3 Home Repairs You Should Definitely Know How To Do
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Home ownership might be a dream come true, but it’s more than just quiet weekends on the porch and romantic evenings in front of the fireplace. It necessitates a dedication to maintaining your little hideaway safe and operational. Even if you aren’t a dedicated do-it-yourselfer (DIY), there are a few around-the-house remedies you should become acquainted with.
Few things can make a homeowner’s mood worse faster than a clogged toilet or a dripping faucet, and that’s just in the bathroom and kitchen.
Roll up your sleeves and spend a few minutes learning how to undertake five simple home repairs that don’t require dangerous materials or lengthy instructions. Even if spending a few hours a week on DIY home maintenance and repairs will never become your favorite pastime, understanding how to execute a few easy adjustments will help you keep your costs down and have the job done on your time rather than your contractor’s.
How to Prepare for Paint Jobs Like a Pro
Nothing helps to preserve or improve the appearance of a room like paint, whether you want to paint a whole room or only need to conceal a nail hole. If you don’t have paint-splattered work clothes in your closet and a couple of paintbrushes in your basement or garage, you haven’t owned a home for very long.
Painting your rooms is one of the most effective ways to showcase your home, but there are a few things to consider before you start collecting color swatches. When done correctly, painting may raise the value of your home while also adding beauty and flair to your area. It’s nearly as terrible as leaving cracked and peeling paint on the walls when the job isn’t done effectively and roller marks, spatters, and sloppy trim paint are visible.
When you prepare for the work, you’ll get the greatest results. Preparation is king when it comes to painting. It takes time to prepare well, but it makes the painting process go more smoothly.
Begin by eliminating any fixtures or hardware that could obstruct your endeavor. Remove curtain rods, switchplates, and door hinges by loosening fasteners. It does take some time, but it isn’t excessive. You’ll waste time later trying to cover or paint around anything that will create hurdles for your paintbrush or roller if you leave them in place. It will take longer, and the ultimate product will not be as professional as if you had cleared everything away from the start.
Clean the walls with a moist sponge or a dry cloth after you have an unobstructed view of them. Grease, dust, and filth will prevent paint from adhering properly to your walls, resulting in streaks. Check the room for nail holes, gouges, and other irregularities that need to be repaired with spackle, as well as rough regions that could benefit from sanding. Small fixes like this can make a great impact in the final paint job’s appearance, especially in older homes. Apply primer to any sanded areas after you’ve cleaned the walls and made a few small repairs. If you’ve sanded large areas, you might want to consider buying a paint that includes primer to save having to prime the walls separately.
Now is the time to use painter’s tape to hide any molding, built-ins, and baseboards before setting down drop cloths. Painting your room will be simple after that.
We’ll make sense of your favorite interactive room divider, the door, on the next page.
Taking Care of Doors
You have doors all around your house, and despite their innocent appearance, they require maintenance and repair on a regular basis. Door difficulties, which range from squeaks to sticking, are usually minor but can be inconvenient.
Although inside doors aren’t exposed to the weather, they are nonetheless affected by seasonal climate shifts. If there isn’t enough area between the door and the frame to accommodate expansion in humid conditions, wooden doors can swell. Inspect the door for any loose hinge screws or deteriorating hinges that could be the source of the issue. To balance the weight, use a door wedge on the latch end of the door before tightening loose screws. If the screws appear to be in good condition yet the door closes with reluctance, make a note of the tight spots. It may be necessary to plane a door that only sticks during humid months or during the rainy season. Consider whether the condition will go away on its own in a few months before taking this approach.
You’ll need a special carpenter’s plane to plane the door. As a cheese plane scrapes a narrow slice from a block of cheese, a plane will scrape a little layer of wood from the door’s edge. Draw a line parallel to the door where it meets the jamb or lintel. You can plane the door without removing it from its hinges if the tight spot is at the top or on the handle end. Just be sure to start with an angle cut to avoid splintering the wood or veneer. If the tight location is on the hinge end or bottom of the door, use a hammer and screwdriver to pound out the hinge pins and then set the door on its side to plane it. Planing the hinge end may necessitate resetting the hinges, so use it only as a last resort.
Squeaks can be caused by stuck or bound doors because they exert extra pressure on the hinges. When hinges oxidize, they can also become loud. With a little lubricant, you might be able to silence your door hinges when someone enters or leaves the room. Apply penetrating oil to the hinges after covering the area under the door with a cloth. At beginning, be cautious. Open and close the door after adding a few drops to massage the lubricant into the hinge’s moving parts. Give it a few minutes and then try opening and closing the door again. If the squeak persists, apply a few more drops and repeat the procedure.
If lubricating the hinges does not resolve the issue, clean the hinge pins. Place a shim under the door for support before removing the hinge pins one by one. Steel wool should be used to clean the pinholes, and a small circular wire brush should be used to clean the pinholes.
Let’s go on to the next page, where we’ll discuss using caulk.
Caulk application
The rubbery bead between your tub, shower, or sink and the wall, or between the outside rim of your toilet and the floor, is caulk. It forms a seal that keeps moisture out of the floors and walls. It also adheres to itself, making application a simple one-step operation. Caulk can discolor or decay over time, exposing your property to water damage and mold growth.
The most difficult component of applying caulk is getting rid of the residue left behind by the old caulk. The new bead will not stick unless the old caulk is entirely removed, therefore careful preparation is essential. Caulk had to be removed with a razor scraper in the old days, and it took a long time to get it all off. A variety of solutions are now available on the market to soften old caulk and make it easier to remove. A putty knife easily removes treated caulk residue. Clean the area with paint thinner after removing the old caulk and allowing it to dry fully. You’re now ready to begin the installation procedure.
It takes some practice to use a caulking gun or a normal tube of caulk. Trying to draw a straight line with a tube of toothpaste is akin to trying to draw a straight line with a tube of toothpaste. You do, however, have some options. Because caulk is cheap, you can stock up and practice on a piece of plywood first. Make sure you cut the caulk cap’s cone-shaped tip at an angle and with a diameter large enough to cover the widest gap in your project.
If you’re not confident in your ability to apply a smooth, even bead of caulk, you can buy caulk strips that you simply unroll and press into place. They remove the artistry from the procedure, but they are a fairly foolproof alternative if you need to get the task done quickly and with a standard installation.
On the following page, we’ll look at the difficulties of repairing a leaking faucet.
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