Not every project goes as well as planned. We would be happy to spend a few minutes answering your questions.
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A common handyman job deals with laminate countertops. It doesn’t matter if it is from the kitchen or bathroom counter, if it has laminate edging, the repair can be completed using the same steps.
Laminate is held in place using adhesive. If you are installing a molded laminate countertop (meaning that you have a rounded edge that is laminated), typically the manufacturer will leave the edge bare wood and you will have to adhere the laminate edge onto it. This is done using a regular clothes iron. You heat up the iron and apply it to the laminate. This in turn activates the adhesive.
If you are installing a new strip of laminate edging, you will need to apply contact cement to each surface (no iron required). Typically, you cut the edging slightly larger that the surface. Apply 2 coats of contact cement to each surface. Let each coat dry somewhat before applying the next coat. After each coat has dried, the surface should be somewhat tacky.
You want to make sure you line up the laminate and the countertop before touching them. Once the two tacky surfaces touch, they stick and they stick VERY well. You can trim the laminate with a router and a laminate bit and then use a file to smooth it out for a finished look.
This Las Vegas handyman does lots of repairs to sprinklers. Our climate is such that during the summer, if the landscape doesn’t get irrigated daily, even multiple times daily, the landscape will die quickly. So it doesn’t help when the sprinkler head gets hit with the lawnmower.
When sprinkler heads get hit or kicked, it’s not the sprinkler head that breaks, it is the riser that it is screwed into. The riser is a threaded fitting that connects the sprinkler head to the elbow. When the riser snaps off, it can sometimes be a challenge to get out. If there is any of the riser still sticking out of the elbow, you can try to grab it with pliers and turn it out. This, however, can lead to tearing the rest of the riser off flush with the elbow.
Then it’s time to grab the extractor. A sprinkler riser extractor is a cheap tool that works great. It is shaped like the letter “T” and has a tapered set of teeth at the bottom. Place the tapered end into the riser, apply some pressure, and start turning. The teeth will bite into the riser and unscrew it.
With the broken riser removed, you might try installing a shorter riser so that an impact will lessen the chances of breaking it again.
Water heater leaks happen, and when they do, it can be very messy. Depending on how quickly a homeowner discovers the leak, the subsequent damage can be minimal or significant.
In many homes, the water heater sits on a pedestal that is covered in drywall. When the water heater leaks, the water will saturate the drywall and, depending on how long it takes to be discovered, can spread to adjoining walls. You may see water on your garage floor, or you may smell a musty odor that leads you to discovering the leak. I know of many stories of drywall replacement, drying out carpeting, and mold remediation because of water heater leaks then went unnoticed.
You can install a water heater pan and drain line to avoid this mess. Installing a water heater pan can be a significant chore as you have to drain the water heater and lift it up enough to slide the pan underneath it. Once the pan is installed, you can run a drain line out from the pan to direct any leak away from the pedestal.
You can run the drain line with a couple of threaded fittings at the pan, and then pipe it down to the garage floor and add an elbow at the end of the pipe. If you have a leak, the water will end up on the garage floor.
Running water lines to drip emitters is very straightforward handyman project. If you are planting bushes in your landscape, instead of irrigating the entire area, you can run drip lines to each individual plant. This will save a lot of water by directing the water to the root ball.
Unless you are irrigating a very large area, most typical tract homes will use ½ inch black poly lines. These will direct water to the general areas of the plants. From this line you will insert microtubes that will direct water to each individual plant. You won’t need any glue, rather the lines are held in place by barbed fittings.
The poly water lines come in rolls and hold their shape until you fill them with water to weight them down. Place them in the sun to let them warm up and become more pliable. Once you connect the poly line to the barbed fitting at the valve (after the pressure reducer and filter), lay it out in the area you want it to feed. Use a punch and poke a hole in the line and insert a straight barbed fitting. To the other side of the barbed fitting you will push on a microtube and run it to the base of the plant. I like to add a “T” fitting here and add to small lengths of microtube and then 2 drip emitters, one on each tube. These will sit at the base of the plant and enable the plant to get water in the event one of the emitters becomes clogged. Repeat for each plant.
When everything is connected, flush any debris out of the tube and then cap the end.
As a handyman, it is more of a rarity if I go into a house and the blinds don’t need work. Window blinds get damaged…that’s what they do. If you have a vertical blind, there are ways to repair these instead of replacing them.
One of the most common things I see is a missing vein for a vertical blind. These are long and hang from the head rail. All of the weight is placed on a small hole at the top of the blind. This hole is hung in a rotating clip in the head rail and allows the blind’s vein to be rotated open to allow light in or closed to keep it dark inside. These veins break due to the weight and the abuse they take. The top of the vein will rip out rendering the vein useless…unless you know what to do. You can reinforcement clips that will make the veins useful again. They simply clip on to the top of the blind’s vein and you can re-hang it back onto the head rail. This of course assumes that the broken veins are still somewhere in the house.
If the broken veins are missing, you can buy new ones. You can buy all new veins or you can buy just those that you are missing. Home centers sell them in packages of 3-5 and they simply unroll and slide into the clips.
