I have just pulled up my old ceramic tiles from my bathroom an there is the thinset on the subfloor an some grout left on it.  Do I need to clean that before putting new thinset on it?
123024
I will be installing some new 12x12 tiles in two bathrooms approx 25 sq/ft each. When I pulled up the old tiles, there was no thin set that had made contact with them so the removal was very easy. Now, the thin set on the floor is a different story. I have been chipping away at it by hand in one bathroom to get to the cement floor below and it has been a bugger to get off. Before I attempt to continue this process in the second bathroom, I would like to know if it is absolutely required to do so if it is well adhered to the cement underneath?  (It's my hope, obviously, that I can tile over the old thin set as long as it is level and firmly attached.)  EDIT: My subfloor is a concrete slab with the thin set on it. It must be chipped away to remove vs. cut and replace sub floor.
100000
My cousin says I should leave 1/4" space between all edges of drywall so that mud can be pressed into it. Everything I've read online say to butt them tight. When is leaving a gap a good idea?
119921
I have just moved into a new apartment and I found the toilet does not have a very powerful flush. After thoroughly cleaning the entire toilet – inside and out –, checking the water valve is fully open, and tank water level is correct, I still found the toilet to not flush properly.  I believe I have traced the issue to grime and dirt under the toilet rim that must be clogging the rim jets. I tried a few different household cleaners with a toilet brush as well as pouring vinegar through the overflow tube. I have removed quite a bit of the dirt; however, about 35% of the toilet rim still does not provide water when the toilet is flushed.  As many online guides suggest, I tried to use a mirror to look under the rim of the toilet and a wire to clean out the jet holes. However, the space between the bowl and the rim is quite narrow and I am unable to see any jet holes under the rim even when using a good mirror and flashlight. I do see a lot of dirt however and I cannot seem to get rid of it. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to restore full flushing to the toilet despite the hard to reach area under the rim? Is it possible that this toilet does not have any flush jets?
24931
Hello Seasoned Advice: I cannot find an answer on any previous posts here relating to woks about what to do if the wok is Already Rusted. I found this wok in my husband's house when I moved in - he has no idea where it came from or how long it's been there.  I have no information about this wok, other than that the faded manufacturer's label indicates it was made in Taiwan, presumably by an Asian cooking supply house - has Chinese (?) characters above, then in English: "Seven S---G Co., Ltd" (the --- indicates where the label is faded and illegible) with an address, international phone number and fax number. It is black, has a welded, hollow steel handle with a hole through it for hanging, and looks to be a commercial, or restaurant-grade wok of carbon steel, well used. It was stored in an under-counter cabinet next to a leaky sink, so I have no doubt about where the original rust came from. Has about 10 small pits on the bottom and almost half of the entire upper right side of the circumference of the wok is almost one continuous thin (not pitted) area of rust.  Previously, I had spent the better part of a day alternately: scrubbing the rust (with coarse salt and fine salt), wiping with vegetable oil and heating over a high gas flame -then repeating this process 3 or 4 times until I was sure there was no rust or moisture remaining (although it is still pitted in some places at the bottom), and then another thin coat of oil to seal against moisture, heated again, then wiped. It worked very well for a couple of weeks, but as I don't currently cook Asian-style on a regular basis, after a few weeks of disuse it turned rusty again, almost worse than when I found it.   Should I be using steel wool to scrub the rust down to bare steel first, or just the salt? Using a different oil? (WD-40?  Just Kidding). Oven vs Gas burner heating?  How should I be storing this? (I have limited space-so most of my equipment is hanging on the walls or on a steel kitchen shelving rack, so I don't think air-flow is an issue.)  As this looks like a relatively decent piece of equipment, I want to do more Asian style cooking and be able to use it on a more regular basis. Is this wok salvageable? I would hate to have to put it on the curb and spend the money for a new restaurant-quality wok.  Thanks in advance for any guidance. P.S., I have pics, but due to a software issue with my camera, I am unable to post at the moment - will try to send pics if I get an answer to this question.
