House Repairs | | Guru Goddess

Even More Top Tips for Handy Home Repairs

1. Close your sink stopper whenever you are repairing the faucet. It will prevent any small parts from falling down the drain. Extra tip: Get a little mesh drain cover (one of the ones that goes partly down the drain) or covers over the hole to stop any items from getting washed down and to help prevent clogs. Put one in your kitchen sink, and you will be shocked at how much debris collects each time you wash the dishes. Shake the debris out into your trash can and/or scoop it out with a spoon. Rinse and replace.

2. To prevent hitting your thumb or hand with the hammer, hold the nail in place with a pair of pliers with one hand, and hammer with the other. Do this when nailing into hard wood to help avoid bounce-back injuries. Holding it in position firmly in this manner can also prevent the nail from going in crookedly.

3. Pushing the tips of your nails or screws into a bar of soap or candle will lubricate them and make it easier to drive them into wood.

4. If the flames of your gas stove are uneven, the burner is most likely clogged. Turn off the stove, turn off the gas connection, and use a Q-tip with some baking soda and vinegar to clean around and inside each hole. Use a new Q-tip as needed until you’ve removed the cooked-on food and residue to clean each pore of the burner.

5. Save the handles of old brooms. They make great extension handles for paint rollers, or paint stirrers.

Tips For House Repairs

1. Have a tube of all-purpose strong glue on hand for minor repairs. Also keep Teflon tape, electrical tape and sturdy double-sided tape on hand for piping, wiring and general repairs.

2. If you are working with wood and mis-judge your sides and cut it too short, cut the piece you have made in half and then make up the mismeasurement with a different piece of wood. If you wish, you can use a different shade of wood to create a decorative accent, or just stain the wood all one color so that few people will ever see your mistake.

3. To prevent paint from spilling all over the edge of the top of the paint can, punch holes all around the cover rim. When you swipe the brush against the rim, any excess paint that bubbles onto the rim will automatically drip back into the can.

4. When painting the house, wrap doorknobs with plastic bags and cover plate switches with masking tape to keep them free of paint splatters when repainting walls and doors. If you remove them, put them in separate plastic bags with their screws and any other fittings in order to avoid confusion. If you have a lot of these fixtures, consider writing the location where the items came from on an envelope and putting the plastic bag inside the envelope.

5. Old plastic shower curtains make handy protective drop cloths while working/painting to protect the floor from splutters and drips. After all, you are only going to throw them away anyway, so spray them with Lysol or another disinfectant and hang them for a day or so to be sure they are completely dry. Then fold them away and store them until your next paint job (which will usually be about every 3 years depending on the quality of the paint you use.

Top Tips for Handy Home Repairs

1. When fixing a backed up toilet, remember that oval plungers or augers are generally better than the bell shaped ones because they can push more air without creating a vacuum. Handy hint: Try pouring a quarter of a cup of dish washing liquid into the bowl. Let stand for 15 minutes. Boil a saucepan of water. Pour it into the toilet at the end of 15 minutes. Plunge GENTLY to avoid any splashing or excessive bubbles. It should clear up the clog easily without any need for a plumber.

2. Always plan ahead before you replace or buy light fixtures. Location and cleaning are factors that you should always consider. Oddly shaped lights placed high up are very hard to clean and will get dark and dingy over time, darkening your room. A tall Swiffer feature duster can help, but they do cost money, so keep things simple and spend less time cleaning.

3. If repaired cracks are an eyesore for you, use brush-on resurfacers, which will help even out the area and enable it to look like new.

4. Use a thin-bladed utility knife instead of a pencil to draw a saw line when you are working with wood. Scoring the surface of the wood makes sawing easier, and yields a more precise measurement than the pencil mark.

5. Get into the good habit of “Cleaning as you go.” Just as with cooking, in which dirty pots and pans piling up can start to limit your ability to work safely and sanely, clean as you go when you are doing DIY as well. A work area that is cluttered with tools and other items will make you more prone to accidents. Be alert for cords that can trip you up, blades and other sharp instruments that can nick and cut and caustic chemicals that can harm the skin and the eyes.

6. You can repair carpet troubles without having to replace the whole rug. Vacuum stained portions of carpet before repairing. Trim carefully with a sharp knife or scissors. If the damage is deep, cut out the piece using a sharp carpet knife, and replace with one the same size that you cut from a covered area of the rug that no one will see, such as under a piece of furniture like the sofa. Patch it in place with double sided carpet tape.

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