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Anonymous10/11/26, 07:15No.3011051what's your experience with total home repair
bando added for dramatic effect.
>got my money up
>want to avoid huge mortgage/loan/interest as much as possible, and also hate renting
>could afford a house in a safe-ish area by next year (doesn't bother me much), but it would most likely be in disrepair for the price
>been looking for anything decent enough to live in *while* I fix it up
>mostly worried about siding, roofing, pipes and wiring for appliances, flooring, windows, preventing mold and rot
Has anyone here moved into a place already planning on fixing most or all of this stuff yourself?
If there's something critical that people always fail to consider when buying, and fucks them over later, posting that would be helpful too.
I gotta stress I wouldn't move into some hollowed out shell in detroit and just rebuild the entire interior myself, I also don't feel like waiting another 15 years to afford a new or renovated home in a monotone suburb with a crazy HOA either. so I'm considering the middle ground here
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Anon10/11/26, 15:46No.3011076
How old? The thing mostly is the furnace, around here anyway. Then see if the water main is copper. Then after that, windows and insulation. Then electrical. Plumbing no big deal.
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Anon10/12/26, 02:13No.3011144
roof, water pipes, wiring, HVAC, what the basement looks like, (poke and prod shit, look for mineralization, water staining, appliances up on platforms)
I redid my house after i bought it on the cheap, flooring upstairs was decent, basement was old but dry, furnace was ancient but it worked.I eventually finished the basement on the cheap with flimsy but good enough non bearing walls, had an electrician come and rewire half of it so i could do ceilings he was super cheap. redid the upstairs bathroom, new flooring, rotated the clawfoot tub and put a shower device on it. Redid the kitchen cabinets and flooring, added a dishwasher and mounted microwave rangehood. Built a ground level wooden platform deck in the backyard ($2000) 12x24. redid the front steps to be a small 4x7 deck so that the door was more easily accessible. also replaced the old windows with insert windows, read the fine print on how they build them to your measurements so you aren't having to fill a one inch gap all the way around.I didn't do it all at once started with insulating the attic, did the windows, then the basement, the front deck, the upstairs bath, the kitchen, and the backyard deck.If i had to do it over again i;d have had the wiring all redone before i did everything else (house is wired kinda weird)forgot to put that i did gutters and downspouts where the water all ends up 10 feet from the house, terminate the downspout at least one foot above the ground so the extension has a good downslope. if the ground is settled around the house don't be afraid to add window wells and back fill a good slope away.roof is expensive but if it looks good to begin with (no water stains on the ceilings or bubbling paint on the walls) it should last until you need to replace it.
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Anon10/12/26, 02:36No.3011146
>>want to avoid huge mortgage/loan/interest as much as possible
>If there's something critical that people always fail to consider when buying, and fucks them over later, posting that would be helpful too.Buy a turnkey house with a big mortgage. Pay the interest, put your liquid money into investments (which will outpace your interest payments).
Every payment is building equity and credit score.You can literally just sell your house to pay off the the mortgage, get back all your equity in a lump sum and buy a new house with a new mortgage.Flipping houses died years ago
Shitbox houses arent cheap, materials and appliances arent cheap.
The mental drain of living in a pulled apart house where all of your free time should be going to fixing it fucking sucks.
You arent finding a decent fixer upper in an actual nice neighborhood.You are shackling yourself to your house just like a mortgage just in a different kind of way. Except its a crappier house in a crappier neighborhood and its not appreciating in value as much.And if you do sell it and make a decent chunk of change from your sweat equity, you havent played the game with the bank so its going to be harder to get an actual nice house (because your chunk of change will be a nice down payment and thats it)I dont regret buying and rebuilding a fixer upper, but I will never ever do it again.
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Anon10/12/26, 05:44No.3011155
related thread
[/diy/thread/3011094#p3011094]
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Anon10/12/26, 05:47No.3011156
American home repair is so easy mang. Just remove the cardboard or pine wood and caulk it it's done.
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Anon10/12/26, 18:46No.3011195
My only recommendation is don't try and save plaster walls, just rip it out and hang sheet rock
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Anon10/14/26, 02:40No.3011348
My house had mold on all exterior walls of the basement, some insulated drywall, some wood panelling, some uninsulated drywall. I removed all of the walls and moldy materials and I'm running dehumidifiers. I'm trying to determine if I need to do interior or exterior waterproofing, and if I need a sump pump. Two exterior walls have hard surfaces: driveway, concrete patio. Two sides are dirt. The house was built in 1957 and has cinder block walls. My plan was to wait until the thaw and take moisture tests and pictures of water intrusion. I was going to tape down a plastic sheet to the floor to see if there is a ground water problem under the middle of the basement (sump pump). I'm doing all of this because I want to finish my basement and don't want to have to redo it, but I also don't want to spend a boatload of money paying a guy to do exterior waterproofing, perimeter drain, sump pump, etc unless I have to.Q. How can I determine what an adequate waterproofing solution is?
Q. How reasonable is it for a guy to trench around his own foundation and hire people to just install the waterproofing solutions, would it save money?
Q. My understanding is that a perimeter drain only works if it goes all the way around, but the driveway and patio make that difficult, is the method where you go from an exterior perimeter drain/waterproofing on one wall to interior drain/waterproofing legit?
Q. Do I just spray foam it drywall and forget?
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Anon10/23/26, 15:15No.3012356
Just go off grid and throw the first world amenity shit out. Buy a porta potti and electrical pump for the ground water + filter, a wood stove, anything else is communal service slavery.
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Anon10/27/26, 01:36No.3012701
i like this idea ... I'd live in a camper in the backyard while making the structure habitable
