Home Repair & Maintenance

Whatever your reason for replacing your old doorbell, the actual installation is not very difficult. A doorbell kit and few basic tools are all you'll need. It is a very small price for the sake...

Basic household extension cords are made with wires that will support a standard 20 amp flow. Heavier extension cords for the shop or garage can be found that will support a 30 to 40 amp flow...

Electrical outlets are the life source of power to our home, and connecting them safely and correctly is very important. The outlet is powered through the wiring from the main circuit panel in...

There are a lot of times that it would be convenient to have a switch at the other end of a room or hallway. To have a switch at every doorway entering a room just makes sense. Fortunately, there...

There will come a time when a homeowner will have to replace or even add a circuit breaker to the power box (breaker box). Circuits wear out with time and they need to be replaced. This is a...

There are many reasons to turn a doorknob lock around. Placing the lock on the outside of the door is wise when the room is occupied by toddlers. This will prevent them from accidentally locking...

Cord switches are easy to install and allow you to control lighting without resorting to inserting and removing the outlet plug. There are a wide variety of switch models available, so you should...

Keeping your deck in good repair is essential. When a deck is damaged or in poor repair, it suggests that the entire home is not being maintained. Deck railings are particularly important, since...

If you have a light that will not turn on, your first response will be to change the bulb. After this step, you will probably check the circuit breaker or fuse box to see if the socket is...

Water leaks cause the water bill to increase. The dripping could also keep loved ones awake at night. The cause of a leaking faucet is normally worn out washers in the valve stem assembly. These...

Decks often have a lot of horizontal space beneath them. Usually, this space is difficult to use and can be a problem with children and animals crawling under the deck. This type of environment...

My father was very handy at fixing things around the house and often used this simple method to tighten a wood screw. One great advantage is that it uses commonly available household supplies. ...

Occasionally you'll find a stray screw in your home peering stubbornly through a piece of wood, plastic, or metal, proving to be a safety threat to you and your family. If not taken care of,...

Having the proper amount of water in a toilet bowl helps it to flush completely clean. The amount of water in each individual toilet bowl is determined by the shape of the toilet itself. Some are...

Hanging heavy decorative objects, like a wall mirror with a wooden frame, can be a challenge. The safest way to hang a wooden-framed wall mirror is to locate the wall studs to support the weight...

Whether by accident or due to inferior equipment, many homeowners and hobbyists will experience the aggravation of having a screw get "rounded off" or worn so badly that a screwdriver will not...

An animal's claws scratching against a screen can do a lot of damage to an unprotected storm door, and cause costly damage to the screen. You can prevent the cost of replacing the screen mesh by...

Installing a wall outlet in a three-way switch circuit is identical to wiring a light fixture in the circuit. The most difficult part is keeping track of the various wires in the three-way wiring...

Adding on a new room? Installing new light fixtures? You'll need to use a drill for these and many other home improvement projects. Most drills accommodate dozens of different drill bits. Drill...

Since the mid to late 1970s, ground fault circuit interrupter (GFCI) devices have been required in all bathrooms and wet environments. Later codes require these devices in crawl spaces, attics and...

GFCI devices provide added protection against electrical fires as well as serious and potentially fatal shocks. These devices are required by code in any bathroom area, kitchen counter, outdoor...

Outdoor faucets come in handy when watering plants or having the kids play outside. They can also be a danger to your home and pocket if not properly maintained. A leaking outdoor faucet can cause...

Many home repair projects require the removal of rusted screws. Exposure to weather can cause extreme corrosion, especially of unprotected steel screws. Several removal techniques are used for...

Kwikset locks are primarily designed for the residential market. They are available in many different styles and designs, and can be used on both exterior and interior applications. Kwikset...

Since the invention of the screw in 1513 by a German clockmaker, building everything from furniture to houses got a lot easier. Screws with their threads have much more holding and gripping power...

