Pro Handyman Blog

Pocket doors are not easy. They will save you approximately nine square feet of space, but making adjustments or repairing them will drive you crazy. The problem is that the hardware is tucked away at the top of the jamb. The act of adjusting the door isn’t tough, but getting to the hardware is.

Pocket doors use a split jamb so the door can recede into the wall. The door hangs from rollers that roll along a track secured to the head jamb. There are lots of different designs, but it is pretty likely you will need to remove trim pieces around the door to get access to the hardware. You should only have to remove trim pieces from one side of the door, but choosing which side might prove difficult. Close the door and see if you can determine how the hardware comes off that connects the door to the rollers. Some hardware has an opening on one side that allows you to remove the door. Other hardware allows you to tilt and lift the door.

Start removing the side and top trim pieces carefully. Cut through the caulking and then gently goose the trim away from the door. You will need enough space to get access to the hardware at the top of the door. You may need enough clearance to completely remove the door, and if so snoop around to see if more trim comes out. You can also remove the front hardware and shimmy the door out of the opening.

Some hardware adjusts with a special tool that never seems to be around when you need it, and others use an open ended wrench. Generally, you can adjust the hardware up or down with a wrench. If the door is dragging, you may need to adjust the hardware so that it raises the door, or it may be that the screws holding the hardware to the door have pulled out.

A realtor asked me to come look at a toilet problem in a property he had listed. He is very hands-on and isn’t afraid to get his hands dirty. When I showed up he explained that the home inspector said that there was a problem in between the tank and the bowl, because when he flushed the toilet, water was leaking at this area.

Isolating the problem, with whatever is broken, is always the best coarse of action. Without knowing what the problem is, how can you fix it? So if the problem occurs when the toilet flushes, you can isolate this by not allowing the toilet to refill during this test.

I simply held the fill valve up simulating a full tank, and hence no water would run. But you could also turn off the angle stop at the rear of the toilet at the wall. So with the water off, flush the toilet and watch what happens. In this case, the toilet flushed fine with no leaks whatsoever. That eliminated the cause of the leak being the connection between the tank and the bowl.

The next thing to do is to allow the water to run. I simply removed my finger from the fill valve float allowing it to drop down and start refilling the tank. You could also turn the water back on to the angle stop, if you turned it off to isolate the flush. As soon as I removed my finger and the water started flowing, the leak was very obvious. Water was shooting out of the top of the fill valve that was cracked. What was happening was the water was spraying out soaking the underside of the tank lid and finally running over the rear of the tank where it finally dripped off of the toilet bowl on to the floor. Replacing the fill valve fixed the problem.

Some homeowners moved into a house and they noticed that the cabinet handles were all loose. So, they used a screw driver and tried to tighten them up but to no avail. The problem was that the screws were too long.

This is actually a common problem with folks that have never done this before. The screws that come with the cabinet pulls or handles are too long for a snug fit. I can think of three fixes for this problem

The first fix is to get shorter screws. This would be the easiest and fastest method. I would take the handle with me and try out the various screw sizes to make sure you are buying the right ones.

The second fix would be to use some washers to make up for the gap between the back of the cabinet and the screw head. Remove the screw from the handle, place a few washers on the screw and screw it back in.

The third fix would be to cut the screw down to the correct size. This is a little tricky and time consuming. Remove the screw from the handle and thread a nut that exactly fit’s the screw (this will replicate the threads inside the handle). With the nut threaded on the screw, use a grinder or cut off wheel and cut the screw to fit. The end of the screw will now be a mess and will not thread back into the handle. However, since the nut is at the base of the screw, by unscrewing it, it will repair the ends of the threads and allow it to screw back into the handle.

Modern homes have plenty or potential carpentry projects. If you have a niche or an alcove, you could add some display shelving to dress it up. You will have to think ahead on this one though as there are plenty of options to consider.

If you have a large niche in a wall, you could use wood shelving and either paint it or stain and varnish it to see the wood grain. Solid wood is more expensive and more challenging to work with, so you could try using plywood veneer with an end molding or iron-on edging. You could use ¾” thickness if the space is large enough, so that the thickness of the shelving won’t overpower the space. That thickness will also support a fair amount of weight.

If your niche is smaller, you can use glass shelving. The smaller size of the glass shelving will help the shelves to blend in more and won’t break up the space as much as wood shelving. I wouldn’t put as much weight on glass that you could on wood, but for a small space, it likely will be for display anyway.

For wood shelving you can install runners along each wall, creating a resting space for the shelf. Just make sure you use a level and have each runner level. You can secure the runners into the wall studs.

For glass shelving, you can also use runners or you can buy special support clips that will hold the shelf in place. Again, the clips should all be level with one another. For small spaces you will likely only need four clips total, two on each side of the shelf.

Las Vegas water and swamp coolers often don’t get along very well. If you look inside a swamp cooler, you will see plenty of mineral deposits on virtually every surface that has come into contact with water. Take a look at the float valve. This is where the water enters the swamp cooler. This part usually gets covered with deposits. You can clean it off or replace it if it bothers you. Occasionally, the float will break and you will need to replace it.

Follow the water supply line to the cooler. With the water off, you can cut the line or unscrew the nut that holds the line to the float. The float valve is inside the swamp cooler. It has a plastic float attached to a rod. When the water is low in the reservoir, the float drops and allows water to enter and fill the reservoir. When the reservoir is full the float rises and the water shuts off.

The float valve is held on by a bracket or a hole in the side of the cooler. Remove the nut that holds the float on. The float valve will pull right out. You can install a washer on the new float and push it into the hole or bracket provided for it and then tighten the nut to hold it. Then reconnect the water supply to it.

