Recommend me a good home improvement/renovation forum

April 29, 2015 8:39 AM

Hi, We just bought a house which needs some work. For some of the work we'll hire contractors and some small jobs we'll do it our self. So I'll be seeking feedback/advice from others time to time and it could be about taking down a wall, buying appliances, kitchen & bathroom remodel, flooring, garden, etc ... Rather than posting all of these questions to AskMeFi I'm looking for suggestions on a forum with good user participation. Thanks.

PS: If anyone has advice on Engineered hardwood, bamboo vs laminating (Floating floors only) and where to buy them online feel free to share that as well.

posted by WizKid to Home & Garden (6 answers total)

I've had decent luck with DIY Chatroom and GardenWeb depending on the topic. Gardenweb got bought by Houzz recently and they seem to have kind of screwed it up, so maybe it's not as good of a resource as it used to be.
posted by primethyme at 8:45 AM on April 29, 2015 [2 favorites]

All paths lead to GardenWeb, eventually, when I was doing this.

You should also set up an account on Houzz.com because sooner or later you will be over there looking at layouts, searching by various keywords and products, and bookmarking away for future reference.
posted by instead of three wishes at 9:17 AM on April 29, 2015 [2 favorites]

Echoing GardenWeb/Houzz. My searches on specific topics also often lead me to DIY bloggers who've dealt with a given issue. If they have a large readership, the comments sections can sometimes provide that same back and forth hashing out of the balance between fast/cheap/good for a specific project.
posted by deludingmyself at 9:40 AM on April 29, 2015

I tend to start with YouTube for this stuff, actually. It has just a ton of DIY and fix-it videos.
posted by OmieWise at 12:50 PM on April 29, 2015

Houzz's purchase of Gardenweb can be made bearable by the Clearly browser extension for Chrome.

Houzz is the pits and did indeed fuck it up but GardenWeb's archives are good.

Pinterest is another good landing spot and it also helps organize ideas.
posted by A Terrible Llama at 1:23 PM on April 29, 2015

I actually had pretty good luck with the fixit forum on Craigslist. You don't have to spend much time there to see who's a troll and who actually knows what they're talking about. Questions are all over the map, and will focus more on how-tos than on where to buy appliances, but there are some knowledgeable people there who are happy to help.
posted by msconduct at 6:23 AM on May 3, 2015