40304
I'm quite new to cooking as a whole.  A few months back I bought a set of VonShef cast iron pans. When seasoning them, I unfortunately made two errors. First, in my naïveté, I used vegetable oil as the seasoning; and second, I didn't remove the excess oil, leaving a sticky and uneven finish in the pans. After a couple of failed attempts at cooking with this situation, and some food sticking to the pans, I've been putting off using them to avoid further catastrophes.  So how can I go about rectifying my mistakes? I've watched a few videos on YouTube about the proper way of seasoning, and it seems you can clear seasoning by either sanding it down or burning the pan. But how would you also clear off burnt food stuck to the pan?  I hope you can see what I mean in the below pictures.
24939
We have an older shower, with 1x1 tiles on the floor. Some of these, the grout has started to crack, and we want to prevent water damage. However, we've exhausted our renovation budget for the year, and won't be able to do a shower replacement until sometime late next year.  As a temporary hack, could we apply a thin layer of caulk to these grout lines? Would this help?
102128
I have a big old gawd awful cast iron (at least I think it's cast iron, the house was built in 1940) toilet flange that is in sorry shape.  See?   There will never be a better time to replace it - as we have the floor above and ceiling below it open, and it desperately needs it, obviously.    I have never done anything with cast iron before, however, and do not know how I should proceed.  Should I break the pipe back on the long straight stretch and connect to pvc using a rubber connector like this?    Or should I focus on just trying to replace the flange (which seems much more difficult to me...)  I know cast iron is hard to cut - is a grinder going to be more effective at cutting this stuff?  (Huge mess for the kitchen below :( - but I can hang trash bags or something underneath I suppose...)      UPDATE 5 Nov 2012  The end result:
40266
I have a small cast iron pan which I am working with, trying to make sure I understand seasoning/cleaning before moving on to a larger one. I seasoned with flaxseed oil (4 light coats, hour in the oven), and have cooked a few things - I made some Ghee, fried some onions, stuff like that. After each I washed with hot water (no soap), heated until dry on the stove and coated with a thin layer of canola oil.  Now, when I take a dry paper towel and rub it on the pan, a black residue shows up on the paper towel. I can't feel anything with my fingers and I haven't noticed anything cooking with it. I'm fairly confident this occurred after the initial seasoning - although I'm not sure I did this exact test with the paper towel.  Is this a) normal, or b) what is wrong and c) how can I fix it?  There are quite a few questions (and good answers!) regarding cast iron cookware on this site but I haven't been able to find one that deals with this specific issue.
15309
I've got an old house with some asbestos tape on the heating vents, and some old floor tiles which are asbestos suspects as well; duct cleaning firms won't do cleaning on the vents with the tape present. Do I really need to call in the space suit guys to get rid of it? If I just cover it with new foil tape, will that encapsulate it safely?  Should I just rip it off myself?
63603
I have added a plane in top view. I have then extruded the plane according to a floorplan in topview.  I don't know what happened, but when I switched my view, I could see that some parts of it are for some reason high up in the air.  I would like to ask how I can bring everything back down onto the grid / floor.  And if somebody could tell me how this might have happened, I would also be glad.
22498
One of the problems with patterns is that you never know how individual tiles are going to be laid over the area.  E.g. if you use star pattern, sometimes stars on the left side of the area shall be broken in half, and sometimes they shall be whole.  Is there any way to control how tiles are laid over the area?
18560
I have ripped out some old carpet and am preparing to install a new solid hardwood floor myself.  In several places, the floor transitions to an existing tile floor.  The hardwood floor guys told me the best transition between the two is a T molding.  You simply leave a gap between the two floors, and then place down the T molding between the two floors, so it sits on both surfaces.  Sounds simple enough.  However, the height difference of the two floors is considerable, and the T molding does not sit flush.  What are my options?  Here is a diagram showing the dimensions.      NOTE:  Using the T molding is not a requirement, I could go some other route if there is a better option.
