Archive for the ‘Home Maintenance’ Category

It’s easy to be overwhelmed by the selection of tools at your hardware or home improvement store.  As a general rule, I rely on the old adage that you get what you pay for. That means, on a limited budget, I pay what I can for what I consider specialty tools and spend the most I can on standard tools that I use the most and hope will last the longest. A well-made, strong set of pliers can often spare me from tantrums and further damaging the stuff I set out to repair.

But the rub always seems to be how many, of what kind, and which quality of manufacture are appropriate for the most critical jobs around the home.  When assembling your home toolkit consider which jobs you’re currently capable of doing and which ones you plan on punting over to the professionals.

A Dizzying Array of Pliers

Considering that my hands can only grip and apply a limited about of force on home hardware, I desperately need a reliable set of pliers—in fact several sets.  My toolkit always has one-each of sturdy needle-nose, slip-joint, linesmen’s, and lock-joint pliers.

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There’s always a best choice set of pliers for the job at-hand.

Here’s what I have:

•    Channel-locks are okay for tightening or removing nuts, bolts, and screws IF you don’t have a matching, open-end wrench that fits perfectly. They’re angled perfectly for getting my elbow grease into the job.

•    Slip-joint pliers, the kind most people pick up at discount stores or garage sales, come in two sections held by a center axle that shifts from loose to tighter. They’re good for general use but, frankly, are terrible for gripping wire, or rounded pipe, or for getting a great hold on nuts and bolts.

•    Linesman’s pliers are indispensable pivoting pliers that work perfectly well for gripping, bending, and snipping wire.

•    Needle-nose pliers can save you from the loony bin when you have to get a purchase on a small or hard-to-reach piece of hardware.

While you’re shopping, you can also find cutting pliers, midget pliers, plumber’s pliers, crimpers and strippers, duckbill pliers, and parrot-nose pliers.

Confused? Consider buying a few of the pliers that serve the most-often uses where you have direct experience.  You may be amazed how much easier repairs can be when you have the right tools.

You’d be amazed how many people ruin their kitchen or bathroom faucets and shower heads attempting to remove the aerator and clear mineral build-up. While clearing a faucet is a simple job, you still need basic skills in how to protect your hardware from tool damage. It’s part of your Basic Home Repair 101 course, but if you’re like some of my relatives, you prefer employing brute force rather than common sense.

In a previous blog, I wrote about fixing leaky faucets and probably should have written about simple cleaning first. The minerals in your water source form sediment that cakes and clogs your sink and shower aerators. It’s mostly calcium and is harmless, even though it creates small maintenance projects.

At home my well water deposits white coatings on my shower head, which then distributes water right out the side window or on the curtain. I use an off-the shelf product that removes calcium, lime, and rust in minutes. Of course, old plumber’s folklore and present practice include soaking your aerators and heads in simple white vinegar. Warm vinegar melts the sediment off overnight.

Next, you puncture the spray holes in the shower head with a push pin to finish off the job.

Take Some Care and Save Your Hardware

You’re going to need a set of pliers to loosen the casing and remove the aerator from the faucet or shower head. Now comes the little class secret: wrap the teeth of your pliers (on the action end) with electrical tape to spare your hardware from scrapes, gouging, bending, or crushing.  Once the end is safely rotated loose, you may need a thin blade or knife to pry out the aerator.

Here are other precautions:

•    Be sure you close the drain and turn off the water supply to your tap.
•    Loosen the casing with a set of pliers or monkey wrench.
•    Remove the aerator and soak in vinegar or safe home improvement product.
•    Clean all masks or aerators, gaskets, heads, and spray holes.
•    Tighten, open water supply and drain.

I use gloves and take a stiff brush to the hardware before rinsing it with clear water. I have a friend who made the mistake of washing the hardware in the same kitchen sink where he had removed the aerator. Old habits die hard.

While you’re at this project, it’s not a bad idea to add in related work, like clearing your drains, and repairing damaged hardware. Need a new disposal? Now’s a good time to think about it.

