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Home, Auto, & Hobbies Books
Home Improvement & Appliances Books
General Home Improvement & Appliances Books
James Carey
Morris Carey
Tom Kraeutler
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Published:
October 26, 2009

Home Maintenance For Dummies

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Overview

Take the intimidation out of common home repair jobs

Home Maintenance For Dummies gives you the know-how you need to inspect, tune up, and make repairs to every room of your house. Learn how to stop drafty windows and doors, fix roof leaks, unclog pipes, silence squeaky floors, test your water pressure, fix a dripping faucet, and beyond. Plus, learn tricks of the trade to stop wasting energy, lower energy bills, and improve the comfort of your home. Some home maintenance jobs are easy to ignore, but you'll save thousands in repair costs if you keep things running properly. And when things do break, you can save even more money with DIY repairs. You'll be amazed how easy it is to do many common upkeep tasks yourself. With step-by-step guides, detailed diagrams, and instructions for every room of the home, you'll finally be able to fix those little problems that have been nagging at you. This updated edition covers the latest heating and cooling systems, tankless water heaters, LED lighting, solar power, and all the other newfangled stuff in your house.

  • Learn how to conduct routine inspections, keep major appliances running efficiently, and avoid costly mistakes
  • Make a list for the must-have tools in your toolbox
  • Recognize the difference between an easy DIY repair and something an expert should handle
  • Protect your home from long-term problems and secure the value of your asset

First-time homeowners looking for a guide to keep their dream home in tip-top shape, as well as homeowners who aren't familiar with common home repairs, will love this beginner-friendly Dummies guide.

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About The Author

Tom Kraeutler is a home improvement broadcast journalist and the host of The Money Pit, America’s largest syndicated home improvement radio show. He also hosts The Money Pit Podcast and is an accomplished author, columnist, and blogger. Tom has appeared on FOX, CNN, MSNBC, The History Channel, HGTV, and the DIY Network, helping millions gain the knowledge and confidence to make their homes the best they can be.

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home maintenance for dummies

CHEAT SHEET

Home maintenance is all about being prepared. If you spend a little time now buying ingredients for cleaners, putting together a toolkit, and staying on top of monthly maintenance tasks, you’ll not only prevent small problems from getting bigger, but you’ll also be ready to act quickly in the future if a big problem does crop up.
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Home maintenance is all about being prepared. If you spend a little time now buying ingredients for cleaners, putting together a toolkit, and staying on top of monthly maintenance tasks, you’ll not only prevent small problems from getting bigger, but you’ll also be ready to act quickly in the future if a big problem does crop up.
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If some rooms in your home are too hot, some too cold, and some just right, you need to fine-tune your heating system for maximum efficiency. Balancing your central heating minimizes energy consumption and evens temperatures in every room. It’s about airflow, and dampers and registers help control the airflow in the ducts.
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Adding insulation to a wall is a bit more difficult than adding it to an attic because, in a wall, the insulation is hidden between the interior and exterior wallcoverings. Removing the wallcovering to insulate the wall cavity just isn’t cost effective. It’s cheaper and easier to create small penetrations in the wall so that the insulation can be blown in.
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If you live in a rural area or have vacation property in the middle of nowhere, you’re no doubt familiar with the form and function of a septic system. In brief, a septic system is your very own onsite sewage treatment facility. It’s used primarily where access to a municipal sewer system is neither available nor economically practical.
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A chimney can be an exposed pipe, a framed enclosure that is covered with siding (called a sided chase) that houses the flue pipe, or a masonry chimney. The chimney travels from the inside of the home to the outside either through an attic and roof or out a wall. The point where the chimney exits the structure is a primary source of leaks.
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General Home Improvement & Appliances

