Not every project goes as well as planned. We would be happy to spend a few minutes answering your questions.
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I had the opportunity to install a new dual flush toilet flush kit recently. These are the kits that give you the handle with two halves. The top half is depressed for a partial flush for liquids, and the bottom half gives you a full flush for solids. The kit costs about $20.00 and claims is will save 15,000 gallons of water (assuming a family of 4 with the kit being installed on the most commonly used toilet).
The kit includes a handle replacement, but the magic is in the flapper replacement mechanism. It doesn't look anything like the flapper you have in there now. It looks more like a tower with a float mechanism built into it. Rotate it to separate it and place the lower half where your old flapper was. This part gets clamped onto the overflow pipe of your flush valve and held in place with a rubber ring and zip-tie. The top half gets placed onto it and is snapped together.
Running from the flapper tower is a cable that connects to the new handle. This is an easy replacement and the cable easily mounts to the handle.
Installing the entire kit will take just a few minutes but the trick is in tuning it up. I started with all settings on the most lean settings so that the least amount of water drains out of the tank (in this case both adjustments will be in the fully up position). The adjustments can be made for both the partial flush and full flush. For me the full flush worked fine in the most lean position. However the partial flush will take some getting used to.
For flushing liquids, you press the top button. This isn't so much of a partial flush as it is a rinse. The flapper lifts up for just a brief time to let a quick rinse of the sides of the bowl, but never really flushes the liquid. In the most lean position, the partial rinse basically mixes with the urine but doesn't flush it down the bowl. As you adjust the partial flush to use more water, the liquid will actually flush down the bowl. In the "full down" position, the partial flush will actually flush a small amount of paper along with it. It is a matter of fine-tuning the mechanism for your toilet.
When you shut your door, does it latch? If not your problem may be as simple as aligning the strike plate.
On your door jamb is a door strike. This is a metal part with a curved end that the door latch contacts and latches into. If the door latch and strike are not aligned, you can try all you want, but the door won’t latch. Your choices are to either move the door latch (that’s too much work), or move the strike plate.
First of all, get down at eye level an close the door until the latch contacts the strike plate. Make pencil marks on the strike showing the location of the latch when it touches the strike. Pull the door open and you will see if the strike plate is too high or low. If it looks like the two are aligned, it may be that the strike plate needs to be moved inward towards the interior of the room. I many cases, the weather stripping (if its an exterior door) or the door stop will prevent the door from moving enough to actually latch. By moving the strike plate away from the door stop it will be able to latch.
Once you have figured out which way the strike needs to be moved, remove the screws and install it where it needs to be. Use a chisel and remove enough wood so that the strike plate sits flush. You may need to fill it the old screw holes with wooden toothpicks and glue if the adjustment is small, otherwise the screws will tend to wander into the old holes.
If you need to replace a tub spout, you may find it a challenge to remove the old one. Tub spouts connect in a variety of different ways, and some are easy and some more challenging.
The old tub spout may simply unscrew from the nipple sticking out of the wall, or it may be attached to a bare pipe and held in place with a setscrew. It’s smart to get a small mirror (like a small cosmetic mirror) and hold it underneath the tub spout. This is where the set screw will be, if your tub spout is held on using one. Angle the mirror so that you can see the bottom of the spout and look for the screw. If you see the screw, use the appropriate sized allen wrench and remove it from the tub spout. This will allow you to pull the tub spout free from the bare copper pipe. It uses a rubber O-ring to keep the water from leaking, so you may have to put a little elbow grease into it.
If there is no set screw, the tub spout should be attached to a threaded fitting. Try gently unscrewing the tub spout from the threaded fitting coming from the wall. These fittings can be in either ½” or ¾” diameter, although ½” is far more common.
PVC pipe repair isn't that difficult. Once you find a broken PVC sprinkler pipe, you need to clear out the area around the break or crack so you can work on repairing it. Make sure the water to the area is turned off so the hole doesn’t continue to fill.
If the pipe has a small crack in it, you may be able to glue a repair sleeve on it. To do this, you need to thoroughly clean the damaged area of the pipe and make sure it is dry. A repair sleeve comes in two halves and basically is like a suit of armor for the crack. Once the pipe is clean and dry, prime the area with primer and apply PVC glue to both the exterior of the pipe and to the inside of both sleeve halves. Fit the pieces of the sleeve around the pipe and push them together. The two halves have a little notch in them to line up the pieces and hold them together. Glue will ooze out as you squeeze the pieces together. Wait until the glue has dried to pressurize the pipe.
If the pipe is damaged at a fitting, you will have to cut out the fitting and re-pipe that area. You may need to cut the straight pipe back, add a straight coupling and a length of pipe, and finally a new fitting in place of the damaged one.
If the water drains very slowly down your bathroom sink, you probably have a clog between the sink stopper and the P-trap below the sink. Fortunately, this is one of the easier plumbing problems to fix.
Bathroom sinks take a lot of abuse. Most of the clogs are simply hair mixed in with a little soap and they make a nice ball to slow the water. You can try a tool called a “zip-it” which is nothing more than a long skinny piece of plastic with small barbs on it. You slide this down in between the stopper and the drain and it snags the hair ball and pulls it out. This can get very nasty though as it sprays drain stew all over you and the sink as you pull it out. So pull it slowly and be aware.