GFCI (ground fault circuit interrupt) switches monitor the electrical flow across a circuit and disengage the circuit if there is a drop. This drop in electrical flow is often referred to as a...

The dripping in the bathtub is causing you to lose sleep at night, your about to lose your mind if you endure another night of dripping. Below are straight forward instructions on how to replace...

Nothing puts a kink in a project like a broken screw. In some cases, the piece being worked on is expendable and can be easily replaced with a new piece; however, this is not always the case....

Removing a damaged (or stripped) screw is often a trying experience because it can slow down an entire project. The frustration is compounded when the screw becomes even more damaged as you try to...

Leaking shower heads are annoying and waste water. Many people give up and just let them leak all the time. Why waste all that water when you can stop the leak? Stopping the leak is not as hard as...

A double pole double throw (DPDT) switch is a three-selection electrical device in which there is one "off" and two "on" positions. An application for this switch is for reversing a direct current...

Drip. Drip. Drip. That's the annoying sound of a faucet that needs some attention. If your faucet is dripping out of the spout, fixing it is a simple job that doesn't require special tools.

This article deals with a water spigot or valve that doesn't shut off all the way. If you have a valve that is leaking from the hose bib, it is likely that all that is needed is to replace a...

The official name for a level is a "spirit level." "Spirit" refers to the liquid (usually ethanol) in the glass tube that gives you the degree reading of how in or out of level an object is. An...

Screws are incredibly versatile construction tools. No matter what your project is or what material is being used, there is a screw made specifically for it. If you need to attach an object to a...

Whether it's been pulled out by gravity or a great tug or it's become stripped from too much retightening, repairing a screw that's lost its grip in wood is an easy fix. In most cases the repair...

Modern sliding-glass doors have come a long way from their aluminum counterparts in decades past. If your home still has an old-style slider with no insulated glass and a frame that sweats in cold...

Gas furnaces need to be serviced every fall to ensure that they are in working order for the winter season. Servicing also optimizes efficiency which helps reduce fuel costs. In most cases,...

Connecting a GFCI (Ground Fault Circuit Interrupt) breaker is necessary in damp or outdoor conditions pursuant to the national electrical code. GFCI breakers monitor electrical circuits for...

It is very frustrating when the seemingly small job of removing a screw turns into an annoying task becuase it can't be extracted in the normal way with a screwdriver. A worn screw means the head...

An outdoor faucet handle can need replacing for several reasons. Sometimes they break from too much wear and tear. Or they could be leaking. It only takes a few steps to replace the handle. If you...

Aluminum thresholds are located at the bottom of an exterior door unit. Aluminum is used to create thresholds because the material is resistant to various weather conditions, such as rain and...

How you extract a struck screw can depend on factors such as what kind of screw it is and how tightly it is struck. A range of possible ways to extract a stuck screw are worth considering. Start...

When your bathroom door doesn't latch all the way, it can be easy to fix. You need to determine the cause of the failure to latch. Maybe the door has warped due to moisture, or the house has...

With air conditioners becoming more and more common, it just makes sense to incorporate both your heating and air conditioning controls into one thermostat. Newer thermostats offer many more...

The National Electric Code requires a GFCI outlet to be installed in any wet location around the home, and any outlet within 6 inches of a sink must also be protected. Wiring a GFCI outlet is a...

Door handles are available in many varieties to suit the needs of different applications. Some handles are designed as non-latching pulls, while others use levers or knobs with built-in latches....

A GFI breaker, also known as a ground fault interrupt breaker, is most often used for electrical circuit installations which are in damp conditions or outdoors. GFI breakers use a 0 volt ground...

When performing maintenance in and around your home, you may find it extremely difficult to drill and insert screws into some areas of the house because there are obstacles blocking you from...

GFI or GFCI switches, known as ground fault interrupt and ground fault circuit interrupt respectively, are circuit breakers which are indicated in electrical circuits that are installed in damp or...