How to Clean Masonry
How to Clean Masonry
If you have a brick home, you probably have some problem spots in your masonry, such as mold growth or oil and paint stains. If these unsightly areas bother you, you can clean them. The most common masonry-cleaning problems and solutions are listed here: Fungus, moss, and mildew: One quart of household liquid bleach mixed into 1 gallon of warm water, applied with a stiff-bristle brush, usually takes care of these unsightly problems.
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If the bottom of your water heater fills with sludge, the heater won’t operate at peak performance. Sediment buildup also causes the water at the base of the tank to super-heat and turn to steam, resulting in mini explosions that blast small amounts of sediment off the bottom of the tank. To clean the sediment out of a water heater, follow these steps: Unscrew the cold-water supply line at the top of the water heater and remove the nipple screwed into the cold-water port.
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An electric water heater contains one or two heating elements similar to what you might find in your oven, except that they’re short and narrow. These electric elements can become laden with lime and mineral deposits that reduce their effectiveness or cause them to overheat and short out. To clean your electric elements, turn off the power to the water heater and then follow these steps: Drain the tank by turning off the cold-water valve at the top of the water heater, attaching a garden hose to the drain valve at the base of the water heater, and opening the drain valve.
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Glass shower doors look modern and stylish and keep water off your floors, but some people hate them because they are hard to clean and slide off their tracks too easily. You can use the hints here to clean your shower doors and get them back on track in a jiffy. ©Oleksandr Nagaiets / Shutterstock.com Cleaning solutions Try these methods to get a shower door clean and keep it that way: Using lemon-oil polish and a scouring pad, scrub the glass panels with gusto.
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Carpet-cleaning professionals say that the most effective method of keeping carpeting clean — and making it last a long time — is to vacuum it regularly. In fact, they recommend vacuuming three or more times per week, and daily in high-traffic areas.They also point out that the quality of your vacuum makes a difference.
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When a sink isn’t draining properly, and the waste line isn’t clogged, you may need to take a look upward to find the culprit — up toward the vent system. You know, the black plumbing pipes that stick up out of your roof. When a vent becomes clogged, it shows up within the home as everything from “ghost flushes” at the toilet to sinks that simply won’t drain properly.
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Foundations are rigid and tend to crack over time. Minor cracks, though unsightly, are not normally cause for alarm. Major cracks, on the other hand, indicate substantial movement and can undermine the home’s structural integrity. Therefore, you can’t just ignore cracks in a foundation or concrete slab. Filling in these cracks and stopping them from spreading is essential to preventing serious structural issues in your home.
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Curls in your hair may look great, but when they’re in your vinyl flooring, they can lead to bigger problems. Curling vinyl occurs at seams and edges. The adhesive that’s supposed to hold the vinyl flat is no longer doing its job and, thus, the vinyl curls up and away from the underlayment. Aside from being unsightly, this condition presents a trip hazard.
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General Home Improvement & Appliances

How to Fix Fireplace Cracks
How to Fix Fireplace Cracks
In a masonry fireplace, firebrick is used to construct the firebox. Refractory brick panels line the firebox of a prefabricated metal fireplace. In both cases, the bricks and fireclay mortar are designed to withstand extreme temperatures. However, over time, the brick, mortar, or panels can crack and crumble, creating a serious fire hazard.
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Sheet vinyl has far fewer seams than tile, so when it comes to making a patch, it can be a little trickier than replacing a single tile. Obviously, the best patch is a piece of the original flooring material, and one that gives you a chance to make an unnoticeable repair. (Look for squares or distinct patterns or lines you can use to hide your cuts.
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General Home Improvement & Appliances