As the winter months advance, we’re all making resolutions for the New Year. Not all of them are about personal habits that need changing. Home repair buffs and gardeners all look toward the new slate of months as an opportunity to begin and complete projects we’ve only daydreamed of undertaking.

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You might begin drawing plans for an overdue kitchen restoration. Gardners might find the time just right to order seed catalogues or draw plans for a new wood or stone deck

It may be the right time to bring in a contractor to cut limbs on trees most susceptible to snow damage. If you’re doing winter planting, consider planting evergreens like hemlock, holly, pine, or spruce—all look great in snow and in your winter yard.

Considering Winter Home and Garden Improvements

If you’re doing any cold weather landscaping before the heart of winter, be sure to include the use of hardscape (fountains, masonry, statues, and walls). Much of this work can be done as long as it’s dry outside.

While you’re dreaming and resolving, consider installing synthetic lawns for the spring. You can save on water and maintenance.  If you live in warm climates with mild winters and scorching summers, the winter can be an optimal time to install synthetics that won’t be damaged now by cold and later when heat comes during the summer.

Indoors, there’s “plenty to-dos” you can add to your list of resolutions. Perhaps you have the time and budget to install that home theater you’ve been pining for. Or, as you take down the holiday lighting inside and out, perhaps it’s time to replace your bulbs with energy efficient substitutes (compact fluorescent or LED bulbs and fixtures).

Inevitably, spring will arrive.  You can get a head start planning home improvement projects for warming weather by creating mock-ups or designs, take indoor measurements, make parts lists, create a realistic timetable and budget.  Contractors may offer winter rates on interior projects and give discounts if you engage them now in planning for projects that burst into action come spring.

Meanwhile, during the winter months, inspect your windows and doors for air and water leaks, clean out your gutters after heavy storms, have your furnace checked, fire up winter tools like your snow blowers and make sure they’re ready for weather ahead.  And it’s a great idea to check all your fire extinguishers for charges and ensure that your carbon monoxide and smoke detectors are in working order.

One of our recent blogs mentioned how important it is to keep your thermostat serviced and maintained. This is sage advice. When you are faced with a home HVAC system that needs repair, you’ll wish that you had done a better job of doing routine HVAC maintenance,  but also that you had an HVAC professional in your rolodex. 

How do I know all of this? Unfortunately, I know from personal experience.

Once long ago, back in the days when I knew next to nothing about owning a home, I found myself without heat, the furnace was toast. My house was worse than cold and damp, there were freezing temperatures outside. I had never used an HVAC professional and I found myself scrambling with how to deal with the situation. Eventually I got someone to come out and fix it, but not before I had lived without heat for close to a week and had stretched my supplies of space heaters and blankets to the max.

Last week, I found myself in a house without heat, again.  It happened on a lovely afternoon, and by lovely, I really mean a frosty, wet, terribly cold afternoon. With my poor circulation on red alert of the impending cold entering the surroundings, I was quick to call my local HVAC professional. Well, not I. I still haven’t learned from my first lesson, I don’t know any HVAC servicers in the area. However, my boyfriend who really should be credited with all the smart homeowner decisions between us, has an HVAC professional who has done all the work on the home’s furnace from day one.  He’s a smart guy, which is one of the reasons I let him hang around.

But, really, that’s besides the point, because the next day, when the HVAC man rang the doorbell and fixed a faulty wire and made the furnace produce the lovely purr of heat coming through the vents, I felt I really had finally learned my lesson. Always keep up on HVAC maintenance and always, always, have an HVAC contractor ready to call.  Not having to get out the Yellow Pages and hope and pray that someone trustworthy would be able to schedule an appointment with me on short notice was priceless.

The moral of this story? Don’t wait for problems to arise before calling on the pros. Make sure that you have professionals come and regularly maintain your home’s most important systems so you can avoid big problems and long waits for service. This advice isn’t  limited to HVAC, some other day maybe I’ll grace you with another story from long, long ago: the time I went without water for a week and I really wished I had a reliable plumber to call.

