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The first question is what kind of foundation is it, pier and beam, or a standard basement?
If it is pier and beam, the problem is more than likely that the posts are either improperly installed or have settled. Most pier and beam problems can be solved by the average home owner with a little knowledge, a good hydralic jack, a long level, and some good wedges. I have never done this myself, but have help friends do theirs and it is not difficult.
If the floors are soft and spongey, then you have a support issue. This is more complicated, and can be done by someone with enough home improvement knowledge, but is usually better left to a professional. This can mean pulling up floors and adding or replacing floor joists.
We just replaced ours within the last year, and one of the things that they said to do was to run through ice cudes on a regalar basis. They help scarpen the blades. Also, they recommended to run things like peach pits, aprocot pits, and plum pits through it for the same reason.
This can be caused by many different things. One thing that is apparent is that depending upon how many incadescent bulbs are burning, you may have upped the load considerably on the circuit. If you replaced 8 flourescent 35 watt bulbs with 8 60 watt incadescent bulbs, your power usage went up by about 60%.
The first one I can think of is, do the lights flicker when the entertainment center is on, off, or both? If it does not seem to make any difference whether it is on or off, then you need to look further. You need to narrow down what seems to be causing the problem.
The next thing you can try, is to pull out the breaker and reinsert it. Sometimes the connect can get slightly corroded and it will do that.
The only way the breaker would trip is if the hot wire (black) was connected to the neutral (white) or ground (bare). When you disconnected the switch, the white wires should be tied together and capped. The bare wires are tied together, and the 2 black wires are tied together and capped.
The question I have is why would you need a jumper wire? Where is the jumper wire coming from and going to?
This is unlikely going to cause enough water to get in to cause a leak. The only other possiblity is the flashing was not woven into the shingles properly, and the water is leaking through the shingles. Is the water leak on the uphill side or downhill side of the chimney? It sounded like it is on the downhill side. If it is on the uphill side, is there a gable on the roof coming up to the chimney. There are a lot of chimnies out there that do not have this. This allows water to run down the roof and run right up against the chimney. The only thing that keeps the water out of the house is flashing. There should be a gabled roof that comes up the chimney so that all the water is directed away from the chimney.
About the only option you have is to use blown in. This can be done from the inside or outside the house. You will need to drill a hole in-between each set of studs at the top of all the exterior walls. You will also need to do every floor, if the house is more than one story. Usually there is a fire stop in-between each floor.
You should always be able to pull the hinge pins and get the door off. You should be able to use a screwdriver after the doorknob is off to unlatch the door. Usually the latch is just a metal bar that is just pulled into the door by the knob.
My entire house had wallpaper in it. I have about half removed and am slowly working through the other half. I have found a steamer to be a really big waste of time. It it slow and usually does not work very well. I found the easiest way to remove wallpaper and/or paste is to use a garden pump sprayer. In it mix up a diluted (maybe 50%) solution of wallpaper stripper in very hot water. If you are removing vinyl wallpaper, first strip off the outer vinyl layer by simply pulling it off. You could perforate it also, but that does not work as well. Next, lay out plastic and spray the entire area down. Let this stand for 30-45 minutes or so, but don’t let it dry out. You may have to respray the wall a time or 2 over that 30-45 minutes. After that time, the paper should almost fall off the wall by itself. I usually follow up with a scraper and clean off the glue, which also just comes right off. Let the wall dry completely, and rub down any rough spots with some fine sandpaper. Then just prime and paint the walls. I did not use any special primer. The first wall I did was 3 years ago, and it has never peeled or cracked in 3 years.
I would not bother doing it youself. I would have someone install seamless gutters. They are a lot less problem in the long run.
I am not sure what is the best underlayment for the shower floor. I do know however I would NOT use marble (even textured) on the floor. My in-laws have a texturized marble floor in their shower and it is as slick as ice. My mother-in-law has already fallen once. I would suggest some sort of HIGHLY texturized tile (the rougher the better) for the floor.
Is the leak with the hose or where the inlet pipe goes into the tank? If this is leaking you will have to replace the inlet tube. These can be purchased at any home improvement or hardware store and are fairly easy to install.
I have seen circuit breakers do this. You can try popping out the breaker and reseating it in the box. This will sometines eliminate this problem (at least for awhile). After doing this, if the problem goes away but comes back later, I would replace the breaker.
Laminate flooring is not fastened down on any floor. It is called a floating floor, for that very reason. You would install it the same on concrete as you would over any other surface. The only fastening required for laminate flooring is the individual planks are either snapped together or glued together, but NEVER to the existing floor.
If you have mold inbedded in the drywall, chances are VERY good that you will not be able to remove the mold. If it were my house, all the drywall would be out, and I would frame a wall with insulation so the mold will not form again. The probable reason the mold formed in the first place is the cool damp basement walls sweated moisture directly into the drywall. There needs to be studs put up with insulation and a vapor barrier between the drywall and the basement wall.