How to Fix a Sagging Gate
How to Fix a Sagging Gate
A sagging wooden gate is a nuisance at best, and can, at some point, become impossible to open. The problem must be pretty common, because someone has already packaged and marketed a repair kit for exactly that purpose. It’s called a gate repair kit or turnbuckle kit, and it consists of a cable with corner mounting brackets and a turnbuckle.
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The damper is a steel or cast-iron door that opens and closes the throat of the firebox into the flue. Often, a damper becomes difficult to operate or sticks in one position. One of the most pervasive causes of a stuck damper is rust, often caused when rainwater enters the chimney through a faulty or nonexistent chimney cap.
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If your home is built on expansive soil and, thus, subject to regular movement, a screw jack can be used in lieu of solid wood posts between the concrete piers in the crawlspace and the girders that support the floor joists. A screw jack is a metal support post that can be adjusted to level the floor. It consists of two heavy steel pipes, one inside the other.
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When basements leak, people panic. The good news about these unplanned indoor pools is this. While wet basements are often thought of as one of life’s biggest home repair headaches, basement water problems are generally easy and inexpensive to fix. Yes, that’s right–easy and inexpensive!The basement is one of the greatest untapped spaces in any home.
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Although leveling and resetting a brick patio is slow, heavy work, it’s not a complex project — just one that takes time and effort to do right. If you are ready to break a sweat, gather your tools and then follow these steps: Use chalk to mark out the settled area. Chalk marks are easy to remove when you finish your project.
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General Home Improvement & Appliances

How to Level Slanted Floors
How to Level Slanted Floors
Out-of-level floors are not only nuisances to walk across, but if they're severe enough, they can also become a real safety hazard. Slanted floors can also cause cracks over windows and doors or make doors and windows stick and tough to operate. Thus, by repairing your out-of-level floor, you may find the windows and doors in your home are a whole lot easier to use and last longer.
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Putting insulation around all accessible water pipes saves energy, prevents freezing during most moderate to medium chills, and reduces condensation when pipes flow through attics and crawlspaces. It’s also cheap insurance. A pipe that bursts in the crawlspace is no joy to experience or repair, but it’s bearable.
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General Home Improvement & Appliances

How to Patch a Screen
How to Patch a Screen
Screen patch kits are available at hardware stores and home centers. They’re inexpensive and easy to install (the process takes less than a minute). You can also use any of the following methods to repair small holes in window screens, depending upon the type of screen material: Apply a small amount of clear nail polish to a small hole or tear in a vinyl or fiberglass screen.
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General Home Improvement & Appliances

How to Preserve Your Deck
How to Preserve Your Deck
One of the best ways to protect your outdoor wood surfaces is to use a high-quality, oil-based wood preservative. Using an oil-based wood preservative with ultraviolet inhibitors keeps your deck surfaces looking newer longer.Unlike paint, oil doesn’t lay on the surface; it penetrates deeply into the pores of the wood, preventing the attack of moisture from within.
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You want to avoid carbon monoxide (CO) build-up in your home. CO is the number-one cause of poisoning deaths in the United States. It's an invisible, odorless, poisonous gas produced by the incomplete combustion of any fuel — such as gasoline, kerosene, propane, natural gas, oil, and even wood fires. CO in your home can be fatal, killing in minutes or hours, depending on the level of CO in the air.
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One of the absolute best ways to prevent slow or clogged drains is to be careful about what you put into them. Clever, eh? Cooking grease, coffee grounds, hair, and soap scum are four of a drain’s biggest enemies. Do whatever you can to avoid introducing any of these items into a drain. Here’s how: Save cooking grease in an old coffee can or cardboard milk container.
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Most water-heater tanks are made of glass-lined steel. If water gets through imperfections in the glass, then you can count on rust and eventually a leak. But because the tank has no inspection ports, it’s hard to tell when it’s dirty or beginning to rust. Actually, tank rust usually isn’t discovered until after a leak occurs — and then it’s too late.
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Protect your pipes from freezing this winter! Discover essential tips to prevent burst pipes and costly water damage with our expert advice.When the mercury drops, your water pipes become increasingly vulnerable and may freeze and burst. When water freezes, it expands, and the force of that expansion can split a copper pipe wide open.
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A water hammer, loose mounting straps, or high water pressure can cause water pipes to clang and clatter. Never fear, here are tips for quieting your water pipes, no matter what is causing all that noise. Combating water hammers Imagine a fast-moving stream of water traveling down a narrow pipe. Suddenly and unexpectedly, the water finds a closed valve in place of what, moments earlier, was an escape point.
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Few home-maintenance projects are easier than sealing an asphalt driveway. Mostly you need a strong back to maneuver the big, heavy buckets of sealer. When you’ve gathered everything you need, follow these steps to fill even large cracks in your asphalt drive: Using a putty knife, remove debris from any large cracks and then sweep the entire surface with a push broom.
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You probably let your vehicle rest in a garage, carport, or driveway when you’re not driving it. Depending upon the mechanical condition of your vehicle, oil and grease spots soon begin to decorate the concrete in these areas. If this situation sounds familiar, you’ll be pleased to know that there is a clean-up formula for you — a couple of formulas actually, depending on the severity of the stains.
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General Home Improvement & Appliances

