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.

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.

Whether it’s a toilet that runs constantly or one that bursts into action after intervals of silence, it’s enough to drive you crazy. It’s bad enough that more than a third of your total water usage goes down the toilet.  Raising the tank level with a brick or water-saving device can spare you gallons, but not if your toilet operates around the clock without flushing.  If it’s not the whoosh that’s crazy-making, it’s the hiss of water refilling the tank.

Simple maintenance or trouble-shooting can put your misery to rest, so why are you living with the noise? Most of the time, it’s a misaligned ball or flapper, a sticky or leaky flush valve, or a bent lift arm that causes all your woes. First, diagnose the cause by eliminating the parts one-by-one, then perform some uncomplicated adjustments or replace the culprits. It’s that simple.

Tracking the Root Causes of Toilet Noise
The best place to begin is with the flapper (or flush valve) that seats on the bottom of the tank. Hold it down with a broom handle or ruler. If you still hear water leaking, then it’s time to replace the flapper. Next, lift the float lift arm as your tank fills and if it continues to run after the level reaches the overflow pipe, you’ve found the cause. Bend the arm upwards and see if that handles it. No? Replace it.

If you have to replace the toilet flapper turn off the water supply via the metal handle behind the unit. The flapper is attached by a hook and chain to the lift arm. When you have the new flapper installed,  be sure to take up the slack on the chain so the lift is taut.

While you’re at it, check the valve seat beneath the flapper. Minerals from hard water can keep the toilet flapper from sealing. Use a sediment cleaner on a wire brush or scouring pad to remedy the problem. A telltale sign of excessive minerals can be a discolored flapper.

Last, if you hear intermittent hissing and refilling, you may have a leaking flush valve.  Experts at Corner Hardware suggest that you add food coloring into your tank water. If the color ends up in your toilet bowl after 20 minutes, the seal to the flush valve may need repairs with a glue-on seat to help the flapper do its job.

Using the illustration: The flapper is the dark blue element that can also be called the flush valve. The float arm is at the top of the illustration, connecting the float  ball to the inlet valve.

When it comes to lighting in your bath, all is certainly vanity. Kidding aside, the kind of lighting you install in your vanity ultimately has more to do with how you look than how your bathroom looks to others.

Uneven lighting over the make-up table or sink can cause your eyes to look like you haven’t had sleep in weeks.  Poor vanity lighting can dramatically alter how you look when in the office or out on the town. If you’re the handyman/woman, you don’t want to skimp on providing adequate overhead lamps, mirror-side sconces, and light bars.

Getting Your Bathroom Lighting Right
Ultimately, the correct lighting around the mirror will light up the subject’s face from all sides. It doesn’t have to be flattering in an inaccurate way, but take it from the hospitality industry:  warm, full lighting provides a satisfying experience.  Experts at This Old House warn consumers that overhead, recessed lighting fixtures cast shadows of the undead on a subject’s face.

Fill-in, accent lighting can make the entire bath a comfortable place, and lighting above the mirror with sconces at eye-level can complete a satisfying effect. You’ll also prosper from an aesthetic standpoint by using halogen bulbs that illuminate the subject with natural tones.  Some homeowners love the effect created by installing a bathroom chandelier just above the vanity.

Low-wattage track lighting angled just right projects lighting into the mirror, and diffusers prevent glare. You may want to experiment with LED track lighting for effect.

Using Sconces in the Bath
You can create a warm and well-lighted effect by using a row of sconces above the mirror. Or, if you’re settling on single sconces, align them on the side of the mirror. Lighting suppliers recommend that your above-mirror vanity fixtures should be at least two-feet long and provide 150 watts at the minimum.

If you really want to dial in control of your bathroom lighting, consider installing an incandescent dimmer on a halogen light. You can save energy when you’re lighting the bath just to find your way around or to use the shower. A combination of ambient lighting and direct vanity lighting on separate controls can provide the most-flexible solution.

If you’re working with a contractor, discuss options to install lighting directly in the mirror set. It can be expensive and risky to try it on your own.

As I grow older, my feet get colder. Every winter I wish I had radiant floors. I first encountered a radiant floor kitchen in Washington State where friends had rehabbed a Victorian home. They used a hydronic tubing heating system, which is usually too pricey for most homeowners. It can cost more than putting in an entirely new boiler and forced air system. But the floor was toasty and muffled the shock of walking across the floor to make morning coffee.

Today, you can install an electric radiant floor heating system for your kitchen or bathroom floor for under $500–depending on square footage. I discovered two kinds of electric radiant heating systems with a wide range in costs for materials and labor. Both have gained in popularity over the last decade.

Some systems consist of cables that are wrapped with insulation and installed directly into concrete or gypsum sections that are embedded into your floor. These can be the more expensive choices because you need a sturdy sub-floor to handle the weight of the tiling.

Installing Radiant Floor Matting
The other option is installing radiant mats that have cables woven directly into them. The mats are installed directly below your tiles or onto the sub-floor and covered with  pad and carpet. The radiant mats come in a variety of sizes, are powered by 20 volts and 240 volt systems, and require about 12 watts per square foot to operate. A system installed directly beneath a carpet can heat up in an hour or so, while a system in the sub floor can take hours to reach your comfort level.

If you choose to install a radiant mat system in your bathroom, you have the option of covering it with any stone or tile that makes for a good conductor (ceramic, marble, granite, glass, or slate). There are also over-tile radiant heating systems comprised of mats that install directly over your existing tile and allow you to add a new tile floor on top. But you may need to reinforce the sub-floor to handle the weight and problems with deflected heat.

A more-recent radiant system uses mats that install directly beneath carpets and floating floors. Manufacturers claim that the systems are silent and can supplement your heating sufficiently to curb some usage from the forced-air furnace, fighting mold, pollen, and cutting heating costs. The greatest advantage, it seems to me, is that you can install these on your own.