Black & Decker Complete Home Repair Flexibound – Deluxe Edition Author: Editors of CPi | Language: English | ISBN:
1589233557 | Format: PDF
Black & Decker Complete Home Repair Flexibound – Deluxe Edition Description
Amazon.com Review
Got a problem with grout? Open
The Complete Photo Guide to Home Repair (to page 98) and watch your tiling worries dissolve before the simple beauty of photography. Black & Decker has anticipated your every question and problem with interior, exterior, and home systems repairs, and detailed the solutions in just over 500 pages. In no other human endeavor is a visual guide so important as home repair (well, maybe brain surgery), so this is a crucial aid to the handyperson. Easy-to-find sections on floors, insulation, roofing, chimneys, water heaters, wall switches, air conditioning, and much more are well-designed, brilliantly illustrated, and carefully outlined with step-by-step instructions from masters. The photos in particular are extremely valuable, offering many different views (sometimes even exploded) of the operation in question, and always showing just enough to communicate without overwhelming the reader with too much detail. These alone would be worth the price of the book, but the written explanations and instructions are also very helpful, offering tools, materials lists, and hints that wouldn't occur to the amateur. The book finishes with a maintenance schedule to help you keep repairs from becoming serious, and the end papers have conversion charts and tables that you'll use time and again. If you can't have Norm the master carpenter over to help you fix your old house,
The Complete Photo Guide to Home Repair is the next best thing.
--Rob Lightner --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Review
...Black & Decker has anticipated your every question and problem with interior, exterior, and home systems repairs... --
Rob Lightner, Amazon.com...For each project they provide detailed how-to instructions, complete tools and materials lists, helpful hints, and troubleshooting charts... --
Book News, Inc., 1999, Portland, OR --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
See all Editorial Reviews
- Series: Black & Decker Complete Photo Guide
- Flexibound: 600 pages
- Publisher: Cool Springs Press; Expanded edition (October 1, 2007)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1589233557
- ISBN-13: 978-1589233553
- Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 8.9 x 1.3 inches
- Shipping Weight: 4 pounds
There are certain skills that are "wasted" on no one. Home repair is one such skill. I believe that 5 weeks after purchasing this book - the book has already paid for itself. My parents moved back into my grandmother's 1960-era house after she passed away last year. The house was in need of a few repairs, but money was a limiting factor. I had to find a way to teach myself (and my dad) how to weatherproof the basement, replacing an ancient water heater & dishwasher, replace several outlets with new GFCI (p. 397!) outlets, and finally, how to update the upstair's faucets and fixtures. I logged onto Amazon.com and typed-in HOME REPAIR. To be honest, I chose this book because it had 500+ pages and two 5-star reviews. When this book arrived, I instantly felt the weight and quality of the binding.(think college textbook material) I quickly found DETAILED descriptions of the tasks I would soon have to perform. I called my father and said "Get ready we're going to Home Depot!" On the phone, my father expressed concern over our lack of experience. When my father got in my truck, I handed him the the Black&Decker text. I had put PostIt's on the pages with our projects. He slipped on his glasses and peered through his bi-focals and didn't say a word on the way to purchase tools & supplies. Once in the parking lot, I could hardly turn-off the engine before he was pointing to pictures saying "Ours looks just like this! I want some gloves like that!" And he was making a bee-line for the door!(the old man can move!) He was excited and so was I. Now, it has beeen 5 weeks since that first trip to Home Depot. Both my father and I have the cuts and scrapes and the ever present sore backs to prove that we have done our own home repairs.
I'm reading the other reviews here, so I thought I'd weigh in, hoping it will help the prospective buyer. This book is about as good as it gets for do-it-yourself home repair. Lots of home repairs are far easier than you think, and just take time and maybe some new tools. Even with the cost of new tools, it will often be cheaper than calling a professional. Yes--there are really complicated repairs I would leave to a professional, but this book helps with the simple things that you just need basic instruction on.
Case in point--my toilet was leaking from the base. I have never installed a toilet or taken one apart. I had no clue why it was leaking. I turned to the leaky toilet page and saw that there is something called the "closet" where the toilet connects to the floor and there is a wax seal that may have leaked. A plumber could cost $50-$100 just to come out and look at the toilet. Maybe more for his labor.
I went to Home Depot and bought a new wax seal for $3.50, and a mini-shop vac for $40 (new tool--yay!). Turned off the water valve, flushed the toilet, used the shop-vac to suck out the residual water, disconnected the water line, removed the 2 bolts connecting the tank to the bowl and removed the tank, removed the 2 bolts connecting the bowl to the floor and removed the bowl. Scrape off the old wax, put on the new wax, bolt bowl to floor, bolt tank to bowl, reconnect water. Yes--I may have figured this out on my own, but one is always hesitant to go in to a job not knowing what to expect. This book holds your hand a bit and has great photos. Now, if I had removed the toilet and found the closet flange overly corroded, I may have called a plumber. But I fixed the whole thing for $43.50, an hour of time, and I got a new shop-vac!
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