How to Remove Rust
How to Remove Rust
The real secret to dealing with rust is to remove as much of it as possible before trying to apply a new finish. Depending upon the configuration of the item in question, removing rust can be a tedious process that requires lots of elbow grease. In the end, your goal is to remove the rust down to bare metal. When stripping a fixture of rust, you need to remove any rusted screws and fasteners — which is sometimes easier said than done because the rust can cause the fasteners and the metal structure to freeze together.
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Although it isn’t difficult to remove and replace a piece of copper pipe, you do need some supplies that not everyone has lying around, such as a copper-pipe tubing cutter, flux and a flux brush, solder, and a propane torch. To remove and replace a damaged piece of pipe, follow these steps: Turn off the main water shut-off valve; then open a faucet at the lowest point in the home.
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Galvanized pipe is notorious for rust, corrosion, and leaks. When this happens, the most prudent solution for a permanent repair is to remove the damaged section and replace it with a new section of threaded pipe. Replacing a section of threaded pipe is not nearly as difficult as you might imagine, thanks to the wide assortment of threaded sections of pipe that are now standard inventory at most hardware stores and home-improvement centers.
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When the hot water in your shower suddenly turns ice cold, you have the right to be frustrated. (That is, if the hot-water supply hasn’t been drained due to recent use.) If you receive this rude wake-up call, the culprit may be that your dip tube or the water-heater nipples need a little TLC. A water heater dip tube consists of a plastic pipe that travels vertically within the water-heater tank from the cold-water inlet to within a few inches of the bottom of the tank.
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If you have a gas water heater with a pilot light that won’t stay lit, it’s probably due to a failed thermocouple. The thermocouple is a thermoelectric device that shuts off the gas if the pilot light goes out. In simple terms, it’s a short piece of tubing that runs from the gas controller to the pilot. The pilot end of the thermocouple and the pilot are held side by side in a bracket that’s anchored to the burner.
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Rescreening a window is easy. There are two types of screen available: metal and fiberglass. Rescreening with metal is slightly more difficult than with fiberglass (metal is not as flexible as fiberglass), but metal seems to stretch tighter, and it does last longer. However, where fiberglass screen material is not as strong as metal and often sags slightly once in place, it’s much easier to install.
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General Home Improvement & Appliances

