Home Owner Skills Everyone Should Develop
When Mrs C. and I bought our first house we were super excited, but had no idea what we were in for. We bought a house that we could afford, because it wasn’t much the house was a fixer upper with several issues that required us to learn new skills in order to repair. The below home owner skills are the most important ones I can think of that learning has saved us thousands of dollars over the years.
Electrical:
Step 1 turn off the power. Step 2: verify the power is off. Getting shocked is no fun and making mistakes with electricity can be deadly. There was one outlet at our first house that I verified was off, but then I got shocked when I went to remove it. When I traced the wires back I found that the top socket was fed by 1 breaker (the one I turned off) and the bottom socket was fed by another breaker. Never assume that wiring was done correctly!
Replacing an outlet or switch: is a fairly simple task. Standard 110 wiring has 3 wires, a ground (bare copper), a neutral (white insulation) and a hot (black insulation). At the circuit board the black wire is connected to the breaker, the white wire goes to the neutral bar and the ground goes to the ground bar. In some breaker boxes the neutral and ground bar is the same. When replacing an outlet or a switch, the outlet and switch are color coded; the gold screw is for the hot wire and the silver is for the neutral. It is always important to make strong connections. If a connection is loose it is possible it can cause the power to the circuit to go off, or much worse start a fire.
Know your system: All breakers have an Amp rating, 15 and 20 amp breakers are used for most circuits and 30 and 50 amp breakers may be used for large appliances like well pumps and stoves. 30 and 50 amp circuits will use 2 breaker slots, and thus need 2 hot wires. In these circuits the 2nd hot wire will be red. Most breakers are labelled at the box, if they are not, you need to figure out which breakers control which circuits, then make a list. Having this list makes future repairs and additions much easier.
Equipment to have on hand:
- Voltmeter
- Clamp Ampmeter
- socket tester
- electrical tape
- wingnuts (variety of sizes)
- Insulated pliers
- Insulated wire cutters
- extra junction boxes, face plates, outlets, and switches
Plumbing:
Preventative Maintenance: You know what’s not fun? Waking up to a basement full of water, or even worse a flooded hallway. In our first home there were at least 3 times I can recall where we had a pressurized supply pipe rupture. A decent amount of the plumbing in our house had been done with a flexible grey tubing, which is apparently not the best material. I knew that it didn’t look right, but chose not to do anything about it. Had I taken the time to replace these runs with PVC or PEX I would have saved a lot of hassle.
Running Toilet: The most likely culprit of a sky high water bill is a constantly running toilet. I have seen this happen several times. Generally speaking the toilet does not need to be replaced, just the guts that go in the tank. You can buy a set for around $15 and it takes literally 5 minutes to change them out.
Frozen Pipes: Frozen pipes are a nightmare, but they happen from time to time for those of us who live in the north. Pipe insulation is the first line of defense, but even properly insulated pipes can freeze. On this note, it is important to properly insulate pipes, especially at corners. When extremely frigid temperatures are imminent, turn on faucets to a slow drip, and flush toilets every few hours. keeping water moving will help keep the pipes from freezing. It isn’t the most conservative thing to do, but it may be necessary.
Once you have frozen pipes, then the hard work starts. People have burned down their homes by using torches and leaving heaters on by pipes. There are two main ways to unfreeze a pipe: Electrical heat cable and a dryer and body heat. I have heard the heat cable works well, but I haven’t used it myself. I have one pipe run that goes under my crawlspace that tends to freeze. When that happens I scurry under the house, and blow a hair dryer on high on the pipe and use the body heat from my hands on the pipe. between my body heat and the hair dryer I can usually get the pipe unfrozen within 10 minutes.
Leaking pipe: You know when pipes start to leak is always when Lowe’s is closed? With the aging pipes in our first house we ran into several plumbing issues and I tried a myriad of ways to stop a leaking pipe, from electrical tape, to throwing on some extra PVC cement, to using that pressure tape they sell at Lowe’s, none of it worked. The best way I have found to fix a leaking pipe is to cut out a small section around the leak, and throw in a Compression Coupling
Detection: After our first issue with waking up to a basement full of water my parents gave us this leak detector device. All you have to do is put a battery in it and set it on the floor, if it gets wet it alarms. Of course I forgot to open it up and put a battery in it, so the second time my basement flooded I watched as the detector was floating across the room.
Labeling: Labeling is very important when it comes to plumbing runs. I label all of the runs in our crawlspace and basement with zip tied index cards describing what the pipe is. These also need to be on shutoffs. Knowing where your shutoffs are for what systems is imperative when you have pressurized water streaming into your house. It might even make sense to add shutoffs in some places. A couple years ago when my Brother in law was staying the night at my house I came home from work and found him bucketing water out of our utility room, while water was still gushing out at an alarming rate. Our water softener tank had cracked and he didn’t know which shutoff to use. Having all of the valves clearly labelled will most likely make a similar situation much easier to fix in the future.
Equipment to have on hand:
- Sawzall
- pipe cutter
- small pipe cutter
- pipe wrench
- plumbers putty
- PVC cement
- 3/4 PVC pipe
- 3/4 PVC fittings (a good variety)
- PVC compression fittings
- pipe tape
Helpful Tip: When running to the store with a list of fittings or pieces needed, buy extra, running back to the store to get a 15 cent part is super frustrating.
Tree Work:
About a month ago we had a large storm come through which gave us significant tree damage. For the amount of work involved I am sure it would have cost well into the thousands of dollars if I had hired it out.
Safety: Working on trees, just like with electricity can be deadly. Trees are heavy, and branches are suspended in the air, I know an obvious statement right? But when we climb on a ladder or on a tree to cut off a branch, how often do we stop to think about its potential energy? The weight of a branch can be deceiving. A branch that looks relatively small can still weigh several hundred pounds, and if it’s 20 feet in the air it has a ton of energy. When working with trees we also have risks from working at heights, ladder safety, and of course working with saws. All of these risks need to be evaluated before doing any tree work.
Proper clothing: It’s 90 degrees outside and you are doing some highly physical work, shorts and T-shirt right? besides the fact that some of branches may scratch or scrape you, the real problem is sap. I learned this the hard way the first time I was cleaning up a pine tree, I didn’t think anything of it at first, just that I had to get the job done. After spending what seemed like hours cleaning sap off of my hands, arms, and legs, I decided no matter what the heat I’d be wearing jeans and a long sleeve shirt.
Proper chainsaw use: Periodically check the chain for proper tension and check the bar and chain oil. Chainsaws can and will overheat, so I usually cut for about a half hour with the chainsaw then give it a break while I clean up, then go back to cutting. When dealing with a large branch or a full tree it is highly probable that there is force being exerted somewhere on it, always watch for this. Getting your saw caught is not fun. When it comes to tree work always ask yourself what can go wrong. If it feels sketchy, it probably is and it may be worth it to bite the bullet and call a pro; whatever you do, Don’t be that guy.
Equipment to have on hand:
- Pruning sheers/lops
- handsaw
- chainsaw
- rope
- bar and chain oil
This is just a starter list of some of the basics I have learned along the way during my time as a home owner, what skills have you developed as a home owner?
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