If you’ve never sliced the top of your thumb cutting open the edge of a tube of caulk, you have greater dexterity than most part-time home handy workers. I grew up around ratchet-rod caulk guns and cursed a few. Today’s drip-free caulking guns operate by a spring-loaded pressure rod that works smoothly from the pressure of your finger.  A quick trip to the hardware or home improvement store can convince you that there’s a wider selection of caulks and guns than you’ve seen before.

You need the right caulk for your project-at-hand. Shop wisely and ask a clerk for help. Generally speaking, you’re probably looking for:

• Silicone Caulk: for a premium-grade, waterproofing job. Great for kitchens and baths
• Vinyl Latex Caulk: for a water-resistant, quick adhesive job in wet areas of the bath
• Butyl Rubber Caulk: for sealing outdoor gutter seams, storm doors, and windows

Caulking, Simplified

So you have the caulk in the gun and you’re ready. Hold on, turbo! Even the best-quality caulk may have trouble adhering to a dirty surface or crease filled with remnants of old caulk. It won’t adhere to soap, either, so clean the surface with plain, warm water.  To root out old caulk, you need anything from a sharp blade (for silicone) to a heat gun, screwdriver, or caulk softener (for latex or acrylic).

Cut the tip of the caulk cartridge at the business end of the gun to match the depth of your job. Use steady pressure on the trigger as you work the tip at a 45-degree angle to the area you’re filling. And here’s a tip you might otherwise overlook: always caulk a bathtub when it’s filled with water.  Otherwise the tub rides high and when it’s filled for the first time, the weight of water and bather can crack the new caulk.

It’s best to work at a careful, steady pace to get the caulk applied during a single repair. It can try your patience to match up your tracks and at the same time lay down a seamless, protective sealant.  Caulk, like other adhesives, cures as it sets.

If you’re caulking cracks in your exterior concrete, be sure to buy siliconized latex concrete caulk. Again, your success depends on how well you clean the cracks of debris and old patching compounds or sealants.

It’s neither fun, nor cheap to repair and replace burst pipes in the winter.  If you live where outside temperatures drop below freezing, you can spare yourself money and heartache by wrapping your exposed pipes with insulation. The process is straight-forward, and you should be able to complete it yourself.

There is a wide range of insulating tape and wraps in materials that should meet your requirements.  They come packaged as:

• Self-adhering tape
• Sleeves of foam
• Sponge-felt wraps
• Fiberglass jackets
• Cork wrapping
• Wool felt

You should wrap insulation wherever pipes run in unheated indoor rooms and crawlspaces, outside walls, and at junctures where the water supply enters the house.

Winterize Your Plumbing

For outside pipes in cold climes, you may want to try caulking pipes at wall openings and closing all vents along the foundation.  Turn off unnecessary outdoor faucets, disconnect the hoses and store them in your garage.  During a deep freeze, open your kitchen cabinet doors to allow warm air to circulate at the drain and basin. Many homeowners leave a small trickle of water running in the bath or kitchen during frigid days and nights to keep the pipes open.

In consistently freezing conditions, you might invest in heat wrap or heat tape.  These products are not recommended for plastic pipes. They’re plugged into an electrical outlet and work like a heating blanket to keep your pipes toasty. They can be an expensive option.

Repairing Leaks or Breaks

If you end up with a burst pipe, act fast to avoid flooding or a blocked water supply.  If you see a leak, you need to repair the pipe before trying to defrost it.  You need to turn off the main supply first, then open a few faucets along the line to promote drainage.  Then you can use a hair dryer or heat blanket directly on the pipe to thaw the line.

Home improvement stores sell joiners that can be used to couple plastic or copper tubing. They can even join threaded and unthreaded pipe together. Measure the section of broken pipe to determine size and materials, then cut out the part and take it to the store to buy replacements.