How to Seal Windows
How to Seal Windows
You seal air leaks and water leaks around your windows in the same way — by caulking and replacing weatherstripping. You can also inject foam sealant between the frame of the window and the frame of the house. A window that leaks air can also mean excessive energy loss and cost. Summer or winter, you don’t want your house to leak air, especially if you spend your hard-earned dollars warming or cooling it.
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If your house too hot or too cool, your problem could be the thermostat. Troubleshooting thermostat problems isn’t that difficult. Once you find out what the problem is, you can fix it or decide you need to hire a professional. Look for the following problems: It’s in a bad location. The thermostat shouldn’t be located over a lamp, over a TV, or near any heat source.
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Over time, mortar tends to deteriorate. Not only are cracked and deteriorating mortar joints unsightly, but they also diminish the integrity of the surface and can allow water to get behind the brick or block and cause major damage. You can avoid these problems by tuck-pointing the brick or block foundation, which means removing and replacing cracked or missing mortar.
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The P-trap is that curved pipe that you see beneath any sink in your home. Unfortunately, the trap’s water-trapping ability extends to hair, grease, debris, and soap scum. This makes a P-trap the number-one location of clogs in the sewer system. If the P-trap becomes only slightly clogged, then you experience slow drainage in the fixture.
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Because excessive dampness in a crawlspace or basement can condense, you can install a vapor barrier to protect floor framing from becoming damp and covered with fungus, efflorescence, and rot. A vapor barrier consists of one or more layers of sheet plastic (6-mil Visqueen) on top of the soil in the crawlspace or basement.
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An insulation blanket can make some water heaters more energy efficient. If your water heater is located in unconditioned space (a garage, basement, or attic) or you don’t want added heat, install a heavy blanket — R-11 or better. The higher the R value, the thicker the blanket and the more insulating horsepower.
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Barbecues, patio furniture, handrails, lawn and garden equipment, steel window frames, rain gutters, and downspouts are all susceptible to damage by rust. Aside from its ugly appearance, untreated rust can lead to other damage. A rain gutter with a rusted joint, for example, can leak and allow water to travel along the wood trim at the roofline, or, perhaps down the wood siding, ultimately resulting in rot, which can cost a pretty penny to repair.
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General Home Improvement & Appliances

Quick Fixes for Burst Pipes
Quick Fixes for Burst Pipes
Being prepared to defend your home’s plumbing system against a sudden burst pipe can save you thousands of dollars in damage. Think of these quick, easy fixes as plumbing first aid — they slow or stop a leak in a pipe long enough to give you time to enlist the services of a qualified plumber during business hours.
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Did you know that your water heater will function better and be safer if you do a little routine maintenance? Some water-heater experts recommend testing every six months. More frequent testing can reduce the chance of a leak caused by mineral and corrosion buildup. The temperature and pressure relief valve (TPR valve) opens to release pressure buildup in the water heater when the temperature or the pressure get dangerously high, preventing a possible explosion.
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One of the more basic forms of home maintenance is also simple: cleaning. Nobody loves to clean, but the following homemade formulas make cleaning a breeze. Plus, you always know what’s in the cleansers you’re using. All-Purpose, Handy-Dandy Cleaner: This solution works well to clean and freshen just about any surface.
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General Home Improvement & Appliances

Tips for Painting Your Deck
Tips for Painting Your Deck
A painted deck or fence can be beautiful, but painting can also be a real problem. Unlike wood siding, wood in decks, handrails, fences, retaining walls, and other complex structures expose several surfaces of each piece of wood to the weather. Some of the surfaces (such as the area between a fence rail and a fence board) are inaccessible and can’t be protected, which makes it difficult to achieve a complete waterproof membrane, even if you caulk.
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Floor squeaks happen, and when they do, most of us just tolerate them as a part of the “charm” of living in an older house! But as annoying as squeaking floors can be, they have a rather simple cause and solution – and squeaks rarely indicate a structural problem forming under foot.No matter what kind of finish flooring you may have — carpet, vinyl, tile, or hardwood — unless your home is built on a concrete slab, underneath it’s wood.
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Whenever you’re about to start a maintenance project, run through these lists to ensure that you have all the tools you need: Basic Equipment Other Handy Equipment Bucket, 5-gallon Brass brush, toothbrush-size Caulking gun Chisels, cold and wood Circular saw Construction screws, assorted Clamps Cutting oil Cl
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Maintenance performed regularly and on schedule provides optimum longevity and helps prevent potential breakdowns or malfunctions. Beyond maintenance procedures for operational sake, the primary (and most important) reason for checking, inspecting, and constantly tuning up your home is to ensure maximum safety for you and your family.
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