54548
I'll be replacing my electrical panel soon and I noticed that the new breakers and panel have a brown goo on them where they connect to one another. I'm guessing it is lubricant .. similar to what goes in the aluminum wires but I rather make sure than end up with fireworks.  Should I leave the brown goo in place before I plug the breakers to the new panel or should I wipe it out? Thanks.
111018
After much research, I have a lot of conflicting advise about the need to add a vapor barrier before installing the backer (hardy / cement) board for my bathroom shower. The &quot;expert&quot; at Home Depot, and  seem to think this is a very good idea, and even suggest sealing it with roofing tape.  (The guy on Youtube tapes it directly to the sill of tub.) However, when I asked about the tape and how far down I should go at Lowes, they told me they'd never hear of anyone doing that, and that it didn't seem like a good idea.   Likewise,  putting down caulking on the sill before applying the backer board, and then again after before adding tile, and then caulking a 3rd time under the tiles before grouting. Should I add a vapor barrier between the frame and the cement board?  Why or why not?
54855
What kind of mortar should I use to point a fieldstone foundation?  The old mortar is crumbling, and sandy mortar is falling out onto the basement floor.  I plan to remove the crumbling mortar (see ), then point the foundation with new mortar.  But what kind of mortar should I use?    I have had a hard time finding definite answers about fieldstone foundations on the Internet, but I'll include some of what I've found here.  First,  has this to say about fieldstone foundations:     Most fieldstone foundations have, or had at some time, a thin mortar coating on the face of the stone. The purpose of this coating was to assist in holding the stones in place. This thin mortar coating will inevitably flake off from any moisture migration, revealing the surface of the stones. As this coating continues to erode, the mortar between the stones will begin to crumble and the soft, sandy mortar begins to slowly fall out onto the basement floor. It looks like a small pile of sand at the base of the foundation. When this occurs, tuck pointing is needed to refill the voids where the old mortar has fallen out. It's very important that you scrape away or chip away the crumbling mortar (in between the stones) in order to establish a small cavity or key way which can hold the new mortar that is being applied. Never apply new mortar over any old crumbling mortar, as this is a temporary fix and it will only last a couple years. All crumbling mortar must be removed in order for the newly applied surface to bond properly. While upgrading your field-stone foundation, only work on a section at a time. Do not remove the old mortar throughout the entire basement all at once. Complete all removal, tuck pointing and parging one section at a time.       To avoid annual tuck pointing, you should finish the foundation with a complete top coating of mortar. Be sure it is lime based. This top coat does not have to look like a stone artisan's creation: It merely has to serve the purpose of keeping the newly installed mortar in place. It's sort of like applying a frosting to a cake.    seems to suggest that I should be using not straight type-S hydrated lime, but type-S mortar, which consists of one part Portland cement, ¼ to ½ part lime, and an amount of sand equal to 2¼ to 3 times the total volume of cement and lime.  Do I need to analyze the existing mortar to make sure that the new mortar has the same lime content, as ?  Should I expect the new mortar to start crumbling and releasing dust soon, or should it stay solid and dust-free for many years?
116300
Twice in the past week or so, I've wondered whether my cooking utensil was still clean enough to cook / serve with. Here were the situations:   Cooking ground sausage (no casing). While breaking the sausage up, raw sausage clearly got on the back of the spoon. Over the course of cooking the sausage and later adding veggies, all visible traces of the raw meat disappeared. I finished up cooking, used the spoon to stir in some penne, and then served.  Candying some bacon. Put some bacon in the oven with some brown sugar on it. Used a fork to flip the bacon half way through. Then used the same fork to take the cooked bacon out of the pan and on to a rack.    Is this safe? When do I need to worry about contamination on my cooking utensils? What is sufficient to make the utensil safe again?
62339
I've already created a node setup with bump mapping and gloss, but I have no idea how to add or combine an image or texture to create a realistic dirty/worn look on the clean tiles. I tried the tutorial  , and I can bake the image but I am not sure how I would combined them to give the desired effect.  The image I wish to improve on or change (add dirt to) can be found here.   Any advice would really help me out! Thanks