Home Repairs
Home repairs are part of my DNA. I have memories of me trying to fix things around my house when I was very young. I distinctly remember my Dad and my Uncle Raymond transforming our single-car garage into a bedroom for me. This was a major home repair do-it-yourself job that was a huge undertaking for my Dad, who was a disabled veteran from World War II. I remember trying to drill holes into the concrete foundation wall that were for anchors for the firring strips. It took a long time to drill just one hole. Too bad hammer drills were not yet invented!
In-home repairs are a great way to save money. This is why my Dad transformed the garage, as we couldn’t afford to have a contractor do the work. When you get ready to try home repairs yourself, you absolutely want to start with smaller tasks. When you start to have tiny successes, you’ll be mentally prepared to tackle something a little harder the next time around.
To do home repairs, you must have some decent tools. If you don’t have good tools or the wrong tool, you’ll discover quickly that it takes longer, and you get inferior results. Something as simple as using the wrong-sized Phillips screwdriver is an example. If you use a #1 bit in a screw that’s made for a #2 screwdriver, you’ll struggle. Imagine trying to dig a simple hole for a post using a square-point shovel instead of a round-point shovel or even better, a post-hole digger! You need the correct tool for the job.
Do-it-yourself home repairs can range from fixing a door that swings open on its own (just take the hinge pin out and put a slight bend in it by striking it with a hammer), to installing a gorgeous concrete patio with the help of a few friends. You may even try to install a new garage door. There are thousands of home repairs to choose from, you just have to make sure you don’t get in over your head. That happens more often than not.
Free home repairs may be attractive, because the price is right, but you know the old saying: You get what you pay for. Even if you have friends come to help for free, they may not have the same desire to produce the quality that you have. I was very lucky to have several friends, Roger and Loren, who over the years have pitched in to help me. They always tried to produce professional results. Friends like this are rare, so be prepared for lower-quality work if you go the free route.
If you’re a beginner, some communities offer great home repairs how-to classes or seminars. In fact, I just taught one here in Meredith, NH. It was well attended, and the people who came went away with a new appreciation of plumbing. Plumbing projects are frequently at the top of home repairs improvements that people attempt. I believe the reason is the high cost of plumbers. Homeowners want to save money, so they try to switch out a toilet or change a faucet.
DIY home repairs can be a success right out of the box if you practice first. The biggest problems I see each day as I read desperate emails containing pleas for help from DIY’rs is that they started a project with no experience.
Installing floor tile and then grouting it is an example. The best way to learn how to do this is to buy an extra 3 ft. x 5 ft. sheet of cement board and take some cheaper tile to cover it. The next day get out the sanded grout and grout this panel. Just lay this cement board in your garage or in the room you’re tiling. You want to practice on the small panel you can carry out to the curb for the garbage man.
Home electrical repairs are one area that I often try to discourage rookies from attempting. Electricity is a sinister killer. You rarely hear about people drowning in their own homes from a plumbing leak, but you hear about people dying each week from fires caused by electrical malfunctions. Many of these fires can be traced to electrical repairs done by a person who had no experience or by a person who didn’t follow the electrical code.
When you decide to get serious about your home-improvement repairs, be sure to take the time to research how the job should be done and the correct products to use. Let’s say you just want to paint the outside of your home. Without doing the research at a website like AsktheBuilder.com, you might go to the home-improvement center big box store and walk away with inferior paint. You may also start the job on the sunniest, hottest and windiest day of the summer thinking that’s great weather.
The truth be told, you need a superior paint from a national paint store that has urethane-acrylic resins. What’s more, you want to paint on overcast days where the temperature is between 65-75 F. Paint will adhere best if it’s allowed to dry slowly on an overcast day. NEVER paint in direct sunlight as that can cause rapid drying and blisters. Major home repairs like painting your own home must be done right so you don’t waste time and money.
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