Four Things Every Home Owner Should Know How to Do

Many homeowners are not very handy and are not comfortable with do it yourself projects. However, owning a home can be a lot of work. There are many part of the home that may need to be repaired or updated. You could call a professional, but this can quickly get expensive for minimal repairs. Otherwise, your home can quickly be left in non working condition. Fortunately, many do it yourself projects are simple to learn. There are a few things that every homeowner should learn how to do, when they choose to own their own home.

Fix clogged drains and toilets. Clogged drains and toilets can happen regularly. This depends on the type of plumbing and the way that the piping runs underneath the home and yard. If there are large twists and turns, it may be more difficult for the water and items to properly make it through them. Although the homeowner cannot fix how their plumbing is run underneath the home, they can know how to effectively plunge a toilet and unclog a sink.

In many cases, products can break down the excess debris inside of the pipes, making them easier to flow through. Regular drain cleaning can also prevent the sink from becoming clogged too often. Things like low flush toilets can help save on water bills, but can cause more clogs in the toilet. A low flush toilet can save you up to 18,000 gallons of water per year, translating into hundreds saved on home water bills.

Installing general appliances. Some appliances may be more difficult to install than others. However, installing dishwashers, for example, should be one of the tasks that a homeowner can handle. Installing dishwashers often just involves hooking up a couple of pipes and then turning it on. Most dishwashers actually come in an owner?s manual that can provide step by step instructions for installing dishwashers.

Keeping the home properly heated to prevent damage. It may take some time to find the best thermostat temperature for a home. It will depend on how much natural sunlight is let in through the windows, how large the home is, and how new and efficient the furnace unit is. Once the best heat for the home is established, it should be monitored to ensure that it is working correctly.

A correctly working thermostat and heater does just what it is supposed to do, properly heat the home. If the heat is on to a warm setting, and the home is not heating, it is likely that something is wrong with it. The air conditioning pipes could be frozen or the entire unit could be broken. Identifying these problems is an important part of owning a home. Also, homeowners should be sure to leave the thermostat at an appropriate temperature when leaving the home for extended periods of time, to prevent frozen pipes. Even if no one will be in the home for much of the winter, the heat still needs to run.

Minor appliance and faucet repairs. Faucets can spring leaks easily. This can prevent a loss of water and spraying, when using the faucet. 10% of homes have leaks that waste 90 gallons or more per day. Much of this water loss comes from leaking faucets or running toilets. Fixing easily corrected household water leaks can save homeowners about 10% on their water bills. Kitchen sink faucet repair generally involves putting some adhesive over the leak or replacing the entire sink faucet.

Know when to call a plumber or electrician. Some problems are best left to the professionals. A homeowner needs to have the ability to identify these problems with the home. In many cases, the longer calling a professional is put off, the more damaging and expensive the repair becomes. Many professionals provide device inspector services, as well. This means they can inspect work after installing dishwashers or fixing other minor problems, until the homeowner has the feel of it.

Owning a home requires learning a lot about home improvement and repairs. There are always minor things with the home that will need to be fixed. Learning these basic repairs and updates can save the homeowner a lot of money and time.