If the damage is excessive to the point you need clamps or soldering gear, you may want to call in a plumber. Then you may have to explain why you never wrapped your pipes.

Years ago I was visiting a friend in Tokyo and was astonished that she took water from the tap for tea, and it was too hot to drink. This was way back in 1979. I was amazed that all the hot water for the home’s kitchen and bath came from a heat-on-demand water tank powered by natural gas. Later that year, I saw passive solar water heating systems on the roofs of homes just outside of Tel Aviv. Thirty years later I’ve yet to see these systesm in widespread adoption around the states.

Then you consider that tank-less, heat-on-demand systems are available—with models that just heat your teapot, while others power the shower—they’re still a ways off from popular use around the states.  You’ll probably remember (or still have) one of those tea elements for plugging in and using electrical power to heat coffee. That’s as far as most of us go.

The Savings?

You might save a hundred dollars a year in energy bills from an on-demand system. But if you’re considering buying an on-demand heater to cover all your hot water needs, be sure to consider the size of your family, the cost of installing a system, the tank capacity, and the amount of hot water you need every day. The Department of Energy says a majority of systems can generate 2-5 gallons a minute, depending on the fuel source. From your own experience you know that gas-fired heaters are quicker to raise your water to the right temperature than electric ones.

Tax Credits for Tank-less  Water Heaters

You can read up on the 2009-2010 tax credit at the Alliance to Save Energy website.  In essence, your potential credit for installing a tank-less unit for the credit depends on your finding a system that can heat the water to efficiency standards based on source (electric, gas, oil, propane). An acceptable energy factor may be hard to find. The credit may only be $300, but pennies saved by energy efficiency can add up.

According to the Department of Energy, the energy factor is determined by  fuel consumption and the speed of recovery,  and how much heat is lost in the cycle of briefly storing and pumping out the water. When shopping around, examine units for a high-number energy factor, meaning the most-efficient for home use.

Dedicating a tank-less heater to appliances, spas, or as a secondary power source can prove a wise choice if there’s no constant or huge demand.

Your thermostat, when working properly, runs on a transformer to set and adjust the amount of heat your furnace delivers to your home. Imagine how you might feel one cold winter morning when you adjust your thermostat and nothing happens! Brrr! There are simple ways to troubleshoot your problem, but ultimately you may have more on your hands than you can handle. Let’s look at some simple causes.

Your thermostat unit may have a short, a circuit may have blown or tripped a breaker, or a dusty thermostat unit may be blocked from reading the proper settings. At the heart of the thermostat is the bimetallic coil, a wound strip of metal that expands or contracts under the influence of temperatures. Wouldn’t you be lucky if all you needed to do to get the thermostat working again was to dust off the coil?

You need to eliminate some of the suspects, one-by-one, flipping back the breakers, replacing fuses, or checking your electrical connections.

Beware the Fouled Heat Anticipator

If you open your thermostat, you’ll most likely find a disc connected by a thin wire to the bimetallic coil. When the heat anticipator is adjusted properly, it heats the coil to room temperature so that your furnace won’t keep bursting on and off with minute changes in heat or cold. If it operates too often, it can harm your thermostat or heating unit.

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Make sure that the thermostat box has been mounted on the level. A crooked unit can affect the workings of the coil and heat anticipator.

In most units, the anticipator is connected over a scale printed on the circular disc. By moving the tab to and fro over the temperature settings, you just might free a stuck heat anticipator.

The disc on the anticipator usually has the word “longer” etched or printed on it. For a unit that turns on and off too frequently or fails to reach the temperature set on the thermostat, you should adjust the anticipator arm toward the word “longer” and give it a few hours to see if it solves your dilemma. By using the correct anticipator setting, you conserve energy, by using pre-heated air already in the furnace system to fill your home before additional heat is generated.

If that doesn’t work, you may have to call in an HVAC contractor to snoop out the cause.