It is pretty common to see a leak when you turn on the water to your garden hose. Maybe it is the faucet, maybe it is the hose. Here are a few steps to stop it.
Of course, the first think to do is to tighten the hose connection. I know this sounds like a no-brainer, but you would be surprised. The next thing I would look at is the rubber washer at the hose connection. Unscrew the hose and look into the threaded connection. You should see a rubber washer. If you don't see one then you have found your problem. It may also be the case that the washer is torn or twisted. Just replace the washer and be done with it.
If you still have a leak, inspect the the hose for damage, particularly where the hose connects to the threaded connector. If there is damage here, you can buy a repair kit, or buy a new hose if yours is a cheap vinyl one.
Finally, make sure that it is not the faucet that is leaking. If it is, You may get by with tightening the nut that sits right below the handle. The worst case is that you have to replace the hose faucet.
A door stop is such a simple thing. It screws into either the baseboard or the door itself and stops the doorknob from banging into the wall. If they come loose, it is usually due to someone being gruff with them (small children love to stomp on them during a tantrum).
Some are ridged and simply screw into the surface. If someone steps on it, it will damage the hole and the easiest fix is to relocate the door stop right next to the old location so that the rim covers the old hole.
If you have a spring door stop, these have a detachable base that gets screwed into the surface first and then the actual door stop gets threaded into the base. These are pretty durable because if someone steps on them, they don’t break. These will come loose most often in a metal door. If yours is loose, you can try to slightly tighten the screw that holds the base plate to the surface, or use a slightly larger diameter screw. When the base plate is resecured, thread the spring door stop back into it.
If you want to avoid damage to baseboard or doors from the ridged door stops, you could always replace them with the spring-type.
Clearing plumbing drains can be a foul business. If you have a drain that is blocked, you can try a water bladder to push it out. There are good and bad points with this tool.
A water bladder is a rubbery expandable bag that you attach to your garden hose. You place the bag into the drain or cleanout and turn on the water. As the water fills the bag, it pushes against the inside of the pipe sealing it off. The bag will then start pulsing water into the pipe in hopes of pushing the blockage out.
The good thing about these is that they are inexpensive and easy to use. Basically, you attach it to your hose, stick it in the pipe, and cross your fingers.
The bad thing (and there are several) is that they don’t always work, they may burst and cause some water damage. When you are using this tool, you want to keep checking other drains and toilets to see if any water is backing up in those locations. Also, if there is a vent in between the blockage and the bag, the pulsing may cause the water to back up into the vent and out onto your roof. Try to find the closest drain to the clog and insert the bag there.
Additionally, there is a risk of the increased pressure causing drain joints to separate, which can lead to water damage. These joints are not under pressure, except for the weight of draining water, and it can happen that adding pressure may cause a weak joint to leak or separate.
When you clear the drain or give up, turn off the water and allow the bag to shrink back to its contracted size and then remove it from the pipe.
If you look down into your garbage disposal, you should see a black rubbery gasket. This is a splash guard. This blocks debris from flying out of your sink when you use your garbage disposal. Every once in a while, you will need to replace this part. They shouldn’t wear out, but people seem to like pushing food down into the disposal with utensils that can damage the part. I guess the message is don’t use a fork to push eggshells into the disposal. Replacing the splash guard involves removing the disposal.
Unplug the disposal and remove the bolts that hold the discharge pipe to the side of the unit. You can loosen the slipnut at the discharge pipe to retract it, which will make removing the disposal easier. You might be able to remove the disposal with the dishwasher drain line still connected, but if there isn’t enough slack it it you will need to remove it. Use a screwdriver and slip it into the collar and loosen it. The lugs will disengage and the disposal will drop off of the sink…so support it while you turn.
With the disposal off, simply pull the splash guard from the top of the unit and push the new one on. The splash guard gets compressed between the disposal and the sink flange. Remounting the disposal is a reversal of the steps that you took to remove it. Once you lift the disposal up to the collar, tighten the lugs partially until you align the discharge opening with the discharge pipe. One you connect the piping back, you can fully tighten the lugs that hold the unit to the sink. Then just plug in the cord.
If you’ve ever dinged baseboard molding you know it can be unsightly. A good bump with a piece of furniture is all it takes to make a nasty eyesore. Fixing it is relatively easy. All you need is some wood putty and a putty knife.
It really doesn’t matter if the damage is on a flat surface or a curved surface as you can make the putty knife follow the contour of the molding fairly easily.
Normally the damage is caused by compression, but if you have any loose fibers in the damaged area, remove them. If any damage is rising up above the surface of the surrounding wood, cut it off or push it down below the surface.
Use the putty knife and mix up the wood putty until it is blended. Scoop out a little putty and push it into the damaged area. The goal here is to get the surface to match and blend in so that when it is painted it will be unnoticeable. It is better to use too little putty than too much. This stuff is like concrete when it dries. I would rather use several thin layers that one thick glob to fill the damaged area. When you have the surface level, let it dry. You might decide to add another layer based on what the previous one looks like.
Once you are satisfied, you can use some fine sandpaper and give the area a light sanding. The putty will dry with somewhat of a grainy appearance and the sandpaper will help that go away. After you have sanded it, you can paint the area to match.
