No, there's no way to remove the lettering without also damaging the tubing. wiping with acetone will be the fastest way.

Security Hex.

In the summer, all bottom-floor vents are supposed to be closed off (or just close off the entire trunk that feeds the downstairs vents directly.) This will send the cold air to the upper floors first.

A fan will simply pull the hot air out of your room, pulling cooler air from the rest of the house into it. It will work, but perhaps not that fast or that well.

Acetone eats PVC.

The best way to clean them is simply to clean them. Bring them into the shower with you, or take a pressure washer to them, or put them in a big tub of soapy water to soak for a while.

Food colouring is organic.

Isopropyl destroys organic molecules.

You need an alcohol or solvent-based dye, or you need to stop using Isopropyl, and switch to something else, like mineral oil, but you will then need to switch to an oil or solvent-based dye as well.

The Franklin M210 is the king of traditional-style stud finders, and it typically runs 60-80 dollars CAD.

There's no such thing. All screws require anchors in drywall.

Eh, you would have been fine with just the polyacrylic. It's not as tough as urethane, but it's still fine.

Don't know why you decided to switch to oil afterwards, but either way the poly was not fully cured when you went over it. It may stay soft now, it may not.

Lead presents an inhalation risk and an ingestion risk, but not a contact risk.

So long as you're not breathing it in (wear a properly-fitted N-100 or P-100 respirator), and are not ingesting it ( remove your clothes BEFORE you enter the home, thoroughly wash yourself and your hands off when you're done), you'll be fine.

There is definitely something to be said for releasing it to the environment, though, which should absolutely be avoided.

Personally, I'd rip off the casings and replace them completely, so as to avoid releasing all those flakes to the environment. But if not, then yes, a combination of scraping, and a sticky encapsulating paint is the way to go.

My point is this is anecdotal. There's nothing inherently wrong with using water-based paints over oil-based ones. If you do the work properly, and apply the principles of good painting prep, it works just fine.

Latex paints work fine over oil-based paints, as water-based coatings work just fine over oil-based ones once they are fully cured.

If the existing coating happens to be very glossy, there can be adhesion problems, but oil-based does not inherently imply glossy.

There's a few different causes for this problem -- the most common is walls that are oily because of an air-based oil, like is often found in a kitchen, or because they put paint directly over a very smooth, very glossy finish with no prep. If it's across the WHOLE HOUSE, though, in multiple rooms, then these reasons don't really apply, and I suspect there was a systemic problem -- the painters let the paint freeze or expire, there was something like ceiling popcorn removal done throughout the house which coated the walls in drywall dust that wasn't removed, etc.

In any case, unfortunately, you have to remove all of the loose paint. I don't even know how that would be doable without tremendous cost, but if you just bought the place, it's something you can claim from the sellers as a deficiency.

I get that, I just think that it's important to state whether a photo is an actual photo, or a composite. Once you get into the realm of composites, virtually anything is possible, which means the work should be perceived and judged differently.

But then wouldn't the ground be smeared?

7 minutes exposure, but all the stars are circles and not smeared arcs? How?

Uhh, no.

No, that's not how this is done at all.

You absolutely, positively, can NOT just cut into the beam/rim joist/header, or whatever it is you've drawn in blue on top of the studs.

If you remove studs, you need to replace them with a header that redirects the load they were once carrying to the new jack studs that are farther away. Those jack studs are then stabilized by King studs right beside them.

The size of the header required is, as u/rpapafox points out, something a structural engineer would determine.

Yeah. Even for small structures like a garden shed, or a slab for a barbeque, it's always 4" min, and for an actual home, it's 6" min.

There are foundations that don't need a thick pour, like a raft foundation, where the actual footings can be 10" thick, but then the rest of the area is covered in just one or two inches, basically just to keep the dust and dirt down, but those types of foundations wouldn't be used for a basement that's meant to be occupied. At most, it would just be a crawlspace.

I could be wrong on this, but I don't think a 2" foundation can legally exist. Especially not in an occupied space.

If your floor is only 2" thick it'll crack just from looking at it funny. How is it / why do you think its only 2" thick?

To answer your question directly, You'd need a lot of clear epoxy suitable for a 3/8" pour depth. This would be your main cost.

Then, you'd be best-off picking up either hexagonal washers or low-profile hex nuts. You'll run about $3.19 for 100 of them from McMaster-Carr (Product 91078A205 )

Technically speaking, they're cheaper than pennies. About 3 times cheaper. The nuts will be only about 0.45" across, though.

You can't spot-treat with a brush or a roller.

You can technically spot-treat with a spray can, but it's still likely to be noticeable in some lighting / from some angles.

Typically, paints have an application temperature between 15 C and 30 C as the ideal range, sometimes going as low as 10 C on the low end.

There are specialty products that can go as low as 5C or 2C, but you will need to check your product specifically (google it along with the word " TDS ") to see what its application temperature is.

Financially speaking, most low-end DIY is not worth it, because the cost of mass-produced good is SO low, that you can't really beat it once you factor in the consumables (paint, sandpaper, primer, etc.) and especially your time. This often keeps people trapped in an endless cycle of buying cheap products that don't last (the "Boots theory of socioeconomic unfairness".) The reason to DIY low-end objects is more for the satisfaction, sense of accomplishment, and learning opportunity they represent, rather than for financial gain.

However, the cost to DIY something is often much less than a high-quality good, so it would seem to make sense to DIY it -- but only if the base material is decent.

If I had the choice between spending $75 on paint and materials for a particle-board desk, or $150 for a solid-wood desk on the marketplace, I'd go with the solid wood one every time, because then, if it does need repairs in the future, I know its actually repairable, and that those repairs will last another 20 years, rather than 2.

What is your budget? There may be better options available for you.

No, you do not need to test it for lead.

Yes, the countertops need to be replaced or refinished.

Yes, this would constitute a failure to provide basic living amenities, and is something you could take to your local landlord-tenant board to get advice on how best to approach your landlord to replace it.

As someone who has sanded through a few veneers before, you're absolutely right, but unfortunately there's no other solution. The surface roughness is inconsistent due to OP's sanding of the area at 150-grit.

Since we don't know what grit Ikea finished their own veneer to, this is now the new baseline that the whole countertop needs to be brought to.

You're right tho, this might be one of those situations where trying to fix it just ruins it entirely.