You will need to adjust the height at which the float valve shuts off the water from entering the reservoir. You can simply bend the rod up or down to accomplish this. Most manufacturers suggest having 2 ½” -3” of water in the reservoir.

A damaged door leads homeowners to ask if it needs to be replaced or if it can be repaired. My answer is that it depends. If the door is an interior door and you can glue the split back together, I would say it is worth repairing. However, if it is an exterior door with a split, I would replace it. You don’t want to compromise safety.

Repairing a split in an interior door requires some adhesive and clamps. Most interior doors are hollow core doors with a wood perimeter. Realize that the perimeter may not be solid wood, but rather a fiberboard product like MDF (medium density fiberboard).

You want to get the wood glue down into the split so that the repair holds. A split in a door usually occurs along the edge. It may be necessary to slightly open the split with a putty knife or standard screwdriver and squirt some glue into the crevice. Apply more glue than you think you need so that the split is full. You can squeeze the damaged area with your hand to work the glue down into the area.

Use clamps to clamp the damaged area closed. I like mini bar clamps because you can operate them with one hand and they have great holding power. They also have cushioned jaws so that they will not damage the surface. You can also use “C” clamps, but be careful not to squeeze them too hard or you will damage the door. If you are going to use C-clamps, you can use wood strips along the edge and clamp the strips to the door edge. This will distribute the clamping pressure uniformly along the entire length of the edge. Let the glue dry for at least 24 hours before removing the clamps.

You see a stain on your downstairs ceiling, you know, right below your upstairs shower plumbing. That’s trouble. It could be the drain, the pressurized water supply plumbing, or a host of other items. Here is a step-by-step method to troubleshooting where the leak is coming from.

The first thing to do is to remove the shower head and cap the arm. Then turn on the shower valve. This will pressurize the incoming water supply piping and isolate this as a potential cause. It is a good idea to turn on the hot and cold handles separately to isolate each of those as well. If you have a single handle shower valve, you can turn it to full hot or full cold for this. Remove the escutcheon plate covering the shower valve and look inside for a leak. You will also want to go downstairs and listen for dripping during these steps.

If you can’t find a leak, remove the cap on the shower arm and attach a garden hose to it. You will have to screw on an adapter for the hose to thread on to it. Run the hose directly into the drain opening. This will isolate the drain as a potential cause. Run the water and listen for drips.

Still no leak? Plug up the shower drain and fill the pan with water. You can use a tennis ball or other object. Let this sit overnight to see if you get a drop in the water level and drips on the ceiling.

If everything has checked out so far, check for gaps in the caulking and the grout, if you have tile in the shower. You might be looking at a maintenance issue that has been overlooked. You can reinstall the shower head and start in one corner and start spraying the shower to look and listen for leaks.

Removing a range hood is an easy job. These are usually very light and are held in place with a handful of screws.

People usually remove the builder-grade range hood to install a higher quality microwave hood. Removing the old hood is the first step, and it is an easy one.

Open the cabinet doors above the hood. You will see a cord coming from the range hood to an electrical outlet. Unplug the cord and then look underneath the range hood. There are four pan-head screws that hold the range hood to the underside of the cabinet. Remove two of the screws in opposite corners, for example the rear right screw and the front left screw. Use a drill driver and the screws will be out in seconds.

I am right handed, so I save the front right screw for last. This allows me to support the range hood with my left hand, and remove the front right screw with the drill driver in my right hand. As I said, the hood is very light and when you get the last screw out, it is easy to lower the hood down. As you lower the hood, the cord may get hung up in the hole at the bottom of the upper cabinet. Just be aware of the cord and slowly lower the hood. You may have to feed the cord through the hole as you lower the hood.

Running electric cables, such as romex, require you to follow certain rules for safety. I have seen several instances of scorched cables, and worn insulation that can cause problems.

When you are running a cable to a junction box, the cable should be secured to the box. You want to restrict movement of the cable so that the edge of the box doesn’t wear through the insulation and ultimately damage the cable. Shorting and arcing can be the result of this type of damage. This is where a cable clamp comes into play.

The clamp’s nut unscrews to allow you to place the threads into the box then you screw the nut back onto the threads to hold the clamp in place. From there you place the cable through the clamp and into the box to connect to an outlet, switch, or to connect to other wiring. The clamp holds the cable in place using two screws. You may have to loosen the screws enough to allow the cable to pass through the clamp, but when enough of the cable has entered the box, gradually tighten the two screws so that the cable is firmly held. Don’t crunch down on the screws as the purpose here isn’t to damage the cable, but rather to firmly hold it in place.

It is not normal that we are asked to repair an electric panel. However, in this day and age where there are so many vacant houses, vandals (or previous occupants) seem to steal just about anything that isn’t bolted down.

Problems in the breaker panel are often caught when there is a problem with the power, or when an inspector flags it as a condition of sale. Circuit breakers are removed, and sometimes the bank will want them replaced, and sometimes they just want the opening in the panel to be covered to avoid injury. For this you can buy knock-out plugs. These are available at most home centers, and are plastic covers that snap into the dead front of the panel. However, sometimes the dead front of the panel has also been removed.

The dead front is a metal cover that covers the wiring inside the panel. It usually held in place by some tabs on one side and a screw on the other. It has openings that fit the breakers perfectly and the dead front is not interchangeable with the manufacturer of another panel. If you have a missing dead front, it is probably easiest to buy a complete new box that is identical to your existing box and then remove the dead front from the new box and install it into your old one.