If you own a home, you can save time and money by learning to do some common and simple home maintenance. The time you save is the time needed to locate a repair person, wait for them to arrive and do the task. The money you save is their labor charge.
The first time you do a task, there may be a large learning and tool shortage curve. However, the next time, you will have the tools and the knowledge and the task will go much faster.
I’ve chosen these tasks because they are ones I or my spouse have actually done, and have needed to do multiple times.
Drywall repair
Kids sometimes will accidentally knock a hole in your wall – or maybe the door knob hits the wall with force and dimples it severely. In any case, these can be fairly easily repaired – especially if you have matching paint for that room. There are kits you can buy to repair small holes. For larger ones, you may have to use a utility knife to cut out the bad parts in a rectangular section (to make it easier to put in a new piece). Cut a new piece of wall board (making sure the new piece is the same thickness as the old) to size and nail it to the stud. Tape the edges and then apply joint compound with a large putty knife, let it dry, sand and repeat until you can’t see or feel the edges. Re-paint and cleanup. Watch it done on 5 Minute Life Videopedia.
Paint
Preparing and painting an interior room can cost $400 or more in labor alone if you hire a contractor. Doing the work yourself is straightforward. You will need drop clothes or plastic sheets, brushes, paint tape, paint rollers, a paint tray, a ladder, possibly some scaffolding, spackling to fill any holes and of course, the paint.
Start by removing all wall hangings (pictures, curtains, light switch covers and etc). Patch and repair any holes in the wallboard by filling with spackling and then sanding smooth. Mask off the door frames and any surface next to the wall that you don’t want painted (including the woodwork) with the paint tape. Lay your drop cloths over everything you don’t want painted, including any furniture which you moved away from the walls.
Using a brush, first paint the corners, along the baseboards and door frames and the ceiling – on your first wall. Then, using your paint tray, pour in paint. Attach a pole to your roller and dip the roller in the tray, rolling it up and down a few times to spread the paint evenly over the roller. Apply the paint to the wall using the roller. Always work from painted area to non painted area and roll over each area several times to apply evenly. When done, inspect your work and touch up any missed areas. If needed, apply a second coat (usually required when changing colors). Remove the tape and clean up any paint splatters or drops that snuck under the tape.
Door lock replacement
After years of use, doorknobs and locks get out of whack, hard to operate or just plain ugly. You can replace them. You will need a screwdriver (usually a phillips head type), and a new door knob set (similar to the one there now). First, open the door and unscrew and remove the latch assembly (this is on the side of the door and is the piece with the movable latch that goes into and out of the wall to lock it). Next, remove the knobs by unscrewing the inside knob and then pulling the inside and outside handles apart.
Put the new latch assembly in place, making sure it can be entire recessed in the existing hole (if not chisel out more room). Then slide the outside door handle into place (make sure you use the handle without the lock on the outside!) and then the inside door handle. Have the lock on the latch assembly pushed in when you are inserting the inside handle. Test the knob to make sure the latch assembly lock moves in and out when you turn the handle. Screw the new knobs into place and test. Watch Mark Donavon do it on YouTube .
Toilet guts repair
Sometimes (often at our house) when you flush your toilet, the water just keeps running, or the toilet makes burping noises. Occasionally you may have a leak out the bottom of the tank at the back of your toilet seat. My spouse has replaced the guts of our toilets several times - a chore that would cost us at least $100 if we hired a plumber to come in and do it. It typically takes about an hour to empty the tank, disassemble the guts, install the new parts and cleanup the water that inevitably leaks onto your floor. Check out how it is done by watching the guy from Home Depot do it on You Tube.
Furniture refinishing
Furniture refinishers can charge a lot to buff up your favorite table, chair or newest flea market find. In addition, you will need to get the furniture there and back, possible requiring rental of a trailer or truck.
I have refinished multiple pieces of furniture, as has my spouse. First, determine how far you need or want to go with the refinish job. If your piece is an antique, you probably don’t want to strip off the old finish and start from scratch. Instead look at trying products meant to help with scratches – such as Krammer’s Antique Restorer or Howard’s Restore-a-Finish – which really does cover up scratches and water rings permanently (I used it on Mom’s Lane cedar chest from the 1950′s which had significant damage).
You can also use paint thinner or mineral spirits to gently clean off the old gunk from the surface. Paint dots can sometimes be popped off with a small sharp knife. Tinted shellac (if the original finish is shellac) covers up the minor nicks you will make while doing this.
If you want to strip to bare wood and refinish, you will need open air, paint remover, a hand held mouse type power sander, sandpaper, mineral spirits, stain and some kind of finish (polyurethane or Danish mineral oil or some such). Remove all hardware from the piece, then using the paint remover to uncover the wood as much as possible. Let dry and then sand the surface with the grain to get to the bare wood. Wipe with mineral spirits then apply the new stain. Let dry and wipe again with mineral spirits prior to applying the finish coat.
What are your frequent home repair jobs? Do you do them yourself?
Marie blogs at Family Money Values to help families understand the potential consequences of wealth. She encourages visitors to take the long view and pull all family generations together to nourish the family legacy and wealth.
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I occasionally have had to unstuff a sink by undoing the drain trap, but that is as far as it goes.
Krantcents…yeh…. hate those stopped up drains.
We’ve replaced the wax seal under our toilet ourselves, and we bought a drain snake that hooks to a drill so that for most clogged drains, we can take care of that ourselves too. Sometimes though, we still have to call in the professionals- but that’s like once every 5 years. I can live with that.
Replacing a wax seal is not as easy as it sounds (and pretty stinky too)!
Great list. I have done some painting and drywall before. It really isn’t that hard, you just need the right equipment.
Miss T. Drywall repair requires a lot of patience to get a smooth finish. The first time I did it, I cut out sections beneath ranch style windows. Unfortunately at the time, I didn’t know that dry wall comes in slightly different widths…no wonder I couldn’t get the darned bump out!
Learning to repair your own drywall damage can save a lot of money. I’ve done it before and it’s not too hard. Great list
Thanks John!
I’ll be honest, door locks are the one thing in a house I absolutely HATE working with. they never seem to line up right, the inner working never make sense, and I can never get them to feel secure. I have chosen to leave the security of my home to a professional, and I will never touch an exterior door lock again in my life. Interior ones, fine, but never an exterior door.
Safety is always first! I have to admit, my hubby is the door locks guy – although I hope he will mentor me this year when we replace them.
I’ll try anything once — or at least think I can try it.
My next job is installing a toilet in the upstairs bath. Seems like the project list is never-ending.
Growing up, my parents always had me follow the repair guys around for the more complicated jobs. Changing locks, repairing leaks, fixing sprinkler heads, and other small stuff my dad did, but when the furnace stopped working, there was no figuring that out on our own. My parents’ thinking was to learn as much as I could about the house so when I was on my own I would be able to keep from being quoted with bogus repairs and charges (before the days of Google). So far living in apartments has kept me from having to deal with that, but I’ve taken this idea to heart for other areas of my life, including car repair. These types of skills can easily save you thousands. Not to mention all the stress of having to find a repairman, take time off from work to be at home, and hope the work is done properly.
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