You can also take apart the drain assembly, which sounds a lot worse that it is. The sink stopper handle is attached to a horizontal pivot rod. This pivot rod connects to the vertical drain by a nut. Unscrew the nut and pull out the pivot rod. This will allow you to pull the sink stopper out of the sink. You will probably pull out a ball of hair along with it. You can clean this up and reinstall everything back together. The drain should flow much better.
If the drain is still slow, disassemble the P-trap and dump out the water and debris. You will probably see a lot of hair hanging out of the drain (there the P-trap was connected). Remove this hair and reassemble everything back together.
The very first question a customer asks is “How much do you charge for handyman services?”. I’ve done both hourly and flat rate and I can tell you the least stressful method for both customer and handyman is flat rate. As a customer, don’t you want to know how much the product or service will cost before you agree to buy it? Of course! If I go to McDonalds and order a Big Mac, I don’t want a different price based on which employee is actually flipping the burgers.
If a handyman tells the customer they charge by the hour, take a guess as to what will be the next question the customer will ask? That’s right, “how long will the job take?”. So, even though the technician gave the customer an hourly price, they have calculated the hourly rate and how long the job will take. In effect, the technician has given them a flat rate and will be on the losing end of it. The technician will lose because if the job only takes 2 hours when he told them 3 hours, they will pay you only for the 2 hours, which is absolutely fair. If the job takes 4 hours, the customer will say that the technician told them it would only take 3 hours and pay based on that. True, you can draw up all kinds of legal documents saying that all kinds of unexpected things can go wrong, and you can force payment. However, don’t expect to ever see that customer again.
I find it’s best to give a customer a fair price for the job, and thoroughly explain what you are going to do and why, and what the possible pitfalls could be. If there is any question on the job, give the customer a price range, so at least they know what to expect. It all boils down to good communication.
Our handyman service visits lots of vacant houses to do repairs. A typical walk-through involves checking plumbing, electrical, and appliances. A common item is that the stove or cook top won’t turn on.
If you have a gas stove or cook top and you turn the knob to light the burner, you hear a “click click click” sound. This is the sound of the spark module igniting a spark to light the gas at the burner. When it doesn’t light, people are quick to assume that the igniter or spark module are not working. If you notice, when you turn on one of the burners, all the burners spark, but only one gets the flow of necessary gas to light the burner.
Around the burners are a series of holes that the gas flows through so you get a nice even flame. Look closely at the igniter next to the burner. The hole (or holes) at this location are larger than the rest. This is so more gas will flow at this area so the igniter will light it quickly.
So before you go to the expense of replacing the igniter or spark module, check this large hole in particular to make sure it isn’t obstructed. In many cases, you can simply take something small, like a paper clip, and unplug this port to allow gas to flow to the igniter.
If you buy a slab door off the stack at a home center, you will have to cut a mortise for each hinge. Most doors use three hinges, but larger heavier doors use four. Although you can buy a template and router for this job, most homeowners won’t use them enough to justify the expense of buying them. You can also use a hammer and a chisel for good results.
I generally lay the old door and new door on edge standing up so that the hinge area faces upward. Draw pencil lines from the old door to the new door, essentially transferring the hinge locations to the new door. Now grab the hammer and chisel.
The chisel has a flat side and a beveled side. Start at the perimeter and, with the flat side facing the wood you want to keep, make a vertical chop to cut the wood around the perimeter. Make the cuts as deep as the hinge is thick so that when done the hinge will sit in a pocket that will make it flush with the surface of the door.
Once the perimeter mortise cuts are made, I start inside of the cuts and take small slices with the chisel. Lay the chisel back at a steep angle, with the flat side facing up and make quick light taps on the end of the chisel with the hammer. This will give you good control over the chisel and allow you to make accurate depth cuts right up to the perimeter cuts you made earlier. Every so often lay the hinge into the pocket to get the depth right.
Once all of the mortises are cut, you can pre-drill the holes and install the door.
A self closing door should self close, not self slam. You usually find this type of door from the garage into the house. It has self-closing hinges on it and the intent is for the door to self-close and latch…not slam and knock all of the pictures down.
If the door slams, the self-closing hinges are wound up too tight. Fortunately, it’s not difficult to adjust the hinges. You will probably have 2 self-closing hinges, one at the top and one at the bottom.
Depending upon the style of hinge you have, you may be able to stick an Allen wrench into the top of the hinge and push down on it. This will release all tension in the spring and you door will operate as a normal door. However, for this door you do want enough tension so that it closes and latches by itself…just not so much that it slams and shakes the house.
By using the Allen wrench in the top of the hinge and turning it, you can place the spring under tension. There is a pin can insert into a hole in some hinges, others hold the tension as you tighten the spring. Adjust both hinges equally until the door operates as you like.
Every so often, a circuit breaker will trip. This shuts off the power to the areas it feeds and can cause a headache for homeowners. To restore the power, you need to reset the circuit breaker.
Resetting a circuit breaker is not difficult at all. Troubleshooting the reason it tripped off can be very difficult. You may be able to eliminate possible causes as it occurs more frequently, or you may need to contact an electrician.
To reset a circuit breaker, go to the main electrical panel. Depending on what part of the country you live in and the age of the home, the panel may be located in the garage, basement, closet, or on the exterior of the house.
Open the panel and look for a breaker that is not aligned with the others. You will typically see all the breakers in the “on” position to one side. The breaker that has tripped off will be in the middle position, usually halfway between the “on” and “off” positions. To reset it, push the switch all the way to the “off” position. Then you can push it to the “on” position and restore power to the area it supplies. If this happens regularly, consider having a professional look at it or troubleshoot it yourself.
