facebook have some pretty good information. Unfortunately they have a pretty high noise ratio. A lot of modern thought and techniques don't work on older homes, and they are pretty good at throwing up the flag on things like repointing old brick with modern mortar and things like that.

I've also used YouTube for a basic understanding of something then just trying it, I generally find its easier than I was worried about. This does not apply to electrical work, as I've zapped myself a few too many times.

I'm the only one in my family not in construction or renovation and everytime I call my pops or brother for info, they always just say it's easy, just do it. Call me back if you get stuck.