Common repairs every homeowner needs to master

Buying your first house is a dream come true for many people. But most of them forget that big dreams come with big responsibilities. Those obligations don’t only include mowing your perfect lawn in the front yard, but also include many easy, and not-so-easy, repairs around the home.

Let’s face it, whether you live in an apartment or a house, sooner or later you will need to fix something. You can’t just call a professional handyman every time you need a lightbulb change, can you? Besides being completely irrational, it’s expensive. Instead of that, master these common repairs and make your family proud.

1. Painting furniture

Even if your house is bought fresh off the market, sometimes buying new, modern furniture is not an option. It may even take years to save money to completely equip your new home with high-end stuff. In cases like these, it’s always a good idea to restore old furniture. Whether you’re going for the rustic or modern look, paint can do wonders to the old wardrobes, chairs, tables, and nightstands.

When it comes to painting the furniture, there are some things you need to know.  Before actually getting down on business, make sure to smooth the surface with sandpaper and clean the dust. Depending on the type of wood your furniture is made from, you can use different kinds of paint. Decide if you want to paint them in natural, wood-like colors to create a classic look, or you’ll go for a modern, wacky one by mismatching the colors and furniture. It can be a great weekend project for the whole family.

2. Unclogging drains

Surely at least once in your life you’ve perceived reeking odor coming from your kitchen or bathroom, but you haven’t been able to determine the cause. Even after thoroughly cleaning the whole bathroom and kitchen the smell is still there. Then you’ve noticed that the water is pooling around your feet while you shower, or it’s draining slower than usual with gurgling sounds. All that can be caused by clogged drains. This means that you should get to the bottom of this problem immediately.

Clogged drains can happen due to numerous reasons. The most common ones are hair that’s been piling up in your drain, food pieces from your kitchen sink or flushing down foreign objects. Before you decide to spend a fortune on aggressive, pricey chemicals, try solving the problem by cleaning the drains. However, some problems are more complex and require professional assistance. Professional plumbers have adequate equipment for unclogging blocked drains and are more competent to solve complex issues. So, it’s important to know when to stop and turn to professionals for help. 

3. Fixing a broken cabinet

It doesn’t matter if you have old or new furniture; squeaky hinges, loose knobs and falling doors can happen to any cabinet especially if you have children. It’s commonly known that kids like to explore the forbidden, that’s why kitchen cabinets are their ideal target. Spinning and pulling the kitchen cabinet knob can make it lose and even fall off. So, you better get your tools before someone gets hurt. 

Once a loose cabinet knob is more likely to get loose again. If you want to make sure it doesn’t fall off again, put a tiny drop of the adhesive before placing it back. In case you want to replace the knob any time in the future, don’t worry, as it will easily come off with the screwdriver. As far as the loose door and squeaky hinges are concerned, everything can be easily fixed. Open the door and line it so it doesn’t hang. Tighten the screw in the hinge using the screwdriver and oil the hinges until they no longer make annoying noises. Ta-da, you’re a real handyman/woman!

4. Fixing fridge-related problems

Since you’re in the mood for mastering handy skills, you decide to stop ignoring problems you’ve been having with your refrigerator. It’s the 21st century, people can’t just live without the fridge or freezer in this modern age. 

You’ve noticed that your fridge is not cooling like it used to. Before you call the professional, check if the doors are closing properly. There might be something in the way that’s preventing the fridge door to close completely. If that’s not the case, make sure the thermostat in the fridge is set to a proper temperature od 0-4 Celsius. This temperature prevents mold, frost build-ups and food going bad which sometimes causes bad odor. To get rid of that smell, intensively clean the fridge and set the reset your thermostat.  

5.  Patch a hole in drywall

Not every repair is an emergency or a disaster, and not all of them are related to the kitchen and bathroom. There are other simple repair jobs you can do around the house. For example, you can fix those holes in the drywall. Honestly, holes in the wall are sometimes unavoidable. You need to hang a painting or TV on the wall. These repairs are quite common and simple. 

Firstly, clean the area so you can access the hole completely, then wipe down the wall. Using a putty knife, inject some spackle into the wall and wait until it’s dry. Smoothen out the surface using fine grain sandpaper. And paint the wall if necessary.

Conclusion

Your house is the probably most expensive thing you own, so you should take proper care of it. As you can see, you don’t need to be an expert to do some minor repairs around the house. Spending fortune on handymen isn’t necessary when you can do this job by yourself. You might need to invest some time in mastering the skills, but once you’ve fixed everything, the feeling is priceless.